Slugs and Flies

It started when I read this delightful post by @frankensteinsmonst3r and felt compelled to draw "Your Badness Level" with the Brothers Ri. Then my brain kept adapting more scenes from Lilo & Stitch for Ori, Nori & Dori, and now there's continuity and plot!

I'll keep this masterpost updated with all the comics in chronological story order (not the order they were drawn):

Late to Class (Ori arrives for lessons with Balin)

Can I Play Too? (Ori tries to make friends with Fíli and Kíli)

Knuckle Runes (Ori meets Dwalin)

Argument (Dori worries about losing Ori)

Broken Family (Ori and Nori remember their parents)

This is Your Badness Level (Ori draws a picture of Nori)

Because of Us? (Dori loses his job)

The Sheltered Harbor of My Patience (Nori runs into Dwalin)

Model Citizen (Ori tries to help Nori reform)

No Better Cure (Balin tells a story to the kids and Dori)

Just Like That (Dwalin visits Nori in jail)

What Ori Needs (Dori, Nori, and Dwalin get a letter)

Don't Leave Me (Nori goes to find Ori)

Rescue (Dori, Dwalin, and Balin arrive)

There's also a plot outline, subject to change of course, and an incredible movie poster by @frankensteinsmonst3r! AHHHH!

Nori stood up and banged a knife on his mug until the chatter settled down.

“Uh-oh,” whispered Ori, reaching for Fíli’s hand under the table.

“I’d like to congratulate my little brother,” Nori announced, “on bagging a prince!”

Laughter rippled around the room. Ori’s face burned. Fíli leaned over to kiss one of his hot cheeks, murmuring, “I’ll knock him down if you want.”

“Do not start a fight at our wedding,” hissed Ori.

Nori gulped down the rest of his mead, then waved for silence again. “And I’m going to tell the tale of how these two first met!”

Ori grimaced. “On second thought, maybe I’ll knock him down.”

Fíli squeezed his hand. “It would only make everyone more eager to hear the story.”

“Ori was just a wee lad when we arrived in Ered Luin,” Nori began. “We’d been itinerant traders for years. Nowhere had ever felt like the right place to settle down.”

“Because you kept getting us chased out of town!” shouted Dori, who’d drunk enough to throw a dinner roll at Nori’s head.

Nori caught it and took a bite. “Anyway, the dwarves of the Blue Mountains were very kind,” he said with his mouth full. “Lady Dís herself came to welcome us, along with her family. Víli brought some lovely smoked venison, as I recall, and the adults introduced themselves. Fíli took it on himself to introduce the children. He ran up to Ori, grabbed his scarf, and yelled, ‘I’m Fíli and this is Kíli! Let’s be friends!’”

“I didn’t yell,” objected Fíli.

“Yes, you did,” said Ori, who remembered very well that he’d never experienced such a loud voice so close to his ears. When adults yelled, at least their mouths were far away.

Nori spoke over them. “Little Ori was not only shy but feral. He’d never played with another child in his life. He screamed, bit Fíli, then climbed me like a ladder and tried to hide in my hair.”

There were gasps and snorts of laughter. Ori buried his head in his arms.

“I still have a scar!” shouted Fíli, which was a big fat lie. He had plenty of scars, but none from Ori’s teeth.

Nori chuckled. “That’s when I knew Ered Luin was the place for us. Dori got all flustered and couldn’t stop apologizing for days. It was great.”

Dori scowled. “And when I told Ori, ‘we don’t bite people,’ you said ‘sometimes actions speak louder than words.’”

Dwalin rubbed a conspicuous mark on his neck and yanked Nori back into his seat. “I see it runs in the bloody family.”

Fíli got to his feet, pulling Ori with him. “Here’s to unconventional meetings!” he cried, lifting his mug, and everyone toasted.

Then he turned to Ori with a smile that was just for the two of them. “I’m Fíli,” he said softly. “Let’s be husbands.”

“Okay,” said Ori, and bit him.

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