sophinisba: Gwen looking sexy from Merlin season 2 promo pics (merry by starshapedcandy)
Sophinisba Solis ([personal profile] sophinisba) wrote2007-03-14 02:06 pm

drabble set - "Grief" (3/5)

Merry angst, rated G.

Grief

Merry thinks Aragorn's words to the Healers ought to make him proud to be a hobbit, but he doesn't feel proud, except perhaps when he thinks of Pippin, holding his own through the siege and the battle and the fire and then coming out into the city to find him, or when he thinks of Frodo and Sam battling through the wilderness and into more fire. Pippin and Frodo and Sam are his dear friends and they would make anyone proud to be a hobbit, except that Merry feels friendless and sad, and not much like a hobbit at all.

The thought of Frodo and Sam in Mordor doesn't help to cheer him. He knows everyone – especially hobbits – is meant to be confident of victory, but it gets harder with every blow they suffer, and if Merry's too weak even to stand, how can he hold up anyone else? He's relieved when Aragorn and Gandalf go out and he's left alone with Pippin, but he's afraid, too, that he'll be left alone completely. And he really doesn't think he could stand that, even if he had his health, even if he had his pipe and his pack, and sunlight and green grass.

Pippin laughs and teases him, then helps him sit up and light his pipe. Merry thinks of Strider on their journey, how he was always kind but sometimes unreachable. The only hobbit Merry's ever known to keep such silences is his Frodo, and now Merry thinks it's Frodo's old grief that put that distance between them. He smokes and thinks how he'll never tell Théoden any more of the Shire. But he'll have to see Frodo again someday, and when they talk, or when they sit together quietly, as Merry and Pippin sit now, perhaps they'll finally understand one another.



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[identity profile] mews1945.livejournal.com 2007-03-14 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Poor, dear Merry. He really had a terrible time when he was left in Minas Tirith, while everyone else had gone off into separate dangers and he didn't know if he would ever see them again.

but he's afraid, too, that he'll be left alone completely. And he really doesn't think he could stand that, even if he had his health, even if he had his pipe and his pack, and sunlight and green grass.

That, especially, breaks my heart.
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[personal profile] slightlytookish 2007-03-14 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
The thought of Frodo and Sam in Mordor doesn't help to cheer him. He knows everyone – especially hobbits – is meant to be confident of victory, but it gets harder with every blow they suffer, and if Merry's too weak even to stand, how can he hold up anyone else?

Oh, Merry. He takes on too much, he really does. And it was so horrible for him, losing Theoden, and soon he will be separated from Pippin again, and nearly all of his friends. This is a lovely glimpse of that.
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[personal profile] dreamflower 2007-03-14 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh! Poor Merry! He really did have the worst of it emotionally at that point in time. *sigh* And he's such a sweetie. I like the way he thinks his grief over Theoden may help him finally understand Frodo's grief over his parents. Trust a hobbit to think of others that way.
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[identity profile] claudia603.livejournal.com 2007-03-14 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
ooh. This was such a good drabble and such good insight. I am telling with all honesty that you write just about the best Merry of anyone I know. And what I really like is that little implication that Frodo and Aragorn had those mysterious silences in common *grin* :D

[identity profile] danachan.livejournal.com 2007-03-14 10:48 pm (UTC)(link)
I love love love your Merry, and the way he looks at things and the way he reacts to them, too. One day you need to write that big long story with him and Faramir and Eowyn in it, and have like. I was going to say something else. But you should write that one day because not only would it make me happy, but. Well. It needs to be done.

I am babbling here but I do like how you write Merry; I really love him, and I love seeing more of him.

(Also, you write a great Pippin.)

♥!!!

[identity profile] absolutefiction.livejournal.com 2007-03-14 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
this is so heavy with this unseen backstory. makes me wanna know everything about merry and frodo. and frodo's old grief.

[identity profile] aprilkat.livejournal.com 2007-03-15 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm, I'm reading these chapters backwards, so it is very effective for me after reading Pippin at the Black Gates to realize how Merry felt after he left and how Pippin was putting on cheerfulness for Merry, just as Merry would uphold Pippin. Those wonderful hobbits.

I would like to see you write Merry's response after the hobbits are returned to the city. Merry's fear of being left alone must have seemed to be coming terribly true, as the three battered bodies are brought back to be (hopefully) healed. His sadness here is so palpable that it hurts.

[identity profile] layne67.livejournal.com 2007-03-15 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
To be left behind at a very crucial stage, and Merry being esp vulnerable at that time - his injuries, Theoden's death and soon even Pippin was going to leave him, that was not a good place to be in at all.

Poor Merry.

[identity profile] rubynye.livejournal.com 2007-03-15 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, *Merry*.

*hugs him very much*