Voice; Fiddlesticks 24, early-ish morning. (slightly backdated)

[mtsilver_conquor]

Colour me curious, but what are winter festivals or holidays like on your world? Back home, today would be Shiwasu 10, or Tōji -longest night and the start of winter. It's also my birthday, but that's not the important thing; it's not a big number anyway. I don't know what Alola does for Tōji, so I'll tell you what my hometown did.

[The longer she talks, the more homesick she sounds. It likely doesn't help that today's her birthday, but well. Small detail's Eva's willing to overlook.] Masara had the rural traditions of feasting, food making, drinking, games dancing, battles. You know, the normal for a coastal town.

No snowball fights though; we'd have to go to the mountains for that and we never went in the lead up to Tōji because that was bad luck. But, we did have something better: Fire jumping under the stars to bring good luck. You'd start at dusk with it low, little more than a small coal pit so even kids could jump it with supervision, and work up to a boosted jump over a half-drum of flames, though they'd only let the adults do that one.

The day I turned twenty I did so many times mum had to drag me away from it by the ear, but - worth it. So worth it...

[She trails off before ending the transmission.]

Comments

[marriedanidiot]

[ A soft sigh ]

Oh my dear, who hurt you so?

[mtsilver_conquor]

No-one.

Memories best not woken for me are just ones that make me homesick, you know?

[marriedanidiot]

Ah. [ She murmurs softly ]

Are you feeling so at the moment, pitya-nin?

[mtsilver_conquor]

Just a little.

[More like a lot, but details.]

Next mission I should try and make a fire-jumping game or something. Though somehow I think the adults wouldn't be keen on letting children jump fire, even under supervision.

[Grump!]

[marriedanidiot]

[ She chuckles ]

Not without supervision, definitely. With? Well, I don't think the youngest ones should, definitely.

Late :(

[mtsilver_conquor]

It depends, honestly. I don't think we've any child under 7 here, and kids typically started doing it around the age of five, though the adults only allow it once, and the pit was small and only coal and ashes. Plus I'm pretty sure there's psychic barriers over the pit when a child jumps over. Low enough to allow her to jump, but not get hurt.

I remember feeling really happy after my first jump; mum was so proud of me for being a brave lady and... that's the main point of it. Be brave and do it even if you're scared.

/pats gently

[marriedanidiot]

At that age, I would worry greatly if proper precautions were not taken! Especially since I am given to understand mortal children are not so agile as elven ones.

[ An elven child of 5, Nerdanel knows, can run and jump and climb with breathtaking speed... and absolutely should not be allowed to do so unsupervised unless parents wish to be dealing with broken bones and wailing toddlers ]

/curls around

[mtsilver_conquor]

You and me both- and ahh... I wouldn't know. For my world, by the age of five, we're expected to know how to do 'a lot of things'. A lot of it's the basics, but a lot is also world-specific things and fire-jumping is taught well before a child makes the first attempt.

Also, it ties into the 'being brave in the face of danger because fear comes later' and even if you're five, you have a those younger looking up to you. A five-year-old can 'battle'. Or at least knows to send mum's pokemon out in the face of danger, and tamed pokemon will, by and large, protect a child.

[marriedanidiot]

[ Nerdanel tips her head consideringly ]

I wonder if that is something particular to your world, then? I fear I have very little knowledge of humans in general, and I've only known adults. But young Findarato tells me that children were often clumsy and overeager and not entirely to be trusted until a little older.

[mtsilver_conquor]

It's possible, given the dangers my world faces on a daily basis. That said, Findarato-san'd be right, yet, in the end, it comes to down to experience and what a kid's learned.

[marriedanidiot]

I fear I would not know! Beleriand was a very different place to Aman, where my children grew to adulthood. In Aman, the worst they could do was fall off something or cause a minor explosion or two. Beleriand... was at war. And Men grow so swiftly, they say.

late :(

[mtsilver_conquor]

A minor explosion? Like with a chemistry set?

[Birds, she hopes so!]

Yeah, yet at the same time, it can seem like an age to go from six to seven. Well. From a kid's view.

sssh no such thing /patpat

[marriedanidiot]

Oh, all sorts of reasons. [ She says with fond tolerance ]

We had to fireproof the forge due to the number of explosions Feanaro would generate when he was experimenting. And the kitchen suffered for it a few times also.

[ #madscientistforlyfe ]

True, that. I will defer to the expert, as I can hardly say I know ought of mortal children! To me, in some ways, all of you are so very, very young.

[mtsilver_conquor]

How'd you manage that? I doubt you have forceshilding, unless there's magic that can replicate it... [There's a small laugh as she continues.] That's why you sometimes ban boys from the kitchen. Even if they're supposed to be able to cook... sometimes they just burn water or make things explode.

Thanks- I like to think I'm young at heart at least. Though getting older does suck in some ways.

[marriedanidiot]

Forceshilding? [ She asks curiously. ]

Oh, there's ways - Feanaro and I Sang strength to the stones, and the rest is all in the materials you use.

[ She chuckles ]

Oh, Feanaro is the cook, not I. All my boys have some passing skill in the kitchen - they are Princes of the Noldor, it is expected! Not all of them are terribly good at it, of course, but they can manage the basics. I'm more a baker, myself, but truly, Feanaro does... or did, the bulk of the work.

[mtsilver_conquor]

A technology-based off psychic abilities. It's commonplace enough that you can find some variation of it in virtually every walk of life. [That's the easiest way to explain it, right??

That said, anything else is lost as her brain screeches to a literal halt.

The joys of coming from a culture that is, all things considered, still rather hierarchical in nature. ]

...Princes?

[marriedanidiot]

Well, at the time, yes.

[ Nerdanal considers ]

Both Maitimo and Makalaure held the crown for a while, though - Makalaure only as Regent, and Maitimo abdicated in favour of Nolofinwe, so perhaps still.

[mtsilver_conquor]

I... I see.

[Breath, Eva. Breath.]

You aren't now, though?

[marriedanidiot]

Oh, no. Maitimo abdicated, after all. And in Tirion Arafinwe took his father's throne.

[mtsilver_conquor]

His father?

[Feanor?]

[marriedanidiot]

Aye - High King Finwe had three sons - my Feanaro, by the Lady Miriel, and Nolofinwe and Arafinwe, from the Lady Indis, after Miriel died. He had two daughters, too. But my Feanaro never forgave Indis, for her wedding of his father meant that Miriel could never return, and that turned on his brothers, although Nolofinwe never stopped seeking his brother's approval.

Do we want to try and head for a wrap for points, if possible?

[mtsilver_conquor]

So... Because his father remarried, his mother could never reincarnate?

[Sorry, she's a bit stuck on that.]

sure!

[marriedanidiot]

The problem is that when we wed, we bind ourselves body and soul, and since the soul endures eternally, so too are our marriages eternal. How then can there be two such bindings, unless one be broken first?

If Finwe was to wed Indis, then how could Miriel return?

[ She sighs ]

Our people still argue over this statue to this day. Some hold that Finwe was wrong, that he should have been content to wait for Miriel to be healed enough to return. Others, that Miriel had already stated that she had no wish to return, so why should Finwe not turn to another?

[mtsilver_conquor]

[Eva is silent for a while as she digests this, and if she's honest, it's more than a little hard to wrap her head around.]

Is...

[A breath, then, as respectively as she can-] is polyamory a taboo for your people? Or is the marriage only ever to one person, the way that certian types of arranged marriages in my world are?

[marriedanidiot]

[ Nerdanel considers that ]

I don't see how that would work, with the fea-bond. [ She shakes her head ]

Tis hard enough to let your spouse in so deep, and then to sort out whose body is whose!... to let another, while your spouse was yet living... I cannot see how that would work.