#and like cullen and blackwall are pretty similar but they're just different enough that one is fantastic for her and the other is terrible

[vultures-and-scavengers]

so, annette and blackwall are like. doomed as a ship. but thats why i like it for this AU. she has an absolute need for trust, which he can't provide, and the worst parts of his life have all been influenced by orlesian nobility, which she is, but he can't say that because that was his life as thom rainier. (and i feel like that should have come up with a trevelyan warrior/rogue, that they're part of the nobility that he loathes so much. not even cullen seems to loath the nobles as much as blackwall does.)

and by WEWH, i think those cracks in their relationship are widening, even as annette pretends everything is fine because she needs to have someone in her corner, or at least someone she can convince herself is in her corner-- because she feels so alone and overwhelmed as inquisitor. and blackwall, who has put her on this pedestal, is also starting to see more of the moments where she compromises with the nobility, where she opts to scheme and play the Game instead of more head-on solutions. and that pedestal is getting a little tarnished.

the line about the wings of valor i think really puts annette on the back foot. "It was a long time ago. Back then we didn’t stop to boast about past victories when there was an assassin on the loose," he says, in a pretty hostile tone, and i think its something she can't quite turn a blind eye to, like she has all the rest. she just wanted to know something about the man she cares about, and if they announced it to the court, surely she can ask questions about it.

but no, she can't. and annette spent over a decade in orlais playing the Game before Inquisition. she knows when she's being deflected or lied to. and she's starting to wonder how much she'll just allow blackwall to lie to her as she just stays quiet and lets him.