#alkarinqque

I haven’t played them all so I can’t rank them fairly 🙈 but here’s my opinion anyway

So I really loved the Sith Warrior story, I kind of flew through that one. (I haven’t played imp agent because I just want to swing a lightsaber around whenever I can) Dark Side characters are so fucking fun and there’s so much to explore in terms of the lore. The journey is more emotional and riveting with Darksiders imo.

Jedi Knight can be kind of basic, but I’ve had a great time choosing the dark side options. It makes everything hilarious. I smacked some npc in the face for being a coward, and it was so out of the blue, I just died laughing. 10/10 would recommend for that alone.

Jedi Consular is what I’ve played as the most, and the slower pace helped me out when I was just starting. If you’d played for awhile, the first act might be boring. But the male Consular has some top tier sassy dialogue that makes diplomatic situations enjoyable instead of a slog. And it does feel like a true Jedi story. As an Obi-Wan stan, I appreciated the focus on being a hero by negotiation and not just by “thinking with my lightsaber.”

My only complaint with Consular was that my attempts to romance Tharan Cedrax were shot down and I’ll never be okay with that. I love that man so much.

For you, I again chose as randomly as I could, and happened on the sequel to the The way you... stories, the ones about Caranthir and Sindarin healer Cedweril. To quote any longer bit of the fic would be to spoil its premise, so here is a very short quote from it :)

Nerdanel and Fëanor definitely spend a lot of time with their grandchildren in my Fëanorian marriages 'verse, and they teach them a lot of things, too (I HC that among the Eldar, various family members take part in teaching the little ones of the family.)

When Celebrimbor is old enough, Curufin takes him to the forge and workshop where Fëanor works, and they teach him together. All three enjoy it very much even though Curufin and Fëanor are sometimes a little too demanding, forgetting that even though a child is smart and interested, he should still be given time to just play around and go at his own pace. They are so eager to teach and share with him the things they love.

Moriel is also very interested in all sorts of smith-work. Caranthir teaches him the very basics himself and then does the same as Curufin, taking him to Fëanor's workspaces, though he keeps a stricter control of the pace she is taught at than Curufin.

Nerdanel also teaches her own craft(s) to her grandchildren, and she and Fëanor babysit as well.

When their grandkids are a little older, Nerdanel or Fëanor or both of them with various other members of the family which may or may not include the kids' parents take their grandchildren along on journeys, both to relatively unexplored parts of Aman and to other settlements.

Nerdanel is particularly close with Liríwen (Vaniel). Liríwen is a shyer child than Tyelpë and Moriel, and she finds it easier to connect with her understanding grandmother than her larger-than-life genius first prince Fëanor.

(As I wrote that I was reminded of Tony Stark's 'Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist' self-description from The Avengers and I'm ----)

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

Going to go with Eärendil and Elwing for that one, I love the childhood-friends-to-married-couple dynamic, and Tolkien created something beautiful when he made two traumatised child refugees find hope and happiness like that.

21. What are your thoughts on crack ships?

I love them so much, but especially the ones that start out as crack and turn into something serious with actual feelings involved. Mandatory self-promo of my Maedhros/Thingol fic.

22. Popular character you hate?

Not really hate, more that I like the character in canon but have come to dislike most of the popular fanon tropes surrounding him: Maedhros. I’m also a lot less enthusiastic about Thorin and Kili than the majority of the Hobbit fandom seems to be, and Thranduil is kinda meh.

15 Erchirion’s bastard (+visit)

This is another WIP that I have very little written of so far. It's chronologically fic number… 7, perhaps, in the Lothíriel/Éomer series. It's about Lothíriel's middle brother Erchirion and her relationship with him and his philandering ways.

He fathered a bastard when he was a young man. His parents found out and made him take responsibility for his actions by making sure that the child and mother were taken care of financially etc, but it was covered up as well as possible, and Lothíriel who was then a very young girl kept sheltered by her family was not supposed to learn about it. But she did, through the power of gossip, though she never told her family that she did.

Thirteen years or so later, Erchirion visits Rohan on his own, without other family for the first time, and begins flirting with some servant(s) in Meduseld. Once again Lothíriel is not supposed to find out about it but Erchirion sorely underestimates the watchfulness and loyalty of her servants, and her diligent care for her female servants' wellbeing and honour, so she does find out and proceeds to give him a tongue-lashing he hadn't had the kind of since his father found out about his illegitimate child.

'If you fool around with one of my girls and get them into trouble, it'll be trouble I'll have to untangle once you've ridden off back to Gondor, and it will reflect badly on me, too. So keep your dalliances out of my hall and do all you can to make sure there won't be dark-haired babies born anywhere in Edoras nine months from now. You know how to control yourself now, don't you, even if you didn't thirteen years ago?'

This incident, which is a real learning moment for Erchirion, is a good thing in that it makes him realise that his little sister – a queen for several years now, and mother of several children, but still primarily ‘little sister’ in his mind – is truly grown up and aware of how the world works, and they can begin building a new, more mature relationship between them.

I took this opportunity to write about Curufinwë enjoying the wine at his coming-of-age celebration rather too liberally, an incident that Carnistir mentioned in an early chapter of Your spirit calling out to mine.

Carnistir insisted that he have the POV but, umm, I hope that this is enough about Curufinwë anyway? The prompt line is “How much of that did you hear?”

This is very quickly written, I might clean it up later and post on AO3 too.

*

Noldorin red - 808 words

'I'm not his keeper', Carnistir protests, but because it is his mother asking, he sighs and does as he's asked and goes looking for his little brother.

Typical of Curufinwë to draw even more attention to himself, not to mention their mother's worry, by disappearing while his coming-of-age celebration is still in full swing. Carnistir searches the feast hall first, but Curvo's not there, of course not. Their mother would have found him if he was.

He looks into each of the side chambers, glad of his height that allows him to just about see over most people's heads, but there is no sign of Curvo's obnoxiously crimson-clad figure there either.

He moves into the surrounding hallways.

'You', he barks at a passing servant. 'Have you seen prince Curufinwë? The younger.'

'No, my lord, I –’, the man begins.

Another servant pipes up, 'I saw him in the long gallery not long ago. Prince Tyelkormo, too.'

Carnistir goes there, then, half-annoyed and half-relieved at having to walk all around the palace on his mother's errand. He is annoyed at Curvo – but to be honest with himself, he must admit that he wasn't having that good of a time himself, and perhaps looking for Curvo is as good a use of his time as he could hope for right now. His friend Ontamo went home already, and Makalaurë has been too busy with his group of musicians to talk with Carnistir.

As Carnistir approaches the long gallery – a large room whose walls are covered in paintings and tapestries, many of the latter made by Carnistir's grandmother – he hears voices through the open door.

'Come on, Curvo, don't be grumpy', says Tyelko's amused voice, and, 'Give me that bottle, idiot. You've had quite enough.'

'No, I haven't, you've had just as much.'

Carnistir snorts at Curufinwë's petulant voice. How amusing that Curvo should turn out to be a lightweight with alcohol.

   !!! I AM SO EXCITED!!   

                       OH MY GOD!!! I've been waiting for to hear about their children!! I remember snooping around your Tuilindien tag here on Tumblr some year ago and discovered your hc..... Oh man I'm so excited!!! But also it was sad to read about their anxieties  in this chapter (but then also nice, bc everything can't be happy and perfect all the time) and also Curufin?? That jerk. I wonder if he actually understood that he kind of hurt his brother by being boastful and competitive??     (also I agree with Caranthir that curvo always competes in things you shouldn't compete in, like marriage, children etc. I mean, it's like having a kid just to prove something?? Bad strategy, but it worked for him for a while so hm)                 

I want to hug this reply and you, @alkarinqque 💜 Thank you. Yeah, I’ve had that HC and half a fic written about their kids for years, but it ended up taking me 3.5 years to finish Your spirit calling out to mine so the sequels have had to wait. But now I’ve got started writing them and hopefully can finish more soon-ish 😊 I’m excited that you’re excited!

In Curufinwë’s defence, he didn’t know for sure that Carnistir and Tuilindien were trying for a child – they told only a few family members, though most suspected it anyway. He certainly didn’t know that it taking time was painful for them. He’s too self-centred to have noticed any signs of that.