–and are super excited to meet a new relative (this one didn’t even kill any other elves!). celebrimbor is very very confused. the noldor are very welcoming to tauriel, and really interested in getting to know her. tauriel is completely oblivious, and thinks the noldor are just weirdly helpful.
Nonnie, yes you are right – that is not happening in Sansukh, sorry for disappointment… but why the heck does that mean it won’t exist?? Go write it! This is a great premise and I love the idea and I would read the heck out of it! GO WRITE YOUR IDEA INTO THE WORLD, MAKE IT INTO A THING! Love it and name it and dive, dive, dive into it!!
loves, I am working as fast as my stubby lil fingers will allow me to get this next chapter happening. It’s at 3.5K now, and I hope to have the bare bones of it sorted by this afternoon.
I know it might be a bit… uh, famine-then-feast, but I really want to show my appreciation to everyone for their kindness, non-pressuring understanding, and patience during a rough time.
So, anyways. Have a snippet of the draft of 48!
(*gif is totally unrelated to the chapter – I’ve been watching #GBBO lately and saw this and thought it was hilarious SORRY my sense of humour is borked as per usual)
…
“Show me,” were Dís’
first words after Frerin had finished his halting description of the pool of Gimlîn-zâram
and its purpose. Frerin flinched, sinking deeper into his chair by Thráin’s
hearth.
Dáin pursed his
lips. His current pig oinked disapprovingly from its place by his feet (Thorin
had long since stopped trying to tell them apart). “Warning you now: The first
time is a shocker,” he said.
“You went in too
soon,” Thorin said to him. Dáin shrugged.
“Probably, but
there’s no good time to see what you left behind you. It would have hurt either
way.”
“My whole life has
been a litany of ‘too soon’,” Dís said, her eyes hard as she raised them to her
family. “I am not afraid of loss. Show me.”
Frerin winced, but
took her hand anyway. “Seems to be my usual job,” he said apologetically.
“I’ll come get you
in a couple of hours,” Frís offered, and Dís nodded absently. She towered over
her brother as she followed him from the room. Víli’s worried gaze followed
her.
“You all right?”
Thorin murmured to him, and he glanced back, startled.
“I’m…” he began,
but broke off with a conflicted look and a huff.
“Aye,” said Thráin,
as though he knew exactly what Víli was trying to say. “She’ll be back in a few
hours, lad. She won’t disappear in a puff of smoke the moment you turn your
back!”
“I know,” Víli
said, and his head bent, ever so slightly.
“Dad,” Fíli said,
softly. Víli nodded, wordless, before he reached out with both hands and gave
both Thorin and Fíli a rough, affectionate pat on the arm.
“I’m all right.
It’s just – well,” he said, and then he stood. His smile was wry. “I don’t need
to say it, do I? I’m off to see Lóni and Frár, I guess. I want to see if Frár’s
working on anything new. Busy hands and busy mind and all that.”
“Good idea,” Thráin
said.
“I’ll go with you,”
said Fíli, still looking a little worried. “Uncle?”
Thorin shook his
head. “I want to stop in on Gimli. I won’t disturb your mother and little
uncle. I haven’t heard any report on the journey since the departure, and that
was some weeks ago.”
“They’re well into
Mirkwood by now then,” said Thráin.
“Greenwood,” said Kíli, looking faintly
injured.
“I’ll go pop in on
my lad, and then I’ll stop in on that trio of idiots going East,” said Dáin,
giving his pig a scratch beneath its bristly chin. It gave him a limpid-eyed
look of bliss.
“You just want to
coo at the babies again,” accused Víli. “Not foolin’ anyone.”
Dáin shrugged
again, grinning freely. “Who can blame me?”
“Nobody,” Thráin
laughed, and pushed Dáin’s shoulder a little. “Nobody at all. Get on with you,
then. Stop hogging all the heat from my fire.”
“Want company?”
Kíli offered as Thorin stood and stretched a little.
“It will likely be
very dull,” he warned Kíli, but he nevertheless fell into step at his side as
they left Thráin’s rooms. Custard was stretched out before the hearth, boneless
and loose with her tongue slightly protruding. She didn’t even stir at the
sound of so many booted feet passing at once.
“I can do dull,”
Kíli said, affronted. Thorin sent him a sidelong look as they began the walk, and
the lad gave an offended little grunt. “I can!”
“If you wish to
come along, then I’m glad to have you. My usual companion is busy,” Thorin
said, and didn’t allow a hint of a smile to cross his lips. “Your little uncle
is doing a far more important task right now.”
“And I’m not going
to get underfoot either, no matter how much I want to,” Kíli said, and his jaw
firmed. “He and Mum are fine. So let’s go see Gimmers and tease him a bit.”
“Unkind, nidoyel.”
“Pfft, he’s a grown
lad now, he can take it,” Kíli dismissed.
“He’s one hundred
and forty, nearly twice your age,” Thorin said, amused.
“My age when I died,” protested Kili. “I’m still
older than him!”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Thorin said, and the shining
door of the Chamber of Sansukhûl rose before them as they turned the corner. Dís,
Frerin and Frís were already crowded around the far end, their eyes glowing in
the radiance of the pool.
“Well, don’t you
still consider yourself older than Dáin and Mum?” Kíli challenged, and Thorin
paused in the act of taking his bench.
“Right. Fair point. Let’s not speak of it again,” he said, and threw himself into
Middle-Earth as quickly as he was able.
YEAH HABAN AND NARVI ❤ huffy impatient genius and her bestie, the savvy, shrewd businesswoman ftw.
Oooooh dang – well, Narvi’s family exist, but they are Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Fic. However, the awesome @christmashippo has given Narvi a whole family, including siblings! And they are brilliant, so you should go check out Hippo’s Narvi tag 🙂
The Kili and Narvi Elf Appreciation Club and Drinking Society is so, SO definitely a thing. Damn, now I wanna write a one-shot about that!
It’s just the two of them, drinking and saying ‘EARS, RIGHT?’ and ‘LEGS. FOR. DAYS.’ and ‘did yours do the thing with the staring and no-blinking too?’ and sighing a lot. There is most definitely also bitching, lots of bitching.
They routinely bicker over who is president of the Society. According to Narvi, she was appreciating Elves first. According to Kili, the Club was his idea.
(Azaghal is an honourary member for life death. Gimli has been added in-absentia, also )
I AM SO GRATEFUL AND HAPPY YOU MESSAGED ME – this is just the nicest message ever! Thank you SO MUCH! I’m stoked you like Hrera omg, omg, omg…! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
AHHH THANK YOU NONNIE! I am stunned and stoked that you enjoy it so much! And eeee, yes, I’m so glad you like Fili’s trajectory in the fic! He is my Golden son, my word yes. He’s come SO FAR.
There’ll be some more! But at this stage I think it will be interactions in combination with other characters… not entirely sure! *cough*DIS*coughcough*FRERIN*cough*
Oooh, I’ve covered a bit of that in the story through their reactions etc: They’re not jealous, no way. Really early on, they saw that Gimli was helping Thorin connect and re-centre himself. That’s a GOOD thing.
Like, if someone close to you is self destructive and imploding slowly, and you personally are not the one that gets through and helps them (despite trying or whatever), it doesn’t really make sense to be jealous of the person that does. You’re relieved and happy that the one close to you is doing better.
Thorin has a special name for his nephews: they are his Undayûy. It means ‘greatest boys’. They are special to him in ways that Gimli can’t replace (and vice-versa). Thorin will always feel protective and paternal towards them: he helped raise them.
He’s not the primary parental figure to Fili and Kili – Dis is and always will be THE parental figure – but he is absolutely one of the most formative pillars of their lives, is there for them, teaches them, cares for them. He loves them unconditionally.
At first, Gimli was a touchstone for Thorin, he’s been a way back to the world and to life. That’s an entirely different thing, and he loves Gimli for it in a different way. I love my students entirely and with all my heart, I’ve watched them grow up and change and learn and BECOME, and I am stupendously proud of them. But I don’t love them exactly the way I love my niblings.
Too, much like a teacher-student relationship after a long long time, Thorin and Gimli are moving slowly towards a friendship of equals now.
Thorin has a gigantic damn heart. There’s a lot of love there for a lot of people.
(PLUS Fee and Kee love Gimli too. They were playfellows and friends as children, and he helped their uncle AND their mother. They’re all ‘AW YEAH GO GIMMERS!!!’)
Hey! Yeah, Ais and Folgar have been watching… but they’re mostly on the sidelines here, too many bosses and not enough workers, that sort of thing!
They ADORE Fili and Kili. ADORE. THEM.
They’re not really intimidated by Thror OR Hrera – well, not any more. Ais is… a lot more chatty and familiar and bustling than Hrera thinks is strictly proper, but they’re decent friends. Ais thinks Hrera has a gigantic stick up her *ahem*, but respects her bravery and stoicism and intelligence. Folgar likes Hrera’s caustic humour, and likes to tease her a bit to draw it out. She ignores that with all the bristly dignity in her.
Ais and Folgar are a very chatty, VERY joking, very busy sort of couple!!!
At first both Ais and Folgar were rather awed and cowed by Thror… but all the time in the Halls has rubbed the edges off his position. He sometimes joins Folgar and his friends for their jolly old drinking-and-pipes-and-darts sessions. He is a lot more quiet and reserved than either of them, but enjoys the company and the comradery.
I don’t think I’m going to be able to fit them into the massive cast of the main fic. (also @fuckthisimgoingtoerebor would KILL ME.) Maybe they’ll get a ficlet or something.
I’ve got a few things on them here on my blog! Try this ask, and this one!
Aw Yiss 