Cue Heart Attack

[seawanderer]

Who: Maglor + Open...mostly to castmates but also anyone who can 'hear' music....basically anyone who wants in on this can be, I'll find a reason XD
What: Another long over-due panic attack
When: Just after the poll goes up (Day 14-15/16)
Where: Garden Carriage...mostly
Warnings: /gestures at fear of drowning and canon Stuff


While Maglor has voted on that new poll...and technically not lying...Anyone who goes looking for him for the next few days will have a harder time than usual.

The elf is making full use of his skill as a bard to cloak himself in music. In plain sight in the garden carriage. It's not a perfect hiding place, especially for those who can hear the Music about as well as he can, they'll find him tucked under a bench, or up against one of the transparent walls. Staring off into space as fingers pluck along at his harp to keep the bubble around him in place.

Comments

[unholyandbroken]

Jessie had also been triggered by the poll, she was reliving all the times she had been buried in underwater coffins while in Angelville. So with cigarettes in hand she sprints towards the back for a smoke but anyone can see the start of a panic attack. But she somehow lands in the garden car looking ready to crack.

[seawanderer]

He's not so oblivious to not notice the panic in Jessie when she bursts into the carriage. Maglor debates leaving her alone, but...fingers pluck away, a shimmer opens the shield. An invitation to hide, but not be alone.

He doesn't say a word though, only shifts a little, invitation to sit beside him clear.

[unholyandbroken]

Jessie gets the hint and dives into the opening, but never dropping her lighter and smokes. But her eyes speak volumes, only a handful know about Angelville and the coffin. The reminder was just not helping at all.

[seawanderer]

He doesn't ask questions, just adjusts the weave of the Song bubble around them so she can still see out. To avoid her feeling as trapped.

"You can smoke in here, it doesn't bother me," he murmurs. The cigarette smoke won't escape the bubble, either. It'll get whisked away, made harmless.

[unholyandbroken]

"Thanks." as Jessie lights up and takes a drag. "Let me guess, the poll?" going for the simple approach to asking.

[seawanderer]

The elf keeps plucking away at his harp, eyes lowering to the ground under them. His lips twitch in something of a wry smile.

"...Bodies of water deep enough to swim in and I...might not be a good combination."

[unholyandbroken]

"Buried alive in an underwater coffin, more than once." was all Jessie could say. Its among the few times she's spoke of that part of Angelville and it shows. "I'm also claustrophobic,"

[seawanderer]

He winces in sympathy and the harp's music shifts just enough to being a little more soothing.

"...The Valar of the Ocean and his Maiar probably want to drown me." That might not make sense to a non-elf, so after a brief pause, "you might think of them as an angel and lesser angels? Those who know the Sea and command it.

"I would rather not have others go down with me, should they decide to act on their wish."

[unholyandbroken]

"Just getting it out helps right?" Jessie observed. "Not many know, I mean its not exact hidden that me and tight spaces are not on good terms. But anyone outside the family know? Backup and all."

[seawanderer]

"My family knows my fear, but I think they do not entirely understand it," after all, they weren't the ones who ended up keeping going. Nerdanel has, but she hasn't been shunned by the Valar like the rest of them.

Maglor takes a careful breath, fingers moving a little faster against the internal wave of memory. "It is also not something I speak about often." Or at all.

[marriedanidiot]

His mother, of course, being one of those people.

"Makalaure?" She asks gently. "What's wrong, darling?"

[seawanderer]

Mother is mother is mother.

Today is one of the rare days he's glad he's mostly stuck in the uniform. Easier to keep some distance from...everything. But not when asked if he can swim.

The look he gives her when she approaches is...fragile. Lost.

"...What if...I make the train flood, and everyone drowns?"

[marriedanidiot]

She settles down beside him and tugs his head to lay on her lap, so she can run soothing fingers through his hair.

"And why would that happen, my dear?"

[seawanderer]

He doesn't fight her, of course he doesn't. Maglor curls into a ball, though his head settles where she wants and he tries to let her sooth him.

"...I threw the Silmaril into the ocean," he eventually answers. As if that makes all the sense it needs to.

[marriedanidiot]

She runs her fingers through his hair, over and over, the motion soothing and repetitive.

"So I heard." She hums softly, a comforting background noise for him to listen to.

"But why would that make a flood, my Makalaure? Especially here, so far from the ocean?"

[seawanderer]

It's almost a visible thing for his ears to perk at the soft humming, a constant through his childhood and youth.

"...The poll, amme. Asking if we can swim. That suggests we'll need to soon."

He's too wary and too paranoid to think any other way.

[marriedanidiot]

She smiles at the twitching ears, modulating to a hum just for him.

"Well yes, darling, but we go to new worlds all the time. Why would you think the train would flood?"

...I can't be serious lol

[seawanderer]

...That's cheating!

But effective. Maglor almost grumbles as she successfully hums and pets most of his tension out. Mom powers ACTIVATE.

"It just feels different this time," he still will protest, if half-heartedly now.

XD

[marriedanidiot]

It isn't. It's the Power of Motherhood~

"Why?" She asks, as patiently as if they were in Valinor, long ago, and she was teaching him his lessons.

[seawanderer]

Totally cheating.

He frowns, forcing himself to think. Roll the feeling around and chew on it until it tells him the answer. "...There's a saying I've heard which fits.

"The other shoe is about to drop."

[marriedanidiot]

If he was a mother, he would have it too!

She smiles. "A lovely saying! But my dear, why assume the worse?"

[seawanderer]

Put him in a room with one of his twins and he'd show her his Mom Powers!

"Because it makes whatever reality hits easier to bear," he answers promptly.

"You're here. Atto is here. Nelyo, Curvo, and Finno are here." It's more than he's had in a very long time. And he's afraid he's about to lose it all over again.

[marriedanidiot]

See? So he can't call it cheating~

"Ah. Are you afraid you will lose us, my little bird?"

[seawanderer]

The twins sure did~

Maglor sighs and nods.

[marriedanidiot]

They will understand once they're older~

She presses a kiss to his brow. "You might." She agrees. "And I might lose you, my darling. But borrowing trouble for tomorrow seems an awful lot of trouble for very little gain. Especially one so specific as that! And besides, my dear, you never told me, why do you think YOU would make the train flood?"

[seawanderer]

He'll just...turn over so he can wrap his arms around her and hold on that way.

"Not on purpose," he assures her, though he doubts she's even thought of that. He hopes she hasn't, at least... "Just by being on board." Which sounds a little crazy (even for him) when said out loud.

[marriedanidiot]

"Hm." She hugs him back fondly. "And how would that work, my dear? Are you a Valar, now?"

i did promise a family pile so here it comes ... even if it's so late /)_(\

[tinkerheart]

"So this where you two are hiding!"

Fëanor was worried. Maglor disappearing like that was an obvious sign he's in distress. Slightly less worried now that he knows Nerdanel has found their son first. He sits down close to them.

"Now, are you going to tell me what's the secret?"

/smooshes!

[seawanderer]

Maglor flushes at her question but just clings a little tighter.

He throws a helpless look at his father when Feanor joins them, hating the fact he's worried his parents...but loving the fact they're both here.

"I'm sorry, atto." For worrying him again. And to buy a liiiiittle more time.

<3

[marriedanidiot]

Nerdanel looks up and smiles, shifting to make room for her husband.

"You haven't answered your father, darling." NO HIDING

[tinkerheart]

"Shhh, don't be. All is well, or it will be if you let us help."

Fëanor moves closer so he can wrap both of them in his protective embrace. Shield them from any harm. As he did so many times in the past. When it still worked. When he wasn't the source of that harm yet.

"But we cannot help if we don't know what is wrong."

You heard your mother, Kano. No evading.

[seawanderer]

There are very few places where he feels safer than in his parents' arms. Maglor curls into them, willing himself to calm in this bubble they have so expertly crafted. And he does settle, lingering panic fading.

"...I am not a Valar," he informs them wryly. "But they haven't liked me very much for a long time." His own thoughts, despite proof that Osse could easily have killed him thousands of times over and hadn't.

"Now that I have family with me again...and the poll asking if people can swim or not...I can only guess as others have that the train will be flooded in the near future. It is different when there is no where else to go. Trapped."

[marriedanidiot]

Nerdanel has missed this, and if her eyes are a little over-bright, well. There's only family here to see.

"You know, they could say the same about you." She points out, wryly. Their family's relationship with the Valar is... complicated.

"But equally so, my dear, I am sure the whole train will not flood. That seems terribly counterproductive - they do seem to need us alive, as I'm sure your father has also noticed."

[tinkerheart]

Complicated is a very generous word to use. Fëanor's resentment towards the Valar precedes any of his sons' being born. In truth, he doesn't hate them all. He hates Melkor, that's unlikely to change ever but he doesn't hate the others. Not anymore. He still blames them for a lot of his misfortunes, resents them for both their indecision when it mattered and decisions when it no longer did. All that is not very relevant now. They seem to be very far away and he's quite content with that.

"I did." He's quick to agree and adds. "You are also forgetting that last time we had a similar poll a new carriage was added to the train as a result." The game car. Sometimes the powers behind the train feel generous for their captives. "I would agree with Kaito that we might be getting a pool next."

His first thought was that their next mission would take place on a world completely covered with water, hence the need for the skill, but he knows better than to say it.

[utulien_aure]

"Makalaure?"

Fingon blinks in confusion, used to his cousin's manipulation of the Song but utterly bewildered as to why he's doing it this time.

"What's wrong?"

[seawanderer]

Keep cousin safe! The thought rings through his mind and he lets out a careful, mindful breath. Maglor could be angry, but...Fingon is kind, as ever. So he tries for a smile, though there's a rather lost quality to it.

"...No one else deserves to drown."

It makes perfect sense to him, okay?

[utulien_aure]

Sure, but that doesn't mean it makes sense to anyone else.

"I would hardly think that anyone deserves to drown," Fingon says, trying to follow his cousin's train of logic.

He tries his best guess: "Is this about the message earlier?"

[seawanderer]

Smart cousin.

"Yes," he answers, just barely managing to keep most of the silent 'of course!' out of his voice. "A train submerged in a Void is not a nice image."

[utulien_aure]

Fingon blinks.

"No," he agrees- actually, he's not at all sure how that would work, but it seems best to give some ground- "but why do you think that would happen, Kano?"

He settles himself down next to Maglor, partly to reassure his cousin and partly because it seems this might take a while.

"Our hosts would have to be very careless to let such a thing happen, don't you think?"

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin comes looking for Maglor, having a feeling something is not right.

"Hey, what are you doing under that bench? Strange place to play a harp!" He's being funny about something that is not funny, typical Curufin.

He kneels down and looks under the bench and extends a hand to help him out. . . if Maglor wants to come out.

[seawanderer]

Because Curufin is a good little brother again.

Maglor peeks out at his brother's offered hand, debating whether he dares coming out yet...But he's not going to just leave Curvo out there alone either, so he takes the offered hand and squirms out. He just...can't help casting a wary little glance out the window before looking back to his brother.

"Are you alright?" Strange thing to say, one might think, from someone who'd just been hiding under a bench!

[so_dark_a_road]

He loves being a good little brother to Maglor!

Curufin takes his brother's extended arm and hauls him out, but gently. And he sees that suspicious little glance that Maglor casts at the window. He guesses that his brother's unease has to do with having no trust that the VoidTrecker Express won't do something to endanger its passengers.

"Of course I'm all right. Orange Team took very few risks on the ice planet mission. [ He grins. ] You know me, I'd have been happier with more risks."

He gazes into Maglor's eyes. "What's happening with you? Why did you feel you had to hide?"

[castintoflames]

Make it difficult for him, Kano, and he will find you. His ears prick at the sound of music and he depends on it far more than his eyes. The garden carriage is one of his favorite places too and he kneels down before the protective bubble, narrowing his eyes to try to see his brother.

As if his eyesight isn't already impaired, brother!

"Can you hear me? Or am I not allowed to enter?"

[seawanderer]

Maybe that's the point?

Maglor...doesn't see his brother, in truth, until Maedhros calls to him. Then the bubble around him wavers before growing to welcome his older brother in...then he immediately scrambles to burrow into Maedhros' safe arms.

[castintoflames]

He surges forward the moment Maglor becomes clear, his arms encompassing his little brother. Maedhros strokes over his dark hair and murmurs comforting words that often helped in their childhood.

"What happened?" he kneels down and peers into Maglor's eyes.