Tony Stark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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voidtreckerooc2022-07-19 01:16 pm
runs_on_batteries) wrote in voidtreckerooc2022-07-19 01:16 pm
Passenger IC Questionnaire
[ooc: This is a questionnaire that Tony is handing out to everyone on the train both now and in the future. Please answer them IC. Also, thanks to Kinzie for doing the html.]
Congratulations! You’re now on the Void Train and no, that’s not a band name. This is, for better or worse, a new world for all of us and we’re stuck here. In order to detect patterns in these abductions, I’m conducting a survey. Please answer everything to the best of your ability. If you have any questions about the form please consult whoever is standing next to you other than me, because you should be intelligent enough to answer these very straight forward questions.
Just do it and help us out, asshat.
[ooc: Just fyi, Tony *will* comment on something about your answers when you hand in your answers IC. I've checked with the mod and these can count toward bonus threads, etc.]
Two additional questions:
1) Do you have any medical conditions or issues that are being treated by a doctor?
2) Do you have any known allergies or special dietary needs?
** Added Later **
3) Is there anyone from your world here? Were they here before/ after you got here or arrived at the same time?
** This Month's **
4) What special skills do you have, particularly fighting or military skills?
5) Are there any chores on the list you'd be willing to do if someone else finds their assigned chores particularly disdainful? Or can you be bribed to do both?
(And thank Peter for this one)
6) Did anyone from your universe turn up at the train station this time? If so, who?
Congratulations! You’re now on the Void Train and no, that’s not a band name. This is, for better or worse, a new world for all of us and we’re stuck here. In order to detect patterns in these abductions, I’m conducting a survey. Please answer everything to the best of your ability. If you have any questions about the form please consult whoever is standing next to you other than me, because you should be intelligent enough to answer these very straight forward questions.
Just do it and help us out, asshat.
[ooc: Just fyi, Tony *will* comment on something about your answers when you hand in your answers IC. I've checked with the mod and these can count toward bonus threads, etc.]
Two additional questions:
1) Do you have any medical conditions or issues that are being treated by a doctor?
2) Do you have any known allergies or special dietary needs?
** Added Later **
3) Is there anyone from your world here? Were they here before/ after you got here or arrived at the same time?
** This Month's **
4) What special skills do you have, particularly fighting or military skills?
5) Are there any chores on the list you'd be willing to do if someone else finds their assigned chores particularly disdainful? Or can you be bribed to do both?
(And thank Peter for this one)
6) Did anyone from your universe turn up at the train station this time? If so, who?
no subject
What’s your name? Curufin Fëanorion
What species are you? An Elf of the First Age of Arda.
What’s your birthday/ years you’ve been alive? 2805 solar years.
How many years is the average lifespan of your particular species? Hard to say. We might in theory last tens of thousands of years, but most don't.
Year you’re from: Our Elvish timeline wouldn't make sense to you. It barely makes sense to us!
How many months in your world’s calendar? We count six months in the solar year.
How many days in the months? Spring, 54 days. Summer, 72 days. Autumn, 54 days. Fading, 54 days. Winter, 72 days. Stirring, 54 days.
How many hours? Minutes? Seconds? Forget it! We don't think in those small terms.
What was happening when you were taken from your time and woke up on the train platform? I wasn't taken from my world, I was taken from another. At the time, I had reverted to ghost form and was slipping around the environment leaving messages in my friends' inboxes and saying goodbye to some of them in person.
What were some of the recent big events that have occurred before you woke? Don't ask.
If you had not been taken at that point in time, would you still be alive? Yes, if I wanted to be.
Technology:
What is the most advanced technological device in your world? In my world, we had simple mechanical devices and some complex optical ones, such as the telescope and one helluva powerful lighthouse beam.
Is this train something new or are there trains like this in your world? No trains in my world. We knew the principle of a steam engine, but we hadn't built one to power a vehicle.
Do you have trains, but not ones that go through the Void? Nope, like I said.
What is a common piece of technology you use regularly? A forge furnace. All my carpentry and metalworking tools. But I'm also a musician, and I make and play musical instruments.
Magic:
Does your world use magic? Do you use magic? Is your magic based on a device/ talisman/ lineage/ race? We do use what you'd think of as magic, but we don't call it that. We call it art. Our Elvish lineage gives us a certain amount of power over the physical world, and we use it in our arts and crafts, mainly. It's also sometimes used to project a convincing illusion. I myself have employed this gift in the past.
Inventory:
What items were in your rucksack upon waking? Specifically, did anything come with you from your home world? If so, what was it? Same as what everybody else has. Clothes, coat, sleeping bag, writing materials. But I found my tool kit in there, too. My nine most useful tools plus a tenth one -- my flute!
Additional Questions:
1) Do you have any medical conditions or issues that are being treated by a doctor? No.
2) Do you have any known allergies or special dietary needs? No.
3) Is there anyone from your world here? Were they here before/ after you got here or arrived at the same time? My father Fëanor and my brother Maglor were already here when I arrived. My brother Maedhros and I arrived at the same time.
no subject
And what do you mean you reverted to ghost form? Are you supposed to be dead in your world?
[That was disturbing. Why were so many of these elves dead?]
What kind of tools?
[Sorry, Curufin, you're too interesting to leave alone.]
no subject
Yes, I died in my own world. I wandered the landscape as a spirit for a time, and then I started to work on figuring out how to reembody myself. Elves can do that, though most don't know it's possible. I know it because when I was younger, I used to read the works of our sages and visionaries, and a few of them thought it might be possible for an Elvish spirit to re-embody, without the help of our gods. Normally what happens to us when we die is that we go to our death-god's dark halls and remain there either until the end of time or until he judges we're ready to return to life. An Elvish spirit supposedly can never leave the Earth, so for us when we die, it's either eternal residence in the Halls of Mandos, or it's a return to life in the body and to the world. But there are some rebels, including me, who refuse the summons of Mandos, and remain in Middle-earth as spirits. It was interesting but often depressing. I'm glad I figured out how to come back to life. But I didn't get to do much with that new life, as I was snatched into a different universe almost immediately, where I found out by accident that I could not only re-embody myself, but I could revert to ghost-form at times, and come back.
[ That might have been more than Tony needed to know! But it was true that nearly all the Elves of Curufin's era were dead. It was a horribly dangerous time. Maglor was the only one of the entire extended family who survived. ]
Tools as follows: forge hammer, tongs, claw hammer, screwdriver, wrench, saw, chisel, utility knife, axe. I had other tools and equipment as well, but only those nine tools came with me to this place.
[ He's flattered! ]
no subject
He leans in a bit, fascinated by the story regarding when he was a spirit.]
So you reincarnate if you stay on Earth versus go to the Halls of Mandos? Do you get a choice in the matter? [Pause] Oh, you do? You can choose to rebel.
[His eyebrows rise.]
Can you do that now? Go in 'ghost-form' as you say?
[Oh those sound like excellent tools!]
Your father mentioned wanting a forge or furnace here. It's too bad we don't have access to one or something we could adapt into one.
[So interesting!]
no subject
Our gods, the Valar, would have us believe that we can't reincarnate without their help, and that they won't give that help unless our spirits are residing in the Halls of Mandos. The problem is that it's they who judge whether we are worthy or not. Their standards of worthiness worried me so much that I refused to go. It is said that they expect the spirit to regret every act in life that the Valar didn't approve of or wouldn't have, and they expect complete contrition and submission to their will. That idea sickened me. I do regret many of my destructive acts, but I don't regret my family's rebellion against the rule of the Valar and our leaving their country to go and live in Middle-earth. Long story, which I won't tell right now. Anyway, it is said that if Námo, the death-god, considers that a spirit has done great evil in life, that spirit will NEVER be allowed to return to life. And that would be me. So, no, we don't get to make the choice, although we can make a request to be reincarnated. I believed they'd refuse me that, so I preferred to remain in Middle-earth as a spirit and attempt reincarnation on my own.
I'm not sure whether I can revert to ghost-form in this world. Disembodying is as complicated as re-embodying. [ Wry laugh. ] Unless we have help, that is. [ i.e. by being killed! ] But I managed it twice, once in each of those other worlds I lived in after my death. If there was a good enough reason, I might try it.
My father is the most incredible metalsmith and gemsmith. I learned all my skills from him. I think that even if we had something we could adapt to make into a forge, it would be risky to have such an arrangement in a train carriage. But maybe if we visit some world where the materials are all present, my father and I could build a forge. It's not that hard. And then we could make more tools, provided we had enough time.
[ Curufin feels like he's talking Tony's ear off. XD ]
no subject
So how did you do it? How did you come back to life? You don't appear all that 'elven' given the rest of your family here. Is this part of the reason for that or did genetics simply take a holiday when you were born?
[That might have been rude in most contexts, but Tony seemed oblivious to that fact.]
You're probably right that having a forge onboard could lead to a lot more problems than it's worth. If we had access to materials to build a forge, we might have the materials we were planning on building too. We'll really have to wait and see what the next stop is.
no subject
Elves have a special arrangement, I think. We were created to love the Earth, and to love all of the physical world, and we have acute powers of observation, and we never forget anything we've really observed or experienced. When our bodies are gone, they still exist in our love and memory. They exist as images, but as such accurate images that the body can be rebuilt from the blueprints. At least, that is how our sages describe it. My experience was something like that, but it wasn't quite as deliberate. I just held the memory of my body in my mind, and the body seemed to return to existence in a sort of slow explosion, like a star coalescing. Suddenly I was a living being again. It took a number of tries to get it right, but I did.
I suppose I don't look quite as Elven as my father and my brothers do, but I'd guess that's because of the ears. Also, I'm the short one in the family. [ Grin. ] I guess it's something genetic. My grandmother, my father's mother, looked a lot like me. Of course, so does my father, he's got her face, as I do, but he's taller and more pointy-eared.
And as for the forge onboard, I wouldn't want to set fire to the baggage compartment or whatever. Yes, let's see where the next stop is. Actually, all we need to build a forge is a heap of rocks that we can shape and stack into a furnace; some leather or a heavy fabric to sew into a bellows to deliver a lot of oxygen to the fire to make it burn hot; a lot of charcoal or wood to burn for fuel; and of course, some iron to shape, or some iron ore to refine. And of course we need an anvil to beat the hot iron into the desired shapes. I've got a forge hammer and tongs, as I said. We could cast the anvil if we had enough iron and enough time, though that would require a clay mould. Shouldn't be too hard to make one of those, if we find a clay source.
Did you say you were also thinking of finding building materials?
no subject
Huh, so this isn't someone else's form? This is your original body just manifested a second time? What happens if your image in your mind is different than your original body? Do you become the perceived image or the accurate one?
[He wonders at that. Part of it sounded very deliberate and other parts not. How were these elves able to do both at the same time?
The remarks on the forge made a lot of sense, all except one.]
As much as I'd enjoy having a furnace or forge on board, without proper ventilation system in place it could cause some very serious problems. That and I don't believe I've seen any clay or charcoal on board.
no subject
It's no one else's form, it is my own. The images of our bodies that persist in the spirit's imagination are accurate to the last detail, so we always manifest the accurate image. But that's an interesting question, one I hadn't thought of. Elves don't have the power to actually change form, though some of us can project an illusion into nearby minds that will fool most minds. The beings that are a step up from the Elves are the Maiar, the servants of the Valar. Both the Valar and the Mair can actually change form, and I wonder if that's how they do it? -- hold an image in their minds that is not their normal manifestation, and manifest the different one. Ah well, that's a digression. I'll never be able to do that.
[ Deliberation and spontaneity are both parts of the creative process, and Elves were also created to be artists. They use both processes liberally! And at the same time. ]
I don't think a furnace on board is a good idea, either. Ventilation would be a real problem, and so would the danger of fire. I'd rather not asphyxiate anybody or burn up a train carriage. I'd have to build the forge on some world we visited and do the forging in a hurry, before we leave that world.
no subject
You think it's possible to build a forge and use it all in the time we might be allotted? There was a deadline in our last mission.
no subject
I don't know. It depends on how much time is allotted. How long did you have on the last mission?
no subject
[If they had closer to two weeks or a month, there was no telling what they could accomplish in that amount of time.]
How long does it take to make a forge?
no subject
I work fast, I could build the forge in a week and start making weapons and other implements. But it would be best if we had a couple of weeks or a month, in case I had to scrounge for materials.
And, I should say, I'm sure my father would be in on this project. That might well decrease the time needed.
no subject
[He flashes a grin up at Curufin.]
Well, either way. It's good to know we have that as an option.
no subject
[ Curufin grins back at Tony. ]
It can be organized, if we have the time and the materials are somehow available. Let's see what happens with future missions.