We continue a week where work is being… well, workish. No complaints. The start of the year is going significantly better than I could have feared. Still, there is much to be done and not much time to work here.

So, this is another incomplete story — the first chapter of an extended fanfic I never wrote a second chapter for. As with a lot of fan fiction I did over the last decade or so, this one’s based on In Nomine, but rereading it now it seems to me it stands on its own, more or less. The non-In Nomine fan might not get every reference, but I think pretty much everything is explained by context. You don’t really need to know what Essence is, for example — just that it’s useful, souls have it and demons want it.

Shal Mari appeared in my last In Nomine story here as well — Shal Mari Apres Vie: Or This Ain’t Bat Country. As with that story, Shal Mari is the grand city of Hell — the closest thing Hell comes to a nice place or a good face. Only, naturally, it’s Hell so it’s neither nice nor good in the end. There was some feeling, back a few years, that Heaven and Hell were woefully underdescribed in the official supplements, and this was one of my drivers for writing the Shal Mari Blues. I wanted to talk about… well, Hell, from the point of view of the poor schmuck condemned to it. And, because I find societies interesting, I wanted to actually examine the society that would form around damnation. Especially when damned souls themselves were valuable to demons without themselves being of value to demons.

Anyway, this is a story about Hell, so expect nasty language, concepts, mature themes and all the rest. But then, the site does have a disclaimer, now doesn’t it?

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It’s storytelling day, and here’s another In Nomine based one. Some of you may have seen it. I wrote this in the wake of Hunter S. Thompson’s death. I got through my own (somewhat complex) emotions seeing one of my literary heroes die by writing In Nomine fanfic.

Well, Hell. Here’s how I wrote about it at the time:

Some folks cry. I write In Nomine based fanfic.

I never set one of these in Hell before. Not even Zevon, and I was tempted — but I made that part of the point. Zevon would be wasted on In Nomine’s Heaven. But he’d described himself as a Christian and I didn’t want to be disrespectful.

Well, I think if I’d written this any other way, it would have been disrespectful. So, if you’re the kind of person who consoled yourself with teary thoughts of John Lennon and George Harrison having tearful hugs in front of a set of pearly gates neither man believed in, you might not want to read this.

I just know it’s what I wanted to write, after I heard this. So take it for what it’s

Oh, and if you don’t get the In Nominisms, don’t sweat them. I think it stands on its own.

I don’t see any way to improve on that, nor any reason to try.

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It’s storytelling day! And this is a bit different for it — this is an In Nomine piece — a bit of fan fiction. And who’s to say I can’t post some fan fiction now and again? It’s long — novella length, around twelve thousand words. Normally, I’d break it into more than one part for this venue, but I think it works better in its full form.

I actually think this is a pretty good story. Good enough that I’m sad it has absolutely no prospects for sale, since it’s fan fiction and it’s very vested in the In Nomine intellectual property. It’s also something I wrote as kind of a culmination on the work I did on In Nomine Superiors 4: Rogues to Riches. I wrote an extended writeup of Alaemon, the Demon Prince of Secrets.

This is a story of one Alaemon’s demons. A calabite — one of the demons of destruction, who can destroy with a glance (though the universe — or Symphony — would take notice). Paranoia is a part of daily life in Alaemon’s Conspiracy.

Most everything else should be self explanatory. If not, ask a question in comments and I’ll try to answer it.

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