OM NOM NOM (or: The Hadriel Community Kitchen Initiative)

[utulien_aure]

Who: OPEN
What: With the gods out of commission, Hadriel attempts to feed itself
Where: A makeshift firepit, set up on the southwest bank of the river
When: Roughly December 13-26, after Fingon's Network post
Warnings: The threat of starvation, dubious food, possibly slight fire burns.



The Null may begone, but the damage they inflicted remains: to the city's infrastructure, to it's citizens, to the gods themselves. With Sorrow dead and Hope out of commission, one problem in particular is critical: Hadriel's food supply is dwindling, and many lack the skills to catch and cook their own meals.

That's where the fire pit comes in: a great hole dug into the earth for a cooking fire, topped by a metal grate. Use of the pit is open to all in the city: anyone who hunts or gathers food can bring it here to be prepared, and anyone who shows up hungry will be fed.

The pit also serves as a place to find interested hunting partners; in an unfamiliar and extremely harsh environment, it's best not to wander off on your own for too long. Anyone interested in hunting can take a look at a slate set up near the pit: on it is a list of volunteers looking for an expedition to join.


[OOC: This is an open log, so feel free to top-level to your heart's content.]

Comments

Maglor | OTA

[bythewaves]

Three Ages of the Sun he has survived, and for much of a goodly portion of it he was homeless. Maglor knows how to hunt, how to trap, how to scavenge. He does better with fishing, and small prey around here is scarce, but he puts what skills he has to good use.

He can be found fishing, or making snares, or on a hunt, or even returning from one! He's quite good at campfire cooking too.

time to collect more elves

[hot_mes]

Fishing is Law's primary jam as well - not that he hasn't brought in some large game as well, but it's much easier for him to fit a little fish-nabbing in between clinic rebuilding and other duties.

He arrives at the communal kitchen with his bucket full, setting up near Maglor to clean and fillet everything, giving the elf a nod of greeting. "Yo."

yesgood

[bythewaves]

Maglor likes fishing too - he has spent long enough by the sea to be reasonably adept at it, as well as the preparation.

He looks up from the rather messy job to smile at Law.

"Well met! I think we've seen each other around but never been properly introduced. Maglor, at your service. Need you a hand with that?"

[hot_mes]

"I wouldn't mind." There are a lot of fish in that bucket, after all, and more hands will have them ready to grill in no time. Also, precisely why he's not offering a hand to shake.

Well, that and he's not that polite.

"Trafalgar Law," he introduces with a nod. "Maglor...your kinsmen have mentioned you before."

[bythewaves]

What is this shaking of hands

"Then set them down here, and we can work together." Maglor smiles and tips his head in a bow. "Well met, Trafalgar Law. Any friend of my kinsemen is a friend also of mine."

[hot_mes]

Law does so, placing the bucket teeming with fish of all sizes near Maglor and then hunting among what supplies they have for a knife. His sword will simply not do for filleting fish. "Fingon-ya and Curufin-ya are decent guys," he says idly, picking something out and coming back. "Of course, family is always biased about one another but..."

[bythewaves]

Maglor chuckles at that, his hands working quickly and efficiently at the messy job.

"We are." He admits fondly. "Although Curufin is much better now than he was when I saw him last, and as his brother, that pleases me greatly. I am glad he has been able to find good friends here!"

[hot_mes]

While he's not nearly as good at this as some, Law's passable. He doesn't work fast but he's just as precise as a surgeon should be.

"Brother?" he repeats in keen interest. "I didn't know that. Just that all of you are kind of related in some way or another." He shakes his head wryly. "Considering we met because I shot him in paintball, it could have turned out worse. But he helped me out with the Null, so it's all fine."

[bythewaves]

"Aye - this world seems surprisingly fond of my family! Fingon is my cousin - half-cousin, if you wish to be precise, we share the same grandfather, but not the same grandmother. Maedhros, if you have met him, is Curufin and I's older brother - the eldest of seven, in fact, with myself being second and Curufin being the second youngest, for the last two were twins. Celebrimbor is Curufin's son, you'll find him in the forges, and Elrond in the clinic is Fingon's brother's grandson."

A veritable family bush.

"And Curufin is unlikely to take a playful injury as insult - we've all done far worse to each other in our time!"

[hot_mes]

"His son? Wait." Law had to think back, his knife going still for a moment while he reached way back to his first couple of weeks in Hadriel. "Fingon-ya said your people were long-lived. Almost like giants. So it's possible to have a son who looks the same age as you, I take it."

[bythewaves]

"We are, yes - we are bound to the world, to live as long as it does, and to end when it does as well." Maglor nods.

"I have seen ... mm, probably some nine thousand seven hundred years, or so, myself. But because of that, we don't age the way you Men do, either."

[hot_mes]

Law sits up sharply, swearing under his breath. "Nine thousand years? That's...incredible."

Even giants had lifespans of no more than a few hundred. No one that he knew of had survived long enough to even remember the Void Century first-hand, that was physically impossible. Unless, of course, some past user of the Ope-Ope Fruit had used it to give someone eternal life, but that didn't seem likely. He shakes himself out of it after contemplating the repercussions. "No, I would guess that you don't," he murmurs, trying to get back his footing. "So it would be ridiculous to keep being shocked when I see all of you together looking like classmates the same age or something."

[bythewaves]

"I am one of the older ones here." Maglor laughs wryly.

"But I have known older. And yes - although you can tell relative age if you know how to look. It's in the eyes, mostly."

[hot_mes]

Law smirks to himself as he goes back to whatever fish he was cutting. Oh, that one's finished, better put it aside and grab a fresh one. "Let me guess. Living that long, you've seen some shit and it shows."

[bythewaves]

"Essentially." Maglor shrugs wryly back.

"The world wears on you, over time. When we were young, the years passed without us noticing, but I am older, now, and the press of years is noticable."

[hot_mes]

"Is it...endless?" Law's tone is still casual enough but he actually has a deep and personal reason to wonder. He holds within him the power to make someone just as long-lived, but he's never even been remotely tempted to use it. Still, he can't help but be curious about what it's like for someone to actually experience that kind of life.

"...I mean. Is it simply a lifespan of thousands of years but eventually you'll die, or is it actually eternal?"

[bythewaves]

Maglor shakes his head.

"No - when Arda dies, so will we, and what comes after not even the Powers know, bound as they are to the world that they chose to build and defend. And we can be slain - by blade, or poison or grief. But our fea - soul, or spirit, so long as Arda remains, it does also, and so we go to the Halls of Waiting, and once healed enough return again to Life. At least, until the End of Days."

[hot_mes]

To Law, that sounds an awful lot like eternal life. There till the world ends, huh? But then, he has a fairly negative view of gods and creation myths, so...

He's good about not griping about that openly. He simply goes about scraping scales off his fish, murmuring quietly as he works. "I've always wondered about that," he says, focusing on how that information relates to his own curiosities. "If living for what seems like forever precludes getting yourself killed. I suppose there can be a difference between immortal and invulnerable."

[bythewaves]

Maglor used to sit at the feet of his gods and chat with them, so his view is a little skewed

"Oh very much so." Maglor nods. "I'm sure there are worlds out there where both are true, but even the Powers can be harmed, especially if they take a physical form as our Enemy was fool enough to do. Even the spirit can be damaged, if one knows how."

[hot_mes]

"I take it you don't mean metaphorically, like breaking someone's spirit."

Law considers it while he works, since that's at odds with his abilities. The spirit of a person is immutable, he can move it from body to body but it outlasts the physical. It would be curious to know how damaging one would be possible, if for no other reason than he wouldn't want to accidentally make that mistake.

But then, there's the "gods" here. "The alien creatures here can take forms that look like us," he notes. "But I'm not sure if those are their real bodies."

[bythewaves]

"Aye, you have the right of it, although such wounds are beyond what we Incarnates are usually capable of. But my uncle Fingolfin is held as our greatest warrior, and he lamed our foe seven times, and those wounds went past the flesh he wore into his spirit, and he bears them still."

Maglor shrugs in agreement. "True - although I suspect they are bound to them, if what happened when Delight turned on us is true."

[hot_mes]

Being as he hasn't met a Fingolfin around here, Law takes that in stride and shelves it for later. Something to contemplate. That'd be a hell of a power, wouldn't it?

He gives Maglor a shifty look. "You mean, injuring Hope and killing Sorrow? There were special weapons involved - I haven't seen one. Have you heard anything about the aftermath?"

[bythewaves]

You betcha

"I have not. But one thing I have learnt - what has been done once can be done again, and more - it gives hope to those who have reason to try."

[hot_mes]

That sounds an awful lot like the Null and their god-killers could be back. Greeeaaaaaat. Law plops a finished fish fillet into the clean bucket with a little more force than necessary.

"Then we'd better do more than just survive. It's on us to prepare so that if anyone tries again, they'll be met with more than panic and fumbling."

[bythewaves]

"That would be my suggestion." Maglor shrugs. "Of course, I could just be being pessimistic, I suppose. But I have seen this pattern before, and I do not hold much hope that someone, somehow, will try again."