Well, dinner was certainly an interesting affair. Garthar's mother had shown up somewhere during the process of cooking, carrying a basket of fruit and cream for pudding making, and sunk her eyes into the trespasser with silent scrutiny. There was something frighteningly familiar about the flowing red locks and deep blue eyes twinged with flecks of green but the what, where, when or why alluded the midgardian. Maybe it was the parallels of characteristics between son and mother; Garthar really did get a lot of his better traits from the attractive, even for asgardian standards, woman. Seriously, what was she doing with that crinkly, grouchy, ugh, upstairs; and dear god did her chest heave impressively. Kari, was really struggling to contain some of her jealousy against that last part of anatomy perfection, her gaze constantly fluttering down to her own seemingly inadequate cleavage; at least Balder seemed to enjoy what little she had going on in that regards.
Some awkward introductions, a bit of nail biting chicken roasting and finally something she felt more comfortable doing – namely waitressing – later and, Karian Motter, was sat at a large table surrounded by her, not boyfriend, friend's family. It did not help that they had forced her to sit between the youngest daughter and the eldest and as far away from Garthar as possible. At least the chicken was nice, even if the meal was generally filled with uncomfortable silence and the sounds of chewing. A great deal of pointed stares kept flying off between parents before Garthar's father stopped tearing into bread dipped in gravy long enough to explain in length to his son about tomorrows leather orders and tanning requirements. At the sudden burst of conversation, the youngest girl had taken this as a queue to begin whispering into Kari's ear a range of questions about unmarried warriors no doubt currently drinking themselves into a stupor at the palace. It was difficult knowing how much and what exactly to answer when the girl in question seemed in the range of thirteen years old, and the midgardian woman, hardly known for her ability to talk without obscenity of some sort; or too children. She was not a mother type and this was all very strange. Thank god when it was finally over and the pudding had been mostly devoured by the men folk. Wait, did that mean she needed to hang around and wash dishes? Oh god, did she hope not after seeing the mess in the kitchen. Well, at least she could help the girls carry the disorder down stairs before making some excuse to get the hell out of there.
"Kari?" Garthar followed her down into the basement seemingly a little lost as if he had never been to the dungeon kitchen before.
"Yeah?" She paused, two large platters of mostly eaten potatoes and bread balanced along either arm.
"Dagur has arrived, he wishes to go to the tavern."
"So... you want me to do the dishes whilst you go drinking with your buddy?" Kari scowled at the perplexed man child hovering on the stairs in front of her.
"No." Garthar's steady tone gave nothing away. "Would you come with us or do you wish for I to walk you home?"
"Oh." She turned abruptly, placing the platters down where ever there was free space in the kitchen. "So you're just going to, er, leave your sisters here to do the dishes whilst you go off and have fun then?"
"Do not leave your friend to wait too long, Garthar." His mother called over her shoulder, currently busy storing leftovers into smaller containers.
"Yes mother." He nodded diligently at his mother's words.
"Ugh, at least thank them for making dinner." Kari rolled her eyes at the complete lack of back bone the women of asgard periodically pretended was not there.
"Thank you for the meal." Garthar gave a slight bow to his now giggling sisters; the eldest two of which caught in a conspiratorial whispering over a sink.
"Bring us stories!" The youngest squealed as she dried a plate with a cloth.
"Hush, you always talk too loud!" The eldest sister scolded as she forced another damp plate onto the dark haired girl.
"Seriously, this side of you... why didn't you tell me you have sisters? And oh my god, finding them in a basement! That's seriously weird, Garthar." The curly haired woman, grumbled as they vacated the kitchen and returned back to the house proper. "And I think your mother hates me."
"My mother does not hate you." He responded coolly with a short lived shake of his head, though made no eye contact, as he kept her walking besides him with the palm of his hand fixed to her back.
"Did you not see all the looks over dinner?"
"I was enjoying my meal too much to care for looks that concern I not."
"Yeah well..." She leaned in closer, lowering the volume of her voice as they passed his father smoking by the fire and ignoring them. "Meeting your family has been, you know, weird."
"As I am sure meeting yours would be."
"You know I only have my granddad... and... Oh I almost forgot great grandma!" Her voice suddenly rose slightly above a normal level from excitement; gaining them both a glare of ire from the craftsman relaxing in a overly large chair. "I haven't met her yet though."
"Let us unload this burden at the palace, quickly." Dagur was looking as sour as ever as they appeared through the front door and into the street where he stood impatiently waiting. "I do not wish to miss the first match."
"What match? Burden?" Kari 'tsked' at the annoying dirty blonde menace, grimacing as he stared at the night sky as if willing the midgardian to evaporate on the spot. "Dagur, kindly suck a dick."
"Please, friends." Garthar calmly sighed his call for truce before turning his attention to the female in the group. "There is hog wrestling tonight."
"Sounds..." She was going to say something along the lines of 'horrible' before Dagur's impatient nuisance in her peripheral vision made her smile sweetly. "Okay, I'll come."
"...stupid witch..." Dagur began muttering under his breath as he stalked away from the pair now following in his wake.
"I would prefer if neither of those, that claim to be friend, shamed I tonight." Garthar said loudly to the night yet not to anyone in particular.
"Me?" Kari startled.
"I?" Dagur turned, speaking at the same time as his rival.
A glaring contest, followed by a mutual 'tut' of disdain and finally two pairs of feet taking to either side of a broad shouldered, rust haired, asgardian man. So long as, Garthar, was between them they surely could not spit daggers at one another; hopefully. Still the walk to the tavern felt long and sticky with disgust at certain presences so close together. Dagur, seriously needed to get over his childhood nonsense, he was hardly a little fat boy anymore but he certainly seemed to have the same bad attitude. Least he was not trying to punch her or wrestle her to the ground like he would back when they were shorter. Whatever Garthar said, it was so not her fault all the bad blood between herself and the dirty blonde. He was a dick, she only retaliated and she sure as heck was not going to be a nice asgardian girl in a basement taking crap from any asgardian man. Was this really the kind of life her grandfather wanted for her? Was it the sort of thing Balder would have expected? A good thing she told him what for then and had him running for the hills into his bedroom. Then again he had been smiling at her only that morning. Ugh, stupid Balder and his stupid face and his stupid smiles and his stupid not expressing any damn stupid thing in his head either. And stupid her for letting him get under her skin so much.
"What the hell is the attraction?" Kari growled, rolling her head in unison with her eyes, fingers sprayed wide before balanced on hips.
"Sorry, friend?"
"Pftha." At least Dagur was having a wonderful time at her expense. "The old witch has lost her mind."
"Balder. I'm talking about Balder." She sighed.
"He truly is a master of battle." Garthar responded with a nod of approval.
"So you keep saying, Garthar." The dirty blonde appeared little impressed by mere words of heroics and even less so by all the flattery for the noble warrior. "And nothing else."
"I'm not talking about his... stupid... warrior whatever." Well, stranger things than a Karian Motter shaped creature and a Dagur kind of agreeing had surely happened before; somewhere in the realms of space and time. "Oh my god. I don't know. I don't want to marry him but I'm still kind of, you know... and... he was smiling and we were sitting there and he smelled soooo... I just wanted to... I wish I didn't. Maybe it's just because... I don't know." She finished with the shake of her brown curls and an audience of confused looks as they entered a bustling tavern.
"I will get the first round."
"You are a good friend, Dagur." Garthar called after his male friend in the throws of a hefty, hunched retreat.
"...of course I... stupid witch..." Dagur muttered, elbowing patrons out of his way.
"Sorry." Kari apologised for her ranting and raving, or perhaps because someone had nudged her against her not-boyfriends side.
"Do not be. I only wish I had words to..." The rusty tanner trailed off as he felt the need to tug his smaller companion safely away from the occupied doorway; it really was in a bit of a jolly uproar tonight.
"Yeah, that's sweet of you. I'll figure it out... or not." Kari tried raising her voice in order to counteract all the other people talking and laughing obnoxiously loudly around them; now they were officially in the tavern proper, right next to a pack of men apparently having a dance off. "So... hog fighting?"
"Wrestling." He leaned in closer, all the better for her to hear and not mistake such a sport of finesse for that of common brawling with livestock.
"So that's what the pigsty is for!"
"You have not been before?" He seemed lost, his eyebrows low pulling the skin of his forehead tight. "But you mentioned you frequent the tavern?"
"Not at night." She leaned a little back, giving him an 'are-you-crazy' stare. "Well, once with granddad and his friends but I fell asleep pretty early on. I was kinda wasted." She shifted uncomfortably away from a tall candelabra starting to cook her arm with all its mood light candles. "It was my birthday!"
"Ah!"
"Here!" Dagur reappeared along with the appreciated scent of fresh honey mead; as opposed to the overwhelming stench of pig, sweat, stale urine and three day old soured beer that filled the rest of the space around them.
"Uh, thanks." The curly haired woman accepted with great glee the large tankard offered. "You didn't spit in mine did you?"
"You accuse I of despoiling the heavens nectar?" The dirty blonde scowled with vehement as he drank from his own mug.
"Switch with I if it will quieten your bickering." Garthar reached forward with large callous hands, plucking a maiden's drink and replacing it with his own.
"Thanks, Garthar."
"Thanks, Garthar." Dagur repeated her words in a high pitched mimicry.
"I am moving to a closer vantage." The red headed man lifted his free hand to point out a spot further ahead in the cramped crowd of now cheering men and flirtatious women, many pressed in bosom firm at suitors sides.
"Yeah, that's so not going to work for me. I'm going to stand on a chair." Kari waved her male companions off, turning to peer between chest level asgardians for vacant furniture, like a child in need of a stool.
"Do not fall and break your neck."
"Thanks Dagur, that's so sweet of you." She shouted back as the throng of people grew exponentially louder out of nowhere.
"...stupid witch..." The dirty blonde grumbled as he stalked off after rusty follicles bobbing amongst the spectators focusing in on the centre of the room.
Luckily, with the piggy games starting, the majority of the taverns occupants had began pushing forward away from the edges of the room. This meant there was a little more breathing space, as well as less squishing danger and more importantly discarded chairs left haphazardly at odd angles around a few tables. Karian Motter, had her pick of choices; the dirty chair, the even dirtier chair, the damp chair or the three legged chair. Yes well, who needed chairs when you had a slightly unstable table and a pint of honey mead.
Clambering up onto her chosen table, the curly haired woman, steadied herself with a grin of triumph at securing a pretty good viewing spot of the whole tom foolery. It was not close to the pigsty in any shape or form but she did have a full view of the thing and its current occupants over the mass of eighty or so tavern patrons busily sloshing drinks over one another and chanting a mismatch of asgardian names. Now, she could finally find out about some of asgard's actual culture, besides being dicks to women, drunk, whoring and eating like five year olds at a all you can eat buffet – oh and who could forget all the bullshitting stories. The pigsty was rather on the large side for something taking up space in the middle of a bar. Three large, snuffling but otherwise nonplussed, hogs were traipsing around inside their confines hunting for food in the dirt with their snouts like spades. Honestly, they seemed more domesticated pets than crazy WWE wrestling piggies with a flair for the dramatic. Then again, she was hardly sure how she really felt about the idea of watching animals fight for sport and entertainment. Dog fights were horrible, nasty things, and even when her old cat Griffin had been tom catting in the back yard with the neighbourhood fox, scaring the other creature away from messing with the bins, she had not taken any pleasure in the confrontation. Watching two grown men wrestling in the palace with Balder was one thing... Seriously, why did all her damnable thoughts seem to flutter to that stupid man as if air in her lungs. Thank goodness for distractions.
Two huge asgardian men built like barrels stacked together, and thankfully shirtless to her tipsy giggling self, broke through the crowd to a deafening wail of cheering and hooting. Men slapped there shoulders sportingly as they passed through the parting crowd, women tossed themselves in swooning fervour and stole the odd deeper than friendly kiss. Apparently these two were big shit to the common folk and receiving quite the hero's welcome. Soon enough, however, they finally reached the sty, climbing over the fencing and into the mud; with a stare of apprehension from one or two of the hogs. Stern concentration flooded the men's faces as the chaotic noise around them faded eerily into stilled quiet. It was like the air had been sucked out of the room, making the curly haired woman's ears pop at the remaining vacuum. This was getting real, asgardians did not get calm and serious about stuff unless it was about to throw down big time.
She lifted her mug to her lips, swallowing down two large gulps to drain it dry with the understanding things would probably get drink spilling exciting. The tension was intense, the two men clasping forearms with a shake before taking spots at either end of the ring and finding strong stances. The pigs honking and snorting warily, the crowd refusing to blink and finally a bellow from the barkeep; his tooth missing son upon his shoulders.
"BEGIN!"
It was like a tsunami of sound crashing into her all at once, hot from the patrons breath as their voices rose as one screaming horde of terrifying call to arms. Shoving, elbowing, tussling here and there; and that was just the crowd. The men in the ring were off like a shot, working in unison as they beelined for a startled hog among the pack, pushing and rolling it onto its back in one swift motion, only to have it slip from their grips in lubricated mud and begin body slamming the smaller of the two into a stumbling crash onto his butt. Another pig joined the charge, attacking the man on the floor at his fellows frightened squeals but was soon dragged by his back legs and spun to the opposite end of the arena via a mud slide. Shouting, pig screams, a man crying out in pain as he was bitten in the leg only to regain himself and haul the first hog up and over into a side pen with the other asgardians help. The crowd exploded with a new wave of cheering, chanting names and 'woo's of approval at the first of three pig wrestling bouts.
The other pigs were now fully alert, they were not going to go down quite so easily as the first. Kari's cheeks flushed with a mixture of alcohol, trepidation and arousal at the mostly naked men bulging with muscle and caressed with dirt. As much as she was still unsure about the level of animal cruelty going on, it was still strangely hot to watch two grown men in a mud fight. Then of course something, or in this case someone, had to go and ruin the wonderful time she was having by being heavily noticeable.
A splurge of purple shifted in the crowd, angling for a better view of the wrestling match taking place but thankfully not noticing her for the time being. There was another boom of cheering as a second pig was grappled and shoved in a furious squirm into the goal side pen with the previously traumatised pig from earlier. The man that had been bitten earlier seemed to be struggling, red staining the mud around him as he hunched over trying to catch his breath, with the final hog giving his team mate the run around in an amusing scene. Kari snorted at the antics before slipping down from her table viewing spot and out of a noble warrior's possible line of vision. If she could not see him, then he could so not see her; or at least she could hope.
At least getting to the bar was a simple task when everyone else was so enthralled with hog wrestling and not trying to buy drinks. Then again there was no one at the bar to pour any.
"Greetings Kari." A tall, lithe, pigtail wearing blonde blinked her too big eyes in the midgardians disappointed direction.
"Oh, hey... Lucinda? Dana, Gretch, uh..." Kari nodded to Garthar's sort of actual girlfriend and her posse of young female friends one by one.
"Ysolda. I am that is." The final girl smiled kindly at the midgardians confusion. "We have not met before."
"Shh, Lucinda needs to speak." Gretch pursed her lips as she stared down her long nose at the older version of a tom boy she once knew.
"So... hows, uh, everything?" Karian Motter pressed her lips firmly together as she smiled at the young ladies with something to get off their growing chests.
"As well as can be." Lucinda seemed timid, even more so than the blushing blonde that so enjoyed making daisy chains as a child.
"Yeah, I guess so. Um... sorry to hear about, well you know." She nodded with a bit of cheek chewing action added in for good measure at all the awkward trying to suffocate. "Garthar's here somewhere."
"As well you should know." Gretch gave a rather impressive performance at snooty cow acting.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Apparently Kari was not entirely buying the act, however.
"That you are a harlot!" Dana stabbed into the mix like a viper that has been waiting for its moment to strike injured pray.
"Oooh, ouch, oh that so hurts." The midgardian joined the dramatics with a little acting of her own; fixing the back of her hand to her forehead and feigning a pain in her chest. "God, why so bitchy? I'm not after who ever the hell your man is, Dana."
"Why would you when you have all ready taken Lucinda's love?" Dana huffed, arms folded and resting bitch face engaged.
"Wait what?" Kari blinked as her whole body collapsed against the bar behind her, feet taking awkward steps backwards to catch up with the word blow she had just received. "Lucinda I swear I don't know what this is about but I'm not..." And then it clicked in as miss piggy-tail clasped her hands together like a prayer in front of her mouth and blinked with those way too big eyes in such a hurt filled way. "Oh... no no no no!"
"I wish to go." Lucinda was bubbling with unshed tears, turning with a hiccup of high pitched torment.
"Do not leave because of this midgardian waste." Gretch begged with some determination but she too was succumbing to the same crying sickness as her friend.
"Excuse me?" The midgardian tried to vent a certain level of unimpressed resentment but it somewhere got muddled up with the guilt of being somehow involved with a young woman's heartbreak. "Oh my god, Lucinda, I swear he's just a guy that's my friend not my... okay, well, whatever then."
Well that was a pointless encounter with a bunch of girls she used to know eight years back. What on asgard had been going on now, and why was she some how at fault for it all of a sudden. Yes well, there was the whole wedding help she had gotten from Garthar but he would have explained that to Lucinda right and not be a... stupid asgardian man and hide all his words and feelings inside his overly thick skull. No, of course he would not, and yet she was starting to get dizzy from all the eye rolling at her own internal monologuing on the subject. Right well, nothing for it, she would just have to find the dullard and scrape the truth out of him then sort this mess out or something. He so best not be using her as an excuse to end things with Lucinda, instead of being man enough to tell the girl he is just not that in to her. That kind of not-her-fault aggravation she did not need added to her all ready catastrophic life.
Bob, weave, some uncomfortably erotic sliding past of strangers deeper into a thrumming horde of drunken asgardians shouting about the greatest hog wrestling match in history. Once she found that ginger, pensive, asgardian brat, a whole knew level of greatest pig wrestling was going to ensue or whatever. Stupid men, stupid Lucinda's friends, stupid lack of alcohol in her hands, stupid fat guy totally blocking half the room with his arm waving story telling and stupid Balder- oops better dodge him all together and walk around wavy arm guy.
"GARTHAR!" Kari shouted above the rabid story telling and mutual work related groaning din for the red heads attention.
"Kari?" The rusty asgardian leaned forward through a clutter of sweaty foresters, grasping hold of his friend's arm and pulling her into the safety of his personal space besides the younger men he had been speaking to.
"Garthar!" The midgardian began gesticulating wildly enough to cause a couple of drinkers to take a half step out of her way with dubious eyebrow raises. "What's all this about me, you and Lucinda in some three way love triangle? You didn't tell her we were a thing did you? Because we are so not a thing!"
"What?" Garthar cupped his ear not quite hearing her rapid fire speech over a bout of raucous laughter emitting somewhere behind him.
"I SAID WE ARE SO NOT A THING!" She bellowed in surround sound.
"Perhaps you should try giving YOUR thing to her, lad!" An older male cut into the private, public, conversation with a guffaw that caused him to spills his own drink down himself.
"WATCH YOUR WORDS!" Garthar was so on the case, man handling his lady friend to his back for safety as he bounced his chest against his enemies in a show of dominance.
"What say you, welp?" The drunk took to the challenge with mug to floor slamming pride; finally something interesting was going down tonight.
"HEY HEY HEY!" A Karian Motter shaped creature suddenly reappeared, swatting both men in the arms with puny punches before forcing herself between the two and facing down the new comer. "Back the hell off, I'm kicking his butt first then you can have him after!"
"Come away, let the lovers quarrel without your hand in it." Another drunk wrapped his arm around his buddies shoulders and leaned in to get a better gander at the rather short woman currently glaring the entire room down.
"Bah! Children everywhere. But for a good war!" Drunk number one sighed heavily.
"AYE!" A chorus of approval rang out around them at the mention of the 'w' word.
"TOO WAR!" Drunk number two cried out to an applause of raised mugs sending beverages spilling out across the tavern like alcohol rain.
Garthar had very almost got caught up in the sudden explosion of battle passion but alas he had a midgardian friend with a war of her own in mind. Tugging him not too gently out of the throng of excitable asgardians, Kari, kicked out a chair from a free table and pointed for him to sit whilst she retrieved her own laying side ways on the debris littered ground.
"Seriously, Garthar. You need to explain this shit to me." She began her interrogation of the bemused red head, eyeing her across the table, as the candle besides her caused roving spectre shadows to play across her features. "I just ran in to Lucinda and her friends and they are not happy with me or whatever. What happened?"
"Ah." He seemed caught in a moment of comprehension. "Lucinda... her father was at the wedding. He saw what transpired and so..."
"Oh..." Kari swiftly joined him, in that moment of his now, before shaking it off for more questioning; she was missing way too many clues after all. "Didn't you explain..."
"She did not give me chance." He shrugged.
"So you didn't bother to go after her?"
"What do you mean?" Garthar wore the expression of every man ever since the beginning of time forced to face the reality and concept of women not being men.
"Oh my god, men really are dumb in every realm..." She rolled her eyes so violently her chair very nearly toppled back over onto its side. "Look, Garthar, girl is breaking her heart over you and you're not doing the good boyfriend thing and going after her. She needs you to go prove your god damn love and tell her what the heck is going on in that heart of yours."
"I do not-"
"Shut up." Kari leaned forward pressing her index finger against the asgardians lips with the shake of her head. "Do you like that girl?"
"Yes." He frowned his answer now her finger was no longer scrunching his mouth closed.
"You sweet on that girl?"
"Yes."
"Do you want to touch her tits?"
"You go too far." Okay well that had his attention in an unfriendly way.
"Alright, alight. You wanna be really, really good friends with Lucinda daughter of nosy parker?" Kari leaned back in her chair, arms folded smugly.
"That is not her fathers name."
"You didn't answer the question." She smirked.
"It is too late now for- Ow." Garthar mewled at the smack he had just received over the top of his rusty coloured head with added rubbing of his war wound.
"Shut up and answer the stupid question!" She was so not taking prisoners tonight; one irritating man that could not do as he was told and answer questions was one too many in asgard and the universe combined.
"Of course he does." Dagur wade in having come to a stand still in front of the table with that sour faced expression of his.
"Well aren't you useful."
"...witch..." He mumbled in her direction.
"Right well, it's totally your round Garthar but then you are so going to march up to your girlfriend and tell her she's the sun and moon in your sky or something."
"She would never fall for such hideous sentiment." Dagur rubbed his stubbled chin in contemplation, the wheels of his mind turning in poetic symphony. "Tell her... tell her of the emptiness in your heart when she is not near, how your spirit falters in purpose for she is all that you breathe for and should you be called to arms to fight for asgards survival it would not be cause enough if not for her."
"Oh my god, Dagur..." Kari stared in horrified awe at the dirty blonde sending her a disgusted side glance with added lip curl. "You're smooth as hell!"
"I do not-" Gathar began only to be stuttered.
"Tell her!" Both of his friends ordered him in unison, fingers pointing to emphasis the imperative.
"That drink first..." The red head rose to his feet, running a hand through his hair as he tactfully decided to retreat for reinforcements before the invasion could begin.
