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Akibel Mowar is on his way home from the blacksmith's when he spots it. People are shrieking and fleeing from it, which seems reasonable, as it's a fuckoff huge snake with a mirror for a face. A big mirror.
Kib can't so much flee. He can shriek - he can lurch in the direction of the nearest house and try the door - it's locked. He can amble briskly...
He can break into a run when the snake gains on him and fall flat on his face.
And he can get eaten up.
And it's too bright too bright too bright and he flings his arm over his eyes.
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secondchance
"Once we have immunity to mind-affecting magic you can safely swear something restricting your ability to be coerced in the future, and possibly figure out whether you can otherwise leverage oaths to protect yourself, and then I'll make the Silmarils better so idiots don't run amok over them."
"Thank you for finding a way to make use of those damnably ridiculous things. I want to see all the rest of them now."
secondchance
"...If you say so."
Kib pulls out his timeline. He goes in chronological order.
Kib pulls out his timeline. He goes in chronological order.
He takes notes. "Lári won't be in any of the plan either," he says, "she can help us with it."
secondchance
"Yeah. Although influencing things in a direction more carefully chosen than 'not that' probably requires finesse other than 'throw lots of humans at it'."
"Obviously now that I know there's going to be a war I can commence developing the weapons for it sooner than I must otherwise have been able to. And I can avoid dying early in it, and thereby be able to respond at need to its demands."
secondchance
"I'd really rather avert the war if at all possible, especially since it probably involves at least one evil Vala and those are just bad news. Although I'm not sure you can throw any number of humans at Valar to get them to act substantially differently so maybe you have a point."
"And an evil Vala now has twice as many worlds in which to work terrible evils," he says. "Feel free to spend your time attempting to avert the war, that's not where mine will be best spent."
"The Silmarils might be able to do it. I don't know what else could but it's not a problem I anticipated needing to solve and I have not yet given it even a few days' thought."
"There is also," Maitimo says, "supposedly some political strife that distracts us all in the face of the war."
"Well," says his father, "prevent that, would you? You spend all your time at it-"
"Not lately, I have been working on the portal project. Would you like me to reorder my priorities?"
"Yes. Keep everyone politically united so we can lead them off to war if needed."
"Well," says his father, "prevent that, would you? You spend all your time at it-"
"Not lately, I have been working on the portal project. Would you like me to reorder my priorities?"
"Yes. Keep everyone politically united so we can lead them off to war if needed."
secondchance
"Or just have them mass produce combat golems or something if we're going to do that."
"The Valar are not going to be amused if we start mass producing combat golems," Fëanáro says. "Are there things less suspicious than combat golems we could produce such that we'd have the infrastructure to quickly switch to combat golems when they're needed?"
secondchance
"All you'd really need for mass production is appropriately shaped chassis in the desired quantity and a handful of automata to etch them," Kib says. "If you make a sufficiently generic chassis, sure."
"Lovely. Let's have that."
secondchance
"I'll get a generic chassis design with plenty of surface area worked out after the scribe's done. Should be in a few days at this point."
"It might be better to do that here than in Tirion, harder for anyone to drop in uninvited," he says.
"I've benefitted from having Kib living in the palace," Maitimo says, "in terms of consulting on the portal project."
"I've benefitted from having Kib living in the palace," Maitimo says, "in terms of consulting on the portal project."
secondchance
"And I don't have quite your aversion to interruptions, I can do the same thing for a while but not unbrokenly."
"I'd love to have Maitimo live here too."
"You need me to keep our people united against whatever will someday divide them," Maitimo says.
"You need me to keep our people united against whatever will someday divide them," Maitimo says.
secondchance
"Portal project might even help with that if your psychology's like humans' in the 'gosh, those other people are so different, my next door neighbor is so normal by comparison' department."
"The Noldor will argue over absolutely anything," Fëanáro says, "but I do think people will do less politics if they are less bored and the portals might make them less bored."
"So do I," says Maitimo passionately, "...the way their societies and economies are structured, in particular."
His father looks at him as if he's really noticed for the first time that he's there. "You've always found people more interesting in the specific than in the general."
"Have I?"
"You finding Kib so delightful wouldn't be surprising, you finding general human society that fascinating would be a change of pace."
"I guess I've been thinking on a different scale."
His father looks at him as if he's really noticed for the first time that he's there. "You've always found people more interesting in the specific than in the general."
"Have I?"
"You finding Kib so delightful wouldn't be surprising, you finding general human society that fascinating would be a change of pace."
"I guess I've been thinking on a different scale."