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[feanaro_curufinwe]

WHO: Fëanor and whoever.
WHAT: The Worst Elf Arrives!
WHEN: Round about noon.
WHERE: City of Tomorrow!
NOTES/WARNINGS: Incoming language barrier! Why? Because it's fun. Worry not, he learns fast.


A moment of despair, is what Fëanáro feels, as his fëa flees his hroa, leaving his sons and his people behind in a roar of flame, to be drawn to the Halls of Mandos, where Námo will surely keep him in a grip more stern than he ever held on Moringotto-- A moment of bitter rue, a fleeting second of regret, under the shadow and lurid red light of the fortress of his most hated foe--

And then there is light, but not the light he expects, no: it is rather a brilliant golden gleam from high in the sky above, reflecting off of a thousand mirrors around him, rising from the ground to the highest pinnacle of the sky, glittering almost like unto the Trees themselves--

And noise. As loud, he thinks, as the roar of battle, but as different in nature to it as an Elda to a Vala, vital and bright for all its volume. And. Things in the skies, soaring like bird but gleaming like machines, and the very sight of them spins streams possibility through his mind--

There is something in his hand that is not his sword, which is, oddly, hanging once more from his hip, and it is a small, light thing, barely noticeable in the face of the glittering wonder all about him.

One scorched, bloody, flithy elf, standing on the steps of MacAran.

Comments

[feanaro_curufinwe]

Watching her keenly, he raises the unnecessarily plain object, and gives it a dubious tap-- Only for his eyebrows to rise right up into his hair, and he quickly runs through the tutorial, nodding to himself, and muttering under his breath.

He folds himself into a sitting position with a soft metallic rattle, still muttering, with the occasional hmm or ahh that require no translation.

In short order, a message pops up on Katherine's-- device.

un: spiritoffire would like to send you a private message.

[boundinblood]

Katherine watches him work out the device, sitting on the steps beside him and setting her staff at her side, because having a full-sized mage's staff on your back is cumbersome when the ground behind you is higher. He's lost and new to this world, after all, and it has been ingrained into her to help. Always help, because the good that comes of cooperation is the kind of goodness that changes the world for the better.

When her device dings with the notification for the message, she can't help a smile as she accepts. Finally, they're getting somewhere!

"Well, it communicated that part without issue! If it translates our messages between us, it should make this much easier."

[feanaro_curufinwe]

Does your device display these words in a way that you can understand?

He sends the message as soon as she accepts; the text interface was easy enough to discern, and the smooth, glassy surface (he suspects glass, but will not presume so much) is responsive to the lightest of touches.

[boundinblood]

The way her face lights up when she sees a message she can read will probably answer well before she does, as she hastily types out the reply.

It does! Does yours display mine properly?

It would be impractical to communicate entirely through text, but it would help act as a translator to help one of them learn the other's language. She isn't entirely sure why she hasn't found herself unable to communicate with anyone else until now, but...it wouldn't be the first time.

[feanaro_curufinwe]

Excellent! Now, would you reiterate what you were endeavoring to convey to me earlier? I can make assumptions, of course, but it would serve me ill, knowing so little about you.

The true irony of Feanor is the way he has so much more regard for the strange and the new than for the known and familiar.

[boundinblood]

A mage's place in life is to learn - learn magic, learn of magical reagents, learn of magical creatures and places and spirits, of the mundane things magic reshapes. Katherine has nothing but respect for the open fascination the elf has shown so far, the curiosity rather than superstitious suspicion. And she has to admit, she's intrigued by the entire situation. How was it he arrived without knowing about his device? He had to have pressed the transport button, hadn't he?

She types quickly, having learned her device generally knows what she's aiming for when her finger hits the wrong place on the screen. Somehow. What a smart machine. She hoped there wasn't a soul trapped in there like the tiniest golem in existence, watching her words and correcting them...

I was wondering how it was possible that you arrived unharmed but with signs of wounds and burns. I'd intended to heal you until you showed me you weren't hurt.

"For that matter," she adds aloud, "how did you arrive without knowing about your device in the first place?"

She then repeats that in text, to translate for him. He'd wanted her to keep talking, so he's clearly interested in learning what she's saying, rather than this particular workaround.

I am the WORST so sorry this took so long

[feanaro_curufinwe]

The grammar is beginning to make sense, he thinks. Though there is a... colloquial sense to the words that he is still working on parsing. It is a process, one which will grow quicker as time goes by.

It is good to know that you are a healer, though I hope that you have little need of that skill in this wondrous place, comes the reply, and he speaks the Quenya as he sends it, because she might as well learn the tongue in exchange for her own.

As to my arrival, I know not; one moment, my spirit was flying to Mandos, and the next, I was here. A most curious situation, and one for which I wish to rectify my ignorance with all possible swiftness.

It's okay!

[boundinblood]

She isn't nearly as good at it as he is. The strides he's making in understanding her languages certainly aren't going to be matched. She still tries, though, picking out at least the word he's using to refer to himself.

And, of course, she continues to return the courtesy, speaking aloud what she sends.

What does that mean? Is Mandos something like the Fade, where spirits and dreams originate?

She doesn't like the sound of it - bloodied and burned, but no injuries to match. And a spirit flying off... She suspects, and the spoken counterpart to this text is hesitant, but she doesn't ask outright.

*phew*

[feanaro_curufinwe]

You are not wrong, though not precisely right, either. A good guess, you might say. Mandos is the realm of Námo, Lord of Death and Fate, and it is there that our spirits reside for a time, to rest before we return to the world.

[boundinblood]

So you died before coming here? I'm sorry for asking such a personal question, but I've never heard of such a thing - returning someone from true death, when the spirit has left the body.

[feanaro_curufinwe]

He pauses a moment, before sending the reply:

Indeed

[boundinblood]

"I'm sorry."

She says it aloud without thinking, looks down at her device and realizes they're words he'd have heard. She repeats them in text anyway.

The poor man, he'd known his spirit was bound for a place it belonged. It wasn't at all like a death she'd have heard of, where not even the spirits of the Fade knew where a departed soul went once it went beyond it.

Do you want to go back?

[feanaro_curufinwe]

"No," he says, in her own tongue, shaking his head. The moment of certainty lasts only so long though, before he grimaces, and sends:

Yes. No. Both at the same time, which is a mental sensation I find myself unaccustomed to.

[boundinblood]

Being undecided is natural for something like this. I couldn't begin to imagine what it must feel like.

After repeating the words aloud, since he seems to be catching on to her language so much faster than she is his, and every sentence he hears will help, she gives him a sympathetic look.

If it means anything, I've heard that your time here doesn't change the amount of time that passes in your home world. You can spend as long as you'd like here and it would make no difference to your surroundings at home.

Of course, not having encountered someone who'd arrived after death before, she wouldn't know the transport button simply doesn't work for them at all...