Sinric the Wanderer

Sinric laughs and pushes his hair back from his face. "Some times I think I've not travelled at all but gone mad somehow."

From:

"Oh yes, that's typical of this place," Ragnar says. "And Athelstan has seen stranger things than that, as he's been here longer. What was the strangest thing you've seen here, Athelstan?"

From:

"...do I have to pick only one?"

He isn't even really joking.

From:

"Yes, you do." Sinric teases, stretching out to rest one delicate foot on Ragnar's ~~thigh~~ chair. "I want to hear all the tales of madness."

From:

Ragnar takes a sip of his mead.

"Perhaps the three weirdest things," Ragnar concedes.

He reaches out to tickle Sinric's ankle.

From:

"Am I allowed to claim the wonders of the future as strange things?"

From:

"Yes, but only if you show them to me later." Sinric's ankles are ticklish and Ragnar might get a gentle kick if he's not careful.

From:

Ragnar might be tickling him again, because he doesn't mind gentle kicks as long as Athelstan's food doesn't get upended.

"Do tell, Athelstan!"

From:

Athelstan eyes them with amusement and moves to where he can defend the food from errant feet.

"The first thing that struck me here was how people dress, but I quickly got used to that. The second, the technology." He turns towards his desk. "Sinric, you must see my microscope."

From:

His food is in no immediate danger and there's easily enough to feed all three of them. "Micro is small, scope - to see. Something for seeing very small things?" Sinric has a gift for language.

A second foot is in play now, wedged under Ragnar's hip to try to push him off the chair. Sinric doesn't stand a chance but the struggle is fun.

From:

Ragnar dabs a bit of bread into the yoghurt-and-cucumber sauce, and eats it.

Then, he shifts a little to trap that foot between his thigh and the chair -- of course, not heavily enough to hurt, just to cause a bit of a struggle.

"Is it that weird to see small things?" he says. "I've seen tiny frogs no larger than the nail on my little finger every spring of my childhood."

From:

Sinric tries wiggling his foot free, to no avail. So now he tries massaging Ragnar's rear with his trapped foot to get him to move.

"Sounds wonderful and strange. You'll have to show me."

From:

"Smaller even than those. So small you could never see them without the microscope - Ragnar, we talked about it, remember?" He watches them, barely restraining laughter. "I'd be glad to, as soon as Ragnar releases you."

From:

"Oh, the machine with which you can see the little bits everything is made of?" Ragnar says. "You mentioned that! I wonder if one can--"

And then, Sinric gets to a sensitive bit, and Ragnar yelps with surprise and accidentally releases the trapped foot.

From:

"Ha." Byzantine body slave: 1. Mighty Viking: 0. "Poor Ragnar, did I hurt you? Shall I kiss it better?" Be careful, Ragnar. That grin is dangerous.

"I once heard the world is made of tiny, tiny things out together to make all things; like a massive mosaic."

From:

"Precisely!" Athelstan says with the light of being allowed to talk about science in his eyes. "I've heard the study of such things is very advanced in the east."

From:

"Not hurt as such," Ragnar says. He can't admit to being ticklish there, can he? "You can later."

He smiles at Sinric, liking the way he's getting bolder, less scared, more confident.

It was right to tell him about the future.

"Yes, I heard our bodies are made from tiny things called cells, like where the Irish monks live."

From:

He has a future, as exactly what he dreams of being. And his future will affect theirs so their protecting is self interest and gratitude rather than some other motive. How can Sinric be anything but happy.

"Promise?" He teases to Ragnar, settling his feet back in Ragnar's lap.

"The palace library has scrolls by many of the wise men of the Greeks and Romans. And the works of more resent men. The Emperor kindly let me read from the works of Paul of Aegina. His understanding of medicine was without flaw."

From:

"I'd love to read those", Athelstan says wistfully. "The library here has everything, but I keep getting distracted."

From:

"Perhaps we should take a few weeks off from our lives," Ragnar says, "not that we'd be missed, as no time passes anyway, and just stay here, read, learn, talk to people, copy maps, drink bourbon and spoil each other and Sinric."

From:

"There's a library here? Any anyone way use it?" Sinric is suddenly bright and alert. "Oh, I would love that. And music! The priest in the garden give me so much music to listen to."

From:

"Such a library, Sinric", Athelstan says with a smile just thinking of it. "Nothing like it exists in our world, and it's open to all."

From: