General Discussion Thread

[Róisín]

thorny, that was my taste when I was much much younger, when I could happily sleep on a hard wooden floor, or on the rocks by the river when I was night fishing up in the Snowies. These years I feel better in my aching bones for a softer surface!

[thorny]

Oh, I'm not happier straight on the floor than I am with some sort of padding. (Therefore the mattress pulled off the poor-support sofa bed onto the floor, instead of just the floor by itself.)

But my back seems even less willing to put up with non-supportive sleeping surfaces than it was when I was younger.

[Sc0ut]

Oh, I'm not happier straight on the floor than I am with some sort of padding. (Therefore the mattress pulled off the poor-support sofa bed onto the floor, instead of just the floor by itself.)

But my back seems even less willing to put up with non-supportive sleeping surfaces than it was when I was younger.

I deliberately sleep on the floor one night a year or so (no mattress, just a duvet for padding). It seems to rest different muscle groups than sleeping in a bed (?) so it feels refreshing to me, as if it sets some of the bones right. But if I do it several days in a row, it quickly loses its charm.

[thorny]

I don't sleep on the floor ordinarily; only if I'm visiting somewhere and the bed (or couch) isn't firm enough.

At home I've got a board in the bed, inbetween the mattress and box spring.

[wavewright62]

My laugh of the day - I am processing a submission for my company to perform its vital services.  The director for whom I am producing this has notoriously bad handwriting, even worse than mine!  At one point he mentions that we are not project managers, but in his handwriting it's abbreviated to look like 'project mages.'
So now I see construction teams in the Known World including Project Mages in their teams, performing services like casting spells upon timber to resist rot, or perhaps creation of storage spaces that hold much more than their cubic meterage would suggest (a la Tardis).

[Róisín]

I have always assumed something of the kind to be a standard Occ Health and Safety protocol throughout the Known World! Mages on work crews to detect when grosslings are about to ambush a road-mending crew or to tell when cracks are propagating in concrete before a bridge collapses and kills people; ship mages to detect and defend against Leviathans or hunting pods of rashed dolphins or orcas, to detect nearby ships or icebergs and help out with navigation in bad weather. Some of the Icelandic and other Nordic sagas talk about the value to ships of 'Finnish wizards' and/or their weatherworking spells. And the said Finnish or Sami wizards turn up in a lot of Northern folktales, usually as a source for the knotted cords full of wind spells on which the idiot crewman undoes one knot too many and calls up a killer blizzard.
I am much amused by your ideas!

[wavewright62]

It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it. 

[Purple Wyrm]

I have always assumed something of the kind to be a standard Occ Health and Safety protocol throughout the Known World!

Except in Sweden and Denmark, where they have moved beyond such silly superstitions!

[Róisín]

Wonder how the casualty figures differ for work crews with or without mages?

[wavewright62]

It occurs to me that I've already explored magic-based construction methods, when I had a circle of mages repair the Øresund Bridge in a fic.  Silly me, I forgot.    Didn't need any observers from OSH/OCC/MBIE for that one, either, although it did let through the first responders - the insurance agents! (gasp horror)

Anyway, there don't seem to be a lot of work crews going out in Finland, full stop - their reclamation efforts are paltry compared to the Swedes, who don't use mages.  Norway might have an Icelandic-style mage on their work crews, but only to apply protective runes - otherwise they'd be asleep on the job!
I'm not sure anyone would automatically use magic for construction inside of a cleansed/safe area.

[Ragnarok]

It occurs to me that I've already explored magic-based construction methods, when I had a circle of mages repair the Øresund Bridge in a fic.  Silly me, I forgot.    Didn't need any observers from OSH/OCC/MBIE for that one, either, although it did let through the first responders - the insurance agents! (gasp horror)

Anyway, there don't seem to be a lot of work crews going out in Finland, full stop - their reclamation efforts are paltry compared to the Swedes, who don't use mages.  Norway might have an Icelandic-style mage on their work crews, but only to apply protective runes - otherwise they'd be asleep on the job!
I'm not sure anyone would automatically use magic for construction inside of a cleansed/safe area.

I've explored the same thing in worldbuilding by using alchemists- I figured Finnish/Icelandic magic is more spiritual and doesn't touch a lot of the physical realm barring asking the gods for direct intervention ie Onni's firebird and Lalli summoning the moon. So they wouldn't have much to do with construction itself but would definitely be helpful for spiritual security and the like.

[wavewright62]

I've explored the same thing in worldbuilding by using alchemists- I figured Finnish/Icelandic magic is more spiritual and doesn't touch a lot of the physical realm barring asking the gods for direct intervention ie Onni's firebird and Lalli summoning the moon. So they wouldn't have much to do with construction itself but would definitely be helpful for spiritual security and the like.

That's right - you have those alchemists!  They do more than armaments, too.

[Ragnarok]

So I found this: https://noendcomic.com/

It'd be just another fairly mundane zom-apoc comic, except for one thing: the main plot focus is on the romance and relationships between all the characters, and I think almost everyone in the comic is LGBTQ+. It's a great read, great art, characters who really feel like people, and plenty of actiony bits. Also the most adorable relationship I've ever seen between two dudes in comic format.

[Grade E cat]

I've been reading that also. It's keeping my interest enough that I'm keeping an eye on it.

Also, you probably missed it because it got demoted to second page a while ago, but there is a thread for webcomics:
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=20.240

[Hearth]

So I found this: https://noendcomic.com/

It'd be just another fairly mundane zom-apoc comic, except for one thing: the main plot focus is on the romance and relationships between all the characters, and I think almost everyone in the comic is LGBTQ+. It's a great read, great art, characters who really feel like people, and plenty of actiony bits. Also the most adorable relationship I've ever seen between two dudes in comic format.

I read through the archives over the past few days and I have to say, it’s much better than I would expect given the genre(s); I’m generally not a fan of stories with much romance or classic zombie apocalypse, but I do like reading stuff with LGBTQ+ characters and themes. I think its good, though, and I’m really liking the characters and their interactions so far. Thanks for the recommend!