stormaktstiden | Sample threads for Institute

It's in the middle of a rather slow moment in the game, one of those times where you double-check your inventory and scroll back through the chat because nothing is really happening, that Björn's phone buzzes. He picks it up and flips it open, tilting his head slightly when he reads the message. "Meet me at the Gelateria Verona in twenty minutes." It's from Sigurd.

Odd. What does the other boy want? Björn tries to backtrack quickly, but there are no birthdays coming up, nor is there anything else that would need immediate attention... no, he really has no clue what kind of emergency it could be, but Sigurd usually only does those things when it is really important, so he'll do it.

He posts a short message into the chat, saying that he has to go really quickly, and logs out, shutting down the computer before running out and towards the ice cream parlor that Sigurd told him to meet him at.

[And Björn will nod, because he doesn't want Timo to be upset and also because they aren't in a situation where it would do anyone any harm to take care of minor injuries; it will probably turn out to not need much attention, but better safe than sorry (even though he would be much more insistent upon that if it was Timo who was hurt and not Björn...)]

Laughing when the boy is sent tumbling into the snow, Jack flies down a little closer, just to make sure that he's all right. They're a bit isolated up here, after all, and if he actually hurt himself so far from civilisation, Jack would have to help. But then the boy sat up, and Jack relaxed, putting his staff down in the snow and sitting on the top of him, watching. "So you're a thinker, eh?" He said, aloud. Well, he had to talk to someone, even if they rarely spoke back.

Chuckling at the snowball, he shook his head. "Missed me!" But it was enough to make him jump into the snow, bare feet barely leaving prints. He scoops up another snowball as he walks in closer, aiming at the back of his head again. At least this time he doesn't have to worry about him falling off his skis, since he's already on the ground. It's just a shame that there isn't anyone else to tease into this fight.

Well, calling him a thinker is definitely a fitting description. But right now, he isn't thinking so much and more busy with forming a third projectile out of the snow - when he gets hit by something again. And this time he is sure that it can't have been the wind - and sure enough, when he raises a hand to touch the back of his head, there is snow on his gloves when he pulls his hand back.

Odd. He looks around, trying to see if there is anyone, but can't see a thing. Hm... Maybe it it really is the wind. Throwing snow balls. Right.

But the area is quite flat and he can see far enough to know that there are no humans around him anywhere, and... Even if it was a mutant who could use some kind of power to throw them farther, there just is nobody around. But he can't have imagined it this time, either. Well. Talking might help to draw them out either way, but what to say? "Hello" would just sound boring, like a bad movie. After a few moments of quiet consideration, he decides to settle with the thought that he had earlier. He finishes his snowball and aims it into the direction that he guesses the attack to have come from. "Stop that, K'ng Frost."

Jack's bending to scoop up another snowball when he hears his name and he freezes, the snow dropping from his fingers. The boy's snowball actually hits him, then, enough to knock him back a step in his startled state. "Well, 'King' is a new one, I've gotta admit." He says, as he brushes the snow off his jacket.

Rather than scooping up another snowball, this time he forms a snowflake between his fingers, and looks at the boy again, before blowing it towards him, the wind picking it up and carrying it to land on Björn's nose. "Do you actually believe in me, or are you just saying that?" He asks, stepping in closer, curious. If this boy does see him now, he'll be the oldest believer he's had so far.

[That's all Timo wanted him to promise, and so he beams, settling in closer.]

I missed this, you know. When you moved. I know it wasn't your fault! But it was weird not being able to see you all the time. [He missed everything, snuggles included.]

Björn goes a bit cross-eyes as he tries to follow that oddly large, single snowflake that seems to head directly for his nose with his eyes. It came ou of nowhere, but the timing... is certainly odd. Hm.

He's gotten a bit old to look for gnomes in the sauna and is in a typical 15-year-old crisis with religion right now, but somehow forces of nature are a lot harder to doubt for him, and while Kung Bore is technically not a force of nature (though people might well have developed him from one... which. What was that that existed before? Like they created cyclopes to explain the skeletons of elephants that they found in the mediterranean...)

Hm. What if there is someone there, and that someone is really who he jokingly guessed that were there? He remembers wishing that the winter would come around the year that they moved, so he could look out for all the winter creatures that had shown up in the books, and him and Timo even tried to look out for them, but they had never found them. But then, nobody can be everywhere, and if one was to meet the King of the North Wind, this would probably be a better place than the inside of a warm bedroom or just outside of a house that is too poorly isolated to not radiate warmth even so.

Considering the entity (should it really be there. He feels a bit silly for his rekindled hope to finally meet one of the beings that he wanted to meet so hard as a child, secretly tried to look out for years, but... There is nobody here to see him if he makes a fool of himself. Right?) didn't react with force to the first three snowballs, another one should not hurt the situation. He picks up another ball - and then halts. No. That might still look like agression, and if he is really that close...

"If y' 're really there, throw one." He holds up the snowball, feeling foolish but kind of hoping against hope that this would happen because ten years late but who cares.

Jack tries to be patient. He can see that the boy is thinking. But really, at this point a child would have seen him already. Maybe he should just give up. But then again his belief base is already so tiny, even one more child (who isn't quite a child any more) would be a sizeable gain. He's not aiming for the world here, he doesn't want a big palace like Toothiana or Sandy's power, he just wants to, well. Be seen.

With a little, disappointed sigh he turns. He should let the boy go back before he freezes. But then the boy speaks again and hope warms Jack's heart, turning around on the spot again. "I'm right here!" He says, as he scoops up another snowball and throws it to knock the one that the boy is holding right out of his hand.

[Because snuggles are awesome. Especially snuggles from Timo.] 's over now. [He wouldn't be here if the other boy hadn't chosen to come here - after all the last thing that he wanted was accepting his powers for quite a long time. But to be with his friend, he would do a lot of things. And it had the additional upside that he wouldn't have Vilmar boast about going to a school abroad while Björn had to stay in tiny Denmark, such a boring guy!]

I know. I'm glad you did come. [Timo pauses, thinking over something that he's been holding back since Björn said that he'd be coming too.] Why didn't you tell me that you'd developed powers? If you wanted to keep it a secret, that's fine, but you know that I would never have told anyone? [The first thing that Timo wanted to do was to share it with his best friend, even though he was warned by his mother not to tell anyone. Björn was different, though. He wasn't everyone.]

[ Yawning, Vil slumps over the desk and pushes the papers to Björn. He's already bored of this. ]

What's the point of doin' something again? We could just show them the scores from earlier, I guess.

He will definitely need patience to deal with Björn - loyal, hardworking and carin as he might be, thinking on his feet is something that he only does when it is absolutely necessary. And when he doesn't have to make very complex decisions or doesn't think that thorough considerations are needed. Which is kind of both happening here.

It's over now, though, as the boy stares at his hand that is now empty. He was right. He must have been. How else could this...

But when he looks up, he doesn't see what he expected to see. At all. That guy - boy, really, they can't be very far apart in age... about Timo's age, most likely - doesn't look at all like the small drawings that they had in the books, or like the descriptions... but he did obviously react to the name, right?

Okay, and this is super awkward, but he just has to make sure, after a long hard stare doesn't answer his question. "Y' 're King Frost?" Or one of the other names, but that was what he used before, and thinking back it must have worked...

[This will just get his brother a "only an idiot like you could think that that would work" look.] No.

[Björn also had it figured out before Finland what that sensitive hands were about - sometimes he knows his friend better than he himself, but then sometimes he has no clue at all what is going on with him (the latter being the more frequent option) so that averages out.

The question though is hard to answer. Hard to answer because it was something that will probably sound very silly when he says it out loud, but that was immensely important to him at that point. And still is, though he tries to distance his powers from his father's occupation these days. He never wanted to be like his father at all, in any way. He doesn't hate him, but he values loyalty very highly and his father obviously didn't, and then there are other things - he wants to be reliable and trustworthy, he wants to make people feel safe and loved. ~~He wants to make Timo feel safe and loved.~~ And thus, he wants to be nothing like his father.

He shrugs.] Furniture's often wooden. [That probably explains enough, considering that Timo knows that his father was in the furniture business.]

"Uh, well, I normally go by Jack Frost, but King'll do." Jack says, grinning. He can feel the warm buzz that only comes from being in the presence of a believer. He feels warm and wanted and alive and it's a wonderful feeling that he doesn't think he'll ever get used to, no matter how many people believe in him.

He scoops up another snowball and tosses it in his hand, a playful grin on his lips. "So do you have a name too?" Because, hey, a snowball fight is even more fun when the other party can see you, and it's been a while since he got to play with someone his own (apparent) age.

Oh? [A beat, and then,] Oh. [And this time it's filled with understanding, from a boy with a father that he can barely remember. But he can remember those few months after he left in painstaking detail; how thin and frail his mother looked by the end of it, how heartbroken she still looks when any mention of him comes.

His hand finds Björn's, and then squeezes.] You know, it's completely different, making furniture to selling it. I mean, if you're making anything! Because that involves skill and thoughtfulness and creativity. It's like comparing a farmer to a chef - they both work with food, but in very different ways. [Timo brings Björn's hand up so he can kiss his fingers, and then rest his cheek against Björn's hand, smiling at him affectionately.] You'll always be better than him because, well, that's really not hard, but because you worry about being like him. That already sets you above him.

Sigurd is already waiting at the parlor by the time he sends the message, so if Björn plans on standing him up, then he's already a bit too invested to avoid such a thing happening. When the other arrives, he'll see Sigurd in a table in the corner, nursing nothing more than a glass of water for the moment.

He hadn't really expected to have this happen.

Actually, he was rather shocked by it, to be truthful. And he wasn't often caught unawares by things like this. It comes from being a rather quiet, observant sort. That said, it's difficult to observe certain things on the Internet, it would seem. It requires an outside eye to notice one thing or another. An outside eye which Sigurd did not possess, where his best friend did.

You shouldn't think that one day, Vilmar would be the observant one between the three of them - Björn definitely wouldn't have thought it, which just feeds into him having no clue what is going on. Maybe there is something with Ari that Sig wants an outsiders perspective on, or... no, he can't really think of anything - if he needed to have something translated from Finnish, he could better have contacted Timo, because while they both speak it it is Timo's first language and for Björn it is only his a-close-second language.

"Hej." He'll sit down and make quick eye contact with the waiter to flag them down before going back to looking at the other boy, waiting quietly for an explanation to the sudden call.

Edited 2013-01-14 07:11 (UTC)

Sigurd doesn't even offer a verbal reply, merely giving a brief wave of his hand. He will, however, when allowed put in an additional order with the server as soon as Björn is done with his. After that, he's silent again, sipping his water without offering further explanation as to why he's summoned the other young man here.

This isn't unusual. Sometimes it merely takes awhile before he gets to a point where he wants to discuss whatever business needs discussing. It won't be a problem to do that over a milkshake, now will it?

Blink. "Y' 're English?" Or at least 'Jack' seems to imply that, doesn't it? That or American.

Sorry, Jack, he is too baffled to play by this development, at least for the moment. He always thought that the personification of the winter and the northern wind and northern lights and so on would be from the north - northern Finland or Norway or Sweden, maybe Iceland or even Greenland (though now that he thinks about it, Siberia, Alaska and the northern parts of Canada work too, they just weren't on his mental map back then). To have them be English...

He switches to English, the language of movies and the internet coming to him easily. And remembers his manners, because his mother always tells him that it is rude to just stare and not do anything, so he tries his bad to not make a bad first impression. After all he has been wanting to meet this man - boy - almost-adult! (since that is what he himself is, ignore the part where he is talking to a children's story right now) for years.

A hand will be offered, and, picking his words carefully, not wanting to embarrass himself, he asks: "Björn. 's nice t' meet y'."

[kjahsd stop being affectionate like that you will make him blush and what then

it will be the most embarrassing thing because what should he answer to the "why are you blushing" that will inadvertly come

he can't just say "because I love you" that would be impossible, not because Björn believes that homosexuality is an issue (he knows that there are people who have issues with it, but that was not how he was raised, and how could liking Timo be a bad thing anyway?), but because this is Timo and just. How do you even say such things, and what if he isn't interested, and it might destroy what they have... and really is this even the right time, wouldn't it be better to wait for graduation or for the end of university or... And it would be too much especially since they just got here and everything is new. He could of course always answer that Finland is just cute, because that is the objective truth (and also pretty and beautiful and handsome and so on). But wouldn't that give him away, even when it is just common knowledge people tend to not say it unless they are interested in the other person...

Back on track! Timo gave him actually a few good things to think about. This will take another few moments in which he is just looking at the green hedge in front of them.] Y' think better 's enough even when it's sim'lar?

Nope. It's perfectly fine to just sit in silence until they get their orders, even though Björn is burnig with the need to know what is going on at this point. But he understands the need to find a good starting point so he won't force Sigurd to start before he is ready.

Jack snorts at the assumption, dropping the snowball and leaning on his staff. "American, actually." Seriously, he'd rather stand and talk than have a fight? That's a bit of a disappointment. Maybe this is why the others focus their attention on younger children.

Still, any believer is good, and that's why Jack leans in to take the boy's hand, with just a little bit of hesitation. He can't remember the last time he shook hands with someone like this. It must have been before he died - if he ever did at all. It's just then that he notices the boy's height. Honestly, he's more like North than a kid!

So he keeps the handshake brief, but grins as he pulls back. "So you like to ski? How do you feel about a race?" Not that Jack has skis, but he can always make himself an ice path to skate along. He just wants to play, okay?

[By this point, it's questionable if Timo would even notice if Björn blushed. Not because he doesn't care or that he's not observant, but because he's just too used to his reactions. But this is something that Timo feels he needs to give out physical affection for - if he was in Björn's situation, he'd want hugs.]

I think even if you were doing exactly the same thing as him, you'd still be better because you're not him, you're you.

There's a small likelihood that Sigurd is actively grateful for the fact that Björn doesn't hurry him. It's one reason they seem to get along so well. Either way, he does wait until their orders arrive and the server departs. But he doesn't make his companion wait until they finish their orders. Several mouthfuls into his milkshake, he scoots a piece of paper across the table. On it are only two words, if they can be called words.

The first is "carolusrexincarnated" and the second, "ymirseyebrow." Presumably, both will make some sense to Björn.

Actually, Sigurd is expecting both to make quite a lot of sense to him.

Sample threads for Institute

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