#and meanwhile Mairon is having fun :(

[eri-pl]

Adventures of Steve the intern Maia

part 2/2

[part 1 here] [inspired by this reblog]

==================

Since moving to Mandos, Serindo's life had been pleasantly uneventful. When Lord Namo told him that he's not expected to attend the celebrations, the Maia almost jumped in joy. All the Noldor would be there --- and he wouldn't have to listen to them. But shortly before the event, Lord Nano surprised him.

"Make yourself presentable, Serindo. A more ornate fana would be advised."

"But my lord, you said I was to stay in here---"

"I know well what I said. But how are you going to greet a king dressed like that?"

"Which king is willing to visit the Halls in such busy time?"

"None. Now, I have matters to attend to."

Serindo sighed, but changed his fana as ordered, to look fitting for that day.

He was contemplating the tapestry showing the Lamps (which Lord Namo had advised him to do, for some reason), when a spirit dropped in front of him, yanked unceremoniously be the stands of fate and pulled into the Halls, just at Serindo's feet.

Despite lacking most of his head, the spirit screamed furiously. "How dared he? The traitor, the thief, he killed me, do you get that? He killed me. You all should have done something---"

"And what would they do?" asked another spirit.

He didn't notice her before, Miriel --- the accidental reason of his linguistic problems with the Noldor --- had always been quiet, even for a ghost.

"Tell me at least that my boy is safe," she said to the mangled spirit.

He slowly calmed down, and apparently remembered the shape of his body, as his shape became more recognizable. It was a king, indeed, Finwe of the Noldor. Miriel's ex-husband.

Serindo began to suspect that staying here could prove worse than the feast.

"He went to those accursed celebrations," Finwe said. "They forced him. And in the meantime Melkor have slain me and taken the Silmarils. Ai, my poor son. He's going to be devastated."

"Our son," said Miriel pointedly.

"And what have you done to him, except for dying and leaving him in grief? Have you comforted him? Have you followed him to an unjust exile? Have you supported his choices? I had---"

"What exile?"

"Well, after he pulled the sword on Fingolfin---"

"Feanaro pulled a sword on Fingolfin?" Miriel's eyes were getting bigger, and on a spirit it looked quite creepy.

"He was upset."

"You didn't support this, right?"

Finwe looked to the side.

"Right?" asked Miriel with thinly veiled anger.

"I love Feanaro as you should have---!"

"You spoil him! I didn't die for this---"

Despite being immaterial, the two spirits tried to fight, but after noticing that it had no effect, they continued to yell at one another. Serindo hadn't known much of their vocabulary and what he did know made him blush.

That was going to be a long day.

-------------------

Some time later, the Noldor were leaving. Serindo tried very hard to not look happy, but secretly hoped that they would all go and never come back.

"I have a mission for you," said Lord Namo.

"Does it involve divorced ghosts?"

"Not this time. Just a rock, waiting for an appropriate moment, and some advice. You did well with Finwe and now I will allow you to make a prophecy."

"What should I foretell and to whom?"

"Tell the Noldor that killing the Teleri was a bad idea and that they're in trouble. But make it sound official."

"They killed the Teleri?"

"Not all, and not yet. Oh, Steve? Take an umbrella."

Serindo didn't dare to ask what an umbrella was.

-------------------

A week later he returned to the Halls. He'd waited days in the heavy rain, embodied, as he didn't want to miss the correct moment and wasn't as quick in making a fana as some others (Mairon, for example. Who was probably having a good time right now.)

"Not bad," said Lord Namo. "Some parts you actually got right. Of course, some of those are pretty universal, but still, it sounded appropriately. Manwe will still help them once... And Artanis will make himself a happy kingdom, but that's less of a problem, as they'll soon forget she came with Feanor. That's what you get for marrying your daughter to the most influential historian in all Middle-Earth..."

"Artanis has--- will have a daughter? With whom?"

"Tele---" The Vala looked to the distance. "I can't say his name out loud. Not Mairon, obviously."

Serindo blinked. What?

"Oh, excuse me. It will be quite a popular reading of history at one point in Seventh Age. Her and Mairon. They can't legally call him that, of course... Still, not the worst spouse attributed to him."

What?

After a while, Serindo remembered how to speak. "The latter ages sound... interesting, my lord."

Lord Namo gave him a long, enigmatic look. "Oh, you have no idea. And speaking of Mairon again, you should have added treason by false hope or something similarly ominous. Not kin. Poor Tyelperinquar. But now, we need to make more rooms ready for the spirits. That ice is tricky."

==================

The end.

If you want more of my writing (more seriuos, but still insane at moments, here's a longer fic intro page)

[urwendii]

Spill the OT3 tea babe

🔥🐦☀️

Broke: shipping wars

Woke: multishipping is fun and healthy

Bespoke: they're all fucking together

Why separately shipping mairien, eönrien and maironwë when you can have the 3 of them together ❤️

Mairon is there to see Eönwë on his knees (fate will later remember this funnily) Eönwë is extremely confused as why he's into this while also trying to woo the love of his life while said Sungirl is there to have fun with the cute simping bird while making doe eyes at Mairon.

They probably are a therapist's nightmare. Mairon is to blame for 99.99% of the consequences. (So is Melkor tbh)

Eönwë (like his uncle) might have a fire spirit fetish. Arien has dubious tastes in men for mostly wanting the very emotionally unavailable gay one. Mairon is probably amused at this. Until he isn't because he leaves and becomes too busy micromanaging Uncle Melkor's chaos factory.

More seriously though, I'd love to have Mairon x Eönwë has a very (nerdy) gay awakening for both of them in Almaren meanwhile Arien comes as a later addition.

Fun fact: Yavanna and Manwë had a little feud going on as the resident matchmakers because each of them want their boys to end up with Arien. It includes leafy sabotaging from a certain Valië part. Manwë only writes passive aggressive (or so he thinks. It's simply less overly polite) prose.

Irmo was the one who suggested the poly arrangement to end the feud.

Tilion cried for entire weeks when he learned no one was rooting for him.

[90shaladriel]

My Rings of Power fic: A Lord and His Builder

Since I recently joined tumblr, thought I would shamelessly self-promote my first attempt at fanfic on ao3

This story is set after the events of S1 of The Rings of Power, where we saw Sauron revealed and heading back to Mordor. After he somehow returns he will take back his rulership over the orcs and the Southlands. Meanwhile Galadriel is dealing with the fallout of her actions and the revelations of who Halbrand really was. Most of the story follows through the perspective of Orcs, formerly part of Adar's "family", but now grudgingly serving Sauron. There are some light #Haladriel elements so far, might try to incorporate more of that later.

I wrote this mostly as a kind of thought experiment, you see in Lord of the Rings and also in Rings of Power that the enemies have these huge impressive dark fortresses, yet the Orcs that seem to be portrayed in those films are cruel, violent and not too bright. How is it possibly for a society to construct the kinds of massive buildings unless at some level they had skilled builders, architects and artisans who could carry out the wishes of a Sauron or Morgoth? I think some other authors have come up with solutions that Sauron | Mairon can kind of use magical powers to construct everything, which I suppose might be more in line with Tolkien. On the other hand, it is interesting, in Lord of the Rings books especially how there are plenty of examples where we see glimpses of Orc society with structure, with distinctions between laborers and warriors etc.

I have been having fun writing this, and I've only gotten through four chapters so far, I hope to be finishing a fifth one relatively soon for #HaladrielWeek

[gerardspuppy]

♡☮♦ any/all of those you feel like for Mairon/Sauron 🤗

- olorinestel

Hell yeah!

♡- romantic hc

so I have to admit, I do hc Mairon as being very close to aro. I think he had three romantic-ish relationships in his life, and they were with Eonwe, Melkor, and Tyelpe. For Eonwe it was very onesided- basically Mairon thought they were close friends but was really hiding a lot from him, meanwhile Eonwe really liked him. With Melkor depending on what mood I'm in it's either more like devotion than romance, or it really is the one genuine relationship he had as a kind of exception (which would explain why he was so immediantly loyal, imo). I like angsty brutal angbang but I also like when they're sweet. Then for Tyelpe it was like very close friendship/borderline romance. It probably made Mairon feel guilty as hell since he'd only ever felt like this about Melkor, and he kind of panicked and did things he later regretted. He's not a big fan of romance unless it involves some kind of eternal devotion overtones, I'm afraid.

☮ - friendship hc

In Valinor, I think his only friends were Eonwe, and to a lesser degree, Olorin. He put up with them but preferred to be alone and was generally quiet and withdrawn. In Angband, he was close with Gothmog and Thuringwethil, but there was kind of the border of professionalism there, as well as Mairon's general refusal to talk about his personal life, and there wasn't usually much time to have fun bc of the war. Maybe in the earlier days. They probably had the most fun when they got drunk with each other. After Melkor was defeated he had no real friends until he died :)

There are two AUs I have though, one where Tar-Miriel becomes a Nazgul and sort of befriends him through their shared Numenor trauma, and one where Frodo can communicate with him through the Ring/in dreams, which kind of counts I guess? He's mostly just lonely though. ♦ - quirks/hobbies

Ok here's a list of random stuff:

his favorite thing to do is solve maths/science problems with melkor. they're total opposites and their ideas bounce rlly well off of eachother

his hair is naturally curly but he straightens it, and he has freckles but he hides them with makeup. why doesn't he just change his fana, you ask? melkor says he prefers it like this

theres always blue eyeshadow under his eyes

he love love loves strawberry jam

bdsm is pretty much his only coping mechanism. he has issues.

when he's around close friends he's super quiet. doesn't like to talk much. he's actually a kind of shy person but whenever he's playing the part of Sauron/Gorthaur (or later annatar) no one can tell

he likes to dance but thinks it's unprofessional. will only do so if ordered to (so he can claim he was just following orders)

(tw body horror) his favorite flower is the rose because he used to hide in a rosebush in yavanna's gardens where no one would dare go. yavanna later makes roses grow out of his flesh during lotr as punishment

he invented clocks!

he's always busy with The War which leaves very little time for hobbies. he has a list of things he wishes he had the time to do, hidden in his room cause he feels guilty that he's betraying melkor's cause. by the time melkor is defeated its an entire notebook long, and he burns it, vowing to never long for anything other than his master's will again

he gets very giggly when stressed or angry (which is kind of canon?)

he has cried exactly three times in his life. hated himself for showing such weakness all three times.

[tarmairons]

I might be a little bit obsessed with your fic a little trouble and I was wondering, could you share some of your headcanons about them in this verse? Or ideas and tidbits that never quite made it into the fic, things that happened off screen or before the fic (college days etc), or random details, you know <3

oof this is a tough one bc most of the time when a new hc pops into my brain i quickly write it into the outline for a future chapter + i wrote day 88 for the sole purpose of exposing my deepest darkest hcs BUT let me break out my original doc from 2015 let’s see if there are any fun facts i can share 👀

if it's of any interest i have an ALT pinterest board for the ✨vibes✨ and also mairon's car jams playlist for complete immersion in this funky little universe and ofc my ALT tag there are some bonus things on there sometimes

other than that it seems i have very few tidbits to share :(

mairon dyes his eyebrows. as an orange person he has naturally pale eyebrows

ah university..... mairon worked hard and excelled academically and slept around a lot. very much a lot. meanwhile melkor slacked off and still excelled academically bc he’s that type of person. it was around this time that he started to explore his sexuality so he was a little bit of a late(r) bloomer in that respect

when they died their parents left everything to manwe (the money, the company etc) except for the family home but melkor was like fuck you i don’t want your leftovers and let manwe have that as well. maybe deep deep down subconsciously this was an act of kindness bc manwe had always wanted a family and all that so melkor knew he would put the house to better use than he himself ever would

manwe’s 1 (one) tattoo

mairon is a terrible driver but he's very arrogant and confident in his (lack of) skills so that makes up for it. thankfully he hasn’t killed anyone (yet)

melkor is 9 years older than mairon. i feel like i’ve mentioned this before but on the off chance that i have not now you know

mairon is banned from smoking inside but he broke this rule when melkor was in prison so melkor came back to a stinky house and their bed smelling like dog bc mairon was lonely and needed cuddles from wolf

melkor is more open with his emotions. he’s very very emotional in fact whatever those emotions may be. naturally he said the L word first and it took mairon a while to confidently say it back

i have this running joke with my bestie @noahczernys who helped invent this whole universe back in the day that they honeymooned in the most random shithole location like. ohio. just a few days in a (relatively) fancy hotel doing nothing extraordinary at all. and it was glorious

[butterflies-and-fishermen]

As for the NIF-in-Silm-family-angst-smorgasbord idea, I think that I now see how one can trim and neaten the edges of the whole thing so that it turns into a sort of canon divergence AU. Basically, Maitimo doesn’t just stand aside at Losgar, he’s the one who gets burned with the ships instead of Amrod.

Maglor, closest to Nelyo, decides that this is proof that their father has gone completely bonkers and preemptively exiles himself (probably fakes his death while he’s at it). I’m divided on whether or not he needs to rescue Maedhros from Angband in this case, since Morgoth whispering in Feanor’s ear (through the Xia Jiang equivalent) plus future identity porn reasons mean that Morgoth hasn’t broadcast Nelyafinwe’s capture. Maglor manages to get a head start on the Langya List intelligence network either by coopting Daeron’s contacts after they strike up an acquaintance or by being the only decent non-imperialist Calaquendi around.

The betrayal and loss of Feanor’s heir drives his hate and rage and paranoia up while pressing his desire to follow after and avenge his father down, so he doesn’t charge ahead of his army and get killed. Cue questionable empire building. Sauron probably takes on his Annatar guise or maybe the Tar-Mairon one and plays the role of Xia Jiang, corrupting Feanor further while Morgoth just has fun seeing Feanor Fuck It Up, Royally. (Does this make Celebrimbor Xia Dong?)

Feanor does get more practice at manipulation from playing his remaining sons against each other, so, thirty years later, he manages to push Fingolfin into his suicidal charge at Morgoth early. Fingolfing does so in the despairing hope that maybe, just maybe, this will be enough for his brother, the Emperor, his leader, to believe in his loyalty (the younger brother does not recognize his senior, the elder brother does not know the younger. This is the Prince Qi incident). Morgoth discovers that fuck, his influence on the Emperor is not enough to keep the Noldor from being a threat and moreover, he’s got a limp and a blinded eye now, which means that the Valar have not forsaken Middle Earth.

His father’s heroic charge is enough to win Fingon some degree of acclaim from those of the House of Feanor who remember why they came here, to fight the Darkness and Morgoth, and of course, only solidifies the loyalties of those who followed him across the Ice. Feanor reacts by sending him to garrison Himring. Fingon prefers the open plains to an enclosed fortress, so Turgon is the one who actually holds Himring while he takes care of Maglor’s Gap.

Basically, at this point, they’ve realized that Everything is Wrong. The grandchildren of Indis react in different ways. Finrod pastes on his socialite persona and plays the harmless fop (but there’s soft power in that, do not forget), while his brothers accept their postings to the west without protest, kept apart from their cousin by the bulk of Feanorian power. Artanis is not permitted by Feanor to go past the Girdle, but manages to beg the post of warden of Nan Dungortheb, making her Nihuang. Aredhel is not so lucky, and is forced to wed Eöl, so she’s Liyang, married to Xie Yu, with Maeglin as Jingrui. Although tbh, their personalities might work better the other way around, I chose this configuration only because of canon.

All of this happens over two centuries, basically the timespan until the Bragollach, which maybe comes a bit earlier.

Meanwhile, with M&M… They’re consolidating power, building the Jiangzuo Alliance. With the absence of the sunk cost fallacy re: multiple Kinslayings, and the presence of proof that some of the things they started were evil from the start, plus Maedhros clinging to the stubborn hope of Fingon, Maglor’s last argument gains ground, and they actually do properly repent of their (much fewer) deeds, and Mae manages to make peace with Doriath at the price of renouncing his father and all his works (if the Oath is magically binding, then clearly, as per the Valar’s judgement at Aqualonde, all of the Eldar are kin, so the Oath applies only insofar as they ensure that Silmarils are removed, lethally, from Morgoth’s possession. If it isn’t, then even better!).

They do have dealings with their cousins on occasion, albeit never under their birth names. Somehow, no one makes the connection between Maedhros and Maitimo (Feanor might have, if he had still given time to the beauty of language instead of the making of weapons).

Northern Yan succession crisis turns into the Doriath and Beren and Luthien incident. Thingol somehow manages to be emboldened by the circumstances to the point of demanding a Silmaril, again. With no Nargothrond, it falls to M&M to be the ones who are responsible for providing elvish aid to Beren.

Of course, Luthien is an eldritch girlbossing nightmare to her enemies no matter what the situation and they do successfully wrest a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown. Still Feanor’s kin, says Maglor, who is a poet, musing on the intricacies of words, the Valar themselves decreed it. Either way, not ours to claim. Says Maedhros, who has taken a good hard look at his moral compass and kept it away from any oathy magnets this time and decided, grimly, that his first and only priority is the defeat of Morgoth (at the hands of Finno, who would be a good king).

Good news. Despite Bragollach, the forces of the Noldor have benefited from their greatest inventor churning out new innovations for the past centuries and suffered significantly less damage. Feanor, more paranoid and less prone to hope and also urged to caution by Sauron’s voice whispering in his ear, does not attempt any sort of Union. The forces of the Free Peoples are not devastated by the Nirnaeth. Hope still remains of the defeat of Morgoth by the forces of Beleriand.

Bad news. Morgoth is very wary of Melian and Melian’s kingdom, now that he’s suffered a bitter loss at the hands of Melian’s daughter. Sauron urges Feanor to turn his attention to Doriath. As Emperor of all Middle Earth, Feanor’s letter begins…

The clock starts ticking down. But with Finrod alive and on dwarves, Thingol lives for longer, and so does Melian, which makes the Noldor hesitate to attack Doriath for far longer. Morgoth, being the coward that he is, does not want to test Melyanna.

Crunch the timeline. Idril still meets Tuor, on the Eastern Front if not in Gondolin, or maybe she’s a hostage kept at Hithlum. Earendil happens.

In Doriath, Elwing happens. For the aid they rendered Luthien, Maedhros and Maglor are named godparents of her children, and mortal Dior continues his parents’ tradition for little Elwing and Elured and Elurin. Elwing and Earendil meet, probably when they both have reason to be at Cirdan’s and they name Maedhros and Maglor godparents for their children as well.

It’s around this time that Thingol nevertheless dies, and Melian departs, and the Girdle falls and the Noldor fall upon Doriath. Elured and Elurin play bait, determined to lead the Kinslayers on a wild goose chase to keep their attention away from their baby sister and her children and the Silmaril which Finrod is smuggling towards the havens.

They know that Feanor will never stop his pursuit, and giving the Silmaril up to Feanor himself seems an even worse idea than the canonical giving it up to the Feanorians, because at least the Feanorians don’t know what to do with the Silmaril, not the way their creator might (WMDs, anyone?). So Elwing and Earendil still choose to journey across the sea and beg aid of Valinor in general and Arafinwe in particular because Finrod slipped them a letter, and also to just keep the Silmaril permanently out of Feanor’s grasp (if they sink down into Uinen’s embrace, then so be it).

They leave their children in the care of their godparents, who have proven themselves to be responsible, resourceful, and absolutely capable of keeping clear of Feanorians.

Thus begins Nirvana-in-Fire, Silmarillion Edition. (That was a lot of setup).

We have Feanor as the Emperor, having just recently ordered the Second Kinslaying, and is increasingly suspicious of the loyalties of all who did not personally bloody their hands at it and some who did.

We have C&C and Caranthir and Ulfang as the rival princes plus Qin Banruo.

We have Tar-Mairon as Xia Jiang, driving the Emperor ever deeper into paranoia and arranging to kill off overly inconvenient powers.

We have Fingon as Prince Jing, holding the Eastern Front because it might be cold and bleak and thankless, but at least he’s facing the real enemy here instead of killing innocent fellow elves. He is the Heir to his Father’s House, but though they look to him, they are scattered, and he does not see the point in gathering them up again when it would only invite his Uncle the Emperor’s attention. (He does not admit that he is still grieving Maitimo, who was Nelyafinwe, who he privately wishes to have lived where his uncle had died).

We have Artanis as Nihuang, who, when receiving the missive regarding attacking Doriath, informed her uncle that oh no, there’s another sudden Ungoliant-Spawn boom and she must do her duty as the Warden of Nan Dungortheb, regrettably she has no troops to spare for her Uncle the Emperor, you know how it is, and yes, killing these spiders requires her personal attention, thank you for your understanding.

We have Maedhros as MCS, grimly aware that his father has to go, determined to put a just Emperor on his father’s throne, heading a Union of the Free Peoples and trying to shore up the cracks in the empire until then.

We have Maglor as Lin Chen, who’s halfway out of fucks to give, blithely being a bard and a diva and an intelligence broker but regrettably all in on his brother’s insane scheme to turn everything on its head and focus their father’s empire’s splintered and disillusioned forces on the Enemy in the North instead of giving up and enjoying life while they live it.

We have Elrond and Elros as Fei Liu, currently being raised by their godfathers, enough Maiarin blood in their veins to be terrifying fighters even at their young age.

We have either Idril or Finduilas as Consort Jing (without the Consort part, naturally), growing up trapped at Feanor’s court for centuries, learning to manipulate with soft-spoken words because that’s the only power that she holds.

We have Finrod as Yan Yujin, putting on a façade of oblivious cheer with sharp eyes missing nothing, probably figuring out the true identity of Maedhros after seeing him and Fingon in a room together, hoping against hope to trust in Estel.

We have Arafinwe as Marquis Yan, finally sailing across the sea at his son’s beseeching as the vanguard of the forces of the War of Wrath.

We have Aredhel as Princess Liyang, bent but unbroken, finally forcing her uncle’s hand to cry justice for her father, and her son Maeglin as Jingrui, who knows there’s a lot wrong with his family but not knowing what he can do about it. (He probably comes in contact with M&M through the dwarves instead of elvish Jianghu).

Endgame is probably Fingon forces Feanor to abdicate, which probably triggers Morgoth decision to resort to open warfare instead of using subtle manipulation any more. Fingon then rallies the remaining free peoples of Beleriand, they fight, and Arafinwe comes in the end to save them. Fingon probably then stays High King/emperor of the Noldor on Middle Earth as the Second Age dawns.

so uhh where's the russingon nirvana in fire au??

[eri-pl]

Adventures of Steve the intern Maia

part 1/2 (probably)

[inspired by this reblog]

========================

"How dare you!"

Serindo sighed loudly. He looked around the forge, but luckily there weren't many others nearby, and with the work in some distance, the voice did not carry far.

This was third Noldo this week getting offended when he introduced himself. And the number was so low only because most of them were recurring visitors, to whom he'd already explained that yes, this was his name, and no, it wasn't in any way, shape or form meant to mock their deceased queen or their linguistic preferences.

At least she said 'you', not 'thee''. He got some of those too, even though not very often.

Fortunately, before he got to explaining, or before the Noldo girl got more aggressive, one of her friends gave her a whispered explanation, muddled by the noise of the smithing work.

"Fine," she said. "So, when's the lesson?"

No apologies, no respect for his nature. And to think that once he'd agreed that bringing the Elves to Valinor was a great idea. Well, it must have been, as it was Lord Manwe's.

"In ten minutes, when Telperion reaches its peak light. I need to get the tools ready."

The Noldo rolled her eyes, and exchanged looks with one of her friends.

Why couldn't he just punch them? Or at least brand them? That would teach them some respect. Maybe they weren't as great as---

Serindo stopped this thought. It wasn't a good thought.

He wouldn't be another Maia to run away.

Even if Mairon probably was having a much better time right now.

The young Noldor giggled, joined by one more boy. "So this is the one who can't speak properly?" he asked his friends, not even trying to be quiet.

Serindo threw his hammer down. "The lesson is cancelled," he said and left without risking another look on the elves.

--------------

"My lord," said Serindo with a deep bow. "I--- I can't."

Aule gave him a warm, fatherly smile. "What is the problem, Serindo?"

"I can't work with the Noldor anymore! If I have to stand them for one more day, I'll---" He looked away. "I just can't. Please. I beg you, my lord. anything else, but not them."

"I will not ban them from my forges. But..." Aule closed his eyes for a moment. "You are not bound here. I know you that like quiet and peace, and I have heard that Namo is looking for more servants. I cannot fathom why, maybe the poor elves in Beleriand are going to wage war on each other?"

"Or---"

"Or?"

Serindo swallowed. He shouldn't have said anything. But he did and there was no point in hiding his thoughts from a Vala.

"Melkor is free now, it won't be long before... something happens."

"He is. but he is bound to stay in Valinor. What could he do in here? So, should I recommend you to Namo?"

"Yes. Please."

-------------------

Serindo entered the shadowed, stone room. It was cold and too empty, but at least there were no Noldor in there, only Lord Namo sitting on a stone throne.

The Vala sat in silence for a while, his eyes empty and unreadable. Finally, he spoke. "I'd ask you to sit down, but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase."

"What vase?"

There was no vase. And no other chair.

"It's a joke. You will get used to them. Eventually. Sooner than you will understand this one, at least."

It would be easier if Namo's face showed any emotion or if his eyes had irises or pupils.

"If I may..."

"Of course you may. How do you imagine a job interview without you speaking?"

Or if he didn't use strange words that seemed to belong in a different time or place.

"There is no vase in here," said Serindo, trying to sound as respectful as he could.

"Yes. Are you in habit of worrying about things that are not there? No. That's why I told you not to worry. Also, the joke was not for you. But, back to your internship." Lord Namo paused, probably noticing Serindo's expression. "Your service to me. I will accept it, under one condition."

"Yes?" However difficult this condition would be, it couldn't be worse than dealing with the Noldor.

"You will stay with me. At least for the next three hundred years."

That was it? Serindo's heart leaped with joy.

"Of course, my lord."

==================

part 2

[urwendii]

Silly idea of the day. Time travel fix it + body swaps & multi timelines.

Eru remembers his fatherly duties in time and decided to have some (unethical experiment) fun. A confused babey Almaren!Mairon finds himself in the body of his future self, fearsome sorcerer Sauron, Lieutenant of Morgoth, trying to understand how things could have reached such a dreadful point and why the Vala he has a (totally not embarrassing) crush on is but the Shadow of his former self with an unhealthy obsession with shiney stones that had poisoned his mind into mad nihilism.

Meanwhile, Maedhros, the Dispossessed, twice Kinslayer, heartsick beyond repair since the death of his beloved, wakes up in Formenos to find all of his family alive and on the verge of civil war.

Two opportunities to avoid more bloodshed, for an Oath not to be sworn, for a summon to be answered. Two timelines entwined beyond the confines of Time. As past becomes the future and the present turns into a tale of the past.