west of the moon, east of the sun

From That Rubble - Chapter Six

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 17:25:22 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Fëanor, Fingolfin, Findis, Lalwen, Sons of Feanor, various others
Warnings: (past) Character Death
Summary: Decades out of Mandos, too many things in Fëanor's life remain broken. He can't do anything except wait for his sons to come to him, but he can do something about the old and crumbling house where they once lived.
Note: This fic covers the same ground as A Hundred Miles Through the Desert, but from Fëanor's perspective.

First Chapter / Previous Chapter

There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sink through fading colors deep
To the sub aqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.
- “Sonnet” by Elizabeth Bishop

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From That Rubble - Chapter Five

Fri, 29 May 2026 21:33:57 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Fëanor, Fingolfin, Findis, Lalwen, Sons of Feanor, various others
Warnings: (past) Character Death
Summary: Decades out of Mandos, too many things in Fëanor's life remain broken. He can't do anything except wait for his sons to come to him, but he can do something about the old and crumbling house where they once lived.
Note: This fic covers the same ground as A Hundred Miles Through the Desert, but from Fëanor's perspective.

First Chapter / Previous Chapter

…for his father was dearer to him than the Light of Valinor or the peerless works of his hands; and who among sons, of Elves or of Men, have held their fathers of greater worth?
- The Silmarillion, “Of the Flight of the Noldor”

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From That Rubble - Chapter Four

Fri, 22 May 2026 15:26:41 GMT

Heart,
I implore you,
it’s time to come back
from the dark

…

Let the world
have its way with you,
luminous as it is

with mystery
and pain—
graced as it is
with the ordinary.
- “Summer Morning” by Mary Oliver

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Reading Wednesday

Wed, 20 May 2026 19:54:16 GMT

I finished another book!

Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe – How Charlemagne's Dynasty Fell and Why It Matters for Understanding Political Collapse, by Matthew Gabriele & David M Perry

For all my interest in medieval European history, I know very little about the Carolingeans, so this was really fascinating, especially coming off of reading The Dark Queens, which was about the Merovingians a few generations before Charlemagne. I enjoyed it a lot.

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Add Another Stone - Chapter Five

Tue, 19 May 2026 19:15:08 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Finrod, Celegorm, Curufin, Fingon, Turgon
Warnings: (past) Character Death, general Doom of the Noldor, some violence
Summary: The thing about forgiveness, he thought, was that it was so much easier when the object of it was far away—or dead. It was so much easier to let it all go when those responsible were far away and unable to do any more harm.

First Chapter / Previous Chapter

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the plot bunnies are breeding

Tue, 19 May 2026 02:14:03 GMT

Highs in the 90s today and tomorrow, whyyyyy. It's been cooler than usual up to now, so why did we just skip ahead to the middle of an August heatwave? I hate it.

The township also repaved our road today, so that smelled great whenever I stepped outside. BUT my peonies are starting to bloom!!

A friend of mine is expecting a baby come fall, so I found some nice cotton/acrylic yarn that's a very pretty shade of purple that I can't remember when or why I bought, and started a baby blanket for her. It's very nice to work with, and it's helping me out of my reading slump--I finished an audiobook I'd stalled out on months ago, and started another. And in looking for the yarn I found where I put the sock yarn I got ages ago with a vague aspiration of learning to knit those, so maybe there are badly-knit socks in my future? We'll see how confident I feel.

After over a year of having a very hard time focusing on anything except one single story, I'm finding myself being smacked in the face with new ideas with shocking frequency. There's the silly Crablorandom crossover I've been poking at, as well as From that Rubbles and The Fire of Life--both of which I had hoped to focus on once I was finished with Desert--but also Finrod showed up in my head and wouldn't leave until I wrote Add Another Stone, which was originally "if I could make Celegorm/Finrod work, how would I do it?" and turned into, well, that plus a character study of Finrod. Also part of it is set by Ekkaia, because I wrote it so of course it is.

And now Celegorm won't leave my head, and this fic is going to be much longer and I'm not even sure how to describe the idea, which came to me with shocking clarity while I was shampooing my hair last week--and then stayed in my head until I could get out of the shower and to a place where I could write it down. Canon-divergence AU where Celegorm survives Doriath but massively injured, and also with amnesia due to a combination of a curse from Dior and a head injury, and then somehow we get to Kidnap-Fam-But-Slightly-To-The-Left when Daeron ends up having a very weird day, and also the Els 1.0 are there (and no one's actually kidnapped* but you get the vibe, right?). I'm not really sure where it'll go from there, which is of course most of the fun, but I had hoped to be focusing on a very different Feanorian.

*an argument can be made that Celegorm is the kidnappee in this scenario

I did, I think, fix the problems I was having in getting Plot Things moving in The Fire of Life, so there's that. At least I've gotten Maedhros out of Rivendell and it doesn't feel as forced as the last three times I tried. I am also again struggling with foreshadowing things on purpose because, uh. I know everything so it's hard to tell if I'm being more obvious than I want to be or not. I don't mind at all people guessing or seeing where things are going, but I do also like to have some reveals be surprising, you know? I somehow threaded that needle exactly how I wanted to in Desert, but I don't want to get overconfident here.

There are a couple of other much vaguer ideas that need to simmer on the back burner of my brain for a while, which is honestly a relief. I don't think I mean to complain about having so many ideas, but it remains as I said very weird after being so hyper-focused on one story for so long.

I'm also thinking I probably won't claim anything for TRSB. The gallery is incredible, as it always is, but there's nothing that really leaps out at me--or at least nothing that I'm immediately confident that I could write 5000 words for. I might write a couple of treats for some artists that I recognized, but we'll see.

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Add Another Stone - Chapter Four

Mon, 18 May 2026 15:29:28 GMT

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Add Another Stone - Chapter Three

Mon, 18 May 2026 03:22:53 GMT

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Add Another Stone - Chapter Two

Sat, 16 May 2026 03:52:48 GMT

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From That Rubble - Chapter Three

Fri, 15 May 2026 20:36:34 GMT

One need not be a chamber—to be haunted—
One need not be a House—
The Brain—has Corridors surpassing
Material Place—

Far safer, of a Midnight—meeting
External Ghost—
Than an Interior—confronting—
That cooler—Host—
- “One need not be a chamber—to be haunted—” by Emily Dickinson

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Add Another Stone - Chapter One

Wed, 13 May 2026 23:03:18 GMT

Next Chapter

Hello, my old heart
It’s been so long
Since I’ve given you away

And every day
I add another stone
To the walls I built around you
To keep you safe
- “Hello My Old Heart” - The Oh Hellos

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From That Rubble - Chapter Two

Fri, 08 May 2026 14:47:07 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Fëanor, Fingolfin, Findis, Lalwen, Sons of Feanor, various others
Warnings: (past) Character Death
Summary: Decades out of Mandos, too many things in Fëanor's life remain broken. He can't do anything except wait for his sons to come to him, but he can do something about the old and crumbling house where they once lived.
Note: This fic covers the same ground as A Hundred Miles Through the Desert, but from Fëanor's perspective.

First Chapter / Next Chapter

I was the match and you were the rock, maybe we started this fire
We sat apart and watched all we had burn on the pyre
…
Do you understand that we will never be the same again?
The future’s in our hands and we will never be the same again
- “Things We Lost in the Fire” - Bastille

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Reading Wednesday

Wed, 06 May 2026 17:39:28 GMT

Hey I actually finished a book in the last week!

It was a reread of Roverandom, which is of course all whimsy and delight, and I got an idea for a kind of cracky fic out of it--Crablor meets Roverandom--so I definitely had fun. I also started another nonfiction book that I've been chipping away at a chapter or two an evening. I won't say I'm out of my reading slump but I'm getting there.

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From That Rubble - Chapter One

Fri, 01 May 2026 17:42:19 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Fëanor, Fingolfin, Findis, Lalwen, Sons of Feanor, various others
Warnings: (past) Character Death
Summary: Decades out of Mandos, too many things in Fëanor's life remain broken. He can't do anything except wait for his sons to come to him, but he can do something about the old and crumbling house where they once lived.
Note: This fic covers the same ground as A Hundred Miles Through the Desert, but from Fëanor's perspective.

AO3 / SWG

Next Chapter

'Cause from that rubble, what remains
Can only be what's true
If all was lost, there's more I gained
'Cause it led me back to you
- “From Now On” - The Greatest Showman

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Til We're on the Other Side - Three - bring you back to me

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:56:15 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Finwe, Original Characters
Warnings: (past) Character Death
Summary: In the dark woods near the Waters of Awakening, Finwë's brothers are taken. In Valinor, when the Trees wither, Finwë is slain. In the Fourth Age, things take place long thought impossible.
Note: This fic takes place in my meanwhile the world goes on 'verse, but can be read standalone. The last chapter will contain spoilers for the end of A Hundred Miles Through the Desert.

First Chapter / Previous Chapter

So listen to the darkness, listen to the patterns
Listen to the breathing sea
Listen to the colors, carry them inside you
They will bring you back to me
Listen to the sirens, listen to the heartbeat
Listen to the turning tide
Listen to the murmurs, carry them inside you
‘til we’re on the other side
In the breaking light
- “The Breaking Light” by Vienna Teng

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A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Epilogue

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:55:41 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Sons of Feanor, Elrond, Feanor, Daeron, various others
Warnings: n/a
Summary: After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.
Note: This fic is a direct sequel to High in the Clean Blue Air.

AO3 / SWG

Prologue / Previous Chapter

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
- “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

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right, i should make a regular post once in a while

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 23:22:54 GMT

Oh my god I'm posting the epilogue of A Hundred Miles Through the Desert tonight! It's coming in at just over 375k words which is wild and also serves me right for deciding I needed to do a weird POV-alternating pattern with eight POV characters. This fic and High in the Clean Blue Air have turned out to be some of the best fiction I've ever written and certainly my top two favorite fics--writing them has been really fun and really rewarding and also really cathartic in a lot of ways, and I can't believe it's almost over. Or at least, the major arc of the series plot--Maglor's story is ending, and I finished the prologue a little while ago and am very happy with it (aside from a few tweaks I need to make sometime later this evening). There's also From that Rubble that I've been working on which is just Desert all over again but from Feanor's perspective, including what he's doing off-screen, and featuring more Findis, Lalwen, and Fingolfin.

There's also probably going to be other spin-off fics in this 'verse because I'm really not ready to let it all go. But it's moving down the priorities list, which is both nice and weird and sad all at once.

Uhh what else. The asparagus is coming up! But we got hit with a very cold snap that included a freeze warning, so that killed some of the flowers that were blooming and also took out some of the asparagus stalks, but that's fine, there's a bunch more coming up. My peonies are also budding, which is very nice. And we had a red-headed woodpecker hang around the backyard on Friday! They're not usually found around here and I spotted him entirely by chance, so that was neat. Dad tried to get some good photos with his nice camera but there always seemed to be branches and things in the way.

I made a marble cake the other day that turned out very nice. I'm next going to try this zebra cake which is basically the same thing but in an actual cake pan and with a stripy pattern to it rather than just dropping the batter in random blobs.

Am still in a reading slump. If I could just. Finish a book? That would be great. I keep picking them up and even if I'm enjoying them I end up putting them down halfway through and just not picking them up again, and it's very annoying. I think in large part it's because most of my brain has been occupied with Desert, so maybe now that that's done I'll be able to focus on other things.

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Til We're on the Other Side - Two - is there such a thing as day?

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 01:59:51 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Finwe, Original Characters
Warnings: (past) Character Death
Summary: In the dark woods near the Waters of Awakening, Finwë's brothers are taken. In Valinor, when the Trees wither, Finwë is slain. In the Fourth Age, things take place long thought impossible.
Note: This fic takes place in my meanwhile the world goes on 'verse, but can be read standalone. The last chapter will contain spoilers for the end of A Hundred Miles Through the Desert.

First Chapter / Next Chapter

Will there really be a morning?
Is there such a thing as day?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?
- “Will there really be a morning?” by Emily Dickinson

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A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Seventy Five

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 23:18:19 GMT

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Til We're on the Other Side - One - loosen your hands

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 02:41:22 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Finwe, Original Characters
Warnings: Character Death
Summary: In the dark woods near the Waters of Awakening, Finwë's brothers are taken. In Valinor, when the Trees wither, Finwë is slain. In the Fourth Age, things take place long thought impossible.
Note: This fic takes place in my meanwhile the world goes on 'verse, but can be read standalone. The last chapter will contain spoilers for the end of A Hundred Miles Through the Desert.
Also written for the SWG's Everyman challenge for the prompt: "So it came to pass, some years ere the coming of Oromë, that if any of the Elves strayed far abroad, alone or few together, they would often vanish, and never return; and the Quendi said that the Hunter had caught them, and they were afraid." - The Silmarillion, "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor"

AO3 | SWG

Next Chapter

Loosen your hands, let go and say good-bye.
Let the stars and songs go.
- “Stars, Songs, Faces” by Carl Sandburg

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A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Seventy Four

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:04:38 GMT

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A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Seventy Three

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 15:05:04 GMT

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A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Seventy Two

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 01:58:00 GMT

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A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Seventy One

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:51:15 GMT

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The Fire of Life - Chapter Seven

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 15:33:30 GMT

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Maedhros, Gandalf, Elrond, various others
Warnings: n/a
Summary: Maedhros is sent back to Middle-earth, in the company of the Maia Olórin.

First Chapter / Previous Chapter

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