#pella irl

[pellaaearien]

Never having made a cake before, I decided to make one of the hardest ones! (It's my partner's favourite and he's been having a bad time). The messiest black forest cake ever, but I'm still proud of it!

#pella irl #baking #black forest cake

[jeannereames]

What was Alexander's life when he was let say 2-7 years old? Did he have other baby companions? If so, whose children were they? Is there a chance Hephaestion was his diaper buddy? In your book one Alexander craves his peers company quite badly. Did you imagine him as a lonely child?

Up to about age 7, when he left the women’s quarters, I expect Alexander had plenty of (mostly female) company, his sisters not least. After that, however, he was put under the rigorous tutelage of his great-Uncle Leonidas. We’re not told whether any other boys shared it, but in the novel, I assumed at least a few did, notably Erigyios. (Although remember, I significantly down-aged Erigyios in the novels; he was almost certainly much older than Alexander.) IRL, who else might have shared those lessons? I think it probable both Leonnatos and Perdikkas did, and possibly Marsyas and Seleukos.

But Alexander would still have been The Prince. So despite the royal blood of Leonnatos and Perdikkas, he outranked them. That would be isolating. So the other boys may have been schoolmates, but how much time he spent with them, or was allowed to spend with them, outside of lessons is hard to gauge.

re: Hephaistion as diaper buddy… speaking quite separately from the history I built for him in the novel (which is, remember, fictional), I think it’s entirely possible he did grow up with the prince. I am working on the final parts of an onomastic study of Hephaistion’s name, wherein I suggest that Hephaistion may have been brought to the court not long after Alexander was born, either as a reward to or as a hostage for his father.

That would mean, yes, Hephaistion may have known Alexander as long as he could remember and was also among the boys having lessons under Leonidas. It’s simply a lot harder to prove/tease out. We know Aristotle wrote Hephaistion a book of letters (but there’s none listed to other Marshals), which suggests he was at Mieza. But no such hint exists about his presence earlier at the court, making anything else purely speculation.

So while in the novel I have Hephaistion arrive in Pella shortly before the Mieza sojourn, I think it just as possible that he was already in the city earlier, and therefore knew Alexander even longer. Ergo, I phrase it that he and Alexander were friends “at least” 19 years. But they could have been friends for 30 years, for all we know.

#asks #alexander the great #alexander the great as a child #baby alexander #Hephaistion #Hephaestion #childhood in ancient Greece #ancient macedon #Growing Up Prince

[honeyvalley-cat]

15 questions

tagged by the lovely Red @fightxer (IM BLESSED)

1. Are you named after anyone? Tbh it started out as a joke and just became who I am today. Aka I stole Aleks's name from cowchop 👏👏👏

2. Last time you cried? Yesterday,,,,, over a movie,,,,,

3. Do you want/have kids? I have my cat pella as my child. Would I want a spawn from myself? Perhaps. Just 1 or 2.

4. Do you use sarcasm? Irl (rarely) not so much over text bc people think I'm actually being mean and that shit HURTED

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

I'm kinda an observer so pretty much the small things. Eyes, hair, how they dress or if they jitter, etc.

6. What's your eye colour? Hazel 👏

7. Scary movie or happy ending? Can I uhhh get both?

8. Special talents? I can tell u random animal facts and a little of plant facts.

9.Where we're you born? California mboi

10. What are your hobbies? I used to draw, write, and read. But depression took my energy so I don't really so hobbies.

11. Do you have any pets? I have 2 cats, Pella and Jose (pronounced Joser bc we got him from someone else) and my Snake, Nova.

12. What sports do you play? I used to do flag football and I really enjoy volleyball in highschool.

13. How tall are you? ya small boi is 5'3 barely

14. Favourite subject in school? I loved art and my English class.

15. Dream Job? Well I'd love to co own a cat cafe and get cats adopted while I bake the pastries. I did not get my damn pastry arts diploma for no reason.

I'll tag a few @angel-bbyy @pixelatedqueen @getalifeweeb @taureanblink @augustapendragon

[sequencefairy]

Writing Meme

Got tagged by @pellaaearien, thank you so much sweetie! 

1. How many WIPs do you have?

Too fucking many ... 

From the Bleach side of the pond, there’s Archangel Flare, This is Where We Fell in Love (But Not the First Time), and Torque + a bunch of shit on google drive that might end up as one-shots. 

For Doctor Who, there’s the rest of Pyrite + a google drive folder full of stuff that I’m tinkering with. 

For Lucifer, there’s a Christmas fic, some angst (because I’m me) and also some smut I’m working on for Pella. 

2. Do you/would you write fanfiction?

Yep. 

3. Do you prefer paper book or ebooks?

I like a real book. Got nothing against ebooks, just would rather have the real thing in my hands. 

4. When did you start writing?

Shit, probably late elementary school? It’s been a LONG time. 

5. Do you have someone you trust who you share your work with?

Sure do! The Hell Chat, my Doctor Who ladies, my Lucifer friends, and when I can pester them into it, some of my IRL friends too. 

6. What is your favorite place to write?

I tend to be the most productive in front of my computer. Coffee shop atmosphere is optional.

7. Favorite book as a child?

All of them? I was very attached to A Wrinkle in Time for quite a long while tho. 

8. Writing for fun or publication?

Fun, tho being published would not be a terrible outcome. 

9. Have you ever taken a writing class?

I took a Writer’s Craft class in highschool. It didn’t really do anything for me, but I learned a bit about how to give good criticism and how to edit other people’s work. I also learned that writing is a practice, and that you have to do it to be good at it, and people who don’t, aren’t. 

10. What inspired you to write?

Ah, I’m not sure. I think I just always have? There was crap in my head and I wanted it to leave, and the only way to get it out was to write it down. 

Tagging @perfectlyrose, @skyler10fic, @kingkuchiki, @rodella, @ariaadagio, and anyone else who sees this! 

#things jess says #story of my life #memed me #i got tagged in a thing!

[saecookie]

👀

You did! I've been telling how you're streaming and that we've been baking together! But mostly every time I join your stream I'm asked who I'm watching and I can say that's fren!!! Also you're known as Pella for obvious reasons haha.

mutuals send me a 👀 and i'll tell you if you've ever come up in any of my irl conversations, and what i referred to you as

#Ask game #Pellamore

[pellaaearien]

@teejaystumbles tagged me in a picrew maker! I love these, thank you!

HERE is the picrew maker! Tagging (with absolutely no pressure) @cuubism @five-and-dimes @thewollfgang and anyone else who wants to play!

#pella irl #nice people being nice

[pellaaearien]

about me!

I was tagged by @littledreamling, thank you! (Also I think @landwriter and @moorishflower wanted to see)

Nickname: Pell, Pella, various versions of my irl name

Sign: Leo. My mom doesn’t remember what time I was born so I don’t know any more than that.

Height: 5′2

Last thing I googled: uhhhh on which device? Laura Palmer’s theme on my PC

Song stuck in my head: the symphonia from my advent calendar, but I woke up this morning with A Kind Word and a Friendly Face playing immediately which was a devastating way to start the day. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/1nYydvIFdJJA6OAoqjC6Pp?si=1be925e638de4786

Number of followers: 1023. Oops I probably should’ve done something for a thousand. Too late now.

Amount of sleep: never enough

Dream job: something that gives me enough time money to play games and write fanfic in comfort.

Wearing: sweatpants, t shirt, big red wooly cardigan. Pretty standard winter outfit.

Movies/Books that summarize me: LotR, Kushiel’s Dart, Thumbelina, the Scarlet Pimpernel (the 80s movie) and Memoirs of a Geisha.

Favourite Song: Impossible to say. Next question

Favourite instrument: Well I’m partial to cello, since I play it. But I also agree with dreamling, church organ gets me where it hurts.

Aesthetic: comfy, with occasional detours into high femme when I wanna be fancy

Favourite authors: Tolkien, Jacqueline Carey, Patrick Rothfuss, Philippa Gregory, probably a bunch more I’m forgetting because I haven’t read books for ages

Random fun fact: I hugged Orlando Bloom at the London premiere of the Battle of Five Armies

If you wanna answer, tag me so I can get to know you! 

#about me #pella answers

[pellaaearien]

Baking day! I made mini cheesecakes! Tomorrow I'll put mini eggs on top to finish 🐰

#pella irl #easter

[pellaaearien]

Hi! I'm a huge fan of your Lucifer fanfics. I suppose it's a no-no to ask authors about their work (since it may be considered pressurizing), but just wanted to ask if you're planning to continue White Days? It's my no. 1 story that I keep rereading (I'm in love with the whole series!)

Hey there, Nonny. It’s normally a no-no but I understand, I was so regular with posting and then I... wasn’t. I’m honestly surprised it’s taken someone this long, and y’all definitely deserve a proper post about it.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: at the beginning of this year, I moved from Japan back home to my country. It was a decision I had to make for my well being and mental health, but the transition was not smooth. Putting an end to the dream I’d had for so long really did a number on me, emotionally and otherwise. I basically had to reinvent myself and while I wouldn’t describe myself as depressed, it’s been hard to get back in the swing of things I used to do. Without being in the same routine and with so much to do to reestablish myself here, it’s been hard to find the time or energy for writing.

I don’t want to get any further into long-winded justifications, but essentially I’ve been on an unexpected writing hiatus while I recovered. I’m only just now starting to feel like myself again, but writing is still happening, just very slowly. The reason I was able to continue posting chapters after my move is because I had so much already written - once I reached the end of that, I was still, quite literally, at a wall regarding my creative ability. 

The final chapter is already mostly written. I’ve hated having to leave the story one chapter from the end for so long, but I have been simply unable to work on it. I’m hoping that will change in the near future, but I also don’t want to say anything concrete for fear of blocking myself further. 

I do really want to say thank you for your continued interest in the series! I’ve felt horribly about not being there for y’all and I hope I’ll be able to return soon. I really appreciate you reaching out and letting me know you’re still reading. I hope the last chapter, whenever it’s published, is worth the wait.

#people talking about my writing #talking about my writing #pella irl #pella answers #white days #Anonymous

[pellaaearien]

So this week on Instagram I'm participating in the Unlikely Outfit Challenge! Every day there's a new outfit to put together and today was the Unlikely Colour Combo, where you intentionally match colours that don't go together!

It turns out I don't have that many clashing colours in my wardrobe because I'm a coward who mostly buys neutrals, but I do have a ton of patterns. So I had the idea to make every article of clothing a different, clashing pattern. I had a lot of fun!

Tomorrow is your oldest + your newest item!

#unlikely outfit challenge #unlikely colour combo #hey I heard you like patterns #patterns on patterns on patterns #pella irl

[pellaaearien]

Year in Review

I’m gonna level with you - 2019 was a really rough year.

This is the time of retrospectives, and I know there’s always discourse about everyone talking up their accomplishments and everyone else feeling inadequate, so I thought it was important to own up when things didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.

2019 was hard. At the turn of last year, I came to the realization that I could no longer stay in Japan. It was a very difficult decision, that I made for the benefit of my mental health, but it was also a decision with some longer reaching consequences than I was prepared for.

For the first 3 months of the year after I made my decision (I almost said fuck it and stayed home after my Christmas visit last year) I was extremely busy packing up my 3 years of life and moving it to another country. Once I got here, I was completely at a loss. My life’s dream had been to move to Japan. I had no plan for what I wanted to do afterwards. My move was sudden (even though it took months), and I spent a long time trying to recenter myself and get my head right.

I’m still not quite there, and a lot of aspects of my life have suffered for it. I still miss Japan, very much, and there are days I wish I was still there. Whatever its effects on my spirit, I had a clear purpose there, and I was surrounded by the things I’d spent a lifetime longing for.

Now I’m back, and while it’s been a blessing to have the constant support of my partner, my aimlessness has done just as much of a number on me as my previous situation in Japan, so it’s almost like a double whammy. I’m still not sure what I want to do, but I’m hopeful that now that I have a steady living situation, steady employment will follow, and that 2020 will be a year of progress and reconstruction.

This year was a year of great changes and lying fallow. I’ve been forced to face who I am when I have no drive, no goal, no real ambitions - and honestly, that’s been the hardest thing of all. For so long I was hiding behind the journey to get to the next milestone, the next waypoint, and there’s a lot that has been revealed once all that was stripped away. I’ve defined myself by my productivity for so long that once I was no longer productive, I didn’t like what I saw.

I’ll be going back to therapy once I’m working more regularly. I’m hoping it’ll help me write more regularly too - I went from a job with regular desk hours and nothing to do during them to absolutely no structure at all, and I absolutely write better with structure.

I’m making no promises - another thing I’ve learned is that it’s so easy for me to underestimate the effect all this has had on me. But I’m going to work on getting stronger, and kinder to myself.

Happy New Year, all. Happy new decade. Nowhere to go but up.

#pella irl

[pellaaearien]

Whew!

SO, Sbux finally got its act together in my district and closed all but two stores, giving employees the option to take 30 days paid catastrophe leave, which I have now done to protect myself and the public. 

HOWEVER, this means that I will be spending a LOT of time sitting down. If you are in the same position as me (ha!) remember to stretch! I have found these series of stretches to be very helpful, but feel free to reblog with your own favourites, especially for those with varying levels of ability!

https://www.thrillist.com/health/nation/stretches-for-sitting-at-a-desk-what-to-do-if-you-sit-too-much

In related news, I have discovered that my desk chair has been WAY TOO HIGH for me for a long time. So now that’s sorted. Remember that your feet should be able to touch the ground, even if you, like my gay ass, sit all curled up in it anyway. 

This has been a self-isolation PSA.

#coronavirus #covid-19 #self care #pella irl

[pellaaearien]

So my partner just left for work. Directly after work he's staying at a hotel near the airport because he has an early flight. He's going on a week long cruise and isn't coming back until next Saturday. I won't see him until that evening when I'm off work.

I'm super happy for him of course but I'm also feeling very sad. We haven't been apart for this long since we moved in together.

Obviously I do wish I was going with him (it's a family thing). I'm not upset at not being invited, though I do wish I'd get to see him relaxing on vacation (he deserves it) and having fun in the sun. More so I'm just very bad at being alone. I try to tell myself it's just like before we moved in together and we'd often spend weeks apart but this feels different. I miss him already.

#it's sad hours now lads #don't mind me #pella irl

[pellaaearien]

Tagged by @thewollfgang​! Thanks bb!

1. Do you make your bed?

Nah. Just when I’ve done laundry and am about to do some folding.

2. What’s your favorite number?

210. It’s a long story that isn’t really important.

3. What’s your job?

I (newly) work at Starbucks!

4. Can you parallel park?

Probably not? I wasn’t very good at it even back when I drove, which was a while ago.

5. A job you had which would surprise people?

I taught English in Japan for 3 years. Anyone who knows me knows that isn’t surprising but it always surprises new people I meet.

6. Do you think aliens are real?

Probably.

7. Can you drive a manual car?

Nope!

8. What’s your guilty pleasure?

I don’t feel too guilty about any of my pleasures.

9. Tattoos?

I have a lot planned but have yet to take the plunge.

10. Favorite color?

Purple!

11. Things people do that drive you crazy?

Being inconsiderate. Easy umbrella.

12. Any phobias?

Spiders/insects in general. Of course, I also have anxiety, so I’m afraid of a lot of things that aren’t phobias.

13. Favorite childhood sport?

Staying inside and reading.

14. Do you talk to yourself?

Sometimes, if I’ve been alone for a while or I’m stressed.

15. What movies do you adore?

The Scarlet Pimpernel, Millennium Actress, the LotR trilogy, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Man from Snowy River

16. Do you like puzzles?

Sure do!

17. Favorite kind of music?

Indie and EDM.

18. Tea or coffee?

19. What’s the first thing you remember you wanted to be when you grew up?

A paleontologist!

Not tagging anyone, but if you feel like doing it please tag me when you do!

#pella irl

[pellaaearien]

Tagged by @ariaadagio, a while ago.

Nicknames: Pella, Pell There’s a short form of my real name that I love and another one I absolutely hate. Some folks called me J-Lu for a while and I thought that was funny. 

Zodiac sign: Leo

Height: 5′3″

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Last thing I googled: What’s half of 2/3 cup (I am not clever)

Song stuck in my head:  Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen (”Lo how a rose e’er blooming) - I was listening to classic Christmas music while baking. It brings back really good memories for me.

Fav musicians: You’d have to ask me a specific genre and even then we’d be here all day

Following: 217

Followers: 783

Do you get asks: Not really. I love getting them though! *nudge nudge*

Amount of sleep: Not enough! Adjusting to a new house is hard

Lucky number: 210 (it’s a long story. Maybe you should send an ask!)

What are you wearing: Jeans, with leggings under them, and a tank top, one of those ones you don’t need a bra with.

Dream job: Staff writer on a Lucifer-esque show. Historical linguist (hey, you said dream!) Translator specifically for old Japanese literature and also video games

Dream trip: New Zealand, to hike the length of both islands and visit every location where they filmed for LotR

Instruments you play: Piano(ish), Cello

Languages you speak: English (fluent), French (semi-fluent, rusty) and Japanese (not fluent)

Fav song: Changes from day to day.

Random fact: Half of 2/3 cup is 1/3 cup.

Cats or dogs: Dogs. I love cats but they make me die.

Aesthetic: girly nerdy

not tagging anyone, do it if you like and tag me!  

#pella irl #tag game #pella answers

[pellaaearien]

Tagged by @skeletonystark, thanks boo! :*

Name: Jess

Sign: Leo 

Height: 5′2″ (HOW ARE YOU TALLER THAN ME ABBY??)

Last Google: The postal code for my new address

Song stuck in my head: Superstition

Following: 216

Followers: 772

Sleep per night: between 5 and 8 hours

Lucky number: 210

Dream job: Staff Writer

Wearing: Hello Kitty sweatpants and a baggy shirt with WORDING across the front.

Favourite song: good question. 

Instruments: Cello, piano (self taught) and voice. I’d like to learn guitar someday. 

Random fact: Jeff Bezos could give out ~19.4 MILLION full size chocolate bars per hour, or enough to give 43 full size bars to EVERY child in foster care in the US (about 450 thousand).

Aesthetics: I’m a lot more preppy than I’d like, tho in fall I chase the Fall Gay plaid aesthetic. I have a Pokemon decoy beanie and a studded leather jacket. I like boots.

Not tagging anyone, but if you’d like to play, tag me!  

#pella irl