He wakes up, struggling to breathe, taste of ashes and blood on his tongue. Cool air from a crack in the window does not soothe the heat of inferno still searing his skin, the quiet of night does not drown out the roaring of flames and singing of steel.
He wakes up, heart nearly breaking his aching ribcage, tears staining his face with white trails. Faint sound of talking from somewhere below does not make him feel less alone, the serene chirping of birds outside can do little to silence the bellows of nightmare.
He wakes up, tangled in sweaty wet sheets, calling out loud for the dead, hands painfully gripping the hilt of the sword he held in his dream.
He wakes up. He wakes up. He wakes up, he wakes up, hewakesuphewakesuphewakesup, he wakes…
Fingers, long and gentle and cool, brush away hairs stuck to his temple, quiet voice still raspy from sleep sends cracks through the nightmare like beam of the sun through the shutters. He isn't alone anymore, and the blazing perdition of Skalitz relents. He stays in his reverie at the edge of the bed, faintly aware of motion behind him. A sigh, and soft lips ghost over the scar on the blade of his shoulder.
"I am right here. I've got you."
..He sleeps.
YES I’ll happily gush about my boy, especially since he’s had some ✨character development✨ due to recent RP 👀
Song that reminds me of them:
Your Song by Elton John, specifically the version from the Moulin Rouge movie.
We came up with an AU where Bo and Ollie first meet when they’re both cast in a production of Moulin Rouge, where Bo is Christian and Ollie is Satine. So it’s been on the mind 😅
What they smell like:
In a very specific sense, this candle.
It’s hard to describe, but it smells like candle smoke and old lavender with a hint of vanilla.
An OTP:
Bo x Ollie.
Surprised? 😅
A NOTP:
I’m gonna say Bo x Jasper.
(one of @creativeheartgemini’s OCs, who is also Ollie’s brother.) Very very yikes if you ask me 😬
Favorite platonic/familial relationships:
Bo and Xander (his dad) will always have a special place in my heart 😭❤️
Though for a more “favorite in a messed up way” dynamic, I’ll say Bo and Dromeus (his grandfather). It always makes for interesting stories 😏
A headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that I disagree with:
I don’t think anyone has any headcanons about my boys 😅
I await the day my boys occupy other people’s brains rent free. sigh (/j)
The position they sleep in:
Bo’s like your Amy! He sleeps on his stomach with his upper half twisted to the side.
A crossover AU I’d love to see them in:
I’ve been daydreaming a Hadestown AU for him recently, though I doubt anything will come of it.
I just think it would be cool to see him as Eurydice and Ollie as Orpheus!
My favorite outfit they’ve ever worn:
Probably his classic look:
A soft black sweater, black ripped skinny jeans, black combat boots, a black choker necklace with a silver crow skull charm, various woven and stone bracelets on each wrist, and a couple black rings on each hand. With black nail polish, of course!
Thank you for the excuse to gush about my little necro-babe!❤️
An Analysis of God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We'd Feel Good On It by Michelle Ray
View the book and its details here
View more of Michelle Ray's pieces here
Something that always interests me in media is exploration of the lines between truth, reality, and fiction. I was originally drawn to this book because of its title, but I knew I was going to choose it for this paper when I read the author’s quote, “The enclosed account is partially true. It is also partially fabricated. But I assure you that all of it has been vigorously documented in a most honest manner” in the book’s description on Herron’s digital collection site (Herron Library). In her book God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It, Michelle Ray tells a story of ocean travel that is completely fictional and yet simultaneously the truth.
In an interview with Herringbone Bindery, Ray says that she grew up in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt near the Little Shenango river. She has a background in sailing and has built small sailboats herself. Before she began studying book arts, she received a Masters in Library and Informational Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh (Fletcher). Elements from these settings–rurality, nature, water, materiality, organization–are woven through all of her works.
While completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh, Ray was introduced to book arts by her sculpture professor, who noticed her interest in combining words, form, and kinetic elements. Ray studied book arts independently for years, including a year-long residency at Small Craft Advisory Press in 2012, before receiving a Book Arts MFA from University of Alabama in 2013 (Fletcher).
God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It was created in 2013 as part of Ray’s MFA while she was at the Small Craft Advisory Press residency (Fletcher). It was made in an edition of 50. The book itself consists of 11 7x3.5” pamphlets, throughout which the story is compiled, as well as a crew manifest that is 21x14” when unfolded. The papers are handmade cotton/abaca, French Construction, and Neena Environment, and the images and text were printed using photopolymer plates. The pamphlets and manifest are stored in a slip-and-slot envelope, which is itself stored in a compartment of a custom-made box. The box is 7x5.5x4.25” and is made from linen and basswood. Alongside the compartment for the envelope is an open, fixed tunnel book. All of these details are from Ray’s page on Vamp & Tramp Booksellers’ website.
The box is what introduces viewers to the story. The imagery incorporated into its design are present throughout the book itself: a whale skeleton stretching around the outside of the box, a sailboat on the box’s inside cover, a compartment that holds a fixed tunnel book depicting another sailboat at sea. At the center of the tunnel book, on the furthest back layer, is a whale (as if hidden in the waves below the sailboat) and the quote “Some things you cannot explain because they are too simple,” which is attributed to Bernard Moitessier (Ray).
By introducing readers to her story with the above quote, Ray implies that the following story will speak for itself; there will be no explanation surrounding why she wrote the anecdotes that she did. The readers will simply have to trust what they feel in order to know the truth of what she says. This idea is continued on an inside flap of the envelope in which the book’s pamphlets are held: Ray writes, “I ask you, dear reader of this fine story, for complete suspension of disbelief–as no truer account of ocean going has ever been created” (Ray). This quote is the thesis statement of the entire book, which encapsulates the feeling of an ocean voyage. Despite the anecdotes that make up the book being fiction, the emotions and sensations that Ray portrays are the “truth” of what it is like to be on the sea.
The envelope in which the book’s pamphlets are held acts as the book’s colophon. Besides Ray’s ask to the readers, two other inside flaps contain information: one shows the method by which the pamphlets were folded and another provides more information about Moitessier, the man quoted in the tunnel book. Ray explains how he would have won the first around-the-world solo sailing competition had he not changed course in the final stretch and continued sailing instead. He tossed a note onto the deck of a passing ship, in which he explained, “I am happy at sea, and perhaps because I want to save my soul” (Ray). The colophon’s paragraph about Moitessier provides context for why Ray chose his quote for the tunnel book. By adding his reasoning for continuing at sea, Ray also begins a through-line that goes through the entire story: the ocean provides men with contentment and a desire for something greater than themselves.
Additionally, the bottom panel of the envelope upon which the papers of the book rest contains traditional colophon information–where the book was created, the materials used to create it, and what number of the edition this copy is (28/50). It also has a continued artist statement:
My dear reader, while residing in the Deep South, I undertook a most wondrous imaginary adventure. The journey began with time spent aboard a cardboard boat on the linoleum headwaters of my apartment and led to points unknown. It started as cathartic play, it became this object.
The enclosed account is partially true. It is also partially fabricated. But I assure you that all of it has been vigorously documented in a most honest manner. (Ray)
Ray explains that the story told within God Created the Sea has originated from her imagination, but this does not mean it is an untrue account of the sea. Although the anecdotes she writes are both factual and fiction (it is never designated which are which, leaving the reader to decide for themself), the story she tells is a completely true (in the feelings it inspires) depiction of an ocean voyage.
God Created the Sea is told by an unnamed narrator (who is distinct from Ray). It recounts the experiences of a crew sailing aboard the ship The Ortolan. Although the same characters and events are referenced throughout the book, the anecdotes that make up the story are told non-linearly. The book also does not have a clear plotline; instead, Ray provides the readers with a collection of experiences that, when put together, give the sense of a tumultuous ocean voyage. Ray imitates the ever-changing, unpredictable state of the ocean in the non-linear way she organizes these anecdotes. She supplements them with footnotes that reference sailing legends, ocean phenomena, and other oceanic stories (such as Moby Dick), building a story that weaves fiction with reality in a way that creates an account that feels authentic. It is not the actual facts of the story that matter but rather how it feels to experience it.
Physically, the book is not a traditionally bound codex; instead, it is made up of 11 separate pamphlets and one crew manifest. The pamphlets are made from two pieces of paper accordion folded with four panels to a side. These pages were then sewn together at the valleys, which creates a diamond shape in the center when fully opened. All the pamphlets have text and/or imagery on both sides. Sometimes the anecdote on one side of the pamphlet is related to the anecdote or imagery on the other side of the pamphlet, but not always. Oftentimes, the leftmost and rightmost panels on a side have footnotes that provide more information or context about the anecdote(s) on the middle two panels.
Additionally, all of the pamphlets are oriented horizontally (if the paper is laid flat), but some are laid in the envelope so that the reader has to rotate or flip the paper in order to read the text or properly see the images. The footnotes on the outer panels are written parallel to the long side of the panel, requiring the viewer to orient the pamphlet vertically (if the paper is laid flat) in order to read the text. Assuming all the pamphlets were organized in the envelope as the author intended (as opposed to careless previous readers), the fact that the viewer has to rotate or flip the pamphlets so much in order to get the complete story implies the constantly shifting nature of the sea, which adds to Ray’s greater narrative about an ocean voyage.Overall, I greatly enjoyed God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It. Ray explores the lines between a factual story and a story that is true in all aspects of the book: the non-linear narrative, the purposefully (I am assuming) disordered pages, the chosen references and images. When everything is brought together, it tells a story that may not have happened but is nonetheless a truthful account of travelling the sea.
