Chapter Break Filler - Round 2

[midwestmutt]

I have scant familiarity with gaming and D&D except what I learn from gamer based webcomics. Our heroes turncoat playing style seems straight out of Full Frontal Nerdity. Well played Scottishnottish.

[Jitter]

Mirasol, I’d love someone to art it!

And thanks all. It’s not within my 300 word limit, but then I have only written a couple.

[midwestmutt]

We help each other
through the long, dry chapter break
Three more days, Minnions.

[thegreyarea]

Jitter, I love your story! It's so well done! I must learn to make short stories like that!

And it gave me an idea. I don't know if they still have that kind of advertising in Y91, but anyway I will draw Emil as posterboy for some shampoo brand! (I just don't know when I'll be able to do that, but I will...)

Midwestsmutt, you are truly inspired on your haiku series! 

[Róisín]

Jitter, lovely story! And yeah, diluted cider vinegar can work as conditioner, but with Emil’s golden hair I would use chamomile tea with a splash of rosewater or even add a handful of rose petals to the tea, or he could add some nettle tips to strengthen the hair. Let it steep for ten minutes, strain out the herbs, massage it into the hair and scalp and let it stay in the hair to scent it and make it shiny. And while he is creating a new beauty routine perhaps he could start washing his face in fresh cold dew from the clover plants - that was what I learned as a girl on a farm as a way to keep my skin nice. Or he could even do it with dew from the hawthorn tree, but that works best on the first of May. I wonder whether Finnish magic has a spell to go with that, as do French, English and Irish magic? English has a little rhyme about it:

‘The maiden who, on the first of May
Goes to the fields at break of day
And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree
Will ever after lovely be’.

I can just picture Emil getting up early to do that, with Lalli tagging along and thinking it was sweet! Such a pity that I totally lack the art skill!

[scottishnottish]

Jitter, you know I gotta have a little EmiLalli on the side. For self care. And a very nice story from you, I love your cozy take on domestic-life EmiLalli.

thegreyarea I was definitely inserting a bit of myself when Mikkel was admiring Sigrun's self-confidence!

Róisín ah I can never play a character too like myself, I'd be bored so quickly!

Annuil I give all credit to Minna for such clearly-defined characters heh, I find them very easy to write.

Vulpes but brilliant is a brilliant word!

Mirasol I've played a handful of times but always enjoy it! I hope you can find a good-natured group to play with.

midwestmutt I actually got into D&D because of a podcast called The Adventure Zone, which features lots of goofs and shenanigans so I was very inspired by that hah. And a very encouraging haiku, thanks!

[wavewright62]

Chapter Break Filler
'Circle of Life'

.._.._..

Prompt 17: Contentment

.._.._..

Today's prompt of Contentment is brought to us by none other than event organiser Keep Looking!

Spoiler: show

Beneath the reaching arms of mountains tall
In valleys far from swift and shifting seas
No dock-sides where the seagulls screech their call -
Where craggy slopes are grass-clad, there I’ll be

And I will build a home where rivers wind
Through gravel-beds of rolling, shifting stones
Where dancing lambs the springtime slopes do climb
To look upon the valleys where they roam

Though monsters cry in lands beyond our shores
And all that we had known has come to fall
This home is safe - I could not ask for more
I’ll find contentment here, despite it all

The ghosts I left behind may haunt me still
The thunder-drum of gunshots on the waves
Does echo on, my heart and mind to fill
With hopeless, helpless guilt upon my name

And in my dreams I walk an endless sea
Where twisting demons lie beneath my feet
And wake, and watch the ripples as I flee
With vain, vain hope that someday land I’ll meet

But cradled by the mountains when I wake
I rise and let my past be left behind
So life can give as much as it will take
And all that I have here will come to mind

To feel the ground stay firm beneath my feet
And watch the colours of the land and sky
That paint the blueing edges where they meet
While seasons change and year on year goes by

Yes, I will stay here in these grass-clad halls
And find contentment here, despite it all.

Thanks very much to Keep Looking for today's piece, and if any of you are inspired by this prompt, feel free to share what you've made down below!

[Jitter]

Keep Looking, a very touching take on Árni! I often find myself thinking about what it would be like. How fundamental the survivor’s guilt would be, especially for the Icelanders (and Árni of course personally participated). No wonde Iceland turned away from the world and decided to take a fresh start! But the human mind cannot bury things as well as a society maybe can, when it puts all efforts on it.

Also cool reference to the magic!

[Róisín]

Emily, that is beautiful! And I love your take on Arni’s magic, and the strangeness of the Dream Sea. In some ways that concept of the space where the magic rests is very like that of the Celtic and native Australian cultures. Eventually in my fic set in the far future I am going to cover the Celtic one, and in ‘Year 3, very far to the South’ we will cover what happens to Singer and Warri there.
Thank you for a good Arni poem!

[thegreyarea]

KeepLooking, that's so beautiful, and touching. As Jitter said, survivor's guilt must have been strong... Also , I loved the glimpse of Reynir already showing in his ancestor on "And in my dreams I walk an endless sea | Where twisting demons lie beneath my feet"! Very well done!

[midwestmutt]

If you want to see
the apex of contentment
look at a fed cat

[Róisín]

Have just fed my two after dropping my stuff off at the market hall and coming in for the night. About to have dinner myself, hopefully before midnight! Lovely haiku!

[JoB]

I don't know if they still have that kind of advertising in Y91, but anyway I will draw Emil as posterboy for some shampoo brand!

Even if the other stuff looks more like a wall newspaper instead of an ad poster, the cleansers sure do it.
(I'm unclear whether that scene is supposed to take place in Mora, or Östersund. It's a bit in the past in either case.)

My laptop's currently acting up, so I can't check, but Y91 Iceland does at least have ads in their newspapers (memento un-skunking your cat) ...

... places with really low population densities (rural Finland) might still make ad posters a non-starter, of course ...

[thegreyarea]

Even if the other stuff looks more like a wall newspaper instead of an ad poster, the cleansers sure do it.
(I'm unclear whether that scene is supposed to take place in Mora, or Östersund. It's a bit in the past in either case.)

My laptop's currently acting up, so I can't check, but Y91 Iceland does at least have ads in their newspapers (memento un-skunking your cat) ...

... places with really low population densities (rural Finland) might still make ad posters a non-starter, of course ...

Well noted, JoB! I had that idea too. As far as I remember, however, we just saw institutional/governmental ads and also service ads in the comic, but not product advertising to consumers (like shampoo ads). But just because they are not show doesn't means they don't exist, particularly in newspapers and magazines.
I'll try to make something black&white, 50's or 60's style... something like this:
(please note that it's a link to a commercial page. I never bought them anything, and I'm not selling nor endorsing it in anyway. it's here just because it's well done, and funny)

Spoiler: show

https://www.etsy.com/listing/163737498/vintage-social-media-posters-set-of-4?ref=shop_home_active_14

but, as I said, not now, neither soon, I'm afraid.

[Jitter]

In Iceland there were ads for the cat spa and the horsey cafe at least!