Marcia Overstrand was not an ordinary sort of wizard. In fact, she was most certainly extra-ordinary in every sense of the word, from the way she walked (always in pointy purple python shoes )to the way she talked (impressively fast and undeniably rude). She was also extraordinary in the sense that she became the ExtraOrdinary wizard at the young age of 22.(1) She was not the youngest wizard ever to take the tower, but she was certainly younger than most. Madam Marcia brought a series of rapid and harsh changes with her, affecting not only the wizards but the citizens of the Castle she effectively controlled during the first ten years of her reign. 

By focusing on the interactions between Madam Marcia the powerful and her close contacts, much of her more major actions can be explained. Notable among these are her (supposedly self-imposed) recusal from wizarding society nearly 25 years after ascension to the top of the tower, and her introduction of witch covens into formal Castle society.

 A diligent historian will note that this is not in line with the major historical work on the topic, wherein it is presented that Madam Marcia, as she was known colloquially, was 25 at her ascension ceremony.

ALSO OH MY GOD. GERTRUDE CALLS HIM GERRY. NOT GERARD LIKE IN TMA. NOT LIKE MARY.

SHE CALLS HIM GERRY. AND HIS FRIENDS PROBABLY DO TOO.

Sarah Heap is a fucking force of nature.

Ok so. This woman. Has 8 children. All of whom are deranged and trouble magnets. Her oldest went darke, and ran off with his girlfriend, was apprenticed to the bad villain guy and tried to murder his other siblings, her younger four went off to live in the forest, one of them dated a witch FAMOUS for creating trouble, her youngest three have more often than not been the centre of literally everything that has gone wrong in the castle. She is married to Silas fucking Heap. This women has canonically screamed at the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, the highest castle dignitary there is other than Chief Hermetic Scribe and Queen. Marcia fucking Overstrand, the women who's very presence has people quaking in their boots has been screamed at by Sarah Heap. multiple times. and she got out unscathed. She has spent her childhood in the very forest the bravest of the castle are afraid to step into. And she is still sane. God himself fears this woman.

shit i’ve heard chemistry majors say

- *student in a lab coat, cutting in the cafeteria line* YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND I DON’T HAVE A LOT OF TIME MY EXPERIMENT IS GOING TO CATCH FIREEEE

- *loud pop*    student, in very calm voice: well that was painful

- lab assistant, seeing me frantically pulling on gloves: oh no. what did you do now

- professor: come on guys, don’t hate on social sciences majors… it’s not their fault they were born this way

- so i was grading your tests last night. i wanted to kill someone.

- you have five minutes until the end of class to finish the test. but i want to go outside for a smoke, so three

- *section of lab report titled “applications of compound”* i heard that a drug cartel used it to dissolve bodies, should i list that?

- “i’m synthesizing this compound in my next lab class, what kind of stuff effects the success rate and yield?” “dunno man, it depends on your karma”

- based on my recent lab assignments, i have come to the conclusion that the professor wants me to get killed

- dude, Fehling’s solution contains glucose, what if it tastes like lemonade?   *proceeds to dip finger in and lick it*   well that was a disappointment. the potassium hydroxide makes it kinda bitter.

- professor: you’ll understand this concept in your fifth year   student: sir, this is a four-year program   professor: oh, then never

Heaptober Day 3: Beetle Day

Image ID: a pen drawing, colored in with colored pencils. Beetle and Septimus are riding a sled through the ice tunnels. Beetle is very happy and in the front, steering the sled. Septimus is behind him, somewhat scared/much less happy to be on the sled, clutching Beetle’s shoulders with his hands. They are both in winter clothes, with hats, and Beetle has a scarf. The words “Heaptober Day 3: Beetle Day” are written underneath the drawing. End ID

@heaptober

Heaptober Day 4: Mask

Image ID: a messy crayon drawing with visible pencil sketch lines underneath. The drawing depicts Ullr standing in front of a setting sun. Ullr’s shadow is NightUllr, with an orange tipped tail. End ID

@heaptober

Heaptober Day 4: Mask (sort of)

You ask Jenna Heap what the best thing about being a Queen is and she'll say being able to invite her goth witch girlfriend whenever she wants. The second best thing is she can make everyone wear novelty glasses

@septimus-heap because hi you caused this

Heaptober Day 2: Message Rat

Image ID: A pen drawing on white printer paper with pencil crosshatch shading. Stanley the message rat is standing over his four adopted children, Bo, Flo, Jo, and Mo, who are baby rats curled into a heap and sleeping in a nest of blankets. A light is coming from the upper left hand corner based on the shading. End ID

@heaptober

Heaptober Day 3 : Beetle Day

[id: a digital drawing of Beetle’s room. the wall is beige and the floor is made of wood planks. there is a wooden door in the middle of the visible wall. Beetle’s admiral jacket is hung by the back of the collar on a hook on the back of the door. the jacket would be around knee lenght and is royal blue. it has gold trim detailing around the collar, the shoulders, the end of the sleeves, and the portion below the waist /end id]

Heaptober Day 5: Castle

The castle is a maze filled with people who stopped looking for the exit. If you don’t know your way, and often even if you do, you will end up spending the rest of your life there. Amusingly, it is often when you figure out how to leave that you realize there was no point, life in the castle is good. 

This is not, of course, to say that there are not traders and wanderers going in and out of the castle. There are, and they are a valuable part of the castle’s economy. But they stay on the main paths, they don’t go wandering without a guide. 

At least the smart ones don't.  

BEcause the Castle is, above all else, Magyk. And it wants to collect and protect as many people as possible. It has been infused with protections, with love, all through it’s many years. It has been covered with spells, and people who want to protect their homes. The castle is all one foundation. All its homes are connected, and so the spells, to a certain extent, merged and layered and grew. 

Now, this is a latent Magyk, it cannot counter too much Darke, or too much pain. But it can counter the little things. Children trip less when they are in a hurry, the walk on the outside of the wall is less treacherous than any others. 

The Castle is a maze. But for the most part, you are safe inside it.  Remember though, it is still haunted.

Heaptober Day 2: Message rat

acrylic on paper

[id: a painting of a castle wall. it’s crenelated and there are arrow slits in the middle of each higher portion. the bricks are in various shades of brown and grey and they are seperated by white mortar. a small dark brown rat is running across the top, jumping across a gap in the wall. it is wearing a light brown backpack fastened across its body. the sky is blue and lightly threaded with clouds, darker at the top and lighter at the bottom. the sun is visible as a yellow disc outlined by a thin yellow circle a bit further out. a handwritten note at the bottom of the page reads day 2 : message rat /end id]

day 18: episodes 118-124 : Episode 118: Pop

sorry i am 100% incapable of drawing this scene when it comes up :[ in my defense Hamid pops!

this is a redrawing and coloring of this comic i made in my excitement on my first listen

look, I know I've talked about this essay (?) before but like,

If you ever needed a good demonstration of the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", have I got an exercise for you.

Somebody made a small article explaining the basics of atomic theory but it's written in Anglish. Anglish is basically a made-up version of English where they remove any elements (words, prefixes, etc) that were originally borrowed from romance languages like french and latin, as well as greek and other foreign loanwords, keeping only those of germanic origin.

What happens is an english which is for the most part intelligible, but since a lot everyday english, and especially the scientific vocabulary, has has heavy latin and greek influence, they have to make up new words from the existing germanic-english vocabulary. For me it kind of reads super viking-ey.

Anyway when you read this article on atomic theory, in Anglish called Uncleftish Beholding, you get this text which kind of reads like a fantasy novel. Like in my mind it feels like it recontextualizes advanced scientific concepts to explain it to a viking audience from ancient times.

Even though you're familiar with the scientific ideas, because it bypasses the normal language we use for these concepts, you get a chance to examine these ideas as if you were a visitor from another civilization - and guess what, it does feel like it's about magic. It has a mythical quality to it, like it feels like a book about magic written during viking times. For me this has the same vibe as reading deep magic lore from a Robert Jordan book.

Heaptober Day 3: Beetle Day

Zelda AU? Zelda AU! We've got child soldiers, healing tanks that give you amnesia, and princesses with the power to seal away evil.

And Beedle Beetle, of course.

a few days ago an irl told me about how the alphabet is on the wrong order on the doctor who wiki because in one episode a character recites the alphabet backwards but gets two letters the wrong way around and there has been no other representation of the full alphabet in any other dw media so technically there’s no proof that it isn’t canon and i’ve been thinking about that ever since

at one point the party in rusty quill gaming was rolling around with three paladins. who is doing it like them

Heaptober Day 3: Beetle

O. Beetle Beetle does not, thankfully, have the wings of a beetle. No, those would not be very good for flying. They would not be useful for protecting others from enemies, nor for shielding oneself from rain. No, Beetle's wings were so much better. He had strong, large brown wings, which he had used on many adventures with Septimus. 

Beetle’s current adventure involved a very adventurous book from the Wild Book and Charm Store, which had been on the run for the past several days. At first, it had simply had the run of the store, but now it had the run of the tunnels. 

Things were very hard to catch up to in the tunnels, and flying books were even harder. Luckily, there were only so many places to go. Beetle had double checked the Seals, made Barriers, and now all he had to do was wait for it to fly into them. Well, that, and a little bit of chasing it into the dead ends he had created. 

Eventually, it did work. Beetle’s prize, the Past and Present of Wings, was safe and sound in the store, and much more well contained. It had taken up 5 days of his life, and Beetle was not excited to go back to everything he had been procrastinating in favor of the task.