video/action

[candothat]

Who: Pavel Chekov and anyone!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Tourist and/or Iskaulit
When: From the Great Shuffle through July


[video]

It was kind of our hosts to give us gifts after keeping us on the Marsiva and making us share far, far too much with each other, but...

[The Russian pulls his lovely gift basket into view. In addition to the candies and fudge and pickled herring (he is grateful for all of these things, thank you space hosts), there are a few additional items that he is less amused by.]

Did anyone else find their choice in gifts, er... slightly insulting?

Although it was thoughtful of them, I admit, to provide a shirt [it says "I <3 bad boys," for the Russian speakers out there] for my girlfriend to wear once I grow her.

[Sarcasm. That was definitely sarcasm.]


[action]

[If Pavel isn't poking around his quarters on the Tourist, then he's going for a run on the Iskaulit. In either case, he is making no real effort to be sociable. It's not that he doesn't want to talk to people, it's just that there are a lot of things that he doesn't want to talk about. Everyone knows that the only sure way to avoid certain topics of conversation is to avoid talking entirely.

Any attempts on his part to keep quiet will fail miserably if he's approached. Being a person who likes other people is so hard sometimes.]


[ooc: If you, like me, wanted to do ALL of the Calibration things but grossly overestimated your ability to do so, you're welcome to browse Chekov's memories and handwave your character seeing any of the unmarked ones.]

Comments

[bythewaves]

I fear I am not the best to ask, either, as he is not from my world, and I cannot give you details! But I can answer as best I can, and mind not the interrogation.

[candothat]

Then, if it isn't too rude to ask questions, I would interrogate you about something else. Are you an elf?

[bythewaves]

I assure you I do not mind! And yes, I am.

[candothat]

Ah, thank you! My apologies if that is a strange question. I have heard of elves for years, but I have never met one.

[An elf and on the Huntress? You are a rare and magical creature, Maglor.]

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor laughs softly ]

No, it's fine - you are not the first to ask, and I doubt you'll be the last! I am not surprised, in honesty, for even in my world my folk are leaving, or retreating deep into the woods. We will be forgotten, soon enough.

[candothat]

[His face falls.]

That is a sad thing to think about. It can't be so easy for an entire race to be forgotten, surely...?

[bythewaves]

I suppose it is, but then, I have had plenty of time to get used to the idea. [ Maglor muses ]

As to that, oh, I do not think it will happen all at once! But Men, I have found, forget easily, especially when things are not there to remind them. With my folk leaving, eventually we will become nothing more than tales for children, the details long vanished.

[candothat]

That you are used to the idea also seems sad.

May I ask why your people are leaving?

[bythewaves]

I suppose it is, a little.

Many reasons, but the most obvious one, I think, is that the world...moves too fast. You Men are forever moving forwards, but time, they say, for the us moves like slow draughts of mead, rich and golden. It... grows too hard to stay, and watch things change around you. Not all of us will leave - the Silvan, I think, will stay until there is no forest for them to stay in, so dearly do they love the woods, but they will retreat deep and they were always more isolationst to begin with. My folk, the Noldor... we are called West, to Elvenhome beyond the Sea, and the burdens of the long wars and griefs hang heavy on too many of us to remain.

[candothat]

Then your people live much longer than us. [It makes him think of Ambassador Spock and how much grief the old Vulcan must have experienced through the years as all of his Human friends passed away.] Longer than any of the races that I'm familiar with, maybe.

I'm sorry that it has become necessary for you--the Noldor?--to leave your home. ...I'm also sorry that I made this conversation so depressing.

[bythewaves]

Men consider us immortal, although we are not, truly - but our lives are tied to the world, and so we will exist as long as it does, and end with it when it's time comes.

[ Maglor smiles and shakes his head a little ] Do not be! Tis true that too many of my tales end in weeping, but not all. And my folk are going home - that we have to leave the one that we made in Middle-earth is a grief, but there is joy in it too, for they go to find again those who went before, by death or by ship.

[candothat]

[A tentative smile.] This is similar to the way that some Humans--and some others, likely--think of death: sad because it means leaving everything and everyone familiar, but not so sad because there is a chance to be with those who have already left... and with a god as well, for those that believe in such a thing.

[bythewaves]

I have heard something of that from our mortal friends, but no one knows where Men go, after death, for they go beyond the world and our fates are sundured.

[candothat]

I very much doubt that mortals go to a place like the one that your people are traveling to. There is no evidence to suggest that we do anything more than cease to be... but that isn't so bad.

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor shrugs ]

No one knows, except those who have gone before! My folk enter the Halls of Waiting if we are slain, but the Reborn do not speak of their time there, and if they see our Mortal friends before they go on, they have not spoken of it.

[candothat]

Your people come back after dying?

[Just asking for science.]

[bythewaves]

Mm - we are a part of the world, as I said. [ Maglor explains ]

So although you may slay our bodies, our spirits remain, and once healed we walk again in Life, although only Glorfindel ever returned to Middle-earth. Of course, what happens when the world ends, we know not.

[candothat]

Sorry for not following well. This--the idea of coming back as long as the world exists--is very different from the things that I know and have learned about.

[The unusual way Maglor phrases things isn't that easy to follow either. He's trying!]

You will find out. Not soon, I hope. Not so soon as I will find out what happens to mortals.

[bythewaves]

Tis fine. [ Maglor assures him ]

I am told that it is very different, of course, for Men, and who knows how it is, in other worlds! And since the Reborn do not return to Middle-earth, we have had only Hope, until Glorfindel. But the Balrog-Slayer of Gondolin returned to us to serve his king's line, they say, and he will return to Aman, presumably, when his duty is fulfilled.

[ He smiles ] I, too, hope it will not be soon! When it is time, it will be time, and about time, no doubt! But I love Arda and although I know Middle-earth very well I have yet to venture out beyond those lands, and hope to have that time.

[candothat]

[Glorfindel, Balrog, Gondolin, Aman... they are clearly working with very different vocabularies. Chekov gets the gist of it, though, so he'll pretend that he knows exactly what Maglor is saying.]

You have ventured beyond those lands now--far, far beyond them, and probably into a different universe. Much farther than any of the rest of your people.

[bythewaves]

Aye, that much is true. [ Maglor smiles ]

Further than I thought any of us would ever go, although one never knows what the future might hold, of course! I never thought I would get a chance to hear the stars so close.

[ All Chekov needs to do is ask, and Mags will natter at him forever ]

[candothat]

[Don't let him know that! He would never stop asking questions!]

Is it like what you would have imagined? Space, I mean?

[bythewaves]

[ Well Maglor likes telling stories, Chekov likes hearing things... ]

I don't know that I ever truly imagined it! But... it is beautiful, and the Stars sing so clearly, up here! Cold and high and pure.

[candothat]

[This is a truly fortuitous meeting.]

The stars... sing? [That. Is not science.] Is this a metaphor?

[bythewaves]

Not for me. [ Maglor smiles a little ]

My folk... we can hear the song of the world - and the stars are especially clear, for those of us who have the skill.