POV: Leif Gormsonr, the Clan Heir.
Date: Mörsugur 18th, 598. (Alt: 31th Dec, 598 AD.) Location: Götaland (Ancient Sweden.)
Leif and Sigrid soon travelled together to reach the now designated restaurant area within Den stora kupolen (The great dome,) once through a portal and now out with the people.
From them teleporting to the major traffic section, they see the newly installed 'hover-tram' system that runs throughout the complex, holding hundreds of people at a time in large lines of comfortable seats and chilled drinks, as they had expected from a man like Heath.
They try it out for themselves, strolling onto one of the side stairwells connected to a partitioning for controlled walkways that lead to a small floating bridge that also works as a dock for the main carriage over the pathway. It took only a few minutes before the next came around, silent in its functions and made for mennskr with inertial systems and magical suspension. "Is that a little me?" Leif twists his head backwards slightly. "'Well, that looks strange, but I do not mind it.'" They look along the wall, seeing others like it per coach.
It was designed to have the same hairstyle, beard and armour, but it had a slightly enlarged head and highly exaggerated features in a memorable OK pose with an axe in the other hand for this caricature. As soon as it fully stopped, a hidden speaker rang out in a loud voice.
"Remember everyone, mind the gap so as not to fall." A speaker from a voice that matched exactly like Leif's said aloud, in a slightly chipper demeanour while having a hint of concern shown within it. "Safety precautions." Sigrid states as an obvious but insightful comment, as such practices were non-existent at the time. Leif nods before he suddenly jerks forward from a concrete hand tapping his shoulder. He saw a golem with a brighter set of blue eyes stare towards him, which started to dim again as it found its targets.
It first passed them a small envelope made of the same paper talked about in the past, they recognised how to open it and did so. The doors opened at the same time and they and the golem walked in, they sat in an empty area while the golem stood and kept watch.
Leif *Hrm Hrm*'d. "Hello Sigrid and Leif, I came around your apartment today to give you a gift, but you were not there. I sent this Auto here with a tracking spell so that it may reach out and protect you directly. Sorry for the sudden intrusion, but it felt absolutely necessary."
Leif harrumphed, giving the letter to Sigrid now, in thanks to the language runic injector, she came to understand their writing style as well. She saw the first paragraph and snorted in amusement. "He would like my older brothers." Stories of their overprotectiveness rang through Leif's own ears from their lonely nights of travel, and he agreed with a soft closing of his eyes. He reopened them and continued reading out loud for her. "With your father tasking me with using no magic for 7 days, I feel we are quite vulnerable." 'Yeah, right.' He eye-rolled.
"As such, I am instructing modified Auto units that I will only produce 100 of, I worked around his rules by asking Valyria's help, which it seems she was vastly overqualified for. They have 'Unmemorability' powers." Leif scrunched his eyebrows, the English word taking a few tries.
His eyes scanned the next paragraph. "It means that anything it designates as an enemy or combatant, they would directly alter their memories to remove any mention of their very existence, for as long as they do not directly look at it, they would be 'compelled' to refocus on another task while the golem would change location. It also has 'spatio-sonar' abilities. Meaning it can partially bend light, sound and other aspects of itself, making it capable of INVISIBILITY WHILE BEING FULLY SILENT!?" He gripped the paper tightly, as if not to lose it.
His reaction of crumpling the paper slightly was met with Sigrid laying her hand on his shoulder. She looked at the originally innocuous golem and perceived it as a major ally at this point. They were lucky it was a reserved private carriage, as they had set it beforehand.
Leif relaxed his grip and continued. "I also gave it modular teleportation abilities. The magic battery designed into the unit only allows up to 50 teleportations at most if it does not use any other abilities, capable of anything in a designated space about the size of one of the portals you know of. Lastly, I will bring over an item you may enjoy very much for you and your wife. I would rather not ruin the surprise, so. . . Enjoy!
- Heath, XoXo." Leif looked up. "I am not used to kisses in letters." He murmurs indignantly.
"Just a quirk from another realm, he has said it was common for family and friends to hug or kiss each other." Sigrid placates him with a joky tone, knowing Heath sees him closer to a nephew. A sound much like a 'zip' was heard, louder than the one that cleaned the bed.
They both look towards the now metaphysically intimidating golem, which starts flashing its eyes blue again, the same colour as the portals. It raised a single hand that suddenly held a wooden box of similar regal design as the rest of the furniture Heath would create, it was 1-Model m tall, 2-Model m wide and 1-Model m thick. ((0.3232-m tall (1.0604-feet tall,) 0.6464-m wide (2.1208-feet wide,) (0.3232-m thick (1.0604-feet thick.)) It uses its other hand to open it, showing two long weapon hilts of exquisite craftsmanship.
One, an obvious hilt for more spear-like weapons, the other of which was for more blade-like weapons, each about the same size and filled with hidden runes. It looks to be made of an incredibly dense, dark steel, and the grip was made of a layer of melded oak.
". . . Has he finally made it?" Leif immediately realised it from his talks with his father. "The 'CrCoNi' Alloy he has been talking so much about?" He grabbed the hilt for blade-like weapons, feeling its incredible density. He could see from the top a slit that led to a copper core, where all of the most powerful runes lay dormant. He grabbed it away, looking. 'How would this work? I may need to go to a blacksmith for a longsword like Father's.' That immediately turned on the blade hilt, creating a perfect replica with a blue, translucent look.
*Ugh, Uh. . .* He stuttered to himself, seeing the newly formed weapon in front of him. A sudden voice started playing from the box. "Surprise!" A cheery voice from Heath. "Valyria did great with this weapon, and I have come to share the news." A clapping sound rang out.
He restarted. "These are made with self-sufficient magic batteries. They use the same portal concept to make an unbreakable weapon. Teleporting any material it comes into contact with into an undisclosed location while leaving everything else with you. No armour, unless magic-proof, could withstand it. It is only your imagination that stops you. As well, I have made your father a similar hilt to yours, Gorm." Heath sounded well proud of himself. "Come on, kid, say bye to our friends." A sudden shuffle was heard in the mic. There was a pause.
". . . Bye, Uncle Gorm, bye, Aunty Sigrid." A shy voice was heard through. Then it cuts off. "Aw, that was cute." Leif reacted by smiling, trying to play off his previous stutter. He looked at the glowing blade, then changed its shape. 'Kopesh.' He chose as the next one.
The exotic weapon Heath showed off in his Egyptology lesson materialised through that portal-energy again, the straight part of the blade then leading to a crescent moon shape up top. He waved it, feeling the air push over it with a gliding ease. 'Katana.' The traditional Kamakura period sword appeared, with its obvious single blade. Though the opposite side would still work to make things teleport away. 'Hu tou gou.' The Song dynasty period weapon came to reality, it even formed the side blade protective guard as depicted!
'Rapier.' Now, a weapon from Louis XI's time formed, its long single edge and rounded guard protecting his hand, he tried a few stabbing thrusts before realising it did not match his fighting style. He looked up, seeing a Choris Stage weapon from Abya Yala (North America.)
The Macuahuitl. An incredibly large, flat pan-faced weapon that has incredibly fine, squared teeth on the edges that would have been made of obsidian shards, it looked absolutely brutal to anyone caught against it, then it was turned into a smaller and pointed, yet just as deadly Polynesian weapon. The Leiomano, which had hooked teeth that would have been made by those freely collected from the dropped fangs of the Great White Shark. She took many swings of it in both hands, then tried a regular spear.
She turned it into a replica of Antler, from what she saw as a recreation by Heath, its wretched metal spike protrusions forming around the base of the spear head, then on the opposite side, it formed the rest of the hilt, lastly creating another root-like extension.
It appeared made for a Fantasy Adventure game for our world, yet it was real and very devastating in theirs. She tried it, feeling as if it was meant to be for her. "Is this a trick of the mind, how it feels it calls for me?" Sigrid mutters to herself, and Leif gives a one-armed hug as both are very over-excited from these gifts and could not let go of them. "How could we store them?" Leif said, which suddenly caused his weapon to disappear. ". . ." He looked at his empty hand. "Come back?" It came back just as quickly.
"Of course he did, my guess is he added other enchantments such as that 'Loyalty' one we saw." Leif grabs the side of his head. "How could we ever pay him back?" His voice sounded as if it was under an existential crisis, their sense of honour kicking in full force.
"Even if we asked, he would say no. Just stay as the best family we can for him." Her original accent started showing by her second sentence. Showing how overly excited she was, if such a gift were from someone meaning to betray, would it truly be so convoluted? Both of them thought so, and so they let go of their judgment of him. (Truly honest folk, the people of their realm are.) They look back at the golem, seeing that the box has disappeared from his grasp. "You do not have a weapon, would you not need one?" Its eyes shone red.
"I assume that is a no." It shone its eyes green, a colour they know means yes. Then, suddenly turned around after seeing a random man come through the door to walk through the carriage. It moved past, and the man appeared to have never noticed, just walking by.
"This stop: The side-seating area, leading to: The central chamber, last stop: The North entrance." A voice that sounded much like Heath's said automatically, they recognised it was simply part of the machine, so they waited until it fully stopped. They got up and walked to the door, the inertial dampening making it feel as if they were not moving at all. It stopped fully, and the door opened. A loud beep echoed. "Remember everyone, mind the gap so as not to fall." A repeat of the same voice line from their coach.
If one heard close enough, one could hear each part of the carriage say the same line, but with different voices per the different caricatures, it was quite intuitive. They walked off now and are going down to the main walking area. They slow down so as not to feel the crowd.
They look down towards their tickets, reading out the non-magical rune that is of the 'Elder Futhark' alphabet, the symbol ᛖ with a 5-digit number on its end. They recognise that there are not enough letters to cover all rows, meaning there are repeating layers. They walk down until they see a range of numbers that they are within, and they walk through until they reach their seats, the golem now standing beside them, covering 4 whole seats' worth of space. Even so, nobody would sit next to them in the hundreds, showing how sparse it truly is.
"Heath has made too many seats, it outnumbers us over 100 to 1." He says in a raised voice, echoing throughout the stadium. "That is true, Leif!" A voice that remarkably sounds like Egill's shout from a great distance away. All react by shaking their heads.
"Egill, sit by your wife!" Jorg shouts from what looks like the opposite side of where Leif and Sigrid sit in comparison to Egill and Gorm. "He must have very strong lungs for that for us to hear it." Sigrid comments as dry humour. Leif nods with a smirk.
Egill quickly walks by while paying respects to Gorm, before finally sitting in between Bjorn and Marja, both of his lovers. He could not show he loved Bjorn the same way, so he pretended to give more affection to Marja while secretly holding his hand from behind. Heath could see all of this with his hyper-enhanced vision, which he turned away. "Sad he has to hide his love for both of them." He shakes his head to himself. Leif and Sigrid look back to see Heath sitting behind them by a few seats. ""Heath!"" They say ecstatically.
""We thank you for the gift."" They say in unison while bowing their heads. "You know how I am like with head bowing, stop it." He raises his hand as a way to make them stand on themselves with magic, he stops himself midway. They understood, so they did it quickly.
"I keep on impulsively wanting to use magic, and I then stop myself midway through, quite annoying, eh?" Heath says in a calmer voice than he usually does, showing that even with that slight peeve, he finds this situation relaxing. The same Auto type that guards Leif and Sigrid also guards him, sitting at his left side. "You will get used to it." Leif comments with a silent chuckle. "Enjoy feeling like a mortal again?" Sigrid says in brevity, Heath gave her the stink eye. Whence silence passed in a single moment, all of them laughed together the next.
"What is this show that will be played today?" Gorm asks, now much closer to them and continuing until sitting a few seats away from Leif. "It is a series of 3 movies I made into a single long film known as 'The Equalizer.'" Heath lays on, not giving anything else.
"Is it about mathematics?" Gorm's question was met with a silent smirk from Heath. "Something like that." He puts his hands in front of his head in a smug pose, proud of himself. he had done touch-ups to the VFX of the first 2 films to match the cinematography and beautiful filter usage for more of the beautiful scenes to make it more dynamically unique and to work better for these audiences. It was a full omni-screen that allows all seats to have a personal first-view experience of the action. A few model minutes pass before it begins.
Autos hand out apple circle cutouts and nuts that are coated in a thin, yet solid layer of caramel as a crunchy and sweet replacement for popcorn in baggies, and carbonated drinks of their choice. It was too sugary for many, so they would take it back to their rooms later.
"You are not pulling any punches, as you would say, huh?" Leif comments with a great smile to his face, an Auto soon passing by and giving them the same choices. Gorm and Leif chose the mixed berry soda while Sigrid chose the pine needle soda. There were other options too, like apple soda, caramel soda, bubble gum soda, sugar mint soda and citron soda (that was edited to taste like lemonade.) There was also one 'root soda' that they wisely ignored. The Auto walked off by now as their choices have been made.
Sigrid tried her pine soda first, matched and recreated from the modern recipe using pine needles as their major flavouring agent, choosing it as it reminded her the most of her old home that was surrounded by pine trees, she looked at the bottle's design.
A flat picture of a forest designed through the glass moulding, each tree made and layered over each other in a way to make the light play into a greater 3D effect. "For an event, is this not too over-the-top?" Sigrid asks, then realises who she is asking it to. "No." Heath says it like a child who was sharing his best items on the school ground. They rolled their eyes in realising its gesture for the rest of the event, and all of them drank from their large decanters. All of them react immediately by raising their eyebrows or making noises.
Gorm looks at his own bottle, a highly detailed bush with different berry types on it, he tries it after opening the screw-on cap. *Mmm. Mm.* Gorm gives a complimentary noise after sipping it, showing he likes its flavour. "Perfect as usual, Heath." He keeps manners.
But Leif and Sigrid do not, they glug down a quarter of it before they suddenly stop as they have to burp, they cover their mouths, but still do so loudly. "Pardon us." Leif says a phrase said by Heath that they like. "Why do you not have a drink, Heath?" He sees his empty hands. "While I may still look like mennskr, I do not have a stomach, I could taste, but I absorbed food and drink with magic. So, I am waiting for the task to finish." Heath sees Leif and Sigrid looking between each other, then giving Gorm looks of contemplation.
"What are you all thinking of now?" Heath gave a faux-serious look. "Father, is he allowed to make himself a stomach?" Leif asks him, feeling sorry for Heath. Heath raised his eyebrows in response, not expecting the sudden hook that could help him keep feeling normal.
Gorm looks towards Heath, thinking deeply enough to have a slight nerve form through his neck. "Fine." He secedes, which Heath does immediately before he changes his mind, allowing for the automatic absorption of all materials consumed into magic, like the one designed for Valyria. They then see a golem quickly walk towards Heath, as if expecting this to happen. He chose the mixed berry soda and apple circle cutouts, leaving the nuts behind. "And about that, where is Valyria?" Heath voiced it for them to hear.
"Still outside currently, she is preparing to look her best by making herself an outfit, from what I heard." Sigrid says so from the time he spent talking about possible 'costumes' to be worn. "Hopefully, she has not inherited my fashion sense." Heath laughs to himself.
"Your outfit is quite well done, however?" Gorm asks. "By Artkrea, if I made it, it would be like rainbow vomit." He looks towards the site entrance. "Oh, and here she comes!" He states.