Blame ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2)
tarion_anarore for this. She's the one who latched the nuzgul onto my leg by pointing out that I kill Maglor with far greater frequency than the other Fëanorians. In particular, she asked for dead!Caranthir. Well, she got him....
sempiternal \sem-pih-TUR-nuhl\, adjective:
Of never ending duration; having beginning but no end; everlasting; endless.
Examples
"In all the works on view, Mariani conjures a sempiternal realm that exists parallel to mundane reality and which is accessible through art, reverie and the imagination."
-Gerard Mccarthy, "Carlo Maria Mariani at Hackett-Freedman," Art in America, September 1999
"This is a sempiternal truth for institutions of high prestige. Someone will pay (almost) anything for Ivy-ish credentials."
-Dennis O'Brien, "A 'Necessary' of Modern Life?" Commonweal, March 28, 1997
"Finally, Syon's orchards are the world as our imagination would like it to be -- not wilderness, since orchards are after all planted and cultivated by farmers, but a sempiternal and ideal region of the mind."
-Thomas L. Jeffers, "That which sustains us," Commentary, June 2002
Etymology
Sempiternal comes from Medieval Latin sempiternalis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperaeternus, from semper, "always" + aeternus, "eternal."
Synonyms
enduring, eternal, everlasting, perpetual
beneficence \buh-NEFF-i-suhns\, noun:
1. The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity.
2. A charitable gift or act.
Examples
"Lord Jeffrey told Dickens that it [A Christmas Carol] had 'prompted more positive acts of beneficence than can be traced to all the pulpits and confessionals in Christendom.'"
-Roger Highfield, The Physics of Christmas
"From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper. From the reputation and remembrance of my father, modesty and a manly character. From my mother, piety and beneficence and abstinence."
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
"She had disseminated around her what seemed an involuntary aura of beneficence and goodwill."
-John Bayley, Elegy for Iris
Etymology
Beneficence is from Latin beneficentia, from beneficus, "kind, generous, obliging," from bene, "well" (from bonus, "good") + facere, "to do." The adjective form is beneficent.
I am warning you all: These drabbles are very dark. They are violent and disturbing. Do not read them if you are bothered by such things.
You have been warned.
Punishment
I am punished in Mandos.
I sit between Vairë and my mother and watch Morgoth whip my beautiful firstborn until he weeps for mercy. That is not the worst. Whenever I think Morgoth’s cruelty must be exhausted, he does worse.
Maedhros’ blood is glistening, scarlet thread; the spools are quickly exhausted, but they are always replenished.
How I wish to close my eyes! But I have no eyes to close, and daily, I watch.
Daily, I am bathed in sempiternal regret, wishing for tears to burn my eyes and screams to rend my throat—not his.
This is my punishment.
~oOo~
Mercy
They say I have no mercy.
They idolize my kinsmen: valiant Findekano, beneficent Findarato. They see nothing good in me, the Kinslayer.
Only blood on my hands.
In Doriath, I prove them wrong.
In Doriath, I find my brother, his life leaving slowly, painfully, through a wound in the gut. The tendons in his neck are rigid; his hand flutters—weak—in mine. He tries to speak—he screams instead.
I kneel. I unsheathe my sword and—staring into his beautiful, dark eyes—let it slip across his throat.
His blood washes my hands.
They say I have no mercy.
~oOo~
Andtarion_anarore got her own nuzgul bite from this and wrote an accompanying drabble, from Caranthir's perspective.
I am on my knees. I wrap one arm around my stomach, feeling blood soak my clothes, my own blood. My brother finds me thus, bleeding, in agony.
He takes my hand, though my cold fingers hardly feel it.
I open my mouth to speak.
“Brother…”
It comes out only as a wordless scream.
He brushes my hair back from my face.
“Fear not, Carnistir.” His voice sounds so far away.
I stare into his eyes, my vision growing hazy.
He has drawn his sword, but I barely comprehend it.
“It will be alright.”
A kiss of steel.
Then darkness.
~oOo~
Thanks, Tarion, for sharing this :)
tarion_anarore for this. She's the one who latched the nuzgul onto my leg by pointing out that I kill Maglor with far greater frequency than the other Fëanorians. In particular, she asked for dead!Caranthir. Well, she got him....sempiternal \sem-pih-TUR-nuhl\, adjective:
Of never ending duration; having beginning but no end; everlasting; endless.
Examples
"In all the works on view, Mariani conjures a sempiternal realm that exists parallel to mundane reality and which is accessible through art, reverie and the imagination."
-Gerard Mccarthy, "Carlo Maria Mariani at Hackett-Freedman," Art in America, September 1999
"This is a sempiternal truth for institutions of high prestige. Someone will pay (almost) anything for Ivy-ish credentials."
-Dennis O'Brien, "A 'Necessary' of Modern Life?" Commonweal, March 28, 1997
"Finally, Syon's orchards are the world as our imagination would like it to be -- not wilderness, since orchards are after all planted and cultivated by farmers, but a sempiternal and ideal region of the mind."
-Thomas L. Jeffers, "That which sustains us," Commentary, June 2002
Etymology
Sempiternal comes from Medieval Latin sempiternalis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperaeternus, from semper, "always" + aeternus, "eternal."
Synonyms
enduring, eternal, everlasting, perpetual
beneficence \buh-NEFF-i-suhns\, noun:
1. The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity.
2. A charitable gift or act.
Examples
"Lord Jeffrey told Dickens that it [A Christmas Carol] had 'prompted more positive acts of beneficence than can be traced to all the pulpits and confessionals in Christendom.'"
-Roger Highfield, The Physics of Christmas
"From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper. From the reputation and remembrance of my father, modesty and a manly character. From my mother, piety and beneficence and abstinence."
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
"She had disseminated around her what seemed an involuntary aura of beneficence and goodwill."
-John Bayley, Elegy for Iris
Etymology
Beneficence is from Latin beneficentia, from beneficus, "kind, generous, obliging," from bene, "well" (from bonus, "good") + facere, "to do." The adjective form is beneficent.
I am warning you all: These drabbles are very dark. They are violent and disturbing. Do not read them if you are bothered by such things.
You have been warned.
Punishment
I am punished in Mandos.
I sit between Vairë and my mother and watch Morgoth whip my beautiful firstborn until he weeps for mercy. That is not the worst. Whenever I think Morgoth’s cruelty must be exhausted, he does worse.
Maedhros’ blood is glistening, scarlet thread; the spools are quickly exhausted, but they are always replenished.
How I wish to close my eyes! But I have no eyes to close, and daily, I watch.
Daily, I am bathed in sempiternal regret, wishing for tears to burn my eyes and screams to rend my throat—not his.
This is my punishment.
~oOo~
Mercy
They say I have no mercy.
They idolize my kinsmen: valiant Findekano, beneficent Findarato. They see nothing good in me, the Kinslayer.
Only blood on my hands.
In Doriath, I prove them wrong.
In Doriath, I find my brother, his life leaving slowly, painfully, through a wound in the gut. The tendons in his neck are rigid; his hand flutters—weak—in mine. He tries to speak—he screams instead.
I kneel. I unsheathe my sword and—staring into his beautiful, dark eyes—let it slip across his throat.
His blood washes my hands.
They say I have no mercy.
~oOo~
And
tarion_anarore got her own nuzgul bite from this and wrote an accompanying drabble, from Caranthir's perspective.I am on my knees. I wrap one arm around my stomach, feeling blood soak my clothes, my own blood. My brother finds me thus, bleeding, in agony.
He takes my hand, though my cold fingers hardly feel it.
I open my mouth to speak.
“Brother…”
It comes out only as a wordless scream.
He brushes my hair back from my face.
“Fear not, Carnistir.” His voice sounds so far away.
I stare into his eyes, my vision growing hazy.
He has drawn his sword, but I barely comprehend it.
“It will be alright.”
A kiss of steel.
Then darkness.
~oOo~
Thanks, Tarion, for sharing this :)
darkficcish
*figures Maedhros will get enough cuddling from the rest of your readership**whistles innocently*
Don't know who around here would do that.
(I'd gladly cuddle Carnistir and Feanaro too!)
Fë-fëFeanor will probably get his share of love from this crowd as well. :)As for No. 2... whose PoV is it from again? I know Caranthir is the one who dies... maybe the one talking is Maedhros? Sounds like him...
*sigh*
I'm beginning to confuse even myself.
It was very good, nonetheless.
*Cry*
;D
I'm actually a little flattered at having caught you off-guard, after all the hullabaloo I've been making over these dark!drabbles. I would have thought that you would have expected something radical out of me! ;)
Haha! Well I didn't say that I am not evil...;D
I would have thought that you would have expected something radical out of me!
I suppose I should have!! I mean, there's only one thing I can think of that is more radical (or maybe it's about the same level of radicality), and that's...
No! Little bunny, get away from me...
Regarding drabble 2:
I don't think it is Maedhros or Maglor. I am thinking it is Amras or Amrod. Both are more hunters then Maehdros and Maglor and know when to give mercy. Also the mentioning of pride... I'm not saying that the elder brothers don't have them, but I somehow think it is more prominent with the younger ones.. somehow.. *hmmm* ;)
*whistles innocently and pretends to have remembered enough LaCE to have it in mind while writing this!*
Now that you mention it, LaCE does say that, doesn't it? Here I thought I was propagating fanon....
I am thinking it is Amras or Amrod.
That's an interesting perspective. I find Amrod and Amras difficult characters: I've never written them outside of drabbling (and even then, every time, I think it was one of these "could be many PoV" drabbles), and Tolkien writes so little of them. I find my feelings on them confounded by fanon, but when I write them, I am determined not to have more prankish twins....
Having more pride than M&M--that is interesting. I've often wondered how A&A's attitudes differ compared to the two groups of brothers. I guess, not hearing that they were constantly raising a fuss at meetings and inspiring kinslayings, I've thought of them as being mild, but they were also outside of the action much of the time, as Tolkien says they did not often journey to the north of Beleriand.
I've always seen them as kind of distant and disinterested...a little eccentric even.
Hmmmm.... Now you've got me thinking! :D
Thank you. The world really does not need any more fic where A&A are reduced to pointy-eared copies of Fred and George Weasley. And isn't there a bit in HoME 4 or so where they're described as the most vicious of the surviving brothers after the Cs are dead?
Feanor's punishment certainly sounds appropriate. My impression of your second drabble is that it's Celegorm talking (Celegorm rather than Curufin, because I think that Celegorm is more likely to care what people say about him), but I see from the other comments that no one else thinks so!
sempiternal is a new word for me (and my spellchecker), and since Dark seems to be the order of the day:
Shadows
We Elves have a shadow before us. What will become of our fëar when the world ends not even the Valar know, and if Eru has decided he has yet to make his choice known. Will we have a place in the Second Music, or will we simply cease to exist, mere incidentals swept away by the Breaking of the World?
Here, exiled under the fading sun I envy my grandchildren - they may choose mortality, and after death go on, beyond the circles of the world to the sempiternal place of Men. The fortunate ones whose shadow lies behind.
SHADOWS
Re: SHADOWS
Thanks! I am paranoid when it comes to warnings. I am always worried that I'm not going to be clear enough about the content of a story, and someone's going to come whining, "I didn't know it was about that; now I'm all mentally messed up, and I'm going to sue you for therapy...."
Well, maybe that's a little extreme, but I just want to be sure that people are adequately warned ;)
(Besides, good luck finding Dawn Felagund in the White Pages!! :D)
but I see from the other comments that no one else thinks so!
Except me! :) I think it most likely Maglor or Celegorm because I think 1) Maglor would be most bothered by the title of "merciless" or 2) Celegorm is commonly regarded as the most merciless of the brothers, and as you said, he is more image-conscious, I think.
And your drabble--WOW! I love it! I just reread it again and got chills...you capture so well the dilemma that the Elves face in their fate. I was trying to explain to my boss the other day about how Tolkien's mythology called death the "Gift of Men," and he kept saying, "How is it a gift?" Next time, I'll show him your drabble as way of explanation! :D
I see your point about warnings, and it's probably a good idea. I get a bit paranoid about the rating I should give each story on ff.net, but that's in case someone complains and gets the fic pulled! Perhaps I don't think about warnings myself because I don't post anything that I would consider warning-worthy on my livejournal (or I haven't yet!).
Would Maglor be bothered by being called merciless by the time of the attack on Doriath? He didn't develop a conscience until after the Third Kinslaying.
Celegorm would make an excellent politician if he could control his temper (with Curufin as his spin-doctor)!
PUNISHMENT AND MERCY
Re: PUNISHMENT AND MERCY
I must admit I love the dark stuff.
Me too :) Which makes no sense, being as I am a bit of a sunshiney person. (But I have a feeling that applies to you too! ;D) I suppose there's some psychological "reason"--I know that it is easier to confront fears and anxieties in a story. Perhaps that is why I can write very bloody stories despite being highly blood-phobic.
Hopefully, you'll still be saying that you like dark stuff after reading my take on the Thangorodrim story! (Which, incidentally, I haven't written, but parts of it are done in my head.)
And I thought of Celegorm all along as I read the second one.
Celegorm is about tied with Maglor for who I think the speaker most likely to be. He is most often viewed as merciless (or so it seems to me, despite the bad press the Caranthir and Curufin also seem to get), and--at this point--his rather blank, cold tone fits what I think his character would be feeling.
Now you all have me leaning back towards favoring Celegorm as the speaker! :)
Re: PUNISHMENT AND MERCY
Though AFAIK feas in Mandos have no contact with the outside world. Doesn't matter. Definitely it's Feanor who feels that this is punishement, not the Mandos' evil intension.
I just don't get the idea of quotations on the top of the drabbles, but maybe I am to tired, I'll be back tomorrow to see them.
I really like short forms, though I unconsciously spoiled mine for I had no idea what a drabble is before. I've seen the word here and there, but thought it had a different meaning ;)
So it's too short and to plotless or actionless to be a story, too long to be a drabble.
It's here if you want to see - at DA or FF.net, general stuff, inspired by Ithilwen's and Deborah's fics, but I noticed it some time after I finished mine.
I do a daily drabble, based off the word of the day from dictionary.com. I either have to use the word in the drabble or clearly convey the word as the theme of the drabble. So I open each with the word definitions, a few quotes to illustrate each, and the etymology.
These were the result of a challenge issued by
In addition to drabbles, there are drubbles, tribbles, quadrubbles, and quibbles, all in multiples of 100 words. Today, during a session of
So there's all kinds of shortfic :)
Thanks for checking these out. I will also check our your shortfic! :D
Yes, as a matter of fact, this is leading where you think it's leading...
Could I pretty please springboard of of Teh Evil Drabble of Darkness
that I pestered you to write??*angel face*
I shalt credit you of course.
Peeease?
In that case, I will take it all back...;) Just kidding! Well, I will take back the "un-evil" part...;D