#takethewatch

I’ve always been really fascinated by early humans (or human-adjacent people? Tbh I’m not 100% on the scientific details re neanderthals etc) and the way some things they did are still totally recognizable Human Experiences even at thousands and thousands of years distance. i know you're a real life anthropologist but it seems like your areas of expertise are somewhat later so I'm curious if there's any sources you've found particularly helpful for research for your story? (confession: this is 89% a selfish question cause i have wanted to write an early humans story for aaaaaages and id love to collect some sources to use for if and when i actually get around to it)

Haha yeah, what I actually study is quite a lot later—I got hooked on Ice Age stuff when I took a “Peopling of the Americas” class as an elective primarily as an excuse to get to take a field trip to see the 21,000 year old White Sands Footprints (amazing experience). Fascinating class and I learned a lot even aside from the White Sands trip. But it’s firmly a personal curiosity interest more than any work I actually do, haha.

That said, it’s fascinating! And if you are interested I highly recommend Everyday Life in the Ice Age by  Elle Clifford and Paul G. Bahn. It’s thorough and very readable and covers a lot of topics on how Ice Age people would have lived. (I have some gripes with it—it is verrrrry Europe-centric, and assumes that everybody reading it is European and of course knows where places like Dordogne and Creuse are; there aren’t NEARLY enough maps in it. The authors are also sometimes kind of weird about Indigenous people and frequently assume everyone in the past was heterosexual even as they are clearly trying not to.) However, it is very comprehensive about the topics of life—what we know about people’s health, diets, habitations, birth and maternity, toolmaking and tool availability, new research about animal management—I’ve been getting a LOT of ideas from it, and it’s written in a very accessible and easy-to-read style. If you’re interested in what life would have been like 40,000-13,000 years ago, especially if you want to write a story set then and get in your characters’ heads, that is absolutely where I’d recommend starting!

as for Ice Age Story… yeah it is admittedly mostly in Note Taking Stages. I have lots of ideas but have written very little 😅 Scattered scenes here and there but it still mostly exists in my head… and in my notes app on my phone with the conlang lol

The more I see of this sad asparagus of a man the more I love him

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(I know the answer to the pet one I just want to hear about him)

cuddles - do you have any pets?

YES his name is YUJI he is ORANGE he is the LIGHT OF MY WHOLE LIFE and you should LOOK AT HIM

paper - favorite children's book?

oh it's go, dog. go! hands down, no contest. i still think about this interaction daily:

"hello again." "hello." "do you like my hat?" "no, i do not like your hat. goodbye again." "goodbye."

ICONIC literally every time someone says "hello again" this whole conversation plays out in my head exactly the way my mom used to read it

honorable mention goes to the kissing hand, which my mom read to me before i went to kindergarten 💗

freckles - most-worn article of clothing?

oh man i have a pair of sweatpants i got as an emergency purchase on a work trip, i literally walked into target and just grabbed the first pair of sweatpants i saw, and when i tell you they are the COMFIEST little fuckers in the world. they're all bleach-stained now because i wear them while cleaning but they're so comfortable i love them to death.

thank you so much!!

@takethewatch replied to your post “wow nothing to destroy my illusions of personal growth like folding a...”

If you'd like another method to try, mine is: 1) enter the scenario with staunch determination 2) spend two minutes trying to get the sheet exactly in half, because the first fold is the foundation for future success 3) try to fold it in quarters and realize you don't own enough arms to keep all the layers of fabric in place 4) vaguely roll up whatever's left until it's about the same size as the perfectly folded top sheet 5) stuff it all into the hall closet.

7) Which party member do they understand the least? 

For Marin I think its still Nora, even with last Adara session’s illuminations. Like myself, Marin didn’t expect the kind of overlap there is between their childhoods, and I think that means there's a shorthand understanding about somethings between the two of them, that others might now pick up on right away. But there is also this sort of misalignment, for lack of a better word. Like Marin gets why Nora is so put off by the whole temple institution. Marin doesn’t think she’s wrong, and in a lot of ways they agree with her. But I don’t think Marin fully understands how Nora could just let all of it go wholesale, because Marin isn’t even sure how to let go of the bad parts yet, much less the stuff that still feels beautiful and sacred and comforting. 

Mattie, on the other hand, is tricky because I think they feel like they understand Sheridan and Raleigh pretty well. I wrote awhile back for another ask meme thing that Mattie’s biggest flaw is their pride. As much as they like to think their upbringing is complete separate from them, the emphasis on routine, snap judgements, and the difficultly admitting mistakes or misunderstandings- those are things that are deeply ingrained from that. That being said, there are many things about Raleigh that are an absolute enigma to them. Like how Raleigh remains so bright and open and selfless, when tbh they could be less of all those things and it would be still be understandable from Mattie’s POV. Raleigh’s innate affinity for magic is also confusing as it is fascinating for someone who didn’t grow up with powers at all. I also think there are these little stirrings deep inside of them that whisper “kindred soul” when the two of them are at their peak dumd (though right now I think Mattie would rather die than voice that thought out loud). I said awhile back that in another life, I don’t think he and Raleigh would be so different. It’s a dynamic that sort of mirrors what Marin and Nora have. 

It’s been a killer week teaching middle school but what keeps me going is that the little boy who showed up from a country in civil war looking absolutely fucking haunted has *finally* started smiling at me, and speaking unprompted above a whisper, and running around silly, and he looks like a child instead of a ghost ��

I think it's more a thing in big cities in the US too. Out in the countryside, like along highways, you could just go in and use the bathroom and go right out. Its more the idea that it's rude to do that than any actual prohibition against it