#faerie posts

[element-of-empathy]

Someone posted to my shrine again!!! I don’t know who you are, but thank you for the lovely plants!! Aloe is my favorite~ 

[element-of-empathy]

I’m not gonna lie, since entering the divinekin community I’ve seen some of the things people say about us being narcissistic and self-absorbed and how we feel like we’re better than everyone and I let it get under my skin and sometimes feel bad and worry that people think I really feel that way, especially when I say stuff like “hahah I’m faerie jesus” like an idiot. 

Please know that it’s not true, it really isn’t. I know I’m just as human as anyone else, I know that I’m terribly flawed and I know that my past as Dana doesn’t compensate for my less favorable traits in this life. I know I’m a mess, more than I let on, believe me! 

I just. Am really sorry if it ever came across that I think I’m above anyone because of who I was. 

[element-of-empathy]

Listen Faerie Jesus is great and all but I just realized from listening to too much Moana, Mab is pretty much a Demigod. 

I mean I’m still gonna call her Faerie Jesus for giggles, but. 

There’s that. 

[element-of-empathy]

i could try to do a meditation but it’s one thirty in the morning im p sure it’d put me to sleep whoops 

i gotta remember to do one at a reasonable hour holy smoly 

[element-of-empathy]

Listen I take a lot of issues with Harry Potter magic but you know what ruffles my fluff the most? 

The Five Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration, ie “You Can’t Conjure Food.”

I’m???? sorry???? Why not?? No really, WHY NOT?? Food is literally just matter, just organic matter just like anything else what kind of a nonsense rule is that?? Can you use serpensortia to conjure a living breathing animal? Can you cast a Leek jinx to make leeks sprout from people’s ears? Can you create a literal fountain of wine from your wand to test it out??

THEN CONGRATS!!!

YOU CAN CONJURE FOOD NO PROBLEMO, WORLD HUNGER AND LIKE HALF OF THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PLOT, HACKED. 

Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be over here remembering how hunger and want for food isn’t a thing in Arcadia because we actually know how to use magic. 

[element-of-empathy]

trying to overhaul this blog’s design but I can’t find a second sidebar image that

A) Fits the aesthetic

B) Looks like me

C) Isn’t half naked

Why I even need to WORRY about C is beyond me but here we are. 

[element-of-empathy]

Today's black Friday and I'll do some shopping with my family but I'm getting a marble Obelisk if it kills me 8)

[element-of-empathy]

Orlando, Magical Nexus

I mentioned earlier that Orlando is a magical nexus, and considering I’m thirteen different kinds of excited for my far away friends to make a trip here in January, and I can’t stop thinking about it, I figured I’d give a little run down on exactly why this place is the way it is. 

Of course, everyone’s first thought will immediately be “Disney!” and - you’re right! To some extent, at least. 

I was born here in Orlando (surprise surprise, that my magic ended up in Orlando when I entered this world) and grew up here, and, having lived here MOST of my life - sans the accidental eight years we wandered aimlessly around the hellscape called Georgia - have come to have some thoughts about this place. 

Everyone knows The Magic Kingdom as “The Most Magical Place on Earth,” but few people stop and wonder why. 

The Foundation: 

Walking into work the other day, heading into Universal’s Islands of Adventure (and for those of you who didn’t know, don’t act surprised) I was struck with the sudden realization that none of this should logically even be here. Before 1971 when Walt Disney World opened and effectively jump started Central Florida, there was nothing here but swamp and dirt and miles and miles of orange groves. 

But Walt decided to build a theme park resort here, and others followed in his footsteps. I walked into work the other day and had the honor of staring up at a 130 foot tall, functional lighthouse smack dab in the middle of Orlando. It shouldn’t be there! But it is!! None of this should be here - not the Pharos Lighthouse, not the Hogwarts Castle or a , not a miniaturized replica of the World’s Fair Towers or a 300 acre plot of land where eleven countries are recreated around a lagoon. None of this, logically, should exist here! But it does. And that is a brilliant foundation for the unbelievable amounts of magic that Orlando generates. 

Liminality: 

Orlando is a Liminal Space. Personal reality is skewed here. If you’ve ever been on an Orlando Vacation, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If not? Well I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures of the burly dads in mickey ears and Hawaiian floral shirts. As stereotypical as those things may seem, that is the reality in Orlando.

When you go on an Orlando Vacation, you find yourself wearing and doing and eating things you never would in your regular day-to-day life outside of Orlando. You don’t wear pastel palm-leaf printed cargo shorts to work, you don’t get excited thinking about meeting your favorite PIXAR character, you wouldn’t stand in line for forty five minutes to take pictures with Goofy. You probably don’t care for massive turkey legs or mickey-shaped ice cream, but when you go to Disney it’s a staple and a must. 

While people like me actually do live here, the spaces of the theme parks themselves are incredibly transient. We have millions of out-of-state tourists come through Orlando every year, here almost expressly for our theme parks. In the grand scheme of things, people rarely stay. Because of this, the city itself is a very open, flowing place. Things are constantly coming and going.

This liminality, on top of the framework laid out by the impossibility and absurdity of our existence here, and helped along by the existing image portrayed to anyone who’s ever heard of Orlando, created the perfect climate for the last component of the magical machine.

Suspension of Disbelief: 

Something as simple as a Cast or Team Member dressed up for photos can seem like something that wouldn’t fool a respectable adult. Surely we know that it’s not really Ariel, or Scooby Doo, or Marilyn Monroe, but I see just as many adults in line to take photos as I do young children. 

Orlando specializes in suspension of disbelief. We work tirelessly to convince you through interaction and technical means that the things you experience at our theme parks are, even if just for a moment, very real. We disconnect you from reality as much as possible, to immerse you in the experience and genuinely make you believe. 

We know we’re in Orlando. You know you’re in Orlando. But we want you to believe that you’re in France, or Whoville, or England. And you do.

And the suspension of disbelief, even to a logical, aware mind, is still wickedly powerful. So powerful, in fact, that it allows us - the guests at Disney and Universal - to accept what we know is impossible as plain truth. And in doing so, a small part of us is awakened. 

Wonder: 

Every Respectable Adult still has their favorite movie. Maybe How The Grinch Stole Christmas was a movie they watched every year with their parents. Maybe they wanted to be a Princess when they were younger. Maybe they just have a deep love for the fantastical. Maybe they even plan to propose in front of the castle. Whatever the reason, they are realized and fulfilled in Orlando. 

And wonder allows for a lingering magic, one that has the chance to grow during a guest’s time in Orlando and even once they’ve left. It allows them to hold onto something that the real world tells them should no longer exist.

These things, working in tandem with the existence of our theme parks, makes Orlando a collecting pool of magic. It allows magic to really, truly work; miracles to happen; good fortune and good spirits to converge in one city. 

And that, my friends, is why Orlando really is the most magical place on earth. A magical nexus, designed to generate magic in its purest form.