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Chapter 2, Part 2: Greetings from the Shadow Monster
Glimmerbrook, 282 Years ago
Anastasia
With as much grace as she could muster, Anastasia tried to make her way to the chicken coop without looking overly excited. Seeing Somnus standing there, though, her heart skipped a beat.
“Fancy seeing you here,” he remarked, kicking up a pile of dirt on the ground.
“Not fancy, I live here,” she blushed, “You know that.”
Somnus was just a little older than she was. He came to town to work at the brewery, but he was worldly in a way that Anastasia found fascinating. Sometimes, it seemed like he was hundreds of years old, and he told her the most fantastical stories of vampires and gods and creatures.
Best of all, he had no wish to kiss, marry, or buy a farm and settle down. Hitching her skirts and climbing over the fence, she motioned for him to follow. She only had a few minutes and no wish of being caught by her parents.
Somnus laughed loudly, and when she scolded him, she cringed at how prim she sounded.
“I didn’t know you were such a good girl,” he teased, and her embarrassment grew. “So, what’s on the docket for this evening?”
“Supper. I don’t have long,” she fumbled, “I’m supposed to fetching my father. You could join us for—”
“I mean after supper.” Somnus never wanted to spend time with her family, no matter how many times she asked. Not that it would have gone well. Robert Barrister disliked him intensely, and Gwendolyn Adelaide referred to him as pure malice through and through.
“Mark my words, Anastasia. That man is a monster.”
Shoving her mother’s words to the back of her head, Anastasia smiled and tried to look like the exact opposite of a well-behaved woman. “Oh? And what could you possibly want to do after supper?”
“Hear about your dreams, of course,” he handed her a card. It was for someone named Madame Caliente in Magnolia Promenade. The script was elegant. Anastasia had never known someone with an actual title before.
“What is this?”
“You keep saying you want adventure,” he explained, spreading his arms, “And what do I always say in return? Tell me your dreams, Anastasia, and I’ll make them come true.”
The Underworld
Alice
“I come bearing apology gifts, and by gifts, I mean food,” Ben said, setting a breakfast tray down on the vanity.
Alice had not been successful in her hunt so far, and the whole house knew it. The past three nights had seen all sorts of magic zipping through the halls, sometimes followed by her bellowing a war cry and pumping her fist. After waking up to find their door on fire, her parents begged her to reconsider. “Can’t Vlad handle this?” they urged as if Alice needed another reason to feel like shit.
“I’m not hungry,” she insisted, grabbing a pillow to muffle the sound of her stomach.
“Of course you are,” Ben tutted, “Your stomach is growling, and you’re pregnant.”
“How did you—”
“My mother was the Goddess of Fertility,” he said with a wave of his hand. “You are, too, so it stands to reason that when you and Phobos copulated…wait…you did copulate, right?”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Well anyways, copulation + fertility goddess = baby. I mean, if you intend that? Do you intend that?”
They had shared a body for sixteen years. Ben had to know she did not want to talk about this. “Can you tell me what you want? I’m really busy and I have a lot of things to do.”
“Like what?”
Like kill the shadow beast and fix myself.
“Nothing that you can help with,” Alice warned, “So what’s the deal with this breakfast?”
He hesitated but then launched into an explanation. “These are apology croissants. Bonehilda made them, which is a treat because she usually only cooks for the Embodiments.”
Alice snorted at his mention of the Underworld’s most infuriating inhabitants. Managing them was another thing on her list. “They do smell good.” Her stomach rumbled again, “Thank you.”
“Why don’t you take a shadow beast break?” he grinned, “Grim and I can give you that tour I promised but was allegedly too drunk to deliver.”
Alice Martin Cerberus is a good dog Gwendolyn steals every scene Mikel is Here! Miss Hell Shadow Beast Time Storytelling in space Vladislaus Straud
Comments
4 responses to “Chapter 2, Part 2: Greetings from the Shadow Monster”
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Apologies if this comment is all over the place, my brain is just X_X fried RN.
‘rowing up is all about understanding exactly how little we’re all worth.’ Yikes, such a good way to put it. ;-; The thought of hearing the sound of your body fixing itself is just… XC That’s actually a good point concerning immortality that I never thought about. In a dark way, at least if you’re mortal a horrible, horrible injury won’t hurt ever. Not the case if you’re immortal I guess. Owch. Hey, Alice, even gods make errors sometimes! You’ll get there!
So if I’m understanding this right, when Ben gave up his godhood that the God of Agriculture died as well? And the place in poor repair that was left to Alice, was thrown together by Ben? The shadow dog is cool but freaky. Of course Gwen wants to keep the pet shadow dog. I’m sure Vlad is ecstatic. XD the ending though…Vlad playing off unravelling deep fears and his past as just being hungry. I’m wondering just what it will take to get rid of the shadow beast though. Soon Alice will properly get used to her powers, though! -
Apologies if this comment is all over the place, my brain is just X_X fried RN.
Also apologies if this comment comes up twice, it didn’t work the first time for some reason?
‘rowing up is all about understanding exactly how little we’re all worth.’ Yikes, such a good way to put it. ;-; The thought of hearing the sound of your body fixing itself is just… XC That’s actually a good point concerning immortality that I never thought about. In a dark way, at least if you’re mortal a horrible, horrible injury won’t hurt ever. Not the case if you’re immortal I guess. Owch. Hey, Alice, even gods make errors sometimes! You’ll get there!
So if I’m understanding this right, when Ben gave up his godhood that the God of Agriculture died as well? And the place in poor repair that was left to Alice, was thrown together by Ben? The shadow dog is cool but freaky. Of course Gwen wants to keep the pet shadow dog. I’m sure Vlad is ecstatic. XD the ending though…Vlad playing off unravelling deep fears and his past as just being hungry. I’m wondering just what it will take to get rid of the shadow beast though. Soon Alice will properly get used to her powers, though!-
Haha, my brain is either all over the place or a pile of mush at the moment, so I can relate! The comment did come up twice but WordPress has been acting wonky lately, so I don’t think it’s you.
Oh Mikel, what a sad dude you are!!! Hahaha, he is a lil bit angsty, but every once in a while he lets some observation slip that makes you do a double-take.
Alice is learning so much! Painfully! Terribly! I have confidence in her ability to land on her feet, but she is sort of going through a rough patch at the moment. I’m glad that immortal injuries sounded horrible. I’m doing all I can to make sure I don’t overpower my characters too much. Yes, you can heal, but at what cost?
Yes, when Ben was forced to give up his godhood, he still needed more time to get things ready. Alice wasn’t going to be born for like a few more centuries. His brother, the God of Agriculture, gave up his godhood to try and buy Ben some more time. In fact, Ben’s whole family did this, which is why Alice is technically the God of Death, Agriculture, Nectar, Fertility, and Resurrection. Ben built the Underworld but he was in the midst of a complete breakdown on account of losing his whole family, so…you know…it’s not the best construction job.
LOL Vlad is like, so not interested in keeping this dog. I think he’s a bit overwhelmed because he’s dealing with Gwendolyn and all of his..er…issues.
So interesting that you said deep fears.
SO INTERESTING.
Anyways, I think Alice is gonna get a handle on her power too! And I think they are stuck with that shadow beast dog so long as Gwendolyn wants it…which is probably forever….to Vlad’s chagrin.
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The first character up is supernatural healing logistics. I have so many questions. Do immortals go through strength and flexibility training faster because their muscles rebuild faster? Does telomerase—wait, cancer doesn’t exist in the Sims universe—I mean does p53—wait, cancer doesn’t exist in the Sims universe—I mean, wow, cancer not existing in the Sims universe removes a whole lot of snags for the immortals. Though I would also read a story where, after 300 years, the vampires have a bunch of benign growths everywhere and much of their odd behavior could be explained by a brain scan. My point is, is Jimmy’s thesis work going to involve immortal cell samples? I’d say Valeria should look into it but that’s not her field.
Welp! That’s all the insightful stuff (? arguable) out of the way, and the rest of the comment is just random garbage. For example, the Anastasia/Gwendolyn connection was by far the most important part of this chapter, but “ooooh, let’s watch how this plays out” isn’t much of a take to read. Though now we know why she was trying to steal the child.
B’Unsenburneron—you’re still calling it ‘copulation’? After the shit you pulled? That said, I assume “once I found him shaping the same blade of grass for a decade” is not a personal attack, and yet it SURE FEELS LIKE ONE. God of Agriculture? So that’s where the extended Persephone joke comes in. Lol.
Poor Vlad, getting caretaker fatigue. And roped into getting a dog, too. I’ll be honest, I SHRIEKED at the prospect of Vlad braiding Gwendolyn’s hair. It was only after the chapter ended that I realized how hard that would be in the medium. As for the dog, do shadow dogs eat bunnies? 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
Hey, Kpop Hunger is back! Unless I’m forgetting things, which is quite likely: is that starvation reference a clue as to what Vlad’s mother did?
Grim’s getting some character development—I wonder if he’s always been this flirty, or it’s a coping mechanism for having to witness the origin of death, or whatever. Should we chant ‘flashback’ together? Let’s all chant ‘flashback’ together.
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