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Iselin appear behind me and hang herself over my shoulders; "Husband."
"Wife."
"Busy?"
"Not for you, my love."
Iselin have a pleased smile as he glide into my lap, and I give her a kiss as we hug. I like kissing her, but she seem to have something on her mind.
"Kari, Ciara and I have a surprise for you, and Jane helped us. We need your help and it's in your bedroom, but not about sex. Well, in a way it is, and it will be for that too."
What? Iselin just gives me a mischievous smile, clearly not going to tell me, so I follow as she excitedly guide me to my bedroom, and it's more than just my sambos waiting. Woah!
"A new and bigger four poster bed in oak! It's it beautiful?!"
"Yes it is! Beautiful carvings and decorations! And drapes! And attached small bedside tables!"
"Yes! We hoped it would be ready for the wedding, but the carpenters took a lot of time with the carving, and we had to change the design to include electric lamps! After seeing Radgeirrson's bed a few months ago, we talked to Jane, and she helped us design and make plans for this! It have a similar double sprung wooden base you designed for the other bed, and we have a new full size mattress for this, plus two spares! No dumb edges! We have several new pillows and the best sleeping set have been arranged as well, so it is easier to change, air and dry! The double drapes are Kari's idea! The awesomely decorated outer dark blue is thicker to eliminate sun light - since we know you dislike the morning sun and summer is coming - and the inner thin white let light through and reflect the electric light! Using both will eliminate any cold drafts and dampen sound. Both from outside noise and what happens in the bed." That is a naughty but lovely grin! Iselin cup her hand around my ear, and whisper: "There are a few hidden spaces and more drawers, and I have removed the hidden gold and such from the old bed."
Wow, they have really given this bed a lot of thought! "Thank you! Truly thank you!"
I hurry to kiss and hug them! They give me a quick show of some of the official features, and they need my help in moving the electric light. Iselin believe she can do it, but they didn't want to risk the precious electric lights. Jane is pleased by how decadent and 'right' the bed feels, although sadly there are no good mirrors, or there would have been mirrors in the sealing, hidden by another movable drape. My sambos have already sketched normal width beds in the same style for their bedrooms, and the first one is being made.
So I help remove the electric light, and after discretely checking the old beds hidden spaces, the bed is dismantled and removed. It's quick work to switch over the electric components, and Iselin have clearly understood it well enough to make the new 'fixtures' practical. Once they're installed, all help to lift the new bed in place, since it's a big and very heavy furniture. Definitely a lot of solid oak!
The others are shoo'ed out so I can consecrated the bed with my wife. After the long session with Kari, it's lucky that Iselin can be so damn sexy! I'm a lucky man! The cuddling is cut short since Iselin is too eager to show all the compartments. She and Jane has been having way too much fun designing them, especially the hidden compartments, but it's not bad. There are two spring loaded quick accessible compartments, and a knife pop out from one of them. We move the gold into a more hidden and harder to reach one. We place the 'toys' in one of the just discrete drawers. This bed is awesome!
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Jane is given the task of painting a large painting, approx. 190 cm high and 90 cm wide, which will hang inside the meeting room on the wall facing the library. For the 'look', it will get a wooden frame so that it is slightly pushed out a centimeter or so from the wall, and there will also be some simpler shelves on the wall to show some nick-nacks or creations I've made.
As inspirations, I show her the folder I've created that she can download to her mobile, with images from Art, Fantasy, Role-playing book covers, Ravine, The Lord of the Rings, etc. I want a nature scene, probably with mountains, water, maybe a dragon or two, maybe a battle field or something. As long as it's an epic view and painting, Jane is free to do what she wants, and there may be more in the future. Maybe in my bedroom or other places in the mansion. That wall, like many others, is boring as hell and an epic painting is better than a tapestry, and sambos totally agree that Jane's work is preferred. I'm actually considering covering an interior wall with smooth planed planks so she can do a mural, or two. It would also be nice in the guest mansion. Especially the eastern short side in its large room on the ground floor, which also lacks windows. Jane clearly like the challenge and disappear to find a large slate to sketch on. That the painting will hide a secret door down to the secret library and b-room is something few need to know, and Jane isn't one of them. Probably eventually, but not now.
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The Christmas gift game is an interesting experience for everyone, and as planned, the staff and guards participate. We have more than enough packages, and we play inside the staff room because it's simply easiest when there are so many of us. Some have a little difficulty understanding the game rules and I repeat three times so everyone knows how it works. There is a pile of small packages in the middle. A time limit is set. Everyone takes turns rolling a normal die, and on 1 or 6, you get to take a packet until all the packets are out, or steal a package from someone else, including me and my sambos, but the last packet a person have must be exchanged for another so that everyone gets at least one packet. When the time run out, we open all the packages so the contents are shown, and we play another round. Same rules but now everyone knows what is available, and some things will be more desirable than others. But everyone gets something even though the dice mean someone gets two or maybe even three things. They are not expensive things, and it is allowed to give or exchange afterwards, because the thing is owned.
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Very appreciated game, and it's terribly entertaining to steal packages from Hillevi, especially if she just got it. Hillevi switch her place when we play the last round, but Kari, Elvira and Rikvi take the opportunity to steal from her, but Hillevi is just too lucky with the dice. Some small things like the combs, rings and necklaces change hands so many times, while Ciara has focused on the honey jars and glares at anyone who steals them until she gets to keep one. I take the opportunity to snatch the other one from Jane, and after the game is over, I give the honey jar to Ciara. I'm not particularly fond of honey, so plus points for me. Elin just smells her fragrant soap with a satisfied smile, and overall it has been a good time and joyous atmosphere.
In general, we will probably do some Christmas traditions in the future so Jane gets her Christmas celebration, and things like Lucia and New Year's celebrations will be done again. Next time on the correct day.
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Since Kari will be gone for a week or more, we spend the evening together, and make it a movie night to see 'The man from Earth'.
I tell her that Elvira or Jalida would probably recognised the nature from their childhood that should be similar, and Kari thinks it seems beautiful in a desolate way, but it must be difficult to farm and have animals there, and she doesn't want to experience a 10-15 degrees warmer than the hottest summer here. Kari wishes she could have a ride in such a car, and thinks they go so fast! I tell her about how cars can go many many times faster, less than an hour from here to Borgarsandr on normal Midgård's roads, which causing Kari to miss some of the movie. So I pause and briefly explain how common large bridges are. What is often the deciding factor is the cost and finances of the bridge, not structural limitations. That a suspension bridge with a span of more than a kilometer is even possible, is incredibly difficult for her to understand, but I can show pictures of several, including the Millau Viaduct. Kari really wants to see some type of car, just as Iselin and more wants, and there will be an attempt to build something sooner or later. What kind of engine remains to be seen, as a steam car should be most practical, while something like a 'golf cart' powered by electricity would be sufficient to demonstrate the possibility and to drive to the village and back.
We continue watching the movie, and Kari likes the house and the windows. I tell her that he is not rich but a normal average person and a teacher in a simple little house, and I have to pause a little and explain what the oven and the fridge are for, and I hope to build a freezer here, maybe already next summer. It's just damn tricky and will require a lot of experimentation. The bow is fascinating, that humans still use a bow for hunting when we have firearms, and she definitely thinks it would be interesting to make a modern compound bow here if I can, although I say it won't be any better in combat. But Kari wants to try a 'Midgård bow' so it will probably happen. Bows and even crossbows may be something she likes more than firearms, 'a more elegant weapon for a more civilized age'.
Kari really likes it when she sees older Art show up with the much younger Linda, and she snuggles up to me with a smile and a kiss, without even asking about the motorcycle. She has of course noticed the clothes they wear, and notices how plain blue jeans are. Like Iselin, she likes the expression about one century's magic is the next century's science. Kari loves the Swedish word for science; 'Vetenskap'. She loves how descriptive the word is as 'Vet' is 'Knowing', so the word can be roughly translated as 'Knowledge of known thing'. A word that says how much one knows about how the world is and works - not believe. Know.
Kari likes the movie, even if she has some difficulty following along as there is a lot of talking and I'm not that fast in translating everything and every nuance, and I need to explain religious beliefs too. But she just likes to sit with me and watch it.
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As we lie in bed and talk, it has been a very good day. One surprise is that Kari has 'obviously' taken advantage of the new bed to design in features, and arrange padded leather straps that can be fastened around the posts to provide attachment points without chafing the wood, and there are also other hidden features among the headboard carvings and sides to strap someone body part to, and the same applies to the beams at the top that hold the draperies and beds ceiling. Kari really wishes Alfheimr had mirrors as good as Midgård, because she would have wanted that large hidden mirror above. She would like to see herself strapped down while I amused myself. Beside stuff like that, Jane has definitely talked about different varieties of beds too.
Kari likes the end of the movie when they drive off together, but what really fascinates her is how old many of them are and how healthy they looked. It's really hard for her to fathom that average human life expectancy is 80 years or more. So we talk about that, and I tell her about how many many diseases have identified and solutions or cures have been found for them. How medicines have been methodically researched and that medically, humans may soon be able to live forever, or much longer than natural lifespan. It is being researched, and in Midgård we know a great deal about exactly how the body works and ages, but there are no simple solutions to the problem that have been found so far. It's an incredibly hard problem, and I explain why the body ages in the simplistic way I know. Sure, there might be a simple cure with some natural remedy here on Alfheimr, but the chance is almost non-existent, and if a natural cure actually exists and becomes known, that plant will surely be eradicated in short time. Especially as it probably only prolongs life. It's unlike to be a lasting cure.
Unfortunately, it's better if that problem isn't solved as it will cause huge problems with overpopulation, and Kari quickly realise the problem with everyone having babies but no one dying except from disease, accident or war. They already have problems here with arable land, but they can cut down and clear more, at least in the interior of Sweden, and improved cultivation techniques can increase the food production. This also applies to Midgård, where artificial fertilizers are the reason why the population has exploded in the last 100 years and doubled to more than seven billion. Without artificial fertilizers, only around 3 billion would have food. That is one of the ironies and why there are still famine crises from the 1960s onwards, because many countries have since then increased their population by four to six times, and that is just not sustainable with the increased load on natural resources such as water and arable land, and society becomes very vulnerable to weather that cause failed harvests, or water shortages in droughts that last several years. Which Kari understands. With global warming this will get worse. When many countries are insanely dependant on food import, it doesn't take much to cause huge famines. Unfortunately, changing how people view having babies and how many, or using IUD's and such, is a cultural and religious thing, and that have not been changed as fast as technology and medical care have done. It doesn't matter if you like it or not, the World simply can't take an ever growing population, so frankly, there needs to be a limit on having babies, and probably just one per person until natural deaths and factors such as some don't want to have a child have decreased the world population to 5 or 6 billion.
Deep and difficult thoughts, but it's time to turn off the new bed lamps. I really appreciate the bed lamps - such a practical and good idea - but Kari thinks one of my lanterns is practical enough, and she likes its living flame compared to the cold steady light of the LED, although she do like how easy electric light is to control. But Kari simply likes fire and flames and seems to have slight pyromaniac tendencies, and she loves to have sex in front of the fireplace.