Thirty Day Character Challenge: Feanor by eris_of_imladris

Prompt 5

Prompt 5: What’s On The Menu? Your character’s food choices will be influenced not just by taste, but by their culture, environment and circumstances. Try to find out about what foodstuffs might typically be available to your character. What would be their everyday fare? What would be a special treat? Where does it come from? Who does the cooking?

Some thought it was an oddity that he chose to eat in his own way, and others thought it disrespectful to his father and to the cooks who prepared the food he rejected time after time, and still others refused to respect his choices - simple rather than complex, to begin, and then a thousand rules that followed. It was painful for him to watch, painful for him to observe a menu where there was nothing he could eat and all he could do was look out coolly over the assembly of people eating and wonder why he was not important enough to eat as well. His father seemed to be the only one who understood, and who respected his choices, and realized it was more than just pickiness. Some textures were abhorrent to him, like the sliminess of the mushroom or the tang of too-sharp cheese, and others were simply not what he enjoyed, and he found no need to eat what other people enjoyed in order to make them feel important. There was no need to do that, he knew, because he was an important Elda all on his own, and yet when his food needs were disrespected, even though he always had a plan and packed food everywhere he went, he still felt disrespected, which was becoming a common theme in his life that he had not expected to encounter at all. It was a scandal to some that he refused to eat like a proper prince, or even a proper Elda, and had preferences that others considered strange. It was just one thing of many that set him apart from others, and while many of the things were a matter of pride, this was something to endure with deep shame, a shame that made him even more angry and volatile than usual. Whenever anyone pointed it out that he was not eating, whether it was a curious courtier or someone trying to curry favor by offering him a food he liked, he hated that this behavior made him a pawn in the hands of others, and wished that one day he might learn to eat like a normal Elda. He was not a normal Elda, though - and yet, he wondered, if he had had his mother, would he have eaten her food from her plate, learned to endure even the things he hated for her sake? Was it his loneliness and the way he felt set apart that made him eat differently, or was it purely a matter of preference? It confused many other Eldar, just as many things he did made them wonder. He was a prince who was a smith, and a warrior in a land of peace, and he was a strange eater.

Chapter End Notes

This piece follows a headcanon of mine of picky-eater-ness. :)

Some thought it was an oddity that he chose to eat this way, and others thought it disrespectful to his father and to the cooks who prepared the food he rejected time after time, and still others refused to respect his choices. It was painful for him to watch, painful for him to observe a menu where there was nothing he could eat and all he could do was look out coolly over the assembly of people eating and wonder why he was not important enough to eat as well. His father seemed to be the only one who understood, and who respected his choices, and realized it was more than just pickiness. Some textures were abhorrent to him, like the sliminess of the mushroom or the tang of too-sharp cheese, and others were simply not what he enjoyed, and he found no need to eat what other people enjoyed in order to make them feel important. There was no need to do that, he knew, because he was an important Elda all on his own, and yet when his food needs were disrespected, even though he always had a plan and packed food everywhere he went, he still felt disrespected, which was becoming a common theme in his life that he had not expected to encounter at all. It was a scandal to some that he refused to eat like a proper prince, or even a proper Elda, and had preferences that others considered strange. It was just one thing of many that set him apart from others, and while many of the things were a matter of pride, this was something to endure with deep shame, a shame that made him even more angry and volatile than usual. Whenever anyone pointed it out that he was not eating, whether it was a curious courtier or someone trying to curry favor by offering him a food he liked, he hated that this behavior made him a pawn in the hands of others, and wished that one day he might learn to eat like a normal Elda. He was not a normal Elda, though - and yet, he wondered, if he had had his mother, would he have eaten her food from her plate, learned to endure even the things he hated for her sake? Was it his loneliness and the way he felt set apart that made him eat differently, or was it purely a matter of preference? It confused many other Eldar, just as many things he did made them wonder. He was a prince who was a smith, and a warrior in a land of peace,