#and the talk about est and corunir the other day

[aurore-parle-de-ses-idees]

and for au roulette #1, band/musician, sending est and a van full of rangers to a rock show lmao

Traffic slows to a crawl as you leave the highway that runs from Minas Tirith to Dol Amroth, the Belfalas exits clogged as half the world it seems tries to reach the concert grounds at the same time. Candaith is asleep in the passenger seat, despite the music you have playing much louder than is reasonable. The windows are open as far as they’ll go, admitting a pleasant breeze that smells of clouds of exhaust and the distant sea.

“It will be fun,” you insist, not for the first time. Radanir looks no less skeptical in the rearview. “Surely we’ll be able to find something you like here.” Radanir mutters something you can’t make out and you inch forward another car-length.

“Are your friends from Stangard coming still?” Lorniel calls from the far back of the tight-packed van you have borrowed for the occasion.

“Most of them, I think,” you shout back, turning down the music some. “Nona said her brother had something come up, but the rest of them should be there.” It will be strange, you think, having friends from so many circles of your life overlap here, but that’s half the fun of it. “Can anyone reach the cooler?” you add. “I finished my drink up here.” There’s some shuffling, and muffled cursing from Corunir when you’re forced to swerve aside to avoid a group of impatient motorcyclists cutting in and out of traffic. “Sorry...”

It’s a long, slow slog into the concert grounds and around to the open parking, but you arrive at last and gratefully let the van shudder to a rest, stretching with a great sigh while your friends clamber out. The roof bends concerningly as Lothrandir climbs up to look around, but he swings back down quickly to inform you of the nearest gates and bathrooms.

There’s no rush. The gates won’t open for hours yet while the lots continue to fill. You open the trunk and fold down the backmost seats and lounge, watching Candaith soundly beat everyone at cards and propping your feet on one of the coolers. Someone nearby has set up a portable speaker loud enough to carry five rows in any direction; he’s taking requests. Someone else rolls out an entire grill, and soon the open field smells of... well, it smells of lots of things, but you think the grillers are making burgers.

You swap snacks with a group three cars down, and the group next to them invite you for drinks and party games. By the time Nona calls you to say she’s arrived, you think even Radanir is a little caught up in it all, even if he keeps regularly retreating to the van. You really do hope he finds something here to his liking.

You’ve lost half your group by the time Nona finds you, Horn and Corudan trailing behind her. You talk about the fine weather, and the less fine traffic, and the most interesting things you’ve seen so far (a surprisingly long list, for the few hours you’ve been here). Nona paces about the entire time, restless after her days-long drive to meet the others before coming here.

Finally, the gates open, and the great crowds slowly amble inside. Your friends have more or less reassembled, chatting with new friends and total strangers all the way in. The great rising excitement buzzes under your skin, your laughter loud and the late-day sun warm on your skin.

The opening acts are good, and you do want to sit and appreciate them, but the rising, restless energy keeps you moving, grinning at the great banners and posters for Valasmack and Amon Amarth and telling at least five different people where you found the onion rings.

You stop at last in the warm hour after dusk, the wind from the coast cool and pleasant where it cuts through the heat of so many people all pressed together. You don’t go down to the wildness at the front, where people throw themselves about with an abandon you can’t quite reach, but you stand near enough the stage that the sound from the great speakers rolls right into you. The bass of it rumbles through the concrete, pulsing with every rolling drumbeat through the thick soles of your boots. You can feel it in your ribs.

Your ears will ring for nearly a week after this, but there’s a certain kind of magic to it, the great thunder in your bones and singing so loudly, loud enough your voice will be deeper and rougher from the strain come morning but still not louder than the bands themselves. The punch-drunk camaraderie with old friends and with people you’ll never see again. The heat and the wind and the wide, wide grins, and the exhausted sleep you have with your friends, crammed into the back of the borrowed van and passed out half on top of each other. There are few more pleasant ways to end the free days of summer, you think.

#auroulette2023 #lotro #est #my stories #i don't think radanir would enjoy the experience all that much honestly- not enough to go again anyway- but he didn't have an Awful time #also wrote this guy while travelling lol #uhhh who all is in there #corunir #lorniel #nona #horn #lothrandir #candaith #radanir #corudan #mm some of those only by mention but whatever #this setup brought to you by everything about getting into and out of starlake #asfds oh yeah and the bands This Is Just Godsmack and Amon Amarth Got Transferred Wholesale

[aurore-parle-de-ses-idees]

i am, unfortunately, still thinking about the bad au

#we don't often scrap things entirely but that one's definitely A Lot #but yeah this hasn't stopped me from thinking about ncf the living #and the talk about est and corunir the other day #and how est definitely makes reckless promises sometimes #especially to her friends #aaaa #est #none chill friends