If plants I'd planted turned out to bear weapons and yell and chop at things, I would call that monstrous. (I don't know why they attacked each other instead of Cadmus; and while there is the overall positive outcome of founding Greece, I think there's plenty of potential for ugly subtext in the course of the story.)

And then there is the hydra, with the whole "cut off one head, and get two back!" I think they could only be worse if each decapitated head grew a whole new body, so by the end you were fighting 100 hydras. Actually, I am sure a video game somewhere has created just such a scenario.

Nutty, I do remember reading the hydra myth at about aged 12 or so, and wondering "Why didn't they just get flamethrowers?"

Man, I love metaphors, even when they bite my arse.

....and 9 hours later, I finally follow through on my promise of a new topic:

Challenge #50 (describe someone through the contents of their desk/wallet/etc.) is now closed.

Challenge #51 is 2 simple words, on a not-so-simple topic: heaven and hell.

t edit You don't necessarily need to take the "and" literally -- it could also be "heaven OR hell." As always, up to all y'all.

Oh, jebus, Tep. You're trying to kill me...

Okay, very deep breath. This one is very hard to write.
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Heaven is the gentleness. The security. The way he rocks me. It is, "Quit your job. Follow your dreams. I'm here," and "Go to sleep, baby," at 2AM, face still wet from nightmare tears. Heaven is knowing I never have to doubt or distrust or second-guess.

Hell is 200 days a year by myself. Never having a date to a wedding. Loneliness. It is, "So where is he this week?" and not knowing the answer. It is sleeping diagonally in the bed and listing my mother as my first emergency contact. Hell is knowing the heaven may not be enough.

Kristin. So powerful. I literally gulped, trying to respond.

Thanks Cindy. I'm crying a little, to tell you the truth. Needed to be written, though.

Kristin, I know. Deep breath of my own, over here, recovering one of the more important memories I'd misplaced, that first time together, that first kiss:

Bliss/Burn

The lock of eyes, binding, yours to mine. This moment is inevitable; you knew it before I did, because you saw me first.

Recognition takes me hostage, places me at your side, in your arms, in your bed, places you in me. I'm seventeen. Lip belly breast and speaking souls, this is the best heaven holds. My tongue samples your scarred places, trying to take your damage as my own. Heaven is all about strength shared.

Later, as you sleep, I stare at the walls of a bedroom that will never be fully mine, a man I somehow know I'm not meant to save or keep.

Hell? Is all about being lost.

FYI: I made one small amendment to the challenge, and so peoples don't have to scroll back, here it is:

You don't necessarily need to take the "and" literally -- it could also be "heaven OR hell." As always, up to all y'all.

Kristin, Deb -- those are so. fucking. powerful.

Wow. Kristin, Deb, way to start off. Both of those gave me a lump in my throat.

Beautifully, honestly written, both of them.