Line #61 Literature/TheDogs


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1k97q6n8_front_shortedge_384.jpg]]
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3	->''"So then, what, you're – saying – I guess – you're really not – ''human''…"''
4	->''"Fuckin right. I'm better." Bligh's lips remained parted, and Cody stared at his elongated eyeteeth – ''fangs.'' "This is who I really am. This is how I changed…"''
5	-->-- '''Cody and Bligh, during [[TheReveal the big reveal]] of Bligh's [[TotallyNotAWerewolf true, half-canine form.]]'''
6
7	''The Dogs'' is a series of erotic novels, joined by a pair of short story collections, by Christopher Veidt.
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9	The first novel was begun in April of 2012 as an experiment in [[TransformationFiction transformation fetish stuff]] for a [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom Furry audience]] that eventually mushroomed into a full-fledged novel when the original notes for the story were codified and revised in August of 2013.
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11	Broadly speaking, the novels and short stories, which make up a [[SharedUniverse wide, interconnected world of its own]], comprise an effort by the author to revive a more old-fashioned, regionalist approach to literature, as well as to bring a more refined and literary veneer to EroticLiterature and, more specifically, TransformationFiction.
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13	Many of the stories are, as a result, ''highly'' NSFW, and possess a potent sense of tragedy and dread. (The novels are [[LighterAndSofter a little more romantic and sweet]], but that's not saying much.) Using [[AllMythsAreTrue real-world folklore and local history]], the stories usually bring in the geographic location where they are set [[FisherKingdom as a central engine of the characters' actions and personalities]]. More often than not, it posits that the abrupt and traumatic abandonment of how life used to be causes people to lose touch with their true selves...which can come back to haunt them [[BodyHorror in unsettling and shocking ways]]. The whole thing is deeply steeped in the lore, traditions, and culture of {{UsefulNotes/Appalachia}}, West Virginia in particular.
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15	While almost exclusively featuring homosexual content, [[InsistentTerminology Veidt insists it is]] ''not'' Furry, nor LGBT, [[spoiler:nor mpreg]] fiction. That being said, [[GenreBusting it's sort of hard to pin down what category]] these stories ''would'' fall under.
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17	You can read the first novel [[https://www.sofurry.com/browse/folder/stories?by=336864&folder=73650 here]].
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19	[[AC:This page covers the main novels of the series, which are:]]
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21	* '''Not Exactly Night''', which introduces the main trio of characters -- Bligh Lynch, Andrew Lightfoot, and Cody Tyree, and how they came together.
22	* '''Litany''', which focuses more on Andrew's brother Stephen, and the burgeoning mystery of something strange and terrible that happened long ago.
23	* '''Hand In Heart''', currently in production, brings the action of the last two months to a head, but [[TrippyFinaleSyndrome ends with more questions than answers]], with [[SequelHook room for a fourth or even fifth book]].
24
25	[[AC:The novels are joined by two short story collections, which are:]]
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27	* '''[[Literature/TheDogsBeforeTimeAfter Before Time After]]''', a volume of prequel stories [[RotatingProtagonist from different characters]] which narrates how the events, characters, and people of the main novels eventually coalesce [[SwitchingPOV as told and seen by several people]] over the course of almost three centuries.
28	* '''Literature/WhatAHorribleNightToHaveACurse''', which [[TheVerse takes place in the same universe as ''The Dogs'']], but codifies most of Veidt's work wherein the main cast either doesn't appear or [[TheCameo only has a cameo]].
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30	Has a [[Characters/TheDogs character sheet]], under construction.
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32	-------
33	!!''The Dogs'' novels contains examples of:
34	* AccentsArentHereditary: This actually comes up a lot as a form of CharacterDevelopment:
35	** Andrew and Stephen both sound like they are from southeastern West Virginia in their youth, and Andrew up until he moved to Florida [[spoiler:when he deliberately changed the way he spoke to fit in, which provides a dramatic AccentSlipUp moment in the first novel]].
36	** By the second novel, both Andrew and Stephen's accent soften to become something like their mother's -- broadly Appalachian without being as shrill as Bligh's.
37	** Bligh, on the other hand, keeps his accent, and this never changes.
38	* {{UsefulNotes/Appalachia}}: Flashbacks take us here when Andrew remembers his life growing up with Stephen and Bligh. Special care is used to describe the mountains and [[GhibliHills gorgeous hilly scenery]].
39	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Comes with the territory, and somewhat lampshaded by Andrew, a Biology major, who struggles mightily with what transpires in front of his very eyes [[AgentScully because he refuses to believe science can't explain it]].
40	** Andrew's brother doubly lampshades both this and [[spoiler:[[MisterSeahorse Cody's pregnancy]]]] when they are first revealed to him in ''Litany'':
41	-->'''Stephen:''' "What the fuck kinda Bio major ''are you''? [[spoiler:The fuck is he, some kinda seahorse?]]"
42	* BrandNamesAreBetter: Something all the Lightfoot family has in common -- even Andrew, who spurns his rich upbringing -- is the insistence on buying name-brand stuff.
43	* CanineCompanion: Although both deceased well before the start of the events of the first novel, this was Duke for Bligh, and Walker, the Beagle, for Stephen.
44	* CastFullOfGay: Kind of the point.
45	* ChromosomeCasting: Intentional for the first novel, as the action of the plot didn't really allow for anyone outside of the main three main characters (and Stephen during the final act), who were all male. Female characters are mentioned, but not introduced.
46	** Stephen and Andrew's mother is briefly seen and heard in a flashback.
47	** In the second novel we have Gabby, Cody's boss. See MonochromeCasting, below.
48	* ClusterFBomb: Andrew when he gets frustrated, and Stephen [[SirSwearsALot almost every sentence]].
49	* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the many common ideas and themes that tend to show up in erotic transformation stories [[spoiler:and mpreg fics]]. Instead of being a sexy fantasy, the idea of transformation into a half-human creature [[spoiler:and getting pregnant as a male]] is treated with [[DarkerAndEdgier brutal realism.]]
50	* CuteLittleFangs: The only trait of the half-dog that can't be hidden. Although the teeth are described as sharp (as a dog's would), it's apparently not something people notice at first.
51	* ExoticEquipment: Not particularly ''exotic'' as it is canine, but yes.
52	* FictionFiveHundred: Stephen and Andrew's family, the Lightfoots, are enormously wealthy and ''extremely'' old, tracing their roots back to [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies when Jamestown was first settled in 1607]]. The disproportionate amount of money the family has amassed in a poverty-stricken area [[DefectorFromDecadence eventually disgusts and disillusions Andrew]]. Stephen, on the other hands, [[MrViceGuy milks it for all its worth]].
53	* FoodPorn: The dinner that Andrew's mother prepares for her family with Bligh and his grandfather as guests in a flashback. The main course is duck -- ''[[spoiler:endangered]]'' duck.
54	* FreudianTrio: Bligh, Cody, and Andrew for the first novel. Although unintentional, they end up representing, respectively, the [[UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud Freudian]] concepts of the id, ego, and superego.
55	* FunetikAksent: How Bligh's dialogue is written, in addition to Andrew's and Stephen's in flashbacks, attempting to replicate the Greenbrier Valley dialect.
56	* HatedHometown: Tempest, West Virginia, the hometown of Andrew, Bligh, and Stephen.
57	* HealingFactor: It's only barely hinted how, but [[spoiler:Stephen is pretty much immune to every injury and sickness, just like his dad.]]
58	* LittleBitBeastly: What happens when humans (like Bligh) turn into half-dogs. Although apparently human while wearing a hat and pants, half-dogs have external traits of being completely furry and canine below the waist complete with tail, have [[UnusualEars pointed furry dog's ears]], and sharpened canine teeth, as mentioned.
59	* {{Metamorphosis}}: A central theme of the novels, both physical and emotional.
60	* ManlyGay: ''All'' of the characters identified as gay, no matter how much homosexual sex they have, are pretty much indistinguishable as gay men.
61	* MonochromeCasting: For the first novel, but [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that three of the four main cast are from West Virginia, a state where at least a few counties have, at least according to census records, no people of colour ''at all.''
62	** In the second novel, Cody's motherly Puerto Rican boss, Gabby, and her husband, Jomar, are introduced. They play a small but vital role in the early part of the book. Their presence lessens this trope somewhat, due to how [[MinimalistCast how small the cast remains]].
63	* MountainMan: Pappy definitely qualifies, with Bligh following in his footsteps. [[spoiler:And, in a strange example, Andrew's ancestor, Nicky Lightfoot -- ''unwillingly.'']]
64	* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: According to [[WordOfGod the author himself]], Tempest, West Virginia, is roughly based on several small towns in Greenbrier County, namely Rupert, Rainelle, and Quinwood. Adkins County, where Tempest is supposedly located, is more or less the southern part of the real life Greenbrier County.
65	** Subverted with where Andrew and Cody live: several clues are dropped that it's the Tampa suburb of Rocky Creek.
66	* OnlyInFlorida: The main action of the first novel takes place in Tampa; the dramatic confrontation that sets in motion the rest of the plot between Andrew and Bligh occurs on a Tampa Bay beach. Additionally, Cody was born near Plant City (on a strawberry farm -- Plant City is famous on the East Coast for this crop), and was living homeless in an actual bad part of Tampa, Nebraska Avenue, before they met. Andrew goes to the University of South Florida.
67	* PainfulTransformation: It's actually described to be pretty traumatic and highly taxing to the body, particularly the final stage, where the heart morphs into a canine's, which is felt in the form of something akin to an [[HollywoodHeartAttack agonizing heart attack]].
68	* PrettyBoy: Cody, and to a different extent Stephen.
69	* RealMenCook: All three of the main trio are decent cooks, with different specialties between them.
70	* ReferenceOverdosed: A plethora of (mostly passing) literary and pop cultural references which populate the novels, as disparate as ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' to ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray''. There are also large amounts of references to the culture and geography of both West Virginia and Florida.
71	* RetroUniverse: Played with. Despite nominally being an exact parallel to our own, people buy clothing from antiquated (and long-defunct) department stores like Burdines and Hecht's, which are assumed to be still flourishing in this alternate 2013.
72	* SceneryPorn: Both West Virginia and Florida are given this treatment.
73	* SignatureScent: One of the ways Dogfolk know each other is by a rather complex, cologne-like smell. For instance, Bligh is said to smell something like petrichor and rotting agarwood.
74	* StraightGay: All three characters, but Bligh especially. Stephen is less this than he is ChaoticStupid; his bisexuality is par for the course.
75	* ThePowerOfLove: A recurring theme.
76	* TotallyNotAWerewolf: Despite [[IronicNickname nicknamed ''Wolfman'' in high school]] because he was so hirsute even at that age, and being a committed werewolf fan himself, Bligh rejects the label, referring to himself as a "dog." [[spoiler:The others acquiesce to the idea.]]
77	* TransformationHorror: A salient feature of all of Veidt's work.
78	* UnevenHybrid: After transforming, a newly joined member of the Dogfolk is permanently this. Despite [[InsistentTerminology the term used]], these creatures are actually little over 60% canine, both externally and internally.
79	* ViewersAreGeniuses: The large amounts of references, gone over above, coupled with deliberately dream-like nature imagery and sometimes [[PurpleProse long, complicated sentences and vocabulary]] mean that this becomes a common complaint for some readers.
80	* WithAFriendAndAStranger: Andrew spent his entire childhood and teenage years with Bligh, and has been dating Cody for a year. Bligh and Cody, as a result, do not know each other well at all [[spoiler:but that changes completely the first night Bligh is there]].
81	* YouAreWorthHell: More or less invoked by [[spoiler:Andrew]] to [[spoiler:both Bligh ''and'' Cody.]]
82	* YouSexyBeast: Bligh. [[spoiler:At first, til the other two join him.]]

Context Literature / TheDogs