#bookquotes — Public Fediverse posts

Just a quote from #AngelsBeforeMan by #RafaelNicolas

> ‘I wish I could get even closer to you — I wish we could sink into each other and become one.’ Lucifer clutched Michael’s clothing. ‘What is inside of you, archangel? Did Father plant flowers within this body too? I want to peel you open and suck the nectar from them.’

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From #AngelsBeforeMan by #RafaelNicolas

Single quotes are thoughts
Double quotes are speech
Determination of identity for the parties involved here is left as an exercise for the reader

> “Haven’t you imagined it? I know you have. Me beneath you, crying out your name.” ‘Pleading for you to be gentler but not meaning it.’ “In front of everyone, right? So they all know who I belong to.” ‘My hands clawing at your back, pulling at your wings, legs raw and sore.’ “You, violating this body,” ‘eviscerate me,’ “and even He would be jealous of the way I’d sing for you.”

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From #AngelsBeforeMan by #RafaelNicolas

> ‘Here, you’re like the pistil of a flower.’ Fingers searching, exploring — ‘petals, here.’ And their bodies coming, sliding, together. ‘Running your touch up my sides, threading your soul to mine.’ Limbs entangling and, then, songs of laughter again. Embracing, bringing their mouths to lock. ‘Complete, He said, but I don’t want to be complete; I’d rather be split and become full with you.’ He’d part his legs. ‘Split me, here.’
> ‘I want to be soil. I want to be wet earth, begging to be sowed.’ Curls of hair, soft against his pulsing throat. ‘Make me mountainous, beneath your grip.’

I really like that there is genital ambiguity embedded in the prose. The focus on everything else makes it so much nicer in my opinion. I'm a bit biased though.

Side note: The pronouns are all He/Him in this book because She/Her hasn't even been invented yet, and won't be until Book 2.

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From #AngelsAfterMan by #RafaelNicolas

If you're okay with minor spoilers, Dina is a precious angel, so sweet and naive. He just talked to an ancient star who immediately saw Dina as an opportunity. I can't elaborate further on that without actual spoilers.

> ‘God will never tell you what you were made for.’ Before Dina could reply, the star added, ‘But if you don’t want to decide what you’re for on your own, then I will help you.’
> Dina’s lips twitched at the ends, wanting to smile. ‘You will?’
> ‘All angels are tools, weapons. I’ll wield you if God won’t.’
> ‘I want to be wielded.’ He would like to be used.
> ‘I’ll make use of you.’

In case you can't tell, Dina is very much a submissive type that wants to be told what to do and then told how good of a job he's doing, with headpats and such. :neofox_pat:

There is another vibe going on here, and I am happy to talk about that further if anyone else can detect it, or has read through this part of the book. It is something that will need a different CW, so I'm leaving it out of this post.

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From #AngelsBeforeMan by #RafaelNicolas

I feel that I may not have been posting steamy enough quotes to get y'all's attention. This book has plenty of steamy scenes.

> ‘Yes. Hold me, squeeze me there, nuzzle me open.’ <redacted> opened his mouth, feeling as if wine poured out from between his lips, and released a sweet, languid sound.

Later in the same chapter

> ‘Devour me like a pomegranate and stain your tongue.’

I think I have a sticker with that one on it somewhere.

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From #AngelsBeforeMan by #RafaelNicolas

From Chapter 16.

Also quick note. Dialogue happens with double quotes, and thoughts happen in single quotes to distinguish the two.

> As he walked back to the Father, He said, “There is nothing more important than remaining clean. An angel that becomes impure becomes unworthy to live in paradise.”
> Lucifer stood by His side, unsure, not understanding. “Impure? What does it mean to be impure?” In his head, he cried, ‘Have I become impure? Have I become ruined?’
> “To not know impurity is to be pure,” the Lord replied simply. “Do not tremble, Lucifer. You have nothing to fear.”

As many of you might guess, this is very much echoing purity culture. The definition of what it even means to be impure is obfuscated. Which means it can simply be used to label anyone impure on a whim.

A little farther in the same chapter

> “You have my mercy.” But the Father didn’t tell him to stand. “And you have my love, Lucifer.”
> It took everything Lucifer had not to burst into tears of affection, even if his knees pressed onto prickling rocks. He thought, ‘It is good to bleed, right?’
> “All that I say comes from a place of love.” ‘Is love meant to pierce?’

:blobcatbounce:

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From #AngelsBeforeMan by #RafaelNicolas

> A star, somewhere, swelled before it burst into a massive storm of radiance. Watching it spin, Lucifer could only manage to ask, “Are you pleased with me, Father?” The Lord was silent still. “Please. All I wish is to be what you intended me to be.” But Lucifer couldn’t stomach the silence; his breathing picked up, pain swelling within him like that distant sun. He whispered, “Am I good enough?” He couldn’t fight the whites of his eyes flooding red as droplets began to trickle down onto his cheeks. “Do you love me?”

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From #AngelsAfterMan by #RafaelNicolas

This book covers Revelations. :neofox_cool: Yes, that one. :neofox_cool_fingerguns:

A quote from chapter 1.

> Yet, prayer is pleading; what Son of God implores for his Father to listen?

Also including the paragraph for some context, but probably will leave you just wanting more. The whole chapter is oozing with context before the book plot starts up.

> Silence, Nazarene man. Watch the bygone approach, enshrouded in veil and robe, a sentenced stranger without shape. The damned one spoke serpentine, asking if it had been forty days, forty mornings and nights, that they had spent here in silence, in starving. With each footstep, the Nazarene never stirred to the sound of marches between his own nor to each hiss between his prayers. Yet, prayer is pleading; what Son of God implores for his Father to listen? The carpentry in his blood must have boiled; it believed love must be beat and sawed and nailed to be built. In the temple, the child had touched the wood of a wall, and he had breathed in the dust and hacked it out. No breath of life, see. The Lord’s sighs into the mouths of man were absent in the teeth of a Nazarene boy. Hear his mother. She chased her lost son, and she had not found him but an ingrown body of grandeur dreams.

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Back to posting select snippets and quotes. This time from the #AngelsTrilogy by #RafaelNicolas

This snippet is from one of the first visits to Earth, and I thought it was just a nice way to highlight the existence of gay panic in this book.

> “Michael, take this off. Let me wash it. It’s my fault, I was the one who had to be saved.”
> Michael laughed. “Your robes are dirty as well. Really, we should both wash up. Did you bring any spare robes?” Lucifer nodded. “Good, as did I. I brought some soaps as well.”
> “Soaps?”
> “Yes.”
> “To wash our… bodies with?”
> “Yes?”
> Lucifer blinked once, then twice, and as the realization of what Michael was intending settled, a warm flush blanketed his cheeks. “You wish to bathe? Here?”
> Michael raised a brow at the other but laughed, smoothly. “Yes. Is there a problem?”
> Lucifer cleared his throat, shaking his head, a little too much, hearing his earrings jangle. “Won’t it be unsafe? What if we get attacked again?”

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Context is dance lessons. See https://lgbtqia.space/@h3mmy/115579536249551191 for an earlier portion of the scene.

> “You told me you have to pass as a man,” Iscend whispered. “I am your woman. Be the man.”
> “How?”
> “Answer the questions I’m asking you. Look. Look how I withdraw. Look at this, the coverage of throat and chest. Look at the way I step, here, to part the legs, and here across, to close them. Look how I turn from your body, to hide it from my sight. I am indifferent to you, I am denying your power. Deny my denial. Take what you want.”

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This is the start of one of my favorite parts of the book.

For most of her life Barhu has been questing to destroy the Empire of Falcrest from within. She's on her way to an encampment on her travels, where it's rumored some of her home tribe might be being held. There's a short detour where one of her traveling companions, a Falcresti operative, has been trying to seduce her. During this... interaction, everyone is surprised to suddenly have her mother show up, and one of her dads (she has two).

> Barhu cut her hand on a stone as she ran to her mother’s voice. Blood ran down her fingers; blood pulled her forward. She saw Pinion’s dark thundercloud face in the clearing ahead. Her cry of joy nailed Pinion to the spot: still expressionless as Barhu came into her arms, halfway knocked her over, clung to her, saying, in Urunoki,
> “Mother! Mother!”
> “Baru,” her mother said, “your hands smell like pussy.”
> “Oh, gods!” Barhu fumbled in the pine cones, trying to scour her hands. Sticky pine pitch everywhere, of course—
> “The pitch doesn’t come off,” her mother said, watching her. “Be careful, now, you’ve cut yourself—you’ll get dirt in there— What did you do to your fingers? Where have you put your two fingers, Baru?”
> “I can’t believe you said that!” Barhu cried. > “Why would you say that first?”

... Shortly after

> “It’s very rude to get cunt on your mother,” Pinion said. Then she began to laugh. “Solit! Solit, come down! We caught our daughter fingering some falca girl in the woods! She’s so embarrassed!”

I was highly entertained and really the whole story here is extremely rewarding and the dynamic with her familial tribe is so wholesome I cried.

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I'm going to resume tooting various quotes from this book. I got to finally chat about the story with a friend and I feel like it's more complete now.

I'll leave this one completely out of context. I found it hilarious.

> ...You got hopelessly drunk and slept with me!” Shao blinked at her, mockingly astonished. “ Healthy people don’t do things like that.”

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For reference, I'm over halfway through The Dark Mirror (book 5) but I like to cross reference quotes and I've been sharing some of them.

In book 4, Paige _finally_ gets a night with Arcturus. Paige is most definitely demisexual and is very emotionally bonded to Arcturus. To be fair, he seems very easy to bond with. He's super considerate, increasingly on top of the consent checks, and has a consistent pattern of thoughtful gestures and acts of care. Of course he's not human either but still humanoid.

I read many books. I like a lot of different types of descriptions. I like the descriptions in Samantha's writing. So here are some snippets.

> I touched my lips to his
> It was hardly a kiss. Just a whisper of my mouth on his, a give and take of breath. Tilting back, I idled my fingertips along his jaw, then his lower lip – full and smooth, curved like the limb of a bow. Calling my courage, I stroked the tip of my tongue across that lip before I drew it into my mouth.

Naturally I'm not going to paste the whole chapter. You gotta read that yourselves. :neobot_blep:

> When he cupped it, a fractured sound came, unwilled, from my lips

:neobot_book:

> His gaze moved down my body. I held still. A human might have whispered in my ear, told me I was beautiful or perfect, but not him. For a long time, all he did was look, opaque, eyes on fire. When I was sure the silence would last for ever, when the tension of waiting would snap me in two, he drew me against him, into the moonlight. It illuminated my hair, transfigured it to flame, and ousted the few shadows that had draped me.

:neobot_book_owo:

Did I mention Arcturus is a musician? He plays the organ :bunhdowo:

> His kiss made the skin of my abdomen shiver. His hands cradled the backs of my knees.
> ‘This,’ he said, ‘is an overture.’
> His voice was little more than a tremor in his throat. I felt it everywhere.
> ‘Learning a duet entails time. And patience. Calls for us to move as one.’ He found a sensitive place at the back of my thigh, and I breathed his name. ‘I want you to show me where to touch you. I want to know’ – he rolled a thumb over the wing of my hipbone – ‘how to make your body sing.’

:neofox_book: :neobot_floof_owo:

> Small, instinctive sounds passed my lips as he carried me to the edge of a precipice. I cleaved to him, afraid to let go, every limb fighting the call to surrender. Surrender had no place in war.
> But this was no war. Not here, in this room.
> He never rushed. As my hips surged and my hand twisted into the sheets, I thought of the bird in the music box, and the golden key that wound it. He coaxed me closer and closer to the brink, and there he held me until the bird came to life and took wing.

Sometimes reading examples helps break my writers block. Hasn't worked yet, but I'll keep trying. Maybe I need to take a quick detour to some of my favorite descriptions in Metal from Heaven or the Angels Trilogy. Or one of the many many other books I've read. However if y'all have more suggestions, I'll add them to my big list o books to read.

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Snippet from Samantha Shannon's "The Mask Falling" wherein a child is discovering that a clairvoyant is just a person, and not a monster like the child has been told.

> 'I like your hair,’ she ventured. ‘It’s not like monster hair.’
> ‘How do you know about monsters?’ I asked her. My grandfather had thrilled me with tales of headless riders and children transformed into swans when I was little, but they told far duller stories here.
> ‘It’s a secret,’ Mylène informed me.
> ‘I should think so.’ I sat back. ‘Go on, then. What kind of hair do monsters have?’
> ‘Green?’

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