Hi all,

Happy almost Halloween! 

After nearly a year, I've finally managed to finish "The Advocate" minus proofing and writing the final scene.  So I'm really hoping things can get back to normal here with far fewer re-runs. 

Anyway, in honor of the holiday, I thought I'd look at some more scary/creepy tropes in the Dyeland/Asteriana stories.  And if anyone has any recommendations for some good Halloween viewing, let me know! 

God bless,
Jenni
More Spooky Halloweenesque Tropes

Cosmic Horror Story- Subverted.  It occurred to me whilst writing "The Advocate" that JenniAnn is living in the opposite of a Cosmic Horror Story... whatever that is.  In Cosmic Horror, an eldritch abomination may be pulling the strings and care as much about us as we care about some random ant... aka not at all.  And, sure, that's terrifying.  But there's also a certain terror in the opposite: someone very, very ancient and, in some ways, incomprehensible has noticed you and you are extremely important to them.  This isn't too spoilery so I'll just go ahead and talk about it but in TA, JenniAnn has a moment where she realizes that Andrew shows no deference to Cephas aka St. Peter.  They have a good relationship but, if anything, Cephas seems really comfortable acting almost as an assistant to Andrew.  And it just kind of does a number on JenniAnn to realize that she's in a relationship with someone who St. Peter has no trouble taking directions from.  JenniAnn ends up confessing that sometimes she kinda of dissociates from the enormity of who Andrew is and what he does because it's just too much.  While I think JenniAnn is very happy with her life and loves Andrew dearly, I do think it would be kind of terrifying to realize she holds so much sway with someone who, for all she knows, saw the Earth be created and will be there when the whole thing eventually dies.  And if she really messed things up and hurt him... even unintentionally... whatever that did to him could potentially echo through centuries.  And I do think that could be horrifying just in its enormity.  So I don't blame her at all for dissociating and sometimes not consciously thinking that much further than "Andrew has been an AOD since 1865."  Possibly Arthur feels something very similar at times although I think the AOD thing adds an edge that caseworker just doesn't.  Joccy and Steve might also experience similar although they know their partners definitely did not see the Earth being created given Ed was born in 1000 AD and yours truly is actually a few years older than Takoda.

Anyway, I just found myself thinking about that recently.  The whole trope is also subverted just on the basis that Joshua is God and a very good and loving one... definitely not Cthulhu.

Always Night- Hell is depicted as being more gray and faded than outright dark as night.  But there do seem to at least be places where darkness prevails.  In the future-set "Aroha," Ed has a panic attack and flashback to his time in Hell while being alone in a very dark hotel room.

Vengeful Ghost- Vengeful demon, rather... except he's bad at it.  Ed is initially able to get revenge on the man responsible for killing his people.  But once that revenge harms the next generation, he quickly loses his appetite for it.  His supervisor, Iggy, tries to prod him and Ed does occasionally try to further harm humans but ends up just causing them minor irritation.  That's until he's so broken down that he agrees to possess a man in order to get out of Hell for a while.  Except turns out that man is Steve... his anam cara.  Anyway... they're married now.  Sometimes when I need a laugh, I imagine word getting to Satan.  "So... Edgar's not coming back...  Well, he's human now.  And engaged.  No really.  I saw the wedding registry.  I hear He's actually hosting the reception... and giving a toast... and they're taking his last name.  It all seems very... cozy." 

Too Much For Man to Handle- This is a point of contention for Andrew and JenniAnn early on and still sometimes rears up although far less commonly now.  The problem is that, as Andrew's partner, JenniAnn thinks he should be able to share everything with her when he needs to unload.  And while humans can certainly have jobs that involve a lot of trauma, I don't think any earthly job is going to feature as much of that as an angel of death faces... even if for no other reason than we're talking about decades, centuries, and eons seeing and experiencing truly difficult stuff.  While, say, an ER doctor working on a shooting victim might suffer flashbacks to another tragedy a decade before, Andrew can at any time be triggered by something that happened in, say, the Middle Ages.  And that's a lot to dump on a mortal woman in her 40s who has lived a relatively sheltered life.  But Andrew has learned how to open up about what's bothering him while also using discretion.  Unfortunately, that flew out the window when the two were attacked by demons, one of which made JenniAnn see a recent assignment of Andrew's in full, awful detail.  She ended up having a seizure and suffering from flashbacks for a while.  They're still in counseling over the whole ordeal.

Really Seven Hundred Years Old- Most of the angels are this.  With the exception of Takoda, Violeta, and Gloria who were all born within the past few decades; all the other angels appear to be of normal human ages but are all at least 1000 years old with many of them being older than humanity.  Their maturity levels, however, can be wildly variable.  Even the oldest created being, Marty, can sometimes slip up and let his emotions overcome his normal wisdom and stoicism.  Because they were formerly vampires, Josef, Marco, and Isolde are all several hundred years old yet appear to be in their 20s, 30s, or 40s.  The majority of the spirits who pop up are also well over 700 years old.

Realism Induced Horror- I am absolutely in this camp.  While supernatural entities are everywhere in the Asteriana/Dyeland stories, the scares pretty rarely stem from them.  I mean, sure, the demons are scary in "Shadowlands" and "A Thousand Years."  But that's two stories.  Most of the scary stuff comes from just plain humans who do awful things whether that be the unnamed colonizer in "The Lost Sheep" or the traffickers in "Chrysalis" or Rex, Derek, Blaine, and assorted other abusive and perverted people.  With the exception of Beatrice, the former cult member who left hateful graffiti at St. G's, and Cameron, the guy who got radicalized online then shot Joshua, the human bad guys very rarely get more than a shadowy promise of redemption based solely on Joshua being all-loving.  They are sometimes literally put on a bus and never heard from again.  Demons, meanwhile, have much better odds of getting detailed redemption plot lines.  In the future, a few of the characters even start a little side project where all they do is help demons reclaim their angelic identities.  And I think this dichotomy is owing to the fact that things like sexual abuse, gun violence, and christofacism scare me a heckuva lot more than demons do.  I think the Ed/Jason dichotomy in "The Lost Sheep" really brings this home.  Jason was just your sadly common abusive and manipulative bad boyfriend with an alcohol abuse problem whose behavior eventually caused Steve to deteriorate so badly that there was genuine concern for his life.  Even after learning that Ed is a demon, Steve's friends are far more scared by the idea of Steve ever ending up with another guy like Jason than with an actual demon.

The Power of Blood- Of the AB type.  Joshua's blood mixed with Marty's tears over his death end up creating flowers which are themselves the cure for vampirism when either consumed or pressed into an open wound. 

Our Spirits Are Different- I decided to use the term "spirit" to denote any character who appears in the stories who has died previously... with the exception of Joshua.  Joshua is just Joshua, fully human and fully God, no matter when he's appearing.  But Maryam, Yosef, John, etc. are spirits.  I opted not to use saints because I knew I was going to make some characters up whole cloth and, thus, not all of them are recognized as saints.  The reason they're different is because in lots of other media, spirits are used interchangeably with ghosts.  But none of these people have unfinished business.  They're not haunting.  They've just willfully, and with God's permission, chosen to leave Heaven to help the mortals out... or just to have some fun.  They do take on mortal form, however, meaning they're flesh and blood.  People can hug them.  They can eat food.  And, though to a lesser extent than when they actually were mortal, they can be negatively impacted by what's going on around them.  Seeing something in the modern world might trigger them in ways they certainly don't deal with in Heaven.  So they can be emotional but not in the sort of way that can get a person stuck and beaten down because they've seen Eternity and know that pain and fear and all those negative parts of human life are temporary.

Must Be Invited- Not really a thing in the stories as evidenced by Ed being able to come and go from St. G's as he pleases without anyone even knowing he's there... save Joshua who has an inkling.  I suppose you could say he was invited just based on the fact that Joshua wanted him there but he never told Ed that.  While Crowley's initial appearance in Asteriana is still being worked on, his arrival is another case of not being explicitly invited but Andrew and JenniAnn are fine with it when he shows up.  Before the vampires were cured, they could also come and go from homes and businesses without being invited inside.  This trope would have made Mick's PI work really difficult, come to think of it.

Jacob Marley Apparel- Subverted.  No one wears the clothes they died in.  All of the spirits wear modern clothes though they might bear some similarities to clothes they wore in their previous lives... a la Maryam wearing scarves and tunics and flowy skirts that, at least in terms of the resulting silhouette, resemble her 1st century garb.  The closest we come to this is when he's playing Jesus in JCS, Joshua wears a seamless robe that is from his 1st century wardrobe.  He could have conceivably worn it shortly before his death.

Holy Burns Evil- I guess it depends on how you look at it.  The vampires aren't actually evil so maybe it's not surprising that at least some of them are practicing Catholics complete with cross necklaces and rosaries.  But maybe if there had been a truly evil vampire in the stories, they might have been tormented by the same.  There is a hint that holy objects, including ones from diverse religions and cultures, do torment evil demons in "The Lost Sheep."  Steve's housemates put a collection of crosses, rowan charms, kitabs, rainbow pinwheels, and windchimes around the perimeter of his property and they do actually keep the demons stalking Ed away.  But Ed himself is able to be around them without any discomfort despite also being a demon, albeit a reluctant one.  I kinda like to think that the objects themselves didn't really do anything.  Rather, the faith in a Higher Power, their community, and even the power of music kept the bad demons away yet protected Ed because he was by then part of the community that put them up.

Gay Guy Dies First- Unsurprisingly... no.  Of the recurring characters, chronologically the first person to die is Yosef who is straight and married to Maryam.  We still don't know who among the Friends dies first.  However, just based on age, it's likely to be Catherine or Vincent who are both straight.  Actually, no, I would count Father/Jacob as among the Friends and he's already died.  He was also straight.  The only two Friends whose deaths we know anything about are Josef (straight) and JenniAnn (ace).  They both die in the 2070s which means JenniAnn is likely over 90 years old when she dies.  So I don't think anyone can claim "bury your queers" at that point!

Devil In Disguise- Ed does pretend to be a normal human for a time after he first meets Steve.  Initially, this is so he can gather information that will help when he possesses Steve.  However, that doesn't remain the case for long.  Ed pretty quickly comes to care deeply about Steve and enjoys living with him and his housemates.  When his mask slips and Steve finds out he's a demon, they've both developed some intense feelings so things pretty much still continue as if Ed was just a normal guy.  And now Ed really is just a normal guy.

Ascended Demon- Despite the trope explanation saying this is rare, it's actually not so much in the stories.  Eben, Crowley, and Ed were all formerly demons who returned to being angels.  It's hinted that Nen and Tzila could very well follow in their footsteps eventually.  And, as mentioned above, some of the Friends eventually end up helping demons see the light as something of a side project. 

Divine Infernal Family- Yeah... and that's part of what makes things really tragic at points.  One reason I'm excited to share "The Advocate" soon is it gets more into the fraternal feelings among the angels and demons.  Some of the tension also comes from how each side views humans as fitting into the family.  For lack of better terms, let's call them Team Satan and Team Marty.  Team Satan thinks humanity was a mistake but if they have to be around then they're definitely lesser.  Team Marty considers humans to be an important branch of the family and doesn't necessarily feel the need for a hierarchy.  This is likely at least partly why both Ed and Crowley were pretty bad at being demons.  They love humanity and just had weak moments.  I actually think a version of the horseshoe theory works well to explain Crowley.  He loved the idea of Earth and humanity but was appalled at the idea of humans (Joshua included) being mortal with all the potential for suffering.  So he slowly fell in with Satan who was rebelling against the entire humans and Incarnation idea for very different reasons.  Thus, they ended up behaving similarly but from two very different mindsets and motivations.  Ed then ended up replicating this same thing eons later.  He was susceptible to demonic influence not because he hated humanity.  He was grieving his human family and when the demon Iggy promised him a chance at retribution, he took it and fell.  I've come to realize that my interpretation of Satan in the stories is really similar to a cult leader who might promise things like freedom and justice but then once someone is in his grasp, they realize it's all an illusion and all they've gained is the exact opposite of what they wanted.  They're trapped under the thumb of a megalomaniac who never got over not being Daddy's Most Specialest Boy.

I also think in the stories, moreso than in TBAA, the angels kind of settle into family units.  Violeta is never going to call Andrew "Dad."  That would be weird.  But she considers his human children to be her siblings and admits that he basically functions as her dad and JenniAnn as her mom.  In the future, we'll also see a bit more of how Ed's supervisor, Hahana, dealt with his fall.  It's pretty reminiscent of being a bereaved mother.  JenniAnn has referred to Marty, Aziraphale, and Crowley as her "brothers-in-love" due to the fact that she sees them as Andrew's brothers and thus also hers since she's in a relationship with Andrew.  I don't think she feels that way solely about those three, either.  It's even there in the fact that Andrew and Monica are raising their children as cousins which suggests they identify as siblings.

All that being said, even the Team Marty angels can sometimes get a bit prideful and even dismissive of their younger siblings.  Marty refers to Jamie/Jamesina who is thousands of years old as a "literal child" in "The Shepherd."  In TA, Jamie herself refers to Ed as "some baby angel with poor impulse control" (I mean she's kinda not wrong...).  And then there's Marty's campaign to never let Andrew and JenniAnn outside of Asteriana without himself or some approved Watcher accompanying them.  This isn't necessarily coming from a bad place.  I think any of us with younger siblings can understand the mix of over-protectiveness and also not really loving it when a younger sibling actually has their stuff together and maybe has insight we don't.

And, yes, Joshua and the Father consider all of them to be their children: angel, human, or demon.

Hot as Hell- I mean just look at Ed and Crowley...  (If you don't watch OFMD or GO, contact me and I will gladly point you to pics!)  But also a lot of the angels are ridiculously good looking, too, so the demons hardly have a monopoly on good looks.

You Are Worth Hell- I covered this one before but thought of another trio of examples.  Andrew goes to Sheol after demons torment his friends and family with hellish nightmares, thus proving he'd rather go to Hell than allow those he loves to suffer.  Years later, Ed tries to bargain with Azrael for Steve's life, offering to go back to Hell if it means Steve will overcome a horrible case of COVID.  Azrael explains that it doesn't work that way but I don't think anyone doubts Ed would have followed through.  (I keep meaning to come back to this moment from Azrael's perspective because I imagine it shook him up quite a lot.)  Later, Steve offers to go to Hell if Joshua will save Ed.  Joshua assures him that such a sacrifice is neither desired nor necessary.

In none of these cases were the loved ones in danger of going to Hell.  But I think it still fits since the three were willing to suffer Hell if it meant making things better for their loved ones.

Backup From Otherworld- At the end of "The Shepherd," the apostles arrive at St. G's to guard it against the Christofacists who are protesting outside.  In "The Lost Sheep," the long-dead Serge and Bach arrive at Steve's house to keep guard there while the household is in Asteriana and New York City.  I suppose any time Joshua or a member of his family shows up to help the Friends, it's this. 

Balancing Death's Books- As mentioned above, Ed attempts to do a version of this when Steve is seemingly dying from COVID.  Since he was a demon, he couldn't actually die so instead he offered to go back to Hell in exchange for Steve's life.  But that's not how things work in their reality.

De-Aged in Death- In "Shadowlands," JenniAnn recognized Chava, Sophia, and Cora from old photographs because they no longer looked like the old women she knew but, instead, appeared as their younger selves.  Conversely, Jamey had grown into a young man despite dying as an unborn baby.  And while not explicitly stated, at the end of "God in the Gloom," JenniAnn herself has de-aged when a recently grief-stricken Andrew reunites with her in the heavenly Fields of Gold.

The Death of Death- Not really, especially since neither Andrew nor any of the other AODs are actually Death or bringers of death.  They're just there to bring comfort and escort the dead person Home.  But there's maybe something like it coming...  If you think about Andrew's decision to age alongside JenniAnn, there obviously comes a point where his human form will reach maximum age.  So what happens?  Is he just stuck appearing to be 120 odd years old forever?  I don't think so.  In "God in the Gloom," JenniAnn asks Andrew to stay with their kids for at least one year after her death.  Whatever happens after that... we don't know.  But Andrew is clearly going to keep his promise.  My current suspicion is a year and a day after JenniAnn dies, Andrew is taken to Heaven where he resumes the thirtysomething form he'd had for the vast majority of his life.  Whether he then returns to Earth to resume his AOD assignments or some other responsibility or remains in Heaven... I don't know. 



This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye for giving me an excuse to spend time on tvtropes.org and claim it's productive!  :-)

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