Just Some Things #10 : Jack Connell.

This is the latest instalment in my feature Just Some Things!

In case you don't know, here's how it works...

I send a writer an individual email with a series of prompts from the '642 Things to Write About' book – chosen entirely at random most of the time – and then when I get the responses, I dedicate a post to them and their piece. It could be short, long, backwards, in another language, I don't mind. It'll be an adventure whatever happens! And they can use or ignore however many of the prompts they wish.

(Image by Kayleigh Causton Illustration)

When published on the blog, their piece will be put in first and then I'll add in a little piece beneath it, my response to the same prompt. I will always ensure mine is shorter and less prominent, obviously. It's all about featuring my fave writers.

This post features the wonderful Jack Connell, a dear friend of mine since the early days of uni, when we could be found on our laptops in the depths of St Lizzie's halls; he is currently a learning support assistant at Peter Symonds College as well as a freelance proof reader, in possession of a BA and MA in Creative Writing, and his latest creative project takes flight in January 2017 (link below). 

His prompt was: List 3 people you consider enemies. Why?

And he has chosen to write as Tiresias, his character in the upcoming webseries '314 Olympia Way'.

1) Athena.

It’s appropriate her sigil is the owl, because owls only look smart. I worked at a bird sanctuary in high school, and they were right bastards to train. Their brains spend so much time controlling their optic nerves that you can’t even tell them to fly back. Imagine, all that processing power doing only one thing. With owls, it’s finding prey at night. With Athena, it’s finding new ways to get on my tits.

This isn’t me being catty. Not entirely, anyway. I know a few of her housemates well enough to go drinking socially with them a couple of times, but Athena’s the only one of them that does sports. Her blood is 90% Wetherspoons pitcher. Neither one of us would back down. I ended up - quite literally - blind stinking drunk.

The hangover evolved into a migraine, evolved into a white dwarf right in the centre of my head. I couldn’t see properly for six hours. I had to go defend my thesis and secure my funding the next day. Just about blagged it. Either Athena knew about that (so she’s a malicious harpy) or she didn’t (so she’s an idiot). It doesn’t matter. She’s chosen to roost in my library, and damned if I’m going to make things easy for her. Reap the whirlwind, darling.

2) Hera.

Don’t mean to be shady here, but with Hera, sometimes her enemies and her friends are the same people. I genuinely don’t think she can form a meaningful relationship any other way. Her and Zeus are practically Sid and Nancy, if Sid could shoot lightning out of his arse. Conflict drives her, and brings out the best in her.

I say this as a full-fledged frenemy, and as her student mentor/occasional bit on the side. Some of our best interactions are us sniping at each other over the barricade. If we started a country, throwing shade would be the

national sport. Bonds are made through the caustic fire of her wit. She’s a complete moral vacuum and her boyfriend’s done unspeakable things to my property, but you couldn’t ask for a better frenemy.

3) My stepbrother.

No, a PhD in folklore doesn’t make me a doctor on a “technicality”. It makes me a Doctor. It’s a proper noun for a reason, you shit. 

Jack's Twitter : Instagram : Blog.

+ 314 Olympia Way.

Now, here is my response to the same prompt...

1. Me. 

2. My ex-friends, who all know these things I shared with them in the utmost confidence and comfort, who now have ammo and blackmail material and that terrifies me, tbh. I know they wouldn't use it, I know they wouldn't, they were once lovely friends and kind people, however the former has changed I can only hope the latter has not.

No, wait. In fact, I don't even care that much about what they know and could use against me. It's not even that bad. It's more the me they knew, her favourite songs and the guys she fancied and what she liked to eat and what she would say in certain situations; the secrets she shared that won't mean much to anyone else but meant a ton to me, and to her friends. I don't know...it's like when we stopped being friends, they took something away. A little sliver of me.

I'll say ex-boyfriends are enemies, to an extent. But ex-friends just as much. They all had some of me invested in them, in their lives. Most of them saw me naked, physically and emotionally. Now, I can only hope they forget.

3. Me.