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The King's Commission  by Larner 6 Review(s)
Szepilona10Reviewed Chapter: 48 on 11/18/2008
Why is Halladan so serious all the time? He never smiles!
God Bless!

~Szepilona10~

Author Reply: Bless you, Szepilona! Oh, he's not serious ALL the time, of course--just when he must be official! Heh!

Queen GaladrielReviewed Chapter: 48 on 3/27/2006
LOL! What! "A Bicycle Built for Two?" That is just hilarious! And kind of scary. :) You can do "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the Braille-and-speak by going into the speech parameter, getting the pitch to a certain level, and then going up and down between three settings that sound for all the world like the notes for that song in F-sharp major, if I remember rightly. But A Bicycle Built for Two? What did that, and how did that work? Oh my goodness, that is so funny. I have a friend who enjoys making Jaws do very, very strange and creepy things, and he'd love that. :)

Queen GaladrielReviewed Chapter: 48 on 3/26/2006
Death by impalement! Oh, how horrible! Even if they do deserve it--and they certainly do. To come in and try such a trick at that time, just when it would be best for things to be peaceful! And to intend to make it look as if the Gondorians did it! What baseness! Still...*shudders* I pity them for the death they must face.

So delightful to see the birth of Melian! And it's wonderful, also, to see the Haradrim and the people of Run have made peace with Gondor. The gift from Harad was very thoughtful.

It's too bad Celebgil is still unwilling to tell Ruvemir the whole story. Surely Aragorn would take steps to see that Varondil was dealt with properly--it isn't the first time, after all--and Celebgil would have no more to fear from him. But something like that--at which I am only guessing and am still not sure I want to know in full--can't be easy to tell. Poor boy. No, I imagine anger, stone, and carving tools would be a very unwise mix.

"The crafting trance..." I like that! It's delightful, isn't it? I'm not to the point where I can get lost in sculpting, but when the "writing fit" takes me, I can be at it for hours and not notice the passage of time, not grow hungry or tired, be unable to sleep at night for wanting to still be at whatever I'm working on, and basically neglect everything. And no touch on the shoulder brings me out. :)

I enjoyed the dinner as well, and like Ifram very much. I can see how he and Ruvemir would get along well.

As to screen-readers and such, I use Jaws (which, at the moment, is being a real pill, but I love it anyway :)) and pretty much always have. I figured you'd probably had some interesting experiences with various speech synthesizers along the way, but some of them still surprise me--and I still manage to get into funny or frustrating little predicaments. Like the time I got Jaws stuck speaking French! LOL! I'm serious! (The latest, I believe, is 7.01, but I'm sticking to 7.0 for now, as I'm not anxious to do the updating thing again--had some trouble with Freedom Scientific last time.) And when I was in elementary school, when Braille-and-speaks had just really gotten big (at my school, any way--I guess it was in 96/97) it was the favourite amusement when we VI kids had time together and were kind of bored to see who could make their Braille-and-speak say the most interesting thing. :) I liked to think I finally won because I figured out how to get mine, supposedly, to "sing" Mary Had a Little Lamb. LOL! You really can do that, funny and crazy as it sounds.

But now I really am fighting with Jaws...again, and the computer has formed an alliance with it, and they're determined to defeat me. :) I declare, technology has personality of its own--especially Freedom Scientific's products! But then, that's what makes thing interesting...
God bless,
Galadriel

P.S. Please pardon errors--I'm not able to correct them right now. Something is not working right and I'm going to have to shut everything down before I can do anything properly.

Author Reply: The punishments in many lands were particularly cruel, and still are in some. That Aragorn would insist that the deaths be done swiftly and as cleanly as possible would fit with both his upbringing, his personal inclination, and most importantly with having the King's Gift as I've envisioned it. Once you read "Lesser Ring" you'll get more of the backstory on why those from Harad are being so decent right now. Had a good deal of fun writing that story, by the way.

I've gotten "in the zone" in writing, drawing, acting, and crocheting, so I know how surprising it can be to realize how long you've been at something and didn't even realize it. I've also heard friends who were more deeply in to the arts tell me the same, and how deeply they find themselves immersed from time to time.

And I'm glad you like Ifram, the dinner, and the birth of Princess Melian.

Tony became interested in computers in the early eighties, so we've been through all KINDS of synthesizers and screen review programs--one of the first was written specifically for Tony, in fact, the K-Talker program for the Kaypro CP/M operating system computers--the precursor to MS-DOS. Computers, screen readers, synthesizers, operating systems--I've seen LOTS, believe me. We played with Artic, WindowEyes, and Jaws all three when Windows was finally perfected, and each has its advantages and disadvantages.

And one of the first things anyone did with a speech synthesizer was to get it to sing "A Bicycle Built for Two." And you've heard nothing till your computer sings "Moonlight in Vermont" to you.

KitReviewed Chapter: 48 on 3/8/2005
Do you realize chapter 47 is missing?

Author Reply: Don't know how it happened, but somehow it became hidden. Now it's visible again. Sorry about that. Enjoy!

Thanks for letting me know.

SharonBReviewed Chapter: 48 on 2/14/2005
Ha, I loved the fact that Strider translated for the prisoners but wisely let his brother translate the Sindarian. It probably would have given it all away if he did that translation as well. And quite a few were surprised by who Strider actually was.

At least Ruvemir won't have to march to war.

Author Reply: I would think even a Hobbit would do better on the battlefield than one with disproportionately short arms such as so many who experience dwarfism do.

And I also felt that having one of the Elves translate the Sindarin made more sense in this case, for, as you have pointed out, it makes it easier for the prisoners to accept Aragorn himself as Strider the Ranger.

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 48 on 2/13/2005
Oh I just *loved* the way Aragorn revealed himself as the "translator". These "bad guys" had no clue what they were really dealing with!

And sentencing them to the punishment of their own land was totally appropriate!

But I find myself wondering how Ruvemir will fare after the King marches off to war...

He has his own enemy, even though he doesn't really realize that yet.

Author Reply: I find myself singing "Let the punishment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime" when I think about these guys. But I can't see Aragorn liking having done this all that much.

Remember, Ruvemir is getting ready to head south himself, although what he might have to face along the way is hard to say. There will be a confrontation with Varondil, though.

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