driftfleet | Just Keeping Swimming

[ Maglor frowns, thoughtfully ]

Hmph. So... an illness from a place... something touched, or breathed, maybe, or ... [ Or deliberately inflicted, like the creeping maladies that came on the fumes of Angband and Mordor, or in the bodies of those taken and then returned ]

.... you think it was the temples?

[He stops walking as that realization hits him. Could it be the temples? He went inside one - will that cause him to come down the same illness? Can a sword even get sick?]

....I dunno, but with all of us going in and out of 'em, maybe we should warn people.

[He looks up at Maglor.]

Was that why you were heading straight for one?

[ Maglor frowns, feeling carefully through the memory and trying not to get lost in the song again ]

I... am not sure. Maybe? Perhaps it was not the temple itself but something beyond it or within it?

[He shakes the sword, rattling it within Maglor's grasp.]

Don't go back there.

If you aren't sure, just leave it be for now. When we get back to the ship, maybe back to the Iskaulit away from the water, then we can figure that out.

[He doesn't want Maglor to disappear back into the trance.]

[ Maglor starts, blinking briefly before nodding ]

Thank you. I suppose it would be better to wait. [ He shakes his head ]

But I worry for the young ones...

[He makes a wry face.]

Ain't everyone here a young one t'you? What with being nine thousand whatever years old.

[ Maglor chuckles softly ]

I suppose, in one way of looking! But the children are younger again, and.... well. Little ones are very precious to us, and I would hate to see them in danger.

Ah, you mean the children.

[He keeps walking. The tantou often acted like children, even though most of them were among the oldest in the Citadel. He doesn't have a lot of experience with actual children, come to think of it.]

Well, if it's any consolation, there weren't any in the city. The ones that are still around are all in the main city hub and people are workin' pretty hard to figure out what's making everyone sick.

Aye - although I am never quite sure what age Men count adulthood from, in honesty! I imagine things are a little different when one is a blade, too.

[ Maglor follows easily, not wanting to make Doudanuki stay out here too long either ]

Does it seem to be spreading? [ He wonders ] I ... should probably see if I can help. My folk do not usually get the same illnessess as Men do, although I do not know how that translates across.

Swords don't have children and the age for humans seems to change with the times. When I was first forged, they were considered men and able to fight or go get married after about fifteen years of life. Now? I have no idea. It seems to be different.

[He just keeps walking, one hand on his sword and making sure he keeps Maglor on the other end.]

As for the sickness? Yeah. I get the feeling it's getting worse. Every time I visit the main city here, there's more kids or more adults with the symptoms. Swords can't really get sick as far as I know, which is why I'm out here, doing what I can to investigate. If you got any healing magic or something, you can help the people in the city.

That would make sense. [ Maglor agrees ] It would be strange for a blade to have a childhood! You might be a young blade, I suppose, but not a child, eh?

[ He nods ] Some of the Men in my world consider adulthood at that age also, but the Dunedain age slower, and they tend to name adulthood at eighteen, and full maturity in their twenties.

[ He frowns ] I wish I was able to heal. I know some basic battlefield first aid and I have some knowledge of the common healing herbs, but little more than that. But that it is spreading... that is ill. I hope the healers and doctors here can help.

I'm not that young. [grumble grumble] And we have younger times, but we don't really have a childhood like humans do. We don't really age, we just learn more about the world and either our vessels stay around so we're alive, or they get destroyed and we die.

[He shrugs]

If you can't heal, don't worry about it. I can't either, so I'm just doing what I can in my own way. [A beat] What's a Dunedain?

No, I suppose you are not. [ Maglor acknowledges with a smile ]

Mm, I am glad yours was not, however! I will do my best to make sure so, here.

'Dunedain' means 'West Man' - Men of the West, if you wish something that scans a little better. They are the descendents of the Edain, the three tribes of Men who came first over the eastern mountains to Middle-earth and became elf-friends. Their line of kings descends from Elros, who was Peredhel - Half-Elven, but who chose to become mortal. They have a tendency to live a little longer - those of Elros' direct line may make several centuries, at times.

.....I was. Destroyed, I mean. I've died a lot.

[Destroyed, he means. That's the thing about him, he's not exactly...a normal sword spirit. He tries to keep the tone light, but all the deaths he's had are always in his head and they bother him sometimes.

But more importantly (and so he can abruptly change the topic to something that doesn't remind him of fire and pain)--]

So they're humans, but they used to be kinda like elves? Why not just call them humans?

[Huff]

Why do you guys have t'have so many names for stuff?

[ Maglor's breath hisses in low sympathy, but he doesn't dwell on it, since Doudanuki likely does not wish to be reminded ]

I will do my best to not let that happen here. [ He promises him ]

Mm, not really - say more that some of them have a little, tiny, bit of elven blood, and that strain will sometimes out! And we like words, we elves!

[ He chuckles a bit ] The very first name we called ourselves when our foreparents first awoke, was Quendi. 'Speakers'. For we were the first to devise words for things, and ever since then we have been doing so. But Men do so also, do they not?

[He gives a half-hearted shrug and keeps walking. Even if he died here, he's pretty sure the other Doudanuki swords out there somewhere would just pick up where he left off. It was the beneift of being a mass produced sword - somewhere there was likely another of him.]

I guess humans do. I think one word for each is more than enough though. Who's got all that--

[Right, time. Elves live for as long as the world is around so...yeah, they have the time. Doudanuki sighs and stares up at the "sky".]

I guess you guys have the time to sit around and make up a thousand names for the same thing.

I suppose so! But we do just like language, I think. My family has a bit of a history with that sort of thing, and I am very fond of the different ways people speak, myself.

[ Maglor smiles at him gently ]

I still regret the fact that our languages are automatically translated, here. I miss the chance to actually learn.

[Doudanuki makes A Face(tm) and looks away. He'd hate learning all the different languages here.]

It's already hard enough havin' to learn how to say everyone's names. Making it so we couldn't even talk to people here would probably lead to war pretty damn quick.

[Not that that outcome would make him unhappy, but he's pretty sure most of the Fleeters would hate it.]

Maybe, but you might be surprised! In any case, our captors clearly decided they did not wish the hassle.

And you do well with our names, which I assume are quite odd, for you?

Yeah, you guys have weird names.

[Blunt sword is blunt.]

But when you're used to names like Shokudaikiri Mitsutada or Izuminokami Kanesada, it ain't so hard to learn other ones. Mostly it's the pronunciation that trips me up at first.

Weird for you, but not for us! And the reverse is also true, eh?

[ Maglor takes no offence ]

You do very well - and those names are quite complicated, yes!

[He shrugs. Learning names is something he has to do - it comes with learning how to talk and have a mouth and everything else that comes with being human(ish).]

What's the weirdest name in your world?

Hm, well, the original names of the Valar - that is, the names they use for themselves, are very strange to us, partly because we cannot quite hear all the syllables and harmonics, I think. Also, they are fiendishly difficult to even pronounce, and to hear them actually spoken by the Valar themselves is actually painful.

But....

[ He frowns dragging up old, old lessons ]

Lord Tulkas' name... the closest I can come is Tulukastāz. [ But when he says it, there is something about the way he says it that trembles the water around them, as if a great fist struck down, a vibration, a pulse of something in the actual word that encapsulates and conveys Strength and Might.

Immediately after, Maglor pales and coughs, hand going to his throat ]

Ow.

Edited 2017-03-23 07:56 (UTC)

[Whoa holy shit. The entire world around them seems to shake when he says his name and Doudanuki stops, shifting his feet for better balance.]

Does saying names always do something like that?

No. [ Maglor rasps and then clears his throat ]

But the Valar are the Powers of the World, and their true names are not just names but also descriptions - they tell you something of who they are, and what they do.

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