It’s been exactly one year since we’ve launched the website!
We just finished our anniversary celebration. We’ll post a recap for those of you who were unable to join later this week.
But to all of you who have either visited our exhibition or visit our website, thank you so much for your patronage. We wouldn’t be here without you! Above is a picture Laura Cee took of myself, Aimi, and Ellsyx.
Here’s to many more exciting years to come!
-AP
Hello, everyone! It’s been a long while, hasn’t it?
Things here at BICI have been lively, to say the least. I realize that unfortunately I did not post that we were going to take a hiatus from uploading our archive to the site. My deepest apologies to you all for the silence.
That being said, I’m very glad to write to you all once more. (-:
Now, where shall I begin… oh! I’m delighted to say that I, Amherst Pounce, can officially add “Editor” to my CV! I had the honor of editing R. M. Gardener’s upcoming novel, The Splintered Woodworker, which will be available for purchase likely sometime next year. For those of you not from Berelyse, our dear R. M. Gardener’s novels are beloved across the continent, and their upcoming work is one of their most anticipated yet!
For legal reasons, I can’t speak to its contents in detail, but as the pre-sale announcement stated, the novel is historical fiction, covering a very popular time of our continent’s history. Many readers were surprised that it wasn’t categorized as a romance. I can’t speak about why it isn’t, but what I can say is that I’m grateful for the change. I’m not sure I’d be very adept at editing one of R. M. Gardener’s romances. For all I’ve tried to read them, I usually struggle to finish… I hate to deny any good book its due, but the genre simply isn’t for me.
Finishing edits on the novel has eaten into much of my time, though I imagine our Benefactor feels much the same. Like many of us, our Benefactor is also a huge fan of R. M. Gardener’s work. The two are quite close friends, actually. They have been for much longer than I’ve been alive.
While our attention has been somewhat divided, I’m so proud of the Institute’s staff for keeping the facilities running while both R. M. Gardener and I were occupied. Laura Cee’s tours and in-person programming have received great feedback from our guests. Ellsyx and Aimi both have been hard at work behind-the-scenes, better integrating our website into our day-to-day operations.
We’ve also been working towards a celebration! On Sunday, 4/12, we will celebrate our first anniversary of the website launch. Ellsyx calls it the first anniversary of introducing Berelyse to the world. Isn’t that incredibly exciting?
To celebrate the anniversary, we’ve planned for the following:
Lastly, please expect regular updates to the site to continue on. I, for one, am delighted to share the records pertaining to the next portion of the exhibit with you all. It’s my favorite part of the entire exhibit, and I have a very personal connection to it. We expect that to begin the week after the celebration — Ellsyx says roughly 4/19.
She also wants me to specify that updates moving forward will happen on Sundays… I’m not sure which day that translates to for us, but she assures me it isn’t a problem.
Thank you all for your patience during this time, and thank you for your continued patronage. Once more, may you all be bathed in truth and light.
See you next week,
-AP
Hi everyone! My name is Laura Cee and today it’s my job to post on this dumb website. It wasn’t supposed to be my job. But literally EVERYONE ELSE couldn’t do it today. Aimi is busy with her art junk, Amherst is stuck in a 5-million hour long meeting with our Benefactor, and R. M. Gardener is stuck in meetings with one of their 50 publishers. And as for Ellsyx? She’s not busy. No. She’s at home! She took the day off.
Updating the website became MY problem, when I was told it was NEVER, EVER supposed to be my problem. And I GUESS that was fine until the scanner broke, which only Ellsyx knows how fix it. I texted her and called her but she ignored me! But I guess it’s fine. I don’t even know how to categorize our posts. You think I care about metadata? What do I look like, some kind of NERD????
UGH!
Anyways Amherst said the website HAD to be updated today. Our readers (all 2.7 of them???? No offense if you’re one of the 2.7, I guess) would be sad if there wasn’t an update. Since no one’s updated the news section in a while, Amherst said I should do that.
But now I’m here, writing this, and I’m like… WHAT news? I can’t share any cool stuff! I’m “Not allowed to gossip about our Benefactor” and “R. M. Gardener is under NDA, so I’m not allowed to post about what they’re doing.” My post also has to be “Topical,” and “Uploading my newest dance cover isn’t topical.”
Okay, but has he considered that all the topical topics (topical topics???) are BORING?
…
I GUESS there’s ONE topic that isn’t boring.
Ellsyx says most of the website’s readers aren’t from Berelyse. What do you all (2.7 of you) believe about past lives? Does your god reincarnate your soul when you die too? Do you even HAVE a god? Or gods? I heard some places don’t.
We have a god. Always have and always will. And our god guides our souls into our next life. Over and over again. But here’s the funny thing about past lives. Sometimes they’re completely different. Even if your soul is the same, your body isn’t, and everything that shaped your last life is different, too.
Then there are lives that aren’t EXACTLY the same, but they rhyme with each other. You know?
“Some lives, you bear with a name nearly the same as ones past. Some lives, your face betrays your lineage: not from your parents, but from all the memories you once held and have long since lost.”
I didn’t write that. R. M. Gardener did. It’s part of their… um. I forgot. Some book or biography or novel or whatever.
And speaking of R. M. Gardener, sometimes you run into people you met in a past life. We’ve met. At first, I didn’t want anything to do with them. I knew enough about my past life to know that I didn’t want to deal with all the bullshit she had to deal with.
But then we started talking. And I found out R. M. is… nice. They’re quiet, I don’t mind. I talk enough for the both of us. They’re kind and considerate, too. Once I forgot my lunch AND my wallet at home and they gave me half of theirs so I didn’t have to eat chips all day. They stick around and listen to my yapping even after everyone else has left. I’m not as much of an asshole as I was in my past life, and they’re not as much of a doormat. So we get along better than we used to. Or than they used to. I don’t really know how to describe it.
That was us, especially given how WEIRD our situations are, but that… I don’t know. Also isn’t us. For one, I wasn’t born with a brother, and they’re not…. um. Yeah.
ANYWAYS!!!! We’re good. Me and R. M. Gardener.
I got this gig because of my past life. They did, too, but that’s. Different. I don’t think I should really talk about that. But as for ME, if our Benefactor didn’t know who I used to be, they never would have cared about me. (And sidenote: why do I have to anonymize our Benefactor’s gender???? Why does Amherst? Doesn’t everyone already know who they are???? They’re WHY we’re such a fucking laughingstock around all the hoity-toity nerds he’s desperate to impress.)
Too bad our Benefactor didn’t get what they wanted out of me, even after I became who I am now.
Oh, hey! I see them coming out. Readers, say hi to our Benefactor! They look as much of a sad sack as ever.
…Actually, they’re really sad today.
Signing off here for now. I’m gonna see if our sad sack Benefactor wants to go drinking! If we leave now, we can make Happy Hour at Jorah’s.
Later, NERDS!!!!
Laura Cee <3