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

[fiercestwarrior]

[ The reverence in Kara's tone an expression has become something that Sif recognizes as a sign that whatever universe she comes from is one where some version of her has been worshiped.

So far, she has been quite far from what such people have expected, but on this night she will do her best to fill the role of goddess all the same. It can probably be attributed to the mushrooms and the drinking, but somehow she feels as if its the right thing to do.

She gives Kara the bowl, and presses a kiss to her forehead. ]

I allow it.

[valr]

[Kara accepts both the bowl and the kiss with a smile that is unpracticed but genuine. She dips her fingers into the blood and even though it's been centuries since she's done anything like this, there's no hesitation in the lines she draws carefully on Sif.

And then she steps back, nodding in approval at her own work.]

I am Kára, of the valkyrja.

[Since they haven't been officially introduced.]

[fiercestwarrior]

Greetings, warrior.

[ Her title earns her a salute, fist over heart as Sif bows to her. ]

Would you be marked as well?

[valr]

[Kara bows in return, touched by the gesture, before she holds the bowl back out for Sif.]

I would be honored.

[Unlike Loki and Thor, who Kara barely interacted with, she had spoken to Sif a few times and remembers her fondly. This is not the same woman, but some of that remains.

In a way, it makes it easier to talk to her.]

It has been too long since my last blót.

[fiercestwarrior]

[ Sif dips her fingers into the blood and draws a wide line over Kara's forehead, and then trails all her fingers straight down her face, as if she is weeping blood. ]

The honor is mine.

[ It is a great responsibility, to be looked at as a god. Sif is a proud and arrogant woman in many ways, but in this she is humble. ]

May you be blessed.

[valr]

[Maybe it's the 'shrooms, or maybe it's this entire experience, but Kara's heart feels heavy with something she can't quite put into words.]

This is blessing enough.

[They're not her gods, but she gave up hope of ever seeing hers again so this is... something greater than she ever expected to have.]

Are you from Thor's realm, Lady Sif?

[fiercestwarrior]

Yes, I am.

[ Sif puts the blood down and grabs a couple of tankards filled with mead, offering one to Kara. ]

Where do you hail from?

[valr]

[If Kara ever turns down mead, it's a sign that something is very wrong, so luckily she takes the tankard from Sif, taking a drink before she responds.]

Midgard, but not the one aligned with your realm.

[In all honesty, she's had a hard time wrapping her head around the idea of multiple Earths. Different realms, different worlds, that's fine, but doubles are weird to her.]

Asgard closed its gates some time ago, I had been on Midgard since.

[fiercestwarrior]

[ Sif has come to terms with the state of things quite quickly, mostly because there really is no other choice, and she can sort of make some rudimentary sense of it based on what she knows about physics. ]

Closed its gates? What do you mean?

[valr]

The-- my gods, they draw their power from worship. When man abandoned their beliefs, the gods withdrew. Asgard closed it gates, I chose to remain on Midgard.

[Kara doesn't say it, but it's clear from her voice that she knows this was a mistake.]

[fiercestwarrior]

A fickle source of power indeed.

[ She is glad that the same is not true of her, it would be exhausting to be so dependent on believers. ]

I am sorry for what you have lost.

[valr]

[Something hardens in Kara's expression, tension creeping into her posture.]

I would ask you not to insult my gods, Lady Sif.

[The word fickle doesn't sit well with her.]

[fiercestwarrior]

[ Sif doesn't seem to be too bothered by that. ]

I meant no insult, but humans have short lives and are quick to forget. In my realm too my people have become little more than myths to those who reside in Midgard.

[ Well, until Thor started doing the hero thing down there again. ]

[valr]

We believed for centuries, until the Christians came.

[Kara holds the spread of Christianity responsible for a lot of what went wrong in her life, regardless of whether that's true or not.

But she shrugs, uncomfortable with this topic and the low burning anger. She wants to set all that aside for tonight.]

Have you been in this realm long?

[fiercestwarrior]

That is also true.

[ She nods, acknowledging the many generations of faithful with respect. ]

I have only been here a month or so.

[valr]

[That acknowledgement eases the tension in Kara's posture.]

Did they try to force a goddess to live in communal housing?

[She might, maybe, be teasing a tiny tiny bit. She can't imagine any of her gods sharing a room with eight other people, resigned to a single bed and chest.]

[fiercestwarrior]

They did.

[ Sif has been out on enough campaigns that shared living quarters don't really bother her too much, even if she would have preferred privacy. ]

But I now reside in the Perimeter Guard barracks.

[valr]

[There's a question she wants to ask, but she swallows it instead, not knowing how relationships have shaken out in worlds that aren't her own. Perhaps Thor and Sif are not a couple. It would be rude to assume.]

Is it satisfying? I-- [Maybe that was too forward? She should explain:] They gave me work here, but it seems pointless.

[Personal security for the goverment, people who are likely to never see danger. It's not what someone like Kara was made for.]

[fiercestwarrior]

[ Sif is grateful to not have to explain the situation between her and Thor, it's not exactly something she relishes in doing. Of all versions of herself, she had to go and be the one he does not want for a wife.

As for the work, well... Sif shrugs. ]

It is not like being a warrior of Odin, but I must pay my way somehow. Eventually, perhaps we will even see battle. What task have they given you?

[valr]

Their war was a long time ago.

[Kara isn't from this world, but those deaths still sing to her in their own way. Battles were fought and lost in this place, and the dead remain.[

I am to guard their politicians. Loki advised me to keep the work, for now, but I have little need of money.

[She could survive off the land, if she had to.]

[fiercestwarrior]

If you wish to join the guard, I am sure you could. Perhaos it would be more satisfying to be among other warriors.

[ Even if the work itself may not be the most thrilling. ]

[valr]

I have spent the last few centuries hunting monsters.

[Which is to say - she's qualified for it, if nothing else.

But also:]

We are at a blót and I'm talking work. [@herself: what the fuck] Do you dance, my lady?

[fiercestwarrior]

Work makes more sense than much else, does it not?

[ You are a woman after her own heart, Kara. ]

But yes. Tonight I dance.

[valr]

[Kara nods, with a wry little smile because yes work makes so much more sense than anything else, but she's trying to cut loose tonight, at least a little.

So she offers her hand to Sif, to lead her to where the others are dancing.]