(no subject)

[faithfulwisdom]

Who: Finrod
Broadcast: One for the crew of the Bishop and one for CR
Action: He's hanging out on the Bishop, if you want
When: Slightly backdated, let's say 5/9


[Video, locked to the Bishop]

[There’s a noticeable difference from Finrod’s usual appearance on the communication devices. His easygoing demeanor is gone, replaced by a decidedly more commanding air. He has chosen one of his finer tunics for this, and his hair is carefully braided back and away from his face.
As the video begins, he sits perfectly straight, his shoulders squared, and a confident , welcoming smile on his face. With a polite little dip of his head, he begins to speak, his tone more formal than most may be accustomed to hearing.]

Le suilannon

There are, I believe, a few of you I have not yet met- something I hope to remedy soon- but for that reason, I think it best to start with an introduction. I am Finrod Felagund and I have been serving as a Communications Officer aboard the Bishop for quite some time now. None of you have failed to notice, I am certain, the recent departure of several of our crew members, including our former captain. Due to these changes, I have been promoted to the position of captain.

I wish to assure you, first, that I have no shortage of experience in the role of a commanding officer. I have spent the last several hundred years as a leader, on and off the battle field. Secondly, I wish to welcome you all to come to me with any difficulties you may have, or simply so that we might know one another better. The invitation will remain open as long as I am aboard this vessel.

I look forward to continuing to work with all of you.

[Video, locked to his friends (minus Maglor), if you think he would have included you in the list, you are probably right.]

I have a favor to ask of you, if I might. My cousin, Maglor, has arrived and will, no doubt, have difficulty adjusting at first. [And there’s something else that worries him. How worn Maglor seems at times, how weary. But he is hesitant to speak of that aloud, let alone to a group.] I ask only that you show him the same generosity and kindness that you have shown me in my time here. He is, by and large, an agreeable sort, even if he may be a touch thick-headed at times.

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[child_of_bhaal]

We've met. He's very charming.

[faithfulwisdom]

He has always had a way with words- and with notes. They simply seem to fall into place for him.

[child_of_bhaal]

Oh yes, I found that out right away. [She's so charmed by Maglor, okay.] He's also quite a dancer. He put me through my paces at the party.

[faithfulwisdom]

Somehow, I am not surprised that you two get along well. I thought that might be the case.

[child_of_bhaal]

He's a bard. I was practically smitten at the first.

[She's joking, sort of. Except you could go back and see exactly how immediately delighted she was with Maglor, even before he'd set foot off the Marsiva.

Look she just likes fellow artists.]

super, super late

[faithfulwisdom]

So he is- and, frankly, I am glad to see that he is out and about. He seemed... weary when he first arrived.

shh it's fiiine

[child_of_bhaal]

I wouldn't disagree with that assessment.

[It's part of the reason she'd come at Maglor with such enthusiasm.]

He's promised the two of you would play for me some time.

[The smile she gives Finrod is teasing, but it's true. She was promised this.]

[faithfulwisdom]

Did he now? I will have to speak to him about involving me in promises without speaking to me first. [But the tone in his voice and the sparkle in his eye speaks more of amusement than annoyance.]

But it would be a delight.

[child_of_bhaal]

And sing. I want singing too.

[faithfulwisdom]

You are demanding, aren't you?

[child_of_bhaal]

Only very rarely.

[faithfulwisdom]

Well, I suppose I will have to humor you, then.

video;

[universal_charm]

I was wondering if you were the same Finrod that Maglor mentioned when I met him.

_{[ Good to know when his assumptions work out right. ]}

He seemed to be adjusting well enough when we spoke. I got him to promise a performance when he got his hands on his preferred musical instrument.

[faithfulwisdom]

Somehow, I doubt very much that it is a common name. [Certainly not here and probably not at home either.]

Oh, you are quite fortunate, then. He is the best musician I have known.

[universal_charm]

Well, no, but I didn't want to assume he knew you just because he was another elf.

_{[ That would be rude! ]}

Haha, that is high praise from you, considering your own skill with the harp.

[faithfulwisdom]

In fact, he is the only elf here who is of the same sort as I. Some of the differences are quite striking.

[That gets a grin.] Well, he can't claim all the credit, but Maglor had a rather large roll in the informal side of my instruction. We often played together when we were young, even competing at times.

[universal_charm]

I'm more surprised that the term 'elf' seems to relate across numerous worlds.

_{[ He chuckles, imagining it. ]}

I imagine that made for some interesting evenings with the family.

[faithfulwisdom]

And the term 'human?' Is that not equally strange? For that matter, there are an absurd number of you present.

[A little laugh] Truth be told, very few evenings in our family were not interesting in one way or another.

[universal_charm]

Hah, you might have me there. I think I am just surprised that someone who resembles our word for it, would actually use said word for themselves.

It sounds like you had a lovely family then.

[faithfulwisdom]

'Elf' is not the term that we typically use among ourselves, in fact. In Quenya, Quendi is the broadest term and probably that which translates most closely. But most often we say 'Eldar,' though this term speaks only of a subset of elves. And Sindarin is another matter entirely.

Or a large one, at least.

[universal_charm]

_{[ He files all of that away for future reference, pleased with learning more of Finrond and Maglor's people. It seemed these people liked a very many names for things, if Maglor's explanation on individual names was anything to go by. ]}

Would that mean that you have different races of elves within the species as a whole? Humans, for instance, have races like Asian or Angle-Saxon.

[faithfulwisdom]

Something akin to it, perhaps. As I have come to understand it, human race is defined primarily by physical features, is it not?

The divisions among the Quendi are defined chiefly through history, language and culture- though some traits are more prominent in some groups than others.

[universal_charm]

That is true, but then they are subsets defined by culture and country - which is pretty much as you said, defined along lines of history, language, etcetera. Really the most discerning physical trait tends to be skin color and the shape of our eyes, but those have gotten mixed throughout the years via new children.

_{[ Some people kept to strict bloodline sort of things still on Earth, a mild form of Eugenics though practiced on a personal level. More Human- Alien mixes were being born too. ]}

[faithfulwisdom]

Not so different at all, then. Maglor and I are both counted among the Noldor, though in truth, my heritage is mixed. My father's mother is one of the Vanyar and my mother is Teleri.

And Maglor tells me now that my younger sister is wed to a Sindarin prince, and together they have a child. We need only a Silvan to marry into the family and we will be fully representative.

[universal_charm]

_{[ He laughed. ]}

Careful - that particular honor might end up falling to you if you aren't careful. You'll jinx yourself.

[faithfulwisdom]

[Finrod echoes that laugh]

That would not be such a terrible fate- though I do not think myself at any particular risk for it.

video, bishop stuff

[experiencepoints]

Nightingale. Nice to meet you.

While I'm pretty glad you've got experience, it's not like anything really happens around here that needs a captain, does it? Isn't it basically just role-playing?

[faithfulwisdom]

Tinúviel. [A smile dances about the edge of his lips, never quite forming in full.] Strange to meet another with that name, even if in another tongue. It is a pleasure.

That is a matter of perspective, is it not? On one level, yes, I have no doubt that nigh all the troubles we face are arraigned by our generous hosts. Yet we have faced attack have we not? And I do not trust that Atroma would have stepped in, had our circumstances become dire.

[experiencepoints]

I seem to be getting that a lot around here... It's not my original name, but it's a long story, so let's just go with that.

That's true, but I have my own theories on what really happened there... Regardless, if that's what you're expecting, do you need to know everyone's abilities?

[faithfulwisdom]

That was true of my friend as well. [Strangely enough. Seems like 'nightingale' is a common nickname.]

That would be helpful, certainly. I would like to hear your theories as well, if you would care to share them.

[experiencepoints]

Well, one thing at a time. Theories or abilities first?

[faithfulwisdom]

Abilities, if you would be so kind.

[experiencepoints]

I'm a mage. I'm not that great, honestly, but in a fight, I'm sort of like heavy artillery- I can't keep going forever, but my elemental magic can do some incredibly damage. My current spell list is a bit incomplete, but Fire spells are currently the strongest I have back.

I was also my party's strategist at home, coming up with plans to beat enemies, and I have the cooking augment, which I'm pretty sure is the Atroma taunting me.

[faithfulwisdom]

I admit, I know little of these things; we do not have 'mages' as such in my world, but it sounds as though you would be quite an asset in a fight.

And your theories?

[experiencepoints]

Well, to be short... You know this isn't the first 'cycle' of the Drift Fleet, right? They've done this before.

The fleet that attacked us had the element of surprise, and firepower far better than ours. If they had wanted to, they could have easily destroyed us, killed every one of us and left no survivors. But instead, they chose to herd us. In ships very similar to ours, they herded us into a nebula that would disable our ships, and then left.

... I'm not sure enough that I'd bet on it, and I don't think we should lower our guard enough to stop treating that fleet as enemies. But I think it's possible that what we think of as an attack was actually a fucked-up attempt at a rescue. A previous Drift Fleet who escaped, pushed our ships into a nebula, disabling half the technology around here... Potentially including whatever systems the Atroma use to spy on us, and control our perceptions.

[faithfulwisdom]

[Huh. That is an interesting thought and he has to take a moment to contemplate it.]

That possibility had not occurred to me. Like you, I am quite sure the attack was not a serious attempt on our lives, but I suspected the ships to be working with Atroma and the event itself staged to increase the drama of the 'show.'

[experiencepoints]

Honestly, that's probably more likely. But, when I accused Diamond of that when we were all trapped on the Marsiva, she got so upset she had to have her boss take over. They're clearly hiding something about this.

[faithfulwisdom]

I would be more surprised if they were not hiding something, quite frankly.

[experiencepoints]

Well, yeah. They're hiding a lot, to the point where the implants can control our perception of the ships.

[faithfulwisdom]

You speak of what we witnessed between the calibrations. It is a neat trick to manage without magic.

Do you think we can assume it confined to the ships? If the origin of the effect is in the augments themselves, could they not control our perception regardless of where we may be?

[experiencepoints]

That's right. Well, I've experienced something similar to the Calibrations before, but they were called 'heart games' last time, so I have a lot of questions about that, but...

That depends entirely on how much control the Atroma have over us. It would be much easier to have pre-installed instructions in the implants, I think- When we see these certain areas, instead display the vision in our minds as if it was this other thing. That would be much harder in real-time, when they don't know where exactly we could plan to go or who we'd visit. If we spoke to someone who wasn't controlled by the Atroma, and they said the wrong thing, they'd have to be patching that perception filter in real time.

I think it's most likely that it's confined to the ships, because that would be the easiest and most consistent thing. But I don't want to assume it's absolutely true- Underestimating an enemy's power, especially a power to control what we see and hear, is one of the most deadly mistakes that can be made. Until we get more information, we should act as though they can do it anywhere, just to stay safe.