#thank you welcomingdisaster!

[searchingforserendipity25]

Curufin!

Character Ask Game 💚🤍🖤

Thank you @welcomingdisaster! :)

Give me a character and I will give you my thoughts on

Curufin

one aspect about them i love 

Favourite Daughter Syndrome, and committed to it. 

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

As much Aredhel’s friend as Celegorm or Caranthir. Well-spoken and very compelling; very strongly attuned to everyone's position and presentation in any conversation, and when he talks/acts it's very deliberately a give-take-overcome situation, both in Nargothrond and confronting Beren and Lúthien.

Very reactive, aware of other people's possible reactions. Shows a remarkable talent in slipping in and saying the correct thing at the correct time with fantastic oration skills. These are good qualities and not evil in themselves! It's what he uses them for that's the problem.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Genuinely liked Telchar more than most elves, including his brothers. A true friendship of like minds, soul sisters of the craft, bffs of the forge. Celebrimbor wants what they have (and he gets it with Narvi, but not after pining after a number of cool dwarrows and having his hopes for a partnership dashed.) 

as well as

one character i love seeing them interact with

Finrod. Everything about the bonds of betrayal and gratitude and betrayal again, mutual attraction and mutual (dis)illusionment, a far clearer mutual understanding than either of them wants to admit, both regarding the best and the worst parts of their characters…

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Aredhel! Again, I find their friendship fascinating.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

Felt pretty bad - as in, mind-breaking guilt very badly managed - about telling Eöl where Aredhel and Maeglin were going, in hindsight; but genuinely thought this was a political move on Aredhel’s part at the time.

Marry a Sindarin lord, start thawing Turgon’s anger about her disappearance by presenting her cute kid, and then her husband shows up and boom! diplomacy happens. There’s a half-Noldo with a feet in Nan Elmoth. Not a bad choice, as far as he's concerned; Finrod and his siblings have Thingol’s favour, the Feanorians are all out, where does that leave Fingolfin and his children in terms of footing?  Eöl’s chase seems consistent to what he knows of Aredhel - hardly the first time she got an idea in her head and left others behind in the assumption they’d do what she planned them to do.

He didn’t at all think she did it on purpose for mere political convenience - Aredhel only does her own convenience, mostly, and power plays of the polis kind aren't her thing. But he knows how she chafes at restriction and longs for vastness, control, agency and liberty, and if she fell in love with a treacherous sentient forest, well, it’s not that surprising. 

Curufin’s failure is always in underestimating everyone else. The forest gripped Aredhel not the other way around. 

Quite envious that Turgon got to kill Eöl - but also very glad that he wasn’t the one to do it and deal with the consequences to his network in Himlad and in the dwarrow kingdoms.

Knowing Eöl, he suspected the consequences would be quite terrible; would not have been surprised at the Doom he cast over Gondolin, and indeed counted on it and mentally scrapped Gondolin as any kind of use afterwards (went so far as to be glad that they weren't joining the Union, and lowkey blamed them for the defeat and how it changed their plans/added another Doom).

If Aredhel and Maeglin had stayed in Himlad, Curufin would have done so much for them (derrogatory but mostly well intended). The coup of Nan Elmoth by Maeglin’s regents would be truly a tale for the ages (a horror tale). Strangling vines, poisonous ponds, anti-colonialist spiders, Aredhel vs Mablung in a fight for survival in the wilds when Thingol sends someone to figure out what’s going on, Maeglin running around with a cursed blade - we could have had it all! 

[polutrope]

weird and controversial ships hmmmm.... elwing/maglor, feanolo, indis/nerdanel?

[ship bingo]

Elwing/Maglor

Yes. They're both hot (to me), she hates him, he would do anything (anything) to redeem himself in her eyes. He won't but she'll still fuck him. Dynamic is Maglor guilt-fucking, Elwing like, "Yeah, I deserve this. Please me, kinslayer -- also don't talk." They are both surprised to find they have amazing chemistry and it gets pretty kinky. Earendil backs it, sometimes watches, rarely partakes. Elrond and Elros think it's funny as hell.

I need them to kill each other = I need her to kill him. With hotness.

That's my take, but for another great (and darker) one, may I recommend: Elwing/f!Maglor by simaetha.

Feanor/Fingolfin

@ettelene is gonna be mad at me for not saying Soulmates but I'm still in my toxic sibcest era lol. UST more than hatefuck though. I do think kissing could fix them though, and I like a Feanor Lives AU where they fuck-to-fix-it.

Some Fave Feanolos:

The Revolutionary and the Usurper by Encairion (imo a masterpiece of Feanor characterisation, complicated relationships, and super hot smut scenes)

All of them by Ettelene but A Clash of swords is so much fun and showcases her talent for group dynamics as well as smut.

hell is empty and we are here by @crownlessliestheking. More pre-slash but their dynamic here is so perfectly spiky.

Indis/Nerdanel

100% sold on this by you. Prefer it to Mindis. Everyone, may I highly recommend stone toys by welcomingdisaster.

[southfarthing]

turgon!

one aspect about them i love

he still has so much kindness and warmth despite having every reason to be cold 🥹🥹🥹 the way he takes maeglin in...the way he treats hurin and huor.... and later tuor........this guy has seen most of his family die horrible deaths but he's still .... he's so 🥹 he can have a little pride as a treat

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I feel like we're not talking about his charismatic leadership as much as we should

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

he's so girldad 😭😭😭😭 also of his siblings, he's the most similar to fingolfin

one character i love seeing them interact with

fingon and finrod!! and idril + aredhel!! and maeglin 😭

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

... fingon. all his siblings tbh. and elenwë and idril!!! and the sons of fëanor actually - I feel like that would be juicy

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

his relationship with fingon became rocky during the exile/helcaraxë/first few years of the sun, but after fingolfin's body was brought to him and it hit turgon how small their family had become, he decided he would try to fix things. fingon never asked him to join the union of maedhros, not knowing where he was (and perhaps, not willing to ask and then be disappointed and humiliated), but turgon prepared his forces anyway and went to him

[thelordofgifs]

sorry to live blog this in ur inbox but i feel like i blinked and tfs is 400 miles away from where i remembered it. omg (omg) the clear silver horn of fingolfin!!! HOLY SHIT!! aaaaaa. fingon having his dumbass romantic moment staring at the VISCERA ON MAEDHROS'S SWORD??? maglor bargaining his life for curufin's?? fuck curufin is going to kill maglor isn't he

NO DON’T APOLOGISE A LIVEBLOG IS THE BEST GIFT I COULD GET anyway YES I’m kind of always obsessed with all the violence that’s so essential to russingon tbh? Like Alqualondë and the making of the Union and their big romantic rescue which definitely involved Maedhros bleeding all over the place – theirs is a relationship absolutely soaked in gore. They are WARLORDS and they love that about each other and we are just kind of staring at them in horrified fascination. So Fingon finding violent killer!Maedhros Extremely Sexy was so important to me and I’m so glad you picked up on it!

No word yet on future plans for Curufin - that’s a theory I haven’t heard before though! :)

[cowboyhorsegirl]

which book was it omg

i'll recc you a book tell me what you're looking for

fjksdfjksf okay in the book's defense it's an anthology and i haven't finished it yet so we can still hold out hope that at least something in there is gonna be outstanding

but it's called Trans Love: An Anthology of Transgender and Nonbinary Voices, edited by Freiya Benson & i will update you all if i find anything i like but so far all of the writing has just kind of fallen flat for me

& i'd be so excited to read anything you rec, but I particularly love graphic novels and books about queer history <3

[grey-gazania]

ooo for the WIP game i'll ask for... red, finwë, bitter, & sweet!

Red, from a piece about Caranthir and his soon-to-wife that I'm currently trying to polish up for Tolkien OC Week:

When Atto straightened up, there was something in his hands -- a folded piece of fabric, richly embroidered in shades of red. I knew immediately whose work it was.

Couldn't find Finwë on his own, but I did find it as half of Nolofinwë, from a future chapter of Half Past Ten in the Rose Garden:

Nolofinwë chokes on his wine as Atto guffaws.

Bitter turns up in my rough draft of a future Woman King AU piece about Gil-galad and her mother reacting to Maedhros' death.

“Well, he's not here to see it,” Gil-galad said, and Ianneth could hear the bitterness in her daughter's voice. “He's not here because Maedhros got him killed. So I say good riddance to that murderer and his bloody hands. Hand,” she corrected herself.

Sweet appears in my as-yet-unpublished outsider POV ficlet about Elrond & Elros' early days with Maedhros and Maglor:

As I leaned closer, I caught a whiff of the sweet scent of the healing herbs that Melloth must have used to cleanse his wound.

work in progress guessing game || @welcomingdisaster

[melestasflight]

WIP Wednesday Thursday

a 'lil something that I hope to wrap up for @tolkienhorrorweek

Maedhros’ first glimpse of Ossiriand was a sketch that Finrod had sent him, along with an elaborate letter detailing his adventures. Maedhros had not believed it possible. An artistic exaggeration perhaps, a small liberty of the wonderer’s passion. It was art done by Finrod, after all, a being who sought and found beauty in all things, even those deemed by others as most dull, ugly even.

But now he begins to realize that Finrod’s drawing was merely nudging the door open to a world of its own. Ossiriand is a marvel beyond imagination.

thanks for the holler @welcomingdisaster. summoning @eilinelsghost @queerofthedagger @ao3-quente to share a snippet of your wips, if you so fancy

[sallysavestheday]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love ❤

Thank you (and also to @cycas) for the ask! This is hard! Here are five that I love from among those of my fics that get the least attention:

Much Sorrow and Many Lives of Men (G: 600 words). The end of Arvedui, last King of Gondor (until Aragorn), in the ice of Forochel. Angst!!

Not By Wisdom But By Love (G: 500 words). Beleg and Túrin's first meeting in the woods of Doriath. Tenderness and looming doom.

The Fire of the World (T: 450 words, Russingon). Fingon and Maedhros, discovering each other. Romance.

Examined Lives (T: 700 words, Erestor/Pengolodh). Erestor and Pengolodh negotiate their respective truths, after sailing for Valinor. Romantic reflections on meaning and purpose.

Avant Garde (G: 500 words). Maglor is unhappy with the premiere of his latest work. Finrod attempts to console him. Silliness with gratitude and apologies to John Cage.

And because these are all short, I am not a rule-follower, and there must always be Legolas and Gimli for RLF, one more:

Op. 1: Serenade for Bow and Axe. (T: 700 words, Legolas/Gimli). In which they find each other in battle. And in songs.

@melestasflight @thelordofgifs @polutrope @welcomingdisaster @hhimring what's in your personal favorites boxes?

[kanskje-kaffe]

Seven Sentences Saturday from your WIP

Thank youuuu @curufiin for the tag!!

From the current chapter of The Madrigal I'm working on (Silvergifting):

There must have been innumerable moments like that. They had shared ninety late summers, and Narvi was always coming and going, especially when the weather made for pleasant travel above ground. Celebrimbor had plenty such memories of his own. Annatar's golden hair turning white in the sunlight. Droplets of water running between strong, clever fingers as he washed his hands. Snowflakes caught on his silver eyelashes, in the instant before they melted. Annatar was always warm.

I tag:

@kevystel

@spicedrobot

@trash-ainu

@withercrown

@aran-morinorea

@myceliumelium

@finmoryo

@elevenelvenswords

@welcomingdisaster

@queerofthedagger

annnnd @curufiin because i would like to see more haha! ;3c

If I didn't tag you, but you're reading this and you have a Silm wip, please consider yourself tagged and @ me so I can read your stuff!!!!

[thescrapwitch]

Multiple Words Monday

Thank you @thelordofgifs and @eilinelsghost for tagging me! This is from Psalm for the Strange, another bonus eldritch!Maglor story. Unlike the rest of the series, it leans much more into the cozy than horror elements. It focuses on a Maglor, Lindir and a few other bards entering a song competition in Valinor. Or, trying to. (Its also in Lindir's POV, which I have missed writing) Here's a little snippet of it:

“It - I mean, he can’t compete.”

“Why not?” asked Lindir.

I followed the instructions and filled out the form in advance, said Maglor. 

“It's not the form. It's that, well…” She looked like she wanted to hide under the table rather than talk to them. “It's against the rules for creatures like you to compete!”

“Oh really?” Lindir put his hands on his hips. “And where, exactly, in this rulebook of yours, does it say that ‘eldritch-creatures cannot compete in song competitions in Valinor?’ Because if it's not in there, then you must be making it up, and if you’re making it up then that’s extremely rude of you and honestly lowers my faith in your ability to judge this competition fairly.”

Tagging: @camille-lachenille @dreamingthroughthenoise @chthonion @lordgrimwing @welcomingdisaster @searchingforserendipity25 and whoever else wants to join in!

[outofangband]

Continuing on my theme today of Melian and Thingol, this is a poem of the wonderful @welcomingdisaster that she allowed me to translate into Tengwar!

Thank you, Lena! Your writing is so evocative and beautiful! I wish I could draw for you but alas I must do this instead

The original post can be found here!

Translation note: due to a silly mistake of mine, the original “crack” somehow became “holds”

Translation:

the road is long, the forest dim

his thoughts dance circles in the grows

his brothers, friends ahead of him

the sea, green waves and hidden coves

his gooseflesh rises; bush-birds take flight

trees chatter, crack, abruptly still

her shadow covers up the light

eerie and sharp; white-hot, blue-chill

her voice is fair, her voice is old

a song of bloom, a song of rot

her cat-eyes mirror dark and bold

and if that mirror shows him not,

only another, silver-crowned,

what fool would leave — what fool be found?

[ruiniel]

Hi there!

I'm a newbie in the tolkien works, I've finished off the hobbit and the lotr books but have no idea where to go next. I've looked at different websites about it but I haven't gotten any clear answers. There's like a million of these books and I feel so lost!

I figured that as a long time fan that you'd know the answers to this question if it's not too much of a bother.

Thanks in advance no pressure!

Augh, anon! This is one of the best things to ask of someone with a lifelong interest in this universe.

I WILL get back to you on this, but.

Was thinking (midnight brain) could we make it a group effort? It feels as though seeing different perspectives from other people in the fandom would be of help here, and since I do want this covered I'm calling on mutuals and followers in the Tolkien fandom.

Please if you deem, I do encourage people to add to this.

Let me try tagging (there are legit so many of us): @arofili @actual-bill-potts @eveningalchemist @goschatewabn @cuarthol @melestasflight @thelordofgifs @outofangband @thegreatstrongbow @potatoobsessed999 @hennethgalad @jamcake-muses @i-did-not-mean-to @glorf1ndel @z-h-i-e @verecunda @naryaflame @mirkwood-hr-department @saurons-pr-department @welcomingdisaster @hirazuki @nuredhel @effervescentdragon @searchingforserendipity25 @cilil @hhimring @chrissystriped @yuzukimist @edensrose @awesome-bluehair-universe @swanmaids @herinke @celebbun @auntieaugury @auroramama @puelhathnofury @kiatheinsomniac @eilinelsghost @asianbutnotjapanese @i-gwarth @batsyforyou @aprilertuileviresse @fishing4stars @elamarth-calmagol @zeladanial @silmarillionwritersguild @silmarillionno @solmarillion @samarqqand @sallysavestheday+ anyone else and ALL the Tolkien visual artists who see this and I forgot to mention (love you all, so many) if you have the inclination to add your journey/experience/recommendations? Anything, we have a good topic here.

[swanmaids]

Tagged by @bretwalda-lamnguin to make a poll of my favourite characters from different Tolkien canons, thank you!

Tagging @meadowlarkx @imakemywings @polutrope @thelordofgifs @welcomingdisaster @elevenelvenswords @mircallaruthven @mirillel to do this if you’d like!

[thelordofgifs]

for some reason TFS /always/ shows up on my dash RIGHT as i have to leave for work, so i, very foolishly, read about half of it before i had to rush out the door and was in horrible suspense the whole time. i am holding this against you but AHHHH. maedhros giving up control is SO interesting in this fic. maedhros despair response: control freak about it. maedhros EXTRA HORRIBLE despair response: nothing matters and i'm letting someone else (first curufin and now fingon) take the reins. love this AHH maglor letting go of the secret so quickly!! this will certainly fuck up the way curufin feels about being in this family LMAO... also maglor waking up alone,, i was half-expecting the hunting knife to be bloody. very curious to see where it goes from here, because it has consistently not gone the way i expect it to

I’m sorry about the suspense pls forgive me ❤️❤️ anyway yes Maedhros and passivity!! is so interesting to me!! Also also. Celegorm got to fight a werewolf with his hands and teeth and Curufin got to ruin literally everything for no reason and Maglor… was Maglor but MAEDHROS SHOULD GET TO BE DRAMATIC TOO SOMETIMES. LET HIM BURN DOWN HIS OWN FORTRESS AND THEN SEND AWAY ALL HIS FOLLOWERS. HE HAS HAD A REALLY BAD FEW WEEKS AND HE DESERVES IT.

Maglor! He started out that whole conversation thinking “I am going to be gentle and understanding with my grieving little brother” but Curufin did absolutely cross the line and Maglor lost his temper (starting to realise I love writing Maglor losing his temper?? he’s such a drama queen about it but his dialogue can be SO vicious). Curufin was like “wait fuck people love me I have no idea how to deal with this”. But on a practical level it was not very sensible of Maglor to reveal the secret! And he is now feeling guilty for having (in his mind) lost Curufin. As for the waking up alone I was ABSOLUTELY thinking of your Curufin kills Maglor theory with that lol. But the poor boy deserves a break from being a pincushion.

Sidenote, actually: people can (and have, in the notes) interpret this in different ways, but I see Curufin’s decision to run away as a very morally neutral one. He does feel terribly guilty that Maglor is willing to die for him; he’s also not at all willing to die himself. In some ways it’s pretty cowardly of him to disappear – and he left his VERY BADLY INJURED brother pretty much completely defenceless except for one (1) knife, too. And that isn’t even getting into what he must have known the abandonment would do to Maglor emotionally! It was cruel and kind at once, in my opinion – very curvocore.

I am also very curious to see where it goes from here!! And my guess is only slightly better than yours actually.

[eilinelsghost]

WIP Wordsday

Thanks to @sallysavestheday for the tag! Here’s a bit from the next Atandil of Gildor and Balan talking about their shared experience of being orphans while on the road after parting from Finrod & co at the borders of Doriath:

“I have been angry now for many years.” Gildor’s voice held all the bitterness Balan dared not utter, and he shuddered to feel it resonate through his bones. “Others I knew lost one parent or the other on the ice, but how could both have gone from me at once? Did one spirit feel the other’s departure and follow for love of it? Did mine, lingering in the exile they chose, bear no staying weight?”

Balan’s heart blenched and he shifted in the saddle. This is the whim you choose above your sons? Above your duty? Estreth’s voice cut through his memory, sharp as the day he walked out through these same fields, and he felt a twinge of affinity with Inglor’s corpse upon the ice. If it lay within his power, would he not follow Nóm’s spirit too on whatever road it led? Would he remember to reckon first the tally of what he left?

Tagging @emyn-arnens, @welcomingdisaster, @thelordofgifs, @grey-gazania, and @that-angry-noldo if you’d like to share too

[zealouswerewolfcollector]

WIP Whateverday

Tagged by @welcomingdisaster, thank you <3

I'm tagging @sallysavestheday, @amethysttribble, @quixoticanarchy, @grey-gazania

Haven't written for a while, tbh but before my break I was trying to write for a dark kinkmeme prompt. Got too sad, so I abandoned it :/

“Shall we take a walk?” Maedhros asks. Fingon hasn’t left the room since the day he came in. He refuses to count how long ago it was. Maedhros blocks Fingon’s ears with wax and puts the blindfold over his eyes. He puts cotton balls in Fingon’s nose, so the smells won’t give away their location. He picks Fingon up and takes him away. They are descending. Fingon puts his palm over Maedhros’s chest and counts his heartbeat instead of the stairs. The sun is warm upon his face. Fingon looks up until even under the blindfold his eyes begin to water. They are lying on the ground. Fingon is glad հe cannot guess where they are based on how the blades of grass feel between his fingers. Maedhros holds his hand. Maedhros cups his face. Maedhros kisses him.

Another tidbit under cut for implied sexual violence

“I was thinking of you when it happened,” Fingon says. “Perhaps that was why it happened.” There is no enjoyment for him in the way Maedhros’s face twists in a grimace of pain, which he tries unsuccessfully to turn into a smile as if it is a more appropriate reaction. “Beginner’s mistake,” Maedhros says finally, keeping his tone carefully light. “Did you not,” Fingon asks, “think of me?” Why did you not think of me? Why did you not come for me? Why do you love me less?