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Things and stuff
I keep meaning to post, but there's not a lot going on in my life, fannishly speaking. It's more 'nebulous plans' than 'actual activity.'
I have been reading a bit of Homestuck fic, for whatever reason; a sudden nostalgia trip that came out of nowhere, but it's been fun. What a huge and creative and wonderful fandom that was, overall, and a delightful experience. ♥
Beyond that, I just finished a rewatch of Weiss Kreuz, and I really need to get back to my Nirvana in Fire rewatch plans, and I keep toying with the idea of trying an actual Cnovel at some point, and my brain is still full of Horrible Murder Elves (aka Silmarillion) thoughts that I either can't find fic for, can't write fic for, or just want more fic for.
I've also been doing some gardening - bought some strawberry plants and some flowers, including a Songbird Blue Columbine that I absolutely couldn't resist; I hope it thrives! My love of weird alien plants is delighted by its blue tentacularity. :D
I have been reading a bit of Homestuck fic, for whatever reason; a sudden nostalgia trip that came out of nowhere, but it's been fun. What a huge and creative and wonderful fandom that was, overall, and a delightful experience. ♥
Beyond that, I just finished a rewatch of Weiss Kreuz, and I really need to get back to my Nirvana in Fire rewatch plans, and I keep toying with the idea of trying an actual Cnovel at some point, and my brain is still full of Horrible Murder Elves (aka Silmarillion) thoughts that I either can't find fic for, can't write fic for, or just want more fic for.
I've also been doing some gardening - bought some strawberry plants and some flowers, including a Songbird Blue Columbine that I absolutely couldn't resist; I hope it thrives! My love of weird alien plants is delighted by its blue tentacularity. :D
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The last two weeks have been a horribly frustrating experience in intense daydreaming about where to take a story only to lose all motivation once I open the Word document. D:<
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(Getting stuck on worldbuilding details is how I have a massive elven family tree in progress, a flow chart for my AUs, and something vaguely resembling the beginnings of a timeline that traces what events from canon happen in which AUs, and what changes, and what events are non-canon but happen across AUs anyway.)
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I think I have bent more brainpower to grasping the events around the Nirnaeth than I have expended on some of my actual history courses, at this point!
I just want to write OC Adventures in Culture Clash with a side of Not All (Eastern) Men; I didn't ask for homework. :P
(And still nobody is writing Random Thing I Want To Read, either, so I can't even distract myself from nitpicking vague timeline details!)
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(It also sounds like it would be fun to write, but my OCs are getting their culture clash well before Nirnaeth. Most of them. In most of the AUs. Possibly because I haven't come up with any named and prominent First Age non-elven OCs yet.)
Now I am even more curious about what is the Random Thing that you're wanting to read. Because collecting plot bunnies is a thing. :D
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(Coming up with Elven names is so terrible a chore, man. I keep going back and forth on whether my main culture-clash OC really needs a Quenya as well as a Sindarin I kinda think he does, and anyway there's an idea I had about his mother-name that might work better that way, and it's all an awful chore BUT it is a great excuse to read a bunch of Sindarin and Quenya dictionary sites, which is fun. ♥)
Random Thing I crave... Okay, so I have probably read 100,000 words or more of Elrond & Elros dealing with their emotional attachment to Maedhros & Maglor and how his parents or Gil-galad's followers or Sindarin Elves in Valinor feel about that, right, and frankly I would read 100,000 more words of that!
But what my brain has decided it wants is 100,000 words of Elrond dealing with other Fëanorians. He's had millennia to reach a peace with his emotions about Maedhros & Maglor, but Celegorm and Curufin, who abducted his mother and killed his grandfather? The twins who died on the same day he and Elros were taken? Nerdanel? There's a whole lot of potential for conflict and clashing personalities and guilt there, and I want to read it so badly!
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There's Morigalæ (Moricala or Môrgalad, in Quenya and Sindarin, respectively, meaning Dark Light; her name is primitive elvish and dear fuck but that vocab list is short) and her kin, who are Gladelaikweni aud Solos (People of the Surf-Grass, Avari who live on the northern shore of the inland sea, usually I refer to them as the Solos). She, upon hearing stories of the Noldor, goes west to find these people who came from across the sea to fight the same horror her people have turned to being scattered nomads in small groups to avoid.
She's a lore-keeper, memorized stories rather than written, and Kwenekwe for her kin (essentially, she's the one who speaks for them in council with others of the Galdelaikweni, both Solos and Phoroti (People of the North-Grass)). Eventually it's going to be her and Fingon and Maedhros, and all of them get to muddle through different relationship norms among people, different ways of courting, and later ways of mourning. (And then, depending on which branch of the flow-chart, how they cope with the Valar having Issues with their marriage. Because dear fuck is she going to want to take a brick to them in one of the AUs.)
And there's also that her people literally run or hide from orcs rather than fight, and the Noldor. Really don't. That's going to be fun. (Especially when they get to the part where she, herself, has in fact fought orcs, including one who was once her uncle. Which. How do you count kinslaying, when the one who you killed bears the face of someone your kin, but nothing else of them?)
Then there's Cúnessa, who. Sindar by birth, captured with her parents when she was relatively young (leaving her younger brothers behind with other family), and spent a LONG time in Angband. And is very fucking creepy, especially since she retains a lot of herself, and is very definitely still and elf, not an orc, but dear fuck. In most AUs, she remains loyal to Morgoth all the way into the Third Age and her death. In one AU, she gets rescued/captured by Maglor, and now she has to figure out how to be. Well, not Morgoth's loyal servant.
Dazbol... doesn't get First Age culture clash, granted, but dear fuck does she really not know how to cope with non-orc cultures in any of the AUs, where she generally makes rude gestures at Sauron, but still. Orc. And technically related to Azog, though if you mention it, she'd probably tell you that an idiot who'll sell himself and his soldiers out is no kin of hers, thank you. (Dazbol tags along with Cúnessa in my thinking, because Dazbol is essentially one of Cúnessa's successful experiments, and was born in the First Age. Dazbol's brother, who was. Less a success in himself, is a direct ancestor for Azog. Because I can, and fuck it, I'm gonna make all the pale orcs related. Because that's what Dazbol is.)
*hums*
Most of the rest of my OCs don't get First-Age culture clash, but there are so many of them, elves and otherwise, and it's just been a lot of fun figuring out what are common threads for Avarin cultures, and where things are different. (Rules of hospitality and rules for negotiations. Food is an important part of that. Going to ask someone to craft you something? Bring food. Opening trade negotiations on a greater scale than a market? Bring food. Planning to court someone? Bring food. Someone shows up on your doorstep out of nowhere, and isn't actively trying to kill you? Feed them if they don't feed you first. Valar shows up on your doorstep? ... well, ok, if you're Ermenore, you give them water and food like any other unexpected guest, because desert-dwelling. If you're Taurekweni or Khîtikweni, probably throw something heavy at their heads before bolting. Galdelaikweni vary depending on who you're asking.)
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Trying to come up with names is a pain in the ass, and there's a reason my family trees have a lot of designation codes rather than names. ([single letter code for which kin][generation][S/B - seeded or bearing*]#)
*Because gender has nothing to do with genitals or reproductive capacity, and elves look at humans funny about that sometimes.
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Ooh! Elrond and Elros and their emotional attachment to Maedhros and Maglor is fun! And now *I* want to read a few hundred thousand words about Elrond dealing with the rest of the extended family.
I mean, I do have bits and pieces of him interacting with other relatives from that part of the family, even if not all of them are Noldor, but I haven't sat down to really do anything with Elrond and the rest of the Fëanorians. Which. Yes, more plot bunny fodder! :D
... I think, actually, now I kinda want to write Elrond interacting with Airafalma, who is another of my OCs, and is Maglor's wife. I mean, I have 700 odd words of Elrond interacting with Vorlanas, called Lindaew Magloriel, already, and while Airafalma dies before Elrond is born (at Dagor Bragollach), I do have her at the docks when Elrond shows up on the White Ship. *contemplates* And from there, it's not going to take long before he gets to meet any of the rest of the family who isn't still in the Halls.
Airafalma, whose father was Teleri, and whose mother was Noldor, and who showed Maglor and those who followed him all the back ways she knew in Alqualondë to get to the ships that much sooner, because they're not as well-guarded. Who cut down Teleri she knew growing up to follow her husband and his kin, and still does not regret one moment of her life, save that she died at the hands of flaming rock, not fighting. (Her full name is Airafalma Fúmella, but she hasn't used her mother-name since the First Kinslaying. Poppy doesn't fit as well as Ruddy Wave, as far as she's concerned. She's called Gaerfalas in Middle Earth - Red Wave-Beaten Shore.)
(Also, at some point I am going to have to write Elrond meeting Tauriel simply for the fact that I've made Tauriel Maglor's granddaughter because I could. I mean, the only canonical line of elves with red hair are Mahtan, his daughter Nerdanel, and her son Maedhros. Either there's avari with red hair, or Tauriel is descended from a Fëanorian, and I know which one makes for more drama and entertainment.)
Ok. I'm going to stop babbling here for the moment, and go get some notes or something down about Elrond meeting Airafalma and also the other sons of Fëanor, and the various other spouses and relatives. (And feed my cats and take my meds.)
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And there's also that her people literally run or hide from orcs rather than fight, and the Noldor. Really don't.
I love the Noldor and their astonishing lack of self-preservation instincts! This is definitely going to come up with my OC if I ever get that far, given that one of the biggest clashpoints is Morgoth himself. The Man was raised in a culture who worship Melkor as supreme deity; the Elf regards the Valar as slightly irritating neighbours his parents currently aren't speaking to. (He was born during the Long Peace, but his parents came with Fëanor over the sea, and one or both spent some time learning from one of the Valar.)
Sorry to have passed on my Weird Elrond Fic Obssession? Except not too sorry, if it results in fic about Elrond realising how many more levels of this "they're my family, too" problem there are in a place where people return from the dead. :D Poor Elrond: fighting everybody in Middle Earth until they accept (or just shut up about) the eldest Kinslayers, only to have to do it all over again on a different continent with five more added on.
For all that Celegorm and Curufin are probably the ones with the most obviously difficult and offensive history regarding Elrond, I feel like Elrond would end up grappling longer with Amrod and Amras. There's just so much going on under the surface of things there, with the timing of their deaths and the Peredhil's abduction, the idea of Maedhros & Maglor as older brothers (which isn't something he saw/experienced), the twin sons Elrond himself has left behind in Middle Earth and may never seen again, and the ways their being the youngest might tie into how the other Fëanorians react around them.
Fëanorian!Tauriel I have seen before, and I do like the idea, though I think red-haired Avari are more likely. (Mainly, I just like the idea of Avari having the most variable hair colours inspired by nature, from Autumn Trees Red to Peat Bog Black to Dried Grass Gold. They're a huge group; they should have more genetic variety than the Noldor/Sindar/Vanyar, who are smaller and more closely-related groups.) Still, Fëanorian drama is always a good option! :D They do seem to be magnets for it...
Good luck with the writing! And the cats, and the meds. :D
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I have a burning desire to write OC Adventures in Culture Clash with a young Noldor Elf in the aftermath of the Nirnaeth, ie. when the Elves have fled and the Men who followed Morgoth are looting their way across the land, only to be subsequently betrayed and trapped there... Of course, this means figuring out (or inventing, after enough research to avoid contradicting canon) a whole bunch of nitpicky setting details, such as the timeline of the Elven retreat, the language(s) spoken by Morgoth's men, the rate at which the land was conquered, etc. etc. etc.
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Yes, that does sound very involved. You should do it though!
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I'm picking away at it, as best I can. :D Like Tolkien, my characters have already been through 13 different names and I'm nowhere near finished. :D (Unlike Tolkien, timeline is still hideously vague.)
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