I know @theserpentsadvocatehasnât wasnât feeling great, and so I wrote you out one of the Valarling AU  (itâs not technically SLVT yet if none of them are quite teenagers, or is it?) scenes with Valian Bratlings :) I hope very much that none of the kids you babysit ever give you a quarter this much trouble! It grew kind of long, but these Valarlings can cause a lot of chaos in the course of an afternoon! Itâs more VairĂ« dealing with them than NĂĄmo, but heâs in it too.
âItâll only be for a few hours,â Yavanna had promised VairĂ« when she dropped the kids off at the Halls of Mandos with VairĂ« and NĂĄmo. âI wouldnât ask, but AulĂ«âs away in meetings today with some Noldor on a building project, and I have to oversee the grain harvest in the afternoon. I would ask VĂĄna, but she has to help with the harvest too. But theyâre much easier to watch these days, I promise! NĂĄrlotĂ« is old enough to practically take care of them herself!â NĂĄmo had just shaken his head and grimaced at that. Neither he nor VairĂ« had believed her for a second about how âeasyâ it would be, but they agreed to babysit the five of them anyway. The Valarlings even behaved until Yavanna left, giving her children strict instructions to be quiet and even helpful if they could manage it.Â
But that good behavior ended soon enough after sheâd left. SĂșlariĂ« took NĂĄmoâs hand while jumping up and down excitedly and telling him about some pony sheâd fallen in love with, while VĂ«anne ran in circles around him until she pounced on VairĂ« instead, and then FanyarĂ« started climbing NĂĄmoâs cloak to reach his head. (AulĂ« and ManwĂ« both let him do that with them, there was now no hope of making him stop.) Then NĂĄmo had to oversee new arrivals in the Halls. Arriving was shock enough for them and he certainly couldnât bring Yavannaâs children with him, so Vaire was on her own at first. They tried to have lunch, but of course VĂ«anne didnât want to eat vegetables and instead decided to give VairĂ« a lecture on the internal chemistry of carrots and why you couldnât feed them to some animals, but why others liked them. Then of course NarwĂ« thought she was wrong about something (like VairĂ« had any idea who was right) and tried to correct her, which ended up in no one eating carrots because they just got thrown around the room instead.Â
When she had that cleaned up VairĂ« went to shoo them outside (they had to cause less damage there, right?) but realized that she couldnât find FanyarĂ«. The other four just giggled when she asked, until she finally coaxed the answer out of SĂșlairĂ« and found out that FanyarĂ« had, for some reason, climbed to the roof. NĂĄrlotĂ« agreed to be helpful for once and got him down while VairĂ« herded the other three outside, so VairĂ« had reason to think that maybe, just maybe, Yavanna was right and NĂĄrlotĂ« could help take care of the rest of her siblings now. So when one of her Maiar came rushing out to tell her that theyâd lost a certain color thread that they needed, and could she possibly pop inside for just one moment to see if she could find it, please? Vaire decided to risk it, and left two of her Maiar and NĂĄrlotĂ« outside in charge of the others.Â
âJust STAY IN ONE PLACE UNTIL I GET BACK,â she directed firmly, and all five nodded with wide, innocent eyes that VairĂ« knew could be a trick, but she darted inside anyway. Sheâd be fast- what was the worst that could happen? âYou know, mother DID tell us to be helpful.â NĂĄrlotĂ«âs wide, innocent eyes narrowed and gleamed as soon as VairĂ« disappeared. âVairĂ« told us to stay still!â VĂ«anne protested loudly. âMother also told us to be quiet,â FanyarĂ« pointed out.
âWe donât have to move⊠much.â NarwĂ« grinned, and was about to ask NĂĄrlotĂ« what they should do, but SĂșlairĂ« chimed in first. âNĂĄmoâs Halls are so dark and gloomy, even the outside is plain! He doesnât have any nice pretty plants or statues like we have at home. We should make some for him.â VairĂ«âs Maiar of course tried to stop them at this point, but the Valarlings were practically a swarm. They were impossible to catch, and just as soon as you thought youâd narrowed down the most chaotic and almost cornered them, another started doing something even worse and you had to chase that one instead. âNĂĄmo needs more butterflies around, heâs always so colorless with all that black he wears!â VĂ«anne called out gleefully, jumping in circles and summoning swarms of butterflies to flutter around the front gates of the Halls of Mandos. âHe doesnât need butterflies silly, he needs FLOWERS!â SĂșlairĂ« disagreed, and dug her hands into the dirt of the formerly immaculate lawn. Thick, rubbery vines started sprouting, covered in multicolored flowers that spread up all the walls in sight. Meanwhile NarwĂ« and FanyarĂ« were working together (the times AulĂ« and Yavannaâs children got along best was when they were working together to create mischief.) NarwĂ« hammered the large, shapeless boulders that supposed to be there into statues that doubled as animal pens, neither of which were supposed to be there. While he did this, FanyarĂ« ushered in every animal he could think of, from rabbits to frogs to iguanas to emus and put them in the pens. If Vaireâs poor Maiar werenât stressed enough about that, in the midst of that they realized NĂĄrlotĂ« had gone missing.
They didnât have time to find her, though, because at that moment VairĂ« came out the side door (which was a challenge now that the doorway was entirely covered with SĂșlairĂ«âs vines, and just sighed. âI WASNâT GONE TEN MINUTES-â She was cut off by the noise from the brand new emu pen (emus, really?!) mixed with her Maiar apologizing and swearing that they did their best, but those children are so fast...
VairĂ« didnât blame the Maiar, of course, and had to apologize and then start exasperatedly explaining to the Valarlings what they already knew, which was that none of this stuff was acceptable. âPut those vines back in the ground this instant, SĂșlairĂ«,â and, âNarwĂ« if you canât put those boulders back together then youâll just have to spend the day making new ones and rolling them all the way back where they belong,â and, âFanyarĂ« send those animals AWAY we can not keep emus here under any circumstances. No, not frogs either.â She let VĂ«anneâs butterflies slide. They had dissipated a little, and honestly it would be amusing to see what NĂĄmo thought of them. She might even weave a tapestry of it⊠It wasnât until this point that she even realized she hadnât bothered to count to five and NĂĄrlotĂ« who likely was the most dangerous despite Yavannaâs assurance that NĂĄrlotĂ« was older and more responsible now, and was still missing. She couldnât very well leave the other four alone, so they all set off in search together, VĂ«anneâs remaining butterflies lazily trailing after them. They finally found her a half a mile away. VairĂ« would have walked right past her except that SĂșlairĂ« paused for a moment when they walked by a small tree (and it should have been a clue that FanyarĂ« didnât try to climb it, because he usually climbed everything.) She stopped and tilted her head. NĂĄrlotĂ« burst back into her regular Valarling form practically sobbing, âVairĂ« I didnât mean to do it, I promise! I was just going to grow regular vines but I gave them too much power and they got too strong, I donât know what to do, Iâm sorry, please forgive me!â At about the same moment NĂĄmo appeared, heading towards them and looking especially grim. âWhat did you do,â NarwĂ« rolled his eyes unsympathetically, and NĂĄmo told them they had just better come and see for themselves, leading the whole troop back to the Halls. NĂĄrlotĂ« hung back nervously, NarwĂ« and FanyarĂ« muttered about what she could have done, and SĂșlariĂ« and VĂ«anne skipped along in the grass, seeming to completely forget everything that had happened while the odd butterfly swooped along with them. NĂĄmo opened the front door and let them inside, and VairĂ« froze. While SĂșlairĂ« had kept her vines outside, apparently NĂĄrlotĂ« had been more ambitious. Hers had reached the inside of the Halls. The very front, where the tapestries on display had hung for nearly a thousand years. Until today, it would seem. NĂĄrlotĂ«âs vines had reached them and torn almost irreparable holes in the bottoms. NĂĄrlotĂ« had grown very small, and VairĂ« didnât even realize until later that she herself had probably grown more threatening than the children had ever seen her. (Though of course, they were used to Yavanna, so how frightened of her could they be, really.)Â
âIâm so sorry,â NĂĄrlotĂ« whispered. âI donât know what to do, can I help fix them? Will you be able to fix them?â VairĂ« almost yelled at her- NĂĄmo even took a half step to move between them, then she took a long deep breath instead and said, âYour parents WILL hear about this. Theyâll need to know why youâll be so busy for the next week or three, because you are going to grow me a LOT of cotton and dye materials, and you are going to make only the highest quality materials and do it RIGHT, and then while I weave new tapestries you will sit here and polish these walls until Iâm ready to hang the new ones.â âYes, VairĂ«. I promise! And I promise Iâll never hurt anything in the Halls ever again!â NĂĄmo gave a snort of a laugh, and VairĂ« arched an eyebrow, but NĂĄrlotĂ« got straight to work making her siblings help her remove the vines as carefully and quickly as possible, while VairĂ« and NĂĄmo watched. Then VairĂ« carefully took down the tapestries, and NĂĄrlotĂ« made her siblings sit and be âquiet as miceâ until AulĂ« came to pick them up. He didnât even have to ask if theyâd behaved. He knew that they would never be that apologetically quiet if they had. NĂĄmo told AulĂ« the story, and NĂĄrlotĂ« apologized a few dozen more times. Then AulĂ« did as well, promising to bring new needles or scissors or anything she needed, and that heâd get Yavanna to bring her the best of the grain harvest too because she deserved it. (Though she told him it wasnât necessary as long as NĂĄrlotĂ« brought her the right cotton and dyes, he insisted.) âIâm sorry I left you all alone with them, this wouldnât have happened if Iâd helped,â NĂĄmo told her after AulĂ« had left, a meek NĂĄrlotĂ« trailing behind him with NarwĂ« making fun of her, while Aule told him not to. The other three were excitedly jumping and climbing all over Aule the whole time. âTo be honest, I probably would have changed the tapestries out in another couple years anyway,â VairĂ« shrugged. âThough I will be angry if those holes prove more difficult to mend then Iâm hoping they are. Next time, though, you get to do all the hard work with them.â âI promise.â NĂĄmo told her solemnly, nodding very seriously, As he spoke, a solitary, electric blue butterfly drifted down and perched on the top of his hair. VairĂ« had to put both hands over her mouth to stifle her laugh. VĂ«anne was right, the color did contrast him well. Maybe sheâd put it in one of the new tapestries after all.
