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Re: “Red All Over” From ninesenshi on November 11, 2023 First of all, thanks for giving this story it’s first review on AFF! And I’m glad you’re liking it. There’s one chapter still to come, and there will be plenty of dominance, so stay tuned.

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.

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!