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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.
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purposeful_glory
Mm, breakfast.
She checks everybody's dots and when they have said necessary goodbyes she turns them all into invisible swifts and leads the way, insofar as it's leading when you're invisible and just osanwëing directions. Zoom song should get them there before nightfall.
She checks everybody's dots and when they have said necessary goodbyes she turns them all into invisible swifts and leads the way, insofar as it's leading when you're invisible and just osanwëing directions. Zoom song should get them there before nightfall.
Across the whole of northern Beleriand, across the eastern plains, across the mountains, across the desert. Night hasn't fallen, but only because this world is flat.
purposeful_glory
Well, not having to adjust for time zones will be handy if somebody invents radio.
She descends upon the area of the werewolf tower first, debirds everybody, and barges in.
She descends upon the area of the werewolf tower first, debirds everybody, and barges in.
Panic and freezing and cowering, again.
A minute of silence, and then, told in four overlapping narratives by different hysterical people - "No one went and got food, because we were scared, and then there was a fight and then a lot of people turned into wolves and then the fight got really bad so they went to run around outside and the people outside threw rocks and someone ran into the forest and got shot and is dead."
purposeful_glory
"Shit. Okay. Don't go into the forest, the people in the forest are jerks. I am going to try to cause them to be less jerks but it might take a stupidly long time or not work at all. Do you eat the same things you did before you turned into werewolves? What exactly determines when you are and are not wolves?"
"He was still teaching us that."
"We eat the same things."
"Not if we're wolves. Then meat tastes best."
"Meat tastes best all the time."
"I can turn into a wolf whenever I want."
"I do it at night."
"I do it when the Moon is out."
"We eat the same things."
"Not if we're wolves. Then meat tastes best."
"Meat tastes best all the time."
"I can turn into a wolf whenever I want."
"I do it at night."
"I do it when the Moon is out."
purposeful_glory
"No turning anybody into werewolves at all until we know more about how that works," she says. "I brought some people with me to help me manage this place now that Thauron's gone. Are you calm enough to be introduced? They're less scary than I am."
They are calm enough to be introduced.
purposeful_glory
So Loki leads them out and introduces Noldor to werewolves and solicits a volunteer to go get the poor werewolves who she did not mean to scare that badly something to eat. She dots all the werewolves and writes down their names.
And someone is back not too much longer with deer and rabbit and the news that there are wild pigs here.
purposeful_glory
Good, good. Okay, you can feed the werewolves and talk to them, try to figure out which ones are smartest and if there's anything else I need to know that they know, thanks, rest of us let's fly over to the Men and figure out a good starting pitch, the colonizers can all then camp out nearish the tower with some of you Quendi who like barely need sleep on watch, and then Loki's spreading out and you can osanwë the farther-flung Men the good news before they've had more than five weeks to wander to hostile corners of the map. Sound like a plan?
It sounds like a plan, and everyone is happy to participate.
purposeful_glory
Splendid. This is a good way to work through her shitty mood over Vár and bajillions of other orcs who have worn out their stay of torment.
Objectives for pitching the entire concept of "Loki runs the place now" to Men: it does not result in worship, it does not result in werewolf pogroms, it is made clear that this is entirely a matter of Loki wanting to teach them stuff so they can do things more interesting than wander around looking for food and getting chomped on by every predator in the vicinity and has nothing to do with them being unqualified in any way other than being brand new, the Men after hearing this pitch feel encouraged to ask questions and make comments and express interests that can help shape a how-to-civilization curriculum.
Side objective: to what extent is she going to have to give these people the sex talk, find that out.
Objectives for pitching the entire concept of "Loki runs the place now" to Men: it does not result in worship, it does not result in werewolf pogroms, it is made clear that this is entirely a matter of Loki wanting to teach them stuff so they can do things more interesting than wander around looking for food and getting chomped on by every predator in the vicinity and has nothing to do with them being unqualified in any way other than being brand new, the Men after hearing this pitch feel encouraged to ask questions and make comments and express interests that can help shape a how-to-civilization curriculum.
Side objective: to what extent is she going to have to give these people the sex talk, find that out.
This mostly goes very well, except that eight different people tell her that the Men haven't been told yet that homosexuality isn't acceptable and sex means you're married, and the Valar didn't tell the Elves about that until we got to Valinor so it's perfectly understandable and hopefully Eru won't be too angry with Men for doing it wrong.
purposeful_glory
"I'm pretty sure that Men don't have the sex means you're married thing. Most people don't. I was not planning to suggest that homosexuality isn't acceptable either, especially since I don't know how to invent them birth control. Is there going to be a problem?"
There is going to be a debate.
One side holds that not telling Men what the Valar say seems like a really bad idea, because the Valar know more about these things, are in any event powerful and dangerous to have as enemies, and probably have such strong opinions about those specific topics because Eru cares a lot about them and Eru and the Valar are very much needed. And besides it's wrong.
The other side holds that the Valar, if they want to explain things, are going to have to send someone, and didn't, and accidental children are a much much greater evil so it's worth allowing Men to engage in lesser evils for the sake of preventing greater ones.
One side holds that not telling Men what the Valar say seems like a really bad idea, because the Valar know more about these things, are in any event powerful and dangerous to have as enemies, and probably have such strong opinions about those specific topics because Eru cares a lot about them and Eru and the Valar are very much needed. And besides it's wrong.
The other side holds that the Valar, if they want to explain things, are going to have to send someone, and didn't, and accidental children are a much much greater evil so it's worth allowing Men to engage in lesser evils for the sake of preventing greater ones.
purposeful_glory
"If the Men are independently curious about the Valar's opinions on their sex lives, or Eru's opinion as understood through the Valar who did not even know that planets are supposed to be round, for some unfathomable reason, I have no reason to withhold the information. I see no reason for this to interest them without any Valar on hand and the one closest to hand being the one who sent somebody to turn some of them into werewolves and pick them off as part of a program of Bonsai Men. My opinion on homosexuality is that depending on the person it ranges from uninteresting through an evening's entertainment all the way to essential for fulfillment and happiness and is not any disapproving third party's business unless someone wants me to officiate a gay wedding, which I will delightedly do. The Men may occupy any number of possible distributions over this spectrum, and the accidental children thing is a real problem - especially since childbirth is frequently fatal among Midgardians, whom Men mostly resemble. Continue not being homosexuals on your own time. I wanted you filtered for not being prissy about other cultures, prove you were good picks."
Everyone agrees not to encourage Men in activities that result in accidental children.
"Well," someone says to her afterwards, "Findekáno wasn't going to ask 'and homosexuality? how do you feel about that?' of potential recruits."
"Well," someone says to her afterwards, "Findekáno wasn't going to ask 'and homosexuality? how do you feel about that?' of potential recruits."
purposeful_glory
"No, I imagine he wasn't that specific. Deal with it anyway. You know, Dwarves don't even have genders?"
They did not know that. They are fascinated and horrified and much speculation about Aulë's personal life ensues.
purposeful_glory
Well, that's funny.
Guards: assigned. Wake enough people to handle anything that comes up.
Zzzzzz.
Guards: assigned. Wake enough people to handle anything that comes up.
Zzzzzz.
Nothing comes up. It's a full moon; this doesn't seem to do anything special for werewolves.
purposeful_glory
Good good, she does like the occasional full night of sleep.
Okay, morning time, she would like a survey of potentially croppable plants hereabouts - food, fiber, maybe quick trees so they can have some wood without having to bug the aggressively unhelpful Nandor about that. She has a crop song, how well do those work?
Somebody get going on learning the Men's language so she doesn't have to translate everything, osanwë should help, be nice about not reading private thoughts and teach them to shield smart quick as soon as you have that level of communication but Loki's not going to stress that much about the private thoughts of people who've had five weeks to generate any when there's a language barrier to deal with. Figure out an alphabet that works for the sounds they make, teach it to whoever seems to have retained numerals - they're using Doriath numerals, here's those, it won't be the first mixed alphabet/numeral system in the multiverse.
And she's going to go bother the Nandor.
"Hello again," she says to the Nandor.
Okay, morning time, she would like a survey of potentially croppable plants hereabouts - food, fiber, maybe quick trees so they can have some wood without having to bug the aggressively unhelpful Nandor about that. She has a crop song, how well do those work?
Somebody get going on learning the Men's language so she doesn't have to translate everything, osanwë should help, be nice about not reading private thoughts and teach them to shield smart quick as soon as you have that level of communication but Loki's not going to stress that much about the private thoughts of people who've had five weeks to generate any when there's a language barrier to deal with. Figure out an alphabet that works for the sounds they make, teach it to whoever seems to have retained numerals - they're using Doriath numerals, here's those, it won't be the first mixed alphabet/numeral system in the multiverse.
And she's going to go bother the Nandor.
"Hello again," she says to the Nandor.