Transactions challenge - three drabbles to finish

[dwimordene_2011]

Title: Finding purchase
Author: Dwimordene
Summary: Necessity mothers invention.
Characters/Pairing: Gondorrim OCs
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Mature concepts
Book/Source: LOTR Appendices
Disclaimer: I'm neither JRRT nor making money off this.

Comments

[aliana1]

A small shred of human decency is salvaged from amid the great, horrific waste--I was not expecting that!

In all seriousness, this is a great ending to your sequence. Celbaran's dread is palpable, and I love the description of the barrow mound: a dark, ominous swell, as of condemnation... Also love your turn of phrase with "peace": In fact, 'tis a bargain, whose coin is another's blood. And what an ending: evening, spreading like a bruise, brought visitation...For love and honor. Celbaran sat down and wept.

Amazing job with the prompt words--another terrific drabble set!

(Also, I kind of want Celbaran to be my boyfriend? Can he be my Gondorian boyfriend?)

[dwimordene_2011]

-I was not expecting that!

I hate to be totally predictable. ;-)

(Although in honesty, I was contemplating an ending in which Celbaran and Gilion sneak up to the barrow after dark to open the door and discover that the family had suffocated in the tomb due to bad air and narrow confines.)

Glad you liked the wordplay! I love the way drabbles encourage it, since you need to cram about fifty ideas into half as many words to make your episode work. And I did want beg, barter, steal to be in there somewhere, so I went to some lengths to squeeze them in.

Also, I kind of want Celbaran to be my boyfriend? Can he be my Gondorian boyfriend?

Um, don't you have a couple of those secreted away already? Plus, this one just participated in a massacre. Methinks he might need a lot of counseling and possibly some heavy-duty drugs...

[aliana1]

Although in honesty, I was contemplating an ending in which Celbaran and Gilion sneak up to the barrow after dark to open the door and discover that the family had suffocated in the tomb due to bad air and narrow confines.

Ah, there's the Dwim we know and love!

I love the way drabbles encourage it, since you need to cram about fifty ideas into half as many words to make your episode work. And I did want beg, barter, steal to be in there somewhere, so I went to some lengths to squeeze them in.

Me too! And that was very well done.

Um, don't you have a couple of those secreted away already?

I...plead the Fifth?

Methinks he might need a lot of counseling and possibly some heavy-duty drugs...

That's true for most Gondorian boyfriends worth having, isn't it? (Unless he's into guys? Is he into guys? Gilion? ... Yes. Yes, I know I have problems. Sigh.)

[dwimordene_2011]

Ah, there's the Dwim we know and love!

But I did manage to not go that route this time!

That's true for most Gondorian boyfriends worth having, isn't it? (Unless he's into guys? Is he into guys? Gilion? ... Yes. Yes, I know I have problems. Sigh.)

Probably true. As for Celbaran, he's not into Gilion, he's just not into being bribed with someone else's wife.

[hhimring]

Oh crumbs. What a scene!
Everyone is going to need heavy-duty counselling after this.
Even the Khan's Men, although they will probably refuse to acknowledge it.

[dwimordene_2011]

Everyone is going to need heavy-duty counselling after this.

So very, very true.

Even the Khan's Men, although they will probably refuse to acknowledge it.

This is their therapy, sadly - someone to blame for Hurrhabi (other than Aragorn being clever and ballsy and them being somewhat less so and paying for the boldness of the Corsairs). They'll take the lesser trauma of massacring a bunch of people who are pawns to cover the trauma of Aragorn's attack on the shipyards.

[hhimring]

It may look like the lesser trauma now, but will it remain so in the long run? If you declare some of your own to be Other in order to be able to kill them with a clear conscience, the consequences of that decision stay with you like unlaid ghosts.
(Sorry--very inappropriate use of indeterminate "you"!)

[dwimordene_2011]

I think about this a lot, given how badly America is faring as an empire. I mean, do agree that objectively, if a nation's politicians are committed to this sort of politics, the consequences will be unavoidable. Whether those consequences include significant personal impact on those participating in it during their lifetimes - significant enough to cause remorse and a change of direction - is one question to ask. Because whether it's a stop-gap or not, people can and do trade off on different violent options, choosing the one that alienates least and holding to it, sometimes, fanatically because the alternative is the collapse of their personality and world. I forget the name of the documentary that had five U.S. soldiers in the Iraq occupation mount cameras on their helmets, but one guy came back very bitterly clear about what we were doing ("It wasn't MWD, we wanted the oil") but his conclusion was: and we'd damn well better win over there and get the oil, because otherwise, none of what we are will survive. So don't dare question

[engarian]

Very strong and well done!

- Erulisse (one L)

[dwimordene_2011]

Thanks, Erulisse! Was a bit tough closing this one out, but at least I have an idea of how the Shipyard Raid politics played out in the end now.

[lindahoyland]

What a powerful trio of drabbles!

[dwimordene_2011]

Thanks, Linda - they were definitely a bit of a task to write!

[kortirion]

Beautifully phrased - too many to count over the entire sequence, the entire story has been a pleasure to read... even if you were forced to get beg, barter and steal in my the back door! ;-)

But then a challenge is a challenge... and I applaud your answers wholeheartedly.

[dwimordene_2011]

Hi Kortirion -

a challenge is a challenge... and I applaud your answers wholeheartedly.

Thank you! And of course, you are so right about a challenge being, well, a challenge. A great part of the fun of these last three drabbles lay in figuring out: how can I get the transactional ideas I think work best with my story into communication with these other prompts?

Beautifully phrased -

Glad you enjoyed!

even if you were forced to get beg, barter and steal in my the back door! ;-)

Smuggling them in seemed to be the appropriate transaction with the challenge prompts. :-)