BASIC INFO:
- edit note: this is all a little outdated? some things more so than others. i'll make a new post eventually.
- you can call me Heycerulean, or HC.
- minor.
- they/them, but i really don't care. anything goes if it's funny.
- polychoric_isopod on a03.
- i'm not going to write a full dni, but please know that i block liberally.
- feel free to tag, dm, or send asks.
syTP-TC:
- my worldbuilding project. it stands for sy'Terra Pavilia, The Collection; it's massive, 4 years old, and i love it as if it was a child. it kind of is, to me. i talk about it all the time. i've been talking about it on here for a while, so beware that some stuff might be outdated.
- i am ALWAYS welcome to questions and asks about it, even if it's things i've talked about before. there's always something else i could say. this thing lives in my head, it's constantly growing.
- long story short; it's an alternate version of earth where there's A Whole Other Country in the middle of the eastern united states. This country has it's own magic (called casting) and a whole lot of lore (religion, language, birds, government structure, university system, flavor of marching band, alcohol, etc.)
- it's got an ensemble cast, too- or at least, something like that. the casts (roughly grouped into time period + location signifiers called arcs) that you'll hear most about (as of posting this) are Breaking Chalk (BC), Stargazers (SG), Firebirds (AC, AW, IN, SOG), and All's Well That Ends Well (AWTEW) (sometimes known as PREDS PeDC9A).
- some tags will be tagged on this post, so that you can go explore, if you so choose :).
OTHER INTERESTS:
- music! feel free to ask for song recommendations anytime.
- religion! i think it's very cool.
- transformers (specifically IDW).
- WOLF 359.
- related to wolf 359, an AU called Transmission Origin: Arke, or to:a, that i co-created.
- collecting CDs
- birds
NO AI WILL EVER BE USED IN ANY PART OF MY CREATIVE PROCESS. NO AI WILL EVER BE USED OUTSIDE OF MY CREATIVE PROCESS. I VISCERALLY HATE IT AND IT IS NOT WELCOME ON THIS BLOG.
thanks for reading, and as it's said in syTP-TC; may the weavers of nations weave you a home within them.
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I've had trouble tracking down the original photographers, but these mostly appear to be pictures of the blast furnaces in Belgium (called things like Haut-Fourneau 4/6/B etc.); here are some other pictures of HFB, of HF4 Charlenoi, and some of HF6 Seraing, by other urban explorers. the first picture is probably cables for an arc furnace, I saw one Instagram post claim it was in Canada but it didn't seem to be the original.
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as a writer you will have a specific deck of vocab words you like using a lot and when you read other peoples' work you will see a very clear spread of different vocab words on their end. this is why you need to read, to collect other writers' words like it's a card game
@caesarsaladinn I had a whole discussion with a history major who was extremely confident that smallpox is a “common childhood illness” with a very low death rate. Therefore, she believed that historical smallpox outbreaks were either massively exaggerated or used as a cover-up for something else (since “smallpox isn’t that bad.”) I eventually asked if she was possibly confusing smallpox with chickenpox, at which point she said, “aren’t they the same thing?”
One of the less deadly variants of smallpox was called cowpox, and the fact that dairy maids who contracted it tended to avoid the worst affects of smallpox is part of the development of vaccination
Cowpox is actually a separate (but very similar!) virus!
There's a lot of confusion about different "poxes" in this post (which wasn't my intention, and now I feel bad), so here's a general overview (also, obligatory apology for messiness, this was written at like 1 AM):
Smallpox:
Smallpox, caused by variola virus, was a massive problem historically. It existed in the Western hemisphere for thousands of years (genetic evidence of smallpox has been found in Egyptian mummies from ≈1500 BCE, but it was probably around long before then), and it was introduced to the New World during the Columbian exchange, which had devastating consequences for indigenous populations (which were already suffering from colonialist violence, which made epidemics much worse than they already would've been). Historically, smallpox had a case fatality rate between 30-50%, and survivors were often left disfigured or permanently disabled (you've probably seen pictures of smallpox scars, but smallpox can also cause blindness and other complications). Importantly, smallpox only affects humans—it has no animal hosts—which is why it's one of the few infectious diseases to have been completely eradicated. As of May 8, 1980, it officially no longer exists outside of certain designated American and Russian laboratories. (There are, however, concerns that it could be used as a bioweapon, which is why the government still stockpiles smallpox vaccines and antivirals. I wrote my bioethics term paper on this exact issue, and incidentally, it's one of the major reasons why I believe that STEM majors should take ethics courses!)
There were two strains of variola virus: variola major and variola minor. Variola major was much more dangerous, with a much higher mortality rate; variola minor typically didn't cause severe disease. Fortunately, infection with one strain conferred immunity against the other. Both strains are now eradicated. (People sometimes confuse variola minor with other viruses like cowpox and horsepox, but they're different things.)
There were four clinical forms of smallpox: ordinary (classic smallpox, associated with the rash you usually see in pictures), modified (less severe, often occurred in vaccinated people who got infected anyway), malignant (caused a flat rash instead of the usual pustules, associated with immune dysfunction, almost always fatal), and hemorrhagic (caused severe bleeding, and also near-universally fatal.) All of the non-ordinary forms could be difficult to diagnose because they looked so different from typical smallpox. The less serious "modified" form was often confused with chickenpox, and the hemorrhagic form was sometimes assumed to be a completely different disease. Occasionally, historical sources will refer to hemorrhagic smallpox as "black pox," with or without an understanding that it's caused by the same virus as ordinary smallpox.
Other relevant viruses:
Cowpox, caused by cowpox virus (an orthopoxvirus similar to smallpox) causes mild disease in cows, humans, and several other animals. Infection with cowpox virus confers immunity to variola—Edward Jenner noticed this relationship and used material from cowpox lesions to inoculate people against smallpox.
Vaccinia virus, another orthopoxvirus, is the source of the modern smallpox vaccine. It's closely related to both cowpox and horsepox (weirdly, it's actually closer to horsepox), but it's distinct enough to be its own species. Infection usually causes mild symptoms, and, of course, confers immunity to smallpox.
Chickenpox is an entirely different thing. It's caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which is a herpesvirus, not a poxvirus at all! Infection with varicella-zoster does not confer immunity to smallpox or any other poxvirus—chickenpox is from a totally different family.
So why are the names so weird and confusing? Why is everything about all of this so weird and confusing?
There are multiple reasons for this, so bear with me.
Historically, a "pox" was any disease that caused a bumpy rash of pustles/blisters. Chickenpox, smallpox, and the other "poxes" all cause superficially similar rashes—thus the similar names. (Even though we know now that chickenpox comes from a completely different family, this wouldn't have been apparent before the dawn of modern medicine.)
Smallpox was given that name to differentiate it from syphilis, which was known as the "great pox" when it first appeared in Europe. (Fun[?] microbiology fact: There are debates about the origins of syphilis, but the most common theory holds that it originated in the New World, and Christopher Columbus brought it back to Spain. In that way, it's kind of the inverse of smallpox.) Historically, smallpox was also known by a variety of other names in different European, Asian, and African cultures. Again, this gets murky, because historical physicians sometimes struggled to distinguish between similar-looking-but-different diseases.
Other poxviruses are often named after the animals in which they were first identified. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, though, and it can sometimes be misleading (for example, monkeypox virus was first discovered in laboratory monkeys, but it more often affects rodents and other small mammals. The disease formerly known as "monkeypox" was recently renamed "mpox" because the name wasn't accurate.) Also, some poxviruses aren't named after animals at all! It's a weird and inconsistent system (but a lot of virus names are kinda weird and inconsistent).
Related to the above: We don't even know where the name "chickenpox" comes from. I mean, we know it was called a "pox" because it causes a pox-y rash, but we don't know where the "chicken" part originated. There are multiple theories about this, none of which are definitive. The disease itself has nothing to do with chickens.
Basically, a lot of the weirdness is a result of historical naming practices—people identified and named these diseases before modern virology existed, and those names stuck, so now we have similar names for superficially-similar-but-ultimately-different viruses, and names whose origins have been completely lost to time. Later, virologists muddied the waters further by naming newly-discovered poxviruses after the animals in which they were first seen, even when these animals aren't natural hosts or reservoirs of those viruses. It's a mess! And, again, all of this is complicated by the fact that some of these diseases were very hard to diagnose (or distinguish from one another) before modern medicine existed. Now, we can sequence viral DNA and figure out what's actually going on—which viruses caused which symptoms, whether those viruses were closely related, and whether being infected with one disease conferred immunity to another—but historical doctors and scientists didn't have those tools, so they were doing they best they could with very limited information, and that led to a lot of weirdness in terms of how these viruses were named and classified. Our current system inherited some of that weirdness, so here we are.
TL;DR: Poxvirus names are messy. Smallpox is caused by variola virus, which has two strains: variola major (the more severe one) and variola minor (less severe). Cowpox and vaccinia are different viruses in the same family, and being infected with one of them confers immunity to smallpox. Chickenpox isn't a poxvirus at all, but a herpesvirus—it just happens to cause a pockmark-y rash that looks superficially similar to smallpox pustules (and mild forms of smallpox were historically confused with chickenpox).
(P.S. none of this is super relevant to the average person, so don't feel bad if you didn't know any of it. Unless you are a history major inventing new conspiracies about smallpox, in which case you definitely should feel bad.)
Sources & further reading under the cut!
Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination
The History of Smallpox (CDC)
The Triumph of Science: The Incredible Story of Smallpox Eradication
Scientific Background on Smallpox and Smallpox Vaccination (from Scientific and Policy Considerations in Developing Smallpox Vaccination Options: A Workshop Report) <- this article is like 20 years old, but it has some interesting information about the clinical forms of smallpox and how difficult they would be to diagnose accurately
Phasing out monkeypox: mpox is the new name for an old disease <- discusses the renaming of monkeypox to mpox, also mentions issues with other poxvirus names and virus names in general
Poxes great and small: The stories behind their names
We are also more likely to die from the consequences of STEM scholars Not knowing enough sociology and history and Art, or from the consequences of Business scholars knowing neither enough science nor enough humanities, than we are to die from the consequences of Humanities Scholars not knowing enough Science, but it is nevertheless important (for Society as a whole working as well as possible, through people being appropriately appreciative of academics as a way to holistic problemsolving, and to prevent fraud and quackery and conspiracy-ideologies), for everyone in a decisionmaking Position and ESPECIALLY for academic researchers and teachers-for-older-youth, to have a functional/adult understanding of the very basic principles of the Things they're NOT an expert in.
i'll draw wraparounds (the other most popular style of these) tomorrow but uh. common pavilic hand jewelry go 👍
some notes:
TERMINOLOGY
- bottom bracelet is usually referred to as the "anchor"
- digits referred to as 1-2-3-4 going outward, so your pointer is your first, middle second, so on. thumb is your thumb.
- side ring used in most designs (but not all! like in wraparound designs, not pictured here) is just called "the ring" or "side ring"
- the designs pictured here are all "square base", meaning the attachment points for chain/string form a general square shape.
- in diagrams; pink pieces like the middle point in the cross design are optional; they're usually interchangeable, both for ease of use / mobility and so you can show off all your fancy charms at different times.
- in diagrams; yellow is solid pieces; orange is chain; red is connecting pieces
ACTUAL NOTES
okay so the cool thing about hand chains is they have so much variety. like. so much. they're still coming up with new ones. think all the crazy earrings you've seen in your life; people will always be coming up with new ones, but most people who enjoy wearing them have a simple pair or two that they rotate between, maybe with special ones for fancy occasions.
they're also old. really old! and like all old things, there's traditions and associations with what style you wear. as a broad generalization-
- hand chains without bracelets are usually seen as super formal- this is because they come loose and slide off easier, so if you're wearing them, you aren't going to be doing much with your hands. they also generally wear tighter, so they're not as comfortable for long periods of time.
- both hand chains with and without bracelets can be formal or informal, it really depends more on what materials and what's attached to them.
- gemstones in the rings - you're rich as hell. most hand chains just have solid rings because the point of the hand chain is. well. the chain.
- permanently attached chain is also another "you're rich as hell" or "you're trying to be super formal" thing. this is because, broadly speaking, you would've had to get this professionally fitted for it to both wear right and be able to be put on, so you have the money and resources to go do that. for hand jewelry. of all things.
- most hand chain chains attach with clips, similar to ones you'd find on hoop earrings where the post snaps down into the back. this way they stay in place, but can be attached once the rings are already on; this allows the wearer to move them to a proper distance, to get the tension they prefer.
- hand chain chain clips (just "chain clips" usually) wear out over time, but sometimes you have a really sentimental pair, and if just squeezing it back together doesn't work, there's jewelers- like people who repair rings in the real world- who will fix them up. having a really old hand chain pair, or even just one hand, is a pretty common yet highly valued heirloom.
- i mentioned interchangeable charms earlier, but there's a lot of interchangeable everything, especially with clip-on chains. it's common to have gemstones embedded into, kind of like a tennis bracelet? ish? hard to explain.
- textile hand chains are the most informal, usually made of plain colors and worn for comfort reasons; kind of like a very socially acceptable version of wearing gloves all the time. (not like gloves though, because syTP-TC hates gloves, but that's another post.) a lot of times, children will wear these, and those can be plenty brightly colored. it's rare to see an adult walking down the street with hot pink braided hand chain (unfortunately) but you might see black, brown, muted reds or greens or blues, etc. of course there's variation here as well. often woven like you'd do for embroidery thread bracelets. rare but meaningful gifts, when handwoven.
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sometimes you name something and it's just. yeah. that's it's name! that describes it! names don't encompass everything ever but that one is trying it's best. love when that happens
HEY DON'T CRY. 8,008 SPECIES OF FROG IN THE WORLD PER AMPHIBIAWEB AND THE 8,000TH FROG WAS DESCRIBED BY TUMBLR'S OWN FROG SCIENTIST DR. Scherz, ET AL., PEACE AND LOVE ON PLANET EARTH ‼️‼️‼️
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"Wow," the girl snorted, looking him up and down without much approval, "a halfblood who lived outside of camp 'til he's fifteen? You must be really good at hiding."
"That, or he isn't very powerful." The boy standing behind her stated neutrally, looking more curious than critical.
"Oh, be nice, you two." The smaller girl scowled at them, quickly readjusting her features as she stuck her hand out to him. "Hi, I'm Victoire. This is Kuan and Isabel." She gestured over her shoulder at each of the kids in turn.
Lambert nodded slowly, unsure of how to take such varying reactions. "I'm Samuel." He said, gingerly taking Victoire's hand.
She shook firmly, and then turned to Kuan. "You'll probably be staying with him for a while, since you haven't been claimed yet. The Hermes cabin is nice; big, but full of people. They're pretty welcoming."
Starting out toward said cabin, the other kids easily fell in line with Isabel in the lead. "So," she said, conversationally, "how did you manage to avoid the monsters for so long? Do you really just have lame gifts, or was it your parents?"
Lambert blinked. "Monsters..." he said, quietly, thinking back. All the things he had definitely seen, the creatures that everyone insisted weren't there, the thing that had killed his mom. They were all monsters. Monsters that had come because of him. It was his fault.
He stopped walking, clenching his fists and trying to keep the tears from dripping down his cheeks. Isabel took a second to notice, Victoire pulling on her arm and shushing her gently.
"Hey." Isabel waved a hand in front of his face, looking concerned. Lambert squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore her. "What's up? Sam, what's wrong?"
"It's 'Samuel'." He gritted out, feeling himself lose the battle with his emotions.
Isabel scoffed. "Okay, 'Samuel'. What's up?"
He could feel her staring at him, along with Victoire and Kuan and all the others in the vicinity. He just shook his head, unable to form words at the moment.
"Sam, what's wrong? Do you want us to go get someone?"
My mom, he wants to say, but he knows that is childish, not to mention impossible.
"Sam. Hey, Sam. Can you tell us what's going on? You know we can't help if-"
That's it. "I don't want your 'help'!" He breaks. "I don't want 'powers' or monsters or to even be here! I wish I were home with my mom, but instead I'm here with you so can you please just shut up?"
It is blessedly silent for a few seconds. The air smells faintly of ozone, he notices vaguely.
"Alright, fine. We'll leave you alone. Good luck with this one in your cabin, Kuan." The sound of receding footsteps shouldn't bring such shame with it, but he can't help himself. His mom would always tell him that every first impression was a chance to make new friends. He supposed he had failed pretty spectacularly at it.
"There, there, Sam." A new voice, one of an adult. An oddly sweet smell accompanied him, but Lambert couldn't quite place it. There was a cool hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes.
"Let's go for a walk, shall we?" Said the man with slicked back hair and a professional looking suit, grinning at him.
