#but I love the players

[littlelostmabari]

Day 18: Close Call

This week was shit but I'm still alive :) I have a backlog that I will post eventually when they're appropriately edited!

Pairing: f!Reader (Lavellan) x Cullen

Word Count: 1.5k

Summary: You don't want to go to a dress fitting. Cullen doesn't want to go to dance lessons. Broom closets exist.

SFW. Unresolved sexual tension, pre-relationship. Reader is Inquisitor f!Lavellan, otherwise not described.

You had been in hiding for a little more than an hour now, and you were quickly becoming bored with picking the bristles out of the second broom.

You were not a favorite of Josephine's, especially when it came to the… thing… at the Winter Palace. The Ambassador had woken you up at quarter past nine bells with thirteen fabric swatches in all different colors and styles. Josie hadn't even bother to intentionally wake you: you had opened your eyes as the third swatch flitted over the skin of your shoulder. Your blinking eyes had met warm brown skin and yellow ruffles and a square of the most hideous puce taffeta.

And Josie had brought backup in the form of Vivienne and Dorian, who guarded the exit to the staircase and the grand doors to her balcony, respectively. Their positions had necessitated launching yourself in nothing but your nightgown over the railing and down the stairs. The only thing left behind you was the frost along the walls from her Fade Step.

It was too early in the morning to come up with a clever solution, so you defaulted to the easiest, and now you had to start working on the third broom.

About halfway through the first broom there had been annoyed footsteps and voices to match. A searching spell pinged through the closet, and you knew that Dorian had found you, yet the three passed by your hiding place without even approaching the door. You would owe him a bottle or two of the West Hill brandy.

The second broom had been fully plucked while you listened to a pair of laundry maids talking about who was bedding whom and with what frequency. There were things they spoke about that you did not need to know. They were almost done when one threw the door open, saw you, and squealed. A lot of hushing noises and promise of a sovereign later, when they finally moved on, you started to hear music from down the hallway which meant your way back to your room was compromised.

About ten percent of the way through the third broom, there was a commotion from the direction of the music, and a pair of hurried footsteps. You stayed quiet as a mouse, tucked up against the back of the broom closet with the broom clutched tightly in your hands — or, you tried to, but the broom closet was not the largest space even when it wasn't full of Inquisitor.

Unfortunately it was about to be a lot tighter squeeze, as with the briefest increase in music volume, the door swung open and another body with significantly larger shoulders than you quickly pressed into the closet and pulled the door shut behind them.

The darkness that didn't bother your eyes clearly befuddled the other person, who stumbled around in the darkness trying to figure out why the shelves in this closet were squishy and person-shaped.

"Maker's breath," came the exclamation as arms passed over your shoulders to press hands against the wall behind you, and you looked up into the wide eyes of your Commander who clearly couldn't see you, but knew he was not alone.

"'Ello, Cullen," you giggled, and relief shuddered through his shoulders followed quickly by a shiver of blush as he pulled away and pressed back towards the door.

"Inquisitor!" He clearly couldn't figure out where he should put his hands, especially because there was barely a foot of space between the two of you. He settled for behind his back pressed against the door, which only pushed his body that much closer to yours. When his eyes finally adjusted, you knew your grin would be unmistakable.

"Fancy seeing you here." You placed the palms of your hands on the end of the broom and placed your chin atop them, inching your face slightly closer to him.

"Yes, um, hello —" Cullen rasped, "— hello Inquisitor." He coughed and tugged at his collar and that's when you realized that he wasn't wearing his normal armor. He still had on his boots, but he was sans breastplate and mantle and vanbraces and only wearing his breeches and linen shirt. The music suddenly made sense.

"Dance lessons?" you giggled, gesturing at his clothes.

"Morning dress fittings?" he snickered, making the same gesture back at you. Your grin quickly faltered as your eyes darted down to your feet. Right. The nightgown. The broom dropped to the side and you made to cover herself with your hands. There wasn't much you could do, and you praised the Creators that humans had poor darksight. Even still, you and Cullen were suddenly in a resonance of stammering and blushing and it was only broken when voices echoed down the hall from behind the door. It was Vivienne's and Josephine's voices specifically, complaining that the lesser minds of the Inquisition did not appreciate the effort that was going in to make sure the Inquisition held its own at Halamshiral.

You didn't realize you had made a noise, but you must have because suddenly one of Cullen's hands was over your mouth and the other was behind your head and his body had pressed itself against you so that you couldn't move and make incidental noises against the shelves. You were up on tiptoes, hands down against the wall and back stretched to its limit.

"Please," he whispered. "Don't make me go back there." Your eyes were wide as you looked up into his, which had now clearly adjusted to the light. He was darting across your face, looking for anything that might indicate you would call out and betray his location.

"Commander!" Josephine called from right in front of the broom closet. You both held your breath — you could feel the tightness across his shoulders so you knew he was desperately begging you not to give him away. The only noise was the soft hiss of breath out of his nose and the huffing from Josephine on the other side of the door. Then, a final huff, a "where is he", and footsteps retreating down the hallway.

A moment passed, then another.

And another.

And another, and Cullen gently pulled his hand away from your mouth. You took a deep breath and it filled your lungs with embrium and oakmoss and elderflower. As your chest expanded, it pressed into his, and you realize that he hadn't moved an inch away from you even as his hand dropped from your face. Underneath the smell of the herbs there was a hint of petrichor and just the hint of whiskey, or perhaps that flavor was there because suddenly your vision was filled with amber.

His chest pressed forward with each breath too, and there was something in the twitch of his lips and jawline that made your heart leap. You'd not been this close to him before, except in your dreams. Except when the night was lonely enough that you had to conjure images of the Commander to drown out the foreboding of Adamant or the Winter Palace.

You relaxed, allowing the heels of your feet to fall to the ground, which is precisely when you realized exactly how Cullen had pressed you to the back wall of the broom closet — with the side of his hip, with his knee in between your legs. You stopped, shock still, and when he didn't pull back you dropped just a little more until your barely-clothed core rested against his unarmored thigh. That's when several things happened at once.

His eyes darted down to your lips, opened just slightly to breathe.

You brought one hand up to rest fingers on the waist of his linen shirt.

His fingertips tightened in your hair against your scalp.

And a knock echoed on the wood of the door.

"They're gone, Curly," the voice called out, a Kirkwall lilt to Varric's easily identifiable voice. Cullen flinched back from you, releasing your hair, and his eyes shockingly wide. "But they'll be back around this way in a couple minutes. If the Inquisitor is somehow nearby, she might like to know that the kid grabbed a robe from her wardrobe, it's sitting out here whenever she's ready for it."

Cullen coughed, and you heard a chuckled 'close call' from outside the door, then footsteps fading away. Cullen turned his back and adjusted his clothing surreptitiously.

"Inquisitor," he rasped, his voice scratchy. He pulled the door open and looked down the hallway both ways before stepping out and glancing down to a soft grey robe at his feet. He moved to pass it to you but stopped as the light illuminated your disheveled form. A long moment passed in which you did not make an attempt to cover yourself, before he swallowed, pried his eyes away from you, and handed the robe back into the broom closet. When it was in your hands, he strode away down the hallway with great haste before you had a chance to don it.

[kensatou]

i watch baseball for the side quests

update: i think you should look at the reblogs for more important baseball hijinks

[callonpeevesie]

I'm onto something I'm telling you

[katsinspats]

Thematically appropriate comic for Make a Terrible Comic Day!!

I saw the original post this morning and it made me get out of bed to make something, so thank u Pseudonym Jones mission accomplished

[akanemnon]

Despite everything, it's still you.

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

(NOTE: I will be taking a small break after this comic. I got a lot of stuff going on and plenty of recovering to do. Asks will still open for 24 hours after this comic drops. But the comic itself will return on December 8th!)

[lunarwednesday]

Kindly Miquella... I see you've thrown away... Something you should not have... Under any circumstances.

[knox-knocks]

Can’t get over the trojans expecting jean to be a big scary raven and getting a scared, sweet kid instead vs the foxes expecting a quiet and unassuming neil and getting a loud mouth mafia nepo baby (affectionate)

[vmpyrgal]

Blue cds and dvds ☆彡

[aingeal98]

Ultimately the resolution of Jason and Cass fights comes down to the fact that while he has his own ideals that don't mesh with the bats, Jason can be flexible. DC skipped the whole reconciliation with the family but while he's willing to kill it's generally a means to an end to him, not the whole entire point unless you're talking about Joker. Meanwhile for Cass the question of killing vs not killing is dead serious to her which means any time they're working together and things start going off track it's like:

Jason: Look if we kill this guy we send a message to his boss which makes it easier for us to negotiate with him from a position of power and I just think that-

Cass, snatching one of his guns and pointing it at her own head: Go on, pull the trigger. Kill him. Kill me. Go tell Batman that you let his daughter die to make a negotiation easier. He already let you die so no problem right? You think we should die? You think our life only worthwhile as part of a plan, just because we're killers? Are we doomed? Are we rotten to the core with no hope of redemption? Go on then, kill us and kill part of your soul alongside it. You clearly don't care for it so why are you even trying? Kill yourself along with us, come on Jason let's all just die right?

Jason, slowly backing away: I think you may be projecting a tiny bit so just. Calm down before I call the suicide hotline please.

Cass, slowly lowering the gun and knocking the random henchman unconscious: Yeah that's what I thought, fucking pussy.

Jason: Mm yeah you know what I hate you actually. Fuck this mission I'll just shoot you right now if you're going to be this annoying about it.

Jason, explaining things later to Dick: So I just kept shooting at her until I ran out of bullets and we both calmed down enough to call a truce. We tracked the guy down and didn't kill anyone but I did blow up the batplane just as a last minute screw you. Is she always this uh... intense?

Dick: Yeah, one time I broke up with Barbara and she threw me out a window. She's just like that.

[choccy-milky]

@foundthatoldzeppelinshirt what did u do to me...what in the wattpad is this... i only planned to do a few doodles but then i kept getting more brainrotted and things got out of hand LMAOO (and ofc i HAD to draw hockey player seb at SOME POINT bc its my duty as a canadian citizen🫡🍁🍁 O CANADA!!!)

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

wow guys, i cant believe the player character from hit mascot horror game Poppy Playtime actually saved all monsters, killed the Prototype and left with their newfound family! cant wait to see how the authorities will react to this weird family that just formed!

[egg-on-a-legg]

the slayerrrrr

[leftshiftwashere]

Showing him off because I'm proud as hell

I think the doorwings are one of the best parts because guess what! I animated them

So basically the animations they have: Idle, walking, running, swimming, jumping, hurt

He was a pain to texture and at some point I got scared I'll have to start from scratch, mostly because I messed up the files and the textures wouldn't apply. Obviously in the end I fixed it because I simply can't stop winning.

His animations also got a bit messed up. I planned for it to be possible to run and jump without the jumping animation interrupting the running one but oh well.(Not sure what went wrong I adjusted the priorities correctly)

Also I'm thinking of adjusting the hurt animation to be faster because it's not as clear

Annndddd also have a regular skin of him I made. He's very bald though

It's just that I got too hungry and bit his doorwings off. Whoopsies!

Anyway 👋

[bacchuschucklefuck]

soon it'll be dawn again

transcript under the cut ⏬

page 01

Fig: no way? - you're still up?

Riz: Wh– yes?

Riz: Why'd I not be.

page 02

Fig: I me~~ean - that took.

Fig: whole day.

Riz: Yeah?

Fig: 'm beat.

Riz: you should sleep.

page 03

Fig: nah. my guy's still up

Fig: I wanna hang out.

page 04

Riz: That's really nice.

Fig: Hah! - Nobody ever expects an Archdevil rockstar to be nice.

Riz: … yeah. - 's just budget work tho. (the stuff I'm working on) - I've heard it's boring.

page 05

Fig: yeah, but you do it…

Riz: It keeps things going, right? - Nothing happens if nobody sits down and - does the thing.

Fig: That's right… - though. Yeah.

page 06

Fig: sometimes it's someone else who - doesn't want the same thing to happen.

Riz: … - mm.

page 07

Riz (off screen): …It took me a long time to get that not everyone likes doing what I do. - 's probably because you guys are so nice– - or. - kind.

Riz (off screen): to anyone too, not just. - the people you /love/.

page 08

Riz: that's not how it is elsewhere. - The world's– not. hostile. - but 's not like it's kind.

Riz: So I'm doing as much as I can now… 

page 09

Fig: Hey.

Riz: ?

Fig: Go dig some dirt with me.

page 10

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - oh you meant like - actual dirt. (not incriminating information)

Fig: o yea.

Fig: there's clay in the backyard soil. - sometimes when I'm sun deficient or something I go touch dirt for a bit.

page 11

Fig: here u go

page 12

Riz: uh

Fig: now we make a thing! - 'm pretty good at freehanding a bowl.

Fig: I'll show u

page 13

Fig: just– yep, flatten that out as evenly as u can, then–! - actually ur nails'd be so good at cutting out the strip. [larger than usual space] wait. - wait. wait u can carve patterns with them! we HAVE to try

Riz: uh - What. do I carve?

Fig: anything!!!

page 14

Fig: and– yep just seal the inside uh. seam?

Fig: yep that works - okay time's up! all contestant hands up

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - okay - wh. what's next?

Fig: haha - watch this.

(sound effect text): FWOO—MP

page 15

Riz: WH– DON'T JUST DO THAT???

Fig: Now it's fired!

Riz: THAT WAS NOT SAFE

Fig: (actually it's just dry. if u add water rn it'll dissolve)

Fig: ok catch!

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - careful!!

Fig: dw no need haha

page 16

Riz (thought bubble): oh - it's warm…

Fig: now I want you to throw this.

page 17

Fig: u gotta do it - c'mon

page 18

Riz: wh– - It's like 3AM right now

Fig: oh it's not /fired/ fired it's not gonna make a loud noise

Riz: And then just? leave a pile out here?

Fig: pour water over it & it'll be gone I told u

Riz: but

page 19

Fig (off screen): RIz.

page 20

Fig: I've done all this before.

Fig: Can you trust that at least?

page 21

Riz: no, I– - I do. - I trust you.

page 23

Riz: okay what happens now

(sound effect text): glob

page 24

Fig: we do it again!

page 25

Riz: wh. [larger than usual space] What do you mean. (this clay's too wet also)

Fig: see! you're already learning

Fig: [blank speech bubble] - there are flows that are futile to fight. - The world changes.

Fig: Things change.

page 26

Fig: I've learned my lessons with "forevers". - But - as an artist

Fig: I can give you one thing: - You can always do it again.

page 27

Fig: most of everything depends on the rest of the world, - but this. - making new. - that's yours as long as you want it.

page 28

Fig: So?

page 29

Riz: Yeah. - Yeah! - let's make another one.

[fenkko]

the little siblings of scara and childe 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦

[pardonmydelays]

this is the only correct way to listen to scaled and icy btw