Dear Dets, do you ever think about what Bilbo’s experience might have been if he’d actually reached the Lonely Mountain after his disappearance from his birthday party?

Oooooh.

It would have been hard for him. Not just the journey (he’s a VERY elderly hobbit, after all) but.

Looking at certain places, certain areas in the Mountain. Of course, many things would have been VASTLY different, all that time… but different enough not to prick and prod at those memories? I don’t know…

Still, he would have been delighted to see and spend time with his old friends, all together at last.

There would have been some… very obvious vacancies.

(Silence is sucked into those gaps around the table, sinking heavier into the pauses where another is expected to take up the tale, or to shout their indignation… but they’re not there. They’re not there, and there’s a gap, a breath, and the silence sinks into it a little deeper every time.)

Imagine, all of them spending time together, and then maybe one of the Dwarves mentions something, or perhaps Bilbo begins a particular story… only for the words to trip and stutter to a halt upon a particular name. Balin. Oin. Ori. Fili. Kili.

Tho-

Are you all right, lad? You’ve gone quite pale.

You’re one to talk, your beard’s turned whiter than my hair. And I’m perfectly all right. Just a momentary catch in the throat.

Dear Dets, I don’t believe that after Sansukh anyone will look at death scenes quite the same way again. You’ve certainly grabbed our heartstrings and yanked, do you have any favorite tear-jerker moments from fiction or media? Thanks!

asldfgaljshfda ahhh, thank you! It’s tricky, with death and close-to-the-bone emotional scenes. I agonise over them a lot, because it’s so easy to get bogged down in them. So this message was a very nice surprise and a real boost for me *hugs* Thank you so much!

Oh god. Um. Yeah? I actually cry really easily. Always have! Music makes me cry regularly. Dammit.

Too many scenes from Doctor Who to count have made me weep like a child.

Also, the ‘tears in rain’ speech from Blade Runner. How dare. How dare.

Maus, the graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, never fails to make me cry.

And I don’t know how many people out there are familiar with I, Claudius but it has some of the most POWERFUL acting I have ever seen. William Hurt as Caligula,

Siân

Phillips as Livia, Derek Jacobi as Claudius, George Baker as Tiberius, Patrick Stewart as Sejanus – god, all of these incredible performances – and one of the most agonizing death scenes I have ever seen (Augustus’). It is gut-wrenchingly, horribly, spell-bindingly good.

Every frame of The Last Emperor is like being crushed slowly by the inevitability of history, for me. And the music is gloriously heart-rending.

Rabbit-Proof Fence. We are sorry. I am sorry. We are sorry. (We can never, ever be sorry enough.)

Boromir, of course. Masterfully shot and acted. One of the most affecting and powerful moments in the whole trilogy.

IDK, there’s a lot more – like I say, I cry really easily. But here’s some from the top of my head! Thanks for asking me :)))

sliceofmooncake replied to your post: anonymous asked:Do you have any n…

Dear Dets, I’m not familiar with a ‘tied tongue’, would you mind elucidating?

Sure thing! Under the cut:

Here’s the ABA’s info on tongue-tie and upper-lip-tie (I can’t sing the ABA’s praises highly enough. Seriously. SERIOUSLY).

Basically, the baby may have a strip of connecting skin between their tongue and the floor of their mouth. We all have that, to differing degrees, but some kids have it to the point where they can’t stick their tongue out of their mouth at all. When breastfeeding, kids need to put their tongues over their bottom gum, outside their mouth. So, when a child has a tongue-tie the mother’s nipple gets grazed, sometimes blistered, by the baby’s desperation to feed. Considering that the breast is already a sensitive area, it is usually INCREDIBLY painful. Thankfully, tongue-tie and upper-lip-tie are fairly rare. Most early breastfeeding problems stem from a bad attachment, and are easily fixed with practice.

I am a mad researcher by nature, so when it came to feeding my baby, I did my research! I know a hell of a lot about BFing now. If there are people who want good resources, I am more than happy to help you! Drop me a line!

(no, the Dwarfling didn’t have a tongue-tie, for anybody who is curious. However, I have very low blood pressure, and discovered the hard way about vasospasm. It was Not Fun. Even the shower became a rite of torture! But that was a temporary thing that lasted maybe three months, and we got a BF consultant to help us who was super nice. We are an expert team these days, me and the kiddo! All smooth sailing, and she is so healthy and happy that I am glad I persevered 🙂