#Kirkwall Crew

[thelittlestchocobo]

No one in Kirkwall is having a good time

[crunchbuttsteak]

Hawke: Hey Varric thanks for keeping the whole Kirkwall polycule thing quiet in your book. I know Isabela wouldn’t care but the rest of us don’t really need that level of scrutiny.

Varric: The WHAT?!

[demonic-dorito]

One of the most underrated aspects of the Kirkwall crew dynamics is the fact that Hawke is likely the youngest person in the group canonically

Isabela and Varric are about 30. Anders is in his late 20s or early 30s. Merrill is in her late 20s. Hawke is 24 or 25. The only thing saving Hawke from being the youngest is the fact we don’t know Fenris’ canonical age.

Hawke really went from being the Grown Up in their family to being the youngest in their friend group. Isabela has definitely told Hawke “I’ll explain it when you’re older.” Hawke comments on Fenris being a little slow in battle and he quips back “my knees aren’t what they used to be.” If Hawke gets more kills than Varric, he hits him with “back when I was your age-”

This is canonical untapped comedy gold. Why aren’t we talking about this

[wyllapproves]

I love Donnic as a character.

He seems like the most normal guy in Kirkwall but he’s gotta be just a *little* off his rocker to hang out with all of Aveline’s rag tag, apostate, fugitive, mercenary friends. Bro literally saw Fenris squatting in high town and was like “yeah I’d like to drink and play cards and have guy time with that dude.”

Like he and Aveline are literally perfect. He knows that these people are the closest she has to family in Kirkwall and he’s happy to befriend them too, to accept her world, as crazy as it can be.

[sky-fire-forever]

I was listening to a YouTube video of Dragon Age: Inquisition party banter and there's a bit with Cole and Varric where Cole describes Isabela cheating at cards while Anders is sulking and feeling angry and I just...

They were friends.

[mylavellan]

No one has more rights to become a villain than Hawke Dragon Age

[theonekrafter]

alright i have been having thoughts about the da2 cast and they just. the companions in da2 will always have my heart in the way dai and dao can't compare. like these stupid wonderful assholes are all haunted by their pasts and they're all irreverently and sarcastically running from those pasts together. they are somehow stuck to eachother like burrs and they hate eachother and they love eachother and don't understand how to do it in any other way.

i'll bring up your worst traumas in the middle of lowtown and call you a whore to your face but id die for you and kill for you and why didn't you come to the hanged man last night we missed you. cunt.

its just the best found family vibes man. like these assholes have known each other for a decade and still cant say i love you.

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

The hints of Aveline and Sebastian's arc together across the last 10 years has me more invested in their characters than I was in DA2.

Aveline rocking up to Sebastian's doorstep with all of Kirkwall after stonewalling him from annexing Kirkwall is pure comedy. I wish I could've seen his face. He'd let them in because the Kirkwall Crew are nothing if not a contradictory mess who care deeply underneath the seething discord, but this was just satirical.

[cullenssweatyballsakk]

Niggas would literally rather deal with blood mages and probable death than King Von 💀💀💀💀

[fade-blue]

[marthalmary]

I should be able to be poly in any game I play

[avalon-of-babylon]

My favorite thing about Dragon Age 2 is because it's framed as Varric telling Hawke's story it could actually be about playing as the coolest guy you know or blowing smoke up Cassandra's ass about your lame bff who fell ass backwards into saving Kirkwall

[grimwarden]

varric says ''my network'' as a synonym to polycule

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #91: Modern Girl in Thedas, but make it DA2

In honor of DA:V coming out next month I've been replaying DA:I. This is something of a trial because, having just finished a Hogwarts Legacy replay, it's easy to tell that this game is 10 years old - that, and I loved how focused and intimate DA2 feels. Yes, it has world-spanning implications, but it's really all about this guy trying to do his best by his friends and his family. I love it, and DA:I never inspired the same kind of feels.

All of which is a long way of saying: I got to thinking about that most famous of tropes, Modern Girl in Thedas, and I thought about how would I handle it?

Or: What if the MGiT were to appear in Kirkwall shortly before the Fifth Blight?

Just imagine it:

Rather than a true self-insert, I see this more as modern woman meets Thedas, with a middle-aged fan of the Dragon Age series waking up in the body of an unnamed background character in a Hightown estate sometime in early 9:30 following a severe illness. The keyword here is fan - the SI has played the games, read the fic, and glanced at the wiki, but couldn't write out a clear timeline or recall most codex entries.

The SI eventually learns that she's woken up in the body of Sofia Vidal, the 15-year-old daughter of the richest merchant in Kirkwall. Their family has a virtual monopoly on cloth trade on the northern cost of the Waking Sea and has distant ties to Orlesian Nobility as well as the Amells. Their Hightown estate abuts the future Hawke Estate, and if the term robber baron existed in Thedas it would probably apply to here them.

Now, going from the body of a middle-aged engineer from the modern world into the body of a teenager in a Medieval fantasy world is difficult... but luckily no one seems to notice, because it seems doubtful that anyone has ever noticed Sofia Vidal in her life, her family included. She was mousy and shy and easily startled and apparently an endless disappointment to the family for being more fond of books than hunting or fighting.

Because, as Sofia soon discovers, the Vidal family has aspirations. They can read the writing on the wall with regards to the current Viscount and are willing to go to any end to have their family be named the viscountcy.

To which end: Sofia is the youngest of seven children. Three died in the cradle or soon after. Her oldest brother - Gaspare, her senior by nearly twenty years - spends most of his time in Orlais with his titled wife, running the family business interests there. Their other two living siblings are mages, with Amalia sent to the Kirkwall Circle while her twin Agnese went to the Circle at Dairsmuid. It had been their father's hope that, should they not be able to secure the viscountcy themselves, one of his children could marry into the line... but Sofia is so unlikely to catch anyone's eye that her father despairs of her ever marrying at all.

All of which brings us back to the events of DA2.

Sofia may not know much, but she knows that the Blight is coming. She also knows that the conditions in Darktown are horrendous and only about to get worse as refugees flood the cities, so she buys a book on healing, collects some herbs, and sets up shop on the opposite side of Darktown from where Anders had his clinic. It's better than sitting around the estate all day and makes her feel like her transmigration has a purpose.

The events of canon proceed apace...

...which is something of a surprise, because for a long while it's quite easy for Sofia to forget that she's in a video game world at all. That is, until Anders appears at her door looking to swap healing recipes, trade potions, and - eventually - share a drink at the end of the day.

It's through Anders that she meets Garrett Hawke - a cheerfully sarcastic force mage of breathtaking power. He's the sort of powerful it would be easy to fear if he wasn't so affable and in control of his gifts. The idea that he could probably take over Kirkwall through sheer power of his magic and personality alone never seems to occur to him - which is good, because he could probably be DA's answer to Alexander the Great if he cared to try.

Sofia doesn't join the Kirkwall crew, however. She does her healing, gleefully watches their antics from the sidelines, and occasionally joins them for a drink at the Hanged Man.

Though she is the first to welcome the Hawkes to Hightown at the end of Act I, becoming quite close with Leandra. (For many years Leandra will harbor the hope that Sofia and her son will marry and give her many grandchildren to dote over, but neither are inclined that way. Especially after it's revealed they're third cousins.)

Sofia turns 19 in 9:34, the year Hawke becomes Champion.

It's also the year Sofia is introduced to Sebastian Vael, being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to attend the prince, who is bleeding out in the foyer of Hawke's home following the events of Repentance. It's not the first time this has happened - Sofia's bedroom is infinitely closer than Ander's clinic - but it is perhaps the most embarrassing.

Embarrassing, because she prefers not to be introduced to royalty in her nightclothes. Sofia has standards - not many, mind, but she has them.

Luckily for her, Sebastian is far too out of it to recall what she was wearing. But he can't help but develop a crush on the kind healer who so diligently tended his wounds - one who also ministers to the poor and downtrodden, though she could easily choose to live a life of luxury.

What follows falls somewhere between the canon friend and rival romances. We get a Sebastian who wants to regain Starkhaven because Sofia deserves no less than a Prince but who has the calm and pro-mage sympathies of the friendship route.

But that of course takes time, because Sofia's not convinced at first that Sebastian's crush has nothing to do with seeing her in her nightclothes. (Nor, for that matter, does she particularly care for the idea of a chaste marriage or an aggressively anti-mage spouse. She'd not been a particular fan of Sebastian in the game, but hadn't hated him either.)

Canon proceeds apace. Hawke becomes Champion, Kirkwall is left without a viscount, and Sofia's father tries to marry her off to however looks most likely to succeed Dumar this week.

As the chaos mounts, the soft, slow romance between Sofia and Sebastian is a breath of fresh air. On Sebastian's part, it grows from a seed of fondness - and, yes, lust - to genuine affection as he gets to know Sofia. For her part, by the time Sofia realizes she cares for Sebastian she's already in deep. Its friendship turned to love, which is the best and strongest.

They wed in a small ceremony in 9:36, only telling Sofia's father after the fact. As Sebastian has to leave the Chantry to do so, they're forced to camp out at Hawke's estate for several weeks before finding a small place of their own. This is awkward - mostly because the Vidal estate right next door and Sofia's father is a pompous ass on the best of days.

As the calendar turns to 9:37, matters reach their tipping point. Anders blows up the Kirkwall Chantry and Hawke is forced to kill him in hopes of restoring order. This fails and events of the endgame play out with Hawke siding with the mages.

Hawke goes on the run, helping mages across the Free Marches get to safety.

Sebastian makes good on his promise of taking back Starkhaven for Sofia, making her a princess in truth. The city becomes a sanctuary district for many of the mages in northern Thedas, much as Redcliffe was for the mages in the south. This doesn't prevent the events of DA:I, but halves the numbers of conscripts available for Alexius to conscript later. They send forces to help Kirkwall rebuild... but the city is still lawless and in turmoil when the Conclave occurs in 9:40.

Per Sofia's urging, Sebastian helps the Inquisition in its early days... though she does make it clear that she thinks the Inquisition's only aim should be to close the Breach.

But for the most part Sebastian and Sofia end up living fairly happily in Starkhaven. They have a larger family than Sofia ever imagined herself wanting - 5 kids, but magical epidurals are a wonderful thing. It's not a utopia, but it's the best that can be expected given the politics of the time. Their eldest succeeds their father as Prince of Starkhaven while their next oldest, not to be outdone, eventually gets themselves named Viscount of Kirkwall - just as the Vidal family had always dreamed.

Bonuses include:

Sofia becoming deeply, deeply over-invested in the relationship between Hawke and Fenris. So much so that for a while Sebastian thinks she's interested in one or the other or both and resolves to let her pursue her happiness without any interference from him, only to have it knocked into his head by a third-party that Sofia doesn't want be with them, she wants them to be with each other. This should be played for maximum humor and confusion.

An exceptionally complicated relationship with the Chantry. Sebastian is very much a committed Andrastian, whereas Sofia was agnostic at best in the modern world. Are demons and magic and the Breech proof that the Maker exists? Should she follow the rituals of the religion for Sebastian's sake or be honest about her beliefs? Can she open her mind enough to give Andrastianism an honest try? &c.

Sofia coming to view Leandra as second mother. Though she tries her best to prevent the events of All That Remains, she's not a fighter. All she's able to do is injure Quentin and alert Hawke to the problem sooner; Leandra still dies, but it's before Quentin is able to reanimate his perfect bride.

An engineer being forced to come to terms with magic. It makes the transition to a world at Middle Ages level of scientific advancement easier than it otherwise would be (magically running water!) but still makes Sofia's basic knowledge of germ theory a great leap forward in her Darktown clinic; and

Sofia gaining a reputation for being a great storyteller by blatantly stealing stories from the modern world to entertain children at her clinic. Varric eventually "borrows" some of these ideas and ends up writing the DA version of Harry Potter set in a fictional Circle in the years leading up to the mage rebellion.

And that is surprisingly more than I had. To be frank, the Sebastian romance snuck up on me because it's not one I usually go for, but the muse wants what it wants. As always, feel free to adopt this bun - just link back if you do anything with it.

More DA Ideas | More SI Ideas | More Terrible Fic Ideas

[tobythewise]

Another DAtober fill! This one mysteries. I took some liberties with this word but when inspiration hit, I ran with it! XD This is post DA2 with the Kirkwall Gang.

Varric smiles as he shuffles the cards, he’s on a hot streak and there’s no end in sight. Sure, there was one game he almost lost to Fenris but one little extra card coming from his sleeve made all the difference and no one but Isabela seemed to notice. She gives him a look but doesn’t say anything. 

He’s glad that despite everything that���s happened, they can still get together like this. They’re allowed to just be friends, just be people, despite the entire world going to shit. The only one missing from the table is Hawke. 

“Speak of the devil,” he murmurs under his breath as Hawke walks into the suite. He’s holding a huge box on his shoulder. “Hawke! Pull up a seat!”

“You’ve got some explaining to do,” Hawke says in response, tossing the box onto the table and tipping it over. An obscene amount of books spills all over the table, completely shutting down their game. 

“Hey! I was going to win this round!” Isabela says with a pout. 

“Dream on, Riviani,” Varric says in response before freezing, finally getting a glance at the books. 

“What are all these, Hawke?” Anders asks, picking up one of the books and flipping through it. 

“By the Maker,” someone says but Varric isn’t paying attention, too busy watching Hawke’s expression. Is he mad? Is he upset? Did Varric totally fuck up?

“Varric,” Hawke says softly, his eyes meeting Varric’s. “Explain what’s going on.”

“You inspired my next novel,” he says slowly. “And as always, it’s embellished so it can’t be tracked back to you.”

“Right,” Hawke says, grabbing the book from Anders’ hands. “This one says Anders and I were romantically involved but then when the Chanty blew sky high, I fucking murdered him! What the hell?”

“Wow, that sucks,” Anders says, grabbing the book back. 

“That one,” he says, pointing at a different one, “says I’m a woman and that I’m straight with Sebastian!” Then he picks up another. “This one says I’m a blood mage and dating Merril! And that one says I’m in an enemies to lovers romance with Fenris? Some of them have me supporting the mages, others I’m a warrior, another I’m a Templar lover!”

Bethany gasps. “This one says I died?”

Varric looks around at his friends. Yes, he lied. He lied through his teeth to keep them all safe. Could he really go around telling anyone who read his books that the Hawke twins lived? That Riviani and Daisy are a couple? Or the real enemies to lovers was the renegade apostate and the escaped slave? People can’t know this, damn it!

“Why are you actually mad?”

Hawke deflates. “None of them have our real love story,” he says softly with a pout. 

“Oh, come here,” Varric breathes, holding out his arms for Hawke. Hawke slides onto Varric’s lap and steals a kiss. The rest of the night is filled with them all reading a version of the book and comparing notes. 

[full---ofstarlight]

band au chapter 3 is live!!!

this chapter features:

the gang, well, ganging up on fenris to bully him into being nice

hawke late on rent

carver's gym bro selfie twitter pfp

anders getting roped into open mic night

background fenbela if you squint (ambiguous on purpose <3)

a tiny drip drip of anders' backstory

an incredibly sexy duet if i do say so myself

and the full fic summary:

in a modern kirkwall, hawke leads her merry band of misfits -- as in, a literal punk band -- all while they balance day jobs, pay bills, and deal with the societal unrest that grows each and every day through the streets of lowtown and darktown -- or, the kirkwall gang takes a stab at a musical career while also moonlighting as activists or, dragon age ii band au

read here!!