#i wouldn't have written the story

[unclear-contributions]

Dead Angels

I have some short stories that the 'glur may enjoy. I'll start posting my way through them, I suppose, starting with Dead Angels. The actual title is "In a Ditch," but that buried the lede a little. The demands of the era.... Enjoy.

Someone poked my shoulder. I cracked open my eyes begrudgingly to see the neighbor's kid, staring at me, framed by the afternoon sun. He pointed back behind him and beckoned. I sighed and stood up, dusting the dirt off my pants, and picked up my blanket, tossing it in a heap over one shoulder.

"What's up?" I asked.

He didn't say anything, just looked at me with wide and dazed eyes and beckoned again before setting off across the fields, bare feet slapping against packed dirt, so I followed him, down the path, and to the cracked old asphalt road that led down out of the mountains. I left my eyes half-lidded, basking in the summer heat as I followed the loose shadow of him, wandering past trees and fields and wild grasses that were starting to go gold with the season.

"Look." He said, finally.

I opened my eyes and looked, and then it made sense. Down in the ditch, surrounded by a loose ring of kids, was a dead angel. It'd unfurled, all feathers and wings and blank eyes staring up at the sun.

I immediately grabbed the kid's face and turned it away. "Go on, get." I said, sharp. "You shouldn't be lookin' at this."

He stumbled, and I gave him a gentle shove at the shoulderblades. He broke into a stumble, and then an easy jog back. I watched him go, and turned to the others, clapping my hands. I tried not to look. "For all've y'all too. Get, get."

The sound didn't reach them. I had to pull out my pocket knife and clash it on the asphalt, bright steel on dark, lumpy stone, before they startled, and scampered away, leaving just me and the angel in the ditch.

Then, I looked at it.

I thought I recognized it. My cousin had an angel a while back. I don't know what happened to it. It might've been the same one, might've not. She tended to keep mum about stuff like that. I didn't know. Most people didn't like talking about their angels.

I looked down the street. Next car that came rattling along would call the folks down the hill, and they'd come up to haul the body away to dispose of it properly. If any of the parents were told, they'd probably do the same. I didn't know what they did to dead angels.

I looked back down at the poor dead thing, lying there, staring up at the blue, blue, empty sky. It frizzed on my eyes. A tear started to gather at the corner of my eye, and I blinked, and more tears came after it.

I slid back into the ditch. The grass was rough and tall, pushing up against my jeans with a hiss as I half-slid, half-stumbled to the bottom of the ditch and pulled out my work gloves from my belt.

Eyes still half-closed, navigating by touch and by the fuzzy sensation of a dead angel, I folded up its wings all careful-like until I could grab the body. The feathers were like gossamer, and itched wherever they touched my skin. I pulled my shirt up over my mouth, when I noticed. I didn't know what angel dust did if you inhaled it, but it was probably better not to test my luck.

Getting the thing up out of the ditch was easier than I expected. Once the wings were all arrayed, and I managed to get a grip on the smooth inner wheel, it was almost easy.

Angels didn't weigh as much as I thought they would.

It rustled against the grass as I dragged it back up onto the road. I spread out my blanket, and then dragged the angel onto it. It fit. Barely.

Moving the body any further was even harder. I didn't even know where to put it. Angels didn't like dying where you could see them. They didn't like being where most people could see them, anyway, I knew that much. So I squinted at the trees around me and tried to get my bearings. That way to town, that way down the mountain, that line of trees snaking across fields, and that lumpy hill that they huddled around in a big cluster. That was what I was looking for.

Lighter than expected wasn't light. Dragging the blanket across the pavement was not a pleasant task. It got only a little easier when I made it off onto the dirt path. Every foot I dragged it, I had to crush down the grass to either side. I had to take a break, halfway there, and I left it at a distance, staring at it out of the corner of my eye, panting in the hot air and fanning myself.

Every time I looked at it too long, even indirectly, another tear came and trickled down alongside my sweat.

Our town didn't have a speaker or priest or nothing like that. She'd died last year, I thought, and her daughter was still off in the big city, doing whatever it was that the daughter of the faithful did in cities where they'd run off to. I think she was having a good time.

She came back now and again.

That reminded me to get up and start hauling it again.

The glade I was pulling it to was cool, even in high summer. At this point, it was bumpy going, trying to haul the blanket over the knotted roots and leaf litter. In the end, I couldn't get it all the way to the pool. I had to leave it a little to the side, under a wide pine.

I sat there, and then I looked at it again. It still sat there, eyes still blank and staring. It was dead. Dead as doornails.

A speaker'd have a nice word. A priest'd have a nice book to read. I pulled off my glove instead and reached out to the central eye. I touched it, and it fizzed against my skin, even dead, as I pulled it gently down, like I'd seen the undertakers do, so it didn't have to look no more.

A single glittering teardrop beaded as I closed its eye, and quickly soaked into the pale feathers of its body, leaving a dark blotch. I did it again, and the same thing happened. And then again, and again.

Angels had a lot of eyes.

The last eye closed, and I stood up, suddenly creaky.

"Rest well," I said. I couldn't think of anything else to say. My right hand was numb.

I left it there. Told the village kids to not go down to that hole a while. I didn't have much else to do.

Next Spring Break, the speaker's daughter told me that angels faded at sunset after they died. "You didn't need to haul it all the way out there," she'd said.

I looked at her. "I did," I said. "I think."

She looked at me back a long while, before she said, very thoughtfully, "I guess so."

[tathrin]

Hey, so do you ever stop to think about how the premise of Lord of the Rings being an in-universe book written by some of the characters who lived through that story means that they decided what parts and perspectives to use to tell that story...?

And when our authors weren't there to experience the events themselves, they have to rely on what they're told about them by the characters who were there, right...?

Okay so stop and think about the Glittering Caves.

We never actually go to the caves in the narrative. Tolkien LOVES describing nature and natural beauty, but we don't actually see the caves described "by him" the way we do other places. Obviously Gimli's words are Tolkien's, yes; but we only see the caves filtered through his words about them, after the fact.

When Gimli and Éomer and the other Rohirrim take refuge there, the narrative doesn't follow them. Obviously from a narrative standpoint this is to keep the focus narrow, and not to interrupt the battle-sequence with a long ode to the beauty of the caves, and to create tension in the reader who doesn't know if these characters are okay or not. Which all makes sense!

But think about it in terms of the book that was written in Middle-earth by the folk living there. Why DON'T we get to have a direct experience of those caves? Gimli obviously related several other parts of the story that none of the Hobbits were there to witness to them, and which were written into the books as Direct Events Happening In The Narrative (think of the Paths of the Dead scene, for one of the more visceral moments!). So why not the Glittering Caves?

Was it because they wanted to keep that narrative focus and tension, and so they didn't include his perspective on that part of the battle? Perhaps, that's certainly a possibility to consider.

But also consider: when we do hear about the Glittering Caves, what we hear is Gimli telling Legolas about the Glittering Caves. THAT is the part of that event that is considered of importance to include in the book: not Gimli's actual experience when he was in them, but rather the part where he relates that experience TO Legolas.

And I kind of just THOUGHT about that today.

And went HUH.

[trensu]

Have an itty bitty tiny piece of stasis in darkness, just so you all have an idea of where the story is going after the godly reveal. and also have proof that i am, in fact, still toiling away at this (as well as hawkins halfway house.)

A week and a half later, Steve entered a town he’d never seen before. He wore simple traveling clothes and carried no weapons aside from a couple of carefully hidden knives. He’d left his armor and shield behind. His satchel held only the essentials one needed for travel and a single stone as large as his fist. The stone was wrapped in layers of cloth to keep it safe during the journey. 

I need you to find someone. 

He felt very bare but he hadn’t been given much of a choice. Speed was of the essence for his quest, and little no-name towns tended to be wary of strangers in plain clothes, even more so around strangers decked out for battle. Steve wasn’t sure this place could be called a town. It was so small it hadn’t been on any official map. It didn’t even have an inn. Hopefully, Steve wouldn’t be needing an inn once he found who he was looking for.

He’s too far from me to reach.

He asked around, laying on the charm generously. He explained he had been a friend of a friend and had been trusted to deliver something. Eventually, he was told where to go. The house he found far beyond the village’s boundary was small. It looked like it had once been well cared for but it was old and had fallen to disrepair. Steve took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

A sallow old man opened the door. He was bald but had some scruff on his face still. His shoulders, stooped from age, trembled. His eyes were bloodshot. He looked so tired.

He’s my very last worshiper in all the world.

“Wayne Munson?” Steve asked.

“Who wants to know?” The man’s voice was phlegmy and rough. He coughed into the crook of his elbow almost before he could finish speaking. 

“I’m Steve. Ser Steve Harrington, pledged to the Lord of Night.”

Wayne’s eyes widened. His grip on the open door weakened and slipped. Steve caught the door before it could hit Wayne.

“He sent me to you,” Steve explained. “May I come in?”

yep, that's it for now. i told you it was small. i'm not even gonna bother with a read-more here.

[journey-to-the-attic]

one thing i've noticed about obey me's story is that it generally delivers on big dramatic narrative moments, but often neglects the surrounding scenes and especially the fallout. there is of course, the oft-talked-about lesson 16, feat. mc's death that never gets brought up again, but then there's also s2's amnesia arc, which ends things with "mc has the ring so everything is completely fine forever"

om has a habit of doing this, where a realm-wide (or heck, universe-wide) problem is hand-waved away by the appearance of a convenient fix-it, which is usually either an object or just ~magic~ (magic as a plot device in om in general is handled poorly but that's a story for another day)

in some cases they just don't address the fallout at all. at least belphie talks about what he did in lesson 16 - but, see nb s2, wherein levi floods the entire devildom, submerging entire houses, and they don't bring it up again afterwards. as far as i remember too, belphie's mini-arc in this season wasn't really given room to breathe, either

but here's the main thing (spoilers for nb lessons 38 and 39)

i've just done these two lessons and in hindsight lucifer's mini-arc feels like a lot of missed potential

honestly they could have excluded diavolo entirely - his main purpose was to stall for time so that the brothers could show up. the moment where he kneels was cool (more on that moment later), but the way they've written him in means that the angels kinda. don't get to do anything? at all?

look - raphael has a gorgeous character moment at the end of 37 where he cries for the brothers' plight. like you don't understand this had so much potential!!! he didn't really do much in s1 (and might not have actually been himself??) so i was hoping this would be his chance to shine, but instead he's on the sidelines. simeon gets the most to do, and even then it's really not much. luke doesn't do anything, unless you count those blessings he and simeon give mc, but they don't really factor in at all??

what especially doesn't make sense about diavolo's role here is that lucifer turns on mc after they step in to protect him. this is meant to be a pay-off to diavolo's less savoury motivation for saving the brothers, revealed in his arc in nb s1, but all lucifer does is say it, get mad, then completely forgets about it once all is said and done

if that's all they were going to do with it, why bring it up at all? from a character standpoint, it makes more sense for mc to shield one of the angels - again, raphael this could've been your moment. (alternatively it could've been a call-back to the og s1 where mc shields luke in the underground tomb)

the appearance of the brothers was welcome, but at the same time i don't quite buy that they all got out of their respective predicaments completely fine. (also where did mephistopheles go??) lucifer also calms down very quickly, which is a great moment for the power of family, but at the same time i feel like he would've needed at least a few more dialogue boxes of him registering through his rage that his brothers were there. eh, this is more nitpicky than everything else

the brotherly moment was 10/10 though. love these guys <3

but i hated the final resolution so so much. sure, have god forgive him, whatever. but why would you end it all with a "papa loves you"???? if it had been raphael or simeon saying it, maybe i could get behind this as a symptom of the celestial realm's unhealthy society, but LUCIFER, whose greatest fear was revealed to be his father in s3 of the original story?

om has never made it seem like god's relationship with the angels was anything other than controlling and borderline abusive, and for some reason (if the poignant flashback is anything to go by) they've done a complete heel turn into "actually it's fine because he loves the angels". it could be read as representing how children often still cling to abusive/controlling parents, but i doubt it - especially coming from lucifer, who started a war and lost a sister in direct opposition to his father

and i get the whole deal with "lucifer was so beautiful as an angel" but it feels really disingenuous to the brothers' arc (about settling into the devildom and coming into their own as demons) to harp on about it. like, fuck that, have lucifer cast away the angel form, or at least have some pushback from him in the aftermath. have mc tell him "you're even more beautiful as a demon" or something

then in lesson 39 everything's back to normal. it's a very cute lesson and i had fun in the moment, but it feels off. there's no discussion of what happened, everyone's completely fine. there's got to be some psychological after-effects to all of that, no? for lucifer especially if not the brothers who got frozen as well???

though lucifer's dragon gift was very sweet. i can't stay mad at that old man

[futuretrain]

i don't know how to fucking explain it to you but scott not waiting hand and foot on stiles and coming to personally kiss his every booboo is not scott being "unsupportive" or a "shitty friend" especially when he continues to stand by his friend for every season of this whole show jfc

[tricoufamily]

woke up missing blood sports so much i literally started using this screenwriting software to write it

[kwillow]

What are Ambroys' romantic preferences? I'm not asking for a friend, I'm asking for myself. I'm completely obsessed.

Er... romantic. Yes. Such a romantic.

In his younger days, Ambroys was an incorrigible womanizer, an impulsive rake with a bad habit of sticking that long tongue of his in places where it didn't belong - like other men's wives. He's had a long string of flings as well as torrid love affairs over the course of his life, a source of endless frustration for everyone around him (including the ladies he's entangled himself with themselves). He's a sucker for love but he'll take what he can get for as long as he can until his dreadful personality inevitably ruins things and he has to throw himself at the next girl.

When Ambroys wants something, he wants a lot of it, and women are no exception to this rule. I haven't been making those jokes about unicorns and maidens for nothing!

[my-name-is-apollo]

I feel like we HAD to have talked about this at some point, but thinking of Apollo ships, what are your thoughts on Apollo x my man Ares? ❤️- Odiko Ptino

@odiko-ptino you know what I have been thinking about them lately!! Mostly because I've been reading Record of Ragnarok and their dynamic in it is uhh interesting, so I couldn't help myself. Now here's what I found about them in the myths:

1. Ares, under Hera's orders, kept a watch on Leto to prevent her from giving birth on lands.

2. Apollo sent Heracles to kill Cycnus, a son of Ares, for murdering the pilgrims. Ares was in support of his son here but Heracles defeated him.

3. Hermes and Apollo made fun of the situation when Ares and Aphrodite got caught red handed.

4. Apollo defeated Ares in the boxing match of the Olympic games.

5. According to Homer, Hyginus and Nonnus, Apollo was involved in killing the Aloadae after they kidnapped Ares.

6. In the Iliad, Apollo asks Ares to go teach a lesson to Diomedes for trying to attack both him and Aphrodite and Ares obeys him.

7. Apollo intervened and stopped a fight between Athena and Ares.

8. In the Homeric hymn to Apollo, Ares is enjoying himself in Apollo's concert.

When read in that order, it does seem like they both start off as rivals and eventually form a friendship. I have to admit I hadn't considered shipping them till recently, but it has grown on me. When it comes to Apollo's ships, I'm usually slightly more interested in reading Apollo's POV (because I feel like he's usually the one with more complicated feelings) but this is one of the few ships where I'm more invested in the other person's POV because I think the feelings are actually more complicated for Ares.

On Apollo's end, he is more or less neutral towards Ares. I'm sure he can be a tease, and will get cocky about being Zeus' favorite son, but unlike Athena he is never hostile to Ares for the sake of being hostile. He goes against Ares when the situation calls for it, but that's about it. To be honest I feel like he, being the more rational one, would understand to some extent how Ares feels. But he would not bother much to really do anything about it up until some point because *gestures at the past* things being this way is mostly not his fault and Ares isn't too welcoming. Ares, on the other hand...Apollo is the one Ares that he should hate the most (besides Athena). He is the golden child, the most favored son who is constantly being adored and loved. So Ares thinks that he is his rival, and also that Apollo also must hate him the same amount. But, I also think he probably looks up to Apollo too in a convoluted way - like wishing he could be that while always being aware that he can never be that. One day he'll realise that Apollo doesn't hate and it will be such a mind blowing experience for him lol. Seeing the shift in his feelings towards the person he has a lot of complicated feelings for would be fascinating, and being loved by that person could be a cathartic experience for Ares.

And you know how Ares was also associated with civil order? Do you think that was perhaps due Apollo's influence (just like how he made Hermes the divine messenger and the god of flocks?) They both can also definitely bond over fatherhood!! That is probably one of my favourite things here lol. Aphrodite is also the common bestie (partner) here so it's gotta be be fun.

[randomidiocyncrazies]

It'd be really funny if Juwan's sexuality is never directly addressed in the main comic, but he casually has a bf in the epilogue and it's nbd

[fiepige]

I know it's irrational but still!

[msfbgraves]

Let it stand alone

Saw "Wonka" with the nieces way too late, because I thought it was a cash grab franchise milking faux nostalgic manipulation move, and I guess it was, and I still had a good time.

Now, if I were Roald Dahl, I'd likely object to this sweetheart of a Wonka. Wonka's a mad borderline dangerous maverick in Charlie. But this isn't the book, it's an adaption. If you don't know Wonka isn't a sweetheart, him being one doesn't ring false in the film. And books get adapted all the time - various adaptions aren't necessarily a commentary on one another.

So why tie this so deliberately to the Gene Wilder version? It isn't the same Wonka, and that's OK! It isn't Dahl's Wonka, and that's OK! It's another take on Wonka that works fine for what it is. Do they really think audiences would not have gone to watch a lovely romp about a sweet chocolatier anyway? That Oompa Loompas aren't fun without green hair? Look, this setup could have worked as "The Corruption of Willy Wonka" too, but that isn't what it wanted to be. Tying it too closely to another film for the parents' sake is the only thing that suddenly creates plotholes and ooc moments when there weren't any before.

[chloeseyeliner]

oh my god.

i am never getting over young royals.

[zhoras-bitch]

I just can’t take the way KoD is trying to paint Vic and MC’s relationship as some tragic lovers turned enemies story seriously. ‘This doesn’t sound like the Vic I know’ girl you don’t know Vic. You’ve met them once when you were 15. What the fuck are you talking about.

[calronhunt]

I am like. On my knees begging cis people to write a trans character that's not revealed to be trans by either:

"What is that chick doing" "Actually he's a guy. He's trans" and then moving on and never talking about it again

Or

"here is my very clearly gendered deadname to signal that im trans" and then never bringing it up again

If like. Transphobia isn't a theme in the story that gets talked about in some way, i am just. I am begging you to think of a way to show the audience that they're trans that isn't just -misgenders you-

Do you guys know people can just say they're trans. Do you know this.

[isfjmel-phleg]

One more paragraph to go! I realized that I had put into the first paragraph information that made more sense later on, so shifting things around got some thoughts moving and rekindled my desire to fistfight some of these authors of retellings, which I think is where you're supposed to be emotionally as an academic (this is a joke. I am joking.), so...progress. Very slowly.

[rithmeres]

literally the only saving grace getting me through borrasca part four is the knowledge that a woman wrote it