Ok I’m Not Trying To Be A Mood Killer But I’ve Been Seeing A BUNCH Of Reposted Art From Other Artists

Nico: Dandelions symbolize everything I want to be in life

Percy: Fluffy and dead with a gust of wind?

Nico: Unapologetic. Hard to kill. Feral, filled with sunlight, bright, beautiful in a way that the conventional and controlling hate but cannot ever fully destroy. Stubborn. Happy. Bastardous. Friends with bees. Highly disapproving of lawns. Full of wishes that will be carried far after I die.

Will: edible

Might actually write this, ngl

i'm rewatching s1 of Arcane, and i'm sure people have already written fics about this, but the soulmate au where you have your soulmate's first words to you tattooed on your skin is so funny for jayvik because

Jayce's first words to Viktor are "Science, I guess?" and i love that for them both

Folklore - Changelings

Warning - This post will briefly discuss infanticide, discrimination against people with physical and mental disabilities, and the physical abuse of children. Reader discretion is advised.

Please note that this is not the be all and end all account of Changelings. This is a vast and complex feature, one that I'd be naive to think I could fit into a single tumblr post.

What this will be is an introduction to the topic, heavily leaning on Dr Katharine Brigg's 'A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures', a wonderful book you can find here on the Internet Archives:

A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures

The other two main sources of information will be 'A Dictionary of English Folklore' by Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud, and 'Changling' by J. A. MacCulloch.

That all out of the way, let's explore the being known as the Changeling.

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An important concept to come to terms with when dealing with folk belief is this; It is far easier to believe there is a reason behind tragedy than that nature is without reason. Folklore gives an explanation for the unexplainable.

This does not mean our forefathers or contemporaries are or were less intelligent than we are today. We in the 21st century are not the peak of human development, one brief trip around any social media platform will show you we are not above fabrication for the sake of comfort.

For those already familiar with the concept of a Changeling, you may have found it odd that I use the word comfort here. Is it not comforting, though? To have something to blame for what was often seen as a misfortune?

Many of us live today in societies where assistance and support is given for the care and wellbeing of children and adults with disabilities. As a neurodivergent woman in the UK, I am afforded certain aids and accommodations in order to support my place in society. This did not exist in the past.

While not as wholly absent as is often portrayed in popular media, medicine as we understand it was a very different field, even just a little over 100 years ago.

The first x-ray under clinical conditions took place in Birmingham on the 11th of January 1896. The first neuroimaging technique used to look at the ventricular system in the brain was in America in 1918 where filtered air was injected into the lateral ventricles of the brain. The first use of neuroimaging to look at blood vessels within the brain was in Portugal in 1927. The first commercial ultrasound machine was not produced until 1963. The first not invasive CAT scan did not come about until 1973.

Dissection of deceased persons could be used to examine the body, but while the patient was living, medicine was almost entirely blind.

What does all this talk of medicine have to do with Changelings?

"In societies where the belief in fairies was strong, it was held that they could steal human babies and substitute one of their own race; the latter would never thrive, remaining small, wizened, mentally abnormal, and ill-tempered. A baby whose defects were not obvious at birth but appeared in the first year or two could thus be explained as not truly human."

Wilson and Round. A Dictionary of English Folklore. 2016

A Changeling was an individual, more often a child but not always, who was though to be an imposter, a fairy sneaked in and swapped for the human. While often associated with Gaelic regions today due to their strong tradition of fairy folklore, stories of Changelings can be found right across Europe, though their exact supposed parentage shifts from region to region.

A Changeling child (or adult) would be sickly, weak, often paralysed, fuss and cry incessantly, display erratic emotions, either refuse food or never cease from eating, be 'mentally and (or) physically deformed'.

The method for dealing with this 'imposter' individual is often to torment them into fleeing and returning the 'stolen' human. The recorded incidents of this range from the purely cruel to the absolutely horrific.

Warning the extracts below are not pleasant reading, you have been warned.

Briggs. A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins... 1976

Exposing in the above circumstance means to leave the child outside alone, either overnight, or for longer stretches of time until they perished, or in this circumstance the human baby was returned.

MacCulloch. Changling. 1908.

I hope I am stating the obvious here when I say that these children were not in any way shape or form anything but human children.

Some may have been suffering from infantile diseases and conditions such as infantile paralysis, some might have had Down's Syndrome, or been on the non-verbal part of the Autism Spectrum, or Epileptic, or suffered from a hearing impairment. The list of conditions and causes of what might have been seen as 'Changeling' behaviour could fill pages upon pages of text.

I believe at this point it is important to restate my initial point:

It is far easier to believe there is a reason behind tragedy than that nature is without reason. Folklore gives an explanation for the unexplainable.

These children were supposedly born 'normal' before 'changing'. When you remove all ability to examine what is happening within the human body, when you also remove the ability for individuals to communicate and share information quickly and easily over great distances, when you live in a time and place where there is no support at all for children and adults with additional needs, you are confronted with a set of pressures and desperations utterly unfamiliar to a large proportion of the readership of this post.

I am not in any way shape or form condoning what was done to these children. I aim only to give context, and describe circumstances surrounding these practices.

For more information I would like to direct you to the three sources mentioned above, as well as 'A History Of Intelligence And Intellectual Disability The Shaping Of Psychology In Early Modern Europe' by C.F. Goodey which can also be found on the Internet Archive here:

A History Of Intelligence And Intellectual Disability The Shaping Of Psychology In Early Modern Europe

I hope that proved informative, if not overly pleasant.

This is definitely not a google drive full of the sleep stuff from the Headspace app, including sleepcasts, music, and wind down meditation, that normally costs 17.99 a month, no siree and you definitely shouldnt share this with people

 Korean Beef Sesame Noodles

Exactly, it’s perpetuating an ideology that has already killed and injured thousands of people.

"Blank is not a zionist, they just acknowledge Israel's right to exist!" Acknowledging Israel's "right to exist" has ALWAYS been the definition of zionism. Yes, even if you're "critical of the government". Yes, even if you "feel sorry" for Gaza.

The reason zionists (who claim they aren't zionists, they just support Israel's right to exist) are suddenly bending backwards and doing incredible mental gymnastics to try to convince you that zionist doesn't mean what it has always meant and that instead it purely means "people who are cheering on the genocide" is that these zionists are trying to put distance between themselves with the "racist, bloodthirsty ones" because they don't want to confront that they are and have always been complicit in this genocide by acknowledging and normalizing the establishment of a settler-colonial project, by seeing ANY "right" to this ethnostate, by claiming there is any worth or good in apartheid. You ARE a zionist, and there's blood on your hands.

I’m in this picture and I don’t like it

I just need to word spew for a moment, so please forgive me those who have no idea what I’m talking about 🙏

⚠️SPOILERS BELOW, BEWARE!⚠️

If anybody seeing this knows who Bards of New York are (who can be found at this link on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@bardsofnewyork?si=eqxsWcKuSXeEb5yh check them out they are SO COOL), and saw their most recent Regolus: Dark Age session, you’ll probably have an idea of what I am freaking out about. I will be diving in with no explanation to the uninformed of this Gospel™, so buckle up those who are still reading and have never watched any of their content before.

First of all, to start with the somewhat lighter topic of the amount of shipping content we were fed, it was absolutely superb. It was so so so awesome to see Katari finally get her feelings about Synnove across to Synnove, but was the amount of angst really necessary? I still break out in near tears thinking about Synnove’s desire for simplicity, and Katari not being sure she can give that but trying her hardest. As well, if you were watching the stream live on Twitch, you may have seen in the chat someone breaking down over how Katari is unsure about her ability to love Synnove in the way Synnove wants and deserves, and Synnove unsure she can really give all that much love to anyone after Stella left (which, Stella appearing as the Phoenix at the end and landing on [I think] Synnove’s shoulder is a whole different conversation to be had, which I have had an equal number of breakdowns over in the past few days). Their relationship has just barely started and it’s made me break into ugly sobs an ungodly amount of times.

Secondly, the elephant in the room, if you have seen it. Aelys and Godsleep fusing together, to have them hold off Hareem and his army of automatons? Full on ugly sobbing frankly, I am still in denial about everyone else escaping into the Faded Realm and Aelys had to stay behind to hold the line. All for the damned beacons, which are so important but I can still be Upset™! (I’m glad Jon can take a vacation, even though Aelys losing herself and having to take the most drastic option makes me cry). This chapter went so quickly from admiring their pretty outfits and solving a centuries old murder mystery, to the ultimate sacrifice for one’s friends and loved ones. AND WHAT MAKES IT WORSE (if that’s even possible), is that Bards, on their Instagram, recently posted a story with a clip where Damien began to make a tiara/diadem for Aelys :( It literally made me want to burst into tears when I saw it, because we don’t know if Aelys will ever get said tiara/diadem that she was actually decently excited for, LET ALONE IF SHE WILL LIVE OR HAVE ENOUGH OF HERSELF LEFT TO FIND THE GOLDEN SENTINELS AGAIN!!!!

Sal is still missing (Though Sons of Üthevhenan was ✨So Good✨), we have NO CLUE where Damien was during all of this, so he could still be just right outside Disterra to see/experience the combined force of Aelys and Godsleep going against Hareem and his army, though he could also be missing or kidnapped, and we’d have no clue! Now, Katari, Synnove, JB, Valor, Theagus, and Gold are all in the Faded Realm and have to somehow find their way back to Regolus, to hopefully make it to the next Lighthouse in time to get the next beacon, but the next Lighthouse could be the same thing again, with Hareem laying in wait to take the beacon as soon as they’re done! I’m also supremely concerned about what will happen with Sentinel Frontline, and just Regolus in general with the Golden Sentinels in the Faded Realm.

This is barely brushing the surface of all that’s been swirling in my head since Wednesday, and I can’t wait until next week to see what happens next.

Jon, and the rest of Bards, if somehow you happen upon this unfiltered stream of consciousness that was this post, you guys are amazing and frankly if I could play DnD with you all even once, it would be the opportunity of a lifetime. To Jon in particular, if you somehow ever find this, have a good vacation! We in the community will miss you and Aelys very much, but we will be fine.

If you’ve made it this far and you haven’t seen anything made by Bards of New York, what are you doing? If you enjoy DnD, which given by the tags on this post you might, GO CHECK THEM OUT!!!! They are such good people, and right now is a really good time to hop on the bandwagon and start catching up to the current point in their most recent campaign, Regolus: Dark Age! They are just starting Book 3 Wednesday next week which gives you some time to watch a few episodes to get a feel of what’s going on! They have an amazing community, and it is so fun and welcoming over there I promise you will not regret it. Though maybe don’t take the route I took where I watched 29 chapters in about three weeks, with videos ranging from 3.5-7 hours long. Anyways, if you’re reading this, go watch!! And even if it’s not your thing, you’ll have tried anyways.

TL;DR: The most recent chapter of Regolus: Dark Age by Bards of New York made me cry, and feel things, and get mad. Quite a lot.

Et Fin ✨

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Bards of New York

An actual-play D&D podcast where sometimes we actually play D&D. Heavy Roleplay & Voice Acting with NYC actors Live Wednesdays @ 6pm EST on

Everytime this is reblogged, JK Rowling steps on a lego