#so if someone wants to retell their story and fix it so it keeps the later romance but takes away the toxic beginning

[enixamyram]

That is the second TikTok video that has shown up on my FYP that is someone giving a Webtoon artist a hard time for their story about Ganymede. I already made a post about this but I feel like I need to keep saying it. Because I genuinely think there is some level of something (homophobia) that makes people not bat an eye at the dozens upon dozens of Hades&Persephone retellings but lose their minds at a possible Ganymede&Zeus retelling.

And the really frustrating thing about all of this? I'm pretty sure the artist has already said their story isn't going to be romanticising Ganymede's story and I've seen some of their related artwork backing this up. Yet these videos are full of people being passive aggressive and downright trying to bully the artist over it.

So frustrating!!!!

[nitewrighter]

Hello! Just wanted to say that your Cindy story provides me so much comfort and I read it all the time ;;

I really liked that Cindy gets really involved in ruling the country and has like 2 decrees ratified before her marriage. Thats an aspect of princess / royalty / fairytale retellings that dont really get touched upon and I really appreciated it. Did you have any more thoughts / ideas on what Cindy would have done like past the end of your story? I just want to see her do more things / grow more into her own.

In any case, thank you so much for writing that!

Thank you so much for this lovely ask!

I would say that at first, a lot of her changes basically relate to how she immediately related to her own life prior to becoming princess consort, hence why those two decrees have to do with better living conditions for orphans and better working conditions for domestic workers--she wants to be able to prevent the abusive and exploitative conditions she was stuck in for years. There's also a reference to her having an interest in infrastructure with the "potholes" line in the whole 'happily ever after' paragraph at the end. I think the thing to keep in mind with her is that for all her trauma and for all her complex relations to labor, she's a proactive fixer and cleaner! She mends loose buttons on coats! She cleans stains on rugs! She puts a lot of stock in her surroundings and will compulsively roll up her sleeves to set something right if it means improving quality of life. So she is kind of... funnily industrious early on in her career because as soon as she learns she can fix potholes she gets this rush of power and basically ends up running all over the place figuring out places that the crown can help. Like, usually that sort of stuff is left up to reports from mayors and magistrates, but like... it's very easy for that kind of correspondence to just get lost in the weeds and fall through the cracks in the midst of all the other day-to-day operations of running a palace. Cindy puts a lot of pressure on herself to be a good princess, but her idea of being good at anything frequently involves her getting up close and personal and getting her hands dirty. She's lived her whole life with people telling her things are a certain way, so she's actually very insistent on seeing things for herself rather than just being told "It's like X." It's definitely a shock to the insulation of nobility.

So imagine, if you will, you're a longshoreman, and you've been telling your supervisor for weeks that the dock at the south end of the pier is rotten and dangerous and needs to be replaced before someone gets hurt, but your supervisor's been shrugging you off and handwaving you away because that's too expensive, it's too time consuming, those are your wages if everything gets put on hold for construction, and you know he's been telling the magistrate that it's fine, the dock is fine, don't worry about it, but one day, the fucking princess consort shows up with her brick shithouse captain of the royal guard, and the king's valet.

Now, you and your coworkers know there is one board on the rotten dock that you do not step on. You've been hearing it get creakier and seen more and more salt seep into its cracks for weeks now, and you're doing your job hauling stuff off of a boat, and you're watching the princess consort and the captain of the royal guard get schmoozed on by your supervisor and you're like, "You fucking know what?" and you step on that board, very purposefully putting all your weight on that one foot. Creak, snap, crash, splash, the board shatters beneath you and you fall through. Your chin gets clipped by the wooden crate you're carrying on your way down but you manage to shove it away from you in the fall and stop yourself from falling into the harbor by your forearms. Your supervisor is looking at you, horrified, and you hit him with a shit-eating grin (your teeth are a little bloody from the chin-clip) before nobly going, "Oh, stay back, my fellow longshoremen! It's dangerous!"

The captain of the guard has to physically stop the princess from rushing over to you, and he goes, "Let me handle this, your highness," and he dramatically throws off his fancy captain of the guard jacket (to the sound of several wolf whistles even though he's still in a shirt and waistcoat) and starts edging onto the dock himself to help you. You're making a big theatrical show of hauling yourself out of the hole in the dock by your forearms, grunting and the like, when, honest to god you didn't plan this part, the captain of the guard falls right through the dock and lands with a splash in the harbor. God bless you, Captain of the guard, you beautiful brick shithouse.

15 minutes later both you and the captain of the guard are wrapped in blankets (even though you didn't get wet), the princess consort has apparently commandeered some cacao from one of the storage houses and is now insistently shoving hot chocolate at you both, and the king's valet is chewing the fuck out of your supervisor over gross negligence and what kind of message this sends to our nation's peers in trade to see our docks in this condition. About a week later, you've got a new supervisor, and there's construction on a new dock. Not long after that, once every three months there are several representatives from the palace showing up for workplace safety inspection. Congratulations, you trying to make your boss look like an asshole has accidentally created a proto-OSHA.

As Cindy kind of matures in her time in the palace though, she does make more broad changes that are more related to personal empowerment and social mobility. She's very interested in schools, but also trade education and apprenticeships. She spearheads the building of several primary schools, really impressively expanding literacy and basic math skills in the country, and also ends up creating a sort of sponsorship program to connect poorer kids with trade education and apprenticeship opportunities. I want everyone to know that the glassmaker who was convinced the glass shoe was the devil is now saddled with snot-nosed orphan sidekick apprentice thanks to Cindy's legislation.

[normiematsu]

concept for angel killer yumemi ^_^ the au i have thought the most about storywise! she's an angel in training who gets corrupted by choro. i made a playlist for it here that serves as a moodboard/audio version of the whole story when you listen to it chronologically! i need to type up a proper retelling of it and create real ref sheets but have some unformatted thoughts/minificlet below...

yumemi is an angel in training tasked with learning more about how humans live. unfortunately for her she ends up at choro's cathedral and he's immediately able to clock her as an angel. even more unfortunate is the interest he takes in her...

shes super trusting and willing to put aside any suspicions she has about choro since she likes him. gets scolded a lot for not being that great at hiding her own identity - what would everyone think if they saw her wings!! her halo!! humans aren't ready to handle that - so choro keeps her close by. she's like a lost lamb that dutifully follows him around the cathedral, never openly questioning the odd things that happen when they're out of sight from the congregation. she thinks there's a lot to learn from him, a man so willing to teach her about humanity, while not questioning how little he shares about himself...

eventually she figures out he's belphegor and despite feeling betrayed she abandons her mission and decides she's going to save him, no matter the cost! love always wins!! she genuinely thinks she can fix choro and he's like... "do you know who i am? what i am?" for a while lots of fighting ensues. shes not that strong though so all her threats fall on deaf ears, and he knows she doesn't have it in her to put her lance through his heart. (he kind of wishes she would tho, since he's a demented freak)

choro could kill her so easily. he's never met someone with so little common sense... he can't imagine her ever completing her mission or being in charge of anything important... so he decides to start up his own little game. testing the limits of how much he can get away with. before he knows it, he's already claimed her soul, not thinking of the consequences...

and then one night he gets too riled up and accidentally kills her during one of their fights. he didn't even mean to do it, honest! suddenly he's hit with the realization he wasn't quite ready for their game to end... he's toyed with keeping undead humans around before, but they never lasted long after reviving them. he's never resurrected an angel but he figures it's worth a shot trying. the result is... not quite what he was expecting.

he manages to get her revived, but not as an angel - she's some strange and twisted thing fresh out of purgatory. violent. bloodthirsty. she wants nothing more than to get revenge for what he's done! even in this state though she's not powerful enough to finish him off, not like she could anyway since he'd just regenerate... begging god for forgiveness gets her nowhere either. she's committed an unforgivable sin by abandoning her mission and knowingly pursuing a relationship with a demon.

choro takes great pride in telling her she wasn't his first plaything, but he didn't think she'd be his last - and now she's bound to him for eternity...

[genericpuff]

I have a fandom I'm into where the world building and writing in general is kind of terrible, and I keep going "Maybe ill make a comic retelling" but then I remember I haven't even gotten my personal comic started and think about how much effort you put in to this retellkng and go "No. I actually don't want to do that."

hey, whatever you do decide to do, it'll keep you creating! Rekindled is a side project that's helped me heal through a personal project that I'm currently recovering from burnout on, I didn't really think too hard about doing it, I just went where my interests were and it's gone through a lot of evolution since then. Don't feel like anyone else's work existing should keep you from creating, that's not why other work exists and ultimately the only one stopping you from doing what inspires you (or what you're inspired by) is you (•̀ᴗ•́)و

That said (big edit ahead because I realized I had more things to say on this LOL), I think it also depends on what you're retelling and why. I feel the reason why LO is so ripe for retellings is because it, in and of itself, is a retelling. Whereas original stories that aren't based on any sort of pre-existing source material aren't really able to be 'retold' in that same way because they're telling exactly the story they intend to tell from the beginning, vs. LO which is poorly adapting original source material that pre-exists it by hundreds of years. Case in point, I wouldn't feel compelled at all to "redo" a comic like Let's Play or The Kiss Bet because neither of those are attempting to retell specific stories, they are the story and so to put them in any other form wouldn't be the The Kiss Bet or Let's Play anymore, thus defeating the point lmao In that regard, Rekindled isn't exactly LO, it's as much a retelling of LO as LO is a retelling of Greek myth. But because it does have that original source material that predates it, it makes people feel more compelled to retell it with the foundation that LO laid (with its vibrant bright colors and modern setting) but tweaking things to make them more accurate - or at least respectful - towards the original myths.

So I think you do have to ask yourself what it is you're attempting to re-interpret and what the goal is in doing so. Remember that it's all still fanfiction at the end of the day so don't be doing anything risky that might implicate yourself of copyright infringement lmao (do your own research and well-testing to see if it's something that would be worth it for you in the long run).

There are definitely times I'll encourage people to focus on their own projects rather than try to polish someone else's turd if it's in the pursuit of "fixing" things, art can and should be allowed to exist regardless of whether or not it's perfect and LO isn't an exception to that. I'm not gonna try and defend Rekindled as an exception to those times I'd suggest people to work on their own thing, I could - and should - be working on my personal original projects rather than what Rachel brought into the world. But that's also why I give it such an original spin because I also want to tell my own story, simply through the lens of recreating a comic that I loved for so many years and was retelling myths that I have a close connection to. All in all, that's why I tell people to take my experience and advice and rants with mountains of salt. I'm not a one-stop-shop for all-encompassing advice or guidance on what you should or shouldn't do. And my work definitely doesn't exist as a metric for what should be done by others lol Focus on you and your pursuits! <3

[lumpyorganelle]

Heartbreak & losses quotes pt.1

"I had someone once who made every day mean something. And now…. I am lost….And nothing means anything anymore.” ― Ranata Suzuki

“It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.” ― Susan Sontag, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

“Growth in love comes from a place of absence, where the imagination is left to it’s own devices and creates you to be much more then reality would ever allow.” ― Jamie Weise

“This was something she would keep hidden within herself, maybe in place of the knot of pain and anger she had been carrying under her breastbone…a security blanket, an ace up her sleeve. She might never use it, but she would always feel its presence like a swelling secret stone, and that way when she let go of the rage, she would not feel nearly as empty.”

― Jodi Picoult, Mercy

“I would rather a romantic relationship turn into contempt than turn into apathy. The passion in the extremities make it appear as though it once meant something. We grow from hot or cold, but lukewarm is the biggest insult.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Escapists have no right to love, Lovers have no need for escape. When you change exes like socks, It's a sickness, not a choice.” ― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“Twice my heart broke for a love so delicate as my own; and yet I did not find a piece of myself in between those lines.” ― Laura Chouette, Profound Reverie

“Irrationality is the absolute absence of ones mind and the full consciousness of every feeling.” ― Laura Chouette

“And I wonder what the sound of a heart breaking might be. And I think it might be quiet, unperceptively so, and not dramatic at all. Like the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth.” ― Sarah Winman, Tin Man

“My heart no longer felt as if it belonged to me. It now felt as it had been stolen, torn from my chest by someone who wanted no part of it.” ― Meredith Taylor, Churning Waters

“Losing him was like having a hole shot straight through me, a painful, constant reminder, an absence I could never fill.” ― Jojo Moyes, After You

“I found that the only way I could control this sorrow was not to think of [it] at all, which was almost as painful as the loss itself.” ― Robin McKinley, Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast

“If we must part forever, Give me but one kind word to think upon and please myself with, while my heart's breaking.” ― Thomas Otway, The Orphan: Or the Unhappy Marriage

“No amount of soul searching would fix my past. There was no magical Band-Aid I could stick on my heart, no special glue I could use to make myself whole again. I had shattered to pieces like a fragile vase on concrete; some fragments could be roughly cobbled back together, but many of my vital parts had simply turned to dust, pulverized and scattered by the first gust of wind.” ― Julie Johnson, Like Gravity

“One of the most difficult things he'd ever done was turn away and leave her standing in the shadows.” ― Rachel Gibson, I'm In No Mood For Love

[cattype]

I wanted to make a comic for International Asexual Day but I thought it was the 16 and not the 6th. orz

There's some stories that I keep meaning to make into comics for Ace Week or Pride Month but I keep putting it off or chickening out. They're stories that involve a lot of cringe and a lot of misunderstanding so they're hard to talk about. I practice retelling them to myself to better understand them and find the easiest way to tell them but the scars still run deep.

So for now, I just wanna share some of the morals of my stories without the stories.

-If you're struggling to find a "missing part of you" then maybe that part wasn't meant to be there in the first place.

-Some people are just preconditioned to interpret things as sexual or romantic even when you explain why they aren't.

-Don't take advice on your sexuality from people who don't think your sexuality exists.

-Just because you've finally convinced someone that you're not straight, doesn't mean they've totally grasped the concept of asexuality. Some things take time to sink in.

-There are people who might react badly to your sexuality. Often it's uncomfortable, in some cases it might be violent. But just because something MIGHT happen doesn't mean it WILL happen. You can't base the way you live your life on a maybe. You don't need to be scared.

-If someone doesn't believe asexuality exists or thinks they can "fix" you, then that's THEIR character flaw, not YOUR problem. You have a right to exist and be yourself.

-We're lucky enough to be living in a time when asexuality is becoming more accepted and better known. Things could be better but they're still getting better. Hell! Do you have any idea how lucky you are just to be reading posts like this? I'm talking to YOU tweenager who's just figuring themself out!!

Bonus: This is purely my personal experience so I can't guarantee you'll have the same luck as me. Almost all the times I've come out to someone I've known IRL it's been awful but with one exception all the times I've talked about my asexuality online have been positive. Not only that but apparently half the people I've known online have been asexual. Maybe it's because everyone I've met IRL I've only met through happenstance i.e. I only knew them because we were in the same class. The asexual internet friends are a little harder to explain but it might just because younger people are more open to more options. It's not just "gay or straight" any more. Kids can go online and say "oh, asexuality is a thing? I think I might be asexual" (Again, you kids have NO idea how lucky you are! I only had an alternative lifestyles story on 20/20 that I saw one time as a kid that I mostly forgot about!)

Now treat yourself to some cake.

[fractalkiss]

tierno (ferrari au) fic notes / commentary

i've tried a couple of times to start writing this post sooner and each time i've just stared at the blank grey space and just closed the text editor. and now it's mid-june. lol how has it been 2 months already since i posted this fic. but i will write this up since i do want to talk about it, belatedly, and it was born out of an au by a friend that i really had a lot of fun coming up with inspired by the lovely art.

concept

obviously this is all thanks to dave @penaltyboxboxbox. i distinctly remember looking at the piece and going 'WOW so cool! how would that work.' i moved along and went back to life. and then a week later i saw it reblogged again on the dash and got slapped in the face by the question. literally how would that work. how would it happen. i love canon divergence sooooo much btw even though i was worried about having to change the year in dave's work from 2017 to 2018 because lol, the fucking research threw me a curveball.

thought that this was going to be fernando pov because to upend and change his ferrari era from loser to championship winner with the red team, would be cool. and then i figured it couldn't work because i already knew what i wanted to happen anyway with him in the fic - that he'd retire after the championships, after ferrari just cannot keep up with the evolving changes in the sport over the years compared to their stronger contenders. retirement is all so anti-climactic and a given, so what the hell would even be interesting there lmao. it would feel like a weird fix-it and i have never done a fix-it fic in my life. let flaws be flaws etc.

so then i started writing this in lance pov, and told myself that this would just be me exploring how would lance be like in a team without his father's direct influence and hold. i say direct, because i'm always reminded of the rumours that lawrence funded some part of fernando's career as well while he was in ferrari, but don't quote me on that those are just (believable and unsurprising) rumours.

process

started writing this early january. and then i did not touch the wip at all or write anything for about 3 weeks in february?? i spent so long just casually trawling for research in between writing the first few scenes because i had not figured out what would be the conflict yet. i asked a couple of friends to read over some of what i had, just to help me point out any blind spots. sometimes i still can't tell how my tone comes off in early draft stages. i kind of knew what i wanted to do with it, i just didn't know yet how to execute it.

thing that never fails to surprise me about writing is that whatever i think would be so fun and exciting to do would STILL turn out to be excruciating and difficult on some days. i think i've made about 6 versions of the draft. i love research and i LOVED that this gave me an opportunity to dig into more things, but at some point, the research felt like too much, but i managed to spread it out in a digestible way in the story. it's challenging to glean what you can from actual canon to use in a fic without it sounding trite or boring, like some mechanical retelling.

ANYWAY. by the time i'd written the 2016 party scene where lance and his gf were eavesdropping on fernando having sex with not-linda, i still had no fucking idea what a good narrative here would be. i was distracting myself by making the playlist, and choosing to just move around parts of the wip here and there in the doc aimlessly just to see some things and hope that i'd figure it out. to put it simply: fernando wins a few championships (stared at some of the details in dave's art, and got tickled at the cards and their numbers) then retires. ok. and lance would eventually move on from ferrari, which he will at some point if they don't give his seat to someone else, but he'd have his father to fall back on so ok. how boring.

and then i realized, hold on, that SUCKS actually. that would kind of be a huge fucking bummer if you were already finally living out a childhood dream with the team almost every racing driver dreamt of. huge bummer when your big fat crush retires as well after a harrowing but magical year of finally getting the validation you wanted.

there's something devastating about how quickly athletes are forced to grow up, and with lance, the issue is both obvious but also it's complicated. it's not as if he doesn't possess any autonomy to make his own decisions, but there's a certain agency you're not entirely granted with when you do something with a parent, no matter how loving and giving that parent is to you. lance is like...the schrodinger's cat of an adult but i could say the same about all of these men and people born into wealthy privilege, or people who could never just bear to cut off their parents, to some extent. of course it's fernando who has to tell lance this in the story: "I will tell you something your father won't. You are upset because you know now what it feels like, to have people support you and your racing ability without him."

also something really devastating about how family is just a self-fulfilling prophecy. i love that word, self-fulfilling. i think it's tragic and i do think everything about ferrari is tragicomedy so it goes hand in hand.

this is why i also think andrea stella and fernando's driver-engineer relationship is compelling: fernando has everything he should have to win, except the one thing they can't grant him. but he thinks he should be grateful to be in the team, and he's teetered back and forth between demanding everything he should have and not wanting to fuck things up when he's fighting for championships, so he clings on to the belief that ferrari seems to carry, that ferrari makes you feel, and you can hear the trust in andrea stella's radio messages to fernando that i (and plenty of others) believed was kind and steady and almost nurturing to fernando in getting the most of the car and helping to fine-tune his strengths as a driver amidst the pressure. you can't truly say that luca baldisserri following lance to williams after the fda was even close to a similar parallel done entirely out of devotion, but i'd like to think it was duty, on luca's part. plus, if engineering young racers' wins in junior series gets you a nice salary from their dads, why not.

highlights of finishing this fic were:

getting to see beautiful and harrowing fanart of the fic by dave.

writing and getting to share the research and lore i gathered in this post. first time actually trying to put something like this together, and it was so fun... i love putting in my little captions under photos and adding in sources.

some of my fave lines from the fic:

"Thanks. You too," Lance replied, and Fernando's smile crooked up into a real one, sharp enough that it fish-hooked a fresh wave of fascination in Lance's stomach. Perfect teeth, Lance thought to himself as he ran his tongue along the back of his own.

There's a saying that Fernando's mother taught Edoardo. The saying is Spanish, Edo's words lilting in a thin curl that Lance had to lean forward a bit to hear it again: La cabra tira al monte. The goat always takes to the mountains, which then means that you can hold down the goat in a pen but that won't change where it came from. "Fernando has always been who he is, and his heart, always up in the real mountains of his home," Edoardo said, raised his glass of lemonade in mock salute, and Fernando silently flicked a card at Edo's direction across the birch table almost childishly. That race weekend in Montreal, the weather stays the same, as clear and beautiful outside as it had been all week.

Lance stops idly rolling the pen he's been holding, a habit he'd gained from writing the confidence mantra they'd made him do at the academy. "Well. Can't beat a dead horse." "Beat, what?" "Luca was done here," says Lance, shifting in his seat. "So I'm saying that it's pointless because uh, the horse is dead and you can't like, get it to move." He makes a whipping motion with his hand.

As a teenager, Fernando had Ayrton Senna's picture stuck on the inside of his closet above his racing gear. For all of Lance's responses to the obligatory interview question that asked who his favourite driver was, he never had Fernando's picture up in his bedroom. Didn't exactly need it when Fernando's been around for years now, coming and going at Dad's invitations in the warmest season like object permanence developed through red-toned photos of a memory.

i love the theory of object permanence so much btw!! just saying.

writing anything new lately has been um...well. i thought i could do it again last week, but it turns out i'm still not fully back into it yet. and that's fine. i signed up for a fest (non-motorsport fandom) so...pray that it will help me kill the fears. guess i'll also go back to my attempts for other fic ideas, we will get through this. i'm trying to write more intentionally, less reactionary, so i guess if that means putting out less things then this is positive at least. hope i have fun along the way is all!

[party-pixie]

hey, thanks for the kind words. i'll admit that i kinda forgot for a while that daily demon spotlight was meant to be a blog for fun above all, and i got too obsessed with my perfectionism to where even the slightest criticism would make me panic and overcorrect everything

i really do appreciate what you said as it kinda just grounded me again and made me realize that i'm not some giant public figure, i'm just some teenage trans girl who likes to write, so thank you so much even if you didn't intend it to be that deep lmao 🙏

well im glad i could help 🥰 i've gotten the perfectionism bug with my own writing so i know how much it really sucks. i think it's also scary on the internet where people are increasingly becoming mean to people they don't know over even small things, so it prob feels like you're risking getting huge backlash over something that isn't all that difficult to fix. like, the demon spotlight is just a hobby blog covering figures that appear in a game series that in itself has questionable information and unclear sources, it's not an official compendium blog run by atlus yknow??? i get not wanting to spread misinformation or see it get spread ab mythological figures but for a hobby blog where it's not difficult to add to posts, i don't think it needs to be all that deep. don't be afraid to add an addendum to old posts if you ever come across new information or a correction, i think that kind of thing could be beneficial even if the original post had a lot of incorrect stuff in it

plus, with so many different retellings and translations of mythological stories i think people will consider different ones to be their "canon" to them. i mean like, i read ab two or three different takes just on ganesha's birth in a little section ab parvati in a book discussing a ton of different goddesses. and with language barriers and such, you're bound to run into inaccuracies tbh

i think it's a good preface for everyone involved to come into this understanding that it's easy to unknowingly run into wrong information ab figures, smt is full of inaccuracies in itself, the demon spotlight is just a hobby and isn't gonna get thesis-level work put into it, and the goal isn't to spread misinformation

as long as you keep doing your best in research and handling things as respectfully as you can, i don't think mistakes should be a huge deal. like, yea okay you fucked up a post cus you had bad sources, it's not the end of the world and i don't think you should feel like it's the end of the world or someone else should make you feel that way. just don't argue with people if they give you a correction. i mean, if someone's a total asshole about it that's not really something you can help, the best you can do is apologize and correct the original post. but there's no need to wallow in sorrow cus you got something wrong, it's really not the end of the world🥰👍

[rapono-writes-stuff]

Projects I'm working on or am actively planning:

Red red red, why am I not dead? ch.7 (Carrion)

Started

Finished the first chunk of the chapter (everything leading up to perspective change). Having some difficulties deciding if I should scrap some scenes that were supposed to happen before the end of chapter 6 (changed order for better pacing), or try to rework them into it. Also dealing with the fact I've had to go wildly "off-script" since some stuff the original to doesn't fit with the fic retelling/doesn't make sense imo.

Out of your depth (Subnautica)

At least 70% done

Same Subnautica fanfic I was working on before, just changed the title. Old concept that's been a brainworm for years, that I've been slowly chipping away at. Nicknaming it the Transfuser AU. Getting close to the end of fic, just currently trying to write a high action scene while making sure what happens both makes sense and is easy for the reader to follow.

Your Coworker is a monster ch.4 (FNAF)

Started

Accidentally forgot this existed (thanks ADHD, very cool) until someone recently left a comment on it. Currently trying to figure out the pacing for the next chapter (how much should happen without ruining the pacing or making it boring), as well as planning how to pace the rest of the fic. (I am not the best at pacing long fics/not very good at slow builds so please pray for me 😭)

Nightmares do come true [title not final] (BATIM/BATDR)

40-60% done

Also accidentally forgot this existed (thanks ADHD, very cool). Sequel to Keep your friends close, and your demons closer. Got stuck forever ago and then unintentionally abandoned it. Despite not leaving any notes to self, managed to recall a bunch of my plans while ranting to friends about having not left notes for future me. Replaying/rewatching bits of the game to try and make sure I don't make them ooc before I start writing again.

The Graveyard Shift ch.3 (FNAF)

Still in editing/art piece not started

Massive roleplay I did with my partner being converted into a fanfic. While everything is technically already written, still in the process of editing the next chapter-sized chunk into fanfic material. Currently dealing with rewriting a scene that is inconsistent with things later established in the story, and with it also trying to fix a plothole that comes up multiple times throughout the story.

Are you one of us? [title not final] (Pizza Tower)

Planning

One of the fics from the poll of Pizza Tower fic ideas (Peppino loses the boss battle chase and gets adopted by the clones). Probably the most likely to be finished out of the remaining 3, but I've put it on the backburner in favor of working on the above.

My cell can fit two [title not final] (Pizza Tower)

Planning

Another more dark leaning fic (like Peppino's Day Off, but probably darker?). Without spoiling too much, Fake is locked in their boss room, and has been horribly mistreated. Peppino enters to retrieve the key, but is then locked inside until he finds said key. Peppino is forced to deal with the mistreated Fake whether he wants to or not, trapped inside with them. Also on backburner in favor of working on above fics.

[liameowlia]

i discovered tumblr messed up and this post was not in fact posted lmao, thank god i saved the draft before hand.

warning: i tried my best to leave this as most spoiler-free as i could, but if you really don't want to know anything about the plot at all (not even vague things about it) just jump to my tldr.

i don't really have the brain-functioning hability to put into words everything i'm feeling about the miraculous movie right now, but i just wanna say i loved the movie.

i think it was GREAT, it made me extremely emotional and i'm really sorry that apparently not everyone feels the same way (and i super understand why they may differ from me), because i genuinely will hold this movie dear to heart, as a comforting piece of media to watch when feeling sad or needing a pick-me-up.

i know it seems like a joke, but this movie genuinely feels like a fix-it fic ksdksdkjk i feel like they really tried hearing the fans while producing this and it made me happy! i understand that some people are kinda mad that they did all these big changes in the movie and not in the show, and i agree that many of the aspects of the movie would be super satisfying in the show, but unfortunately it's all we got :(.

at this point i feel like the series is like a train on fire that the crew are trying to keep on track lmao. i say it as a joke, but i really do think that they've noticed how many flaws there are in so many aspects of the series and are trying to (maybe) fix them in a way that makes sense, while simutaniously going foward with the plot, but that's hard to do and will aways leave some unsatisfying things behind, and that's another reason as to why i liked the movie so much.

i know i'll unfortunately never get to have the "perfect" development or writing or plot or characterization or finale for the show, because of so many (big or small, objetive or personal) flaws there are inbedded in the show and how it has been biult up until now, but i can get pretty close to that with the movie. no, i'm not trying to say the movie is perfect, it's far from that, but watching the movie from the perspective of someone who's been watching the show since it frist aired, it made me really happy! i got to see a new version of the story, a new retelling, with most of the things i love being rearrenged, plus some new improvements, and best of all! it's canon! it's not in the same universe as the series, obviously, but still canon.

i feel like the movie made canon (parts of) a version of the story that i've always wanted for miraculous, it made it possible and true, not just frustated and sour daydream. it's canon, guys. i know that for many people that doesn't mean a lot, but for me it weirdly does. and i'm really happy about it.

i loved the songs, i love musicals, so sorry if you weren't pleased by that. i loved the designs, even though i did find adrien's art different from the series, so it took me a while to get used to (not bad, just different!). i did miss my marichat or adrien <3 marinette action, but it's fine bc it's a movie and they can't fit everything in there. i liked the pacing, but idk if that's bc i already know the basis of the plot, so idk if it'll seem rushed to someone that never watched the show. i have some other critiques and things i personaly would've changed/improved, but i mostly liked pretty much everything.

tldr, i guess (?): i loved the new miraculous movie, even though i undertand why some may not like it and have my own critiques about it. my rating is like 8/10, maybe even 9/10 depending on which aspect i'm talking about, from the perspective of a fan. i'd give it a solid 7/10 for those who have never watched miraculous before (maybe i'm being too generous bc i literally just watched it). i would definetly recommend you to watch it, even if you haven't watched the series before, no matter how old you are. hope you guys like it just as much as i did.

thank you for coming to my tedtalk and have a nice day, evening or night. bug out!

[enixamyram]

Long Rant About Greek Retellings

This is a post I'm using to vent. Feel free to ignore it or not, I just need to get these thoughts out in the open.

Summary of my rant: It's dumb to hold the "crimes" of the original stories against retellings that change these things. And stop being an asshole to people who write/enjoy harmless retellings.

This comes about because TikTok's keep popping up on my FYP and they're genuinely making me want to bang my head against a wall.

The most common that I've seen is people bitching and moaning about the artist on Webtoons who is doing a retelling of Ganymede's story. These people are definitely the worst since I saw them bragging in the comments about how they are constantly tagging the artist (aka, harassing them!) in other videos about the original story and messaging them and just being bullies. Now this is just shitty in general because I'm pretty sure the artist has stated this will not be a romanticized version. But for the sake of my rant, let's pretend that it is. Let's pretend that someone is retelling the story of Zeus and Ganymede with a romantic focus.

Why is that so wrong? I keep bringing up Hades and Persephone because they are a perfect example of this being done multiple times. Both Persephone and Ganymede's stories are incredibly similar with them being kidnapped, held hostage and eventually settling in their new lives. Obviously there are many versions, but one of the versions I read had both of them coming to enjoy their new lives and being happy there. Now in our world, we would agree that's very Stokholm creepy coded but back when these were written it probably wasn't intended that way.

Now if someone decides they want to rewrite the story, fixing the toxic parts of the story (eg. having Persephone willingly go with Hades because she fell for him before he took her to the Underworld and having her willingly eating food in order to stay with him) and keeping the later romance... That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. There are many retellings and reboots that try and "fix" things that didn't quite work in the original and I'm always in favor of that because it's interesting seeing another version of this updated.

So if someone wants to age up Ganymede and rewrite it in however they choose to write it, why is that wrong? People against it usually respond with "in the original...!" and my response to that is: This isn't the original! That's the whole point! If you genuinely can't let go of the original source, then I suggest you don't read/watch anything that retells it.

Another example I want to give is Calypso. I'll admit, I don't know her original story (I really want to look it up because I'm curious but as of writing this, I am ignorant to it) but since Epic has blown up, I've seen a lot of people talking about her. Especially during her song in the Vengence Saga and a bit of a debate has started over whether or not she's genuine or manipulative. Now whatever your feelings of her and her story/song, I just want to focus on one thing I saw, again on TikTok:

Someone said they hated people making Calypso's story a tragic one, that she is the villain and nothing will undo her S-A-ing Odysessus and - I'm literally quoting them here - "not even if you do a retelling where she didn't"...

Am I alone or is that the dumbest thing to say?

You can feel whatever you want against the "originals", but you cannot hold the original toxic traits against retellings, especially if they make a point of changing these things. That's ridiculously stupid. If you cannot handle this, then don't read/watch retellings because you don't actually get to dictate what story someone tells or how they tell it.

If you want an "accurate" (I use that term very loosely) story of Ganymede or Calypso, then bloody write it yourself. Don't give artist and creators shit because you don't like the choices they made.

One side note I wanna add: You cannot have a high horse against retellings unless you have somehow successfully managed to avoid the dozens and dozens of retellings that have existed all our lives. Just for a quick example, every Disney version of the Fairy Tale is a retelling of it that changes details to make it more romantic/fix little details like the ages of the princesses at the time.

I have my own personal opinions on certain stories. I'm not a fan of Hades and Persephone stories that demonize Demeter. I might make a post saying as such, but then I will move one. Because there's nothing wrong with a retelling, even if I don't personally find enjoyment in it. And giving others a hard time because they don't agree with you on this is just the height of arrogance.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Interest in Gaylor seems to be on the rise after Taylor’s breakup, and some fans are speculating she might be preparing to CO (as what identity is another question - like with Harry there is debate over her label). Obviously Taylor has had many confirmed BFs, but I wonder if she were to CO (and I’m doubtful of that at least near term but am not the most informed) it would be simpler for her than Harry bc many of the men she’s been linked to have had speculation about their own sexuality. Harry, Tom, Jake, Joe…

However, I don’t think it’s wrong to think a key part of Taylor’s success has been her ability to make fans feel connected to her life through the her songwriting which includes referencing specific men (the red scarf, the stitches, the london boy, and so on). If she were to CO does she lose fan trust? Maybe not as some already interpret her lyrics through a queer lens and understand the concept of “stunt” songs (and she has many songs not necessarily about her or romance at all). Like you said just publicly dating a person of the same sex without giving a specific label would be the slow burn way for Harry or Taylor to CO as gay (if one or both identify that way) without completely canceling out past public relationships. Society does sadly seem to be moving backwards in some areas but there does seem to be more understanding sexuality is not a checkbox, fixed state for everyone.

I definitely don't think that the fact that there are rumours about many of the men Taylor has dated makes it simpler for her to come out. I think one of the complications of coming out, after you've publicly been linked with another celebrity, is ensuring that they are not outted to.

For Taylor, I don't think this is as much of a problem as it used to be. Joe Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal may have sex with men, but Sophie and Joe's relationship is pretty persuasive, as is the collective impact of Red Taylor's version on Jake's image and life. But I definitely don't think it makes it any easier.

In terms of coming out, I do think that if Taylor has been attracted to women and she wanted to share that, she could probably do quite an amazing job of retelling her story so that people experienced it as an expansion of what she had already shared. It is her super power. See how people are so quickly recasting her and Joe's relationship.

Emotions around shame and having to keep stuff secret are very relatable - I think Taylor could write about being confused about her feelings, feeling like she had to hide them, and even revealing specific songs are about women in a way that brought people in. It also helps that Scott Borchetta sits there as a very easy villain who would only need to be gestured at.

I don't think it's useful to understand publicly dating someone of the same sex as a slow burn way of coming out. It's coming out - it's just coming out in a different way. Coming out does not have to mean revealing all previous relationships were fake (and it doesn't mean that all previous relationships were fake) and I think it's really useful to distinguish between the two. At the moment, celebrities just don't reveal previous relationships are fake, unless they happened years before. I think it's useful to take that as a starting point, rather than assuming coming out involves revealing previous relationships are fake.

[dalekaiken]

how did u come up with the initial ideas for ur fics ?? :3

I'll reply with my current multichapter fics bc my oneshots are mostly... Sudden ideas I get, such as Keeping Promises being a fic I wrote in one sitting after finishing Unleashed bc I was inspired. XD (Or I wrote the first draft in one sitting but you know-)

DNA Collision: I absolutely adore when people draw Shadow with more alien-like features, such as giving him yellow scleras, tiny scales, or a third eye! But the fanart made me think... What if there was a reason Shadow looked like that/more alien, especially considering that he didn't originally even know he's half alien. My original idea was that Eggman would do something that would make him mutate, but then I thought it might be a bit of a lazy choice, plus then fixing it would be a lot easier because they'd already know the cause. My bestie came up with the idea that it would happen suddenly while Shadow was racing/using Chaos Control, and I liked that idea. (I can't tell how/why it happens since that's a spoiler, but you'll find out eventually ehehe). I like aliens, sci-fi, and body horror (although I don't wanna make the body horror parts too graphic in the fic but still. It's a part of it), but there's also metaphors etc. in it. I'll probably talk more about those once I finish the fic, because for now I want readers to make their own interpretations and speculations >:3

Prophecy of Chaos: The ship I was super obsessed with before Sonadow was Catradora, and since I tend to like certain types of dynamics, I kinda noticed lots of similarities between them XDD (I mean, they're a snarky hero with a heart of gold and their former enemy with a traumatic backstory) I think I also saw a tumblr post where someone pointed out that the way Boom!Shadow acts is like a bitter ex/former childhood best friend, and that made me think... What would Sonic and Shadow be like if they had been childhood best friends who had a falling out? I think I jokingly told my friends like "what if I made an AU that's kinda like the premise of She-Ra but with Sonadow" but then I actually got invested in it. It just works so well with Sonic characters and Sonic lore, with the whole chosen one thing and friendship being a big theme in both series. My bestie @tillytilli had lots of suggestions for the AU, and then I asked if they'd like to be a co-creator. Plus with two people working on it made it possible for us to make several illustrations for each chapter; usually three art pieces for each chapter, one by me, one by Tilli and one being a collab between us. So yeah, the premise and some elements are inspired by She-Ra, but the plot will differ a lot since we didn't want it to just be a retelling of that story, we wanted to also make it our own story. Plus we haven't really assigned the characters certain roles (except the obvious ones, like Sonic having Adora's role, Shadow Catra's, Infinite Shadow Weaver's, and Eggman Hordak's. But even some of those are a bit mixed, especially between Sonic and Shadow) because we felt like it would limit the characters too much, and we wanted them to be themselves first and foremost if that makes sense? (So like. You don't need any knowledge of She-Ra to read the fic. Sonic knowledge is more important since there's lore and references XD)

Impactful Skip: I came up with the idea around the time the sneak peek of Sonic and Nine in Sonic Prime came out. Since Nine was a traumatized child because he never met Sonic, it made me think... How would Tails turn out if he had had Sonic, and then lost him? Because he would know what he was missing. Sonic and Tails are so close that I feel like neither of them would be the same if they lost each other. I think I was also subconsciously inspired by that one episode of Futurama where Fry has to test the time machine with Bender and the Professor so he's late from his date with Leela, but the time travel goes wrong and Leela thinks he's dead. (This scene especially always BREAKS me) I didn't like... Actively think about that episode while thinking about the premise, but then I remembered it after a while and was like OH. Another inspiration for it was that one tumblr post I can't find sadly but it was like... "Why would you tell a post-apocalyptic story if not to show the kindness of humanity?" And it's a big part of Impactful Skip, because while Tails has turned against all his friends, his friends still stick together and try to find hope and kindness towards one another even in a world with barely any hope left.

Thank you for asking! I'm really enthusiactic about these stories so I'm always happy to explain about them! ✨✨

[pixiemage]

5, 17, and 43 for the fic ask game!

[For the Fanfiction Writing Ask Game]

Three questions??? You spoil me! <3 I think I'll need a Read More for this one my friend xD

Hahaha! Ha! Ha.

Many. So, so many.

I have a bad habit of starting projects and not finishing them, so I have a plethora scattered throughout my Google Docs files that are anywhere from multiple pages of unposted fic, all the way down to single-sentence unused prompts. Sometimes I left them behind because I lost motivation, sometimes my hyperfixation shifted and I (sadly) couldn't focus on that fandom anymore.

But let's see...uh....I glanced through my older stuff first just to see. But for now I think I'm just gonna count what I'm either actively working on, or what I wish to continue when my motivation returns...because if you counted all the abandoned WIP's I've gathered over the years, I think the number would be close to 30, and I don't want to list them all up here. (Maybe I'll drop it at the bottom of this post if you're curious***)

For one, I have two IronDad fics I plan on finishing: one that's a shorter Mafia AU that's 2/3 complete, and a much longer (and heftier) multi-chapter fic that has been awaiting a new chapter for over a year I think. A Little Late On The Blood Work my beloved...I'll come back when I get inspiration again 🥺💞 I also have an old Jacksepticeye Egos fic called #SamLives that I've been wanting to continue for ages but haven't, along with a Night at the Museum fic (Jedtavius) that I at least need to finish the current arc for because the comment section is sad.

And MOST recently I've got a bunch for Hermitcraft/Empires/Traffic Life that I'm in the process of actively writing...which I believe add up to a total of six?? I think? THREE are partially posted/being updated (Through a Crack in the Void, Domino Effect, There's Not a Word Yet), and the OTHER three (two Team Rancher, one that's literally Every Ship Under The Sun With Some Found Family On Top) aren't gonna be on my plate until I finish some of the other ones.

17. Do you have a writing routine?

Not really! Usually once I get an idea, I just - jump in. If I get stuck and want to skip something just to keep the writing ball rolling, I'll throw one of these in the middle of the page: ASDJNAKFBEKAJBA ...and just leave it for later. It's bold, red, and easy to spot when I'm scrolling through a long document, which is nice! It helps make sure no blank spots get missed in editing! (I also red-dye words, sentences, or paragraphs I'm feeling shaky on, so I can spot them easily and come back later when I get a better idea to fix it.) And if I decide to completely change a section I'm writing, I'll often copy the original version, paste it at the bottom of the doc in case I decide to change it back, and turn it a pastel color so I don't confuse old versions for the current text.

I also sometimes make calendars on Excel/Sheets if I really wanna keep track of time, and I often have a separate (and somewhat disorganized) doc for Notes on my longer fics. There's also a document where I write down potential lyrics options for There's Not a Word Yet chapter titles, but that's the only time I've done that for a fic.

43. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet?

I feel like someone asked me this a while back, so I've definitely thought about this! But honestly? A mystery or a time-travel fix-it...which I am well aware are two VASTLY different tropes lmao.

I've always been envious and in awe of well-written mystery/detective stories, because so many little details go into them to make them work. I'd love to build one of my own someday, but I have yet to find the right motivation to do so.

As far as time-travel fix-its go...they're just...they're so fun to read, because I love to see how one little change can affect an entire timeline (see also: Domino Effect) but they're also a LOT of work to write because it involved basically retelling a story that's already been written but in your own words and with a twist. Somehow writing something fully original comes easier to me than trying to build my writing around something else that already exists. But god I'd love to have the motivation to write one of 'em anyway! It'd be fun to decide how everything changes all because of one little difference in choice :3

5. How many WIPs do you have?  What fandoms/pairings are they for?

Hahaha! Ha! Ha.

Many. So, so many.

I have a bad habit of starting projects and not finishing them, so I have a plethora scattered throughout my Google Docs files that are anywhere from multiple pages of unposted fic, all the way down to single-sentence unused prompts. Sometimes I left them behind because I lost motivation, though most times my hyperfixation shifted and I (sadly) couldn't focus on that fandom anymore.

But let's see...uh....I glanced through my older stuff first just to check for this hah. But for now I think I'm just gonna count what I'm either actively working on, or what I wish to continue when my motivation returns...because if you counted all the abandoned WIP's I've gathered over the years, I think the number would be close to 30, and I don't want to list them all up here. (But I'll drop it at the bottom of this post if you're curious***)

For one, I have two Marvel/IronDad fics I plan on finishing: one that's a shorter Mafia AU that's 2/3 complete, and a much longer (and heftier) multi-chapter fic that has been awaiting a new chapter for over a year I think. A Little Late On The Blood Work my beloved...I'll come back when I get inspiration again 🥺💞 I also have an old Jacksepticeye Egos fic called #SamLives that I've been wanting to continue for ages but haven't, along with a Night at the Museum fic (Jedtavius) that I at least need to finish the current arc for because the comment section is sad.

And MOST recently I've got a bunch for Hermitcraft/Empires/Traffic Life that I'm in the process of actively writing...which I believe add up to a total of six?? I think? THREE are partially posted/being updated (Through a Crack in the Void, Domino Effect, There's Not a Word Yet), and the OTHER three (two Team Rancher, and one that's literally Every Ship Under The Sun With Some Found Family On Top) aren't gonna be on my plate until I finish some of the other ones.

(One of them is a cute 5+1 one-shot about Tango calling Jimmy "buddy" and Jimmy learning that "buddy" has a lot of different meanings depending on how Tango says it and who he's saying it to. The second one is an extension of a one-shot I already posted called Coming, Coming Home, where S8 HASA!Tango crash-lands in the mesa outside Tumble Town, and like - yeah. Yeah. I'd love to continue that one. And the LAST one is a Double-Life-based Witches/Familiars AU that started as Renchanting Duo and has since extended to every member of the Life series and even some Hermits.)

***ALL THE OLDER FICS I HAVE YET TO COMPLETE: I've got one for Doctor Who, a handful for JSE Egos - #SamLives - one for Night at the Museum, one for Encanto. Six for Marvel/IronDad (including a Mafia fic, a SPN AU, a Peter-gets-shot and Tony-goes-dad-mode hurt/comfort, and A Little Late On the Blood Work which as I said I'm just longing to get inspiration to return to). A witch/familiar Supernatural AU fic and an SPN time travel fix-it that I barely started. There's a TangoTek one-shot I've abandoned featuring his rage moments from both LL and DL. I also have an old fic from high school for a game called Ib that I'd love to revamp someday...and my Original FanFic that started it all, which was for Harry Potter, and I was like 12, and it will never EVER see the light of day. My god. It's...it's rough.

[talenlee]

October 2024 Wrapup!

Here we are, on Halloween, the last day of the month, and the midpoint of spring. It’s a time for everyone to put on costume, like shorts and a t-shirt, to indulge in the festival of the season, which is, being sweaty, and gathering together to indulge in those most seasonal of events, like complaining about the heat and hoping like hell Summer isn’t going to be worse this year.

(It will.)

Thirty one days, thirty one articles, what has Press Dot Invincible Dot Ink had for you in the month of October, this dread month? Well, here, let me show you!

First of all we had the Game Pile articles:

Sleepaway, a solid example of the GMless storytelling genre within a horror scenario.

Tiny Epic Zombies, my first Tiny Epic game box that does a really solid job of being exactly what it offers if a bit forgettable after the experience is over.

Phantom Ink, a video of my article about the fun team based word game for Halloween parties.

and most importantly, I Wish We Were Worse, a video about the game Faith in which I sharply underscore the way this is very much a game about thinking the Catholic Church doesn’t abuse enough children.

Continuing the leerie and eerie vibes, in the Story Pile we had:

Wake In Fright, a classic of Australian cinema about the claustrophobic horror of being in a place that wants to bore you to death.

Elfen Lied, an anime that I love about pink-haired teenagers commiting serial murders that I do not recommend.

The Terror, a historical fiction retelling of the deadly history of Player Vs Canada game modes.

Talentless Nana, an anime that I love about pink-haired teenagers commiting serial murders that I do recommend.

Being October, I did four more Dread Readings, where I read a short story aloud, so you could hear it instead of just imagining ‘I should check that out one day,’ and then provided some critical consideration at the end of the story. The stories I did this year are The Bush Undertaker by Henry Lawson, The Jabberwocky by Lewis Caroll, The White People by Arthur Machen, and The Things by Pete Watts.

I also made some articles that aimed to consider the dreadful realities of our world, to live in the archives of such article ideas as how gamer culture is enmeshed with Nazis via the school shooting, or there but for good luck and better friends, I might have turned into John Wayne Gacy, articles about how The Bible is a work of stolen slave labour, that Jeffrey Epstein was absolutely the subject of a conspiracy but not the conspiracy you think, the strange individual who was responsible for executing the Nazis at nuremberg, and also, an article explaining the story of the Bhopal Gas Leak disaster to people who I expect have never heard of that.

Brr, okay, that’s a charming collection of topics, isn’t it? What if we pivot to instead talk about something a lot less close to the knuckles of reality, with a chat about some stuff from TTRPG spaces? I wrote about the 3rd edition D&D monster the Kythons, and about three different heritage options in 4th edition D&D that are all explicitly spooky. I also broached the topic of how your setting handles the consumption of (dead) sentients, and an article about a non-country in Cobrin’Seil, the unclaimed land known as Selpera, where the bloodied remnants of a dead god bubble in the broken sands.

This month’s shirt design is a warning that I think I need to put on myself as people realise that being around me isn’t exactly inherently fun.

October is a month where the semester winds down and final reports happen. As you read this, I’m probably working on student input and making sure stragglers and late homework gets handled. It is a time when we start on plans for what to happen next year, which is all looking very confusing and uncertain as I write this in a way I can’t help and can’t fix, but need to keep working on.

Also, what’s the longest turnaround you’ve had on an email? I emailed someone back this month after a mere ten years leaving them on read. You can do it, you can reach out to the people you miss.

Still, here’s something cool that happened this month! After a long time waiting, Fox got me a second set of desk risers. I promise this is interesting, to exactly and only me. See, I have this really nice desk, which is technically a second hand desk, and I think it was found on a street corner being thrown out. It’s a broad desk with a lot of space, a sliding keyboard tray, a space for a computer tower, a wide area that can hold two monitors, and a tray space above that, where I can put things like books and paper. This desks is, and has been, for most of my time using it (…ten plus years now?), a little low for my height.

Fox got a set of risers for it once, little inverted pots that can handle supporting the weight of a desk distributed across the four of them. But this desk has six points of contact with the ground, and with only the four corners supported by risers, the middle section started to sag out of its sockets.

This month, Fox finally got a second set of the exact same risers, and we implemented them same-day. Now my desk is up about ten, maybe fifteen centimeters from where it was and I can sit up straight to type clearly. Great for my posture and also means I don’t have to lean forward to read. Cool and good! Energised by this I went on to take an old bookshelf in the bedroom, empty it out of trash, then resolve to take stuff in it to the second hand store (‘thrift shorp’ if you’re American), meaning that I could use that shelf space to store some board games that have been sitting in an ugly heap in the living room!

Look, I am essentially saying I changed my posture a little bit and then cleaned a bookshelf. We take the victories we get and, vitally, we are remembering that every day stuff gets done it’s not nothing.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[theclamshellpoet]

"The God of Flowers"

Been a while! As per usual, I've been thinking so much about Greek mythology (doesn't help that they're making a Percy Jackson tv show now! It's on my mind constantly again!) So I wrote this poem about a particular story that gets me. Just to be clear I don't particularly strive for myth accuracy-- there's a lot I get from the stories when I read between the lines.

Boreas’s favorite scent is dying flowers.

In no Greek myth will they tell you this--

Perhaps, because they were afraid of his cruelty.

What monster likes the smell of decay?

Hades might say the smell of death is home,

Persephone might agree. But, still,

Who would prefer that over the scent

Of a blooming rose?

The Greeks painted flowers in blood.

Each flower named after someone who died,

A final wish made by a desperate God--

The last, gentle breath of a human who wants to live--

Those stories are painted in warm colors,

Sadness in stories is often soft and kind

Sadness in stories is often... escapable.

We write what we can never have, we always will.

And when Zephyrus, in his rage,

Killed Hyacinthus, and Apollo, in his helplessness,

Turned his soul into a flower,

Was that sadness soft to them?

Or was it desperate?

Was it sickening?

Was it the kind of sadness that rips you apart

From the inside-out?

Did Apollo cry over his lover,

Desperately trying everything that should work, once worked,

And when nothing happened scream to the sky in pain?

Would he say his bloodied hands felt soft?

And when Zephyrus saw what he had done,

Realized that he had played into the hands of fate,

begged to his wife, desperately,

“Please, please, fix my mistake.”

And, Chloris, when you heard his words,

Did you give Apollo the power

To change Hyacinthus into that flower?

Would you say that look in your husband’s eyes felt soft?

But even in saving that human,

You can not prevent their death.

Winter will come.

The flowers will die.

The Greeks said Boreas was cruel. He was not cruel.

He was something unfamiliar.

Something terrifying.

A reminder that everything must end, and everything must start anew.

When someone dies, they give you flowers.

Ironic, isn’t it? Trade a death for a life.

Yet it comforts me to know Chloris is still here,

And she tells me, “I’m sorry.”

And she tells me, “for now, you can keep them here,

“And when they die you can throw them in the lawn,

“And maybe when spring comes,

“The dandelions will bloom,

“And you can be glad that a part of them is still here, with you.”

For now, It’s winter.

But Boreas knows what those flowers mean.

And he will say “this is my favorite scent.”

(p.s, if I remember/want to I may post my Icarus poem sometime. Inspired by that poem that gets tossed around here often. I always want Icarus to have a happy ending, especially because that whole story is insane?? C'mon king Minos don't trap daedalus and his son, you're going to create one of the most widely known greek myths ever, king Minos no!)

(p.p.s, if you love greek myths listen to the album "This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet" by Moonface/Spencer Krug. An incredible retelling of the Minotaurs story!)

and now I leave !