Longshadow Quotes

“Rather, Abigail is quite literally a stubborn, immortal lesbian – and she and her transgender faerie girlfriend will live together happily for ever and ever in perfect defiance of the Hays Code.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“I’m imaginin’ that maybe two women might fall in love the way that men an’ women normally do. Wouldn’t that be somethin’? Two women courtin’ an’ gettin’ married an’ livin’ their lives together like it was nothin’ special.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“they only knew how to take things that they wanted. It was deeply tiring to always be the one giving, even when giving seemed to be the only reasonable choice.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“I’ve figured out why my imagination’s broken, Mercy – I have to deal with things as they are, an’ not as I wish they were. I don’t believe that things are ever really goin’ to change, because they so often don’t. That doesn’t mean I won’t try an’ change things anyway sometimes, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be ready for how hard that is.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“Humans exist to be unnatural,” she said. “Nature’s cruel an’ unfair, an’ we decided to fix it. That’s why we’ve got clothes an’ houses an’ medicine. What’s natural isn’t always good. An’ as for me… I think I like what’s good an’ fair an’ kind better’n what’s natural.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“Mercy looked down at her hands in surprise... 'I'm not a woman. Or even a man, really. I guess I'm actually nothin' at all.'
Abigail smiled slowly. 'I beg to differ Mercy Midnight,' she said. 'I commanded you to take your true form. And this is what you picked.'
Mercy glanced at Abigail from beneath her hair as they turned to climb the hill once again. A vaguely hopeful expression had dawned upon her features. 'I...I guess you're right,' she said. 'You know--I never really had a true form before. I didn't know there was such a thing. I just kept turnin' into whatever I thought people expected me to be.'
Abigail smiled warmly. 'But you have one now,' she said. 'And I'm very fond of it, you know.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“Abigail shook her head. "Carin' what happens to someone doesn't make it all right to make decisions for 'em," she said. "Sometimes we choose our pain because it's for somethin' we believe in. If no one ever chose pain, then it'd be awful hard to get anything done, wouldn't it?...What's natural isn't always good. An' as for me...I think I like what's good an' fair an' kind better'n what's natural.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“Which brings me to a small historical footnote known as the Hays Code. For the longest time, American cinema had an informal code regarding queer characters: they were allowed on-screen, but only if they were eventually punished by the story in some way. Queer characters were not allowed to live happily ever after; at the very least, they were required to die tragically.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“No one’s makin’ us linger,” he said. “I never got to have parents before I died, you know. Other Mum’s the first mum I ever got, an’ I love her. An’ I love Mum an’ Dad an’ Abby, too. What’s not fair is me never gettin’ a family until I can’t really have ’em. But you an’ your sluagh don’t think about that part, do you, cos you don’t think it matters.”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow

“Carin’ what happens to someone doesn’t make it all right to make decisions for ’em,” she said. “Sometimes we choose our pain because it’s for somethin’ we believe in. If no one ever chose pain, then it’d be awful hard to get anything done, wouldn’t it?”
― Olivia Atwater, Longshadow