#ry tag

"Makalaure has always adored Maitimo, and the two brothers have always gotten along. But twenty years after Maedhros is rescued from Thangorodrim, he and Maglor have slipped apart and their relationship as brothers lies nearly in tatters. Finrod, recruited by Fingon, attempts to intervene. On betrayal, manipulation, and love."

it's finrod-pov, and the idea here is that maedhros was cruel and prickly after returning from thangorodrim in a way that genuinely hurt maglor's, but that maglor felt he has no right to complain about. later, maedhros apologizes for that treatment, but maglor gets it in his head that that apology was just a manipulation to ensure maglor's ongoing loyalty, and maybe whatever warmth that maedhros used to feel for him is utterly gone. basically, maglor cannot forgive himself for abandoning his brother and is projecting that onto everyone around him, and he's worrying about whether or not imprisonment fundamentally changed maedhros.

i don't think i decided on what i wanted the emotional resolution of the fic to be, but i think i was leaning towards straight up angst - some kind of reflection from finrod about how the feanorian branch of the family is FUCKED as individual and as a unit. i think finrod would play it positively and try to be a mediating force between m+m, but might see how some betrayals just stick with both parties no matter what, even if you only betray someone for legitimately good reasons. it might make him feel some dread about his own ability to be fulfill his own responsibilities and be a force for good in beleriand, who can say :')

because i'm me, there was a whole thing going on in here about sindarin vs. quenya names. in finrod's pov, he thinks of himself as finrod and maglor as maglor; maglor consistently uses findaráto. my headcanon here is that maglor got vocal about switching to his sindarin name as a way to publicly signal his allegiance to both maedhros and fingolfin. finrod has also gotten used to sindarin and thinks of himself as finrod, but maglor still thinks of him as findaráto.

the draft is very navel-gazey and meandering and i don't like it much, lol. i'd have to do a lot of thinking and playing around if i wanted to salvage it, and i probably will never bother. but have some excerpts i like!

Finrod did not have time for this.

Finrod thought that to himself so often lately, in what still felt to him like the very new Years of the Sun. Their very conception of days had changed, and he always found that the light was dying for the day before he expected it, and that seasons turned at the wrong speed. And that was before even taking into account how tiring it was to build and fortify the new fort on the Sirion, and establish both personal and political relationships with their mother's side of the family.

So Finrod did not, technically speaking, have time to be here. But Fingon had asked, and Finrod never said no to sticking his nose in a bit of family drama, and so here he was at the Gap.

...

“Don’t play the fool, Maglor. Despite what I’m sure you think, the rest of us don’t spend our time gossiping about you and your brothers. How many things do you really think Fingon could be worried about, concerning you?”

Although in retrospect that was a foolish question. Finrod both loved and liked Maglor, but his entire House was deeply worrying to every Elf in Beleriand.

...

“It’s– I am angry at him for something he did not even do, something I merely speculate about, and that I refuse to find out the truth of. For if what I suspect is not true, I would not dare accuse him of it, and if it is true...” He took a deep breath. “If it is true, I rather think I do not want to know it.”

Finrod crossed his feet at the ankles. “And he did this in the last couple of years? Maybe the last time you met in person?”

Maglor met his eyes and his mouth twisted in sick amusement. “No. It happened nearly ten years ago, and it was in a conversation about events that had happened nearly ten years before that.”