The Yule Log

[ragnarsson]

who: The Norse and everyone else in the city!
what: The Norse celebrate Yule. Gods help everyone.
when: December 22nd, Winter Solstice
where: Somewhere outside
warnings: Alcohol, drugs, animal sacrifice, blood play, rough foreplay, sex. Will update if necessary.



The Yule celebration has gotten underway on the Winter Solstice and it promises to be a most interesting night. The Norse have gone all out with this affair to make sure it's going to be a success. First thing to be spotted is a bonfire, so big that you might want to be careful not to trip around it, because you'll fall right in. There's plenty of room for dancing too, if you feel like grooving to a beat that's a little more unusual than most.

The Yule celebration shares a lot of similarities with Christmas, so it's a good time for gift giving. There's little shoes on a table, mimicking the tradition where Odin would leave presents for good children by putting them in their shoes. Claim one as your own and maybe a friend will leave a gift inside one for you. Watch it though. Any grinches will be fed to the Yule Cat.

There's a table set up to the right of the bonfire with food, mostly of the hearty kind that the Norse seem to prefer, and of course, lots of alcohol. Please remember not to get into any drinking contests with the gods. They will observe no responsibility for what happens afterward.

There are also mushrooms for consumption, provided by everyone's favorite psychotic Viking, Ivar The Boneless. These ones are directly from his home world, which means they come with a variety of side effects. They have the ability to make a person hallucinate quite a bit. But they can also make people much more horny than usual. Lastly, there's the effect that hits some people in making them extremely violent. Sometimes one effect hits, sometimes more than one. In any case, anyone who consumes some is assured to have an...interesting time.

On a lighter note, there's mistletoe scattered around, hung from the trees and tent beams. Fun fact: the Vikings were the first one to use it for the tradition of kissing. Of course, they also believed it was a plant that was powerful enough to kill a god, so the kissing was ostensibly for protection.

At the height of the night, there will be an animal sacrifice done. A goat is slaughtered and the blood from it is gathered into a couple of bowls. If you'd really like to go all out like a Viking, paint your face in the still-warm blood, or drink a little bit of it. Otherwise, enjoy freshly seared chunks of goat as it bastes over the bonfire.

Have fun, drink, fight, and remember to make your ancestors proud!

Comments

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki rolls his eyes as he glances at the dragon. ]

He'll be fine. Useless, but fine.

[ To Hiccup: ]

Try not to taste any rainbows you are envisioning.

[thisisamazing]

But- no I should- [That's not a rainbow you're grabbing at, honey. It's air. In the vague direction of the bonfire.] What if I tasted fire? Like a dragon. I wish I was a dragon.

[Toothless huffs and flops down on the ground, rubbing his feet over his eyes in exasperation. Whatever this is, he's not digging it.]

Tooth- Toothless, buddy, hey! What does plasma taste like?

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki gives the dragon a sympathetic look. Normally, he could remove the hallucinations easily, his mental powers powerful enough to overcome such a minor obstacle but Loki only uses those in dire situations and prefers not to reveal them at all. ]

If you were a dragon, you would lose the opportunity to study them. There's little point in ever wishing to be something else.

[thisisamazing]

[He seems to think about that for a moment, frowning.] But if I was a dragon, I wouldn't have to be- I wouldn't need to be chief some day.

[dothelokimotion]

[ He blinks. ]

Your father is a chieftain?

[thisisamazing]

[He makes a miserable little noise that might as well be a yes.] He was talking about- about stepping down. Before I- [He makes a circular gesture with both hands that really doesn't mean anything.] got portaled.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Huh. ]

What is so distasteful about being a chief?

[thisisamazing]

I won't be good at it. [He frowns down at the ground, drawing patterns in the dirt with his finger that are mostly nonsense.] I'm not like my dad. I'm not ready.

[dothelokimotion]

[ There's a lengthy pause before Loki speaks. ]

I do not think your father wants you to be like him. It is a duty that nobody wants, that no one is ever ready for.

[thisisamazing]

[He's slow to process with the mushrooms still in his system, frowning as he works through it in his head.] Running the village is his thing, though. [His voice shifts, is a little smaller.] All the speeches and planning, and... What if I let them down?

Why does he have to step down now?

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki blanches silently. He has no experience in this. It's not as though Odin left him a legacy. He had no tokens, no special weapons. Odin had left him nothing and sometimes Loki wonders if he was always silently readying himself for the day Loki would let him down. ]

I . . . assume he was simply being prepared. And it can still be your thing, done in your way of thinking.

[thisisamazing]

[Odin is a terrible father. But at this point Hiccup kind of wishes he had a brother to be overlooked for, because the thought of being chief keeps him up at night, sometimes, wondering how he's going to manage when he's nothing like his father.

He looks up at Loki with big eyes and blinks, processing those words. Is he getting teary? Maybe a little. Mushrooms hit him hard, he has no tolerance.] You think I can- can do that?

/2

[dothelokimotion]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki doesn't know. He cannot say truthfully and reassure him. Faith is not his currency and Loki isn't one to believe. But maybe he can settle for it. Or try to. ]

Yes. I believe you can.

[thisisamazing]

[Sorry Loki, you're getting a hug. A very wobbly hug that is really more like Hiccup just kind of falling on you but still. This boy is going to be mortified when these shrooms wear off.]

Thanks. You're, uh. You're good. Nice.

[dothelokimotion]

[ No more mortified than Loki but he musters up a . . . pat on the head??? Is that how it works? How do you child??? ]

I am not, but it is kind of you to say so.

[thisisamazing]

[A pat on the head is a good start. He's okay with that. Even though he's probably close to being Loki's height and it probably looks ridiculous. But then he's pulling back and frowning.]

No, you are nice. You're nice to me.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki should protest, but he gets the feeling that conversation will get nowhere fast. ]

Perhaps in this instance, at least.

[thisisamazing]

[Probably. He's still high. And generally very firm in his convictions.]

You've never not been nice to me. Even when I was new.

[dothelokimotion]

[ He smiles faintly. ]

You reminded me a little of myself when I was younger. Full of thought among Vikings is a difficult position to be in.

[thisisamazing]

Is it- was it like that for you too? [He waves a hand vaguely.] Being the. The different one. [It's hard for him to find the words right now with his addled senses, but he thinks he's getting it across.] Nobody understood.

[dothelokimotion]

[ A pause. Loki has gotten back a small foothold into the past, gaining a small measure of awareness. Nothing great, nothing perfect, but enough to see things for what they were. Not everything was what he believed but not everything was in his mind, the imagined ramblings of a lunatic.

Sometimes, he wondered if they just knew. That no amount of glamour, of looking the part would hide what is innate, born in him. ]

No. They would not. They would not understand how hard it is to try and simply have it slip out of your grasp. To turn those feelings inward like a knife. It is always a personal failing of the heart, to be different.

[thisisamazing]

[It might strike him later, how different Loki seems to the myths, how much he seems to understand Hiccup. For all that the twins love everything Loki, he is much more like Hiccup than either of them.]

No one ever listened. [He agrees, a little quieter. Still a little unsteady, he sort of reaches for the fabric of Loki's sleeve, and clings to it like a lifeline.] I- I nearly died once. Dad wouldn't listen back then.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki swallows tightly. ]

Fathers are — [ He stops short because he doesn't really know what fathers are. One cast him out on a frozen rock, the other claimed that frozen rock was all Loki ever deserved. And they are both gone, by Loki's hand. After another long pause, Loki carefully touches Hiccup's hand, peeling the fingers away but keeping his grip. ]

Fathers are not us. They try to mold us into better people, but what they are doing is to mold us into better versions of them. It is impossible.

[ He's fumbling, though it does not show. ]

But I will listen. If . . . that eases you.

[thisisamazing]

[He curls his fingers in Loki's, and the gesture is a comfort. Grounding. This kind of understanding... it's rare, for Hiccup. Astrid and his father and Gobber, they all try, of course, and he loves them, but they're different. They know who they are.

With Loki... it's like he really hears what Hiccup is trying to say. Despite the mushrooms jumbling his words.]

I can't be my dad. [It comes out mumbled, and he just kind of leans his forehead against Loki's shoulder. Maybe it's the shrooms or maybe he's just always a bit of a tactile person.]