InvidiaRed

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43401 Harken! For procession without end!

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43345! Behold the odd!

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43245! Ah! Five

From GeorgeGlass on January 05, 2024 "Jotunheimr Christmas" by InvidiaRed I will say that I did not find this an easy story to follow. But I liked the bits about Aten (whose sleazeball tendencies reminded me of his IRL proponent Akhenaten, King Tut's dad) and the idea of the World Serpent being a protector of humanity. To stare into the depths and inspire a chained god just by living. Prophecies are potent but not invincible

43183! Alas, Alas the center can’t fold what a world!

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Can’t wait to read it lol finally got back to my trust old laptop

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From InBrightestDay on December 09, 2023 Slither And we're all caught up! Not a ton to say about this chapter. We finally get to spend some time with Melinoe, and the inside of her head sounds like a difficult place to be. It was mentioned that she was bipolar before, but here it seems she has some other disorders, at least from the way she's incapable of focusing on things. She is both of olympus and the underworld the restless, riteless dead are all beholden to her. We have a lot of new characters introduced in this chapter, and I just kind of let it wash over me. I figure if they're important, they'll pop back up. Glykon's girlfriend was kind of amusing, and I laughed at his horror at having to pay Logan back...with interest. The chapter ends with Apophis being released, and there is a reference to primordial serpent venom and Fenrir sort of recognizing it, which...does that indicate Apophis is an incarnation of Duncan? If so, him and Angrboda being active at the same time would indicate that I was wrong about only one incarnation being active at once. No you are quite right, Angrboda, Cethlann and the Greek Tragedy betrayed Duncan in the deepest way possible. Mother and Crone and Lastly Maiden did something unforgivable in their ritual. They woke a being who was forbidden not understanding or caring that Apophis had already been momentarily roused, And now… He’s truly and fully awake. They don’t understand what they’ve done and they don’t care…. They think they can control it. How so very… foolish. Our chapter ends with...well, good news: angels aren't extinct. Bad news: they're pointing weapons at Logan. Maybe we'll see how that shakes out next time.

From InBrightestDay on December 08, 2023 The Offering Sorrow four-parter Or... SHIT JUST GOT REAL! Ok, well...uh...so this is really where the conflict kicks into high gear, with most of it focusing on the villains' plans. There's not really a single villain group here, but apparently three of them, with Angrboda and Ahriman separate from Aten who, of necessity, is himself separate from Odin and whoever else is trying to attack humanity. I'm still not really sure what Angrboda's game plan is,(Victory at all costs) though obviously it involves revenge against Asgard, since she was hoping humanity would launch a nuclear strike against the Aesir. I see we did also get a mention of the Fomorians looking for the crown, so it was nice to know that plot thread is still running. The Ahriman/Lucifer scene is probably the most developed smut scene you've ever written, and props! I'm obviously not of the necessary orientation to say whether or not it was hot, but it was pretty detailed, and also captures the nightmarish feel I think you were going for (being pumped full of live ants and hornets is a terrifying thought). Amusingly, this does continue Lucifer's string of failures in this story. To quote Captain Malcolm Reynolds: "Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle." Angrboda and Ahriman were both discussing how the global pantheon seemed to have betrayed humanity, but it did really feel more like a guess, and maybe everyone shouldn't start running with it as- It was at the time a guess, but evil bastards tend to have a sense of timing. They could sense it. Humanity's cries rang out as Valkyries descended upon the city and began to slaughter. Nevermind! That's definitely a thing that's happening! Odin remarks about how some of the gods, himself included, seem to have lost track of humanity, which makes me wonder: do some gods observe humanity and others don't? Yep, While most gods turned inwards to their realms. Some resolutely did not, Those that did not saw first hand humanity develop nations, They were the first to leave behind the god’s tribalism and enter into the era of like interests. Might be from completely different pantheons, But their goals aligns/ are similar/ the same. And really should the head of the god tribe truly be the one calling all the shots? Also I was pleasantly surprised that one of the things Lucifer mentioned in Southern Wind is actually being followed up on: Zahak(He’ll be back) has become a running character! Speaking of which, that brings us to Glykon, who reappears in this unnamed city where the valkyries are attacking. I was a bit surprised to see him wearing a sockpuppet, as opposed to the handpuppets, but his encouragement of Zahak to turn into a big three-headed dragon was cool, and then... Gungnir groaned, and its metal protested. Odin focused on the origin of the sound. Enfolding his spear in its coils was a serpent as it grunted and groaned as its coiled body constricted. Odin wasn't worried his spear would not be done in by-. With a thunderous crescendo. Gungnir shattered into fragments,gaslines erupted,vehicles exploded and the ground crumbled from the destruction of the divine artifice. ...Apparently he only wears that sock puppet when he's KICKING ASS! Holy shit, Glykon, who knew? I mean, it was kind of foreshadowed by that impressive invocation, but hot DAMN! Man, when Glykon rolls into a scene now, he's going to slither in in slow motion with "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" playing in the background. Ok, gotta calm down. So the final chapter involves calming down, and we have the first proper dialogue scene with Jophiel, whom Glykon sees as a woman. I actually had a little headcanon regarding her and the way different characters see her, which is that Jophiel looks a little different to each person. Basically the archangel of beauty looks like "the most beautiful thing you've ever seen", which varies due to beauty being subjective. So Glykon sees her as a definite woman, while Logan, a gay man, sees a woman who is nonetheless more masculine, closer to his ideal and thus more androgynous, and Lucifer, who it seems is a closeted bisexual,Omnisexual refers to Jophiel with nonbinary they/them pronouns. I have no idea if that's true, but it fits so far. You are right on the money. In this, she shares this trait with gods of beauty. Believe it or not, I had wanted to write a short little story with Jophiel in this universe, but gave up on it because I didn't want to contradict plot developments in your story. It seems we hit some of the same characterization, with her being sort of a sad character as a result of being one of the few survivors of genocide. Well, because of that I was none too happy with the way Glykon kept coming at her. I mean, yeah, the angels hurt your grandfather, but then he rendered them almost extinct, which is also a pretty permanent harm, so maybe let it go. Of course that meant I was very pleased when it turned out Glykon wasn't being a dick, it was just Lucrezia messing with his mind. You more than have my blessing on it i’d like to read it. She rightly sees Duncan as some Turbo-Stalin figure on steroids. Angels hide in fear of him cause they know Michael went into that temple. What he did to Gabriel later was designed specifically to break their morale. In an instinctive its my species or yours and I’m unapolgetically choosing mine. He’s made that decision before. Last major revelation of the chapter was that...well, the Mother of Carthage was still around, but more importantly, that Duncan is YHVH's father and therefore Jesus's grandfather. I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about this, but it does serve to give more of our characters a personal connection to Duncan, as both Jesus and Glykon are his grandchildren. They’re mostly decimated, in a tragic level he’s just like her. Like a grandparent being among the survivors of a purge and finding out only a few of his children live… and only two grandchildren left, that’s not even going into seeing his last priest die. And the resolute worst part of all… It was his child that was responsible. Its a dark road Duncan’s been on for a very… long time. But its torment unending to be on the cusp of escaping that dark road only for the lights that guided you be snuffed out before you could escape. Inertia dragging you back and all your progress undone. Duncan is not well but you get to see a glimpse of Duncan at his worst. Speaking of which, Duncan is still absent. I'm guessing that only one version of him can be "alive" at any given time, so he's out of commission as long as Angrboda is active. We'll see where this goes in the future, as I have one more chapter to read! Remember how I said everyone else was in that category of acceptable losses?