Okay so me and @junk-whunk-punk were messing around with Talion headcanons and digged a bit too deep.
And few "what if's" later I thought why the hell not make EVERYONE alive and happy. Coz Talion is such a rich character with huge Au potential so why not have fun with it
so here it is
Light of mordor au
I'm basing it mainly around the Shadow of mordor/war games and it's lore and characters.
The main premise of this Au being a world where Sauron never took hold of the one ring after its forged and during the battle between him and Celebrimbor, who fights not only for the liberation of the middle-earth but also for the freedom of his wife and daughter that are held captive by Sauron. However, unlike in the games during their ultimate confrontation, the ring decides to stay with Celebrimbor and betrays its master, who is defeated and his armies are mostly wiped out or banished scattering across the land.
With this victory, peace and prosperity come to middle-earth and Celebrimbor reunites with his family. But there are only a few beings who could escape the clutches of the Dark Lord completely unscathed, and his wife, crushed after the torment she went through, goes to the undying lands shortly after being freed.
Their daughter Etheluin, who thanks to her mother escaped almost unscathed, except for a few bad memories decides to stay in middle earth with her father.
This, of course, means that the Black Gate was not sieged. Tho that doesn't mean that Talion is without a job. As a captain, he still guards Mordors gates. Just with little less hands of a sauron or big hoards of uruks threatening him or his family.
Our fav dads live their happy lives now… to some extent. Celebrimbor set himself the task of finding a solution how to rid the ring of its evil nature and transform it into the powerful and helpful artefact that it was supposed to be in the first place. But many years have passed since Sauron fell and now, when Talion commands the Black Gate (when this story primarily takes place). And the ring does not want to bend and serve the good. It wants change, chaos and to return to it's original master. So it begins to cloud Celebrimbo's mind, slowly but surely creeping into his soul in order to devour it and get back to Sauron.
Celebrimbor notices this attempt and makes a decision. There is no other option. This ring is too tied to the dark forces and there's no other way he can protect the realm or his daughter from it's destructive nature. He has to destroy it.
So he takes off on a quest to the one place that could dispose of it. He's traveling alone tho.
Etheluin has always been an inquisitive child, and her curiosity has not left her even after her capture. On the contrary, it made her even more determined to be able to protect herself and everyone else from something like this happening again. After the war for the ring, and when everything calmed down was put back in order, she took up her on her goal. She began to work hard not only in her training with bow and sword, but also in monitoring and exploring the realms around the Eregion, soon becoming a amazing scout. She spent her days out in the woods, learning how to observe, track, and hunt like a wild cat, undetected and deadly. After few years there wasn't any tree, rock or pond around the Eregions forest's she would not recognize.
Even though Celebrimbor wasn't happy that his only daughter, his firstborn child, pride and joy is carelessly running through the woods alone. He knew that just as in his looks and demeanor she was way too much like him in stubbornness too. He understood that it was useless to deny her true nature like that. He understood that the best way to protect her was to teach her how to take care of herself and prepare her for the dangers of the world.
Despite her father accepting her bit more wild nature, Thel was not spared from the occasional elven courts. In these events, which are too exaggerated for her liking, full of false pretenses and rules, she makes sure that she smiles just long enough until she is out of her father's sight and then immediately jumps out of the nearest window to the gardens or begins to explore and wonder the estate with some poor cousin she convinced to go with her. These nights usually end with her dress torn to pieces and her hair full of twigs and leaves, with Celebrimbor left speechless, although part of him is secretly very amused and proud.
So this cautious single father (who fights with his inner demons(evil gay visions about Sauron)) and his wild daughter who is a bit too eager to go on a adventure, are about to walk into mordor to kill this evil ring.
At the same time, a certain Dirhael wanders through the forest on patrol. In reality he's just sulking because his dad, who is his boss on top of everything, told him he couldn't even fight a chicken and that he should spend less time being nose deep in books and more time practicing with sword if he ever wants to become a captain. However, this is not true coz he is a very skilled hunter of chickens and reading more would definitely benefit a lot of people. But he knows better than to tell that to his face. Coz in the end he means it well.
After all, his dad was always by his side and supports him, no matter how bad the situation looks.
Growing up in a place like the black gate was… limiting.... sometimes. Not many people to talk to aside from few other kids that are around. Not much to do except reading, training and occasionally studying, disassembling and assembling weapons in the fortress. Not that Dirs life was shallow. Talion tried to give him a rich childhood with loads of fishing and hunting trips camping and other things that were possible for someone like him. And Ioreth made sure to taech him all that he could use in life from sewing and basic cooking to a solid reading and writing basics. And the rest Dir used to learn exactly like that, from the books that he either found or was given. Those were the best times for him because whenever he felt like he was down or missing something he could just disappear to the books. But there is only so many amazing stories you can read about before you actually want to live a story that could be a book one day. And combined with a naturally high curiosity the inevitable questions start to form. "There must be something new behind the borders something fresh and exiting out there for a young ranger to experience just waiting to jump out on him."
And oh boy is he right. His ticket to experiencing all kinds of new stuff is stalking him for a solid 2 miles through the bush line.
group hug to end the night! what an emotional, nostalgic and special day, it was so nice to watch old spawn and all the places with their own memories no matter how small they were, im sure most of everybody watching felt some allergies hmm? here's to making more great memories!🥂
"let's create new memories together and love the old ones :D"
god there is just something so fucking sad in seeing all these characters reunite but in a drastically different setting, i can’t even explain it
but also it’s good, cause in this “previous life” there was clearly no chance for happy ending for any of them and this is a real second chance, but like aaaahhhh
(TW for self harm, suicide attempts, overall ANGST with a happy ending yall).
@the-redheaded-league and @agirlinherhead 💕
“Shortcake, are you feeling ok?” Hassan asks, she’s been off for a few days, and as they lay in bed together, she feels distant.
“I’m fine, grumpy bear…” she murmurs before flipping over, wrapping the blanket over her head.
He sighs, accepting that he won’t be able to get her to talk. He gets out of bed, and takes his morning shower, getting ready for work.
“I’ll see you in an hour?” He asks.
“Mhmm.” Is all he gets back.
She shows up late for work, she’s lucky no one came shopping, he doesn’t know how to work the register and frankly he’s worried her grandparents will yell at her over it. He tries to get her to talk there, but still nothing. It makes him sick to his stomach.
She’d been sleeping at his house almost every night since their first time three months ago, but the last month it had dwindled down to maybe once a week. He misses her, wants the best for her, but she won’t talk, and she hasn’t even been baking anymore. He feels like his hands are tied.
“Hassan, can I stop by tonight?” She asks.
“Of course you can!” He’s excited, it’s the first time she’s made plans for them in a while, and he thinks distantly that it’s a start to getting better.
“Thanks,” is all she says before leaving the store, and him alone with his thoughts.
When he gets home that night he asks Ali to go to Warrens house, and the kid, thankfully, obliges with little convincing. Hassan isn’t prepared to have sex, he actually doesn’t want to. He desperately wants to convince Daphne to try the therapist Grace sees. After a short phone call, Grace seemed to agree with him that their poor Daphne has been a bit more melancholy. He needs her better, needs her to be ok.
Instead she comes over with the most heart wrenching look on her face.
“Shortcake…” he breaths, she hasn’t even stepped inside his house yet, and he’s ready to bawl his eyes out.
“Hassan, we need to talk,” she barely squeaks out.
His stomach drops. He’d been through break ups before, but this one was sickeningly different.
“I need to end this,” she breathes as she steps in to the house. A house they had started decorating together not even three weeks ago.
“Why?” Is all he can push out.
She has tears in her eyes, spilling out down her cheeks. He wants to kiss them off of her. Tell her to forget this even happened.
“Hassan…” is all she breathes out.
“Why?” He asks again, he has anger rising in his chest, despair even. “Who is it? It has to be someone else, so who is it?”
“It’s really no one…” she cries.
“Then why? You know I love you and-“ he’s struggling so hard now. None of it is making sense. His world is being upturned and he hasn’t even left the front door hallway. Waves of dizziness and nausea clouding him.
“I know you do, and I love you too… but you deserve better. Trust me on this…” She steps forward, places a delicate hand on his beard. She hasn’t painted her nails in weeks. He misses that little detail about her.
He places his hand over hers, it covers hers entirely and he can’t help but let out a sob. “Please don’t, Daphne please. I don’t want- I don’t need anyone else. You’re perfect and my world-“
“Hassan, you need to stop, Ali is your world, you don’t need me messing it up anymore.” She cries back, her voice raising slightly.
It’s what tips him over, he steps back from her touch, it suddenly burning his skin. He can’t think straight, still dizzy, still about to vomit all over his freshly mopped floor. She’s crying so hard now, so is he.
“You never are messing it up… you never were. So why are you doing this?” He can’t control himself anymore. Voice raising, he can tell he’s scared her, as she shrinks closer to the door. She’s ready to run, she has before, when it was her dad yelling at her, he promised he would never do that.
She promised she would never leave.
He slams his fist on the wall next to him the loud bang eliciting a small scream from Daphne, he can’t even go comfort her, apologize even, he can’t see through his tears and she won’t give a good enough answer for him.
“You should leave. I’ll have Grace bring your stuff back,” he sobs out.
She doesn’t say anything, she simply leaves. Door shutting quietly behind her.
He doesn’t know how long he stands in the hallway. An hour maybe? Perhaps only five minutes. He doesn’t care. Ali finds him on the living room couch, the one where she would curl and watch movies with him, he had finally stopped crying, but still couldn’t think clearly.
“Dad…?” Is all Ali can ask.
“She- she br- broke up-“ he can’t finish the sentence he’s sobbing again, into his hands as his son drops his backpack and races over.
He starts hyperventilating as his kid holds him. It’s fucked up. Feels like it should be the other way around, Ali shouldn’t ever have to comfort his dad. And yet, here they are, both crying on the couch.
“She wouldn’t even tell me why,” he sobs. “She just kept saying ‘it was better this way.’”
“It’s okay, dad it’s okay…” he holds his father, Hassan’s head resting on his sons shoulder.
“It’s not,” he hiccups out. How could she do this? He was going to marry her, he just wanted a bit of dating first. He was going to ask her to move in this week. Ali had agreed to it. They were going to be happy, together, his favorite people all under his roof.
Ali gets his father to drink some water, to calm down. He wonders, briefly, if he should take his dads phone, call Grace. Hassan has always said she felt like a sister to him. He decides to wait until school the next morning. He makes his dad go to bed, and for the first time since his mother died, he sleeps in the bed next to him.
Hassan wakes up throughout the night, and can’t help crying. He prays he’s not waking Ali up, but sometimes he can feel his sons comforting hand on his back. He feels like he’s too old for this, stupid breakups. Acting like it’s the end of the world.
But for now, it is. All of his future plans have collapsed. He’s back to where he was when he first stepped foot on this shitty island, depressed, and bitterness seeping in again. Part of him can’t even believe he allowed himself to be hopeful, to have any form of happiness. If his wife’s death taught him anything, it’s that nothing good lasts.
Ali begs him to stay home that day, skip work. The island never has anything going on anyways. But, he can’t stay home, looking at all of her little trinkets she’s left.
“Ali, can you- can you help me clean the house, after school?” He asks, his voice barely audible.
“Yeah, but I really think-“ Ali gets cut off before he can finish.
“I’ll see you after school, okay?” He says, before walking about the door.
Annie Flynn is working today, Hassan wonders if he’ll ever see his shortcake at work again.
No, not his shortcake. Just Daphne.
“Hello, sheriff,” she grins. “Oh gosh, you look… you look, sheriff.”
“Thanks Annie, why are you here today?” He asks while getting his coffee. Trying not to let his voice, or body for that matter, shake.
“Daphne asked me to take her shifts the rest of the week, are you two ok?” She has that sweet concern dripping from her voice in the way only mothers can do.
Hassan fights back tears, he can feel them at the edge of his eyes. “Don’t think so,” is all he breathes out. He gives her a fake smile before locking himself in his room.
He’s crying again, he decides to just let himself. He doesn’t have much, if any, work today. So he just cries. Cries until he falls asleep on the cot Joe Collie spent half the week on before he went missing. Cries because of Daphne, cries because of Joe, cries because of Ali.
He cries because he wants his wife.
She would know what to do.
She would tell him to fight for her, to keep trying. Because he deserves life after her loss. He wants it, so badly. But now Daphne doesn’t, and it’s so out of left field he can’t even think of why. She’s been sad, her anxiety getting to her, but they’d still been in love.
Right?
He hears a knock at his door. He checks the clock, it’s suddenly noon. Figures it’s Ali, coming to check in on his lunch break. He fixes himself up as best as he can, wipes his face with the sleeve of his jacket, the roughness of the denim waking him back up.
He opens the door to find Paul, “Hey.”
“Hi, um, how’re you doing, father?” He asks, he doesn’t want to be seen by anyone today, let alone a guy friend.
“Brought some lunch, um, I just figured- Gracie is busy today, and I don’t really want to eat around Bev so-“ Paul is caught off by Hassan just crying again. He would’ve been having a nice lunch with Daphne right now. Something Halal, something she made with love.
“Hassan, what’s wrong?” Paul asks, stepping in and closing the door behind him.
“Paul, you know,” Hassan laughs.
“No, no, I really don’t.” Paul puts his hands on his friends shoulders.
“She fucking dumped me!” Hassan laughs through the tears.
“D-Daphne?” He asks, shock written on his face.
“Yeah…” he can’t even snap a sarcastic comment back. It’s all just too much. Too horrible.
“Hassan, how are you even at work right now? I-I would be- if Gracie- Hassan, you should be home. This is- Hassan, I should call-“ Paul stammers out.
Hassan snaps, “Don’t. Don’t call Grace. Don’t tell anyone. If no one knows yet, I want to keep it that way. No one needs to be in my fucking business but me.”
“Ok… ok.” Paul tries his best to comfort his friend. Just sits next to him, eating in silence, while hassan sometimes cries. Hassan doesn’t tell him much. He doesn’t need to.
At the school, Grace is a little worried that her phone hasn’t gone off yet. Paul should’ve updated on how his lunch was going by now. He usually updates on every single thing that happens. And the last one she got was almost an hour ago, when he was on his way to the sheriffs office.
Ali walked into her class, and she quickly hid her phone. “Hey,” she smiled.
“Ms. Reid, um, I think I should talk to you about something… at least Leeza is tell me I need too.” Ali is clearly nervous, the kid looks like he hasn’t slept all night.
“Of course, teacher student confidentiality. Unless it’s murder, then I’ll consider telling your dad,” she laughs.
“It’s kinda… about my dad?” Ali sighs.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, so, did you know Daphne broke up with him last night?”
“She what?” Is all Grace manages out. Daphne hadn’t even mentioned she was considering doing that.
“Yeah, she um, she came over and I guess just, broke it off. Wouldn’t tell dad why really, just… ended it. I wanted to know if you knew anything? If I can help fix this in any way…” Ali has tears in his eyes now.
And suddenly Graces phone rings.
“I’ll get back to you, ok? We’re gonna fix this, alright?” He nods back and she picks up her phone.
“Oh my god, Gracie! They- they broke up! I don’t know what to do! Hassan was crying the whole time, and he seems a wreck and he won’t say anything-“ Paul nearly word vomits into the phone, all the information he knows pouring out.
“It’s ok, it’s ok! We’re gonna… we’re gonna give her a few days ok? And then me and you are gonna talk to her. Make sure she’s calmed down and then we can fix this.”
“Yeah, we can fix this…” Paul breathes. Not very confident at all.
Hassan is back to work again the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. He goes to mosque on Friday, and his phone only buzzes with messages from Paul, which he’s come to ignore. He knows they’re visiting Daphne today, try to talk to her. But he doesn’t want them too, however he knows there is no use in trying to stop them.
On the ferry ride back, Hassan can only think of how he wants to sleep the second he gets home. He doesn’t want to deal with Erin telling him to ‘nut up and get his girl back’ or Bev Keenes whispers of ‘I knew they wouldn’t last.’ His phone rings, it’s Grace. He ignores it.
It rings again, he ignores it.
It rings a third time, this one annoying him.
On the fourth he picks up. “What?” Is all he spits out.
“Daphne is at Sarah’s, it’s really bad Hassan, are you on your way back?” Grace is panicked, he can hear the tears in her voice, can vaguely hear Paul in the back, he keeps crying about blood.
“What do you mean,” Hassan whispers, his stomach is in his feet, he’s glad he’s sitting down, he thinks the wind got knocked out of him.
“Daphne- it’s hard to explain. She’s ok, I think, just- when will you be back? If you missed the ferry I’ll call Sturge and-“
“I’m on my way, I’m on my way, is she breathing? What’s going on? Please…” Hassan feels tears in his eyes again. Ali is now watching his every move with deep concentration, his breathing a little faster.
“She, she started um- she started cutting again. And- and I found her. She did it too deep, on her arm this time. Sarah says she’s definitely taken something too… she was really out of it.”
“Ok, but she’s with Sarah?” He’s really trying to steady his voice, not sound like he’s going panic, or rather that he is panicking.
“Yes, I need to get Paul cleaned up, he’s a bit panicked. I needed him to carry her…”
“Ok, I’ll be there soon. Please call me if anything happens.” He shakily puts his phone back in his pocket. He wants to throw up, to cry, to scream.
What did she mean Daphne was taken something? Daphne only ever did pot, and it was always with him, she didn’t even like doing it alone. And that wasn’t enough to do anything bad, to make her want to harm herself. Was it? Oh god, he didn’t even know anymore…
He couldn’t move the whole ferry ride back, it took a painstaking thirty minutes before they docked. He barely told Ali to just go wait at the house before bolting off to Sarah’s. He wasn’t sure if he had ever run that fast before, even when chasing stupid kids who didn’t want to get arrested.
He burst through the door, not even bothering to know, “Where is she?”
Grace got up from where she was holding Paul on Sarah’s small couch, “With Erin in the room. She’s still asleep, Sarah had to give her a sedative…” Grace helped Hassan take his jacket off, her eyes filled with worry.
He nodded, realizing now he’s out of breath.
“I think you should sit down, and we can all talk,” Grace whispered.
He nodded again, she led him to a chair, where there was already a glass of water waiting for him. He chugged it quickly, while Grace cleaned up Paul’s face.
“What happened?” He breathes out.
“Paul and I went to check on her while you were at mosque, we wanted to give her a few days before trying to… talk to her about what, what happened…
“She was in her bathroom, um, she couldn’t really talk. She just said she got “too deep” and was sorry. She kept saying she was sorry-“ Grace starts crying now. Paul holds her close to his chest.
“I came in when Grace called for me, I picked her up and ran straight here.” Paul is almost clinical in he the way he talks, trying desperately not to think too much about it. “Did you know she was doing this?”
Even though his tone is almost harsh, Hassan knows it’s just because he cares. “She used to do it, but she’d been clean for a couple years… only did it on her legs. She tried to, um, k-ki-“ he can’t say the word. “She tried something when she was a teenager but, she was fine! She was doing good, I thought we were doing good together and-“ Hassan can’t help but start crying into his hands.
Sarah walks out now, looking a bit tired, “Shes probably going to be out for the rest of the day, Erin is going to stay with me, would any of you get her medications from the house?” Grace nods. “Good, I think we all just need a breather.”
Hassan is sent back home to Ali, he tells the poor kid everything, and once again they fail to sleep next to each other in Hassan’s bed, both too worried to actually relax.
Hassan remembers when she first told him about the cutting, they were kissing in his office, when his hand went up her skirt and felt one of the scars. She told him everything then, and how she didn’t feel pretty with them, so he kissed each and every one before eating her out. He wanted her to feel like a goddess, like how he viewed her. He wasn’t dumb enough to ask her never to do it again for him. She had already been clean, and frankly he thinks asking that of a person isn’t right. They have to want to be better, for themselves, not for you.
When he gets to Sarah’s in the morning, he can hear Daphne talking to Erin, voice rough and tired. He wants to walk in but he’s frozen by the door. Riley had taken Ali to get flowers on the mainland, and Grace and Paul were making breakfast for everyone. It could almost be a normal morning.
“I didn’t want to take them, they weren’t working anymore…” Daphne says.
“That’s not how it works, sweetie. And I know you know that…” Sarah clicks her tongue.
“We’ll get you back on them, and get you all fixed up, baby girl.” Erin whispers.
He can barely see anything through the crack in the door, just Sarah writing things down on a clipboard. He can hear footsteps behind him, the creaking of old floorboards. When he turns around, Paul is shoving him into the room.
No backing out now.
Everyone is quiet, Erin is holding Daphne on the bed, stroking her hair the way a mother would a sick child. Erin would’ve been such a wonderful mom, Hassan distantly thinks. Daphne and him have their eyes locked and neither can speak. What does he say?
Paul is now in the room with Grace, and the two set up a small table by the bed with two bowls of oatmeal.
“Talk.” Is all Paul says before escorting everyone out of the room.
There’s a moment of silence, as Hassan finally takes in how Daphne looks. Her beautiful blue eyes have dark purple rings underneath them, she just looks so tired. There’s an emptiness to them too, like she lost all sense of spark, almost like a dead person. Her arms are wrapped in gauze, and somehow she looks smaller than he saw her a few days ago.
“Hiya…” she whispers.
“Hi…”
“I guess we should-“ he cuts her off by engulfing her in a hug.
“Oh my god, shortcake, I’ve missed you so much,” he cries. “What happened? Please, please, let me help. We don’t have to get back together, just let me help…” he sobs into her shoulder, her hands slowly wrap around him, one on his back the other in his hair. He can feel her tear drops on his neck.
“I didn’t mean to- I didn’t really want to-“ she sobs. He knows what she means.
“You don’t have to suffer alone anymore, you really don’t! And we can all help, Grace, Erin, Paul and Riley. Everyone. Why did you stop taking your meds, why did- why did you-“ he pulls himself off of her to look her in the eyes. His hand cupping her face, thumb wiping away tears.
“It wasn’t working, and just, I felt so awful. And I’m a burden, Hassan. You deserve better, someone who doesn’t stress you out or, bother you. You have a lot on your plate and I thought that me- me leaving would help…” she sobs again. He pulls her into his chest. Stroking her hair until she calms down.
“You never were-are any of those things, shortcake. You’re the love of my life! Ali loves you too! We- we were gonna ask you to move in with us,” he laughs and she does too. “Would you do that? Would you let me take care of you? You don’t even have to date me anymore, just let me help you get back on your feet and-“
“I want to date you!” She laughs through tears. “If you still want me… I’m really really broken right now, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be fully better…” she pulls away, he looks her in the eyes, swears he can see some of that spark back.
“Doll, we’re gonna get through this together. I love you, and I can’t wait to be your boyfriend again…”
She kisses him, he isn’t expecting it, but he returns it immediately.
He makes sure she eats her part of the breakfast after, watches her with reverence. When Ali and Riley bring the flowers later that night, he and Paul go grab essentials from Daphnes home, he’s not letting her even step another foot away from him.
When everyone is at Mass that Sunday, he and Grace talk to her about therapy, before escorting her back to his home. Or their home, as he now calls it. They set it up for her to go while he’s at mosque one Fridays, and Daphne wonders why she ever thought Hassan wouldn’t want her anymore.
They have a bit to work through, but he’s never been happier.
