SurrealCachinnation

The Surreal Express

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Permission to Marry by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

Permission to Marry

“He keeps leaving his dirty boxers on the floor,” Samira complained. “I’m at my wit’s end. I know you raised him better than this. I’m not his mother.” Hillie stopped the recording and pursed her lips. “I told her my Joseph needed a Proverbs 31 woman,” she said. “Does she sound like a wife who does not eat the bread of idleness?” “I love her,” Joseph said flatly. “But does she work with eager hands?” Hillie asked with venom. “She’s a renowned surgeon—” “But does she work as eagerly at home?” Joseph sighed. “No, mother.” Hillie grinned. “Leave her.”

Forsaken by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

Forsaken

Demostrate knew our people were blessed; Poseidon preserved Atlantis, pulling it beneath the sea when Athens attacked. Atlanteans enjoyed the bounty offered by the water, the protection of our natural borders, and thousands of years of peace. We relied only on our god and each other; the world above was lost long ago, and it served them right. That was what the stories passed down by generations of elders said. But still, Demostrate gazed into the dark abyss of the water above her city every night, imagining what existed above the surface. Ruins or lost, primitive civilizations, there had to be something up there and it called to her explorer’s heart. When she came of age, she gathered a small band of explorers to embark on an expedition to the surface. No one had checked up there in a few centuries. The last time anyone ventured beyond Atlantean borders, they went missing and never came back. That was Charis, my ancestor’s sister. I felt somewhat responsible for Demosrate’s flights

Unmasked by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

Unmasked

“Shui, we’re on in ten!” Jazzmin shouted. “Shit, where’d it go?” Shui hissed as they frantically pulled things from their drawers. “Did you hear me, Shui? I said ten!” “Thank you, ten! Got a minute? I can’t find my mask.” Jazzmin peeked into the tent. “It’s not on your dresser?” “Not anymore, it’s not. But I never put it anywhere else.” “It was probably just the clowns. You know they love their pranks.” “Okay, sure, but I need it—how long do we have now?” “We should probably head over. I’m sure it’ll turn up, but we’ll make do. You know I’m a good improvisor! Just follow my lead like you always do and it’ll be fine.” “You are the best… Fine, let’s go.” The mask integral to their act; Shui would put it on, Jazzmin would say something clever to give them some inspiration, they’d change, then pull the mask off to reveal their new face to the crowd. But mask or no mask, the show must go on. “You think you know their face,” Jazzmin said, gesturing toward Shui. “It’s plastered

The Choice by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

The Choice

Neserya had prospered for fifty years, but the White Solstice was upon them once again. King Neirin remembered—as did all Neseryan elders—the horror they once witnessed as children, and the memory chilled him to the bone despite the fire roaring in the hearth. Snow fell softly outside. His Queen snuggled close to him under their bearskin blanket. They’d drunk their fill of cranberry wine. Any other year, it would have been the perfect evening. A thuddy knock on the door. “Your Majesty? It’s time.” Neirin looked at his love’s face. Freckles dotted her cheeks like sparks of fire, reminding him of the auburn hair she possessed in her youth. A stray eyelash rested on her cheek, which he gently brushed away. Liora stirred. Stretched, arching her back. Opened her eyes, amber and warm. Gazed at him lovingly—then frowned, eyes beginning to well up. “Oh, Neirin—” “I know. I’ve got you, my light,” Neirin said, holding her close. Liora had been young—younger than Neirin—at the time of the

Why I Can't Just Hit Unfriend by SurrealCachinnation, literature

A Rousing Fire by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Dawn by SurrealCachinnation, literature

The Things that Keep me Breathing by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

The Things that Keep me Breathing

Vast office windows and shady oak trees, soft ukulele tunes and the flow of black ink, an overcast day and a melancholy yet content feeling. The vintage bead necklace from India around my neck, the thought of learning one more language, and going back to Italy someday for more gelato. Being surrounded by the books I've hoarded and imagining I'll read them all eventually. Making to-do lists and checking things off, a collection of seashells, my late grandmother's quilts, and the knowledge that I get it all from her. The cat napping somewhere in the safe home I've provided to her so she probably doesn't even remember the street or the crowd

Charybdis by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

Charybdis

One perfect lie wells in your eye and drips unreservedly from its center like eye drops they give bad actors so they don't have to really cry. The day we met, I said you had ocean eyes: blue-gray and so full of salt they could burst. Now I see the utter stillness there that exists in the eye of a hurricane. The collective words you spout are alluring, a whirlpool attempting to reel me back in, each scripted apology a rip current pulling me farther from the shoreline I cling to. But I know they're just crocodile tears, and I won't let you pull me under again.

Chain-writer by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

Chain-writer

I go through pens like some people go through cigarettes, holding each between two fingers and wringing them for ink until they're spent and I'm back to Office Depot, at the register with another pack. Every time I un-cap a pen and watch words billow from it as I exhale all my migraines, all I can think about is how absolutely perfect this feels. When you're a chain-writer all you care about are those moments between poems or stories or whatever it is you write, when there is nothing else on earth but you and your 5-pack of pilots. I can quit whenever I want to, but I never want to quit.

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Anniversary by SurrealCachinnation, literature

An Old, Sweet Song by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

An Old, Sweet Song

My heart aches for scorching summer afternoons spent drinking lemonade in the shadow of the old house on the hill, draped in ivy and shade. I'd watch cars fly by: Pick-up trucks sporting Confederate flags and a lot of red clay and pollen, which would rumble across old railroad tracks on their way to churches whose steeples could pierce the stillness of the sky; SMART cars--the clean ones with stick figure families--taking 75-south ripping down the interstate, too important to admire the cornfields or sip sweet tea. Everyone was in a hurry to collect scattered souls for Jesus or to sit in miles of city traffic, each secretly addicted to th

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Leave Me My Name by Mxtress, literature

Literature

Leave Me My Name

I write my last name like a sigh of relief, almost prayer-like, as if it could change again without any forewarning. The way its letters flow from my pen is unlike before; it's less fluid, and my handwriting is a jumble of cursive and print with some letters clinging to others while others stand alone, statuesque in their autonomy, just as I wished to be. It's like I've forgotten how to spell it, even though it's been mine for most of my life, interrupted by that other name in which I once found peace because people didn't ask me every goddamn day if I had any connection to the country my family was named after (it's a long story, and I rea

Oviparity by Mxtress, literature

Literature

Oviparity

I. Four Months Incubation Nenan stared at the sterile, white incubator while the human scientist, Tam, drew a blood sample from her right arm. There were three to begin with after her mate fertilized them, and two were inviable. Inside that incubator was her final chance of seeing one of these offspring survive to neonate. Tam gently patted her arm as she withdrew the needle. "I know it's not the same, but I had trouble, too. Three miscarriages--that's what we call it when a human fetus dies before it can be born--and then finally, my little Juniper made it. He's six years old and healthy. I believe we can give your baby a chance, too." "It's not the same," Nenan said bitterly, "but thank you for your sympathy." How could any of these humans understand? Losing three little ones would be awful--especially for a species that can usually only have one at a time--but what was that compared to losing dozens before they were born? And it wasn't like Tam's experience was typical of

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the preoccupation of st. lament by gliitchlord, literature

Literature

the preoccupation of st. lament

knives eager, not-quite-spine tasting. curvature in goddess thirst flirts with betrayal of skin tension. already rasping in platelet tones, darling my aches are no unknowns, my patiences prone to dangerous roams. rain, be ancient and droning. wash this clamor from bastard canals with no preciousness. i am exigent, meager, not close to comfort nor correction. did i mention the relent of my bled lips? said this in blank verse to match my stare. puncture now while i am elsewhere.

The Difference Between Snakes and Ropes by Nichrysalis, literature

Literature

The Difference Between Snakes and Ropes

Last night there was a woman where my girl was and she said to me, “This. That’s what he did.” A woman isn’t born vulnerable, but vulnerability is a part of personhood and being self-aware of insecurities is more vividly human than vibrancy; more sexy than secrecy. I’d compose her movement to music or pen it on paper, proffer it as poetry and profess confessions as love but I’d rather be on standby— even as passerby— because I ache and I ache all the time now, for her. For her I am sore and unstomachable and nurse wounds that aren’t mine. For her, I worry. I worry and I tighten knots

The Dream Formula by Peterix, journal

The Dream Formula

Nov 30, 2015

Lately I’ve thought a lot about dreams. Dreamers get a lot of crap. Get called naïve, lazy, having the head in the clouds and not being in touch with reality. That last bit is sort of half-true. Being a dreamer, I always see reality as a work in progress. There are always things that need to be changed, added or improved. I think those who see dreamers in a negative way are non-dreamers that live under two delusions: 1. That everything around us has always been there, and popped into existence unaided, like a virgin birth. 2. That dreamers are lazy slackers that imagine that they can change the world, sleep ‘til noon, a

The Big Deal by DamonWakes, literature

Literature

The Big Deal

It's funny how things change. I distinctly remember being impressed by teletext—being able to conjure news and weather information onto my big, chunky CRT TV at the press of a button—not realising that within a few years nearly everyone in the country would carry a device in their pocket that gave them access to the combined knowledge of nearly everyone in the world. And when I worked that job, selling these marvellous devices second hand—typically for less than the cost of a ticket to somewhere with better job prospects—little did I realise what would come next. VR was a big deal at the time. AR would have

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An Old, Sweet Song by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

An Old, Sweet Song

SurrealCachinnation

Deviation Spotlight

Lingerie by SurrealCachinnation, literature

Literature

Lingerie

Every woman owns one garment that remains tucked away, saved for special occasions when it will be seen. It is almost always midnight black, or blood red, and covered in lace, or made of mesh, soft and delicate as the skin it covers. Such things should be hidden, lest the owner be labeled as something other than "lady." It has a power we can't control, one that transforms denim and cotton clad ragdolls into Barbies, perfectly proportioned plastic, smooth and flawless hourglasses that turn on command. We groan and flinch as satin strings pull us apart and together, and heartstrings are plucked as we scrutinize our reflection; we are not

Lingerie

SurrealCachinnation

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About SurrealCachinnation

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Artist // Literature

Oct 2
United States
Deviant for 12 years
They / Them

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My Bio

Hi, I'm Kaelyn. I'm a queer, nonbinary/trans creator. My pronouns are they/them.

Image description: SurrealCachinnation at Machu Picchu, Peru. They are wearing a yellow T-shirt, a gray, plaid flannel shirt, a black windbreaker, a black baseball cap, and their transition lens glasses are tinted dark gray. It's overcast with swirling white clouds pouring over the mountains, and the site is visible behind them on a hill.

I've been moving away from thinking of myself exclusively as a writer and as more of a general artist. Writing is my main medium, but I've found that the more I try to fit myself neatly into a label, the less satisfied I am with it.

My work has included everything from fiction, to poetry, to scripts, to essays. I'm interested in trying my hand at podcasting and making videos. I've done some visual art, but only dabbling, really. My proudest accomplishment is having one of my best friends ask me to draw her a bouquet of wildflowers for a tattoo. Lately, I'm mostly making decorations for my very beige apartment.

In general, I'm an adventurous soul. I crave novel experiences. I cry a lot with little provocation. I love to cook, but not as much as I love to eat. I love science. I want more tattoos. I'm an extremely burned out former gifted kid. I'm basically a walking shitpost. I'd like to become a professor someday. Mental illness makes it hard, but I try not to live in the past. I strive to be more authentically me every day, and I try to live as loudly as possible so people like me know they're not alone.

I pretty much grew up on this site, from early teens through young adulthood. I'm ~30 now and boy howdy do I feel old thinking about what a wild ride it's been so far, and I know I have so much more ahead of me.

Favourite Visual Artist

I love Frida Kahlo and I love street art

Favourite Movies

Like Water for Chocolate has been my #1 for a while

Favourite TV Shows

Sense8 is it, it's perfect

Favourite Bands / Musical Artists

My taste is pretty eclectic... lots of punk rock lately, though

Favourite Books

I've been pretty into nonfiction lately; anything social justice oriented

Favourite Writers

Ursula K. LeGuin, Neil Gaiman, Andrea Gibson, Audre Lorde

Favourite Games

Undertale, and anything made by Dontnod or Quantic Dream

Favourite Gaming Platform

PC, but I also game on PS4 and Switch

Tools of the Trade

Mechanical keyboard, PC I built myself, my weird ass brain, and hot tea

Other Interests

Psychology, languages, hiking, traveling, social justice

Posts

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SurrealCachinnation

Jun 30, 2021

Flash Fiction Month 2021

3 min read

It's that time again. This year, I'm going to try to complete 31 days of flash fiction writing madness, and I'm taking on an additional challenge posted by @The-Inkling on the FFM Discord server: Every day, I will use a different (randomly selected) archetype from this list as a springboard to create my story's protagonist: https://screencraft.org/2018/07/09/99-archetypes-and-stock-characters-screenwriters-can-mold/ I'm gonna list them below, numbered, to make things easier for me; the linked article has descriptions of each archetype. As they're used, I will also add links to the relevant stories. I also recognize that some of these archetypes are often used in problematic ways (e.g., Blind Seer, Mentally or Socially Disabled). If I draw them, I'll see about doing something to subvert the tropes that come with them. Some of them are also explicitly *not* protagonists, usually, so it'll be fun to work with those if they come up. I have some ideas from going down the list, but

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SurrealCachinnation

Jun 29, 2021

I'm BACK holy shit!

3 min read

Y'all. Y'ALL. If anyone still watches this account. I know a lot of folks have moved on. I lost access for a while and finally got it back (huge, huge, thanks to dA's help desk). I'd been posting a bit on @mxtress. Head over there if you want to see some recent lit by me. I'll be figuring out what to do about having two accounts now, how to merge and such, and spring cleaning this account. ANYWAYS I HAVE SO MANY LIFE UPDATES SO BUCKLE UP. I got a divorce, which I have a lot of feelings about, but that was a few years ago and I'm on to bigger and better things so I don't wanna focus on it, except as general writing fodder on occasion. I came out--I'm nonbinary, and my pronouns are they/them, and I'm GAY and that probably doesn't surprise many people at all, it was kind of obvious in retrospect. HAPPY FREAKING PRIDE. I finished college, which I had just started when I last posted! I have a B.S. in Psychology, a B.A. in Modern Language & Culture, and a minor in Latin American/Latinx

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SurrealCachinnation

Jul 30, 2016

Summer, Plans, and Inspiration

0 min read

I can't believe that July is almost over. I can't believe that it will be August in two days. I can't believe that I'm going back to college in a couple weeks. And most of all, I can't believe how happy I've been. I've submitted two poems this week (one a couple of days ago, the other just a moment ago) and I'm working on more writing.  Both poetry and prose, and I have a big, long-term project planned that I'll talk about pretty soon.  Like, it's huge.  It will probably take at least a couple of years.  And it will keep me active on dA while I work on it, because I will be submitting a large quantity of things and I will want feedback.

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Profile Comments 781

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Thank You for

Sure thing! I'd recently followed you on my other account Mxtress and figured I'd follow you on my old main one now that I successfully recovered it. Am enjoying your work! :D

barefootliam

Jun 30, 2021

Aha now i understand - thank you!

Mxtress

Sep 11, 2018

Welp. Here we go again.

HI Y'ALL, IT'S ME, KAELYN!

I lost access to this account and can't get it back because, holy frig, dA's security questions are THOROUGH.

As I put in the bio for my new account, the new account actually honestly feels right, anyway. The last couple years of my life have been a fucking TRIP, but I'm stronger than ever. 2016 was the worst year of my life. And the best. It's a long story that I haven't shared on here because as it was happening, I struggled to find the words. TL;DR, the person I was in a relationship with when I last posted was an abusive piece of shit, and also, I'm queer and trans. Yay!

If you want to verify this is actually me before you follow/friend me, feel free to shoot me a note and ask me questions. I may reach out to a few individuals soon, but if I don't, please don't assume I don't want to talk to you--I'm a little overwhelmed by the prospect of trying to find everyone and I also don't want to make any assumptions about who does or doesn't want to get back in touch. If you've supported my artistic and personal journey at all in the decade-ish I've been on this site (over several different accounts, because I'm a mess), THANK YOU, you mean a lot to me, and please know that I'm legitimately doing worlds better now than I was two years ago.

- Kae/Kaelyn

SurrealCachinnation

Jun 29, 2021

Endorsed! Just got access to my account again. :)

IncaDincaDoo

Oct 3, 2017

Hey there. Happy Birthday!

Larathain

Oct 3, 2016

Happy birthday! May it be a day of perfect weather and joyful bliss! One you'll enjoy to often offer reminisce.