002 - The Stargazing Meme

[aflockofmemegulls]

the stargazing meme

oo1. comment with your characters
make sure to put names, series, & preferences somewhere!
you can use < ! > sans the spaces to make the comment "blank"
oo2. reply to others in character
oo3. use the rng and enter 1-10
oo4. play out what happens—anything goes!
oo5. profit? oh yeah!

prompts

one → meteor shower you just saw a falling star! and another! make a wish!
two → aliens what was that? was that really? omg no way a ufo!
three → lunar eclipse you've been sitting out for hours, waiting for this. it's so cool!
four → comet does it move fast or slow? either way, it's amazing.
five → full moon the moon is so huge! just don't look too long, it's really bright too.
six → star dust anything can happen in space. make up your own plot!
seven → solar eclipse this might be happening in the middle of the day!
eight → planet sighting is that a new star? nope, just a neighbor in the solar system!
nine → constellations do you know the stories behind these odd patterns?
ten → deep space normal stargazing isn't that much fun. you got a telescope!

Comments

➷ 4 → comet

[nosimplewalk]

The air was crisp, clean, fresh, and cool. The second day of their travel came all too soon, and seemed to last all too long as Aragorn insisted on traveling early in the morning into late in the evening. Their enemy nipping at his very heels, though they've yet come across any scent, sight, or trace of them. Soon they would descend upon the Brown Lands, between Southern Mirkwood and the hills of the Emyn Muil. But they stopped soon before they reached these lands, and Boromir was glad of it. As he shared the sentiment amongst the rest of the following, uneasy and unenthused to delve deeper and deeper into the south.

The night was misty, damp with the wetness of the Anduin. Just as soon as camp was set up the hobbits were quick asleep and their soft snoring lulled the cool air. Gimli and Legolas were situating themselves for a goodnight's rest and Boromir would soon follow, save for the stars that beckoned to him. He found himself a seat next to a boulder and he perched his arm up on top of it as his eyes were cast upward. There was a tail of great yellow and orange following a bright blue star. But it was distant and far and looked to move no faster than a bug on stale water.

The comet had his attention and he wondered if that force fought against the universe to make it's path––or if the sky opened up willingly for it. He could not help but see their own journey a constant push against the near whole of the world that pushed back against them. He could see how effortlessly it would be for the universe to deny this comet it's passage, just as he saw how effortlessly they were being defeated by the forces of nature––the mines, the mountain slope Caradhras. Things greater than himself, greater than man, elves, dwarves, and Gandalf were at odds with their journey even if they neither took their side or the Dark Lord's.

[elfstone]

"There are weary marches ahead," said Aragorn, coming up around the boulder and slinging a tightly-wound bundle of weapons down onto the ground, "and at any rate, the first watch is mine. You should be resting." The disquiet in Boromir's mind was clear to him, had been since they left Lórien. Aragorn suspected its source, but kept his thoughts on the matter to himself. Best to leave such things be.

"The stars draw your gaze," he observed, seating himself beside Boromir with limber grace and looking up as well. "It is well that the night is clear. Light is a friend to he who is hidden, but wishes to see that which surrounds him." Aragorn dropped his gaze, glancing sideways at Boromir. "But your thoughts are on loftier things, I deem," he said, and it was not a chastisement. Rather, it was an invitation: he would have Boromir speak his mind.

[nosimplewalk]

It would not be the gaze of his own that would worry himself, should any ask, and Boromir had long since felt that anyone had any interest in asking him anything. But now, now Aragorn would pry from him the very secrets of his mind, to turn over that boulder that weighs so heavily within his mind and discover the gold that lay beneath. But what if there was no more gold left, what if it now was rot? Eaten away by time, creed of the elves that look unkindly to men, shun of the dwarves that horde the right to mine where they please. And what is left to men but peril in a vast canvas of open field where the enemy lay waiting, ready to splotch the ground with the blood of his people!

A grave portrait rests uneasily within his mind and Boromir looks down from the moving light above them.

"But yet, we still depend on darkness to cover us. We still move, chasing the shadow so that our enemy may be blind to us." He glanced at Aragorn and softly shook his head. "But they are not blind, and I cannot rest." He quickly included.

[elfstone]

But is that all that makes your mind unquiet? Aragorn wondered, appraising Boromir with cool grey eyes. He understood the reason Boromir gave, at least. They all felt exposed, out on the empty river.

"I, too, fear that the Enemy has not been idle. We lingered in Lórien over-long." Aragorn's voice was heavy; for though Rivendell was his home, his heart dwelt in the glades of Lothlórien. He felt guilt that perhaps his affection for the place had kept him from pushing them onward as soon as he should have done.

He breathed a sigh. What troubled Aragorn's mind was the choice that lay before him: to press on to Minas Tirith and lend his aid to her wars, or to turn away and guide Frodo into Mordor. His heart longed for the former, and the latter felt like grievous betrayal, and yet he knew that Frodo's quest was of utmost importance. Where would he go, when he reached the Rauros-falls?

"Two pairs of eyes are better than one, and if they will not close in sleep, then at least they may be put to use. Come, share the watch with me. For I am as restless as you."