Bellum II Recap + Bellum III is here . . .

Here We Go . . .

I think I'm finally ready to let Bellum III go. Now when I started this I had a few scenes in mind one of them being how this section starts. Chapter 1 has two parts to it this is part 1.

In Bellum II

After Helios kills Hippolyta for being captured,  Seraphian switches sides and forms an alliance and relationship with Paris.

"Paris, you know what this is. Don't complicate things."
I sit down in the desk chair next to the window, the view is still breathtaking. We are at the top of the world.
"Don't act like you don't know how I feel, Seraphina"
"Paris.", she's practically scolding me, "We have more important things to worry--"
"-About than my love life. Yeah, I know. Forget it. Whatever", I pretend to let it go.

Meanwhile Ariel who is at fault for Hippolyta's death starts to drink and has to deal with Seraphina's anger.

"How long is this going to going on, Seraphina ?"

"Stop following me, Ariel."

I follow her outside and into the quad.

"Are we at least going to talk about it ? I need to talk about this Seraphina. I can't. . . I cant keep holding it in. I can't"

Paris' inner circle in the Brotherhood doesn't exaclty trust Seraphina and the more time Paris spends with her the more he starts to learn about her. Some good . . . some bad

She had decades of experience with this kind of thing (centuries maybe), Sera was the kind of woman who knew what men wanted. She knew what men liked, what made them feel good. Made me want to spend hours taking anything and everything she would give me. Taking the lead had always seemed pointless, I was never going to catch up to her anyway.

    “I had my reasons for following Helios. I  have seen the error of my ways.”, she looked down,  "I will tell you everything I know, do what I can to wash myself of that massacre.”

    “You’re hands will never be clean”, Lysander snaps at her, "And I'll always be marked by it."

    “Remember”, Callum says, “Loyalty isn’t just earned around here.”

Meanwhile Sera carries out the  traitorous acts the Brotherhood asks her

 It was short. The police had been called to Queen Anne's after a fire broke out. Lots of property damage, no deaths. At no deaths I let myself smile.

Something else is going on though as Sera and Paris follow Helios to Long Island. Where he goes every night at the same time. Then When Paris and Seraphina are away Callum and Ashe decide to mutiny and go after Helios with the cache of white gold bullets they've made

    "Did they at least wait until I got out the drive way before plotting a mutiny ?"

 Lysander sits up against the wall and shakes his head. We had been trapped for three hours. I couldn't even wrap my mind around how the Brothers I had trusted to be in my inner circle had just betrayed me.

 "It happened this morning.They waited until I was asleep to come after me. I'm sorry Paris. I should have seen this coming."

"No you shouldn't have", I said, "Jona's my brother. He should have known better."

On the night of the ambush, Helios stops the attack before it can happen. The question is how did Helios know ? (pssst. It was Jona)  Sera is shot in the maylay and a realization comes to surface.

“I love you”

The syllable was barley out of her mouth when I started kissing her. She leaned to meet me, her whole body arching towards me. My grip tightened on her hips and the kiss was so cold it burned my lips.

“Sera . .you've taken a lot of medication “

“No. I love you”, she said again, "I've loved you for a long time"

“I know", I said, " I love you too, Seraphina. I love the way you see me. I promise I will be that Prince one day for you."

Also on that night Aria gives birth to a daughter, whom Helios takes an interest in.

Tessa was praised by Helios. At first we were all shocked, assuming Helios would have wanted a boy

 Paris finds a hidden Camera in his room. . . meaning someone knows about him and Seraphina's relationship. At the same time Paris and Sera realize they may have an expiration date

"Listen to me, Paris. I can't stay in New York. When we get rid of Helios and SGI I plan to get out. Leave forever. . . and you won't go with me will you ?

". . . I can't . . .I have responsibilities. Father's company, St. Lilith's, the daemons."

 "No matter what happens we won't end up together and the reason", she continues, " I didn't tell you about that call is because you don't need Isobel now. You'll need her later after I break your heart."

 "You don't get to decide my life like that, Sera. If you want to break my heart, do it."

"No", she says looking . "Not today, anyway."

Helios proposes to Seraphina and tells her why he is in New York and what he wants.

Helios wants New York ?", Damien laughs, "He wants his own country ? How ? Why ?"

"I think the why is pretty obvious", Jona says from his seat next to Callum, "We lost our country. We hide out here like we don't exist. If we could have our own land our own place to belong. . . . wouldn't you go for--"

"Ever since SGI returned to Homeland and found it in ruins, it's been the dream of each SGI leader to bring back our civilization." Sera had said her eyes on the road, "Helios fought other men's wars, fought for other men's countries in hope he'd have one of his own one day.

Helios was following a lead from his predecessor about the possible existence of female Angels. When he tracked us down in New York he scouted the area before he made contact."

"Isaiah noticed them when they were scouting", I'd cut in, "It was why he created the daemons he thought they might try to start the old war."

She'd nodded and continued

"Helios found more than he was bargaining for. Not only did he find a community of Angels  but he found the perfect land to conquer. Manhattan has infrastructure, riches and eight million humans to live as second class citizens.Manhattan is also an island, so he can easily isolate it and put up defenses to take it as his own.

Helios spent years working for corrupt governments and organizations. He knows how to stage an attack and win, he knows how to take by force. Apparently he spent the past year learning the city and it's weaknesses.

The only hiccup in Helios' plan was.  . .  you Demons. You know only white gold can hurt our kind, plus you are just as invincible as him. When Helios rises up to claim Manhattan as New Aeterna,  he couldn't risk having you oppose him or working with the government to stop him.

His plan was to move you out of the city and cut you down one by one. It's why he wanted to push you into one corner of the city. But he realized Hmjeu's business was very profitable. The money is the only reason he's keeping you around for a few more months."

"So our money has been staving off genocide", I simplified, "Damm. We've kept ourselves hidden from humans for so long. Their ideologies and notions about what we are and aren't could be problematic. He can't reveal us like that."

"There's more"

"What.", I'd said flatly

"Helios' knows the United States government isn't going to just give him the island. Not even close. He's going to wage war to conquer the island, it should only take a few days for him to win and Helios loves the thrill of war."

"He can't win. . . not with his small army. There's what ? 60 SGI"

She made a sharp turn

"Helios has a second army."

"More Angels ?"

"No. . . he is getting an army of bloodthirsty daemons."

She couldn't circle the club anymore and pulled into a shaded parking spot. I turned to face her profile half covered in shadows.

"How ? The only survivors are with us."

"You killed the creatures but you didn't kill the creator."

Isaiah

Fuck.

 Paris thinks he has time to figure things out

"In the meantime we act as if we know nothing. Callum is working on the new bullelts. When he is finished we aren't going to just take down Helios. . . we are going to take down every SGI at Queen Anne's who doesn't surrender. Everything we do from now on is to prevent New Aeterna from ever existing."

But it turns out that his brother Jona is the leak and has been working with Helios. After Paris and Seraphina break up Jona tells Helios about the affair.  Helios tries to kill Seraphina but with the help of Leon Sera escapes with her life.

Helios knows she will go to Paris but Paris promises Helios he would never help Sera. . . becuase he's in love and engaged to Isobel.

It'a a countdown until New Aeterna. The Brotherhood are working to toward another uprising but in the meantime they need to stay out of Helios' way.

PLAYLIST

+1+ - Sail by AWOLNATION
+2+ - Let Her Go - Lexi Blue
+3+ - If I Ever Fall In Love (Not sure this is apropos but I've had this song forever)

Bellum III Chapter 1 Part 1

A Quick Note

Linda Leigh . . . West ? 

No, Linda Leigh did not get married,  unless JB wants to make a new Penname for LiLe to marry.

Linda Leigh West (as in West Coast ! California ! 310 ! ) is the new location of LiLe !

Long story short when I upgraded my web browser I cleared my saved passwords. I thought I could log back in "no big deal" but my blog PW wouldn't work. 

Which is odd becuase I've had the same  PW one for all of my accounts but google says I changed it 12 months ago. So bascially I haven't had to log in in 12 months . . . that does not sound right.

Luckily I was still logged in at another location and was able to import and export the site and share my google docs.  

I'm secretly doing my happy dance that I got fed up with Google Docs a long time ago.

I may be able to "trick" google into letting me back in, but IDK I'm getting pretty settled in my new place. . . so welcome

 Back to the trenches

P.S I now think LindaLeighRambles might have been a better name.

Dispatches From The Trenches (SEND HELP) Mini .Gif

It has been quite on the homefront. I got some stuff done while I was on tour with the other Colboltians. Is that a word we are still using ? I think Seattle was the best city it was so laid back and practically smells like Starbucks ! I wish I could live there.

Being back has been great I've been embracing more of a political side an getting more involved with that. . . but all these drafts keep calling to me. My daughter has been helping me out a bit so I may have to start giving her partial credit. 

Here is a .Gif post that has been waiting in the wings. 

So writing Bellum III has been . . . interesting. I feel a little like I'm stumbling

I have bits and pieces but I have to make sure I'm not. . . boring, so I rework

For a while it's been like

I have a lot of good portions I wrote early on and I'm finding this section more and more about Sera who can be like 

and

I know what you guy are thinking when I write Seraphina

. . . no promises




Although sometimes Sera/Paris be like 

Recently I did have an epiphany about Bellum so It's been like

(I think I might actually make this face)



But sometimes it's like 

I'm also working on PLT which has been kind of fun there is even . . . dun dun dun

Yes, hand holding. 

No, but there are two PLT chapters devoted to what you've all been asking for

But you won't see PLT until I finish Bellum III

Also, I am working on a teeny-tiny (four chapter) extra something-something to do with Bellum

But you won't be able to see it until after Bellum III

(This is SO Sera's haircut, btw)

So. . . that's all I have for now.

Send help

Okay, let's wrap this up

I'm sure we all need to take one

 * I lost this post and copied and pasted the information from the preview so that's why the formatting is a bit off.

Seraphina, Bellum III

I know this chapter didn’t bring on the good kind of feels and I knew it was headed here and have been working on this chapter on and off for a while.

I always knew there was something unsaid about Isobel wanting to move into a house full of men, and Sera's placement in SGI said it all. Sera spends so much time looking out for Ariel that she forgets to look out for herself.

The writer in me wants to let Sera and Ariel runaway somewhere far away, instead of exploring her character in a place she is never going to feel comfortable. Furthermore a place she doesn't want to be, she never chose to go to St. Lilth's and Sera is all about free wil. She is only staying becuase Helios won't look for her there again

We get a tiny peak of Seraphina’s POV and that's probably going to be it. The issue with Seraphina’s POV is that she is a very unreliable narrator. She’s very detached from herself.

As you all predicted she does undergo a bit of a physical makeover after section two .  Her new look is similar in style to models Ruby Rose and Elliot Sailors.


Elliot Sailors is my new ideal picspiration for Seraphina. I wish I found her earlier if only because she is the right age and has that very strong jaw line. Sailor's does double duty and models menswear to get more work.. These first few pics aren't  from a catalog these are her wedding photos.




Ruby Rose
The first picspiration I stumbled across was Australian Maybelline model Ruby Rose. Rose got some internet fame for her Break Free video. Yes, I also stole the music from her video. Of course Rose is going to be famous as she will be on OITNB, but I found her first !

Lysander

 found myself getting really interested in Lysander. In this chapter he was the “loyal” friend. He really backs Paris up. As you know I do things out of order, so when I was working on this section , I realized that I’d killed Lysander off in chapter 5's draft  (In the explosion at the shops). I immediately changed it so he is injured , because I liked him so much in this chapter. 

Obligatory .GIF post

How you guys think I treat my characters

Really, I like happy endings and you are probably all

So allow me to cheer you up with a .Gif of a Kardashian taking a selfie with a Koala Bear

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As you know there is a final (and shorter) part to Bellum. Part III. I'm really feeling the first chapter in Bellum III and you all know how when I'm working I'm all

Bellum III

There is a lot going on here and I went back and forth on ending this on such a dark note. The reason I made Bellum in three parts was because I knew each part would be focused on the status of Sera and Paris’ relationship. Part 1 was the attraction, Part 2 Pariphina as a couple, Part 3 is focusing on the aftermath of their break up.

One comment pinged one something that happens in Bellum III, we are going to explore Paris and Seraphina with the absence of a physical relationship.

I know how this serial ends and what the fates of the character are  I just don’t know how  to steer the boat. I’m excited because I get to write a little freer but scared that I may go off the rails. Yes I know I changed metaphors.

Ariel is going to begin interacting with the daemons so I’m excited to write teen characters !

Between Isobel’s return, Sera’s rape, Ariel/Sera being exiled, Helio’s killing people and Jona defecting and  I have quite the feat in Bellum III. I wish I could say it’s as. . .finished as I want it. It will be much shorter around 10 chapters.


Into to the trenches . . . I also need to work on. .  . that . . . other thing. snippet. (;

Outtakes and Music Notes

Double Chapter Post and Picspirations

Alexander McQueen's runway inspires my inner fantasy costume nerd. This dress design is the picspration for the Angel's second dress.

The Game Is The Game

So when I first wrote Lux I wrote it knowing that Seraphina and Paris were destined for one another. . . and that Sera wanted to stop it.

Remember in Lux when Isobel is about to get shot and Seraphina takes the bullet for her

“Demon”, her voice a fading whisper, “You know why I threw myself on Isobel Charter ?”

I held onto to her final words to Isobel.

“I told the Prince, Angels have a good sense for things like this. He needs you”

Love.

Angels have a good sense for love.

What Sera really mean is she wants to die because Paris needs Isobel, not someone as messed up as her.

Sera's Backstory

Sera's backstroy was supposed to be in Lux. Her backstory being she killed a Demon who took quarters in her house as a child. I wanted it to go in Chapter 12 of LA but she was supposed to be dying and it seemed unrealistic for her to have time to say all that, talk about her wings and for Paris to figure out she was the one who blinded Ashe.

Seraphina/Paris' Dream

There is a slight kind of abstract hint that Seraphina knew about Paris' dream

Sera says this in Chapter 2 of Bellum I

. . .I remember being a girl and hiding by a stream that seemed alive with music and nymphs ?”, She brushes back her hair.

Then in Paris' Dream

The Angel looks in awe at the stream, closing its eyes to hear the sound of nymphs whispering and laughing in the grove.

I thought someone would remember this because. . . I don't mention nymphs very often.

Picspirations

I found some more picspiration including one for Titus. Those arms.

This photoset featuring a Sports Illustrated model and Footballer/Model illustrated the power  shows the struggle between Sera and Paris to me. Interesting to note the guy is the nude one in this photoset.

Chapter 11 Recap

Seraphina breaks up with Paris. . . but will he let her go ? And why does she know about his dream ?

Chapter 12 and 13

 

Playlist
Chapter 12
+1+ Fly - Nikki Minaj
+2+ Battlefield - Jordin Sparks
+3+ No Ordinary Love - The Civil Wars
+4+ We Might Be Dead Tomorrow - Soko

Chapter 13
The Leaving Song - Chris Garneau

Chapter 12 and 13

Fun With Maps

Location Location Location

I've always been a bit obsessed with the idea that Manhattan is an island. I mean it's like a floating city that is only connected to the continental US via bridges. It's not in the middle of the ocean like Hawaii or far away like Alaska. It's just interesting and  Helios clearly shares my vision. But here are some things to consider/Author Did Not Do Research

The Angels and Demons don't live on the island of  Manhattan
The Angels live in Brooklyn which is only connected to the Island of Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge.   Riverdale where The Demons live id in the Bronx. which is connected to Manhattan The Bronx is connected via the Broadway Bridge. Just some geography pointers. The groups are on two different sides of New York-metro.


Recap

Helios' plan to take over Manhattan is finally revealed and he is working with Isaiah, who wants revenge on Paris. With the help of Baby Tessa's stem cell's Helios is ready to create his army . . . but at what cost ?

Also this section from Bellum I is going to come back. This is an exchange between Helios and Paris

“Well. . . even if  she is a whore’s daughter. Probably why she is senselessly frigid. Interesting childhood that one--”

I had choked on the tiny sip of wine I’d tasted at his comment.

“You know --er--knew her from back . . . home”, I feign disinterest.

“Infamous that one. Her father died in the war back home. Days later a set of Demons soldiers overtook her village and she and her mother became slaves in their own house. Seraphina couldn’t stand how the Demons treated them .  . .one day and rumors abound why…. Seraphina killed the Demon

and this after Sera almost drowns Paris.

“Why ?”, I ask, “Why did you try to kill me ?”
She lifts her neck higher and I grasp it tighter, letting my anger over that day take over. The anger of seeing Isobel cry.
“Because of my mother”, she breathes.
“I didn’t know your mother.”
“I know.”
“Do we have some sort of history ?”
“No”

Meanwhile in The Angel & Demon storyline . . .

While escaping The Tempest- a monstrous elemental creature-- the The Angel and Demon discover the creatures weakness. They have a plan to destroy it before it can destroy the Demon's home, the Citadel.

Playlist

+1+ My Love - VSQ
+2+  First Night, First day - Mychael Danna and 528491 - Hans Zimmer
+3+Let Me Lie - Hayley Westerna
+4+ Burn - Alexi Blue

Chapter 11