I have been gone for so long and I'm sorry this came so late! Not many words- it was supposed to be more but I felt I just had to get something out to you guys- but hopefully it's a nice transitional piece until the real action begins! Hope you enjoy and comments and opinions are great.
Leather straps snapped into place on the forearm as the Seraphim walked side by side of the valkyrie briskly down the corridor. Blonde hair strayed behind her in the wind as she turned a corner and stepped into the room separating all others. The familiar marble statue raised high into the air and the woman took the time to look up to the valkyrie and the beheaded Jötnar as her lover strapped in her other arm with leather and then metal.
"Tamsin?"
The valkyrie gave a hesitant reply, "Hmm?" Her attention was solely turned on the armor she was placing on and around the doctor and her brow furrowed in concentration.
Brown eyes lowered to try to find green, but the valkyrie's eyes were still looking toward the twisted metal. The fae had been placing the heavy, yet equally lightweight plating- though Lauren doubted Tamsin thought it heavy as she was accustomed to it- on her person since they exited the room. It was strange to see as the armor and restraints Tamsin was putting on her person appeared out of nowhere in her palm, and it amazed the doctor the abilities the valkyrie possessed. Instead of reacting, or asking about that specific thing, Lauren asked, "Can you explain why I have to wear your armor? Wouldn't it be more beneficial if I wore some spare armor or my Seraphim's?"
"Your seraph has it's own armor- much like mine- but we can't rely or have hope it'll help you in the test. This is the only definite way that I can be sure you'll be protected... if only physically. Besides, my armor was ordained by the gods, smithed and smoldered by Weyland himself."
Lauren chose to look over the implication of power the name of the blacksmith held, and said, "By putting me in your armor..." It'll protect me. Maybe even cheat me out of death.
"Yeah, like that," the valkyrie smiled as she bent down and made sure the middle piece of her own armor was tightened about the doctor's chest and waist; pulling it lightly to make sure it wouldn't fall off. The red sash ran down in two tails and it looked even better on the doctor than on the valkyrie herself.
The human-fae gave a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Not to sound like a worry-wart, but what will your mother think of this?"
Tamsin smiled, not at Lauren, but the armor. "Didn't know you cared so much."
"It's your mother, Tamsin."
The valkyrie stopped her inspection of the shin guards and raised herself up and moved to stand opposite of the doctor. "Oh... the tradition-thing."
A laugh escaped her throat and Lauren said, "Yes, the tradition thing."
Scratching her fingers through her unhindered cascading hair, Tamsin raised her hand and let it fall to her side. "Weren't you suppose to ask for her hand or something?"
"I know you know that I know you're playing dumb."
"Damn, your smarts far exceed mine, doc." A moment passed as Lauren looked at her with raised eyebrows and Tamsin shook her head and shrugged. "My mom's not really..." When Tamsin's eyes shifted left to right and her face matched that of a schoolgirls' she spoke again, "Ya know."
"Traditional?"
"You know exactly what to say." Tamsin smiled and shrugged again. "You could ask for naked baby pictures, but I doubt you'll get any. Pictures aren't really a thing up here."
"I'm sure she'd have her ways. A portal to the past would show me all I need."
Tamsin laughed and allowed herself to feel at ease even in the dire situation they found themselves in. She was leading her lover to virtually her own death- or what could be her death- and yet the doctor was laughing, joking, and smiling with her now. Wasn't that all that mattered? All that she should care about? Her mother could put her through the hardest test she could think about, hell if only it could be a battle of wits, Tamsin was sure Lauren would win at least that. But physical, battle, harming another... no, she didn't think the good doctor could get through that. Would she pull through if Freyja gave her the option of surviving or death, and the only way to live was to murder another?
Shaking her head, her frown became a halfhearted smile. "I'm sure if you ask nicely she'll give you a peek." Or you could ask your Seraphim, who can look into the past...
Lauren frowned, her brow furrowing as if she had heard something that she didn't quite understand, but her face cleared into its natural state and she smiled. "How do you think the others are faring?"
Picking back up their pace, just a room away from the Great Hall, Tamsin replied sarcastically and flamboyantly, "Probably getting insatiably fat off the great food of the Kingdom."
"Og vi skåler for våre venner og de som vi kjenner-"*
"Food is a must, but what about celebration? I read that-"
"-og de som vi ikke kjenner, de driter vi i, hei skål!"*
Holding up her hand, Tamsin cut her girlfriend off, "Wreath and candles on the head of some and shields and weapons drawn most of the time; yeah. A downright amazing celebration of the highest caliber."
"Og så svinger vi på seidelen igjen, hei skål!"*
"You don't sound very excited over it," Lauren responded.
"Having to do this year after year... it gets kinda boring, doc. And then going to the ones Odin hosts. Talk about nightmare central having to get along with brothers and sisters, and the freakin' Jötnar. They always boast about something stupid, then here comes Loki and Thor getting pissy, then a mission to Jotunheim." A smile played on the valkyrie's lips as she halted in her steps, and she said in a very sneaky voice, "Though I really liked those secret trips to their realm."
"...Loki and Thor are your brothers? And you don't mean a Loki, right- you mean the Loki. The god of trickery and games and-"
Tamsin smiled. Her melodious laughter filled the changing hall, it's colors were lessening from bone white to bronze and wooden features, and Tamsin side-eyed her lover. Shrugging, she said, "Very distant brothers."
"Do..." Lauren bit and licked her lips, rolling the question around in her mind before really speaking. It was Tamsin's raised eyebrows and bending of the head to try to find the doctor's eyes that broke her spirit, and she finally spoke hurriedly, "Do you think I could meet them?"
The valkyrie was speechless as she raised to her full height, her finger going to her cheek to ponder. Her words were seeped in devious secrecy, "Meet 'em, huh?"
When Lauren blushed slightly and nodded her head, Tamsin burst out laughing. Crimson washed over the doctor's cheeks even brighter and she planted her hand on her lover's shoulder and pushed. The valkyrie's laughter still echoed throughout the otherwise quite hall- the knowledge that was coursing through her brain of how the human-fae actually made her stumble backwards instead of a futile push, staggard her but she continued to laugh- and Lauren's body was close to the woman when she pushed her again, but gasped as her arm was caught and she was pulled.
A hand played with the strands of hair, head in breasts, as Tamsin laughed, "I'm sure they'd love to meet you, doc."
"Yoghanplaygingaheitngme-"
"Huh?" Tamsin allowed the blonde planted in her breasts to come up for air and smiled when the doctor made a face of dissatisfaction. Rolling her eyes, she was able to be a child sometimes, she waited for her lover to repeat.
A pout and then, "You're just playing with me, Tamsin!"
"No, no, seriously," Tamsin sang as she put her left hand onto her lover's shoulder while her right still played with blonde locks. "If we seem them anytime soon, I'll introduce you."
"...How long has it been since you've seen your brothers?"
Twirling fingers stopped their dance and Tamsin did not speak for a time. Then, before Lauren could try to fix her obvious mistake of asking about them, the valkyrie replied, "When valkyries are on the Earthen plane, it's not like a two way channel to Asgard. There are certain... portals, kinda, scattered around the world- one of which is where we live, but to enter there..."
Tamsin grew quite and her eyes seemed to focus on something not quite in front of her. Instead of staying in the dark recesses of her mind, the valkyrie shook it off and smiled brightly, hoping Lauren would not ask her where she traveled to. Nodding towards the hall, she turned her lover by the shoulders and made her face the wooden bronze of the doors to the Feasting Hall.
"The Great Hall will hold only a handful of valkyries for this specific feast. They're going to be almost as strong as me when I've been reborn, and just as strong as the succubus most likely."
Tamsin only hoped her guestamation was correct, for if things went bad and she needed the Scooby Gang to hightail it out of there, she really hoped Bo could hold her own against a valkyrie. It was most likely folly, she thought, as all Tamsin's kinswomen would have to do is look at her and she was- zoinks!- outta there.
"She's gotten that strong," Lauren whispered. "Strong enough to hinder a valkyrie."
Tamsin could understand the doctor's admiration, and she replied, "A valkyrie is only weakest when they've been reborn. They're... well," Tamsin wondered if she should speak the full truth of a reborn valkyrie but decided against it, "just very weak in comparison."
"For how long?"
"Uh, about three weeks to a month."
"But those valkyries in there aren't reborn."
"No, that's not correct." Tamsin loved the look on Lauren's face as it scrunched in irritation and confusion at her wrong answer. "Valkyries up here are always in a state of reborn. They stay forever young and unhindered. They never die, they're not in a state of decay at all. They're at their top peak right about now, but only for a short time. That time comes and passes every day or so. It just kinda forgets to kill them first, so they're always grown and remembering." The valkyrie looked into her lover's eyes, hopeful the woman had dismissed her last few words with confusion, and whispered, "Somehow, a new hybrid like you can take them out, I can only guess the succubus has progressed to that stage."
Tamsin kept the part of most of her valkyrie sisters being at full strength when Lauren had attacked them, but not at this moment in the feasting hall, and she hoped Bo would be able to, if things went from bad to super bad, incapacitate her share of valkyries in their weakened state. Hell, maybe even her old partner could find the strength.
"Are you ready?"
Lauren's voice was strong, but her answer hesitant, "I'm ready."
The valkyrie's body turned towards the doctor's, and her hand connected with soft flesh. Bringing their lips together, Tamsin tasted her lover for what she hoped was not the last time, and smiled into it as Lauren's hands took residence on the valkyrie's midsection.
What felt like eternity later, Lauren's hand raised and held onto Tamsin's. Breaking the kiss slowly, the doctor's heart fluttering when she saw Tamsin's tongue dart out slightly and taste her lips, Lauren softly proclaimed, "I'm ready, Tamsin."
Slowly, painstakingly, Tamsin raised her eyes to the Great Hall's doors and nodded. "I know, doc. I know."
Hands clasped together, the Valkyrie led the Seraphim to the wooden doors, and pushed the seemingly heavy fixtures with ease open.
A strong chorus of voices raised up as the doors opened, a gust of cool air raining through their hair effortlessly, and Tamsin's green eyes looked around a long and luscious table. Her actions ceased, and her orbs slowly raised to hazel when a strong voice filled the hall as hands were raised.
"Let it begin!"
*"Og vi skåler for våre venner og de som vi kjenner, og de som vi ikke kjenner, de driter vi i, hei skål! Og så svinger vi på seidelen igjen, hei skål!" Is a Norwgian drinking song and it translates to something like- "And we toast to our friends and those we know, and those we don't know we don't give a shit about, hey cheers! And so we're taking the neighbor's wife home, hey cheers!"