[meme] The everyone survived AU

[goldenplaits]

Due to recent events in the movie world, it seemed like we needed one of these again...

THE ARDA AU MEME


{source}

All the AUs! With classics as the obligatory and all important

> EVERYONE LIVED AU. Maybe you're at Thorin's festive coronation or a drinking game between Boromir and Haldir after the end of the War, or Fëanor and Thingol finally talk to each other. Maybe Belladonna comes with her son on adventures, or Maedhros spends some very awkward hours at Elrond's wedding. U know the drill.
> but let's not forget the staple COFFEESHOP AU either
> or the no less important WHAT IF AU: What if the Silmarils were glowing bunnies? What if Bard hadn't managed to take down Smaug? What if Maeglin had not betrayed Gondolin, what if Galadriel had accepted the One Ring? What if Sam had a giant afro?
> and really any other AUs that you can think of.


As a note, since not everyone has seen BOFA yet and some people care about not being spoiled, please make a note in your top level comment/the subject line of a comment if you might bring up spoilers in threads or don't want to be spoiled, something like "bofa spoilers yes" or "bofa spoilers no".

Comments

[bythewaves]

"And yet, if you hold me, the king will only send me away" He points out, reasonably.

"That, or he will be forced to decide if he will be a kinslayer in turn. Will you not let me go?"

[itisourfight]

It is a fair enough point, though she cannot help but think that the king would prefer to make that decision for himself rather than have it in the hands of his Captain.

Still, his presence makes something ache inside her that causes her soul to fill with dread. He knows something, and while part of her wants to force him to reveal it, even her wild heart does not wish to jump into that danger, because if a Feanorian knows her...

She shakes her head, dispelling the thoughts as she makes up her mind.

"Very well. Go, and may we never meet again."

[bythewaves]

A bow and a last, bittersweet look, and he backs away, letting himself fade back into the song of the forest.

"Good bye, Tauriel" the murmur of his voice drifts back to her. "Be safe, be well, be clever, but not too much so, eh? Be happy."

That is the last she will see of him for many, many years, for although Maglor keeps abreast of news of her, he does so discretely.

[itisourfight]

Be safe, he told her, and she proceeded to live a life of danger. Be well, he said, and she was... for a time. Be clever, he said, and she tried, but perhaps she tried too hard with not enough wisdom to temper her attempts.

Be happy, he said, but when next he finds her she is anything but.

At long last, the doom of their kin has caught up with the daughter of Caranthir as she walks the earth exiled and alone, her heart buried with the young dwarf who took it with him when he passed beyond the gates of death.

[bythewaves]

If she does no know, he hoped, the family's curse might pass her by. If she remains only Tauriel, perhaps Doom might be kind. But when he hears news of the Battle of Five Armies, when he learns the tales the minstrels are singing, he knows that not even forgetfulness was enough to keep her safe.

Still, she lives, which is more than Celebrimbor can say, and she is the last now, of his closest kin. So he travels inland, following rumor and intuition until he finds her.

"Tauriel" He calls, softly.

[itisourfight]

It has been years, but she can still recall that voice with perfect clarity.

"Maglor."

She does not know why, but she is happy to see his face as she turns around. She is relieved. She always did know that he had answers for her, she simply was not ready to hear them.

Now... now she thinks that perhaps she is.

[bythewaves]

Hello little niece he wants to say but instead he looks at her and something in him aches to see the hopeless despair in her eyes.

Not even forgetfullness was enough he thinks sadly and comes over to sit beside her. Why? he wants to rail. She is no kinslayer, her hands were clean! The Silmarils are gone!

"I heard." He simply says, and waits for her to decide where to take this conversation.

[itisourfight]

"Why do you care?"

He has no reason to extend sympathy in this way, to come find her and offer comfort.

Except that he does, doesn't he?

[bythewaves]

"Why should I not?"

He turns the question back on her.

"Can a Kinslayer not worry for another?"

For a kinsman?

[itisourfight]

"They can... but you came to find me. It does not seem like the thing one would do for a stranger."

Even when hearing of her grim and lonely fate.

[bythewaves]

A shrug "Perhaps I wished to offer comfort to one who walks a lonely road like myself."

[itisourfight]

"Perhaps."

Some part of her thinks that it rings true that he would. That buried part of herself that reaches toward the sound of his voice like a flower turns to the sun.

"But there is more, is there not?"

[bythewaves]

He returns her gaze calmly.

"If there is, do you wish to hear it? There are things which once said cannot be unsaid."

[itisourfight]

"I did not, before, but what is left to me now? What reason do I have to hide from my hidden past?"

She had turned him away because she wished to remain with her people, because she wished to keep serving her king, and now all of that has turned to ash and bitter tears.

If she can have nothing else, then let her have the truth, at least.

[bythewaves]

He holds her gaze a long moment, making sure she understands what she is asking before nodding.

"Then, Tauriel, I have missed you, little niece. I thought you long and long dead Runya."

[itisourfight]

Niece.

Her eyes widen, and she can feel something shift and move in her mind, and what he says rings true, as does the name he gives her.

"Which of your brothers sired me?"

[bythewaves]

"Moryo... that is, Caranthir was your father. Your mother named you Hallon"

[itisourfight]

"Haleth. My mother was Haleth."

She tries to recall a face, but she finds that she cannot. It remains shrouded in darkness, though now that the door has been opened she is sure that in time it will return to her.

[bythewaves]

"She was." Maglor nods and his lips quirk in rememberence. "Your father denied there was anything between them for the longest time, until she got annoyed with him and one day surprised us all by storming in, yourself in tow, and dumped you in his arms."

[itisourfight]

In the midst of all the pain and sorrow, something that is a strange mix between a sob and a giggle escapes Tauriel when a memory surfaces of what she thinks might be the look on her father's face on that occasion.

"They were wed and he denied it?"

Well, wed by elven standards at any rate.

"Did he... deny me as well?"

[bythewaves]

A low amused sound.

"They were. No ceremony had they, and Haleth claimed none as husband, and so, he said, he was himself not wed, if his wife said she was not his wife. They loved each other, but theirs was a fierce thing, all sharp edges and bursts of temper. They never lived together, that any of us were ever able to discern, and when she set her face and rode away he did not weep or grieve or try to stop her, although I think he mourned, in his own way."

He smiles at her fondly. "No. You he loved from the day she put you in his arms - I truly think he did not even know Haleth was with child, for she was not one to speak of such things, and they were apart more often than they were together. But he kept you apart and saw seldom, hoping that your mother's blood would be enough to stave off our Curse."

[itisourfight]

"Was it?"

She looked at him almost pleadingly, silently begging him to say that she was not a kinslayer.

Did he know how frightfully close she had come? Did he know that she had pointed an arrow at her king, willing to fire it straight into his heart?

[bythewaves]

"Not forever" He says sadly, and reaches, daring, to brush a strand of hair from her face.

"It kept you safe enough, and I thank Thranduil ever day for your life although he knows it not. But your mother's blood was enough to keep you safe for a time, although it could not save her or your father, in the end."