Preparations - Prologue Y0 and chapters 1&2

[JoB]

Maybe that is how Taru dressed when she was younger?  (it worked then?)

[wonders whether there's a pacifier at the other end of the monocle's chain]

Just noticed for the first time ever: "The Nordic council of History and Rediscovery"? And the first expedition into the Silent Lands ever still has to come as a third party's initiative? What have those people been rediscovering, the bottoms of their own paper-waste baskets that someone pushed 2 ft farther from their desks than usual?

[lwise]

In general, Minna kind of generally flubbed the math and biology on the ages when her Prologue characters had their children.  The only ones with a hope of a realistic timeline are Reynir's antecedents, and the amount of 50+ parents having surviving children without our levels of healthcare is fairly amazing.  Minna made a huge rod for her own back with that family tree as it was, so I'm rather sanguine about it.

I view the family tree as the "official" family tree, prepared by a perhaps unreliable narrator.  Figuring out how to cover the flaws is an exercise for (fanfic) reader.

[lwise]

Just noticed for the first time ever: "The Nordic council of History and Rediscovery"? And the first expedition into the Silent Lands ever still has to come as a third party's initiative? What have those people been rediscovering, the bottoms of their own paper-waste baskets that someone pushed 2 ft farther from their desks than usual?

And ... you find that unlikely?

[Suominoita]

I think Mau… is most likely either Mauno or Mauri, both male names of about similar feel of age / period as Hilja. I also think Taru is from a second marriage, I wrote about it not very long ago I think.

Of those two, I'd go with Mauno just to avoid confusion as we already had one Mauri on the site.

[Jitter]

Suominoita, you are right. I forgot about him.

[wavewright62]

Just noticed for the first time ever: "The Nordic council of History and Rediscovery"? And the first expedition into the Silent Lands ever still has to come as a third party's initiative? What have those people been rediscovering, the bottoms of their own paper-waste baskets that someone pushed 2 ft farther from their desks than usual?

bwaHAHAHAhah a a hh *snort*

No, but seriously - in their eyes Iceland 'rediscovered' the other nations that now make up the Known World. 
I suspect that the much-discussed pink 'clean' islands scattered about (eg in the Shetlands) weren't a nation per se.

[tehta]

So, is nobody reading the pages where we finally meet Emil? Major excitement! And just in time for his birthday, too.

I am getting through them only slowly due to RL, but it's been fun. Many people were quite impressed by him as a character (both his looks, and his comedy potential); quite a few drew attention to his likely future problems in communication with Lalli. Personally, I found it quite interesting to see how he interacts with his "family": he shouts at them, and they belittle him (even beyond correcting his ridiculous claims -- "wrong as usual"?) And yet, there are hugs. And YET, he is being sent to his likely death.

Note that Emil is the only person who packed something of use, although of course we know that it was not something legal. And the commenters who mock him for bringing a rolly suitcase are wrong! That would have been just fine in the tank. (Maybe Lalli could have slept in it, even.)

Another small point: someone hypothesizing that the Rash was caused by a fungus, because of the sunlight thing. Interesting!

[lwise]

I am getting through them only slowly due to RL, but it's been fun. Many people were quite impressed by him as a character (both his looks, and his comedy potential); quite a few drew attention to his likely future problems in communication with Lalli. Personally, I found it quite interesting to see how he interacts with his "family": he shouts at them, and they belittle him (even beyond correcting his ridiculous claims -- "wrong as usual"?) And yet, there are hugs. And YET, he is being sent to his likely death.

At this point in the story, it doesn't seem to me that the characters would believe that Emil was being sent to his likely death.  It's true that Siv said, "I think we've already removed everything our crew will need to survive", but she can't have truly believed that.  The point of the expedition was to bring back books (or something, if we suppose that Trond and Mikkel had their own agenda), so there would be no reason to send them at all if they were all just going to die.  Also, no one expected the bridge to collapse.  If it had not collapsed, they would have tooled around in their tank for a couple of weeks, then come home.  If they'd run into anything they couldn't handle, they'd have made tracks back to base, so their situation wouldn't have been that dangerous ... if the bridge hadn't collapsed.

So, much as I enjoy evil Vasterstroms, I think they can still be interpreted as less than evil.

[tehta]

Oh, I know many interpretations are possible. I just enjoy throwing Evil Vasterstroms comments in everywhere.

But I forgot my main question. Why are all those (potentially non-evil) Vasterstroms meeting the Finns way over there? Surely Taru could escort the clueless ones to Mora herself. And Emil can surely get there without any escort. (By the way, why is he all the way over at this end of Sweden, anyway? Was he cleansing out there? Visiting his weirdly absent dad?

Were the (definitely super-nice) Vasterstroms just trying to get away from the triplets? But that train ticket wasn't free, and neither was the babysitter, so they clearly felt they needed to be there.

[lwise]

But I forgot my main question. Why are all those (potentially non-evil) Vasterstroms meeting the Finns way over there? Surely Taru could escort the clueless ones to Mora herself. And Emil can surely get there without any escort. (By the way, why is he all the way over at this end of Sweden, anyway? Was he cleansing out there? Visiting his weirdly absent dad?

Were the (definitely super-nice) Vasterstroms just trying to get away from the triplets? But that train ticket wasn't free, and neither was the babysitter, so they clearly felt they needed to be there.

That's a good question.  He came by train from somewhere, and judging by the map of the Known World, the only train to Bjorkofjarden comes from Mora.  But if he came from Mora, why bother?  And why did he still have his contraband explosives?

[lwise]

Oh, I know many interpretations are possible. I just enjoy throwing Evil Vasterstroms comments in everywhere.

On the Evil Vasterstroms questions, we could go back to the death benefit possibility.  They don't expect the books to be worth much, so they don't care that Our Heroes going to die, and in fact they want the team to die so they can pocket the death benefit.  It was a shock and a disappointment to them when Emil came back alive ...

[Jitter]

There may be a station where it’s possible to change trains from Östersund to Björköfjärden without going all the way to Mora, but yeah, doesn’t seem like there is much point in that. Also Siv and Torb have already been here for one night (we just slept on the sofas), which definitely seems to indicate tehta is right about their main motivation being getting away from the kids

Although, there are also daily ships to Denmark and Norway from here, so they could have arrived from somewhere else where they were making preparations. But even then, surely just one of them could have gone while the other stayed home, saving both a ticket and the babysitter payment.

More importantly, this is where we get to see the classic Allt of Spadar! A magnificent tale it is!

[Jitter]

To go back to the previous section (last week was a nightmare), I love the panel with the log boats on p 89. Here (p 90) we also learn that all cities are bad, and not just the Tampere and Nokia seclusions covered earlier. Also that “church” on p 91 isn’t, we don’t have churches like that in Finland. It’s remains of an industrial building with two chimneys.

I wonder what was Tuuri’s main field as an academic if all of this is completely new to her?

[lwise]

To go back to the previous section (last week was a nightmare), I love the panel with the log boats on p 89. Here (p 90) we also learn that all cities are bad, and not just the Tampere and Nokia seclusions covered earlier. Also that “church” on p 91 isn’t, we don’t have churches like that in Finland. It’s remains of an industrial building with two chimneys.

I wonder what was Tuuri’s main field as an academic if all of this is completely new to her?

Maybe her education was word-of-mouth due to lack of books, so she'd never actually seen any pictures with which to compare the ruins.

[tehta]

I feel like 'academic' is a bit less esoteric in post-rash society, and doesn't refer only to people who live in ivory towers. Tuuri is a pretty decent mechanic. Maybe her field of study was practical skills? (Also, she does speak essentially all the languages, doesn't she? Even if Danish took a bit of practice.)