aufihsdjifhd thank u and i had never thought of that lmao. ok THIS IS A RLY LONG AND OVERLY BUSY SELECTION but…i will attempt to do it properly, and i will try to comment on ur facial expressions thing. link here!

Ah, Elros, how proud am I! So proud — so proud I have no words to hold
it. How lucky am I, to know such pride. I shall never forget it, never,
never.

elrond trying to inarticulately express why he really wants to be immortal without actually being conscious of the fact that that is what he is saying. to ‘know’ more means a lot of things – to be lucky enough to be alive to know such experiences and feelings, and have the memories afterwards

while ofc it wouldn’t have fit well to digress into this explicitly in-story, i tried hinting/writing from the assumption that elros had always been a bit more troubled, lost, and trauma-hobbled out of the twins, until this sudden blooming with the edain where everything was suddenly right – so this would be elrond’s perspective on it, after decades of being so close and devoted to his sad, weird, brother, seeing him come into himself and the edain so vividly – the pride.

Say but the word, and I will go where you go too, if you need it.” His eyes and voice were brimming with tears.

“I would follow you, my brother.”

“I would follow you, my lord.”

hey my narrative kinks are simple & embarrassing. no um. i remember in the first draft it was “will” instead of “would”, “would” is considerably better. also i like uh…when 2 people who are used to never being surprised by each other, wind up surprising each other.

“Don’t—” He did not understand the clutch of panic, but if he had broken
one tale of doom he would not craft another for one who had never been
and could never be free of him. “Whatever it shall be, it shall not be
like that. Not at my heels. 

 i like the thingamajig in the late third age/lotr timeframe etc how personally and seriously elrond takes his brother’s legacy and his preposterous (but entirely unprecedented, so who’s to say if it’s preposterous or not) conception of the dunedain as his kin, but his political allegiances and realm incorporation are v independent of them. idk if elros’s attempt to avoid doom on elrond’s part is entirely successful in the end ofc, but at least it’s only personal/emotional.

And…” He swallowed. “You ought not make promises you have no business keeping.”

For a moment Elrond’s eyes flashed mutinous, that same defiance so
consuming it could seemingly only express itself in death, then the
flame banked. He met Elros’s gaze a searching moment, then nodded.

ofc mostly about the feanorians, but also earendil may
have told e&e “i promise i’ll be back”
and elwing may have told them “i promise i’ll
always be here” – or if they didn’t, it’s a conscious
and p significant refusal. plus the entire
trauma of the loss of a homeland under their
feet. promises can be such egotistical things. i vaguely theorize that elros understands this much better/more naturally than elrond, who only internalizes it through long experience.

Something was calling far and clear, like a trumpet on a high hill out of sight. That to the old time there was no returning.

i think i rambled about the whole idea of things being described as ‘lost’ rather than destroyed in the akallabeth fic commentary. elros cannot go back, the edain cannot go back, to the people they were before.

“The lives of mortal men,” Elros murmured finally. “I know not, I see nothing, but that there is more than memory.

grumblemumblegrumble I’M ALWAYS SO ANNOYED at the assumption that elrond has foresight but elros does not. if anything, foresight is a more widespread and characteristically numenorean thing than an elf thing – for elves it seems to be v much a specific-family trait.

anyway yeah this is stolen from aragorn’s death scene.

The old lands and tales were true, but of life robbed before its
flower — unconscionable, unbearable. Surely, it must not be so
unbearable.

idk i have always felt that the lack of commentary on the massive sea-change mindshift represented by the edain’s transition from beleriand to numenor is one of my biggest frustrations with silm fandom generally. i think i whined about that in another post a while back tho.

I am lost,  he marveled. And the bereavement clawed deep.

lmao i wrote this fic v soon after reading smith of wootton major

the last Edain of the old world were singing, they were singing for him, him alone, and it rang in his ears like a death-knell far off in the mists of dawn by the sea, sweetened strangely

uh, ‘adopt death maybe’? help me out here.

for a moment he thought Elrond was crying. But when he looked into his
face, he saw in amazement that his hand was over his mouth and his eyes
dancing with mirth.

HE’S CUTE ❤ HE’S CUTE <333 maybe this sort of ‘i expected he would cry/laugh but instead he’s laughing/crying?’ might be a recurring thing for other people re: elrond? idk! anyway it is much more about the ‘what have i gotten myself into?’ line than the death-knell line right before this. neither of them realize what they’re getting at/into re: the choice, even though they’ve unconsciously made theirs already.