#bait | calliope

[fanbun]

A heated gamer moment

[girl4music]

A tribute to queer warrior women that fight for life, love and the greater good. If you can think of any more, please add accordingly. They do not have to be in a ship but they do have to be either queer or queer-coded in sexuality (meaning: gay, lesbian, bi or pan) and they do have to be some form of a female warrior or fighter - whether that be physically, mentally or supernaturally.

I’ve only listed 10 in TV art/entertainment. 20 if you count them individually and not as a ships. Add more. For the sake of keeping to the gif format, please only list characters or ships in TV art/entertainment. Video games also count so long as it’s a popular video game.

They do not have to be canon but interpreted that way by a majority of viewers that watch/engage with it and by the creators/cast/crew of the content. I recognize that this is a very rare scope of characters or ships. In fact I can only think of Xena and The Legend Of Korra where they’re not explicitly canon but are interpreted that way so much, they may as well be explicitly canon. It’s the area of canonship where whenever you think of the TV show itself, you immediately think of the ship even if the ship was not confirmed as canon within it and the creators/cast/crew were not only aware but fully agreed and embraced those characters as a queer ship. So before you mention them,… Kara and Lena (SuperCorp), Emma and Regina (SwanQueen) or Jane and Maura (Rizzles) do not count for this tribute. They are not queer ships. They are queer-baited exploitations by both the homophobic networks and showrunners and to include them in this tribute is a grave insult.

I’m sure there’s many more. At least I hope there is. 👍

Xena and Gabrielle (Xabrielle or WarriorBard)

Willow and Tara (Tillow)

Waverly and Nicole (WayHaught)

Calliope and Juliette (Calliette)

Ava and Beatrice (Avatrice)

Caltlyn and Vi (CaitVi)

Sara and Ava (Avalance)

Clarke and Lexa (Clexa)

Korra and Asami (Korrasami)

Carmilla and Laura (Hollstein)

[davekat-sucks]

Well, let's suppose you can change some things and plots from the epilogues and hs2 that are straight-up rage bait/disgusting material, how would you make the post canon given that it's an angst-filled continuation?

Remove the dog dick plus Harley being overly desperate for one. Fuck them for Jade's character assassination. At best is that Dave and Jade have a kid, but then Dave fucks off and leaves the two alone because he thinks being gay is the correct choice, making him a deadbeat father. Unironically being worse than Bro that he left his kid. Some could say it is either Alt Calliope or Ultimate Dirk making Dave act this way as they plan to ship him with Karkat instead. No cheating involved so no Cucknaya or fucking Rose. It's just Jade being a single mother having to raise her child while still saddened that Dave left them. Same for Jane cucking Jake with Gamzee. Just follow the similar plan of her setting up to be a villain like it was implied in the Snapchats.

[trailmixedup]

Was fucking haunted by a calliope on my way home from a hike yesterday… it was legit so loud and I couldn’t figure out where exactly it was coming from. Hope this doesn’t mean I’m stranger bait

[gabessquishytum]

Immortal throuple time? Immortal throuple time.

AU where Hob has made other immortal friends over the centuries, and this includes Calliope, with whom they both recognize as immortal and make an instant connection. But they never really date or address it despite the sparks, as they’re each hesitant to jump into another long-term relationship after the traumatic endings of their previous marriages (not to mention Hob is also low-key pining for his mysterious Stranger (who unbeknownst to Hob is slowly falling in love in return with every meeting), and Calliope isn’t totally over her ex-husband (who as we all know also doesn’t really do the whole “falling out of love” thing as a rule)). They maintain a friendship for the ages though, and meet up relatively often.

Time passes, Dream is captured, Calliope is captured, and they each separately vow that as soon as they’re free and fix the problems caused by their absence, they won’t waste any more time and do whatever it’ll take to win Hob’s heart.

Dream gets out, regains his tools, is called by Calliope to get her out, he goes to finish restoring his kingdom and deal with the Dream Vortex while she goes to fix the Laws that bound her, and they both happen to finish up and seek out Hob at the same time. Cue a lot of “wait, you two know each other? How??” from all three of them and a bit of Spider-Man pointing meme. Everyone calms down enough to talk, and Hob cries a little when he learns both of his dearest beloveds friends were captured and he had no idea. Both Dream and Calliope move to comfort him, finally clock each others’ feelings, and their eyes narrow at each other.

When they have a moment out of Hob’s earshot, there’s an immediate whispered argument: “but I called dibs!” “No, I called dibs!” “I was here first!” “I was here more often, finders keepers!” And a battle of courtship is declared. Whoever manages to thoroughly woo and seduce Hob Gadling first wins the prize.

Poor Hob is utterly bewildered and flustered by the flurry of gifts and dates and touching coming at him from two directions, and when he manages to gather his wits enough to say something along the lines of “you know I do have two hands” they’re too busy hissing at each other like cats to notice.

They only ever call a ceasefire twice, once when some third party tries to shoot their shot at Hob, and Dream and Calliope team up to chase off the interloper (under a mutual agreement that they’re only willing to lose to each other, anyone else is simply unacceptable). The other is when Hob finally decides enough is enough, invites them both over, drops his pants and informs them that they can learn to share. The ceasefire becomes a permanent truce as they both pounce on him and prove once again what a fantastic team they make.

-🪽anon

Love these idiots <33

Hob "I have two hands" Gadling is fully just TRYING to get them to listen, but Dream and Calliope are very invested in their battle of wooing. Hob is so frustrated with the two of them that he almost goes off with the person who was trying to shoot their shot with him, just to teach Dream and Calliope a lesson. Almost.

The reality is that Hob is HORNY and as much as he likes the attention and the gifts and everything, he feels like he's missing out on precious fucking time here!!!! He's happy for Cal and Dream to spoil him later but he'd much rather they figured it all out and fuck him first.

So there he is, jeans and underwear around his ankles, sternly telling his two would-be lovers that they'd better learn to share or else. Fortunately they take the bait, and... well. Hob has never actually had two people give him a blowjob at the same time before. Especially not his two favourite people in the entire universe. He cums embarrassingly quick, and although Dream and Calliope engage in a little elbow shoving over who gets to take the shot to the face... the truce is sealed there and then.

Hob does have two hands and he's very skilled with both of them. He's all for equal opportunities - two fingers in Cal's pussy and two fingers in Dream’s arse at the same time? No problem. The opposite of a problem, actually.

[writing-for-life]

Analysis bait (if you want to):

What attracts Morpheus to a romantic partner in the first place? Like, is there a common "theme", or is each person different?

What's the main reason that Morpheus' romantic relationships fail?

Ah friend, I’m always up for analysis bait! This question has the fandom intrigued, and not for the first time 🤣

I recommend my aimless ramblings that I brought to the page here (more geared towards what might attract him in the first place):

And here (answers a lot about why they fail):

I also had an ask about Dream and Calliope a while back which answers a few additional questions:

I’d say the common theme is: They’re dreamers, or have a strong connection to the Dreaming or meet him there in the first place. There’s naturally also that pesky topic of Desire meddling here and there, but even so, I think the common theme still stands.

What does everyone else think?

@saiyanblood2 ask answered

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

About your last meta, since TV series Dream is going through his character development more rapidly(changing Gault into a dream, admitting he was wrong and apologizing to both Gault and Lucienne, saying that he will try to listen more) do you think he'll survive his tragic fate? I'm desperately hoping he does

honestly, i've almost written so many metas on this, and never ended up posting any, because the short answer is i just don't know

but if you want my evidence either way...

reasons the ending may change

everything is kinder in the tv show. the world it's working towards is just a better place. john not killing rosemary, unity and desire's relationship being consensual and meaningful, the changes in tone to sound of her wings, the fact that dream seems actually open to calliope's suggestion of reconnecting rather than just outright saying no, the corinthian actually taking care of jed rather than just stuffing him in the trunk of his car, i'm sure there's more i can't think of right now, but this adaptation is astoundingly accurate, most of the scenes are taken from the comics word for word. whenever a scene isn't lifted directly from the comics, i invariably find it's more hopeful than what was originally there

when neil was asked why john didn't kill rosemary, one of the things he said was that he didn't want comic fans to think they always know what's going to happen

as you mentioned, the entire gault plotline. dream's entire problem is that he doesn't believe he's capable of change. by making him realise that one of his nightmares is, that's certainly setting some kind of precedent! (and, while i'm not assuming neil won't pull a bait and switch here given the disparity between what lucifer's actually planning to do to dream and what it sounds like they are, "a new age" is certainly a Choice of line if you're planning on killing dream five years later)

rose and lyta. first off, rose is allowed to remember what happened to her, which immediately gives her a lot more agency over the plot. and she knows lyta a lot better, which means that lyta has a support system in the show that she did not have in the comics. if daniel goes missing, in the show, rose knows the entire story, and she's gonna take that straight to dream, if she can. i am sure the "if you have the power to destroy the world, then you have the power to destroy him!" "i don't want to destroy him" line is going to be relevant in the future

reasons it may not:

daniel's still a character. one way or another, i don't think morpheus is going to make it through this and remain dream of the endless

there's no changes made to desire and dream's last scene, where dream talks (in vague terms) about how that was a murder attempt desire just did, killing family will bring the kindly ones down on his head, like desire vowed to do way back when (and given one particular mason interview where they talked about looking forward to the audience understanding all the backstory behind that conversation, i believe this line is still foreshadowing, dream will still have to kill orpheus and lyta will harness the kindly ones against him)

i think the addition of matthew to the scenes in hell adds a lot to later comic scenes (see: this post for more on that)

tragedies are a specific form of storytelling with their own rules, they're not the same as "regular story, but you made the characters lose at the end". sandman, as a story, follows the rules of a tragedy. and as much as i would also like good things for dream, in order to tell this as a story with a happy ending, a lot would have to change right from the start. which, just personally, i don't really want it to, because a lot of the scenes i really like and find the most meaningful of this story would probably have to get cut or heavily modified to support that new story

and further on that, just from a writing perspective - in a story with a happy ending, tension is created by placing obstacles between the characters and what they want, things they have to surpass and fight for. in a tragedy, getting what the character wants has to be so easy, if they were anyone else in the story. tension is created through the fact that everyone involved can see the exit out of the tragedy, it's right there, but the qualities that fundamentally make the character who they are are the same qualities that keep them from acting.

the conflict in this story is undoubtedly between dream and himself. his need to abandon this burden that is far too heavy, vs his inability to take any action that runs counter to his duty. and it's made interesting by who he's placed in opposition to. what is the point of lucifer as a character, of destruction, if dream could listen to them? if watching someone change for the better could actually change him, then what's the rest of the story? he's already learned that from gault, you could cut it right here. and sure you could test that a few more times, but if we were writing a story about an immortal being who learns they're not beholden to their universe given duty, who has to overcome millenia of responsibility and feeling like they're not really a person in order to realise they're in control of their own life and can live how they choose - that's already lucifer's story. and destruction's. why aren't we writing about them, instead?

one of the big questions we ask in storywriting is why here, why now, why this person? and what makes dream unique is his utter unyielding dedication to the rules and to his responsibilities. and that means that, despite every other character in this story pointing out the glaring neon exit sign from the tragedy, he could never have done anything other than what he did

and you could do it, don't get me wrong. if you wanted to write sandman as a story with a happy ending, you could take dream down a path of learning to be someone else, to change enough that he's no longer the character that gets grabbed by the tragedy (though it'll still be a tragedy for lyta). and if we were gonna do that, and do it well, season one has been a good setup for it. but that's a different story, that will require different challenges, ones that actually make him learn, rather than making the situation progressively worse with every challenge he ignores. and it really comes down to i don't know how much neil is willing to entirely rewrite his masterpiece like that

i think s2 will tell, one way or another, because season of mists is where the tragedy properly starts. as much as i ended up writing a longer thing under reasons why not, that's just because they were more complicated concepts to explain, i genuinely cannot predict what neil is gonna do here. every time i think about this i feel like my opinion falls on a different side. but like i said, whether you're aiming for tragedy or a happy ending, you have to sow those seeds early on, or it's gonna leave the audience feeling betrayed, no matter which you choose. preludes and doll's house, they're early enough and unconnected enough they could fall on either side. but i think season of mists is gonna make it evidently clear

[mmmmalo]

Coming to regard the black/white Auryn at the center of the trickster lollipop as the same thing as the yin/yang bomb at the center of Skaia. Partly because the shape of the lolly had already reminded me of planets with house-towers, possibly drawing the tricksters' sense of "solving their problems" into the language of Sburb's existing framework for arc completion. Also because this retroactively turns the Skaia-capped staves of kings (and their imitator Lord English) into giant lollipops, making me want to put them in little sailor suits. Also also because the way LE's staff turns into gun makes licking the lolly seem like suicide, turning their immense magnetism into the dark draw of the stump and bringing us back to the paradigm of Mobster Kingpin's diabetes, or the arsenic catnip of sugar, or Doc Scratch's revolver with a single loaded candy-coated round (implicitly for suicide).

I think... for Jane this superimposes a sense that on the worst day of her life -- where Jake's being a jerk and Caliborn bullies her and calls her fat and tells her her Dad's dead and everything she interacts with makes her more miserable -- she has, sort of ended it? In the context of Caliborn calling her fat and in the shadow of Mobster Kingpin's diabetes, Calliope sending her a lollipop (posed as a "pick-me-up") feels like a rhetorical candy-coating on like, mocking fat-phobic suicide baiting, I guess. Giving the perjoratively "diabetic" girl a big bag of sugar. Like the god-tiering bait-and-switch again, but with the element of death obscured. We even see Roxy attempting to inform Jane how they all need to kill themselves (in order to god-tier) while Jane alchemizes the juju! Poor Jane...

I think this subtext carries over into Jane's lollipop abuse in the Epilogues... her line in Meat 29 "citizens of the Human Kingdom delight in my Tricksy antics, and what kind of politician would I be if I were to deny my core voting demographic that sort of red meat?" functions as an allusion to Jane's corpse, in addition to Jane's metaphorical recognition of herself as a product for consumption. "I am hated, so I must annihilate myself" seems to be the underlying sentiment for both disguise and suicide. Having Jane place the lollipop on the mantle (like Nana's memorial portrait), after which Dirk warns Jane not to burn herself out (like Nana's ashes) also seem to be aimed at her sense of despair. As Jane freaks out over being deemed xenophobic, Dirk circles back to "red meat" by juxtaposing the maintenance of political appearances and suicide: "You either gotta roll with the woke shit, or decide to commit laborious, symbolic, melodramatic suicide in the process of utterly giving up."

[orionsangel86]

Hi! I wanted to wish you a good day. I have been reading your blog and now I understand more what is going on. It was honestly so confusing to see a ton of subtweeting in the main tag. Honestly it really got to a place that it was just rage bait posting.

Which it is shame as there is sandmanfemslash week coming soon and people I follow seems interested in participating and this is honestly a perfect opportunity for more people to try out new ships. We are a small fandom and for what I see, there is not many people posting stuff frequently now that the hype die down.

Hey, im sorry it spilled out into the main tag. Frustrations had clearly been rising for some time as I often came across angry posts in the main tags clearly raging at the state of fandom but tried to ignore them. I'm just disappointed that an important topic that does need civil discussion turned into such petty ship hate and targetted attacks.

I don't know who is organising Sandman FemSlash week, but I will support it regardless. We must must MUST devote more of our efforts to keeping these spaces welcoming to POC, particularly women of colour and I do think that to do that we need to raise up creators devoting their time and efforts to the characters of colour and the amazing women of Sandman.

I know there are some Gaultienne/Gaulcienne works on its way very soon. As well as some Johanna x Calliope work which I'm excited for.

I'll see if I can raise some more awareness and support for the SandmanFemSlash week as well. After all this hurt and discourse emotions are running high and we need to good event to channel our energies into.

[arleniansdoodles]

THE REVELATION IS CLOSE EVERYONE THIS IS NOT A DRILL

well...relatively close anyway lol

And Sindri's heart of stone is finally melting~

I really enjoyed the calliope-sindri interactions, i think this is my favourite from any sindri-calliope chapter. Calliope just being a sweetheart all the way <3

Its good that atreus finally broached the kratos subject. Obviously cause we've been waiting for the reveal with baited breath lol but also i think calliope needed to hear it. She cant exactly hide away forever (even if she wants to)

Great chapter! I cant wait for next saturday

lololl it's definitely getting closer!! Especially since I had to merge some more chapters together aaaaaaaa

I'm happy you enjoyed the Sindri-Calliope shenanigans! They're such cuties together hahaa :D And Atreus is definitely making a good call with giving both Kratos and Calliope a heads-up ... We'll just have to wait and see how it goes from there!

Thank you so much for reading! <333

[dangertoozmanykids101]

Paranormal Romance Book Covers & Titles - Tooz Prompt!

Over breakfast this morning I opened Tumblr and this post caught my attention - the book cover to the book "Morning Glory Milking Farm."

I had to look the book up, of course. The title was just so funny to me, let alone the perfect cover art. [Link to book on Goodreads.]

But I really had fun looking through the Recommended Books. I love a fun titles that make me laugh and sound ridiculous - so you know the author has a great sense of humor. Besides, y'all know I don't shy away from any monster. Don't these sound fun? Imagine your favorite author here writing a fic with a title similar to these. OMG, now I'm begging for some crazy stuff! Such as.....

"Titan: Romancing His Stone. A Daddy Dom Gargoyle Romance", by Jullian Graves.

"Love, Laugh, Lich: Sex Rituals Are Not OSHA Compliant", by Kate Prior.

"The Orc At The Office: Mate-Bonding With A Co-Worker Is Against Company Policy", by Kate Prior.

"Knot Today Satan", by Calliope Stewart.

And I can't forget "Morning Glory Milking Farm: A Monster Bait Romance", by C.M. Nascosta.

Okay.... Tag you're it. Add a fun crazy title and book cover for a Paranormal Romance, or whatever. Something that catches your eye. Maybe some of us will be inspired to write something off the wall? Or create your own book cover and title. Oooo, then maybe someone will write a story to it. Or someone might make a cover for your title? Challenge yourself!!

Here are a couple people I'm tagging to throw a monkey wrench of a challenge into your day - week maybe? Obviously no pressure. Just for fun.

Open to everyone!!!

Whatever muse you want - turn him into a monster or a paranormal creature of some sort!

Instructions:

Find a fun paranormal romance book cover and reblog, maybe challenge someone else?

IF you get inspired to write your muse as a paranormal creature, or do a mood board, artwork, book cover, - whatever creative outlet you do, it'll be amazing!!! Please tag me or message me.

@caffiend-queen @nildespirandum @latent-thoughts @ladyoftheteaandblood @wiypt-writes @so-easy-to-love-me @acidcasualties @deceitfuldevout @jtargaryen18 @tarithenurse @muddyorbs @michelleleewise @xorpsbane @talklokitome @mooncat163 @coldnique @emeraldrosequartz @kikster606 @nonsensicalobsessions @jtargaryen18 @lokischambermaid @lokisgoodgirl @holymultiplefandomsbatman @vbecker10 @ijuststareatstuffhereok89 @myoxisbroken @skinnylittleredwrites @redfoxwritesstuff @imanuglywombat @alexakeyloveloki

[an-indecisive-mess]

My Hercules Headcanons

Saw people making some of these a while ago. Thought I'd make some of my own. These are just general headcanons, they don't include Aria, but they do include characters from the TV series.

The Olympian gods stop aging when they reach a certain point in their lives, but they still feel that specific age even after a century has passed.

Cassandra’s actually older than Hercules and Icarus. Being 18 before the demigod went to Prometheus Academy. The reason why she’s 18 and still in high school? Icarus tried to ask her to the Aphrodesia Dance one year and accidentally burned down on of the classrooms. Cassandra was found at the scene and was accused of starting the fire. Being expelled for the year and having to repeat her junior year with Icarus.

This is also part of the reason she can’t stand Icarus.

Icarus has apologized for this many times, but Cass refuses to accept his apologies.

Icarus has trouble seeing things as a side effect of flying too close to the sun. The boy refuses to wear glasses to improve his vision because he wants to embrace his weirdness rather than hide it away.

Artemis and Orion are exes.

Apollo and Calliope are currently dating.

With this, Orpheus isn’t their biological son (for obvious reasons) and was instead an orphan boy Apollo took in and raised as his own son. Calliope helped teach Orpheus how to use epic poetry as songs.

The other four muses, Euterpe, Urania, Polymnia, and Erato, are not currently on Olympus and have been traveling around the world bringing inspiration to various scholars, poets, and musicians.

Hercules is a bit of a momma’s boy when it comes to Alcmene.

Which is part of the reason why he wears the shawl she gave him as his hero cape. So, he’ll always keep her close to him.

Helen used to attend a Trojan school before moving to Athens and attending Pro Ac.

Tempest sometimes cooks with her dad and often enjoys the time they spend together when her mother isn’t forcing her to be a negative feminist stereotype.

Cassandra has predicted the events of basically every other Disney movie/story that had yet to happen, but she shakes it off because she highly doubts any of them seem plausible.

If this were modern times, Icarus would love Minecraft and would build the coolest redstone farms. ‘Nuff said.

Meg is the same age as Hercules

This is because her being ten years older than him seems very unlikely, and I’m 98% sure somebody made it up as rage bait.

The reason why everything is so mythologically inaccurate is because, during the Titan War, Hera went to the Fates and asked to see what the future would be like when the war ended and was horrified when it was revealed that Zeus would be disloyal to her and would set her down a dark path. Fearing what she would do to hundreds of innocent children, she begged the Fates to make Zeus loyal. They obliged, but under the condition that Hades would rule the Underworld.

Hera regrets being so selfish during that time and now carries the burden of her actions. Especially after finding out Hades was the reason her son was kidnapped and turned mortal.

NSFW Warning for Below because this Headcanon is DARK.

Various gods and goddesses were "taken advantage of" by mortals who wanted to parent/give birth to demigods and have access to power and fame. Those mortal partners would drug the immortals who would wake up the next morning without clothes and no memory of what had happened to them the night before.

Hermes was one of those unfortunate immortals, and felt even more betrayed when many of the mortals who hurt him refused to let him play a role in his children's lives.

After many of these crimes, Zeus made a law stating that no god shall have any romantic relations with a mortal. Only when an arranged marriage would be involved, would this law be considered an exception.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

James had a “fan page” of himself on a popular social media website. He would sometimes hide pictures he had posted, but then his mood would change and he would put them back up. This behavior, and the fact that he had a fan page at all, is why James is a goomba.

The way I wrote that line made me think that James was secretly the one doing the posting, and the idea of him as a sort of puppet of the Homestuck narrative -- a literal Homestuck avatar -- seemed like a way to justify this. (That is the sort of idea I would expect to appear in some later work, like an epilogue or something, since this is very much about the story in the story.)

(I still don't know if I'd actually do the puppet thing, though. Just because I like the way the idea of James as avatar connects to the ideas of the story in a coherent way -- he's less like the character in this story, and more like its avatar.)

This was one of the threads that got me thinking about James as Avatar. The fact that he "changed his mind" all the time suggests to me that a lot of his behavior, and the way Hussie wrote him, was meant to function as a kind of meta commentary about how to take the text at face value.

One of the things that has made me really angry about Homestuck is how much Hussie's stated intended interpretation of the text, even if he believes it's true, contradicts with all the other things about the text that I actually find compelling.

Here are some examples:

1. It has the "canon" structure of being "a story that happened to be about other things" but in the same manner that, say, The Silmarillion is a story that happened to be about Lord of the Rings.

As a child I felt like I was being baited into finding out more about this "universe." I'm not sure I ever did, but I think part of that was the feeling that if I just figured things out and accepted the canon, it would make more sense.

But even once I started reading it, it seemed obvious that, like, Homestuck isn't an allegorical story of the Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is a book about Tolkien's world. Homestuck is a story about Hussie's world.

Now, I don't know if this is true. Maybe one could imagine an allegory in which both of the main "characters," Caliborn and Calliope, are allegories of Tolkien's two main characters, Frodo and Sam. And of course Caliborn is also an allegory for Tolkien.

But the way that story actually went, in terms of the "characters," it was Frodo and Eridan.

2. It features characters from a series I liked, namely The Sandman.

I'm not saying it was done to me. But Hussie clearly had it in mind that Homestuck would be "about" The Sandman, like it was about Lord of the Rings. "Homestuck" itself is, in part, a story about the relationship of Homestuck characters to this universe. And Hussie is clearly very invested in how his universe relates to The Sandman.

So in the same way that the Lord of the Rings universe has an "Empire of the Dead" and a "Shadow Over Middle-earth," the Homestuck universe has one -- the eponymous "Sburb." And the narrative contains a lot of thematic parallels to The Sandman, especially in the first part, the part that tells the story of the creation of Sburb (and in which Cronus is a key figure).

What I'm saying is, one of the reasons I like The Sandman is that it's a story about the themes of "what if someone made a version of a mythos that's just very, very, very strange?" It's not a story about Lord of the Rings.

So Hussie is, in this case, doing Homestuck about something I already found appealing in The Sandman.

3. It features two kinds of characters whom I found especially appealing, namely calm, emotionally restrained protagonists who have something they need to prove to the world, and manic, crazy characters who aren't fully human and who have to act like a human to get their point across.

Calliope and Caliborn have something they need to prove to each other.

Eridan, Equius, and Arquius have something they need to prove to him.

Caliborn and Equius can't communicate their problems without pretending to be a human while being more like a non-human than a human, and he doesn't seem to be trying to act like a non-human to communicate his problems.

Eridan says he's a demon, and he "acts" like one, but that's kind of just a mask. He gets things done anyway. This is the point where he starts seeming like a more complete version of Caliborn, as the more-human of the two "calm, restrained protagonists who have something to prove."

These are the two kinds of character who I feel like Homestuck has a special place for, and who are often not featured in things like Lord of the Rings.

Caliborn isn't a fully-formed character because he has the same problems as characters in Lord of the Rings: a sense of alienation from the world around him, and the need to know what to do. (But I find both of those elements of Homestuck very compelling, while I feel like the latter element is not present in Lord of the Rings -- in my memory, characters tend to act "like humans," which is a type of behavior that feels strange to me in the context of Tolkien-based fiction, but if I'd read Homestuck then I might have taken the characters' behavior more as a sign of their alienation from society.)

Calliope isn't a fully-formed character because of a sense of alienation that is somehow opposite from the problem that Eridan has, i.e. a sense of self-loathing about her identity and the kind of person she is, which is the kind of thing a "calm, restrained protagonist" is meant to escape from. (I feel like Caliborn might be a less-distressing version of Calliope in this respect. He has a more limited life, but he's not in this state of constant self-questioning about his identity -- he's clearly not an entity who cares much about it, or he would have stopped caring at some point, and his state is at least somewhat stable -- while Calliope, who has a much more complete life, has a lot of things she cares about and questions and is struggling with.)

The idea that Calliope is really Eridan but a version of Caliborn who's better at pretending not to be a demon, or Calliope is really Cal

[chrisringrose]

“Gone Fishing” April poem #28, 2023. Writing a poem each day over 28 days gets you to wondering where they surface from, and it’s natural to think of depths and daylight, and even remember the look of a float on a lake at dawn . . .

Gone Fishing

Take a black-barrelled fountain pen

and a notebook from the hoard;

Ink some looping words

that become a fishing line

cast out upon a glassy lake.

The float knocks,

slides beneath the surface.

It may be a fat bronze tench

that takes the bait,

maybe a minnow.

They had been there always

lazing in the depths

till called by Calliope

to gasp for a few seconds in the grass

before being returned below.

CR April 28, 2023

[the-duckless-pond]

I could NOT catch a break yesterday. It was supposed to be a day of rest and recovery to make sure I was feeling well enough to go to class tonight and tomorrow, but it did not turn out that way.

First, I found an ant on my ceiling??? And I had to use the swiffer to squish it. How am I supposed to put ant bait on the CEILING?? And what if it had fallen on my head!!

And then I had to go pick up my medicine from the pharmacy across town. I haven’t switched to a closer one because there is a Culver’s right down the road from it, the only one close by, and so every three months when I pick up my medicine I get an order of cheese curds as a treat. I always look forward to it. Anyway, I’m vegetarian. That’s important for this story. So I got my cheese curds and was driving and had two and they were wonderful and then I take a bite of a third and it was MEAT! I think maybe chicken? I didn’t swallow and immediately spat it out but ughhhhh I totally lost my appetite. I’ve been a vegetarian for like 21 years so this was extra gross to me than perhaps if I had only been veg for a year or two. Totally foreign and awful.

After that I had a mini moment and bought a carton of cigarettes which was $93. After not smoking for five days. Yes, a whole carton. Ten packs. Not one or even two. Ten.

Anyway, then I got home and sat on the couch with the cats and I heard a tap tap tap and saw something out of the corner of my eye. I look at the window, and there is a WASP on my window. I got stung by a wasp on my birthday in 2020 and it was awful and ever since I am afraid of it happening again!! Fortunately I have two living room windows and can open the screens on them. So I very slowly went to the other window, less than a foot from the wasp, and opened it and the screen. After maybe five minutes it flew out. Phew. What a relief.

After that, I could finally relax!

JUST KIDDING :(

Maybe twenty minutes later I was getting ready to distract myself from my bad day by watching a marvel movie. And then I saw Calliope slowly approach the window and begin to paw at the… track area thing? I feared the worst, and I was RIGHT. THERE WAS ANOTHER FUCKING WASP JUST CHILLING THERE. I hurriedly opened the window and screen and I guess it got smushed in the track and died? Oops. So I felt kind of bad about that because even though I am afraid of them I can appreciate their part in a healthy ecosystem. So. Double wasp day. And I accidentally killed one.

AND THEN I went out to my car for a smoke and met a young man standing on my stoop smoking weed abd was like hey are people gonna narc on me if I smoke out back, dude? And he was like nah you’re good. So I went for a smoke out back. And one of the units had their windows open so I walked a little bit away. Finished my smoke, came back inside.

Within ten minutes I see maintenance guys (the law enforcement of my community) walking up to my building. I panicked. I hurriedly hid the smokes and lighter in my underwear drawer. My buzzer buzzed. They were coming for me. I considered not answering, but instead decided I would play dumb to the rules and agree to go off site to smoke and be very compliant and apologetic. I buzzed them in. My heart was racing.

They get here and are like DID YOU BUZZ US IN????? And I’m like… uh… yeah??? Panicking. I do not sound innocent in my mind.

Turns out they were here to look at my buzzer because sometimes it doesn’t work and makes a shhhhhhhhh sound when people buzz me. My secret was safe with the young man!!! But the fear of the Lord was put into me and now I was scared of smoking out back. (The buzzer is third party and they will have someone from the company come take a look).

The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully. I bargained with myself and tossed the carton and smokes and put on a nicotine patch. I did not end up having any more past my last one around 5pm. Because I was afraid of getting caught. I threw them all out before bed.

And then it took me like four fucking hours to fall asleep. And I was so tired but so fidgety! I laid down around 8:30pm like normal and read boring news to lull myself to sleep. I stayed wide awake. I got up at 10pm and took one of my as needed sleeping pills. I text my bff while I waited for it to kick in. I was very fidgety and kept waking up the cats who were in bed. Also I was overheating but I was very afraid of having exposed skin because what if there were more wasps and I stretched out when I woke up and they stung me all over!!!!! It was very scary.

I finally fell asleep sometime around midnight.

At, according to my text log with my bff, roughly 1:40am I woke up to a loud and rhythmic beeping. Beep. Silence. Beep. Silence. Beep. I was so tired I thought it was still part of my dream and was confused because I was having a renaissance dream and why was there mechanical beeping??? (Side note my costume had arrived in the dream and it was soooo pretty and not too warm at all)

When the beeping didn’t stop I groaned and got my phone and googled it. Smoke alarm low battery. I texted my bff in irritation about it. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore it and fall back asleep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

So, I got up and investigated each of my three smoke alarms to find which one was doing it. Finally found the culprit in the office. It was very loud. I grabbed my osha earphones, put on my glasses, and got a chair. I took out the battery and it was 9 volt which I do not have on hand so I just set it aside and unplugged everything in the office until today so that I could go back to sleep.

I, of course, had trouble falling back asleep and felt wide awake after all the beeping. I fell back asleep around 4ish probably. Sigh. Also I was very congested from allergies or something so I couldn’t lay on the side I like to sleep on.

And then my cat woke me up from a deep slumber too early around 7:45am and I had a headache and was kind of annoyed but I love her so I got up.

And now I am sniffly and have a cough from smoking yesterday and I took advil for my headache but I’m still waiting for it to kick in. I hope it is gone by class time tonight. I’m going either way, I am determined.

Anyway. That’s the saga of yesterday. In my BFF’s words, I just could not catch a break. I am planning for a low impact Wednesday to compensate and make sure I can get to class tonight. Doing nothing except reading a few pages of the book to cover what we are learning tonight. I will watch more marvel movies in between to distract me from my woes and keep my mood light and airy. I just finished Thor before laying down last night so I think the next two are the first Captain America and Avengers, respectively. I recall really enjoying those ones, and should be able to watch both before class tonight and still get my studying done.

Sigh. Thank fuck for caffeine.

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 5,103

Calliope: Tidy up a little.

You stow the delicious mess in your sylladex. You might be inclined to snack on it now, but due to the nature of your JUJU MODUS, you cannot access it. Once you captchalogue something, only your brother can use it. And vice versa. You always make sure never to captchalogue anything that is particularly important to you. You think sometimes he chucks stuff over to your side of the room just to bait you into captchaloguing it for him, and getting it into his inventory. You kind of don't think he was engaging in such machinations this time though. It looks like he was just being a petulant brat.