Thoth tended to call Hermes a "scamp", but Isis had never found him anything less than respectful and considerate. This had been proven once again when he came to see the Egyptian queen with exciting news, knowing she would want to know.

( The news was that Odin had remarried )

Thor loved feasts. Everybody got together, ate, drank, laughed, told stories and sometimes fought. It was the best of all worlds all in one room, and Thor couldn't imagine how anybody could have a bad time at a feast. Well, most of the time. There was one person he was pretty sure was having a bad time tonight. But really, ( it was for his own good. )

Several months after this thread

Sigyn moved some brush to get a better look at the rocks she thought she'd glimpsed as she strolled through the woods. When she did, she found not what she was looking for, but the minerals in the rocks would still be useful so she picked them up. She was running low on paint, so it was time to make some more. Though she already knew she wasn't going to be allowed to grind up the stones anywhere near her foster-mother's home. ( Holda had a bit of an issue with the pounding sound. )

This was not something Odin had anticipated. It wasn't even in the realm of reasonable expectations.

Laying there beside Frigg, he had come to one rather astonishing conclusion- he didn't want her to leave. Not in terms of wanting further companionship for the night, but in the long-term view of not wanting her to leave ever.

( How had she done that? )

Frigg didn't necessarily hate it when Odin left for a indeterminate amount of time, she just didn't like being left alone. She wasn't even alone, persay, she would just retreat to Fensalir whenever he went away and only returned to Valaskjalf when he returned to Asgard. There was something so vast, cold and empty about Valaskjalf when Odin wasn't there. It had been quite different when their sons had been young and wandering the hall at all hours getting into all sorts of trouble. But those days were gone. Baldr and Hod were dead. Hermod was grown. Valaskjalf was quiet. Empty. Lonely. Fensalir was always a bustle of activity with all the maidens that resided there, and while it was not a replacement for her husband it always managed to help her forget, for awhile, that she was lonely.

Even Vili and Ve couldn't put the damper on her emptiness, no matter their attempts while they warmed her bed in Fensalir (never in Valaskjalf, her marital bed was her marital bed). But it didn't matter who graced her bed or when, no one had ever held a candle to her husband. So when he was gone, she missed him. ( It was as simple as that. )

Odin's inspection of the new worlds had pleased him greatly. He'd taken a trip around them all, wanting to see if what he and his brothers had created was meeting their expectations. It was all they wanted and more. They had enemies, it was true, as he'd discovered when he traveled a few of them, but overall they were amazing. The mortals were thriving, and already his progeny were showing great promise. Which was part of what brought him back to his wife's home.

His mortal offspring were all well and good, infants that they were, and it pleased him to know they would become great kings and heroes if they continued down the right path. Yet it would be his divine children that would mean the most to the future of those worlds- Asgard and Midgard in particular. The mortals could only do so much, and Odin's concern for the future weighed heavily on his mind at times.

( He had been slowly formulating a plan... )

OOC note: Shortly after Loki takes his children by Angrboda to Asgard

It was a completely different world from what Hel was used to. So far she was so much in awe of it all she'd barely had a chance to miss her mother. The sheer magnificence of the immense halls with their golden roofs still made her catch her breath. But there was one place she was dying to see, one her father had thus far refused her entrance to-Valhalla.

Hel had already learned of the apparently dazzling Valkyries that served there, and the ever growing number of dead warriors. She didn't understand the point of keeping them around, but she supposed the dead had to go somewhere. Daddy told her that she was too young, but she was a curious child, as most were, and where she was told she couldn't go was exactly where she wanted to be.

( She toddled along the road... )