#this is about the Loki show specifically but it applies to quite a few others as well | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

satanourunholylord · 3 years

Text

Love and Love Making Among the Vikings

Below is an infodump post which focuses on these topics:

Courtship: The Viking Way

Good Personal Hygiene

Sex Before Marriage

Homosexuality being Acceptable (with limits)

Some Viking Marriage Customs That Survive Today

Viking Sexual Euphemisms

Acceptance of Adultery in the Viking Age

Viking Women Divorcing Their Husbands

Vikings in popular culture are often viewed as the brutes of the Dark Ages, robbing, raping and pillaging people and goods. However, an analysis of their personal lives shows a much different side. Family life was important to Norse men, and every proper, upstanding Viking aimed to marry and have children. And although their parents arranged their marriages, Norsemen liked to court their ladies- and made a special effort to impress them with their appearance.

As for Norse women, although they had to put up with their husband’s affairs with live-in mistresses, slaves and even other men, they had the right to divorce their partners for violence, neglect, and various sexually related issues. In fact, Norse customs of love, marriage, and sex set a high standard in their time- and some even survive to this day.

Courtship: The Viking Way

Courtship wasn’t strictly necessary in Norse culture as marriage was more about alliances than love. The prospective bride and groom’s families would command the negotiations, to create a match that would bind the two clans as allies – and sometimes end feuds. Many brides were promised as "peace pledges" to smooth troubled waters between rival families. Although the couple in question could voice an opinion, it was fair to say they had little choice but to go ahead with the match.

That didn’t mean there was no romance -but Norse men had to handle it carefully. If a potential groom was too slow in making advances to his prospective bride, the lady’s relatives could take this as a slight and seek blood vengeance. Eighteen courtships in the sagas ended in this messy fashion. On the other hand, it also didn’t pay to move too fast or stretch out the courtship too long. If the couple liked each other too much to wait for the wedding night, matters could become complicated by an unwanted pregnancy.

So attempts to cultivate what the Norse called ˜inn matki munr’ (‘the mighty passion’) were intricate and involved specific rituals. Meeting and talking was one way to forge a relationship. But some odd practices were also employed. For instance, if a girl wanted to show her man she liked him, she made him a shirt. As for Viking men, they would go out and handpick their lady a bunch of purple flowers- and then slap her around the face with it!

Love poetry, although a favorite of the Norse gods, was viewed with suspicion. In fact, Icelandic law forbade skalds to compose Mannsong, (‘maiden songs’) for women who were not married to them under the threat of outlawry or death. This suspicion came about because the Norse believed that the poems could act as spells to seduce and bind women. Worse still, such praises could suggest that the skald or his patron knew the lady more intimately than he should.

Even if they were not in love before the wedding, the couple would try and cultivate it afterward. Husbands would seat their wives next to them if they wanted to show affection. Couples could also express their closeness by sharing the same drinking horn. If a husband were feeling very affectionate, he would ˜put her on his lap’ where he and his wife could indulge in “kyssir hana’ – a kiss and a cuddle. Or he would put his head on her lap, and she would stroke his hair.

Good personal hygiene was a must

Central to making a good impression on a potential or actual partner was good personal hygiene and pride in one’s appearance. This practice applied to both men and women. Norse graves are packed with grooming essentials for the afterlife- regardless of whether they belonged to a man or a woman. Combs, toothpicks, tweezers and ear spoons were all familiar, demonstrating the Norse liked to be neat and tidy-and clean. The Arab, Ibn Fadlan may have felt horror at the Viking practice of sharing a communal wash bowl, but at least his Norse acquaintances washed their face and combed their hair daily.

In fact, the Norse were probably the cleanest people in the Dark Ages. According to the Saxon cleric, John of Wallingford, they bathed weekly, on a Saturday. Wallingford complained that this, and their habit of changing their clothes regularly, was to “ undermine the virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles to be their mistresses.” However, the Norse were not content merely to be neat and tidy. Ibn Fadlan also noted the Rus- Viking traders who occupied what is now modern Russia-favored bleaching their beards to a saffron yellow, using a strong lye soap.

This method was probably also used on the hair of men and women. Norse women would have been particularly keen on achieving the long, fair, shiny hair that was the feminine ideal, although the white skin that men also coveted was probably only managed by the wealthy. Men also favored long hair, as only slaves wore their hair close cropped. However, this did not mean they were unkept. Figurines show Viking men wearing their hair trimmed and their beards well groomed- either styled to a point or shaped as a goatee.

Finally, there was the question of clothing. When it came to making an impact, the Norse liked to dress to impress. As well as being clean, garments were brightly colored and adorned with the most costly array of jewelry you could afford. Cloak pins and arm rings all showed off status, impressing the object of your desire not only with your appearance but your wealth and prospects in life.

Sex before marriage was acceptable

It wasn’t always possible to marry the one you loved - or lusted after. The sagas make constant reference to “the illicit love visit.” In such cases, a young couple, forbidden from marrying would meet in secret. The sagas never mention sex occurring. However, it is highly unlikely the young man would risk a secret tryst simply to ˜talk’ to the object of his affections. The lovers, however, were said to ˜enjoy’ each other. A document detailing a wife’s dissatisfaction with her impotent husband because she couldn’t ˜enjoy‘ him suggests this is a term linked to sexual fulfilment.

Indeed, although female virginity was the ideal, it was just about acceptable for a woman to have had sexual relationships before her marriage-with certain provisos. First, she needed to have been discrete and not too prolific in her pre martial encounters. However, most importantly, she should not have had any children out of wedlock. This restriction was not for moral reasons. Illegitimate sons could become their father’s heirs- if he recognized them. Rather, society censured Illegitimacy because of the burden it placed on the maternal family, not because it was deemed wrong or shameful.

Illegitimate children were the responsibility of the mother’s family- and so a burden to it. It was they who ultimately supported the child. Even if the father acknowledged his child, he and his family were only obliged to provide two-thirds of its support. Worse yet, the mother probably lost all hope of marriage, as few men would want to take on the responsibility and expense of another man’s child. Thus her family would lose out further as she would gain no bride price and no family alliance. Thus chastity was often the safest bet.

For men, sex outside marriage posed no such strictures. They were free to indulge themselves however they pleased-as long as they submitted to marriage in the end. For to remain unmarried in Norse society was unacceptable. A man accused of shunning wedlock was said to be ˜fleeing from the vagina.’ Women who did the same were “fleeing from the penis.’ Such people risked becoming social outcasts because they were not fulfilling their ultimate role: the procreation of children for the survival of their families and society.

Homosexuality was acceptable- with limits

Pre Christian Norse views on homosexuality weren’t simple. On the face of it, Norse society accepted sexual relationships between men. However, there were restrictions. Firstly, such relationships could not interfere with any future or current marriage. So the man still had to marry- whatever his views on the opposite sex- and his wife and her family had to be prepared to ignore her husband’s male lover or lovers. It was most important that the man did not neglect his conjugal duties. He still needed to have sex with his wife.

More important was that no free Norse man was the passive partner in a homosexual relationship. Vikings would rape males and females when on raiding trips to shame, degrade and weaken them. To be penetrated was to be submissive. It was acceptable to gain pleasure from penetrating someone- but not from being penetrated yourself. One of the worst insults an enemy could hurl at a Norse man was “sordinn” (penetrated). Any man branded as such would fight to the death defend his honor. These conflicts led to Scandinavian law codes making such types of insult illegal because of the bloodshed, with the slanderer often outlawed- if the injured party didn’t kill him first!

However, if such abuse was believed or proven, it had grave consequences for the man in question. Although Norse myths tell of gods such as Loki and even Odin taking on a submissive role in sex, Norse mortal society did not tolerate passivity in men. The man in question would become a social outcast, branded "ergi” (unmanly). Such men were believed to lack the ability to be vital and virile members of society. They were deemed liable to be ineffectual as fathers and fighters- and as such of no use. Dominant homosexuals were quite another matter.

There is no mention of lesbianism in the tales. Nor are there any references in other Old Norse texts to female homosexual relationships, so we cannot gauge pre-Christian attitudes to female homosexuality. However, Icelandic Christian law suggests lesbianism did occur in Norse society. In the 12th century, Bishop Porlakr Porhallson decreed “if women satisfy each other they shall be ordered the same penance as men who perform the most hideous adultery between them or with a quadruped.”

The Eddas and some of the sagas also specifically mention Freja having sex with other women. In fact at a banquet Loki accused her of having slept all the other Aesir at one time or another, a claim which Freja never denied.

Some Viking Marriage customs survive today

The Norse held their weddings on a Friday, the day of Frigg, the goddess of marriage and fertility. The time of the year was also crucial. Late summer or autumn were the preferred times. This period of the year was harvest time, a time of abundance and plenty. A good supply of meat, fruit, and grain was essential to ensure an amply provisioned wedding feast.

One beverage was of particular importance. The ˜bridal ale’ was first consumed in a loving cup by the bride and groom at the marriage feast. The couple would use the mead-like brew to seal their union with a toast to Odin and Freya. The bridal ale was brewed with a good deal of honey, to ensure the fertility of the newlyweds. Their families gifted the couple with enough of this sweet beer to last them a month- a custom that gives us the modern term ˜honeymoon.’

Before the wedding, both bride and groom took a ritual steam bath. Although they did not wear special clothes for the wedding, both wore specific tokens on their special day. For the bride, this was a floral wreath upon her head. For the groom, it was a sword, purposely robbed from one of his family’s burial mounds (or an old family sword buried in a fake mound that he ritually disinterred.) This sword was presented to the bride at the exchange of vows, as a way of making her a custodian of his family line.

As is common today, the bride and groom exchanged rings- both finger rings and arm rings as they spoke their vows. Once the ceremony was complete, the “brud hlaup” occurred. This was a race run by both wedding parties to the feasting hall. Whoever arrived last served the ale. But before the bride could enter, she had to be escorted over the threshold by the groom. The Norse, like many pagan peoples, believed thresholds were dangerous places for in transition to a new stage in their life.

The groom would then thrust a new sword, a gift from his bride, into the central pillar of the house. The depth of the resulting cut was used to determine the success of their union. Then, after the feast, eight witnesses lighted the bridal couple to bed. The groom then removed the bridal wreath from the bride- a ritual deflowering before the real event.

Viking Sexual Euphemisms

The Vikings could be quite ˜direct’ about certain matters. However, they could also be rather coy about sex – or at least, so their stories suggest. The sagas had various ways to refer to sex that describe it in a rather round about way. A man about to have sex with a woman was said to ˜turn towards’ her, “laying his hand/arm/thigh ” on her. The rest was up to the audience’s imagination. However, what was clear was the man was in charge. He took the lead. His partner followed.

Once the action warmed up, the sagas implied the increased activity in similarly guarded terms. A couple in the throes of passion would ˜crowd together in bed” (hviluthrong) and ‘enjoy each other. ‘ If things were particularly raunchy, the tales would describe the man as enjoying a good old brolta a maga or ˜romp on her belly’ or describe the couple as ˜travelling together.” Once they had exhausted themselves, the couple spent the aftermath at ˜hvila meth henna ” (rest with her), or he would ˜amuse one’s self.’ This activity referred to him enjoying a quiet conversation or game of cards with his partner.

However, the everyday terms used by the Vikings were probably not quite so reserved, judging by sexual words they have bequeathed to modern times. The Old Norse ˜thviet’ for a cut or slit began life as a sexual euphemism for a particular part of the female anatomy. Gradually it evolved into the old English ˜thwat’ and later into the more familiar twat which is used today as a term of abuse. The same occurred with another Old Norse word for the female genitals “Kunta’.

However, not all euphemisms were this crude. In contrast to these rather basic sexual terms, the Old Norse for sexual desire was “munuth.” This word derives from the root word for love “mun‘ and that of thought or memory ˜hugr,’ making the sexual impulse a ˜love thought.’ So perhaps the Vikings could be romantic souls after all.

Adultery was acceptable for Viking men, but not their wives

Many Norse men adored their wives, judging by the last words of one man just before he was hung:

” Happy am I to have won the joy of such a consort; ” said the condemned man of his wife. “I shall not go down basely in loneliness to the gods of Tartarus. So let the encircling bonds grip my throat in the midst; the final anguish shall bring with it pleasure only, since the certain hope remains of renewed love, and death shall prove to have its own delights. Each world holds joy, and in the twin regions shall the repose of our united souls win fame, our equal faithfulness in love “(Saxo Grammaticus)

Sadly, however, not everyone practiced “faithfulness in love” The basic requirement of a Norse man was to produce children with his wife. He was not, however, obliged to be faithful. Norse men could keep concubines known as frilles – lower status women who they did not marry and who lived with the man and his wife. According to Adam of Breman, a man could keep as many frilles as he could afford. Society regarded any children from these liaisons as legitimate.

Norse men also kept bed slaves. These unfortunate women had little choice in whether or not they lay with their master. Nor was it a great advantage to be the master’s favorite. Ibn Fadlan described witnessing a Viking funeral where the favoured bed slave of the deceased man was killed to accompany him to the afterlife. However, the one taboo liaison for a Norseman was to lie with another man’s wife. For this, he could be fined or killed.

Wives, however, were expected to remain faithful, probably because of the possibility of falling pregnant with a child that was not her husband’s. It’s unlikely that every wife did remain constant. However, if anyone caught a woman being unfaithful, the penalties varied. At best, her hair would be cut off. At worst, she could be divorced or fined- or killed. Adam of Breman even states that she could be enslaved.

Viking women could divorce their husbands

Viking women may have had to put up with their spouse’s affairs. However, they didn’t have to put up with their husbands ‘until death‘. Although a Norse wife could not divorce her husband for being unfaithful, there were other circumstances where it was perfectly acceptable. If her husband hit her, a woman could fine him. If he abused her in front of witnesses, not only did the fine apply, but his wife could divorce him after the third blow.

There were also various sexual reasons why a wife could divorce a husband. Men who dressed in feminine clothing such as low cut shirts, for instance, could be cast off, as could those who were homosexual- even if they were the dominant partner. A wife could object to the lack of discretion in homosexual liaisons – or the attention they distracted from her relationship with her spouse. In each case, the now ex-wife could claim back her original dowry and any inheritances she received during the marriage.

Another, perhaps surprising reason for divorce was if a man did not satisfy his wife sexually. A man who had refused to have sex with his wife for three years could be set aside. Likewise, if he could not perform or was leaving his wife sexually unfulfilled, he was at risk of being divorced. For if a couple wasn’t having sex, they weren’t producing children. Also, an unhappy marriage bred bitterness and resentment that could boil over into violence and family feuds. So it was better for a sexually unsatisfied woman to look elsewhere for a partner.

Judging by the sagas, it was the women who generally instigated divorce. All that was required was for them to assemble witnesses, cite their reasons and declare themselves divorced. This had to occur three times: in their bedroom, in front of the house and before a public assembly. It was Norse women’s one significant freedom. For if they were to remain tied to one man, run his home and land and put up with his lovers, the least they could expect was satisfying sex life.

151 notes · View notes

maxwell-grant · 3 years

Note

If someone were trying to make a new character inspired by pulp heroes, but the new character had to be a teenager, what existing pulps heroes should they look to for inspiration?

I'm not exactly in touch with the yoof so I could be off the mark here, but let's talk about teenager characters for a bit.

Now, I could just tell you to look for characters that appeal to you and use them as a baseline and that's probably the best advice here, but if you want the essay and history lesson: American pulp fiction didn't used to market much to teenagers. Teenagers as a consuming market haven't always been the all-encompassing force they are considered today, and the pulps were largely marketed either towards young boys, or for working class men, mostly the latter. This is part of why teenagers tend to show up in these stories largely as sidekicks, which was something carried over to comic superheroes, and part of why Spider-Man was such a breakout hit, because he was a teenage superhero who was not a sidekick.

The biggest pre-1950s traditional pulp hero I can of who was a teenager would be Jack Harkaway, an 1871 penny dreadful adventurer who would go on to be published overseas, one of those characters who was big enough in his day to inspire imitators a plenty but didn't quite make it past a specific time period. Comic strips had plenty of kid or teenage protagonists who are a bit closer to pulp heroes, like Tintin or Terry Lee, one in particular I'm highlighting above is Ledger Syndicate's Connie Kurridge, arguably the first female adventure hero of American comics. Overseas you can find a couple of prominent examples of teenage adventurers published in what we call the pulp era, the biggest and most influential of which being The Famous Five, but as I stated in answering whether Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys were pulp heroes, these were not published in pulp magazines, instead their direct opposites in glossy and reputable paperbacks.

There are other examples of pulp heroes who were teenagers and not sidekicks, but nearly all of them are very obscure and you will probably not find much material for them. And the thing is, these characters were not made for teenagers. They were made, for the most part, by grown-ups, and for grown-ups, and I can't say any of them ever really grabbed a teenage audience. Usually, it's the 60s as an era that really starts to pander to and include teenagers at the forefront of storytelling, so a good start for you might be to look at what was going on in the 60s-onwards worldwide in the realms of pulp and pulp-inspired works, which probably means you're going to have to look outside of the US.

Another word of advice would be to look up characters that are beloved by teenagers. I don't think "teenager" is a great baseline trait to start building a character, but if that's the number one priority to you, then ideally you should look for a good baseline of what appeals to that demographic, what appealed to you at that age and why. You're probably going to wind up with a lot of anime anti-heroes in your research though, because teenagers are deeply miserable creatures and few things appeal more to them than characters who are miserable but they act cool and badass and edgy about it. Teenagers are forced to live with the miserable reality of being teenagers with little to no upsides, so I think teenage characters could benefit more from being based on the kinds of characters teenagers would ideally want to read about.

So, "cool, badass and tortured character super popular with angsty teenagers", "rooted in and subverting older storytelling traditions for a fresh new audience", and "60s pulp hero". I think Elric is probably as good of a place as any for you to start.

Elric wasn't just popular, he wasn't even just popular with teenagers (boys and girls alike, which is also quite the feat), he was "cool". He was avant-garde, he was the hip new thing on the block. He wasn't Conan or Bond or Batman, and you'd hardly mistake him for a hero. He got the rock albums and fans tattooing him. He was penned by the guy who was openly called the "anti-Tolkien". Elric was Loki before Loki, the edgy anti-hero before them all. The emaciated warrior with white hair and black clothes and a demonic sword who suffered in a cool way, cool in his uncoolness. When I think of pulp heroes who achieved a substantial popularity among teenage audiences, Elric is definitely the first that comes to mind.

Another good example might be Captain Harlock, easily one of the premier Pulp Heroes among manga and anime due to how heavily Leiji Matsumoto incorporates pulp space opera into everything he does. Not only directly influenced by it, Matsumoto even has actual pulp credentials as an illustrator for C.L Moore's Shambleau, Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry. The space pirate, while not created in manga and anime, is one of Japan's premier pulp hero archetypes, and Harlock's as good of a baseline to work with as any.

The most popular pulp-inspired works nowadays among teenage or younger audiences are definitely the ones derived from pulp horror, several creators have been getting a lot of mileage these past decades out of plundering and remixing stuff from it. The big ones are Lovecraft and related works like The King in Yellow, but because they soak up all the attention, it also means that people are sleeping on authors like John W. Campbell, William Hope Hogdson, Clark Ashton Smith and Karl Edward Wagner, Nictzin Dyalhis and Olaf Stapledon, and many, many more, which gives you a lot of narrative real estate to work with should you take this direction.

Additionally, one thing that you could consider is that, for a very large portion of the history of pulp fiction, a significant amount of the most popular stories and characters were those that were based on celebrities and real life figures. The biggest of dime novel protagonists was Buffalo Bill, and following him was Nick Carter, a literary equivalent to Eugen Sandow (the Schwarzenegger of his day). Thomas Edison inspired an entire subgenre of dime novel fiction, even Jack the Ripper was a pulp protagonist in Dutch magazines, because sometimes the term "pulp hero" doesn't take the "hero" part much into account.

The precedent for celebrity stories is older than pulp fiction itself, but it was in the dime novels and novelettes and pulps that the idea really found it's footing. The Shadow's exploits took a lot from Gibson's own experiences with Houdini (who himself starred in fictional stories, one famously penned by Lovecraft). Doc Savage was visually modeled after Clark Gable and supposedly inspired on Richard Henry Savage. Eddy Polo, Charlie Chaplin and Tom Mix were the protagonists of several pulps and comic strips across the world, as well as Al Capone (who starred in pulp magazines in Germany and Spain), who fought Nick Carter in a Brazilian story guest-starring Fu Manchu (reportedly based on real figures Sax Rohmer claimed to have met) and Fantomas. Today obviously there are much greater restrictions at play concerning celebrity images, but if dime/pulp magazines were around today, we would have quite possibly seen figures like Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton and Lil Nas X either star in their own magazines or be used as models for rising protagonists.

So I guess one other way you could go on about creating a pulp hero, who's either a teenager or appeals to teenagers, would be the route of taking a look at some celebrities that either are, or appeal to those demographics, because if pulp magazines had stayed around unchanged past the 60s and 80s and whatnot you definitely would have seen the likes of David Bowie, Will Smith and Dwayne Johnson get their own magazines. I don't know much about what celebrities are popular with teenagers these days and I'm not about to start caring now, but you could take a look at some icons you like, or liked when you were younger, and think about what made them appealing to think about as characters, and how you could apply that to something closer to a pulp story.

A word of advice would also be that, if you want to make a character inspired by pulp heroes, if you want to create a convincing modern pulp hero, you might want to look less at the pulp heroes themselves and instead those that they were inspired by or working to defy and stand out when compared to. You take the building blocks and rearrange them in a different way. If you have a specific character you want to design yours in reference to, you can send me an ask or a DM about them and I'll dig into my files to give you a few pointers, and what kind of history or cultural predecessors they have that you could take a look at to make something more genuine.

#replies tag #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #jack harkaway #captain harlock #elric of melnibone #bloodborne #darkest dungeon

101 notes · View notes

missorgana · 3 years

Text

would everything be different today?

characters/pairings: thor and loki, loki/mobius

fandom: marvel cinematic universe

rating: general

word count: 3913

warning: canon character death

summary: Prior to Loki's arrest, Thor attempts to save them and is arrested by the TVA himself. And sure, he doesn't understand much of this institution, but he's pretty sure this Mobius has taken a liking to his younger sibling. (pre-canon, thor pov)

(still obsessing over loki, who’s surprised? no one! half of this fic was written at 2am when i was Not sober, my beloved Cat / @howgodforgives read it for me tho because they’re perfect!! 💖 this is an au... supposed to happen pre-canon... inspired by this post and this post, i love them too much and simply mashed the 2 concepts together so ya. enjoy ??)

read on ao3

Thor thought he could just do one thing. And when Steve revealed his plan about utilizing their time traveling device, just one last time, the offer his friend came with for him to go back was something he had to.

He had a chance to save Loki.

Now, he knows this is far from thought out, far from logical, and Thor never told Steve when he himself was traveling to. They trusted each other, Avengers and all.

Thor knows he could save their mother, too, if he wanted, but perhaps grief was clouding his vision because he’s simply lost too many, and he’ll be damned if he’d let Loki slip away from him after everything they’ve been through.

They were making progress… weren’t they?

It surely couldn’t be another one of his tricks, and although Thor has been naive in the past, he simply can’t lose her. Not now. Not yet.

And so he goes back for them, and he gets there, he’s on the ship, Heimdall and Loki and Valkyrie and Korg and Thanos , and Thor’s never been prone to irrational anger, he tries , but everything happening all over again in such an overwhelming way nearly has sparks jumping from eyes and fingertips.

Thor is so close. And then he isn’t.

He can’t comprehend what happens, but he’s out of time, out of place, and he’s in what resembles most those office buildings he’s seen so many of Midgard. Being crammed in an elevator with these strange people gave him eerie flashbacks to Sakaar, until he’s finally greeted by a significantly short human, brown suit, silver hair and moustache and a lop-sided grin.

Naturally, Thor smiles back in the midst of his confusion, it’s only good manners, you hear.

“Ah!” the man exclaims, patting his elbow with the other hand guiding him forward, “The god of thunder himself! Mighty pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

He nods, following, unsure still what’s going on. But Thor’s made too many enemies of a human lifetime, a long time ago, and he wouldn’t want to get on these humans’ bad side, even though they technically kidnapped him… peculiar.

If Loki was here, they’d probably have their knife ready at lightning speed. Classic Loki.

“Well, thank you! I wish I could say the same, but I’m not sure… where I am,” Thor answers. This really does look like an office, one the Midgardians had a decade or so, probably, before they updated themselves. Modernization, that’s what it’s called, silly humans.

“Fair is fair,” the grey haired human turns to him, “Welcome to the Time Variance Authority, TVA for short! I think I speak for everyone here when I say we’re excited to have you here.”

The man chuckles, and Thor doesn’t know if it’s to himself or directed towards him, until the human shrugs. There’s still two of those persons with weaponry and strange glowing devices on either side of them, and it seems his new acquaintance realises the need for explanation.

“Well, technically, you’re not staying as much as… you’re under arrest,” he then says, smile turning hesitant and scratching his cheek.

Arrest?!

That’s certainly a surprise, given human laws don’t really apply to his own kind. Of course, Avenging has different rules and such… but alas.

It seems his new friend notices his eyes widen, significantly, “But don’t worry, buddy! You’re a special case, of course.”

Thor stammers, he always feels a certain embarrassment over himself when this happens, “May I- may I ask for what offense? I don’t mean to offend, these quarters are quite splendid, but Midgard and Asgard operate different-”

“Oh no,” the man interrupts, keeping a quick pace, “I’m afraid this isn’t Midgard, big guy. The TVA, we, well, control all of time!”

The guards escorting them, they must be guards, stop at the same time Thor stops in pure shock. His father never mentioned anything like this. Is this part of the nine realms? He wonders who these people are, if not human. They surely cannot be gods?

“You control… time?”

“Exactamundo! The sacred timeline, to be precise. Let me show you,” his new acquaintance guides him further with that, until they reach a strangely void room, a single table, pair of chairs and some sort of machine the only things in sight. One of those Midgardian ‘computers’?

And when he’s seated (the chair isn’t quite built for a god of his stature, but he shouldn’t complain, politeness is key, of course), this strange man shows him what appears to be a video. A video of… his life. Thor’s life, that is.

This is absurd. “How do you know this? What-”

“We know everything, buddy,” the man tells him, shuts down the device, grin sheepish, “It’s in the job description, you see?”

Thor doesn’t know what to think, rather, his mind feels somehow numb.

He was just with Loki, she was there, within his grasp, then… this. Thor also doesn’t know how long he sits staring at his acquaintance in confusion until another thought dawns upon him, “Do you have Steve Rogers, too?”

The grin lessens, mouth forming a small o, but the man nods once, “Ah, yes, another department. You two sure know how to cause trouble, huh?”

So he gets an answer, but it leaves him none the wiser, or clearer headed, or understanding. It rather feels like those sort of outlandish dreams children have, like he had when he was younger.

But what can he do? Just face this head-on?

Thor wonders if Heimdall can see him right now. Not… his Heimdall, another Heimdall, who might be alive. A Loki who might be alive, if he can save them.

“May I ask one more question of you, uh…”

“Mobius M. Mobius, at your service.”

“Ah,” he replies, and hesitantly smiles back at the grin he receives, “Then why am I here? This department , I mean?”

The stranger, Mobius, chuckles. It’s short handed and with the professionalism of those Midgardian businessmen with replicated suits and briefcases and phones chiming them down. Is this Mobius even human? More Asgardian?

“We’re in need of assistance, you might say,” he finally answers, and turns to power up the machinery once more, “And I, for one, have a feeling you might be invaluable for the cause.”

Although Thor is not sure he yet understands everything in this strange world he’s now come into, this new friend, Mobius, is very educational, and while the thought of being arrested wasn’t all too pleasing, apparently, they wished for him to work for them, instead.

His offence, that’s yet another thing he still doesn’t understand. Thor wasn’t aware of this, uh, this Sacred Timeline , as they call it. Surely a god of his status should’ve been told, shouldn’t he?

He comes to wonder if their father ever knew about this.

Thor is fairly sure about one thing, that Odin wouldn’t possibly have told them, had he had that knowledge. And what about Hela?

But he quickly learns not to think about this too much, and he counts about three Asgardian weeks in the TVA, although he has no idea how time works here , at all. Mobius always says it’s too complicated to explain, maybe he thinks Thor wouldn’t understand.

Loki always said he was as dumb as a doornail. But she never meant it out of spite, he reasons, surely, they’ve always had that sense of humor between the two of them. He loves Loki very much, even when she lets him down. He only hopes his younger sibling feels the same.

Speaking of Loki, that is another thing Thor learns in this weird world- uh, city? Country? Timeline? The TVA is its own thing entirely.

But what he learns, much like his whole life, is that his destiny will forever and always be tied to Loki, and Loki’s to his. Because his new friends at the TVA hired him to find, and catch, his younger sibling and bring them in for a similar crime to his own.

Although he’s also killing people in the process, Mobius explains much to Thor’s horror, and he’ll have to make sure Loki’s not hurt when he finds him, and ask him why this bloodshed is necessary. Again.

Of course, there must be a good reason as to why she’s doing it, he had a good reason to mess with the timeline himself, he must say, and Loki is incredibly clever, his younger sibling’s grand scheme must be extraordinary. He just wishes she wouldn’t hurt other people in the process, they’ve been over this, but she was getting better!

As Mobius put it, “You know them better than anyone, pal, I’ve got a hunch you’re the only one who can find out where they’re hiding. Well, besides themselves.”

Yes, Thor was not certain this was a good idea.

He traveled back in time to save his younger sibling, not cause him even more pain. But Mobius seems somewhat trustworthy, and very polite. He assured him justice would be served fairly, and even a lesser punishment considering the help he himself provides!

Sometimes, Thor has to follow his gut. Loki always hated this trait of his.

This work proves tricky, and tedious, and of course, his sibling is sneaky and manages to escape the TVA time and time again, and if they would just bring Thor with them, surely, he could talk to her. Not apprehend her, but communicate . Not everyone here trusts him as much as Mobius, though, regrettably.

What is curious about his new friend, and Thor’s spent a few nights now racking his brain about this, is that some of the questions he’s posed about Loki are quite specific.

They must be important for the case, he figures.

Just a week ago, hunched over files and files of timeline lingo and alternate futures that Thor has several conflicting emotions about reading, the grey haired man looked up from his scribbles and met his eye.

“Say, Thor,” he started, scratching his chin and twirling the pen in his hand, “Loki ever tell ya what they fancy for dinner?”

And the god had to blink, shuffling the papers. Did he hear it correctly?

“Dinner?”

“I mean, humans, they have favorite foods, you know? Like, preferences,” he chuckled, “I only assume Asgardians are similar?”

Thor smiles as he does when in situations where he doesn’t understand what’s going on, but simple curiousity never hurt anyone. This person’s strange, stranger than the Avengers, but he loved them all the same. “Of course. Loki’s very fond of goat. Herring, too, and our mother’s apple pie.”

Mobius nodded with a grin, and spoke no more of the subject, until two days later (Thor thinks it was two days, as mentioned before, time here confuses him profusely), where his friend inquired him about his younger sibling’s eye color.

They’re blue, clearly.

More muted than Thor’s own, but never grey, although some of these files have wrongly informed otherwise.

Really, this interest Mobius reveals in his younger sibling doesn’t faze him at first, but he’s thinking about it more and more often, as it turns out. And today, when the suited man asks him if Loki might be interested in water sports, it only sends Thor further into the obyss of confusion.

Firstly, he’s not sure what these water sports entail. Second, although he doesn’t doubt Mobius is a reasonable man, what does this have to do with arresting Loki?

“Forgive me,” Thor replies, “What are, uh… water sports?”

“Oh, yes! Sorry, big guy. Ya know, jetskis are quite fun for humans and otherwise. Diving, too. You think Loki would like that sort of thing?”

The god finds himself worrying his lip with little answer to the peculiar question. “Perhaps. They love adventures, you see, that’s a thing we have in common. You think Loki’s hiding somewhere, with, uh… jetskis?”

The grey haired man shrugs. Quite strange.

Then his friend continues as they walk along the hall, past several hunters and seemingly high security offices, “She must like jokes, right?”

“Oh, of course.”

Mobius laughs, “I figured,” and his smile isn’t aimed at Thor, but somewhere into the open air, distant and unexplainably fond, “God of Mischief, pranks in his blood. I’m not too bad myself.”

“Huh?”

When the shorter man opens the door for him, he shrugs again, “Sorry, buddy, this way. I mean, they’re incredibly witty. Don’t need to tell you that, I get it. I heard this joke from a Variant, I think they might like that one. You know it? So once there was-”

And so Mobius continues on, the joke must be brilliant, he’s already wheezing to himself, but now, the god’s pretty sure he understands.

Oh.

Thor’s not as stupid as Loki claims, you see. And he has to say, he knows courtship when he sees it.

Does Thor understand why his younger sibling- or, a version of her, regardless, is hiding out in historic apocalypses ? No, there’s not much logic in this, but it’s certainly in no way surprising.

Loki’s got a knack for adventures and danger simultaneously, after all.

But when he realises what Loki’s doing, he simply has to go, even if his moustached friend isn’t sure how to clear it with the TVA, or if it’s breaking the rules, but isn’t this what they assigned the god to do in the first place?

This is his younger sibling. Loki’s alive. And Thor, well, like he’s done all his life, and like Loki’s done all their life, one must always follow the other, at one point or the other. It’s fate, he decides.

And he finds him, finally , after what feels as hundreds of millions of human years and even longer of their own, in the human city of Pompeii.

Loki isn’t exactly pleased to hear the TVA coming, that much is obvious from his face, but Thor is alone, and it’s only a matter of time before Mobius arrives, so Thor must find a chance to talk to his sibling alone.

And his sibling’s face changes from the expectant grin of a plan to kill the minutemen when they arrive to a gaping mouth in shock. Then realisation. Then frustration.

“Loki!”

And the god of mischief groans, exasperated and loud, the screams of the civilians barely fazing them, “Thor.”

It’s a matter of time, then, because they don’t have much time before they’ll be sunken into the ground they’re standing on, and like Thor first started out his adventure in the Sacred Timeline, his first thought is to get Loki out of there.

It’s his first priority, to keep her safe. There’ll be no death. Not today. Not again.

His younger sibling has their eyes on the volcano as well, their many differences being so in sync at the strangest of times, and before Thor can even think about it, Loki reaches for his arm and they’re teleported somewhere- and some… when? else entirely.

It’s eerily quiet here, a distant rumble from the sky. Rocks as far as he can see. Darkness, besides bolts of lightning striking into the ocean before them, and blinking lights distantly behind them.

And here Loki is; a Variant like himself, as Mobius called it. Breathing.

“Why is it,” she nearly yells, clutching the strange device in her hand and giving Thor that familiar glare of destruction, “You always find a way, somehow, anywhere, to ruin my perfect plan, brother? How? How are you here, you damn fool!?”

The insult is as it always is, and Loki looks like his blood might nearly boil over, but Thor just can’t help it.

He feels the tears in his eyes before they even fall. “Loki.”

“What-”

It’s only a small handful of times in all the centuries they’ve lived that he’s managed to stun his sibling into silence, a loss of words. This is another incident to add to the list.

Thor grips on so tight, he never wants to let go.

He can’t remember the last time they hugged, actually. It might’ve been when they were children.

Loki pats on his back, after a minute or two, and a breath of annoyance and… something else sounds at the same time as his own staggering breathing. His sibling’s never returned his hugs, you see, but she’s doing it now. At least, Thor surely wouldn’t mistake her holding onto him, albeit not as tightly as himself.

They sigh, “What has gotten into you now, you idiot?”

Thor laughs. It’s strained, but it feels good. That one, that’s a thing he’s missed. Loki will surely think he’s lost his mind, but there’s nothing he’d rather do right now than listen to him call him the crudest things they could think of.

It feels like coming back home.

“You’re alive,” Thor whispers.

Loki huffs. “You’ve fallen for my fake death, huh? You fall for it every time.”

He shakes his head in response, knowing his sibling won’t be able to see it, but ultimately lets go, and just looks at them. He smiles. Weirdly, hesitantly, confusedly, Loki smiles back.

“You’re an idiot,” she tells him again, but it’s softer this time.

“Where have you taken us?” Thor asks instead, and the answer is for once a place he knows of, “This is Midgard, brother, but way after the humans. In about an hour, it’ll be nothing but dust.”

That’s a frightening thought, he decides. He’s already seen Asgard in ruins.

And Thor has to take him somewhere safer, before Mobius arrives. They can’t go back to the TVA without some explanation, Loki deserves that.

His sibling seems severely surprised when he uses his own device, and a protest begins, of course, but Thor finds the right time, in Asgard, and jumps them both to it. Before their mother’s death. They’ll have to steer clear of the past versions of themselves, and their parents, and anyone else, considering Loki was imprisoned, but they’ll be safe.

And easy to spot.

“Now is not a time for a homecoming, Thor,” she tells him, already pulling up the device.

“Loki, no,” he reaches out, and Loki reaches for their knife, classic Loki, “Give me time to explain, before they come.”

He rolls his eyes but doesn’t raise the knife, “You’re not taking me to the TVA, brother.”

Thor blinks. He almost wants to rewind time on that little screen in his hand, to make sure he heard them right, but stranger things have happened. “You know about the TVA?”

“Of course I do, you buffoon. Who do you think I’m running from?”

He bites his tongue. Oh.

Thor has to shrug. Loki sighs again.

“I know, I know, they’ll arrest me for crimes against the Sacred Timeline ,” they say, in an overly dramatic voice and throwing around their hands in flourish, “I can’t believe they got you to help them. I can’t believe you found me.”

It feels quite like the good, old days, as Stark used to say. “I know you, Loki, even if you don’t think I do.”

They both settle into silence, and this is also strange, but the smile he gets in return, less confused and more nostalgic and… safe, it makes it worth it.

Then, the device in Thor’s hand beeps, and he lets his sibling look at it, and he looks all the more annoyed again.

“Guess I’ll have to surrender now, because of you,” she grumbles, for once, not searching for an escape route, “Who’s leading, anyway? B-15?”

Thor pats his shoulder, in what he hopes conveys comfort. “I’m not familiar, unfortunately. This leader is named Mobius.”

His sibling frowns, but shrugs non committedly, “A new face, then.”

It’s not very often Thor sees Loki in this state, confusion, if ever. His younger sibling’s always been one step ahead of them, two, even, himself struggling to keep up. That’s why he’s always had to watch out for them, before… before the Avengers.

“He seems very interested in you,” he chuckles, and when Loki only frowns deeper, he has to explain his ongoing suspicion, “He’s asked me a great many questions about you. I believe he admires you very much. Even more than myself.”

“So he’s a fan,” Loki says - ignoring the last statement of his, of course, but Thor knows she heard it.

“I’d say more than a fan,” he decides to be honest, and Loki’s brows furrow. Thor pats his sibling’s shoulder once more, “He holds, it seems, similar feelings to when I was courting Lady Jane.”

Loki looks like a giant question mark. ��I beg your pardon?”

But they’re interrupted, as per usual. The answer Thor wants out doesn’t get out before Mobius steps out of the time portal, and grins at them both. He seems to hold his gaze at his sibling a little bit longer. His demeanor’s calm, as if… recognition. Coming back home.

And Loki stares back at their brother, eyes wide and brows raised, tilting her head, “This is the Mobius who wants to… court me?”

Thor nods. Loki’s mouth turns upwards to a grin, mischief absent from his face. And even if they’ll deny it if Thor mentions it, his younger sibling’s eyes hold a certain warmth when they look back at the stranger. “I see.”

Many great strange things have happened in what seems a short amount of time, but Thor’s put out of work at the TVA, and his sibling’s put to work instead, and Mobius tells him they’ll reset him.

“Don’t worry, big guy, it doesn’t hurt,” he chuckles, adjusting his tie, “Your friend Steve had the same deal. Wouldn’t call it punishment, but it’s subjective. You did good work, ya know.”

Loki’s sat at Mobius’ now abandoned desk, one hand on a stack of case files, her eyes meeting with Thor’s own. They’re used to goodbyes, as you can tell. And emotions aren’t exactly their strongest suit.

But his sibling nods to him. The smile has no hints of sarcasm, so he counts it as a win. As progress.

Thor doesn’t know if he can stop worrying, after all. He’ll always do it, and what if he, another version of himself, tries to go back in time again?

Loki’s the only family he has left. But at the same time, his younger sibling is right.

The sun will shine on us again. In another timeline, another universe, he figures. For now, Thor will have to let go, but they’ll always be connected after all. Thor and Loki couldn't be more different, but somehow the same.

“She’ll be safe here?” he asks, because he has to, “You’re certain?”

Mobius smiles, like he’s heard it a million times before, “I promised you. I keep my promises, Thor.”

Of course. Of course. It’ll be fine. He’ll be fine.

“You ready?” his suited friend then asks, and he hesitantly nods.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The man nods back, and the device in his hand lights up. The seconds seem excruciatingly long, but he’s got to get back, get moving, even without his younger sibling beside him. It’s a comforting thought, knowing there’s many more of them out there, in other timelines, following each other over and over again, as they’re meant to.

“Thank you, by the way,” Mobius then says, strangely enough, as the beams become stronger and the seconds count down. He winks before holding it out to Thor, a gesture for the reset to be complete, “For bringing them back to me.”

29 notes · View notes

mobiues · 3 years

Text

headcanon : more tva lore, but this time what mobius does specifically. and maybe a general timeline on whatever tf is happening with him up until the tv series. you know the rules, folks. if canon says otherwise sometime in the future, things will change.

warning: and PLEASE DO NOT REBLOG as this is a private headcanon i have that applies specifically to my own portrayal and interpretation.

division. mobius describes his job scope as “pursuing dangerous variants” but make no mistake, this man is a scholar. he’s been described as an academic many times by show creators and mr h/iddleston himself, and how i see this can be interpreted as, is him working under a specific Behavioural Study of Dangerous Variants Division — the quickest way i can describe his job is likening it to the Behavioural Analysis Unit in FBI, aka it uses behavioural analysts to assist in criminal investigations.

role ( on-field ). that being said, while mobius is authorised and has gone out for field-duty many times, the procedure to which one may operate while on-field falls under the head of the minutemen. which, in this case, is hunter B-15, whose team has been assigned under mobius. mobius is not a hunter. he does not have the on-field experience as a hunter, but he’s crucial in terms of analysing the crime scene and is the head of many investigations even prior to sylvie’s case.

minutemen. when mobius was transferred into the TVA, he did not have his start as a minutemen. this obviously contrasted ravonna’s story because we saw how she went from being a minuteman ( a hunter ) and climbed up ranks until she was a judge. mobius has always been “recruited” as a scholar, and while he’s excellent at it, it does gives him the disadvantage of not being as combat-ready as most of his coworkers are.

behavioural study of dangerous variants division. so mobius particularly studies variants that has a high nexus rate events. these means “characters” that tend to stray from their set path more than others. he’s studied thanos ( aka why there were many infinity stones lmao ), shang qi’s mom, a few english poets, known conquerers like mehmed II and known inventors, nikola tesla etc.

variants he’s studied - loki. loki has always had a suspiciously high nexus rate events — but more than it was sinister ( although there were few cases wherein a loki was truly unhinged ), loki’s nexus rate events had always happened simply because ( for the lack of better term ) loki does whatever the fuck he wants. so this means, alligator loki who ate the wrong neighbor’s cat. or that one loki who decided to elope cause they fall for that one person they met by chance. a loki who walked the wrong path that one time. mobius has always been fascinated by this. but it wasn’t until sylvie’s case was confirmed to be a direct cause from an L-variant that he finally sat down and studied loki completely.

variants he’s studied - others. mobius finds stephen strange particularly hard to capture. they’ve finally developed a protocol for him, but even that took a while. B-15 likes the challenge though. the first variant mobius managed to convince ravonna to have around for a behavioural study when the variant wasn’t particularly dangerous or has a high nexus rate event is a variant of tony stark. he finds tony stark very charming, if not a little bit arrogant ( that’s somehow attractive too ) ; was almost convinced by tony for a one-night-stand. capturing carol danvers left a lot of dents to the agency’s walls. variants like nebula and rocket never quite could get pass the robot-detection gate.

other mindless facts.

# other than loki, wade wilson has a matching ( if not higher ) nexus events rate. he’s always somewhat known about the TVA beforehand, and mobius and wade is on first-name basis even though mobius is sure that each variants of wade has never met him before.

# other than 1130, the variant that struck most and stayed with mobius is a variant of loki who’d only recently become a mother and was captured a few weeks after the birth. mobius tried hard convincing ravonna that loki and the child should stay, extending their lives, by helping with his study. ravonna refused ( for good reasons; because that loki variant showed an extremely high capture rate, which meant they’re very deadly and significantly dangerous ), and for a long while, mobius can’t open an L-variant file or look at it.

# the capture of celestials and eternals are under a different division altogether.

# sylvie’s variant number is L-0734.

#for all time: headcanons.#thinking about THINGS

2 notes · View notes

cappymightwrite · 4 years

Text

ASOIAF & Norse Mythology

PART 1: Introduction

Laying Out the Groundwork...

I’ve been interested in all things Norse/Vikings for a long time now, so when I first read George RR Martin’s ASOIAF series I was struck by, as I think many people have been, the quite obvious parallels to Norse mythology and Viking Age culture. I’ve read a few other Norse themed metas here and there, but I thought I might have a go at adding my own two cents since I am currently doing a masters in Viking and Medieval Norse studies at two Nordic universities...despite the hellfire that is 2020.

(Am I procrastinating my uni work by doing this meta? Yes. Do I regret it? …ask me later.)

I haven’t read every single Norse/ASOIAF meta out there, but from the ones I have read, I think there has been a bit of a tendency to argue for very direct parallels between the two. For instance, claiming one ASOIAF character as an explicit parallel for a particular Norse mythological figure, or using certain mythic events, and how they are described within their medieval sources, as an exact blueprint for how things are going to play out in the books.

(Let’s all just pretend the show and its ending didn’t happen. Ok, good? Good.)

I completely understand the urge to take this approach, it is a very tempting, fun thing to do. However, I think it maybe conveniently sets aside some unfortunate home truths that rather harm this kind of reading:

[November 27, 1998, on the topic of the Wars of the Roses]

The Wars of the Roses have always fascinated me, and certainly did influence A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, but there's really no one-for-one character-for-character correspondence. I like to use history to flavour my fantasy, to add texture and verisimilitude, but simply rewriting history with the names changed has no appeal for me. I prefer to reimagine it all, and take it in new and unexpected directions.

[February 29, 2000, on the topic of historical influences for Dorne]

I read a lot of history, and mine it for good stuff, but I also like to mix and match. That is to say, I don’t do straight one-for-one transplants, as some authors do, so you can’t really say that X in Westeros equals Y in real life. More often X in Westeros equals Y and Z in real life, with squidges of Q, L, and A.

[June 20, 2001 on the topic of whether GRRM borrows from history for the character of Loras Tyrell]

Well, yes and no. I have drawn on a great many influences for these books. I do use incidents from history, yes, although I try not to do a straight one-for-one transposition of fact into fiction. I prefer to mix and match, and to add in some imaginative elements as well.

These are just a few examples I’ve pulled out, and granted he’s talking about historical sources in all three instances here, but nevertheless I think the same thing applies to mythological sources as well: GRRM does not do ‘straight one-for-one transplants.’ Bearing this in mind, I would be very hesitant to say that Robert Baratheon equals Þórr (Thor), for example. That kind of shoehorning is not what I’m interested in with this particular meta. Instead, I want to look at how the ways in which the Norsemen’s mythological worldview might have influenced GRRM’s writing, and more specifically what we’ll eventually be facing in The Winds of Winter.

An Argument for Norse Influence…

A lot of the time when people discuss Norse parallels in ASOIAF the assumption that GRRM has read and is explicitly drawing on Norse mythology is taken as a given. The parallels seem so obvious that we don’t take a moment to consider the validity of that assumption before ploughing straight ahead with various comparisons and theories. So, before I really begin, I think it’s important to actually give some evidence as to why I agree that GRRM has read certain Norse mythological texts and is therefore consciously using them in his writing.

For starters, just trawling through some of the fan questions he’s answered in the past (NB: I was planning to go through all of them, but…there’s just so many), GRRM does make a few references to Norse myths/Vikings, e.g.:

[June 11, 1999, on the topic of Ravens as messenger birds]

[…] I also liked the mythic resonances. Odin used ravens as his messengers, and they were also thought be able to fly between the worlds of the living and the dead.

[April 23, 2001, on the topic of Wildlings in the north]

Raiding is definitely a part of wildling culture, as it was for many in the real world -- the Norse who went a-viking every summer, the ancient Celtic cattle raiders, the Scots border reivers, etc.

So, from just these two examples it is clear to us that GRRM has some degree of knowledge regarding Norse mythology and Viking Age culture. You could argue that this is just a basic kind of knowledge, which isn’t illustrative of any deeper understanding or interest. However, I think the first quote proves otherwise.

Apart from Þórr, Óðinn (Odin) is probably the most well known out the Norse gods to a non-medievalist audience; though thanks to Marvel comics/films, Loki is quite (in)famous as well. Quite a lot of people might know that Óðinn is associated with ravens, two in particular: Huginn and Muninn, whose names translate from Old Norse-Icelandic to ‘Thought’ and ‘Mind’ or ‘Memory,’ respectively. But their function, or role in connection to Óðinn, might require a bit of a deeper read and understanding.

Indeed, in the quote above GRRM notes that they are Óðinn´s ‘messengers,’ which is a detail that occurs in several Old Norse sources, namely in chapter 38 of the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda (c. 1220), as well as in the Eddic poem Grímnismál, a work that is included in the Codex Regius (compiled 13th cent., containing 31 poems), the principal manuscript of the Poetic Edda:

‘Two ravens sit on Óðinn’s shoulders, and into his ears they tell all the news they see or hear. Their names are Huginn [Thought] and Muninn [Mind, Memory]. At sunrise he sends them off to fly throughout the whole world, and they return in time for the first meal. Thus he gathers knowledge about many things that are happening, and so people call him the raven god. As is said:

Huginn and Muninn

fly each day

over the wide world.

I fear for Huginn

that he may not return,

though I worry more for Muninn.’

(The Lay of Grimnir, 20)

In fact, as seen above, Snorri uses Grímnismál as a source to back up his own claims within the Gylfaginning.*

NB: In Old Norse, Gylfaginning translates to ‘the beguiling’ or ‘deluding of Gylfi.’ It is the first part of Snorri’s Prose Edda, and is structured as a question-and-answer conversation between Gylfi — a king of ‘the land that men now call Sweden,’ though there’s no historical record of him — under the guise of the name Gangleri, and three enthroned men: High, Just-As-High and Third. In chapter 20 of Gylfaginning it is revealed that these are in fact pseudonyms for Óðinn.

Elsewhere, we see reference to Huginn and Muninn as messengers in Snorri’s other work, Heimskringla (c. 1230), a collection of several sagas about Swedish and Norwegian kings. In chapter 7 of Ynglinga saga, Snorri writes that:

[Óðinn] had two ravens which he had trained to speak. They flew over distant countries and told him much news. From these things he became extremely wise.

So, we can see that this detail about Huginn and Muninn as messenger birds is well established in several Old Norse sources, and is therefore likely to be included in any general guide or overview to Norse mythology. GRRM could have left it at that and all would be fine and dandy. But he doesn’t. He adds that ‘they were also thought be able to fly between the worlds of the living and the dead.’ For me, this is an interesting inclusion, because as you can see from the quotes above, though they are said to travel ‘over the wide world’ and ‘over distant countries,’ it isn’t explicitly stated in the Prose Edda, Poetic Edda or Heimskringla that they fly between the realms of the living and the dead.

The closest thing I can find that fits in with what GRRM is saying here is a fragmentary verse from the Third Grammatical Treatise, a text composed around the middle of the 13th century by Óláfr Þórðarson, a nephew of Snorri Sturluson (and he seems to have been influenced by his uncle’s works). The second part of this text contains examples of Old Norse-Icelandic skaldic poetry — this is where we find our reference to Huginn and Muninn:

Two ravens flew from Hnikar’s [Óðinn’s]

shoulders; Huginn to the hanged and

Muninn to the slain [lit. corpses].

[TGT]

According to this verse, from Óðinn’s shoulders, the two ravens fly to the ‘hanged’ and the ‘slain,’ so their association with death is pretty clear. The problem, however, with saying that they ‘fly between the worlds of the living and the dead,’ is which worlds? Does he mean from Miðgarðr (Midgard) to Valhöll* ´the hall of the slain’? Or to Fólkvangr ‘field of the host’? Or from Ásgarðr (Asgard) to Hel? I know what he means, I’m just being pedantic.

NB: Valhalla is a modernised version of the Old Norse-Icelandic Valhöll — in modern Icelandic, the ‘LL’ in Valhöll is pronounced sort of like ‘TL.’ So, for instance, the new Assassin’s Creed game…the Norsemen/Vikings, as well as later medieval sources, wouldn’t have referred to it as Valhalla, they would have called it Valhöll.

But back to the Third Grammatical Treatise — it should be noted that, according to Tarrin Wills, ‘of the poetic examples, a large amount of material is not found elsewhere and a large proportion of that is anonymous.’ Furthermore, the above fragment in particular ‘belongs to no known poem’ (Wills), which is probably why we don’t find this kind of detail about Huginn and Muninn elsewhere in other, better known mythic sources, such as the Prose Edda.

What I’m trying to get at here is that, in my mind, for GRRM to make the claim that Óðinn’s ravens were ‘thought be able to fly between the worlds of the living and the dead’ he’d have to have more than just a basic interest in Norse mythology, because not all guides/overviews/introductions to the Norse myths include or reference this obscure, fragmentary verse. I mean, I don’t particularly remember it coming up in my Old Nordic Religion and Belief module I did last year, so that’s why it stands out to me.

Ok, so GRRM has definitely read up on Norse mythology. Great, point proved! Ah…but then there’s this:

[January 20, 1999]

[Summary from Kay-Arne Hansen: I asked him if he had read 'Norwegian Kingssagas' by Snorre Sturlasson, and explained that I thought so on the basis of Sansa's story about Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk seeming to be the equivalent of the brother kings Alrik and Eirik, and went on to make suggestions about other possible 'inspirators' from the 'Kingssagas'.]

Ah... well... a fascinating theory, but...

I did take a semester of Scandinavian history back my sophomore year in college, which was.... hmmmm... around about 1967-8. I read a couple of Icelandic sagas during the course, and found them thoroughly compelling, but after the passage of thirty years I confess I no longer recall the titles or the names of any of the characters. It may be that chunks of them, buried in my subconscious, somehow surfaced during A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE... but it seems a long shot.

Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk were inspired by the twin knights of Arthurian myth, Sir Balon and Sir Balin, who appear in Mallory.

Sorry.

Nice try, though.

I came across this Q/A on reddit and the response was quite a few redditors feeling a tad despondent. They seemed to understand GRRM’s answer to mean that any reference/allusion to Norse mythology in his texts were just memories of a long ago Scandinavian history course ‘buried in [his] subconscious’ that ‘somehow surfaced’ during the writing process, so weren’t intentional, conscious inclusions. Even then, GRRM considers this hypothesis ‘a long shot.’

However, I wouldn’t necessary give up all hope, because the texts being referred to here are Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla, which we looked at above, and most likely the Íslendingasögur (aka the Sagas of Icelanders), referred to by GRRM as ‘a couple of Icelandic sagas’ he read in college.

Heimskringla does include mythological content, but as I’ve already mentioned, it’s primarily a history of Norwegian and Swedish kings — though it should be noted that GRRM doesn’t outright say he hasn’t read Heimskringla. As for the text(s) he does mention, in Egils saga for instance, there is reference to pre-Christian religion, but again, I wouldn’t look to the Íslendingasögur as a go-to source for Norse myths.

Granted, the question being asked is about historical sources and inspirations, I still think it’s telling that GRRM doesn’t mention having read the Prose Edda or Poetic Edda here. Because those are the two key textual sources that we look to for the Norse myths, and even though they were written/compiled well after the conversion to Christianity, they still arguably preserve aspects and memories of what went before. So, I really doubt he wouldn’t have come across them on that Scandinavian History course — the gradual conversion to Christianity in Scandinavia and Iceland is a pretty important period in their cultural history. Going further, I think that these are texts he’s returned to time and time again...in particular the sections that refer to the ‘Twilight of the Gods,’ aka Ragnarök.

References/Bibliography:

Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla I: The Beginnings to Óláfr Tryggvason, trans. by Alison Finlay & Anthony Faulkes, (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 2011)

Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda, trans. and intr. by Jesse Byock, (London: Penguin Classics, 2005)

Tarrin Wills, “The Anonymous Verse in the Third Grammatical Treatise,” in The Fantastic in Old Norse/Icelandic Literature, Sagas, and the British Isles: Preprint Papers of The 13th International Saga Conference Durham and York, 6–12 August 2006, ed. by John McKinnell, David Ashurst & Donata Kick, (Durham: The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006)

END OF PART 1...

With that out of the way, parts 2 and 3 will be on:

The ‘Long Night’ and the Fimbulvetr

Ragnarök and the ‘Red Comet’

I’ve also go some other potential parts in the works, but let me know what you thought of this, if I should continue, or if I should just shut up, lol. I promise the next sections will be dealing with the really interesting stuff, I just wanted to strengthen my forthcoming arguments with this intro first :D

Cappy x

#asoiaf #norse mythology #game of thrones #asoiaf and norse mythology #asoiaf meta #got meta #grrm #me being a nerd and generally procrastinating uni work

66 notes · View notes

iluxia · 4 years

Text

Unsolicited writing advice???

A ton of you have commented with such kind and complimentary words about my Naruto fic Hiding in the Leaves and its characterization through the shifting POVs. Thank you all! I’m gratified to hear that you’re enjoying it. Some are asking how I shift perspectives and still manage to keep the characters in line. Actually, a fair number of readers have asked for actual advice, so here we go. This is a lot of writing babble, I hope it makes sense but feel free to drop me an ask if anything is unclear!

(1) I read a lot. I read all the time. Easily a book a day, maybe two days. And when I do, I practice critical reading—or as they say, reading like an editor, so I can pick at techniques other writers use. Writing is an art you learn largely by example. A lot of what I read influences what and how I write, so when I need to change my tone or voice to fit a different character, I usually read something that matches what I want my prose to sound like, on top of using techniques like changing tenses and playing with vocabulary choices.

I recently had the chance to flex these writing muscles because I went from writing two very distinct human voices (Tony Stark & Stephen Strange) to writing an alien voice (Loki). It was fucking hard; those in the Marvel fandom might know what I mean. Tony and Stephen are both human, born and raised in America, with specific life experiences that inform their daily decisions and personalities. Loki, on the other hand, is an alien: raised in Asgard, stolen from Jotunheim, well-traveled throughout the Nine Realms, and moreover raised as a prince. Just stop and think about that. When your characters do not have the same experiences that you do, they’re bound to not have the same earthbound concerns that you do. Anthropomorphizing non-human (or even non-living) beings is an age-old practice, but to be faithful to his character, I tried my best to twist my writing voice into a different shape—a shape that more befits the prince of a realm that is somewhat humanoid but very different from what we know on Earth. And in order to do that, I did four things:

I changed my prose from past to present tense; it sounds more immediate and assertive

I read three books, written in present tense, where the prose mimics what I imagine Loki would sound like in his own head

I made a huge spread of everything about Loki (both canon and my own orginal additions) that would inform his motivations, internal concerns, emotional responses, and decision-making processes

I drowned myself in Loki fanwork

Immersion is key! If you saturate your brain in a specific type of rhetoric or style, that’s what’s likeliest to come out of your productive process at the end. So controlling what you read/watch/listen to will help control your writing style too.

(2) This further breaks down what I just said in the third bullet point above. Before I start writing from a specific character’s perspective, I’ll take the time to brainstorm and build that character from the ground up. This might take a day or two and includes a staggering amount of detail—just as much detail as mine or your life might comprise. Silly little things like favorite colors and foods, hobbies, dislikes. Oftentimes, if you’re a fic writer, this is easier because canon gives it to you. Those amazing wiki-pages exist to make your life easier in this regard. (Bless.) What canon doesn’t give you is where you can dig in. Go deeper. Pin your character down. Think about more serious considerations like emotional triggers, conscious motivations, subconscious motivations, coping and defense mechanisms. When hurt or under stress, are they the type to lash out or curl in? Are they the type to hold on to a grudge, or do they prefer to forgive and forget? Do they get hurt easily or do they have a thick skin? I imagine the character’s relationships in life, I rank them and network them in my head. Who do they run to when they need advice? Who do they like hanging out with when they’re happy? Who annoys them, who inspires them, who scares them, who do they want to be like? Even if these questions aren’t necessarily things you might discuss in your fic, it helps inform this person you’re writing about, so it helps you keep a clearer and more consistent mental picture of them as you go.

But most critical of all, I sit and imagine myself in their shoes and think of how they perceive themselves. That is a major factor when writing, because that’s what their head-voice will sound like. And if the story is written from their perspective, then that means you, writer, are writing in that head-voice!

Here’s a more HITL-specific example (I’ll try not to spoil too much lol):

Sasuke

How he sees himself:

Ordinary; not very impressive as a shinobi, but not absolutely terrible either – just ordinary

Average looking

A slow, impatient learner

Awkward with people, but polite and with good intentions

Emotionally stable

A good reader and listener

How he actually is from someone else’s POV:

Incredibly skilled for his age and level as a shinobi

Actually quite handsome

An intuitive learner, very tenacious and will keep at a task forever until he gets it just right; perfectionist much

Quiet, polite, notices a lot about how others act

Absolutely does not handle emotions well

Selective listener; sometimes only hears what he wants to hear

Rationales:

He’s surrounded by a clan of perfectionists and overachievers who constantly laud his aniki for being a genius while paying him no attention. Of course he thinks he’s ordinary.

No one ever compliments him for his looks in the clan compound, and what he sees in the mirror looks just like a younger version of everyone around him. Of course he thinks he’s average, even though he actually has looks.

Because he’s largely self-taught (except for when Obaa-sama teaches him), he thinks he’s slow. (Ever learned a new skill or maybe even a new language by yourself? I have. I can tell you that my perception of how much time I spent learning ‘basics’ was skewed.) He also holds himself to a higher than normal standard because that’s what gets him positive attention (or attention at all) within his family. Add the fact that Itachi was there blazing through everything before him, and it’s suddenly easy to understand why Sasuke thinks the worst of himself as a student. But he (and Naruto) are actually fast learners—we see this even in canon—and both of them boast high levels of natural intuition, or as I (the neuroscientist) likes to call it, pattern recognition. Some people are naturally better at this than others; there have been extensive tests done to show it. But we also know intuition can be trained, so the more Sasuke works at something, the better he gets, and the faster he learns the next skill—as long as the learning is patterned. Which is why Orochimaru, who has picked up on this trait, walks them through learning each jutsu in a stepwise manner every time.

Sasuke doesn’t have a lot of social interaction outside of his family. The Uchiha clan in this fic is very segregated from the rest of the village, so if you’re not active as a shinobi, you probably don’t get out of the compound much. Interacting with people probably intimidates Sasuke a lot so he feels awkward about it and reverts back to habits of politeness and silence that he was taught from childhood. That doesn’t mean that he’s not paying attention, however; Sasuke is naturally observant and remembers a lot about how people act (and not so much what they say). I have a theory about this related to the Sharingan but I won’t go into too much here because it would be a straight-up spoiler, sorry. :D

He thinks he’s emotionally stable because he doesn’t remember many incidents of severe emotional upheaval in his life. That’s because he hasn’t had them; apart from the whole thing with Itachi, he’s been fairly sheltered his whole life. But he actually doesn’t handle emotions well—something he’s about to find out soon enough—and for the same reason! He hasn’t been exposed to an extensive range of it.

Because he’s largely self-taught, he has confidence in his reading skills. He also remembers all of Obaa-sama’s stories so he thinks he’s a good listener. Well, he is—to an extent. If he wants to listen, he will. If he doesn’t, he’s just as proficient as Naruto at pigheadedness. (I think it’s an Uchiha trait too lmao.)

That was a lot, right? But you can see that if I’m writing from Sasuke’s POV, I have to keep a different set of pointers than if I’m writing from Naruto’s POV about Sasuke. The way I think of it is like changing lenses or shades depending on the light outside.

A few more techniques/guidelines I use:

Stay consistent with vocabulary. Orochimaru is far more verbose than the rest of them, Shikamaru right behind him, and Naruto uses shorter, simpler words. You can even assign particular words to a character, a word only they would use when referring to something. This applies to how your character addresses other people too, i.e. Orochimaru calls them ‘little ones’; Shikamaru calls his dad ‘oyaji’ in front of his peers but ‘otou-san’ in front of his sensei; Naruto is quick to give people nicknames and most of the time it sticks.

Watch the adjectives; different people describe things differently. Orochimaru uses more nuanced words that can mean different things depending on the situation and mood; Naruto thinks in terms of emotions, a lot of how does this make me feel; Sasuke is very visual and notices a lot of colors.

Use speech habits wisely; how your character talks should reflect their life. Just like accents, speech habits can tell a lot about a person. Sasuke always speaks politely because it’s how he’s supposed to talk at home, otherwise there’d be trouble. Naruto grew up in a poorer district and had no one to really teach him how to talk politely, so he’s very casual. Shikamaru cusses at age eleven because his parents and family are incredibly laissez-faire and honest around him, so he thinks it’s acceptable and normal (and he was never reprimanded for it).

Play with your tenses. Writing in past tense sounds and feels very different from writing in present tense. Depending on your character, one or the other might sound more appropriate. There are some expressions and figures of speech that sound fine when written in past tense but awkward when written in present tense, so that will end up inadvertently changing your prose a bit, which can be useful.

Read your work out loud. Cardinal rule of prose-writing. What looks good on paper doesn’t always sound good when read out loud. If you read it and it doesn’t sound like how your character talks, time for a vibe check. You might need to change a few words and move sentences around, or you might need a complete overhaul… an editor (and I mean an editor, not just a beta-reader) can usually help you out.

A note about editors vs beta-readers:

There is a cardinal difference! A beta-reader is usually not professionally trained but should be experienced enough to point out things that aren’t right. In fandom, I’ve found that beta-readers mostly focus on a story’s general feel, flow and readability, sometimes character consistency, sometimes they point out typos and mistakes. An editor goes further than that. I’m fortunate to have Tria (aventria) who has edited my work for, gosh, 14 years now, fuck, we’re old! I call her my editor because when she goes through a piece, she will fix everything and make my draft bleed and I love it. (I actually get a little upset when she doesn’t fix anything, even if that means everything was good.) As an editor, she does a vibe check and looks for typos/errors, yes, but she also critiques the prose extensively. She can rearrange phrases or entire paragraphs for better flow. She will cut out entire scenes or make me rewrite them if they’re that bad. Like a copy editor, she looks at stylistic inconsistencies, grammar errors, and iffy word use. She’ll usually suggest or replace the offending word altogether. She has a lot of freedom with the work and can actually kick a piece to the curb if it’s really that shitty. She also questions plot progression, character development, and the relevance of a scene. (She’s made me cut out many, many scenes.) – That all being said, it’s not easy finding an editor, much less a good one. It also has to be someone you trust to have this much power over your work. It’s worth it, however, and my writing has gotten so much better because of the help.

If you’ve read this far, wow, thanks! You’re also probably thinking, “Shit, she takes this too seriously. It’s just a fic.”

I have… gotten into fights in the past before because of this. I feel strongly about the stuff I write. Just because it’s fanfiction doesn’t mean it isn’t a labor of love. I’m a perfectionist by nature, so that’s why I put so much time and effort into what amounts to ‘just a fic.’ And you know what? At the end of the day, writing it gives me satisfaction and happiness, so I will keep pouring into it as much as I can. It’s just a bonus to hear that other people are enjoying it too. (Yes, I’m one of those weirdos who intensely enjoy reading my own work…)

Aaand the final point:

(3) I double-majored in psychology for undergrad and have by now accumulated thousands of hours of clinical hours spent using the theories and techniques I learned from those classes on real people. I’m also specializing in neuroscience, so a portion of my time is spent in psychiatry. Characterization was actually not one of my writing strengths at first, but I definitely noticed leaps in improvement after my clinical rotation started. People skills are just that: skills which are honed with practice. It’s amazing how much you learn about how people think and what make them tick when you interact with a whole spectrum of examples: from your neurotypical everyday well-adjusted person, to high-functioning neurotics and obsessives, to patients who have suffered complex stroke syndromes, to encephalitic brains burning under septic fevers, to druggies stoned so high they’ve breached the atmosphere, to patients whose brains are growing insidious tumors, to schizophrenics and catatonics and the depressed. My job also allows me the rare opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life. All I need to do if I wanted insight about how life is for soldiers who served in an active warzone, for example, is to hit up Bill at the ICU and ask for stories about Korea and the Gulf and Vietnam. Or if I wanted to know about how to survive the Rwandan genocide, I could sit down with Amida, who survived it as a barely-teenager with her brother and sister in tow while only “losing my innocence and an eye.” Or I could talk to Heather, who is building a life with her husband and two rambunctious children, for a perspective on the daily concerns and delights of a ‘perfectly normal and ordinary’ working mother. (Her words, not mine; Heather is amazing even if she eats the doctor’s lounge out of Tita Annabel’s cookies.) Anyway, you get my point. When I write, I almost always write about people, so it makes sense that a lot of my inspiration comes from people too. A lot of my original characters—and even some that are not—often speak with the voices and inflections of people I know in real life. You probably have people with interesting stories to tell in your life; you just have to work up the courage to ask and take the time to listen. You’d be surprised at what you learn!

A few helpful writing resources: (most of these are classics)

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White

The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren

And more books that helped me get into people’s heads:

Hallucinations by Dr. Oliver Sacks

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo

Admirable Evasions by Theodore Dalrymple

I hope you got something out of that. Again, feel free to drop me an ask if you have any questions or want to chat!

#fanfic #on writing #fandom: naruto #answers

127 notes · View notes

otterskin8 · 5 years

Text

Stable

It had started as a punishment.

Loki no longer remembered just what it was he had done to earn it. It had been many millennia since, of course, but in truth, it was likely the sheer scope of his little mischiefs that made identifying a specific bit of discipline for a specific bit of fun near impossible.

Perhaps it had been for turning Thor into a frog. He recalled Odin saying something along the lines of ‘If you have such an interest in animals, you can study them closer up.”

That was how he came to be ankle-deep in horse manure.

It was dirty work - a lot of mucking out stables, treating infected hooves, plucking off ticks and scrubbing and oiling the tack. Yet Loki could not wholly resent the tasks, as it did allow him time closer up with the animals. He’d always liked beasts - often preferred their company to that of the court. They did not expect much of you, and there was no sense in putting on airs. You could be honest with a horse in ways you could not be honest with yourself.

His favourite part was grooming. Sleipnir would press his nose against his chest and snort, and Loki would stroke his cheek with one hand while the other, clad in the brush, he’d pull down the horse’s neck. It brought him a great deal of peace to do this.

Which is why he didn’t at all appreciate it when he was interrupted by a boy his own age telling him “You’re doing that wrong."

“This is how Sleipnir likes it,” Loki had said, stubbornly. “I think I know my father’s horse better than some random stablehand.”

The boy had sidled in to stand beside Loki, and to the young prince’s irritation Sleipnir didn’t at all seem to mind.

Looking sideways at him, the youth said with a smirk “What nobles know to do on horses is the same thing they know about everything else, because it's all they ever do.”

“And what might that be?” Loki played along.

“Sitting.”

That had actually made him laugh. “Did you work that one out a while ago and were just waiting for the right opportunity?”

“Well, to be honest, I’ve used it before; never had the chance to tell a nob themselves, though.”

He’d frowned, it suddenly occurred to him that there had to be a reason this servant thought he could get away speaking thus to the son of a king. “And you figured I was in such a powerless position that you could risk it?”

“Yes. Any complaint you could make about a rude stableboy at this point would likely be seen as you trying to get out of your punishment, or cause further trouble. And it is hardly an offence worth hanging me for; I am the best stableboy you’ve got, and that’s not nothing.”

He reached out a dusky hand and took Sleipnir’s nose from Loki, blowing into it gently. Sleipnir puffed his own breath back in his face with a friendly snort. “I am one of the only people around here the king’s horse likes. And the king probably has a better opinion of his horse’s opinion right now than yours.”

“For a moment, I almost liked you there. Thank you for curing that in such short order,” The prince sniffed.

The stableboy brushed that aside. “It’s impressive how much this horse likes you, despite how badly you brush him.”

“I am not doing it wrong -“

But the youth then materialized a series of different brushes from his belt and spent the next hour lecturing Loki on the use of each one, the order he was meant to go with, and how to untangle the mane and safely comb the tail.

Loki hated being told what to do, but he hated not knowing how to do something even more. So he had listened. At one point, the boy had slipped his hand on top of Loki’s inside the brush to show him the correct amount of force to apply to the brushing. It wasn’t as simple as following the hair. It was about flicking the dust loose, sweeping and much as stroking.

That had been the first time he’d felt it. The smallest flutter, in some gangly, unformed part of himself. A spark that would soon light a shameful flame in the lowest parts of his guts.

But, at the start, there had been no shame.

“My name is Sialfi,” the boy had said.

Loki met him two weeks into a three-month punishment. Oftentimes he wished they’d met sooner, that they’d had that time as well.

But at least they’d had time at all. So much wasted on his part - halting, nervous. Unsure of himself or his feelings. It was near the end that he had at last kissed Sialfi.

Allowed to go riding after a day of hard labour, they’d taken a lonely path long past the boundaries they were meant to stay within. When they’d finally reached a vantage point where they could see the edge of the very planet, they were gasping and sweaty, as were their horses. Manure was still stuck to their boots, a few stray pieces of hay in their hair, and a particularly dogged fly ignored their every attempt to shoo it off.

It only made the kiss all the sweeter.

Sialfi. He could remember the name; he could remember his deadpan sense of humour, often mocking and aloof. He could remember the way the sun used to hit his hair, absorbed by the center but always diffused around the edges, creating a halo about his head.

But he could no longer truly remember his face, or what he had tasted like.

After his discipline was over, Loki found every excuse he could to go to the stables. He went riding often, or would claim to be going elsewhere and slip away. Like this, he managed to have a few more weeks with Sialfi. A few more clandestine kisses. A few more moments where they pressed against each other as they groomed their horses together, hands joined in the brush.

Then had come the day he came to the stable and found Sialfi missing. Sleipnir had been agitated; no-one was soothing him. There was no point in searching the place - Sialfi would never have allowed Sleipnir to be in distress. He’d spoken immediately to the stablemaster. All he would say was that Sialfi was a lucky boy, so very lucky, to have been promoted like that. How unexpected. He was lucky to have met you, the King’s son, and gotten a chance to so impress. Odin himself had asked after him, and next thing you know, along came a chance to squire for the Lord Dagur himself. Of course, Lord Dagur was such an itinerant - never in one place for long, always travelling the Nine and beyond, never in one place for long. Off to Vanaheim already, and likely not to stay there for more than a day after that. He never rested, that Dagur.

But how had Sialfi, a boy from such a low family, managed to catch the eye of Dagur?

He wanted to run to his father’s study right then and there, bang on the door, accuse him - accuse him of what? What could he have said that wouldn’t have admitted…did that mean he knew? Or merely suspected?

What if it were purely chance? Dagur had one of the most magnificent mares in all of creation. Skinfaxi, with her mane of light, twice as many hands as the tallest horse - that would surely have caught Sialfi’s attention. Perhaps he’d taken good care of the beast, as he always did, his affection and talent plain for Dagur to see. And on a whim, the Lord had requested him, and who would Sialfi be to refuse such an honour?

After all, it wasn’t like he and Loki would ever be able to continue as they were. Why would he sacrifice his future for a few more moments with the stringy second prince, risking his life for the simple pleasure of besmirching royalty? Why even risk telling Loki, who might be expected to sabotage everything out of spite?

Perhaps it was as simple as that.

So he had waited. In a few more months, he had brought it up at the end of a family meal when it happened to be just him and father left at the table. Asked casually after that stable boy he’d gone riding with a few times. What had ever happened to him?

“Ah,” Odin had said. “I heard that you were close with that boy. I should have said something sooner. Lord Dagur dropped by quite unexpectedly one day, you know how he is. He needed someone to help with his horse; his last squire got himself kicked in the head, and then fell in love with his nurse. No-one quite wants to volunteer their highborn children to a traveller like Dagur, and few of those are any good with horses. But I recalled you once mentioned your friend and spoke highly of his compassion for Sleipnir, which the stablemaster confirmed. I knew that if he were a friend of yours, Loki, he would be of good temperament and sound mind, nevermind his low birth. Such individuals deserve the chance to rise above their station. When Dagur asked for such a companion during that brief stay of his here - I wonder if you even had a chance to notice, he didn’t even stay for the evening feast - I recommended the lad, though I never did hear if he’d accepted.”

“Oh,” Loki had said.

He had lain awake that night wracking his brain for a memory of having ever mentioned Sialfi to Odin, even off-handedly. Yet he was sure he’d only ever said he wished to go riding and take a companion servant along. Sure he’d kept Sialfi’s name obfuscated.

But perhaps all Odin had to do was ask the stablemaster.

And perhaps Lord Dagur would return soon.

He did. Eventually. Many decades later, when Loki had nearly forgotten what that should mean.

He’d stayed for the feast that time, and when he saw Loki he’d clapped his back and told him what had become of his old friend. “Natural with horses, you’d think he had a centaur for a grandfather! I’ve never had a better squire. That is, until he and my sister’s squire ran off with Skinfaxi and Hrimfaxi's foal. But knowing your growing reputation, my boy, I should’ve assumed any friend of yours would be a wily one! I almost admire his gumption. I’m glad Odin asked me to take him on, in the end; a foal is a small price to pay after his years of excellent service. Though he’ll truly need her if he ever shows his face around here. Can’t be letting the small folk get away with such behaviour, or we’ll hardly have a single horseshoe between all of us in a century.”

Dagur had wandered off after that, leaving Loki to wonder about what he meant by ‘glad Odin asked me to take him on’.

He never confronted his father about it. Perhaps Dagur had simply meant to imply that Odin had mentioned Sialfi, perhaps asked Dagur to give a lowborn boy a chance he would not otherwise have. Perhaps that was all it meant.

Or perhaps…perhaps his father had known. And sought to protect Loki from himself.

Loki was old enough to hear how people talked of such things now. Old enough to know to bank that hideous flame and quell half his desires. It wasn’t like all of him was bent like this; there were avenues yet that were perfectly acceptable.

Really, he should thank his father.

He should be grateful.

He should.

#myfic #loki #odin #finnesang: deleted scenes #finnesang

19 notes · View notes

otterskin · 4 years

Text

Stable

It had started as a punishment.

Perhaps it had been for turning Thor into a frog. He recalled Odin saying something along the lines of ‘If you have such an interest in animals, you can study them closer up.”

That was how he came to be ankle-deep in horse manure.

Which is why he didn’t at all appreciate it when he was interrupted by a boy his own age telling him “You’re doing that wrong.“

“This is how Sleipnir likes it,” Loki had said, stubbornly. “I think I know my father’s horse better than some random stablehand.”

The boy had sidled in to stand beside Loki, and to the young prince’s irritation Sleipnir didn’t at all seem to mind.

Looking sideways at him, the youth said with a smirk “What nobles know to do on horses is the same thing they know about everything else, because it’s all they ever do.”

“And what might that be?” Loki played along.

“Sitting.”

That had actually made him laugh. “Did you work that one out a while ago and were just waiting for the right opportunity?”

“Well, to be honest, I’ve used it before; never had the chance to tell a nob themselves, though.”

“For a moment, I almost liked you there. Thank you for curing that in such short order,” The prince sniffed.

The stableboy brushed that aside. “It’s impressive how much this horse likes you, despite how badly you brush him.”

“I am not doing it wrong -“

That had been the first time he’d felt it. The smallest flutter, in some gangly, unformed part of himself. A spark that would soon light a shameful flame in the lowest parts of his guts.

But, at the start, there had been no shame.

“My name is Sialfi,” the boy had said.

Loki met him two weeks into a three-month punishment. Oftentimes he wished they’d met sooner, that they’d had that time as well.

But at least they’d had time at all. So much wasted on his part - halting, nervous. Unsure of himself or his feelings. It was near the end that he had at last kissed Sialfi.

It only made the kiss all the sweeter.

But he could no longer truly remember his face, or what he had tasted like.

But how had Sialfi, a boy from such a low family, managed to catch the eye of Dagur?

Perhaps it was as simple as that.

“Oh,” Loki had said.

But perhaps all Odin had to do was ask the stablemaster.

And perhaps Lord Dagur would return soon.

He did. Eventually. Many decades later, when Loki had nearly forgotten what that should mean.

He’d stayed for the feast that time, and when he saw Loki he’d clapped his back and told him what had become of his old friend. “Natural with horses, you’d think he had a centaur for a grandfather! I’ve never had a better squire. That is, until he and my sister’s squire ran off with Skinfaxi and Hrimfaxi’s foal. But knowing your growing reputation, my boy, I should’ve assumed any friend of yours would be a wily one! I almost admire his gumption. I’m glad Odin asked me to take him on, in the end; a foal is a small price to pay after his years of excellent service. Though he’ll truly need her if he ever shows his face around here. Can’t be letting the small folk get away with such behaviour, or we’ll hardly have a single horseshoe between all of us in a century.”

Dagur had wandered off after that, leaving Loki to wonder about what he meant by ‘glad Odin asked me to take him on’.

Or perhaps…perhaps his father had known. And sought to protect Loki from himself.

Really, he should thank his father.

He should be grateful.

He should.

#my fic #this time with the break #loki #thor fanfiction

9 notes · View notes

marta-bee · 6 years

Text

More Infinity War Blathering: On Death and Stuff

(Cross-posted from LJ.)

Let’s talk some more about Infinity Wars. I mentioned earlier tonight at Tumblr I had Theories with a capital T, revolving around the concept of Chekhov’s gun, which just means you don’t put a revolver on the table in the first act unless you mean on using it in the fifth.

Before I go further, the usual warning: spoilers.

I’m not the first person who watched this movie and noted more than a few plot holes. In my first-flush reaction I focused on perceived points of departures from how favorite characters were built up in earlier films (another warning: I am a film-only fan and am approaching them without much if any reference to the comics). M’Baku, for instance, who I felt became “brother” with T’Challa a little too quickly; or Peter Parker’s embracing being part of the Avengers. But what really struck me this time made very little sense but were set up very particularly and precisely in that non-sense. These don’t add up, but it’s not because the film-runners are being careless.

Starting with the opening scene, which incidentally seemed much better suited to a DCU than a Marvel movie, it’s just so dark. (It helped me enjoy the movie a lot more this second time, that I knew it was coming so wasn’t thrown for a loop. It’s also very out of character that Heimdall would open the Bifrost to save the Hulk, of all people. He’s so defined by his devotion not just to Asgard and Asgardians, but to the rightful sons of Odin in particular. Well, there’s two of them very much in need of rescue. The only conclusion I can draw is that Banner is in danger in a way the other people aren’t. Or perhaps -- because that still doesn’t explain why Heimdall would care about Banner in the face of so much Asgardian loss -- Hulk’s survival is crucial to those refugees’ salvation in a way that’s not immediately clear. Understandable, really, given the dark tone: hope is not an emotion easily accessible in the moment.

And where does Heimdall send Banner? Literally crashing into the entry way of the Sanctum Sanctorum. Remember, Heimdall is defined by his sightedness. He’s supposed to see everything that happens in all the realms, which if you know much about temporal mechanics seems rather similar to being able to see into the future, or perhaps even multiple alternate futures. And he sends him right into the lap of the only Marvel characters we’ve come across who’s even more sighted than Heimdall.

Let me make a brief digression into my other pet theory. I’ll be upfront in y biases: I love Loki. I hate the thought he’s permanently dead. But if we’re looking at things that are made oddly explicit -- things that only really need to be clear if that necessity is significant, plot-wise -- consider a few facts:

Asgardians can fake their death quite effectively -- Heimdall revealed he was alive when he summoned the Bifrost.

Asgardians can survive without breathable atmosphere (only way Thor can survive until the Guardians’ arrival), which also suggests the possibility they can survive without breath full-stop.

Loki is a trickster-god. I mean, obviously, but he makes a point of emphasizing that fact with a man whose trust he’s trying to preserve.

Loki is also Odin’s son and Thor’s loyal brother (as loyal as he’s capable of), he chokes up over that fact. He chooses Thor’s life over the tesseract, which he was so captivated by.

All of which suggests to me that, first, Loki probably could survive, and second, his attempt to get close to Thanos is shrouded in trickery. I don’t think Loki actually intended to die or thought he would because for all his growth since Avengers I still don’t see him as the self-sacrificing sort.

As I said, I have a soft spot for Loki and I fully admit this could be me deluding myself. But it gives me hope, and as I think about it, it does have a kind of clever logic to it that I’d like to see play out.

Speaking of self-sacrifice, there’s another time we see someone summon an infinity stone out of thin air and offer it up to save his friends: Doctor Strange with the time-stone. Why, especially after saying specifically if he had to sacrifice Peter or Tony(and we can presume the Guardians wouldn’t get a free pass) to save the stone he’d do it. The cuddly crowd-pleasing read of that scene is Strange has changed his ways, he now realizes it’s wrong to sacrifice people to fulfill his oath/purpose or save the stone. But I’m not convinced that’s what’s going on here. He knows they can’t fight Thanos and win. Going toward him or fleeing him, Thanos will find the stones. The story about Gamora only shows how driven he is, and how skilled.

Let’s step back a moment and ask: why is Strange so devoted to protecting the time-stone. It predates Thanos and the practical good of keeping the gauntlet incomplete. Sure, he’d prefer half the universe’s population not die, but I think at a more basic level, he recognizes the danger in changing time. That’s what the time-stone lets you do. And that’s his motivation: not getting to the best possible outcome in this timeline, but preventing cosmos-destroying consequences of manipulating time into a fundamental contradiction.

Thanos is uneducated on this point, which I think makes him very vulnerable. He can clearly sense when a stone isn’t real, and he’s already suspicious Strange is trying to fool him. He can’t just conjure up a fake. But are we really so sure Thanos would know if the stone had been altered, not enough to keep it from completing the gauntlet, but perhaps not giving him control over the full range of time.

Let’s work with a bit of a hypothesis here. Doctor Strange, master of time, in his showdown with Thanos where he creates all those emanations of himself, isn’t actually just projecting trickery; he’s calling multiple versions of himself from multiple timelines to fight against Thanos. So when Thanos forces Strange back into “alignment,” he’s not identifying the “real” Strange so much as committing himself to a single timeline. Then when he takes the time-stone he’s actually operating within a much more constrained field of reality (for lack of a better term),and he’s just too blinded to see it. Then when Thanos uses the time-stone to manipulate time in Wakanda, he thinks he’s controlling the only timeline that will unfold, but it’s actually only applying to a certain subset of reality.

It’s late, and I’m not well enough versed in theories of time to dig into this. But think of it this way. There are multiple possible realities we could have, different timelines like different lanes going down the same road. Strange essentially creates a crisis point in the time continuum by bringing all of his different selves together, and Thanos forces them back into one reality -- maybe the one he started in, maybe not, but the important point is when he tries to manipulate time, he only has control over a portion of them and he’s too unlearned to realize that. So maybe there are a thousand lanes on this road, and once he’s committed himself to a fraction of the timelines that are really possible, he may be able to choose which of ten different lanes the universe will proceed along; but he’s clueless to the fact he’s only choosing between those ten lanes, and the other 990 are proceeding without his notice.

At its most basic, this might mean Thanos thinks he’s manipulating time and mastering it, but in reality there’s this whole realm of possibility he’s not touching, not controlling, because he’s thinking (wrongly) everything is already under his own power. So when Thanos manipulates time to prevent Wanda from destroying the mind-stone, he’s convinced that means in actuality she can’t destroy it, that he’s handled that possibility, but he’s really being fooled.

Because when people of unknown loyalty summon infinity stones out of thin air,there’s usually some trickery involved. Also a plan to survive.

@vulgarweed pointed out (and I agree) that “we’re pretty much flat out told that Dr Strange gave Thanos the time stone because of a future he had seen.” Right -- he saw the one future where Thanos is defeated, which means he knows what necessarily has to happen to defeat him. I don’t see any possible way to keep Thanos from taking the stone, once they reach endgame, so that future would have to keep Thanos from using the time-stone or some of the other stones (but time-stone is the one Strange has experience with) in as disastrous as a way as he might want to.

Giving Thanos the time-stone, letting him think he’s using It properly but really constraining his field of operation is a pretty effective way to delay if not flat-out defeat him. To pull it off, Strange has to trick him into thinking he actually did beat him and now has the correct stone. All the drama with Tony accomplishes that pretty neatly, particularly if Thanos is making the same mistake Ebony Maw did in assuming Strange and Tony were actually close. So Strange really is sacrificing Peter to save the time-stone, or at least to protect the universe from its misuse. He can’t possess it, which means he damn well better make sure whoever does possess it doesn’t end up blowing up the (or all the) timelines once they take it.

That’s loyalty to his stated mission, I think, but it has the added bonus that once Thanos starts manipulating time (which he does before he completes and uses the gauntlet), getting killed doesn’t preclude other timelines where you’re not dead. After all, remember in the Marvel universe(s), no one really stays dead except Uncle Ben.

One last thing: I find it really interesting that Eitri (the giant dwarf smith) tells us his forge is capable of reopening the Bifrost. If I’m right and the Bifrost is a way not just of moving between space in the same timeline, but between different timelines/realities, that could be a really cool way to undo some of Thanos’s damage.

#marvel #meta #infinity wars #loki #doctor strange #spoilers #my meta

4 notes · View notes

friedesgreatscythe · 6 years

Note

Sorry if this is too personal but can you post more about your gods? Like for example how you came across them and which role they each individually play in your life. And how did you learn about it and stuff? I thought it was very interesting and I’ve never read anything about it anywhere. Have a blessed day!

This ask is definitely too personal… I’ll try to answer some parts.

As I said to the other (?) anon, I post things about them in their specific tags. You can also find a little more about them in my witchery and heathenry tags (the witchery tag has the two posts where I talk about starting with Loki and Sigyn specifically. Loki’s is especially amusing, since it was in a psych ward, though I’d been accidentally praying to him since I was a teenager).

After Loki’s arrival, I spent the next few days studying, researching, thinking, meditating–being mindful in my work, trying to understand this new connection, offering things to him and extending that invitation to whoever else wanted to join me in my day. While doing so, I came to realize that there were aspects of this presence, the warmth and mindfulness, that lined up with more than just Loki. So that accounts for Sigyn (in hindsight, I shouldn’t have been surprised that the two of them showed up together). I already talked about him at length in one of those posts, though.

Sigyn’s arrival was a lot less dramatic than Loki’s or Hela’s (I guess she gets that from him)–hers felt more like… a warm, comforting presence, a soft voice and a patient smile. She feels very home-y and patient, probably the epitome of protective/maternal, but she’s made of steel beneath that. I turn to her a lot with issues I have about my mother and our… really messy history. Honestly, out of the trio, Sigyn’s presence is probably the most demanding because I see how much I have to grow and change/learn. But she’s not without sympathy or compassion.

Hela makes herself known in very quick, decisive ways: she followed that offering invitation later, with all the force of marching through the front door, taking a seat, and striking up a conversation as if she’d been there all along. Hela also is usually the one that sticks around the longest; I know she’s come to visit when I’m a little more intense, dark-focused (like on grief, anger, loss/recovery, and on how I can use these things to my advantage), or when I see more dead animals/bones on my walks, or when I just feel more connected to the angry/protective forms of my craft (like in hexes–which @augur-of-ebrietas knows about lol).

As for their roles… they are what any god is to anyone else. They inspire me, they comfort me; they’re there for me when I need help, they’re there to learn from and to take those lessons into my day to day world, changing my behavior, applying what I learn to be a better person, etc. I can pray to them when I need strength and guidance; I can rely on them in my magic when I send charms and hope to my friends, because I know my gods listen to me–and I listen to them when they reach out to me. In dreams, in sudden hammer-to-the-head epiphanies, in “coincidences” that are clearly way too loaded to be anything but a sign. It’s really no different from how anyone else prays, I think.

I’m actually not sure how to handle this whole ask in general, because its questions are about personal practice, and are asking me to put words to something that is just instinctive, gut-feeling senses of balance and rightness. And quite honestly, a lot of the times the trio pops up in my life in ways that others would just call “coincidence.” So it’s not really easy to explain this to someone who hasn’t themselves already experienced it…

If you’re curious, you can read more about the general Norse god to witch process itself by going into the heathen or UPG tags here on Tumblr, and finding other blogs from witches who are heathens (re: Norse followers) and how they incorporate that into their craft. Because that’s how I learned about it all, too.

#anonymous #the heathen trio #heathenry #sorry if i sound a little ://#i'm just wary about answering these things to an anon ig?#what kind of man #what the water gave me #which witch #christopagan

2 notes · View notes

storiesofwildfire · 7 years

Text

Dahlia and Valencia – a headcanon

Author’s Note: Please keep in mind that Dahlia and Valencia were originally created for my Star Wars crossover verse (v; a prince or a jedi). Their stories change significantly when applied to that verse because they were lost in space as young children and actually grew up in the Star Wars universe. When interacting with either of them in this verse, please be aware that not everything below actually applies since they did not grow up on Asgard.

NAME: Dahlia Arosdottir AGE: 1,300 Asgardian years GENDER: Female FACE CLAIM: Gal Gadot PARENTS: Aros Egilson ;; Largatha Bjornsdottir SIBLINGS: Valencia Arosdottor (twin sister) OTHER RELATIVES: None OCCUPATION: Warrior, sorceress, and explorer, often found leading expeditions beyond Yggdrasil for expansion and exploration.

RELATIONSHIP TO LOKI: Dahlia is one of Loki’s former mentors in combat and current friend.

STATUS ON BLOG: Secondary muse that is available for interaction for developed plots and people who already roleplay with Loki and wish to get to know other characters that make up his world. She may also show up in threads if it makes sense for her to make an appearance. Please be aware that Dahlia is the mun’s OC. She is not canon and is not available for public use.

BIO: Dahlia was born to a famed warrior and conquerer by the name of Aros Egilson. Aros became famous for his numerous conquests and expeditions that led him beyond the perimeter of Yggdrasil. Instead of focusing on the Nine Realms already in their system and under their protection, Aros took to the stars to explore, make trade connections, and gain new territories for Asgard.

Through determination, hard work, and the results he turned up, he quickly rose through the ranks of Asgard’s fleet and was eventually honored with the title of Fleet Admiral. It was at this point in Aros’ life that he had to take a step back from his constant travels. His responsibilities on Asgard and to not only his ship, but the entire Fleet, kept him grounded more often than he would have liked.

With the seriousness of his position, he was forced to give up the freedom that his lesser ranks provided him.

Only once he secured this position did he actually take to the idea of having a family. He married a woman named Largatha and a few years after their wedding, they succeeded in conceiving twins.

Dahlia and her sister, Valenica, were born shortly after and they quickly became Aros’ pride and joy. Many asked him if he would have preferred to have sons instead, but he would simply reply, “why have sons when my daughters will be Valkyries? They’ll be the stuff of legends.”

It became apparent at a young age that Dahlia had a love for exploration, much the same as her father. She spent hours upon hours daydreaming about what it would be like to travel, not through the Bifrost and into known realms, but to board a ship and travel out into the unknown. As her wanderlust grew, so did a few other key traits that defined her personality.

She developed a very low tolerance for formal education. While she was incredibly intelligent, she didn’t take her studies very seriously and, instead, spent most of her days on the training grounds alongside other warriors. She took to sparring quite well and matured her skills with a sword just as quickly. She took her father’s words to heart, that one day she would become legendary enough to become a Valkyrie, an elite group of female warriors sworn to protect the throne of Asgard.

She could even be found doodling the mark of the Valkyrie on her inner arm in marker.

The only thing that really set Dahlia apart from the rest of the warriors that she trained with, oddly enough, was never her gender, but her magical abilities. Her sorcery developed at a young age and she found that she was extremely gifted with offensive spells that aided her already sharpened skills in battle. She often received criticism for using such magic, however, as many people claimed that she was cheating and that if she needed to rely on a witch’s tricks to win, she was no true warrior at all.

It was through her training and through her father’s direct connection to Odin that she met the princes. She trained alongside them and because she was slightly older than them both, she often aided in teaching them.

Loki was always a special case because, like her, he was skilled in both the ways of combat as well as the ways of magic. She took a great liking to sparring with him, because she never felt as if she had to hold anything back with Loki. They could fling daggers, punches, and hexes at one another for hours and constantly challenge the other to push harder. Their duels always brought the attention of everyone around them--even warriors who disapproved of magic in the midst of battle--because they were such a sight to behold.

Dahlia got on rather well with Loki’s other sorcerer friends because of their mutual love of magic and their prowess as warriors.

Dahlia’s temper, however, was always something to be wary of. Her tolerance for annoyance and ignorance was lower than just about anyone else’s and it didn’t take much to entice her into violence.

Her rage, however, never really stood in the way of her compassion. She could kick someone down into the dirt one minute for being a right proper arse and the next, she’d be helping them up and getting them proper care for their injuries, usually by means of Valencia’s healing magic.

Despite how hard she was on the exterior, Dahlia proved to have a sensitive side as well. She took a liking to art, though she had no true artistic abilities of her own. She decided to cover her body in whimsical tattoos and, much to everyone’s surprise, she actually possessed a beautiful singing voice. Only a lucky few ever got to hear it, though. She also took to writing in a journal every day, where she would catalog what happened that day and she would trust her innermost secrets to those pages.

Eventually, once she was old enough, Dahlia, along with her sister, Valencia, joined Asgard’s Fleet and together, they went off exploring the regions of unknown space, just as they’d always talked about doing.

Both siblings became skilled pilots and during their downtime in between expeditions, they helped teach the princes how to fly. Loki, Dahlia found, took quite well to piloting a ship. Thor, on the other hand, was never any good at it. She suspected that his hammer and his belief that he could, in fact, fly with it was what caused him to refuse to take such direction seriously. The elder prince was about as hard-headed as she was.

NAME: Valencia Arosdottir AGE: 1,300 Asgardian years GENDER: Female FACE CLAIM: Gal Gadot PARENTS: Aros Egilson ;; Largatha Bjornsdottir SIBLINGS: Dahlia Arosdottor (twin sister) OTHER RELATIVES: None OCCUPATION: Healer, sorceress, and explorer, often found leading expeditions beyond Yggdrasil for expansion and exploration.

RELATIONSHIP TO LOKI: Valencia is one of Loki’s former mentors in combat and current friend.

STATUS ON BLOG: Secondary muse that is available for interaction for developed plots and people who already roleplay with Loki and wish to get to know other characters that make up his world. She may also show up in threads if it makes sense for her to make an appearance. Please be aware that Valencia is the mun’s OC. She is not canon and is not available for public use.

BIO: Valencia always proved to be the softer and more generous of the twins. While her upbringing was nearly identical, Valencia proved to be Dahlia’s opposite in a lot of ways. They weren’t polar opposites by any means. Valencia and Dahlia both had a love of art, music, and exploration. They bonded over the similarities that they shared but they also bonded over how different they were.

While Dahlia took up a love of battle, Valencia’s sorcery lent itself more towards healing and creation. The twins were always equally matched in terms of how powerful their sorcery was, but they both excelled in different areas. For Valencia, her magic always came in the form of enchantments, illusions, and, most of all, healing.

The only reason she took to combat practice at all was to ensure that she could defend herself in situations where magic failed her. She couldn’t easily join Asgard’s fleet and explore uncharted worlds without being able to protect her companions and herself.

She took well to long-distance combat, especially when it came to throwing knives and weapons specifically designed to keep a distance from one’s enemy. Her proficiency with a bow and arrows quickly rose off the charts and many younglings turned to her for lessons.

But she took a greater love in teaching other useful tricks, like first aid and how to scavenge for food. Dahlia took up the role as being the fighter, the protector, while Valencia took up the role of being the survivor. Without her skills and studies of how to survive off the land, how to locate water, how to navigate uncharted areas, and how to interact with creatures that may not understand you or might even be downright unfriendly proved to be just as vital to anyone who wished to participate in off-realm assignments as actual combat.

Some could argue that her skills were even more essential. Anyone could fight when backed into a corner, but not everyone knew how to survive in such harsh conditions.

Because of her kind and gentle nature, Valencia attracted a lot of attention from those around her. She often acted as something of a therapist, so while she healed physical wounds from training or battles, she would counsel those who sought her advice as well. Her sister always told her that she gave too much of herself to others. Perhaps that was true, but it was in Valencia’s nature to give as much as she could. She would give and she would give until she had nothing left to give and even then, she would attempt to give some more.

She often felt like she had to give so much of herself to those around her, however, that she developed a horrible habit of internalizing just about everything. She would often bottle up so much of her own stress and anxiety that even her sister couldn’t get through to her. It sent her into fits of depression and periods where she was always on the verge of an anxiety attack. She had an image to keep up and she had people to take care of. They could never see her crumble.

Those ailments still plague her to this day, though she’s found healthier ways to cope.

Like Dahlia, she befriended the princes and their friends. She became particularly close with both of Odin’s sons, something that never seemed to settle quite right with Thor. He constantly attempted to hoard all of the twins attention so that Loki got none. Valencia was often forced to scold him for his greed. In fact, she spent many nights with both of Asgard’s princes, attempting to help them see eye-to-eye, but like her, she found that Loki internalized far too much to properly open up to many people, even his brother.

When the time came for her to join Asgard’s fleet, she did so happily. While her sister always ranted and raved about becoming a Valkyrie, Valencia wanted nothing more than to roam the stars and reach beyond what already was.

Together, Valencia and Dahlia made up what came to be known as a dream team. They complemented one another so well that they clicked into place like two puzzle pieces and when they worked together, it seemed like nothing was impossible.

#c; dahlia #( side muse ) valencia #index; loki #filed under; affiliates #index; secondary muses #filed under; dahlia #filed under; valencia #about dahlia #about valencia #mun's ocs #( side muse ) dahlia

1 note · View note