#I just feel really strong about this

[lirotation]

Ascended Astarion x Female Tav, one shot exercise.

I don't do Ascended Astarion stuff usually, but I was exchanging emails with my friend, and he said, "I'm sure you let Astarion ascend since you were so in love with him you'd want to do anything to make him happy."

Ummm, end of friendship, hahahaha. No, I was so surprised he would think that. Ascended Astarion is a glaring relationship red flag. If there's one piece of advice I can offer to younger women, it's this: never allow your partner to have complete control over you. Always nurture your own freedom and power.

Keep pursuing your career aspirations. Maintain close ties with family and friends who support you. Develop your own interests and skills. Make sure you can simply get up and leave and that you can support yourself if you do need to leave.

I'm not suggesting you take a cynical or suspicious view of relationships. But entering any partnership as equals, with your own solid ground to stand on, is key. The joy of intimacy relies on mutual care, respect and consent between free individuals.

If you find yourself yielding your autonomy or goals to maintain a relationship, or walking on eggshells to avoid angering someone, those are major red flags. Have the courage to reevaluate any bond that becomes more confining than uplifting.

No matter how tempting the fantasy, an unequal power dynamic will likely turn unhealthy over time. I am sure in the game, Ascended Astarion really loved Tav, but the heart is a fickle thing, and eternity is simply too long.

I used a base from talented SeraphicMayin on Deviantart as reference. Link below.

[arsenicflame]

Bonus round! Do you use a queue tag?

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

finally at that age where i'm thinking i should get a tattoo. not bc i feel strongly about it, just seems like a waste not to. i've got so much skin i'm not using

[abyssal-ilk]

playing as a tabris warden and especially playing as a fem tabris warden is just a constant over and over gut punch. you're getting married but then you, your cousin, and several other women from your alienage are kidnapped during your wedding by the arl's son. you slaughter your way out of it to save your cousin and the other women, but there isn't a victory in it— you know there will be retribution for killing a palace full of guards and several nobles even though you were defending yourself and your kin. you're forced to leave your home and join the grey wardens without being given even a single night to recover. you know there will be a purge. you don't know if you'll ever see your family again.

you're taken to ostagar where you are the only woman amongst the grey wardens, and not only that, you are the only elf among them. you remember nessa, the girl in your alienage who was afraid of leaving because she feared what the soldiers would do to her after going so long without seeing a woman. your status as an elf and a woman are constantly remarked upon. you have no choice but to stay. you are fed darkspawn blood by duncan; the blood kills one man while he slaughters the other in front of you. you are supposed to feel grateful to have survived this.

and even later when you seek help from the dalish, what do you learn from zathrian? the same injustices that were inflicted upon you have been repeated over and over for centuries. what do you learn when you seek help from the mages? templars lurk in every corner, always watching, driving mages to the same violence you yourself committed. what do you learn in orzammar? to be a castless woman is to be not considered a person, who's only worth is the children she can bear for the same nobles who keep the castless subjugated. to be chosen by a noble is supposed to be an honor. why does this feel familiar?

AND THEN. what do you learn from the deep roads? darkspawn in all of their corruption are no different; you learn of the broodmothers. it is the same everywhere, no matter where you look. nothing changes. even your other party members, leliana and zevran, have their own stories. and you don't have another choice but to keep pushing on.

[benevolenterrancy]

May your hardened heart be woken By the soft and distant song Of all you left here unspoken All the shards we keep stepping on - Take this body home Take this body home Call the wind, and let her know Take this life outgrown Take this broken soul Call the stars, call them all And take it high, take it far, take it home

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Thank you all for an incredible 500 days of love and support. I offer you: answers to questions that no one has asked.

(As always, more can be found in the tags <3)

[puppyeared]

id fumble him so bad

[usercelestial]

okay but literally what if buck and tommy end up together? like what if we get to see them moving in together or saying i love you for the first time or getting engaged or getting married? what if we get to see buck having a husband? literally what then...

[vela-pulsars]

not enough stonjourner art out there

[arttsuka]

Based on somewhat real events

I spent way too much time drawing this...

But yeah, Ford finally saying thank you

A continuation (kinda)

[ryllen]

maybe i do want us to kiss a little more

[luck-of-the-drawings]

[OLD ART ALERT] A COLLECTION OF SCENES FROM THE GILLIONS CATSCRATCH ARC THAT BROUGHT ME GREAT JOY. i love fishy chips especially when its just gillion being delirious and violent and hostile

[lloydfrontera]

arcos and marbella should've been even more embarrassing parents than they already are in canon. like. they should've been the kind of parents to be constantly talking about how amazing their son is to other people. they're not even bragging they just love lloyd so much they can't help but gush about it to everyone in the vicinity.

someone at a party or something asks them what their oldest son is like and they just go "glad you asked" before pulling out the time period equivalent of a 101 slides long powerpoint presentation about why their son is so wonderful and smart and kind and talented and just about everything good in the world.

lloyd is dying in the corner of the room not really sure what's gonna kill him first, being so embarrassed or so overwhelmed by how genuine they are being about their love for him. it's so fucking nice and sweet and he kind of loves it but also stop please he's gonna dig a hole on the ground and never come out he's serious-

julian is teasing the hell out of him right up until they finish their presentation about lloyd only to smoothly transition over to another one all about their younger son and oh hey that hole looks so nice scoot over hyung-

scheherazade thinks it's really sweet and about to join in to gush about julian just to get bowled over when they also start to talk about their wonderful daughter-in-law who they've come to love so much. she isn't embarrassed by the words themselves but she does want to craw into the hole too when she starts tearing up because of them.

just. arcos and marbella being really earnest about how much they love their kids and not being able to stop talking about it much to the eternal mortification of their children <333

[blueskittlesart]

deeply refreshing to see someone critical of Swift who also like, genuinely likes her. Like i'm neutral to positive on her, but the online discourse has been absolutely rancid. flipping between "Taylor Swift has never done anything wrong ever and she's a fucking genius" and "Taylor Swift is the worst lyricist of all time and also a bad person" is exhausting, so thank you for like. nuance or something lmao

not to make it serious for a sec but i genuinely think that being able to like things that are bad is really important. like I think that it's an important skill to be able to look at something and see what you personally enjoy about it and then take a step back and acknowledge that objectively it's flawed. and to also be able to acknowledge that liking something isn't necessarily an identity or a moral stance. and i think that fandom space in general could really benefit from more people taking the time to learn how to do that. it's okay to like things that are bad

[fisheito]

I started reading beastars so now HE's reading beastars .wait

THEY'RE reading beastars

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

hate that I have to clarify whenever I think of two characters as having a powerful and purely platonic bond as "just friends". like I have to say that but they are not "just" anything.

did you hear me. I said they are friends. not brothers or siblings or maternal or paternal or any other familially-defined relationship. they are friends!!! do you know how powerful that is??? they! are! friends!!! they are FRIENDS