{Video; UN: elvenking}

[tauraran]

{He is a king without his elegant trappings - but, really, he doesn't need them. The robe he wears catches the light with the smallest of motions, glittering faintly as if precious jewels are woven in the fabric. His hair is bound into a single thick braid that lays against his back and his circlet is elsewhere - as are his rings.}

How many parents reside in Lunatia? Are you separated from your children if so? {The flickering light on the table before him is all the illumination he requires as he works on a sketch. The drawing depicts trees and a variety of animal life beneath their mighty boughs.}

My fear for my son increases by the day and I have found no relief for it. I hardly realized how helpless I could feel as a father.

{His attention shifts from the sketch of the forest to a second sketch of a face much like his own - yet different enough that it must be his son.}

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text; un: teacupprincess

[porcelainandblood]

I do not have any children, per se. That is, not in the way you speak of.

[Although she considers her gaelikitten as close to a child as she is ever going to get. He is almost like her son, she supposes, though she wouldn't have thought it until Thranduil made mention of things as they are.]

It must be very difficult to be separated from your son. I am sorry that you have need to endure that. I am certain you may have heard this already, but the rumour is that time stops in the world you were plucked from. When you return, it will be as though you never left.

Mayhap that will provide you some relief.

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[tauraran]

You have those you consider your responsibility, I take it?

{It isn't quite the same, no. Thranduil can't explain the joy and the terror of holding a baby for the first time and knowing they depend wholly on you.}

I have been given that reassurance often, but that is precisely the problem. He and I did not part on good terms and I would very much like to see him to amend my words.

[porcelainandblood]

[...Something like that. She doesn't deny what he says. In her own way, Perne feels a sense of responsibility for her brothers as well, even knowing they don't need it.

It's close enough.]

I am certain you will get your opportunity to address that. Waiting is not an easy thing to do for any of us who have things waiting for us. Yet undue stress on ourselves would be foolish at best.

We owe kindness to ourselves when we can afford to have it. I would advise against being too drawn into these feelings.

[tauraran]

{Family is bound to feel that way to some degree. Thranduil is a special case in that he feels that way for his entire kingdom. But are his people not kin to him - through battle and toil, joy and sorrow?}

I have never learned that art.

How would you suggest I be kind to myself? Why am I deserving of it?

[porcelainandblood]

Deserving.

[What a way to ask of it. Do any of them deserve it? Nay, mayhap not. That is, Perne would never say that she does. On the rare occasion, slivers of her find happiness in Lunatia, but they are often drowned out by a sense of shame and regret. One can't call that happiness, but...]

All of us deserve kindness. We are here, after all. In similar predicaments. In that, our hearts be unified, even if our minds or tongues ought not to agree. You are one of us. Thus, so do you deserve kindness. If not from yourself, then certainly from those around you. Those with whom you are close.

[tauraran]

{She is generous; someone who is open-minded with her opinion of others. Thranduil has not been like her in millennia. But she reminds him of better times, seated at the feet of his father, Oropher, or following in the graceful footsteps of Queen Melian.}

I will do what I can to bring comfort to others. Should they return the gift, I will count myself blessed.

[porcelainandblood]

How noble of you. In an ideal world, we would not need to guess whether our kindnesses would be reciprocated. This world, any world I shall wager, is not ideal, however.

I will do all that I can, then, to share mine kindness with you.

[Simply because that, in Perne's perception, is the right thing to do.]