Return of the hung-over Viking

[bigarmy_strangepants]

[[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...

Comments

[guppy_sandhu]

"The hell happened to you?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I was outside for a bit," Ragnar says, feeding yet another bottle to the bar. This one had been a boxy bourbon one. "Hello, Guppy!"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Were you marinading yourself?" Guppy asks, eying all the bottles.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Doing what to myself?"

The next one is a common or garden beer bottle.

[guppy_sandhu]

"Swimming in it." Guppy says. "Seriously, what's up?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I've been outside for a few days, and took some provisions," Ragnar says.

He is, indeed, rather smelly.

"I needed to think."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Is it Gyda?" Guppy asks, sitting up next to him.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar looks alarmed. "Gyda? No! What's the matter with Gyda?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Nothing that I know of - I just heard she moved to a new world." Guppy says quickly. "It's not like you to be so on edge, Ragnar."

[just_cant_lose]

Oh, look! It's his new friend.

...and he really smells. Jim wrinkles his nose as he comes to the bar for another Coke.

'You know they have showers here, yes?'

Yeah yeah, he's been outside for a while, that much is obvious. But it doesn't do to let people know how easy it is to read them.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Ganymede took her in," Ragnar says. "Off combination, but it seems to work. This is Milliways, after all."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I know," Ragnar says. "I'm going to get into mine when I got rid of these bottles. I was outside for a few days."

[guppy_sandhu]

"So if it's not that, what happened?" Guppy asks gently.

[just_cant_lose]

'Oh.'

He orders a new drink, and takes a step or two away.

'Why?'

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I just needed to think a bit," Ragnar says. "About ideas from the future I didn't know before."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I had a few things to think about," Ragnar says.

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy gets two coffees, sliding one over to Ragnar.

"Such as?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Er, thank you?" Ragnar says, accepting the coffee as if he didn't know what it was for.

He probably doesn't.

"Future people know more about how minds work than we do, it seems."

[just_cant_lose]

He is amused by the idea that Ragnar might know how to think, but okay. He perches on a stool, and looks sympathetic.

'Are you okay? Most people don't go and think about things for days. Outside, on their own.'

Jim actually identifies with this behaviour, so there's no judgement. Apart from the smell, because there's no need to let yourself go like that.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I do," Ragnar says. "Perhaps we Vikings tend to do more of that, anyway, as we have more time than modern people. A ship sails when it sails. You don't have to catch a train at such hour."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Not Lecter being a prick again, I hope?"

[just_cant_lose]

'Deep.'

Or something.

'So, what's the problem? You seemed okay the other day.'

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"No, not Lecter," Ragnar says. "What about Lecter?"

All he knows is that the man is one of Sinric's, well, other partners.

[guppy_sandhu]

"He's just a general prick."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Stuff came up."

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.