[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/rtwLejQ.png[/img]
[color=f26522]Time[/color]: Night
[color=f26522]Location[/color]: the ceremony at lovers lake
[color=f26522]Interactions[/color]: [@Tae] Mina
[color=f26522]Mentions in order[/color]:[@Lava Alckon] Farim  [@Infinite Cosmos] Munir [@princess] Ana [@Helo] Callum
[color=f26522]outfit:[/color] plaid kilt in his family colors, wearing a snow bear skull headdress/ mask, bones of the bear down his arms back and rib cage, body paint in the form of runes, no shirt or shoes.[/center]
[hr][hr]

Drums, horns, string instruments, many people from all walks of life near and far dancing barefoot around a fire. The songs of old sung by two on a raised platform, their voices traveling on the air to be heard by all those around them, echoing through the forest despite the cacophony of other sounds around them. The guards posted around the fire quietly translated what was being said in their old language to the common toung, something they would do for every song except the last song. 

The two on the stage sang together, danced together, enter twined seemingly naturally as if it was well practiced and versed beforehand. Their forms, both strange and familiar, glimmered in the heat of the fire behind them, their movements mirrored one another as if they were of the same soul. The song continued growing in each verse, painting a scene of birth and life, of new beginnings and growth. These songs were meant to encourage the listener to help them grow and the next song to help them heal.

The song slowly ended the singers slowly stopping their dance to bow to one another with roman turning to the crowd. Roman didn’t look the same as he normally did in these moments on this stage. His posture was different, his voice was growing an odd accent more accustomed to someone from the city, even his body language began to feel off. Gone was the welcoming friendly open nature he normally carried, replaced by a posture that shouted military nobility more than anything. He spoke again as the instruments died down and they began their next song, “[color=f26522]Our mortal lives are short and filled with terror and darkness, our gods bring us life, they weave our lives together so we may make our own path in it. A path we walk built by those that came before us so we may continue to build that path for our kin to continue the path after us.[/color]” Roman if one could even say he was roman now stepped forward towards the crowd and continued to speak. 

“[color=f26522]In that darkness we suffer, a darkness that may just as well follow us through our lives. Yet we find healing with the gods, with the earth, with each other. We have stepped through one song of birth of growth, of new beginnings. We step into the next song with the memories of what haunts us from things that have harmed us and the things we have harmed. To heal from wounds no one else can see but you and the gods. It is time for us all to shed that weight as it binds us no longer.[/color]” He took a step back, picked up a hand drum and began to play.

Mina chanting and dancing with him in a haunting manner that spoke of understanding from her. Continuing the dance just as before, each one is a little different from the last. 

It was strange for roman to hear himself talk and sing like this almost like he had taken a back seat to the performance that himself and mina were putting on. Almost like a fading echo, even his vision was slowly growing dark.

[url=https://youtu.be/VEizKmZlUAw?si=Zqhd7V00LJWhi5jh]wardruna lyfjaberg[/url]


[hider=Roman's Bad Trip]
With a start Roman woke, he was sitting in their family library in front of the hearth that warmed the room. It took him only a moment to see that he was home. In that moment he noticed he was dressed rather comfortably with his favorite book resting in his lap. A lone figure sat next to him quietly reading to herself, one he recognized as one of his sisters, but he wasn't quite sure who. 
“[color=f26522]I apologize I must have dozed off, were we talking about something sister?[/color]”
The girl didn’t pry herself from the book and roman couldn’t quite see her face but who else could be in his home other than his family?
“[color=00a99d]No brother, you haven’t been home in some time you were beginning to make us worry if you would ever find your way back.[/color]”
The voice was hauntingly familiar, but he wasn’t quite sure why he thought so. 
[color=f26522]“I was having a strange dream of singing at a ritual just like father has done before except I was singing with Mina blackwood.”[/color]
The girl still barely moved, not even the slight rising of her chest could be seen to indicate she was breathing at all.
“[color=00a99d]That sounds like a wonderful dream brother, if only I could dream like that. But all I have are these books now.[/color]”
Roman sat his book down next to him and looked over at the girl, a draft of cold air washed over him as he remembered that voice he hadn’t heard in a long time. 
"[color=f26522]Iduna? it can’t be.[/color]"
The girl still didn’t shift or move in her seat, but the room slowly grew colder and darker.
“[color=00a99d]Why can’t it be Roman? Could it have been because you let me die? Because you got us killed?[/color]”
Roman was taken aback by this anger, he didn’t know he had boiled up in him as he remembered that night, as he remembered holding her in his arms as she passed on. The warmth of the room vanished with his rising temper. 
“[color=f26522]that’s not fair and we both know that I did everything I could to get to you.[/color]” 
He began to reach for the girl to force her to look at him.
“[color=00a99d]You still weren’t fast enough for them or anyone else. You weren’t strong enough.[/color]”
Roman tried to grasp her and her chair but fell through them suddenly, finding himself falling through an old cottage door and into a town square. He remembered this place. 
“[color=f26522]What is this?! This place... it can’t be.[/color]” 
 His sister held his hand and pulled him into the middle of the town, villagers young and old went about their day-to-day activities.
“[color=00a99d]Why do you say that brother?[/color]” 
His anger continued until it turned to horror looking down at her.

[hider=Trigger Warning: Mild Blood, Description of bodily injury]
Iduna’s body was twisted in unnatural and fatal ways, clearly been crushed by some heavy equipment with half of her face torn away reveling the muscle and bone beneath, but still looking up at him as if nothing was wrong.
“[color=f26522]Because I destroyed this place, I killed everyone… I-I lost control.[/color]”

The village flashed to devastation smoke and fire rolled from the houses, blood and corpses pooled in the streets. A scream caught his attention from another house only for him to spot a bewildered Erik and some of his men looking at him. It took him only a moment to realize they weren’t looking at him but through him. Turning to follow their eyesight he was met with his greatest fear… losing control.

He saw himself stepping out of a doorway covered in blood and grime. His hair slicked back and dripping red with that wicked smile plastered on his face and the look of pure evil in his eyes. Those yellow eyes, the ones that haunt him in the mirror, lurking in the shadows of his mind, the ones that torture him in his dreams. Its soul might be locked away in his necklace that he instinctively reached for, but its will will always be one step away from coming to the surface and taking over once again.
[/hider]


He could hear whispers from his men, the fear in their shaky words as they described Roman in this state in the only way they could, “[color=ed1c24]The Red Wake.[/color]”
[/hider]