The Seventh Avenger by ElrondsScribe

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Chapter 12: Good Morning, America!

All rights belong to Marvel Studios.

May 7, 2012

6:00 AM.

It was the Times Square set of Good Morning America, and Glorfindel had just arrived on the designated floor (like the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, it had somehow avoided being damaged during the Battle with the Chitauri). It was already abuzz with activity, with staff members arranging furniture, setting up studio lights, fiddling with cameras, and doing the hundred other things that have to be done for a live morning broadcast. Guests were also arriving to take their places in the studio.

The moment Glorfindel stepped out of the elevator, a young man in a button-down blue shirt and khaki shorts - apparently one of the guests - spotted him. The young man's eyes widened, and he poked his girlfriend in the arm excitedly. The unfortunate girl, who was wearing a stylish black sheath dress, stared at Glorfindel in frank awe, not even bothering to smack her boyfriend's hand for pointing. "Oh my Lord," she murmured.

"Hello!" said Glorfindel with a tentative smile, waving. He had done his best to look as Not Human as he could that day. He was dressed simply but powerfully in boots, yellow leggings, and a knee-length green tunic that bore his Golden Flower emblem, with a gold-colored belt. His hair was formally braided, and decorated with the few gold ornaments he still had. As before with SHIELD and the Avengers, he was breaking his habits of cloaking the "glow" and of making people around him perceive him to be shorter than he was.

The wave caught the attention of the other guests, who looked around and caught sight of the seven-foot-and-counting Elf. And then Glorfindel learned just how matter-of-fact all the SHIELD agents and the other Avengers had been (or tried to be) when they had first met him. The civilians around him gawked, whispered, and pointed in obvious fascination, though none of them seemed to have the nerve to speak directly to him. Only one particularly bold buccaneer of about ten or twelve plucked up the courage to actually walk up to Glorfindel. "Hi!" he half whispered. "Can I please shake your hand?"

Glorfindel got down on his knees so as not to tower over the boy so much. "You may!" he said reassuringly, holding out his hand. "My name is Glorfindel," he introduced himself. "What's yours?"

The boy's eyes widened, and he took Glorfindel's hand in both of his own much smaller hands, and shook it carefully. "Ray," he whispered.

Glorfindel, equally amused and endeared, had to fight the urge to ruffle Ray's hair. "It's very nice to meet you, Ray," he said sincerely.

Ray seemed emboldened by this. "Are you a superhero?" he asked.

Glorfindel pointed at the emblem on his tunic. "Do you remember one of the Avengers wearing a big yellow sun on a green background, like this?" he asked. Ray nodded eagerly.

"Well, this is my symbol," said Glorfindel. "And if you see me fighting the bad guys again, you'll know it's me because I'll be wearing it."

"Okay!" Ray suddenly tugged on Glorfindel's hand. "Can you come and say hi to my daddy? He doesn't think you're real."

A man in his late thirties shifted in obvious embarrassment. "Ray," he protested weakly.

Glorfindel lifted his head and smiled over Ray's shoulder. "That's all right," he said. "Most people probably don't. That's why I'm here." He stood up and let Ray pull him across the floor to meet his formerly skeptical father, mother, and older brother. Watching the large Elf greet the family seemed to give the other guests courage, and they began to flock to him as if drawn by a magnet. The adults and older teenagers kept a respectful distance, but the children crowded round his legs and tugged at his arms.

In the middle of it all, a door at the opposite end of the room from the elevator opened, and a staff member poked his head out. "We're ready out here, could you all please come on set?" he called.

"And now for a truly unique interview that I trust you've all been looking forward to," said Robin Roberts, seated across from the live celebrity guest of the morning. "Here we have, for his first-ever public interview, both a hero and a living legend. Please welcome Avenger and storied champion Taylor Alexander, or as he's now become known, Glorfindel."

The interviewee - Glorfindel - was an enormously long person with a face of extraordinary beauty. Strength and kindness were written on his features in equal measure; his blue eyes blazed with their own light, deep and piercing and heavy with long years of sorrow and joy. The understated-but-definite radiance that seemed to come from his very being was magnified by the studio lights, and the sight made some viewers think of Apollo. The interviewee's shining yellow hair, which was obviously very long, was braided in strange patterns, and ornamental gold fastenings glittered in the braids.

Of particular interest was the long-sleeved tunic he was wearing over the plain leggings and boots - it was exactly the same shade of green, and had an eight-pointed sun that was exactly the same shape and shade of yellow, as the surcoat worn by the sword-wielding Avenger just a few days ago.

One thing was obvious to even the most hardened skeptics - he was no human.

"Thank you, Robin," he said in a voice of flutes and harps and trumpets, while his smile seemed to brighten the room. "It's a pleasure to be here."

"The pleasure's all mine!" smiled Robin. "Now I'm thinking this is an occasion where it's totally appropriate to ask you how old you are?"

The golden Glorfindel paused. "Ah . . ."

"You seriously don't know?" asked Robin.

"I stopped counting a long time ago," protested Glorfindel, with the most musical laugh you could wish to hear. "Let me see - I think I'm somewhere around the twenty-nine or thirty thousand year mark by now, all told. Since my rebirth I think I'm about - oh, twenty-five thousand or so."

Robin looked suitably impressed. "Wow, seriously?" she said, and the studio audience applauded.

The Elf Avenger shrugged his shoulders humorously. "Oh, you think that's cool, that I'm literally old as dirt," he said wryly.

Both Robin and the studio audience laughed, and Robin added, "Yeah, I'm guessing even for an immortal species that's a long time, am I right?"

"Yes, even for us, that's quite old," said Glorfindel wryly. "Although we typically respect our elders, so being a 'venerable' Elf is actually not so bad."

"I'm sure! Now if you don't mind," Robin crossed her ankles and leaned forward. "I'd love it if you could talk us through your look here, especially the design on your - tunic? Is that a tunic?"

"Thank you for asking about that," Glorfindel sat up a bit. "I know I look like a reject from the Middle Ages, but this is all by design - yes, really, it is. I think a lot of you probably recognize this golden sun with eight rays on a green background from the Battle a couple of days ago -" here he had to stop, because the studio audience had burst into wild applause and cheers. He looked a little surprised and embarrassed, and bowed his head briefly. "Well, thank you," he said graciously. "Ah, yes, this is the ancient symbol of the House of the Golden Flower of Gondolin -" and he was once again cut off, this time by a lone voice whooping in triumph. This time Glorfindel smiled, his eye drawn presumably to the person who'd whooped. "One person knows what that is," he said.

Robin spread her hands. "Give the rest of us a break," she said, laughing. "Most of us had to Google you last night."

"Yes, I hear that the Lord of the Rings wiki and Tolkien Gateway sites got so much traffic they've crashed," said Glorfindel. "But back to the tunic - yes, you're right, it is a tunic - what you are looking at is my standard, a way to identify myself in battle. The same goes for these braids on my head, actually," and Glorfindel tilted his head forward toward the camera. "I know they look unusual and possibly even goofy to many of you, but I promise you -" and here his head went up again. "- make fun of an Elf's warrior braids in his presence and it might just be the last thing you ever do."

"I will take your word for that," said Robin sincerely, for Glorfindel's voice had turned quite serious. "Now could you tell us about these two rings?" She pointed at his hand.

Glorfindel raised his right hand to the camera, where one plain gold ring sat on his forefinger and another more decorative ring sat on his middle finger. "I don't know how well people are going to be able to see these on camera, but here I go," he said. "This -" he pointed at his middle finger. "- is my signet ring, and if you can't see, it simply has the Golden Flower symbol. And this -" he pointed at his forefinger. "- is my wedding ring - sorry-not-sorry," he added at the disappointed "aww"s from the women among the studio audience.

Robin was laughing again. "I know, what a bummer!" she said merrily. "Now in that truly unforgettable battle on Friday, we saw seven of you in total - are you called the Avengers?"

"Yes, we are the Avengers," said Glorfindel, and smiled again as another burst of applause and cheering broke out from the studio audience.

"And I could swear that one of the other six Avengers was in the Captain America uniform, with the shield," continued Robin.

Glorfindel's smile broadened. "Your eyes did not deceive you," he said. "That was the Captain America uniform, and yes, that was Steve Rogers wearing it." (More cheering.) "I can't really say too much about it, but the reports that he was still alive in that plane they dug up last month are more or less true."

"Wow," Robin sat back in her chair. "And after being presumed dead for seventy years. Can we expect to see more of him in the near future?"

The Elf paused, and thought for a moment. "I should think so, probably," he said.

There was even more applause from the studio audience, and Robin asked, "Where is he now?"

Glorfindel smiled in a very polite but final fashion. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you that," he said.

"Ah, well," said Robin. "it was worth a try. Now am I also correct in assuming that we also saw Thor that day?"

"You are indeed correct," confirmed Glorfindel. "Again, I can't say much, but yes, that was Thor. Unfortunately he's left Earth since then and I don't think he'll be back any time soon."

"We also saw the Hulk again, for the first time since he took on the Abomination in Harlem," continued Robin. "as well as the one and only Iron Man - what a hero, by the way, can we just acknowledge that -" And the studio audience showed their assent with more applause.

Glorfindel gave a respectful nod as the applause died down. "He may not believe himself to be the 'hero type,' but he's very much exactly that." He shrugged. "I happen to know a number of 'hero types.'"

Robin pounced on that. "Yes, speaking of which," she said. "I think we can safely say that what we've been calling the Tolkien legendarium is less legend and more history than we thought - does that mean there are indeed Elves living among us?"

Glorfindel smiled, and his eyes twinkled. "Well, I'm not the only one!" he said, and the studio audience cheered wildly. "Yes, we've been keeping a pretty low profile, but we are there."

"And can we expect to meet any of them in the near future?" asked Robin expectantly.

"Definitely," promised Glorfindel, with a nod. "Very soon, I think."

"Well, I know I'll be looking forward to it!" said Robin, and the studio audience applauded again. "It's been an honor having you on the show. Everybody, this has been Glorfindel the Avenger!"

And the glowing golden Elf Glorfindel smiled into the camera one last time before the image cut away.

So according to Wikipedia, Robin Roberts went on medical leave from GMA in 2012 for the week of April 1 and after August 30, which means at the time of this supposed interview she'd still be on the show. I think. Also, it looks like Michael Strahan, Lara Spencer, Amy Robach, and Ginger Zee hadn't joined the show yet; Josh Elliott and Sam Champion were still on. I don't really watch GMA, so I don't know how the broadcast generally flows. And of course I have no idea what filming a live news broadcast is actually like either.

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