The Council of Oslo had been looking for explorers half a year ago. But because paper stamping and other bureaucratic problems the party was ready to leave half a year later, in June.
They boarded a train in Oslo, rode it to Låckered, then from there to Herrljunga and finally the last stretch to Stockholm. It took a whole day with several hours spent in both crossings while they transferred the train cart from one train to another. But given that they had a whole cart for them, they could walk around and have dinner in Låckered and a few drinks in Herrljunga while their equipment was hauled around and attached to another train.
In Stockholm they were lead to the harbour and their next vehicle of choice. Their truck was loaded in the boat that would take them from Stockholm to Turku/Åbo. They took part in loading the truck with all the equipment they would need on the trip. Hans, the lad who would be sailing them across the sea would pull out of Turku harbour when they were let out and withdraw to the sea to wait their return.
It was all nicely planned, wasn't it?
In Stockholm they needed to wait for their leader. Their trip had been delayed by a few days and they were still in Copenhagen when the rest of the party arrived in Stockholm.
Which of course meant sitting around, rechecking the equipment for some, finding the best bars in town for others...
Kai is a social creature. Even if he has plenty of reading for the train trip from Oslo to Stockholm, he eventually gravitates towards people. He slips into the seat next to Kazimir, who is a fascinating addition to their little group of people who already had no real indication on what it should have looked like.
He had left Tilhi with her Scottish grandparents. She would be safe and sound with them, in danger only by too many sweets and pampering. They were eager to take care of her whenever they could, Kai thought it had something to do with trying to compensate the fact that they hadn't really been there for her mother when she had needed them. People were curious creatures like that. They were decent folk, just had been caught in a web of lies and presumptions. They hadn't approved of him first at all, but now that they had several years behind them, coming together over taking care of a little girl who needed all of their love, they had all grown to like each other. Kai tended to have that effect on people, though - that's what Grey always said - being able to make people fall in love with him.
He rubbed his hands over his denim clad thighs as he sat down and then turned towards Kazimir, smiling that fox-like smile that came so easily to him.
"Moi," he started in slowly spoken Finnish, because he had gleamed off the briefing that Kazimir did not speak English. "Niin, että mikäs sun tarina on?"
Kai >> Rune, day 3, bar in Stockholm
Kai had been thinking of just going out for a bit, having a few drinks and laughs and good time. But then he had gotten around flirting with this cute Swedish sailor and he honestly wasn't at all against taking the said sailor to see his boat after just an hour of talking to him.
He reached over Rune's shoulder to put his drink down on the bar, mostly just to get closer to him in the throng of people pressing on them all around. His mouth was a cheshire curve that wasn't shy to show a line of pearly whites whenever possible, his golden eyes crinkling around the corners as he looked at Rune with a gaze that said it all, interest written all over him.
"Vill du gå ut?" he leaned in to ask. "Det är ganska varmt här."
Grey wasn't exactly the easiest person when it came to socialising. He found the corner of the train cart and sat down with a book. Hair bundled up to the back of his head to alleviate at least some of the summer heat and gradually wearing less. He had a worn out travel backpack sitting next to him, his grey coat rolled on top of it, after a while the thin sweater in loose grayish green knit of linen and wool with tattered sleeves joined it. He wore a worn out t-shirt and jeans that had seen better days. But he refused to toe off his boots that must have been uncomfortable in the heat.
The thing with Grey was that he was always ready to jump out of the moving train, alert and ready to move. He'd been hunting demons for over a decade now, the tail end of it alone. You didn't just brush off that kind of readiness even if the trip from Oslo to Stockholm was probably pretty safe.
He hummed under his breath every now and then while reading, but otherwise he remained pretty quiet unless spoken to. He had already assessed the group during briefing and of course he already knew Kai. They would probably be okay if these people wouldn't turn out to be loose cannons.
Come bother him?
Grey >> Rune, day 4, Gulf of Bothnia
They were well on their way out of the harbour when Grey found him. Stockholm with its tall buildings and stench of people was falling behind. Grey found himself wandering to the prow of the boat, breathing in deep the salty air that almost had the fragrance of home about it. It had been at least five years since he'd been this close to Finland. He'd breached the borders six years ago for a quick trip but he'd been moving on foot and didn't dare to go very far. Something inside him was singing with pleasure as he thought about going home now. And with more than a little dread knowing the state of the country.
He stood there, hands on the railing, eyes closed, listening to the birds and the waves hitting the front of the boat. Then suddenly a rustle behind him jolted him aware of his surroundings.
He was sprawled onto a tarp, slowly waking up from what seemed liked quite a deep sleep. He obviously wasn't anyone from the crew and didn't look like he was ready for some hiking either. A small jolt of dread went through Grey and first he was thinking demons and sabotage, but soon realised that this young man was far too comfortably asleep to be anything but an accidental stowaway.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked as he stopped beside the young man, casting a shadow over him.
"So, I understand big and grumpy there in the corner, and the paparazzi over there is even easier to figure out. Mr. Russia is a bit of a mystery but you," Agnes said as she took a seat next to Vordis right after they had boarded the train in Oslo. "You I don't understand at all. Why would someone like you end up in a trip like this?"
Agnes didn't look like someone boarding a train to expedition either. She was wearing a pair of cargo shorts, a loose tanktop with a cogwheel print in the front and a pair of slippers. She looked like she was about to embark on a beach trip. But it was hot and she had more sensible clothes in her backpack, including sturdy boots that were hanging by the laces in the bottom. Her arms were bare but an intricate tattoo ran up along one of her arms, more cogwheels weaved together with what looked like runes and symbols.
She sprawled on the seat and fanned herself with her tablet case while waiting for a response, pair of winged brows arching in question.
Agnes >> anyone, day 4, Gulf of Bothnia
The boat was a piece of shit, but Agnes had fondness for old boats that ran with holy spirit and steel wire. They had stopped for the night because it was hard to see anything and the area was littered with small islands that were not in any map they had in their possession. The engines were still hot when she climbed into the back to have a gander at what they were working with.
She was laying on her back with her tool kit open on the ground by her feet, right under the heavy engine, half inside the casing.
"Hand me the wrench, alright?" she said to whoever happened to be nearby and gestured towards the toolbox, her palm open invitingly. "The biggest one you can find."
Kazik peers outside the window of the train, one hand on his lap and the other worrying his lip, mind alight with a slurry of thoughts he tries to quell with silent prayers and incantations. He thinks of his parents, who must be worried over him, and his little sisters who must have grown so much since he's last seen them. He was supposed to be home years ago, and only just two months ago was he even given the opportunity to attempt a return. It was hard to find work for someone who doesn't speak Norwegian or English, and he hadn't been qualified for the ones where language didn't matter.
He wonders if he's made the right choice by joining this crew, so he busies himself with thoughts of his family and thoughts of his Gods. So he almost jumps out of his skin when Kai addresses him.
"Moi," he returns. And then he takes a deep breath and states, with pauses to organize his thoughts: "I came to Finland as messenger of my Gods, but I was removed from my path by thieves. Now I will go as far east as you will take me, and return to St. Petersburg."
Rune has just come off a 6-month long stint around Oslo, finally making it back to his native country of Sweden. Funny enough, it's his first time in Stockholm and he's taken his brief break and generous pay and do what any young man of newly-found means and time would do: go to a lot of bars and let a lot of pretty men come talk their way into his pants.
Case in point, tonight's target is this man with a pretty mouth whose name is uh, Tai? Kim?
Kai!
That's it. "Ja, säker. Uno momento," he requests, downing the rest of his beer. "Kom så drar vi nånstans tyst. Är ditt hotell nära?"
Rune is having a dream, and it's a beautiful dream. He's out on the sea again, salt spray in the air and body rocked gently by a boat. It calls to him like a siren, willing him to the water, out on treacherous waves that hold the unknown, a place where he is most comfortable by embracing his discomfort.
The sun filters through his closed eyelids as he turns to what might be an empty bed or what might contain the other party responsible for his very satisfied aching this morning. He tries to remember a face, a name... a wiry smile manifests in his mind when instead, very suddenly, he hears a voice he does not recognize.
And just as suddenly, he jerks awake. "Um."
"Where's--" what was his name again? "--Kai? Åh för fan i helvete, är vi till sjöss igen!"
It's a long train ride, and Kazik has decided to buy something to eat with the meager advance that he's managed to get out of this exchange. However, he has such a hard time communicating that he manages to buy two sandwiches, and he has no idea how to tell them that he only wants the one.
He recognizes Grey from the crew documents he'd been given, and remembers thankfully that he's one of the Finns, which means that they can actually talk. "Hi," he says, "excuse me. Are you hungry? I bought two," he offers.
Honestly he would like to trade one of them for a bottle of water, or really anything to drink. But he doesn't want to make that mistake; he can't wait to get on their ship where all the room and board is supplied and comes free. He doesn't care that he has to work long hours and face certain danger for these accommodations; at the very least, his services are no longer free of charge.
"I'd assume everyone else is in it for the money," she replies, putting her book down. Packing light and definitely not dressed for any sort of expedition, Vordìs looks more like she's going on a business trip to Amsterdam than anything else.
She gives Agnes a once-over and decides if she wants to tell her the truth or brush it off with a quick reply; she figures that they'll be spending the next few months in close quarters, she might as well. "If you really want to know, it's because everyone is getting complacent. People just live in their own little bubble and refuse to leave their city," she says. "Missions like this are underfunded, underutilized. It's important that people know just how necessary they are to our continued survival."
She puts her book away, back into her bag. "Are you hot? We can turn the air conditioning up higher," she suggests, tying up her own hair into a small bun at the back of her head.
Rune has been trying to make himself useful all day long, but mostly getting accustomed to the boat. He's a decent navigator, but they already have one. And he's pretty good at tying knots, but they don't need any of that right now. He tried making himself breakfast and ate burnt, rubbery eggs. He let someone else make lunch.
Finding himself in the last place he hasn't visited, he isn't expecting Agnes to actually talk to him. But he rifles through and plucks out the largest wrench in the box, and hands it over to her. "You the ship mechanic?" he asks. "I'm Rune. Late addition to the crew."
Hopefully, if he introduces himself, none of them will ask further questions.
Kai comes off as an extrovert who spares little thought to other people, he's social, laughs a lot, easy and liberal with his charm. But that couldn't be farther from the actual mark. He's always been intuitive to a point of something magical about it. It's not as easy to spot as Grey's magic which is written all over him but Kai is sensitive and there's no denying that. He's also observant and tends to read people much better than they expect.
Kazimir is definitely a little nervous, jumpy even. He seems to have a clear path laid out before him, though. Kai studies him curiously, marking the way he sits and speaks, and yes, of course, he notices the 'my gods' which probably is capitalised in his mind. A part of him feels an urge to stand up and walk away immediately, but a bigger part of him, the fox that he is, feels an urge to stay, to pick at that thread, to see if it will unravel. He's a son of a priest, an artistic, sexually liberated bi-sexual, magically sensitive, stubborn son of a priest. Life wasn't exactly easy for him growing up. His father never punished him physically but oh, there were other ways to get his point across.
"Gods?" he asks in a soft murmur, almost as if he were delighted. "Many? I take it you're not a Christian."
He leans back in his seat and clears his throat at the question. "I suppose the easy answer is that I'm a journalist. There's a story there to write. The more complicated answer has something to do with the fact that its my homeland and my daughter has never seen it. Maybe I'm hoping to find something that tells me that she'll be able to do that one day." And if they have time, he wants to go back home, where his father and mother refused to leave Finland and see for himself what became of them. But there's a grim thought that he doesn't need to share right away.
"Jag har inget rum," Kai admits with a sheepish little smile. "Men..." He slides an arm around Rune's shoulders as he starts to guide them towards the door. "Jag har en båt."
They push their way through the crowd and speaking becomes a little difficult in the throng of people. Kai steers them jovially through the crowd and they spill onto the street outside, breathing in the fresh night air.
"Phew," Kai murmurs when they stand there, then glances at Rune from the corner of his eye. "Kan jag intreserra dig av att undersök någon gammal båt?"
Grey sighs quietly when he hears the name the young man utters. Of course. Kai has a way of attracting trouble, it tends to follow him around like a loyal puppy and take any opportunity to jump him like an overzealous lover. He probably hadn't meant to trap this young man at the sea, but that's what he's done, hasn't he?
Kai had said something about his company parting early, Grey recalls, so maybe Rune had taken a stroll around the deck and fallen asleep. It isn't all that mysterious, drunken people do crazy things.
"Up, up," he says and reaches down to curl his hand around the young man's elbow, pulling him up to his feet as easily as he were manhandling a child. "Juu, hans namn är Kai, men, do har någon större problem, du förstå?"
Grey looks up with a frown from his book. It's not necessarily an angry frown, but it might look like it given that he has a face that isn't exactly friendly. But when there's no budging from the young man who speaks Finnish with a distinctly Russian accent, Grey tilts his head a little to the side, and towards the seat beside him, an invitation if there ever will be one.
"Sure," he says simply. Kazimir might have to be more forth coming about his attempts to trade. Grey isn't exactly the most forth coming individual.
But he's not rude either. When Kazimir takes the seat - if he does - Grey pulls his backpack closer to himself. Not out of suspicious feelings but because he's reaching to flip open a pocket on the side, pulling out a small burner and a gas bottle. He sets his items on the table and fishes out another one, a steel mug. Water goes in from a bottle and a bag of tea.
If he knows something about Russians is that they like their tea strong and plentiful.
"There are easier ways to make money," Agnes replies with a small snort. "But sure, if you're really desperate, I guess there is that."
She listens to Vordis quietly even if her eyes dart away every now and then, glancing outside, and then back at her. It's not so much a nervous tick but the way she is, always multitasking.
"Yeah, people are like that, aren't they?" she says calmly. "Always ready to just settle down and wait for the executioner. It's easier that way, you know?" Revolutionary minds are rare, mob mentality isn't. "So, you seem like the rational one of the crew then." Maybe the intelligent one as well. It remains to be seen.
"Nah, let it be. It'll settle in a minute. No point cranking it up now and then down later." She grins and fans herself some more. "Should enjoy the summer when it happens, yeah?" She grew up in the north were it's rarely warm.
"I'm a mechanic, yes," Agnes replies as she grabs the wrench and then uses it like a hammer to bang the side of a carburettor to loosen some caked up rust in it. "Not for this ship in particular but that's my role on this little pleasure cruise."
She glances up at him quickly and there's a little bit of a cheshire grin curving at the corners of her mouth.
"You're the stowaway, aren't you? I heard the paparazzi is a bit of a player and can't keep it in his pants." She shakes her head before diving back under the engine. "Don't worry, I'm not going to judge. If you need the dick, you need the dick." Sex isn't all that complicated, is it? "I just hope you're ready for what's at the other side of this gulf."
Kazik smiles at Kai's answer, because isn't that what they all want? To go back to their homesteads, to be able to raise communities and children the way they have always done in the past. "I hope you find it," he says, though he won't be around for that leg of the journey, most likely. He doesn't have to tell Kai that; he'll just say goodbye and hope that no one asks him to stay.
"And that is a difficult thing to answer. It is a long story, but I am a practicer of dual faiths, which is a easier to reconcile than most people would believe." And really, it was what was practiced for ages-- old gods hidden away as saints, Christian holidays retrofitted over pagan ones. Christianity is a jealous spouse, but after all the purges of one faith or another, or faith altogether, it didn't improve their livelihood.
It brought them the largest calamity to the human race that it had ever seen.
"Do you have pictures of her?" he asks. "Your daughter."
Rune follows Kai and raises an eyebrow; after all, he isn't sure if this is actually Kai's boat or if they're just taking it for a spin since the owners aren't around. Still, it doesn't matter to Rune, it's not like he'd judge Kai or even see him again after this.
So he flashes back a smile and places a hand on his collar, pulls him close and responds with a kiss, sloppier than he'd like, but he blames it on the alcohol.
"Så ta mig till din båt," he breathes against Kai's lips.
Rune can't quite believe he's having a naked argument first thing in the morning with a strange Finnish man upon whose boat he seems to have boarded last night. But at least he has discovered that it wasn't a lie and Kai is actually part of the crew. "Yes, ja förstår ganska bra att jag har ett jävligt stört problem, which is precis varför jag fragåde om närmaste hamn."
"Or if not the nearest, then wherever you are stopping next!" he tries, and through his panic, the words might be English but his melody is distinctly Swedish. "Where is this boat going?"
Yes, he didn't ask. To be fair, he barely remembers Kai's name, so why would he have bothered asking where he was going? Who would do something like that? Grey, you really have your hands full with this one.
Among the very little possessions that Kazik had brought with him to Finland, which were summarily taken away by his captors, one of them was a samovar, so Grey is correct in believing that he might enjoy a cup or two of tea. Though in the years he's spent in prime coffee-drinking territory, he's learned to accept the drink, but his heart is staunchly rooted in afternoons of dark black tea and spreads of little sandwiches and sweets.
He misses home with a physical yearning.
Even if Grey does not appear to be friendly, his gestures are, and that's enough for Kazik. At the very least, this new band of strangers treats him with respect or just doesn't mention him at all, and honestly, it's an improvement.
"Have you done a mission like this before?" he asks. The notes he was given wasn't exactly comprehensive.
"All three days of it, sure," she replies with a smile.
"So, how is your information-gathering about the crew?" she asks. "Successful?" She almost wonders why Agnes is so interested in knowing about them, being able to categorize them. Vordis, meanwhile, prefers to care about the nervous motion in Agnes' eyes, the way they flicker like the buzz of machinery. Long-limbed and pale-featured, there's something hearkening in the idea of her being covered in dark, slick engine grease. She thinks she'd like to paint that.
"Tell me about them," she requests, crossing her arms over her lap.
And he thought he was so smooth, too. Rune freezes and crosses his hands over his chest, despite Agnes telling him she's not judging. After all, it's not like that. Well, okay, it was like that, but it's one thing to have a one night stand and another thing to be spirited off to maybe another country en route to some suicidal mission you didn't sign up for because of one.
"I'm pretty sure I'm not leaving the ship, so that's fine," he says. He's definitely leaving the ship once he realizes the alternative is him being left behind to stand guard as literally all the other highly-trained and powered people are going to go off traipsing into the wilderness instead.
He has no idea how his life got so complicated overnight.
They had mostly crossed the gulf by the time they ran into their first obstacle. Navigating through the small islands scattered in the coast line, the evening the was falling quickly. But typical to the north, it didn't mean that the sun went down, just that it got a little misty and quiet as the sea birds had gone to their nests. Quiet twilight with taller shadows and gentle evening light. It was still easy to lose the horizon in the evening shade even if it wasn't completely pitch black.
They had anchored the boat near a small island, hoping to make shore the next day. Even the sea was calmer than usual, quiet around the little island. This was probably why the singing could be heard so clearly on top of the water.
Grey was the first to jump up from his seat and stare at the ocean. Then he clapped hands over his ears and dashed back to the winch that was used for the anchor. He kicked it, managing to make it reel itself back in. They probably had anchored somewhere they shouldn't have.
The rest of the crew was slowly, as if waking up to it, moving towards the railings of the ship. Some faster, some slower. The ones with barely any protections to magic leading the chase.
Grey cursed something under his breath as he jumped up into the cabin of the boat and ignited the engines, straight backwards, not really caring where they would end as long as they got away from this place.
Half a year in Oslo had been a long while just staring at the walls of his little hotel room. Sean was ready to be out and about, but also ready to get rid of as many of the evil arseholes that were populating the land as possible.
While the rest of them seemed like a curious mixture of a travellers in their festive and less festive summer clothes, Sean wore his cassock as he boarded the train. One would find a pair of tattered jeans underneath and an old t-shirt but on top he looked like a clean shaven preacher. Except for the fact that his cassock was littered with bullet holes and tears and even the white slip around his collar wasn't very white anymore.
He slept most of the trip. Just nodding off whenever the train would leave a station. He didn't unpack, all of his belongings stayed in his backpack except for the guns that he took out on the last stride before Stockholm. Two large hand guns that had enough of a kick to make his shoulders ache. He opened them and cleaned them meticulously before applying grease where it was needed and then started to put them back together.
Sean >> anyone, day 6, Gulf of Bothnia
After the escapades with the creature that the locals called Näkki Sean decides that it's best to crank up his protections. He's been possessed before, it's not completely new to him to lose his mind over magic. But it doesn't make it any easier even if he has experience of it.
After the demon rode him for what felt like a decade, he felt broken and hollow, dirty from inside out, but now he doesn't even know what he's feeling. But he avoids looking directly at the creature that they fished out of the sea, just in case he would feel that mad desire again.
He settles to the prow of the boat and brings out a few items from his backpack. A bottle of water, a smaller bottle of oil, a small packet of salt and a candle, which he lights first of all.
Come get a blessing from the reluctant priest? Or just bother him with his business?
Waking up covered in blood and broken bones is pretty much the worst way to come about. That's at least what Varg thinks when he is making his way to the harbour. It took a god damn hour to get it all off of himself and he's still shaking a little with the aftershock of realising that he's done it again and he has to move, leave the city as quickly as possible.
The wolf usually is docile enough that he doesn't go berserk on a wolf moon, but there are times when the beast is just feral and if he didn't manage to get a night off for the festivities, it tends to break out violently.
He huddles in the light summer drizzle for a while to stare at the boats in the harbour, trying to decide which of them is going to leave soon. He pulls the hood of his jacket further over his head while he perks his ears to listen to the sounds coming from the boats. Finally he picks the one that has several foreign languages in the mix, hoping that this means it would be the best bet to get as far away from here as possible.
He waits until the night and then hefts his guitar case higher up on his shoulder before slipping into the boat, quiet as the night, he sneaks under the deck and into the farthest corner he can find, drawing a tarp over his head. It takes hours upon hours to wait for the boat to leave the harbour and eventually he passes out. Despite his nerves being on the edge, he finds that having almost no sleep the night before helps along the process. Too much so in fact. He'd hate to wake up while being thrown over border.
"My father would have said that is blasphemous," Kai says easily with a friendly laugh. "But he was always too damn serious." He shrugs then, light and careless. "It's not that hard thing to believe. It's happened everywhere, Christianity laid neatly on top of everything old, like a new coat of paint. And the old ones would take a bit of it into their own beliefs and Christianity would shift a little bit towards the pagan practises. It's called syncretism."
He rolls his eyes a little while he glances out from the train window. "But modern people are more concerned over rules and boundaries, I find. The priests of old would have no problem going into the groves and sacred places to held their services to God. The shamans of old would use bible as one of their talismans. But these days, tell a priest you had a visitor and they would probably try to drive the demon out of you." It almost sounds as if he's talking from experience.
"Oh? Yeah, of course I do!" he says, brightening up immediately when his daughter is mentioned. He digs up his wallet and flips it open, drawing out a picture of a cute little 5-year-old. "Her name is Tilhi," Kai says as he offers the picture to Kazik.
Kai definitely has nothing to complain about the sloppiness of the kiss. He is not shy at all to put his hands on Rune's hips and take charge of the kissing business in fact, right after that breathy little request Rune will find himself pulled flush against Kai's chest and kissed with languid ease. It's the kind of kiss that will yank a string right at your core, slow and deliberate but skilful enough to make it memorable. Kai licks into his mouth without a single hurry or worry in the world, tangling their tongues together. Then he pulls back just enough to be able to suck on Rune's bottom lip for a moment, nip on it gently as he leans back even more.
"Mmn, yeah, I'll do that," he says in English, his accent a mixture of things but mostly sounding natural. "Definitely."
In the next moment they're walking towards the harbour, Kai's hand in Rune's and tugging him closer to his side.
"To Finland," Grey replies simply with a sigh and then decides to have some mercy on the lad. He releases him, pulling off his own tattered sweater and offers it to him. It's cold out at the sea even if it's summer. The wind is beating on them quite mercilessly.
"We're going straight across," he says and his brows furrow darkly. He might not mean to look so unforgiving but there's something awfully gaunt and striking in his looks, in the way his brows furrow over his eyes and darken his gaze.
"Come on," he says regardless of whether Rune pulls on the sweater or not. He stalks towards the cabin, looking for Kai who has some explaining to do.
The tea is brewing and Grey sits back. He's not quite as nosy as Kai is about the crew they travel with but he's a little bit curious about Kazik nonetheless.
"Yes," he says simply. "Well, I have been out there with the demons, but mostly it's just been me alone or me and him," he nods his head towards Kai. "This is the first time with a party and equipment and someone else footing the bill."
He regards Kazik for a moment quietly and then decides to elaborate, perhaps in hopes of Kazik volunteering some information about himself without any questions necessary.
"I get calls," he says. "Through the grapevine. About possessions." His brows furrow while he waits for the reaction to the mention of demons. Some people still manage to not believe they're real. Some people who live in areas like Oslo, which is relatively safe.
"Sure," Agnes says with a quick glance at Vordis. It doesn't take a genius to figure out most people. Just open eyes and a little bit of awareness. She's interested mostly because she's going to be spending quite a bit of time in cramped space with these people. If they turn out to be assholes, she would rather know before it comes as a surprise in a difficult situation.
"Well, silent and strong type in the corner there," she says and points at Grey, "is some kind of a nature loving shaman type. He seems like the real deal, too. Probably useful on a trip like this. His butt buddy, the paparazzi on the other hand I'm not so sure about. He seems like a loose cannon but a smart cookie nonetheless. Brother Russia has some language challenges, which will make things difficult, but I'm hoping his skill set will make up for it."
She gave Vordis a questioning look, probably wondering if she wanted to hear more.
"Oh, you're going to stay in the ship alone?" Agnes asks, glancing at Rune with a quizzical look. "You have some balls on you." She seems to approve.
She uses the wrench the open up the lid of the carburettor, moving it aside as she peers inside. "Hand me the flashlight, pet," she says easily, her hand shooting out from under the engine, her fingers curling in an inviting gesture.
"I'm Agnes. And what do we call you?" She doesn't seem that troubled by the idea that he's been pretty much spirited away from his safe Stockholm. Life tends to have strange things in store for everyone. She's used to that.
He does notice that Kai seems to be talking from experience, but it's alright. They can have discussions of religion at a later time because he seems to be much happier discussing his daughter. And honestly, so is Kazik; he's found it to be mostly true what Kai says that here at least, he's not taken very seriously. And that's the nicer of the reactions.
It was honestly very quickly that he realized a missionary trip was a mistake - the people here just didn't have any place for him. And so he will return to St. Petersburg.
"Tilhi," he repeats, and takes the picture. "She's beautiful," he says, and then looks closer. "She has your eyes." He's smiling when he hands it back. "How old is she?" He'd guess 4, 5. Which means he hopes this mission isn't too long, and Kai can go home quickly to his daughter.
Rune nearly doesn't make it to the boat as they kiss, as he tries to get as physically close to Kai as possible, entwining their lips and their breaths and their arms. He might just drag Kai on top of him in the nearest alley, and when he pulls away Rune whines and finds his lips following as if being pulled by a magnet.
"Hurry," he urges, voice husky and breathless. He slides his arm around Kai's waist and leans on him, turning his face and dotting his neck with kisses through his ear-to-ear grins.
"What!" is all he can muster at the moment. And then he pulls the sweater on, which honestly makes him look like a mess, hair all out of place and pale legs jutting out like little birch saplings.
"No, no no, we can't be that far then, we'll just call another ship headed to Stockholm and we'll make a transfer at sea. Or, you know what, do you have any spare lifeboats? Anything? I'll have to give it back to you some other time, but I am not going to Finland!"
Well, considering his kidnappers brought him along for precisely the kind of protection against demons, while going on foot through the countryside, it turns out that Kazik had seen a lot more than he had really intended to. In fact, he carries around a few trinkets to ensnare them, since he finds it easiest to conduct magic through objects. After all, it was why the wand was invented, but he prefers not to use sticks unless nothing else is readily available.
"What sort of calls?" he asks. He also didn't know that Grey and Kai were friends, but he supposes that makes sense, two people who wind up on these sorts of things probably have a high chance of running into each other again.
Vordís wants to hear all that Agnes has to share, so of course she pauses as if waiting for her to continue. "I think that one has probably seen things we don't want to know about," she says. "Though I'm not sure how he became friends with Paparazzi. They don't seem like the type to get along. Maybe they went to school together," she muses.
"Russia over there looks lost. I think he might have signed up on the wrong trip; maybe his Finnish isn't too good." He really, really does look like a lost puppy most of the time, and Vordís did notice he had gotten two sandwiches and was looking around for someone to give the extra one to, settling finally on Grey. So maybe he was also doing reconnaissance, trying to figure out the quiet ones first.
He's confused as to what she means by that but doesn't ask to elaborate. Staying on the ship is unsafe? But surely it's where the artillery is and it's where they'll return to at base, right? They won't just. Leave him there all trip, right? And they'll have supplies, he can just stay inside and eat and charge his phone and listen to the five thousand audiobooks that he keeps downloading and not listening to.
Right??
"Um, I'm Rune," he responds, digging through for the flashlight and handing it to her. "What are you trying to fix?" he asks instead, because it's sort of difficult to have a conversation with the lower half of someone's body.
Aulis feels souls approach in the water, their heartbeats like a birdsong in the morning, against the soft waves of the ocean. It draws him near, curiously, like moth to flame. Humans, shining bright like beacons, have such delicate skin and expressive eyes. They are unlike what dwells in the deep seas, slimy with inky eyes. No, they are creatures of a land that Aulis does not like to venture far into, and they are such sweet things; he likes to watch the life drain from their eyes.
He swims up to the surface and sits upon a craggy rock, humming a tune to draw them closer. His voice sounds of yearning, of hope, of nostalgia for home and a promise to wake up in one's own bed. But it is also of anguish, of having come too far from home, a warning. He sings the words like incantations, and to each listener, the voice may sound like that of a loved one. "Dear one, come closer," he starts, but feels the boat leaving instead of coming closer.
So he dives back into the water, and follows it, carrying his voice along the foam so it sounds like whispers. "Dear one, do not forsake me. Come into my arms, it's been so long since I have seen you last. Where are you going?" His voice gets louder as he sings into the waves, as it reverberates along the hull of the ship. "Come nearer, I wish to look upon your face and count the ways you haven't changed, so I can believe we are forever in that moment which I remember us best, the one I think of most in your absence. Do you remember?"
"Nice guns," Marjukka states, coffee in hand and taking a seat opposite of Sean. "You always carry both of them on you?" she asks. She's spent most of the train ride scribbling away in a little journal, tallying things and scrawling notes for preparations in case they were overlooked. After all, just because the government was footing the bill on this one doesn't mean that they've got everything they need.
In fact, it means that she's paranoid that it seems from the list that they do have everything they need, so she wants to double- and triple-check like a mother hen.
Finally, she's gotten some coffee to calm her nerves and has decided to come sit with the sleeping man only to find that he's finally awake.
Think the devil and he shall appear by your shoulder. Aulis has been swimming around as if lurking and haunting the ship, waiting for his prey to loosen its grip. But he climbed aboard a little while ago to rest; he prefers to be in the water but he can't afford to lose the way.
Therefore, he's been stalking the ship, and sleeping on it as well. He kicked the Swedish boy out of his designated quarters last night, as he commandeered the bed and the boy had refused to sleep next to him. Just as well, Aulis thinks, because he's sure the rest of them wouldn't miss him so terribly.
Quietly, he makes his way to the priest outside; priests smell different to Aulis, and this one is no different. He lurks in the doorway first, but then approaches, picking up the packet of salt. He holds it up and tilts his head as if to ask what it is.
Rune walks around the ship at night when he can't sleep, which is often. He's used to being on the sea, of course, but he's nervous. He's never been to Finland before, and never been on a real mission like this. The pathway between Tromsø and Oslo was mostly clean now thanks to the Norwegian influence, and it was well-traveled as well. So this is new for him, and it makes him nauseated in a way that he couldn't remember being since he first started sailing.
He sits with a cup of herbal tea trying to will himself back to sleep so he can be bright and ready tomorrow morning; peering up at the stillness of the stars and the liveness of the grand expanse of water really helps to settle his system. Out of the corner of his eye, something keeps annoying him about this tarp. He isn't sure why, but he feels a little off about it, which is getting more and more odd the more calm he is about everything else.
He's pretty sure it's just his nerves playing on overtime and making him paranoid, but he makes his way over and peels it back as one would do to a shower curtain after watching a horror film.
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kultanaamio) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ainomieli2018-07-30 04:22 am
STORY THIS FAR....
They boarded a train in Oslo, rode it to Låckered, then from there to Herrljunga and finally the last stretch to Stockholm. It took a whole day with several hours spent in both crossings while they transferred the train cart from one train to another. But given that they had a whole cart for them, they could walk around and have dinner in Låckered and a few drinks in Herrljunga while their equipment was hauled around and attached to another train.
In Stockholm they were lead to the harbour and their next vehicle of choice. Their truck was loaded in the boat that would take them from Stockholm to Turku/Åbo. They took part in loading the truck with all the equipment they would need on the trip. Hans, the lad who would be sailing them across the sea would pull out of Turku harbour when they were let out and withdraw to the sea to wait their return.
It was all nicely planned, wasn't it?
In Stockholm they needed to wait for their leader. Their trip had been delayed by a few days and they were still in Copenhagen when the rest of the party arrived in Stockholm.
Which of course meant sitting around, rechecking the equipment for some, finding the best bars in town for others...
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Kai is a social creature. Even if he has plenty of reading for the train trip from Oslo to Stockholm, he eventually gravitates towards people. He slips into the seat next to Kazimir, who is a fascinating addition to their little group of people who already had no real indication on what it should have looked like.
He had left Tilhi with her Scottish grandparents. She would be safe and sound with them, in danger only by too many sweets and pampering. They were eager to take care of her whenever they could, Kai thought it had something to do with trying to compensate the fact that they hadn't really been there for her mother when she had needed them. People were curious creatures like that. They were decent folk, just had been caught in a web of lies and presumptions. They hadn't approved of him first at all, but now that they had several years behind them, coming together over taking care of a little girl who needed all of their love, they had all grown to like each other. Kai tended to have that effect on people, though - that's what Grey always said - being able to make people fall in love with him.
He rubbed his hands over his denim clad thighs as he sat down and then turned towards Kazimir, smiling that fox-like smile that came so easily to him.
"Moi," he started in slowly spoken Finnish, because he had gleamed off the briefing that Kazimir did not speak English. "Niin, että mikäs sun tarina on?"
Kai >> Rune, day 3, bar in Stockholm
Kai had been thinking of just going out for a bit, having a few drinks and laughs and good time. But then he had gotten around flirting with this cute Swedish sailor and he honestly wasn't at all against taking the said sailor to see his boat after just an hour of talking to him.
He reached over Rune's shoulder to put his drink down on the bar, mostly just to get closer to him in the throng of people pressing on them all around. His mouth was a cheshire curve that wasn't shy to show a line of pearly whites whenever possible, his golden eyes crinkling around the corners as he looked at Rune with a gaze that said it all, interest written all over him.
"Vill du gå ut?" he leaned in to ask. "Det är ganska varmt här."
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Grey wasn't exactly the easiest person when it came to socialising. He found the corner of the train cart and sat down with a book. Hair bundled up to the back of his head to alleviate at least some of the summer heat and gradually wearing less. He had a worn out travel backpack sitting next to him, his grey coat rolled on top of it, after a while the thin sweater in loose grayish green knit of linen and wool with tattered sleeves joined it. He wore a worn out t-shirt and jeans that had seen better days. But he refused to toe off his boots that must have been uncomfortable in the heat.
The thing with Grey was that he was always ready to jump out of the moving train, alert and ready to move. He'd been hunting demons for over a decade now, the tail end of it alone. You didn't just brush off that kind of readiness even if the trip from Oslo to Stockholm was probably pretty safe.
He hummed under his breath every now and then while reading, but otherwise he remained pretty quiet unless spoken to. He had already assessed the group during briefing and of course he already knew Kai. They would probably be okay if these people wouldn't turn out to be loose cannons.
Come bother him?
Grey >> Rune, day 4, Gulf of Bothnia
They were well on their way out of the harbour when Grey found him. Stockholm with its tall buildings and stench of people was falling behind. Grey found himself wandering to the prow of the boat, breathing in deep the salty air that almost had the fragrance of home about it. It had been at least five years since he'd been this close to Finland. He'd breached the borders six years ago for a quick trip but he'd been moving on foot and didn't dare to go very far. Something inside him was singing with pleasure as he thought about going home now. And with more than a little dread knowing the state of the country.
He stood there, hands on the railing, eyes closed, listening to the birds and the waves hitting the front of the boat. Then suddenly a rustle behind him jolted him aware of his surroundings.
He was sprawled onto a tarp, slowly waking up from what seemed liked quite a deep sleep. He obviously wasn't anyone from the crew and didn't look like he was ready for some hiking either. A small jolt of dread went through Grey and first he was thinking demons and sabotage, but soon realised that this young man was far too comfortably asleep to be anything but an accidental stowaway.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked as he stopped beside the young man, casting a shadow over him.
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"So, I understand big and grumpy there in the corner, and the paparazzi over there is even easier to figure out. Mr. Russia is a bit of a mystery but you," Agnes said as she took a seat next to Vordis right after they had boarded the train in Oslo. "You I don't understand at all. Why would someone like you end up in a trip like this?"
Agnes didn't look like someone boarding a train to expedition either. She was wearing a pair of cargo shorts, a loose tanktop with a cogwheel print in the front and a pair of slippers. She looked like she was about to embark on a beach trip. But it was hot and she had more sensible clothes in her backpack, including sturdy boots that were hanging by the laces in the bottom. Her arms were bare but an intricate tattoo ran up along one of her arms, more cogwheels weaved together with what looked like runes and symbols.
She sprawled on the seat and fanned herself with her tablet case while waiting for a response, pair of winged brows arching in question.
Agnes >> anyone, day 4, Gulf of Bothnia
The boat was a piece of shit, but Agnes had fondness for old boats that ran with holy spirit and steel wire. They had stopped for the night because it was hard to see anything and the area was littered with small islands that were not in any map they had in their possession. The engines were still hot when she climbed into the back to have a gander at what they were working with.
She was laying on her back with her tool kit open on the ground by her feet, right under the heavy engine, half inside the casing.
"Hand me the wrench, alright?" she said to whoever happened to be nearby and gestured towards the toolbox, her palm open invitingly. "The biggest one you can find."
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He wonders if he's made the right choice by joining this crew, so he busies himself with thoughts of his family and thoughts of his Gods. So he almost jumps out of his skin when Kai addresses him.
"Moi," he returns. And then he takes a deep breath and states, with pauses to organize his thoughts: "I came to Finland as messenger of my Gods, but I was removed from my path by thieves. Now I will go as far east as you will take me, and return to St. Petersburg."
"Why have you come?"
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Case in point, tonight's target is this man with a pretty mouth whose name is uh, Tai? Kim?
Kai!
That's it. "Ja, säker. Uno momento," he requests, downing the rest of his beer. "Kom så drar vi nånstans tyst. Är ditt hotell nära?"
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The sun filters through his closed eyelids as he turns to what might be an empty bed or what might contain the other party responsible for his very satisfied aching this morning. He tries to remember a face, a name... a wiry smile manifests in his mind when instead, very suddenly, he hears a voice he does not recognize.
And just as suddenly, he jerks awake. "Um."
"Where's--" what was his name again? "--Kai? Åh för fan i helvete, är vi till sjöss igen!"
He shakes his head. "Where is the nearest port?"
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He recognizes Grey from the crew documents he'd been given, and remembers thankfully that he's one of the Finns, which means that they can actually talk. "Hi," he says, "excuse me. Are you hungry? I bought two," he offers.
Honestly he would like to trade one of them for a bottle of water, or really anything to drink. But he doesn't want to make that mistake; he can't wait to get on their ship where all the room and board is supplied and comes free. He doesn't care that he has to work long hours and face certain danger for these accommodations; at the very least, his services are no longer free of charge.
"Do you like turkey?"
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She gives Agnes a once-over and decides if she wants to tell her the truth or brush it off with a quick reply; she figures that they'll be spending the next few months in close quarters, she might as well. "If you really want to know, it's because everyone is getting complacent. People just live in their own little bubble and refuse to leave their city," she says. "Missions like this are underfunded, underutilized. It's important that people know just how necessary they are to our continued survival."
She puts her book away, back into her bag. "Are you hot? We can turn the air conditioning up higher," she suggests, tying up her own hair into a small bun at the back of her head.
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Finding himself in the last place he hasn't visited, he isn't expecting Agnes to actually talk to him. But he rifles through and plucks out the largest wrench in the box, and hands it over to her. "You the ship mechanic?" he asks. "I'm Rune. Late addition to the crew."
Hopefully, if he introduces himself, none of them will ask further questions.
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Kazimir is definitely a little nervous, jumpy even. He seems to have a clear path laid out before him, though. Kai studies him curiously, marking the way he sits and speaks, and yes, of course, he notices the 'my gods' which probably is capitalised in his mind. A part of him feels an urge to stand up and walk away immediately, but a bigger part of him, the fox that he is, feels an urge to stay, to pick at that thread, to see if it will unravel. He's a son of a priest, an artistic, sexually liberated bi-sexual, magically sensitive, stubborn son of a priest. Life wasn't exactly easy for him growing up. His father never punished him physically but oh, there were other ways to get his point across.
"Gods?" he asks in a soft murmur, almost as if he were delighted. "Many? I take it you're not a Christian."
He leans back in his seat and clears his throat at the question. "I suppose the easy answer is that I'm a journalist. There's a story there to write. The more complicated answer has something to do with the fact that its my homeland and my daughter has never seen it. Maybe I'm hoping to find something that tells me that she'll be able to do that one day." And if they have time, he wants to go back home, where his father and mother refused to leave Finland and see for himself what became of them. But there's a grim thought that he doesn't need to share right away.
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They push their way through the crowd and speaking becomes a little difficult in the throng of people. Kai steers them jovially through the crowd and they spill onto the street outside, breathing in the fresh night air.
"Phew," Kai murmurs when they stand there, then glances at Rune from the corner of his eye. "Kan jag intreserra dig av att undersök någon gammal båt?"
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Kai had said something about his company parting early, Grey recalls, so maybe Rune had taken a stroll around the deck and fallen asleep. It isn't all that mysterious, drunken people do crazy things.
"Up, up," he says and reaches down to curl his hand around the young man's elbow, pulling him up to his feet as easily as he were manhandling a child. "Juu, hans namn är Kai, men, do har någon större problem, du förstå?"
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"Sure," he says simply. Kazimir might have to be more forth coming about his attempts to trade. Grey isn't exactly the most forth coming individual.
But he's not rude either. When Kazimir takes the seat - if he does - Grey pulls his backpack closer to himself. Not out of suspicious feelings but because he's reaching to flip open a pocket on the side, pulling out a small burner and a gas bottle. He sets his items on the table and fishes out another one, a steel mug. Water goes in from a bottle and a bag of tea.
If he knows something about Russians is that they like their tea strong and plentiful.
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She listens to Vordis quietly even if her eyes dart away every now and then, glancing outside, and then back at her. It's not so much a nervous tick but the way she is, always multitasking.
"Yeah, people are like that, aren't they?" she says calmly. "Always ready to just settle down and wait for the executioner. It's easier that way, you know?" Revolutionary minds are rare, mob mentality isn't. "So, you seem like the rational one of the crew then." Maybe the intelligent one as well. It remains to be seen.
"Nah, let it be. It'll settle in a minute. No point cranking it up now and then down later." She grins and fans herself some more. "Should enjoy the summer when it happens, yeah?" She grew up in the north were it's rarely warm.
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She glances up at him quickly and there's a little bit of a cheshire grin curving at the corners of her mouth.
"You're the stowaway, aren't you? I heard the paparazzi is a bit of a player and can't keep it in his pants." She shakes her head before diving back under the engine. "Don't worry, I'm not going to judge. If you need the dick, you need the dick." Sex isn't all that complicated, is it? "I just hope you're ready for what's at the other side of this gulf."
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"And that is a difficult thing to answer. It is a long story, but I am a practicer of dual faiths, which is a easier to reconcile than most people would believe." And really, it was what was practiced for ages-- old gods hidden away as saints, Christian holidays retrofitted over pagan ones. Christianity is a jealous spouse, but after all the purges of one faith or another, or faith altogether, it didn't improve their livelihood.
It brought them the largest calamity to the human race that it had ever seen.
"Do you have pictures of her?" he asks. "Your daughter."
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So he flashes back a smile and places a hand on his collar, pulls him close and responds with a kiss, sloppier than he'd like, but he blames it on the alcohol.
"Så ta mig till din båt," he breathes against Kai's lips.
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"Or if not the nearest, then wherever you are stopping next!" he tries, and through his panic, the words might be English but his melody is distinctly Swedish. "Where is this boat going?"
Yes, he didn't ask. To be fair, he barely remembers Kai's name, so why would he have bothered asking where he was going? Who would do something like that? Grey, you really have your hands full with this one.
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He misses home with a physical yearning.
Even if Grey does not appear to be friendly, his gestures are, and that's enough for Kazik. At the very least, this new band of strangers treats him with respect or just doesn't mention him at all, and honestly, it's an improvement.
"Have you done a mission like this before?" he asks. The notes he was given wasn't exactly comprehensive.
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"So, how is your information-gathering about the crew?" she asks. "Successful?" She almost wonders why Agnes is so interested in knowing about them, being able to categorize them. Vordis, meanwhile, prefers to care about the nervous motion in Agnes' eyes, the way they flicker like the buzz of machinery. Long-limbed and pale-featured, there's something hearkening in the idea of her being covered in dark, slick engine grease. She thinks she'd like to paint that.
"Tell me about them," she requests, crossing her arms over her lap.
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"I'm pretty sure I'm not leaving the ship, so that's fine," he says. He's definitely leaving the ship once he realizes the alternative is him being left behind to stand guard as literally all the other highly-trained and powered people are going to go off traipsing into the wilderness instead.
He has no idea how his life got so complicated overnight.
"I don't think I got your name..."
Introducing Aulis
They had anchored the boat near a small island, hoping to make shore the next day. Even the sea was calmer than usual, quiet around the little island. This was probably why the singing could be heard so clearly on top of the water.
Grey was the first to jump up from his seat and stare at the ocean. Then he clapped hands over his ears and dashed back to the winch that was used for the anchor. He kicked it, managing to make it reel itself back in. They probably had anchored somewhere they shouldn't have.
The rest of the crew was slowly, as if waking up to it, moving towards the railings of the ship. Some faster, some slower. The ones with barely any protections to magic leading the chase.
Grey cursed something under his breath as he jumped up into the cabin of the boat and ignited the engines, straight backwards, not really caring where they would end as long as they got away from this place.
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Half a year in Oslo had been a long while just staring at the walls of his little hotel room. Sean was ready to be out and about, but also ready to get rid of as many of the evil arseholes that were populating the land as possible.
While the rest of them seemed like a curious mixture of a travellers in their festive and less festive summer clothes, Sean wore his cassock as he boarded the train. One would find a pair of tattered jeans underneath and an old t-shirt but on top he looked like a clean shaven preacher. Except for the fact that his cassock was littered with bullet holes and tears and even the white slip around his collar wasn't very white anymore.
He slept most of the trip. Just nodding off whenever the train would leave a station. He didn't unpack, all of his belongings stayed in his backpack except for the guns that he took out on the last stride before Stockholm. Two large hand guns that had enough of a kick to make his shoulders ache. He opened them and cleaned them meticulously before applying grease where it was needed and then started to put them back together.
Sean >> anyone, day 6, Gulf of Bothnia
After the escapades with the creature that the locals called Näkki Sean decides that it's best to crank up his protections. He's been possessed before, it's not completely new to him to lose his mind over magic. But it doesn't make it any easier even if he has experience of it.
After the demon rode him for what felt like a decade, he felt broken and hollow, dirty from inside out, but now he doesn't even know what he's feeling. But he avoids looking directly at the creature that they fished out of the sea, just in case he would feel that mad desire again.
He settles to the prow of the boat and brings out a few items from his backpack. A bottle of water, a smaller bottle of oil, a small packet of salt and a candle, which he lights first of all.
Come get a blessing from the reluctant priest? Or just bother him with his business?
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Waking up covered in blood and broken bones is pretty much the worst way to come about. That's at least what Varg thinks when he is making his way to the harbour. It took a god damn hour to get it all off of himself and he's still shaking a little with the aftershock of realising that he's done it again and he has to move, leave the city as quickly as possible.
The wolf usually is docile enough that he doesn't go berserk on a wolf moon, but there are times when the beast is just feral and if he didn't manage to get a night off for the festivities, it tends to break out violently.
He huddles in the light summer drizzle for a while to stare at the boats in the harbour, trying to decide which of them is going to leave soon. He pulls the hood of his jacket further over his head while he perks his ears to listen to the sounds coming from the boats. Finally he picks the one that has several foreign languages in the mix, hoping that this means it would be the best bet to get as far away from here as possible.
He waits until the night and then hefts his guitar case higher up on his shoulder before slipping into the boat, quiet as the night, he sneaks under the deck and into the farthest corner he can find, drawing a tarp over his head. It takes hours upon hours to wait for the boat to leave the harbour and eventually he passes out. Despite his nerves being on the edge, he finds that having almost no sleep the night before helps along the process. Too much so in fact. He'd hate to wake up while being thrown over border.
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He rolls his eyes a little while he glances out from the train window. "But modern people are more concerned over rules and boundaries, I find. The priests of old would have no problem going into the groves and sacred places to held their services to God. The shamans of old would use bible as one of their talismans. But these days, tell a priest you had a visitor and they would probably try to drive the demon out of you." It almost sounds as if he's talking from experience.
"Oh? Yeah, of course I do!" he says, brightening up immediately when his daughter is mentioned. He digs up his wallet and flips it open, drawing out a picture of a cute little 5-year-old. "Her name is Tilhi," Kai says as he offers the picture to Kazik.
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"Mmn, yeah, I'll do that," he says in English, his accent a mixture of things but mostly sounding natural. "Definitely."
In the next moment they're walking towards the harbour, Kai's hand in Rune's and tugging him closer to his side.
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"We're going straight across," he says and his brows furrow darkly. He might not mean to look so unforgiving but there's something awfully gaunt and striking in his looks, in the way his brows furrow over his eyes and darken his gaze.
"Come on," he says regardless of whether Rune pulls on the sweater or not. He stalks towards the cabin, looking for Kai who has some explaining to do.
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"Yes," he says simply. "Well, I have been out there with the demons, but mostly it's just been me alone or me and him," he nods his head towards Kai. "This is the first time with a party and equipment and someone else footing the bill."
He regards Kazik for a moment quietly and then decides to elaborate, perhaps in hopes of Kazik volunteering some information about himself without any questions necessary.
"I get calls," he says. "Through the grapevine. About possessions." His brows furrow while he waits for the reaction to the mention of demons. Some people still manage to not believe they're real. Some people who live in areas like Oslo, which is relatively safe.
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"Well, silent and strong type in the corner there," she says and points at Grey, "is some kind of a nature loving shaman type. He seems like the real deal, too. Probably useful on a trip like this. His butt buddy, the paparazzi on the other hand I'm not so sure about. He seems like a loose cannon but a smart cookie nonetheless. Brother Russia has some language challenges, which will make things difficult, but I'm hoping his skill set will make up for it."
She gave Vordis a questioning look, probably wondering if she wanted to hear more.
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She uses the wrench the open up the lid of the carburettor, moving it aside as she peers inside. "Hand me the flashlight, pet," she says easily, her hand shooting out from under the engine, her fingers curling in an inviting gesture.
"I'm Agnes. And what do we call you?" She doesn't seem that troubled by the idea that he's been pretty much spirited away from his safe Stockholm. Life tends to have strange things in store for everyone. She's used to that.
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It was honestly very quickly that he realized a missionary trip was a mistake - the people here just didn't have any place for him. And so he will return to St. Petersburg.
"Tilhi," he repeats, and takes the picture. "She's beautiful," he says, and then looks closer. "She has your eyes." He's smiling when he hands it back. "How old is she?" He'd guess 4, 5. Which means he hopes this mission isn't too long, and Kai can go home quickly to his daughter.
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"Hurry," he urges, voice husky and breathless. He slides his arm around Kai's waist and leans on him, turning his face and dotting his neck with kisses through his ear-to-ear grins.
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"No, no no, we can't be that far then, we'll just call another ship headed to Stockholm and we'll make a transfer at sea. Or, you know what, do you have any spare lifeboats? Anything? I'll have to give it back to you some other time, but I am not going to Finland!"
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"What sort of calls?" he asks. He also didn't know that Grey and Kai were friends, but he supposes that makes sense, two people who wind up on these sorts of things probably have a high chance of running into each other again.
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"Russia over there looks lost. I think he might have signed up on the wrong trip; maybe his Finnish isn't too good." He really, really does look like a lost puppy most of the time, and Vordís did notice he had gotten two sandwiches and was looking around for someone to give the extra one to, settling finally on Grey. So maybe he was also doing reconnaissance, trying to figure out the quiet ones first.
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Right??
"Um, I'm Rune," he responds, digging through for the flashlight and handing it to her. "What are you trying to fix?" he asks instead, because it's sort of difficult to have a conversation with the lower half of someone's body.
Re: Introducing Aulis
He swims up to the surface and sits upon a craggy rock, humming a tune to draw them closer. His voice sounds of yearning, of hope, of nostalgia for home and a promise to wake up in one's own bed. But it is also of anguish, of having come too far from home, a warning. He sings the words like incantations, and to each listener, the voice may sound like that of a loved one. "Dear one, come closer," he starts, but feels the boat leaving instead of coming closer.
So he dives back into the water, and follows it, carrying his voice along the foam so it sounds like whispers. "Dear one, do not forsake me. Come into my arms, it's been so long since I have seen you last. Where are you going?" His voice gets louder as he sings into the waves, as it reverberates along the hull of the ship. "Come nearer, I wish to look upon your face and count the ways you haven't changed, so I can believe we are forever in that moment which I remember us best, the one I think of most in your absence. Do you remember?"
train
In fact, it means that she's paranoid that it seems from the list that they do have everything they need, so she wants to double- and triple-check like a mother hen.
Finally, she's gotten some coffee to calm her nerves and has decided to come sit with the sleeping man only to find that he's finally awake.
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Therefore, he's been stalking the ship, and sleeping on it as well. He kicked the Swedish boy out of his designated quarters last night, as he commandeered the bed and the boy had refused to sleep next to him. Just as well, Aulis thinks, because he's sure the rest of them wouldn't miss him so terribly.
Quietly, he makes his way to the priest outside; priests smell different to Aulis, and this one is no different. He lurks in the doorway first, but then approaches, picking up the packet of salt. He holds it up and tilts his head as if to ask what it is.
no subject
He sits with a cup of herbal tea trying to will himself back to sleep so he can be bright and ready tomorrow morning; peering up at the stillness of the stars and the liveness of the grand expanse of water really helps to settle his system. Out of the corner of his eye, something keeps annoying him about this tarp. He isn't sure why, but he feels a little off about it, which is getting more and more odd the more calm he is about everything else.
He's pretty sure it's just his nerves playing on overtime and making him paranoid, but he makes his way over and peels it back as one would do to a shower curtain after watching a horror film.
He screams.
"Who the fuck are you?!"