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Tumunzahar makes Menegroth look like a contract project. Which, the Dwarves assure her, it was. The stonework is astonishingly careful and beautiful, silky to the touch up close while from a distance it gives the impression of stretching on forever above, a sky of stone with crystals for stars. Vast natural cave systems are connected by dozens of perfectly smooth, gently sloped broad stone pathways from which the fall, if she fell, would be several miles down. There are handrails. "We use those to move materials carts," someone explains to her, "we're not going to be reckless."
There's an amphitheater, a place where a hundred of the stone walkways twine around to create space for a hundred thousand people to sit in close proximity, and someone is giving a lecture or a demonstration at the base of it, the seats closest to him filled with eager, tiny, bearded Dwarf-children.
And they spiral down, and down, and down, past waterfalls and egg-sized gemstones left half in the rock and halls of crystal. Everything grows gradually more ornate and more perfectly maintained and the clang of hammers fades behind them. "People say," her guide says, "that we only have a council instead of a single King because there were nine winners of the competition to design the throne so we couldn't just select one person to sit it." And they push open the doors to reveal, indeed, nine thrones so elaborate it would be hard to choose between them, and nine squat bearded people sitting them.
purposeful_glory
...I'd say 'that's good' but 'able' is not the standard I actually apply when assigning goodness to family hugs.
purposeful_glory
On the subverbal level, or are you planning to tell them you think they're real, too?
No one's going to ask me 'do you think I'm a hallucination?' Well. Moryo will and I'll tell him 'I give it around an 80% chance', Tyelcormo will and I'll tell him 'I thought that even before Angband'. Everyone else will try to feel it out and they'll stop poking once they feel safe.
My father probably won't even do that. It's not actionable information for him. What is actionable information is whether I'll defy him the next time we're at odds, and what he's terrified of is that I'll hate him, or be angry with him, or hold him in contempt - that's what he'll be looking for.
purposeful_glory
I don't have nearly such confident reads on my family. I don't know whether Frigg lied to me my whole life or genuinely didn't know I'm a frost giant; Thor I'm certain didn't know but I don't know how she'll react on a spectrum from 'now I despise you forever and may try to kill you' versus 'okay but you're culturally Asgardian tell me again about the giant spiders let's go kill some'.
There isn't a trait for 'giftedness', it doesn't make sense that Valinor's greatest linguist and engineer marrying her greatest artist and metalsmith would produce a diplomat, a musician, someone who can talk with animals and has a Maia as a personal companion, an economist, another version of our father, and two of the kind of person who, tossed a world, change it. Maybe we were all driven by fear of inadequacy in our father's eyes, but if so, it drove us much farther than it drives anyone else and it's a common insecurity.
purposeful_glory
...There kind of is a trait for giftedness if you get a lot of statistics and shake well, but admittedly the distribution of types in your family is weird.
People used to say, in Tirion, that I couldn't possibly be my father's son. I see similarities, but perhaps I'm motivated to find them.
purposeful_glory
Well - I think I'd be inclined to put it as 'I'm not sure who else's son you could more realistically be'. Out of people I've met, anyway.
He laughs. The Eldar can't be mistaken about paternity. I suppose if I were an adopted frost giant there'd be no way to tell.
purposeful_glory
Yeah, I didn't think there was an actual question about the matter, but if there had been that would be how I'd describe my opinion on it.
If there were I imagine people would have been more hesitant to say it. There were more jokes about Findekáno and I once we started being more careful and there was less basis.
Do your Men have an economy? How do they provide for the unwell and unable to work? They die, don't they? Are any of them doing that already?
Do your Men have an economy? How do they provide for the unwell and unable to work? They die, don't they? Are any of them doing that already?
purposeful_glory
One of the werewolves went missing, a while ago, but so far nobody's retirement age or anything, and, uh, I'm around. I made sure the pregnant ones just kind of constantly wear healing songs because that can be a very hazardous condition, sometimes suddenly. We've been lucky that nobody's gotten all the way drowned or bled out before someone could get them stable and fetch me.
purposeful_glory
If you like, sure. Economy-wise I've been more focused on making sure there's plenty over making sure it's allocated intelligently but I've introduced the concept of money - Dwarves helped, when they came by - and as they've learned more things to do and found and honed talents, they're specializing more and having more use for the idea. For lack of anything convenient to base a physical currency on I have them trading in time - I can do clocks with looped illusions, there's clocks all over the place. This'll break down when the value of a person's time starts to be less similar but it's doing all right for them so far including for a few things that aren't literally spending time on favors for one another.
Clever. Brilliant, actually.
If you're only going to do strategically useful things if I'm convincing about enjoying your company, I will be, but it'll be annoying. My impression is that your presence here will ease their transition, do you disagree?
If you're only going to do strategically useful things if I'm convincing about enjoying your company, I will be, but it'll be annoying. My impression is that your presence here will ease their transition, do you disagree?
purposeful_glory
No, I agree. I don't mind staying here with them and you don't have to pretend to like me personally or anything. Gave up on ever finishing that game years ago, etcetera.
The game was helpful to me, good practice at a few things I subsequently needed. I don't dislike you, you just know too much for me to properly keep you at arm's length and I can't trust you enough to enjoy having you close.
purposeful_glory
Okay. Well, I am extremely poorly equipped to manage that for you if it involves taking your various remarks at anything other than face value, so I advise you don't invite me to dinner if you don't want to have dinner with me, but I'm not going to make a fuss over being snubbed.