Home sweet home

[like_quicksilver]

Even Gyda knew she couldn't sleep in the bar, though the large chairs and sofas there were comfortable. She figured if this was anything like a Hall, there would be rooms attached, and indeed there were all sorts of rooms attached to the bar. Most of them weren't, in fact, for lodging, but she had a fun time exploring. There were stables, a room with...Gyda wasn't sure, but a lot of large, metal enclosed carts and racks, but it took her a good ten minutes to get her head around the library. Who on earth had time to read so many books?

Leaving the library, she eventually found corridors with what were clearly sleeping chambers. So many rooms, many of them had names on them already.

Did Lady Bar have a room for her already? Or did she have to pick one for herself-and would it already be furnished?

Comments

[iamhismummy]

Nancy is wandering the corridors - really just to see how much of a variety of doors she can find. She pauses when she sees the girl and how lost she looks.

"Hello."

[like_quicksilver]

"Hello." She couldn't get over at how the english people here spoke her language. This woman was clearly english, but she was speaking Norse.

"I'm Gyda. Are you living here as well?"

[iamhismummy]

"I'm Nancy", she says with a smile. "Nice to meet you - no, I come and go. Are you all right?"

[like_quicksilver]

"I'm living here now." She was told that wasn't uncommon, and given the number of rooms here, she believed it. "I'm alright. I'm just trying to find where my room will be."

"Are you from England?"

[iamhismummy]

"I am", she confirms. "From London. And as for your room... have you got your key?"

[like_quicksilver]

"One of my friends was from England-is London anywhere near Northumbria?" Nevermind that London may've gone by a different name in her time, or that by Nancy's time there was no 'Northumbria'. That places change names would've never occured to her.

"I do." She held up the metal skeleton key with the number on its tag.

[iamhismummy]

"It's quite a way to the south", she says easily. "But the same country still." There is still a region known as Northumbria, luckily. "Right, let's have a look at this and see if we can't get you there."

[like_quicksilver]

"There are so many." Of course, maybe this was where everyone went before being with their gods. This place was like Hel's Hall in that it provided lodgings.

Of course, she still needed to find her room. "How do we know which one it is?

[iamhismummy]

"You look for the same numbers on the door as you've got on here." Nancy glances at her sideways and asks gently, "Can you read?"

[like_quicksilver]

She frowned. Athelstan taught her letters and some reading, but not numbers. "A little, but not well. I didn't know what these marks mean, but I can match them up."

She just needed to know which way to go.

[iamhismummy]

"Then I'll walk with you until you find it", she decides. "You can't have been here long, it's confusing at first."

[like_quicksilver]

"I only just arrived here." Gyda decided not to tell the lady that she died. Less to do with sensitivities and more because she didn't feel like explaining.

She walked with her along the corridor, trying to find the number to match her key.

[iamhismummy]

"Settling in all right? How'd you find the downstairs room?"

[like_quicksilver]

"They're much warmer looking than I expected. I was expecting a drinking hall, but not one as nice as that one."

The stories of Hel's Hall were of a cold and dreary place, warm enough, but no where near the same job as Valhalla.

[iamhismummy]

"Yeah?" Nancy glances sideways at her again. "Where were you coming in from?"

[like_quicksilver]

"My village.." She paused. "I can't go back there anymore." Her time in that world had passed.

She looked at the doors, occasionally checking her number again on the key. "I think I found it."

[iamhismummy]

Nancy nods. There are a lot of reasons a person might not be able to go back, but whatever Gyda's is, she's a young girl on her own and Nancy isn't going to let that go.

"Shall we have a look at it?"

[like_quicksilver]

She nodded, using the key to open the door. Inwardly, the thought of possibly having her own room that she controlled with a key made her feel grown up. At the farm, she shared a sleeping space with Bjorn, then in Kattegat she had her own room, but she was still sharing it with others.

Her eyes widened as she opened the door and looked inside: it was almost like her room back in Kattegat, atleast by way of furnishing. There was a lack of personal items, but for a set up room, it was just the same. Ecept that she couldn't find any scounces or means to light a fire. There was a metal device with the glass bulbs, but how to turn that on?

[iamhismummy]

Nancy looks at Gyda's face, sympathetic and knowing.

"Want me to show you how everything works? Or get it set up like you're used to?"

[like_quicksilver]

"I would like that. Could you show me where I could get a few candles?" The only way they could see inside was from the light in the hallways.

[iamhismummy]

"We'd have to go downstairs to the Bar - but unless you like them better, you don't need them." She gives the younger girl a quick grin. "Watch."

[like_quicksilver]

"How'd you light this without fires?" She watched as she turned on the strange switch, her eyes blinking when the lights on the ceiling switched on.

"Odin...how does it work?" Lights without fire?

[iamhismummy]

"It's called electricity", Nancy explains. "Sort of like lightning, but tamed."

[like_quicksilver]

"Lightening..." She carefully reached for the switch, her hand braced as though she nearly expected to be harmed by some sort of power. Flipping it off, then back on again, her eyes widened when she saw how easy it was. "They've tamed the power of Thor."

Studying the light made her blink and her eyes water, but that didn't stop her from looking. The switch was so easy and quick, and yet it was stronger than any fire source.

[iamhismummy]

"Look away", Nancy says quickly. "You'll hurt your eyes."

[like_quicksilver]

She wasn't lying. While Gyda's eyes weren't hurting exactly, they were starting to water and she found herself having to sneeze.

"Is there anything else I should know?" Clearly there was more to this room than just what it appeared.

[iamhismummy]

"Probably a lot of things." She offers a crooked grin. "Just wait 'til you see the bathroom."

[like_quicksilver]

"What's a bathroom?" They had toilets of course, but they were outside, and baths were usually by the fire and in private.

She stepped inside, curiousity taking over as she started moving a hand over the table, chest of drawers, the bed. Her attention also turned to the door in her room, going over to see what was on the other side. If it was in her room, then clearly she was allowed to open it.

Inside was dark, but a quick look to the wall showed another switch. Gyda smiled when she turned it on, glad to know what the switch meant. "Is this what you were talking about?"

[iamhismummy]

"That's right. And you can have all the hot water you want, when you want."

That blew even her away when she found it.

[like_quicksilver]

"How?" Hot water whenever she wanted, that sounded like a luxury. Even back home, the only way they would get hot water was boiling it over the fire.

[iamhismummy]

"It comes in pipes. And they keep it hot in a big tank somewhere, so it just gets pulled here when you - here, to get water you turn these things. This one for cold, this one for hot."

[like_quicksilver]

She followed her to the strange white basin, her attention torn between that and the looking glass, her hand going towards it.

"It's so clear." They had mirrors of course, but they were made of bronze and other metals, not this material.

She dropped a hand and tested the knobs as directed, her jaw dropping when actual warm water poured through the pipes. "Wonderful."

[iamhismummy]

"Isn't it amazing?" She grins. "Never seems to run out, either."