maskormenace | 02

As a professor, whenever a holiday comes, it's always an opportunity for learning, and today happens to not be an exception, despite the personal nature of the holiday.

I suspect there are not many who celebrate such things, but perhaps it is a nice time to speak of them, considering it's father's day. I'm reflecting on fathers of myth, of course, not real ones -- but, ah, if you need someone to listen, I am, of course, here to listen.

There are, unfortunately, not a terribly high amount of good fathers in mythology, at least from my world. Sometimes, if you think of yourself as a poor parent, you can at least remember that you are no Zeus, or Hiranyakashipu. One was merely...devoted to sowing his progeny around Greece, as we all know, but Hiranyakashipu attempted multiple times to murder his son, because he worshipped a god he hated. [ A soft chuckle, and a shake of his head. ] I worried about moving too much, with mine! I suppose things could be worse. Then again, there is also Cronus, the god who ate his sons, [ he starts ticking on his fingers, ] Tantalus, Izanagi, Abraham...

Well, we're not short on those, are we? [ A soft chuckle, and a shake of his head. ]

I suppose there's something to be said, when we consider ourselves bad parents, yes? Not that we should ever excuse ourselves. [ A beat. ] I suppose I'm just...thoughtful, today. Moreso than I thought I would be. [ Another pause. ]

Are there others out there, who are thinking of things like this today?

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So some say, and we can hope, yes! [ David shook his head. ]

Perhaps someday your father will be here, and you'll be reminded of all those little annoyances all over again, and then the cycle will begin again.

[ A beat. ] Although, I suspect you are less fickle than that, to forget something simply because he is not around.

[ David hid his mouth with his hand. ] I was never that much of a party animal.

[ A beat. ]

I can imagine, then, that he was...probably one of the better ones, although considering... Compared to other mythologies, your ancestral pantheon is a fair bit better than the worst offenders.

[ Congrats, Norse aren't the worst!! ]

Like the circle of life?

[ Now he's just being cheeky, but Lester can get what this guy means. Kind of. ]

No, but if there's anything I've learned since I was here... it's that forgiveness and forgetfulness aren't the same thing. You can forgive without forgetting.

[it feels like a low bar to clear, tbh]

Our violence is just pretty externalized, I guess. It's hard to do much in-fighting with your own kids when Ragnarok's looming. Loki's a piece of shit to his demigods if they don't fall in line, surprise, but the other gods leave their kids alone or help them become heroes.

I've fought too many to count. I'm ageless, after all. I never thought it was wrong, to fight these wars.

Angels don't really question him, after all.

I think of it as a statement of fact - one that can be taken or left.

[A beat.]

Really, I like arguing.

He is.

[Look, senpai is awesome.] I'm sure they are, it just seems a little bit pointless to focus on it academically and just that. I mean if you're going to go deep with this, use it, right?

[ Oh Eli. David has to focus very hard, to keep his smile from splitting his face. ]

And what would you suggest I do with it, beyond sharing knowledge. I'm an educator at heart, it seems...appropriate.

[ David laughed. ]

Really? I couldn't have guessed.

As do I, of course.

Is this a question of...servitude versus free will, then?

Perhaps, yes. [ A half-smile. ]

We can all hope for that, yes. Forgiveness is...something hard-won, of course. I suppose they must want to do better, as well. Such things are no good if they are given freely.

Then I've got to ask - who else have you been arguing about Abraham with?

Precisely, yes, and Loki is...an outsider in many ways, regardless. Perhaps that is how he was raised, we know...so little about the giants and their lines, after all. Not compared to the Aesir or left-over Vanir that signed on with them.

[ A pause. ]

Other academics, unsurprisingly. I've...used it for other arguments, here and there, as well. The story itself, and what it means.

Other arguments?

[what is this foreign emotion]

-- They were war hostages. For Mimir and Hoenir. And then they lost the war. I'm not sure that's signing on.

[ Dryly: ] I'm the parent of a very gifted teenager. I need everything I can get.

Yes, yes, I'm aware.

[ A touch sharply. Defensive about his knowledge, isn't he? It couldn't be anything to do with that name. ]

The point still stands, Loki, after all, was no war hostage, but more an... ill-begotten friend.

[oh. Magnus feels a bit dumb for correcting the literal professor of mythology on mythology; besides, the familial impulse towards the Vanir is... well, embarrassing, vocalised. his father and he don't have much of a relationship, he's just said as much. why is he so invested in defending an ancient heritage Blake probably knows more about than he does? (because he believes in it, maybe, more than the politics of power and might-making-right among the Aesir)]

[well, whatever]

I dunno. [...] They're all part of the same cosmic lineage at the end of the day, aren't they? Odin and Loki and Mimir and Frey. If Loki's an outsider, he was made that way. And Ragnarok's more of a final straw than like, evidence he never belonged.

[leave it to the child of Frey to have empathy even for those that don't want it]

Edited 2018-06-25 05:38 (UTC)

[ A moment. Blake has to look away, almost distracted for a moment, like there's something out there, to hide the tightness in his jaw, or the way his eye twitched. Mimir was...not a name he had to hear, often. It made it easier to pretend that his son's ghost wasn't hovering over his every step, every action. ]

Yes, they are, and you're correct. Honestly the final straw was long before that, and Ragnarok the conclusion, once he broke free. The revenge -- the twilight of the gods, if you will. [ A brief, scoffing laugh. ] To quote Wagner.

[likely somewhat dissonant (or not dissonant enough), a teenage complaint from a teenage boy, somebody else's divine son giving a teenage opinion]

I tried to watch it once, 'cuz, I dunno, but it was so boring. -- The Ring Cycle, I mean. No offense.

Edited 2018-06-25 05:47 (UTC)

Why would I be insulted? I didn't write it.

[ A beat, and a wave of his hand. ] Norse mythology is always favored by...certain personalities, and they love to...pretend parts of the mythology don't exist to fulfill their desires for a certain narrative.

I'm not partial to that thinking. Although I've found the operas good...background music from time to time.

[ You know. When he's doing his woden stride. ]

The music was good. [he's forced to admit it; the singing, he'd been less into] What narrative was Wagner pushing? Mullets? The romance of incest? His daddy issues?

[he got further through the cycle than he thought. ironically, he just didn't get to the end; he remembers turning it off, annoyed and over all the wailing, when Odin punished the brave Valkyrie for her kindness]

I know the real answer is the German patriarchal myth of superiority, but it seems like there's a lot of other stuff going on. That has nothing to do with what I've seen in Valhalla.

Edited 2018-06-25 05:56 (UTC)

Touché. And that's why the disdain for Abraham, eh?

[She shrugs her shoulders.]

Or experience. I've never known any women who wanted to eat their children.

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