#[ anyway not pictured: solas showing up and holding out a bowl of them to skyhold's gardener like hey......... ]

[theharellan]

@ghiassan​ asked: Felassan was a man of many talents: ladybug-charming, apparently, being among them. While his friend was away, he covered his desk in cilantro and dill, all teeming with ladybugs. Though they could easily have wandered off, they seemed content to swarm their herbs

At first, it escapes his notice. His nose is stuck between the pages of a book, his mind teeming with words that spilled off the pages and capture his imagination. He lowers himself into his chair, reading to the end of the page before he feels something crawl along his finger.

Solas resists the urge to shake like a dog casting off water, lifting his hand instead. The offending creature crawls along his knuckle, red shell shining against orange torchlight. Past his hand, he sees the cross-stitch of green showered over his desk, interspersed with red specks that gave one the impression of an obscure board game.

“Hm.”

He lies back against his chair, contemplating the insect’s gait. At his fingertip its wings kick up, poised to take flight, only to fold them against its back and wrap around again. His foot shifts beneath the legs of his chair, hitting an empty bowl from his breakfast that morning. In the same moment his ankle hits against the rim an idea occurs to him. Solas bends over to retrieve it, ignoring the few grains of rice left at the bottom of the bowl and carefully scraping the ladybird into the bowl.

Repeating the task several dozen times strains his patience, frustration inlaid in the lines across his brow as several clung stubbornly to sprigs of coriander before he drops them with their well-earned spoils intact.

By the end, he is quite confident he holds in his hands the solution to Skyhold’s aphid dilemma.