Showing posts with label Nightlings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nightlings. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
I would like to start off with this post to let everyone know that Chapter 9 is delayed a week. I have two test to study for and a camping trip to go on, basically, I don't have the time. With that out of the way, I wanted to write another fun post.
A lot of the names in the book have a special meaning behind them. As I pointed out in Chapter 8, most of the street names are Catholic saints, like Martha street where Ezra lives in named after Saint Martha, the patron saint of cooks.
Some names don't have that special of names, Syringa is just the real name of lilacs and has a lot of them. Monday's home town Larksper is the common name of Consolida, a flower that is toxic to humans. Some of the characters names don't have any real meaning other then I liked them; names like Jolene, Jason, Edith, and Marcus. Bo was named after a fictional charter from the Thief Lord(BTW great kids book)
And sometimes what seemed like random names turned into happy accidents.
For example, Monday at one point was named Wendy and it was going to be short for Wednesday. i thought that it was to cliche to name a depressing charter after the worst day of the week in the mother goose poem, so instead I settled on Monday. Fair of face but worst day of the week, a little bit of bad and good, just like Monday. However after I renamed her is when I discovered that the day Monday is named after the moon. I gave my night dwelling character a night themed name. (Side note, the moon has nothing to do with night, I did learn something out of Intro to Astronomy.)
Some other characters had their back story added because of their name. Ezra was always Ezra because I liked the name and Sorin was named Sorin after I watched Legend of the Guardians, the stupid owl movie. I liked the name and my have been influenced by Jim Sturgess.
And yet after I named them and looked up what their names meant, I was kinda inspired by them. Ezra means "Help" in Hebrew, which inspired his Jewish heritage and Sorin meant "Sun" in Romanian, which inspired his heritage, just the Romanian part, the Romani part came in later.
I like knowing the meaning behind character names, even if it's not intentional. It's like colorful eggs on a Easter egg hunt. Since i won't post again still afterwards, Happy Early Easter, Eostre, bunny commercialism or whatever you celebrate.
A lot of the names in the book have a special meaning behind them. As I pointed out in Chapter 8, most of the street names are Catholic saints, like Martha street where Ezra lives in named after Saint Martha, the patron saint of cooks.
Some names don't have that special of names, Syringa is just the real name of lilacs and has a lot of them. Monday's home town Larksper is the common name of Consolida, a flower that is toxic to humans. Some of the characters names don't have any real meaning other then I liked them; names like Jolene, Jason, Edith, and Marcus. Bo was named after a fictional charter from the Thief Lord(BTW great kids book)
And sometimes what seemed like random names turned into happy accidents.
(You can skip to 3:00. If you ever have a bad day, watch Bob Ross)
For example, Monday at one point was named Wendy and it was going to be short for Wednesday. i thought that it was to cliche to name a depressing charter after the worst day of the week in the mother goose poem, so instead I settled on Monday. Fair of face but worst day of the week, a little bit of bad and good, just like Monday. However after I renamed her is when I discovered that the day Monday is named after the moon. I gave my night dwelling character a night themed name. (Side note, the moon has nothing to do with night, I did learn something out of Intro to Astronomy.)
Some other characters had their back story added because of their name. Ezra was always Ezra because I liked the name and Sorin was named Sorin after I watched Legend of the Guardians, the stupid owl movie. I liked the name and my have been influenced by Jim Sturgess.
Look familiar?
And yet after I named them and looked up what their names meant, I was kinda inspired by them. Ezra means "Help" in Hebrew, which inspired his Jewish heritage and Sorin meant "Sun" in Romanian, which inspired his heritage, just the Romanian part, the Romani part came in later.
I like knowing the meaning behind character names, even if it's not intentional. It's like colorful eggs on a Easter egg hunt. Since i won't post again still afterwards, Happy Early Easter, Eostre, bunny commercialism or whatever you celebrate.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
“Are
you sure this is safe?”
Monday
looked up at an 8 story building on Sanders street. Sanders Street was one of
the few streets not named after saints; it was once the factory side of town
where the Blair brewery was built, but the family had moved locations years
back, leaving empty buildings behind. The moonlight hit the crumbling brick and
bounced of the broken glass roofs illuminating the ally below. Monday stood
next to Ezra, both in Nightling form and wearing the Nightling's uniform; dark
jean, fingerless gloves, and a black tank top with a slit in the back for the
wings, it was a week since she had become and Nightling training had begun.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Monday felt
a jolt as she woke up, back in the small room, surprised to find her feeding
tube was missing. She could feel her body twitch and twist as it felt like she
was being pulled apart. Monday bucked in the bed but found not only was she
still bound to the bed, but now, her legs were bound too. Monday looked over at
Edith and saw that she was reading something on her tablet, “Edith, I need more
meds.”
Edith
looked up at her with black eyes and gave her a sad smile, “This is the part
where you’re going to call me a bitch.” Monday looked down at her arm and saw
that the IV was gone, she looked back at Edith, who wasn’t smiling anymore,
“The change creates a high level of adrenaline and the amount of anesthesia and
blood thinners that you would need is unsafe. Plus, the transformation is
smoother if you’re angry.”
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The further I get into the book,
the more I think about how Nightlings work. I’ve always wondered about the
science behind mythical creatures and how they would work in the real world.
Not things like, why do werewolves exist but, werewolves that grow in size when
they change, were does the extra mass for that come from and were does it go?
In this blog post, I’m just going
to clarify the science behind them to 1. Clarify what’s going on to my readers,
and 2. A note to look back on when I change things and need to clarify them
more. This is a non-spoiler post; it just clarifies the information that our
Character Monday.
The Science of Nightlings
Nightlings in the simplest terms
are the physical embodiment of human rage. This is based on the idea who stores
of people who snap. Example would be the battered housewife who stabs her husband
30 times, it’s shocking and goes against common since but in a way, it’s
understandable. To be a Nightling you need to things
1.
A trigger – The Fledgling stage
2.
A release – The Nightling stage
The trigger is an event that cements
the rage inside a person. Take Monday, she was abused by her step-father for
years, but the event of the night that Alyson killed herself- Alyson tried to
save Monday from her stepfather but Monday, scared of what would happened,
turned on Alyson and defended her stepfather in court. Alyson, being bullied
for “trying to harm Monday’s poor and innocent Step-father” kills herself but
not before calling Monday to let her know. This is Monday’s trigger; the loss
of her only friend to her stepfathers actions. This cements the rage in Monday
against her stepfather, because Monday is not the only victim now. Monday also
feels some rage against herself, which isn’t uncommon for Nightlings, for her
roll in the event. This moment is what triggers Monday to follow Alyson’s body
to Syringa and starts the Fledgling process.
Next comes the Nightling stage. To
be a Nightling, you have to release that pint up rage in an inhuman way, such
as killing. It can’t be done in self defiance either. You’ll notice that Monday
escapes her Step-father in the kitchen in Chapter 5 with stabbing him in the
chest, if she gone to a neighbor and called the police, she could have been
spared from being a Nightling, but instead she goes back and stabs him to death
instead. Dion would have probably died, but Monday’s rage is what killed him,
not her self defense.
It’s important to note that not all
people can be Nightlings, because react to different situations differently,
going back to the metaphor before, not all abuse women are going to kill there
husbands. Not all people are going to be Nightlings, being a Nightling is
something that you a predisposed to. All it takes is the right events to
trigger the change.
The next part is the first change
itself. I’m not going into detail on the actual change itself, since that will
covered in Chapter 7. The first change happens the first night you commit your
first kill. Nightlings follow the sunrise and the sunset. Which means that at
different times of year, the Nightlings phase is either shorter or longer? More
detail about the change will come next week.
Now that you a Nightling, what is
your lifestyle? First of all, Nightling drink blood (Monday sees Edith give
Ezra a bottle in Chapter 3), but not on the nights that they kill. All of their
victims are picked out for them ahead of time. If the victim’s blood type is
known a head of time, then they may drink but it is not preferable. This will
be explained more in alter chapters but what generally happens is that after a
Nightling kills their target, Lenny is in charge of collect the bodies from the
crime scene. Once he has he bodies, he has the blood test to make sure there
are no drugs or disease and drains the body of blood. The blood is then typed
and if the blood is compatible, then it is sent to the Nightling who killed the
target. I the targets blood type is not known before hand and the targets blood
doesn’t match, then Lenny will switch bloods to different Nightlings, depending
on their blood type. The blood is then bottled up and Edith delivers the blood
to the different Nightlings, sometimes with their next kill. Nightlings only
kill about once every 6 weeks. Nightlings have to drink blood to keep the
inhuman, animalistic side of them at bay. They won’t die, but they will become
unstable and prone to outburst of aggression that can lead to accidental
deaths.
I may be over thinking it but these
are just the basic facts. In later chapters, I’ll post updated post on things
like:
1.
The pros and cons to the Nightling life
2.
The system that keeps them under ground
3.
The physics of being a Nightlings
If anyone had any questions, leave
them in comments. New blog posts this week to make up for the week I took off.
Chapter 7 on next Monday; although it could come sooner, it’s a good chapter.
Monday, March 4, 2013
I
took only an hour and half for him to find her, but it was the longest hour and
a half of Monday’s life.
Monday
was pressed up against the counter, she wanted to look away from Dion, but all
she could do was stair at him in. Monday tried to come up with what she had
done, but off all the emotions she felt- anger, repulsion, horror- the only way
to describe what she felt was relief. He can’t hurt me anymore, Monday thought.
The feeling of ease washed over her, but there was darkness to it. This must be
the Nightling side of her being freed.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Every day
was walking on eggshells; Monday felt her mother was overtly nice to her one
minute, but then ignore the next. Dion kept a watchful eye on her, and because
of it, Monday never tried to be alone with him. Monday missed the days with
Ezra: that wasn’t prison, this was.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The grave
had not changed in the last three days, and yet, it felt different being back.
Ezra had
brought Monday to the graveyard to pack up her things and to see Alyson again.
As Monday stood before her clean and safe, Marcus’s meeting was replaying in
her head. The grief and guilt had boiled back up, but now Monday felt a new
emotion; angry. Monday hated the fact that in the last few weeks she would wake
up from the nightmare of Alyson’s last words repeating in her head; the sobs,
the drop, the sounds of her mother crying. Monday felt guilty about her part,
but Alyson had brought this on herself. Alyson just had to drag her to hell
with her.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
BEEP BEEP
BEEP
Monday
jerked awake, her head aching and for a minute, she forgot about the night
before, but when she looked around, panic and confusion set in. The room was
cozy, Monday laid in a soft bed under a tan blanket in a room with blue walls
and wood furniture; after the crypt, this was heaven. Monday sat up and felt
her head, the pain was terrible and she could feel a knot right above her eye.
Trying to remember the night before, she looked down and muffled a scream. She
was coved in dirt and blood. Last night flashed back to her; the stone angel,
Pat’s neck splitting open, and the cold, black eyes of the monster that caused
it all. Monday began to shake.
Looking
around for a way out, she saw that there were no windows and only one door.
Monday climbed out of bed, stumbling a little and approached the door, but as
she put her hand on the doorknob, she heard voices behind it.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The
grave had changed in the last month, like Monday’s life, it had acquired an air
of abandonment around it. The January snow had already begun to cover the hill
of dirt that once told Monday where to find her friend, but Monday had visited
the grave so often that she knew its location by heart. As she stood in front
of the grave surrounded by the dead, she marveled at the fresh headstone and
envied the dead girl. Just arrived this morning, Alyson’s tombstone,
accompanied by her parents, who lingered only a few minutes before leaving in
their grief. The headstone was a shock. Until this morning, Monday felt like
she was in a fog, that the death wasn't real but until this moment, the arrival
the marker had made the death real. Monday realized in her weakened hungry
state, with no home to go back to, for the first time in her seventeen years
she longed for her own headstone and to join her friend six feet under.
But
then who would look after the dead?
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