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[desperate_times]

Well! That was charming. I love being chased by mobs of shadow critters, really, I do.

I just wish they'd chewed on a less expensive pair of boots.

[She's making it sound worse than it was. Chloe is quite good at getting away from danger.]

Everyone else in one piece? Not that I really know many of you, but the less of you are there, the less interesting things become.

Oh, and to the, um... alien-looking chap and the handsome little man who saved my skin at the station, thanks.

Comments

[orcsurfing]

The first one? Then it is an honour and I should hope the impression I leave of my people is positive!

[ Singsong and playful. ]

Well met, Chloe. My name is Legolas.

[ And then he has to laugh, just a little. ]

Simply, it is a dwarf who does not much like my kind. Mistaking an elf for a dwarf? Cannot go well with him at all, though perhaps not as terrible as mistaking him for an elf.

[ Ha ha ha, as if that is possible at all! ]

[desperate_times]

[She likes the humor and playfulness of his voice. Too bad she can't see the face that goes with it.]

Who is 'he'? Not the dwarf I met, I assume. He seemed a nice fellow.

[orcsurfing]

[ Another chuckle escapes him. ]

It would be Fili's uncle, Thorin Oakenshield. Unlike his nephew, he is plenty testy and does not take well to humour of the most folk.

[ No, it's just you Legolas, stop talking teasing shit about Thorin, yet it's all in good fun, his tone is hardly offensive or truly mocking. More so reminiscing of a friend teasing a good friend, than any dislike or disrespect. ]

[desperate_times]

Not everyone has a sense of humor.

Yours seems to be working, though.

I take it you're the Seelie kind. It's funny, we're here for some kind of war, but most people seem to get along just fine.

[orcsurfing]

Kind words you offer me, Chloe, though I must say my humour may only shine when it reflects off of another's!

[ He too appreciated right from the start Chloe's light tones and easy way of speaking. Legolas doesn't let the more tricky subject to darken his voice. ]

You are half correct, and half... not! When I came, I came to the Seelie Court, however now I wander without answering to anyone but myself, my allegiance to either Court forsworn for the eternity of my life. [ The responsibilities, for the moment, he skips over. ] The differences in people in either Court can be as vast as the great seas, or as narrow as breadth of a hair, I have found. No wonder then that many can become friends, do you not think? Or were friends prior!

[desperate_times]

[She had suspected as much. Some must have the desire to just walk away from it all and ignore what's going on between the courts.]

But what about your home world? Don't you wish to return to it? Or have you given up on that, too?

[orcsurfing]

[ There's a moment of silence here, as he considers his words carefully. ]

A hundred years is no more but a blink of an eye for an elf, I have not a single qualm to wait out this war anymore, not after I have been fooled and used by the monarchs who ravage their own lands, mindless of their people.

Though you will wonder, sooner or later, whether it is possible at all to return. They say that our connection to our worlds thins with every week, every month we spend here, and it is not that we return when we vanish, but that we die and the souls float never to return where they ought to.

Even the elves of Arda, whose lives are directly linked to Arda's, can be lost in the void in between the worlds.

[ Which is... quite the terrible fate to the elves who should return to the Halls of Mandos, the Halls of Waiting... ]

[desperate_times]

A hundred years and I'll be doing cartwheels in my grave, love.

[Sadly, she can't wait out a hundred years here, though what he says after is troubling.]

I don't know anything about where my soul is ought to go, I just know where I'd like to be while I'm still living.

[And that's her own world and her own time, with all of its modern comforts.]

Sounds like you got burned, mate. Care to talk about it?

[orcsurfing]

For what it is worth, your lifespan here is doubled to my best knowledge.

[ How reassuring that is for a human? He doesn't know. It isn't much for him, seeing as elves are immortal anyway. ]

I am certain many would wish so as well, myself included. One thing I can say for certain, whether it is true we may never return or not, keep your life and keep your shard. With the shard you lose all hope of ever returning.

[ The choice of words on her part is startlingly accurate, though he's aware it's nothing more but a coincidence. Still the scars from the twin brands ache vaguely at the memory it brings up. ]

My father and I both came willingly, we have listened to the fairies and offered our aid, what we have been told and what awaited us here were... too different for comfort. The lines of the war itself too unclear, ever shifting, the people of the Courts too similar at times, even when standing on the opposite sides of the field.

[ And he'll leave it at that. ]

[desperate_times]

People in power will always screw you over.

[At least, that's her experience. They always seem to want more.]

So you're washing your hands of it. And now you just.. travel around? For a few hundred years or more? Must get boring after awhile.

[orcsurfing]

My father has been a great king, wise and kind yet firm enough to have the people's respect.

[ Though he neither bristles nor takes offence in any way, merely stating a fact. ]

I gather those who need protection from the war itself, and offer my aid to them instead. Though even without this, I am over a thousand years old [ Smiles and amusement returns to his voice. ] I have mastered the art of not growing bored, I should think!

[desperate_times]

[He's a prince? Well, a new twist to things.]

A heroic prince. They'll write stories about you.

[The light teasing is back in her voice.]

You sound too young to be over a thousand. I wouldn't have guessed over three hundred.