Thanks, Mira! I tried to walk a very fine line with Denethor here—he certainly sounds cruel, but his are the words of a harsh educator, not of a deliberate abuser (at least in old-world views).

But on the receiving side, yes, the result is the same. And yes, poor Faramir. (I do feel bad for abusing him so!)

Very intriguing story! I definitely think Denethor’s lines are perfect as they are. They’re also rather disturbing, especially the one about “your brother”. That’s so exactly what he would say — and so devastating for poor Faramir. I’m glad Aragorn has at least noticed something’s wrong…

That’s it exactly, Geale. Poor Faramir. Thanks for reading!

Ooo… I’m going to have to go back and re-read to make sure I got everything right but I really liked it! Personally, I think it makes perfect sense not using italics or parentheses, because – from what I’ve understood – you don’t just want Faramir to remember the past, you want the past to be the present as much as the latter is, um, the present… :D Right. Anyhow, this intrigued me – thank you!

Ha, you can’t imagine how conflicted I was about that. I wanted to put all of Denethor’s lines in parentheses, but then I figured, if Faramir can’t tell them apart at first, neither should we. I’m glad it works anyway.

Very interesting. It took a moment to figure out what was real and what wasn’t.