It boils down to: Nori’s craft is less ‘stealing’, and more TRICKERY/GRIFTING. Because it’s not about keeping score, it’s about how much fun the game is.
He’s always loved the adrenaline rush. That’s why being stationary was so difficult for him in life, after the battle.
A note on the whole ‘Ones’ thing: no soulmates in Sansukh, sorry. I dislike the whole ‘predestination’ thing… I like free will. I also believe that it isn’t one person alone that could be ‘made for you’… you could be happy with any number of different people, but you have to choose them, choose it, and work at it, every day. A personal bias thingy there.
Nori explicitly tells us in the story that he and Dori are both aro-ace… well, actually, he specifies that Dori is aro-ace, and that he himself is definitely aro… perhaps not ace! But he ain’t telling. A Dwarf needs a few secrets, and Nori likes to keep folks guessing.
Fili’s storyline in this fic is not about romance, and I will not create one for him… his story arc is about stepping up to leadership in his own right.
(I hope you note that Nori was first calling Thorin ‘boss’… but now? Now he calls FILI ‘boss’. Also, Fili has developed a nearly pathological protective streak for Frodo a mile wide. He is becoming a leader and a protector in ways that have nothing to do with his bloodline and heritage. GO FILI, GO FILI, GOLDEN HEART MY SON, YOU LITTLE BEAUTY)
Frerin has the crush to end all crushes on both Eowyn AND Faramir. But also recall, he still has the body and emotional responses of a mid-teen. Poor boy has the intellect of a much, much older Dwarf, but it’s crammed into a tiny body with a truckload of hormones. I don’t think we will see him in actual, reciprocal romantic love in this state.
(but hey, we have good evidence that he is at the very least bisexual, and that he is hella poly.)
Mama Ri was the most fabulous Dwarrowdam with a hundred admirers, and broke many hearts back in Erebor. Dori inherited her beauty and her love of tea (and also her tendency for heartbreaking).
We finally got the DVD from Hobbitcon, which means we can finally show you our Moria skit! We had a lot of fun doing this, and were so happy that it was so well-received (and by that I mean the amount of “how dare you"s we got afterwards xD)
Aw Yiss 