hi i'm sonder and i have a long-held fascination with personified locations. currently this is manifesting in the form of consuming a lot of welcome to the table content which i'm too embarrassed to put on my main blog so i'm putting it here, along with misc. other personification things. my main blog is bread--quest so i follow/like from there!!
i use any pronouns (prefer it if you alternate them!)
i'm jewish
i have adhd and anxiety which is a killer x2 combo
my main blog is bread--quest so follows/likes will be from there
i'm also the host of a system! this isn't really relevant except that at least one of the members is also a geography nerd and just wants you to know that she is posting on this blog in spirit. her name is mnemosyne :)
i read laurie keller's scrambled states of america one too many times as a kid and i've had an obsession with personified locations ever since
i'm also a huge history and geography nerd in general!
this blog's deal
i originally created this sideblog for wttt stuff but it's now sort of a general sideblog for personification stuff (aka stuff i feel is too cringe for main blog 😔). specifically you might see socialstuck and paris burning/citiesverse things occasionally. and also maybe my wtnv personifications au community gardens :3
also read the city we became by nk jemisin
please do not mistake any of my content for het/alia, it Will make me feel really weird. please see here for why
random extra bonus info under the cut!
i live in maine usually but i moved to pennsylvania for college and am feeling Definitely Super Normal About It (no i'm not) (i hypothesize that refixating on states and wttt specifically might have been because of this in fact). i will probably make a habit of showing up in people's notes to go MAINE MENTIONED whenever anyone mentions maine. oh also i was born in chicago, as if you couldn't guess by the fall out boy song referenced in my url and header, and then we moved when i was 5 which i was and am also Definitely Super Normal About.
tfw you've been married forever and it's not always the most peaceful or equitable marriage but it Works until it Doesn't and you mutually decide you can't make it work anymore and you choose to break it off gently and easily and it's an amicable divorce and you're even closer friends now then you were before but you're also alone in your house. you're alone for the first time in more than a thousand years. and i'm not making any of this up this is just how people Actually Talk about Real Life Czechoslovakia
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
hiii everyone this was supposed to be a short fic for tumblr but it got too long so i posted it to ao3 instead. its the northeast dealing with two different blizzards, 200 years apart, by all cramming into massachusetts's house. if you want some comforting vibes for this cold cold world may i humbly suggest you give it a whirl
so i watched heated rivalry. and then, because i am Normal, i started thinking "this would be a lot more fun if it was the personifications of boston and montreal.... playing gay hockey... and they were women? and maybe nyc could be there also" and then it spiraled into a whole Thing. theyre in the pwhl uniforms btw. longer id/transcription under cut:
A sketchpage of three characters, the personifications of Montreal, New York City, and Boston, playing hockey against each other and having various thoughts/interactions. They are all human in appearance. Boston has light skin and is androgynous. New York City has medium brown skin and is feminine. Montreal has light skin and is feminine. They are shown in the uniforms of the professional women's hockey league.
From approximately left to right and top to bottom, the sketches are as follows.
1: Boston and New York City playing hockey against each other, both in uniform. Boston is wearing the Boston Fleet uniform, which is dark green with light blue and white accents. New York City is wearing the New York Sirens uniform, which is white with blue and orange accents. They are both reaching for the puck with their sticks crossed.
2: Boston and New York sitting next to each other. New York has medium brown skin and long dark brown hair with pink streaks in a ponytail. She is looking off to one side and frowning, thinking "Why hasn't LA texted me back". Boston has light skin and short brown hair, and is gripping the table intensely and glaring at NYC. Their thought bubble is redacted.
3: A drawover of a doodle labeled "guys who hate each other", showing three simple faces glaring at each other in a triangle. Boston is looking at NYC, NYC is looking at Montreal, and Montreal is looking at Boston.
4: Montreal against a wall (the edge of the drawing), with New York standing in front of her, one hand on the wall next to Montreal's head. Montreal has light skin and long, wavy dark red hair. Her eyes are wide and she is smiling, but looks shocked. NYC has her hair down, and her expression is blank. They are both thinking "fuck she's hot" in all caps.
5: NYC sitting in a chair while Montreal leans over the side of the chair. NYC looks annoyed and is saying "blah blah boston is the worst". Montreal cheerfully says "lmao yeah i bet if we hooked up she'd be so mad". NYC, taken aback, says "what". Montreal, also comically surprised, says "quoi".
6: Boston and Montreal cuddling on a couch, both looking smug and thinking "heh... this idiot is totally into me!" A note next to them reads "1st base: hatesex, 2nd base: cuddling, 3rd base: using each other's real names, 4th base: talking about their feelings". This last base is circled in red with an arrow pointing to it labeled "this will never happen!!" in allcaps.
7: Montreal and Boston in hockey helmets and facemasks, helmets pressed against each other, both smiling with determination.
Who's Alfred's "person"? does he fully trust anyone to have his back?
Matt. Hell or high water, appendicitis or apocalypse, car accident or catastrophe. Doesn't matter. Matt can be relied upon. Drag him out of a corpse pile at Antietam after he took a chunk of shrapnel to the leg or drive him home because he forgot lactaid and ordered a triple cheeseburger with a side of mac and cheese, Matt's good for it. When I see things get a little too rose-glasses I sometimes compensate for it by making them both pricks to each other because sometimes they are and their relationship can be quite uneven. But there was a reason FDR said "When I have been in Canada, I have never heard a Canadian refer to an American as a ‘foreigner’. He is just an ‘American’. And, in the same way, in the United States, Canadians are not ‘foreigners’, they are ‘Canadians’.
Matt is distinct, outside of him, a force of his own but he's the most familiar thing in the world to Alfred. My god it is hard to quantify just how much two siblings of the same age can rely upon and know each other. They're both wholly formed beings of their own and Alfred has countless important relationships and their lives are so long but no one has held his hand and hauled him to his feet and dusted him off more than Matt has. It takes a goddamn lot to freak Alfred out by now, at his age and life experience but when it happens, nothing's going to bring his adrenaline down the way "I've got you," from Matt does.
Anyone and everyone might hesitate to approach Alfred at certain moments when he's vulnerable or looks enraged or both but Alfred can be flinging tanks around and Matt will still just duck under one like "when you're done throwing a tantrum, I've got coffee and a hug with your name all over it."
its soooo hard to talk about this without doxxing myself but like. okay so. like many new england towns my hometown is named after a city in the british isles. the city its named after is a lot bigger and more well known then my city but my city is the biggest city of its name in the us. and the people of my city really like the city we're named after, take a lot of pride in the heritage it implies, etc. and the feeling, to some extent, goes both ways— a couple from my town's namesake came all the way here for my town's 250th anniversary!! and anyway. i just feel like. not in all cases necessarily, but certainly in cases like these, cities might think of the cities/towns named after them as their kids in a sense. and when that couple came to visit, it was like my town's mom sending a birthday card 🥺
The fact the best advice I have ever been able to find about determining what alter is fronting at the moment and detangling cofronting was from a fucking wttt fanfic is actually kind of crazy
 anyways you should go read we are America, that shit was fire 
hey folks I'm trying to gauge the interest everyone has in another fandom event, similar to wttt-week but not quite so thematic. I want to organize a big bang event, where people can submit prompts, and everyone who wants to create for the event will take one of the prompts and write / draw something inspired by it.
this isn't official yet, I just want to see if people are interested! interact with this post if you would participate in something like this!
for some reason i was thinking about states familial terms for each other in shower so here you go i guess. and by you i mean whoever's left in the wttt fandom (pspspsps?)
okay so for context. i think that most of the states are probably well known enough in whichever town they're currently spending their off hours in that if someone sees them with one of the other states they'll say hi and ask who that is
most of the states will default to "my cousin" intraregionally (except for the northeast, who usually go with "brother/sister/sibling"), and just "a friend" for anyone outside of their region
of course everyone has their own personal definition of who is inside their region enough to be introduced as a relative. maine will introduce west virginia as a cousin. indiana introduces illinois as a sibling but kansas as a friend. the south does not claim florida
also intraregionally states tend to look similar enough that sometimes they'll just get asked "oh are you [relations]?" and go with it
this happens to the maritime provinces and the new england states a lot. which. complicated feelings on that on both sides. however. extremely useful for Getting Family Admission Discount
all other factors go out the window when the Family Admission Discount comes in to play. some very strange relationship configurations have been claimed
this is not without risk however. one time they forgot to coordinate and nova scotia ended up being simultaneously maine's sister and aunt
do you guys ever just wake up with a scene fully formed in your head and then have to scramble to write it down immediately before it vanishes? well you'll never guess what happened to me this morning. merry early hanukkah to me i guess
this is inspired by the book i've been reading on puritans and their effect on new england culture. eventually it's gonna get into other early english settlers and their cultures and then i'll go insane about that probably but for now i've been thinking a lot about the Implications of this for very early days mass and maine and well. this is the result. particularly i think i was influenced by this quote
"New Englanders gave thanks to their Calvinist God for cold baked beans and stale brown bread, while lobsters abounded in the waters of Massachusetts Bay and succulent gamebirds orbited slowly overhead."
late 1690s, massachusetts bay.
Maine sits by the water and waits. They have a little fire going on the rocky shore next to them, a bucket they borrowed and filled with ocean water hung over it, and now all they have to do is sit and wait.
"MAINE!"
Maine inhales the smell of boiling lobster and sighs. Just a couple more minutes. The lobster he pulled out of the shallows was a little small, but that's okay. So is he. Lobsters don't usually live this shallow, and they definitely usually pinch if you just pick them up, but he's Maine, after all. The bay provides for him. He thanked the lobster, put it in the pot, and now all he needs to do is wait a couple more minutes and then he can finally have some decent food.
"Maine, I don't know what it is you think you're doing, but you need to stop it right now—"
Maine glances up at Massachusetts. "'m making lobster."
"You will not— get that thing out of —" Massachusetts stops short in front of Maine, scowling intensely. "What— why—"
Maine looks back and forth between their guardian and the lobster. On the one hand, they're really hungry, and this was supposed to be their lobster. On the other hand, maybe if Massachusetts tries some of it, he'll see how good it is and won't get mad at them.
"…You can have some if you want," they finally say, with distinct reluctance.
Massachusetts shudders. "Absolutely not."
"Suit yourself," Maine says with a shrug. The lobster is nice and red— just about done. He glances around for something to take it out of the pot with, sees nothing, and tips the pot over instead.
Massachusetts goes to snatch the steaming lobster away and recoils immediately, clutching their hand. Maine tries not to laugh.
"Insolent, little…" Massachusetts mutters several other insulting things under their breath and dips their burnt hand in the ocean to cool it off. "I don't understand. Why are you always doing this?"
"Making lobster?" Maine says innocently.
"No, and you know that's not what I meant," Massachusetts says. "I mean– running off. Disobeying me. Last week it was oysters, the week before some kind of berry that could have been poisonous for all you knew, now this?"
"'M hungry," Maine mutters.
"Are you not grateful for the food we have?"
"Yes," Maine says hastily, knowing by now that if the word grateful comes up it means he'd better agree. "I mean, of course I'm grateful. But I really like lobster, and it's right here."
"Food is not meant to be enjoyed," Massachusetts says. "It is meant to be sustenance. Anything more is—"
"It's ready!" Maine says, sensing A Lecture coming on. He breaks off a claw—it's still a little hot, but it's fine—and waves it at Massachusetts. "Here."
They watch Massachusetts' expression waver, stuck between the denial he was just preaching and the hunger Maine knows he must be feeling for a good minute or so, before he finally gives in and takes the claw. Maine smiles.
"How do you, uh…" Massachusetts turns it over in his hand.
Maine rolls his eyes and demonstrates. For a good fifteen minutes, they're both quiet, absorbed in the joys of lobster (well, Maine's absorbed in the joys of lobster. He doesn't know what Massachusetts thinks, and doesn't really care.)
Once it's all gone, Maine sighs in both contentment and resignation and starts to stand up. They wobble slightly as the feeling comes back into their legs, and Massachusetts reaches out to steady them, and Maine instinctively takes the opportunity to kind of accidentally-on-purpose lean on him. Massachusetts doesn't even push them off immediately, which Maine takes as a good sign. Maybe the lobster did help.
"Please don't be too mad, Mass," Maine says, muffled from having their face hidden in Mass's shoulder. They know they're too big for this by now, (and even when they were very small, Mass never seemed to want to be close to them), but there is something undeniably comforting about it. And if they can't see Massachusetts's face, they can't see him being disappointed in them. "After all—" they're struck by a sudden burst of inspiration— "—you didn't tell me not to."
Maine doesn't need to see Mass to know they're frowning. "Maine, you know you're not supposed to run off without telling me where you're going."
That is true. Maine slumps.
"…That said, I will grant it does show remarkable self-sufficiency and ingenuity," Mass says. "Especially for one of your age."
"I'm not that young!" Maine says indignantly. "I'm, like…" They pause, trying to sort through their fuzzy memories. "…seventy or something!"
"That's still young by our standards," Mass says, but they sound more amused than scolding.
Maine huffs and puts their head back down on Mass's shoulder. The texture of wool is comforting against their face, and the effect of lobster after weeks of just eating bread and baked beans is making them unexpectedly sleepy, and they're warm and content and not being punished right now for once, and the only reason they don't fall asleep is because they want to savor this as long as they can.
"We do have to go back to Boston," Mass says.
"Just a little bit longer," Maine says, and Massachusetts, remarkably, complies.
Massachusetts’s human name was originally Abstinence (because Puritans) until the mid-1700s when the other colonies finally bullied him into changing it. Nobody knows about this besides the OG13, Maine, and Vermont.
Absolutely. I think it’s hilarious if the Puritans named Connecticut something really demeaning like Obedience or Humiliation (both real Puritan names at the time lol). Suffice to say, unlike Massachusetts, Connecticut changed his human name as soon as he could.
Sometimes when I sit quietly with my deer in headlights autism gaze I'm actually listening very intently. Sometimes I'm paying no attention whatsoever. You won't know the difference so beware. Be very aware of me I might be aware of you possibly
