(no subject)

[gods_that_haunt_me]

A very tall, lanky Viking enters the bar.

Floki's first reaction is genuine surprise, because even though he's been here before, it's been at least four years since any of his doors opened up to the magic place.

His second reaction is...well, more surprise, because what in Hel's name are all these little blocks doing everywhere?

A screen at the bar is even more startling. A voice explains that today is a holiday, and that he has three days to choose to change into another form.

Why would he want to do that? This magic is strange.

But he looks at his options anyway: a spindly robot; an aye-aye; a stork; or some kind of dragon called a Velociraptor.

(Is someone trying to tell him something?)

Fortunately, he doesn't have to make a choice right now, or at all, if he doesn't want to.

These blocks, though. They fit together. Like little bricks without the mortar.


omfg he can build things with them


Floki will just be over here, building all the things.

Comments

[tu_vas_triompher]

Yeah, Feuilly is another person for Camp Build-All-The-Things. The vidscreen startles him almost as much as it does Floki, but then he spots someone working away over at one of the tables--working with this crazy clutter of little building toys.

"--Can just anyone use them?"

[gods_that_haunt_me]

Floki doesn't look up from the beginnings of a Viking ship made out of Legos. Improvising with different colors and varying block shapes is proving to be ridiculous fun.

"They are all scattered about as if in wordless invitation, so I would say yes!"

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly's already taking a seat and inspecting the blocks. It's that plastic material. "I wonder if they make them bigger than this..."

[gods_that_haunt_me]

Now Floki does look up at him, blinking with ink-rimmed eyes.

"How much bigger would you want them?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Oh--I'm no architect. But the way they fasten instantly, and they're so light--I wonder if anyone makes things like this on a scale for building houses or bridges--easier than hauling bricks or stone, you know? Something like this, you could put together houses so quickly. Maybe not real houses, but--some kind of quick shelter."

He's built a little wall and is testing the strength with his fingers. "But I don't know how the material acts on a large scale."

[electro_kinetic]

So there's this bird who's very interested in the grown-ass man so fascinated with the Legos.

Hence, the bird is flapping down from the rafters to perch on Floki's shoulder, colorful and curious as to what he's building with them.

Though she can't speak, she did think ahead before tapping the selection she made for Cubefall, and as a result around her little birdy neck is a tiny glass tube with a note explaining that yes she is usually human and that the bird-thing is temporary. (Pecking and screeching, she figured, would go over badly as an explanation.)

[gods_that_haunt_me]

Floki utters a bit of a startled squawk when the bird lands on his shoulder. But then he's never seen such a colorful bird before! And it's small and harmless and one that rather seems interested in what he's doing.

"Hello, little one," he coos, peering closely at it and noticing the glass tube, poking at it with a forefinger. "That is an odd thing to be wearing around your neck."

[electro_kinetic]

Well. The cooing she can handle, totally; the poking less so, only because to her size now that finger looks huge, and she backwings hard enough that she topples off Floki's shoulder entirely.

Luckily, she has kinda got the hang of recovery mid-flight, and she circles back around (seriously considering landing on his head for a second) to come to rest on the arm of the chair, feathers ruffled as she caws at him, like she's saying 'Dude, gently this time'.

[gods_that_haunt_me]

Floki immediately pulls his hand back and ducks his head, his shoulders sheepishly drawn up as the bird flutters around him.

"Ooh! I am sorry! My carpenter's hands are rather clumsy with delicate things. I promise I'll be more careful."

So what if he's talking to a bird?

"May I see what's inside the thing you're wearing?" he asks, slowly reaching to take it off her neck.

[electro_kinetic]

She bobs in the birdy version of a nod, and flutters her wings, fluffing up as she proffers the tube on her neck as much as she can with her physiological limits.

Inside is a short note explaining her name, and with a small photo of what she normally looks like. "See inside," she mimics, "Be careful."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Oh, Floki," Ragnar says, coming downstairs and looking around. "You found this place again as well. Whatever happened here?"

[gods_that_haunt_me]

"Ragnar!" Floki greets him with a grin. "It seems that we have all arrived just in time for some kind of a feast day, except instead of feasting, there is building and shape-shifting."

As far as weird things that Floki has ever said, this is pretty damn weird indeed.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"That sounds like your kind of holiday!" Ragnar says. "What are you building?"

[gods_that_haunt_me]

"I like the building, but I'm not too sure about the shape-shifting yet," he remarks.

On the table in front of him is the hull of a longboat, made up of different colored little bricks of many shapes and sizes. In other words, making something with Legos old-school style.

"A ship, what else? But only using pieces I can find that can fit, and not pieces that were meant to fit. It is so unlike building something with precise parts!"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"The pieces are like little bricks!" Ragnar says. "Just from hard and colourful stuff from the future, instead of clay, the way they make them in our world."

[change_my_story]

"Legos!"

Matilda hadn't been in the bar since she was last sick. Seeing the bar now, with all of the legos, there was less a point of asking questions and more just..legos!

She all but ran into the set blocks, joining the man building with them already. Seeing a grown person play with toys was strange, but not the strangest thing she's seen this place? "What're you making? Could I play with you, too?"

[gods_that_haunt_me]

Floki looks down at the little girl and a wide grin creases his face.

"I am making a Viking ship! And you can certainly join me if you like."

He pulls out a chair at his table. On the tabletop is the beginnings of a longboat's hull, oblong and narrow, made up of different colored bricks of varying shapes and sizes.

[change_my_story]

She didn't see how anyone could build a ship out of legos, but she also couldn't see how that would stop anyone. The whole point of legos was building whatever you imagined you could.

She pulled herself up into the chair and started collecting and building what was looking like a wall of legos. "I'm Matilda."

[gods_that_haunt_me]

"I am Floki," he says with a bob of his head.

He adds more bricks to build up the sides of the boat. Constructing the prow will be tricky, so he hunts for smaller pieces.

"And what do you intend to make, Matilda?"

[change_my_story]

"I don't know. I'm sure it'll come to me after awhile." Right now she's just building a wall, looking around for interesting pieces. "I'm thinking it'll be a fort."

Maybe with canons, or some sort of gun.

[sunbaked_baker]

It's the boat-building Viking! And he's building again!

The still-ten-years-old girl comes over, grinning. "Hello! What are you making this time?"

[gods_that_haunt_me]

Floki looks up from his project and greets the little girl with a grin that turns into an expression of surprise.

"Rae Seddon! Hello! I am attempting to build a ship out of these little bricks, which is quite an unexpected challenge-- but Rae, how are you still unchanged? I have not been here for four years, as my door had disappeared and I had wondered if I would ever see it again."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Four years?" she says, consternation clear on her face. "I saw you just a week or so ago. You were building a model ship from wooden pieces, and asked if I'd like to make the sail."

Which she has, but there are more pressing topics at the moment.

"You've been gone four years?" She would've been a teenager by then!

[gods_that_haunt_me]

"Just a week...?" Floki says, startled. "How is that even possible? Huh!"

He scratches his chin.

"You would have been a young woman by now, if the years had passed at the same time. Ragnar's sons are now running around with toy swords and shields; Athelstan is now joining us on raids; and the ships I am building are just about ready for another journey West this summer. A lot has happened-- yet here, only a week has passed!"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Athelstan's going on raids?" Rae looks surprised. Four years is a lot of time for a person to change, but still that surprises her.

"I'm sorry I missed your boat - I made a sail for it, anyway," she adds, shrugging.