ci5hq | Pros Novel Read-Along - Painted Angels by Angelfish

Apologies - I'd hoped to post this morning, but I've had a migraine all day, which is only just fading, and I couldn't bear the screen... (If anyone would like to volunteer to help with the introductions sometimes, then that would be great!) But here we are at last!

Painted Angels by Angelfish.
Cover art by

firlefanzine

Chapter Three

Chapter Three
The lads are off on another test, this one apparently to find their way from Point A to Point B in the wilderness, and this time they're working alone. Doyle has reached the end, but instead of the comforting light and warmth and human companionship he's been looking forward to, the clearing is empty - except, he eventually realises, for Bodie peering around in a similar way.

Bodie makes himself known, and seems to be trying to be friendly - but Doyle is wise to this now, and determined not to open himself up to betrayal again. When he heads off to get some water from the river, though, Bodie follows him, and they end up trying to work things out together.

Sure enough, there are further instructions hidden for them in the clearing, and they set off together to find what they hope really is the final end-point. All does not, however, go wrong. Doyle is determined to prove to Bodie that he's equally as capable - which he's already doing with ease - to the point that when Bodie tries to hand him over a rocky outcrop, Doyle refuses his help. Unfortunately Bodie didn't explain why he was trying to give it, and so Doyle lands on a brittle ledge, and plunges them both down the steep hillside into the river below.

Bodie is knocked out by the fall, but Doyle is alert enough to be able to pull him from the river and administer CPR. Bodie revives, Doyle it turns out has four broken ribs and has lost his jacket, and they both limp on as far as they can go - which isn't all the way.

Doyle is becoming dangerously hypothermic, and so Bodie stops them and makes a shelter and a fire so that they can see out the night. They cuddle up close to share body warmth, and Doyle falls asleep. He dreams - and calls out to Gabe, and in his dream they're obviously very close, because Bodie finds himself the subject of sleepy sexuality. Knowing that any response on his part would not be a good idea, Bodie's just about to move them apart when Doyle falls silent and his dream takes a completely different turn - then finally he relaxes into sleep again.

With light comes a searching helicopter, and they hike out a final mile to meet it. Bodie makes the mistake of asking Doyle about Gabe, and Doyle immedately attacks - "Don't you ever... ever even fucking think of saying that name to me again." The lads are rescued - sure they've failed out of CI5 this time - and they're taken back to civilisation. Doyle is hospitalised for a week, although Bodie is passed fit even after his near-escape. Cowley is surprised to find Bodie staying close to the hospital, and in fact to Doyle's bedside. The lads are even more surprised, when Cowley speaks to them, to find that not only have they passed CI5 recruitment - but that it is on the condition that they work together as partners.

So - what do you reckon?! Does this read as our Bodie and Doyle? Is it realistic? What do we think of Bodie's apparent change of heart after the revelation of the last chapter - "Thinks he's made a friend. Spare me." Are you believing in the story?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

At the beginning I thought "No, that's not my Doyle. So insecure and fearfull only because it is dark in the forrest". But that's the only part in this chapter I didn't think fits good.

I especially love the scene where Doyle ordered Bodie do put the paper with the instructions back under the treetrunk and Bodie obeyed "Did the old man say this was about getting home first? Ah, level the playing field, Bodie," he growls. "I'm not saying leave it out in the open like a gift. Just give anybody getting here later the same chance we had."

The action scene with them going down the cliff and Doyle rescuing Bodie is very well written. And the scene with the reference to Doyle's lesser force and strength is one where you don't think "Oh no, not again this thing with 'Doyle is smaller and thinner so he can't have strength'". No, it is so good written that I thought "Yes, it is clear that he has difficulties to shift this deadweight. He's fallen down the cliff, the water is cold and Bodie is unconscious. It couldn't be easy." And I was glad that the author thought about that.

Oh, and I could feel the fear creeping up Bodie's spine when he discovers Doyle's hypothermia.

Oh, I didn't think he was scared of being in the forest, just tired after the hard work to get to the end, and looking forward to being with other people again.

he scene where Doyle ordered Bodie do put the paper with the instructions back
Yes! I love that too! And it's maybe another moment when Bodie realises he doesn't have to be so competitive and on his own against everyone else.

"Oh no, not again this thing with 'Doyle is smaller and thinner so he can't have strength'"
Yeah, the cliff fall is done well, and Doyle rescuing Bodie - anyone'd be extra heavy when they're unconscious and you're weakened.

But I did want to scream later on when the author kept going on about how Bodie was more "bulky" than Doyle, and that meant that he'd be able to survive better. It's complete rubbish! Being big doesn't make you less susceptible to cold or hypothermia or things like that. Having more fat supplies might, but that's not how Bodie's described. Being built differently doesn't make differences like that. If anything, bigger people have got more skin surface to get cold through! Luckily the author also told us that Doyle had a fairly serious ongoing injury and had also lost his jacket - now that would explain why he's struggling to keep going, and Bodie's doing the "looking after" for a while...

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<iBut I did want to scream later on when the author kept going on about how Bodie was more "bulky" than Doyle, andi>
Oh, but that's only said as something Bodie thinks and tells Doyle I thought. And that would be normal, because he is more bulky and doesn't feel the cold much.

Yeah, but I'm bulkier than various of my friends, and sometimes feel the cold more than they do. I don't think it's quite as simple as the author suggests!

I read up on that a little last night, and apparently having more muscle *does* help with keeping warmer and getting warmer quicker, but it still bothers me just a little, to see references like Doyle looking "fetching", or just too light coming up here and there.
Hope your head is clear and pain-free again and stays that way!

Was behind on reading, but have caught up now, and had a hard time stopping.

*does* help with keeping warmer and getting warmer quicker
Surely not to the extent that is portrayed here though - Bodie's shown as barely even noticing that he's also soaked through from being dunked in the river, whereas Doyle is practically incapacitated from it! And Bodie's the one who lost consciousness and had to be resuscitated too. I just can't believe that Bodie would feel not the slightest bit cold in that situation! And it's night-time too, there's no sun to warm him up or dry him off - he's walking around in wet clothes just as much as Doyle (granted he's not lost his jacket, but everything else must be soaked and cold!)

I know what you mean about a hard time stopping - I'm quite glad I only have to wait until Saturday. And I'm glad I've already read the story (even if I don't remember it much) - it's a very different way of reading!

I do think Bodie is a bit of a mysterious super-hero here, able to warm himself up like that. I'm half hoping he *will* teach this mental trick to Doyle at some point, so we can find out what it is! I'm also waiting eagerly to learn what turned Bodie from the guy Murphy remembered from six years ago into the Bodie we see now. And how he can survive without ever really sleeping. Doyle is much more of a normal human being with limitations, so far.

Superhero really does seem about right - or maybe an android... *g* And yes - I'd love to know how to warm myself up just by thinking about it. Just think how many lives could be saved!

I'm not convinced that he doesn't sleep either - I imagine it more as being the kind of insomnia where you think you're not sleeping, but actually you're getting enough to function. Cos otherwise he couldn't! I like that Doyle calls him out on that, too... *g*

You can warm yourself up by thinking!
I learned how to do it in a limited fashion using biofeedback when I was pregnant and not allowed
to use migraine medication.

The insurance even paid for it, back then! And it did work. I wore a temp probe on my finger and thought "hot"
thoughts (not *that* kind *g*). I still use the technique nowadays, and acupressure.
In my case, my hands and feet only get cold when I'm getting a migraine.

I'm not sure the technique would work if I were knocked out and plunged into a cold river and almost drowned, though.

So maybe Bodie uses biofeedback! I never even thought of that until just now, when reading about the migraines in the comments.

I've read somewhere that the Sherpas who climb the Everest use this technique too. I think that works in the same way in which I can tell me that it is cold on a to hot summerday. *g*

You're right, you can't survive without sleeping for more then two maybe three days. Never months or years.

But sometimes you subconscious is working while you body sleeps and when you wake up you think you didn't sleep at all.

So maybe Bodie sleeps in a low sleeping depth with his brain working all the time and never reaches the deep sleep. If he never sleeps, he definitly can't function.

Pros Novel Read-Along - Painted Angels by Angelfish - Chapter Three

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