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[disfavour]

[ This isn't going to be sweet but it will be short, courtesy of your resident Prince Not-So Charming. ]

There are now three flets, which pass as treehouses, in the gardens. These are homes and if anyone is seen nearing them to gain access, they will be shot on sight. I assure you, an arrow is far more difficult to extract than a bullet. [ #EXPERIENCE, urgh. ] Additionally, you will find the Elven quotient aboard the ship is now officially in charge of garden-based security.

That means we need not apologise if your actions force us to maim you.

[ Can you hear someone sharpening a knife? Humming? Sounds a lot like Legolas in the background, right? Someone pissed off the Space Elves. ]

Thranduil is indisposed and has appointed myself in his stead. If you have any concerns which fail to be entirely moronic in nature, you may bring them to me.

Comments

p r i v a t e

[disfavour]

[ Gross. ]

Would that I were rubble with you.

p r i v a t e

[favouring]

No, brother--

No.

I'd not trade our reunion for death and despair. I don't believe that you mean that truly, either.

p r i v a t e

[disfavour]

Perhaps not, but neither do I wish to live on this ship forever. I tire of the forge and the fighting, and I would see father again.

p r i v a t e

[favouring]

This is the world we have. It's on our shoulders to take it in our hands and make it worthy. You are a king in more than Thranduil's regency, and you will persevere.

( a moment later, gentler-- )

Come when you are done with this, lay your head in my lap and I will read to you.

p r i v a t e

[disfavour]

[ A weary pause and then his assent, as old as the mortar of marrow holding his bones together. ]

Anything for you, sister.

p r i v a t e

[favouring]

I'll expect you.

( perma-action )

[disfavour]

[ Hours later, he does indeed turn up at the flet for the she-elves, seeking her out with a tap-tap-t-tap-tap on the wooden walls. ]

[favouring]

( nuala sets aside her sewing - ever-present, for the time being, when there is so much she needs to get done - to rise and come to greet him. )

[disfavour]

[ He enfolds her in his embrace, holding on like a drowning soul clinging to driftwood. Turning his chin slightly, he pecks her on the temple. ]

You can sew over my head while I sleep, if you've so much to complete.

[ What is this, sewing central. ]

[favouring]

( it basically is, yes. she needs clothes - elizabeth, too, will need suitable gowns. then there are the gifts she's promised to others, and his own new suit for the wedding, and even the simplest of such things must be delicately embroidered... )

If it'd soothe you. When you wake, perhaps I'll spin thread while you tell me what plagues you.

( or, more accurately, she thinks perhaps he simply needs to talk himself out; she doubts there's much she can fix or reassure him on, in truth. the facts of their situation are what they are, but she isn't going to deny him a private moment to be frustrated and weary. she is his sister. he hasn't got to be a king to her. )

[disfavour]

Many things.

[ He hadn't realised he was so tired until a yawn made itself known, stepping away to begin divesting himself of weapons and armour, finding a place for it in a corner so Nuada is left in comfortable fabric. He plucks at this and that, pulling faces at the dresses for Nuala's benefit. ]

I wonder if I shall be soothed when surrounded by such atrocious needlework ...

[favouring]

( she settles herself down, cross-legged and comfortable, and gives him a winsome smile. )

I will sew this embroidery to your face as you sleep, brother, set that down at once.

[disfavour]

[ For once, his smile broadens and he laughs a little in the back of his throat. Stretching out, he lays his head in her lap and lets his eyelids grow heavy, deep sighs huffing out from where they've been hiding in between his ribs and behind his heart. ]

I am tired, sister. Of mortals, of this ship ...

[favouring]

( her fingers pass through his hair briefly before she takes up her needlework. )

I know it well. I know, too, that you will go on wearying if you insist on martyring yourself on your own harshness. They won't respect you so long as they believe you desire their fear.

( before she can be forestalled-- )

And if you do, that's hardly relevant except insofar as you'll not have it without their respect.

[disfavour]

I care nothing for the respect of such worthless creatures.

[ Grumble, grumble, rolling over and getting comfy. ]

[favouring]

I'm well aware. ( her tone is wry. ) You're a warrior, my brother-- I'm a politician. Will you heed my counsel that you may better serve your king?

( because if there's anything that nuala knows about, it's managing people. )

[disfavour]

What if I want no king, Nuala?

[ He isn't terribly certain what he wants, but he knows he's unhappy. ]

I feel that he is slipping, as father did, and it does not sit well with me to watch the same thing happen all over again. I cannot endure that a second time.

[favouring]

( her surprise is brief, and then-- no. she isn't, truly, surprised; her gentleness is tinged with regret, lowering her hand to the side of his face. )

My brother. You shoulder a burden you never meant to bear.

( between the two of them, who would've kept ahead of courtiers games and navigated the treacherous waters of diplomacy? it would've been nuala, with the authority of her brother's sword at her back. she has no true desire for power, but there's a part of her that regrets they never ruled as they could have - that believes they could've led their people out of the mire of darkness, from strength to strength.

that dream is done with. there is nothing for them to return to, and this is their world, now. )

I want what is best for us-- if you're unhappy with your path, let me help you seek another.

[disfavour]

[ He shoulders it willingly and resentfully, at odds with what ought to be done and what needs to be. There is no real desire for power in Nuada either, nothing beyond the capability to carve out their own bright future. What might they shape here? Treehouses and dresses.

His hand covers hers, turning his mouth to speak against the palm. ]

You are the only touchstone I have left.

[favouring]

( it is little wonder, she thinks, that she adapts more easily to this life than he does; did she not also follow their father into the seclusion of their people? did she not learn to tolerate the slow decay of their lives? if she has traded jewels and handmaidens for the feel of grass beneath her feet, even grass coaxed to live surrounded by the vacuum of the stars, then...

it is a bitter exile, but she's swallowed bitterness before. she knows how to find her measure of joy, within it. )

You've forged bonds here, ( she reminds him, letting him hold onto her hand. ) Be not so quick to discard them when they are painful, for that is when they are most needed.

( she doesn't see a contradiction in this, from what she's said already; he need not serve as vassal or as leader to be friend and ally. perhaps he would do better, at a remove. )

[disfavour]

I cannot withdraw from service while Thranduil is weak. It would be a selfish cowardice and he requires the certainty of command, for he cannot obey.

[ Just as he told Anung un Rama, what seems like a lifetime ago. He shrugs, aching through his back from carrying his lance without rest for days, and closes his eyes. ]

They only need my bond so long as it comes with my blade.

[favouring]

Not while he is weak, no.

( she wouldn't suggest it-- but if he still feels this way when that weakness has passed, then they may need to address it. )

But my brother, the words I've heard spoken of you here are not the words of people who value only your strong arm.

[disfavour]

[ The quizzical look he gives her ruins his repose, but it can't be helped because he's nosy. That people speak of him is well-known, but not in any other undervaluing light than That Unpleasant Elf (which he doesn't care about, but still) so it's a point of very real surprise. ]

What do they say?

[favouring]

( in spite of herself, of him, of this moment entirely-- nuala laughs, clear as a bell. )

Dearest, sweetest brother. Did you fail to notice that I owed so much of the early kindnesses shown me to the strength of your reputation? I won't deny that I capitalized well on my success, but I'm obliged to credit you for its beginning.

( look, nuada, that first network post-- she reached a point where she genuinely wanted to throttle the next person who came to her talking about you, dude. )

The dwarf king, Fili, reached out to me in friendship on the strength of his respect for you. He was not the only one.

[disfavour]

[ Grumpycat intensifies. The barest smile flits across his lips when he hears about Fili, dissolving as he closes his eyes.

Would it be so awful to conscript Morgoth into an alliance and wipe out the humans aboard? Save the ones they need, obviously. The one sticking point that makes Nuada veer from the idea is that he would not be the lord and master of such devastation, there is no crown to command the creature, to direct him when to stop. But he thinks he could defect as he did from his father's side, and kill those with whom he finds excessive fault. If his chest feels hollow when he considers it, it is only because he cares for the other elves and know exactly the position he is in, all too well, and that they are not his people who will follow him even if he acts in their best interests.

It's never a good idea to leave Nuada to his darker thoughts. ]