Note: I’m writing this only because I haven’t seen anyone else touch on these specific points. I’m not Māori, so my understanding may be mistaken; if so I would be very grateful for correction and elaboration from tangata whenua. (And I’ve only read Nona once so far, and we all know that’s a scratch upon the surface of it.)

Tazmuir has received fandom flack for saying in interviews that Gideon and Harrow are both Māori without mentioning it in the text — which understandably reminds sf/f readers of a certain other author’s tendency to dispose of the difficult bits outside the actual work. I think it is clear by now that the reason it wasn’t dealt with explicitly earlier on is that Tazmuir sticks religiously (ahem) to the flawed and limited knowledge of her point-of-view characters, and in the Nine Houses they have no concept of pre-Resurrection races and ethnicities, because Jod has not allowed them knowledge of any world but his. (Besides, explaining Gideon’s lineage in a Doylist aside would have been rather tricky without revealing, before their proper time in the narrative, juicy details about Jod himself.)

My prediction is that we will find out Anastasia was also Māori. Maybe, probably, from the same iwi as Jod and/or G1deon.

Which makes Harrow, her last descendent, Māori as well.

No matter how many generations separate them. No matter how much other blood.

“Mixed Māori” or “[percentage] Māori” is kind of a pākehā concept. The more important question is, do you whakapapa? Do you know who you are? Do you know where you come from? All it takes is one verified ancestor and you’re in the club, no matter how long it’s been or what brand of egg carton your skin looks like on the book cover. I think Harrow is descended not just from a line of Tomb-keepers but a line of kaitiaki, guardians of the land, who through Anastasia’s private pact with Alecto are sworn to protect her — Papatūānuku, the earth mother born from salt water — and who have been holding on for ten thousand years to right Jod’s wrongs. We know salt water is sacred to the line of the Ninth House; we know that Alecto was called “the saltwater creature”; we know that it’s Nona’s natural element, which calms and renews her; all this links Alecto/Earth specifically with Māori creation myths, more than any others. And we know that preserving the ancient bloodline of the Ninth, Anastasia’s bloodline, in Harrow’s own improbable and desperately yearned-for person (that Alecto can recognise at a taste), was the goal Pelleamena and Priamhark pursued at the cost of the Ninth House’s entire future.

Yes, this series is portraying an indigenous man as the destroyer of Earth. We know that Earth chose him as her saviour and he betrayed her, imprisoned her, set himself up as master of an empire that was her antithesis, then imprisoned her again — arguably worse sins for someone who was born into that special relationship with the land, whom the Earth loved and trusted so much and still loves even now because love past understanding is her gift.

But here’s the answer to that. Here’s his opposite number. Harrow, who fell in love at first sight with the Earth, who found in that love her reason and her drive to continue living and to hold to her goals through intolerable trauma, who has a unique combination of bloodline and genius and Jod-and-Alecto-derived power (through her Lyctorhood with Kiriona Gaia, wherever that ends up going) with which to fulfill this sacred pact entered into by her tipuna Anastasia.

Harrow being Māori is not a trendy convenient afterthought. It’s an integral point.

Harrow knows who she is. She knows where she comes from. She knows where she’s going: Hell itself, to get to the bottom of all this shit. So I think we will be hearing more along these lines.

Ok, we've all seen the polls asking which of Hob Gadling's "looks" through time is the most attractive, but which era of Hob Gadling do you find the most intriguing, as in you could watch an entire episode about what his life is like in just that century?

john the baptist doodlin

Sorcerer just got a book about mindflayers

Wizard: It was actually written by a mindflayer about mindflayer puberty

*party laughs*

Sorcerer: "Ceremorphosis and You"

Rogue: Ceremorphosis and You. So, you've been infected with a mindflayer tadpole. Congratulations!

Please don't forget Armenians

Today is Armenian genocide remembrance day. On april 24, 1915 started mass deportations of hundreds of Armenian intelectuals and community leaders, who were (most of the time) eventually killed. Armenian women and children were systematically r//ed and forcibly converted into islam. There were more than 2 milion Armenians in ottoman empire prior to ww1, 1,5 milion of them were viciously killed. Three millennia of Armenian civilaziation in eastern Anatolis was fully destroyed. Turkey today refuses to acknowledge genocides of christian minorities in early 20th century.

Do you know that mass ethnic cleansing of Armenians in ottoman empire inspired Lemkin to coin the term 'genocide'?

Last year in september azerbaijan allied with turkey initiated a war against Armenia. More that 5000 Armenians were murdered, thousands of Armenia families had to live their ancestrial land to not get murdered. There are hundreds of vids on internet where armenian p.o.w.s are tortured. Recently azerbaijan opened a "museum" displayind dead or dying Armenians and kids were allowed to visit it.

Please educate yourself on Armenian genocide. You can also donate here to help Armenia. Thanks for reading!!

Some of my favorite magic side effects:

-Nosebleeds. Never gets old.

-Coughing up blood. The good ol’ “cough into your hand and pull it back to see blood” also never gets old.

-Headaches. You keep fighting as your head pounds, desperately telling you to take a break. At first they fade within minutes when you stop using magic, but overtime, they become chronic.

-Fatigue. After a big battle, you stand triumphant, and then just fall asleep on the spot.

-In a similar vein, overuse causing you to straight up faint rather than just fall asleep. Darkness begins to overtake your vision in the middle of battle, unconsciousness abruptly looming over you.

-Any of the side effects happening to another person. Maybe two close characters are connected, and whatever side effects character A would normally endure are transferred to character B. When A uses a blast of magic B screams loudly because holy shit that hurt.

-Magic gradually deteriorating your mind. Using it too much eventually caused hallucinations and an inability to retain memories, or even larger scale memory loss. 

Feel free to add more, I’m looking for some to steal

Here's the deal.

If I am able to succeed -- and that's always an "if," let my heart never beat in hubris --

-- and if (see above) you find anything I do in any way, shape, or form, inspirational --

-- then you are obligated, in binding spiritual contract, to remind yourself, as often as possible, "Failure can be temporary. Rebuild. Keep going. Figure it out. Pause when and for how long is necessary. But keep going until Success or the Desire to Quit."

You can quit your art.

If you want to.

But you must not allow anything to force you to quit your art.

You can pause.

You should pause as often and for as long -- months, years, doesn't matter -- as you want and/or need to.

But unless you explicitly want to quit?

Keep. Fucking. Going. Forward. Which includes rest and pausing time. That's part of the cycle.

Thems the rules.

I made this pact with someone a long time ago.

I'm passing it onto you if you are inspired by my work. Now or in the past or the future.

I feel like I should make a post about this because it’s not something that’s very well-known, and that Americans in particular may need to know about given the uncertain state of our healthcare system at the moment. I’ve wanted to write this out for a while, It’s kind of a long post, so sorry about that!

If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)

You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)

You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)

You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)

You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)

Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.

I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.

The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.

I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.

I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.

The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.

Medical debt is scary because it’s something that can come from stuff that’s already really scary. I didn’t need the burden of $24,000 in debt on top of trying to get around on a crutch with a broken arm (it’s not easy, believe me!).. but I can’t imagine what it would be like with a bigger debt or a more severe medical emergency. I see lots of people in even worse trouble than I was in, both financially and medically. Please know that there are options for you when that GoFundMe doesn’t do enough. Even if your income is higher than mine, it’s worth a shot even for partial debt forgiveness.

for sale:

baby teeth

never used

After reading some NtN discourse, which is all about Jod, like I get it but someone start discourse about the Angel or something so we have variety. But anyway, there’s a context I feel is missing for the Jod discourse, and it’s, 1.There is a centuries long history of Māori healers who suddenly found themselves gifted with miraculous powers to heal. 2.New Zealand has a history of sending police and government forces to kill Māori healers.

Americans when they think of police raiding ‘cult’ compound are probably imagining Jonestown or those US full of guns fortified cults from TV and that is how Jod’s healing and the raids that lead to the meatwall and dead cops are being framed but from the Prophets of the 19th century, the invasion of Parihaka or the hunt for Te Kooti all the way to the Tūhoe Raids of 2007, NZ police when they surround and raid are there for colonial purpose. And the way the healing part of John’s story is explained, word spreading and travellers amassing, it could have come out of a textbook of Rātana or Te Māiharoa. In NZ, police being massed to raid a ‘cult’ lead by a Māori miracle healer, has different bagage from the US police surrounding a fundie cult in gun country.

The bloke who plays Hob in Sandman was in Vera or Midsomer Murders the other night and I choose to believe that that's just Hob babey. Got himself a nice brewery. Got himself brutally murdered. Had to play dead cos living past multiple stab wounds is sus. Change name, carry on

On all levels except physical, I am reading an AU of GTN where this is no [REDACTED] and everyone instead just gets to hang out with each other and talk about how weird their respective houses are.

Panel 1: Abigail, Ianthe and Dulcinea are talking with each other. Abigail is holding a cup of tea and a saucer with a macaron, and she is saying "I survived an assasination attempt on my 19th birthday." Ianthe is unimpressed, and replies. "Amateur. In third house, we survive one assasination attempt every day before breakfast." Dulcinea looks amused at this and replies, "Seventh House would love that! We think assasination is the third most romantic way of dying."

Panel 2: The Second House and Sixth House are playing chess. Judith has taken Pal's queen but doesn't realize he's already on his way to checkmating her. Judith says "In second house, we join the army as early as ten years old." Pal looks amused and replies, "In sixth house, we don't care about the emperor's war, but we do have an entire section of the army whose purpose is to f*ck as many people as possible." Marta and Cam are standing behind their respective necromancers, and staring at each other, silently vibing.

Panel 3: Jeannemary and Gideon are arm-wrestling. Jeannemary wins and is like "Hot dog, I win!" while Gideon looks at the camera bored because she clearly let Jeannemary win. Corona is in the background looking excited and cheering them on. Isaac is also in the background, looking thoughtful because he knows Gideon clearly let Jeannemary win.

Panel 4: Harrow in all black and Silas in all pastel pink are staring each other down. Harrow says "We have a cult in the Ninth house." Silas glares at her and says "We have a cult in the eighth house too, and it's older and better than yours so f*ck you."

Panel 5: Colum looks concerned and is like "I have an uncle who's 18 years younger than me. How does that even work?" Magnus is reaching up to pat his shoulder and comfort him, and he smiles and says "Chin up, old chap. I have three mothers-in-law. It happens." Pro, meanwhile, is standing to the side, very engaged in a book he's reading, which has a black cover that has "Noniad" written on it. The caption pointing to him says "already composing a negative review in his head."

Silmarillion concept that has me gnawing on the bars of my enclosure today: all of Elrond's parents are terrifying eldritch beings actually.

Maedhros, with white fire pouring from his eyes, taken from the jaws of death anything but unchanged. Some whisper that he's not elvish anymore, not since his captivity. They can never quite agree on what that makes him, exactly.

Maglor, with a voice no elf ever should've had, beautiful and terrible and powerful enough to shake the mountains. Sailors along Middle-Earth's west coast whisper of a sea wraith, some horrible siren that roams the beaches on the darkest nights.

Earendil, a man made an elf, a star, a maia if some are to be believed. Slayer of dragons, guardian of the void. Someone who's spent so along around the Silmaril and the Ainur that some of that power lives within him now.

Elwing, a skin-changer with a voice and a laugh that sound like they were taken from a bird's throat. A witch who lives in a lighthouse, where the animals flock and the plants grow strangely. None of the Amanyar would admit to being scared of her, but few will venture in sight of her odd little realm.

And then there's Elrond, ring-bearer, Lord of Rivendell, kind as a summer.

Well, let's just say it probably helps that no one is expecting him to be normal. Or elvish. Or entirely comprehensible.

You know that post that's like 'if you went back in time you couldn't alter the timeline because you don't know how electricity or anything works?' Or maybe it's 'if you got transported to a primitive society you wouldn't be able to advance it' anyway the details don't matter I just want to say I think the Nine Houses don't have photos because John reasonably has no idea how they work

Medusa but instead of stone she turns people into gorgonzola

I am Heats Georg who has lived through 30+ Texas summers and laughs at out of towners as they hide from the heat 90f heat before noon. Just wait till it gets Actually Hot you cowards.

saw a poll about dry/humid heat and like OBVIOUSLY everyone preferred dry heat but. would love to know what everyone considers to be “too hot”

me personally it’s a hard cutoff at 75°F. don’t need anything more than that thank you 🫶🫶🫶