Video; Time for Viking Education!

[ragnarsson]

[The video starts off in Odin's library. Ivar is there and looking a little tired like he's stayed up all night to finish a task. Without any preamble, he holds up a book of a good size that has been bound in leather. This one is new to the growing collection. Opening it, the first page has been done in a rather ornate script. Ivar reads it aloud.] "The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok." He was the most famous Viking that ever lived, a mortal son of Odin. [There's a small pause and his voice seems to be carefully stripped of any emotion on the next words.] He was also my father. [This is probably the first time Ivar's spoken about his father or anyone in his family for that matter for any great length of time.]

I have compiled his life's story so that you all might be entertained and educated, starting from his humble origins as a farmer to when he became Earl and then King, and all his exploits in-between, such as leading the first Viking raids on England and Frankia.

[He flexes the fingers of his right hand a few times and his voice turns a little more gruff.] My hand hurts after so much writing, so I expect a measure of gratitude for such an act.

Comments

video.

[portablecthulhu]

Wow. You wrote a whole book.

[ They do seem to have more time on their hands than usual around here, don't they? The war being the exception, of course. ]

I'd be interested to learn more.

[ragnarsson]

I've had a lot of free time when not plotting the death of my enemies. It's an unusual format. We Norse hardly ever write anything down. Everything is all told through storytellers.

[portablecthulhu]

That sounds interesting, too.

But I imagine like that a lot of stories change as people remember different stuff or add their own spin on it. A book is a bit more concrete.

[ A bit. People can still have different interpretations of those as well. ]

[ragnarsson]

That's the whole point! Everyone has their own way of telling things, so the stories evolve over time. How else do you think my father became a living legend in his own time?

[portablecthulhu]

So you're telling me stories of your father were... exaggerated.

video;

[keybearing]

Eh? You wrote a whole book?!

[....Sora it might not necessarily be that long? Even if it is, they have been here a while, some of them that came from other worlds and all, at this point. It's not that surprising?]

Your dad was Odin's? I was thinking of writing about what we've done here, what's happened in Asgard, but that's not a bad idea either. Writing about the people that aren't here.

[ragnarsson]

I've had a lot of time on my hands since we all arrived here. Just got in the habit of writing a little bit each day.

[He preens a little bit at Sora's impressed tone. Ivar may talk a big game, but his self-esteem is pretty fragile, so he loves it when people admire things he's done.]

He was. One of many. The All-Father has a lot of children. Or will? However one measures time here. [Being from a later time can be confusing sometimes when quantifying when things had or would happen.] He had become a legend in his own time, told many times over by wandering storytellers, so I thought it only appropriate to write down a true account of his deeds.

[keybearing]

I guess that would make sense. I haven't started with mine yet. But I guess a little each day, it adds up, right?

[He just had to start, to get into the habit of it at least. Then he would probably be fine.]

I dunno much about these gods and such so it might help to learn more, when someone else isn't reading it sometime. I'm not sure if writing about my own adventures so far would help as much as this.

[ragnarsson]

Exactly. Just have got to get into the habit is all. That is another reason I wrote it down. I felt educating all the dirty heathens here would be a good idea.

[He says this casually, as if calling the entire populace of Wanderers 'dirty heathens' wasn't at all insulting. Then again, Ivar's main form of communication was sarcasm and scathing remarks, so it made sense.]

It might not help, but I'm sure it would be entertaining. Always having something else to read is a good idea.

[keybearing]

The -- wait, what?

[Ivar how about not calling everyone that?]

But, uh, I guess. Entertaining might be one way to put it?

[ragnarsson]

You heard me. Heathens. Which everyone who doesn't worship the true gods is.

[He does what he wants Sora. Sorry. Ivar gonna Ivar.]

Storytelling is a noble endeavor where I am from. It is how my entire culture has been kept alive.

[keybearing]

Heathens....if you say so.

[Says the kid who met, you know. Zeus and Hades and Hercules back home.]

By telling your stories aloud? I mean sure, that could work. I guess I'm just used to books too.

[ragnarsson]

[Hmmmm, Greek gods? Nah, sounds like fake news to this Viking.]

Most of the Norse can't read. Books do them no good. I just happen to be an exception.

[There hadn't been much to do as a kid since he couldn't move much besides learn the runic alphabet and play strategy games.]

[keybearing]

Yeah? I'm not so much the academic necessarily either. Or at least. Not with computers and stuff, I don't do computers.

[Books, sure. He wasn't the most studious or anything but he managed okay in school? When he wasn't forgetting about homework or something, anyway.]

I'm okay with books though, I guess. Depends on what I'm reading.

[Video]

[madcuriosity]

[She was about to congratulate Ivar for his writing the novel. After all, she's never written one herself, she imagines it's very difficult to do, until...]

Vikings raided England?

[ragnarsson]

[Whoops. He'd deliberately failed to mention that before during their conversations, hadn't he? He nods slowly.]

We did.

[madcuriosity]

[She has, honestly, no idea of all of England's colonization, at least, not properly. She is, after all, only seven.]

But... why?

[ragnarsson]

Because it was there.

[The simplest answer really. Vikings would raid anything that was set out in front of them and England had been the newest land they had found.]

[madcuriosity]

[Alice figured it must not have been too terrible, since well, they weren't Norweigan, Danish, or Swedish, or anything of the sort but under the English crown and rule. So it's not NICE, but it clearly wasn't... well, notable? Or maybe it was and she hadn't gotten to that part in her history lessons.]

Did... you ever go?

[ragnarsson]

[He nods, deciding to sanitize the details for such young ears.]

I did. Many times. I even set up a long-term base in York from which to work out of. Do you know of the place?

[madcuriosity]

Oh, York is very far from Oxfordshire, but I do know it! But it's so surprising, I suppose. I didn't even know about that being the case. [Mostly because Alice finds history dreadfully dull.]

[machinamentum]

You finished it! Hell yeah. I can't wait to read it.

[ Or convince him to read it to her when they're laying around in bed together not having feelings, but same diff. ]

[ragnarsson]

[Gaige gets a genuine smile of delight from the Viking, the way she does almost anytime she's talking to him.]

It was good. Cathartic to get down everything on paper that happened to him. There's a little bit of the two of us there at the end, right before his death.

[It was a little personal, but Ivar had wanted to make sure his father's legacy was well-preserved, and part of that would be telling of their time in England together.]

[machinamentum]

[ He's so sweet, really he is, or at least he is in Gaige's opinion. Wanting to remember stuff with his Dad. ]

I mean, that makes sense you saw it first hand.

[ Hang on, tho. ]

Wait - did you say mortal son of Odin? Does that mean you are Odin's grandson?

[ragnarsson]

Yes. And there was a lot of people who would tell me things. Like his best friend Floki. The man was like a second father to me.

[And he'd lost both of them. Ivar hated his life sometimes in moments like that.]

Technically, yes.

[Probably not this particular version of Odin, but until the All-Daddy told him to stop, he'd keep referring to himself as such.]

[machinamentum]

HELL YEAH, I TAPPED THE GRANDSON OF A GOD, FUCK YEAH, I TOTALLY WIN THE "WHO BANGS TOTALLY LEVEL 10 DUDES" COMPETITION.......... I was having with literally no one here. Because that's selfish, and everyone has relationships that are to their own happiness, and I am totally not banging you because Odin, really, he like, is dealing with Maya but if Maya was, like, an old dude. Which oh my God, not an image I need?

BUT IF I WAS, I WOULD WIN.

Video

[darksoulwithlight]

What is it with boys and putting their daddies on big, shiny pedestals?

[Honestly, she doesn’t get it. Maybe it’s because she never had one and the nearest thing she had to one was literally a horrific devil.]

So what do you get out of this apart from the hand cramp?

[ragnarsson]

Abandonment issues. Lots and lots of abandonment issues.

[Ivar says dryly. Is he joking? Hard to tell. Spoiler: he isn't. This is what happens when one deadbeat dad with too many issues of his own abandons five sons for ten years.]

Educating all the stupid heathens on proper things likes the ways of the Norse and worship of the gods.

[darksoulwithlight]

[There isn’t even an attempt to disguise the eye roll from Trish on this end.]

Now why doesn’t that surprise me? There’s enough of those going by around here that you could probably set up a support group. Anyway, if you’ve got abandonment issues because papa was a rolling stone then isn’t it more cathartic to give his legacy the finger than blow smoke up his ass?

[Seriously dude. Spend some time with the Sparda boys.]

Anyway, you’re making some mighty big assumptions. Not all heathens are stupid, some of us happen to be pretty smart as it happens.

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar lets out a long sigh. Trust him, he understands all the reasons why he should still be mad at Ragnar, but it's not so simple as all that.]

He was an easy man to hate, but also an easy man to love. It's complicated. But the most important thing to me was that he always acknowledged me. Few people ever did.

[He snorts and waves a hand in a flippant air.]

Some might be smart, but none will ever be as smart as me.

[He's irritating and arrogant, but for good reason. Ivar's mind is the only thing that has kept him alive this long.]

[draumstafir]

Oh. You're a viking. I guess that makes sense.

[ said softly, and with sudden clarity of his past conversations with ivar. ]

[ragnarsson]

What? Had I failed to mention that fact to you beforehand?

[Strange. He usually told people that fact right off the bat.]

[draumstafir]

[ reynir hesitates for a moment here, trying to figure out how receptive ivar would be to finding out the dog he had such a frank conversation with awhile ago is the same guy he argued over mercy and kindness with.

he decides to start out small. ]

You mentioned Valhalla, but it's hard to be sure how these things work between different worlds. Vikings... don't really exist the same way in my world that they used to.