#the viking's promise

[queenfinehair]

The Bartender

(Pt. || Here)

Pairing: Modern!Halfdan x Fem!reader (No use of Y/N)

Warning: Minors DNI. Alcohol use. Mentions of abuse. Just, please, adults only.

Disclaimer: Moodboard is made by me from photos found on Pinterest. I do not claim ownership.

Plain and simple? It was sleazy. A dive bar to be crowned the best by those who frequented it and labeled trash by those who never set foot in. The drinks were watered down, cheap and bitter. So why were you there in this seedy joint?

Him. Again. Plain and simple, your boyfriend had finally done it this time. This time you meant it when you left with a swelling right eye. This bar just happened to be the darkest one you had come across and by God, you needed a drink and fast.

"What'll it be?" A napkin in place of a fancy coaster is slid in front of you and you look up. A deep pair of inquiring honey-brown eyes are searching your face, waiting for both an answer and explanation.

"Oh, uhm, strongest thing you have. Top shelf, please." You're already beginning to gather the money needed to pay for this liquid therapy. A snort of a laugh makes you look up suddenly though, frowning already at the attitude.

"Lady, top shelf here doesn't exist, but I know just what you need. Tequila, straight up with a splash of lime. Trust me."

He wasn't condescending in tone but in your fragile state it still made you both frustrated and teary eyed. You quickly wipe at your eyes and flinch at the contact. "And a raw steak as well..." you mutter under your breath and put a $50 on the bar counter.

"You wouldn't want that either. Again, trust me." He laughs from his belly this time and nods towards the lame kitchen doors. "Food here'll give you poisoning faster than the drinks."

This gets you to smile small and thank him for the drink, "keep 'em coming. I'd rather not feel this tonight."

Taking the money from you, the man pauses for a better glimpse under the dim lights. They're enough to hide from but he knew better. "You runnin' from this guy?"

Shaking your head you take a gulp of the harsh liquor and hiss, "I wouldn't say running, exactly..."

"But?" He holds up a finger to an already drunk man down the way, signaling that he'd have to wait just a minute longer.

Another gulp, another hiss and you look into his eyes, "I need to get away. I need to hide and this place seemed the perfect fit for that. No offense meant, by the way."

He shakes his head with a large grin forming on his lips. "None taken. I'm Halfdan, by the way."

"Interesting name." you begin with your own introduction to the strange man behind the bar. You take another gander and only then do you see that his face is covered in an intricate and intriguing tattoo. The ink was slightly faded and looked to be a shade of blue... or was it black? In these lights the details were easily blurred into obscurity so you just shrug off the color and continue with your drink, noting that Halfdan had left the bottle on the bar. He'd left to help another patron with his needs.

With him helping the drunk male you take it upon yourself to grab the bottle and fill your glass up, smiling to yourself as the liquid courses through your system. Your eye would hurt like hell in the morning, but for now you were content.

"Mark, I told you, you're at your limit." Halfdan swears under his breath as he walks back to where you're sitting and raises an eyebrow at the bottle plopped in front of you. "And you..." He begins slyly, playfully taking it back and grabbing another, stronger tequila. "This is what you'd rather have, I'm guessing."

You finally omit a laugh and nod with enthusiasm, "what happened to no top shelf?"

"That's mostly for people like him," he points with his head, the hair that sits to only one side oglf his head swaying with the movement. "Mark! Go on, get!"

The two men have words and as Halfdan jumps the bar to escort drunk Mark out you watch his build. Slim was the first thing you notice, his tight black t-shirt clinging to his sweating body. Dark blue jeans cling to his hips legs. You stare a moment longer at his ass before raising your brows in appreciation, turning back to the alcohol in front of you.

-------‐---------

"So you've been with this guy 6 months, think it's true love, he's jealous and finally he beats you?" Plopping a peanut into his mouth, Halfdan blows out a breath and shakes the hair from his eyes. "Shit."

The bar is empty now and the time is late. You both have been sharing the bottle of tequila and have moved to a booth. It's shabby, torn and red in color but it's much more comfortable than the stool you'd been sitting on before. A small bowl of peanuts sits in front of you that's being shared and you snort out a laugh now.

"In a nutshell," a peanut is held up with a smile, "that's what happened." And into your mouth it goes. Halfdan watches the movement with wry fascination before he talks again.

"You deserve better than a raw steak on your eye, ya know." He motions with a finger the the very piece of raw meat that he'd gotten out for you. Noting how brown and out of date the steak had been though, you politely had rejected.

You both take a shot and wash it down with the juice of half a lime, licking salt off of the opposite hand and laugh together at the synchronization of your actions.

The old jukebox plays a slower song and you sigh, closing your eyes and letting your head fall down and you groan.

"Ahh, nope. I don't think so, not on my watch." Halfdan slams his hands on the booth table and stands up, swaying slightly. "C'mon then, darling, let's dance the pain away. I'm not good at it but I'll try."

You take his outstretched hand and stand as well, walking with the taller man to the so-called dance floor, laughing at the scuffed linoleum. "I'm sure you dance fine." Your words slur and he wraps his arms around your waist, bringing you close.

Your own arms wrap around Halfdan and his chin comes to rest on your head. The room sways with both your movements and the alcohol. A tear or two slides down your cheeks as you think of how nice this strange man is, far more kind than your ex-boyfriend.

"Halfdan..." you begin and as you move to look up, his glossy eyes catch your own. He looks from your eyes to your mouth and back again. The though crosses your mind as well and with so much of the liquid courage flowing through you both, you take the first move and kiss him.

He breaks away first, standing away from you now with both hands up in surrender, "I don't know..." He mutters your name and shakes his head before you take full control. Lightning courage has you in its hold as you close the distance.

"For some strange reason, Halfdan the Bartender... I trust you. Make me feel good. Better than I already do. Please."

He heaves a sigh and takes your hands in his, leading you to the door at the front, where he locks up, turns back and motions to you to follow him now, dropping your hands.

There's an upstairs to the bar hidden in the kitchen with slim, creaking stairs. A door stands in front of you as Halfdan works the locks, opening the stained door to a rather lovely living room.

"So," Halfdan admits sheepishly as he scratches the shaved side of his head, "Welcome to my place. Let's get comfortable."

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Tags; @naaladareia

[crystalline-fragmentation]

no words could possibly describe the sheer crystallized fucking insanity I felt yesterday watching the vote and the escalating bribe offerings, so here’s a silly doodle instead to commemorate the occasion

[lucreziagiovane]

I love the Borgias posts you make for Lucrezia, especially when you use real historical quotes.

I have a request if you don’t mind for Vikings Valhalla. Totally understand if you don’t want to

Could you please please please make a gifset post where on one side it’s Cnut’s Christian burial and on the other side it’s Cnut’s Viking funeral pyre at sea (also including Emma if possible scenes in her black mourning clothes and her red dress on the cliff). Those scenes were both so gorgeous and heartbreaking.

I even found a quote that you could use: "Emma’s tenure as queen lasted until Cnut's death in 1035. The union between Emma and Cnut was by all accounts one of mutual respect and affection. The queen was not only a consort, but also an active participant in Cnut’s government and policies." (Larsen, Karen. Canute the Great: 995 (circ)-1035 and the Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age. 1997)

Thank you so so much

hi!! thanks again <3 your request is still lined up with others as i've never forgotten about it :) but thanks for providing a quote and a specific scene for giffing! hopefully i'll start with it today after i come back from work 🙏

[worldclassbadass]

So. Vinland saga s2 ost came out yesterday. And right at the very start of the album, I can already tell that this album really came for my tearducts

[fieriframes]

[Love, a promise delivered already broken.]

[raposarealm]

Here are the quest victory quotes for Gunhild! I took the screenshots this time.

Top: It’s gonna pile up ahead of us, too..! Middle: I’m waiting for what lies beyond victory. Bottom: This is a small step...

As always, friendly disclaimer that my Japanese isn’t the best, as I’m still learning. If you spot a mistake, please let me know, and I’ll fix it!

[sydneysageivashkov]

I need you to know that, as a public librarian, warrior cats' books and graphic novels are still going out like crazy. books are still being published.

oh I know!! I actually made a habit of checking in on a semi-regular basis for a while so I could torment a friend with horrifying warriors trivia before we developed mutually assured destruction protocols when she started responding with horrifying star wars trivia

[starlooove]

Cheese Viking time. Ur baby screamed cheese Viking time and held his arms out like an airplane for fun. That’s who u threatened to send back to physically abusive family members. Over a future u weren’t even sure would happen.

[tyrannuspitch]

so you're telling me they sacrificed loki Again. in the let's talk about how fucked up sacrifice is show. in theory i want to withhold judgement bc with s1 i was always going nooo it's self subverting it's clever u don't get iiiit and bc i've only seen 2 eps of s2 but i will not lie the 2 eps i have seen were shit and this might be the last straw

[pronounrespector]

tonight, I shall curl up on thou couch with my hoodie that's two sizes too large, listen to the rain drumming against the windows, and drink my choccy milk while watching "fnaf movie tiktok edits complination" on YouTube like the man I am.

[viking-writing]

I have slowly began to write (editing previous chapters) on the fic series again...

Of course it feels weird and a little bit "empty" without that french baitch that I dedicated the story to. The same bitch that would just randomly ignore me months at a time before finally admitting how "she had changed now and had gotten other interests". Some days I still can't believe she did that, after all that I gave her of my time, money and passion for writing. Whatever. You have heard that sob story before already.

Point is; I know it will be weird these first weeks or even months, writing without her. But I know that feeling will pass. With time.

AAAnd of course my computer decided to suddenly "faint" and for a second I had to try and remember how I edited the chapters. I had to try and edited back to how I had improved it and I had to do it all over again! :)

LUCKILY THOUGH; My computer decided, very randomly, to save what I wrote anyway, but not before it had already given me a mini heart attack and the feeling of a stone in my throat :)

So Random :) Thank you my laptop! :)

I've learned my lesson; I've changed the settings to "Save automatically" and if that doesn't help then... next time my laptop decided to faint for 10 seconds and I find out that every bit of editing has been deleted... I swear to whatever god/s that exists or doesn't exist that I'll cry my eyes out in the corner (after tossing the laptop across the room! )

But so long, all is good! (For now at least!)

[blagueofchaos]

You like historical Viking shit too!?🥹

Heck yeah!!!

(Fun fact I searched "bro hug" to find that lol)

Yeah I'm 1/4 Norwegian and I was pretty into Norwegian history stuff growing up, and the viking era is an especially fun part of that :) We were having a viking day at work, and someday I will have one of those proper historically accurate viking dresses like the ones I was reblogging, but for now I'm pretty pleased with my loosely viking-y tunic look:

The tunic's from like a larp/renn faire type clothing store and it's just sort of generally Nordic, but I am quite fond of it. Also if I wanted to be more historical-looking I know I should've worn like boots, but the tennies are much more comfy for a long day of work. I also have a braided leather bracelet that really would've completed the look but I could not find it for the life of me this morning and I was late already so. But, I did have my viking sword necklace from the York viking museum and some other jewelry I felt like fit the Norse beadwork aesthetic decently. Also speaking of viking swords...

You can't just tell me it's a viking theme day and *not* expect me to bring my viking (foam larp) swords! Like, yes I know that swords were comparatively rare and only for the wealthy who devoted a significant amount of their attention to fighting vs the much more common ax which had multiple farm applications... but swords are cool. And I can be a rich warrior viking ;)

Also, "sword*s* as in plural?" you may ask... Heck yes, I reply.

I actually left them in my car all day but I just had to have them with me, and it worked out for photoshoot purposes. This longsword is the one I use more often when I swordfight my boyfriend because having a longer sword is definitely important in combat I've learned, but both are very fun to do battle with and also both bring me great joy when I look upon them :) I do think the short sword is a touch prettier though, and the hilt is fancier:

Plus the handle is actually leather-wrapped versus the longsword which just has a black foam grip, though I know you can't really see either very well under my hands.

So, yeah. You encounter me in the museum restroom, wyd? ;)

[betweenlands]

camera! - What's a headcanon or fanon concept that you like that you sometimes forget isn't canon?

pliking! pliking pliking pliking. it’s gotten to the point where sometimes i forget his character isn’t a system canonically and i consider singlet versions of VP to be au versions (at least instinctively). like i mean logically i know the truth but the way my brain categorizes it is “pliking canon bottom text”

[theotherside-oftherain]

girl help they are advertising my dream job but it's a fucking postdoc position

[astronicht]

Okay I'm almost done with Fellowship, here's an incomplete list of shit I noticed and thought was buck fucking wild on my first ever read-thru: medieval edition.

In literally the second line of the book, Tolkien implies that Bilbo Baggins wrote a story which was preserved alongside the in-universe version of the Mabinogion (aka the best-known collection of Welsh myths; I promise this is batshit). This is because The Hobbit has been preserved, in Tolkien's AU version of our world, in a "selection of the Red Book of Westmarch" (Prologue, Concerning Hobbits). If you're a medievalist and you see something called "The Red Book of" or "The Black Book of" etc it's a Thing. In this case, a cheeky reference to the Red Book of Hergest (Llyfr Coch Hergest). There are a few Red Books, but only Hergest has stories).

not a medieval thing but i did not expect one common theory among hobbits for the death of Frodo's parents to be A RUMORED MURDER-SUICIDE.

At the beginning of the book a few hobbits report seeing a moving elm tree up on the moors, heading west (thru or past the Shire). I mentioned this in another post, but another rule: if you see an elm tree, that's a Girl Tree. In Norse creation myth, the first people were carved from driftwood by the gods. Their names were Askr (Ash, as in the tree), the first man, and Embla (debated, but likely elm tree), the first woman. A lot of ppl have I think guessed that that was an ent-wife, but like. Literally that was a GIRL. TREE.

Medieval thing: I used to read the runes on the covers of The Hobbit and LOTR for fun when I worked in a bookshop. There's a mix of Old Norse (viking) and Old English runes in use, but all the ones I've noticed so far are real and readable if you know runes.

Tom Bombadil makes perfect sense if you once spent months of your life researching the early medieval art of galdor, which was the use of poems or songs to do a form of word-magic, often incorporating gibberish. If you think maybe Tolkien did not base the entirety of Fellowship so far around learning and using galdor and thus the power of words and stories, that is fine I cannot force you. He did personally translate "galdor" in Beowulf as "spell" (spell, amusingly, used to mean "story"). And also he named an elf Galdor. Like he very much did name an elf Galdor.

Tom Bombadil in fact does galdor from the moment we meet him. He arrives and fights the evil galdor (song) of the willow tree ("old gray willow-man, he's a mighty singer"), which is singing the hobbits to sleep and possibly eating them, with a galdor (song) of his own. Then he wanders off still singing, incorporating gibberish. I think it was at this point that I started clawing my face.

THEN Tom Bombadil makes perfect sense if you've read the description of the scop's songs in Beowulf (Beowulf again, but hey, Tolkien did famously a. translate it b. write a fanfiction about it called Sellic Spell where he gave Beowulf an arguably homoerotic Best Friend). The scop (pronounched shop) is a poet who sings about deeds on earth, but also by profession must know how to sing the song or tell the story of how the cosmos itself came to be. The wise-singer who knows the deep lore of the early universe is a standard trope in Old English literature, not just Beowulf! Anyway Tom Bombadil takes everyone home and tells them THE ENTIRE STORY OF ALL THE AGES OF THE EARTH BACKWARDS UNTIL JUST BEFORE THE MOMENT OF CREATION, THE BIG BANG ITSELF and then Frodo Baggins falls asleep.

Tom Bombadil knows about plate tectonics

This is sort of a lie, Tom Bombadil describes the oceans of old being in a different place, which works as a standard visual of Old English creation, which being Christian followed vaguely Genesis lines, and vaguely Christian Genesis involves a lot of water. TOLKIEN knew about plate tectonics though.

Actually I just checked whether Tolkien knew about plate tectonics because I know the advent of plate tectonics theory took forever bc people HATED it and Alfred Wegener suffered for like 50 years. So! actually while Tolkien was writing LOTR, the scientific community was literally still not sure plate tectonics existed. Tom Bombadil knew tho.

Remember that next time you (a geologist) are forced to look at the Middle Earth map.

I'm not even done with Tom Bombadil but I'm stopping here tonight. Plate tectonics got me. There's a great early (but almost high!) medieval treatise on cosmology and also volcanoes and i wonder if tolkien read it. oh my god. i'm going to bed.

edit: part II

[chef-alta]

I'm so sorry I've been inactive lately, i wish i could say i was busy being productive and making art, but in reality the depression been hitting :'))

in other news, started watching a new anime, binged it and am now addicted

also new url change! milktealorian ---> macaronatron (at least until i think of something cooler xD)