Line #51 Literature/TheDogsBeforeTimeAfter


1	'''''The Dogs: Before Time After''''' is a collection of [[ShortStory short stories]] based in the same universe that ''Literature/TheDogs'' by Christopher Veidt is set in. Unlike the companion volume ''Literature/WhatAHorribleNightToHaveACurse'', which are (usually) only faintly interconnected, ''Before Time After'' tells the story of the two families of the main characters from ''The Dogs'' novels, the Lynches and the Lightfoots, spanning a time of roughly four hundred years.
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3	Unlike the stories in ''What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse'', there is more emphasis on dread, gloom, and tragedy, only occasionally lightened up by Veidt's [[AuthorAppeal predilection for sexy half-human monsters]]. Owing to the stories' setting -- Appalachia -- [[ThemeNaming each of the stories has a title]] taken from the [[AsTheGoodBookSays King James Version]] of Literature/TheBible.
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5	Like its companion collection, Veidt has promised a print version [[DevelopmentHell seriously since like 2015 or something]] For now, a few of them can be read [[https://bligh-lynch.tumblr.com his Tumblr]] or on his [=SoFurry=].
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7	[[AC:''Before Time After'' collects the following stories:]]
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9	* '''[[https://www.sofurry.com/view/1552105 Her Judges Are Evening Wolves]]''', which starts things off in the [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenColonies Colonial Period]] of Virginia, tracing the sordid, tragic -- and supernatural -- events that led to the Lightfoot dynasty's founding.
10	* '''Hath A Familiar Spirit''', set against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877 the Great Railroad Strike of 1877]], details the slow descent into insanity and [[TheAlcoholic drunkenness]] [[spoiler:and beastlyness]] of Bligh's ancestor, also named Bligh, who Wolkee had also been watching over. But this Bligh feels there's something deeply wrong with him -- like he belongs somewhere else...
11	* '''[[https://www.sofurry.com/view/1499170 Be Not Conformed To This World]]''' takes place -- using a FramingDevice -- in the same period as "Upriver" from ''What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse'', but recounting a time a decade before, narrated by (the second) Bligh's mother: how she emerged from poverty to attend Marshall University and then met her future husband, Bligh's father, Junior Lynch. But along the way, she remembers her best friend back home who passed away...and the strange eye-like orange lights that seemed to watch her, everywhere she went...
12	* '''The Cold of Snow In the Time of Harvest''' is a small, intimate ChristmasEpisode of sorts starring Andrew's parents, Archie and Maggie, and Bligh's father, Junior, as they reflect sadly on friends they've lost, mistakes they've made, and hope for a better future. The story is, in fact, a LampshadeHanging on how both of their families [[WeirdnessMagnet seem to attract bizarre goings-on]], and how normal people would really [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome have to deal with that]].
13	* '''[[https://www.sofurry.com/view/1517430 Ask Now the Beasts]]''' takes place in 2007 [[spoiler:back when Bligh was still human]] and describes Bligh on a routine squirrel-hunting trip that gets interrupted in an abrupt and traumatic way. Bligh trying to deal with this is the first hint for him that [[TheMasquerade not is all as it appears to be in the world.]]
14	* '''[[https://www.sofurry.com/view/1496701 Thy Foot Shall Not Stumble]]''' gives ADayInTheLimelight to a character only mentioned peripherally in ''Not Exactly Night'', the first novel: Betsy Barnes, Andrew's ex. Similar to "The Cold of Snow," this story is a {{Deconstruction}} of sorts, this one on the romantic and sexual politics behind the OneTrueLove trope -- Betsy had long since figured out she wasn't going to be with Andrew because he was so [[EveryoneCanSeeIt obviously into Bligh without ever saying so]].
15	* '''[[https://www.sofurry.com/view/1480472 Born For Adversity]]''' introduces Stephen, Andrew's brother, and gives us some good hints as to how his cruel, sadistic behavior [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold is mostly all an act]]. We also discover that the plot of ''Not Exactly Night'' -- and Bligh's harebrained scheme -- was already known to Stephen because Bligh swore him to secrecy [[spoiler:after Pappy died]]. Finally, there are two huge reveals which will have major consequences, later on: [[spoiler:Stephen can [[SpeaksFluentAnimal communicate with dogs]]...and [[GoodThingYouCanHeal he can't die from even the most traumatic of wounds]], being functionally immortal.]]
16	* '''Maketh the Day Dark,''' told from Bligh's perspective before he sets off for Florida, setting the events of ''The Dogs'' in motion -- a GrandFinale of sorts.
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19	!!''Before Time After'' contains examples of:
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21	* AppropriatedAppellation: As revealed in "Her Judges Are Evening Wolves," this is how Nicholas Tucker's son, Nicky, founds the Lightfoot dynasty:
22	--->When Harvey, the governor against whom the wrath of his countrymen was freshly roiling, heard of Nicholas Tucker's cowardice into the west, he sneered that though Tucker had not a heavy heart of iron he had at least a swift, light foot – and much to his despair this was a moniker Nicholas Tucker could never shake off. But when his son, also named Nicholas although history would know him by the diminutive, Nicky, moved with General Wood out past the New River…he would take the affixed title and reclaim it, to save his new American family face.
23	* BeenThereShapedHistory: The first Bligh Lynch (from the story "Hath A Familiar Spirit") was one of the delegates to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeling_Convention Wheeling Convention]], essentially a founding father of West Virginia by helping to create the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Kanawha State of Kanawha]], which became West Virginia in 1863.
24	* BigFriendlyDog: Duke, Bligh's oversized wolfhound-like dog, is adored by everyone. [[spoiler:Except for the fact that he's not really a dog, he's a sentient and sapient creature, part of the Dogfolk tribe, and he's Wolkee's son, real name Wanral, which makes him technically Bligh's ''cousin.'']]
25	* BrokenMasquerade: A few people, like Archibald Lightfoot (Andrew's dad), his account Papa Sandoro, and Bligh's grandfather Pappy seem to suspect something is terribly amiss in the world; the only one who confirms it ''and'' doesn't vanish or die as a result is [[spoiler:Bligh]], which sets up the plot of ''The Dogs'' novels.
26	* CoolOldGuy: Pappy, Bligh's grandfather, who gets a starring role in "Ask Now the Beasts."
27	** Papa Sandoro, Archibald Lightfoot's accountant and confidante, gets shades of this.
28	* TheDarknessGazesBack: The central plot of "Be Not Conformed To This World" and what eventually drives [[spoiler:Bligh's ancestor, the elder Bligh]] insane.
29	* DontGoInTheWoods: Invoked almost word for word by Pappy, whose warning carries over into ''The Dogs'' novels as well:
30	-->"Ain't tellin what ye find in em woods."
31	* EveryoneCanSeeIt
32	* FamilyEyeResemblance
33	* GenerationXerox: Andrew Lightfoot is said to look and act very much like his grandfather, who was also deeply compassionate and just. Bligh Lynch is outright described as being a younger, [[IdenticalGrandson near-identical version of his own grandfather]], Pappy.
34	* InterspeciesRomance: The union of [[spoiler:Patrick Lynch]] and Wanata, Wolkee's twin sister, creates an unbroken line of males that end with [[spoiler:Bligh]]. This is only possible because, as described elsewhere, female Dogfolk actually look near-totally human.
35	* InTheBlood: Lynch, his descendant Pappy, and ''his'' grandson Bligh, are all [[spoiler:matrilineally descended from the last chief of the Dogfolk. There is a prophecy by the tribe's shamans that a great king will arise and bring their tribe back from the brink -- which Bligh begins to fulfill in ''The Dogs'' novels.]]
36	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: We never find out just what was wrong with Shane from "Be Not Conformed To This World" but whatever it was, it killed him dead. [[spoiler:[[NotQuiteDead Only not really at all.]] ]]
37	* ManlyMenCanHunt: Played with in "Ask Now the Beasts": Bligh has been instructed to hunt squirrels for he and his grandfather's dinner the following night, because Pappy wants Bligh to learn survival skills and be self-sufficient. Although Bligh is a natural at it, it leads to this funny snippet:
38	--->Pappy was convinced of the rightness of his positions and it was ''really'' hard to argue with him because, incidentally, he was almost never wrong…but goddam, couldn't they just order a pizza?
39	* MountainMan: Played straight with Bligh's oldest ancestor, Patrick Lynch, but subverted with Patrick's son, also named Bligh, in "Hath A Familiar Spirit." It's part of the angst that builds up inside him [[spoiler:leading to his breakdown and to his transformation into the Black Beast.]]
40	** Played straight again with Bligh's grandfather, Pappy, and nearly Bligh himself, before he decides to move.
41	* NothingIsScarier: There are constant hints, but nothing concrete, that all the animals that surround Ohawas' house were once human. Who were they, and how did they get there?
42	** The way that the first Bligh Lynch slowly breaks down is played this way. [[spoiler:As is Archibald Lightfoot.]]
43	* OminousOwl: Taken up to eleven in "Ask Now the Beasts." The persistent motif of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppKGJD3Y6c barred owl call ("Who cooks for you? Who cooks for all!")]] makes it all the more effective.
44	* ParentalSubstitute: Although this greatly crosses over with ''The Dogs'' novels, the relationship between the orphaned Bligh and his grandfather Pappy is meant to be strongly paternal and loving.
45	* PornWithPlot: Far less than the novels, but occasionally present.
46	%% * RapeAndRevenge: TheReveal to how "Her Judges Are Evening Wolves" plays out.
47	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Dogfolk are known to be extremely long-lived -- several centuries if they are healthy enough.
48	** There's an implication that Ohawas from "Her Judges Are Evening Wolves" is far, far older than she appears.
49	* RetiredBadass: Gustavus Lynch a.k.a. Pappy, the character Bligh's grandfather, was a travelling preacher and decorated Korean War hero.
50	* StrongFamilyResemblance
51	* ThankYourPrey: Bligh does this to the squirrels he hunts, as Pappy taught him how to, in "Ask Now the Beasts."
52	* TotallyNotAWerewolf: Descriptions of [[spoiler:Bligh, and their relative Lynch, a.k.a. the Black Beast, and his cousin Ricky Jack]] would point to [[spoiler:them]] being wolf-human hybrids or, just werewolves -- but [[spoiler:they're]] actually ''Dogfolk'', closer to a hybrid of Celtic dog breeds like Irish Wolfhounds and Scottish Deerhounds.
53	* WasOnceAMan: Used potently in "Her Judges Are Evening Wolves."

Context Literature / TheDogsBeforeTimeAfter