Delayed Reaction
Sep. 15th, 2024 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grundyscribblingTitle: Delayed Reaction
Rating: FR13
Summary: Celegorm finds a few things out considerably after the fact.
Word Count: 1650
Note: This was the poll winner by a whisker. (Don't worry, the other options will still be coming at some point. They're in progress!)
Celegorm wondered if it was popcorn time again when the Judge suddenly appeared. They hadn’t seen him since he had announced the twins could return to the living. For that, he’d been his usual calm, cool self.
He was currently neither calm nor cool. Namo didn’t look quite as frantic as he had when attempting to avoid little Anariel, and there was no attempt to wall anyone out this time, but he was clearly there for a similar reason.
It turned out to be Tindomiel angry at him today.
She marched in hot on his heels and folded her arms across her chest, glaring.
Atto was downright amused, but Celegorm and his brothers – with the exception of Curvo, who looked fascinated – tamped down on an urge to shift about uncomfortably, because she was doing an inspired impression of Aunt Anairë about to tell someone off. They’d all been on the receiving end of that expression at least once.
“Now that you’ve stopped running away, we are going to have the conversation about this habit of yours of hiding out with whoever you think we won’t lose our tempers in front of,” Tindomiel said sternly. “It was dumb enough trying to do it with Anariel, especially the part where you thought running when she’s hacked off was going to work out for you, but it’s downright ridiculous doing it with me. And if you don’t stop…”
She paused for a moment, thinking, before a downright evil grin lit up her face.
“I’ll tell my aunties that you’re doing it,” she finished sweetly.
Celegorm had to cover his mouth, because he wasn’t far from losing the battle not to laugh at Namo’s reaction. He didn’t dare look at his brothers.
Namo did his best attempt at dignified silence.
“Now that we got that bit of stupidity out of the way,” Tindomiel continued. “From now on, I expect notice whenever you send one of them back.”
She waved in their general direction.
“They go to your sister anyway,” Namo protested. “What more notice do you require?”
Oh did they? Wasn’t that just interesting…
“Newsflash: we’re not always in the same place. She didn’t bother telling me about Uncle Ambarussa until later. I missed a ton. In case you hadn’t noticed, I like watching the fireworks. Not to mention seeing my grandmothers get all happy and excited.”
“Accepted,” Namo ground out, and then did something anyone other than the Judge himself might have described as fled.
“Fireworks?” Kano asked wryly. “It was only Ambarussa.”
Despite Maitimo arguing vociferously it should be him, just to make sure their youngest brothers weren’t wandering out into a fraught situation…
“How much trouble could they have created?” Maitimo wanted to know.
Atto snorted, evidently thinking that a foolish question.
“Yeah, but someone –” It was a good bet that the direction Tinu was glaring was wherever Namo happened to be at the moment, and Celegorm cherished the hope he was feeling it, “had the bright idea to send Nimloth back recently and not give me a heads up about her either. So I didn’t get to warn my sister. It went great.”
“How great?” Celegorm wanted to know.
“There was a massive family ruction, and I hear the last thing Anariel said to her before storming off to have a nice long spell of not talking to her was ‘just so you know, I hit back.’ So absolutely awesome all around.”
Kano winced.
“There were no punches thrown, though?” he prompted.
“No, Anariel’s not mean enough to actually let it get that far, she knows she could wipe the floor with Nimloth. The family ruction was because Nimloth tried taunting her while she was walking away, and Grampa Thingol took Anariel’s side.”
Celegorm winced. That had to have burned more than a little.
“Estë directed Uncle Ambarussa to Anariel, in Neldoreth, and they showed up right after that whole throwdown, while she was still grumpy about it.”
Tinwë didn't clarify which 'she' was grumpy, but Celegorm suspected it probably applied to both of them.
“Please tell us ‘no punches thrown’ held?” Kano said in a tone that clearly indicated he didn’t expect it had.
“Oh, don’t worry, Anariel wasn’t mad at Uncles Ambarussa,” Tindomiel assured them cheerfully. “Anyway, even if she had been, Uncles Elur were there, and they wouldn’t have let her. I don’t think any of us were expecting Uncles Ambarussa to be besties with Uncles Elur, I think even Ada was surprised by that, but whatever works.”
She shrugged expressively, unbothered by the vagaries of her kin. Or that particular vagary, at least.
“Why should they not be on good terms?” Celegorm asked curiously.
The rest of the room, minus Atto and Curvo, gave him various flavors of funny look.
“Uh, the whole ‘taken into the forest and left to die’ at the Kinslaying thing?” Tindomiel said in her very best ‘duh!’ tone.
“I haven’t heard this part before, pitya, you might have to explain a little more,” he said, taking great care to keep his tone even despite internally seeing red.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed multiple brothers and his father edging closer to him. Possibly not so calm as he’d meant to sound.
Her jaw dropped.
“You… but…”
She looked at his older brothers in apparent astonishment before her eyes returned to him.
“It was your people that did it,” she informed him incredulously.
“But definitely not on my orders,” he fired back. “Or with my knowledge.”
He’d have ripped them limb from limb had he known. Actually, given how tenuous his hold on sanity had been by the end, he’d probably have done considerably worse. Might have been interesting to see if Kano and Maitimo would have restrained him in time…
“When did this happen?” he demanded.
“After the whole multi-way murder in the throne room thing,” she said gingerly. “You really didn’t know?”
It was rare to see Tinwë look so disconcerted. He wasn’t sure if it was his ignorance of key facts, his reaction to finding out, or possibly both, that did it.
“I was a bit busy being dead, kiddo,” he pointed out reasonably, shifting some of his negative feelings toward his brothers. “I thought you were clear on who died where when? But certain other people never mentioned this to me. Who exactly was it did this?”
He glared at his older brothers.
“People we do not like even now,” Tindomiel said disdainfully. “Who know better than to come near me, and presumably you, too.”
She might not be telling, but her words implied that she did know…
“I doubt they’ll come near any of us,” Kano said. “Ambarussa passed sentence on them. In hindsight, I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing when he did.”
Tindomiel waited expectantly for Kano to elaborate. So did Celegorm.
“His judgement was that since they left the little twins in the woods with no shelter, food, water, winter clothing, or assistance of any kind, they would get none of the same from anyone in our host.”
Tindomiel though for a second before she grinned again – this time, a sharp, predatory smile that cut like a knife. He hadn’t realized she had that in her.
“I like Uncle Ambarussa a lot better for that,” she announced in satisfaction.
“Wonderful,” Celegorm ground out. “I want names.”
“No!”
Both of his older brothers and his father had countermanded him in the same breath.
Tindomiel’s brows flew up in surprise, and she looked back and forth between them all in bemusement. In her extremity, she even took his younger brother into account for a second, though that had a distinct air of ‘any port in a storm’.
“One uncle versus multiple grandfathers…” she muttered.
For a moment she appeared to be trying to do a calculation on her fingers before giving up.
“You know what? I’m just going to leave you guys to discuss this amongst yourselves, because it sounds like some people here who are not me know more about it anyway.”
It was no good trying to argue with a girl who could vanish mid-word when she wanted to. Trying to argue with Lúthien had been maddening enough and she hadn’t ever pulled that trick.
“And she’s gone,” Curvo sighed. “Just as well.”
“Tyelko, I’m not sure what the penalty is for trying to kill people who are already in the Halls, but maybe, just maybe it would be better for you not to find out the hard way?”
Kano sounded as exasperated as though he’d already tried it.
“They killed children,” Celegorm growled. “Those boys were three!”
How was everyone overlooking that so easily?
“They abandoned children,” Maitimo corrected tiredly. “We did try to find them, you know.”
By the sound of it, they had failed miserably.
“Splitting hairs,” he growled. “As young as those kids were, killing them outright would have been kinder. Anything could have gotten them.”
Without Melian and her Girdle, there could have been wargs, orc, trolls, or worse lurking in the forest. Some of them liked to play with their food…
“Raging about it like this so belatedly changes nothing,” Curvo cut in, using his voice of deliberate calm. “The only thing it may accomplish is getting you stuck in here longer still. I would suggest you take a walk, but that would likely be counterproductive.”
Damn right it would be, because the first thing he would do was find any of his people who could tell him who…
“You’re not going anyplace in that frame of mind,” Atto told him firmly. “Have a seat and start using your words.”
He gave them all a filthy glare before throwing himself down into the pile of cushions left from last time his granddaughters had visited.
Tinwë might at least have left him some popcorn. If nothing else, he could throw it at people.
Rating: FR13
Summary: Celegorm finds a few things out considerably after the fact.
Word Count: 1650
Note: This was the poll winner by a whisker. (Don't worry, the other options will still be coming at some point. They're in progress!)
Celegorm wondered if it was popcorn time again when the Judge suddenly appeared. They hadn’t seen him since he had announced the twins could return to the living. For that, he’d been his usual calm, cool self.
He was currently neither calm nor cool. Namo didn’t look quite as frantic as he had when attempting to avoid little Anariel, and there was no attempt to wall anyone out this time, but he was clearly there for a similar reason.
It turned out to be Tindomiel angry at him today.
She marched in hot on his heels and folded her arms across her chest, glaring.
Atto was downright amused, but Celegorm and his brothers – with the exception of Curvo, who looked fascinated – tamped down on an urge to shift about uncomfortably, because she was doing an inspired impression of Aunt Anairë about to tell someone off. They’d all been on the receiving end of that expression at least once.
“Now that you’ve stopped running away, we are going to have the conversation about this habit of yours of hiding out with whoever you think we won’t lose our tempers in front of,” Tindomiel said sternly. “It was dumb enough trying to do it with Anariel, especially the part where you thought running when she’s hacked off was going to work out for you, but it’s downright ridiculous doing it with me. And if you don’t stop…”
She paused for a moment, thinking, before a downright evil grin lit up her face.
“I’ll tell my aunties that you’re doing it,” she finished sweetly.
Celegorm had to cover his mouth, because he wasn’t far from losing the battle not to laugh at Namo’s reaction. He didn’t dare look at his brothers.
Namo did his best attempt at dignified silence.
“Now that we got that bit of stupidity out of the way,” Tindomiel continued. “From now on, I expect notice whenever you send one of them back.”
She waved in their general direction.
“They go to your sister anyway,” Namo protested. “What more notice do you require?”
Oh did they? Wasn’t that just interesting…
“Newsflash: we’re not always in the same place. She didn’t bother telling me about Uncle Ambarussa until later. I missed a ton. In case you hadn’t noticed, I like watching the fireworks. Not to mention seeing my grandmothers get all happy and excited.”
“Accepted,” Namo ground out, and then did something anyone other than the Judge himself might have described as fled.
“Fireworks?” Kano asked wryly. “It was only Ambarussa.”
Despite Maitimo arguing vociferously it should be him, just to make sure their youngest brothers weren’t wandering out into a fraught situation…
“How much trouble could they have created?” Maitimo wanted to know.
Atto snorted, evidently thinking that a foolish question.
“Yeah, but someone –” It was a good bet that the direction Tinu was glaring was wherever Namo happened to be at the moment, and Celegorm cherished the hope he was feeling it, “had the bright idea to send Nimloth back recently and not give me a heads up about her either. So I didn’t get to warn my sister. It went great.”
“How great?” Celegorm wanted to know.
“There was a massive family ruction, and I hear the last thing Anariel said to her before storming off to have a nice long spell of not talking to her was ‘just so you know, I hit back.’ So absolutely awesome all around.”
Kano winced.
“There were no punches thrown, though?” he prompted.
“No, Anariel’s not mean enough to actually let it get that far, she knows she could wipe the floor with Nimloth. The family ruction was because Nimloth tried taunting her while she was walking away, and Grampa Thingol took Anariel’s side.”
Celegorm winced. That had to have burned more than a little.
“Estë directed Uncle Ambarussa to Anariel, in Neldoreth, and they showed up right after that whole throwdown, while she was still grumpy about it.”
Tinwë didn't clarify which 'she' was grumpy, but Celegorm suspected it probably applied to both of them.
“Please tell us ‘no punches thrown’ held?” Kano said in a tone that clearly indicated he didn’t expect it had.
“Oh, don’t worry, Anariel wasn’t mad at Uncles Ambarussa,” Tindomiel assured them cheerfully. “Anyway, even if she had been, Uncles Elur were there, and they wouldn’t have let her. I don’t think any of us were expecting Uncles Ambarussa to be besties with Uncles Elur, I think even Ada was surprised by that, but whatever works.”
She shrugged expressively, unbothered by the vagaries of her kin. Or that particular vagary, at least.
“Why should they not be on good terms?” Celegorm asked curiously.
The rest of the room, minus Atto and Curvo, gave him various flavors of funny look.
“Uh, the whole ‘taken into the forest and left to die’ at the Kinslaying thing?” Tindomiel said in her very best ‘duh!’ tone.
“I haven’t heard this part before, pitya, you might have to explain a little more,” he said, taking great care to keep his tone even despite internally seeing red.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed multiple brothers and his father edging closer to him. Possibly not so calm as he’d meant to sound.
Her jaw dropped.
“You… but…”
She looked at his older brothers in apparent astonishment before her eyes returned to him.
“It was your people that did it,” she informed him incredulously.
“But definitely not on my orders,” he fired back. “Or with my knowledge.”
He’d have ripped them limb from limb had he known. Actually, given how tenuous his hold on sanity had been by the end, he’d probably have done considerably worse. Might have been interesting to see if Kano and Maitimo would have restrained him in time…
“When did this happen?” he demanded.
“After the whole multi-way murder in the throne room thing,” she said gingerly. “You really didn’t know?”
It was rare to see Tinwë look so disconcerted. He wasn’t sure if it was his ignorance of key facts, his reaction to finding out, or possibly both, that did it.
“I was a bit busy being dead, kiddo,” he pointed out reasonably, shifting some of his negative feelings toward his brothers. “I thought you were clear on who died where when? But certain other people never mentioned this to me. Who exactly was it did this?”
He glared at his older brothers.
“People we do not like even now,” Tindomiel said disdainfully. “Who know better than to come near me, and presumably you, too.”
She might not be telling, but her words implied that she did know…
“I doubt they’ll come near any of us,” Kano said. “Ambarussa passed sentence on them. In hindsight, I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing when he did.”
Tindomiel waited expectantly for Kano to elaborate. So did Celegorm.
“His judgement was that since they left the little twins in the woods with no shelter, food, water, winter clothing, or assistance of any kind, they would get none of the same from anyone in our host.”
Tindomiel though for a second before she grinned again – this time, a sharp, predatory smile that cut like a knife. He hadn’t realized she had that in her.
“I like Uncle Ambarussa a lot better for that,” she announced in satisfaction.
“Wonderful,” Celegorm ground out. “I want names.”
“No!”
Both of his older brothers and his father had countermanded him in the same breath.
Tindomiel’s brows flew up in surprise, and she looked back and forth between them all in bemusement. In her extremity, she even took his younger brother into account for a second, though that had a distinct air of ‘any port in a storm’.
“One uncle versus multiple grandfathers…” she muttered.
For a moment she appeared to be trying to do a calculation on her fingers before giving up.
“You know what? I’m just going to leave you guys to discuss this amongst yourselves, because it sounds like some people here who are not me know more about it anyway.”
It was no good trying to argue with a girl who could vanish mid-word when she wanted to. Trying to argue with Lúthien had been maddening enough and she hadn’t ever pulled that trick.
“And she’s gone,” Curvo sighed. “Just as well.”
“Tyelko, I’m not sure what the penalty is for trying to kill people who are already in the Halls, but maybe, just maybe it would be better for you not to find out the hard way?”
Kano sounded as exasperated as though he’d already tried it.
“They killed children,” Celegorm growled. “Those boys were three!”
How was everyone overlooking that so easily?
“They abandoned children,” Maitimo corrected tiredly. “We did try to find them, you know.”
By the sound of it, they had failed miserably.
“Splitting hairs,” he growled. “As young as those kids were, killing them outright would have been kinder. Anything could have gotten them.”
Without Melian and her Girdle, there could have been wargs, orc, trolls, or worse lurking in the forest. Some of them liked to play with their food…
“Raging about it like this so belatedly changes nothing,” Curvo cut in, using his voice of deliberate calm. “The only thing it may accomplish is getting you stuck in here longer still. I would suggest you take a walk, but that would likely be counterproductive.”
Damn right it would be, because the first thing he would do was find any of his people who could tell him who…
“You’re not going anyplace in that frame of mind,” Atto told him firmly. “Have a seat and start using your words.”
He gave them all a filthy glare before throwing himself down into the pile of cushions left from last time his granddaughters had visited.
Tinwë might at least have left him some popcorn. If nothing else, he could throw it at people.
