jikan_rpg | Maglor July catchall

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Maglor July catchall

⌛ Who: Maglor & whoever!
⌛ What: Maglor got a music box that broadcasts his thoughts. He doesn't know this. Yet. Also just general July things.
⌛ When: all though July
⌛ Where: all over
⌛ Warnings: depending on who tags him and what they ask, topics may delve dark

Music Box: Thoughts Edition

See, here's the thing about Maglor. His thoughts are noisy. His family could have mentioned how 99% of the time he was composing in his youth - this has not, in fact, gotten any better as he's gotten older - it's just that the 1% not dedicated to music got LOUD.

So it's a toss up if the music box tunes in to his thoughts if one is going to get a sudden jangle of whatever composition he's working on at the moment (it might sound like a cacophony of noise, or something very close to the most perfect symphony you've ever heard, depending) or just random rambling streams of thoughts.

He's surprisingly paternal, if you listen to his thoughts. There's a lot of worrying over... pretty much everyone.

Music Box: Memories Edition

The memories that the box picks vary - you might run into him staring fondly at the image of a large, noisy family doing all sorts of things from playing to crafting to fighting to just existing, to brilliant great light sources that happen to look a bit like trees, to beautiful cities that look like paintings, to much darker memories - lonely shores, fire and war, long tiring nights guarding those behind him, all the way to softly sad memories - dark haired twins in a cold castle.

He'll talk about any of them, if asked, but probably won't notice any watchers to discuss them without being prompted.

Soul Artifact

".............we don't have to do this, if you don't want to."

He's very not sure if he WANTS to know what his soul artifact is. But this is what they've been asked to do so...

(It's a harp. Just a harp. His shoulders will drop in relief when it is revealed - clearly, he was expecting something else. But when the strings are touched... Something like grief will cross his face. )

Trial of Promise

"You cannot leave until you..." He reads out slowly, in the dim cave his glow is striking, especially since there's no other source of light barring the words on the wall.

"...Ah." He sighs, unhappily.

Trial of Devotion

He eyes the mountain and wonders aloud, "Do you think they mind if we cheat? I wonder if I can put them to sleep?"

Alternatively, he could just fight his way up. The odds are better than many times in his past.

"What do you think?"

Trial of Love

He waits only until the rules are announced before stating, very calmly; "That's fine. I'll just break mine."

What is such pain after all, compared to all the pain he has already had in his life?

He'll immediately move to smash the harp on any available surface unless stopped.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Duo!" Maglor jerks, startled, and the memory in the box flicks to a set of red-haired twins dropping from a tree onto what is recognisably a young Maglor, dressed in a prince's finery.

"I did not hear you coming!"

"I did call your name!" Duo laughed. Okay, admittedly he called the name just as he was coming up right behind Maglor, but he had made that much an effort. "Sorry." He grinned and leaned down a bit to peer more at the music box and nodded toward it. "That you?"

"So you did." Maglor smiles at him, shifting so Duo can see.

"Mm, yes. I was a lot younger then."

In the memory, Maglor goes down yelling and flailing, the twins laughing as the memory broadens out to the garden they're in to reveals a whole gaggle of brilliantly dressed people, most of whom look like Maglor, to one degree or another.

"This appears to play memories."

No need to shift, Duo just casually draped his arms over Maglor's shoulder and dropped down so he could look. And couldn't help his smile. Maglor looked so young, the kids in the little vision looked happy. It was a scene right out of a fairy tale in Duo's opinion.

"That's a memory of yours, huh? Those kids yours or a relatives?" Duo was being nosy he knew, but if Maglor hadn't wanted him to see he would have turned it away, not aimed it more in his direction.

"Oh no!" Maglor laughs. "Those are my youngest brothers, the Ambarussa." He points. "The one with slightly darker hair is Amras, or Telufinwe - he's the slightly older one. The other is Amrod or Pityafinwe - but both of them preferred to be called Ambarussa."

Relatives then. And weird ones at that. There was no way Duo was going to be able to remember or even repeat those names, so he wasn't even going to try. But for a pair of brothers to want to be named the same thing? That was odd to Duo! Not that he was able to judge the customs and stuff from other worlds. Maybe it made sense there?

"There a meaning behind that name or something?" Duo asked as he just went ahead and dropped his chin right on Maglor's shoulder. He was practically hugging the guy from behind, though not quite. His arms were loose, relaxed and friendly. Duo was able to do this because he felt comfortable around Maglor.

Maglor clearly doesn't mind the touch, adjusting easily, as one who has had multiple younger relatives hang off him, in one way or another, over the years, reaching up to ruffle Duo's hair.

"Aye - mothernames are given with signficance." he explains. "They always either foretell something, or express a wish from a mother to their child's future. Ambarussa means 'top russet' - a reference to their hair, obviously. But originally... mother saw Doom in their future, and told father to choose one of them to be Umbarto - Fated. Father refused, and changed it to Ambarto - Exalted, instead. But the twins refused to part with the name, so Ambarussa they both were, always, until Doom took them both."

Edited (I promise I am done now) 2022-07-12 04:01 (UTC)

It was a good thing Maglor didn't mind, because Duo wasn't showing any signs of moving just yet. Even when a hand rose to ruffle the Do. He did pout a bit but it cleared a moment later with a smile as he listened to the explanation. At least the smile remained for a short while, but the story didn't seem to be a happy one.

"... The hell's 'Doom'?" Duo gave his head a little shake. "Almost makes me wonder if I ever had one of those names and if my mom had any idea what my future would be... Heh, maybe she saw Doom too?" It would explain why she'd dump him on the streets.

Maglor breathes a long, low breath out.

"Mother... foresaw their death." He says hollowly, as the images flicker to elegant white ships with swanhead prows consumed by fire. One twin is being held down by Maglor and his brothers, screaming as he tries to reach the ships. Only one. Another flicker and the image shifts again, Maglor dressed in blood-drenched armour, weeping over the body of one of the twins, an arrow through his throat.

"She hoped... that if Father chose one, she might have saved the other, at the least."

He shifts to hug Duo.

"Oh Duo... I hope not."

"Well shit..." And that's all it took for Duo's draped arms to curl across and actually hug Maglor. Duo supposed he should have guessed what that had meant, but it being another world, for all he knew it could have just meant they were Doomed to do something dumb or be unlucky in love or never to hold a job down. But he watched as the scene changed on that sweet little music box...

And he released and arm so he could reached out and close the damn thing, just before Maglor moved to return his hug. "Mags, this isn't about me. But you... Are you gonna be okay?" However long ago that scene was, it was clearly fresh enough in Maglor's memory.

"I've wondered, in the interveaning years, if she saw all our deaths, in truth." He murmurs, and doesn't make any effort to re-open the box.

"She was not known for her foresight, the way our cousin Galadriel was, but... sometimes, I look back, and wonder. Did you know? She named me Gold-cleaver, but we lived in peaceful Valinor when I was born, which had never known strife or war. We all thought it was for my voice, and maybe it was, at least a little. But I did, in fact, learn how to turn my voice into a weapon, later."

He manages a smile for Duo. "Ah well. I've been living with this a very long time, Duo. I manage."

"Just because you've lived with it doesn't mean you're okay with it." Duo pointed out. He didn't look happy. He couldn't understand the mentality of a mother who would name their kids after some bad shit they saw in a vision. But it wasn't his world or his culture so could he really judge?

Either way, he gave Maglor a tighter hug, just because he could.

"Maybe she saw somethin or maybe not? No point in darkenin her memory overthinking it. Maybe she hoped for somethin better for you so named you for your voice, like you said?" He could hope so. It wasn't Maglor's fault he became a self-fulfilling prophesy by weaponizing his own voice. And how someone could do that Dup dreaded to even imagine.

He smiles wryly and shrugs.

"Well, it's that or join my brothers in death, and I don't think I can bring myself to that end."

Not at the moment, anyway, when there are people who need him around.

But he leans into the hug.

"Perhaps! Mother never said, after all, and there is no way for me to ask her, now."

Nerdanel was never known for her foresight, but Maglor has had far too much time on his hands to brood.

"Thank you for being kind, Duo."

"Better not go joinin them pal. I'll come straight down to hell after you and rip you a new one if you try!" So it was a good thing that Maglor couldn't bring himself to do it. Saved Duo a job.

His hug tightens a bit and his tone gentles when he's thanked, because he didn't really think he'd done a thing worthy of that.

"What're friends for?"

"Oh Duo." His eyes soften.

"I've people who still want me to stay, so I will, I promise."

"Good." Duo pulled back to give Maglor a grin.

"That's a good enough reason to stick around if ever I heard one." It was what kept him in place, now. He had people that wanted him to live. If it wasn't for that... he'd have let go a long time ago.

He ruffles Duo's hair fondly.

"I am doing better, I promise. "

"I believe ya." Duo laughed and, since he'd been reassured enough, he decided to let go of Maglor. No need to hug now that he was doing better.

"So that music box, huh? Kinda a piece of shit, showing memories like that." Like with most things in this world. Something seemed nice or looked pretty but would rip your face off in a heartbeat.

"Well, not all my memories are sad." Maglor smiles at Duo. "And ... it's nice, to see them again, when they were young and happy. It does play music too sometimes, although it seems to be only my own music."

"The music was pretty nice. Way different from the stuff back home." But he was glad that the memories weren't all bad for Maglor. He had to admit, if he had seen some of the people he'd lost in that mirror maybe he'd feel the same? A bittersweet kind of feeling. Pain at the loss but... a strange sense of happiness at being able to see them again. Even if it's just in a moving image on a magical musical box.

He chuckles.

"Well, you'll have to play me your music then sometime!"

He smiles a little wryly. "I think... I think I'll be keeping this. But maybe I'll keep it from my brother, as I fear it might only hurt him to remember."

"Nah I don't play anything and I've no idea how I'd get hold of music from my time..." Unless he found himself one of those music boxes too. And he really didn't want to see what would be in the little mirror of the one he held in his hands. Duo didn't have many happy memories to pull from, until he'd arrived in Nippon.

"It's not gonna hurt you?" Duo asked then. "You're not another one of those guys who like beatin themselves up over shit from the past are you?"

"Perhaps you might get a gift?" Maglor suggests. "That's how I recieved this - I'm still not sure what for!"

He smiles and shakes his head. "I'll be alright. It's nice to see my family again, even in memories."

"Maybe... just not that thing. No offence." It was a nice music box and if it played some good music for him that'd be great. But seeing his old memories? He didn't need that in his life. He saw enough of those in his nightmares.

"Yeah, I guess that's a plus, huh? I'm glad you've got that at least, Mags." He reached out and patted his shoulder with a smile.

"None taken." Maglor assures him, smiling at him fondly.

"I only wish there was a way to determine what it was going to show! There are plenty of gentler memories in with the bad ones."

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