Niko Bellic | Network 001

[vengeance_driven]

[Public | Audio]

[Niko hates having to ask for stuff. He still feels bad for imposing on Roman so much for so long, but he needs money to get what he wants, and he can't do his job (either job) if he can't go into the woods or the caves.]

So uh...

This hasn't been an issue until now, but I didn't bring any armor with me. I wasn't really expecting so many explosions [or to get wrapped up with gun-runners] and I'm really need to get back to work. If anyone has good suggestions, please give them. I could use something, maybe have it imported in.

[There at least doesn't seem to be a shortage in people that would be knowledgeable in different armors, but probably all of them types he hasn't heard of.]

Comments

[tawarwaith]

I'm certain there will be a lot more things to learn from this place. Is there anything you're hoping to achieve while here, or is this just a way station?

[vengeance_driven]

[He sort of chuckles awkwardly.]

When I was growing up, there was many countries sending people to the moon. I wanted to be like them, but I was too little to realize that poor farmboys from the Balkans don't grow up to be astronauts.

Well. Here I can learn to fly a ship, and if I can do that one day I can go to any moon I want to.

It's something to do, anyway.

[tawarwaith]

[She did not know what an astronaut was. It was something else she would have to look up as well, but she did not wish to ruin the moment by having to ask for clarification. Even without knowing, she could understand his dream to do more since it echoed strongly with her own desire. ]

You have a point. Here it seems there are no limits on the things that we can achieve. I had thought about returning to my king with useful information about technology or a greater understanding of the grander scheme of things, but I have never thought about what I might do for myself. You have given me something to think about.

[vengeance_driven]

[He remembers what she mentioned before, about being jaded. And then thinks of the mention of the king. He guesses it would be good to give his opinion, even with his piddly lifespan and the ridiculousness of advising an otherworldly creature.] It is my experience that many bitter leaders make poor choices with what they are given, and are even better at making angry people to follow them.

I would be careful, if I were you.

[tawarwaith]

I hope my King will take what I bring him and find some small joy and sense of wonderment out of it rather than using it for ill.

[She looked down towards the ground for a moment, mulling over what to say next.]

I have no desire to bring him anything that he might use against someone else, even if it is our most hated enemy.

[vengeance_driven]

The orcs that the other one like you mentioned. Sort of like you. About as like you as I am to Croat, I guess.

[tawarwaith]

Yes Orcs and other such foul creatures that plague my home.

[She smiles a little when Lindir is mentioned, even though she has no idea what a Croat is.]

You could say he and I are as different as night and day.

[vengeance_driven]

Maybe less different then. Same country but little bit different heritage, different culture.

But he does seem more like a home body than you.

[Thankfully his smile is hidden by audio, because he doesn't have a face made to wear smiles well. He's friendly enough, he's just bad at looking it.]

[tawarwaith]

If you wish for our direct differences, I am a Silvan elf from a place called Mirkwood which is as dangerous a place as it's name suggests while Lindir is from Imladris, a place sheltered in a valley hidden by mountains.

[She laughs when he calls Lindir a homebody.]

That is an apt description.

[vengeance_driven]

Don't worry about impressions, at least. You both made pretty good ones, even if very different.

[tawarwaith]

[That makes her smile, glad to hear that. She had been worried about coming across as too cold or too impersonal to others.]

I'm glad to hear that. Some of my race can be very off putting.

[vengeance_driven]

You know, for the whole legends of mystery woodland creatures thing. Might steal us in the night. [He says it lightly, though. He's joking.]

I mean just as new people. I've come to a lot of places and not met very good people.

[tawarwaith]

[This is a new one to her. Although it is true that the mortal races back home do share such legends about some of the Elves of note. She just never talked much with them.]

Why would anyone steal you? Is this something mortals often fear?

[She does like being called good people though. It makes her feel like she has accomplished something here. Especially since she is pretty low tech compared to everything else.]

[vengeance_driven]

Back where I was born, almost every fairy tale was meant to keep children from going too far from home.

I am not a person that ever took much stock in those stories. Good things do happen so easily, and humans tend to be our own worst enemy. [But he's not bitter.]

[tawarwaith]

Mortals have a strange way of keeping their children safe and trying to curb the desire to explore. Eldar do not do as such with our children, or at least we do not tell them stories as the world beyond our walls is certainly dangerous enough on it's own.

Maybe you can tell me some of these stories sometime. I would be interested.

[And also fascinated to learn that other cultures had elves as well.]

[vengeance_driven]

Yes, well... Children have ways of wandering into dangerous places. Parents worry, so that is how they usually handle it.

Sure. I know that "elves" would be something else in my language. It is "šumska vila" or "vilenjak".

[tawarwaith]

This is true! more than once there have been tales of a child becoming lost in our wood and needing to be guided home again. It has not happened since I came to be a captain back home, most likely because the forest has grown more and more dangerous since I was a child.

[She tilts her head listening to his native language and finding it to be rather fascinating. Languages outside of what was familiar to her was always something she had an interest in.]

Among my kind, we simply refer to ourselves as the Eldar. A simple, elegant word.

[vengeance_driven]

Not a bad name for yourself. I'm a Serb.

Maybe not so elegant of a word, but it still has a lot of history behind it. Good and bad.

[tawarwaith]

Serb? It is short and to the point. It suits you I think. But just to clarify you are also of the race of man yes? A human?

[She hopes this is not rude to ask. It's just now that she has seen humans from all over and people who look like humans but aren't it feels like proper question to ask. ]

[vengeance_driven]

That I am.

In Eastern Europe there is a larger race called the Slavs. And there are smaller groups within this large group, one is Serb.

People that aren't from there usually can't tell the difference between the smaller groups, but we know. Maybe a little like you and Lindir.

[tawarwaith]

There are some telltale markings between us, yes. I am beginning to understand what you mean between Serb and Salvs. I will admit to me you would all look the same... just as I imagine Lindir and I must appear the same. Our differences however are cultural as well as historical-- to our people at least.

[vengeance_driven]

Yeah, see? You get it. It is the same way with us and other Slavs. Poles, Bosniaks, Croats. [He's not going to mention Russians even though they qualify- he still has a bone to pick with them after everything he's gone through.]

[tawarwaith]

Is it something that other... humans [she almost said mortals] Do not understand? I myself could understand if it was another race, but not to know the differences among your own people.. well not you as you are speaking of it... but your race as a whole.

[vengeance_driven]

Humans don't understand each other in general, especially big groups of them. I'm not very good at describing why, though. Just in one place it is okay to have prearranged marriages and they last a long time. In another it is not and divorce is common. Both can produce unhappy couples, though.

That's just an idea of what I mean. There's a lot things we do that are different, but also not exactly good, not exactly bad, and they make people hate each other and generalize.

[tawarwaith]

[She has a hard time believing that humans are so diverse. It sounds more like he was describing differing races rather than a singular people. After a little bit of reflection, she decided to voice her thoughts.]

Eldar are the same in many ways, it is true, but for a time there was a fracturing of my people as they spread out through the world of Arda. We spoke different languages, had different hobbies and lived in varying locations. But by the time I was born, the Eldar were once again more or less united under the banner of the same language, though our core ideas and beliefs seem to have remained the same from our earliest days on.

Hearing that the humans of your world is so completely diverse almost seems impossible for me to imagine it, try as I might. I do no think you would lie to me however, so I will have to believe you.