"The Picture of Daeron Gris", by Lyra

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge: The "Fin de Siècle" prompt on the "Maglor in History 2" BINGO card (an uncalled number, N34)

Format: Short Story (3150 words)

Genre: Historical Crossover Mystery, if you look at it sideways

Rating: Teens

Warnings: for allusions to substance abuse, mental illness and homophobia

Characters: Daeron; Maglor; Sarah Bernhardt; Oscar Wilde; Arthur Conan Doyle

Pairings: suspicions of Daeron/Maglor, but nothing actually happens so don't be disappointed

Creators' Notes (optional): WHAT DID I DO.

Summary: At a soiree in Paris in early 1890, two writers meet Daeron and Maglor.

Abject apologies to the great historical artists whose characters I have shamelessly fictionalised.

"The Picture of Daeron Gris" at the SWG archive

Comments

[hhimring]

I didn't know about Stoddart's challenge! It really has potential, doesn't it? You exploited the contrast between the two writers well. Doyle is sort of his own Watson here, as well as a bit Sherlockian in between! I'm now remembering that he ended up believing in Fairies, later on, didn't he? Maybe he had another encounter?
Trust Oscar to have a perspective on the shipping!
There are some quite serious undercurrents in here--despite the lightness. Maglor's remarks on lunatic asylums--and Daeron certainly isn't mad in the way suggested, but he doesn't seem entirely well, either, somehow. Or maybe just in a really sour mood?
(Oh, and what the others already said, of course: very neat idea!)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It has soooo much potential, I couldn't resist in the end. Yes, Conan Doyle fills both parts, as required. Whether or not he has another encounter, I cannot (yet?) say...
Definitely some serious undercurrents - I didn't really want to explore the darker aspects touched by the plot, especially as this was meant to be just a short story, but it wouldn't be properly Fin de Siècle without some gloom, and besides, skipping over the "bad parts" would have been doing the characters injustice.
No, I don't think Daeron is pathologically mad. (Of course, we know that he is immortal, and probably did meet King Arthur, Bonaparte, and a lot of other important people in between!) But he may indeed have tried some of the substances that went around canonic-- I mean, historically! - around the Parisian Bohème, and I'm assuming they're as unhealthy for Elves as they are for humans.

But in my mind, he finds it harder than Maglor to adapt to society (any kind of society, but Victorian may be particularly challenging), and sometimes he just can't contain himself. Not sure he's still traumatised from the loss of Lúthien or whether he's generally more psychologically fragile (or more prone to "fading"?). Maybe both. For some reason, I've always assumed that Maglor would be pretty resilient (a result of his happy Valinorean childhood, no doubt :P). So Daeron kind of needs Maglor to steer the rocky waters of human history, even if he probably wouldn't admit it. Sometimes he gets lost (and then, things like the Pied Piper of Hamelin episode may happen), sometimes he can adjust all right, and sometimes they just need to find a place where he can be himself without being in danger of getting locked up. Among the friends of Sarah Bernhardt (who did keep a pet lion and a puma and other wild creatures), he isn't actually that odd!