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

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

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

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.

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"My back," Kate repeats, and this time gestures towards the area. The area, currently supported by a cushion against the chair's own back. She thinks, tiredly, of how a lady's back is never supposed to touch the back of a chair, and she thinks of how it's nearly impossible anyway if you're fully dressed even to middle-class. But here, now, she can and is because sitting up straight aches and she's pulled something.

Bugger it all.

But to him, she just then shakes her head. "No. It just needs rest. Quiet. But you, you can sit, if you want. Sit on a chair?"

It's almost like standing in front of an audience, talking with him and illustrating her words with pointing.

"Back." This time he repeated it with a nod. There were ways to help with back pain sure enough, but she said no and he just nods with a mild understanding. He knew most of the words she said since they were simple. Words Jo's used, words everyone's used.

He smiled for her and nodded. Understanding.

"ég mun koma" Back"

He spoke the words since he wasn't sure the right words to say. He pushed up and held a hand motioning over to Jo and where he had been. He moved rather quickly with little effort, his foot falls a little heavier than he would like but he was still adjusting to the new boots. His time's version of shoes were basically just leather tied to the legs. So movement was harder in these boots.

A moment later, after letting Jo know he would return, he returned back to Kate with his little project, and placed the wood on the table with the knife and finally took a seat. "I Back." He spoke in his broken english. Finally sitting in a chair near her, keeping a respectable distance. These things came naturally after spending so much time in the old man's house.

"Eg mun koma," Kate repeats, when he is back. It's only fair, she thinks. She also thinks that Thorfinn Thorsson is relaxing to be around, and that she is lonely. She can reach out with more than lessons. Hopefully.

"Welcome back."

She's actually impressed he's put together the word with its two meanings, anatomy and direction. He's sharp.

"What are you making?" She asks then, nodding her head towards his knife and wood. This is reassuring, too, that he knows how to carve things, that he can. That he is taking the initiative too.

Like with Inn and Pub he had realized that back clearly meant two different things. Like with his own by-name, Karlsefni, it could mean so many things. All of them pretty much rounded up to The makings of a man. He was always embaressed by it, but no one ever picks those names themselves, they earn it. Language was complex, before coming here he hadn't really given it thought beyond the annoyance factor. Older and wiser it was interesting how hard it was, but oddly satisfying when he could work past his own irritation. Hearing Kate repeat the words back in his language be smiled once more. He had just had this conversation with Jo a little while ago, so the word was still fresh.

He nodded his head again his way of saying thank you. That one was having trouble sticking. But he was trying his best.

"Sun Compass." His accent laid it on thicker than intended. He pointed to the map then back to the object in his hand without removing the knife. He always felt more natural with a blade in hand even now when he didn't care for violence, It felt right. Like with Jo he shifted in the chair the move the item in hand the handle mostly carved out so the flat top was showed he was carving grooves into the top. He motioned her closer.

"Sun, sun is north." It came out smooth since it was still so fresh in his mind. He placed his finger against the center to cast a mild shadow as if to show how it worked.

Kate peers at the wood, at his movements, and her lips part in a silent, Oh. She's heard of such things, but the ability to make one seems marvellous. And he's skilled with a knife, too, she can see that already.

"That'll be fair useful," she says warmly. "I'm used to trackin' with the sun, but not everyone here is."

Although, that raises a point, doesn't it.

"In my home, the shadows from the sun are here," Kate says, and reaches over to tap the opposite side of where the shadow is. "Opposite."

He had trained with his old daggers to a deadly point. He had always been armed, always been ready for an attack or to handle whatever Askeladd threw his way. He had been allowed only cheap blades to get his work done, and axes. He felt right once again having a proper knife. Even if it was not so much to his liking it worked, and that was what mattered.

"I help. I hunt." simple sentences, simple words Jo had taught him.

He scrunched his face a little trying to figure it out, but he realizes at least what she met when she spoke sun and tapped the other side. His eyes widened at that. Where was she from? "Opposite." It was harder on him than some words.

He motioned to himself again with the knife this time no fear. "Iceland." He motioned to her, so curious where the sun would cast different.

"Australia," Kate says, ignoring the distinctions of the separate colonies in favour of the continent as a whole. "Terra Australis," she adds, in case Latin is something he knows.

She doesn't know any, just that and other legal terms.

"It is... South. Um."

She's seen maps of the world, but where is Iceland? Somewhere between... Europe and somewhere. She wasn't paying attention to that bit.

"East of Africa? Australia is a new land."

He scrunched his face a bit, a tic he has when he doesn't understand. He's trying though. He knew country named changed. "New land...." He repeated, he knew those words and smiled. It didn't matter if he didnt know of this new land of hers. New land was ALWAYS exciting to a man like him. He was a sailor by nature, new land was always important.

"Vinland." He repeats, which with his accent could sound like Finland "I to make" He spoke trying to remember it right, he reached up pushing his hair back again. "Land of Vinland." He explained. Vinland was his dream, it had been his hope since his father died. The rich lands his father wanted to go to, the lands Leif had found and told him about as a boy by fires. He had been planning to tell his family the night he arrived here that he was going to go colonize Vinland. He had Leif's support all he needed to do was get money and those willing to go make a new peaceful land. So hearing that she was from a new land he had to wonder... but no she said South. "Vinland. West."

He thought of himself as a well traveled man, but he had never seen Africa either. The name didn't stick, he'd know of Egypt but not Africa Askeladd used to tell stories he would only half listen to. Egypt was in some of those.

"Australia, you home." he motioned to her trying to make sure he didn't mess it up, but his accent did a number to the name when he said it. "Australia South." His was mentally mapping it out. The way his eyes shifted around and he motioned the knife around.

She doesn't know Vinland - and he repeats it enough she can hear it, not Finland - but she thinks she can make out something of what he means. Vinland is a new land, one he wants to... Go to? Colonise? Make into a land, like what happened in America. Australia, once the convicts had made it more habitable.

West, Thorfinn says. Vinland is west. But west from what? She'd need to look at a map.

"Australia is my home," is what she says, and nods. "It's south. Um. This is the world," and she cups her hands, slides them around an imaginary ball before shrinking the gesture down, cupping her hands around each other around a small ball shape. "Europe is here," her bottom hand moves away to tap the knuckle of her little finger on the top hand. "Australia is here."

Her hands go back to the ball, and then her top hand moves, taps the side of her lower hand. Roughly opposite.

It's not exact, and she hopes he doesn't take it as precise co-ordinates. But the idea, the concept. The land at the other side of the world.

She had the general idea down. Which was exactly right. He wanted to make a colony. Of course, Leif hadn't told him the full truth of it yet, life had spirited him away before things got harder.

He nodded, not seeming shock at her motioning round. It was known the world was round. Like with horned helments the flat earth idea was a myth. The sailor knew the earth to be round, the earth serpent circled the world for reasons.

When she stopped explaining Thorfinn stood up. "back." He repeated moving over to grab a peice of charcoal and return. When he said down again he placed the compass down in the center. "England." He motioned, his knife pulled further west and north. "Iceland." He added then took the charcoal and drew a line down from the compass. "Australia." He spoke when he reached further down drawing an X and looking up to confirm. He knew how to map. And he a damn good idea of how the earth worked. He had spent his youth looking at Askeladd's maps. He could track and mentally map well enough, and he is curious of her new land.

Thorfinn didn't care about drawing on the table. It didn't matter it was Charcoal it would clean.

Her eyes track his movements, squinting a little as she tries to visualize his movements against a map. England gets a flickering movement of her mouth, a wry deepening at one side.

"Yes," she says. "Like that. Sort of." Thorfinn seems to know enough of how to visualise maps and oceans that she wants, now, to be more accurate.

Kate silently holds out her hand for the charcoal, and then draws. She's not a skilled drawer, and she doesn't attempt any form of accuracy. Symbolism, that will have to do. Symbolism to show a rough version of the route the ships take.

Once she's done, she points. "Ireland," she says, tapping the smallest circle huddled next to the second smallest. "Mother and father came from Ireland. Then, they go to England. From England, down west coast of Europe," an oval here. "Down coast of Africa. Africa is south of Europe." Another oval, this time vertical instead of horizontal.

"They go around the Cape of Good Hope, go east across the Indian Ocean. Then here is Australia."

Another circle.

"It is south from Asia."

Edited 2016-08-06 09:47 (UTC)

He knew enough to get by. Most of what he knew came from his own travels and paying attention when he pretended not to care. His long nights playing watch while the ships were to sea tended to be filled with looking at whatever maps Askeladd had while the jerk slept.

He handed over the charcoal when she held her hand out for it. His fingers just barely brushing her palm when he dropped it into her hand, he moved his hand to rest against his face, which left the black marks from the charcoal on his cheek near his scar. While some of her English was lost on him he knew the different names for countries well enough at least the older names. But it finally clicked when she pointed where Ireland would be.

"Dublin." The word rolled from his lips easily enough. He had been there but only for a short while once when the band was replenishing supplies on a summer venture in his younger years. When she drew the map out more the fact that he realized where her family must have come from was lost as she drew out the new world. He pushed himself up and move to stand beside her instead of across from her. His hands leaned on the table as he looked down over the map, his braids falling forward as well.

"Ó fjandinn, það væri langt ferðalag." He spoke, mostly to himself as he leaned forward just a bit more, half leaning on the table as if visualizing the map as the world. "Long... explore." he spke looking over at her from where he leaned at her side. He wanted to say long trip, but he didn't really know trip in English. Long however, was the same word in both languages depending on its use.

If she could understand Norse, she'd thoroughly agree - it's a very long fucking way. Long enough she herself as no desire to go back to the Old Country at all. Weeks and weeks on a ship? She'd go mad. Stark raving mad.

As it is, Kate still laughs a little in agreement with what she took his meaning to be. Besides, her palm is still a little warm from his fingers had brushed her skin.

"It took a long time to find it. To explore enough to find it. Then explore it. Australia is very big."

Pausing, she adds in a tiny circle underneath Australia's. Can't forget about the hell of Van Deiman's Land.

Even for one like him who had spent most of his youth on a ship, that was a hell of a long trip. Of course, he didn't plan to let such a beautiful high born lady know he had cursed, because he thinks she must surely be high born. Though, as Einar learned with Arneis, he to would learn with Kate. Looks didn't always mean high birth.

He still leaned on the table, his eyes widening. "Oh." The word came out in English. "much big." He would get -very- down eventually, but he was remembering Jo wanted him speaking English whenever he could. He grasped that it would help him learn faster, still sometimes it was hard.

"Home, cold? Bad winter?" He asked, looking to the side to her again curiously, his own home was near the top of the world, where hers was the unknown bottom, was it cold to?

This is where she sobers, looks sad. Sombre. Why did Ma's family leave Ireland?

(She's not going to explain about her da yet. That is... Complicated. She doesn't yet know how the people here think of convicts and their families.)

"Bad harvest," she says, then tilts her head a little to correct herself. "Bad food. The crops got the blight. They got sick, rotted in the ground. People died from hunger. My mother's father, he said that they'll go to Australia, the new land. It'll be better. It'll be warm and the food'll grow."

Now her full mouth tilts in the wry smile of a second-generation born child.

"Australia is hot. There are different problems."

The man leaning on the table next to her, would be the last person to judge someone for being from a convicts family. He was the Thegn that attacked his prince turned king, not that he ever really showed Canute enough respect anyway.

He nodded, some of those words went over his head and the look on his face showed it but he got enough of it to understand. He nodded quietly. "New life, new start in new land." He spoke with a nod, pushing himself off the table to return and sit down.

He shook his head a bit once he sat back down. "Hot here." Yes, he thought THIS place was hot. He would be miserable in her home.

Edited 2016-08-15 22:18 (UTC)

"Exactly."

And a fine lot it'd done them, in the end. But more were alive than dead, starved to skeletons on a little island or none born at all.

But then, the Kelly children were all proud of being native-born. Before they are Irish, before they are Catholic, they are Australian.

It means something, Kate thinks.

"Hot? Oh," and here she laughs. "No, not hot. Warm. Australia is much hotter."

At least, so far.

Thorfinn shook his head amused. "I no like. Hot is bad." He waved a hand. He was not fond of the heat he hated how sticky it made him feel when he tried to sleep. The air was different to. While he tried not to bitch to much, namely when no one could understand him and he wasn't the type to complain to much anyway to anyone besides himself... he didn't like the heat at all.

He looked up at the noise of someone else entering. His eyes went to Jo on the other table. Keeping a close watch on the woman who took him in. Looking back to Kate he lifted the knife and started shaving away at the wood. He didn't know what else to say to be honest, he never was the best with words.

"You'll have no disagreement of me there," Kate says with a soft, wry laugh. The heat is something one either gets used to, or doesn't. It's not that she desires it, certainly not when you have to get to work whether it's a hundred in the shade or cold enough for the frost to look like snow, but it's what she knows.

After he glances around the room - at the newcomer, at Miss Jo - and then falls silent, Kate doesn't immediately start the conversation again. She has things to ask, and practical, because those curtains are pinned up with what looks to be nails made out of bone and she badly needs a needle, but it's not an awkward silence.

Sometimes, it's nice to simply be in another's company.

So, for now, she keeps her mouth closed and enjoys the company as she watches the room.

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

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