Axe 02 - Video- Open to Both

[gloinul]

[He really doesn't like using this thing for anything more than responding to others but. Well.

Gimli starts the feed up and he has three of his five axes out in front of him, sharpening a fourth.]

Thought I might as well let the world at large know that if you are at all interesting in helping to rebuild the gates of the Cothromach, I'm the Dwarf you should speak to. I'm fairly certain anyone interested is already here, but. [And he shrugs] I hope you have people to vouch for you if you're interested. I do not tolerate slackers or liars on my jobs, nor do I tolerate saboteurs.

[Well, that explains the show of axes.

And he is done with this very painful task. The feed just cuts out]

Comments

[steeledskin]

And yet you don't deny it! I am convinced: each and every word must have been very valiantly earned indeed.

[ her hands are clasped loosely against her stomach. and sansa -- lady keeper in this place despite the dwarf's long list of titles -- begins their gentle stroll into the winding paths of a statue garden. ]

[gloinul]

Tch, it was no great effort to become Lady Galadriel's Lockbearer or to be called Elf-friend.

[Ignoring the racism, anyway]

Truly, they're nothing special.

[OH IF HE ONLY KNEW]

[steeledskin]

As you say, Master Gimli. [ ah. yes. the noble lady's easy means of addressing a conflict in opinion while appearing deferential. if she speaks it brazenly now, it's only because she stands within her own small court. and because king thranduil has vouchsafed for this dwarf.

but that does not mean she doesn't fear. ] And out of due deference I promise not to add to your titles when your work is finished, though I like to imagine being named a Shield of Cothromach is a handsome honour for any Shardbearer.

[gloinul]

[...Gimli just gives her a Look, one that is usually reserved for Legolas]

It would be rude for anyone to reject such a title.

["I know your games."]

[steeledskin]

[ the look does spook her. and for a moment it seems that she plays in realms too lofty and ambitious for her to truly maintain. she avoids his eyes -- looking up; looking ahead. and she needs to steel herself. ]

Rude indeed. And perhaps ruder still to offer where it isn't wanted. But those are far-off matters. I trust you find the city to your liking as you work?

[gloinul]

Tch, only a true bastard would openly reject a title offered to them. Thankfully those people are few and far between.

[Excuse him, Sansa, he's a grump sometimes]

Aye, it's suitable. Almost wish it were closer to that Dwarven city, but I imagine there would be a bit of a culture clash between my family and the natives.

[steeledskin]

I have been to Troichean Beinn. [ she rushes to speak of that city -- perhaps because she is minutely scandalized by gimli's tone and language. ] A lovely place. It inspires awe. Awe, and I am ashamed to confess, a great many lumps upon the heads of some visitors.

[ sansa is tall in stature even for a young woman. ]

[gloinul]

[...what? He's being polite!]

Hmm, and already the differences show. The Dwarven halls of my homeland, they are airy, spacious things for all we prefer the underground. Not even the tallest Man could hit his head on a door or the ceiling in Erebor or Ered Luin, not unless they went looking for the smallest room.

[steeledskin]

-- Are these names from your home, Master Gimli? Erebor? Ered Luin?

[ she repeats them with startling precision. repetition and a shallow talent for syllables are common to her tongue. ]

[gloinul]

Aye, two homes of the Dwarves. Not the greatest ones, that would belong to Khazad-dûm, but that is still under repairs from centuries of Goblin and Orc infestations.

[steeledskin]

Infestations! [ her brows raise. ] What happened?

[gloinul]

What usually happens with them! They saw a city abandoned for who knew how long, what with Durin's Bane, and they took it.

[steeledskin]

-- Scavengers.

[ sansa stark is a gentle creature. polite! but hardened, as well. especially against the concept of squatters in the vaulted halls of others. and so her indictment of these goblins and orcs is severe. ]

[gloinul]

At their best, aye. But soon it will no longer be an issue.

[steeledskin]

Will the old halls take long to reclaim?

[gloinul]

Erebor has been reclaimed for nearly a hundred years now, though it had a problem with a dragon rather than something simple like Orcs, and Khazad-dûm should be cleared within the year.

[steeledskin]

-- A dragon, Master Gimli?

[gloinul]

Aye, Smaug the Terrible. He was killed...eighty or so years ago, when I was still a lad. Far as we know he was the last of the fire drakes.

[steeledskin]

[ her expression is sly. brief. side-slanted. ]

Smaug. I have heard Sigrid speak of this creature.

[gloinul]

Yes, she comes from that era. I am from eighty or so years after that, when her generation of Men have died and left the world to their grandchildren.

[He's gotten used to this sort of thing already]

[steeledskin]

Does it at all sadden you to think of people so far apart? In years? In history?

[gloinul]

Yes and no. I am pleased to see some friends I thought lost yet I know that there are some who have not seen me in centuries. To think of that...well. I don't think I need to elaborate.

[steeledskin]

My sister is here, Master Dwarf. But she and I are only a handful of years apart in our...knowledge of the world and its events. I once thought a few years were an insurmountable chasm. Perhaps I ought to think differently.

[gloinul]

For Men, that can be a long time. For Elves and Dwarves, it's not that long at all. Elves are immortal, after all, and Dwarves can live to be over three hundred.

[steeledskin]

Three hundred! [ she murmurs her surprise. ] There is a dwarf in Westeros, but I doubt he will ever live so long.

[ and beg pardon if she hopes he doesn't; sansa would see her marriage to that dwarf swiftly ended. ] Of course, he is a very different sort of dwarf.