I’ve got blood, I’ve got blood on my name

[hemlocksock]

can I be redeemed?

🩸 in your comment header, list all of your characters sins that can fit the limit. show us every drop of blood on their hands! 🩸 others must confess whether they think your character has a shot at redemption.

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[wouldhavefollowed]

[It doesn't seem all that odd to him, that he can sense words in his mind. He's dead, and the world is very strange these days. Talking animals is the least of it.]

I was not hero enough for them. Nor for myself.

And though I lived and rose to the strength and heroism of Beren or Elendil, should I then forget what weakness was in me? It happened, whatever I should do thereafter.

[okamimommi]

[She pads over, large paws making for even heavier footsteps in spite of her attempts to be quieter. She is still a god in a wolf's body, after all.

Perhaps it is because I am very old, or just because I am something outside the children of men...but one sin, or few dozen, doesn't completely make a man. Instead it just makes them mortal and failable. In other words, still a man, still the same victories, still the same at the the heart of it all.

Carefully, her front paws rest on one of his feet, while she leans her head against his side, looking off in the distance. He's probably seen hounds strike this pose as well. It's protection, affection, a sign of trust.

Evil can be so insidious. Even I have been fooled by it. Letting the beauty it can hold trick me into a great sin. The one hurt the most still forgave me.

How can I not believe you can be granted the same, my child.]

[wouldhavefollowed]

[He hesitates a moment before, slowly and with uncharacteristic uncertainty, his hand comes up to rest on the ruff of her neck, just the way it would if he were sitting with a hound. He finds himself moved by the trust it shows - the forgiveness. There is a lump in his throat.]

Their forgiveness means very little, if it comes at the costs of their lives.

If Gondor now falls, who is to blame but me? If in their flight the Halflings should bring the Ring to the Enemy's hand, then who is to blame but me?

I value their forgiveness. It brought me peace, to be forgiven by my King. But it does not remedy the losses.

[okamimommi]

[She gives a soft grumble and leans into Boromir's hand. Ah, but even goddesses love nice pets. Her tail wags slowly, even as he ears lay back a little in sadness.

Then you must trust them. That your sacrifice isn't in vain.

If it pains you so, my child, I can try to look into it. I may not be the Sun that shines over your world, but I am the Sun all the same.

It may need a little work. She in general is very difficult with most other deities outside her own pantheon, but she can still try! Especially if it brings some peace to this poor child.]

[wouldhavefollowed]

[This does make him start, his tentative petting stopping sharply as he looks at her searchingly, clearly trying to work out what is metaphor and what is literal.]

[At last, slowly:] You are the Sun?

I have never heard it said that the Sun or her helmswoman took such a shape as yours; but I grant I am no scholar, and the world a wider and stranger place than tales would grant. But then what have I done, that the Sun herself should come to comfort me?

[okamimommi]

[Ufufu~ There's a poet who once wrote "There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Still, she leans on him, speaking softly. There are many worlds, some that exist beyond one's perception. They float like bubbles of soap near each other. So, sometimes places in between are made. Sometimes the end of one life leaves your soul in such a place.

I am known in my homeland as 'Origin of All that is Good and Mother to All'. So, I always watch o'er mortal kind, as a gentle mother would.

C'mon you! Get back to the petting! She gives his hand a little headbutt to encourage him. I am interested, because you are human. And humans are special. Your lot in life is harsh. To be playthings of Fate and other things beyond your ken, but also because your own existence can change the way the world works.

You should continue to Pure Lands, and the rest from want or need it provides you child. Not sit here mourning your fault forever more.]

[wouldhavefollowed]

[The Sun, Origin of All that is Good, Mother to All, is trying to get a scratch between the ears. This is a lot to take in.]

[For want of any reason to refuse her, Boromir goes back to gently petting her fur, but it is clear from his expression that he's rather lost what little footing he had in this conversation.]

[All he can think to say, with a touch of wry humour, is:] I was not aware I would have a choice.

[okamimommi]

[She thumps her back leg a little as he starts up petting her again, making her grumble happily.

We'll start to stray from the topic soon. Just know that people can cling to their worlds, my child. And even if it takes effort, I will look into things if it will bring you peace.

They sort of already are, but that's beside point. So tell me your name, and name your companions and family. If you know anything about stars or creatures such as I, perhaps I can find something out? If not through the byways of this land, then maybe some other learned folk will know.

[wouldhavefollowed]

[All this talk of stars and worlds beyond his own, learned folk and greater Beings... not for the first time, it strikes him that all of this would be so much easier with Faramir at his side. Faramir would understand this, or at least be more comfortable in not understanding.]

[He misses his brother, in that moment, so sharply that it makes his eyes sting. Swallowing, he looks down at the wolf-Sun, her head resting against his leg.]

[Trust. Faramir, if he were here, would counsel trust: trust in all such things, greater than mere Men and beyond their comprehension, but working to their benefit all the same.]

Boromir, son of Denethor, is my name. Besides him, my nearest living kin [- if he still lives -] is Faramir, my brother.

I travelled with a small company; with me were but seven others, since the loss of Mithrandir. The King's name - Aragorn - may be known to the Wise, and those higher than the Wise. And Legolas of the Mirkwood, and Gimli son of Glóin, and the others were...

[He clears his throat, and the lump forming anew in it.]

The Halflings. Small folk, in stature and fame both, but who knows what the Wise may see? Frodo son of Drogo, and Samwise his servant, and Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took. Those names I would have tidings of, most of all, for they I have betrayed most directly to their fates.

[okamimommi]

[She nods at that, giving his hand one more gentle headbutt before she steps off his foot, and moves a few feet away.

Aye, I can do something with that. Someone may have heard some of these names. Her ears flick as if she's listening already for them. Trust is Mother Amaterasu. I will find you something.

Now whether she comes back with simply a collection of stories she'll illustrate for him, or with the actual Red Book of the Hobbits is anybody's guess. (He's probably not going to be pleased either way about dear old dad's fate.)]

[wouldhavefollowed]

Trust.

[He smiles, a little bitterly.]

O! if I were a trusting man, would I have found myself in such a pass? Yet I will try.