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Friday, April 10th, 2026 10:34 pm
Artemis II. Amaze Amaze Amaze. 💚💙💜
Friday, April 10th, 2026 12:45 pm
Nothing going on today and it's raining.
Thursday, April 9th, 2026 12:59 pm
Not much going on here. Swam my laps this morning and late yesterday afternoon. I think I'll stick to doing that in the mornings as much as possible because I'm sick of my neighbors' kids staring at me like I'm some kind of freak. They do this right in front of their moms and nobody tries to tell them to stop it. When I was a kid my mom would have read me the riot act for doing that crap.
Thursday, April 9th, 2026 11:44 am
Apart from the hotel snafu and leaving my meds behind, we had a great time in San Diego.
We started Saturday off by going to a cute little French cafe. Then we went to the Zoo. Sticker shock: Adult admission to the zoo for one day is $80! Holy cow! We rented a wheelchair to push HalfshellHusband around, but he'd still had enough after 3 hours, which was too bad. We covered about half of the zoo— it's huge! But we saw most of the birds, monkeys, and the African section. We never quite found the red pandas, and had to skip the giant pandas because you either pay extra or wait in line for more than an hour to see them. We missed the fossa, which was either indoors or hiding, but saw the serval (which was larger than I expected). We also saw the orangutan baby, the tiny Chinese alligator, and watched hippos snoozing underwater (but didn't realize we missed the chance to see a pygmy hippo! *cries*). The exhibits are large with really nice habitats, and the landscaping is beautiful. I could have spent the entire day there.
We went to dinner at BJ's Brewhouse, and had a monster pizookie for dessert. It was delicious, though our daughter shunned the blue ice cream. I can't really blame her.
Sunday, we went to the La Jolla Shores beach. Parking was a nightmare because EVERYONE was there, both local and people visiting for Spring Break. SO crowded, which was completely new. This doesn't happen in Oregon or Northern California— the weather at the beach is colder, so fewer people go there to hang out all day. Our daughter joined us, and we watched the waves and the little kids and enjoyed the sun.
Dinner was at La Cesarina, our daughter's favorite Italian restaurant. Sticker shock again! But really good food. I had ravioli with mushroom sauce, and HSH had (as usual) the lasagna.
Our daughter had to work quite a bit of Monday, but mid-afternoon we went to a cafe on an ocean bluff where people board hang-gliders to sail out over the beach. That was really neat!
Then we went to see the Padres/Giants baseball game. The stadium was really impressive, with lots of different types of food available. HSH and our daughter opted for hot dogs (what). I passed due to ongoing queasiness. The Padres' fans love them, and it was a great experience. I had qualms during the national anthem, though. The crowd near us was largely Hispanic and very patriotic, and it hurt to see that and know how badly we're treating them.
I'm not much of a baseball fan, so one of the biggest surprises for me was the number of left-handed batters. It seemed to be about 1 in 5, which apparently matches the MLB overall. Interestingly enough, my profession (embedded software engineering) also tends to have that same, higher proportion of left-handers. The new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system is in play now. The Padres invoked it for one of the pitches, but the umpire was ruled correct. The Giants ultimately won that game (HSH was happy about that), though the Padres got their only two runs in the 9th inning, so it was close!
Our last morning there was Tuesday, and we had brunch at a New Zealand cafe(!) in the heart of downtown. It's our daughter's favorite place for French toast, and we all ordered it. SO good, though I wasn't expecting the cinnamon.
Then it was time to say goodbye, so we could get to the San Diego airport ridiculously early. It's always hard. We really wish our daughter lived closer. After the farewells, we had a slightly convoluted trip to the car rental facility, thanks to a couple of Google Maps glitches. That was a first! But the return went smoothly, and we got to the airport in time to spend about 2 hours sitting at the gate. \o?
It was great, but over much too quickly!
We started Saturday off by going to a cute little French cafe. Then we went to the Zoo. Sticker shock: Adult admission to the zoo for one day is $80! Holy cow! We rented a wheelchair to push HalfshellHusband around, but he'd still had enough after 3 hours, which was too bad. We covered about half of the zoo— it's huge! But we saw most of the birds, monkeys, and the African section. We never quite found the red pandas, and had to skip the giant pandas because you either pay extra or wait in line for more than an hour to see them. We missed the fossa, which was either indoors or hiding, but saw the serval (which was larger than I expected). We also saw the orangutan baby, the tiny Chinese alligator, and watched hippos snoozing underwater (but didn't realize we missed the chance to see a pygmy hippo! *cries*). The exhibits are large with really nice habitats, and the landscaping is beautiful. I could have spent the entire day there.
We went to dinner at BJ's Brewhouse, and had a monster pizookie for dessert. It was delicious, though our daughter shunned the blue ice cream. I can't really blame her.
Sunday, we went to the La Jolla Shores beach. Parking was a nightmare because EVERYONE was there, both local and people visiting for Spring Break. SO crowded, which was completely new. This doesn't happen in Oregon or Northern California— the weather at the beach is colder, so fewer people go there to hang out all day. Our daughter joined us, and we watched the waves and the little kids and enjoyed the sun.
Dinner was at La Cesarina, our daughter's favorite Italian restaurant. Sticker shock again! But really good food. I had ravioli with mushroom sauce, and HSH had (as usual) the lasagna.
Our daughter had to work quite a bit of Monday, but mid-afternoon we went to a cafe on an ocean bluff where people board hang-gliders to sail out over the beach. That was really neat!
Then we went to see the Padres/Giants baseball game. The stadium was really impressive, with lots of different types of food available. HSH and our daughter opted for hot dogs (what). I passed due to ongoing queasiness. The Padres' fans love them, and it was a great experience. I had qualms during the national anthem, though. The crowd near us was largely Hispanic and very patriotic, and it hurt to see that and know how badly we're treating them.
I'm not much of a baseball fan, so one of the biggest surprises for me was the number of left-handed batters. It seemed to be about 1 in 5, which apparently matches the MLB overall. Interestingly enough, my profession (embedded software engineering) also tends to have that same, higher proportion of left-handers. The new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system is in play now. The Padres invoked it for one of the pitches, but the umpire was ruled correct. The Giants ultimately won that game (HSH was happy about that), though the Padres got their only two runs in the 9th inning, so it was close!
Our last morning there was Tuesday, and we had brunch at a New Zealand cafe(!) in the heart of downtown. It's our daughter's favorite place for French toast, and we all ordered it. SO good, though I wasn't expecting the cinnamon.
Then it was time to say goodbye, so we could get to the San Diego airport ridiculously early. It's always hard. We really wish our daughter lived closer. After the farewells, we had a slightly convoluted trip to the car rental facility, thanks to a couple of Google Maps glitches. That was a first! But the return went smoothly, and we got to the airport in time to spend about 2 hours sitting at the gate. \o?
It was great, but over much too quickly!
Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 03:17 pm
Had some orange blossom tea. I went out for a short walk but it wiped me out, (damn arthritis) I was looking for a book in one of my neighborhood bookstores but I couldn't find one I wanted, I'm going to wait till Indie Bookstore Day which is in over two weeks, I'm more likely to find something I want then. Had a little sushi for lunch, went home and watched CSI, konked out briefly, talked to a friend on the phone about possibly going to a concert Sunday and am now waiting for a lemon pound cake to finish baking.
Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 08:57 am
Our temperature dropped down to 27 degrees overnight, but from what I can see, none of the garden flowers were adversely affected. Supposed to warm up again later in the week! This see-saw weather is getting very old, though.
What I Just Finished Reading
See-sawing here too, trying out books then discarding them. Thank goodness for Libby and Hoopla! In place of the horrible Intermezzo, I picked up Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, which was lovely and soothing and exactly what I needed right then. (For A to Z Authors.) In place of We the People, I read The Frozen People, by Elly Griffiths. This was a time-travel mystery with just excellent characters. There were lots of loose ends left, though, presumably for sequels. (For Keyword: People.) I also read Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz, which was quite ingenious with its mystery-within-a-mystery. (A to Z Titles).
What I Am Currently Reading
Ditching We the People left me needing something for the Goodreads "Trending Books" challenge, so I picked up We Survived the Night, by Julian Brave Noisecat. I was afraid this was going to be a return to the grim, but it hasn't been like that (too much); lots of mythology and Coyote trickster tales woven in to the narrative.
What I Am Reading Next
My hold of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende came in just this morning; this will be the last book for my Dreamwidth Book Bingo. I remember reading and loving this, oh, thirty-some years ago so it will be interesting to see how it lands on me this time.
Question of the day: Rereading! Well loved books? Books you weren't sure of once but are giving another chance? Books that you remember being affected by at some point in your life and want to check in with again?
What I Just Finished Reading
See-sawing here too, trying out books then discarding them. Thank goodness for Libby and Hoopla! In place of the horrible Intermezzo, I picked up Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, which was lovely and soothing and exactly what I needed right then. (For A to Z Authors.) In place of We the People, I read The Frozen People, by Elly Griffiths. This was a time-travel mystery with just excellent characters. There were lots of loose ends left, though, presumably for sequels. (For Keyword: People.) I also read Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz, which was quite ingenious with its mystery-within-a-mystery. (A to Z Titles).
What I Am Currently Reading
Ditching We the People left me needing something for the Goodreads "Trending Books" challenge, so I picked up We Survived the Night, by Julian Brave Noisecat. I was afraid this was going to be a return to the grim, but it hasn't been like that (too much); lots of mythology and Coyote trickster tales woven in to the narrative.
What I Am Reading Next
My hold of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende came in just this morning; this will be the last book for my Dreamwidth Book Bingo. I remember reading and loving this, oh, thirty-some years ago so it will be interesting to see how it lands on me this time.
Question of the day: Rereading! Well loved books? Books you weren't sure of once but are giving another chance? Books that you remember being affected by at some point in your life and want to check in with again?
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Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 04:45 pm
Got a ton of groceries, luckily this time the damn cart didn't lock up on me like it did on 3/20. And I got everything I wanted except the cinnamon rolls. I can just get the cinnamon rolls somewhere else later.
Monday, April 6th, 2026 12:27 pm
I have to do laundry, take out the garbage and empty out the dishwasher today, those are all rather boring activities, I think I'll put on a podcast later.
Sunday, April 5th, 2026 05:48 pm
Yesterday was very full of chores - the house was cleaned, the yard cleared of the last storm remnants and pollen pods (spoiler alert: new storms today), and then I worked on some sketching and reading before making a curried tofu dish for supper. I caught up on 4 more back episodes of WTNV,
Today we sorted out the menu planning and grocery shopping. I have managed to get chapters covered in each of the three books I am reading (Hidden Potential, The Urban Bestiary, and Silent Spring). I worked more on filling out the sketching (not really pleased with the outcome, but it's okay - you never get good at anything by avoiding it, so I am learning to settle for "good enough for what I was going for").
I also managed to secure my mom's banana bread recipe from my sister, and then reproduced it with some minor tweaks to get it vegan (all hail the flaxseed egg!). This was a little bit of fun because my sister only had a photo of the top side of the recipe card, and not the back - so I had the ingredients, but not all the instructions. But I made some deductions and it came out good! It is not very healthy, unfortunately. And alas, I swear my mother put raisins in everything. It has pecans, too. Anyway, childhood flavors unlocked. ♥
I finally took the time to unbundle the trees/plants I'd acquired (white dogwood, eastern redbuds, washington hawthorns, crabapples, and crape myrtles) and begin soaking them, and have acquired some temp soil to give them places to rest while I figure out their permanent placement according to light/shade needs.
I have managed to flesh out my weekly planner, and took time to feel out my March reflections and adjust my April goals. I am feeling moderately hopeful that this will be a good month.
I don't know that I have it in me to do NaPoeWriMo this year, but lhe local writer's group is hosting an April poetry contest. I placed 2nd the last time I entered, but I'll need to think on the topic and guidelines provided to see if I can get anything of merit together for this year's submissions.
May your week be pleasant (don't look at the news, don't look at the news, don't look at the news). ♥
Sunday, April 5th, 2026 02:37 pm
Had some Downton Abbey estate tea. Watched Life of Brian, I love Monty Python.
Sunday, April 5th, 2026 04:46 pm
ONLINE E-BOOK (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)
Free at my website.
The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.
New installment:
Side story | Dangerous Games. Dangerous games benefit dangerous men . . . unless those games are played with leaders of dangerous men.
REISSUE
Already available free at my website, this omnibus is now also available at AO3, SqWA, Ream, and online bookstores.
Blood Vow (The Three Lands). He has taken a blood vow to the Jackal God to bring freedom to his land by killing Koretia's greatest enemy. But what will he do when the enemy becomes his friend?
BLOG FICTION
Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.
New installments:
REVIEWS OF MY FICTION
Speculative fiction writer Jennifer R. Povey posted reviews of all six of my Three Lands novels in the space of less than three weeks. Occasional spoilers.
UPCOMING FICTION
Some of you may have noticed that I updated my website early this time. That was because I was uncertain when I would regain the ability to upload web pages, after my transfer to a new webhost. Thankfully, the transfer went smoothly, with no downtime for my website.
Also, I'm posting this update a day early because I'll be watching Artemis II tomorrow afternoon. :)
My next release will be the final part of the novel The Motley Crew: "Apprehended Ambassador."
My fiction announcements are also available by e-mail and feeds.
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Sunday, April 5th, 2026 07:23 am
To all who observe, may your Easter be lovely.
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Saturday, April 4th, 2026 04:40 pm
We got back from San Diego on Tuesday night. It was a great trip overall, and wonderful to spend so much time with our daughter. But it got off to a rocky start.
There's a lesson in here about touching bases with your hotel early, though I don't think it would have helped us. When we got to our hotel at 10:00 on Friday night, the desk clerk informed me that they had cancelled our reservation. This was because they had overbooked by 6 rooms, and the manager told her to cancel anything that wasn't pre-paid. Late at night in a strange city is not the time to find yourself without a hotel! The clerk suggested the next hotel over, which fortunately had a room. But ugh. More than the price of my carefully arranged lodging, and we were hit with the smell of mildew smell as soon as we opened the door to our room. By 11:30pm, I was searching for another place to stay for the remaining 3 nights of our trip.
I found one, which was listed as having breakfast and a fitness room. Yay! But no. When we got there on Saturday, a sign noted that they no longer served breakfast and the desk clerk informed me that the fitness room was being renovated. I could not win for losing. Also? More mildew smell when we entered THAT room.
Friday night was also when I realized that I had somehow forgotten to pack my meds. They were all in the 7-day organizer, ready to go, but it was still sitting on the bathroom shelf at home. /o\ It wasn't worth it to hunt down replacements for just 4 days, so I went without instead, but what a stupid mistake. I was also envisioning being ragingly hungry for the duration, since one of the meds and a supplement both suppress appetite and I am otherwise always hungry, so I was dreading that.
Surprise! That didn't happen. Instead, I spent each day feeling swimmy between the ears (vague-headed and with a sensation almost like having my ears randomly pop), getting sudden hot flashes, and riding the border between nausea and hunger. My blood pressure was also low for 3-4 hours each morning, and it was like I couldn't fully wake up. I wondered what I was taking that normally addressed that-- thyroid meds? Antidepressants? It wasn't until a couple of days in that it occurred to me that those might be withdrawal symptoms, rather than part of my base unmedicated state. IDK. But the lack of hotel breakfast also meant I had no coffee! I had to make up the difference with caffeinated diet soda, which... Ullllhhhh. On the plus side, we got to try Blackberry Dr. Pepper! On the minus side, I also stopped enjoying it by the second day.
More on the actual trip in a separate post. I've been busy with work and trying to get caught up with my friends-list now that we're back.
There's a lesson in here about touching bases with your hotel early, though I don't think it would have helped us. When we got to our hotel at 10:00 on Friday night, the desk clerk informed me that they had cancelled our reservation. This was because they had overbooked by 6 rooms, and the manager told her to cancel anything that wasn't pre-paid. Late at night in a strange city is not the time to find yourself without a hotel! The clerk suggested the next hotel over, which fortunately had a room. But ugh. More than the price of my carefully arranged lodging, and we were hit with the smell of mildew smell as soon as we opened the door to our room. By 11:30pm, I was searching for another place to stay for the remaining 3 nights of our trip.
I found one, which was listed as having breakfast and a fitness room. Yay! But no. When we got there on Saturday, a sign noted that they no longer served breakfast and the desk clerk informed me that the fitness room was being renovated. I could not win for losing. Also? More mildew smell when we entered THAT room.
Friday night was also when I realized that I had somehow forgotten to pack my meds. They were all in the 7-day organizer, ready to go, but it was still sitting on the bathroom shelf at home. /o\ It wasn't worth it to hunt down replacements for just 4 days, so I went without instead, but what a stupid mistake. I was also envisioning being ragingly hungry for the duration, since one of the meds and a supplement both suppress appetite and I am otherwise always hungry, so I was dreading that.
Surprise! That didn't happen. Instead, I spent each day feeling swimmy between the ears (vague-headed and with a sensation almost like having my ears randomly pop), getting sudden hot flashes, and riding the border between nausea and hunger. My blood pressure was also low for 3-4 hours each morning, and it was like I couldn't fully wake up. I wondered what I was taking that normally addressed that-- thyroid meds? Antidepressants? It wasn't until a couple of days in that it occurred to me that those might be withdrawal symptoms, rather than part of my base unmedicated state. IDK. But the lack of hotel breakfast also meant I had no coffee! I had to make up the difference with caffeinated diet soda, which... Ullllhhhh. On the plus side, we got to try Blackberry Dr. Pepper! On the minus side, I also stopped enjoying it by the second day.
More on the actual trip in a separate post. I've been busy with work and trying to get caught up with my friends-list now that we're back.
Saturday, April 4th, 2026 10:09 am
Had a great time yesterday hanging out with a friend.
The pool water is freezing cold again. Apparently the heater busted. I swam my laps anyway.
The pool water is freezing cold again. Apparently the heater busted. I swam my laps anyway.
Friday, April 3rd, 2026 06:46 am
Thursday, April 2nd, 2026 01:55 pm
I'm so tired. I got almost no sleep last night.
Wednesday, April 1st, 2026 08:37 pm
Last night when I was trying to watch CSI New York on Roku every time this one interactive McDonald's ad came on the ep would reset back to the beginning and apparently the only way I can come close to watching it normally is to fast forward to a point after the damn ad. It yaps about kids voting and has some really irritating sort of anime looking characters in it. I can't stand McDonald's anyway, their food is gross.
Then this morning I accidentally locked myself out of my apt. I felt like a total fool. I could only find the one maintenance guy who speaks zero English so he didn't know what I wanted, it took me a while to find any of the managers.
Then when I went to pay the rent I realized there's bigger fools than me running this place. I always ask for a rent receipt. They gave me one with somebody else's name and check copy on it. I was all "this isn't my check" and they seemed to think it was no big deal!
I hung out down by the lake for a while. Good thing I wore a jacket because the weather was cold and rather wet. I'm super tired now.
Then this morning I accidentally locked myself out of my apt. I felt like a total fool. I could only find the one maintenance guy who speaks zero English so he didn't know what I wanted, it took me a while to find any of the managers.
Then when I went to pay the rent I realized there's bigger fools than me running this place. I always ask for a rent receipt. They gave me one with somebody else's name and check copy on it. I was all "this isn't my check" and they seemed to think it was no big deal!
I hung out down by the lake for a while. Good thing I wore a jacket because the weather was cold and rather wet. I'm super tired now.
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Admin Post: Monthly challenge for April
Wednesday, April 1st, 2026 08:35 am
Thank you for your engagement with this community during the past month!
Here is the tolkienshortfanworks challenge for April.
Thematic prompt:
Fool, foolish, to fool: write about somebody being a fool or being fooled or wrongly accused of foolishness.
While this is obviously inspired by the date of 1 April and you can certainly write about a prank, if you like, you may also want to consider that foolishness is a wider theme in Tolkien's works, especially in The Lord of the Rings, which often asks what is true foolishness and true wisdom?
Optional quotation prompts (all well-known and I am sure you can think of more):
1)
Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!
2)
Just a fool's hope
3)
Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!
Formal challenge:
Inspired by the form of haibun, which is a combination of a prose piece and a following haiku on the same subject: write a short piece of verse (any form you like) to go along with a prose piece, for example as a summary or introduction.
As usual, these two prompt sets can be filled separately or combined.
Usual reminder that in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3 (linked in a sticky post at the top), the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.
Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories, as long as they meet the criteria!
Here is the tolkienshortfanworks challenge for April.
Thematic prompt:
Fool, foolish, to fool: write about somebody being a fool or being fooled or wrongly accused of foolishness.
While this is obviously inspired by the date of 1 April and you can certainly write about a prank, if you like, you may also want to consider that foolishness is a wider theme in Tolkien's works, especially in The Lord of the Rings, which often asks what is true foolishness and true wisdom?
Optional quotation prompts (all well-known and I am sure you can think of more):
1)
Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!
2)
Just a fool's hope
3)
Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!
Formal challenge:
Inspired by the form of haibun, which is a combination of a prose piece and a following haiku on the same subject: write a short piece of verse (any form you like) to go along with a prose piece, for example as a summary or introduction.
As usual, these two prompt sets can be filled separately or combined.
Usual reminder that in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3 (linked in a sticky post at the top), the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.
Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories, as long as they meet the criteria!
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 12:09 pm
Last night my sister called me and invited me to come visit my family the weekend of May 1st. I said sure. I tried texting L. because she's moving to Pennsylvania in May but I don't know exactly what day in May but she didn't answer back.
Monday, March 30th, 2026 02:44 pm
Emorian enthronements generally occur every twenty or thirty years, alas. If an enthronement takes place while you are visiting the palace, it is unlikely that you will have been staying at the palace at the time of the previous Chara's death; enthronements take many months to plan and execute. But if you do happen to be in the palace when the Chara dies, be sure to submit a letter of sympathy to the Chara To Be – that is, to the Chara's heir. It is not necessary to personally meet with the Chara To Be; he will be busy with many matters at this time. If your mission requires you to meet with him, be aware that the heir is not actually the Chara until his enthronement. Until that time, the empire is jointly run by the Chara To Be and the Great Council. You may submit your business to either party during that period.
The enthronement of a new Chara is the highest rite in the Empire of Emor. If you are an ambassador or other distinguished guest, you may receive an invitation to the enthronement. Only serious illness or a similar calamity is an acceptable excuse for rejecting the invitation.
As I have mentioned already, it is always wise to dress formally in the Chara's palace, but this is the point at which you should fling forth all your flourishes. If you are a northern mainlander, imagine how you would want to be dressed for your burial. If you are an eastern mainlander, wear all the clothes and adornments you have been hiding because you feared the peninsulareans would find them too formal. Nothing is too formal for an Emorian enthronement.
You may wear a weapon to the enthronement, though that is not required. I recommend tying feathers, ribbons, or green branches around your weapon to make your peaceful intentions clear. All of the Emorian men at the enthronement will be armed, but not because they intend to fight each other; they are armed because they give their oaths to the new Chara upon their swords.
Part of their oath-bound duty is to defend the Chara against his enemies. Do not wave around your weapon.
Enthronements demonstrate Emorian rituals at their most elaborate. If you are an eastern mainlander, you will likely be enthralled by this evidence that Emorians understand the power of rite. If you are a northern mainlander, try not to fall asleep.
After the enthronement, you may be invited to a reception. This will vary in formality, depending on where it is held. If you greet the new Chara, be sure to address him as "Chara," not by his old title. Jokes about the new Chara are traditional, but should not be spoken directly to him. If you've seen the Chara's face transform during the ceremony, you probably won't have the courage to offend him.
[Translator's note: Emorian enthronements take place in Blood Vow, Law of Vengeance, and Breached Boundaries.]
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