New Challenge: Crossroads of the Fallen King
Cross "The Silmarillion" with a second text or fandom in this month's crossover challenge.
Maglor had not, in fact, lost the capacity to care for another.
Celegorm loves. Aredhel does, too - but not quite.
Modern AU with Russingon QPR.
I have a full background for everyone and everything, though I envision this as a series of one-shots, rather than a linear story. Russingon QPR will be the main focus, but other characters will make appearances and maybe steal the light. It's a bit lighter on the trauma in the sense that everyone (beside Finwë and Míriel) is alive, but they each have their own issues.
For practical reasons (aka I didn't want to have to deal with it in-universe), Fëanor is only Míriel's son and was adopted by Finwë at a young age, so Maedhros and Fingon are not biologically cousins, and don't really consider themselves as such, though they have known each other since they were kids.
Galadriel felt she had a well-matched friend in Princess Luthien, and she did not expect that ever to change.
Gil-galad confronts her growing feelings for Elrond. Part of my Woman King AU.
Setting aside her basket, Indis ran barefoot through the fields to greet him, and he swept her into his arms and spun her around. Her laughter fell upon the fields like rain, and Finwë felt it wash over his heart, welling up in the cracks that he had thought would ever remain after the loss of Míriel.
The song of their joy spills over the fields of the Valar.
Irissë crosses the ice, loses a sister and a brother, and battles her way towards a reunion with the cousin who deserted her.
A relationship in betweeness.
The tide played around the horizon, only beginning to consider its daily sweep up the beach to the toes of Alqualondë. Eärwen waved to the far-off breakers and slid down to the wet sand, then turned and lifted Anaïre down. Anaïre pecked her on the cheek in thanks, and they started up the beach to the strand and the woman lying there sobbing for breath.
She did look young, close-up. That is, she looked like an Elf who had just reached full maturity, except where she did not. Around the eyes she bore little crinkles like the seafarers did, on her heaving belly the lightning-marks of pregnancy, and two fascinating rivers of silver ran into the light-gulping blackness of her hair from the temples. And, of course, there were the feathers
If I sing now, will you answer me?
Once childhood friends, now king and captain, Finrod and Edrahil mourn for what they lost in each other on the Helcaraxë.
For the first time since Finrod’s rebirth in Aman, he and Amarie are intimate.
That it was returned, he did not question. He could look back now and see everything arranged in its full image, he could trace the careful dance they both wound through this past year; every word, every silence, every touch ringing through with that steady truth. How had he been so blind?
Springtime has come to Estolad. Finrod is struck with a realization he has been avoiding and faces the decisions that lie in its wake.
Glingaereth meets the crown prince of the Noldor by chance, if chance you call it.
“All the same, sister, be careful.”
“Me?” Glingaereth said. “Careful of what?”
“Of that prince.”
“What, Fingon? If you are worried about the Noldor’s feuds, he is the one who brought them to an end.”
Limbeleth shook her head. “I can’t explain it. It isn’t that you need worry about him, but—I have an uneasy feeling about them all, and I feel also that you will be bound up in their fate somehow.”
Fingon accidentally ends up taking Maedhros's hoodie home with him & finds his iPod Nano in his pocket. Modern AU
“We only have a few moments,” Arien whispers, her eyes sparkling like sunlight dancing upon water as she allows him to pull her closer.
“We need no more than that,” Tilion answers, dipping his head to meet hers and cradling her face in his hands, heedless of how the crackling heat of her scorches him.
They steal what moments they can.
Finrod felt the other’s panic strike his perception like a blow and was running even before Balan’s cry reached his ear. In a glance, his eyes took in the scene before him: the camp in sudden stillness, one of the Laiquendi staggering through the clearing, a limp body slung in his arms, Balan and Baran sprinting toward him.
It was Belen in his arms.
The Edain and the Laiquendi cross paths in the woods of Ossiriand and are faced with immediate conflict. Finrod and Estreth work to heal the damage, Balan (Bëor) tries to learn the communication of thought, and the Edain choose where their loyalty will abide.
It was danger only if the goal was avoidance, and Balan had no desire to escape. The urge to laugh returned and his heart dared Estreth’s cautions to be true so he might find himself ensnared forever, held motionless on this hilltop, a statue cradled within the other’s hands till the world’s ending. If his soul was consumed in the process, then let it be so. It was a fair price.
A few months after Finrod discovered the Edain near Thalos, he continues to dwell with them and form friendships. Balan (Bëor) attempts to learn multiple languages, some old folktales of the Edain come up in conversation, and Balan and Finrod discuss grief with a side of constellations. Balan has a crush.
“I convinced myself the situations were different. I built labyrinths within my reason to justify the pretense, and in their twisting ways I wandered blind till faced with her grief—the tribute paid in pain, as thou hast named it. Till then I could contend that I suffered so thou might be spared; I grieved so that thou might hold love in memory untarnished. That I learned at the feet of Doom to thus keep its step from thine own neck, and so should goodness come of it. Eru forgive me, I was wrong.”
After his conversation with Andreth forces him to face his own rationalizations and hypocrisies, Finrod realizes he needs to come clean to Aegnor and confesses to him both the consequences of his former advice, as well as his own secret grief that motivated it.
An ongoing series (estimated to ultimately include around 20-25 works) about Finrod & Bëor, their relationship, and how Finrod copes in the face of that loss. Basically, if you ever wanted a longer than necessary slow burn of these two trailblazing the elf-mortal love tragedy, I've got you covered.
I’m sorry for not having a more consistent schedule on getting these finished, edited, and posted. I’m juggling full-time work and in a busy season there, so I’ve been slipping this in wherever I can, but that does mean I’m a bit unpredictable when it comes to a posting schedule. Currently I'm managing approximately 1 piece every 2 weeks or thereabouts. Thanks for bearing with the slow burn!
Thuringwethil doesn't even know why she's here. It's not like the sex is rewarding.
The unexpected and mysterious return of Glorfindel, hero of Gondolin, to Middle-earth opens old wounds for Erestor. Can he overcome guilt and forge a new relationship with his old friend?
Written for 2023 My Slashy Valentine fic swap
A nonagenarian Andreth thinks back on her life, and love. (Featuring cameo appearances by Finrod and Adanel.)
Dís, Belladonna and a quiet day together.
Nolofinwë did not want to be here.
If he could have been anywhere else in the world, he would have fled there at this moment.
~
Fingolfin and Feanor's complicated relationship in four scenes.
Maglor wishes he could want less.