#apothecare

[salixsociety]

Wind Chimes, Witch Ladders / the Evil in Stillness

A folk grimoire of destagnation.

Those of us with European parents are undoubtedly familiar with the feeling of coming home from some trip, where your parents urge you to run through the house and open all the windows: "air out the house!" You speed around, kicking up dust, moving the air, slowly washing away the strange feeling of stillness that has contaminated your home. Air out the house. "Don't catch the draft," your parent yells up the stairs at you. The draft, of course, is never explicitly acknowledged to contain some ill-wishing spirit that will give you the flu, but everybody knows it does. And the same can be said for that stagnant air in the house, the silence permeating the walls.

The Evil in Stillness

Stillness is not good. Stillness has never been good - we have feared it since before we knew how to make fire. The land going silent, going motionless, going truly still; that spells disaster. Even now, with flashlights and the safety of our home, we are not spared the fear of stillness. None of us are comfortable in quiet forests. But even under our own roof we are not safe: when all is dark and everybody is motionless in their beds, ill-wishes, scary spirits and night-mares roam. And it would seem we can invite them into our homes, purely by leaving it unattended for long enough.

The stillness that comes about a home when it has been without inhabitants for long enough can only be solved by one thing: the return of the living. Whether that is people or animals coming by, or the house falling into decay and plants finding their way in. This seems inherent human knowledge - we feel more comfortable in houses that are or were recently occupied. Abandoned houses covered in ivy or inhabited by rodents are far less eerie than abandoned urban structures still perfectly as they were when they were left. Horror movies show little creatures scuttling about in still places when they want to give us a break from the terror.

So, it seems we all know the terrible feeling of stuffy air, stagnant energy, stillness, however you may know it. We all know the vulnerability of being motionless in the dark. To some of us it may seem more relevant than others: those of us who get goosebumps from silence, those of us who experience the fear of stillness in our cultures every day. But we all feel it. To those who fear it as much as I, I dedicate the following magic to alleviate and prevent stillness.

Preventing Stillness / Keeping the Evil at Bay

The universal key to life in a house seems to be moving air. Airing out the house is a great remedy, but it can also be your preventative measure - if safe, keep a window cracked and let the air flow through your house while you are gone. However, sometimes the air moving is just not possible. Sometimes you have to close up the whole house, and trap all the air inside of it. What then?

A popular method that appears across cultures is to have charms in and around the house that are very prone to moving. The movement would scare off the evils and spirits, because it would disrupt the stillness they are trying to inhabit. And the kicker about these charms is that they do not need air to move when they're being used against stillness, because the spirits who come to inhabit the stillness will also make the charms move as they invite themselves in. Silly trolls.

One charm I personally very much enjoy is an adaptation of the Cornish witch ladder. I like to make them as is traditional, but with only feathers going in opposite directions, no stones. In my home region of Low Saxony it was also common to use both snail shells and egg shells, which are light but associated with magic and protection, in charms. Whether you used them on a string, made a garland, or any other type of charm that moves easy and can be suspended from the ceiling. Other materials that would lend themselves incredibly well to such charms, the type you hang from the ceiling and let sway in the wind, would be sea shells, small twigs, hollowed sticks and straw, origami pieces, paper spirit crafts, sea sponge, dried flowers, etc.

Houseplants and flowers are another excellent method to keep some of the living present. Especially plants that move throughout the day: those that follow the sun, or whose flowers open and close depending on the light. But any living plants will really do. They will not completely spare you from the stuffy air, but they will certainly lessen the effects of stillness.

A different way to cut through stagnant air is sound. Something that is always producing sound (or only silent when you're not there to see it being silent... supposedly...) is a great way to stop the spirits of silence creeping into your dwelling. That is where a wind chime of any sort may often come in, but there are different ways to do this, such as pipes fastened to catch the wind, so that they howl, or even always leaving the radio softly playing in the background, set to a classical station, like was often done by the richer families I knew in my childhood. This sort of precaution, an auditory one, lends itself extremely well to being outside the house, where the wind enables them to be in near perpetual function. A house that has music coming from it, that appears almost as though it were truly fully alive of its own right, independent of having residents, will always scare away the stillness.

Remedying the Stillness / Scaring Away the Evil

For the most part, chasing away the scary things in the stillness comes naturally to us. We even chase it away, though less effectively, purely by coming home and making our house our own again. But if you are sensitive to it, you don't like it, and you want to get rid of that stagnant feeling as fast as possible, here's some effective methods, to combine or use separately.

Open all the windows, or enough windows/doors to allow air to flow through your house effectively. Both doors on opposite ends of the house are a great option, but so are more-or-less opposite windows, or windows that are directly connected through hallways and open doors.

Play sounds, out loud. Not necessarily loudly, but loud enough that it carries through the house and makes it feel alive again. Music from a speaker, the TV, a laptop with a YouTube video. Even just your own voice singing or talking. If you have no neighbors to annoy you can even bang pots or play an instrument.

Run around, dance, frolic. Visit every room, see how it's doing, move some things around. Shake up pillows and duvets. Fill all the spaces with your presence again.

Make a meal. Cooking will fill the air with the busyness of food preparation and the smell of inhabitants and labor.

Light incense or smoke cleanse your house. Smoke always moves through the air and gives it life back. Smoke is also a great indicator of stagnant air, as in rooms with stagnant air, smoke hangs around, suspended almost motionlessly.

Clean. Sweeping, especially, is a very effective manner of removing stagnation. Some people also like to sprinkle salt and then sweep that from the furthest point of the door, going toward the door, until they have swept all the salt out. A common folk spell to chase spirits off and not have them come back is to sweep toward the door, making sure to get every room, and when you have swept a room and are in the door, say: 'shoo! I'm cleaning here, out of my way! And you had better not track dirt in here!'

There are also those things that you may want to do for safety. Some houses with less modern running water should have the faucets on for a while so the stagnant water is out of the system before you consume it. Things like that often also double as great ways to bring some life back.

However you do it, the life will always come back to a place as long as there are people there. And let us never learn to loathe the stillness: as scary as it is, we can also learn a lot from the spirits contained in it. For some people, a completely still space may be just what they need to talk to spirits, to do divination, to decompress for just a bit. Eerie does not mean inherently bad; 'eerie' is only a symptom of our survival instinct.

I hope you feel inspired to think about the spirits around you, and the role they play both when you can sense them and when you cannot.

[funscarypdr]

Matt stays making random shopkeeps I would lay down my life for

[0zzysaurus]

antihistamines work ur magic

[flyingwargle]

august fanfic recommendations!

this is indeed going to be a series. check out july's recommendations!

(also, feel free to give me recs! i'm kind of picky, but i promise to look at what you suggest before adding it to my 80 tabs of fics hehe. rec your own fics if you want 😎)

some of these fics are rated e!

sakuatsu

Take My Hand (Take My Whole Life Too) t. 6.1k. sakusa gets hung up on the idea of indirect kissing and indirect hand holding and becomes enamored by the idea of holding atsumu's hand. lovely prose, sakusa is insane in this (affectionate) and atsumu is very loving.

Watching You for Love t. 6.6k. sakusa moonlights as a dj and atsumu finds him out. THIS FIC!! amazing prose and imagery, and sakusa falling for atsumu is also beautiful. please give it a shot <3

Hall Pass t. 6.8k. sakusa and atsumu discuss one another's hall passes and sakusa gets hung up on why atsumu's is saeko. i admit, i still don't know what a hall pass is despite reading this, but it depicts a somewhat jealous sakusa and saeko kissing atsumu, which is more than i could ever ask for.

atsumu, atsumu, let down your hair t. 7.1k. sakusa and atsumu move from fwb to being in a relationship but it's hard to be domestic after being physical. we love healthy communication in a relationship in this house.

the 28 postcards you left me t. 8.3k. after breaking up, atsumu leaves postcards for sakusa in animal crossing. this hurt to read, especially with how in love they were, until they weren't. there's a happy ending, though <3

The Jacket In Your Closet t. 8.6k. once upon a time, atsumu gave sakusa his newly purchased jacket because he saw him uncomfortable in a crowd. atsumu's forgotten about it but sakusa never did (and continues to have a crush on him).

stuck between a rock hard place, or something m. 10.4k. atsumu starts popping boners whenever sakusa opens his mouth. hilariously written and sweet <3 this made me so glad that i like girls because the way sakusa is described here is just. wow. he really is attractive. good for atsumu.

Situated Motionless in the Center of the Heavens t. 15.1k. "For a very long time, Atsumu could barely stand Sakusa. And can you really blame him? It’s Sakusa, the human equivalent of the feeling you get when you bite into a chocolate chip cookie and realize with profound disappointment that it’s actually oatmeal raisin instead." if that doesn't convince you, just know that atsumu is dense af but he ends up realizing his love in the end.

From Afar t. 17.4k. i could probably make a list of skts fics where sakusa has some kind of ability and intends to keep everyone at arm's length until miya atsumu ruins everything. the ability that sakusa has in this is unique and plays into his mysophobic tendencies beautifully. the way he and atsumu compromise with his gift is a delight as well. just beautifully written overall <3

Again, until it's perfect. t. 18.2k. sakusa and atsumu accidentally pull off a minus tempo quick and they start practicing it. i read this after situated motionless in the center of the heavens, and let me tell you - going from dense atsumu to dense sakusa is so, so good. they're so dumb, i love them /affectionate

One Track Mind m. 18.8k. suna and osamu publicly break up and sakusa is left wondering if it's a good time to tell atsumu that he loves him. hilarious, introspective, with some spice. a perfect blend for an excellent fic <3

In Pursuit of Happiness t. 19.1k. modern magic au where sakusa works at a magic shop after selling his happiness, and atsumu is a pest trying to make him feel happy again. lovely worldbuilding and slowburn!

Better Find Another Superstition t. 21.3k. 7/7. another modern magic au where sakusa and atsumu are forced to work together to resolve an issue with the city's magic supply. hilarious prose, and very light-hearted with a cool magic system in the background. one of my favorites <3

how can I not be moved (by you) t. 26.4k. 3/3. an achingly beautiful magic au where sakusa runs an apothecary and atsumu is a warlock. the worldbuilding is rich and the slow burn is delicious. absolutely beautiful and fluffy <3

pascal's wager t. 34.1k. 6/6. a sakusa character study and his obsession with superstition from atsumu's pov. beautiful writing, lovely wingmen to help atsumu (gourd bless osamu, akaashi, and bokuto) and lovely prose <3

the awful daring of a moment's surrender m. 34.2k. 7/7. in which sakusa lies to himself that he wants nothing with atsumu but atsumu is persistent. beautiful prose (i read so much of this writer's works, they're all so good) and lovely ending <3

Teach Me, Tune Me, Tempt Me e. 38.8k. 10/10. sakusa asks atsumu to teach him about the many firsts needed to enter his first relationship. oh, the pining, the angst, and of course the smut was on point.

sunaosa

working backwards till it rhymes t. 4.2k. gin congratulates suna and osamu on their anniversary, except they aren't dating. or are they? hilarious prose and premise, absolutely loved it.

reasons to microwave an elixir t. 8.2k. university au, modern magic au, roommates to lovers galore. i absolutely loved the prose and how sunaosa developed over the fic. definitely one of my favorites!

you never have to wander, wonder t. 22.6k. suna is the cameraman for the twins' buzzfeed-like worth it youtube series. lovely, lovely pining and prose.

iwaoi

What spring does with the cherry trees e. 7k. pwp with lovely prose and so much love between iwa and oikawa. reading it made me feel soft and fluffy.

galaxies, within you t. 21.1k. makki and mattsun are the absolute best in this. i love the seijoh4's banter and friendship, and how iwa and oikawa eventually confess their feelings for each other. the prose is hilarious and beautiful!

bokuaka

35mm t. 20.9k. 3/3. another fic where akaashi and bokuto slowly fall in love through high school but more movies, akaashi is a movie buff, and lovely prose <3

other

but i am strong (strong enough to carry him) t. 5.3k. atsumu gets a call that osamu has a breakdown and he, aran, and suna comfort him. a beautiful brotherly fic and the helping hands around osamu.

A Full Stomach g. 6.9k. kageyama notices that hinata is eating less and less these days and intervenes. hinata protection squad arise! so much fluff to the hurt, my son deserves everything that karasuno gives him <3

if it's me, it'll be okay t. 9.1k. yachi discovers she's aromantic and goes through it. also, she's best friends with sakusa and it's the best thing ever. a lovely exploration of aromanticism, please give it a shot <3

city's on fire t. 10.5k. cyberpunk au where the twins can hack into memories and rewrite them. the worldbuilding is unique and the twins' relationship is achingly tender but painful with a happy ending.

An Opponent Is Announced g. 13.1k. sakusa has no idea who oikawa is while the rest of the jnt does, hence commencing a (non-serious) investigation into him. love the character dynamics and plot, just a fun, light-hearted read.

a best man's worst problems t. 14.1k. kagehina. tsukishima is asked to be kageyama's best man at his wedding and to give a wedding speech. lovely outsider pov of kagehina's blooming relationship through the years from one very exasperated salty dinosaur.

Safe & Sound t. 17.3k. 5 times kitagawa daiichi ignored kageyama's suffering and 1 time karasuno didn't. oh boy, this hit me in the face with the ANGST and then the comfort. emotionally prepare yourself for this (i wasn't, and my heart shattered in a million pieces).

Common side effects m. 89.9k. 16/16. kuroken. THIS FIC WAS SO GOOD. kuroo is a depressed 30 year old reconnecting with kenma after 3 years of silence. it depicts the monotony and depression of adulthood so well, and the cast is so loving and supportive of kuroo while he was going through it. please give this a shot <3

[boymanmaletheshequel]

One of the ways I practice witchcraft is through apothecaric and symbolic magic. For example, here is a quick and somewhat easy recipe for a protection ward to hang over the door of your apartment or bedroom:

Ingredients

- Black Tourmaline crystal (repels negative energy and dispels it)

- Obsidian (Purifies negative energy before it enters your space)

- dried Chrysanthemum petals (protects one from spiritual attacks and prevents negative energy from latching on to you)

- Ash leaves (protects you from disaster, like house fires, and also purges negative energy and any other unwanted energy.)

It’s a quick little charm that is perfect if you have extra herbs and crystals laying around you want to put to use! Stay safe friends 🖤💚🖤

[caelstyx]

I'm working on a genre-bending graphic novel about curses, haunted houses, climate change, and two girls who desperately need each other to survive it all

-Miranda (top image) is a 17 year old Venezuelan girl is an eternal optimist who believes in magic despite magic being dead for over a century.

-Maeve (second image) is a 17 year old Bolivian girl who, despite coming from a long line of witches, hates everything magic.

The industrial revolution led to the decline of magic and it's prestigious position as an apothecaric art faded into irrelevance. Curses have become nothing but a nighttime story shared to scare children.

When a witch places a dark curse on Miranda's mom, Miranda and Maeve have to put behind the uneasy tension that splintered there friendship and team-up to put a stop to the curse.

[witchpassing]

{ welcome! may this one take your coat? }

this one is a doll, and its name is petrichor. while that word means many things to many of its sisters, to this one it signifies its nature as beloved and eternal servant to its master. this page is a quiet, personal space for it to engage with like-minded beings and publish its fiction work, much of it empty spaces or adjacent thereto. a sister account is maintained for the same purpose on cohost under the username apothecaric. the askbox is kept open and interaction is welcome. you are a valued guest here, and this one humbly hopes that you will enjoy your stay.

disclaimer: some content appearing on this blog will be nsfw. please do not follow or interact if you are below the age of eighteen. thank you.

{ tag list }

this one's writing - original fiction, mostly ES, mostly short. an ongoing masterlist of this one's writing may be found below.

journal - personal posts, mainly relating to this one's relationship with its master.

scrapbook - original, but neither autobiographical nor serious enough to fall into the above categories.

enquiries - correspondence.

offerings - gifts received from like-minded creatures.

the following topics also have dedicated tags: dolls, maids, machines, pilots, and witches. posts falling into none of the above categories are tagged as unsorted.

{ fiction index }

an intervention {part i} {part ii} {part iii} - a three-chapter work about a bereaved woman retrieving her lover from the clutches of a witch. things do not go to plan.

red heather {x} - the morning after a one-night stand between a doe and a wolf.

pennyroyal {x} - witchling hickory is called upon to extricate her familiar from a classmate's teeth.

interview_3ac {x} - an anonymised handler goes on the record about how she got into her current line of work.

misericorde & anise {x} - misericorde is not a good doll; she wants things she is not supposed to, and she wants anise to give them to her.

for a kinder lord {x} - a knight, dying in the arms of a heretic, hears a gentle whisper of what is to become of her.

crows {x} - earnest, shy sistenzca is sick, sick with crows, and terribly sorry about it.

the clockmaker {x} {x} - an unlicensed doll maintenance specialist plies her trade.

inchoate {x} - a doll, plagued by fever-dreams of limitless power, begs to be fixed.

my lord has many tails {x} - the reflection of a handmaiden upon her terrible mistress.

communication {x} - several weeks into the deconditioning process, ex-pilot rook starts to talk about what she wants.

like breathing {x} - a hacker and their newly subverted humanoid weapon come to an understanding about the balance of power between them.

entr'acte {x} - a servant waits for its lady to return home.

a very impressive beast {x} - on the merits of a mistress who is sometimes a large dog.

miniatures {mima} {on minute-dolls} {wheels within wheels} {vignette (two figures)} - work too short for a blurb to be appropriate. sweet-bitter fragments.

[apothecaric]

Dear Stranger

poem by apothecaric

Dear stranger, We have met. On the train in the glow of dawn. The sun peeks through tired eyelids, gentle as spindles crafting silk. I recall your face in the morning wisps. A student’s weary eyes dripping with sleep, fingers wrapping her phone. A suited man with a black brief, wondering his first meeting. A pair of brothers, young and joyful, too cheerful for the morning melancholy.

Dear stranger, We have met. At the corner of the cafe by a lazy street. Coffee an aromatic chokehold, Beneath warm lights and the blow of the AC. I had existed in this space as you did. The barista steaming milk behind a spruce counter. The scratching on pens within the students’ hands. The delivery man waiting for bags, his helmet still on his head.

Dear stranger, We have met. On the walkway underneath train rails. Underneath a cerulean sky fading into heavenly void. Where the golden flames from a dying sun melt onto concrete, Overgrown leaves and spring blooms. A nurse treks home, his scrubs a crumple. A pair of hands intertwined, lovers in all but heart. A dreamer with her head held high, amongst the purple and tangerine clouds.

Dear stranger, we have met before. My face a blur, my name of irrelevance. Stranger, you do not stand out. Yet your life is a wonder to me, A daydream in a break, Your impressions a gentle ripple upon a mundane routine. Dear stranger, I know not of you, But I know you are vibrant as the purple and tangerine skies, Under which you and I walk On a darling evening.

i wrote this for a friend of mine :) hope you enjoy it too

[twelvelms]

Most of the show will be set at Twelvelms University of Hermetics, a place where the magical elite send their children to learn specialised magic.

Hermetics is the study of the theory of magic, and at Twelvelms, scholars can focus their studies in of these five specialisms:

General Hermetics, which focuses on the broad theory and principals of magic, including the development of modern magical practice. Mages who choose this track often go on to become Professors of Hermetics or to work at the Alliance, writing policy and making laws.

Topography and Numerology, which combines elements of geography, geology, physics and mathematics to present a holistic view of the world and how it influences magic. Common career paths from this track include Numerologists and Architects.

Connatives, which closely examines magical objects and how to classify them. Connative studies also includes potion-making. Scholars who focus on Connatives often go on to be apothecars, or to work for the Alliance.

Bionomy, which focus on the intensive study of biological structures, including both plants and animals. Scholars which choose this track often go onto careers in Research Bionomy or to work as healers.

Prognostication, which examines principals of soothsaying and fortune-telling. This specialism leads to careers in a wide variety of fields, but most noteably it is required study for any mage wishing to become a devotee of the oracles.

For their first year at Twelvelms, scholars study a mixed curriculum of all five specialisms and choose their preferred track at the beginning of their second year. Some students choose a double specialism; common combinations are Bionomy and Connatives, Prognostication and Topography and Numerology, and any of the other four alongside General Hermetics.

Do any of these fields of study sound exciting to you?? Which would you pick, if you were a scholar at Twelvelms!?

[mickgaydolenz]

chose a creature and I'll tell you which character you now are in my book

ShapeShifter

Apothecaric Elf (I know apothecaric isn't a word)

Mind Reader

Maikel

Human

Shifter/Faery

Faery

oooooooooh, okay i gotta know what Maikel gives me

[salixsociety]

Who goes there? 🕯

Moi! I'm Willow, any pronouns, I'm an Alaska-based folk magic practitioner, hailing originally from the Low Saxon part of the Netherlands. My magic consists of Low Saxon, Frisian, Dutch and broader Germanic folk practice/magic/medicine, and Germanic polytheism, which I syncretize with Orthodox Christianity. My focuses in my daily practices are primarily on magical and medicinal herbalism, folk magic for wellbeing, church et al, etc. Professionally I am a mineralogist/gemologist and I'm very passionate about my mineral collection! Despite how it may look at times I am in fact a radical leftist. I believe first and foremost in wellbeing and liberation for all and I am not interested in engaging in debates about this. This blog will be mostly about connecting to your local environment, living off the land, getting in touch with culture, gods and spirits, functional syncretism, magic everywhere, and general ramblings about related topics. See #apothecaric allerlei for all of my blog posts and informational posts. #willow reads will have all of my book reviews. #willows art will have all of my art, and see #herbarium for all of my plant musings and info!

Resource masterlists will appear here: Germanic Paganism Resources

Where to contact me: - I have a carrd with more information about me. - I have a ko-fi where you can commission herbarium, lapidarium, grimoire pages and art, please consider checking it out. - If you want to talk to me directly, find me on discord @salixsociety - Asks are always open! You are highly encouraged to use it for whatever.

I hope you appreciate what I put out there and find it useful to your practice. Hold 'oe kreggel! (Take care of yourself!)

[toa-arania]

OC Masterpost (Pre-2024)

Edit: This post is outdated compared to my current active characters, but I'm keeping it as its own thing for information purposes. The most recent version is available here.

So I have a lot of little brain people, most of which I've posted art of here at some point and would like to just make random textposts about in future, so I'm putting together a quick list of who everyone actually is- names, pronouns, setting/source, and a sentence or two about who they are. I have other characters around, but these are the ones where if you send me an ask I will have an answer about them easily (You can also send asks addressed to the characters themselves for an in-character response!)

Karouh (She/Her), my disaster lesbian Rogue from the first campaign I was ever in. Fantastic liar but relatively shy by rogue standards, and with some truly absurd stealth rolls. She went on to marry the party's fighter, Laren, after the campaign ended.

Vanessa Purphoros (Ness) (She/Her), my Autism Artificer™ from Streets Of Orpheus, a campaign that is now finished. She is tiny and excitable and has a horde of robots at her command, and is also beginning to see behind the curtain of how magic and the universe work. She's taking it So Well.

Rosanna Lux (Fortune) (She/Her), the inevitable result of allowing me to multiclass between Bard and Warlock (also from Orpheus). She's a smuggler who also happens to have the literal goddess Hecate for a sugarmommy.

Khione Orythia-Tyrson (She/Her), a Cleric of the goddess of night, Lyra. She is one of the only sensible members of the party in another campaign that finished earlier this year, Into The Heart Of The Void, and has thus been dubbed Moon Mum by the party because she cooks them meals and has a pathological need to look after people.

Lorelei Na'kann (Lorey) (She/Her), a blood witch who is an ex-member of the Order of the Black Heart, who I played in Light of Xaryxis (the same setting as Void). She is the braincell, with her friend Corael being the moral compass.

Aurora Zephuros (She/Her), an ex-pirate who now works as a professional thief, who I play in oneshots in the same setting as Void and LoX. She's a homebrew class called the Buccaneer, and is thus perfectly built for sexy swordfighting.

Valerie Wester (Val) (She/Her), my witch for a Monsterhearts game and quite possibly the Worst Person In This Post, a strong believer in Women's Wrongs and general fucking about. To her, anything is justifiable so long as you learn something new in the process. She is a chaotic force of nature.

Mel (She/Her), my first character in an rp server called Roleing Onwards, a terrifying magical prodigy in the body of a slightly chaotic but very friendly "human" girl. She's matured a lot over the years that the server has been running, and is one of my favourite characters to draw.

Klaus (He/They), one of Mel's siblings. Another Wizard, but not as much of a specialist as the rest of their siblings. He prefers to work with books and research, and is currently emplyed as Stormdrift's archivist.

Vicky (She/Her), one of Mel's siblings and possibly the one character I have made to suffer most. On the plus side, she gets to be a homebrew class called the Witch, and works as Stormdrift's apothecar.

Tom (He/Him), Mel's eldest sibling, a Wizard with time magic who briefly lost control of it. During that time, he worked for and helped to dismantle an organisation called the Order.

Erlenmeyer (She/Her), another character from RO. A lunarian who was stranded in Stormdrift and has since made a life for herself as a member of the town guard. She's also really hot.

Kasen Hebra (They/Them), another RO. They initially came to Stormdrift in disguise, but over time got slowly comfortable enough to come out to the town as a changeling, ultimately being (mostly) accepted.

Auraea Aldebaran (She/Her), one of Tom's friends from the Order who now works as a specialist for hire in both planar anomalies and dispatching the things that come from them. She has a friendship(?) with her patron, a genie called Tethys.

Violet Mugen (She/Her), an eladrin who moved to Stormdrift after she was banished from the Feywild. Shenanigans happened, and she now works as the town's counsellor.

Mistress Evelyn D'Argent, the Silver Siren (She/Her), my Ventrue for a VtM larp called Bristol By Night. She's the Harpy, a singer, a courtesan, and a hostess all at once, and only one character has ever truly seen through her otherwise perfect composure.

Apprentice Amélie Wick (Amy) (She/Her), my disaster lesbian Tremere also for BBN. She is a relatively young vampire and is frequently horrified by the things other vampires are calm about. She is also a homestuck and is responsible for an incident we call "uwu-gate".

Ensign Allira 3 (She/Her), the only fandom (Star Trek) oc in this post because she is my main one >:3. Allira is a Vorta who defected from the Dominion after the war and eventually found herself in Starfleet, where she got posted to the USS Dover as a toxicology expert. She has a bit of a tendency for paranoia but she's getting over it. Slowly.

[lampbuzz]

tagged by @truecorvid !! :-)

tagging @apothecarical , @fizzerie , @jescache , @birbtuxedos + anyone who feels like it

[imeminemp3]

so the main character is a guy named Jan Tozer whos a petty thief, and one day someone hires him to steal a jewelry box from a nice house in a suburban neighborhood, but while looking for it he found a necklace that he decided to keep for himself, but one thing leads to another and that necklace takes him to a different world, full of magical creatures and people and kingdoms and villages, where he meets Mosley, a nice Apothecary Elf who runs a camp called Rhea, and through him, he meets Thidias whos a psychic and York whos a Shape Shifter, and the story is about all of the things that happen in that world and Jan learning apothecaric Magic from Mosley and figuring out this new world and everyone's pasts and staying safe from the Kingdom :)

omg that's AWESOME im hype about it

[backtousa1]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: 2PK ApotheCARE Essentials Conditioner The Mender.

[minorhoursmagazine]

Issue 31, containing: Easy Ways to Explode One's Kitchen, A Lip Pomatum (for the At-Home Apothecary), &c.

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SOME EDITORIAL NOTES

Another issue? So soon? YES I AM ALSO SURPRISED.

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EASY WAYS TO EXPLODE ONE'S KITCHEN

Gentle readers may recall the start of my apothecarical interest was, to an extent, the joy of Syllabubs (in too many issues to list here)--but when I first started wandering into the world of household goods, my gateway drug was a simple recipe in Nicolas Lémery's Arcana Curiosa: Or Modern Curiosities of Art and Nature. 

I have hinted at what that process was like, but have only ever written it up elsewhere--let me share it here now, the first write-up I made in May of 2022.

Fig. 1. A second copy of a recipe originally printed in Issue 29, on the topic of Poisonings and the avoidance thereof. I am in violent love with the use of " 'em" in 1711. 

The text reads:

"A Pomatum for the Lips. Take Four Ounces fresh Butter, and an Ounce of Virgin's Wax, melt 'em together, and when you have boil'd a Quarter of an Hour, strain and take your Pomatum from the FIre; then take Two Spoonfuls of Orange-flower-water, with which boil again and again; then thicken with a little Orcanet, which you have diluted with some Orange-flower-water, and beat up your Pomatum with a Spoon, taking it from the Fire and setting it to cool."

In my first experiment with this pomatum, I changed the butter for coconut oil, because of who I am as a person. I also used a cleaned yellow beeswax (note: in the recent past I tried a rendered white wax and it looked unfortunately like an unappealing paraffin when complete, and so I would not recommend it).

Fig. 2. Behold, the bad beginnings of my very tiny lightbox for overly arty photography. 

I forgot to boil everything, but I did leave it on the range for about thirteen minutes or so before bothering it with the next instruction or ingredient--the wax and oil melted very quickly (surprise surprise), but it did smoke a bit further into the process, so I wonder if anything got burnt off. (Something something burning points something? Perhaps.)

What with the 21st-century purity of the stuff being used, there was no reason to strain anything, so I skipped that step--which, put a bookmark on that, because it may have caused me to move on to the next step slightly too fast. 

Orange-flower water I had in abundance--

Fig. 3. And the brand I recommend is Cortas. 

–and I prepared a soup spoon (since that seemed closest to whatever “spoonful” might be in these contexts). However, upon dropping in the spoonful, I very quickly discovered that without a moment or three for everything to cool down, what happens is that the entire mix explodes in an astonishing fountain of aerosolized wax. 

Behold, the aftermath on a stove-top:

Fig. 4. I've heard of cleaning with elbow grease, but this is just unreasonable. 

I prudently removed the mixture from the flame at that point. I less than prudently tried putting in the second spoonful, because obviously I only had the theory that that was a bad idea, and as we all know science requires that results be reproducible.

Even with my small sample size, I afterward felt confident in my conclusion that one should wait until the mixture has cooled somewhat--and possibly been strained, just to add more air--before adding the flower water.

After the various explosions, I did try to “boil and boil again,” but it didn’t seem to do much. I instead just stirred it every once in a while while I was mixing up the next bit of the recipe.

As I mentioned previously, I do not enjoy the concept of casually giving others liver damage, so for this first batch I ended up switching the alkanet with arrowroot powder and cosmetic-grade colored mica. The mica did give a nice color, but the arrowroot creates a...fascinating goo that must be discarded, and the majority of the mica gathers within it.

Fig. 5. A lovely photograph of mostly discarded ideas. 

To be honest, though, I’m not sure how much the arrowroot actually thickened anything, and I’m really not sure the mica added any color. I think I’m going to need to try something more robust in future if I want to replicate the alkanet effect.

As I mixed that all together with a little more orange-flower water, I took the wax mix off the stove and set it to cool. Feeling that I had Learned My Lesson somewhat, I also hauled some ice packs out of the freezer and set it up around the saucepan to cool it faster (because “patience” is something that happens to other people).

I was, after a minute or so, able to put tiny drops of the mica mix into the wax-and-oil. They spat and rang a bit, so if that sort of alchemy excites you, hooray. That being said, I should have probably let it cool even further--so let us say, if you put anything into the superheated wax and oil, add first a tiny drop, and check to see if it sinks and solidifies a bit like an egg yolk in its shell--that seems to be a good level of warmth/chill to do the next bit.

The instructions say to “beat [it] with a Spoon”--I found, however, that a tiny whisk was infinitely preferable. As soon as the mica was thoroughly mixed into the wax (which took a couple of minutes, longer than I would have assumed), I then hauled out some lip balm sampler containers, spooned some of the finished pomatum into them, and threw them in the freezer because, again, I am Patience Personified.

The finished product was, to be frank, kind of lovely to look at:

Fig. 6. Something far prettier than it has any right to be. 

I took the opportunity to scoop up some of the warm pomatum and apply it on some of my dry skin--it soaked in very easily, though left my hands a little greasy. As a lip balm, though, it was and is excellent. When cooled, it’s definitely a more solid kind of balm, but it still melts excellently and not too fast:

Fig. 7. There is no square millimeter of dry skin upon my person that I have not put this mix on at one point or another over the last two years. 

…But here’s the thing.

When I first tried this pomatum, I was deeply surprised to learn how little the “old auntie’s potpourri” smell remained from the undiluted orange-flower water. Instead there was a certain…depth.  Similar to the more woodsy/herbal scents that I also happen to favor, like sandalwood and such. But also a sweetness? My lips didn’t taste of anything I could readily discern, but I was very happy to have the scent of the pomatum wafting upward.

I then left my apartment for about an hour; enough time for my sense of smell to return to neutral, so that I could return and get a fresh impression of what cooking this stuff--or, let us say, using it regularly--would make the environs smell like. I was fully expecting something smoky and unpleasant that I just hadn’t clocked when I was still in the apartment.

And gentle reader: It. Smelled. Like. Cookies. 

Fig. 8. Look at them. These tiny little perfect cookie spheres based on a recipe from over three centuries ago. That I have the power to create whenever I want.  

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A LIP POMATUM (FOR THE AT-HOME APOTHECARY)

Now, in 2024, after two years of experimentation and study, I have a proper recipe that you, gentle readers, can also follow.

4 ounces (1/2 cup) oil, coconut or sweet almond

1 ounce clean yellow beeswax

2 teaspoons arrowroot powder

2+ tablespoons room temperature orange-flower water

Set your cooktop to 130℉ (a low simmer). Fill a small pan with a scant 1-inch of water and set it to heat. Put oil and wax into a silicone melt pot and put in water to create an ad hoc bain-marie. Melt for 15 minutes or until completely incorporated together. Take off heat, whisk to aerate and cool enough to add orange-flower water. (TEST TO AVOID EXPLOSION.) Heat again for 5 minutes; while heating, make a paste of more orange-flower water and arrowroot powder in a small cup. Take off heat, add arrowroot paste, and whisk together for several minutes until completely mixed. Pour into containers; there may be an ARROWROOT GOO that sinks to the bottom of the melt pot. Try and avoid pouring it into the containers, but if it does, it can be spooned out again (though it will not have as nice a top to it). Makes about 20 5g containers--but probably more.

Fig. 9. BE ADVISED: ALL TOOLS USED WILL BE SACRIFICED TO THE BEESWAX GOD.   

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

A reminder--the Historically Inaccurate Goods Patreon tier for this month, and until June 30, is a choice between:

A pomatum for the lips (in either sweet almond or coconut oil varieties--the very one discussed in this week's issue);

A half-scruple tester of The Green Knight eau de toilette; or

A copy of The Apothecary's Pocket Companion: Regarding How to Read and Translate Recipes, volume 1 of an octavo-sized minizine series intended to help others on their journey to becoming just as unreasonably enthusiastic as I am about this entire venture

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If you would like to write a letter to be produced/answered in the magazine, please email me at minor.hours.magazine@gmail.com with the subject line:

Letter to the Magazine: [subject of letter as you would like to see it printed]

If you wish the letter to be anonymous or under a nom de plume, please state so in the body of the email; similarly, if you’d rather not be printed at all, please also state so in the body of the email. It will otherwise be assumed that mail sent to that address is intended for print.

Alternately, commenting on the Patreon post will get you a similar result, with much less fuss.

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As always, you can find me at my regular website, katherinecrighton.com, or sometimes via bluesky, at katherinecrighton.bsky.social.

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-Until next time, be safe.