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

[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.

[gloinul]

Oh? What other sort of Dwarf is there?

[steeledskin]

The word takes on a different meaning in my Westeros, Master Gimli. And not a pleasant one. I'm afraid I will insult you by its explanation.

[gloinul]

Bah, you clearly aren't talking about my people if it is an insult, so I won't be offended on my behalf. I cannot promise not to be offended on theirs, however!

[steeledskin]

I know a man. They call him the Imp. [ she presses her lips together. none of this is simple to say, but she has managed to put a great deal of distance between herself and her husband. ] And they call him dwarf. He's -- human. A man, like you call them. But born...

Born differently. Smaller.

[gloinul]

I see. So it is just a description of his appearance, not what he is at all. Hm. I'd never heard of that.

[steeledskin]

Imagine my shock when I arrive here to be told that there are whole cities of...dwarves. Troichean Beinn was nothing like I expected.

[gloinul]

I can imagine. Is this Imp here, in the Drabwurld?

[steeledskin]

Gods, no!

[ and she is ashamed to hear such relief in her voice. ] There was kin of his, for some time. But they are gone now.

[gloinul]

[He glances up at her. This Imp must not be a very pleasant person, though to be fair if he's as tired of prejudiced bullshit as most actual Dwarves, Gimli isn't sure he can blame him]

And what of you? Do you have any kin here?

[steeledskin]

Yes. [ a better topic than her fugitive husband. ] A great number of my siblings: two brothers and a sister. My Lord Father was here, once, but not...

Not any longer.

[gloinul]

[He wonders if the situation there is like with his cousin Thorin]

I am pleased to hear that you are not alone, then. This world is too strange for that.

[steeledskin]

We are fortunate. [ she forces a small smile to take shape upon her lips. ] In our home lands, we are none of us near one another. This world has granted us a great boon.

[gloinul]

[Thoughtfully:]

This world is both kind and cruel. I see family here I have not seen since they died eighty years ago, yet my dear friend and his wife are claimed by opposite sides of this war. I am glad you are on the blessed side, my lady.