#belegsghost

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

Tie between Gustav of O truant muse and Tarîr of Bitter Heart. Gustav was a joke that grew a personality and ran off with my heart; Tarîr marched into what was supposed to be a Galathil/Aredhel story and took it over (and then stole my heart from Gustav). They were both totally unexpected and ended up stealing the limelight in their respective stories.

(9 already answered)

16) are there any characters who haunt you?

Just going to reply to all these at once because <3 <3 there is so much birthday love in my inbox but I’m lowkey running out of gifs that express my feelings :’)

But !!! THANK YOU ALL, *takes all the birthday wishes and rolls around in them joyously like a goddamn chinchilla taking a dust bath in the desert*

Lots of fave lotr scenes but one that always gets me is the charge of the Rohirrim

They met in the Cloisters at precisely 7 p.m., Idril carrying a large bag of supplies over her shoulder, Ecthelion tying back his locs and rolling up his sleeves.

“The pigeon has flown the coop,” he said, then they grinned at one another and, as one, started towards Turgon’s office.

“Do you,” Glorfindel’s voice cut through the dimness, the faint gleam of his eyes seeming far too amused for Ecthelion’s taste, “have a better idea of how we should pass the time?”

“But if someone should come while we're—” Ecthelion rattled the door handle one more time, just in case it was jammed instead of locked, but only managed to knock a broom over onto his head, “—distracted, it’s going to seem damn suspicious if we have to take the time to put ourselves back in order before calling for help—”

Tyelpe was good at the part where they kept very quiet, where they stepped carefully so that their footfalls were silent even among the crackly brush. He was good at watching and listening, catching sight of tracks or spoor that pointed the way to their quarry. But—

“Hold up, pup,” his uncle Tyelko barked, trying and failing to catch him by the collar, “it was only a rabbit, it’s not going to hurt you—”

A. If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why?"Barton Hollow" is what I was listening to while working on Force My Hand (obviously, it's where the title came from) and I feel like it's a good mood setter.

Did that full moon force my hand?/Or that unmarked hundred grand?

G. Where do you think you grew the most this year?I actually dipped my toe into another fandom, gasp! I've written one-offs outside of Tolkien fandom before, but this is the first time I've considered myself part of another fandom (Thor) and written multiple fics for it (only two, but still.)

V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks.Of the five things I posted this year, three of them were firmly in different parts of my "narrative kink" territory so I can't pick just one.

I don't do it that often, but I actually really love writing things with a high level of "something is subtly but extremely WRONG here, all my alarm bells are going off even though I'm not completely sure what's going down." Force My Hand was a whole lot of that, from Ambarussa playing with the Silmaril even as it burned, to Caranthir's ignored warnings, to...well,  you know, everything leading up to That Thing That Happened.

A Key With No Lock indulged the fuck out of my love of treasure hunts and, weirdly, fairy tale quests? I can't explain exactly why but it lives in the same part of my brain as traditional "pick the wood cup/plain leather bridle/walk only this path and don't step off of it" fairy tale tasks.