riverviewlogs | The Yule Log

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Alex was a little bit intoxicated when the girl sat next to her, but not so much that she was drunk. She was just... happy. Yes, happy felt like quite the good way to describe it. Giving the girl a large smile, she nodded to the plate.]

The food is really good!

Course it is. [She smiled; they wouldn't serve mediocre food at a celebration.] I didn't make it of course, not that skilled yet.

[She could do basic cooking, but not on this scale and not in the modern stoves or ovens.] What're those on your face? [She indicated on her own face where the womans glasses are-glass must've been cheap if people had so many uses for it.]

These? [Alex reached up and touched the glasses on her face, and then she pulled them off and squinted a bit.] They're eyeglasses. They help me be able to see better. I'm practically blind as a bat without them!

[She offered them carefully to the girl with a smile.] You can take a look through them if you'd like, if you're careful.

How do these help you see? [She gently took the glasses, studying them.]There are so many things made of glass here. Back home, I've only seen bits and pieces washed up on shore.

[Certainly not enough to make anything from.]

[She held the glasses up to her face, like the woman had on, but only for a second before taking them off. She then handed them back to her.] They make everything look loopsided.

Yeah, that's how the world looks for me without them. [Alex's smile is kind as she slides her frames back onto her face, and then she picks up a glass on the table.]

Back home, were the pieces clear or were they more foggy? Were they from the sea or were they made when lightning struck the sand?

Mostly foggy. Some of the forgers use them to make glass beads, but but the only clear glass I've heard of is from traders. Occasionally they'll have drinking goblets made from it. [Stories of course, but she heard from other traders.]

What's your name? [She pulled apart some of her fish to take a bite.]

[Alex nodded quickly, and she filed that away before she took a bite of her goat and washed it down with a sip of her mead before wiping her hand on her pants. When in Rome and all of that, and she didn't see any napkins about. Once her hand was reasonably grease free, she offered it to the girl.]

I'm Alex. Alex Reagan.

Gyda [She did likewise with her hands, the cotton dress not likely to stain. ] The men who put this together are my father and brother.

[She helped of course, but she couldn't entirely take credit.] Are you from the 'modern era' as well?

Nice to meet you, Gyda. Your brother is wonderful. He was one of the first people I met here.

[At least she's assuming it's her brother, because the baby that she was shown pictures of is a baby. But she has a grin on her face when she nods.]

I guess you could say so, yeah.

[Gyda wondered at just what she really knew of Ivar. True, he was nice and never threatened her, but one didn't earn the name 'Boneless' and just take it like a weakling-not anyone who was viking.]

He was the first person I met too. I was stick with..what you call the flu..and he was able to take me to the clinic.

[She couldn't call him nice, not really. That would've implied he was nice all the time-and he wasn't, she could tell that much.] What is it you do back home?

I'm sorry you were sick, but I'm really glad that you're feeling better now! [The words come with a smile and it's clear that Alex means them.]

Back home I was a reporter. It's kind of a storyteller who goes around telling people what's happening now in reality rather than in fiction.

"So, you mean a scribe rather than a storyteller," The smile remained. "We have a scribe with us back home, though we don't have the means to create paper. He's more of a thane now then scribe. [She heard from father that Athelstan was free, and it made her glad to know that he still remained with them. Storytellers are always meant to exaggerate things to make the stories more interesting.

A thane? Is that someone who tells the stories rather than writes them down? [Alex hadn't heard the term before, not even in all of Nic's DnD stories, or in the histories that she'd heard about the cults and orders that she had been studying. For a minute, she just nods as if she's assuming that's what it is, because well... she does.]

Because if so, that's what I do. It's an audio story called a podcast.

[She shook her head, trying not to laugh.] He didn't write anymore because we don't have the means to create paper back home. Thane is someone in charge of the servants of a household.

[She wondered if they didn't have the same role in the modern era if the woman didn't recognize it.] Are podcast like sagas?

Oh. [Alex just grinned, because hey, it was funny. She didn't know, and here she was at one of their parties! It was an experience for her all the way around.]

I don't know if it is or not. I mean, it's more like news than fiction.

The Yule Log

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