[closed]

[bythewaves]

Who: Arnold & Aaron
What: So Aaron has a question about the ring of his
Where: a coffee shop somewhere
When: EDITED: LAST WEEK sometime
Warnings: DEPENDING ON WHAT ECHO (S) POP UP possibly mentions of werewolves and blood and people dying?

Arnold wonders why Dr Aaron asked to meet him. He is very grateful that Liam is well, and extremely thankful for all of the good Doctor's work, but unless something terrible has come up in later bloods? He sits at the coffee shop and tries not to wring his hands in worry as he waits, settling for fiddling with his pen, and eventually starting to sketch on a napkin while waiting. He is early. But.. what if something is wrong?

Comments

...Arnold baby no

[bythewaves]

"Huh" Arnold ponders that statement "I suppose that makes my past self also ridiculously old. You'll have to tell me the story, some time - I don't remember it, not yet, anyway! It sounds fun, being related to someone famous. I wonder if I was as well"

arnold, /no/

[elfstoned]

"Twist my arm to tell it," says Aaron, breaking into a laugh. "It's a beautiful piece of poetry, if you've got the patience to sit through the whole thing. I'm afraid, though, that it put Liam to sleep."

he's going to cry when he finds out. So. Soon >3

[bythewaves]

"Liam, as much as I dearly love my son, occasionally has the attention span of a gnat. He never did like poetry! Me now, if its good poetry, I can listen for hours. Used to hang out at the poetry clubs in university!" Arnold grins back.

"I'd love to hear it, any time."

[elfstoned]

"That's something we have in common," says Aaron with a small smile. "I used to sneak out to go to open mic nights in high school. It drove my family up a wall."

[bythewaves]

"A fellow connoisseur!" Arnold chuckles.

"Some of the best day... well, nights of my life those were. I can't write anything decent myself, alas, but hey - at least I got to listen to other peoples!"

[elfstoned]

"Well," Aaron says, clearly pleased, "we'll have to meet up some evening or other so I can tell it to you properly. I'll put your patience to the test," he adds playfully. The Lay will take hours.

[bythewaves]

"Hah! We should see if they have a Poetry Night here, or some other Open mic even and crash it. And we will see if the Lay is worth it!"

[elfstoned]

He laughs aloud. "Imagine that," says Aaron, shaking his head. "We could see how many walk out before it is over. We could take bets on how long the audience would last. It's as long as the Odyssey, Arnold. Maybe longer. I haven't compared them yet."

[bythewaves]

"That long?" Arnold whistles, impressed. "And you know the whole thing? By heart? Well, I suppose technically your other self knows it. But man, that is either some really good poetry, or your past self is some sort of poetry addict or something."

[elfstoned]

"Julien's quite fond of calling him a nerd, and the term is not inaccurate," Aaron replies good-naturedly. "He didn't just memorize it. He translated it from the original Elvish into the common language most people shared -- and preserved the structure. I know it in two languages."

[bythewaves]

Arnold claps slowly in awe.

"That... is some hardcore nerding, yep. Although possibly he was from a society in which being duo-lingual was essential and thus it wasn't hard to translate but... man. An accurate translation which managed to perserve the structure to boot. He must have been a real poetry lover."

[elfstoned]

Aaron's smiling like he's not sure when he's going to be able to stop. Arnold's set him completely at ease -- only Glorfindel has managed to get Aaron's guard down faster. Something about Elves, man.

"He had strong feelings about this particular poem," Aaron says. "The fact that he had a ring that was mentioned in it might be part of that but doesn't explain it completely." He shrugs. "Who knows?"

[bythewaves]

Arnold is just... special... but maybe it is an elf thing

"Mm, maybe he found something in the poem that he could relate to? I know a lot of people are like that with their favourite poem - there is something that will just speak to you, you know?"

[elfstoned]

Aragorn loves Elves. Elves love Aragorn. This is an immutable fact of the universe.

"Maybe," says Aaron, rolling the ring of Barahir between two of his fingers, idly. "...it's an easy story to relate to," he goes on, more quietly. "Impossible love? Feeling alone against terrible odds? Everybody's felt something like that, even if it's not quite as dramatic."

[bythewaves]

Truth.

"Mm, that is true." Arnold nods thoughtfully. "Well, perhaps he wished, like so many do, to be the hero of the story, to find his love and win the princess. Perhaps he had an impossible love! And one day hoped to win her."

And then he grins. "Or maybe he just likes really really really long poems."

[elfstoned]

"Both are distinct possibilities," says Aaron cheekily.

Then, he changes the subject. "Have you remembered anything else so far?"

[bythewaves]

"Hah! And no, not really - I have a few things - the first echo I could identify actually as an echo was the one I got when I saw Julien - a lady with a star on her breast who jumps from a tower and turns into a bird. I thought... it was just some sort of artist inspiration, at first, but I am pretty certain it was an echo, now. The language, and the ears, of course, and now this. Very little! It makes me curious. What about yourself?"

[elfstoned]

Aaron nods. "Elwing," he says, slowly. "The poem mentioned her.

"But as for me -- I was at this echo game for eight months before I forgot it all for a year. I've gotten memories, abilities -- a lost-and-found's worth of high-fantasy junk," he adds with a hint of a grin. "Most of it was absolutely filthy."

[bythewaves]

Elwing and the names reverberates, like a bell that echoes, the cry of a gull, and Arnold gulps back sudden tears.

Give it to me Elwing!

Never!

"I... I know ...knew, that name. She. She was definitely the lady in the tower in my first memory. She ... left behind twin boys."

I think I pushed her? he does not say.

[elfstoned]

He notices how uncomfortable Arnold is.

"--I'm sorry," he says, and genuinely means it. "I didn't mean to bring up something uncomfortable."

[bythewaves]

"'Sok." Arnold's smile is shaky. "You didn't mean it. I begin to think other-me was... not a very nice person."

[elfstoned]

"First memories can be misleading," says Aaron soothingly, with the confidence of personal experience. "The first things I remembered of Aragorn convinced me he was a conscienceless murderer. I only learned later that it was more complicated."

[bythewaves]

"Haha" Arnold's laugh is shaky but he smiles gamely

"Well, hopefully I'm mistaken then, although its pretty um. Condemming."

What reason would I have to push a mother off a cliff?

"At least yours worked out in the end!"

[elfstoned]

"So was mine," Aaron admits. "My first memories were of hunting sentient monsters in a forest and of killing a sea-captain."

[bythewaves]

"Oh" Arnold blinks at him and admits softly. "I... I dreamt of a lady... Elwing, I realise... that I ... chased off a cliff. She ... had something I wanted. And she refused to give it to me."