The Cracked Mug v 2.0

[erikakaiser]

Masque is visiting! We went to a Cubs game and are playing D&D now! I'm very tired but very happy!

[erikakaiser]

Masque visit and Monday equivalent concluded!

So I took Tuesday off to give myself a three day weekend, using that extra time to tidy/guest prepare and play some more of the Rogue Trader DLC while awaiting Masque. They arrived and we watched Project Hail Mary (second watch for me, first watch for Masque -- I was showing it to them because I knew they'd love it and they did, it's a very earnest movie), plus cooked and ate nachos despite the heat.

Speaking of the heat!

Unfortunately their visit coincided with a heat wave in my area so temps were, for the Midwest particularly, painfully and dangerously hot. We went to Wrigley for a Cubs game on Wednesday, despite that, and through sheer luck our seating was in a shaded area. Still hot and gross but not in direct sunlight, which was great. The Cubs absolutely slaughtered the Padres and the game was a blast! I also wandered to the merch store between innings and got a Cubs Hello Kitty + a Pride bear for Masque. Oh, and of course, I got a hot dog-- for anyone who is unfamiliar, Chicago is extremely particular about its hot dog culture and has a specific type of relish which is radioactive green:

Screenshot 2026-07-03 160738.png

I have no idea why, but anyways the hot dog was delicious. Not a food I normally reach for, but there's something about a baseball game in Chicago where the vibes require a hot dog.

After that we went back to the apartment and played Stardew Valley (we have a long-running local co-op game). I married Elliott, Masque married Leah.

Then it was Thursday and we mostly stayed inside with the AC, with one trip to explore my local game store (it was alright) and more Stardew Valley. By that point I was PMS-y, hot, tired of not sleeping in my own bed, and had zero time to decompress between visit and work (since Masque left this morning, my Monday morning) so I was getting grumpo inside my brain. I definitely wouldn't agree to that type of visit again, where the person leaves as I leave for work in the morning, because I need more quiet time than that, but it was fine and then work was busy and it will continue to be busy throughout the holiday weekend.

Tonight I'm going to sit and be a slug as the heat starts to break, and get back to my usual routines tomorrow.

Despite the last grumpy bits from being overstimulated, it was a really lovely visit and a nice way to celebrate my fresh start after the break-up and move.

[erikakaiser]

I have no idea if this will upload at full size because it's a long boy (in the soup (that's a niche Destiny reference)) but starting tomorrow when I get back to aforementioned routines I want to try doing a section of this each day w/ my storyverse

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[erikakaiser]

it did, in fact, upload at full size

I will 100% be ignoring questions I think are dumb or that aren't worth me stressing about, and would love anyone else to join or yoink parts of it if they'd like for their own stuff

[erikakaiser]

day 1, healthcare

• How is the healthcare funded in your world?

Most doctors would be functioning as independent tradespersons who bill for services, and then an apothecary or pharmacist would bill separately for providing an Rx that is signed off on. My storyverse world has some areas of dense population and then a lot of wilderness with small villages/hollers/etc, so the more densely populated areas are likely to have academically trained physicians. The places way out will either be serviced by a traveling doctor whenever that doctor happens to arrive, or would suffice entirely off apprenticeship and training their own people in sawbones type medicine.

re: academically trained physicians, at a quick research glance the concept and implementation of a medical license has actually been around for a while, so that would probably be a qualifying difference between an actual MD and someone who just knows how to set a broken leg

(on that thought, most MDs would be general practitioners, and I think it would be extremely rare for someone to have an actual studied specialty such as oncology or geriatric medicine, etc)

• How does healthcare functionally differ between the wealthy and the poor?

Wealthy persons would have physicians or healthcare workers as a built-in part of their community, or have a private doctor on call. House Hierophant, for instance, has a House doctor with staff who would not individually bill patients for services but who would provide care as needed and receive a consistent salaried payment + have necessities provided for.

For everyone else, they would have to be able to pay the bill in money, goods, or services. If they can't, that's enough to deny them any further care and potentially to start pursuing legal interventions like debtor's prison.

• Is healthcare magical?

For the most part, no!

Magic is unpredictable, extremely inconsistent, and quite simply not very powerful in the average mortal's hands. Any "healing" magic won't be more complicated than cough drops, and anything that is more complicated would require dealing with the Fae. Witchcraft, spellwork, and alchemy can all do various different things, but the actual restoration of someone's vitality beyond what a human body is normally capable of healing is impossible.

if you do want to try the impossible then uhhhhh good luck!!! ask Janus how that went when she did it, and I hope you have a good argument for why any manner of creature on the other side should care about your weird little boring human life

(House Saturnine openly mixes witchcraft with traditional medicine, and they are not thought of highly for it)

• What illnesses are common?

Environmental exposure, malnutrition or vitamin deficiencies, simple infection or sepsis. Pneumoconiosis (coal miner's lung), for House Drell specifically. House Hierophant has some issues with hemophilia and low birth rates for the reasons you might expect a hyper-isolated community to have those things.

weird shit (flowers sprouting out of your lungs, veins turning to glass, sputum is inky) gets you quarantined and your body burned, because you've almost certainly been somewhere you shouldn't, or spoken to something you shouldn't have

• What is common knowledge about how illness/medicine works?

It varies but I think we're at a general level of understanding how hygiene affects health (as in, handwashing) and that sickness can spread by coughing, close proximity, etc. Superstition and misinformation definitely abound and I'm certain some MDs are prescribing spring water and good air to cure pertussis

Just because it falls under my own interests, I have considered that autopsies would be conducted by healthcare workers and not by separate pathologists. Morticians/undertakers would handle embalming/cremation/funerary services, and not handle bodies in any medical sense. Death certificates are likely uncomplicated, listing only the attending doctor and the cause/manner of death. In very rural areas, they likely do not have any sort of paperwork applied to death at all.

[erikakaiser]

(I went back-and-forth with what I wanted to portray of House Hierophant's limited gene pool, as it is something that does come up in the story, but decided against disorders like schizophrenia even though that is a documented complication of homozygosity -- I'm just not digging deep enough to veer from 'inbreeding makes people crazy!!!' as both a storytelling stereotype and an unkindness to real-life schizophrenic people, and I think the low birth rates and fertility issues are more concerning to House Hierophant's leadership anyways)

[erikakaiser]

I'm hand-waving the Resources one away because I don't want to answer most of the questions and my uterus is on fire

[erikakaiser]

(I'm not very good at agriculture knowledge so farms and food exist, or don't, as the plot needs it)

[erikakaiser]

day 3, transportation

• What forms of transportation does your world have? What classes/groups of people tend to use what?

In relative order of speed, the main forms of transportation would be:

horseback, stagecoach, train

That's also the order of most to least accessible, since trains are used more for freight than passenger travel.

• How far has the average citizen traveled?

I would say your average person does not often leave where they were born, which is typical of the environment I'm trying to invoke (Appalachia). Certain professions will cause you to travel, but otherwise it's considered unusual to have wanderlust or to otherwise travel on a whim. Going to a major community or to a place like San Overdell, for most people, is something you do only when desperately needed or as a very special trip.

• Which cities are most accessible, and which are least?

San Overdell is the most populous city, and also the easiest to find and access. House Hierophant's Villa is unquestionably least accessible, since only certain people can navigate there (it is in a pocket dimension, essentially).

• Does your world have public transportation? If so, what is it?

Kiiiiiind of? You can hire a coach, but it's not convenient or quick.

• What is your world's postal system?

The Postmen!

Storyverse Leon is actually a member of this group, and it is an expy of the Pony Express in a lot of ways. The postal workers travel via horseback on different routes and are often away from civilization for long periods of time. Their profession is considered lonely and sometimes romanticized as adventurous; often there are just two who go on long routes to deliver and pick up mail.

• Is there emergency transportation for people/information?

You would send a runner on horseback for emergencies, and they would have to change horses at waypoints in order to keep traveling at speed if needed.

It occurs to me I'm not sure what the mid-1800s ambulance equivalent is and now I'm on a highly specific Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_ambulance), but probably that would be via horseback as well, or with the person on a stretcher in a cart that is rushed by horse. My story's level of technology, after a lot of back-and-forth over the years, is "we have pistols and shitty carbines, no cars, and everyone is gay"

That last one isn't technology but like. it could be

side note:

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what the hecko does this mean

[erikakaiser]

I didn't skip a day, YOU skipped a day

(I'll catch up after I finish chores/errands)