Madison Rye Progress

So I saw @critters-system doing this and it seemed neat. Feel free to shoot me an ask with a question! (You can include the number, but please also include the question text~).

Here is the system.

name asks

1. do you have a collective name? how was it chosen?
2. how do new system members choose their names?
3. are there any system members who identify with the body's name?
4. which system member has the most stereotypical name?
5. which system member has the weirdest name?

age asks

6. how does age work for your system’s members?
7. does your system have ageless system members?
8. who is the oldest system member? how old are they?
9. does your system have system members who age slide or age regress?
10. if you have them, do your system's littles want to be treated like children or adults?

queer asks

11. do system members tend to have similar sexualities, or are they different for each member?
12. does your system have more male, female, or nonbinary system members? is there any overlap between those?
13. do any system member use xenogenders or neopronouns?
14. does your system collectively identify as anything? if so, what?
15. do you& consider the body to be transgender?

nonhuman asks

16. what system member is the strangest species?
17. do any system members have wings?
18. does your system have any animal system members?
19. what is the weirdest part about being a nonhuman system member?
20. is the majority of your system human or nonhuman?

asks for the current fronter

(feel free to ask more than once!)

31. who is your favorite member in the system? (alternatively, who are you closest to?)
32. which system member has the most based takes?
33. what is the funniest piece of system drama?
34. do you enjoy being part of a system?
35. what's something you like that no one else in the system likes?

Aaaa omigosh, plushies good! There were absolutely times when there are tea parties or pretend or whatever, but I will admit, they are mostly a sleep/comfort item for me. I like ones that represent others in my life. Proxy animals, you know? I have proxy plushes for partners and friends, and I will hug those or sleep with them when I feel I need that sort of comfort.

I have been working through the editing process, and so I have not had much time to read anything but my own stuff of late! However, as part of that, I have been reading the short stories of others who are writing for the anthology. Notably, I am a big fan of @hamratza's writing. I am biased, yes, but also eir writing is just plain fantastic, so.

Before this, I started Gideon the Ninth but had a hard time getting into it enough to keep going when it was compounded with all the stress of life. I am a big fan of Jeff VanderMeer, and was reading through several of his books for an essay that kind of stalled out. The Southern Reach trilogy is fantastic, and The Strange Bird remains one of my favorite books. I think my favorite book goes to This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar.

For poetry, Rilke's Duino Elegies (notably the translation by Will Crichton and Mary C. Crichton from Green Integer) has been formative. I used that, along with Time War for an essay on taking up space and plurality. It is no longer in print, but I love Dwale's Face Down in the Leaves, which I used for another essay in the same collection. Many of its poems are still up on SoFurry. Finally, Eliot Weinberger's 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei is both a fascinating look at a single poem and a lovely extended essay on the act of translation and localization.

I wrote myself into a skunk. The character that I was writing, after a string of bad relationships, got quite frustrated. She chose skunk because of the aposematic nature of their appearance. Their stripes say "stay away, I am doing my own thing and so should you". She wound up falling in love with that as a form for herself.

I do not think that is quite the reason that I have for myself. I wrote this set of skunks, and the more I researched, the more I found that they were kind and gentle creatures. They are curious and affectionate. They are quiet and unobtrusive. They are little trundlers. This is a little silly, but they are also dumber than dirt, and their lives are simple for that, which is something I want for myself.

I wrote these creatures who are struggling to find peace and simplicity, who are curious and affectionate and quiet, who trundle around through the world, and my previous identity just...was not quite so attractive anymore.