#Defira plays Dragon Age

[defira85]

It's been several days now, I can talk about that big choice that happens after Davrin's recruitment now right? That BIG one?

I cannot find a way to justify a world in which I'd ever choose Minrathous over Treviso. One is a civilian city with no central government, no defence infrastructure, no army or militia, and is actively under siege with civilians forbidden from carrying weapons. The other is the largest fucking city in the world, in the largest and most powerful empire in the world, full of the most powerful mages in the world, with defence infrastructure that has withstood the Qunari assault for centuries, with a huge standing army

Yes they wanted me to believe that almost EVERY mage in power is now Venatori which is........ a stretch, honestly, why are so many power hungry magisters enthusiastically bending the knee when it means an immediate restriction of their powers under Elgar'nan when we've been told consistently for 4 games that magisters are manipulative and power hungry and backstabbing and ambitious. Why would they agree to immediately have their centre of power destroyed and blighted? Immediate financial hit, there's no way magisters wouldn't care about loss of income, and now they've lost all the political power they had in the magisterium to become rank and file Venatori

I don't know. They wanted me to believe it's a balanced choice, like one is the same as the other, but when I told Neve I didn't believe a single dragon could disrupt Minrathous, both I and Beren believe that!!! I DON'T believe it was an equivalent choice. Treviso is the obvious choice to save. I'm bewildered by it. Like, you could argue that that's the horror of Elgar'nan's power, even a city you thought was impregnable was taken in an hour but

It wasn't an equal choice and I'm pissed about it being treated like one

[aromantic-eight]

Aromantic Fic Recs

Happy Valentine’s Day with this selection of fanfics featuring aromantic characters. These are grouped into fics featuring aroace characters and fics featuring aro allo characters.  Favourites are marked by a ♥. Fics with sexual content are marked with ‡.

Aro Ace

♥ Lost In Translation by charamei (PG) Fandom: Doctor Who Pairing: Fourth Doctor/Romana Aroace Character: Fourth Doctor, Romana Summary: the fluffy asexual Four/Romana fic where Romana learns French and the Doctor loses a sock. 1191 words An Outlaw’s Life For Me by charamei (PG) Fandom: Doctor Who Pairing: Fourth Doctor/Romana Aroace Character: Fourth Doctor, Romana Summary: the fluffy asexual Four/Romana fic with the Loomling in the bath house. 1854 words Untitled tumblr drabble by amymccabe (PG) Fandom: Doctor Who Pairing: Second Doctor/Jamie Ace Character: Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Jamie Summary: Short little fic wherein humans get soulmate tattoos, and so do their alien soulmates, and Two is quite relieved when Jamie turns out to be uninterested in both romance and sex. Untitled tumblr drabble by eighthdoctor (PG) Fandom: Doctor Who Pairing: None. Ace Character: Eighth Doctor Summary: Short fic in which is Charlie is frustrated by the knowledge that the usual flirting script does not apply to the Doctor. ‡ ♥ Sex and Magic by Defira (PG-13) Fandom: Dragon Age Pairing: None Ace Character: F!Hawke Summary: Sex and magic are two things that Josefina Hawke is fairly certain she will never understand. One of them she is supposed to desire, and the other she is supposed to despise. She’s fairly certain she has them around the wrong way. 3640 words more interested in dragons by facingthenorthwind (spacegandalf) (PG-13) Fandom: Harry Potter Pairing: None Ace Character: Charlie Weasley Summary: Charlie’s always been more interested in dragons than girls. Or boys, for that matter. And at twenty-nine, he finally decides to tell his mother. He doesn’t have high hopes. 1296 words (Probably) 100% Actual Biology by azhdarchidaen (PG) Fandom: Pacific Rim Pairing: None Ace Character: Newton Geiszler, Mako Mori Summary: Mako’s family situation is probably best described as “half the Shatterdome”…Which can definitely feel a little weird. But sometimes it means that just the right person is around to tell you just the right thing. Even if they end up having a slight tangent on sponges. 3145 words ♥ my heart has been my teacher (and i’ve learned quite a lot) by shorttfuse (PG) Fandom: Pacific Rim Pairing: Hermann/Vanessa&Newt Ace Character: Newton Geiszler (probably) Summary: (couple+aro fic) The Gottlieb’s are having a baby, and Newt is happy for them. Really, he is! He’s just going to miss them, is all. He’s gotten used to…whatever this is.Or: Newton is asexual, but he finds himself a family, anyway. 1277 words ♥ Calling Bluffs by azhdarchidaen (PG) Fandom: Star Wars   Pairing: None Ace Character: Luke Skywalker Summary: When Leia can’t come along on a routine mission, Han doesn’t think much of it. He, Luke, and Chewbacca should still be able to complete the objective just fine, shouldn’t they? With extra time to tease the kid over his very apparent disappointment.But when the mission – and the teasing – starts to go awry, Han realizes it might be time for him to re-examine the hand he’s been trying to play with. 2979 words ♥ Sanctuary by d0nquix0te (PG) Fandom: Borderlands Pairing: Axton/Maya Ace Character: Zer0 (also agender) / also features aromantic maya Summary: sanc·tu·ar·y noun 1. a place of refuge or safety. 6684 words ♥ Not a Robot by squireofgeekdom (PG) Fandom: Daredevil (TV) Pairing: None Ace Character: James Wesley Summary (mine): James Wesley builds a house in the uncanny valley. 1085 words Unrequited by thesweetpianowritingdownmylife (PG) Fandom: Daredevil (TV) Pairing: None Ace Character: James Wesley Summary: Wesley knows that Fisk is in love with him. It has never been mutual. 570 words I Can Stand Alone by SailorChibi (PG-13) Fandom: Sherlock (BBC) Pairing: Sherlock/John (queerplatonic-ish) Ace Character: Sherlock Summary: The one time Greg had brought it up to him out of concern for him, because heat was so difficult for unbonded, older omegas, Sherlock had made it perfectly clear that he would never have a relationship with anyone, much less bond with an alpha. Yet there he was with a mating mark on the back of his neck. 2885 words ♥ Dulce Domum by busaikko (PG) Fandom: Stargate Atlantis Pairing: Jennifer/Rodney&John Ace Character: John (probably) Summary: (couple + aro) Jennifer would be the first to admit that she’d never planned on a life that looked like this, but it worked. 2649 words Even in Another Galaxy by smallearthcat (PG-13) Fandom: Stargate Atlantis Pairing: None Ace Character: John Sheppard Summary: All John ever wanted was for people to stop meddling in his personal life. Too bad he has so many well-meaning friends. 3203 words

Aro Allo

‡ ♥ Or Surely We Will Starve To Death Come Winter by aromantic-eight, guardingdark (NC-17) Fandom: Young Avengers / Marvel Pairing: America Chavez/Loki Aro Character: America Chavez, Loki (also trans) Summary: America Chavez, lesbian mercenary extraordinaire, picks up a one-night stand in Vegas. What she ends up with is a new best friend, for better or for worse. 22695 words, unfinished The Moving Finger Writes by phoenixyfriend (PG-13) Fandom: Young Avengers Pairing: Kate Bishop/Noh-Varr Aro Character: Kate Bishop Summary: - And having writ, moves on. (The Soulmate AU fic.)   1292 words. don't trust a perfect person by serenfyrr (PG-13) Fandom: Daredevil (TV) Pairing: Foggy Nelson/Matt  Murdock, kind of Aro Character: Foggy Nelson Summary: But Matt’s sad, inexplicably sad, and with him being this drunk - glasses sliding off one ear, unnoticed - it might only be a little bit about the rejected blind trans dude thing, and more about the entirety of his life sucking bit. Which Matt hasn’t expressed since the first time they went drinking and Matt ended up in tears-that-weren’t-tears-because-his-tear-ducts-don’t-work, so it’s about time. 1617 words. ♥ Lavender’s Blue by blackmetaldahlia (PG) Fandom: Daredevil (TV) Pairing: Foggy/Matt Ace Character: Foggy (demisexual) / also features demiromantic Matt Summary: Matt has his music color coded, and Foggy thinks that’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard Matt say. Three fics set in the same universe wherein aromantic!Matt is in a friends-with-benefits relationship with Brett. Note the ratings.

Fandom: Daredevil (TV) Pairing: Brett Mahoney/Matt  Murdock Aro character: Matt Murdock

‡ I Blame the Adrenaline by patster223 (NC-17) - It’s not like Brett Mahoney means to become friends-with-benefits with the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. It just sort of happens. Now including chapter 3, in which Matt/Brett becomes Matt/Brett/Foggy. 13774 words

Caring for each other while ill promptfic by patster223 (PG) - “You know better than to drink the water at Josie’s,” Matt says archly, which is neither helpful nor reassuring to Brett as he gags into a toilet. Ficlet Untitled by patster223 (PG-13) - “You know-“ Matt pauses to hiss through his teeth as he wraps his own broken ribs, and what the fuck, how did Brett get himself involved in this? “-I’d assumed this was a booty call.”  Ficlet ♥ Here's a Joke by CalciferCai (PG) Fandom: Hawkeye (Comics), Daredevil (TV) Pairing: None Aro Character: Clint Barton, Matt Murdock Summary: Here's a joke: A blind man and a deaf man go to a bar. The blind man jumps over it like a futzing ninja. The deaf guy walks face first into it, fall on his ass, rips his jeans, and breaks his nose. Clint and Matt hang out for a day. Clint's life is one joke after another. 934 words Knowing Who You Are Helps by Zastria (PG) Fandom: Elementary Pairing: None Aro Character: Joan Watson Summary: Joan Watson doesn't like being woken up early and she doesn't like being told who she is but Sherlock's comments about her romantic orientation lead to an unexpected discovery. 1511 words the rebellion in her bones by pwnedbypineapple (PG) Fandom: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender Pairing: None Aro Character: Toph Summary: Toph has never been afraid of doing something different. Aromantic!Toph character study. 847 words

[defira85]

With the proviso that I have not finished the game and I in a really shitty mood about my Rook's body type breaking in the romance cut scene specifically, I have thoughts-

I saw a post that said that Veilguard is so fundamentally determined to say nothing that sometimes it comes out as incredibly offensive with just how aggressively noncommittal it is

and that's really it, isn't it

Shadow Dragon Rook got into trouble for saving slaves, and the Viper is a vigilante saving slaves, but we never SEE any slavery. We see poverty and abuse, but there's no talk about the rigid castes within Tevinter. Maybe the Venatori were drawn primarily from the lower classes of mages, those without family seats in the Magisterium, who were drawn to the promise that they could accumulate power instead of being trapped in a system that dooms them to failure and looks down its nose at them for being born not important enough

Tevinter's whole thing across the series has been slavery!!! And we get one or two codex entries about how Dorian gave such a nice speech about "slavery bad :c" and that's it

The Crows are so utterly toothless. Just an aggressively white-washed cool vigilante group, no hint of their child abuse or slavery practices, where's the acknowledgement that they make a lot of their money from slavery?

Lucanis' year in solitary confinement and torture is just window dressing. Again, haven't finished the game, but no examination of it at all 45 hours in. There's so much literature about what solitary confinement does to a person, how it's a form of torture, and just thinking about how much of Zevran's past abuses were woven into his characterisation so carefully... it's like chalk and cheese

Davrin once again filling the role of Bioware's obligatory "elf who hates being an elf and aggressively denies all elven heritage" companion

And like... every mini villain is just someone who was too ambitious and that made them eeeeevil. All the companions' rivals get dropped on Rook without any build-up, no casual conversations to say "oh I had this ex-friend/rival/foe who shaped me". Maybe I've been spoiled by Baldur's Gate 3 and how carefully all of the companions' abusers were woven into who they were as a character and how it shaped them and their story. Gortash didn't just come out of nowhere, Karlach was mentioning him in chapter 1! There were codex entries about him to be found weeks before you met him! But who the fuck is Johanna Hezenberouasertrousers or whatever the fuck her name is. She was ambitious, TOO ambitious, so she's evil and Emmrich's mirror. Cyrian joined the Forgotten Ones, and sure the Evanuris turned out to be super evil abusers that all the myths and religion was super wrong about but this is WORSE CYRIAN HOW COULD YOU

Don't get me started on whatever the fuck the game is trying to say about religion and about faith. Gods, it's so mid 2000s atheist edgelord memeing "unfortunately for you.... I have reason and logic on my side....... checkmate religion..." There's no nuance at all!!!!! Just "religion is a lie so faith dies now" no acknowledgement of faith as a cultural force!!! Of CULTURE being shaped by faith!!!! Okay I said don't get me started, I'll stop now

Whatever the fuck they're doing with the Qunari. They really just have gone back to their incredibly racist roots of "islamic borg" as David Gaider called it but they've made it even more offensive by making them all so... I don't know what word I'm looking for is, but it's about the sex appeal. How they've got their entire chiselled asses out. They look like they're trying to take part in Mister Bodybuilder Treviso, not a vaguely regimented army that was incredibly carefully structured up until about 5 minutes ago

This was more than what I intended to write lmfao. It's a fun game! I'm enjoying myself, as a fun action RPG. But after Baldur's Gate 3, it's just so utterly spineless. It has nothing to say. Evil people are evil, good people are good. It doesn't take a stand about anything. It is so determined not to be offensive to anyone at all that I find it gross

I'll finish it, and then I'll go back to BG3

[defira85]

Mr Defira is very mean and he cranked up Battle of Helm's Deep section of The Two Towers soundtrack as I started Weisshaupt

[defira85]

Lucanis and Bellara in a team together are THE choice because all they do is bitch about how none of the others can cook or use spices and it's so funny

[defira85]

She's not entirely perfectly what I had in my head, but meet Beren "Rook" Vestrius. I like that she doesn't look like a dewy faced teenage hero, she looks like she's in her late 30s and has a bit of weariness to her. I'll be honest, I struggled with the CC and I know I accidentally reset my customisations for her at least once but. She's still pretty good despite that

We won't talk about what Corinne looked like though

[defira85]

I think it was @iapetusneume who wanted to see the difference. Behold! The physics defying booty cape, versus the flat embarrassment that is Beren's ass the rest of the time

I remain relatively unimpressed with Bioware's idea of a "fat" body. As bad as I thought the swtor "fat" bodies were in 2011, I can't believe it's 20-fucking-24 and we're yet to do better than them. I could drive a fucking oil tanker between that thigh gap. Yes, it's better than Larian who had nothing on offer for fat bodies except a devil and a mutant experiment, no, I'm not fucking satisfied with it

[defira85]

GOD okay so some feedback on my predictions for romances based on the first twelve hours

BELLARA FEELING HAUNTED BY HER BROTHER'S DEATH??? When Kas is haunted by the fact that Vaaran left the Qun for her, to save her, and now Vaaran is dying from the Calling because she joined the Wardens for her, oh my god, I couldn't have WRITTEN BETTER MYSELF. Two bubbly mages HAUNTED TOGETHER

Dhraoibhan and Davrin. Hmm. He's got a much more gym bro vibe than I was expecting. It might work? Not sure so far if it'll work

Emmrich I've only just gotten, but he seems brighter and more enthusiastic than I thought he might, will have to see if that will work with Vaaran? I want him to feel more angst about her imminent death, I know I won't get that in the game and I'd have to write it myself, but hmm. Hmmmmmmmm.

NEVE AND HEDY. Oh boy. I think they'd work excellently together but. The Virmire Choice. People who have gotten far enough know what I mean, and the rest of you will recognise it immediately once it happens. I just... I'm struggling to find a way to justify picking Neve's path in ANY playthrough, let alone Hedy's playthrough which is all about helping the little guys because she's ex Casteless (Captain Brand, she literally wears it as a badge of pride). And I'd heard if you didn't pick Neve there it locks you out of the romance. FUCK. I don't know. I have to do some soul-searching

Harding and Luci is going to work just fine I think. Nothing huge about it

I'm thoroughly disappointed with Lucanis so far, you can absolutely tell they fired Mary Kirby 2 years before the game dropped because his writing is just so... flat. He's such a weird edgelord. On paper you'd think he'd be my favourite but jesus. Anyway I'll romance him with my bloodmage cousin of Hawke and ruin his life and I'll have fun where she can fully see Spite the whole time and pretends she can't to soothe his ego

Taash I don't feel like I've gotten to know well enough to know yet but I think she's fine for Nomi. We'll see once I get to know her more.

I think Beren is going to end up with Solas FUCK

Harding said that one line about "maybe you'll be the one to teach him how to see the world differently" or whatever it was and I was like WELP

[defira85]

ALSO additional thoughts about my extensive personal canon based on revelations that come up when you examine the murals in the Lighthouse (if you've not had a quest to view the murals/memories and don't want spoilers don't look)

So ancient elves having been spirits who chose to became physical isn't that huge of a stretch, it's been bandied about in fandom for years now, specifically there's been all those theories about Solas having been a wisdom spirit

And it's just got me thinking about how he views the Thedas in my canon, where he meets a Spirit of Justice who chose to become mortal after initially merging with a human mage, because the spirit fell in love with a mortal woman (Elissa Cousland and Justice)

And where there's a mortal organisation that appears to have been founded on the scraps and remnants of his rebellion, and have been unknowingly working hard for centuries to maintain the prison in his absence even if they didn't necessarily know that's what they were doing (Jo Hawke and the Veiled Brotherhood)

And where the mortal human woman who interrupted his ritual the first time around is, on close inspection when he offers to heal her at the onset of Inquisition, not a mortal woman at all but another spirit BUT she doesn't KNOW she's a spirit

And he has to wonder just how much spirits - who are supposed to be static and unchanging lest they turn into demons - might actually be capable of evolution and that perhaps things are not as black and white as they were in his time, when he regrets becoming whole and he regrets the horror of physical form and yet here there are spirits who have nothing but abundant joy in their mortal selves, and who resolutely embrace the pain and frustrations of mortality because it means they get to experience life

When he met Therese Lavellan who joined the Inquisition under Corinne and bluntly told him "just because they share a name does not mean the people you speak of are my gods" and he thought she was just in denial about the truth and didn't stop to consider that stories evolve, faith evolves, and the facts of what happened ten thousand years ago do not necessarily make a difference to faith in the present

Wisdom can be stubborn. It can be resistant. It can lead to pride, if the desire to dig in and remain adamant overrules common sense

Maybe he needed time to absorb the fact that Thedas had changed. That people had changed. Spirits had changed. Faith had changed

Maybe he needed time to consider whether he too is capable of change

[defira85]

This is like the wildest shot ever but

You can't tell me the Viper of the Shadow Dragons (double dragon imagery) prefers to be known as Ashur in private and not expect me to go "Asha'bellanar?"

Squints

Is that you Flemeth under the Matthew Mercer voice

[defira85]

Fuck!!!

Felassan is so fucking hot!!! Now I'm even more fucking mad that Solas killed him!!!!!

FUCK

[defira85]

I don't think this is a spoiler but I'll tag it as such anyway - something is going on with the cape physics on my elven rogue Rook and it looks like she has Thedas' fattest ass by at least a Tevinter mile, sweet Andraste

[defira85]

[defira85]

A Veilguard thought about the Forgotten Ones and the ongoing theme in the series about history being inconsistent because it's impossible to find an unbiased source of knowledge-

I'm incredibly excited about all the stuff the game is giving me about the Forgotten Ones (not least of all because Dhraoibhan and their clan in the Tirashan follows them) but I'm also like. Hmmm. I didn't want the Forgotten Ones to suddenly be the good guys and simply have been maligned in the history books by followers of the Evanuris, but I wish there had been more nuance to them. So far, it just seems like they're treating them as Just As Bad Or Worse which is a REAL stretch based on Ghilan'nain honestly

Like I got a codex entry about Anaris after Bellara's personal quest in the ruins with her brother and her annotations at the end of it about how HORRIFYING it sounded, when the codex was literally just like... Anaris describing an army or something. It sounded like propaganda, yeah, like the usual tyrannical bullshit hyping themselves up, but there was nothing overtly monstrous about it that should have warranted her reaction unless she's still being emotional after seeing Cyrian and that's colouring her views

Maybe the game will give me more info, I think I'm really only at about the halfway point (exploration of the world map I'm at 78%, Codex entries I'm at 50%) but I just!!! I want to know who these people were!!! Why they were aligned against the Evanuris!!! Were they First elves, like the Evanuris, or did they come later? Were they elves who were elevated, like Ghilan'nain, who tried to overthrow the Evanuris? Given the things Anaris was doing in the ruins with Cyrian, were they trying to reverse the elvification process and go back to being spirits?

What's their great evil?? How are they connected to the Blight given that Anduril used to fight them and come back coated in it?? They can't be Titan spirits because they're obsessed with elves, not dwarves, you'd think they'd be all over the dwarves if they were big mad at elves. Plus Anaris didn't look like a spirit I'd associate with titans and elves

(have we EVER seen a dwarf... ghost? In game? Any sort of spirit representation of a dwarf? Is this another cut-off-from-the-Fade and return-to-the-Stone thing, dwarfs don't have spirits? Spiritual essence???? That feels racist. Solas where did you put the dwarf souls when you murdered the titans)

Maybe all of these questions get answered in the game idk. Maybe I just need to be patient

(also!!! For Forgotten Ones, people SURE DO KNOW THEIR FUCKING NAMES A LOT)

[defira85]

What is the point of giving us a last name in game if not even the written missives use anything other than Rook

Yeah so I'm ignoring most of the surnames and using the ones I already came up with I think. My qunari girls will keep Thorne because it helps them complete their transition away from thinking of themselves as a part of the qun but I don't think anyone else will use them

Micaela can joke that Ingellvar is her father's family name and he was just a merchant because her mother married for love, so of course she kept her nobler family name

[defira85]

DEEPSTALKERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE SIZE OF CHICKENS

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH