--- "L.S McGill" <lsmcgill@hotmail.com> wrote:

A few notes (well, actually one note in several parts) on the
Urd/Mara thing.

Urd was standing on a nearby pole, holding a bottle of smelling
salts.

"Why, Mara, dear.  Imagine us meeting here, of all places."

Mara's eyes narrowed.  "Urd ..."  Her voice dripped venom.

"I didn't know why you wanted Zhu Shu unconscious, but I figured it
was for 
no good.  Glad I woke her.  Which brings me to my next question. 
Why are you here?"

OK so far...
 

Mara's eyes sparkled with such malice that Urd felt a cold chill go
down her back.  Mara had never looked at her that way before

"What else would I be here for Urd, dear ...."  the last word
dripped ice.  
"Revenge."  She smiled a smile that would have frosted molten
steel.  "And 
my job, of course.  But getting to mix the two just makes it
sweeter, no?"

Urd felt her stomach sink.  "R-revenge?  W-what for?"

Mara leaped into the air to hover just before Urd.  "You don't
recall?"  
Liquid nitrogen dripped from her whisper.  "How you tried to feed
me to 
Fenrir, 'Mistress'?  Believe me, O 'Lord of Terror', I most
certainly do.  
The humiliation, the degradation, the casual order to feed all my
energy to 
Fenrir, your order to die!"  The split v on her forehead glowed
red.  "You 
may not remember, Urd dear, but I will most certainly make you
pay."

Of course, Mara is conveniently forgetting that it was she who
awakened the Lord of Terror in the first place. The fact that she bit
off way more than she could chew is hardly Urd's fault. This is still
a conceivable scenario, BTW. Mara never reacted like that
canonically, but she could have conceivably done so.
 

Urd was white, to stunned to even move.  Mara was scaring her
speechless...

Here begins the part out of the Twilight Zone. Since when has Urd
been scared, much less scared speechless by Mara? Now Urd has scared
Mara speechless, and not only in Lord of Terror mode. Urd being
confused to the point of speechlessness I could understand, since she
doesn't remember any of those events, but the scared part isn't in
Urd's character. Now when Belldandy has acted something like this, it
has scared Urd speechless.

From the bleachers below, another voice called.  "Mara!  You can't
blame Urd 
for that!  She wasn't herself!  It was the Master of Terror in her
body!"

Mara laughed, a laugh barely touching sanity.  "Well, well.  If it
isn't the 
sweet voice of reason.  Hello Belldandy."  Her eyes never left
Urd's.  "Stay 
out of this one dear.  It's between Urd and I.  I'd rather not hurt
you more 
than I have to." There was a hard edge to Mara's voice that led
Belldandy to believe she was serious.

Not that it'd frighten Bell. She and Mara are pretty evenly matched
in combat. Urd, of course, is much more powerful than Bell.

"But you were friends!"  She pleaded.

Mara spat. "Friends!"  She drifted forward and grabbed the still
frozen Urd by the hair and yanked her head back.

Fujishima's Urd would be a hair's breadth from putting the smack-down
on Mara at this point, assuming Mara wasn't already extra-crispy.

 Tears welled up in the corners of 
Urd's eyes.  "Friends don't try to kill friends."  

I doubt Urd would even consider the possibility that Mara was going
to try to kill her. For one thing, the rule against killing each
other is strictly enforced for gods and demons in AMG. For another
thing, Urd is more powerful than Mara and they both know it. Finally,
don't forget who the lord high demon is.

She trailed her 
fingernail across Urds throat, then whispered in her ear.  "But
don't worry, 
Urd my love.  I shan't kill you.  Oh no.  I have much better plans
than 
that.  I'm going to break you."  Her nail trailed down to rest over
Urd's 
heart.  "I'm going to break you ... And make you mine!  What you
tried to do 
to me, instead, I shall do to you.  Her mouth dropped down to Urd'd
throat, 
and sharp teeth just pierced skin.  Urd finally unfroze enough to
scream.  
Mara laughed, a trickle of Urd's blood running down the side of her
chin as she vanished.

I can't imagine a scenario where Urd would be this scared of Mara. In
fact, it's hard enough to imagine Urd being scared of Mara at all.
Urd could conceivably do something like this to Mara since she's
frightened Mara on a couple of occasions with the intensity of her
emotions, but not the other way around. Out of the two of them Urd
has the greater capacity for truly inspired acts of revenge, as Mara,
Skuld and Peorth know only too well.  

A sobbing Urd collapsed in Belldandys arms.  "It's alright.  I'm
sure she'll 
get over it.  She's just angry."  Belldandy said soothingly.

Terror filled eye's meet her worried ones.  "No.  Bell, you didn't
her what 
she said.  You didn't see her eyes.  S-she meant it!"  Urd sobbed. 
"She meant it ...."

Again, I can see Urd being worried that her old friend has gone off
the deep end and maybe even feeling a little guilty about having a
perceived role in it, but there are only 2 things that Urd has ever
feared: a truly angry Belldandy and the possibility that she had
succumbed to the dark side of her own soul. 
 
As for the rest of the AMG characterisation, not too bad. It was
funny seeing Urd being one-upped by the Amazon grand dammes. ^_^

Brian Welch

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