[video] open (and closed)

[lusiphur]

[It hasn't been very long since his last attempt at communication, but this time he actually has something a little more worthwhile. A few questions, and the first one is perhaps an unusual one.

Lusiphur's location is unclear because the background of the video is mostly just darkness. He's wearing a black bandana on his head so that it covers his long elf ears. It's not an attempt to hide his identity other than he doesn't want to obscure any valid responses to his question.]


Do the words Elen sila lumenn' omentievlo mean anything to anyone who's listening?


[He met an Elf at the feast soon after his arrival who said he had family here. Time to seek them out... and hey, his pronunciation of the phrase is actually pretty good.]


[CLOSED to the Unseelie]

[this is one disgruntled elf when he'd bored]

Since I seem to be temporarily out of a job, I'm looking for one. Is there anything interesting out there that needs doing? No housework or manual labor. Killing things is a plus. No charity work. I left my resume back in Amyrahl'nn, so to save time just assume I can do whatever it is that needs doing.

Comments

[lusiphur]

[And now there is a beautiful blond Elvin Lady whose family he thinks he's intelligent enough to puzzle out. There's something about her that he finds compelling, although he can't quite put a finger on it.]

Very quick, yes. I was putting the words out there to see who else had come from the dimension that language came from. I've never known that there were Elves other than the ones on Amrahly'nn.

[inafadingcrown]

You are fortunate that your gambit worked as well as it did. Quenya is my native tongue, but in my time it is rarely spoken; only the very old and the very well read would recognize it.

[lusiphur]

[It being her native tongue told him that she must be one of the "very old", but he'd learned better than to ask a woman her age. Not that it really matters, but all the same, Luse is beginning to gain a bit of perspective]

I gambled with the only thing I had. If it's really that rare, than I guess I am pretty lucky. Is there a modern version of the phrase that would have worked better? Because I won't believe that Elves would give up having a language all of their own and simply use the common tongue.

[Slumming it with the human language? Perish the thought.]

[inafadingcrown]

No, of course we have not given up our languages. [Perish the thought, indeed! Not that there's anything wrong with human languages, but cultural heritage, man.] Sindarin is the most common Elven tongue in Middle Earth and what we are most like to speak among ourselves. We would say "Gail síla erin lû e-govaned 'wîn."

[lusiphur]

That's the same phrase? "A star shines..."?

[It gives him pause as he rolls the words around in his mind. It seems like a stuffy and overly formal phrase, but this is what he was working with, and talking about languages is far more interesting to the rogue than other types of small talk.

[He says the words slowly, but even though he's heard it just the once, his pronunciation's still not bad.] Gail síla erin lû e-govaned 'wîn.

[inafadingcrown]

It is, yes. [She listens to him repeat it and nods] You have a skill with languages, it seems. Do you speak many?

[lusiphur]

I could speak, write, and read seven languages before I was 40. Not that it did me much good, but I was bored.

[Most people say 'thank you' for a compliment, but Lusiphur is not most people.]

[inafadingcrown]

Seven! You put me to shame. I did not even learn my second language until I was over a thousand.

[lusiphur]

[Over a thou-- Lusiphur scrubs his face with his hands. This is why he doesn't like talking to other Elves sometimes. The lady seems nice for now, but in his experience, the old ones were weird]

I started out speaking two languages, so it didn't seem that difficult to pick up a few more. The hard part was finding books in the slums.

[inafadingcrown]

[Please, anything under five thousand is still young.] All the more reason you are to be commended for making the effort. [Her language acquisition was more about practicality than intellectual curiosity.]

Which two languages did you first speak, if I may ask?

[lusiphur]

[Lusiphur's self-education was a combination of survival and curiosity. It's actually not something he talks about often, but he did open the door with his initial message]

We were Elves living in a human city, so I learned the common speech and modern Elvin.

[It didn't seem all that spectacular at the time.]

[inafadingcrown]

We are more isolated, as a rule; it is rare to hear of elves living among mortals in my world.

[lusiphur]

It was pretty rare in my world, too, but it happened. The Seven Steps were the Elvin homelands... a place no human has ever set foot in... but it's mostly nobility these days. For those of us born low enough on the foot chain, I'd never even set foot in a Step until just a year ago.

[inafadingcrown]

It is difficult to imagine a realm consisting primarily of nobility being self-sufficient. [And she likes nobility, okay. She is nobility. But economically, that sounds...bad.]

[lusiphur]

I've never seen it first-hand. The Steps haven't ever fallen, so they must make it work somehow.

[He shrugs. It sounds like a really bad idea to him too, but he's only ever seen the inside of their jail cells, so what does he know?]

What are your cities like?

[inafadingcrown]

Each is unique and bears its own character. Caras Galadhon, the capital of my own realm, is a city built in the heart of a forest, its buildings supported by the branches of the great Mallorn trees which grow there. There is no place quite like it in the world.

[lusiphur]

[ Somewhere in his brain, Lusiphur knows that he should mind his manners. The lady is obviously fond of her home city, but all he can think to respond with is: ]

...You live in trees? [Forest? Wilderness? Yuck. No thank you.]

[inafadingcrown]

[Yeah, yeah, she hears that tone.]

We do. Doubtless my words do not do it justice; if I had been told, when I was young, that my home would be supported by a tree, I would have scarcely believed them.