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I didn’t realize it at the time, but Applied Theology is basically Defense Against the Dark Arts for a non-Harry Potter setting. The idea of all the different faiths coming together is me being kind of an optimist. I know it’s just as likely we’d start infighting (and I’m sure there was some of that in the setting), but I’d like to think that if an actual legitimately-from-Hell demon was rampaging across America, that everyone would be like “Ok, that’s the bad guy; we should all work together.” Well, she got a little banged up from the hypersonic Gungnir round, but nothing too severe by her standards. I actually figured it was kind of important that bullets without proper inscriptions shouldn’t work. After all, if bullets work on extradimensional beings, then the Army really shouldn’t have had too much trouble with Eparlegna back in 2007. That was something I kind of inferred from Whore of Heaven. She came to Earth to help, after all, even after orders came down from the top (like, the very top) that she wasn’t supposed to. One could interpret this as sheer arrogance, and some level of Pride is certainly present, but the way she stops to help survivors in LA, the way she hesitates to free herself because it would harm the caged women, even though their souls would be safe...all of that suggested to me that her main motivation for trying to intervene was that she cares very deeply about humans, and doesn’t want to see any unnecessary suffering. So, for The Woman in the Statue, I assumed that she is very, very closely bonded to her mortal charges, and really does love this world she was assigned to protect. If I were simply writing a Warm Fuzzies piece, that would probably happen...but of course I’m writing a story with action and monsters and whatnot, so she’s not going to have a lot of time to do that. Lilia Martinez is actually a good cop, and she’ll pop up again for a cameo in Part Eight, but there are bad cops, and you’ll run into a few in the next two chapters. Funny thing: I wasn’t even doing that consciously. Looking back on it, I realized that I gave height measurements for all our main characters (Luzurial, Kevin, Abdul, Calista and Chloe) just as part of their description. The good news is that that tapers off as we get farther into the story. There’s one more character in Part Four who gets height measurements in cm. After that, things, generally monsters, do get sizes, but it’s rounded to the nearest half a meter (i.e. “approaching two and a half meters tall”, etc.) or whole meter. The use of centimeters is due to me having the US using the metric system by this point, because it’s THE FUTURE!!! (there should be an echo on that). Actually, that’s how you know I’m writing fantasy: not the archangel character, the demonic invasion or the magic, no, the most unrealistic part of the setting is that the US switched to metric. SONOFABITCH! *five minutes later* Fixed! Thank you for pointing that out.

No need to give explicit credit for that beyond this forum post, but I appreciate the gesture.

And… two whole years later: Chapter 49 Wow… that’s nearly the amount of time that’s passed in the fic.

I think chapter 1 is actually pretty solid as standalone story. Chapter two as bridge to a future chapter would also work, but when it ends after chapter two it feels more like a fragment..

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!

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]

Oh, I really haven’t! Some of my best friends, etc… I’m actually involved with things at my local church, because of community stuff. I’m not saying at all that others shouldn’t believe – I just don’t share it. If I had to believe in something, honestly I’m closer to being some kind of pagan than anything because it appeals to me on some deep level I can’t explain. The great majority of the time though, I am an atheist. I’m not trying to get into an argument here, but Ah. Apologies, but there it is. There can be no justification for some things. I’m not talking of anything that has happened to me. I’m not referring to “ordinary human unhappiness” or even its twin. Throughout the course of our history there are things so absolute and terrible that they only way they can be explained is if there is no God. Sorry, but that is the conclusion I have come to after many years. Also, free will tends to let capitalism off the hook, and I don’t believe we should do that either. Most of us live at the expense of others. If I live without God, then ethically I should strive to encourage the best world possible. Then there are the animals. Humanity has an overinflated sense of itself. Fear, terror, pain and suffering are not exclusive to our species. Nor is comfort. Any knowledge I may think I have doesn’t make me “worth more than many sparrows” – that’s just pure egotism. It makes me responsible, but that’s a different thing entirely, and I fail far too often (I mean, I still eat meat and there can’t be any justification for that, not now). I’m so sorry, I don’t mean to offend anyone with these thoughts. If there is any rule at all, it should probably be: believe in what you love and be happy. I believe in fic. Likewise. @JayDee Sorry to have derailed this thread and gone so far OT. Luzurial’s fate did prompt this discussion, though, so I’m blaming you…