The Wordsmith's Forge

In Terramagne-America, there is a company of several multicultural women that's making packets of crispy chickpeas in different flavors. The Hot Chicks are extra-spicy, the Saucy Chicks are milder, and the Sweet Chicks are sugary. The promotional characters are baby chickens dressed as bikers on the Hot Chicks, while the Saucy Chicks have more eclectic "go out and have fun" outfits, and the Sweet Chicks are dolled up in pink. So cute, I wish I could draw these.

Chickpeas are big rounded legumes. They offer protein, fiber, and other benefits. When roasted, they make a healthy snack that can be flavored in various ways. You can do many other things with them too.

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Jumble Munch is a popular snack in Terramagne-America, mentioned in several poems from Polychrome Heroics. It's a mix of different ingredients, similar to trail mix or party mix, in a large array of sweet and savory flavors. It comes in small or large bags.

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While writing Polychrome Heroics, I've noticed that the commercials in Terramagne-America are often more entertaining than the shows are in local-America. So I've started writing them down. Since I can't actually do video clips or even slideshows, I have instead pasted suitable images into the text. Also worth noting: this concept is replicable with local resources.

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Terramagne-America has a much wider selection of drinks aimed at adults than just alcoholic ones. Their mixed drinks get really interesting. This batch relies on some ingredients -- especially the Aromantic Bitters -- that tend to produce blue to purple drinks.

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These recipes have appeared in the references for the Cuoio and Chiara thread of Polychrome Heroics. They're Mobsters in the classic sense, thus most of these are Italian or Sicilian.

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These are some recipes that appear in the Pain's Gray thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. The two major clusters are: Pain's Gray makes elaborate pastries, and Thriver cooks comfort food. Most people will not have the skill to make what Pain's Gray makes, but it's fascinating food pr0n. Thriver's recipes are easy enough that most people could make them.

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Shock can take physical or emotional form. Both can pose significant dangers. Although physical shock tends to be more serious in the short term, emotional shock can easily turn into chronic conditions such as PTSD or depression which can kill later. Also, either version can feed into the other. Responses to trauma vary along a spectrum of severity. Acute stress reaction is a normal response to abnormal situations which exceed the victim's coping capacity. Symptoms typically subside within a few hours or days. This is best treated by Emotional First Aid unless symptoms pose a threat to self or others, or interfere with everyday life, in which case professional care may help. Acute stress disorder spans a period approximately two days to one month after trauma, with symptoms serious enough to upset ordinary functions that aren't healing or seem to be healing slower than expected. Treatment at this stage may reduce the chance of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, a chronic form of trauma reaction. It is important to distinguish between normal response (which heals on its own), disordered response (which may need a little extra support), and a disorder (which typically requires professional care). Just like physical injuries, mental injuries can be mild, moderate, or severe and need different levels of attention.

Local-American advice is not to seek hospital treatment for emotional shock; the facility is not equipped to provide the soothing atmosphere needed for trauma survivors or people with a loved one in the hospital. In many situations, little or no treatment is available for mental issues at mild or moderate levels. People can only get help for severe problems. Unfortunately this has much the same effect on mental injuries as on physical ones: ignoring them increases the chance they will not heal cleanly and that serious complications could develop.

Terramagne does have a Shock Room alongside the Emergency Room at most hospitals. The SR provides a clinical setting for Emotional Trauma Care, just as the ER treats physical trauma. They have an assortment of private and ward therapy rooms for techniques that help traumatized people feel safe or let them burn off excess energy after a trauma. Some are like industrial-strength quiet rooms; others are padded rumpus rooms. Therapeutic video games such as Tetris help process experiences into new memories in a healthy way. A small hospital might have only a few treatment options, while a large one has many, just as they expand support for more types of physical complaints. Specially trained therapists provide immediate comfort care, followed by assessment and then arrangements for long-term care if needed. (Doing the assessment first, while the person is still overwrought, can make matters worse.) They can also teach people about self-care following a trauma. This helps tremendously in preventing the initial upset from crystallizing into long-term damage. Sometimes it works amazingly fast, although most of the time it takes longer.

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Slightly belated, I'm doing three_weeks_for_dw again. I'm pulling together some useful resources. This one is a party monitor kit, inspired by several of my characters in Polychrome Heroics who are or have been party monitors.

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