abraxaslogs | Ashes to Ashes

WHO: Julia Wicker and Red mac Raith
WHAT: Quest, task 2!
WHERE: Solvunn
WHEN: July
WARNINGS: Nothing!

It's a strange experience, preparing for a funeral in advance. Not an unknown one, it happens sometimes in her world too, when people know they're on their way out. But it's never been so communal in her experience, nothing like this mass mix of grief and pride. They will miss Winifred but also believe in her sacrifice, which is a strange thing to think about, but that is Solvunn for you. Everything is sacred around here in one way or another.

She planned on going out on her own to figure out the trees but frankly, a decent woodchopper is probably for the best, and Red's got the look to him. She could probably handle it herself with magic but Julia's always preferred teamwork whenever possible. After being alone in every possible way, she likes company.

"Okay I thiiiiink this is one of the trees." Her dark hair is up in a sensible bun and she's wearing clothes that are good for potential labor. Despite being very petite, she does have an axe in hand and doesn't seem to be tired of it yet. "We have to do a ritual before cutting it down."

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He listens closely, nodding along as Julia explains further. Despite the overwhelming presence of Christian religions where he's from -- and largely where he's traveled, too -- he's well enough aware of the older beliefs of his ancestors, and other civilizations as well. Red would probably say he's more agnostic than anything, if asked. After all, he believes in some sort of heaven and hell, salvation or damnation for the souls of the dead, but the details of it... he doesn't profess to know any of that.

So if there are many gods here and one can earn their favor and ask their protection and blessings, he's not scandalized. Just intrigued.

At her question, Red laughs, and there is a measure of relief in it.

"I am indeed from a place called Scotland. Born and bred. I'll say I'm glad to hear you know of it."

"We need to carve Winifred's arcana into the wood once we have enough, it's the last step before we give it back to them." Julia knows a spell or two that can help them with that, although she also has a knife that they can probably use for it. It's all ceremonious. It's weird to be preparing all of this for someone so far in advance, but Winifred's always seemed so kind. The natives are going to miss her.

Julia flashes him a smile. "I do! It's funny how many of us are from some kind of Earth, from all different time periods too. Have you talked to Claire yet? She lived in Scotland." She doesn't have the accent but Julia knows some of her story and the time that she spent there. It's an important distinction for someone relatively new, if they didn't know one of the other Summoned was from his homeland.

"I'm from North America, circa 2018. New York City to be precise."

"I understand," Red agrees somberly. He's got experience carving runes, beyond just cutting the wood, and a sharp knife of his own at his belt. It is a dreadful business, preparing the funeral while the woman yet breathes, but there is also a sort of closure and comfort in it, he thinks. The ritual of passing on is important. Having a say in that is important.

"Is that right? I didn't realize there were many of us. Suppose other places might also be called 'Earth,' though. To be honest, I'm still wrapping my head around it all."

There's a faint surprise when she reveals the information about Claire. "Aye. The doctor with a hobby for antiquities. We've met. Didn't realize she was from my neck of the woods."

His eyebrows shoot up at the mention of when Julia is from. He lets out a low whistle.

"Fascinating. That's three-hundred-odd years ahead of the last I remember before winding up here. I've never had the pleasure of visiting the New York colony. What's it like? Is Boston still around too?"

"I think she married into Scotland, but she was from there, yeah." Claire doesn't have the accent so he might not have picked up on it, but her tale is an interesting one. Maybe he'll hear all of it eventually. They can bond over Scotland, she hopes for them both.

"Let's take the wood back that we have now, we can come back for more." She'll help him carry it and they can carve in the wood the last step once they're back with the others. She wants to be positive she gets the exact details of her arcana right. She gestures for him to start walking in that direction.

"Oh yeah, Boston's still there. New York is far from a colony now, it's a huge city, bigger than you can imagine. With skyscrapers, that's buildings as high as the sky. Millions of people live there, it's an epicenter of business, art, and knowledge." Julia speaks very brightly of the city she loves with all of her heart. She's always lived in Jersey but she couldn't wait to get to New York.

They deliver the wood to the right people and she brushes her hair back. "You okay for a second trip?"

Edited 2024-09-01 02:58 (UTC)

He'd definitely like to have someone to bond with over a familiar place. Red nods and thanks her, and follows Julia's instructions to continue on. They chat while they walk, and he listens with fascination.

"You're joking." His eyebrows are trying to escape into his hairline by the time she finishes. "Buildings as high as the sky? That's a lot of stairs, first of all," he laughs, wonder in his voice more than actual disbelief. People used to build all sorts of huge structures. Just look at the pyramids in Egypt.

He believes her; he's just having some trouble actually imagining it.

"It sounds like London. The New World has really grown to rival its motherland, from the sounds of it."

Letting Julia take the lead when interacting with the locals (Red's never been one to get in the way of a confident woman), he stands back until he's to hand off the wood he's carrying, then waits for Julia to finish up before agreeing to go for a second trip.

"Sure. As many as we need to take. I like being useful."

"We have something called elevators. Oh man how to explain ...." Julia is getting used to people who have different levels of technology but it still doesn't mean it is easy to try and clarify. "It's this metal box that has a bunch of technologically advanced ... pulley system, kind of, and it can bring you up and down multiple floors in seconds." She doesn't know exactly how an elevator works so she's both trying to make sense of it and explain it at the same time.

"New York surpassed London some years ago, it has like eighteen million people who live in the city and surrounding boroughs." That must seem like a crazy high number. "And that's not even the top ten largest cities, we have so much overpopulation in my time." It keeps getting higher too.

They get to keep the axe and head back out. "So what's it like in Scotland in your era?"

The idea of a platform to access heights with pulleys is not entirely foreign to him, though everything in his day is far more... manual. But Red mutters some sort of agreement and nods, and wonders at the sheer number of people and buildings. And he'd thought London was too densely populated already.

Red carries the axe on the way back over his shoulder, keeping in step with her at a steady but not overly quick pace.

"Rather the same it's been for a while, between the wars, the kings and the church." He shrugs. "In truth, I haven't spent much time in the old fatherland in recent years. I was most recently in New England, though it's nothing like what you've described at this point."

New York City is insane and Julia loves it but it is definitely overpopulated. It just has a lot of life to it and she misses it a lot. She knows that Cadens is the closest thing to a 'city' that they have there, or the other Free Cities locations too, but it probably wouldn't stack up. At this point Oleuni Square is impressive to her, compared to the constant nature of Solvunn.

She appreciates he doesn't walk overly fast. She has short legs so she's probably walking twice as much for every one of his strides. She smiles up at him as he talks. His accent is very pretty. She's not so basic bitch she'll get enamored with every accent she hears, but it's still nice.

"Old school New England! That must have been a long ship trek to get there from overseas." It used to be so much harder. "We have things called planes now. They're mechanical transportation that can fly in the air, it gets you across the ocean in a shorter amount of time." Weeks turn into hours. "What were you doing there?"

Ashes to Ashes

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just to make them officially deliver the wood haha

thumbs up!

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