Glada Vappen!

[suomi_thunder]

Aarne hadn't celebrated holidays properly in over a year which left him feeling disconnected. Giant bonfires in the streets and rampant reindeer were frowned upon in most civilized cities, unless of course the punks were involved, then that was arson not celebrations.. ok, well for the punks it was a celebration but not for a Saami.

In the Nexus though, oh here he could do whatever he wanted, or that was what he had learned in his few visits. He had been planning and cooking and collecting. The gods probably don't even know where he stirred up reindeer from in the Nexus but he has and Mouka was happy to have a job keeping them corralled. His usual rock gear is augmented with his family necklace and oddly doesn't look too out of place with rest of his wildness.

He didn't have a lot but parties always started this way. The host had some things and then people came and brought more booze and food, ordering all kinds of things. Aarne did bring Mead, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, and a a bunch of lemon tippaleipä batter. He had cooked some but this was something he could show visitors how to make on their own. The honey mead based sugar in a large bowl. Strips of dried reindeer meat and juustoleipä, a Finnish reindeer milk cheese, are out on the table too. There are fruits; strawberries, apples, and nuts which were common as well as a cream from reindeer milk traditional to the culture and nearly like unfermented yogurt.

That all done he looked to the huge pile of logs that he had gotten from various people around the Nexus. The Sami added leaves to it to create smoke at first to attract others. Before lighting it he put up a banner of hide dedicated to the Akka, the female fertility spirits, decorated with the same imagery as his traditional drum. It was sentimental, the first drum he ever learned to play.

Drum in hand he poured kerosene on the log pile and lit it. The reindeer spooked at the sudden fire but soon calmed, especially when the tall Fin went among them.

Comments

[cobaltcougar]

Howlback looks up 'astral projection' in her English dictionary pack; she only recently downloaded the language. "Astral projection...it's not exactly the same, but it's close enough. We bend light when we do it, so we can be seen, and if someone touches us, they'll feel what their mind fills in for them."

She closes her optics and leans against Soundwave for a moment, and the form of a cat-eared Jotun girl--or that's what it would look like to them, anyway--dressed in black leather and black plaid, with studded fingerless gloves--takes shape in front of them.

"Hello," she says, and waves, then disappears, as she vents in air and stands up again in her own body.

"Like that. And it's okay that you didn't know. I'll definitely dance with my brother and sister." She smiles. "You were concerned about sharing. I noticed. We don't expect it, because we're aliens here, and my sister's not as concerned about 'rules' as I am. But we drink coolants--like antifreeze--and oils--like oil for your car, though not if it's already been used of course. If you happened to have any of those things...it would be fine. A strong alcohol without much of the plant protein or sugar left in it would be okay for any of us but Glit. So, not the honey stuff, but...I've drunk strong white liquor before. It wouldn't even affect Viridian badly. Alcohol is only bad for us if we're already addicted to something else, it's basically just a solvent; it cleanses our systems. So if you have any of those things, and it would make you feel better to offer them, we can partake. Only Glit can't have the alcohol."

[suomi_thunder]

"Oh!" Aarne is wide-eyed at the apparition but it made sense either to get into small spaces or just blend in. "You look like you could be in our crowd."

He knows many people feel that way about having something for guests but Aarne simply cannot. It's his culture and ingrained in him as the polite thing to do, regardless of whether or not you're prepared for the person that comes or not. Hospitality was king.

"I'll check with Vars about stronger drinks." He sighs though and shakes his head. "It would defile this festival to forego hospitality."

The question is what to give. He puts his hands on his hips and looks around, but feels his drum hammer tucked into his belt. It's not the one he made as a teen and so hold less importance. He pulls it out with its long streamers of red shade ribbons that are weighted at the ends with disks of reindeer antler. One of the dangling pieces is black braided from Aarne's hair. He takes it to Howlback.

"This is for your family because it was made for mine." Despite drunkenness or his usual wild and all over the place talking, this is more formal because it is tradition. "My family will know you if they see it."

Know didn't mean the same as knowing someone as an acquaintance in this instance but to know someone is safe or trusted by someone in the family. In modern times it wasn't a usual tradition but why not fall back on older traditions to satisfy the old spirits?

[cobaltcougar]

"That's the idea. I like to go to clubs and dance and hear new music, so I always make up an avatar to fit in wherever I go. I've got avatars that look like all sorts of aliens, but since I came here, I decided to make one that's shaped and sized like a human but still blue and prick-eared like me."

Howlback grins. "Besides even if the natives are the same size as us, if it's a Decepticon protectorate, people might not want to dance with a Decepticop. They'd be afraid I was spying on them, when sometimes I just want to go out and let loose myself, though I won't break the law."

Then she looks concerned. "We don't want to defile the festival. My sister is really enjoying it. Look at Ravage, the way she's hanging on Soundwave and the look on her face when she's talking to Loki. She's having a blast. It's our fault, we should have warned you we were coming! I heard about the party in town and Soundwave heard some of his friends talking about it."

When he offers her the talisman, she takes it. It's an intriguing piece of artwork made with once-living organic materials and it clearly carries the weight of meaning. "I am honoured," she says, and she means it. "And I will carry it, unless my sister and Soundwave need it. They are the heads of our family. But under what circumstance should we display it?"

[suomi_thunder]

"We go clubbing sometimes if you want to come along."

At least then they would remember to check the cop cars. Cop Cars! Aarne looks up at Howlback and frowns. "I'll have to tell Viktor about you. He sets cop cars on fire every time he sees one."

Well, maybe not every time but it sounded like it for how he talked about it. Being set on fire had to be worse than what he and Joe had done.

"No, you wouldn't defile it, I would." Aarne corrects. "We have a culture of hospitality, especially during celebrations." He's not put out by it and the oversight is now fixed to satisfy the spirits and his own sense of right. In the future he can prepare for the possibility of Howlback and her family showing up if there's another celebration.

"It's a drum hammer that's meant for playing hide drums. You can use it." Aarne offers because it isn't really used for display. "I wear them when I go on stage. I sometime use them to play on stage but usually I wear them tucked in my belt with the tassels hanging down."

He points out the carvings on it. "The symbols are for wind and thunderstorms."

[cobaltcougar]

"I'd love to go clubbing with you sometime," Howlback says, and she means it. She loves wild music.

"The Rainmakers will love this, but they're not here. I think we might display this in the Embassy, since it was a gift to our entire family. It's very beautiful, and Soundwave is collecting multicultural artefacts. Would you mind that?"

[suomi_thunder]

"You could park with the limo so no one bothers you." That was also a benefit to taking her out with them.

"Rainmakers?" Aarne has heard similar terms in reference to tribal human cultures but who knew if that was the same for Decepticons. "I think an embassy would be appropriate."

He looked up to Soundwave, who he hasn't really talked to yet. "Do you want cultural information about it?"

[cobaltcougar]

"That'd be great. And probably nobody would bother the limo either, with me parked right next to it." Howlback grins, then smiles when he asks about the Rainmakers.

"The Rainmakers are our aerial guard," she says. "They're called that because their names are Acid Storm, Ion Storm and Nova Storm. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw are our aerial scouts, but the Rainmakers do the fighting. It's just the name of their team."

Soundwave is aware of several conversations going on around him, but he's been paying attention to all of them; he can do that, but it takes him a few microseconds to switch beetween parallel processing tracks. "Yes, that would be nice," he says. "It's very kind of you to give us a cultural artefact."

[suomi_thunder]

This sounded like a 'date' to keep in mind for the future.

"In my culture the deity and spirits associated with drums are also thunder, lightning, wind and storms. Drummers are often people who have the energy of storms." Aarne smiles at the description of them being aerial because it aligns very much with his beliefs too. "My name means the Eagle, or stubbornly unyielding, so I've been called the Thunder Eagle. Sometime I'll get on my full kit and show you why."

He really liked Howlback and wanted to invite her to be around more when they had time, both had work to keep them busy.

"I can send it and information about how it was made." He sighed and shrugs at Soundwaves comment. "I never think of them as artifacts because that seems to mean from the past or a dead culture to humans. I guess they are, but it's strange to think about what I made last year as an artifact."

Aarne is not offended by the usage of the term artefact, more thinking out loud about something since it came up in conversation. There is an understanding that cultural objects, even from living tribal cultures are artefacts, but it just feels odd, not necessarily wrong.

[cobaltcougar]

"You should show me why," Howlback says, grinning. "It'll be fun. I like you and your friends."

Soundwave winces slightly. "Apologies," he says. "What I meant is that it's very generous of you to give us something as important as this, when we only brought some sweets. And that it ought to be exhibited at the Embassy. I'm also afraid that now I've taken my helm off and started letting the spirit of the gathering take hold of me, I might be less precise in my speech than I'd normally be."

[suomi_thunder]

"If you come to a show you'll see." He pauses. "IS there a music store here? I haven't had time to look around but I could buy a kit here."

"I'm not offended but it feels strange." Though, Soundwave gets a big laugh out of Aarne and a friendly pat on the arm or leg, what ever is convenient at the moment. "The rest of us are going to get less precise with speech too. You'll fit right in with us when we're drunk."

[soundwave_ascendant]

Soundwave chuckles. "I expected drinking. What I didn't expect was the low-key erotic energy I keep picking up." He lowers his voice. "It makes dancing with Ravage..."

Howlback claps him on the back. "There's plenty of woods around here, if the two of you disappear for a bit, we can keep track of Viridian."

[suomi_thunder]

"It's spring time?" Aarne comments with a giggle then glances around. With Joe here he knows his own energy is probably off the scale erotically, Hunter and Gilly, Rik and Billy,...he wondered if the punks were here. If they were that would only add to it all. The shrug is intended to be innocent but looks more mischevious. "We're all sexually liberal, drunk and ready to celebrate. Get caught up in it and take your partner for a wild ride."

He's serious too. Sex isn't hidden among the bandmates. There's no reason to deny the others. "Rik and I could sit and give her some music lessons while you're enjoying the party."

That went for Howlback too. The human could take care of a kid, even a giant metal cat one for company.

[soundwave_ascendant]

Soundwave grins. "I think I'll let it build up a bit before acting on it, and see where her mood is...but if it's that kind of party, it's that kind of party. We used to have those a lot in the Conclave. And now I'll excuse myself to go dance with her, because wherever her mood is right now, I know I can influence it, especially in this atmosphere."

He nods to them and Howlback cracks up once he's out of close earshot.

"It's true," she says, "we used to have orgies. I'm glad it's a bit more discreet than that here, because we did bring Viridian. But Decepticons will, for the most part, attend sex parties gladly, as long as the rules of the party allow for sticking with one's preferred partners."

She shrugs. "I don't have a partner here. But if someone else here is curious about Cybertronians...we're at a group event, and even if I don't know someone, everyone here will be known to someone else here, so it's not the same level of risk as picking up strangers. We'll see."

[suomi_thunder]

Aarne is glad that Soundwave is feeling happy and comfortable since hospitality is very important to the drummer.

"Surprisingly, we don't have orgies." Aarne shrugged and then giggled. "Public sex or sex in front of others, all the time, but it never becomes a communal orgy. A couple of the band members are too possessive for a wild sex party."

He could understand the sentiment. "I'm not sur who will show up but I hope you have fun tonight, sexual or whatever you get into."

[soundwave_ascendant]

"You don't have to swap partners for it to be an orgy," Soundwave mused. "Do you? Ravage and I would sometimes play with third and/or fourth parties, but not always. Sometimes you just do whatever you do. Nobody's expected to do anything with anyone they don't want to...not sexually." He looks a bit confused. "I'm with Ravage now, she's with me, we won't be sharing with anyone else tonight."

He thinks for a moment. "Does orgy really mean everyone with everyone all the time? Who would do that? Sometimes we'd all link up at the wrist port and share a thought or an experience, and I think that's quasi-sexual, but nothing below the midline or involving the spark was ever expected or even suggested to everyone."

"Soundwave and I have never spark-merged with anyone else," Ravage says, her ears pricked with alarm.

[suomi_thunder]

"Humans think of it that way. It's not an orgy to just have sex in the same room, I don't think." Aarne shrugs. "The few times I've been involved in one it was a lot of touching on everyone by everyone throughout the night."

He's trying to wrap his head around the different definitions or at least ways of thinking about the terms. "A committed couple sharing someone else is more polyamory or something. I don't think most humans consider a couple with a third in the bed an orgy."

"Hmm.. uh..." Aarne is trying to reconcile everything Soundwave has just mentioned and eventually sighs. "I don't think it is just a pile of people but it could be. I think it is more the idea that orgies in a human mindset would include some sort of partner swapping on some level or someone else with your partner. I'm not sure we'd consider an orgy spirit sharing, but I suppose maybe some people do."

Aarne starts laughing quietly. "There are some in the bands that would haul off and slug someone for sexually touching their partner, not even any actual sex. Hell, I think at least two of them get pissed for someone staring too long."

"I'm not sure humans think of sex as merging spirits in general." Aarne isn't sure but he'd rarely heard of that from other humans. "People who do try to mix spiritual and sexual are sometimes thought of as weird or creepy by other humans. My people believe in it but I just haven't yet."

Or at least Aarne thought there were enough similarities with what it sounded like Soundwave and Ravage were talking about and his own spirituality to make sense of it.

[soundwave_ascendant]

"Hmmm. Well, there was definitely some sharing and swapping in the Conclave, but nobody was required to. A lot of us had formerly been slaves." Soundwave shrugs. "I am not a religious person. My understanding of spirituality is fairly limited and sexuality makes up a very large part of it. Intimately joining with another person is as close as I have ever come to worshipping anything."

"Spark-merging is inherently spiritual." Ravage leans into her mate. "Our sparks hold the fiery life-force that animates our metal bodies. Of course there are many other ways to be sexual, everything from purely electronic interfacing to interfacing using an array specifically configured for sexual union..."

[suomi_thunder]

"I think humans are taught to be aggressively monogamous and those who aren't are... strange." Aarne is finding it hard to speak for the whole of humanity and so switches to what he knows best. "I've never been monogamous or felt like loving someone required exclusivity but that's changed. I know it hurts Joe when I'm not monogamous so I'm more so than I was but still not as much as some of the others."

He can definitely understand where Soundwave is coming for as he talks about spirituality and intimacy. "I'm spiritual, maybe even religious, but I've never wanted to mix that with my sexuality. Sex and intimacy hasn't always been a good experience for me. That started to change when I joined the Hammers."

Aarne smiles at Ravage. "You'll need to explain your spark much less to my people. We believe living and many inorganic or non-living things have their own spirit inside. You fit right in the world view I was raised with." It felt important to say before going on. "There are as many ways to have sex as there are combinations of people. I've considered being configured, surgically, to be female but I don't think it's right for me, especially now."

[soundwave_ascendant]

Soundwave smiles fondly at Ravage before he speaks, because he wants her to know that none of the things he's about to bring up still bother him.

"Is it possible that Joe is more hurt by the way in which you stray from the bond, than the actual fact that you've done so? Ravage and I got together when we were young, and she'd been very badly hurt before, and I didn't expect her to want to be with anyone else. We've worked it all out, and we're fine now--we have set the boundaries we needed to, and they're working. The first time that happened, it was with someone we were both very strongly attracted to, so we both just went with it. But we should have spent more time talking about it, both with him and just with each other. It also used to bother me when she developed a taste for the casual, but we worked that out, too. Joe can talk to me, if he'd like."

Ravage catches his meaning. "I was hurt sexually too," she says, very quietly. "Before I met him. I'm sorry that happened to you, but it's wonderful, isn't it, finding that something that hurt you so much in the past can bring so much joy?"

She sighs. "It's an integral part of Decepticon philosophy that who you are should not be decided by the shape of your physical body, and that no-one should have to change their physical body to change their status unless they want to. I think I have writings you might want to read on this topic, though alt-mode and gender are different."

[suomi_thunder]

"I haven't slept with anyone else which is a big deal. Before Joe I'd sometimes be with several people in a day." Aarne still isn't sure how he feels about the change yet. In some ways he missed the excitement of all the new people constantly but that was traded for a feeling of safety and a different kind of excitement that came from starting to commit to someone. "He saw me kiss a few people once but we talked it out, so I think it is ok now. I'm just worried that I'm going to fuck it all up."

Aarne shrugs at Ravage's comment, though he is glad for the encouragement. "It's scary. I've never been this happy before and it is so terrifying I feel like hiding sometimes."

Falling in love for the first time this late in life had brought up a lot of confused feelings. Maybe he had loved in the past but it was never long or it didn't stay positive long enough to remember. Several months in a relationship Aarne was starting to panic over it inside.

"Human culture is less uniform." And that was the problematic part. "I could be in one country and accepted and the next tour date I'm in a place where walking outside as myself might get me arrested or killed. I've been places where who I am is a crime or reason to be evaluated for a psyche ward. I worry about Joe sometimes. He's not used to how dangerous it can be for me, and now him too."

[soundwave_ascendant]

"I don't think that you are going to fuck it up," Soundwave said in a gentle voice. "I know your partner can't read you the way that I can read Ravage, but if you've changed that much, and he knows how big a deal that is...I'm sure he can understand that some things take time."

Soundwave ex-vents. "We are very lucky that we found each other early in life, although I wish I had found her in time to protect her more. We had to fight to stay together. Our relationship was also legally forbidden in our culture at that time, because of the differences between us, rather than the similarities. Those people whose forms are more animalistic were often regarded as animals by members of my caste, and only my brother could accept that she was my spark-mate. Has Joe not been in a relationship that is forbidden by local custom or law before? It must be different for him than it is for you and I. I have never been in love with anyone who was considered an acceptable mate for me under the old regime."

Ravage leans against him. "Human cultures being different...perhaps you should stay in places where you are safe? Soundwave's brother offered to send us out to the colonies for our own safety. If there had been no revolution brewing, no Megatron to lead us in revolt...we would likely have taken him up on that eventually."