Eve of the Gods--NaNo 2011-12 Prep

October 4th: Outline the First

Brevity...brevity...OK. Here we go.

Evelyn Sinclair is working at a Barnes and Noble-esque bookstore--in the cafe, actually--and her life isn't going so well. Not to sound cliche, it's not horrible, life isn't treating her like crap or anything, it's just annoyingly normal. Nothing really exciting seems to happen, or even about to happen. Or even going to happen in the distant future, as Lyn has never planned to do much. Her dream is to one day own her own bookstore/cafe, but secretly, she knows that this is just a cop out; it's more a reaction to the problems she has with her job than any real passion for the book and cafe business, or even business in general. Even though her whole family is immensely successful, whether professors or doctors (even a relatively well-known artist sister, who carves sculptures out of old hubcaps and license plates), she...hasn't been.

This is not to say that Lyn is without ambition or without spirit. On the contrary, she is full of fire and intelligence and wit. The problem is that she doesn't know what she wants--every time she thinks about it, this overwhelming sense of bigness, of things beyond her understanding, of power and memory and...depth just overcomes her. She cannot begin to understand what she wants because she wants so much. But at the same time, she doesn't understand these feelings because the understanding of them is part of their overwhelming depth. What she does know, however, is that she feels like a woman out of her own time. She is more comfortable with characters in books and people from history than with the people of her time. Her politics, her interests, her very being seems as a person who belongs not somewhere, but some WHEN else.

One day, while working at the cafe in her bookstore, Lyn is approached by a man who calls her Eve and says he needs her help. It turns out that he is Hermes, the Greek Messenger god, and chosen emissary of the Lesser Courts, those deities and entities that owe their existence to human belief (see the concept of Tulpa or thoughtform). After a necessary freak out and deal-with-it period--which doesn't last long--Eve agrees to help him, feeling as though something within her (the part that she just doesn't understand) is driving her to do this.

Turns out that the gods are in danger. Someone is planning to do something that would undo their existence by severing them from human belief. As gods, being of pure soul and no flesh, death is not merely death, it is obliteration. It is complete nothingness, as if they had never existed in all of history. This is an entity that has been around for a long time, and whom the gods have kept their eye on, but until now, his actions have been mostly to glorify himself and destroy his enemies. And then he disappeared for a long time. Now it seems that he is back and has changed tactics-- he wants to undo the curse God put on him. The Eye of the Fates (the Greek Fates, yeah?) has sensed that his new plan will be of great danger to the gods, but they can neither find him, nor can they See what his plan may be.

Besides undoing the gods, this plan would likely have other, greater consequences. By undoing the curse of God, it is quite likely that all of existence (humanity, the animals, the Lesser Courts, etc) would cease to be. So Hermes has recruited Lyn to save them all. But why? Well, that she isn't allowed to know. Her ignorance is also her greatest tool; it is what is keeping her safe. But Hermes extorts her to look deep inside, to feel the unknowable part of her, and he explains that this is God's gift to her. She--and she alone--will be able to stop this from happening. This the Fates have seen (they were how Hermes found her--the block on the Cursed one does not extend to Lyn)

Hermes takes her to meet the one entity who can help. The Lesser Courts are not all that powerful these days (the Hindi court being the exception, with their Brahma being so close God, for one, and their belief center still going strong), and they can only barely save up enough power to spend time on Earth for short periods. In fact, many of the lesser gods gave up most of their power to help Hermes spend so much time in the human world. The Greater Courts (the Angels and Demons, the Holy Spirit, Jesus and his posse, God, and Mother Earth) are not really supposed to (or choose not to) interfere with human Free Will, because God is a wait-and-see kinda guy. There is, however, one entity whose personal history is just convoluted enough to free him from this whole thing: Lucifer. Who spends most of his time on an uncharted island in the Atlantic.

Lucifer is initially reticent to get involved, but Lyn (whom both entities insist on calling Eve) convinces him, though not really though any effort of her own. Her presence, her innocence he says, convinces him to help, but Lucifer doesn't actually tell her why except to say, "You and I, child, we are a lot more alike than you may think." Lyn doesn't trust him much--he is the Father of Lies and the Great Evil, after all--but Hermes insists that he is the only one who can help, and that he really isn't what Lyn thinks he is. His past is quite convoluted, and not much like what most people think. And actually, over the next couple of days, Lyn begins to see that Lucifer is not the evil, vile, lying creature most people think he is. He actually seems to be sick over what goes down in Hell, and dreads needing to go down there to "recharge" so to speak. Good-looking, sensitive, intelligent, and (most of all) interested in Lyn, Lyn finds herself falling for him, much to her own surprise.

Lucifer, called Lucien, takes him to Conrad Amitage Inc. He has located the being in question, something the Lesser Courts cannot do because of their lack of power and limitations as creatures of Tulpa (as I said earlier), and found his base of operations. Conrad has gone into the business of artifacts and archaeology, fronting as an expedition company for wannabe Indiana Joneses (speaking for myself, I totally would go on one of Conrad's expeditions) and rich people. Using the considerable resources he possesses, Lucifer brings Lyn (who has actually started thinking of herself as Eve now) and Hermes to London, where Amitage is based. Eve and the two entities go to confront Amitage, though Hermes and Lucien both insist that Eve say nothing and stay back. They need to know his plan before they can do anything about it (they can't just kill him because of his curse), and Eve is not ready to handle him. Overcome by curiosity, however, Eve follows the 'men' into the building and hides, watching the confrontation.

Upon seeing Conrad, however, and hearing his voice, Eve is shaken to her very core as the unknowable thing within her begins to stir. Lust, fear, anger, rage, wonder, loss, love...all of these feelings overwhelm her. She cries out and Conrad sees her, instantly knowing who and what she is. What follows is a scene where Eve comes to learn what the thing inside her is and who Conrad actually is. Upon knowing, his plan rushes into her mind (they are ridiculously connected for the reason that I can't reveal unless the big twist ending--actually middle--is revealed) and whom he is working for. (Brief POV interludes will introduce us, but not reveal to us, this character that Conrad plans on working with to complete his plan.) Overwhelmed by this knowledge, but without the complete understanding of it, she runs from the building and away from Lucifer and Hermes, too terrified to continue helping them. She hides for several days, ashamed of her feelings for Lucifer, angry at trusting Hermes (and with Hermes for seemingly lying to her), and brooding...until she runs into another entity. The Norse god Loki, who in a rare showing of sobriety and truth (he's the god of chaos, not of evil, after all, and he would cease to exist, too), sits and has coffee with her. Mostly they talk about people and gods, nothing about what Eve is going through. He mentions that he wanted to talk to her (the her that I can't tell you about) and found her via Odin's Eye. This reminds Eve that Lucifer and Hermes could have found her at any time, but have respected her fear and left her alone. Which in turn leads her to think about what Hermes said about undoing God's decree. While Conrad's plan sounds great and awesome and something that people should want, it completely goes against what God said. Grace must be earned, not stolen, she thinks, and then asks Loki to help her find Hermes.

Loki shakes his head and points. Across the street is Lucien, who has just appeared from crossing through the Twilight (the Gods' realm) to where she and Loki were sitting. Eve, surprised at her joy at seeing him, jumps up and runs to Lucien, throwing herself into his arms.

I...am going to stop this outline now before I say too much. I've been doing this for an hour as it is. More next time!