Closed to Jo: I'm waiting for this ice age to arrive

[victoryorvalhalla]

Ice Age - How to Destroy Angels

It was a split second, the loss of a footing with the added stength of a shove by two supernatural powerhouses. Thorfinn had pulled back to hit someone else and ended up losing his footing falling against one of the two women. Shoved out of the way before either could really pay mind to the small blonde he never regained his balance. These were not the type of shoes he was used to fighting in. Instinct called for him to grab his knife stab something to regain his footing but it was just to fast to much for his small frame.

A loud bang barely registered over the sound of the brawl. One of the nearby booths had cut his fall short in the worst way, the bang was his forehead hitting the edge of the booth. There was nothing he could do or think, it was instantaneous. It was to much for his neck, a clean break. He was gone before his body hit the ground at an awkward angle, his father's blade slid from his hands, sliding under the booth as the small body laid there. With only four minutes until it would vanish.


-----

Four hours didn't really register for him. No bright light, no heavenly voices, no Valkyries. Nothing like the boastful stories passed around camp fires.

He was back home, laying in a pile of hay, listening to the man raiding outside of the barn. It was strange but oddly welcomed after so much strangeness in his dreams.

'where did the little bastard go?'
'same place he always goes when the jobs done.'

It was Bjorn's voice, that same quiet command to leave him alone and let him sleep. Which meant in about twenty minutes he'd wake up to screams. But something wasn't right. He couldn't put his finger on it.

Wait no. They were all dead. He remembered it all suddenly. his blood running cold as he started to push himself up in time to see a wicked grin.

'Figured it out did you, boy?' No it couldn't be, not him. 'Time to get up, good things don't come to lazy layabouts.' Thorfinn could only stare in horror at the man making his way to him. 'THORFINN! IT'S TIME TO GET TO WORK!' His voice bellowed.

Thorfinn's eye's shot open with a strangled gasp.

Electric lights were almost to bright for his eyes as he flinched form them, closing his eyes to stop the sharp pain. Reality sinking back into him. He wasn't in Mercia, or England. He was on Mundus. He was still in that strange world that had taken him... Askeladd was still dead, Bjorn was still dead.... everyone was dead and yet here he laid flinching away from the bright lights in the ceiling.

It was about then that he started to feel sick to his stomach, and the realization dawned, he wasn't alone.

Comments

[tobeclosetohim]

It's a single word, and a slight touch, and it shouldn't hit so deeply, but it does. While Jo stares in the middle of them at nothing and tries not to go to perfect, rock still, on one hand, or to shiver on the other. It's nothing something she's put on a platter. Not for any of the men or women she's pulled into her bed, since she rolled out of hell.

She damned Jack for his lack of asking, when she never offered, and she covered it up more than not. She nodded, barely, just a tip back and forth, once, even as she sat back to straight up, pulling her shirt back right. "No tattoos or piercing either." She found herself annoyed as all get out about it for the first few years. Now it just was. "I had all three before." Scars, tattoos, and piercings. "None of them stay now."

It would be pointless to point out she never asked for that part. Not exactly. She asked to survive, and she hadn't cared about the consequences or the required details of the need at the time. A gift. A desperation. A gratitude. For something she couldn't even remember entirely. Just that it was important. It had been so important. She'd done something. Or he had.

Jo can't help but snort a little at the last part though. "You'll be fine. You aren't the reason any of them are where they are."
At least not any more than she was, or anyone else in the bar was. Or the 4/5ths of them were not part of why Thorfinn died.

[victoryorvalhalla]

Thorfinn started to feel dizzy again, shifting to lay back again as Sylvi pushed her way against his chest, her head laid on his ribs looking to Jo like he was. The pair both listening to her, though he was the one understanding. As scarred as he was he couldn't imagine life with perfect skin. His life was etched into his skin.

"That sounds like it would be terrible. No way to ever change... always stuck as you are. Do you not age either?" He asked softly. It was odd and yet as bad as he felt he wanted to hear more of it. To try and put more pieces into the puzzle that was Jo Harvelle. Everyday it became more clear, she was not Ylfa. She was so much more, someone he had chosen as his own family. Someone who had lived so much and gave so much. She was the kind of person he wanted to become. For himself, his father and even for Askeladd.

She was a warrior by her own rights.