Tending the Mindflame

At the top of the Thornmouth lighthouse resides the Mindflame. It is a symbol of our guild and helps ships navigate the rocky shore below. As such, all guild members come to check on it at one time or another. We are a big guild, though, and tending the Mindflame is not lonely work. Use this thread to introduce yourself to your fellow lighthouse-tenders. You can talk about what you do in the mundane, your hobbies and interests, your view of magiq… anything that can help us get to know our fellow guildmates better.

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I am Sellalellen, but my fellow Mounties have shortened it to Sel. You can call my by either one, I don’t mind. I came up with this username quite by accident. My Mum tried to call me by both my first and middle name but got tongue-tied and ended up combining them into one long word. And it stuck. She still calls me Sellalellen or Lellen from time to time and it confuses visitors because neither of those sound anything like my real name.
I’m the sort of person who gets really into niche topics and soaks up all the information I can on one before moving to another. For the past little while, that has blended with my Flinter tendencies, resulting in my picking up new strange hobbies for a few months to a year, and then abandoning them to learn the next thing. I have a dusty loom and paper making supplies leaning against a wall untouched now. The ones that really seem to stick for me are crocheting and embroidery. I love seeing yarn work itself into a recognizable shape, and seeing someone squish a thing I made against their face is so gratifying. I see my embroidery like a form of painting but I get so attached to my projects that unless I made them with someone in mind from the start, I have a hard time letting them go. My pieces are all one of a kind and so they feel too precious to let out of my sight.
I did not mean to write an essay here. Please do not feel pressured to write as much as I did, I clearly got carried away.

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Hey, I’m TrueMagick! Name’s from a shortened version of a username I normally use for things, which in turn is from the registered (?) name of a horse we had on my grandparents’ farm. I consider myself a gamer, although may go long periods of time without playing anything. I’m willing to play anything from video games to tabletop games to games that require physical activity. When I have something to read, you’ll know it because any chance I get my face will be in it. I’m constantly watching anime both current seasons and old. Grew up with a crafty mother and in turn have enjoyed craft projects, but don’t usually make things of my own accord normally. However, my mom and grandma will ask me for help if they need it and usually find it spot on. I think that about sums it up.

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Hey, I’m BrokenVoid, or just Void for short. My nickname comes from a few years ago when I really wanted to create my own video game company, and it was going to be called Broken Void Games. I quickly learned how hard it is to actually make a video game and lost interest, but I really like it as a username so I use it for most things. I currently work as a manager at a hardware store in my hometown but I’m going to have to find a new job as I’ll be moving away for college in August as a microbiology major. In my free time I like exploring different languages, I’ll learn a little bit of one and see if I like it, then move onto another. I currently know a good amount of German, I can read Swedish but not speak it, I’m getting better at speaking Polish, and bits and pieces of a dozen or so others. I’m also really into bugs, I have several tarantulas, a few scorpions, cockroaches, and a couple beetles. I have a decent bookshelf of “to-be-read” books that I’m gradually working at. Occasionally I do some digital artwork in photoshop like my profile picture.

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Hi, I’m IdyllWild. A new ThornMouth by a week actually. My name comes from a username I had on IRC a very very long time ago. I’m a very casual gamer, and love RPG, adventure, and puzzle games…I do own a Switch, but I don’t play it very often. I also enjoy making my own cards and am going to endeavour to start embroidery without poking my eyes out next month. I also love to read and my newest thing is birdwatching. I have a ravine in the back of my house, so it’s really easy to go! My favorites are the fat fluffy ones, like parulas and chickadees. I’m tying to read more and watch less TV, although I’ll still go to the theatre to see movies and documentaries. I have a pair of female degus that I also love to spend time with, they’re old ladies though at five and six. Grace and Ada.

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Hello, I’m Strix. A number of years ago I began to write a novel, one of the characters was called Strix. I got about halfway when my nana passed away, I didn’t write for another month, just as I began to get in my stride a friend from school passed away only 25 years old. Needless to say I got huge writers block and couldn’t even look at my novel let alone continue writing. Then about 10 months later I met a guy, he seemed the embodiment of Strix, he looked like him and they had very close personalities.
We married two years ago and now have the bubbliest and most inquisitive 13 month old. I wonder now if I had continued with my novel would I have met my favourite people in the world?

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Hi everyone, I’m Rhavaniel. Years ago I was a member of an online RPG/avatar/virtual pet site, and I was trying to collect elvish names for my pets. A site called arwen-undomiel.com was an indispensable resource for me at that time, and that was when I came across the name - it means ‘wild one’. I loved the sound of it and, though I’ve never been much of a ‘wild child’, I’ve not always been one to toe the line either!

I’ve been a reader since I was very young. I would happily read entire books in one sitting and not realise I hadn’t moved all day. I did literature for my undergrad degree and realised why everyone raves about Shakespeare’s plays (seriously - I ended up doing my final dissertation on four Shakespeare plays and I had some of my happiest moments researching for it). Etymology and language in general really gets me fired up - I love rediscovering out-of-use words and finding out exactly where words have come from…

I could ramble for ages about things that make my brain happy, but think I’ll leave it there for now!

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Hello all, I’m Anicetus.It’s a name I came across back in high school for a username to match my buddies. We always ran around together playing Halo. I still use it for gaming and the such. It’s a Latin version of a greek word that means “unconquerable one.”

I love researching random topics and trying to soak up as much info as I can. Otherwise, I play video games casually and love listening to music. I enjoy reading and have a hard time putting a book down once I’m hooked. Also, I LOVE coffee - my wife calls me a coffee snob.

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Hello fellow Thornmouths, my name is Alissiya. It’s not my “real” one, but I think it chose me.
I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember, and have always been drawn to knowledge and things outside our understanding - magic, outer space, the ocean depths, even death all fascinate me. I enjoy learning languages for the same reason - it stretches my brain and challenges my preconceived notions.

As well as books I spend my time immersed in video games and audio dramas, anything that lets me reach further past the limitations of what we call reality. I also like to make things - embroidery, knitting - and I try and weave magiq into my creations as much as possible. I’m hoping to expand the boundaries of my knowledge, and meet some people who love to learn about strange things as much as I do.

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My name is Presley. I teach English as a Second Language in an inner city public school in the most diverse city in the United States. It is challenging and rewarding work, but I really love my students. Their experiences have been very different than my own. It keeps me from pretending my own background is universal or I have all the answers when I may have just had a more stable home life or other advantages that make me feel or think certain ways.

I try to get them to see the value in their own stories and not devalue them for things they cannot change and have no control over but show them what an education can do depending on how they want to apply it. I don’t care if they want to work in restaurant management with their diploma or go to university and higher education, their lives are their own to write.

To that end, I am also getting braver in telling my own stories as a queer person and an Episcopalian. I came from a conservative Christian background that didn’t see people like me, and didn’t think I would make it back to church after the way I had been treated by my own family, but I ended up moving a few blocks away from an LGBT inclusive church and followed the sound of the bells one Sunday morning as I was stressing over lesson planning for Monday my first year teaching. Now I am on the church and school board at my parish and lead the 20/30 group that I wish I had in my 20’s(I’m now 32) which skews very queer.

I have been posting my own gay fiction, poetry, and a few essays and thoughts on disability on my Medium page here

I studied English and Creative Writing and spent a lot of time writing straight characters because that was all I was reading, but it has been freeing to write characters closer to my own reality.

There is a lot of diverse YA happening featuring queer, Asian, non-binary and other POC characters right now too that also feeds into my day job and goes into the sci-fi/fantasy realm. I am really excited for a book coming out in January 2020 called Reverie about an evil drag queen sorceress stealing the memories of a young gay teen who must learn how to protect himself and his world from collapsing.

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Afternoon everyone!
I’m Serin, (well, my mundane name is Rachael) but my mum always wanted to call me Serin, after the little yellow bird that sings, so I often go by that online.
In the mundane, I’m an assistant psychologist- which I feel really aligns with my thornmouth guildship. Since arriving at the lighthouse, I’ve visited the mindflame and have spent a lot of time researching in the room beneath. During the evening I usually walk through the forest near the lighthouse and collecting local flora and sharing dinner with my fellow thornmouths.

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Hello all!
I’m BarkbytheGrace, feel free to call me any variation on it, or Hannah, which is my actual name :slightly_smiling_face:. The username is a mashup of a family last name, my middle name and the meaning of Hannah (which is “by the grace of God”).
On the mundane side of things, I’m studying for a bachelors in Biological Sciences at the moment, and I’m currently super interested in entomology, specifically wasps (an underrated group, for sure). My interests change often though, so it probably won’t be long till I’ve found a new niche to annoy my lecturers with :sweat_smile:. As for hobbies, I enjoy reading, especially YA fantasies, I spend far too much time on my switch (but it’s great fun playing skyrim on a train), and I have a growing collection of mindful colouring books.
At the lighthouse, I reside almost permanently in the library, leaving only to sleep and gather snacks, and potentially travel a little further for new insect friends/samples. :honeybee:

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I have a switch too. I mostly play minecraft but recommend octopath traveler. What games do you like playing on it?

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I prefer story focused, single player games, so things like Breath of the Wild and Bayonetta. I started Octopath traveller, and was enjoying it, but I get distracted super easily, so I haven’t played it in a while.
Currently I’m playing Katamari Damacy Reroll, which is ridiculous but great fun.
This might make me sound old, but I remember when minecraft was first released, and I remember playing it for free on computers at my school during IT lessons, :joy::sweat_smile:

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breathe of the wild and bayonetta are also super fun. Ooo i didnt know katamari was out for the switch, I might have to pick that up ha. I think my earliest memory of minecraft was when I saw someone on the pc using like commands or something to spawn stuff in or maybe they were chatting? I don’t know, I just remember that because of that I thought minecraft was “nerdy” and “to hard” ha. How wrong I was.

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A lot of the stuff I considered “nerdy” I now actively take part in glances at my magic the gathering decks
But, to be fair to minecraft players, the most I can build out of creative mode is basically a shack :sweat_smile:

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Hello! Sorry for all the posting about the place, I’m excited about the world of magiq but too unfocused atm to sit down and read through the books just yet, so here I am. Goblin isn’t my real name (ha) but I’m having trouble with names atm so it’ll do! (I like goblins). I really like effective use of the medium in storytelling, and for me that means playing a lot of games! I also like looking very deeply into trivial parts of history or parts of fictional worlds that were never intended to be thought about in detail - hopefully that’ll be useful here. I’m a historian-in-training and have access to some pretty great search resources, so hmu if you can’t find a reference or resource (though goodness knows there’s probably a few historians here). Sorry for the ramble, thanks for the welcome and for all the introductions!

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I’ve just realised that I never introduced myself here :laughing:

My name is Rimor! My full name is James autem rimor but that’s a bit of a mouth full so Rimor is just fine! Rimor is Latin for Explorer which is just perfect for me as I love exploring new ideas and discovering new things!

I studied applied animal management in university but I was never able to complete my degree. Now I’m stuck at home playing video games, reading, photography and a bit of pet care every now and then!

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Hi there!
I am Olivia or Blue eyed human. My username formed after I first needed one for other sites and me being too literal for my own good.
I’m currently studying at university for illustration which I am enjoying very much (apart from the heavy work load but that is to be expected). I also really love D&D and have quite a few characters to share the stories of at this point since they have all had quite an interesting time in one way or another. Aside from that I practice witchcraft, mainly focusing on more divination through tarot and spirit work because of encounters when I was younger.
I’m still making my way through the books but once I do I hope to join in as much as I can!

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