With Wafting Music

AKA: AKAM80's Author Page

One wrong turn and suddenly...

A green field framed by a thick tree line, only one clear trail leading into it, at the head of which you stand. Sitting in the center is a small, worn playground that rests on a circle of mulch. A large black walnut tree sprouts out from the middle, rising up high and reaching out so widely that the whole playground is dimmed by its shade.

As you walk closer to the little playground, passing an old swing set, and stepping onto the mulch meant to keep falling children from getting too hurt— though no children have been here in decades— you take note of the wood it's comprised of: old, dark brown planks that seem on the brink of beginning to rot, but that never pass the threshold..

From an open window with a wind chime hanging off of its sill, cut into the house-esque portion of the playground, music quietly spills out, filling in the gaps between the breeze whistling in your ears and complete silence.

You consider the ladder for a moment, before feeling drawn to the climbing wall, a wall of the dark wood with planks jutting out symmetrically. It creaks under your weight but you find you aren't concerned, much to your own surprise.

Having arrived at the top, you lean into the play house and see a young man sitting crisscross in a corner, a nearby speaker the source of the music. He sits hunched over a small desk sitting in his lap, writing fervently on a piece of loose-leaf paper. He's so engrossed in the task that he doesn't notice you peeking in.

You gently clear your throat, trying your best to not spook him, but he nonetheless jolts up and stares at you with wide eyes. No longer hunched over, you can see that he's a bit of a mess. His shirt is crumpled up, his hair is greasy and uncombed, and he hasn't shaved in a few weeks. The man quickly composes himself, trying to straighten out his shirt, hands running over an ugly tie.

"Sorry, didn't see you there," he says as he stands up, walking over and reaching out his hand to shake. "I'm Linus. Good to meet you. Don't see people out here all too often." You politely shake his hand, trying to ignore the sweat on it.

Linus walks back to his corner, sliding down the wall onto the floor. "Welcome to my little corner of the world! I don't leave here all that much so you'll have to forgive my, uh," he looks down at the floor and picks up a walnut, "Hospitality, I suppose. Mostly just spend my time here writing whatever comes to mind." He points to the opposite corner where a stack of loose-leaf papers sit, a rock weighing them down. "Feel free to stay as long as you want."

You move to the pile of loose-leaf papers and begin shuffling through the writings. The rough chicken scratch is all in pen, mistakes scribbled out and littered with smudges.

Linus continues to fiddle with the walnut, seemingly oblivious to your presence once more (or maybe avoiding it?)

Assorted Works

Some of the works you see barely take up half the page, others are multiple pages (front and back) that are stapled together.

These are listed in order of creation, oldest to newest.

The Rat King	From below, inhuman charisma dripping from his lips, he calls.
Logos, Ethos, Pathos	In the aftermath of an accident, three debate what it all meant and what it'll mean.
I'm Afraid I'll Miss It	There's nothing to worry about.
Notes Plucked to Hum, Heart Plucked too	The few that stick with you in perpetuity. — Debate Club 2023 Entry (Team Rare)
Editor's Second Choice	"We needed to meet a minimum."
Reverence/Revulsion	O holy rabble, we art ensnared. — Serpentine Sorting System 2023: TitanClash LIVE entry
Corrigendum	The author wishes to make a correction.
Phreaked Out	Doing LSD and making free long-distance calls.
Cartesian Dualism	Two parallel tales, held side by side. Humans don't change, only their tools.
In Their Wake	Misery, nothing else to be had. — Co-authored with Vishardsh, Serpentine Sorting System 2023: Titan Clash LIVE entry
Little Trouble in the Big Library	Missing: Pork 'n' Beans! — Yule Tide gift for Dino--Draws.
Linus Daglen is a Hack	A tussle with self-doubt.
As We Dance	An intricate number performed to the tune of woe. — The Journal of the Walk entry
Noccalula	She will never land.
Presque Vu	Faded memories, stuck to the detritus. — ComboCon 2024 Entry, Leftover + Hideaway
Four Flush	A descent into Hinnom. — An entry into the Ironband canon and Owlpede's Summer Shebang

Folder Labeled "Adrift"

Sitting in the pile of papers is a manila folder with the word "Adrift" scrawled on the front, filled with its own collection of sheets.

These are listed in the intended reading order.

ENTRY-1	Intracranial Snowfall	Wit's end.
ENTRY-2	Tizita All the Way Down	Haunted by the past.
ENTRY-3	Casus Belli	The beginning of the end.

A trophy case that's mostly empty, save for dust...

Trophy Case

Rounderhouse has only voted on one of my pieces. It was a -1.

"It's an odd duck. I see what you're going for, and it's an interesting angle, but ultimately I find myself of a mind with uncanny — except I'm not quite so fond of pure-vibes articles. I just… Hm. I think that the translation of what music makes us feel to words is certainly a noble and interesting take on the theme, but it's also a very uphill battle, by nature of what you're trying to do. For most of the article I felt more confused than anything, the experience and emotion just didn't come across to me the way it felt like it was supposed to."

— Rounderhouse on Notes Plucked to Hum, Heart Plucked too

EDIT: Due to Presque Vu's existence and Rounderhouse's +1 vote on it, this trophy is now obsolete. However, it will remain here as a piece of history, to memorialize it.

Graciously listed in Stygian Blue's "Bookmarks Buffet."

"This is the first and only WL work — or any work, for that matter — thus far to set as a soldier in war that I have enjoyed, and boy did this suck me in like a shark down a whirlpool. This prose is dramatic and descriptive and evocative and wet with imagery, and this author's sense of senses beyond the eyes is simply gorgeous. The use of temperature and bodily strain are astounding here, too — heat and disease and grogginess and boredom and festering emotions not yet felt are splendid and kept beneath the sheet but felt so very clearly without needing to be told, like a porcupine sneaking into your bed at midnight. Only thing is that I would have liked to see a little more what-why and development of the augmentations of the narrator, but that's the tiniest nitpick in the world — a particular speck of dust in the great rock-gem swathes of Saturn's rings. This work tastes of fragrant canned fermented salmon jerky and it is a memory the tastebuds cannot live without."

— Stygian Blue on Reverence/Revulsion

Here's hoping he doesn't change his mind!

Accidentally copied another author while their series was still in progress.

Both Adrift and Ocular Haze/Ironband take place in a frozen, desolate wasteland on a rogue planet.

Whoops. Sorry Vishardsh.

Graciously featured in Scrambleking's "Wanderer's Library Author Spotlight" series.

Found here. Sorry for making you go on for so long, homie!

Entries that were a Monthly Feature.

• In Their Wake — December 2023, half of this honor belongs to Vishardsh.

A tattered composition notebook, the words: "THINGS I LIKE" is scrawled on the cover, beneath it: "Linus - 6th Grade"...

A Comprehensive List of References and Inspirations

The Rat King

• "Rat City" by Evolfo (inspired the concept)
• "Broken Hills" by Evolfo ("To cast myself out from my old home")
• Evolfo (the band) was named after the Shakespearean concept of "music is the food of love" (of love —> evol fo)

Logos, Ethos, Pathos

• Hamlet ("Infinite jest")

I'm Afraid I'll Miss It
N/A

Notes Plucked to Hum, Heart Plucked too

• Poem #1: "Interview With The Cosmo Cleaners" by Uranium Club
• Poem #2: "Sam Cherry's Last Shot" by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
• Poem #3: "The Pusher's Party" by Portugal. The Man
• Poem #4: "White Foam" by Evolfo
• The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain ("Like birdshot into the stomach.")

Editor's Second Choice

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams ("Betelgeuse") ((I know that's a real thing, but I was referencing THGttG.))
• Pinkerton & Friends by Steven Kellogg
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ("What Beatty Forgot to Tell You")

Tizita All the Way Down

• The band Sun Araw (the city Araw)
• "Man Is The Loneliest Animal" by Uranium Club (the city Mitla)
• "Linda's Gone" by The Black Angels (Linda)

Reverence/Revulsion

• "Motor Spirit" by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
• "Road Train" by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (the Australian crocodile kaiju Road Train)
• The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe (the American hyena kaiju Amontillado)
• The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving
• A Modest Proposal by Johnathan Swift
• Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Corrigendum
N/A

Intracranial Snowfall

• "Zuma Loop" by Evolfo (the city Zuma)
• Justified (my love for the character Dickie Bennett inspired Gait's limp)

Phreaked Out

• Mars Attacks! (alien language)

Cartesian Dualism

• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• "Moonchild" by King Crimson

In Their Wake (on my end)

• "In the Wake of Poseidon" by King Crimson
• The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving
• Justified
• Inferno by Dante Alighieri ("Malbolge", "JUDECCA")

Little Trouble in the Big Library

• "The Misadventures of Prissy Krissy" by Uranium Club ("Krissy")
• Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson ("Tracer Bullet")
• Asia by Asia
• In the Wake of Poseidon by King Crimson
• PetroDraconic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: an Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
• Pork 'n' Beans is based on my dog Willow :)

Linus Daglen is a Hack

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey ("Billy Bibbit" and "Martini")
• Stranger than Fiction
• The Stanley Parable
• Homestuck by Andrew Hussie
• Disco Elysium (by name, the outfit was coincidence as it's what I had on hand)
• A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. ("SUE PALL MALL 4 A BILLION $$$")
• Pearls Before Swine by Steven Pastis (Messing around with comic formatting, breaking out, breaking down, etc. etc. Plenty of comics do this, but Pearls Before Swine is what really introduced me to the concept.)

As We Dance

• "27 Questions" by black midi

Casus Belli

• "Marlene Dietrich" by black midi (the city Dietrich)
• "MI5" by Dinosaur 94 (the city MI-5)

Noccalula
N/A

Presque Vu

• "Where Do You Go to (My Lovely)" by Peter Sarstedt
• "Want to Be Free" and "Burn, Baby, Burn" by Sea Power
• "You Are the Blood" and "We Are the Wreckage" by Castanets
• All Them Naturals, The Cosmo Cleaners, "Introduction", and "Michael's Soliloquy" by Uranium Club (the company Sunbelt)
• Disco Elysium, Shivers

Four Flush

• Kaiji: Gambling Apocalypse by Nobuyuki Fukumoto
• Yakuza 0
• Training Day
• Inferno by Dante Alighieri
• Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number ("Richter")
• "Beginner's Luck" by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard ("… First-time drinks are free; so, even if you lose a few chips, it's still cheaper than going to the bar…")
• "John L" by black midi ("Fifty")
• "Rockaway Blues" by Shilpa Ray

You peel back the layers of fiction...

Howdy, I'm AKAM80 (or AKA-M80, depends on the platform), previously known as Papa Gelatin. I changed it because I thought the name was stupid and I found that the "papa" part of it could be a tad uncomfortable at times.

In reality, I'm a guy from Alabama, USA, currently studying Cyber Crime and writing for the hell of it because I need a creative outlet. I don't have the classical Southern accent, but my use of "ain't," "y'all," and some double negatives in casual conversation betrays my home turf.

Not sure what else to put here. Just felt that I needed a smattering of the real me outside of the intra-universe image/character/author or whatever you want to call it.

I got called a tortured artist once. Not sure how to feel about that.

+Translations