"We are gathered here today to talk about the threat of Sauron Morgoth and the horribleness that will be brought upon us if that man gains political power," Legolas said, pacing in front of his poster board again.
It was rather impressive that they now had twelve people, one of whom was in a wheel chair, in Legolas and Gimli's room. Boromir may have been pushed into the closet, and was peaking, looking rather unimpressed, through Legolas's coats at the poster board. Eowyn was sitting on Faramir's lap, and occasionally stealing a kiss.
Pippin stared, paying rapt attention to Legolas because he was afraid if he looked away that Legolas would murder him with his pointer stick. He reasoned that the only way Faramir wasn't getting murdered was because Boromir was there, and despite the fact that Boromir was in a wheel chair, he was still capable of fencing Legolas's ass off.
Legolas seemed to be incredibly serious about this all. Pippin did agree that it was a rather pressing issue, but he knew that the only thing that he could do would be to vote against Sauron. Unless there was something incredibly illegal that Sauron had done that they could reveal.
Pippin was sure that there was something, but he didn't know how they were supposed reveal it.
"Sauron was obviously working with Saruman in order to get something done, and Frodo has evidence that Sauron is going to do something," Legolas said, "But does anybody know what that something is?"
"Incredible tax rate increases?" Merry suggested.
"Free ice cream on Sundays? Pippin offered.
"Something illegal?" Gimli put in gruffly.
Legolas glared at them all. "No, it means the end of our university!"
Pippin noticed Aragorn leaning over and whispering something to Eomer, and the both of them chortling after Aragorn pulled back. Legolas whirled upon them, and Pippin was glad that the environmentalist's glare was not directed to him.
"Do you have anything to share, Aragorn?" Legolas asked, in a rather cool voice. Pippin was rather impressed with the fact that Aragorn did not cringe, and in fact, seemed super relaxed.
"I was just wondering," Aragorn said, "why we have a conference-"
"Council," Legolas corrected.
Aragorn's eye roll was shared with at least five other people in the room, Pippin included.
"Why we have a council after every new piece of information is known about some threat or another against the university. Isn't texting easier?" Aragorn asked, raising his eyebrows at Legolas.
"Yes, but texting can be traced, and our resistance will be known by Sauron!" Legolas said, a proud smile on his face.
Pippin thought that Legolas finally lost it. Madness was in the family, that much was apparent with meeting Legolas's father. Dalamyr must have been thinking the same thing, because he had pressed himself against the back wall as if he would be able to disappear through it.
Pippin wished that he could; he was suffering from a severe lack of nicotine and he had to work in the next half hour, when the café opened. If anything, it would be an excuse to get him out of this meeting early, but he would still be nicotine deprived. He cursed himself, thinking that Legolas was lucky that it was a Sunday and that the café opened later than usual.
"Oh… okay then," Aragorn said, glancing over at Eomer sceptically.
Legolas paid no heed, smacking his pointer stick on Sauron's face aggressively. "There has to be a flaw in his system. We have Dalamyr," the pointer stick swung through the air was a menacing swoosh and landed, pointing at Dalamyr, "who has an inside scoop of what Sauron's factories were like."
Pippin looked over at Dalamyr, who seemed tempted to jump out the window. Pippin then thought that it was a good thing that there were so many people in the room, because he was certain that Merry would not appreciate having his feet crushed by a Harad boy desperately trying to escape.
"So, Dalamyr, we need your evidence," Legolas said, staring intensely at the newest employee at the café.
"Umm… well…" Dalamyr said, "It's… like… something our of the Industrial Revolution. We aren't issued safety masks, despite the fact that we are working with plastics, and there are hardly any safety goggles. It saves him money, though I'm sure the health inspectors are bribed too keep it on the down low…"
"Hasn't there been complaints about the safety of the factory?" Pippin asked, "If it were that bad, wouldn't people say something about it."
Dalamyr frowned at Pippin, "You don't go public about Mount Doom Industries' working condition."
"Why not?" Pippin said.
"Because you'll never be heard from again," Dalamyr told him darkly, before his head went down and he simply looked at his hands. Pippin could see him twiddling his thumbs in a rather nervous fashion, and thought that it would be better to not press the issue. By the stifling silence in the room, Pippin could tell that everybody else thought the same.
"Well, we could go in and get some photographs!" Legolas said, "Of the workers, and we could send them to the Health and Safety Office. It's that simple."
"Oh yes," Gimli snorted, "Very simple. We sneak into a heavily guarded factory for cheap plastic rings, take photos of working conditions that people have died in, and have died complaining to the public about, and simply send them off to the Health and Safety Office."
"Not to mention that we will be breaking numerous laws," Merry said, "Breaking and entering, trespassing..."
"It's only illegal if you don't get caught," Boromir said. For a person in a wheel chair that would be completely unable to participate in such an event, Pippin thought that he might have been talking a bit big.
"They have security cameras," Dalamyr said suddenly, looking up from his hands.
"We break the cameras," Legolas said with a smile that Pippin was sure could not be sane.
"Property damage," Merry whispered.
"They also have security guards on the premise twenty-four seven," Dalamyr told them, "Most of them are untrained college students though."
"So we pummel the security guards," Eowyn said, rolling her shoulders and grinning widely.
"Assault," Merry added.
Pippin grinned, and pushed his cousin on the shoulder, "Live a little."
"They are going to kill us," Merry hissed, "You heard what Dalamyr said; people die just complaining about the working conditions! Don't tell me to live a little when the 'little' living that we are going to do is going to kill us, or get us arrested!"
"Well, being arrested isn't so bad," Pippin said, "The food in jail is free."
"They don't provide nicotine patches, Pip," Merry told him, and Pippin pressed his lips tight, being reminded of the craving that he had right now, and the lack of nicotine patches that he had right now.
"Oh…" Pippin shrugged, "Better to do something than to do nothing about this?"
"We could vote," Merry said, "Like normal people."
"The vote will be rigged," Legolas said, "If Sauron is as bad as Dalamyr says, he will do it. We have to take action."
Pippin looked expectantly at Merry, his lower lip wobbling in a threat of bringing out his puppy face. Merry sighed. "Fine."
"Yes!" Pippin fist pumped, "The law student approves! Let's do it!"
"I hate you… all of you," Merry grumbled.
Legolas's eyes brightened considerably, and seemed that he was ready to launch a prepared speech when an alarm started beeping. "Oh. Everybody with starting shifts at the café need to get ready now! Let's move!"
Legolas clapped his hands loudly, causing Pippin to cringe. He frowned; he hoped that he could get a cup of coffee before they opened it up for the customers.
The walk to the café was surprisingly silent. Aragorn was busy texting on his phone, probably to Arwen. Legolas had a strange expression on that made Pippin think he was plotting to break and enter into Mount Doom Industries and all necessary escape routes. Pippin had nothing to say, so he tried to distract himself from the headache pounding in his temple.
He had a seven-hour shift today. He had no idea how he was going to last it. Legolas reluctantly let him have a double espresso, which Pippin enjoyed greatly. When the doors opened, Pippin was significantly less mopey, but still suffering from the lack of nicotine.
About four hours into Pippin's shift, the Caffeine Girl showed up. Pippin groaned to himself, while Aragorn grinned brightly. Pippin looked at him, and muttered, "Arwen," under his breath, and Aragorn promptly turned red and fled the scene.
"The usual?" Pippin asked her, looking down at Diamond. She gave him a shy smile as she looked up from her book, and nodded.
"Okay," Pippin said, walking back to the counter. "At least she didn't order something complicated. I don't have enough nicotine in my system to deal with this."
"You don't have any nicotine in your system," Aragorn pointed out.
"I wish I did," Pippin grumbled as he finished making the coffee and set it down in front of Diamond.
The constantly caffeinated girl raised her hand slightly when Pippin made to leave. He paused, and watched as Diamond fiddled through her purse for a couple of moments before she pulled something out. It was a thin package that looked almost like a bandage. Pippin immediately recognized it as a nicotine patch.
"I heard that you wanted some so…" she trailed off, her cheeks reddening. Pippin beamed at her, took the patch between his first two fingers, and pressed a kiss onto Diamond's cheek.
"Thank you," he said as he straightened up, "That coffee is on the house."
"Oh… no… I just heard… so I thought you could have one of mine…" she muttered, not looking up at him.
"Next one's on the house," Pippin insisted, and he left before she could protest.
Aragorn's grin had reappeared on his face as he set up an order of teas. "She needs nicotine and caffeine to survive, you need nicotine and caffeine to survive. You are destined to be together."
"Shut up," Pippin said, as he opened up the nicotine patch and put it on his forearm. He rolled his sleeve back down and made to serve another table. He did notice, however, that he kept on glancing over at Diamond to see if she wanted anything else.
Occasionally, when he looked over, Diamond was also looking up at him. When their eyes met, both would turn away, Diamond suddenly becoming incredibly interested in her book, Pippin with his shoes.
Finally, Diamond left, leaving nothing on the table since Pippin had promised her that the coffee was free. Pippin was surprised and mildly disappointed that she didn't order more. He sighed, telling himself that he would see her when he had his next shift.
He walked over to clear her table. Lying, face up, was a napkin that had been scribbled on with pen.
Call me. 889-555-1399
-Diamond.
Pippin folded up the napkin and stuffed it into his apron pocket and walked away from the table before Aragorn had yet another thing to tease him about.
Thanks to imaginationflies, NTSFroes, Saphira, Spartan-G257, Daeril Ullothwen, and TortoisetheStoryteller for reviewing! Thanks to Saphirabrightscale, ClemmieCole, NicholeStorm, KAMelody, Maille of Migard, Riisa-Uciha, and Nessa Telemnar of Mirkwood for favouriting/subscribing. Thank you for reading, and please review!
Updates may be now on Monday, due to the fact that I will be spending my weekends at my internet-less cottage and will be unable to update.
For the last chapter, I accidentally left in that Melkor was Sauron's husband. I was writing with my friend leaning over my shoulder, and would occasionally put things in that made little to no sense (i.e, and then Aragorn exploded), and that was one of the things that I put in and forgot to change. Sorry for the inconsistency.