Video; Where's The Laughter in Slaughter?

[ragnarsson]

[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.]

Comments

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar listens. It's different hearing about him from Athelstan then from anyone else. He'd been built up to the status of a legendary hero by the time he died, though Ivar always knew he was more then just his fame. It reminds him that his father, for all his exploits, was still a mortal man who was fallible.]

I never knew that about him. His curiosity, his thirst for knowledge.

[In a way, it made him very similar to his son. Ivar, despite being more closed-minded, did have a thirst for finding out more about the world around him. His desire was always to be smart enough to be one step ahead of everyone else.]

[pietistic]

It’s strange that you wouldn’t have seen any of that from him when it was very much at the heart of the man I know.

[ Athelstan sighs. He really can’t imagine what had happened to make Ragnar stray so badly from who he had been. He had been a good father. A good man but the stories Ivar told him were disheartening at best. ]

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar sighs, and there's something sad in his too-blue eyes, the fierce light that haunts them dimming slightly.]

Something had broken him long before he returned to Kattegat. I don't know when it happened, maybe it was in the second raid to Paris, or even before that. But he had lost his taste for life by the time he wanted to return to England with me.

[pietistic]

[ There's a long stretch of silence. Athelstan knew that Ragnar had lost so much. Gyda, Lagertha. Whether he would admit it or not Rollo had always hurt him too. He sighs. ]

I just can't imagine it. We went through many hardships together and he never seemed like someone who could break.

[ragnarsson]

Many thought the same thing. He always seemed so invincible, but at the heart of it all, he was always just a man, fallible as any other.

[He doesn't say this disparagingly for Ivar was thankful to see his father on the same level as everyone else. It gave him hope that he too would be able to rise up from what he had been initially fated to be.]

[pietistic]

I always knew he was fallible.

[ Athelstan laughs softly but there's still a sadness to it. ]

[ragnarsson]

Bjorn always told me people expected too much of him. You seem to be one of the few who saw him as he was.

[He cocks his head.]

You seem to do that with me too.