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.]

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None of these gods strike me as the type to ask for us to sacrifice animals indiscriminately on their behalf, particularly not animals that were gifted to us.

[ Mary had spoken to several of them when trying to choose a house for herself, and none of them had seemed like the barbaric warrior type. ]

I haven't gotten the blood of animals on my hands because I do not slaughter them myself. What I do know is something unknown in your time and that is hygiene. The carcasses have been touched by any number of dirty hands and dragged through the streets. It's not sanitary to eat these animals unless one wants to become ill.

They may not have asked for it, but I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Sacrifice is passing the gift along, not that I expect a shortsighted judgmental shrew to see that.

[Well, this has devolved into name-calling fast. Ivar's maturity levels can sometimes be called into question.]

Hygiene? Who do you take me for, a Saxon? They bathe about once every six months! [Frankly, he's insulted. The Norse have very good hygiene. Most of them try to bathe weekly if not every day.] I've preserved meat many times at home before and never once gotten sick. Perhaps people simply have weaker constitutions where you are from.

A childish barbarian. [ She shouldn't have expected much less.

It pains her to think that this man is representative of her ancestors. Mary knows that the Vikings ruled in York for a long while and that she's probably more one of them than an Anglo-Saxon. ]

I'm sure they do not. I come from a place you might be quite familiar with. We call it Yorkshire, but Jórvík was what it used to be called.

You keep calling me a barbarian as if I should be insulted by the word. I take pride in it, for at least I know what I am. I'm not a hypocrite as the Saxons are, pretending to be so pure and noble following their god while they butcher just as many people as we do.

[Ivar saw that at as the main difference between the Norse and the English. The Viking is bullheaded and slow to change, but he doesn't try to ever be anything that he is not. He visibly brightens at the mention of York.]

Ah, yes! I am quite familiar with the city. My brothers and I conquered it when last I was in England. All the good little Christians had gone to church for a feast day, so it made it easy to take over when we caught them by surprise.

[By 'take over' he meant killing the entire population where they had gathered for Mass and laughing about it afterwards. Mary can at least be thankful he spares her the gory details like what they did to the priest and nuns.]

So you are a Saxon then?

[She has the accent of one.]

And similarly I should be offended to be called a shrew for expressing my opinions? Fortunately, what you think of me doesn't matter to me.

[ She's aware what 'take over' meant in his time. It probably still means that in some places in her time as well. It doesn't mean she has to be happy about it. ]

I'm an Englishwoman. I have Anglo-Saxon heritage as well as Norwegian and French. My mother probably has some other European heritage as well. York still has traces of the Vikings, but they're long gone. The Normans drove them out centuries ago.

Likewise. [He's completely unruffled by what she may think of him and he stands by what he already said.]

Saxon and Norse? [Color him surprised. Well, it's clear she took after her English heritage, at least to him.] I'm sure England is much poorer for the lack of our presence.

[He says that in a completely sincere tone. Anywhere the Vikings had conquered was automatically made better by virtue of there now being Norsemen there.]

We have colonies on every continent and are considered to have the strongest Navy in the world.

[ Soooo yep. Rule Britannia. ]

[Huh. The Saxons are tougher then he thought to do all that.]

Do they still speak of the Norse in your time?

[Ivar's got no illusions that one day his people will be wiped out, as much from infighting as battling near constantly against Britain, France, Spain, and anywhere else they could reach. But he wonders if they made enough of a stamp on the world to never be forgotten.]

Norwegian. I could not tell you how much of it is similar to the language you know.

[ Besides English, she speaks terrible French and that's it. ]

It is most likely an older version, just like how what I speak is similarly different than Old English.

Not the language, my lady. [It’s clear with how silkily he says the phrase just how much sarcasm is going into those words. It’s clear that if he had any minimal amount of respect for Mary, it is well and truly gone.] I meant the people themselves.

[ The sarcastic use of her title earns him an eye roll in return and nothing more. Even that much is more than enough of a reaction. ]

Vikings? No. Bathing in blood has rather fallen out of favor, I'm afraid.

Video; Where's The Laughter in Slaughter?

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