InBrightestDay

That’s probably what’s going to happen with my story too.  I’ve made some progress, but in addition to having a long way to go, the story takes place on Christmas Eve anyway, so it’ll either go up then or on Christmas Day.
Super happy to see you joining in!  These holiday anthologies are always better the more people are in on them, so the more the merrier. 🙂

My story is in progress! I’m not sure how long it will take to finish, but I will definitely do it before 12/25.

Oooh maybe I do need to read all the other stories in this series to read this one.  Well…let’s see how fast I can do that. 😅

From InBrightestDay on November 26, 2023
Ok, one more chapter before my flight.
Winter Blessing
"Bask in the glory that is me." “I fuck a god on a daily basis.” xD
YES!  THE GOAT HAS RETURNED!
The dynamic between Glykon and the others is still great, and while I'm sure I said this last time I reviewed this story, I love that Logan reacts the way he does to the sight of an elder god dressed like a stripper choking out a snake god wearing a hand puppet.  As they say in Pitch Meetings, laughing "What is going on?" Indeed, by far its one of the most hilarious moments without a doubt.
We drop the Yua plot thread here, so I'll disregard that going forward.
It was cool to see the little action scene with the werewolf bikers.  I get that Duncan has mad skills, but it would be cool to see Logan get in on some of these, especially since he's a marine, so he does have firearms training. He absolutely does have modern training from isometric to asymmetric urban warfare, drone utilization and more.
Being imprisoned has given him time for genuine introspection if nothing else.  All Glykon and him need is a few moments where their every move isn’t being watched.

From InBrightestDay on November 14, 2023
Ok, missed a few days, but this will probably be the chapter after which I pause to work on my holiday story.  Anyway, this is listed as Chapter 4, but I think it was actually the third holiday story, so I'm doing it now.
Tricked
I'd kind of forgotten what your version of Lucifer is like.  There's archvillain Lucifer, roguish charismatic Lucifer...and then there's, like, used car salesman Lucifer.  This one isn't quite used car salesman Lucifer...but considering the bit where he eats his son and doesn't notice until Mic points it out, he's not far off. Car Salesman playing checkers in a world of 3rd chess.
One thing I didn't notice the first time around, or maybe it was added later, was the focus on the HD cameras at the casino.  I'd assumed in Death Always Wins that either the gods would have accounted for that or that, similar to vampires, they wouldn't show up on camera.  Maybe you can only record magic at 1080p. The conflux of halloween made it inevitable that eventually it would be too big to cover up, this was buried but this was a PR nightmare on steroids. Just imagine it leaking to social media or youtube.
This story does begin introducing lore about the world (regarding suggestions of untamed regions of the underworld and such), though none of it pays off yet.  There is also a hint of a bigger story arc, which I'm going to keep an eye on to see if it comes back.
Also I'd forgotten this but Logan is a kinky dude!  It was pretty funny when he got all enthusiastic and mentioned see-through pants he was going to have Duncan wear.  Yes, the ancient god will cross the United States in dignified fashion… If it makes his hubby happy that all that matters at least as far as it concerns Duncan, Clothing can be considered optional for the divine. Good luck trying to impose societal standards on literal gods at most you’ll be mocked with derision best case. Worst case smitten for the sheer hubris. The ones who bother with humanity regularly understand it.

From InBrightestDay on November 11, 2023
Well, I should probably be working on my holiday story right now, but why do that when I can procrastinate?  Hey, look, you assembled all the Duncan stuff; let me review some of that!
Powdered Sugar
So, this is mostly the same story that found its way into one of the holiday anthologies, but I do think you've changed it somewhat.  Aside from a more prolonged confrontation with Odin (where I think Logan might have tried to shoot him, though I may have mixed up who did what there), there is now a brush with death...well, you know what I mean.  Technically I think he's more like Death's assistant, but Mesopotamian mythology is a blind spot for me, so I'm not sure.
During the conversation with Namtar, there's mention of something that happened at a casino, so perhaps this is a reference to Death Always Wins.  There is a mention that something messed up some work Duncan was doing, which feels like a plot thread.  I'm going to try not to guess what the plot threads are right now, because there is a lot of this story ahead.  I'll see how it plays out as we go! Spoilers ;D  Indeed, what was Duncan doing? Hahaha!

From InBrightestDay on November 11, 2023
Temporary
"You'd think evolution would tame that panic button. Alas," Duncan lamented.
weeeell if evolution had removed the fear response, we'd probably be extinct by now, so Duncan can find it annoying, but it's probably here to stay. When you’ve at it from before the ice age started, he’s outlasted all others while also being the first gods to come to earth. The primal first fires that kept the monsters at bay. The grand oversized beasts that hunted cavemen and mammoth’s he outlived them all. The cousins of what would one day be man swallowed by history. And he’s still here
This story highlights something that's present in the others, I think, but that I didn't really pay much attention to, and that's Duncan's... I don't know exactly what to call it.  His callousness, maybe his cynicism?  The latter is probably the most correct.  Either because of how long he's been doing this job or because of specific experiences, he seems to have negative thoughts about most things.  I'm writing this on my phone, so I can't go back and snag another quote easily, but his reaction to the beginnings of the Black Death in particular struck me, irritation about human contributions to the explosion of the rat population, and then washing his hands of the whole thing (granted, as a psychopomp he may have a very blasé attitude regarding death, which could make him look indifferent to human suffering). Indeed while dark gods did contribute to the horror and chaos it was mongols and other armies lobbing corpses into cities as city killing weapons that really soured his attitude. Bad on its own but willfully making more work does not make a happy death god.
The only positive feelings he does seem to have are when he interacts with Logan, which indicates the importance of his husband to him.
 I think this may also be the first part of this series where we got the idea that Duncan has been several death gods throughout history, which obviously will become very important later.

Alright, now that I have a moment, let me talk a bit here!
Well then I think you nailed it. 😁  There’s something I can’t quite describe about the stories, something you can feel about the world of the Hyborian Age, and I got that same feeling from your story.
And he actually led with that one!  I don’t think he started shit-talking her husbands until after mentioning that he strangled her baby in the womb.  That does make me wonder about his goal there.  It felt like he was deliberately antagonizing Berta, but I can’t see what that was supposed to accomplish...aside from being the world’s most epic suicide, I suppose.
Sorry 😅, I was bad at wording it there.  I meant I spent a while trying to work out if it took place in actual Medieval Europe, rather than a fictional equivalent.
Aha, so it was a bit of surprise to the author as well as the reader!  Writing is kind of an interesting process like that, both creation and discovery, in a way.
 
Apologies for that bit.  I actually went back and forth about whether to even put it in the review, as I didn’t want it to sound like I didn’t enjoy the story.  Maybe he just didn’t seem that bad compared to other spouses I’ve read in stories like this; I don’t know.  I don’t think you did anything wrong as a writer, I promise. 
Thank you!  I’ll do my best!

From InBrightestDay on November 04, 2023
The Ultimate
Yeah, it’s meant to be medieval fantasy. And I had a little fun with the world building.
Speaking of which, after that it's a pretty hot sex scene.  I'm not generally into anthro stuff, but the Ursans are human-like enough, and generally the story doesn't focus too much on their nonhuman traits (aside from mentions of their muzzles during kissing), so it didn't bother me.
It took me a while to figure out what the creatures beyond the portal would actually be, such that I was well into writing the story by the time I made up my mind. So those details were added in later.
He is a bit neglectful, in the sense that he has been prioritizing his responsibilities so much that Merri isn’t getting a very big share of his attention or energy.
I had in my mind, but didn’t really put on the page, that in this world spouses are held to a slightly higher standard in terms of marital attention because marriages are time-limited.
Thanks! Looking forward to your end-of-year story.

I’ll try and start writing soon!  I want this to be on time. 🙂

Posting it early to give everyone as much time as possible ❤️

Wow, @InBrightestDay, you really captured the essence of the story.

It is unfortunately way too late at night for me to post another review or respond to Invidia, but I will get to it tomorrow.
In the meantime, please enjoy this dramatic reenactment of @GeorgeGlass’s story.
 

It is unfortunately way too late at night for me to post another review or respond to Invidia, but I will get to it tomorrow.
In the meantime, please enjoy this dramatic reenactment of @GeorgeGlass’s story.
 

Dang it…  I’m in the middle of something else, and the only thing I have enough of that I could write it quickly isn’t original.  I’ll be here for the holiday anthology, though.  Meaningful Gifts has waited long enough!

Dang it…  I’m in the middle of something else, and the only thing I have enough of that I could write it quickly isn’t original.  I’ll be here for the holiday anthology, though.  Meaningful Gifts has waited long enough!

Wow.  I didn’t even realize this had happened.  I guess in a way it’s kind of a good thing I haven’t had anything to publish.😅

Like Thundercloud, I may be late.  Work at the lab is kind of strained at the moment (sometimes a lot of people call out and those of us who are there end up stretched rather thin).  As a result, I haven’t gotten much writing done.  I have the 31st off, so I’m going to try and spend most of the day writing, but don’t be surprised if this ends up being one or two days late.
I am also struggling a bit with what to include.  Don’t want to use all of the kinks, since that’ll make all my sex scenes rather similar.  Makes the end result a bit tricky.  I try and work around that generally by focusing on the emotional context of a scene like this, which is generally somewhat different from story to story, given what leads up to the sex scene.  I do worry, admittedly, that the sex scene in a future story might end up looking familiar, but hopefully the stories as a whole will be distinct enough for audiences.

Like Thundercloud, I may be late.  Work at the lab is kind of strained at the moment (sometimes a lot of people call out and those of us who are there end up stretched rather thin).  As a result, I haven’t gotten much writing done.  I have the 31st off, so I’m going to try and spend most of the day writing, but don’t be surprised if this ends up being one or two days late.
I am also struggling a bit with what to include.  Don’t want to use all of the kinks, since that’ll make all my sex scenes rather similar.  Makes the end result a bit tricky.  I try and work around that generally by focusing on the emotional context of a scene like this, which is generally somewhat different from story to story, given what leads up to the sex scene.  I do worry, admittedly, that the sex scene in a future story might end up looking familiar, but hopefully the stories as a whole will be distinct enough for audiences.

*Clicks link*
“OH MY GOD! JERSEY CITY!”

It might also be, to be very generous about this, that the reviewer began with the books or films when the characters were like 11 and has a difficult time allowing them all to grow up in his mind.  I know I actually struggled with that a bit when I was watching the films.
Granted, that was a rather immature response.  I had hopes we were kind of past that as a society when it came to internet reviews.
...I say things now that I never really said before.  Odd sentences are becoming commonplace.

For the Honour of The Slytherin
Well… this is an odd comment. I’m certainly going to Hell if such a place exists, and I am disgusting, but I’ve no interest in children and have never written minor1 stories, or any minor2 stories with characters under 16 –and as I’ve got older I’ve tended away from writing stories with even 16-17 year old characters, although this one was written back when I was a lot closer in age to the characters. I can only assume that this comment came from someone who masturbated so furiously over a story featuring actual children that, having blown a prostate-punishing load into their own eyes, they accidentally clicked the wrong story to comment on during the waves of post-orgasmic guilt. 

I’ve gotten three: two on WitS and one on The Least I Can Do over in Books.  I’ve deleted them, and thankfully had the same thought as Bronx when it came to the links.  I don’t really want to turn off anonymous reviews, as I’ve gotten several genuine reviews from fans who simply don’t have an account, so I’ll just keep deleting them as they pop up.

Ok, so, I’m working on a few different things, and I just now happened to go to my gmail account and oh crap @GeorgeGlass left a WitS review two days ago and I didn’t notice it!
Well, let’s rectify that.
Thank you!  The “castrate him with a spork” thing made me chuckle a bit as well.  I mentioned this in the AN, but the tentacle scene was the first one I’d ever actually written, so I was definitely nervous.  The positive reception it’s gotten has been very encouraging.
Finally, I’m glad you enjoyed the little bit of payback Hobbes gets.  I knew what I was going to do to Barbara, and I just kind of wanted to give her...I don’t know, something, some little moment where she gets back at him at least a little.
Glad you’re enjoying the story so far, and I hope it continues to be fun for you!

Another review from @GeorgeGlass, this time for WitS chapters 4-6!
One does wonder about the insurance claim there…  Kind of reminds me of that bit from Big Trouble in Little China where Jack Burton is trying to figure out what to do concerning the loss of his truck due to supernatural forces.  “...And I don’t want to hear ‘Act of God’.”
The Charnel Spider does seem to be something of a fan favorite.  Because none of this would have happened without JayDee giving me permission to write it, they got an advance copy of every chapter before posting, and I remember being really excited to show them the Charnel Spider, due to the...well, I guess it really being kind of fucked up horror imagery.
I wasn’t really sure how to portray an Envy-based monster.  The problem there was that the obvious solution, shapeshifting to be what it wants to be, was something that, if I recall correctly, Fullmetal Alchemist had already done with the homunculus Envy.  The idea of, instead of copying what you want, taking it from someone else, was sufficiently creepy to me (“I wish I had skin like that...so I’ll just take yours.”) that I went with that.
I’m glad the confrontation was reminiscent of WoH, as this was probably the part of the story where I was most dedicated to evoking some of the feel of JayDee’s first story.
Thanks again for the review!