Jae

🐺 🐶 🐰

MC, to the twins: Sylus has been going out a lot recently, more than usual. Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to hang out and he said no. That's weird, right?

Kieran: No, that's not weird! Maybe boss is just super busy right now!

MC: Maybe. But he's been super secretive lately.. he's always open with me..

Luke, visibly nervous: That can't be true! M- Maybe it's all in your head?

Kieran: Oh no.

MC, immediately turns to Luke: Oh? Bitches be crazy? Is that what you're saying, Luke?

How to write a character who just got wings

The extent on what happens depends on the span of the wings and if they can retract them. Some general ideas you can build on are:

1. Physical Sensations and Adjustment

Immediate sensations:

Weight or shift in balance, large wings pull the center of gravity backward.

Muscle soreness in the back/shoulders, especially along new muscle groups.

Hyper-awareness of the wings brushing against objects or catching air.

Itchiness or sensitivity if the wings "grew" recently.

Movement challenges:

Misjudging the wingspan and knocking things over.

Falling backwards because of the weight.

Learning how to fold them, awkward, slow, maybe painful at first.

Retraction (if possible) could feel like tensing very deep muscles or like closing a fist behind your back.

2. Clothing and Practical Issues

Clothing must be modified with slits, stretchy backs, or specialized harnesses. Jackets especially are a pain in the ass.

Backpacks don't really work anymore.

Sleeping becomes complicated, lying flat may be impossible.

Washing and grooming: preening feathers, drying membranes, accidental shedding, etc. maybe they need someone else to help them with this.

3. Emotional and Psychological Reactions

Internal:

Awe, excitement, disbelief, fear, claustrophobia (from a suddenly bigger body).

Feeling "larger than life" or feeling like a burden/monster depending on tone.

Social:

Depends on the worldbuilding and if this is a normal occurrence or not.

People stare, doors are narrower than they remembered, chairs become inpractible

Friends may react with fascination, jealousy, fear, or awkwardness.

4. Sensory Changes

Wings have nerves. Touch may be pleasant, ticklish, or painful.

Wind sensitivity, your character can feel air currents like a sixth sense.

Temperature issues: feathers insulate, membrane wings may get cold easily.

5. Learning to Use the Wings

Pre-flight:

Figuring out how to flare, beat, and angle them.

Overworking the muscles, leading to cramps.

Instinct vs. trial-and-error, do they feel intuitive or alien to the character?

First attempts at flight:

Running starts, panic flapping, short glides, messy crash landings.

Realizing flight requires technique (lifting angle, timing, wing power), not just force.

6. Realistic Physical Consequences of Flight

Flight demands big caloric intake, your character may become constantly hungry.

Stronger chest/back muscles develop, posture shifts.

Calluses or pads on feet if landing involves impact.

7. Daily Life & Worldbuilding

Will buildings accommodate large-winged beings?

Are wings common or unique? Does society have norms (wing etiquette)?

How does weather matter? Rain makes feathers heavy, wind can blow them sideways.

Also: If Wings Are Retractable

Retraction might feel like compressing or tucking away something huge, which may cause soreness or a sense of phantom wings when retracted.

Retraction could consume energy or rely on magic/technology.

There may be a risk of malfunction or partial transformation.

Retracting them can mess with the feathers, needing support to care for them when opened up again.

Hope this helps!

Rafayel: I'm always nice?

MC: Really nice. Not bitchy nice.

Rafayel:

How to start your first contrapuntal poem:

1. Find a central theme of duality

In my humble opinion, the backbone of a truly fascinating contrapuntal/twin cinema is a compelling binary that can be juxtaposed with two separate columns. Ask yourself this: what kind of theme encapsulates the isolation while also revealing the subtle parallels of unity and oneness? Almost anything, from life and death, love and heartbreak, to conflicting identities and feelings.

The poem could also be a conversation between two people in opposite settings. That’s why the possibilities of binaries are endless and the concept is your oyster to explore! Even if you’re overwhelmed by the many ideas, you can start with a simple topic or a theme you like, and think in contrasting perspectives to start the ball rolling!

2. Start with the easier column first

Once you have settled on the theme, decide on what the right and left column would be, whether it’s one side of a certain conversation, or the past to the present/future, etc. Most people start with the first and left column to write completely before writing the second right column, as it’s more natural to determine the left side first and develop the right accordingly. However, if you feel the fixed perspective on the right is easier to pinpoint, by all means!

3. Leave gaps to add or change lines

Writing contrapuntal poems is multitasking in ensuring the lines of each column makes sense while also able to flow continuously across. That’s why adding, deleting, changing lines or just repositioning them will be done regularly. Don’t worry if it doesn’t stick to the landing, since not every bottle flip will land perfectly sometimes. Give yourself room when writing or typing the poem out to change the arrangements when needed! (Though it is a lot easier to type contrapuntal than writing on paper–)

4. Check if the second column flows well itself

While it is tempting to try and see the magic by reading across both columns, it would be advisable to check if the second column could stand on its own first, so as to do necessary tweaking first and ensure the second column is sound before bridging both columns. Also, as contrapuntal poems can sometimes be written through the flow of intuition and may not be what you initially planned for, write anyway and see where it goes, as long as each column makes sense by itself first.

5. See if it flows nicely together across

This could be difficult when it comes to your first few attempts, so a tip could be ensuring the poems are written in a table with just two columns and putting the first column to right align and the second column to the left align. That way it will be easier to read the lines across, but even if you wish to format the poem differently, you can do so after editing to ensure you have an easier time reading the lines across first. If you wish for a slight cheat code, each line per column could be something in a phrase that could stand by itself, thus making it easier to link to the next line of column without enjambment sometimes.

6. Punctuation and especially semicolons are useful (from @two-bees-poetry )

Punctuations are usually the toughest things in contrapuntal, but commas are often better than full stops, and semicolons are especially useful at the end of a line going to a next column due to it’s versatility. In my opinion, you could use the colon and the dashes as well as an alternative when suitable. Opting for no punctuation throughout or sparse use of it is also okay!

7. Formatting on google docs is also quite easy

Once the two columns are on the table, to make it more clean without the black border lines, you can highlight the whole table and go to format > table > table properties > colour on the computer, and choose either to make the colour of the borders go from black to white, or to press the length to go from 1pt to 0pt. Volia!

8. Or… try to write two columns simultaneously–

Writing one column at a time is one way, but writing both at the same time, like inching down one column by a few lines and then continuing another is the daredevil method that I use. This method is for those who may be a bit impatient or find themselves not truly knowing what exactly to write despite planning, so might as well inch a bit down both columns to achieve the unifying poetic voice while not minding to stop sometimes (or more often) to ensure each column, as it’s developing, also makes sense by itself.

Somehow my intuition just gets a hold on me and I can’t stay in one lane often, so that happens to me when writing these poems. It’s basically conjuring magic by splatting some awesome ideas like spaghetti on the wall and watching how the lines just miraculously slide into place.

she was born of an egg, because why not

more than a thousand years after her ‘birth’, a sanctuary in Sparta still proudly displayed the shell of that egg

(obviously Pausanias travelled there to see it)

(it’s always unclear whether he had all that money to waste on tickets and bribes or if he just used a variation of Ye Olde ‘let me in for free, I’m an influencer’) 

Paris was already married and abandoned his family to kidnap Helen

his first wife, a healer, refused to help him after he was wounded in battle, and that’s why he died

#karma

Helen had been kidnapped once before, when she was a child, by Theseus

he tried to ‘marry’ her but couldn’t, because she was too young, so he left her behind to go on a new adventure

meanwhile, Helen’s brothers attacked Athens, took their sister back and kidnapped Theseus’ mother just to show him

Theseus’ mother is still Helen’s personal slave years later, in Troy

also Theseus spent a few years with his ass glued to a magical chair because of an unconnected crime, so there’s that

(unpopular opinion, but he really is the vilest hero of Greek mythology)

(which doesn’t say good things about Athens but there you go)

people liked to conflate mythological and historical Sparta

or maybe they were just confused

in any case, that’s why many imagined Helen as a good athlete and fighter who trained with her brothers, in following with the Spartan tradition

Odysseus wanted very much to marry her, but after taking one look at the crowd of suitors, decided it was too much trouble

he became her friend instead, and together they devised a way for her to choose her own husband

the rejected suitors had to swear loyalty to Menelaus while standing in the blood of a horse

stallions were the holiest animals you could sacrifice

‘coincidentally’, the horse is also a symbol of Poseidon - the god of earthquakes who was a fierce supporter of the Greeks from the start

historical Troy was destroyed by an earthquake

mythological Troy was destroyed by a ‘horse’

some Helen stans insisted she was never in Troy at all - that the gods had given Paris a cloud in her image and transported her to Egypt instead

whatever the ‘truth’, Helen wasn’t happy with Paris: Aphrodite had to force her into his bed

she considered killing herself to end the war, but Priam wouldn’t let her because he liked her

Helen was also friends with Hector because everyone was friends with Hector

I’m still hoping Hector had blue hair btw, but Homer probably meant dark brown because life is unfair and we can’t have nice things

when Menelaus entered the city, he was intent on killing her, but then Helen saw him running towards her and she dropped the top half of her robe - a traditional way to beg for mercy - so he stopped in his tracks

he took her back, and they ended up having a very happy marriage

I mean all of their friends had died horribly, but who cares

you can always make new friends

#yolo 

after her death, she may or may not have spent the afterlife with Achilles

there’s also something of the witch in Helen

which is consistent with the other female characters of her generation, who were all extremely strong and unGreek

this is possibly a memory of older stories and preGreek traditions

perhaps even a memory of Minoan culture - Mycenaean palaces were full of Minoans, so there was definitely some contamination there 

unrelated, but this is my favourite portrait of Helen - an amphora by Euthymides showing the moment of her abduction by Theseus