soooooooooooooooooooooooooo here is a sneak peek of one of the other books in the shattered stars series, in the beginning, which is about those two bastards (gabriel and beelzebub, you know the ones). thought i'd share it since shattered stars has been going slow after school started and everything sooooooo have fun - i have meticulously edited out spoilers so -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before Time In the beginning, there was nothing but God. She was never called that, really, by anyone who truly loved her. For people of that sort, she was known as Mother, and the amount that she was loved by those people almost outweighed her own love for them. It was lovely, in the beginning, because there was just those three. Power imbalance wasn’t much of a problem in this relationship; the children, though nearly in control of the mother, loved her too much to bear it, and the mother loved them back, so much so that she could never think of them with anything but utter adoration. This very quality, in the end, would be what caused her death, but there was nothing either the Angel or the Demon could do about that. After all, the only rule was rule Number One: Don’t meddle. The jobs, and all that came around it, however, are not the point of this story. This is a love story. Of many different kinds, but overall, it is a love story, and will always remain so. And after God, there were the two Others. She smiled (finding a way to, not having a mouth) at them patiently, impressions of hands clasped in front of her as the others looked at each other. The blonde one with the white wings smiled. The dark one frowned. And, hands clasped together, the two set off for their quarters. And that was the Beginning, truly. ⚝ Genesis 3 (or rather, right before) “[f-word]." “You’re supposed to be happy about this, you know,” they said huffily. “If I can’t win, at least be happy for me.” “Do I really have to go down there?” “Well, who in Heaven is supposed to go down for you? Me? I should think not!” They took a breath. “I suppose it is all well and due; just like everybody else. Though I was hoping for a little variety. . .” They gave the Demon a beseeching look, as though they could do anything about it. The Demon rather thought the haughtiness before suited them; they seemed a stuck-up person, if that was who they were to be stuck with for forever and onward, la di da. Not terrible, but they could have done better. Very well. Polar opposites, after all, they thought. They stood up, and the Angel followed suit, mirroring their action for no true reason. “You can’t be going so early,” they said. As they did very often, the Demon frowned at them. “Why not?” The Angel’s huge, many eyes blinked. They’d created their best human forms, but accessories such as that remained. Perhaps it was to be unique. “Just - you can’t.” “Yes I can,” the Demon said. “And I will. I’m going now. Goodbye.” And without another awkward word, they were gone. ⚝ (cont)
(cont) Genesis 4 They had names by this point. The humans had taken care of that part, of course. Nice names, too, or at least Gabriel thought so. They did have to wait for a while, mostly addressing each other as ‘hey, you’ and other such versions. But names were nice. They had a sense of belonging. And belonging especially was a good, round feeling. “I don’t like this,” Gabriel said. “Ooh, I really don’t like this.” “You have far too much glee in your voice for the words coming out of your mouth right now,” Beelzebub commented, leaning in front of Gabriel’s shoulder to get a better look. “Did he just -?” “Behind the rock, yes,” Gabriel clarified, still feigning disgust. “Funny how he thinks She’s not going to notice. Ooh, that’s a lot of blood.” “You are a terrible person.” “By definition, love, I’m a very good person. The best, in fact.” They grinned. Beelzebub grimaced mockingly, turning back to the events below. The brothers, of course, weren’t doing so well - one being rather dead and the other rather guilty. It was only a matter of time before She showed up, and then that was a whole nother deal. “I can’t watch anymore,” Gabriel said just as they knew their Mother was going to pop up in that manner of Hers, and Beelzebub was surprised at the sudden sadness in their voice. “I can’t bear to see him make Her sad. It’s too awful.” They brightened up. “Oh! I know what I’ll do!” They stood somewhere off the corner as Beelzebub turned to watch, not entirely sure of why they did. “What are you-” Gabriel stood silently, apparently sifting through something invisible with their eyes clenched shut in concentration. The single flower above their head ruffled in an invisible wind. And suddenly, there were several oddly shaped white things in their hands. They giggled and turned back to Beelzebub, who flinched away from them. “What the hell - ? How the hell - ?” “They’re called cheese curds,” they said with a fervent look in their eyes. “Very popular in Wisconsin, I hear. 10827625, if you must know.” Cautiously, Beelzebub treaded over to them, eyeing the ‘curds’. Stupid name. “Where did you. . . get them?” Gabriel huffed as though the Demon had just said something impossibly stupid. “I told you, number 10827625. Wasn’t too hard; they’re pretty close by.” “You didn’t -!” Beelzebub gawked at them in a manner that they themself did not quite appreciate acting in. “Isn’t that, you know, against the rules?” They made a face, taking one one of the cheese bits from Gabriel’s hand (which was surprisingly warm, they noted) and ate it as best as they could. Eating was rather hard, but they supposed it was worth it. The curds, or whatever, were shockingly not terrible, however much the name might suggest the dire opposite. “Honey,” the Angel said with a terribly condescending manner, “everything I do is the rules.” “Is - is that where you got those blasted tap shoes?” Beelzebub mumbled through a mouthful of cheese. They were both perched on the edge of the table, Gabriel having had pushed aside the scattered cards, dice, and papers that they had haphazardly piled on it. Beelzebub had tried many times to get the Angel to organize it, but to no avail. “Mmhm,” they replied. “They’re gonna be big here, I’m telling you.” “They had bloody better not be,” hissed Beelzebub, leaning forward. “I swear, if you start a blessed trend with those. . .” But Gabriel only grinned at this. “I’m taking all that,” the Demon snapped, but the effect was muffled by the fact that they were now grabbing pathetically at Gabriel’s hands, which were still full of cheese (it kept multiplying, somehow.) “If you want to hold my hand, just ask me,” Gabriel whined, giggling as they jumped up away from them. Beelzebub’s face, inexplicably, grew rather hot. “Oh, bother it,” they huffed. “I’m exhausted.” “ ‘Resting’ again, are you?” Gabriel asked, unbothered with yet another lump of cheese in their mouth and their legs crossed in front of them as they rested back on their wings. “You sleep too,” Beelzebub retorted. “Not like I’m odd in your eyes.” “Yes but you do it so much. I’m beginning to think you only do it to slither out of situations you don’t like.” They popped another cheese curd. “I bloody do not,” they snapped. “I’m leaving now.” “Bye-bye, love.” And it ended, as it had before, with a wave and an awkward exit.
