#katreads — Public Fediverse posts

During this scene where Apsinthos is talking Dina into sinning for the greater good, basically one pause later and then this:

> ‘Have you ever pleasured yourself with your hands, Dina?’ The angel gripped at the bedsheets as his muscles tensed, and his cheeks warmed.

Now Dina is such an innocent naive angel. He really just wants to be told he's doing a good job and get headpats with praise. Slides into subspace super easily. Apsinthos continues:

> ‘It wasn’t a sin once to do it. In the time before Satan, there was no sin, just acts of pleasure and acts of pain. When time has ended, there will be no such word for sin anymore. You may be able to feel pleasure again how that man made you feel. Do you want to?’

I'll skip Dinas reaction because it requires expanding on more context that will only give y'all more questions 🤭

But after the reaction...

> ‘But you do want it. You want to do what you shouldn’t. Bring your hand between your legs.’ Dina was relieved it was a command, that he didn’t have to live with the guilt of doing it on his own accord.

Anyway, I know some of you probably thought "Oh, is this sinning going to involve mass murder and destruction?!" And the answer to that is also technically yes, but that's for later. :neofox_cool:

#AngelsAfterMan #KatReads #AngelsTrilogy #RafaelNicolas

Book 1 is #AngelsBeforeMan

It covers the story of the Fall of Lucifer. It's technically not canon, but it's treated by many as if it is. Funnily enough there's a quote in book 3 that's relevant to discussing the common experience with many religious folks.

> had always found their faith more in whims and what their own parents had taught them, rather than anything in the scripture itself.

Anyway, it's a good read. Starts from when Lucifer is created. How he develops, observing the ambient culture. I definitely know some folks that can relate to certain vibes.

> He climbed back to the second floor, then went to his room and flopped over the bed. For a moment, he stared at the ceiling as he had done before, then rolled over so that he could snuggle into the obscene amount of things there. Rubbing his face against a plush pillow, tugging quilts and blankets over himself, he thought of everything.

God even tells him how he "planted a garden" inside Lucifer. It's both beautiful and very much ominous.

Then the little quirks start appearing like the emphasis on staying clean, what it means to be civilized, how one needs to have a dedicated purpose, etc.

> “There is nothing more important than remaining clean. An angel that becomes impure becomes unworthy to live in paradise.”

Luci is quickly a favorite. Everyone loves him. Angels are genderless, but He/Him are the only pronouns that exist for now. Angel of Beauty, Angel of Worship. This angel is terribly self-conscious and full of guilt and shame over attributes beyond his control, like being so distracting to everyone.

> Sometimes Lucifer wished being the angel of beauty wasn’t so distracting for everyone.

Another popular angel is Michael, ArchAngel of Strength, Chief Prince. Two wildly popular and attractive angels getting caught up in each other's gravity fields. Almost as if they were made for each other.

> Briefly , the younger angel remembered a moment on Earth: them arguing playfully, Michael grabbing him, hoisting him over one shoulder, and Lucifer kicking helplessly, screaming in embarrassment. The prince had brought him back to the grotto, settled Lucifer over the blanket, and chuckled that the angel of worship weighed nothing to him. Lucifer — laying there with all the fever of meekness, feeling like he’d just been kidnapped, feeling like he was about to be devoured, feeling happy, despite it all.

Yes, it's so very gay. Even through I was already familiar with how this story will end, I still let it make my queer little heart happy.

There's an interlude after which things start getting... wilder, we'll say.

The interlude has so much creative imagery. It's a dream. I want to highlight a couple of pieces

> Whispering — “I daydream of you, of loving you.”
> “How do you love me?”
> “Like this.” Yearning mouth — it’d press soft to the smooth of his tunic. “Like a flower, like a symphony, trapped in my throat, like you’re an eternity, and I need you in my veins.”

This dream ends with both angels running away as God approaches

> Gathering their clothes, taking each other’s hands, and laughing, they’d run away from Him, as fast they could. So that He doesn’t see, doesn’t notice. Two angels creating love, creating.

This is important because it symbolizes exactly how their dynamic is at this time.

I'm skipping most of the other themes and just about all of part 2 of this book. At least for this post. Would need several more content warnings that makes it more suitable for a different one.

Anyway, by the end of book 1, Michael is ripping off Lucifers wings like it's Luci's heart ripping away from his own. And he casts him down out of Eden towards Earth.

Book 2 is #AngelsAndMan

Lucifer is much less the innocent angel from Book 1 and is calling himself Satan. Discussing the full arc across the books is basically an essay I do not have the time to write. The books are right there y'all, and I'm not even close to being as good of a writer.

There's a snippet in the interlude of Book 2, that so very closely echoes Book 1. Complete with all the flowery imagery, but also

> I love you, he was saying, no one will ever hurt me like you have.

and then very shortly after...

> In a shaking desperation, he swore to the dazed, unfinished angel: “I dreamed of you, of loving you.”
> “How did you love me?”
> “Not like this.”

To quote @xYourEmoGFx this was "Devastingly beautiful"

Like the dream in the interlude of Book 1, it ends with God approaching. This time, only Luci runs, with Michael encouraging him, telling him to run for safety but staying put himself.

I won't go into details beyond that, but I will say that Michael is a simp. Like, wow. The evolution of Moocifer (Michael+Lucifer) through the books really steals the show imo. The drama and angst is popcorn worthy, and if it's the chapter I just read in book 3, you can probably use my skin to pop the popcorn, because it got pretty toasty.

Happy reading! The books also get pretty dark in places, so definitely consult some content warnings beforehand.

#RafaelNicolas #AngelsTrilogy #Bookstodon #KatReads

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.’

#BookQuotes #Bookstodon #AngelsTrilogy #KatReads

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.”

#AngelsTrilogy #BookQuotes #Bookstodon #KatReads

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.

#AngelsTrilogy #Bookstodon #BookQuotes #KatReads

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.

#AngelsTrilogy #Bookstodon #BookQuotes #KatReads

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.

#BookQuotes #Bookstodon #AngelsTrilogy #KatReads

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.

#BookQuotes #TheBoneSeason #Bookstodon #KatReads

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?’

#BookQuotes #Bookstodon #KatReads