Sample threads for Institute

[rules_the_north]

[Considering that I can't write five sentences for a sample post...]

You can either reply to one of the threads that I've set up, or directly to the post with a message/scenario of your own.

Comments

[smor]

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.

[rules_the_north]

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.

[smor]

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?

[rules_the_north]

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.

[smor]

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.

[rules_the_north]

Björn will just stare at those words for a while, because yes, they do make sense to him, but he didn't expect to see them in a setting like this. As in, a cafe, sitting across t he table from Sigurd, and.... Sure, it could just be that Sig saw him play and wants to say something completely different, but if this is about what he thinks that it is about... and it would make some sense. Him a nd ymirseyebrow are not only in the same timezone, they recently started to get on and sign off about the same times even when they hadn't made plans to do so. Which could be easily explained if they had been hanging out in real life before that... but then. That is just too unlikely, that his game partner for many years would be one of the few people that he's been good friends with over the years...

He looks at Sigurd thoughtfully, not really expecting an explanation, and then finally asks the thing that he is the most curious about, assuming that his assumption is right:]

How'd y' notice? [Because there would have to have been some kind of reason that wasn't present normally.]

[smor]

That's the question he's not super keen to answer. He can, of course, very simply explain that Vilmar is responsible. But even bringing up his name... well, he'll have to chance it, in a manner of speaking.

"A little bird told me." He shrugs, then goes back to his milkshake, as if he's just outlined everything in perfect detail.

[rules_the_north]

A little bird. Well, of course someone online could have noticed, but considering that Björn is very, very careful to not give away his real name or anything that one could identify him by in real life, the only thing that could really have... and Ari has no way of knowing what is sn is, and he doubts that Timo would hang out with Sigurd while he is gaming, so that really only leaves one person.

Well. "Little?" He doesn't really expect an answer, it's more of a rhetorical question, it is more a comment on the description, in ways of "that is just such an odd imaginary".

[smor]

Sigurd shrugs. "In a manner've speakin'." So no, not really "little," as it were. He thinks that the gig is up, Björn probably narrowed down his options rather quickly and left the only probable option. Still, he's not going to outright say it unless asked directly to confirm a specific suspicion.

"Didn't even think of it myself."

And he truly didn't. It's true, he enjoys playing with several people online, one in particular among them. The odds that it would be someone he knew outside the computer though, that seemed pretty astronomical.

[rules_the_north]

"He'll b' jealous." Not even a question. He knows his brother well enough to know that he will feel excluded and probably throw a fit and demand to be let in on the fun, but then lose interest quickly because it isn't physical enough for him or whatever.

But that's just a side aspect of this development that should be mentioned so it can be shoved to the back of the mental desk for more important things. Excited exclamations of I WOULD HAVE NEVER GUESSED obviously won't happen between this pair, but the new development still is exciting. Though Björn will take a bit longer to hash out the parts in which he decides if it will affect their playing in general much, there is one thing that he always wanted to do but never got the chance to... "So what's yer opinion 'bout Lan-parties?"

[smor]

Sigurd gives a slight shrug. It's unclear whether this is his commentary on Vil's jealousy or the LAN parties, but he doesn't open his mouth to clarify for awhile. Everything that needs to be said is generally implied, so he's not in a rush for any extended exposition on the subject.

Björn probably knows that he'll come to a party if invited by the other, after all. And there are only a handful of people who would likely do so, one of which has already been excluded as a possible LAN party host by virtue of his lack of interest in video games and anything remotely indoorsy.

[rules_the_north]

The silence is enough of an answer; if Sigurd dissented, he would have made it known that he disagreed. So that is settled then. It sounds like a lot of fun is to be had in the future.

For now he will simply drink his coffee and ponder possibilities. And then pick the slice of paper up and push it into his pocket; no reason to leave things that would make it possible for people that they know irl to track them down online.