☠ 1st - video

[ex_halberd259]

I am the shieldmaiden Lagertha. I was among those who vanished into the corridors just before the nightmare began.

[ to put it nicely. ] There was no sign of my son during my wanderings.

For almost two months, several of you have told me that he isn't here. Or that giving up is the best thing to do. I never will.

[ too bad. the world has jaded her in a million ways and one. but bjorn is all she has left. without him, she has nothing. that just is not acceptable to her. it's bull-headed of her, but it isn't as though she cares. ]

However; I understand that rushing off blindly without a plan is hardly the wisest plan ever made. So, while I form one, I'd like to spar with as many of you as possible. To build up my strength.

[ if she doesn't, she'll go mad. ] Win or lose, there's still a pint or two of ale in it for you if you'd like to try besting me.

Comments

[expect]

And there's smaller things too. Basically, it's just… not good to mess about in time.

[ex_halberd259]

Yet here we are, all the same. I think it may be too late for that.

( either way. )

[expect]

Yeahh… ( he stretches out the world, like he's suddenly exhausted, and runs his hands over his face. ) I've been a bit worried about that. It might be okay though?

If we're all returned back where we're meant to be in the end?

[ex_halberd259]

But what happens if we remember this? We can't assume that we will not.

[expect]

I dunno. Amy and I have done this for years and we're fine when we go back home. ( but they're also used to it. ) But you're from so far back…

[ex_halberd259]

If anyone like me learns of the technology of this place, trick or not, and we can remember it..

( yeah, she's a smart gal. she's thinking it, too. )

[expect]

Which, no offence, would be really bad.

[ex_halberd259]

Would man not advance more quickly that way?

( trying to be optimistic, here. )

[expect]

What sort of advancing would you be wanting to do? ( shrewdly. )

[ex_halberd259]

What would you guess, knowing my people even a little?

[expect]

Yeahhhh. ( that's about what he'd guessed. ) And what if with your new technology, you take over more than you're meant to, and killed my great… great grandfather? I wouldn't be born.

[ex_halberd259]

( she turns serious for a moment, and her jawline tenses some. )

More than anything, I would want a cure for the plague, if there is one. It claimed my daughter recently.

But I can't deny that the rest would make raiding easier, true enough.

[expect]

( he's quiet for a moment, also a bit more sober. ) I'm sorry.

Plagues are actually… another problem, though.

[ex_halberd259]

She was one of many losses.

( but one can see why the medicine might be more tempting than any naval or weapons technology.

and why she is so very much hinged upon finding her son. )

With all these great inventions, if it isn't all a trick of the mind, has no one managed to find a cure?

omg sorry gmail marked this as spam

[expect]

( he's quiet for a moment, thinking for more practical reasons this time. he knows germ theory won't be invented for centuries, from her point of view; he isn't sure how to explain things like viruses and vaccines in simple terms without it turning to a lecture. )

For a lot of things, yeah, there are cures now. The fact that you're not sick right now is actually pretty good proof of that, come to think of it.

[ex_halberd259]

( he can't possibly know the bitter tide of guilt which washes over her thanks to his words. the seer had told her that it would not be her life which would be lost; and as always, he'd been correct. instead, she had lost two children. she sets her jaw, willing herself to be strong for her daughter's memory.

she is in fólkvangr, and happy. but they will never see one-another again. gods willing, lagertha herself will be chosen by odin to join th feasting in valhalla. )

I am not sick because I never was. Though I nursed those around me, I never once fell ill myself.

[expect]

No, that's not - that isn't quite what I meant. ( hastily, apologetically. )

Illnesses change over time, and from place to place. In the future there are ways to prevent yourself from getting those illnesses, but in your time — until pretty recently, my time — there wasn't a way to prevent, say, smallpox outbreaks. ( there's a quick beat; he realises after saying it that she would have no frame of reference for the idea he has, of foreign illnesses wiping out unexposed peoples. )

But you're not sick here, and honestly, we probably all should be, considering how many places and times we're here from. They must be immunising us when we arrive.

[ex_halberd259]

Immunising - this is what this method of prevention is called?

( she is suspicious, naturally. as she is of this entire ship and situation. )

Yes. I would expect there to be some sort of disease to be present here. I hadn't even thought of the fact that there hasn't been until you said so.

( if this 'imminising' thing is legit, she would wish to take it back and save her daughter. absolutely. )

[expect]

One method, yes.

( he says that a little cautiously, but he can't help but warm a little to the subject - he's a nurse, after all. ) The best method. And it's useful, but it's violating as hell that they did it to us while we were unconscious.

[ex_halberd259]

I was thinking the same. In fact, it raises a much broader concern: that we don't know what is being done to us during these "jumps".

( it could be nothing, but it could also be an extremely alarming something. )

That blue fluid - what sort of properties does it have?

( drugs? maybe? she is familiar with the concept of mushrooms, in the least. and its effects. all this is making her begin to wonder. )

[expect]

I don't know, not for sure. I could guess, but… ( he'd rather not guess. ) And you're right. Aside from the vaccinations and our new tattoos, they could be doing anything. I don't even know how long I was in that tube before waking up, do you?

[ex_halberd259]

Not in the least. I am hardly knowledgeable about such advances. But I think it's worth looking into.

If our captors are going out of their way to keep us healthy, only to try to kill us later, learning more about that substance might help.

( like a baby step. and she wants to know what's going on just as much as he does, though she is the least qualified person aboard this ship to do any research into the matter. )

[expect]

You're right. And finding else what else they might've done to us while we were out. ( he looks down as he says it, at his forearm. )

[ex_halberd259]

I would know it, yes. Because I don't think they simply watch us while we are sleeping.

( regardless as to what they have or have not done with her son, this entire place reeks of rotting fish, in a manner of speaking. many of those she has spoken to have seemed to have become complacent.

which can only lead to their ruin, in her mind. )

We would be fools to trust this place.

[expect]

There must be a way to check, somehow.