"A Private Nick"

THE NEXT TWO STORIES aren't recommended for everyone, especially those of you who are trying to sustain a holiday spirit. So we're issuing a warning: From these tales you probably won't get much . . .

(1) "Comfort and Joy."

By Tim Pratt (born 1976; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and his Homepage HERE).

Illustrated by Bo Kaier (ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Drabblecast, January 16, 2020.

Short story (11 pages as a PDF).

Online at Drabblecast (HERE).

(Parental caution: Foul language.)

   "My job was to nudge, to encourage, and (let's be honest) to bribe the ones who could be persuaded into good behavior."

IS bribery a crime when it yields good results? And what about murder? "He looked good from the outside, but underneath, he was all worms and mold and ruin" . . .

Principal characters:

~ Nick ("I don’t want you to become what I’ve had to become"), Ruprecht ("You’re still looking out for everyone else, aren’t you?"), Rudy ("I sat there for a while, and then Rudy came back with most of an alligator stuck on her antlers"), and Roger Malloy ("Not a physically imposing specimen, but then, he liked to pick on people a lot smaller than him").

Typo: "they when they got big".

References:

- "Ruprecht":

  "Knecht Ruprecht (English: Farmhand Rupert, Servant Rupert or Farmhand Robert, Servant Robert) is a companion of Saint Nicholas as described in the folklore of Germany. He is the most popular gift-bringing character in Germany after Saint Nicholas, Christkindl, and Der Weihnachtsmann but is virtually unknown outside the country. He first appears in written sources in the 17th century, as a figure in a Nuremberg Christmas procession." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "nobody knows how to make posset anymore":

  "A posset was originally a popular British hot drink made of milk curdled with wine or ale, often spiced, which was often used as a remedy. The original drink became extinct and the name was revived in the 19th century and applied to a cream, sugar and citrus-based confection, which is consumed today as a cold set dessert nearly indistinguishable from syllabub." (Wikipedia HERE.)

The next story is the sequel to "Comfort and Joy":

(2) "Midnight Clear, or, How Santa Claus Killed the Sun."

By Tim Pratt (see above for bio/bibliographic data).

Illustrated by Łukasz Godlewski.

Short story (11 pages as a PDF).

Online at Drabblecast (HERE).

(Parental caution: Foul language.)

   "You learn to move quietly when you spend most of your career infiltrating the homes of children suffering from anticipation-induced insomnia."

AMBROSE BIERCE opined: "There are four kinds of Homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy." The problem for Nick is figuring out which one Tisiphone 

is urging him to commit . . .

Principal characters:

~ Tisiphone ("I need your help"), Nick ("Do I look like some kind of private eye to you?"), Rudy ("She doesn’t like bullies, and she has a streak of anger that needs to be worked out"), and "An old man in a white robe" ("Isn’t it a little early for you? I thought it was November").

References and resources:

- "Yes, Tisiphone":

  "Tisiphone, or Tilphousia, was one of the three Erinyes or Furies. Her sisters were Alecto and Megaera. She and her sisters punished crimes of murder: parricide, fratricide and homicide." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- From the story:

  “You could always light your own fires before.”

  “Oh, I still can, but it’s nice to have help.”

  An echo of Bogie and Bacall in To Have and Have Not (1944). (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE.)

- "That’s what got Orestes in trouble, as I recall":

  "In Aeschylus's Eumenides, Orestes goes mad after killing his mother and is pursued by the Erinyes (Furies), whose duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of family piety.

  . . . "Orestes appears also to be a dramatic prototype for all persons whose crime is mitigated by extenuating circumstances. These legends belong to an age when higher ideas of law and of social duty were being established; the implacable blood-feud of primitive society gives place to a fair trial, and in Athens, when the votes of the judges are evenly divided, mercy prevails." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "You’re talking about Apollo":

  "Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Mithras is long gone":

  "Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (yazata) Mithra, the Roman Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice remains debatable." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "The Great God Pan is dead":

  "In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is also recognized as the god of fields, groves, wooded glens, and often affiliated with sex; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring."

  . . . "In Pseudo-Plutarch's De defectu oraculorum ('The Obsolescence of Oracles'), Pan is the only Greek god who actually dies. During the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14–37), the news of Pan's death came to one Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the Greek island of Paxi. A divine voice hailed him across the salt water, 'Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes, take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead.' Which Thamus did, and the news was greeted from shore with groans and laments."

  . . . "The cry 'The Great Pan is dead' has appealed to poets, such as John Milton, in his ecstatic celebration of Christian peace, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity line 89, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Louisa May Alcott." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "it was an artifact of Erebos or Nyx":

  "In Greek mythology, Erebus or Erebos, is the personification of darkness. In Hesiod's Theogony, he is the offspring of Chaos, and the father of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Nyx (Night); in other Greek cosmogonies, he is the father of Aether, Eros, and Metis, or the first ruler of the gods. In genealogies given by Roman authors, he begets a large progeny of personifications upon Nox (the Roman equivalent of Nyx), while in an Orphic theogony, he is the offspring of Chronos (Time).

  "The name 'Erebus' is also used to refer either to the darkness of the Underworld, the Underworld itself, or the region through which souls pass to reach Hades, and can sometimes be used as a synonym for Tartarus or Hades." 

  . . . "In Greek mythology, Nyx is the goddess and personification of the night. In Hesiod's Theogony, she is the offspring of Chaos, and the mother of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Erebus (Darkness). By herself, she produces a brood of children which are mainly personifications of primarily negative forces. She features in a number of early cosmogonies, which place her as one of the first deities to exist. In the works of poets and playwrights, she lives at the ends of the Earth, and is often described as a black-robed goddess who drives through the sky in a chariot pulled by horses. In the Iliad, Homer relates that even Zeus fears to displease her." (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

'Erebus' by Michael Whelan (1977)

- "It’s that Sol Invictus thing—the unconquerable sun":

  "Sol Invictus (Classical Latin: 'Invincible Sun' or 'Unconquered Sun') was the official sun god of the late Roman Empire and a later version of the god Sol. The emperor Aurelian revived his cult in 274 CE and promoted Sol Invictus as the chief god of the empire. From Aurelian onward, Sol Invictus often appeared on imperial coinage, usually shown wearing a sun crown and driving a horse-drawn chariot through the sky. His prominence lasted until the emperor Constantine I legalized Christianity and restricted paganism. The last known inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to CE 387, although there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Phoenix from the ashes":

  They even named a town after it.

  "The phoenix is an immortal bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. While it is part of Greek mythology, it has analogs in many cultures, such as Egyptian and Persian mythology. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by rising from the ashes of its predecessor. Some legends say it dies in a show of flames and combustion, while others that it simply dies and decomposes before being born again." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- Just about everything there is to know about the prototype of our protagonist is in Wikipedia (HERE and HERE).

- If you haven't gotten enough of our author's Yuletide takes, there are others:

  "The Ghost of Christmas Possible" (audio HERE)

  "Catching the Spirit" (audio HERE)

  "Elf Employment" (audio HERE)

  "The Christmas Abomination from Beyond the Back of the Stars" (HERE) and a short review (HERE)

  "Dirty Santa" (HERE)

  "The Cursed Noel" (HERE)

  "Lockdown Around the Christmas Tree" (audio HERE)

  "Skipping Christmas" (HERE).

- Kevin J. Anderson also took a dim view of the Season with "Santa Claus Is Coming . . . To Get You!" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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