BothSidesNow

Come Tomorrow (You Won't Find Me Here) [AO3 Link]

A remix for firstamazon's Healing Wounds for @tolkienremix 2022

I posted this on the AO3 collection when it opened but forgot to publish this out of my draft :( sorry

Wordcount: 2,215

Rating: E

Warnings: None

Relationships: Glorfindel/Maglor

Tags: Rivendell, Grey Havens, Angst (just a little) with a happy ending, frottage, (mutual) oral, transmasculine author

Summary:

"They are tired of ghosts, the both of them, even ghosts they love." [Glorfindel makes up his mind to sail for Valinor, but he won't be going alone]

NASA’s budget is only 18-19 billion

It’s estimated that to end extreme poverty would take 175 billion dollars

LED units that can ease muscle pain and arthritis and will soon be used to combat MS, complications of diabetes, Parkinson’s.

The aural thermometer

Robot limbs - which are now being used to make more advanced prosthetics.

A new version of the  temporary artificial hearts they use to keep people alive while they are waiting for transplants. It’s 1/10th the size. For kids. FOR KIDS.

Improved de-icing systems for aircraft.

Concrete safety grooving used to make steps less slippery.

Longer lasting tires. To, ya know, save money and rubber.

Chemical sensors that detect metal fatigue in aircraft. To, ya know, keep them from crashing.

A device using surplus rocket fuel that can destroy land mines without setting them off.

Lots and lots of fire retardant stuff.

The breathing apparatus firefighters wear to keep them from breathing smoke.

Better two-way radios, also used by firefighters.

Memory foam. Memory foam, people. Which is used not just to make nice mattresses and pillows, but in a lot of athletic safety gear, prosthetics, airline seats, amusement park rides…memory foam. It’s everywhere.

Those itty bitty portable cordless vacuums people use to clean their cars.

Freeze drying food. Which is very good for disabled and elderly people.

Better solar panels.

Better ways to clean up oil spills, limiting damage to the ocean and wildlife.

Improved water purification for both people in the third world and campers.

A lot lot LOT of software, some of it used in medicine.

Structural analysis software used to design airplanes, cars, roller coasters, etc.

Powdered lubricants which greatly reduce the cost of keeping jet engines in good order, lowering the price of air tickets.

Ultrasonic monitors that can: Spot problems in railroad ties before there’s an accident, analyze groundwater for contaminants, adjust dosage for people undergoing radiation therapy and assess internal swelling. So far. It’s basically a tricorder.

Improved guidelines for handling seafood, juice, and dairy products.

Even in systems of fairly strict primogeniture, you wouldn't expect a reigning king to step aside for another claimant many years into his reign, particularly during a war.

There definitely seems to be an 'acclamation' element to kingship among the Noldor, since that's what Fingolfin's challenge to Feanor's authority was based on: Feanor was unquestionably the eldest, but FinweNoloFinwe had more support. It's not just descent that dictates who leads the Noldor.

The Sack of Nargothrond is dated 495FA. So I think that by the time Turgon died in 510 FA , Gil-galad had probably already been king-in-exile of Nargothrond for fifteen years, in the same way that Finrod was a king, but not High King.

It's even possible that Gil-galad had been king-in-exile of Hithlum since 472FA, when Fingon died in the Nirnaeth, if like me, you roll with the idea that Fingon had adopted Gil-galad formally as heir (whoever Gil-galad's biological father was, surely Fingon would recognise the need for some kind of heir, and that should be good enough).

That would make Gil-galad king of both Hithlum and Nargothrond and all its lands (admittedly, all those lands are currently missing in action, but still claimed by the Noldor). He'd owe theoretical allegiance to the High King, Turgon, in Gondolin, but effectively he'd be doing his own thing with whatever Noldor were left free outside of Gondolin.

That might help answer the question of why Idril wasn't acclaimed High King instead of Gil-galad or Galadriel (if available).

Could be that Idril didn't want to be a Queen (slightly harder to believe this of First Age Galadriel, but maybe she wasn't there, or maybe she was on for being a Queen, but not a Queen desperately facing overwhelming nightmare forces of Eeeevil) . Or there is the tired old 'because she was female' thing of course, but nobody likes that.

But I like the idea that Gil-galad had effectively been doing the job of minor king for a while by the time Gondolin fell, and that meant he was already in position by the time Idril and the Gondolin refugees arrived with the news that Turgon was gone.

Gil-Galad is said to be a young child when he’s sent to the Havens during the Bragollach; if we say that he’s, say, 5 years old in year 455 when the Bragollach begins, he’d become an adult in the year 500 and could therefore have already been considered king of the Fingolfinian or Finarfinian (depending which geneology you go with) Noldor outside of Gondolin for ten years, by the time the Fall of Gondolin happens (510). And then it’s more than another decade before Eärendil is 20 (roughly, adulthood in human terms, as peredhel seem to follow human aging up to maturity).

So yes, it could easily be that going from someone with 20 years’ experience of rule to someone who had just become an adult (and who also didn’t appear to particularly want the crown) didn’t make much practical sense.

Went to the trouble

To fetch us a view of a star.

Though it might’ve been blurred

If she hadn't sent word

Lovely portrait!

(@moromaitar The Silmarillion Writers’ Guild would really like to publish your drawing on our website, to go with an article on the recently released Christopher Tolkien tribute book. Please let me know if you’re happy for us to feature it and,if yes, how you would like to be credited and what website/ social media links you’d like us to link to. Thank you! Anérea.)

And with it, I can function normally, most of the time. I can be symptom-free, most of the time. Pain-free, most of the time. But without it?

Without it, my fingers start to feel like they're broken in several places. My hands swell up and turn red and lose movement and dexterity. My shoulder joints swell up so much that they no longer fit into the sockets quite right and routinely slips out when I move it. Just...dislocate at random. My ankles double in size and lose freedom of movement. My jaw hinge and knees begin to ache and don't stop.

I am in agony. I can't work. I can't sleep. I can't exercise or take care of myself. Nothing helps except taking my meds--the methotrexate--and waiting for the flare up to end. And every single time, irreparable damage is done to my joints. My disease progresses just a little bit and I can't walk it back.

I’d get major credibility if the author of Coraline gave them some sweet, sweet wisdom.

Thanks!

As a disabled essential worker, I would much rather see someone in a surgical or cloth mask than someone not try at all.

These masks aren't as protective as N95 and equivalent masks, but I'd rather people were to at least try stopping the spread of at least some variants, especially if surgical or cloth masks are all they can afford.

I've seen a lot of panic on social media about the reduced effectiveness of certain masks, and I'm concerned that could lead to otherwise well-meaning people giving up entirely.