asgardgenesis | Video; Where's The Laughter in Slaughter?

[When the camera gets turned on, the first thing to note is that Ivar's face is streaked in blood that has only just started to dry in places. Someone's been out worshiping with the natives in a fashion very familiar to a Viking. If y'all hadn't gotten the impression Ivar was a bloodthirsty barbarian from a bygone era, the imagery is definitely reinforced with the dripping red streaks on his face. Also is that some around his lips as well? Has he been drinking the stuff too? Honestly, though, he seems quite pleased by what's been going on even if everyone else might be disturbed by the casual slaughter of the cows. His tone starts off very serious, since worship is important where he's from.]

About time this place started getting some proper worship going. I know most of you all are from soft places-- [The scorn in his tone is obvious.] --but blood sacrifices are always the best when giving due diligence to these gods where I am from. Blood demands blood, especially if you want them to be on your side in battle, or to favor you at all. It's really not all that different then slaughtering animals for food, just with more rituals and rites to it.

[Then he switches back to his usual tone that ranges somewhere between insanity and half-truths end tends to indulge in.]

It's a good thing we finally got the right sort of animals around here. Otherwise, I might have had to resort to sacrificing one of you. [He muses for a moment before laughing.] I'm joking of course! [Beat.] Human sacrifices only work if they're willing participants.

[OOC: This post is for a general discussion, so feel free to have threads amongst all the characters and thread-jacking rather then just talking with Ivar. Do let me know if you do want a specific thread with him! He has rather...strong opinions about this.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ ... Note to self: Don't tell this lady about Pandora and murderous rampages. ]

I mean, if it's anything like what Ivar is saying, after everything the gods have given them ... They want to give it back? And just got a bit overexcited about it?

Maybe so. Sacrifices of this type were common among ancient peoples, but at some point society grew and became more civilized.

A sacrifice on this scale is impractical to me. I would still find killing one cow for this purpose barbaric, but killing multiple ones in ways that don't preserve the meat is wasteful.

[ A huff. ]

Talk about a cultural clash.

I'm sure there's some kind of middle ground that we can arrive on.

[ Mary gives a small sigh. ]

If the natives wish to make sacrifices, I think one animal would be sufficient every once in a while. So long as it is not wasteful or... blatantly disgusting, I think it would be acceptable.

[ He gives her a slightly awkward smile. ]

Yeah, something like that. Maybe we could even keep the meat.

The animals would have to be slaughtered properly for that. I'm not sure if that would fit in with their ritual.

[ She gives a slight shudder about all of his. ]

Is animal or human sacrifice common where you come from?

No. Not where I come from. But where I'm from is a very small part of the galaxies humans have colonised in my time.

As far as I know, though, we don't really ... worship anyone or anything anymore.

Do you know Jim Kirk? He's also from the future. [ Not that there is just one future. Being here, she's learned that there seem to be an infinite number of possible futures. She's also not really surprised to hear that religion has died out, as Jim said something similar about his home. ]

[ He shakes his head. ]

Haven't met him. Do you know how far in the future?

[ If he could meet someone who's from around his time - regardless of how similar their universes actually are - that might be nice. ]

Several centuries removed from me. I am from 1924.

[ She wants to give him at least some frame of reference as to what time period she's talking about. ]

He'd be closer than anyone else has been, anyway. I'm about a millennium removed from you.

A thousand years. I can scarcely imagine...

Yes, you and Jim might have a bit more in common. His world seems entirely different from mine.

Yeahhh, it's ... a long time. We don't even live on Earth anymore.

Really? Where do you live now? Is it a planet I've heard of?

Uhhh, a lot of them. I grew up on Eden-5, but I was on Pandora before I came here. Doubt you've heard of them.

No, I can't say I've heard of either of them. Only places like Mars or Jupiter.

Yeah, we're, uh. A bit further out than that. Where on Earth were you from, exactly?

Yorkshire, England. Have you heard of it?

Heard of England, not Yorkshire. So what was the 1900s like?

We had a war at the beginning of it, and apparently there's another one to come about fifteen years after my time.

[ She can't say she's thrilled about it. ]

[ "A war." Like, singular? And it'll take fifteen years and then there will be one more. Singular.

Wow.

He blinks, genuinely surprised. ]

Oh.

That's, uhm. That's rough.

[ He doesn't quite manage to not sound uncertain about it. Not flippant - it's not like he thinks war and violence is great - it's just that there's so much of it in his time that it's hard to imagine it's anything ... worthy of note, like that. ]

[ They're big wars, Rhys. Like, World Wars. ]

Quite. [ She doesn't understand why he seems so confused and surprised about war, but for now she's overlooking it. ]

I ought to introduce myself. Lady Mary Crawley.

[ Well, he's used to a planet that's more or less caught in an eternal planet-wide war, and the fact that the corporations are fighting over planets and resources in all the galaxies. Fifteen years seems like a very long time then.

He's happy enough to drop it, though, and offers her a smile. ]

Rhys. It's a pleasure.

Video; Where's The Laughter in Slaughter?

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