#daff fic list

[ar-lath-ma-cully]

and it slips through loose fingers: chapter 31

Chapters: 31/? WC: 95k Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition Rating: Explicit Warnings: major character death, explicit depictions of violence and death Relationships: Cullen x OC, Solavellan, Blackwall x OC, OC x OC Additional Tags: character death, long fic, slow burn, characters start out young and age throughout the story, eventual romance, PTSD, trauma, hurt/comfort, growing up, Modern Girl in Thedas, Dalish Elven Culture and Customs with a twist, canon divergence, recreational drug use, friends with benefits, *work in progress* Summary:

"Amaryllis wondered — not for the first time, nor the last — why misfortune seemed to follow her everywhere she went."

Amaryllis is nine years old when she dies and wakes in a forest naked, afraid, and alone.

Read on AO3 here.

** Chapter 31 The next day they left for Winterwatch Tower. 

It was meant to be a half day’s journey--close to a straight shot from the Crossroads, save a hill or twelve, but what was Ferelden without its hills? It was meant to be a half day’s journey. 

Of course they ran into templars. 

They were cocky, swinging their swords about in what they had surely meant to be an intimidation tactic. Three mages, a dwarf with a crossbow, and a single sword user? To them, Amaryllis was sure they looked the fool. But for the short time they had spent together, the five of them had learned well enough how to coordinate their battles.

The fight was over before it began. After a quick searching of pockets, they discovered a letter, the whereabouts of a Templar encampment, and a worn ring. Engraved was Mythal’s blessing.

“...why would they have had this?” Amaryllis was the first to speak. Ellana had grown eerily quiet, her brows drawn down with anger. She closed a shaking fist around the ring. 

“The trophy of a murderer?” Varric offered. “Not that I want to go there, but with these nugheads being what they were I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Perhaps they found it on the road?” Cassandra added. “In any case, it would be best for us to move on. The Templar Encampment noted in this letter is not far.”

Ellana slid the ring into her pocket with a nod of finality. “Let’s not waste time, then.”

**

DAFF tag list: @rakshadow, @rosella-writes, @effelants, @bluewren, @breninarthur, @warpedlegacy, @dreadfutures, @ir0n-angel, @inquisimer, @crackinglamb, @theluckywizard, @nirikeehan, @oxygenforthewicked, @exalted-dawn-drabbles, @mogwaei, @melisusthewee, @blarrghe, @agentkatie

[bluewren]

Chapter: 1/? WC: 3.9k so far. Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Summary:

This is a story about the rise of one woman and the fall of another. Taliesen is a Dalish elf thrown into a position of power, and intends to use it to benefit her people however she can. Calpernia is a formerly enslaved Tevinter mage, who lost her command when the rebel mages freed themselves from Venatori servitude. Both wanting to fix everything about the world that has wronged them, but circumstances place them on different sides.

Except:

The biting wind shot sand at her face and made it impossible to travel the desert to the old Tevinter ruins. Yet as soon as she takes one step inside, the howling stops. Taliesen can feel the stillness in the air. The falling bits of sand are hanging. It’s like she entered a world isolated from Thedas, untouched by the wear and tear of the present. The moment she steps through the door, she can see the rift hovering above. Demons and Venatori turned into statues, their conflict frozen in time. Yet even more unnatural is the fact that the fade rift does not shimmer, bright and yet frozen in place. It’s like staring at the sun, unyielding with its shining rays but otherworldly to stare at. Something’s unnatural about these ruins, more unnatural than the Anchor and rifts that Taliesen has been tied to. She takes the first steps. Her companions follow behind, suddenly falling into the trap that awaited all of them here. Solas, Sera, and Dorian turn lifeless when they step past the entrance, unaware of what would befall them. Immediately, Taliesen turns back to reach for them, feeling for pulses, and shaking them in place in the hopes of seeing them react. But nothing, they’re frozen like the rest of the creatures in this room.

Tagging the DAFF Crew 🥰@warpedlegacy @rakshadow @rosella-writes @effelants @bluewren @breninarthur @ar-lath-ma-cully @dreadfutures @ir0n-angel @inquisimer @crackinglamb @theluckywizard @nirikeehan @exalted-dawn-drabbles @mogwaei @melisusthewee @blarrghe @agentkatie

[blarrghe]

Rating: M | Category: M/M | Words: 33 312 | Chapters 15/29

Summary: 

When Magister Dorian Pavus' expedition meets unexpectedly with a clan of unhappy Dalish elves, First Taren Lavellan may be the unhappiest among them. Unhappier still to be put to the task of helping to see his quest through. This is the tale of how a fortnight in the forests of the Free Marches can change everything.

Read from the beginning

Chapter 15: Trapped

Snippet:

The temple’s entrance emerged from the forest all at once. One moment, they were pushing past tree branches and stepping over thick roots, and the next, Dorian was face-to-face with a huge and unforeseen slab of rock; a moss-covered outcropping of stone which pressed itself out of a high hill of forest covered earth. A rusting metal fixture bolted into the stone was all that marked the spot as being anything other than a plain, rocky cliff. The fixture held a torch which looked old and decrepit enough to crumble in his hands. 

The First stepped forward. He pushed away some growth of vines and tapped his staff over the creeping moss which grew as a soft fur coat up the cliff's shadowed lower half. The moss crumbled away, revealing rows and rows of intricate runic carvings. 

Then the First said something, a muttered string of Elvhen words accompanied by another couple taps of his staff. The carvings alighted, and the rock split open. 

Dorian watched as the stone creaked in low, grating sounds to reveal a doorway into pitch darkness. He plucked the torch from the wall, glad to find it felt sturdy enough in his hand, and lit it with a spark of magic. The spark took to the wrappings in a gust of energy, flame-like but not. Wisps of greenish flame stuck to its top, but looking closely, the torch didn’t even really seem to burn. The eerie veil-tinted light was steady, unaffected by Dorian’s motion or any passing breeze. 

Dorian gestured with his torch towards the dark entryway which the elf had revealed. “After you,” he offered. 

Without hesitation or concern, in marched the First.

[theluckywizard]

Kiss Me Moonstruck, Ch. 6: Incorrigible

Hawke x Trevelyan | DA2 | Matchmaking Mischief | Fluff and Smut | Fish out of Water | Romantic Comedy

Gif by @lazysunjade

Chapter Summary:

Garrett and Rose trip deeper into this Maker-damned game they're playing.

Fic Summary:

Smashed together in a matchmaking scheme cooked up by their enterprising mothers, Garrett Hawke and Rose Trevelyan are forced to endure one another for a whole week over Satinalia at the Hawke Estate. Rose hears he’s a swashbuckling treasure hunter, as wild as he is handsome and as ill-bred as he is rich. Garrett suspects she’s a brat of an ingenue by the string of rejected marriage proposals behind her. Determined to prove to the other that they could not be less compatible, they quickly find their mothers’ plot might be working better than they thought.

Excerpt below the cut 👇

A few short blocks later they come upon a narrow street laced with vibrant banners in scarlet and amber. Painted signs with provocative names. The Crowing Cock. The Blooming Rose. The Sheath and Dagger. Taverns, Rose suspects, since the street is all but deserted at this relatively early hour save for a few workers sweeping. Rose looks back into the barouche to see a little war playing out between Leandra and Garrett—  Garrett urging the driver to stop while Leandra furiously waves him on. The driver stops.

“And this is the—”

“Tavern row! Where people come to relax after a long day!” hurries Leandra.

Garrett’s eyes twinkle at his mother. “A kind of relaxation anyway. And I suppose they’re technically taverns.”

Rose’s brow lifts as she takes his meaning. Houses of ill-repute stacked one on top of the other and so near to the fine homes of Hightown. She cranes her neck and assesses them with a curiosity that pops and snaps inside her. The potted topiaries seem a bit out of place she admits, and all the signs seem finely carved and painted— though she detects the vestiges of mischief, the scrubbed off remnants of a G on the The Crowing Cock . By her mother’s twitchiness she must also have her suspicions but Leandra begs the driver to continue and the barouche lurches to life once more. 

“And this is the Guild Quarter! It’s where Dwarven merchants negotiate and tra— is that blood on the cobbles? I think it is! Looks like the city guard had their hands full last night.”

Indeed, here and there the crevices between the cobbles pool with drying blood. Alsatia draws a handkerchief over her lips. Leandra shoots her son a stony look. Rose makes a show of stroking her chin and then speaks. 

“Well, I think that shade of red really sets off the banners,” she says, daring a glance at the man across from her. She’s practically drunk on the little game between them, her pulse thumping in her wrists as she folds her hands across her lap.

Garrett bites down on a sudden grin and shakes his head.

“Really, Rose,” hisses Alsatia under her breath. Rose smiles knowingly to herself.

“It’s not as violent as everyone makes it seem ,” insists Leandra. “If you read the broadsheets I’m sure it must seem like Kirkwall will collapse under the weight of all the crime. But I assure you that is anything but the case. Viscount Dumar has a firm grasp on the reins of our dear city!”

Garrett slowly looks over at his mother with a cocked eyebrow.

“I won’t pretend that the reports of elevated criminal activity haven’t given me pause,” says Alsatia. “But surely the gates of Hightown will hold against the riff raff.”

The blood on the cobbles might suggest otherwise, but Rose bites her tongue.

Read the rest here! | Start the fic here!

DAFF Tag List:

@about2dance | @ar-lath-ma-cully | @blarrghe | @bluewren | @breninarthur

@crackinglamb | @delicatefade | @dreadfutures | @effelants | @exalted-dawn-drabbles |

@hekaerges | @inquisimer | @ir0n-angel | @leggywillow |

@oxygenforthewicked | @plisuu | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @warpedlegacy

[inquisimer]

DAFF Discord Moodboard Fic Exchange

As part of our Discord server's 4th anniversary celebration, a few of us created and swapped moodboards, then wrote short (<1k) fics based on them! I received @nirikeehan's moodboard and it immediately gave me Crow vibes, so off I went >:]

do not wrong the crows

Zevran Arainai/Rinna/Taliesen | Rated G | 1000 words | No CW

When Taliesen is captured on a job, Zevran and Rinna infiltrate an Orlesian party to rescue him.

The exchange was super fun, and the short word count was an extra challenge that produced some amazing pieces! You can (and should) check out the collection on AO3 here (:

DAFF tag list: @warpedlegacy | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @effelants | @bluewren

@breninarthur | @ar-lath-ma-cully | @dreadfutures | @theluckywizard | @oxygenforthewicked

@exalted-dawn-drabbles | @blarrghe | @delicatefade | @leggywillow | @plisuu

@hekaerges

[hekaerges]

A new of my Post-Trespasser Mystery fic, In the Hollows of Their Footprints, is up!

Ch. 2 Tabris: "In Peace, Vigilance"

Following the mysterious disappearance of their Arcanist, the Inquisition taps into their contact network to see if it's an isolated incident. It's not.

Small snippet under the break!

When someone gets kidnapped, you’re distraught. You go searching. You find the guards, and you scream at them. Tearing at your clothes, skin, and hair to see them safe. When you’re in an Alienage  and someone gets kidnapped, you’re pissed. Because you can’t do anything without risking it all, risking everyone, and you know it.

And you do it anyway. It’s all in the art of not getting caught, in trusting only the people you know won’t fuck it all up. That’s what Sera did. If it were Sarnai, she would have vanished in the dark and armed to the teeth, and she’s confident that was Sera’s first instinct as well. But she chose to go to Adaar first. Because Adaar is strong and Adaar has never steered her wrong before. Sera can trust Adaar with this. And doesn't that say the world about her?

DAFF Tag List: @about2dance | @ar-lath-ma-cully | @blarrghe | @bluewren | @breninarthur

@crackinglamb | @delicatefade | @dreadfutures | @effelants | @exalted-dawn-drabbles |

@hekaerges | @inquisimer | @ir0n-angel | @leggywillow |

@oxygenforthewicked | @plisuu | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @warpedlegacy

[dreadfutures]

Welcome to Blue's Blog

Artist, fic writer, and admin @thedragonagebigbang | @thedasincolor | @dadrunkwriting | @dragonagefanevents —but science is my day job!

Things I've Made:

Read my AO3 fics: @ youworeblue

Peruse #My Art

Check me out on ArtFight @ dreadfutures

Read fics I've written for #da drunk writing circle

Commission (or tip!) me on KoFi

Send me writing prompts

Things I Didn't Make:

Read Fics I've been gifted

See #Art for Blue - gifts & commissions!

Scroll my writing #prompts hoard

Fics by DA FanFiction Discord members: #daff reading list

Content related to Dragon Age: Veilguard, block my tag list here.

▸ here is a list of other people's tags to block

Currently Promoting

Please check out my murder mystery Dragon Age fanfiction:

it ends, or it doesn't.

Rated T | 7 chapters | 45k. | Complete | Felassan finds himself investigating a murder with a ragtag group of three outcast Dalish, uncovering an ancient ruin hidden in plain sight and the ugly secret trapped at its heart. Illustrated by Adurna-0 with additional commissioned art by sbeep and crunchyncrumbly.

Feel free to make fanart, podfics, and derivative works of mine, as long as a heads-up & credit is given. I always appreciate the creativity of this community. See my full use statement here.

Banner credit.

Characters & AUs

▸ Shadows in the Sun DA4 World State ▸ Bloodied and Broken Fix-It World State ▸ Elvhenan AU ▸ One Wild and Precious Life AU ▸ The Mirrorverse Collaborative AU - OPEN! Halevune Mahariel | [Garrett Hawke]() | Ixchel Lavellan

#Shadows in the Sun - DA4 World State

My official DA4 world state! A Fereldan feral child stumbles across the Hero, Halevune Mahariel, and he helps her find her name: Ixchel. Eventually she flees Fereldan to the Free Marches, where Clan Lavellan takes her in. Fearing that she will never truly fit in, Ixchel volunteers to attend the Conclave as a spy for her clan and prove herself to be useful. Instead, at only 16 years old, she becomes the Herald and then the Inquisitor. She is pulled in many directions by her advisors and companions and generally has a really fucked up world state. By the time Corypheus is defeated, Ixchel comes to think of the Inquisition as her family—a family that no longer needs an Inquisitor. With her clan massacred, Ixchel has no purpose and no place in the world. She travels with Kieran, Morrigan, and Mahariel for a while, but once Mahariel grows too sick to travel, Ixchel leaves, for she thinks that she's intruding on that little family's grief. She doesn't know that they considered her family, too. She attends the Exalted Council in the midst of a deep depression made worse by the Anchor's destabilization and the tension of politics surrounding the Inquisition. Solas's revelation—and his refusal to let her join him—drives her nearly to the edge of her sanity, and she never fully recovers. She spends a few years trying to thwart his plans or come up with an alternative, but she views it as a hopeless cause, and she leads a lonely existence in an empty Skyhold. In my Bloodied and Broken world state, she dies at this point. But in my DA4 world state, Kieran comes to her and pleads for her to help him find his mother, who bears the Well of Sorrows and has gone missing. Ixchel, now 26 or so, sets off with Kieran, now 21, to find the very farthest edge of Thedas—and what lies beyond it. (Assuming the Inquisitor does not make an appearance in DA4.)

Fics in this world state:

Mahariel x Morrigan & Kieran drabbles: #old blood older still

Other drabbles and prompt fills: #shadows in the sun

Bloodied and Broken - Fix-It World State

My longest Dragon Age series. It follows Inquisitor Ixchel Lavellan and her battle to find hope for herself, and hope for Thedas. As the world ends, Ixchel is resurrected under mysterious circumstances and is sent back in time to the Conclave. Ixchel is furious, convinced of her own futility, and yet she cannot give up again. These are the stories of how she gets better. ▸ TOO LONG, DIDN'T READ? (A summary of Dead Pasts and Dread Futures, if you want to get caught up. ▸ COMPLETE Fic Reading Order.

Fics in this world state:

Her story begins in Dead Pasts and Dread Futures—with her suicide.

Her journey to find hope and share it with the world continues in The Brave Guide.

Complete World State Fic Collection including things friends wrote.

Stories about Halevune Mahariel, Morrigan, and Kieran: Rust and Bone.

In-continuity tumblr drabbles found under #bloodied and broken bits.

Ships from this world state:

Solavellan: #broken mirrors

Mahariel x Morrigan & Kieran: #old blood older still

Platonic: #cage of the ribs

#Elvhenan Au

A resurrected Ixchel gets sent back not to the Conclave but to Elvhenan, with a fragmented memory. This is not Solavellan but rather Dirthamen x Lavellan.

Fics in this AU:

Tumblr prompt fills: #Elvhenan AU and #Arlathan AU

The Inexorable Tide - [kittynomsdeplume]. | Oneshot | A beautiful gift. Ixchel appeared in Elvhenan in an explosion that leveled Falon’Din’s temple. Dirthamen takes her in, for she wears his vallaslin, and slowly teaches her the Elvhen language…and they fall in love.

#One Wild and Precious Life

Solas and Inquisitor Ixchel Lavellan defeat Corypheus, heal the Veil, and thwart the Evanuris, but Solas falls into uthenera again. He wishes that now-immortal Ixchel would live a full life, and to her own surprise…she does. She falls in love with the widowed Prince of Starkhaven, and he with her.

Fics in this AU:

Tumblr prompt fills: #one wild and precious life

The Mirrorverse Collaborative AU

The Dragon Age Fanfic Writers Discord Server anniversary (Aug 2021) generated a bunch of crossover-type gift fis and introduced the idea of a multiverse connected by eluvians. Thus, the Mirrorverse was born. ALL ARE WELCOME!! If anyone wants to play in this sandbox or read OCs interacting in each others’/an in-between reality, I have an OPEN collection for fics that have any Dragon Age OCs crossing universes via mysterious eluvians! They’re fun to play with and people are making gifts for their friends or just having their own OCs interact, it’s great! We love seeing this device, please use it and tag us/submit to the collection! This isn’t limited to friends-of-mine/members of any server. We just love this gimmick and would love more multiverse interactions out there. It’s such a fun way to play with OCs.

Mirrorverse fics with my OCs:

The Bar at the End of the Multiverse - [CrackingLamb] | Oneshot | Multiple Inquisitor Lavellans wander through mysterious eluvians and find themselves at a bar for some bonding time.

Walkers of the Lonely Path | Multichapter | Complete | A gift fic I wrote for six Lavellans and one Mahariel. It’s essentially a dungeon crawl, with lots of lore, angst, and elven bonding.

a butchered tongue still singing - [RosellaWrites] | Oneshot | Rhiannon Mahariel travels to Halevune Mahariel's world just as Tamlen dies.

i want to share your mouthful - [RosellaWrites] | Oneshot | Virelan Lavellan post-Trespasser struggles to let go of the weight of her responsibilities as Inquisitor and mother. Ixchel helps with sparring, bathing, and some sex.

turning stones to look for light | Oneshot | A gift fic I wrote for Rosella-Writes, where Ixchel holds Virelan’s Solavellan baby and muses about whether Virelan’s version of Solas has any hope of redemption.

to call for hands of above (to lean on) - [RosellaWrites] | Oneshot | Tulin, Virelan and Solas's son, wants to receive his own vallaslin but is afraid to ask his father. Virelan asks Ixchel to speak to him, since she took the vallaslin for reasons beyond dedication to the gods.

the eternal now of experience | Oneshot | A gift fic I wrote for Rosella-Writes, where Ixchel comes through the eluvian and witnesses and elderly Virelan and Solas sharing a peaceful and loving moment.

The Brave Guide's Friend - [ExaltedDawn] | Oneshot | Talenna Ethera faces the end of her world and knows she must save her children. She brings them through the eluvian to Ixchel's world and says goodbye. Heart-wrenching.

tell me if i drown - [Lalaen] | Oneshot | Gethrael Lavellan, reeling after a horrific experience in Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts, goes to the Bar at the End of the Multiverse and runs into Ixchel.

to all who feel rain - [inquisimer] | Oneshot | Neria and Ixchel share a warm drink and a moment of peace.

Death is an Open Door | Oneshot | A gift fic I wrote for AmmoniteFlesh, where Ghila Mahariel and Halevune Mahariel step through separate eluvians in search for the source of the Blight in the world. They find each other, and more than they'd bargained for.

Unbreakable, Unbowed, Unyielding | Oneshot | A gift fic I wrote for WarpedLegacy, in which her Theresa Trevelyan and Cullen stumble into the dragon that calls the Emerald Graves home. Ixchel appears and fights alongside them.

[melisusthewee]

Summary: There are two games played at the Winter Palace: one of murder and deceit among the nobles, and another between Cassandra Pentaghast and Inquisitor Trevelyan who is determined to charm and dance with her.

Pairing: Cassandra Pentaghast/Male Trevelyan

Characters: Cassandra Pentaghast; Quinn Trevelyan; with brief appearances by Blackwall and Duke Gaspard

Rating: G

Word Count: 2,656

Notes: My piece for the @loveacrossthedaszine ! The zine version (if you have not yet downloaded yourself a copy) comes with really lovely spot art. But here it is now forever enshrined on AO3! It was a really great honour to be a part of this project and to get to share these silly sweet blorbos with everyone. And if you're feeling a bit spicy, this can very much be treated as the direct prequel to my first Cassmancing smut fic Impetus.

DAFF Tag List: @warpedlegacy @rakshadow @rosella-writes @effelants @bluewren @breninarthur @ar-lath-ma-cully @dreadfutures @ir0n-angel @inquisimer @crackinglamb @theluckywizard @nirikeehan @oxygenforthewicked @exalted-dawn-drabbles @blarrghe @agentkatie @delicatefade

[crackinglamb]

AO3 Year End Roundup, 2023

Normally, I'd do this in a couple days, but we're close enough for government work (and I'm on a deliberate break anyhow, so nothing new is being posted). Normally this would also be a tag game, but I haven't seen it floating around yet, so...

Hey, you wanna do your own roundup? Go for it. Yes, I mean you (looking at you, DAFF crew). Consider this an open invite. Tag me back so I can see what y'all have been up to.

Words posted: 241,283 . This total has had subtracted from it the amount that already existed for the fic that carried over from last year (which was WG, of course). So this is actually what I posted this year.

Additional Words Written: ~166K. I have several WIP's going on in the background. One of which is finished and will begin posting after New Year's. Another of which is about halfway done. The rest are...procrastination projects/getting the wiggles out. They may never see the light of day. But they count as writing, so they are included.

Grand total of words: 407, 283 (goodness gracious)

Fandoms: 2

Works: 12, 11 of which were new.

Highest Kudos: Into the Current, at 271 (just like last year, I'm not counting WG since it wasn't new). The Iron Bull/OFC, rated E, 79K words, complete.

Highest Hit Oneshot: The Mighty Fall, at 706. Sookie Stackhouse/Eric Northman. Rated T, 2900 words.

New Things I Tried: I wrote a trio of fics for True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries this year. The WIP that's finished and waiting for the new year is a continuation of this series.

I also posted a ficlet I'd originally posted here on tumblr for archiving purposes. Some Years Into the Future...

Fic I Spent the Most Time On: Driftwood, my Bullmance series. Writing ItC itself wasn't particularly long, about two months, but T3, the next fic, is still being written. At first it was all going to be one long fic, but then I decided I've had enough of epics (meaning any work significantly over 100K words), and split it into parts.

Fic I Spent the Least Time On: The Mighty Fall. I have finally gotten to use the tag 'I wrote this instead of sleeping'. 🤣

Favorite Thing I Wrote: Usually, I have trouble with this category. I'm poly, you know. But this year, I actually DO have a fave. Okay...I have two.

How Deep the Bullet Lies - a gift for @rosella-writes, for the Solas Lovers Exchange. Solas/Cassandra Pentaghast with a whumpy open ending. Rated M, 4200 words.

More Than Mere Stone - a gift for my beloved @ir0n-angel in the same exchange. Solas/F!Trevelyan, pure fluff. Rated G, 1500 words.

Favorite Thing I Read: In Twain, by CatC. It's everything I wanted in a 'background character gets caught up in events' fic. With a sizzlingly hot Bullmance and So Much Cole. I think I've read it three or four times already. At least. If you need something comforting and wonderful, I cannot recommend it enough. It's simply delightful, and so is the author. Rated E, 172K words, WIP.

Something I Finished: I did it, at long last. I finished What a Wicked Game to Play. It was the focus of NaNo (and took literally three days once I put my mind to it, hence much of the other writing I did that hasn't been published). It feels really good to have my beloved Behemoth marked with a green checkmark. The story itself isn't finished, and I'll eventually write more for Imogen and Co., but for now, it is Done.

Writing Goals for 2024 – Keep on keeping on. I want to finish T3, so I can start posting it. I want to finish a couple other things from the WIP list. There will of course be a new Fluffuary prompt list. Biggest goal, however, is simply not to burn myself out. I've started waiting to publish until a fic is finished, which has done wonders for my stress levels. No more posting gaps on an in-progress fic.

Allow me to Gush about some things I wrote this year.

(Otherwise known as: honorable mentions)

Out of the Dark - Lark Cadash was once going to have an epic fic to her name. But I'm Tired, and frankly, I'm bored with rewriting the events of DA:I over and over again. So I've turned her into a series, where I can just put up oneshots and short chaptered things in no particular order that add up to one big story. This is one of them. Post-canon, Lark goes into the Deep Roads to find the answer to a riddle that's bugged her for her entire life. She gets more than she asked for, with a side serving of sad Solas. I've had many of the headcannons included in it for a long time, with no home. Now, they're out there in the world. Rated G, 4800 words.

What Lies Beneath - my actual giftfic for the Solas Lovers Exchange. I had such fun writing this, and had ideas for it as soon as I received the assignment. I got to set something in the Hissing Waste, which is one of my favorite places in the game, as well as write a polyship for my two favorite romances. F!Cadash/Solas/Iron Bull, rated T, 3400 words.

Maker Damned Fools - back in 2020, I wrote a Varric/Hawke short little thing for the first Fluffuary. I always wanted to go back and expand it into a fuller story. Add it to the pile of Things I Finished This Year. From their meeting to post-canon. Rated E, 32K words.

What a Wicked Game to Play - *deep satisfied sigh* It took two years and ten months to complete, with near constant weekly updates. It's 412K words by itself (not counting the rest of the series). It contains about 350 embedded images of either screenshots or fanart. It is both the highest hit (over 90K) and highest kudo'd (1535) work on my archive. Affectionately known as 'the Behemoth', extensively written with my signature yeeting of canon. Imogen McLean, MGIT, Inquisitor, beloved of Fen'Harel. I am stupendously proud of this work, but I am also incredibly happy it's done. I set out to write an epic, and I damn well succeeded. Rated E.

See y'all on the flipside! 💕

[warpedlegacy]

At long last, I am so excited to finally start sharing my long-labored JosieBela fic! It's sapphic, it's romantic, it's actiony! Think Pirates of the Caribbean crossed with Pride and Prejudice. Artwork by @theluckywizard, and beta'd by @rakshadow. I hope you enjoy!

"Since the moment they met, she and Isabela had been stuck on each other. A stone in the currents of each others' lives. But now they were the current. Josephine was being swept away, and for once she didn’t fight it."

Isabela has found herself in a spot of trouble (as she does), and needs to lay low for a while. Lucky for her, Varric knows an Antivan friend who needs a security escort for her new trade venture. Meanwhile, Josephine is facing down an arranged marriage and coping with her disappointment at missing her chance for her one great love - all while trying to manage her family's newly recovered trade status.

What happens when a force as unstoppable as Isabela meets an object as immovable as Josephine? Or is it perhaps the other way around?

DAFF tag list: @rosella-writes @effelants @bluewren @breninarthur @ar-lath-ma-cully @dreadfutures @ir0n-angel @inquisimer @crackinglamb @nirikeehan @oxygenforthewicked @exalted-dawn-drabbles @mogwaei @melisusthewee @blarrghe @agentkatie

[ar-lath-ma-cully]

and it slips through loose fingers Chapters: 32/? WC: 98.9k Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition Rating: Explicit Warnings: major character death, explicit depictions of violence and death Relationships: Cullen x OC, Solavellan, Blackwall x OC, OC x OC Additional Tags: character death, long fic, slow burn, characters start out young and age throughout the story, eventual romance, PTSD, trauma, hurt/comfort, growing up, Modern Girl in Thedas, canon divergence, recreational drug use, friends with benefits, *work in progress* Summary:

"Amaryllis wondered — not for the first time, nor the last — why misfortune seemed to follow her everywhere she went."

Amaryllis is nine years old when she dies and wakes in a forest naked, afraid, and alone.

DAFF Tag List: @rakshadow, @rosella-writes, @effelants, @bluewren, @breninarthur,

@ar-lath-ma-cully, @dreadfutures, @ir0n-angel, @inquisimer, @crackinglamb,

@theluckywizard, @oxygenforthewicked, @exalted-dawn-drabbles, @melisusthewee, @blarrghe,

@agentkatie, @delicatefade, @leggywillow, @about2dance, @plisuu

[fan-girl400]

first line meme (published fics edition)

Thanks for the tag, @daphnejane

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 published stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!

1. Canon: We need to meet. (Council Of Colins )

2. It was an exceptionally hot June. (Engagement )

3. Fifty-five. (Whatever Will Be )

4. “You’ve sworn off women then?” Her stomach clenched as she asked the question. (Hope )

5. Fatigue seeped into Colin’s bones as he climbed the stairs and strode down the long hallway of the quaint building in Avery Row. (It's Valentine's Day )

6. Penelope clutched the shoulder strap of her overnight bag as she waited for the front door of her friend's house to open. (New Years Eve )

7. It had been a very long two days of traveling for Colin. (125)

8. Colin B: So I hear that my sister has abandoned you? (This Is Our Place We Make The Rules)

9. Penelope caught a glimpse of Tom Cruise's face on the screen and with a cheeky grin asked "Is it too cheesy to say take me to bed or lose me forever?" (Take Me To Bed)

10. Daff: @Kate you and Pen got papped at my show! Check out the article in Vogue. (His Gift)

11. It had been two days and yet those cursed words still reverberated around her head. (Falling into Place)

12. Penelope moved around the kitchen in her usual morning routine, as she reached up into the cupboard to grab a mug she froze as his arm reached over her to easily retrieve it for her. (Dreaming of you)

13. “I don’t understand why you volunteered us to set up Colin? I don’t even think I’ll be playing, you’re all so competitive when it comes to this game” (Pall Mall)

14. It was mid July and the Bridgerton tribe and selected family friends had gathered at Aubry Hall for a short stay in the country.  (Hide and Seek)

15. What a week this has been. (My Dear Sister)

16. Elizabeth breathed an audible sigh of relief as the carriage rolled away from Longbourn. (Penny For Your Thoughts, My Dear)

17. Elizabeth Darcy couldn't sleep. (Insomnia)

18. The marriage of Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley to a Miss Elizabeth Bennet from Hertfordshire had caused quite a stir amongst fashionable society. (Sleeping Arrangements)

Favorite: number 9 because I love a cheesy line

Trend: texts or messages as an opening line

@vilindeer

[blarrghe]

Haven't really been on Tumblr, haven't been promoting my stuff. Oops. Anyway, Whumptober.

The Purge of Wycome

M | Graphic Depictions of Violence | M/M | Canon-ish | ch. 5/? (Not more than ten on god) | 9,817

Summary: Taren Lavellan has been captured. The Inquisition searches for him in vain as Venatori cultists attempt to extract the secrets of the breach, rather painfully, from his marked hand.

Ch. 5 Snippet:

The Venatori fell easily. Too easily. Dorian wanted a fight. Toe to toe, round after round, firing everything he had against their demons and mages and the worst of their red lyrium-addled warriors. Instead he had The Iron Bull and Vivienne de Fer shattering warriors together like glass, Sera and Varric firing explosive shots to take out crowds of shades, Cole slipping through the lines with his daggers, and Cassandra, Blackwall, and the Commander all swiftly sweeping through the rest. Solas put up a barrier, and Dorian penned in what was left in the tunnel before them with a wall of flames. 

Finally, the twisting tunnels came to a dead end. Dorian stopped a ranting villain with a grotesque projection of red lyrium stuck through his chest from giving his sermon with a bout of walking-bomb. He only kept the barrier up to keep the gore at bay. 

The entire operation was reduced to ash in less time than it took to fix his hair in the mornings. 

Too quickly. He could have done that all day. 

But then they found him, and Dorian could do nothing

[theluckywizard]

In the Shattering of Things, Ch. 81: Carver

Cullen x Trevelyan | Hawke x Trevelyan | DAI | Epic | Multiship | Slow burn | Fast burn | Complications While Saving the World

Chapter Summary: Everything goes to shit at the ritual tower

Fic Summary: Lady Rose Trevelyan's idle, aristocratic life blinks out in a haze of irrelevance when the breach destroys the Conclave. She may be soft and coddled when she joins the Inquisition, but there's a fierceness inside her she's yet to fully recognize. Armed with only a few relevant skills and the mark that makes her a legend, she is thrust onto a path delivering hope where it’s long been scorched away and finds comfort in the grumpy, handsome stick in the mud charged with her protection and training. As she stumbles her way across southern Thedas, she begins to realize she's tangled at the center of machinations she barely understands, and she's not alone in that. Enter Hawke.

Excerpt below the cut 👇

A pair of pale blue eyes rages at me. “Who the fuck are you?” 

I yank at his shackles in search of the lock with one hand and fumble for my picks with the other, shoving my tensioner into my mouth. We both flinch against a block of stone sailing over us.

“Someone—” I pluck the pick from my lips, slip it into the lock and grunt a response. “Someone trying to save your arse.”

Under normal circumstances, lockpicking is second nature, but with flame and rock and arrow suffusing the air around us, with my blood slickened left hand, I can’t seem to crack it.

“Maker’s sakes. You’re as bad as my brother,” he moans, rolling up to watch.

“Get down!” I cry, chunks of crumbling ruin hurtling toward us. With a clanking jerk, Carver tugs me flat against him. Erimond picks himself up from where I’d sent him scuttling with the anchor, his eyes flashing that same terrifying violet, summoning more objects into the air.

“Oh shit,” I breathe, scrabbling for my picks against the stone floor.

“Your hand— it’s— Maker your her, aren’t you?”

“A pleasure to meet you too,” I say through gritted teeth, prying at the tumblers in his right shackle. 

In a swift jerk, Carver rolls me to the left out of the path of a stream of flame. I tumble out of his hold, panicking as Erimond charges another spell. “Enough with the bloody lockpicks, woman. Kick me that sword.”

I catch my foot on the guard of longsword and drag it to him, fishing with a free hand for the first grenade I can find. Antivan fire sloshes in its glass ampule. As Carver Hawke finds his feet, I lob it at Erimond, the sticky fluid splattering all over and burning in a perfect orb around the man’s barrier. 

“Fuck!” I cry, pulling my bow off my back and scooting on my arse out of the onslaught. Erimond sends another levitated chunk of ritual tower hurtling toward Carver, knocking him back against the very block meant for his blood. He recovers, gripping the sword in a hand still bound to the other, throwing off a staggering Venatori archer with a potent elbow. He catches another in the chains that hold him and wrenches their head sideways with a disgusting pop.

Read the rest here | Start the fic here

DAFF Tag List

@about2dance | @ar-lath-ma-cully | @blarrghe | @bluewren | @breninarthur

@crackinglamb | @delicatefade | @dreadfutures | @effelants | @exalted-dawn-drabbles 

@hekaerges | @inquisimer | @ir0n-angel | @leggywillow 

@oxygenforthewicked | @plisuu | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @warpedlegacy

[theluckywizard]

Kiss Me Moonstruck, Ch. 13: Like a Couple Adolescents

Hawke x Trevelyan | Dragon Age 2 | Matchmaking Mischief | Fluff and Smut | Fish out of Water | Romantic Comedy

Gif by LavellanLin

Chapter Summary:

Rose and Garrett contend with the ramifications of their decisions. And face their mothers.

Fic Summary:

Smashed together in a matchmaking scheme cooked up by their enterprising mothers, Garrett Hawke and Rose Trevelyan are forced to endure one another for a whole week over Satinalia at the Hawke Estate. Rose hears he’s a swashbuckling treasure hunter, as wild as he is handsome and as ill-bred as he is rich. Garrett suspects she’s a brat of an ingenue by the string of rejected marriage proposals behind her. Determined to prove to the other that they could not be less compatible, they quickly find their mothers’ plot might be working better than they thought.

Excerpt under the cut 👇

“There you are!” says Alsatia, peering into the kitchen with a dubious look and then slipping inside. Rose had preceded her by approximately thirty seconds and made herself look long-settled in Garrett’s chair beside a sturdy morning fire. The busted portion of her bodice is poorly concealed, but she distracts from it, fidgeting with the end of her braid over the armrest. Her mother scans her through narrowed eyes.

“Whatever are you doing back here? And what’s happening with your hair?”

Rose fights a reflexive blush and glances at the wreck of a braid Garrett made. “Well she did say to make myself at home.”

“And the same dress two days in a row?”

“I hardly think he’d notice,” Rose rejoins, pretending to absorb herself in Garrett’s book. “You’ve seen him.” Her mother perches tenuously on the spindly stool at the chopping block and surveys the space like it might accost her.

“Still.” She lowers her voice. “It makes us look shabby.”

“Nonsense,” says Rose. When Alsatia raises an eyebrow, Rose grumbles and huffs. “I’ll change before breakfast.”

Alsatia folds her hands at the counter, unable to get comfortable in a space that reminds her too much of her own humble roots. Rose braces herself for her mother’s next complaint. 

“I'd like to see you make a greater effort.” 

Remembering the sounds he’d made not ten minutes prior, Rose nearly breaks composure. She gathers her wits for a proper response.

“After yesterday, I assumed you had transferred your designs to Sebastian Vael,” Rose retorts. Alsatia sniffs. 

“I cannot pretend he isn’t a superior prospect but—”

“Superior! His entire family was slaughtered by still-unknown factions,” says Rose. “Are you really willing to risk me for a little more Trevelyan clout?”

“I—” Alsatia purses her lips, her look flattening. “Truthfully, I would settle for either. You need security and status. And since your disinterest in entering the Chantry holds fast…”

“I’m sure it has a reciprocal disinterest in me,” scoffs Rose.

“Then I fail to understand your recalcitrance. I’d have been content to see you settled with any of the fine men who offered for you in the past five years. ” Alsatia glances behind her and speaks in a pointed hush. “Perhaps if you employed your feminine arts—”

“My feminine arts!” Rose protests, having applied them furiously over the last eight hours. Alsatia shushes her in alarm. “I can’t even begin to pretend to know what you mean.” Read the rest here | Start the fic here

DAFF Tag List

@ar-lath-ma-cully

@blarrghe

@bluewren

@breninarthur

@crackinglamb

@delicatefade

@dreadfutures

@effelants

@hekaerges

@inquisimer

@ir0n-angel

@leggywillow

@melisusthewee

@oxygenforthewicked

@plisuu

@rakshadow

@rosella-writes

@queenaeducan-writes

@warpedlegacywrites

[theluckywizard]

In the Shattering of Things, Ch. 75: Perseverance

Chapter Summary: Rose sets out to convince Cullen to stay with the Inquisition.

Fic Summary:

Lady Rose Trevelyan's idle, aristocratic life blinks out in a haze of irrelevance when the breach destroys the Conclave. She may be soft and coddled when she joins the Inquisition, but there's a fierceness inside her she's yet to fully recognize. Armed with only a few relevant skills and the mark that makes her a legend, she is thrust onto a path delivering hope where it’s long been scorched away and finds comfort in the grumpy, handsome stick in the mud charged with her protection and training. As she stumbles her way across southern Thedas, she begins to realize she's tangled at the center of machinations she barely understands, and she's not alone in that. Enter Hawke. Excerpt below the cut 👇

Scout Liska stands outside the door to Cullen’s office, bouncing one hand against the other as she watches me approach, whipped by the winds that funnel through the keep.

“Inquisitor—” she says, shaking her head.

“Scout?” I inquire.

“He’s— not in the best mood.”

“I imagine not,” I say, and then push inside past her feeble protest.

Shit. 

Maybe I should have listened. 

Cullen’s office is a wreck— his desk cleared, a chair tipped over, shards of green glass dispersed in a violent spray across the floor. There’s some kind of small wooden box cracked apart by the door, its contents scattered amongst strewn paperwork. I recognize the carving of Andraste on the inside and then the soft blue luminescence of lyrium splattered on the stone tile beside it. The whole place reeks of it, cloying like summer sorbet yet unpleasant and overwhelming.

Against the wall behind his desk, Cullen sits with his knees drawn up in front of him on the floor and his head hanging into his lap. It’s a sharp reminder of that late spring morning when he’d retreated from me, folded up tightly so the horrors of his past and any comfort couldn’t get to him. I can’t fully read his state as he is. He breathes forcefully through his nose, grasping fistfuls of his hair. Agitated yes. But angry? Aggressive? It’s hard to know given the state of his office. I can’t assume he’d want me to approach him, but I’m not backing away either. He needs someone.

“Cullen.” My voice cracks in my dry throat.

When he doesn’t answer, I kneel to wipe up the spilled lyrium with my handkerchief, knowing how the stink of it must haunt him at the moment. I’d thought he’d given it up, but perhaps they’re for emergencies. Hoping to clear the air of it, I toss the stinking rag out the southern door. Then I pick up the pieces of what I assume is his kit, a miscellany of foreign looking tools and a few small intact philters. I walk the box to his desk and then quietly start picking up papers, the right words and the wrong words tangling into an impossible knot in my mind.

I tip the chair upright and shake out the sheepskin to tuck into it, remembering how he’d procured it for me at one point. And then I attend to his journals, their pages curled awkwardly against the floor and stack them neatly on the corner of his desk. Next are the shards of glass, an empty bottle of wine, I suspect. 

“You once asked me what happened at Ferelden’s circle,” he rasps.

I set a piece of glass down on the pile I’ve been making and nod into it. While I’m tempted to look his way, he almost certainly doesn’t want to be seen.

Read the rest here

Start the fic here

DAFF Tag List

@warpedlegacy | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @effelants | @bluewren

@breninarthur | @ar-lath-ma-cully | @dreadfutures | @plisuu |

@ir0n-angel | @inquisimer | @crackinglamb | @nirikeehan | @oxygenforthewicked |

@about2dance | @exalted-dawn-drabbles | @blarrghe | @delicatefade | @leggywillow