ataraxion | voice. another time, another town, another everything

[here's a face that doesn't show itself very often. or, well. a voice, anyway. a bit tired, like most everyone is lately. (or maybe just tipsy.) and yet somehow airy and melancholic at the same time.]

..It is more than a year since I was first brought here. At that time I was not in my home world-- I had already been taken to another place. A dying city without death, where it was only ever night. Though I was only there a short time, I have seen a man die and return a week later, impaired but alive. [more quietly:] ..My last memory of the place is of having seen my friends dead, among many others, and myself leaving before I could be sure of their safety.

[and also killing someone. but that's a bag of cats he isn't touching this time. or ever.]

I was told in the City that I had been there before, yet I have no recollection of it. There are people here that I knew in the City, from my world and not, though those here do not remember being anywhere else.

What I mean to say, is.. to ask if this is a common occurrence. If there are others besides myself who have been to other places. I have wondered what powers could take us from worlds we have already been stolen to, how such a thing happens, what it might be that decides where we go next, if we are to go at all. And-- to apologize, I guess, to those I should have told this to, if it is a thing worth apologizing for.

[a hushed breath, and a moment of silence. when he speaks again, it's a little brighter, and lighter.]

There are drinks in the second floor of the gardens. Wine and honey mead, and tea. Neither will aid much in sleeping [he tried. a lot.] but may help calm the nerves, if nothing else.

[for those wishing to talk face-to-face, there is a table set up near the lift with a pot of tea, cups, a barrel of mead, and a flask of wine. legolas himself, however, seems to prefer lying on the ground looking up at the trees instead of sitting on chairs like a normal person.

(he is definitely just tipsy.)]

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I braid your father's hair all the time.

[As if that's an adequate answer. Fili lets out a breath, and moves to undo the tangled mess that is Legolas's braid, working his fingers through the strands.]

[..well. it's adequate enough, for an elf. he helps, marginally, by picking out a few of the leaves and flowers (and twigs) from where he remembers placing them. like an idle way of distracting himself from the fact that he's letting someone besides kith and kin close to his hair.]

I'm sure you know, from Gimli, but our braids have meaning, just as yours do.

[Fili starts to work in proper braids, like the ones he has seen Legolas wear before, but slightly different, with slightly different meanings, working adeptly despite thick fingers.]

Did you ever let him do this?

I do know.

[he can't see what's being done, but he feels it. in a way. it's different from when he normally braids it himself-- or maybe it's just because someone else is doing it.]

..Once or twice, I think. There have been few opportunities for such things.

I am sure. War makes even the easiest comforts hard to place, sometimes.

[Fili had only been a battle, and knew little of true war. But he could imagine, at the very least.]

The comfort of a friend is never hard to find, at least.

[it's more of a struggle than a war, really, what mirkwood fights against the shadow. but it's the closest that he knows to it, besides the journey the fellowship has made so far. if that could also be called a war.]

Well I am glad you have such. It is good to know Gimli has such a friend in you.

And I am glad to have such a friend as Gimli. [leglas falls silent after that. true, he.. might have threatened a man's life for insulting gimli. but he's never really spoken to others about this friendship. and though it's been a year already, he's still only known the dwarf for a few months.

absence makes the heart grow far, far too much fonder.

he looks up suddenly, craning his head back, eyes wide and curious.]

What are you braiding, anyhow? Not something insulting, I hope.

[Fili chuckled, moving the braid just out of Legolas's line of sight.]

I'm braiding something very important. And you know we dwarves are very secretive about our language.

Now insulting or not--that depends on interpretation.

[It might be a small tease.]

[he makes a sound-- sort of frustrated, but not really.]

I cannot interpret it if I cannot know it. [let him seeeee.]

How do you mean to see what is behind your head?

[Fili ducked his head around to look at Legolas, raising an eyebrow. Still, he smiled.]

I put in a braid of friendship, and protection. Hopefully those from a dwarf will not be found in ill taste.

You could tell me, for one. [huffing, he turns back around.

but his tone softens when he replies next, after fili finally speaks.]

They will not be, Master Fili. I welcome them as I would welcome any mark from an Elf.

And I am glad you do. I hope they lift your spirits, if only a small bit.

[He knows how difficult it must be for Legolas, right now.]

voice. another time, another town, another everything

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