fandomhigh | Comparative Religions, Monday, Period 3, Week #2--Egypt

"Hello my class," Vala greeted everyone, once they were seated, and passed out some worksheets. "Today, our grand tour of the Earthen religions starts with one of my personal...well, I'm not sure favorites is the right word, but let's go with that until I'm fully alert and can think of something better. Ancient Egypt!"

One might think that Vala had been up all night worrying about something, then had a great deal of caffeine to make up for the lack of sleep. Or possibly that she'd had the weekend of a lifetime, and had caffeine to make up for the lack of sleep. Either way, that there had been a lot of caffeine involved somewhere in Vala's morning routine was pretty obvious.

"One of the earliest Earth religions, the Ancient Egyptians believed in a wide and diverse pantheon of gods, who took care of everything you could imagine an Ancient Egyptian might need or desire. However, notably absent from this list is the Goddess Qetesh, the goddess of love and beauty. She is often confused by scholars with the Goddess Hathor, but I am here to tell you that they are absolutely not the same individual--in addition to Hathor's role as the Goddess of fertility, inebriety, and music--which is clearly not the same thing as beauty and desire, thank you very much--Qetesh was known for her excessive beauty and charm and Hathor was known for ~~sleeping with Daniel Jackson and wearing a really bad wig~~ being the wife of Ra. Not that no one ever asked Qetesh to marry them, but she was against being controlled by a man."

She cleared her throat and tried to remember not to rant.

"In some dimensions, the roles of the Egyptian pantheon were actually usurped by a race of alien parasites, who lived within human bodies--called hosts--for thousands of years and enslaved humans to do their building. Because they wielded mysterious and powerful technology, they were believed to be gods come down to Earth and worshipped and given tribute accordingly. I have no idea whether this particular dimension is on that was or one that wasn't, but there was a revolt on Earth, causing most, if not all, of these god-pretenders to leave the planet in a hurry, leaving a few of their ships behind. You may recognize them of the pyramids of Giza, if you're into that kind of thing."

"Anyway, you have worksheets laying out the pantheon and creation story from the Egyptian point of view. You'll need to hang on to them for the final, which will be practical. There is also an online walking tour of the British Museum, if you're interested enough to learn more."

[ooc: OCD is up!]

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After class, Adah limped up to Narod Lama Lav and presented her with a folded piece of paper, with a simple request and a glint in her eye of almost crazed proportions.

"You must tell me more about these parasites."

Vala tried not to recoil from the intensity of the glint. "Why do you need to know?"

Adah tried to write as quickly as the questions were coming into her brain. "How did they enter the body? Once there, how did they gain control of it? Which systems did they attack first? Nervous system, most likely, if they needed the body for their own purposes? How did they manage to alter the nervous system to do what they wanted it to?"

She had more. Lots more; but she'd get these answered first.

That didn't answer her question, but these seemed harmless, for all the memories they raised. "Through the back of the neck or through the mouth. They wrap themselves around the base of the spinal cord, and yes, they attack the nervous system first. They secrete a protein into the bloodstream, as far as I know."

Adah's fingers drifted to the back of the neck and, while the fascinated expression remained on her face, she shivered quite noticeably. Her jaw, also, slightly shifted.

"How large are they, size wise? How quickly do they work? Would you even be able to tell you were even infected by one?"

"They look like snakes, and are generally between a foot or two in length." She closed her eyes as she remembered the feeling of being shoved to the side in her own body. "They work almost instantly."

Vala opened her eyes, but it took her a try or two to get the next words out, and when she did they were uncharacteristically solemn. "Yes. Yes, you would definitely be able to tell."

A ghostly sort of smile from Adah was held back as she took in the teacher's own expression, and her head tilted a bit. Subtly, so it was difficult to tell it if was intentional or if it was just the usual crook of her body. She took a moment before she wrote back, weighing, considering.

"Weaknesses," she wrote. "I assume they have some? Malaria can be fought off with quinine; what defenses against these do are there? And, if they resemble snakes, are there any ways to tell the difference? An easy way, I mean. Although, in that part of the world, does it really matter? I suppose it would, depending on how much of the brain stays active while being taken over, and for how long...."

"Their arrogance," Vala said without preamble. "I don't know of any defenses against them, other than high, impenetrable collars. They have teeth and are pink, occasionally with wings." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I can't talk about this any more right now."

While it was highly unfair of Narod Lama Lav to say that after offering a detail like the wings, Adah nodded, mostly understanding. She drew in a breath to help curb her eagerness at wanting to know more.

"Would it be possible," she wrote, "to learn more at a later date? Or perhaps you could tell me where I might find more? I am certainly and by no means against doing my own research if need be..."

"I don't really like to discuss it in depth," Vala told her, "but if you look in the library, under Goa'uld, there might be something. I'm not sure, but possibly."

Adah nodded. One last note.

"Could you spell that for me?"

Vala motioned for Adah's paper and pen.

Adah promptly handed them over.

Vala printed out GOA'ULD as neatly as she could, then passed them both back. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

Adah looked over the name. Goa'uld. Dlu'aog. Dlua og. She tucked the paper into her pocket, although she knew she wouldn't need to look at it again to remember, and nodded a thanks to the teacher, her eyes lingering for a moment in a slight silent apology for asking about difficult things. Only slight, though...difficult was something she'd used to pride herself in being, after all.

Comparative Religions, Monday, Period 3, Week #2--Egypt

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