The countdown begins! We’re officially one week away from the Day of Change, 2020!
The Day of Change is an important narrative event in the Briarverse, which originated from The Monarch Papers. You can read about that in the Wiki here, but beware spoilers.
Since 2017, the Day of Change has become a community-focused event centered on each of the guilds, their self-definitions, and any annual re-definitions we choose to make as a community. It’s a time to express yourself and what your guild means to you, bond with your guildmates, and generally celebrate the presence of magic in all of our lives.
This year, we’ve got a very special #GuildPride initiative to get everyone excited and thinking about all of the ways you can channel your guild in your everyday life! We’re calling it Guild Bingo, but it’s less a traditional Bingo board and more an opportunity to collectively reflect on and celebrate our guilds and what they mean to us.
(CJ Note: Catherine is being exceptionally kind about it being a less traditional bingo game because originally it was going to be MUCH more bingo-like with incredible ideas for challenges by the community leaders, but at the last moment I made the executive decision to really simplify it because I know everyone has a lot going on right now and I wanted to make sure the DoC was as easy and festive as possible.)
The squares/objectives on the “bingo board” are the same for each guild, and are as followed:
1. Guild Gear
Put together your most guild-inspired outfit and either wear it, lay it out, draw it, or find some other way to show it off!
2. Lists
Put together your ultimate guild entertainment list, be it a list of guild-inspired books, songs, shows/movies, or anything else you can think of. Make sure you share it either here, or on a platform like Spotify, Bookshop, Goodreads, or Letterboxd where everyone else can enjoy!
3. Places
Show or describe a location that you think gives the ultimate guild-vibe. Is it a favorite local hideaway, a place you visited once on a trip, or a place you’ve only ever seen photos of but just know it screams your guild? Show us your favorite places!
4. Magimystic Memory
Do you have a particular memory that, looking back, seems especially representative of your guild? Whether it was before or after your introduction to the Briarverse, tell us about an awesome Weatherwatch adventure or the night you pulled a total Thornmouth by cramming 300 pages into 6 hours.
5. Elementals
Find an object in your home that best represents your guild’s magimystic element, and tell us its story! Have you used it before in casting a spell? Did it find you in a noteworthy way? Or have you always just felt a vaguely magical attachment to it, without necessarily knowing why?
6. Mood Board
(Because we love a good project!) Create a physical or virtual mood board of things you associate with your guild and/or things you’d like to see included in its general perception. We want to see what your guild feels like to you, because we have a feeling that it’s a little different for everyone and that’s awesome.
You can post your completed challenges right here in this thread, where we’ll be able to keep track of all of the entries. There aren’t really any rules or any specific order you have to follow to complete these, but upon completion, you will receive a limited edition Day of Change 2020 forum badge! If you’re feeling fancy, you’re also welcome to dabble in the challenges for other guilds as well, but you’ll only receive the badge for fully completing each challenge for one guild. You can do one a day, or cram it all into next Wednesday, but as long as it’s finished by the end of the Day of Change, it counts! Everyone who receives the badge will also be entered into a special giveaway as well.
We can’t wait to see what you all come up with! Ready, set, go!
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I made a mood/aesthetic board for my very own beloved guild of Balimora!
I don’t actually have a ton of real clothes that say “I’m a Balimora” because my personal aesthetic is Dark Academia, which is a Thornmouth thing if I ever saw one. BUT! I do have a dress up game with ten thousand items of carefully created and painstakingly level ground for clothes, of all aesthetics. So I made two Balimoran outfits there. One is Fancy Bali and one is About To Go Adventuring Bali.
Love Nikki! I play that one every day. Maybe we could be in-game friends? (And also where did you get the skirt for the adventuring look?)
I’d love to be friends in Love Nikki! My user number is 109452528, you can search for me in the friends section. The skirt is Shackle of Status, the green custom version of Elegant Rest, which is sadly from the event suit Radiance of Freedom. I do have a similar but less awesome skirt from Porch of Misty, Tea-picking Tune Skirt.
I think I have the normal version of that suit! Added you
Edited into a Bingo post! Pls check back for updates!
Guild Gear
Lists
Here’s my collection of Thornworthy music
Places
Magimystic Memory
Elementals
Moodboard
I went ahead and made a little mood board for us Thornies!
Challenge #1: Guild Gear
My guild coat
Challenge #2: Lists
I started this playlist earlier this year with Weatherwatch in mind. It was private for a long time, but it’s grown enough and hopefully has enough consistency that I’m happy to make it public and share it here with the Mounties! ^-^ I’ll add it to the Mountain Sound thread as well.
Challenge #3: Places
New Orleans is a city close to my heart – I grew up in the Midwest, but virtually my entire family lives in NOLA, so we travel there often. Not long after I joined AG last year, the Day of Change 2019 was happening, and Weatherwatch established that our guild home was made up in part of a collection of small islands that reflect the climates of all the different places we’ve been.
New Orleans is a mish mash of different cultures – it was owned by the French and the Spanish before it was American, and has been home to the cultures of countless other places. This is reflected in its architecture, its food, and its people. It’s on the coast, so it also has a long history of trade and of piracy, which I always thought was wicked cool.
All of this to say, New Orleans is a lot of places reflected in one place, and I feel like that’s very much what Weatherwatch is, too.
Challenge #4: Magimystic Memory
For the last week of July this past summer, upon realizing it might be my last chance to go on a big trip with my boyfriend before he started law school (and that Europe wasn’t an option during a pandemic), I seized the opportunity to take a somewhat last minute trip up north to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan with a group of my friends. It wasn’t anything fancy – mostly hopping between different natural landmarks, enjoying Mackinac Island, lots of hiking and biking and such – but it was a spur of the moment adventure with some of my favorite people. It felt incredibly liberating to just pick up and go to see what was up there and take things day by day. I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life, but I took most vacations growing up out of state, and mostly to New Orleans to visit family, so it also felt like an entirely new adventure in my own home territory. Taking the lead on unexpected adventures with friends feels incredibly on brand for Weatherwatch.
(Image is of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore)
Challenge #5: Elementals
I can’t remember when I started lighting candles whenever I sat down to read. Probably some time in high school… and as long as I can remember lighting candles to read, I remember using this same lighter. It’s nothing fancy, just a blue lighter like you’d see someone use for a grill or for birthday candles or whatever. But I associate it with early mornings when no one is awake yet and late nights when I can finally wind down for the day without interruptions.
The only strange thing about this lighter is that it is strangely powerful. My mom used to call it my meditation blowtorch because when you light it, it makes a sound like a little blow torch, instead of just being quiet like you might expect.
It’s bright and it helps prepare me to travel to distant places from the comfort of my reading chair. A lovely little example of the element of light.
Challenge #6: Mood Board
Onward to The Further Fire!
BINGO!
Oh I’m awful at making themed playlists but I have 7 hours of travel time coming up today so maybe I’ll try my hand at it a little bit haha!
EternalHeart’s BINGO Card
1. Guild Gear
2. Lists
3. Places (images are of real places, but found on the internet)
4. Magimystic Memory
5. Elementals
6. Mood Board
Wyvern’s BINGO Card
(good idea, @eternalhearts)
Guild Outfit
This outfit is definitely one I’ve worn before, since I always wear these jeans and usually this jacket if I’m going to be doing some hard work which I thought was right! I made the patch on the breast, and I also wove the scarf (super soft, too)!
Lists
I went with a playlist mostly because I love music and I think I have an easier time getting the right “vibe” from music to match things, although it’s still hard! For this playlist I ended up choosing songs I thought I’d like to jam to while working in a workshop or studio, more than songs I though were necessarily super flintery (but I did try to keep it kind of themed)!
Places
This is the easiest one for me I think!
(Not a picture of me, that’s the lead fabricator, a wonderful woman!) The Shedd Aquarium fabrication lab was the place that really made me realize how much I actually loved making things, and making things for something at that. I was lucky enough to participate in the founding session of Club Shedd in high school, and my project was to design a tank/exhibit for a habitat that needed to be refurbished. We were able to visit the fabrication lab, where they make all the various physical things that an aquarium needs, from tank decorations to exhibit signs (to tactile low-vision educational materials that I helped create/inspire). They had this huge space, filled to the brim with materials and machines and projects in all states of completion. I wanted to get my hands on everything and try it all out! I’m not a talented enough sculptor to go into that kind of fabrication full time, but I did feel that pull at the time and I still love creating exhibit objects when I get the chance, like during zoo and aquarium internships.
Magimystic Memory
I think maybe one of the most Flinter things I’ve done in recent memory was a supplement to a school project. I was in an early modern history course last year, and I was doing a presentation on the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake (one of my absolute favorite moments in history tbh). I had a slideshow all ready to go, set with visuals and nice transitions, but then as I sat there I thought, “how in the world am I going to explain this new form of architecture? I’m not good enough with words for that.” So I started fiddling with some extra notecards I had on hand, and in the span of maybe 15 minutes of mostly idle fiddling while watching YouTube videos, I had created a scale model of the characteristic earthquake-resistant walls of the Lisbon Baixa, complete with wood grain texture and tape to represent the weak tendons connecting the facade to the frame. Another fun example might be from fifth grade, when I used all period-accurate materials to make a model of an Iriquois longhouse for a class project. Or when I made a full-size model of a penguin with a replica digestive tract that you could pass an actual endoscope into (and I was the only one on the team who could actually manage to get the endoscope into the thing, too haha!).
I only just remembered this today, but maybe the earliest thing that was very flinter behavior was in second grade, in the after-school program. We were doing a craft project, making and decoratin a rainstick and I sat there working on it for at least an hour, long after every single other kid had gone outside to play. The teacher had to force me to leave it and go outside and I was just a little upset about that haha!
Elementals
I couldn’t decide between these two, so I went with both! One of these was also featured in my guild outfit! The first elemental is my flute. I’ve had this flute for over 7 years now and I love it more than nearly anything else I own. It means a lot to me and even though I haven’t necessarily taken the best care of it (I got it just before high school so I didn’t really know what I was doing), I feel like we’re connected and if it could, it would say the same of me (it hates E naturals thank you very much).
The other elemental is a necklace I only got last year, but I knew I had to have him. This was handmade by an artist, so in that respect he’s already Flinter material, but he also represents change and resilience, and although it’s not necessarily in his symbology as a fire salamander, I like to think he’s also a symbol of creation and making and renewal, kind of like a phoenix. The red/pink triangle above him is the alchemical symbol for fire and change! I really wanted to include him because he already means a lot to me but also because he seems an appropriate personal mascot for the Day of Change.
Moodboard
This was hard! I don’t usually do themed things like this because the feelings/shapes I have in my head for things just don’t match up to actual real-world visuals or sounds or anything, but I did my best!
(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)
Totally stealing the bingo-card-in-a-post idea and will update this one as I finish!
If I have a couple spare moments tomorrow, I might try to take an actual picture, but in the meantime, I did one of those dress up games things for what I think a low-key Flinter outfit would look like…maybe something for a more brainstorming/designing-oriented day than something in the workshop (though a quick run to the workshop is never out of the question). Dark jeans (all the better to disguise coffee spills and build residues), heavy boots (for magiqal OSHA foot safety regulations), hair up and out of the way, a comfy shirt, tunes, and a sketchbook and writing supplies.
For some reason, this one has been particularly hard for me. For like, books and movies, I keep going back and forth between things that are about flinter-y topics and things that are flinter-y in execution (things that would be creative and unique in execution, to my mind). I guess a couple that come to mind are:
For music, I think of what I like to work to. When I’m planning or designing, I tend to go for instrumentals and music without lyrics. If I’m in the process of making something, I might go for something that I can sing along to. So I threw together a playlist that has a little of both!
There’s a coworking studio in my town that I’ve been drawn to for years but haven’t had an excuse to drop the membership fee money. In general, I feel like coworking spaces scream flinter, but this one has an added
aesthetic touch 
. From what I’ve gathered online, there’s all sorts of tables in a common area so you can work alone or in small groups, there’s a mini machine shop, some more technical maker tools like 3D printers, plus a little kitchenette/coffee bar. One day…one day I’ll be able to join something like this…
Magimystic Memory
A very guild-representative memory I have is from (I think) middle school. I was still pretty new to sewing but I desperately wanted to design my own renaissance faire costume. So I have a book of historical theatrical costumes that was intended to provide guides for drafting your own pattern…but I didn’t know that. Instead, I figured out the math I needed to scale the diagrams up with my home printer, and then fixed all the important measurements to fit me. And then I stayed up almost all night the day before faire day to finish sewing and altering it because surprise the pattern didn’t work out right. But I still wore it that day and I hung onto it for a long time because it felt too special to throw away. A couple years ago, I chopped the bodice off and gave the skirt a waistband and started wearing it to faires again!
Elemental
I’ll have to look around and see if I have it here and add a picture later if I do, but my most “elemental” object is a pendant I made in high school. I was on my school’s robotics competition team, and felt pretty out of place during my first couple meetings. I joined at a weird time so I had missed a lot of the pre-season training. New members on the team often got assigned the easy/minimal-decisions-required machining jobs, and one of the first things I had to do was re-cut some extruded aluminum framing that hadn’t been cut properly. One of the pieces was only off by about an 1/8th of an inch, so when I fixed it, there was a pretty useless chunk left. Normally, all scrap either goes back in a bin to be re-used or it gets thrown out – no one was supposed to keep anything – but some of the older members and I think a mentor suggested I keep the piece as a memento. I ended up attaching some chain to it and wearing it to most/every event I went to with the team…and also sometimes just for fun. It reminds me a lot of those early days on the team, which was a big influence on my decision to study engineering. So it’s got a lot of Ore in it, I think.
Moodboard
(with a little nod to the flinter bikes, @Viviane)
Bingo card post, what a wonderful innovation!
Put together this look with practicality in mind. Probably something i’d wear while doing evening chores around camp, and then to the drumfire later that evening!
These are all books I feel relate to the house of Humanity in some way
The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis
The BFG by Roald Dahl
The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri
3. Places
I grew up very near a shrine to the Black Madonna, an incarnation of the virgin Mary. I was not raised religious, certainly not Christian, but I adored the sounds of the Sunday churchbells as they washed over my house. The way pilgrims gathered with shaking hands and voices, spilling prayers and offerings at the foot of this giant painting. Sometimes my mum and I would walk the rosary garden and sketch or photograph the statues, depicting all these people coming together.
I have a very vivid memory of an afternoon spent struggling with an origami pattern. Watching the sunset as a little box took shape in my hands. It was for the Basecamps safeguard, and I just remember this great sense of common drum as other Mounties texted me as we labored over the folding together. A sweet and simple moment.
5. Elemental
6. Moodboard
Bingo-ing!
1. Guild Gear
Quite possibly the most Bali of all my clothing, cottony and comfy and easy to run about in! As delightful as it is to be barefoot, I sadly do not have hobbitish feet, so ghillie style shoes it is. And of course, my trusty walking stick.
I was also visited by a small embodiment of Chaos, who desperately needed to communicate with me during the process…
2. Lists
Some Bali-Books (Goodreads list):
Some Bali-Films:
Some Bali-Music!
And…I mean…the entire album Songs from the Wood by Jethro Tull.
3.Places
There have been many magical, Balimoran places in my life (the small stand of pines on my great-aunt’s farm, the lake my dad used to take me fishing on) but this mountain called Tahoma with her cloak of old forest compelled me to move across the country to be nearer to her. I’ve never been anywhere that smelled alive the way this place does. The need for words can vanish here, swallowed up in curling fronds and dripping moss. These trees remember how to speak.
Magimystic Memory
This is more a web of memories than a specific moment. I mentioned in the section above a lake I used to go fishing on. It’s called Lake Wauhob. It’s a focal point in my memory for what I feel primed me for the House of the Wilds: time spent with my dad. My dad is a master gardener, an outdoorsman/conservationist, and an enthusiast of paleontology. He will spend hours just roaming the spaces between towns, what was once the Kankakee marshlands and he taught me to share that. He would take me hunting for frogs and toads. We would walk around our neighborhood looking for certain trees to gather tomato worms for bait. He explained to me the importance of worms and bees and bats and spiders. He taught me when and where best to spot deer, where to find bass in the lake, and we would drive for a good hour or so just to look at fields of migrating sand cranes. He showed me fossils and bought me books on dinosaurs. He held my hand when I buried my first goldfish and the roses that should have been pink came up orange that summer. My dad is as Balimora as they come, and he showed me the Great Chaos before I’d ever heard of it.
Elemental
My family used to visit this historic farmstead a few times a year. They had a maple syrup festival in winter and a harvest festival in late summer, and educational reenactments all year long and it was surrounded by acres of forest trails. One visit when I was about 6 or so, I left the path to explore a small creek and I found this bone. One of my various aunts had just given me a hide drum, and I thought it looked like the perfect thing to play it with. It’s been part of all my magical workings ever since. I don’t know for sure what animal it was part of, but my dad’s best guess was a young deer, as whitetails are very common there, and that’s always how I’ve thought of it.
Moodboard
Weatherwatch Bingo.
1. Guild Gear
With lots of extra pockets inside, carrying tea, thermos, blanket, maps, torch, compass, snacks
I would love to actually own this, but as with most clothes I fall in love with, I find it years too late.
Who doesn’t love a good lace up boot! with zips for lazyness.
2. Lists
Ok lists are hard, nothing fully encapsulates what I imagine but also has huge sections that don’t fit.
3. Places
Places is odd having not made it out much this year and generally avoided virtual adventure. But the woods by my home keeps me sane. There are so many paths, many of which I haven’t taken yet, and combined with the new seasons every walk is different, with new things or places to discover. Its constantly changing making it an endless trove for exploring. I’m looking forward to covid not being a thing and being able to adventure further, to do any of the mad ideas we’ve planned but not done this year eg Cannonball john o groats to Lands End, freight ferry to Norway and drive to the most northern point, NC 500 but for now, I’ll stick with my woods, on my doorstep waiting for me to find the next glade.
4. Magimystic Memory
We used to take part in a charity event for Macmillan cancer support, a 500mile on and off road treasure hunt for want of a better description. We would normally take months to prep the cars and our kit to take part. A couple years back we couldn’t enter that particular year, we hadn’t the time/money to fundraise or pay entry… or at least that’s what we thought.
2 days before the event another team local to us had complete engine failure, with no chance of recovery in time. They had already raised way over the fundraising target and the organisers agreed they could swap out with another vehicle, enter us! We’re in Wales its gone 11pm Wednesday, we have work all day Thursday Friday and the start point is Scotland in 11am on Friday… we of course say yes we’ll happily take our friends place.
We have no time to prep kit, the car has been running ok, but is due maintenance, and really we need to raise £600 before the event starts, even if our entry fee has been covered, its charity!
It’s stupid and fun but why not!
We both manage to blag Friday off work and travel most of the way north to crash at my parents Thursday evening. By this point word has got out that we’re playing this completely by ear and we’ve somehow raised ~£200 in ~24 hours.
Friday morning rolls round, there is snow on the ground, my parent have gone to work, we’re about to leave for the start line and the car wont start! We have the part but we cant get the broken part off! We call out to the event participants to see if anyone might still be south of us and can pause to help. Another team we know really well show up, mocking us for breaking down before the start line and for not being able to replace the part. Thus begins 30min of 4 grown adults insulting a car, bruising knuckles , abusing every tool we have to hand and generally failing to replace the part. It eventually gives and we send our friends ahead, so they can at least register on time. We get everything back together and zoom up the motorway and miraculously make it to registration only 1 min before scrutineering closes.
The event itself is a blur of breakdowns, joking with other teams, dancing, getting lost and finding our way again, drifting our Landrover down a mountain, spotting clues in the most impossible places and the relief of somehow making it to the finish line. Bonus, word of mouth and our apparent insanity resulted in us raising more then the £600 target!
5. Elementals
I’m surrounded by light and lanterns. Various styles and features. Bright for projects, dim for when I’m light sensitive.
My favourite 2 have to be
1- the LED flame effect orange glass lantern, that is programmed to turn on and off by itself. Its linked to the temperature so when its more than 3c cooler outside vs inside, it lights up with its warm glow.
2. oil lantern at the top of the stairs, weathered and beaten up but still useful
6. Mood Board
PS bonus Thornmouth bingo, day to day I’m probably a better fit for thornmouth, but both guilds call to my soul
Guild gear.
Glass quill, rollback longline jumper, huge mug, bookmark that doubles as a cool eating when not in use and hooked over ear.
Lists
My favourite go to film sound tracks for working to or reading to
Places
My reading chair
Snuggles in 1 direction I can sit and imagine what the room will look like when I finish building it so it earns its name of library. For now I can just see the stacks of books and the boxes of books to beautiful to be unpacked without a proper home.
Snuggles the other way I have a view of the garden, mainly the maple and the wisteria climbing and knotted around the limbs, both trees are best guess over 100.
Magimystic Memory
Elementals
Thought, god’s I have soo many books that embody this. But I think the foam core scale replica of rooms is more appropriate. We built the first 1 to work out if a new sofa would fit and we’ve built more to complete over plan the kitchen/pantry remodel.
Mood board
40 Thornmouth Briarverse ideas | hogwarts aesthetic, light in the dark, boarding school aesthetic
Here’s all my stuff! Held off on posting until I had everything.
1. Guild Gear
Not my best flat lay, but you get the gist. Comfortable sweater, axe necklace, black pants with a cool woven belt, black mask (stay safe), black boots, sword hair sticks, lighter, journal, and trusty sword. It’s a bit dressier version of my normal traveling clothes.
2. List: Songs
I cheated a bit and pulled these from my roadtrip/travel playlist. At least one of them is only available on youtube, I’m not sure if the others are available on other platforms.
3. Places
I don’t have any pictures (and the place has since been sold and renovated) but there used to be a cafe, Carmel by the Sea, in my town. It was right on the riverbank, and if you climbed up to the second floor you were greeted by floor-to-ceiling windows that gave you a view of the river and the islands. The place was big, with dark wooden bookshelves filled with knick knacks lining the walls and tables tucked against them.
I’d go there once a week or so to meet with friends and discuss our lives. Surrounded by books, with good food and drinks, and discussing our plans for the future and our trips that we went on or were planning, seems very much like a Weatherwatch place to me. If it was raining it was even better, as we got to watch the clouds roll in the and the river rise. The new cafe still has good food and coffee, but has gotten rid of the bookshelves and worn leather-cushion benches in favour of white walls and modern furniture.
4. Magimystic Memory
There’s plenty of memories that tie into my identity as a Weatherwatcher, but I’ll be a bit sentimental and pick one from when I was a child. My grandparents live up in the mountains on a farm and I would spend most of the summer up there either helping out or getting in the way. One particularly windy day my cousins and I ransacked the house for blankets and pillowcases and walked the half mile down to the lower fields.
The lower fields are pretty boring (the farm is mostly hayfields, with some livestock) but one field in particular had the feature we were looking for: a sharp drop off from the road. Now, it’s only about two feet high, but when you’re eight and only three or four feet tall yourself that’s a long way. It was growing towards the second cut, and had finally got past the dry stage where it cuts you if you rub against it, so it was safe enough to tumble about in the grass.
We spent about two or three hours figuring out the best way to rig ourselves up so that we could ‘fly’. The wind was so strong and we were so small that we could get a good four or five feet before landing. It probably wasn’t even that far out that we were going, but it certainly felt like it. If you timed it just right, you could jump and the blankets would fill up and you’d be weightless. It was the first time I’d ever felt like that, outside of being twirled around by my father or older cousins. Eventually we were called in for dinner, and I don’t believe we ever did it again, but the memory sticks out. Even as a kid I wanted to fly.
5. Elementals
Oh, this one is hard. I’ll go with my lighter. A boy I dated for a week gifted me this Ed Hardy airplane lighter. It’s up in the flat lay above. I don’t smoke but I do routinely set things on fire, and it’s a good gift for someone who’s burnt themselves on traditional lighters many times.
I haven’t lit anything other than candles and my gas stove with it for quite some time. I still keep it on hand, though, because a little flame (a little light) is always helpful.
6. Mood Board
You can really tell I prefer blues over any other colour.
There it all is!
I check these every day and just cry.
DoC is about you, not me, but I have to tell you… seeing your contributions here and in the guild topics, seeing your sweet faces, reading your ideas and dreams… it’s what makes all of this worth it. Thank you all so much. I’m excited about this DoC in particular because it feels like a way of embracing the chaos and change that’s been kind of been forced upon us this past year… I feel like we’re taking hold and working with it instead of pushing back and fighting it. That feels healthy and encouraging. Feels like us.
If I can finish unpacking in time I’ll do a DoC Bingo reply too, but PLEASE keep these posts and your posts in your guilds coming. They are inspiring and really do help shape what’s to come.
My bingo post, 6/6!
Guild Gear: The closest I have right now (until I make my evolving guild coat dreams a reality) would be the running Ebbie theme I was going for February of last year when I did my first live 10k and half marathon.
I also now have a proper belt. The buckle style is called “surf,” but it’s my Tides belt.
Lists: Fair warning, this list is basically my brain making some sort of potentially loose connection, and will absolutely be all over the place. In no particular order:
Judas Priest – Revolution; You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
Sleeping at Last – Four; Six
Rush – Mystic Rhythms (might be more general than Ebbie-specific); Red Tide; Far Cry; Spindrift
The Beatles – Blackbird
I’m sure there’d be more if I paid more attention (yes to @Ginger’s BTS pick!)
Places: I found an awesome Ebbie castle while trying to do a moodboard! So awesome, it’s on there twice.
Magimystic Memory: Might be more of a Thorn/Flinter thing, but the night of April 29th into the 30th of my first Script Frenzy win. I closed the door to my room with over 50 pages to write by the end of the month (maybe closer to 75?), typed until I risked dropping the laptop on the floor, and checked in the morning to find I only had about 20 pages left, and the stuff I only half-remembered writing wasn’t a bunch of nonsense!
Elementals: The sea glass heart I used for the Cataclysm. I was walking back to the car from the beach and it washed up just for me to find. It being heart-shaped and not just a random piece of glass made it feel extra special.
Mood Board: (you may notice I don’t mood board much)
Places of Balimora
I don’t have any better pictures of it, but there’s a Tree on Maui. Capital letter deserved. A great old Banyan tree that takes up the size of an entire city block and stands more than 60-feet high. Basically a third of an acre of arched hallways of banyan branches that dipped down to take root. I went there when I was a child and to me, it seemed to be a magical palace, a Castle made of growing, living wood. It spoke to me, in the ways trees did when I was young. I wish I remembered what it had said.
Augustus_Octavian’s Bingo Board
1. Guild Gear
2. Lists
My list is gleaned from books that I’ve read that interface humanity with healing:
3. Places
When I was a kid growing up in Rhode Island, my parents enrolled me in a “junior scientist” camp at Brown University. The campus was intertwined with parts of Providence, and the two reflected each other there on the East Side. I’ve been to that part of town countless times, but on one particular day my dad had picked me up and we were leaving this science camp, and there was an art festival on one of the main streets. I can still feel the living spirit of the scene, some 25 years later. People of all walks of life sharing music, art, food; most of all was the vibe it gave off, so much that it’s stuck with me. When I think about Gossmere, I think about that feeling, that spirit.
4. Magimystic Memory
“Your magic alone is but a flicker in the face of the bonfire that burns when we are joined. – Ackerly Green’s Guide to M.A.G.I.Q.”
My favorite magimystic memory isn’t a single one, but rather a loose collection of memories – our group spellcasting (like The Wellspring, for example). There’s always a sense of community and belonging here, but I think it’s highlighted when we all come together and put ourselves out there working towards a common goal in the narrative.
5. Elementals
This was the most difficult part of my bingo board to complete – I really struggled with finding an object that represents an invisible force. My phone? My WiFi router? I reached out to a friend in the AG community for advice, and they told me to think about the intangibles. I went to bed thinking about sound: music, spoken-word, forest sounds, even white noise. This morning, on the treadmill, I kept thinking along those lines and asked myself what sounds represent the connection between us, and between all living things. The scientist in me drilled down to an atomic level: all of us, and everything around us, is all made out of the same handful of elements. Our planet, even our solar system, started off as one hot, spinning disc-ball of matter and coalesced in the void into… me. You. The sun. The ocean. Trees. Everything.
Now, my moody, Moby-listening phase ended around the same time as Saberlane and Knatz were assembling the time-travel puzzle box, but a song came to mind that I’m going to choose for my aether elemental: “We Are All Made of Stars” by Moby. I gave it a listen during my morning run. It fits.
6. Mood Board
Balimoran Songs:
Eye of the Storm – Cruxshadows
The Willow Maid – Erutan
The HU – Yuve Yuve Yu
Mirte Against the Big City – The Cog is Dead
Grieve No More- Patty Gurdy
That Mongolian rock band…
Magimystic Memory:
I used to talk to trees. A lot. As in whole conversations with them where they talked back if I just sat still long enough. People dismissed it as being ‘imaginary friends’, but I quite clearly recall being able to understand the trees I met. Some were standoffish and didn’t want to speak to a human, some were quite chatty in their own way, but they all COULD talk, even if they chose not to, and I could hear them.
I don’t know when I lost the ability to understand Tree, but I miss it every day.
1. Guild Wear
So I figured I would pair this with some jeans, nice boots and a cool beanie, I would slip a book in my back pocket and be on my way. However, let’s be honest if I was in my room or in Thornmouth manor going to the library or kitchen, I’d be wearing my trusty lounge pants which I can roll up if need be, dorky socks, and slip on shoes because that’s a whole lot more comfortable to sit in for hours than anything else.
2. Lists
Yeah this isn’t my strong suit but I figured I could make a list for a perfect winter night.
3. Places
Ireland just so much of everything there that really represents all of us. If I had to pick one places though, it’s pretty obvious: The Long Room at Trinity College in Dublin.
4. Magimystic Memory
Honestly, all the times I started reading at 8pm and didn’t realize what time it was till it was 2am and I’m done with another book like the second half of The Thorne of Glass series or A Courts of Thorns and Roses or the later books of Ranger’s Apperentic and Artemis Fowl.
5. Elements
I was going to talk about dreamcatchers because they’re excellent in protection, how they came about and are made is cool and I’ve always been drawn to them so much so that I have many of them. However, I went searching about to see if I could find anything more specific and I found something that I forgot I had. It’s this trinket that you can put on a necklace or bracelet and it’s 6 metal rings wrapped inside of each other. I had gotten one in the Bisexual flag colors for myself and probably could be considered my elemental along with my mechanical moon necklace because I know that they represent me well even if it’s just to myself and no one else but anyway as I was scrolling through all the colors something pulled at me when I saw this light blue one and everything in me said “that’s for her”. So I bought it too and tucked it away for safe keeping for whenever whoever she is shows up, it seemed pretty magical to me especially with the bag I keep it in.
And mine along with the current book I’m reading:
6. Mood Board
My guild feels to me like a home in a castle which means a bunch of books, good food, and good people with a crazy set up to live and work in but also really cool places to hide away in when you want to be alone. Some of the pictures are actually some of the ones used last year in the Thornmouth Day of Change post because I thought it was right and appropriate. I would’ve included cookies but I thought that was going overboard with pictures.
Added a mood board in my Bingo card!
GINGER’S BINGO CARD
1. Guild Gear
The outfit I planned was for a prime day of adventuring. ^-^
The outfit I was dying to create requires many things that are currently packed away T.T I did my best to hide brands, but unfortunately all my AGP hats are in a big ol’ box of hats in a storage locker, so deal with my Star Wars merch.
2. Lists
Here have a random list of songs that give me Ebbie vibes.
3. Places
Pictured above is Mewata Armoury. It’s essentially a big castle in the middle of downtown that most people shrug off and pass by not knowing what it is or what goes on inside. Once upon a time it stood completely alone, isolated with loads of space around, but downtown has since exploded and surrounded it. Immediately upon entering you see the big parade square, because the basic function of the armoury is that it acts as a drill hall, but there’s loads of offices, there’s mess halls, the basements (Yes, plural) are a wild mess of little known passageways between rooms that have long since been repurposed.
That’s a neat building, Ginger, why are you telling us about this?
Good question random audience member. Well, for someone who moved quite frequently growing up, I have spent more time in this building than any childhood home I’ve had. I spent at least half of my evenings in a week, and plenty of weekends in this armoury for several years. I know every room, every ghost story, the best nap spots to not get caught, where the best showers are, where they store the good rations that they hoard for the officers. To put it simply, it’s home to a bunch of different military units and organizations, such as the Squadron I was a part of and used to command. Sometimes it’s an impressive feat of how many groups you can have training around each other at one time, and other times there lies a comfortable quiet that no one is keen on breaking.
I chose this building because it is the ultimate place of purpose. No one is allowed in the building without reason, and everyone has a job that they are doing or a task that they’re completing. The uses of this building are as varied as the people who frequent it; it’s a place of mourning and of celebration, a place for training and learning, a shelter in times of need, a practice space for marching bands, a place to hold banquets, a place to grab an adult beverage with a pal who is also legally an adult. Not to mention it’s a building home to loads of people who live their lives in service to others. If that all wasn’t super Ebbie, it’s a giant castle in the middle of a downtown core, how does it get anymore Ebbie???
4. Magimystic Memory
Hmmmmm. I can think of loads for the other guilds, like the time I read four books in under 48 hours because they were just so good and I had to know what happens – very Thornmouth if I do say so myself. Pinpointing an exact memory for Ebenguard feels more difficult … perhaps it’s because things about me and about my life that are tied to my guild aren’t small moments, but the overall mosaic they create – doing a random good deed is different than intentionally spending time working for a specific cause. Or maybe I’m being super Ebbie due to the fact I’m blanking on every act of service I’ve ever done … which is only like my whole life?? Or maybe it’s because I don’t rightfully know the effect of my efforts, and have come to terms with the fact that I most likely won’t be the one to enjoy the fruits of my labours that are done for the sake of others.
There is one moment I can think of. I had just finished my Friday evening rehearsal, and I could’ve easily hopped on the bus and went home to start my weekend, but for some reason that felt wrong. I ended up going and sitting in one of the cafeterias and getting a snack. I had plenty of food at home, why did I need to buy something on campus? All of it was so silly and unnecessary. Before long one of my friends ends up walking by and I waved them over. Next thing I know we go for a walk, find a quiet spot, and she’s cautiously unloading her grief about a family member who had just passed. This girl who is a ball of sunshine, had been carrying around all that grief all by herself because she didn’t want to upset anyone else by talking about it, and was unable to make a trip home for a few more days.
I don’t really remember specifics of what was said, but I clearly remember going home that evening and understanding that the weird anomaly in my own behaviour was so that I could be there to help my friend. I remember leaving and saying to myself that yes, that was guided intentional path that lead me to helping someone step a bit out of the darkness they were facing.
5. Elementals
Tides is a tricky thing to have inspiration for in a house with definitely not a water theme in a land locked province. My immediate go to is usually my vials of sand because I’m unoriginal. For those who don’t know, I collect little glass vials or jars of sand from places I’ve been. I would show you all pictures of my collection, but they are packed safely away in storage so I can’t
I have a bunch of the little guys, and normally I put something else in it to distinguish it other than a boring old label on the bottle. I have sand from the place I was born on Vancouver Island, I have sand from the cottage by the town all from family is from on the other side of the country, I have sand from Juno Beach when I visited it on a trip going to major Canadian landmarks of WWI and WWII, I have sand from my Nanny’s favourite place in the world which happens to be in Scotland, and I have sand from cool places I’ve been or fun days I had with friends at particular beach. (I also have like essentially dirt and gravel from mountains I’ve climbed but those aren’t really watery so shhhh)
So yes, I have a collection that is meaningful to me, but we’re here for the magimystical. I used one of the vials (sand from where I was born) in an invitation spell with Robert we created in PRSFNE once upon a time for those who know what that was, or read about it. I’m still quite proud of that shared creation, and it was really interesting to get to write.
“Imagination is nothing more than a memory transposed” That was what Brandon Lachman said and what Itsuki used to always say. In a sense, these are little vials of my memories, each with their own story. So based on everything we think we know about magiq, if there wasn’t magimystical energy within them or tied to them then I’m jumping ship and going to Balimora.
6. Mood Board
I love me a good mood board, I’m so glad this is one of the items ^-^
My absolute favorite part of this was I got to mimic your entrance into neithernor. I always loved how instead of the ‘front door’ you’d always show up in the broom closet somehow. That entrance always made me smile.
When you invited me to Ebenrest I did this cheer out loud because I knew I was going to get to stumble through that closet and act all confused. Thank you for that.
So do I – sand, gravel, dirt, etc)! I’ve never actually met someone else who does this.
Maybe it’s an Ebbie Thing™
But yes I also haven’t met many others who do this so that’s really cool!!
Finished my Bingo board (with not a moment left to spare!)
Lexington’s words and thoughts, and even a few pictures:
1. Gear
This one is tough for me because when I think of the ways I “dress up,” it is exactly that: a suit, worn to teach a class or to do lawyer things. But even in that, as I am a Thornmouth, I am also a scholar, so I take with me the symbol of “the ancient and honorable company of scholars” even when I don’t actually wear it.
2. Lists
Years ago I made playlists dedicated to the four Classical elements. The one I made for Air was designed to provoke big and deep thoughts, sometimes the storm-tossed feeling of a disruptive idea, and the open feeling of wonder that can’t be encapsulated in anything so small as an idea. Sadly, I threw away all of the tapes (yes, they were mixtapes) years ago, and have since tried to reconstruct all of them, including this one. It is unapologetically weird and eclectic, and represents layers of time.
3. Places
Libraries and classrooms, of course, and observatories of all kinds, seem to be Thornmauvian. (So, I suppose, is making up new words.)
So of course the Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal:
But also two other places:
The first is a coffee shop. Virtually any coffee shop, but especially those in Italy. It’s hard to think of them as observatories, but they are: so often the chairs face outward, not toward each other. This is one of the places you learn to be human and humane.
The last is a place I don’t have a picture of, but a memory—a Magimystic Memory, so it is my next entry.
4. Magimystic Memories
The New Hampshire Astronomical Society would, especially on full moons, take telescopes out into the town squares. One freezing-cold night in Portsmouth, I watched a little girl seeing the surface of the moon for the first time. The combination of scholarship and wonder crystallized in that moment like the beam from a lighthouse flashing past.
As for that cramming habit Thornmouth sometimes have … I have it too. And also the obsession with words from other languages that express subtleties sometimes lost in English—because all language ultimately falls short of the reality it describes. Reading words like “sonder,” “kumorebi,” and “backpfeifengesicht” and knowing that I needed to know those words.
5. Elementals
I have had so many symbols of Thought around me it isn’t funny. At one point I paid out the Ace of Swords from every Tarot deck I owned in order to cast a spell (and it did work, in the end). These are the two main ones I have now: a prismatic glass pyramid my parents gave me as a gift when I was a kid, and a letter opener/athame I’ve used for years (turquoise on one side, sodalite on the other). The former symbolizes focus, and the latter is a tool for directing the powers of intellect at a problem.
6. Mood Board
One of the things I think can get lost to Thornmouth is a sense of design and arrangement. In a sense, Thornmouth is about arranging ideas into constellations, then arranging letters and words into the right patterns to convey those ideas to others with as little loss as possible. The lights we kindle are not only in words, but also in architecture, design, mathematics, and even fashion. (Credits where known: the food image is a dish from Alinea in Chicago, and the satin robe that I dream of as a Thornmouth is made and worn by Tom Ford.)
One of the ways we Thornmouth is when we arrange things to be beautiful, because that beauty conveys a truth.
Last but certainly not least… Elementals!
The element of the Wild does not lend itself to collections. By nature, all things of the Wild tend towards freedom if not outright chaos. Even the plants I grow are, to me, considerably more tame than wild. However, as an Aniveus Balimora, I feel my habit towards drying flowers is perhaps the closest I get to keeping that wild spirit with me a while. I only dry flowers that have fallen or been broken from their plants, and I sandwich them in the pages of a journal, sometimes with a tissue on either side to protect the journal from excess moisture. I’ve used these dried bits as focuses, and I like that they remind me of the ephemeral nature of, well, nature. Even preserved, they don’t have the spark they did when allowed to be plants, and the act of holding them with me for a little longer than they were meant to have makes the fragile, but there is beauty in this fragility.
Nothing lasts forever, and that can be a comforting thought too.
So I was a fool and forgot that time still existed, so I forgot to start posting until now (during the Day of Change Zoom). But fear not, I am going to finish it up now!
1. Guild Gear
So the outfit I chose to make is a lot more casual than @Louisa’s outfit, but I still feel it fits with Weatherwatch. For me, I think a lot of Weatherwatch gear has to be a bit practical and maneuverable, whether you’re working on a ship or exploring on the ground. Because of that, I chose a pretty simple (and perhaps too bright) outfit:
I went with a simple long sleeve thermal to keep warm without needing extra layers. The pants are denim carpenter’s pants so they have plenty of pockets to hold all sorts of knick knacks and tools. Plus, my favorite – they’re cuffed (I am a hard believer in cuffed pants because I am a hobbit at heart)! Then, I have some simple hiking shoes that are good casual tennis shoes, but they’re really nice for hopping around on rocks at inappropriately steep angles. I could probably add some more pieces, but it felt like a very appropriate outfit for Weatherwatch (at least for me)!
2. Lists
We’ve already had some great music picks from Louisa and @Cirydae, but I will go ahead and add 10 songs that I feel are really “Weatherwatch.” These are in no particular order, and I’m not even sure if they are cohesive together, but I think they all link to the Weatherwatch spirit (some more explicitly than others). Whether it’s the energy or excitement of exploration, the ambiance of a guild party, or fear (which definitely still affects WW), I think these songs help to tap into that:
3. Places
One place I definitely think about going to (or back to) a lot is the UK. Other than stops in airports (see below), I have only been to the UK once. However, it is definitely a place that I want to explore more, from the cities to the countryside. I’ve gotten the chance to go to London, Cardiff, and Bristol (which is where I got engaged), but I really want to keep exploring the country in years to come!
4. Magimystic Memory
For a Weatherwatch, I have spent a lot of my time not traveling. For a long period in my childhood, I wouldn’t leave my house for anything other than school and maybe errands with my mom. That being said, I LOVE traveling whether it’s in planes, buses, cars, or trains (I’m still undecided on boats). My most Weatherwatch memory is from one of my trips. In my last year of high school, I went with a group of other students on an EF Tour to Central Europe. It was really exciting for me because it was the first time I had left the US and was my first vacation in a while. Normally, our trip from Missouri to Germany wouldn’t have been too bad, but we missed our connection in London. That meant we had to wait in the airport until the next flight which wasn’t until 5 PM (we arrived a bit before 9 AM). It was a long trip, but eventually, we made it, ate the Chinese restaurant attached to our hotel (which was some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever had), and went to sleep. All in all, it was 31 hours of traveling and time in airports, and I was awake for all but 30 minutes of it. And that was because of how excited I was to be on this trip. As much as it was a hassle, my trip mates and I ended up making the most of it (and our very limited meal voucher) to make it enjoyable. We played lots of card games (especially Uno) and bonded as a group in a way that I don’t think we would have if we had made that first flight. It was a great experience and a very Weatherwatch one for me!
5. Elementals
I’ll start off with this: I love light. I have always been a fan of opening blinds when I get home, keeping lamps on at night (I’m not a fan of overhead lights), and of course I like candles! I also apparently have an unusual number of flashlights (per my wife), one of which I used while casting a spell during my study abroad. Of the things that give my light, I think this lamp I made a while ago is the best embodiment of the element. It’s not very bright, but I like having it to brighten things up a little from time to time. It’s also an icosahedron (or D20 for RPG players), so that’s fun!
6. Mood Board
Bingo! (Though I might be a tad late)
BINGO!
I’m finally done, and am really happy with myself for finishing, whether I’m late or not.
These are all fantastic!!! We hope you had as much fun making them as we’ve had reading/seeing all of your photos!!
Special Day of Change badges will be awarded as soon as @CJB shows me how!!