#+ debating adding something along these lines to that post but i figured I'd just make my own (anxietyyy *finger guns as though this is +

[piningpercussionist]

Okay. Fellas. Real talk. I've seen some of you do it and I thank you profusely for doing so but can yall PLEASE credit the original artist of that piece yall kinda made into an a dtiys/art meme? That's not official art. I am point blank refusing to engage with any of these pieces that I see not doing such. (Even when it pains me to keep scrolling, because some of them are really good!! And I want them here!!! But I do have some rules for myself I try to stand firm by with this blog.)

Like you can literally see them say right there that it's fine IF YOU CREDIT. I'm fucking begging you.

I'm not mad at anyone who didn't know but I've seen SO MANY versions at this point, and I think I've seen maybe 3 or 4 of them RECENTLY include the credit. (And one with improper credit, I think?) Please. Please just. Tack it on.

[gildedmuse]

So, the person who makes All Hearts readable and not just a mess of typos is experiencing Real Life (a terrible thing). But because I can't post the chapter, I keep adding to it. It's gone from 10,000 words to 16,000. It's not good, guys. Something is wrong with me.

So I thought I'd post a snippet from the chapter, like maybe that will be cathartic and get me to lay off. It's unedited, obviously, so apologize for just everything.

Especially since he just got Kuina back and - shit. "Kuina!"

In a flash Zoro opens his eyes and starts scrambling to try and sit up as his memory kicks in, recalling exactly why he's laid out flat in some strange barren ditch. He had to find her. He had to figure out where he was. He…

And just as abruptly, he stops dead.

"Having a good dream were we?" Floating there right in front of his face is…. Some kind of creature. Kitne would probably call it a yōsei, but then Kitne believes some stupid, superstitious shit sometimes (it seems to be a North Blue thing, as far as Zoro is conserned). Uni would probably call it an evil spirit, leading Hige and Gancho debating if it's an ikiryō or a shiryō which are two very different things neither of which Zoro cared about at all. Ikkaku would say whatever it is, it looks damn annoying.

Whatever it is, it's floating there along with two transparent ghost-like things, all of them apparently watching him sleep. In the end, it turns out not to matter at all what it is, Zoro doesn't like it.

After sitting there blinking his way through the initial shock, the fact that this whole thing is creepy and startling settles in. Zoro screams. The annoying yōsei and her pets jerk away. She screams. From the way her little ghost friends are waving what are probably arms around that they're screaming, too.

See, Ikkaku is usually right about these things.

"Stop screaming!" Zoro screams, unable to take her high pitched screeching. Not with his head still in so much pain. He's betting obnoxious girlie shrieks are exactly the kind of thing Law would tell him it was best to avoid. In all cases, really. What did they ever help? The problem is, he's never been particularly good at knowing how to make them stop. Yelling at her certainly doesn't work.

Then he remembers he's surrounded by rocks.

He grabs one and throws it at the girl. It misses. It shouldn't have since it definitely hits her in the stomach, but the rock continues on like there's nothing there. That should probably surprise Zoro more than it does, but seeing as the yōsei abruptly shuts her mouth he's mostly just pleased. Zoro watches as she blinks dumbly, eyes wide as she stares down where the rock had sailed right through her.

God, he hopes she already knew she was dead. He has enough going on and there's no way he is up for explaining that to some screeching ghost.

"What was that for!" The annoying creature yells at him, although still keeping her distance which involved being about five feet in the air. He'd be more worried if it weren't for everything him and the crew had seen since they got to the Grand Line. As it stood, he just found her floating around to be mildly irating. Then again, the longer he knows her the more he feels that way about all of her in general. "You don't just throw rocks at cute young girls! What is wrong with you?"

"Maybe if you weren't hovering over people watching them sleep, they wouldn't throw rocks at you!" Zoro bites back. He's vaguely aware that those strange hollows are circling nearer and nearer. With his head still rattling it's starting to get difficult to keep an eye on both of them as well as their mistress there.

"Hmm!" The girl actually harrumphs, turning away with her arms folded over her chest and her nose in the air. Zoro doesn't know anything about guessing a woman's age, but judging by all the pink and how good she is at pouting, she sure comes off like a child. "What a rude thing to suggest! Especially since I came all the way over here just to check on you. And to imagine, this is the thanks I get for putting myself in danger, wondering out here all alone trying to see if I could help some injured strangers." Her moment of petulance morphed into self pity and fake tears so fast that Zoro found his head hurting in whole new ways.

With a sudden, high pitched cry she turns away, although not so much to hide herself from view. Zoro can still clearly see her wiping at her eyes, sniffling every few seconds while her tag-along spirits hover around her, awkwardly moving their club-like limbs around in what Zoro supposes is meant to be a show of sympathy. It's annoying and pathetic and Zoro hates himself for what he's about to do, but he can't listen to her sobbing for the rest of the night and she seems like the kind of irritating, stuck up girl that would keep up an act until she gets what she wants. All Zoro wants is for her to shut up for a minute.

So he draws in a deep breath, like meditation before a big fight. "Fine, look. I'm sorry, just stop crying." It takes a lot of effort just to force the words out past his clenched teeth. At first he thinks she might not even have heard him over all her silly noises of self pity. Well, he's definitely not repeating himself if that's what she wants.

Maybe sensing she isn't going to get anything better than that, the sobbing cuts off. Slowly, lower lip still quivering, the girl and her ghosts look over their shoulders and back at him. All three blink in unison before the girl draws in a big, dramatic breath. Then, a smile.

Zoro doesn't necessarily find it any more convincing or less annoying, but he supposes over all it's an improvement.

"See, I know at least one of you would be super sweet!" As if he'd given her permission to get back in his face, the girl flies right back down in front of him, clapping her hands like she's a child given a gift. A sinking feeling in Zoro's gut tells him that gift might just be him. He should have stuck with throwing rocks. "It would have been unbearable being stuck here with just her, you know. I'll bet she's still mad at me just because-"

"Wait, what?" From her exaggerated pout, apparently cutting her off is not super sweet, but Zoro really couldn't give a damn. He takes a second trying to grasp onto her exact words. In fairness to him, her voice is incredibly grating, she talks way too much and up until right then she didn't seem like the sort of person who ever said anything worth listening to. So he mostly hadn't been. "What are you talking about?"

This question earns him a look that leaves little doubt what the girl thinks of him. She rolls her eyes and sighs, making it plenty damn clear that while he's incredibly stupid she is a good enough ghost person that she's willing to go out of her way to help him. "You're girlfriend, obviously," the unhelpful spirit says, moving slightly to the right and pointing.

So far Zoro has managed to watch all three of the creatures flying above him at all times. He's still rather weary about looking away and allowing her time for whatever evil ritual she is probably planning, but at the same time… Suspiciously, Zoro slowly takes his eyes off her to glance down, ready to swing back if he hears the slightest bit of evil magic going on behind him.

That's quickly forgotten when he sees Kuina curled up and passed out half on top of him. Even with all the pain he's feeling just about everywhere, he's not even sure how he could have missed it. Not that she's very heavy, but she's lying on top of him.

To be precise she's lying on top of a very specific part of him. Suddenly he recalls the overly cutesy spirit girl's comment when he first woke up which makes a terrible amount of sense now. His face starts to burn, possibly even glowing a bright red. The girl's laughter as she watches his reaction to their precarious position sinking in does not help.

Despite the fact that every muscle in his body screams out at the slightest movement, Zoro scrambles at top speed to get out from beneath his friend, stumbling a bit in a mix of pain and embarrassment. It would be a hard call to say which one is worse at that particular moment. He tries his hardest to teleport out from under her and possibly even a few feet back stopping only at the last second when he's removed most of his body - and all the important bits - away from her. Then he pauses, looking down at Kuina's pained expression, her usually pale skin is colored more by bruises and scars than anything else. He doesn't know the precise details of what she went through, but he knows it must have been hell. And she did it for her captain.

Carefully as he can, with a sort of gentle touch Zoro usually reserves for his swords, he lifts Kuina's head up for a moment before setting it as comfortably as possible on his thigh. No need for her to wake up with a headache on top of everything else. Though the move is likely in vain since he doubts this ghost girl is planning on leaving them in peace anytime soon so Kuina's definitely going to get a headache one way or another.

He stares down at her face, still familiar despite almost half a decade. He watches until he thinks he sees her brow unfurrow the slightest bit.

"Ahh, so sweet!"

"Arg!" It isn't that Zoro had forgotten this annoyance is still around, but this is why he didn't trust her enough to take his eyes off her in the first place. She can sneak around so easily, and all without making a sound. She's cheating, of course, because normal people can't just float around or turn invisible or who knows what else she can do. But somehow in the seconds it takes Zoro to rearrange himself and Kuina, the ghost girl got the better of him and is now hovering, her chin almost resting on his shoulder.

She doesn't pay much attention to the way he tenses up, oblivious to Zoro's discomfort with the fact that she's still there nevermind the fact that she's behind him and way to close. Instead she just goes on talking. "You must have realized how terrible it was for a cute girl like me to have to see something so perverted," she coos, a sound that brings out this twitch in Zoro's left eyebrow. Also, hadn't she been the one that came over and peeped at them? If anyone here should apologize for being a pervert it's the one who had been hanging around staring at two unconscious people.

Apparently, the girl can't sense annoyance at all as she continues her praise of him, despite it being entirely unwanted. "It's okay though, Mr. Swordsman, I'll somehow recover from this horrible ordeal now that I finally have someone around I know will look after me." Zoro has no idea what she's talking about and can't be bothered to ask. His focus is on his friend. Kuina is clearly in bad shape if not even all this commotion has woken her up even the slightest. She'd already been through hell before that monster did... Well, Zoro isn't exactly sure what it is he did, but he knows that he'd gone into the fight barely scratched up and woke up barely able to move. He can't imagine what it must have taken out of his friend just to stay alive through all that.

Not that he's surprised. They taught one another how to be that stubborn.

"-and protect me in case the rest of them come looking for me and go down into that dirty wine cellar so my cute outfits stop getting all dirty and help set up for tea parties-"

If only Law were here. Or any of the medics on his crew. But Zoro can't think of that right now. They aren't here, wherever the hell here is, and missing them isn't going to do any good. Still, it's hard not to miss having a captain who can magic him better when he has to force his way past the pain just to stand. And it's hardly the worst he's ever been through. Actually, now that he thinks about it, even if Law were around he's pretty sure his captain would refuse to treat him all the same. He can almost hear him using that even, unaffected voice he uses when he wants to convey how NOT pissed off he is while saying something like, "Perhaps if you had followed your captain's orders you wouldn't be in such a situation, Roronoa-ya. Perhaps it is better if you suffer the consequences of your own poorly thought out actions. Think of it as a learning experience." Yeah, he'd definitely say something like that. It sounds detached and mature and not like he's throwing a tantrum because maybe Zoro acted a bit stupid in order to save a friend.

He would have done the same for any of his crew and still would, no amount of pain would change that.

The image of Law standing there, trying so hard not to pout or yell or explode in anger does make it a little easier to stand, though, if only because if his captain were here Zoro knows how much it would annoy him that Zoro first gets himself injured then immediately starts pushing his body to do more. It isn't that he wants to get his captain worked up - this is something Zoro has to do, he doesn't really have a choice - it's just that he can be so angry about such a small thing. And it's fun to watch him battle not to show the slightest sign of worry. It makes Zoro want to push a bit further, knowing that he can. Knowing that eventually Law will just snap and teleport Zoro up against a wall so Law can hold him in place and tell him exactly what he thinks about his vice captain's behavior.

[jamiedodgerart]

if you're happy to tell us, i'd love to head more about ur inquisitor :00!! his debates with dorian sound fun

:DDD yeah sure! soz this is late

pica’s 1/6 of an inch tall

(im kidding. his name was originally a pun, but not a typography one - he’s a rehash of an old oc i had way back in the day, who was based off a magpie. hes actually on the short side for a dwarf, i want to say around 4′3″)

he was a lyrium smuggler before the inquisition, and specifically was the front man who sold it. he’s a champion liar and man of many faces, and knows how to disappear in plain sight (which is easy if you’re a dwarf and most law enforcement on the surface are humans. to a human guard dwarves all look the same and theyre too short to really get a good look at their faces). he had a pretty transient lifestyle- he didn’t get tied down, didn’t get too attached to anyone or anything, had pretty few posessions. he was 26 (or the dwarf equivalent of 26. hows dwarf aging work in dragon age anyway) when the carta got him to spy at the conclave, and you know how that went

look ok. the first half of his career as inquisitor was just. wingin’ it. no one really knew what the fuck he was supposed to be doing, least of all him, so he just pretended he knew what he was doing till, i wanna say the end of into the abyss. after talking to mal hawke some he learned that, hey, everyone’s always winging it, and also that his decisions kind of really mattered. (and that those decisions he makes can. kill people) for the first time in his life, he realizes hes actually important, and what he does changes things on the large scale

so after that, he got to thinking. the world kinda sucks. and it sucked before the war. and the leaders of thedas are really not doing all that much about it, except trying to kick each other in the nuts while their enemies are weak and completely forgetting that politics Cannot Survive as a practice if theres no farmers able to make food for diplomats to eat. so, orlais, if your farmland is all gunched up with battlefields, then you need to fix that, don’t you. but the inquisition is really, really good at providing stability! it’s good at establishing patrols, safe trade routes, providing local employment, and is a fairly reliable consumer of local goods. so pica capitalized on that, and quietly spread inquisition presence all over southern thedas. this led to immense inquisition influence, with very little fanfare.

you can guess why the rulers of thedas tried to get rid of him as soon after corypheus was taken care of as possible. they branded him a tyrant and like. ok. they werent like. super far off. bc at this point he was kinda trying to see how much of the world he could take over before anyone noticed/tried to stop him and also figured he could do like, a way better job at leading it than the current rulers could. and he wasnt beholden to anyone either (not like empress celene! elected to her throne by… uhhhhhhhhhhh divine providence or something. i mean shes doing an ok job but like i didnt vote for her) so if he really really wanted to he could go full dragon reborn

ive got off topic but point is he figures humans have had their go and they fucked it up, so it’s a dwarf’s turn and he’s going to put the world back together himself. (ps hey bioware can we have some dwarf stuff in the next game. im js. weve had a whole load of elf nonsense and its nice and all but dwarfs had a cool ancient society too yknow)

after trespasser he elects to keep the inquisition around, because he worked hard to make this glue keeping the bits of thedas stuck together and he’ll be damned if he’ll let solarse and his minions screw it up. but it gets nerfed heavily and hes pissed about it

he romanced cassandra! i really like their relationship- they look to each other for moral guidance. pica knows he can get flighty and relies on her to keep him in line, and always asks her for advice when he sees her in the courtyard. he usually doesn’t follow it but he feels it’s important to have her perspective on things

they disagree on a lot of stuff (like he made celene and briala co-leaders but she was in favor of gaspard) but he trusts her judgement, and supported her in becoming the divine

he’s a little weird about religion, specifically relating to the stone. the surfacer part of him that hates caves is like pff hippie garbage, but the bit that’s generations old and wants to belong to a larger whole of a culture is Super Into It. cole said he felt the stone’s presence around pica one time and externally he didnt react but internally he was yelling WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKK I LIVED IN SUCH PEACEFUL IGNORANCE I DIDNT NEED TO KNOW THAAAAAT and after the mythal thing hes like fuck believe what you want. whatever floats your boat. we live in a world where nugs have little people hands so if it comforts you to know a god did that then live your truth

re mages he figures theres a way better way for them to fit into society than the circle. its dumb. they can LIFT THINGS WITH THEIR MINDS. USE THAT FOR BUILDING. they can HEAL WOUNDS WITH THEIR MINDS. THEY CAN TALK TO SPIRITS AND SHIT THEY CAN PROBABLY FLY WHY ARENT WE USING THIS THEY’RE WASTED IN TOWERS LEARNING TO SHOOT FIREBALLS OR WHATEVER people who fear magic are cowards. chantry more like sham-try. 

hes big on research and development. he sent samson to dagna for research and in the au where mal lives he sent anders to her too. cos. like. dude COEXISTS WITH A SPIRIT. thats cool as SHIT how does it WORK. 

(im gonna make a post abt the mal lives au soon. its good)

hes largely responsible but he has also impulse bought at least three stuffed dragons. also, if the textiles technology were available, hed have dragon jammies. it’s the little things in life.

he collects notes he’s found talking about him and hangs them up by his desk. his favorite is the one samson wrote calling him a damnable rogue. he says hes doing things right, if he’s making people mad

hes trans! im not sure how thatd be regarded in dwarf society, in undergrounders i doubt it’d be very acceptable given their emphasis on reproduction, but house cadash has been on the surface for generations and has probably adopted more liberal views on lgbt stuff. either way hes not very open about it, and it’s really easy to pass when he’s around humans (i get the feeling dwarves and humans look for different things, when they’re trying to guess gender. for example hes got some beard scrub, which in human terms means male but in dwarven terms probably either means very young male or unkempt female) (the added implication to this is that varric might keep his beard to stubble so he looks younger) he met krem and had an instant Trans Solidarity moment, which also comes with the Trans Fear that the person Knows that you’re trans and could out you. it’s a weird kind of trust and for me feels like that one performance art piece with the people holding the bow and arrow. anyway hes cool w krem but doesnt talk to him all that much. theyve got pretty different interests.

his best friends are probs cole and dorian! he’s very curious, and likes to hear different perspectives on things. he and dorian often play chess and discuss all sorts of stuff. they end up yelling a lot because they both want to talk but the other started saying something before they were done with their point, which they started saying before the other was done with their point, and so on. he doesnt get very far in the slavery argument until hawke starts chillin at skyhold more regularly and can adequately school him on the state of tevinter slavery (fuck i gotta make a post about that. mal’s had a lot of development since i last talked about him)

he listens very seriously to cole’s observations. he can really appreciate the input of someone who watches so much more than speaks, and heartily supported his ventures in becoming more human.

he also gets along very well with josephine and likes to trick her into taking days off. hes also always down to chat w dagna and scout harding! and varric, of course. it’s always nice to talk to someone without having to crane his neck up at them all the time

(this is the reason he doesnt usually spend time w bull. hes just too tall and its uncomfortable knowing your face is at your friend’s dick height while ur trying to discuss battle strategy)

uhh trivia, at one point i thought i’d fucked up cassandra’s romance by not flirting with her enough so i meant to go for dorian’s instead, bc while i had wanted to romance cass since uhh i dunno one of my mutuals first reblogged a picture of her, i underestimated how charming and cool of a guy dorian ended up being. so in canon i say pica had a crush on both of them for a little while

its late and i think i got mostly everything so enjooooooy

as a parting gift, this is him