Just a quiet moment reading

[marriedanidiot]

Who: Nerdanel and whoever!
Where: Library & Garden
When: Various times between platform and next stop
What: Mama Elf is available for chats, hugs, and lullabies but technically she's working. She doesn't mind interruptions!
Warnings: n/a

Garden

As she so often is, Nerdanel can be found sitting in the garden, singing softly as she works on her sculptures. The first is now finished, standing no more than two hands tall, Maedhros looks up out of stone, almost as if he might speak at any moment. She works now on the second, but will not mind company.


Library

The library is new, and therefore interesting, and Nerdanel can be found at intervals browsing through the shelves curiously, flipping through books. Alternatively, she can also be found sketching - a bas relief is taking shape under her pencil - one of the train, by the looks of things. Feel free to interrupt her for a chat!

Comments

[10billionpercent]

He blinked at the question. He can't actually recall anyone asking him that.

"Fine." That would have been his answer regardless if it was true or not.

"I've got the recipe I need to get everyone back, at least, those that can be saved, we just need to find a way to produce everything and advance the world enough so that they don't immediately starve to death...oh and deal with the potential threat that caused the problem in the first place. Just a few things."

[marriedanidiot]

She searches his face worriedly.

"If you say so." She murmurs - she's PRETTY SURE that staying alive and counting cannot be good for anyone's sanity, but she doesn't know Senku or his world well enough to say anything.

"That is good news." She nods. "But do not neglect your own health in the pursuit of the care of others!"

[10billionpercent]

Senku wasn't sure what to make about the intensity of her gaze, and he glanced away despite himself. It might not have been great for his sanity, but what had followed had affected him far worse.

"Ah, I'm fine. Pretty healthy even." Senku said with a dismissive little shrug. "I've sorted out all kinds of things, including agriculture so everyone's fed and everything." He was the kind of man who took risks, albeit calculated ones.

"I'm the chief of Ishigami village." He explained slightly. "So it's kind of my job to look after everyone. We have a population of about 150. And the leader of the Kingdom of Science, which is pretty much this village and another one that Soyuz is in charge of." He wasn't kidding about small populations.

[marriedanidiot]

She frowns at him worriedly.

"For the moment, yes. But I know all too well that work can steal time from yourself - do not let it do so! If you are the chief of your village, then you must already begin to understand, that you need to look after yourself to look after them."

[10billionpercent]

"I like doing work." Senku responded easily. "It's being here with nothing to do that's driving me crazy." He quipped. It was true, he liked being busy and having a dozen projects on the go at once. He felt much more comfortable and in his element when he had so much to do.

"You sound like the mentalist, sometimes." Senku sighed. "When he's dragging me off to the observatory."

[marriedanidiot]

"The mentalist?" She tips her head curiously, and smiles a little sadly, and for a moment, she looks old.

"You remind me very much of my family." She murmurs. "My husband also prefers to be busy. Too much so, at times."

[10billionpercent]

"Ah, Gen. You might meet him. He's only just arrived." Senku said, waving his hand a little bit. He almost never called him by name, unless it was his full name. "He's from my world."

He hummed a bit. "I've been hearing that all my life." He snorted slightly. "My dad tried to get me to relax as a kid but, really, didn't take much."

[marriedanidiot]

"I will keep an eye out." She nods.

She shakes her head fondly. "You would fit right in, I think. So many of my family are the same."

[10billionpercent]

"Maybe, I suppose." Senku responded. "I can't say I know much about your family." He shifted slightly, and he mentioned his dad often enough, but that was it. As far as 'family' that was officially family, it had only been the two of them.

[marriedanidiot]

She smiles. "I would not expect you to! But we are a family of crafters, inventors and artists, all. What of our your family?"

[10billionpercent]

At least she didn't seem too put off by the fact he wasn't very good at conversation. The uncomfortable shifting was more about him than her anyway.

"Oh, well, my dad was a professor at a university, then he was an astronaut." Senku answered. "But he wasn't on Earth when the petrification happened, he was in the International Space Station, so they came back down and he's already lived out his life, uh, thousands of years ago."

[marriedanidiot]

"Oh no..." She says sadly. "Tis always a tragedy for a parent to outlive their child."

She has outlived all of hers, at this point, and is waiting to see if any will be returned to her.

"Did he leave you anything?"

[10billionpercent]

Senku's smile was fond and sad at the same time. "Yeah. He left a lot for me. A piece of platinum, and a bit of raw gold. A record. A village full of descendants that he was hoping I could work together with to save the world. He wrote them these stories that they passed down through the years, including one about me."

It was really debatable who outlived who, after all, since he was still alive and Byakuya had died well over 3000 years before.

"My life would be a lot harder if he didn't leave behind what he did."

[marriedanidiot]

"That is good. I'm glad he tried his best for you." She smiles wistfully.

"I'm sure he would be proud to see what you are trying to achieve."

[10billionpercent]

"I don't know, I guess, maybe." Senku answered, scratching at his earlobe with his pinky finger.

"He said in his message that even after the world ended like it did, they still had fun, which I guess is the kind of thing that my old man cared about so that's...good. Byakuya was always saying things like that."

He missed his dad, he hadn't really taken any time to really mourn him, but instead he kept hitting the sleep button on that kind of thing. It was all too easy to just work instead.

[marriedanidiot]

"While I don't doubt that, I'm sure he was also trying to leave reassuring messages for you, or whoever found them, later." She points out gently.

[10billionpercent]

Senku let out an amused giggle. "Not at all." He grinned. "He pretended he was going to, but then he said forget about it, he had more exciting things to tell. He always got me." He wasn't much for sentimentality.

[marriedanidiot]

"Hm." Nerdanel smiles at him, and wonders. A parent will do much to protect their child, she knows.

"I am glad that you had his words, at least."

[10billionpercent]

"Yeah, I guess, but more importantly, he had Lillian sing a song." Senku explained. "She was a famous singer in our time, and she had actually taken a tour seat on the Soyuz. From the stories, kind of sounds like they got married and whatever, which makes sense because he seemed to really like her. He'd sent me some pictures of them together before they left for the ISS."

Senku came back from the tangent. "Anyway, Lillian's song was as good as any professional singer's would've been, but the villagers hadn't ever heard anything like that. When we tell them about the world before, they really have no idea. It's probably some psychology bullshit, but anyway, he told me to play it for them, which I did and now they definitely want to help restore humanity...so I guess it worked."

[marriedanidiot]

"Ah!" She smiles. "How sweet. And do not underestimate the power of a song. Although I suppose it does not hold quite the power in your world as it does in mine, even so, music holds great strength to move hearts."

[10billionpercent]

"I don't know what music does in your world, but I'll admit it was pretty powerful. It moved the villagers..it moved the people from my time too." Senku and Gen had used it to their advantage, to avoid bloodshed.

"I was never much of a music fan."

[marriedanidiot]

"Ah, in the hands of a trained bard, it might heal or destroy." She murmurs, thinking of her second son, named for his golden voice, who used to set the birds singing in the trees, and the stories that came back from Beleriand, of a voice that sang you to stillness, even as it's owner slit your throat.

"Raise a river, or bring the flowers to bloom..."

[10billionpercent]

"Some kind of magic, right?" Senku asked, looking like he was considering that. "We don't really have magic in our world, so I kind of find all these things really fascinating."

[marriedanidiot]

"I suppose it might seem that way." She shrugs. "We wouldn't say so! The world is made from music in the beginning, after all, so all we're doing is... recalling the Song of the world to what it was, once, and what it could be, again."

[10billionpercent]

"Is that right? That must be something unique to your world, since music doesn't work the same way in mine." Senku responded with a hum. "Our world was made through science." It wasn't nearly as fun or fantastical, but he liked it.