(no subject)

[lastest_ringbearer]

 The cold hard lands, they bites our hands, they gnaws our feet! The rocks and stones are like old bones, all bare of meat! *Here he pauses: the possible options he's come up with, over the years, for continuing require that he either rhyme 'feet' with itself or use the word 'fish' for two lines in a row. Despite his (admittedly small) ambitions Smeagol is not an especially good poet, nor does he have a wide range of topics to choose from.

*Thus he's going with his usual non-solution to problems he can't deal with, which is to splash at the water while hissing and muttering to himself. Happily he's discovered swim trunks; his old clothes were a nightmare and have been relegated to the rag pile.*

Comments

[museicalmarty]

Uh -- everything okay there? [Marty thought this was just going to be a quiet stroll by the water, but apparently not]

[lastest_ringbearer]

Yesss yesss, Smeagol will live. *He blinks up at the youth before him.* We are running out of thingses to sssing about. Alssso rhymeses.

[museicalmarty]

Oh, I see. Yeah, rhymes can be tough sometimes. Thrown away a lot of songs because I couldn't get a good one.

[lastest_ringbearer]

It sssingses too, does it? *He comes a bit closer.* Smeagol remembers you, he's thinking, yesss. Don't remember sssinging, though, no.

[museicalmarty]

Yeah, well, I wasn't really thinking of music the other times we've run into each other. Didn't realize you had an interest. [noting the swimming trunks] Settling in okay, then?

[lastest_ringbearer]

What elsse did Smeagol have to do, down in the dark? Nothing to sssee, nowhere to go, only Gollum to be ssspeaking to. We came up with poemses and things when we didn't need to sleep or fisssh.

Smeagol isss doing well, I am. Nice people got me new clotheses, they did, no old ragses for Smeagol. *He cocks his head a bit.* Does the man want to swim with usss?

[museicalmarty]

Good point -- you gotta do something just to fill the hours! And making up songs and poems is definitely one of the better uses of a guy's time. [smiles] Course, I'm biased, I've been doing it a long time.

Great -- yeah, I noticed the new clothes! You're looking good! [looks at the water] Maybe. . .what's the water like?

[lastest_ringbearer]

Soundses nicer than ssscreaming, too, and there'sss no other point to that. No one would ever come to help in the dark under the mountainsss.

Nice water, my love. But then all water isss nice water.

[museicalmarty]

[slight wince] Yeah. . .definitely nicer than screaming.

Heh, I see. [he'll test the temperature of the water himself, then shrugs] Yeah, pretty warm, actually. . . [excuse him while he takes off his shirt]

[lastest_ringbearer]

So no ssscreaming for Smeagol. We made other things sssqueak now and then, we did, but we were ssstrong. *He's proud of himself for this; his back straightens as much as it can and he manages to look the other in the eye for a long moment.*

Warmer than at home, yesss. *He jumps in while Marty's doing so.*

[museicalmarty]

[Marty nods, meeting his gaze] Yeah, you were.

Oh, I can bet. [He also removes his jeans, socks, and shoes, and sets everything on the first decent-sized rock he can find before wading into the water] Just anything not freezing must be great.

[lastest_ringbearer]

One good thing about Gollum, he got usss through five long centurieses in the dark.

Mmm, yesss. *He dives under the surface for a bit, then pops back up.* Cold water isss bessst for drinking, but not for bathses and ssswimming.

[museicalmarty]

Yeah -- everybody's good for something!

Mmmm -- you couldn't get me to stick a foot in here if it was too cold. [but it isn't, so he'll continue on -- maybe not as enthusiastically as Smeagol, but he's there, he's splashing himself]

[lastest_ringbearer]

Not Sssauron. *He flexes his fingers in remembered pain.* Not nasssty Wraithses, either.

[museicalmarty]

[Marty makes a face] Yeah, you got me there. Those weren't good for anything or anyone. Good thing they should all be gone now.

[lastest_ringbearer]

All gone, yesss. And now there isss bedses and nice clean water.

[museicalmarty]

[Marty grins, sitting down in the water] Yeah, that's the ticket. And fish?

[lastest_ringbearer]

So much fish! *He grins his full six-fanged grin.*

[museicalmarty]

Awesome! Glad to hear you're doing well!

[lastest_ringbearer]

Man isss kind to care. What reassson doesss nice Man have?

[museicalmarty]

It just tends to stick with you when you come across a guy who just barely survived falling into a volcano. Besides, I've had my share of moments where I wished someone had cared about me.

[lastest_ringbearer]

*He winces.* The fireses, yesss. Hard to forget them. Water be much better, Smeagol isss thinking.

Praps we can help mice Man next time.

[museicalmarty]

Water is loads better, yeah. Let's keep far away from the fires.

Maybe, yeah. If the asshole fae who kidnapped me once ever shows up, you can throw rocks at him for me or something.

[lastest_ringbearer]

No fire. Why Men ussse fire we can't imagine.

Smeagol can do more than rockses. Our hands are ssstrong, yesss, and nimble too. No goblinses came back unlesss Gollum let them, the dark pool wasss our domain.

[museicalmarty]

Well, typically for staying warm and cooking food. . .but in my world, we've come a long way from having to use open flame to do that. Now you only have a fire if you're out camping in the woods or something.

[Marty shoots him a wicked smile] Sounds good to me. What that bastard deserves. Wasn't just my life he ruined.