>With the cops gone you start walking again, making small talk, until Hilja suddenly asks:

"So, what's with your accent?"

"...my grandparents moved to the southern coast in early '60s, that's where my old man was born, he then moved to Tavastia where he met my mother, they got married and had two children, I'm the younger one" you explain.

"I see, no wonder you seem dour for a Karelian" Hilja replies with a smirk.

"I certainly am far closer to a typical Tavastean than to a typical Karelian, someone once suggested I am Savonian" you reply.

"...How many pieces did the police find him in afterwards, or are they still looking for his remains?" she asks, seemingly worried. Savonians are the butt of all the other Finnish 'tribes' jokes, and for a good reason, but then again a mix between Tavastean and Karelian isn't much better considering how these two groups are stereotypically polar opposites you think.

"So, what is our relationship going to be like?" Hilja ask, this directness so typical of Karelians is going to take some time getting used to.

"For the time being I think "flatmates" would be best" you say as you try to imitate her directness, failing miserably.

"You aren't going to ask your wife's opinion?" she asks, puzzled. That's right, in '30s Karelia a man in his 30s would be assumed to have married a long time ago & be busy supporting a wife and several children, and another thing that would be assumed would be that the mistress of the household rules the house with a figurative iron fist (or, if necessary, a very real cast-iron pan.)

"...I'm still unmarried, and until now I have lived alone" you reply.

"Oh, I see", Hilja replies.

"In that case I'll be taking the role of the mistress of the household, just leave everything around the house to me & focus on making a living" she says as if your opinion doesn't matter, though with a Karelian woman who has made up her mind, a man's opinion hardly ever matters anyway...

>With Hilja's declaration your relationship is settled & your life together starts. The first few days go by in a flash as you get used to a strong-willed woman's presence in the house, she turns out to be a great cook, making the Karelian food she makes even better, though your American friends don't seem to understand the finer points of the simple foods with rich flavour that make up the traditional Finnish cuisine.

"When you said your rifle's Karelian cooking is amazing I expected something more..." your friend says as he is digging in on his plate of Karelian stew.

"...Russian, as in served with vodka?" you guess what he's getting at.

"...well, yeah, especially considering it's *your* tastes we are talking about" he replies.

"You'll have to remember, this house is now under new ruler, in an agrarian society like 1930s Karelia drinking in the middle of the day was socially unacceptable, at least on weekdays outside of events like Midsummer, Christmas and weddings" you explain.

"So heavy drinking at weddings is also an established tradition in Finland?" he asks.

"Very much so, and a traditional Karelian wedding tended to last for days, with separate receptions at bride's and groom's homes..." you reply, hand-picking details to make traditional Karelian weddings sound more hard-core than they tended to be.

"Damn, now I want the two of you to marry so I can attend your traditional Karelian wedding!"

"That might be difficult to arrange, because if I start doing something the traditional way I'm going all out, and doing that is impossible, too many key details would be missing."

"What are you two conspiring here, you had better not be planning on "going around the corner"", Hilja says as she comes out of the kitchen. "Going around the corner" is an euphemism for men sneaking off to have a drink out of sight in a situation where drinking isn't socially acceptable, she must have heard your friend mention vodka, you think.

"Drinking in the middle of the day, on a weekday? Perish the thought!" you reply, Hilja doesn't seem to believe you.

"Is it strange that even though I don't speak a word of Finnish, I can still tell the content of your conversation?" your friend interjects.

>After some back-and-forth you finish your meal, at which point your friend speaks up.

"Anon, do you think you could take a look at one of my rifles?" he asks.

"Sure, what's the issue?" you reply, wondering why he's asking you.

"It's an SVT-38 with SA -markings, I'm experiencing constant malfunctions, apparently it has always been like that, no matter what the previous owners have done" he explains, just as you are about to respond he continues:

"I have it in my truck, shall we take a look right now?"

"Why not, let's go" you reply.

>You go outside to retrieve the rifle before going to your garage, Hilja is following you to make sure you aren't just making excuses to drink in secret. Is she supposed to be your wife, or your mother?

>As you take the rifle apart you notice some tooling marks on the gas system.

"Where did these come from?" you ask, wondering if a previous owner has done something to the rifle.

"As far as I know those have always been there" he replies.

"I seriously doubt that, SVT-38s were carefully finished, by Soviet standards anyway, so these are of more recent vintage, I recall reading that FDF made changes to the gas system on the captured SVTs because they wouldn't work right with the Finnish ammo, the end result was that after that the modified rifles wouldn't work right with 54r", 54r being of course the original Russian cartridge from which the cartridge used by FDF, 53r, was developed from.

"Finally someone who knows their stuff!" an unfamiliar female voice suddenly shouts. As all three of you turn towards the voice you find yourselves looking at another woman in M36 uniform.

"Fuck, I didn't know my rifle had a geist!" your friend exclaims.

"Well the way every single one of my owners until now has handled me I didn't really feel like showing myself to them!" the new girl replies with rusty, accented English.

"So yeah, since I apparently finally have an owner who knows his stuff, might as well introduce myself right away!" she continues, facing you.

"Actually, my friend here simply asked me to see if I could figure out the source of your constant malfunctions", you quickly explain.

"And I wouldn't exactly call myself an expert on SVTs either, it's only by a chance that I knew of the fact that FDF made changes to at least some of the captured SVTs."

"Still better than any of the idiots who have tried 'fixing' me in the past, including this one!" she exclaims, she's certainly not happy about what ever she's been through since she was surplussed by the Finnish Army.

"Elä kehtoo, elämöidä nyt tuolla tavalla vieraissa!" ("Don't you dare, making such a scene in someone else's home!") Hilja interjects, upset that a visitor would raise such a ruckus in front of the master of the house.

>The Tokarev is stunned upon hearing Finnish, she turns towards Hilja, looking her over before asking with a slight accent:

"Sje puhut suomea?" ("You speak Finnish?") and before Hilja can respond you decide to interject, now isn't the best time for two milsurp rifles to start a shouting match.

"She does, as do I, now since you speak English, I suggest you sort things out with your owner at a later time, I take it the problem can be solved by simply using the correct ammo with right load?"

"Yes! I swear if someone puts another 54r through me, I am going to explode in their face!" she replies, getting worked up again.

"Please don't, not many people in this country even know there's a difference between Finnish ammo and Russian ammo, left alone know that the difference could be significant enough to cause malfunctions when using the wrong cartridge, so it's not really their fault, is it?" you ask, and she seems to agree. This girl seems to be the embodiment of the Russian temperament...

>The Tokarev turns towards her owner, Mike, they just stare at each other uneasily as neither one of them knows what to say.

"...Anon, any idea where I can find 53r?" he finally asks.

"...Midway should have some, though it's expensive and the load might be wrong, I have been experimenting with hand loads for Hilja & I think I'm getting pretty close to the WWII -load, the only way to know for certain would be to go to the range and test them" you say as you start looking around the garage trying to remember where you put your latest batch of 53r hand loads.

"...*Of course* you are hand loading 53r for her, I shouldn't even be surprised any more..." Mike replies with a knowing smile, his Tokarev has been listening the whole time and can't seem to wait for you to find the hand loads.

"Here they are, I think this batch of 20 is closest, I tried my best to make sure each one is exactly the same" you say as you finally pull out a repurposed cardboard box and hand it to Mike.

"...How about we all go to the range to see if these work?" he suggests, it seems he's afraid of what might happen if the loads are off & the Tokarev decides to follow through with her threats.

"...What do you think, Hilja? Want to go to the range?"

"...Why not" she replies after thinking for a moment, as a waffengeist she most certainly is unique in that she doesn't get excited by the thought of going to the range, though when you do she certainly does enjoy being shot.

>She seems to be drawing some special kind of satisfaction from the reactions of all those AR -fags for whom all Mosins are beat-up mid-WWII -production 91/30s that couldn't hit a barn even if they were fired inside one, only to see you beat them with their $3000 ARs in accuracy despite the fact that they use optics and you do not.

>You were barely even in top-10 of your platoon during your service in Finnish Army.

>Fuck, now all those memories are coming back, you hope no-one at the range has an Rk with them today...

"*Of course* there is a guy with one", you think as you arrive at the range and spot a guy with a Valmet M76, the last weapon you wanted to see today.

"Look, Anon, that guy has an Rk, I wonder if he'll let us try it?" Mike says excitedly, oblivious to your current inner conflict, then again you never told him...

>Mike goes to talk to the man with the M76 as you start loading stripper clips, after a couple of minutes Mike drags the man to where you and the girls are waiting to start.

"Anon, this is Jack, he said he'd be delighted to let us try his rifle!" Mike is getting carried away, and his Tokarev isn't any more amused with this development than you are.

"You go ahead, I came here to shoot my M39, also don't forget why we came here in the first place" you say as you double-check your rifle's barrel to make sure it's free of oil.

"Come on, don't be like that!" Mike says while gesturing you to pick up the M76.

"Thanks but no thanks"

"You got something against AK -derivatives?" The owner says, clearly agitated.

"On the contrary, Rks are my favourites, being a Finnish Army reservist and all that" you reply while trying to remain calm.

"Then what gi-" the owner begins, but then stops and instead stares you in the eyes before saying

"...In any case, the offer still stands, should you change your mind" before returning to his spot, Mike following him after giving you a puzzled look.

"Let me guess, this is related to those scars on your body?" Hilja asks quietly.

"Yes" you reply without volunteering any additional information.

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really, at least not yet" you reply as you resume loading the stripper clips. One of the bigger scars, the one next to your spine, won't stop aching, but somehow it's somehow soothing rather than painful, almost as if...no, that's impossible.

["Onko?"] ("Is it?")

"-the hell, did you hear that?" you ask the girls in Finnish, startled.

"Hear what?" Hilja asks, almost as startled as you.

"nothing, forget it"

>You decide to wait for Mike to get his fill of shooting with the M76, and before you know you are watching his handling of the rifle closely.

["Just go shoot that Valmet & show them the Finnish way of changing the mag, pretend you are shooting at a Russian mortar crew or something"] a familiar voice nags at you

"Shut up, besides when did I tell you abou-" you start saying to Hilja before realizing it wasn't her voice you heard.

"??? Did you say something Anon?"

>It can't be.

["Guess again."] the voice says.

"Riikka?" you ask in your mind.

["Does bear crap in the woods? Just go there, it's about time you get over what happened, don't you think?"]

>You give up and go join Mike and the M76's owner, Mike hands you the rifle and a magazine with some ammo.

"Do you mind if I split these between two magazines?" you ask, and the owner gives you the go ahead.

>You split the ammo evenly, attach the first mag, chamber a round and start shooting, as the rifle goes "click!" you drop the stock under your arm while keeping the muzzle level & pointed towards the target, grab the second magazine, bring it next to the attached one, release the empty mag and attach the new one without dropping the empty one, pivot the rifle so that the charging handle points up, use the magazine to cycle the rifle and continue shooting.

"...Do you always do a mag change like that?" Mike asks.

"Yeah, that's how I was trained, though the goal is to know when the last round is chambered & do the mag change before firing the last shot, it's just that I have practised changing an empty mag far more just in case & as such it comes automatically, now let's go, the girls are probably getting restless" you reply as you hand the rifle to the owner and thank him before walking back to where the girls are.

>The flashbacks you feared didn't materialize after all, maybe you *can* handle shooting an Rk once again after all.

>You spend an hour shooting your rifles, the hand loads are spot on.

>On the way back home you are driving because of what's happening in the back seat.

>SVT's mood is the total opposite of what it was before, seeing as she's now clinging to Mike & can't seem to keep her hands to herself, you had to turn the rear-view mirror away from the back seat after you almost drove off the road at one point.

"Sonja, please, not here, Anon almost got us killed because of you!" Mike is desperately pleading with his rifle, turns out she had a name the whole time, but didn't want to reveal it before because of her earlier mood.

>Mike might be saying things like that right now, but in reality he's enjoying it, he'd just rather not have spectators present.

"Come on, just a little bit more?" she pleads with a voice suggesting she's doing "puppy eyes", which is soon confirmed by Mike giving in.

"Soo happy we are not like that", Hilja says an sighs.

"Which reminds me, how come you haven't made any passes on me? Are you..." she leaves the question open.

"Most certainly not, it's just that there are...circumstances" you give a vague explanation.

"Hmm?" she raises her eyebrow dangerously before her expression changes to an even more dangerous grin, she's curious now & most likely won't rest until she gets her answers.

"...I'll explain everything later" you say.

"!Wha-what are you doing, this is far from "just a little bit more!"" Mike cries out with an unusually high-pitched voice.

"...For fuck's sake, get a room you two!"

"That's the plan, isn't it Mike?" Sonja replies as she nibbles on Mike's ear.

>You can't get home fast enough...

>It's already dark by the time you get home, it is decided that Mike and Sonja will stay for the night & you go light the stove in sauna, Mike'll surely appreciate a breather after Sonja's attacks...

"I wonder if I have any drinks in the fridge" you think to yourself as you walk back towards the house.

>Your house, this being America, doesn't have a sauna built-in into the house, so you built a separate one in the corner of your property, the neighbour on that side was not too happy & tried to get the sheriff do something about it, but in the end sheriff "saw things your way" after "an inspection" one Saturday night...

>Just as you are about to enter the house through back door, Hilja comes out.

"I put a bottle of vodka in the freezer, the beer in the fridge is nice and cold" she says as she gestures you to go around to the front door, she doesn't want you dirtying her floor when she just cleaned this morning.

>For an outsider her opposition to drinking in the middle of the day only to take the initiative to make sure you have cold booze ready when you come from sauna might seem incomprehensible, but you aren't even surprised at this point.

"Thank you Hilja" you manage to say before she pushes you out the door and closes it behind you.

>As you enter the house through the front door you can hear Sonja's offensive continuing, from the sound of it Mike won't be needing time to get undressed for the sauna, the question is will you be able to save him on time to make sure he can actually walk by the time sauna is ready...

>The noise is coming from the guest room, you knock on the door and shout through the door:

"Sauna will be ready in 30 minutes!"

"Bullshit, it takes at least an hour to heat sauna properly!" Sonja protests, calling your bluff.

"Fine, 45 minutes, then I'm dragging him out!" you reply and go to kitchen to grab a beer, Hilja is sitting at the table.

"Well, you have 45 minutes and nothing better to do, why don't you tell me everything." she says with piercing eyes.

"Fine, as you may already know, there was another war with Russia, it all started about two months before the war..." you start recounting the story of how you were issued an Rk to be kept at home, how it turned out that the rifle had a waffengeist, how your relationship developed, and what happened to her once the war started.

>Hilja listens closely without interrupting you, as you reach the point you were released from the hospital & felt you needed a change of environment & decided to move to USA she finally talks:

"And that's how once you got your Green Card you decided to get a gun?" she asks.

"Basically yes, as you know my work leaves me with a lot of free time, time which I probably would have spent drinking, so I decided to find a time-consuming hobby, and I have always liked shooting, so to me the choice was pretty obvious."

"I thought you needed someone to watch your drinking, turns out I was right." Hilja says with a neutral tone.

"Maybe, I do admit that having you here to watch after me is probably the best thing that has happened to me in a long time." you reply as you finish your beer & check the time, it's been almost 45 minutes.

>Just as you are about to go check on the "newly-weds" Mike comes out of the guest room, out of breath and wearing only a towel.

"Good timing, grab a couple of beers from the fridge & let's go!" you say as you grab two for yourself and start walking towards the back door.