InBrightestDay

I fear you may have overstated there, but as it happens you did sum up my feelings throughout the last chapter of Whore of Heaven.  You can look at my review of Part Three for the full explanation, but the TL;DR version is that I started at “this woman needs a hug” and ended at “Ooooooh God someone please hug her now.”
Which, of course, is why this story exists.  Its alternate title could pretty much be “Hugs for Luzurial.”  Like I said, I’m kind of emotionally sensitive.
Don’t worry; it wasn’t supposed to be obvious.  Never actually seen Fallen, though Denzel is awesome in pretty much everything.

Jude's Tale (original title Fate of a Fagottist) part 4 review!
Thank you for your review! Though I feel a little bad about keeping you from your tea. Also, this is weirdly similar to Kate’s reaction. You’re… you’re not a werewolf are you?
I have another story started that would explain how Shannon had hooked up with Trenna for the night, not sure I’ll get it finished, but she needed someone to have been having fun with and hasn’t met her friend Astrid yet at the time the story’s set.
Not stone As if I’d write a story where an angelic character ended up in a statue… cough cough ahem. Shannon can get much stronger when she charges her succubus form up with sexual energy, but normally she’s at the fallen angel baseline which’d still be above human norm (and so able to jump through a ‘not stone’ wall!)
Yay! It was an idea I had for a while I wanted to use, kind of a mood swerve but so very Shannon. I’m really glad it worked. She didn’t take the time to remove it either…
Plus Kizzy’s alive at the end of You! which is set later, but other readers who know I kill off characters needlessly all the damn time might feel some suspense!
Probably no surprise that Kizzy’s idea will be shown in Part 5 – A Succubus.
They were definitely easier to use than some of the prompts. I mean, I use juice in a whole load of my stories anyway, and the image of a body lying like jetsam feels like it works and may well have been used before. The next set are a bit harder, but I’m sure I’ll muddle through.
Thank you! Amended to landing! It was a last minute change from another phrasing and so didn’t get as much re-reading. D’oh
Thank you again for reviewing, I’m very grateful and it brightened my evening! I hope your tea was good, or is good, if it’s some kind of 8 course banquet you’re still feasting on as I type this.

I fear you may have overstated there, but as it happens you did sum up my feelings throughout the last chapter of Whore of Heaven.  You can look at my review of Part Three for the full explanation, but the TL;DR version is that I started at “this woman needs a hug” and ended at “Ooooooh God someone please hug her now.”
Which, of course, is why this story exists.  Its alternate title could pretty much be “Hugs for Luzurial.”  Like I said, I’m kind of emotionally sensitive.
Don’t worry; it wasn’t supposed to be obvious.  Never actually seen Fallen, though Denzel is awesome in pretty much everything.

It works fully! I definitely felt it. Don’t mind me, I’m a tough cookie, and furthermore I’m British therefore I understate. You should read ‘it touched my heart’ as: ‘I was suddenly transported to that bathroom, and I could feel all the same things she was feeling, and it hurt, and I wanted to put my arms around her and make it all right again.’ 
Ah… well, I just recently rewatched ‘Fallen’ and I kept imagining a lovely young Denzel Washington, so it was a bit of a surprise for me when he suddenly turned.
 

Well, going from nervousness over my handling of Kevin and Luzurial’s relationship to a wonderful review from pippychick is some serious Mood Whiplash.
Thank you so much!  So JayDee knows about this, but recall how you said during your review of Whore of Heaven how you have to feel things to write the stories you write?  Well, I work exactly like that too, very possibly moreso.  I’m kind of sensitive emotionally (which is why I asked for permission to write this story) and I actually made myself cry while writing this sequence, with Luzurial’s PTSD flashback and her breaking down crying in the bathroom.  I was hoping I would manage to communicate at least some of the emotions I was feeling, so I’m glad it worked at least partially.
I feel like it would be a pretty crappy hurt/comfort fic if I didn’t acknowledge just how badly hurt she is (not just physically) by the end of the first story.  I hope that what I’ve written going forward works for you.
Well, not exactly what happened to Shondra and Molly, but there are bad things in store for Cassie and Hobbs.
Speaking of which, now that you’ve reached this point, it’s time for another Names That Mean Something.
“Adrian” doesn’t really mean anything as far as the story is concerned, but “Hobbs” is an English surname derived from the medieval given name Hob.  Hob is a medieval short form of Robert, but “Old Hob” is a nickname for Satan, so you know...bad guy name.
Funny you should say that, because Barbara is like a microcosm of what happens to characters in Whore of Heaven.  She mostly resembles Luzurial, in that she’s an admirable female character committed to doing good who makes an honest mistake (Luzurial disobeys orders; Barbara assumes a dirty cop will surrender when caught instead of lashing out), suffers sexual violation, and then has something horrifically violent happen to her.  She’s also linked to Yolanda Dawson, since the horrifically violent thing is that Eparlegna eats her alive.  Very, very slowly, complete with hell magic to keep her alive until her disembodied head was swallowed.
At the very least, an eighteen meter dragon takes larger bites than an eight foot demon, so it took a little under ten minutes for her to be eaten (I think Yolanda was eaten over the course of an hour).
 I knew I forgot something!
Well, I wanted to have a big, climactic battle at the end of the story, so…
I did research.  Literally, I looked for things both here and on Literotica with the “tentacles” or “tent” tag and then tried to analyze what the authors were doing in the scene.  Some of them were pretty bad, but others were pretty good, and I did take some pointers for writing this one.
Gundam fanfiction.  That’s what I wrote over on fanfiction.net (and if I ever get my act together, I have more of that to write!), and it allowed me to practice writing prose as well as action scenes (the Gundam shows are space operas, so there’s lots of directed energy weapons and things blowing up).
Thank you so, so much!
I may very well faceplant before reaching the end.  As I mentioned in previous posts (I won’t spoil anything in this one) I’ve tried to gradually build up the relationship between Kevin and Luzurial in a way that doesn’t make him look like a creep or make her look weak, but my ability to mitigate the cliches is not guaranteed.  I hope it remains entertaining to read for you nonetheless.

Well, going from nervousness over my handling of Kevin and Luzurial’s relationship to a wonderful review from pippychick is some serious Mood Whiplash.
Thank you so much!  So JayDee knows about this, but recall how you said during your review of Whore of Heaven how you have to feel things to write the stories you write?  Well, I work exactly like that too, very possibly moreso.  I’m kind of sensitive emotionally (which is why I asked for permission to write this story) and I actually made myself cry while writing this sequence, with Luzurial’s PTSD flashback and her breaking down crying in the bathroom.  I was hoping I would manage to communicate at least some of the emotions I was feeling, so I’m glad it worked at least partially.
I feel like it would be a pretty crappy hurt/comfort fic if I didn’t acknowledge just how badly hurt she is (not just physically) by the end of the first story.  I hope that what I’ve written going forward works for you.
Well, not exactly what happened to Shondra and Molly, but there are bad things in store for Cassie and Hobbs.
Speaking of which, now that you’ve reached this point, it’s time for another Names That Mean Something.
“Adrian” doesn’t really mean anything as far as the story is concerned, but “Hobbs” is an English surname derived from the medieval given name Hob.  Hob is a medieval short form of Robert, but “Old Hob” is a nickname for Satan, so you know...bad guy name.
Funny you should say that, because Barbara is like a microcosm of what happens to characters in Whore of Heaven.  She mostly resembles Luzurial, in that she’s an admirable female character committed to doing good who makes an honest mistake (Luzurial disobeys orders; Barbara assumes a dirty cop will surrender when caught instead of lashing out), suffers sexual violation, and then has something horrifically violent happen to her.  She’s also linked to Yolanda Dawson, since the horrifically violent thing is that Eparlegna eats her alive.  Very, very slowly, complete with hell magic to keep her alive until her disembodied head was swallowed.
At the very least, an eighteen meter dragon takes larger bites than an eight foot demon, so it took a little under ten minutes for her to be eaten (I think Yolanda was eaten over the course of an hour).
 I knew I forgot something!
Well, I wanted to have a big, climactic battle at the end of the story, so…
I did research.  Literally, I looked for things both here and on Literotica with the “tentacles” or “tent” tag and then tried to analyze what the authors were doing in the scene.  Some of them were pretty bad, but others were pretty good, and I did take some pointers for writing this one.
Gundam fanfiction.  That’s what I wrote over on fanfiction.net (and if I ever get my act together, I have more of that to write!), and it allowed me to practice writing prose as well as action scenes (the Gundam shows are space operas, so there’s lots of directed energy weapons and things blowing up).
Thank you so, so much!
I may very well faceplant before reaching the end.  As I mentioned in previous posts (I won’t spoil anything in this one) I’ve tried to gradually build up the relationship between Kevin and Luzurial in a way that doesn’t make him look like a creep or make her look weak, but my ability to mitigate the cliches is not guaranteed.  I hope it remains entertaining to read for you nonetheless.

“it’s a pleasure to have you here as the new Professor. I’m sure you aren’t taking seriously that silly hoax rumor that the ApTheo post is cursed and nobody ever lasts more than a year without quitting or getting corrupted or being brutally murdered by a demon.”
“Ahh, don’t ye worry none. It’ll be grand I’m sure.”
And folks, when InBrightestDay found that old forgotten 2010 post on the forum I did feel bad about it!
Eh, you’d have dodged the it being a guy saving her, but that review I sent you from one of my stories when we were discussing this whole true love/post rape thing, where a reader was justifiably irritated about me using a rescue-from-threat-of-rape trope to bring the characters closer together was on an FF story so it doesn’t make a lot of difference as far as that goes.
When badly written the whole concept can be a real bane of Hurt/Comfort fics, but I personally think you’ve handled it as well as you could do – but again, I’m probably biased.
For anyone curious, this is what I said in the email, and I stand by it! Well, sit by it. Well, lean against the wall by it. Fuckin’ pedants.
 

It was toward the end.  I really don’t like doing rape stuff; I’m more into the “give your partner as many orgasms as you can and then cuddle until you fall asleep” kind of sex.  However, in the case of Eparlegna, this is just kind of what the character does, and I figured he’d use the opportunity both to hurt Luzurial some more (because it’s fun) and to hurt Kevin by making him watch (because he annoyed Eparlegna).
Yeah, it’s tricky finding the right balance.  On the one hand, I’m an extremely visual person, so I tend to really paint a picture of the monster.  On the other hand, as you said, describing the monster means stalling the action for a bit.
Thank you!   I rather enjoyed writing the Wrath creature chase; I almost felt like I was writing a Jurassic Park scene or something.
Oh, and I didn’t mention this before, but the hissing shriek the Wrath construct makes is actually a videogame sound.  If you’ve ever played Gears of War, it’s that noise Berserkers make when they charge you.
Well...yes and no.  You might want to get a drink or something, as this may take a while.
So this is an issue I walked into with eyes open.  I've known about it for quite a while now.  Heck, JayDee even made a joke about it in the very first post of their Originals review reply thread.
Granted, my actual degree is in Biology (and I wasn’t asking whether they were “against God” but rather whether Whore of Heaven was intended as an anti-religion piece; I didn’t want to write anything that would contradict the original story’s themes/message), but the point remains.
I never intended for Luzurial to come across as a weak character, merely vulnerable in a specific area.  She's a combat veteran with superhuman strength and durability, as well as the experience of a military career that stretches back fourteen billion years.  However, she is vulnerable specifically when it comes to the issue of sexuality.  In Whore of Heaven, it's established that angels are required to be celibate (or at least they think they're required to be celibate), so while she clearly knows what sex is, Luzurial has a degree of naivete on the subject that I always found deeply sympathetic.  Over the course of the story, she is attacked and shamed repeatedly, specifically using sex (and her body's involuntary reactions to it) as a weapon against her.
By the time we meet her in The Woman in the Statue, she's also spent 75 years inside of the coating, during which time, when she can form coherent thoughts through her pain, all she's really been able to think about is everything she did wrong, second guessing every single decision she made that led her to where she is now.
Given all of this, by the time she's freed, Luzurial's self-esteem is pretty badly damaged.  I have no doubt she could heal on her own, but it always helps to have a support system.  Kevin, in spite of his one actiony moment here in Part Six, is not really capable of helping in battle, so the only thing he can offer her is to be that support system.  This is particularly important concerning what I mentioned back when I was responding to your review of Part Four, namely, that Luzurial has elements of her experience that she considers her Dark Secret.
In this case, the Dark Secret is the multiple orgasms she experienced during the sexual assault back in Whore of Heaven.  Now, she hasn't actually done anything wrong (arousal and orgasm are involuntary physical reactions), but due to the perceived ban on angels ever knowing physical pleasure, she considers this a sort of shame.  Some of my research also indicated that sometimes rape survivors feel ashamed, especially if they cooperated with the rapist in any way, which Luzurial eventually did.
Taking all of this into consideration, I felt like on this one issue, it would help to have someone else, someone she trusts by now, actually able to tell her that she is not at fault for this, because I'm not sure it's something she would realize on her own for quite a long time.
Of course, the fact remains that ultimately Kevin is a male character helping a female character feel better, and that was never far from my mind.  As JayDee can attest, I was quite nervous when I sent them the draft for Part Seven, specifically over this issue.  In Part Seven, I tried (though I won't guarantee that I succeeded) to mitigate it by giving Luzurial intiative.  When Luzurial tells Kevin about what was done to her 75 years earlier, it's when she decides to.  When their relationship turns physical (I figure everyone knew that was going to happen), it's her idea.
In hindsight, I suppose I could have dodged this bullet rather neatly by making Kevin into Kelly and having this be an F/F story instead of an M/F story, but ultimately het stuff is just what I write (maybe just because it's my own sexual orientation), and I only just thought of this option now, after having posted two thirds of the story.
So, like I said, yes and no.  Yes, this is a story about a female character who's been hurt, and a male character who wants to help her heal, and since it is to some extent a romance love is part of that.  However, I am endeavoring not to make the female character look weak (she's definitely not had the last of her badass action hero moments, and in Part Nine Kevin even gets to be kind of a Damsel in Distress).  Everyone is vulnerable from time to time (I'm very much counting myself here) and I don't think it says anything bad about you if you lean on someone else, or as Kevin puts it in Part Seven "Just because you're a total badass doesn't mean you're not allowed to cry."
Hopefully that made some level of sense.  I know it was kind of rambly.

I’d imagine the cloak makes it hard to discern gender anyway.
No rush.
(very minor spoiler) No amnesia, but she does have to give him a little durability boost.  She’s super strong, after all, so sex with her would be rather hazardous otherwise!

I’d imagine the cloak makes it hard to discern gender anyway.
No rush.
(very minor spoiler) No amnesia, but she does have to give him a little durability boost.  She’s super strong, after all, so sex with her would be rather hazardous otherwise!

Another review from @InBrightestDay – thank you so much!
Wow – I’m not certain I deserve those compliments, but I’ll run off with them! If I can do ‘creepy’ then I’m happy.
Yep, you’ve pretty much hit it. As I was writing, I surmised that a mortal soul is necessary for the more tedious hanging around the spirit seems to do, and if that soul wishes to move on, then it will get quite aggressive at taking people when the opportunity arises, though I guess they’re looking for one in (probably) millions, so it’s a very long wait. Whether Kathy appears as her own gender, even I’m not sure, but I did have a feeling that the older, less specific legends of the Lady in the Lake might be connected to this spirit somehow. In the end, I decided not to make a point of it.
And you’ve reminded me I have another story to finish for JayDee about angry water. I think I’ll dig that out next and work on it this week. I’ll also get to read some more of yours once the weekend is done and I’m off work again Will Kev and Luzurial get down to it? How guilty will Kevin get? Will Luzurial need to give him a small dose of amnesia to get him through it? Ohhh, imagine that: every time is the first time…
Um… no… smut is not all I think about!
Thanks again!

Heh, well, that makes her sound a lot more dangerous! If only someone could find a way to keep her distracted from evil schemes…
It’s a fair assumption – I do it a lot! I guess my writing of the warning was so bad that it wasn’t clear. God, what an awful piece of trash writer I… etc etc 
I kid kid…

And back to Last Full Measure (and @InBrightestDay).  Another review to keep the shelves clean (so shiny...).
From InBrightestDay on February 28, 2019
 
Well, finally getting around to the latest chapter of this.  Sorry for how long it's taken!
So...Celeste's problems just got a lot more serious, as far as I'm concerned.  If she's literally jumping awake a split-second from killing someone, that's not just a problem, but a pretty disqualifying one.  Like, she could kill someone if she's nappingand they try to wake her up.  Once they're down on the planet, I feel like that's going to be a massive problem.
In other news...
“Are there are questions?”
Hudson: "How do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?"
Sorry.  It was the first thing that came to mind.
There is something I'm wondering about with regards to that Q&A scene, though.
“Any idea of hostiles in the area?” Staff Sergeant Tsu asked.  Celeste shot her friend a quick glance, but said nothing to Lian.
“No intelligence on hostile numbers yet, no, Staff Sergeant,” Hamilton said.  “We’re going in blind.”
Aren't they in orbit?  Shouldn't they be able to see the colony from space?  I mean, sure, that won't tell them about hostiles inside of buildings, but they would know whether or not there were troop formations or vehicles outside.
***
Well, finally getting around to the latest chapter of this.  Sorry for how long it's taken!
As always, never need to apologize.  It's always a pleasure to get a review and seeing one from my fan, it's always great.  As long as you're enjoying it.
So...Celeste's problems just got a lot more serious, as far as I'm concerned.  If she's literally jumping awake a split-second from killing someone, that's not just a problem, but a pretty disqualifying one.  Like, she could kill someone if she's nappingand they try to wake her up.  Once they're down on the planet, I feel like that's going to be a massive problem.
It's a substantial and quite disqualifying issue.  It will be touched on further down the line, in a different manner of effect.  I did want to show that Celeste shouldn't be out there (a lot of it being her pushing her father to throw some weight around (something she did on Mars to disastrous results)).  It's also a major play throughout the story, so I hope I work it out properly. 
In other news...
“Are there are questions?”
Hudson: "How do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?"
Sorry.  It was the first thing that came to mind.
Lol.  "When they said alien, she thought they said illegal aliens sign up."
"Fuck you, Hudson."
"Any time, anywhere."
Bringing Aliens to mind, never apologize! Lol.  Like I said, it and several others were inspirations for LFM.  Besides, Hudson's one of the best of that group.  Lol.
There is something I'm wondering about with regards to that Q&A scene, though.
“Any idea of hostiles in the area?” Staff Sergeant Tsu asked.  Celeste shot her friend a quick glance, but said nothing to Lian.
“No intelligence on hostile numbers yet, no, Staff Sergeant,” Hamilton said.  “We’re going in blind.”
Aren't they in orbit?  Shouldn't they be able to see the colony from space?  I mean, sure, that won't tell them about hostiles inside of buildings, but they would know whether or not there were troop formations or vehicles outside.
This is definitely an issue, too.  They say I saw it, they were able to scan the base and colony, but not find lifesigns (kind of like modern sonar) and the colony is kind of like spotting an anthill from a plane in flight.  It's not huge.  I know, this doesn't discount imaging technology (which I should have stated the terraforming provides a heavy cloud cover and rain...  but I didn't think of that until 10 ....  I'm bad, I know ...).
Thank you, InBrightestDay.  I hope I have your interest piqued for nine and ten .

I’m trying to keep up with reading/reviewing several stories right now, but I should get to Chapter 2 tomorrow.
Oh, it absolutely works!  The “hack” choice in particular does, the more violent connotation has a sort of subconscious uncomfortable effect on the reader (it did on me, at any rate).  And you’re right about having an immediate mental image that your conscious mind rejects; it’s cool to know you were doing that on purpose.
Sorry for how long it took for me to say anything about this, by the way.  I literally just checked the TV forum today!

Actually, while there’s some level of pettiness to it, I don’t know that that’s all there is.  Kizzy is doing some real good here.  She’s in the process of redeeming a fallen angel in the form of Shannon, has likely kept Kate from harming any innocents, has headed a team that’s foiled or interfered with any number of schemes (as Sarsa could attest) and, in human form, has an additional effect that’s difficult to quantify.  Every person whose life she touches, everyone whose day she makes just a little bit better is someone who will find it just a little easier to choose Good over Evil.
Killing Kizurial isn’t just a spiteful punishment of Shannon; the Duchess is playing the Long Game.
And she’s petty as fuck.
Seems reasonable.  Agents of Heaven and Hell might interact from time to time on Earth (or elsewhere on the material plane) in ways other than outright combat (that would draw far too much attention), and information may pass back and forth if only by accident.  Succubi seem like a natural fit for this role, since their preferred tool, seduction, requires a keen understanding of how to communicate with and read people.
No, that makes perfect sense, and I actually misunderstood what you were saying in the Author’s Note.  See, I wasn’t saying you should write “Go read this stuff!”  What happened was that when I heard you say “You, um, you probably don’t want to read it,” I didn’t realize that was you saying “Warning: if you read, you may see this shit in your nightmares,” but instead thought it was you beating up on yourself as a writer again.

I’m trying to keep up with reading/reviewing several stories right now, but I should get to Chapter 2 tomorrow.
Oh, it absolutely works!  The “hack” choice in particular does, the more violent connotation has a sort of subconscious uncomfortable effect on the reader (it did on me, at any rate).  And you’re right about having an immediate mental image that your conscious mind rejects; it’s cool to know you were doing that on purpose.
Sorry for how long it took for me to say anything about this, by the way.  I literally just checked the TV forum today!

Meanwhile back in the slumber-verse InBrightestDay kindly reviews the third part of Jude's Tale (original title Fate of a Fagottist)
 Firstly, thank you for this review!
You’re absolutely right it didn’t end up properly PWP, so I left the tag off in the end. I realised that I could use the chapter to explain some things that otherwise would have gone unspoken, or maybe just come out of nowhere – at least this chapter lets folks know there’s a werewolf and so on hanging around Kizzy! Still managed to fit in a chunk more sex than the previous part had though, so yay!
It’s not as clear as it was in my first draft on this where I made it really explicit, but she actually is assuming Kizurial would choose to die rather than blast a giant crater into the Earth and cook all the entrails. I left it with the more subtle implication at the end of the part where she’s thinking of Jude’s specifically sharing the fate of Kizurial, oblivion, rather than him getting it alone and the Seraph surviving.
I figure she thinks Kizzy would kill a few mortals to save millions, but Kizzy wouldn’t kill billions to save herself.  From the Duchess’ point of view, scoring a kill against a Seraph would be great for her standing in Hell, but she also gets to make Shannon suffer by hurting her friend. That’s maybe even more important to her because Shannon left her service for Kizzy’s friendship. A lot of these arrogant demons are petty as fuck when I write ‘em And if she is wrong and she’s misread the Seraph (always a possibility!) well, whatever evolves in another 65 million years could be just as easy to tempt.
When the order came down not to break Luzurial free there would have been a few in the old chain of command keen for others to know it wasn’t their order. I figured this degree of bad feeling would become known to some of the more well informed demons in Hell.
And that’s another reason Thanks! Glad you liked it, and, yes, perhaps her dislike of Luzurial has been bubbling away for a few billion years.
Haha! Nice – now that’d be a hell of a New Year’s Eve party :p
As for whether it might come back to haunt her somewhat sooner, well, I was never much good at subtle foreshadowing. Heh.
I’m grateful for all the reviews! The thing is rape,  torture, snuff, gynophagia, anal fisting, and that godawful cop humor are a very niche product. I’m fairly sure most readers here just want to see Draco and Harry have babies, or Hinata fucking everyone except whatshisface (or the same for whatever fandom/original subcatagory they’re in). So, yes, some readers might like and enjoy it, whether for the porn, the horror, or Eparlegna’s natty suit at the end, but I think probabably most wouldn’t. Also, with 9 reviews out of 10334 hits on AFF (Plus one or two by email when the old grey archive was around, and when I was on hentai foundry’s writer section) I do think it’s safer to say that the vast majority of readers probably weren’t that bothered.
So I put the info there like with the “See more Kizzy here!” in part 1, but unless I’m talking to someone who specifically likes those kinds of themes I don’t say “Go read this stuff!” about the violent porn. If that makes sense! If not, me rambling again. I do that.
Thanks again for your third review!

Then I must write chapter three one of these days! Gotta be done.

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..

Thank you, swirlingdoubt – I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much, InBrightestDay!
Ah, well, I don’t want to say too much in case I spoil the second chapter for you. But when/if you read, I hope you enjoy it and that it makes sense.
And thank you for the compliment! I must admit, I paid close attention to some of my phrasing and word choices in this fic, because it added to the atmosphere, and I was hoping to make suggestions without the reader being fully aware of it. For example, “... once she'd hacked a couple of feet off the bottom of it.” was supposed to give you a specific literal mental image, even if your conscious mind rejects it immediately as incorrect. It was still there… hopefully.

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.

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.

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…