The Riddle Of Strider

the starry Alaska sky |   stillpointlodge

don't remember when a meme made me laugh like this

👁️ @reniadeb 👁️

a small fawn doily for my angel boy

Go where you are respected, where you are appreciated, where you are wanted. You gain nothing by sticking it out and swallowing any mistreatment. But by walking away from those experiences you teach yourself that you are worthy of respect, of love, of quality relationships; and you also teach others that when they do not mirror the same level of respect, their access to you is revoked, end of story.

my heart may be heavy but i will always be kind

and i don't necessarily believe any of this i'm just saying words recreationally

You are the daughter of an angelic faerie and an elven king. You have grown up inside the only magical safe-haven of an increasingly apocalyptic land outside. You have wanted for nothing, essentially leading the perfect life, suffering and death playing little role beyond the abstract. Your father will never die, and your mother will never leave, but for tradition you are still crown princess and are educated as such. You love to dance and to sing.

You meet some kind of monster inside your mother's borders, a monster not of her or your making. It stumbled across you, dancing in the forest, bloody and travel-worn and weary and wide-eyed as it stares. You are stronger than it, but you run rather than lunge for the kill. You feel pity, more than fear. And something about him makes the part of you that you inherited from your mother sing.

He tries to follow you, for a year and a day. You are stronger, and faster, and stealthier, and you let him see you sometimes anyways. You are not convinced that he is not a monster, but nor are you convinced that he is.

Spring blooms again to the tune of your song, and you let him get closer than before until you run.

But you hear him speak for the first time. He is a speaker, and perhaps to him you are the monster. You do not run, and you do not kill.

He calls you "Tinuviel"

He calls you nightingale- a little songbird, plain and brown, with a lovely voice. They are your mother's creation, but he does not know this.

He calls you daughter of twilight- perhaps for your skin and eyes and hair, but perhaps because that is when he has seen you most.

He calls you singer- creator of the very fabric of the universe, skilled enough to deserve the title.

You are the most beautiful creature the world will ever see, the daughter of an angel and a king. He does not call you beautiful, or angelic, or princess. He calls you a singer, plain and brown, dark and distant as the approaching night.

He is bloody and travel-worn and weary and wide-eyed as you dare to step closer.

He called you nightingale.

You don't know what to call him, but you hope to find out.

stay kind

So Pippin named his son after Faramir, right?

And like here is the thing. That child- Faramir Took, i mean- has never felt alone . Ever.

For as long as he could remember, he felt like someone was with him. Some sort of presence. Not in a creepy sort of way. It was comforting and made him feel protected and safe. He remembers how his nightmares would suddenly shift into happier dreams and how during storms there was a soft voice telling him stories and singing till he fell asleep. Everyone described him as a happy baby because he was usually heard laughing hysterically and clapping in delight, which is normal, except that some of those times, no one was with him in the room.

Faramir never questioned it though. He only did when the incident happened.

He was never supposed to go into the forest on his own, but he saw a fluffy, white rabbit playing among the trees and decided to watch it for a while then simply get out of the forest. Except that he followed the rabbit deep into the forest and ended up losing his way in there. He wasn't scared. He thought that this was an adventure if you will. Then it started raining and he was soaked, cold, hungry, lost and alone. So terribly alone.

But then the comforting voice returned. It reassured him and told him that it would lead him home, that he just needed to follow it and he did. But as he walked, he saw footprints of one of the Big People beside him in the mud, but what disturbed him was what he saw in the water puddles. It was the face of a man with dark hair and grey eyes, but Faramir couldn't see anyone around him.

The voice did help him get back to The Smials. Everyone fussed over him and asked him where he went, but Faramir was too distracted to answer them. All he could think about was The Man.

And as his father was tucking him into bed for the night, Faramir told him about the comforting voice and how it led him home, but most importantly, he told him about the man in the water puddles.

"Do you know who that could be?" Faramir asked

And Pippin, with tears in his eyes, answered him.

"That is Boromir."

isn’t it weird how toxic masculinity is still a thing when the aragorn/boromir forehead kiss should have obliterated it back in 2001