yuletide_coal | Coalclaw Adventures

Coalies, I haven't seen this brought up yet, but...someone wrote AlexSeanchai's terrible Greek Mythology with agender Athena combined with a coffeeshop AU prompt, and it is gloriously, bizarrely weird. I might just be being thick tonight, but I can't tell if it's serious.

All the arachnids in the shop decided they'd tempted fate long enough and left while Athena was giving a back loom weaving demonstration.

Athena had been wanting to say it for some time. "I'm not a dude or a girl. I've recently come out to my family as agender."

Olive-Green-Sweats-and-Black-Dykes-To-Watch-Out-For-T-Shirt (though Ogsabdtwofts was going to be awkward as proto-names went) ran around the curve of the hill. Ogsabdtwofts stopped on the trail. Ogsabdtwofts was holding a bow with a very wicked looking arrow what-you-call-it cocked on the string.

"Uh, hi," said Ngalyod, and made a little bit of a leap, but hopefully not an offensive one. "Down with the kyriarchy."

"The antithesis of sweet could describe any number of my siblings," said Athena. Xie wanted to put on xiers armor, but xie was already wearing it. It was always there, implied by the layers of clothes and the long skirt that brushed the floor.

Oh man, I remember that god-awful request.

I skimmed through the fic a bit, with all its "hum" and "hu" and... it's a joke, right? It's making fun of it all, right? Except then you read the comments and it seems like that's not the case at all O_o

ayrt

I thought it was a joke, but the comments are taking it seriously. Including AlexSeanchai who is completely devoid of a sense of humor, who not only liked it but promised to comment more, when she's usually a one word "nice" or "thanks" type.

sa

*they not she

Link to the request and/or fic?

aayrt

Sorry, I completely forgot. http://archiveofourown.org/works/5463812

Letter link: http://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/1056253.html

More choice extracts:

"Gah!" Ngalyod made emphatic gestures at the caring universe. "Could one of Athena's family members manage not to be heteronormative?"

They'd signed the lease on the anniversary of the Hindenburg Exploding.

Ngalyod put some digeridoo music on the portable speakers. Nothing set the mood like Digeridoo.

It's clearly meant to be funny, but that doesn't mean it was written in bad faith, and it's glorious.

ayrt

It is probably the funniest thing I've read in Yuletide so far. I am questioning the lack of bad faith statement though. AlexSeanchai is pretty clear that they actually believe Athena is real and asks for respect for that belief.

And is it disrespectful? I mean...I'm trying to think how someone who doesn't share that belief could fill the prompt to the letter in any other way, frankly.

ayrt

I think it's not come across as disrespectful to AlexSeanchai, but that's partly because I doubt they see anything ludicrous in the fic. Athena probably comes off best in it, so you might be right about the lack of disrespect.

NA

I'm expecting the author to be a sock or lol_meme's account. This fill is so over the top that it's fun for people to laugh at and think it's making fun of all the caricatures therein and then you get the added 'bonus' of laughing at AS who loves it all unironically and ate it up with a spoon. If it's written by either then I think the point is for everyone else to giggle while AS is standing on the other side of the line shouting "preach!!" and then we laugh at them too.

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AS is genderqueer, uses they/their pronouns, is this much of a wet blanket with SOCIAL JUSTICE written all over them, is a pagan who believes in the Greek set of gods, is all about SOCIAL JUSTICE and the list goes on. I haven't read the fic beyond the snippets posted here but it reads entirely as something AS wants wholeheartedly. The fic sounds crazy but it suits AS to a tee.

Used to be EllieMurasaki before she decided that was culturally appropriative and evil of her.

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Never heard of this person till now. Damn, they're embarrassing.

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This sounds like Thomas fucking Pynchon writing very drunk.

+1 Excellent description! Only I'm thinking shrooms, rather than alcohol.

I think its pretty awesome, whether taken completely seriously or not.

i had to back out of this because labelling _anything_ as 'Australian Mythology' is so hugely problematic it caused my brain to collapse and i was a whimpering mess of 'what the blazes'

This sounds like a parody comment all on its own.

lol +1

da

lol no "european mythology" would be ridic too

sorry but

is so hugely problematic it caused my brain to collapse and i was a whimpering mess of 'what the blazes'

stop.

da

Totally, as would 'American Mythology'. It just... makes no sense at all.

+ 1 for Postcolonialism American Mythology.

But Native American Mythology exists even if it is ignored.

But, just like "Australian Mythology", aren't there quite a few separate Native American cultures with different mythologies? That was the point of OP's comment, right?