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

[wiccant]

( most people hear mutant when he talks about it here and thinks of three-eyed, extra limbed humans without. . any extra capabilities. not that it bothers him trying to explain the x-gene, but also--he's not quite sure if that actually does apply to him. his heritage is. . a little tricky. definitely near-impossible to explain without getting himself and everyone else confused.

luckily, alex doesn't question it. ) Now's not really--a good time to show off. ( he's still seeing stars out of the corners of his eyes, still a little on edge but loose at the same time and it's really throwing him off. )

I warp reality? ( a moment's pause, making sure magic doesn't lace into his words before he speaks because that'd be disastrous. ) If I say something and want it to happen, it happens. I could say "elsewhere" and teleport someone away, or "I want his hair to be pink" and shift Loki's hair color.

( and a lot more extreme things. wishing an entire group into a coma because he thought they were going to seriously hurt someone else on accident, locating others, using lightning to stop cars--but explaining those is a lot more than just dying someone's hair. )

[garotted]

[ no, now's probably not a good idea. still, if billy had been willing to do it, alex would have gone with it. he's a child of loki, and chaos is a part of him whether he always likes it or not.

he plucks one of the leaves off the mistletoe, then nods toward a spot to sit, beginning to head toward it whether billy follows him or not. should he choose to do so, though, alex settles neatly, stretching his legs out and crossing them at the ankles, discarding the abused plant and leaning back on his palms. ]

Makes sense. [ it's not all that different from how his mother's seidr works, though there are obviously checks and balances, and godly magic is.. complicated. there's a reason that alex hasn't learned much about what he can do. ] Sounds like it can be a pretty heavy responsibility, though, assuming not every mutant where you're from can do the exact same thing.

[wiccant]

( billy's own stems from chaos magic, inherited through his own complicated lineage. which is just one reason why he's hesitant to try anything when he can't focus on jack shit through the fog. still, he follows alex over, sits next to him and watches alex pull apart the plant. )

One of two. ( not that he's on the same level as wanda, just she's the only other mutant he's known to have similar capabilities. though supposedly, he's destined for something. a little more than that. which is definitely too much to think about now, so. )

Loki's is pretty similar though, isn't it? I don't know about your Loki, but. . mine was helping me get a handle on stuff, before. ( for his own fucked up reasons, let's be real. ) Did you inherit any of that, or?

[garotted]

[ one of two-- inherited, related, or just a coincidence? maybe he'll ask another time, once he knows billy a little better.

he gets a sideways glance at the musing question, and alex offers a slight, careless shrug. ] .. I'm a lot like my mother. [ so: yes. in a lot of ways, alex is more like his mother than the rest of loki's children. a little ironic, considering how worthless loki had eventually decided he was. what does that say about his mother's view of himself--? ] It's a little different with the gods of my reality, though. When you have enough beings that can rewrite reality, really, none of them can. [ because there's always someone to check them, and they're all so stupidly embroiled in fate and destiny-- ]

Anyway, Mom stopped teaching me when he realized I wasn't going to be a good boy, started trying to murder me instead. So I don't know much about the rest of it. [ his glance flicks up, finding loki across the gathering, something a little fragile and uncertain crossing his features for a moment before being shuttered away again. ] Hipster-Mom offered to teach me, but-- [ he's not sure he's ready to spend that much time with him, even if he is very different from the loki of alex's reality. ] Are you still learning here?

[wiccant]

. . I'm sorry. ( not that the loki. . before before this loki was much better. insane. definitely tried to end the world on numerous occasions, used others' weaknesses against them. destroyed asgard, even if that wasn't quite as he had intended to go, even if he made up for it and fought against those who sought to hurt his home at the last moment.

billy moves a hand up to alex's shoulder--comforting, or at least trying to be. he leans into that hand a little, puts weight against it. )

Hipster-Loki is not going to try to murder you. And if he does, for some weird convoluted reason, I'll turn him into a small, mostly harmless kitten. ( if he can, but. billy really doesn't expect it to ever come to that. ) I'm still learning. We're not really--having tutoring sessions. . ( a pause, lips pursed. ) I can talk to him about it, if you want?

He's kind of my boyfriend too, so.

[garotted]

[ honestly, alex's first instinct to uninvited contact isn't a good one-- between the abuse he's survived and his homeless years, he's very cautious with when and how he allows himself to be touched, and he always needs to feel in control of it. when billy puts his hand on his shoulder, therefore, it's all he can do not to flinch away and reach for his garotte, all nerves for a brief and ugly moment.

thankfully, his control of himself is nearly iron, and he'd had enough warning to brace himself. even so, he takes a sharp breath in through his nose, and it takes a moment for him to push the tension back out of his spine. it's fine, billy's just being kind, and normal people fucking touch one another like this. stop being a dumbass, fierro. ]

No, [ he shoots down nearly immediately, though it's not clear at first what he means. he hesitates, voice gentling as he goes on. ] No, you don't have to-- I can look after myself. [ he's done it his entire life, up until winding up in valhalla. shieldmates had been-- a novelty, a good one, but it's different here. he's on his own again.

he shifts out from under the hand, turning on the bench toward billy and folding his legs instead. ] Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather sort through it myself. [ whatever his relationship with his not-mother will be, whatever lessons there may or may not be.

at last, though, his lips quirk back up, expression lightening faintly. ] Yeah? [ his glance drifts back up to the helm, brows lifting. ] I never would've guessed. [ the boyfriend bit, that is. ]

[wiccant]

( if he were any less high, he would have gotten that immediately; tense shoulders are a sign of don't touch me, and billy's had enough friends from bad places in life to know that. he's been there, through rough school years as the kid who was different. but through the brainfog, it's literally taking all he has to form coherent sentences and not start laughing at the weird shit he's seeing behind alex, or start panicking at even the mildest shifts in conversation.

don't go to viking parties and take drugs, it's a bad idea.

billy's own quasi-brother is very much the same: i can look after myself despite all signs pointing elsewhere. he doesn't know alex very well, but billy's--decent at reading others. he's careful before opening his mouth, because even high as shit, he knows he has the tendency to shove his foot in his mouth and take shit two steps too far. )

You aren't alone here, Alex. ( he's lost his own team, his own family, and he's sure a lot of others here could also sympathize with that. he presses both hands down against the bench to help keep him steady, purses his lips. ) You don't need to do this alone.

( any of it. he raises a hand, gestures to the helm-less loki. ) The Loki that existed before that one was. . insane. He tried to make up for his mistakes at the last moment, but it was too late, and he died. That Loki's also. . gone, back home. Reborn as another Loki, so he only exists here. He's clingy and needy, he puts way too much whipped cream on his drinks, speaks Sindarin, he wants attention all the time, but it's--because he's lonely.

I'm pretty sure you can hurt him much easier than he'd hurt you.

[garotted]

[ it's.. sweet that he wants to help, and she can tell it's genuine. everything about him seems.. genuine. but the bottom line is that he doesn't know anything about her (and she doesn't know anything about him), and he's high, and she has zero intention of continuing this line of conversation.

instead of responding to the reassurances (though the sindarin bit is interesting; she didn't expect some version of her mom to also be into tolkien), she flashes a teasing smile, changing the subject. ]

Speaking of him, how long have you two been dating, anyway?

[wiccant]

( he is so fucking high and it's definitely down more barriers than it should be when it comes to shit he should be willing to say. and now she's asking him to try and remember time things when he's high as hell, which is way harder than stringing together babbling on about stuff he does know a lot better.

time passes by so weird on shrooms. do not do drugs, kids. )

Uh. ( billy's got this, give him a minute. he'll remember. what day is it, anyway? what year? ) A while?

[garotted]

[ she laughs, shaking her head. ] Your poor, drug-addled brain. [ if it wouldn't freak him out, she'd shapechange into something really weird just to see how he handled it on the mushrooms. as it is, though she's extremely tempted.. maybe another time. she's not that mean.

she reaches up, gently flicking the end of his nose. ]

.. I guess I can see why he likes you. Maybe a little bit, anyway.

[wiccant]

( please don't freak him out, he's a little too overpowered for his own good and doesn't quite know what the hell to do with it, people have been put in comas, think of how badly a mistimed teleportation spell could go.

his nose scrunches up when she flicks it, one hand moving to rub at it after. )

That makes one of us. ( his thing with loki is overly complicated in ways billy's really not sure how to explain. good thing he doesn't feel the need to try now. he pulls off the helm, holds it in a hand. ) Enjoying the party?

[garotted]

[ listen? it'll be fine, her reality is scarier. also maybe next time don't take 'shrooms. ]

Well, I am my mother's child. [ so she gets him, perhaps, in a way that people who aren't relations can't. and.. maybe that extends to au versions of loki.

the question earns a small shrug, though, her glance sliding away from billy again, drifting out over the crowd. ]

Haven't decided yet. [ usually when she goes to parties, it's to steal shit off rich people. this is.. different. ] It's.. nice feeling like I'm not so completely out of place, though. [ and maybe she's only being that honest because billy is high. plausible deniability later. ]

[wiccant]

( sometimes it's important to make extremely bad life decisions, alex. this is just one of the many billy has made in the last twenty four hours.

and he definitely won't judge her for having a good time. ) That's good. Though I can't say this is an every day occurrence, we seem to be gathering a lot of Norsefolk lately. I'm sure they wouldn't be too hard to talk into partying hard again.

( this isn't quite his usual crowd, but it's fun regardless. billy pulls out his phone from--god knows where, it appears in small cloud of wispy blue magic that leaves behind the scent of ozone. )

Want to exchange network IDs? I promise I'm a little less weird usually. But only a little.

[garotted]

[ she's concerned about what the others might be.......

she's not much of a partier, but getting all the norse together again wouldn't be bad. she likes the ones she's met so far, though the second one of them gives her shit about her gender, she's going to beat the hel out of them.

still, she glances toward him again as his phone appears, head tilting faintly at the reassurance. ]

Billy, I'm a dead demigod warrior of Odin. You're not even scratching the surface of 'weird' for me right now, I promise. [ so. yes, she'll gladly exchange IDs with him. ]

[wiccant]

( maybe some of the older generation vikings would have trouble understanding it, but. he doubts they’d really give a shit, either, from what he’s seen. and billy will fight anyone right next to alex if it becomes a Thing. it’s a very stupid thing to judge someone on. billy—knows another shapeshifter who is much the same, and while he and xavin don’t see eye-to-eye on somethings, he’d definitely fight for xav, too. there’s nothing wrong with being different. )

I’m supposed to grow into the omnipotent Demiurge who redefines magic across the multiverse one day, ( offhandedly; it stresses him out to think about it, but sharing with alex isn’t going to hurt anything. ) we can be weird together.