COMPLEMENTARY [GxG]

Chapter 21 | Catatonic Shock

I've found her. I'll never be 100% sure, but the stories I find in my long hours of research that resonate with me the most are those of Nana Buluku. Originating from Fon and Yoruba mythologies, she is the supreme creator of the universe, the stars, the moon, and the earth. Depicted as an old woman dressed in purple garments, she is the void, the "dragon of Chaos", and the grandmother of all Orishas.

To Eris 🤮:

What if for the painting we do the goddess of the underworld and the goddess of chaos? The equivalents to Eris and Persephone?

She takes hours to respond.

From Eris 🤮:

ooo yeah that would be so good. i was doing some research and although Xochiquétzal represents the Greek Persephone pretty well cause she's the goddess of spring, Mictēcacihuātl fits better. She's the wife of the underworld god. but then i read that she's like the equivalent of Santa Muerte, which we already painted. fuck i wish we'd referenced her in the last painting 😭

To Eris 🤮:

Perhaps you could add some of her symbols in the background, once we get all the paintings back for the final. I don't think it's a huge deal since for that painting we were focusing on Catholic imagery. As for the goddess of chaos, I found Nana Buluku. She's not technically chaos, she's actually the supreme creator of all things, but I found some references to her representing that. With her children Mawu and Lisa, they form a trinity representing creation, balance, and chaos.

From Eris 🤮:

where is she from?

To Eris 🤮:

Benin, Nigeria, and Togo. Yorubaland.

From Eris 🤮:

Maybe for the Aztec one we can do Chalchiuhtlicue. lady of seas, storms, rivers, and baptism. she also ate the sun and moon one time.

To Eris 🤮:

Nana Buluku is also related to water. She created the sun and moon, and Chalchiuhtlicue ate them. We could paint that.

And just like that, we have our grand idea. Montoya would be pleased.

In other news, Fitz releases the music video for Catatonic Shock. It involves cars racing toward one another on an empty desert road, blowing sand and dust in the air. Then the scene goes black, and the beat drops with a booming sound effect as if to imply the cars crashed. Fitz and Oscar stand on top of the smoking wreckage.

"I see why you needed the money to fund this," I tell Fitz. They include footage from real protests, tear gas and ACAB spray-painted on cracked storefront windows, and the colors swirl and vibrate with cartoonish animations that appear to resemble an LSD trip.

"It's already at 50k views," Fitz says, eyes glued to his phone again. "Growing a lot faster than the audio track."

Catatonic Shock is blasting from everyone's speakers. Fitz's attention at school grows tenfold—every time we arrive or depart on his motorcycle, there's a small crowd of people swarming him with questions and praise for the music video, some asking if they can be in the next one. Fitz's very first fans. He stays calm and grounded and talks politely to everyone, the smile on his face the only thing different.

But then the news headlines come in:

Body found with bullet holes on Tijuana boardwalk

Murdered California teen believed to have smuggled drugs over the US-Mexico border