Comments on Taking Readings II

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This was a very charming piece. Estë knows her job! I can imagine her arranging things so that they would look familiar and comforting (if not wholly so) to Celebrian. I also loved Celebrian's observations: That she does not want to have the painful memories removed magically, and that she welcomes the sensation of homesickness. I think that already shows that some healing has taken place: the pain is no longer between Celebrian and her feelings for the place she left behind.
And of course, everything is easier with tea!

Thank you very much, Lyra! I'm glad you liked it. Of course everything is easier with tea!

I downplayed this a little in the ficlet itself because of my recipient, who hadn't read the earlier story, as far as I know, but my own thoughts were that some healing indeed had taken place already--Celebrian experiencing Finrod's support and managing to trust him is the first step in Valinor before she is able to engage with Este, even with this unexpectedly familiar and comforting Este. Thus we find that some healing has taken place already and it opens the door to further healing, as it were!

WOW! The idea of the early Eldar not only consciously hearing, but actively analysing and discussion the echoes of the Ainulindale, is already fascinating... but writing it so effectively in so few words is actual genius. You even manage to characterise the Unbegotten through what little they say! And Tata's final question is a real killer. Absolutely love this!

Aww, Gil-galad is such a sweetheart! And Finarfin's initial naivety and later disillusionment are very believable and quite heartbreaking. I like that among his difficult tasks you listed keeping the people on their side talking to each other. That can't have been easy with all those easily ruffled tempers and (sometimes justified) animosities!

Yes, I think it was difficult to keep people talking to each other and it was also one of the things in which Finarfin did not quite succeed! Because of people's tempers and the sometimes justified animosities, because of the cultural divides (more than one), and because of the chaos of war that kept cutting communication and supply lines. (We don't hear of him in that final episode with Maedhros and Maglor and maybe that is because he is worn out and overwhelmed and distracted, by then, although alternatively maybe, of course, his reaction has just dropped out of the narrative.)

I'm glad you found his disillusionment believable! And I wanted someone to appreciate nevertheless how hard he had tried!

It is an odd thing, how Halloween and it's train of horror movies and the like follow so closely in the footsteps of the actual meaning of the holiday, which is and has always been remembrance of the dead.  It is fitting that Remembrance/Memorial Day falls around this time, and it is fitting that you write about it now.  You said that my work adhered to the prompts and their source, and that might to an extent be true, but this little vignette more closely resembles what I believe to be the true spirit of this time of year, and that took a great deal more skill.  Thank you for sharing this.