We've got three worlds to play in here, and I guess I sort of need to start laying out the groundwork for them. *cracks knuckles* Time to put some science in my fiction. ^_~ *grin*


Life
Okay, so Life is the easy bit to define. That's reality (well, fantastical reality, but still). It's the normal everyday world. No magic! None! BWHAHAHA! Erm, yeah, so technically I'm really stretching the definition of 'urban fantasy', but c'est la vie.

Veil
This would be the bit in-between Life and Death. Sort of like a no-man's land between the dimensions (only they aren't really dimensions). Things from the Veil can exists in both of the other planes, but have very very minimal influence over them without an anchor. The Veil critters are actually concentrated Veil-stuffs, so technically the whole darned thing is alive. (Although the bit that isn't critters isn't sentient or even really that aware.) So Life and Death are both actual places and the Veil is sort of a membrane that separates them.

Death
But Death isn't the afterlife so much as a purgatory. Folks only hang around there until they 'let go of living' at which point they vamoose to points unknown. So it's not Heaven, nor Hell, and thus I suppose I should root around and see what I can find about purgatorial destinations in the various religions. Want to keep it as non-religious as possible (which is amusing considering the implications of the basic concepts, but oh well ^_~;) Each person brings their world with them, to some extent, when they die. Thus it's sort of a patchwork of times and places, each group (or individual) have their own little fiefdom. Since folks don't stay permanently there, it's not like you have everyone who ever died still hanging around...

[more rambling to follow]

The Veil is alive, and it isn't alive. Compressed down into dogs and deer and things that are neither and both (in mind numbing counter-existence), it lives. But loose in the hazy blanket that filters death from live, it simply is.


The inherent problem with a semi-permeable barrier between life and death is that it implies that The Powers That Be must have intended for it to be a two-way street. Otherwise they would have simply set it up as a one-way trip with no possibility of parole.

But this implication then casts an odd light on the divine mandate of the Dogs. Why punish someone for doing what they specifically allowed to be possible?

If, like Jon theorizes whilst talking to Phil, that the flexible nature of the Veil is simply part of the 'free will' aspect of reality, then the Dogs represent a rather tangible manifestation of the punishment for sin. Much like the 'don't eat the apple'->'dammit, I said don't eat the apples! *banhammer*' storyline.

However, as Phil maintains, it could also simply invalidate the mandate. If The Powers That Be willed it closed, it would be closed; therefore that wasn't their intention. Their whole argument rests on the fact that the Dogs misinterpreted their mission.

: thoughtful

Plot relevant descriptions, so as to be able to finish off scene once I get home...

----------------------------

The fish warehouse is, well, not really a fish warehouse. It's down by a branch of the local river, and functions as a repository for the game caught by a club of the local hunters. Since the fictional town is sort of in the middle of nowhere, there's a lot of good hunting to be had in the area.

The building is not a giant warehouse, but it's bigger than a generic shed. It's got cold storage for the fish and deer and elk and whatnot that they catch/kill. The hunters do sell off the extra meat, so there is actually an Inc. for the hunting club that owns the property (and the fish). There's a smoker to the side of the building, and a few drying racks and pits for cooking whole animals.

That said, there isn't any real security around the building other than the door locks and a security camera. It's just a gravel parking lot and a good ninety percent of the time there's no one there. It's a good half-mile mile from the road, easy, and there just isn’t' a whole lot out there.

The club has monthly meeting on the off-season, but they tend to hang out at the local bar/pub rather than the storage building.

There are several paths through the woods in the general vicinity of the building. It's not brush-heavy forest in most areas, which makes for easy walking, but hard hiding. This is not the same area where the Dead Men Mafia hideout is, and it's not that far from Jon' house. (20min?)

The boxes of fish which Jon accidentally used to squish his opponent are actually wooden crates with plastic bags full of fish in them. This is in the refrigerator section and not in the freezer! These are bait fish (not fresh caught fish) and were moved out of the freezer to thaw for this weekend's fishing trip. Thus they are still mostly frozen and heavy as heck. (And piled badly since they weren't paying attention to OSHA stacking rules. *whistles innocently*)

I will describe something if it kills me... *rolls up sleeves and glares at Muse*

-------------------------

Jon's apartment had a main room, a bedroom (with a small closet), and a bathroom.

There's a couch and a coffee table in the main room along with the TV and stereo on a really basic stand. A game console of uncertain parentage and a pile of games take up a good portion of the coffee table. There are DVDs, small hand tools, socks and whatnot scattered about. A lone CD stand is half-hidden behind the TV, but it is only about half-full of dusty CDs and DVDs. Most of the rack is filled with other random items (batteries, socket wrench heads, screws, etc).

A well-worn mini-fridge is next to the couch and contains primarily soda, beer, and some snack foods. There's a microwave perched on top of the mini-fridge, but it only works half the time and is a tiny tiny thing. But it works for nachos and hotpockets, so Jon's happy.

There's a pile of tool belts, and loose tools in the corner by the door, as well as the bits of whatever project his parents have working on. He does a lot of barter work to pay the rent during the renovation off season.

Other than that, there's random clothes and clutter, but no real dirt (food/dishes/etc). It looks like the average dorm room, which is about right for his mindset. He'll clean if company is coming over, but if it's family (or friends who count as family), he doesn't bother.

The computer is on a desk in the bedroom, squished in beside the single bed (basic wooden frame ala IKEA). There's a tiny bedside table that holds a charger for his cell phone and the alarm clock. Jon spends most of his time in the main room, so there's more clutter here. The closet has his clothes, as well as a dresser stuffed in it (and some boxes with assorted odds and ends). There's just enough room under the bed to fit another row of boxes, and he's got most of the random stuff stashed there. The bedroom has a window which looks out across the yard to the house and the main room has two windows that look out at the road (over the entrance to the garage.

The door is on the far side of the apartment and on the opposite side of the house. A set of wooden stairs lead up to the door from ground level, anchored to the wall with masonry screws. So it sort of looks like it's floating (which is fun when you're drunk).

The inside of the house is mostly wood and off-white plaster, with a couple of throw rugs to save feet from cold floors in the winter. There aren't any posters or paintings, but there are a small army of photos taped to the wall next to the bedroom door. Mostly it's just the four musketeers and some family photos, but there are still a few of his ex-girlfriend tucked into the chaos. Of course he's just keeping those for the backgrounds or the lighting or as memories of the trip and not because he misses her. Nopenopenope. Totally over her. Totally.

Yay for descriptions! ...and more exposition. >.<;; *attempts to force her Muse to actually describe something for once*

---------------------------------------------

The house was almost organic, having grown in several visually distinct explosions over the years. There had been some discussion when the family bought it that they might attempt to cover up the growth rings with matching exterior. Jon's Mom was rather in love with the mismatched bits of brick and wood and siding and concrete and Jon's Dad figured it wasn't worth arguing over. So the house remained true to it's history, a visual trek that had apparently spanned almost a century. There were a handful of fireplaces, plus built in radiators plus central air. There were windows of various shapes and sizes, from the carefully hand-blown glass of yesteryear up to the standard cookie-cutter windows you found at Lowes. The electric was spotting places, some rooms having been passed over in a scattershot approach.

The standalone garage and the apartment above it were of an indeterminate past. It might have been a shed or a barn to start, but there'd been significant work done by one of the previous owners to bring it up to the 19th (if not 20th) Century. The wiring worked (mostly), there was a window air-conditioner that had been built into a wall instead of a window, and a pair of radiators that could bring the inside temperature up to 100 in the middle of winter. (Jon had found that out the hard way when one of them had gone on the fritz. Slept with the windows open for three days before it was fixed.)

But it was a good house, sturdy and solid against the winter storms. He hazard it could make it through a hurricane, if one ever made it far enough up the coast. And it was his. Well, eventually it was his. Jon's parents had made no secret of the fact it would go to Jon when they passed on, and the more 'complex' items (stock, bonds, investment accounts, etc) would go to Bethany. After all, she could take care of herself. Which on one hand was sort of insulting, that they thought he'd need a roof over his head, but at the same time it was rather comforting. He liked the house, and, at times it seemed to like him back. All the repair work he'd done had gone without major mishap and the renovation business had taught him never to take that for granted.

Sebastian is a decent guy, but not one particularly prone to geekiness. He spends a bit of time online and is familiar with computers and the internet. He isn't, however, a gamer; nor is he much of a fan (as defined online) of anything. He watches random TV shows without really latching on to any specific one, and is the same way with music. His playlist is a random collection of whatever he found interesting at the time. He does play Civ and SimCity type games now and again, but nothing really character defining.

Sebastian's primary motivations are decent grades (although he's more of a B student than an A) and a more or less unending love for architectural design. Ever since he was a little kid he's been fascinated by buildings. He's been overseas once or twice with various groups, out ogling the buildings of yore. There was some debate over whether he was heading into engineering or architecture as a major, but he's just not interested in most of the engineering class work. He's a slight history buff when it comes to the whys and wherefores of a building's past, but tends to be uninterested in unrelated events.

Unlike Keith, he's not really a skeptic about supernatural stuff, so he's inclined to take things as presented rather than play Scully and find explanations for everything. But he's also wary of pranks at this point. Not that the four musketeers really pranked each other, but Sebastian's in an ongoing war with some of the folks in his dorm and he's a bit on edge.

(Just so I can keep it all together)

Old Worldbuilding posts (over on khriskin)

Serendipity: Name Generators

Current Cast List
Jonathan Black (Jon) - MC, handyman/unliscenced tradesman
Akela - Jon's pack, Alpha female
Tos - Jon's pack, Beta male
Athen - Jon's pack, Alpha male
Jenna - Jon's pack, Beta female
Hunter - MC, Huntsman (Huntswoman?)
Llinat - Hunter's pack, Alpha female
Ellen - Innocent-ish bystander
Sebastian - Jon's friend, college student
Tod - Jon's friend, high school
Keith - Jon's friend, mechanic
Sullivan - Jon's boss, house 'flipper'
Allison - Jon's ex-Girlfriend
Patricia - Jon's mom
Patrick - Jon's dad
Bethany (Beth) - Jon's older sister, off at college, back for summer break
Uncle Tony - Jon's godfather (unrelated)
Harmony - Jon's Aunt, Patricia's older sister
Trish - Jon' cousin, lives with them (Harmony's second daughter (from her third marriage))

( Random Names )

: writing

They call it the Gift of Song when they're feeling lyrical and the Bloodgift when they're not. It's the ritual incorporation of the Huntsman into the Pack, and the Pack into the world; an offering of blood from man to dog and dog to man... only these days they've stooped to taking what wasn't offered and give nothing in return. It's a broken link, hobbled by the cynicism of immortality.

The Huntsman's blood binds the Hounds to the world, lets them carryout their divine geas. Willing or not, he's their anchor into reality for as long as he lives.

Their blood would pull him away from reality, lengthen his life, enhance his senses, and --like the Huntsman his great-great-grandmother wooed and lost-- turn their one-way communication into a effortless exchange. It's his right, as Huntsman, and they owe him their half of the bargain.

But he doesn't know to ask.

Herein lie the history, genealogy, social behaviors, etc. of the Dogs of the Never Never (who someday shall have better names. Maybe.)

____________________

So, we have magic dogs, only they aren't really magic dogs. And if they aren't werewolves, and they aren't fey hounds, and they aren't ye old magical companion animals, then what are they?

So what doggie myths do we have to play with? Lots and lots of folklore about death (cheery) and guides and guardians of the otherworld. In fact for the most part dogs seem to be associated with death, so I suppose that's as valid and angle as anything else. *ponders* Although I do worry that it might be a tad overdone, but it seems cats are much more prevalent as walkers-between-worlds in the fantasy genre. Poor dogs. :P

The Horror Muse wants to turn them into Reapers that eat the souls of the dead, ala Dead Like Me, only much much creepier. And she's got one horror book, I am so not giving her another. :P

So we have, sometimes, the dog life and the dog of death (Spitak and Siaw), and sometimes one who sleep by night and another who sleeps by day (Gifr and Geri), but they are all guardians of something. A river, a gate, a castle, a set of pathways from one place to another.

Assuming we go with the Yin/Yang configuration that means there's automatically two sides to the conflict (if there is a conflict). Thus you have the dogs of light, who guard the daytime, and dogs of darkness, who guard the night. Only daytime and nighttime are arbitrary assignments because there isn't a hard line where one starts and the other stops (unless you go with sunset and sunrise). Which could mean that the dogs of light guard this side of the veil and the dogs of darkness guard the shadow side.

So what are they guarding? Are they keeping things in or out? The default, of course, would be that they are keeping things out, but how could the dogs affect something in the other realm? If the whole point to them guarding things is to keep the two realms separate, then they couldn't go back and forth willy-nilly. Thus they'd sort of have to be guarding their own side and keeping people in.

Then the question becomes, are they guarding the literal gate to hell, or is it just the barrier between the dead and the living? Could at that point be the gate to Heaven just as easily. Which makes you wonder how many people in the afterlife are trying to get back out. And are the people on this side trying to get in or help someone escape?

And then why would the dogs need a human anyway? Assuming that's why they are after Jon, they must need him for something. Even if it's just a figurehead job, which makes me think a bit of the wild hunt, even though in most cases will make people knee-jerk 'Fey' and that's not what I'm going for. But it's a good a reason as any...

So each pack, assuming there are multiple packs, needs a huntsman. Why do they need one? Well, mayhaps because they aren't really of either realm and they need the huntsman to 'anchor' themselves to the realm they are in and affect it. Which would mean an unbound pack couldn't do anything, sort of like being out of phase?

And they'd be cycling through huntsmen because they aren't immortal, but they don't age. And, taking it logically, the huntsman would need to stop aging once he joins them, otherwise they'd be trading them out too often. You'd get, what, maybe fifteen good years out of a human if you needed them at the top of their game. So maybe, 'blood of my blood' they can bump up the lifespan, not to unaging, but just longer than normal. Which would sort of make them vampire dogs, which amuses me. ^_^

So they need him as a figurehead, mostly, but can they talk to him? I'm guessing no, since there really isn't a need. Maybe in the long-ago they chatted, but probably only with the followers of the dog cults, which might have been offspring of huntsmen? If so that might explain why Jon can talk to dogs (very very watered down gift). And that solves on of the main issues I had about why on earth he can talk to dogs.

Ah the joys of meandering worldbuilding.

[more when I get home...]