Being An Older Sibling Is Like. You've Never Known A Life Without Me. Mom Yelled At Me And It Taught

B2MEM - "Ashes"

@spring-into-arda (308 words)

My first thought on seeing that one of the prompts this time was the song "Ashes" by the Longest Johns was that this was a great prompt for Elrond and Numenor; the talk about worshipping the ashes really seems to fit with later stage Numenor and tending to the flame of life and hope is a very Elrond thing.

(Okay, my very first thought when I saw that one of the prompts was a song link was an irrational certainty that it was a Rick Roll. Tumblr has made me paranoid.)

. . .

It was a hard thing to visit Numenor now. He had seen it when it was green and golden; to see it slowly crumble into ash was a hard thing.

It was elves who were supposed to be most tempted by memory and its traces of old glories; to see Men so enthralled by their own past, their own dead, felt unnatural. Elrond had known these faces when the lifeblood was still bright in their cheeks. He did not mind seeing them captured in stone, but to see more care expended on these remnants than on the ever fewer children whose voices echoed down the cold streets - it disturbed him.

There was not much he could do. The kings of Numenor did not like an elf telling them their business.

Even if the one doing so was, even now, not quite an elf.

There had been a time -

But he turned his mind firmly from memory. He could do no good there.

He could do some good here in the poorest quarter of the city in the market corner where a host of anxious mothers with infants who had caught the fever plaguing the city had gathered because they had heard he could help.

It was a good reminder that there was still some new life in the city.

“Hello, little one,” he said softly to the first squalling little one that was placed in his arms. “Let me see what is amiss. Should you like to hear a song while I do?”

It was an old song, good for soothing fevers and children alike.

He had sung it long ago to some who were now immortalized in ever more elaborate stone. He could lose himself in grief for that if he let himself.

He could.

He would not, so long as there were more children to tend.

Hii!! I feel like I haven't seen you in ages, I hope you're doing great!! If it's not too late, could I request a Dousy lockscreen? Thank you, and have a nice day!!

Awww, thanks!!! I am doing great, I have delicious chocolate 😂 back at you, I how you're doing well, too!! Oh GREAT request

Gosh I love these two. Thanks for the ask!!

one day I’ll finally write that ridiculously elaborate fanfiction that I’ve been carefully constructing in my daydreams for months and then you’ll be sorry. you’ll all be sorry.

Jet Lag News Update

#1. Ben Threatened To Break His Legs If He Doesn't Get His New Switch Soon

"Our sources say this indicates the ever approaching filming date of s15, with the release of season 14 just around the corner."

#2. Breaking News: Adam Chase Asked The Public For Travel Tips Instead of Sam

"Trouble in paradise? Or was Adam Chase just not in the mood for Sam yapping about planes for three hours? Sam wants to know. No, really, Sam wants to know."

#3. Jet Lag The Game Turns Three

"Sam Denby, founder of Jet Lag the Game, diagnoses his child with developmental problems, co-founder Ben Doyle disagrees: 'It has drawn sooo many circles, Sam!' - co-founder Adam Chase remains suspiciously silent on the issue."

AoS + text posts pt. 21/?

As the ultimate dad, one of Coulson's many duties is to teach his kids to drive...

...

Driving lessons with the SHIELD family.

Okay no I need to talk about the book version of Howl's Moving Castle. I love the movie but the book has such a different vibe and you, yes you, should read it.

Movie Howl is a soulful and quiet. Book Howl is a drama queen and Causing Problems and has a long string of jilted exes and couldn't shut up if you paid him.

Sophie and Howl drive each other up the wall at the beginning and it's really funny. Sophie and Howl are (despite themselves) very much in love by the end and they still drive each other up the wall and it's even funnier.

In the movie, Howl has been ordered by the king to participate in The War, and Howl is avoiding it because he is a brave conscientious objector. In the book, Howl has been ordered by the king to rescue his lost brother from the Witch of the Wastes, and Howl is avoiding it by any means necessary because he is a cowardly weasel who wants to stay as far from the Witch as possible.

In the movie, the Witch cursed Sophie because she was jealous about Howl speaking to Sophie for five minutes. In the book, the Witch cursed Sophie because Sophie had been doing surprisingly powerful magic for years without knowing it and it was actually starting to cut into the Witch's plans. (Sophie does not discover any of this until nearly the end of the book, but the reader can start to pick it up much earlier and the way Sophie's magic works is pretty darn cool.)

In the movie, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens, but this is implied to be nothing but nasty fearmongering. In the book, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens because Howl started the rumor so people would stop asking him to do wizard junk all the time.

The book lightly parodies a couple of tropes from Western fairy tales. In particular Sophie has internalized that, as the eldest of three sisters, her "destiny" is to fail so that her younger sisters will look cooler when they succeed, which is why she's so resigned to the hat shop at the beginning. (Sidebar: Sophie's sisters come up much more in the book and they're great.) There's also a really funny bit where Sophie attempts to operate a pair of seven-league boots.

In the movie, the fourth and final location that the magic door connects to is some sort of black void / mindscape / time portal dealy. In the book the fourth location is Wales, in the UK, on Earth, so that Howl can visit his family, because from Howl's perspective this is an isekai story.