《Alfheimr Renaissance》Tosra & The Auction - day 20, the rest of the day
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I need to sit and just rest a bit after that 'scrubbing' in the bathroom, and leave the backpack lying there on the table in front of me. Kari have deserved that I 'scrubbed her back' properly. Given the topics of conversation she and Jane seem to have had, it must have been a couple of 'accumulating' weeks for Kari, and in her elegant way hinted that I should rest until tonight. Kari also deserves that I try to make it cozy and nice. I may not deeply love her, but I care, and don't want her to feel left out or sidelined compared to Iselin or Ciara. Especially after Caecilia became my official personal maid.
Kari loves how beautiful the floors have become, but I should have expected that Kari would immediately realise that the painted hardwood floors also makes it easier to dry up after her, no matter what room we are in. I just lazily and unfocused look out the windows while yawning. Kari needs a hobby. Wrong. She needs another hobby.
I start looking through the contents of the backpack and have layed most of it out on the table when Jane comes and sits opposite and just smiles. Also freshly showered. Her smile is a little disturbing as I don't think its for ejoying a shower, but I keep looking through the stuff, and she can sit there with her arm on the back of the couch and be smugly complacent. No matter what, the journey has been successful, and I will eventually discover what she has told Kari.
A couple of Nalgene type bottles are useful to have and I will use them as they are for now. One is in transparent plastic and the other seems to be in stainless steel, so I can probably make eyeprotection out of the plastic bottle and a few stainless surgical tools of the other. Tom's sunglasses are here and I will use them. I've really missed having sunglasses available, and its nice they have polarized glass lenses. The mobile case should be quite useful, as apart from a few banknotes and more plastic cards, there are some magnets in it. Nice.
Tom's camera is a pro model with full sensor size, and the usual lenses like 18-55mm, Zoom 55-300mm, and ultra wide 10-22mm, as well as a bright 35mm lens. A separate flash with some form of expandable small reflector cloth with a few carbon fiber rods, and a simpler ring flash of some type, which I might have expected. Okay, its LED instead of xenon flash, but if he filmed I understand he may have needed a constant light source. There are three extra battery packs for the camera, and two for the separate flash and ring flash. Damn, just this would have been worth a hell of a lot of gold, and given what happened and how Tom seems to have been as a person, I'm not complaining that Tom's dead. I also see a pack of memory cards, a lens brush, rubber bladder, a couple of remote controls, light filters and more.
The gimbal stabilized selfie stick for his mobile is perhaps not that useful, although there should be a lot of small magnets in the gimbal motors. Might be damn hard to loosen and reuse since I expect them to be glued and arced, but there is an extra battery pack for it as well. A gorilla pod holder with a small Bluetooth remote control? His android mobile is nice to have, and a multi-socket 230V USB charger and several USB cables are wonderful. Ironically, I'm almost happier with the cables and the charger than anything else. Hope there is proper woven earthscreen on the cables instead of the foil type. Jane informs me that she have charged the phone a bit via the battery bank, and starts it up and shows the unlock code. I go in and deactivate all locking on the phone before I turn it off again. I have to put the phone on charge tonight, and charge the battery banks and try to charge all batteries to at least storage charge.
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I really like that he has bluetooth headphones for his cell phone instead of Airpods like Jane. Yay for small speakers and something I have a chance to disassemble and reuse many parts for other things, and its a lot of plastic. One of his powerbanks is just large and black, but I like that one is a more durable outdoor model with a small solar panel at the back and built-in flashlight function. Such a small solar panel is pretty pathetic for the most part and usually not worth buying - it simply takes way too long to actually charge the powerbank via the sun. But the powerbank can recharge its battery over a few good sunny days if you move to follow the sun and that is valuable here, even though I already have better things - both solar panel wise and wind turbines.
"That is a travel case for the wristwatch."
I snap open the small impact-resistant plastic box Jane indicates. Looks waterproof too. On its padded inside lies a nice wristwatch with a metal strap and an interesting dial. The seconds hand isn't moving, and it doesn't tick when I raise it to my ear. The watch has a power reserve indicator, so it means the watch is likely to be completely mechanical. Maybe I should see it as something positive that the battery won't run out in a few years, but it will stop if I don't wear it basically every day, which is a bit annoying, and mechanical watches have wear and require maintenance I can not do, although service it shouldn't be needed in my lifetime. In the future, maybe I can build one of those solution that rotates mechanical clocks? But it hardly feels worth it. Hublot is not a brand I know, but the watch is too light to be stainless, but too heavy to be aluminum. Titanium?
"Titanium?"
Jane just nods and says "Two year gift." and continues to look and smugly smile at me. I guess my hiking cutlery isn't the only titanium here, but I'm pretty sure I now have all titanium in Alfheimr. Unless there are other people here. Titanium is after all quite common among more expensive hiking gear - lighter than steel and more durable than aluminium. The watch fits me nicely without me having to adjust the metal link, so we'll see if it starts ticking. Its not really important, but it will be for future generations as proof and ways to build a compact good watch. The box is very useful for other things.
"Oh, there is a Fenix sportswatch too in the pocket over there."
"He brought... Why did he bring two wristwatches on a hike?"
"He likes watches and is careful about that one. The Fenix is his normal workout watch."
I point at my wrist: "Then why bring this on a hike?!"
"Duh, some bastard might nick it from the car. Why do you think I brought my valuables?"
I have to give her that. The chance should be small, but they did park their car at a hiking parkinglot many kilometers away from any house. No-one would hear or see the car alarm, and any car there over night should have its owner far away. I went to Norway to hike etc and packed for that, and they did not. I quickly find the other watch, and it has a broken bracelet that has come loose from the watch, but a watchstrap is simple to make - wouldn't even be my first one. Oh! Macrame? There must be something here I can use instead of paracord. Anyway, the old strap is wide and in rubber or silicone. Useful for something. Garmin Fenix 5X plus, which is nice. The watch probably has pulse and ABC sensors that can be useful. Alitmeter, Barometer and a Compass. Wait... If Tom had a sports watch with a compass and more, why did he use his mobile phone and its compass? Isn't this the model with GPS and maps as well? He can't have been that stupid, can he? Come to think of it...
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"I'm a bit surprise you don't have an Apple Watch."
"I do, but I didn't bring it hiking. It was sunny and wristwatch tanlines are ugly."
Janes still has that smug-smirk grin.
"What are you smirking about?"
"Your lastname, 'Arnesson' literally means 'Eagle's son' in Norse?"
Ah, considering that Kari wondered what 'nerd' meant, Jane's probably figured out the ship's name, and I just nod and smile. It must be nice for her to use English again, which also means that she wants to be sure we speak fluent, or keep it just for us. She is learning the language better here and better and she practices a lot, but then she doesn't have much choice. That I can translate words and concepts seems to have done much for her learning. Like me, she has written down words and memorized, and Kari was suppose to help her learn inflections and more during the journey. We should make proper translation books with pronunciation help for the languages we know. It will hardly be perfect, but something is better than nothing, and can help future humans who ends up here. Especially English and French. My German and Spanish are far too bad, but even that might be better than nothing.
"You actually named your ship 'Thousand year Eagle', which - no matter what excuse you said to everyone else - is another way of saying 'Millennium Eagle'. You rea-ally wish your name was Falcon's son instead of Eagle, right? Right!?" Time to put my smugface on. "Nerd!"
"Took you a while. Of course I had to name it like that. It is a fast special transport and cargo ship."
"So... going to name your next ship Enterprise?"
"Actually hadn't thought of it but yes, it might be Enterprise or Voyager, although I'm not a Star Trek fan and NCC-1701 would be even more silly. 'Slave one' translated would be a bad name here, and the rest from Star Wars ain't much better."
"Slave One?"
"You remember my Boba Fett T-shirt, right?" Jane nods and grins, she won't forget my T-shirts. She laughed her ass of when I showed her the 'Don't follow me' T-shirt, and then I told her of the T-shirts in my car. She thought she was badly dressed for a trip to the dark ages. "Slave One is the name of Boba Fetts ship."
Jane giggles and grins: "Yes, Slave One would be a bad name."
"Mandalorian would sound better, but it is not a ship. Its his people."
"And that is important?"
"Yes. But there's so many good SciFi shipnames. I might go with Spaceball One, Serenity - Oh, Red Dwarf will happen when I buy a big fat ship and get buckets of red paint... "
"Of course you would... Wait, isn't that an old British show?"
"Yes, a Scifi Comedy. But there's also Starbug, Nostromo, Sulaco, Planet Express, Bebop, Puddle jumper or maybe even Tardis."
"Oi! That is not a ship! Even I know that!"
"But it travels through space and time, so it fits if I make it hightech! Oh man, it would be fun to do a Police box in the village, just because I can. I'm not a Dr Who fan, but can you imagine if a human comes here in the future when its still there, and understands?"
Jane gives me a judgmental look. "You actually would build that, wouldn't you? Just for the infinitesimal small chance another human will see it and understand even long after you're dead."
"I might. Or just to annoy you." My turn to grin. "I mms'd a picture to a buddy when I was in London a few years ago. It should be somewhere in my phone." I assume the loathing look Jane gives me means that I should drop that topic of conversation. "Anyway, there is a Scifi book series called 'Deathworlders' that I have saved on my tablet if you want to read it, although it doesn't really have an end. Author wasn't finished with it. It has so many wonderful names like Negotiable Curiosity, Racing Thunder, Lynchpin of Infinity, Drunk on Turkey, 'Actually three smaller ships in a trenchcoat' and even a ship called 'My other starhips is the Millennium Falcon' - damn, I will never know how it ends."
"Admit you want to have a fleet of ships, just so you can go bonkers in naming them."
"I wouldn't complain, and I learned today that I actually have five merchant ships from Radgeirrson. I should probably buy those buckets of red paint. A cog is big and round. But how many would really understand the names? Not even you would get most of them, so it would be me, and only me. Ships here usually don't have names. Longships are being called by the figure head like the crow, bull or dragon, so I might reinforce a tradition and make it less restricted. What would you name a ship you owned?"
"Don't shift this to me! No matter how many women you shag, or if this place turns in to the bloody Playboy mansion with bunnies everywhere - you are still a nerd, and always will be. Its cute and precious."
Any happiness about the stuff fades out of me when I think of the Borgarsandr Mansion and what is waiting there. Who is waiting there. Jane loose her smile as something is obviously wrong, but I just signal to her to be quiet.
"Jensi, the Tingsman who dealt with Radgeirrsons mess, arrived just an hour or so before you and are staying in a guestroom. All Radgeirrson owned is mine, except what his wife and family kept. Beside the trading empire, land and farms - which is nice - I now own a playboy mansion; the bad kind. His mansion in Borgarsandr have fourteen female slaves, from 24 down to 11 years, for entertainment and bed company for Radgeirrson and guests. The young ones where at the orgie. When we were in Borgarsandr a couple of weeks ago, I was told that after the trial it became known that Radgeirrson spent part of the feast night enjoying himself and taking out his anger towards me by violating an eleven year old slavegirl and taking her virginity everyway he could; enjoying that she was crying, choking, in pain and being held down. And he was helped by a thirteen year old girl he violated later, and it wasn't the first time for that thirteen year old. I just realised that both of those abused slave children probably live with other violated slave women at that mansion, and I now own them too. I literally own sexslaves, including half a dozen underage ones, and have for a month. I havn't even begun to think of sorting out that mess. Pedophile Asshole. Some people deserve to have their genitals removed and their hearts carved out with a wooden spoon."
Jane stay quiet and I understand if she doesn't want to comment on that mess. She probably didn't even want to know about the last part. I didn't when I was told. The messenger told me that King Aeriksson wanted me to know, probably so that I wouldn't feel bad about how Radgeirrson and his family were treated, and I can only guess how many girls Radgeirrson have raped in his life. He has been able to afford to buy them, and young girls are cheap slaves. Iselin and Kari regret that we reduced Radgeirrson's suffering. Actions have consequences and my action against Radgeirrson at the feast made the girls suffer those consequences. Sure, Radgeirrson had certainly done it anyway, but it's hard not to think that his was extra sadistic towards them. He feels like the type.
We postpone the decisions for tomorrow, and after I recovered a bit from the insight and looked more at the rest of the stuff in the backpack, I walk down to the harbor accompanied by my sambos and Jane, because Asta and the crew want to show the new sail they sewn, tried and improved. On the way there, we decide that everyone will go along to Borgarsandr and try to sort out the mess, and pick up things that ordered etc.
Jane has discreetly taken pictures and filmed with her mobile phone during the trip, including some of the sail tests. Asta and the crew love the new sail and how well it works even though it isn't attached to a boom. The sail surface of has probably increased by 1/4 and it does a lot in light winds from certain wind directions, but they have to do more tests, and learn to manage the sail better and they think the shape can be improved a bit. And maybe extended the sail a bit too. They will test it more before they can say how much better it is. They are clearly looking forward to the trip down to Borgarsandr, and also want to try different sails on a Faering and a Knarr. It annoys them that they havn't thought of sails that way before. And they see themselves as experienced seafarers. So I tell them that I have many more sails and rigging variants I want them to try, and there will be many sails and ship trials in the coming years. We will try to make large models with the exactly the same hullshape and size, with different sail solutions and rigging and compete the models against each other across the lake, in different winds strength and directions. Then we will try different hull shapes. Then we will build a real ship. They like that idea.
When we return from the walk, Kari state that I have had enough time to recovery and she wants to cuddle with me in my bedroom. We come out to have supper with the others, after another visit to the bathroom, because Karis appetite for intimacy and sex hasn't ended, and it was slightly messy and sticky to lick maple syrup from Karis body. It is definitely an advantage that elves basically lack body hair. I will mark it as something Kari liked, as she 'clumsily' spilled small clicks of maple syrup on strategic places after I licked it up for the first time.
Oops.
After a cozy moment in front of the fireplace while grilling apples, I fall asleep slightly exhausted and with a sore jaw, but happy and satisfied. And I believe Kari is too. I do not love her like Iselin, and I don't the same connection as I do to Ciara, but I like my stately goddess and I have feelings for her, which Kari seems happy with so far. Along with the sex and life here.
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