[meme] Test Drive

[citycouncil]

Valentine's Day Test Drive!

Tag into this post with characters you're thinking of apping to the game (characters who are not currently in-game or currently reserved by someone else). It can be just a tag, a brief EP, whatever you want. You can be new to the game, or simply want to test out a fresh pup. Tag each other with these characters or those already in game, and have fun.

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[farandfaint]

Nor were you expected, at least for my part. The city is often fickle in that regard. [He mentally congratulates whoever had raised Elrond to be so polite and yet so​ suspicious. It’s a combination that must serve him well in Beleriand.]

[summerkind]

Does this... [He pauses a moment, trying to think of the right name for this strange event.] this meeting take place every month? For, fickle or no, there might still be a pattern that may be anticipated even if it cannot be understood.

[farandfaint]

More or less, though it does not always catch the same people. Some come once, then never again; some every month and then arrive in truth; some are inconstant at best.

Not that knowing the pattern will do you​ any good - I have never heard of anyone who remembered being here after they were sent back - we seem to all forget, temporarily - and the flow of time between worlds is inconsistent, to say the least. It is a month by my count; it could be a second or a hundred years by yours.

[summerkind]

[Which brings up something that's been bugging him, but that he hasn't found quite the right way to ask about before now...] If the time here truly is as inconstant as you say, may I ask what year was it when you were last in Beleriand, my lord? I fear it is somewhat removed from the one that I was last in.

[farandfaint]

In sun-years, it was the year 472 of what is apparently being called the First Age. And I have been in Darrow for a little over a year, if that tells you anything.

[He watches Elrond closely as he says it. The question - or rather, what Elrond had inadvertently revealed in his elaboration - has given him a fairly good idea of why the Elf had been quite so startled to see him here, and he doesn’t much care for it.]

[summerkind]

[Elrond tries his best, he really does, but, despite centuries of self-control and training in the formality required of a high ranking court official, he can't help his initial reaction to the news. And that initial reaction can best be summed up as oh fuck. He knows that year. Everyone knows that year. Mask cracked, he makes an attempt at damage control.]

Forgive me. I-- I did not think we came from times so far apart. If what you say is true then I have not yet been born.

[Heck. One of his grandfathers hasn't even been born yet.]

[farandfaint]

[And that​ tells him all he needs to know]

No need to apologize. I imagine it would take anyone by surprise. But since I have answered your question, it seems only fair that you answer one of mine.

[He feels a little bad about it, pushing when Elrond is already clearly off-balance - he does​ - but the fact of the matter is that Elrond is normally so poised that Maedhros would be unable to take his answer at face value. And he wants a direct answer to this, badly enough to press the advantage]

Is the reason you were so unnerved by my presence here because we know each other in your time, or because I’m dead in your time? Or is it both?

[summerkind]

[Elrond is silent for a long moment, looking almost physically pained by the position he's caught in. He can't lie about this -not to Maedhros, not now- but to hear him asking such a question and the flood of memories that come rushing in its wake are almost too much to bear. What will happen if Maedhros decides to press further? How does he even begin to explain things?

In the end he settles for a simple nod, remembering being confronted by the elf for occasional childhood misdeeds or falsehoods and knowing that unadorned brevity often went down best.]

It is both.

[farandfaint]

Well. [And this, of course, is exactly why he’d decided - months ago, now - that it was better not to know. Maedhros is perfectly aware that he won’t remember any of this later. That doesn’t make it any easier to bear now.]

Not in the battle I was in when I came here, then, not if we know each other. I suppose that’s something.

---

[summerkind]

Have you any other questions, my lord?

[Other than the one careful response, Elrond remains silent, watching Maedhros closely. There's concern there, wariness as well, but mostly a sense of quiet, apprehensive expectation. Over the decades of his youth he became used to observing Maedhros's reactions: interpreting his silences, reading between lines, trying to gauge what might come next. This is not the fey, volatile Maedhros that he knew and current situation is strange beyond anything he could have dreamt of as a child, but the instinct to watch and wait remains.]

[farandfaint]

Of course I do.

[He smiles suddenly, and if there’s no joy in it there is at least a shred of humor still]

But none I would have of you, I think. You need not look so concerned! I have quite learned my lesson about asking questions for the time being.

[summerkind]

[He relaxes a bit, but the concern is going nowhere. After all, mildly concerned is pretty much Elrond's default state.]

I am glad to hear it. [There's the suggestion of an unspoken thank you as well. He doesn't doubt that there will be more questions in the future, but the more time he has to prepare himself the better.]

[farandfaint]

I am beginning to think, actually, that I should beg your pardon for having asked you in the first place. [There's nothing specific, nothing he can point to, but something - in how Elrond reacts, in what he reacts to, in the careful way Elrond has been watching him - is giving him the sense that whatever they had been to each other, they had been... something. That they had not just known each other in passing]

[summerkind]

I do not begrudge you the asking. There are few who would not be curious about such a thing.

[And cue one of those Elrond specific sad because he's wise/wise because he's sad slight smiles. Which probably doesn't help get rid of the notion that he knows a lot more than he's letting on about a lot of things.]

[farandfaint]

This is, by my count, the fourth time I have found myself in a position to learn about my own future. I did better the other times.

[And that’s​ a Turgon smile if he’s ever seen one, which makes it very unfortunate that he has just promised to stop asking Elrond awkward questions about the future. There is no good​ response to the question of what a descendant of Idril Celebrindal is doing outside of Gondolin]

[summerkind]

Are there three others then like myself with knowledge of the future and it was only by chance that I should be the lucky fourth to break your resolve?

[Part of him is honestly curious if there are other elves from the future out there, but there's a trace of humor in his voice as well, uncertain though it may be. He isn't used to speaking to Maedhros as something close to equals instead of as adult and (nominally captive) child and there's an awkwardness that Elrond can certainly feel even if it doesn't fully penetrate the protective politeness he's wrapped in.]

[farandfaint]

I somehow doubt that there are three others among our people who would be as circumspect as you about it, should the situation arise.

No, it seems someone found our history interesting enough to warrant writing it down, and that book is here, as are some who have read it

[summerkind]

[It's possibly misplaced, but there's a part of Elrond that feels pride hearing that from Maedhros. All of those years as a child trying to turn the reckless, headlong, mannish energy within him into something more cautious and patient, all the lessons about the wiles of the enemy and the need to be careful and vigilant. He can't let it show though. Things are strange enough already.]

Our history? [The loremaster part of him is going to need so much clarification. A history of the Noldor? Of Beleriand? Of the Eldar in general?]

[farandfaint]

It starts with the Ainulindalë and goes on from there, to give you an idea of the scope. From the parts I read, it seems accurate, thoroughly​ researched, and primarily concerned with the doings of the Eldar. Particularly those of the extended House of Finwë.

[summerkind]

[Elrond looks suitably impressed by the scope and even more curious about what little Maedhros has given. His nerd mode has been activated.]

Was there nothing of Men in its pages?

[He doesn't know just what Maedhros read, but if it's Eldar specific then maybe Peredhil don't merit a mention, no matter what relations they might have. Maybe there's a chance that the exact connection he has to the last two sons of Fëanor won't be revealed even if Maedhros does return to it.

[farandfaint]

There was, where their doings intersected with ours, though little enough in their own words. Less still of the Dwarves. It may be that they were described in more detail later, though - I stopped reading before I reached the tale of Beren and Luthien. [Which he is quite certain is​ in there, the book itself having been named for the jewel they stole]

[summerkind]

[He does a very good job of not reacting when Maedhros casually mentions what for his family is the story. But it's easier to do when he can redirect apparent interest in any one subject to general nerdiness.]

That's a shame. I have an interest in the lore of the other kindreds and sources can be difficult to discover, particularly histories of the dwarves.

[farandfaint]

[Maedhros does a very good job of not rolling his eyes while still conveying that if he were slightly less well-mannered he would absolutely be rolling his eyes. It’s mostly affectionate. Mostly.]

In my experience of the Dwarves, asking them about their histories results in them primarily laughing in your face, and secondly making up increasingly outrageous stories to see how much they can get you to believe.

[summerkind]

[That prompts a brief laugh and a smile that isn't sad or wise, but delighted instead, bright and warm as summer, the sort of smile that makes perfect sense when you remember his great-grandmother had flowers spring up behind her as she walked.]

Oh, I know that all too well. Durin once told me that an ancestor had slain a dragon by throwing a loaf of the finest dwarven bread with such force that it cracked the beast's skull. I'm still a little wary of their baked goods to this day.