"Of Inventions and Regret" by Lyra

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge: "Manhattan Project" on the Maglor in History 1 BINGO card, "Cold War" on the Maglor in History 2 BINGO card, "Pipeweed" on the Smells BINGO card

Format: Short story (~1500 words)

Genre: Crossover w/ Real World History

Rating: General

Warnings: Sloppy research

Characters: Maglor, J. Robert Oppenheimer

Pairings: none

Creators' Notes (optional): Started for B2MeM 2012, finished for B2MeM 2016...

Summary: Maglor and J. Robert Oppenheimer meet in a diner in the 1960s. They speak of television and the bomb, and in a way, of Silmarils.

"Of Inventions and Regret" on SWG

Comments

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm a fan of the idea that Maglor is pretty resilient (a result of his happy Valinorean childhood, one assumes! ;)), and that, throughout his wanderings, he interacted with people - and learned to move on. I like some doom and gloom every now and then, but not as a plot point stretching over hundreds of years. ;)
I guess my version of Oppenheimer is relatively open-minded - and of course Maglor allows him to glimpse something Other about him, rather than carefully hiding it.

Heh! I mostly chose the name of Marc Laurence for reasons of visual similarity. As it happens, "Marc" is related to the Roman god of war, Mars, and thus quite a good translation for the maca-, i.e., "warrior" part of the name. Laurence, on the other hand, I mostly just chose to make up the laurë end. Being related to "laurel", I suppose a poet laureate connection could be construed; but really, I just wanted to have a name that easily said "Macalaurë", but at the same time, would pass as an unremarkable English/American name. Thank you for asking!