slipping away with Ragnar

[thewidewideworld]

{From here}

Sinric leads Ragnar into the bathrooms, glancing around to see if anyone is around before slipping into one of the stalls and closing the door behind them.

"Do you want me to paint your prick with my lips or lift my skirts and take me standing?" He asks with a list-filled purr.

Comments

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar gets up, offering his hand to Sinric, to ask him to come along if he wants to.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric takes it, still a little overwhelmed by the little flying creatures.

Lock gently tugs Ragnar around to one of the many lean-to sections developing around the edges of the workshop. He uncovers a little model on a shelf and lifts it down, lowering it into Ragnar's hands.

It's a longship made of glass and metal, open at the base so it can be set over a small candle. The eyes of the dragon figurehead gleaming.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"That is very beautiful, and cunningly made," Ragnar says, turning the thing in his hands in admiration.

[thewidewideworld]

"It looks like a Varangian ship." Sinric smiles, "It made this for you?" He asks.

"He." Jay correctly gently. "Lock is a he, not an it."

Sinric flushes and stutters an apology to Jay and Lock.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"For me?" Ragnar says. "I can take this home and light a candle in it and impress my kids?"

[runningred]

"Actually, that's the scale model." Jay explains. "He's planning you one to fit a bonfire inside. Impressive the whole village."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"That will be a great marvel!" Ragnar says. "It will impress peope far beyond Kattegat."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric smiles. "It would rival some of the great art of Byzantinum. Indeed a great wonder for all to see."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"But won't the glass burst from the heat?" Ragnar wonders.

[runningred]

"The glass is out of vehicles from the future so it's hardened against fire and impact. It might look fragile but the glass he's using is very strong."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"So it's not just a great piece of impressive art, it is something of a miracle," Ragnar saus

[runningred]

"Just a millennia of technological advance." Jay shrugs. "And a brilliant artist's work."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"But it will be a miracle to the people who see it," Ragnar says, smiling, "and a nice riddle for digger-uppers from the future."

[runningred]

"Already planning to screw with future archaeologists? Good man." Jay grins.

Sinric touches the little ship in Ragnar's hand. "Can you risk such a thing? You would have to bring it back from a trade trip or raid surely?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Trade trip," Ragnar says. "They happen all the time. We're not Byzantium, or the future -- if we want to go shopping for something not sold in Kattegat, we need to sail away for a few days."

[thewidewideworld]

"Something so beautiful could have come from Byzantium? Or at least people could be told so, even if the artisans of my city would struggle to find such fine coloured glass in such thin layers."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"It could have," Ragnar says. "People will believe any miracles about Miklagard."

[thewidewideworld]

"Well, some of them are true." He smiles playfully. "The Hargia Sophia is one of the gates of heaven."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Isn't that the big church?" Ragnar says.

[runningred]

"Very, very big church." Jay chuckles. "It's still there in my day and still unspeakable beautiful."

That makes Sinric smile, to know it will endure.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"And it's still that gate to heaven?" Ragnar says.

[runningred]

Jay shrugs. "Even as someone who's been dead, I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer that. It would be an easy thing to believe, standing under that dome."

Sinric gives Jay a sideways look, not understanding what he just said but not sure how to react.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"You have been dead and aren't now?" Ragnar asks.

[runningred]

"Pretty much. Long story, none of which makes sense, even to me." He waves it away. "But if you do get a chance to see the Hargia Sophia in it hayday, do it."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"I will go with Athelstan, one day..." Ragnar says. "Hopefully."