Meet the Bloggers!

image

Amygdala Wroth ~ The Anti-Witch

“I lugged two boxes of your crystals and candles and grimoires up the stairs last night, but you’re not a witch.”

I make a noise of disgust into my mug. “The word is dead. Used as a weaponized synonym for ‘woman’, then commercialized by Big Magic because neopaganism sells. I reject any and all affiliation.”

Her brow’s still up, but it’s gone amused. “With what all, exactly? Neopaganism? Big Magic? Women?”

“The second one, for sure. As regards the third, all women are magic. It’s just that not all of us know how to tap into our full power. Hell, maybe none of us do. I probably don’t. But I reach for what I can.”

image

Couch ~ The Dragon Roommate

Things I knew about dragons before ever actually meeting one:

– Dragons hoard things.

– Despite having wings, they can’t actually fly.

– Despite science being unable to account for it, dragons can breathe fire.

– Apart from the wings and the fire … and the scales … and the teeth … and the fact that they routinely get away with manslaughter because everyone’s too scared to prosecute … dragons are virtually indistinguishable from humans. […]

Things I knew about Couch, specifically, before agreeing to become her roommate:

– She has a cat.

– She has turned all of her previous roommates into stone.

– She’s a Scorpio.

Things I am learning about Couch now that we live together:

​– Time shall tell.

image

Harkness ~ The Selkie Sweetheart

She’s perfect in the way seals are perfect. Their grace in the water. The sculptural quality of their shape. The silly joy they spark while sitting oh-so-roundly and slapping their tummies and skooching up to nose at wildlife photographers’ cameras.

The light in her liquid-dark eyes is perfect. The dimples in her smile are perfect. Her poetic butchery of her second language is perfect. (Or would English be her third language, after le français and the tongue of the seals?)

The way she drapes herself over Couch, casually cuddly, is perfect, as is the artless glee she takes in any little thing. But no, not artless, because you can tell: She knows the effect it has. She sees the pleasure it brings.

image

Manchester Leif ~ The Broken Writer

“Do you have any idea,” he says quietly, “how people react when I tell them I’ve written my books?”

“I’d imagine they’d be…” I shrug. “Impressed?”

“Oh, yes.” That chuckle had so little cheer, it should have its card revoked. “Everyone is always very impressed. Incredibly excited. It’s so cool that I’ve written a book. They’ll ask what my work’s about, and where they can find it. And then… Almost no one goes on to buy the book, Amygdala. And of the few who do, almost no one gets around to reading it.”

I almost say, That’s a shame. But that look of his tells me it is more than that. So I say instead, “That’s a tragedy.”

image

Sleeves ~ Just Your Average Guy from the Dragon District?

“Work’s only bad when your job sucks,” says Sleeves.

I ask, “Does yours not?”

“Nah, man.” He smirks. “According to society, I’m an Underground fighter slash hitman slash tat artist.”

“Only two of those are true of you,” says Manchester.

image

Travis Marina ~ Born of the Bay

Travis holds out a hand for the labradorite, the May I? implied. I pass it along, and he studies it a moment in a particular kind of silence. “Solid,” he says at last, returning it with a nod of thanks.

​In a company containing dragons, a selkie, and me, I wonder whether Travis might low key be the most magical of us.

Big City Little Magics the band excerpts

galadriel1010:

Any travel advice site will tell you to travel like a local, but honestly you should local like a traveller. Go out with wide eyes and curiosity. Visit museums and parks and art galleries, try out the overpriced but highly rated restaurants that only tourists visit, take photos and video, stop to read those heritage information signs, treat yourself to an ice cream on a hot day. Don’t let tourists be the only ones who take joy in your home.

(via hopepunk-humanity)

amygdala wroth reblog little magics everywhere

He saw a Black person. There aren’t a whole lot of them to be found, in this town.

He saw a ‘fellow’ Black person. (In quotations, not because that’s what he said, but because that’s what he clearly thought.)

He saw what he perceived as a fellow Black person. He said, “You look tired.”

She said, “Always.”

Because she was always tired. She felt more tired than she did Black or in the mood to perform being Black or perform being a fellow person. She was trying to walk to the library. She had to shower and eat lunch when she got home. It was some 5,622 steps to the library and back. And this Black man wanted to stop and talk.

He started with recommendations of exercise – (Her, trying to leave: “So it’s good I’m on a walk.” Him: “Let me finish.” As if it were her interrupting his talk, not him interrupting her walk) – recommendations of tai chi (of, specifically, “not yoga”). He said he himself looked 9 months pregnant and should practice what he preached. (Congratulations, so-called-'health’ industrial complex, you’ve convinced every woman and man they’re too fat.)

She, still hoping to yes-and her way to the end of this, mimed lobbing his advice back at him. He mimed putting it in his shirt pocket, yes-and, yes-but this was not the end.

He kept talking. Something about his marriage. About the statistics of divorce. About the skills he took into adulthood like cooking and sewing and changing a diaper. About how he didn’t want to change anymore diapers.

He had three daughters. One of them punched her boss when her jealous coworkers accused her of stealing the food assemblage cards at Taco Bell. (Daughter to coworkers regarding the boss she knocked out: “When he wakes up, tell him I quit!”)

He raised his daughters to be ladies. He raised his daughters to be “tomboys”. He told his daughters that if they were gay, they would no longer be his daughters. He referenced Sodom and Gomorrah. (Her: “That was actually more about Sodom breaking the laws of hospitality.” Him: “Okay…” Her: “Laws of hospitality were big, back then.” Him: “Let’s not go toe-to-toe on this.”)

She should have said, “Let me finish.” She should have said, “Good thing you’re not my father.” She should have said, “A number of my loved ones are gay.” She should have said, “Would you disown your daughters for lying? Or for feeling anger at someone in their heart, which Jesus called tantamount to murder? Why is this one 'sin’ of being gay any different, any worse?” She should have said, “Okay, bye,” and walked away on toward the library. Because there is no magic thing to say, no perfect piece of conversation, that can turn a man who wants to talk into a man willing to listen.

He babbled on. Something about flash floods. She stood there, but was basically done being a person willing to listen. He said at one point that he would get to an end of a story and let her go before the sprinkling sky starting raining in earnest. But there was no end to any story. There was no point he meant to make. He was just a man who saw what he perceived as a young Black woman – maybe he was reminded of one of his daughters, whom he would cherish unless she committed the wrong Old Testament sin – and he wanted to talk.

So she let him talk until she could bring herself to say, “Well, I need to get going,” and walked away. (Him: “Oh, I didn’t mean to keep you…” Her, over her shoulder: “No worries.” Because that’s always what she said to people bothering her.)

She sure as Sodom was tired now.

deshipley words


Indy Theme by Safe As Milk