Preparations - Prologue Y0 and chapters 1&2

[lwise]

How do you suppose the four sponsors will divide up the proceeds?  There are four: General Trond Anderson, Taru Hollola, and Torbjörn and Siv Västerström.  Should they get one-quarter each?

But consider: Trond recruited Sigrun and Mikkel, Taru recruited Lalli and Tuuri, and the Västerströms just recruited Emil.  So should Trond and Taru get 2/5ths each while the Västerströms get 1/5?

[Jitter]

Lwise, I split this into the next topic, I hope you don’t mind!

I have just read the first Y90 page and the comments, and people are wonderfully excited. I would have loved to see more of the everyday life in Y90+, but these glimpses are great too! And Minna is promising a proper map of Reykjavik “when we come to it properly”, did that ever activate happen? Not the map at least?

Also something I never paid attention to before: there’s a tractor here! How? Why? Is there more machinery in Iceland? And hopefully also at the mines?

[dmeck7755]

Some of the comments are interesting (especially what we know now heh!)

Someone commented that Iceland is usually a safe location for those plague games (I used to play plague inc, and always made an effort to hit the island nations...). Though it is a logical "safe site"

One of the comments that someone wrote about the hole in the pants was he was wearing 90 year old pants (Could be!! My head cannon is people would definitely scavenge old clothes, sunglasses.  Especially if the were still wrapped and made of non-natural materials.  That stuff will last forever..)

An MS. Iceland is so smug.. grrrr

Plus a lot of speculation on Reynir (aka Braidy..I hate that name braidy)

[Suominoita]

Oh yes, the planned bunch of weirdos:
Idiots Sigrun and Lalli (Sigrun volunteered for the "vacation" and Lalli mostly didn't have any idea what was going on until well into foreign lands; he just got pushed into it by his cousin and then trapped by the language barrier)
Desperate (recently fired) Mickel Madsen.
Those who hate their current employers with a burning passion (Emil)
Those who are extremely bored. Tuuri.

Unplanned: a desperate recently orphaned kitten/cat and a bored idiot join up later.

Well, at least this explains why they don't pick a crew who would at least share a language.

[dmeck7755]

Oh yes, the planned bunch of weirdos:
Idiots Sigrun and Lalli (Sigrun volunteered for the "vacation" and Lalli mostly didn't have any idea what was going on until well into foreign lands; he just got pushed into it by his cousin and then trapped by the language barrier)
Desperate (recently fired) Mickel Madsen.
Those who hate their current employers with a burning passion (Emil)
Those who are extremely bored. Tuuri.

Unplanned: a desperate recently orphaned kitten/cat and a bored idiot join up later.

Well, at least this explains why they don't pick a crew who would at least share a language.

Suominoita,
You are spot on!! I never really thought it that way.  That is so right there!!

[tehta]

My feelings on the Evil Organizing Committee are NOT positive.  Sure, let's have one catless scout do everything, it'll all be fine! And then Siv complains that the team will die, but is fine going along with it. Finally, Taru's comment about bored people is chilling: I think she really did aim for Tuuri. (I don't think Emil hated his job though? He seems happy enough to go back to it. I think Emil is among the idiots, and his relatives made sure he was not fully aware of the danger.)

Anyway, what do we think were the eight original expedition positions? Captain, cleanser, day scout, night scout, skald, map reader (?), medic/cook, and ? Or were the medic and the cook separate? I feel like they really needed another military role.

Interesting detail: the loose cobblestone  the old people (as Trond calls them) complain about later trips him up.

[JoB]

Anyway, what do we think were the eight original expedition positions? Captain, cleanser, day scout, night scout, skald, map reader (?), medic/cook, and ? Or were the medic and the cook separate? I feel like they really needed another military role.

Well, they were planning to have a cat until the cutback ... maybe it would have been an admewral?

[tehta]

A few more thoughts, after reading the comments.

I do like people in the comments wondering whether Emil is related to Siv and Torb (and so to the original Swedish family) and saying surely they wouldn't send a relative into danger. And also being worried about the potentially hallucinating sleep-deprived single scout. Oh, and theorizing that Mikkel will accept the job because he's been fired.

And what do we think about the fruit juice scene? I don't really have a problem with fruit juice being expensive -- fresh juice is expensive even now! But it really should be alcohol. So my headcanon is that 'juice' is Y90 slang for booze.

And that first glimpse of the team, eee! I am excited to meet them (again) in the very near future.

[JoB]

I don't really have a problem with fruit juice being expensive -- fresh juice is expensive even now! But it really should be alcohol. So my headcanon is that 'juice' is Y90 slang for booze.

Hm. And then "fruit juice" would refer to Kirschwasser, Himbeergeist, Marillenbrand and the like? But it would still likely be the fruit part that makes it so expensive, given how readily alcohol can be produced in any climate, wouldn't it? I can see that happening to salvage shipments of fruit that have already started to ferment during transport, but for the health benefits in a world bereft of vitamin pills and global trade, I'd expect them to prefer fruit juice over fruit "juice" nonetheless.

... in any case, if they imbibe "juice" out of the same type of glass Siv had filled with water, it'd better be a rather soft cider - like Viez - instead of the likes of Slivovitz.

Edit to add: Emil at around page 139: "... about those 'rules of engagement' you wrote up for us all the way back in Reykjavík, why do you want us to bring female prisoners, and why would you put that in French??"

[thorny]

Anyway, what do we think were the eight original expedition positions? Captain, cleanser, day scout, night scout, skald, map reader (?), medic/cook, and ?

Mechanic/driver. Which they do have, in Tuuri; and a good thing, too. As a skald, she's filling two of the probable original eight positions.

But I think, as JoB says, that one position was Cat. Maybe cleanser wasn't a position, but they wound up with one anyway? Or maybe Cat was the remaining position, and they hadn't even thought of a mechanic, but hired Tuuri only as a skald and got a mechanic by pure luck.

what do we think about the fruit juice scene? I don't really have a problem with fruit juice being expensive --

They ought to have apple cider, and perry. But maybe due to storage issues both of those are much more common in the alcoholic version, and therefore maybe not thought of as "fruit juice".

[Róisín]

The greenhouses of Iceland may provide other fruits and their juices, maybe even citrus,  but I doubt any would be cheap!

[JoB]

The greenhouses of Iceland may provide other fruits and their juices, maybe even citrus

They have ALL THE FRUITS!

[Jitter]

I am appalled by the schemers all over again. They know it’s basically a suicide mission, and yet they send in their kin. Taru I can see of dismissing the Hotakainens as distant relatives (although I would imagine they were all living in Keuruu?), and Trond didn’t have an exact say on who he got from Norway.

But the Västerströms! Emil has lived with them, their kids love him even though they apparently don’t, they clearly have a close relationship. Them sending Emil off to die with the exploration party is inexcusable. I could have accepted them scheming with him to get the family fortune back, and him in foolishness deciding to go on his own volition, but that’s not what happened. They decided to prey on the foolish and desperate, and thus decided to target their kin. Horrible horrible people. 😤

[tehta]

I think my feelings on the Evil Committee, especially the Västerströms, are well-known (at least to you, Jitter). Even if they didn't care about Emil--perhaps they remember him only as a spoiled brat, and haven't noticed his finer points--shouldn't they care that their kids would be devastated by his death? Maybe they actually stand to profit if he dies, because of some kind of inheritance shenanigans? (Adding this to the Fic Ideas list.)

Wherever Taru lived, Lalli didn't seem to know her at the boat. But, yeah, that's Lalli. She might have been his neighbour for all we know.

[lwise]

I think my feelings on the Evil Committee, especially the Västerströms, are well-known (at least to you, Jitter). Even if they didn't care about Emil--perhaps they remember him only as a spoiled brat, and haven't noticed his finer points--shouldn't they care that their kids would be devastated by his death? Maybe they actually stand to profit if he dies, because of some kind of inheritance shenanigans?

Maybe Sweden has redeveloped the life insurance industry.

(Adding this to the Fic Ideas list.)

Is there a Fic Ideas list?