What's a friend?

"Baldur. Every object swore not to hurt him, save the mistletoe. I've heard," Arthur said. "I initially didn't inherit much from my grandfather, either. I have met him previously, but only once, when I was a boy. I doubt that my father wanted me to meet him."

Considering his heritage, what he inherited really wasn't very much. The guilt cloud things were a later development. While Arthur's father never showed him the extent of his powers, Arthur was almost completely confident that his father had more than he let on. But his father was not immortal. That he had learned long ago.

Hearing Valgarður's comment, he gave a genuine smile.

"It's good to have shared backgrounds. Not many people advertise their ancestry here, but I am glad I found out," he said. "I suppose that makes the whole friendship thing a little simpler."

“Christmas does sound like a nightmare with that in the way,” Arthur agreed, keeping that bit of information for further reference. People liked it when their friends paid attention and remembered things. His personal experiences were a bit less seasonal, but definitely more common. At least he didn't worry for a whole season, though. "I have the same problem with wolves. With all the shifters on this island sometimes it's not easy to deal with. I take an epi-pen everywhere with me, in case if there's a real risk."

He's never had to use it so far. But that could change very soon.

"When I was younger I spent hours and hours reading every book on Norse mythology they had in the college library," he said. It was open 24/7, and he spent a hefty portion of his life in there. More than a few people thought he was a religion student. "My father didn't tell me anything, and I suppose it's too late to ask now. To this day I'm still not very sure what my grandfather is supposed to be a god of. "

"It's easier here," he added, after a moment of thought, providing no explanation.

“As long as they haven’t shifted I’m alright with it,” Arthur said. Back in the UK it had been quite a bit easier to avoid his allergen, with very few wolves around except in zoos. Here, though, there were whole neighbourhoods that he had to avoid to the best of his ability. “At this point I’m mostly used to it. I don’t work full moons,”

The next question took him a bit of time to decide how to answer. Nobody wanted to hear much about his past, and he definitely didn’t want to talk about it during his first conversation with Valgarður.

After all, people start to pity you. And when they began to pity you, they view you from an entirely different perspective.

Instead, he held up his right hand and made a fist, demonstrating the shaking and the amount of time it took. “I was born with it. However it’s not very useful now, after becoming injured. You’re right. Tyr is associated with law and honour. Very suitable, I suppose, considering that I’m a lawyer.”

Eager to change the topic, he added, “What do you do for a living?”

Trauma. That’s something this island had an abundance of. Of course there were natives to the island, but most people had came recently, and either they are here to escape the past or they are so discriminated upon where they came from that there was barely any other choice.

He nodded at Valgarður’s comment about friendships. He understood the professionality required in careers that dealt a person’s most private information. While his own career wasn’t quite so restricting , friendships were still difficult to establish. “I find that we tend to get to know our clients in an entirely different way than what is typically expected for friendships,”

“Not only professional boundaries, but people tend to avoid associating themselves with those that are aware of their... darkest part,” he continued, “It happens that I specialise in criminal defence. Even in the cases that I win, the clients tend to avoid me afterwards.”

Of course, it could also be that work happened to be the only thing that he did, but he liked having a bit of an excuse.

For most people, the question of what they did in their spare time was quite an easy one to answer. For Arthur, this was definitely not an easy question to answer. What did he even do in his spare time? Even he wasn’t so sure.

“I don’t get much spare time around here,” Arthur said, after a moment of consideration. Technically it was the truth. Maybe a bit of a twisted one, considering that his fixation with his work was the only reason why he didn’t have much spare time, but it was not wrong. “There are always so many things to do. And for a very long time I was one of the only legal professionals on the island.”

He paused again to give it some more thought, taking a sip of coffee.

“Before my injury I played football. I still like to watch it sometimes,” he tried. Watching sports wasn’t really a hobby, but it was at least something. “I also like to cook. But cooking for one isn’t very entertaining, so I don’t do that very often.”