stormaktstiden | Test drive post for demeleier

Test drive post for demeleier

[It's been a few weeks that she's been in Demeleier now, and since a while ago she has accepted that she won't be able to leave immediately. She might not even want to, now that Kíli has arrived as well. There is a difference between knowing that a reunification with her family can't be further than a few decades off and actually having one of them around. Still strange, but still just as precious and full of wonder and joy. To have her youngest back, it's a thing that she doesn't want to leave behind. ...And even if the word that no time passes back home while they are here is a trick to subdue them (and that is a constant worry), there is a certain reluctance to desiring a way home. Not that, should a path open itself, she wouldn't immediately take it. She has a duty to her people, and while she is certain that they would not let the lord of the black messengers blackmail them into anything should he claim to have taken her as a hostage (though avenging her would be an entirely different story - she might not be a king, but her blood is still among the most noble of all dwarves in Middle Earth) she would not leave them in times of need if she could help it. And times of need they are.

But she is needed here as well, by her son and maybe others as well, and looping back to this point she opens the feed. She has an announcement to make.]

I've now set up everything in the smithy to be able to do proper work there. [As opposed to the above average but in her eyes sub-par work that she could do with an anvil and other things that were simply too large for her.] As such, I will now offer the services of a smith. [She won't mention that her smithwork is, by default, far better than any human's (though she does consider Matsue very capable. But. For a human apprentice), because that should be clear to everyone who knows dwarves and the others will see, no bragging needed - those are her thoughts, anyway.] Contact me if you need anything. Even if the item in question is unfamiliar to me, I might still be able to work with it. [Or maybe collaborate on it with the other woman or her son, two or three brains can think of more than one. She almost mentions payment modalities out of habit, but then stops herself, no. Things work differently here (and that unsettles her, but what can you do).]

[ooc: All of this is absolutely not supposed to be game canon, but simply a throwing together of something for the sake of a test drive. She's been in Deme for 1 1/2 months, Kíli arrived a while after her, and she gets along with Matsue. Everything else is up in the air.]

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[He thinks of Tauriel for all of a moment before pushing her from his mind. It was just a dream.

Instead, he blushes at his mother's words, shrugging a little]

If you say so. Honestly, though, I don't think you can use Da as an example. From what I heard, he was pretty much smitten at first sight.

So what if someone will feel the same about you one day?

[The hurt of his death has long healed over, the faintest scar of them all, fainter maybe than the one that her parents and brother left despite him having died later. The support that she enjoyed then, and the joy that she had despite his death, just was much greater than for any of the other deaths.

It doesn't hurt anymore to remember any of the happy times they had. Hasn't in a long time. Instead, she can recall them with happiness.]

I'm too reckless.

[This conversation is going nowhere. He finishes his apple and tosses it out the window like the lazy ass he is. At least it's not littering?]

So you got the forge fitted out properly, yeah? Room for two Dwarves, if I can't find something else?

[He'd not litter again.

She shakes her head at his words with a smile but moves on as well, coming back over to the table with a knife and a cutting board to start and prepare dinner, shoving potatoes at him so he can start peeling them.] Of course. You'll have to meet Matsue as well, should you think of joining us. [A thoughtful pause.] For a daughter of man, she seems full of potential. [The tone falls slightly at the last words - no matter the friendship between Laketown and the Lonely Mountain, no matter the many contacts with humans that she's seen over the years, none of that ever broke the simple assumption that dwarves simply are the best race. That in at least the crafts that assumption is objectively justified doesn't really help with easing her out of that.]

[Why always with the potatoes and the peeling and the ugh. He makes a face but he obeys wordlessly, making a soft noise at his mother's praise.]

Of course, with Men "potential" is all they might have, at least compared to us or even Elves.

[Because you can't deny that some Elven craftsmen are pretty good]

But she's that good?

[He can cut the onions if he'd rather do that.

She shrugs.] It's hard to tell; an apprentice, she calls herself, and still young by the standards of her people from what I can tell. [Not that she's never met men who appeared to be of Matues's kin (if looks can be interpreted that way), but judging human ages in general, between a rough estimation of "child-adult-old" is a bit hard even after over two centuries of more or less frequent contact. They just age differently from dwarves in more ways than one.

The simple fact that Dís doesn't add any negative comments here should be a clear statement in the positive, though.]

[He's fine with the potatoes.

It is, and he smiles]

And of course you'll be teaching her how to do things properly as best you can without sharing any of our secrets, hm? Or are you tired of teaching young ones?

You think you managed to tire me out that much?

[There is a teasing tinge to her voice, even though - She has not taught many after him, and nobody in depth - a few pointers here and there, helping out and adding to other's words and skills, but her sons were the last one whom she truly took under her tutelage. She just couldn't quite, after losing them.

Some things just ended then.

And, in an odd way, started back up here. Here, where her refusal to take on an apprentice in her art would not be a deferral to someone else, but a refusal to grant them tutoring at all. Here, where one of her sons has been returned to her. It offsets things, and not in a bad way.]

[Kíli leans over and rests a hand on his mother's arm, smiling]

Mother, I know I did. You said as much yourself! Several times, in fact.

And yet you have too little regard for future generations to let it stop you.

[She rests a hand over his and then picks his up and puts it back on top of a potato.

Careful bickering, as if a lot of things just hadn't happened. It's not like the elephant isn't in the room, but to constantly look at it would be tiring beyond reason, and it is easy to fall back into old patterns, even with her other son absent.]

It isn't as if you'll be teaching anyone else after me! Gimli has his own family to teach him to craft and fight and if Dwalin or Balin ever have children may Mahal save us all.

[It really is easy to ignore that elephant, and Kíli wonders if he should be worried about that. Then again, if his mother isn't talking about it then neither will he. It isn't like he's dead here, after all, and Fíli's bound to show up any day now, also not dead.]

It isn't a lack of regard at all.

Luckily, they are a bit old for that by now. [Both in Kíli's and in her own time if Balin is even still alive whisper her thoughts, but she pushes him aside. There could be any number of reasons why contact ceased.] Imagine if Dwalin had brought forward offspring. Mahal himself would shake his head in wonder at what the work of his hands has become.

If there was ever a Dwarf who had no interest in marriage, it's Dwalin. Is it true that he nearly dropped me on my head as a baby? I've asked for years but no one's ever confirmed it.

[She shrugs, a teasing smile on her lips.]

I once came home to two very frantic dwarves and a baby that was inconsolably crying, and that is what they told me. So I can tell you neither that it is true nor that it is false.

[Kíli laughs]

And you're sure I wasn't just hungry or anything? It isn't as if Thorin and Dwalin are good with babies.

Nor as if you were a quiet baby.

[She has no clue. It's as much a story to him as to her, but it is one that has become a tradition.]

Oh, surely I wasn't all that loud! Fíli was talking by the time I was born, he had to have been the loudest of us.

The only time that your brother was louder than you was before you were born.

[Starting to throw everything into the pot.]

[Kíli stands to help, laughing]

I know that's a lie, Mother. We had too many scream matches as children for me not to! I talk more but Fíli can be much louder than me.

In the summary, you were still louder than him.

You wound me, mother. Utterly and completely.

I'm sure you're sturdy enough to survive it.

[And this is veering into territory that she's not comfortable with, it hits too close to home; so she changes the topic.] Have you spoken to the elves yet?

Which ones? The Elvenking and his son and Lord Elrond's wife? Yes. The funny colored ones with big ears and strange magic? Also yes. The two that look like twins despite not being related? Only a little.

What was your impression of them?

Legolas isn't all that bad anymore, the Lady Celebrían is the nicest Elf I've ever met, and the ones not from home are all incredibly friendly, if a little odd.

[Daimhín's husband is a Troll after all.]

Thranduil's still a bastard but I'm not sure he knows how to be anything but.

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Test drive post for demeleier

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