#cadri is screaming

[cadriona]

Rated: T

Pairing: Beidou/Ningguang

Word count: 1.3k

Summary:

Yet for as inhuman, as undefinable it was, the god… it followed Beidou. From a distance, usually, but for as long as Ningguang’s known her, the pirate was blind to its presence. So was everyone else, really. But it knew that Ningguang could see it, and it mocked her so— draped across Beidou with its too many teeth, luminescent eyes and the whisper-song of the sea's allure. Or: There was a wild, eldritch god that only Ningguang could see, and it follows Beidou like a spectre. Ningguang does not approve.

[ourdawncomes]

Trespasser Headcanons

i. The Exalted Council

The Exalted Council is one of the most difficult point of Thora’s journey as Inquisitor, pitting her morals against her own desires. She arrives firm in her belief that the Inquisition should persist, both out of the opinion that its existence was beneficial to the people of Thedas and the fearful question of what she would be if it didn’t exist.

She advocates for its persistence through most of the early days of the Council, although there are cracks. Bann Teagan’s remark about their continued military presence in Crestwood does make her consider the length of its influence, and if it has a reason to maintain it. Had the qunari plot not tangled things, she may have offered to withdraw troops from their bases across Ferelden and Orlais, save those who were merely her allies (such as the Blades of Hessarian). As it stands, she never had the chance.

Speaking of the qunari plot, it serves at first as a justification for why they’re here. If not for them, it would have gone undetected, the whole of southern Thedas sundered in one swift, decisive action courtesy of the Viddasala.

The moment Thora changes her mind about the fate of the Inquisition is in the last scene before she sets out for the Darvaraad. Her doubts about their military presence in Ferelden and Orlais, the fact that as she locked steel with the qunari she realised how little she wanted to fight, coupled with the Inquisition’s deception and infiltration by qunari agents— who were they protecting? Thedas, or themselves?

More information cements her decision to disband the Inquisition. Her promise to prove Solas wrong, she feels, will be easier accomplished when he knows less about her activities, and she’s worked underground before (quite literally). That, and she wants to let go of the past while encouraging Solas to do the same.

One final piece is the fact that the Inquisition can only persist as an arm of the Divine. Thora isn’t blind, she knows the Inquisition was started by the Left and Right Hands of the last Divine by her orders, but through her influence as Inquisitor the order was turned, at least in part, from these roots. Dalish elves, Stone-led dwarves, Avvar, spirits, and the faithless all joined their cause, and Thora herself was not orthodox Andrastrian. They welcomed mages as equals, established places within Skyhold for non-Andrastrians to practise their religion, and generally acted like no Andrastrian organisation had acted before, save Ameridan. Thora has a great deal of respect for Divine Victoria (Leliana), and supports her policies quite vocally, but she couldn’t accept being the arm of any Divine. She would’ve turned down the Maker himself, had he asked. It would feel like a betrayal of what she had created, and she doesn’t know where it would go after she stepped down.

ii. Reunions*

In the years since Corypheus’ death her relationship with Sera, while never hostile, strengthened. Thora takes Sera’s offer on becoming a Jenny, when offered. It strikes a more favourable medium for her, going forward.

She’s not sure how to feel about being Kirkwall nobility, now, but the Cadash’s place on the Merchants Guild will be a boon for her family. Not long after Trespasser she returns to the Free Marches and her half-sister Sylvi becomes House Cadash’s representative in the guild.

Cassandra’s congratulations for a non-existent proposal makes Thora a little sad that (if she’s in a relationship) she’s not already married. It’s something she starts to regret more and more as it looks like she’s going to die.

The greatest contrast between first meetings and the Trespasser reunion is between her and Bull. She’s openly suspicious and a little hostile of Bull during his recruitment, but doesn’t feel it’s her place to turn down a group of mercenaries as respected as the Chargers. By the time of Trespasser a lot has changed between them and she’s glad to help the Chargers surprise him for his birthday.

Hearing Blackwall’s Thom’s stories about his atonement to his men and the chance meetings with prisoners makes her cry.

Almost all of her companions (even Solas, although his is much sadder) receive reunion hugs, the definite exceptions are her advisors (she and Cullen never establish that sort of rapport and she sees Josephine all the time) and Leliana, who may have to wait until they’re in private. Some hugs are bigger than others.

When the time comes to step through the final eluvian, she does so hand-in-hand with Ian ( @theshirallen ), another person who she became much closer to after the defeat of Corypheus. Her reunion with Solas is alongside Ian, and overall it’s even more emotional and tearful than in the game.

I’ve written more about her reasons for choosing to spare Solas in the past and I won’t repeat them in detail here, but in short: Thora has shown mercy and offered reason to everyone she was able. As her best friend Solas is shown the same mercy. That, and she’s not certain that simply defeating him and moving on would be the right option for the world. What she learns in Trespasser makes her question if the Veil should exist, and if there are other ways to dismantle it. Her motivations are more than her affection and love for her friend, and if something happened to Solas in Dragon Age 4 she wouldn’t stop looking for answers.

* None of these are set in stone and open to individual interpretations.

iii. Investigating the Qunari and More

Thora kills as few people as possible through the events of Trespasser. Having drank from the Well, she’s able to speak the password which grants them safe passage through the Dread Wolf’s Sanctuary, she spares the former Templar qunari, and tries to reason with the Viddasala the moment she gets the chance. Thora has never had a stomach for killing, but by this point she’s so tired of it.

This may seem contradictory for a woman who is advocating for the existence of and her place at the head of a military organisation, and in many ways it is, but as Inquisitor Thora was able to choose non-violence far more often than she ever was as a Carta agent. The mercy she showed in the Carta was often illegal (saving the lives of runaway mages) and always risked her own neck (if the Dasher found out, she’d be the one to pay). As Inquisitor she was able to recruit and connect with people, saving the lives of innocents and her enemies.

She discovers the secret room in the Deep Roads and finds out the elves minded Titans. Eventually she puts the pieces together and realises the focus, and therefore her Anchor, were powered by a Titans death.

Thora finds the pieces needed to figure out Solas’ true identity without him telling her. She suspected him of being an ancient elf in the time after his departure, but didn’t think much more of it. So much of what she saw and heard from him through the course of their friendship, coupled with the clues, causes her to come to the realisation at the final fresco.

The Anchor throughout most of her time with it didn’t cause her pain but numbness, moments where her fingers felt like they had pins and needles or that it didn’t exist at all. Any issues were attended to by Solas and, in his absence, Ian. Only Ian, Cadri, and any love interest are aware of her situation, although she may downplay it to the latter two for their peace of mind. The last few days with it were almost impossible to bear, and while as a Beserker her companions grew used to Thora’s cries on the battlefield, they’d never heard her scream like she does on the last assault on the Viddasala’s forces.

Solas’ retrieval of the Anchor dissolves her hand and part of her forearm, but it’s an uneven and painful process. The rest of it is amputated by Ian up to the elbow.

[cadriona]

WIPs and Bunnies

Came back to edit this post a bit, so here’s the ao3 account and below are the current ongoing fics and potential fic ideas I guess? might make a complete fic collection under a line break idk

Current Ongoing Fics(?):

Mora for a myth (complete)

potential mora snippet/oneshots (kokomi chapter)

atla x genshin cross: beidou, ningguang, keqing, and yelan yeeted into atla via reincarnation (book 3).

feral!beidou au: baby beidou is adopted by haishan and co., there are consequences (assumed longfic, currently has like 700 words to its name and im actually going to make an outline for it) (progress since last update: nil)

Amnesia au

superhero/vigilante au (ongoing)

anni video inspired au

...trigun stampede ep12 canon divergence amnesia fic (chap 1/5?)

mermay beiguang! i blame the vashwood big bang server (affectionate)

Plot Bunnies (the list that I look at and cry):

arcane x genshin: beiguang gets yeeted into runeterra 2 years pre plot and accidentally adopts most of the main cast (longfic?) idea yeeted

Yeet Liyue cast into Marvel via reincarnation and watch the fires as they give fury an aneurysm

at most would be series of tumblr posts??

tokyo ghoul au?? also beiguang, see post here

idea yeeted to plot bunny graveyard

...beiguang witcher au (probably yeeted, because i am a petty person ig)

miscellaneous crack fics that spawn willy-nilly

EDITED: JUNE 30 AND IM DONE MY DEFENCEEEEE

Completed fics (see below the cut)

Beiguang fics:

mora for a myth

5 times ning saved beidou and the one time beidou returned the favor

Beiguang weiqi match in the forest

modern au chaos

fireman au crackfic

good omens au

mafia au

post ningguang dress reveal crackfic

crackfic (there are a lot of finches)

post jade chamber fall

vacation pre drinking event

beidou dies, ningguang suffers

sickfic! to fix the hurt no comfort of the prev fic aioehgaoie

dragon god beidou and human ning (...lemons)

soft morning after (unrelated to prev)

beiguang week fics as nicknamed by prompts

first time (lemon)

moonlight (werewolves and midautumn)

dragon and phoenix (set post mora for a myth)

vacation (post bartending event)

toys (LEMONS, also set in taro’s dragon god beidou au)

family (beidou meets ning’s parents)

hurt no comfort as inspired by yet another art by taro lmaoo

xianxia oneshot for the genshin femslash server zine

...sex pollen

soulmate (shared pain) au

spy x family au

possessive ning that can see an eldritch god au...?

Others:

mona/keqing wing au

mona/keqing historical fantasy

ATLA au where beiguang, yelan, and keqing are yeeted into the elemental nations

Eisara wings and healing

shenlan 3+1 meeting fic

yelan matchmaking beiguang

eisara modern semi-mafia au

guiping fic: a final melody (oh singer of the dust), much character death, much author’s misinterpretation of history

[cadriona]

the lantern rite cutscene was- im- beiguang flirting rigHT THERE

(ive listened to the lines delivered in cn, eng and jp and my soul is ascending like good gods anegiahpgahapea)

and now i have ningguang skin and she looks so pretty yes im gonna scream about it internally

(was internally plotting a domestic cny fic for these two but after that scene its like, buddy, wut, how, help)

(the screaming and previous angst oneshot may also be why the next mora chap may be delayed for a bit among other reasons)

[cadriona]

OK SO IVE BEEN SCREAMING FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS (even tho uni is being annoying) BUT HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THIS CALLIGRAPHY FROM @hua-fei-hua FOR MORA FOR A MYTH IM AHHHHHHHHH

Thank you so much for the gift im aihegpiahegipa

[cadriona]

Give me a fic idea and I will accidentally turn the 2k projected thing into a fucking monstrosity, but tell me to write a 5k project report and you will see the soul escaping my sinuses by page two

[cadriona]

the purpose of me changing from weekly updates to biweekly updates was because with uni, there wasn’t enough time to deal with 1k words per day, so i reduced the daily word count to ~500 per day as a goal, equating to roughly 6~7k word updates.

This chapter hates me so its now at 10k+ again and still going strong pls send help

[cadriona]

just had a little revelation in regards to ningguang’s three secretaries Baiwen (百闻) Baixiao (百晓) and Baishi (百识) because i play with english subtitles and completely missed this little easter egg.

So, the Bai (百) in each name means “hundred”, which is why I’ve been jokingly referring to them as Ningguang’s “three hundreds“ in my head, lika call back towards the “three whites” of taihu (a lake in china), but as a friend reminded me on discord 百 can also, in this context, mean all or many.

Then, 闻, 晓, and 识 are all forms of “knowing”.

闻 being more of knowing by hearing/hearing of, 晓 being understanding(?) or some form of it, and 识 being knowing as in understanding/seeing the truth of an individual, or a more person-orientated knowing.

(Please note my cn is still rather flawed, so i may be missing some points)

So, Ningguang has her three secretaries, Lady Tianquan who’s information network probably spans all of teyvat or something has three secretaries basically all named some variation of all-knowing.

...imagine having triplets and naming them this tho lmao

[cadriona]

I used to be ok at managing the number of wips I had at any given moment but in a moment of weakness I ended up opening another document for a HOPEFULLY oneshot au

in other words, there is now roughly 2k words of certain genshin characters reincarnated into atla please send help

[cadriona]

When i say im slapping words on a page, please picture a gremlin sitting with the most ergonomically stupid posture scooping alphabet soup out of a bowl and throwing it overhand at a canvas. if enough letters stick, please suspend your disbelief and also imagine said gremlin squinting at the soupy mess and deciphering it as if the gremlin is an auger deciphering the entrails of their butchered sleep schedule.

[cadriona]

ok so i pulled a dumb and started a new wip based on none of the previously mentioned brainworms and now uhhh there’s 1k+ on a beiguang fic featuring yelan!pov where she plays matchmaker for the two idiots

[cadriona]

3, 17, 22, and 33 for the wips game~~

3: How would you describe your writing style?

I'm actually not that sure lmao, as it feels like depending on the fic it varies? Overall though, I'm tempted to say that it's a blend of humor and [insert other emotion here], and although I try to put more emphasis on the characters and their interactions, I'm not actually all that good at reading people xD

17: Past or present tense? Why?

Past tense all the way! I think I might've tried writing in present before, but it never really worked, and reading it in my head while writing it felt weird lol

22: What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again?

This feels like a callout lmao

They are indeed two idiots falling in love over and over again, and I think I love how it can happen in so many ways! Like before we got beiguang crumbs through quests and events, it was all from their trailers and their voicelines, and now that we have more content, there's like a richer background? canon? to draw inspo and learn how they get together, which I think is amazing!

33: Give your writing a compliment.

Uh. Hmm. Great job, you managed to turn a 10k oneshot into a 130k multichap fic and managed to finish it!

Thanks for the ask!

[cadriona]

how’s the next chapter of Mora for a Myth coming along?

me, when the latest chapter got published: there's like over two weeks that's plenty of time

me, realizing i needed to cut out ~a week for beidou's birthday fic:... I can work with this, probably

me, a week ago: i still have like ten days left this is fine *is sweating nervously*

me, four days ago, realizing i had pulled a Dumb and signed up for a python bootcamp over reading week: ...

me, now: *contemplating the merits of time travel and how much i can shake past me without giving her a concussion*

in other words, current chap is vibing at 8.5k words, which is ~10 pages at times new roman size 9 paragraph spacing 1 and the author needs to be put in a bag of rice

in other other words, currently foreseeing the chapter being ~10k so if all goes well I should be able to pass it to my beta tomorrow??

[cadriona]

Just came to the realization that imma need to cram write that yelan matchmaker au because shes actually coming soon and i do Not feel like rewriting everything once we get her voicelines and quests and etc... gods darnit

[cadriona]

Ended up changing my ao3 username, so it’s Cadriona_M now! also updated the pinned list of WIPs and to nobody’s surprise it’s now longer