#cara laidir

[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.

[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!

[pixiedurango]

Pixie writes Crows -

Dragon Age the Veilguard Fanfiction Masterlist

Bend don't Break Cara "Rook" de Riva origins story (ongoing)

Chapter 1: El Contrato - The Contract Chapter 2: El Espía - The Eavesdropper Chapter 3: Hermanos - Siblings Chapter 4: La reina . The Queen

Oneshots: Trapped in, oh, so many ways (Ao3) Lucanis x f!crow!rook, OC Cara de Riva hurt/comfort, fluff, some trauma - and there is only one bed! :) The things you promise (Ao3) Lucanis x f!crow!rook, OC Cara de Riva silly little snapshot with a little sweet twist at the end

Antivan Postal Service - Letters for the Crows Letterbox game (ongoing) Send me a prompt of what you want to read via askbox and I will write a letter. Rules and whatabouts - Requests are OPEN!

Prompt 0.1: Viago/Teia ->f!Crow!Rook Prompt 0.2: Viago/Teia -> f!Crow!Rook Prompt 1: Teia -> Lucanis Prompt 2: Teia -> Lucanis Prompt 3: f!crow!Rook -> Lucanis Prompt 4: Zara Renata -> Illario Prompt 5: Caterina Dellamorte -> Viago de Riva Prompt 6: Warden Commander Mahariel (+Zevran mentioned) -> Lucanis Dellamorte Prompt 7: Open Letter - Kitchenrules from Lucanis for the Team Prompt 8: Viago's PRIVATE list on proposal (hijacked again) Prompt 9: Caterina totally not threatening a lesser house upon taking a contract for Rook Prompt 10: Viago assigns his non-Rook sister to a contract Prompt 11: Cara de Riva writes to her half brother Enzo de Riva Prompt 12: Illario -> Lucanis Prompt 13: Illario -> Cara de Riva Prompt 14: Xander de Riva -> Teia (received) + Viago -> Xander Prompt 15: Tully de Riva -> Lucanis Prompt 16: Illario -> Lucanis (while Rook is in the Fade) Prompt 17: Viago (hijacked by Teia) -> Lucanis on his relationship to Rook (OC: Álvaro de Riva) Prompt 18: Lucanis -> Warden Commander Mahariel+ Zevran (reply to letter 6) Prompt 19: Lucanis' grocery list (hijacked by Spite) Prompt 20: Lucanis -> Rook (OC:Nels Laidir)

APS Valentine's Special Loveletters: Lucanis -> Renn de Riva Lucanis -> Xander de Riva

[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]

Do any of your ships have kids in the future? Except the ones you've written about already?

I'm going to assume you are specifying my Dragon Age ships? So I'll just include the ones that are from Dragon Age. If you meant any of my other ships from other fandoms, I'll gladly talk about them too. Aside from the obvious which are the ones who canonically have kids in my universes already.

Elaina Cousland/Nathaniel Howe - Rosalind "Rosie" Howe Max Amell/Morrigan - Kieran Amell Alissa Trevelyan/Garrett Hawke - Zephyr Hawke and Leah Hawke Roisin Lavellan - Finn Aldwir (not with Solas, but she does have a kid so she counts) Odette Ingellvar/Emmrich Volkarin - Isaac Volkarin

Briar Amell/Leliana - that one is a no, they do not have nor adopt any kids Briar Amell/Cullen Rutherford - also a no, Briar doesn't want to have any children given who she is

Salem Hawke/Fenris - they do not have kids at the end of DA2. By Veilguard they have a son.

Genevieve Trevelyan/Cullen Rutherford - yes they have 2 children. McKenna and Gawain (girl and boy) Adelaide Trevelyan/Iron Bull - do the Chargers count as kids? Cause that would be their children. No to biological offspring though. Niyra Cadash/Varric Tethras - the answer is obvious for this one... Moving on Bronwen Lavellan/Josephine Montilyet - no but Bronwen does have a daughter from a previous relationship. His daughter Nadiya and Yvette become close friends.

Finn Aldwir/Bellara Lutare - Absolutely they have kids. Roisin wanted grandbabies. XD In my canon, they have 4 kids total. 3 boys and 1 girl. Ashia Laidir/Taash - oh no, absolutely not. Ashia wouldn't be opposed if Taash wanted to have kids, but she is absolutely not going to be pregnant. She also can't really picture herself as motherly or anything of the like. In the Rookery AU, she is the bestest auntie in the world and spoils the kids rotten. Senna Thorn/Davrin - also of the childless lifestyle. Mostly because they have Assan and Stormwing as their kids. Do I like to imagine they have a kid? Yes, I love the happily ever after family trope. But in my canon storyline for them, they do not have kids. Jacek Thorn/Lace Harding - they adopt later on. An elven girl and a dwarven boy. Vat'Asala/Neve Gallus - maybe way down the line they'll talk about it. I haven't quite decided for these two because I think Asala would make a great parent. They're incredibly patient and warm and has a lot of love to give. Absolutely would be the one to fall for the pleading eyes though. Godspeed Neve if you two adopt. Mariposa de Riva/Lucanis Dellamorte - yes they do have kids. Twin boys later on who inherit Mariposa's magical talent

And last but certainly not least...

Cara Valisti/Illario Dellamorte - no. Cara can't have kids (and if you read Darkside you'll find out why in part 4 that will be posted next week)

Hope that helped you Nonny! All my Dragon Age ships and their stances on kids/if they have kids. Since I do like that family happily ever after trope, a lot of my ships do have kids. But I try to fit it with the character and their personality.

[lottiesnotebook]

Waaaay too late coming to this to expect anything, but all the sketches so far are incredible, so I took screenshots of my girl just in case! Cara 'Rook' Hawke-Laidir, Horrible Nepo Princess who should not be allowed to Protagonist and yet nobody has stopped her yet. She is 23 years old and is repressing every bad thing that ever happened to her in order to be the most spoilt drama queen Thedas has ever seen. She's the worst, I love her so much. <3

Still undecided on her final canonical romance, but in my heart it's Lucanis because he doesn't know he could do better and Neve who knows she could do better but thinks that her audacity is cute.

“Neve, meet Rook… thought we could use an expert in trouble.” DAMN but they set that banter up early, don’t they? Really enjoying the near-constant references to trouble in my second playthrough.

Eann “Rook” Aldwir, chaos goblin and spellblade extraordinaire 💕 Expression studies from screenshots, because I love her and I can.

(P.S. Does anyone want a sketch of their Rook in this style? I could use the practice! If you send/link a screenshot I’ll give it a go and post them here.)

[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]

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]

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]

For Cara? Literally all of Kirkwall (thanks, dads). She spent the first nine years of her life as the little princess of a noble household with three loving parents, Bodahn, Sandal, and Orana to take care of her, and a bunch of aunts and uncles who might not have gotten on with each other but were all varying levels of doting/kind to her.

Then the city is on fire, she and her mother are on the run, and she's lost literally everything and everyone she knows, and has to grow up VERY fast...

(Have you answered these questions for your Rook, OP? I'm curious.)

what is the worst loss your rook has endured? how did they deal with 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]

Happy DADWC day!

Ok so this is weirdly specific, but feel free to be open in the interpretation. So I want more Cara, because of course I do 😅 and I saw this prompt in one of your lists : your OC’s description of their game’s events.

But I'd like to alter that slightly... So you said she was born after an ill-advised post deep roads encounter (I forget your exact words) so... Therefore she saw a lot of the DA2 narrative... As a kid... So I would like to see her interpretation of any of the DA2 events 😝

Ask for more Cara Hawke-Laidir and you shall receive! I don't know if this counts as exactly what you asked for, but the end of Dragon Age 2 is possibly the most formative moment in her whole life (pre-Veilguard, at least) so this is what you get! Apologies in advance, this turned out WAY longer than I expected...

Cara 'Rook' Hawke-Laidir & Orana, Cara 'Rook' Hawke-Laidir & Anders, Cara 'Rook' Hawke-Laidir & Rhiannon Hawke, Justice/Rhiannon Hawke/Anders (mentioned), angst, tragedy, canonical terrorism

@teine-mallaichte | @dadrunkwriting

when hell bares its teeth

Cara was curled up in her favourite window-seat when the world ended. She felt the explosion rather than heard it - a low reverberation that shook the house to its foundations and cracked the panes of the window she was snuggled against. She flinched away from it in shock and rolled onto her knees, peering out through the broken panes, her book cradled against her chest. The street outside was empty, peaceful, even - but as she glanced up, she could see the climbing column of smoke cutting the bright blue sky in two.

"Orana?" she called out, her voice trembling. There was no immediate reply. She forced herself to her feet. Orana was the grown-up, and on days when her parents were busy, she was in charge, but Orana got scared, sometimes, when people shouted or magic flared, and then Cara was meant to leave her alone or make sure she was safe and comfortable.

She took the stairs down to the kitchen two at a time, where she found more broken glass and embers knocked from the fireplace scattering the stone floor.

"Orana!" she tried again, fingers beginning to flicker in the familiar pattern of a seeking spell. A soft, sobbing sound crept from under the table. Orana was down there, curled into a ball and shaking, shaking, shaking, like her father after a bad dream.

Cara tried to make her voice low and calm and commanding, like Mama's: "Orana, don't be scared. Are you hurt?"

She didn't know what to do if a grown-up was hurt, though she knew where the elfroot potions and the bandages were stored in case of emergencies. She'd figure it out. Daddy always explained what he was doing when he patched up her cuts and bruises, and she wasn't a baby to burst into tears at the sight of blood.

She felt a little like crying when Orana looked up at her, pale and glassy-eyed, but they couldn't both sit here and cry. Well, they could - they had three years ago, when the Qunari revolted, but they had kind Master Bodahn then to take care of them: he'd hurried them into the cellar and told them all stories to keep them quiet, and Cara had tried to make rabbits out of light for Sandal until Orana flinched away from them. She'd only been six, then, though. She was nine now, and practically a grownup.

"Miss- Mistress Cara!" she said, which wasn't right - Orana wasn't supposed to call anyone Master or Mistress any more, but sometimes she got scared and forgot. "I'm sorry, I'll clean up the mess-"

"We can clean it up later," she managed to say, though there was a wobble in her voice she didn't like. "Something is wrong. We should go somewhere safe."

That was the first rule when things got scary, Master Bodahn had told her - find a safe place, or safe people, and stay with them as long as you can. Safe people would be Mama and Daddy and Justice, or maybe her uncles and aunts, but none of them were here, so she and Orana would have to find a safe place, and be safe people for each other.

She took Orana's hand and slowly pulled her out from under the table. They were almost the same height now, but when she was stood up, Orana blinked and came back to herself, and squeezed Cara's hands.

"Very sensible, Carissima," she said, smiling, and Cara relaxed a little, just for a second. Then there was an urgent banging on the front door, and they both flinched.

"Cellar?" Cara suggested, and Orana nodded.

"Cellar indeed."

She leaned into the fireplace and grabbed something from the far side of the hearth, and chivvied Cara down the stairs as the sound of splintering wood shattered the air behind them.

Cara felt a chill go through her as she remembered her father's warnings: If you hear the Templars coming, you run, Cara-hase. You don't look back, and you don't stop. Who else would dare to knock down her mother's door, but the monsters that still haunted her father's dreams?

"Orana," she whispered, into the dark. "Did I ever teach you the Rabbit Game?"

The Rabbit Game was one of Daddy's inventions. They'd played it ever since she could remember, ever since she was small enough to toddle after him, clutching the hem of his robes. The rules were simple - you had to make it through the passage from the cellar to the clinic, as quick as you could, making no noise, leaving no footprints. When she'd been very small, he'd given her a handful of veilfire to light the way, but grownup girls and clever little rabbits had to play the game in the dark. Foxes and wolves could smell smoke or magic on the wind, and if they caught you, they would eat you all up.

When she was a baby, being eaten all up wasn't scary. It was being scooped up in her father's arms and tickled and kissed and fussed over until she squealed. But then she got older, and realised he wasn't trying to teach her to hide from foxes and wolves, and that there were worse things that could happen to a girl than to be eaten.

Still, as she crept along the narrow passage between cellars, Orana's hand gripped tight in hers, she pretended she was playing the Rabbit Game again, that the footsteps she could hear distantly were her father's, that the worst that would happen if they were caught was that she wouldn't be taken out to the market for sweets. Panicking wasn't how you won the Rabbit Game. If you froze, or you made too much noise, they'd catch you easy as anything.

Run, Cara-hase. She ran, as light on her feet as they'd practiced, making cushions of air beneath the soles of their shoes to catch them before they could clatter. She heard, distantly, a shout that sounded a little less muffled, and felt Orana squeeze her hand and try to muffle a sob. She tightened her grip, and kept running until she felt her outstretched hands catch on the false panel that led to the clinic. She closed her eyes, remembered her father's voice in her ear: Just above your head, there are three nails to press on. The second, then the third, then the first, got that, little rabbit?

She was taller now - they were on a level with her breastbone - and she pressed down on them until she heard the reassuring click of the door opening. She pulled Orana through and closed it softly, collapsing against it. The passage continued round a corner, and hopefully the- whoever was chasing them would follow it rather than them. She'd done it. She'd won the Rabbit Game, and they were in the clinic, and Daddy would be here and tell her everything was alright-

Orana was staring at her, and she realised she'd said her names three times, and she hadn't heard. Why hadn't she heard? She was meant to be listening, meant to be calm and grown up, but she felt suddenly small and shivery and scared.

"Cara," Orana said, crouching to take hold of her shoulders, as if she was a very little girl. "Do you know where your father is? He seems to have- stepped out, for a moment."

That didn't make sense. Mama had gone to the Gallows, she said, to make sure the mages were safe, but Daddy had said he'd be at the clinic. He was supposed to be at the clinic-

Cara's breath was quickening in her throat, and now she really wanted to cry, which was stupid, because nothing bad had actually happened, and at any minute her father would be back and would explain everything. Nothing was actually wrong. Nothing was actually wrong, because if something was actually wrong-

She could hear the sound of people rushing around outside, of crying and screams, of wood cracking, and she knew in her bones that something was Actually Wrong, which made no sense. If something were that badly wrong, Daddy would be at the clinic, making sure people had a safe place to go, that anyone who was hurt was taken care of. And yet, the clinic was empty, holding nothing but a silence more horrible than the noise outside when it should have held warmth, comfort, safety.

"I don't-" She swallowed, tried to make her voice less shaky, because she had to be brave, because Orana was probably more frightened, "I don't know where he is. I- he'll be back soon."

It didn't feel like he'd be back soon. The surgery was too tidy. Daddy's desk was usually piled high with papers she wasn't supposed to look at or (when she was too little to understand) draw on. Now it was swept clean, his healer's kit sat neatly on the chair, as if waiting for him to return with far more patience than Cara. It felt wrong in a way she would not have the words for for years. It felt like he was already gone, and fear sank into the hollow between her ribs and made her heart flutter like a caged bird.

"I- I'm sure he will," Orana echoed her, and squeezed her shoulder. Cara wished she hadn't. Orana was not a very good liar.

A fist slammed into the door to Darktown, and they both flinched at the sound. Orana shoved her down under the desk, so hard and so sudden she slammed her head against it and cried out.

"Ow, Orana-!"

The rapping came again, more urgent this time. Orana's hand clapped down over her mouth, her grip on her shoulder painfully tight.

"Please!" A rough voice called from outside, "For pity's sake, if we ever needed a healer, it's now!"

Cara was not a healer, was barely even a mage, but when the banging came again, she knew what her parents would have done. She wrenched herself from Orana's grip and ran to the door, yanking it open. Outside there was a small crowd of people, pressed tight against the clinic's wall to hide from the chaos outside.

She looked up at them, feeling suddenly very young and very out of place in her pretty embroidered dress with its fine ruffled petticoats. Even of the smallest of the children looked older and more tired than she'd ever felt. She swallowed, looked up at the nearest grown-up (a man, heavily scarred, bleeding from a deep cut on his scalp, and said: "He isn't here, but- I can help you, or try."

He stared down at her through his one remaining eye, and she felt a little sick. "You're just a kid," he said, with something like disgust, and she almost wanted to cry. Then she felt Orana's hand on her shoulder again, and realised that if she could be brave for Cara, when she was so much more scared of so many things, Cara would have to keep being brave for everyone else. She wondered if her mother had ever felt like this - too small and too frightened and having to do the brave thing anyway, because there was nobody else to do it. She hoped not. Being a hero shouldn't feel like this.

She swallowed down the sick she could taste at the back of her throat. "Maybe, but- I'm all there is right now."

He made a scoffing noise, moved to wheel away, but another man, shorter, face badly bruised, caught his shoulder and gave him a glare. "D'you know anything about healing?" he demanded, and she wanted to say No, she wanted to say Go away, she wanted to say I tried to be nice and you're being rude, because nobody had ever spoken harshly to her before, but that isn't what a hero would do. That isn't what her parents would do.

So she put her hands on her hips and said, in her mother's voice: "I know everything my father taught me, and Orana knows some too. And- and if I can't help you, you can wait here until he comes back."

He would come back. He always came back. It was the promise he made every time he had to leave unexpectedly, and couldn't tell her when he'd be home. He'd kiss her forehead and say: I'll be back soon, Cara-hase, and I'll bring your mama with me. He hadn't said it this morning, but then, they'd argued this morning. He'd been in one of his black moods where only Mama could reach him, and she'd pestered him for attention rather than leaving well alone. Maybe that was why she couldn't find him now.

She shook that thought off and stood aside, letting the people flood in. Some of them were limping, supported by friends or family, or favouring arms that were clearly broken. Cuts and scrapes she'd seen plenty of - she knew from memory how to clean a wound out with elfroot, and Orana, steeling herself, could close up the longer or deeper ones with neat, careful stitches. She'd never seen bruises so dark or so big, but she spread spindleweed balm across them nonetheless and said calming things like There, all better, and It'll be fine if you're careful, even if she wasn't sure it was true.

"The tunnels keep collapsing," the man with the bruised face told her while she smeared gooey spindleweed across it, as his husband swore loudly through Orana's stitching. "Whatever happened up in Hightown, it's shaken the foundations, and the Templars… they're looking for- someone."

He cut himself off as he seemed to focus on her face for the first time. "You said your daddy would be back soon?"

She nodded. "He always comes back."

He sighed, looked past and through her. "They always do, kid. Until they don't."

She shook her head, tried to remind herself that he didn't know her parents, that they always came back to her. That they were heroes, and that meant they always came home. She told herself that over and over again as the hours passed, as more people flooded through the door - some she could help, most she couldn't, even as she rationed and diluted the few elfroot potions kept aside for emergencies, and she didn't feel like a hero at all. She felt like she was a little girl again, and school had finished, and nobody had come to collect her - the cold, uncomfortable feeling of being forgotten, mingled with the fear of something Very Wrong having kept her parents away. At least now she was busy - now she was helping people, if only a little. Then she'd had to sit in the Chantry while the sisters did evening prayers, the stench of incense making her feel sick and sleepy and even more forgotten than she felt now.

Like the last time, when her mother finally came, she burst into angry, relieved tears like a baby, and flung herself into her arms. She'd been trying to be a hero, or at least a grown-up, for far too long, and suddenly she was hot and tired and hungry and scared but her mother was here and those were no longer her problem to fix.

"Where's the healer?" someone demanded over her head, and she relaxed, waiting for the reassuring answer.

Instead, her mother said: "Gone," and that was when she realised that this was nothing like the Qunari attack, that her life would never be the same again. That the world could be cut into two neat halves by a single syllable.

[lottiesnotebook]

A Davrook(or ya know your OC) post-game when all is said and done if you’re into that

Ooh OK I haven't written Davrin before but I do adore him in the game so let's see how this goes...

in our bedroom after the war

The first morning after the end of the world, Davrin wakes up because there are feathers up his nose. This isn't, unfortunately, an unusual experience, but it is definitely against Assan's Rules.

Cara, of course, is sleeping peacefully, dark hair spread across the pillow like spilled ink, cheeks flushed with soft, dreamless sleep, the picture of innocence - or she would be, if she didn't have an equally-innocent looking Assan snuggled into her arms like an oversized teddy.

Keeping Assan off the bed is always a struggle, but they've managed, over the months, to limit his presence to by invitation only. Which does mean there can be only one culprit to this morning's mischief.

"Rook," he murmurs, and, when she pretends not to hear him, lightly tugs on a strand of her hair.

She makes a disgruntled noise, and does not answer him, burying her face in Assan's feathers and drawing a contented chirrup from the baby griffin.

"Cara," he says, more loudly. "Come on, you know the rules."

She peeks up at him over the top of Assan's head, amber eyes fluttering open with guilelessness he knows is as feigned as Assan's. "But he had a big day yesterday," she coos, with a yawn. "What if he had bad dreams?"

"I had a big day yesterday," Davrin teases, but can't resist scratching between his ears as the griffin nuzzles between them, content and utterly unrepentant. "Don't I get you to myself for one night after saving the damn world?"

Cara covers Assan's ears theatrically, feigning horror. "Don't listen to him, baby," she tells Assan, "Sharing is caring!"

He laughs and kisses her. He wouldn't mind every day starting like this now, even with the feathers up his nose.

[lottiesnotebook]

@ everyone who wanted to know the Cara "Rook" Hawke-Laidir backstory, BEHOLD! It is posted! (Or chapter 1 is, at least!)

never love an anchor, by mothwrites (adainesjacket) and goldtreesilvertree (@lottiesnotebook)

(rated T. anders/justice/f!hawke, dragon age: inquisition)

“It’s you.” The girl on the doorstep was dripping with rainwater from her lank black hair to the edges of her fine woollen cloak, but for all her disarray, she spoke with the venomous disdain achievable only by the most disaffected of teenagers. This alone would not have been enough to throw him, but for the fact she glared up at him with familiar golden eyes. “I knew it.” If Justice had not been holding him up, Anders's knees would have hit the ground. "Cara? Is that you?" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After the events at Adamant, Cara Hawke-Laidir gives her Inquisition babysitters the slip and travels across the Hinterlands on a quest to enter the Fade and save her mother. She'll have to summon all her strength and find both her fathers to get her back.

read chapter one on ao3 ☆

[lottiesnotebook]

Dragon Age Protagonist Swap Game!

Someone has probably made an ask game like this before, but I haven't seen it and I want to hear about everyone's alternate universes for their Dragon Age OCs (and yak about my own) so, send me an ask with a Dragon Age Protagonist (Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor/Rook), a game they are not the main character of (Origins, 2, Inquisition, or Veilguard) and a question number (or numbers) below, and I'll tell you a bit about them if they were The Protagonist at a different point in time in Thedas.

Please put your OC names in the tags if you want to play too so I know which games to ask you about!

Backstory - Does your character fit into one of the potential backstories for the game they are now in? If not, how do they end up in the situation? Do they bring any key characters with them?

Friendship - Who is their closest friend among the companions of the game they are now in?

Rivalry - Do they have any rivals within the party? Among their new game's antagonists, do they have a personal nemesis?

Romance - Do you think they would find love among their new companions? If not, why not?

Choice - What in-game decision would have the most impact on your character? What would be the most dramatic change they would bring to the worldstate?

Endings - Where do you think your character would end up at the end of their reassigned adventures?

[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.