milliways_bar | (no subject)

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It's been a long night and there is still a while yet till first light. But he cannot abide opening any more chests with old treasures - and memories, let's not forget memories - tonight. So he has gone here instead and has settled down close to the fire, a mug of mulled, spicy wine at hand and a slightly distant look in his eyes.

Who knows, he might be sleeping.

He wouldn't mind distraction. Anything to take his mind off the neatly ordered piles of notes, maps and lists, left over from The Last Alliance.

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"Both experience and affinity counts for something is this, I'd wager," he replies.

"The Silvan elves are tied closer to the land in many ways then say the Noldo or the Sindar. And the land will often show its appreciation. The main difference is between what was once called The Light Folk and the Dark Folk. We rarely use those terms anymore as they can be somewhat - offensive, but originally they mainly referred to whether a line or a group had lived in the light of the Trees or not."

And the, because he cannot help himself, he asks; "Genetics?"

"Ah," she says. That makes more sense, if one allows for the land being semi-sentient... which she hadn't been.

Elrond's world sounds kind of amazing.

"Genetics is... the study heredity, of how characteristics are passed down from parents to children, like eye color, having curly or straight hair, face shape..." magic-handling ability, affinity for trees... "It studies how people inherit traits, apart from what is caused by their life experiences."

Elrond smiles. "And this is part of - science?"

It seems a rather strange thing to devote a lot of attention to - after all, it is rather well-known that children inherit many things from the parents - but on the other hand, a rigorous study of the world and the way things relate to one another is always beneficial to a young mind.

And are not the minds of Men always young?

"Yeah," she grins. "All the things they taught us in biology class that we all promptly forgot right after the exam."

Because Punnet squares are not part of the daily life of a baker.

"Farmers might use genetics to cross, say, a kind of wheat that is resistant to disease and a kind of wheat that produces better, to create a more reliable kind of wheat that can feed more people from the same amount of farmland. Or people might breed horses to enhance their speed and agility... that's genetics, too. Or, people can find out what their kids'll look like, by looking at their own characteristics."

"My dad thought I'd have straight black hair like him and the rest of his family, so he named me Raven before I was even born. But his mother, my grandmother, had dark red hair, and my mother's hair was brighter red and curly. So despite dark hair being the dominant gene and more likely to show up than the recessive-gene red hair," she explains, trying to remember all that stuff she hadn't paid much attention to in class, "I got both recessive genes, and have wavey red hair."

He laughs. "And once again, things are very alike after all. For we breed our horses for speed and strength and we too spend time tracking the golden hair of a child all the way back to the one ancestor who shared the golden hair."

Rae smiles slightly, taking a last bite of Bitter Chocolate Death.

"People do the same, back home, but usually it's when some sort of Part-blood Other trait has manifested in their child, and they're trying to find out where in the bloodline it came from."

Not a happy time. Lots of blame-laying.

"Part-blood?" Curious.

"I can't remember how much I've told you about the situation with the Others, in my world."

"People who have both human and non-human ancestry are called Part-blood Others, and are pretty heavily discriminated against by... well, human society, even though they just want to be left to live their lives like anybody else, and their ancestry is no fault of their own."

Rae has too many Part-blood friends not to feel upset about the inequality she sees.

"That which can not easily be categorized often cause uneasiness," Elrond says, diplomatically.

Being half-elven has not been entirely without difficulties.

"And unfair as it is, the wrongdoings of the elders are passed down to their offspring."

"It's not even wrong-doing," she says, frustrated with her messed-up world. "It's just that some people are still afraid, from the Wars, and they stigmatize everything Other. People who have Part-blood status find that they don't qualify for awards in atheletic or school competitions, because being Part-blood, ipso facto, they must've had an advantage. Part-bloods also somehow find themselves never hired for any job labeled 'sensitive,' and are often passed over for promotions no matter how good they are at their profession."

"If a kid starts showing Other traits, he's going to have to deal with that the rest of his life. And if anyone in his family was on the fast track, career-wise, they're off it for life. Even if they show no signs of latent Other heredity, their blood is suspect, and that's enough for the government."

Rae finds new reasons every day to wish her world weren't such a mess.

"That does sound cruel," Elrond agrees. "Was it better before the Wars?"

"Everything was better before the Wars," she says, emphatically. "It wasn't perfect, but it was better."

He nods. "Perfection is rare. But I am sorry,that things are that way. "

It clearly affects her.

The Wars' effects can be seen in every aspect of her world.

"People don't like to think about it, if they can help it."

"Even the Wise may be blind for those things that are too hard to face."

Betrayal for one.

Rae nods, looking down at her empty plate. "That's exactly it, really."

"If they think about it enough, they realize something that SOF's been trying to keep under wraps ever since the Wars."

"If things continue as they are, and don't change, the human world has about a century left. No, not the human world... the daylit world."

"The Darkness is too strong?" he asks.

"There aren't enough people left to fight them adequately," she says. "SOFs are outnumbered and overworked as it is, aside from the fact that the vampires they're fighting are faster, stronger and harder to kill than they are."

It's why she's out there fighting, though it goes against everything she is.

He nods. "Drawn-out wars are horrible. They do things to us that are appalling and demeaning. But take heart - even when darkness has descended fully, the stars are alight overhead."

"Stars don't phase vampires," she replies, quietly. "Only the light of the sun; though for the older vampires, the light of the moon will suffice."

"Or a stake to the heart, of course."

"So they must be faced in close combat. Or - how thick do these sticks have to be?"

Arrows can be made fully of wood.

"It's not really the thickness that matters. It's... getting past the ribs and into the heart while not being torn in half by something as strong as ten men and faster than anything living."

"The best stakes are made of apple wood, specifically from apple trees that have mistletoe growing on them. Retired or invalided-out SOFs - though the latter are a small number... SOFs tend to live or die without anything in between - often keep up the fight by tending SOF's orchards and keeping the mistletoe happy."

"Would arrows work then?" He is warming to the idea.

"With a proper bow, penetration is not an issue. Of course, they come out at night and Mortal eyes often need more light, but a skilled bowsman could probably still do some damage."

"My friend Urquhart also mention using arrows... well, bolts. He was thinking of something more along the lines of a crossbow."

"I don't know if arrows or bolts would work, but if I can bring it up in conversation with my SOFs, they'd probably know why I wanted to know, and know the answer."

"Not having enough light to see by isn't an issue," she admits, "at least in my case."

He nods. "But a lonely bowman is likely not enough. You'd need more I'd think. If it is merely a question of piercing the heart, bowmen might be stationed up high, hiding, and then aim for hitting the mark through the shoulder or back."

He indicates the places on himself with one hand, sketching the trajectory.

He has spent much time planning warfare. It shows.

"Bolts might be a good idea, but they are more difficult to achieve true aim with and reloading a crossbow takes too long, I'd think. You need a weapon that is fast."