Let it Snow: Red Start

[voidtreckermods]

The doors slam shut, the train moves. Through the snow this time but the shuddering is almost worse that entering the void. "Red team to doors." The visibility out of the window is low but they are moving further up the mountain.

The doors open, allowing red team to jump. The snow here is thick, there is little protection from the howling winds and biting cold.

Their SCA shows a route, following it will, presumably lead them to the gang that caused these problems. Here on the low slopes of the mountain there are some homesteads. Much fewer than in the town itself but cottages and small farm houses. All seem abandoned.

For now there is not much to do but to walk, forge a path through the snow. Fight the snow and ice monsters that attack and do their best to survive as they follow the map towards their goal.

Comments

[marriedanidiot]

Never is a very long time, even for us! But let us work together, and show them what may be done.

[ Nerdanel smiles at him and adds her strength to his, the mountain to his fire, singing the rocks to remember how it felt to hold strong, to defy air and snow and rain and grip to each other, to bear the weights of the mountains above.

The bridge is not as fair as it might be had they time to build it properly - but it is strong, and it will hold, long after they are gone, and the stones will sing the memory of them to those who have ears to hear.

Fair they wrought us, high they builded us, strong they made us ]

[tinkerheart]

[There is so much to show. When Fëanor discovered he can work with the substance of all those strange worlds they get to visit the way he did with the substance of Arda it was a relief. Yet a true pleasure was always working with her. He almost forgot how good it felt to create something together.
So when they finish, it's simpler than what he'd like to make. Still, it's a lot sturdier than the flimsy ice strip he could throw over to the other side on his own in the same time.]

Time is often a problem here. There seems to never be enough of it for doing anything properly. I wonder if it is how humans always perceive it. They do not live long enough to make their creations eternal. So all things around them must speed up.

[Days, even the arbitrary months of train time, are shorter than any measure of time he remembers. It still feels odd.]

[marriedanidiot]

[ They mesh well - they always have, building on each other and strengthening each other, encouraging each other to better and greater things ]

Perhaps that is so. I admit, it has been very quiet without you, Feanaro.

[ He was always pushing forward, dragging the rest of Tirion in his wake ]

[tinkerheart]

I suspect it must have been an improvement to many.

[Dragging rest of the Tirion? Usually kicking and screaming. Asking questions nobody wanted answers to. Doing what he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted no matter what anyone else thought. Half of the court secretly envying him that he had the courage to do it, the other half sneering at his unfit for a crown prince behaviour.]

That I'm not there to ruin their day or drag the ire of the Valar on their heads.

[Where all of this lead him? What it left him with? Nothing but ashes.]

I miss traveling with you. With our sons. I miss our house. I miss the forge. I... [He has to stop before he can speak again.] I miss Father. [For all he losses this one was the greatest. The unimaginable one. Nothing was ever the same after that.]

But I don't miss the city.

[There were good things he did and yet precious few remember them. There are no songs about his other inventions. Of all his many creations he's remembered for one. His people chose to remember him only for the pain he brought them and he can't even blame them for it.

And now he let his bitterness ruin a perfectly good conversation. He thought he was done with it. Apparently he was wrong again. What was even more wrong was dumping it all on her. Especially now that ... they seem to be doing good. He looks back at her searching, trying to discern how disappointed she is. Everything was going way too good...]

I'm sorry. That's.. it was very callous of me to say this.

[He winces. It is undeniable that with his own actions he earned him the scorn of his people. Complaining about it now is just wrong. But it would be most helpful if he could have such revelations before he says something stupid. Not after.]

[marriedanidiot]

Perhaps some thought so.

[ She says somberly ] But Tirion stagnates without innovation. We are Noldor - meant to create. Without you, many grow lazy, despite your brother's best efforts. But then, Arafinwe was never one for the forge. His heart yearns still for the sea, but the crown you and Nolofinwe left is a heavy burden on him.

You drove us forwards, my husband - not always to wise ends, no. But you created beauty as well as terrors. We still use your lamps, you know? And your palantiri. So many of the small things that many forget came from your hands.

[ That admission gets a smile ]

You never liked the city, Feanaro! I know full well why our home was built on the outskirts! It was not callous - a little insensitive, perhaps. But when I wed you I already knew you were restless.

[tinkerheart]

I [He starts but stops because she just made him realise something he never thought of before.] I didn't think about it that way but you are right.

[She always did that. Making him see things differently. His intense focus is a valuable tool when applied to a project he works on but it can make him lose the wider perspective all too easily. Without even realising he did miss something important.]

Few would dare to do anything as wild as I did. Still, the fact that I did that might have been all the permission they needed to go a little more experimental, less safe, than what they would otherwise have done.

[He tested a lot of boundaries while he was there. It's sad there's no one like that there anymore.]

No, I didn't. Too crowded, too noisy. [As if the forge wasn't noisy. It was. And yet there are different types of noise. Sounds of the forge were always comforting for him. Too many people talking at the same time, not so much.] Too limiting. [He smiles in response bowing his head. Restless, yes. That's a good word to describe him.] But you know that.

[marriedanidiot]

Even so. Arafinwe is a good lad, and a steady hand, but a steady hand and a heart tied to the sea does not an inventor make! Although we've better ties to Alqualonde now than ever, which is nice.

You were a challenge, Feanaro, and an inspiration to many. For good as well as ill, and it would serve everyone to remember that you are more than your mistakes - you included!

[ She smiles, reaching up to cup his cheek ]

I do. So was I, after all. I would not have wed you otherwise.

[tinkerheart]

[It would definitely help to remember that if he didn't spend Eru knows how long in the Halls of Mandos doing nothing but staring at the consequences of those mistakes. For all he knew, it was everything anyone remembered him for. ]

I will try to.

[He leans into her touch.]

I doubt anyone traveled as far in Valinor as we did.

[marriedanidiot]

[ Mandos, Nerdanel has decided, means well but really Doesn't Get how Incarnates actually work. At All. She wants her husband to learn and improve, not stagnate!!!!

She's told him so repeatedly.

Eventually, she hopes to nag him into submission.

Namo's maiar have learnt to dread her routine visits ]

Our boys did! But we taught them that, you and I.

wrap?

[tinkerheart]

[He didn't know. If only he knew, not only he'd be complaining from his side too but he would have been a whole lot less miserable.]

And here we are on some distant world we never knew existed doing it again.

[It's a stretch to call train's mission exploring. That's not their point. It is true though they are visiting place no other Elda has ever been to before.]

yus!

[marriedanidiot]

[ She smiles at him ]

Not exactly the normal way! But there's something to be said for something new, too.