Genre Challenged: Shortcut

[strangerian]

Author: strangerian, Stranger on Dreamwidth
Title: Shortcut
Challenge: Genre Challenged, Time Travel
Rating: Gen
Pairing/Characters: Bilbo, Frodo, Radas
Summary: Bilbo and Frodo find an unexpected inn tucked into a bit of forest outside Woody End. Bilbo goes to the loo and doesn't come back immediately.

Comments

[baranduin]

This was really marvelous. I love the homeishness and familiarity of the beginning, then the disorientation of stepping outside the necessary and into the future where Bilbo could make a difference, and then the return to present day, with the requisite sense of strangeness. Really well done.

[strangerian]

Thank you! The Shire setting is always fun, and the time travel adventure gave Bilbo some challenges he didn't know he'd missed for a long time, even if it was real danger and real risk. Bilbo is much more an adventurer than Frodo, in spirit, even if Frodo ended up going further around Middle Earth.

[grey_wonderer]

I enjoyed this very much. I loved this line:
(He froze still as a Troll at dawn.)

And if ever any hobbit did Time Travel, it would almost have to be Bilbo Baggins. : ) I enjoyed the fact that he didn't know who he was watching thanks to the passing of time.

I did find myself wondering what might have happened if Bilbo's RING and Frodo's RING had wound up side by side. Scary...

[strangerian]

Oh, it was fun to work out. Pippin would have been a twinkle in his parents' eyes when the story starts, so Bilbo is left thinking the Tookish lad must be someone's extramarital child. (I'm guessing those are just as much cousins as anybody else, in the extended hobbity family.)

That's a good question, about the Rings. There is, of course, only one One Ring even if it's present twice at a time. Either the One Ring is sublimely above any contradictions inherent in the situation in some hyper-geometrical Oneness, or else the older ring Frodo carries would dominate the younger one, since it contains it already. Sadly, I can't believe they'd cancel out or anything convenient like that.

[lovethosehobbit]

How incredibly intriguing. I loved it.

[strangerian]

Glad to know you liked it. I really seldom seem to have a real plot, and was fascinated to find this one lying in wait for me.

[elanorfairbairn]

Ah what a perfect Inn for the Woody End. It's a cool time travel paradox to have 2 rings going at the same time. Thanks for the story!

[strangerian]

The inn was the fun part. I really don't know how 2 One Rings would interact, given more than a short time and both in pockets.

[elderberrywine]

Oh, and you even used Radagast! There just isn't nearly enough Radagast these days, IMHO.

He tried not to stare at the bird, which had settled on Radas' head like a small, colorful hat.

Hee! Indeed.

Just wonderfully written, with the in-and-out of colliding time zones, so to speak, perfectly done. And if there ever was one who would keep their cool and put the pieces together, Bilbo is your hobbit. Just keep your hand out of that pocket, Bilbo!

[strangerian]

Thanks very much for the lovely comments. Yes, Bilbo could have almost light-heartedly put on the Ring, since he didn't fear it. Would he have been pushed into the distorted world with the Eye that Frodo sees, or would Bilbo's less lived-with Ring have been relatively benign? No doubt the Riders would have seen him anyway, and Bilbo has the sense to be afraid of them already.

I get the feeling that Bilbo's adventurous qualities will be more in people's minds while The Hobbit movie is being talked about. High time, surely!