#medic rambles

Or, alternatively,

They walk by him and someone they're with is like "oh, holy fuck, that's the King!!"

And they're like, "No! No! I'm pretty sure that's my old friend Thorongil! Holy shit! I absolutely thought that guy must have died like decades ago. Holy shit. He looks AMAZING for 87!"

Like????

I just.... oh my god. The comedy!!

How the fuck does he eventually own up to that little stint? It has to come up eventually! Surely? Right?

I'm writing a little Aramir oneshot about Faramir stealing some of Aragorn's clothes, and it has me thinking about Aragorn's leather coat. That thing is likely made up nearly as much from patches as it is original fabric by the end of the books. At the very least there are random stitches all over it from places it's torn (or been ripped through by a sword) that he's repaired. Once he's king, I cannot fathom how many leatherworkers offer to make him a new one "from the finest leather, my lord. The finest in all of Gondor!" when they see him wearing it (and he wears it far more than court finds appropriate).

Eventually it's just a quilt of leather held together by a hope and prayer. The royal tailor begs, on the brink of having actual tears in his eyes, to let him get a new one made. Aragorn flat out refuses. He also refuses to let anyone else repair it. Nobody else has ever worked on it, and he intends to keep it that way. This means that while the repairs are quite effectively done, they are not the neatest ones.

That doesn't matter to him. No new coat will fit just the same, and it will need to be broken in, which Aragorn has no intention of doing. That coat has served him perfectly well for decades. He sees no sense in replacing it. He will never admit it, but he can't imagine parting with it. That feels like letting go of a piece of himself.

I was going to try to post an Aramir fic today, but I’ll be in a corner having a mild to moderate existential crisis instead. I’m also having a not-so-small crash out over the fact that 🧊 agents walked into my work, and I had to square off with them.

10/10 not coping well.

Writing a prequel promised many moons ago, that's what.

Headcanons and chaos:

The infamous chaos demon post: Every character JRRT has ever written is a chaos gremlin of some variety, and here is my evidence (pure crack, but I stand by the assertion)

Aragorn and Phantom Hobbit Footsteps: A quick little thought and tale of how Aragorn expects to find hobbits everywhere he goes, even when there are none left to hear, TW: mentions of death

Oneshots and Short Fics:

Impertinence: 5 times Pippin called Aragorn "Strider!" when he shouldn't, and the one time he didn't (or a 5+1 Aragorn & Pippin gen fic plus a bonus and an epilogue) TW: angst, major character death(s)

Alive Then: As the dust settles after a battle, Éomer takes stock of himself and his wounds. TW: Blood and injuries

No Battle, No Bloodshed: Eleven years of peace in Ithilien comes to end. Éowyn finds herself in the middle of her worst nightmare. A nightmare she thought she no longer had to fear.days. That she would know rest. That her skills for healing would be needed for farming injuries and winter illness. This was not she expected. TW: blood, injuries, angst

Snow Day: A soft moment under a blanket of snow for the King and his Steward; no TW (Aragorn x Faramir)

Conduct Unbecoming: In which the High King of the Reunited Realm cannot be bothered to care about what is deemed proper because being King does not make him less of a soldier

Level the Playing Field: How to fluster Aragorn, Son of Arathorn - this work is based on a chapter of the scenarios series by @rivendell-poet that everyone should read. This has been written and posted with their permission (Aragorn x GN!Reader)

King's Facade: A look at the beginning of Aragorn's rule as King Elessar that the public never sees; TW: angst, anxiety attack (Aragorn x Arwen)

My Father Told Me: A first person song fic about my Dúnedan OC Sairiniel.

The Next Generation of Chaos: A smattering of headcanons and a short oneshot about Faramir and Pippin and their kids

Done? No. Not even close, but managed. Insofar, as I’ve survived my shift so far, and I don’t feel like I’m coming apart at the seams.

I had intended to post a couple Aragorn oneshots and ficlets for our High King’s birthday week. I’m going to attempt to get those up today assuming my mental health doesn’t come apart at the seams or exhaustion doesn’t overtake me.

^these are actual images of what I’m going to be like should I actually manage to post even close to all of what I had hoped to last week.

We’re looking at 2 pieces that need serious polishing, 2 that are barely started, and 2 that are started, have potential, but no real sense of direction.