BELATED as I was having computer problems yesterday and wasn’t sure any ask would go through: when I first got into vanyar I seriously started feeling like I was losing my mind bc nobody else in the fandom seemed remotely interested in them. and then I found you! and there was someone else who thought vanyar weren’t boring! and I was SO HAPPY that I wasn’t the only one and hadn’t gone completely off the rails in my interpretation! also: MLQ is a DELIGHT and has given me many happy moments. :)?

I’m glad your computer is behaving again! (Threaten to sic the Balrogs after it if it ever acts up; that’s what I always do)

If you remember, I found your blog thanks to tracking Ingwë’s tag (one of the handful of mostly dormant tags I track) and found your post and was overexcited to find another person I did not know talking about the Vanyar! Posts about how Ingwë was great and the Vanyar were not bland gullible lapdogs of the Valar, that the slim canon could support a martial, hunting origin in Cuiviénen. Didn’t seem like a lot of Vanyar fans at first, but I feel ~~hope aggressively push~~ that’s changed. (The tiny voice of MLQ! Imin echoes in my head, saying, “Look at my people, my family. They are small, not broken. Still good.”)

Ah yes, MLQ. I treat my fandom crack very seriously. 😀

kareenvorbarra replied to your post:kareenvorbarra replied to your post:Name one thing…

i haven’t actually read much SF – vorkosigan is the first SF series i’ve gotten really into (I read dune and ender’s game but didn’t care enough to read more of the books). i’ve heard good things about honor harrington, but idk about the others

Ugh, flash-backing to re-reading Dune and Ender’s Game – the first novels were fine, if not favorites I’d want to re-read, but yeah, I stopped after the fourth or fifth Dune book (after the large time-skip, was reading them out of sheer stubborn determination) and while the Bean-centric spin-offs were okay/enjoyable enough up to a point, I only read Speaker for the Dead and decided ‘nope’ to more.

The SF I like is more entertaining space battles and politics and space marine bodyguards for spoiled princelings and genre bleeding over into fantasy and time-travel/alternate history stuff (and technically Pern and the Acorna books are SF, so there you go). Of the classic hard SF I probably haven’t read as much I should have. For example, only read Asimov’s Caves of Steel books, not I, Robot or the Foundation series. ~~(bad heget)~~

Honor Harrington is (okay, starts off as) Horatio Hornblower IN SPACE, only with our lead/eventual Admiral Nelson expy is a young woman with a telepathic-emphatic alien cat as a companion. Lot of books, quite entertaining, though I strongly warn that the author is really bad about tech-flavored info-dumps (skip over) and makes GRRM look hesitant to kill off characters (so many dead red-shirts).

Honestly, I’d recommend the Prince Roger/Empire of Man series first, if one is not in it for space battles. There’s only four books, it’s FUNNY, and the focus is on the personal growth of the main character, our wastrel prince, and the platoon of space marines (plus the prince’s valet/father-figure and his tutor who luckily is a one-woman political historian and adviser) trying to protect him after they get stranded on a mostly uncharted alien world, each with their own quirks and skills. And in the case of the mechanic, a “pocking big wrench”.) The focus of the first three books is all of them trying to survive the trek halfway across a very hostile planet encountering progressively more advanced (and dangerous) civilizations of not-exactly-lizardmen (and befriending and allying with them, the focus isn’t solely on the human characters). Put it this way- the second book introduces as a main viewpoint character the very noble Warrior Prince of a Doomed Country (trying desperately to save the survivors of his people) who rides a velociraptor into battle while simultaneously wielding four pistols and will later quote Theoden’s speech.

Safehold is by the same author as HH, I like it a little more. Premise is a bit “SF Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, where our time-traveler Merlin is the (originally female) android holdover from the past trying to help humanity break free of this system disguised as a false religion that was purposefully crafted to stymie technological advancement/keep everyone in medieval stasis. I love the characters in that one. But a different publisher, so i don’t have free copies to send 😉

Some of the other ones are even more strongly history/time-travel AUs, where the SF is just the excuse to start playing around with historical fiction. One is 1630s, with all the Three Musketeers allusions that implies, the other is Byzantium and India (and everywhere between those two) in the 6th century and funny heartwarming characters, easy-to-follow battles/less off-putting tech info dumps, rampant cruelty to pimps, and have I mentioned the characters?(especially female characters?)

kareenvorbarra replied to your post:Name one thing I’ve done or made that made you…

pretty much every conversation we’ve ever had 🙂 you’re always there for me if i need to rant about something, and i know i can trust you not to judge. and i love exchanging messages about vorkosigan stuff with you!

M’dear, I am a willing audience for any rant you need to get off your chest (and often I am but the choir you are preaching to). By the way, to everyone else, I will gladly play bartender and listen to rants even for fandoms I don’t know (“So what did hürrem do this episode?”) and I try to always be a safe and considerate ear. My first impression of you as a beacon of sweet sanity with a kind attitude even to those with less grace and respect has not changed.

Have I mentioned recently how happy I am that you read the Vorkosigan series? Have I forewarned you that having discovered you are amiable to SF, my ambition is to convince you to read one of the other long series like Belisarius, Honor Harrington, Prince Roger, etc..? (I have all of Baen CD download links, this is no idle threat) And that I will gladly discuss and fan over Vorkosigan with you and am delightfully happy with every Kareen and Alys themed post you write? (Also, I forget if you have or not read the three Chalion books yet. STRONG rec)

crocordile

replied to your post

“Name one thing I’ve done or made that made you happy.”

Heget, you make me smile so often I couldn’t pick one moment! I love your headcanons, the funny and the serious, and I also love you, you are very sharp and I like how you approach things. Your (virtual) presence is always a joy to me 🙂

thank you so much. if i’m going to allow my eyes to grow wet, it’s far better to have that happen out of the overwhelming gratefulness that someone is always so gracious and kind to me. Your posts always make me happy 😀

And to everyone else, thank you for putting up with my evening of self-pity. I truly desire that everyone is having a pleasant and stress-free evening (or morning, whatever timezone) and what little I can do to distract another person for a moment from any negative with something amusing or thoughtful or what-have-you, that is something i consider a battle won.

crocordile said: I HAVE A PICTURE OF A MAN FITTING THIS DESCRIPTION EXACTLY IN MY QUEUE AND IT IS TAGGED AS ‘PPL OF BOR’ I AM SO HAPPY AT COINCIDING HEADCANONS :DD

COOL! 😀

I was worried this morning that random little head-canons about hairstyles- and not perfectly detailed for all genders and ages- for this little group won’t be at all interesting.

(The beard thing has been my HC for ages, which will dovetail nicely into the Dúnedain sometimes lacking beards thanks to elven heritage and also aggravate a countering view of “manly” appearance without mandating exact hair-length between the Hadorim and Easterlings.)

ainulindalenya:

squirrelwrangler:

meneldilme:

squirrelwrangler:

For those with a better understanding of the mechanics of Quenya, how would one combine to create the name ‘redbreast’ (the older name for the birds known as robins)?

So far I have ambos (ambost-) for breast/chest and several words for red: carnë (stem…

Thank you both for offering input! As I’m forever amused (dismayed) at the dearth of avian vocabulary in Sindarin and Quenya, I was pleased to find the terms to recreate the older name for a Robin. Carnambos(t) was suggested first, and as it seems to be the consensus (my biggest concern, to be honest, was if I needed to abide by any rules for word order of compounds) I’ll go with that. That is, if I can decide if Carnambost, which personally has a slightly more pleasing ‘mouth sound’ to me than Carnambos, doesn’t look more like a place name in Quenya than a personal name/general noun. (Oh well, I also think Quenya in general is less aesthetically pleasing than Sindarin- for example ‘Fingon’ trumps Findekano. And the less said about Teleporno the better. Eleven years later and I’m still cringe-laughing. But this character is nominally Vanyar, so Quenya it is :). )

Just as a quick note, ‘st’ is not permitted as a final consonant cluster in Quenya. The (t-) the end of the dictionary entry ambos(t-)
designates that the stem form of the word is ambost, but the nominative singular (a chest) is ambos. If you were to put it into the genitive (of a chest), then the word would be not amboso but ambosto.

You could consider another affix if you want to preserve the -st- combination, although I’d strongly discourage you from using the ‘standard’ masculine name-ending affix, -on, as this would lead to Carnamboston, which definitely sounds like a city name.

Makes sense! And yeah, Carnambos has enough syllables, we really don’t need to be tacking on more to this poor bird or turning it into a town.

~~Now to pull out the hypothetical reconstructed Hunnic language pdf and see if I can’t cobble together a similar term for my people of Bór to use!~~

meneldilme:

squirrelwrangler:

For those with a better understanding of the mechanics of Quenya, how would one combine to create the name ‘redbreast’ (the older name for the birds known as robins)?

So far I have ambos (ambost-) for breast/chest and several words for red: carnë (stem…

Thank you both for offering input! As I’m forever amused (dismayed) at the dearth of avian vocabulary in Sindarin and Quenya, I was pleased to find the terms to recreate the older name for a Robin. Carnambos(t) was suggested first, and as it seems to be the consensus (my biggest concern, to be honest, was if I needed to abide by any rules for word order of compounds) I’ll go with that. That is, if I can decide if Carnambost, which personally has a slightly more pleasing ‘mouth sound’ to me than Carnambos, doesn’t look more like a place name in Quenya than a personal name/general noun. (Oh well, I also think Quenya in general is less aesthetically pleasing than Sindarin- for example ‘Fingon’ trumps Findekano. And the less said about Teleporno the better. Eleven years later and I’m still cringe-laughing. But this character is nominally Vanyar, so Quenya it is :). )

crocordile replied to your post “Something with elwing if you’d like?”

thank you oh my god thanks thank thank this is so beautiful and also i am extra emotional bc i have been thinking a lot about these two as having opposite motivations/directions and thank you oh my GOD ahajnahjdjkfghujikoijuhygfds

Now that I’m back from my trip I can actually reply – and ugh yes Eärendil and Elwing and I’m glad it came across that their outlook on optimism and goals and realities of the ultimate fates of blood relatives that there are differences and yet they support each other (because they have no one else).

Elwing ♥

Something with elwing if you’d like?

Her husband pulls out the shard of sun-stone, notching more lines in the railings of the ship, murmurs into the breeze soft words of heading and degrees into the wind, and wishes for charts of currents. He prays for winds and directions and fish for their hooks and the provisions of fruit to last. He prays for the Valar, that their faithful ship of which Elwing has learned each plank and tar-slick rope by memory of touch shall finally reach them. Eärendil hopes to meet the Valar.

Elwing is only interested in one.

The Judge holds all of her family with the lone exception of her husband in his Halls. Elwing’s memory can clearly recall each length of this ship, the sound of Vingilot’s sails snapping, the rush of foam as her prow slices through the waves. She can barely recall the sound of her mother’s voice, or her father’s face, or the feeling of her sons. In Mandos’s Halls are her father Dior and mother Nimloth. Her older brothers will be there, no longer lost, no longer forcibly and cruelly separated from family. Eluréd sits next to Elurin, holding her sons in their arms. Elwing prays her sons have found their uncles with whom they shared the same sweet smiles and unfortunately the same cruel fate. Her brothers will bring smiles back to the faces of Elros and Elrond, hold them tight to banish any night terrors. Her grandfather Galathil will be there, and his parents who died before the Moon rose, and their kin. Together they shall buoy the spirits of their descendants, share the stories and laughter they could not in life. King Thingol will be there, her great-grandfather Elu who held her as an infant and declared she was as beautiful as Melian and grow to be as wise and strong. Melian’s grief, perhaps, and Elwing thinks her great-grandmother is the only other Power she hopes to meet, someone of her blood who understands the sorrow and fear and anger of which only the reunions that the Halls provide can heal. Only her grandfather’s brother is not in Mandos. And her father’s parents. Most of her husband’s family are in the Halls as well, the side that is not mortal. Of his parents, they know not, and Elwing wonders if they will be found with the vast majority of her family, or if they have journeyed far beyond the stars like Grandmother Lúthien and Grandfather Beren, to wherever holds the mortal dead.

Her husband sails for hope, to save the still living. Elwing supports him, holds his hands as they search the horizon, grips his shoulders as he perches from the mast to gauge the position of the stars, and listens to his prayers. But her hope is for the Halls of Mandos that hold her dead, the one place overwhelming with love, her one hope to see her children’s faces again, and her parents and people.

it is better to ask this publicly ahahaha, okay so, headcanon time, silm tickliest characters and silm least tickly characters?

crocordile:

squirrelwrangler:

crocordile:

squirrelwrangler:

I had to think seriously about this. From analysis of notes about the Eldar having greater control over their bodies (LaCE and hroa versus fea and all that) it is obvious that comparatively all humans are by nature more ticklish than elves (and Ainur only ticklish if they choose – Tulkas constantly a victim of Nessa and Irmo ambush tickling him for fun). Tuor is amazed that tickling Idril’s feet never works; and Idril delights in tickling him, easiest way to make him laugh and distract from bad memories.
Now I can’t judge overall, but if I was to focus on a tiny group, let’s say the children of Finarfin. Orodreth and Finrod are more ticklish than Angrod and Aegnor. If Galadriel is ticklish, only Celeborn knows for sure, and he ain’t sharing details.

i laughed more than if you had just gave me names omfg elves are so fucking aarrghh AGHSGVA haahahaahahahahahahahaaha OH MY GOD

Can I assume Lord Elmo is also more prone to being ticklish than his friends and family??

#THAT THING ABOUT TUOR AND IDRIL WAS CUTE TOO DAMNN UUU #elvish tickling #my god look at this tag idk man omg

~~much better topic than if elves poop~~

Oh, if we were to take our sample selection over to the three kingly Lindar sons, Elu is definitely not ticklish, nor Olwë (though he loves to tickle his grandchildren and great-grandchildren) and sure, Elmo is ticklish, for an elf, but he doesn’t have that annoying giggle.

UMM I WOULD LIKE to remind you that the debate re: whether elves pooped or not have given us extraordinary results and more insight on the relationship between elves and humans

Oooh wait so, would elf children be more prone to tickling? Or is control over their hroa something innate? Okay also, does this mean that Olwë used to tickle Elmo when he was a kid too? And that sometimes his grandchildren remind him of his brother? Who was very pissed at him when he sailed? y/n?

It was all cute and fun and pondering the impulse control and maturity of elven infants – and then you brought up all the sad three brothers princely and silver angst. With Olwë searching for the echoes of his family’s laughter in his grandchildren, for the brothers who meant everything to him and whom he ~~abandoned~~ left, only one of which he ever got to say goodbye to, fearing and believing they were left to death and darkness and misery and ignominy, so the only laughter and joy that sounds of theirs is in the smiles and peace of his descendants. That he must foster and protect his grandchildren’s joy, not just for their own sake but of course but because it restores/ remembers/ reincarnates the laughter of Elwë and Elmo. Excuse me, I need to go add more salt water to the sea….