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From JayDee on January 01, 2020 Powdered Sugar by InvidiaRed Thought I might manage the fastest review! Ahh well. I see you managed warm and fluffy with a couple of hard men after all! I mean, giants are tough no matter how bad the sweater, and scaring off that jolly visitor suggests Duncan is a bit hardcore too. When It started with the baking I did wonder if it might end up a bit like one of those recipe blogs, with the full cooking instructions around a long story. I may have been on too many recipe blogs. I liked the interaction between Duncan and Logan especially. Warm fuzzy newlyweds having their first Christmas. Trusting/relying on each other. Sort of curious as to just how much bigger Logan is, like is penetrative sex an issue? Duncan’s dislike of the whole Christian side of things is very clear. With “turkey shoot that was the end of the messengers." Would that be messengers as in angels, as in they’re all massacred in this setting? Reminds me a little of the end of the original Preacher comics, where the host got in the way of the Saint of Killers… One bit I did have a little trouble following – it looks like a line may have been accidentally cut out? Duncan hummed amused the ice that cracked the entire engine block of Logan's commanding officer's vehicle. That, however, was entirely him. The ice had somehow just snaked in there and just ruined it. What a terrible thing to happen just when the insurance ran out. I’m assuming it’s somehow related to a ice/frost giant story, but it feels like something is missing? Aside from that, much more solid contribution than mine given we both had trouble doing something and an enjoyable read and nice call backs to the Halloween story! You assume Logan is the top but yes Duncan can take it. It’s not the first time he’s been impaled and he just prefers being under 5’3 while Logan is over 6’7. Angels in this setting were just another supernatural race. Dedicated to worshiping “The One True God/Creator of Creation TM” In a world where “gods” are veritably real and had a rigid moral absolutism that outright doesn’t work in a world of gray. Well that and when they found other gods they attempted a campaign of extermination. And older things in general do not tolerate newcomers especially ones who murder their descendants for the crime of existing. And being in line with other gods who not only are war gods but ones with the combat experience to back that war god attitude. Duncan did not take the arrival of the angels well. And forcing that zealous absurdly rigid dogmatic ideology on humans only reaffirmed his decision. Angels were fast becoming that tyrant boot stamping on humanity’s face forever. He had lost too much at that point and it did not help matters that a deity had adopted the angels and their religion. Their extermination campaign backfired and by the time the saner, more sagely and diplomatic gods realized what was going on. It was far too late to stop by the middle ages the last angels attempted to either hide among humanity or at least sue for peace. If there are survivors they’re perpetually looking over their shoulders not daring to reveal what they are lest Duncan or one of the others find out and take them out with extreme prejudice. There’s simply put too much bad blood and even worse memories involved. The younger gods just didn’t understand why gods like Duncan acted the way they did until the second world war. In that total war mentality of us or them. The Snowstorm is 100% all natural. Logan’s commanding officer may have unfairly blamed him for misfortune within earshot of Duncan. UF1-X2 I will flesh out. Maybe next holiday season. Logan’s story is definitely interesting.

From InBrightestDay on January 01, 2020 Powdered Sugar This was fun! It actually kind of reminds me of tcr's Halloween story, in that this is a world where characters from every religion/mythology interact. I liked how you just called Logan a giant in the beginning, and combined with the "Semper Fi" shirt I just assumed he was a Marine who was tall. It was only later, when Odin showed up as Santa and Logan bolted, that I realized that "giant" meant Jotun. Speaking of Odin, I'm seriously impressed that Duncan could just shoo him out of the house like that. Kind of makes me wonder who or what Duncan is. That actually brings me to the only part of the story I didn't understand. Duncan explains he doesn't like Christmas, and then this exchange happens about colonization, killing messengers, Duncan not liking Jesus but thinking that he's a being of hope, unlike his father (Duncan's father or God?), and it all really felt like there was a huge backstory here that I wasn't aware of. Does this take place in one of your other story universes? Sorry if that sounded harshly critical. Overall, this was still quite a fun little read! It is vaguely related. This particular setting is an Urban Fantasy one and TCR’s impressed me enough to give it a nod or two. You caught me. I tried intentionally to make Logan a regular man but I couldn’t help myself. I slid that in once and tried to make it so it seemed Logan was afraid of Namtar. Aka the envoy of Ereshkigal. Aka Death/ Fate. But nope. He’s a jotun and it’s well known that Aesir and them don’t get along. Duncan is a tutelary deity and at one point his name was Ninazu. The once patron god of Eshnunna before Tishpak became its patron deity and his worship forgotten. It’s one of the nods to the Halloween story of tcr’s and why one of the reasons he knows about what went down besides being a god of the underworld. Ningishzida is sometimes his son. Which is why he knows Zida is a terrible liar. It also the reason why he can shoo Odin out of his home. He’s got a lot of other deities beat in terms of seniority. And quite understandably he’s seen some shit and had to live through it. As the lord who stretches the measuring line over the fields. He’s been around since before agriculture became a thing. Old enough to be forgotten but too stubborn to just give up and stay in the underworld. Empires have came and went. His prime was before the codes of hammurabi were written after all. In summation, Yes it does in UF1-X2

Happy New Year, everyone. Let’s hope this one is fantastic.

I’ll read it tomorrow!

From GeorgeGlass on October 31, 2019 Immunda Your style of just one or two sentences per paragraph is unusual, but it didn't really bother me. Although some of the sentence fragments did (eg, "A disturbing warbling laugh"). I like the expression "Gods pass me by." Lots of Halloween-appropriate imagery. I think the most vivid was the burnt baby crawling out of the hole, "gurgling happily as its blackened flesh crackled." The Mortane Pantheon runs on appeasement. Each requires specific sacrifices for the privilege of being… Unmolested. A privilege they can(and do) revoke at whim. Or to be even bigger jerks “Give” Their favored to another member. So even if you do appease one for the moment. Well, you didn’t appease another and the cycle continues. Being favored is largely seen as a fate much worse than death. “Gods pass me by” Is the closest to prayer all the inhabitants know. They’re pleading for the gods to ignore them. The lucky few who manage to flee Mortane are struck by a hardline cultural differences. Highly superstitious, Largely illiterate and dangerously xenophobic. Meeting the larger world and surviving is a challenge. But those who survive all share one thing in common they dare not return. Otok- child sacrifice by immolation, The burning of knowledge and places of learning. Zuqvi- Her appeasement requires the ritual murder of adults by children. Xiljh- The child must slay the parent they love most while it watches and then let it drink from their youthful heart-blood. Vzfeb- The willful spread of sexual disease and the brutal execution of healers. Etc…