Title: Stormie and the Hapless Girl
Author: Eärillë
Beta-Reader: None
Story Type: Fanfiction
Book/Fandom: The Silmarillion, Real Life
Language Used: English, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
Challenge: the Plushy Toys Collaboration
Summary: A girl once admired an apparently-violent, unpredictable Maia from The Silmarillion very much. The girl now… umm… erh… Well, she is currently, unexpectedly visited by the Maia, you see, and have to… well, deal with the reality, aside from her daily routine, not-so-daily routine, and family. ***Part of Plushy Toys Collaboration, involving a foreign culture and disabled people, and rated T for a reason.
Credit: CrackinAndProudOfIt, Duilin
Rating: Pg-13/T/Teens
Warnings: Mature Themes, Mild Language, Mild Violence
Genres: Action/Adventure, Character Study, Drama, Family, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Stream-of-Consciousness
Characters: OFC, Ossë
Place: Indonesia: various
Timeline: Modern era: Decembre to January 2011
Point of View: single: first person limited
Word Count: 5,728
Disclaimers: The Plushy Toys Collaboration series belong to CrackinAndProudOfIt and Duilin and shared with other authors writing in the same series. The patented characters and settings belong to Tolkien Estate and its associates. The original characters and ideas belong to Rey as the author of this story. No infringement is intended to the copyright holders of Arda Legendarium, no plagiarism is intended to the other authors writing for the same series, and no profit is intentionally made by writing and publishing this story.
Author's Notes: CrackinAndProudOfIt finally convinced me to contribute to this collaboration… Well, thank you then, Crackers! I just hope I can pull this off, and somebody might like it, because I doubt I will, what with my unfamiliarity with the genres and lack of devoted time and energy. But truly, I would be very glad if you would leave a review, except for flames. Criticisms accompanied with sensical reasons would be greatly appreciated, but flames always seem useless and hurtful to me.
Story Notes: There are some things you must know about the story in general and also the two main characters in the fic. Please understand and remember these, because I shall not repeat them in the next chapters. If there is any point below that offends you or does not agree with you, please leave this fic quietly. I respect the diversity of freedom rather highly. And without further adue, the points are:
1. The story will not be updated daily, and perhaps not even weekly, and the word count for each chapter will most likely not exceed 2,000. I simply do not have the time and energy to devote to this project regularly because of suffocating RL. I do not know when next I can steal a respite to write. And admittedly, I only plunged into this project because of curiosity and the mild temptation imposed by Crackers.
2. The story will not be all humorous, as I said previously; it is basically a character study of both the OFC and the Maia and their reluctant friendship, so rather serious at some points. As the general idea of the series is not that familiar to me, I have chosen to dwell in my comfort zone: character study and hurt/comfort. That said, the said story will also be done in first-person point of view and present tense for the same reason. I know that most of you do not like it, and I am sorry about that, but changing the tense may only come later – after I am more familiar with this project that I am foolhardily undertaking.
3. The rating is mainly for the discussions and actions done by either or both main characters in the story. First, there will be no reference to sexual activities or heavy innuendos, but there will be instances of anatomical descriptions and scenes/references of pure nudity. And second, there will be discussions/references/scenes of topics ranging from religions to spiritual preferences; and given that the OFC is a Roman Catholic with a loose attitude to following the religion and surrounded by a culture that leans rather heavily on the spiritual world, I felt it prudent to warn you all. (It is complicated by the fact that our star character is a Maia: a spiritual being by nature.)
4. If you have not read other stories from the Plushy Toys Collaboration series, please note that this is a self-insert Silmarillion fanfiction, although a real self-insert, meaning no hidden/unexplained/unnatural powers, as the author is an ordinary human being herself. And seeing that I – the author – am blind and not expecting to regain my sight any time soon if ever, there will be no cure for the blindness spoken or enacted in this fic as well.
In the Chapter: The result of her procrastination finally nips Rey in the butt, and an E-mail ruins her plans for at least the next thirty days.
Chapter Rating: PG/K+
Chapter Warnings: Mild Language
Chapter Word Count: 1,855
Chapter Notes: I tried my best to come up with an original idea for the starter chapter, but it was hard. I never saw this idea I'm using displayed in the same way by the other authors for this series though.
Day 0
Too Late, Lately
Sunday, 17 Decembre 2011
The hours seem to be crawling so slowly today. Perhaps it's because the hot and humid day, unusual for the rainy season that has been dominating the country this year, or perhaps because I'm just too tired and lethargic to pay attention to anything after running errands around the city for the whole day. It's 07:36 in the evening right now and I'm already sorely tempted to go to bed. Sadly, I do need to at least make a little dent on the virtual pile of report cards I need to make on the computer. I've already lied to the headmaster last Friday about finishing most of them already…
But escaping to the Internet-Land a wee bit won't hurt, will it? Anyway, it's been some time since last I peeked into my E-mail account, let alone browsing for leisure. So, armed with yet another excuse to procrastinate on the work I'm supposed to be doing, I close the file on the accumulated grades of the students eagerly and, with a mixture of excitement and apprehension, open the Internet browser and type in my E-mail address. I really should have checked for important messages or mails from friends at least once a week and no excuse. These days this bad habbit of mine might cost me friendship and lost chances, I tell myself; but, like in all previous times, it doesn't work.
As the screen reader is reporting the progress of the webpage download, I tip the back of the revolving chair backwards a little and rest my feet on the writing desk, trying to relax myself and my nerves. I've got an ominous feeling with this visit to my E-mail inbox, and I don't know why, and it now doesn't feel like an escape from work at all.
It's too late though.
The webpage is fully open now according to the screen reader. I seize the wireless keyboard from the desktop with nervous eagerness and hit some keys repeatedly until I arrive at the top mail. No need to see how many unread mail I've got in the inbox. There are always at least 11 and now I'm afraid to see how many I haven't read.
It's proving to be a rather wise choice as I'm browsing carefully down the list with the down-arrow key, feeling more and more apprehensive with each mail passed. The first few are alert mails to the few communities on I'm a staff of, mixed with one or two reviews and a bunch of story and favourite alerts from the same fanfiction website. To my surprise, I've gotten a few more reviews from a few other similar sites. (My stories don't attract reviewers, and I've long reconciled myself to that.) But there is nothing extraordinary overall, and so I move to the second page when I hit the bottom of the list.
A few more alert mails greeted me on the new page, and I feel both relieved and disappointed that no one has written or replied me yet. I continue going down the list,
And then my finger freezes, as the screen reader says "FAULTTY Foundation" and "A Big Thank You for You!" as the subject below it.
… Faulty? …
Huh… Does "faulty" have another meaning, other than what I've known so far? English isn't my mother language, after all, and this whole mail seems to be written in that language.
But then I return to the sender's name and hit the right-arrow key repeatedly to spell out the name, and become a little bit more relaxed. All capital letters! (The higher pitch of the screen reader indicates that.) And there are two 'T's on the word, too. An acronym, then. I thought I'd been pranked! Now I only need to see what "FAULTTY" defines as, and the only way is to read the mail.
So I do just that, as I gear my brain towards reading in English.
Dear Virodeil,
First of all, we of the Famous Authors Using Living Toys to Thank You Foundation would like to thank you for your help as a part of the community of fanfiction writers to enrich the worlds created by J. R. R. Tolkien and several other authors by contributing fanfiction stories to the designated websites.
Furthermore, as recommended by a few fanfiction writers who write for the world of J. R. R. Tolkien, we would like to solidify our thanks to you by giving you a chance to meet your favourite character(s) in person via their plushy toys. We hope that you would accept this token of our gratitude and further enrich our community, as several others have.
To choose your plushy toy(s), please simply send the name(s) and race(s) of your choice(s) to plushy with " Plushy Choice" as the mail subject, and the toys will be sent to your address within a week at most. If you do not have time to write a separate mail however, please fill in the form near the bottom of this notification mail and click okay. Please beware that the toys are activated upon touch and will be retracted back to us within 30 days (one month), as we would like to award as many authors as possible with the limited means that we have. If you have chosen more than one toy and really wish to keep at least one with you for a longer time, please choose your most favourite among the toys and send his or her name and race to plushy with "Extention Period" as the mail subject before the 30-day period ends, and you will be allowed to keep him or her for the maximum period of 365 days (one year) before he or she will be retracted by us.
In addition, you may recommend the next 3 fanfiction authors at most (excluding yourself) whom we would consider of awarding this same chance. Please be as clear as possible about the writers' names and the worlds they write for, and please include their E-mail addresses if you know any of theirs. You may also recommend what characters each of them might like, and we will put your recommended characters into consideration as we send them the same notification E-mails as which you are currently reading.
Please note that if you have not put on any request for the plushy toy(s) within 7 days (168 hours) from the date of this notification mail, we will assume that you accept to be the guardian of one or more plushy toys for the next 30 days and do not wish to change or add to the plushy toy(s) recommended by the aforementioned fanfiction writers. And for the sake of guarding the privacy of the aforementioned fanfiction writers, we are not going to divulge to you any information about them.
Sincerely,
the FAULTTY Faundation
Request Form
Penname: Virodeil
Alternate Penname(s): Eärillë, wind rider
Real Name: Rey
Involved in:
Worlds: The Arda Legendarium by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling, The Inheritance Cycle by C. Paolini, The Narnia Chronicles by C. S. Lewis
Websites: , Many Paths To Tread, Silmarillion Writers' Guild, Stories of Arda, , , Shur'tugal Fan Fiction
Recommended Character:
Name: Ossë
Race: Maia
World: The Arda Legendarium by J. R. R. Tolkien
Chosen Character(s): …
Name(s): …
Race(s): …
World(s): …
Note: You are allowed to have 5 plushy toys at most at any given time
Submit Preview
I frown. The mail is long, but not terribly so, but it is not what has made me tense up in the first place. It is too secretive and accurate for my comfort! And what about some plushy toys… and "activated by touch"? Plushy toys don't need any kind of activation, do they? They are only look-alikes from books, films or cartoons made of fabric and stuffed by Dacron, plastic pellets or even packing peanuts, no? Now I wish my grasp on English words and culture were a little better. Whom can I ask about this?
But then, something snags my attention as I replay the odd mail in my head.
The date of the letter.
I hurriedly push the cursor back up using the up-arrow and page-up keys, hunting for the date of the letter's arrival above the mail itself as I straighten up in my seat and put my feet on the ceramic floor, ready for the worst and hoping for the best.
Saturday, 9 Decembre 2011.
I freeze up again, now with certain terror, despite all the flimsy mental preparation. The date was eight days ago! What should I do? What can I do? But it's not like the Valar and Maiar are purely incarnate beings, right? I might be able to conceal any anomaly from my family if I got him to consent to a few rules… right? How would a Maia ever consent of being shipped off to who-knows-where? How, anyway?
And how will the unwanted gift reach me too? Neither mail nor package delivery can reach my home for some reason, and so they are always dropped off at my fraternal grandparents' house, and some of the people who live there are as nosy as one might imagine…
I hunker down, resting my forehead on the cool, smooth surface of the glass sheet covering the desktop, sighing in defeat and amplified exhaustion. This is quickly becoming a scene out of a horror film, with all the unpleasant surprise and terror involved. To think that I hate horror films…
Terror…
What an apt name. And soon, in whichever way, I shall be dealing with the "plushy-toy" form of the very person that bears the name. It was fun and fine when I only dealt with him in my own imagination and stories! How shall I tell my parents, grandparents and assortment of relatives? My younger brother is thankfully away in Taiwan, studying for his master degree, so I can have the bedroom for myself and all the relative privacy it affords, but I cannot confine a spirit within such a small space. I doubt he would even deign listen to any kind of rule I will try to impose on him. He is always portrayed as the rule-breaking type in The Silmarillion.
Huh… how weird is that? A character straight out of a book of fancies written by a dead man. A living, tangible character, and I got the dubious pleasure of hosting one particularly-unpredictable person out of the impressive lot.
Dazed, I close the webpage without much thought and turn off the computer. As I have been prepared to crash into the dreamland since some time ago anyway, I only wait for the CPU to really die down to turn off the internet modem, switch off the stabiliser and plug off the speakers, before climbing to bed and curling up around my pillow and boulster under the blanket, feet tucked into a pair of woollen socks and an arm curled around my sleep companion: an old stuffed lion-cub I named Spencer.
What will come, comes around. I doubt I'll be able to sleep much tonight with the threat of receiving a virtual time-bomb in the very near future, though, all the same.