Homestuck - Sunlightverse - Blessings

[askerian]

So uh yeah. I don't want to post this one on AO3 yet because the one about discovering the humans now have wings is still a WIP and this one happens later on, but since i've talked about it around here...

Anyway.

John meets a grubbaby. u.u


He's going down a little dirt path that he found, low shadowy trees all around with their gold-edged lacy leaves and sunlight overhead. The weather is always fantastic in these islands, so far. He's kind of happy with things, kind of bummed Vriska didn't come with today because it's a neat find; that path is certainly not boar-made, there's too much space between the trees and bushes for them to be forced to follow the same road until the earth looks it.

He might find people at the bend of the path, a village even!

What he finds instead is a weird little roly-poly animal, curled into a wheel of slate gray, fleshy bits and fat little limbs and a shiny, lacquered, segmented shell on its back, and its butt looks kind of furry.

He'd swear there's stuff painted on it, though, lines and designs in jadeblood greens and his blue.

The thing isn't very big, not even as big as his torso, and it's not moving, so he crouches beside it and knocks his knuckle on its shell.

There's a gleep! and then the thing unrolls, and he finds out the end he thought was the butt was the head.

There's tiny, mostly-red horns emerging from a mop of moss-green hair, and tiny little kitten-clawed sausage fingers scrabbling in the dust, and the hugest eyes he's ever seen, set in a round-cheeked, gaping little face.

He's found a baby.

Wow.

-- ectoBiologist [EB] has opened memo HOLY WOW A BABY on board Adventure Time for Assholes --

EB: guys i found a baby!
EB: like a *troll* baby
EB: or a whatever we're now baby.
EB: it's got like a shell on its back and itsùmonjù
EB: chewing on my pants hehehe, okay i'll pay attention to that little rascal for a minute.
EB: brb with more exciting discoveries!!

-- turntechGodhead [TG] has joined the memo --

TG: spoiler john its a trap the baby is a bait b some monsters lure c about to go facehugger on your ass and hollow itself a nice nest out of your chest cavity d all of the above run while you still can
TG: john
TG: johnny john john
TG: you asshole if you get eaten at least give us gps coordinates so we can loot your corpse

He puts his PDA back in his pocket and goes about trying to get the baby to spit out the end of his pant leg, which is dusty and stiff with sea salt and generally not good for baby consumption. The little tyke seems determined. Flop it goes, on its side, roly-polling again -- this time around his ankle, and its tiny kitten-claws and myriad of needle teeth sunk determinedly in blue cloth. John is now the owner of a creepydorable shackle.

He frees himself with the cunning application of the tail end of his windsock hood, ticklishly trailed across a fat little cheek and then danced just out of reach. The babynsect flips on its back and tries to grab up at it, but its shell is round enough that it can't balance for long and quickly flops back on its other side, where it proceeds to start sniffling heartbrokenly.

John will deny it later on, but he flails a little. "Aw, no, no, here it is, you can chew on it if you want to, mm nummy windsock, blue is the tastiest color isn't it, come on, no crying--"

The baby blinks its enormous, alarmingly wobbly eyes at him -- they're an odd silvered sage green -- and accepts his offering with a squeak that he chooses to interpret as a laugh. The little brat played him. He laughs, too, and risks those clawed fingers and toes to go tickle its belly.

This is a well-fed baby. He wonders if it has a mom or a lusus or anything (and also if it's a boy baby or a girl baby, because he really can't tell at all. It's naked, but also all curled up!) Be a bit of a crime to leave it alone in the woods, though.

He's careful when he slips his hands under its arms and lifts it. It doesn't squirm, just stares back and keeps patiently shredding the end of his hood into a mangled, drooly mess. Its legs are still all curled up, like a kitten carried by its mom, it's horribly adorable.

When it yawns John sees needle fangs an alarmingly long way down.

"You're cute," John proclaims. "If creepy. Somehow the creepy just makes you even more cute. Is it a baby power, I wonder?"

"Put em down right the hell now or I'm cracking your skull and making delicious puree out of your brainmeats."

Whoops. Good job with the situational awareness, John. He cranes his head back and around a bit, grins his most harmless smile at the young lady standing behind him. She's kinda goldenish-gray skinwise and in somewhat battered work skirts and also brandishing a log big around as his thigh.

"Hi there! Big sister?" he asks, lowering the baby back down on the ground. "You're much too young to be that kid's mom!"

Scoff, scowl. Argh. She'd have bought it from Dirk! Or Jake, even though he'd have sounded even cheesier saying it.

"I am not kidding, I will crack your stupid horns off and use them to hook your guts and pull them right out!"

John pouts. "My horns are not stupid, okay! They're badass, and ... also a right pain in the ass to sleep with; but still. And I'd step away if I could, she won't let go of my clothes!"

He tugs, to demonstrate. The front half of the grubbaby is lifted right off the ground, and it squeaks happily without loosening its jaws.

The young woman still looks tense, and that log has got to be heavy. He shuffles to sit on the ground, softens his voice a bit. (He can be right sensitive when he wants to avoid getting brained, okay.) "I didn't want to hurt her, I just found her alone on the path and wondered what happened, alright? You can take her back, if you manage to get her to let go."

The young woman growls, circles her slow, cautious way around to John's side. "Her, her, her, you sound like a goddamn creep -- are you trying to jinx em?"

Blink. "Em? Jinx? Wha...?" he asks, and then he forgets, because the baby is on all fours and butting his knee with its little horns and he can see the drawings on its back now, and ooohh. Okay, that's a bit unexpected. Maybe it shouldn't have been. He taps a very light knuckle against the fancy curlicues of a particularly elaborate Breath symbol on the first shell segment, grins. The second segment has Life and the third one has Space, which he dutifully admires as well, but his fingers stay on the blue of his symbol, rubbing slowly back and forth. The paint isn't smearing, feels almost like nail polish. "Huh, that's pretty. I've never seen it drawn like that."

He looks up to grin another harmless grin at the young woman and she's frozen, staring at him, mouth fallen open a little.

"Uh. Miss?"

"Your head," she barks, but her voice shakes. "Turn your head. I -- I have a log."

Ooookay. "I noticed! It's a very nice log," he says cheerfully, "very, uh, hefty!" and turns his head, craning his neck -- she shakes her head quickly, wrong direction, so he turns to face the baby once again. The woman's breath hitches.

The baby chirps and waves a kitten-clawed hand at him in the universal signal for "up now, elevator slave." John pinches his lips. On one hand, the mother might brain him with a log if he obeys. On the other hand, the baby might cry if he doesn't. Dilemma.

"... ummm..."

"Yes ma'am?"

The log is drooping some, and the woman looks lost as anything. Maybe now she's gotten a good look at his face she can tell he's totally trustworthy! Yeah, and Vriska's momcestor has a ship to sell him for cheap, hole-free.

"You... um..."

"Yeees?"

She mumbles something he can't parse; he tilts his head. The baby whimpers and claws at his knees -- ow ow ow -- as it scrambles over them and tumbles in his lap. Whoops!

"What color is your hair!" the woman snaps without warning, and then flushes an embarrassed yellow.

"Uh... Black? Is that a trick question? I mean, uh, Vriska didn't get me with hair dye again or something and I didn't notice, did she?"

Okay now she's going ashy gray, this can't be good. John -- gently as possible -- moves the baby off his lap and turns on one knee to catch her in case she faints, holy wow she's totally swaying a little.

Her eyes fall to his chest and she swallows. John blinks down at his shirt, blinks back up.

"... my lord heir?"

Blink -- oh! Oh. "Oh. Heir of Breath. Yeah. Hehe. I should have gotten used to it with the consorts but it's always weird when people know about me." He ruffles his hair once again, a little awkward. It's one thing getting that reaction from sentient-ish, waist-high salamanders, and another to get it from otherwise normal, not game-built young women.

She stares for another minute or twenty, and then she slowly raises a hand and pinches the bridge of her nose. "... I just threatened the Heir of Breath with a log."

John tries not to laugh for about two seconds, and then he gives up and cracks up in a major way. "You kind of still are!" he points out in between two giggle fits. The baby has rolled into a circle in the hollow of his crossed legs and is squeak-laughing along, all limbs kicking happily.

The log drops hurriedly. So does the woman, on her knees, and ouch, that kind of impact has got to hurt a bit. "My lord, I--"

John flails. "Waugh! None of that, no no no, it's weird and all and I'm gonna get a swelled head and then my hood won't fit and it will be terrible."

On her knees in the dust, she gives him a slow, slow blink. "I... can see how that would be. Erm."

John tries to look earnest all of two seconds, and then he starts laughing again. "Wow, this is awkward. Okay! Hi, nice to meet you, my name's John."

"Ah -- I -- it's a honor, I--"

"Your name's not Honor, is it?"

Aha! A scowl, finally. "You're kind of a brat, aren't you."

John would protest, but he's afraid she'd go all scared and awed again, so he shrugs. "... Mean, but basically accurate, I guess, heh. Sorry?"

A long sigh, smoothing a dusty skirt down her thighs, and then she braces herself, squares her shoulders, and says, "I'm Kaleo, my lord. This is Eri. And yes, ey's my child, honestly!"

John chuckles. His hand has somehow landed on soft moss-green hair. The grubbaby butts its little head against his palm when he stops petting. It's almost more like a kitten than a kid, the way it behaves. Man, now he wishes he'd seen what Vriska was like as a grub, or maybe Karkat, see if that comes from their side or what.

"Damn, she's way too cute. It should be outlawed."

"Ey's a girl then?" Kaleo asks tentatively, a hand coming up shyly to scratch at the base of her own stiletto of a horn.

John stares, baffled. "What, you don't know? But -- uh. I don't know! I just thought... She looked like a girl to me." He peers down at the grubbaby. It still looks androgynous, actually, but. He's not sure. Pings him as a girl, is all. "How can you not know?"

"Ey hasn't had em's first molt yet, stupid, how the heck -- ugnh."

Oh yeah, he supposes with the weird mess of innie-outie they have now it'd be especially hard to know which was which that early on.

He tickles Eri's fat little belly. She scratches him kicking, raising white lines on the side of his hand, getting a few drops of red blood to pearl out. "Heh, you little wildcat." He grins, leans in to make funny faces, blow air at her nose. She flails all her limbs, mouth wide open to squeak back a challenge, chest swelling in to take in enough air for a good baby yell. "You're the cutest little wildcat, you escape artist, wait 'till you grow up, you will charm everyone, you'll --"

Oh. Something's happening. Something weird. Something...

"You will dance with the breeze and race the storm to port, and you'll always sail back home, you'll... travel so far, speak to people none you know knew existed and bring back the tales, you will sing and dance and laugh -- and you will hope, Eridi, that one gift you always had."

He straightens up slowly. Everything's buzzing.

"You should add a Hope sigil on there," he hears himself saying, from very far away.

"My lord?" Kaleo breathes out. He doesn't answer. It's right enough.

His pocket pings him.

"Uh -- sorry, one minute." John ruffles his wings and mantles them awkwardly. What the heck are they doing out! Okay, so uh --

-- gutsyGumshoe [GG] has joined memo! --

GG: Well, John? Have you found the baby's mother yet?
EB: oh. yeah.
TG: aw poo vantas minor was already freaking the fuck out trying to figure out what to feed it if you had to bring it back
TG: he was all JEGUSFUCK IS IT INSTINCTIVE IT HAD BETTER BE INSTINCTIVE ALSO I AM NOT GLANDFEEDING IT shit was hilarious
TG: also if anyone with nubby horns asks yes laying eyes on a hungry abandoned baby will totally get your mammaries to start gushing the magic juice right on the spot and yes the traditional collecting thing is actually a bucket
EB: hehe. but of course, who doesn't know that? :B
EB: uh, actually, the mom found me first.
EB: with a wooden log.
GG: ...
TG: ...
GG: Anyway, get yourself back home, young man, it's time for dinner.
GG: If you managed to get yourself killed, try to clean up before getting back here or dad might well ground you for your own good for the next three centuries. :B
EB: urgh. yes, yes, nannasismom.
TG: you guys family relationship is the weirdest and i say that as a guy whose bro is literally also his dad
EB: incest: it's what's for dinner.
EB: suddenly i remember exactly why i am called back home and seriously wonder if i shouldn't just go native, the locals are friendly! logs notwithstanding.
GG: John. Imagine me harrumphing here.
EB: yes, yes. going now.

"Okay, uh."

Kaleo's still kneeling here, with little Eri who he didn't notice crawling out of his lap trying to make her way up the slope of her mother's thighs, and she stares half-fascinated and half uncomfortable as hell.

"Um. It was really nice to meet you!" He stows his PDA away again. "But now I've got to go, Dad's waiting on me for dinner."

"... Oh."

John gets up, bats some dust off his knees, eyes the chewed-up end of his windsock hood. He decides to throw it over his shoulder and ignore it until it fixes itself somehow. "Err, so, your village's nearby, right? Maybe I'll drop by one of these days."

"It -- it would be an honor, my lord."

John can't help but grimace at her tone, at her posture, all stiff.

And then she squares her shoulders and tosses up her dagger-horns. "... If... if you can be convinced to behave. That is."

Hee. "Man, that sounds pretty hard. Depends, will you have a log at hand again?"

"Of course."

"I'll be the bestest guest ever."

He manages solemn for a short while. Kaleo gives a long-suffering sigh and a half-serious jaundiced look. John laughs, grins at the two of them, and then his pocket is beeping at him again, so he pets the grubbaby's hair a last time and gathers the wind and lets the world fall away under his feet.

He keeps hearing Eridi laugh for miles and miles.



--
Adi: How was your walk? Oh, you know, the heir of breath was so taken with Eridi
Adi: That he blessed her with wanderlust and mischievousness
Adi: By the way, she's a girl.

Comments

[mitsuhachi]

What else would you expect john to bless her with, seriously? At least he also said shed always get home. All, gonna lol so hard if he turns out to be wrong. And Dave, of course you're standing there horrifying karkat, and of course John is going to help you. Just. Helplessly charmed by this entire thing.

[askerian]

Yeah, man, who'd expect anything else from John. XD

Thankfully or maybe Alas, he can not be wrong when he says shit like this. Though there is a LOT of leeway. For example he didn't say if she'd get to go home standing or feet first. :/ But at least her family would know what happened to her! (what happens mostly is that he can only bless her in the first place if she's already leaning in his direction. A parent's prayers can start the process, but if the child is really not aligned then they wouldn't work, and then John might as well be pissing in the wind, best he could do would be curse 'em. XD it's half making things happen and half knowing what would have happened anyway even if he'd shut his trap, either or, both at the same time, neither, no one really knows.)

Dave and Karkat, pushing each other out of trees~

[othercat]

That is adorable.

[askerian]

:D thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

oh my god this was amazing! never realized how much i wanted actual-gods-to-a-culture AU untill it hit home that John was fulfilling child blessing duties onto a kid wearing his symbol. yay! so good! am so curious if all the kids are in the same pantheon, or if their respective religions are spread out around the world, or what.

thanks so much for posting this!

[askerian]

:DDDDDDD glad you're liking it! it's a bit complicated to handle, that practical godhood thing, but I'm starting to figure out how I want it to go.

I think locally speaking -- in this archipelago, which is very large but still not continent-large -- all the gods are part of the same pantheon, though some are very minor deities or only exist in legends as part of another bigger god's dominion and aren't well known in every single island. it's possible that in other parts of the world others might have more sway, or that for example pirates would worship a totally different main set than islanders. None of them are at the fallen into oblivion stage yet, because they're still incarnate and right here and that gives their worship some power. Once they've passed on and only the godhood remains then it'll only be sustained on their worshippers' faith, but that ought to take a while.

[lexicology]

There is *everything* awesome about this. The culture-building, the dialog, John being an *excellent* benevolent-trickster god, just *everything*. Kaleo seems like a particularly great sort of character, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of her again. She seems like the type who'd be more aligned with Karkat than John, but that doesn't necessarily mean she'd get along with her patron any better. Especially given Karkat's canonical reaction to technical godhood (i.e., being a giant pompous ass). And now I'm wondering what people on this planet would/will think if/when they find out that their pantheon only just woke up, like, a week ago and is still figuring out how things work. "Oh, we didn't *know* how your world would turn out, just that it would suck less than all the other available options."

[askerian]

♥ aww, thank you!

Kaleo is really no nonsense and snarky and brave and she does groveling very badly, so having to try it because OHFUCK A REAL LIFE GOD was kinda... not going well for her. XDDD She'd have snapped and said something offending at some point to just about any of them, lucky John's kinda prefering it that way. And heh, I think you're right, she'd be under Karkat. Likely also Disciple, she's got the active protection of what you love thing. XD People are rarely all of one god.

And now I'm wondering what people on this planet would/will think if/when they find out that their pantheon only just woke up, like, a week ago and is still figuring out how things work.
ahaha oh dear lord. Best bet would probably be to keep things mysterious and stuff... XDD

[tanarill]

D'awww. Grub!babby.

(Does this mean Rose and Kanaya can actually have babies now?)

Um. What's the culture/technology?

Tell me moooore about this world!

[askerian]

Yes, rose and kanaya can actually have babies now. XD So can dave/karkat/jade. THREE-WAY BABIES FTW.

Culture and tech is roughly on par with ancient greece, that's all i've got figured out at the moment. The locals live on a smattering of islands and are mostly fishermen and herdsmen. and uh i haven't defined much more yet! D:

[twowaystar]

LOL just telling all your girl's back home of the blessing of a God. should probably mention that you threatened him with a log 8D I'm sure they'd be impressed!

Also this is the first fic I've read with ACTUAL God-to-villagers?-interaction. Also omg I fear what Dave or Karkat..no. I fear what ERIDAN would do with that.

John u so kyoot wit dem babehs don't stop kk?

[askerian]

Yeeeah, I think poor kaleo is gonna sit on her great news until John does come back for a public visit, or no one'd believe her. XD

... can you imagine what the CONDESCE would do. :X nyoooooooooooo run away run away! Eridan would probably build himself an empire and sneer down at the plebes running around to serve him and be very lonely and whiny about it. Poor worshippers. XD I think people who pray for Hope tend to direct it more to Jake than to either Eridan or Dualscar. Unless they're pirates, in which case Dualscar all the way.

[askerian]

hahaha WIN.

only this is the first time they really do get to have weirdass GOD stuff happen, I think. The first fics are kinda mundane that way, as much as humans and aliens with special powers and game inventories in real life can be mundane. XD;

[the--ivorytower.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm sorry to interrupt what you're up to, but I was wondering: there's a part in Homestuck where there's a great deal about the trolls, their families and so on, and my friend wants to know if one can skip it and still understand what's going on. She's past Year 1, but not much more. Thanks!

[askerian]

Uh, their families? Does she mean the monsters or the ancestors? because they don't have families as humans do, really.

And, er, I don't know, really, because the smallest silly detail has a way of coming back years later to hit you in the face with sudden plottiness. But she could read summaries, probably. And she'll probably absorb stuff via internet osmosis if she gets into the fandom or reads fanfic anyway. XD;;

[red-volpe.livejournal.com]

Eeeee, I love it!
Oh man, I had a really good question and I lost it. 8I
Oh well, it might come back to me later. In the meantime!
I love how John's just so. clueless sometimes. xD
So, since Kaleo only ever calls em Eri, but John calls her Eridi, does that mean that as they reach certain life-stages, they get another syllable added on to their name? Like, babynsect's one syllable, finding out the gender is two, reaching adulthood is three, elder is four, that kind of deal?
Also, is Eridi named after Eridan? Because that's just too cute and I would love to see his reaction to that. :D
..Hey, wait, what's itsùmonjù? I mean, I get that it's the sigils painted on the back, but is that like a common word I should know or something?
I love the off-screen stuff too, like how Karkat's immediately thinking that John's going to bring em home and starts worrying about how to take care of em, and the bit about nannasismom! xD
Speaking of familial interactions, I wonder how Kaleo interpreted John saying he had to go back to his dad? Does Paul play a role in the mythology? Is it kind of like how the goat Amalthea raised Zeus in Greek mythology?

I REMEMBER MY QUESTION. I guess it's kind of inspired by John's statement that "blue is the tastiest color isn't it, come on, no crying--"
Does Terezi's gift from her lusus pass down to the species, like, as one of those "special" things you mentioned earlier? :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Oh goodness, that has the potential to be an extremely touching moment, doesn't it? *wonk*

Also, here, have a ridiculously long comment. -_-;

[askerian]

♥ i'm always wide open to worldbuilding question wink wink nudge nudge. ask anytime it comes back to you! u.u

Oh, that syllable thing would be a neat idea! In my head it was just that they're given the full name at hatching, but so long as there's no official gender they only use the first three letters of it, because some names have gender variants. I'll poke at your idea and see if it doesn't fit better when I haven't got a headache, because it's shiny. u.u

And yes, she's totes named after Eridan. XD A lot of names are derived from the gods, sometimes derived far enough that it's not really noticeable anymore where they come from. Devyd and Radia are easy to puzzle out but even I don't remember where I got Kaleo from. XD (i made a list, to pick at random whenever I need an OC. it was fun mangling the names until something else popped out.)

itsùmonjù is a keyboard smash. XDDDDD which i cleverly made out by flattening my hand down n the keyboard. i have funny accented letters on mine because it's made to type in french. éèçàù~

Am glad you like the offscreen stuff! i'm figuring out that right now they're being busy little bees trying to set up an actual working colony, if only for mid-long term like a few months until they figure out what the fuck else to do with their new lives, and of course karkat's right in the midle trying to do everything for everyone at once. XDDDD

John and Jane's dad is totally a mythical figure! He's not a god, but he's the caretaker/adoptive father of gods and dearly beloved by them and therefore some divinity splashed back onto him by some kind of magical contagion (at least in mythology.) He's still mortal but otherwise *extremely* long-lived and since he's considered beloved of the gods some people see him as being able to intercede on prayers. He's also seen as the patron saint of fatherhood and mentorhood and his totem animal is not a specific animal but any that turns out to be a lusus. XD (some scholars argue that he doesn't count and isn't part of the pantheon goshdarnit, but he's still a beloved figure in children's versions of legends, like "when Maid of Life and Heir of Breath, Being God-Children At The Time, left on an adventure and accidentally brought forth the chain of X islands out of the sea and also sort of drenched a couple of very unhappy dragons and this is why you totally have to stop poking under rocks and be back on time for dinner i do not care that the woods behind the house need explored okay but yes actually we will go and slay the dragon for you if you need to BUT WE ARE STILL GROUNDING YOU AFTERWARDS."

[sohaliatalitha.livejournal.com]

Ohmigosh yay! Kids/trolls etc doing God Stuff is a definite squee. This is just so awesome because John has just done the equivalent of (uuuuh... my mythology is failing me today) but it's like God appearing to moses, I guess, and HE HAS NO IDEA. I mean that kid is gonna grow up as someone who met a god... Sorry! I am just squeeing at how wonderful this is!

I can't help but wondering what the creation myths are like in this world. I mean, they have all these stories about the gods but they've... only just arrived? Or do the myths kind of correspond to how the kids decided on things? Or maybe to stuff they actually got up to as kids? (like is there a whole story about the vendetta between The Theif of Light and The Maid of Time?) Is the arrival/return of the gods to live in the world something prophesised about?

anyway, this is awesome <3

[askerian]

:DDDD ♥

well she's too young to remember that meeting, sad enough. XD But they'll probably meet again, and also even if Kaleo tries not to mention that first meeting to her friends because no one'd BELIEVE her, she'll pretty much have to admit when he drops by for his visit, so eri will probably hear the story at least three bazilion times by the time she's grown up. (dear lord, i wonder if he'd bring vriska. bad plan! maybe he should bring jade. XD)

Creation myths are very garbled versions of sburg/sgrub, with competing interpretations all over the place. idk about the prophecies thing. Will ponder. I don't think so but maybe it'll work. Hmmm. >__>

[(Anonymous)]

I like that even when meeting these people he helped create John is still being dorky, kinda obnoxious John. Then, all of a sudden, being a god MEANS SOMETHING. Not just being powerful, or worshiped, but becoming mythic. Awesome.

And now you got me interested in the religion itself. What's the creation myth?, are all stories set after the game started or are some from before?, are any just plain made up?, are only the humans worshipped either in this area or at all?

Also, what did she mean by jinx. Is being a girl bad and does it have anything to do with the perceived failings of the female gods (Rose goes grimdark, Roxy is a lush, Jade was at the heart of many things that went wrong, and Jane is a villain's daughter. Not sayin', just sayin'.

[askerian]

John is always dorky and obnoxious. XD Only now they have to dress it up in words like benevolent whimsical trickster. Pff.

Religion: i think i'll figure it out as I write, so I can't tell you much.

And jinx because people have a fear of the baby not getting a gender at all!! if you talk about it, which, uh, the baby is gendered *before* the molt, it just doesn't show. But yeah, there are indeed rare cases of neutral gender, so it's not entirely baseless either. They just confuse the issue with luck and prayer and whatnot.

[book-people.livejournal.com]

...So, I absolutely adore all of Sunlight 'verse, but the more I read the the more it very firmly becomes my favorite. I really, really hope that there are more god shenanigans in the future! It's fun hearing about both the new species' ideas of who the Pantheon is versus the Sburb/Sgrub players themselves, and the Sburb/Sgrub players sorta... growing into their roles as the Pantheon?

Anyway, that blessing is still so pretty. <3<3<3

EDIT: PS that was me.

[askerian]

#^________________^# heeee, thank you. ♥~

hahah XD okay, deleting the anon one.

[red-volpe.livejournal.com]

I had another thought! xD
Will the gods be able to "hear" prayers? Would it be automatic, mandatory "VOICE IN YOUR HEAD", or would it be more like a Seer power? Or would it only apply to the Seer or Mind players? Or maybe Blood players, since we don't know anything about that aspect?

[askerian]

I don't know if they'll really hear anything, more like get feelings that they might want to go this or that way or maybe say some things. The Seer and Mind players would probably be able to notice the external aspect of it more easily, I suppose.

[shewhoflies.livejournal.com]

OMG. I. THIS. SO AWESOME, THERE ARE NO WORDS~~~ ♥♥♥

GOD JOHN. DOING DIVINE STUFF!!! HOW COOL IS THAT?

AND THE BABY, SHE'S SO CUTE, YES SO CUTE, WHO'S A CUUUUUUUUUUUTE BABY, YOU ARE, YES YOU ARE.

AND THE GIRL NOT-TROLL BEING BADASS AND THEN FREAKING OUT BECAUSE OHSHIT THERE'S A GOD TALKING TO HER, SHIT HOW THE HECK DID THAT EVEN HAPPEN, IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO REALLY HAPPEN TO REAL PEOPLE, SHITSHITSHIT WHAT IS SHE SUPPOSED TO DO????

Also I loved all the questions and answers in this post! ♥

And then I started thinking!!! (Not necessarily a bad thing!)

It's just an Observation, really, but I thought it was really cool -- John is a trickster! He's totally the trickster god of their pantheon ♥! If not a particularly brilliant or subtle trickster, but he's the one who's cheerful and happy and a bit annoying and loves joking and yes, totally the trickster. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but the trickster tends not to be very powerful, right? I mean, the strongest trickster I remember is Loki who tends to use magic and brains and is therefore not traditionally powerful. But John, I mean, John has a hammer. He's someone you Do Not Want to piss off in a fight. He's even kind-sort of a leader of his little group, and trickster gods never are, traditionally. Which just tickles me pink. I'd love to see a human mythologist trying to analyse this planet. ♥

Oh, I do so look forward to the visit! ♥♥♥♥♥

[red-volpe.livejournal.com]

At first, when you said John was a trickster, I thought you were talking about Trickster!John (http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=Trickster+John#/d3ggp6x) and I think my brain shut down for a moment thinking about what-ifs. xD

[explodingfrogs.livejournal.com]

So, I was pondering what kind of established myths and legends the hybrid species might be telling about their gods, and I accidentally a fic of your fic. I hope it meets with your approval.

The style and tone is heavily inspired by/borrowed from a piece of official Exalted fiction called The Legend of the Titans (http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=Ink_Monkeys,_vol._40:_The_Legend_of_the_Titans), which was itself an homage to Lord Dunsany’s The Gods of Pegana (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Gods_of_Peg%C4%81na). They're both very much worth reading, if you like this kind of mythic fantasy.

Of the Muse's Brother
(The Lord of Time)

It is known that of all the Gods, only the Muse of Space walks alone, with no litter-mate at her side.

Once, this was not so. It is a thing not spoken of--ask not the Gods nor their Beloved Father, for they shall not answer--but there was a time when the Muse of Space had a Brother.

In those days, the Muse lived apart from the other Gods, and her Brother dwelled with her. And they were both of them unhappy, for her Brother was everything that she was not--vicious and cruel where she was gentle and kind, hateful and murderous to those things she loved most, and desiring nothing more than to mock her by profaning all that she held dear. Yet he was powerless to do so, for where the Muse was solid and real, her Brother was but a hollow emptiness in the weave of the world: hideous and terrifying as a nightmare, yet faint and forgettable as a whisper.

But he was as cunning as he was spiteful, and his whispers were real even if nothing else of him was. Time and again, his treacherous words found their way into unsuspecting ears, offering secrets best left unknown, inflaming dark passions, and promising power at the price of oblivion.

And so did it come to pass that through his deceit, a monstrous new Sun was born, ignited by the deaths of the countless victims and pawns of his lies and schemes. As the Muse stood in a world lit by a blazing Green Sun, its searing radiance cast her shadow out before her, vast and dark and terrible. And as she gazed upon her shadow, it opened flashing eyes and gazed back, and grinned her Brother's spiteful, mocking grin, and laughed, long and loud and cruel. And the Muse of Space knew despair, for she was such a tiny, powerless thing before the all-consuming Shadow that was her Brother.

Yet even as the Green Sun was her Brother's triumph, it was also his undoing. For the other Gods saw the beacon that was the Green Sun and were guided by its light to the place where the Muse and her Brother dwelt.

Thirty-four Gods then stood before the Muse of Space and the monster her Brother had become.

There was a Strife of unknowable length and unthinkable scope, and when it was over, the Muse of Space had no Brother, and the number of the Gods was thirty-five.

And it is a thing not spoken of.

[askerian]

heeeee. I like it ^^ I haven't decide yet how Calliope is viewed or whether people even know about Caliborn (leaning more toward that and him having been pretty much completley obliterated from either physical or historiucak existence) but that's certainly a possibility.

(and um i might have missed one message but after the third edit it would have been a bit hard to. :X )

[vehrec.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I have King of Dragon Pass on the brain. It's a setting where you can do a Hero-quest and re-enact the great deeds of the gods-because the god-realm is beyond time and mortality, and all the great legends are happening right now, if you know the correct ritual. Of course, going off the rails can kick you out or ruin the universe because you undid something the gods did, so DON'T GAME THE QUESTS. I can't help but think that Vriska should be forced to enforce the rules of Heroquests.

Also, do Dave and Karkat bestow combat blessings, or blessings of cool and righteous fury?

[askerian]

ooh, shiny setup. That'd be neat.

Dave bestows being here in the nick of time and rescues at the last possible moment (so if you're, say, racing against the clock hoping to be there in time to save your kid from falling in the river or kidnappers from offing your boss you'd call on him. He doesn't, alas, move his ass for being late for school much. unless the prayer's really funny.) Karkat bestows righteous fury and is saint patron of workers' unions. XD Dave gets firefighters for some reason.