#cara laidir

[lottiesnotebook]

Hopefully not running too late for this, but I thought this would be fun to do for Cara! I don't think she ever really thought about getting married - being the Justhanders Nepo Baby and going through her parents' divorce and remarriage and the general city-destroying horrors of their love, I think by the point of Veilguard she's decided the best thing she can do is steer clear of emotional attachments like her mentor and aunt Isabela before her.

Aaaand then exactly like her mother, she meets an abomination who looks at her like she hung the moon. Though in Cara's case, she gradually falls head over heels while trying to help him and Spite get along better by acting as their 'marriage counsellor' to... mixed effects.

That said, I definitely think it is both Lucanis' idea and his hope to a) lock that girl down as soon as he's come to terms with Feelings and also Spite, and b) start regrowing his family after all that loss, having seen 'proof' in the form of Cara's parents that other people make that work.

(Does Cara think this is proof? No. Does Justice approve of Spite marrying his daughter? Absolutely not. Will this all end in tears? Maybe but that has never stopped her before.)

That said, I do think they would end up having a huge wedding due to Cara's uncontrollable desire to invite all of her adopted aunts and uncles from DA2, everyone from Skyhold she thought was vaguely cool that she met while being 12 during Inquisition, everyone she met and liked during Veilguard, and also her general love of being the centre of attention and having a huge party.

I also think her wedding dress would be something insane like this (with the wings) because again, Princess Nepo Baby loves to be the centre of attention and I do not think Lucanis is physically capable of saying no to her. (Spite is a different matter, but Spite thinks this is funny and that matching wings are great.)

Hey, hope you all had a good weekend! Unfortunately, it’s Monday =/ Fortunately, it’s time for Rook Intro Hour! 🍀🌺🌼🌸

How it works: I ask you a question about your Rook(s) and you answer it with as much brevity or verbosity as you desire. You can do this whenever you want, and I’ll reblog it + add some comments! There’s no time limit— if you want to do the older ones, they are collected here! (The post is updated on Fridays!)

Today’s Question(s): Does your Rook want to get married to their LI(s)? Do they care about where? Is there a specific tradition/traditions they want to follow, when they do? Who would they invite? What would they wear?

Have fun & thanks for sharing!

[lottiesnotebook]

Oh i’d love to hear the story of Rook trying to impress someone.

Thank you for the ask! I hope you enjoy a little story about my Horrible Nepo Baby!

From the Rook Storytime Prompts:

The biggest problem with Skyhold, at least in the eyes of Cara Hawke-Laidir, was that she mostly ended up there because her mother was doing something too scary and interesting to take her along. She understood her mother worried about her, but she was almost thirteen now, and practically a full mage! In a Circle, they might already be talking about Harrowing her, but apparently, that did not make her mature or useful enough to be taken anywhere Actually Interesting.

There were, however, some significant advantages to Skyhold: endless walls to climb, far more people to watch than she'd seen since Kirkwall, and of course, there was Lace. Scout 'Call me Lace!' Harding with her beautiful red hair pinned up in braids, who was only seven years older than her, and not even a mage, but so quick and so clever that even the Herald called her 'invaluable'.

Lace never treated her like a baby. Lace was always ready to talk to her about the problems or dangers of scouting, and if Cara had ideas or suggestions, she listened to her as she might listen to anyone. Lace had even, after much persuasion, shown her how to light campfires without magic and to shoot a bow, which her mother said they might all come to regret, but Cara thought was an excellent and useful skill.

All this to say that Lace was quite possibly the most beautiful and interesting person that Cara had met in her twelve years of life, and the crush she had on the older girl could quite reasonably be described as 'devastating'. Cara certainly felt devastated by it, every time she remembered that she was in fact only nearly thirteen and it would be years before Lace might reasonably return her feelings. Right now, she knew, Lace had her own crush on the Inquisitor, who was in fairness very handsome and charming and could do absolutely insane things like jump off the battlements and walk away unscathed.

"It's a knack," he told Cara, breezily, the one time she got the opportunity to ask. "When you're as old as me, you'll have figured it out too, I'm sure."

The problem was, Cara was getting unbelievably tired of waiting to be old enough for things like going adventuring with her mother, or getting Lace to fall in love with her, and really, jumping off things didn't look that hard.

So, really, it was Inquisitor Trevelyan's fault when she yelled "Lace, look!" and jumped off the Skyhold steps. She broke two ribs and her arm in three places, but to her credit, it did very much get Lace Harding's attention.

[fiadhaisteach]

Being the nerd I am, I have a spreadsheet for my characters. I started creating this too late, sadly, and am missing a couple, but I have most of them recorded.

Total hours played across Dragon Age is 1,751.95, the bulk of which are in DAI (1,016.53) where I have 17 active inquisitors, plus a dozen or so on the cutting room floor.

But DAV has already surpassed DAO & DA2 combined, both for active characters (10 combined, though many more planned, rolled up, & cut) and time (341.41 combined) with all 10 available slots filled (and 4 on the cutting room floor), plus one run completed and archived and 394 hours in as of 2025/01/09.

Though I have no idea how I’d calculate the number of hours spent reading & poring over lore & meta outside of the games. Heh.

Speaking of… does anyone have a PDF of the DAV Codex yet?

DAO: Fenorain "Surana", Ruth Tabris, Aravunlea "Surana", Sereda Aeducan, Blancmange Cousland, Parthren Brosca, Elithnehn Mahariel

DA2: Praxis, Belle, Cara

DAI: Evelyn Trevelyan, Elanor Lavellan, Aviselan Lavellan, Geoff Trevelyan, Aoifa Trevelyan, Beresaad Adaar, Evuniala Lavellan, Alulya Lavellan, Elgadir Lavellan, Elizabeth Trevelyan, 3velen Trevelyan, Kerev Cadash, Elanor2 Lavellan, Ellana Lavellan, The Onyx Auroch, Lace Cadash, Aelinor Lavellan

DAV: Revas, Sofia DeRiva, Sabrina Mercar, Beshak Thorne, Sivu Laidir, Eabha Ingellvar, Ivy Laidir, Lorant Thorne, Recorda Ingellvar, Adrocer Mercar (plus Halais Aldwir who's files are safely saved)

Ask me about any of them!

[seigephoenix]

DADWC Veilguard Masterlist

A compilation of all my Veilguard fics for DADWC. If you have not played the game, tread carefully. Some do contain spoilers and some do not. I do tag the ones that have spoilers. As always, if the fic has *** next to it then it is NSFW

Finn Aldwir - his page will contain spoilery images if you haven't gotten far in the game Senna Thorn Odette Ingellvar Vat'Asala Laidir - they/them

Senna Thorn/Davrin - You remembered that? Senna Thorn/Davrin - An accidental kiss followed by another Senna Thorn/Davrin - A race Senna Thorn/Davrin - Tentative kisses in the dark Senna Thorn/Davrin - Kiss to the back of the hand Senna Thorn/Davrin - Comfort after a nightmare Senna Thorn/Davrin - Sneaking away for a kiss Senna Thorn/Davrin - Wet kisses from the rain Senna Thorn/Davrin - Oh you think I'm cute when I'm angry? Senna Thorn/Davrin - Strength Kink*** Senna Thorn/Davrin - I'm asking hell if they have an exchange program

Finn Aldwir/Bellara - Snuggling during a rainstorm Finn Aldwir/Bellara - Unexpected kiss Finn Aldwir/Bellara - Bouquet (Featuring the Rookery AU cast) Finn Aldwir/Bellara - Patching up wounds Finn Aldwir/Bellara - Snuggling during a rainstorm Finn Aldwir/Bellara - Morning, fumbling kisses Finn Aldwir/Bellara - Morning, fumbling kisses

Vat'Asala Laidir/Neve Gallus - A kiss given without thinking Vat'Asala Laidir/Neve Gallus - Priestess tarot Vat'Asala Laidir/Neve Gallus - Justice tarot

Odette Ingellvar/Emmrich Volkarin - Cozy nights Odette Ingellvar/Emmrich Volkarin - Happy reunion Odette Ingellvar/Emmrich Volkarin - Kiss to the back of the hand Odette Ingellvar/Emmrich Volkarin - Admit it, your life would be boring

Cara Valisti/Illario Dellamorte - you are nothing without me Cara Valisti/Illario Dellamorte - keep making me the bad guy Cara Valisti/Illario Dellamorte - i do know better than you Cara Valisti/Illario Dellamorte - you're not afraid of me are you?

[lottiesnotebook]

Hi! 6 or 32 for the Rook story time prompts!

Thank you for the ask from your brilliant Rook Storytime Prompts! I'm still on my first ever Veilguard playthrough, but I hope this works for my Horrible Nepo Baby Rook!

Maybe she should have been paying closer attention, but the dragon is so big it's hard to see the tail coming when you're focussed on aiming a spell at the soft spot of its belly. At least, that's what Cara would tell anyone who asked why she didn't see the tail coming and ended up smacked into the wall of the half-ruined Treviso market.

There's a loud crack from something in her head, and black and white stars dance across her visions, like the lanterns that used to hang between the awnings and now likely form the broken glass digging into her back. Not that that really matters in this moment. Even the dragon and the Blight seem very far away. It's just her, and the stars, and the ragged scraps of awning fluttering above her, and she's probably going to die here, like this, and is too dazed even to really care.

Then there's a rush of wind - warm, not icy like the dragon's breath had been - and she hears shouts and the sound of boots on cobblestones. She makes an inarticulate groaning noise, and then someone is leaning above her, and in the shadow of the awning, their eyes seem to flare with light for a moment, and their hands are cool on her face.

"Cara? Cara, can you hear me?" A man's voice, low and urgent. Something about it seems a little off, but everyone here calls her Rook, because Varric calls her Rook, and there's only one man with glowing eyes who says her name with such panic and such tenderness.

"Daddy?" she mumbles, and someone else nearby - Bellara, she thinks? Why would Bellara and her father be in the same place? Her father shouldn't even be in Antiva - gives a high, almost frightened laugh.

The mans head snaps around towards the laugh. "The dragon is gone, Treviso is in ruins, Rook does not recognise us, and you are laughing?"

"Look, you have to admit she's going to hate this when she comes round properly."

Bellara's words might as well have been a prophecy. It's the only thing any of them have to laugh about, so naturally it's all around the Lighthouse before Cara's even recovered from the cracked skull.

"It could be worse," Bellara reminds her through the bedroom door, when she buries her head in a pillow and refuses to come out of her room for dinner. "Lucanis is too bashful to read into that. If you'd called Neve Mommy, you'd never be allowed to forget it."

"I wish," Cara says, into the pillow, "that you'd let the dragon eat me."

[lottiesnotebook]

For the Rook storytime prompts-- have you done #17 yet? (Also I hope you feel better soon!! 💕)

Thank you so much for the prompt! It has predictably cheered me up enough to stop feeling sorry for myself and write again (and also to do some very cursory research because Cara's main hobby is not something I've ever done!)

From Rook Storytime Prompts (previously 6, 15, 18) - Rook teaching someone else a skill (inspired by this) (I haven't written Lucanis before, so wish me luck! Also this turned out mildly angstier than I'd planned but that is what happens every time.)

"Come on, don't you trust me?" Cara gazed up at Lucanis with pleading amber eyes, which was an interesting perspective from which to see her, given that she usually towered at least a head above him. Now, however, she stood on the deck of a fragile-looking skiff, and he stood on the pier, which had seemed the strategically safer position until she'd turned that gaze upon him.

Mierda, but she was impossible to refuse when she looked at him (or anyone else) like that, and unfortunately, she knew it.

"It is not you I distrust, querida, so much as the vessel you have chosen."

The waves off the coast of Rivain caused the deck to heave and tilt with every movement, for all Cara's claims that it was 'perfect weather for sailing'.

It had been perfect weather the last time too, when the Venatori had brought his ship down and dragged him into their vaulted halls beneath the waves.

"The Justice?" She raised a brow. "She's solid, I promise you. Way less flimsy than those gondolas you Trevisons love so much."

"Gondolas are fit for their purpose, and a canal is not an ocean."

"Neither is the Rialto Bay." She took his hand in hers, running her thumb across his knuckles in a way that should not make a trained assassin blush. "Come on, darling, I thought you wanted to see me sail."

He had said that, he recalled, in the warm embrace of the Lighthouse's kitchen, Cara looking down at him with the firelight caught in her eyes, her restless, reckless energy for once dissipated and content to sit at his side. She'd been talking, soft and dreamy, about how she'd learned to sail as a girl, and it had captured some romantic part of his imagination - the salt sea-wind caught in her dark hair, her strong arms winding ropes and hauling sails, Cara in her element as she so seldom seemed in these uncertain, desperate times.

He had not, in the moment, drawn a line between her love of the sea and his own most recent sea voyage, a line his mind was drawing all too clearly now. How easy it would be for an enemy mage to snatch up such a vessel in an unfavourable wind or crush it with some great wave. Bad enough to risk himself in such a way, but Rook?

No! Spite snapped, from over his shoulder. Nobody takes our Rook! No sea, no god, no Venatori!

His hand twitched with Spite's desire to seize her wrist and haul her back onto solid ground.

"I did. I do," he corrected. There were few situations in which he would not want to see whatever Cara Hawke-Laidir had to show him. "Just... perhaps from a more steady vantage point than the deck will allow."

Her eyes glittered with mischief, "You're not scared, are you?"

"Never scared!" Spite retorted, through his mouth, and threw them both aboard before Lucanis could stop them. The deck, predictably, pitched and rolled beneath their feet, and Lucanis, ill-prepared for the leap Spite had thrown them into, would have stumbled if not for her grip on his hand.

"Of course you're not," she retorted, with an eyeroll, pressing a careless kiss to their cheek, and a second for Lucanis, with scrupulous fairness, then, with rare softness: "but it's alright if you are. The sea is a harsh and unstabbable mistress, even to those of us who didn't spend a few years beneath her waves."

He swallowed, feeling suddenly exposed beneath her honey-bright gaze. "I am not- such a thing is unbefitting a Crow."

"Of course," she agreed, lightly, "but if a- if anyone happened to be a little scared, I wouldn't force them aboard. Unless they were into that," she added, with a malicious grin that made Spite cheer and Lucanis flustered. "I just- thought it might help. You'll probably have to travel by ship again eventually, and this way you'll be- safe. You know I wouldn't let anything happen to you, right?"

"I know." He had little faith in anything these days, but for the girl with golden eyes who'd dragged him from the Ossuary and told him he was still alive. He forced a smile, tried to match her bright, teasing tone: "But what if my fear is for you? I've seen enough of you in Treviso to know you cannot swim."

She batted her eyelashes at him. "Then it's just as well you're here to rescue me, right?"

"Always."

She grinned at him. "So, we'll start with the raising the sail..."

She was as lovely as he'd imagined with the sea wind in her hair and the sun gilding her skin, and the taste of salt on her lips was almost enough to make him forget the horrors the ocean held in her depths.

[lottiesnotebook]

Hi!!! For the Rook & partner questions--- 1 & 17?

Hi!! <3 These are fun questions to answer about Cara and Lucanis, so I'm going to stick with them for now despite not being very far into their romance at all.

Does your Rook fall for their partner at first sight? If not, what moment made your Rook realize they're in love with them?

Cara absolutely does not fall in love at first sight in the Ossuary, though she does think the wings are hot - she's got too much on her plate and also too many issues with romance thanks to her parents' city-destroying love. I feel like it hits her pretty late in the game when she has to think about what's going to happen if they stop the gods and she realises that she doesn't want to give up drinking hot chocolate at midnight and seeing him first thing every morning.

(And then she lies face down on her Mage Fainting Couch for 2 hours because she only meant to give him and Spite marriage counselling and this is Not how that was meant to go.)

17. What is your Rook's favorite thing about their partner? What is the partner's favorite thing about Rook?

I think that Cara is her mother's daughter (her mother being an Justice/Anders-romancing Rhiannon Hawke) in that the things she finds most endearing about Lucanis are the things that draw him and Spite the closest together - his determination, his refusal to give up under impossible circumstances, his resilience, even if he sees those things as the reasons he became an abomination. She admires them both because she genuinely thinks that he should appreciate them rather than seeing them as flaws, and because they are strengths she really comes to rely on - as a Horrible Nepo Baby, she doesn't necessarily have a massive inner well of self-motivated determination and resilience, but she does have a lot of spite in her own heart and she is making productive use of it. Also, they are both a little bit inhuman, and she's drawn to that.

As for what Lucanis appreciates about Cara, who is generally Horrible... I think he falls in love first with the fact that she leaves a door open for him as an abomination without even questioning it, even if he finds her blase attitude to Spite a little alarming. She has both hope and experiential evidence that his life can still be worth living, and that gives him enough leeway to keep going long enough to believe in himself.

I also think she was the first person to actually smile at him immediately after the Ossuary, and he can never quite forget that.

[lottiesnotebook]

For the rook story time prompts, how about : 15. Rook breaking the law.

Oh this is a fun one for Cara Hawke-Laidir, who may have the mage class but has all the morals one would expect of a Lord of Fortune Rogue, so have some breaking and entering with Uncle Varric

From Rook Storytime Prompts (previously 6, 18) (also anyone reading this, please send me any prompts you like, I'm horribly sick but this is cheering me)

"You know," Varric said, from somewhere much closer to the floor, "I'm starting to worry I'm a bad influence on you, Prince- Rook," he corrected, hastily, as she let the ward she was unpicking slip a few sparks loose to sting his fingers where he was working on the lock.

"You're not," she replied, with a sunniness that belied her mischief. "I'd be a pretty terrible Lord of Fortune if I couldn't get into places nobody wanted me to."

"That always was a habit of yours," he mused, which was probably a punishment for letting the sparks sting him - he knew damn well she was good enough with wards not to make a mistake like that by accident. "The number of times I had to fetch you out of the cellars at the Hanged Man because your parents kept hitting their heads..."

"If I hadn't come by my sneakiness honestly, you'd've taught it to me," she reminded him. "How's the lock coming on, old man? Getting slow?"

"Not on your life." The final pick slid into place and there was a satisfying click as the door cracked open. Cara let the ward settle back around it smugly - nobody would be able to tell that anyone had broken through it. "I've been picking locks before you were even a twinkle in your mama's eye."

"Maybe that's why you've slowed down in your old age," she teased, and he slapped her on the back hard enough to shove her into the room ahead of him.

"For that, Princess, you can do the first trap-check," he informed her, and she groaned. "Aren't your young eyes better than mine for work like this, or has Rivaini been letting you get sloppy?"

"I didn't know working with you would come with homework," she groused, but narrowed her eyes as she scanned the room, looking for anything out of place. "Lump under the rug near the desk," she noted, "and some kind of switch over by the fireplace."

"Good start," he said, and she preened for a moment before he added: "You did miss the ones on the wardrobe, though, so I'll start there."

She left him to it, while she disarmed the pressure-plate under the rug by wrapping it in a quick barrier - nothing too fancy, but enough to prevent it being stepped on. This left the desk to her: she scanned the drawers, disarmed the triggers on them, and began to sift through the papers for anything important enough for Varric to pay attention to.

"These are the ones you want," she informed him, stacking them neatly for him to peruse. "The rest is receipts, personal letters... boring stuff."

"Anything scandalous in the letters?"

"No," she sighed, moving away from the desk to inspect the glass-fronted cabinet over the fireplace. This was where the interesting stuff was. "Mostly advice on which horses to bet on in the races, and sketches for how he wants his gardens laid out. If this magister-"

"Altus."

"If this altus is hiding a secret boyfriend who happens to be the Dreadwolf somewhere out in the borderlands, I can't find his letters."

"Shame." Behind her, she could hear the rustling of paper as Varric skimmed through the stack she'd pulled together for him, but that was nowhere near as interesting as the collection of shiny trinkets and runes stored behind the glass. They weren't here for treasure - they weren't meant to leave any sign they'd been here at all - but it seemed a shame that such pretty, valuable treasures were left to gather dust in a corner of the study that their master probably rarely looked at.

"I'd appreciate you," she murmured, to a set of jewelled chess-pieces that glimmered with enchantment, to a pair of gloves cut from purest shadow, to a little silver bell that gleamed moon-bright in the shadowed corner.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Varric!" she said, quickly, "Just- checking the wards over here!"

He narrowed his eyes at her, but the second they dropped back to the paper, her picks were out and she was cracking the cabinet open like an oyster for a pearl.

She regretted it a moment too late, when the bell let out a low, mournful dong that almost shook the floorboards. Cursing, she swept the chess-set into her bags along with her picks, and scrambled towards Varric.

"Window?" she said, brightly.

"Cara Bettina-" He turned his head sharply at the sound of running feet. "Window," he agreed, and together, they tumbled out into the alley below and fled into the dark.

Later, back at the inn, papers still in hand, he was still glaring at her. "If I told your mother how you endangered the job-"

"She'd have asked you why you didn't help me empty the cabinet," she said, brightly, and he flicked her on the ear as if she were still a little girl who'd crawled into a cubbyhole she shouldn't have.

"And your father would say that anyone who describes people as their property doesn't deserve to keep what they have," he sighed. "You really did get the worst of both your parents, didn't you, Princess?"

"And that," she reminded him, "is why you love me so much."

[lottiesnotebook]

I've simply got to know 6, 7 and 13 for Cara and Lucanis

Ah, you mean Lucara :p Cannot believe your commitment to inflicting my Horrible Nepo Baby Rook on that poor man, he does not deserve her but I think his self esteem is poor enough that he does not know that.

6. What is their favorite thing to do together? Do they share any hobbies? Does your Rook teach their partner their own hobbies? Does the partner teach Rook theirs?

I think Lucanis definitely teaches her to cook, if only out of worry that if left unsupervised, she will either burn down the Lighthouse or get scurvy. I think she whines about it at first but actually gets very into it because she likes to see him happy and content (and the knife skills are hot too.)

As for Cara... I think she had lute lessons when she was a little girl and still likes to play, but I think she has the most fun teaching him to sail, though it really stresses him out at first:

"Mi amore, you cannot swim!"

"Oh noooo guess you'll have to rescue me if I fall in... :3"

(She has been living on boats for 10ish years, she's not going to fall in)

7. Are they a physically affectionate couple? Are they fine displaying those affections in public or do they prefer to be in private? If they're not, how do they prefer to show their love instead?

I feel like Cara is very physically affectionate both in public and in private, which Lucanis is a little bashful about but really enjoys having someone be unafraid to love him openly given the whole Dellamorte Family Vibe. He is a lot subtler in terms of initiating public displays of affection but he likes to be Close To Her at all times.

13. What song(s) do you associate with them?

I have not gone so far as to make a whole playlist (yet) bc I'm not that far into the game, but the ones that come to mind are:

Because imagine the relief for Lucanis of having someone go "yes, you are fused with a demon and that is frightening and was done to you without your consent, but it has happened to other people before and they've still been happy." I think that boy needs that hope in his life tbh.

[lottiesnotebook]

Seeing as you're ill and want more prompts have another one 😝

7. Rook being taught an important skill.

I have a feeling that she would not be the most... patient or receptive of students 🤣 but happy to be proven wrong

Thank you so much for the prompt! This is definitely cheering me up, and I am having a lot of fun rotating our parallel-universe-Rook-Siblings in my mind! Cara is indeed neither patient nor receptive but here she is, trying her best:

From Rook Storytime Prompts (previously 6, 15, 17, 18) - Rook being taught an important skill (inspired by this)

"I don't like shaming people," Bellara says, from her perch on the counter, "but I do think you should be at least a little embarrassed about not being able to cook even a little bit!"

Cara blew a raspberry. "Why would I have had to cook?" she retorted. "We had servants, and then, when I was shipside, I was more use on deck than shut up in the galley." She narrowed her eyes at Lucanis, who had, treacherously, allied with Bellara in this argument. "If you think about it, it's weirder that you know how to cook. I've seen the villa you grew up in - I know you had servants."

"Servants," Lucanis agreed, "not cooks. The Crow who can't cook for himself starves or is poisoned very quickly."

"Besides," Bellara said, brightly, "you might enjoy it."

"Slaving away over a hot stove?" She wrinkled her nose. "I doubt it. Besides, do you really want to risk eating whatever I cook?"

"You've survived my cooking, and that has killed men before," Lucanis retorted.

"And we all got through Neve's attempt at deep-frying fish!" Bellara added.

"Barely. My eyebrows are still growing back." Cara sighed, surveying the ingredients laid out on the counter. "You're really not going to let me talk my way out of this, are you?"

"Nope!" Bellara said, and Lucanis added: "Unless, of course, you think you are unteachable."

She knew she was being baited, and that it was working, so she huffed and folded her arms. "Where do we start, then?"

Bellara and Lucanis exchanged a victorious glance, and she briefly imagined pulling a Neve to convince them that letting her in the kitchen was a horrible idea, but she'd already accepted the bet.

"Bread dough," Bellara decided. "Bread is always fun."

Bread was, it turned out, sticky and unpleasant, even without Bellara's helpful commentary of No, you have to knead it like you're really mad at it, like it's that ex who took your favourite novels in the breakup.

"Can I knead it like it's the madwoman forcing me to learn to cook?" she muttered, under her breath, and Lucanis- no, Spite- sniggered, which was a little comforting.

"Try like this," he offered, covering her hands with his own - callused, exerting a gentle pressure to manipulate her own fingers, like he was teaching her the precise movements required to pick a lock or cast a spell. "It requires a little more force than you're using - yes, like that, excellent."

Cara knew that vanity was one of her many besetting sins, but she still couldn't help preening when, for dinner that night, they served up the flatbreads she'd kneaded herself, and they were as light and fluffy as Bellara's ever were.

(Later, she'd discover that her dough had turned out like rubber, and that they'd made a second batch fresh, but the praise she got for the first batch was at least enough to stop her complaining the next time she was added to the cooking rota.)

[lottiesnotebook]

Spirited Away prompt for Cara (baby or Rook): "You have no choice if you want to survive here, and save your parents too."

Ooh, this was fun!

(Cara 'Rook' Laidir & Solas, Cara 'Rook' Laidir & Justice, mentioned Rhiannon Hawke/Anders/Justice, Angst and Fairytale Vibes)

@dadrunkwriting

The Dreadwolf's Apprentice

It's the quiet that wakes Cara Hawke from her sleep. The house she lives in, the house she was born in, and her grandmother was born in, and every Amell before her, is never truly quiet. The floorboards settle and creak, Orana paces when she can't sleep, Sandal hums to himself on the floor below, Mama and Daddy talk in low, tender voices, and always, always, there has been the quiet thrum of Justice, her third parent, her spirit-parent. She imagines that this is what lyrium might sound like, or the Fade, if you could step inside it outside of a dream. In truth, she doesn't know if anyone can hear Justice the way she can - not just his voice, but the song of him, the beat that could be victory march or funeral dirge but has always, always been present as long as he has been.

"It echoes in your veins too, my purpose," Justice told her once, when she was very small, still small enough to crawl into her parents' bed after a nightmare (or at least to not be embarassed about it - she's ten, now, and ten is far too grown up for such things. Unless it's a very bad dream). "So do not fear I will lose you - even if all the world separated us, the song in your blood would call to the song in mine, for the part I played in the making of you."

This is how Justice talks to her - like she's a grown-up, like she's a proper mage who understands all the secrets of magic and spirits and the Fade like she knows everything he does, because they are made of the same thing, and because spirits, unlike people, are never babies, so he sees little reason to treat her like one. He does not know the stories that Mama has carried over the sea from Ferelden, and he can't make illusions dance around her room to go with them like Daddy, but he takes her seriously, and he calls her my purpose because, he says, mortals dreamed him to make the world fairer for people like her.

So when she wakes, in the dim violet light of false dawn, she knows immediately something is wrong, because last night, Daddy put her to bed, and now, she cannot hear the song of him, the lullaby she knew before she knew her mother's voice, before she knew any world existed outside herself. She cannot hear it. She cannot hear Justice, and that in itself is enough to make this feel like a terrible, fearful dream.

She scrambles out of bed, breath coming in quick gasps, and she can feel the burn in her chest but she cannot hear them, she cannot hear anything. She wonders if she's lost her hearing entirely, if maybe the problem is with her and not the whole world, and that is, in the moment, less frightening than the idea that Justice is gone.

The marble floor is icy beneath her feet, but in her sudden, childish panic, she does not pause to slide her feet into her soft new slippers. She runs along the gallery to her parents' room, to the safest place she knows, the great bed with curtains that shut out light and fear and bad dreams, where nothing can reach her except the warmth and safety of their arms.

But tonight, there is no safety in her parents' room, and she knows it as soon as she reaches the far side of the gallery and the door is left hanging open. Daddy can never sleep with the door open - he's always worried a templar will walk through it. It's why her bedroom is the furthest from the front door, why he's taught her to find the passage from the cellar to his clinic in Darktown even with her eyes shut, even on her own. It used to be a game they played, before she realised what he was really trying to teach her.

Now the door to her parents' room hangs open, and an eerie green light burns within - not the warmth of candlelight, or the cool, flickering constancy of Justice, but something else, something that sets her teeth on edge and her breath quickening, and now she's scared, but she's also angry. Something- someone- has come into her home, done something to her Justice, and if he's hurt, she will make them regret it.

There's a chill wind that ruffles her nightgown as she peers around the doorframe, and the first thing she notes is that the great balcony doors swing open, caught in the winter wind that seizes the bed curtains and tears at her hair. The light it lets in is the silver-blue of moonlight, almost like Justice, but not quite, not enough, and it catches on the edges on the rumpled, empty sheets, on the still, sleeping form of Cavall, her dear, deaf Mabari, by the fire, on the lute Daddy has been learning to play since before she was born, but not on his kind, careworn face, on Mama's beautiful, strong shoulders, on Justice's shimmering blue edges. She does not see her parents, and that is, in this moment, the most fearful thing she can imagine.

Then she sees the man holding the cage, and she realises that until now, she's never really been afraid in her life before. He is not tall - not as tall as Mama, let alone Papa - because, she realises, he is an elf, but not an elf like an shy, timid Orana, or gentle Merrill who teaches her to whisper to trees and stones when Daddy isn't around. If he is like anyone she's ever seen, he is like Fenris, with his endless, seething anger held back beneath a mask of calm, but where Fenris burns hot and loud as fireworks, and dies as quickly, the stranger's anger is chill and ancient and colder than ice. Fenris's anger burns bright against a world that has been cruel to him, but this man's anger has stripped every inch of softness from him, taken even the hair from his head to leave a blank, shining skull. It has carved itself into the harsh lines of his face, into the white knuckles of his fist around the cage's' handle, and when his eyes catch Cara's, it carves into her as well, and she feels herself shake, even as she raises her hands and summons every shred of her magic and will to make him stop.

It's a pitiful attempt - a small, sputtering flare that is nothing to the power her father wields, but it's enough to distract him, to cause the green flame of magic that he's gathered in his empty hand to flicker and die, and for sound to come back to the world again, and with it, her own anger rushes back, drowning out her terror.

"Where," she demands into the wind, "are my parents? What did you do to them?"

"Your parents," he echoes, "I did not think even such malificars as them would break a spirit so far as to force a child from it."

Malificars. She knows that word - Daddy uses it to describe Merrill, and Mama hushes him, reminds him that to some people, even he and Cara are frightening.

"My parents are not malificars," she snaps, though that isn't what's important right now. "Where are they? What did you do to them? Where-" and here the panic creeps back, the edge of nightmare stealing back in: "is Justice?"

"The spirit has been freed from its prison," he says, which she does not understand, because Justice may call Kirkwall a prison, but never their house, their home, "and as for your parents…"

He holds up the cage, and the bars rattle as two birds beat their wings against it - one red, one golden, both fluttering as frantic and helpless as her heart in the cage of her ribs. She doesn't understand at first - can't understand, her parents are strong and brave and clever, and Mama has always said she'll never let anyone she loves be put in a cage again- but Mama is in the cage, now, and Daddy with her, and Cara wants to scream with the cruelty of it, with the injustice-

"Let them out," she says, and now her own voice is cold with rage, now she feels the thrum of her own magic in her veins, so close to the surface, so ready to spring to their aid- "They haven't hurt anyone. They love Justice."

He looks down his nose at her. "What would a human child know of Justice?"

"More than you!" She does not know where the lightning comes from, from her hands or her eyes or the air around her - only that it burns bright and blue and beautiful as Justice himself, and even as it vanishes, the light of it remains, and for a moment she hopes- she hopes-

The stranger's outstretched hand is shaking, smoke emerging from the palm, but he does not look otherwise hurt, and she could almost howl with her rage, but at least now he is not looking at her like she is a child, an irrelevance.

He is looking at her like she is a curiosity, and she will not realise, until years later, that that is far worse.

"A spirit's child," he murmurs, more to himself than to her, and steps closer, setting the cage down upon the bed. "Such a thing is- remarkable. There may be a use for you yet, felan'in."

"My name is Cara," she corrects him. "Cara Bettina Hawke-Laidir." The Laidir is meant to be a secret, but this man deserves the full weight of all her names, the strength of all the people who came before her.

"Is it." He does not say it like a question, as he moves closer still, crouches to her level, grabs her face in one icy hand, and it shocks her almost beyond fighting back. "I am Solas. Tell me, child, how much do you want your parents back?"

"What kind of a question is that?!"

"The only kind that matters. If I gave you a way to reclaim them, would you take it?"

She wants to stamp her foot, to remind him that he is being unfair, that he is nobody while her mother is the Champion of Kirkwall, but something about his chill grey eyes freeze her in place, like a rabbit before a stoat. Deep in the depths of his pupils, though, something burns bright and blue as Justice, and she realises - that is her. She is the one who will have to bring him back to the world, to enact his purpose in his name, if he isn't here to make it happen.

"I'll do what I have to do," she says, and her voice tears from her throat low and ragged, though it feels like a scream.

"Good." He stands. "You will come with me now, felan'in. Your nature is- uniquely suited to my purpose, and if you perform the tasks I set you to my satisfaction, I will restore your mother and father to you."

Not Justice. If she wants Justice back, she'll have to make a place for him herself, but she can do that. Maybe she's not strong enough now, to defeat a man who can so easily transform her parents - her parents - into caged birds, but she will be. She has to be.

Still, her anger- her sense of unfairness - burns like poison under her tongue: "Why should I do anything to help you?"

She realises, too late, that the familiar walls of her parents' room have faded to dull, green-grey mist, that the floor she stands on feels less like marble than nothing at all, that she can no longer hear Cavall's soft, wet snores. That wherever she is, it is no longer her home.

"You have no choice," the elf- Solas informs her, "if you want to survive here, and save your parents too. Do you accept my terms, Cara Bettina Hawke-Laidir?"

She sets her jaw. "Fine. I'll do what you need me to."

And one day, she thinks, I will kill you for what you've done.

[lottiesnotebook]

Update from the Slowest Veilguard Playthrough Ever - I finally met the First Warden and unfortunately he is the only person with the correct impression of my Rook - Cara Hawke-Laidir should not in fact be allowed to run around unsupervised and is the worst little nepo-baby ever to walk the surface of Thedas. I love her. 🥰

^Horrid Nepo Baby

[lottiesnotebook]

send me a prompt! - Dragon Age Drunk Writing Circle Edition

Trying to get better at shorter fics/one-shots/standalones! Feel free to send me poems/songs/lyrics as prompts or pick something from the linked lists.

Ideally send me a prompt and a character or pairing, but I'll have a go at anything - any platonic or romantic pairing for any game (though I'm still midway through my first run at Veilguard)

Some of my favourite relationships (which I will happily write as OT3+s for the romances) include:

Origins

Luna Tabris/Morrigan | Luna Tabris/ Zevran | Luna Tabris/Anders Melia Surana /Alistair | Melia Surana/Anora | Leliana/Morrigan | Zevran/Morrigan Tabris Family | Luna Tabris & Alistair | Luna Tabris & Sten | Melia Surana & Wynne | Melia Surana & Morrigan | Melia Surana & Luna Tabris

Dragon Age II

Hawke Family | Anders/Justice | Rhiannon Hawke/Anders/Justice | Rhiannon Hawke/Isabela | Rhiannon Hawke/Varric | Isabela/Anders | Isabela/Merrill | Isabela/Aveline Rhiannon Hawke & Aveline Vallen | Isabela & Anders | Anders & Varric | Anders & Rheyah Adaar** | Rhiannon Hawke & Cara Hawke Laidir** | Anders & Cara Hawke Laidir | Isabela & Cara Hawke Laidir | Varric & Cara Hawke Laidir

Dragon Age Inquisition

Rheyah Adaar/Cassandra Pentaghast | Rheyah Adaar/Vivienne | Rheyah Adaar/Iron Bull | Rheyah Adaar/Cole | Seong Trevelyan*/Dorian Pavus | Rheyah Adaar/Viola Trevelyan* Rheyah Adaar & Iron Bull | Rheyah Adaar & Vivienne | Rheyah Adaar & Cole | Rheyah Adaar & Varric | Rheyah Adaar & Seong Trevelyan* | Luna Tabris & Sera | Sera & Cara Hawke Laidir* | Rheyah Adaar & Cara Hawke Laidir*

Dragon Age Veilguard

Cara Hawke Laidir/Lucanis Dellamorte/Spite | Cara Hawke Laidir/Lace Harding | Cara Hawke Laidir/Davrin | Bellara/Neve Gallus | Bellara/Emmrich | Amalthea Mercar/Neve Gallus | Giselle Ingellvar/Bellara

Cara Hawke Laidir & Varric Tethras | Cara Hawke Laidir & Lace Harding | Cara Hawke Laidir & Neve Gallus | Cara Hawke Laidir & Bellara | Cara Hawke Laidir & Isabela | Cara Hawke Laidir & Taash

* Character borrowed from my wife, @adainesjacket

**Child OC - I love to write kidfic/found family fic

Potential Prompts (also feel free to send dialogue options, song lyrics, or poems!)

OC guide under the cut!

Origins

Luna Tabris

Rogue (Ranger/Bard), Hero of Ferelden and world's most reluctant Grey Warden. Friends with pretty much everyone, Alistair’s surrogate big sister in particular. Romanced Zevran and Morrigan. She would have been perfectly happy to get married and never leave the alienage until she got Double Kidnapped, at which point the Blight is the only thing stopping her dismantling Ferelden's political system like a kea dismantles a car. Chaotically bisexual cis woman

Reluctant heroine of The Kick Inside

Songs include: Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood, by St Vincent | Salad by Blondshell | The Calling, by The Amazing Devil

Melia Surana

Less reluctant Grey Warden, baby blood mage with the personality of a particularly sheltered Disney princess. Friends with Wynne and Leliana, romanced Alistair, Morrigan’s reluctant protegee. She is Trying Her Best at all times. Bisexual, possibly non-binary but doesn't have time to think about it

Songs include: Ribs, by the Crane Wives | When The Chips Are Down, from Hadestown | Cardigan, by Taylor Swift

DA2

Rhiannon Hawke

A blue/purple bi disaster rogue who should have been at the club or possibly a popstar, but is instead experiencing The Horrors. Romanced Anders, Justice, and Isabela, her closest friends are Bethany and Varric, Aveline is her long-suffering older sister figure. Bisexual cis woman.

Reluctant heroine of Merry Solstice (Please Don't Call)

Songs include: This Is Me Trying, by Taylor Swift | I Never Loved You, by Halsey | Television, by Natalia Kills

Inquisition

Rheyah Adaar

Tal-Vashoth Spirit Mage born into the Kirkwall Qunari enclave (it was rough). Trying Her Best because if she ever stops trying her best she is pretty sure someone is going to kill her. Truly the Herald nobody wanted, and usually not even the Inquisitor in my head. Potential romances in my head include Cassandra, Cole, and Vivienne (or Iron Bull if you like them toxic and weird). Friends with Dorian, Solas, Sera, and Varric despite the high chance he killed some of her parents. Best friends with @adainesjacket's Seong Trevelyan, who is the Inquisitor to her Herald. Non-binary but in a Qunari Genderweird way

Songs include: You’re On Your Own Kid, by Taylor Swift | My Silver Lining, by First Aid Kit | Before the Eyes of Storytelling Girls, by Anais Mitchell

Veilguard (incomplete)

Cara 'Rook' Hawke-Laidir

The Justhanders Oops Baby, a nepo-baby Lord of Fortune mage, and all around the Worst Possible Protagonist. Is only called Rook bc she begged Varric not to call her Princess at work. So far she is friends with everyone, flirting with Lucanis and Davrin, and had a childhood crush on Lace Harding when she was 12. She was born during DA2 so knows literally everyone, which only makes her worse. I do not expect anyone to care about her but I think she is fun.

Songs include: Primadonna, by MARINA | Daddy's Girl, by Natalia Kills | Never Love An Anchor, by the Crane Wives