riverview | Video @the.boneless; Days of Vikings Gone By....

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Video @the.boneless; Days of Vikings Gone By....

[When the video starts, the memory is in the dead of night. The darkness is the kind that you can't get anymore with electric lights all over the place. This is true dark, the kind when only the moonshine can help anyone to see. There's a group of men and women sleeping soundly on the ground. The peacefulness of the scene is broken as a man creeps among them, slitting their throats with cold efficiency. As he moves between them, there's another figure to his right, crawling around doing the same thing. It's hard to tell at first who it is. Then one of the men wakes up. Spotting the figure, he derisively says, 'What do you want, cripple?' Turning to face him, it's clear this is everyone's favorite psychopathic Viking teenager.

Things turn into a blur of action as Ivar begins brutally killing the other Vikings around him. He uses whatever weapon he has at hand, everything from a knife to an axe to a sword. If anyone ever wondered how a teenage Viking who couldn't use his legs ever became a feared warrior, now you have your answer. Soon, he's killed five people in little under a minute, and only one young woman is left. He crawls towards her like something out of a nightmare. She pleads for her life. 'Ivar! Ivar! You don't need to kill me. Because...you can have this.' Offering herself to him, he seems to consider the proposition. Leaning in, it appears for a moment that he's going to kiss her. Then he stabs her in the side, instead ending her life. With all the Vikings around him dead, Ivar flops on the ground, exhausted. Peculiarly enough, there's a happy, satisfied smile on his face, the kind no one in Riverview has ever seen. He clearly enjoyed the carnage that had just taken place.

The scene fades out and comes back in. The man who had initially been slitting throats and Ivar are hunkered down behind some bushes, hiding from something or someone. It's clearly not too long after the first memory, since both are wearing the same clothes. In fact, it's the next day. Watching, whatever they're hiding from passes by. The man beside Ivar has the exact same ice-blue shade to his eyes that Ivar does. This is his father, Ragnar Lodbrok Sigurdsson, one of the most famous kings among all Vikings.

Ragnar pulls out some dried fish and the two talk while eating. 'I bet you wish you'd never brought me along, right? And I bet you wish you would have killed me when I was born, just like you wanted to,' Ivar says. Oh yes, that was something that had happened. Viking childhoods were brutal things.

'Only when you talk,' Ragnar says back, and it's clear where part of Ivar's sense of humor comes from. Ragnar continues to talk, telling of how he thought Ivar's legs were a weakness, but that he turned out to be wrong. Something seems to soften in Ivar's face as he listens intently. 'You are special. Not in spite of your legs. But because of them.' They're the words Ivar has been waiting to hear his whole life and it shows in his eyes. This was the moment he gave his heart completely to his father, receiving the recognition no one has ever shown him. The memory fades out as Ivar says that was the first time he'd ever heard his father admit to being wrong about something. Ragnar replies it will never happen again.]

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[The images, the sounds and everything that filters through Rey's mind...it's painful. It's brutal...and she is trying her best to process it.]

Why did you kill them?

My father asked me to. They were no longer useful for what he had planned.

[Vikings were never a very sentimental lot to begin with, just as prone to killing each other as their enemies when it suited them. There's a distinct note of pride in Ivar's voice as he answers.]

[The note of pride is something that rings clear to Rey. Her mind shifts to what came later in that scene...the man, his father, discussing how wrong he was...but the fact that he killed in cold blood....

She takes a breath.]

Was this common, or only practiced during times of war?[Because that's the only thing she can connect it to. War meant lives were lost, regardless of which side you were on.

Not even Stormtroopers were this cold blooded. At least, as far as she knows.]

Common enough. Vikings-- [He pauses, the memories having made him a bit more contemplative than normal.] --we kill. To please our gods, to gain glory, to take over new territory, to destroy our enemies. Any reason at all, really. We're warriors. It's what we do.

[Ivar needed even less of a reason than most. Anything at all could set him off into a killing spree.]

[Vikings, that's supposed to mean something, but to Rey it doesn't. It's a culture, she can understand that, but to kill to please deities, to gain glory... That is something she can't fully wrap her head around. Perhaps, she never will.

Then again, her world isn't kind either. There are no killings, at least among scavengers, but those in the First Order seem to be the type that shoot first ask questions later.]

I see. [That's all she can really say on the matter. ]

[Ivar waits, wondering if she will say more. When nothing comes, he asks her a question.]

Do you think it's wrong?

[That's what people here keep trying to impress upon him. The wrongness of killing people for the reasons Vikings held dear. Ivar wouldn't listen no matter how many times he was told. To do so meant entertaining the idea that everything he believed in was wrong. Separated from home and family for as long as he had been, his beliefs were all that he had left.]

I don't believe what I think will matter, what's done is done.

[Because isn't that the truth? What she believes won't change things. It won't bring back those men, it won't erase or change the past.]

In a war, there will be causalities, but I have witnessed a dear friend be murdered for power [She holds back, thinking to Han...anger and sadness briefly rise to the surface.]...and I cannot understand why.

Edited 2017-10-12 05:20 (UTC)

Death has no real meaning to it. It comes for everyone, sooner or later. And whether you are an old woman asleep in your bed or die from being run over tomorrow, it happens. There's a comfort to it, knowing that you don't have to fear what will inevitably be.

[It's strangely philosophical coming from such a violent youth. But Ivar has his introspective moments where he sees how things are put together. Viking have no fear of death, save for a dishonorable one that will never allow them to get into the halls of Valhalla.]

There are far things worse than death. Death, I don't fear. [At least, that's what she's telling herself. Considering all the shit Rey has gone through, death may even be a blessing, but she was too stubborn to die..]

It doesn't mean the pain from death, a sudden loss of life, suddenly goes away. Like that life didn't mean anything.

[She takes a deep breath, taking a step back from her emotions. No need to make it anymore personal.]

Good! Once you are free from that fear, life becomes that much better. [People who didn't worry about death could live more in the moment, become more passionate about things that were important to them.

Rey's words cause Ivar's eyes to go far away, losing some of their eternal anger. His voice is quiet and sad. At the end of the day, he's just a kid who lost his father.]

I know. It still hurts knowing he's gone, that I'll never get the chance to see him again. I don't even have a picture of him. These memories, they're all I have left. But I'll see him one day. In Valhalla.

...uh-huh.

[Life doesn't become better or worse once that fear goes away. At least, not in her case. Maybe, she is afraid...not of death, but dying alone. Dying as some useless thing or person that's been tossed aside. But, that's something for another day.]

Better to have something to ling to, like memories, than have nothing at all.

But, I am sorry for your loss. [She doesn't know how long ago he lost his father, but a loss is still a loss. Han, even in the short time she knew him...he was a friend. Almost like a father figure, if she were to have one. ]

I suppose you're right. Better to have the time I did with him than nothing at all.

[But it never would have been enough. Ten or twenty years wouldn't have been enough, let along a few months here and there that barely totaled a handful of years.

He sighs heavily, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. It's hard at moments like this to have his anger sustain him. Grief is much easier to fall back on.]

Everyone always is always sorry. Such words lose their meaning after a while. [He pauses, not sure if he's insulted her by making her sentiments seem trivial.] No offense meant.

Yeah, that's more than what others might have had.

[She sits back in her bed, thinking over what's happened...her mind traveling back to her own family. The heart breaking realization that no one was coming back. She clung to the hope that they would for so many years, it was hard to let go. And she can't even recall what they looked like.]

None taken. [She's not offended or anything. She could understand how he felt, especially if people continued to pour out those words...the sincerity losses its effect and does nothing.]

Shows they care though, by saying such things. But, you're right, the words lose their meaning and after a while, you don't want to hear it. [You don't want the looks of pity or to be under estimated...but maybe they should talk about something else.]

What's Valhalla?

[Ivar is glad to be able to talk about something else, even if it relates back to death.]

Vikings go to one of four places when we die. Half of the glorious dead warriors go to Fólkvangr, our goddess Freya's meadow. Those who drown at sea are taken to the goddess Ran's hall under the waves. I nearly ended up there myself, but one of her nine daughters saved me from drowning.

[It's hard to tell if he sincerely believes that or is merely adding to his own legend. But no matter. He goes on explaining life after death for the Norse.]

Most everyone else ends up in Hel, the land ruled by the goddess of the same name. But the place every warrior wants to go is the place the other half of the warriors end up. Valhalla, the god Odin, my grandfather's hall. [Divine bragging rights, Ivar has them.] My father is there and I plan to see him again someday.

[Rey stays silent, listening to the legends of his world. it's hard for her to think of the other tales or deities that the other people of Jakku believed in. She knew some of them had their own gods that they prayed to, but couldn't recall their names.

It's interesting to hear there's a goddess, or a place for where a Viking dies.]

Hopefully not too soon.. [To suddenly die that is. But it's interesting to know that someone else likes to brag about their family history, but at least Ivar doesn't throw a temper tantrum over it.]

I can't recall the deities some of the others listed back from my world. [She was sure there were some, considering the climate and all..] Only hoped that tomorrow would be better than today. That was more or less it. {And for her family to return, but that's for another day.]

text: scavenger.rey

Voice; @the.boneless

voice: scavenger.rey

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voice; @r.lynch

Voice; @the.boneless

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