Deities Dot Com

A hundred thoughts and questions must have run through Odin's mind as he stood just outside Niflheim. He could see the dragon in the distance, and was sure at one point, at least, Nidhogg had seen him as well. But he was far enough away the beast held no danger for him. The potential threat lay far in the mists. Which was where those thoughts leaned. Some filled with hope, most with fear and worry. Mimir had been right- only one man knew the answers to those questions.

( So he waited. )

Churchill Downs was all a flutter with activity. Which made sense. It was the most exciting two days of the year at the Louisville, Kentucky track. Zeus had been on site since early yesterday. Mostly for networking purposes, as while he had interest in the Oaks -the filly race held on Friday, from a gambling side of things, he had other things on his mind. He had a horse in the Derby.

( It was a very tricky business, racing horses. )

He could have been just a regular guy, sitting on the white sandy beach in California, watching his dogs bound around in the surf. The dogs were big, but against the might of the ocean, they appeared to be just puppies to him. He smiled as he watched them. He'd been playing too, earlier, but they'd soon forgotten about him in the face of the waves and each other.

Now he was just enjoying the view of the water and the feel of the sun on his back.

Post Valentine's Day was never good for Peitho. The build-up of all the activities fueled her and she thought it was the most amazing time of year. It kept all of her brothers and their mother busy. It felt like more busy that the rest of the year, which made sense as they were all factions of love gods and goddesses.
( A bored Peitho was just asking for trouble )

There were two things that Hades particularly loved about the modern world. The first thing was cars. The second thing was Top Gear. Coincidentally, this sometimes also featured cars. His affinity had gotten particularly bad in the last twenty years. In the beginning they had been boxy and buggy and completely inferior to his horses, but then the fifties rolled around, and Hades somehow stumbled upon a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. Black. Realistic looking flames on the side. That glorious roar of the 502Ci GM crate engine with the Ramjet fuel injecti.......

Hades' horses were still better. Hades would not replace them for anything. Anything. ( But within the next 24 hours, all four of them had mysteriously decided it was time to retire )

Since hearing of Frigg's dream, Odin had spent nearly every waking moment in Valaskjalf, perched on Hlidskjalf. From his high seat in the silver-thatched hall , he could see everything happening throughout the Nine Worlds. It wasn't hard to know where to look; Odin had long known the location of the cave where his old friend had lain, bound for longer than he cared to remember. Whether he wanted to remember or not mattered little, for Odin knew well the date that everything went sour for the Trickster.

For days and nights he watched the entrance of the cave. When he needed to rest, he sent his ravens out with specific instructions to watch that location and none other. And when the news finally came, it was not unexpected.

( Loki was free. )

Sometimes, when things seemed particularly quiet, Ahti got an impulse to see her homeland. Recently, it had been a hotbed of chaos, and she was pleased and proud of her part in bringing that about. The last year had been a very entertaining time as she wound her way through the land of her birth, adding her influence to the already tense situation. Now, as things there were once again calming down, at least relative to where they had been, she felt that odd desire to see those she remembered from her earlier days when the land was new. Somehow, being here in Egypt made her somewhat nostalgic.

There weren't many friends to chose from. Few deities, to her mind, still accepted her, and even less without conditions. Thoth was at the top of the list of those that did. The God of Wisdom understood Ahti, at least to the point that he knew where she was coming from, and that her influence was necessary. Sometimes, she even felt like he actually "got" her. She couldn't say that about very many.

( So it was that she decided to head to London. )

The world, it seemed, had gotten so much larger since the last time Sigyn had visited it. Oh, she knew, populations expanded, mortals pushed ever outwards from the cities they created, and life moved on. Wasn't it for that reason that she'd risked her clandestine trips out of the cave? The first few times had seen to their needs. After that, she'd gone out so they wouldn't be completely left behind, forgotten as they were in that dank place. And she'd managed to return with little bits of the modern world, but still, even she hadn't been prepared for the enormity of it.

( It made finding a permanent home somewhat... daunting. )

Loki felt like a colossal ass.

There was no way around it, though. Either he was completely honest with his wife and he took her with him to Niflheim and risked getting absolutely nowhere with Hel, or he deliberately deceived Sigyn so that he could go alone. He chose the latter for the greater good.

( It was easier said than done, though. )

Some would argue that Spring was the busiest time of the year for Persephone. Those who knew her above ground had no idea, what it was like when she got home in the winter. Regardless, shaking off the cold was no easy feat. She'd call both about even. She really only had to start everything up. It was her mother that maintained. It was Demeter that was the true artist and curator of the garden that was the world. Persephone just prettied things up here and there and helped out. It didn't mean that it wasn't some big to do.

There was always much to do. It wasn't just the plants that needed to be woken up, but the animals needed a nudge too. A month in and she still hadn't gotten to everything. Winter spread so swiftly, but it took ages to undo the mess. She didn't feel bad about leaving the earth to rest for three to four months out of the year, but that was partially because humans enjoyed the change in seasons as well. ( There were fond memories there. )

Something in life was a little bit different. Oi couldn't place it. She just knew when she woke up that she felt ... new. As if she'd crossed a line. On one side of it was her, and the her that she'd always been, the life she had lived and every piece of baggage that had come with that. On the other was the future, and new things, experiences that she'd yet to have. It wasn't that she wouldn't still be who she was. Undoubtedly she'd end up drawing at walls again at some point.

But she was realizing that while she was stable, she could also be happy. That she would deal with the crazy when it erupted. Not let it rule her life. Not let it make her be a sheltered, afraid little thing.

Things had changed for her over the past few years. Drastically. A lot of things had happened for her that she hadn't expected. Things that she was glad for. These things that had happened were things that she'd been afraid of. Now that they'd passed, she didn't remember why the fear had been so strong. But none of it had killed her, had it?

She was thinking about this while walking through a park in some peaceful place among humans. She hadn't paid attention to where she was going when she left the Underworld, just knew that she wanted to be out in the Spring air. The walk had been slow, and she'd not really been paying attention to her surroundings, just existing with them.

But now, she spotted a swing set under a couple of trees and couldn't resist their call.

Oizys sat in one of them and pushed herself lazily. There were tall flowers growing, yellow dandelions, right under her and she leaned forward while the swing moved to look at them, careful to make sure her feet didn't pull them out or break them. It left her sitting a little silly, but she didn't really care.

There were many great things about owning his own private island in the Pacific. The weather, for starters, and the constant view of the ocean. As a god who hailed from a land that was mostly sand, Bes could appreciate the abundance of water. There was no one who could tell him how he had to behave or what he could or couldn't do, none of which Bes would really have paid much attention to anyway. And there was something to be said for owning his own private paradise. The downside was, unless he was throwing one of his own parties, there was nothing really going on there. Fortunately, Hawaii was just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Less than that for a god.

( As luaus went... )

Makaria was thinking of something serious. Serious enough that she needed guidance. She could speak with her father or mother, or she could have consulted various Gods in the Greek Pantheon, but what she really thought she needed was the guidance of a certain Egyptian God that she hadn't seen in awhile. Anubis was always very nice to her. And he wasn't bad to look at. NO. Okay he was really easy to look at. NO. She really needed to take a cold shower or something. She wasn't a pubescent teenager. She was a grown Goddess and however distracting his looks might have been this was serious business. She was not calling upon him to look at.

( But it was a bonus that he was so easy to look at. )

With a best friend that was the goddess of beer, and such an affinity for beer himself, sometimes Kratos wondered if they'd run out of flavors to try. And then mortals would go and do something strange. Like create Mamma Mia Pizza Beer. Seriously. Pizza beer. ( Who thought of that? )

The place was packed. And by packed, that mean that there were over a dozen people in the place, but less than two. Because even if the sign at the door said Maximum Occupancy: 29, there was no way that many people were going to fit in the place and still allow for room to breath. The Matchbox bar in Chicago, Illinois was 460 square feet of appropriately named real estate. It was tiny. It was crowded with every single one of the twelve bar stools currently occupied. And it was ( The. Best. Dive. Bar. Ever. )

Philotes loved the Underworld. It was her home, it was where she'd grown up, it was where most of her family still lived. While others might find it a dark and dismal place, and certainly there were many that found it frightening, Friendship always felt there was a dangerous beauty to it. And it was the peril that made the loveliness stand out that much more. At least, that was the way she saw it.

And because she was a child of the Underworld, she had resources that others wouldn't have at their disposal. ( She had spies. )

After the messy business of tracking down a wayward nymph and dealing with not only the paperwork involved, but all of the collateral irritation because of her husband's involvement with one of the players, Hera was more than ready for a break. Unfortunately, she was not exactly in the position of simply being able to put a “gone fishin'” sign on her office door and stepping out. There were a thousand little things that had to be dealt with, people that needed to be motivated, things to be put in place, just so that she could have a few moments of time to herself without worrying about interruption later. It took time, but finally, she was set. She was free.

( Now... what to do with herself? )

Frigg didn't always cook. While it was in her purview as a domestic goddess, she generally left it for Andhrímnir and his attendants and servants. Occasionally, when the mood struck her, she took to the kitchens like a woman on a mission. Which, one could suppose, she was. After all, it was rare she acted without purpose.

The nightmare involving the Trickster was ever at the forefront of her mind, but she trusted that Odin would sort it all out and report back to her. While her husband sometimes kept his knowledge to himself, if he dared to think he was going to keep the timing of Ragnarok to himself he had another thing coming. She would tell him what-for. If Loki was free and on the warpath, she had a right to know. And soon. Even if it wasn't an immediate threat, it was enough of one to send her seeking out her dear ones and hope they were discreetly prepared for the worst.

( Thor was ever ready, she had nothing to worry for with him. )

Her first inclination had been to take them somewhere remote, a small town somewhere perhaps. But there was a problem with small towns: everyone knew everyone else, who they were related to, where they worked, who they had gone to kindergarten with. There was no way to blend in in a small town. Everyone would take notice of new arrivals and speculate where they had come from or why they were there.

Not that she expected to outsmart Odin, not for any length of time. Loki had pointed out, and he was right, that they'd never be able to keep out of sight with him having Hlidskjalf. Forget Huginn and Muninn, troublesome as they were, it was the all-seeing ability the throne gave him that would derail them. If he truly wanted to find them. Sigyn was taking a gamble, and a very large one at that, that Odin still had some care for his blood-brother and he wouldn't hunt them down with pitchforks and torches. No, it wasn't Odin she was trying to avoid.

( It was the rest of them. )

After starting two schoolyard brawls last week, and a near-riot at a bar the week before, Deimos was feeling quite satisfied with himself. Sure, it was about time to start some new trouble, but he knew a surefire way of doing that.

( meanwhile, back at the motel )