he's probably fine.

[nerdeology]

Who: Mikleo
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: On the Huntress!
When: Now, basically

[You know what's great about being a seraph? Never getting sick. You know what's not great about being a seraph? Having zero frame of reference for what being sick is like when you experience it for the first time. And after a month of quietly enduring and/or ignoring it, despite being a water elemental trapped on a planet full of poisonous water, it's finally caught up to him.

It doesn't help that this realization comes hand in hand with the fact that he's been upgraded to captain, apparently, which is as nonsensical a decision as he's ever heard from the Atroma. The one perk - besides the sudden lack of malevolence on the Huntress due to Greed's departure - means that he now has a big bed to curl up and be miserable in.]

I have a few questions.

is there some sort of guide for captain's duties? for those who lack experience.

also:

how do you tell whether you are dying or just sick

[...Those questions should probably have had a completely different priority, but whatever. He's too sick to be bothered.

He makes an attempt at sending this out as an anonymous communication, but he's a bit too light-headed and bleary-eyed to pull it off, so it probably doesn't work too well. He still doesn't show up on camera, so there is that.]

Comments

[bythewaves]

Then I will have to hope it has done so for me as well! So far, it has been quite useful in basic things, although I do not think I will ever enjoy the strange thing they call "food" here.

[nerdeology]

No argument here. The only time I even bother with the food is if I'm cooking for someone else.

[bythewaves]

You...do not eat?

[nerdeology]

Sometimes I do, if the food is good, but I don't have to.

[bythewaves]

That must be incredibly useful. But it also tells me you are probably not mortal?

[nerdeology]

I'm not. My kind are called seraphim. The easiest comparison I've found is it's a type of "spirit".

[bythewaves]

Like the Ainur of my world then. I am honored to meet one of the Holy Ones here.

[nerdeology]

[Whoa, hey. He honestly never expected to meet anyone who holds his kind in high esteem here. Consider him officially daunted.]

"Holy Ones"? Are spirits worshipped where you're from?

[bythewaves]

Not by us - and they have always insisted that they were but our older siblings, there to teach and guide, and wished for our respect, yes, but not worship, for they are themselves but servants in the end. But Men do, I think, sometimes.

But we call them "Ainur" or "Holy Ones" because they are the builders of our world, beings of spirit and not flesh, although they could wear a physical form when it suited them to do so.

[ He promises, no worship. Just a lot of automatic respect ]

[nerdeology]

[Respect is something he can get used to, so awesome. just wait until his occasional immaturity comes out]

It's somewhat similar then, but not the same. We're not worldbuilders or anything, and we do have bodies, though most people can't see or hear us. Our relationship with mortals is meant to be symbiotic, but they've been out of touch for so long that many seraphim were forced to abandon them.

[bythewaves]

[ The Ainur can be just as immature, Maglor will not be surprised ]

Like, but not like, eh? I am sad to hear that things between you and Men grow distant, but it is so in my world as well, that as Men grow they leave as all behind.

[nerdeology]

It's typical of humans to stop believing in what they can't see.

It isn't hopeless, though. We're working to bring things back to how they ought to be, and even if it takes time, it's working out so far. The blessing of the seraphim has been restored to a number of regions already, and true faith is coming back to the people, too.

[If this were voice, he would sound proud; as it is, all he can do is type very enthusiastically.]

[bythewaves]

It is - Men move swiftly ever forward, and forget to look back, I think. They carry less baggage, but some things are forgotten that perhaps should not be.

But I am glad - and I hope that you will see the renewal of old ties.

[nerdeology]

You say "Men" as if they're not your kind. Are you not human?

[He'd been distracted the first time, but something in the way he keeps phrasing it makes Mikleo curious.]

[bythewaves]

Ahhhh, my apologies - I was told that I should use 'human', instead, but I am old and set in my ways.

But yes - my people call ourselves Quendi, or Speakers, but Men... humans, that is, have always called us Elves.

[nerdeology]

Elves... can't say I'm familiar with that name, or any of the others. What makes you different from humans, out of curiosity?

[bythewaves]

In my world, at the least - we are the Firstborn, the first of our kindreds to awake. Men we call the Aftercomers, but also the Hasteners - for unlike us, they are not bound to the world as we are, and move swiftly through life, and in death they pass beyond the circles of the world, and we do not know where they go. But we are tied to the world, to live as long as it does. Death for us brings us to the Halls of Waiting, from whence we may eventually walk the world of the living again.

[nerdeology]

[All of that reads sort of like a poetic transcription out of an ancient history book, or a tale one might find cryptically carved into the walls of a ruin.

....

so cool]

Fascinating. By that, you mean- you live longer than humans, and when you die, there's a chance you might come back in some way? Am I understanding it right?

[bythewaves]

Essentially so, yes. As I said - our lives extend until the end of the world.

[ Literally ]

We can be killed, of course, although it is harder to kill us than it is Men, in some ways, anyway. But yes - for most, the stay in the Halls is short. Enough time, they say, to reflect, and to heal. To forgive and be forgiven. At least one of the Reborn has walked again amongst us, and so we know it to be true. But not all. For some, the Halls are where we will wait until the final battle, and after that... no one knows. We are tied, and so are our fates. Men might know, perhaps, but they return not.

[nerdeology]

Like something between humans and spirits, then. We don't have anything like that where I'm from. Unless the Normin count.

[....]

Nevermind, not the Normin.

[bythewaves]

What are the Normin?

[nerdeology]

[s i g h he shouldn't have said that]

They're a type of seraph, but... they're more like seraphim assistants. They live as long as we can, but they don't have the same powers. My understanding is that they serve beneath the Lords of the Land and boost their blessing.

[Good thing Edna's not here. They'd both get quite the lecture.]

[bythewaves]

Mmm, not that like, if they are similar to you - we elves are as physical as Men, Dwarves and Hobbits - we just... I suppose you would say, we are better attuned to the world we are so tied to.

[nerdeology]

Like I said, the Normin don't count.

[He can practically feel the smack of Edna's umbrella. Such blasphemy.]

What's that "final battle" you mentioned?

[bythewaves]

I think there is a story there you are not telling.

[ who knew text could be dryly sarcastic ]

We call it the Dagor Dagorath - they say it will be the final war of our world, where our old enemy will finally break the bonds and guard set upon him to keep him out, and return. Then, they say, we will all of us fight together, Elves and Men, Dwarves and Hobbits and even the Ainur themselves; one last time, and in his overthrow the world will end, and then... we do not know. But the wise speak of a Second Music, of Arda Reborn, as it should have been. But that is only speculation.