How about a co-op?

[tinkerheart]

Who: Feanor and Tony
When: late Basson 5th / early 6th
Where: Quiet Carriage aka Tony's workshop or kitchen, who knows...
What: A proposition is being made.
Warnings: Probably none.


It's already late when Feanor goes to look for Tony. He has a request to make and has given the subject far more thought that it's been necessary. Mulling over it further would serve no purpose. It's unlikely he would reach a conclusion different from the one he already had. That thing that he plans to make? He would need help with it. Only not for the usual reasons. Given enough time and materials, he can make anything he wants on his own. With the help of Curufin, even more. It is not a question of talent but of trust. Oh, he trusts his son completely. The person he does not trust is himself.

"I hope I am not intruding."

Comments

[tinkerheart]

Fëanor initially planned to base control of the hand on the muscles and nerves that still might be intact. That plan though had several flaws. It might be too late. There might be nothing to salvage. The biggest one being that at least the first attempt will be painful.

But if they can make it possible for Maedhros to control the hand with his thought alone?

He stares at Tony.

"He wouldn't. That's brilliant. I can tune it to his ..." Fëanor pauses. He sighs. ósanwe... There are concepts that even mighty train translation magic fails to convey properly and he's already thrown enough of Quenya at Tony to add yet another term.

"Yes, if he could control it with his mind that would be great."

[runs_on_batteries]

It was a very proud moment to render Feanor speechless. He should really not gloat or be too arrogant about it. It wasn't the elf's fault his time was prior to the same technological advances Tony's was. Even still, it felt good.

The way Feanor started to speak and stopped was enough to peak Tony's curiosity though. He was just about to ask when the other father agreed with the plan. "The brain actually generates its own electrical currents. We have been able to scan these currents for several decades in my time. However, this would be taking it a level or two beyond that since it won't just be the current we're reading but the very specific, minute thought. It's something I've managed to tap into a couple times. This will obviously be much more difficult without my lab, but I believe we can do it."

He paused to think a moment, staring at the notes he'd made. "I don't know magic. It's not something we have very much of back where I'm from. Is there a way to use whatever you can use on this?"

[tinkerheart]

"Electrical currents?"

Curufin told him about a few new skills he acquired during his previous travels. All the while Fëanor was stuck mainly being incorporeal spirit. The topic of electricity did appear during their conversations a couple of times.

"It's not magic what I had in mind." He smiles. Not really. "We have a way of communicating without words. In pure thought, mind to mind. The correct term, sanwë-latya, has a bit broader context but that's basically what it is. It's easier between family members or close friends."

He once enclosed in jewels the purest light that ever existed in all of creation. He can make a piece of circuitry obey commands of its user by thought alone. How he plans to do it is a little more complicated.

"There's a thought behind everything that exists. Everything is reflected in the Music and the Music is the source of it all." He takes a piece of paper. "I can tell you how this was made. What it is made of. The intention of its maker. I can see how strands of fiber weave into the whole, each of them in turn consisting of smaller strands still, and those of smaller building blocks that the eye can't see. Down to the very vibrations, the sounds of Music."

He stops checking if that even makes sense to Tony or did he lost him completely.

"Our craftsmen could manipulate those and I am the best of them. If you make a device that could control the hand, I can make it listen to thought."

Ever heard of string theory, Tony? Of course, you did. All that talk about Music must sound awfully familiar in context.

[runs_on_batteries]

Tony listened intently as Feanor explained. He thought comparing all these concepts to music sounded a little dumb, but then he decided 'music' had to be the closest translation. Except then they were getting into string theory (and he definitely knew about that!).

"You're talking about the subatomic quantum realm." He took it all back. Everything. Any crack in his mind at the elves being from a world with less advanced technology or thinking calling it music was dumb, even Feanor's haughty huffs- it was all wrong. He had someone on this train with a mind brilliant enough to come up with his own string theory. If they had Banner on this train.. there would be no stopping them!

"I used that same logic when I built a time machine."

[tinkerheart]

Tony was never wrong thinking the elves come from a world with little technological progress. That's what happens when your people are locked in a state of perpetual war with their world's version of the Devil. There can't be much advancement when you loose all your brightest minds to fire, sword and torture.

His kind achieved great things, his descendants even greater but they all paled in comparison to what could have been if only they were allowed live and work in peace. If they didn't have to make each and every settlement a fortress. To use their time on creation and not on preparation for yet another attack. If only they could have sharpened their skills instead of weapons.

The Enemy made it all impossible and Fëanor will never stop hating him for it.

"You built a time machine?!"

Fëanor shakes his head in disbelief but it's not the concept he finds surprising. It's a logical consequence of the existence of time if only one just gives it enough thought. It's that maybe, just maybe, he's a tiny bit jealous. The Valar would never have let him build something like that while he still was alive and then he was stuck in the Halls for what felt like an eternity. He wonders how much his people must have done since his fall at the hands of Morgoth's fire lackeys.

"That's the story I'd like to hear someday."

[runs_on_batteries]

It was something he could sympathize with- being distracted by war. It took time away from all his other endeavors to have to prepare weapons for battle instead of self-sustaining food sources or cleaning the polluted oceans. They were all limited to a degree, but he'd been fortunate enough to have time of peace and those were where he'd done some amazing discoveries.

The time travel, however, had been war.

As he nodded, he laughed lightly, "You're always welcome to ask. It's not like it takes much to get me talking." He was aware of how he was with people! "For now, let's consider our objective here and see what we can come up with for Maedhros' hand. I'll talk to Luke and see if he'll let me examine his more closely. Keep me up to date though on what thoughts you have about tapping into that music."

and then they nerded on the utterly riddiculous complications a succesful time travel can bring

[tinkerheart]

"Careful, I might take you up on that promise," Fëanor says. It's not that they have plenty of meaningful tasks here and what little they have assigned to them, as the chores, is pretty boring in its repetitiveness.

"I will."

He did it once. There is no reason he can't recreate the process now. With the difference that he will make notes this time. Because this time it will no longer be a toy made to satisfy his selfish whim, an arrogant wish to prove not only that it can be done but that he alone can do it.
This time it's going to serve a real purpose and he actually wants to share the details with someone else. Just in case.

"And thank you." he adds after a while "For your help and for Maglor's glove. It means a lot."