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

[like_quicksilver]

She rushed over, glad to see him again, and returned the extra tight hug. Of course, he said he would be back, but who knew what the fates had in store for them: someone might intend one thing, but the gods would have something else in store for them.

"I've missed you too." She studied him when she pulled away. He'd been gone awhile, she could see that. His hair was different, but more then that, there was something else that was different, only she couldn't put her finger on it. "How long have you been back? What happened over there?"

[ragnarsson]

"I only just got back a little while ago. I plan on going to see Father and Athelstan after I get some food." He'd just come from the last battle against Lagertha, so he'd worked up quite the appetite. "Come on. Let's get some pizza and I'll tell you what happened."

He goes in and they order. Once Gyda's seated, he starts telling her about what happened. "The second king we meant to get revenge on, King Ecbert, was killed. I wanted to blood-eagle him, but the others wouldn't hear of it. He screwed us over though. He claimed he'd give us land if he was allowed to die in his own fashion, but the paper was worthless since he was no longer king when he made it. After that, we just started raiding all over England." Ivar looks mighty proud of himself. He'd done a good job at terrorizing the countryside.

[like_quicksilver]

She joins him inside. Of all the foods here, pizza seems the one, if not familiar, she could see people enjoying if they had the means (given that back home, tomatos are a few hundred years of being discovered after all).

The story he tells her has her frowning. Even back home, father talked of wanting to have land in England, and both him and Athelstan talked of starting colonies. To hear that they were betrayed-how could the kings of England expect any different. "What did he do that you wanted to blood-eagle him?"

Betrayal was the usual cause, but cheating out of land? Even she knew how harsh a punishment that was.

[ragnarsson]

"I'll tell you, but only if you promise not to tell Father." He pauses for a moment so that he could nosh on a piece of pizza. After he's done, he explains what happened back in 816. The fury in Ivar's voice is clear as he talks.

"He was the one who handed Father over to King Aelle so that he could kill him. He pretended to be his friend and then stabbed him in the back." Ivar would have killed both of them himself if he'd had the means and the will to do it. "Unfortunately, I got overruled by our pack of dim-witted brothers when it came to killing him my way."

[like_quicksilver]

She was grateful for the pause to allow them to eat. Once he begins to tell what happened, the food gets stuck in her throat and the only way she could get it down was taking a swig of water.

In truth, she's unsure how to take this news and it take a moment for her to process it. That Ivar felt cheated, she could understand that, especially with what happened to father, but even she could tell this is only the start of things. "He still died, it might not be the blood eagle, but he is still dead."

Their father's death was avenged-would be avenged. That's what mattered.

She almost didn't want to ask what he planned next.

[ragnarsson]

Ivar knew the words were hard to hear and so he allowed Gyda time to process them. He'd never outright said when their father had died up until now.

"But not the way I wanted." That was the petulant youngest child that Ivar still showed shades of being on occasion. "No matter. We went on and took over York. I didn't lose a single battle against the English." He sounded a lot more cheerful about that part. Ivar was really starting to come into his own as a strategist and leader.

[like_quicksilver]

"That is why you were looking for a strong hold." And who could blame him. England was made of several kingdoms, and the death of one king wasn't going to be taken lightly. Others would come to either avenge him or claim his kingdom for their own. Ivar would need a place where they could get allies from home.

"What sort of tactics have you used?" All she was familiar with was the shield wall, but if he was fighting an army like the English, he would have to do something different.

[ragnarsson]

Ivar eats another two slices of pizza, speaking with a full mouth as he does so. It's a wonder he doesn't choke, but then, Ivar's always seemed a little bit lucky. That plus a lot of cleverness and perseverance is what made him such a formidable and dangerous opponent against whoever he faced.

"I made sure a wall was left deliberately weak. I knew they'd think we overlooked it and use it as a weak spot to attack from. When they broke through, we led them into a trap. That was the first battle. They tried to starve us out next, so I made them think we were in more dire straits than we were, and that we'd just give up and leave. We were underground in the Roman catacombs the whole time, so we surprised them again. After that, their spirit was broken."

[like_quicksilver]

She listened, duly impressed by what he was telling her. and taking the time to eat another slice of pizza now that she could. She had spent enough time around the other men to know that this strategy was not something they would think of-that most men wouldn't consider in terms of battle. Some would argue it would hardly be a fair fight even.

Yet this was Ivar the Boneless; the only way he would make things fair to their warriors would be to make things unfair for their enemies.

One thing caught her attention. "How would you know of the catacombs? I thought only christian priests and kings knew-" She stopped and inwardly slapped herself for forgetting. "Athelstan told you about them, didn't he."

Athelstan was just about the only 'christian' Ivar was on good terms with-so of course he would know. "I think I've read of something like that in a book. It's called 'playing possum' or something, when you make your enemy believe you're dead or weakened and you draw them towards you."

Well, sort of like that; only it was an army, not one person, and they weren't playing dead but hiding-she supposed it was the same difference.

[ragnarsson]

Ivar smiled as Gyda figured out how he'd learned to put his plan into good use. "Of course." Athelstan had been an invaluable source of information on what to expect when he went back to England. Ivar in turn had put the knowledge to good use.

"It was simple using the arrogance the English have against them. They think they're smarter and better than us. All they see when they look at Norsemen is a bunch of stupid brutes." So Ivar had played into that stereotype while outsmarting them all the while.

"I left a group of warriors there in York to keep hold of it. We might finally have the chance to establish a permanent base there." In a way, Ivar was accomplishing the dream Ragnar had long ago for a Viking settlement in England. He was just doing it in a manner much more violent and with less patience then their father ever had.

[like_quicksilver]

She thought of what he said and how there was some truth to it. Perhaps, before they encountered the English, they were all used to fighting one way, but father told her stories of how the English were different and why it was better to outsmart their enemies.

"Maybe that was true decades ago," She admitted, recalling some of the men in the drinking hall back home. "But that was before father, before you-have you told father about your raids? He would enjoy hearing how you outsmarted the English, and of a possible settlement there."

Or atleast the start of one. "The worst I have to deal with here is spelling tests. At the start of the week, I'm given a list of words I need to learn to spell, and then at the end of the week I'm to spell them correctly and use them in a sentence. Every word I get wrong, she makes me write it fifty times."

Both of them hoped she would be able to enroll in the school next term, but to do that meant having to speed through and combine several lessons at once.

[ragnarsson]

He was always pleased to hear both compliments to his intelligence level and comparisons to his father. Ubbe had said that Ragnar would have hated what he'd done to his family, and perhaps that was true, but he also knew Ragnar would have been very pleased with how he'd gained a semi-permanent foothold in England. "I did tell him. He seemed very happy." Praise and approval from Ragnar was one of the things Ivar most craved in his life.

"Good. Reading is a valuable skill." Not that he'd bothered to learn much of it himself. He could identify all of the letters now and knew a few basic words, but anything beyond that was lost to the teenage Viking. He was bright, but he also got frustrated when he didn't instantly pick up on certain forms of knowledge.