Remove ads

Should The Sun Not Rise (Urban Fantasy, Updates Sundays)

reality deviant said:
was most interesting. I am eager for more. And what is Malli? is she an established myth?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Mali is indeed a creature from Aztec myth - although one with which I have taken some liberties in a modern urban fantasy story. Which one should be pretty easy to find online but if you enjoy the mystery keep reading and it will be revealed!
 
"Why?" I asked, my voice straining. "Why that hate? Why that immediate, violent reaction the moment I appear in front of any of you? Why that certainty I'm a criminal? A murderer? I've never done anything. I've lived in Providence peacefully for ages, never bothering anyone. But you had me pegged as the killer before you'd even found me yesterday. It can't just be because I'm Aztec."

She looked at me, half-amused, half-bemused. "You really don't know, do you?"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Chapter 6 is up.
 
's pretty good. I thought that Mali would have a more outsider-ish viewpoint though. We know she was one of those murder-happy Mayan gods and was skinwalking up until four centuries ago, so it feels like she should have a more Fae-ish attitude: academically knowing that murder is bad and trying to put that all behind her, but not having a visceral reaction to it because it's not inheritally a problem for her. Having her be squimish when investigating the ritual site (but not batting an eye at the dead animals?) is kinda weird when she was the one /organizing/ those rituals in the past.

Her power-level is also a bit unintuitive. Shes literally a god and has expressed that her power hadn't gone down since the Mayan days, Mary was afraid she could blow up a building, but she still nearly dies to a pack of Coyotes, is cowed by a gun, immediately backed down to Mary's show of power, and resorts to (basically) vanilla-level hand to hand. I'm kinda hoping that's just rust talking, and she starts pulling out bigger guns later...
 
RenderSettings said:
's pretty good. I thought that Mali would have a more outsider-ish viewpoint though. We know she was one of those murder-happy Mayan gods and was skinwalking up until four centuries ago, so it feels like she should have a more Fae-ish attitude: academically knowing that murder is bad and trying to put that all behind her, but not having a visceral reaction to it because it's not inheritally a problem for her. Having her be squimish when investigating the ritual site (but not batting an eye at the dead animals?) is kinda weird when she was the one /organizing/ those rituals in the past.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's a fair point, and I've had similar comments by some beta readers in the past. At this point in time, Mali is pretty divorced from her origins, and she doesn't see the world as she once did. There actually is a reason for that in the story, but it's one that's explored later.
Her power-level is also a bit unintuitive. Shes literally a god and has expressed that her power hadn't gone down since the Mayan days, Mary was afraid she could blow up a building, but she still nearly dies to a pack of Coyotes, is cowed by a gun, immediately backed down to Mary's show of power, and resorts to (basically) vanilla-level hand to hand. I'm kinda hoping that's just rust talking, and she starts pulling out bigger guns later...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeaah, properly conveying Mali's power is something that's tricky, because a lot of her limitations come from a psychological place - she's grown out of touch with a lot of her abilities. On top of that, her most potent abilities do not manifest as sheer destructive force. Mary was actually overestimating her as a threat, she can't just blow up a building. But Mali does have more tricks up her sleeves once the rust shakes off.
 
Omicron said:
Yeaah, properly conveying Mali's power is something that's tricky, because a lot of her limitations come from a psychological place - she's grown out of touch with a lot of her abilities. On top of that, her most potent abilities do not manifest as sheer destructive force. Mary was actually overestimating her as a threat, she can't just blow up a building. But Mali does have more tricks up her sleeves once the rust shakes off.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Arguably that makes her more deadly, not having overt stuff like blowing up buildings, it makes her have to get creative. :evil:
 
i think the latest chapter gave enough clues to figure out what she is (been trying to figure out from the start), and if im right, then Mali is not a powerhouse from her mythology (Though still fearsome). i will PM my guess to omicron to avoid spoiling it.
 
reality deviant said:
i think the latest chapter gave enough clues to figure out what she is (been trying to figure out from the start), and if im right, then Mali is not a powerhouse from her mythology (Though still fearsome). i will PM my guess to omicron to avoid spoiling it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Theory crafting time!

She's Itzpapalotl - Wikipedia - same picture as OP and name is literally "obsidian butterfly". Her sisters are the other Tzitzimimeh. It sounds like all the other Aztec gods either packed up and went back to heaven after the fall of Tenochtitlan or were never cast out in the first place, while Mali was left behind, and shriveled away due to lack of faith in the centuries since. Mali said they are "dead and sleeping", which also gives a motive for the serial killer: devote enough energy to a specific god that they wake up again.

(Sidenote, but I really hope that someone makes an Indian Jones "Kali Ma!" reference about the serial killer and Mali just gives them a disapproving look...)
 
So this thread got moved by the mods because reasons. We're also on hiatus this week because my planned vacation of a week turned into an incredible clusterfuck. Just a whole chain of good things!
 
With our hiatus over, Should the Sun not Rise continues on to Chapter 8 with an epic, action-packed sequence of... Okay no it's just two nerds talking shop for like three thousand words.

I'm not apologizing.
 
reality deviant said:
Hey! Talking sop can be full of action too!
Is the theme interesting at least?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I am someone who loves history, without actually being an academic of the subject. As a result, I fall into a number of pitfalls when it comes to studying and reading history - I lack a lot of the 'meta' level of historical discourse, the understanding of how and why we write about history in certain specific ways, and I easily find myself drawn towards the shiny and cool-sounding parts of history at the expense of a deeper understanding.

As a result, this was a very difficult and interesting chapter for me to write, because its core conflict was the opposition between an Ivy League professor defending the merits of History as we write about and teach it today, and a laywoman with first-hand experience of the past criticizing History as a fundamentally colonial and Western effort to turn the past into teachable vignettes and escapist fantasies.

If this was a real published book, I would have liked to spend a considerable amount of time talking to people more versed in the subject of historiography than I am, to make that exchange deeper and more complex. On the other hand, Mali isn't supposed to be someone with a background in academic debate, so it sort of works as it is; but I do wish I'd been able to do more research to make this conflict feel more true.
 
I remembered the rain and cloudy night sky, the jungle rustling and hissing and creaking around me. I remembered the temple overgrown with weeds and vines, I remembered standing on the pavement slick with blood now being washed away, and in the distance the lights and cries of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the pyramids rising above the treetops, and myself in this jungle, this abandoned shrine to the forgotten gods of a people that had come before even ours. I remembered the priest bloody and laughing as he clutched his wound, and the smoke that coiled around us, the shadows now prowling among the trees, and I remembered the beast and its eyes full of stars. My pain, my flesh torn away, the power in my bones, my nails of flint and my arrogance.

"You have claimed one world already, beast," I had said with a grin. "Now it is our turn."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Chapter 9 is up. In which shit goes sideways hard.
 
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top