Rather prepared, but a little unplanned

[sovay]

So I have dental trauma you can slice a mile thick and just about the last thing I needed right now was for a notionally minor appointment this morning to add to it in a day-derailing way, but my godchild had their first day of middle school and the last of my mother's eleven monarch butterflies hatched and I have photographic evidence of both.



I think my godchild is constitutionally incapable of not being stylish.



It rested on my mother's hand for a long time, then flew up over the roof and away.

I am haphazardly re-reading the handful of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries currently unpacked. My introduction to the series in high school was actually The Last Camel Died at Noon (1991), which set me up to be extremely confused when none of the rest of the books were parody-pastiches of H. Rider Haggard. I have distinct memories of reading library hardcovers of The Curse of the Pharaohs (1981) and The Deeds of the Disturber (1988) in my grandparents' house, specifically while sitting on my grandparents' bed and on the couch downstairs—I think I had just taken out as much of the series as existed at the time, which would mean up to The Hippopotamus Pool (1996). I'm still not sure I caught up on all the later ones. In twenty-five years, my taste in favorite characters really hasn't changed.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Communing with a newly metamorphosed butterfly--wonderful.

And yes, your godchild is VERY stylish! They look like they have kohl** around their eyes.

**which I discovered was made from, among other things, the residue of charred frankincense.

[selkie]

They do. They have perfected high femme punk eye makeup and were prevented from perpetrating a full cat's-eye swoop only by the encroaching bus timetable. Also visible: pronoun button, stimming necklace, women's size 8 shoes, and straps for racehorse knees, stylishly mismatched.

[asakiyume]

Completely excellent in every detail!

[moon_custafer]

Are racehorse knee-straps a fashion item now? I don’t think I’ve seen anybody here wearing them yet.

[selkie]

The mismatch of two sets of a necessary thing is the style choice; the racehorse knees are a sad fact of outgrowing one’s kneecaps for the moment and the straps keep the kneecaps in place (Osgood-Schlatter’s.) They own straps in black, hot green, fluorescent blue, and are gunning for safety orange when we suggest “finding the rest of the ones they own.”

[sovay]

Communing with a newly metamorphosed butterfly--wonderful.

I love that it was eleven butterflies this year. Next season I hope for their children, but I feel like we should be braced to expect Mothra.

And yes, your godchild is VERY stylish!

They have been like that for years now. You aren't even seeing them with their hair dyed! I'm just very impressed.

[selkie]

I have a warm, fuzzy affection for those books. I have not read the posthumous one, from 2017, The Painted Queen, because... warm fuzzies. How one author kept track of so many characters and their intermarriages, I don't know. I chart by world-shaking wars and I still dick it up on the regular.

They are currently refusing to believe we are not related. I took it as a moment to re-explain genetic bottleneck.

[sovay]

I have a warm, fuzzy affection for those books.

I last re-read them in 2016 when I was spending a lot of time in the bath. They seem to be very durable comfort reading for me.

I have not read the posthumous one, from 2017, The Painted Queen, because... warm fuzzies.

Same. I may actually have tapped out at Tomb of the Golden Bird (2006), because even if she had decided to continue moving forward in time with the characters, KV62 was a fine place to leave them.

How one author kept track of so many characters and their intermarriages, I don't know. I chart by world-shaking wars and I still dick it up on the regular.

I think she must have kept a card catalogue. The series only progressed in real time when it felt like it, but there's a solid three generations sprawling in multiple directions by the end—more if you count the crossover of The Laughter of Dead Kings (2008). And there are still loose ends like that one time Kevin O'Connell was mentioned to be married, which I would have thought was a typo except it's repeated in the biographical dictionary of Amelia Peabody's Egypt (2003), at which point I want the full story!

They are currently refusing to believe we are not related. I took it as a moment to re-explain genetic bottleneck.

I'm still not over the algorithms.

[selkie]

They walked themselves to the bus this morning. *sobs in your shoulder*

[gwynnega]

Yay monarch!

[sovay]

Yay monarch!

She didn't lose a single one!

[choco_frosh]

I am really sorry to hear about the dental trauma.

[sovay]

I am really sorry to hear about the dental trauma.

Thank you. I have to call yesterday's dentist. He had literally one job and that was fixing the problem I came in for, not deciding while he was in there that he should work on another tooth without any warning at all. The fact that the results are causing me discomfort is just sort of a terrible cherry on the essential ice cream of BOUNDARIES WHAT THE FUCK. [edit] It went poorly. I really don't like having my PTSD reinforced.

[davidgillon]

There's a pleasing symmetry between first day at middle school and a butterfly emerging!

[sovay]

There's a pleasing symmetry between first day at middle school and a butterfly emerging!

I thought so, too!

[nineweaving]

Both newly metamorphosed butterflies are gorgeous!

Nine

[sovay]

Both newly metamorphosed butterflies are gorgeous!

I suspect the godchild is still transforming, but I've liked all their instars so far.

[owl]

Your godchild accessorises like a boss - I envy their necklace. There's something both brave and vulnerable about that photo, right on the cusp of adolescence.

[selkie]

Thank you! It is an Ark Therapeutic necklace of a style I think they don't do any longer, but it is made to be a stimulant chewy toy for the masseter muscle. And also look like it is not, you know, a chewy toy. (Ark also has a Bite Saber for Star Wars kiddos.) They have always been extremely brave and just as much vulnerable. It's a lot like living with Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

[sovay]

There's something both brave and vulnerable about that photo, right on the cusp of adolescence.

I think it is how they meet the world, and I love them.

[watervole]

I've never seen a butterfly looking so crisp and new.
But then it was new.

[sovay]

But then it was new.

It was just about an hour old, I think.