thoughts from the subarctic

Skyglass, poet and translator, Kingdom of Ereith

[starfireskyglass]

The King is dead; long live the Queen.

[starfireskyglass]

Okay, write me up as an ignorant foreigner, but what does your prince have to do with bears?

Prince Zaetori was Princess Tsetheroxa’s father. He died trying to fight a polar bear. It was a very Erethani way to go, I’ll give him that.

[starfireskyglass]

I KNEW it! You FILTHY BEAR APOLOGIST!

Is this about Prince Zaetori?

[starfireskyglass]

what is your opinion on bears

They’re all right.

[starfireskyglass]

Seems like all of a sudden every art green in Ereith needs to share their opinion on whether we should invite Miolee to SongStrike. @strawberry-poison-frog Has Miolee’s music scene even heard about this yet? They only announced they were considering it yesterday.

[strawberry-poison-frog]

We’ve heard of Songstrike.

I can’t speak for everyone. It wouldn’t be an insult if we weren’t invited.  We’re a separate culture (in a different language), and it’s not like you’re inviting the rest of the international community and leaving us out.

But we promise if you let us come we will put on something ridiculous that- since there’s a lot of overlap between Ereith haters and the Miolee haters-will piss off people you hate.  

[yearbyyearrecedesbeforeus]

oh god PLEASE let us participate in songstrike I’m begging you

[starfireskyglass]

Currently it looks like public opinion is leaning in the direction of “you can participate in SongStrike if your act is in Erethani and passes an audition”, which seems like a reasonable take, although it might mean that you need to track down an Erethani immigrant to be your lead singer. Good luck!

[starfireskyglass]

Seems like all of a sudden every art green in Ereith needs to share their opinion on whether we should invite Miolee to SongStrike. @strawberry-poison-frog Has Miolee’s music scene even heard about this yet? They only announced they were considering it yesterday.

[starfireskyglass]

honestly if you had just made all your reds be grey it would have solved the problem where you don't have any greys and what to do with your cleaned reds without letting them enter any castes you already have

This is the sort of idea that only a foreigner would come up with.

[starfireskyglass]

What's the problem with the dyes? You don't have dyes??

There is not a lot of local production of hair dye in Ereith, and the majority of foreign dyes look weird to us because our hair colours occupy a different range of saturations from most people’s.

[starfireskyglass]

Didn't you say, years ago, that Erethani don't dye hair because foreign shades look super garish or something? Do you have better, subtler dyes now or are your ex-reds all being open about what they are instead of pretending like the ones in other countries?

I think Erethani ex-reds might be somewhat likelier to be open about it than foreign ones, but although I don’t know for sure either way, I suspect that someone somewhere has found some dye that does the job.

[starfireskyglass]

What are the xenophobic translators like? If everyone is so xenophobic, how do you know they won't mistreat the immigrants?

All our swaps are from Miolee, and Erethani xenophobia doesn’t mind Miolee nearly as much as it minds the rest of the world. (Some people have other reasons to mind Miolee, but since King Telvaran’s duel they have been minding it less and less.)

Xenophobic translators do the work more grudgingly and accordingly aren’t as good at it as I am.

[starfireskyglass]

How did you make immigration possible?

I’m the least xenophobic translator in Ereith. I ended up in charge of all the translation-related parts of the process - getting our immigration website available in foreign languages and so on.

[openamenta]

TIL Meti last names are based on the most impressive/cool thing you’ve ever done. Post what you’re Meti surname would be and tag two other people!

[tilt-me-just-right]

I assume it has to be customary not to name yourself after your children… I guess “Café”? I like my jobname better. It evokes that without being so on-the-nose.

[gatherers-incorporated-deactiva]

Killed-Deer-Fed-Campground, I guess. thats a recent thing I did.

@prioritizingpurples @strawberry-poison-frog

[prioritizingpurples]

…i suddenly feel as though i have not done enough impressive things in my life

fayna escaped-home? fayna gets-mad-at-people-on-the-internet-and-otherwise-lives-a-pretty-boring-life? this should not be as hard as it is but i generally do not go around doing cool things

space google says that it can be “best thing you’ve done” even if it’s not super cool or impressive, in which case i would be fayna volunteers or fayna caste-solidarity or fayna helps-purples or something along those lines

[not-brighter-but-stranger]

Ooh. “Not-brighter-but-stranger won-a-duel-over-a-math-problem”? “Not-brighter-but-stranger proved-a-theorem-the-statement-of-which-is-too-long-to-fit-on-forms-for-a-surname”?

[starfireskyglass]

Skyglass Helped-make-immigration-possible, probably.

[shadowed-moonrise]

They only swap with Mioleens, and the Mioleens have to be technically anything-but-grey, rather than technically-grey or technically-casteless.

that is so weird 

before miolee they just didnt have swaps at all? 

[starfireskyglass]

We don’t like the rest of the world very much. Miolee is the only foreign country we’re willing to take swaps from.

[starfireskyglass]

If reds weren't allowed to own weapons, how did they settle their own internal duel-worthy disagreements?

Why would I know this?

[starfireskyglass]

It should be illegal to duel an ex-red for the next two years for the same kind of reason it's illegal for under-4s to duel. If they couldn't own weapons they're just as inexperienced and will be at a huge disadvantage

Most reasonable people understand that if someone’s an ex-red they’re going to be at an unfair disadvantage and you shouldn’t duel them any more than you should duel a lateborn four-year-old two months into spring. And luckily most people who are unreasonable about ex-reds are unreasonable in the way that means they’d find dueling one to be beneath them.

[starfireskyglass]

Have the ex-reds at court been learning dueling customs and sword techniques or did they already know? Were they allowed to own weapons before?

Reds weren’t allowed to own weapons. Part of the integration project is teaching them all to fight.

[not-brighter-but-stranger]

@starfireskyglass so according to my anons I’m bringing Erethani dueling culture to Calado by virtue of being a non-grey fencer. Or something.

Figured someone over there should know. I’ll be waiting for my Official Erethani Ambassador Who Hasn’t Ever Been There And Isn’t Actually Quite Sure She Could Pick It Out On A Map badge.

[starfireskyglass]

You are without question my favourite of the new people I have met since I first mentioned the duel.