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creativemessbyvd · 6 months

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FIC IDEA VAULT #15: A BAGGINSHIELD AFTERLIFE REUNION/TIME TRAVEL/ FIX-IT/BILBO DESTROYS THE RING IN PLACE OF FRODO FIC

Back on my Bagginshield era, I'm reading fics on them (I stopped bc various SW ships and other ships had me on a chokehold, how about those last 15 on Good Omens Ep6?? :c) and listening to my playlist once more, I think I had since the start of the year with hardly any of my OTP around (except for my phone background) ANYWAY this is to inform you I am also back on my bullshit and I come with another fic idea, which will be put on hold until I can complete the other 164453196859 ideas I have. Ok, not that many, but I do have a lot of very detailed ideas that I do want to write and a bunch of half sentenced ones that are just ideas, so here we goooooooo

Bilbo dies on the way to Valinor and awakens on it as his 50 year old self, to the astonishment of the Elves, Gandalf and Frodo. Something is wrong with the afterlife, it is in the air and everyone is on edge, Frodo most of all, as he has felt this presence before.

Sauron may have died on Arda, but he was still in part present in the afterlife, wrecking havoc on everything. Bilbo embarks to the green hills of Yavanna's garden, the land where all Hobbits go, with Frodo and Gandalf. Upon reunitign with family and friends, Yavanna herself welcomes the brave hobbits but Bilbo can notice the tense manner in which she speaks to Gandalf and offers his help. Yavanna informs them that the various lands of the Valar are on lockdown as they face attacks from the darkness and they fear they may not last until Iluvitar can help them, but that is a mission that Gandalf and the other wizards don't know how long it will take. She is afraid for her husbands and needs a way to contact him. She believes having them all cut off from each other was the wrong choice, uniting their forces they will be able to hold off the darkness better than on their own. So, Bilbo is determined to once more become a burglar and enter another mountain. Yavanna does warn him though that this time, the dragon is on the outside of the mountain. Sauron has set Smaug onto the Mountain that is Mahal's domain.

Bilbo sets off with four trouble hobbits to sneak into the Dwarven Halls, managing to distract the dragon enough that he ramms into the mountain and knocks himself out. They find a way inside and find a funny scene, Bilbo's dwarves are attempting to take down the front doors, despite their maker trying to make them see reason. They had heard Smaug's attempts to draw them out, the last thing the dragon had told them, aimed at Thorin himself, was that he was going to go to the Gardens to find Bilbo himself and get his revenge. Bilbo had at that moment drawn away his attention and having not heard the thunderous racket for awhile, the dwarves inside had panicked and were now attempting to try to kill the dragon themselves. Bilbo laughs at their ridiculousness and is almost squished by 13 dwarves. Mahal knows they wouldn't be there unless his wife had sent them and Bilbo gives him the message Yavanna had given him.

Mahal himself is now more than ever determined to find a way to stop the rampage that Sauron is inflicting on their lands. He goes out the way the hobbits came in to take care of a knocked out Smaug, and together, the hobbits, the dwarves and a Valar set off for the Gardens once more.

Reunited, the Valar are planning and discarding plans faster than the others can follow, until Mahal has a very dangerous plan, which he calls the Durin Last Resort.

The reason that Sauron is now able to still remain in lands of the Valar is because he was able to draw power from the remaining rings still in Middle Earth at the time of the War of the Ring, destroying it had not completely cut him off. The other rings had to be found and destroyed before the One Ring was finally banished, only then would Sauron finally be defeated. Time was not a straight line, it happened all at once, and still, Mahal and Yavanna could sent people back as Mahal had done before for Durin in his various reincarnations.

This makes Frodo almost collapse from the anxiety, but he swears that he will try his best if he is asked to be the Ring Bearer again. Bilbo can't take seeing his dear nephew in so much pain, not when he knows that he wasted so much time by doing nothing but using the ring as a simple party trick. He offers himself to go and be the Ring Bearer this time, reasoning that even if Frodo went back to the beginning of his adventure, Sauron already had plenty of time to be prepared and on the lookout for the Ring, but when Bilbo got the Ring himself, Sauron was not strong enough to do much but be the necromancer.

Mahal agrees but Yavanna is not happy. She refuses to put Bilbo in such danger, unless the company also go with him. She wishes for this to be a second chance for the line of Durin, and thus Bilbo wouldn't be alone on his trials. They cannot be sure exactly when Bilbo will go back to, just that it will before the retaking of Erebor. He will also be the only one who will initially have his memories, everyone else will need to be told a special message to unlock those memories back in the world of the living.

Bilbo is then send back in time and back to life a couple of years before his adventure and sets to making things right not just for his friends but also for many others in his life.

Anway, sorry for the innaccuracies on the Valar and everything else, I will not read the Silm and will just wing it lol. Essentially, I want BAMF Bilbo who gets to reunite with his dwarves in the afterlife, and then gets send back into his past to redo the Quest and also go on to destroy the Ring in the place of Frodo. If he and his King are able to finally stop being idiots and actually speak on their feelings, well, we will see. Those two are worse at communication than an angel and demon I know, so it might take a while lol.

Any comments are welcome!

#my writing #fic idea vault #fic idea vault 15 #afterlife reunion #bagginshield fic #bagginshield #bilbo baggins #thorin oakenshield #frodo baggins

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theerrorofmylife · 1 year

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Witch Queen Ch. 1

Thorin x Witch!Reader

hahaha no one asked for this but here’s my baby, my most precious, my favorite Thorin x reader. This will be a multi-part series with several chapters and I LOVE IT. Please enjoy :) -Error

Warning: Death, destruction, general upheaval, a dragon, family death, etc., I’m sure I missed something but it’s fiiiiiiine I guess *sigh*

For as long as I could remember, the fire inside me was green. Like the eyes of the dead, I burned with knowledge and silence, glaring lovingly into the darkness, knowing it could do nothing against my light, not that it ever would. Magic is a precious thing, rare and wild and reaching out into the world.

When I was born, my mother cradled me to her chest, weeping silvery tears from reddening eyes, and laughing heartily with joy. She made to hide me from my father, because I was like her, a witch. The light in her was orange, and strong, burning warm as summer winds and bright as the sun. Gold in the firelight could not compare to the magic of my mother and it was wonderful. But those born with magic are never safe, and while it is precious, it is coveted by those who would wish for things that should not be. She left him when I was still so small, hiding us in the greenwood, far away from man, and I grew up with her and the elves. King Thranduil welcomed my mother and I, and we lived close to the elves with many friends and a comfortable life. She aided them in trade and made a life for us. We were happy. Until I was sent to Dale, and for some reason fate decided a dragon would attack and kill everyone. Almost myself included. On that day, my life changed. Because I did survive, and so did the king under the mountain.

“Dale? Wouldn’t one of the elves be better suited for the trip?” I couldn’t believe it. In all my years, I’d never been sent farther than the Elven kingdom, but now not only a new city, a new kingdom entirely?!

“You are old enough now, and it’s a dwarven city, filled with men and dwarves, and none of them like elves very much. It’s smarter for you to go.” While I couldn’t argue about the dwarves, I could argue my age. Or at least, the appearance of it. I was 23 now and still looked the grand age of 13, maybe with more assets if I truly wanted to display them but that was never smart in this day and age. I never grew past the 5-foot mark, so I really did look like an early blooming teenager.

“But-”

“No. Now, put this on,” she placed her grey travel cloak on the dining chair as she walked past it, “and go. The list is in your basket as well as the money for everything. Go on, you’ll be fine!” She ushered me out the door and for the first time I remembered that I was in fact 23. Don’t normal people do these things by now, going out on their own and being adults? Huffing, I set the tall basket on the ground and flung the cloak around my shoulders, slipping my arms through the shoulder cut outs. I picked the list out of the basket before flinging it over my shoulders, the back straps digging into my arms as the large woven box covered the whole of my back. Looking ahead, the trees rustled their leaves as if telling me to get a move on. I sighed with my shoulders heaving and walked away from my front door to the east, where I would find the elves.

The Greenwood was a beautiful place, full of grace and magic in this time of autumn. The morning mist had not yet lifted and would not for a while. The trees were just beginning to turn yellow and very few danced across my path as I made my way down the well-worn Witches Road. It’s not an official road to those outside of the Greenwood, however, since I travel it so often, along with my mother, the elves have deemed it as such, and I’ve grown quite fond of it. We shrouded it with enchantments and charms, little sigils carved into the trees to ward off those with malicious intent, and the forest grew in wild, untamed love.

The elves, however pretentious at first, were learners at heart with a great love for all things ancient and elegant. Their halls were tall and spectacular in their designs, the summers coloring the white stone gold, the vines and green growing wild and happy in the kingdom. As I entered the kingdom, a blond man stood there to greet me happily.

“Legolas! Nin mellon! Cin tiri- i doors hi?” I teased. There was never a time when I wasn’t close to the Elven prince, and there was never a time the gates were not open to my mother and me.

“I do as I please, Witch,” He smiled with a sweet familiarity I had known all my life. Something about today felt different however, and it wasn’t in his smile or the way he held his hand out for me to enter the kingdom with him, but it was in the air, the way it rushed over the trees; Today was different, and I couldn’t see why. “Where are you going? It is still so early in the day.”

Looking up at him, I remembered my real reason for passing through the city. “I am to cross the lake into Dale, Mother is in need of special supplies.” All at once I watched Legolas have a thousand thoughts. Elves are private creatures, and do not often emote so openly, however Legolas could never hide what he thought from me.

“I shall go with you.” I smiled; I knew he would say that. My closest and oldest friend, of course he would not let me go alone. He began walking away with purpose and it nearly winded me to keep up.

“No, no, you stay here,” this stopped him. He turned to look at me with the greatest confusion. “You are royalty, Legolas, and the Dwarves do not take kindly to Elves. You would be at risk, and over something so little it hardly seems fair. I will only be gone for a few hours, wait for me on the edge of the river when the sun begins to set, and I will be there.” I wrapped my arms around his middle, my head resting against his side. My brother, whose blood was not like mine, conceded. He led me into the great halls, winding stairs rising high into the kingdom. After several flights of stairs that proved to be a greater pain than I remember, we reached the throne, where the King sat, discussing matters of the realm with several other people. Legolas pulled me aside and let me catch my breath.

“Please reconsider, I would rather I go with you, and you be safe than you go alone, and something go wrong.” I sighed and smiled.

“Friend, brother, greatest kindness the gods could have given me, you must stay, and I must go. I only ask you look for my return and return I shall.” People began filing out of the throne room, passing us with little to no acknowledgment, and I got a proper look at his eyes. His bright blue eyes were filled with anxious upset, and I knew all he wanted was to keep me safe.

“My son, you lurk in the doorway. Come in.” Shaking his head, he led me through the archway, and My King spied me from behind. “You bring someone with you?” I stepped out from behind Legolas.

“My King.” I smiled widely, my eyes squinting as my cheeks rose. He stood, stepping down the winding stairs carved from the tree which made the throne. I walked closer to the throne and met him halfway, his hand resting on the crown of my head in a loving gesture before coming to rest on my shoulder.

“Daughter,” Thranduil was not my father, but he always treated me as if he were, and I could not be happier with any other father. He adores me as a parent would and has always taken care of me and guided me. “Why have you come to visit, carrying your pack and wearing your cloak?”

“I wish to cross the lake into Dale, my mother is in need of supplies and says I am old enough to go on my own.” He frowned but nodded, nonetheless.

“I see. And you shall be back before nightfall, yes?” He was concerned but was much better at hiding it than Legolas was. I nodded.

“Yes, I do not intend to spend a night.” He nodded once and a young red-headed elf stepped closer.

“Then you shall go, but you must be careful. We shall keep a steady eye out for your return this evening.” I nodded in thanks and chased after Tauriel, waving frantically at Legolas and I rushed down to the stables. After several sets of stairs, I finally caught up with her, and smiled brightly.

“Tauriel!” I wrapped my arms around her waist.

“Mellon, if I trip, I’m taking you down with me.” This made me laugh loudly.

“If you trip nothing will happen because elves don’t trip.” She rolled her eyes with a smile, and led me farther into the kingdom, down father, until we reached the stables. Morning still hasn’t broken, and a fog drifted over the woods. For a moment, time stood still within the Greenwood, and the world, my little world, was at peace.

~~~

Riding on horseback when you’re built like a child is the most uncomfortable thing known to man. When I arrived in Dale the shops were only just beginning to open, so I stopped by the tavern near the east side of the city for breakfast. The tavern was mostly empty, so I sat at the bar and spoke with the barman at length about the city. He was quite chatty, and it was more than welcome given I had never been in the city, and he even gave my directions to the apothecary. The city was bustling by the time I left, and navigating became a mess of jabbing elbows, shuffling, and desperately trying not to get lost in the sea of people.

Tall buildings of beautifully carved stone rose above me, and archways looped overhead, strung with ribbons and flags. Morning sunlight danced across the cobbled pathways, shining into stained glass windows. Dwarves and man mingled like friends in the city streets, and it seemed almost surreal. Growing up so close, yet so secluded, I had never realized I had been so… sheltered. I was envious now, because minus the facial hair, I could have passed as an aesthetically ugly dwarf. I did not have a large nose or large ears befitting a proper dwarrowdam, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel amazing to be around people the same height as me.

Rounding a corner, I realized I saw no sign of the apothecary, just more endless streets with more and more people. I was completely lost, despite the very clear directions that the tavern barkeeper had given me. Slowly shuffling through the streets had gotten me disoriented. Finding no other option, I ducked into an alleyway, much less crowded, and tried to clear my head. I looked up from my thoughts and saw him staring at me from the alleyway across the street. A young dwarven man, taller than me, with dark hair. He wore a blue tunic with a dark belt, silver beads glinting in the light from his hair. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen, and all I could do was stare back. For some reason, unlike any other time someone had stared at me, I felt horribly exposed and embarrassed, as if my chest were caving in and death with him in my sights would be the happiest of deaths. The streets began to steadily clear, and he took this opportunity to survey the street before making a mad dash into the alleyway I inhabited. Now that he was closer, I got to look into his eyes and my chest collapsed all over again. His eyes were the most magnificent shade of blue, and the way they crease in the corners as he smiles. If the gods had given us soulmates, this must be what it feels like to meet yours.

“Hello.” His voice is deep, rumbling in my head and the way it overwhelms me nearly makes me forget to respond.

“Hello… Why are you in an alleyway?” I sound like a mouse compared to this god of a dwarf. He smiles again, and I’m blinded by the summer sun.

“I’m hiding. Why are you in an alleyway?”

“I got lost, I needed to clear my head. Why are you hiding?”

“Because of whom I am. May I help you find your way?”

“You may. If you tell me your name.”

“I am Thorin. Where would you like to go? Name it and I will lead you anywhere.” The way he said ‘anywhere’ nearly made me lose my breath.

“The apothecary.” My heart wouldn’t stop drumming in my chest.

“Follow me.” He took my hand and very gently kissed my knuckles before leading me back into the streets with his head hung low to avoid people looking at him too much. We walked through the sea of people, my chest close to his back and I lost myself in nauseating wonder. He was strong, so very strong. We arrived at the apothecary, and he said he would wait for me outside. Only 20 minutes later I was walking back out again, my woven backpack full and my money nearly spent. Glancing around for my handsome new friend, I found him in the alley beside the store.

“Name where I can accompany you next, my lady.” His words made me blush. I had been called Lady before by the elves, but only because of my familial relation to Thranduil. This man could not know my imaginary title, so he was not addressing me by status. And he called me ‘his’ lady… this was flirtatious in nature.

“The tailor and the blacksmith, but you need not guide me anymore if it is not your wish.” He grinned at this, his eyes lighting in amusement.

“My Lady, if I did not want to continue in your company, I would have left after bringing you here.” He took my hand again, kissed my knuckles, and led me away with my hand still in his. We walked like that all day, and it was midafternoon when my list was complete. I had never been so unhappy to leave someone. He was charming, and so very sweet, and the way he spoke about the city and the mountain, he truly loved this place. I learned his name, Thorin, but he would not tell me his father’s name or the name of his lineage. He was walking me back to the tavern when things truly started going wrong.

“Will you be returning to the My Lady?” I had taken a liking to the name, and completely forgot to tell him my real one.

“I don’t know. I am only here today.” A sadness settled in my chest and my heart dropped when I realized I may never see him again.

“Then I shall be happy only today and I shall mourn all of eternity without you.” This brought another flush of heat to my face. He always said such sweet things, I truly began to think he just did it to make me embarrassed. I turned to face him, stopping in the street that was barely crowded. Facing him, I realized that I stopped very close to him, and my chest was close to pressing against his. His eyes, those beautiful grey-blue eyes, dart across my face from my eyes to my lips to my eyes again.

“Thorin I-”

“Prince!” A man with a shaved head and tattoos appeared, followed by several guards. They were all staring at Thorin, and I couldn’t mask the hilarious bout of shock I was feeling.

“Prince…?” His eyes had closed, and he looked so incredibly guilty.

“Yes,” He turned to the man behind him, “Dwalin, what do you need?”

“Your father is asking for you in the mountain.” Thorin sighed and I watched his shoulders drop. He had spoken about his family in little detail, but he loved them very much. If he didn’t want to go back, maybe it was more to do with being a prince than being a son. He turned to me, and he looked so sad.

“I must go, My Lady.” My heart sped up and I felt sick at the thought.

“I will come back tomorrow. Be here, please, My Prince?” His eyes lit up and he grabbed my hands, holding them together and kissing them before letting go reluctantly, walking back to where his friend Dwalin was. I stood still, watching him leave, and I caught his eye as he looked back just before Dwalin punched his shoulder. I felt lightheaded now that he was gone. I spent all day with a stranger, with the prince. If this is love, it’s addictive. I slowly made my way through the city, too busy in my thoughts of Thorin to realize that the unease I had felt this morning was worse. I was close to the western gate when I heard it. A horn, deep in the summer winds, and people began screaming. A shadow passed over the city with terrifying speed and suddenly there was a shriek, like the sharp whistling of wind, and there was fire. Blazing red and orange, it swept through the city. The very stone caught on fire and no one in its wake was left alive. As a bout of flames descended, I ducked into an archway, turning away as the force nearly knocked me down. Smoke piled into the streets, and it became so hard to breathe. The buildings were collapsing, and I was barely able to wade through the rubble and fire. I think I blocked out a lot of what I saw that day, because when I stumbled out of the city, I wasn’t alone. I was on my hands and knees, choking on the smoke, eyes watering as I tried to process everything that was happening.

“Nethel! Breathe!” Legolas was at my side, wrapping his arms around me. As my breathing regulated sobs wracked my body. The mountain was destroyed. A great hole where the main gate once stood had people pouring out.

“Where is father? Please, we must help them. His people-” coughs wracked my body and I felt sharp pain in my muscles. Before I could say anything else he lifted me off the ground, running me over to a horse and saddling us both in. He sat behind me, holding me steady as he guided us back into the forest. The last thing I saw, as I looked over my brother’s shoulder, was my father pulling back his troops, leaving Thorin alone.

~~~

In the morning, I was alone, and for the first time since I stepped foot in Dale everything registered at once. Thorin, prince of Erebor, had spent the day with me without telling me who he was. I may or may not have fallen in love with him. The whole city caught on fire. The whole city…. On fire… I began yelling at the guards, screaming for Legolas, for my mother, for Tauriel even. Just not Thranduil. Legolas was the only one who entered my room.

“Nethel, please stop, you need rest-” He sat beside me on the bed.

“Tell me what happened, hanar, what happened to the city!” Tears welled in my eyes as pictures of the fire came back. The mountain, Thorin, his people. Legolas sighed, turning away from me.

“Smaug, the fire Drake. He went to Erebor to claim the gold inside. Dale was…. The city is gone, nethel.” I didn’t know what to say. A fire Drake, a dragon, had come in search of gold and killed thousands of people…

“What about the royal family, the king, the prince?” He shook his head.

“Nothing yet, but I’ll let you know what I hear if that would put you at ease.” I nodded and sat back quietly. I spent the next 3 days in bed before I was allowed to go home. I didn’t talk to Thranduil once. I don’t know what I would have said if I had, but I know it wouldn’t have been nice.

4 years later, news came about the royal family. There was a battle at Moria, and the king and prince were lost. It broke my heart, and I spent a whole year alone in my house. My mother passed away shortly after, she got sick with something even our magic couldn't stop, and I refused to see any of the elves, save for my brother. Legolas visited me every day, but soon even that stopped. It became every week, then maybe every month, then only when necessary.

60 years passed, and in my sorrow, I let the years go without care. I was still young, in my prime as a witch, and would continue to be young for a thousand years more if I so wanted. But, after 60 years, I can still be surprised.

#thorin #thorin x reader #thorin fic #the hobbit thorin #thorin son of thrain #thorin x y/n #thorin oakenshield #the hobbit #tolkien #tolkein #dwarves #erebor #middle earth #mwahahahahah

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wanda-maximoff-enthusiast · 2 years

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SO- I saw you wrote for Legolas (my fave elf boi) and you also do song fics, so I would like to request a Legolas x fem!witch!reader with 'Sparks Fly' by Taylor Swift. Reader has Scarlet Witch powers and the fic is set around the Hobbit rather than LOTR. hope this isn't too specific lol <3

Wait but I love the idea of a reader with wanda powers oMG- i also love the song choice. I literally analysed it for an English project LMAO-

~Sparks Fly~

Legolas x fem!witch!reader

Summary: Legolas and (Y/N) have always denied any romantic feelings between the two of them, but, alas, sparks fly.

Warnings: Mentions of killing, the elves being horrible to the dwarves, badly translated elvish, gets a bit steamy at the end but no smut :)

A/N: I love Legolas more than I love my own mother UM-

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The way you move is like a full on rainstorm And I'm a house of cards You're the kind of reckless that should send me running But I kinda know that I won't get far

"Morning (Y/N)."

"Morning Legolas, you on duty again?" The prince laughed. "Valar, no, I don't think my father wants me to be on duty ever again after we led the spiders straight into Mirkwood."

"In my defence, I did not think they could get through the door." He rolled his eyes, turning to look at you, and you glared right back. You enjoyed the friendship you had with Legolas, the bickering and the teasing felt comforting in some ways.

But your heart burned as bright as the flames of Mordor when he looked at you. When he smiled at you. When he was near you.

'Strange,' you thought to yourself, 'perhaps I have fallen ill'

And you stood there in front of me just Close enough to touch Close enough to hope you couldn't see What I was thinking of

He was one step away from you, it would only take you reaching your arm out to be able to touch his. But you didn't.

You had to get yourself out of that stupid, stupid mindset. Legolas was a prince. And you were no where near his level, being a previous member of Elrond's council at best. There was no chance.

He opened his mouth, his gaze still on you, before his name was called.

"My prince." Tauriel announced, running down the stairs, her auburn locks flying behind her. "There has been a report of more spiders in the forest, and sightings of other beings."

Then she left, her pace quick as her hands tightened over her daggers. You'd always liked Tauriel, and you admired her courage and boldness.

"Well," Legolas started, picking up his bow and slinging it over his shoulder. "You ready, little witch?"

You grinned, positioning your hands in front of your chest as a glowing red began spreading over your fingers, the energy building up inside you as your eyes turned the same crimson.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Drop everything now Meet me in the pouring rain Kiss me on the sidewalk Take away the pain 'Cause I see, sparks fly, whenever you smile

The spiders were easy to kill, they always were, or maybe you were just strong. Your brain spun as you shot energy blasts out of your hands, killing the arachnids within seconds.

Turns out, the 'other beings' that Tauriel had been talking about were dwarves. A whole company, 13 to be exact.

"(Y/N), thír an anuinad i aran will anír- na see.*" Legolas spoke firmly, his blue eyes settling on yours in a harsh glare. You knew he was just doing it to look intimidating, and that made you want to laugh.

"-O iór nin cóon."**

Get me with those green eyes, baby As the lights go down Gimme something that'll haunt me whenever you're not around 'Cause I see, sparks fly, when you smile

You walked around the group, fingers moving and stretching out slowly as they glowed a bright scarlet. You could tell just by looking at their faces that they were either fascinated or terrified.

Possibly both.

Every weapon or item of value they possessed, you sensed and pulled away via telekinesis, and tossed to the other elves with careless flicks of your wrist. You eventually stopped in front of the only blonde of the group, who seemed to own a lot more knives than anticipated.

"Ekor many kniveth kav othok zal?"*** You asked, speaking in his common tongue so he could understand you better.

"Tha guesth othok'll mer finduroz out darluroz"**** He responded with a wink, which earned him a harsh glare from both you and Legolas, who was standing behind you.

"(Y/N), follow." "Yes, my prince."

My mind forgets to remind me, you're a bad idea You touch me once and it's really something You find I'm even better than you, imagined I would be

"You've got leaves in your hair." Legolas shot you a look at your comment, before walking quicker to get ahead.

"What! Nobody else would tell you!" You summoned your red energy again and used it to levitate, flying over to where he was to keep up with his pace.

"Glenn- (Y/N)." You frowned at his harsh words and responded in Westron.

"I'm not going to go, Legolas-" "Im said glenn!" He was angry, that was for sure. His diamond eyes were blazing, hands curled into fists by his sides.

His next, and final, hiss of a comment brought a flood of tears rushing to your eyes.

"A Im think cin'll rad- im am cín cóon, ú- cín mellon, witch." *

I'm on my guard for the rest of the world But with you I know its no good And I could wait patiently But I really wish you would

"Hey, Tauriel, wait up!" You called out, chasing after the redhead. She bowed her head lightly in an act of acknowledgement and respect, as did you.

"Do you know what's going on with the prince?"

She shook her head, her brows furrowing in confusion. "No, why?"

You sighed, running both of your hands through your hair before dragging them over your face. "He's been ignoring me ever since the dwarf incident," you gestured vaguely to the imprisoned dwarves around you, "he refuses to even look me in the eye these days."

The elleth noticed the slight droop of your eyelids as you told her, and she placed a careful hand on your shoulder. "Hey, everything will be alright."

You smiled at her, to which she happily returned.

"It's the Feast of Starlight tonight anyways, so you know what we should do?"

"What?" She leant in closer to you, her voice barely a whisper, "Make him pay for it."

Drop everything now Meet me in the pouring rain Kiss me on the sidewalk Take away the pain 'Cause I see, sparks fly, whenever you smile

To say that (Y/N) (L/N) looked gorgeous would be an understatement, at least, that's what you were saying to yourself as you stared at your reflection.

While never one for extravagant clothing, you'd be lying if you didn't say that Tauriel was a genius when it came to picking dresses.

The midnight-blue silk covering your body was simply divine, and the skirt twirled beautifully around your ankles. You turned t Tauriel, who was still donning her guard uniform.

"Aren't you gonna wear something different?" She shrugged, "I've got to keep watch over the dwarves, unfortunately." "Ah yes, very unfortunate, you'll have to spend all evening with that young one, with the dark hair and dark eyes." Tauriel's cheeks flushed the same red as her hair. "Shut up, (L/N)."

"Tell me, was it his archery skills? Or the trousers comment?"

"I said shut up!" You laughed at the bright blush across her face.

"Kidding, kidding."

You fixed your hair and made your way to the door, before turning around to look Tauriel in the eye once more.

"Sort of." You ran out of the room before she could chase after you.

Get me with those green eyes, baby As the lights go down Gimme something that'll haunt me when you're not around 'Cause I see, sparks fly, whenever you smile

The ball was, well, boring to say the least. Nobody danced with you, which was good, because you didn't actually like people all that much. But, alas, it was the final song of the night, and you supposed you should interact.

And that is when you saw Legolas rushing towards you, eyes trailing over your sapphire gown.

His bright eyes met yours and he held out a hand.

"A dance, m'lady?"

I run my fingers through your hair And watch the lights go wild Just keep on keeping your eyes on me It's just wrong enough to make it feel right.

"I'm a terrible dancer, Legolas, you know this." He let out a light chuckle as he spun you around. "Just shush and appreciate this for once."

"Says the one who's been ignoring me for the past three days."

His mouth formed a thin line, and he let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry, (Y/N), I was just…" "Just?" "Stressed, I suppose." You let out a fake gasp. "He admits it! Pray tell, dearest?"

The dance was nearing an end, and you were glad of it, but when Legolas kept hold of your arm and took you away to one of the hidden corridors, you couldn't help but comply.

The two of you walked in silence, arms still linked.

"I was stressed because I…" "Go on." "If you don't stop interrupting me I'll never tell you."

You caught his eye as you both laughed and you let him continue.

"I'm done hiding this."

He seemed almost shocked by your comment, and turned to face you.

And the next thing you knew, his arms were around your waist and your lips were pressed firmly against each other's.

And lead me up the staircase Won't you whisper soft and slow And I'm captivated by you baby Like a fireworks show

You pulled away for a few seconds, breathless in each other's holds.

"So I take it you love me too?" He pressed a gentle kiss to your collarbone.

"For ages."

You let out a half-hearted laugh. "Good, me too."

Drop everything now Meet me in the pouring rain Kiss me on the sidewalk Take away the pain 'Cause I see, sparks fly whenever you smile

Get me with those green eyes, baby As the lights go down Gimme something that'll haunt me when you're not around 'Cause I see, sparks fly, whenever you smile

Tauriel smirked upon seeing (Y/N) and Legolas run off in the direction of his room. Beneath her smile, she mumbled two words.

"Called it."

When sparks fly, oh baby smile, When sparks fly

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

translations

*((Y/N), look for anything the king will want to see)

**(Of course, my prince)

***(How many knives do you have?)

****(I guess you'll be finding out darling)

*(And I think you'll find I am your prince, not your friend, witch."

(the dress I had in mind for (Y/N), as always if you don't like it you can change it <3)

#legolas x reader #the hobbit x reader #taylor swift #sparks fly #speak now #legolas

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frodo-with-glasses · 2 years

Note

Though a bit of an odd pairing--more of a mentorship, really--Bilbo and Sam, 5, 7, 8, 13?

5. “A scene I wish we had of them”

Bilbo teaching Sam to read. I’m gonna harp on this some more later in this post, but it’s for good reason, because it’s literally the cutest thing about their relationship and I still can’t get it out of my head.

I need to know everything! How old was Sam when he started learning?? How quickly did he pick it up?? What books did Bilbo use as practice? Did he employ any of his own writing? Did Frodo help with any of the lessons? How often did they veer off into enthusiastic discussions about elves and dragons and the primer was left completely forgotten in the desk?? TOLKIEN WHERE IS MY ADORABLE BAG END SLICE OF LIFE SHOW, I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED—

7. “What makes me like their friendship”

Honestly, I think the most charming thing about this relationship is twofold: one, AdoptionTM, and two, Bilbo’s completely willful ignorance of the class disparity. Bilbo sees this tiny child of his employee following him around and begging for stories about elves and dragons and, instead of brushing him off, says “hm yes this child is mine now and I am going to teach it how to read because heckin’ books” and I love that. Stories draw people together, and nowhere is that clearer than with Bilbo and Sam.

Also the thought of Bilbo getting another young hobbit to roast and tease relentlessly is just GoodTM.

8. “Who I think is the ‘crazier’ one”

Definitely, Bilbo, by nature of being Bilbo. They don’t call him the “Mad Baggins” for nothing.

13. “What I think would have happened if they had never met”

Hm, that’s a tricky one. I could go my usual overthinking route and say “if Sam and Bilbo had never met, then Sam and Frodo would’ve never met” and run down the ramifications of that, but I’ve expounded on that idea already and it’s probably not 100% true anyway. There’s still a good chance that Sam would’ve ended up the head gardener of Bag End after Bilbo left, so there’s still ample time for Sam to meet Frodo. Honestly, Sam and Bilbo never crossing paths is probably one of the least destructive “what ifs” that I’ve had to answer so far.

But it wouldn’t be completely without consequence. If anything, I think Bilbo instilled in Sam, from a young age, a love of stories and far-off lands that even Frodo wouldn’t have been able to replace. Frodo knew the tales of dwarves and trolls and dragons, of course—but Bilbo had lived them. He was a living legend, at least in Sam’s eyes, and the fact that he took an interest in a humble gardener’s youngest son probably rocked Sam’s little world.

If Bilbo and Sam had never met, I think our stalwart Mr. Gamgee would be missing a few of those stars in his eyes, and the fervent infatuation with elves—and, well, at that point, he isn’t really our Sam Gamgee anymore, is he?

FRIENDSHIP ASK GAME!

#ask game #bilbo baggins #samwise gamgee #lord of the rings #lotr #my writing

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chiliadicorum · 10 months

Note

12, 13, 14, 18!

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Cirdan! He's honestly one of the most amazing Elves in ALL of the legendarium and I blame Tolkien for burying all his gold nuggets. That's the only explanation for how he's so overlooked and dismissed. Has to be. Even C. Tolkien expressed amazement with Cirdan. Wisest of all Elves, greatest foresight of all Elves, saw the Star of Earendil 10,000 years before it happened, has one of the palantiri, Ring-bearer, could've wielded the One Ring itself...i need to just finally make a list of why I love him so much

ok this is a two-part answer bc I realize the prompt probably means a character that is actively disliked. For that, Thingol. I'm honestly appalled at the (general) fandom reception of him. He doesn't deserve it (don't have time to get to the why)

13. worst blorbofication

Nobody hit me, but my answer is Melkor. I love Melkor, like a lot. He's so darkly fascinating, so interesting and addictive to explore, and so often he's stripped of everything that makes him fascinating all for the sake of making him a little less villainous, a little more right, a little whatever (i'm generalizing here, and this isn't about shipping. I don't read melkor/ships so i have no comment on it) He's so complex and so often he's made so shallow instead. Sauron comes in a close second for the same reason.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

One-sided characterization? (idk what to call it) I'm not crapping on anyone who does it and I know I was guilty of it myself at one point but it's that thing where ONE aspect of the character (good or bad, usually bad) is then blown up to be their whole character. And in the Tolkien fandom this happens a lot with Feanor, his sons, Eol, Saeros, Finarfin (of all people!), Galadriel, Finwe, Thranduil, Thingol, etc (honestly the fandom's way with thingol pisses me off probably more than any other character, at least right now)

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

The balrogs!!!! After Glorfindel and Ecthelion killed two of them! How groundbreaking and shocking it had to have been. Not just to the people of Gondolin who made it out alive but to EVERYONE in Beleriand. From the Feanorians to the Sindar to Dwarves to all Men EVERONE.

You know what, here's the link, I hunted it down: https://www.tumblr.com/chiliadicorum/159569845327/balrog-slayer-a-new-word?source=share

Read that for more info bc I'll start fangirling and won't shut up here. I'm commented on this before^^ and someone graciously wrote a beautiful fic exploring it as a result (can't remember who they were I'm sorry!), but except for that one fic I've yet to find one single fic entailing this! (plz point them out to me if they're there bc admittedly i haven't searched for fics the way I'd like to in a loooong time)

Bc yeah, really how has fandom been sleeping on this?! especially a "hopeful" thing to write about in the First Age lol

Also Word of Honor answer bc I'm craving it: (spoiler warning) After the events of ep36 or during the time of ep37, where are all the fics exploring the reactions of people to the "two immortals on the mountain"? bc come on, immortals don't exist. Right? It's been explored some (and those fics are GOLD) but UGH its so entertaining to think about! Especially when they become legendary and of course the true story gets exaggerated and rumors start and fly and get ridiculous and what's true what's false nobody knows! "I dare you to go up the mountain, see if the tales are true" "no way! you go if you're so desperate" "what are you chicken?" "shut up a-hole i just have no desire to climb a mountain" hahahaha Endless entertainment potential with this!!

choose violence ask game

#this was fun thanks!#celebbun #gwedasks #ask #silmarillion #word of honor

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daitranscripts · 2 years

Text

Josephine Conversation: Dwarf Origin

The Carta

Josephine Masterpost Related Quest: The Threat Remains

The PC walks into Josephine’s office.

Josephine: That can’t be it. Perhaps Leliana was… no, that seems unlikely. How can—oh. Hello, [Master/Mistress] Cadash.

PC: Something on your mind, Ambassador?

Josephine: You could say that. I was speaking with Leliana and—well, we discussed how to make people understand how a dwarf can be Herald of Andraste.

1 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: Is the idea shocking? [2]

General: Good luck with them. [3]

General: Try quoting the Chant. [4]

General: It’s nothing to do with me. [5]

2 - Investigate: Is the idea shocking? PC: Is being a dwarf so controversial? Josephine: Everything about you promises to be controversial. Dwarves rarely join the Chantry. Why would the Maker’s chosen one, they wonder? Few realize dwarves even have a religion, in their philosophy of the Stone.

6 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: How do you know about that? [7] General: It’s all bunk. [8] General: I believe in the Stone. [9] General: I never learned much about it. [10]

7 - Investigate: How do you know about that? PC: Most humans don’t know about the Stone. Josephine: I’ve dined with merchants from Orzammar. Those few at court are happy to enlighten us. They explained that dwarves believe stone is “alive”, that good dwarven souls return to it in death. It was interesting, even if the Chantry mothers found it less than amusing. [Back to 6]

8 - General: It’s all bunk. PC: Some dwarves thinks rocks have feelings and their ancestors become ghosts. I don’t buy it. Josephine: That’s fortunate. The Chantry is already worried about the mark on your hand. [Back to 1]

9 - General: I believe in the Stone. PC: I may be casteless, but underground, I feel a connection with the Stone. Josephine: We should be discreet about that. You are already an anomaly to the Chantry. [Back to 1]

10 - General: I never learned much about it. PC: I never paid much attention to any of that Stone stuff. Josephine: That’s fortunate. The Chantry is already worried about the mark on your hand. [Back to 1]

3 - General: Good luck with them PC: I wish I could help convince them I’m not a threat. Josephine: There are stories—about your past—that may make it difficult. [11]

4 - General: Try quoting the Chant. PC: Tell them stranger things have happened. “The Maker moves in mysterious ways,” and all that. Josephine: Yes, he certainly does. [11]

5 - General: It’s nothing to do with me. PC: That’s out of my hands. I can’t help what people think. Josephine: I have concerns about more than your position as Andraste’s Herald. [11]

11 - Scene continues.

Josephine: Leliana was telling me rumors that… it sounds preposterous, but… There are stories circulating that you were part of a criminal organization. The dwarven Carta.

Dialogue options:

General: I’m sorry, she was right. [12]

General: I was dreading this. [13]

General: I was. [14]

12 - General: I’m sorry, she was right. PC: I am. Or I was, until the Conclave. Josephine: I was hoping… oh, dear. [15]

13 - General: I was dreading this. PC: I was hoping that secret would keep a little longer. Josephine: You mean… well. This complicates things. [15]

14 - General: I was. PC: I used to be. The Carta doesn’t like their own to get too famous. Josephine: So it’s true? Oh, my. [15]

15 - Scene continues.

Josephine: Were you only smuggling, at least? Exchanging a few goods on the surface?

16 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: Why the surface? [17]

General: That’s about right./Smuggling, nothing dangerous. (after “Why the surface?”) [18]

General: That’s not your business. [19]

General: Don’t get judgmental. [20]

General: It was more violent at that. [21]

17 - Investigate: Why the surface? PC: What makes you think I’ve never been to Orzammar? Josephine: I thought you were without a caste? It was my understanding dwarves born on the surface are casteless, and barred from Orzammar.

Dialogue options:

General: I’ve never seen it. PC: That’s what the noble houses say. Some dwarves sneak in anyhow. I never did. The Carta kept me busy.

General: I’ve been there many times. PC: Only officially. I’ve been to Orzammar hundreds of times. The Carta knows how to ask people to look the other way.

General: I’ve only visited a few times. PC: There’s ways to get inside Orzammar, if you know who to bribe. The Carta always knows. I’ve slipped in a handful of times.

22 - Scene continues.

Josephine: Yes, about that. I do need to know the extent of your involvement in the Carta’s activities. [Back to 16]

18 - General: That’s about right./Smuggling, nothing dangerous. PC: I was the buyer for fancy surface goods we sold to rich dwarven houses. Long hours, but peaceful compared to most Carta work. Josephine: That’s a relief. Perhaps we can make your former occupation sound less unsavory. [23]

19 - General: That’s not your business. PC: My past life is private. Let’s leave it at that. Josephine: We will bury as much as possible, but rumormongers will latch onto something. [23]

20 - General: Don’t get judgmental. PC: The casteless don’t have many opportunities. I did what I had to. Not everyone grew up with a title and three square meals a day. Josephine: No, of course not. I only—I would dearly like to avoid rumors growing out of hand. [23]

21 - General: It was more violent at that. PC: I guarded caravans of smuggled goods. Rivals often ambushed us. There were protection racket, blood feuds, targeted— Josephine: That’s quite enough! I have a clear picture. [23]

23 - Scene continues.

Josephine: I’ll handle the subject of your past carefully, Herald. I’m sure you can’t miss that life.

Dialogue options:

Flirt: I’m hoping you like bad [boys/girls]. [24]

General: I miss my comrades. [25]

General: The Carta was a dead end. [26]

General: I miss the routine. [27]

General: Sure I do. I was good at it. [28]

General: I won’t miss the brutality. [29]

24 - Flirt: I’m hoping you like bad [boys/girls]. PC: You’re not interested in dashing dwarven rogue who lived at the edge of the law? Josephine: A “dashing rogue.” Hmm. PC: What? Josephine: We can’t quash rumors you were with the Carta, but if a more interesting one comes along… Thank you for the talk. I must ask Varric to draft something. [30]

25 - General: I miss my comrades. PC: The Carta could be rough, but I knew who had my back. Here, I have to learn all over again. Josephine: I will not lie. The selfish and the power hungry will walk among us before this fight is over. But the Inquisition also attracts those who dream of peace. You’ll find new companions among them. [30]

26 - General: The Carta was a dead end. PC: Carta life is as short as it is hard. You don’t make long-range plans. I have a chance at a future with the Inquisition. Josephine: If things go well, I’m sure you’ll find it rewarding. Thank you for your time, Herald. I hope you find life more peaceful here. [30]

27 - General: I miss the routine. PC: Say what you will about Carta business, it was regular work. I don’t always know what people here expect from me. Josephine: Organizations are rarely clear-cut at the start. Your role will become evident in time. Until then, anything you do to aid the Inquisition is enough. No contribution will be wasted. [30]

28 - General: Sure I do. I was good at it. PC: Why wouldn’t I? I was the best at what I did. My old bosses are probably tearing their hair out trying to replace me. Josephine: I will take your word for it, so long as they won’t be able to win you back. That sort of competition is the last thing we require. [30]

29 - General: I won’t miss the brutality. PC: The last time I saw my boss, he was breaking someone’s leg for heating him of five coppers. I’m ready to put those days behind me. Josephine: I… I imagine so. Thank you for your time, Herald. I hope you find a more peaceful life here. [30]

30 - Scene ends.

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dragon age transcripts #dai transcripts #dai dialogue #josephine #josephine montilyet #cadash #inquisitor cadash #haven #long post

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askmalal · 2 years

Text

Questions for the God Who Does Not Exist. Some questions I am asked frequently, some of them not published here before.

PLEASE contribute your own. No, really. It's been a while since new questions have arrived, especially those I haven't already answered. Hopefully this will get your little mortal minds thinking of new ones, now I've answered these short ones.

("Classics" Edition)

"Who did you influence in the Horus Heresy, and why?"

A: Yes.

2. "Where are you in the Age of Sigmar? No, really. I wanna know."

There are a few clues in Warcry, for starters...

3. "Are the Sons of Malice yours?"

Yes. I don't claim to approve of all of their actions.

4. "Are the Alpha Legion yours?"

Hmm.. I wonder.

5. (Utterly Unrelated to Warhammer) "You a Doctor who fan? Saw a Whovian reference in an early post. Who's your doctor?"

Absolutely. Multiples of 3. 3,6,9,12.

6. "Are you in the Judge Dredd universe? There's some crossover there."

Yes.

7. "Is Trump one of yours?"

Your death with be slow and painful.

Long form" Absolutely not. I have told you, repeatedly, foul primate, that I am an entity who encourages HATE WITH PURPOSE. Your abuser, your rapist, your oppressor, the asshole who makes every day that much harder for you but perhaps not to any of those extremes.

I have no place for racism or, indeed, most "isms" in general.

You want somebody who loves your mango shit gibbon, consider looking into the agents of the Ecclesiarchy. I hear some of them are taking life advice from his ghost.

8. "Favorite color?"

I can't see colors/colours, you insensitive ass.

9. "Wait, not being able to see colors is a real thing?"

Yes.

10. "Who is Mun?"

Yes.

11. "Are you gay?" No.

12. "Are you LGBTQ+?"

I'm an Ally. And I'm happy to be that. Both in and out of "serious" mode.

13. "Why are you bothered by Primarchs having sex with each other?" Because they are brothers. And incest is a line I don't cross, step bro.

14. "Does Malal have any pets?"

As I have said before, I am fond of black dogs and dogs who are predominantly black. Everything from the Cu-Sith to the Boston Terrier. I -love- Boston Terriers. I can see their colors, for one.

15. "Are you the Eleventh Primarch?"

Some of me.

16. "Is Malal male?"

In my native form, I have no gender. However, I identify as a male. I do have female forms, as has been documented, but I am male, even if not technically anything at all gender wise.

17. "Is Malal married?"

Yes.

18. "Why is Malal?"

Why indeed, dear heart. Why indeed.

19. "Does Malal's... ermm... 'scribe' play any WH miniatures games?"

I have asked the Scribe. The Scribe informs me that the Scribe has played one form or another since college, but has collected books, often in secret, since childhood. Scribe's parents did not approve of miniatures games, roleplaying, or anything like that. Oddly, they were fine with Scribe having toy guns, so go figure.

20. "Is Malal in the Mythos?"

Does Tzeentch have a Bird Fetish? Do Bears shit in the woods? Are Ultramarines underrated and overrepresented? Are Chaos Dwarves and Squats criminally and historically neglected?

Bonus:

"Can I still ask questions of the other gods through this account?"

Sure.

I'll try to dig up more later, Little Mortal. In the meanwhile... *waves shadowy tendrils* off you go to your stylus and clay or... whatever the devil it is you young hipsters are using to write to your deities these days.

#ask malal #malice #malal #askmalal #chaos gods #ask me questions #the warp #chaos philosophy #dark gods

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lemonade-if · 2 years

Text

B1 Chapter List & Teaser

I don’t have any significant updates to share, but I’ve put together a little something for the handful of anons curious about B1′s length and structure.

Everything is super vague and oversimplified to prevent as many spoilers as possible. For those who hate spoilers, I’d still recommend not reading this just in case.

For others, I hope you’ll enjoy ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

1: “The Last First Time”

Transferring into Morigaoka Public High School in the middle of first year, MC is once again thrust into the limelight of being “the new student”. They’re well-received by a friendly homeroom class, but before they can even settle in, they find themselves dragged along to a goukon, a social mixer/group blind date orchestrated by first years from other classes.

2. “Black Out”

As the event ends and students leave, MC boards an elevator with RO, only for it to break down completely.

3. “Customer Service”

The next day at school, there are some joking rumors circulating about the previous day’s events. MC also gets a taste of the not-so-nice parts of Mori High in the form of Mutou-sensei, the sour-tempered math teacher, and Nobuyama, the haughty Class Representative. At lunch, MC’s group brings up the topic of club activities. MC must decide on a club soon, but first, they have a meeting with their dad in Shinjuku.

4. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”

After the Shinjuku fiasco on Friday, MC returns to school on Monday to find their seat partner present for the first time. The cultural festival is just four weeks away, so Nakamura-sensei fills MC in about what their class is doing: a stage performance. MC also submits their club registration, meets their clubmates, and learns about the goals and activities of their new club.

5. “Cultural Festival”

It’s finally here! After visiting other class’ booths, seeing friends, and fulfilling your club responsibilities, it’s showtime for your homeroom class. Of course, something goes wrong last minute...

6. “Daydream”

With the cultural festival now a distant memory, students are gearing up for the midterm exam. Club activities are cancelled for the week, so MC’s friends decide to organize a group study session after school. They buy snacks, reserve a spare classroom, and encourage MC to invite anyone else they have in mind for a long evening together.

7. “Catch You Catch Me”

To celebrate the end of testing, MC and friends go on a fun weekend outing, where they run into none other than RO with their own friends.*

*Scene is adjusted for those whose RO is within their friend group

8. “Team Woes”

(Club-specific content: I can’t give a good general description because of different clubs having different members and different activities). To add to the mix of stress, MC receives a completely-unjust detention from the math teacher. The only bright side to this awful day is RO’s surprise at the end.

9. “Secret Santa”

To keep morale high through the final stretch of the trimester, Nakamura-sensei announces a Secret Santa gift exchange. With the topic of gifts now in the air, MC considers what to get their friends (and maybe that special someone, too).

10. “Clutch”

Finals is over and Winter Break is here, but MC isn’t in the clear quite yet. (This is also focused on club-specific content).

11. “Silent Night”

This is MC’s first Christmas without both parents, but MC’s mom is determined to make it positive. After a rare full day spent together, the two sit down for homemade hotpot. It’s not long until a knock at the door interrupts their meal, and things soon devolve into disaster.

12. “With You in the Morning”

MC wakes up, disoriented at first by the unfamiliar surroundings but relieved by the sight of the person beside them. They reflect on the series of events last night that led to calling RO and sleeping over at their place. After sharing breakfast with RO, MC’s parents call, wanting to pick them up and apologize for last night.

13. “LOL”

School resumes, and life goes on. Upon returning from PE class one day, MC finds their phone and wallet missing. Both turn up at the end of the day, seemingly unharmed, but MC quickly realizes that something is very, very wrong.

14. “Distortion”

As more targeted incidents occur, it’s become abundantly clear that someone is trying to damage MC and RO’s relationship. MC’s friends narrow down the suspects to a single individual. Unsurprisingly, this individual is also into RO and have been since before MC arrived. A plan is constructed to obtain proof, confront the bully, and expose their lies to RO.

15. “Operation Valentine’s Day”

(No hints, you’ll have to find out how it goes (o˘◡˘o))

16. “Purikura”

With everything now settled and their relationship with RO clarified, MC reflects on the whirlwind that was the past few months. They also think ahead to the next school year. Nobody knows what the future will bring, but at least MC knows who will be right by their side this time when it comes.

#LemonadeIF #B1

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lathalea · 2 years

Note

Dear King Thorin

I hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Rebuilding Erebor must be keeping you busy but I hope you can find time to fulfill my curiosity again.

A little bird told me your royal ask box is open again. Poor thing was exhausted when he returned to Woodland realm but he wouldn't rest until he told me everything.

I would be delighted to know about #13, what is your favorite legend?

Yours sincerely

Q. Aduialel

👑 Welcome to Thorin’s Royal Ask Box! 👑

Dear Queen Aduialel of the Woodland Realm!

It is, as always, a great honour to receive the letters written by your elegant hand. A truly refreshing experience after the latest missive your husband sent me. Do not worry, I will not discuss political matters now. Pray allow me to say that I much rather prefer conducting the negotiations with you than with your royal spouse who seems to communicate mostly with smirks whenever we meet and with hastily written notes whenever he is to respond to the official correspondence from Erebor. There was a pungent leaf that gave me a most unpleasant rash and a dozen of feisty red ants. They attacked several of my people, including my scribe Ori! How many times do I have to say that the impromptu ice rink in front of the main gate of Erebor was an unfortunate coincidence! Also, I do hope your husband’s elk fares better than his well.

Forgive me, my lady, I am being petty and rude and there is no excuse for it. I can only say that I am glad whenever you accompany your husband every time he travels to the Lonely Mountain. Your wisdom and insight saved us quite a lot of headaches, along with your tonic against ant bites.

My family is quite well, thank you for asking. My sister Dis has recently arrived at Erebor along with other families from the Blue Mountains. My sister-sons have missed their mother greatly. And to think she left Erebor only for several months! Kili is very eager to leave his sickbed (he is recovering from a nasty cold), but I have a feeling that he enjoys his mother’s fussing quite a bit. As for Fili, he is very eagerly working at the Great Forges and spends most of his time there. It may have something to do with the fact that my sister mentioned it was time for him to marry since she brought all those pretty young maidens from the Blue Mountains. The problem is, he does not feel like settling down. I can imagine that similar experiences happen to all the parents. I am guessing that raising prince Legolas must have offered various challenges.

You asked me about my favourite legend. It is a story that I have heard from my Grandfather, King Thrór, who has heard it from his grandfather, who, in turn, has heard it from his grandfather as well. This story is sometimes called “A Shepherd’s Adventure”, although my cousins from the Iron Hills call it “The Treasure of the Mountains”.

A Shepherd’s Adventure

A long time ago, there was a young shepherd named Drangi who travelled with his goat herd along the Grey Mountains every summer. One warm and peaceful day he fell asleep while his mountain goats were grazing. When he woke up, the sun was setting. As he looked at his herd, he noticed that one of his youngest goats was missing. Worried, Drangi took his shepherd’s stick and went to search for the little white kid.

Evening mists came crawling, chilling him to the bone, but he would not stop. Finally, among the mists, he found a cave he had never seen before, even though he knew these parts like the back of his hand. When he entered the cave, darkness surrounded him.

“Who goes there?” a deep voice echoed in the darkness.

“They call me Drangi, son of Draug. I am but a simple shepherd,” the young Dwarf responded in a tiny voice.

A faint light appeared somewhere deep in the cave and Drangi finally saw a very old, white-bearded Dwarvish warrior sitting on a boulder, hand resting on his axe. The cave was huge and all around this ancient guard dozens and dozens of Dwarves lay on the ground, sound asleep, mighty weapons in their hands, great, shining armours covering their bodies.

“Is it time?” the old Dwarf asked, his eyes black as coals.

“N-no, not at all, forgive me for intruding, I am simply searching for my lost goat,” Drangi said sheepishly.

“Very well,” nodded the ancient warrior. “Look around. Our army sleeps here. If the Dwarves are ever in danger, we will awaken and defend our people. And now, leave this place, boy. You will find your goat by the entrance of this cave.”

Drangi bowed and left the cavern. The old Dwarf spoke the truth, his lost white kid stood bleating nearby. When Drangi finally returned home and told his family what happened, his grandfather said:

“You have found the real treasure of our mountains, son of my son. Remember it well for a time may come when this knowledge will be needed!”

And so Drangi did, and told his children and grandchildren about his adventure. And since then, all the Longbeard Dwarves tell this story to their little ones to remind them that if evil strikes, we are not alone.

I hope you enjoyed this story, my lady.

Your humble servant,

👑 Thorin Oakenshield

📜 Thorin’s Ask Box question list

#thorin's ask box #thorin oakenshield #richard armitage #tolkien #the hobbit #thranduil #ori #king under the mountain #legend

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shofics · 3 years

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So tumblr ate the ask (thanks! I hate it!) but @knifemartin sent the prompt 13. pirate au but make it... sky pirates with Earhart, Zolf, Sasha, and Wilde! This got frighteningly long so I had to put it under a cut, I hope you enjoy my ramblings. <3 They’re going to kill a dragon!!

I think I genuinely might clean this up and make it into a proper fic. Watch this space.

Zolf Smith is a miner. Zolf Smith dreams of the sky. Zolf Smith kills his brother. Zolf Smith takes flight.

The Meritocracy doesn't have air forces- don’t really need ‘em when you’re a huge fuck-off dragon who can fly- but they’re worried about the increased presence the separatists are having in the skies above their lands, so they’re building one. Zolf leaps upon it like a life raft.

When the ship goes down, there are two reasons he doesn’t die; his past, and his god.

The Reliant answers the emergency call, and that surprises Zolf- a known separatist vessel, making an attempt to save the crew of a ship in the Meritocratic Air Force- but a lot of things surprise him about Captain Earhart. It’s not the Reliant’s fault that he is the only survivor. It is due to the Reliant that there is an only survivor at all.

His family were Harlequins. Captain Earhart recognises him, visits him in the sick bay as her medics do their best to save his legs, asks after his father, asks after his brother. Gives an understanding nod when he refuses to speak about them. Offers him a job, because he desperately needs one.

It’s a lot all at once, and they can’t save his legs, but he finds he doesn’t need them. Dwarves don’t have the build that most of the Hermes lot have, but he’s never let not fitting in stop him. The feeling of the wind in the rigging is like wings on ankles he doesn’t have anymore. He’s freer than he’s been his entire life.

When he is thirteen years old, Brock Rackett successfully makes it out of Other London and out of the clutches of the Rackett clan by chopping off his ring finger and escaping on the first air vessel that will take him. At least, this is what Sasha believes. She’s sad he left without her, but she knows well that when an opportunity comes, you take it. She hopes he made it out safe.

Nine years later, at twenty-two, Sasha’s opportunity finally comes. She heads for the aeroport. Maybe she’ll be able to find him.

Barrett’s men are following her, she can feel them on her tail all through the crowd like a bad smell; she needs a cover, needs somewhere to hide. There’s a drunk in the corner of the bar, some once-foppish-looking dandy, and Sasha decides to make him her cover.

She slides into the seat next to him and tries to be as inconspicuous as possible, but the drunkard starts and leaps to his feet, swaying. “Keep your trousers on,” she hisses, jumping up to pull him back down in front of her- he’s tall enough, he should provide good cover.

The man staggers out of her grip and produces a dagger from nowhere. He tries to fend her off with it- poorly- and then his eyes roll up and he collapses. Sasha just barely manages to catch him before he hits the ground.

Wilde knows the Meritocracy is crumbling. He can feel it in the air; something big is coming, something very bad, and he really doesn’t want to be here when it finally arrives.

Though maybe the sense of impending doom he’s getting is just from lack of sleep. But he’s sure that’s fine. It’s fine. He’s fine.

So he puts his bardic talents and his espionage training to work, following the trail of the odd orders and the disappearing agents, and realises quickly that if he stays, he’ll probably end up disappearing as well- or worse, become one of the people giving the odd, conflicting orders. He doesn’t know what that’s about. He doesn’t want to find out.

Wilde fakes his own death in the hopes it will throw off the scent, and decides, like so many others seeking the separatists, to head for the Americas.

In a bar at the aeroport he is accosted by a mugger, and he knew he was being conspicuous, but with everything blurring and the ringing in his ears he’s in no shape to properly defend himself. Instead of killing him, though, the dark figure hauls him up and runs.

He’s not lucid enough to take in the scene of the room she drags him into, and so he doesn’t resist as someone snaps something cold around his wrist, and he at long last sinks into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Earhart knew the look of people like Zolf Smith- lost, angry, needing. She’s seen plenty of it, in her years as an airship captain, because there are only a few reasons why people set out for the skies. And so she took him on, and he proved a fantastic first mate, knew his stuff inside and out and indulged her more reckless tendencies.

Plus, he’d been fleeing the Meritocracy. That automatically put him in Earhart’s good books.

Famous (and infamous) Harlequin airship captain Amelia Earhart was, by that point, becoming famous and infamous enough to become a thorn in the Meritocrats’ sides. They decided to target her. The fact that they tried to take down the Reliant was not her fault. The fact that she turned the whole ship around to attack back, causing a wreck that killed almost all of her crew and blew the Reliant into unsalvageable bits… that was.

The only reason she hasn’t drunk herself to death by this point is her ‘fantastic’ first mate (she’s regretting that now, in an angry way), who for some unknowable reason is unwilling to let the guilt swallow her whole.

Zolf Smith was an airman. Zolf Smith dreams of gods and wings and roads not taken. Zolf Smith is given a choice. Zolf Smith chooses no.

Zolf Smith loses his magic.

Earhart is trying to die, and he’s doing his best without access to his healing magic, but it won’t work forever, not when she’s this determined to let herself waste into nothing. He’s not good at talking, and that’s what she really needs- someone to talk to. Someone to listen. But he’s got no legs, and he’s got no magic, and he’s got almost no hope left, and nowhere to go.

They take refuge in a seedy bar in the closest aeroport and report the crash; two survivors, him and Earhart. They’ve been there a month and a half when the door to their room bursts open and a terrified kid with dark shaggy hair and an enormous jacket practically falls through the doorway, lugging an unconscious man in a blue and green waistcoat.

For a split second they all just stare at each other- everyone except for the unconscious man, of course, being as he is unconscious (and bleeding, from the nose and from the ears, and Zolf may not have magical healing but he has medical training and he knows that’s bad)- and then the kid drops her charge like a sack of potatoes, slams the door closed, and dives under the bed.

“Are you in trouble?” is all Zolf asks, and the kid nods, petrified and utterly silent. “Fine. Stay there.”

The unconscious man begins to shake and cry out as Zolf manhandles him into his bed, as though having a nightmare. He wakes with a scream, eyes wide and terrified. Someone bangs on the door. “Do you mind?” Zolf yells. ��Little busy in here!”

The door bursts open a second time- those poor hinges- and two men of the kind who aren’t holding knives until you look at them from the right angle, and then they definitely are, and they’re pointed right at you, appear in the doorway. They take in the sickroom and the man with the two prosthetic legs, look nonplussed for a second, and then one nudges the other and tells him to “get a move on, she’s in here somewhere,” and they disappear down the hall.

Zolf pulls the door shut behind them and goes back over to the man in the waistcoat. It takes a bit of figuring out, but eventually, in desperation- the man is obviously dying- Zolf fishes out the anti-magical handcuffs issued to him as soldier and medic in the Meritocratic Air Forces, and clips one around his wrist. He goes limp.

He turns around to find the dark haired kid staring at him with eyes as wide as saucers. “Were they lookin’ for you?” he asks, and her eyes narrow.

“Why do you want to know?” she asks defensively- as though they could be looking for anyone else. The kid has ‘runaway’ written all over her.

“‘Cause I’m tryin’ to save your life,” Zolf snaps, and that seems to shock her, “so if you could work with me here, that’d be great, I’ve got enough on my plate tryin’ to save her life-” jerks a thumb to Earhart- “and apparently this one’s as well-” to the now asleep man taking up his bed. “Who are you? Who’s he?”

“I dunno,” says the kid, “he just kind of fell over.”

Sasha does not make the decision to trust him then. She doesn’t even tell him her name. She makes the decision to trust him when he tells her, a day later, as they sit against the wall and watch the man in the waistcoat mumble in his sleep, that he used to work on an airship.

“I’m Sasha,” she says. “Can I come with you?”

The white-haired dwarf named Zolf Smith- he looks too young to have white hair, but Sasha knows not to judge from appearances- grimaces. “I mean,” he says. “Dunno why you’d want to.”

“I want to see the sky,” says Sasha, who has spent her entire life underground. Zolf looks at her and seems to see something in her that pains him.

“I dunno where I’m goin’,” he warns her mournfully, looking back at Earhart, who is also sleeping. “But you can come with if you want. ‘S your choice.”

He doesn’t ask Sasha’s surname. She decides to trust him.

The name of the man in the bed next to her is Oscar Wilde, and Earhart starts frantically reaching for a gun, any gun, forgetting in her automatic fury that Zolf had taken them all off her weeks ago. A Meritocratic agent-

“Ex-agent,” says Wilde politely. “Please don’t shoot me, Captain, I’ve almost died once this week and I’m not really eager to repeat the experience.”

Earhart feels more lucid than she has in ages as she listens to him describe the strange series of events that brought him there, how sure he is that something is brewing within the Meritocracy’s upper ranks, the disaster that is coming. She can feel Zolf’s eyes on her as all her grief and guilt and despair and boiling anger calcify inside of her.

Wilde is like her, like Zolf, like Sasha- lost, angry, needing.

Wilde has information she can use.

“Mr. Wilde,” Earhart says, her voice hoarse with disuse but filled with more fire than she’s felt since the crash, “you are going to help me kill a dragon.”

She didn’t like him at first- he talked down to her, and his posh affectations grated on principle- but Sasha has to admit that Wilde is smart. She stares in disbelieving wonder as he produces a bag of holding full to the brim with more gold pieces than she’s ever seen in her life. His Meritocratic funding, he tells the spellbound group, because he can spellbind even without his magic. He liquified as many assets as he felt he could get away with before leaving.

“Pick a ship,” he says, “any ship. We can buy it. No need to steal.”

“We’ll need elementals,” Earhart says. “At least two.”

Wilde turns to Zolf. “You’re a cleric, aren’t you?” he says. “You can summon elementals.”

“Not anymore,” Zolf bites.

“Why?”

Zolf makes a face. “I don’t- when- okay.” He sighs. “Look-” and casts Spark into the fireplace. He jumps back in shock.

“I… don’t see the problem?” Wilde says after a good minute of silence, looking from the roaring flames back to Zolf. Sasha gets up and goes to dry her hair by the fire; the weather around the ports has been awful lately. Zolf stares into the flames in surprise.

Zolf Smith was a cleric. Zolf Smith dreams of a new ship. Zolf Smith finds a team, full of people who need healing, the kind he can now provide. Zolf Smith has hope.

#my post #answered #prompt fill #my writing #knifemartin #rqg #rqg fic #rusty quill gaming #rqgaming #sasha rackett #zolf smith #rqg wilde #wilde rqg #rqg earhart #earhart rqg

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brobadil · 3 years

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The Dane of Erebor- Part One

Title: The Dane of Erebor, Part One

Summary: They grew up on tales of that mountain. It was home to their people, but it was never home to her. She was destined to become the hero of Erebor, The Lonely Mountain, she was destined to protect a home that was never hers. To Lorelai, home was never a place, it was always a person. Her home was always with him.

Pairing: Fili x OC (Lorelai)

Word Count: 1728

A/N: Edited September 13, 2021.

Lorelai

Legends are told about the solitary peak far to the East. Stories, tales, songs, and legends all surround that mountain. They speak of beautiful halls that echo every sound, and a mountain hollowed out but never empty. Most of all, they talk about the gold. Piles upon piles of it fill every hall, touching the ceiling and spreading across every floor.

Some say it was the gold that made The Lonely Mountain great. It was all that glitters which made Erebor the pinnacle of the dwarven world. Even those that didn’t come from Erebor stared at it with awe. All dwarves held Erebor and its king in high regard. There were many powerful and influential dwarf lords, but The King Under The Mountain was the most revered of them all. Even when he lost his throne to a scaly beast, he was still revered.

Erebor always seemed like a folktale to me. I had heard the stories, sung the songs, listened to the tales. I had heard everything there was to hear about the lost kingdom of Erebor, yet it never seemed like more than a fantasy. Some of the most important people in my life came from or were descended from that mountain, and yet, it never felt like anything more than a story to me.

“By Mahal, are you two ever on time?” I flung open the door with a grin.

The two brothers stood on my welcome mat as they had done hundreds of times in the past. Side by side they stood, both ready to go out on adventures far beyond our imagination. I caught their grins mirroring my own, and we were all ready to dissolve into laughter having only just seen each other.

Half of the stories I heard of Erebor came from them, and they were all repeated from their Uncle. Those two brothers called Erebor home despite being born much too late to walk through its halls. They were raised on stories of the mountain just as I had been, but, while I heard fairytales, they heard promises of a home. Their hearts were connected to Erebor long before they ever made it to the mountain.

“Do you think this happened by accident, Lorelai?” Kili gestured to his entire face.

Kili was the younger of the two brothers, but he made up for it in height. He was barely an inch taller than his brother but he wore it like a crown. Kili never compared himself to his brother, but he always took what he could get. Being the youngest, he took every achievement, even just an extra inch in height, as a crowning jewel. I could still remember his victory dances every time he beat me in target practice.

His lopsided grin always spelled out trouble. As a youth, he had gotten himself into plenty of trouble through his practical jokes alone, something which followed him into adulthood. Even as he got older, presumably more mature, he would never miss an opportunity to pull someone’s leg. More than once, he and I had gotten into it, but both of us always came out with a smile.

One would never guess Kili was a dwarf if it weren’t for his height. Seventy years and he still couldn’t grow a beard, something which was prized in dwarven culture. His dark hair was thin and curly, barely able to be braided. He could easily move about the world of men without anyone being the wiser.

“It’s all Kili’s fault,” Fili jerked his thumb at his younger brother, “He took forever choosing his outfit.”

“I did not!”

Both Fili and I laughed as Kili fumed silently. I gripped onto the edge of the door as I gazed at Fili, a small smile creeping across my lips. He smiled back quickly before barely glancing away.

Fili was the heir to the Throne of Durin and you would know it by looking at him. Upon first meeting, one could easily believe they were meeting a lion. He was majestic and regal, the sort who was born to be a king. His bravery was written across his face and his kindness braided into his hair.

There was so much more to Fili than his lineage. To all who met him only once, he was a royal prince. To those of us who really knew him, he was just Fili. He was the kind dwarf who would cry when he stepped on a snail as a child. Fili was the one with a heart of gold worn right on his sleeve. He was a hero even before he went into battle. He was my hero, he was Kili’s hero. He was the one who would comfort Kili whenever he had a nightmare, or help me get out of a tree whenever I was stuck in the highest branches.

Fili’s first thought was always someone else, and his last thought was always himself. Whether it be his brother, mother, uncle, or even his best friend- his first thought was always someone else. He lived his life for himself, but he gave his heart to all he loved with it.

“Nevermind that, you don’t want to be late to your own birthday do you?” I shut the door as I stepped out into the chilly night with them.

Fili threw back his head and laughed, “I can’t be late if I’m the guest of honor.”

“You won’t be if you don’t hurry up!”

The two brothers laughed as I stifled a giggle. Stepping forward, they each offered me an arm which I took cheekily. We began to make our way down the streets, laughing the entire way and walking like drunkards.

There was a particular pub just a few halls down from my house. We frequented it often and held many of our birthday celebrations there. More than once, we had been kicked out after drinking too much. I’ll never forget the time my brother found all three of us asleep in the alley next door. His laughter is what woke us up and I nearly punched him because of it.

The pub had a homely sort of atmosphere about it. Even in the summer, it was a comfortable sort of warm. It opened its arms to you and gave you an embrace the moment you stepped inside. I always felt right at home in that pub, perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much.

We were instantly greeted by some of our friends. Ori was the first to his feet, smiling the entire way. He bit his lip and curled his fists at his chest as he exclaimed, “Happy birthday, Fili!”

Ori was always curious, yet cautious. Afraid of nothing yet timid all the same. More often than not, one could find him with a book in his hands or in front of his nose. He was one of the smartest dwarves I had ever met and I always admired him for that.

We were not far apart in age, barely even a year, yet I had always seen him as much younger. Ever since he was born, he had that childlike glint in his eyes. Always curious, always hopeful, I think that’s exactly why I always felt like he was much younger. It wasn’t so much that he was less than or I was more, it was the distinct desire to protect him. I had seen far too many people lose that innocence and curiosity too early in life, I didn’t want him to meet the same grizzly fate.

The same phrase moved like a chorus through the group. Fili laughed a hearty laugh, the sort that seemed to come from his very soul. When he laughed, his genuine laugh, I could feel it in my own soul.

“A happy birthday indeed,” Fili’s grin was bright and true, “Only because it is spent with friends.”

I rolled my eyes, “You always did fancy yourself a poet, Fee.”

“Only when I’m in desperate need of a drink, Lore.”

“What’re we waiting for, then?” Kili grabbed both of our shoulders and beamed, “Let’s drink!”

***

“Where’d you get that one?” Ori pointed to my wrist.

I glanced down at the scar he was referencing. It wasn’t much of a scar, just a small white line that traced up my forearm. Over the years, it had faded to almost nothing.

“Oh, it’s not much of a story,” I shrugged.

Fili flung his arm around me, “Only because she’s embarrassed!”

“I am not!”

It had been a few hours and we may have had a few too many drinks. Most of our friends had already left, as had most of the pub patrons. It was nearing the end of the night but none of us wanted it to be over.

“What’s the story, then?” Ori asked yet again.

“I’m telling you, it’s not much of a-” I began.

“We were barely eight years old,” Fili cut me off as he leaned on the bar, “Uncle Thorin was telling us about the dragon! About Smaug! And Lore, she got frighten and she-”

“She ran up a tree! Got herself stuck!” Kili interrupted.

Both brothers broke down, howling in laughter. I did my best to hide my own giggles behind a faux veil of annoyance, but a few still escaped. I covered my face as Fili squeezed my shoulder and continued, “I had to go up there and talk her down. When we were coming down, the branch broke and we both came out of it with matching scars.”

He held up his forearm to mine to prove it. Ori examined both scars, grinning madly the entire time. I ran my hands down my face, “I was a child, Fee, will you let it go?”

“Why would I? This is my favorite scar!” Fili furiously pointed to the scar on his forearm.

His laugh echoed through the pub. The pub owner looked at us with annoyance, but I ignored him. For a moment, just a moment, all I could see was Fili. I barely heard Kili and Ori’s laughter, but I felt Fili’s.

As he laughed, his arm wrapped tightly around my shoulders, I couldn’t help but smile. Right then and there, I knew, that was right. That was right where I was meant to be. It felt right, it felt like home.

#fili #kili #the hobbit #the hobbit fanfiction #thorin oakenshield #bilbo baggins #the company #buckle up buttercups cause i've got a whole thing planned

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laurelnose · 3 years

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Very New to your blog and the posts are probably way old but I saw you do Witcher Biology (??) rants sometimes and Id love to hear your take, if you have one, on what monsters (namely "naturally occurring" ones like draconids and insectoids) contribute to the ecosystem if anything and whether or not they should be hunted into extinction. I was discussing it w/ a friend last night after dealing with Iocaste, the last silver basilisk, and now its smthn I'm Invested in

re monster ecosystems: I just figure theyve probably found a niche in the world by now and can eat anything smaller incl. humans but because theyve got no natural predators aside from eachother and arent hunted by anything but witchers , monsters are just breeding and eating and wldnt that damage the land? or have they made their own like, circle of life or whatever ? Ive little knowledge on the subject as a whole but the whole thing intrigues me

hi & extremely belated welcome, anon! my apologies for the length of time you’ve been waiting for this answer; I had to think carefully about how I wanted to respond to this ask, because: there’s a lot going on here. also, because I am a disaster, I ended up posting it to ao3 first while I was avoiding tumblr for a spell and then completely forgot to come back. oops. i’m sorry!! This one’s about 5000 words long, which is a lot for tumblr, so reading on AO3 may be preferable.

The two main thrusts of your first ask (how do monsters interact with the ecosystem and should they be eradicated from the Continent) are questions of invasion ecology, the study of non-native/invasive species and their effects on the environment. Monsters, having arrived on the Continent about 1200 years ago during the Conjunction of Spheres from entirely alien dimensions, are indeed technically non-native species!

However, invasion ecology is…somewhat controversial, to say the least—there are a lot of invasive species, who have a lot of different & complex impacts, and a lot of different ideas about what we might do about any of this, and it’s basically all arguing all the time, so I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to approach the topic. Not to mention that for reasons I couldn’t initially put my finger on, it seemed wrong to apply theories of invasion ecology to the Witcher monsters. We’ll get into it! There are also a couple of common misconceptions/oversimplifications of how ecology works in your second ask which I want to unpack. Hopefully I pulled this together into something that makes sense, and feel free to ask me for clarification!

Some important background facts:

Species have always been moving to and “invading” new places on their own; humans and globalization have accelerated this process into a Big Problem, as the sheer number of invasive species being introduced all over the globe strains ecosystems already under pressure, but “native ranges” are always shifting, sometimes more dramatically than you might expect. If you go far enough back in time, all species are “non-native”.

Because of this, the very definition of “invasive species” is hotly contested. This is why you’ll hear dozens of terms like introduced species, injurious species, naturalized species, non-native species, etc.; these all have slightly different connotations, but all refer to a species that did not originate in a particular location.

An introduced species is usually classified as “invasive” as opposed to “non-native” or “naturalized” if its presence significantly alters the ecosystem it invades; some people define this more narrowly as a species that causes harm to an ecosystem. “Harm” can take a lot of different forms, as every non-native species interacts differently with the ecosystem they were introduced to.

Aside from various potential impacts to human economic activity, most forms of ecological harm by introduced species involve the decline of native species, by a variety of mechanisms; invaders might eat natives, outcompete them for food, interbreed with them, carry novel pathogens, etc. Invasive species are primarily a threat to biodiversity.

Now, here’s my Hot Take:

The Conjunction of Spheres is analogous to real-life ecological cataclysms such as the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, and thus monsters are not invasive species.

The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event saw the extinction of 75% of all species on Earth after the Chicxulub asteroid hit, including the non-avian dinosaurs. The Earth has had several disasters like this, of varying severity—the Great Oxidation Event killed almost literally everything on Earth except for the cyanobacteria who caused it. These cataclysmic extinction events completely upended existing ecosystems, altering habitats beyond recognition and leaving swathes of niches emptied of life that the survivors could evolve to exploit.

The most recent Conjunction of Spheres on the Continent is supposed to have thrown everyone living on the planet at the time into chaos and darkness; it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that the interpenetration of multiple spheres caused mass extinction of species living in the pre-Conjunction environment, similar to Chicxulub or the GOE!

But Socks, you might say, evolution works on a massive timescale! It took millions of years to fill the niches left open by Chicxulub, but it’s only been 1200 years since the Conjunction of Spheres! And you are absolutely right*, but the Conjunction of Spheres canonically came pre-loaded with new species. We actually have no proof that any of the animals we see originated on the Continent: if humans are a post-Conjunction phenomenon, why not also dogs? Why not bears? Who’s to say any of those were actually there before-hand? (The elves, I guess, but as they have not, actually, said so, there’s no proof!!)

* FTR, 1200 years is a shockingly short period of time to go from cataclysm that plunged the world into darkness and chaos to functioning medieval-era society considering how long it actually took humanity to build 13 century Europe (horses had been domesticated for at least 3000 years by that time), even if we’re not assuming that most of the ecosystem was destroyed, so, my timeline concerns here are minimal, lmfao. TIMELINE WHAT TIMELINE.

…and actually now that I think about it the three options for the origin of dogs are a) elves or dwarves domesticated them, b) humans brought dogs with them during the Conjunction, or c) dogs have existed for less than 1200 years, and I refuse to accept that dogs are practically a new invention in the witcherverse, wtf.

Anyways: we really have no idea which species are truly “native” to the Continent, or what the physical environment was like prior to the Conjunction. While monsters are not native to the Continent, monsters are also not invasive—there cannot be decline of pre-Conjunction biodiversity or harm to the pre-Conjunction ecosystem because there is no pre-Conjunction ecosystem anymore.

should monsters be hunted to extinction?

So, the thing is, I think we should try to eradicate invasive species from non-native ranges if we can; the biggest problem with that is feasibility, not morality. It’s much more difficult than one might think to eradicate an invasive species once it’s established, and we have to be very careful that the methods we choose don’t have other impacts, but invasive species are a huge threat to the biodiversity of Earth! If monsters are invasive species, then the answer is yes, they should be eradicated from the places they are not native to.

(Notably, on Earth this kind of eradication is not the same thing as extinction; it would be a local extinction, or extirpation, where the species is totally wiped out in the places it invaded but still exists in its native range. This does get way more complicated if the invasive is already extinct in its native range.)

However, I have just outlined a possibility that would make it plausible for monsters not to be invasive species. Let me also outline why I prefer this interpretation. Here is a book conversation between the sorcerer Dorregaray of Vole and Geralt:

“Our world is in equilibrium. The annihilation, the killing, of any creatures that inhabit this world upsets that equilibrium. And a lack of equilibrium brings closer extinction; extinction and the end of the world as we know it. … Every species has its own natural enemies, every one is the natural enemy of other species. That also includes humans. The extermination of the natural enemies of humans, which you dedicate yourself to, and which one can begin to observe, threatens the degeneration of the race.”

“Do you know what, sorcerer?” Geralt said, annoyed. “One day, take yourself to a mother whose child has been devoured by a basilisk, and tell her she ought to be glad, because thanks to that the human race has escaped degeneration. See what she says to you.”

–The Bounds of Reason, ch. 6

This is a, uh, incredibly unsubtle reference to a debate that has been ongoing for decades; Geralt’s stance here is one of the key arguments in opposition to wolf and bear reintroduction. What do we do about large predators that may pose a threat to humans? How do we balance preservation of the ecosystem with the safety of people who have to coexist with these predators?

I can’t fully agree with Geralt, because large predators are integral to the ecosystem, which I value for its own sake and because humans depend on healthy ecosystems. But I can’t fully agree with Dorregaray either, because Geralt is right: human life is valuable and worthy of protecting. This is an issue that India has been running into in the past ten years; as their tiger conservation efforts yield fruit, people become more likely to encounter tigers, and thus more likely to have a bad encounter with a tiger. It’s become a political struggle as rural people who have to actually live with the possibility of a tiger attack come into conflict with urban conservationists who just really want to preserve tigers (& in some incidents, some of those conservationists have been Western, which is a whole additional level of fuckery). The fact is, there isn’t a good answer to this yet! We certainly should not drive tigers, wolves, or any other large predator to extinction, but we also have to figure out a way to keep people safe. It’s something humanity still has to wrestle with.

Under this framing, which CDPR reinforced when they chose to have the Count di Salvaress defend Iocaste as an endangered species while making significant provisions to minimize the damage she could do to human life, there’s far too much baggage attached for me to say yes, monsters should be hunted into extinction. If you’re going to make monsters analogous to wolves, of course I do not think we should get rid of monsters entirely!

And frankly, Geralt doesn’t think so either, despite his hardline stance about monsters that eat humans. Sapkowski isn’t exactly an anti-conservationist; though Dorregaray is shown as out of touch in this passage, at another point the narrative sides with him calling Philippa out on exterminating a species of ermine for her fur collar, and it’s consistently put forth that Geralt’s best quality is that he doesn’t want to perform violence for the sake of it or destroy things without cause, and one of the representations of that is that he refuses to kill endangered species even at cost to himself:

“What should I say about you, who rejects a lucrative proposition every other day? You won’t kill hirikkas, because they’re an endangered species, or mecopterans, because they’re harmless, or night spirits, because they’re sweet, or dragons, because your code forbids it.”

–Eternal Flame, ch. 2

If monsters and other post-Conjunction creatures are invasive species, the nuance in this conversation is flattened, and Geralt’s refusal to kill mecopterans and hirikkas becomes a flaw rather than a virtue. Boring! I also think that one of the strongest themes in the witcherverse is the idea of all monsters being human ills; wraiths are manifestations of hatred, necrophages multiply because of human bloodshed, cursed ones are created out of malice, mages like Alzur and Idarran of Ulivo go out of their way to straight-up create monsters from scratch*, etc. Iocaste attacks humans and takes livestock because the traditional prey of the silver basilisk, roe deer, has been extirpated by human destruction of their habitat. The aeschna in Blood of Elves attacks humans because humans have altered and polluted the flow of the Pontar, hunting the aeschna’s previous food (seals) to extinction. The true monster is the actions of humans. Monsters that appeared unbidden from another dimension into a previously functional ecosystem to invade and cause problems undermines this theme; monsters that are integrated into the ecosystem and subject to the same social and ecological forces as other animals supports it.

* Idarran’s “idr” monsters from Season of Storms absolutely should be eradicated. Did the world not have enough man-eating arthropods, Idarran? Did you really have to mutate horrible new ones and release them in populated areas?? Mages are a scourge, lmfao

Additionally, one of the biggest reasons I felt like I couldn’t actually apply invasion ecology to monsters was that, whether you accept my Conjunction theory as sufficient biological justification for this or not, monsters just don’t really behave like invasive species. It’s hard to explain this because the setting is pretty brief about its ecological details, but aside from the fact that the narrative frames them like just part of the ecosystem of the world, there are never any details like “that type of flower doesn’t exist anymore because giant centipede tunneling destroyed the soil they needed to grow in.” When monsters are the aggressors, their victims are always humans, not the environment or other animals, and again monsters are themselves often treated as victims of human actions.

So I say monsters aren’t invasive species!

Which means that monsters are, regardless of their strange origins, now a part of the Continent’s ecosystem just as much as bears and wolves.

So let’s talk monster ecology.

what do monsters contribute to the ecosystem, if anything?

So, the phrase “contributing to the ecosystem” is actually super loaded, and I want to unpack that before we go anywhere else. Ecosystems are made up of organisms, and organisms interact with and impact ecosystems, but they don’t necessarily contribute to ecosystems! The implication of “contribute” is that it is possible for an organism to not contribute, and it follows from there that some organisms are not useful. This is functionally nonsensical, and also dangerous.

Conservationists talk a lot about “intrinsic value,” which in this context is the idea that we should want to keep species around just because their existence is valuable! Biodiversity is intrinsically valuable. This is important, firstly because I do believe that all species are intrinsically valuable, but also: ecosystems are so enormously complicated that we do not know the full extent of any species or individual organism’s impact, and we can’t predict what the consequences of removing any given species might be. Treating all species as intrinsically valuable is hedging our bets. All organisms affect the ecosystem, because it’s impossible for them not to, and while some species definitely have outsize impact, none of them are “not contributing,” and frankly even if some of them weren’t, it would be the absolute height of human arrogance for us to decide we could tell which ones were useless when we barely even know what most species eat. Mosquitoes are the base of the entire goddamn food chain, and you still get assholes claiming they don’t “contribute anything.” Of course, most people don’t really mean all of these implications when they use the phrase, but I don’t find it useful to talk about what species “contribute,” and avoid using that language if I can!

What I assume you mean by “what do monsters contribute” is a combination of “what roles might monsters play in the ecosystem” and “are monsters actively harmful to the ecosystem, i.e. do they cause loss of biodiversity?”

And this is difficult to answer! As I’ve said, I don’t think monsters are invasive species, and thus don’t harm the ecosystem, though we know that monsters can be harmful to humans. However, when it comes to the role they do play in the ecosystem, there isn’t enough in canon for me to do more than wildly speculate! Also, there are so so many of them, and the role of a hirikka is going to be wildly different from that of a draconid.

Just offhandedly, most of the big predatory monsters can be assumed to fill the same roles as Earth’s big predators, one of the big ones being overpopulation of prey species, which has ramifications throughout the ecosystem. Some of them are canonically ecosystem engineers, or animals that physically alter their environment (think beavers); for instance, shaelmaar and nekker tunneling. Additionally, the big insectoid colonies can’t be relying solely on naturally-occurring caves for their homes; they’ve gotta be constructing some stuff themselves. These tunnels can be repurposed as habitat for other organisms, from giant centipedes to sewant mushrooms. Necrophages, like corpse-eaters in our world, likely limit the spread of diseases from decomposing flesh (and really wouldn’t be as much of an issue if everyone would stop, you know, doing war and mass murder, lmfao). Arachasae use tree trunks and organic plant material to conceal themselves, which is likely contributing to plant reproduction in a few different ways—but the arachasae decorating essay is a different topic that I swear I will finish one day oh my god—

…anyways, feel free to ask about any specific monsters or niches if you’re curious, but if I tried to go into detail with every single potential niche/ecosystem service all of the monsters we know of might fill, we would be here all day!

Let’s talk about a couple specific things you brought up in your second ask.

> theyve probably found a niche in the world by now and can eat anything smaller incl. humans

I mean…maybe! That is, yeah, they’ve definitely settled into niches by now, but feeding is way more complicated and interesting than that.

For instance: orcas can eat basically whatever the fuck they want—orcas are fully capable of bringing down everything from fish to seals to gray whales to great white sharks. But they don’t. In the Pacific Northwest, the resident orca pods almost exclusively eat salmon, while the transient pods largely feed on seals. Orcas are kind of an extreme example, but this is something called resource partitioning and it’s a big part of how animals limit competition with one another and what enables lots of predators to coexist in one place!

We see a big fuck-off dragon thing and we assume that it’ll eat anything it can fit in its mouth, and definitely some predators work like that. But just because an animal is technically capable of eating something and deriving nutrition from it doesn’t mean that it will. Silver basilisks made roe deer the staple of their diet before the destruction of beech forests meant they had to turn to humans—which is a pretty specific dietary restriction when there should be multiple species of deer running around, not to mention everything else a draconid could be killing! And given how many types of draconid there are…I have to assume there’s some kind of resource partitioning going on to prevent them all from conflicting with each other! For instance, if basilisks prefer roe deer, maybe forktails prefer wild goats, while wyverns are mostly kleptoparasitic (stealing other predators’ kills).

And of course, not all monsters eat humans at all; harpies steal from and attack humans, so they’re a dangerous nuisance, but they don’t seem to eat them. And in the books Geralt mentions plenty of monsters which are totally harmless.

So yes, there are lots of things monsters could be eating, but it would strongly depend, and there’s a lot of interesting places one can take monster diets! Netflix decided their strigas only eat specific organs, leaving the rest of the body untouche, & I love that for her. More monsters that need a particular kind of nutrition that leads them to take only specific body parts from some kills!

> because theyve got no natural predators aside from each other and arent hunted by anything but witchers, monsters are just breeding and eating and wldnt that damage the land? or have they made their own like, circle of life or whatever ?

Absolutely—invasive species whose populations rapidly increase once they’re away from their natural predators cause the decline of native species, often by eating natives directly or competing with natives for resources. And in fact, even native species who become overpopulated can seriously damage the ecosystem (see: white-tailed deer in the United States, whose overpopulation has such negative ecological effects that some people argue we should classify them as invasive, even though they have definitely been here this whole time).

However, even if we grant that monsters are invasive, it’s a little more complicated than that for a few reasons!

Despite the apparent preponderance of them in the witcher games, most monsters are supposed to be strongly on the decline, like witchers themselves. Geralt’s profession is falling out of necessity; human development of the Continent is going to be the biggest suppressing factor in monster populations in the future. Monster overpopulation is just canonically not a problem in this universe! But even in the scenario where the Inevitable March Of Civilization isn’t threatening monster populations, there are a lot of factors that could and would limit monster populations.

(TL;DR for this next part: yeah I definitely think they’ve figured out their own little circle of life—the term you’re looking for is ecosystem equilibrium, btw!—& I’m going to take the next 1.2k to talk about how.)

For starters, predation is only one among many limiting factors that affect populations & prevent them from ballooning out of control:

food availability: If there’s not enough food, there’s not enough food! It also matters how adaptable the animal’s diet is—silver basilisks moved from deer to humans, but if the eucalyptus went extinct koalas would not switch to eating cycads.

illness and parasites: Some people argue these are more important than direct predation for limiting populations, and I am often inclined to agree. Basically, if a population becomes very dense, illness and parasites spread more quickly, creating a natural limiter on how many animals can live in any one place. The greater susceptibility of some individuals to illness or parasites also winnows down populations. Non-native species often escape a good portion of their native diseases by moving to a new range—however, given how fast bacteria and viruses evolve, 1,200 years is a pretty decent amount of time for new diseases to arise. Also, just going to drop a link to my treatise on monster parasites here. It’s gross, mind the warning at the start of the post.

mate availability: If only a certain percentage of the population is actually able to reproduce, that’ll eventually bring the total number down. RIP Iocaste’s boyfriend 😔

territory/shelter availability: Animals need a certain amount of space and certain types of spaces to survive, and space isn’t infinite! It again depends on how adaptable an animal is; rats find ways to thrive nearly everywhere, but pandas can only live where there’s bamboo. If there’s not enough space to hide from predators, reproduce safely, store food, and avoid adverse weather, the population again limits itself naturally.

natural disasters: Wildfires, drought, flooding, tsunamis, storms, etc. pick off significant portions of wildlife populations. Disasters are sporadic rather than directly linked to population like most of the other factors but these periodic blows to population and the other impacts of fire or flooding are often integral to the ecosystem (see especially: fire regimes and fire ecology.)

Now let’s talk predation & monsters! (Genuinely, I think predation is one of the most interesting things in ecology; people tend to simplify it down to things eat other things, which—yeah, but there’s so much more going on there!)

First, I wouldn’t underestimate the effects of monsters eating other monsters! Even if it’s rare for a draconid to snatch up a nekker and carry it off, the threat of a draconid doing so can have dramatic impacts; researchers found that just playing the sound of dog barks on a beach stopped raccoons from foraging for crabs for over a month after the barking stopped, leading to an increase in crab populations, even though no raccoons ever encountered a dog. This is called the ecosystem of fear (which as a term is metal as hell) and it theorizes that just the fear of predators can lead to chronic stress for prey animals, decreasing reproduction and making them more susceptible to disease. Maybe draconids in Toussaint eat only a few dozen nekkers a year, but that might cause thousands of nekkers to have fewer offspring or fall to disease. When it comes to ecosystems the direct effect is usually only a small part of the story!

Second, when we talk about a species not having natural predators, we’re usually talking about an animal that would have a predator back in its home range—lionfish, for instance, have plenty of predators in their natural range (the Indo-Pacific), but no natural predators in their invasive range (the Caribbean), so invasive lionfish, suddenly freed of a limiting factor, can run amok. However, a great white shark has, aside from orcas (who do not actually eat white sharks, they’re just assholes sometimes) and occasionally other white sharks, more or less no natural predators anywhere once it reaches maturity, and that’s fine! Lack of predation of great white sharks did not cause their populations to explode and consume the ocean. White sharks are limited by other factors.

So: it is possible that wherever draconids originated (and it’s entirely possible that “draconids” came from multiple different places, tbh) there was something bigger that preyed on them, but it’s not unreasonable to assume they were also apex predators in their previous dimension (I mean…look at them), and that adult draconids were never really preyed on by anything else! It isn’t necessarily an issue for there not to be predators of certain monsters on the Continent.

(Though, of course, we also shouldn’t forget that most apex predators are prey when they’re young—baby white sharks are snack-sized for a lot of fishes, and bear cubs and wolf pups are similarly vulnerable. Based on the size of the eggs you see in TW3 draconid nests, a basilisk is hatched around the size of a little dog, which is the perfect size for small, ballsy predators such as wolverines to sneak into a nest and snap them up—predators such as more wolverines or raptors like eagles and hawks might also come directly for the eggs.)

When it comes to smaller monsters such as nekkers, who likely weren’t apex predators in their original dimensions and would thus be subject to that lack of natural predators—there are usually specific reasons why prey species manage to avoid predation in their introduced range. Lionfish confound Caribbean predators because lionfish are covered with huge poisonous spines that Caribbean predators don’t know how to deal with.

Drowners, on the other hand, are basically just man-shaped fish; they don’t have any adaptations or defenses that would really stump a bear or a wolf. Again, bigger monsters are still probably checking the populations of smaller monsters no matter what, but there’s really no reason a bear couldn’t figure out how to eat a drowner! Unless a monster has a unique defense (e.g. scurver spines), is actively distasteful to eat (rotfiends, probably), or is just difficult to take down (nekkers in packs), most of the non-monster predators* on the Continent will have incorporated various monsters into their diet by now, or suppressed monster populations indirectly with the threat of predation or by competing with them for food. It has been over a thousand years, which is nothing evolutionarily but is still a decent period of time for mammals, who pass hunting techniques down to their babies, to figure out how to eat ghouls—especially if we’re considering that the Continent’s mammals may also be a result of the Conjunction and would thus have to have been just as adaptable as the monsters to establish themselves. And I’ve also actually talked before about how wolves specifically might be preying on necrophages!

* For reference, the non-monster predators are, considering the Continent is more or less Europe, most likely lynxes, brown bears/polar bears (in Skellige), wolverines, foxes, badgers, and a variety of large birds of prey.

So—yes, if monsters were truly overpopulating, then that would damage the ecosystem. However, canon tells us they are definitely not doing that, and there are also many factors that would prevent that from happening!

(Though I will say that some of the reasons white-tailed deer are overpopulated are that we got rid of cougars and wolves and human development creates a lot of extra habitat of the type that deer like. Given that we know many of draconids are for sure in significant danger of going extinct, and the trajectory that Europe’s wolf and bear populations followed in real life, it is possible that the Continent will have to contend with an overpopulation of some of the smaller monsters at some point as they continue to try to eradicate the larger predators, both monster and non-monsters—you think the drowner problem is bad now, wait until the bears are gone and city development has tripled the number of sewers. Yet another of those humans-make-monster-problems-worse things I am fond of in the Witcherverse!)

…whew. that was a lot of words. In conclusion: ecology is really cool & there’s a bunch of ways monsters can fit into it!!

#kaer morhen biology of monsters 101 #and a bit of #witcher book blogging #asks #anonymous

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jazzistolkienfanfics · 3 years

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Stress - Fili x reader

May I request a Fili x Female!Reader where the reader is starting to get really stressed and it's starting to get to her and Fili makes it all better?

@dark-angel-is-back of course! i tried to give this one an actual plot rather than centring it around romance 😅

Type: Imagine Pairing: Fili x reader Summary: being the only financial support of one’s family isn’t easy Warnings: ‘shit’ Word Count: 1338 words

Y/N let herself stare wistfully at the stall of pastries in the marketplace. She was sure that her siblings would love the sweet breads and treats, and the beautiful smell overwhelmed her.

But the Dwarrowdam shook her head, slipping her fingers into her pocket and feeling how few coins were there. To put it quite simply, she didn’t have the money for such luxuries. Y/N needed to save that money for necessities.

She wandered around the marketplace, doing her best to buy the cheapest things - a new dress for her little sister, as her old one had been frayed to pieces, meat for dinner, some fruits and vegetables, and one tiny bag of sweets for her siblings. There were four people in their family - Y/N, and her two younger sisters and one younger brother. She figured the kids deserved a little something.

Y/N’s basket was becoming heavy, but she didn’t complain. She was all her siblings had - their father had fallen in battle and their mother died of a deadly disease. Y/N could never complain, because it wasn’t about her. It was about them.

They got smaller and thinner every week, and they were suffering from it, though they tried to hide it with their chins up and happy smiles. Y/N was so proud of them, but they were too young to help her. Too young to work, nor to understand the intricacies and rules of their unfair world.

She ventured out to the edge of the forest, bending to pick some athelas for the medicine cupboard, some herbs for dinner, and some flowers for her little sisters (she also collected one for her brother, though he didn’t like them much). By now, her basket was almost overflowiit ng, and lugging it several kilometres back home would not be an easy task.

But she thought of her poor siblings, alone at home, hiding behind the barricaded door, missing their older sister. Y/N felt so guilty for leaving them alone - she’d left for her first job far before dawn, and she’d finished her third one at sunset.

It was now dark, and Y/N’s arms were trembling with the weight of the heavy baskets. She pulled it along, having long given up on holding it in her arms, and now dragging it along the cobblestones.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

It had been a hard day.Y/N had been beaten in her second job at the forges, for dropping a hot sword on her overseer’s foot.

“You stupid girl!” he yelled, hitting her across the face/ “Why did I hire you?“

Y/N was so hungry and exhausted that she almost gave up, but she saw the wooden door of her house ahead of her. She knocked on it, whispering to her siblings, “I’m home, guys. It’s Y/N.”

They opened the door - a girl of twelve, a boy of nine, and another girl of six flying out from it, immediately taking her basket from her.

She saw the hunger in their eyes, and the familiar tear tracks.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Y/N whispered. “Here, help me make dinner.“

They did so - slicing the meat off the bones and putting them into stale bread as sandwiches. The bones would be turned to soup later.

Her siblings took the gifts, thanking her profoundly, and they ate hungrily.

“You guys get into bed, okay?” Y/N said, faking a smile. “I’ll be right there.”

The three children ran into the only bedroom, laughing and talking about the lollies they’d be able to eat tomorrow. Y/N opened the door cautiously, sitting outside on the steps.

She lowered her head into her hands and began to cry soundlessly. Of course, making any kind of whimper would single her out as a target - and she had to be strong for her brother and sisters. How they could be so happy every day was beyond her.

Everything was getting to her. The stress, the lack of money, how alone she felt. The night was the only time when she could fall apart - because at the mercy of the darkness, nothing could hold her together.

“Excuse me? Are you alright?”

Y/N bolted to her feet at the voice, having not heard the footsteps of its owner, drying her tears with two quick swipes as she took in the asker of the question.

He was a handsome Dwarf, with long blond hair in several braids. Y/N noted that his beads were plain silver - he courted no one. He seemed the sort with a persistent ready smile, though now there was only kindly concern in those blue eyes.

“I’m fine,” Y/N lied. “Sorry you had to see that.”

“Don’t be sorry,” the Dwarf said. “And don’t apologise. What’s wrong?”

Sometimes, telling things to a stranger, who had no preformed opinions or knowledge regarding you, was far easier than telling things to your family. Y/N found herself telling him about the hardships of her life in the recent years. He listened well, and showed such believable worry and empathy that the darkness faded away.

He stared at the ground for a moment after she’d finished talking, evidently thinking about something of great importance.

“I’m so sorry,” he said finally. “I know what it’s like to lose family. I haven’t been in the situation you’re in, but I can at least understand some of your pain. I have a younger brother, like you do - you understand how we’ll do anything for them.”

“Yeah, I do.” Y/N found herself smiling at this stranger.

He dug his hand into the pockets of his large coat, and pulled out ...

“Holy shit,” she gasped, in a display of cursing that she didn’t normally use in front of strangers, but somehow, this man didn’t feel like one. “That’s-”

“Mithril,” he confirmed, handing over the stone. It was definitely larger than her palm, though not too big to hold with one hand. The metal was silver, but hints of all the colours imaginable were also woven through it, sparkling in the firelight of the street. “Sell it to the wealthiest vendor you can find - they will give you a lot for it. Enough for you to not have to worry about your siblings again. I can find you a better job, and another home, if you wish.”

He nodded towards the dilapidated structure they stood outside of - one storey, practically falling apart.

“Why-” Y/N stuttered, confused. “Why would you do this for me? I am but a stranger.”

“Because I believe in kindness,” the Dwarf said. “I know its effect. And I know what loneliness feels like - when all you have are your younger siblings. You deserve better than this.”

“Thank you,” she said, tears swelling in your eyes again. “Thank you so, so much.”

She leaned forward, kissing the handsome Dwarf on the cheek, blushing furiously as she pulled back. His cheeks were also dusted with red, and a wide smile had stretched across his face.

“You know,” he said, studying her, and really taking in how beautiful she was for the first time. “I’m going on a quest. 13 Dwarves so far, but they won’t mind if you joined. I’ve got a good feeling about you.”

Y/N laughed. “Oh, I’m not the adventure type. Besides, I need to look after my siblings. We’re all we have left. I’ll wait for you, though ...?”

“Fili,” he said, taking her hand and kissing it in an adorably gentlemanly fashion. “And I promise I’ll come back to you ...”

“Y/N,” she said, with a smile.

Fili stepped forward, and gave her a warm hug. “Don’t let the stress get to you, okay? Do things for you, not for them.”

He scribbled a quick note of recommendation for a better, higher-paying job, kissed her cheek, and left, humming a low, sweet song under his breath.

Y/N watched him go, clutching the mithril in her hand. And she couldn’t stop herself from grinning.

Maybe life isn’t so bad after all ...

@dark-angel-is-back i’m sorry if this isn’t what you wanted! i kinda got carried away ...

EVERYONE REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN SEND ME ANY QUESTION AS PART OF THE 100 FOLLOWERS CHALLENGE!

#fili #fili x reader #the hobbit #x reader #you #the hobbit x reader #request

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tigerkirby215 · 3 years

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5e Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Suke “hugehugesword” Su. Made for Riot Games.)

In my constant and continued effort to deny Ezreal’s existence I finally had to get around to building him. Again it’s not that I don’t like him... I mean I don’t. But I kinda forgot what I was going to build him as. Lol.

Dorans & Dragons also made a build for Ezreal back in like... early 2020. Christ that’s before the world went to shit, ain’t it? Well regardless they also made their build before Tasha’s Cauldron came out and I think I can make a build that is different enough to warrant my build existing alongside theirs.

In short: this is an elaborate excuse for me to make another Artificer build.

GOALS

Gawk at this! - We need many a glowing projectile to spam at foes before blowing them up. Ezreal isn’t the type to just autoattack.

I always know a shortcut - Flash on a 15 second cooldown is nice. We’ll need to be able to blink around constantly throughout the entire fight.

Time to show 'em who's best - Nothing’s more dangerous than a well-placed Trueshot Barrage sniping through the entire enemy team.

RACE

Back to good ol’ Variant Human. As a Variant Human you can increase two of your ability scores by 1: increase your Intelligence and your Charisma, to be the hot smart twink you are. You also learn a Language of your choice along with a Skill of choice. You spent plenty of time studying The Void so Abyssal would make sense as a language, and for your skill Perception would help you spot traps or incoming ganks... as long as you remember to ward.

For your feat we’re going to be grabbing Arcane Shift as fast as possible with Fey Touched so you can start Flashing. (Not like that!) You can increase your Intelligence score by 1 and also learn the Misty Step spell. You can also add a Divination or Enchantment spell to your list and a little Heroism never hurt anyone. You can cast both of these spells once without spending a spell slot, and can then spend spell slots on them after the fact.

ABILITY SCORES

15; INTELLIGENCE - Archeology is a lot of history and facts... If you do it the boring way, that is!

14; DEXTERITY - Repeat it after me: “something something Medium armor.”

13; CHARISMA - You’re a pretty boy twink who got at least two girls on the Rift to fall for you.

12; WISDOM - Traveling through ancient temples and traps takes a degree of common sense. Not necessarily common sense you have, but a bit of boost never hurt.

10; CONSTITUTION - You’re an ADC, which means you’re squishy.

8; STRENGTH - Twink.

Feel free to swap Constitution around with another stat for better health but worse roleplay.

BACKGROUND

“Archaeologist” is just the nice way of saying Tomb Raider, which is the mean way of saying Adventurer! You get proficiency with History and Survival (hey you’ve gotta tough it out in the desert sometimes!) You also get proficiency in a language of your choice (I went for Dwarvish because Dwarves seem to have built most ruins) and proficiency in either Navigator’s Tools or Cartographer’s Tools... “Who needs a map?”

You spent enough time in ruins to pick up some Historical Knowledge on ancient dungeons and temples to know who made them. And if you find anything that belongs in a museum you know how much it’s worth to the museum!

(Artwork by Sangsoo Jeong. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ARTIFICER 1

Starting off as Artificer to “borrow” a few inventions. But also because you get training in Arcana to know your magical artifacts, Investigation to find said magical artifacts, and Calligrapher’s Tools to slay Ascended and Darkin alike in one blow. You also get Magical Tinkering to wave that gauntlet of yours around on some Tiny objects, making them glow or play sounds or do all sorts of things that Prestidigitation would probably do better. But at least you can play your own theme music too!

But of course the main appeal of being an Artificer is the Spellcasting. You can learn two cantrips from the Artificer list like Message to coordinate with your support and Guidance to help yourself find treasure! (Or help others I guess.) You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Intelligence modifier plus your Artificer level (rounded down.) Cure Wounds will let you summoner spell Heal yourself or your Support. Faerie Fire will serve as a more basic version of your Essence Flux, making an enemy easier to hit (therefor making them take more damage!) And Feather Fall is always useful in a pinch!

Also yes you don’t have your gauntlet yet so you’re going to have to use a Light Crossbow for now. Feel free to take a combat cantrip if you want but you don’t really need it.

LEVEL 2 - ARTIFICER 2

Second level Artificers can make Infusions, special definitely-not-stolen magical treasures that make them more awesome than everyone else. For a little more AD an Enhanced Weapon is useful to have. You can also put those goggles on your head to use by making Goggles of Night to see with your dumb human eyes. A Mind Sharpener may feel like a cheat, but I’m not going to say no to keeping Concentration in check. And for your final infusion? A Rope of Climbing might be useful? Honestly the more impressive stuff comes after you’ve done a bit more exploring.

You can also prepare another spell like Alarm, just in case someone’s planning to steal your... legitimately earned treasure.

LEVEL 3 - ARTIFICER 3

Third level Artificers get to choose their specialty and Armorers don’t have to wear an entire suit of armor; just a gauntlet! Along with proficiency in Smith’s Tools you can turn any suit of armor you find into Arcane Armor. The armor has a variety of benefits: no Strength requirement, the inability to have your armor removed against your will, the ability to take it off or put it on as an action, and some replacement limbs. But notably it works as an Artificer spell focus!

There’s two different Armor Models and we’ll be going for the Infiltrator variant for a Lightning Launcher. This makes your Gauntlet a weapon that deals a d6 of lightning damage, with a regular range of 90 and a long range of 300 in case you want to go for long ranged snipes. Additionally once per turn you can pop Essence Flux to do an extra d6 of damage on hit! And I didn’t even mention the best part: this works off your Intelligence! So no more need for the crossbow.

You also get your boots for Powered Steps, increasing your movement speed by 5 feet. And thanks to your Dampening Field you can hide in bushes with free Stealth advantage! I’d recommend trying to get a Breastplate because that’s the best armor you can get that doesn’t also impose stealth disadvantage, but even with Half Plate you can still be sneaky! Heck, you can even wear Platemail if you want! "And my boots are not waterproof. Fantastic."

Oh and you get some Armorer Spells! Magic Missile will autoaim for you like your Arcane Shift projectile, and Thunderwave is helpful for some self-peel.

LEVEL 4 - ARTIFICER 4

4th level Artificers get an Ability Score Improvement: seeing as we have uneven Intelligence take the Observant feat for +1 Intelligence and a boost to your passive Perception and Investigation to watch the minimap for people to snipe! Additionally you can spy on the bad guys if you want and read their lips to gain knowledge of all their secret plans!

More Intelligence does also usually mean more spells prepared but I’m going to wait for...

(Artwork by Xu “Crow God” Cheng. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 5 - ARTIFICER 5

5th level Armorers up their Attack Speed with Rising Spell Force, gaining an Extra Attack with the attack action!

You also get Mirror Image and Shatter added to your list of Armorer Spells, and can prepare spells like Rope Trick for a safe place to rest for awhile, and Heat Metal to really lay in that Essence Flux.

LEVEL 6 - ARTIFICER 6

6th level Artificers get more Infusions which is what I was waiting for! A Radiant Weapon is all the fun of an Enhanced Weapon but it also doubles as a flashlight for your dumb human eyes! And Boots of the Winding Path will let you Arcane Shift back to safety in case you accidentally run into danger.

Feel free to swap some of your old infusions around too. A Lantern of Revealing or Cloak of Elvenkind would be helpful... and Gloves of Thievery never hurt anyone.

And finally you can prepare Aid, as your natural awesomeness rubs off on your allies. "Oh, please, don't die. I can't lose a sidekick. Not again."

LEVEL 7 - WIZARD 1

You didn’t think this would just be a pure Artificer build, did you? Even if that would’ve been stronger I’m legally obligated to needlessly stick multiclass levels into all my builds. And Wizard is definitely a good multiclass for more slots to do Spellcasting! You learn 3 cantrips and six leveled spells as a first level Wizard:

CANTRIPS

To help your allies land their shots take Mind Sliver to weaken an enemy’s saving throws.

Prestidigitation will let you do a bunch of simple magic, and if you want you can have your own hero music too!

Finally Friends is good to make friends you don’t mind losing after they tell you where the ancient ruins are.

SPELLS

I basically just took everything with the Ritual tag. Alarm (yes you have it as an Artificer spell but you can swap that out), Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Identify, Tenser’s Floating Disk... and sure why not Find Familiar too? Seeing as you can ritual cast at will most of your early level stuff is going to be reserved for Ritual Casting, as you’re probably going to be spending most of your first level slots on Magic Missile and Faerie Fire anyways.

You also get Arcane Recovery, letting you recover spell slots equal to half your Wizard level (rounded up.) So right now you can get a first level spell slot back at the end of a Short Rest! And later on you can get more!

LEVEL 8 - WIZARD 2

Second level Wizards get to choose the school that their parents left them in before disappearing in the jungle, and the School of Evocation has a surprise tool that will help us later. Along with being an Evocation Savant (allowing you to copy Evocation spells into your spell book with half the time and cost) you can Sculpt Spells so that they only hit the bad guys: when you cast an Evocation spell (from any class, not just Wizard!) you can choose a number creatures equal to the spell’s level + 1. The chosen creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save. This will be really useful when we get our (pseudo-)Global ultimate; wouldn’t want to fry your pals now would you?

We may as well grab some of those Evocation spells, right? Earth Tremor will let you hit an AoE Mystic Shot because Riot decided that Tiamat should have a cleave I guess, and I mean... Shield is never a bad thing to have?

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 9 - ARTIFICER 7

Back to the big brain plays: 7th level Artificers can make the biggest brain plays thanks to Flash of Genius, letting you boost an ally’s skill check or saving throw with your own natural perfection. The boost is equal to your Intelligence modifier and you can use this reaction a number of times equal to double your Intelligence modifier.

LEVEL 10 - ARTIFICER 8

8th level Artificers get another Ability Score Improvement? Well seeing as Intelligence still controls just about everything we do it would do good to increase that by 2! That does mean you can prepare more spells (both as a Wizard and as an Artificer) but I’m going to wait for...

LEVEL 11 - ARTIFICER 9

Every ADC dreams of being six-slotted; now you can be with Armor Modifications! Your Armorer armor counts as 4 separate items for the sake of your Infusions: the chest piece, boots, helmet, and the armor’s special weapon can all be infused. Far more importantly however you can have two extra infusions! Those infusions have to be on your armor, but you can put the Radiant Weapon (weapon) and Goggles of Night (helmet) onto your armor and save your other infusions for your allies! Or for yourself; yourself works too.

And we can’t forget the third level spells! You get Hypnotic Pattern from your Armorer Spells for an AoE stun, but far more importantly you get Lightning Bolt which will serve as Trueshot Barrage! And since you’re an Evocation Wizard you can shoot past your friends without blowing them to bits. "Oh, a plan. Yeah, I totally have one of those."

You can also prepare spells like Haste for more DPS (just don’t get stunned), Blink for some Duskblade invisibility, and replace Alarm with Revifify... Ya know: just in case.

LEVEL 12 - ARTIFICER 10

As an ADC it would be good to get six-slotted, and Magic Item Adept lets you get your 4th Legendary item! That’s because you can now attune to 4 magic items at once! (And can also craft Common and Uncommon magic items more easily.)

Speaking of Infusions, we can make more of them, such as a Cloak of Protection or Winged Boots! These are just generally useful but not really Ezreal specific; they’re mostly for your allies. "The gauntlet's for show... the talent's all me."

You can also prepare another spell like Fly which is just universally useful, and holy shit you get another cantrip. Take Mage Hand and maybe try to be a little more cautious when tomb raiding?

(Artwork by Bo “chenbowow” Chen. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 13 - ARTIFICER 11

Do you want a lot more Mystic Shots? 11th level Artificers can make a Spell Storing Item and put an Artificer spell of first or second level inside. What’s cool about this is that anyone can use it, allowing them to cast the spell as if they were you!

My recommendation? Give them Mirror Image. It’s an amazing buff that doesn’t require Concentration. Even a low DEX Paladin will appreciate the chance to not be hit, and a high DEX ally can really get value out of Mirror Image. Yeah the Barbarian technically can’t cast while raging, but they can use this before going into a Rage to be very hard to hit!

And speaking of spells you can prepare another one, so how about you grab Create Food and Water to keep yourself sated on longer archeological trips. "Why didn't I eat before I got here...? Ezreal, why?!”

LEVEL 14 - ARITIFCER 12

12th level Artificers get another Ability Score Improvement... we got all we need in terms of stats (Intelligence lol) so now it’s time to really make some impressive trick shots: the Sharpshooter feat will let you attack at long range without disadvantage and ignore cover bonuses, but most importantly you can take a -5 to your attack roll for a whopping +10 to damage! Don’t use this on high AC targets obviously but if you think you’ll hit why not go for the one-shot? "No applause, please. ...Okay, maybe just a bit of thunderous acclaim. ...A little?"

LEVEL 15 - WIZARD 3

I do still want more spell slots, as well as more spells known! Truthfully there isn’t too much I want from second level, so take Locate Object to find hidden treasure and Augry (added to the Wizard spell list thanks to Tasha’s!) to know what to expect in the next dungeon... sorta. "No plan survives first contact with me."

LEVEL 16 - WIZARD 4

4th level Wizards get an Ability Score Improvement: we got all the abilities we wanted really, so why not Get Lucky? The Lucky Feat will give you a bit of anime protagonist power to guarantee that you make the perfect daring escape. Feel free to take Warcaster or just increase your Constitution however; by this point Ability Scores don’t matter too much.

You can also learn two more spells like Melf’s Acid Arrow for another Essence Flux-esque DoT ability and See Invisibility, in case you need a Sweeper Lense to deal with any clowns.

LEVEL 17 - WIZARD 5

Ima be honest I kinda just wanted third level for Thunder Step to get an Arcane Shift that does damage. Artificer 18 / Wizard 2 (or even just Artificer 20) would’ve been a fine build for Ezeal too, if you don’t think this one spell is worth a 5 level class dip.

Anyways you also learn another cantrip and I mean... you may as well take Shocking Grasp for some defense up close? You also get one other spell and I’m gonna suggest Galder’s Tower this time which is like Tiny Hut... but awesome. And really small. This is mostly just a way for me to talk about a fun spell and also recommend my homebrew fix for it.

(Artwork by Alvin Lee. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 18 - ARTIFICER 13

You got third level spells as a Wizard, you can now prepare 4th level spells as an Artificer! Fire Shield and Greater Invisibility are both available as Armorer Spells, one of which is far more useful for you than the other one. Bro imagine how crazy Evelynn would be with Evelynn’s passive. But yeah feel free to swap around your prepared spells a bit for more 4th level spells, since you definitely have the slots to do so.

LEVEL 19 - ARTIFICER 14

14th level Artificers are Magic Item Savants who can attune to 5 magic items at once, meaning that along with your boots which are technically magical but whatever you can finally be properly six-slotted! But far more importantly you can attune to any item, regardless of any class or race restrictions tied to the item! "I can't get hauled into wizard court again. Technically I don't have a permit for the gauntlet."

Speaking of more attunement: more Infusions. An Amulet of Health will let you boost your bad Constitution from a 10 to a 19, giving you a solid 76 health boost near max level! Other than that more movement speed is never a bad thing, and Boots of Speed may give you more value than your other magic boots.

But holy shit forget all that because you finally get your 4th Artificer cantrip! Grab Mending because somehow we don’t have that yet; gotta keep your outfit in check! Oh and you can get around to preparing another 4th level spell! Truth be told though the 4th level spells for Artificer are kinda... bad? But at least Tasha’s gave us Summon Construct which is a surprisingly strong summon!

"Last time I was in Shurima, I decoded some glyphs. Something about a jackal head... End of times... The usual. All I wanted was this ruby scarab. It looks great on my mantle."

LEVEL 20 - ARTIFICER 15

Our final level is the 15th level of Artificer for the Perfected Armor Armorer capstone. When you shoot an enemy you mark them with Essence Flux, giving them disadvantage to hit you. In addition the next attack (including your own I’m pretty sure!) has Advantage against the enemy while they’re marked with Essence Flux, and if they’re hit they’ll take an extra d6 of Lightning damage!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Blast 'em, gauntlet! - With your capstone ability you do 4d6 + 10 damage with your Lightning Launcher, and that’s before using Sharpshooter. Even without your capstone 3d6 + 10 is still really good damage output, especially when you can cast spells for big bursts of damage.

See if you can handle this! - Speaking of spells your slots go all the way up to 7th level, and while you’ll mostly just be upcasting a 12d6 Lightning Bolt is nothing to sneeze at! Not to mention other options like a 7d8 Fire damage Heat Metal or +30 HP Aid.

If anyone asks, I didn't see any of these priceless artifacts for sale - It goes without saying that having two more attunement slots than the average character is massive, especially when you can stick infusions onto your armor to maximize the amount of treasures on your person.

CONS

I wasn't strong enough? - Investing fully in INT gives us maxed out combat stats but it leaves a lot of our other abilities lacking. We’re nowhere near Charismatic enough to sell (somewhat) illegitimately gotten gains, and while Infusions can help augment our health (and even our Strength if you grab a Belt of Giant’s Strength) your Wisdom and even your Dexterity are rather mediocre, which is bad for both skill checks and saving throws.

Impossible comebacks are sorta my specialty - Most of your coolest stuff is tied to spell slots and other Long Rest dependent mechanics, and while you have a lot of spell slots (as well as Arcane Recovery to get some of them back) they are still quite limited. You’re perfectly viable as just an auto-attack and Q spammer, but who doesn’t want to shoot lasers and explosions, ya know?

Never met a problem that I couldn't blast away with magic... that I don't even understand - 5 levels in Wizard give us big spell slots but that’s about it, and yeah a 7d6 Lightning Bolt (that won’t hit your allies) is nothing to sneeze at but for the most part you are more of a Martial character. Just saying that level 18 of Artificer would’ve given you Magic Item Master for a whole 6 attunement slots! And level 20 of Artificer would’ve given you Soul of Artifice, essentially operating as a +6 to all saving throws and a 6 time use Guardian Angel.

But if a teamfight breaks out you’re more than a capable ADC. Artificers are the masters of magic items and it doesn’t matter if you make them yourself or “borrow” them from an ancient tomb; you can be the hero mom and dad always wanted you to be! Just concentrate on your farm in the early game and don’t take unnecessary risks. You may be the perfect man of magic but you’re not immortal, despite what the ADCs I’m forced to support always seem to think.

(Artwork by Jennifer Wuesting. Made for Riot Games.)

#dnd #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Ezreal #you belong in a museum #dnd artificer #dnd wizard #twink

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