#aaaaahhhh i lowkey love these two honestly

[glorfindel-of-imladris]

Apologies that I'm randomly bothering you, but your ship suggestions have me quite intrigued👀

May I have some tea on Eönwë/Elladan and Maglor/Ecthelion?🤗 (Glorfindel/Erestor/Ecthelion is interesting too, but that I can imagine/already have ideas :D)

Oh help, I realized I haven't replied to this yet. 😭 I know it is now Very Late, but here we go.

I cannot divulge too much of what I have on Ecthelion and Maglor as I feel I share headcanons for this made-up ship with friends who may wish to write them first, BUT! I am happy to share what I have for Eönwë and Elladan!

This ship developed from this one Eönwë tidbit that has him linked to Númenor. It was said that the Númenoreans learned from him at the beginning, and so I imagine that among the Children of Eru, Eönwë would have the most sympathy for the Secondborn, and Númenor would have been his “one great love”. But because they were mortal, and given what eventually happened to them, the experience of loving Númenor left an impression on Eönwë, one he has not repeated again, so deeply did the eventual fall of the once favored isle affect him.

Elladan, on the other hand, by virtue of his name, I imagine is more Man than Elf compared to his brother, Elrohir. Even so, I like to believe that Elladan eventually sails with Elrohir in the Fourth Age, for love of his brother and also for his parents. But sailing and choosing the path of the Elves were not fully what Elladan wished, and if he did not have Elrohir, Elladan might have chosen to be among Men. He never was decided on either when he sailed.

Fast forward then to Elladan in Valinor. He struggles with his choice. He was most at home with the Rangers, and he misses his brothers-in-arms from Middle-earth. He even misses his sister, Arwen, whom he also somehow envies for taking the path of Men. Elladan wanders the lands of the Valar and meets Eönwë, who is odd even for a Maia (Eönwë is not the warmest of beings), but they somehow keep meeting and tentatively forge a friendship. Eönwë eventually sees in Elladan the children of the Númenor that he once loved and lost, and Elladan finds someone in Aman outside of his family to confide in. Eönwë can hear Elladan’s prayers in Valinor, hears the regrets Elladan whispers to the winds because he couldn't tell them to Elrohir for fear of hurting him or being a burden. And Elladan, for all his melancholy in Aman, is outwardly a bright person, and so he is the first person in a long time to get Eönwë out of his shell—to everyone, even Manwë's, great amusement.

These two are probably going to be my longest slow burn, if I ever get to writing them. Or, even if I don't, they are still dear to me and make total sense in my head!

[badartxd]

Ran out of tags but : Rhodri may have lost the blight boons but the understanding of Zev’s jokes made her much more powerful. Chaotic entities, those two

Hi hello!!!!!!!!! XD XD XD XD I hope you're having a fantastic day!!!! I noticed I haven't asked any if the questions from the Romance Asks for Rhodri and Zevran, which cannot stand!! I am correcting this error now. I would please like to ask:

2. What was the first moment that they knew they were in love with their LI? 

3. When they are having a fight, what is it about and how do they deal with it? 

11. Do they have any inside jokes?

30. How does their love change as they get older?

Choose questions as you please, whichever tickle your fancy ^^ I hope you continue having a fantastic day!!

I am LATE LATE LATE darling friend I'm sorry!! I was working away on these in fits and starts this entire time and had to pare it down to something that didn't approach thesis length and actually answered the questions succinctly (not my strong suit!). Hopefully they'll read halfway decently though 😂😂 I'll spare you the waffle and get right to it, but I hope you're having a gorgeous day of moderate temperatures and packed to the brim with deliciously good luck!!! <3 <3 under the cut because even despite my edits it's... Long.

2. What was the first moment they realised they were in love with their LI?

Ahahahahahaha oh god. Uhhh the short answer is that Rhodri and Zevran were informed of their love by others and had to piece it together from there. Mortifying for all concerned, to say the least.

It basically went like this:

Leliana: Zevran, she loves you. Go and talk to her

Zevran: u wht

Five minutes later

Zevran: Rhodri, Leliana said you love me

Rhodri: 👁️👄👁️ Good heavens, she’s absolutely right. I do, yes

Zevran: Right. I see. And… ah… do I love you, too?

Rhodri: ????

Zevran: ????

Somehow they emerged from that conversation engaged, and neither they nor I can find the words for what a freakishly surreal experience the entire thing was. They didn’t even dive into a throe of passionate declarations or actions afterward, instead so astonished and shaken by it all (Rhodri especially) that they ate a sandwich and went to sleep with barely a word said between them. As with most things in life, though, the nap put them on the right track again.

3. When they’re having a fight, what is it about and how do they deal with it?

Look. I have about 3 300 words of notes on this and cannot find a way to answer this that’s short or even succinct. Here’s attempt 5 or 6 hahahaha

Tl;dr of it is: they don’t really fight, because they have nothing to fight about; they avoid doing things that will upset the other; they let the other have their way whenever possible, and honestly they can't bear to fight with each other.

Longer version, still very much abridged: The closest they came to a fight was that little incident with Zevran’s earring (Rhodri was too shocked to fight, though, so it was basically just Zevran losing his cool), or Rhodri going to pieces when Zevran told her he was leaving for Antiva without her to take on the Crows.

Both of those fights were horrible because they touched on traumas they both have, acquired during the Blight, and said traumas persist for the rest of their lives. They hate fighting.

Happily, they don't have much to fight about, a) because it never gets that far, and B) they haven't got anything to argue about.

Now I do hc Zev as naturally inclined to cling, because in my worldstate he has a higher baseline need for affection than most people. For most of his life he's been completely starved of it and treated with such callous indifference that if the need weren't as high as it was, he might have fully convinced himself he could live without it and turn 'cold' in the way the Crows encouraged. Along comes Rhodri, who treats this poor bastard like a person and awakens this need, and then add in his flavour of Blight-PTSD, and Zev is just about made of velcro.

Rhodri complements this beautifully (and unfortunately), having been constantly surrounded by people all her waking hours since day one. Her father tenderly cultivated her extraversion such that now she can't stand being by herself, so Zev and Rhod are very happily by each other's side as often as possible. They end up very attuned to each other (as often results in such circumstances), so anything even vaguely annoying they might do, if the offending person doesn’t notice it themselves, is very easily and gently redirected before it could progress into something fight-worthy. Too easy.

Clashes in terms of values are rare, because they do share most, if not all, their fundamental values. To me, both of them are the type to speak up if something is wrong, but are more flexible (Zevran especially so) on how something is done. They like working together, and I like to think they’re both fairly clever, so they enjoy sitting down and puzzling out the best way to go about something. It’s peaceful, creative, and full of compliments– and often in these ideas sessions, they’ll get very off-track and end up buggerising about for hours more than they had planned.

And really, they are who the other one turns to for safety and care, and since their top priority is the other’s health and wellbeing, they’re far more inclined to indulge the other than argue or try to get their own way. At the end of the day, they’re both very vulnerable people. They know this painfully well about the other, due to how their traumas resurface, and they’ll go to incredible lengths to keep the other comfortable and happy. It's not the most effective way to heal the trauma, and if one of them developed a mean streak, things would be disastrous.

But they're not mean, and they don't become mean either. They shield each other from discomfort, for better and worse, and they're good and gentle and patient with each other and do it all with the very best of intentions, every day without fail for the rest of their lives. As far as they're concerned, it's enough.

11. Do they have any inside jokes?

Oh, tons. Not all of them are apparent to me, but they’re both the type to seize the opportunity to make a funny whenever it presents itself.

This one’s small and ridiculous, but Zevran just about loses his shit when he gets the chance to whip it out.

For context: Rhodri’s rubbish at identifying raw ingredients. Rich kids don’t need to know the ins and outs of cooking; she didn’t even find out that meals didn’t come fully-assembled ‘til she was five. In summative years, Circle members weren’t allowed to cook in case they poisoned people’s food, plus the food they got was rather limited in range.

And now the story: On the way to Minrathous (which is a looooooong carriage ride from anywhere else when you’re taking the Imperial Highway), Zevran and Rhodri are passing the time by playing I Spy. It's Rhodri’s turn to find something. She looks outside, and then inside the carriage, and ends up choosing one of the fruits in their snack basket.

“I spy with my little eye,” declares she, “something beginning with A.”

Zevran guesses all the most likely things with no success. He moves onto less likely things, then completely unlikely things, and then he even tries A- words in other languages. Not a sausage.

For the first time in his I Spy career, he gives up. Rhodri can scarcely believe it; she’s terrible at hiding what she guesses, so he usually wins within a few tries.

Too shocked to be pleased, she reveals the word: Apple.

Odd, Zevvo thinks; they're in the warmer part of Tevinter now. Apples aren’t popular up here, especially to grow. He blinks.

“Ah… apple? Where did you see one of those? Was it out the window?” He looks outside.

“No, no,” says Rhodri. She reaches into the basket, takes one of the fruits, and holds it up with all the conviction in the world. “It’s right here, see?”

Zevran’s eyes just about fall out of his head. His diaphragm’s going to explode. He’s actively passing away.

“My love,” he gasps, choking on a guffaw, “that is a peach.”

Rhodri frowns. “No, no, a peach is this one.” She takes out a nectarine. “No, wait, that’s an apple, too… now wait a minute, where did I see a peach…?” She pulls out a mango. “Ah, this one!”

Zevran’s now openly weep-laughing. He can’t pull himself together. I mean, really. What the fuck, Rhodri.

Now, whenever he sees her eating any kind of stone fruit, he’ll slip over and put an arm around her, and through a huge grin, he’ll say it with all the drama in him:

“IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII spyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy with myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy little eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye…”

And then proceeds to cackle madly as Rhodri flops against him and groans like a condemned house.

30. How does their love change as they get older?

Ooh. This is a good one! I’d say the change is mostly physical, to be honest. They start out with all the vitality and energy of youth– along with years of training and an acquired blood infection that gives them all manner of physical advantages. That means a lot of boisterous displays of affection, especially from Rhodri. Pick up the beloved and carry them like a suitcase? Lovely. Swing the beloved around while dancing like they’re made of feathers? Just the thing. But that has to be dialled back as age starts to take its toll.

Zevran in particular ends up requiring a lot of care as the years go on. By the time he meets Rhodri, he’s already sustained some damage to his hip sockets as a result of the racking- joints that dislocate and weren’t put back in properly can pinch the nerve, the bones can degrade, new bone can grow outside of the skeleton and compress nerves/blood vessels… disaster. And the older he gets, the more his joints protest. Rhodri also starts to tire easier after the Taint is cured. She still ends up hauling around the bulk of muscle she put on (she’s stuck with that), but without the additional stamina the Taint grants.

In practice, for both of them this means: naps together instead of piggybacks with reckless abandon, extra time taken to do things, and being physically gentler with each other. Even hand-holding is something they have to alter for days when Zevran’s finger joints complain too much (their solution is that Rhod holds her hand in a fist and Zevran holds onto that so his fingers are spared the bending and pressure.)

Happily, the worst of it is kept at bay thanks to magical advances. Rhodri uses all the (ethical) blood magic she can get her hands on to relieve his discomfort, but they don’t know precisely where all the pain is coming from (I hc at least some of Zevran’s issue is psychosomatic and they don’t quite know that).

Fortunately, the psychosomatic pain is responsive to massage, so their morning routine comes to start with Rhodri taking an hour or so to lovingly rubbing liniment into all the achy joints and their surrounds. She’s taken massage pointers from him and ends up getting quite good at it, and both of them come out of it feeling better for it. For issues that crop up during the day, they just make accommodations. Luckily, they are wealthy enough to be able to make any accommodation they could possibly desire, and Tevinter, with all its magical advances, is a much more accessible place than most, especially with money and connections.

Emotionally, not much changes. They find comfort in each other’s presence– and to an extent they never completely learn to find comfort in the other’s absence.Their trauma makes them cling to each other tighter rather than drive them apart. They get used to each other's cues in the way people do when they're in each other's company constantly, and so they settle into each other more and more as the years pass.

Ironically enough, as a result of this Zevran finds himself kept more on his toes with grand surprises (gifts and thoughtful gestures) than ever before. And Rhodri rarely misses one of Zevran’s jokes any more, which means she plays along more, so they end up getting into the most ridiculous, cracked banter, in public and private. People think they’re out of their minds, and they would be absolutely right.