saveyourbrain | TEST DRIVE MEME

One second Killian's walking along, tossing the runestone he got from a pulse from hand to hand.

The next he's being run over by a giant lab and two toddlers. The stone goes rolling and Killian is on his ass, trying hard not to swear since there are little ones around.

The kids and the lab go down in a tumble on top of Killian, and the dog is up first, barking at the humans and half-running half-jumping around them.

Thorir is torn for a moment - run over and risking the baby waking up, or not - but the kids took down a stranger, and that makes it quite clear what the right thing to do is. He quickly but carefully places his youngest grandchild in the stroller, places it at the side of the path and makes his way over to the tumble of legs and arms to see if everything is all right and

grab the kid on top up and set her back on her feet. Looking at her sternly and with a measure of disapproval before turning to the two other girl and the stranger. "I told you to look where you were running. Both of you. Watch it from now. ... Are you unharmed?" The last goes to the person that is still buried under his other granddaughter.

Killian mumbles something about horses and being calmer than dogs as he tries to get the other girl off, but he nods and smiles a bit at the question.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The dog weighs more than the kids do." He laughs as he stands, looking for his runestone. He's got no idea why he's so attached to the damn thing, but he his and he wants it back. "Are the kids okay?"

"That she does." He calls the dog to his side, who immediately comes - she's obviously trained well - and then lies down at her master's side. Not that Killian would have understood much of that as all the commands were in Icelandic. He'd use that with the girls as well, but with Killian around it seems not appropriate.

"Ina, Frigg, are you okay?" The girls answer in the positive, which coupled with a quick glance to look them over seems to be enough for Thorir - they aren't old enough yet that he would completely trust them with such statements, but as long as nothing seems wrong otherwise, there is no reason to distrust them with them, either.

"...what are you searching for?"

"Oh, uh--it's a rock?" He holds his hands a few inches apart. "About that big with some carvings on it. I got it from...from my mother." There's a flash of pain on Killian's fast as he says that--even though it's not technically true, since it was from a pulse, he's been saying that since he got it from her funeral. Like a sign.

He clears his throat. "It's small and black." And by Thorir's foot, though Killian doesn't realize that.

He won't ask; it is not his place to pry. Instead, he nods and just wants to tell the girls to help them with the search when Frigg dives down and picks the stone up, holding it high so the two men can see it. "This?"

Thorir's face shows a good hint of interest at the stone - he recognizes the form of the letters as runes and leans in lightly to see if he can read them, he's done his share of work with runes through his side business over the years. Runes are "cool" especially with people who get customized leather- and metal-works. But Killian's expression from before keeps him from reaching out for it.

Killian grins. "Yeah, thanks." He reaches for it before he notices the man's expression. He doesn't recognize him from the network but...well, who's to say he won't recognize them anyway? Just because Killian thinks they're whatever past-him read as a Dwarf (and he is so dreading that pulse, the one that'll change him like that and shrink him) doesn't mean he's right. It's not like he has anyone to bounce those ideas off of anymore.

He takes the stone but offers it to the older man. "Can you read it?" He knows it says "return to me" or something like it, so he'll know if the older man is wrong.

Leaning back up, he shakes his head. "Only the letters." He tends to be able to read most things written in runes, between having dealt with a number of different variants and knowing both modern Icelandic and modern English (as well as some slightly older variants of it), but this looks more like a jumble of letters than an actual word or sentence to him. Not that he will mention that to someone whose (deceased or heavily harmed?) mother gave it to them, but he thinks someone just slotted some runes together because they looked pretty.

"Where did your mother get it from? It's a fine piece of stone." Life-long learning and such, he's starting to be fairly good at stones and gems through people working in related areas sometimes collaborating with him on pieces like swords, art pieces, belts and others.

Damn.

"No clue. Never got to ask her," he explains with a shrug. Yeah, still hurts to say things like that, even when he's lying. Mom wouldn't have known a damn thing about the rock. "All I know is that no one I've asked can read the thing." Aaron might've been able to but--

Wow, he's getting depressing. Killian shakes himself a little, smiling. "Eh, doesn't matter. Your grandkids?" He gestures to the little ones.

It takes a moment before Thorir answers again - he must have leaned back up too quickly, judging by the dizzy spell that is hitting him, but he understands the attempt to change the subject for what it is, and it's not like talking about the kids is something that he is opposed to on principle.

"That they are." He's obviously proud of them, though this also reminds him that they need to head back to Símon - he should be sleeping soundly, but who knows. "That's Frigg and Inger, the eldest, and then there's little Símon in the stroller over there." The girls look up at him, and after a moment supply: "And this is afi." Clearly 'gramps' is totally a name.

Killian smiles and crouches down to the twins' level. Not that he has far to crouch, especially compared to their "Afi", but it's the principle of the thing. "I'm Killian," he replies, offering a hand to the little ones. "What does Afi mean?" He's assumes it means something, anyway.

"It's the same as gramps, just for someone else!" That is the best explanation. Really.

"My actual name is Thorir." He seems to want to continue, but the two girls intercept. "Thrainsson!" "Thorsson!" "That means son of Thrainn and son of Thors and sometimes he uses one" "and sometimes the other!"

Oh, they're precious. "Two last names?" Killian laughs. "How'd that happen?" He glances up at Throrir, curious.

And ignoring how familiar the name "Thrainn" sounds. It doesn't mean anything.

"It's a longer story." He nods over to the stroller. "Let's go over to Símon." It's not really a request, but it's also not a straight up order. Just said by someone who is used to making decisions for more than just himself.

It's a bit strange, but Killian just follows. One hand goes to play with the bracelet he made himself, just to give his hands something to do. He needs to keep his hands occupied most of the time anymore.

Some part of him is wondering why he's not leaving this family alone but the other part of him doesn't care. Nowadays, who knows who'll end up Numbered?

"We're from Iceland originally, which has a system in naming different from America. There, I would be Thorir Thrainsson, because my father's name is Thrainn. But in America, family names exist. So it's been our tradition for generations to combine the two. So one of my sons would be Jón Þórirsson Þórsson." He's never find a perfect way to explain it.

"Is that a costume-made bracelet?" Because if it is, he might have to see about contacting the maker - more partners for the creative side of the business are never bad, and at least from what he can see it is a well-done piece.

That sounds complicated to Killian. Yet it was also familiar, sort of. Huh.

He looks down at his bracelet when Thorir comments on it. "Oh, this? No, I made it." Killian slips it off to better show it off. It's in that style all of his work is, vaguely Norse yet not, only this is much simpler than the stuff he made to raise money for the funeral. "I had some left over bits after a commission so..."

Thorir takes his time to look the piece over as they walk. It's nice - very nice, indeed, the quality of the craftwork definitely exceeding the quality of the materials.

"Is this your trade?" Has he misjudged this person's age? This level of craft points to more than just a few years of learning, and he is self-aware enough to know that he is just as likely to judge other people's ages by their height as all other humans.

Killian shrugs. "I guess? I mean, I don't make a ton of money doing this--that's what the stable's for and I'm only eighteen so--but it's basically the only thing I'm good at," he explains. "Why?" Was this guy going to call him a liar?

"Me and my wife have a side business of crafting various goods. It started out with a simple smithy, but as business evolved, mostly leather, but also semi-precious stones and other natural additions became involved. A lot of it is for reenactment and related purposes these days, but it's still quite varied. We're looking into expanding, but" he nods towards the bracelet "this is something that neither I nor Mardís specialize in.

If you really did this, and are looking to make something of your talent instead of wasting it in a stable, you should come over to the smithy and work alongside us one day." So he can see the place, talk to people, and Thorir and Mardís can see how he does - also so they can see if they'd be able to work together. If they get along. If it was for the main business, he would never propose such an informal route, but... But. But normally he doesn't just recruit strangers in the park, either. Sure, this is some really skilled craftwork and they need someone who could do that, but at the same time... and so young. But somehow, he feels responsible for this young man. "We're only in the smithy roughly half the week, so it wouldn't take you fully away from them; but open up a path."

It takes Killian a moment to process what the older man is saying. Some random dude in the park, who Killian trusts for some reason, maybe because of the grandkids or maybe just because he's got that kind of face, but some dude in park is offering him a job. In a smithy. Making jewelery.

The part of him that knew he wasn't making his jewelery properly is singing. The part of him that's cautious from so much moving around is wary, but that part is largely drowned out. (There's also a part of him thinking that visiting a smithy will trigger some pulses but he thinks if he avoids everything but the jewelery crafting supplies he can avoid anything too suspicious, at least until he knows if anyone is Numbered.)

A smile breaks out across Killian's face and he nods, looking for all the world like an eager puppy. "Honestly, sir, I'd love that."

"You have to understand that I'm not promising anything. I can't make decisions of this kind without my wife's consent, we need to see if we can all work together - a lot of our projects require coordination and joint planning on all sides, so that is important. I also want to see you at work first, and you should want to see what we have to offer first as well." Because sorry, but gift horses from strangers should get looked into the mouth very thoroughly. And if Thorir read the comment that Killian made about his mother earlier was correct, she can't look after him anymore so he needs to do that for himself, and Thorir feels the odd urge to push him into the right direction with that.

"If you are still willing to try for a day, we can swap contact data and find a date that fits us both."

He nods, understanding completely. Even if it doesn't work out, who's to say that this won't lead to something else? He's used to sort of rolling with the punches for the most part.

Besides, even if he feels like he can trust Thorir, there's that slightly paranoid part of Killian that refuses to die. He's gotten better with trusting people in the months he's been on the Network, but Thorir's not on the Network as far as he knows.

Still, he's eager. Way more eager than he would have been a week ago.

"That makes sense, yeah," he replies. "I, uh, I think I've got one of the cards I give out at the craft fair in my wallet--that work?"

"Sure." He wouldn't have expected this young man to have cards, but that really makes things easier, and Thorir pulls out his own wallet to produce a card and put Killian's into it - the "Thorsson's hardware" logo on it might look familiar to Killian even if he doesn't normally deal with hardware, it's one of the largest local businesses and fairly active socially on the local level as well.

"I'll call you when I have spoken to my wife. If I haven't called you by tomorrow evening, you are free to call me."

It seemed like the thing to do, when he set up his Etsy and a booth at the fair. Granted, that was because his handwriting was awful and if people wanted to get more pieces they'd need to know where to go.

He digs his wallet and the card out, still smiling a bit as he hands the card over. He does recognize the logo; when he's alone Killian fully plans on freaking the hell out that. "Got it." Then, remembering his manners: "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Thorrson."

damn I picked a good time to click on the meme XD A! For now, since B'd get an Echo

I'll upload more icons after I slept, promise

pfft go sleep!

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