#Tauriel: so you are just gonna get me into more trouble huh?

[savingthrcw]

moving starter from here

She had stopped by the river to collect water, realizing only then she had been humming. She found herself doing so at times when in need to soothe herself after something had made her heart race in a way that was unbecoming for a guard, let alone a captain. But too often she was prey of her own emotions, and had to walk away. "I know when I'm being followed," she finally spoke up, turning enough to look above her shoulder. "Come out."

@voidtamer:

He thought he had been silent- silent enough that he would not be overheard, though he supposed he’s never had to track one of his own. Tauriel had always piqued his curiosity, whether that be because of her peculiar mannerisms, or simply because something about her caught his eye.

Her voice jolted him back to the present, and he raised himself back from his crouched position, boots crunching upon fallen leaves to properly alert her of his presence as opposed to skulking about. “Tauriel,” a smile bloomed on his face when she met his gaze, and he crouched next to her, swirling a finger in the cool river water. “I thought we were not to go out alone?”

Tauriel allowed herself to smile, pleased to see Legolas but always careful to keep a proper distance, least his father or others could misinterpret their relationship. "Forgive me, I did not know it was you," she answered as her fingers moved away from a dagger at her belt, "Your father allowed me to leave so I could finish hunting the last spider orcs. Again." She had almost betrayed her frustration there, since she was on a fool's errand meant to be repeated again and again. It was not a job that Mirkwood could complete alone but Thranduil would not hear it. "Does he know you have left?"

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

this one’s for you, fëanorian tauriel anon, as well as @procrastinationonvacation and @whotookliterallyallthenames and everyone else who’s into this bonkers little verse. you’re amazing, your ideas are amazing, and most of these thoughts are me taking those ideas and running with them. and so, here’s my take on the verse where tauriel gets adopted into the house of fëanor:

first, about the red hair:

i’ve said this before, but i think it’s an uncommon-but-not-totally-unheard-of trait that pops up here and there in tatya-descended elven populations. the silvans of greenwood are more nelyarin than anything else, but like most avari they have roots in all three of the main great journey era eldarin ethnic groups

they just have red hair sometimes. it’s not a big deal. at least, not in middle-earth

in valinor... well, the only redheads who came to aman and decided to reproduce were nerdanel’s extended family, and we all know how that turned out

the elves of tol erëssea treat tauriel... weirdly. like, all the silvans who came over with legolas are having some trouble with culture shock, and no one’s going out of their way to be a dick, but still

doubletakes, people crossing the street to avoid her, small children staring at her suspiciously from little corners. it’s worse in alqualondë

and it’s literally just tauriel! she tries to ask people why sometimes, but they always exit the conversation as fast as they can. occasionally they run screaming

it’s frustrating. she has met some people who seem to realise she’s not a noldo, but she still gets sideeyed all the damn time

so when legolas goes to tirion to do politics (they’re woodland elves, not sea elves, wherever they settle it’ll be further inland than teleri generally set up) tauriel goes with him. she needs a break

tirion is... a bit different. she still gets doubletakes, eyes lingering on her for a few seconds, but the fear isn’t there

she gets stopped, once or twice, by people who mistake her for someone else. it’s a little annoying, sure, but it’s a lot less alienating

as interestingly weird as the city is, though, she still technically has a job to do. she accompanies legolas to this fancy court meeting they were warned in advance might devolve into a brawl

it does

after ushering legolas into a secure sniping position, tauriel finds herself fighting back to back with this huge (by her standards anyway) muscly calaquendë. it takes her a moment to actually look at him, but once she see his hair colour she’s like ‘redheads unite!’ and he’s like ‘hell yeah!’

(she’s seen a couple of elves with reddish hair in noldorin country, but he’s the first one she’s spoken to since she reached the undying lands)

fight’s pretty good. they get backup from the guy’s twin brother, who somehow managed to smuggle in a bunch of fireworks inside his wheelchair

when it’s all over, they stagger out of the meeting hall together, the good kind of exhausted. they hang out for a bit, get to chatting

tauriel’s like ‘i’m tauriel. who are you guys?’ and the pair of them just stare at her for a moment

then the one who does all the talking snortlaughs. ‘i’m amras’ he says ‘that’s amrod’

the names mean nothing to tauriel, who figured out maedhros the monstrous wasn’t real when she was 12 and slept through history class. she just waves them goodnight and goes to find her usual crew

legolas, on the other hand, had to memorise all this shit in his prince lessons. when tauriel tells him the names of the guys he saw her fighting with, he immediately spits out his wine

he gives her the skinny. she’s all ‘huh didn’t know they were real’

when amras tracks her down the next morning (he needs a convincing hair double for this anti-turgon scheme the twins have cooked up) she’s like ‘eh, why not’

(the twins are under the initial impression that she’s a cousin on their mother’s side from way out in the boonies. they’re not even wrong, it’s just that there’s a rather big number in front of that ‘cousin’)

(i was gonna put all my adopted fëanorian tauriel stuff in one post, but it’s getting late and the post editor’s glitching out, so this is just the meet cute. i’ll add more... probably the day after tomorrow?)