Merciathekingdom - Mercia (the Kingdom)

Jonah Magnus seemed to receive two types of letters

1. Hello friend I recently experienced something sinister and since you have that funky institute of yours, I thought you’d like to hear it

and

2: NO JONAH WE CAN’T KEEP HOOKING UP, but here have an account of my experience with something horrific, DON’T CONTACT ME AGAIN

I wish women were real, that would be nice.

UNSEEN

quick malevolent anim <3 from about a week or two ago

Really enjoying the sheer number of times that Chip and Jay are experiencing the exact same trauma and the trauma is terrible things happening to Gillion Tidestrider that seem to effect them way worse

I tend to care about taking a more realistic approach to Riptide in terms of resource management ect, so here's some random thoughts about clothes.

(minor spoilers up to episode #87)

Space management is important on a ship, so pirates tend to stick the essential clothing pieces, and change and wash them less than the average land-dweller.

Pirates don't smell great. This is just something you have to accept.

(except Gillion. Gillion smells of fish and salt and seaweed and the ocean, and never smells sweaty because he doesn't sweat in the human sense, he's just always moist)

Pre episode #87:

Chip has one shirt and one pair of trousers. When he needs to wash them, he will just walk around shirtless or in his underpants depending on what item is being washed. even for a pirate, this is a bit excessive.

he has like three pairs of underpants and he washes them concerningly infrequently

Jay has a change of clothes - she has a spare shirt and trousers, 2 bras that she alternates between, and several pairs of underpants. This is closer to the regular amount of clothes you would expect a pirate to have

After Chip lost his shirt in Allport, he borrowed Jay's spare one since I refuse to imagine him shirtless for the entire Feywild arc. My boy would be cold! :(

Jay is overall the most well-groomed due to her Navy upbringing. However, this isn't something she enjoys - more like something that she feels obligated to do. She finds washing her clothes a pain, and doesn't mind not smelling great or being dirty. As a kid she always hated washing and wearing uncomfortable clothes. As she spends more time on the pirate ship, she becomes less well-put-together and starts to drift more towards a Chip-level of cleanliness - though she promises herself she will never stoop quite as low as him. It's a matter of pride.

She does pick up his habit of walking around shirtless or in her underpants when she can't be bothered to get dressed / it's too hot / whatever. It's a pirate ship, social norms don't matter. Everyone on the ship is family and no-one cares.

She stops wearing bras when they are not on land for the same reason. However, when they come to land, she does make a concerted effort to make herself look socially acceptable and conform to standard norms regarding dress, since she knows this will get them a better reception with the land-dwellers they interact with.

Gillion's was raised to be well-groomed, but didn't have a chance to pack a change of clothes when he was kicked out of the Undersea. His clothes are stiff and encrusted with salt from all the time he spends in the water. There isn't as much of a need to wash items of clothing in the Undersea, as they are in water the whole time, and stains don't show up in the underwater gloom unless they're extremely obvious. Chip and Jay teach him how laundry works easily enough, and Gillion employs a similar strategy to Chip. However, he washes his clothes less frequently than they do as they are always being resubmerged in water anyway.

Post episode #87:

They finally get Gillion a change of clothes. He has an alternate shirt and trousers.

Since they have a bigger ship by this point, the crew has space for a few more fun/luxury items of clothing that aren't for everyday wear. Only a few - ie one special shirt - but it's still nice to have.

(Gillion has an emo band T-shirt) (yes they have emo bands in the fantasy world of Mana) (come on we all know at this point that the world doesn't conform to a consistent time period)

Jay realises she hates her current clothes because the starched sleeveless shirts she has been wearing, though they have become far less starched after a year of heavy use and improper wear, are very scratchy on her skin. She buys two softer wooden sleeveless shirts instead (ie the ribbed design a lot of the fanart of her features). She gives the old shirts to Chip

Chip buys the coat, which keeps his shoulders warm, and so he often prefers to go shirtless to show off his tattoos. However, he will wear Jay's old shirts when his tits get too cold.

I hope Jon had lots of naps with the admiral

the way i immediatly thought of them

i keep thinking about this part, because it just seems so specific a thing to write, considering that harlan didn't have to name this character 'malam'.

merriam-webster says that the first known use of the word 'palindrome' was in 1637 - a far cry from the 1300s - and "in the past palindromes were more than just smart wordplay. Some folks thought they were magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets for protection."

since the episode dropped, i've seen a couple people in the tag mention that at first they thought malam was an alternate version of arthur - i did too. john's description of facial scars, a missing right ear, and differently colored eyes just sounds too reminiscent of arthur to be a coincidence. someone else said that malam's voice is the one closest to john's that harlan has used, and i had that passing thought while listening too.

obviously malam doesn't have arthur's face, since john would notice that, but i just keep thinking about palindrome. the same backwards as forwards.

malam is older, with a 'dark complexion'. he has arthur's scars, and the voice john would have in a human throat. differently colored eyes. he exists to bring justice to dead children. he says our "day of wrath".

the same backwards as forwards.

Corporate wants you to find the difference between these two pictures