I've been thinking about the Flight Anthology graphic novels and one particular story has lived in my head rent free for years. It was written and drawn by Amy Kim Kibuishi in Flight Volume 4, in 2007.

On a distant island lives a young fisherwoman named Sandy Balgan, who just wants to share the glory of fish produce with people who rely on the local Clam merchant Gladys Perna.

Sandy's luck takes a turn when she encounters a giant fish. After a fierce fight, the girl harpoons the sea beast and realizes she can be somebody now.

News of the fiery young lady's catch spreads, and the people of the island are eager to try something new after a generation of Perna's clams.

Of course, old Gladys isn't gonna be upstaged by the new generation, so she ups her game, and the competition gets ugly.

And ugly in more ways than one, as the two women become so obsessed with outdoing each other they gradually change, transformed by their own obsession.

Sandy and Gladys become monstrous giant versions of the sea life they used for their livelihood. The village becomes divided into factions of who prefers what to eat. It turns violent quickly.

But shit really goes down when Sandy hits one of Perna's customers, prompting the two mer-monsters into a bloody brawl that takes them into the coastline itself.

Just when it seems Sandy has murdered her rival, Gladys rips back up and the two she beasts bloodily brawl in a fight that seemingly ends in their deaths. They sink to the depths of the sea they relied on all their lives.

And yet this isn't the end. At least not for the island. Just as the islanders despair over both their food supplies gone, one little girl discovers a new form of produce: Sugar cane.

And so the villagers move on, no longer torn between two merchants turned monsters, and sweets and baked goods become their biggest export.

It's kind of odd how dissonant this ending feels. On one hand the villagers have a prosperous and happier future. On the other two woman have been destroyed in a horrifying fashion. Poor Sandy Balgan literally transformed into a monster out of desperation and envy, while Gladys Perna became embroiled in a petty competition with the younger generation and ultimately both of them died pointlessly, their dreams amounting to nothing. It might be an allegory of how capitalism destroys one's mind and body in the pursuit of false dreams, yet it isn't treated as a tragedy.

Either way, it's a creatively morbid fable. Bonus fact, the artist, Amy Kim Kibuishi, actually adapted the Goosebumps book, Deep Trouble into a graphic novel. It's pretty wild how the "horror" series tale is leagues more lighthearted than this one-shot tale. I mean which would you guess is the Goosebumps story: the one where a kind boy befriends a Mermaid and fights to save her from capture, or the one where two fisherwoman go insane from their heated competition, mutate into sea monsters, and kill each other?

Either way, Miss Kibuishi is the perfect artist to represent the whimsy, terror, and wonder of sea adventure stories.

Southern Hemisphere Sabbat Dates

Wiccan Holidays in the Southern Hemisphere.  What is the Wheel of the Year, or Wiccan holidays, for those in the Southern Hemisphere? It gets a little tricky since Wicca was created in the Northern Hemisphere. Since it’s a nature religion, an Earth religion, this makes a big difference.  

✨ Lammas: 2nd February

Lammas is the “cross-quarter” day marking the first harvest of early grain, where the first loaf of the bread from the harvest is broken and shared in the name of the Goddess. All crops associated with grain and of the season are sacred to this time. Much festivity is coincident with Lammas in Australia, with Australia Day being marked on January 26. It is a time to reflect on the successes of the year and to reward yourself for jobs well done. Lammas magic can be magic of facing up to change. The God gives his energy to the crops to ensure life while the Goddess, as Mother, prepares to transform into her aspect as the Crone. The God loses his strength as the days grow shorter.  

✨ Manbon: 20th - 23rd March (Autumn Equinox)

Mabon is a balancing point in the light and dark of the year, the day when the sun has equal hours in and out of the sky. It is also the second harvest. At this time food is prepared for storage, jams and pickles are made, and fruits are candied and preserved for the coming winter. Pagans celebrate this as a rite of Thanksgiving, a celebration of harvest abundance, an appreciation of hearth, home, and family. It is a time to reflect on what it means to be a Witch and re-affirm your commitment to the Craft. This is the time when the Goddess is mourning the God even though she carries him within her, to be born again at Yule.  

✨ Samhain: 1st May

The Pagan year begins (and ends) with Samhain. It is a time of reflection, of looking back over the last year. This is the time when the boundary is thinnest between the worlds of living and dead; the powers of divination, the Sight, and supernatural communication are strengthened on Samhain night, and it is considered a powerful but dangerous time to communicate with lost loved ones. Pagans celebrate Samhain as an acknowledgment that without death, there can be no rebirth. At Samhain, the darkness increases and the Goddess reigns in her powerful aspect of the Crone.  The God passes into the underworld to become reborn of the Goddess again at Yule. It is a time to honour those who have gone before us and it is a poignant co-incidence that Australia and New Zealand’s day of Remembrance for their fallen in war, ANZAC Day on April 25, should be so close to the southern Samhain.

✨ Yule: 20th - 23rd June

Winter solstice or Yule is the shortest day, and also the longest night of the year. It marks the return of the Sun’s warmth and light, and the promise once again of a productive Earth. Pagans celebrate these aspects with candles, fire, greenery and feasting. At this time, Yule logs are burned. The Yule log must traditionally be the root of a hardwood tree, and in Australia mallee roots are ideal for this purpose, as are Tasmanian oaks and all types of Eucalyptus. The Yule log is burned down until nothing but a small piece remains, which is saved and kept to be used as a lighter for the following year’s Yule fire. A Yule tree is placed within the traditional Wiccan home, with a pentagram (five pointed star) at the top, symbolizing the five elements. Presents are exchanged and many Witches stay up all night to welcome the sun. This is symbolic of the Goddess giving birth to the God and then resting after her ordeal.  

✨ Imbolc: 1st August

Imbolc is the time of the beginning of beginnings, the time to consider carefully what you will do with the year stretching before you. Imbolc brings the awakening of the life force when the first green shoots of bulbs appear. Life is stirring again and this marks the Goddess recovering after giving birth while the newborn God is depicted as a small child nursing from his mother. The God is growing, spreading sunshine all around causing things to grow. It is a time to honour the feminine and get ready for spring. At lmbolc, the Australian forests are bright with the colour yellow, the Acacia trees coming into full flower.

✨ Ostara: 20th - 23rd September (Spring/Vernal Equinox)

The Equinoxes are the balancing points in the cycle of the seasons, when the day and night are of equal length, reminding us of the harmony of the whole. Buds of flowers and leaf, all manner of eggs and just-born life are celebrated in decorations and imagery as Pagans rejoice in the Earth’s reawakening. The urge of spring is to do, create and bring in the new. Here light overcomes darkness with lengthening days bringing the magic of new growth. Ostara is associated with childhood and new life, and the God and Goddess are perceived as children, personifying youth and innocence before their entry into adulthood. The Goddess, as the Maiden, covers the earth with flowers and love while the God grows to maturity. This is a time to honour the masculine and to celebrate everything that is great about being alive.  

✨ Beltane: 31st October

Beltane, the beginning of the summer months is at the November cross-quarter. This is the festival of the Great Rite - of sexual union between Goddess and God. Beltane is the spring fertility festival and there is feasting and celebration - a great festival for lovers! Beltane is the most popular time for Witches to be handfasted. This is the time when the brilliant red flowers of the Flame Trees highlight Australian forests and gardens.

✨ Litha: 20th - 23rd December (Summer Solstice)

This is the longest day of the year, and a time of joy and strength for the light. It is a time when the powers of nature are at their fullest. In the past this was often marked with bonfires and celebrants staying awake through the short night. To leap over the bonfire was to assure a good crop; some said the grain would grow as tall as the leapers could jump. Due to fire restrictions in Australia throughout summer, celebrations for this Sabbat tend to be quite different from those throughout the rest of the year. No candles can be lit, no cauldrons burned, and no open flames are allowed outside throughout much of the country. Litha falls in the dry stifling heat of summer in the southern part of our land, but in the north, Litha falls in the hot, wet season, and represents fruitfulness. In Australia the Sturt Desert Pea is a sacred flower of this time. This is a time of ascendancy of the God, at his most powerful now, while the burgeoning Goddess brings forth the bounty of the Earth.  

Helen Jacobs. It was also reproduced in ‘The Tribute for the V.C’s’  published by John Horn 1930.

Folklore related to Snowdrops

Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) are known as “Candlemas Bells” because, being the usual earliest blooming flower of all, they often bloom before Candlemas (some varieties bloom all winter long in some places). Legend says that they sprang up by the hand of an angel, who then pointed them out as a sign of hope to Eve, who was weeping in repentance and in despair over the cold and death that entered into the world after she and her husband sinned. Because our Hope is Christ, the Light of the World as Simeon says in his canticle today, it is providential that the snowdrop should bloom by this Feast! If possible, gather some Candlemas Bells to bring inside (folk belief is that bringing them indoors before this date is bad luck, and bringing them indoors today “purifies” one’s house.) These flowers, along with carnations, are also the “birth flower” for those born in January.

https://www.fisheaters.com/customstimeafterepiphany3.html

“Welcome, welcome!” sang and sounded every ray, and the Flower lifted itself up over the snow into the brighter world. The Sunbeams caressed and kissed it, so that it opened altogether, white as snow, and ornamented with green stripes. It bent its head in joy and humility.

“Beautiful Flower!” said the Sunbeams, “how graceful and delicate you are! You are the first, you are the only one! You are our love! You are the bell that rings out for summer, beautiful summer, over country and town. All the snow will melt; the cold winds will be driven away; we shall rule; all will become green, and then you will have companions, syringas, laburnums, and roses; but you are the first, so graceful, so delicate!”

Extract from 'The Snowdrop’ by Hans Christian Anderson

Candlemas Bells,   Christ’s Flower, Death’s Flower,   Dew-drops,  Dingle-Dangle,  Drooping heads.  Drooping Lily,  Fair Maids of February,  French Snowdrop,  Mary’s Taper,  Naked Maiden,  Purification Flower,  Snow-bells, Snow-flower , Snow-piercer, White-bells,  White-cups,  White Ladies, White Purification, White Queen,

illustration from 'Land of the Happy Hours’ by Helen Jacobs. It was also reproduced in 'The Tribute for the V.C’s’  published by John Horn 1930.

http://www.ecoenchantments.co.uk/mysnowdropmagicpage.html

“It is unlucky to decorate your rooms with snowdrops. The snowdrop always blossoms on Candlemas Day The snowdrop will ensure purity of thought to the wearer If a girl eats the first snowdrop she finds in the spring, she will not get tanned in the summer. Snowdrops are so much like a corpse in a shroud that in some countries the people will not have them in the house, lest they bring in death.”

 From - “Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World.” 1903

Heyyyy just wrote a really quick roygarth fic, I’ve never written a fic before but I wanna continue it so this is like a super short intro yknow

Sean in his younger days. <3

Why do they deserve to win?

Roy Harper (TW drugs)

William Randolph Wintergreen

Wintergreen is a fucking enabler he deserves everything he gets leave Roy alone

The biggest 🧹 I have seen in a poll.

Anyway, Wintergreen could've said "You know, Slade, maybe going after teenagers is beneath you?" or something like that and saved everyone a lot of pain.

ROY HARPER FANS READ THE ARSENAL MINI SERIES ITS SO GOOD

THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYIN'

Why do they deserve to win?

Roy Harper (TW drugs)

William Randolph Wintergreen

Wintergreen is a fucking enabler he deserves everything he gets leave Roy alone

unoriginal joke

annual cousin mel posting

They may look like Daphne and Velma, but they are in fact Cousin Mel and I. M. Slime from Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. Most of this was done on stream. Thank you so much again anonymous for your patronage!

10/10 dynamic

It’s Christmastime, so let’s all remember our favorite lesbians who are gonna sue the pants off of Santa.

IT’S ALMOST THEIR TIME

based nabiki

To be fair, though, Nabiki does care, but only insofar as she can profit from it.

She’s the original Rainbow Capitalist