#one OTP to rule them all

[elialys]

ask me how i feel about the 6,000+ words of season 2 Peter/Olivia i've been working on

#i'm so genuinely happy to be writing them again like??? #absolute best feeling ever #i love them so much #i've already managed to squeeze every typical P/O thing in there and i'm not even sorry 😂 #if there was a bingo card i'd have shouted BINGO 2000 words ago #my heart is happy #writing #peter x olivia #one otp to rule them all

[sigmundite]

Y'all. I have many ships but one OTP: Guy/Asch from Tales of the Abyss. And for many, many years on this blog my banner has been a random screenshot from the Tales of the Abyss anime (which is on Youtube btw) where they were both in the shot. Yay. (It's a rarepair from an old fandom, I am used to subsisting on crumbs)

NO LONGER!

I've been wanting to update my banner for a long time but wanted something I could properly attribute to an artist, so I commissioned my dear friend @eemamminy-art for art of them that was mine my own my precious

LOOK AT IT. IT'S WONDERFUL! BEHOLD and continue to behold because this will probably be my tumblr banner until the site crumbles to dust, whenever that may be

Today though, I AM FILLED WITH POWER

#sigmundite says #one otp to rule them all #now if i could just write fic for them it'd be great #but this? this owns

[blighted-lights]

do you ship ravage and drift? you draw them a lot and they're always so touchy lol

nah. they're really touchy amicas, tho. probably because im always touchy with my friends and it just kinda rubs off on my art. ravage is my Me character so i do end up giving him traits i have. one of those is being touchy with people he cares about 🤷‍♂️. he's especially touchy with drift as when they were grouped together in the dead end (which is where they met in my brain), ravage spent a lot of hours curled up in drift's car alt with laserbeak and buzzsaw for shelter. that touchy aspect never really left their dynamic.

and besides,

drift/deadlock's candle has always been lit for someone else.

(plus an extra doodle of them)

#ask: anon #tf art #transformers #more than meets the eye #transformers art #maccadams #maccadam #blight rambles #drift | deadlock #drift #ravage #tf ravage #transformers ravage #mtmte #transformwrs idw #not gonna go all out on tags here #my art #good rule of thumb for me is that unless it is specifically tagged as ship then its not ship #not much of a transformers romance person in general #like there are exceptions and i DO enjoy tf ships. i am actively encouraging ppl to ask about em/about my opinions on ur otps #but my rav and drift are amicas #very TOUCHY amicas. i draw them touching a lot bc i think theyd be pretty physically affectionate with one another #they hug. they cuddle. drift carries ravage occasionally. they speak through hand simply just to feel the contact. ravage puts all his #weight on drift on bad pain days. drift does the same for him. its a big part of their dynamic. its the Trust that comes with that touch #theyre sparkbonded to each other as amicas too. like these two cant really get closer. but its not a romantic dynamic 🤷‍♂️ #i cant stop you from seeing it that way and. im not gonna try lol. but anon asked so i figured id answer and talk a bit more about em #idk rambling in the tags

[harrenhalyuri]

Marazhai Aezyrraesh and the Rogue Trader X William Bouguereau -Dante and Virgil (1850)

"We are spared such weaknesses. We see deeper - and in that depth, there is only mastery and submission." "The painting depicts a scene from Dante's Divine Comedy, which narrates a journey through Hell by Dante and his guide Virgil. In the scene, the author and his guide are looking on as two damned souls are entwined in eternal combat." (x)

#marazhai aezyrraesh #rogue trader #warhammer 40k rogue trader #oc: mortred #i spent all day on this my back is destroyed :) #one art tag to rule them all #inspired by my own fic lmao #and one of my favorite paintings ofc #otp: amor inventado

[iamstartraveller776]

HALADRIEL WEEK: MISSING SCENES OR WHAT IFS

WE ARE (ao3)

He didn’t believe her, not when she told him that something greater than destiny brought them together. Or if he did, it was that she was his curse—a bane sent by Eru himself in punishment for his corrupt deeds. He was as interested in submitting to this so-called fate as he was in stretching his neck for the Valar. And yet, he still let her lead him by the noose toward the gallows. For surely, surely this tenuous ruse would fall apart once they reached the Southlands.

It didn’t. He didn’t use the black speech to wrest the orcs back under his control. He didn’t exact revenge against the traitor who called himself Father. Instead he stood with Men and Elves against the very abominations he helped create. Because she was—is—a beacon, brilliant in silver armor and flaxen braids, calling him out from the darkness.

“I felt it too.”

Her confession is hardly more than a whisper hours later, but it quakes the foundation of everything he’s thought to be true. Could the One have given him this mercy—that through her, he can have the atonement he both craves and fears? Not a curse, but a gift. Does he dare hope?

He holds her gaze, air thick in his chest. “I see it now,” he says. “We are…” Words fail him again. They feel too thin, too flat.

She dips her chin in a bare nod. “We are,” she agrees in a quavering voice.

A part of him wants to laugh at her sudden meekness. Since the moment he pulled the spirited elf from the sea, she has been a wellspring of implacable conviction, and now she shows the first blush of hesitation? But then the weight of what lies between them is no small thing.

And he wants it? Yes, he wants this. He wants her. Eru grant him this desire, and he will gladly bow to her whims. Allow her to mold him, burn away the impurities within until he gleams as she does. They will be Laurelin and Telperion, casting out the shadows of Middle Earth.

He reaches a tentative hand toward her. She inhales but does not retreat when he caresses a lock of hair behind her ear. Her fingers curl around his, and she leans softly against his palm. However, a fine thread of apprehension is woven in her gaze.

With his other hand, he cups her jaw, draws her to him until their foreheads are pressed together. “We are, Galadriel,” he murmurs, willing her to understand. Willing her to embrace what they could be—what they will be.

He brushes his lips against hers, swallows her quiet gasp, and pulls her closer to him. It’s a promise, this gentle kiss. A covenant.

“Halbrand,” she breathes when they break apart.

Yes, he is Halbrand. The lost Southlander king—and whatever else she may require of him. So long as he can have her at his side.

Sauron will live no more.

~FIN~

#haladrielweek #haladriel week #haladriel #saurondriel #trop #otp: one ship to rule them all #my fic #we are

[pursuitseternal]

Once Upon a Time…

There was a “Dark Wolf of the Woods:” A expansion of @meohme-thedorklord ‘s AU artwork, a reenvisioning of Haladriel as Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf…

Damned to wander Middle Earth in his wolf-form until freed, Sauron curses his fate: the Dark Wolf forever doomed by Huan to remain trapped until one of the Light comes to love him.

Unwilling to return to Angband to utter shame and disgrace at his failure at Tol- in -Gaurhoth, he waits, festering in his malice, until one She-elf wanders in his path…

I am delivering on a promise to develop on my one-shot cutesy bedtime story version: “Stuff of Fairytales.” But this will be darker, angstier, and spicier 🐺⚔️❤️

Thoughts, comments, insights, help, appreciation all sought on this! Thank you, dear readers🖤

Tagging because they loved the cutesy version: @marimosalad @iamstartraveller776 @eowyn7023 @penelopeisshipping @jhalya

#werewolf sauron #red riding hood au #sauron #halbrand #lotr rings of power #haladriel #rings of power #the rings of power #saurondriel #lotr rop #haladriel fanfic #haladriel smut #saurondriel smut #lots of arrogant sauron #red riding hood #silmarillion #silm au #my fic post #otp: one ship to rule them all #the sauron appreciation society #sauron x galadriel #lord of the rings #galadriel

[amberrskiies]

Decided to do this ship template with Leviathan and MC! Amber! ^^

I decided to try this OTP chart from Twitter since it's really cool looking!

I had to use a picrew for Amber and use a fanart of Levi (couldn't find the artists sadly ;-; ) because I can't draw for the life of me lol- ^^;;

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me one master to rule them all #obey me leviathan #obey me levi #leviathan #obey me mc #obey me mc: amber #obey me leviathan x mc #obey me levi x mc #leviathan x mc #obey me leviathan x amber #obey me levi x amber #leviathan x amber #leviamber #otp chart #ship template

[musicallyiinclined]

"I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we'd choose anyway. And I'd choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you."

happy second wedding anniversary to Liam & Zander ~ July 17, 2023

@erstwhles

#erstwhles #you're it for me; zander & liam #( one otp to rule them all <3 )

[justacynicalromantic]

“What are you doing?” he begged again. She looked over at him, between messy strands of golden hair. A hard smile played at her mouth, the kind he’d only ever seen her give to him a very long time ago. When she had trusted him. “Sometimes to find the light,” she said, her words filled with the echo of bitter laughter, “we must first touch the darkness.” He threw his head back. “You reckless, senseless elf. There is no light where I am going. The only thing you’ll find in the Void is pain, and emptiness like you’ve never known.”

==/==/==

"The Lord of the Rings, who had been so many things and had so many names he barely knew what he was anymore, gripped her hand tighter. Whatever he was, he was hers to command, if she would finally accept it.

==/==/==

“I told you. Ours was no chance meeting. Not fate, nor destiny. Ours was the work of something greater. I just did not know what, or why, at the time.” He huffed a laugh. “Leave it to you, Galadriel, to convince yourself that you were always right in the end.” “That’s only because it turned out to be true.” He chuckled and nodded. “I suppose we shall see.” He shut his eyes. The darkness had almost consumed them now. “Do you think it will hurt? To be ensnared in darkness.” She took a deep breath. “No. It is only loneliness. You and I have been lonely many times. And this will not be one of them. It will be like… sinking in the sea.” “I never meant to let you sink. You are light, Galadriel,” he said softly, honestly. “You don’t belong relegated to the Void, forgotten in the depths.” “Then make sure I am not,” was the last thing she said, before the darkness took her mouth, and she was rendered silent for the next eternity. “I will,” he whispered. And the Void took him, as well.

This fanfiction is everything❤️❤️❤️😭😭😭

#otp: bind yourself to me #saurondriel #sauron x galadriel #rings of power #lord of the rigs #trop #lotr #sauron #galadriel #like legitimately this is The One Fanfic to Rule Them All #it keeps both TROP and LOTR canon #and still gives it all a fix-it end❤️😭 #a perfect fix-it for a doomed ship's shipper's heart❤️ #the way it all circles back to their first meeting I cant❤️😭 #to how they both ended up sinking into the darkness of the waters #but now its her jumping in into the dark waters after him❤️😭 #and finally them both going on a shared adventure road that they were always meant to have❤️😭

[wistfulwatcher]

I know we’re Mistynat girlies but I’m really hoping we get some Misty x Lottie x Van soon considering it looks like they’re going to be Lottie’s first real followers. There’s just something so cute about the imagine of adult Van and Misty curled around a silk draped Lottie.

Oooh, this is something I haven't considered! I'm very interested in the Van/Lottie dynamic back in '96, and can't wait to see how it plays out in '21. And I have been thinking about Misty/Lottie a lot recently - I'm very intrigued by Misty both trying to find logical explanations for everything but also not totally discounting the unexplainable, and supporting Lottie. And then at the same time her being right there with Van and Lottie at the end of season 1.

I hadn't thought much about Van/Misty before the most recent episode, but - funny timing, anon - I'm making a gifset right now of the two of them because they're both the ones to put together the image of the symbol in a map/photos, and I think that's interesting; I can't wait to see how they develop as Lottie's first-ish (Mari is SO aggressively in favor of Lottie, I hesitate to put Misty above her as first, even though Misty was the one in the season finale) followers, and how that plays out when they are all back together again. (Because I am a mistynat girlie I cannot see Misty do anything but side with Natalie on the skeptical side, even if she doesn't really feel that way!)

So looking at each of the three of these pairs individual, I am 👀👀👀 right there with you to see what happens when it's all of them. And what, I'm gonna say no to a cuddle pile??

#reply #ask #Anonymous #for a full exploration of my misty/lottie feelings please see 'you're blossoming in the woods' - i have Thoughts about them there lol #yellowjackets spoilers #bc i can't remember if i saw something about them all going to the compound or if that's speculation #misty and nat are the ultimate yjs otp but i /am/ a multishipper! #(i just have some weird Rules and Limitations about how much/who i can ship nat and misty with without getting Uncomfortable #because i'm a mess 🤣) #this is one of those moments where i can't believe how many amazing female characters we have that there are dynamics i haven't considered! #or thought about in depth like. someone pinch me

[rageserenity]

It's 2024. Are you still thinking about movieverse!Cherik? Because I am.

For the past several months, there's only been a very slow trickle of posts/fics in the xmcu cherik tag. Let's try to breathe some life back into this incredible pairing!

With one clear winner of my poll, here's thirty prompts for the thirty days of April. (This is a super chill, laid-back event---do these in any order, interpret them as loosely as you like! Create in any medium! Fic, art, gifs, meta, incoherent screaming about the otp…all winners in my book.)

The only rule here is to cherik too close to the sun. Alright. Here are the prompts.

Mutual Pining

Doesn't really even need elaboration! Write that horrifically slow slow-burn. Gif every time McAvoy made insane fuck me eyes on screen. Make a playlist of songs about impossible love.

2. Alternate Meetings

There are endless quotes about how these two complete each other in a way no one they'd met before or after ever did. How else could they have met?

3. Erik Has A Telepathy Kink

This is basically canon. Let my boy get freaky!

4. Canon Fix-It

All the times Fox fucked it up. There are endless options.

5. Hurt/Comfort

Put them in that Situation. Put them in that Blender. Break them apart and put them back together ❤️‍🩹

6. Canon Compliant

Draw that missing scene! Gif your favourite cherik moment!

7. Beach Divorce

Make it worse. Make it better. Show it to us exactly how it was. Break it down in a 3,000 word meta. Go wild!

8. Domestics

Sometimes you just want to see them doing normal couple things. Erik put the gun down.

9. Found Family

The real heart of x-men!

10. Time Travel

There are SO many possibilities here. Stick them in a time loop. Give them a chance to change their past.

11. AU

Love a good AU!

12. There Is Only One Bed

Had to get this one in here. What better way to amp up the tension?

13. Genosha

By some miracle, cherik actually did end up together at the end of 2019s trash bag disaster Dark Phoenix. We aren’t making a big enough deal about this.

14. Declaration(s) of Love

Who says it first? How do they say it and when? Have they said it…without saying it?

15. Jealousy

Need I say more.

16. Reunion

These two have absolutely no chill.

17. Soulmates

Classic prompt, had to get this in here too.

18. The DOFP Aircraft

The TENSION here. Break it down for me. How does Charles feel about his injury? How does Erik feel about his injury?

19. Gay Mutant Road Trip

You already know.

20. Body Swap

SO fun when people have superpowers.

21. First Kiss

When? How? Who initiated it?

22. The Mansion

Mansion!content is a genre of its own.

23. Conflicting Ideology

Give me your theses. Who’s right? Can they ever reconcile completely? Write a fic where it drives them apart.

24. Sebastian Shaw

A trope unto himself.

25. Team As Matchmaker

They had to have known something was going on, didn’t they?

26. Cooking

Charles deserves a good meal. Also, imagine Erik using his powers in the kitchen. The sheer domesticity…

27. Hurt No Comfort

Plenty of scope with these two 🥲

28. Growing Old Together

Giving Sirs Ian Mckellan and Patrick Stewart their props as well!

29. Making Up

*pushes chess board across the table* sorry babe

30. Charles Xavier Did More For Mutants Than You'll Ever Know

Rising to each other’s defense. Only I can insult this man.

I will be tracking #revivecherik to reblog stuff! Here’s a fic collection for the same. Let’s get this ball rolling! Please feel free to send me an ask if you’ve got anything to say! And most importantly, let’s all have fun 😁

*I know a few of you preferred something like a gift exchange because of the commitment factor—I’m super down to organise a tiny one for the handful of us! If this promptathon doesn’t flop horribly, we can hopefully do a whole bunch of stuff :)

If you read this post all the way through, please reblog for reach! Thank you! Hoping you participate come April.

Shoutout to @inmymagnetoera for reaching out and helping with this!

#revivecherik #cherik #charles xavier #erik lehnsherr #xmfc #james mcavoy #michael fassbender #x men days of future past #x men #charles x erik #magneto #professor x

[elialys]

Thoughts on having Olivia say I love you first and Peter not saying it back?

I'm going to be honest here and admit that I never really liked that scene. Well, not the scene in itself, but the fact that they used THAT ONE to have their first "I love you" being on screen. It very much felt like the writers went "Waaaait, we need to have at least one of them say 'I love you' before Peter steps into the Machine because people expect stuff like this to happen in scenes like these!!"

Now I am very biased because I wrote hundreds of thousands of words about Peter and Olivia through the years, so I have my own very personal headcanons when it comes to their relationship. Part of why I never really liked that scene in 3x21 is because it didn't really...fit them and their dynamic, I don't know how else to put it. To me, at this point of the show, after going through everything they went through, they know they're in love with each other.

Love is Olivia crossing over to get Peter back. Love is Peter choosing to go back to the blue verse with Olivia when she asks him to, even if she doesn't make it back herself. Love is Peter being honest with her and telling her about his failures and being deceived, when he could have lied, when he knew it would break them. Love is Olivia forgiving him and giving them a chance.

Love is them cuddling in bed at sunrise, not caring about Walter being butt-naked on the other side of the door.

I could go on and on, but hopefully you get my point.

To me, Peter and Olivia are more about acts of love than about the spoken words themselves. I'm sure they say it to each other, and that they mean it when they do. To me, it doesn't really matter much how it happens the first time, or who says it first, or even if the other says it back right away.

So basically, I don't really like the way it happens on the show because it felt a bit contrived, but I forgive the writers because those two idiots are beautiful and in love anyway.

#peter x olivia #look at me go #haven't even rewatched the show in years and i'm still drowning in my p/o feels #they will probably forever be my favorite OTP tbh #bless anna and josh for the tangible tactile way they played them #(despite whatever was going on with them xD) #one otp to rule them all #hug!box

[singingcicadas]

Megatron's Opposite Day

"I free slaves"

This is Soundwave binding Ratbat but seeing as Megatron did the same thing to Pentius by putting his spark into Trypticon and reformatted Rumble and Frenzy into cassettes against their will I think he approves a lot of this practice

Megatron on Optimus and humans, after his defeat in All Hail Megatron ⬇️

he really salty

"I implant ideology" aka brainwashing

Decepticon cause = Megatron. nuff said.

"I liberate cities" says the person who let Nyon burn to make a point

Cities are too small, think bigger

Holding New York hostage.

"Like Autobots, they believe in the sanctity of life" which he doesn't. Kudos for being honest.

Allowing troops to do free-rein massacre is a reward for conquest. Nothing like some easy murder for de-stressing.

The Simanzi massacre which halved the Cybertronian population is off-screen so it doesn't deserve its own pic

"The revolution"

"We only feel good when we stand with a blade in one hand and a throat in another" "Let's make the entire face of the planet into our new gladiator arena"

What nice, confidence-inspiring revolutionaries. I'm sure they'll rule the population with benevolence after they've killed all the Necessary People with Necessary Violence. Final interpretation of what constitutes as Necessary is reserved for the sole discretion of Megatron, ofc.

Good goals.

Sentinel might be an absolute asshole but at least he's got one thing right: they're literally a gang of thugs who gets high off murder.

"The people are my utmost concern"

'The people': ................

"Battling for freedom"

Freedom of what? Function? Autonomy?

Religion?

the ability to choose whether to fight? on which side to fight?

Idk why they used the word "pogrom" for this, it's way too specific

Anyways it doesn't matter, they won't be missed.

Good for Bumblebee for calling him out. Screenshotted this just to appreciate Megatron's bitchy face ⬇️

Other urban legends:

"Megatron loves Cybertron" let's just burrrrn it

He did fight to save Cybertron in Chaos Theory but also made it pretty clear why he did it. It's not out of the goodness of his heart or any sentimental reasons like that. It's an ego/dominance thing.

Plus his wording when he's trying to convince Optimus to let him go with the Lost Light: "I broke the planet. And that, Optimus, is why I owe it to you - to everyone - to find a replacement."

Replacement.

In other words: I made a mess and can't be bothered to clean it up, so I want to get away from it and find somewhere new to start clean.

I don't think Optimus appreciates the favour.

"Megatron tore down a corrupt government" which is true, just too bad that he's worse

He's also, um, a closeted Zeta admirer?

"Megatron advocates equality" ???

Megatron x dictatorship is literally his OTP. They were inseparable for four million years. A lot of people died trying.

"Megatron cares about the Decepticons" no he doesn't. Not his troops nor its cause.

Like for one thing he treats them with complete scorn

Admits that the most useful thing about keeping Starscream around is that he can bully underlings into line

Wants to use the humans' nuke to get rid of his troops and reformat them into peaceful drones after they outlive their use because they were "too ruthless" for his perfect peaceful society

Has zero scruples about fighting Deceptigod, just affronted that his own soldiers are being used against him

And basically just drops the Decepticons like a bag of vermin after he surrenders. He never once mentions them of his own accord, other than to insist he has nothing to do with them. Even his surrender speech is something Optimus makes him do as exchange b/c he wants to go on parole. He wasn't planning on making a public address otherwise, he was just going to leave them hanging.

Looking at the publication timeline, Megatron started out as an established Evil McEvilson-type villain similar to how he is in G1 and it's not until Chaos Theory in 2011 that JRo really gave him a sympathetic backstory that drew his characterization away from the bloodthirsty pugno ergo sum warlord into someone who once held ideals about societal reform and remains convinced of his own moral supremacy throughout the 4 mill years of death and war, adding worldbuilding such as Functionism/oppression/government corruption as justification for the beginning of the Decepticon movement. But because the start of the Decepticons was already written in Megatron Origins and every evil thing he'd done up till Chaos Theory can't be retracted and they had to keep Megatron as a villain until his story was no longer central to the Autobot-Decepticon war line, and JRo didn't try to downplay the atrocities he'd committed (some of the most sadistically disturbing things Megatron did were exclusively in MTMTE flashbacks), but rather tried to distance him from them and placed the focus on the juxtapositions to emphasize change, this as a whole just resulted in Evil McEvilson getting turned into Hyper McHypocrite.

#That being said I genuinely enjoyed Megatron's redemption arc in mtmte/ll. It's one of those stories that's very poignant and moving #on an emotional level #even though the plot itself doesn't hold up that much under close scrutiny. #moved this to the tags to make the post cleaner #I would've liked it more if LL used a few more panels to show Megatron Actually Making Friends #instead of shunting him into a parallel universe for idk how many issues in an already limited run #transformers #idw transformers #maccadam #megatron #trying to clear out more screenshots

[usereddie]

i haven't been taking any of the anons seriously when they come into my inbox and start yapping on about how i clearly never cared about buddie and how i'm jumping ship and how i must hate eddie which is not only untrue but also unbelievably silly. 911 is the first fandom i've ever seen that's majority monoship. everyone ships bathena, henren, madney, and buddie only with each other and absolutely nobody else. which, hey, there is nothing wrong with that, but 911 is the exception, not the rule. in every other fandom characters are shipped with multiple people. mcu steve is shipped with tony and bucky and bucky is also shipped with sam and natasha. derek hale is shipped with stiles but also scott. dean winchester is shipped with just about every man that breathes in his direction his brother included. purity culture has its claws so deep into the 911 fandom that i think people forget so many things just aren't actually that big of a deal. there's nothing wrong with polyshipping. there's nothing wrong with liking the canon relationships and still also shipping the fanon ones. otp doesn't mean "one true pairing" for shits and giggles, once upon a time it was used to show that out of ALL the MULTIPLE DIFFERENT SHIPS, their otp was their very favorite. i think bucktommy is cute. buddie is and forever will be my otp. these are feelings that can and should coexist. fandom is not a catholic church, y'all. and you don't have to like it, nobody is forcing you to read bucktommy fics or even like them together at all, but let's not pretend that shipping a character with multiple people is weird, wrong, gross, or a new thing in any capacity.

#kinda driving me a little nuts lol #bucktommy #evan buckley #buddie #my post

[harrenhalyuri]

Fate Up against your will Through the thick and thin He will wait until You give yourself to him

The Killing Moon - Echo & the Bunnymen

#nerevoryn #voryn dagoth #indoril nerevar #otp: i have crossed oceans of time to find you #hello i am not dead! just been buried under college work and comms and my own work #i have a backlog of art to post now lol though most of it should go straight to pillowfort #one art tag to rule them all

[iamstartraveller776]

HALADRIEL WEEK: FIRSTS OR FIRST TIMES

ACROSS THIS GREAT DIVIDE (ao3)

Galadriel swings her blade, slicing through leathery orc hide. She spins to meet another at her rear. The battle around her has devolved into a cacophony of metal against metal, guttural snarls clashing with cries of pain. Her horse was lost some time ago, downed by a spear. She leapt into the fray, not sparing a breath in mourning for the beast. There will be time enough for that later.

She fells another orc. Then another. More and more they come, and she ignores the fatigue lapping in her sinews. Inky, putrid blood mars the steel of her sword, splashes against her breastplate and helm. But she does not stop. She cannot. Even when her companions barely hold the line, she charges ahead with a growl. For it is not the orcs that drive her single-minded fury, but the monster who watches the battle in terrible, spiky armor and a great pike in his gauntleted fist.

She has a vow to keep.

He turns when she breaks through the rear flank, the weight of his black interest pushing against the unseen barrier that hides her mind from him. Nenya hangs safely on a chain between her breasts. But Galadriel would be known as she faces her singular foe, and she rips her helmet off, throws it at his feet as a challenge.

The sounds of the melee behind die away as he pulls off his own helm, revealing the face of her once-friend. No. No, he was never a friend. His features are harder, shadows deep in the hollow of his cheeks. His expression is almost soft as he smiles at her. She curses the answering ache in her chest, conjures up instead the memory of her brother, of her missing husband, of every atrocity he’s committed.

“Galadriel.” His voice is both familiar and not.

She raises her blade, charges at him with a feral cry. He easily blocks her swing with his pike. Again and again. But she does not stop coming, not until he knocks her sword from her grip. With unnatural speed, he sweeps her feet, boot on her breastplate as he levels his pike at her throat.

“You should have taken my offer.” He presses the serrated tip against her chin. “Yield, and perhaps I will be merciful.”

“Never!”

His face contorts, eyes twin flames of angry red-gold. “You are defeated, Elf!”

She isn’t. She draws on Nenya’s light, fills herself with its power, and then shoves. She catches his shock and rage as he flies backward. A thick swirl of smoke envelops him before she can reach him. He’s gone, his army retreating.

Galadriel sinks to her knees, tears hot on her cheeks. To her shame, her sorrow is for him—for them both. For Halbrand who, after a similar campaign, confided in her with painful sincerity. Fighting at your side…

She scrubs away the wetness. No more. Next time they meet, she will see only Sauron.

And she will banish him to the void.

~FIN~

#haladrielweek #haladriel week #haladriel #saurondriel #my fic #across this great divide #trop #otp: one ship to rule them all