The gods are laughing.

[seekingvinland]

WHO: Thorfinn Thorsson
WHERE: The Inn, House #8, The River.
WHEN:One Backdated to October 9th // The other for October 13th
OPEN TO: One thread closed to Sam, the rest OTA
WARNINGS: Some heavy cursing in Norse?
STATUS: Open

---

Backdated to the 9th: Closed to Sam
Once the rain had stopped, Thorfinn had been quick to get back to his daily tasks, he had days to make up for after all. When he came in the afternoon to drop off lumber he heard about the fact Kate and Margaery was missing, and he hadn't seen Margaery that morning, which in itself was strange but he didn't see reason for alarm when they were only out of sight a few hours at most. They had been seen at breakfast then gone after they went into the woods.

If it had been anyone else he would have rolled his eyes and gotten back to work, but it was both Kate and Margaery, and people were going off to look for them. So he watched and listened a few minutes before he looked to the person nearest him, Sam Wilson.

"You want me to go with?" He offered, though still he didn't look too concerned. If it had been a full day he'd be worried, but a few hours was not a big deal in his eyes. Kate was capable, and Margaery was learning.

OTA; Morning October 13th.

Thorfinn was making his way out the front door of House #8, he usually headed from the back door to the inn to collect and axe and get to work, today he was aching from a worse night of sleep than usual so he was going to skip out on collecting wood for the day and get to following the river. He made his way out finishing the last touch of his braids, twisting them into themselves to hold in place. While he messed with his hair he managed to trip on the box sitting on the porch and hit his knee in the process.

"Ríða! Stykki af skít, hvað í fjandanum!"

He had not expected something on the porch much less that heavy. The box was more or less crushed under his weight, and when he shifted off of it and realized there was a point sticking out dangerously close to where his leg had landed on the box. No wonder it hurt like it did. Thorfinn he realized it was the way the last box had displayed his name, of course the rest of his name was there. He shifted to sit cross legged despite the smarting pain in his leg. This was for him. Why were their captors giving him strange gifts, and leaving them in a place he could kill himself?

Tearing the box the rest of the way from the place the blade was sticking out he quickly realized what it was. An axe head it was unlike the ones he was used to, closer to the ones that came in the weapons crates but still strange in its hammer like end. He looked over the heavy item a few moments before he slowly looked up unamused. His face twisting to anger.

They gave him and axe.

An axe with no handle.

He was going to have to go fashion a handle and hoped it could support that weight. "Þetta er ekki fjandans fyndið." He placed the axe-head aside with a loud thunk. Looking to the rest of the crushed box, his eyes going wide. Wheat seeds.

He knew what they were by the sight of them. Looking up at the sky, then back towards the back yard…. He needed to make himself a little field and get these planted before it got to late, Einar had taught him Wheat could be planted in the fall. It wouldn't be able to be harvested in time for winter, but it might be good to do for next year if they are still here, if not maybe it could help someone else in the future. He just sat there staring at the box for a little while.

OTA: Following the river.
The axe-head was in his bag over his shoulder, but the wheat seeds had been left in his room. Thorfinn got to work quickly on moving to the river to start following it. He was looking for off orange coloring, for signs of bog iron. He wasn't an expert and his lessons on the stuff had been ages ago when he was in Medietas, but, it was something worth looking into. A possibility of getting the smith up and running. He didn't have high hopes on finding the bog iron, but, it was worth a shot to try. Worse come to worse he'd time to find a stick worthy of whittling down into a handle for the axe-head.

Comments

[tobeclosetohim]

There is very suddenly, very loud, Norse swearing out the window, but not far away at all from the house. Jo even manages to make out two of the words. She thinks. She's not sure. She knows the tone better than she knows the words. It's like the accent gets thicker and the sounds rush together, harder, like a knife strike, when they are yelled. She catches so much less. But maybe.

Not that it matter.

Not that she's thinking that when she dashing out of her room and heading down the stairs.

By the time she manages to open the door, there's Thorfinn next to box, pulling out an axe head. Her hearts still a little too fast in her chest, questions still there, even if the answers are right in front of her. "And here I thought it might be important."

[seekingvinland]

When she spoke it was about the time that he was realizing what was in the box besides the axe head. The other blond looks up at her. The box held sat aside as he pushed himself up. He didn't let the sharp pain show on his face but his knee ached from hitting them metal. Even in the box.

"This important." He spoke back to English. When he was alone he'd talk to himself in Norse, but with Jo he tried to stick to English. To show his progress and make her proud. He lifts the box over to her. "It is wheat seeds, Jo. Wheat makes bread." Such simple things he wanted and hoped for. Survival at the root of all of it. Unlike his roommates have would play the game.

[tobeclosetohim]

She doesn't sigh. She doesn't. She doesn't have it in her, she can't slide here, and she doesn't apologize. Even if he's right. But what Jo does do, is walk across the porch area and sit down on the stairs next to him. "I suppose bread wouldn't suck. Not that we have any butter. Or mayo. But it would be a slight change of pace, and that would't suck."

Even if seeds did not automatically a loaf of bread make, and not like she had the faintest clue how long it took to grow wheat, or whether the mill even had the means to make flour, but it might. She could walk through the building just fine, and had before and after The Boys had vanished, but it was a language she didn't speak.

She still hates the boxes. She still hates that it makes them dependent and complicit.

[seekingvinland]

He doesn't even have to make eye contact to know she's still not thrilled. He had gotten very good at reading people's body language as he got older. The quieter he gets the more observant he was to people in general.

"Butter we could have." He waved a hand dismissingly. He never cared about butter, it was mostly why he never mentioned it. That and he doesn't quiet know how its made just that it's a pain in the ass. He's got enough pain in the ass projects going on already. "Kate might know how. " He added as if his own way of saying not to bother asking. He sat the box aside and leaned back on one of the supports of the porch looking up to Jo now that she was beside him. Sometimes sitting this close together he really notices how she looked frozen in time from his memories of the other world.

"Even if we plant wheat now. Won't be ready before spring. It's a fall crop." He didn't have that unsure tone he got often. Like with the tree felling. He sounded confident in it. "Wheat would have been useful when we first came." It would not be the strongest but it would have been nearly ready by now.

[tobeclosetohim]

She doesn't take must notice of the stare, as she's looking down at the rest of what he got in his box. More bits and pieces of things that have to be put together. Handling them something half helpful, or even less than half, like it's a cute joke. The parallel of which sticks even harder as Thorfinn explains that his important gift can't even truly be used for the better part of half a year.

Making it a defunct sort of gift. Important. Even needed. But unable to be used currently.

Jo ends up shaking her head, with a huff of breath. "Because that makes so much sense to be sent now, then. Lets all dream of bread and baked goods, but, no, you can't actually have it. You can just hold it and think about a time when you might get to use it, if half of you aren't already dead by the time you get there."

Not that people were dying quite yet, but really she wouldn't be surprised when and if they did. Not with the creepy shit going on here.

the river

[thecatinahat]

Ever since Thorfinn had spoken of the possibility of using bog iron to help make weapons, Cougar has been interested in helping him to find it. With his hunting down for the day, time spent with Jake and the chickens through, he's borrowed Baby in order to take him on a walk and give him a stretch. He's also eager to find Thorfinn and check on his progress, so when he sees him by the river, he grins and sends Baby up ahead.

"Thorfinn!" he shouts joyfully, to give him fair warning that an animal is bounding his way. "Look out!"

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn was knelled down by the water looking over the cover of the water's edge, the slight shine the water had over it. Poking at it to see if it fell or reformed. He had learned in Medietas if it reformed it was pollution, not the iron in the water. After poking at the water he heard his name looking up in time to see Baby bounding his way. His eyes widening some as he shifted the way he was knelled so the excited dog wouldn't knock him in the water the way the goats keep doing.

When the dog reaches him he starts rubbing his hands on Baby's ears to give the dog plenty of love. Such a cute animal. "Cougar! Good day! How are you?" He called back.

[thecatinahat]

By the time Cougar has arrived at his side, the mischievous smirk has died down and he's calmer. His hands are in his pockets and whistles to recall Baby from tackling Thorfinn too much, using a silent hand command to ease Baby into an obedient sit right in front of them. "I'm good," he promises, gesturing to the dog. "We're training."

He wants to make sure the dog is always learning tracking, which means taking him out as often as possible to learn the animals of the area.

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn moved his hands off the dog, as he pushed himself to his feet, leaving his bag down on the ground. "Good to hear, and are you training her to hunt?" He asked curiously. Motioning down to the water.

"I think, I find some of the iron." The water was a little murky and the ground stained orange on the mud, like it had been polluted.

[thecatinahat]

"He is a good helper with hunting," Cougar agrees, giving the dog a pleased scratch behind its ears to show his pleasure before he peers down to stare at what Thorfinn has found. He has no idea what it is, being without much experience when it comes to finding iron, so he'll take Thorfinn's word for it.

"How much?" he asks, keeping a hand near Baby's scruff in case the dog decides to have a drink of water that ends up lapping up most of what they're staring at.

[thekittenqueen]

She spied him on his deck, the familiar sight of a box between his hands as he tore it open and found whatever the specters had decided to leave him. Having just received something as well, she could empathize with his confusion and suspicion. At her side was her puppy, a sheepdog, that had apparently been left for her the few days that she had been lost in the woods.

Whether or not it was coincidence, she couldn't say. However, she wouldn't reject the gift, having needed everything that had been inside the box (including the needles and thread).

"What did you receive?" She called out to Thorfinn, approaching his porch, her dog hurrying ahead.

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn heard the little patting sound of puppy feet coming closer, along with steps he knew to be Margaery's steps. He looked up in time to offer her a light smile, despite his own confusion, moving over some so she could take a seat next to him if she wanted. Meeting Margaery in the mornings was so like the old morning meetings with Arneis that sometimes it hurt, this morning was one of the happier mornings seeing her. A welcomed distraction from the confusion.

"Part of an axe." He lifted it up with one hand, half sledge hammer half axe, made for splitting wood. "Unlike the ones here or home. And wheat seeds." He shifted the box so she could look. "We'll have flour....next year." Thorfinn's beard was trimmed down finally, like he had shaved in the past few days.

He sat the axe-head aside to offer one of his scarred hands down to the puppy. "what is this little one's name?"

[thekittenqueen]

She accepted the seat, pulling her puppy closer to her so that he wouldn't wander far away. Her interest, however, was on the gift that he had received. The hammer/axe was almost a godsend. Despite the weapons that they had received before, this seemed brand new. There was no fear of it breaking or rusting.

"I received wheat as well." She said, picking up a few of the seeds in her hands. "We could have bread." Her mouth watered instinctively. "Did you receive anything else lately?"

She grinned, "He's Gilbert, named for a hero of my lands."

[seekingvinland]

He placed the axe head back down against the porch pillar so no one else would trip on it. Offering a hand over to her. "May I?" Yes, he was asking if he could hold the puppy.

"I plan to clear room for a field like Mark did, but for the wheat, Your welcome to plant with me if you want. I know much of wheat now. I worked on a wheat farm not long ago." He didn't care to go into the less than happy details but it was an oddly good time of his life despite the horrors that happened. "Wont be ready until spring at least, but yes, and we do need bread." He liked how level headed Margaery was.

"Last month yes." He moved a hand down to his belt. "This, and a few other small things. A razor and strange cream and the nails." He offered, since he had already given her one of the nails to keep for her leather working.

[thekittenqueen]

She nodded, urging her puppy forward. Hesitantly, he approached Thorfinn, sniffing him lightly. Margaery scratched at his ears, shushing him gently. "He's still a bit spooked by everything. It's my hope that I can start training him to herd the sheep. He's already begun to help me find mushrooms."

"I think that would be wonderful. I received cotton as well, which will let me make different sorts of thread. I also have fruit seeds, which will spare us from hunting wild berry bushes." There were roses, but those were for wherever she chose to live with Robb.

"It's strange how we grow excited for the things we took for granted before." She smiled, thinking about how often she ignored something as small as seeds.

[notabirdcostume]

Sam had tried not to worry. People went exploring and people vanished -- like Kylo and Hux had, among others. But there were people and then there was Miss Kate. Sam didn't think it was possible for someone to get lost in those woods -- they'd been navigating them for weeks now. Still, she wasn't back when she'd said she would be. What was the point in trying to keep tabs on everyone and keeping an eye on one another if you didn't follow through. It hadn't taken much for Sam to eventually decide he was going out into those woods and he was going to get to the bottom of this.

Luckily, it seemed he didn't have to be alone in the endeavor. He shrugged on his pack, he never left without it. The packs came in handy for grabbing supplies and taking some essentials with him -- just in case. "If you don't have anything else going on...wouldn't mind it at all."

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn wasn't the type usually to worry, but Margaery was a bit to much like a dear friend he lost not to long before arriving here, and he had the instinct to keep an eye on her. To keep Arneis' fate from repeating through Margaery. Thorfinn still had his own pack already on so he nodded to Sam at the question.

"I have things to do, yes, but Kate and Margaery are more important." Even if it seemed silly giving up a few hours wouldn't kill him, and could help them if at worst they had run into an animal. "I know where Margaery gets her animals, best to check there first." He motioned off to a side of the woods. "Up in valley."

[notabirdcostume]

It was a good lead and a good place to start. Even if others had looked there Sam's sharp eyes and Thorfinn's familiarity with the woman and with a more natural setting might come in handy. Besides, there was also the saying about a 'fresh pair of eyes' and Sam felt they could be just that.

"Sounds good," Sam said as he fell in line to follow Thorfinn into the woods. He was actually fairly familiar with the woods himself at this point. Or, as familiar as one could be when the woods held the promise of shifting on a regular basis or without warning. How else could you explain them not having found that town or those crates until Jo and Hook stumbled on them? It just didn't make sense. But Sam had been out in the woods plenty of times so, while he remained alert and cautious, it didn't fill him with dread as it might have once prior to this.

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn lead them up the way Margaery had lead him weeks and weeks ago. "I usually see her every morning, or Kate in passing, but I went out to get to work on what I did not finish last night." He explained. "I think they be okay though. Kate is strong and smart to the woods. Margaery is good with animals. If they are lost, we will find them."

Walking along, Thorfinn reached down pulling his knife from his boot just in case. "This place is bad though, it is in the air." Worries he usually kept to himself. The place gave him the chills sometimes. "Like we are watched... like it moves."

[notabirdcostume]

Sam nodded, letting Thorfinn do the talking for now. Sam preferred other people talking anyway. Perhaps it was the budding counselor in him, but he found that not only did you learn more but people tended to feel better about a particular situation as well.

"I'll admit, I haven't interacted with Margaery much. Seen her in passing of course, kinda hard to NOT meet people since our community is still fairly small for the most part. I try to make a point of seeing Miss Kate every day though." It wasn't hard. Most of Sam's jobs around here required that he keep the various "documents" updated in the inn. Even if he wasn't updating them himself, he liked to keep tabs on what others had put in the various logs that day. Sam wanted to keep tabs, even if he didn't necessarily talk to everyone on a given day.

Sam was fairly optimistic himself, though Thorfinn next admission made him a little less so. He glanced up at the trees, though knew he wouldn't see anything revealing -- that would be too obvious, "Yeah. It's hard to shake that feeling. Just wish we could find more evidence of that than the whole weird incident with the fountain and the various box deliveries."

[itchtokill]

The sudden, loud swearing catches his attention above anything else he may have been in the middle of doing. Nothing that sounds exceptionally urgent, and yet, Kol still finds himself wandering from the back of the house toward the front at the exclamation.

"Oi! What happe--" His words are cut short as he gets closer to the front porch and the scent of blood hits him, right in all the wrong places, all the wrong moments.

He hasn't fed from anyone here, last thing he needs is the little huntress he lives with stabbing him in his sleep and actually succeeding in killing him because whatever's dampening his powers actually has made him weak enough to not need the White Oak to complete such a task--that's his current running theory, but he has no way to confirm it and isn't exactly in a rush to test it out. He's needed real sustenance since his arrival here, actual food, and he's stuck largely to Kate's mealtimes, here and there as required but never in excess, and, disgustingly, animals. The blood has a wicked horrible taste compared to human's, and it keeps him weaker, but it's worth the lack of stabbing in lieu of bloodbags like he'd become somewhat accustomed to in Lawrence.

But it's been a few days and he hasn't fed at all, so the scent of it hits him hard, like a brick wall.

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn was sitting down pulling his knee back up to himself. By the time that Kol got close enough to smell the blood, Thorfinn was noticing it.

"sonur mótmælendur hóra, ég hata fokking þennan stað..."


He grumbled as he put pressure on the gash across his knee. It figured he'd catch his knee, more blood stains for his gray pants. Thorfinn had no idea the man he heard approching was having an issue. Looking back he shook his head.

"Nothing, Kol. Nothing wrong small cut." He tried to speak english for Kol when he could, to improve his use of the language. His small cut was not so small.

[itchtokill]

But Kol doesn't speak or move, even after he's addressed, because he's transfixed on the red against pale skin. He doesn't notice the veins forming around his eyes as he stares.

"What?" he finally asks, after a far too long pause, shaking his head, forcing himself out of his stupor.

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn was so used to being sliced and cut that he didn't show a lot of pain aside from pushing pressure on the wound. Blood still ozzed from under his scarred hands, over his fingers, it wasn't bad, but it was flowing from the think skin knees have, it was a pretty good knick, meaning he'd had a new set of stitches by the end of the day if he didn't wrap it in something beforehand. He didn't care about his blood, his old norse blood. Secrets he kept from even Jo, old royal lines in his bloodline, blue blood wasn't really blue, royalty bleeds just the same as common people.

"I said it's nothing, sorry to worry." He looked up finally seeing the veins. He tipped his head curiously, letting some of the pressure up as more blood slipped free. "You okay?" he asked concerned for his friend,

[itchtokill]

"No," he answers honestly, voice sharper than he wants it to be as he turns away from him, fingers laced behind his head. He tries to breathe through it, force that feeling gnawing at him down to his bones to pass. Thorfinn wasn't just some random person, he was a friend, as reluctant as Kol is these days to put that label on anyone. Time was when he'd not have thought twice about it, simply would have gotten a little rough about it, and drained him dry. But he wasn't exactly that person anymore. Violent, sure, a murderer, absolutely, but not like that. Not in over a year.

"I--" his voice is tight, and it's pretty clear, even with bis bsck turned to him, that he's holding something back. "You need to stop the bleeding." As much as it may have been minor to the warrior who has seen and suffered so much worse, Kol can't stand either the scent or the sight of it right now. "It's not...safe. I'm not--" he lets out a frustrated growl. If he could just feed, regularly, and on humans, this would never have been an issue.