#Schattenriss on AO3

[schattengerissen]

Last Line Game

Post the last line you wrote and tag as many people as you can.

Thanks to @oftachancer for the tag! 

“Ah, but you know what we Tevinters are like—smile to your face while dispatching an agent to poison your granny’s parakeet just to put you in your place.” -- from my WIP follow-up to Hidden and next novel in my Dorian/Kai Trevelyan series.

Tagging @dafan7711, @rachelleofalltrades, @beckily, @johaeryslavellan, @shield-maiden-of-sherwood and anyone who feels like sharing.

[nerinedorman]

#Inquisitor Kai Trevelyan of my good friend Schattenriss over at AO3 writing #dragonage #fanfiction #fantasy #FanArtFebruary #illustration

[schattengerissen]

WIP Meme

Thanks to @dafan7711 for the tag!

“... The former serves conventional drinks, the latter has a lyrium bar.” -- last line just written in my WIP, the follow-up novel to Hidden

Tagging @oftachancer, @myrddinderwydd, @rachelleofalltrades, @whenmysoulsings and anyone who has something they’d like to share

[schattengerissen]

Love Yourself Challenge

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Thanks to @dafan7711​ for the tag!

1. So Near and Yet So Far on AO3: Complete multi-chapter fic, part of my ongoing Dorian Pavus/Kai Trevelyan Dragon Age series, The Contours of Shadows. -- With Dorian absent on a mission to the Western Approach, Kai is lonely, bored, tired of Inquisiting and expecting the worst Satinalia ever...until a mysterious purple envelope arrives.

2. Torn on AO3: Complete story, also part of The Contours of Shadows. -- In Southern Thedas, when a mage child's magic manifested the Templars forcibly took the young mage away to be locked in a Circle for the rest of their life. Much has been written about the effect this had on the mages, but what about the families who had their children ripped away from them?

3. Finally got a Ko-Fi page set up. I’m now open for commissions for: 3d renders of original characters (samples above), plus photo/screenshot editing and restoration. See rates on the page or contact me through Tumblr.

4. Finished writing and editing my original novel, now querying that and nearly done with the first draft of its sequel.

5. Got Kai and Dorian looking like themselves; improved character builds and rendering skills.

Tagging @zefenrian​, @oftachancer​, @johaeryslavellan​, @tessa1972​, @rachelleofalltrades​, @whenmysoulsings​ and anyone else who’d like to share.

[schattengerissen]

WIP Thursday

Tagged by @whenmysoulsings, @johaeryslavellan and @oftachancer -- thanks!

A snippet from Unbekannt (working title), the follow-up to Hidden that seems to be taking forever and is part of my Dorian Pavus/Kai Trevelyan series The Contours of Shadows (Dragon Age). -------------------------------- “Maker’s halitosis, it’s been ages!” Ash plopped into the chair to my left, Morgan settled into the one next to her. “How’ve you been?” 

“How was Qarinus?” Morgan added. “Saw the piece in the paper about you and your boyfriend returning from there.”  

“Exhausting. I won’t bore you with the details, but I need a holiday to recover from that holiday. How have you two been? Still escorting travelers?” 

“We did for the summer, but we’re in town now. Morg’s got a bodyguarding gig, and I’ve got one teaching the wife and kiddies the basics of self-defense. Can you imagine?” Ash chortled. 

“How in the world did you land that?” I asked. 

Morgan half-smiled. “They were escort clients. Rich merchants. Took ‘em from here to Asariel and back. Got set on by a bandit group on the way back. They were deeply impressed with our being able to drive them off.” 

“I take it they’re soporati?” 

“Not exactly,” Ash said. “Mother and older son are technically mages, but only just. She can light a fire, and he can cast a globe of light, but that’s about it. Basically she can singe someone while he makes them squint. It’s kinda cute but sad.” 

“They agreed it would make sense to learn how to use real weapons. Not my business, but we both got the impression there’s more going on than simple trading,” Morgan said.

“Well, they hired Morg. That right there says they’re up to shite,” Ash declared. “How many simple merchants need a full-time bodyguard?” 

“In Minrathous?” I raised an eyebrow and she laughed. Even Morgan managed a complete smile. 

“Yeah, everyone and his granny is plotting something. It’s mad.” Ash didn’t seem dismayed. Truth is, Tevinter’s rather pleased with its reputation as a hotbed of intrigue. ------------------------------------

Tagging back all three of my lovely taggers, and @dafan7711, @myrddinderwydd, @schoute, @fandomn00blr, @shield-maiden-of-sherwood and anyone who has something they’d like to share.

[schattengerissen]

Six Sentence Sunday

I sat on top of the bed, watching Dorian do his nightly routine of checking in the mirror one last time. He scowled, cast extra light, and grabbed his tweezers. “Fasta vass, do you know how many times I’ve plucked this same hair? Yet it keeps coming back like a Ferelden fashion designer discovering earth tones.” He tweezed the offending hair and immolated it. -- from my WIP Unbekannt (working title), next book in my Dorian/Kai Trevelyan series The Contours of Shadows

Thanks to @dafan7711​ for the tag!

Tagging @shield-maiden-of-sherwood​, @johaeryslavellan​, @whenmysoulsings​, @rachelleofalltrades​ and whoever would like to share

[schattengerissen]

Six Sentence Sunday

Thanks to @dafan7711​ for the tag!

Dorian thudded onto the couch on the other side of Swivet, prompting an annoyed squeak as the cushion shifted. “I wish I had your confidence.”

“You do. You’re just choosing not to invoke it. Your mother knows you haven’t always been as collected and urbane as you are now, but you know that about her, too.”

“Where’s she been, if you don’t mind my asking?” Oliver asked.

“Visiting,” Dorian said shortly. “She has a townhouse in Qarinus, and another on the coast in Ascalon—it’s a resort community on the other side of the bay from Neromenian—but she’s been making the rounds of all her relatives from what I understand. I don’t know where she intends to stay once she alights somewhere permanently.”

--- From Unbekannt (working title), the WIP for my Dragon Age series The Contours of Shadows

tagging @dafan7711​ back, as well as @oneshallop​, @johaeryslavellan​, @beckily​, @shield-maiden-of-sherwood​, @tessa1972​, @fandomn00blr​ and anyone who has something they’d like to share

[schattengerissen]

Six Sentence Sunday

With thanks to @dafan7711 for the tag! ------------------------------------------------------

“...Your mother’s coming here. She’s even planning on staying here in the house. That suggests to me that she might want to actually talk to you.”

“More likely she just wants to see what we’ve done to the house,” Dorian said dismissively.

“Well, you’re going to have to talk to her, so you may as well wrap your mind around it. You may even enjoy it.”

He squinted at me. “I think you’re enjoying this. You are deriving pleasure from my discomfort. Don’t try to deny it.”

“You’re not even uncomfortable. You’re just anticipating discomfort,” I corrected. “You might discover it’s interesting, creating a relationship with someone you’re expected to already have one with.”

“Amatus, that is grammatically painful.” -- from Unbekannt (working title), next book in my Dragon Age series The Contours of Shadows and follow-up to Hidden

Since it appears anyone I’d tag already has been, tagging anyone who’d like to share!

[schattengerissen]

What do mages do when they’re bored?

I returned to the living room, throwing myself on the couch and wondering if it was too early to activate the sending crystal. I amused myself making intricate little shapes out of fire while I thought about what to do; I was particularly pleased with the little dragon I'd managed to fashion. Not only did it look like a proper dragon, but I'd managed to animate it breathing a little fireball. Not that most people in the south would appreciate it, I thought uncharitably, it'd probably just bloody scare them. Wankers. I wondered if I was developing an attitude and decided I didn't much care at the moment. I tried making a fire-nug, but it just came out looking like a fat rabbit. -- From TRAITOR, part of my ongoing Dorian Pavus/Kai Trevelyan series The Contours of Shadows 

[schattengerissen]

First Line Game

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors! ---

All fics listed are from my Dragon Age series

1. An Autumn Tale : Dorian climbed into our coach and flung himself onto the seat opposite me with a groan.

2. So Near and Yet So Far : “Oh, Inquisitor? Is that you? Could I have a moment?”

3. Torn : Another fine spring day.

4. Departures : The worst thing you can do when creeping down a hallway is actually creep.

5. Doubt : Leaving the streets of Minrathous behind, I closed the front door with a sense of relief.

6. Underground : “You never did tell me, you know.”

7. Harrowing : If you were to believe all the stories, you'd swear the life of a magister in Minrathous is an endless swirl of politics, parties, and plotting (or if you listen to the Southern stories — blood magic, abusing slaves and cackling evilly).

8. Between You and Me : “He was holding his own against the rift. Do you have any idea how fucking amazing that is?”

9. Hidden : Late morning sunlight streamed in the office's huge, tinted window.

10. A Night on the Town : “Well this is just the dog’s bollocks,” Sera announced.

11. Judgment : “So this is the big day, is it?” Dorian was lounging in one of the comfortable chairs we’d commandeered for my quarters when he moved in, drinking tea and looking quite content.

12. Well, Did You Evah? : I leapt through the eluvian and fancied I could hear Corypheus’s roar of thwarted anger behind me.

13. Echoes : I stepped out of the coach before the gates to my parents’ estate and felt like time was layering on itself, past intersecting present with each step I took.

14. Moving In : The sun was streaming in through a crack in the curtains, somehow contriving to hit me directly in the eyes.

15. The Case of the Nicked Knick-Knack: A Peacock and Nug Adventure : “Fasta vass, that man!”

16. Birthday : In the basement of Skyhold was a small, dusty library full of large, dusty books.

17. Dungeon : I ached all over.

18. TRAITOR : At this time of night the darkness and silence in the Chantry archives was almost complete.

19. The Wrong Sort of Whatever : Have I ever told you how I lost my arm?

20. Unbekannt [WIP - working title] : The sleek yacht cut across the waters of the Nocen Sea, silent and ghostly in the night, the talents of a weather mage ensuring its sails stayed full and its course swift.

Not really seeing a distinct pattern to them, other than they either set a scene or start with someone saying something. Favourite? Perhaps Departures or Night on the Town, though I rather like the descriptions in Birthday and Unbekannt.

Tagging @johaeryslavellan, @rachelleofalltrades, @whenmysoulsings, @fandomn00blr, @dafan7711, @tessa1972 and anyone who'd like to share

[schattengerissen]

“You were a Circle mage?” Dorian asked.

“Yeah,” I said shortly. “You know, I’m supposed to be asking you questions.”

“Of course. You may ask away — I’m an open book.”

I snorted, but smiled at him. “An open book written entirely in code, perhaps.”

“Just waiting for a dashing southern mage to decipher me,” he said in a sultry tone... -- from _Between You and Me, part of my series The Contours of Shadows on AO3. ---------------------------------

I’m open for commissions on Ko-fi -- will make 3D renders of your OCs, or portraits/edits of your screenshots like the one above. ☕

[schattengerissen]

Sweet Sunday (WIP)

Thanks to @oftachancer for the tag!

(The scene is a party in Minrathous attended by Dorian, his amatus Kai, and their friend Oliver) ---------- “Interesting couple,” Oliver remarked. “Are they part of your Lucerni, Dorian?”

Dorian shook his head, still looking in the direction they’d taken, eyes narrowed. “Ynes isn’t a magister, and I don’t know Julien well. He shows up irregularly and seems mostly interested in looking interesting.”

“Worried about gimmick infringement?” I teased.

“Please,” Dorian scoffed, “I am naturally interesting to observe but I also have substance.”

“What’s his specialty?” Oliver asked.

Dorian’s face tightened. “He’s a necromancer.”

“Now that is gimmick infringement,” I said. ---------- From my WIP follow-up to Hidden, part of my Dorian/Kai Trevelyan series The Contours of Shadows. 

Tagging @dafan7711, @myrddinderwydd, @johaeryslavellan, @shield-maiden-of-sherwood, @whenmysoulsings, @tessa1972​ and anyone who has something they’d like to share

[schattengerissen]

Author Interview

With thanks to @dafan7711 for the tag!

Name: Schattenriss (Schattengerissen on Tumblr because someone already took the other)

Fandoms: I only write for Dragon Age

Where You Post: AO3, links on Tumblr

Most Popular One-Shot: Moving In has the most kudos (all my one shots are also part of my series The Contours of Shadows)

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: Departures has the most kudos & bookmarks (beating TRAITOR by one kudo), Hidden the most comments.

Favorite Story You Wrote: It’s a toss-up between TRAITOR and Hidden. Both are novel length with multiple plotlines involving everything from relationships to road trips, family visits to flat-out horror. And Easter eggs. I’m very happy with how they turned out. (But really, there are things I love about each work in the series.)

Story You Were Nervous to Post: There’s always a bit of nervousness/excitement when posting.

How You Choose Your Titles: Lately all the Scenes titles have been Cole Porter songs that fit the theme of the story (that started with Well, Did You Evah), for no particular reason. The rest of the series are one-word titles that have something to do with the over-all theme of the book.

Complete: Everything. I don’t post until the entire work is complete and edited.

Incomplete: See above. Any incomplete stuff is in my personal files.

Do You Outline? Loosely. Particularly for the novel-length fics, but I also leave room to allow the story to go where it wants to go.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: The follow-up novel to Hidden (working title Unbekannt so I don’t Thedas myself). It’s possibly about halfway done…give or take.

Do You Accept Prompts? Can’t really say; no one’s ever given me one. Suppose it would depend on the prompt.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: In fics, Unbekannt. I’m also in the middle of writing a second novel in my original fiction series.

I’ll tag (if you want to, no pressure): @shield-maiden-of-sherwood, @whenmysoulsings, @beckily and anyone who’d like to share

[schattengerissen]

Fanfic Master List

All my works are available on AO3 where I'm Schattenriss (had to change it for Tumblr because someone had already taken that name) and can be found on Tumblr under the "My Writing" heading.

I write an ongoing series featuring Dorian Pavus x Kai Trevelyan titled The Contours of Shadows. It begins pre-Inquisition and continues well past Trespasser at this point, though most of them can also be read as stand-alones.

In order they are:

Departures

Future Inquisitor Kai Trevelyan didn’t go straight from the sheltered world of the Ostwick Circle to somehow possessing the skills to step easily into the role of Inquisitor. Two years before the Conclave, he walked away from the Circle, hoping to make a life for himself. This is the story of what happened.

Dungeon

Answers the burning question how did the future Inquisitor manage to blunder into that room at the Conclave at just the right time?

Between You and Me

All tales of true love have a beginning. This is how it happened for Dorian Pavus and Kai Trevelyan.

Birthday

An evening at Skyhold that no one else ever knew about. Takes place early in Inquisition, not long after they’ve arrived at Skyhold. Dorian and Kai are still in the early stages of their romance.

Moving In

The Inquisitor thinks it’s high time Dorian move into his quarters at Skyhold.

Judgment

Disgraced Magister Livius Erimond is in the hands of the Inquisition and Inquisitor Kai Trevelyan must decide his fate.

A Night On the Town

On a stopover en route to yet another batch of rifts to close and enemies to fight, a pub crawl sounded like just the thing. But when you lead the Inquisition, even a simple night on the town can get complicated.

Well, Did You Evah

Despite Dorian specifically asking him not to do it, Kai chose to drink the Well of Sorrows. Now they’re back at Skyhold and Dorian has a few things to say about that.

The Wrong Sort of Whatever

Freed from the tyranny of word budgets and having to take multiple character paths into account, a (very) expanded novelization of Trespasser, as told by Inquisitor Kai Trevelyan.

TRAITOR

Former Inquisitor Kai Trevelyan never intended to have a complicated life, but fate apparently had other ideas. Carrying on a long-distance relationship with a Tevinter magister is tricky enough. Now an old friend is asking him to hunt down a cold-blooded murderer, and if that wasn’t enough, someone in his own city seems to want him dead… or worse.

Echoes

Kai Trevelyan, former Inquisitor, vanquisher of demigods, consort to a Tevinter Magister and powerful mage in his own right, faces his most terrifying challenge yet: an extended family visit.

The Case of the Nicked Knick-Knack: A Peacock and Nug Adventure

A treasured heirloom has gone missing and it’s up to Dorian and his loyal sidekick to find it.

Hidden

As official consort to Magister Dorian Pavus, Kai Trevelyan is now a permanent resident of Tevinter. But like so many things in the ancient Empire,that happiness comes with a price. And as Kai and Dorian discover, whether it be in Minrathous, in unexplored catacombs, or in their own home in Qarinus, beneath the glittering surface, dark and secret things are hidden.

Harrowing

Dorian knew that his lover and fellow mage, former Inquisitor Kai Trevelyan, had been in the Ostwick Circle for many years before he was able to leave. He’s also heard stories of the southern Circles’ barbaric tradition of Harrowing, but never heard what it was like for Kai until now.

Underground

Something terrible is stirring deep under the Pavus estate, and now Dorian’s amatus, Kai, is trapped by a deadly adversary. It’s up to Dorian and Kai’s father, Emil to come to the rescue. ==============

There is also a series of 100-word drabbles collected under the title Embers in Shadows that supplement the main series.

Currently working on the next novel-length fic, and a shorter one that will fit into Inquisition's timeline, but that's everything for now.

Reblogs, signal boosts and feedback are always appreciated!