#but Appalachian is very dear to me

[blitzendoggo]

*clears throat* Appalachian accent Goodbid Thank you

[saturniidaez]

Hey btw. If you like horror podcasts can I just. Highly recommend Old Gods of Appalachia. It is. So fucking good.

[sgiandubh]

If they followed the books they'd be more frisky 🤡

But obviously some of it can't be translated into tv......

Dear Frisky Anon,

You should have discussed it with a real Gabaldon Expert like @gotham-ruaidh, not with Phoney here, who still fumbles around The Fiery Cross. So, I think you will have to ask me once I am done with Bees, which I bet will be just in time for the second half of Season 7 to kick in. I am told J&C do not have any problems in that department until the very end of it, and well, what can I say, it's Herself's prerogative to portray as she sees fit a legendary, all-encompassing love story as the one she magically created out of thin air (all writing is magic, trust me).

Never mind. Your question made me think, just as I was preparing the lazy dinner for 1 (Baby the Retriever is gone until Tuesday evening), about a couple of things, dealing with adapting content to the screen and also about how our minds deal with the difference between a book and the movie/series based on that book.

Adapting Gabaldon is a very difficult task. Take for example The Fiery Cross' never-ending Gathering. My God, all those words to describe just 24 hours! I have just finished with that unfortunate thief and I am so dizzy with it, I can't even remember if they had breakfast yet. The only solution they had was to go off canon and invent something at The Ridge, because it would have taken forever and hey, it's all about a healthy costs/benefits ratio, too. And mark me: Herself is no Marcel Proust, able to make us dream for hours about his description of Vermeer's View of Delft, somewhere In Search of Lost Time. FYI, I had to wait, as millions before me, until I fucked my meniscus skiing (or attempting to snow plough, to be honest) to discover Proust, but never looked back. Also FYI, Luchino Visconti tried to make a film out of Proust's voluminous saga, but failed. Nina Companeez managed (2011) a very, very poor TV series: unwatchable, and I tried. It is unfeasible - so, overall, I think the series scriptwriters' team did a very good job slaloming between botanical babble, Appalachian folklore, the White Sow and yes, J&C getting frisky.

But the thing I wanted to tell you (so long for distributive attention, I've just burnt my baguette and chicken and will have to start it over again) is just how different the experience of reading something and watching the same thing being translated on screen is. I am obviously no neuroscientist, but I am an avid and normally a quick reader. When you read something, you are at once completely spellbound and totally free: you are taken with the characters' interaction, but you are the master of your course imagining them. You placate your own vision of the world on what you read and, at the same time, you are being overtly manipulated by the storyteller: how this can be is, for sure, a mystery. When you watch an adaptation of what you once read, half of the work is being already done for you: you don't have to imagine these people interacting, they are walking and talking in front of you and then, you focus on other things. It's all about the energy they manage (or not) to convey: acting is, in a fair measure, akin to channeling that energy.

As far as I can tell, the scriptwriters opted for a more subdued approach to Jamie, Claire, sex and old age. But can you say with absolute certainty we aren't collectively projecting our own fantasies on what is certainly Herself's very euphemistic, almost conservative way of writing sex scenes? Anais Nin, she ain't. Embraces and moments of - ahem - togetherness abound and we are left to our own devices to imagine things.

Thus, the horrendous and, to be honest, childish battle between the Book Purists' Crowd and the rest of this fandom. It apparently was dealt with pretty quickly, but it did manage to leave a nasty, long lasting legacy: the Book Boyfriend had to go on and remain a screen fantasy. That is wrong. That selfishness almost floundered the book adaptation project and I bet whatever you want me to bet it took deep feelings not to also compromise something else, money can't buy.

A long answer for a simple question. Make of it whatever you wish, Anon: I wrote it with pleasure, though. :)

[ahedderick]

Cave

Son came over yesterday to return a borrowed shovel and pick; also to show me the photos he took while he and Roommate were caving. Caving underneath our town (god bless Appalachian limestone). Going all the way back in a modest-sized cave system with multiple tight crawls only two very SLIM young men could possibly do. I did not convey to him just how much of the cauld grue that made me feel. I did squeak, "oh! dear!" several times.

He was covered in dirt and scrapes and scratches, and very happy.

[intheholler]

Do you have any traits that you think are vital/you’d like to see more of in Appalachian characters?

I’m writing a fantasy story (that I dream of making into an animated film) whose main character is an Appalachian-coded werewolf woman. I’ve been working on her story for a while, and while she was always from Appalachia in my head, she wasn’t Appalachian until I started following you, not really. I want to make sure I’m capturing the beautiful spirit of Appalachian folks with her and the people around her. She’s selfless to the point of personal damage, deeply, deeply compassionate, and smart as a whip. She’s also a little ruthless and morally utilitarian, which means she does some bad things, but her whole thing is that she always acknowledges that the people she hurts are people who don’t deserve it.

Apologies if this is like, weird, I just want to thank you for helping me flesh out a character who is so near and dear to my heart. Hope you have a nice day!

hi, this absolutely is not weird. actually it kinda made me wanna cry (in a good way).

it's been a busy morning & afternoon and i am drained so i'm worried i won't give this the right response bc brain is currently hamster on wheel.

first...

"...while she was always from Appalachia in my head, she wasn’t Appalachian until I started following you, not really."

i felt really warm reading that. like wow?? that i could be that much of a positive influence on perceptions my home or like that i could make that kind of impact just by talking about my experiences, those of which i used to be so ashamed of..

ok actually yeah got misty typing that. lol. aaaa okay.

to the point of your question-i would like to see more of acceptance as a trait.

people always equate us with hate and intolerance, but that has not been my exclusive experience. yes there are queerphobic racists here, clearly i do not downplay that here on this blog.

but there are queerphobic racists everywhere. everyone acts like they are all solely concentrated in appalachia/the southeast, and that that's the only kind of people we are allowed to be. incorrect!

im not saying we're innocent obviously. growing up we were constantly checking each other's casual racism and prejudices.

but like, that's the thing. most of us didn't/don't wanna be the way we was raised. we didn't actually feel that way. we were just taught that we should, and deep in the hollers all you find are echo chambers.

we are a very "you tend to your business and ill tend to mine" kind of people. we don't wanna bother nobody and we don't wanna be bothered.

so, characters who keep each other in check when something ugly slips, or a character who might have to originally confront bias/prejudice when meeting new people, but who does so quickly and lends aid without question, would be pretty realistic.

and honestly really fucking refreshing lol

[sketchdeath22]

Out of context Umbrella Academy reactions/things I wrote down but for episodes 3 and 4 of season 4

(Spoilers ahead):

-Big ass squid

-GO KLAUS GO!

-Girl, Ray did not walk out.

-Just sayin'

-young man

-Little Greek guy with the mustache (I need to yap abt how funny this could have been if they weren't actually together)

-Guys... the communication is not communicating.

-Mm, yep that magic psoriasis.

-Truman show'd

-Get everyone in this show therapy. PleeeaaSsse.

-Llama tits

-I LOVE VIKTOR!!!

-JEEASSUUSS HES FRESHLY 18 STOP

-*sigh* Klaus dearest...

-JUST TALK ABOUT IT

-Thanks for being the voice of reason Claire

-KLAUS

-Poor Claire

-Diego clue hunting again

-why do I always wear suits...?

-Harpooned by yourself

-At least they remembered some of the symptoms of being around yourself

-Shoot the bald guy...?

-Stranger Things ahh glow

-I don't even question the squid, it's UA, weirder things have happened.

-YES VIKTOR STAND UP TO HIM SAY YOUR PIECE

-Mom?

-This looks like my aunts place.

-cute scarf! And another comic reference?!? Is he gonna float all the time now?!?!

-Kill me right now!

-Freaky little man

-Dancer!

-ooh she's good.

-Klaus what have you done now...

-Yeah, how did he die, dear Luther?

-Those snacks look pretty good

-Doc Ock ahh Ben

-Average Appalachian activities

-Meow Wolf room

-Come on Lila!

-monke

-Why couldn't she rumor him to just, be sober, like, gang.

-Hey! I think the comic had a ship similar to that! (Rereading this and I'd like to clarify an airship not relationship)

-FOOL YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO OPEN THE BOX!

-shot on site

-Get it Viktor!

-Klaus, my little boy (gn)

-This is an interesting parallel to the comic (sorry I'm yapping about it but I do quite like seeing it)

-Oh dear...

-Deigo is literally ripped. what?

-Babysit them

-Luther and Deigo bonding and being very cringefail I think its great

-Why is the teenager the only person who thinks

-MONEY MONEY MONEY NO NO!

-Musical number

-Don't.

-Oh dear ×2

-You're hurting Klaus! >:[

-Luther and Deigo share a brain cell

-Delores

-Great, Five and Lila are causing time line issues.

-Leave her.

-How we gonna ruin it

-NO YOU'RE GONNA GIVE HIM WAR FLASHBACKS

-NO NO NO NOT BURIED ALIVE PLEASE OH MY GOD

-YuCK UGH BLEH STOP

[aquilathefighter]

Aquila dear, I cannot wait to hear your opinion on the choice of raven/crow species for Matthew and Jessamy 💛 Would you have any headcanon on which species Lucien(ne) might have been back when they were Dream's raven ? 👀

Hi! So sorry it's taken so long to get around to this! I have so many thoughts!!!

I'll start with the caveat that the distinction between crow and raven is not scientific. They both refer to members of the genus Corvus and there is no clear distinction between what is a crow and what is a raven. As such, I don't get too worked up about the differences in common names.

Matthew is a common raven (Corvus corax). I think this fits him for a number of reasons.

He's American! We only have two "raven" species here (and four crows but that's besides the point), and the common raven is by far the more widely distributed species compared to the Chihuahuan Raven, which is as its name implies, restricted to the areas in and around the Chihuahuan desert. I'm not sure if we know exactly where he's from, but he has a general American accent to me, so I can get away with placing him virtually anywhere on the West Coast, Appalachians or Northwest.

Common ravens are very gregarious! They're often seen in mated pairs or flocks. Matthew prefers to stay by Dream's side over and over and builds a pretty deep bond with him over the course of their relationship.

Play! Common ravens are often observed engaging in play, like somersaulting in flight or making toys out of twigs to share with others. To me, Matthew is very irreverent and playful in his own way, his crude behavior and language being a prime example.

I think common raven is such a great choice! I'm thrilled to bits that they had real ravens play his part in the show, it was honestly one of the first things I looked up about the production because I was just blown away that the birds were actually behaving like birds!!! But that's another rant for another time about animal portrayal in media.

Onto Jessamy! I haven't read the comics (where she appears to be a common raven as well, from some cursory research), so this will all be based on what little we get of her in season 1 of the show.

Jessamy is a pied crow (Corvus albus). According to the wikipedia entry for this species, it is said to be considered

"a small crow-sized raven, especially as it can hybridise with the Somali crow (dwarf raven) where their ranges meet in the Horn of Africa. Its behaviour, though, is more typical of the Eurasian carrion crows, and it may be a modern link (along with the Somali crow) between the Eurasian crows and the common raven." (Source)

Like I said, there's no reliable division between crow and raven and it's just the common names, so there's no big deal in her being portrayed as a species that has "crow" in its name.

Sociality. Pied crows are, similarly to the common raven, typically found in mated pairs or small flocks. Jessamy is very loyal to Dream, staying by his side during his captivity until her untimely death. I would argue that most Corvus species would be a good fit as they tend to stay with the individuals they are bonded to, but I see no reason why pied crow wouldn't be chosen over another species!

Distribution. While we don't have any idea where Jessamy was from when she was alive, she is also given a widely distributed species that we could reasonably place her in many parts of Africa, along either coast up until the Sahara Desert, but not in the thick rainforests of countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Exposure to another species! The Sandman was written by an English author, originally scripted and performed in English, and in my opinion, culturally directed towards the Anglosphere. As such, folks who speak English as their first language may have never heard of the pied crow, and may only be familiar with the common raven! I think its a great way to get people to investigate more into a bird they've never seen before.

Now, let's talk about Lucienne! We know she was Dream's first raven, but not really any timing about when he first took a raven companion. As such, I'll simply consider any extant Corvus species for her. She has an English accent, so I will simplify my choices to species found in England. I'm just making this assumption without much reasoning other than it's fun to imagine that the ravens come into being reflecting species found where they lived as humans.

I'm going to choose common raven (C. corax) for Lucienne as well, but for different reasons than why it's a suitable species for Matthew. They are, after all, very different personalities.

Mainly, common ravens are highly intelligent! Lucienne is the Dreaming's librarian at present, and would thus have to have very high reasoning and problem solving skills. This is typical for common ravens and corvid intelligence has been highly studied in this species!

My other big reason for choosing this species is that, well, you can't beat a classic. If Lucienne is the first raven, then it's fitting that she be the type species for the genus Corvus and the first thing people think of when they hear "raven."

Thank you so much for asking and giving me the opportunity to smash my two main interests together like I'm mixing 2 colors of playdoh in preschool <3 <3

[meadow-of-daisies-and-lavender]

Thanks for the tag @ethereal-night-fairy! Sorry this has taken me so long to do!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

16

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

226,477

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I write for Call of Duty and Star Wars.

4. top five fics by Kudos

Gods Above

Whiskey Hurt

War and Peace

Whispers of Ghosts

Mouthy Bounty

5. do you respond to comments?

Always! I love talking to people about fandom.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

My first fanfiction was for Narnia. It ended with betrayal and abandonment for the OC.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

The ones with the happiest endings are my smut one-shots.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Nope. I'm not big enough for that nonsense.

9. do you write smut?

Very rarely do I.

10. craziest crossover?

I did an Avengers and Supernatural crossover once. It never left my drafts.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

No (knock on wood).

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! I did a few for fun with @itsagrimm . I don't know if we ever posted them, though.

14. all time favorite ship?

I love all of the Outlander ships and Ghoap.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have several additions for my Appalachian Anthology I really want to finish, but it'll either take me a long time, or I won't finish it.

16. what are your writing strengths?

With the characters, I can make a universe feel really big and bring depth to my writing.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes and smut is difficult. I really struggle to bring the movements to life.

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Please provide a translation somewhere if it's a fictional language. Real languages are easy enough to google translate, but providing translations is always helpful.

19. first fandom you wrote in?

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (that was about 12 years ago!)

20. favorite fic you've written?

My favorite fic has been my Appalachian Anthology. It is culturally near and dear to my heart and is my love letter to my mountain home.

NPT: @itsagrimm and @jedipoodoo

[original-character-championship]

Bracket H Round 1

Poll 13

Dawn Hughes (@torkhin) vs. Felix (@patronsaintofdemons)

473. Dawn Hughes (@torkhin)

she/her

She’s a poofy mom-friend who’s acearo and could/would turn evil for the sake of her found family but is infallibly good-at-heart and simply wants to see the world thrive. She has sheep/bunny energy. She’s a school-taught mage, with her magic focusing around sleep and dream manipulation, giving her the ability to heal nightmares. She’s smart and compassionate and empathetic, but she also swears like a sailor and has a short temper that leads to her making rash, regrettable decisions. She’s made so many mistakes, but she’s doing her best to learn and grow from them. She’s a little Appalachian mountain cloud and she means the world to me

Dawn’s a short, young-adult human with poofy blonde hair, round blue eyes, and a very pudgy physique (she’s friend-shaped). Her skin tone is somewhat tanned. Her clothing choices usually involve some level of purple (her favorite color). She wears a gold brace (crafted by a dear friend) on her lower right leg, and she’s oftentimes seen walking with a cane made from vines (crafted by another friend).

474. Felix (@patronsaintofdemons)

he/him but he doesn't really care

He's my ultimate blorbo.

He's a magician who dropped out of mage university, wandered all around the world for several years and invented a new way to use magic. He befriended a king and his right-hand man and is in a relationship with them. They invented immortality almost on accident. He lies all the time to fuck with people. He saves the world with the power of friendship and the price of depleting almost all magic.

He's sort of kinda the god of Luck and Life and Fate. He's associated with the color green. He likes plants and doesn't like the taste of alcohol or coffee. He will fall asleep anywhere.

In another story (thousands of years later) when magic starts to come back he joins a newly created government organization which is supposed to research and monitor magic. The only thing he does there is make fun of the main characters and be ominous.

He once had an assassin set on him Except it turned out the assassin was his brother so he was fine. He then proceeds to play wingman for said brother to help him date an evil emperor (it works)

He's truly the center of this fictional universe. he's stupidly overpowered (except he isn't even the most powerful) He's even alloaro.

He was also a part of a roleplay w my friends which involved various blorbos and was mostly about hanging out and also trying to escape from a homophobic elf queen and a wish-fulfilling goddess. He went to collect glowing moss, slept through the start of the plot and got accused of being either a girl or a criminal. In an unforseen turn of events he also befriended a ghost and even though the rp has ended i would sell my soul for more of their dynamic <3

Tall thin guy w no muscles because he sits around doing nothing all day. He has short blond hair and green eyes and a sharp chin. He wears comfortable clothes in green, brown and grey. He has a scar in the shape of a magical sigil on the back of his left hand and he usually wears gloves to cover it.

"When I think of Felix I just imagine a sparkly four leaf clover" – my bestie

Art was drawn by my bestie @theearlymorningstar!!!

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

"He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America."

(THG chapter 1)

"In school, they tell us the Capitol was built in a place once called the Rockies. District 12 was in a region known as Appalachia."

(THG chapter 3)

Where do you think location of Capitol and Panem's districts exactly?

The Appalachian’s span multiple states. Where do you picture District 12?

How long between this time and Panem rise? 200 hundred years? More?

Thank you so much

@curiousnonny

Dear @curiousnonny,

I have about six months of asks from you backed up in my inbox. Thank you so much for including me! Gonna try and work through these asks over the next week. :)

For this one, man. I would hope it'd take at least 200 years for the kind of falling apart that happens in order to create Panem. There's so much that has to happen to create that world. Katniss talks about wars and climate change leading to famine, scarce resources that tears apart what is now North America, plus she seems to have no knowledge of the world beyond Panem. Enough time has to pass for the rest of the world to be erased from Panem's history books and the general population's knowledge base. That knowledge, in Katniss's time seems reserved for a few highly educated, powerful people, like Plutarch who knows about ancient Rome. Then there has to be enough time to reestablish a form of government after everything falls apart. Enough time for THAT government to fail and cause the Dark Days war, when the Districts rebel, and then fail, resulting in 13's deal to play dead in exchange for being left alone. Snow is only a young boy when that happens, and even as a teenager in Ballads, he talks very little, if at all about the world outside of Panem. The rest of the world has already fallen out of the common memory when he's a boy. So I would actually estimate it at closer to 500 years from now.

As for geography, I've always pictured the Capitol being built in a place that's not an existing city right now. Mainly because of the infrastructure. In Mockingjay, Katniss describes the underground network of tunnels:

"There is a simple network of wide tunnels that directly corresponds to the major avenues and cross streets. It's called the Transfer, since small trucks use it to deliver goods around the city. During the day, its many pods are deactivated, but at night, it's a minefield. However, hundreds of additional passages, utility shafts, train tracks, and drainage tubes form a multilevel maze." (Chapter 21)

That sort of infrastructure is not easy to build beneath an already existing city, and I can't think of a single US city in the Rockies that has that kind of underground tunnel system, especially not one that's multilayered, holy cow is that hard to pull off. in such a large sprawl. Otherwise, Denver, Colorado would be an easy first guess for the Capitol, but I don't think that's where it is. My best guess is that the Capitol is a city that's barely developed right now and would have a chance at building something underground like the Transfer and the complicated tunnels Katniss describes. It's possible that the Capitol is actually in present day Canada, as well.

As for each of the districts, I know there's all kinds of maps out there but the ones that I have pretty set ideas on are District 13 is somewhere in Pennsylvania, 12 is in West Virginia.

11 fits way too many stereotypes of the agricultural Southeast, so it's hard to imagine it's anywhere else. Not to mention it's treated as the closest district to 12.

In the books, 10's industry is cattle farming. Hello Texas, how ya doing? 9 I picture as somewhere in the current Midwest -- Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, that kind of area.

8 I always thought of as being northern Illinois, Minnesota or Michigan area. Textile industries have traditionally been in the Northeast of the US, not the northern Midwest, but there's also the mention of rising oceans making land scarce, so I wonder how much of the current Northeast would be underwater in Panem.

I picture 7 as being central Canada kind of area. I actually have no real set idea on 5 or 6.

In my head, 4 stretches along the Gulf of Mexico and possibly up the east coast a little bit, I pick this mainly because in Catching Fire, there's a scene when Katniss's prep team is getting her ready to have pictures taken in the wedding dresses Cinna has made for her and the Capitol is supposed to vote on which one she wears. Her prep team talks about how they couldn't get shrimp for a party "because the weather's been so bad in District Four." (Chapter 12) It's the shrimp that makes me think Gulf fishing, but Finnick's familiarity with a trident and spear fishing suggests a more old school east coast style of fishing as well. So I think Four is actually long and skinny, stretching along a large portion of coastline. Unfortunately, this makes the idea of a simple route counting down from 12 to 1 and ending in the Capitol for the Victory Tour nonsensical unless 4 stretches all the way over towards Mexico itself... OR the geography of Panem is not as simple as Katniss thinks it is. Also a possibility. After all, when she's getting to know Rue in the first book, Katniss wonders how much of their conversation will actually be aired since the Capitol has deliberately kept the Districts in the dark about each other, and Katniss knows they've done that.

I know a lot of people usually peg Silicon Valley in California for District 3, and I just kind of accept that I guess? I have no strong feelings on the matter lol.

2... Wyoming. In the Rockies with NORAD as either a part of their system or an inspiration for The Nut, close enough to the Capitol to be their lapdogs, a good place to draw Peacekeepers from but also to send errant Capitol citizens to train as Peacekeepers *cough cough Coryo cough cough* and Country enough to fit the characterization of Sejanus and his Ma. Although, Alaska is a close second for me on this one. It puts Two into the way far North though, and I'd think Katniss would comment more on the COLD when she visits 2 if it were that far North.

Aaaand finally... I waffle between Eastern California, Las Vegas area, up into the Pacific Northwest for District 1.

[breelandwalker]

Safely back from this weekend's LARP event in Pennsylvania! I got to have my combat therapy and time with good friends and the eternal joy of having the Appalachians under my feet once again. My dear old mountains, how I've missed you. 💜

Apart from the usual fun of making potions, fighting monsters, and being exceptionally clever (my character made some Very Good Decisions this game), I got to do some foraging on the hillside before the event started, with my good buddy and witch-sis @wind-voice. We found and identified several species of local flora and gathered small bundles of speedwell, ground ivy, violets, juniper, and periwinkle for our witchery.

I'm really enjoying this new stage in my journey, connecting to the land that I now live on and to the land in other places I've called home. Identifying the trees and flowers and incidental weeds around me is a fun exercise that lets me feel a little bit witchy even when I'm just taking a stroll around the neighborhood. It's also allowing me to add new accoutrements to my components stores and rebuild my herb cabinet, much of which had to be discarded during our recent move.

Also, we all know that if you give a witch a bundle of herbs, they're going to need a jar to put it in, so I'm looking forward to making a little trip to the craft store! 😁

[sixminutestoriesblog]

mice

oh dear. So, this winter I had a problem with mice in my house. I'm surrounded by corn fields and apparently the little guys live out there until harvest time and then, Secret of NIMH style, everyone moves to their 'winter homes'. In this case, several of them decided that we would now be sharing a home. This didn't go over very well with me. I'm fond of rodents but Surprise!Rodents are another thing entirely. Even then we might have managed but they insisted on leaving poop behind so I'd known they'd been there. Let me tell you, rodents poop A LOT. Things weren't sanitary for me and so they had to go. My problem is that I've spent so much of my life being a 'protector to the small' that I just couldn't bare to use the tape my landlord wanted me to lay down. Bad enough to kill them, but to let them be terrified for who knows how long before? No. I went out and got a humane trap and, while it took longer - one of the mice was ever so clever - eventually the holes they'd come in were sealed up again and everyone was out in the fields where they belonged with enough time to find a home before real winter set in. All but one, but that's a different story for another time.

instead, we're going to talk about Mice in superstition and folklore.

Let's start off with the fun one. In some cultures, mice can be the souls of the restless dead, murder victims who haven't found peace yet. Having them show up in your house means bad luck or straight up evil is headed your way. Considering how often mice carry disease, and fleas that carry disease, they might not be murder victims but they certain can mean bad things if they hang around and share what they brought in with them. I also love the dark notion of mice showing up because someone's been buried under the floorboards, draw to that but mistaken for the victim themselves.

Mice are considered a bad omen if they run across your path when you're about to start a journey.

A mouse squeaking behind a sick person's bed is said to foretell the person's death (I wonder if this is why those squeaky Death's Head Hawkmoth's were worth finding and keeping with Charles III).

Seeing a swarm of mice anywhere is considered a sign of bad things approaching - though, seriously, yes, I would think if I saw a swarm of mice headed for my barn I'd be expecting things to get bad. I'm sorry, Australia, you're having a Bad Time right now.

Mouse is also a curative ingredient in a lot of old folklore recipes and can, supposedly, cure everything from measles and whooping cough to bed wetting.

A white mouse however is considered very good luck in Germany and killing one invites the exact opposite kind of luck.

and lastly, rat oriented, but in Appalachian tradition, if you want to drive all the rats out of your house, you must catch one, singe its hair with fire and turn it loose. It and all the other rats in the house will run away forever.

To end this, let's have a very blurry picture of one of the mice I caught during the winter, sitting in his trash bin waiting for me to drive him off to 'mouse dump field' where he can run free. This particular one surprised me when i was stepping out of the shower. Live a long life in your field, you mousy peeping Tom.

So, what mousey stories have you heard lately?

[evaofkonoha]

oh my god. i just read your whole stick season series. oh my GODDDDDDD😭 i LAUGHED. i CRIED. my heart hurts so much but in like a good way 😭

i go to college up around the area you wrote about, too, so it made me miss it up there, and get excited to go back soon. i can feel how much you love it in the way you write about it. and like sasuke, i work in a little indie book store in my hometown, too. well familiar with trying to distract myself dusting and alphabetizing when there’s really just not much to do in a book store sometimes.

gooood just. the tentative relationship they’re balancing on at the very end. fuck man. it just feels really Real, the way you wrote it. like achey. gah.

(also side shoutout for itachi working for a national park and researching a very specific tree while living in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, because i felt like that was very on brand haha.)

anyways. i just really liked it and wanted to tell you!

Hello friend! I'm not going to lie, reading this made me so emotional, but I am admittedly a very emotional person. Stick Season is very near and dear to my heart, as you guessed! ❤️ it is my love letter to east Tennessee, truly. I no longer live there, but I feel homesick for it often. Everytime my homesickness starts getting the best of me, I turn on some Tyler Childers and Charles Wesely Godwin and churn out another entry in this series 😅

But thank you so much for reading it! And not just reading it, but loving it enough to reach out on here! It makes my heart feel full in a ways I doubt I can fully describe 💕

I am so beyond thankful that I wrote and shared these stories, as I have been able to connect with some seriously amazing people through it. There's just something about those mountains that bring us together, isn't there? And the shared details from your own life make it all the sweeter. Every small town has a a few core things and a bookstore of some sort that sells local history books and all that seems to be one of those things!

Thank you for appreciating the relationship (and my writing, I'm blushing). While this particular story is a little heartbreaking, I am glad you see and appreciate the realness, the bittersweet, the awkwardness of it all! It also seriously flatters me as a writer to know that I made a reader really feel that, so thank you!

(And thank you for the Itachi comment, he is my favorite and I am happy to do both him and the American Chestnut tree some justice haha)

Thank you for reading it, thank you for enjoying it, and thank you for reaching out. If you are looking to chat about Appalachia and gay ninjas, you know where to find me!

Leaving this off with a few of my favorite Appalachian memes from my favorite Appalachian meme page. I may be the only one who finds these funny but that's fine :)

Have a lovely day and tha k you again for the sweet comment💕💕

[truthandadare]

27 & 29 ?? 👀

Well hey, anon nibling!

27: What do you listen to while writing? 

I take my writing ambiance VERY seriously 😊. I can’t write a single word without music and find it exceptionally challengingly to concentrate when songs have lyrics, so I stick to instrumental. I’m a massive score/soundtrack fan, especially when writing and this year we were gifted a couple of amazing ones including Bear McCreary’s Rings of Power and God of War Ragnarök, and Ramin Djawadi’s House of the Dragon. I could go on and on and goodness I have actual data to back me up, cause my Spotify wrapped was all composers….. 

Fun fact about me, I actually started my career in opera and musical performance many moons ago. So classical music has always had a loving (if a tad stern) grip on my heart. There's nothing I love more than when I find a bit of score that fits just perfectly for a scene I’m dreaming up in my noggin. I listened to “Awaken” by Dario Marianelli from the Jane Eyre so many times when writing Act Two of Symmetry that it shot up to my most listened song of the year 🙈

I also love to have soundtrack ambiance on my tv when writing and highly HIGHLY recommend Ambient Worlds he does a superb job and the videos are gorgeous.   

29: Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Well dammit this has my brain somersaulting between pick-your-favorite child and imposter syndrome. 

There are some lines I’m excited for yall to read, one in particular that I’ve had tucked away since the beginning when I was mapping Symmetry. My favorite moments of writing fic this year were with Silco’s POV. I’m especially proud of lines in his POV that were a little less flowery and punched directly in the gut. Chapter 15 is one of my favorite chapters and I’m particularly proud of the ending:  

“He had to keep working despite the distraction of her. He was the one who could stomach summoning monsters, so he had to do the dirty work. Had to continually bury himself in necessary evil without complaint. 

But oh, if he could somehow bury the entirety of himself in her, he would not have hesitated.”

Oh, oh, AND! My next project is an original work that I’m hoping to get published. It’s an Appalachian Gothic tale thats very close to my heart and the only real passage I have so far is the opening. 

“Gryme women take a good long time to die. They linger, too stubborn to succumb to their own mortality until they are dragged to the end with tattered memories and bones as brittle as sapsucker eggs. All are prickly as the pine and hardy as the rhododendron within the mountains we incorrectly call home. 

That is why, dear cousin, it was such a shock when they found your corpse beneath the sourwood trees before your twenty-second birthday.” 

Thanks for asking!

[avisafterall]

Fitz 📻

character collage number 2! my second most longstanding character, who - along with Valerie, and usually as a pair - has existed across countless daydream universes and plots over the years. She is also one of my favorite character types (although you could argue that all the archetypes are my favorite, they're all fun to poke around with) - a jester, thrill-seeker, the comic relief who gets roped in for more than they anticipated, girlfailure extraordinaire. Fitz has ranged from being a cocky knifethrower to an awkward, well-meaning (albeit blundering) sidekick, but what always remains is her optimism, humor, and inability to read a room before talking shit.

Fitz is a character very near and dear to my heart. Any writer can tell you that no matter how different a character is from their creator, there's always a piece of themselves nestled in their creations. For me, Fitz's character type is one that I've found often reflects many of my own more negative traits - scatterbrained, flighty, a bit tactless, more interested in coasting by in peace than facing necessary conflict. But it's been a bit cathartic to explore her positive traits, too: her enthusiasm, quick thinking, and resilience are not traits I see in myself, but ones I hope for, and it's such a blast to get to weave them together with her flaws. She's also sort of an instant ride-or-die and down for just about anything, which is just plain fun in the context of the group.

Something I really love about Fitz's archetype is the moments where we see the unbothered, ever-positive veneer crack. Valerie and Fitz are one of my all-time favorite pairings because they're both heavily guarded, but where Valerie is layers and layers of brick wall or a heavy wrought iron gate, Fitz is a little window with a kid's drawing of the living room taped facing out. I'm all here, in a really squeaky falsetto, you're looking right at me. And maybe you are, kind of. She's crafted this version of herself to be seen - 'Fitz' is just a nickname from her surname, after all - but there's much more detail hiding behind the drawing. (So fun, so tasty, I love characters who hide or run from who they are, give me fourteen of these guys.) My favorite moments for her character are when a breeze catches and that piece of paper flutters, even if it's just for a second - from little moments like her Appalachian twang coming out to the monumental moments of anger, frustration, fear, the scary negatives that she avoids like the plague but can't always push down.

Fitz is, ultimately, a carrier of many motifs I covet - the pilot is the deliverer, the psychopomp, the bird, so ingrained in her character that her beloved plane is named Peregrine (Perg for short). She's always in search of freedom and adventure, and she quite literally owes her life to Lolha, so accepting her recruitment offer for the Caravas hunt is a no brainer.

Anyway! Enough yapping - some songs for Fitz:

Regular People- Moon Walker

I've Been Dead All Day - Bayside

Way Out - Bass Drum of Death

Mary on a Cross - Ghost

Hot To Go - Chappell Roan

[twostarsnortheast]

Silence in the Pines -- Chapter 1

A fun little Alastor x OC fanfic. DLDR !

** For a full set of tags please go see post on AO3 under the same handle and title!! **

-------------------------

Hello friend, I’m sure you’re curious to know where you’ve found yourself. I must tell you, it’s not a nice place nor is this a particularly nice story. But! It is a very human story. A story of the human struggle for control against things much larger than himself. A story of love in unusual forms and in unusual places. This is also a story of heartbreak and loss and death and pain. So much pain, dear one. I can’t over-emphasize that. Nonetheless, I think it is still quite an interesting tale. One I always take joy in telling. So, shall we start? Oh, I do so hope you’ll be coming with me…

— ★ — ★ — ★ —

Silas leaned back in the seat, releasing a shuddering breath. Maybe this was a bad idea, going further south, further away from the mountains, from Home. The voices had faded at first, when he had left the Appalachian foothills but they’d been growing steadily louder the longer he was away. Slamming against the edges of his thoughts, demanding that he pay attention to them. They’d been quiet for a few days each time he fed the earth as they demanded but even that wasn’t working as well as it had in the beginning. 

Many months on the road, nearly half a year since he’d helped bury his father. The old bastard had finally kicked the bucket, another victim in the list of thousands to the black lung. The miner’s disease. If the dangers of the job didn’t take you it was only a matter of time before she did. Yet, each day, hundreds of men and boys entered the mines to earn their pay. So, it came as no surprise when the hacking cough turned into a wheeze and eventually silence. No air could pass into the dying man’s lungs and he suffocated in his bed. Momma had found in the morning, cold as snow. Her wail had called him in from the yard. After that, they’d gone through the motions. Setting the house to order and calling the reverend. Papa had been prepared for burial and Silas had put together the plain pine box that had waited patiently in the barn for months. 

In the Sunday morning calm, they lowered him into the earth. Silas, blood still caught beneath his nails, had taken his turn placing shovel-full after shovel-full of dark earth into the hole. And as quickly as it had started, it was over. Chores still needed to be done and while Papa’s [severance] would certainly help it wouldn’t be enough to cover everything. 

So, two months to the day after they’d found Papa dead in his bed, Silas had left Acme in search of work. That’s at least what he’d told Mamma when she’d begged to know why he was leaving. He did intend to send back what money he could scrounge up but he really couldn’t stay in that town anymore. The pull of the Dark was becoming too strong, all he wanted to do was wander down into one of the unused shafts and let his body be reclaimed by the Thing that owned his soul. But that wasn’t something he could do. Not now, not ever. He was close to winning it back and he wasn’t going to let IT tempt him into giving up. 

Silas shook his head, bringing himself back to the present. Green fields of cotton passed by on the outside of the train and beyond that, dark woods slowly being illuminated by the sun just beginning to peak above the horizon. The car remained quiet, it was early in the morning and those who could sleep were doing so. Quiet breathing could barely be heard above the rumble of the rails. 

How much longer until the next station? He wasn’t sure he could stand being around so many people for much longer. It was the feel of their minds and presence pressing in around him that was slowly driving him mad. He’d long ago learned to out the sound of his own mind’s ramblings but to be around those who had no idea how loud their very existence was was exhausting and overwhelming. 

A sign passed by the window in a blur. Slaughter, Louisiana.

Well, it was as good a spot as any to get off. It would give him the space to breathe at least. 

— ☆ — ☆ — ☆ —

Silas leaned against the weather-smooth wood of the small train station’s main building, newspaper in hand. Yet another murder in the region around New Orleans. Curious. It must be quite something if it was getting an entire front page. It had been a local businessman this time. From the tone of the article, he couldn’t have been liked very much. While the author was certainly concerned over the pattern of deaths, he wasn’t all that broken up over this man’s death in particular. 

Humming softly, he tucked the paper under his arm. Maybe going down to New Orleans wasn’t the best idea after all. If there really was another killer there, Silas didn’t want to step on any toes. It was never good to encroach upon the hunting grounds of another. All too frequently, it led to bruised egos and was altogether more trouble than it was worth. Still, he needed somewhere where he could busk… it wasn’t currently the only way he was making any significant money. People rarely carried much on them any more, what a shame. 

He still had plenty for himself to live off of but it’d been nearly three weeks since he’d sent anything to his mother. While her letter had been generally positive and she said that they weren’t lacking for anything, he didn’t like the idea that he hadn’t been fulfilling his obligations to her. 

Silas turned the corner and nearly ran into a man stumbling in the other direction. With a grunt, the other man staggered away without even acknowledging that he’d collided with Silas. 

“It’s a bit early to be drinking, my friend,” it was true he reeked of liquor and a smirk tugged at Silas’ lips. “Maybe you should find your way home.”

The drunkard continued on his way down the road, oblivious to the dark thoughts of the man whose path he’d crossed. The voices cooed and begged to be let loose. 

“Soon, my darlings. Soon…”

— ☆ — ☆ — ☆ —

The following afternoon, Silas boarded a train headed to Baton Rouge. He was tired but satisfied. The man had more in his pockets than you’d expect of a man that drunk on a Tuesday morning. Momma would be excited to receive such a winning, maybe she would hire someone to finally fix the roof of the barn. It had been needing mending even before he’d left. 

The voices had quieted too; purring softly in the back of his skull. Full and content. 

He’d be in a new city by morning and, from there, on to New Orleans by the end of the week. There wasn’t a chance in Hell that he’d be connected to the man lying, quiet, in the ground a handful of yards off the main road. No one ever remembered his face when people came asking if they’d seen anything out of the ordinary. It was a true blessing, it made his work possible. 

Silas closed his eyes and leaned back. He’d earned this moment of rest. 

— ★ — ★ — ★ —

Why, hello again! Done already? I do hope you enjoyed it. That’s just a taste of our dear friend Silas. He will be back with us very soon. But first, we will be meeting someone you may already know…. That, for now, is a story for another night and it’s time for me to bid you bon nuit and à plus tard. If the stars permit, our paths will cross again soon.