📓 I don't go there but I'm curious about Vikings 👀
God I have so many, the one that most haunts my thoughts though is a close follow up to Dragged into the Undertow and Just One Thing the Martyr Wants to Say, focused mostly on Athelstan and Floki.
The central concept starts with Athelstan still suffering nightmares from his whole Kidnapping ordeal, not helped by the fact that Ragnar really thinks this is no big deal in the long run so he isn't sure why Athelstan is so upset about it. And, with DITU establishing that his stress manifests as stomach problems... well he's just kind of stopped eating. Anything he does eat comes back up anyway.
Ragnar might be a dipshit about feelings but he's fairly observant on the physical changes and notices his priest is losing a lot of weight he doesn't have to lose. When constantly dishing up more food doesn't seem to be working, he decides Athelstan is probably sick (not completely wrong) and changes tracks. Floki is who he trusts to bring him back from the literal brink of death, so keeping one priest from starving himself to death would probably be pretty easy.
Next thing Athelstan knows he's been brought to Flokis hut in the woods and is informed that Ragnar is going to be LEAVING HIM HERE FOR SEVERAL WEEKS. Since the last Athelstan saw of Floki was him cutting a man's throat and bleeding him out into the ocean he is. Not thrilled with this plan. But Ragnar is convinced floki can fatten him up and good luck changing his mind.
So the story follows several weeks of Athelstan adjusting to Floki (who is not quite as scary as he's seemed, though he is very strange) and Floki going from treating Athelstan just as a strange curiosity to actually starting to like him. Highlights include Athelstan meeting Helga, who likes him immediately and is MUCH less outwardly intimidating than Floki himself, learning about the loosely open relationship structure that let's Floki be together with Helga AND Ragnar because the monastery didn't include polyamory in their monk lessons, and Athelstan finally starting to feel less sick after several months of just suffering through it.
Im also playing with the idea of including the two surviving monks from DITU and letting Athelstan see how they're doing (poorly) and try to devise a way to help them.
It's not a complete fluff idea, there's definitely some angsty and tormented bits because Athelstan is NOT okay with his new lot in life, but it's more relaxed than the other fics have been, giving him a little more breathing room to start to adjust. The first season covers such a huge span of time that there are lots of little gaps to fill in, and I'm taking mostly their season one characterizations with just tidbits of later seasons to kind of explore a different dynamic between him and floki then what they ultimately ended up doing in canon.
(Because they actually got along fine in season one damn it and even season two's hostility needs to be seen through a filter of. Floki playing double agent and being an asshole to EVERYONE not just Athelstan. But that's a whole Essay)
