This one is a single sentence. The only punctuation, aside from commas and em-dashes, is the semicolon in the middle, lining up with Roman's breath. I'd wanted to experiment with prose, and I'd been thinking about Dürrenmatt's short stories, in particular 'The Sausage' (which uses exclusively short sentences) and 'The Son' (which is written in a very long, uninterrupted sentence). I read as many single-sentence stories as I could find (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, David Foster Wallace, Joyce Carol Oates) and studied them, what the long sentence communicated, how the authors divided the language to make it understandable (one of my GGM collections is covered in annotations now). With all this in mind, I constructed a story which is a frantic run, a breath, and rapidly increasing panic and disgust.

The concept of Jeryd as a wolf-dog-person is something I spent months discussed with some friends. We all had different interpretations (Crucie, for example, wrote him as a werewolf); I wanted to try my hand at magical realism, which is something I've read but never written. I took care to not attribute Jeryd's condition to anything supernatural, and to keep the focus on the consequences of the "magic" as opposed to an exploration of it. The briefness of the story helped with this. There was also a story I began writing—but never finished—set in the same universe, which I eventually used to reflect on the rules of Jeryd's dog form.

This is, in a way, the companion fic to 'teeth are for tearing'; the Sausage to its Son. I'm not as fond of it, but it turned out better than I expected. The key to making it work, despite the repetitive sentence length, was the variation in all other aspects: sentence structure, first letters, omissions of pronouns and other parts of the sentence, free (but purposeful) use of punctuation. The concept isn't as far-fetched as other things I've written (who amongst us hasn't thought about Roman experiencing sexual trauma?), which is why I made it stand out in other ways.

A chat that started as a conversation with a friend (hi, Kitsy!) turned into a massive AU, way larger than what I've published. We have a twenty-year-long timeline of events from this universe, what you see is only what I extracted into a narrative. I have made bracelets for myself out of this, I have talked about this numerous times... my fear of being repetitive and/or unprofessional holds me back from rehashing it. In my head I know how it ends and what happens afterwards, I just want to make it worth reading.

• I'll Be Yours - Placebo
• MakeDamnSure - Taking Back Sunday
• I Know - Fiona Apple
• Dramamine - Modest Mouse
• Family Happiness - The Mountain Goats
• Good Boy - Dogbite
• Hard Times - Ethel Cain
• Numb Without You - The Maine
• I Crawled - Swans
• Without You I'm Nothing - Placebo
• Pet - A Perfect Circle
• Heart-Shaped Box - Nirvana
• Inbred - Ethel Cain
• Fido, Your Leash Is Way Too Long - The Magnetic Fields
• Rid Of Me - PJ Harvey
• All Mine - Portishead
• Deadlines (Hostile) - Car Seat Headrest
• April 8th - Neutral Milk Hotel
• Earthmover - Have A Nice Life
• This Is How We Lay - Dogbite
• Polly - Nirvana
• Angels of Porn II - Nicole Dollanganger
• Something Rotten - Placebo
• dog food - 100 gecs

My only comic! I thought about this story for ages, then one day I locked myself in my room and spent the following two days drawing and cutting and glueing together this comic. It's pretty obvious I'm not an artist, but I'm a more than occasional comic reader so I have a pretty good idea of the structure of pages. It sort of looks like storyboard art, but I'm told it came across either way.

I love the reading of Roman as a closeted trans woman. Many have elaborated on it and explained it, and I think it makes sense as an interpretation of the text. As for Kendall, I don't see it as a canonical reading, but I won't shut down anyone who does, as long as they're respectful about it. In this comic, though, Kendall is absolutely a woman.

There's no need to re-state the basic concept of the story: Kendall transitioned because she managed to be away from Logan long enough, in line with their relationship in the show, but Rome is too afraid of disappointing him to come out as well, especially now that Kendall is already out. I had Rome begin her transition in private (estrogen, slightly longer hair, feminine clothes in private and one of Logan's old cardigans which is too big on her) because the concept was already depressing enough, and I wanted there to be a semblance of hope for her. Her frustration toward the situation and envy of Kendall come out in a rather nasty way; of course, none of what she says is true, just like many things she says in the show: when she feels threatened she goes for the meanest thing she can think of, and it's neither the absolute truth nor necessarily what she actually believes.

This is definitely one of my most beloved works, I'm really proud of it. I added this prompt to the Romencken week specifically because I had a very vague idea, an embryo of this story, and I wanted to finish it. I spent so long researching, looking up places, routes local flora and fauna; I must've listened to Dramamine by Modest Mouse dozens of times while brainstorming it. It was the main inspiration behind it, too: I wanted to write something that feels like Dramamine feels, like the street rolling back under the wheels and sitting in the passenger seat with your heart in your throat and nauseous panic in your stomach. I also rarely write from Jeryd's perspective, but after I got the hang of it it became surprisingly easy: he's a sort of less anxious and more sadistic Humbert Humbert, here. The sadism also helps showcase Roman's feelings, which makes the Dramamine feel possible.

I feel that switching the perspective was also useful in that it took me out of the Roman voice: after writing him suffering the horrors for so long, I began giving him a whiny, flanderized tone that I'd have to edit out every time. Jeryd was fresh, and since I don't personally relate to him I don't subconsciously give him the voice of my internal whining.

One of my least popular fics, but one I had a lot of fun writing. I forced myself out of my comfort zone again and tried to write in third person omniscient, which I felt was fitting for the darkly comedic tone of the story. I recommend stretching your writing muscles like this once in a while.
The concept of Greg having childhood crushes on the Roys is one I often think about. It's the way he tries so hard to fit in with them early on in the show, and they make fun of him and take advantage of him the whole time. In a problematic childhood setting, this easily translates to bullying your little cousin.