Axl took a swig of his beer and stared at the rest of his family with curious eyes. They had just barged into his home and unceremoniously kicked Zeb out to spill quite a lot of information about gods. Specifically, past gods. Olaf had already mentioned before that the past Odin was killed being run over by a tractor because he chose not to take on the quest for Frigg, but apparently some of the strange dreams Axl had were actually memories of this guy.
"...So what was his name again?" Axl asked, staring at Olaf.
"Magnus. Quite a nice man if you dug way deep inside, but he wasn't really the best Odin."
"What do you mean Grandpa?" Axl raised an eyebrow. "I mean yeah he didn't take on the quest for Frigg, and got his family all killed because of it and..." He trailed off.
"Well, besides that Axl. The problem was that when he learned that he was Odin, he kinda became mad with power. He was a right dick to pretty much everyone besides the woman he was in love with. Hell, even the Thor of that time didn't like him." Olaf shook his head. "No one could convince him to take on the quest. Not even his brother. We tried and tried, but it was always blown up in our face. They weren't used to it you know, those Gods in Norsewood were a close-knit bunch, and having someone refuse to be apart of it was different."
Anders seemed to be thinking hard at what Olaf was explaining before he piped up. "Wait...But if Magnus died in 1931, how do you know all this shit? You would have been eleven at the time!"
Olaf laughed. "Yes, I was a bit young to be hanging out with Gods, but I think somewhere in my mind I knew something was up, and when I stumbled upon the gods during one of their parties, I just sorta slipped in and pretended I was meant to be there. It worked for awhile too, but then they found me out. But they let me stay, so I was able to learn quite a bit about the Gods before I actually became one. I only saw Magnus a few times, and most of the times he was yelling pretty angrily at everyone. Nearly killed our Loki too. He was the head of the Frigg-hunt at the time. Nice chap. He was more of a tomfoolery man, instead of an asshole like our current Loki."
The rest of the brothers laughed, but Axl seemed more somber on the matter. He had so much on his shoulders on being Odin, and he could just as easily said 'fuck it' and done whatever he had wanted because he was Odin and he could do what he wanted. Sure, he had done some fairly stupid things in the past, but he really didn't want to get run over by a tractor and kill the rest of his family like Magnus. But at the same time Olaf had said that he had done it because he was in love with his wife. Axl's mind went to Gaia at that moment, and wondered what would happen if he were to do the same thing.
He shook his head. That was a horrible thought. He had to go through with the Frigg-hunt and do what the past Odin refused to do. He'd get their powers back and they'd all finally go back to Asgard. But he couldn't help but wonder what his life would have been like if that other Odin had completed the task. His entire life would have gotten completely changed. Olaf wouldn't be there, or if he was, he would be very old. Maybe he would have actually had a normal childhood. He took another swig of beer, and pushed the thoughts out of his mind and rejoined the conversation.
"Olaf, that's all of us. That means you're morally obligated to tell us about your past incarnation." Anders pointed out, and Ty nodded in agreement.
"If you knew about Gods before you were one, does that mean you knew who Baldr was?
Olaf looked sad for a moment. "Yes...I knew the man. He was very kind, very intelligent."
"So nothing like you?" Mike asked, grinning.
"Well yes, but he was actually the first reincarnation of Baldr after the original one died."
The brothers all stared at him, and Anders was the first one to find his voice.
"Wait...What?"