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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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"He told me he was okay, when we moved in, cool as a breeze, made fun of me for wondering, but Huan didn't lick him and I asked why not and Huan said he didn't like being touched."
"He could've said so."
purposeful_glory
"Apparently not. It's better or at least more - tractable - than it used to be, he worked on it for a few days before he could close the distance to let me turn him into a bird on his own, I wasn't going to reach out and seize him."
"Thanks."
"Maybe I'll go find him later, ask what it is he thinks we'd overreact to."
purposeful_glory
"I don't have a head for disentangling layers of pretense so I just take him at face value, which leaves him in fairly basic control of the interaction without having to manage my reaction more than one deep, but I can see why you wouldn't want to do that."
"Maitimo eventually gets too removed from things if you don't yell at him. Or at least he used to."
"Forgets that, like, at the end of the day the fact he has preferences isn't problem-solving constraint, they're not something to work around, he can actually just have them..."
"Yelling at him works. Or worked back in Valinor. If there are other approaches I don't know them."
purposeful_glory
"Does it work by bringing to the fore a preference not to be yelled at or in some more sophisticated way?"
"Not really sure. It's not like I did it strategically, growing up.
I love my parents but both of them were as distractible as a wild colt and anyway seven is a lot. Nelyo basically raised us."
I love my parents but both of them were as distractible as a wild colt and anyway seven is a lot. Nelyo basically raised us."
"This is more than enough dancing together for two people who want it known they're leaving tonight with someone of the same gender. Catch you later?"
purposeful_glory
"Later."
And Loki dances a little more.
And then she asks the brunette if she wants to go stargaze.
And Loki dances a little more.
And then she asks the brunette if she wants to go stargaze.
She does! She hasn't been up to the roof of a palace before, but she supposes it's unlikely the King has security on the roof.
purposeful_glory
...It is unlikely that the King has security on the roof tonight, anyway.
Is there actually roof access for people who can't fly and/or teleport?
Is there actually roof access for people who can't fly and/or teleport?
Elves are good at climbing! In trees, mostly, but this transfers to buildings.
There is a lovely view of the stars. Loki's companion very cautiously reaches for Loki's hair.
purposeful_glory
Loki leans in. Although she then says, "My home planet doesn't have the hair thing so all actually I know about it is to avoid it under most circumstances."
"What does your home planet have? And it's not a big deal except among, like, royalty. You really shouldn't lean on them too much to get a sense of how Quendi work altogether."