driftfleet | Video/Action

Entry tags:

Video/Action

Who: Maglor and YOU! Also Maedhros is likely around somewhere
Broadcast: Video from one of the planet Mine sites
Action: Forges!
When: Anytime during this stop

I must say the good folk of this stop are very kind - they have allowed my brother and I use of the mines and forges here in exchange for some trading. My brother and I are going to be working on some proper swords - if anyone else is inclined to a bladed weapon, we are happy to make you one as well.

Grandfather, Fingon, you needn't ask, but your help in the forges would be invaluable - Maedhros and I manage, of course, but neither of us are... what we were. And we have neither Father, nor Curvo, nor Tylepe here to point out everything we are doing wrong!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Those I can do, and with good will. [ Maglor smiles ]

It will be good to relive those days again.

Good. I like to think the story should be as fun for the teller as the listener, hm?

[But for now he'll get up and stretch, taking his video with him.]

I best be getting to the market to find the materials I need. Where should I send them once I've procured them?

Thank you for thinking so!

And we are currently at [ Insert name of mining planet here ] - just come down the main spaceport, the forge is easily found from the main dock.

Understood.

It may take me a few days to find enough ore. Will you still be there?

We will be here until we leave this system, I think.

[ Maglor nods ] We have quite a few different orders!

Wonderful! Then I'll have them sent over and come once they've all gathered.

Thank you again for the offer of your services.

I will look forwards to it! And tis no trouble, I assure you.

This... [ He looks back over his shoulder and his smile is fond ] This is comforting, in many ways.

Did you often forge back home?

[It seems like an odd hobby, but also a useful one. Much more useful than writing silly poetry like some people.]

Not for a long time - but my father was a craftsman, you see, amongst other things. We were all of us brought up in the forge, although as we grew most of us left to other pursuits. But this... it is a reminder of when we were young, and life was good.

["And life was good."

That makes him sad, thinking that at one point in Maglor's life, things went bad. He knows that such things had to happen, it was how the world worked, but it still makes his heart ache at the thought of others suffering just because of that.]

Ah, I see. A reminder of childhood is a lovely thing. [For most people. He hates remembering his childhood - it was full of blood and death and yelling and grief.]

Did you learn your skills from your father then?

We did. [ Maglor smiles ]

Well, Maedhros and I, did! Fingon, a little, but he had apprenticeships elsewhere, too - it just was that Father is still widely regarded as one of the very best, and he would not refuse his nephew, e'en though he did not get along with his brother. In honesty, many of the Noldor send their children to the forge to at least try their hand at it, for we are a people for whom working with ones hands in that way is highly respected.

Craftsmen and tradesmen are very highly regarded in my culture as well. Farmers and those who work with their hands to create the goods we all need are just below the samurai class in the hierarchy.

Although you said you are a bard instead. Did you not wish to follow in your father's footsteps?

What is a samurai, if you mind not me asking?

And no - the forge never called me, as it did father or one of my younger brothers. It disappointed him, a little, of course! But father... well. He was many things, an a genius was only one of them. He understood well the pull to do what your heart wished, and he never denied any of us, as we grew.

It's the warrior class in my country - a group of people who were once employed by the lords of each province as protection. With our country having sealed itself off for two hundred years in relative peace though, there isn't much use for us anymore.

[Until now, of course, with the civil war waging.]

Your father sounds like a smart man. I'm glad he encouraged you to follow your own path.

[It makes Okita wonder what it would have been like to grow up with his father alive. Would he have approved of what Okita became? He had scolded him when he took up the sword at five and beaten the older samurai, and he'd been told to not do it again, so how would his father feel, knowing Okita was the most feared swordsman in Kyoto, possibly in Japan?]

It is always a grand thing when peace prevails enough that a warrior may lay down his blade. [ Maglor murmurs ]

He could be. [ He sighs ] For all his faults, he loved us dearly, and did everything he could to see us happy.

[ If only... ]

[He doesn't know what it's like to be upset by parents. He was responsible for both of their deaths, so thinking of them only brings him guilt and distant pangs of loneliness.]

I suppose you couldn't ask for much more than that in a parent. Even if things do not turn out well, they try their best.

That much is true. [ Maglor smiles a little ]

And we loved him - still do, although some days I hate him almost as much, now. [ If I had not loved him so well, would things have been different? ]

But there - we are straying into dark waters, forgive me. I should not take out my family's issues on another!

[He shakes his head and sits back down.]

I'm not afraid of the dark, Maglor-san. It's difficult to talk about these things, but perhaps a listening ear might help?

It is an old story. [ Maglor says with a quiet, sad smile ]

A long one, too. But... let us just say, we loved him enough to swear an oath that should never have been sworn, and it drove us to deeds that should never have been done, and he died before ever seeing how far he dragged us down. I don't think he would have, if he had known... but he wasn't very sane at that time, and... well. Perhaps he might have done so anyway.

[He listens carefully, his expression carefully measured between sympathetic and a quiet, solemn smile.]

Familial bonds... [He breathes out calmly.] They can be both beautiful and destructive.

I'm sorry. For what it's worth.

Aye. Love is a dangerous emotion, but one without which life would lose much of its vibrancy.

[ Maglor shrugs and smiles back, tired and old, for all that youthful face ]

Thank you. But do not worry yourself over it. We could have refused to swear, or broken the Oath, but we did neither, so my sins are on my own hands, I think, and the pains thereof.

[Maybe that's why his life is the way it is - full of red moons and pale, colorless nights. He wonders, but lets the thought go. What would love a monster, right?]

Mm, it truly is. People often go to great lengths for love, sometimes at the detriment to themselves.

Even so. [ Maglor agrees softly ]

Tis perhaps the most dangerous of emotions, and so doubly precious, I suppose. Even now, even knowing how deeply I stained my soul, how many lives I destroyed... I ... would do it all again, for love of my father and brothers, and I suppose that is my greatest sin.

[He smiles faintly.]

It is a sin that I doubt many would blame you for. Not many can share in that level of devotion.

Perhaps! I suspect my victims might not agree, but I do thank you for being understanding.

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