Time Series, Part 3 - Planning

[sickle_stories]

General Storyline: The aftermath of Kezef's opening of the gates and the renewal of the apocalypse battle, Chip/Icarus...

• Include short passages of one-shot characters (e.g. Michael and Adelle in Time We Saw a Miracle).


• More backstory of Steve/Chip in the pre-apocalypse (e.g. More than a Couple's The Long Day is Done, Bath Scene and Late-Night Call)


• Angels are dragged out of heaven by Kezef's spell of "opening the gates". They fall like fire (see: The Last Wild Angel backstory) because the grace is like heat and fire. Some angels are like a banked fire in that some recover, some smolder, and some burst into flame. This can cause spontaneous combustion of people keeping angels, or the angels are used as heaters (setting stones and bricks around them) and so on, depending on their strength. The angels need to get together (many small flames make a big fire). They are also used as canary-in-a-cage warnings.


• A gathering of angels on a field make it look like a prairie fire.


• Characters include the male narrator of The Last Wild Angel and his gang, Maudette and her boys, a nomadic trio, an old lady with a lone angel, possibly Claire Novacks...


• General story includes the meteor shower of angels, the angel fires and the things they set fire to.


• Maudette Scene: She leaves her children behind and goes into the city looking for gas only to find a man on fire. "I couldn't believe it at first," but she means the waste of petrol, not the fact that a man set himself - or was set - on fire. Then she finds in beautiful, which is disturbing, and doesn't know it's an angel.


• Scene of Chip with Steve dead in the car. (Steve had "left the building", but not the car.) What did he do with the body? When did he stop driving?


• What is Agatha's reaction to Chip/Icarus? And Dean's?


• What is the logical result, on a personal level, of the opening of the gates? What does this do to Icarus? He was left powerless and nigh-graceless and now his brothers are back but they too are powerless. The army is back and the fight is on but the soldiers are unarmed.


• Do people want to leave the camp now or are more coming?


• What is Chip's role now that he is just another grunt and the lover of a failed angel?


• Kezef likes Chip and knows him and that can't be good. Besides, Kezef let Icarus go and healed him even if he took the rest of his grace. What's his plan now? To punish everyone?


• The image of a dried rose set on fire, its petals curling into flame by an angel's heat.


• Plastic flowers used as decoration.


• How do the angels feel about Icarus? Do they see him as a betrayer? Even if he was just an ingredient? Do they believe he was working with Kezef? A little mini-avenger?


• The dragged-out angels (including Michael) have the option of fighting for or against the apocalypse, aainst Kezef (if he wants to punish them before enlisting them to finish the job), or they try to escape back to heaven, or meet with Dean and Icarus.


• They have to get the angels together and start them back up so they can fight again. The humans have to fight to get the angels to fight for them. If they're even on their side. Either way, they'd best get the angels before Kezef and Lucifer do. They put out the word and hunt down the fires and the rumors.


• Or the angels are banding together themselves, into little groups. Some to fight the war on whatever side, some just to survive. Some burnt too hot for too long...


• It's about finding the angels and getting them up to snuff and about their lives after the exodus, living with their humans and how they react in contrast to Chip and Icarus.


• More on Chip's past with Steve, stressing the mundane (e.g. their visiting trips, how they met) and Chip's mementoes of him (e.g. the keys).


• Whatever happened to Chip's father?


• More Agatha&Icarus one-on-one, harking back to when she would talk to him when he was in a fever, and touching on her role in the warding-of-the-gate and her learning how to shoot.


• More on Dean's reaction to Icarus' change and how he's preferring to spend his time with Chip instead of "on the mission". Also Dean will not let Icarus' week MIA before his Fall go uninvestigated.


• Dean's reaction to the opening of heaven and Michael is back so "yes" is once again an option. Will he take it? Is he at that point yet?


• Why would an angel say the devil wants to know?


• Chip calls Icarus "Steve" and Icarus stops short at the name before Chip realizes what he's said.


• Running through the city with Icarus, trying to find...Kezef, Lucifer, angel armies? Brandon or Lauren? Kezef knows they're there, though.


• Dean asks Icarus why he wants Chip around all the time, on missions and on guard duty. Icarus says that it's because he has no one else, and Dean doesn't correct him that he has him.


• Start off with Chip in bed, groggy with sleep and thinking he's with Steve, but instead it's Icarus, and reality crashes back, and how their relationship has changed, or at least he thinks it does (because Icarus is quite naive about it all, or it looks like, at least).

"It wasn't possible," he said. What he had wanted, with all his heart, was to match this being stride for stride over miles. But a crippled angel will outstrip a man.
-1863, Vinifie, The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox

See also:
- Tumblr tag, "time 'verse must have"
- Time 2 Planning (with quotes)

Planned for Time 2 but not used:
- Lucifer taunting the camp, Dean and Icarus
- Influx of refugees
- Hellhounds and other apparitions of evil being afoot (including Fenrir?)
- Chip on clean-up missions and Lucifer searches
- Dean and Chip conversations (i.e. the hero and the minor character with the focus switched)
- Chip going back on the road, possibly with Saunders and Agatha
- Icarus' disillusionment with Dean
- Dean's suicide mission
- Dean sets up new accomodations for Icarus. Chip is pokerfaced about it, but doesn't take it well.
- Chip angrily chases Dean - revenge, retribution or in defense of someone's honour, maybe even Icarus' - in the dark, having an advantage in the pursuit due to his night-vision, although Dean beats him, hands down. (See also Placebo's Infra-Red: "I'm coming up on infra-red, there is no running that can hide you, 'cause I can see in the dark. I'm coming up on infra-red, forget your running, I will find you."
- Regarding Kezef: "How do you kill an angel?" "You have to make him Fall first." "What, trip him or something?" "Take away his grace: make him mortal. Like me."
- The camp plays baseball or catch, and Chip's fresh new crowbar muscles and aim make him a fearful contender. Beats the hell out of Ultimate Frizbee, although he'd give anything for those days to come around again.
- Dean is angry with Icarus, resulting in a fight, because Icarus never once suggested giving Dean the Infected!Vision.

Titles:
Time to Say Goodbye
Time for Change
Time for Changing
Time to Lose
Time is Running Out
Time Has Come (To Make Things Right)
Time to Roam
Time to Every Purpose
Time for the Flocks (To Be Gathered)
Time for Offering (Sacrifice)
Time for Them
Time for Wolves

Seconds to Draw
A Future Turn
Come Down To Earth
An Episode of Sparrows
Make Us Meaningless (Again)
Who's Returned From the Dead
The Distance To Your Home
Company Doesn't Mean Safety