(Untitled)

[ringbearing]

Only two days after which Frodo Baggins would have said he felt comfortable navigating the compound and the island country around it, everything changed. The world itself went from lovely and blue and warm to some strange and complex city. The very clothes on his back had changed. To his utter dismay, the streets were now oddly cobbled

Comments

[hastrustissues]

She's rebelling against the clothes box and pretty much every outfit it keeps trying to put her in. Luckily, she and Columbus are fairly close to the same size, and he's never complained once about her borrowing anything - especially the shirts she uses for sleeping in - but now, with everything completely changed, Wichita's not just borrowing his clothes for bed.

The pants are a little snug - which is what happens, apparently, when she wears Victorian clothes that aren't meant for someone with an actual backside - but the shirt fits after a little tucking and the jacket she actually likes despite its subtle frills. She's taking a walk since she doesn't have her running gear at the moment, and any cardio is better than no cardio, but the scent of smoke has her stopping in front of one of the benches, peering down at the guy sitting there. "Nice pipe," she comments, nodding appreciatively.

[ringbearing]

The women were certainly lovely here, Frodo thought, though to him they were no more attainable than the beautiful and distant Elf maidens in Lothlorien. And this woman, with hair the color of fire, was rather remarkable.

(Still, his heart ached for a touch he knew better than his own, as far away from him now as the lands of smoke and ash left behind.)

"Thank you, my lady," he said. "While I was unsure of the change to this place at first, the pipes have more than made up for any other inconvenience."

[hastrustissues]

"I mean, normally I don't go the pipe route, since it seems a little awkward," Wichita continues, glancing to the empty space on the bench next to him and then back up to his face, as if silently gauging whether or not it's in her best interest to sit down and continue the conversation that way.

"But I got to admit, it definitely goes with the theme of the island," she adds, nodding thoughtfully. There's something in the way he addresses her that vaguely reminds her of someone else she's met, although their face and name are escaping her at the moment.

[ringbearing]

"Do you know if the island regularly changes theme? Is it seasonal?" In that, the place would be far more like the Shire than any other place he'd been. The Shire, of course, did not take different shapes, but with the snow and sunshine and rain-- and the keeping of homes and streets-- it could be so many different places.

"I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "I shouldn't go on like that when we haven't properly met."

[somanytitles]

"Frodo!"

Aragorn was glad that he had found his friend in this place. While Frodo was more brave than any being that Aragorn knew, that didn't mean that things couldn't be easier with a helping hand. That, and Aragorn found that Frodo was far better at... integrating himself into social things than Aragorn.

"How are you this day?"

[ringbearing]

"Better than I have been, truly," Frodo said, favoring his friend with a smile. "There are some incredible sights here, even if it takes me a while to get close enough to see them properly. I was rather disappointed to find that most of the hats have been too large."

He took a puff from his pipe, watched the smoke curl through the air.

"And you, Strider? How are you?"

[somanytitles]

"As well as I can be," he said with a nod, glad that Frodo was enjoying himself despite the change in scenery and weather. The Hobbit had found mirth in darker places, but he was glad a place like this lent itself to happiness readily. If anyone should deserve it, it was Frodo Baggins.

"Though I once again envy our friend Legolas, and his ability to walk so lightly as to leave the snow untouched beneath his feet."

[ringbearing]

"It is a talent I've seen nowhere else," Frodo agreed. "Do you think he would enjoy this island? Perhaps not as it is now, but the warmth and the strange creatures and the forest."

He wished he could show it to Sam.