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

[storradr]

[He offers her a warm, lopsided smile as she took a seat.]

For you as well? [The coincidence was a little surprising. What were the odds that both of them had just arrived from somewhere where it had been Spring.] My family and I were just returning from the festival at Uppsala. [Significant because Uppsala in Ragnar's time was known for its spring festival full of sacrifices.]

[valr]

I haven't seen Uppsala for years.

[There's something wistful in it. It's not as though she couldn't easily travel there, but it's never quite the same these days, and it usually just serves to make her a little sad. Better to avoid it.]

Was it Dísablót?

[That's her favorite, for obvious reasons.]

[storradr]

A special Dísablót. Same time of year, but this Blot only happens every nine years. It asks for more sacrifices and all the gods are honored. People make the pilgrimage from all over, not just the Swedes. We journeyed there from Norðvegr.

We do celebrate our own Dísablót each year, but it is only every nine years that we travel to Uppsala.

[ooc - yeah, basically the show takes some liberties lol]

[valr]

[Kara listens with a little furrow between her brow; it's close but not quite right, which she's coming to associate with different universes. She doesn't feel the need to point it out, though, since it doesn't seem all that important.]

A considerable journey to make. [She'd only been to Uppsala once, before her death] What year is it, where you are from?

[storradr]

The journey was well worth it, especially for the children. It was their first time to see the temple.

[He almost looked amused at her question, amused and a little confused as to why she was asking it.] I have no idea. Should I?

[valr]

Probably not, but I am curious.

[Though she does understand his amusement; she's grown too used to counting based on a calendar.]

There is another here, Ivar the Boneless, he was born many years before I was.

[Though she only knows that because she knows of him. She's trying to think of something that would be a good reference - give her a second, it's been a while since she's had to consider time in events, rather than dates.]

[storradr]

And I am older than Ivar. Not just older, but from his past. So, that gives you some answer.

You are probably too young to remember this if you are even younger than Ivar, but I led the first raids to the West. A place called Lindisfarne and then a place called Northumbria. This was at least two summers past. Maybe three.

Does that answer your question?

[valr]

[There's a little familiarity in those events, but what really gives it away is that he's from Ivar's past.

She should've seen it sooner, but then - different realms, sometimes it's harder to tell these things.]

I am not young, Ragnar Lothbrok, but you have answered my question.

[storradr]

You said Ivar was born many years before you were. As time goes, you are young, too young to remember the first raids to the West. Ivar was not even born yet.

[Honestly, he just wanted to prove he was right in what he'd just said... even if he was technically wrong.]

[valr]

[Honestly she has to take a second with that because she does actually understand the logic, but:]

I have seen over a thousand winters.

[She's very old.]

[storradr]

[Maybe simply 'you were born too long after the raids to remember them' would have made more sense, but he still wouldn't admit he was wrong.]

... How?

[valr]

[Kara doesn't have much of an ego, but there's a little bit of pride in this, in being able to say what she is when it means something to people.]

I am one of the valkyrja.

[storradr]

[At first, he doesn't seem to react, but honestly, he doesn't know how to. His heart was beating hard in his chest as he tried to think of something, anything at all to say to her. At least it was obvious that he wasn't second guessing her claim.]

What is your name? [She'd known his and he'd, stupidly, assumed it was his growing fame. Was it known to her because she was a Valkyrie?]

[valr]

[She can give him a moment, her attention on the fire while Ragnar finds his words.]

Kára.

[Just a first name, for now, but one of the valkyries, even if the stories about her are wildly untrue.]

[storradr]

[Not surprisingly, he hadn't heard her name before. Her tales would come long after his own death.]

Kára. [He echoed her name with a slow nod.] I have seen your sisters once. After a great battle in the Baltic.

[valr]

[Kara doesn't smile a whole lot, but she offers Ragnar one now.]

Were they beautiful?

[She always thought they were, even if her own feelings about her sisters are complicated.]

[storradr]

[It was a question he hadn't expected and he tried to think back to that day. He mostly remembered the overpowering smell of copper and the deafening sound of crows.]

Yes? [A hint of a smile tugged briefly at the corner of his mouth sheepishly.] There was a lot of blood in my eyes.

[Strange. He could picture Odin and the crows, but he couldn't remember any details when it came to the Valkyries.]

[valr]

I would have been surprised, if there had not been.

[The only man who comes out of a battle clean is a coward.]

It has been too long since I chose any einherjar.

[Very few people still truly believe.]

[storradr]

[The look he gives her is warier than he'd intended it to be. He wasn't sure what would happen if he died here. Was there a Valhalla just for this place? If so, would that mean he wouldn't be reunited with all of his friends?

He offered her something of a nervous, obligatory smile. One step above awkward silence, right?]

[valr]

[It doesn't take a genuis to figure out where his thoughts go, and Kara reaches out to place a hand on Ragnar's shoulder, giving it a reasurring squeeze.]

Battle does not seem to touch this place, not for many long years.

[He will return home safely, where he can have the death and afterlife he deserves.]

[storradr]

Doesn't it? I have been told of great monsters outside of the magical fence that surrounds this place, land once lost that is now overrun and might be reclaimed.

[When he'd arrived, he'd been offered a position with the perimeter guard and he hadn't hesitated to accept. The rumors of monsters came from his fellow fighters, surely they weren't lies.]

I do not plan to die here, though. Fight. And win. But not die.

[valr]

I do not think many die, fighting these monsters.

[Deaths in battle are easy to feel, for her, but while a fight against a monster is still a fight, it falls a little out of her purview. Still, at the end of the day, death is what she knows.]

Are they teaching you to use their weapons?

[That's just curiosity. It must be a tricky job, teaching people from all sorts of times how to wield new technology; at least Kara had time to get used to it slowly.]

[storradr]

That is a good thing, but death is always possible.

[Although his daughter, Gyda, had told him about advanced medicine they had here, perhaps that was why there were so few deaths.]

No? [He'd been to the perimeter guard headquarters, but those he'd met had been using blades, so nothing new. Not yet.] What kind of weapons do they have here?

sorry about the delay

[valr]

Projectile weapons, they call them guns, far better than arrows.

[She didn't think it necessary to bring her gun with her to this kind of thing, so she can't demonstrate.]

They would show you, if asked. Or I could.

[Kara favors her sword, but she's very good with guns too.]

[storradr]

[He makes a bit of a face at the suggestion. Not that he isn't interested in their weapons, he is, but they didn't sound all that impressive.]

But... I do not use a bow, except for to hunt.

I would like to see them still. It is what you use?