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I am away for a week and will be without internet… wish me luck! Hopefully, I will get some writing done. I plan to extend and write more of an original story that @CloverReef has helped me with – thank you so much! If all goes well, I may start posting that upon my return. Later!

My cat has been trying to convince my dog to cuddle him for a good two years now but the dog is too scared. So the cat just spent the last few hours using a big farty dog ass as a pillow. That, my friends, is dedication.

Google “Naked Man Orchid”. Just do it. Now you know that’s a thing that exists. You’re welcome.

Well, I’m back, and I may even be writing again. I’m not going to say what’s been happening, because that would just bore you all – and me. Suffice to say I suspected it before, but now I know that Hell is dually purposed as a carpet shop. You’ll finally realise how many rugs you’re standing on when cackling demons start pulling them from under your feet. Something is off with the universe lately, but perhaps it’s settling itself. Except, there’s Brexit to look forward to. Of all the things I hate, I hate that I’ve become one of those insane people who keep shelves full of bottled water… just in case. All we need is a second referendum, then the people of this country will vote ‘No Deal’ like lambs to the slaughter. Ah, well. For as long as it’s possible, I may as well potter about in my own AU’s.

I told myself I’d wait a week in between posting more. Then I told myself I’d wait a day. Now I feel like waiting an hour is stretching my limits! I want to rain gratuitous porn upon the world!!!!!

I'm in a strange mood. I'm nervous I think, because I gave ninestar a poke. And the implied no I decided to accept last month is way easier than getting the official email lol. I'm not pretending I know what they'll say. But for my own sanity I gotta brace myself. I also have a ton more respect for those of you who have gone through rejections and kept on truckin

So, I need to rewrite two scenes in Part Seven to varying extents (one scene is getting shifted from Kevin’s PoV to Luzurial’s, and another scene just has the setting changed), and on top of that my muse called and wants to throw something that will (hopefully) be kind of sweet and romantic at the beginning of the love scene. Combine that with the fact that my work schedule the last few days has been somewhat rough and the result is I have to try and do all of this tonight. Should I not be able to manage it, nobody be surprised if Part Seven doesn’t appear until Tuesday or (at the latest) Wednesday morning. This will not affect when Part Eight is uploaded, since Eight just needs a little polishing instead of the work going into Seven, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Feeling like rewriting some of the oneshots I formerly had up here and took down, possibly reposting them. Maybe. Possibly.

I think the dark pit might be breaking to see some light. A tiny sliver, but that's enough, right? Pull myself back through, carry on. Despite what has happened in that time, I want to say thank you, to all you guys. I appreciate it. .

So, having managed to somehow wangle the day off work, I have spent most of it rewriting and redrafting an original story based on an idea by JayDee. There’s a little bit left to go, but I think I’m going to leave that to tomorrow since it concerns the ending, and I want to pitch it just right. I have no idea if this is any good at all, but I’ve decided to just wallow in the feeling and use it should I ever need to describe performance anxiety. I mean, who knows? One day, I might finally have gotten Elrond off with so many people that he really can’t… you know… face it. That’s a lie. If that ever happened, he could always face it… There’s no sex in this story. I’m going to need to write some after this. I’ve got several smut-filled unfinished tales to choose from. Maybe I’ll pick on Brienne & Co. Or Rikki. Mmm… Iason. Okay, I am sleeping!

Watched this with my little niece then this happened. When Disney goes dark they don’t kid around.

Ghoulneedle made past a 1000

Woo! Hunted has become the most viewed and Blood Prize has hit 1400! Now... if only reviews would come as freely. Lol

I don’t even know what the original story’s message was… “Really shitty things happen to good people,” maybe? That certainly happens in the sequel so you keep it running!

The irony of the situation is that this is kind of the same thing that happened back in 2008 when I read Whore of Heaven, got all depressed and wrote to JayDee asking if I could write what, ten years later, would become The Woman in the Statue. I literally asked if WoH was intended as an anti-religion piece, not because I was mad, but because I didn’t want to write a sequel that would contradict the original story’s message.

No apology required! You’re all adults, you can have different opinions over things in this thread as anywhere! Forum mods would have the final say mind :p She didn’t have left or right wing by the time Eparlegna was done with her! [/tasteless joke]

Thank you! I suppose now is as good a time as any to bring up some of the names of the characters. Not everyone’s name means something of course, but some of them do. Kevin is derived (eventually) from the old Irish name Cóemgein, which starts with the Gaelic word cóem, which means “kind” or “gentle”. He has some issues, including the odd flash of anger, but he’s very gentle with Luzurial. Abdul is kind of a cheat, in that it’s a Pakistani name derived from the Arabic words Abd al, which just mean “servant of the”, but I was kind of going for a reference to the Arabic name Abd Allah, or “servant of God”. Sirki is a Pakistani name referring to a leather worker, which means it’s kind of the equivalent of “Tanner” or something. Chloe is an English name meaning “green shoot” in Greek. ‘Cause, you know...she’s new. Liu is a Chinese surname meaning “kill” or “destroy”, which sounds pretty bad, but it fits her role on what is basically a preternatural SWAT team. Luzurial, according to JayDee, is derived from the Spanish luz, meaning light, as well as a deliberately misspelled version of the Archangel Uriel’s name. It’s good that it’s misspelled, since Uriel translates from the Hebrew as “light of God” (or possibly “God is my light”), so Luzuriel would be kind of redundant. Well, she’s far more resilient than a human would be, and she’s definitely doing amazingly well considering what she’s been through, but there will be issues, which will become rather obvious in Part Three. I should note that she’s healing far more slowly than she used to. I tried to base as much of The Woman in the Statue as possible on what we saw in Whore of Heaven, and one of the things I noticed was that Luzurial’s healing, along things like her durability and strength, are affected by her mental and emotional state. There’s a baseline, of course (she doesn’t just stop healing at any point), but given her trauma, what would in the past have healed in less than a minute instead takes hours. Obviously, as she gets better, that will accelerate. That also owes its genesis to Whore of Heaven, where it’s mentioned that humanity went forth with new knowledge of and defenses against, but also new dealings with, the forces of Hell, so I figured some criminals might attempt to make deals with demons, and a branch of law enforcement would arise to deal with that. There’s actually a deleted scene (as in I literally wrote it and then deleted it because I didn’t think it was necessary) in Part Eight where Luzurial is part of a briefing and a National Guard soldier pulls a “And where were you for the last seventy five years?” at which point Chloe tells him exactly where Luzurial was for the last 75 years. Cue guilt trip. Chloe: Listen, Major Dumbass… Major: It’s “Dumas.” Chloe: Not right now it isn’t. Well thank you so much for the review! I basically wrote this to help me feel better after reading Whore of Heaven all those years ago (JayDee can tell you all about it, but I tend to call this story “my little therapy project”), and I had no idea how it would go over here, so thank you for the support!

Don’t feel bad about not responding to that first review. I still haven’t gotten around to reading and reviewing Chapter 2, and it’s been a month! Oh, and I realize you guys were discussing this earlier, but if I may offer my two cents here… First, on behalf of religious people, I’m sorry for any unpleasant experiences you’ve had. I know this doesn’t make up for it, but know that we’re not all dicks. So, on Luzurial’s suffering being her reason for existing, I don’t know that that’s clear. Cars eventually break down, and the manufacturer knows this will inevitably happen, but that’s not why the car is made. Luzurial is mentioned as being valued for her wisdom and having distinguished herself in battle, so she has touched the lives of her fellow angels and protected the universe (or at least the Earth) before, and I don’t see any reason that couldn’t be her purpose. Her rape and torture are things that happen to her, but it doesn’t seem right (to me, anyway) to imagine she exists specifically to be raped and tortured. With regards to divine omniscience, what pippychick describes is a valid criticism of the deterministic interpretation (the future is set in stone), but there is another way to look at it. A vital part of Christian dogma, and I think it also applies to Judaism and Islam, is that humans (and any other forms of sapient life that may exist) have free will, the ability to choose. God is believed to value free will so intensely that He allows it even though many make the choice to do terrible things, so I’ve never been comfortable with determinism, which removes free will from the equation. Another interpretation, however, is that omniscience means that God knows every possible outcome, all of the billions of billions of possible futures made by all the interacting choices of billions of sapient individuals. However, while all the possible results of all our possible choices may be seen, at the critical inflection point, our choices matter. In other words, it’s not “these horrible things will happen,” but rather “these horrible things may happen, but the choice is yours.” Bringing this back to Whore of Heaven, God would know all the outcomes of everyone’s possible choices, including the chain of events based on the choices made (Luzurial’s choice to intervene, her choice to help the survivors, her choice to try to talk to Eparlegna, her choice to try to spare the caged women, his choice to torture her, Shondra and Molly’s choice to serve him, etc.). All of these things are known ahead of time, but they are not fate; until the choices are made, they are only possible outcomes. Or, to put it way more simply, the future is foreseen, but it is not foregone. I hope I haven’t annoyed or offended either of you. I’ve told JayDee about this elsewhere, but I don’t have anything against atheists. In fact, randomly enough, most of my friends in high school were atheists, and now it’s a fairly even mix. I don’t think you’re getting in trouble for not believing in God. Honestly, I think that what really matters is that you live your life trying to do what you genuinely believe to be right. Again, no offense was intended, pippychick, and I hope I haven’t irritated you. I’m not trying to convert anyone; I just wanted to discuss another potential way of looking at the omniscience idea.

Ahh… that was you! Thank you. I still need to make time for responding to reviews that have come in while I’ve been somewhat distracted. I will, though! @InBrightestDay As I said above, the great thing about all of this is that we can speculate, and explore, and I’m awfully curious to see how you’ve saved her, and what her reactions are like to that. How damaged is she? See just thinking and talking about it whets my appetite to read your story

See? SEE? I fucking stand by that. Part 6 is great! First comes the hurt, then comes the comfort. It really fuckin’ works. And it’s a great damn image you have here. Taking a kind a half-assed Whore of Heaven concept and really making it work! I probably still have had more in to set the scene. I mean, I dunno her most badass moment is probably taking so many lashes before she starts screaming. Here and in the last part, she comes across as a proper badass. I don’t really remember, but it’s a story about an X-Wing pilot being tortured and killed by a haunted spaceship. There’s wires getting into eyesockets. It’s just grimdark edginess really, but I was doing my best to write something Deathstalker would enjoy… I may even have succeeded. Was a long time ago. Unfortunately the review in question asking if I felt gross was back before I responded to ‘em on the forums so I can’t look back at what I thought at the time. He’s a nice dude! Oh, yeah. I sometimes forget some of the tropes. There’s a trope for that too, I expect. Cheerfully corrected! I’m glad it stayed in, I think it worked! This kind of “What a total bastardry” at least will make it even more satisfying when they do beat his ass. He put himself between Eparlegna and her. He’s special alright :p I kid! I kid! I’ve said it’s a great ending already and I stick by it. Fucking awesome!

The road back starts when you realize what your mind is telling you and what everyone else telling you are so different that they cannot be reconciled. Kevin in a sense sees her in a manner similar to that of her creator. Its really a profound moment when she sees what she had allowed herself to forget. That a human of all things helped plant her feet on the road back. An interesting note on Wrath. Eparlegna is saying without meaning to is that Kevin is scared. Because at the root of lashing out is panic and anxiety and primal fear. A potent flammable cocktail so easy to set a flame. Well to be fair. Dead Space 3 had nowhere else it could go. Brethern moons harvesting earth and all. It wasn’t like it there would be some last second rescue. Issac got tentacled in the end. lol.

Holy shitballs, I’ve just spent ages finding a way to use some hardass prompts in what’s basically a PWP draft chapter, and then the ones for the following week’s batch include juice. If I’d realised I’d have cheated and used the prompt sets in a different order.

Everything I’ve read up until the end of part 8 in draft form is AWESOME. So I think he pulls the next parts off, but I guess I’m biased

I think one of the appeals with your writing this sequel is that you care so much about the characters. This heroic chapter is certainly setting things up for having the upcoming defeat really mean something for the reader. If you pull it off is of course not given, but I am really looking forward to it.

Whoo... woo hoo! Woo! 2600 views on Hunted! YAY!!!