Happy belated birthday! And a minor Sansukh-related imagining: Mandos as a greedy bastard, a collector, entirely OCD about displaying mortal souls up in the original packaging like action figures, neatly arranged in elaborate tiers by family tree. Thorin calls him on it with absolute exasperation. “Sitting on all these souls like a dragon on his hoard! What difference would a single hobbit make?! DO YOU HONESTLY HAVE TO HAVE THE WHOLE SET? I ONLY WANT ONE. YOU NEVER PLAY WITH THEM….”

BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA…!!!!!

“And here’s my pride and joy: my limited edition collection of Feanorians… unfortunately, one or two aren’t mint-condition any more…”

(Thank you, Nonnie!)

Another trope I’ve noticed in dwarf fanfic is that there’s so much interspecies…. just about every elf wants a dwarf wants an elf… no wonder their races are dying out and leaving the world to men! X-D I keep imagining various dwarflings announcing to their parents “I want to marry an elf just like Gimli!” And the parents are all “NOOOO! SOMEBODY HAS TO CARRY ON THE RACE….”

PFFFT

Regular Dwarven ‘vacations’ to the Shire and to Lothlorien/Mirkwood/Rivendell… all of them in their best outfits and beads, beards neatly combed, smiling just a liiiittle too much…