#a chance engagement

[storybookhawke]

A Chance Engagement by hollyand

Sir Carver marched towards her, with a look of haughty composure; but even so, Merrill could see his face seemed paler than usual; there were dark circles under his eyes, as if he had not slept. He was holding out a letter, which Merrill instinctively took. ‘I have been walking in the grove some time in the hope of meeting you,’ Sir Carver said. ‘Will you do me the honour of reading that letter?’ And then, with a slight bow, without waiting for her response, he turned and walked away, and was soon out of sight.

If you're a fan of Pride and Prejudice and Dragon Age, please consider giving @hollyand-writes' magnificent AU a read!

[hollyand-writes]

In this chapter, Merrill, Tamlen and Mahariel go on tour... and decide to stop by Lothering after all. Huge thanks to @storybookhawke for this lovely art – original artwork post (without text) is here.

Title: A Chance Engagement Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Chapters: 57/? Pairings: Eventual Carver/Merrill, background F!Mahariel/Tamlen and F!Hawke/Isabela; other pairings not revealed yet Other characters: Marian Hawke, Bethany Hawke, Leandra Hawke, Isabela, Tamlen, Fenarel, Female Mahariel, Keeper Marethari, Sabrae Clan, Arishok, Pol, Dragon Age: Redemption Characters (Chapters 51 to 53)   Other tags: Alternative Universe – Regency, Pride & Prejudice References, Bethany and Carver Hawke Live, Pride & Prejudice AU, Fluff and Humour, Ballroom Dancing, Secret Relationships, Comedy of Errors, Jane Austen References, Pining, Rejected Marriage Proposals     Summary: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, Lady Leandra Amell tried to impress upon her three children, that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife. However she hoped this wisdom would be received by her offspring, Lady Amell was dismayed to find that it had not had the effect she intended.” Regency AU. When Miss Merrill attends the Kirkwall public assembly ball, the last man she expects to engage in a dance is Carver Hawke – a single man who has just come into possession of a large fortune. This chance meeting, however, sets them both on a path they never expected. READ FROM THE BEGINNING ON ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

———

The weeks passed away quickly; and the period of Merrill’s much-anticipated travels arrived. The night before, Merrill had been so excited she thought she would not sleep; and on the morning itself she flitted about so happily and exuberantly, that Keeper Marethari could not temper her high spirits if she tried. Merrill believed that even Tamlen and Mahariel were not as happy as she was, even though they themselves were clearly excited and cheerful that morning, given they were setting off in pursuit of novelty and amusement with her. 

Tamlen himself was in such good humour that he even agreed to accompany Merrill and Mahariel in calling on the Hawke sisters before they went – although he insisted that their visit was as brief as possible, for he wanted to cross the Waking Sea and reach Ferelden well before nightfall – and this they did, although Miss Bethany was out again with her mother, and they found Miss Hawke all alone and writing a letter.  

‘Bethany will be so disappointed to have missed you,’ Miss Hawke told them, as she folded up her letter to seal it, ‘but I am thankful you decided to take leave of us before you depart for the countryside. And it is an honour, Mr Sabrae,’ she continued politely to Tamlen, ‘that you decided to accompany your wife and cousin. I bid you all safe travels and adieu, and look forward to hearing all about them when you eventually return to Kirkwall.’ 

‘I will miss you!’ Merrill cried as she hugged her friend, taking Miss Hawke so much by surprise that the latter dropped the folded letter she had been holding. ‘Oh! I am so sorry, Miss Hawke – let me get that for you—’ and here Merrill bent down to pick up the parchment that had floated to the floor; Miss Hawke had bent down for it too; but, in her nervousness at having done something wrong again, Merrill was quicker. 

As she picked up the sheet of paper, which was full with Miss Hawke’s handwriting, Merrill caught sight of the words:  

I will submit to any thing you may command me—but cease to respect, to love and adore you, I never can or will. 

Read more on AO3...

[wanologic]

Don’t think. Feel.

[likeasecondself]

no one has mentioned how ronan got confirmation that adam too wants a wedding someday, and on that same night he proposed. he wasted no time. he either snuck away and dreamt a ring in the middle of declan’s wedding celebration or already had it dreamt from before (he probably has a drawer full of rings already; adam has woken up to see said rings and pretended to be asleep so as not to embarrass ronan and for it to come from ronan when he's ready). the desperation is COMICAL to have adam locked down and made his. like ronan was taking no chances whatsoever. “oh, adam wants to get married one day too? let me make sure the wheels are turning for the wedding day from this minute forward. ” he’s such a lover boy, so pathetically in love with adam

[shrimpchipsss]

the professors shen should never have been forced to share an office

wasn't professor shen the senior being associate professor shen the junior's PhD advisor enough?

[welcometogrouchland]

(ID in alt) this is national news to me

[ruporas]

cheers to the future of humanity (and the future of us)

[ID: Digital illustration in color of Vash and Wolfwood from Trigun. The illustration takes place during the ship/home arc, specifically chapter 21. At the center, Vash is grabbing Wolfwood by the collar and pulls him into a kiss in the middle of a celebration. The pair is colored in vibrant warm hues while their surroundings are colored in cooler colors like green and teals. Luida, Brad, Meryl, and Milly are shown amongst the crowd, occupied in the celebrations as Vash and Wolfwood share a moment by themselves at the center. END ID]

[shorthaltsjester]

love (loath) this version of ‘empathy’ for characters that exists in fandoms that somehow means taking any articulation of the fact that x character is given responsibility and context by the story and that their poor choices lead to poor outcomes is actually a slight against the character (and implicitly somehow whatever oppressed group which they belong to or are alleged to belong to by sections of fandom)

to be clear this is something i’ve noticed in several fandoms which is why the beginning of this is general language but the pertinent example to my current frustration is liliana temult and the defence of her that lays on a claim that those who enjoy the narrative showing her poor actions leading to poor outcomes for her have somehow failed the empathy test is beyond incomprehensible to me. like even ignoring the very basic level understanding that fiction is a place to experience satisfaction in narratives that we cannot fulfil in non-narrative reality, it’s also like… holy fuck do I not want the kind of empathy that tells me it will all work out no matter what choice I make. it is actually imperative to human life that the choices we make have substance in the outcomes we arrive in, otherwise we would’ve long given up on the notion of free will. and to look at a narrative, particularly one built in the context of a ttrpg. a game notably influenced by the choices that players-as-characters make. and then see sections of an audience find it compelling and enjoyable that a character who has made categorically poor choices that have caused immeasurable harm to others is now dealing with the very obvious face-eating panthers consequences… idk man. if you see that as a lack of empathy i implore you to consider what role empathy is playing in your world.

like. if empathy to you is about comfort and stagnancy and not about growth and community, then sure i can understand how it might not be empathetic in your view to notice patterns and see their obvious outcome and acknowledge that . but as someone who has been in the position of making horrible choices with obvious outcomes, far more essential to my personhood was those who looked at me with careful but critical eyes than those who nearly babyed me into my grave. that’s actually why i love imogen’s choice to insist that liliana make her own choice and then quasi-encouraging her to stay, because it was a clear reminded to liliana that her choices have consequences, and one of those is that the terrible things she’s down in the name of her daughter have led to that daughter not being able to easily trust her.

and i think another thing that’s related that gets misconstrued with liliana (and as always unfortunately many such cases) is that the satisfaction of seeing her absorbed isn’t that it’s retributive harm done or some sort of punishment (at least not for me, skill issue if people in your fandom spaces are that cop-minded but, yknow, what can you expect from the thought-crimes capital of fandom spaces). the satisfaction is in the analogue (that i’ve seen well memed) to the face-eating panthers joke that liliana’s actions which have pushed an agenda that’s depended on the consumption and threat to her child and the children she specifically has aided in placing in danger via her choices, has led to situations where a) she’s ‘burdened’ by her care for imogen and the children (both of which she has played a hand in inviting into the context of danger) b) she is now the person in danger of being consumed after spending weeks simply shrugging off concerns about what might be consumed in the name of ludinus’ Just World™. like it’s not just ‘liliana does bad things, must be punished’ it’s ‘liliana has played a hand in creating a situation that is threatening to many including herself, it is narratively satisfying and engages in Common Narrative Tool: Irony to have that create situation negatively impact her directly.’

to that end that’s why the ‘if you’re like this about liliana you should also be like this about essek’ takes are beyond missing the point (without getting into the horribly built scarecrow that it is, understand that it’s actually undermining decades of feminist’s philosophical and political development to see a critique of a female character and go ‘well actually if she were a man you wouldn’t be saying that’ when it’s a provable fact that people Would be (and have been) saying that if she were a man. so not the feminist slay you think it is). like, as someone who Was just as interested in essek’s story having consequences as I am in liliana’s, there very much WERE consequences for essek that, just like liliana, were well contextualized and suited to the specific choices he made. they are ones that should be obvious even to the most surface read of the campaigns given that essek still appears in disguise years after the end of c2, should also probably be obvious in the rebuilding of relationships essek had to do with mn after they discovered his betrayal. like the notable difference between liliana and essek is not their gender, it’s that we’ve seen the end of essek’s story (in the sense of like. campaign containment, obviously his Story™ is ongoing) and have yet to see liliana’s— it’s entirely possible that liliana does get saved and goes on to repair her relationship with imogen (or goes on and is unable to repair it) or she just dies and part of imogen’s story is dealing with it; all of those are narratively satisfying. what wouldn’t have been satisfying, in the sense that would leave liliana feeling like a non-agent in a story dependent on her agency, is if her role was entirely dictated by imogen’s interest in reconciliation. because sure if you want to look very microscopically the current threat to liliana that exists is 1-to-1 caused by the fact that she’s been helping imogen, but taking seriously the story, the consequences bloom from all the choices that liliana has made leading to ludinus’ decision to trust her however far he does that made liliana’s choice a betrayal and affirmed ludinus’ strength and position so that he can do something like siphon someone’s life force away.

further the ‘why does liliana deserve to be funnelled and relvin gets off easy’ relvin doesn’t get off easy. once again the satisfaction of his narrative is that he did his best and it was insufficient and that cost him a relationship with imogen they both clearly wish for but neither can rectify. the consequence for relvin is that he’s in an empty house that is no longer home to the woman he loved or the daughter he was left to raise alone. surely i don’t need to unpack why i think someone who tried but wasn’t well equipped to raise a daughter with superpowers doesn’t need to evoke as ‘drastic’ consequences in their story as the stated right hand of the campaign’s bbeg for their story to feel complete.

and idk at least for me that’s the salient point; that the consequences that are happening feel like a plausible and suitable conclusion to the story we’ve seen of liliana even if she perishes at ludinus’ hand. it will be sad but it’ll be satisfying, and maybe i should have realized seeing the frequency with which parts of fandom have been campaigning to undo maybe the most weighty and narratively satisfying choices & consequence of vox machina’s story, but it’s truly confounding to me the amount of people treating the presence of any complex and non-traditional happy ending notion in a story set in a world defined by pyrrhic victories. like, empathy for vax isn’t saying he’s the puppet of a god that manipulated him into service, it’s acknowledging that he made a choice that he knew would have consequences and acknowledging that the consequences he demanded with that choice were pretty severe ones. that doesn’t mean i’m watching the end of cr1 seeing the characters destroyed by the loss of vax being like ‘dumbasses, they knew this was coming, vax chose this, these are his consequences’ it means that when i’m crying watching the end of cr1 it’s paired with my deep love for a story that takes seriously the weight of the character’s choices in the determination of their lives. idk man. maybe interrogate how much of your notion of empathy is dependent on individualism to the point of near complete alienation and get back to me on how empathetic it is to look at someone who has caused unarguable pain with their choices and say ‘no no it’s fine you didn’t mean to + you’re a woman :/‘ while the victims of those choices rot in their graves

[noncredible-naramon]

deeply funny to think about the Drifter trying to interact normally in the Origin system while their consciousness is ping-ponging back and forth between Duviri (time loop) and 1999 (time loop).

They have no compunction about being completely honest with people because they are used to everyone forgetting everything they say when the loop resets. They don't treat their own possessions with any care because they absently assume they will pop back into existence tomorrow. They forget to eat or sleep for long stretches because (you guessed it!) their physical well-being would usually reset too. They cheerfully abandon any task they're undertaking to satisfy their curiosity because "it'll be there next time."

What a weird little freak. I love them.

[ixtaek]

Kindest reminder that aside from Sky and Wild, none of the others have even heard of the Goddess Hylia before meeting up. The goddesses they would invoke, if any, would be either Farore, Din, or Nayru.

[hadesisqueer]

I like how Violet is so used to having dramatic ass children that Francesca marrying with no drama was too odd to her lmao. And thinking about how her story will unfold is actually kinda hilarious because it's gonna be like:

Violet: Well, that's it. John is a very good man and Francesca is comfortable and happy with her choice and if this is what she truly wants, it's all that matters💜

Violet: Also, it's kinda refreshing to finally have a normal child that doesn't do any dramatic or scandalous shit.

Francesca a few seasons later after her husband passes: *fucks and falls in love with her husband's cousin -who is a woman-*

Violet:

Violet: Honestly, I should've seen this coming, none of my children will actually ever be normal.

[storybookhawke]

I've been reading @hollyand-writes's Pride & Prejudice AU called A Chance Engagement, and quite frankly it's one of the best fanfics I've ever read. It's so well thought out, flows beautifully, and is captivating and entertaining in a way I haven't felt in a very long time. Please give it a read sometime!

[peliginspeaks]

Standing at a rainy cold bus stop and thinking about recipe books in the Neath. Battered old things from the Surface that perhaps sat in a cupboard for a good few years until their owners accepted that they couldn't afford the import on those ingredients now, and started crossing them out and replacing them with mushrooms, lichen powders, and the less dubious local meats. Glossy-covered ones titled in looping script, printed on something not quite unlike typical paper, trying to call on the tradition and elegance of a sunlit kitchen and not quite getting all the way there. Books that embrace the Neath entirely, with indexed guides to avoiding toxic ingredient lookalikes and descriptive flavour profiles entirely without comparison to Surface fare. I want to peek inside a PC's cupboards. let me see their recipes.

[sovamurka]

let's be honest, for very ironic reasons, official writers were not really responsible for timebomb being so good, fortiche carried most of the timebomb writing

yes, even in s1 since this is really where writers (*VERY LOUD COUGH* amanda) picked up on very delicate and deliberate details that fortiche put in s1e7, details which could be potentially explored later (as a side plot, of course *sarcasm*, we don't want to overshadow other dynamics of the show, do we?)

but especially in s2 since it's basically confirmed by pascal charrue, fortiche's co-founder, that the episode fortiche studio were most emotionally and creatively involved with in matters of writing is episode 7

which is even further confirmed by linke in the artbook where he states that episode 7 is basically a literal love letter to french culture and that he hopes fortiche is really proud of it

like... wow, the "nobody loves timebomb more than french people do" joke is actually not a joke at all

[indulgentcosmos]

I had the fortune of stumbling across @stupidlittlespirit ‘s (I hope you don’t mind the tag) “When it rains, it spores” fic which was an INCREDIBLE read. It is in-fact so good, it violently jerked me out of my creative block and had me picking up a pen once again. Although somewhat of a messy sketchy product, it was still a delight to visualise the hiding scene as I saw it in my mind.

[donttouchmyasymptote]

happy holidays @gaybellethorn! really happy that i drew your name for @eah-exchange. i love your eah thoughts/headcanons and your presence has always felt essential to my experience of the eah fandom

the raven/apple is the main gift, but i also drew in some apple/darling/briar and some regular dappling since you mentioned them in your prompt list!!