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

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.

[And here is where Okita's lack of a normal moral code comes out in spades.]

Well, they are dead, I assume, so what they agree or disagree with doesn't really matter anymore.

[w h o o p s that was glib]

[ Hello Okita, meet one of the guys onboard who has probably an even more skewed moral code - Maglor barely bats an eye ]

Yes, but you see, for us elves, death is ... well I suppose the easiest description is that "it isn't permanent" - and... well. I hurt a lot of those living, too.

Do you eventually become reborn?

[And well, collateral damage happens. He doesn't seem all that put off by this conversation.]

Aye - I ... well, I have not spoken to Glorfindel, but so far as I can see, the fallen return as if death were... only an interruption in their journey. The memories are intact. So...

[ y e a h ]

[Oh, that's just rude!]

That seems a bit unfair. The dead should stay dead, especially when they've been killed.

[ A soft laugh ]

Well, death is not... a natural state of being for us, I suppose. We are tied to our world, you see, to exist until it ends. Although our bodies can be slain, our fea, our spirit, or soul, perhaps, endures - so I suppose it seems only right that the body be restored once the soul is ready to pick up it's life again.

Although to be fair, all of this is theory, until Glorfindel. But he was slain... oh, nearly six thousand years ago, only to return in the last few thousand.

[Six thousand and the last few thousand - that's still like "what even is this timeline" territory.]

Well, at least they have the decency to stay dead for a short time.

[Although that....must have been awkward.]

Did it cause a lot of friction when they returned? I would assume it would leave them very displeased with you.

[ Crazy is what it is ]

I suppose it takes a while to be ready to face Life again? [ Maglor muses and then shrugs ]

I do not know - Glorfindel is the only one to return to Middle-earth, and I never spoke to him. But I am sure he is not the only one to actually return to Life, just to Middle-earth, and I am sure many are... still not happy with me. [ Probably. ]

Well as long as you don't need to face any of them, there aren't any real consequences yet.

[Also, Maglor could just stab the heck out of whoever came after him again. That's what Souji would do.]

I can't imagine being faced with those that died by my hand. It's an unfortunate effect of being a samurai in a war - there is no helping that someone must die.

Mm. Well - I do not think any of them will return to Middle-earth - Glorfindel was rather an... exception.

[ Glorfindel is always an exception ]

And ... I cannot return to Aman, so... I suppose I will never have to. I wish it had all been in war. [ He says sadly ] A warrior who crosses blades with another understands that one of them must die. But the blood on my hands is not all so proper as that.

[ non combatants. yep. ]

[Now that's different. He sounds remorseful, but at the time he apparently killed innocents? Okita tilts his head at the camera for a moment as he considers what he can say.

The Shinsengumi code forbade killing the innocent, but they also sometimes had to torture information out of those who aided the rebels. Okita never really thought of who he had to kill because he only ever had to become serious when it came to the enemy. Women sometimes aided the rebels, so they were fair game if it came to light.

...And Ayumu... Well, the Masuya owners deserved what happened to them.]

It is done. [There's not much else he can say about that. He can't really afford to condemn the only person he knows who can make him weapons. Plus condemning one person opens him up for the very same.]

There is no use in dwelling on what happened so long ago, right?

Mm, I suppose that is true.

[ Maglor shrugs tiredly ]

I cannot change it, now, either way.

Exactly. It isn't good for your health to dwell on such things.

You might start looking your age and noooo one wants to do that.

[Gotta keep things light.]

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