"Nothing Like the Sun" is a short story by delta7447 and yearends of DeviantArt, which has two sequels, "More Lovely and More Temperate" and "Sweet Beauty Hath No Name". They can be read here
. (Part 2) (Part 3).
The main character life seems perfect: she is an all-powerful goddess who can do whatever she wants... except turn off the light that shines from her eyes like the Sun, causing people everywhere to ask that she solve their problems for them. She just wants to be left alone! Is that so bad?
NOTE: Due to the nature of this story, it is strongly recommended that you read it and its sequels in their entirety before scrolling down and reading any further on this page. ALL SPOILERS WILL BE UNMARKED. You Have Been Warned.
Provides examples of the following:
- Anthropic Principle: The main character finds out that the only reason she didn't know she could just will her eyes to stop glowing is because the whole story is based around this, so if she knew she could do that, there would be no story, even though this doesn't make logical sense.
- Author Powers: The authors of the story only have these when outside the story. When they are brought into the characters' world, they can't alter it in any way.
- Deconstructed Trope: Makes fun of The Omnipotent trope by pointing out that despite their power, these characters are nothing. Their whole lives are dictated by what their authors do and they can do nothing else. Even the main character bringing her authors to their universe and punishing them was the authors' intention all along.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After reading the authors' other stories, the main character suddenly realizes that she could turn off her Glowing Eyes just by willing it, and that she only didn't do so before because her authors were preventing her from ever thinking of it. This makes her hate them even more.
- First-World Problems: Exaggerated; the main character understands that she shouldn't be complaining about anything since she is omnipotent, but does so anyway.
- Flash Fiction: Each part is only one page long, making three pages altogether.
- Flipping the Bird: The main character does this to the authors and the readers in the illustration for "Sweet Beauty Hath No Name".
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Think the authors are safe from their character's rage against them because they are real and she is fictional? Think again. She is able to bring them to her world.
- Freak Out: The main character doesn't take it well when she discovers not only that she is fictional, but the reasons why her authors made her in the first place. As revenge for learning that she was created just as a joke and because her authors are turned on by omnipotent characters, she brings them to her world and demands that they fix everything. However, they can't do so outside of the real world.
- Glowing Eyes: The main character has these, and can't stand that they make her attempts to live a normal life impossible.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The authors thought they would get away with ruining the main character's life, because they are real and she is fictional, only for their creation to turn the tables on them precisely because they made her all-powerful. Fortunately for them, she realizes punishing them is pointless and sends them back unscathed.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Downplayed; the main character loves being omnipotent and would never give up her powers, but she can't get her eyes to stop glowing. This causes people to worship her even though she wants none of it.
- Literary Allusion Title: The chapter titles are from Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, Sonnet 18, and Sonnet 127, respectively.
- Little Miss Almighty: The main character is omnipotent.
- Minimalist Cast: Only the main character and her friend appear in the story. The two authors would add the number of characters to four, but they are only spoken of and not directly seen.
- Nameless Narrative: None of the characters ever get a name.
- Noticing the Fourth Wall: The characters discover in "More Lovely and More Temperate" that they are just fictional characters, created as a joke because the authors are into that sort of thing. They do not take this well.
- The Omnipotent: There is nothing the main character cannot do, except get rid of her Glowing Eyes. She even brings her own authors into her story to demand that they get rid of the eyes, and only after that does she realize that, since she is omnipotent, she could have done it herself.
- Pals with Jesus: The main character used to be a normal human, and kept in touch with all her friends after becoming omnipotent. In the end, she makes them all omnipotent like her.
- Perverse Sexual Lust: The main character speculates that her authors might feel this way about her, which understandably creeps her out. Her other hypothesis is that they are Godhood Seekers.
- Rage Against the Author:
The bane of my existence, the reason I can’t have the normal life I so desperately desire—and she can’t, either, now—I have because someone wanted to make a fucking joke.
But this pair of chucklefucks forgot one thing: they made us omnipotent. All-freaking-powerful. And they were so incredibly arrogant that they thought that it would be enough protection from our wrath to be "real" while we were "fictional".
Well, they know differently now.
- Self-Parody: The whole trilogy is to make fun of the authors' fondness for goddesses and Glowing Eyes.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The main character just wants her eyes to stop glowing, and at the end, she just wills this to happen. This was inevitable and Played for Laughs, since every character involved is omnipotent.
- Shout-Out: All the chapter titles are lines from Shakespeare's sonnets.
- Space Whale Aesop: Don't make overpowered characters, because they might find out they are fictional and resent you, and drag you into their world to take revenge.
- Stop Worshipping Me: The main character is very annoyed by people asking for favors and blessings and treating her differently from everyone else, which is why she wants her eyes to stop glowing so that no one knows she is omnipotent.
- Theory of Narrative Causality: The inability of the main character to turn off her Glowing Eyes turns out to be just for narrative convenience, and nothing actually prevents her from doing so.
- Torture Is Ineffective: The main character stops torturing her authors because they are unable to change her world while they are in it, so torturing them into getting rid of her glowing eyes is pointless.
- Touched by Vorlons: The main character makes her best friend omnipotent, and finds out that she herself got her powers because two writers in another universe thought it would be funny.
- Trapped in TV Land: The main characters bring the authors into their universe, but have to put them back because the Author Powers only work in the real world.
- Wham Line: The second chapter gives us this doozy, in what up to then is pure comedy:
- With Great Power Comes Great Perks: The main character wants to enjoy being omnipotent, but she can't do that as long as her eyes glow and attract would-be worshippers to her. She finally gets rid of them at the end of the story, so that she and her friends can live their lives in peace.
- Writers Suck: The writers are characterized as pathetic creeps who get their just deserts at the hand of their own creation.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: In "Nothing Like the Sun", the main character tries everything she can think of to make her eyes stop glowing, but none of them work. "Sweet Beauty Hath No Name" reveals that this is because she never considered just willing them to stop glowing, because her authors wouldn't allow it. Instead, she would close her eyes, wear sunglasses, or remove her eyes altogether.
