5, 7, and 28 (asked with full and malicious knowledge >:3)
5 - A scene you enjoyed creating
There's a series of scenes in this cyberpunk fic where one of Vaux's brothers comes to talk to him about some family stuff, and blows his backstory secrets wide open to the two loudest people he knows, who proceed to argue, loudly, about all of it. I've written a lot of good scenes. "Your two best friends yell at each other about you" is really top-tier IMO.
7 - Comfort character to create for
Gonna be honest I don't really understand the concept of a "comfort character" in general. I guess my major comfort zone anymore is in original stuff, since I don't have to match source material in any way and there's not a pre-established fandom interpretation of a character I have to contend with. I get to just do whatever I want over in my dollhouse I built with my own two hands.
28 - A song that relates to one of your creations
I know EXACTLY what you're fishing for lmao. Old Muleskinner was actually written in 2024 BUT he got a lot of editing this year so I'm counting it. Also I have a lot of Old Muleskinner songs.
"Dog" by Charlie Parr is one of the most Old Muleskinner songs I know.
How do you know that I don't have a soul? How can you look me in the eye and tell me "no?" A soul is a soul is a soul You have habits that define your kind But deny me mine most of the time And a soul is a soul is a soul You say that I need to be trained When I’m only doing what nature demands And a soul is a soul is a soul
Old muleskinner lives a life bounded by routine, and because of The Way He Is, he also lives a life in which many people have control over his coming and going and what he's allowed to be like in public, or even in private. Many, many people around him don't think of him as a real person. Sometimes even his friends forget. How can you look me in the eye and tell me no?
Off the same album, there's also "Another Dog"
He’s running because no one at home want’s to be part of his pack Gary only owns him, he’s never had Ranger’s back Ranger oh Ranger will you ever get away? Old Gary’ll track you down and bring you back again He’ll run until he’s too old, or they make a stronger fence Or he’ll die a free dog on a county road, in a fatal accident
Again: he lives this life bounded by rules and requirements and strictures, and every time he steps outside of them someone drags him back and makes him behave. They don't want him back because of who he is: they want him back because they own him.
"Jesse Got Trapped In A Coal Mine" by Goodnight, Texas is my third song.
Jesse got trapped in a coal mine, digging in the dark black pearl Jesse got trapped in a coal mine, never did marry his girl She held out hope for a couple of months that he was still living somewhere that he'd put up the strongest kind of fight and he'd dig himself out with the dynamite, And he'd finally be free on the 5th of July But Jesse got trapped in the coal mine and never did marry his girl
This is a shipping song. Sometimes you are twenty-five years old and you've realized you have to leave the cult you were raised in, because you need to transition or you'll die. And you beg your boyfriend, who you are pretty sure is actually your girlfriend, you beg him to come with you. Because she needs to transition or die, too. And you love each other, deeply, intimately, the way only two people who are born on the same day and have spent so much of their adolescence together can. And your boy-girlfriend says no. That it's scary out there. That he doesn't know what life would be like. That it sucks here but he can't go. And because you've watched his life and the way people treat him, you have to allow him to make his own choices. You have to treat him like the adult he is. So you tell him you love him, and you write letters back, and he writes letters to you too, and a few years later he asks you to help evacuate another person you know, from a neighboring town. And you do. Because you got out. And it's important that you give others a hand out too. You have to do that. It's your moral duty. And you tell your boy-girlfriend that you could get him out too. And he tells you he can't do that. So you evacuate this other person and you get them safe. And then you do it over again, and over again, and over again. And you do it for years. Decades. And sometimes you meet up and you kiss and you love each other, but sometimes it's years between when you see each other. You see another person take over for his uncle, one who tries to whittle his life down to nothing. You see someone follow after, who sort of doesn't care as long as nothing is public. You see someone else after that, who wants to control him because he's the only way out of town. And all the time you are looking at this person you love, deeply, sincerely, like nothing and no one else. And you have to respect the choice to stay, because you believe in the dignity of choice. When you are fifty-five years old you ask him why and he looks at you and he asks you who else would get these people he sends to you--younger, now, young enough to be your children, maybe even your grandchildren sometimes--he asks you who else would get these grandchildren to you. And you don't have an answer for him. And then you do that for fifteen more years.
