From InBrightestDay on November 28, 2020
And the holiday series continues!
For those who were a bit confused by the previous story, the little dip into Norse mythology that Hel does here, though beyond just explaining a bit more about who Angrboda is, it also slips in some details of the relationship between Duncan and the other gods, namely that there are things other deities don't tell him, and there are a lot of things they don't seem to know about him.
She had often wondered why her mother never visited Helheim. Even in death, Angrboda continued to have the last laugh. For her shade had never appeared in her realm.
I'm assuming that the reason Angrboda never visits Helheim is because of the incarnation thing (i.e. as a past incarnation of Duncan, she doesn't show up because he's still alive), which suggests that Hel's info on Duncan is missing some key components. You are correct. Duncan does not share what some would say is rather relevant information. He could have once been more forthcoming but Odin personally is the reason why his M.O is largely knowledge is on a need to know basis and if you “need” to know clearly you don’t. Unless you have a valid pertinent reason. All his incarnations don’t have a shade mainly because yes, Duncan is still very much alive.
The story formatting does cause one moment of confusion, purely due to a missing paragraph break: Will try to fix that.
"You aren't Asgardian, are you?" Came a silky smooth baritone voice.
She turned to behold an automatic shotgun in her face. A chuckle escaped her.
"No, I'm Jotun."
"Thank Jove for that. After, Duncan got past that injunction for an indefinite restraining order."
Since a new paragraph starts every time the person speaking changes, the "No, I'm Jotun." "Thank Jove for that" threw me a bit at first, as I thought it was a joke, given Hel's previous speech about Odin, that she hated the Aesir so much that she was actually invoking the Greek pantheon (in spite of the fact that...well...most of those gods are dicks too).
Alas, that wasn't what you were saying and I couldn;t use the joke!
Loved the joke about how handsome Ganymede is, though. Not knowing what character from Greek mythology this was, I actually did think it might be Adonis It is kind of funny to imagine him housesitting for Duncan. going from pouring drinks for the Olympians to watching the house of another deity, though in this case he's actually crushing on him (awkward considering Duncan's married). Adonis might show up.
And then Brigid showed up and this got sort of funny, with all these divine (well, sorta divine in Ganymede's case) figures converging on this house to share an awkward Thanksgiving. I liked the detail that Hel is super attractive, but Brigid inspires a significant amount of jealousy by being even more beautiful. (Its jealously inspired by insecurity, Hel is half corpse but Brigid is that wholesome enriching beauty. Hel can absolutely present a wholesome face but Brigid naturally has that face.
Some more info about the setting comes out here, sometimes with small lines:
"He's wiser than Chiron but the best part of him. He's kind, and he goes out of his way to help mortals." That part intrigued Hel.
Not many gods openly admitted to that. Not all deities care about mortals. Some gods just treat it like a job. Others have an open disgust/ hatred because well we are as mayflies to them. There really isn’t a way for mortals to get around that. No point in getting attached if you blink and they’re dead or your attention was diverted for just a moment and not only is the person is dead but their thrice great grandchildern are old and feeble. Some gods believe that gods should be helping other gods rather than aiding brief beings who all end up inthe afterlife before too long.Some won’t even attempt to help until “after” the mortal in question is dead.
Not many gods admit to helping mortals? I do wonder why they would hide such a thing. And of course the inevitable comes up with Brigid.
"You are one of Danu's children. A goddess of the Tuatha De Danann. Sainthood is just a shawl you wear. So the good little Catholics venerate you." Hel stated in pettiness. Brigid merely looked at her unperturbed.
This makes me wonder what the status of Vodou is in this world. If in this case the goddess Brigid and Saint Brigid really are the same person, then during Mardi Gras does she take on the alias of Maman Brigitte? Vodou exist but to add to the confusion some gods will adopt the same guise after conversing with one another. Friends and allies can share an alias no problem and Brigid is a great example since there are at-least three of her.
"One could say the same thing about thee. Aiding the missionaries spreading the word of Nazareth." Hel looked away. Brigid is right on the money. Hel’s assistance was subtle but the missionaries was the perfect way to attack that warrior culture at its core. She might not be able to touch the Aesir so she went directly after their influence. By merely, preventing a death here, a word of warning there it all added up and Norse culture collapsed and she did it without spilling a single drop of blood or even putting herself at risk. Valkyries only choose heroes on the battlefield. So then the best method would be make it so the number and frequency of those battles decrease.
"Idle speculation without teeth." Hel's heart hammered in her chest. Like Hell, she was going to admit to that. She would be censured for even indirectly aiding those genocidal zealots.
Merely for spreading another metastasizing version of Atenism. The gods were always watching in case that solipsistic bastard ever reared his head again. Aten was the first to succumb to solipsistic madness, thus he’s the one all the gods blame for monotheism.
And even the gods of Egypt admitted that there was a very good chance Aten wasn't dead. Much like the other monster that came after him. Mortals may call him Father, but the gods themselves would only call him Monster.
I almost made a joke here about how Hel might not want to throw stones in her glass house, given that she's part of the pantheon of the people who would go viking (the Rape, Pillage and Burn crowd), but then I realized I have no idea how history went in this universe. History mostly went close to our even with prophecy broken. There are however massive events that just happened without apparent cause. (Like Jotunheim getting a trade deal with US and Russia seven days before Aesir envoys ever arrived. It shouldn’t have happened but its own inertia is now solid and Jotunheim is not willing to let anything endanger it and the post WW2 superpowers aren’t willing to ever let such a benefit slip from their fingers. Even during the cold war it was a diplomatic show of one up manship. And both mortal and Jotun have managed to successfully pin any “accidents” or lapses on Asgardian interference. This world the god’s only really returned after the atomic bombs dropped. (And no government will admit openly that gods and monsters are real.)
So...leaving aside how viable the link between Akhenaten and other forms of monotheism is or isn't, if all the myths are real and Judaism, Christianity and Islam are "metastasizing versions" of Atenism, wouldn't that just make Aten and God the same guy instead of different gods?
Also, given that you've clarified in response to some other reviews that humans know about the preternatural or supernatural stuff (the US has a trade deal with Jotunheim; rich people can tour Olympus), given that God is evil and angels are almost extinct and were (mostly) deicidal psychopaths...what exactly is the status of Catholics, Jews and other adherents of the splinter tumors of Atenism? This isn't one of those "different people believe different things" situations like in the real world; their faith is unquestionably wrong and outright bad, and all the gods have no doubt explained this. Is anti-semitism way more prevalent and vigorous because Judaism is basically the cult of an evil god? Are Christians a tiny minority religion working in deep denial about a whole lot of stuff? I'm very curious about the impacts on how history unfolded here. The gods don’t really have a full consensus on what they should do. Despite its horrible roots, It has done great things. And its been complicated now that Man is now capable of destroying the world entirely without their help or influence.So far, The general view is don’t address the giant elephant in the room and this unofficial arrangement works. Even if some of the gods have concerns that this god of hope might have inherited his father’s madness. He’s quite proudly and vocally Pro-Mortal. None are willing to poke the proverbial bear just in case its the very thing that sets it off. No one wants that particular albatross with certain guaranteed grave consequences.
He successfully laid siege to Hell itself after all.
As for Monotheism this verse. To the gods it would be like saying there’s seven billion+ humans on earth but you got people literally saying there is only “One, True” HumanTM When there is clearly multitudes of them.
Other things at the house are deeply amusing. I particularly like the callback (I think it's a callback, anyway) to Logan's fuzzy slippers, and the scoreboard with all the notes written on it was hilarious and kind of cute.
Finally, I grinned a little at the motorcycle gang of wolves, and...
A defining thunderous howl that surely made the trees tremble in fright, and the ground rumble. What surprised her the most was that somewhere in the distance, wolves responded, and the peals of rumbling bark like laughter resounded.
...
With a voice like a natural disaster, Boomed a cacophonous yet mirthful voice. Clearly excited see her again after so long.
"Hello, Sister. Miss me?"
Looks like next time, Fenrir enters the story. But Did He Escape? Or Was he set free?