design your own container garden commentary

the original fic


with my fic i really wanted to hone in on/play with the plant and garden symbolism in alpha couple media, because it's so often overlooked but shows up surprisingly often. i choose daisies because 1. we had some growing in my garden as a kid, they're VERY hardy 2. they show up in alpha negative - "we had a bed of daisies thriving in the yard / and i quit my job so i could hold you all the time". i am now realizing how people memorize books of the bible. anyways

tying that back into the ending, it's pretty hopeful on the surface which is INCREDIBLY unusual for an alpha couple story. i chose to write about dyocg because it's in the unique position of being the only true epilogue in the canon. likewise, most other fics talk about how the alpha female is going to leave. she's always planning her escape, but she never actually escapes. that's because they can be reallydifficult to work with long-term - they're pretty simple and open-ended, which almost gives you too much wiggle room, and it's hard to differentiate their personalities and keep them likable. their story, particularly after they move to tallahassee, is very slow-paced and stagnant in a way that works wonderfully in music but can be a slog in prose. all of these issues make it an easy choice to cut to the interesting parts - mainly, the alpha female's decision to leave (or stay).

good LORD i went on a tangent! sorry. point is, unique subject matter and (seemingly) very hopeful ending for an alpha couple story. because of the daisy! i want to talk about the daisy. bc, like, on one hand, the narrator is starting to heal. she's literally burying her past and by taking home this flower, she's going to start reconnecting with the world outside of their marriage. flowers/plants are classic symbols of growth and change, and we can see it as symbolizing herself: despite all of the hardship and the flames, she managed to survive, and will grow again. she's learning to make a new identity.

but also, at the same time, she's really not. the daisy is from the wreckage of their house, and it's something she continues to associate with her husband, down the way she's going to keep it alive. she only sees it because she can't find what she buried, the symbols of their relationship, and wanted back. as long as she has it, it's going to be a symbol of the past. but, as i said in the last paragraph, it can be her future too. and what's more #tallahasseecore than ambiguity :)

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