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]

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.

[nerdeology]

Some things are better left unsaid.

[If you met a Normin, you'd understand.]

Who is this "old enemy"? Is that described in the stories?

[bythewaves]

I will have to take your word for it.

We call him Morgoth, the Dark Foe of the World, and he was once one of the Powers - the greatest of them, in fact. But he wished for what he could not have, and in greed and pride he fell, for if he could not own, then he would ruin. His name we do not speak, not since he revealed his true colours and slew my grandfather and stole my father's greatest work and most prize treasure.

[ If text can ooze hate, it is ]

We have always fought him, my kin and my people, and for what he did to us we will never forgive.

[nerdeology]

[Yeah, he sort of gets that feeling. It's also a good thing this is text or he'd be writing so much down. He loves history. Doesn't even matter if it's not his own world's.]

How long ago was that? It seems like a very old tale.

["Always fought him"? He'd said he was old, and if they really are similar to seraphim in that sense, appearance means nothing.]

[bythewaves]

It is - one the oldest of our world, I suppose. It happened... grandfather's death was in the time before moon and sun. In the very beginning of the First Age, and we are now at the end of the Third. By the count of sun years, I think it must have been perhaps some seven thousand one hundred years now.

[nerdeology]

[Whaaaat the heck.]

Maybe it's your kind who are most like the seraphim. That's older than many I know.

[Including himself, though that doesn't actually take much.]

[bythewaves]

Is it? I am probably one of the oldest remaining in Middle-earth, but Lord Cirdan, we suspect, is one of our First Parents, those who woke full grown, and were not made, and he must be... over 11, 400 sun years by now. And the Ainur are older still, if you can call those who are timeless 'old'. You must be very young, surely!

[nerdeology]

Someone that old... probably on par with the elder seraphim like Gramps, or the Five Lords, perhaps.

I'm probably not the best example of what a seraph should be. There are those who don't even remember how old they are, but I'm only 18 years old, myself.

[bythewaves]

Eighteen! By my people's count, you are not even of age yet!

[ Watch Maglor try to dad his captain ]

Or do your folk age swifter?

[nerdeology]

Yes and no. A seraph's age is decided by one's self image and perception. If we want to age or stay young, we just have to feel it.

I grew up alongside a human, though, so I aged with him.

[bythewaves]

I see - that is interesting, but I suppose if your form and face are shaped by those around you, it would make sense. Fascinating - forgive me if all these questions seem overly curious - but your world must be an intersting one indeed.

[nerdeology]

I could easily say the same to you. And I've already asked you plenty of questions, myself- it's only fair to return the favour.

[Look at them, learning all the things.]

[bythewaves]

[ Bonding through shared love of learning! ]

Ah, that is true! As long as you do not mind, then. We could continue this in person, if you prefer?

[nerdeology]

[Oof, about that.]

We could try, but that'll depend on your resonance.

[bythewaves]

What do you mean?