THE AFTERMATH [closed]

[bemerry]

CHARACTERS:Merry & Sauron
LOCATION: Oxygen Gardens
WARNINGS: A hobbit warmth cuddle pile gone horribly wrong right.
SUMMARY: One Un-snakified Maiar and one aching hobbit + a sleepy dragon
NOTES: Before Merry is sick


[ These past weeks have been hell upon Meriadoc. He is a hale and healthy hobbit, mostly unburdened by troubles and a hedonist in the most humble and simple way possible. His pleasures were in good work and good rest, in a well set table and a good pint of ale.

To have terrible dreams, is one thing, but to be completely unable to rest is quite another. And still he focuses all his waking attention on his slithering companion, a personal heater for the reptile who—in spite of their lack of communication—has managed to become something of a friend. A dear one, at that.

It does, however, explain how they are found huddled under a patch of 'sunlight' in the oxygen gardens, Merry curled comfortably in the middle of the serpent's coils, a small dragon resting atop.

He doesn't wake at first, once something is wrong, doesn't register anything but a persistant pain in his right arm, a burning cold numbness, and the black unconsciousness of his mind suddenly turning more sinister, more grief-filled.

And it is that, the instinctive recoiling from the dark pit from which he had nearly succumbed unto death that wakes him.

Nothing is the same. ]

Comments

[lordof]

[he doesn't initially register the change. from scale to skin, head to hair, tail to feet. it's like being dragged out of the water and remembering you weigh a lot less when you drown. he feels heavy, tired, exhausted almost-- if he knew what that felt like. feels like his eyes have only just closed and now they are opening again, and he can see again, he can see clearly. and hear.

the grass is oddly warm against skin that has felt nothing but cold the past few weeks. the first thing he does is flex his fingers, feels the strain of ligaments and bones, toes, shifts a leg and an arm. squints in the bright light.

when he tries to sit up, something tells him the weight on his stomach isn't glaurung. it takes a moment to recall that he hadn't exactly been alone when he fell asleep.]

[bemerry]

[ Of the thing he had expected waking up, it was not finding himself in the lap of another. His arm shakes, and the less frightened part of his mind goes ah, so this is sauron. In a way, he feels almost betrayed, that he had been kind, and had at least thought some of his own friendly sentiments had been returned.

In the next, he feels much the betrayer. That he had been so blind to a serpent's nature to not realize that it was his, and his cousins greatest enemy. Defeated enemy, his mind protests, but it seems so hollow now, when he is one of the only few who remembers it. Still, he will make a clean breast of it. ]

I- I do not believe we have met properly, Master Mairon.

[lordof]

Meriadoc. [meriadoc. a strange name, he's decided, if only because it does not much resemble any language he knows of. the future must be a strange place indeed. he inclines his head, glancing briefly at the dragon curled over his legs before looking at the hobbit again.] ..I think we have met properly enough.

[snake or no snake, he still chose to accept merry's help and company. now that his identify is known, though, he holds nothing to or against the hobbit. it's odd enough to have been treated so kindly, mistaken identity or otherwise.]

THE FOREVER LATEST OF LATE I AM SO SORRRRRYYYYYy

[bemerry]

I... [ Well, to be fair, he has known, or at least, known of Sauron long enough for such a thing to be true, if only technically. ] I do suppose that is true.

[ He is not quite sure how he gets a smile on his face, but he manages. It’s even rather genuine. It is, perhaps, hard. He does/did/continues to treasure the companionship, and yet… this is The Enemy, this is the source of all his cousin’s strife and terrors, the evil that corrupted good men, the force that nearly destroyed Middle eArth utterly, and swallowed the world in darkness.

He is unsure what to think.

Glaurung begins to stir in his lap, irritated, and the immediate thought to placate the cute, if rather grumpy and somewhat threatening dragon helps to distract the need for any other response.

He goes by Mairon. The name distances him a bit, until the stories told to him finally coalesce fully into something of a shock. He doesn’t yet know. Followed by an even more treacherous, dangerous, thought.

Can it all be changed? ]

It is rather nice to be able to have words in response, I must admit. [ His good cheer seems to have somewhat returned, in spite of the tiredness. He oughtn't place such hope in so small a thing, but for now surely it will not hurt. ]

CRADLES IT CAREFULLY

[lordof]

I could have spoken to you in that form. [admittedly, but not ashamedly.] Not with words, of course. But I suppose I saw no need for it.

[or perhaps, in a way, he didn't want to see that kindness end because his identity was revealed. it's a little thing to savor-- he is, in the end, a deceiver. mairon watches discreetly, nothing the initial quiet, the pauses.

to be honest, he's quite perplexed by the cheer. especially if his assumptions are correct and the hobbit does know who he is, who he really is. just like the elves, like elessar. but not quite the same. it seems genuine, for one. in a way. he hasn't known anything genuine in quite a long time.]

My apologies, however, if I have.. discomforted you in anyway. [he picks a sleepily grumpy glaurung up and sets the dragon in the grass next to him, where it grumbles and props a head up on mairon's stomach to stare at merry.] I had not expected my form to change so suddenly.

c:

[bemerry]

[ Merry reaches a hand out to pet at Glaurugn's head as he has done so often in these past few days, curled up in serpentine coils in the few moments of rest that they could grasp. He finds his arm hurts less, now, or perhaps he has become accustomed to the dull ache it seems to have faded to. ]

It's quite all right. [ A beat, and then a laugh. ] I imagine it might be more disconcerting to you to have awoken in a different shape.

[ Sauron is defeated and gone in his world, and he doubts that anything aboard this ship can change that, for so much time had passed already before Merry arrived, and still all else had remained the same, even with Sauron having encountered those who would become his enemies. And it is not in Merry to truly hate, only to mourn, and pity, and offer what little grace he can. Meriadoc is quite sure that grace and friendship are not what Sauron expects. ]

I suppose we'll just have to feel our way through whatever comes next, then. I don't think I've ever had a friend quite so old or talented, before.

[ I'm not about to kick you out, is what he is saying, in his hobbitlike, simple way. ]

[lordof]

A little, perhaps. [funny, how he could almost trust the hobbit with the dragon now. granted, he could trust a great many people with glaurung, but few enough from middle-earth. too young, perhaps, to have ever seen a dragon himself.] I am not in the habit of sleeping much, to be able to wake at all. More disconcerting to wake with another lying over me.

[glaurung licks at merry's palm a few times before settling down with an almost huffing exhale. sauron keeps himself propped up on one elbow, for the time being, if only to better regard the hobbit.]

The Lady of Light is old enough, and talented in her own rights. [there's only the smallest amount of distaste when he speaks of her. for all of his dislike, it's only particularly prickly when she's within sight. or hearing distance.]

[bemerry]

My apologies, then. [ Meriadoc is sorry. While it made sense for Merry to lay atop the serpent (most surface area for warming) it does seem like it would be rather unpleasant to wake with someone potentially hostile and somewhat unfamiliar in one's lap. ] I did not mean to cause you discomfort.

[ At Sauron's mention of the Lady Galadriel, he laughs. Sauron sounds not unlike he had bitten into some particularly bitter and ill-flavored fruit pastry. ] Aye, but an elf is not alike a Maia, at least so I was led to understand. [ There is old, hella old, and then there is before Arda existed old. While Galadriel is likely far more old than Merry is comfortable thinking about, the very ground he lived and walked and all such things did exist before she did. The same cannot be said for Sauron. Sauron, in that sense, seems widely and completely unreal. ]

I doubt I should invite the two of you to tea at the same time. [ It is strange, for once, to consider that though he has told her such things, and she has forseen them as a possible path, Merry has lived Sauron's defeat, and thus almost has less cause to fear him. ]

[lordof]

It was nothing of yours to apologize for, Meriadoc. I do not hold you accountable for it. [if anything he blames the vessel and this world for doing such troublesome things, keeping him from changing and then changing him back an inopportune times.]

Alike enough in ways, and unlike in others. We are both of us flesh and blood, though mine is of my own making. [it isn't the first time he's shared something like this, but they're still few and far in between. he's quiet for a moment though, then merry mentions tea.]

..I am sure that we are capable of being civilized in each other's presence. [a thin smile.] But I am not much in the habit of drinking tea.