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

---

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

[booklegging]

The rational explanation would be that he'd misunderstood somewhere along the way and the other man meant something else, but Thorfinn put that conclusion in jeopardy by agreeing that the time he was talking about was a part of the distant past. He knew it, but he still believed it? Jess didn't have an explanation for that. Not a satisfactory one. Not one grounded in the immutable rules of how the world worked that he'd grown up with.

Thorfinn's crestfallen reaction made him feel worse for asking. Loss transcended language and was something everyone could understand, Jess included.

However, before he could apologize for dredging up memories better left alone, the man's companion on the other end of the table made the decision to interject--with a bang like a judge's gavel. Jess watched the exchange in silence, glancing between them. The clear distinction between "us" and "them" was pointed, and Jess knew it wasn't the right time to speak up.

[seekingvinland]

The slap of the table made Thorfinn turn fast his hand instinctively reaching for the blade. But, it was Jo, his fingers just barely brushed the hand before he sat back again. His brown eyes locked on her. She, who he once thought of like his sister, the one who had his respect, and knew more of his past than any other in this world. She gets his full attention.

You don't know that

"Jo, many ages pass." He spoke back, his emotions were always a powder keg, but he had learned over his years to keep them in check. To keep from losing himself to the rage that once ruled him. "No fake hope." He spoke back just defiant. He pouted, the viking pouted like a dejected child sitting back in his chair, mirroring the pissy boy who had demanded mead from her in Medietas, demanding to be treated like a man. That child warrior was still under his skin, just as much as his scars showed for all to see.

Thorfinn unfolded his arms and looked to Jess, motioning to Jo. "This Jo, Jo help, family." As close as he had to family here. He didn't have the faith she did that his family was fine even if he had gone home the wound seemed so much more real here than it ever did in Medietas. "Jo, This Jess, Jess new here." Broken English introductions, at least he tried.

[tobeclosetohim]

"It's not fake hope." She says it, and there's something sharp and razor-edged, half with him and half with the level of the hardness to explain it. Because it was so complex. Easy for her now, but not easy for language barely known. It was the multiverse. It was all the doors and all the worlds and all the times, all at the same time and place and spot, but while still being everywhere else. They might be alive. He might get back to them. That wasn't a lie.

But she can frown for the moment and be half distracted from proving him wrong -- even if she can't prove herself 100% right either, not in the middle of this place trapped -- and look at the new boy. "Hey."

[booklegging]

Between the on-edge instincts of his new Icelandic friend and the heavy, somber topic being passed back and forth, any sane person would think twice about getting in the middle of those two.

Family. Blood relations? Despite their contrasting backgrounds it could be possible with their fair hair, but everything Thorfinn was saying hinted at something else, a different manner of relationship. Jess didn't ask. None of his business.

He nodded at the woman. Given Thorfinn was obviously working to familiarize himself with English, Jess appreciated the attempt at introductions and shot a smile at him. He couldn't even hold it against the guy for slapping the "new" label on him. "Thanks, mate."

[seekingvinland]

Thorfinn is silent a moment before nodding. Jo always knows, Jo is so often right. He has trusted her with every choice so far when language was so far from his understanding, she has helped him learn to start piecing the language and this new world together. "Maybe... yes." He spoke taking a breath. Steadying his emotions. It was something he does now and then when he's worried the beast he can be may try to struggle free. His emotions were his own Kryptonite.

Though they have some traits that could pass for family, even the multiverse wasn't that vast. He had once thought how much the woman looked like his sister, Ylfa. Now he sees Jo as more, she is more than Ylfa, yet he respects her so much. His eyes shift back to Jess. "You Welcome." He responded, so quick to catch on. He crossed his arms now looking to the map. He wasn't sure what else to say, his English was still very broken.

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo wants to roll her eyes, and her elbows end up on her knees, because it's annoying and sometimes it almost feels impossible. She won't give up, doesn't, can't consider it, won't ever, but she doesn't want blanket obedience in him any more than she ever expected it in his as a child -- at least not when it wasn't about keeping him alive, or keeping other people from dying at his hands, when he could not control the circumstances. She doesn't want him to agree simply because she snaps.

She wants him to understand, and it's the frustrated anger, with the process more than him, in all of that make her teeth stay closed.
She'll tell him, maybe not again until he does understand. Or maybe she'll have to figure out some way to explain that he will already.

[booklegging]

Awkward silence fell like a curtain on a finishing act. It wouldn't have been so bad if Jess wasn't clearly the odd man out in the wordless conflict between the other two.

For Thorfinn's benefit, Jess leaned forward in his chair and pointedly gestured at them, then jerked his thumb at the door, signalling his intention. "Right then. If you two need a minute, I'll get going."

Let it not be said a Brightwell didn't know when to get out while the getting was good.