[center][h2]Saga of Astrid - Year 0 Day 22[/h2][/center] Astrid hated this place. It had begun as merely uncomfortable but somewhat exciting and novel, but now that this was wearing off, all that remained was the daily inconvenience of living in such a primitive place. Everything to drink that wasn't water was lumpy and disgusting, that 'time of the month' was horrible to deal with and the lack of hair care product? Oh that might be the worst of it all! She loved her long blonde hair, not only that but it was also a status symbol! Everyone had commented about how beautiful and otherworldly it made her seem, 'hair like the sun' and so forth. At the moment Astrid realized that mysticism was what kept her alive as Chief Vilkas hosted her as entertainment. On the problem of disgusting drinks she had a good idea of something she might be able to do to solve that problem, but she'd need more money than the few coins she had been given as 'tip' for her entertainment. Those coins however should be enough to maybe do something about her hair problem. Astrid had asked the local girls what they did for their hair as a desire for self care seemed universal for women no matter where or when and some different answers came up: Animal fat, oil, vinegar, some swore by certain recipe while others said these only made their hair worst... But behind Astrid's eyes, the cogs were turning as she finally found a project that actually interested her! It was all chemistry after all. Lye soap. Sodium hydroxide for bars, potassium hydroxide for liquids, with fats or oils through a process called saponification. The problem? Lye soap was very caustic, so if you didn't wash it off completely it would indeed ruin your hair, thus the conflicting tales of its effect. Yes, this home-made soap for washing (with some rosemary to make it smell nice), cleaning with water and vinegar and finally some oil as conditioner, that seemed like a sensible hair treatment! Not the simple out of the bottle soap and conditioner but at least a solution. "Oil? We don't make any here, but you're in luck! A greek merchant is passing through on his ship on his way west! I heard he doesn't speak the language though..." Lote, one of Chief Vilkas's young daughter, told her. As if she'd let this stop her, one could barter with body language alone! And so, she went to the merchant. "Oil, do you have some to sell?" "Ah! Someone who speaks a civilized language, of course my dear lady!" Astrid raised an eyebrow, surprised to understand and be understood by the man completely. Meanwhile Lote and some villagers who were desperately trying to communicate with the merchant looked at her with eyes wide in surprise and amazement. She... didn't even notice anything! She just spoke to this man in plain Swedish, as she did all other people she had encountered so far, and apparently she was speaking Greek? The immortal didn't understand, but she would make sure to use this odd opportunity! After all, everyone had so much trouble communicating with this man, why not offer her services while he was in town? For a price of course. By arbitrating between merchant and clients, Astrid made a bit of money, by going to Vilkas and convincing him to loan her some money, she bought some goods herself to store and sell later, making more money, more than enough to experiment a little. ________________ [center][h2]Saga of Astrid - Year 0 Day 96[/h2][/center] Finally, Astrid's golden blonde hair were as beautiful as ever! And so were those of most of the other women in town as they nagged their husbands for some coin or other things to barter for her new line of hair care products, the first one in history! She sold the basic formula relatively cheaply and even sometimes gifted it to girls who had special events, much to the appreciation of the villagers of course, but behind that was a marketing ploy. First, her money mainly came (for now) from a girl she had trained to use the right amount of soap and oil with the right technique and who personally did the hair of the richer wives and daughters of the village for a tidy sum. Second, the women of this village with their beautiful hair were walking advertisements for her products and soon merchants who came around left with bars of her soap to sell around the island and other places in the Mediterranean! And these sales, ohhhh, she made a lot of profit alright! She couldn't mass produce this stuff anyways, so she sold it as a luxury product, hiring craftsmen to put them in nice looking little boxes and putting a a ribbon and a bow on top, they couldn't get enough of it! And with this money and radiant hair, Astrid could move on to solve the next problem, getting something palatable to drink. "It wasn't easy, but I finally think I built it to your specifications ma'am. What... what is 'it' exactly? [center][img]https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/5564715ce4b006bb687b19c4/1594753636106-T1HPAUYF3RGYCLAU7PO1/coppers.jpg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg[/img][/center] "It is called an Alembic, and with this I will make the drinks of the gods." Among so many other things. She had pondered the Alembic because everyone around here drank fermented drinks all the time, saying that water was dangerous (which made sense, fermentation killed bacteria), but thinking about it, this synergized very well with her first beauty business, with this she'd be able to make spirits, but also perfumes! "Marlon, I have paid you generously to do this for me, have I not?" "That you did ma'am." "And I will continue to pay you generously to make more for me and above all, to never, ever make more for anyone else. Understood?" "Yes ma'am." "Good. Marlon, you are a strong man, I have personally witness you drink a lot of ale. What is your record in one sitting?" "Hehehe, a whole keg ma'am!" "Impressive, I suppose. But we shall see how long you last against the drink that is called 'Vodka'." Or maybe something closer to pure ethanol really, getting the right adjustments was not easy and ultimately she had to water down most of her batches (some she kept as medical rubbing alcohol), but she succeeded in making a product that was easy on the tongue and could make a man black out drunk. Easy on the tongue for the villagers maybe, but disgusting for a woman that didn't have a bottle of whiskey worth under 500$ in her liquor cabinet, but from now it was just a matter of adjusting the temperature, the time, aging the alcohol is casks and experiment. Experiment, experiment, experiment, with alcohol and with all the smells and odors she could also distill into perfume with the wondrous object that was the alembic! TL;DR - Astrid discovers she has a universal ability to understand and speak languages. - She takes folk recipes of soap and uses her chemical knowledge to work out what works, what doesn't and optimize it all. - She begins selling it as a luxury product. - With the money she pays a smith to build a basic copper alembic to make alcohol and perfume. For the moment its ethanol/vodka, but she's experimenting.