Ragnarr Loðbrók (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigarmy_strangepants) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
milliways_bar2016-09-13 08:27 pm
bigarmy_strangepants) wrote in milliways_bar2016-09-13 08:27 pm
Entry tags:
Return of the hung-over Viking
[[OOC: Context: Ragnar had some very uncomfortable ideas planted in his head by young!Moriarty, and then walked off into the mountains to get drunk think about them.]]
The back door to the lake and garden opens, and Ragnar Lothbrok walks in. He looks a bit dirty and scruffy, and if you get close, you'll notice that he smells of unwashed Viking.
He walks up to the bar and orders a pint of beer, which he drains to over half mark before putting it down again. He sighs, opens his magical belt pouch, gets out a bottle and puts it on the bar counter where it vanishes.
And another.
And another.
And another...
The back door to the lake and garden opens, and Ragnar Lothbrok walks in. He looks a bit dirty and scruffy, and if you get close, you'll notice that he smells of unwashed Viking.
He walks up to the bar and orders a pint of beer, which he drains to over half mark before putting it down again. He sighs, opens his magical belt pouch, gets out a bottle and puts it on the bar counter where it vanishes.
And another.
And another.
And another...
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Or something.
'So, what's the problem? You seemed okay the other day.'
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He's not going to tell Jim that he hadn't been aware of that whole Stockholm thing. He feels so silly for not knowing, and infinitely awful for what he did to Athelstan.
Even if Athelstan never really loved him, merely had that Stockholm thing -- Ragnar knows that what he feels for the former monk was and is real and solid. He broke the one he loved. Again.
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Then he shrugs and says, 'okay', because if he doesn't want to talk about it then he doesn't, and Jim's not in the least concerned for his actual welfare.
'Do you want to buy me another drink?'
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'I'm underage, in my year.'
He pulls a face, because if there is anything more stupid than applying standard rules to him, he doesn't know what it is.
'You have to be eighteen in the UK, and Ireland. I don't know what that has to do with a bar at the end of time, but whatever.'
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He orders a pint for Jim, and hands it oven.
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Jim is not going to mention that his suite upstairs has a well-stocked bar in it.
'You mean at home? I can travel without permission now I'm sixteen,' not that that ever stopped him before, '-but I'm not technically allowed to screw. But that's not to do with age, it's illegal for anyone who likes men.'
So, another law that gets broken a lot, then.
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He barely suppresses a wince at the thought of Athelstan. Athelstan, whom he loves so much he callously fucked up the ex-monk's entire life forever.
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Yes, it's stupid. He shrugs.
'Ireland's a Catholic country, and the Church has a lot more influence than it should. They'd argue they're the ultimate Christians.'
It's all bullshit, but it is what it is and Jim's not far away from leaving it all far, far behind. If people want to believe in it, that's their own stupid fault. his eyebrows raise at the list of names, though.
'I thought Athelstan wasn't a Christian at all, anymore. Ex-monk, you said.'
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He knows about bishops. Bishops are bad news.
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For a Viking, he's got a handle on it pretty well.
'Everything's a sin - unless a priest is doing it - and you're supposed to confess all the time and beg forgiveness, and it's all absolved if you really repent...'
He rolls his eyes. Yeah, no, not happening.
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He's spent a lot of time in England, so his anger at this is not as strong as it would be if he'd stayed exclusively in Ireland. But he's still illegal in the UK for another couple of years, and it's annoying.
Not that it matters. It's not like it stops anyone doing what they want.
'The Church doesn't believe in personal opinion. If you do what you want, you're giving into the Devil's temptation and you're going to hell, blah blah blah. You're supposed to resist. You're not even supposed to have sex with yourself.'
Which. C'mon.
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Obviously.
'If they can convince everyone they're living their lives wrong, they'll all be cowed into doing whatever the Church wants. If people grow up being told they'll go to Hell for behaving like people, they can be told to do whatever the powerful institutions want.'
Institutions can go to Hell, as far as Jim's concerned.
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Well, perhaps. Weirdness is subjective. Jim thinks everyone is, and most people think he is. Eh.
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But, like, he's not disagreeing with him.
'It just makes them feel like they're achieving something. Living a 'good' life, even if it deprives them of stuff. It's the only meaning their lives have.'
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'How are people usually made?'
He pulls a cigarette out of his pocket, and as an afterthought, offers one to Ragnar as well.
'There's a billion people in China alone. Almost a billion in India. Over six billion altogether.'
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He lights his smoke.
'People get richer, more educated, understand health and hygiene a lot more - they live longer, and less kids die, so there's more people to make more people, blah blah. Now the whole place is overpopulated and we're killing the planet. But that's what parasites do, so I don't know anyone acts like they're surprised about it.'
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Obviously.
'Not just the Christians, though. There's a billion Muslims too, and their rules are even more strict, especially if you're a woman.'
In short: fucked. He does not understand why people deride his lack of faith in humanity. People are pointless.
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