Hug. "A worthy cause."

Aggressive lean.

"...I can't save most of my family. But. Even just one - and - I never put the original in that role, but my youngest sibling... Sometimes I can save her, too."

"She's born after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, though, so - we probably won't make it that far, this time."

"Hey. We can try."

Nuzzle. 

"I don't - know how much you want to hear, about - all that."

Luthien kisses her cheek. "As much as you want to tell me, Mygwainor."

Small, soft kiss.

"Turin - "

"I."

"I was born in the four hundred and sixty fourth year of the First Age, to one of the noble houses of Men. My father Hurin was in the service of one of the Noldor, and he was a great warrior by any accounting."

"My sister was born when I was two, and - she was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. I loved her, like I loved nothing else - "

"And she died. She died horribly, I stop that plague entirely when I can because it shouldn't exist."

"Ballad writers called that the first great sorrow of the children of Hurin. I hate ballad writers, incidentally."

"Three years later - when I was eight - the hosts of the Noldor gathered, and the Men and Dwarves answered their call. Few others came to their aid. Doriath abstained from the alliance entirely, except for a few individuals who slipped away."

"The union attacked Angband."

"They lost. My uncle Huor was slain, and my father covered the retreat of Turgon, who had become High King with Fingon's death. My father was captured, and tortured to force him to reveal Gondolin's location, but he refused."

"My mother, Morwen, gave birth to my little brother not long after. Nienor. She sent me away to Doriath, though, before Nienor was born, to be fostered here, as Beren - the original Beren - was my cousin. I grew up here, and Thingol took me as his ward. He invited my mother to Doriath, but - the road was long and hard by then. The world outside of Doriath was growing increasingly dark."

"I joined the northern guards in harrying orcs once I was old enough, until - one of Thingol's councilors, that ass Saeros, picked a fight with me. I killed him - accidentally - and then I panicked and fled. I still wanted to fight, though, so I gathered a band of Men with me to try and carve a path through the orcs."

"Thingol sent my friend Beleg to find me and assist me. I wasn't willing to return to Doriath - even with a pardon - and - "

"Beleg died too. My band was scattered. I ended up in Nargothrond, and then Nargothrond fell, and a girl I'd grown - close to, one who I thought I might be able to love and who loved me, was captured."

"I fell under a dragon-spell, though, and he convinced me my mother and brother were in danger - "

"I abandoned her. Finduilas. Even though she called for me."

"My family wasn't at our own halls. The swath I'd carved through the orcs was enough, and they'd already gone to Doriath. I went to find Finduilas, but - I wasn't in time. She was already dead."

"I took up my sword again and fought. What else did I know how to do? The world was full of angry, lost people, and they were willing to follow me to their deaths, for we would all die anyways. Better to go with a sword in your hand."

"I found a man, one day. Naked in the woods, with no memory whatsoever. I should have been suspicious."

"He was kind, and funny, and like - like the only thing good left in the world. I married him, and we were expecting children together - twins - "

"And then the dragon Glaurung found us, and in the fight my husband and I got separated, and I was knocked unconscious. Glaurung lifted the shroud he had put on my husband's memory, and - "

"My husband killed himself."

"He was Nienor, my brother, and he'd left Doriath to seek me out - and then the dragon waylaid him."

"I killed myself as soon as I - realized it was true. That his death wasn't a lie."

"I wouldn't have cared if - if he'd lived. We could have worked it out."

"But. I'd brought nothing but death and misery to my loved ones. So I stopped."

"I don't - remember what being dead was like. There was a sense of time passing, and then I was being called back, with a sword in my hand, the Final Battle arrayed against the architect of my every misery - "

"So I fought, and I won, and I became my own sworn Enemy."

"I'd called myself the master of fate near the end of my life. Declared myself the master of fate by fate mastered at the close."

"Each of the Melkors has taken up our own names. One independent of any role we have ever played."

"I took up Fate."

"Oh, my dear love." Hair pets, soft kisses.

She snuggles into her wife rather aggressively. 

"I can't save most of them. Nienor - I couldn't stand to put my husband back in that role, so - it's drifted to someone else. A woman, and Turin a man, and - the same mistakes each time. But sometimes I can rescue Nienor, and even prevent her from killing herself again, and steer her to join Lalwen - "

"I can't keep her from miscarrying. It's the stupidest fucking tapestry thing. Turin apparently isn't allowed kids, even ones who vanish out of the narrative."

"Turin always dies but I don't - ever try to change that."

Lean. 

"...I don't like the First Age much."

Hug.

So many hugs.

"...I don't ever want kids. Even if not breaks the timeline or makes things harder. I - can't. Again."

"We'll work around it. I promise."

Kiss.

"I - think we can manage to hit the battle before the timeline gets destabilized from no kid."

"Focus on that, then."

Snuggle. 

"I will."

Pet pet.

"I love you."

"I love you too, dear heart. My Mygwainor, my wife."

She giggles and kisses her wife. "Perhaps the true 'master of Fate.'"

Kiss. "If it has to be someone."

"This Fate rather prefers being mastered, I think..."

"Well then. Allow me..."

She laughs.

She'll allow Luthien anything.

Most excellent.

Heeee.

Thingol somehow successfully manages not to send the timeline into a death spiral. They get confirmation that the Noldor (primarily Maedhros) are indeed arranging diplomatic overtures to assorted nations and groups, trying to build an alliance against Morgoth, citing specifically the victory of Luthien, Beren, weapons of dwarf-make, and Finrod (listed in that order of importance), spun as a herald of a new age, a new chance for all their peoples to work together.

Finrod comes to their wedding, negotiating to bring Aredhel and Celegorm and Huan (the last of whom accompanied their Quest, of course, and Celegorm and Aredhel are among those Beren befriended in Nargothrond - two past Melkors, she whispered to Luthien at one point, the two right before Scarlet-Huan - "Aredhel's usually dead by now, but if I stick Shmi in her role, she'll murder her husband rather than be murdered by him, then storm out of Gondolin, and apparently that's enough for the timeline... Celegorm's always an ass, sadly, but Karin as her gives me an ass who really likes me") - and Finrod makes overtures on behalf of the Noldor to Thingol (Aredhel and Celegorm stand there and look pretty; Finrod is clearly steering very aggressively to never have either say anything important to anyone important). The King's hesitant, of course, but, well, Finrod doesn't seem to be turning his charm off anytime soon, and Aredhel and Celegorm are very quickly sent off to join the much less easily offended guards in showing off the strength of their arms against orcs.

And a bit over a year after their marriage is finalized, they get rumors that a new sickness is emerging, circulating in the scattered households of the Men of the North.

Beren wants to do something, of course, but - it's hard to know what. This disease is... Difficult to really influence. 

They can send help. Doriath has medicine, and enough young elves who'd like to leave its borders at some point in their lives.