asgardeventide | oo1 || Video

[When the video kicks on, Athelstan is in the middle of scrambling backward, his fingers closing around the axe in his belt. The hovering touchscreen, of course, follows him back and he instinctively slashes out at the hologram as it chases him through the room.

Through sheer dumb luck, he manages to hit the button that halts the screen's movement so it stops advancing on him, and after a few moments of sitting on the floor, staring in terror at the bright screen that seemed to appear out of nowhere, Athelstan pulls himself up on his elbows and takes a deep breath.]

Deus meus.

[The Latin is deliberate, and it takes him a few more moments to actually calm down and approach the recording screen again.]

This is... used to communicate? [It's an interesting enough contraption, and his brows furrow a little, reaching out a tentative hand to touch the hologram, head tilted as it makes the screen flicker before him.] With no ink or parchment... fascinating. You others with this ring, you can hear my voice through this? As if I were next to you?

[He grasps the concept quickly enough, it seems, and pokes a little more at the screen, widening and shortening it in turn.]

I... I am Athelstan, a follower of your god Odin. I did not expect to find Valhalla so soon into my days- [or at all, really...] -but as I am here now, I suppose I must offer myself to the service of the gods. If anyone can help me... the magic of Asgard is something I have never experienced before. I am unfamiliar with many things in this land. As a matter of fact, I-

[Aaand he manages to shut the recording off in mid-sentence. Go figure.

Help?]

[[ooc: intro is backdated just a bit to before the flood! :o]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Bucky gives a casual wave in greeting--funny, to think that just a month or so ago he was in the same position as this guy is now. He might as well help in making the transition easier.]

Yeah, we can hear you. Loud and clear. [He eyes the axe somewhat warily, but otherwise stays friendly.] We can see you, too--don't ask me how it works, I haven't worked that out.

It is magic. I don't believe we were meant to know.

[He nods, reaching out for the hologram as if to touch Bucky's face- but of course, his fingers go right through. Interesting.]

Who are you?

Whatever works, works, I guess. [He certainly hasn't asked.]

James Buchanan Barnes. Call me Bucky, though. I'm in Freya--never heard of her before I got here, though.

...you've never heard of Freya?

[...okay, he's not that surprised. He'd never heard of her either before he was kidnapped into the Northman's lands.]

How have you entered this place without knowledge of the gods?

No. God, sure, [even if Bucky's faith is a lukewarm acknowledgment that God exists, anyway] but gods--not really, no.

I don't think they care if you knew who they were or not before you got here. And I never said it was by choice--I got dragged here a month or so ago, and I've been here ever since.

[There's a long pause at that.]

...you are a Christian.

[Which has way, way more implications than he cares to think about right now, but the hesitance in his voice and unease in his expression should really say everything about it.]

Valhalla and the other halls of the gods are not meant for just anyone. You must die nobly in battle- you must- you must believe-

[Excuse him for a sec, the world just sort of broke.]

Protestant, but--yeah?

[Great. Good job, Barnes, you just broke a newcomer by accident. He scrubs a hand over his face, and huffs out a breath. Clearly, this is not something he's used to dealing with.]

Well, I've got the death part down. [And he doesn't regret the way he went out.] Don't know about believing, though.

[Just thank your stars that Athelstan doesn't even know the meaning of that word. And that he'll be taking the whole Asgard thing okay.]

...perhaps your ferocity impressed the gods so, that they... that they would open their halls to a nonbeliever. [Could that even work? Help him out a bit here.]

Or they're just desperate enough for soldiers that they'll take anyone. You did get the part about a war going on, right?

[This is helping. Kind of.]

They... made mention of such a thing.

[The only war that's supposed to happen up here is... well. The end of the world.

But Athelstan doesn't say that. It seems that many things in Asgard are not like what Ragnar had told him.]

Do you believe it?

I'm a lot more inclined to believe them now than I was when I got here.

[He nods slowly.]

A place like this can truly change a man's mind about such things.

So does actually getting to fight in the war they're harping on about.

This war... it is Ragnarök?

[A shrug.] That's what they said it was, but I honestly don't know what that is. Something about the fate of all the worlds, I'm guessing.

Then we have good incentive to strive for a victory.

Yeah, but if you look around--well, the people they drag in don't really make much of an army.

...the gods have their ways. Perhaps we were not meant to understand them.

Or they really are desperate. Seems easy enough to understand, to me, but even giving people some kind of magical power when they get here won't change the fact that some aren't as trained as they should be, if they're supposed to fight a war.

If they were truly desperate, they would have brought more trained men, would they not? They have their plans- we should trust them and offer them the respect and praise they deserve.

oo1 || Video

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