#;minna tabris

[silvanils]

Victory (At Last)

This fic can also be found on Ao3 here!   

For a couple weeks now, Kieran’s been returning from his visits to the alienage all dusty and roughed up, but he always managed to sneak in and clean up in the store-room before anyone noticed. This time, however, he’s still applying an elfroot salve to his bruised ribs when a shadow darkens the door.

He looks up and sees Alistair studying him in concern.

“You needn’t worry,” Kieran says, quickly, reaching for a fresh shirt to tug on. “Nothing’s broken, only…”

“Who did this to you?” Alistair asks, frowning at the way Kieran winces when his hands brush his side while he’s tucking in his shirt. “Do you need any help...?”

“No, I’m not in trouble,” Kieran promises. “Minna offered to teach me a few tricks, and… I’ll learn nothing if I’m always coddled, so I told her not to hold back. It’s not her fault I was no good at any of it. I’ve never… studied this.”

Alistair takes a seat, still frowning — but his eyes have softened a bit. “Learning how to fight is part of being able to defend yourself,” he agrees. “I’m surprised you haven’t…”

“Mother disallowed that sort of training,” Kieran sighs, looking at his feet. “She and Papae taught me a little, but she did not want me to be tutored by templars or chevaliers, which… I understood, but it limited my options in Orlais.”

“I could find you a tutor who is neither of those things,” Alistair offers. “A knight, perhaps? And, also…” he laughs quietly, shaking his head, “I can talk to Dirk and Zevran, let them know you wish to train with Minna? That way, you no longer have to sneak about.”

Kieran feels his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. It feels silly, now, but… he’d never thought this might be allowed.

“I would like that,” he says. “Very much.”

.

A few days later, Alistair leads Kieran down the the wards for the first time, to meet his new combat tutor. “Kieran, this is Ser Bevin of Redcliffe. When I told him about you, he said he’d be absolutely delighted to teach you a few things.”

“Aye,” Bevin says, grinning broadly at Kieran. “You remind me a bit of myself, actually. I got a late start, too, but… as you can see, it all worked out for me.” Kieran nods, and Bevin points out a rack of practice arms nearby.

“Start with a light sword and shield. We’ll take it easy today, lad, I just want to see where you’re at.”

.

The next time he spars Minna, he tries to remember what Ser Bevin taught him: keeps his sword and shield poised and ready to block, waits for an opening to appear. But she’s far too quick, and Kieran finds himself disarmed before he even knows what hit him.

He frowns as he slides backwards, rooting himself, and she grins.

“That’s some fancy footwork,” Minna teases, darting in close. Kieran gasps in surprise as she sweeps out his leg with one smooth flick of her foot. He lands hard on his back, feels the wind rush right out of him, sees stars swirl overhead in the clear blue sky.

He lies there, stunned, for a while. Then Minna leans in over him, holding out her hand, and he lets her help him up as he groans. “Remember to slap your hand against the ground next time you hit it,” Dirk instructs, laughing. “Hurts less, that way.”

“Right,” Kieran sighs, still winded. “Next time.”

.

It’s slow, hard work, but Kieran knows that patience will pay off.

He learns tricks to lure his opponent in, how to dodge and slip aside or stand his ground... and the first time he disarms Bevin with a flick of his hand against his forearm, Bevin’s eyes go wide in surprise.

Kieran grins as he takes a step back and wipes a trickle of sweat from his brow.

Bevin chuckles as he retrieves his weapon. “Not bad,” he concedes, “but it’s not wise to dart in close like that in a real fight unless you become a very skilled rogue. It’s smarter to keep your distance, and… remember to stay agile when you parry.”

“Of course,” Kieran says, but he’s still beaming.

Even a small victory feels good after a long struggle.

[armor-goblin]

love languages

@dirthara-mama this is the first tag in like three months that’s worked for me and i’m gonna roll with it !!! you’re supposed to take this quiz for your ocs' love languages. tagging with no pressure and no idea who’s done this: @jarino @lonely-spaghetti @puddle--wonderful @star--nymph ?? and anybody else who wants to do this too

mireille trevelyan -- it’s definitely acts of service. she’s easy. 

miri’s action oriented but has trouble articulating that, and thus finds herself going out of her way for people she cares about to do things like make their tea the way they like it or pour their coffee first so it’s got less dregs in it or take tasks off their plate or try to help in any way she can. sometimes to the point of being overbearing, i think. miri is such a mom friend. 

brynn ashton -- a mix of gifts and quality time. 

brynn, i think, is one of those people who just...really likes giving people things. she likes paying enough attention to someone that she knows approx what they would like to receive, and waiting until they’ve forgotten they wanted it to give it to them. she likes creature comforts, especially little frivolous things, and especially giving them to her loved ones. i think she views quality time as enough of a gift for herself because she’s had a history of not being allowed to have a lot of clutter around her, and actually receiving gifts flusters her for a bit before she lets herself lean into it. 

minna tabris -- touch. 

minna is super touchy-feely in very casual ways. she props her feet on alistair’s lap. she leans her elbow on zevran’s shoulder or sits next to him, watching him repair shirts at camp. she loops her arm with leliana’s and braids her hair. the more she likes someone, the more touchy she will be (if they’re okay with it, of course). her relationships are basically all cuddling. naturally the person she cuddles most with is her giant mabari because of course it is. 

[silvanils]

Shelter from the Storm

This fic can also be found on Ao3 here!

Kieran has always loved stormy weather. A gentle mist on a spring morning, a warm summer rain… but there is nothing quite like being caught in a fierce, sudden downpour. The roar and the rush... it feels exhilarating.

This rain has some extra bite to it: an early herald of autumn’s steady march.

If he’d been in the castle’s gardens, he might have enjoyed it more — but he’d taken the long way home this afternoon, cutting through a back alley by the alienage where he often meets up with Minna.

He ducks under some scaffolding for a little shelter, creeps his way along the wall toward the house where the Tabris family lives. And as he draws close, he catches sight of Minna herself sitting by an open window, her eyes half closed in a dreamy expression as she listens to the rain.

Just as he second-guesses disturbing her, her eyes open wide and she spots him, too, across the yard. “Kieran! Shit, you’re soaking wet!”

“Storm caught me,” he says, shrugging a little. “Would you mind if I…”

Before he can even finish the question, she darts away from the window. A few seconds later, the nearest door swings open, and she beckons him in as she holds a woolen shawl around her shoulders.

“Come in, quick! This rain’s so cold! How are you not shivering?”

Kieran laughs as he slips inside and shakes the water from his hair. He takes off his wet cloak and boots and leaves them by the door. “Tis not so bad,” he says, grinning broadly. “Have you seen what winters are like, here?”

Minna scoffs quietly, setting a chair up by the fire. Kieran feels a little bad about all the drips of water he’s left on the floor — but Minna smoothly tosses down a little scrap of cloth and dries them up quickly with a swipe of her foot. “No, not yet. I’m not sure I want to — Papi, we’ll be in Antiva again this year, won’t we?”

Zevran clicks his tongue, sliding a few more freshly-sliced vegetables into a pot of stew he’s making. “Perhaps. Things may be a little awkward there, right now. But — ah, I don’t think it will be too bad if we stay here! Ferelden winters do have some perks. Right, Dirk?”

“Yeah,” Dirk says, his cheeks turning red. “Like… snow?”

“Oh yes, snow! And ice… and more snow. Actually, I am forgetting what the perks of winters are again, already.”

“Taking shelter from the cold?” Dirk offers, raising his eyebrows. Minna shares a look with Kieran and rolls her eyes, and he laughs aloud as she returns to her seat by the window. “Warm and cozy drinks? Oh, and Satinalia!”

“Satinalia is nice,” Kieran agrees, finally stifling his laughter. “It was my favorite holiday in Val Royeaux. Oh, Minna, you must see the lights all the elves put up in Halamshiral one day! It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

“Perhaps I would like that,” she concedes, smoothing her skirt as she tucks her knees up. “And it might not be so bad here, either.”

[silvanils]

what's some of this oc lore you've never shared?

Oh man, well, a lot of it's just... silly little details I think are Neat? Like Passion being an OLD spirit, maybe even one that survived the day the Veil was put up. Or Kieran being able to vaguely recall things, but not really (I love the "once upon a December" sequence in Anastasia, aaah!) And... I've been thinking about how Ash could have a kid he doesn't know about, and different ways he could find out about her.

And a lot is still up in the air until we know more about DA4, because some of my lore and ideas deal with trying to move characters into positions where they could be involved in future stuff. Like Minna Tabris and Isa Lavellan. Or even Ithelan...!

And of course, it's not something I've NEVER shared, but I want to do more with my Mahariel's mother, Tiralin, who is an ancient elf. Playing Nature of the Beast has made me want to figure out exactly WHICH clan she stayed with for a while before, because I think it'd be cool if it was semi-relevant. (Possibly even Zathrian's clan...?)

[silvanils]

How about King Alistair & Kieran: “ someone had to pay. ” from the Six of Crows prompt list? :) Bonus for them being steeped in some sort of political intrigue!

@dadrunkwriting

This one kind of took on a mind of it's own, so it's not quite as political as I INTENDED it to be. (I will certainly be giving that another shot another time!)

It wasn’t unusual for Kieran to disappear for long periods of time in the day — and while Alistair did worry any time he noticed the boy was absent, he would always quickly remind himself that his son was capable of minding himself. He took after his mother (perhaps a bit too much) and… Alistair knew how it felt to be uprooted and cast into a new (if still far-too-familiar) set of problems.

But it was unusual for Kieran to miss dinner without giving Alistair forewarning that he would be eating with his friends. Teagan, of course, just let out a sigh and then chuckled quietly. “He’s probably still with that elf girl. I’m sure they just… lost track of time.”

Alistair frowned. While it was possible, of course, it was also unlikely. Teagan saw his frown, though, and shook his head — somehow managing to convey feelings of concern and amusement at the same time. “Oh, Alistair… You could send the guards out to look for him, but I doubt he’d appreciate that.”

Teagan wasn’t wrong. Kieran was a stranger in this court, still, and most of the guards were distrustful of him. And why wouldn’t they be? Any one of the things the boy was was reason enough, and the boy was a lot of things.

“No. If he’s not back by sunset, I’ll go look for him myself,” Alistair said.

And so, after dinner, he dug his old traveling clothes out of a drawer and changed into them, then threw an old cloak over them. Old habits die hard. He was still always prepared to go back to what was familiar, what he knew —

No one looked twice at him as he slipped out through the servant’s quarters and wandered through Denerim’s alleys. He knew the way to the alienage by heart, of course. He’d paid many secret visits to his friends there over the years, and had been the one to show Kieran the safest paths to take when he went there himself.

As he slipped through one last gate, he could see a light in the window of the Tabris family home, could smell the baked bread, butter, the spices they’d used with their meal… and the sharp scent of fresh blood. He urged himself not to panic — after all, two of the people living here were assassins — but he couldn’t squelch his anxiety completely.

When Soris opened the door, his face was composed of all the feelings Alistair was trying not to feel and they all came rushing to the surface at once. “Is Kieran…?”

“He’s here,” Soris said, swinging the door open a little further so Alistair could follow him in. Shianni was cleaning up a cut Minna had on her arm while Kieran stood at the sink, washing blood off his face.

“Maker’s breath,” Alistair said, rushing forward to get a closer look. “What happened?”

“Some arl's son was being an ass,” Kieran sighed, pressing a cloth against a cut on his lip. “I tried to make him stop, but… it didn’t work out. I ended up having to spook him a bit.”

Before Alistair could even ask what that meant, Minna cut in. “More than a bit! When he ran off, he was crying and screaming like a baby! ‘Get it off me! Get it off me!’ But there wasn’t anything on him!”

Kieran glanced over his shoulder and flashed a smile at her before he locked eyes with Alistair — rosy-cheeked and smug. “A harmless trick,” he promised. “He deserved it.”

“And what if he comes back?” Soris asked, frowning. “What if he brings his friends? Things like this never end cleanly.”

Alistair caught the uneasy look Soris shared with Shianni, and he cleared his throat once before speaking. “I might be able to help? That is, if they tell me who this ‘noble brat’ was…”

.

Later, as they walked home together, a long silence stretched between them. Kieran finally broke it with a little sigh. “I know you were worried. I missed dinner, and it’s late, and… I’m…”

“Yes,” Alistair said, sighing. “I was worried. I’m still worried,” he added, thinking about the young noble that would certainly be bitter about Kieran now, “but I’m also proud. You did the right thing. Someone had to pay, and…” he leaned in, smiling, "...I'm glad it was the asshole."

[silvanils]

Day Five - Traditions

You can also read this fic on Ao3 here!

In the back alley behind Cyrion’s house, Dirk and Zevran ran through stances and blade grips with Minna, who was bright-eyed and eager to learn some tricks from them.

“You want to stay flexible,” Dirk said, smiling as he casually swiveled his own dagger from one grip to another. Then again, slower, so Minna could see the way his fingers danced around the hilt. “Like this. Pinch it with your thumb, but keep your fingers loose when you’re switching grips.”

“‘I’ve seen you and Zevran flip them in the air,” Minna said, twirling her own practice knife between her fingers, imitating the motions Dirk had just shown her. “I want to learn that, too!”

Zevran chuckled, and Dirk smiled fondly at him. “Yeah, that’s a flashier trick, but it’s more dangerous, too. I don’t recommend it in a real fight, but it is a nice flourish for showing off.”

“Yes,” Zevran agreed. “You want to make sure you always catch it by the hilt. Especially if there’s a chance the blade you’re using has been poisoned. You want to be especially careful with poisons.”

Dirk heard a door open, and turned to face Cyrion as he stepped outside and leaned against the wall. “Don’t mind me,” Cyrion insisted. “I just wanted to watch for a little while.”

“Sure,” Dirk said, nodding. “I was just about to get back to knife grips. We’re not going to be adding poisons to the mix for… a while. That’s a whole art in and of itself, but Zevran knows it.”

“Basics first,” Minna agreed, shifting slowly from one foot to the other. “One thing at a time.”

“Exactly. Now, the reason you want to be able to change grips quickly is because you want to be versatile in a fight. This grip is good for stabbing,” Dirk said, pointing his dagger out toward her. Then he flipped it around, so his thumb rested against the dagger's pommel. “This one is for slashing and cutting.”

They practiced for a bit longer, until Shianni threw open a window and called them in for dinner. Zevran and Minna both rushed in quickly, but Cyrion’s demeanor made Dirk hesitate. His eyes were damp and distant, even though he was smiling. “Dad? Are you…”

“I’m fine,” Cyrion cut in, swiping a hand over his eyes quickly. “Just… started thinking about Adaia, and how proud she’d be if she could see you right now — following in her footsteps, passing on the same things she taught you.”

At the mention of his mother’s name, Dirk felt a deep ache in his own chest. Pride, grief, joy… so many emotions, all mixed together. He reached out to grip Cyrion’s shoulder in support. Then he attempted to flash his father a teasing grin. “So, you mean you do approve of this?”

Cyrion laughed, shaking his head. “I never said I didn’t,” he insisted. “It’s good to be able to protect yourself. Kept you alive, didn’t it? I wish it wasn’t necessary, but… I suppose it is a family tradition, now.”

[silvanils]

They didn’t expect the child but they’re sure as heck ready to protect her. AKA the exact moment these two assassins became dads (even though it takes them a bit longer to officially adopt Minna as an Arainai-Tabris).

[silvanils]

Title: Napping Together

Relationships: Zevran/M!Tabris

Rating: T

Summary: Zevran had a habit of stumbling into strange situations - not always entirely unpleasant ones, of course, but they did not usually end without a fair amount of blood and death. He was, after all, an assassin.

This time was no different, not really. Despite having washed up at the first opportunity, he and Dirk still had that far-too-familiar scent all over them - and Dirk’s hair was still slightly matted where he hadn’t gotten all of the blood out. Zevran resisted an urge to tisk and fret about it - mostly because he didn’t want to wake up his lover, their mabari, or the young girl they’d just rescued from a group of slavers.

(Written for the 14 Days of Dragon Age Lovers - Day 4: Napping Together)

@14daysofdalovers

[silvanils]

[ on Minna Tabris, the apprentice of Senior Warden Darian Tabris and Zevran Arainai ]

Don’t let her sweet smiles and big brown eyes fool you, Minna Tabris is just as dangerous as her caretakers. It’s unlikely that she will be attending the festivities unarmed, as Dirk and Zevran have certainly taught Minna how to properly hide a blade. She’s also taken an interest in botany in recent months, which I assume means she’s been learning to craft powerful poisons and antidotes.

(Scribbled below:)

Ah, you make her sound so deadly, Leliana! I promise Minna is sweet and sharp in equal measure. She will not sting unless provoked.

-Z

P.S. She wanted us to thank you for the birthday gift. She has worn it in her hair every day since we received it, and she can’t wait to show you how it looks in person! The color suits her perfectly.

[armor-goblin]

“The things I love most about my OTPs” 

i love that the new memes are just YELL ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE STUFF now!! @dirthara-mama tagged me aaaaages ago and i gotta tag @lonely-spaghetti and @star--nymph and @puddle--wonderful and @lesquatrechevrons and @kagetsukai and just. anybody else who wants to do this, no pressure :3 

i’m just... i’m gonna do tab/sera and miri/cullen, because of course i am. i have like two main ships. 

tabris/sera

i love these girls!! honestly, sera is my #1 choice for minna’s romance even though it’s so absolutely far from canon, because oh my god. it is a romance based entirely on heists, what isn’t to love. and also they just...i think they complement each other well. minna’s kind of serious and deadpan, sera’s absolutely not. sera has a lot of internalized garbage about elves to the point where she barely considers herself one, and minna has been spending all her life between fighting to save the alienage and causing it more problems (in her eyes, at least, although she might not be alone in that one). minna doesn’t trust anybody, and neither does sera, but they’re both learning to trust each other. and they share a common goal of fucking over the world that’s fucked them first, which is maybe not the healthiest thing to build a relationship on but it’s a place to start as they learn from each other about how best to protect others and trust again. i think they have a lot to teach each other, and also they would just have a lot of fun flipping around on rooftops and living that gay rogue life. 

miri/cullen 

oh boy. under a cut, this got long. 

okay. mireille and cullen. idiots! and yet you mush these two very traumatized people together and it works after a while. i love them. i love relationships about challenge, and relationships that maybe don’t work out perfectly on the first try, and relationships that start from sex and move into ~feelings~ territory, and also CLEARLY i have a sparring kink that i’ve passed onto these idiots. they’re both older, coming off lifetimes full of trauma and mistakes, and they both, i think, need a solid wall to bounce off of when they meet. and they can be that for each other. there’s a level of trust there, inherent between them from the start; a level of understanding and an ability to push the boundaries just a little. 

of anyone else, i think they both understand what it’s like to be broken by a system you thought worked, and what it’s like to be complicit in its crimes, albeit to very different extents. (i do think this is partly because i write cullen differently than the game does, though, between the post-revolution kirkwall years and his current level of guilt and self-improvement and recovery.) they challenge each other’s faults and hold each other accountable. they argue but it’s mostly that they have similar values -- protect others, save people, control the situation, help -- but different ways of going about that -- cullen is a sword and mireille is a bandage, and they have to switch roles over time, which is part of what i like so much about their romance together. also they compete to make subtle  dick jokes because they have the same sense of humor. they like each other, which annoys them both so much for a while, because they shouldn’t like each other in the least but by god they do sometimes. 

i think what cullen needs is someone to challenge him, and hold him accountable. someone to take him to task as well as help him learn to take care of himself a little. miri needs that too, but she also needs a safe place to stand, and cullen can provide that; he understands, i think, the need to handle your fears and your trauma by throwing yourself against them until you break or you can stand it, and i think there’s a strong thread of guilt in him for what the circles did to her. (there’s a little bit of a myopic self-martyring streak in him, i think.) but there’s a weird trust between them, almost from the first. i think they respect each other, too, more and more over time-- cullen for her altruism and her stubbornness and her intelligence, miri for his perseverance and his ability to be kind and bend and learn from his mistakes and try to do better. they sort of...ping pong off each other into better people, which is my favorite way of making people better. i love them, i could yell about them for three weeks straight, SORRY THIS GOT LONG I LOVE THEM TOO MUCH 

[armor-goblin]

Belated OTP questions!!!! Josie x Ralaferin: 8, 5, 25; Brynn x Sera: 23, 11, 1, 26; Sera x Tabris heist au: 13, 17, 24, 28; Miri x Cullen: 6, 15, 23 again, 30! (I picked my favourite questions and then mixed up for the various ships, feel free to answer whichever questions come easy!)

OH BOY this is a massive list and it’s mostly under the cut!!! 

5. What activities do they enjoy together? (Josie/Sule)

i think they both have their distinct interests; sule’s is to be alone and outdoors, sketching, learning, examining, while josephine’s lies in words and phrases and talk and socializing. sule gets her to enjoy the occasional day hike or climb, while josie gets her to dress up once in a while and go to a party. they probably really like working together in the evening, sitting in the same room within touching distance.

8. What were their first impressions of each other?

sule is attached to the inquisition as clan ralaferin’s expert on elven architecture and history, and shows up with the rest of her clan’s delegation basically because the keeper offered her services. she hasn’t been expecting much from a big castle full of shemlen. josephine, in turn, has almost no experience with dalish clans, so she’s half expecting an elderly expert with decades of knowledge. they are both surprised.

sule’s immediate impression is “oh shit she’s eloquent and gorgeous, oh creators why can’t i speak and why didn’t i wear something nicer???? there is MUD ON MY TOES. she is so pretty. i love her accent. i want to listen to her talk. i hate listening to people talk, why do i want to listen to her talk. mythal help.”josephine’s immediate impression is about 50% “oh she’s MUCH younger than i thought” and about 50% “why was this person chosen as a liaison, all she is doing is frowning and she’s not saying anything and wait. now she’s blushing. oh that’s actually really cute.”

25. What moves do they know work on the other?

you can pry elves with big sharp teeth from my cold dead hands so i think neck kisses and nibbles just like…make josephine melt completely. sule is just completely overwhelmed by holding hands with a pretty girl, tbh. sex she can handle without embarrassment, but josephine rubbing a thumb along her hand instantly makes her blush and stammer.

brynn/sera, sera/tab, and miri/cullen under the cut!! all from this prompt list, btw. 

1. What are things they both find funny? (Brynn/Sera)

pranks are HILARIOUS, especially when they are subtle, and more likely to confuse or mildly annoy than to damage. also, so are spittakes. they are five years old.

11. What causes them to fight?

i think sera can be a little callous, and she’s often inclined to strike out before she thinks if she feels offended, but she’s also got a very clear moral compass of her own despite her style of justice being very retributive. to brynn she’s both a breath of fresh air and a bit of a pain in the ass. in contrast, brynn can come off too stolid or stuffy, and she tends to push herself through pain, which then gets misread as not actually being in pain, and causes conflict between them – and brynn’s a little more ‘help everyone’ in her morals. neutral vs chaotic good. i think they argue about consequences too – sera who avoids them like the plague because they feel confusing, and brynn who ran face first into a pile of them and can’t ignore them anymore in good conscience.

23. Write a ~300 scene between them with no dialogue, only body language.

outsourcing this to another post because. i have. an idea. i have several ideas. stay tuned it’s the scene where they meet for the first time and i have pLANS 

26. What are their favorite parts about physical affection/sex?

sex is just fun for them. sera is twenty-something and stupidly flexible, brynn is thirty-something and has both experience and muscle. sera is also, i think, a very physically affectionate person when she’s allowed to be, and she likes touch and needs touch; to someone like brynn, kind of touch-starved who also loves and needs touch in her life, this is a fucking godsend and there is a lot of ridiculous cuddling positions. they make a point to try new different things for novelty, and then they go back to the same sweetness all over again, over and over. it’s light and fun and adventurous and never quite the same twice.

13. Name something they would never do for the other person. (Sera/Tab)

compromise their principles, i think it boils down to. sera’s not going to dress up like an elven servant and be berated for any reason, even for a good heist or to save someone. she’s going to find another way around that doesn’t involve her being humiliated because being humiliated is pretty much her worst nightmare, whereas for tab that’s a little more par for the course; she’s used to it and can abide it for the sake of a job, while sera can’t. and tab can’t just abandon people in need. forcing herself to leave denerim was one of the hardest things she’s ever done and she has literally no ability not to throw herself in and meddle when she sees a problem. chevalier pushing an elf around? yeah, she’s going to be an idiot and walk into that fight, whereas sera is going to push her to walk away because it’s not their business.

17. What senses (sights, smells, feelings, etc). remind them of each other?

sera for tab: the heavy metal tang of coated chainmail that gets up in your nose and sits on your tongue. the sharp high-nasal smell of hair bleach, and the fine cobwebby feel of damaged dyed hair between her fingers, and the scrape of a razor over warm dark skin. the intimacy of shaving someone’s head for them, and feeling their pulse in their neck as you turn their head to catch the last of the long hairs. small pastries made sweeter by the stealing of them, eaten in the high-up places where nobody sits but you and her, crumbs all down your front and a flask of shitty warm wine and the breeze you’ve missed down in the alleys.

tab for sera: shoulders. ripped cloth, patched until it can’t be and then left to hang loose anyway. the gentle clatter of arrows in a quiver and the twang of a bowstring as it’s strung lost under the grunt of effort it takes to string it. when you leap off a roof and for a minute you are flying and you hit the landing and all your bones crunch together but you still feel a little bit flying, trusting nothing but your body to carry you across the next gap.

24. What is something they have each had to forgive the other for?

their mistrust. tab comes to sera hot off the heels of another failure, shianni killed in her own bannorn, and her abiility to trust is eroded; sera has never been all that trusting in the first place, and she has no idea what to do with this hard-eyed brooding woman at first. they just aren’t in a place to trust each other at first.

28. Write a ~300 fantasy one of them has about the other. 

Minna watches her, in the noon light.

She’s pretty, and animated, her hands mouth eyebrows ears all working in furious concert as she fletches an arrow. She doesn’t do it well but she does it anyway, with an old paint tube full of homemade slug glue between her teeth and her hair like wisps of straw or willow leaves in fall or something pretty like that, flying every which way in the breeze up here. 

She likes Sera’s hands. They’re not dainty so much, they’re broad and thin-fingered and usually covered in nicks, but they’re….nice. Minna’s aware hers are blocky in comparison. She’s chosen to ignore that for now, watching Sera do a finicky task gently with intense, exclusive focus, her fingers sure and precise as she sticks the feather in place. 

She’s supposed to be sharpening a dagger. Her hands are still doing it, but her eyes are on Sera’s fingers. 

Sera would be good at touching, she decides. They’ve been here in Val Royeaux for something like a month and what Minna misses most about the rotten-tooth ache of Denerim Alienage is touch, kind and caring touch. She misses her father’s pat on her shoulder before she falls asleep and she misses Shianni curled up behind her on a lazy winter morning, hogging the blanket. She misses Soris’s arm around her shoulders. She misses ruffling the hair of children and tweaking Shianni’s ear when she swears particularly colorfully. Sera was never really part of the alienage, but she could see Sera fitting in, running her fingers along the bricks. Running her fingers through Minna’s hair. 

Mm. That’s not a thought she’s supposed to be thinking. She’s supposed to be paying attention, running over the plan, the entrances, the cover if she’s caught, the lock she’ll have to pick. Sharpening the dagger.

Okay, okay, for maybe two seconds she’ll think about Sera. She’ll let herself think about sitting on the floor and Sera cross-legged behind her, knees on her shoulders, doing…something to her hair. Combing her long thin fingers through it, scratching her scalp a little bit. Rubbing the short shaved hair just above her ears? Yeah, that’d feel good. Getting a few of the knots out, maybe, her hair’s knotted much more since she’s started bleaching it. She’d be gentle with it. Tug and tug until the hair comes loose and then scratch Minna’s scalp in reassurance, maybe even rub her ears a little bit – 

Sera looks up and says muffled around the tube of glue, “What?”

Minna very nearly cuts her fucking thumb off. 

15. What are traits they dislike in one another? (Miri/Cullen)

HAHA. THE LIST GOES FUCKING ON. really tho, a lot of the traits miri and cullen dislike in each other are traits they also dislike in themselves, reflected across each other and more visible for it. mireille gives cullen a lot of shit about glossing over his past because she’s deathly afraid of the things she may have forgotten, the hurt she could have caused, and the fact that she can’t remember to hold herself accountable makes her sharp with him. cullen finds her hypocrisy and her utter, bone-headed stubbornness infuriating because he sees the same concepts in himself – he unconsciously lets rules apply differently to himself, despite the fact that he too needs to practice self care and needs to actually acknowledge his flaws in constructive ways instead of martyring himself, and he knows it’s unhealthy, but seeing it in her means he can latch onto it. miri hates that self-martyring streak in him because she has a bit of one too, and must take on the brunt of the pain for everyone, no matter what. cullen hates the denial in her because he sees it in himself and knows it doesn’t help (and yet he does it anyway). they both can be a little single-minded and they both can be very…set in their ways? they’ve both got specific, prescribed ways to solve problems, and they both default to those methods instead of looking for compromises.

traits that they don’t each have: mireille can be a little bit pedantic, which cullen finds a little bit exasperating, and sometimes she gets distracted by her own wit and plays around being sarcastic and biting when he’s trying to be serious about something. cullen can be a little too stern and serious and sometimes takes her flippant complaining more seriously than she intends it, which is a bit frustrating for miri on occasion. 

23. Write a ~300 scene between them with no dialogue, only body language.

[armor-goblin]

leap of faith

@lesquatrechevrons requested CUDDLES for the tabris/sera heist au and who am i to deny anyone the heist au 

except i’ve never figured it out so have? some early cuddling that’s only sort of cuddling ‘in the back of the car’ i improvised haha

from this cuddling ask meme! 

The note had said here, this alley, this day, this time, and there was nothing here but a couple of crates and a cart of dry brown leaves. Sera had ducked into one of the crates when the gardener -- at least, she looked like a gardener, elfy but mud on her boots and gloves and one of those pretend-posh hairnets they wore to look nobby -- came by with a wheelbarrow. More leaves. Was she shaking them off the trees? 

Who knew with Val Royeaux. Maybe Orlesians liked their trees in the nuddy. 

The crates were full of chamberpots, but they were the empty kind. Still gilty though. Giltier, maybe, than the used kind. Sera clambered out when the gardener had rattled her wheelbarrow off out of the alley and squinted up against the sun, gleaming through the railings of a balcony overhead.

The note said here, so where was this stupid Jenny? Sun overhead, the note said. Well, the sun wasn’t over anybody’s stupid head unless they were standing on the side of the stupid building, so -- 

The sun flickered.

Sera opened her mouth and got out an accusatory “About time, innit?” as a woman in a guard’s uniform leapt over the balcony railing, skidded down the roof tiles and launched herself off the gutter to land heavily in the dry leaves. 

“Ow,” the leaf pile said, as it settled. 

Sera looked around, but she couldn’t hear the wheelbarrow and none of these stupid guards would have the bollocks to jump off a building, so she walked over and kicked the cart’s wheel. “You the Jenny, then? This your idea of a meet? You’re cracked, you are.”

The leaf pile stuck out a hand and said, “Help me -- wait, ‘scuse me?”

“Means you’re bloody insane,” Sera said, and kicked the wheel again. The cart groaned. Or maybe it was the woman. “You stole some rozzer’s britches?”

“And her chainmail,” the leaf pile said. There were sounds of a struggle from within the leaves. “And also some nob’s daggers, are you going to help me out of this or not?”

Sera folded her arms. “Don’t see why I oughta. You’re bloody starkers mad, you. You’ll muck up all my plans.” (She’d been in Val Royeaux approximately a year and a half. Her plans were -- well, they were plans, and they were brilliant, thanks. Probably brilliant. Definitely brilliant.) 

“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” the leaf pile said, and sat up. She peeled the mask off and brushed leaves out of her bleached white hair, wrinkling her nose. Her skin was dark brown, her eyes almost black, the sides of her head shaved and growing back dark and her ears shiny with silver piercings -- 

Sera swore, very loudly, for about ten seconds. 

Minna Tabris glanced up at her and blinked, three times, and said, “Sera?”

“You’re this bigshot Jenny from Denerim? What shite -- ”

“Wait -- ” One of her long ears flicked. “Someone’s coming.” 

Sera turned around to look at the mouth of the alley and a hand gripped her wrist and yanked her into the unexpectedly crinkly pile of leaves face-first. Leaves did not taste as nice as they sounded under your feet. Kind of dirt-like. 

She spat and Minna (Minna) (she’d met minna on her hanging night and had skipped Denerim as soon as she could after and Minna, Minna had stayed for the alienage, and she’d never understood why) clapped a hand over her mouth and pulled her farther into the leaves, a chainmailed arm wrapped over her shoulders when she didn’t hold still.

The rattle of the wheelbarrow -- 

She hadn’t seen Minna since she was fourteen and Minna was -- was -- who knew? Who cared? Skinny, older than her but not by a lot, angry angry angry but so elfy sometimes that Sera’s mouth tasted like cookies when they talked about trees and ears and people. She hadn’t used to have those big ropy muscles currently holding Sera in place, that was for sure. 

Or the shoulders. Or the -- hands? Of course she’d had hands, but -- 

A thunk and a crispy scrape of metal on wood, and sudden weight as more leaves were shoveled onto their backs. Minna -- Minna pulled her in closer, hooked her foot around her bare ankle and tugged it hidden under the leaves. She was in chainmail. It wasn’t all that comfortable. 

It could be comfortable if she wasn’t in chainmail -- 

Sera huffed against the hand on her mouth and the gardener turned to go, rattling the stupid wheelbarrow off out of sight. 

Minna kept holding onto her even after the wheelbarrow turned the corner and Sera grumbled against her hand. Sera, for her part, decided not to resist too much. She hadn’t spent a lot of time -- cuddling, not since that cute little smith left the city again. Muscles were good for that. She’d take it. Give her time to work the blush off her face.

After long, tense moment full of crinkling settling leaf sounds, Minna let go of Sera’s mouth and patted her shoulder. “Come on, let’s go.”

She shimmied out of the cart with surprising speed for someone wearing a guard uniform. Sera flicked leaves out of her face and popped her head out of the leaves. Minna was already shucking off her boots. 

“What in the shite are you doing here?” Sera demanded, folding her arms on the base of the cart. “Thought you were doing elfy crap back in Denerim.”

Minna shot her a look, ripping open the buckles on her chain shirt and dropping it to the ground. She didn’t actually say anything. Just shucked off her gambeson and threw the stupid gold guard’s mask into the open crate, and flipped up the hood of her shirt, and then she said, “Had to leave. Didn’t want to stop being a Jenny, they told me I could come to Val Royeaux. Help out.” 

Her sleeves were rolled up and the shirt clung. In good ways. Kind of damp -- 

Sera blinked and scrambled out of the cart, dripping with dead leaves. “Who says I need help? I need arrows, that’s what.”

Minna tossed a dagger at her and she caught it out of the air. The hilt was all glitter and gems. “We need to get out of here is what. Are you coming?” 

Sera blinked again and glanced her up and down, as she threw the last of the armor into the crate and dusted off her hands. She stuffed the dagger into her belt and said, “Right, well, you don’t know bits from bobs, so I’m leading.” 

“What? Whose bits from whose bobs?”

“Just bits from bobs,” Sera said, and patted her on the arm. Woof. “Don’t need your help all that bad, but you jumped off a bloody roof, right? Figure you’re cracking, prob’ly lost or you’ve got some head trauma, need someone to lead the way.” Was someone shouting in the distance? Someone was shouting in the distance. “To a safehouse. Or somethin’. Right?”

“All right,” Minna said, sounding doubtful, but she didn’t resist when Sera grabbed her wrist and hauled her away from the crime scene. 

[armor-goblin]

hear me out: what if tabris escaped hanging in denerim by the grace of the red jennies, and became sera’s partner in crime

[armor-goblin]

ya know that moment when your partner in crime leans over you to plan your next heist and you suddenly realize oh no she’s hot

(background image of the summer bazaar borrowed from here on the DA wiki)

[armor-goblin]

red jenny (9:31 dragon)

They left her home that night. Mal ought to know better, Sera thinks to herself, patiently wiggling the window latch back and forth until the layers of paint come unstuck. As if she’d miss this. Some girl kills every person in the arl’s bloody castle? Really bloody, now, then. No, she’s not going to miss watching Mal and her Jennies save someone from a hanging, especially not such a corker of a someone. 

So Sera goes the rooftop way. Sera’s the best at this, and she always has been, even if Mal tells her she’s too little to join in. She’s thirteen, thankyouverymuch. She’s almost fourteen, and that’s a great age for a Jenny to be. She dances along the shingles and pulls up her hood when she gets close to the square, slinking along the eaves and hopping from street to street over the narrow roads. Mal also didn’t tell her where this was, but she’s been listening at doors for most of her life, and really -- if they’re going to hang an elf, they’re going to do it where everyone can see, in the market. This is Denerim. 

Also, there’s torches. Lots and lots of torches. Real easy to spot. 

Sera elbows her way forward, scooting on her belly until she can see over the gutter. She’s picked a high narrow spot between an attic window and a chimney and it looks right down over the square. The guards have set up a gibbet -- it’s a gibbet, right, for hanging? -- right near the gate to the alienage, and Sera gives it a scowl in passing before she focuses her attention on finding her Jennies. 

Mal’s in the crowd. That’s surprising. Mal’s an elf though, so maybe it isn’t? She’s pretty elfy. Maybe she cares about this more’n just how bloody neat it is to save someone who killed a pile of nobles. The guards are separating the elves from the humans, mostly, and she can see Vin and Stick on the human side of the crowd. Stick looks like she’s picking pockets. Sera squints into the darkness until she sees Kiel on a rooftop across the street, and Rav sitting on a dark balcony with a bow in his hands. They’re gonna save her from hanging by shooting the rope?

That’s brilliant.

There’s some talking down below. Sera fidgets, not really paying attention to this part because there’s nobody even on the gibbet and you can’t do a hanging without gibbeting somebody. She’s turned over the word gibbet a couple of times and started toying with her sling before a couple of jackboots haul someone dressed in red out of the crowd. Wait, no, her dress is red but it’s all brown and ick -- her dress is covered in blood. So is she. She’s got a bag over her head and when they take it off one of her eyes is swollen shut. Somebody smacked her good in prison. 

They fit a rope around her neck and Sera, because she’s looking, sees Rav and Kiel draw their bows. Can Kiel even see that far? Kiel’s not that good at shooting. Kiel always tells her that she can’t use a full sized bow until she’s older and Kiel can barely hit a thing -- 

She’s missed it. The girl said something and the guard kicked something and there’s a thunk and a horrible nasty little twoing as the rope goes taut. In about two seconds, there’s going to be trouble. The crowd’s already gasping. Sera’s head feels like it’s revolving as she glances between Kiel and Rav and the girl on the gibbet and Kiel and Rav and the girl and the arrow -- 

The arrow misses, clatters off, but the guards draw their swords. The second arrow hits a guard. The crowd leaps like a scared rat and squeaks like one too, and Sera looks around wildly, then smashes one of the tiles next to her with her heel until it shatters. She picks up a shard and it cuts her fingers as she fits it into her sling. She’s close. She can do it. She has to do it, or a girl’s gonna die and she really wants to meet this girl before she gets killed.

Shard, rope. Shard cuts rope. Twang. 

One of the guards swings his sword back so he can cut the girl in the noose open, and the rope parts, and he misses completely as she falls through the trapdoor and out of sight. His head swivels back up toward the roof her roof

Sera scrambles backward, knocking some tiles loose, and they take ages to hit the ground. Something in the back of her head is telling her go go go go go and she’s not going to bother ignoring it, not when there’s shouting and clashing of weaponry and swearing and fire. Nope, she’s out. She did the brilliant-est thing she’s ever going to do. She can be proper chuffed about it later when nobody’s going to come looking for whoever cut the rope with a shard of tile from this rooftop.

She almost dies sixteen times getting back to the Jennies’ current hideout. Somehow her feet are slipping even on dry tiles now and her fingers don’t grip like they ought to. Sera clambers through the attic window and flops down on the roof beams, flexing her toes in her shoes and feeling her ribs expand and contract as her breathing finally starts to slow down.

Frig. Why did she run? She didn’t have to run. 

Sera plants her palms in her eye sockets and rubs them a few times and says, to the dusty air, “Eugh.”

Much, much later, there’s a knock, and Sera scrambles to the lookout post to confirm it’s Mal before she skitters down the stairs to the door. 

“Password,” she says, to the door.

“Sera, open the fucking door,” says Rav, who sounds like shit. 

“Password,” Sera says, stubbornly. 

“Eat shit.” Through the wood Mal hisses at him, “She is twelve.”

“Let me in before I pass out on your doorstep,” someone else’s voice says. “How about that.” 

Sera unlocks the door. Mal and Rav and Stick all hustle through, ushering somebody covered in a cloak and leaving bloody red footprints on the carpet between them. Stick pats her on the head. “Bucket of water, blondie, make it quick. Gotta wash these prints away, see? Go, go.”

Sera rolls her eyes, but this seems important, so she fetches the water and the big scrub brush and Stick rushes out to clean. And then she’s directed to fetch more water and bandages and elfroot and then bread and cheese and sausage until finally she puts the tray down with a clatter and announces to the table, “Undignified, this is. You all wag off on some hero mission an friggin’ Sera gets to serve the table even after -- ”

Mal narrows her eyes. “After. What.” 

Sera clamps her mouth shut and stands straight at attention, because she’s not going to put herself in a worse spot but also she just saved a life and really, that ought to merit a little more something. 

The girl in the bloody dress is sitting in the middle of all the adults, who are bandaging her, or at least they were until they started staring down at Sera. She’s really not all that old -- like, maybe a few years older than Sera old, not a grown up like the rest of them. She has long black hair and her eyes are even blacker, or at least the one that isn’t swollen shut is. She leans forward. 

“Sera,” Mal says, propping her head on her hand. 

“No, don’t be mad, she did it,” Rav says, tying the bandage around the girl’s arm. “Bloody lucky this little wagoff was there, ‘cos Kiel and I both missed. Wouldn’t have your lag if Sera wasn’t there.”

Mal gives him a look, then gives Sera a look, then throws up her hands. “Right, then, what do I know. Let’s invite the kid to the party more often. Friggin’ cherry of an idea right there, Rav.”

“You’re barely twenty,” Rav says. They start arguing. Sera usually tunes out this bit, although normally she’d butt in and clarify that thirteen is not a kid -- but there’s a guest and the guest is smirking a little bit at the kerfuffle overhead. She pulls over her stool and steals the heel of the bread and some cheese off the tray right from under the girl’s fingers. 

The girl snorts, and reaches over for a new piece. “You’re Sera,” she says. Her voice is dark and smooth. “I’m Minna. Tabris.”

Sera stares at her for a second and then asks, “Did you really kill a whole arl?” Oh, no, that’s stupid -- “Ugh. ‘course you did, I mean, how would you kill half an arl? I mean the whole house. All those puffed up nobs in there? All of them?”

Minna laughs, and there’s no humor in it. “Yep.”

Sera mulls this reaction over through a particularly chewy piece of crust. “Are you going to be a Red Jenny now?”

“I think they want me to be a Red Jenny,” Minna says. She reaches into her dress somewhere and finds a little gold ring, and tests it on her finger. It’s too big. “Are you a Red Jenny?”

Sera nods enthusiastically, and stuffs some more bread in her mouth so Minna won’t ask when she became a Red Jenny because as far as Sera’s concerned that happened about two minutes ago when Rav basically thanked her for being there. Picking pockets isn’t the same thing. 

Minna looks around the room, and sits back stiffly in the chair. She manages to smile. “Okay. Sounds fun. Better than dying.”

Sera beams, and then Mal says, “Sera, go sit lookout. I want to know if anyone’s patrolling this way. Three knocks if they come down the alley, okay? Someone might have followed us.”

She’s about to protest, but Minna’s still sitting in front her and she’s closed her eyes and she looks like she’s about to pass out if she hasn’t already. And suddenly the most important thing is that Minna can trust her to keep guard. So Sera puffs herself up and says with loud confidence, “You can count on me,” and then scurries up the stairs to the lookout post in the gutter. But she does pause to take another hunk of bread. Just because she’s going to impress everybody with how good of a Jenny she is doesn’t mean she’s not going to eat. 

[armor-goblin]

look!! at this beautiful minna that @thedosian-cabbage drew me during his ko-fi commissions!! i am in love!!!!!