The Ragnarok

Fitting In

The next morning Lottie decided to get an early jump on her day. The lights had failed to show up at all, but maybe that just meant tonight was going to be an extra special show. Stumbling around her room she hastily got dressed. She wasn’t purposefully avoiding her new roommates, but after the events of last night, she felt it may not be wise to be around them right now. 

Everyone went through an adjustment phase when moving in together, but she never had a first encounter that was more awkward or brash. There was a roommate a few times back that broke up with his girlfriend during the first night they stayed in the house, and sure Lottie may have been mentioned as a cause for the breakup, but honestly, it was just anger tossing back and forth between the feuding parties. Lottie was in no way responsible, but it was awkward from then on, at least for the few weeks he stayed in the house. He couldn’t stand the strange goings-on she guessed. 

Entering the kitchens she was met with Helen seemingly the early riser of the three rushing away at cleaning up her brother’s mess. “Good morning.” Helen smiled. “I’m so sorry about last night, I’ll get everything cleaned up, we have a moving company bringing our stuff by later today, I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s fine, your brother didn’t seem too happy last night, guess he doesn’t like to travel?”

Smiling and scratching the back of her head Helen nodded, “Yeah, he’s just a bit overdramatic. He’ll be in a much better mood today.” Turning back to scrubbing the counters she added with a grumble, “If he knows what’s good for him”

Digging into the fridge Lottie pulled out a carton of milk. When she found it was empty she rolled her eyes and switched to a protein shake she had been saving. “I’ll be at work most of the day. It’s fine if you finish getting moved in.”

Noticing the empty milk in Lottie’s hand, Helen jumped up to continue her damage control. “We will also make sure to completely reimburse you for your food. Again I am so sorry about-”

As Fen walked into the room everyone went silent. He placed the empty bowl from last night next to Helen and took a seat. “Ladies.” He nodded propping his feet up on the table to lean backward in his chair.

Lottie rolled her eyes again exiting the room without another word. She turned back making a point to smile at just Helen, “Have a great day, I’ll see you tonight.”

Waiting until he heard Lottie Leave, Fen cleared his throat expecting Helen to explain what just happened. 

She turned to him with a fury of death in her eyes, “What?” Walking over she nudged his feet off the table, “You’re making this way harder than it needs to be you know.”

“I’m making it harder?” he grumbled

“Oh so we’re going to start the bickering early today I see?” Jordan walked into the room towel around his waist.

Smacking her hand against her face Helen slumped into the chair next to Fen, “Oh for the love of death. It’s true, breaking Fenrir out will bring a curse onto you.”

Taking advantage of the ease in tension Fen reached over giving Helen a strong pat on the pack, “Cheer up little sis, you’re one day into eternity. Make the annoyance last.” 

Helen raised her head looking at Fen with every ounce of discontent she could muster, “We need to work on your social skills.”

“Good idea.” Jordan laughed, reaching for a glass out of the cabinet, and filling it with as much water as it could hold before dumping it on top of his head. “Oh sweet mortal realm heaven.” he sighed, relishing in the cool liquid running down his face and back. 

Helen smacked her head again against the table, “You both could use a lesson in mortal behavior.”

“To be fair,” Fen grunted, raising to check the food situation in the fridge, “You interact with mortals constantly.” Looking through the shelves he grumbled, “Do mortals not stockpile their food anymore?”

“It’s easily accessed now.” Helen sighed, “They appreciate you raiding their food just as much now as they did back then too.” She got back to her feet finishing her cleaning, “I would strongly suggest you watch some of their television to catch up on how things have changed.”

“Television?” Fen looked to Jordan for a further explanation but he was met with a shrug.

“Where are we at on the pool situation?” Jordan leaned over his sister, “I could continue to dump cups of water on myself you know.”

“Oh go jump in the swamp.” Helen spat, “Both of you go into the other room, I’ll turn on something for you to watch.” She figured if she could distract them long enough they’d mop up some form of reasonable personality. 

She settled them both onto a couch giving Jordan a large bowl of water and a washcloth, “Dip the cloth in the water and put it on your head. Don’t splash the water!” She warned. The shows on at this hour seemed to be early morning news shows. What better way for them to catch up. “If you need me I’ll be getting our furniture delivered, and yes!” she explained pointing at Jordan, “You’ll need to settle on what I can find as far as a pool goes.” She didn’t want to brag about the amount of money she had saved up. It was mostly bribe money she had received from people who begged her to not take their souls. That kind of money adds up over thousands of years when you have nothing to spend it on. 

The brothers looked at each other then back at Helen, she was a feisty goddess of the dead. Such a small stature and yet she was ready to defeat the two most feared monsters Odin could concoct. Jordan took the opportunity to test out the cloth method dipping it and then ringing the washcloth out slightly before slapping it on his head. 

“Oh sweet Asagardian waters.” he sighed. Sensing he shouldn’t come up with another request he kept his mouth shut until Helen left the room. Turning to Fen who was completely entranced by the morning news anchors learning how to cook he nudged his brother. “Are you seriously going to learn about this stuff?”

Fen looked back at his brother as the washcloth let small beads of water run down the sides of his face, “You don’t want to fit in a little better?”

Propping his feet up on the coffee table, Jordan leaned back, “I’m content with my social skills as they are. If Alfather’s right and we are the end of the world why would we want to try to be a part of it?”

Fen shrugged. He never really had given it much thought to be the end of all things. If anyone was to be feared it was Surtr, but of course, he had always gotten most of the blame since everyone thought of him as a bottomless pit of hunger. “So you’ve just accepted being the cause of the end?”

Jordan raised the tip of his washcloth off his eyes and gave his brother a glare, “Whatever Odin says goes right?”

He shrugged back, “I guess I always just saw us being the cause as a choice, I mean I have to choose to destroy the world, just as Hel needs to choose to raise an army of the dead, just as you need to choose to fight Thor.”

Jordan sneered and turned back away, “Why’d you have to bring up that oaf?”

“It’s true though right?”

Jordan tossed the cloth back into the bath raising a finger in Fen's face, “Let me tell you something, Thor searches me out to fight. He spent an entire summer literally fishing for me until some Jotunn chased him off. You don’t get a lot of choices when one party is calling all the shots. As far as I’m concerned, if Thor wants to fight me, come find me.”

“You certainly take after mother.” Fen scoffed, turning back to the TV. 

“Good,” Jordan retorted, “Someone has to.” 

After some time passed Jordan became aware that his brother was actually paying attention to the television and not just ironically. The look on his face as he studied every person and their interactions were something of a magical trance. He watched each person that welcomed everyone with a smile, tossing back and forth thank yous. He legitimately was wanting to learn how to fit in. Funny enough, because Fen was the only one completely trapped here. 

“Who are you learning this stuff for?” Jordan finally asked.

Fen turned back to his brother confused, “Don’t we need to be convincing mortals?”

“Well yeah, but you’re stuck in this house. The only mortal you’ll be seeing is that girl.” Looking Fen up and down he reached around and once again placed the washcloth on his head. Fen wasn’t answering, which piqued Jordan’s interests all the more. “So you’re just going to be extra convincing to the girl then?”

“Who knows, maybe I’ll get out of here.” Fen shrugged, “The girl’s going to end up taken if she’s not careful anyway, so once she’s gone we’ll need to find somewhere else to live right?” Sensing the ghosts stirring at the assumption they wouldn’t be able to protect her he batted one away from his face, “Oh bite me geist.” He growled. “She’s a hidden one, she’s bound to attract her own kind to her eventually.”

“If she’s a hidden one.” Jordan corrected, “Hel’s not too sure if she is or not.”

Fen nodded slouching into the couch, “She’s definitely something special. These ghosts love her for some reason.”

“Ghosts are ghosts, Hel only knows why the dead do what they do.”