2006 Holiday Fic for Lady Korana!

[tarotgal]

Title: Gift for Lady Korana 2006
Author: tarotgal
Fandom: Lord of the Rings, post-trilogy
Pairing: Legolas/Gimli
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or their world. This is fanfiction and I'm just playing for fun, not making any money.
Summary: A sequel to Cold Defeat, in which things get a little worse for all concerned.
Notes: Written for Lady Korana as a holiday gift. Enjoy and sorry it's so late!

Story: http://tgsrealm.beastlet.com/stories/Gift06LadyKorana.html

Well, better late than never, I guess. I'm not thrilled with certain parts of this... but other parts I like. So I hope you'll find something in here that you like as well! Happy belated holidays, Lady Korana! Have a great rest of 2007 and thank you for being so great about getting a late gift fic.

Comments

SQUEE!!!

[ladykorana.livejournal.com]

I had a rough night at work last night, so when I got home this morning I was thinking 'Wouldn't it be awesome if tg had my story posted already?', but then I thought 'No, it's too soon...she had that conference to keep her busy so she'll probably take the weekend to catch up on stuff', but lo and behold! What a welcome sight to come home to!

I should be sleeping now, but I'd regret it if I didn't post feedback when it's all fresh in my mind and I'm still riding the 'high' generated by having my favorite fic kinks catered to. *giggles* Where to begin? This was such a long fic I'm kinda scared to see how long my feedback might go, given my normal trend towards wordiness. Hehehe..we'll see!

Sweet Valar, so much angst! Bravo! You certainly don't do things in half measures, for which I am much appreciative! *evil grin* That 'Fellowship drifting apart bit was almost too sad', but I have the feeling Legolas won't let the Three Hunters drift too far. I admit that I had gotten myself so worked up over the idea of enjoying some elf-suffering that I almost completely forgot about the angstiness of where 'Cold Defeat' left off with the whole Aragorn-Gimli jealousy bit. I mean, I realized that there would be some bruised feelings, but WOW is it hot when Gimli gets all possessive. Poor Aragorn though, but he's had his time...and his own Lady to come home to eventually. And I'm really glad Gimli let Aragorn help care for Legolas again later, not that Gimli had all that much choice in the matter by that point. Go sickly Legolas! Making people come together to care for your sorry ass! *snicker* Told you this review would be wordy and random. I'm sleep deprived too, so that makes it worse than usual!

Ok, the canon-geek-proofreader in me insists that 'No, really, it's not rude to nitpick your own gift fic...tg'd want to fix that stuff for her site'. I tried to bitchslap that part of my mind down, but like Legolas's sniffles and sneezes, I just couldn't stop it. So instead I'll be quick so we can get on to more fun things. Legolas's first 'mellon nin' was written 'melon nin', which made me giggle and try not to think about juicy fruits, which wasn't as easy as you might think considering how Gimli was sucking on Legolas's fingers so sensually right before then. (damn, I'm punchy right now...definitely sleep deprivation, and high on elf fic! *G*) The only other thing that jumped out at me was near the end when Legolas was delirious and 'tried to think of the words in English'. You want to use 'Westron' instead of 'English'. Westron is the common tongue spoken from Gondor to Lake Town to the Shire. No one in Middle-earth speaks English, which is a big plot hole not usually addressed by the multitude of 'girl from modern day falls from the sky, becomes the 10th member of the Fellowship, and falls in luv with Leggy' stories. I'd like to think the real Legolas would take one look at the drooling fangirl spouting gibberish in some unknown language, lurching at him drooling, and send her off to Elrond to be locked up for her own good. And boy am I way off track right now...*G*

Anyway, LJ is probably going to cut me short soon so more fun stuff in next comment!

SQUEEE!! (part 2)

[ladykorana.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit more composed now starting with a fresh comment screen, so here goes nothing.

Ok, I started by touching on the sad angst, but now I'm going to jump into the fun part of elf angst for me! Man, seeing Legolas dizzy and disoriented really pushed my H/C buttons just right, especially that first time when he got out of bed and fell. It shouldn't make me this happy to see a character I love this much brought so low as you take him in this fic, but right now I'm just too blissfully content to feel very guilty. Thanks for indulging my request so thoroughly with the fever and weakness and genuine worry surrounding his condition!

I loved the extra touch of Gimli posting a watch, and threatening his firstborn added a nice touch of humor. Nice job with the issue of Legolas's pride taking a hit by having to deal with his symptoms in front of someone he's not close friends with. It also heightened the drama by having a stranger there instead of one of his friends when Legolas's health deteriorated. Of course, knowing the nature of the effect of an elf's mind and heart on the body, I'd say missing/worrying for Gimli and Aragorn probably played a role in the deterioration as well. Yep, definitely a connection there. And it also plays well in relation to your other stories with Orin the messenger and Legolas not able to recover until Gimli is there with him. Nicely done!

I think I'd have to say that the first third of the story is my favorite after this first read. I particularly enjoyed your opening paragraphs, especially the one about Legolas staring into the fire. I'm really starting to share your passion for sick, blanket-wrapped forms in front of the fire! I also liked the bit about conserving ale as a way of establishing the severity of the snowstorm. Silly elf, wasting ale! That's why Gimli held your wine glass in last year's gift fic. *G* Too bad we weren't allowed alcohol when we were nearly snowed in at the hospital! I also have to say I'm curious about what warmed ale might taste like. Oh, and I absolutely adored the cuddles and caretaking on the table, though I started to wonder why none of the men in the room were staring at the public display of affection, but then I realized that if they're all part of the search parties, then no doubt they have been around Aragorn enough to get used to a little elf/dwarf PDA by now. Personally, I can't get enough of finger-sucking and pointy-ear-fondling, so thanks for that! Also, glad that Gimli didn't let Legolas try and walk on that ankle.

The segment that followed the opening was, quite simply, hotness overload! I lost track of how many sweet lines of dialogue and sensual caresses there were that I wanted to compliment you on. Nekkid caresses, no less! And elf-purrs. And then there were the sneezes...dear Gods, the sneezes. The false starts, the meek little apologies, the adorable teamwork with the handkerchief! Each time I think you can't top yourself, you go and write something like this:

The cycle went on for what seemed like hours. The sheer power of that phrase! *shiver* I have never been more jealous of a fictional character than I was of Gimli at that moment. Lucky, lucky dwarf. And wonderfully sweet to exhaust himself caring for pretty much everyone but himself in this fic. *sigh* I adore your Gimli!

Other phrases that stood out from that section were:

The only thing more elusive than Legolas' sneeze was Legolas' smile, and this time Gimli was treated to both.
Just stunning. Two beautiful acts in one beautiful line.

and the next two are self-explanatory and sent me to happy land!

The only time Legolas really slept was when he was sick, and then he was either sneezing too much to sleep or out like a candle.

Naturally, he had to sneeze. That was all he'd been doing since returning from the adventure in the snow.

Oh, and you also just about killed me with that little 'grand finale' near the end! Just...Wow! *thud* Ironic that it was a sign of improvement, but fitting given your target audience. *G*

SQUEE!!! (Part 3 -the last)

[ladykorana.livejournal.com]

Soo close! I almost got it all to fit in the last part, but I had to cut a bit, so you get a part 3 to your feedback!

Thanks for the yummy stuffy talk too! I had to laugh at myself though, when I caught my mind changing many of the 'Gimli's' to 'Gibli' in my head even when that's not what the story really said. LOL! Either I've read too many of your fics, or I really need to sleep now --- probably the latter, as I'm not about to stop reading and rereading your elffics any time soon!

Anyway, it's now 3 pm, (it was 1 pm when I started this feedback, can you believe it? I can't!) and I need to get up again in about four and a half hours so I can be at work at 9 pm. With that in mind, I'm going to thank you one last time for this wonderful gift! It was well worth the wait, and I'm honored by the effort you put into it. THANK YOU! *HUGS*