A Sleepless First Night

[aleifr]

Who: Aleifr and anyone who chances upon him
What: Insomnia-Driven Wanderings
Where: Various places around P90
When: Night One
Warnings/Notes: Nothing at present, but I'll update if that changes

It’s clear fairly early on that Aleifr’s first night on Piper 90 would be a restless one.

Simply put: He didn’t like it here.

He didn’t like the fact that he was a dozens floors off the ground in some metal monstrosity, feeling the vibrations of it's slow, steady movements like the faintest tremor of one of Fenris's summer quakes.

He didn’t like the distant engine noises, or the echoing footsteps of boots on metal. He was used to near silence at night; gently whistling winds carrying the soft crackle of a campfire or the murmurs of a distant conversation. If a night got that loud on Fenris, it was either feast day revelery, or you needed to be on your feet with an axe in your hand.

He didn’t like that he was trapped here. He didn’t like that he’d been dragged here against his will on someone’s whim. He didn’t like that he had no idea why either. He didn't know if there was even an ounce of truth in the rat-faced man's story about the near end of the world, or what the hell part he was supposed to play in that design if it was. He fucking hated that there was nothing that he could do about it.

He didn’t like sleeping alone, either. Wasn’t used to it anymore.

He’d still made an effort, if only so he wouldn’t be sleep deprived while dealing with whatever tomorrow brings. He might have been able to find an hour or two if he was on his own furs, but even the bed worked against him. It was too damned soft, and no matter which way he lay he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was sinking into it.

Needless to say, sleep didn’t come. All he did was toss and turn for a few hours until he grew sick of it.

He decided he needed to do something. Walk. Memorize his surroundings, get something to eat, something to drink … Busy himself until sleep started to sound appealing again, really. Anything but lay around in that fucking bed that clearly wasn't made with someone his size in mind.

So he put on the jumpsuit that was given to him -- that at least fit -- and decided to walk the halls. It felt ... strangely dreamlike, honestly. Maybe it's the fact that he's tired, maybe it's all so alien to him that it doesn't seem real ... he doesn't know.

He doesn't want to dwell on it, honestly.

Anyone who happens to be awake can find him. He’s not a hard man to spot. Maybe they catch him as they exit his room. Maybe they find him in the halls, wandering around and trying to commit landmarks to memory so that he has some rough picture of the place in his head to navigate by.

He’s awake for a good, long while that night. Plenty of opportunity.

Comments

[greyerrant]

"No. It does not." He's from a place where he flies around Space Cathedrals to shoot rocket launchers at people.

But for that matter, so is Aleifr, not that he knows it.

[aleifr]

No. No, he does not.

Aleifr scoffs involuntarily. Not doubtfully or contemptuously ... it's just so difficult for him to imagine that it's hard not to have some sort of reaction -- even for someone as stone-faced as him.

"You and I come from very different places."

[greyerrant]

"Indeed. I am Garviel Loken." He doesn't add anything to that, just letting the man know who he is, the fellow can add or subtract to that greeting himself, or give none at all, should he so desire.

[aleifr]

"Aleifr."

He extends a hand towards the larger man.

"Son of Bjorn."

[greyerrant]

Loken takes the hand and shakes it. "Good to know you." He is quiet for a moment, and then asks, "have you eaten, since you've been here?"

[aleifr]

"Once." Aleifr nods. "The food is ... different, than what I'm used to."

Odds are he should go back, though. He didn't exactly get much the first time, and he needs more than most people.

[greyerrant]

"The portions don't seem to be for people of our... size. I wonder if they're used to smaller people, or something."

He hasn't realized it's accidental starvation, not yet. He is just good-naturedly assuming they were designed for far smaller people than himself.

[aleifr]

"Possibly," Aleifr grunts. "But you'd think they'd have the sense to handle that considering they built all of this."

Loken is inclined to be more generous than Aleifr is, apparently.

[greyerrant]

"Let's just say I don't think well of their competence."

He rolls his eyes a bit to emphasize his distaste.

[aleifr]

"That makes two of us."

Admittedly, his distaste goes a good deal further than Jorgmund's competence.

He went to sleep next to his wife and woke up here. Why the hell would he care for them?

[greyerrant]

"So. What now?"

Loken's own answer is simple. Slow, subtle, information gathering, then a brutal strike to the neck to get the mastery of their own fates back.

[aleifr]

Aleifr sighs.

"I've got a lot to learn about this place."

His way of saying that his plan is much the same, while also admitting that this place is utterly alien to him.

[greyerrant]

"Fastest way to learn is share information. You been issued a dataslate?" He shows Aleifr his own digital assistant, pulling it out of a pocket of his own standard issue dataslate. It is too small on him, so the arms and legs have been cut out making loken look like an overgrown and very muscular toddler.

[aleifr]

"They did," Aleifr says, retrieving his own from one of his pockets, "for all the sense I've been able to make of the fucking thing."

He's quite literally never seen anything like it before. The brief once-over he was given on how to use it wasn't nearly sufficient.

[greyerrant]

"All right. First things first. Can you read the data runes?" He demonstrates with a few characters on his, simple words like Dog, and Sword.

[aleifr]

"I can, though I'd never seen any of them before coming here."

Something he finds immensely disconcerting. Most Gothi he's met wouldn't have been able to weave a spell like that, and Jorgmund can have it done on a whim.

[greyerrant]

"I had some suspicions of that." THe name Fenris kind of is a giveaway, after all. "I'll walk you through the process of communicating with these , if you think it would come in useful."

[aleifr]

"I'll accept whatever help you can offer."

He's out of his depth here. He knows that, and pretending that it isn't the case does nothing for him.

handwaving a bit..

[greyerrant]

Loken will spend a while walking Aleifr patiently through the basics, using comparisons a warrior born would understand. And at the end he asks...

"Understand more? Normally I teach men how to fight, not how to operate dataslates."