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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You think so?

[ Maybe that's not completely out there. If you've never seen an animal before this, except animals with the actual minds of humans, then ... ]

I don't know. People have been killing animals for different reasons since ... Well, as long as we've been humans, right? Uh, mostly for food, obviously. I just-- We'll probably want to kill them for food anyway. But this definitely isn't how I imagined it would start.

[ He laughs a little, although it almost sounds hysterical. See, he may eat meat, but he's never really been around for slaughter. And, sure, before Asgard he'd spent a couple of days on Pandora and gotten to see plenty of gruesome deaths of both animals and people simply because it's Pandora.

But that was a few months ago. He'd been enjoying the break. ]

[ That laugh makes Chizuru quiet for a moment. Seeing all of this hasn't exactly been fun either, despite having seen a lot of bloodshed back home. But that's exactly the problem - it just made her think of all the terrible situations she's been in before.

She wonders how much bloodshed there is out in space, where Rhys lives. Hopefully less, but she has no idea what all of this could have made him think or feel. So after a moment she just ends up softly asking-- ]

.. Are you feeling alright? [ Maybe she's just the one being way too sensitive that she feels so bad about this situation, but she might as well ask, just in case he isn't alright. ]

[ He pauses for a moment, and then deflates with a heavy exhale, before scrubbing his hands over his face. ]

I don't-- I don't know.

[ He drops his hands with a sigh and a grimace. ]

I should be ... used to this? Sort of. But I guess I'm not.

[ There's some relief at her at least not just having projected her own feelings onto him. But at the same time, it's not exactly great to see him looking like that either, so her facial expression immediately shifts into something sympathetic. ]

It's okay if you're not.

[ Maybe it's a little hypocritical for her to say, since that's exactly what Chizuru is always hard on herself for, but her standards for other people are just much lower than for herself. ]

I've been confronted with a lot of similar situations before, and I still think it's overwhelming now as well. I can't even imagine how much worse it might be for others.

You have? Really? I thought--

Wow.

When you told me about where you came from it sounded ... really nice. Like. You should've seen the planet just came from. Kind of makes this look like nothing? I've seen ... so many things I'll never be able to unsee. But I'm still grossed out.

Ah, well.. You know..

[ She makes a slightly awkward noise, but then quickly tries to wave off his surprise. She'd rather not focus on her own negative experiences too much. There's a reason she left most of the war talk out of her description of where she's from! ]

But I think that the fact you're still grossed out despite what you have seen means that you're still a good person, no matter what you have experienced. You haven't let it grow yourself hard and cold to the point where this wouldn't even affect you anymore.

[ That's fine. He understands completely. Not like he's been going around trying not to tell people how awful shit can be back home, but with Gaige here it's just sort of ... Better to be more honest.

He's genuinely surprised at what she says, though. Good person? Uhm. Well.

He's definitely been playing this well.

His gaze flickers briefly to the side, rubbing at the back of his neck. ]

I guess that's one way to look at it. To me it just feels like it gets in the way.

Isn't it a nice way to look at it though? Then you don't just have to feel bad and have that be all there is. [ Ah yes, back to the good old glass half full or empty discussion.. This is just Chizuru viewing even feeling uncomfortable itself through the view of a glass being half full. ]

I think that the people here still lack that feeling of remorse or a sense of what's cruel and what isn't. I think that's what bothers me the most about this.. So I'm glad that there are other people here as well who also don't feel good seeing all of this.

Is that even something ... you develop? I thought that kind of thing was something you had to teach yourself to ignore rather than something you have to learn.

Well..

[ She can't fully deny that, but-- ]

Don't you think something seems a little.. off about the people here? I can't imagine why else they would do something like this so easily, or with this kind of glee.. [ Them just somehow never having learned about that feels like the easiest answer as to why that is to her. ]

From my experience, they're gleeful about a ton of things. If this is them trying to give something back to the gods, why wouldn't they be? They love the gods.

[ He pauses for a second, and shrugs. ]

I don't know, I'm just throwing things at the wall and hoping something sticks at this point. My perception about what kind of behavior is 'off' or not probably isn't something to go on either.

Video; Where's The Laughter in Slaughter?

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