#ingwe: fuck around and find out

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

Finwe is fearfully dreading the day that Miriel/Miriel’s parents come out of the hall bc he knows for him it will be over.

What morgoth did to him won’t even compare to what they are going to do.

[imakemywings]

I must have missed this post going around on Friday, so I didn’t get this out then, but here are the week’s recs! ╰(￣ω￣ｏ)

high in the halls of the kings who are gone by Arveldis - UGH painful recollections of Gildor returning to the halls of Nargothrond after Glaurung’s death </3 Have to say also that I love this title.

Brushstrokes by theworldisquietheretooquiet - 🚨 RED ALERT 🚨 New Ninduilas fic!! This fic uses that tasty conceit of one character painting the other’s portrait. A great job capturing both characters here!

prick a finger, cut your hands (tell me where this road ends) by @welcomingdisaster - Absolutely fantastic dynamic between Miriel and Indis in this shipfic, and a great job of weaving the past into the present.

Stars as Cold as Forever by asterisq - Terribly realistic look at the struggle for supplies on the Helcaraxe...really drives home the every day fight for survival they were under for so long :(

As a Lie by @meadowlarkx - Ehehe the kind of fucked up behavior you’d expect from Finrod/Sauron. Lark does a marvelous job with the characters and their bizarre and compelling dynamic.

Like New Flowers on Ancient Hills by @starspray - I just loved the characterizations here! Sad Elves finding healing in the Shire is such a lovely theme and it works so well here.

More Ferven Flight by crownlessliestheking - Frankly amazing take on Ingwe/Manwe with a gorgeous blend of religious devotion and love. Beautiful prose too!

Raised by Wolves by @warrioreowynofrohan - A wonderful look at Elrond and his struggle with his identity and his complicated relationship with Maglor and Maedhros. This fic addresses the tragedy of his and Elros’ cultural loss and the difference in their attitudes in their youth versus after some more maturity.

Was Dancing There by @starspray - Ahhh a beautiful work for Ekphrasis Week addressing some friezes on the walls of the Havens at Sirion...TT_TT

Silence Sharper Than a Knife by asterisq - Ow ow ow Daeron watches a performance of The Lay of Leithian. If you love sad regretful minstrels you will love this.

Listen to the Song by @polutrope - Happier Daeron fic! I love how this fic portrays Daeron as a child, and Beleg being good with kids makes perfect sense!

Because the World is Saved by @meadowlarkx - Bittersweet Starwing </3 Their relationship is so sweet here, but you can tell how much they’ve been through :(

Now This, Now Us by crownlessliestheking - Miriel is struggling with the living world, but Indis is there to help. Again, excellent writing from this author.

To Distract by @meadowlarkx - AhhhHHHH that kind of pre-reveal tension that makes you foam at the mouth when Doriath doesn’t know why or how the Noldor ended up in Middle-earth. And paradoxically around that, a very cute relationship between Daeron and Finrod.

Untitled by @elentarial - Frankly losing my mind over this idea. The confrontation between Daeron and Maglor in Menegroth is so fraught I was biting my nails even through this short fic!

Longing by @curanthir - Cute Finwe/Thingol with slight angst. Their youthful dynamic here is sweet! It’s nice to see them before the mantle of kingship starts to weigh on them.

Untitled by @swanmaids - Fantastic look at Idril post-Nirnaeth and the increasingly fraught dynamics in Gondolin. A tragically realistic look at Idril’s logic and why she never raised her issues about Maeglin with her father :(

Untitled by @that-angry-noldo - Staying behind in Aman wasn’t all sunshine and roses for Finarfin and it’s really nice to see explorations of the challenges faced by the Calaquendi in the wake of the Darkening. And this is such a realistic-feeling take on it!

Happy Friday, Fellowship! 💛

Fic recs are the best way to help promote someone else’s works! Find some of your favorite fics, they could be WIPs, completed, old, new, whatever you want to share, and rec at least (1) of them for us and your followers to see! Who knows, it might just be the fic someone out there is looking for!

Bonus: tag the author (if possible) and share with us why you are recommending this fic!

[madtomedgar]

some fucking ridiculous elf hc shenanigans! by me and @fidelishaereticus

Fid pointed out that the Valar probably forgot to elf-proof Valinor before the Elves got there. Like... they’d made it Really Pretty, but there were things like: extremely acidic hot springs and open lava pits. And some fool (probably a Teler but the timeline suggests a Noldo) like... dove into the hotspring and immediately disintegrated, and the Valar were so embarrassed and upset by this that they immediately reembodied them. Thus the Elves of Aman learn that dying just means you get a new bod. And pretty quickly start abusing this. The Noldor keep blowing themselves up “for science,” the Teleri are just like “hold my beer, watch this,” the Vanyar keep (legit accidentally) falling off Taniquetil (guardrails, people!), it’s a mess, and Namo is Not Amused.

A new rule is put in place that accidental deaths don’t get automatic reembodiment, they have to wait something ridiculous like 100 years or 500 years or whatever. This really cuts down on the Noldor blowing themselves up “for science” and on the Teleri... well, being themselves.

And then a toddler falls down 18 flights of stone steps and breaks his neck.

Namo points to the sign where the accidental-death rule is prominently displayed and tells the grieving parent to return in the ordained amount of time. Adds some quip about “well, in 500 years when he gets out, he’ll think twice before doing ballet at the top of the stairs in a tall tower” because the Valar don’t know what babies are, do not actually grasp that these are not just tiny adults, and have no concept of what happens when you put yourself between a parent and child.

It doesn’t help that the toddler in question was Feanor.

Finwe loses it. He just lost his wife in a way that was decidedly NOT supposed to happen, now his kid falls down the stairs and not only will Namo not give him back, he’s acting like it’s Finwe’s fault for not watching the child more closely. 

Once word gets around that the accidental-death policy applies to elflings as well, the entire elven population of Aman flips.

The Teleri are trying to unmoor their island and go back because what, sincerely, the fuck, the Vanyar are all wailing, and the Noldor are trying to figure out if they can a) make a new body for this poor baby all on their own and b) if they can break into Mandos and bust him out. Finwe camps out outside the Halls like “I live here now,” despite Namo being like “you cannot “live” here as everyone here is definitionally not alive wtf go away,” and is quickly joined by many many more Noldor, kicking off OCCUPY MANDOS (they have signs).

Manwe is trying to get Eru on the phone but Eru isn’t picking up and the voicemail is full, so eventually calls a meeting to figure out What To Do because literally every single Elf is furious and sad and this is not what was supposed to happen. Ingwe is called in to give a powerpoint presentation on what the fuck is a child, since the Valar... have no concept of that, since they were never children and don’t reproduce. 

Meanwhile, tiny Feanor isn’t even mad, he just thinks it’s swell he gets to spend some quality time with mom and hasn’t gotten around to asking if he can go home or when dad is going to join them. Namo looks at this and goes “the kid doesn’t seem like he even wants to go, what’s the big deal, everyone calm down, jeez,” and Ingwe has to refer back to the part of the powerpoint where it is explained why 3 year olds are not allowed to make their own decisions about most important things. In general, the Valar find the entire concept of childhood alien and vaguely disturbing, and Namo remains unmoved.

Aule joins OCCUPY MANDOS, as does Yavanna. Ulmo and Orome think it’s proably for the best to just let the kid out, since everything is going to shit. 

Eventually, Namo, who is neck-deep in a slippery-slope argument, is overruled, and Manwe declares the new rule is that children who die in accidents will be immediately re-embodied, and adolescents (Ingwe gave them the numbers and they just copied them down and accepted it at that point) will have a shorter waiting period. Tiny Feanor is released! The faith of the Vanyar and Teleri is restored! The faith of the Noldor is... mostly restored.

Feanor comes out of this with an extremely zealous attachment to both Finwe, who he forever sees as having saved his life, Miriel, who he actually got to meet, a healthy does of “the Valar ain’t shit,” coupled with an unfortunate “I’m super special” take-away. 

Maedhros, as a toddler, also thinks it’s fun times to do ballet at the top of a bunch of stairs and falls. Nerdanel freaks out the proper amount. Feanor completely loses it because “what if they don’t let our baby out, they weren’t going to let me out, what if our baby dies and then we never get them back!” etc etc. Maedhros does not in fact die. Maedhros is pretty durable, and Este is good at her job.

Fingon, however, is 110% that kid who thinks superman pjs confer flight ability. Fingon wants to be an eagle. Fingon spends weeks collecting eagle feathers. Fingon, like a Good Noldo, carefully uses said eagle feathers, along with some sticks and glue, to craft a pair of wings. Fingon then jumps off the roof. Splat. Fingon is of course immediately reembodied with no fuss because new rules are new rules (and because Manwe feels personally responsible for this one). Feanor decides that this is proof of a conspiracy against him amongst the Valar, since they weren’t even going to reembody him when his accident was much more legit, but they reembody Nolofinwe’s stupid child no problem (really makes you think). 

And this is why Namo hates children.