#trags

My original first summary/draft of ideas:

Dave dies tragically. He leaves behind a diary mentioning an amazing guy and The Overlook. Dirk sets out trying to find it, and when he does, he learns that John, the guy who just moved in there, is a lot more than an amazing guy.

Like his brother Dave, he realizes he's fallen in love--and as with Dave, John falls in love, too, even if Dirk is angrier and harsher and colder than Dave ever was.

John is a wind god. And he can’t leave The Overlook until someone sets him free. And he can’t ask for it, neither does he really want it at first. Those are the rules of the gods. (Most similar to Ysatters-Kajsa but not quite. Guess we’ll have to make our own thing.)

[If a god chooses to be subject to the foolishness of man {love} then he should be subject to their capricious whims as well.]

But he does eventually look forward to Dirk’s visits, starts sharing more and more with him, until things come to a head.

Notes on which gods should be active/inactive (this is not necessarily reflective of the end result):

The Zephyr: John !Nanna

The Illuminator: Rose !Mom

The Chronicler: Dave !Bro

The Architect: Jade !Grandpa

The Physician: Jane !Dad

The Vast: Roxy !Mom

The Dreamer: Jake !Gran

The Appraiser: Dirk !Bro

Random paragraph of information:

When a human falls in love with a god, it's worship. But when a god falls in love with a human, it's arrogance, weakness, sin. As such, it is forbidden for gods to have relations with humans in this way. Feelings don't abide by logic or law, of course, but the flesh can. And so the gods are physically restrained from ever alluding in any way to love of a human.But if the love can transcend the chasm between gods and mortals and offer substantial enough proof of this, the couple may apply for an exception with the Jurors and Progenitors.

An example of chapter outlines (which clearly didn’t stay true to draft.) As you can see, I didn’t even have chapter outlines before this; it started at around chapter five. This list isn’t everything I have--I’m not sharing every secret I have written!

Return with a thank you gift, some… wooden bird, painted.

Stock up on tea supplies, clean, sort them. Talk about flower languages a little.

Meet Poe's children. Make a dreamcatcher out of their feathers. (Get a book on the language of flowers; read it while John sews. He embroiders birds on a blanket.)

Make food together and have a tea ceremony.

Mercy kill a bird, Camy, and then bury it. you have to because John just can't. Fly together. Offer a wish, get rejected. (The Wish?)

Many questions. John boohoo rejected because no wish, not into it. Jump his bones to clarify things. (THE RECKONING)

(Have a date.) Nevermind, don't do this.

Fun wish brainstorming (copy-paste-1-2-3):

1: He can grant a wish but is set free when the person rejects it. (We can make this happen.)

2: He can only be freed if a mutual lover asks him to leave. (We can make this happen, too.)

3: He can only be freed if the one who made the wish dies. (Check. He doesn’t know this until later though.)

And finally, a tidbit that didn’t get included in the fic:

Tutelaries can rewrite smaller properties, such as universal laws, but it is quite taxing and it hasn't been done for a long time. The last time everyone got together and did that was when The Architect convinced everyone to reinstate arachnids. Altogether, a rewrite is reserved for major events, such as when the gods have a setback (as the civil war) or whenever the world itself is in grave danger (which has never happened.)

I feel it is worth mentioning that I’m never fully decided on my writing until after I publish it (and even then, I debate if that is its true, final form.) I originally began writing TRAGS in third person, and then switched to second person. I really didn’t want to use second person as I have always written in third person, so I argued with myself and wrote everything over again in third person. This was, fortunately, only after completing chapter one. I realized it really didn’t make sense in third person, and committed to writing the entire work in second person (again.) Everything flowed so much better, and it was a pleasant learning experience for me to try out a new style. :)