004 { A life you don't live is still lost

[tobeclosetohim]

WHO: Jo & THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE
WHERE: The Pub & Inn
WHEN: July 27th, Midday through Night
OPEN TO:Everyone was invited personally
WARNINGS: Jo's Better At This Than She Means To Be
STATUS: Open To All; Threads w/ Jo, w/ Others & Threadjacking Welcome

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Jo told everyone she saw yesterday to come by the Inn & Pub today.

Anytime after midday, and to pass on the message to anyone and everyone else they saw. That it wasn't a meeting per say so much as something everyone was going to need everyone's help with and something everyone should probably get in on. But without clarifying much else.

She spent the rest of yesterday stealing nearly a half dozen curtains from houses that hadn't been claimed by anyone, and then acquiring enough charcoal to fill two small baskets. It's not paper and pens or pencils but it's going to have to do until someone has a better idea or finds better supplies.

The morning of the 27th, Thorfinn helps her get them tacked to two different walls of the main room of Inn & Pub using her knives to cut holes and then sharpened bones, from earlier meals in the month that she hadn't been aware had been saved even, banged into the wall to make them hold high and sturdy enough.



On one side of the room, three curtains line the wall and it says at the high top MAP & LANDMARKS. In the center most piece there are sketched bits for the buildings they can all recognize, the center most being the fountain, and in the distance the river, certain bits of forest, canyon wall, but there's a lot of white space in every other direction, too.

On the other side of the room, one curtain goes up, marked only at the top with FOR TRADE. For the moment that one is entirely blank, but sooner or later she going to end up writing Fresh Meat, with her name and Thorfinn's next to it. There's a second curtain for that wall folded behind the bar, for when and if it's needed.


For now Jo's sitting on a table, again, feet on a chair, elbows on her knees, hair loose on her shoulders, looking at the maps' ocean of white, waiting to see what else might get filled in by those who show up today. Or at least having a better idea of where they should still be looking that hasn't been covered half a dozen times already by everyone else.

Comments

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn had remained sitting when the other man made his way in. Whittling away at what would eventually be a sun-compass. The blonde only looked up when he saw the man lift the charcoal and start to draw. The knife and wooden chunk of debarked branch remained in his hands as he pushed off the chair to move closer. Though he could see just fine in the darkened room, he still wanted to see what the man was adding closer.

He stepped up behind the other louder than he would like. He was still adjusting to the strange boots and it effected his once silent steps. He was a man of small stature, only standing about five foot four. His long blonde hair was plaited loosely at both sides, it half covered the scar down the scar on his right cheek and chunk of his left ear missing. But, the clothes he wore, a tank top and gray scrub pants, left most of his scars reveled.

Looking at it he easily realized it was a body of water just by the lines. He looked to the other man, his brown eyes curious as he had not seen this stream yet.

"ám eða straum" He asked, before trying to think of the English words in case. "Water? Straum?" His accent made the words harder, but he was a sailor at heart, he wanted to know where all the water may be. An idle hope of eventually being able to find a way to sail home if a chance ever arises. He knew it was a useless dream, but he was still hopeful.

[seekingcrocodile]

The man lurking behind speaks in a language he hasn't heard before (he's heard a lot, sailing as many places as he has, even if he can't speak most of them), but he's clearly taken an interest in something on the map.

"Water, aye." That much he can figure out. "Fresh water. It's a good source of fish." Along with a good place for washing when you're not in your house.

[seekingvinland]

"Fish...." The word feels strange on his tongue, and it clicks. "Fiskur." He nodded, he hadn't thought about fishing at all, but it would be hard to find a net he figured anyway. He furrowed his brow a bit before trying to recall a new word and none of them clicked. So, he tried with what he knew.

"Big... water?" He motioned a hand out wide, his tone was questioning. He was hopeful for an ocean, maybe a ship. Far to hopeful.

[seekingcrocodile]

"No." It's disappointing to him too, and that much is obvious from the way he says it. "Not big water. Just a stream." If there is a ship here, it would never make it down that water. Maybe that should be his goal sometime, to follow that stream and see where it ends up.

"I haven't found an ocean yet. Not even a lake."

[seekingvinland]

"Yes, Ocean." That was the word. That was the one he was looking for. He shook his head, clear disappointment that there was no large body of water to be found. He looked over and up at the other man after a second offering one of his scarred up hands over. "Thorfinn." He introduced himself. A man that found water he had not yet come across was a man he wanted to know.

The former viking couldn't be to sure, but seeing the strange hook on the other man's hand he just assumed the man had seen some combat or something. Maybe a sword or axe had taken his hand. There was no real long lingering on the missing hand. It was the hook that caught his eye more than anything but he didn't stare. "You?" He motioned to the other questioningly.

[seekingcrocodile]

“Killian.”  There’s more to it, of course, but given the man’s apparent limited grasp of English, he doesn’t want to cause any confusion.  He’s been called ‘captain’ for so long (and ‘Hook’ for so much longer) that it might be nice to be regularly called Killian again, at least not by someone who shares a bed with him.  He’s not really a captain anymore anyway, with the Jolly Roger stuck in the Enchanted Forest in the hands of Blackbeard, and no idea if he’ll ever see her again, and with being in this strange place that so far as he can tell doesn’t even have an ocean.  (But it must.  How can a place not have an ocean?)

He shakes the hand that’s offered, and finally catches sight of what the other man is holding in his hand.  “Are you making a compass?”  That could definitely be useful.

[seekingvinland]

"Killian." Thorfinn repeated the name with a nod, he wanted to be sure he didn't mess it up. His accent was heavy and sometimes he tripped over certain words. Thorfinn would not have called him captain anyway, he was never fond of speaking of ranks and such. He didn't even give royalty the proper respect until recent years. Everyone seemed to be on the same rank here and he liked that. No more Jarls, Karls and Thralls. Everyone was the same.

He looked down at his hand when Killian asked his question and nodded, looking a bit impressed. Everyone else had asked what he was making instead of knowing. This gave him a bit of hope as he lifted the half carved compass. "Sun compass." He spoke the english he had learned earlier in the day. Then moved his hand to the map. "Find, add." He wanted to help make the map better.

[seekingcrocodile]

Then there are people like him, who started out with a respect for certain others, like kings, and lost it. Now he won't give someone his respect until they've earned it, which is strangely hard to do considering his past as a pirate.

"That would make it easier to add to the map." Even his contribution, the stream, is a best guess of where it goes. He had nothing to assist him in plotting its exact course.

[seekingvinland]

It made enough sense, once one is burned they are careful of the fire and fear being burned again. It was a fine enough principal. Respect should be earned.

Thorfinn nodded, kind of grasping what Killian had spoke. He held the half carved compass up. "Bone." he spoke the simple word as he placed his finger against the center as if to say he intended to use a bone as the center to cast a shadow. "Map be good." He wanted Jo's map to be accurate, if there was a way to escape he wanted to find it. To return home.

[seekingcrocodile]

"A good map is better than a bad one," he agrees. "A bad map is better than none." So even if their makeshift map isn't to scale, or things aren't in quite the right spot, it's better than not having any idea of what's out there and where.

[seekingvinland]

"Yes. Better than none." He repeated, struggling with the words but mostly repeating. Repeating helped a lot. Maps were rarely kept in his crew he grew up in, usually burned or tossed to sea once a voyage was over, but he spent his time reading them when he found them. Learning them to kill the long times the ships would drift. "Welcome, Killian." He spoke after a second, offering his hand over to shake, being thoughtful enough to not hold it towards the hook.

[seekingcrocodile]

He has an almost compulsive need to know where he is, what's where, where the boundaries are, and he suspects it comes from so many years of studying charts. Of encoding his own in case they came into the hands of rival captains (good luck making sense of those, Blackbeard, and keep your sleazy hands off his stuff). So if someone hadn't already had the idea to put together a map, he'd have started work on it himself (though he probably wouldn't have thought to get input from others). He's got a pretty good mental map of the areas he's already seen.

He shakes the hand, carefully leaving the hook out of the way. "Thank you. Have you been here long?"

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn had a need much the same, he liked to know where he was and how to get around so he could move with haste without having to worry about tripping or falling off a cliff. The map though, that he was more interested in it for everyone else.

Once the shake was returned, a strong shake too, Thorfinn pulled his hand back. He nodded in return to the thanks before he shrugged some. "Bad at time." He was not sure honestly how long he had been there, but considering he has trouble keeping up with how old he was, it wasn't that shocking.

[seekingcrocodile]

Bad at time. That doesn't really help. He searches for another way to ask the same question and get an answer. "Did you arrive with the first group of people?" Since they all seem to have arrived roughly at the same time, and have been here for longer than he has. He's not sure exactly how much longer, but long enough. It's one more piece of information to add to the puzzle.

[seekingvinland]

"No, came alone." He understood mostly what the question was. "After many others, before Kate." At least he remembered that. He stumbled across Kate on his second day while she was still soaked from the fountain. It was a marker of time at least.

[seekingcrocodile]

"I know someone who came with the first group." A couple of someones, actually, if he has it figured right. He's just glad there were people nearby when he arrived himself, alone and unaware of where he was.

How many days exactly it has been since then he's not so sure of. He wonders if that even matters.

[seekingvinland]

"I know two... one not know me though." He tried to explain, not sure how to say it. "This not my first place taken to." His english was bad but he was trying to explain it all the same. "I know Jo and Kol from another world." He hadn't told Kol though, he could tell from their meeting Kol didn't know him, Kol wasn't the same Kol who had tried to teach him english in Medietas.

[seekingcrocodile]

"I don't know Kol. I've just met Jo." So there's something else they have to talk about. "I know someone from before I arrived here, but this is the first place like this I've been to." Other worlds, sure, but they were all connected in some way. This one does not seem to be.

[seekingvinland]

He nodded to that, taking what he could of it. "Jo help, she know much." He gave a firm nod as he said it. Before smiling weakly. "I go now, Good day, Killian." He knew it was getting later than he liked to wait before heading out to hunt. So, he was about to leave to go do just that.

[seekingcrocodile]

"I'll see you around." He understand the need to be out and doing something. It's good to make these contacts like this, but it's also good to be doing things that actively aid in survival. Such as acquiring food in some way or another. He'll be heading out to go fishing soon himself.

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn nodded in return, making his way to Jo's table to say something to her in a lower tone, grabbing up his bag before heading on out the door to get back to his daily tasks. If he didn't keep busy he was certain he would become downtrodden again quickly.