Dating an angel had its downsides.
Sure she was sweet natured and her body was the literal definition of heavenly - but ever since she'd decided to remain on Earth for her love of you she'd started to develop some bad habits. A lot of them stemmed from her sudden need to adapt to human life. Being able to keep her angelic abilities had helped her cope with some of the changes, but she was still having serious problems getting used to human emotions. Currently she was having a real issue with jealousy.
She needed your attention all waking hours. If you spent more than a minute focussing on something other than her, your angelic girlfriend would be overtaken by a fit of rage until she became your sole focus again. You were hoping this trip to Paris would help keep her happy during this difficult time of transition into normal human life.
That was the idea at least, it seemed that once arriving at your hotel your girlfriend didn't want to see the sights. She just wanted to spend time in the room with you. Of course you didn't mind - for the first few days at least. But soon you were coming up on the halfway point of your trip and you hadn't seen any of the city or sampled any of its delight's beyond the room service.
You finally convinced your girlfriend to leave the room with you and spend the day wandering the city. At first she was reticent but eventually she started to enjoy herself - especially when you treated her to some Parisian crepes in the park.
It was all going well until you took out your camera.
"Oh, are you going to take some photos of me?" she tittered in a faux-French accent.
"Sure, we'll take some down by the riverside, just let me sort the lens out."
"Great, I'll run down and find a good spot while you get set up." she beamed before rushing off down the steps that led to the riverside beneath the bridge you were stood on.
You lined your camera up with the view, it all looked ready to go so you took the opportunity to take a snap of the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
Your girlfriend, halfway down the stairs in front stopped when she head the click and turned to fix you with a stare before shouting up to you, "What was that?"
"Oh, I just thought I'd get a picture of the tower..." you began before she angrily interrupted you.
"I thought you were going to take a picture of me?"
You could see that she was now jealous of the tower stealing your attention away from her.
"I'm sorry Darling, I just thought it'd be nice to get some scenic shots."
Your girlfriend was seething before ominously stating, "If you want something big to gawp then I'll give you something big."
You knew what was coming, the air always shimmered before she called on her angelic powers. It wasn't obvious what was happening at first but as soon as you heard her clothes ripping you knew she was growing.
Soon her unreal body burst out of her dress and rocketed up, bringing her up to eye level with you despite being stood on the stairs below. She continued to grow until she was big enough to block out your view of the tower.
Now coming to stop she glared at you, not in the least bit embarrassed about showing off her naked body to the droves of gawping tourists.
"There, hows that for a view?"
"I'm sorry honey." you tried, "I just wanted a shot of the tower so we can show people where we've been."
"You could have a shot of both the tower and me." she complained.
You knew you couldn't win this argument, especially with her now three times your size, "You're right honey - how about I get a shot with both you in now?"
"Great!" she declared, now with a smile back on her face.
You giant girlfriend took a step back, then another to the side so you could once again see the tower. It became apparent she was now waiting for you to take your photo.
"Um, do you want to put clothes on?"
"What, you don't like my body?" she snapped, the angry glare returning to her face.
You quickly corrected course, "Of course I do, just checking."
Oh well, you couldn't share this photo with friends and family - it'd just have to go in your private collection you decided as you snapped away.
You tried to cheer your girlfriend up after a taking a few photos.
"You look amazing honey." you told her.
You could see the beginnings of her smile starting to return on her face.
You continued, "In fact, this might be the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. You, looking amazing - and the beautiful city behind you..."
Suddenly her glare returned to full force, "Beautiful city? Are you saying I'm not beautiful then?"
"No... no... no... honey, I..." you tried, but it was too late..
"I'll show you and this whole city who the beautiful one is!" she told you as the air shimmered around her again, "Especially when my shadow casts it all into darkness..."
You watched as the outline of her body rocketed up and outward, all while she kept her ever enlarging glare fixed on you.
"Lets see you take a photo without me in it now." she mocked as she filled more and more of your vision, her voice now making the bridge beneath your quake.
This was the first time you'd realised what your girlfriend truly was. Giving up her place in the angelic hoard hadn't made her human... she was a fallen angel. You'd considered this before, but had never thought the label fit your girlfriend. After all, fallen angels were prophesied to be the cause of the apocalypse. You never thought your girlfriend could be capable of that before.
But now, looking up at her - still growing and looming over more and more of the city - you were starting to worry.
Meta: This was a bit of an experiment. You may notice its been a while since I did a proper growth collage and its because of the age-old problem: how do I make a still image look like growth and not shrinking.
Well, Tales_of_Scale on twitter tackled the same problem with the approach of using motion lines. Making the lines get thicker as they move away from the source of the growth (so that they end up looking like triangles) should make the direction of the change more apparent. I just did basic white lines for this test shot and I am quite happy. I think playing with a bit of color, some slight deformations and changing opacity may make the effect a bit more realistic in future collages.
The solid white growth lines ended up reminding me a bit of Christian imagery where the artists try to denote holy light - that inspired the story. Well... that and Anya Zenkova's angelic body.
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