GIRLS NIGHT, GIRLS NIGHT!

[guidemyway]

Who: Various!
What: Girls Night!
When: Early in the month!
Where: Ruby's House

Content Warnings: N/A Will update as necessary



[A few days after putting the ad up on the bulletin board, the promised evening has arrived. Ruby has a banner hanging up on the patio of her cabin that reads “GIRLS NIGHT” and every once in awhile she can be seen at the door checking for new arrivals, or poking her head up at a window to do the same.

Her cabin is interesting to say the very least. She did her best to clean up all the clutter but it's pretty obvious she isn't exactly the cleanest person in town. Her giant scythe and snowboard are hanging by the door. And there's a green gem sword on display above her fireplaces' mantle with a little hand carved plaque that reads “The Protector of Mantle.” There's also a framed photograph of her looking a couple years younger with her team from home. The kitchen is a bit of mess with a few obvious scorch marks, melted bits on the counter, and just signs that there had been more than one fire in there.

But she had managed to gather up as much as she could for the big party. Including a handful of basic snacks like cookies, chips, and whatever she scrounge up that didn't require any actual cooking skills. There are a handful of games like Risk, Connect 4, and a partially torn up game of twister. There's even an old red and blue boom box playing some hits from the 80's and 90's courtesy of Kate Marsh like Eye of the Tiger, Can't Touch This, I Don't Want To Miss a Thing, If You Want To Be my Lover, and Hit Me Baby, One More time, and many more!]

[OOC: Feel free to make a top level! I'll have one up soon myself! Anyone is free to mingle or try to infiltrate the party.

Feel free to contact me at jjabarrett on plurk or discord for any plotting]

Comments

[meadqueen]

He’s right, it's very clever. Tea seems to be a time-honoured way to get people to care for their health.

[Yes, the crush is obvious. And very sweet to Randvi, who dreams of a love match despite her circumstances. Hopefully, this constable understands the girl’s feelings and affords her due respect. Yes, Randvi herself had been gallivanting with lovers twice her age as a teenager, but she had been shielded from consequences by her father’s name in a way that seems impossible here.]

Things are very different for me here, but most people have been very helpful and kind. I'm enjoying the discovery of these things from the future. I first left home when I married, and in many ways that was significantly more challenging than this.

[castitas]

I know, right? More people should drink tea in general. I know I really miss my weekly tea sessions with my friend Max, back home.

[ She really misses Max. She was like the only friend she had, especially after... well, everything. ]

People have been pretty nice here for the most part, it's good to have something in our favour. I'm glad you're really taking everything in your stride. Although I wouldn't blame anyone being a little scared of it all. [ Lieutenant Little does seem to meet things with... a little trepidation. Although Mr Goodsir is really enjoying it all.

Also, also: ]

You're married?

[ Please tell her more. ]

[meadqueen]

When you return, you can show your friend what you've learned here. [She's trying to be optimistic.]

The circumstances are frightening, of course, but to me, it does feel like an opportunity as well. Everything I learn is something I can use to improve myself. [What knowledge she could already bring back to her village!]

I am. It was a condition of a peace treaty, so I had to travel far from my natal home and live among those who were once our enemies. It comes easily enough now, but at first it felt very lonely. Here we are all displaced.

[castitas]

That's a good idea. [ No, really. She does like the sound of it. Even with... everything going on back home — Max would be pretty stoked to hear everything. Although it might all sound... totally crazy. ]

That's fair, and you're right. You've traveled to the future, that's the kind of thing that's just in stories, even in my time. [ They absolutely do not have time travel in 2013. Nope. Definitely not a thing. ]

Wow. That's... kinda wild. Like, old school wild. [ Seriously. ] They don't... do that sort of thing anymore. They just sign, like, agreements?

[meadqueen]

I keep thinking about the Romans. Where I live in England, there are Roman ruins near our village that are around four hundred years old. They seem so mysterious and ancient to me, yet there are nearly a thousand years separating me from the men from the ships, and even more from you, from this place. [No wonder Kate says 'old school'.]

Not all agreements are sealed that way, obviously [otherwise by now she would have eight or nine husbands] but when families are mixed in this way there is a heavier penalty for breaking the agreement.

[castitas]

That makes sense. Basically, it stops family from fighting one another?

[ Which she would think a lot of people wouldn't want to do. Thus the... 'heavier penalty'. ]

It's weird, considering that's how someone from my time would see someone from yours. I imagine one day someone from the future's going to look back to my time and think the same. [ There's a tiny smidgen of amusement there. It's funny how things go. ] You said you came from Norway, so you're like... Vikings?

[ Oh my god, Kate. You can't just ask someone if they're a Viking. ]

[meadqueen]

Essentially, yes. In the next generation, the rulers of the Raven and Reindeer clans will be cousins. And in the meantime, if my father makes an unauthorized move, the Raven Clan has his youngest daughter.

[There's a reason that brides like Randvi are sometimes called 'hostage'.]

I’m sure it must be true, that people from farther afield will look back at your own time this way. I can't even imagine a year 3000.

I'm not a Viking any longer. [To her that's a job title, and she hasn't raided since she was nineteen.] But I do command them. I'm Norse.

[castitas]

... Oh. [ Well that's... kind of scary, too. ] But your dad wouldn't do that, right?

[ Like surely he wouldn't? ]

Well, I've heard of Norse before. [ Norse mythology, specifically. Everyone at least knows who Thor is, for one. ] ... Wait, what's the difference between being Norse and a Viking. I thought they were the same thing...?

[meadqueen]

Now that we are in England and King Harald is absorbing most of the smaller kingdoms in Norway it's likely not a concern. Even before that, I think both my father-in-law and my own father have lost the appetite for war that they’d possessed as younger men.

Norse just means that we are from Norway. Viking is an activity - raiding by ship - and those raiders are called vikingr, or jomsvikingr if they're mercenaries. I raided as a girl but those days are behind me now.