Thwip Thursday!
Thanks @blue-to-blue and @starspray for the tags! This is from "the language of an ancient planet" which, as with I think literally all but two snippets I have posted on this tumblr ever, is inspired by the inimitable @chthonion's Your shadow rising to meet you series. AKA "the one where Annatar figures out that he is allowed to receive physical comfort from people who are not his intimate partner". Here he is helping Tyelko build a workshop in the woods near Nerdanel's place. Content warning for chthonioncanon-typical Curufin being an ass.
A few minutes after that, Annatar is sent to the stream to refill the water skin. It is a fairly transparent bid to get him away so that Tyelkormo can yell at Curufinwë. He appreciates it, but he is also very interested to hear what they are going to say. Tyelkormo knows woodcraft well enough that he will absolutely hear if Annatar’s footsteps stop just outside, but Annatar is well-enough adjusted to embodiment now to be able to make it sound as if he is actually going. He thinks. “What the fuck is it now,” Curufinwë sighs. “Did you give Findaráto a knife to kill Annatar with, Curufinwë?” “Of course I fucking did!” “You’re such an idiot,” Tyelkormo groans; Annatar thinks he might be pulling his own hair in frustration, and sympathizes. “If he wanted to kill Tyelpe, why the fuck would he have brought all of us back to Life?” “I don’t know, Turko!” Curufinwë shouts, loudly enough that a hypothetical Annatar on his way to the stream could probably hear him; Tyelkormo does not bother to shush him. “That’s the entire fucking point, is that we don’t know, we never knew what he and his master were going to do. We never understood what they wanted. You cannot tell me that you believe the spawn of fucking Morgoth was brought back by Eru Ilúvatar himself and given a mortal body just so that my son could fuck it –” There is a noise loud enough that it rings through the woods, echoing off the trees and stones around Annatar, and he flinches. After a moment, he decides it was likely the sound of Tyelkormo dropping the stone hammer on the ground. Curufinwë has shut up. Annatar waits. Waits. “You know what,” Tyelkormo says. “I do. I do think that the One might have looked at Tyelpe, and everything he did, and everything he tried to be, and everything that he was in spite of us, and said, you know what, this was the best of my children, maybe I shouldn’t have let him be fucking tortured to death, maybe he deserves something nice –” “And lo,” Curufinwë croons, mocking, “the lord of gifts!”
No pressure tagging: @lissomelace @tense-gemstone @chthonion @jaimsjam @plaudiusplants and anyone else who needs an excuse to post snippetssssssss.
