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Loki goes instantly where Huan tells her. She has a safety against landing intersected with solid objects, her or any of her belongings, so dramatic as it would be she can't just appear with her opponent already impaled. She has to actually stab him.
So she stabs him, spikes him from there. And hollows out Lævateinn and channels ice into the wound.
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purposeful_glory
purposeful_glory
"He was the first person on the planet I met and handled my introduction to it very well - explained what was going on, tolerated my alarm about the existence of osanwë with excellent grace and taught me to keep private thoughts, interfaced between me and everybody who needed healing without letting me make the misstep of patting somebody on the head which I otherwise certainly would have done. He's a fine conversationalist, and I find most people boring or off-putting; responds to reasonable argument, concedes error without much prodding, knows plenty about the sorts of situations I've found myself having to navigate in a, hm, friendlier manner than his father and less perpetually exasperated way than -" She has to consult her chart for Irissë's new name. "Aredhel. When Maedhros was wandering around because I hadn't found him a place with the Dwarves yet and he wanted a way to avoid recapture, Fingon was the one who gave me a spare knife for him. He's intensely devoted to Maedhros, the entire thing was far more obvious from his end than the other."
"Hmm mph," he says, but he's smiling slightly by the end. "Productive work, Loki."
And eight weeks pass uninterrupted. Fëanor spends only four of them sped up but asks Caranthir to do it for the other four so Loki can talk to someone if she likes.
purposeful_glory
That is nice of them both. What does Caranthir like to talk about?
Economics, which he now has all her books on, and the opportunities for experiments presented by Maedhros' adorably authoritarian city - 'Quendi aren't normally organized like this, if you'd thought to wonder' - galactic trade, galactic plans generally.
purposeful_glory
Excellent topics all. (How are Quendi normally organized?)
Tirion was a odd blend of compromises from Cuivienen and advice from the Valar, who liked giving it and didn't always do so well. Law enforcement was by family, where families were usually loosely organized around blood and marriage but sometimes were more like guilds - if someone had a grievance with you, they took it to the leadership of your house - and economics was 'the Valar can make anything', until the city got full enough that space was scarce and not easily allocated by friendly conversation. The King's word was law but he didn't usually use it as such.
The Vanyar lived in villages; their main city was just lots of these villages very close to each other, as far as central organization went. There were complex academic and religious and communal hierarchies that made it hard until you knew what you were doing to figure out who had actual authority over a problem; they took criminal matters to the Valar directly.
The Vanyar lived in villages; their main city was just lots of these villages very close to each other, as far as central organization went. There were complex academic and religious and communal hierarchies that made it hard until you knew what you were doing to figure out who had actual authority over a problem; they took criminal matters to the Valar directly.
purposeful_glory
Interesting, if not particularly efficient; but of course that probably wasn't a concern. Say, does Caranthir have any economic-niches-for-Men ideas?
Presuming that a solution to the mortality thing is in the works, are there actually any difference in average Mannish and Elvish aptitude? If there's not, then there won't be any need for economic niches, young Men can like young Elves apprentice in things until they know enough to be useful in them, and if they get impatient because that takes a hundred years, well, in Tirion the solution to that was to party hard after work hours, seems like Men'd be as good with that as Elves.
If there are substantially different average differences in aptitude maybe we'll be lucky and they point both ways, and Men can do things they're unusually good at. If Elves are strictly better at everything then while there are plenty of ways of doing economic integration Men might be happier living separately.
If Men are strictly better at everything then perhaps they'll keep us around to look pretty, he adds as an afterthought. I suppose I shouldn't presuppose they won't be.
If there are substantially different average differences in aptitude maybe we'll be lucky and they point both ways, and Men can do things they're unusually good at. If Elves are strictly better at everything then while there are plenty of ways of doing economic integration Men might be happier living separately.
If Men are strictly better at everything then perhaps they'll keep us around to look pretty, he adds as an afterthought. I suppose I shouldn't presuppose they won't be.
purposeful_glory
Well, they definitely have worse eyes and need more sleep, Loki remarks. I am planning to have some nice galactic biologist in to look them over and figure out birth control and longevity-if-not-immortality once I get out of the universe. That and the next spell on my list is resurrection.
The Silmarils can probably prevent mortal races from aging. They don't currently, but they have a lot of capabilities we're not using under the circumstances. Of course, something more easily replicated would be better.
purposeful_glory
Considerably. What-all can they do if you have them all together?
Um, in the absolute limit, anything a Vala can do should theoretically be possible. The things they do naturally are reverse and counter decay, heal - or, really, 'promote health', and make other things you're trying to do more powerful and more precise.
purposeful_glory
They don't seem to have much of a user interface; how do you do all that with them?
You invent other magic things that are designed to interface with them. They're just sitting there being a power source.
Father might be working on something like that right now; he's being vague about it, if so, because anything useful at this stage would be useful only with all three of them.
Could turn out that their raw power abilities are all possible to replicate with other inventions eventually. The one thing we know we cannot replicate - or, well, Father thinks so, and he doesn't say 'impossible' lightly - is their preventing the fading of the Elves outside Valinor. This way we can have them in the skies above three realms. There may also have been engineering constraints, I'm not sure.
I am very sure 'if they are separable there'll be political pressure to separate them and it'll be considered objectionable to have them all in one place to actually use' didn't cross his mind.
I am very sure 'if they are separable there'll be political pressure to separate them and it'll be considered objectionable to have them all in one place to actually use' didn't cross his mind.
purposeful_glory
Yeah, that probably only looks like a consideration in hindsight.
His next major project with that much potential, any work he cannot ever replicate, will just not work at all for people not of his bloodline. Not having to worry that your things will be used against you in this way will be very good for his productivity and emotional health.
Not at all. But - I assume Nelyo's scheme here ends with all of us accepting a chastisement and a sentence of exile or something from Elu, thanking him for it, and taking the Silmaril back, and my father will play along without telling Elu to go fuck himself but then he'll invent something amazing that literally only works for the House of Fëanor and that will be his way of communicating the sentiment and I can't blame him because I've been tempted to communicate it in an even more obnoxious manner.
purposeful_glory
I'm looking, probably less forward, but still forward, to no longer needing to pretend I care what Elu thinks about anything.