hels-valkyrie

[hels-valkyrie]

A lot would probably be a bit of a cop out answer, but spending 800+ years in torpor will make you rather annoyed at what you've missed out on. So many wars especially that would have given me ample opportunity to die in battle. And I can't deny the appeal of the age of piracy...sailing and fighting are in my blood.

However, my ghoul Eric is a big fan of the video sagas called Westerns, so I like to think I would most like to have seen the Wild West in person. There's something about it that reminds me of my mortal life while also being alien and new. It would have been fun to be a "cowboy."

I have a question for older Kindred – what are some historical events that happened during your existence that you wish you could have experienced yourself, but couldn't for whatever reason?

For me, it has to be the Golden Age of Piracy on the Caribbean Sea at the turn of the century. I would have been a vampire for about twenty or so years back then – I imagine it would be great fun, simply speaking. But alas, Fate had other things prepared for me, on the other side of the world.

[hels-valkyrie]

Boy, I'm a Viking. Whoever was on top was the man. In all the times I've ever slept with someone I've only been the woman twice.

If I give you advice, it's going to be how to be a Man.

@hels-valkyrie

....yo

I need to borrow

The WhaleBone

For Reasons.

[hels-valkyrie]

Need any pointers? If it's your first time, there's definitely a learning curve to it.

@hels-valkyrie

....yo

I need to borrow

The WhaleBone

For Reasons.

[hels-valkyrie]

Oh!?

Finally going take your turn at being the man huh?

I'll have to oil it up for ya first but I can have it ready soon.

@hels-valkyrie

....yo

I need to borrow

The WhaleBone

For Reasons.

[hels-valkyrie]

I've been known to have a sharp "tongue"

[hels-valkyrie]

That sounds needlessly complicated. If someone wants me dead, I just meet them on the field of battle so we can see who kills who first.

If I win, then they clearly weren't good enough and I can get on with my unlife without worrying about someone trying to assassinate me. If I lose, then I've died gloriously on the field of battle and get to go to Valhalla. It's a win/win situation.

So I suppose that's a 1 for me, with the asterisk of "I specifically try to kill them in a face to face battle and give them a chance to fight back because it's more honorable that way."

quick interest and moral compass check if someone wants you dead or worse would you rather

1. make them be dead first (kill) (easy option?)

2. kidnap and do atrocities from there in an effort to get them to stop wanting to out of fear (not killing. if you want to kill vote 1) (medium difficulty)

3. perform social manipulation to make them stop wanting to do that which could work (but might be difficult af)

4. concede and let them do it (easiest option)

5. Run away forever (medium difficulty it depends.)

6. Ask them nicely to stop with nice and open handed negotiation (very difficult, low chance of success)

7. OTHER

vote on your phones. what do you think. gimme numbers innit.

[hels-valkyrie]

Huh, apparently there's a few other old souls like me on here...

I sometimes wonder how different I might have turned out if I didn't get staked and hadn't taken that 800 year long nap. How strong would I be? How out of touch would I have been with who I was?

[hels-valkyrie]

This age was not made for people like me. It's so...sedated compared to when I was alive. Humanity has domesticated themselves and have become so content. It's suffocating me, even though these damned lungs draw no breath. I chafe at the rules and formalities and all the...peace.

I was promised paradise. I was told that the greatest warriors would be given their seat in Valhalla. I would endlessly feast and fight to my heart's content, until the greatest battle finally begins and I get to take part in it.

You don't know what it's like...to fight a monster that's been preying on villages, to look death in the eye and know that you've lived a worthwhile life, to anticipate that paradise at long last...only to have it stolen from you. To awaken the next night, something neither alive nor dead.

I need to die with glory, weapon in hand. I need a worthy foe to prove my strength to the Valkyries even as a die. If I can't find one anywhere else, I'll make my own worthy foe. I'll turn Eric into every bit my equal, even if that means eventually Embracing him.

Ah sorry, I've gone off topic a bit...maybe I'll have Eric talk to Viktor and give him advice for fighting the bond.

@hels-valkyrie

hey,Sigrun I trust you a lot. This is like, weird for me to say but uh.

I wanna ask you – how do you feel about the ghoul stuff? How does Eric feel about it?

And I think I’m gonna break Viktor’s bloodbond. Or at least, I’m going to talk to him about it and try to figure out if that’s what he’d want. And I wanna like, ask for your help with it? If that happens I mean. I guess like, the withdrawal is…really really bad and I’m not gonna be able to do it myself?

So I just…Yeah. Don’t tell anyone okay?

thanks.

[hels-valkyrie]

I'm going to ramble a bit here for context, but it should eventually arrive to an answer.

Back during my first century of being a vampire, I went through a lot of ghouls. Mostly combat related deaths, those were violent times. But it gave me a chance to really get a feel for this whole ghouling thing.

My first ghoul took a sword for me without me asking because I had given him blood too often. Seeing as how I'm trying to die in battle I figured that was counterproductive, so as I raged across Europe looking for a worthy foe to kill me I also experimented with my ghouls.

I needed someone strong enough to protect me from being killed in my sleep, and tough enough to survive my training to turn them into a proper warrior, but I also needed someone with enough willpower to kill me if I can't find a worthy opponent elsewhere. Which meant that I needed to find a way to keep someone ghouled without having the blood bond make them useless.

The conclusion I came to is that in addition to staggering the feedings to prevent strengthening the bond, you also need to pick someone with real willpower. Someone with a strong enough spirit and an intimate knowledge of themselves that they can recognize the pull of the bond and reject it or redirect it.

Eric is my only ghoul since I awoke because...I saw in him that spark of defiance that should give him the edge to overcome the bond. Even with it strengthening after I just had to save his life, he shouldn't become too unlike himself, although I'll have to keep an eye on him in the meantime and figure out how to wean it down. He's useless to me if I can't count on him to come at me with the intent to kill if push comes to shove and no one else is good enough.

I think...these other vampires exaggerate the power of the weakest bonds. But they also seem to forget the power of the human spirit. A strong soul does not bend.

You know Viktor. You should know what he's like. Ask yourself...has he actually changed? Has his behavior shifted? If you trust the strength of his spirit enough...then you should trust him to hold this burden and resist the worst of the bond.

@hels-valkyrie

hey,Sigrun I trust you a lot. This is like, weird for me to say but uh.

I wanna ask you – how do you feel about the ghoul stuff? How does Eric feel about it?

And I think I’m gonna break Viktor’s bloodbond. Or at least, I’m going to talk to him about it and try to figure out if that’s what he’d want. And I wanna like, ask for your help with it? If that happens I mean. I guess like, the withdrawal is…really really bad and I’m not gonna be able to do it myself?

So I just…Yeah. Don’t tell anyone okay?

thanks.

[hels-valkyrie]

Really? I never met men shorter than me until we started raiding the British Isles and the skraelings we met in Vinland were closer to our height than the English, so I just always assumed that only people from those isles were that short. Everyone I've met since I woke up again have mostly been close to my height too.

Modern mortals believing anything below 5′10″ is short is the worst thing that could of ever happened for me honestly.

[hels-valkyrie]

5'10" isn't even that tall. I'm around that height and all the men from my village when I was alive were taller than me.

Modern mortals believing anything below 5′10″ is short is the worst thing that could of ever happened for me honestly.

[hels-valkyrie]

Listen, a lot of things have changed since I woke up again. But if there's one thing that hasn't it's that fish are plentiful and if you want a good hardy soup you throw some fish in. It was good enough for going viking and it's good enough now.

I no longer care for clan or sect alignment.

Only if you accept thick soup or not.

[hels-valkyrie]

Honestly, make it as thick or thin as you like.

But it's not good soup until it has fish in it. Or wild boar, but that's hard to find these nights.

I no longer care for clan or sect alignment.

Only if you accept thick soup or not.

[hels-valkyrie]

For your code of ethics maybe.

I just pick fights with people who are armed and take some of their blood as my rightly won spoils of war. Absolutely nothing dishonorable about that, and at the end of the night that's all that matters in my world.

No ethical consumption under vampirism,

[hels-valkyrie]

In my time you would have probably been a priest of some kind. We believed there was a magical quality to those who...transcended certain boundaries.

In these nights? Eric tells me you'd probably be an "influencer." The way he describes it just sounds like a cult leader to me.

I wonder like, what kind of job I would've had if my dad were like...a normal person and not some fucked up mafia don type.

[hels-valkyrie]

In humble home we met

Our humor fine

We band of seven and two

When descended from the sky

The steel birds of swirling wings

With their glowing eyes fixed upon us

It called forth our foes

It called forth their wrath

Up roared their great mother

The dragon of helixed wings

With a roar it spat upon us

The burning arrow of death

And streaked through that night sky

Did their anger fly towards us

Upon swift wings of flame

With intent of doom

As my band scattered

To flee and survive

To the roof I charged

To meet it head on

And so I took flight

To the sky that night

With mighty leap

And stout heart

With swift arm I threw

With muscles straining

My iron companion

The wolf of wounds

Did go hunting through the air

It clipped the wings of the great arrow

Sending it off course

To fall to the ground

With a roar of flame

The dragon's arrow burst

And thrown I was through the air

Carried by thunder

Tossed through walls

Into the home another

Burnt and battered

Pierced and punctured

And yet I survived

And yet my blood still stirred

So I took my fill

And marched back

I laughed in the face of death

And raised my axe in salute

Oh Odin! Look well upon me!

For this is only the beginning.

[hels-valkyrie]

Oh yeah. That was easy, I just took it back to the zoo and told it to wait for its keepers outside the enclosure. Gave it a burger as a reward. This Animalism stuff is easy, I should have learned it a long time ago.

@prodigal-son-reborn Congrats on the engagement!

So, you know any good pet stores around here?