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[Attached is a picture taken just outside the church. It's a small army of tiny snowmen (no taller than 5-10 inches) or perhaps more accurately snow sigillaria. If you look, each snowman has an initial on its belly to correspond to the people Jason considers himself close to. Written in the snow are the words: Happy Saturnalia & Merry Christmas.

He couldn't find enough gifts for everyone he wanted to, so he sculpted these an sent out a sort of Christmas card instead. Of course, the snowmen are still there in person for the foreseeable future.]

[ANOTHER. GIFT. Well, a card, but still! These people take this holiday seriously - note to self. If he's here another year, he'll be prepared. He could give them things he finds around town over the next few weeks as late gifts but not only is that sort of lame, it would actually make him feel deeply awkward. That non-Earth guy trying so hard to follow Earth customs. But are they expecting anything back anyway? Probably not, since they know he's from elsewhere and that he didn't know about this until it was sprung on him.

Okay, at the very least he can stop having a social crisis and text back once he's sorted out how he feels about all of this.]

Jason! Thank you! I hope you have a Merry Christmas too!

I haven't heard of Saturnalia, what's that holiday about?

You're welcome.

It's a Roman festival that happens around this time of year. It's closely tied to Christmas from a long, long time ago though it's actually a separate holiday. Lots of similar stuff about gift giving and focusing on the light coming back as the days start to get longer again.

I see. So where you're from, you celebrate both?

Emphasis is put more on the Saturnalia festivities, but you'll often see a lot of Christmas decorations around since that's what we can get our hands on in stores. Not to mention most of the Christmas traditions are originally Saturnalia traditions just with a different god to celebrate.

Oh, so they're religious holidays? All I was told about Christmas was it was about giving gifts, and some myth about a man at the north pole.

Christmas has become more secular over time...but they were both originally steeped in religion, yes.

Edited 2020-01-18 03:11 (UTC)

Huh. Hadn't taken Earth to be a very religious world since nobody here talks about it. Though I guess that makes sense if most of the people are from after it became less religious. Or maybe it just doesn't matter much here when you find out death is different from what you thought it would be.

I could see that being a factor. I don't see many people visiting the church in town after all. I would say mine is less religious belief and more...family traditions or obligations.

[Being a Roman demigod means denying the gods as real is a little difficult, but while he honors them (sometimes) he doesn't necessarily "worship" them in the sense that most people mean when they say that word. It's complicated.]

Oh, I see. And for the record, it doesn't bother me either way. A lot of people where I'm from are religious but a lot aren't. I'm just trying to understand more about Earth since most of you are from there. Some of you tend to make references to things I've never heard of and I'm just trying to keep up.

That makes sense. Well, if you ever hear a reference I can try to explain it. I hope I didn't confuse you with the Christmas/Saturnalia stuff, cause honestly some of our traditions can seem a little strange from the outside I think.

Can't say I'm more confused than I already was. It's helpful to know the names of places and things when they come up. So you're Roman? Is that a kingdom? Ethnicity?

[Why is that complicated to answer? Maybe because we're dealing with centuries of Rome being an empire and now it's not...really. It's a city and a place to keep the ways of Rome alive so that the gods can stay alive as well? Complicated. That's all it is. But how to explain all that in a text? Jason sighs and starts typing]

I'm a Roman demigod. There are Romans who live in Rome, Italy but I don't think we have much in common ethnically speaking.

Rome used to be part of a large empire called The Roman Empire. At its height it stretched into three different continents. But, eventually they fell apart and their armies and people were scattered or reabsorbed back into the local cultures. My camp was settled by a part of The Twelfth Legion Fulminata, one of the last legions of the Roman military. They were told by Jupiter to stay alive, recruit demigods and their children, and keep Rome going.

There have been different sites over the years, but the current location is in the United States on the west coast.

[The reply comes after a bit more of a delay than the rest. Only an extra couple minutes, but.

Um.]

Explain what "demigod" means in your culture, just so I'm not misinterpreting.

[How has this not come up before? He doesn't keep it a secret and he's pretty sure he's mentioned his heritage a few times. Oh well, this reaction never ceases to amuse him, though he hopes Rosinante won't think of him TOO differently.]

The son or daughter of a god and a mortal. My mother was a regular human, but my father was one of the Roman gods. We age and can die like a human, but we get abilities from our godly parent so we can do things that normal humans can't.

So. Your father was an actual supernatural ancient being?

[Just FOR CLARIFICATION PURPOSES]

Yes.

But not, like, beginning of time ancient. That's a different set and most of those beings are sleeping.

Thankfully.

How many gods inhabit Earth? Is their magic - or your magic, I guess - different from the magic humans from Earth use here?

A lot. For the Romans and Greeks, there are the 14 major Olympian gods and then anywhere from 30 to 60 minor gods. I was working on a project related to all of this back home, but I can't remember all of their names without my notes.

[After being here, he'd come to consider whether or not other mythology's gods existed, but he couldn't say for sure if that was true, so he left that out.]

I don't know of a lot of humans that can use magic, honestly. I guess it would be different. My abilities are tied to what my father's domain is, which is why I can control the winds and generate lightning. I don't think I could cast a spell to make people fall asleep or anything...if that's what you're getting at.

I had wondered if magic was just common on Earth. It surprised me when I got here how many people seem to use it.

Anyway. Thanks for explaining. Your world gets stranger and stranger to me every day. What role do the gods play in your world? It sounds like they must interact with humans somewhat often.

I feel like the people who have ended up HERE are kind of unique, but I could be wrong.

[Seriously, with how many of them seemed to be the heroic/adventure type? That seemed skewed somehow. He knows the Underworld he's familiar with is much smaller in terms of the number of heroes in Elysium vs the folks who just end up in the neutral part or even the hellish parts.]

They oversee their specialties and maybe deal in bigger picture events -- major conflicts or big disasters -- but most of the day-to-day on Earth is left to the regular humans. They interact with humans when it suits them, but it's not like there are THAT many demigods around. At least, not compared to the population of the entire world.

It's definitely not random, the people who show up here. Don't know how or why it all works, though.

Do regular humans know the gods are in the world?

No. There's a magical force we call the Mist that can twist your perception and it's pretty effective on mortals. So they don't often know there are monsters and gods around, though there are always exceptions.

I wouldn't be so open about it under normal situations, but I decided pretty early on that there was enough weirdness happening here that trying to conceal what I am was a pretty stupid idea. I can help more people if they know what I can do and being a demigod certainly isn't any weirder than some of the other people and things I've learned since being here.

Reasonable enough. And sorry, I didn't mean to turn this into an interrogation or anything. Just never heard of something like it before.
Thanks for explaining.

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notthatjason - 2020-01-23 01:19 (UTC) - Expand

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