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dontforgetoctober3rd · 7 months

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Life Eternal (chapter 2)

This is an HOTD fanfic based off *another* fanfic, Second Sons by @avengingangelfanfic

Read the beginning here: Chapter 1

Rating: T for language, mentions of violence, alcohol consumption, mentions of arranged marriage (nothing else I think warrants a legit warning other that my writing is corny af. Like, I'm not being self-deprecating here. You might roll your eyes right out of your head lmaoooo)

Word count: 2900

Author's Note: Yes, I shoehorned even more videogame references in this one..... One of the names Jacaerys is called I pulled from Fallout: New Vegas and Catelyn's previously unnamed dragon is also from Skyrim, like her brother's.

Disclaimer: The events in this fic are NOT canon to the canon events of AvengingAngel's story! It was just an idea bouncing around and I asked for permission, which was graciously given (thank youuuu), to put it in words. Gif credits for any gifs used will be in the images themselves. With that in mind, thank you for reading.

Faceclaims:

Daemon Targaryen- Aemond as portrayed by Ewan Mitchell, except without the missing eye and his hair in a single ponytail

Royce Baratheon- King Edward from The Last Kingdom, as portrayed by Timothy Innes

Alphonse Baratheon- Osferth from The Last Kingdom, as portrayed by Ewan Mitchell

Catelyn Baratheon- Gemma Ward, circa 2023

King Jacaerys Targaryen- Aragorn as portrayed by Viggo Mortensen (Just imagine him with slightly grayer hair after the timeskip in this chapter lmao)

Daenerys Targaryen, granddaughter of Jacaerys- Marienne Bellamy as portrayed by Tati Gabrielle in season 4 of You (She literally has the perfect hair for this imo)

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18 YEARS AGO…

The dragon pit buzzed with the huge crowd, everyone gathered to hear the new King speak on what the next step would be. War, surely.

Jacaerys felt like a boy of fifteen again, his fear causing a bitter taste in his mouth, making his chest thump with anxiety. His face remained blank, but inside, he was screaming and scared. How pathetic, he thought. He was King now and he was afraid, so very afraid.

It had been a fortnight since the loss of his mother and Daemon. Since his entire world had collapsed and the Crown Prince had made way for the King he apparently now was. Days of investigating and hearing all of King’s Landing grow more rage filled by the hour. Only five days since the funeral. King Wait-and-see, they had begun calling him. Others whispered the cruel moniker “King Craven”. Or so he had heard. The people were angry, that much he was certain of (Mostly due to the fact that no news had yet been relayed as to what the Crown planned on doing to avenge Queen Rhaenyra and her Lord Hand’s deaths), but Jacaerys wondered…how angry were they with him? A truly distraught son would be chomping at the bit for revenge, he thought bitterly. Instead of lingering about, doing what felt like nothing.

It was his queen who soothed him, quelling his dragon fire. Baela reassured him that only a few loud voices were the ones branding him with disrespectful names, that the majority of the smallfolk supported their new ruler and were just anxious for an answer concerning what was to come.

Well, they would have their answer now, Jacaerys thought.

Still, he hesitated.

Would they really fight for him? Would they love him as much as his mother and Daemon? He felt such a heavy weight in his heart despite Baela’s fiercely reiterated beliefs over these last few days that the people of Westeros would follow their King to the seven hells, if need be. “I certainly would.” She had said, clenching his face and holding his gaze with those blazing eyes he loved oh so dearly.

The crowd continued their murmuring. Jacaerys let himself gaze over them for a moment. His mother always seemed to know just what to say, what to do, in any situation. How could he possibly measure up to her? To Daemon? More than anything, he wished he could ask them for advice, but they were no longer here to give it.

Aemond, newly made Hand of the King, along with the rest of the Targaryens, stayed behind at the Red Keep and conferred with the war council, seeing to it that Jacaery’s orders were followed. Only Baela came with Jacaerys to the dragon pit.

It helped his crippling feelings of inadequacy, to have her here with him. No other could possibly know, could see him as the terrified man he currently was. Especially not his own son, Aemon, now first in line for the throne.

Raising a hand to silence the crowd, King Jacaerys Targaryen stood for a few minutes until the murmuring and whispers died down to nothing. Then he spoke.

---------- STORM'S END, PRESENT DAY----------

Every member of the royal family was making their way to the Red Keep for the nameday celebrations of Aegon the Elder’s twins. Daenerys, Aemon’s daughter by his sister-wife Daella, had stopped by Storm’s End the first week Daemon had been there (she was returning from Dorne). In that week, dinners had been full of laughter and jokes.

Daemon felt lighter and happier than he had in months.

“Your mother cheated whenever she trained with your father.” Daenerys had told him over dinner one night.

“No!” Daemon cried. He was just recovering from laughing at the story of everyone spying on Aemond while he asked for Lyanna’s hand. “What happened to the ‘ absolute paragon of honor’ that I kept reading about in every damned history?!”

“Your mother was as honorable as they come, but the cheating in the training yard?” Royce said, ever so slightly drunk. “Oh, she resorted to that every chance she got. I would too, to be honest BUT she was an honorable lady, I promise you!”

“Hmm, certainly wasn’t very honorable of her to toss a book at our Lord of Driftmark and give him a black eye.” Daenerys added, slicing into her lamb. Royce spit his wine laughing.

“WHAT?!” Daemon cried.

“Grandsire told me. When Lyanna carried your sister Catelyn, she was rather quick to burn.” Daenerys said with a sly grin. “Oh, our Aemond had to take her dagger and sword away.”

“Whatever happened to that dagger?” Daemon asked. He silently pondered for a moment, the boisterous humor in the atmosphere having been immediately replaced with a relaxed nature as desserts were brought to the table. No one was uncomfortable at this. They were family, after all.

“Alphonse has it.” Daenerys looked to Daemon.

Daemon was frozen. No…Alphonse would have told him so! Wouldn’t he? Then again, he had never thought to ask of it himself. How could he fault his nephew for his own inaction?

Daenerys continued “Of course, if grandsire had not decreed to leave you alone concerning stories of your parents, I’m sure he would have told you. Alphonse is the type to have informed you the moment he himself knew.”

Oh…oh, of course. The decree.

“If you will both excuse me, I think the ale did not agree with me. I will retire for the night. Daella, will you join us hunting pheasant tomorrow?” Royce said, swaying as he stood but still somehow in possession of enough of his faculties to speak coherently.

“I am Daenerys, my lord.” came the response, with a chuckle.

“Oh! So you are. My apologies!” Royce burped and quickly begged their pardons. An attendant hurried to his side to escort him to his chambers.

“Unfortunately, though, I must away to King’s Landing tomorrow.” Daenerys said, as Royce was led away. “Pressing matters to do with my works in Dorne. I fear my horse might run away without me if I stay longer, she is not fond of storms.”

“Oh, very well!” Royce called from down the hall he was led in. “I shall see you at the nameday hunt in a few weeks time! Daemon, I shall see you tomorrow!”

“You knew all this time, that Alphonse had my mother’s dagger?!” Daemon accused, once Royce had gone. “Why on earth would he tell you about it? It doesn’t seem like information that is of much use to you.” Annoyed, he jabbed at his slice of sweet cake.

Daenerys raised an eyebrow. “Why are you irritated with me? I’m not the one in possession of it!”

The dagger was not the main issue, Daemon thought. The fact that Daenerys knew his nephew had it…not many knew that, he was sure. Why in the seven hells would a dagger, even one belonging to his mother, be a regular topic of conversation? A great deal of time would have to be spent together for the subject to even come up casually. And why had she come to Storm’s End before King’s Landing? She did not answer to orders from Lord Royce and she was not particularly close to him. Nor had she known Daemon would be there…

Daemon rolled his eyes and continued to eat his cake. The two Targaryens slipped into a comfortable silence but Daemon’s mind was restless. He had learned so much of his parents these past few days. Their courtship made him want to tear his hair out. How could they not have seen it for so long? It was maddening…and somehow, it was happening again.

Alphonse and Daenerys pined for each other. He was sure of it. Yet, both refused to give voice to their desires and become officially betrothed.

Before, Daemon had been content to leave them be, confident that they would eventually sort it out themselves. He had confronted Alphonse about it several times long ago and each time his nephew had insisted he would resolve the issue himself.

Daemon had never confronted Dany about it, he’d sooner fight his dragon naked. Others did not know who the object of Alphonse’s affection was and simply took this to mean Alphonse was nervous around maidens.

“Do you…are you fond of men?” Daemon had asked him once, before he understood the situation. Alphonse had buried his face in his hands.

“No! If I were, I am certain I would not have the issue I do now.”

And so Daemon had listened as Alphonse poured out his heart, lamenting the fact that Daenerys would never be with him because she had vowed she would never marry again after the death of her husband.

Daemon contemplated his plan of attack on the matter as Dany excused herself from the table to go to sleep.

Everyone was approaching this all wrong, he thought. They were hounding Alphonse to find a bride but since no one but they three knew he was in love with Daenerys, none of them had even approached her to make a move. It was clear what the solution was: the prospective bride herself would have to ask for the hand of Alphonse Baratheon. Propriety be damned.

Daemon made the decision then: when he would leave in a few weeks, he was determined to go straight to Daenerys and inform her that she must ask his nephew to marry her. To do so here in his good brother’s home, Alphonse’s own father, would be terrible manners. They’d already be stomping on tradition enough as it was, no need to add to it. He suspected Catelyn would foam at the mouth with rage that her son wasn’t the one doing the asking, but that did not matter. What mattered was love. Real, true love. Like the one his parents had shared. No one, not kings or lords or ladies or thousands of years of precedence, should stand in the way of that.

----------KING'S LANDING, ONE MONTH LATER----------

The mostly empty dragonpit upper chamber echoed with the rumbles of Caraxes and Alduin, Catelyn’s fearsome jet black dragon, stomping off to the caverns below.

Jacaerys stood a ways near the entrance doors, smiling at his cousins’ arrival.

It had been a month since Daemon had gone to Storm’s End. He would return in time for Jahaerys and Jahaera’s nameday celebration in one week, Catelyn and Alphonse choosing to go directly to King’s Landing to save themselves a trip and to deliver results of their negotiations in Braavos.

“Your Grace! I am famished for a genuine Westerosi lemon cake!” Catelyn declared, marching over, already undoing her braid. Alphonse followed beside her, laughing. “Our Braavosi allies, seven help them, do not have the slightest clue as to the proper ratio of sweetness to tanginess that a well made lemon cake should have,” Catelyn complained. “I almost fumbled our trade deals, having to suffer eating such bland pastries.”

“I appreciate what you have endured to gain good prices for our people, cousin.” Jacaerys joked, accepting Alphonse into a hug and then Catelyn. “Aegon will certainly appreciate it, I know. He is having the time of his life, planning this upcoming hunt. Claims it will rival the one for his second nameday!”

“How would he know how lavish it was?” Alphonse asked.

“I certainly don’t remember my own second nameday. Perhaps he should plan my wedding, when I have it. Please ask him for me, cousin.” The three made their way out of the large building, guards waiting outside with an open, topless carriage.

“Firstly, records of such events exist. Secondly, Aegon is like to have an apoplexy if Jacaerys asks that of him.” Catelyn said, climbing in first with the help of a guard. “Being Master of Revels here is his true calling. Far too many Lords and Ladies to host for him to go gallivanting off elsewhere to plan a wedding.”

“Mother, you only say that because you have had my wedding planned since the day I was born and do not wish to be usurped from further preparations.” Alphonse grumbled.

“Hmm..” Jacaerys looked to the skies, Catelyn and Alphonse stopping their bickering for a moment, looking in the same direction. A swift, vibrant white dragon was flying towards the open nesting grounds a little ways south of the city. Daemon had come.

Jacaerys climbed into the wagon next, sitting in front of Catelyn.

“Has he written?” Alphonse asked, finally climbing in last and seating himself next to his mother, looking to Jacaerys as the wagon began to move. Guards on horses flanked both sides, trotting in pace with it. Catelyn continued to look at Parthurnaax fading into the distance.

“Not one raven, but Lord Royce has. He assures me the talks were pleasant..mostly. Daemon was eager to know many things. They went for a great many walks and had countless dinners running late into the night.”

“No doubt Royce will follow soon after on horseback.” Catelyn said, giving a small wave and smile to the people. Many had now noticed the wagon containing the King driving by. “My husband never was fond of traveling on dragonback. The war was the only time he mounted Alduin with me. I fear it may have ruined his experience with flying.”

Jacaerys nodded with a smile. He knew Catelyn was avoiding it, talking of Daemon and the questions he would have of Aemond and Lyanna for all of them when he got to the keep. No matter. He would not force things.

“Now father is coming, perhaps you and him can see to the matter of arranging a marriage for me at-” Alphonse began, before abruptly being cut off by Catelyn. She held up a stiff finger in his face. Her own parents had been a love match and she was determined that each of her boys would have the same fate. Her youngest, Orys, had already married. Her other two sons were currently courting twin daughters in Dorne, grandchildren of Prince Doran.

“You are four and twenty. You will find your bride to be on your own. How can you expect to be Lord of Storm’s End one day if you cannot even do this?” Catelyn scolded. “If we choose one for you, she might be the wrong fit. The Stormlands would suffer if their Lord is too busy preoccupied with the conflict of a sour marriage. No, you will do this yourself, Alphonse.”

“Mother, but I need-”

“Alphonse, Orys chose Margaery Tyrell himself, despite other maidens flocking around him. I suspect he will become a father before the year is out. You will make your own match. This matter is closed.”

“But Aemon had his marriage arranged! So did Lady Rhaena with Lord Lucerys! I don’t see why-”

“I do believe the Lady has spoken, Alphonse.” Jacaerys said, in a now stern tone. Alphonse looked to him pleadingly.

“Cousin, please. You could-”

“Each Lord’s and Lady’s habits are their own.” Jacaerys said, cutting him off. “I trust each of them to run my kingdom well and I will not interfere unless it is to avert disaster or right egregious wrongs, as is my duty. You being too nervous to approach a prospective future wife hardly qualifies as a matter that needs my attention.” Jacaerys shrugged and waved to the smallfolk lining the streets. “Especially when you have three brothers who could take up the mantle of Lord…should you fail in your responsibilities to marry and sire heirs.”

That final admonishment had its effect and Alphonse nodded in a defeated manner. Jacaerys acknowledged his response, continuing his waves to the people of King’s Landing.

It never ended, this guiding of the younger generation, Jacaerys thought. At 15, he could barely make his own brothers behave. Much yelling had been used at the time. Now at 60, he seldom saw the need to raise his voice in court or around family. He corralled and kept his loved ones in line with such an ease he was sure his late stepfather would have been impressed.

As the wagon slowed coming into the Red Keep, Catelyn hopped off immediately, irritated. Jacaerys bade Alphonse to stay a moment. “You are a handsome man, able with the sword and skilled with the bow.” He began in a low voice, only for them two. “You ride Caraxes. You are kind and quick to make a joke. Whatever could you possibly think is counting against you in finding a bride?” he asked, a hand on Alphonse’s shoulder.

Alphonse mumbled something Jacaerys couldn’t quite hear.

“Come again?”

“...I said…the fact she does not wish to marry, for one…” Alphonse managed to say, barely loud enough to hear. He was still looking anywhere but in the eyes of his King.

Jacaerys paled. Alphonse could only be speaking of one person. His only granddaughter by Aemon, Daenerys…the complete opposite of her namesake in attitude, who declared every chance she could get that she would never marry again, no one would make her. Already widowed at eight and twenty, with no dragon and no children…Gods be good…

“Oh, does he know now?” came the voice from the gates. Jacaerys and Alphonse snapped to attention of the speaker. There stood Daemon Targaryen, windswept and grinning ear to ear.

“Uncle!” Alphonse cried, leaping from the wagon. Jacaerys smiled at the two reuniting, still in quite a shock at the recent development. Why on earth Alphonse thought springing a betrothal on Daenerys through him would work…It was beyond all sense…

The upcoming hunt was sure to be interesting.

#fanfic based on fanfic #hotd fanfic #second sons by avengingangel #hotd ocs #avengingangelfanfic #fanfiction #honest to god i did NOT plan on this going beyond that first little drabble i wrote!#but the thoughts would not stop #i had to get them out hahaha #look if the only way to improve my writing is to embarrass myself on this hellsite then SO BE IT

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valoisfulcanellideux · 1 year

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I have to just say something

I really, really don't like that the default tag for all Pixlriffs-related fiction on AO3 is this:

RPF stands for 'Real Person Fiction' and it makes me uncomfortable that - when I'm writing fiction about a character portrayed by Jonny AKA Pixlriffs (e.g., the Copper King, the Archaeologist/Historian) as they are in the Empires series - it falls under the same tag as anyone writing about Jonny himself.

Even if you look at the AO3 tag of 'Pixlriffs' it redirects to the above tag.

To me, this is the equivalent of writing LotR fanfic, tagging it with 'Frodo' or 'Aragorn' and having it redirect to 'Elijah Wood' or 'Viggo Mortensen'. It's not about the actors; it's about the characters they portray.

If you're someone who does write RPF/RPS, then that's fine. That's your thing, and I'm not knocking what you like to do. In fact, many (many, because god I'm older than probably most of you reading this - lol) years ago - in a fandom far far away - I dabbled in a bit of that myself. But the older I've gotten, the more I personally get a bit squicked by it, so I'd rather not see it.

And I really don't like that the default tag for the fandom I'm currently writing in includes not only the player's real life name, but also that 'real person fiction' bit :( Even though pretty much all of the fiction I've read there is about the characters and not the people/players themselves; it's just the name of the tag that I don't like.

Sidenote: Yes, there's a whole 'nother load of semantics we could get into, about when you play a character in a game for so long you end up identifying with them, so they become you and you become them etc; believe me, I get that; I've been there myself in a place where I've been playing for over 15 years now. But there's still a separation when you tell a story as that character (e.g., making them a king or an archaeologist etc) and people want to write about that character. I have no interest in writing fiction about 'Minecraft Survival Guide Pix' because - to me - that is Jonny himself, just playing the game and teaching us all about it. That's different.

I don't even know where I'm going with this, tbh, or even if it makes sense. I just needed to get it off my chest. It's just how AO3 works, and if you want your writing to be noticed there you have to use those tags. I just... eh.

#writing chatter #Pixlriffs #AO3 #anyone else feel that way?

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thatscarletflycatcher · 1 year

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The LotR movies don’t really have great casting. People who didn’t read the book before seeing the films have had their views shaped by the films, but most of the characters are little like their book counterparts (and the script doesn’t help). And only some of the actors in the main roles were actually outstanding performers. Viggo, for one, and his career shows this. But Sean Astin? Elijah Wood? What have they done since LotR? So many people are blinded by nostalgia.

Oh, anon, you really want me to get hounded, don't you? I have already gotten kill yourself anons recently, no need to add more fuel to the fire XD

The thing with casting is that, like hair, is almost inevitably a product of its time and the trends of what is seen as attractive or representative at some point or another, and it ages much more easily than other things, while being very difficult to escape from in the moment. We are all children of our own times.

One of my favorite games to play with people is "cast LotR, but it is the 90s", which has led to the creation of some good and some hilarious ideas (my favorite LOL idea is Richard Gere as Aragorn and Julia Roberts as Arwen).

I also don't really measure talent in terms of how much work or not the actors do after something. Trini Alvarado, for example, I think is a great actress, and some amazing actors just don't make it big in Hollywood because their priorities are elsewhere or they aren't willing to compromise things they think are important (this is the case for several British actors that just prefer the stage or doing small things).

So, in general I think the casting is good because it doesn't take me out (well, Orlando Bloom's Legolas does, and so does David Wenham), some of these actors do pull off some extremely silly lines (seriously, the fact that audiences don't end up hating Gimli by the end is a testament to John Rhys-Davies talent), and it doesn't heavily fall on "star studded cast for clout" (there are notably big actors like Christopher Lee, Ian Mckellen and John Noble, sure, but it's not done for the whole main cast or most of it).

Sure, there are bad things about it. People have mentioned, for example, the heavy bias towards very white and blond actors for characters that are canonically darker, and the pirates, who should look like the people of Gondor are turned into poc because it was the early 2000s and there's an arabic panic in the US. It's ridiculous that Pippin's actor was 13 years older than Frodo's actor (in fact, Elijah Wood was the youngest of the quartet). I would have definitely liked an actor with more gravitas for the role of Aragorn, but Viggo Mortensen fits the character they went for in the movies.

"It's not bad casting because it could have been infinitely worse" doesn't sound like that much of a defense, but I think it's more important than it sounds. The casting is not perfect, but it is memorable and does carry the movies in a way, unlike the writing (which is the starting point of this discussion).

#ask #anonymous #you can all reblog and debate and comment on this post #I'm just not tagging it with the fandom because I'd rather limit the drama to whatever ripples this might take #from mutuals and mutuals mutuals rather than it going for everyone that follows the tag to see #the other fire hasn't really died off yet XD

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imperialmadam · 1 year

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I posted 68 times in 2022

That's 30 more posts than 2021!

10 posts created (15%)

58 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@foxindarkness

@bluestaratsunrise

@saurons-pr-department

@udunuruk

@bilbo-babe

I tagged 63 of my posts in 2022

Only 7% of my posts had no tags

#rings of power - 31 posts

#sauron - 23 posts

#adar - 17 posts

#mairon - 13 posts

#halbrand - 11 posts

#melkor - 10 posts

#silmarillion - 9 posts

#tolkien - 8 posts

#lotr rop - 7 posts

#fanart - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 29 characters

#incorrect silmarillion quotes

My Top Posts in 2022:

When Halbrand showed up on the horse at the end of the last Rings of Power episode, he looked so much like Aragorn that I thought Viggo Mortensen had a cameo for a moment.

28 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

“Do you know how the orcs first came into being? They were elves once. Taken by the dark powers. Tortured and mutilated. A ruined, terrible form of life.” - Saruman, The Fellowship of the Ring

So Adar went through that? I want to hug him.

63 notes - Posted October 2, 2022

How the Villains of Rings of Power Won Me Over

I wasn’t excited about either of the main villains of Rings of Power (Adar and Halbrand-as-Sauron) until I saw them.

1. Adar. When I first heard about him, my reaction was kind of eh, okay. I didn’t have a problem with an evil elf, but I thought he would be just a lesser version of Sauron. The poster of a spiky black gauntlet holding a sword didn’t help that impression.

But it quickly became clear how much care went into creating this character. He’s no Sauron Lite. We see ruthlessness, but we also see kindness, especially in his first scene where he puts a dying orc out of his misery. Then we get his backstory. Giving a face and a name to one of the elves corrupted by Morgoth was an excellent idea. He also sees orcs (sorry, Uruk) as people, which we don’t see very much in Tolkien, although Tolkien apparently struggled with that.

The writers also gave Adar heroic traits, such as the fact he got to give an inspiring speech before the battle. And it wasn’t really that evil. Aside from the last sentence (close our fist around these lands), he talked about endurance and freedom, not conquest.

It also helps that Joseph Mawle has incredible charisma and screen presence. I can’t take my eyes off him when he’s on screen.

2. Sauron. I was concerned about Sauron’s depiction. This was the first time we’d truly get Sauron as a character on screen. (I don’t really count The Hobbit, he just shows up as a shadow or armoured figure, says and does evil stuff, and is defeated.) I hoped the RoP writers would get his charm, manipulation and desire for order.

As someone following speculation about the show, it was hard to avoid the idea that Halbrand was Sauron. Even before the show started, people were saying that. And he was showing many Sauronish traits - being a blacksmith, his burst of violence, his advice to Galadriel about mastering people, the fact he’s done evil things. One on its own, fine, but all of them together? The H=S theory seemed more likely each episode. And I didn’t like it. Halbrand just didn’t catch my attention enough. Hot, charming and snarky, sure. A decent character in his own right, but too ordinary to be Sauron. Before, I was worried Adar would be a lesser Sauron, and now I was worried Halbrand-as-Sauron would seem dull after the complex and intriguing villain that is Adar.

But I knew the execution would make or break the reveal, and it worked! I could see Halbrand as the Dark Lord. I can see why the finale was Charlie Vickers’ favourite - he truly shone in that episode. The way he went from charming to terrifying when Galadriel rejected him was incredible, and felt very Sauron-like. They also got the idea that Sauron does want to help Middle Earth - but he thinks that means ruling over it. And that final shot of Sauron walking into Mordor with his cloak blowing around him was breathtaking. Halbrand was not the Sauron I imagined, but he is Sauron.

I should rewatch the season. I will probably enjoy Halbrand more now I know he pulled off the Sauron reveal.

(I have to say I expected a more dramatic Sauron transformation than Halbrand dyeing his hair and putting on a black cloak - but I suppose he had to stay recognisable as Halbrand.)

89 notes - Posted October 22, 2022

(Sauron returning to Mordor after drowning in the Fall of Numenor)

Galadriel: Halbrand...

Sauron: Don’t start.

125 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Gandalf: Morgoth? After all this time?

Sauron: Always.

136 notes - Posted March 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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luminarai · 3 years

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what do you mean this isn’t exactly how this scene went

bonus creeper elves

#lotr #lord of the rings #legolas #aragorn #boromir #gimli #technically the hobbits are in there as well #haldir #lothlorien #lorien #tolkien #jrrt #my art #my doodles #my sketches #my inability to draw legolas with any kind continuity strikes again #Aragorn is just Viggo Mortensen that’s just fact

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tanoraqui · 2 years

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Outline of a Guide to the Lord of the Rings Movies if you Can't Watch Them With a Books Fan (Chronological Order)

Before we start: quick primer on the existential difference between Men (gender-neutral) and Elves (also gender-neutral, I suppose); VERY simplified rundown of the difference between Valar, Maiar, and etc. races.

Leaving the Shire: this is actually pretty smoothly adapted BUT in the books it all happens over a much longer period of time and Sam, Merry, Pippin, and another hobbit named "Fatty" Bolger all put together Frodo's actual plan (leaving the Shire) and the gist of his mission (the danger of the Ring) and inform him that except for Fatty, they're coming too. The scene where they tell him this is hilarious.

Wizard Fight: this is not how wizards fight

Nobody minds that they left this out but FYI for worldbuilding: the Barrowdowns, Tom Bombadil (GALOSHES!; swords of Westernesse for the hobbits)

Arwen vs. Glorfindel (we actually do support Arwen)

Council of Elrond: actually Sam was noticed halfway through and they just let him stay because he refused to leave; stubborn icons only

Everyone Elrond Loves Not Just Dies but Actively Chooses To Leave Him: A Tragedy in Three Ages (but still this characterization is bad)

Corrollary: Aragorn Had No Hesitation Toward Kingship

Saruman's Storm: this also is far too explicit magic, but it fucks so I'll allow it

Moria: that's Balin from The Hobbit! Also several other dwarves from The Hobbit! If you didn't yet, this is where you're supposed to realize that this will not be an overall happy romp like Bilbo's book

[Optional: The Creation of Dwarves (And Ents BTW)]

The Origin of Balrogs (ft. reprise of What Are Maiar (and Istari))

Why Galadriel's Gift to Gimli Makes Me Shriek Softly: a frantic attempt to explain the entirety of The Silmarillion as fast as physically possible before I'm cut off by loving but tired friends

Aragorn Had No Hesitation Toward Kingship (Reprise: And Boromir's Death Scene Does ALL the Work In It) [delivered through tears] [can be delivered after the movie ends]

[break for snacks]

Geopolitics are More Complex: Saruman is properly his own faction, not subservient to Mordor, and also Gondor has fiefs and allied states.

Brief primer on the historical difference between Men of Rohan and Gondor, and why this matters thematically

Viggo Mortensen's Toe

[Reminder: Ents and Dwarves, Yavanna and Aulë]

Treebeard is based on CS Lewis, bc Tolkien liked trolling his friends

The flag just happened to blow off right then! Movie MAGIC!

Again, this wizard magic is far too dramatic

This orcs&wargs fight didn't happen in the books either but whatever

FARAMIR IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS

Elrond Deserves Better (In Multiple Ways) (Reprise) and Geopolitics are More Complex (Dunedain, Not Galadhrim, in Helm's Deep Reprise) [can be delivered after the movie ends]

FARAMIR IS STILL MUCH BETTER THAN THIS (Osgiliath Remix)

[break for snacks, maybe a short walk]

Saruman didn't die here, nor did Wormtongue, but we'll get back to that later

Faramir is being alright now; I'm just still angry about how he is in the 2nd movie

Gollum didn't frame Sam to separate them like this in the books but whatever. Frodo's projection and deteriorating mental state and Sam's caring incomprehension are compelling

Pippin got shown around Minas Tirith by a ten-year-old, casually downplayed the fact that he is the closest thing the Shire has to real aristocracy, and it was great

Tired reminder that neither Elrond Nor Aragorn Should Need These Character Arcs

Gandalf Knocking Out Denethor: It's Funny Because He's Probably Not Supposed To Do That

The terrifying, despair-inducing screams of the Nazgul and their mounts maybe-not-deliberately evoke Luftwaffen shrieks and air raid sirens!

ARAGORN ARRIVES WITH THE LIVING, NOT THE DEAD. He only leads the dead to take the ships; he sails them and arrives at Minas Tirith with a small army gathered from the no-longer-corsair-besieged southern fiefs, as well as the Dunedain (his people! including Elrond's sons!) who've been with him since Helm's Deep [optional: reading aloud this passage in the book, bc it's Epic]

The books make it explicit over and over that Isildur's heir will be known not just by sword or countenance but by having "THE HANDS OF A HEALER", and this is where it culminates

[Optional: quick discussion of Eowyn and feminism, ft. the themes of the work, the general presence of women in the work, etc]

Tolkien specifically described Sam defending Frodo from Shelob as "No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts; where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate"!

Sam took the Ring, Sting, and Galadriel's star-glass and accidentally convinced all the orcs that he was some great and terrible Elven warrior

Orcs WERE Whipped (And Haradrim Have Loved Ones): Tolkien was deliberately writing about he horrors of fighting a faceless enemy, a la his days in the trenches, but didn't say the average soldier had no face, merely that our heroes cannot see them

Only Pippin went to the Battle at the Black Gates; Merry was still recovering from hamstringing the Witch-King

The giant eagles are servants of Manwë, king of the Valar, and so basically the most official divine intervention one can get

Needless to say, Eowyn and Faramir's Recovery Romance was more than 1 scene in the books

The Scouring of the Shire

This Wasn't Actually The LAST Ship: Sam; Legolas&Gimli; other Fellowship deaths; other elven (and half-elven) characters

"Into The West" was inspired by a young filmmaker who died of cancer!

#lotr #lord of the rings #i wrote this instead of working yes #feel free to point out if i missed anything it's vitally important to pause the movies to explain to ones trapped friends #this is 50% callout post for myself and every other slightly feral book fan #50% genuine admonishment and lesson unto the world

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mozart-the-meerkitten · 3 years

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So my parents and I are watching Lord of the Rings and I keep throwing out random fun facts about everything to them and one of them I gave was the one about how Viggo Mortensen was so ridiculously fit that Orlando Bloom couldn’t keep up with him in Two Towers when they’re running everywhere, which was an issue because Legolas is an elf and should therefore have less of a hard time running than Aragorn, but Viggo is ahead in 95% of the shots.

So the whole time the were running my parents were watching for this and they kept making jokes about it. “Oh (Legolas) is ahead- oh, nope, he’s behind again” “(Aragorn) snuck ahead!” “Finally (Legolas) got somewhere before him” and it’s just so funny to me that I had to share xD

#lord of the rings #the two towers #aragorn #legolas #my mom doesn't even really like LOTR she just loves me enough to tolerate watching it sometimes xD #sillliness

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livingforthewhump · 2 years

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it’s me, the terms and conditions anon!! random questions let’s go:

1. kiss marry kill: ryan reynolds, emma stone, taylor swift

1A. Alternate question, who was your first celebrity crush and why?

2. Truth or dare!!

(truth- expose your last 5 google searches)

(dare- do a jig!!)

3. What’s your ethnicity? like if you did an ancestry.com thingy, what would it say? (best guess)

3A. Alternate question: if you could ban any food from earth, what would it be and why?

4. Have you ever had a pet you didn’t like?

5. what’s the most annoying thing a person can do? something really small, but it really irks you, but you can’t say anything because you don’t want to be mean. something like that.

feel free to skip any questions, but for each question you skip, you have to provide me with 2 fun facts!! or just 1 really cool one.

-🌿

OHHH FUN!!!!

1A. (I don’t feel qualified to make any judgements for the regular 1 cause I’m very bad at keeping track of famous people) umm probably Viggo Mortensen? I was like four maybe but my oldest sister was obsessed with LOTR and I really liked Aragorn. That’s technically a character crush but that’s the best thing I can think of XD

2. truth bc i’m in bed

3. I know that we have some Norse ancestry and some Scottish as well on my dad’s side, and on my mom’s side we’re part of the Choctaw tribe (as in we can trace the bloodline back, my grandpa lives on the reserve, and they send us a Christmas ornament every year but we all look very white)

4. Nope! Our oldest cat was alive before me, and I’ve liked all the cats we’ve gotten since then!

5. CHEW LOUDLY. It gets on my nerves SO MUCH.

#oh my gosh i get to have an emoji anon??#that’s so cool #i feel like i’m a real blog now #🌿 anon

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elvish-sky · 3 years

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for the cursed ask... can i ask for all of them? :D

hey love!! Thanks for the questions, it’s gonna take me a while so let’s do this!! I’m only gonna do the ones I haven’t answered already because I’m a tad lazy.

💍 — Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit

Ahh no why would you do this to me??! I guess right now it’s The Hobbit, because I’m writing more set during that story at the moment and i watched those movies more recently.

📖 — Bilbo or Frodo

Ok so. I love them both very much but again I’m in a The Hobbity mood so today we’re going with Bilbo.

💗 — Viggo Mortensen’s broken toe or Orlando Bloom’s broken ribs

So I know that Viggo’s toe is iconic, but the amount of crap that the rest of the cast gave Orlando for the ribs is absolutely priceless. So we’re going with the ribs.

🦶 — Hobbit feet or Hobbit hair

Hobbit hair because it’s just so curly and cute!!

🪓 — Bombur’s Rope Beard or Bifur’s Axe-Head

Bombur’s rope-beard. Also iconic.

🌱 — Ents or Entwives

Ents, because Treebeard and Quickbeam are awesome!!

🌹 — Arwen or Eowyn

Why do you do this to me??? Ahhh. I guess I’ll say Eowyn, just because in the books she’s slightly more important and i love her in the movies too. Although i still adore arwen!

🧝🏻‍♂️ — LOTR Legolas or TH Legolas

LOTR Legolas. Hands down.

🗡 — The Fucking Bag End Ceiling Beam or The One Ring

THE CEILING BEAM! Although being a tall person myself that might end up being the bane of my existence. But whatever.

👑 — Strider Aragorn or King Aragorn

Strider Aragorn! He’s just, for lack of a better word. Hot. That’s really the only proper description.

🍽 — Bilbo’s Blunt Knives or Bilbo’s Bent Forks

Bilbo’s bent forks.

🍲 — Eowyn’s Stew or Gollum’s dead beaten fish

Gollum’s dead beaten fish because that was quite the cinematic experience. Eowyn’s stew scene just made me cringe.

💦 — The Mirkwood Jacuzzi or The Rivendell Fountain

The Rivendell fountain. I’m not a huge fan of hot tubs or Jacuzzis.

🤧 — Bilbo’s handkerchief or Gandalf’s hat

Gandalf’s hat!!

🤪 — The Cursed Fart in the Hobbit Pile or The Chaotic Billy X Viggo Kiss?

The Chaotic Billy x Viggo kiss. Because in the appendices it’s just hilarious. Especially the fact that Dom Monaghan didn’t know about it until the interview. Absolutely priceless.

💀 — The Nazgûl or The Orcs

The Nazgûl because i don’t think I’ve ever been as scared as I was during that scene in Fellowship in the Inn so I’ve got to give them credit. Plus, they have a fricken awesome musical theme.

🎁 — The Naked Dwarf Calender or Women in Beards Extras

Ohh I honestly don’t know. I guess the Naked Dwarf calendar because of the argument about whose idea it was.

✏️ — Fanfic or Canon

Fanfic, because it’s just additional canon that we choose! We build on the canonical foundations and i think that’s pretty cool.

#anjhope1 #asks #cursed lotr asks #answered asks #maiasasks

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perfectlywisedelusions · 3 years

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lotr appreciation post

it’s the 20th anniversary so why not.

firstly the casting is amazing. christopher lee, ian mckellan, everyone. it’s great.

then they improved on the books. like arwen? she didn’t do anything originally and some dude named glorfindel rescued frodo but they made it her and that scene is amazing. also eowyn.

and the special effects? they’re amazing because they’re practical effects and practical effects always look best like the original star wars still looks amazing because PRACTICAL EFFECTS.

also the music. howard shore came up with so many themes. there’s themes for gondor, rohan, the elves, the fellowship, hobbits, the one ring, mordor bad guys, arwen and aragorn, plus more i just can’t remember them. but that’s a lot for one composer.

everything’s so good? like i hate action but the action doesn’t ever bore me even when i watch the extended edition. partially because it’s well directed and has stakes and whatnot.

the cinematography is great. they flew out to new zealand and it looks amazing because new zealand is beautiful.

also it’s so well directed like things just feel epic all the time. and the scene where billy boyd sings as faramir rides off to a suicide mission? beautiful. although i hate the cherry tomato.

fun fact time!

all three movies were filmed at the same time, which was a huge risk but saved a lot of money because the first one did so well.

when aragorn kicks a helmet after finding out merryand pippin are gone the actor, viggo mortensen, broke his toe and the scream is his scream of pain.

also sean astin cut his foot filming underwater

and another guy had a panic attack due to prosthetics

the trees that are ripped up by the orcs? pretty sure it’s just one tree they ripped up and filmed from different angles like it looks the exact same.

in the books there are long winded tangents about how good some plant called athelas smells and there is the line “the weed is better than i expected” referring to it but it’s still pretty funny.

also in the book there’s a whole thing on different types of hobbit pipe weed and which is better. priorities!

and the lotr book is actually 6 books, not three and some literary people get really upset when people call it a trilogy? like, it’s basically three books?

and lastly you can watch the first 40 minutes of LOTR in hd on youtube for free but it’s not extended edition so the entire concerning hobbits scene is cut out. :(

but the creator’s doing the two towers if you join the discord(the video is that every time sam takes a step towards mordor it plays the “if i take another step scene” so if the two towers is done than you could just skip the sam and frodo scenes and watch helm’s deep and rohan for free.)

anyway here's the link

or if you want a lovely headache watch this one (although if flashing lights bother you then maybe don’t) (ok watching it at regular speed hurts once it gets too bad slow it down to .25 percent) (i am now seriously regretting my decision to watch this) (ouch)

youtube

#lotr #lotr movies #lotr 20 #howard shore #fun facts #lotr facts #yes i read the books and those were some of the longest hours of my life i have never suffered more #lotr but every time sam takes a step towards mordor he says it'll be the farthest he's ever been #this video's kind of iconic idk anyway #yes i'm a nerd so sue me

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yourwakingnightmares · 4 years

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I know I’ve been doing a lot of LotR posts, so I figured time to equalize my love, and show some appreciation for the Hobbit films as well.

Now, I will admit that, as a generality, they are weaker movies than Lord Of The Rings. But, it must be said, in Peter Jackson’s defense... The Hobbit was a book made for children.

For those who haven’t read the Hobbit... Firstly, I recommend you do. It’s a quick read, easy enough and simple enough. But when you do, or if you already have, you’ll notice a few things that will make you appreciate Peter Jackson a bit more.

Firstly, in the book, the Dwarves are merely ‘9 Names, Bombur, FiliAndKili, and Thorin’.

By this I mean that nine of the dwarves are given no more personality than their cloak color, and the occasional line of dialogue.

Bombur has more lines, and more involvement in the story than the other nine, but most of this revolves around ‘Fat Bombur’ being ‘fat’ and screwing up. We’re never given anything more about him than ‘he fat’.

Fili and Kili are a single entity; you never read about just Kili or just Fili doing things. It’s always Fili-and-Kili, or Kili-and-Fili. Much like the other nine, they have few voices lines, although there are a few, most usually something revolving around them being the youngest, or Thorin’s nephews.

Thorin is the only Dwarf in the Hobbit that is given any real sort of personality or character. Again, I’m not criticizing Tolkien for this; the Hobbit was meant to be a simplistic read for children. But we must appreciate the fact that Jackson gave the other 12 dwarves characters, and personalities.

Did he add some things that I think were, perhaps, a bit over the top? Of course. While I love cheeky Kili, and sarcastic Bard, these aren’t true to the story. But for those of you who have read the book... can you imagine what an utterly boring movie it would have made for, if Jackson had just copied it over directly?

Now, I shall say that I do dislike the amount screen time Legolas received in the movies. But, I do understand why he did it, from a marketing viewpoint.

I was 10 or 11 when I first saw the Fellowship of the Ring. And that movie made a huge impact on me. While I won’t delve too far into it here, suffice to say, my love of reading and fantasy bloomed from those movies. They were an integral part of our culture at that time period; fans waited for the next movie like folks waited for the new Star Wars movie, or Game of Thrones episode. The internet -which hadn’t yet exploded to what it is today -was filled with fan sites dedicated to LotR. Message boards debated the movies and books, comparing the two, large parts of it were dissected in high school and college classes, and it set new box office records.

And Peter Jackson... He wanted to bring some of that nostalgia back. He wanted to bring back the magic of those first movies, and recreate the magic and wonder that people had felt. Viggo Mortensen refused, citing the integrity of the books, that Aragorn wasn’t in the Hobbit, and he saw no reason to change that. Gimli, while alive, was still a very young Dwarfling, and to be honest, wouldn’t have stood out amongst a party of 13 other Dwarves. Boromir, Sam, Frodo, Merry, and Pippin hadn’t even been born yet, and wouldn’t have made sense in the story.

But Legolas... well, it made sense. He was (approximately) three thousand years old. His father was King of the Woodland realms. There’s no doubt that he would’ve been there, and most likely interacted with the Dwarven prisoners at some point.

(Also, while I was a huge Aragorn fan, even as a kid, it can’t be denied that most girls watching the movies absolutely fell in love with Legolas. He was ‘first movie crush’ for many young girls).

So while I disliked, and I could see it for what it was -a blatant marketing technique, a way to draw in that same fan base -I can’t entirely fault Jackson for it either.

#The Hobbit #Middle Earth #lord of the rings #LotR #Peter Jackson #Legolas

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ellana-ravenwood · 5 years

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“My mom thinks you’re cute” - Jason Todd x Singlemom!Reader Part 1/5

I had this scenario requested on so many occasions that I thought it was finally time to get to it. So, without further ado, here’s some Jaybird who’s about to have his life turned upside down by a little boy determined to set him up with his mamma. Hope you’ll like it :

FINISHED SERIES : PART 2, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5 NEWLY ADDED EPILOGUE : PART 1/3

My masterlist blog : @ella-ravenwood-archives

__________________________________________________

******

Living in Gotham while being broke wasn’t easy.

Living in Gotham while being broke and a single mom ? Nearly impossible.

And yet, that’s what you, and many other single parents, somehow manage to do every day, surviving paycheck to paycheck.

“Um, you shouldn’t have had a kid if you couldn’t afford it !”, you often heard rich schmucks say on TV. This kind of comment always annoyed you to no end. Because those people didn’t know the facts. They didn’t know what happened. They just assumed, when looking at you and people “like you”, that you were irresponsible and got yourself knocked up by accident (as if, by the way, getting pregnant happened alone and it was always only the mother’s fault).

They judged you, thinking they knew exactly how things went in your life. Thinking you were just another statistic from a poor neighborhood. Even more so since you had your son while you were quite young (which didn’t mean anything, there are amazing young parents, and terrible forty something ones).

But without much surprise, they were all wrong.

You were responsible. You had plans for the future. You were in a comfortable enough financial situation. You were having a kid with your long time boyfriend that you were suppose to marry that same summer. Both of you wanted a kid, things were right.

Except that there was an unforeseen event that kinda threw all your plans through the window, and left you struggling and heartbroken.

“You shouldn’t have had a kid if you couldn’t afford it !” But hey, how could you have planned that your long time boyfriend that you were suppose to marry would suddenly freak out and bolt without a goodbye ? Leaving just a note saying : “it’s too much”, taking all of his stuffs while you were visiting a friend and moving from Gotham never to be seen again ?

Did those people, who thought they knew better and looked down upon you, even had any idea what you went through ? Of course they didn’t.

In the span of a night, you went from “financially comfortable with tons of plans for the future” to “single, about to give birth, soon to be very broke”.

You were at the end of your term, and had to find a new and cheaper apartment ASAP as you couldn’t afford the one you had so far, not on your own. A very pregnant you didn’t even have time to actually be sad or mad about the father of your child leaving you alone mere days before the due date, that a million responsibilities you were suppose to share suddenly downed on you.

All the costs that were supposed to be split in two fell on your shoulders alone, the life of your future baby laid only in your hands !!

You had no close family to help, no “the dad of my child is actually a coward” back up plan, no friends that could lend you some money and oh you could forget about taking a loan at any banks “single mom, unemployed” wasn’t really a good pedigree.

Oh yes, because of course you were counting on your other half, trusting him when he said “one of us need to be there for the baby in the first few weeks ! And I make more than you right now so...” and so you took maternity leaves that were obviously unpaid but now you couldn’t possibly go back to your job anyway, you couldn’t afford a baby sitter !

Everything went to shit so fast. And you ended up joining the circle of “struggling single parents” while you thought you had everything figured out.

So. Yeah. Fuck those people on TV who never had to struggle a day in their life that just judge you like that ! They knew nothing about you, or your son. They had no clue about the chains of event that got you here, right now...

Here. Working late in a bar to make ends meet. Serving exactly the people who judged you whenever they saw you take out coupons at the supermarket.

Thanks God it was almost the end of your very long day. Working two jobs and taking care of a kid was exhausting...But something you ended up being used to it.

You had to do this for the past seven years after all. And in the end, it was worth it. Sure, it wasn’t easy, and you often stressed about how you’d pay your next bills but...You made sure your boy never needed anything, never went hungry (even if you did sometimes) etc etc.

And sure things didn’t really turn out how you expected them to be when you found out you were pregnant, but it was worth it.

Because your son...Oh your son, he was just the greatest.

Viggo. Your precious little prince.

You named him after the actor, “Viggo Mortensen”, because when your cowardly fiance left, one of your first thought, for some reasons, was : “Aragorn would never have left...”. Now “Aragorn” was a little too extra, so you settled for “Viggo”. Plus, it went really well with your last name.

Right now, he was being babysat by your neighbor, who also happened to be your best friend. Thank god you had at least one great friend on whom you could count when you had to work late.

Which was more often than you wished it to be.

You were already sulking about the next morning, knowing you’d have only a few hours of sleep before you had to take Viggo to school, when it happened.

“Well hello there beautiful lady. No one told me such...sexy girls worked in this shit bar ! Why did no one tell me that such sexy girls worked in this shit bar ?!”

You purse your lips as you were putting away glasses behind the bar, and try to compose yourself as best you could before turning to face the client that was talking to you.

At this hour of the night, in the middle of the week, the bar was pretty empty. Only the hard drinkers were left. Most likely, the man facing you right now was drunk out of his mind. It was near closing time after all, those who were in a bar near closing time in the middle of the week didn’t come to play darts.

“Hello sir, what can I get ya ?”

You force yourself to be polite. You found out years ago that the more polite you are, the more you ignore their stupid comments, the better it is.

“Your number, you beautiful creature.”

He says, as the friend accompanying him chuckles dumbly and looks at you, eager to see your reaction. He probably hopes you’ll snap or something, giving him a nice show. You have to gather all of your will to not utter a “gross”, and just keep on smiling.

It’s not even that the guy isn’t good looking. He’s not really your style but he isn’t ugly. And you know that when drunk, some people get overconfident and blahblahblah. But it’s just...He said it in such a sleazy way. Makes you shiver.

The way he leans on the bar and look at you as if you were his next meal. The way he smiles thinking he’s so damn charming. The way he’s trying to show off his rolex on his wrist, so you know he’s loaded (you had the occasional business man, in the “shit bar” you were working at..). It just made you uncomfortable and kinda grossed you out.

Who did he think you were ? Who did he think he was ? Fortunately, you came up quite a while ago with just the trick for those situations. With a wide smile you say :

“Your number coming right up !”

The man stares at you with drunken eyes, probably surprised that it worked this time ! But then you take out a shaker from behind the bar and start pouring alcohol and mixers in it. You juggle a bit with the shaker, giving the extremely confused man a show, before pouring everything in a glass and saying :

“Here’s your number. Great choice, it’s one of our best cocktail.”

There wasn’t any cocktails called “your number”, of course. You just made a very generic “long island ice tea” and pretended to do something way fancier than it really was. It’s a gimmick you discovered quite a while ago now, pretending that “your number” is an actual cocktail you make, and acting as if you don’t understand what the people saying that are really asking.

It “saved your life” more than once. When a client is being particularly annoying or just like this guy, a tad too drunk to realize they’re being creepy (or being plain creepy), you’d just say : “Oh one of our best cocktail !” and make them a “your number”. They would usually be too stunned to react much, which would give you time to escape or something.

You worked for the past two years at this bar, doing closing hours a few times a week to make ends meet. And it always worked...except today.

The guy in front of you was probably someone important. Not used to be mocked, or to hear the word “no”. And he realized instantly you were just trying to distract him...He wouldn’t let you do that. You were the employee of this bar, you had to do what he wanted !

As you set the glass in front of him, he grabs you by the wrist and pulls you toward him. Surprised, you don’t have time to resist as you slam against the bar. It kinda knocks the wind out of you.

You turn to see that Bobby, the security guard, is outside, talking to a few clients, not paying attention. Of course...It was almost closing time, things rarely happened in those few last minutes ! Plus tonight had been busy and he skipped his break, he probably just let his guard down thinking it was ok.

Well. No help will come from there. You turn to the man who grabbed you, and you can see in his eyes that the alcohol is the sole reason why he’s acting so agressive.You try to wiggle your wrist free, but he pulls you harder.

“Hey, I asked nicely, what’s your problem ? I’m a customer here, customer is king !”

The next few things happened so fast, that you’re left wondering if you just hallucinated it or not.

Another guy comes in and grabs the drunk client by his own wrist. With one quick and merciless twist he makes him let go of you. Drunk guy let’s out a pained scream as New Guy takes hold of his shirt and says, in a deep and calm voice :

“The lady gave you what you wanted.”

Without letting go of the drunk’s collar, the new guy takes the cocktail you just made, shoves it in the hand of the drunk, and then lets go of him, pointing to a seat at the back of the bar.

“Shoo.”

Drunk Client isn’t an idiot. He can see that the new guy is double his size and the way he made him let go of you, just with a simple twist of his hand (hurt like a motherfucker by the way)...Yup, he knows he’d stand no chance in a fight.

So he awkwardly and clumsily takes a few steps back, looks at you, and then back at new guy, and leaves. Just like that. He goes to sit at the table the new guy was pointing at, avoiding eye contact with him, and in a matter of seconds, this all thing is over.

Still a bit shocked at how fast everything went, you turn to the new guy and...Yup. Suspicion confirmed. You already saw him before.

You never really talked to him, and most of the time your colleague had been the one to serve him. You never really paid attention to him, most of the time being too busy for that. You just know you saw him before, in that same bar.

“Um...thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Dude was being an ass.”

He says, smiling at you nicely. And oh wow. Why the hell didn’t you notice him more before ? Tall. Handsome. Muscular. Smile to kill for. Crazy blue eyes and dark hair. Jawline that you’d gladly get cut on...How the hell did. You. Not. Notice. Him. More. Before ?!

“Did he hurt you ?”

“No, no he didn’t. Got the wind knocked out o’ me a bit, but I’m fine. Thanks to you.”

“Good then.”

And then he sits at the bar in front of you, with his beer.

You’re not sure what to say, you already thanked him twice saying it a third time would be a bit too much. But you do want to talk to him. Know his name maybe. But he seems like the kind of guy who only gives short answers and you don’t want to bother him. Though he did sit down in front of you...You’re gathering up the courage to ask him but he’s faster than you :

“Name’s Jason by the way. And you are...(Y/N), right ?”

A bit taken aback about the fact that he knows your name, you say :

“Yeah. Yeah it is. How...do you know ?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you have no idea who I am but I’ve been here before. I heard your colleague call you that a few times."

There’s a short pause, where you just stare at him a bit awkwardly. He completely misinterpret your awkwardness and hurriedly says :

“I’m not a creep or anything, I just...heard and uh, picked up on it and uh...Yeah. I realize that, “I’m not a creep” is exactly what a creep would say, so Imma just shut up. But I promise, not a creep.”

Ah. But you weren’t thinking he was a creep because he remembered your name after hearing your colleague calling you that a few times. Nope. You’re actually trying not to blush because that extremely hot guy REMEMBERED your name after hearing your colleagues calling you a few times !

Like wow, he noticed you somehow ! He noticed you enough to remember your name ! Ok. Now you were the one being creepy, blowing that simple fact way out of proportion. He probably just pays attention to his surroundings and that’s it ! Like the few times you saw him, drinking on his own in a corner of the bar, you always thought he looked like he was thinking too much so...

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable just now. I knew I should have pretended I didn’t know your name. Well, that sounds bad too. Um. I’m sorry. I just uh...heard it...and I already said that didn’t I ? Sorry.”

You’re kinda...Surprised. You thought he was the kind of guy to not talk much. He looked liked the kind of guys that didn’t talk much. Leather jacket, jeans, rings on his fingers, a kind of neglige haircut...You pegged him for one of those mysterious guy you know ? The ones in movies that um, don’t talk much.

It didn’t help that the first few words you heard him say, as he talked to the Drunk Guy were exactly fitting that stereotype you had in your head. Short sentences, and a very chill and cool demeanor. And then when he asked you if you were hurt, to the point. When he'd told you his name too, it was quick. He only started to ramble as you seemed taken aback by the fact he knew your name...

It didn’t help either that you only ever saw him sitting on his own. Drinking just a little bit, not actually getting drunk. And just...Staying there for hours, not moving. You really thought he was just that kind of “bad boy” type you know ? And here he was, rambling and apologizing and looking unsure and...it was kinda cute.

“I realize I probably should go sit somewhere else. Sorry. I helped you, and that’s it. No need to talk to me. Or feel like you owe me anything or something. You said thanks, that’s it. We good. Sorry. I shouldn’t have sat down here, you were working, I’m bothering you. Now I can’t seem to shut up ! I’m...Yeah. Sorry.”

He’s standing up now, and you almost lunge at him as you hurriedly say :

“No no no, it’s fine. Please sit down. I mean, if you want. I was just...lost in thoughts a little bit !”

He actually seems relieved and sits back down before saying :

“Oh I can understand. You just had quite an...eventful couple of last minutes what with that asshole attacking you and me rambling like an idiot.”

"Oh you weren’t rambling like an idiot, don’t worry. I’m sorry I didn’t answer and just stared like a crazy person haha.”

“I didn’t feel like you were staring don’t worry. Plus like I said, I understand, you just went through...Ah once again, I was about to repeat myself.”

He chuckles nervously and you’re kind of blown away by the fact you seem to be the one making him nervous. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. After all, what wouldn’t you give to make a guy like that nervous uh ?

“Well, thank you again. I have no idea what I would have done if you hadn’t been there. Or rather, I know what I would’ve done, but it would have gotten me fired and that would have suuuucked.”

He smiles at you and chuckles again, this time because you actually made him laugh. Curious, he asks :

“What would you have done ?”

“See that pitcher ? By the sink ? Conveniently close to where my hand was ?”

“Yeah.”

“Would’ve smash it on his head.”

“Self-defense ! Surely you wouldn’t have gotten fired for that yeah ?”

“Oh I would. If Bobby, the security guard over there, isn’t involved...my boss just instantly assume we have a short temper and fire us.”

“That’s ridiculous, you’ve been working here for a while right ? He would know by now you don’t have a short temper ? ”

Oh. There it is again. Hinting that he noticed you before. At least he knows you’ve been working here a while, and he looked at you enough to know you don’t have a short temper. Or maybe, once again, it’s just wishful thinking ?

But then, by the way he hurriedly takes a sip of his drink, and avoid your eyes, as if he just realized he once again admitted that he noticed you...Maybe you are right. You wonder if the little pink on his cheeks is here because of the booze, or because he’s embarrassed.

“So, Jason. You um...pick up on things pretty easily uh ?”

Welp. You didn’t mean for it to sound so flirty, and yet it came out of your mouth just like that. Damn. You just wanted to tease him a bit about him noticing you and all. Just be a bit, you know, witty or something. Or maybe you just wanted to reassure yourself that he was indeed a very observant man and just came to the bar to people watch, so of course he saw you ? You weren’t too sure. What was sure, is that you didn’t mean for it to be that flirty.

And once again, his response takes you completely by surprise. You thought he was gonna ramble some more, being cute and all or something like that. You were hoping he wouldn’t get offended by your mocking tone (that ended up being flirty anyway). You weren’t expecting him to pull a 180 on you and flirt back :

“Yes and no. I only pick up on interesting things.”

Oh. Oh smooth motherfucker.

************

Jason was walking back to his apartment, unable to take you out of his mind.

He had been going to the bar you were working at for months. He only noticed you a few weeks ago though. Usually, your colleague, a very beautiful woman called “Carla” would serve him. And he often flirted with her quickly as she gave him his drinks.

But then one day, you’re the one that asked “what can I get ya ?” and everything changed. He didn’t flirt that much with Carla anymore.

And he always kinda wished you’d be the one taking his order, but Carla always ended up coming first. Which made sense, since he flirted with her all the time and she seems to like him...

He tried to sit anywhere in the bar, to see which part of the room you took care of the most... Only to realize that you guys didn’t have a part of the room you took most care of and kinda worked all around. Damn.

So he settled on just observing you from afar, in the hope that one day he’d get the guts to talk to you. He just didn’t want to bother you, you know. Even more so since he saw that you basically always found a way to not reciprocate any kind of flirting...maybe you were already taken ?

But then that wouldn’t explain tonight. The perfect opportunity arose when he stepped in to help you, and you ended up talking for ages. The bar was calm, so you had the time to, as you cleaned glasses and such.

And he was pretty sure you flirted with him. Pretty sure you knew what he was doing as well. Sure, it started out with him rambling a lot of nonsense and acting like a crazy person, but then once you said “so you pick up on things easily uh ?”...It started.

His awkwardness left him. Ha. It’s funny, everyone always assume he’s a very smooth and charming man. That he has that bad boy look down to a point, and can talk to any girl but...more often than not, he found himself unable to talk to the girls he actually liked, while he was able to flirt with any others.

Like that friendly flirting time with “Carla”, who was just his bartender. While the flirting with you..

Ugh. Jason couldn’t stop thinking about you. Couldn’t get you out of his head. He didn’t even know why, when you first served him a few weeks ago, he kinda fell under your spell. He just...he was...you mesmerized him and there was something about you that made him wanna know more and...

Uh. Reason had nothing to do with what he felt. He liked you without even knowing you. It happened sometimes.

Sometimes even, when you start to talk to someone you like without knowing, you realize it won’t actually work and you can move on and all. More often than not actually, this happened to him. Crushing on someone only to realize they’re really not his type.

And here you were. You guys talked all night...Ugh. His head was full of thoughts about everything, unable to untangle anything.

He guessed he just had to go back to the bar and find out more uh ?

************

He did exactly that. At least once a week, he would skip patrol to come to the bar. Which he already did before anyway, except that before it was less regular. He would skip any time his dad was getting on his nerve, which was often but not regularly. While coming there at least once ? Yup.

He found out that Tuesdays and Wednesdays, for some reasons, were the calmest nights, and always ended up coming on those so he could talk to you.

He didn’t ask you out though, still a bit wary as he saw you too many times saying “no” to people...But he came nonetheless. Every Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Sometimes on more nights if his siblings or father annoyed him.

And you guys talked. About anything really. And his crush on you ? Didn’t disappear. Oh, he just have to ask you out one day or another...just, not tonight.

************

You started to like him. A lot. But he didn’t ask you out and it was getting frustrating...at the same time, it was good. Because you still didn’t mention the fact that you had a kid, and you were pretty sure that as soon as he would know, he’d run away...

For now, it was nice to have someone to talk you during your long work hours.

************

If there’s one thing you learned in those seven years of being a mom...It’s that kids picked up on things way more than you think they would.

For example, say a bad word once, and your child is gonna repeat it forever. Or say that you don’t like much a person, and the next time you see this person, your kiddo is gonna blurt out “My mom think you’re awful” or something.

So this is why right now, you really could slap yourself and the fact that you totally forgot about that thing kids do...It would have gotten you out of this very awkward moment for sure.

Why ? Why did you discuss this with your best friend AT HOME when your son was PLAYING NEXT to you two ? Of course he’d hear and store everything in this little genius head of his. Nothing ever escape Viggo’s attention.

What a mistake to think that, because he was playing on his Game Boy DS he wouldn’t pay attention to what you were saying. Especially since you were talking about a guy...You rarely talked about guys.

Your best friend did. Many times. But you rarely had “heart stories” to tell her. Until those past few days, as you started to regularly ramble to her about this “Jason” guy !

Damn. For real. Why didn’t you think of talking about this only after Viggo’s bed time ? Only when he was out of earshot ?

It would have avoided this very awkward situation right now...

You were at the park with your son and your best friend, on a sunny Saturday afternoon when...You turned around suddenly, and your friend and son looked at you weirdly as you were trying to hide behind them. You murmured :

“It’s him. It’s him over there, it’s Jason.”

As you eyes the place where he was and...Yup sure enough it was Jason. He was with another rather handsome man. And they were...Stretching ? They were both wearing sweat pants (thanks god for the existence of sweat pants, what a nice bottom Jason had) and compressing shirt (thanks god for those too). Probably came to the park to run or something.

For now, he didn’t see you and you could still have a chance to leave without being seen. You weren’t too sure why you didn’t want him to see you...It made you feel very guilty once you realized that it was because Viggo was there.

You didn't want to be “ashamed” of having a son. And frankly, if he was interested in you but ran away because you had a kid, then he wasn’t worth it but...in that moment your brain didn’t work properly. You just didn’t want him to see you, and that was it.

But this was without counting on your way too smart boy...

“MOM !! CAN I HAVE ICE CREAM PLEASE ?!”

He yelled, pulling you by the sleeve and pointing at the ice cream cart that was conveniently placed right next to Jason and his friend. You glared at him, because oh you knew exactly what he was doing. He answered with a smug smile, and yelled once more :

“I REALLY LIKE ICE CREAM MOM, CAN YOU GET ME ICE CREAM PLEASE ?!”

He would have never yelled that loud normally. You knew instantly that he was going to force you to confront Jason. Why ? Why did you have to give birth to a smart ass ? Way too damn smart for his own good.

Of course, the fact that he was screaming and pulling you as you were trying to “discreetly” make him stop attracted Jason’s and his friend’s attention. He turned to you and his a wide smile appeared on his face.

“(Y/N) ?”

You stopped struggling with your son, and gave a good ol’ glare to your best friend who was chuckling because of all this, and turned to Jason. You acted as if you didn’t notice the fact your best friend and your son just high fived, and say :

“Oh hey Jason. Um. Fancy seeing you here...”

You’re avoiding his eyes and you know he’s a bit confused by that, but you just..don’t know what to say. Well, you know what ? It’s fine that you don’t, because you have a very talkative and not very shy son who just says :

“Jason ? Oh ! You’re the Jason uh ?”

“The Jason ?”

You ponder for a minute grabbing your kid and just putting your hand on his mouth, stopping him from saying much more...but then you think maybe it might be suspicious and that you’re screwed either way. So you just settle for glaring at him, and oh that smug look he gives you !

“Yeah, my mom talked about you a few time. If you’re the Jason of course. How do you know my mom ?”

“Your...mom ? Uh..I met...um...”

The man accompanying Jason seems very pleased with the entire situation and keeps smiling way too much. So you glare at him too. This isn’t funny ok ? This is embarrassing and possibly heartbreaking. This is exactly why you tried to avoid Jason seeing you, and why of course, your son started yelling about ice cream.

You keep repeating to yourself that he would have find out one day or another anyway...Actually you’re pretty sure that if he actually had asked you out, the first thing you would have mention is the fact that you have a son. But still...Like that...Ugh...

Your best friend chuckle and so you glare at her too. It’s glaring season ! And oh it kinda makes you nervous the way Jason doesn’t answer your kid’s question...And then Viggo says :

“You don’t remember how you met ? Oh you’re probably not the Jason then. My bad. Mom, can we get ice cream now ?”

It’s something, really, when a seven year old is that smart and knows exactly what to bring back people back to their senses. It seems like his last few words dropped a bucket of ice cold water over Jason’s head and he says :

“I met her at her work. I met your mom at her work.”

And then he looks at you, and smile. And...What ? What does that mean ? Is he still interested ? Well, if he ever was actually interested...

“Library, coffee shop, book shop, restaurant, or bar ?”

Viggo asks, and Jason seems even more taken aback about that than about the fact you have a kid. You never mentioned having different jobs, because you didn’t want him to know you were broke. He looks at you again, and answer :

“Um. Bar.”

“Ah, so you are the Jason ! I thought you’d be taller...”

Jason turns to your son again, and asks :

“What do you mean, “the” Jason ?”

“That you’re the one my mom talked about with Aunt Ally !”

Ally, your best friend. Who’s having the time of her life right now. She always loved when your son embarrassed you in public, because that child was really smart, and funny. She waves a bit at Jason and nods, as to confirm that yup, you did talk with her about a certain “Jason”.

Jason looks at you again and takes the exact same smug look your son had a few minutes before, and says :

“Ah ? Talking about me uh ?”

“Yup. She thinks you’re cute.”

At that, Jason’s friends and Ally BURST OUT laughing and you’re thinking for a few seconds about calling 911 because they don’t seem to breath between all that laughing..

Both you and Jason turn bright red, all sign of smugness on Jay’s face disappearing instantly. You blush for obvious reasons, and Jason because...You think he’s cute ! Does that mean you actually like him and the talk at the bar means something ? That if he asks you out you’re not going to turn him down like you turned everyone down so far ?

“She um...she does uh ?”

He manages to say, and Viggo nods vigorously.

“Oooooh yeaaah. Aunt Ally and her talked about it for ages. She thinks your...”

This time, you think it’s appropriate to grab your son and put your hand on his mouth, shutting him up. Because you don’t know what he’s about to say, but you know it’s going to be mortifying. You haven’t realized until now how much you talked about Jason and his...physical (and mental) attribute with your best friend. Again, Jay’s friend and yours laugh even more.

And you and Jason just awkwardly look at each others...Your son takes your hand away from his mouth and looks up at you. The pleading look you give him makes him understand he maybe went a bit too far (he makes a mental note that he’ll have to apologies later. Maybe by cooking your favorite cake with aunt Ally ?), so he turns to Jason and say :

“Why, you don’t think she’s cute ?”

He punctuates his question by narrowing his eyes at Jason and...Damn, your boy will never cease to amaze you. How did that kid know which words to say exactly to get reactions out of people ? Impressive.

Jason looks at you a bit panicked, and then at your boy, back at you, back at your boy. Suddenly, the idea that you might think he doesn’t think you’re cute too terrifies him and he says :

“Oh no no no. I think your mom is very cute ! I think she’s like...the cutest !”

It makes you blush a bit more, but also fills you with stupid happiness. The guy you liked, thought you were cute ! ...It made you feel a bit silly too, because you felt like you were back in high school and had send one of your friend to ask your crush if he liked you back...

“Then why didn’t you ask her out on a date yet ?”

Ok. This was time for you to find your voice back and finally cut in. So far, you could only witness helplessly as your son smooth talk everything, and your best friend just laughed. But this time, you had to jump in, right ?

“Um this is...uh...I never said...uuuuuum...I...Didn’t you want ice cream, honey ?”

Without much surprise, you’re unable to actually formulate an actual sentence. It’s because too many people are here. You can’t think straight with your best friend and Jason’s friend and your SON here. Witnessing this very awkward first “I like you” kind of confession. So you continue :

“Um, Ally, would you be so kind as to take him get his ice cream ?”

Your son knows what you’re doing now. You’re getting rid of him, so he can’t set you up with “The Jason” further ! it’s his turn to glare at you a little bit, because he’s afraid you’re gonna chicken out and decide to say your son was crazy or something and not go through with that all “asking each other out things” he just settled.

Viggo heard you talk about “The Jason” for the past few months almost every single nights. He never heard you talk about any men that long ! You had flings and all, but never anything serious. He heard you talk about his dad a few times, and how you didn’t actually want a serious thing anymore but...you talked a lot about Jason !

Your son just wanted you to be happy. And by the things you said about “The Jason”, he seemed like a cool guy ! And...

“Dick, didn’t you say that after all those efforts with just made, you wanted an ice cream too ?”

Jason’s voice takes your son out of his reveries. The man is looking at his “friend” who is still chuckling on his own. “Dick” seems to get the message and gives a knowing look to Jason. And it reassures Viggo a bit, to see it’s the same kind of look he just gave his mom. The one that meant : “Come on, just do it”.

Dick walks a towards the ice cream truck before stopping and turning around :

“Ah. By the way, I’m Dick. His brother. Sorry for being rude and not introducing myself. So, you’re (Y/N). “The” (Y/N). He talked about you too, just...sayin’.”

Ignoring Jason’s glare Dick turns to your son and say :

“And you are...?”

“Viggo !”

“Oh like the actor ?”

“Exactly like the actor, yes.”

“Cool. So you want ice cream too Viggo ? I think those two are trying to give us a message insisting we want it.”

“Oh like you mean, leaving them alone ?”

“Exactly mean that, yes. Leaving them to...talk.”

“And sort this “cute” thing out ?”

“Oh you’re a smart one Viggo, aren’t you ? Remind me of my little brother Tim.”

Your best friend, Ally, bless her soul, takes that opportunity to jump in and help you. Because it seems like Jason’s brother and your son have that same kind of “teasing” vibe to them haha. She says :

“Oook boys then let’s go get ice cream. You can tell us more about your brother Tim, Dick. And um...more about what Jason said about our (Y/N) ?”

“Ah, fantastic idea ! Let’s all go gossip !”

You and Jason watch, helpless, as some of the most important people in your life happily walk towards the ice cream cart and start to talk about you. Suddenly, both of you kinda regret chasing them away like that.

You turn back to each other and there’s an awkward pause. You basically just said that you liked each others, and your seven year old son pointed out that it meant you should go out but...You’re not sure what to say. Jason starts :

“So...You have a son uh ?”

“Yes. Sorry I didn’t mention it earlier it just...never really came up. And um...You have a brother ?”

“Three. And a sister. I guess it never really came up either...”

“No. Somehow, we ended up talking about Star Wars for hours and not a word about some of the most important people in our lives were said.”

You can’t help but chuckle a bit at the thought. It’s true. You guys talked about so many things, sometimes very trivial ones, sometimes about your obscure similar geeky tastes...you never actually mentioned much about your families !

You did both make sure that the other one was single, but that’s pretty much it. You ended up talking about each others more than families and all.

Well. Jason did it for a reason. He was suppose to be “dead”...He wasn't really sure how he would talk about his family now that the subject was open, but he knew he’d figure something out. You were clearly worth it.

“How old is he ?”

“Seven.”

“Cool. Did you really name him after Viggo Mortensen ?”

“Yup. Don’t judge.”

“Hey, I told you I was kind of in love with the man so no judgement from me. On the contrary, I dig it. He seems like a pretty awesome kid...He wears the name well.”

“Yeah, he is a pretty awesome kid. Too smart for his own good though.”

“I think I noticed. He’s really good at acting like he has no idea what he’s doing, while saying things like...what he said.”

Woops. There it is again. You somehow manage to hold your blush this time though. And say :

“Yes. I don’t know wether I should be happy or not about this talent of his...”

“It’s a good thing. Otherwise, I would have never had the courage to...ask you out. You turned so many people down at the bar, I thought you weren’t interested in dating and didn’t ask you out cause of this.”

“Ask me out ? Is it what you’re doing right now ?”

“Well...I think ?”

“Even though I have a kid ?”

“What does it matter if you have a kid or not ?”

“You really don’t care ?”

“No. Seems like a swell kid at that. Smart...but I already said that.”

You’re kinda stunned. You were so sure he wouldn’t want to actually date you once he knew you had a kid. It turned down so many people you dated in the past...But Jason. Jason genuinely didn’t seem to care. On the contrary, he was genuinely surprised that you thought it would be a problem.

“So um...Would you like to...go get dinner someday ? You can tell me more about your little Viggo, so I can say more than “he’s smart” next time. Or, if you don’t wanna talk about him, then we won’t. I don’t uh..I never dated someone who had a kid before. I wouldn’t like to impose myself in your life in any way. I just...wanna go get dinner I guess...”

He seems so nervous. It’s very cute. And kinda sexy. The way he stumbles on his words, the way he seems to already understand that Viggo is part of your life and so if he dates you he’ll probably have to interact with him...It feels nice.

He’s not a total stranger, by now. You know him quite a bit, actually, what with all those conversations at the bar. Sure there’s some part you never mentioned, like family or such. But mainly, you consider him a friend.

He’s not a total stranger. He thinks you’re cute, you think he’s cute. He doesn’t mind you having a kid. So, obviously...

“Dinner sounds great. Whenever you want ?”

“I was thinking, whenever you want. What with you having a child and all. I...I can get away from work and all. But you can’t get away from your kid you know ?”

Wow. Wow. Wow ! In a few words, he annihilated any worries you might have had about dating him. Because he just acknowledge the fact that he completely understand that your life revolves a lot around your kid’s. And it doesn’t seem to bother him at all.

“Um. Next Saturday, I’m not working and Ally can babysit Viggo. So if it’s good with you ? ...”

“It is. It is. I can...Saturday. 8 pm ?”

“Yeah, sounds nice.”

“Ok cool. Um...See you then. Or before at the bar maybe ? Not sure what my plans are for the week...I think I might stop by.”

“Great, any time !”

“Cool. Um. I have to go right now, my brother and I have an appointment. But um...see you soon ?”

“Yes, very soon !”

He smiles at you and you smile back. It’s not as awkward as you’d think, what with both of you admitting you like each others (albeit not in a very conventional way) and all. You follow him towards his brother, your best friend and your son and he says bye.

Dick waves too, and after a “well nice to finally meet you, (Y/N)”, he goes away. It makes you wonder what Jason and him talked about and said about you...

You turn to your son and best friend and say :

“So, what did he say about me ?”

“Sorry mom, we promised Dick we wouldn’t say anything. He said you guys should figure things out first.”

“...That’s cold Viggo, that’s cold. Ally ?”

“Sorry (Y/N), I agree with Dick. He paid for the ice cream so...”

“...You two are bribed too easily !”

They laugh a bit and then your son asks, a bit carefully and unsurely :

“So...are you going to see The Jason again ? Out of the bar ? Out of work ?”

“What, you mean like a date ?”

“Yes mom, I mean like a date !”

You don’t say anything for a few seconds, enjoying torturing them a bit as they just can’t wait to hear wether or not he asked you out. Finally, you say :

“Ally, can you babysit Viggo next Saturday ?”

To be continued... ---> There’s now a second part to this, you can find it on my masterlist blog on the “DC master list” under “Jason Todd”, it’s called “Best Step-dad ever” :).

______________________________________________

So this was originally suppose to be a one shot. But I got carried away haha. The full story is already almost completely written, I still have to finish the next chapter. It was way too long for me to post it in just one post, like really, this is already long and it is a bit less than half the entire thing so...Yeah. Anyway. This was more of a “settling things” kind of chapter. Next chapter will have much more of “your son” and Jason interactions with him + appearances from ALL the Batfam members.

Hope you...liked it ? Feedbacks are always appreciated, and once again, reblog = the only way anyone who isn’t following me will find my blog now. So...Yup. Thanks.

#Jason Todd x reader #Jason Todd imagine #Red Hood x reader #Red Hood imagine #Jason Todd #Jaybird deserves love #Jason Todd fanfic #Jason Todd reader insert #Red Hood reader insert #Red hood fanfic #Batfam #Batfam x reader #Batfam imagine #JASON TODD IS GREAT OK ?!#Batfam reader insert #Batfamily #Batfamily x reader #Batfamily imagine

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firesign23 · 4 years

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⭐️

Is this an excuse to talk about the Brienne/Addam universe? BECAUSE I AM MAKING IT AN EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT THE BRIENNE/ADDAM UNIVERSE. I take the parts that I remember (and stitch them back together)

So, first of all, I HAVE SO MANY NOTES FOR FUTURE EVENTS. So many. It is making my plan to write everything to prompts a nightmare, because I am not good at soliciting people. I feel like Oliver Twist: “Please sir, I want some more.” So, seriously, anybody reading and wondering whether I want prompts for this universe–YES. Please. Specify it is (I know it’s niche enough that I won’t use unspecified prompts for it), but yes. A lot of the prompts are for events in the timeline, but honestly they can be anything–an event, an image, a quote, whatever.

Putting the rest under a cut because this got looooong. And I am making myself stop before it gets longer, because apparently I have a lot of thoughts about this world.

I’ve talked about the general inspiration for this world–the fear canon would go there and therefore I wanted the best possible version of that nightmare–so I won’t go into it too much. But I have a THING, pretty consistently, about the isolated characters I love having that One Childhood Friend. The one you can not see for months or years and pick up with again so easily, who has been with you through some shit and loves and understands you, but won’t allow you to be an asshole either. If the friend doesn’t exist in canon, I will create them. That’s a big factor in how I’m shaping Addam, with a side of “This is a person who knew Jaime before and must be in some way exceptional to have remained his friend.” I’m looking forward to the next ficlet, because it deals with the fact that Addam’s struggling with his own grief–up until now he’s been doing a lot of grief triaging and trying to fix this, and that’s not a long-term solution.

I have a love-hate relationship with the “You can’t choose who you love” line–I think it’s really interesting thing for Jaime to say, marking a commonality with Brienne so early and absolving himself of responsibility for his relationship with Cersei, but I think it gets interpreted as something that is meant to be true. I don’t think it is, and I’m not entirely certain that Jaime believes it so much as he wants to. Either way, this fic is absolutely a middle finger to that premise–Brienne and Addam don’t choose to start developing feelings for each other, but they absolutely choose time and time again to nurture that connection and build a relationship from those choices. Heather Dale’s Choose is on the playlist for this universe and that’s a very deliberate decision on my part.

Speaking of which, one of my very favourite things about this fic is that I’m slowly compiling a playlist of songs for this universe and it’s a sad, sad little list right now but it will grow. Nothing delights me more than someone going “This song made me think…” if I’m being honest, so feel free to share those things with me. I promise I’m very nice and rarely bite.

The title comes from Richard Siken’s Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out. The first prompt I wrote for this universe came from this poem, and I found myself doubling back to it when it came time to turn it into its own fic. And I played with a lot of ideas from it, but memory is such a strong component of this story that I take the parts that I remember (and stitch them back together) was the winner. But this whole particular section (and apologies for the screenshot but as a Tumblr post the formattting went whack) is just…

😭😭😭

I don’t generally fancast OCs when writing fics, but I knew if I didn’t for this fic I’d end up with contradictory descriptions. But none of the red-headed actors I could think of were quite right, and eventually I remembered that Viggo Mortensen had red hair and I was like “Oh, of fucking course.” Because I was a teenager when those films came out. So, uhhh, Addam is basically Aragorn with dark red hair. If I had any photo manipulation skills I’d be in heaven, but alas, earwax. I went on a deep dive trying to find the picture I remember seeing probably 15 years or so ago–most of the old photos with his red hair are a blonde-reddish, but I know there is one that is similar to this but with a darker red:

Get you some tasty, Brienne.

And lastly, I have joked multiple times that the ending of the fic will play out like so:

Brienne dies, and is escorted to the afterlife by the Stranger. And all the people she has lost are there, in the moment they saw themselves at their best. Her mother and father and brother, Renly and Catelyn, good men she fought alongside and women she befriended. And she’s slowly moving through this room and she can’t help it–it’s been decades, but some part of her hopes Jaime is there, even briefly. She thinks about it, the chance they could have that true swordfight that could have been, longs for this last shared thing. And towards the end of the room she sees Addam and she’s so happy to see him, this man she spent 25 years building a life with, and she’s too happy to be crying but it’s a close-run thing. And then he moves aside and Jaime is there–not the peak physical condition she expects, but as he was in Winterfell. Her Jaime. And she freezes, because she’s faced with this choice–the man who she loved to a degree it has entered songs, or the quiet love she chose to nurture. That is, obviously, when she starts to cry, and there’s this echo of the last time they saw each other only this time Jaime can comfort her and there’s a really emotional kiss but she doesn’t know, she never really believed in an afterlife and could never imagine this, and she can’t erase the fact that she had an entire life with Addam. He was the one that taught their son to ride, the one who comforted her when her father died, the one that did all those messy things that make a marriage. She loves them both. And because this is my world and I make the rules, it ends (after much negotiating and discussion and time) as a Ghost OT3 because fuck it. It’s practically an OT3 in the story anyway, even if Jaime’s dead the whole time. 😂

come into my ask box and ask for the “director’s commentary” on a particular story, section of a story, or set of lines. Or, send in a ⭐star⭐ to have the author select a section they’ve been dying to talk about!

#ask meme #my fanfic

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urcadelimabean · 4 years

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Fellowship of the Ring rewatch thoughts from one of those intense lotr nerds!

- One thing that strikes me after so long - I think the last time I saw it was about 3 years ago - is not just the music but the sound...the sound effects for the heaviness of the Ring, the way spells echo and amplify when Gandalf or Arwen speak them, the sound effects for bowstrings, the screams of the Nazgul being so inhuman, the drums in the deep of Moria, the scrape of stone on stone for the Balrog...if the sound hadn’t bee so good the movies honestly wouldn’t have worked this well. God the soundtrack.

- I will always have little quibbles about stuff -- the Ring moving onto Frodo’s finger in Bree with CGI, Galadriel’s over the top green CGI moment, the fact that we see too much of the Watcher in the Water -- but in general, like in GENERAL, the fact that these movies are so beautiful and well made....we didn’t just dodge a bullet we dodged a nuclear weapon LOL....we really did. These could have been so atrociously bad, but instead they are beautiful.

- no one should be reading LOTR as an allegory anyway, but the Ring is often read as an allegory for addiction or a nuclear weapon and somehow not as frequently likened to carrying trauma. Which is absolutely wild to me. The concept of carrying something that poisons and hurts you but that you can’t put down....it seems much more similar to trauma than many of the things I see it compared too

- I love moral complexity, greyness, etc, but I find the idea that the Ring is just utterly and completely evil very refreshing. That there are things that you cannot compromise on, that are indisputably evil.

- One thing i love about LOTR is the fact that it is not what people think of as “high fantasy” - it doesn’t take place in a shiny, perfect world, it takes place in a decayed, faded, eroded remnant of so many things that have been lost. The whole setting being created that way is so important. And magic honestly doesn’t even come into the story that much. The Ring is magical, but the way magic functions in LOTR is so different from how it functions in Harry Potter for example and I am so thankful of that because it’s a refreshing and beautiful and different world.

- I’ve thought a lot about how Tolkien’s time in the trenches of WW1 influenced his outlook and therefore his writing, but the part where Frodo is talking to Bilbo and he says “My own adventure was quite different. I’m not like you, Bilbo.” It really struck me as something straight out of Tolkien’s mouth. This was a generation that became so disillusioned about the point of war and all this bloodshed and all these young lives lost, who found out that this idea that ‘fighting for your country is some grand adventure’ is completely empty.

- Really has been bothering me for years that the conversation of racism in Tolkien’s works is restricted to conversations about orcs and dark/light. Left out of that conversation is all the talk about bloodlines, pure blood, heritage, etc, and all of that stands out so sharply to me...like HELLO. That’s clearly as much of or even MORE of a problem than the other things, and once you know how drawn white supremacists are to LOTR it’s not hard to connect the dots as to why. But the LOTR fandom has historically been absolute shit at admitting this.

- I really really love that in LOTR you have characters like Merry and Pippin who have no special powers, no special birthright or parentage and the reason they are heroic is simply because they are loyal and protective of their friends. The way they distract the orcs by waving to them to come get them, so Frodo can run away - it has nothing to do with how good they are at fighting, they dont protect Frodo with special powers, they literally just do WHATEVER they can even if it means sacrificing themselves.

- And then you have Sam - he doesn't have special powers, or special parentage, or magic - and it’s again a situation where his heroic moment is simply refusing to be parted with Frodo. He wades into the water even though he can’t swim. All these movies these days are just heroism = powers, and it’s so refreshing to see the opposite, of heroism even when it’s almost futile, and that’s why it’s heroic.

- There’s something so painfully bittersweet about LOTR, and it’s one thing I love the most. It feels real because it’s painful. It wouldn’t feel real if it didn’t have this thread of sadness running through it.

- Everyone saying Gandalf is a Christ figure....brooooo do you know Odin??? I’m not even denying there are Christian themes in LOTR but Tolkien created LOTR to be a pre-Christian myth. Clearly it is compatible with Christianity, but Tolkien was a scholar of all these pre-Christian epics and he knows there are themes that are shared across mythologies. Compatible with Christianity does not mean original to Christianity. Also all this death and glory shit is so Norse guys come on. anyway ODIN.

- GOD the mythic themes of hubris, the importance of promises, warrior’s deaths....LOVE THAT MYTHOLOGICAL FEEL!!!!!!!!! LOVE IT

- everyone wants in on a redemption arc but Boromir is out here literally getting shot full of arrows, dying a courageous warrior’s death and confessing his love and loyalty to his King.....everyone just want what he has!!!!!!!!!!

- love me some hobbits. curly haired. small. love food. would love to marry one one day.

- did I mention how much I love Ian McKellen? I swear every time I hear him say those lines to Frodo I heal in some amazing way. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” I remember the first time I read the Fellowship when I was 13 and Gandalf died I was just like “nope. that did not happen :)” and then sure enough I was right!!! and then I felt relived but not even that relieved because I literally had refused to accept it in the first place so I was just like :)

- Saruman should start a hair product line. His hair looks so silky. No but seriously Christopher Lee was perfect. Imagine how bad the casting could have been. I’m so glad they got the right actors. Viggo Mortensen!!!! that man

- Legolas after Lothlorien was literally like Gimli likes blondes? maybe I have a chance after all.....eyes emoji....

- never over the level of detail in the costumes, the armor, the chain mail, the Elvish in the songs, the way the scenes mirror paintings from book illustrations....like holy fuck. FUCK!! FUCK

- the way these movies do or don’t reveal things is so integral to how well they work. the fact that at first you meet one Nazgul, then two, then three, the fact that you hear the Balrog before seeing it, the fact that you rarely hear Sauron speak unless it’s indistinct, the fact that you never see Sauron in battle except for in flashbacks. It all preserves the mystery and suspense that makes it scary and compelling. Lotr made in 2020 would be like Aragorn vs Sauron and it would be literally awful.

- the amount of hugging and crying and actual human emoting in this one movie cleansed me of so much marvel fatigue. it’s so nice to see characters actually grieving and comforting each other instead of acting like cardboard cutouts.

- I’ve talked a lot about this before elsewhere but the reduction/interpretation of lotr to this black and white good versus evil type of story really does a disservice to the whole ass POINT which is that it’s a story about despair in the face of insurmountable evil, in the face of the destruction of the environment and the destruction of freedom and this awful powerlessness, and so it’s not just a story about despair it’s also a story about hope in the face of despair. which feels very needed right now.

- these bullet points are getting less coherent but I’m still just thinking about that last shot, of Sam and Frodo beginning to walk away into the wilderness towards Mordor, and the soundtrack.

#seagul shooting laser beams from eyes.jpg

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lesbiansforboromir · 5 years

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Ok I’ve been thinking about “Boromir Lives Succession Crisis” fic all day and I would love your Opinion on how best to achieve the first half of that clause. I feel like there’s basically 3 options 1) Faramir goes on the quest instead 2) Frodo successfully slips off unnoticed and Boromir doesn’t confront him and the party isn’t split when the orcs attack 3) Everything happens as in the book but Boromir isn’t shot (1/2)

(2/2) I’m kind of leaning towards either 1 or 3. 1 because I think it would strengthen Boromir’s claim and pretty much eliminate any bond he developed with Aragorn over the quest, making him more likely to contest the claim, and it has the possibility for good Fari drama. 3 is probably more straightforward but gets real hairy in sorting out the specifics, as well deciding at what point Boromir’s opinion on Aragorn would change etc. Curious how you would handle it!

👀👀👀 I stan you specifically for letting me talk about this- OK SO.

I have played out each one of these possibilities with @emynarnens so many times that this is the only thing I’m qualified to do now. So to start off!

I don’t think I would recommend #1. Boromir’s effect on Aragorn is a pretty vital piece of Character development for him. Viggo Mortensen actually mentions it but we can see it in the Books too, Aragorn goes from considering the men of Rohan corruptible and weak willed to agreeing with Boromir that he does not believe they gave in too Sauron’s bribery. Essentially Boromir challenges Aragorn to rethink his attitude to humanity, both in others and within himself. Faramir is far too enamoured with the idea of Aragorn’s nobility and royalty and I don’t think he would challenge him in the same way, or at all really.

#2 and 3 do create issues in terms of the general plot of merry and pippin needing to be with the ents, but if Boromir doesn’t feel he betrayed the fellowship and committed a grievous crime he would perhaps feel a stronger sense of self worth and therefore is certainly shot but doesn’t quite die. Too wounded to stop the Hobbits from being taken, but not dead. Although I would also say that Boromir’s momentary madness and loss of control and the guilt he feels afterwards is also an important piece of character development for him, even if he dies immediately afterwards. He realises he sacrificed too much of his own integrity and lost too much hope in his single minded drive to defend Gondor. His sacrifice for two hobbits, who are just his friends, brings back some of that care and concern the Ring’s influence had worn away.

But have no fear! I wouldn’t call it necessary to take away any of what happened there. Remember in the books Boromir was not just pierced by three arrows, he was pierced by VERY many, and Pippin tells us Boromir was still up and fighting when he lost consciousness. Indeed, just before Pippin blacked out, he saw Boromir pluck a shaft from his side and continue with the battle, so reasonably the change simply could be ‘he wasn’t shot as much’. Obviously adhrenaline can keep you going and all that but these books are anything if medically sound and Boromir is just Like That. Wounded but not dead is a valid sacrifice and keeps the beats of the narrative intact.

I would also recommend this because there needs to be some reason Denethor believes his eldest son dead. It is a vital contribution to the darkness that eventually drives him to suicide and means you don’t have to work around Denethor also being alive when you’re talking about the whole issue with the coronation. Denethor can have witnessed a glimpse of Boromir’s fate through the Palantir, and then Faramir perhaps does find Boromir’s horn cloven in the river and Denethor takes this as proof of death in his darker state of mind.

With this in mind it’s also kind of necessary to have the hunters actually leave a wounded Boromir where he is and believe he will not survive. (I’d recommend this also just for the jab you can have Boromir give along the lines of, “What are you all waiting for? Will you compose a song for my funeral? The hobbits are getting further from you at every moment, go!” Because good god you three it’s enough to question how much you really care about your hobbit friends)

AND another thing is that this still allows Aragorn his indecision, whether to go with Frodo or rescue the Hobbits, which is also characterful and important. AND it reinforces Boromir’s love of the hobbits, demanding the three hunters leave him there to die in order to save them as he was unable too. There’s still a repentant sacrifice there.

But anyway the point is if Boromir is alive and perhaps found ‘dying but still with a chance’ by a company of Eored, then I would suggest he is forced to recover somewhere secluded throughout the events of Helms Deep. This is to make sure Pippin and Gandalf still think he is dead by the time they leave for Minas Tirith. It’s a shame because that would be cool for him to be involved, but if Pippin knows Boromir is alive then it’s unlikely that he wouldn’t tell Denethor that and, as I’ve said, Denethor’s grief is important.

If you really wanted Boromir at the battle at Helm’s Deep, you could go along the route of Denethor not believing Pippin, but that’s a stretch. I suppose you could also consider that the shock of it has already taken it’s toll on Denethor and even if he hears Boromir is alive, it’s done it’s job by the time Denethor believes Faramir will die and the City will be taken.

(Unless you do wanna contend with Denethor being alive which I also like but that does take away from the narrative simplicity of it just being about Boromir and Aragorn’s conflict and the complex emotions surrounding it. Denethor does not believe Aragorn should be king and it’s unreasonable to think Boromir would go against his father in this case so it detracts from the indecision somewhat. But I would say Denethor being dead is the better option just for this specific idea.)

As far as worrying about whether Boromir would contest Aragorn’s claim goes, I wouldn’t worry about that. Boromir never once accepts the idea of Aragorn as his King. Certainly they are friends, they work well together, he likes him, but his responsibility to his people and the laws of Gondor and his Father’s wisdom and wishes (especially now he’s dead) would supersede any personal connection they have. And really the best case Aragorn has for being worthy of the throne is ‘It was in a Prophecy and also people like me’ so Boromir has plenty of reason to be like… suspicious about Aragorn’s aptitude.

I think having them as friends adds some interesting emotional elements to it actually, the balance of friendship vs responsibility. You mentioned Boromir’s opinion of Aragorn changing, but the truth is it never does. Boromir essentially ignores the fact that Aragorn is asking for the Throne for the entire book and just accepts him as a man who’s willing to give aide to Gondor. Which is all Boromir really cares about at the time, not really expecting any of them to live long enough for this to be a problem. The conflict between him and Aragorn about the kingship is manufactured by the film entirely.

In the end the probability is that Aragorn would become king, Aragorn did a good job at becoming heroic and he does seem to have burst out of nowhere and saved everyone. Even the Lords are for it, it appears. I think the eventual crux of it would be the kinds of requests, clauses and checks Boromir would demand Aragorn agree too. How they should change the nature of a King’s rule to fit in with this more egalitarian society Gondor’s grown into. Boromir would also ensure Aragorn went through the proper channels, that a council of Lords was held and his Kingship debated and voted on, make the whole thing something everyone participates in and understands.

You mentioned Faramir drama too but we’ll get that in SPADES when he’s fighting with his brother over his treatment of Aragorn. Faramir really is thoroughly taken in by Aragorn’s mystique and his reaction to him is to cast off any and all tradition and agree to his coronation on the spot. This could also be because Aragorn saves his and Eowyn’s life, but still he and Boromir will have some serious issues, perhaps for the first time in their relationship so that’d be super fun to explore.

IN CONCLUSION!

I’d suggest absolutely nothing changes except for the severity of Boromir’s wounds. Aragorn still finds him, he still begs Aragorn to save Minas Tirith. The only difference is he verbally tells Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas to leave him and save Merry and Pippin and he is alive when they go though they do not expect him to recover.

He is found by some Eored and taken to a nearby Rohir settlement (In LOTRO it’s a small town called Walstow and the Thane is a little plagued by the Uruks running around so it could also be a kind of mini adventure for Boromir with helping them repel attacks and eventually being able to evacuate to Dunharrow?) But whatever happens, he doesn’t rejoin his friends until after Pippin and Gandalf leave for Minas Tirith.

addendum………………….

ON THE OTHER HAND…

I know everything I just said but like… forget it for a moment because I have a second suggestion that absolutely flounces every one of the points I just made but I like it because I’m a sap.

Gandalf slips up and tells them all on Caradhras that he doesn’t know the password into Moria.

Aragorn: “What?! Then why are we even discussing it? Boromir’s right, we should risk the Gap of Rohan, at least we will not be so enclosed.”

Gandalf: “I can figure the password out when we get there!”

Aragorn: “Tosh! We could be discovered, pursued or killed long before you rattle through every possible way inside. Nope! The Gap of Rohan it is!”

And then they make their way down south and oh wow! Here’s the Prince of Rohan and he has an entire camp of loyal soldiers who could defend this little party.

And Theodred exclaims ‘here is Boromir! My (love, partner, boy) friend! I, of course, trust him and his fellows. Let me just finish this skirmish- whoops! That was a close one thanks Boromir, who I love, for being here to save me from that Orc or I would have been dead! Wouldn’t that be terrible? Anyway we are still losing here so let me and Erkenbrand and Grimbold all escort you to safety.’

‘Oh? Your two young Hobbit friends left in the night did they? How strange, I hope they come to no harm but I suppose we shall all have to focus on defending Helms Deep for now. I’m very glad I’m here with you Boromir, to be a friendly face who knows when you are acting strangely and remind you of your humanity and softer side, you didn’t seem to be doing very well in the midst of these very strange and not particularly empathetic friends of yours!’

… Your choice of course ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#boromir #tolkien #aragorn #rescue-ram #tolkien meta #lotr #lord of the rings #I spent all day on this and it was great fun thank you #erran vs tolkien #text post #chats

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