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Well done! I can't believe I hadn't read this one yet. So creepy with the cat's paws. (Horror lite!) I adore Feanor as remembered by Celebrimbor. Throughout the entire story there are just too many delicious details to list all the ones I loved. Neurotramitters in Valarin--nice. Also got a huge kick out of the resurgence of Noldorin nationalist and its manifestation in language.

Thanks so much for the comments, and heck, even taking the time to read this, oshun!  When the cat's paws transformation came to mind, I vaguely recalled that Stephen King had written something about a weird transformation of hands.  One of our mutual SWG friends reminded me that King indeed had a little horror piece about modifications of hands, but with little eyeballs budding on the protagonist's fingers. 

Horror lite?? The implications of genetic engineering in Sauron's hands (after just reading your 'Trinity' piece) is enough to give me some very bad moments! .... And yet, perfectly appropriate. I guess he learnt *that* from his master... Wanders off thinking about the origin of orcs.

I love the way Celebrimbor is drawn in by the new ideas and concepts presented to him, and the fact they are intially so innocuous!

This bit I especially liked: "his voice and eyes as filled with wonder as the little girl or boy who listened to him and asked him questions." It seemed very appropriate to me  that your Sauron would still find the world a fascinating place.

 Off to read more of 'The Apprentice'...

Moreth,

Thanks for daring to tread into the pandemoniverse and its less-than-conventional take on Middle-earth and canon-characters!  Tolkien wrote to in a draft - never sent - to Peter Hastings (#153, Letters of JRR Tolkien, ed. H. Carpenter):

This particular branch of the High-Elves concerned, the Noldor or Loremasters, were always on the side of 'science and technology,' as we should call it: they wanted to have the knowledge that Sauron genuinely had..." 

In the pandemoniverse, both Celebrimbor and Sauron are enthralled by knowledge and discovery like most scientists and engineers.   Thus Celebrimbor is ensnared.

Re: Sauron's (at least of Second Age Eregion) fascination with the world - I expanded on Tolkien's comments (in Myths Transformed, HoMe X) that in his uncorrupted state, Sauron loved order to also imply that he wanted to understand the order of the world and the universe, partly through the vestiges of his origins (creativity, curiosity) but also to turn things to his own advantage.  

I'll await the phase diagram of an iron-mithril alloy. :^D

And thanks again! 

pandemonium 

The first scene was most promising the first time I read it. I'm a sucker for Feanorians and am glad to find a story that fleshes out Celebrimbor, who I think is the most "under-exposed" of them all. Since I read the passage about the Elvish realm in Eregion in LOTR, I've always been intrigued as to how they lived and your stories have done a good job in doing that.

For this story, I had goosebumps when I read the blood compact scene, knowing what will happen in the future. I re-read this story reading "Broken Star" and I think they are worthy partners. So yin and yang.

Thanks for the comments here and on MEFA, whitewave! I'm always pleased to lure in "new" readers, and it looks like MEFA is a good mechanism for such. Like you, I was intrigued by Eregion when I read the LOTR for the first time many years ago (like 40 years ago); similarly, the comment that Sauron had not always been evil also caught my attention back then. Tolkien's writings outside of the LOTR, i.e., that the Noldor were enthralled by "what we would call" science and technology and that Eregion was a "great" settlement of Elves combined to yield my vision of Ost-in-Edhil and the Noldor who lived there. There are a number of very good stories about Celebrimbor out there (here on the SWG, HASA, etc.). He will likely make an appearance in a future work although (be forewarned), my tendency is to focus on original characters as foils or complements to the canon types. With that in mind, I'll make a rare SSP for The Apprentice.

This is wonderfully creative and informed.  The idea of marrying neurons to inorganic matter is great, and, IMHO, a lot more compelling than simply presuming that magical artifacts are just the way they are because, well, they're magical.  The image of the cat with hands is both disturbing and adorable.
I love that there is someone out there infusing so much science into Tolkien fic.  I've read a few of your shorter pieces, as well as your essay on Tolkien's anti-science trendings, and will defintely be reading more.  -Huin

Thanks so much, Huin!  Really a nice surprise to find a review of this fic, which has languished here on the SWG for a couple of Ages, and such a complimentary one, too!

When I re-read The Silmarillion after an almost 20 year hiatus from reading any sci fi or fantasy, Tolkien's treatment of the scientifically inclined (the Noldor as a whole, Fëanor, and his thinly disguised mad scientist-types in Sauron, Saruman and Melkor) really set me off.  I figured I could address my annoyance by writing a string of many non-fiction essays or I could comment through fan fiction.  I took the latter tactic.  :^)  Don't get me wrong.  I love the legendarium as a whole.  It is a truly wonderful created mythology.  I'm just not fond of some of JRRT's philosophies.  

Thanks again!  Very, very much. :^)

I reviewed this story once already, but that was three years ago at least. When I was thumbing through the SWG looking for a story with an illustration (B2MeM prompt!), I felt like re-reading it. And I found that I remembered the story like the first time I read it had been yesterday. I do love your Celebrimbor! He is quite forgivably pretentious in his own way. I am quite convinced that he has better taste than those he looks down upon!

I really do want to be there and have dinner with these guys. This is what I love about your writing. Your world, then as it still is when you write about it today, feels so vivid and real to me. I can see the streets, the houses, and imagine coming into the house and going out back for dinner.

Then we come to the horror-lite as you called it. We so deliciously know that nothing is exactly as it seems to be. The seduction of Celebrimbor is so straightforward. When I look at it now, different things strike me as disturbing than struck me the first time through it years ago. The easy camaraderie and the genuine humor and affection extended to Celebrimbor is perhaps the most upsetting.

The moment captured in these lines killed me:

‘“Tyelpo, you just can’t help yourself, can you? I agree that the Yavanna piece is ludicrous. Finalyo’s churned out plenty of similar travesties. Still, that's ballsy, adjusting another man’s treasure. What a typical Fëanárian maneuver!”

I grunted with mock exasperation, . . .’

The cat’s paws still comprise the pièce de résistance, of course. Yet the foreshadowing is wickedly heart-wrenching.

I still like everything about this story for the same reasons I originally liked it. It rings true. The details add up for me. The down-to-earth quality of the storytelling makes me believe the magical elements. I wish people writing more of this stuff would relax and believe that combining familiar detail and straightforward language is brilliant and trying too hard to be profound is not.