Video; Round-Trip Home

[ragnarsson]

[The video opens up with Ivar sitting on the edge of his bed, phone recording in one hand, and a knife being fiddled around with in the other. It's clear he's got something on his mind.]

So it turns out if you properly motivate people, they can get that portal fixed up to get you back home.

[It's best not to ask what motivation that was, but Ivar being Ivar, most everyone watching can probably figure it out.]

I'm going back home for a while to take care of some unfinished business. I left in the middle of a war and I need to see that through before I come back. [He pauses.] And don't bother trying to talk me out of this, I've already made up my mind. I'll see you all in two weeks.

[He waves goodbye with the knife and then cuts the video. Looks like the Quarantine has a reprieve from the crazy Viking for the next fourteen days. But he'll be back. Ivar's far too tough to do something as basic as dying back in his home world.]

Comments

[burntbridges]

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, Ivar Ragnarsson - you are her father only because I trusted you and gave you that position. Because you were replacing her real father in his absence. You do not have more claim to her than me, and the only reason she's still with you is because I have no desire to get myself killed trying to take her back by force.

I know you have no conscience, but somewhere in there you must understand how important blood is. My daughter is my kin, not yours. She's a Regis noblewoman, not a Viking, and you can't change that. And no matter how little you trust me, as long as my daughter is with you, I will always be a part of your life.

[Her brow twitches.]

And beside that, you've never given me a chance to prove myself. Wouldn't this vacation of yours be the right opportunity, or do you really think I'm mad enough to try and kill her while you're away?

[ragnarsson]

You know, there's a story about a hawk who sits on her nest, grows tired of waiting for her eggs to hatch, and abandons them. A raven comes along and takes pity on the abandoned eggs, hatching them, and caring for them as her own. When the hawk comes back, she wants her children, but the raven won't give them to her. When they go to the king of the birds, the eagle, for judgment, he asks the chicks who they want to go with. They pick the raven.

The family she was born into is not everything. Part of her belongs to me too whether she's my daughter by blood or not. The fact I'm still letting you see her means I'm allowing you back into her life.

[His eyes narrow and there's a furious look on his face, one that Letha will know quite well. It's that one that says he's contemplating stabbing someone and only can't do it because they're not in the room.]

I think you don't want to know what I think. [Because this'll just end with the two of them pissed off at each other and he'd prefer not to leave with such a thing on his mind.]

[burntbridges]

Letting me see her? Really? Letting me?

[She bristles with fury, enough that her fair seems to stand on end with some vague ethereal energy. Apparently, she'll be pissed off at him regardless at this point. But that's... to be expected. And when she speaks, her tone is as sharp and icy as her eyes.]

No, I'm curious. I'd like to know exactly what you think. Go ahead.

[ragnarsson]

[She really wants to do this? Fine, they're doing this.]

I think you've learned nothing in the time you've been away from here. You just came back and expect me to trust you again with both me and Winter. You're a spoiled child who wants her toy back after she threw it away. And you hate hearing the word no because no one's ever denied you much in your life. So take the time I'm away to see Winter, but no, my trust in you has not been repaired.

[burntbridges]

Oh, go to Hel! You never listen to a word I say, do you? You might have noticed I've been told no most of my life, it's what left me married to Winter's father in the first place! A man I know you were jealous of before you convinced yourself you didn't trust me! Because he had my love, and Winter is his daughter, not yours!

You complain so much about how I see you as a hero, how I forget you're human, you're too busy being right to notice that I ignore your faults to make you happy! You're the prince, not me, I'm sure you know plenty about getting everything you want, I'm sure your mommy fussed over you endlessly any time you so much as whimpered! And now that your father is back and you have the daughter you'd never have back home, you're going back there on vacation just to feed your own ego!

Winter is the only part of my home that I have left, the home that I can't return to, so forgive me if I'd like to spend some time with her seeing as I haven't seen her father in over a year!

[ragnarsson]

Oh, yes, the poor little rich girl whose had such a hard life. Ever notice the only common factor that what happens to you is you? You make your own misery, Letha. And if you think war is some vacation I'm going on, you didn't learn a damn thing in your time away.

[Then she makes two big mistakes. She mentions both Aslaug and the fact he likely won't have any other children all in one breath. It's a good thing they're not face to face, for he goes utterly still for a moment before his countenance turns murderous.]

Mention my mother again and my last act before I leave will be to remove your tongue.

[Don't press him on this, Letha. He's just unstable enough to do it.]

[burntbridges]

I know war is a vacation for you! I know glory is the only thing death means to you unless it happens to someone you care for, I know killing others and showing your power over them makes you happy! I know this is going to be fun for you, and you know it too! Because at least I had the decency to listen when you speak, you ungrateful thoughtless bow-legged half-formed excuse for a man!

[She always manages to bring it back to his legs, doesn't she - it's the one weak spot that she's always had her grasp on. The one thing that she knows she can hurt him with, when he doesn't even have to try to whittle into her. She hasn't even finished her sentence before her eyes fill with tears, but she has one last weapon knowing she can stay far away from him until he's gone.]

I hope you come back to find Marco has moved on and lost interest. I hope you die out there and come back to stay in the hospital for a month while they fix your mangled body up. [She wrinkles her nose, in that way that she always does when she's grasping for straws.] And I hope someone pushes your father through the portal and you never see him again.

[And on that note, she shuts her feed off.]