The Okal Rel Universe has inspired many beautiful, curious, fun and touching moments, objects and re-mixes or interpretations over the years. This page celebrates them one by one. Found one that should be here? Tell us about it for the finder's reward of the month. Send your discovery to lynda@okalrel.org
Mel Farrow shared this poem in 2010. Di Mon is her favorite character, and although he dies between books 3 and 4, his spirit haunts the series from beginning to end. She wrote this as a tribute to his relationship with Ranar. It's written from Di Mon's point of view. Mel is also an author in Opus 4.
It's Disgusting How I Love You
by Mel Farrow
But the bitter end's always on my mind, always in my sight.
I can say that I really want to stay,
But the devil inside always wins the fight, always gets his way.
Jump in a rel ship, gotta get out of Monitum,
Think things have been getting too attached, I need an escape.
I'm seeing stars and there is nothing more that I hate, Reetion.
There is something that I gotta say.
It's disgusting, how I love you.
God, I hate me. I should kill you.
Cause your messing up my name.
Gotta walk my talk my fame, but I just want to touch your face.
It's disgusting.
It's disgusting, how you changed me.
From a highborn to a baby.
Thinking about gotta change my name,
If I'm gonna walk this walk of shame.
Look at what you do to me.
It's disgusting.
My mind blinks like a flashing floor.
It's green and blue and flash and glow. Changing all the time.
And it makes me scared, that I haven't learned.
That it's still right here, more or less.
Stuck out in space, ya, I gotta go my own way.
My head is slipping, too intense I need an escape
I'm seeing stars and there is nothing more that I hate, Reetion.
There is something that I gotta say.
It's disgusting, how I love you.
God, I hate me. I should kill you.
Cause your messing up my name.
Gotta walk my talk my fame, but I just want to touch your face.
It's disgusting.
It's disgusting, how you changed me.
From a highborn to a baby.
Thinking about gotta change my name,
If I'm gonna walk this walk of shame.
Look at what you do to me.
It's disgusting.
Chapter by chapter, I'm falling faster and faster,
Becoming manic and magic it's so romantic I panic, oh.
Hit the eject button but it must be stuck, somethings up.
What did you slip into my drink? Ranar.
It's disgusting, how I love you.
God, I hate me. I should kill you.
Cause your messing up my name.
Gotta walk my talk my fame, but I just want to touch your face.
It's disgusting.
It's disgusting, how you changed me.
From a highborn to a baby.
Thinking about gotta change my name,
If I'm gonna walk this walk of shame.
Look at what you do to me.
It's disgusting.
Oh, it's disgusting
Oh, it's disgusting
Look at what you do to me.
Oh, look at what you do to me.
It's disgusting.
Disgusting.
Diff the Dragon by Angela Lott, illustrations by Richard Bartrop. An Okal Rel Universe Legacy Novella featuring the young Alivda
Angela Lott is the middle child of Lynda’s three daughters. She did two years of Business schooling at the College of New Caledonia and is now working as a receptionist at her local FYiDoctors. In her spare time she enjoys writing, video blogging, reading and watching very nerdy TV shows.
Part 7
After his visit with Ann, Amel took Diff on his Envoy adventures for a while. It turned out that when delivering messages it didn’t help to have a baby dragon with you. Alivda got him into trouble more times than he could count, but he didn’t care. She was still his little Diff. and he had never had as much fun than with her. To him, it almost felt like he had a chance to live his childhood over again. Diff, unlike him, would always know she was loved.
When it was time for him to go home, he couldn’t think of where to leave Diff.
“Why can’t I go home with you?” the now three-year-old and quite verbal Diff asked.
“Because Ev’rel doesn’t like visitors,” Amel said, or at least ones who like me, he thought.
“Well, that’s dumb,” Alivda said bluntly. “I want to go with you.”
In the end, Amel and Diff came up with a compromise: Alivda would wait on a nearby planet and Amel would come back sooner than he had originally planned.
* * * * *
“Hello,” Amel said as he walked into Lilac Hearth. “Is anyone here?”
No one answered, so Amel asked a servant.
“The Avim and her sons went out,” the male servant said. Ev’rel only hired men.
“When did they say they’d be back?” Amel asked.
“A few days at least, Your Immortality.”
Amel considered waiting. He had been looking forward to seeing Ev'rel, no matter how stormy their relationship sometimes was. But he found he truly did not want to leave Diff for that long. “Thank you,” Amel said and headed back to his ship.
Homecoming
Family Tree by Monica Zwikstra, illustrated by Richard Bartrop
Monica Zwikstra was born on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario, Canada. She lives in Southern Alberta with her husband and three cats. When not writing, she enjoys reading, gardening, playing the autoharp and being an active member of the community.
<< Start at Beginning >>
Listen to me, Gaia is angry at the human race and if you can’t convince people to stop the pollution and causing harm to her, then she will wipe them out. Maybe you can convince her to not kill them all, I don’t know. I do know I’m turning faster than I thought I would and it’s up to you now.”
Sam heard the words. His mind had difficulty processing them. Gaia, human race, pollution. Some connection between this person and to him.
A small tremor under foot, the building shook.
The Green Man eyes widened as he stared at the floor then back to Sam. “Sam I have even less time than I thought, listen to me carefully, are you listening?”
Sam stared at the man, then at the floor. The man’s feet burst from his shoes and formed root structures digging into the floorboards. He looked back to the man’s face.
“What’s happening to you?”
The man’s feet burst from his shoes.
“I’m turning; I’m becoming one with Gaia. It happens to each of us Green Men and in general, it would be a wonderful thing. I should be out in a field or in a forest somewhere, so the transition would be smoother. I waited too long to find you, so listen, you have to find a way to stop the pollution. People clog up Gaia’s airways with gases and drill into her veins to remove her life’s blood; she is in pain and can’t heal the way she once could. We dirty her water and dump our garbage in her soil. We remove the minerals from her body. We cut the trees, which produce oxygen. We depend on her, yet we are killing her.
She will strike back. She will cause catastrophic storms, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, avalanches, every conceivable method of killing she can and then, if the population doesn’t go down enough, she will cause the ultimate to happen. She will reach out and pull in an asteroid to cause an extinction event. She is fighting for her life. She is at war and people don’t even realise it yet. She will destroy humanity, for her own survival. You must get people to change, before there is no time left.”
We depend on her, yet we are killing her
