Date: September 13 2023 1:36 AM Title: When Life Gives You Lemons
Interesting story. I haven’t read one of yours in a while, but I can see the quality is amazing as ever. Especially with the social media graphics.
Author's Response:
The fake social media graphics just work well with the garter lamia stories I think
[Report This]Date: September 06 2023 5:06 AM Title: When Life Gives You Lemons
Okay, I think Rusty Shackleford is my favorite reference used in any of your stories. And the fact that he has no profile picture is absolutely perfect! It'll be harder for the government to track him down that way.
The social media graphics for this are awesome, by the way. They look really good, and the back and forth between the posters is hilarious.
I find the relationship between Penelope and Lemon to be pretty intriguing. Lemon sees Penelope as her best friend, and I think Penelope wants to feel the same way about Lemon but is getting in her own way. More specifically, that garter lamia book is getting in the way. Of course, letting a book tell you how to socially interact with someone is always a bad idea, but I can understand why Penelope relies on it. She cares about Lemon as a person, but the garter lamia being sold as a pet and being ignorant of the human world has led Penelope to lean on the guide, convincing herself that it's the best way to help her little friend acclimate to this new world.
But the book has Penelope treating Lemon as a child rather than a friend. She even tells Lemon that she's "in trouble" before going off to find an antidote for Callum. It's true that Lemon still has a lot to learn about the human world, but I don't think trying to keep her in the terrarium is the right way to fix that. Also, simply trying to keep Lemon away from sites like Snekked.com has only kept Penelope ignorant about Lemon's desire to shrink a human. She straight-up told Samantha that Lemon had no interest in that stuff, which is clearly not the case. Honestly, just having a few open conversations about stuff like that would help Lemon understand what's cool to do and what's not.
I'm not even sure that Penelope made it clear that the problem here was that Lemon was going to digest a human in general and not just that it was Penelope's brother or that the whole thing was a misunderstanding. I guess she kind of did when she mentioned calling the police or her on that tablet, but I don't think that was enough to really hit the point home. Open communication is key, and I don't think that's what's happening here. Maybe Callum can help with that.
Speaking of Callum, I can't really blame him for thinking Lemon was role playing, as odd as it is to jump right into something like that with a total stranger. After all, he probably assumed his sister had clued Lemon in on the change or even that he was coming at all, for that matter.
I also like that he seems to be the most casual around Lemon. His time on Snekked.com seems to have given him more insight into Lamias than Penelope's book. Then again, he just seems more laid back than Penelope in general, so maybe that has something to do with it?
Him being into Lemon's video with the plastic doll a nice touch as well. Nobody online really cared since it wasn't a real human, but it was doing it for him. It's the first sign that he's attracted to Lemon (and that's before he even met her), and it sets up their "interaction" later on pretty well.
As for Lemon, it was pretty interesting to see her reflect on garter lamias' status as pets. Like Penelope, I would assume that actual people would have issues with being sold as pets, but it was pretty cool to learn that the little lamias are more or less volunteering in order to get to the human world. I would think that would be a pretty big gamble, given that some "owners" are going to be less understanding than others, but it's nice that Lemon went home with a decent person who understands that Lemon is a person, too.
Anyway, I'm sure the next week (or is it two?) will be uneventful and boring for Callum, with nothing interesting happening to him at all.
Author's Response:
As far as the setting itself it's one where magical creatures and the like are common, the first one of these I wrote kind of hinted that when the Garter Lamia started popping up in stores people didn't realize they were sentient until they got them home. The Lamia themselves are obviously pretty clever and view the whole thing as a roundabout form of immigration, sort of. I try to keep the garter lamia stories fairly lighthearted and upbeat, but I imagine that anyone who doesn't treat their garter lamia well will see her escape easily, or worse yet engage in the usual shrinking plot ending with a one way trip to her belly. You can certainly tell from the web posts which Lamia have been in the human world longer than others, I imagine there are some that have jobs, pay taxes, and even vote when they're tired of the whole "pet" thing. Still they're very anime inspired, they get crushes on young men easily and probably stick to "master" for life and keep calling him that even when he insists they shouldn't.
Anyway yes I imagine Callum will decide to take that college transfer and move near his sister and her lamia after his eventful week, because of their fine academic programs of course.
[Report This]Date: September 05 2023 4:46 AM Title: When Life Gives You Lemons
Favorite series on this site by FAR and they just keep getting better!
Author's Response:
Thanks! There's something about being shrunk to tiny size around someone who's already tiny that just does it, huh?
[Report This]Date: September 05 2023 1:47 AM Title: When Life Gives You Lemons
Fun story. I love how Lemon decided to use Callum for her video. The way she teased him before swallowing him. I wonder what Penelope would think if she saw her brother hitting it off with her lamia.
Author's Response: I imagine Penelope is already a little frazzled by the whole thing, but eventually she'd be like "oh I should have known, you always were into weird stuff!"