Maglor July catchall

[bythewaves]

⌛ 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.

Comments

[bythewaves]

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."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"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.

[bythewaves]

"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."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"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.

[bythewaves]

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."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"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?"

[bythewaves]

"Oh Duo." His eyes soften.

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

[maxwellsdaemon]

"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.

[bythewaves]

He ruffles Duo's hair fondly.

"I am doing better, I promise. "

[maxwellsdaemon]

"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.

[bythewaves]

"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."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"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.

[bythewaves]

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."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"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?"

[bythewaves]

"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."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"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.

[bythewaves]

"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."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Or a button so you could change the channel? That'd be handy. Just... remember to close the damn thing if the memories get too bad, yeah? You don't have to sit and watch it and suffer till the end. Don't have to be a masochist." Duo had known enough of them through his life so he knew the type. He could be himself at times. It was a bad habit, one that was tough to break. When you had memories like a train wreck sometimes you just had to stop and gawp.

[bythewaves]

He smiles at that.

"Or that too, yes. I'll be alright, Duo." He says gently.

[maxwellsdaemon]

"I know that. You're a tough old guy." Duo grinned and finally he moved away and around so he could just drop down and sit next to Maglor. He stretched out his legs and raised his arms to put them behind his head.

"Pretty nice day though, huh?" A change of subject to pull them away from darker thoughts or Maglor feeling he needed to keep reassuring Duo, because the more he did it the more Duo was starting to feel Maglor was doing it to reassure himself more than the braided pilot.

[bythewaves]

Maglor laughs at that.

"Well, old I'll take, I'm not so sure about tough!"

Duo's instincts are ABSOLUTELY correct

"It rather is." He says fondly, seeing the subject change and accepting it. "Are you wanting your dessert? I still owe it to you!"

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo just grinned. He knew Maglor was a badass. He had good instincts about these things and was pretty sure if he ever found himself in a fix, Maglor would someone he'd want fighting at his side.

Now he was laughing. That treat. Why not? "Sure, buddy. I could go for something sweet!"

[bythewaves]

"Well then!" He smiles getting up. "Let's go see what they have. Preferably with no weird side effects, eh?"

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo heaved himself up to his feet and tossed his braid over his shoulder so it was down his back. Then he grinned and began walking. "Depends on the side effects! I'd be happy with a nice buzz but I don't want anythin weird to happen." No need to get horny around Maglor. That would just be weird.

[bythewaves]

"Considering the side effects here, I'd settle for 'just tastes good'" Maglor laughs wryly.

"Although I suppose the body changes are fairly mild, comparatively."

Things that he DEFINITELY doesn't want to experience around Duo...