Picking back up where he left off (Open and Closed prompts)

[ragnarsson]

who: Ivar and you! +some closed prompts
what: Someone's back from his canon update. Someone might be more angry and crazier than ever.
when: Late February-Early March
where: All over the Quarantine
warnings: Ivar is Ivar. 'Nuff said.

[If you want a closed prompt, feel free to PM me or shoot me up on Light_shade]



I. Back and ready to roll

It's only been a short time since Ivar left Riverview, but for him, it's been two years. He's missed a lot about living in a more modern era: the convenience of modern lights, being able to have hot water whenever he wanted it, his wheelchair, and the food. So he's catching up on two years of deprivation, which means he can be found all over the city, doing various things. He's at a different place for lunch and dinner almost every night. Being without pizza and burgers this long is a pure travesty.

He also gets back into the swing of things with the Perimeter Guard. His skills have only sharpened in his time away, so he can be found training, gleefully bashing in a monster's head, or coming from these various activities sometimes covered in gore.

Anyone that he's missed will find a more emotional Viking than normal. He's missed his friends and family an awful lot in his time away. Though he'll never admit it, he's learned to appreciate what he has just a little bit more. However, it also seems like something else happened while he was away, for Ivar seems to be keeping his guard up and his hard shell around him more than ever, like he's trying to keep himself from getting hurt after it's already happened too much.

II. Catching up with his daughter

Ask Ivar what the number one thing he missed the most and it would be his daughter. He thought about Winter every single night he was gone and it ate away at the Viking terribly. His biggest fear was wondering if the same amount of time was passing in Riverview as it was for him. Was he missing out on two years of Winter's life? He'd been relieved to find only two weeks had passed.

It seemed that Winter had been rather fussy and upset while he was away if her draining life from those that had been taking care of her was any indication. It drove home again to Ivar that he needed to find a way to help her control her powers better. Maybe he'd been spoiling her just a little too much, even if she still just was a baby. But any thoughts of discipline were driven out of his head in favor of spending time with her.

He took her to the park dressed in one of her cutest outfits, letting her play around on the grass as she chased after the butterflies, one of her favorite hobbies. It was clear how much Ivar loved and had missed his little girl just by the way he looked at her.

III. Morphing time

It's been a while since Ivar has been able to properly morph. He hadn't had a whole lot of time to himself back home, and when he did, he usually had more pressing matters on his hand than practicing his shapeshifting skills. Besides, if anyone had caught him, the Vikings would have thought him some sort of unnatural being, a witch or the like, and might have contemplated the idea of burning him alive. So while there's been the occasional foray out as a dog or squirrel, they haven't been frequent.

So now that he's back in the city, he's back to his usual morphs. So there's the occasional dog, cat, squirrel, or more extraterrestrial creature roaming the city. For those that know it's him, he'll gladly approach them, and chat while in animal form. For those that don't know it's him, he's up to his usual tricks of spying on the unknowing populace to find out what he can.

Comments

[mysophobic]

"It's nothing important." He'll just snap back, as if idle chatter is not what he wants to discuss at all and it isn't. Naturally if he were in a better place thought-wise he would gladly speak up about his ring and how excited he was to even have it. But he's not in the mood and his eyes narrowing will be rather indicative of this.

"I don't want to talk about my voice right now. I want to talk about the fact that I found Dodger half dead at his apartment with his arm skinned and Brink dismantled by the riverbank." He'll take a step towards Ivar now, his gate erupting behind him without his full control or will to do it. That black smoke still pours from his with each word spoken. Just remembering it is enough to make that anger boil to the surface again and the runes now marking Shigeru's skin will glow with a faint purple light.

[ragnarsson]

Of course this would be about Dodger. It's been over two years since Ivar last saw the man and was torturing him, but he has to remind himself it's been much less time here. He doesn't bother to deny it. Ivar was proud of what he'd done and why he'd done it. "Did he tell you exactly why my father and I skinned him alive? Or did he just make himself out to be some poor victim in over his head?"

Ivar knows what it's like to lose control. It happens often enough for him that he recognizes the signs in others. The fact that Shigeru's happened to be more visual than others just meant it was easier for Ivar to tell. His hand itches for a knife again and his muscles all tense up. It doesn't seem like it will be long now before he has cause to use it.

[mysophobic]

He hadn't asked of course. He was too busy trying to keep Dodger from having a panic attack the moment he moved a few inches away from him. But he knows that Dodger gets involved with things that get him hurt and injured all the time. It doesn't mean that Shigeru has to agree or like the outcome of his poor choices. But it does give him pause when Ivar asks and says that.

"He didn't. But whatever it was...it's just too cruel."

His voice is still seething with some rage when he speaks. His gate is now dripping black tar like miasma, which decays the ground around Shigeru where ever it hits, as he clenches his fists. His eyes flashing with a purple light as he takes another few steps forward.

"Have you ever been skinned alive before? Because I have, and no one deserves to go through it." He was also dissected at the hands of Jern and this was just bringing back all those horrible memories he really rather forget.

Regardless of how horrible a person people might think Dodger is, Shigeru doesn't agree with any of what was done. If it had been so bad why not inform the guard or something, anything, but what had been done to him.

"Why not tell the authorities and have them deal with it?" Instead of going and doing...that.

[ragnarsson]

"Of course he didn't. It's never his fault when things happen to him. You want to know what made me skin him? He raped a man I've come to know as family." The fury in Ivar's voice is clear, his eyes hard as flint. Athelstan was a good man, one of the kindest Ivar had ever known, and to have something like that happened to him was a travesty. Ivar would never regret what he'd done to Dodger in return.

He throws Shigeru's words back at him. "Has that ever happened to you before? To be taken against your will even when you beg someone to stop? He knows and he did it anyway." That's what Ivar couldn't believe, Dodger doing that when he knew exactly what it felt like to be violated. He's seen the terror in Dodger's eyes when Ivar threatened to do the same thing to him.

Ivar sounds contemptuous when he speaks of why they didn't go to the authorities. Ivar didn't believe in what he saw as the softness of the police here. "And what would they do to him? Arrest him? Lock him up? Put him in another power suppressing collar? That's not justice, not the kind that I know." What Ivar had done was make things even, the only way that Vikings knew how.

[mysophobic]

Whatever anger Shigeru had will...almost dissipate at that explanation. Of course he only figured that it was another fight that Dodger had gotten into, it was mostly due to that being the only thing Dodger usually said. He never had the chance to really ask in depth and he didn't want to bring it up because of how traumatic it was. But hearing that Shigeru looks shocked more than anything. Dodger of all people doing something like that after telling Shigeru of his past...it was mortifying.

"No. I never...he never said anything about that." His shoulders will sag as he looks back at Ivar with his eyes still turned and twisted as they are but that burning anger is almost completely snuffed out. Not even Shigeru would defend or agree with something like rape.

"Even so their methods and ways of doing things, being not personally involved, if people went around carrying out their own justice like that they would get away with murder. Using violence against violence...that's never going to help things even if your actions were understandable." He still doesn't think skinning Dodger alive was the right course of action. But he...can't honestly blame Ivar knowing the reason now.

[ragnarsson]

Ivar still looks like he's full of fury, but he seems less likely to draw a knife than he was before. Shigeru seems to understand exactly why Ivar and Ragnar had been so brutal in their punishment of Dodger.

"He knew he'd done something wrong." Ivar had heard Dodger's words talking to Ragnar. He had regretted his actions, but mere words were never going to be enough when faced with a pair of angry Vikings. "He needed to be punished," Ivar reaffirms. "But that's done with now. So long as he behaves himself, I have no reason to go after him again." It was years ago for Ivar, and while he never was one to give up a grudge, he wouldn't retaliate against Dodger just for anything.

"I understand it's different here. But Viking justice is doled out by taking revenge on the one who has wronged you. He was lucky that what he warranted didn't equal death." In that case, Ivar would have taken his time, nice and slow.

[mysophobic]

Shigeru looks away as he thinks on Ivar's words. He shakes his head, looking away and obviously awkward at those words.

"I-I'm sorry for getting so angry at you." He still is angry but it's not as furious or pure as it once was.

[ragnarsson]

"Don't apologize. You care about him, though why I have no idea. Anger is a gift." Words his father had once told him. If Ivar didn't have his anger, he'd be nothing. His fury and spite have sustained him all these years. Holding onto them kept him from becoming even more insane.

"So can I ask why you're all black and purple?" Between the eyes, the smoke, and the purple glowing runes, Ivar's a little freaked out, though he's definitely not showing it on his face.

[mysophobic]

Shigeru startles a little, forgetting almost that he still looks the way he does so he'll just deactivate his gate, turning away a little as he rubs his hands. He doesn't reply to Ivar's comment about why Shigeru cares about him. Honestly Shigeru is finding it hard to come up with a reason after everything. It's...hard and he has a lot to think about in terms of the two of them.

"It...it's my powers. When I use them it...changes my body a little bit." It's also affecting his temperament as well now, something Ivar can easily pick up on, just by how angry Shigeru was when they first ran into each other.

[ragnarsson]

"Well, I understand why you felt the way you did." Honestly, he really did. If it had been anyone else besides him and Ragnar who had done that to Dodger, he would have been furious. Despite everything that had happened between the two of them, Ivar still considered Dodger to be something close to a friend.

"I guess power always has its price." He knew very well what morphing could cost him if he stayed in a morph too long. Being an animal permanently was a high price to pay, which is why Ivar would never abuse it.

[mysophobic]

Shigeru looks at him curiously. He knows Ivar and Dodger have a...strange relationship but he wasn't expecting to hear Ivar say that. "You-you do?"

Shigeru will fiddle with the ring underneath his glove as he nods.

"These powers...they're more like a curse from a-a dark god that was defeated by my ancestors long ago. So he cursed them and the generations to come after them. I sometimes wish I never had these powers to be honest."

[ragnarsson]

"Yes. Dodger and I fight like cats and dogs, but I'm the only one allowed to do anything to him." If anyone else did something, Ivar would have wanted their head on a platter. Besides, he'd heard what Dodger really thought about him while in dog form, so he's softened a bit towards the man recently.

"Power isn't bad to have. It's how you use it that counts." Wise words coming from someone as young as Ivar, but occasionally, he had his moments of perception. It came from being able to read people.