#opal short

[theartofsimpatry]

Opal’s Mirror Man Headcanons

If it isn’t obvious, he has narcissistic personality disorder.

He’s somewhat aware of that fact about himself. “I’m glad I don’t have your ankles though. Nothing- nothing against them, I just- Never mind, sorry, my brain.” he knows it’s a problem but he’s too wrapped up in his own self that he can’t see how badly his NPD is affecting his life and others.

He strives to be perfect, to be better than others while he’s already convinced himself of the fact that he is better than others due to him being able to see their flaws. He sees nothing but flaws in others, a wrinkle that needs to be “fixed”, roots that need to be touched up, skin that needs to be softened. You must be crazy to look past these things! How can you awake up in the morning not caring about the way you look? Obviously you don’t!

When he was younger, he wasn’t popular with women, he was convinced it was his looks but even then his narcissism turned most people away from him. Making his life and mind an echo chamber filled with self hatred, criticism, and self flattery. He ended up getting a job and saving as much money has he could to afford plastic surgery. A solution to his “problems”. Five hundred dollars for a syringe for his wrinkle to go away. Ten thousand dollars for a new nose. Two hundred dollars a month for a luxury gym membership. One hundred dollars for a new skin cream. Etc.

After buying himself items to make him appear to have a luxurious lifestyle, a brand new car he couldn’t afford, a new wardrobe that fits his new body better, skincare products that help kept his skin nice as he constantly thinks about the compliment he got for his skin 10 years ago when he was 14. His new style and confidence attracted Wine Mom to him. They met in his 3rd year and her 1st year in college.

He quickly got her pregnant. Money was already an issue with his large debts, outrageous spending, and Wine Mom’s Father becoming more and more sick by the day. Wine Mom dropped out of college as no matter how many hours she and Mirror Man worked, they were still in the red. Wine Mom hoped that pregnancy and having a chid with Mirror Man would help with his narcissism and bring all of them together as a family but, of course, that didn’t happen.

A tough birth, a prescription to pain medication and easy access to wine later…

Mirror Man is the breadwinner of the family along with Grandpa getting a monthly disability check, is the only thing keeping the family going. He, instead of spending what little money he has on food for his own daughter, chooses to spend his money on new clothing, his luxury car payments, skin care, makeup for the bruises he gets from Wine Mom sometimes, and “solutions”. A chin implant. A liposuction session. Hair implants. Etc.

Don’t ignore him. FUCK! Praise him. He’s amazing. FIX IT! Pay attention to him please! YOU FUCKING BITCH! He loves his voice it sounds so soothing, you must love it too right? ANOTHER WRINKLE! FIX IT!!

[gleepily-beep]

[bitch-a-art]

Did some redraws of my cringefail man

Old art under the cut, from early 2021

[astudyinfreewill]

what do you think was the point for the cloud lady?? That part just made me really sad

hey there! yeah, it really was sad. :(

obviously i can’t be sure of maggie’s narrative intent, but i would say the point was probably twofold:

a) to show opal growing attached a to a human she has no direct connection to (i.e. not ronan, who brought her into reality, or adam, who saved her life), thus “humanizing” opal to our eyes; not in the sense of making her human, but in the sense of making us go “look, she feels empathy for another being” and in turn feel more empathetic towards her.

b) probably more relevant: for plot purposes. opal is scared to go back to cabeswater/interact with dream things because she remembers how often ronan’s dreams were nightmares, and how often he died in them. she comments through the story on how the real world is safer, more reliable; even if it’s sometimes boring, it’s still devoid of horror. so the point of the cloud lady dying, i think, was to show opal that even in the “animal world” there can be pointless horror, that people can die and not come back magically; that even though the real world is more dependable than dreams, it can still be unpredictable in the worst ways – e.g., a lady who opal relied on to always visit the bench to read and eat and enjoy the quiet can suddenly drop dead without warning (of course she had been ill for a long time, but opal would not have known that). all of which – together with the consequences of ronan not dreaming, and opal’s own longing for dream things – conspires to make opal, eventually, want to return to cabeswater.

[astudyinfreewill]

so i’ve been writing up my thoughts on the opal short story and need to stop to go out for dinner even though i’m not done yet but...... it’s already such a long post i’m going to have to either put it under a read more or split it in two parts???? why am i like this???? 

[astudyinfreewill]

what do you think the new cabeswater will look like?

oh boy, that’s a good question. i have no idea?? i assume it will still be a forest, but it will have more of ronan in it -- that is to say, present-day ronan, not the self-hating, self-destructive ronan who dreamt it first. 

we already know he wants it to have an area where it always rains the kind of rain that “makes you feel happy and sad at the same time”. there will probably also be plenty of fireflies, magical flowers, magical light orbs, beautiful forest animals, and other ridiculously romantic things because lbr.......it’s ronan.

maybe he’ll even include an area where the trees play EDM, as a homage to his nerd boyfriend and his embarrassing idea of flirting ;D

[astudyinfreewill]

fellas is it gay to

fellas is it enough to tag posts about the short story as ‘opal spoilers’ for your blacklisting needs or are y’all gonna need me to put things under readmores for a couple days, would it help?