#pepper chats

I got tagged by @starspray! You caught me at a good time! I've got something to share!

Maedhros set about making breakfast for the twins - warming porridge today. He had just taken the pan off the stove when his phone beeped.

It was the school and yep, it was closed for the day.

Maglor chose to come down at that point, grumbling about being woken up by rambunctious twins. It gave Maedhros the chance to give them all the news.

Predictably, all three of his family members were overjoyed.

‘School is closed?!’ cried Elros, like he couldn’t believe a thing was even possible.

‘Yes,’ confirmed Maedhros, ‘You’ve got a day off to play in the snow.’

‘THIS IS THE BESTEST DAY EVER!’ Elros shouted at the top of his lungs.

‘What shall we do first Nelyo?’ asked Maglor grinning wide, his grumpiness forgotten at the idea of a snow day. ‘Sledging or snowman?’

‘SLEDGING?’ cried Elros

‘Snowman?’ asked Elrond breathlessly, seeming just as excited as Elros, but quieter about it.

Thanks for the tag @lissomelace

After a little break away from writing here's something from the next chapter of Patchwork Family.

This next chapter is so fun and there were two parts I could have picked but I went with my beloveds Caranthir and Haleth who have returned this chapter!

Playing Hair Salons was actually quite a relaxing game for Maedhros. The twins always insisted he be one of the ones to have his hair done and this time was no exception. He and Caranthir were assigned the role of clients and the excited twins set about pretending to wash and rinse their hair over the arms of the living room armchairs. This of course was all overseen by Haleth who appeared to get immense enjoyment out of seeing her boyfriend be grudgingly pampered. ‘We could get face masks,’ she said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. Then before Maedhros could even object to say that it wasn’t necessary, she’d magicked up a fancy looking pot of product from her toiletry bag and he was allowing his face to be covered in a thick paste as Elrond mimed snipping his red hair with finger-scissors. ‘Your freckles have disappeared,’ said Elros leaning down to scrutinise Maedhros’ paste-covered face. ‘They’ll come back don’t worry,’ he replied. ‘Good. I miss them,’ said Elros, and Maedhros thought his heart might explode. How are you so sweet? ‘Why is this oddly relaxing?’ huffed Caranthir next to Maedhros, as he too leant back against the adjacent armchair. Elros was sitting cross-legged behind him, combing through Caranthir’s dark hair, now out of its ponytail, with a fine comb, before attempting to start a small braid. ‘You should let yourself be pampered more Sweets,’ said Haleth as she now switched to work on him, coating his face in the same minty smelling face-mask paste with a brush, ‘You’re doing an excellent job Elros, keep going, don’t let the amount of gel in Caranthir’s hair put you off from braiding it.’ Caranthir scowled, causing the paste on his face to wrinkle and crease, ‘Huh, didn’t know the attendants at this spa took jabs at the client.’ Haleth tsk’d and said, ‘Take it up with management babes,’ before giving him a quick peck on the lips and resuming her application of the face mask. Maedhros watched with barely disguised glee. It was so nice seeing Caranthir, Caranthir of all people let his guard down enough to not only fully embrace role playing games with brand new nephews he only just met, but to also show affection with his partner in front of his family. It was a rough few years for sure. But I think he’s really turned a corner, thought Maedhros.

For my fic A Patchwork Family, in Chapter 18 for Elrond and Elros' first day at their new school.

Pick 5 lines from recent fics that made you (the author) laugh. They don't have to be lines anyone else found funny, but I strongly believe if you can make yourself laugh when writing you are onto a winner! Maybe these are 'in-jokes' to yourself, or one-liners you slipped in there to see if anyone would notice... what are those lines that you can still remember and bring a smile to your face? 😊

I am tagging @vefanyar, @thehobbitwithstickyuppyhair, @starspray, @annarobots, @idleleaves, @morbidcorvid, @balrogballs and @last-capy-hupping but obviously no pressure to respond :)

Not for the fearful, for the Bold, Chapter 3, The Rings of Power Fandom, 36K words

But Elrond wasn’t a warty toad...

THIS LINE. This is the one I always think of and always makes me laugh. It's so stupid but I love it.

Also from the same fic in chapter 6:

‘You flowery-leafed cabbage,’ Durin scoffed loudly, glancing over his shoulder at the two curious dwarf guards peering around the mountain door. Turning back to Elrond he asked, ‘You got my invitation then?’

This was quoted back at me in comments so I know others found it funny too! hehe I love coming up with playful insults for Durin to call Elrond.

A Patchwork Family, Chapter 9, The Silmarillion Fandom, 86K words

But Maedhros needn’t have worried about being overheard, the rest of his brothers were having a spirited discussion of who would survive longest on a desert island out of the seven of them. Whilst they couldn’t agree who’d win, they all seemed to be in agreement Maglor would perish first.

This is a sneaky one I snuck into my longfic and a few commentors spotted it. It makes me laugh because we know canonically Maglor outlives them all. plus bonus: ‘Let me enjoy my ice cream Kàno, and then I’ll go defend your honour in this stupid conversation they’re having. Do you have any survival skills at all do you reckon?’

hehehe makes me chuckle!

Love Letters, QSMP Fandom, 53K words

This whole fic just makes me grin, it's so niche some of the jokes make literally no sense to anyone unless they watched the QSMP but I had to include something from this fic because it makes me laugh every time I re-read it, so here, with very little context:

Speaking of, are you okay? Wait don’t answer that. I know you’re not okay. Dude what’s going on? You’re trapped on an Island with Foolish, Quackity and Philza Minecraft??? There’s a fucking bear with a gun?!??!! You’ve had your children threatened and kidnapped. You’ve been to a place called literal PURGATORY. TWICE. Are you out of your mind? I swear I’m gonna kill you. AND LET’S NOT FORGET THE NUCLEAR EXPLOSION. I swear to god…..if you had died…. Also, we need to talk about the guy you have in your basement. That’s really not cool man.

Yep, kidnapping, purgatory, nuclear explosion and a bear with a gun.....all very normal occurrences on a Minecraft SMP.

What a Winter-ful World, QSMP Fandom, 2k words

Last one is a cute one!

‘Look Tallulah’s all wrapped up!’ he gestured to Tallulah who was covered in so many layers her little arms were sticking out perpendicular to her body and only her eyes could be seen behind her scarf and woolly hat. Philza doubled over laughing at her as she tried to move her arms, ‘Okay, maybe I went a bit overboard, let’s remove one of the layers here. You need to be able to actually fucking move if you want to build a snowman.’

I just love the image here of Tallulah so carefully wrapped up she cant actually move. Philza was such a good dad to those kiddos and being a hardcore minecraft player he definitely wrapped his kids in cotton wool but hey, they both survived to the end of the QSMP so he did alright <3

Please see this post of the floor plan of the house from my fic A Patchwork Family.

This post is to accompany my most recent chapter, chapter 15. I have a full pinterest board but I've just pulled out a few of the images which I think best summarise the look and vibe Im going for. Not perfect but good enough!

Keep reading to see!

Thanks for the tags @vefanyar! Here's the first lines from my 10 most recent fics. Links and info under the cut.

It will be an eclectic mix of fics because I tend to write fewer, longer fics and I've written for many fandoms. This was a lovely exercise to do because I realised I love all of my first lines!

I keep re-reading the fic from the beginning whenever you post a new chapter (which takes quite a lot of time at this point, i probably won't be able to do that for much longer)

At the notes of chapter 1, you mention that you made a timetable of birthdays and a floorplan of the house. Is there any way you ever will want post this?

I want to know everything!!!

(Obviously only if it doesn't interfere with your writing and developing of the story)

Hello lovely! thank you so much for your kind words. I love the fic so much too it is very dear to me. Oh my gosh, yeah it's getting quite long you wont be able to keep re-reading it (or well, maybe not if you want a decent bedtime lol!)

aha! yes, I did make spreadsheet and floorplan... and I'm so embarrassed at how rubbish they were -especially the floorplan omg, you'll see below it was a scribble on my phone! So I have spent the past day making cleaner versions that can be shared!!

Ages, Dates and Events

So, with the spreadsheet of ages and dates.... I have a version here which can be viewed and it doesn't give any spoilers of the fic cos there are characters and events I have plotted out who haven't appeared in the fic yet. So it's up to date as of chapter 8 of Patchwork Family and I'll try and update it every couple of chapters from my master doc. (please remind me if I don't!)

Some things to note:

I may tweak birthdays around, for example Maedhros' birthday was supposed to be 2nd September but that's when Elwing passes away so I moved it later in the month. This might happen with other characters.

I really wanted Caranthir and Curufin to be born close together so yes I did work out conception dates and Nerdanel was hardly out of the fourth trimester before getting pregnant again. I can imagine she was very sick of being pregnant the following summer.

Yes Elrond and Elros are born on Valentine's day, I thought it was cute!

Nerdanel's birthday is 1st December I can imagine her being excited each year as it's beginning of advent.

Maglor and Celegorm's birthday's are a day apart and I can imagine they HATED this growing up because it often meant joint birthday parties and joint presents which sucks!

House and Floor Plan

Regarding Maedhros and Maglor's house, I found these really nice pics on pinterest which is how I imagine the front of their house looking. A smush of the two basically.

I actually really enjoyed doing the entire floorplan of Maedhros and Maglor's house, it's HUGE, oh my god, and it was fiddly to get the rooms where I wanted cos I really had the visual in my mind that the grand piano is on the left when you come into the house. And Maglor's studio was in the annex on the side. But after puzzling it all out like a jigsaw I got it!

Ground floor:

You can see here the two pianos, one in the living room, one in the kitchen. The library is where Maedhros likes to spend time and read to decompress and chill. It also functions as another sitting room if a person doesn't want to watch tv with the rest of the family.

Maglor has his studio off to the side. I've not covered this much in the fic but since retiring as a concert pianist Maglor now writes and records music, either releasing it on his spotify or selling it for jingles in ads or tv shows, he makes a decent income from it and it's very flexible working. It's crammed full of instruments. Also please imagine instruments all over the house. Maedhros does a round up once a month and puts them all back in the studio, but they inevitably wander all over the house again.

Rules: You will be given a word. Share a snippet from a WIP for every letter in that word, then tag some friends and give them a new word.

Thank you for tagging me @amorbidcorvid with the word ORCS. This will be an interesting juxtaposition because my WIP is my modern-AU kidnap fam fic "Patchwork Family" with not an orc in sight! But maybe that makes the challenge more fun!

O

‘Oh!’ then Maglor’s face burst into a brilliant smile, ‘It’s not a song, yet. It’s some music I’m working on. It could be a song. I haven’t decided yet.’

‘It doesn’t have words?’ Elrond asked, slight confused.

‘Not yet! What do you think it sounds like? Is it a happy song or a sad song do you think?’

Maglor hummed the tune again and Elrond listened carefully.

‘It’s a thoughtful song,’ he said after a while, ‘It makes me think.’

R

‘Right boys, it’s a long drive so shout if you need the toilet alright and we’ll stop. We’ll have a break for lunch anyway,’ said Maglor tapping away at the car’s computer screen. Maedhros ignited the engine.

‘Okay big waves to Fae and Athenir, bye guys! I’ll text when we’ve made it back!’ cried Maglor out of his open window.

They all waved as the car pulled off and away, the last thing Elrond saw was Fae and Athenir shrinking in sight still waving until they went around a corner.

C

‘Chill Nelyo, please, it’s all gonna be fine-‘

‘You don’t know that!’

‘And you don’t know that it won’t be fine!’ snapped back Maglor, ‘All the paperwork was fine, we’ve had everything go right so far, there’s literally no reason why it wouldn’t all be fine.

‘So why is it taking them so long?’

S

'Sorry Elrond,’ said Maedhros, ‘Come here, stay close. Gosh this rain is hammering down, let’s get inside.’

They hurried forwards, Elrond and Elros sticking close to Maedhros like ducklings. They went up the steps and then it was okay as the front door was under a porch roof.

This was actually so hard! I'm a very dialogue driven writer and so letters like R and S I imagine might be easier if you have more descriptive writing? I dunno, I got there eventually.

These snippets are taken from the two chapters I have unpublished as I write with a chapter in hand. Really hoping to post the next chapter of Patchwork Family soon!