Memory Share: Lagertha's Sacrifice

[ragnarsson]

[TW: Canon-style violence, torture, death, burning a human being. Watch it here!]

[The scene starts at night, chaotic as people are herded up and brought forward to watch something. They mostly look confused and scared. Ivar, painted up and decked out like he is, looks like the Devil himself. There's a woman beside him, clearly his wife or girlfriend, done up in the same manner. He announces that he's got a sacrifice for Kattegat.]

This is Lagertha!

[The woman he's sworn to kill after she murdered his mother. But something seems to be wrong when the hood is lifted from the face of the supposed woman. Some of the people seem to realize this isn't the former Queen. They start calling out as such, proclaiming their loyalty to "Queen Lagertha." Ivar sends his guards to haul them away. He'll deal with them later.

He seems to have completely gone insane or fallen so deep into believing his own lies that he can't tell what is reality anymore. Even so, people are either too scared to speak up after seeing the others dragged off or buy into his lies completely. For all his unstable nature, Ivar's got a good amount of charisma, enough to control most of Kattegat.

He's in full dramatic force now, spinning a story of how Lagertha had been handed over to him. Soon, the people are proclaiming her a traitor as he continues to wax on in his dramatic speech. The pleas of the terrified woman forced to be an imposter don't even register with him.]

I sacrifice her in the name of Odin and in the name of my fellow gods! I sacrifice her to cleanse this kingdom of its evil spirits!

[Then the sacrifice gets underway. The throat of the poor sacrifice is cut, a small mercy for then at least she doesn't have to be alive when her body is burned afterwards. Some people still seem scared, but others are quite willing and happy to let this happen. Horrifying as everything is, Ivar seems to be having a very good time. This is clearly a moment of great satisfaction for him.]

Comments

[gristle]

You gotta be fucking kidding me.

[ragnarsson]

Spare me the indignant righteousness.

[It's certainly not going to get him to feel bad or anything.]

[gristle]

So you just kill people and are happy about it?

[ragnarsson]

Sometimes. This was necessary.

[gristle]

You enjoyed it anyway, didn't you?

[ragnarsson]

Of course. Don't you know anything about me by now?

[gristle]

God what is wrong with you?!

[ubbe]

No one actually believed that was Lagertha did they?

[ragnarsson]

Does it matter?

[It was entirely about showing off his power and proving he had Kattegat under his iron fist. No one would dare speak out against him after seeing what he would do.]

[ubbe]

It matters.

[ragnarsson]

Some did. Some didn't. People believe what they want to.

[Still, it was easy to lead the masses around by the nose when you had enough charisma to pull it off. Both Ubbe and Ivar had inherited that quality from Ragnar, but they used it in very different ways.]

[ubbe]

What you did was weak.

[ragnarsson]

I AM NOT WEAK!

[Ivar snarls. He fails to differentiate between Ubbe calling his actions weak and calling himself weak. As far as he's concerned, one is intertwined with the other.]

action spam

[like_quicksilver]

[Gyda's at the dome when Ivar next sees her, a frown set on her face. Of course, she knew Ivar and her mother had a blood feud going, that was just how things went, but what she saw in that memory-that wasn't how things were supposed to go.

Gyda never considered herself a violent person, not even after Ivar and Laura's influence. Even now, she couldn't bring herself to kill or even seriously injure her brother-but that didn't mean she didn't want him to hurt.

Soon as he's fully inside, she throws the book she'd been holding at him. Not a knife or even an ax, and likely not to have a good trajectory path either, but she's beyond caring.]

You...did...it..all wrong! [There's a pile of mischievous objects at her side, clearly taken for this purpose, and she throws each one at him with every word. Weapon or not, her arm and aim are extremely good at this point.]

[ragnarsson]

[As Ivar enters the room, he sees Gyda taking aim at him. He's so surprised he doesn't even try to duck, so the book hits him square in the face.]

What--

[Then he finds himself pummeled with a barrage of various objects. Apparently, even pillows can pack a punch if they're dense enough and thrown with the proper force. He swipes one of the objects away so he can get a word in.]

Gyda, what are you doing?!

[He doesn't think he's ever seen his sister this mad at him.]

[like_quicksilver]

What..does..it look like?! [She doesn't stop when the items hit him. However much she's aware of his condition and how easily he can break, she keeps throwing things at him until she realizes she's empty handed.]

You can't sacrifice an unwilling victim! Lagertha would never protest like that..and and you denied that woman her place with the Valkyries! [The words come out fast, almost sobs, and it's because it's not at her waist that she doesn't reach for her ax on accident.] And the gods will know you gave a false sacrifice!

[That's what scares her the most. Her time in Upsala told her that sacrifices to the gods were sacred; that to disregard how things were done could evoke the gods' wrath or cause them to withdraw their aid.]

[ragnarsson]

[He bats away another item or two, ducking when something breakable (likely a glass) flies in his direction, but for the most part, he just sits there and takes it. He's never seen Gyda this angry and it's quite shocking.

Then she mentions the gods and a cold chill runs through him. No one else had been able to get to him through shame or disgust at his actions, but Ivar's spirituality runs deep after a childhood of learning about them from Floki. He realizes the severity of her words. She's gotten to him when nobody else has.

He'd proclaimed himself a god and the real ones knew him to be false. They also knew it was an unwilling sacrifice. They had been angered and would have wanted to take it out on him. Had everything that happened after, Baldur's birth, Freydis' betrayal, Hvitserk's defection, Bjorn winning...was it all going back to this sacrilegious moment.

He sounds rather small when he speaks again.]

Do you think they were angered?

[like_quicksilver]

[She hadn't felt such emotion before; for her it was either fear or anger, never both. She felt sick, like she wanted to shake herself or him, and without realizing it she could feel wet streaks along her face.

Even his voice doesn't steady her, however she can't bring herself to throw anything at him anymore. Instead she grabs onto a chair to steady herself.] I don't know. I don't pretend to know the will of the gods.

[Who was she to figure them out. Right now, she felt less like the daughter of warriors and more like the scared, angry little girl she was.] But I know that you can't give a false gift, and expect the person to thank you for it. Why should it be different for the gods?

[ragnarsson]

[Her words just confirm the suspicions in his mind: the gods had cursed him for his arrogance and impetuousness. What a fool he'd been, taken in by Freydis' lies designed to boost his ego and self-esteem. Combined with the own cracks in his mind, it had led him to be blinded by the truth.

It was a very rare occasion that Ivar the Bonless, dreaded Viking warlord and king, admitted that he was wrong. But here it had only taken his little sister a few minutes to bring it forth.]

I made a terrible mistake.

[spherenpc]

Jesus fucking Christ are you some sort of sociopath or something?

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar seems completely unruffled by the accusation.]

Possibly. I've been told it several times before.

[Which is how you know it's true, though he's more a psychopath then sociopath in the clinical sense of the term.]

[spherenpc]

[The sarcasm in his voice could cut something. Or someone.]

Well, that's good to know, I suppose.

[ragnarsson]

What's the matter, old man? Unnerved by having me in your midst?

[Hmph, he's been behaving himself! Mainly because his sibling keep a short leash on him, but doesn't that count for something?]

[spherenpc]

No. Concerned.

[ragnarsson]

Good. You should be.

[Well, that's not concerning at all to hear.]