March Test Drive!

[rubycitymods]

Thinking of apping a character but not sure they'll fit in the city walls?

Have no fear, a meme for you is here.

Directions:

• Use an RNG to choose a location and prompt, or wait for someone else to tag.


• Post with your character with their name and canon on top!


• If you'd like, leave contact info for people to get in contact for plotting and other such shenans.


• Tag around! Make friends. Don't be afraid to chat OOC while tagging.

Locations

1.TRAIN STATION - The place where everyone gets dumped off at. Your first view of Ruby City, complete with informational posters telling you all about where you've ended up.
2. THE BEACH - Lovely year-round, though in the winter months, you're probably not likely to dip your toes in.
3. THE BLACK STALLION - A rather quaint bar. Supposedly, the burgers are great, but you don't see anyone immediately who's willing to serve you. Maybe you're meant to get it yourself.
4. THE OBELISK - The tall monolith in the center of the city marks the gathering place of many events, though right now it seems to be cold and dark.
5. THE CLOCKTOWER - Offering an impressive view of the city, several residents come here to clear their heads, if they don't mind braving the narrow staircase.
6. THE COFFEE JOINT - the front windows are warm and welcoming, and it seems there's always someone friendly enough to fix you a cup when you wander through.
7. THE CATACOMBS - Intrepid, aren't you? Those weird holes may beg exploring, but go too deep and you're going to be in a lot of trouble, considering the viciousness of the creatures held within.
8. THE CITY STREETS - All told, Ruby City is a lovely place, once you get past the fact that several of the buildings look derelict and on the verge of falling down. There's no harm in doing a little sightseeing.
9. THE PARK - You thought it'd be a lovely stroll, but the park is anything but friendly, if those approaching wolf-like creatures are any indication.
10. CHOOSE YOUR OWN - Don't like what we've come up with? Feel like picking your own place? There's a whole host of lovely locations to choose from in the City.


Scenarios


1. NEW ARRIVAL - Step off that train, walk down the street. People usually latch on to newcomers to try and help them out. Even if you look shy, the other residents probably won't be!
2. WATCH TALK - Feeling lost? Disoriented? Don't worry, everyone feels that way on their first day. Fortunately - if the signs at the station are to believed - the watch in your pocket can be used to talk to whoever else might be here.
3. BAD WEATHER - Aw, man. Whether it's snow, or rain, or just plain cold, today was definitely the wrong day to get dumped off in a City in the middle of nowhere.
4. A RUN-IN - Maybe you weren't watching. Maybe they weren't. Either way, you just bumped into someone. Perhaps apologies are in order?
5. HELP, IT HURTS - Clumsy, aren't you? Perhaps wherever the train brought you from wasn't so friendly, or you just tripped and twisted your ankle. Either way, you're in a bit of pain. Hopefully someone will notice your booboos and help patch you up.
6. HUNGRY - It isn't very obvious sometimes that restaurants are what they are, especially in a place like Ruby City. Where can a person go to get a bite to eat around here?
7. MISTAKEN IDENTITY - Hey, there's someone you know! --Or maybe not.
8. BEING FOLLOWED - Maybe you're just being paranoid, or maybe you've got a reason to be afraid. Whatever it is, it feels like there's eyes on you...
9. CURRENT EVENTS - None at the moment, but feel free to look through our event tag!
10. CHOOSE YOUR OWN - Don't like any of these ideas? Feel free to come up with your own!

Comments

[mining_mole]

"...Thank you." He lets himself be led around, though his eyes dart around nervously, and his reaction to fire will both search for warmth and be scared of the flames, but he sits by it anyway, unmoving, his eyes following Maglor as he moves about the room.

[bythewaves]

Maglor moves with the assurance of one who has been here a while, knowing where things are, practiced and comfortable.

"Tea, I think, on weather like this, and I am sure I left some soup... ah, here. This is a marvel, you know" He pats the fridge. "An ice box which requires no ice! I wish I was better able to understand how it works."

[mining_mole]

"I could look at it and see if I can find out." There is a spark of something else in his eyes then, older than fear and despair and shame, and he leans forward a bit to peer at the box. He's a miner rather than a smith, though both are crafts that he would pursue with the greatest interest in a heartbeat, if they were offered to him; but mining requires much tinkering and mechanics as well. He may be no match when compared to Celebrimbor, but compared to others, he does think that he is. He may find out.

[bythewaves]

There we go! and Maglor smiles at him. "I am sure no one will mind - indeed, it would be interesting if you could find out, I think nephew. Certainly none of us here are the sort to know how."

[mining_mole]

"I might have to dissemble it." He hasn't exactly forgotten about his general situation, but this is different and familiar and comfortable, almost joyful, and for just a moment he wants to take comfort in it and wants to just not think about all those other things.

[bythewaves]

"Maybe not ours then" Maglor chuckles lowly. "As I think Celebrian would be rather annoyed, if you used ours. But it will not be hard to find another - they are quite widespread, in this strange city."

[mining_mole]

"I will find another one," he promises quickly and then looks to the door, as if thinking that she might be standing there. She probably has a low opinion of him anyway, understandably, and if the first thing about him that she hears would have been his wish to dissemble her kitchen interior that surely wouldn't have improved that opinion.

[bythewaves]

"I will help" Maglor nods. "I am sure we can find a spare one, in a place such as this. And you can explain what you find eh? In easy language, please! There is a reason Curufin is the one reknowed and not I."

[mining_mole]

The mention of Curufin throws him back to a different time and place, abruptly, a quiet, dark and still very pleasant conversation that for the first time since arriving in Gondolin made him see his mother's extended family as a family, not a political unit, and through those connections (being emotionally taken back to a time when she would tell him stories of her childhood and youth) put him at ease in a way that he had almost forgotten.

"...I was told that even if one has no talent in your field and much in your brother's, it still is far kinder to be taught by you."

[bythewaves]

"Oh?" A fond, wistful smile. "I suppose I was the kinder taskmaster, that is true. Easier to bribe and wheedle, my younger cousins found." But he taught as many of them as wanted to learn anyway. Softly, "Curufin was too much like our father - he demanded perfection - from himself, as well as others."

[mining_mole]

"Celebrimbor did find it so as well, then."

He thinks back to the stories, for stories is all that he has of most of his relatives, even ones much closer than Fëanor and his sons. It is all that he has of Fingolfin and Argon, and pretty much all that he has of Fingon. All that he has of Fingolfin's siblings and their children.

"...How strong is the resemblance between him and his father and grandfather?"

[bythewaves]

"Did he?" Maglor smiles in memory. "I am glad that he remembered some things fondly."

He hums thoughtfully. "Celebrimbor was more like Feanor than Curufin was, I think. Not so much in looks, although there was certainly that strong resemblence there, but in personality. Very forceful, and once he made up his mind, you got out of his way, or were swept in his wake, for you could not change it. Curufin was more calculating, more cold, although he had that stubborness too."

[mining_mole]

"He-" Maeglin hesitates, is this too personal, but then decides to continue, because it isn't terribly so and Celebrimbor never indicated that he didn't want his family to hear of it, only not the general population of Gondolin, "I believe that he remembered his family fondly as you were before the Oath. And, sometimes, after." That much he could take away from their conversations.

Almost like Fëanor and that is a strange thought on the one hand and on the other it leads his mind places, and he drifts for a bit, lost in thought.

[bythewaves]

"Did he?" A bright, joyful light in his eyes and Maglor smiles softly at the cup in his hands.

"I am so, so glad. Curufin... hated himself a lot, after. He was... on one level, happy that his son escaped. But he was also furious, shamed, hurt... and I think it was a big part in how hard he and Celegorm behaved later. But like father, none of them ever did deal well with loss."

Like you were any better snorts Caranthir.

[mining_mole]

Loss... "There is nothing to ground you, after. Or perhaps the wrong things only." He has to think of Turgon and Idril, of his house and what work he occupied his mind with. Of Idril, most of all.

He still feels afloat sometimes, often, knowing that he cannot turn towards his mother with joy and sorrow and doubts and certainties that occur in his life.

[bythewaves]

"Yes." Maglor shrugs sadly. "It does not excuse what they did. But... perhaps it makes it a bit more understandable."

We were all mad

"Perhaps here you will be able to find something to ground you."

[mining_mole]

"Perhaps." He hasn't seen much of this city, but what he has seen did not look like it might. And even if he does, he's doubtful that it will allow him, and if, that it will stay. And his answer applies for the first half of the exchange, too - it may make things a bit more understandable, but the question is to whom, and if any want to understand (and what it would change, thinking of Celebrimbor especially).

"You mentioned food."

[bythewaves]

"Hm? Ah, yes, of course. My apologies, Maeglin. I grow distracted. Forgive my manners."

Shaking himself a little he puts the soup on the stove and rummages until he locates the bread.

"Nothing immediately hot, although I can fry some eggs, if you like?"

[mining_mole]

It takes a moment until Maeglin answers, not because he is still somewhere else with his mind nor because he is reluctant to answer - but simply because it takes him a bit to remember what fried eggs taste like. It's ridiculous, he knows, he's not really been gone for that long, but it felt like many years and... And he can only shrug and nod. Anything will probably taste heavenly right about now, especially when fresh and made to be tasty.

"I will eat whatever you make."

[bythewaves]

Maglor flashes him a smile and nods.

"Fried eggs it is, then. Do you take yours with onions?"

The stove is a little odd, but not so much that he didn't work it out quickly, and he gets the fire going and fishes out the fry pan.

[mining_mole]

"If you have any." He watches Maglor handle the stove curiously, but the warmth and the vague feeling of safety are getting to him. The chair is comfortable, and if he pushes it a bit towards the wall he can lean against it, and then it is only a little ways to curling up under the coat that he was given and slowly start to nod off.

[bythewaves]

"We do" Maglor hums softly as he works, keeping his voice low as he watches Maeglin doze off, chopping the onions and tossing them in the frying pan and cracking eggs in to fry. The tears are simply from the onions. Really.

The songs he hums are the lullabies of long ago. Let Maeglin rest - he certainly looks like he could use it.