#local land

[inkskinned]

for a while i lived in an old house; the kind u.s americans don't often get to live in - living in a really old house here is super expensive. i found out right before i moved out that the house was actually so old that it features in a poem by emily dickinson.

i liked that there were footprints in front of the sink, worn into the hardwood. there were handprints on some of the handrails. we'd find secret marks from other tenants, little hints someone else had lived and died there. and yeah, there was a lot wrong with the house. there are a lot of DIY skills you learn when you are a grad student that cannot afford to pay someone else to do-it-for-ya. i shared the house with 8 others. the house always had this noise to it. sometimes that noise was really fucking awful.

in the mornings though, the sun would slant in thick amber skiens through the windows, and i'd be the first one up. i'd shuffle around, get showered in this tub that was trying to exit through the floor, get my clothes on. i would usually creep around in the kitchen until it was time to start waking everyone else up - some of them required multiple rounds of polite hey man we gotta go knocks. and it felt... outside of time. a loud kind of quiet.

the ghosts of the house always felt like they were humming in a melody just out of reach. i know people say that the witching hour happens in the dark, but i always felt like it occurred somewhere around 6:45 in the morning. like - for literal centuries, somebody stood here and did the dishes. for literal centuries, somebody else has been looking out the window to this tree in our garden. for literal centuries, people have been stubbing their toes and cracking their backs and complaining about the weather. something about that was so... strangely lovely.

i have to be honest. i'm not a history aficionado. i know, i know; it's tragic of me. i usually respond to "this thing is super old" by being like, wow! cool! and moving on. but this house was the first time i felt like the past was standing there. like it was breathing. like someone else was drying their hands with me. playing chess on the sofa. adding honey to their tea.

i grew up in an old town. like, literally, a few miles off of walden pond (as in of the walden). (also, relatedly, don't swim in walden, it's so unbelievably dirty). but my family didn't have "old house" kind of money. we had a barely-standing house from the 70's. history existed kind of... parallel to me. you had to go somewhere to be in history. your school would pack you up on a bus and take you to some "ye olden times" place and you'd see how they used to make glass or whatever, and then you'd go home to your LEDs. most museums were small and closed before 5. you knew history was, like, somewhere, but the only thing that was open was the mcdonalds and the mall.

i remember one of my seventh grade history teachers telling us - some day you'll see how long we've been human for and that thing has been puzzling me. i know the scientific number, technically.

the house had these little scars of use. my floors didn't actually touch the walls; i had to fill them with a stopgap to stop the wind. other people had shoved rags and pieces of newspaper. i know i've lost rings and earring backs down some of the floorboards. i think the raccoons that lived in our basement probably have collected a small fortune over the years. i complain out loud to myself about how awful the stairs are (uneven, steep, evil, turning, hard to get down while holding anything) and know - someone else has said this exact same thing.

when i was packing up to leave and doing a final deep cleaning, i found a note carved in the furthest corner in the narrow cave of my closet. a child's scrawled name, a faded paint handprint, the scrangly numbers: 1857.

we've been human for a long time. way back before we can remember.

#idk if it's still tradition but the kids at the local school next to walden when I went there #used to have a tradition where u had to pee in walden pond before u graduated or otherwise you'd fail one of your classes #as someone who did not do this im happy to report i did fail a class so maybe they had a point #they've torn the school down tho so who knows #i hope this makes sense #i think we've been human longer than we've been writing #ps this land was taken over by hostile combatants and colonialized . let us not forget that part of the reason #our 'history' is so short. is that we have systematically slaughtered the people who had history here before

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

(Same anon from the hotdogs one with more gay puns cuz Barnaby is a blue dog)

barnaby: “would you rather adopt a normal baby or a matter baby?

howdy: “a matter baby?”

howdy: “what’s the matter baby?”

barnaby: “nothing sugar, what’s the matter with you?”

#local dog smug as hell after a successfully landed pickup line #local pillar distracted on the job. stocks the wrong shelf. chaos #local dog banned from pickup lines while local pillar is on the clock #a tragic tale told in three parts- #rambles from the bog #scribble salad #laughingstock

[blluespirit]

i wish that there was more time between the day of black sun and sozin's comet bc zuko's official desertion from the fire nation would have the most insane ripple effects (and it would be nice to see the gaang interacting a bit more than we got but hey i'll take what i can get)

zuko's desertion would have been essentially impossible for the fire nation to bury since it was such a big deal that he returned at all. so i imagine the smear campaign against zuko would have been craaazy. i think it would have been interesting for the gaang to try and deal with that when navigating the FN. zuko would be very recognisable i think at this point, and it would have made staying hidden much harder. would they still have chosen ember island? maybe the kids didn't recognise zuko and azula during The Beach , but with the prince of the fire nation committing treason would there be more wanted posters? would there be more talk around the island? would zuko have to remain hidden while the rest go out and get food?

i wonder if zuko deserting and very meaningly committing his loyalty to the avatar influenced other soldiers in the FN to also desert? or would it have had the opposite effect and made people feel more patriotic since zuko was banished, returned under the guise of having killed the avatar, and then left when aang announced his survival to world during the failed invasion?

SPEAKING OF THAT!! the rumours around this would be INSANE. we know what really happened, but the public don't. did zuko and the avatar plan this so that there would be an inside man during the invasion and then zuko used that chaos to escape? what really happened in ba sing se if zuko didn't kill aang, but azula thought that he did? (again: we, the audience know the truth, but the general public don't). if zuko and the avatar where working together... for how long? was iroh involved somehow since he also disappeared the same time that zuko did? did iroh get captured on purpose to be close to zuko to possibly help him if needed? did zuko break iroh out of jail or did one of the guards or was iroh alone? you could spiral on this as just an average person in the avatar world for years like. if youtube existed in atla imagine the video essays breaking down all the conspiracies

its a kids show so obviously Nothing Bad Happened BUT in the Boiling Rock, zuko getting found out as not only an imposter (already, a very bad situation), a traitor (extremely bad), AND the traitorous (ex) prince of the fire nation (devastatingly terrible) would have been... incredibly dangerous for zuko. in zuko and iroh's original wanted poster, the official translation says “Permission is granted to kill them on sight” and this was before zuko has gone right ahead and committed Treason On Purpose. the warden is not going to be nice. when the warden visits zuko in his cell he literally tells him "If these criminals found out who you are, the traitor prince who let his nation down, why they'd tear you to shreds." the boiling rock would be hell trying to survive. it also puts a lot more weight on zuko refusing to leave sokka in their first escape attempt. also ozai obviously knew that he has his son was in prison bc he... broke in to the prison bc azula was there but then zuko manages to escape with sokka (another imposter) and suki and hakoda (POWs) and chit sang (a prisoner) and two of azula's trusted friends end up in prison for treason as well i just. that is literally insane for the average person to hear about. again, THE CONSPIRACIES!!

when zuko eventually does take the throne there's a lot of conjecture around what zuko did while he was banished and moreso, what he did the second time he left, this time voluntarily. i think zuko's loyalty would be questioned a lot; by other world leaders who are understandably wary about the fire nation and its motivations, but also by its own people - some who believe that zuko is a traitor to his country and is trying to sabotage it since he helped end the war.

idk these are all just me rambling but it would been so interesting to explore the implications of zuko leaving the fire nation and how that would have impacted the gaang and how they interacted with others in their travels. there are so many fic where zuko joins the gaang early, but neither myself with the aus that I have written, nor many that ive read have explored this very much or at all.

#this is basically a thought stream #zuko #sokka #aang #katara #toph #the gaang #book 3 #i think that like.... zuko leaving would have been crazy. it should be the talk of the town! #the gossip mill would have been on OVERDRIVE #it also makes it so hard bc no one knows what the truth actually is #one day in court as fire lord one of the foreign dignitaries is like ummm fire lord is it true that you systematically #robbed upper class earth kingdom citizens to help fund local militia groups to take back land occupied by the fire nation #and like zuko is just sitting there like WHAT #zuko: yes i did rob people. #the foreign dignitary: 👁️👄👁️ #avatar the last airbender #atla #the boiling rock #the day of black sun #the firebending masters

[annabelle--cane]

this comment was made in response to a bunch of terf bs and I don't tend to like sharing their stuff directly but I desperately wanted to preserve this line on my blog. sorry for stealing your post ms doubleca5t.

#one of their lines of argument was like #'sex isn't a social construct humans aren't a social construct animals and land aren't social constructs' #and like. comrade. I have some really bad news about the history of the construction of 'humanity' as a category. #'people are not a social construct' says person who sees no problem in calling everyone 'males' and 'females' as nouns #marina marvels at life #id in alt text #anyway I think this line is going to live in my head in a similar place as my classic #'me when I haven't been banned from my local lgbt center' litany for when I see weird exclusionism

[heydragonfly]

Hey since it’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day, if you want to know the indigenous people native to the land you currently live on, you can go to Native Land Digital (link embedded) and they have information on all of the Americas and Australia, as well as smaller pockets of information (where applicable) elsewhere. It’s pretty accessible and can show you territories, languages, and related treaties. I’d recommend anyone to check it out, particularly Americans and Canadians, cause this level of local history isn’t often taught. (If you get lost on the map/confused of its orientation, click “settler labels” in the bottom right hand corner, which should give you the current map Settler-made lines)

#indigenous peoples day #Not indigenous myself but I think this is a very good resource and more people should be aware of it #like for reference I study local history pretty extensively but this map first introduced me to multiple tribes I was unaware of that #originally come from the land I live on and research #anyway fuck columbus! have a good day lol

[reksink]

Sona Given Form💚

#hollow knight #hollow knight oc #my art #my ocs #character design #Everyone say hi to Archivist!! #A non-local bug that's here to harvest/speculate/analyize any and all things Hallownest has to offer #Lore: Native to Pharloom; Found out about the ruins of Hallownest; Archives; Has a great time; Returns to Pharloom to do the same thing #They specialize in analyzing land fauna but they're here to do just about everything!! #Archivist has always been one of these character I've kept in the back on my mind but never drawn #BUT that's changed now; He is now real #Seeing her like this makes me wanna ramble about my HK speculative biology however I shan't...for now

[worstloki]

Still can’t believe the Loki series season 1 opened with Loki landing in a desert in Mongolia and not being able to communicate with locals. They just forgot about AllSpeak? And accepted that ‘Modern English’ was a language he spoke?? The alien knows Earth English??? Red flag.

#you know how they could’ve gotten away with it?? #say his head is recalibrating and AllSpeak ISNT working AT ALL #Loki doesn’t understand the locals and he doesn’t understand the TVA when they arrive #he lands in the sand and lowkey is speaking Asgardian now #but noooooo they didn’t do that they threw in not being able to understand and talking anyway as a gag #was this ever explained even?? I don’t think so!!!!!!!!!!!

[wheredidalltheusersgo]

"Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan" my beloved

#IT'S FINALLY FINISHED #*takes away your total drama cartoon physics* #this is the aftermath of topher's elimination btw #cannons do a lot of damage #unsurprisingly #he's lucky he was only severely injured and not KILLED #local idiot still doesn't know how to shade properly #i just wanted to do a painting redraw tbh #I hate drawing backgrounds #total drama #td don #td topher #tw blood #cw blood #tw gore #angst #my art #this took a while #that twink MAY have hit a few rocks during his landing

[intermundia]

living in the american west gives you a very strange perspective on space in comparison with europe. i was reading about monaco and then broke my brain realizing that my family's farm is much larger than the footprint of the entire principality. what am i supposed to do with that information. i don't know. in one area of the world, someone managing this much land makes them a prince. here it deeply and truly does not. just very strange

#it's like hearing people from the uk talk about driving distance #i jump in my car and drive a distance to starbucks that would cause significant distress to drivers over there #just a very different perspective on space #and no i dont know how my family got this land except i was told we purchased it from the local native tribe in the late 1800s #idk to what degree that is the truth or how much was paid or what #uncomfortable and i really want to see if i can find out more #personal

[elbiotipo]

I'm sure it was fun the five or ten first times, but every time I read "Murder Hobos" to refer to RPG adventurers, I cringe now.

Unfortunately, it's actually a more charitable representation than their actual historical parallels (knights, mercenaries, crusaders, conquistadores, etc.)

#I'm really sorry I know there is a lot of romance and adventure about say a band of misfits going into an adventure and finding glory #but historically? they were often very terrible people who did terrible stuff #you know the classic 'fighting bandits'? most of the time those bandits were peasants who were already exploited by the local lords #let's not even get into the whole 'adventuring in exotic lands' stuff I'm pretty sure you know where this is going to go #cosas mias

[hairtusk]

listened to the in our times episode about robert burns, and weirdly enough, the most memorable line was '...perhaps if wordsworth hadn't gone to cambridge, he'd have written in cumbrian dialect. conversely, attending university might've ruined robert burns.' and now i can't stop imagining the alternative reality where wordsworth had preserved rural cumbrian dialect by writing his poetry in it. my hearts weeps.

#cumbrian dialect is very close to lancashire dialect in places so i hold it very dear #i just donated a little money to a local publisher who were crowdfunding to publish an edition of a 19th century miner's poetry #using local dialect from my village. #i'm desperate to read it. i'm desperate for the dregs of what holds me to the land. #i'm terrified of being americanised or internetised or londonised or home-counties-ised

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

tfw when your daughter adopts an alien without consulting you

bonus:

#listen LISTEN #THERE HAD TO BE DRAGONS PREMATURELY EJECTED FROM THE ASTROLAB #AETHERS FALLING OUTTA THE SKY ALL OVER SORNIETH #BOOM AN ANCIENT LANDS IN YOUR HOARD. THEY LIVE WITH YOU NOW #when i get a non permababy aether #im Also making their lore 'fell outta the sky and joined the nearest group' #scribble salad #dragons #flight rising #flight rising fanart #fr coatl #fr aether #originally Ziociro (the aether) was a nocturne that got lost on notn #& flick (bby coatl) decides that they were sisters #BUT I GOT MY MITTS ON AN AETHER BREED CHANGE AND IT WORKED A LOT BETTER THAN A NOCTURNE #local single father not prepared for this. new daughter aquired #stg if the wind ancient doesnt blow my socks off im switching flights to arcane #aether wins best dragon 2k23

[grinchwrapsupreme]

It’s important you know this is the actual dialogue

#red dwarf #red dwarf the promised land #kryten #dave lister #arnold rimmer #the cat #local droid can't say smeg but can say apeshit

[ubejamjar]

Discord Daily Prompt: Promise Made/ Promise Kept

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── "Come back safely, Warrior of Light." "I will, I pinky swear!” "Very well, I shall hold you that." ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

#local stressed out workaholics spotted pinky promising at the airship landing #more at 5 #ffxiv #wolmeric #aymeric x wol #aymeric de borel #ser aymeric #ajisai x aymeric #ffxiv screenshots #ishgard #heavensward #discord daily prompt #I need to brush up on my staging #ajisaijar #gposejar

[thoughtportal]

please show up to your local government meetings. Join your local boards and commissions. Most cities will have agendas of what will be talked about in the meetings and when they are. You can find applications to join your local boards and commissions

#tiktok #alaska #books and libraries #local government #libraries #library #native american #land acknowledgment #indigenous

[pillowenvelopchair]

That’s what she holds onto. A life—an eternal one—with someone else as Lord. Someone true of heart. Quick of mind. That’s the dream, right there. And all she has to do is clear the way.  - Chapter 26

Another swrd art… what a surprise lol. go check it out guys! (i will never stop preaching about it)

hi @un-local how r u on this fine afternoon

#magdalene my favorite blorbo... i will fight the wolves for u #holding onto rogiers rapier... a small hope in these desolate lands where she is all alone with the golden grace #i hope that one day will i get to read the point where rogier lets himself hope too (that would definitely be the day!) #each others hope if u will #groovy brush my beloved 🫶 #lighting.... my worst enemy #had a lot of fun with the background though!! #i was genuinely scratching my head over the stupid gradient map thing #ive been wanting to do something like this for a LOOONG while so yay!!! #tried to incorporate the mending rune of death and stars. and the carian phalanx (WHICH I AM REALIZING IS 4 BLADES NOT 3) #but yeah! not too much to go off of other than that.. hope u enjoy hare! or. un or local. not local. (scratches head) #thank you miami and mellow for the support!! i would have literally kept staring at the drawing for who knows how long #elden ring #tarnished #magdalene #swrd #still waters