Friday, August 23, 2013

Flash Fiction Friday: Googleology

Via the monkey, with special dispensation to change it. So Charlie gets another fic, this one just under the 500 word mark.

No one ever said it was easy to eat a god. What people don't say is that it happens all the time. The Christians have transubstantiation, where wafers and wine and literally flesh and flesh, and most religions have some form of theophagy: kings ground up into mulch, grain was eating gods, stuff like that. Children drinking milk from breasts might be the same sort of act, when their parents are as gods to them. Like I said, it happens all the time.

Also, I used google. When you're travelling with a magician who says he's using you to scare people with, you read stuff. I've learned there's a video game called god-eater, also that Aztec gods sacrificed themselves to begin a new age. Not sure there's many religions where the gods themselves do such things, but the internet is a craptastic source to go on.

There are things I won't google.

No one talks about what happens after. You eat a god, things get better. Ta-fucking-da, as if magic tricks were real magic. As if things were simple. The monster in my closet was a god, see. My dad made him, the magician opened the closet door. I ate the god. Being a god-eater is something I can do. No one will tell me why, so there's that. But the first time went wrong. First times do that. I became what I ate, or it become me. Slipped inside. Is part of me.

I've eaten stuff since. It all went down. The god stayed in me like skin under my skin. Only not like that at all. It's an itch that only goes away when I let it out, and it is power, and anger, and strength. What's becoming a force of nature if not addictive?

There are things I won't google. Answers I won't look for.

If I hold it right, if I balance it, I get power and can still eat stuff: energy, magic, gods. Does squat for burning off calories; I asked him about that, and the magician just looked utterly baffled as if he didn't know why anyone would worry about such things. He keeps telling me magicians aren't entirely human. I say he's still a man, at least sometimes, and he just smiles and bows as if it's a compliment.

Thing is, he's becoming a friend. A good one, but if I had to choose between him and what's inside me? Between that and eating gods? I think I'd give it all up. I don't know what I'd become. But there was a monster in my closet and it watched over me. Became me. We protect each other. (Sometimes I say 'we' when I mean I.) No one ever said it was easy to love a god either, and I wonder what we're becoming. What I am can scare the world, and I'm a little scared to learn more.

There are things I won't google. Answers I won't look for. Questions I won't ask.  

3 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, I LOVE this!

    'Also, I used google' -> hahahahha!

    ...okay, with the calorie comment, now I'm picturing Charlie as somewhat overweight with acne... which just makes me love the character even more.

    ...I'm just curious... do you think google has an answer for her...? The way you've written it, google itself almost sounds like a god ;)

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    1. I like using the internet in stories, if only because it has a kind of magic all its own. "You know all about me! You read my mind?!" "No, I did a google search," and the like.

      IIRC, the only description I give of Charlie is black hair and punk-style clothing; in my head, she at least thinks she has to lose weight, Acne will come up later: like in the stuff about the magician's sister and the prom, he's become removed from the world in odd ways that come back to bite him at times.

      'There are things I won't google. Answers I won't look for.' was originally the last line; i expanded it and added the earlier versions in to try and tie the piece together better. IMO, it doesn't simply because of the noise to signal ratio of the internet but she doesn't look up sin-eaters or get further into divine cannibalism because of being afraid of finding out she is/will be some kind of monster.

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    2. Hahaha, yup, crooked-psychics probably have a lot easier job now that google is out there...

      Oh, thanks for sending me that emailed piece! I haven't had a chance to read it yet since I only seem to be checking/reading email super early in the morning, or very late at night, and then I'm too tired to concentrate properly :) I am VERY excited to read it though!!!

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