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balanceoflightanddark · 7 days

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"Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough. They were, if it came to it, difficult to daunt or to kill; and they were, perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good things not least because they could, when put to it, do without them, and could survive rough handling by grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who did not know them well and looked no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces. Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew well."

-J.R.R Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Prologue 1. Concerning Hobbits pgs. 5-6

This paragraph fascinates me for a few reasons. Often in fiction, a long period of peace is often used for explaining why people are so slow to react to a rising threat. That prolonged prosperity dulled the senses and breeds complacency. Indeed, Frodo himself does express some exasperation and almost wishes for a dragon or some evil force to invade the Shire to shake the Hobbits out of their complacency.

Which to some level is true here. It's a known fact that Hobbits like to keep out of the affairs of the "big people". Yet at the same time, even if they want to keep themselves isolated, it doesn't mean the world won't march into the Farthings regardless of what they want. After all, there wasn't a whole lot stopping the Nazgul or Saruman from entering their borders.

Yet at the same time, the paragraph does illustrate that just because Hobbits have grown accustomed to peace, doesn't mean they're pushovers. Consider Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took and the Battle of the Green Fields. When a goblin warband led by Golfimbel descended from the Misty Mountains and broke through the Dunedain's encirclement to invade the Shire, Bullroarer charged straight at the goblin ranks. He then proceeded to knock Golfimbel's head off and shatter the morale of the warband.

The story was repeated in the Battle of Bywater when Saruman decided to set up a criminal ring in the Shire after his defeat at the hands of the Ents. Long story short, once Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin returned, the Hobbits proceeded to raise up a sizeable force and effectively kicked Saruman out of the Shire. Mind you, Saruman used to be the greatest wizard in Middle-Earth, and the Hobbits led to his final defeat. That's two accounts of invasions of the Shire going badly for the invaders.

And that's not even getting into the adventures that Bilbo, Frodo, and his friends got into during the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings respectively. Bilbo was able to save the asses of Thorin's Company multiple times, discovered Smaug's weakpoint and indirectly relayed that to Bard via the Thrush, and risked life and limb to forestall a battle between the Dwarves, Men, and Elves till Bolg showed up. Frodo and Sam were ultimately able to destroy the One Ring, while Merry and Pippin were able to rouse the Ents into attacking Isengard. That's not even counting Merry being partially responsible for the death of the infamous Witch King.

So even though the Hobbits were accustomed to peace, they weren't complacent enough to be pushovers when presented with a threat. Personally, I think part of the reason this is so is because the Hobbits never forgot the basic necessities of a good life: a comfortable home, friends, family, and basically everything needed to live simply. They never indulged too much in luxury to become lax like Smaug, nor constantly scheming to take more power like Sauron or Saruman. They were happy with living simple on the farm.

It turns out, that's what gave them their edge. They were down to earth, so they had a good sense of morality thanks to living humble lives. Safeguarding their farms from wild animals meant that some Hobbits could recognize a threat when they realized it. And their sense of community and friendship got them through some of their hardest trials, like when Frodo almost succumbed to the Ring and Sam never gave up on him. Their sense of community and toughing it out through the hardest times such as during the Long Winter when Gandalf began to really warm up to the Hobbits, seeing the value and courage in them.

So while they're not the flashiest or most "badass" of Middle-Earth's free peoples, the Hobbits are some of the hardiest and "purest" races. And how ironically, peace never dulled their senses but served to toughen them up for the dark times ahead.

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acollectionofhalftruths · 3 years

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“For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!'”

What the heck is he talking about. What ring has he made.

#I have no memory of saruman making a ring that amounted to anything #I think he had one but that doesn’t make it a ring of power and they definitely didn’t take one away from him #when he got kicked out of Isengard #lotr

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soyeahitsmiddleearth · 3 years

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Elmer's Glue pt.1

Éomer/Reader

God you just can't get his name right, and it's a shame cause's he's cute af

Awkwardness Humor and Fluff

----

Someone like you shouldn't have survived nearly as long as you did.

You first came tumbling into Middle Earth a few days before departing for some big important quest to destroy a powerful ring, having landed yourself in a place called Rivendell that's full of elves and lovely scenery.

You were presented at some meeting and urged to join this 'Fellowship' and became a valuable member of the group even despite your lack of fighting knowledge, because you somehow had some sort of 6th sense regarding things that have yet to happen.

Just barely did you and your friends survive Helms Deep, The Hornburg, after all of those horrible events (losing Gandalf, Merry and Pippin being captured, and Frodo and Sam departing to continue on on their own), but once all is said and done, you're ecstatic to finally have a moment of rest and celebration.

A grand party is thrown in the royal halls of Rohan, but you're none to interested in the drinking or dancing.

Instead, you opt to watch everyone else enjoy themselves.

At some point after Legolas wipes the floor with Gimli in a drinking game, the prince, and brother of the sweet woman Eowyn, ends up meandering over to where you idly sit.

You remember riding with him to and from Isengard during your journey to reclaim your hobbit friends, though the two of you didn't speak much. It was kind of embarrassing for you to sit so close to him and attempt to share a conversation while looking straight ahead, so you didn't speak much at all, and he didn't engage himself often either.

It was surprising to you how comfortable the journey was, though, all things considered.

His horse was huge and he was just as large, but you never felt afraid or feared falling even once during the ride.

It's not a big deal, but it still stuck out to you since he's so clearly a very skilled rider.

Even after all that, however, you still totally blank out on his name when he suddenly approaches after helping Legolas bring Gimili to the resting area.

Your mind begins to race as you try to remember the name that belongs to him, and all too soon do you realize that you're both staring at each other and he's waiting for your to say something (probably after greeting you, which you did not catch).

"L-Lord... Elmer..." You say slowly after a moment, praying to god you got it right since you took inspiration from your favorite brand of kids glue.

He raises an eyebrow when you say his 'name', and a smile creeps on to his face. "Elmer?"

Ah, shit. You definitely didn't get it right.

"Elmo?" You mentally kick yourself for that one, he's definitely not a small red puppet monster, you would've noticed if he were.

He shakes his head this time, amusement painting his features as you struggle to come up with his actual name.

"Emir?"

Another head shake, and also a full on smile.

"It's not Edgar, is it?" It definitely doesn't sound right, but maybe you'll get lucky.

At this point, you know for a fact that your face is on fire, this is so embarrassing, but you simply can't remember.

"Would you like me to tell you?" He offers after you don't guess again for a time, leaning his arm on the table next to you, leaning closer to you.

Getting help at this point would be mortifying, so you deny his offer for the proper answer and take another crack and guessing. "No, no wait. I've got it! Your name is... Elinor..." You mentally smack yourself in the face for that one; he doesn't even look like an Elinor (mostly because he's not a woman).

"Not quite. Eomer is my name may I remind you."

So your first guess was the closest, but still so far away.

"W-Well, this is extremely embarrassing." You stutter out, adverting your gaze from his eyes which have suddenly become so close.

Eomer can't help but to laugh, and the smile that graces his lips is positively dashing.

You glance back up at him and notice right away, and once more your face begins to burn like a furnace.

"I-I didn't mean to forget, I swear! And I definitely wasn't trying to make fun of you either!"

His chuckles die down when your slightly panicked speech betrays your concern of being disrespectful, and he wastes no time in assuring you that it's perfectly fine. "If you are worried that you've upset me, then do not fret. I'm not offended, simply amused."

Well, that's a relief.

"Um... well, that's good- I guess," you tell him your name, then continue, "I feel so bad. You took me on your horse and everything and I didn't even remember your name! Gosh, I suck."

The tall blond-haired man looks at you oddly when you insult yourself so strangely, and you realize that you forgot to keep your other-word slang to a minimum since it can be hard to understand.

"Right, well, I came over to ask if you would like to join me on a walk outside. Are you interested?" He leans down a bit closer when he asks you this, acting as if he doesn't want anyone else to hear.

Typically you'd be more cautious than this, but you find yourself nodding along regardless.

---

Lord Eomer (you'll definitely remember his name this time, you swear it) took your hand in his and led you outside after you nodded your assent, and while you'd normally dislike being grabbed so casually, you allow it for some reason.

He releases you from his gentle hold once the both of you are beyond the party halls and outside in the cool night air at the bottom of the steps, and you finally find your voice to ask about his intent.

"So... did you want to talk to me about something or...?" You look up at him curiously with your hands clasped in front of you, twisting your heel in the dirt to ease the anxiousness.

"No, nothing in particular. I do have questions, but I simply wanted a moment alone with you," he pauses, then adds slyly, "Your friends have taken up al your time since we arrived, so I had hoped to steal you away for a time."

You aren't sure if you should be flattered, flustered, or both.

"I-I see... well, you've got me now." You mean it as a joke but it's hard to sound humorous when you're so flustered.

He only smiles and nods his head once, "I do."

Cue the awkward silence.

It appears that he's once again waiting for you to say something, so you decide to pull no punches and go straight for the heavy hitting topics.

"So, hows about that battle, huh? Crazy..."

His eyebrows knit together as he thinks over your strange speaking mannerisms, but he doesn't question it and only nods his head instead. "You could say that. The men fought bravely and we lost many, but our victory does not go unrewarded."

"Are you talking about the party?"

"Yes. That, and the knowledge that some of my men get to return home tonight and see their families."

His words bring a small, sad smile to your face, and you speak much more softly this time, "I'm afraid it isn't over, though. With everything going on, it's only a matter of time before we're all sent away again."

"We?"

Oh, right, he doesn't really know about your role in this merry group of misfits.

"Um, yes. I fight, er, kind of. I do my own thing really, but I can't afford to stay behind." It's hard to explain since you aren't sure what the extent of his knowledge is.

His uncle, Theoden, knows almost all about your deal, but does Eomer? He should since he's a key part of this whole Rohan operation, but it's not necessarily your place to tell him either.

"A shield-maiden?" He wonders aloud, taking a seat on the stone steps next to you two.

Even when he's sitting down he's taller than you, and it shoots an arrow of envy through you. The bigger you are, the more intimidated your enemies are, after-all.

"Not quite. I'm not the best at fighting really." It's kind of a lie, actually, because you've got some hidden skill that makes you pretty good at that kind of thing, but it has to do with your foresight to you choose not to explain much further.

Your answer seems to only confuse him more, however, for his eyebrows knit together and his smile tugs downwards into a frown. "You are not? But they bring you into battle regardless?"

Well, shit, now you're making them sound like negligent, reckless idiots.

"N-No- I mean, I'm okay but, uh, it's hard to explain." It's like you somehow just know how to affectively fight; it's like something inside of you just takes over and keeps you from dying, and it proved to be both extremely useful and also unexpected.

They found out about this 'hidden ability' (for lack of a better term) during the battle in which Boromir was slain and you first lost your hobbit friends. You were surrounded and everyone else was fighting for their lives, and in that moment of hopelessness, something inside of you snapped and the floodgates were opened.

Your skill lies in defense, not offense, but it was all you needed to make it through the fight alive and intact.

"I-I know it seems like they were being irresponsible, but there's more to the story- I swear!" You try to defend, taking a step closer to his seated form, "Really, they need me, so it'd be even more irresponsible if they didn't bring me along."

He doesn't seem to get it, for his doubtful expression remains and his frown deepens, but he tries not to judge too much either. "I... see."

A subject change seems like the best course of action, so you decide to ask him a question of your own. "W-Well... anyways. Why'd you want me to come out here with you?"

"I simply wished to learn more about the beautiful newcomer that graced our halls, and I find that I'm even more entranced than before."

Lord Eomer's words bring a flush to your face and leave you flustered, and it seems you can't get your brain to form a coherent thought either.

"Have my words troubled you?" He asks when you still don't manage to find your voice.

"N-No, it's not that..." You trail off and cover your mouth and nose coyly, looking off to the side when you find that you can't meet his gaze any longer. "I'm just not sure how to reply to that. I've been here so long I don't even remember how to flirt." Your words are, of course, an embarrassed joke, and it seems to land well for he chortles with amusement.

"If that is all it is, then it must be fine that I say you've caught my eye, and I'm afraid I cannot get it back until I know more."

"Know more about... m-me?" You repeat slowly, simply trying to wrap your head around it all, "Like... Like what?"

Another dashing smile brightens his handsome features, and this time your heart flutters nervously when he does, "Anything."

You twiddle your thumbs in front of you and dip your head down, racking your brain for any information that would be interesting but not super telling in terms of your 'earth of origin.'

"Um... I can do this-" You raise one of your hands and bend your fingers all the way back until they're perpendicular with your palm, displaying your double jointed fingers effortlessly.

He stares at your hand trick for all of 5 seconds before he's standing up and worriedly asking, "Have you broken your hand?" He takes your hand in his own, delicately turning it around in search of bruises.

"N-No," you pause and look at his larger hands taking yours, then add shyly after, "It's just a trick. I'm double-jointed."

"Double-jointed?" He repeats slowly, not releasing your hand though he does cease his search for damage. "I... see."

He sure does say that a lot.

"I can also do this." You take back one of your hands and reach into your pocket and pull out a lighter that you've had with you all this time, then you ignite a flame and brandish it proudly.

The blond-haired man looks on with wide eyes, and he reaches out towards it, asking with amazement in his voice, "You created fire so effortlessly!'

"Yeah, this little device has, er, oil in it and it ignites it using a spark." It has been helpful many a-night when everyone else has been out and about doing stuff and you were left to tend to the fires. "Don't get too close though, it's hot."

He nods his head once and drops his hands to his dies, watching the small flame dance on the lighter before you blow it out and place it back in your pocket.

"Where did you find such a magnificent contraption?" He asks once it's out of sight, looking down at you with curiosity sparkling in his eyes.

"I, um... made it." You think it best to lie, though he doesn't appear to fall for it, and change the subject. "So, how about that weather we're having?"

Your sudden and shitty subject change makes him raise an inquisitive eyebrow, but after a moment he starts to laugh, "Yes, the night sky's are very clear tonight. As it should be the morrow after a raging battle."

It's strange and none too awkward since you're no good at this, but this normalcy actually almost makes you forget all the shit you've seen up until now.

"I would very much like to see you again." He says suddenly when the conversation dies down and you both just stand there in silence.

You look back up at him and offer a small smile, repeating softly, "Sure. I'd like that as well. But I'm still here, so we don't have to talk about later just yet, right?"

"I suppose not." He reaches down and grabs your right hand gently, raising it up while he also leans down, then he presses a feather soft kiss to the middle of the back of your hand.

Eomer looks up at you while he does so, and you find that your face has begun to heat up once more.

When he doesn't move to stand normally and continues to look up at you expectantly, you ask uncertainly, "Am I supposed to kiss your hand too, or...?"

It seems you're quite the comedian to this guy, for he stands up straight again and bursts into joyful laughter, reaching down to pat your shoulders, "No no, but if you wish to offer me one somewhere else then I would not deny it."

People in this place really waste no time beating around the bush, though you suppose they can't afford to waste much time when things like the Battle at Helms Deep happen every so often.

There are murderous orcs everywhere and danger at every turn for them nowadays, do you actually feel a sense of appreciation for his forwardness.

This time you find yourself laughing too, and you readily reply, "Maybe next time, Lord Eomer. We only just met, you know. I could be trying to steal a place in the royal line, for all you know."

His smile does not waver despite your warning against yourself, for he only shakes his head and squeezes your shoulders gently, "No, such motives always make themselves clear early on. Unfortunately for me, you're honest."

"Unfortunately?"

"Unfortunate for my heart, yes."

#eomer x reader #Eomer of Rohan #lotr eowyn #lord of the rings #lotr #reader insert #reader #lotr fandom #lord of the rings fanfiction #romance #fluff #humor #awkwardness

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saurons-pr-department · 4 years

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My Top 5 Mairon Moments

For the purposes of this list I’m only including individual scenes as opposed to entire events/schemes. These are in no particular order, I just listed as they popped into my head. Quotes are taken from the Silmarillion and LotR.

- Laughing his ass off before Númenor sinks with him on it And Sauron, sitting in his black seat in the midst of the Temple, had laughed when he heard the trumpets of Ar-Pharazôn sounding for battle; and again he had laughed when he heard the thunder of the storm; and a third time, even as he laughed at his own thought, thinking what he would do now in the world, being rid of the Edain for ever, he was taken in the midst of his mirth, and his seat and his temple fell into the abyss. I genuinely find this image hilarious. Like, he’s just sitting there, on his own, in the middle of the temple, thinking “Those idiots! I’m finally free of them! Think of all the shit I can get up to now!” and he’s just giggling away to himself like a giddy school child, completely ignoring the storm brewing outside (in fact, he laughs at it??) and then he just gets wiped out! Like, by the sounds of it, he literally only noticed that something was up when he finally was slapped in the face by a wave. All that plotting and it backfires so spectacularly. I’d say that smug grin was wiped off his face pretty quickly.

- Sees Lúthien, first thing he thinks is of Melkor and what he can get out of him The fame of the beauty of Lúthien and the wonder of her song had long gone forth from Doriath; and he thought to make her captive and hand her over to the power of Morgoth, for his reward would be great. I just love that, normally, when people see Lúthien they fall for her, or they get caught up in her beauty. Our buddy Mairon, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to personally register her beauty, it’s just a thing he’s heard about and, though I’m not even really sure why, I am greatly amused that the first thing he thinks of instead is getting something nice off of Melkor. It might be because he’s normally quite a distant character but I just think the “Oooo, I could get a head pat out of this!” reaction is funny. (Also in terms of head canon and shipping I always look at this scene and think that this Maia really couldn’t be any more gay and in love with his boss if he tried XD)

- Revealing that he tricked that guy into thinking his wife was alive Then Sauron laughed; and he mocked Gorlim, and revealed to him that he had seen only a phantom devised by wizardry to entrap him; for Eilinel was dead. “Nonetheless I will grant thy prayer,” said Sauron; “and thou shalt go to Eilinel, and be set free of my service.” Then he put him cruelly to death. Look, I am a sucker for scenes where characters pull an Obi Wan ‘Well, I was telling the truth, from a certain point of view’. This moment really shows us how tricky he is, how he likes to get into people’s heads and mess with them and what kinds of things he uses his mastery of illusions for. The fact that he laughs tells us that he takes pleasure in doing these kinds of things. He’s not just doing whatever he thinks will allow him to achieve his goal most efficiently, he gets a kick out of doing things this way. You just know he was a smug git when he was like ‘don’t worry, you’ll get what you were promised’. It’s a classic villain move and I love it.

- Thinking he was the greatest wolf prophesied to kill Huan Now Sauron knew well, as did all in that land, the fate that was decreed for the hound of Valinor, and it came into his thought that he himself would accomplish it. Honestly, do I really need to explain this one? The sheer arrogance! He literally stood there and thought ‘it might be me!’ I love this fool.

- Speaking to Pippin via Palantír “So you have come back? Why have you neglected to report for so long?” I did not answer. He said “Who are you?” [...] “A hobbit” Then suddenly he seemed to see me, and he laughed at me. [...] he said “Wait a moment! We shall meet again soon. Tell Saruman that this dainty is not for him. I will send for it at once. Do you understand? Say just that!” First of all, I deeply enjoy the fact that Pippin of all people got to have a video chat with the man himself. Secondly, I can’t help but picture him do a little double take when he realises that he’s not talking to Saruman ‘Oh so you’ve come back. Wait. Who are you?’ Thirdly, he gets so excited when he thinks his ring is in Isengard. Look at those exclamation marks! He’s all giddy again. Poor guy... Maybe he should stop getting excited... Fourthly, his use of the word ‘dainty’ amuses me. I don’t know, the phrasing of the sentence just strikes me as odd. I think I just like that, in this conversation, he doesn’t sound as high and mighty as he does the few other times we actually get to see him speak. He’s just leaving a very excited voicemail.

#mairon #sauron #silmarillion #lotr #the tale of beren and luthien #sauron appreciation post #i mostly just like when he's silly XD #he honestly brings me so much joy #he's such a mess #and he's meant to be the organised one!

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erosofthepen · 3 years

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10 Writing Snippits

These are all from my OC fic, “A Story of Half-Breeds, Dwarrow, Orcs, and Elves”. No, i have not published any of it yet. Consider this a teaser, a compilation of scenes from my incredibly long google doc.

This story revolves around Clara, because she’s my self-insert, but what i have written is actually really good.

Hope you enjoy this, might post the first chapter soon.

My Ocs:

-Rantin of Fornost

-Clara Mirabelle Took

-Athenir of Rhûn

-Brenior of Fornost

-Adana, Daughter of Gerirun

-Nika, of Ered Luin

Characters: Clara and Dwalin

“Uncle Balin?” She called. No answer. He was probably at the market stall, which reminded Clara where she was supposed to be. She looked at the mantle clock and cursed. 5:13 pm. She wasn’t terribly late, but she should have been there at five. In a rush, she ran up to her room, grabbed her tool kit and her working apron, and not two minutes later, she was running out the door.

“Sorry Adad, time passed faster than I could.” She said, wheezy and red-faced as she started to get to work.

“Yeh should’ve been paying better attention, lass.” Dwalin replied, twisting a piece of silver between his pliers.

Characters: Rantin, Athenir, and Clara

“Athenir, you need your sword pointed at Clara’s neck,” Rantin commented.

“She’s too short!”

“If you say so. Clara, attack him.”

Clara quickly came at Athenir with a cut downwards, which he blocked. He tried in vain to roll his sword over her blade, but alas, Clara countered the move and stepped forward, guiding her sword to his chest.

“Do you see why you need to keep your sword tip low?” Rantin asked. Athenir grumbled and nodded. “I know it’s uncomfortable,” the Ranger continued, “but you must learn to adjust to any sized opponent. Clara is lucky, since every foe she’ll face is bound to be taller than her, but you are not. While your height is good for reach, Clara is very skilled at taking on larger opponents, and you’ll end up dead if you don’t learn to defeat smaller ones.” Rantin paused for a moment, looking Athenir up and down. “Clara, attack him again. Athenir, bring your sword down lower, and adjust your stance.”

Characters: Clara, Fili, and Kili

He was not expecting the wounded animal to curse at the top of their lungs. Realizing their mistake, he and Fili ran towards the poor being they shot.

It was a lass. A short lass that they would’ve called a hobbit if not for the boots she wore. And she wasn’t a dwarrow either, she had no beard to speak of. Kili’s arrow was sticking out of her left shoulder and she rose as they got closer, and drew a short broadsword out from a scabbard at her side.

“I’m so sorry Miss, I truly thought you were a rabbit!” Kili said, holding his hands up to show he wasn’t a threat. Fili did the same.

Characters: Legolas, Clara

Prince Legolas looked around as if afraid of getting caught. Then he bent down and began to speak in the strange elvish accent.

“You speak elvish, no?”

“Yes. Why is this a question? I’ve already spoken it to you.”

“What else do you know? When your things were searched, there were languages and items we had never seen the like of!”

“Ah, I travel far. From the Gray Havens to the eastern lands of Rhûn. I learn much.”

The Prince tilted his head as a cat might do.

“What are those lands like?”

Characters: Nika, Clara

Nika moved sideways, slipping past Clara’s guard and angling her sword at the half-breeds throat. They were both breathing heavily, and Clara’s face was bright red with the effort of the match. A few strands of Nika’s hair had come undone from her hasty bun, and Clara’s baby hairs were messy and curly. Even though the fight was won, they didn’t part.

Characters: Tauriel, Clara, Athenir

Tauriel pursed her lips and nodded. They both turned at the sound of footsteps coming their way.

“Hail Clara of Erebor, It has been long since we met.”

Standing under the arch was a Ranger of forty years, give or take. Athenir of Fornost. Clara ran to hug him and he squatted down to make it easier.

“It’s been far too long since we met!” She cried.

“Indeed it has been,” He replied, squeezing her tight before drawing away. “But Clara, I come with no good news. Fell times draw near, and I am here to request your return to the Rangers.”

Characters: Athenir, Brenior, Adana, and Clara

Her eyes grew wide.

“No.”

Athenir glared at her. “Get in the sack.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Clara, please, if you value our lives, get in the sack” Brenior said, glancing behind his shoulder.

“I can keep up!”

“Clara, you’re legs are much too short to keep up with us, and we are in dangerous territory. Get in the sack.”

“I-”

Clara’s protest was cut short as Adana grabbed her from behind and shoved her in the bag. Her muffled shouts were soon quieted as Brenior kicked the bag lightly. Athenir slung bag-Clara over his shoulder and the trio took off.

Characters: Fili, Athenir

Fili furrowed his brows and racked his brain.

“The elves?”

“Elrond said it could not be helped.”

“A wizard.”

At this, Athenir laughed. A shallow, depressed laugh.

“What wizard could help? Gandalf has not been heard from in years, Radagast doesn’t understand a thing about any being that is not an animal, Sauraman has closed himself off in Isengard, and the blue wizards live a world away, and focus their magic on spells and not healing. No, seeking a wizards help would be folly. There is nothing to be done.” Athenir said simply.

Characters: Clara, Kili

“What can I say, I just am irresistible.”

“Irresponsible, more like.”

Kili just smiled broader and held her tighter, resting his forehead against hers. As they stood there, slightly swaying, Clara felt something stir in her chest that confused her. It started something like a small bud, and then it began to open and blossom into the most boastful rose, spreading and filling inside her, the leaves and stem tickling her stomach and stirring up hidden butterflies that had been long asleep. It felt warm too, practically radiating, and filling her insides with a glowy pink light, creeping up her bosom and neck until it showed through her cheeks.

#10

Characters: Clara, Kili

“Tell me a story?” She asked.

“About what?”

“Whatever you want to tell.”

“How about the story of the incredibly handsome dwarf prince who single-handedly reclaimed Erebor and defeated a dragon?”

That earned a laugh from Clara.

“Why not, it would be amusing to see how many exaggerations are made.”

“My Lady, everything in this tale is true as the sky is blue!”

“Well, the sky is pink right now, so I suppose everything in it must be a lie. But go on, start the story,”

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councilofelrond · 2 years

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New AU idea that I will never ever write!

- basically a Nazgûl finds a Silmaril and shows it to Sauron like hey boss i found a cool thing! I tried throwing it in Mount Doom but it floated :)

- Sauron’s eyes go wide and he’s like “shit. shit. fucking hide that thing while I make a call”

(cont’d under a cut bc damn this got long)

- said call is to a very confused Gandalf, who immediately agrees that yeah hiding the Silmaril is the best idea if you can’t destroy it outright

- he then shuts off the mental connection and PANICS

- WELL SHIT TIME TO CALL UPON THE BIG GUNS

- (Sauron does not want the Silmaril. He carries it down to the depths of Barad-dûr in a box he is holding at arm’s length. Also he is wearing gloves. Also also he is armed to the teeth. Literally because fangs.)

- Back with Gandalf we learn that for some reason a crazy elf has challenged Éowyn to a duel??? And she’s willing to do it??? (Éomer is having a mental breakdown like nooo not my baby sister!!)

- (Éowyn has cut off his allowance for calling her a baby. No spears for you. Two weeks.)

- she wins somehow by the sheer power of “fuck this shit im out”

- where is the ring in all this? Sauron accidentally kicked it into Mount Doom because of Shenanigans.

- bad news for the Valar: MELKOR ESCAPED. Fortunately he immediately wound up stuck in Isengard and so is prevented from Dark Lord-ing until this 17 year old in a grown ass man’s body says he can leave. This will only happen if he helps said 17 year old kill Saruman.

- SHENANIGANS

- Estë snickering in the background like “oh yeah bitch. that is MY Uruk. have fun.”

- Said Uruk is my favorite Uruk OC of mine, Bâlhûn, who has the energy of a little old lady who can and will whoop your ass if you mess with her. Bâlhûn is a he though. Also he is the aforementioned 17 year old in a grown ass man’s body.

- Anyhow Melkor gets discovered by Saruman and locked up for Existing In His General Direction or something

- he is experimented on too this is not a very comedic au despite how im describing it

- he is Displeased by this but he can’t do anything

- UNTIL

- some undead guy breaks in and goes “hey bitch to wanna get out ofc you do listen i am going to cut my arm open and bleed on you a lot so you can then ask for a bath. I’ll be fine don’t worry. Once they’ve let you out, pull out the knife and kill whoever’s there then run like hell. K? K.”

- Melkor grumbles but he does it

- (undead guy is Talion btw bc I love that horrible man)

- they escape together and then when they find Bâlhûn again he’s like “oh i thought you were dead wanna commit murder”

- and Melkor’s like “yeah actually sounds great i get why you hate that bitch Saruman”

- and Bâlhûn goes “okay great also did you know your entire lower body is covered in blood”

- cue dramatic fainting scene

- anyway they throw Saruman off a balcony and Melkor and Talion zoom off to Mordor to exist in Sauron’s general direction. in very different ways for very different reasons. Melkor wants to reunite with him *loud Victorian innuendo coughing* and Talion wants to be a nuisance. Talion always wants to be a nuisance. Moving on

- so when they get there Sauron and Melkor reunite and this goes on for like three hours *even louder Victorian innuendo coughing*

- Talion is like “damn they do not waste time also now i miss my wife” so he runs away and is Sad™️ for a while

- Melkor is very happy to have reunited with Sauron. The feeling is mutual. *ridiculously loud Victorian innuendo coughing*

- ANYWAY away from the very vigorous activity going on there *dies laughing at how ridiculously evasive that is* the Nazgûl are bored

- this means they want to throw a party

- that in turn means there is now Intrigue

- and murder but that’s par the course for these bitches

- at this party some noble makes a snide comment about what exactly Melkor’s job is

- Melkor immediately challenges him to a duel and beats the shit out of him. It’s terrifying.

- (Sauron thinks it’s hilarious)

- (Sauron is having a wonderful time)

- (Sauron will not be having a wonderful time for much longer)

- (Poor Sauron)

#oh fuck the silmarils are back au #long post #writing by lee #my aus #the boys are back #sauron #melkor #the dork lords #bâlhûn #gandalf #the lord of the rings #third age thrills #silliness #no im not going to write this ever #it’s just silly

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morwensteelsheen · 3 years

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If Faramir went to Rivendell, how would the whole ttt/rohan plot be different?

A good question that I have spent an unreasonable time thinking about! My first LOTR fic was going to be an attempt to answer this, but then I got so wrapped up in not having the answers that I sidelined it and wrote WC instead. So I think instead of giving you one definitive answer I’ll give you a couple scenarios I think are plausible? If that’s not too much of a cop out lmao? Apologies in advance for the inevitable spelling errors, I did this on my phone and my dyslexia is off the charts today.

I think it’s basically unavoidable that he goes via Rohan first, geographically he’s sort of left without an option there. When he’s there, we get into this issue of whether and how he and Éowyn interact. Worth noting, I think, that the Unfinished Tales has Éomer living in Aldburg by the War, but Éomer does seem to imply he’s around for Boromir passing through. Is this because he knows and already is a fan of Boromir? Maybe! Or maybe Éomer goes to Aldburg after.

But I digress. We have to ask the question of whether Faramir falls in love with Éowyn because he was always going to fall in love with Éowyn, or if it’s because the things he’s gone through immediately preceding it primed him for it. I — perhaps quite cheaply — come down on the side of Faramir always having it bad for her on first sight. And contextually I think that comes from his, rather sweet, enunciation of the way his regard/love changes for her. He says that at first he pities her, and then he gets to know her and he doesn’t pity her anymore, he respects and admires her. That’s an interesting dynamic to bring into play in basically every AU, because you get this double barrel characterisation of his attitude to her changing, and his own character maturing/sharp edges softening.

I think he off the bat he sees that she’s beautiful, and immediately is drawn to her for that. Shallow? Maybe! But, to badly paraphrase my ol fav Victor Hugo quote — love always begins with a glance.

I imagine he stays for a short while, maybe a week, two at most. At this point I think that Éowyn’s basically viewing him as an official guest that she has to entertain, and I think Faramir is, in his own, slightly stilted, slightly wanky way, putting the moves on her. This can go, imo, one of two ways. She can either be receptive to it (which is a nice thought!) or she can be aware of it but mostly ignore it because, really, she’s got lots of shit on her plate.

Either way, he leaves Edoras at some point. The big question is where does his go from there?

One thing I toy around with is that, given his pre-existing relationship to Gandalf, maybe he’s willing to trust the Istari a bit more and goes straight for Isengard? Which, and I think I did the math on this once a few months ago, would have him arriving at Isengard around the time Gandalf’s getting his shit kicked in by Saruman lol. I think this could be a really compelling plot point, but I’ll be very honest with you, I 100% don’t have the imagination or writing skills to figure out how it proceeds from there, so I’m not going to try to.

If he goes the normal Boromir route, he still loses his horse at Tharbad and walks (lmao jesus???) to Rivendell. When he gets there, I think he’s immediately going to have everything he knows put to the test in quite jarring ways. First off, he’s going to be infinitely more deferential to Elrond, Aragorn &c when they’re trashing Gondor. He’ll push back a bit, no doubt on that, but he’s going to be starstruck by Aragorn in a way that Boromir just wasn’t.

No real difference I imagine between Rivendell and Lothlórien, except that he’d definitely be laser focused on palling about with Aragorn, and he’d probably spend more of his time being friendly with Frodo than with Merry and Pippin tbh (not in a douchey way, I just think he and Frodo vibe a little better. Though I bet he and Merry had some interesting chats about pipe weed history).

The underlying question here is what sort of relationship does he have to the ring? I don’t buy this idea that he’s not tempted by it, I just think that what the ring offers him is a bit shit. We don’t know what the ring tempts him with, he’s not clear on that in TTT. I can’t really see the ring being like ‘oh I’ll give you a king to follow’ because that is some intensely nerdy shit, but is somehow the one thing I could see Faramir actually being tempted by. Regardless of what it offers him in this AU, he resists it on the basis that he’s got this mythical king he’s been desperate for, and he’s not gonna risk that for anything.

Lothlórien comes next, and oh my god when I tell you this is the part I genuinely have no answer for. I stopped writing my first fic at Lothlórien because I couldn’t cope. Tbh it probably lowkey fries Faramir’s brain, and for so many reasons. The whole godmoding Númenórean stuff he’s got going on probably interests Galadriel a bit, and so that whole conversation is going to be wildly different than it was for Boromir. But what does she say to Faramir? I have no idea. I really don’t. There’s also probably a million and one things also going on psychologically for him at that point, which makes dealing with this bit difficult. Really difficult. So I’m gonna, uh, conveniently smash cut away.

Parth Galen! Again, another two potential splits here. The first, (from here on out I’ll refer to as Plot A) which I find rather endearing, is that he goes off with Frodo and Sam when Frodo makes the decision to split. I don’t know that I believe he’d do it, but it proves for a very delightful interpretation of his character.

Plot B is that when the Orcs show up, Faramir survives not by virtue of his being a ~ better warrior ~ or whatever than Boromir, but by the terrain surrounding Parth Galen being something he’s far more in the habit of dealing with, and by virtue of his having a bow at his disposal. I know there’s room for an interpretation of Faramir as not primarily an archer, but narratively I think that’s less interesting. So he’s an archer. He’s an archer and also his priority is on Aragorn first and foremost, so Merry and Pip still get taken, and Frodo and Sam use the hubbub to GTFO, which is actually slightly more in line with the movie’s chronology, funnily enough. The three hunters become four, and then go on Merry & Pippin’s trails.

In Plot A, they’re hauling ass across the Emyn Muil, bolstered in some ways by Faramir’s experience as a Ranger. The problem is the issue of getting into Mordor and whether or not they pick up Gollum. I think, in a way that frustrates me immensely, they do end up taking Gollum, not because they need a guide, but because Gollum fulfils this deep psychological need for Frodo, and I think he would have argued for keeping Gollum regardless. Faramir is going to be fucked off about this, but will ultimately, I think, be deferential to the ringbearer.

So they go across the Dead Marshes, but they do NOT attempt the Black Gate first because Faramir’s not a fool. Do they go to Henneth Annûn? I say yes, but with the caveat that in all likelihood Boromir is gonna be there, which is gonna complicate stuff tremendously.

Over to Plot B!

The four hunters go to the Mark! They meet Éomer! Hey! Éomer recognises Faramir! (And he’s probably a little fucked off that he lost his horse lol). But whatever, he knows this guy, so he’s probably gonna be like, uhhh, everything you saw before in Edoras is much worse now. Also my cousin's dead and everything is bad. Here’s some horses, sorry for maybe accidentally killing your pals, see ya! And at this point I think Faramir’s probably having a, hmmm, g e n t l e p s y c h i c c r i s i s, because if he’s still very 👅 for Éowyn (which he is, sorry, he has to be) then he’s going to want to go there ASAP. Obviously though that’s not gonna happen, so: Merry and Pip chasing, Gandalf finding, Edoras arriving.

Which means Éowyn. If, at this point, she and Faramir already have something of an arrangement going on (nudge nudge) then she’s really not gonna give a shit about Aragorn. You know how in TTT it’s not even clear that she actually sees Legolas and Gimli? 100% that vibe with Aragorn too. Théoden’s gonna get his house in order, they’re going to head to Helm’s Deep, and Éowyn’s gonna get named head of house. (Faramir, if he starts off just thinking she’s beautiful, is going to have quite the paradigm shift here, because he’s going to have to start reckoning with her as not just a beautiful woman, but as a very, very intense person. This is how his love for her starts to mature.)

Sometimes I dream about him being like, ‘hey! I have some first hand experience of ruling a kingdom, how about I stay and…….. lend you a hand……..’ to Éowyn while she’s keeping watch on Edoras. This is wildly unlikely, but a delightful thought nonetheless. In the more likely case, which is that he goes to the Hornburg, she’s going to start feeling some strain about this whole war shebang, and it’s going to lead to some difficult conversations. Chief among them is that Faramir, as second son, actually has basically nothing to give her, which is not exactly a great position to be in when you’re in love with the niece of a king. I’m of the opinion that Éowyn’s not fussed by that stuff (she agrees to marry him when he’s prepping to give up a shit ton of power anyways), so she’s probably like, 'no, fuck you, we’re getting married.' And then he leaves, and it starts to emotionally unsettle her more and more.

If they don’t already have a thing, then it either begins at this point OR he gets overshadowed by Aragorn. In either case, off to Helm’s Deep he goes.

Helm’s Deep happens, I think Faramir ends up extraordinarily impressed by how the Rohirrim handle the Dunlenders afterwards, which also begins to soften his harsh opinion of them more generally.

They go to Isengard, Pippin looks in the Palantír, and away Pippin and Gandalf go. Both Gandalf and Faramir here would recognise that it would be batshit insane for Faramir to go back to MT now, because Denethor would read him like a picture book and he’d have to admit to the entire mission of the Fellowship.

Over in Plot A, I think we’re going to have some real emotional complexity vis a vis Faramir showing up at Henneth Annûn with two hobbits, a ring, and Boromir in control there. God, it would just be a disaster. My incredibly generous interpretation of this is that Faramir keeps the plan vague enough that Boromir lets them pass unhindered. My less generous interpretation is… yeah I don’t wanna do it tbh. It’s not pretty. It's also, to be clear: not an indictment of Boromir as a character. His response is entirely rational for someone expected to lead a kingdom and for someone put up against the unbelievable power of the One Ring. The reason Faramir continuously gets to pass largely untempted by the ring is because he's a guy with no actual responsibilities once you take the Rangers away. His understanding of his duty to Gondor is almost entirely conceptual in nature. He can think and talk about defending Gondor as it once was because there are several people above him in the hierarchy defending Gondor for what it is. This is also not an indictment of Faramir. He and Boromir just have wildly different realities to contend with.

They are going to go through Cirith Ungol even though Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumbass both speak Sindarin and don’t cotton on to what its name implies lol. This whole scene is much shorter because Faramir’s significantly more cautious, so there is no Orc capture and Sam doesn't take the Ring. This is where things get a bit complex, and where I don’t think I have the imagination to say much more. Sorry!

Back in Plot B, the lads catch up with Éowyn as they prep to go down the Paths of the Dead. If she and Faramir are a thing, this is where the real emotional distress kicks in for her. All of the men in her life have, at one point or another, functionally abandoned her, and here’s Faramir, love of her life, about to do the exact same thing. Faramir inevitably goes with the Grey Company even though she begs him not to. When she tries to convince them not to go down the Paths at all, he is in the fortunate enough position to throw up his hands and say 'not my call, actually. King’s in charge,' which lessens the emotional conflict there somewhat.

No part of me doubts that Éowyn wouldn’t then immediately go over his head to Aragorn. She would, she absolutely does not give a fuck. And she’s going to get knocked back re: joining them in exactly the same way as in the book, because Aragorn’s take here isn’t actually dependent on her personally, it’s dependent on the duty she’s been charged with, which is taking care of her people. (Also going to be an interesting narrative parallel to a later conversation between Faramir and Aragorn after the Pelennor, which I’ll explain in more detail later.)

Faramir will, perhaps somewhat less dismissively, say this to her. He learns much more obviously the way to talk to her on her own terms, and he’s not gonna fall into the trap of letting her be like ‘you just want me to wait and die after all the men are dead.’ He’s going to probably give her some line about her being the last organised line of defence, and he might even invoke Haleth! It’s not going to work, because Éowyn’s very aware of the apocalyptic nature of all of this, but it’s not going to cause such abject hatred and fury as it otherwise would.

If she and Faramir are not a thing, her emotional distress is as it is in the book, except now Faramir’s trying not to pout in the background. He might even step in to try and soften the blow.

Regardless, she ends up as Dernhelm, she rides to the Pelennor.

Boromir is the one responsible for the Osgiliath retreat, and because it’s heavily implied that Faramir only keeps his seat because he’s got this dumbass Númenor garbage going on ('master of man and beast' — king Beregond), Boromir’s going to get killed by the Witch king here.

This is going to send shockwaves through not just Denethor, but Minas Tirith more generally, because Boromir is fucking adored. Denethor’s going to go high holy crackers much quicker, mostly because Gandalf is a shit stirrer and is going to waste no time at all in announcing that Aragorn, The Rightful King, is on his way, and Denethor will — correctly — surmise that Faramir has chosen Aragorn over returning with whatever Isildur’s Bane is to Gondor. This is the end for Denethor.

Éowyn rides from Dunharrow, slays the Witch king. Faramir and Aragorn show up with the Army of Dead, Faramir does not end up injured, but does end up as the Steward (obviously) and (obviously) aware that Éowyn is in the HOH. And also that everybody else he loves is dead. Yeehaw.

Here’s where I think things get really interesting. I think, counter to the way this is portrayed a lot of the time, Faramir doesn’t go to the Black Gate at all. I think he stays in Minas Tirith, not just to organise the wider range defences (esp the Rohirrim dealing w the Druadan) but in this very grim preparation to lead the retreat from Minas Tirith if/when Frodo & Sam fail. I think he's kind of fine with this for two reasons. The first is that him being conscious to process the death of his father, and it coming hours after the death of his brother means that he's going to have a personal-political crisis, and he's going to have to take the defence of Gondor more seriously than he did before. Second, Aragorn's going to tell him to fucking stay put, and he's going to be fine with it because it means he's going to get to spend the last few days of his life with Éowyn.

He and Éowyn reunite in the HOH, there’s still a lot of deeply emotional stuff going on, but, at least now Faramir’s conscience is clear re: marrying her because, well, he’s the Steward now. Also their reunion is going to take on greater significance because she’ll have killed the thing that killed his brother. So, that’s a lot.

If they are not a thing before the Pelennor, she's still going to drag his ass over to the HOH so she can bitch about being stuck there. But this time he's not a fellow hospital-prisoner, he's having to actually do things, and he's going to use that to his advantage in terms of keeping her from doing stupid shit. I think he's going to try to involve her in some of the strategic questions re: the retreat if the Morannon feint fails. I think he's going to make a point of talking to her to get her help on dealing with the Rohir forces that are in and around the City. I think that's going to go a huge way to helping to ease her misery, and it's going to be such a significant vote of trust in her (even after she's done the unthinkable and deserted her people) that she's going to fall in love with him here, as per. And the contrast between him and Aragorn is going to be all the stronger for it.

So yes. Those are just some of the possibilities I think! Sorry for the word dump!!

#asks #faramir /#lotr /#fgtrau #hc

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splendidlyimperfect · 3 years

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critical hit - chapter 3 [they're taking the hobbits to isengard]

When Sting tells Natsu that one of his friends from school is going to be joining their weekly Dungeons & Dragons game, Natsu isn’t impressed - their table is already full. But while Natsu and Gray’s in-game characters clash completely, Natsu finds that real-life Gray might not be that bad after all.

Chapter Summary: D&D night gets unexpectedly cancelled, but Natsu wants to hang out with Gray anyway.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Pairings: Natsu/Gray, Sting/Rogue

Tags: Modern AU, Dungeons & Dragons, Role-Playing Games, Awkward Flirting, ADHD Natsu, Geek Gray

*i know i haven’t updated this in two whole years (my bad) but i finally got inspiration so thanks for your patience and enjoy <3*

*link to ao3 in the comments cause tumblr keeps fucking up my posts*

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“I’m stoked for this fight tonight!” Natsu grinned at Gray, who was curled up in the passenger seat of Natsu’s car, looking out the window at the slowly setting sun. “We’re gonna kick this thing’s ass.”

“I dunno about that,” Gray replied, fiddling with his necklace. Natsu couldn’t quite make out what the pendant was. “We’re all nearly dead and out of magic. We might be fucked.”

“Pfff,” Natsu scoffed, pulling out of the Starbucks parking lot and heading towards home. “Maybe with that attitude. Don’t worry, we’ll pull a win out of this. We always do! Did I tell you about the time we dropped a house on a dragon?”

Gray shook his head and Natsu launched into the story, complete with wild hand gestures and sound effects. He could feel Gray’s gaze on him as he listened intently, even when the retelling took several unexpected detours. It made something warm grow in Natsu’s chest. Most people in his life were used to his rambling, chalking it up to his ADHD and excitable nature. They usually tuned him out after a while, though, or nodded along while drifting off to something else.

Gray listened, though. He’d shifted in his seat to face Natsu, knee tucked under his leg, coffee held between both hands, and Natsu could feel the deliberate way he followed Natsu’s words. It made Natsu feel important.

He’d just wrapped up another story where they had accidentally created a super-intelligent zombie when both of their phones pinged.

“It’s Sting,” Gray said. “So sorry guys, I can’t make it tonight, work called me in last minute. Can we reschedule for next week?”

Natsu felt a flood of disappointment wash through him as he glanced over at Gray, whose brow was furrowed as he stared at his phone. He was so cute – he had gotten his eyebrow pierced at some point during the week, and it made him even more adorable.

“Well,” Natsu said, chewing on his lip. “That sucks.”

An awkward silence filled the car. Natsu really didn’t want to drive Gray home – he’d been waiting all week to see him, and when Natsu had picked him up, the shy smile Gray had given him had made Natsu feel breathless.

“Well, I don’t—did you wanna, uh…” Gray trailed off, tugging at a loose thread from the hole in his jeans. “I mean I don’t have any, uh, plans? Obviously, since we had—I mean, so maybe we, um, we could…”

“They put all the Lord of the Rings movies on Netflix,” Natsu said quickly, before he could chicken out. For once he was glad for the lack of filter between his brain and his mouth. “Wanna get takeout and watch one of them?”

Before the anxiety could set in, Gray glanced up and gave him a soft smile. “Yeah,” he said. “I’d like that.”

Gray’s favorite food turned out to be sushi.

“You’ve never had sashimi before?” he asked once they’d gotten back to Natsu’s place and unpacked the takeout onto the living room table.

“Is that the rice?” Natsu asked as he settled down cross-legged on the floor. “Or the fish?”

“The fish,” Gray said, pointing at the slices of raw salmon. “It’s good, I promise.”

Natsu gave him a dubious look, then frowned at the chopsticks that Gray handed him. “You’re gonna think I’m totally uncultured,” he said as he peeled off the wrapper, “but I’ve never used chopsticks.”

“It’s not hard,” Gray reassured him. Natsu fumbled with the wooden sticks, glaring at them as he tried to get them to move. “Here,” Gray said, moving closer to Natsu and reaching out for his hands. “Like this.”

Natsu’s breath caught in his throat when Gray’s fingers touched his, settling the chopsticks between them and showing him where his thumb should go. Gray’s hands were cold, and each small touch made Natsu’s heart jump. His cheeks flushed hot when he dropped the chopsticks again, and this time it had nothing to do with clumsiness.

“I, uh, might have to stick to forks,” Natsu said with a nervous laugh. Gray was close enough to him that he could smell his shampoo – something light and fruity that made Natsu want to lean in and run his fingers through Gray’s hair. It looked so soft.

As if reading Natsu’s thoughts, Gray pushed his hair out of his eyes and tucked it behind his ear. Natsu’s eyes followed the movement, and when Gray’s gaze met his, he quickly looked back down at the food, hoping the heat in his cheeks wasn’t visible.

“That’s okay,” Gray said, and it took Natsu a second to realize that he was talking about the chopsticks and not the staring. “You can eat the rolls with your fingers.” He pointed at the second container. “Those ones don’t have fish in them. Just yams.”

“I’ll try the fish,” Natsu said before he could stop himself. He was glad Sting wasn’t here to tell Gray that Natsu had sworn off seafood ten years ago after going fishing with their grandfather and crying when he’d had to gut the salmon they’d caught.

It ended up being better than he’d expected, despite the strange texture.

“I haven’t had sushi in a while,” Gray admitted once they were done the meal. “I ate it every day in Japan.”

“You lived in Japan?” Natsu asked as he stuffed the styrofoam containers back into the plastic bags.

Gray nodded. “Yeah, I was there for an exchange program for a year. I’m from Montréal originally, though.” The soft way he said the word let Natsu finally place the soft accent he’d noticed every once in a while. Of course Gray was bilingual. Was there anything about him that wasn’t perfect?

“That’s awesome,” Natsu said. “When did you move here?”

“Six months ago, for school.” Gray crossed his legs, tucking his feet underneath him as he shifted on the couch cushion. “It’s really different here.”

“I can imagine,” Natsu said. “Have you made it down to Gastown yet? Rogue likes sushi and he says there’s lots of good places down there.”

“Oh, no, I haven’t.” Gray smiled as Natsu’s cat Happy hopped up onto the couch and rubbed himself against Gray’s legs. “I, um… I haven’t really been out too much. By myself.” He ran his finger behind Happy’s ears, who purred happily. “I’m a little—I get kind of anxious. Sometimes. To go alone.”

“I could take you,” Natsu offered before he could stop himself. “There’s so many places here you’d love – Granville Island’s amazing, they’ve got markets and this awesome café, and you’d probably like the art gallery there too. And if you haven’t been to the beach – well, beaches, there’s so many of them, and if you go to Stanley Park you can walk or take a bike, and there’s a…” He trailed off at the overwhelmed expression on Gray’s face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“I’d like that,” Gray said, keeping his eyes fixed on Happy as a small smile crept across his face. “To go, I mean. With you.”

“Oh.” Natsu couldn’t hold in a grin. “Cool. It’s a date, then.”

Gray finally looked up at him and Natsu’s cheeks flushed when he realized what he’d said. Before Gray could reply, Natsu grabbed the remote from the table and thrust it into Gray’s hands.

“You can, uh, pick one. Of the movies,” he said as he pushed himself to his feet. “On Netflix. I’m gonna make popcorn.”

Natsu darted into the kitchen and exhaled, rubbing his face. His phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket.

holy pain in the ass: you’d better be on a date, loser

Natsu groaned – of course Sting had done this on purpose, the asshole.

pyro-manic: you’re a jackass and a liar

holy pain in the ass: i think you mean ‘you’re welcome’

Natsu glared at the screen for a minute, trying to come up with something witty but eventually just shoving his phone back in his pocket.

When he headed back into the living room with the popcorn, Gray was still petting Happy, who had curled up in his lap and was purring contentedly. He’d taken off his hoodie and had rolled the sleeves of his World of Warcraft shirt up just enough that Natsu could see the never tell me the odds tattoo that wound around his wrist.

Natsu tried not to stare. Everything about Gray made him feel like he was thirteen with his first crush all over again. He’d dated other people before, obviously, but none of them were quite like Gray. There was something about him – a shy but carefree enthusiasm for the things he loved that drew Natsu in. It didn’t matter what kind of pop culture references Natsu made, Gray picked up on all of them. He could finish the movie quotes Natsu had memorized, knew all the best cards in Magic, had seen every anime that Natsu loved, and didn’t even tease him about his taste in music.

Natsu’s phone buzzed in his pocket again, drawing him out of his thoughts, and he ignored what he was sure was another text from Sting.

“I hope you don’t mind the subtitles,” Natsu said to Gray, gesturing at the screen as he sat down next to – but not quite touching – Gray. “I always have them on. It’s like, a thing, with my ADHD – auditory processing something? It just makes it hard to catch everything sometimes, the subtitles help.”

Gray nodded, scratching behind Happy’s ears. “It doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I usually have them on, too. It helped me when I was learning English.”

“Awesome.” Natsu took the remote and hit ‘play,’ then settled back against the couch as ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ started to play.

Natsu was glad he’d seen the movie at least ten times, because the only thing he could focus on was Gray. He couldn’t stop thinking about Sting’s text, about the word date, about the fact that he hadn’t felt like this about anyone in years. Natsu’s life was full of people – he was outgoing by nature – but none of them made him feel like Gray did.

They finished the popcorn quickly and Natsu leaned forward to set the bowl on the coffee table. When he settled back into the couch, he was certain Gray leaned into him a little. He held his breath, shifting as if to get comfortable, and ended up right next to Gray with their shoulders pressed together. It sent a thrill through Natsu and he tried his best to ignore the part of him that insisted he was not a teenager anymore and it was silly to get worked up over this. He tried to focus on the movie instead.

“You have my sword,” Aragon said on screen.

“And you have my bow.”

“And my axe.”

“And my vuvuzela,” Gray murmured absently.

Natsu burst out laughing, immediately struck by the ridiculous video he hadn’t seen since in years. “Oh my god,” he said, nudging Gray’s shoulder with his as Gray’s cheeks turned pink. “You’re such a dork.” Before Gray could take offense, he added, “In a good way. I know exactly what you’re talking about and now I’m gonna have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the night.”

Gray laughed. “I just can’t take that scene seriously anymore,” he admitted. “My sister and I used to watch all of these movies on Christmas and quote along to it… it got pretty silly. And took forever ‘cause we’d watch all the extended editions in one sitting.” He played with his necklace as he talked, keeping his eyes on the screen.

Natsu was about to ask why they didn’t do it anymore but stopped himself when he remembered what Sting had mentioned when he’d first invited Gray to join D&D. Gray’s sister had died unexpectedly just before he’d moved here, and Gray didn’t like talking about it.

“We can watch them all if you want,” Natsu offered instead. Gray’s expression shifted and Natsu wasn’t quite sure what it meant – he was hard to read even when they weren’t talking about personal things. But then the corner of his lip curled up in a tiny smile and he nodded.

“If you can sit still that long,” he teased.

Natsu laughed. “Yeah, I might end up upside-down or something at some point. But that’s okay.”

Gray’s smile got a little wider. “I’d like that,” he said softly.

“Okay,” Natsu said. He tried his best to keep a huge grin from creeping across his face. “Cool. Yeah. Me too.”

Natsu managed to sit fairly still until about halfway through ‘The Two Towers.’ They’d had plenty of breaks – including one where they’d pulled up ‘They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard’ on Gray’s phone and sang along until they were both laughing hysterically – but it was getting difficult to not fidget. He was about to ask if they could take another quick break when Gray shifted and the back of his hand brushed Natsu’s.

Natsu immediately froze, all restless thoughts banished from his head as he focused on the sensation of Gray’s knuckles against his. They’d been moving closer and further apart all evening, bumping shoulders and knees, but this didn’t feel like an accidental touch. Something about it was deliberate, and this time Gray wasn’t moving away.

Heat sparked in Natsu’s stomach and he stared down at their hands, hoping to hell that he wasn’t misreading Gray’s intentions as he returned the touch. He heard Gray’s soft intake of breath, and several nearly unbearable seconds passed before Gray shifted closer and slid their fingers together. He was warm against Natsu’s side, and when he carefully tipped his head onto Natsu’s shoulder, Natsu was certain that Gray could hear the frantic slamming of his heart.

He exhaled as quietly as he could as he ran his thumb down the side of Gray’s hand, enjoying the soft noise that Gray made in response. His hair tickled Natsu’s cheek, soft and fine, and when Natsu rested his cheek against the top of Gray’s head, Gray hummed happily and cuddled closer.

The uncertainty that had been following Natsu around all night immediately vanished as he let himself relax against Gray, squeezing his hand gently as they pressed against each other. It felt so right. Natsu hadn’t realized how long it had been since he’d cuddled anyone until they were both comfortable and breathing in tandem. He felt more relaxed than he had in years.

The movie kept playing but Natsu barely paid attention. His brain, always in overdrive, immediately started to whether or not he should kiss Gray, if that was moving too fast, if he should maybe put his arm around Gray or whether or not that would be a cheesy high school romcom move. Gray solved the issue a few minutes later by stretching and nudging Natsu’s arm up, then curling up against him.

“I can hear you thinking,” Gray said quietly as the battle for Helm’s Deep raged on in the background. “Or panicking. I can’t tell.”

“I’m not panicking.” Natsu wasn’t sure if he was lying or not.

“Okay.” Gray rested his head against Natsu’s collarbone. “Good.”

The movie came to an end not long after that, but Gray didn’t move. He ran his fingers up Natsu’s arm instead, touching the scar that Natsu had gotten after a motorcycle mishap years ago. Gray traced patterns between Natsu’s freckles, then ran his hand back down and touched Natsu’s palm.

“Are we—”

“Is this—”

They both laughed as they talked at the same time, and Gray shifted until he was looking up at Natsu and they were nearly cheek-to-cheek. Warmth sparked in Natsu’s stomach and he leaned in, nudging Gray’s nose with his own. There was a moment of anticipation where neither of them moved, and then Gray closed the distance and pressed their lips together.

The heat in Natsu’s chest spread as Gray kissed him, rushing across his cheeks and down to his fingertips. He made a soft sound, tipping his head and pulling Gray closer until they were facing each other. Slowly, he reached out and brushed Gray’s hair out of his face, running his fingers through the silky strands. It was just as soft as it looked.

When Gray finally pulled back, his cheeks were flushed pink and he didn’t quite meet Natsu’s eyes.

“I, um…” He bit his lip uncertainly.

“I really like you,” Natsu said quickly before he could change his mind. “Like. A lot.”

“Oh.” A small smile worked its way across Gray’s face. “Good. I like you too. Also a lot.”

Natsu laughed, leaning back in and kissing Gray’s nose. “Sting did this on purpose,” he said, gesturing to his phone that was sitting on the coffee table. “He’s an idiot, but I’m kinda glad he did.”

“Me too.”

Natsu ran his fingers through Gray’s hair again, then pulled him in for another kiss. It was soft and sweet, but Natsu’s stomach still sparked with excitement at the touch. Gray was warm everywhere they pressed together, and Natsu never wanted to let go.

Gray pressed one more kiss to Natsu’s lips, then his cheek, then pressed their foreheads together. “I haven’t dated anyone in a long time,” he admitted, cheeks flushed pink. “I just… can we take it slow?”

“Of course,” Natsu said quickly. He kissed the tip of Gray’s nose. “I’m just happy to—I like spending time with you. And kissing. That’s good—great—too. Really great.”

Gray laughed, squeezing Natsu’s hand and kissing him again. Then he looked back at the TV screen where Netflix was suggesting ‘Return of the King’ as their next film.

“You wanna keep watching?” Natsu asked. “I promised you a marathon.” He looked at the clock, which already read 2:47 a.m.

“Yes? But I know you have to work tomorrow.”

“It’s okay,” Natsu reassured him, grinning. “I actually took tomorrow off because today was supposed to be our last D&D session and I thought it might take all night. Plus, I’m not tired.” He kissed Gray’s cheek again. “Maybe just a little distracted.”

“Just a little?” Gray ran his fingers through Natsu’s hair and surprised him by tugging on it gently.

“Maybe a lot,” Natsu admitted. He ran his hand down Gray’s side, then pulled him closer until he was almost in Natsu’s lap. “But I’m okay with it.”

They both fell asleep on the couch before ‘Return of the King’ was over. When they woke up the next morning in each other’s arms, Gray blushed furiously, but eagerly returned Natsu’s morning kisses.

“I guess I’d better get you home,” Natsu said as he ran his fingers through the tangles in Gray’s hair. “You’ve got class soon, hey?”

Gray nodded. “I’d rather stay here,” he admitted.

“Look, I’m happy to kiss you all day, but I’m also not gonna be the reason you fail your classes.”

Gray raised an eyebrow at him. “I’ll have you know that I have a 4.0 GPA.”

“Guess I’m dating a genius then, huh?” Natsu paused. “Are we? Dating? I mean, is that what you wanna—”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Natsu grinned, kissing Gray’s nose, then nudged him off the couch. “C’mon,” he said as he sat up and stretched. “Let’s get you some coffee and get you home.”

Natsu’s pantry was nearly empty, so they stopped for coffee and bagels and ate quietly on the drive back to Gray’s place, holding hands across the console. When they pulled into the dorm parking lot, Natsu let go regretfully and leaned over for a kiss.

“See you on Sunday?” he asked, then shook his head. “No, that’s too long. How about Tuesday? I can take you to Gastown and show you around.”

Gray’s face lit up and he nodded. “Yeah,” he said, smiling shyly at Natsu and squeezing his fingers. “I’d like that.”

“Perfect.” Natsu kissed him again, tasting coffee on his lips. “It’s a date.”

#fairy tail #gratsu #natsu dragneel #gray fullbuster #fanfic #ft fanfic #d&d #dungeons & dragons #fluff #adhd natsu #geek gray #new chapter #update #my fic

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beautifultypewriter · 4 years

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Star of the County Down ~ Pippin

Requested: Yes / by Anonymous

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol

Word Count: 852

Pairing: Pippin x fem!human!reader

Summary: Reader is celebrating along with everyone in Edoras when she catches the eye of one hobbit who can’t resist a dance.

A/N: A little short and I apologize for that! I listened to so much Irish folk music while I wrote this and had the absolute best time dancing in my chair.

A large feast was being held in the halls of Edoras to celebrate the recent victory over the forces of Saruman. It was quite the merry celebration and you were glad to be part of it. Drink flowed freely and all manner of chatter could be heard in the hall, often being drowned out by the music, the musicians holding nothing back and playing every lively tune they knew. You for one, were very excited about the never-ending music because dancing was probably the thing you did best.

You could feel the beat of the drums in your bones and the flow of the fiddles was running through your veins as you moved your feet forward and back, kicking your right foot out on every third step. You smiled as you stepped back again, clapping your hands once as others around you did the same. The music picked up, so you moved across the small space at a faster pace, linking hands with one of the other women and spinning around before releasing her hand and moving onto the man next to her.

You could feel the heat rising to your cheeks as you moved even faster, perfectly in time with the music. Your shoulders moved in a flowing motion as you kicked your foot out again, your hand lifting the hem of your dress slightly. Your hair waved out as you spun, and you were glad for the brief moment of relief you got from the breeze you had created when doing so. The low light of the hall reflected off of the faces of the people around you, as well as the skin of your own hands as you swayed them back and forth in time with the melody.

You could feel the eyes on you as you danced. Turning to the beat, you made eye contact with one of the hobbits that had been brought from Isengard. He was smiling at you as you continued to glide across the floor. You smiled back at him and he looked almost surprised as you moved closer to him and stretched your arm towards him, bowing slightly. He grinned as you moved back, spinning slowly on your toes, and leaning back. The song ended and you turned away from him in order to face the musicians as you clapped your hands in appreciation for their music. The band started another lively jig and you turned back to the hobbit and nodded to him. His smile dropped as he pointed to himself, looking over his shoulder and finding nothing but the wall. He turned back to you and you only smiled again as you held your hand close to your face and crooked your finger at him. You started dancing to the new song, your feet kicking and stomping the floor as you stared straight into his eyes. He gulped before he pushed his mug into the hands of the hobbit next to him. Then he was moving towards you, his friend staring after him and chuckling.

He met you in the middle of the floor, his smile once again gracing his lips. You stepped back and he followed your footsteps, stomping when you did and kicking forward when you kicked back. He laughs as you spin around him, and he continues his rhythmic kicking.

You’re in front of him again when you hold your palm up and he’s quick to press his own hand to yours. The two of you slide across the floor, breaking apart to spin and then join palms again. You can hear the music pick up and you smirk at your dance partner before you move your feet faster, keeping time with the melody. He only returned the smirk as he does the same and you laugh, throwing your head back.

The song ends and you and your partner are left standing across from each other, trying to regain your breaths as the crowd around you claps. The hobbit smiles up at you, “How about a drink?” He points over his shoulder and you nod, following him back over to where his friend was still standing. His friend passes you a mug and you give him a nod, taking a quick sip of the ale. Your partner turns to you, lowering his own mug after taking a large gulp, “You’re a wonderful dancer.” He nods to the floor and you laugh.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” You see his cheeks heat up and you laugh again. Then you extend your hand to him, “Y/N.”

He quickly takes your hand in his own, “Pippin.” Then he presses a kiss to the back of your hand, and you’re left giggling. He grins at you as you move to place your half empty mug on a nearby table.

You smile at him, “Well it was lovely to meet you, Pippin.” He looks confused as you back away, your smile turning to a smirk. You wave to him as you move back to the floor, easily falling into the rhythm of another dance. Pippin watches you, his smile growing when you wink at him.

#pippin x reader #pippin imagine #peregrin took x reader #peregrin took imagine #lord of the rings imagine #lotr imagine

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morganaofcamelot · 4 years

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Robin Hood BBC Commentary/Rant - Season 1, Episode 1 - “Will You Tolerate This?”

‘Tis the second time I’m watching the series. During my initial viewing, there were a lot of things I’ve missed, and frankly, I ignored. So I will take it step-by-step, focusing on the four main characters of the show - Robin, Marian, Guy & the Sheriff - as well as their interactions with the others. You must forgive my english, I am afraid, as it is not my first language and some things may get lost in the translation. I won’t go into much of a technical issues (camera angles, unneeded slow-mo’s, not period appropriate costumes etc, but I will mention some that caught my eye. And, expect memes and references thrown in there, cause if my life is a joke, then I will make jokes of others’ lives, too.

Fair warning: some slight cussing, I guess. Thirst over Guy of Gisborne, some distain for Marian. The usual. Enjoy, under the cut!

Oh, almost forgot! @maxkiki @antigonemorris

1. Robin makes his heroic entrace, saving Allan A Dale. This first scene sets the tone of the series - Allan is poaching, the guardsmen are relentless and want to punish him, clever Robin has conjured a plan of smoke and mirrors. The guards actually believe that there are more than two people surrounding them. A plan that goes well, until Much opens his mouth. (I loved Much btw, but I think they sidelined him later on).

2. Their escape and the business at the barn(?). Here, we get a better glimpse of the kind of man Robin is, the irresistible womanizer that he is, the dashing rogue! What we learn for Much is that he likes food. The daughter of the man that offered them food for labor, is taken straight out of a dance-pop music video (again, I will not go into detail, but I just had to say it, because it almost made me stop watching the first time). As Robin snogs the girl, Sarah, her father explains to Much (and us) that there’s a new sheriff in town and he is BAD. The father sees them, and goes to fight for his daughter’s honor, and Robin showcases his agility and finesse (the sword fight is silly, to say the least) and his love for flair and flirt.

3. Locksley, at last. Sentimental Robin walks around the village, sees that the villagers are frightened. Dan Scarlett is the only one who isn’t afraid. He explains the situation even more – that Guy of Gisborne runs Robin’s estates, that he works for the sheriff, and that the punishments have been harsh for anyone stepping out of line.

4. Fabulous Gisborne enters the scene. Nothing short of a diva, Guy of Gisborne rides into the village, inquiring about stolen flour. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Gisborne is “quiet menace” incarnate. He talks quietly, but threateningly all the same. He asks for the perpetrators, and when no one comes forth, he gives the order to take the one he had already caught back to Nottingham. This is where Robin steps in, there’s a hint that he and Gisborne know each other, but nothing more. When Robin reveals his identity, Gisborne takes it like a champ, even though he is humiliated in front of the peasants.

5. The manor. Robin tells us that Much is a free man now. Gisborne enters the manor and welcomes Robin, saying that he ran the estate at the behest of the sheriff. Robin, for reasons unbeknownst to us, acts like a prick. Then Guy asks him about the Holy Land, and Robin replies the good old “oh, show me an argument that was ever settled with blood” and Gisborne calls him out on his bullshit, as he should. But Gisborne isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and lets slip that he has seen Robin fight, and Robin wonders ‘where?’ Where, indeed, sir Guy? Don’t stress over it, we will learn about it somewhere further down the line. Gisborne informs Robin of the sheriff’s feast, and Robin decides to lord it over Guy, saying that he will demand the prisoners to be released. Guy says, ‘I don’t get paid enough to deal with your bullshit, take it to the sheriff’ and thus ends the confrontation.

6. ‘She’s still unmarried’. So. Robin tells Much that he will pay a visit to the old sheriff, Much wants to get some rest, although out of obligation and love towards Robin, he concedes. Robin offers the food of the feast his servants were preparing to the villagers of Locksley, to Much’s dismay. Now, Edward of Knighton, seems like a man that has lost his mind, he doesn’t recognize Robin and behold! Marian, with a bow and arrow and ringless fingers (as Robin will comment later), telling them to go to hell. Robin tries to work his charm on her – seemingly it doesn’t work. Then it’s the ‘bless you Robin for feeding us’ scene, which is kind of wholesome and cute and I don’t mind it.

7. They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard They’re taking the sons to Nottingham.: Sorry, I couldn’t resist the joke. Remember Dan Scarlett? His sons have been arrested for stealing that flour Gisborne made a fuss about, and so they were taken to Nottingham, to await the sheriff’s judgement. Nottingham is a shitty place, by the looks of it. Robin promises he will plead their case.

8. The BIG BAD. My boy Gisborne is pacing around the room, frustrated. The sheriff pulls a Shredder on us for a little while (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference, because I got range) and laughs in his face because Gisborne didn’t force his claim on the manor, besides having 24 men and Robin only had Much. It’s safe to assume most of the peasants wouldn’t get involved in the fight. See, Guy is taking the high ground here. The sheriff assures him that the manor will be Gisborne’s by the end of the month. (Keith Allen is a scene stealer and he is phenomenal in this role, I love him.) The way he plays the next scene, which is the meeting of the lords of Nottinghamshire, is marvelous. He mocks them in their faces, and nobody bats an eye. Robin makes his entrance, Marian and her father are present, they exchange some ‘pleasantries’, and then Robin throws shade at the Pope (not present), and asks to abolish the taxation policies in favor of free market capitalist schemes (yes, I went there). The sheriff, being an old-fashioned chap, is pro-feudalism, and I imagine him that in modern-day, he would be a Brexit enthusiast/Trump supporter.

9. The birds. The sheriff is upset and goes to his birds to find some peace. Oh, I thought, he loves animals, there’s a redeeming quality! Oops, he accidentally crushed a bird. Nevermind

10. Marian & Robin creep me out, part I: Marian asks Robin to drop by her house after midnight, because the house is being ‘watched’. Robin goes into insta-flirting mode, hitting on her, which she likes, despite what she says. (and question: Robin was gone for five years (Marian tells us), the betrothal happened when Marian was sixteen, but people say she is supposed to be nineteen at the start of the series(!) Was Marian fourteen when she got betrothed to Robin, and Robin was like, twenty-five, I guess? Not creepy at all.)

11. Honey, you’ve got a big storm coming: Robin interviews the flour thieves. We learn that the punishment is for them to hang. Allan A Dale lied to get an audience with Robin, only to learn that his lies would lead him to the hangman’s noose.

12. The Sheriff owns Robin. Oh, the shade! The sheriff is a straight up savage, one of the original gangsta’s of medieval England. My boy Gisborne is in the back, doing what Gisborne does best; looking hot in leather. Marian walks in and smirking, my boy Gisborne steals her away.

13. Grow up, Robin. Alright, next scene. (Obviously one of those shot into broad daylight, but made it look like nighttime) Robin and Much visit Knighton and Marian tells them to step in, because they will be seen. Robin decides to be a snarky, jealous bitch. Edward of Knighton explains how the new sheriff got in power, and begs him to play the long game, which we know that Robin won’t do, because Robin is, as Robin does. But he thinks on it.

14. The hanging #1. Robin walks amongst the peasants, inconsolable. The sheriff and Gisborne come to the courtyard, and commence with the hanging. The sheriff has Much, to prevent Robin interfering with the punishment. A “clergyman” asks for the prisoners to be released and let join the Church. Robin smirks, which means it is his plan. The sheriff’s not buying it. The drum rolls…and the stools gets kicked. Robin goes into Avatar state and starts kicking butt, freeing the prisoners, whilst the whole castle watches and does nothing, before the prisoners are free. Silly battle ensues, Robin saves Much by throwing his sword. A bowman is aiming at Robin, but doesn’t fire. Marian does her ninja trick, saving Robin’s life. My boy Gisborne relishes the fact that the manor will now belong to him.

15. The gang escapes and makes it into Sherwood where they are ambushed by Little John and his twenty men, who in later episodes disappear.

#robin hood bbc #s01 #e01 #robin hood #guy of gisborne #marian of knighton #the sheriff #*mine #kat does robin hood but she would prefer doing guy

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whetstonefires · 4 years

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"the top three of its forty floors are filled with brass telescopes of every size, pointing in every possible direction, including several that do not exist within the normal three dimensions of space." thats SUCH a cool image / "If any harvest will come." ooh i wonder whats going on / "The roofs are of red tile, the stucco of the houses painted in shades of blue. It stands empty, but has not had time to fall into disrepair." the little bits of detail getting added to the picture im LOVE (1/?)

I’m gonna do these all as one post but broken up for ease of reference, I think.

Thank you! 🥰 Deciding the theme for the Tower and giving it that visual anchor really helped to pull things together. If you consider the whole setup, it seems unlikely the Tower was originally built as an observatory, since those tend to benefit from height (especially if you’re looking around you rather than up, but for the up ones also) and the builders could easily have put it on top of a mountain or at least some hills, but instead put it by the river. It’s above sea level, and it’s away from light pollution, but there were better locations. Nearby.

So either it wasn’t an observatory, and it’s been refitted as one, or they had so many observatories they didn’t care about locating them optimally, there was some other factor making having the tower there important even if it was suboptimal in terms of observation capacity. Or, potentially, it’s been moved since it was built!

:} Yay thank for being interested by the foreshadowing. I tried to put just enough in without actively overshadowing the actual place-setting-up and making the reader impatient with the description.

"If you look through an enchanted telescope you may see trees without needles fail halfway up the nearest of the great peaks, and even these fail before the top, though there is a span of nearly barren stone past that line, before the snow begins." you: mentions different plants living in different climates me: :0 / there's so much good description!! its all so pretty!! (2/?)

sflka;l;jlk i mean yeah, that’s pretty straightforward isn’t it. But! It establishes How Much Mountain it is visually rather than by saying ‘it was a big fucking mountain’ or ‘it was tall enough for the thinness of atmosphere near the top to create a small tundra region.’

o(*￣▽￣*)ブ

<3 Thank you! I kinda cut loose lmao.

"blocks veined with every color, pale blues and purples, reds and greens and golden-duns all mottling toward white and grey and black" god i want to live there so badly!! this tower is meeting all my standards!! cool pretty magic tower with rad telescopes!!! / "make a remark no one present understands about a Doctor named Seuss. His guide, the dousing tracker Amnaphi, will assume this person to be a famous astronomer from his homeland." im love!! misunderstandings about references!! (?/?)

💗💖✨ Yay! That’s an important feeling to create in fantasy, imo. The wanting.

I really enjoyed playing with the standard forms for ‘thing made of marble’ here, because all these marbles really exist, but in spite of the existence of the word ‘marbled’ our narrative uses of it tend to be tied up with Neoclassical aesthetics. So very white and smooth, yeah?

Also idk if it’s obvious to the reader but this Tower is to some degree in dialogue with Orthanc, which made a great impression on my mind as a child as the iconic wizardly tower, and while I don’t disagree with any of Tolkien’s use of symbolism for the purposes he was deploying it, there’s so much potential in Isengard as a setting that LotR had no space to explore, even if Tolkien would have noticed those angles at all.

Like...the parkland around the Tower is shown being despoiled for the orcish war machine and then reconquered by the forest, but of course it wasn’t forest to begin with. What was it for before Saruman lost his shit? Ordered gardens, for peaceful contemplation? Who dedicated the space that way? Who maintained it?

Did Saruman employ a gardener? Did he design his own gardens, or did they come with the keep, which we’re informed was built not by him but by the Numenoreans?

(“I liked white better” is still one of the greatest lines in a fantasy novel, Tolkien does not get enough credit for his contextually hilarious one-liners that rely on pointed code-switching, but Saruman’s evil rainbow oil-slick robes also sounded really baller and it’s kind of a shame they were not attempted for the movie lol.)

The fact that this is a world designed around a kid getting portal-fantasied into it and staying for 30 years really gives me some options which are fun to deploy but also like. Risky lmao. Because it encourages the reader to surface from the setting-logic and apply their own perspective, which can really break up the magic.

Being able to zoom out on the Tower after all that detail and be like ‘it’s awesome but also it looks like something Doctor Seuss would draw’ was fun though.

"Within the even hexagon of its outer wall, the Tower encloses a great parkland, enough that if it was all put under cultivation it could easily feed as many people as could live in the Tower itself." the tower has PLANTS i love it so much / "Ten Years’ Winter" god PLEASE tell me this is going to get into the agriculture and society stuff game of thrones didn't about long winters that would be SO cool / "Watchers of the Stars" AND they have a cool name holy shit (?/?)

Plants are important! As is food supply. As everyone who’s been reading this blog for a while already knows I think lol.

I mean, it’s not about that, really? The Ten Years’ Winter is a historical event--the most recent meteor impact severe enough to have global climate fallout. The dust it kicked up took a while to settle, and the famines were pretty severe.

But the cultural consequences of something that happened a hundred and fifty years ago exist, and are important, including the relationship between governance and disaster preparedness, which varies a lot regionally as you may imagine.

Astronomy has a long history as a wizardly sort of activity in the real world, both because it’s had continual overlap with astrology and just because the process has always been mystical and abstruse. In this setting, with a history of both devastating meteor impacts and being invaded from the Moon, but also actual magic, it’s got more obvious practical importance. Although since neither of these are remotely everyday occurrences, the average person on the street might not agree lol.

So it’s on the one hand a purely descriptive title, and on the other hand a serious boast, suggesting as it does that they are primarily responsible for Watching The Sky For Stuff. While also having broader philosophical implications and just sounding nice lol.

You gotta have good marketing if you want to persist as a wizardly order, because if talented students aren’t motivated to come to you how will you gain new members? Natural replacement is not an ideal strategy to say the least. That’s how you turn into a cult instead of an intellectual powerhouse.

"The northern third of the Tower’s park contains neatly regimented orchards, apples, pears, plums, and a few rows of carefully tended peaches and apricots, all clipped flat against low brick walls angled south and slightly west." hhh t r e e s / "wizards, while enthusiastic about innovation in the abstract, hate change." me too, wizards. me too / "The Tower grounds are filled with refugees." ooh now we get to why everything was empty earlier (?/?)

Trees! Which are also food!

And technology lol. Greenhouses built against fruit walls with good insulation are so much more sensible than ones heated from inside. Obviously as a passive solar-powered technology these only work when the sun is available and not, for example, cut off by a giant dust cloud.

These people are fairly acutely aware of their dependence on the sun and it figures prominently in a majority of their religions and their magical theory, even more than in ours.

There seems to be a mild consensus that the wizards are relatable. In truth: we are all wizards. :D

Yup! At long last lol.

"This division corresponds imperfectly to the usual split of the town by the course of the Meroda." because people!! take comfort!! in what normalcy they can find!! / "Makeshift pallets line the spaces between every fruit wall—the injured are being laid out here, now that the Tower is full, to get the benefit at night of the warmth meant to mature fruit." the awesome magic tower people trying to do everything they can for the injured who come to them for help in case i thought i couldn't be (?)

more in love / "Half of them are making ready to turn south along the Meroda." oh nooooo / "but the Moon People are the successors of the ancient magics, and just because they could not break the walls the last time they came, according to legend, does not mean they have not worked out a method now." im so worried for the people oh no (?)

Yeah! It really seemed natural. But of course they also aren’t recreating it obsessively; lots of people are grouping up with relatives who normally live across the river, or with people in the same line of work on the river, because people also adapt to circumstances.

No institution is ever perfect, of course, but I’m glad the Watchers have come across this way so far. They’re broadly well-intentioned and mostly well-organized.

And they were not ready for this.

A significant fraction of the reason for the order of the Watchers to exist at all, particularly in this observatory with its great eye fixed ever on the face of the green moon, is to be able to warn the world if this ever happens again. But the Moon People knew they were being watched, this time, and they kept all the build-up to mobilization that might have given them away on the far side of the moon until the last minute.

What the Magister is doing, as I hope was made clear or at least successfully indicated--I wish your commentary on the ending had come through!--is summoning what turns out to be an actual child from another world to do hero stuff.

Even if he’d gotten an adult that would be kidnapping someone to help with your problems, a routine element of the portal fantasy whose ethics have been addressed in a variety of ways, most famously ‘is Lion Jesus and always right.’

The reason they need a hero from another world is that the Moon People build a lot of their wards and their offensive and disabling magical attacks around a targeting system based on what planet people are from, because even though they’re originally from the same stock--they’re the descendants of ancient moon colonists who evacuated ahead of a major meteor impact somewhere approaching four thousand years ago--on a magical level having been born and raised on the planet or the moon makes a pretty huge difference.

So no one can get into the place their magic space elevator is anchored and fuck it up so they can’t keep bringing troops and supply in and loot out. Their single supply line is their only strategic weakness, and they’ve taken appropriate precautions.

Getting someone in from a third location is the best idea anyone’s been able to come up with in the very limited time available. Since no one can figure out how to turn one of the Moon People against the cause they came here for, on short notice, when they aren’t even stopping to talk to anyone so far. Like, that’s clearly not going to happen.

Heron Yl Fanult isn’t unaware that it’s ethically questionable, but he’s doing it anyway.

So I’m glad the ominous imminent oncoming of the Moon People can really be felt, because that atmosphere is fairly essential context for the decisionmaking going on at the top of the Tower.

"Young wizards sit in their bunks, six each to rooms that were previously individual, and hold lighting cupped dancing in their palms." a quick break from being worried to point out that this is rad as hell / "some with their heads decorously covered..." cultural differences!! especially with regional purposes like the Hedro!!

Thank you! 😆💖 I thought so too lol.

It also establishes the parameters of the magic system a little more. Throwing lightning bolts is pretty iconicly high-powered, right? And here it’s what most of the student wizards are practicing in anticipation of a battle, because most of them aren’t specced into combat and this is actually one of the easier lethal spells to master, especially if you have an academic background.

‘Electrocute’ isn’t a very flexible spell and it’s easy to lose control of, but it’s actually easier than, say, ‘set on fire to a significant degree in a non-electrical manner’ because concentrating a lot of heat in a certain location takes a lot more brute force than encouraging ionization.

You can pull most of the actual destructive force for the palm lightning spell out of the physical air and/or earth if you grasp the principles, which is much easier than channeling a comparable amount of magic directly because it doesn’t have to go through you.

The limiting factors on magic in this setting are how much power you can tap into and how much of it you can actually use without hurting or killing yourself. It’s not usually a lot, though the amount can be increased by things like choosing your workspace, prepping your workspace, and a whole lot of practice and meditation and things like that.

Magical traditions that get bundled under the heading of wizardry tend to focus on force multiplication, obtaining enough contextual understanding of a subject to make whatever power is applied go further. This means a lot of studying theory and using magic to make observations (such as the existence of microorganisms and their connection to disease) and often results in making clever devices based on what you’ve learned that may not actually wind up being magical at all.

Which is why the solar greenhouse proposal is considered ‘more wizardly’ than the fruit walls, which are wizardly in the first place even though the technology is pretty widespread at this point--it’s carried the principle of minimizing the energy you have to invest to get the result you want to the logical conclusion, where you don’t have to do any magic at all, you just set up the situation and get out of the way and the sun will do the work for you.

Other schools of magic, particularly religious ones, are more likely to emphasize just getting better at handling energy for yourself, which tends to yield a lot more in the way of immediate practical dividends and in a lot of quarters wizards who don’t do something obviously practical like physic or smithcraft with their theoretical background are considered crackpots or dilettantes

An impression helped along by the fact that being taken on as a student of wizardry at a basic level tends to focus more on your reading comprehension than your ability to actually do any magic, so in places where religious and wizardly institutions coexist the most talented students have a tendency to gravitate toward the religious life. This is particularly marked in areas religiously dominated by the Compact of the Golden Circle, wherein full ordination is contingent on being able to pull off certain fairly hefty rituals, so if you aren’t physically or mentally up to that kind of magical heavy lifting your religious career will stall out in one of the lay fraternities. In some of the cities on Sutouchel, the landmass to the southeast where the Compact is based, a slang term for wizard is ‘sanctum washout.’

But of course force multiplication is something that can scale up pretty far, and studying theory doesn’t stop you from also putting work into your practical skills, and not having talent isn’t the only reason someone would choose not to seek out a clerical career, if it’s even an option. Religion along the Meroda is pretty localized; communities tend to have local deities who correspond to a natural feature like the nearest mountain or the river or something, and if that deity rates a fulltime shrine the keeper also tends to be the major local medical provider, and since the wizards got settled in at the Tower it’s become pretty popular for shrinekeeping families to send their kids there for a year or two to get some educational polish in addition to what their parent already emphasized.

So depending on where you live and what your personal experience has been you’re going to have very different ideas about what wizards are good for.

Hrm. I’ve gone on a tangent. But that wound up taking so long you came back! :D I love it when being turtle works out in my favor.

Or was this actually the meta I was supposed to be doing in the first place? Aaaaa who knows.

im fairly confident you said eight asks survived so this is number nine? anyways onwards! "The hale survivors of the First Battle of the Second Descent sit waiting in their leathers, jack-chains and helmets laughably inadequate armor against the coming danger, and yet the best hope now just as they were on Carun Tol once the wizard fell" i have a lot of emotions about how their best bet is also a terrible bet but its all they have (9/?)

Yes 8.

Woo, thank you! ^^ & I love that you described it that way because that also describes the ‘summon alien’ spell Yl Fanult is casting and echoing the same emotional theme throughout the scene was very much the goal here.

"Threads have escaped from the braids pinned across the top of her skull: she has not had the chance to take them down for two days." god just the continuation of how desperate everything is / "He leans forward to peer through the narrow glass that has been turned on its articulated base to face the middle of the room, and relaxes very slightly. At least there has been no catastrophic alteration there, either." what does that one do id assume theres no approching army in the middle of the room -

:D Yeah, the fact that one of the chief medics available is already overworked to the point of neglecting nonessential personal hygiene and the enemy isn’t even here yet I hoped would resonate.

Well, remember how some of the telescopes at the beginning point in directions not included in the normal three dimensions of space? :}

- "trained as it long has been upon the face of the moon" also forgot to mention their enemies being from the moon is Rad As Hell / "He snaps his fingers for a spark that falls into the deep circular groove full of distilled spirits, and steps through that as well. He is not burned." ooooh whats he doing / "At his feet lie a glittering piece of gold ore, a moonstone, and a carefully sanded round of pumice." i see the connection to the moonstone bc moon army but i wonder about the others -

Thank you! It took a fair amount of poking before I decided it was a solid approach; it provides just enough physical alienation that there’s no direct cultural relationship and you can have that ‘everyone in the entire world Disliked That’ vibe, without needing to create any complicated magical and cultural explanation for such a long run of isolationism. They were out of contact because they were On The Moon.

Also I really get a kick out of putting space invaders in a fantasy setting in a way that stops just short of turning into sci-fi.

I’m glad the ritual lead-up is exciting! Even if the foreshadowing wasn’t as obvious as I thought it was lol. That’s fixable.

Gold is for the sun, moonstone is yeah for the moon lol (although in other circumstances people also use jade, because it’s been a long time since the moon was uniformly silver on account of it having been terraformed a few thousand years ago) and pumice is for the world--it’s a stone full of air that floats on water, so it’s popular as an anchoring device for rituals that call on all three local celestial bodies.

"He cannot take much time. He has only until the ring of fire dies." whats he doingggggg / anyways i love this so much!! the descriptions are gorgeous and im so invested in all of everything!! i hope you write more im so curious about it all!!

XD Ok I covered this already, I would have saved it for down here or Been Mysterious if tumblr hadn’t eaten the last few asks the first time lol. Thank you so much again! For encouragement! Before and now! I’ll try! To keep it going!

Here’s hoping this successfully posts, tumblr just kicked me onto New Dashboard again and disabled the turn-it-off button, so now my alternate posting strategy is borked up too. 🤞😅😘

#hoc est meum #ask #worldbuilding #a nonny mouse #the tower of sight #people say nice things #long post #<3

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princecami · 6 years

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Imagine Legolas: Born of Shadows

Pairing: Legolas x Reader (Lena) Chapter 18 Summary: The ports of Mordor. ... Warnings: None.

chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17

They traveled for six days until they reached the gates of Mordor, the two huge iron gates of the Black Gate under their sinister bow were very well shut. There was nothing on the ameia, everything was still, but the sense of vigilance persisted.

Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, and Gimli were on the front line, the elf and wizard's body hid Lena, but she could see everything in front of her.

"Show up!" They shouted. "May the Lord of the Black Earth appear! Justice will be made to him. For he acted badly waging war against Gondor and robbing his lands.Therefore the King of Gondor commands him to repair his errors and then leave forever. Show up!"

There was a long silence, and there was no sound in answer from the wall or the gate.

And then the middle door of the Black Gate opened with a great clang, and out of there came an embassy from the Dark Tower. As his leader came riding an evil figure, riding a black horse, if that was a horse, for it was huge and hideous, and his face a horrifying mask, more like a skull than a living head, and the pits of his eyes and his nostrils flared. The knight was all dressed in black, and black was his imposing helmet; but this was not a Ring Specter, but a living man. He was the Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr, and his name is not remembered in any history, for he himself had forgotten it, and he said:

"I am the mouth of Sauron"

So after showing Frodo's belonging and implying that the hobbit had been captured, he said he would give the terms of the surrender of Gondor's army, Rohan and his allies.

"The terms are these," said the Messenger, smiling and staring at them one by one,

"the gondolier of Gondor and his deluded allies must withdraw immediately beyond Anduin, not without first being sworn never to attack Sauron the Great again , openly or secretly. All lands east of Anduin should belong to Sauron forever, and only to him. The region west of the Anduin, to the Dark Mountains and the Rohan Gorge, should pay tribute to Mordor, and the men there will not be able to bear arms, but will be allowed to govern their own affairs. However, they should help rebuild Isengard, which they destroyed by whim, and this region will be of Sauron, and there his lieutenant should live: not Saruman, but someone more trustworthy. "

Looking into the Messenger's eyes, they all read his thoughts. He would be that lieutenant who would gather all that remained of the west under his control would be a tyrant and they would be his slaves. Behind an elf on the front line, he can see shining eyes.

"Arlayna Daughter of Shadows," he chortled "it's so good to see her again."

"I see you got what you wanted, did not you? He tried to kill me to get the rank in Isengard, "Lena said.

"Fool! How silly! "He laughed," did you think that after trying to defend that disgusting Elvish Elf-king Oropher, would he go unpunished? "

They all turned their eyes to a woman whose eyes glowed hotly like intense fire redder and brighter than Sauron's great eye.

Did she meet my grandfather? Thought legolas.

After arguing with Gandalf Drums rumbled and fires rose to the air. The great doors of the Black Gate opened wide. From them came a great army like a wave, with the swiftness of swirling water as a gate opens.

The captains mounted again and retreated, and from the army of Mordor came a shout of derision. The dust rose up, choking the air, for from a nearby spot came a troop of Easterners who had been waiting for the signal in the shadows of Ered Lithui, beyond the Tower farthest. The hills on either side of the Morannon dumped countless orcs.The men of the west were trapped, and then, all around the gray hills where they were, forces ten times larger and even more numerous than that would surround them in a sea of enemies. Sauron had bitten the bait with steel jaws. There was little time left for Aragorn to command his battle. Lena, without thinking clearly, ran after Sauron's mouth and yanked him off her horse, her roaring as an animal displayed its sharp teeth as it shook the horse, displaying the sword the knight laughed.

"When you arose it became my master's weakness and when he disappeared" he laughed again "he became stronger!"

The woman swung her sword and beckoned him, irritated she gave a thunderbolt that was blocked by her, the two matched in motions, the sounds of shocking swords echoing across the battlefield, the messenger kicked her knee making the and dropped the sword in his throat.

"Daughter of the shadows," he said in a soft voice, "your mother calls you."

He raised his sword to the sky and roared down again, then stopped with the point of the sword in the woman's chest and her mouth fell blood, Lena roared and her whole body changed, the wolf was bigger than it used to be and was surrounded by a golden redness like fire. The earth trembled beneath his feet. Then, rising rapidly, far above the Towers of the Black Gate, much higher than mountains, a vast darkness burst forth in the skies, burning with fire. And the earth groaned and shuddered. The Tooth Towers swayed, staggered and fell; the mighty fortification collapsed, the Black Gate fell into ruin; and from afar, sometimes weak, sometimes growing, others still rising to the clouds, came a rumble like drums, a roar, a long, turbulent noise of destruction.

"The kingdom of Sauron is finished!" Said Gandalf. "The Ring Bearer has fulfilled his Demand."

English is not my mother tongue! If something goes wrong please correct me, tell me if you like it.

mela - love

#imagine lord of the rings #legolas x reader #imaginelegolas

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angelholme · 7 years

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Review Of IT - Part 3 (The MASSIVE Spoiler Version)

I really cannot overstate the fact there will be spoilers. Just to be clear. However, since I am a nice person, I will put them under a tag.

For those of you who don’t know me, I have pretty specific standards for adaptations of books being made into films. And it is generally just one thing.

The film has to stay true to the spirit of the book.

It doesn’t have to include all the scenes (and with “IT” that would be nigh on impossible, since it is 1,100 pages long, and there are some scenes that would just be impossible to include - I will come to those later) as long as the general spirit of the book comes across in the film.

A major example of how badly this was cacked up was in a film called “Anne of Green Gables, The Continuing Story”. It basically told the story of Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe dealing with World War I. However the “Green Gables” series already had a story that dealt with that - “Rilla of Ingleside” and it is the single best story in The Green Gables series.

But “The Continuing Story” has Gilbert going to war, and then Anne going to war. Anne Shirley actually goes to war during World War One. The level of bollocks that that displays in regard to the continuity of Green Gables LITERALLY can’t be put into words.The entire fandom was fairly offended by this.

For me, another example of this, is The Lord of The Rings movies. While they are mostly okay, there are parts of them that are so... wrong they just make me want to scream and hunt Peter Jackson down and beat him to death with the extended trilogy boxset. I think the four most offensive parts are Merry and Pippin having to trick TreeBeard into fighting at Isengard, Faramir not letting Frodo go until much later than he should have, the ENTIRE bollocks plot with Arwen and Aragorn and - most offensively of all - the fight between Frodo and Sam.

So when it came to the adaptation of “IT - Chapter 1” I did not have high hopes, because the previous adaptation (”IT - The Miniseries”) was actually quite brilliant. It missed out a lot of stuff (Neibolt Street for example) and the less said about the special effects at the end the better, but the actual adaptation of the book into the story was pretty good.

It held the idea of the seven working together as one, that they each had an encounter then came together, that they felt incomplete until Mike joined them. And while it was somewhat abbreviated, the jump between past and present in the first half was very well done, and the jump between present and past in the second half was also well done.

However, I am sad to say the same cannot be said for “IT - Chapter 1″

The weirdest thing is that it actually started quite well. The encounter between Georgie and IT was pretty detailed, and kind of terrifying. (One of my concerns was that they would not find someone to top Tim Curry as Pennywise because he was truly amazing, but Bill Skarsgard was equally scary in a whole other way, and they did not overuse CGI at all).

But then it kind of fell apart. Richie was a tool. Literally a total dick - I don’t remember him being that obsessed with sex in the book (even taking into account the fact it was set 20 years later than the original) and Eddie was a bit of a prick as well (although he retained his hypochondria as well). There was (and this will sound odd as I write it) far too much emphasis on Beverly being a girl (within the group) - I always had the impression that (Ben, and to some extent Bill, aside) they treated her as one of the guys.

Unsurprisingly there was more father/son crap was strictly necessary. Henry’s father morphed into the local sheriff (as opposed to an out and out criminal), Mike’s father was dead and Stan’s father was the Head Rabbi for the town.

Beverly’s father was still a creep (but far more of a creep than in the book - the book left it somewhat ambiguous as to whether it was IT that was manipulating him, while the film suggested he was just a pervert waiting to happen) and Eddie’s mother was as overbearing as ever.

There was also Bill wanting revenge. He never thought George was dead - he was always under the impression that George was just missing. Apparently the body was never found, so George was “One of the missing” rather than “one of the brutally horribly killed”. Which could be the reason he wasn’t looking for the monster that killed him, which could lead to the next thing - the main thing - and also lead to one of the oddest scenes (see the ending).

But by far and away the thing that was missing the most was the Seven as One. And the power of belief - it never got mentioned. At all.

In the book, they got together and stayed together. They knew that their power came from being together - that when they were seven, together as friends, they were stronger. Eddie’s arm got broken when he was alone - Bowers got him alone and broke his arm - and then his friends came to the hospital to ensure he would not be alone in the future.

In the film, I never got that idea. When they went into Neibolt Street, Bill charged off alone, and was all for going inside before the other six came up. Then he, Richie and Eddie went inside leaving the other four outside. They split up - even at the point in the story where they should have known better they split up. What was that about?

They then get into a HUGE fight about it, and don’t speak to each other for nearly a month. At which point Beverly nearly gets attacked by her father (as happens in the book) and then - in a truly appalling piece of writing that I get from a film making point of view, but from an adaptation point of view made me go EEEEEEESH - gets kidnapped by IT.

So - just to make it clear - the one girl in the group (who in the book is literally one of the strongest characters, the warrior maid with red hair, who stands up to her father to be with her friends) - gets kidnapped and dragged down to the sewers and has to be rescued by six boys. (I will get to the rescuing part later).

So the final confrontation - instead of being seven children going to kick the shit out of a creature that eats children, is now about six boys going to rescue the girl. The girl is rescued by being kissed by a boy. Apparently even in a world of child eating clowns true loves kiss is the answer to everything and then in a truly freaky scene, Bill put a bolt through George’s brain.

The book was all about the fact that if they believed - truly believed - they were powerful. That if a thousand villagers imagined a vampire, then one villager could imagine a stake to kill that vampire.

Nothing in the film mentioned that, which was why Bill was using a bolt gun instead of a sling shot.

And while Richie finally stopped being a tool long enough to join the final battle, it was still a physical battle (rather than the battle of belief). I wasn’t expecting the Ritual of Chud, but still - not as convincing as it should have been.

And the final ending was just...... predictable. But that I will leave as a surprise, since I’ve told you most of everything else.

It basically kept the character names, and some of their traits (Bill stuttered, but wasn’t really the leader of the group to any extent - no one displayed the respect and reverence that they had for him in the book, Stan was Jewish but it wasn’t referred to all that much - he wasn’t teased about it by the others), some of the monster faces and some of the scenes. But this really could have been any generic monster movie and not “IT”.

All in all - as adaptions go, I would give it 3/10, maybe 4/10 because it was an okay film. However the whole plot with Bev being kidnapped was truly bad writing - not called for at all. So yeah.

As a film on it’s own (if you assume it was written as a film) it was maybe 5/10, 6/10, but knowing it is based on a book (a book I actually like and like a lot) that drops it a lot lower.

#it chapter 1 #it adventure part 3 #spoiler review #lot of spoilers #stephen king #it #bad adaptation #it adventure

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garden-ghoul · 7 years

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return of the blog, part 11

“ghoul ‘can’t tell the difference between anxiety and hunger’ surname”

time for!! the chapter we’ve all been waiting for!! (all the ghouls anyway)

THE SCOURING OF THE SHIRE

There’s a large spiky gate blocking the ferry. Our hobbits hammer on it until some people come out, and then start telling them off for denying their friends entry on such a wet night. Apparently Lotho “The Chief” Sackville-Baggins has started hiring thugs to fuck with people?? I want to know if he was sponsored by Saruman or something, or if he genuinely just took owning Bag End as his big chance to be a huge dick. OH. One of the ruffians he has hired is none other than Bill “the Big Man” Ferny! I can’t remember, is Bill Ferny human? Is that why he’s Big, or is it more of an importance title? Anyway, this is interesting to see him as an ‘enforcer,’ since Butterbur straight-up called him a robber. Merry threatens to kill him; Bill the pony kicks him; he runs off and is Never Seen Again. How neat...

Even after our hobbits have gotten through the gate... nobody is allowed to put them up for the night. Pippin yawns showily; everyone nervously eyes his sword and mail. And they agree to take our hobbits in, just for one night. They have to provide their own food, and there’s a lot of this sort of thing:

‘Now you shut up, Hob Hayward!’ cried several of the others. ‘You know talk o’ that sort isn’t allowed. The Chief will hear of it, and we’ll all be in trouble.’

‘He wouldn’t hear naught, if some of you here weren’t sneaks,’ rejoined Hob hotly.

Despite the fact that the Brandywine is a good 40 miles from Bag End, the next day a bunch of “shirriffs” (distinct from sheriffs somehow? an actual spelling used somewhere in Britain? just for flavor?) block the road. While quaking in their boots they read off a list of incredibly petty-sounding crimes. Frodo laughs at them, and Sam gets this famous line:

‘I can add some more, if you like it,’ said Sam. ‘Calling your Chief Names, Wishing to punch his Pimply Face, and Thinking you Shirriffs look a lot of Tom-fools.’

Thinking someone is foolish cannot possibly be a crime, Mr Gamgee, those are the tamest crimes ever. Maybe that’s the joke. I love Sam. Throw an apple at ‘im! Everyone laughs even harder when the head Shirriff tries to arrest Frodo. Well, he happens to be going to Bag End anyway, on business! You lot can tag along, if you please! “Very well,” says the leader, “but don’t forget I’ve arrested you.” Frodo, I like to imagine, gives him a pitying look. But says he may forgive him someday. How generous!

Sam takes aside one of the shirriffs who he knows and has a little talk. Lotho has outlawed beer?? And that’s why there are no more inns. Sorry, what. How can you outlaw beer. How was there not mass rioting when he announced this. Sam’s shirriff friend would like some rioting, but he’s too afraid to try and start one himself. Lotho has been kidnapping people if they try to start anything. The next day our hobbits ride behind the shirriffs, so it looks like they’re the ones being arrested by fancy aristocrat hobbits! A bunch of people on the road make fun of the shirriffs, but Merry threatens them to make sure they can’t fight back. They ride so hard that the shirriffs get tired out and have to rest, leaving our hobbits to go on ahead. Meet you at the Green Dragon!

Unfortunately the Green Dragon is full of ruffians (humans!) The whole village of Bywater (which I assume is Hobbiton’s closest neighbor) is in a bad way: many homes have been burned down, and nobody is out. One of the ruffians in the Green Dragon mentions someone named Sharkey, which is extremely ominous. I’ve never heard an orc call Saruman that, but Orcsong Anon tells me they do, so I have to assume that Saruman is behind this. Somehow Frodo knows Saruman is Sharkey I guess? He’s a very clever person, I suppose. He tries to taunt the ruffians, but they don’t actually care if Saruman is a beggar in the wilderness. They can still threaten hobbits just fine without him.

Pippin has had enough bullshit.

He cast back his cloak, flashed out his sword, and the silver and sable of Gondor gleamed on him as he rode forward. ‘I am a messenger of the King,’ he said. ‘You are speaking to the King’s friend, and one of the most renowned in all the lands of the West. You are a ruffian and a fool. Down on your knees in the road and ask pardon, or I will set this troll’s bane in you!’

Oh yeah he killed one (1) troll at Morannon before getting squished. I mean, a troll is no mean feat. It just sounds like he’s misrepresenting himself a little bit to look tougher. Which I fully support. Merry and Sam step forward too, and Frodo just stands there with his arms folded, looking a bit like a mob boss. I DOUBLE approve. The ruffians flee, even though there are six of them and they are twice as tall as the hobbits. They don’t have swords!! They didn’t sign up for this. All the hobbits high five.

They called for help though. This may come to fighting, if they’re to rescue Lotho (probably a prisoner in Bag End by now), but Frodo wants no killing, especially not of hobbits. The young’uns are disgruntled, but who’s the mob boss here? That’s right. Don Baggins. With this, though, he leaves the younger hobbits to plan the night’s work: hiding is what the ruffians want them to do, so they have a short time to raise an army in the Shire. Let’s start with old Farmer Cotton! He’s stout and a big man in Bywater, as it were. Sam rides like hell for Cotton Farm. Merry blows the horn of Rohan, in the Buckland pattern that says Fire! Foes! Awake! Fuck yeah this rules.

Sam takes a moment to say hi to Rosie Cotton, who I really, I just love her, she’s a great person. She’s been expecting him since the spring, though everyone else thought he was dead, and she doesn’t need watching over when there are ruffians to roust! Personally I think she should help but she’d probably rather not get her hands dirty. I can respect that.

A small army of hobbits has gathered already, including a lot of defecting shirriffs; Pippin rides off to bring some Tooks, who already started armed resistance a while ago. He’ll have to Sneak. Twenty ruffians are surrounded and subdued, with only one casualty. We learn that Lotho mostly got rich by 1) already being rich enough to buy other people’s property and 2) selling tobacco at a premium to Saruman. He built a new mill that literally does nothing except produce sludge to pour into the river, because Saruman is a spiteful dumbass. Sam brings his gaffer back, who has a bone to pick with Mr Frodo: he never should of sold Bag End, because Sharkey’s men have gone and dug up all his taters. I would die for this gaffer.

More ruffians come, but the Tooks get there first. Also apparently the ruffians know zilch about strategy, whereas Merry has observed possibly up to five battle strategies. No omg maybe Eowyn was tutoring him. Anyway they pretty much defeat this party of ruffians too, but with a lot more casualties and injuries. Then our hobbits go to Bag End to find Lotho.

Ugh you guys this is the worst. They’ve cut down trees, old trees that probably grew for hundreds of years. Destroy something rebuildable, like houses! Or better yet, don’t destroy anything! Argh! LEAVE TREES ALONE. As they’re searching Bag End Saruman turns up.

‘Sharkey!’ Frodo cried.

Saruman laughed. ‘So you have heard the name, have you? All my people used to call me that in Isengard, I believe. A sign of affection, possibly.’

Nobody has affection for you, you horrible fool. Saruman is extremely smug about ruining the home of the ones who took him down, because he’s petty, petty, petty. Frodo tells him to get out, and he kind of saunters sneeringly away. Grima tries to stab Frodo as he passes (in hopes of avoiding future beatings... ::( ) but Frodo says don’t kill him! He has been threatened and turned by Saruman, same as many here.

Saruman rose to his feet, and stared at Frodo. There was a strange look in his eyes of mingled wonder and respect and hatred. ‘You have grown, Halfling,’ he said. ‘Yes, you have grown very much. You are wise, and cruel. You have robbed my revenge of sweetness, and now I must go hence in bitterness, in debt to your mercy. I hate it and you!’

THIS is really good. Go sing “Javert’s Suicide” to yourself. Who is this man hobbit? What sort of devil is he to have me caught in a trap and choose to let me go free? I loooove Frodo’s role as peacekeeper and voice of moderation. Trying to prevent the spread of Saruman’s ideals of violence in the Shire. Frodo offers to let Wormtongue stayy and rest, because “I know of no evil you have done to me” (it was only an attempted stabbing) and Wormtongue wants to accept but... Saruman tells everyone that he killed Lotho.

‘Didn’t you, Worm? Stabbed him in his sleep, I believe. Buried him, I hope; though Worm has been very hungry lately. No, Worm is not really nice. You had better leave him to me.’

A look of wild hatred came into Wormtongue’s red eyes. ‘You told me to; you made me do it,’ he hissed.

I love this kind of shittttt GET HIM GRIMA!!

Grima gets him, and then for some damned reason three people shoot him. Let him be, folks!! Ugh! Let him live! Too late for that. He is dead. Even Frodo, who offered him sanctuary ninety seconds ago, isn’t sad about it. Damn you!

THE GREY HAVENS

The first thing our hobbits do is let everyone out of prison. Lobelia, who was locked up for trying to hit some of the ruffians with her umbrella for mucking with Bag End, gets a cheer. She’s not used to being popular! She moves away and leaves Bag End to Frodo, and then after dying leaves him a large fund to help homeless hobbits. And So The Feud Was Ended. Really I think there are no more Sackville-Bagginses at all, but if there were it would still be ended. Frodo becomes Deputy Mayor. Merry and Pippin clean up the last of the ruffians. Sam is in charge of rebuilding. I’m not sure why--either he’s learning as he goes, or he has had a great deal of talent all along and never been listened to until he got famous. PROBABLY. He’s a good lad, our Sam!!

The trees were the worst loss and damage, for at Sharkey’s bidding they had been cut down recklessly far and wide over the Shire; and Sam grieved over this more than anything else. For one thing, this hurt would take long to heal, and only his great-grandchildren, he thought, would see the Shire as it ought to be.

And he shares my opinions about trees. Yavanna, are you watching? You better be watching. Sam uses Galadriel’s gift of magic soil, planting seedlings where the most beloved trees were destroyed. The Party Tree (where Bilbo used to host parties) is replaced by a mallorn seedling, which everyone is very excited about. That entire year is extremely fruitful, both in crops and in children. PROBABLY both owing to Sam’s magic dust, somehow. “No one was ill, and everyone was pleased. except those who had to mow the grass.” Hehehehe. OH. SAM IS ALSO DOING FORESTRY WORK. I LOVE HIM. FORESTRY IS MY NEW PASSION AND I LOVE SAM GAMGEE.

Frodo asks when Sam is going to move in. There’s been a hideous misunderstanding, Mr Frodo. I’m actually dating Rosie Cotton, not you. Frodo just says “Marry Rosie, and then move in here! Don’t be ridiculous!” And so Sam got married to both Rosie and Frodo. Merry and Pippin throw a lot of parties and swan about looking Lordly and everyone admires them. Sam is chagrined to note that Frodo receives no admiration, probably because his whole thing is not killing people. Frodo becomes more quiet and withdrawn; I fancy he knows he’ll be leaving Middle Earth soon, and is trying to prepare his husband for when he leaves.

Frodo and Sam set off together; Frodo is going to see Bilbo for his birthday (he’s now older than the Great Took). They’re going for Rivendell, but they’re hardly out of Bywater when they run into a party from that exact place! Including Elrond, Galadriel, and Bilbo himself. Bilbo invites Frodo to come with them where they’re going. Sam is devastated, but Frodo is just Too Traumatized to stay in the Shire. I didn’t mention all the times he got sick from magic wounds and also normal flavor trauma, but it was a couple times a year. He can’t really live in this world any longer, it just takes too much. Saaammmmmeee dude

Sam, Merry, and Pippin say goodbye to Frodo’s party (and Gandalf) at the Havens, and ride home in silence. In a great moment of narrative framing, the book ends with Sam putting his daughter on his lap and saying, “Well, I’m back.”

#tune in next time for appendices!#blog of the rings #I'm mad that mr tolkien made me feel a feeling #how dare you

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mechaogre-blog · 6 years

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A History of Bogair Hatefang Part 2

Bogair took his new elven companions to Aaricks' campsite, just beyond the borders of Lothlorien. Xash said, "Are you sure we can trust him Lyradil?" But before Lyradil could respond, Bogair snapped, "Listen to me long ears, the day I go back on my word is the day my toungue gets cut out and fed to a troll!" "That could be arranged." Xash snapped back, unsheathing his dagger. Flail to the ready, Bogair yelled, "If you want to lose the opportunity to drive out the only thing that stands between your forest thriving and its destruction, come at me, if not; then put that little butter knife away and trust me!" After a long stare down, Lyradil finally breaks the silence, "Well brother it seems to me, you only have one choice." Xash rolled his eyes and reluctantly put his dagger back into its hidden sheath and said, "For now Ogre, I'll trust you, but the moment you give me a reason to, I'll run you through." At nightfall, Aarick finally made it back to camp, along (to Bogair's surprise) with twice the number of forces he had before. "darn" Bogair cursed, "he told me all the other units were scouting through Fangorn to get ready for our invasion of Isengard!" Lyradil laughed, Bogair turned around and asked, "What the hell are you laughing at? Aarick has us outnumbered 6 to 1. What on earth can be funny about that?!" All Lyradil did was look at Xash and smiled, "No, Lyradil, don't even think about it, you know we can handle this, why bring them into it? That would be plain unfair to the squadron." All Lyradil said was, "Why? Because they live for these moments, to get a chance to hone their skills against the worst possible odds, plus the eldest boy just got a new flail and tower shield, he needs some practice with it." As soon as he said that, he was off, to the deepest parts of Lothlorien. A few minutes pass and Bogair hears a distant howl, "Must be Lyradil." he thought. "But why the wolf howl, there aren't any wargs near here?" A few more minutes pass and another howl is heard, "Wait that wasn't Lyradil." Then another, another, and 3 more within moments of each other. Lyradil returned and said, "I've told them of our large friend here and about the 'obstacle in our way' they seemed very excited to be called." "Who?" said Bogair, with a confused look on his face. Lyradil smiled and simply said, "The MacGregors." "Did someone say, 'MacGregor'?" A soft female voice called from directly above the Ogre and Elf. Bogair scrambled from beneath the branch only to see a pretty elven woman sitting in the tree. She had a bow in her hand and a quiver full of arrows on her back. She grinned and let a soft giggle escape as she dropped to the ground next to her King. "Ah, Aisling! Glad you could make it." Lyradil patted her on the back, avoiding the purple fletchings of her weapons. "Is everyone positioned?" Aisling MacGregor nodded and pointed quickly to positions in the trees surrounding the Ogre scouts. Lyradil scanned the hiding spots and turned with a smile to his brother. "This should be fun, Xash." The two brothers slipped into the trees and Aisling turned back to the Ogre. "Just wait for the signal. Then feel free to join in", she said to him. "Wait, what's the signal?" Aisling just grinned at him and jumped back up into the trees. Bogar stood for a minute waiting for his cue to rush in. He checked his large flail and readied his shield. A moment passed... Another... "LOTHLORIEN!!!" The yell was so sudden and loud that Bogair was stunned by the shattered silence. He watched in disbelief as shafts sprouted out of the Ogre Scouts gathered in the clearing. Arrows seemed to have been shot from every possible direction. The Ogres were not dead however... as Bogair well knew, arrows tend to just make Ogres angry. The roar in the glade shook leaves from the nearby trees. Shields and clubs were brought up, and it was amazing how quickly the hulking warriors were gathered into a circle. But apparently the elves were not ready to give up either. From across the clearing, the tree line erupted. Two young humans came running from the bushes. No... not human, the Ogre corrected himself. The boys had pointed ears like an elf, but were certainly not completely elven either. In fact.. did that one with the shield have a tail..? Bogair had no time to consider it further as fighting had erupted on all sides now. With a roar of his own, Bogair Hatefang burst from his cover and charged at his former comrades, making a beeline for that son of a Nasgal, Aarick. The leader of the Ogre warriors heard the roar and turned with blood red eyes upon his former scout. "Traitorous Vermin!!" The ogre leader broke rank from his comrades and charged straight at Bogair. The other Ogres became confused, not sure what to do now that their commander had just run off. The elves of Lothlorien took full advantage of the confusion. Lyradil, Xash, and the two MacGregor boys had formed a shield wall of their own. Seeing them as the biggest threat, the Ogres turned and faced the four smaller adversaries. "WARGAR!!!" Xash had yelled out this one single word, and it was picked up by the other three in the shield line. As one unit, the four pressed the attack on the quickly crumbling defenses of the Ogres. "MACGREGOR!!!" From behind the Ogres, the new yell was heard. An older human (Which Bogair placed to be somewhere in his 50's), charged from the brush with another elven male alongside him. Since most of the Ogres had been watching the ones yelling 'Wargar', they were not prepared to be cut down from behind. The four Wargar Warriors were the anvil and the MacGregors acted as the hammer. The Ogres were no match for the combined efforts of the Lothlorien fighters. It didn't help that purple fletched arrows kept prickling the Giant warriors every now and then. The hammer and anvil soon crushed the invaders in the middle. The six warriors were joined by the female elf who swooped into the older man's arms with a kiss. All eyes quickly turned to the edge of the clearing where Bogair Hatefang was squaring off with Aarick. The battle was about to begin, when the younger of the boys started to run towards the two, his eyes glowing an eerie red. A hand on his shoulder pulled him back and he turned to face the King. "No, Layak", Lyradil said. "Let Bogair do this. He needs to get this fight out of his body. It would fester and turn his heart to anger if he was robbed of this vengeance." The warriors of Lothlorien moved closer to the battle, but stayed at a respectful distance. The battle of the Ogres was about to begin. Bogair and Arrick begin to move in a circle, each planning their strikes and preparing for the initial strike of their opponent. Aarick was armed with his club, tower shield and his trusty spear. Bogair, with his flail and tower shield. Aarick made the first move, thrusting his spear at Bogair’s head, raising this shield, Bogair blocked the stab, sending the spear straight through his shield. Aarick smiled, “Bravo Hatefang, but I bet you weren’t expecting this.” When he said that, he pushed a little lever on the hilt of his spear, it caused a grappling device to come out! Aarick began to pull, being the larger ogre, it wasn’t hard for him to pull Bogair toward him, but Bogair had a little surprise of his own, He angled his shield down, causing a sudden downward motion of the spear, causing it to fall straight out of Arrick’s hand. Bogair flung his shield back, causing the spear to go through the hole it made, sticking it in the ground, “BOGAIR!” shouted the human man. With a smile on his face, Bogair shouted to Arrick, “Nice move Deathblow, I guess your age hasn’t caught up with your fighting style yet.” Aarick gave a frightening roar, and charged in at Bogair, swinging his club so fast the only thing Bogair could do was duck and jump back, causing him to trip. Seeing this, one of Aarick’s Ogre’s pounced at Bogair, screaming wildly, mouth widely agape. Xash hollered, “Bogair down.” Xash fired an arrow straight for the screaming ogre’s head, Bogair laid back at the last moment, the arrow missing him and hitting the attacking ogre straight in roof of the mouth, he falls dead. Seeing his life pass before his eyes, Bogair gets up and says, “Thanks Xash.” He turns to Arrick, “You’re still the biggest coward I know Deathblow, no wonder you needed so many troops, that way you can sacrifice their lives to save your own.” “You’re right Hatefang, why waste the life of a Mordor hero, when I have so many underlings at my command?” He charged again at Bogair, hitting his shield with so much force, it shattered Bogair’s arm. Bogair screamed in pain, he brought his foot straight up and kicked Arrick in the face, causing him to soar back. Layak and the blonde haired boy beside him decided to charge in, “BOYS!” shouted the elder human, “you heard what Lyradil said, it’s Bogair’s fight and his alone, go kill off the other ogres.” Like a flash they were off, “They’ll have fun.” thought Bogair. Bogair ripped his shield from his arm, causing him to scream again. Arrick got to his feet and laughed, “Is that the best you have Hatefang? I thought a General of Mordor had better fighting ability then that.” He charged in again, going in for the kill, Bogair knew he had to make a move that would open up Arrick’s defense to a kill shot. When Arrick made his strike Bogair shouted, “THERE!” he gave a great lunge, and caught Arrick straight on the thigh with his flail head, the bone in his leg broke, it’s shattering sound echoing through all Lothlorien, causing the birds to flee from their nests. Aarick gave a relieving scream of pain as Bogair stood straight up, then with one more massive swing of his flail, caught Arrick right on the side of the head. Knowing Deathblow was defeated, Bogair started walking toward Xash, when he finally made it to him Bogair said, “See Xash told you I wouldn’t betray you.” And passed out. When Bogair finally woke up... Layak Macgregor and Loki MacGregor turned and saw four more Ogres charging in on them. Layak ripped his glittering sword from the belly of a dead ogre and nudged Loki "Here comes more fun Brother" Layak Grinned and held up his shield getting into a good stance to embrace a shield charge. Loki repeated the gesture connecting his shield and Layaks together. In came the ogres roaring a bloodthirsty roar that Layak knew too well himself. Layak Hissed baring his fangs before with his foot nudged Loki's, he nodded in agreement. The Ogres bent behind their shields to ram into the brothers, instead gettings a face full of shield and dirt. Layak and Loki at the last moment stepped out of the way shoving their feet underneath the last two causing them to trip and land on the other ones, they fell as well. Three of the ogres recovered quickly, but Layak shoved his sword into the back of one ogre, and Loki slammed his flail head into the ogres head killing it. The brothers took a step back from the dead ogre reforming their miniature shield wall. This time the ogres were more carefull and tried not to underestimate the young half elves in front of them. The ogres decided to triangle around the brothers. Loki and Layak pressed their backs together and made sure every test strike the ogres threw were blocked carefully and without giving off any valuable information about their fighting styles. The ogre in front of Layak wielded a club and medium shield, the other two flails and medium shields, Layak noted. Layak leaned back and whispered to Loki "What next brother?" "They wont expect a charge, what do yah got as weapons?" "I've got a rock, javie, and sword." "Throw the rock, at the one in front of you, hit the belly, charge and stab him in the chest, go" Layak grinned and secretly pulled out his rock, and in a flash the rock struck the ogre in the chest causing his gaurd off in surprise. Layak was there in another flash javie shoving threw into the ogres chest. He romoved his javie and went back to his brother who was now under attack. Loki was blocking two constant flail attacks. He went to block one flail leaving his side open to the other ogre who went for the hit. Loki's eyes went wide, for a split second before he saw Layak. Layak dropped his weapons and shield and was now entangled with the ogre grappling with the flail. He dropped to his knee's the flail still being grappled wraped his folded legs around the ogres and tripped him onto his butt. The Flail was in Layaks hand now and was swung with full, undead strength into the top of the ogres head. Loki Advanced on the remaining ogre blocking the flail and attacking with his own. The ogre easily blocked his attacks as easily as Loki did the ogres. Loki suddenly faked his swing over his shield and instead went under his shield crushing the ogres left leg in a deathening crunch. The ogre went down without a scream and instead raised his shield, and swung his flail. Loki blocked and twisted his shield in just the right way to slide the shield through the ogre's arm cutting it off, dropped his flail, grabbed his javie and ran up the ogre's shield. At the end of the shield, Loki flipped shoving his javie through the ogres back and landed on his feet, grinning at his brother. Layak shook his head and walked back to the fight with Bogair and Arrick. a couple hours later Layak sat on a branch staring off into space, his crimson eyes, occasionally drifted to the ogre laying on the ground. Then he heard Lyradil speak, "Ah, greetings Bogair, quite a show you put on. I took the pleasure of healing you..again." He smirked. Bogair stood up and looked around. "Who are these people?" "The MacGregors, a loyal family to lothlorien and Aristata. Good friends of ours, care to meet them?" Bogair nodded once "They helped, I would certainly like to know their names and thank them." Layaks mother and father stood and moved to Lyradil's side, Lykos spoke first, "My names Lykos MacGregor, This here, I believe you've already met, Aisling MacGregor.--" "You're human?" Bogair interrupted "Yes, Aisling is a fae trapped in an elven body, interesting isnt it. Anyway, This boy here is Loki Loki MacGregor. And that up--" "HE HAS A TAIL!!!" yelped Bogair Loki, Aisling, and Lykos laughed, and Layak chuckled softly up in his tree. "Yes, Yes he does, he is a fox demon, a kitsune. Now, please let me continue," he chuckled, "That up there in the tree, pretending he isnt paying attention is Layak MacGregor" "At least he isnt as odd as the rest of you, he's merely half-elven." Bogair remarked teasingly. "Actually he's Vampiric." Bogair's eyes widened alittle and went to look up at Layak in the tree, but he was already standing in front of him. "Where in the--" Layak Grinned. Bogair shook his head and looked at the MacGregors, "Thank you all for your help." The MacGregors nodded and Lykos smiled warmly, "We were glad to help, Bogair Hatefang, welcome to Lothlorien."

#bored #larperlife #historyofme #can't sleep

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