#but like caveat is that they might not be 'in your area'

[oxbellows]

Welcome Home! Nothing Weird Happened.

Written based on @emilybeemartin's spectacular Boromir Lives AU comics, with permission. I might write more, who knows.

My whole thought process here is this: if Boromir lives and makes it back to Minas Tirith, he is about to receive an absolutely ludicrous quantity of bad news. And I for one think it would be both plausible and hilarious for Pippin to be the one who ends up delivering that news. So here we are!

Trigger warnings for that whole pyre situation from Return of the King.

 It was fitting, to Boromir’s mind, that the battle for Minas Tirith should be decided by dead men. So many had died for the city of kings already, their blood seeping into her soil like rain. Why, then, should her fate rest solely in the hands of the living? An unnatural justice rang out in the clang of steel against phantom blades, heralding the return of a hope long since given up for lost. 

“None but the king of Gondor may command me,” the wraith hissed.

“You?” Boromir had roared. “You, Oathbreaker? I am the heir to the Stewards of Gondor. Generations of my kin have died for an empty throne. None but the king of Gondor may command ME. Here stands the king of Gondor before us, and you will suffer him as I have!”

And suffer him they did. Sickly green washed over the last armored oliphaunt as the dead claimed more souls for their own. Boromir pulled his eyes away from the spectacle and spun his sword in his hand, scanning the area around him for the next foe. He found none. Only the backs of retreating orcs, and weary Men attending to their fallen brothers. That and, out of the corner of his eye, the strangest possible trio of a Man, a Dwarf, and an Elf. Finding no enemy to engage, Boromir instead turned his step toward the strange trio to embrace his friends in the wake of victory. 

Aragorn, king of Gondor, did not appear especially regal at the moment. He was covered in grime and gore, surrounded by the corpses of orcs left to rot in the open field. Gimli’s sturdy metal armor was slick with blood, and it dripped steadily off the edge of the axe that he had slung over one shoulder. Legolas, of course, was only as disheveled as he might have been after a short run, clean of the muck that covered the rest of them. His hair still fell properly at his shoulder, what witchcraft did the Elf use to maintain it? 

Boromir could only imagine what he himself must look like. He knew that he was damp and smelled like death, which did not bode well for a lordly appearance. Nonetheless, even in all his heavy armor Boromir felt lighter than he had since childhood. The battle was over, fought now only by those straggling beasts that had not managed to escape the field on foot. Boromir was still, impossibly, alive, and so were his companions. So was his king. 

The enemy may yet prevail, but Gondor would not fall before the White Tree bloomed again. It was more than his grandfathers had ever dared to hope. 

“Is that blood in your hair or just its natural grease?” Boromir asked his king, sliding his sword back into its scabbard and stepping over the body of a fallen orc to approach him.

Aragorn laughed, raising one dirty hand to skim his fingertips over the top of his head. “I cannot say, Captain. I only know that in either case, I would wash it before I present myself to your lord father.”

Boromir clicked his tongue dismissively. “My lord father’s not the one we have to worry about. If my brother hears that I’ve brought Isildur’s heir home in such a state, he’ll throttle me.”

He almost continued speaking. He almost added, if he’s alive. Aragorn heard the unspoken caveat all the same. His dark eyes had a softness in them when he spoke.

“The battle is over, Captain of the White Tower,” Aragorn said. “We must turn our efforts now to the dead and wounded. May we not find you kin among them.”

If the taste of ash settled on the back of Boromir’s tongue, it could be attributed to the smell of Mordor’s filthy army laying dead at his feet, and not to the terrible image that flashed across his mind’s eye of Faramir’s bloodied and unblinking face.

“My father will be well,” Boromir asserted, determined not to speculate on his brother’s wellbeing. “He is past his time as a warrior. He will have commanded our troops from a place of safety within the walls.”

Aragorn inclined his head in assent. His hair really was a sight- black blood had matted chunks of it together, and where they stood now in the open field, with the sun just beginning to peek through the enemy’s unnatural bank of shadow, Boromir could see that his clothes were in much the same state. Perhaps this was why Aragorn so persistently favored black for his travel clothes. Were he wearing any other color, it would be obvious that he was as drenched in the blood of orcs as if he had bathed in it. 

A warrior of staggering skill was this king of Men, but he preferred not to proclaim his deadliness to the world. He tucked it away into shadow until such skill was needed. Perhaps one day Boromir might look upon this man that he called brother and not be humbled by the mere sight of him. 

Perhaps. 

“I will search with a sharp eye, then, for Captain Faramir,” Aragorn promised. 

Boromir closed the distance between them to grip Aragorn’s shoulder in thanks. Aragorn returned the gesture with ferocity, digging his fingers into the mail covering Boromir’s upper arm. Gimli thumped Boromir’s back in a heavy handed gesture of approval, and Legolas bowed his head with a coy smile. A river of unspoken words passed between the four of them, about great and important things like love and fear at the end of the world, and then they released each other. Aragorn turned his stride towards the Citadel to lend his knowledge of elvish medicine to the House of Healing. Legolas and Gimli set out together to help carry the wounded into the city for aid. Boromir made for the rocky outcrop at the city’s outermost wall, the one that archers favored for its vantage point. There he was sure he would find rangers, and hopefully news of Faramir.

The walk carried him past countless dead orcs and uruk-hai, but also more dead men and horses than Boromir had ever seen on a single field. For every pair of comrades he saw embrace in giddy relief, another wail of grief reached his ears from somewhere else. His mail grew heavier with every step he took.

Boromir had scarcely made it halfway to the archer’s outpost before he was stopped by the sound of his own name.

“Captain Boromir!” a familiar voice shouted. “You live!”

Boromir stopped and whirled about. There, about ten yards from Boromir, close enough to the outermost wall to be half-concealed in its shadow, crouched a man in a forest-green cloak. His hands still hovered over a fallen Gondorian soldier, as if he had frozen partway through checking for signs of life. Before the man in green rose to stand, he brushed a hand over the fallen one’s face, coaxing his eyes shut before stepping away. Boromir felt a dull pang of grief in his already overburdened heart at the confirmation that yet another of his countrymen was dead. He had no time to acknowledge that pain, though, as the man in green righted himself fully. The green cloak, brown leather vambraces, and longbow on his back all sparked immediate recognition. 

Boromir knew this man, had met him before, but his weary mind failed to provide a name for him. It hardly mattered. The uniform he wore told Boromir everything he needed to know. Faramir had been clad exactly the same, the last time Boromir had seen him. This was one of the rangers of Ithilien, his brother’s own company. Hope swelled painfully in his chest. He hastened his step towards the ranger.

The ranger rushed to meet him and performed a quick, obligatory salute when they were close enough to speak comfortably. “My lord,” he greeted, breathless. “Your father thought you dead, but we in Captain Faramir’s company held out hope.” A wide grin split across his face. “You cannot imagine how sorely you’ve been missed!”

Seeing his smile finally dragged the ranger’s name to the front of Boromir’s memory. “Anborn,” he said warmly. “It’s good to see you alive and well. Tell me, what news do you have of my brother?”

 Anborn’s smile dropped, giving way to a look of naked concern as quickly as a candle being snuffed out. “I have no news, my lord, none that is not two days old at least.”

 "Then give me the old news,” Boromir pressed, trying not to snap. 

Anborn grimaced and nodded. “My lord,” he said, haltingly, “The last time I saw your brother, my Captain, was on the day he rode out to reclaim Osgiliath with a company of forty mounted soldiers.”

Boromir could only stare for a long moment, turning over Anborn’s words in his head to try and make them comprehensible. No clarity came to him. “My brother is- in Osgiliath?”

Another grimace. “If he is still there, he is dead.” Boromir’s lungs constricted and froze. Anborn continued, “Osgiliath was overrun more than a week ago. I’ve heard rumors that Faramir made it back to the Citadel, but I cannot say any more than that without inventing rumors myself.”

“The Citadel,” Boromir repeated. He forced breath into his uncooperative lungs. He would go to the Citadel, and he would find Faramir there with their father, incoherent with frustration after arguing strategy with Denethor. He turned on his heel and started walking. Anborn said something as Boromir strode away, but he didn’t hear it properly over the ringing in his ears. 

What he had heard of Anborn’s words clamored in his mind- it sounded as if Faramir had taken a company of only forty men to reclaim an overrun city. That would be absurd, though. Faramir may be prone to bouts of melancholy and brooding, but he wasn’t suicidal. And even if he did, for some reason, decide to seek his own death, he would never bring any number of Gondor’s defenders with him to do it.

 Your father thought you dead.

 Boromir broke into a run.

Faramir didn’t hold sway over all their troops’ movements. Faramir wasn’t the Steward. 

 He was moving too slowly. Stumbling to a halt, Boromir grasped at the leather straps holding his pauldrons in place and did his best to unfasten them with numb fingers. Denethor had not been the same in recent years. The shadow in the east had darkened his thoughts, day by day, and set him talking as if the end were already here. His gray eyes had glinted in a way that Boromir scarcely recognized when he’d spoken of the One Ring. He’d never favored Faramir, never encouraged him the way he deserved, but the cruelty that had colored Denethor’s every interaction with his secondborn in the year or two before Boromir left shocked him. 

Boromir’s pauldrons landed on the ground in a heap, and now he doubled over to escape the shirt of mail. It was a difficult task without taking off his sword belt, but he managed. He needed to be faster, but he could not bear to go unarmed. The chain links poured gracelessly down over his head, yanking his hair as they went, and then he was free. Boromir took off running again, now unencumbered. 

 Faramir would never plan a suicide mission. 

 Would he accept one, though, if he was ordered?

Boromir’s feet touched white marble bricks for the first time in months that had felt like decades. He did not pause. Shouts followed him as he went, calling his name or exclaiming surprise. Arches and edifices flew by overhead. Rubble littered the street. He caught glances of bodies crushed under great stones. 

Boromir made it to the stairs. His weary legs burned and protested, but he dared not slow his descent. He needed to know where Faramir was, now. He needed to know what had happened in Osgiliath, before any more ideas had the chance to take root in his head. If he finished the line of thinking that Anborn’s news had set off-

 Boromir might kill his father with his bare hands.

So, he would not stop, and he would not think, until he found answers.

 He reached the top of the stairs. 

 A small group of guards, maybe five or six, clustered together at the Citadel gate, all spoke over each other in urgent tones. Boromir could not hear most of their words over his own ragged breath, but he caught a few. He heard “Mithrandir” and “Witch King” and “wood”, and then, “Denethor.” 

“Where?” Boromir barked. Every one of the men before him startled and turned to him with unabashed fear written across their faces.

If Boromir had looked a mess back on the fields, by now he must appear absolutely deranged. Half his armor gone, hair wild, white shirt drenched with sweat and blood- he could hardly blame the unsuspecting guards for the shock and confusion they displayed so brazenly at his question. Nor could he blame himself for the urge to grab the nearest one and shake him until he spoke sense.

Fortunately for all present, the guard furthest to the left, a man of slight and youthful stature underneath his plate armor, spoke up.

“The House of Stewards,” he said, voice trembling. He pointed in the right direction. “In the tombs. Both of them, lord and son, with orders from the Steward to be left undisturbed.”

 Boromir ran like he had never done in his life. 

 For what possible reason would his father and brother be in the tombs in the midst of battle?

 He threw himself against the door to the tombs of his forefathers. They gave way with no resistance, and as he stumbled through the opening, he noted that the floor was dusted with splintered wood. This door had already been broken through. There he stopped short.

He could not, for the life of him, make sense of the scene before him.

 In the center of the foyer, directly on top of Húrin’s memorial etching, were the remains of- a bonfire? Heaps of ash and charred wood covered the usually immaculate white marble floor, built up into a high, still-smoldering mound in the chamber’s center. The air reeked of smoke. Neither Denethor nor Faramir were in sight, nor was anyone else. The tombs appeared deserted.

  “Faramir?” Boromir called warily. 

A clang of metal and the scuffle of unshod feet on stone answered his call, and then-

“Boromir!”

A small form collided hard with his midsection, forcing him to take a staggering step back. Small arms wrapped around him like a vice, a familiar vice, and Boromir abruptly realized that he was in the embrace of a hobbit.

“Pippin?” he demanded, aghast.

The young hobbit turned his face up to meet his gaze and a fresh wave of panic seized him. Pippin’s face was coated in ash and streaked with tears.

“Boromir!” Pippin cried again. “You have to help, Gandalf said that healers were coming but nobody came, there was screaming in the halls so I dragged him as far as I could but he’s heavy and I don’t know where Gandalf went and just- just- come here!” 

The hobbit released his iron grip around Boromir’s waist in favor of clutching one of his wrists and started hauling him off to one side of the room, into a corridor of mausoleums. There, poking out of the nearest alcove, Boromir spied the lower half of a single black boot. 

Pippin pulled him onward when his own pace faltered. With each step he could see more of the body that Pippin had apparently tried to drag to safety. A small, or rather, hobbit-sizedsword lay carelessly discarded on the floor beneath the alcove’s arching entrance where Pippin had dropped it. That would explain the clanging sound Boromir had heard just before being tackled, then. Which would mean that when he called out, Pippin had been guarding this archway with sword in hand. 

Pippin’s relentless tugging finally forced Boromir to where he could see the stricken man on the floor.

It was Faramir.

Of course it was Faramir. 

A rough, strangled sound echoed through the quiet tombs, and Boromir only realized a moment later that it had come from his own throat. Pippin darted from his side to kneel at his brother’s head, petting his hair and murmuring a soothing word. Faramir did not react in the slightest. He wasn’t dead; Boromir had seen enough dead men in his life to know with unfailing precision the difference between a dead body and a dying one.

No, his brother was not dead. He was only dying. 

Boromir dropped to his knees. 

In all this time that he had dreaded coming home and hearing that Faramir had fallen in battle, it had never occurred to Boromir that he might watch him die.

“He needs medicine,” Pippin pleaded, his little hand nestled in Faramir’s hair. Boromir now saw that the hobbit was dressed in the garb of the guards of Citadel, mail under a velvet tunic embroidered with the white tree. What had happened in his city? When had this barely-trained halfling become his brother’s last line of defense?

“Go,” Boromir rasped. He touched the hilt of his sword. “I will protect him now. Go to the House of Healing, down one level. Aragorn is there. He will listen to you.”

Without another word, Pippin took off at a sprint. Boromir and Faramir were left alone, together for the first time since Boromir had left for Rivendell. 

Boromir wanted to scream.

Instead, he maneuvered himself carefully to sit at his brother’s side. How Pippin had managed to stash Faramir away in this little nook, Boromir had no idea. He could only just find room for himself against the wall without jostling the motionless body beside him. He reached a tentative hand out to lay it on Faramir’s forehead. He paused before he touched skin, momentarily stunned by the radiating heat. When his fingers settled on his brother’s brow, it was like touching metal that had been left in the sun too long. Faramir burned. Boromir gently smoothed his hand over damp hair.

It wasn’t just Faramir’s hair that was damp, actually. It was everything on him. His short beard, the finely embroidered collar of his tunic, the silk of his sleeves. If his fever was so high, it was not so surprising to find him coated in sweat. The choice of clothes, though, was undeniably strange. There was no blood staining the fabric. Had he not been hurt in battle, then? Had he simply been taken by a violent illness? Was there a plague in the city? That might explain the lack of gore but not the presence of finery. Boromir had only ever seen Faramir wear this tunic for ceremonies. He wouldn’t have put it on before battle, and he would certainly have taken it off if he were falling ill. 

No, the only reasonable conclusion was that Faramir had not been the one to dress himself. A terrible, unspeakable suspicion wormed its way into his heart. 

Boromir almost regretted sending Pippin away without first asking him what had happened to create this bizarre tableau. Almost. His answers could wait until Faramir had been brought safely into the care of physicians. He lifted his hand to stroke Faramir’s hair again, but the slickness that clung to his palm bade him pause.

That wasn’t sweat in his brother’s hair, it was something else, something more viscous. Puzzled beyond words, Boromir brought his hand close to his face to inspect it. 

His palm was smeared with oil.

All at once, a dozen disparate fragments of information arranged themselves into nightmarish clarity.

Someone had dressed Faramir for a funeral. Someone had brought him into the place where the bones of their ancestors rested and covered him in oil. Someone had lit a bonfire in the center of the tombs. 

Not a bonfire. A pyre.

Someone had tried to burn his little brother alive.

 “No,” Boromir whispered, as if he could prevent his next thought from taking shape.

Only one person in Gondor could do any of this without being stopped.

In the tombs, the guard at the gate had said. Both of them, lord and son, with orders from the Steward to be left undisturbed.

Boromir launched himself upright, out of the cramped alcove, and was sick all over the marble floor.

For the second time in a day, Pippin found himself running for someone else’s life. At least he didn’t have so far to go this time. He could not remember ever being so tired. It was also fortunate that he knew already where to find the House of Healing. Gandalf had insisted he memorize the route there as soon as he’d made his oath to Denethor, which was a bit insulting, to be honest, but turned out very useful in the end.

 The first time he’d entered the House, just a few days ago, he’d thought it was very full. Most of the rows of clean, simple cots had been occupied by rangers returning from outside the city. As he dashed through the sturdy oaken door now, though, he entered a different world entirely.

The cacophony of sound, smell and movement that surged up to meet him stopped Pippin in his tracks. The House of Healing was so crowded he could not see the far wall. He could barely see the nearest row of cots. Tall ladies rushed about in every direction, shouting orders to one another above a nauseating din of groans and cries. Pippin had been standing guard in a cloud of smoke for hours, and yet the onslaught of ugly and unfamiliar smells that accosted him here made him wish for the scent of smoke again.

His foray into the front lines of a battle had been terrifying. This place might be worse.

Boromir had said that Aragorn was here, though, and Pippin would walk headfirst into an army of orcs right now if it meant that Aragorn would help him. He never wanted to be in charge of anything, ever again, especially not trying to keep great lords and heroes alive. Aragorn was good at that sort of thing, he could take over now. Pippin took a deep breath and began forging a path through the chaos, calling Aragorn’s name as he went.

As he weaved his way through cots, ducking underneath outstretched arms and around long legs, Pippin heard questions following him that he had no desire to answer.

“How old is that boy? Who let a child in the guard?”

"Is that one of those halflings? The wizard’s pet or something?”

“Are you lost, little one?”

Some of these Men had the most terrible manners, clearly. Most of them were bleeding very badly, though, so Pippin could forgive them for their rudeness. He ignored them all and kept moving.

“Aragorn!” he shouted again.

A women that had been rushing by him paused for an instant to glare down at him. “Hush, you,” she scolded, in a voice that spoke of unquestionable authority. She wore a sort of veil with a nice brooch on it, so Pippin supposed she might be in charge here. “Lord Aragorn’s doing very important things right now and I’ll not have you disturbing him.”

Pippin’s heart jumped. “Where is he?” he asked.

The woman tsked and shook her head, making to continue along her original path. She held a bowl in her arms that Pippin was quite sure he did not want to see the inside of. Whatever it was sloshed unpleasantly when Pippin lurched after the women and grabbed a handful of her skirt to prevent her from leaving.

“The Steward has ordered me to fetch Aragorn! Show me where he is!” Pippin declared. He didn’t think it was a lie. Denethor was dead, so that made Boromir the Steward in his place, probably.

The woman gasped in surprise. “Lord Denethor lives?” she asked. “Wondrous news, we thought lord and son dead already.”

 Pippin avoided the question about Denethor by standing up as straight as he could. “Lord Faramir needs medicine,” he said imperiously. “He needs Aragorn’s skill. Take me to Aragorn.”

With a quick hand gesture to follow and not another word, the woman took off walking at a brisk stride deeper into the crowded hall. Pippin had to run to keep up with her. After what seemed like a dozen maneuvers around clumps of people and cots, a figure clad all in black finally came into view.

“Strider!” Pippin cried with relief. 

Aragon knelt at a young man’s bedside with a wet rag and bowl of water in his hands. He turned his face at once toward the sound of Pippin’s voice, a genuine smile gracing his lips as he did. Some of the panic that had been driving Pippin these last several hours faded away at the sight. If Aragorn was here, then surely things would get better now.

His relief faltered a bit when Pippin noticed that Aragorn was simply ­covered in blood- both red and black, and sweat, and grime that Pippin could not begin to identity. The Men gathered round him didn’t seem to mind Aragorn’s state, but then, most of them were splattered with blood as well, probably their own. Even Aragorn could not dispel the somber truth hanging in the air, that unimaginably many people had died today.

Faramir would join the dead soon if Pippin didn’t get a move on, so he marched past all those tall, bloodied Men to stand right at Aragorn’s side.

“Faramir’s dying,” he hissed, hoping he was quiet enough for none but Aragorn to hear. He didn’t especially want to deliver more bad news to the people in this room. “Boromir is with him, but he needs medicine, now.”

If Aragorn found this news distressing, he did not show it. He just nodded thoughtfully, and asked, “Can he walk?”

Pippin shook his head. Aragorn hummed an acknowledgment and rose to his feet. He handed the bowl and rag he’d been holding to another woman that Pippin hadn’t noticed before, murmuring something that sounded like instructions. He then spoke to the lady that had led Pippin, the one who seemed to be in charge.

“Ioreth,” he addressed her. “We have need of a stretcher.”

“It will be done,” she said, and turned on her heel to vanish back into the crowded hall.

Aragorn wiped his hands on his trousers to dry them. Pippin suspected he made them dirtier in the process. “Pippin,” Aragorn said. “Will you please lead me to Boromir and Faramir?”

“Yes, this way,” Pippin answered quickly. He was eager to be out of this terrifying place. He found it easier than before to navigate through the throng. He realized after a few moments of uninhibited movement that people were stepping aside to make way as soon as they saw Aragorn following him.

Had Aragorn already gotten around to being crowned while Pippin was busy? These people were certainly treating him like a king.

“Did you already become the King?” Pippin asked without thinking.

Aragorn chuckled dryly. “No, and I don’t think the lady healers would much care if I had. They care only that I know how to draw out the poison that covers many orcish blades, and that I’ve shared what I know.”

“Oh,” said Pippin, feeling queasy.

Finally, the door came into sight, and with a quick burst of speed, Pippin flung himself back into fresh air. Mostly fresh, anyway, permitting for some lingering smoke. The smell of blood and death that lingered in his nostrils seemed even more vile when contrasted against another, cleaner scent, and it made him gag. Aragorn placed a sympathetic hand between his shoulders.

“The battle to save the wounded is the hardest and the bloodiest,” he said gently. “There’s no shame in being shocked by it.”

Pippin couldn’t quite speak yet, so he bobbed his head in a jerky, shaking nod. He allowed himself two deep breaths before turning his attention back to the task at hand. Right. Faramir. Shot full of arrows and nearly burned to death, currently stashed in a mausoleum, actively perishing of fever. He had to bring Aragorn there, and then maybe he could sit down for a moment. He set off again at a jog.

Aragorn, being unfairly long-legged, could follow him with a brisk walk. Pippin was growing weary of these big people, he really was.

Back over the same cold marble stone he went, retracing his steps to the tombs. Two men carrying a stretcher had started following them at some point- Pippin hadn’t noticed exactly where they came from, but the stretcher they carried was already stained with red, so he suspected that they had been going back and forth from the House of Healing for a while already. Aragorn let there be silence between them for several yards, but began asking questions as soon as they crossed under a crumbling archway.

“What happened to Faramir to leave him needing medicine?”

“He was shot at least twice, I’m not sure when. Sometime yesterday.”

"Where has he been?”

“Well, he got shot when he was fighting in Osgiliath, and then the horse dragged him back, and that probably made it worse, actually, but then Denethor put him away someplace for a day or so and then brought him into the tombs and tried to burn him alive.”

Aragorn froze for a moment. “What?”

“Denethor lost his mind just before the battle started, he tried to burn Faramir alive on a pyre. And himself too, I think. He thought the world was ending.”

“Where is Denethor now?”

“He jumped off the wall.”

Aragorn took up walking again, now at a faster stride. “Boromir is with his brother now?”

"Yes,” Pippin confirmed, doing his best to keep up with Aragorn’s pace.

“Does he know what happened?”

That was a good question, actually. Had Pippin explained the situation at all? He couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember most of today, to be honest- it was all a blur of screams and fire.

He remembered the blinding panic he’d felt when heavy footsteps had entered the tombs. He remembered clutching his sword with sweaty hands and bracing himself to get torn to shreds by uruk-hai, and then abandoning his sword to hurl himself at Boromir once he’d heard the man’s voice. What had Boromir said, though? Anything? Had Pippin said anything?

He remembered Boromir dropping heavily onto his knees. The look on his face had been awful. He looked sad and scared and sick all at once. Pippin had never been sure what the word anguish meant, but he was sure now.

“I don’t think so,” Pippin finally answered.

 Aragorn muttered something to himself, a string of elvish words that Pippin had never heard before. It sounded like what Legolas said when he missed a shot, though, so Pippin could wager a guess at what it meant.

At last, they reached the door to the House of Stewards. Pippin darted through, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Aragorn was still following. Through the foyer, around the smoldering remains of the pyre, down the corridor on the right, and there they were. The lords of Gondor. Not quite as Pipping had left them.

Boromir had extracted Faramir from the alcove where Pippin had dragged him to lay his brother out in the open. The fine silk tunic Faramir had worn lay in oil-soaked shreds scattered about the floor, and the mail shirt he’d had on underneath was similarly cast aside, half-obscuring a puddle of vomit near the entry to the alcove. Pippin was sympathetic- being in this place made him want to retch, too.

Faramir lay on his side in his undershirt. The fabric had been white once, Pippin knew, but blood, oil and ash had colored it through. Boromir knelt at his back, holding him steady by the upper arm with one hand and gently tearing the cloth of the ruined shirt with the other. The cloth didn’t move the way it should when Boromir tugged it. It stuck stubbornly to Faramir’s scorched upper back and shoulder, like it had been glued there.

Pippin gasped in horror as the realization hit him. Boromir couldn’t get Faramir’s shirt off because it was stuck to his burnt skin, fused in place by the heat of the fire. Had his skin melted? Could skin melt? The thought alone sickened him.

Boromir must have heard Pippin gasp, because his head snapped up to fix the hobbit with a wild stare.

Pippin didn’t usually think of Boromir as frightening. Fearsome, of course, but not to his friends. Certainly never to Pippin.

He looked frightening now. His eyes were wide, and his pupils were tiny pinpoints. His lips were pulled back into an animalistic expression, somewhere between a grimace and a snarl, showing just a hint of teeth. His shoulders curled forward, hunching slightly over Faramir’s still form, and through his thin, damp shirt Pippin could see he was shaking with pent up energy.

When Pippin was younger, one of Farmer Maggot’s dogs had gone missing. They’d found the creature hiding under a shed, nursing a bleeding paw, growling and snapping at any hobbit that tried to approach. Boromir did not make a sound, but Pippin swore he could hear the same wounded dog’s growling all the same.

Pippin felt rather than heard Aragorn approaching from behind him, and it was a great relief when Boromir’s gaze flicked up off his face to fixate on Aragorn instead. With what seemed to be a tremendous effort, Boromir opened his mouth to speak.

“Where is Denethor?” he rasped, voice shaking.

Aragorn took a cautious step forward, moving in front of Pippin. He held his hands up, fingers splayed open, the way he did when trying to settle a spooked horse. “Boromir, my brother-” he began, voice soft and steady.

Boromir interrupted before he could take another step. “Tell me where my father is, Aragorn,” he croaked. “Tell me so I can find him and gut him.”

“He’s dead,” Pippin blurted. “He set himself on fire and then he went off the edge of the wall and died.”

Aragorn stiffened. Boromir’s jaw went slack. He heard gasps from the men carrying the stretcher behind him.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have spoken. Gandalf was always telling him something to that effect.

Boromir let out long, low groan and slumped in on himself, bowing his head so low his forehead grazed Faramir’s hair. He released the firm grip he’d been maintaining on his brother’s upper arm to grab fistfuls of his own hair instead.

Aragorn moved swiftly to kneel beside Boromir. He wrapped one arm around Boromir’s shoulders and pulled him into a lopsided embrace. Boromir went without protest, deflated and boneless against his king. Aragorn spoke to him, too softly for Pippin to hear, and coaxed him to shuffle backwards just a pace or two to create space at Faramir’s side. The two half-forgotten men with the stretcher between them seized their opportunity and swept in to gather Faramir up. Boromir twitched forward when they lifted his brother, but Aragorn held him back with a hand on his chest. With quick, synchronized steps, Faramir was taken out of the tombs.

Louder now, so Pippin could hear again, Aragorn spoke with real regret in his voice. “I must follow them. I promise I will give all the skill I have to make Lord Faramir well.”

“I’m coming,” Boromir stated.

Aragorn fixed him with a hard stare. “It will be ugly,” he warned. “I’ll have to cut the shirt off his back, and I expect much of his skin to come with it. If he wakes it will be to scream.”

“I know,” said Boromir.

“I would rather not find your blade shoved through my heart while I work.”

Boromir flushed. “I would not.”

Aragorn raised one eyebrow. “All the same, if you wish to follow, leave your sword at the door for my peace of mind.”

Boromir opened his mouth, but seemed to think better of it and simply bowed his head in assent. Aragorn hauled himself to his feet and offered Boromir a hand up, which Boromir accepted without hesitation.

“Can I help?” Pippin asked, surprising himself.

Aragorn eyed him up and down. One corner of his lips twitched upward. “Yes, Pippin, I think you can help us all very much by staying at Boromir’s side and keeping him calm. If you have any more news to deliver, however, perhaps you could share it beforewe enter the House of Healing?”

Pippin recognized the admonishment for what it was and ducked his head, chastened. On the other hand, now that he mentioned it-

“Gandalf’s staff is broken,” he announced.

Aragorn closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I see. Thank you, Pippin. Anything else?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Very well. If you think of something, take Boromir out into the hall and tell him.” Aragorn turned to Boromir and spoke sternly. “Boromir, if Pippin takes you out into the hall, I forbid you to pick up your sword until we have had a chance to speak.”

Boromir huffed out something very close to a laugh. “Wise council, my king.”

#@emilybeemartin #lotr fic #Boromir Lives AU

[warmspice]

3.? If you want

x Do you really think there is somebody for everybody?

mmmm kind of yes? I think there could potentially be? I don't believe in soulmates or anything like that but if I've learned one thing on the internet it's that many people have a large variety of tastes and there's honestly probably someone out there who will like you and the things that you do. Like statistically, there are so many people in the world that a person would be able to find people who are like them, or who like them for who they are.

#answered #anon #but like caveat is that they might not be 'in your area' #i think thats why like. internet communities are soooo important for some people. their worlds are so small that they cant find people who #are like them so that makes them feel abnormal or different or unlovable but like. your people exist but they just might not be .... as #visible.. or reachable. #ANOTHER thing tho is also like. intention. I think that a lot more relationships truly can flourish through just perseverance and #effort to keep up. even if its one sided sometimes LOL #some of my best friendships did not start with an instant connection. they were awkward and weary but overtime grew into something really #beautiful. so..... some things take time and effort is something i also think about all the time. #when sav said love is making a choice over and over again. yeah. #but in the end these things have to be mutual . just that sometimes they can grow into mutuality...? #idk if this makes sense but yeah those are my feelings :) #and the somebody i guess also doesnt have to be romantic. I think having a community or people who just really care about you.... that's #what its all about...! #Idk I have so many thoughts on this question in particular but also like andksbsidbsj ouagh #Genuinely believe everyone is inherently lovable and deserving of love btw

[femmefatalevibe]

Femme Fatale Guide: How To Master Your Money & Tips On Financial Literacy

Understanding and taking control of your finances improves your quality of life in many ways. Making strides toward better financial literacy can save you a lot of stress, unnecessary fees and helps you play a more active role in taking control over this aspect of adulthood. Once you understand the game of money, saving, and investing, it becomes infinitely simpler to devise a plan to set yourself up for a more financially-free future. Here are some practical tips to keep your finances streamlined, secure, and systemized to help you gain more financial literacy and win in this area of life.

Overview:

Track Your Income & Expenses

Set Financial Goals & Realistic Limitations

Invest Higher-Quality Items To Save Later

Educate Yourself On Different Types of Banking & Investment Accounts

Establish Credit, But Know Yourself

Create An Emergency Fund

Leverage Credit Card Benefits

Understand The Power of A Roth IRA (or Backdoor Roth IRA) & HSA

Automate Whenever Possible

Get Familiar With Taxes & Write-offs

Stay Informed About Employer Benefits

Purchase Seasonally & With Discount Codes (When Available)

Protect Yourself

Read Books

Seek Expert Advice

TIPS ON MASTERING FINANCIAL LITERACY:

Track Your Income & Expenses: Always have a record of all of the money going in and out of your accounts. Use the tool on your banking account app(s) to confirm your monthly income and expenses. Tools like Mint also are great to track your spending to see where every dollar is going all in one place. Aside from personal use, for small business owners, Quickbooks is my favorite invoicing and expense-tracking option. 

Set Financial Goals & Realistic Limitations: Once you know your exact monthly income, budget your essentials, savings, investments, and fun money accordingly. Make sure necessities like rent, food, health insurance, electricity, WiFi, toiletries, etc. are accounted for before anything else. Depending on your financial situation, experts (not me – I try to educate myself as best as I can, but am no expert!) recommend trying to save and invest between 15-30% of your pre-tax income. Give yourself the liberty to spend the rest (say 15-20%) of your income, so you don’t feel deprived and stay on track with your goals.  

Invest Higher-Quality Items To Save Later: Initially purchasing a higher-quality item often cuts your overall expenses in a certain area over the long run. (Ex: Well-made clothing, shoes, furniture, kitchen appliances, coffee maker, hair dryer, etc.). If you invest upfront on an item you regularly use, there’s a lower chance that it will deteriorate, rip, break, or otherwise become unusable for the next few years. When you opt for the cheaper option, this practice might save you a few bucks in the short term, but you will probably end up having to replace it a few times over time and spend more in the long run. This tip might seem counterintuitive to some, but it truly does save you a lot of money (and frustration). However, I will place a caveat here and say that this advice comes from a place of privilege. Never purchase something you can’t afford. If you have the means, spend a bit more upfront - it is better for your future wallet, allows you to indulge in a better quality of life, and helps you let go of any scarcity mindset/financial limiting beliefs. 

Educate Yourself On The Different Types of Banking & Investment Accounts: Know the differences between and the use purpose of different accounts: Checking, Savings, CDs, 401K, Roth IRA, HSA, etc. Always opt for a high-yield savings account option to help preserve your money’s value over time with rising living costs and inflation. 

Establish Credit, But Know Yourself: Your credit score is like your adult report card. It’s essential for so many aspects of life, like renting or buying a home, insurance, cell phone plans, etc., so it’s important to start building your credit as early as you can. However, if you know you’re the type of person to overspend with a credit card, look into secured credit card options (you deposit the money that acts as a credit limit, so it’s like a debit card with credit-building benefits). 

Create An Emergency Fund: Pay yourself first. Have between 3-12 months of expenses available in a high-yield savings account at all times. If you have a family or are self-employed, aim for 6-12 months of necessary savings to stay sane. Saving this amount of money takes time. Be patient, and cut back on frivolous expenses if needed for the short term. 

Leverage Credit Card Benefits: If you have enough self-control, always use a credit card instead of a debit card – but spend in the same way you would as though the money is coming directly out of your bank account. This gives you additional flight and other purchasing perks, such as cashback and exclusive discounts. Using a credit card provides additional security, too.

Understand The Power of A Roth IRA (or Backdoor Roth IRA, depending on your income) & HSA: Compound interest is your best friend financially. Depending on your income, invest as much as you can into a Roth IRA account or set up a backdoor Roth IRA through your brokerage firm (I use Vanguard!). HSA (Health Saving Accounts) accounts offer so many benefits – they can serve as a tax write-off, lower your overall healthcare costs, and be leveraged to use as an additional retirement investment account, too (I use Fidelity). 

Automate Whenever Possible: Automate a portion of your paycheck to savings and your investments, so you never see this money. Pay yourself first before spending (on anything but necessities). 

Get Familiar With Taxes & Write-offs: This mainly applies to anyone self-employed or a small business owner (been in the game for 5 years!). However, this point can also potentially be beneficial for students who can leverage an education credit for tax purposes. Explore all of your options to see what write-offs are available in your specific situation. Understand how your income and expenses influence your tax bracket. Investing in a CPA can save you a considerable amount of money and all of your sanity if you’re not a salaried employee. Look over the standardized section C document, and speak with a professional to help maximize your write-off potential (legally and honestly, of course). My CPA is my lifeline! 

Stay Informed About Employer Benefits: Always maximize your 401K match (whatever percentage that is at your company), any wellness perks (like a gym membership or massage credit), or any meals and car services credits for late nights/work trips. 

Purchase Seasonally & With Discount Codes (When Available): Try to purchase items off-season when you can (e.g. purchase classic winter closet staples in the summer when they’re on sale). Utilize plug-ins like Honey or Cently on your browser to have discount codes for any site readily available. 

Protect Yourself: Stay on top of fraud alerts. Freeze your credit bureau accounts if necessary. 

Read Books: Educate yourself on saving, investing, budgeting, building a business, etc. See the ‘Finance’ section of my Femme Fatale Booklist for some recommendations. I also love Graham Stephan’s Youtube channel – his videos are highly useful and practical for beginners in this life arena! 

Seek Expert Advice: Use licensed professionals (CPAs, brokerage firms, your bank, etc.) as a resource, too, for your personal goals. 

This is a lot to take in, so try to implement one action item (or a few) at a time, so you can work towards your goals without getting overwhelmed. Also, for reference, I’m in the United States, so all of these tips are focused on how the system works in my country - if you know of any international equivalents, feel free to drop them in the comments to guide others.

Hope this helps xx 

#life advice #finance #adulting #femme fatale #dark femininity #dark feminine energy #it girl #hypergamy #high value woman #divine feminine #high value mindset #hypergamous #the feminine urge #success mindset #productivity #spending habits #entreprenuership #level up #self improvement #ideal self #female power #female excellence #personal growth #investing #girl advice #that girl #femmefatalevibe

[faebirdie]

i need people to be careful about what they are sharing about hurricane hilary because i'm seeing a lot of false information being spread. namely, i'm seeing a lot of people say that it's a level 4 hurricane. which is true. but they aren't mentioning the very important caveat that by the time it reaches california, it will have largely declined and will instead simply be a tropical storm. which is still historic for california, but it's not quite as scary for people living there as it's being made out to be. It's not going to cause major issues with infrastructure or large-scale flooding like a full-blown hurricane would. the majority of people will be, at most, mildly inconvenienced by it.

i think the response to this storm is showing a very clear difference in how we treat natural disasters that hit areas associated with wealthy white people as opposed to one's that hit larger populations of black people like lots of the southeast. it makes me fear for how funding and help might be given to california, which needs it less, and then not be available next time somewhere like georgia or louisiana really need it.

it also has the average californian so freaked out that they are taking resources and focus away from the people around them that actually might be seriously affected by this. so please, if you are in california, look out for the homeless and/or lower income people in your area. do what you can to make sure they have access to adequate shelter to protect them from the wind and rain. and that they have enough food and water to stay put until this storm passes.

also just stay off the roads as much as possible. people already drive like assholes around here and will probably be even worse during this. everything should have calmed down by tuesday at the latest.

#robin talks #california #weather #hurricane #hurricane hilary #climate change #blm

[onenicebugperday]

hi! I know this question has probably been asked before, but I can't find it too far down on the phobia tag - do you have any reccomendations of resources/material or strategies to deal with arachnophobia ? I love spiders, I think they're incredible creatures who deserve kindness and do so many important jobs, but somehow when I see one in real life I am terrified. A lot of the reccomendations have involved learning more about the importance and benefit of spiders - I have, and think they're wonderful - but I still haven't been able to shake the fear.

My general bug fear advice is here but I can go a bit more in depth.

Since you've already educated yourself, the next step is exposure. I generally recommend starting by looking at photos or watching videos of spiders, but if you can already do that, then you can move on to in-person exposure. If you still absolutely cannot stand them being in your house, then work on being able to trap and release them outside - I'd recommend the cup and paper method as safest and easiest for both you and the spider, but you can use any method that works for you. Might take some practice and you may have to scream and swear the whole time, but the more you do it, the easier it gets.

You can also seek spiders out in their natural environment to observe and be near them in a context where you can easily leave if need be. I find orbweavers are the chillest because they'll just stay in their web and not run at you or jump or anything. A great place to find them is around outdoor light fixtures at night in the summer and fall. I always have a ton of them on my balcony light in the summer and they're super fun to watch. They tend to be so chill that I can gently touch their booty and they don't even move.

It's also often easy to find jumping spiders on the sides of buildings on warm days! I find they especially like vinyl siding on houses. Docks or railings along bodies of water are another great spot to find orbweavers and sometimes fishing spiders or tiny running crab spiders.

You can also use spiders found in your house as a way to get exposure. When I find spiders in my house, I leave them where they are and let them do their thing, unless they're in a high traffic area, then I move them somewhere safer. It helps to name them and give them little personalities or backstories. But no worries if it takes you a while to be able to tolerate leaving a spider in your home.

Just as a caveat to this asker or others, keep in mind this advice is for a mild fear, not a serious phobia that induces panic attacks or is so extreme that you find it hard to function in everyday life. That's something a professional would have to help with.

#bug fear #hayfieldinbloom #spider fear

[communist-hatsunemiku]

Ok since I have a bit more substantial following. I'm going to detail my surefire method for shoplifting from walmart. I've been doing this for a couple years now, without any repercussions, with my method you can do the same. Read this whole guide, and feel free to ask me questions if need be.

So step one: do your shopping as normal, except grab a few 92 cent packages of tuna(anything small, flat and cheap will work). The amount you grab depends on how many things you're going to steal.

While shopping, place the item to be stolen on top of the tuna in your cart. it's very important that you know where the barcodes are located on both items, as this will come into play in a big way. What's also important is that the item is big enough to completely hide the tuna package under it. Otherwise this method can be risky.

Step two: once you are done with your shopping, head to self check out. Keep an eye on the walmart employee who is manning that station, you want to choose a self checkout that is as far away from them as possible (in my experience these people aren't paying THAT much attention and if they are, they dont care. Look for the younger employee, the ones on their phones, they are your best friend). You want your back facing these people as well.

Step three: Time to ring things up.

Something that is crucial is that you are not stealing literally everything.

Some of your items are going to be paid for normally, and ideally it's some high dollar items you have hid the tuna under. You're going to scan the tuna barcode but make it seem like you are scanning the other item's barcode. This is why you need to hide the tuna underneath the item, be careful not to scan the actual item's barcode because you might end up actually buying it lmao.

Proceed to scan your items, I always do the tuna items first, just to get them out of the way and bagged. I then scan the rest of my items normally, proceed to pay and then leave walmart. Those little scanners at the door only work for things with security devices on them, so dont worry about that. once you are in the parking lot you are home free baby! You just saved a fuckton of money and gave a big fuck you to walmart, good job!

Now, I make it seem very simple, and it is easy once you get the hang of it.

But there a few caveats that are very important.

1. You want everything in a bag, because the employee manning the doors are tasked with checking the receipt if you have something that is not bagged. They are lookingfor the unbagged item on the receipt, and if you have a lot of stuff and only some of them aren't paid for, then usually this isn't an issue. They'll see your huge ass tub of kitty litter on there, and ignore the rest. Still, being stopped by any employee is unwanted.

2. Some self checkout kiosks monitor the weight of items you scan and then place in self checkout, the bagging area is a scale. HOWEVER, in recent years, walmart has forgone that method of limiting shoplifting, I think because it would cause more trouble than it's worth. You need to go to your walmart and test this, which is easy to do.

Above all, it's important to act natural, and it's important to practice. Try it with just one item, you will not get in trouble for having a single item not rung up, if caught.

This post has gotten a bit longer than expected, so if you have questions let me know. HAPPY SHOPLIFTING FUCK WALMART TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL

#this post just might ruin my life but oh well

[dailyadventureprompts]

Drafting the Adventure: To the dungeon!

Recently I worked out a framework for running exploration based adventures , and while a lot of people seemed to like it, a few folks wrote in asking how it might work in practice. I’m only too happy to provide an example, as it will likewise give me the chance to demonstrate how to combine a wilderness adventure with a dungeon adventure, which is something I wanted to do anyway. 

Background: the party is sent off to seek an arcane mcguffin contained in an ancient ruin, with the caveat that no one really remembers where the ruin might be. As such they’ll have to explore a stretch of wilderness looking for signs of old habitation before getting to delve the dungeon itself.

Setup: In addition to gearing up The party might want to talk with some locals to get information about where they're going, which will allow you to drop clues about further places they cam explore. Any Entry marked with a (G) can be hinted at in gossip and research, providing them a hint about where to go.

FIRST ZONE : The Ancient Plains

"Cool winds steal the warmth from your cheeks as your party steps into the wilderness, your goal and the mountains far in the distance and a vast rolling grassland before you. This place was the site of a great battle that nearly destroyed your home, but is now quiet save for the murmur of the tallgrass and your own footfalls.

Design Note: The party can either choose to head to one of the locations they've already heard about/discovered, or spend time trying to find a new location with a perception or survival check, with you rolling a die to decide which one to point them at first. Once the random encounter is unlocked, add one die to the pool every time they travel to an area, and two die if their searching for a new area falls below a reasonable dc.

SECOND ZONE: The Forgotten Foothills

"Like the fingers of a grasping titan, the roots of the mountain-range pull at the earth giving rise to steep ascents and sudden valleys. The trickle of pure glacial melt runs in small streams over this uneven landscape, giving you a refreshing if bonechilling respite from your long travels."

Design Note: Now rather than making simple progress, the party needs to actively hunt for the location of the ruins, with the understanding that taking a surface look at different locations is going to bring a random encounter or two down on their heads REAL fast.

Also shoutout to Yithini, my homebrew goddess of ascension in all its forms.

THIRD ZONE: The Cascading Ruins

"It was no wonder it was so hard to find this old fortress, as the waters pouring down from the cliffs above seem intent on wiping it from the mountainside. The noise and the crush of endless water rumbles in your bones as you make your approach, up a slick half eroded stair that might've been part of the structure's battlements. Most of the structure is lost in the pool of rushing white water below, but a few stretches of old fortification still manage to withstand the siege of time. "

Art

#drafting the adventure #mountain #field #adventure design #dungeon design #dm tip #dm advice #treasure hunt #dungeon #dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #ttprg #pathfinder #yithini

[prokopetz]

Hi! This might be kind of a weird question, but do you know if there's an online community space like AO3 to post original tabletop game systems (specifically, systems that are derivatives of existing games, e.g. If I took a monopoly box set, used all the same pieces and board and stuff that came in it, but played an entirely different game with a completely new ruleset.) Is there somewhere I could post my Monopoly-2.0 rules so others could enjoy it? (Should I literally just put it on AO3?) Thanks!

I can't speak to board games, as it’s not my area, but as for tabletop RPGs, there isn't really a centralised archive for fan-created hacks of existing, published games. There are some older forums dedicated to the topic, but they tend to be insular, devoted to hacks of specific systems (typically Dungeons & Dragons), or both. About the closest you're going to get to a community that's dedicated to the development and promotion of fan-created RPGs in a broader sense is 4chan's /tg/ subforum, and, well, it's fucking 4chan.

What a lot of independent tabletop game designers do these days is sign up for a publisher account on itch.io. It's definitely not ideal, since itch.io is a commercial site, and the learning curve for getting yourself set up on it is not gentle, but there's a thriving community there that's managed to make it work.

(As for AO3, I've actually discussed the matter with some of the site's organisers, albeit briefly, and the consensus seems to be that fan-created hacks of commercially published tabletop games do fall within AO3's remit, with the caveats that a. there's presently no robust community of fan-game creators on the site, and b. most of the site's volunteers are unfamiliar with the particulars of tabletop game publishing and would not feel qualified to curate such material, so you'd pretty much be on your own. This is reflected by the fact that most tags related to tabletop RPGs other than Dungeons & Dragons are currently treated as synonyms of the "Original Work" tag, making them effectively impossible to filter on. That can change, of course, but somebody's gotta be first!)

#gaming #tabletop roleplaying #tabletop rpgs #game design #swearing

[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

#aquila's bird facts #the sandman #the sandman meta #matthew the raven #jessamy the raven #lucienne

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What if Alice couldn't control when she got her visions and it was completely random? (this is even after her turning) Does this change who she is and/or how she sees the people around her? Love your blog btw, as well as therealvinelle's!

Glad you enjoy the blog! Look, @therealvinelle, praise!

Also, that's canon. (With the caveat of this is a books purist blog and I forget if/how the movies get into it and if they make it clear how it all works).

We see Alice try to focus her visions on certain people and look for certain events in Twilight, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn with limited if any success. In Twilight, she's not able to predict James's movements and only ends up seeing the ballet studio when his plan to lure Bella solidifies. Eclipse, she tries to predict Victoria which may or may not cause her to fail to predict Riley and reports being very spread thin between trying to predict Victoria, the family, Bella, and Aro all at the same time. Which also causes her to miss Caius. Breaking Dawn, Alice has to play whack a mole of "what happens if I go here" to try and guess where she might run into a hybrid.

It's worth mentioning also in New Moon that Alice can see that Bella can stop Edward killing himself, but not how the meeting with the Volturi will go afterwards (as that's too many decisions ahead).

And of course, the time in Twilight where she missed Edward nearly eating Bella in Biology because she was hyper focusing on Jasper that day. However, Edward assumes she still had the visions, she was just so focused on Jasper it became white noise to her.

What I'm getting at is that Alice can sort of focus on people/what she wants to see, but her best results are those closest to her, and even then there's often things she would have liked to know that she misses or she gets visions she wouldn't want/is trying not to see.

But back to the controlling when she gets them: she can't. We see Alice often in canon stop what she's doing because she's had a particularly alarming vision and from Midnight Sun we know that she's having visions constantly as every time a family member considers doing a thing/something is going to happen to them she gets a vision. It's just that most of the time Alice tunes it out.

Alice is only able to affect when she gets a vision if a) she decides to hang out near shapeshifters and or Renesmee in which all visions suddenly turn off and she won't get them again until she leaves the area b) if it's visions of her own future where she personally decides to do a thing c) if she asks someone "consider doing X" so that she can see what will happen.

She can't actually control getting them at all.

Now, it's not random, she gets them when someone close to her makes a decision/considers something or when someone else makes a decision/considers something that will affect the family.

If it was random, what visions she gets and doesn't get... Well, Alice wouldn't actually know the difference then so she'd just have this quirky gift that never seems to work when you need it to. I imagine Alice would be very frustrated about what she does and doesn't get to see and if she's informed too late to do anything about it.

#twilight #twilight meta #twilight headcanon #twilight renaissance #alice cullen #meta #headcanon #opinion #baldjesus #praise #vinelle #therealvinelle

[creature-wizard]

I have a question about totemism, because I've got different opinions and online search was not successful because of al this "take this quiz and know what you totem animal is".

So, my teacher, that teached my group on social, political and cultural studies, said that the most old and common ancient people's religions were animism, fetishism and totemism, which makes sense. Thinking that every thing has a soul, that you can gain power from specific object and animal.

I became interested in totemism, because there are some animals I really like. I like their symbolism, their meaning, I was always interested in knowing more about them as species. When I tried to look it up, the thing that was most popular is "power/spirit/totem animal" from native American tribes. When I looked into it, it was not what I was not what I was resonating with. When I tried to ask in different places, was totemism as animal worship a thing, some said yes, some said it wad only a native American thing.

At this moment I am confused. Is the thing I want to do is closed? Like, I don't want to have a power animal, I am respectful to that, but I want to worship an animal, not like an individual, but like the whole being.

Ooooh dear it sounds like your teacher uh. Really did not have a good grasp on this stuff. "Animism," "fetishism," and "totemism" are not religions. Animism is a type of spiritual and cosmic worldview that is found within many spiritual traditions. Fetishism is just the idea that an object can have divine or supernatural qualities, and it's uh, well. More than a little exotifying to say that other cultures practice fetishism when, for example, Catholics believe in holy relics. The word "totem" was appropriated from the Ojibwe language, where it referred to a type of tutelary spirit.

Simply just working with animal spirits is not closed; you just don't want to get into it through people/resources appropriating Native spirituality or presenting non-Native practices as Native to sell to white people.

If you want to learn more about animism and animal spirits in a European context, you might check out Arith Harger, with the caveat that anytime he says anything about Christianity, Judaism, or "Abrahamic religions," you should take what he says with a grain of salt because it's not his area of expertise and it shows if you know anything about them; and also, while he's using the word "shamanism" in an academic sense (as many academics still do. unfortunately), it's still an appropriated word that needs to be phased out.

#answered #spirit work #animism

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Juno stations direct

Timeline (current events in bold)

Thursday, November 2, 2023 - transiting Juno enters pre-retrograde shadow, 6°17’ Virgo

Saturday, January 13, 04:55 UT - transiting Juno stations retrograde, 21°52’ Virgo

Sunday, April 21, 02:58 UT - transiting Juno stations direct, 6°17’ Virgo

Monday, July 15, 03:26 UT - transiting Juno exits post-retrograde shadow, 21°52’ Virgo

Caveat: this may not have a lot of impact on you personally, unless your natal Juno is prominent (closely in aspect to the Sun, the Moon, &/or an angle) - or if transiting Juno is in aspect to the same.

We’ve been analyzing (Virgo) our Juno areas, probably past the point of over-thinking:

All one-to-one relationships

Protocol and social ritual

The powerless (women, battered women, abused children, minorities, the disabled, victims)

The atmosphere (weather, climate, storms)

Some appropriate Virgo keywords to apply might include helpful, efficient, sustainable, practical, giving service, economical, healthy, dutiful, distributing, and detail-oriented.

Give a few days on either side of these aspects. Notice also that the thingies Juno will aspect, are all retrograde - perhaps we can apply what we learned during Juno’s Rx, to the Ceres, Pallas Athene, and Saturn processes.

Wednesday, June 26 - Juno/Virgo trine Ceres Rx/Capricorn, 16°31’. This is like your Mom and your Spouse getting along! Partners have good ideas/insights into familial problems. We’re all one family really.

Saturday, July 6 - Juno/Virgo opposite Saturn Rx/Pisces, 19°23’. The 3rd of three. Resolution for some relationship where we’ve never been quite good enough for the other person; dependency issues, or a cold partner.

Monday, July 8 - Juno/Virgo sextile Pallas Athene Rx/Scorpio, 19°47’. Working with partners for creative, realistic solutions.

#Astrology #Transiting Juno stations direct #Ms M astrologer

[tj-crochets]

Hi there! I'm just getting into sewing as a hobby, and I was wondering if you have any recommendations for where to buy fabric? I want to get into plushie making, so something like minky fabric or other soft (non-felt) options are what I'm looking for. I live in a pretty remote area so I don't have any fabric or craft stores close by, and I'm unsure of where to start shopping online! Any recommendations for shops that have good quality fabric at a decent price?

Hi! All my answers are US-based because I am, but I'll include a link to Cholyknight's fabric recs as well because she has some other options Okay I just went to get that link and it turns out since the last time I shared it she's updated it to include my favorite online minky store (CaliQuiltCo) so I'd just use her link, with two caveats: Joann's fabric is great in person if you have one locally, but their online inventory control system is SO BAD (which means they will sometimes cancel part of your order without warning and not let you cancel the rest of it, leaving you with half the supplies for a specific project) Additionally, I would avoid the "sew lush" fabrics from Joanns. Minky can be a little tricky to work with for beginners, and the sew lush version takes every negative thing about minky and makes it exponentially more difficult. This is a personal grudge against the fabric, it might not be universal, but I find it so ridiculously slippery and it's the only minky/faux fur I've ever, ever worked with that unravels at the edges. It's knit! It shouldn't fray but it does! It both sheds and frays, and it's regrettable because Joanns does have some very cute patterns in their sew lush stuff Other plushie specific advice: - if you want to learn how to use plushie sewing patterns, start here with Cholyknight's free plushie pattern pack. I have free patterns too, but hers are a lot more beginner friendly and explain how to actually use a pattern - Fleece is cheaper than minky but usually has a similar amount of stretch, so patterns designed for one can almost always be made using the other - if there are no craft stores near you but there's a dollar store or general store of some kind, you could try getting a fleece or like short pile faux fur blanket? The ones near me usually have cheap like throw sized blankets for anywhere between 5-20 dollars, and you can make a lot of plushies from a throw sized blanket

#ask away! #hope this helps nonny! #I'd also recommend shannon minky over any other brand #they are just like The Minky #always good quality always consistent color always consistent stretch

[sirwow]

Having some WC gameplay shower thoughts today about how i would actually make 5 captains work so time for a bit of a ramble.

though before i do ramble i wanted to do some clarification of the different parts of WC. The tag #pikmin wratihs call refers to the entirety of it- the story. When it comes to the theoretical gameplay tho theres 2 (or kinda 3?) different parts. First part is just Olimar and Louie being rescue corps members and generally being pretty similar to Pik 4 gameplay outside no oatchi. Second part follows Olimar, Louie, Alph, Brittany, and Charlie all returning to 404 as corps members with their own ship and the gameplay is pretty original outside the general skeleton of Pikmin gameplay. in between those is a koppai focused story but that would only work if it was a pikmin graphic novel game as there literally is only actual pikmin for about 1 page lmao.

Now then on to how Iv been thinking about making 5 captains work in the 2nd half of WC:

Essentially at the start of every day it starts off in the main ship and you choose how many captains you’re bringing out into the field. More captains the merrier obviously but when you bring one out there’s a major caveat. Each of the 5 captains don’t just do nothing while left behind, they have their own upgrades they develop over the day that they’re left on the ship! Some projects might take them multiple days but regardless they’re always working towards something in their own given fields.

Said fields for each goes as following:

Louie: Food! Louie for once actually gets to subject the others to his meals he makes and each one will give a different benefit for the day, starting simple with simply moving faster or having more health, up to his more ambitious meals that can have more extreme changes to the day with their own extreme draw backs (such as a food that makes a day 50% longer but every enemy in the area respawns) He has to perfect and collect the ingredients for said meals though so he needs the off time to do so

Alph: Suit/Gear upgrades. No raw materials required but time and patience is. The suits are only just now custom made since the urgency of this mission was so high and so he’s up to the task of gradually upgrading them on the mission.

Brittany: Onion and even Pikmin improvements. Her botany might as well be used to help the little plants that help them and so she’ll work towards safe ways to biologically improve the state of your onion and the pikmin that come out of it (Such as making it passively grow pikmin or even at a higher level, flower a few of the pikmin inside at the start of a new day)

Charlie: Physical training of the captains, basically like puppy point training but it’s timed instead. Running, swimming, jumping and hell even pulling things. Dw he’ll make the captains who were out for the day pull an all nighter to learn them /j

Olimar iv yet to come up with a good one yet.,. I thought maybe the ship but it would be stupid to force people to wait to go to a new area, especially thinking about my speedrunning chums. Treasure is still all you need for power.

This whole system is basically to encourage people to play with all the characters and really plan out the day ahead. Also a way of making each play through a bit different then the last as you could prioritize upgrading one thing over another.

Now then lastly I just have a few gameplay changes; Spicy spray will still effect all pikmin in play but will not flower them. Instead nectar puddles can be picked up if you so wish and eventually used in one large burst to flower all pikmin out on the field. Ice pikmin are nerfed- they can only freeze an enemy if eaten and otherwise will just slow down an enemy while attacking and have the same pitiful damage as winged pikmin. Purples are technically not nerfed but due to the new mechanic of carrying pikmin around in the pack to go up ledges and stay together easier, they have one downside of being stupid heavy on the captains. 100 carry weight pack can only carry 10 purples due to their weight. Whites now get a buff that will passively poison enemies over time depending on how much were on them and how long.

That’s all my thoughts atm, always open to questions about mechanics or anything else really. Currently still can’t draw bc of my hand tho so no doodle for ur time <\3

#pikmin concept #pikmin #pikmin wraiths call #also ooo look who found the colored markers (me)

[justalittlesolarpunk]

hey!! feel free to ignore this but i scrolled through your blog and really liked it and if you have the spoons I'd love to get your advice/tips on trying to live sustainably while in uni/on a limited budget? I'm going to uni in a year or so and I want to try and do it as sustainably as possible but I don't have a lot of money

love your blog <3

Hi! Thanks so much for the kind words, I am super new to tumblr and fairly new to solarpunk still myself, so I really appreciate it.

I’ll level with you: most of the really aspirational choices in sustainability are pretty expensive. Buying local organic food or slow fashion can really eat into a budget. The good news is that a lot of the frugal decisions you’d make are also good for the planet. You’re not going to be going out buying expensive cars, flying in private jets or any of the other earth-wrecking things that the super-rich do. Being conscious about your spending will mean you’ll probably naturally gravitate towards getting your clothes from charity shops and other similar money-saving choices. In some cities and certain supermarkets, plant-based food will be cheaper, while in others it will be more expensive, and so for this you’ll probably need to make choices on a case by case basis, weighing up each time how much you can afford and how committed you are to a certain diet. Getting a library card is also very solarpunk - free, communally owned knowledge! As a uni student you’ll likely also have your university library as a resource, which it’s definitely worth making use of. Have a look to see if there’s a tool library/library of things in your university town, as that will not only save you money but also reduce your purchase of things you might only use once or twice. Apps like TooGoodToGo offer cheap baskets of food from local restaurants, cafes and shops which would otherwise go to waste at the end of the day, and if there’s a ‘buy nothing’ or ‘stuff for free’ Facebook group for your local area it’s worth joining it - these are really exciting anticapitalist digital spaces where people can get what they need and dispose of what they don’t without exploitative or extractive relationships.

Starting a new paragraph here for readability, and also because it’s slightly a topic change - there are things you can do to be more sustainable that are fairly cash-cheap, but time-costly. As a student you won’t always be able to devote much energy to them between your studies and your social life, but if they’re something that’s important to you and your other commitments (or any disabilities you might have) don’t prevent you, then things like mending your own clothes instead of throwing them out and replacing them can help. But these are fiddly tasks so that isn’t possible for everyone, even if they do have time! Depending on the rules of your student accommodation you could also try having certain edible houseplants - salad leaves, strawberries, herbs, etc. My success rate with these has been very patchy but it’s worth a shot and the original outlay for seeds or a small plant isn’t too much (though if you’re planting from scratch, soil can be expensive as it always seems to come in enormous great bags).

Things like batch cooking or planning communal meals with other people you’re living with can also be greener, and cheaper, if it means food can be made to go further and wasted ingredients can be avoided. Uni is a really exciting time for a solarpunk because it’s the closest to cohousing many of us get - sharing facilities and responsibilities in a close-knit community of non-related people with common goals and experiences. Use this to your advantage to form networks of mutual support.

Similar caveat about time scarcity as above, but there are also things that tend not to cost any money that will make you feel better about your own environmental contribution which you can actually do at any age if you have enough free hours. These are things like volunteering with your local conservation volunteers or in a community garden - this latter is particularly good because volunteers might get to take home some of the produce, thereby saving money and getting access to local nutritious food. Some unis even have their own food gardens and teams of students who help tend them, so get involved with this if it exists and you can.

In the same vein, almost every uni will have its own climate justice or environmental student club, and attending these meetings if your schedule allows can be a great way to meet other people within your institution who share your priorities, and who may well have more advice on frugal, sustainable living that they can offer. Pooling wisdom like this means your can all do better.

It sounds like you might have already picked your uni, but if not there are factors you can consider to help you do better in these goals when you get there, like examining the relative cost of living in different cities or investigating how eco-friendly the university is. It’s worth asking questions like what is their endowment invested in? How much research into climate change and solutions do they fund? Are their careers services still promoting fossil fuel industry jobs?

University towns are usually pretty walkable and/or bike-friendly, at least in the UK and Europe, and these modes of transport are also the cheapest and most sustainable. Plenty also have good public transport too, and buses or hireable scooters are all options (though you’d probably have to use the scooters a lot to make the expense worth it, and if you do, please don’t leave them lying in the pavement like people did when I was at uni - it blocked wheelchair access and was really annoying). Certain cities have trams, which are like catnip to solarpunks lol. Transport can get expensive but tends to still be cheaper than driving in most urban centres, though as I said your own two feet or wheels can probably get you to most of where you need to go within the local area.

Your student’s union might well also run clothing swaps or second-hand book sales, so keep an eye on that and go along when you can. There’s also nothing to be ashamed of in collecting discount codes, coupons for free products, or loyalty cards, or with working if you have the time and ability to earn while you study. The more money you save the more of those slightly costlier green decisions you can make.

What I’d say last, though, is don’t be too hard on yourself! You’re young, the world is set up to be excessively expensive and to reward you for consumptive behaviour that is the opposite of ecological values. Of course you should try your best and I’m so glad that you’re thinking of it already, but remember that you probably won’t be able to do it perfectly - that pretty much no-one can unless they have insane amounts of time and money (in which case they’re probably not the kind of person who cares about this stuff). Remember to enjoy your new independence, to hang out with your friends, to be studious and whimsical and learn about life and yourself. And remember that I’m just one person and not all my ideas will apply to you, and there’ll be other things you could do that haven’t occurred to me because of the specific experiences and biases that inform where I come from.

You probably already know which subject you’re studying, and if that’s the case then there will be ways you can examine these issues within the curriculum of most degrees (except maybe maths? But I’m willing to be proved wrong haha). But just in case you’re still picking subjects and institutions, I’ll just leave a link to a really fascinating-looking new undergrad qualification I heard about a few months ago, that I am *gutted* not to have been young enough to apply for and study! Even if it isn’t the right fit for you, perhaps you’ll know someone who it could work for. I’m assuming, possibly wrongly, that you’re in the UK based on certain dialectical cues (for instance saying uni rather than college), but feel free to ignore this if you’re elsewhere in the world, I’m just very stoked about this course!

Thanks so much for your ask, and sorry for the insanely long essay response. If you’ve managed to wade through to the end then seriously congratulations on your patience. Best of luck with your studies and with your efforts at ecological living, and I hope you carry solarpunk with you as a source of hope, comfort and action into your future. ☀️

#solarpunk #ask #hopepunk #cottagepunk #frugality #sustainability on a budget #environmentalism #student life #university #infodump

[eighthdoctor]

I've never done any kind of proper historical studies -- everything I've learned is from high school, from reading things on wikipedia, from history podcasts, and more rarely (because I rarely have the patience to read) from books. So I... hardly know anything about specifics. The kind of intimate knowledge of the inner workings of empires and peoples that a college educated student would have.

This might sound odd but... it's a bit reassuring to me that even someone who's spent years studying those two specific subjects doesn't feel comfortable saying for certain what any individual person, or group of people may have been experiencing at any given time. That the environment people lived in was so *vastly* different that one can only have clues as to what people felt, how they experienced the world.

All that being said, and I do apologize if this is another too-vague or too-broad question -- do you feel as though your college studies have changed the way you relate to the past?

So I wanna unpack some of this a little bit, because you're closing off some avenues I don't think you need to close off.

College students do learn about specifics, but the thing that's really being taught in college is how to think and learn. Skills, not facts. Part of what made that conversation with the history majors so memorable is that it highlighted how much is different between majors in that regard.

Sociology vs psych might be a valuable example here: Rule of thumb, sociology teaches you to approach issues on a population level, groups of people; psychology teaches you to approach issues on the individual level. There's very few areas where either is 100% right to the exclusion of the other, but it's useful to know which lens (a) you and (b) your source is using, if you're going to be reading about, e.g., the causes of poor academic performance in American boys. Psych says this is due to a rise in ADHD; socio says our classrooms aren't suitable for...anyone, but especially people who have never had to sit still and be quiet (ie, boys).

WHAT you learn in college is HOW to learn. (It's also, crucially, a period where 1, you very often have nothing else to do BUT learn and 2, you are paying a gazillion dollars for the privilege of learning, so you're heavily incentivized to actually do it. Free activities are easier to stop doing than ones you paid to do.)

It's how to navigate databases, how to read articles (peer reviewed or otherwise), which resources to trust, what it MEANS to trust a resource, how to read with different lenses, how to find information at all, what sorts of conclusions are reasonable or specious to draw from that information (aka: how flimsy can your argument be before your professor will tell you to find more evidence), when to apply certain techniques...

* Enormous caveat: if your professors were any good. Some of them aren't. Many of them aren't. If your professors universally suck, you'll come out with a meaningless degree and student debt, which is not ideal.

But theoretically, at least, the purpose of 21st century higher ed is to teach you how to learn.

Then you go apply it.

All of which is to say: The granular factoids I have on call about 15th and 16th century explorers did not come from college; I didn't take a single class on that era. They came from books and articles and online resources. College taught me how to evaluate those books (although common sense plays a huge role here) but the rest of it was self driven.

Here's the other thing: None of that knowledge is paywalled.

While the decline of Google makes finding some of these resources harder, I highly, highly recommend just searching things like "how to judge a history source" and "basic resources for social history" (a guess based on your focus on 'inner workings of empires and peoples'). Then read a bunch of links (please first filter for obviously AI written pages!).

THEN ask yourself some questions: Where did those links disagree? Are there areas they all agreed on? Was there something that 8 pages agreed on but 2 did not? If it seems like a key area, go check who's written & hosting those links, and consider what they might (or might not) know about the field. (If r/askhistorians and PragerU disagree on a definition, you can bet which one I'm listening to.)

After reading a bunch of pages, you probably have MORE search terms and MORE questions. Repeat. Repeat.

I just mentioned r/askhistorians: For this sort of thing, I would read anything with the Monday Methods flair. Start here. That page was last updated 5 years ago but it DOES link to 3 years of mostly weekly posts on how historians think. 100% free. No college tuition required.

Podcasts are great resources. r/askhistorians is fucking invaluable. I would murder for the r/askhistorians modteam, no questions asked.

Reading is a learnable skill! Reading history books is very learnable! I stopped reading print material for 2 years, and when I was getting back into it, I set myself an alarm. 15 minutes a day in the evening when I had nothing else going on. Start with fiction if you're out of the habit, YA would be my recommendation, then start expanding.

There ARE history books with audio versions out there and you can check your library system for those; I don't vibe with audiobooks so can't provide any specifics, but I know they exist. Most history books won't have recordings, though--what you may be able to do if you check out or purchase a digital version is use a text-to-speech program or screenreader to read it to you. This obviously has some drawbacks :P But it's an option!

So: Did my degrees affect how I interact with history? Yeah. I'm not discarding the impact of my education, I had some really phenomenal classics teachers. But they're not the only way to get that result. There are other routes to the same destination.

#asks for ts #jennifermoriarta #ask more questions about who is writing this and why! #history #long post for ts