[If she's interpreting the looks her husband’s travelling companion for those two years in Constantinople directs her way from time to time - a strange mixture of pity and condescension - Randvi isn't the first one to stray regardless, and her own foolish heart remains stubbornly tied to the same woman back home where it has rested unnoticed for the past five winters]
How do you people eat? None of you know how to hunt.
[There are lots of things she’d rather not have to explain to Dag and what K might call his “fan club” for her husband]
Some of you can't fish either. [Sorry Martin] Our village has a dedicated hunter, but many people supplement communal meals with food they catch on their own. Considering the way most of you speak of longhouses I assume you all eat singly. These stores must be large.
You're putting the cart before the horse, chica. Take it easier, eh? One thing at a time. Take him out, teach him to hunt, give him the pleasure of your company. Don't worry about anything else just yet.
Us "airplane people," as you might call us... some of us like to go on these things called "dates". You go somewhere with somebody, alone, if you think you might have a future with them, to talk. See if they're someone you might like to get to know better. Eventually, it can lead to romance, but you don't have to do that right away. Sometimes, these things can take time to grow. Sometimes you go on one "date" and decide, non. Not this one! Never again!
Besides, out of all the people here, he's probably one of the only ones who can learn how to hunt. ✨The Detective✨ I'm with right now, he's teaching me how! He's one of the only ones who really knows, besides you. Squalo can learn. Some of these people... [ A laugh! ] Some of these people, man, I'm not so sure!!
[ Lalo laughs again at her confusion over the stores. How does he explain this...? ]
The real answer to that is, it depends. People eat in a lot of different ways all over the world, Randvi. Maybe Senku can explain to you how big the world is where we come from. A lot of different cultures, people, all over the world... same for your time, I'd imagine, but we're all so much more connected now.
In Mexico? You can find big supermarkets, but it's a lot more common to find smaller stores. Mom and pop shops, you might call 'em. Or markets, with shops that sell only one thing, and you walk from shop to shop. People in rural areas, it's not uncommon for them to have their own animals, goats, chickens, maybe grow some of their own vegetables. In America, you'll probably find big, big, biiiiiig megamarts, huge stores with everything you could possibly imagine inside of them. Food, clothes, motor oil, you name it!
[Randvi just walks in silence for a while, turning all of that over in her mind. When she does finally speak again, it's still in that steady, quiet voice that had made her laugh so surprising]
I have no future to ask for or to offer. When [she can't say 'if'] we are released from this place, I will return to my obligations in England and the rest of you will return to your own worlds of airplanes, vaccines and trips to the moon. If I am lucky, our saga will still be sung, and all of you may hear it occasionally and think of me. All I can offer to anyone here is to alleviate the loneliness of captivity for a time.
I will consider what you've said. I've been enjoying it - being seen and desired - too much to move forward. I find often that once men discover I've little interest in their favoured appendage the flame of desire gutters out quickly. Perhaps don't repeat that to him.
[She’s still assuming that Squalo put him up to this.
She clears her throat]
Senku has told me some things about your world, but it's difficult to imagine. So many people - millions in one city! - and such quick long-distance travel. I believe 'America' to be the land we know as Vinland, and to travel there takes our people several weeks. Such stores obviously do not exist yet, but we do trade there. The way you describe Mexico is more familiar to me.
[ 'When'. Not 'if'. Lalo likes her style, and silently, he agrees. ]
Ay, your secret is safe with me. I won't tell him. [ Or at least, he imagines it's a secret... Lalo is educated, sure, but he doesn't actually give enough of a shit about ancient history to have the faintest clue as to what vikings' attitudes toward homosexuality were. They were from olden times, right? Probably safe to assume they hate gay people. Not that he's going to say anything about that to her, given her admission. He's learned his lesson about that. ] I think if you told him, though, you might find he's surprisingly accepting. He might like having you teach him to hunt even more than he'd want anything else from you. Or you could spar with him! Eh? I would think getting to spar with a real live viking might mean a lot more to him than a roll in the hay.
[ The concept of sparring is a bit silly to Lalo, a man who can appreciate the value of staying in shape but would just as soon shoot everybody and run before agreeing to a fair fight, but everyone else sure seems to enjoy it! ]
And hey, don't tell him I said this, but I owe him one. [ That's true, Lalo feels, although probably not for the reason Squalo probably thinks. ] That's why I decided to talk to you for him. [ That sounds accurate. He can't say Squalo doesn't know this is happening - he does - but it wasn't like it was Squalo's idea in the first place. It was Lalo's. ]
Mexico is a beautiful place. Maybe different from what you're used to, with the climate, but it's beautiful. The people are friendly. The culture is vibrant! Not like America, with the... mini-marts and mini-vans and mini-.... ugh, yeeuck.
You would love Mexico, Randvi, I'm sure of it.
I wish I could see England as you know it. I've been to England before, but it was nothing like the England you're used to. Ahhhh, but I don't think I could live somewhere with no cars! Not permanently. Here, it's different. We won't be staying here forever.
Thank you. [Such unions are accepted and sometimes even celebrated in her culture, but Randvi’s own desires could get her killed if she's not careful] I'm not sure I would have married at all had I known it would all be so complicated.
It's still surprising to me how excited people get about it! I wish the Saxons felt this way in England. [Martin’s excitement over his mother’s people having been conquered was a bit strange but also kind of sweet]
I wish that I could see it. Mexico, not these marts. [There’s something in his tone when he talks about it that reminds her of her own homesickness for Norway] J-K mentioned cars, but I'm not sure what they are. Like a cart?
[ "Yeah, I don't blame you for that," he wants to say. "I never got married." Marriage isn't so complicated for everybody, he realizes, but for someone like him? In a cartel? With the lifestyle he leads?
Anyone he married would only become a target and a liability. Something that could be used against him. He can't have that.
But De Guzman is married. To the love of his life, no less. Convenient, when he wants to wield his supposed marriage like a shield to defend himself against any (completely untrue!!!) charges about his proclivities. Less so, when he feels the need to connect to someone like this about something genuine.
Instead, he just snorts in amusement at her proclamation about the Saxons. ] Oh. Well. If I was a Saxon, I might feel quite differently.
I wish you could see it too. [ He genuinely does. ] Sort of like a cart. A car is... ah. I want you to picture a horse-drawn carriage, but no horses pull it. Instead, it propels itself. Very convenient!
[Randvi scoffs] If you were a Saxon you'd have called me a Dane by now, I'm sure. Maybe implied I eat children. Most of them jump at shadows and despise anyone who defies their god.
[She considers this information about cars for a moment, then exclaims in delight] Oh! Self-propelled, like the plane!
I don't think those have ever been here. We haven't seen any roads. Or stables. I wonder whether the people here before all of this simply walked everywhere.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[If she's interpreting the looks her husband’s travelling companion for those two years in Constantinople directs her way from time to time - a strange mixture of pity and condescension - Randvi isn't the first one to stray regardless, and her own foolish heart remains stubbornly tied to the same woman back home where it has rested unnoticed for the past five winters]
How do you people eat? None of you know how to hunt.
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[ Lalo hums a little. ]
Me? Oh, well, here, I fish! [ He laughs, clearly pleased by his own wit. ] Back home, most people buy everything at the store.
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[There are lots of things she’d rather not have to explain to Dag and what K might call his “fan club” for her husband]
Some of you can't fish either. [Sorry Martin] Our village has a dedicated hunter, but many people supplement communal meals with food they catch on their own. Considering the way most of you speak of longhouses I assume you all eat singly. These stores must be large.
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Us "airplane people," as you might call us... some of us like to go on these things called "dates". You go somewhere with somebody, alone, if you think you might have a future with them, to talk. See if they're someone you might like to get to know better. Eventually, it can lead to romance, but you don't have to do that right away. Sometimes, these things can take time to grow. Sometimes you go on one "date" and decide, non. Not this one! Never again!
Besides, out of all the people here, he's probably one of the only ones who can learn how to hunt. ✨The Detective✨ I'm with right now, he's teaching me how! He's one of the only ones who really knows, besides you. Squalo can learn. Some of these people... [ A laugh! ] Some of these people, man, I'm not so sure!!
[ Lalo laughs again at her confusion over the stores. How does he explain this...? ]
The real answer to that is, it depends. People eat in a lot of different ways all over the world, Randvi. Maybe Senku can explain to you how big the world is where we come from. A lot of different cultures, people, all over the world... same for your time, I'd imagine, but we're all so much more connected now.
In Mexico? You can find big supermarkets, but it's a lot more common to find smaller stores. Mom and pop shops, you might call 'em. Or markets, with shops that sell only one thing, and you walk from shop to shop. People in rural areas, it's not uncommon for them to have their own animals, goats, chickens, maybe grow some of their own vegetables. In America, you'll probably find big, big, biiiiiig megamarts, huge stores with everything you could possibly imagine inside of them. Food, clothes, motor oil, you name it!
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I have no future to ask for or to offer. When [she can't say 'if'] we are released from this place, I will return to my obligations in England and the rest of you will return to your own worlds of airplanes, vaccines and trips to the moon. If I am lucky, our saga will still be sung, and all of you may hear it occasionally and think of me. All I can offer to anyone here is to alleviate the loneliness of captivity for a time.
I will consider what you've said. I've been enjoying it - being seen and desired - too much to move forward. I find often that once men discover I've little interest in their favoured appendage the flame of desire gutters out quickly. Perhaps don't repeat that to him.
[She’s still assuming that Squalo put him up to this.
She clears her throat]
Senku has told me some things about your world, but it's difficult to imagine. So many people - millions in one city! - and such quick long-distance travel. I believe 'America' to be the land we know as Vinland, and to travel there takes our people several weeks. Such stores obviously do not exist yet, but we do trade there. The way you describe Mexico is more familiar to me.
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Ay, your secret is safe with me. I won't tell him. [ Or at least, he imagines it's a secret... Lalo is educated, sure, but he doesn't actually give enough of a shit about ancient history to have the faintest clue as to what vikings' attitudes toward homosexuality were. They were from olden times, right? Probably safe to assume they hate gay people. Not that he's going to say anything about that to her, given her admission. He's learned his lesson about that. ] I think if you told him, though, you might find he's surprisingly accepting. He might like having you teach him to hunt even more than he'd want anything else from you. Or you could spar with him! Eh? I would think getting to spar with a real live viking might mean a lot more to him than a roll in the hay.
[ The concept of sparring is a bit silly to Lalo, a man who can appreciate the value of staying in shape but would just as soon shoot everybody and run before agreeing to a fair fight, but everyone else sure seems to enjoy it! ]
And hey, don't tell him I said this, but I owe him one. [ That's true, Lalo feels, although probably not for the reason Squalo probably thinks. ] That's why I decided to talk to you for him. [ That sounds accurate. He can't say Squalo doesn't know this is happening - he does - but it wasn't like it was Squalo's idea in the first place. It was Lalo's. ]
Mexico is a beautiful place. Maybe different from what you're used to, with the climate, but it's beautiful. The people are friendly. The culture is vibrant! Not like America, with the... mini-marts and mini-vans and mini-.... ugh, yeeuck.
You would love Mexico, Randvi, I'm sure of it.
I wish I could see England as you know it. I've been to England before, but it was nothing like the England you're used to. Ahhhh, but I don't think I could live somewhere with no cars! Not permanently. Here, it's different. We won't be staying here forever.
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It's still surprising to me how excited people get about it! I wish the Saxons felt this way in England. [Martin’s excitement over his mother’s people having been conquered was a bit strange but also kind of sweet]
I wish that I could see it. Mexico, not these marts. [There’s something in his tone when he talks about it that reminds her of her own homesickness for Norway] J-K mentioned cars, but I'm not sure what they are. Like a cart?
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Anyone he married would only become a target and a liability. Something that could be used against him. He can't have that.
But De Guzman is married. To the love of his life, no less. Convenient, when he wants to wield his supposed marriage like a shield to defend himself against any (completely untrue!!!) charges about his proclivities. Less so, when he feels the need to connect to someone like this about something genuine.
Instead, he just snorts in amusement at her proclamation about the Saxons. ] Oh. Well. If I was a Saxon, I might feel quite differently.
I wish you could see it too. [ He genuinely does. ] Sort of like a cart. A car is... ah. I want you to picture a horse-drawn carriage, but no horses pull it. Instead, it propels itself. Very convenient!
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[She considers this information about cars for a moment, then exclaims in delight] Oh! Self-propelled, like the plane!
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[ You're so smart, Randvi! His voice is warm, delighted by her delight. ]
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Pretty big island. Might get tiring to walk everywhere. And I don't know how many people go to a resort to walk around.
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If these airplanes are truly so large, I doubt they were flying from one end to the other.
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No, no. I doubt they were either. I'll talk to you later, Randvi. Take care of yourself. Let me know how it goes if you ever spar with Squalo.
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