#i mean wardens literally carry around the names of other wardens who have died in like lockets and shit

[iamthescalesofjustice]

yknow what...anders was so fucking concerned the wardens would hunt him down for deserting but like. anders. have you fucking met the grey wardens? 100% some folks out in weisshaupt got a report that you had fucked off, had a good laugh, and updated their ledgers to read ‘warden anders between posts at own discretion’ and when you turned up in kirkwall some warden clerk just marked you down as ‘liaison to kirkwall’ and that was the end of it bc being a warden is for life

[thedinanshiral]

Dragon Age 4 Short Stories

To celebrate Dragon Age Day 2020 with us, BioWare surprised everyone with a new version of the Dragon Age site and 4 short stories and illustrations. These short stories are heavily related to some chapters in Tevinter Nights.

The Next One

Tells us of Grey Warden Lwrence who’s already in the Deep Roads for the Calling, and despite his condition continues to fight, even as he could be about to die, when he hears someone in danger he goes to the rescue and this catches the attention of a spirit of Perseverance. The spirit takes possession of the body just long enough to save a dwarven girl and a sort of promise is made, that in return she saves the next person who may need it. The Grey Warden dies, Perseverance returns to the Fade, and the dwarven girl , Evka, becomes the Grey Warden from Tevinter Nights’ “Hunger”.

Ruins of Reality

Strife, whom we previously read about in Tevinter Nights’ “Three trees to midnight”, is in the Arlathan Forest, witnessing some sort of anomaly that defies his perception of time and space, and possibly of himself, as he tries to find his way in a maze where he can watch himself from moments ago heading into the same trouble he just barely got alive from. Holding a magical journal, a relic of Clan Morlyn that writes its own entries, trying to follow directions to find a powerful artifact, he finally reaches a point of reference, a Ghilan’nain statue holding a crystal halla figurine. Irelin shows up and both realise what they’ve been experiencing is very old magic, ancient. The shapeshifter turns into an eagle and takes the figurine while Strife has no option but to play bait to dangerous sylvans, and once the figurine is gone the forest suddenly, eerily,  returns to normal. 

The Wake

In this story we meet again some of the many Crows Tevinter Nights introduced. Viago and Teia from Eight Little Talons (previously from the comic Deception), and Illario from The Wigmaker Job. The latter is drunk and the other two are trying to get him away safely. Someone important, someone dear appears to have died and they were just at the wake. Illario laments the death of his cousin Lucanis, and drunkenly reminisces and tells anecdotes until his fellow Crows put him to bed. 

Minrathous Shadows

At an unidentified establishment, a magister lady is playing cards when a man sits at the table. The magister identifies him as a Templar based on his appearance and he joins the game, taunting the magister on her low bet as the dealer hands the cards. The Templar is named Tarquin, and he rises the stakes with a ledger that he implies contains information implicating this magister to the Venatori. She denies it, of course, and carries on with the game. Tarquin doesn’t have a winning hand -he wasn’t really there to play cards- so when the magister wins the hand, she tries to teach him not to threaten her. Magic begins to gather at her fist but is suddenly countered, nullified, and then she notices the dealer; shocked, she seems to identify them as “the Viper”, and claims they’re supposed to be “just a tale”. When Tarquin is about to leave the magister asks him who are they, what do they want, is it gold? Is it power? The Templar tells her they are the Tevinter they forgot. What could they want then? From behind the magister, the dealer put up his hood. “Everything.”

While the first three short stories call back to Tevinter Nights in both location and characters, Minrathous Shadows, with Tarquin and the Viper -and whatever tale is spun around that name- are new elements, and i’ll get to that soon.

As these are very short stories i’ll try a quick anaylisis.

The Next One: serves as a sort of “origin story” to Warden Evka, and also illustrates how spirits can work. Spirits are drawn, not only to where the Veil is thin or where there’s blood and violence and negative emotions and desires, but also to good intentions, hopes and values. Perseverance lends its force to Warden Lawrence when he, fatally wounded, still wanted to fight to save one more life, and when that last and desperate goal is achieved, Perseverance leaves.

Ruins of Reality: The journal from Clan Morlyn sounds suspiciously similar to the Emergent Compendium, a tome that writes itself found at the Black Emporium in Act 3 of DA2. As described in the codex entry, it produces pictures and lines of gibberish, which are writen in a cypher; the last entry recorded is in reference to Fen’Harel.  So to have the elves Strife and Irelin searching through an enchanted Arlathan Forest for a powerful artifact using a journal that one day started writing its own entries, well, there’s got to be something there. Specially considering as well the illustration that accompanies this story, where Strife is seen wearing clothes with suspended metal golden triangles much like one of the concept art pieces (that i insist could very well be ancient Elves and/or temple guardians.. Arlathan Forest has to have a temple or two) 

The Wake: personally i loved Lucanis Dellamorte and refuse to believe he has died before we got to see him shine in 4K. He was the grandson of the First Talon, leader of the Antivan Crows, and he was most likely set to follow in her steps and become First Talon himself eventually, but that’s not a fate he desires and there’s no denying Grandma Dellamorte, so...he could have easily faked his death in order to escape that. And the reason Illario is so broken about it is because in order to make it safer and more believable, he wasn’t informed of the plan. And this is the theory i’m running with until and unless BW reveals something different. Viago and Teia are suspiciously unaffected by the loss of Lucanis and we could say maybe they didn’t know him enough to care, but i’m saying maybe they know he’s not really dead. 

Minrathous Shadows: Tarquin is a templar and we know Templars in Tevinter are little more than law enforcement, they lack the templar powers their counterparts from the South have, which would explain the contempt the magister woman has for him on sight. A Tevinter Templar is hardly a threat to the power of a Magister, that’s why in response to his threat she attempts to strike him with magic she knows he can’t fight back. But she’s stopped by this other new character. Someone who the magister points out should be “just a tale”. And i suspect this would make the Viper a Templar who can actually counter magic, something that by all means seems is not allowed to exist in Tevinter.  She was just accused of having ties with the Venatori, going against current Tevinter law, and maybe thinks she can get away with a bribe, but that won’t cut it. These new characters now claim to be “the Tevinter you forgot” and want “everything”.  There are easily more than one way to read into that. Can’t be the Venatori, they were all about returning to past Imperium glory which was lost, not forgotten. No, what we get in this story tastes more like a claim for justice, like what the Tevinter the Magister, the powerful and self-absorbed, have forgotten is everyone else. I think this Viper and Tarquin could be part of a rebellion that’s been brewing in Tevinter for quite some time. Maybe they work with the Lucernis, maybe they are part of the Lucernis themselves, or belong to a different faction, but seems they’re ready to take the Magisterium trash out. Another possibility is they are Siccaris, Tevinter spies, working for the goverment cleaning house, the mention of complicity with Venatori being considered treason by the government adds to this. Either way, colour me excited about these two. Last note here, while we have nothing on the Viper but the name, Tarquin’s name has appeared before in lore, in a codex entry from Inquisition titled “Shriek”, as an entry in the Blighted Codex, a collection of studies on Darkspawn kept in the Imperial Library at Minrathous and accessible only to the Magisterium. Tells the story of the son of a Magister named Tarquin who was the sole survivor of a darkspawn attack on his unit. He was shocked, speechless, having nightmares, eventually improving only to speak the word “Shriek” over and over again. There’s no indication of when this recorded darkspawn attack took place, could have been centuries ago. And really all we can get for sure from this is that Tarquin is a Tevinter name. 

That’s it for now, please correct me if there is something about the Viper somewhere, i’m really not finding anything (other than vipers being snakes and snakes being symbolically smaller dragons and both snakes and dragons being literally on the Tevinter flag)

[carabas]

So I’ve just finished reading the Dragon Age Tevinter Nights anthology, and short reaction: enjoyably hit and miss right up until that final extremely thorough direct hit, thank you Patrick Weekes.

Much, much longer version:

1. I don’t know how reasonable it is to try to extrapolate about what’s going to be in the next game based on a random short story collection, but hey, the novels that came out before DAI were about the mage rebellion, the Orlesian civil war, and eluvians, so.

So things I’m now expecting to see in the next game, aside from the Tevinter-Qunari conflict and Solas of course: Nevarran necromancy, Antivan Crows, Wardens who are struggling with decimated numbers after DAO and DAI (would be the perfect time for Razikale and Lusacan to both wake up at once really), and the Lords of Fortune, a never-before-mentioned Rivaini treasure hunting organization which appeared in I think three different stories here. 

Plus a few stories were very much signalling This Specific New Character Will Be Showing Up Again, whether in the games or elsewhere; I'll be shocked if Lucanis the “Demon,” reluctant heir apparent of the Antivan Crows who just got into a cliffhanger conflict with a Tevinter magister, doesn’t have more to do.

2. THERE IS A MAP, there is a great big fantasy map surrounded by nifty little illustrative details to poke at.

There’s a label reading “White Spire,” not in Val Royeaux, but on a mountain beyond the Arlathan Forest. Is that an error or is there really a White Spire mountain? If not an error, has it always been named that or is that new, possibly a new center for the mages after the war, after the original Spire fell? At no point is either Spire mentioned in this book aside from this map.

Lots of astrological sun and moon patterns prominently featured around the edges. Is that one moon chart depicting moon phases or an eclipse? Is it too conspiracy theory of me to be counting the nine dark moons (or spheres? like in that DA4 idol illustration’s seven slots?) on the dragon’s wing? Probably. Or are those spheres a reference to the second moon that never seems to actually be visible, is that missing moon actually deliberate. 

Most of the astrological charts are fairly straightforwardly showing sun/moon phases but what is the crowned figure in the one on the lower right meant to represent? The Maker? What’s going on with the horizontal lines passing through it/behind it? The two moons beneath it - is that an illustration of the moon in two phases or being separated into two (metaphorical moon in that case, presumably), do those horizontal lines also indicate separation, do I need to move on from the astrological depictions here, definitely.

Love the big horseshoe crab sea monster.

3. Patrick Weekes’s first story in the collection: halla shapeshifting! An elf named Strife who I fully expected to be revealed as an agent of Fen’harel mimicking ancient elven names like Sorrow and Pride, though I was wrong - would it be charming or just annoyingly unsubtle if that became a thing among his agents. An ancient forest guardian with lyrium blades who hunts magic in a way that struck me an awful lot like a forest-themed equivalent of a golem, though I may be wildly off base with that one.

4. Nevarran necromancy story. An odd bit of the chant to highlight for a funeral: “And the Maker, clad in the majesty of the sky, set foot to earth, and at His touch all warring ceased.” I continue to squint suspiciously at overlaps between Maker and elven god imagery. Also, evidently mortalitasi believe that when someone dies, an inhuman spirit is pushed out from the Fade into the physical world, and that’s part of the reason behind their housing spirits in bodies - neat! The existence of Curiosity spirits, also neat!

5. Is Ghilan’nain’s horrible body horror place supposed to be spelled Hormak like in the title and previous canon references, or Hormok like throughout the text here? I know this was just a mistake but maybe I’ll use this to say that in-world there’s multiple ways of transliterating Dwarven.

6. Lukas Kristjanson story #1, the one featuring approximately a million minor Inquisition character cameos and a meditation on Solas’s regrets, introduces a character with the phrase “free mage by special commendation,” and I was briefly thrown by that little signal that we are Not In My Worldstate, that the mages aren’t all free by default - except then the story went on to destroy Solas’s fresco so I wound up quite grateful for that little heads up that this isn’t my worldstate actually.

(Unfortunately I can’t get into this guy’s writing style at all, which is a shame because it’s one of the big Solas stories in the book.)

7. There’s a little plot point in the Wigmaker Job story that demonstrates those elven artifacts Solas had us activate all over Thedas do indeed strengthen the Veil - like, he wasn’t lying to us about what those orbs do, that is how they work, here we see a Crow stab one in order to deactivate it, weaken the Veil and unleash a horde of vengeful demons. Nice confirmation.

8. Genitivi is the Randy Dowager. (Possibly. At least, Philliam wrote a scene in which Genitivi alludes to being the Randy Dowager. I do appreciate an unreliable narrator but after a certain point it does make the lore hard to keep straight.)

9. By the time we got to the story about adventurers stealing an incredibly powerful healing amulet just to donate it to a mysterious contact at a makeshift hospital trying to help people where the Qunari-Tevinter war has spilled over, I knew better than to expect any cameos from DAO/DA2 characters. And with the mention of the squire, I was pretty sure the mysterious contact was going to be Vaea, and it was. Still. Anders would approve. And for a moment I was fantasizing that it would turn out to be him, or connected to him. A new mental setting for him and Hawke post-mage-freedom - makeshift hospitals at the edge of the invasion, secretly sponsored by a certain pair of absurdly overpowered, dungeon-crawling, treasure-hunting fugitives.

Yes, my Dragon Age interpreting is still all about Anders even when he’s not remotely present.

10. You know, I really expected the leaders of the Crows to be a bit more ruthlessly competent than this. Someone is setting up a grand demonstration, recreating infamous historical assassinations carried out by the Crows but now with the leaders of the Crows themselves as the victims, incredibly flashy, incredibly clearly sending a message, and yet not one of the characters trying to figure out whodunit is speculating about the meaning behind that message??? the motive in going to all that trouble??? it’s all, hm, perhaps it’s the qunari invaders. hm, this one was posed with a pearl necklace just like the one in the historical murder it’s recreating, i bet the culprit owns a pearl-fishing business! I know they’re assassins not detectives but at least show the professional courtesy of paying attention to the message in the show your fellow assassin is putting on for you, geez.

Anyway. Interesting Crow details: they talked about neutral ground and territories divided between the Crow households here, does that just apply to Antiva or like, does Arainai have claim to all jobs in Ferelden? 

And the line “Teia's back was bare except for a tattoo marking her as a member of House Cantori” puts Zevran’s tattoos in a slightly different light for me - he’s mentioned that some symbols are sacred to the Crows, and logically it follows that having that symbol tattooed on him would indeed mark him as a Crow to other people in the know, but that his tattoos mark him as belonging to House Arainai is a thing that did not hit me from that.

11. An agent of Fen’harel muttering “Felassan” to activate a rune. In memoriam? Charming. I mean it’s a rune that’s intended to kill an entire city, so possibly the more literal slow arrow is meant, but I’m still charmed.

12. PATRICK WEEKES CLOSING OUT THE BOOK BY JUST DUMPING THE CONTINUING DREAD WOLF HUNT PLOT ON US. 

So much. 

An actual giant wolf in the Fade, I’m so happy for tumblr user corseque. 

A character again raising the possibility that Solas is not an ancient elf but rather a young elf who stumbled onto old magic, a theory I thought debunked by Trespasser but here we are considering it again. 

A minor side note that a lot of Kirkwall’s templars went rogue after the explosion - that’s not relevant to the post-DAI plot really, I’m just noting it for my generally-DA2-focused fanfic purposes. 

The possibility that somniari (presumably) can kill even dwarves who don’t dream in their sleep. Somniari in general or did Solas personally step in here?

A ritual involving the red lyrium idol resulting in the phrase “As if we were the blood and the cavern the body through which it flowed” right before the POV character enters the Fade, which is a rather Titan-esque turn of phrase. 

The Dread Wolf again asserting that all creation is in danger and he’s trying to fix that. A biased POV character recognizing that, huh, funny how those spirits around the Dread Wolf which surely must be demons actually look an awful lot like Justice and Valor. 

And Charter’s notes at the end, so direct, not only spelling out the new details on the idol for us (that the figure represents a crowned figure comforting another) but thoroughly hitting us over the head with Solas’s essential characterization in his own words, as if Weekes is still trying to clear up any possible lingering misinterpretations there. (Prideful, hotheaded, foolish. Doing what he must. Sympathetic to elves. Said that he was sorry.)

And the quiet simplicity of Solas coming to this meeting of spies in person because, pause, “...the Inquisition was involved,” written in such a way that you could read all sorts of things into that pause, whatever the Inquisition and the Inquisitor might mean to him.

The book would have been worth reading for this last story alone, what a note to end on.

[wetalkinboutbooks]

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

Summary:  Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both. (Taken from Goodreads)

Our Ratings:  

 → Geena:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 → Kae: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  

Overall: Sabaa Tahir manages to avoid the second book curse with A Torch Against the Night, she picks up where she left off in An Ember in the Ashes (our review). Laia and Elias have escaped Blackcliff, Helene and the rest of the Masks are after them, and Darrin has yet to be saved. Everything that could go wrong DOES go wrong, but then at the same time, we get some wholesome moments in this book and overall we LOVED IT!!!

~ Spoiler-full review below

The Good:

→ Laia

Kae: Laia. Our sweet little angel. She can never do anything wrong ever in life. We love her and we stan. She has broken Elias out of Blackcliff and now they’re on the run! It’s a hot ass mess. She and Elias escape through some catacombs or whatever, and they end up at an old Veturius warehouse where Keris, Elias’ evil ass mother is waiting for them. They battle it out! CLASH SLASH SLASH! Swords and scims are SWANGIN. They knock Keris out, tie her up, and get away. But… Keris done got a little slice in and cut Elias. Now he’s sick, seizing, and passed TF OUT. So while he and Laia are on this journey, taking care of him the whole way through. Things are getting worse and Elias is getting WORSE. So she takes a risk and goes to a sketchy town to find meds for him. The destination to find safety and also rescue her brother, Darrin is going to take a long longer than she anticipated. 

Geena: Kae got the start of the book really well, and like she mentioned we find out the Keris managed to cut Elias with a throwing star (lmao I THINK) which was poisoned. But Elias doesn't let Laia know that he’s been poisoned by a chemical that has no cure and that he’ll just end up slowly and painfully dying 😭 LAIA THO? She thinks of everything she can to help him, like going into a shady town full of mercenaries and killers to find him an antidote that she thinks might work. Does that backfire? Yes. But did she try her best? HELL YES. Laia makes a lot of mistakes in this book, but rather than wallowing in some sort of self-pity she takes shit into her own hands and learns from her screw-ups and I really loved how Sabaa handled her. A lot of people drag Laia down and compare her to Helene, and I think I mentioned this in our last review too that those comparisons aren’t right because: 

Helene is a trained soldier, and she got white feminists antics so please…

Laia literally has had no training but she (with Elias) manage to outsmart Helene and other Masks so like…..

Anyways, I love Laia and I’ll fight ANYONE who talks shit about her. Scratch that, Elias will manifest and beat the shit out of anyone that talks shit about Laia. Like even when she was hanging out with Keenan, Elias was like ‘If it weren’t for my love for Laia I would have murdered your ass’ just because he suspected Keenan of being a snake (and he was right…). But yea, in Book 2 Laia takes command of what happens and starts formulating her own plans along with help from her companions, and she doesn’t let any backfired plans stop her (even when Izzy died 😩). When Elias is captured and imprisoned she plans to break out both him and her brother, and through quick thinking, she and Elias are able to devise a plan which obviously goes to shit but still ends up working out... So Laia haters… how my ass taste?  

→ Ilyaas and the Tribes 

Kae: Geena summed up Laia perfectly! So now we’re going to talk about Ilyaas and the tribes. Elias, as we all know, was abandoned by his mother when he was a baby. She left him in the desert for the tribes people to find instead of just killing him, which she deeply regrets. SO!! Elias is not his birth name. His birth name is Ilyaas, which is the name given to him by the tribes people. They are who Elias considers to be his real family. He has siblings, a mother (Mamie Rila), friends, and more, who he grew up with before he was taken to go to Black Cliff. Here is where Ilyaas feels the most comfortable with himself and his surroundings. He feels his safest when he is with the tribes. He had kept in contact with them his whole life and continued to do so even after being on the run which is why they ended up back with the tribes. They took him in and consider him family and when they met Laia, they instantly loved her. Especially Mamie Rila, who thought she had “GOOD BIRTHING HIPS” LMAOOO SHE WILD FOR THAT ONE. Anyway, when Elias and Laia show up as fugitives, they know they have to hide them. So Mamie Rila and family keep them hidden. When the Martial’s come riding the camp and looking for them, they figure out a distraction. Mamie Rila calls a big meeting during a special ceremony in which she gives a speech. During the speech, she riles everyone up and shit talks to Martials and what they did to Elias and how they are ruining society. This gives the tribal people the motivation to cause a big enough riot for Elias and Laia to book it! Elias runs into Helene during their escape and they meet for the first time in weeks, possibly months. Helene is stunned, but Elias tells her he is sorry and he misses her. After a good fight, Elias gets the best of Helene. She ends up letting them get away. 

Geena: Kae really hit all the points! I really liked how Sabaa mentioned that Elias’ (Martial) grandpa changed his name from the given Ilyaas and anglicized it for Martial society (shoutout to Colonialism ha ha). But Ilyaas and his connection with his family is one of the things that sets him apart from other YA protagonists I’ve noticed, he’s genuinely a good person and it’s because he was raised in such a loving and caring environment and my hort 🥺 In this book he stays on the same trend of always getting into shit bc he’s a good guy, he’s vowed to help Laia break out Darrin but then shit goes down… The poison killing him sends him to the Waiting Place (essentially a purgatory) where he meets the Soul Catcher (Shaeva) who helps him come to terms with the fact he’s dying. Through Ilyaas we also learn about what lead to the creation of the Nightbringer (how the Shaeva helped some Scholars essentially destroy a thriving Jinn community r.i.p.). This is spread throughout the book and really enhances Sabaa’s worldbuilding and we loved it! Also, we can’t forget the rawest lines throughout the whole series which was said in this book:

 “You are my temple. You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release.” 

LIKE HELLO?????????????????????????????????????? When Elias realized he only had a month left to live and that he’d move faster without the tribal folk, he leaves Laia and whispers that to her while she’s asleep and SHE DOESN’T EVEN HEAR IT BRO?? Anyways, Elias leaves to bust Darrin out himself but things happen and he ends up imprisoned,  but still manages to get to Darrin and finds out that KEENAN’S BITCHASS ISN’T WHO HE SAYS HE IS. 

Kae: Also when Elias breaks into the prison he’s almost immediately caught by the Warden who experiments on the prisoners. These prisoners are mostly the scholars. So the Warden recognizes Elias from when he has to patrol the prison when he was younger. When the Warden recognizes Elias, he puts him in prison and it begins to torture him. But Elias ain’t no bitch so he handles that shit like a MAN!!! Whenever the Warden is done with Elias he sends in a little Scholar boy to clean him up. The boy continues to clean Elias up and be nice to him and Elias is like “I love this child as if he were my own. I will kill ANYONE who does him HARM and there will be MURDER.” And so like, Elias is a softie and once again, genuinely a good person that is out in bad situations. 

Geena: Elias engaged dad mode in the middle of a torture chamber, imagine what’ll happen if he and Laia ever have children…. 

Kae: Need me a man like Elias ngl asdfghjkl. BUT LIKE. HE’S LIKE “my new son… what is your name?” And the little boy is like “Puhpa.. I have no name*insert sad eyes here*” So Elias names him Tas.  Tas helps him break out of prison with Darrin. But Elias dies as they’re escaping and he goes to the Waiting Place and he makes a deal with Shaeva to take her place so she can move on to the next life, then BOOM. He’s alive again and wakes back up in the prison. 

Tas: Yo wtf wake yo big ass up. I, a six year old, have been carrying you. 

Elias: LMAOOO my bad I was dead. Let’s roll. 

And so they escape with Darrin and Laia and the rest of the Scholars. And Kauf burns down. 

The Bad:

→ Keris

Geena: Keris may not be a good person or a good mother but at least…………………………… I was trying to think of something good to say about her but this bitch really is all trash. Like she finds some sort of sick joy in killing her own son. Like, why let him live after you gave birth to him only to turn around and torture him. Anyways, we find out some interesting tidbits about how she’s in cahoots with the Nightbringer, who seems to be controlling everything she does. And we also find out that she’s planning a coup against Markus, who is the new and shitty emperor, but because the support behind him is weak Keris is like ‘This will be no biggie’. She finds some sort of sick joy in killing scholars, she wakes up and is like “I eat genocide for breakfast,” and I’m like *monkey side eye* bc who in the fuck... Like I don’t know what she was fed growing up but the concentration of hate and bitterness in this woman is too much… we also find out she had Helene’s torturer, Avitas Harper, spying on Helene throughout the whole book. Keris doesn’t just have eyes in the back of her head, she got eyes on every living surface. 

→ Harper

Kae: Harper! I didn’t like him when he was first introduced. I didn’t like the fact that he was beating the shit out of Helene even though I wasn’t exactly a fan of her either but I understood that she had to do what she had to do so she wasn’t a number one on my enemy list just yet. But I hated having to read Harper whoop her ass. I mean, Harper didn’t LIKE doing it. But ya kno… Keris made him do it. Harper started off as a spy for Keris. He was assigned to basically be Helene’s second, so he was to aid her in whatever mission she was sent on , while also reporting everything she did back to Keris. LITTLE DID WE KNOW THO!!! THAT OUR BOY AVITAS HARPER DIDNT FUCK WITH KERIS. He had his own personal motives that we don’t discover in this book. So after awhile he was like “....nah I’m done with that.” So he becomes loyal to Helene. He shows mild displays of not wanting to kill anyone that doesn’t need to be killed (the tribes after they helped Elias escape). He also goes out of his way to make sure Helene eats and gets sleep and has fresh clothes. I think little things like that is how he tries to show his loyalty. He also knows that Helene has a soft spot for Elias and that she doesn’t really want to hurt him. We learned that he has a soft heart and is a pretty cool dude. He really just wants to help Helene in any way that he can. He worries for her. 

Geena: Harper has always been a shady character for me, like I didn’t expect Sabaa to turn Helene’s torturer into her love interest… WHEN I TELL U I SCREAMED at all their moments I was LIKE WAT IS THIS but I sat back because I was like imma trust Sabaa. But it was interesting to read Harper be like “Yea, I’m a snake and?” and Helene just accepting it like “This is my life I guess”. But Harper wanting to emulate Elias and being like “Maybe I too will attempt to be a good human being now”... a very interesting development… Also, Im curious to see how Harper (and by extension, Helene’s) stories end… will Sabaa give the soldiers of the state a happy ending… DO they deserve a happy ending 🤔 Will they make up for their war crimes in the series finale? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z.

Kae: ALSO THO. WHEN HELENE TELLS HARPER HE’S A SNAKE, HARPER IS LIKE “Yeah and Snakes survive soooo…”

→ Markus

Kae: So now we have skankass Markus. Markus used to have a twin brother named Zacharias. Markus killed  Zacharias in the first book during the trials and now his twin brother haunts him and whispers in his ear. People claim that Markus talks to himself when it’s really him trying to get his brother out of his head. After the trials, Markus became Emperor. He is a tyrant and is killing whoever gets in his way. Markus is doing everything in his power to stay relevant because he is a very unliked by literally everyone in this society. He is a Plebeian and that is one of the lower ranking caste in this world. The Martials don’t like that someone of a lower rank is in charge of all of them so they want him off of the throne.  He also has a lust/hate thing for Helene and tries to belittle and make her uncomfortable as much as possible. He also absolutely hates Elias and has ordered Helene to kill him. Markus ALSO arranged to marry Helene’s sister, Hannah.  Hannah is kind of a bitch so she’s down with the shits to get back at Helene. Why she hates Helene? I seriously don’t know.  In the end, Markus is like “So you didn’t kill Elias? *evil laughter*  Well, since I can’t kill YOU, Helene, I’ll kill your family” so he slices the neck of Helene‘s parents and his fiancé, Hannah. He leaves Livia (Livvy) alive and married her instead. Ngl, that part made me so sad I got tears in my eyes. That was so fucked up dude. That’s when I KNEW Sabaa didn’t fuck around. I’m convinced she wants no survivors in the end lmaopleasedontdothatSabaa. 

Geena: Oh yea like Markus is nasty as Kae outlined, he could’ve been Keris. But unlike Keris, Markus is a dispshit with no braincells (bc they died with his brother). He’s a disgusting human being who assaulted Laia back in book one and has been implied to have done that to other scholar slaves 🤢 AND LIKE …….. HELENE KNEW THIS……. AND SHE KNEW HER SISTER WAS TOO GOOD FOR HIM…. So, imagine her horror when her favourite sister is forced to marry him….. I guess he was “smart” for marrying her favourite sister and realizing that was the only way to control Helene to get her to do what he wanted. bUt das it.  

The Ugly:  

→ Keenan’s Fugly Ass. Bitchass. Manipulating ass. 

Geena: Do you know…. Do you know how much denial I was in??? All through book 1 and majority of book 2, I was like FUCK KEENAN but seeing how Laia was into him I was like *angry pingu meme* LIke FINE FINE, I’ll like him because Laia likes him and I just want him to be happy. SO, I ACCEPTED THAT KEENAN AND LAIA WAS THE IT COUPLE… And like did I skim over the part where they got nasty? Kinda. But i was like okay fine, Laia loves him and he’s helping her. But then the big reveal…. THIS MANS WAS PLAYING HER THE WHOLE TIME??? HE WAS NEVER KEENAN, THE SCHOLAR REBEL, THIS HOE WAS THE NIGHTBRINGER THE WHOLE TIME??????? He’d played Laia into developing feelings for him, JUST SO that he could take the armlet that he mother had given her. Which, we find out, is an important part of some weapon that the Nightbringer needs to bring about the apocalypse or some shit. And, he can only take the weapon if it’s given out of love. This implies he was in love with Laia too, but I’d fight that bitch like hOW DARE YOU????

Kae:  You skipped the nasty scene!? LMAOOO I WAS SHOOK BUT ALSO MAD BUT ALSO LIKE OKAY WHATEVER. I WAS A HARDCORE LAIA X ELIAS SHIPPER FROM THE START! But like, same. I was like “If Laia is happy with Keenan, then I’ll be happy too.” But maaaaann… 

Geena: I WANTED TO GIVE KEENAN BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT OKAY, AND LIKE SABAA really subverted my expectations because usually in YA only the true love interests end up getting nasty so I was like… I guess this is it! But she was like “SIKE!!! YOU THOUGHT!!!” Anyways, I still don’t think this series should be YA but whatever...

Kae: GORL I WAS SEETHING WITH HATRED!!!!!!! AT THAT REVEAL!! I WAS SO FUCKING MAD. I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!! I LITERALLY HATE HIM. Def shouldn’t be YA. But, here we areeee! 

Kae: I just wanted to say that I hate Keenan/ The Nightbringer with a BURNING PASSION. I hate when guys trick women into trusting them so that they can sleep with them and get what they want. That pisses me off to the highest degree I think it is a scumbag move and he is just a dirty little fucker and I can’t stand him. There is nothing that can  represent all of the hatred that I have for Keenan. I absolutely loathe him/The Nightbringer. I hope he suffers. 

Geena: Fuck dude, that’s so valid. 

Conclusion

Kae: In conclusion, the Nightbringer is a bitch and I HATE HIM. 

Geena: SAME! We hate the Nightbringer as much as we love Laia and Elias so there’s that. Sabaa really shows out with the characters she’s crafted from An Ember in the Ashes, takes a baseball bat, and starts beating the shit out of our emotions and her characters at the same time. ANYWAYS, please read this series!

[deafblindshorty]

OITNB 7x13: Here’s Where We Get Off

It is after midnight, and I am going to hate myself in the morning (well, later this morning), and the finale is an hour and a half long, but I can’t wait.

Aww, poor Dixon watching his friend’s corpse being carried out.

It’s still winter?!

I get the sense that Dixon blames Luschek for Penn’s death. And Penn’s ghost waving and walking off? (choked up) I don’t think we got that with any of the other characters who died (Tricia, Poussey...).

As usual, Alvarez has bad timing, passing around all those Judy King books.

JUDY MENTIONED THE THREESOME WITH LUSCHEK AND YOGA!! Karma, Luschek!

And Luschek was fired after admitting to being the phone smuggler. Man, this isn’t a good day for Luschek is it? LOL

Well, Piper’s a free woman now. Kind of in a weird relationship with Zelda but her relationship with her dad is improving. And he has made a few good points about Alex.

Dixon took Taystee to see Suzanne, who’s a bit more calm and chill now than she used to be. It’s refreshing.

Ward left the GED files on Taystee’s desk. Penn got her GED. There are no words.

I really hate the direction the writers went with Vauseman....

Yep, Taystee’s definitely back! Both Ps (Poussey and Pennsatucky) are smiling down on her!

They found drugs in the chicken and Linda fires Ward. Damn.

Cindy made a new friend!

Red has officially moved to Florida and full-on has dementia. She doesn’t remember Frieda, who is surprised and relieved Red doesn’t remember her!

Looks like Flores is free, too!

OMG It’s Chang! I wasn’t expecting to see her!

Is that Tasliz?

Suzanne’s building a memorial for Pennsatucky. ^_^

So Gloria’s being released after all! Yay!

Still no explanation as to how Cesar is out of prison.

And Daya dragged Eva into this drug war? Jeez...

I thought that conversation between Piper and Larry described Piper perfectly.

Cindy’s making some progress with her mom and daughter!

Hey! It’s Judy King in person! And Taystee wants to start a loan foundation in Poussey’s name!

Sigh...oh, Lorna. Still in denial.

OHSHIT! Red remembers! Frieda manages to get away.

Okay, seriously? Accidentally killing someone should not have turned someone this dark! Are you kidding me?

That fucking asshole! Leaving Karla ‘cause she’s injured!

“I never prepared them (the chickens) for life on the outside. Of course they turned to drugs.” LOL Oh, Suzanne...

Are you fucking kidding me right now? HELLMAN is the new warden?!

Alex is in Ohio with Boo, Anita, Yoga, Gina, and Norma. 

Hmm. Where’s Piper going?

Oh, Nicky’s literally taking over for Red! Is that Daya?

Oh, and we see the meth heads, Alison, and Janae! And Sankey and Soso!

Blanca and Diablo are reunited!

Red singing Lorna to sleep in Russian.

The Poussey Washington Fund launches!

Piper and Alex get back together! Yay! I’m so happy!

Everyone lives happily ever after!

Well,  this season was not what I expected. I wanted Taystee to be cleared of the murder charge, I wanted Daya to change back to the way she was, I wanted Piper to go through with writing her memoir, I wanted Cesar to die in prison, I wanted Red to reunite with her sons and grandsons, I wanted Healy to die a slow and lonely death, I wanted Suzanne to find out about Kukudio’s death, (and now for Boo to find out about Pennsatucky’s death) and I wanted Kubra to show up and it be revealed that he saw the video of Piscatella torturing the inmates and that Alex is very much alive, but I did not get any of that. 

But, I mean, it did end on a positive note, and it could have been worse. I’m fine with what we got.

[bae-roman]

I need the Nadia profile HC from you. Like her age, temperament, how she treats Roman and bunny, her powers etc

* Sorry this took SO long girly! I hope it was worth the wait! 

In the bunny x Roman AU, season 2 didn’t happen

Her temperament/ how she treats Roman and Bunny

I think that at some point, as Nadia got a bit older Roman became a more aware of what he was doing and more comfortable with being a father so once he stopped keeping her in a soundproofed box for a room, and started to actually act more like a father than a warden, him and Nadia became a lot closer.

Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t turn into super dad or anything like that, he still had nannies there 24/7 but he now did a lot more. The main thing was bedtime, he always tried to be home to put her to bed for the night.

So once those changes took place, Nadia became such a sweet little baby.  She was always so smiley and giggly and was SUCH a daddy’s girl.

Once she started walking, she would literally tail Roman around the house and clung to him whenever she could, it was adorable. The only time she really had tantrums were around bedtime or when Roman had to leave.

Anywayssss by the time she met Bunny, she was around 14 months. I won’t go into much detail about how they first met because I talk about that in another request I’m working on but Nadia really is such a charmer and Bunny loves babies, so it goes quite smoothly.  

Nadia bonds to Bunny pretty quickly and vice versa, and by the time they actually meet Roman is already sure of his feelings for her so it was only a matter of time until Bunny moved in.

So ok skip to Bunny living with them for a bit, and she is basically Nadia’s mother at this point. She loves her so much and Nadia completely recognizes her as a primary caregiver. She is still 100% a daddy’s girl though.

Also, Nadia is like… really smart. We’ve all seen the part in HG where she spelt her name in blocks so going along with that, I HC that by the time she’s 2, she is fully capable of reading books means for kids much older and there are have been a few occasions where either Bunny or Roman had absentmindedly been adding something up out loud and before they can total it, Nadia just yells out “7,238.”

Nadia has always been significantly more cognitively developed than other children her age but Roman had never been around babies so he genuinely had no idea. Then when Bunny first comes along she’s so shocked because “Roman… your baby is a genius” and in response he just shrugs and is like, “Godfrey genes” and she has to literally show him the developmental checklist of where most 2 year olds are at and where Nadia is at before he actually realizes that this isn’t normal.

So by the time Nadia is just a little older than 2 years old, she’s calling bunny mommy.

There is also totally a period where Nadia started to call her Bunny too because Roman rarely uses her real name anymore.

I feel like Bunny is also much more of a hands on parent. Like Roman has never changed a diaper, and though he has been trying to get better, and has had a drastic difference because Bunny kinda gave him shit once, she’s usually the one to give her bath time and feed her in the mornings before work, etc. They no longer have round the clock nannies anymore though, just the one to watch her while they are both away from the house. Once Bunny and/or Roman get home, the nanny leaves.

Nadia as a sibling

So when Roman and Bunny have their son, both Roman and Bunny are shocked that Bunny doesn’t return after her maternity leave. Nadia, of course, loves this though. At this point, they let the nanny go, it’s just Bunny and Roman and the kids.

Nadia absolutely adores her baby brother. She’s a little upset when he’s first born because she can’t play with him yet but when Bunny and Roman tell her that she can read to him? She’s THRILLED.

Nadia loves to read from a young age and adores being in the spotlight so the fact that she now has an audience to read to? Amazing.

Of course, there is a bit of jealousy that comes along with no longer being the only child, but Bunny always makes a point to involve Nadia in everything she does with the new baby and Nadia loves it.

She even likes to watch Bunny change his diaper and always asks if she can do it.

She is the typical bossy older sister. As he gets older, she likes to teach her brother how to do everything and is really just so so sweet and caring with him.

This applies to all her other siblings as well. The older she gets, the more responsibility she takes on with them, and not because Roman and Bunny expect her to at all. She loves to teach them anything new and playing their little games with them. 

Growing up

So later on when the she starts pre-school, she thrives. Roman has to do the eye-thing to the teacher because a few days in, she calls him and Bunny in because Nadia is like this wunderkind and the last thing Nadia needs is to be studied by experts. This becomes a yearly occurrence.

Nadia really thrives at school though, not even just academically but socially as well. She’s so friendly and loves that she gets to play with other kids her age for the first time so she quickly becomes quite the social butterfly.

This is a trait she carries with her throughout her life.

As Nadia gets older, she develops a strong interest in the arts. Bunny put her in Ballet as a young kid and it’s something she still enjoys as she gets older. She loves to paint and draw and actually becomes quite good at it. As the years go on, more and more of the Godfrey house becomes covered in her paintings. She also plays the flute, piano and violin.

Like everyone else, she has her rough stages. Things get especially touchy when she starts to ask about her birth mom.

Roman and Bunny struggled quite a bit about what to do when this question inevitably came up. Bunny told Roman it was really up to him how much he wanted to tell her and they both agreed that knowing the true cause of her birth would do no one any good. Letha was never kept a secret, there was a framed picture of her in Nadia’s room and it had never been a secret that Bunny wasn’t her biological mother. Nadia wasn’t one to hold back on asking something she wanted to know, so when she was around 12 she finally asked them about her birth mother. The story Roman chose to tell her was that he and Letha were cousins. When Letha got pregnant, she didn’t tell anyone who the father was. When she finally had Nadia, she loved her more than anything but died a few weeks later due to an illness completely unrelated to Nadia’s birth (they didn’t want to even risk a chance that Nadia would blame herself for Letha’s death). After Letha died, Roman took her in and raised her as his own.

Of course this was… distressing for Nadia to hear, but she had to know sooner or later. She would always struggle a bit with this topic but as she got older, knew that no matter what, Roman and Bunny were her parents. 

Roman being her biological father was something she would never find out.

Powers/skills

In terms of powers, since season 2/3 didn’t happen they didn’t know about her whole eyes will kill you thing that early on. It wasn’t until she was maybe 5 that they learned about it. The eye thing only made itself apparent when she was in serious danger. This hadn’t really happened until one day when a rabid raccoon managed to get into the yard while she and her brother were playing. It snuck up to them so quickly that Bunny didn’t even see it until after Nadia had already killed it. When Bunny ran over to check on the kids, she saw Nadia with a single stream of blood coming from her nose.

Later that night, Roman and Bunny questioned her about it but of course, she didn’t really know how to describe it. Just that “it was going to hurt me and baby brother so I made him stop with my head”

They took her to Pryce to run some tests and found out about her ability. The last thing they wanted was for a young child to be able to literally kill people with her mind so Roman had to end up doing his eye thing to her. He mesmerized her so that she would never do it unless she was in imminent danger and there was absolutely no other option.

So on top of that, she had an eidetic memory. She was cognitively advantaged and was able to easily pick up and excel at many skills, especially anything that had to do with like learning techniques.

She also had all the other upir powers like super strength after she fully transformed into and upir. She was never able to do the whole eye hypnotizing thing though.

Overall, Nadia was just a really happy, easy kid. She gave them false confidence in having more babies because she was just so perfect and then when her siblings came along, they were all such handfuls and Roman and Bunny were like wtf.

Roman would later confess to Bunny that he was SO relieved she turned out to be this wonderful happy kid because he was so terrified that the way he had handled her the first year of her life had ruined her.

[veotis-the-jewel-of-the-ocean]

☾♔; 31.07.2018

☾♔; Tasha

☾♔; @veotis-the-jewel-of-the-ocean

☾♔; @serveorburn

☾♔; mod(s): @livesinabluebox​ @sighsethereally​

▬ Set Requirement: Doesn’t matter, just make sure it has your faceclaim. Other than that, make whatever kind of thing you want! Square, rectangle, moodboard, magazine cover, whatever you want my nerds!

♛ Daenir Échon ♛

pronounced: Day-nir

♛ B A S I C⠀S T A T S ♛

▬ Full Name: Daenir Échon

▬ Nickname(s): Dae

▬ Title(s) and/or alias(es): The High Sorcerer

▬ Age: Roughly 27 summers give or take a few years

▬ Gender: Male     

▬ Species: Witch -  Isahor

▬ Occupation: Sorcerer of Veotis {currently} // Assassin/Witch Hunter {formally}

▬ Kingdom of Birth: Calia

▬ Kingdom of Residence: Veotis

♛ P H Y S I C A L⠀A P P E A R A N C E ♛  

▬ Face Claim: Matthew Daddario

▬ Hair: Black

▬ Eyes: Blue-Grey

▬ Height: 6 ft 1

▬ Body: Scared perfection

▬ Any Scars/ Marks?: Several scars over his body, the most prominent of those are the shiny silvery marks around his wrists

▬ Any Tattoos/ Piercings?:

- A black and white dragon entwined over his heart

- Black wings across his back

- Protective runes across his ribs

- An unknown symbol on his upper left thigh

- A magical brand on his neck given to him by his mother

▬ Other: Nothing for now

♛ P E R S O N A L I T Y ♛  

▬ Overview: Headstrong, stubborn and full of snarky wit and dry sarcasm, Daenir prefers to push people away to keep them from getting underneath the shields he has perfected over the years. Whilst generally he looks out for himself and acts like he’s been put out when people gather for his attention, underneath all those layers, Daenir does enjoy helping people. Due to years of abuse at the hands of his father, and the years of his imprisonment thanks to his mother, Daenir is known by the court to suffer moments of mental instability. Despite this, the King and the Advisory Council hold the man in high esteem due to his years of service to the kingdom and former apprenticeship to Master Cedric. Deanir is a warrior and most of the time is known to have unshakable focus in all of his tasks with little to distract him. His singular drive is to do better for the world he lives in even if he can only do it one bit at a time.

▬ Strengths: His stubbornness - but it can also be a weakness; his inability to give up on someone or something; his desire to make things safer for witches

▬ Weaknesses: Hates, and I mean HATES dark places, has to sleep with the fire going due to his imprisonment; extreme awkwardness in social situations; overuse of his powers can result in severe dehydration, often occurs when he spends too long in combat; inability to share his feelings to avoid being called weak

▬ Habits and Quirks: Daenir has been known to spark when he is annoyed or frustrated, likewise he can lose control of his lightning based abilities when in a state of arousal

▬ Likes: Hot places, warm weather, soft music, reading, painting, drawing, being left alone when he needs to be, gardening, tea of all kinds, libraries, old stories, archery, horse riding, knives, outsmarting stupid nobles, Aldir and Ryo, his apprentice and likewise his former teacher, spicy food {the hotter the better}, traveling

▬ Dislikes: Animals that have no point, being called damaged, being coddled - he is NOT a child, foolish religious people, having other’s ideals forced onto him, discrimination, fighting for the sake of fighting, moronic little assholes, people who use position to gain what they want, bullies, being touched without permission, flirting {if you want someone, just fucking tell them stupid}, sweet food, cold weather, snow, parties

▬ Hobbies: Painting, drawing, collecting old tomes, pissing off his parents, building models, gardening, brooding spectacularly, outsmarting stupid nobles

▬ Character Tropes: Dark and Troubled Soul; When Dad Met Mum; Abusive Parent; Byronic Hero; The Quiet One; The Wild Card, Parental Issues; Parental Abandonment; Daddy Issues; Mum Is A Bitch {if that is not a trope is bloody well should be}, Big Brother Instinct; Bi The Way; Archer Archetype; Death Seeker; Jerk With A Heart of Gold; Friend To All Children; Tall, Dark and Handsome; Tall, Dark and Snarky; Badass Bookworm

▬ Additional Information: Will literally lose his shit at being called an animal. Daenir spent twenty years of his life being likened to an animal by his father and his mother, the first one to treat him as an actual human being was Cóven VI

♛ A B I L I T I E S ♛  

▬ Pyrokinesis: an ability often associated with war. Most witches born in Veotis are born with an affinity for either earth, air or water, Daenir’s ability with fire is frightening and at the same time another way to show that he is not a Veotis native.

▬ Electrokinesis: Daenir barely has a grasp on this ability as it is. It is mostly responsible for the tangled, chaotic mess the sorcerer calls hair. He can create, shape and manipulate electricity

▬ Hardening: This skill is inherited from Daenir’s father, whilst he hates the man, the skill itself allows him to turn his body into a living weapon. There is one weak spot but Daenir has only told one person and that is the King

▬ Armed and Unarmed Combat: the skill is self explanatory but Daenir excels more with knives and the bow than he does with a sword  

▬ Able to fumble his way through any conversation with a shy smile and incomprehensible mumbling

♛ F A M I L Y ♛  

Fucked up. There is no other way to describe it. Feredir and Malrin consummated their love to hate your guts relationship after a drunken encounter in the middle of a storm. The Witch Hunter stole away with the child when he was barely a week old and turned him into a weapon that hunted his own kind. Feredir wants his weapon back, Malrin wants her son dead, Daenir just wants to train his apprentice, keep witches safe and stay loyal to the king.

▬ Feredir Havel || 49 || Father || Karl Urban || Witch Hunter

If ego had a proper name it would be Feredir Havel. He is a prideful, manipulative, charismatic man who takes pleasure in twisting others to his cause. He dislikes witches and the freedom they have, often taking great joy in killing or imprisoning them.   

▬ Malrin Échon || 46 || Mother || Charlez Theron || Head of the Witches Guild

Meaning lady crowned with gold. Malrin is the Head of the Witches Guild and seen as the most powerful witch in Veotis second to none until Daenir comes into his full power. She dislikes the fact that he can outdo her in just about anything without trying, the fact he spent the better part of six years actively killing and hunting his own kind might have something to do with it. Malrin cursed her son to hear the dying cries of those he has killed for the rest of his days

▬ Caladwin Échon || Deceased ||  Sister || Kaya Scodelario || Witch

She’s dead, nothing else to say

♛ B I O G R A P H Y ♛

Born the only son of Feredir Havel and Malrin Échon, Daenir spent the first years of his life being nothing but a tool to his father’s endgame. Feredir and Malrin consummated their love to hate your guts relationship after a drunken encounter in the middle of a storm resulting in the birth of Daenir a month earlier than normal. When he was barely a week old, Fereldir had his hunters kidnap his son and bring the baby back to Calia where he would spend the next fourteen years being raised as an ‘unofficial’ weapon to hunt his own kind.

Daenir committed his first hunt when he was a few months shy of fifteen, whilst it was widely known that the hunt went spectacularly wrong in every way possible, the truth being much bloodier than that. False intelligence was given which resulted in the death of a young witch and her parents, an act that would only serve to fuel the boy’s hatred of his own kind {and come back to haunt him years later}.

Whilst Feredir kept up his charade as a respectable Witch Hunter who kept to the law, he continually sent Daenir out into the world in order to rid the world of ALL witches. This carried on until Daenir was eighteen and came to the attention of his mother, now head of the Witches Guild in Veotis. Daenir killed the wrong witch who happened to be his half-sister and ended up spending the next year running from the wrath of his own mother, a woman he didn’t even know.

The hunt ended back in Veotis in the heart of the Aedis Forest where Daenir was taken down by the combined effort of the entire Guild. A curse was laid upon Daenir to hear the cries of his victims until the day he died, and then he was locked away into the darkness of Aedis Prison with a single warden who would be rotated by Malrin every month. Whilst the woman didn’t want her son to die just yet, she didn’t want him to be free to go about his life like he hadn’t caused harm to his own kind. That was her revenge for the death of her dear daughter.

When Cóven and his royal guard found the prison hidden in the Aedis Forest, Daenir was near feral from being chained and locked away for so long. With the assistance of Cedric Ebe, Cóven was able free him from the magical bindings and take him back Aecor and the Summer Palace to try and help bring him back from insanity, helping him heal along the way.

With the assistance of Lady Helaena from Astronia and her apprentice Lady Everleigh, Daenir was able to come back to the world a bit at a time until his mind could function properly. After four years in darkness, he found it hard to trust anyone, first opening up to Cóven and then Cedric after he took up an apprenticeship with the Royal Sorcerer. The feeling of trusting someone was so unfamiliar but the knowledge that he actually belonged somewhere was something that Daenir accepted even if his mind told him no.

After meeting his mother in the middle of an Advisory Council meeting, Daenir was forced to come clean with his past, he half expected to be thrown back inside the darkness of the prison and his own mind. Instead of rejection, Daenir found acceptance from both his master’s and soon found himself inheriting the title of Royal Sorcerer when Cedric decided to retire. During the years he has been active in his current role, Daenir has taken to trying to right many of wrongs committed in his earlier years and bring peace to the world a little bit at a time.

♛ O T H E R ♛

▬ Has a pet Nyrk gifted to him by his father when he was a child. Aldir {named after the God of War} is incredibly aggressive to everyone but Daenir and the King. Ryo, a rare Panthera in Veotis, was a gift given to him by the former King, the beast is loyal and far more friendly than his counterpart Aldir

▬ Daenir is basically Fenris and I will fight you if you say otherwise

[theconfusedartist]

DRAGON AGE

Alright, so I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while, now that I’ve gotten back into dragon age origins and since I’m about to start doing a shit ton of fanart and fic simply bc I’m getting back in the swing of it, I figure I might as well start actually making a post about them, rather then just making a one-off post and talking about them without out any context lol.

Ok so, in this AU that I’m working on, Duncan realized that, hey, maybe only one recruit for like the end of the world in his order of grey wardens, is not the best idea, and then goes on to recruit all of the characters from the origins.

So, he swings by Orzammar first, getting Brosca and Aeducan. In this au, the name of my Brosca is Tsoyo and the Aeducan is Sariah. I’m gonna post pictures of every one of my warden later, but for now, I’m just gonna say who they are. Tsoyo and Sariah knew each other before, since Seriah hired Tsoyo’s...services in the past. Seriah doesn’t really think much of the casteless, but she does like that they can do some dirty work for her and go basically undetected for it. So, in terms of time, Tsoyo goes to the proving and wins, just like in the original, and Duncan recruits her, but in this, Duncan stuck around a little longer as the Aeducan family still had business with him and he needed to go to the deep roads to make sure that this was a real blight and I mean, hey, what better way to test the new recruit right? 

So, while Duncan is getting Tsoyo ready for what’s to come, Seriah goes to the new provings that takes place as they redid it because they couldn’t fathom that a casteless could ever win and this doubled as them holding it in honor for the Seriah getting her new post as a commander. Seriah didn’t really rise to Bhelen’s bait and didn’t go after him like Bhelen had hoped, even though she realized that there was no way that the mercenaries could’ve gotten the ring unless it was from Trian. It was quite the surprise to see her brother, dead in front of her and her father and Bhelen walking in and being accused of his death. 

She gets sentenced to walk the deep roads and meets up with Duncan and Tsoyo and from there they scout for a bit before going off to the circle. Because I mean, hey, one mage is equivalent to ten soldiers, right? 

So, Duncan gets there, with Tsoyo and Seriah in tow who are really uncomfortable being around each other as they’ve had a less than clean relationship in the past (murder, blackmail, and other stuff). Duncan gets to the tower for recruits and in this au, both ‘Surana’ and Amell are there. I’ll explain why I put the ‘’ around Surana in a minute. 

So, Amell, who’s first name is Daylen, Jowan, and ‘Surana’, who’s first name is Acici, are all there. Jowan is going through with his little plot to escape the circle and Acici has literally just had her harrowing, a few nights ago before Duncan had gotten there. Daylen has his harrowing the night before Duncan arrives to the tower and his goes very...differently. 

I’ll go into this a LOT more in a second reblog, since I want to go into everyone’s backstory in a bit, person by person, with pictures, but since I’m going with the abridged version, I’ll just put it as, Acici had the normal harrowing that we get in the game, give or take, and Daylen thought it was fun to fuck around with things that he shouldn’t. So, Duncan has his eye on the both of them and Acici, being the actual loyal friend goes around bolstering her image and getting the rod of fire, killing spiders and charming the old man to sign the form for her. She had him sign the form, but then figured that if she curried favor with as many senior enchanters as possible, then it would probably be good for her in the long run. 

As for Daylen, well, he’s sitting there like, ‘why do we have to get dragged down with Jowan?’ and goes to Senior Enchanter Irving and tells him about it. Sure, he feels bad about it, but the deal was this: if he goes along with this plan, then he and Acici have to be pardoned and get off scot free for helping with taking down Lily and catching Jowan in the act. Irving agrees and he plays double agent. And well you know how that song and dance goes, Jowan gets away, and the others are left holding the bag. Irving tries to pacify Gregoir, but he hates mages so Duncan conscripts them both into the order. Meanwhile, Tsoyo and Seriah are just really confused with all the magic bullshit going on. And then there were four recruits. 

After that, Duncan and the four recruits go to Highever, to recruit Ser Gilmore because I guess Duncan wanted a basic ass bitch (idk, I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t finished the human noble to this day. I’m still trying to, but I really didn’t see any appeal in Gilmore like that, he seemed like someone good to have as a second, but not someone you’d send to kill an archdemon when there’s only two grey wardens left) and Cousland, or better known as Luna the heartbreaker, isn’t really interested in the wardens or anything. I mean why would she be? Duncan is fine and all, but she gets to rule over a castle by herself, why the hell would she want to leave? But then, it’s not really up to her when mostly everyone gets killed anyways. So, at this point we have five recruits, good job Duncan!

Their next stop is (drumroll please) DENERIM! (wasn’t expecting that were you?)

Duncan was like, shit, lemme go and get Adaia, at least that way I know that I can have someone who knows what the score is and she can help the others and Alistair as someone who’s been around the bend and seen some shit. Only, that’s not what happens, obviously because Adaia was killed by humans a while back, but he is just in time to witness a double wedding and get threatened by a one of the brides (lol). And also see them all get carried off to get raped by the arl’s son and his guards. Luna is cross, but like ‘hey, shouldn’t we do something about this?’. Tsoyo is a bit surprised because she thought that elves were all a bunch of fig eating floofies that just lived in happiness, not squalor and fear of death, so she seconds it. Acici is ready to murder Duncan when he says that they can’t get involved (for that same reason that ‘Surana’ is like that) and hands a sword to Nelaros and Soris. Go get ‘em boys!

And now the estate is running with blood, Nelaros is dead, Shianni is traumatized, one of the bridesmaids is dead, and Tabris, Sauda the bride, has literally learned all the different ways to kill over seventy men with a dagger and how quickly rat posion kills three adult human men. Sauda, not willing to let Soris get hauled off, says that it was all her doing. Which...isn’t really an exaggeration, she tore into those fuckers like she was getting paid to do it, Soris gave back up with his crossbow, but she was very eager to spill blood for the kidnapping of her, the others and Nelaros’ death. Also Vaughn was killed, as was his friends. Horrifically. 

And now we have six recruits!! Way to go Duncan, you always find the lively ones!

This recruit wasn’t planned, as Duncan was planning to cut through the Brecilian forest to save some time, and came across two elves that are just heavily tainted. That’s right, in this au, Tamlen lives. So Mahariel, Yeva, and Tamlen are just sick as fuck, but still alive so Marethari is like, ‘let’s get a fucking move on’ and Duncan conscripts them, when they both try to weasel their way out of it. But what can you do? At least Tamlen isn’t dead (a split second decision, I’m not gonna lie). So, Duncan comes to Ostagar with seven new recruits and most of them just....do not give a damn about the king (lolololol get fuckin’ rekt Calian). They go into the wilds, save a few mabaris (mabari? mabaris?) with some wild flowers, Tsoyo gets a big gay crush on Morrigan, then they come back and do shots with the darkspawn blood in the joining. Daveth and Jory die(wah wah) but everyone else makes it out alive (Tamlen...barely made it. Bitch nearly pulled a Daveth) and then they were sent to the tower. 

The reason for them all being sent to the tower was simple. Cailan realized that a lot of the new recruits just did not give a fuck about the crown or his authority or was in grieving over their lost loved ones, and was like ‘hey, that way there’s no way that the tower ISN’T going to be lit and I don’t have to worry about them on the field’). And then he died. Duncan didn’t die tho, are you fucking kidding me? The leader of the grey wardens? Dying? I don’t fucking think so. He makes it out, but it’s a little after the battle and he makes it far enough into the wilds that Flemeth saves him. The other wardens have already left with Morrigan and they’re on their way to Lothering, but Duncan had to stay with Flemeth for a while due to the severity of his wounds and how long they would take to heal, even with magic. 

Duncan joins up with the other grey wardens around the time that they get captured by Anora’s captors (I have to play to see who would get captured or not, as most of these characters are fucking warriors and some of them in their own personal runs might actually be able to take them down where others can’t) and I haven’t decided what happens at that point. 

That’s all that I have right now, but once I get some character portraits up, I’ll update this a bit more.

[themarydragon]

With reference to your Mythal All-Mother theories - where does Yavana fit in? Wasn't she trying to bring back dragons in general? Or just a specific one(s)?

I FINALLY FOUND THIS

I knew I had a DA theory ask in here SOMEwhere. My inbox is a MESS, holy shit, you beautiful people are insane.

YAVANA

I really think Yavana is the proof-of-concept for Morrigan’s dark ritual. She is SO sure when she’s pitching the idea to the Warden. “This WILL work.” No question, strong emphasis, how does she know? I feel like she would only be that sure of it if she knew it had worked before.Enter Yavana. Witch of the Wilds. Made it surprisingly easy for Alistair to shank her. Probably not dead. Probably carrying the “secret of effective immortality,” thanks for that line Solas. So what spirit is inside Yavana keeping her effectively immortal, like Flemeth? And why give a shit about the dragons?

(1) If she’s literally Flemeth’s daughter - like Morrigan and arguably Flemeth herself both are - then she can be like Kieran. An old god soul that was “saved” and is now being passed down in perpetuity. 

(2) No single Warden is named as the one who killed Dumat, but I don’t think it’s him, because if he were alive I think Corypheus wouldn’t have gone completely crazy. I think it’s possible Corin & Neriah were meant to be a trial run for this ritual in the second Blight but Neriah died so no luck there. Third Blight: No Warden Named. Why? We know what weapon was used - it became the Thorn of the Dead God. How do we know the weapon but not the Warden who sacrificed themself to end a blight after only 15 years? A relatively tiny time frame? And then Garahel is the Hero of the Fourth Blight. We know 2 & 4 but not three? Toth was the archdemon in the third blight, and if he’s alive and well within Yavana, then the Forgewright (his high priest, akin to Corypheus/Conductor and the Architect) might be perfectly sane and chilling out somewhere safe. The Architect was Urthemial’s high priest, and depending upon whether you undergo the ritual or not, he may or may not be sane. This is a long side tangent, tbh.

(3) So if Yavana is Toth, it’s pretty clear why she would want to bring the dragons back. I mean. Dragons.

(4) If Yavana is just Flemeth’s daughter, bearing some other spirit, and NOT Toth, she’s still privy to the Mythal/Flemeth thing.Mythal’s symbol is a dragon. Flemeth can turn into a dragon. Yavana’s mom is a dragon. Mythal is the mother goddess. If I’m right, and Mythal’s literaly children became the elder gods, then Yavana is Mythal’s daughter in such a META fashion that it hurts my head. 

(5) If the rest of the dragons are descended from that one badass dragon (I’m a few glasses of sangria in, sorry no citation) and she was trying to wake up that dragon and then wake up all the rest of the dragons, then maybe that one badass dragon was like second-generation dragon. First gen is Mythal, second gen is the Tevinter gods, third gen is that dude that bled on Calanhad, fourth gen is everything else running around. Maybe? I dunno.

I’m just saying. Flemeth is a big damn deal and the game is called DRAGON AGE. 

Sangria is awesome.

[elvesofnoldor]

kinda went off the rail yesterday and made a dragon age elf oc called Micah, who is based on gwindor and I plan this elf’s story into finley lavellan’s story arc in inquisition and now i decided that after my lavellan and dorian breaks up one year post-trespasser in this fanfic arc i planned for them, they aren’t gonna get back together by the end of the fic. instead, my lavellan is gonna keep taking a break from this relationship and im gonna leave it open like that. like, im not sure if i wanna ship my lavellan with this Micah (whom i actually really love right now), but lavellan x dorian is making less and less sense the more i think about it. And honestly, i dont think any sort of development dorian can have would change anything substantially.

i always have a rough time writing lavellan x dorian, cause the fact that dorian is tevinter, the fact that he shares kinship with slavers and slave owners is just always fucking ridiculous on its own. And given that lavellan is an elf in dragon age universe and there is this history of tevinters enslaving his ancestors and enacting literal and cultural genocide against his people, i always have a hard time justifying lavellan falling in love with dorian and im pretty sure other ppl has that problem too. Also, even though dorian is the head of his house now, we still dont know if he dismisses the goddamn slaves his parents owned, so there is also this bullshit. Then there is dorian “i almost definitely slept with elven sex slaves in the elven slums--who are either socially marginalized people forced into sex work or victims of sex trafficking” pavus talking about how slavery isn’t that bad in tevinter, and then turn around and wax poetic about how same-gender relationships aren’t meant to be about love in tevinter wah wah wah. Anybody who read the codex entry on tevinter culture in da:i knows that same-gender relationships are only frowned upon in tevinter imperium when it disrupts the cis-heterosexual political marriages between noble mage houses, same-gender sex and relationships are in fact ENCOURAGED in tevinter when it happens between slave owners and their slaves. so yeah, i said dorian has never been a fucking victim before, well, this is why. sexuality and class privilege/oppression are intertwined in real world and in fictional universes that mirrored the real world and believe or not, being the top of social hierarchy means dorian got the better end of the bargain. he said, oh, “anything between two men, it’s about pleasure”. yeah, specifically a slaver owner’s pleasure in violating and further dehumanizing a person lol!!! but sure dorian you are so fucking oppressed.  im just. i have been wary before, of dorian. because of this slavery thing, and i never really talked abt why. and im just. i am even more wary now. and i still like dorian i guess, but, lmao. i just can’t make lavellan and dorian some sort of great love story, cause it really ain’t one. lavellan fell in love with dorian cause i insisted on having romance interests in every single one of my dragon age playthroughs--especially when it’s a canon one, but honestly he really shouldn’t have. in my fic, they broke up cause  finley lavellan knew dorian used to whore around in tevinter’s elven slums/alienages, and someone lied to lavellan and said that dorian is still doing that with lavellan living at his estate, and even though lavellan knew abt the truth later, he still felt gross about sharing a bed with someone who slept with potential victims of sex trafficking, so, they are taking a break for now. it’s just bad ok, lavellan is also in the right, ok. fuck knows whats gonna happen in da4, i doubt it’d change anything--and that’s speaking on the pretence that dorian will even be involved in da4.  i have this headcanon abt lavellan crafting a pair of rings for him and dorian in his forge as their engagement rings, i will retain that headcanon about the engagement rings, but the ring might not be for dorian.  anyways this is elf oc is based on gwindor, and gwindor’s story is that he was an elven lord (presumably a noldor elf) of hidden kingdom of nagathrond, and he was a valiant and fierce warrior who literally charged inside The Devil Himself (morgoth)’s stronghold with his company after his little brother was brutally executed (god. poor gelmlir) in front of the elven host, unfortunately for him, everybody in his company is killed and he alone was captured and enslaved and forced to work in morgoth’s mine for 14 years. apparently during the 14 years, he was “mutilated”, his hair turned grey during the process, and the experience “sapped his strength” (i think it’s like, spiritual strength, cause it seems elves in tolkien universe draws strength and power of all kinds from their fea aka their spirit). he eventually escaped and he lost his hand in the process, and almost died from losing the goddamn hand, but then he got rescued by another elf. BUT this elf (beleg) got accidentally stabbed to death by his disaster of a human best friend soon after. And gwindor, who’s already dealing with a truck load of trauma himself, was kind enough to comfort and and guide this disaster human dude (who went in shock cause he can’t accept what he did with his own damn hands) and brought him to nagthrond aka his home. but when gwindor needed love and support the most from his loved ones, they all stop listening to him and he lost his previous influence on his people and nobody is there to help him through his trauma, and he ended up feeling like he’s unfit to be loved, which is bullshit. eventually this disaster human dude’s dumbass advice got him and everybody he loved killed. And i was like it’s pretty bullshit that this obviously traumatized character is ostracized from his community for being traumatized, instead of getting the love and support he deserves and i said thats bullshit because in this house traumatized people get to have live happily ever after. so my desire to make gwindor happy inspires the creation of this elf oc.  now dragon age elves can’t really be lords or ladies or prince or princess, but the keeper and the keeper’s children are usually descendants of the elven nobilities of the dales, so, that should be close enough. Also i want more dalish mage characters anyways. This elf oc is a dalish mage, his name is Micah and he’s the First of his clan, as matter of fact. I wouldn’t say he’s exactly like merrill, but he does have merrill’s hair colour (dark raven hair but his hair is long), merrill’s eyes (more hazel than just green, but yeah) and merrill’s skin tone (light/pale). he’s also the more studio type, like merrill, and has a more bubbly personality than either of my lavellans. This dalish mage used to love the fade, and he loved the ancient songs he witnessed in the fade the most. Micah also has a beautiful voice and he’s very good at singing and he always carries a little lute with him to accompany his tunes. When he’s not nose deep in tomes about spells and magical theories and ancient texts, he’s out singing in the woods with his lute--he only performs in front of his family or his closest childhood friends since he’s not a people person. While finley lavellan has this appearance of gentleness, he can be quite ruthless and cold. And lavellan is more of a natural leader type of person. Micah, on the other hand, is truly a soft and gentle soul and is really not the kind to truly be a leader of any kind. 

so what happened is that, Micah is from a clan that’s always travelling around ferelden. they settled around denerium when the fifth blight broke out (that was events of da:o), but specifically he went to the denerium alienage to trade some goods with the shop keepers at least two weeks prior to the warden’s arrival at the alienage. However, he noticed the presences of the tevinters, become worried for the alienage’s safety since he suspects these are slavers, and he’s locked in the quarantine inside because of the spread of the plague. shianni found him trying to warn the sick alienage residents and shared her concern, but at the time shianni is just suspicious and not openly oppose to the tevinters’ presences. now in da:o, im pretty sure if you are an elf warden at least, you can feign sickness and get “admitted” in, but then you’d get stripped of your belongings and had to fight 14 tevinter enemies with literally no weapon so im pretty sure you weren’t supposed to do that (i did that cause i was a dumbass). so what happens is that Micah tried doing that, he ended up fighting a dozen and more soldiers with no weapon or any sort and was quickly subdued. And he was shipped away with the rest of alienage residents before the warden ever got to confront the tevinter slavers unfortunately. he just turned 20. Then after his disappearance, shianni becomes more openly oppose to the tevinters’ presences at the alienage since she’s more convinced that something fishy is going on.   so...a tevinter magister had him....for 10 years. that guy is a blood mage and he’s also like, basically danarius. so like, a demon. Not gonna go into detail about what happened because i dont like to talk too much about actual events that caused the traumas, i just wanna talk about the recovery and dealing with the trauma. but, basically, micah revealed right away that he is a mage, hoping the status of being a mage’d get him released in tevinter but that didn’t happen and the magister kept using his blood to fuel his spells, since his blood is potent with magic. later, the magister also experimented on him with semi-refined lyrium to make his blood even more potent but the experimentation failed and permanently blinded Micah and turned his hair white and he received a long scar from the left eye that goes straight down to his lips and continues down the right half of his torso. Basically, instead of losing a hand like gwindor, Micah lost his sight. And apparently, in canon, king maric got captured by this tevinter blood mage magister dude and alistair had to go and save him or whatever but king maric was hooked to this machine and trapped in this dream-state in the fade so that the blood mage can use his blood and life force to fuel spells. so after Micah is blinded and disfigured and deemed not as “useful” as he is before, what happened to king maric sort of happened to him, but he didn’t spend long enough time hook to the machine so he isn’t gonna die once he’s unhooked from the machine. for a while, Micah doesn’t even know he was trapped in a dream, and when he realizes he’s trapped in the fade, he couldn’t get out and back into his body. Events of inquisition start to happen, this tevinter magister is obviously a venatori, and he went south after the inquisition started to fight the venatori everywhere, probably as reinforcement. he brought Micah with him. And i think my lavellan either confronted this blood mage at hissing wastes (maybe it’s the moutaintop camp? maybe it’s after you cleared out the venatori at hissing waste and he came as reinforcement?). not to digress but i’d love to fight a blood mage in inquisition but that was not meant to be, so it’s happening in this oc fanfic scenario.  Inquisitor finley lavellan had a very hard time trying to get to this guy, and know he’s a quite a powerful mage, and he is forced to retreat with his companions and inquisiton soldiers to the camp. This time lavellan decided to sneak in while his party member created a distraction outside, and once inside the camp, he discovered poor micah hooked to a machine--presumably the source of the magister’s power. pegging the machine as something that traps the elf in the fade, lavellan connects himself to the machine and went to find micah in the fade. With lavellan’s help, micah is able to break away from the eternal dream and wake up. his body is obviously frail from spending a few years immobile, so lavellan tried to sneak out with micah in his arms but they were confronted by the magister who brought numerous archers and ambushed them at the lobby (inside some mountain at hissing waste), lavellan opened one or two rifts to suck in the archers, and petrified the magister with earth magic enhanced by the anchor’s connection to the fade (the magister is immobile and his flesh is slowly hardening from the earth magic but he’s alive and acutely and painfully aware of what’s happening to his body). Micah is the one who got the tear the magister from limb to limb with his own magic and explode him into chunks of meat, avenging the abuse that’s done to him. and finley brought micah with him to skyhold and there he rests and recovers. finley,  inquisition mages (not dorian though, him being tevinter mage and a mediocre healer and all, it’s more like, vivenne and solas actually) all help to nurture him back to health. he become healthy again, even though he is still blind and his hair remains the same grey white colour and the scar that disfigured his face is unremovable. Micah unfortunately becomes afraid of the fade and hates it when he dreams, sometime he’d wake up terrified, not knowing if he wakes up from a dream or if he just drops into one. It was with finley’s help that he become more aware of what’s dream and what’s reality. while Micah’s at skyhold, micah and finley becomes good friends as finley constantly visits him and even brings him a lute after knowing micah loves to play and sings. they become close enough that micah is comfortable singing to finley. micah didn’t get involved with inquisition business while he’s recovering, however, he did discover a way to “see” with the tap of his feet and sounds bouncing off object, kinda like how toph (btw i love toph) “see” with passive earth bending. i like to think micah always favours earth magic and telekinesis and rarely uses other elemental magic. Micah ends up combining his telekinesis skills with a form of weaponizing sounds (it’s sound bending lmao) and develops something very close to the force mage specialization in da 2. aka pushing people off with force of sound, manipulating gravity. And Micah uses sound to “see”, basically. And singing evolves from a hobby to necessity, since humming/singing or playing an instrument allows him to “see”, so that he’s not trapped in an eternal darkness.  with finley’s help, micah finds his way back to his clan still wandering around ferelden and they tearfully welcomed his return after presuming him dead for years. That was like, right after the events of inquisition main game concludes. Then three years later, micah crosses finley again in tevinter out of all places. turns out that micah has seen the dread wolf/solas in the fade and he was offered to join him but micah is loyal to finley and did not answer. More importantly, ever since micah is back, he hate it that everybody pities him. even though his clan loves him still, they treat him like a broken fragile thing who can’t take care of himself. And micah, is able to walk around and goes about his daily business as anybody who has their sights, is sick of people pitying him. The fact that he is no longer the First as he is seen incapable of becoming the keeper angers him (and micah is almost never angry), so he willingly left the clan and started his own journey to find out more about the dread wolf and that journey allows him to cross path with finley again. when micah met finley again, finley has already break up with dorian and now lived in the cottage he built somewhere in the woods at the outskirt of some city. There, they both devised the plan to venture out to ruins of Arlathan as companions to find out the truth about the blight and solas’ plan/stopping solas. 

[iimmcrtalis-archive]

DA verse

a summary post of all my active muses verse(s) in dragon age because i’m f EELING IT BOYS. except terry for rn bc it’ll be Hard. one day. gonna try and go in a from least knowledge bout their verse to extensive knowledge of ‘em so. ayy

this is a pretty long post i apologize to those on mobile!!

Nova; mage(???), human ( ? ), possibly a distant noble

probably a mage? because blue space magic is her jam. though she’s actually more of a combat & tech. she was like well rounded in that regard so i’m considering iunno??? battlemage maybe w/ lockpicking who knows. she’s a sneaky mage that can stab u real good.

would probably also assume she’s pretty good as inquisitor because she would treat it as her role and thing she still has to bare and takes it seriously. like nova is no nonsense as inquisitor but absolute nonsense when she’s not playing that role lmao. 

Morgan; mage?? human af ye. defo a noble blood t BH. 

i unno man. iunno. is he a mage? yeah probably. would he be a legit battlemage + arcane warrior? probably. Would i say he uses a real sword? pro b ab ly. like listen he’s a beefy mage who wears normal armor and probably looks like a fckn non mage but bOOM SUDDENLY LIGHTNING FROM HIS HAND W H AT 

iunno he’s a mage and he’s aggressive as FUCKKKK. aggro as fuck. probably sides withhh iunno both he’d want both and think it’s wasted potential to only have one lmao. iunno he’s hard to figure out man. he’d ultimately probably be like templars because actual ppl who know how to fight. but also wouldn’t wanna condemn the mageS??? so who knows who knows. 

anyways he probably likes blackwall and the iron bull and viv and cass?? and just ye. chills w/ them a lot probably. probably would flirt w/ cass tho god. butw/e no he’s uhhhh real aggressive as a fckn inquisitor like every body getting beheaded. except a few probably.. he would probably make uh... whats his name... tranquil tbh. worse fate than death that yes he would wish on his enemies bc otherwise they get what they want & too risky otherwise. 

Igne; old af elf, probably an assassin combo w/ magic??

like listen if you tell me that they can’t be both ima fckn punt u bc really that’s dumb. defeats the point of multiclassing in the fantasy genre of g am es. anyways really tho they’re old. old as balls. probably? iunno. probably served like... andruil for a while or somethin! got a lil lil corrupted but didn’t want it and wanted freedom so they were like FUCK THIS SHIT IM OUTTIE 

how’d they live? no idea. not a single clue bc i just don’t know jackshit bout ancient elf shit anymore (when did i ever) but honestly. it’s probably a thing right? old af elves everywhere. but no no they’d probably even annoy sera bc like they’re literally?? nonsense. violent af nonsense. hanging off a roof with a fckn potato in their mouth & lookin ready to murder. 

it’s a look™  but nah thinkin that u hhh corruption shit is probably what gave them a red eye ayyy

inquisitor igne is like dagger eyes at solas but doesn’t snitch on him ever not even once. she’s got his back man. she’d be like cool i’ll plaY BOTH SIDES SUre. sure. no mercy run on ppl tho god 

EVELYN / ISENE; old af elf. got that fckn combo again

it’s a theme really, combo classes. all my muses? multiclassed fuckers.  for a detailed everything, please refer to her old blog bc this is gonna be a stupid summary of it so ayyy.

old as dicks dude. lost her arm in the rebellion, against the rebellion. served elgar’nan because he fits her the most tbh. still sort of serves him i guess. like if he showed up she wouldn’t hesitate to follow his orders is what i mean here. otherwise she keeps up the facade of being a former dalish elf mercenary. and definitely doesn’t shy away from admitting she’s got magic. never calls herself a mage because  like lmao 

she has a fckn big ol sword she carries around one handed? and if ur like UR JUST A MAGE she’s gonna use said big ol sword to chop ur head off. not a fan of modern mages tho lmao. at all. like not a lot of sympathy for them. but she would also just kick a circles door in and be like cool leave gtfo you weaklin lil fucks jfc go learn somethin. 

would fight solas in a denny’s parking lot at 2am if she knew jack shit. but she really doesn’t so she’s like ur weird and i dont trust you  butyeah lm ao

Eludysia; ngl i unno if she’s old old but she’s Old. Old seer lady. 

honestly i think she’s not gonna have much of a da verse in general but it exists enough that i feel like i should cover it here. but essentially she’s an old elf seer in rivain. leader of a port side town. No chantry or qunari around its a lot of elves tho. refugees and what not from kirkwall and stuff. 

i unno if she’s an ancient elf but i know she’s old. like real old. so who knows

if she is ancient she probably woulda been like a priestess to ?? falon’din or dirthamen??? because seer shit but like even in a current state she’s fairly devoted to on e o f them or both? probably both lmao. so it’s w/e. 

she’s the former keeper of the clan revas got sent to, which is where revas’ mom is also from and how she gets to that clan. but she was keeper of the clan for like.. a long time like a long time. like that bald fuck from da:o  but without plaguing people with a curse. iunno how she did it but magic and better than that shit. 

more important if revas is inquisitor because lmao she’d probably be like.. welp im gonna come guide you?? probably.   shit she’s probably like emerald knights old tho shit but no fuckin!!! probably comes to be an advisor. 

i think if u go revas as commander/advisor or inquisitor in a thread eludysia’s probs gonna show up and be like sup  but otherwise she’s mainly just a contact in rivain for info and resources!! no special quest or anything u can just contact her for stuff. 

Warren; half-elf, half-qunari. big man w/ a bow.

&& a thick af accent let’s be real here. 

i haven’t made a post about his shit yet so! this one might be a lil longer!! 

grew up in/around starkhaven. in an alienage somewhere really! but he’s got that starkhaven accent. probably just fumbled his way there because honestly he got fucking ditched by his people and has no idea who his parents are lmao. just knows his mom died during child birth and he was fuckin cursed essentially via his?? clan or something. that qunari bit of him is real obvious as his horns grew out and probably had a harsh life in an alienage. 

because he’s not an elf. but he’s not human. and he’s not a qunari. so he’s just. him. 

eventually falls in with some ppl who teach him to steal. so he does a lot and then gets busted and they fckn break his horns off and chop his ears!!! and throw him the fuck out. as you do. but they taught him to use a bow so he’s good with that. and knives. good at close quarters and a long range.

gets better with a bow. real top knotch stuff. ends up in a mercenary crew (same one as qunari inquisitor? probably.) enjoys his merc lifestyle ya know has a good time killin shit 

anyways. companion warren is p much like ‘Strength & force.’ because he has no tact and doesn’t care about politics. like one day i’ll have his approval / disapproval shit. but today is not that day.

but the same applies to his inquisitor shit. he’s fucking brutal as an inquisitor. cares about the little people but FUCK the rich. takes the well for himself ( tho if i would also say revas is there bc i can and she’d take it) but generally just!! give him power and let him kill shit!! that’s all he cares about. tho he wouldn’t kill samson or calpernia bc he doesn’t see them as enemies or villains truly? just pawns in a big scheme and he’d probably stare corypheus in the face and be like get fucked you saggy fuck 

he’s great, great guy. 

Revas: Keeper. Dreamer. Dalish elf. 

literally like most people know Revas’ Dragon Age basics!! but if you don’t i’ll just direct you to her old blog, so you know what’s up.  i’ll put it into a summary the best i can tho! 

Backstory: short and simple? #fucked.  expanded? she was born to the lavellan clan to one of the head hunters & warriors. ended up having magic so she was sort of training to become second, or first, till her moms old clan was like hey we need a new first so uhhhh help us out. and they traded some goods and revas went on her way. ended up being a fucked up situation where the previous first was murdered by two clanmates who eventually tried ( and did) murder revas but she came back bc lmao spirit help & ended up killing them and leaving for her actions.

Dragon Age: Awakening:  full page about it Takes place shortly after this event happened. she lived on her own for awhile, protecting people as much as she could from darkspawn during the blight. ends up going to the wardens because someone doesn’t appreciate her help since she’s a Mage.     The choices made by the warden in regards to her effect how she becomes a warden and the rest of the timeline. Sort of a branch off feel. highly recommend taking a look at the page and also this post. 

DA 2:  If not in the Awakening verse, Revas travels around to the clans. becoming a traveling keeper & helping the clans the best she can. As well as finding ruins and exploring man memories from lost objects. Eventually finds her way to Kirkwall to actually speak with Merrill. But some other shenanigans play out and some stuff goes down. Ends up helping in the fight at the end and leaving with Zevran ( @allurfavesrqueer‘s zevran only lmao. )

DA:I     Companion: Shows up in fereldan with some tree peeps. gets some elvhen shit. offers her services to the inquisition bc that’s what her spirit told her to do. and ya know real fucky. shares some approvals as solas but usually has some pretty contrasting opinions on things! Will defo take on the role of like older sibling or sibling figure with the inquisitor if they’re close enough. Be kind to elves & mages and you’re good.  ( also she’s an option to take the well if the inquisitor doesn’t want it) 

   Advisor: Takes up an offer by the inquistor to become an advisor which is more or less her using her network with the elves around the countries to do certain objectives and what not. acts a bit like an ambassador for the elves & mages in the meetings to give them a voice and remind the human board of trusteeeess that they’re fucking not the only ones around :)) 

  Commander: Mainly with @desiderrium‘s Cullen. Basically Revas takes over for Cullen? at his request kinda because she’s like what the fuck you’re whAT. and gets pissed at everyone else for keeping him on when he’s Not Okay even if she’d rather kick his teeth in 99% of the time. why revas take over? because she’s actually p fuckin qualified, gestures vaguely towards being a first and the advisor au. like she knows how to lead ppl so ayy. 

  Inquisitor: Same ish backstory happens except her parents died to the blight and she left the clan for the other and ye same shit happens. but the clans ask her to go check shit out for them and shes like of course and gets caught up in the mess so. 

ALRIGHTY !! 

so that got long but yea!! hopefully this is a more condensed version of stuff and good for reference later. 

[wendynerdwrites]

Recovered Jonsa Fic #18: I’ve Only Ever Loved...

Next on my fic repost project!...

Anonymous asked: Littlefinger sneaks into Jon’s room to find incriminating evidence to use against him, but has to hide in a closet when Jon returns early to bed an unknown woman. He is horrified when he finally recognizes the woman.

HELLO HELLO do you remember when petyr killed lyssa, he told her “i only love one woman.. your sister” can you do one where karma is a bitch and sansa told him she only loves jon and then push him through the moon door? :D

Decided to kill two prompts with one fic. Kind of.

Normally, Petyr would not get his hands dirty.

Things are desperate.

But Sansa has forgiven and continued to love the bastard, despite his ascension at her expense. She is by his side every day, supporting his kingship, facilitating his reign. She drafts his letters and edicts, she holds court with him, she monitors and moderates the accounts. She bloody commissioned and designed his bloody crown, and crowned him herself before all the vassals of the North and the Knights of the Vale out in the bloody godswood.

Since the news of the Frey Massacre, she has been reaching out to every lord in the Riverlands to help her recover her uncle, reinstall him in Riverrun, and secure their loyalties to the new King in the North. Her brother Robb had been named King of the Trident as well. She seeks the same title for the Bastard, despite the lack of a single drop of Tully blood in his veins.

Sansa is not stupid, though, she knows that getting the Riverlands to swear fealty to the product of Ned Stark dis honoring Catelyn Tully is a long shot, so she proposes to make Edmure a king as well.

A similar proposition is put to her cousin in the Vale. With the Knights of the Vale having cried out King in the North as well, with so many of them still in the North, including Bronze Yohn Royce, she has an easier go of it. She entertains them, trying to get these men to write to their young lord and convince him to swear allegiance to Jon of House Stark, First of His Name, King in the North.

She’s legitimized him formally. The bastard, despite his title, has proclaimed Sansa the Head of the House Stark proper, claiming to be of a “branch house” himself. He has proclaimed her Lady of Winterfell, Lady of the Dreadfort, his Hand, his designated regent, and his heir. So, he may be King, but “Princess” Sansa rules the Royal seat, holds more land than any lord of the North while the king is a branch Stark who holds no land of his own (the spoils of the conquered traitors of Umber and Karstark given to the “Free Folk” and House Mormont as rewards for their loyalty). The chains of command are scrambled, and Sansa is queen in all but name. And the King has gone out of his way to leave no doubt about that in the minds of the North.

So she is by his side, ruling with him, helping him avoid or fix his idiot mistakes, securing his throne, building his war. She even has a throne crafted for him, styled like the Lord of Winterfell’s chair which she herself sits: a seat of bronze and steel, with cushions of silver and ivory brocade. She places it beside her seat. The only difference between the two is that the image of the direwolf’s head that rises up atop the back of the chair wears a crown like the one she also had made for him. He sits a throne now, with her by his side.

Petyr wishes to scream and gnash his teeth. He goes to her in the godswood once more, finding her sitting upon her preferred low branch perch, embroidery hoop in her lap.  He tells her that the Bastard has stolen her birthright, that he’s using her, that she should not trust her half-brother, that he has taken the power and position that should rightfully be hers and that she should not follow him.

She laughs in his face at this. “You may have brought me the men I needed, Petyr, but in return I have kept your secrets. And every one of your ambitions for me, every one of your plots, have involved carting me off somewhere to be someone’s prisoner. First it was my aunt in the Vale, then married off to Ramsay. Your ‘dream’ for me is you sitting on the Iron Throne with me by your side. I presume as your queen? Yes, such power, security, influence, and happiness you offer me, leaving the home that is everything I have yearned, suffered, and fought for since my father was arrested standing beside you in the same place where my father was killed and Joffrey had me stripped and beaten in public for his amusement, to be queen to you. Just as Naerys was queen to Aegon the Unworthy, as Rhaelle was queen to Aerys the Mad, just as Daena the Defiant and her sisters were to Baelor the Blessed, just as Ceryse Hightower, Tyanna of Pentos, and Arys Harroway were to Maegor the Cruel, just as I was ‘Wardeness’ to Ramsay. You promise me everything I am too wise to ever want again.”

“You would be the Alysanne to my Jaehaerys the Wise!” He insists. She laughs again.

“Yes, because you have proven yourself an honorable, honest man, especially where I and my role in your machinations go. You claimed to take me home, you take me to the Vale. You say you’ll take me to the Fingers to be safe, you take me elsewhere. You speak of a marriage proposal, and wait until we are all the way to Moat Cailin to tell me you’re going to marry me off to the son of my brother’s killer. You tell me that the plan is for me to no longer be on the sidelines, act, and take revenge, but give me no means to do it, and leave me there without protection, your only plans being ‘wait until Stannis wins and if he does not, make Ramsay mine and end up continuing and legitimizing the Boltons and their hold on Winterfell just as they want.’ You leave me to be locked away, tortured and raped in a dark room, taking no measures to make sure that the family that betrayed and murdered mine, that literally had the flayed man as their sigil, would not mistreat me. You promised to make me Lady of Winterfell and Wardenness of the North, taking back my family home. But instead you almost made me into my mortal enemie’s plaything and brood mare.”

“The North is rightfully yours!”

“You didn’t feel like speaking up and saying so that day in the Great Hall when they proclaimed Jon king, so clearly you’re not all that committed to it. Now Jon, on the other hand… He could have used that opportunity to marry me off, as you did. He’d bind the loyalty of a House to him, he’d have me out of the way to secure a hold on Winterfell and do away with my claim. But he didn’t. In fact, he did the things you promised. He had it set in stone that not only Winterfell and the prime authority of House Stark was mine, but also took the marriage I suffered thanks to you, and used it to give me yet more power, wealth, and security by giving their lands to me and making me the largest landowner and most powerful vassal in the North. He named me Hand so that I’d carry all of the authority of the crown, and named me his designated regent so my rule would continue even when he is not around to reinforce it. He’s named me his heir, so that a crown may end up being mine regardless. He puts actual power, actual affairs, in my hands. He tells me everything, everything he is planning, and plans with me. He has granted me information and powers no one else has. He is only at Winterfell because I urged him to. And while I am by the side of a king, it is in a seat of authority of my own, with full independence of my own. Thanks to Jon and what he’s done, no one arrange for me to wed but myself, no one can tell me where to go or what to do but myself, no one can dismiss me again, or shut me out of power. I hold authority in my own right, something no one has ever, ever offered me, let alone given.”

He shakes his head. “He’s using you. After a few years of your unwavering support, he won’t need to keep you happy anymore. And then… I thought you’d be smart enough to realize that he could easily strip you of it all the moment it becomes convenient to him.”

“It already can and would be. He didn’t even have to give me the Dreadfort. He could have used it to draw the loyalty of some other vassal. No one would have batted an eye. I certainly wouldn’t have. I actually advised him to do exactly that. But he gave it to me for no other reasons than that he loves me, wants me to have something for all I suffered, and cares about my rights and well-being above his ambitions. He marched an army of two thousand against an army of six thousand for me.”

“It was the forces I brought that won that battle.” He hisses furiously.

“We both know you have every reason to give me what I need that has nothing to do with love. I could have secured those forces from you by threatening to tell Yohn Royce or my cousin or any number of Vale Lords the truth about you.” Her eyes narrow. “I have kept these secrets for you, Littlefinger. Even though you do not deserve it. Yet you have the nerve to try and turn me against Jon and call him untrustworthy.”

Petyr sneers. “You think him a hero. But no one is, Sansa. You should know that by now. If you don’t realize it soon, it will be too late.”

But she dismisses him with a wave of her hand.

There has to be some proof. There has to be. Sansa is naive to think the Bastard is an open book with her, but everyone has secrets. He needs to find the Bastard’s.

Unfortunately, setting up a suitable network in Winterfell is harder than he anticipated. Most of his personal men are of the Vale, and they already don’t trust him. The Northerners are absurdly loyal. It was the Starks who saved them from the cruelty of the Boltons, and they have been well-treated since. They will not risk that.

So it has to be him.

An opportunity comes, of course, when the king announces a week long trip to patrol and survey the Wolfswood. Bloody Bastard still acts more as a ranger of the Night’s Watch than a king. Sansa falls ill two days after he departs, leaving the regency of Winterfell to Ser Davos Seaworth and the court out of sorts enough for one’s actions to easily go unnoticed.

Actions like acquiring a key to the king’s chambers and sneaking in there to find or plant whatever he needs to make Sansa realize the truth. It takes a few days to get the key, but it is worth it.

When he enters the man’s apartments, he cannot help but scoff. His own guest quarters, though smaller, are more luxurious. The Bastard gave Sansa the Lord of Winterfell’s chambers, and took the rooms that belonged to the late Robb Stark instead. There is a solar crammed full of weapons and armor, with worn out drapes and rugs, marked maps lining the walls in place of tapestries or art, and meager wooden chairs by the fireplace. As unkingly a set of rooms as could exist.

He looks around a bit to find no papers, no real useful personal effects, and ventures into the bedchamber. The bastard’s bed is clearly one he inherited from his half-brother too: though it is not a child’s bed, it’s not especially large. Clearly built for an unmarried adolescent. The drapings, at least, look new. But they’re not overly grand. Grey embroidery on white wool. Even the desk, piled high with papers, is far too small.

The trappings of power had their use. Too bad the bastard was too proud of his own supposed humility to see that.

Petyr heads right for the desk and begins shuffling through them, scanning everything at top speed. The desk is such a mess it makes it quick and easy: there’s no way the bastard will notice that anything’s been disturbed.

Half an hour later, and Petyr has found nothing that serves his purposes yet. Letter drafts that say all manner of things that are of no use to him. Edicts. Accounts with no discrepencies. Nearly all of it had at least a few notes in Sansa’s elegant script. He scowls and eyes a desk drawer. It’s locked, but he can pick it. He justs needs a little—

A thudding sound startles him, as do footsteps. Petyr freezes. He cannot be found. He eyes the bastard’s wardrobe and hurries in, burying himself behind doublets and tunics. It’ll serve for however long this servant will take. He leaves the wardrobe open just a crack and looks out. There are voices as whoever it is opens the door. He hears the voice when the door opens. No… It can’t be…

“…Desperate for this…” It’s hard to see much, but there he is: the Bastard. The supposed King in the North. The dutiful white wolf, not on his scheduled patrol, but backing into his bedchamber with swollen lips as he yanks off his doublet. There are smacking sounds. Petyr wishes to get a better look, but moving too much is too great a risk.

But still, this is interesting. This, potentially, is leverage. Sansa would be very interested to hear that her honorable, honest, dutiful brother was shirking his duties to bed some whore.

Petyr moves as much as he can to follow the small sliver of the couple he can see across the room. He watches as the woman backs her kings toward the bed. For all her kirtle is ugly, common brown wool, she has a lovely curtain of crimson hair. Petyr had heard about the wildling woman. Apparently the man still had a preference for redheads. It seemed they had one thing in common. He watches as the bastard loses his tunic and kicks off his boots, as the whore quickly unlaces the front of her kirtle and lets it pool at her feet, revealing long, shapely legs, a glorious arse, and a disquieting array of scars marring the porcelain skin of her back.

Their mouths are glued to one another until the whore brings the Bastard to the foot of the bed and pushes him down on it, forcing him on his back. The Bastard grins as the whore moves away from his lips to pull his breeches down of his legs. She takes the smallclothes he wears too, and a Petyr gets a quick glimpse of the Bastard’s cock. It’s bigger than his.

The whore climbs up onto the bed and kneels beside him, squealing. “Finally!”

The Bastard chuckles. “Eager, are we?”

“No more than you are, My King.”

Petyr’s blood runs cold. No… It can’t be…

“True.” The Bastard gazes up at the whore in downright reverence and reaches for her hips, drawing her over him and upwards, towards his mouth. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve longed to—”

“To what? Jon, what are you—– OH! OHHHHH!”

She’s straddling not his hips, but his head. She cries out his name. She shouts. She writhes. Petyr keeps telling himself that it’s not her. It can’t be her.

But then she throws her head back. For a few seconds, there’s her face, and Petyr can deny it no longer. It’s her. It’s truly her.

He’s lost another Tully girl. And this time, she prefers her brother to him, in literally every sense.

It’s worse than Brandon. Catelyn chose Brandon to marry, as per her father’s wishes. Sansa… Sansa has chosen Jon based on nothing. He is her brother. It is a risk, not a duty. Still, she rejects Petyr in favor of being bedded out of wedlock by her brother.

No wonder he has such a hold on her.

Petyr stares, mouth agape, as Sansa throws her head back once more, hands between her legs, and cries out even louder than before. There is a look on her face of something within her snapping in the most delicious way.

That should be a face she makes for him, and him alone. He sees the Bastard’s hands on her hips, slowing urging her down his body as she quivers. When her hips come close to his, she kisses him. “I love you,” she says to her brother, “And I need you inside me. I’ve waited too long.”

How long has he dreamed, ached, yearned to hear her say those exact words? And to hear it like this, said to him.

The Bastard’s hands stay planted on her hips as she eases herself down. She moans, grabs his hands, plants them on her breasts, and begins to ride him like a stallion.

Petyr can look no longer. He shuts his eyes and covers his ears, trying to muffle the sound of their cries, willing for himself to wake from this nightmare. But it keeps going and going. The sounds get ever louder, ever more passionate. Surely this is one of the Seven Hells.

Their cries reach a certain pitch and end. It’s over, yes, but Petyr still feels bile rush to his mouth. It is over because the Bastard has finished. Even now, his seed was being released within Sansa, filling her, possibly to succeed where Ramsay’s failed and find purchase within her. And then what?

He almost hopes it happens. So that Sansa can see what this man has truly done for her. So she can come crawling to him, probably to get him to marry her so she can pass her bastard off as his. She’ll have to be married off after all.

Petyr opens his eyes and uncovers his ears, waiting and watching for when they finally get up, get dressed, and leave. Perhaps… Perhaps he can use this. Expose them. Or threaten them, anyways.

Sansa remains sitting atop her brother. The Bastard reaches up and plays with her hair.

“Gods…” He gasps, “Look at you, brave as you are beautiful. My Queen. My wife.”

Petyr almost collapses at that. No. Not possible. Sansa giggles and moves to lie down next to him, curling up to her brother. She wags a dainty finger at him. “Not quite yet, King Jon. We still must wait a bit.”

Petyr feels his mouth fall open. What can they possibly mean? Surely, they didn’t dare. They were Starks, not Targaryens. There was no way in the Seven Hells the Northerners would accept this.

The Bastard grunts in indignation, looking into her eyes and stroking her hair. “For Lord Reed and the announcement and Bran and the lords to all assemble before the stupid bloody Heart Tree so that we might say a few words that somehow make our love more legitimate somehow. But sod them all. I’ve made my choice, so have you. How are you not my wife already? If I wish to call you such when we’re alone, I don’t see why I shouldn’t. You’re in my arms already, in my bed….” He trails off, then cups her cheek. “…My brave girl. I almost didn’t… After what happened to you… You know you didn’t have to, right? I’d wait a hundred years for you to—”

“You did as I asked, My Love. You stayed beneath me, kept your eyes on mine, spoke my name. I am not going to let Ramsay take this away from me. He doesn’t get to be a barrier to my happiness anymore. With you, he can’t be. You’re you. And I… I wanted this. I wanted to feel good. I wanted to prove to myself that what he did couldn’t keep me from loving the way I wish to.” She grins and squirms. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing this with you.”

Petyr’s mind races. He tries to piece their words together. Lord Reed? Howland Reed, obviously. Old friend of Ned Stark’s. And.. Did the Bastard say ‘Bran’? If he meant their brother Bran, the one the Lannisters crippled, then… But Bran was missing, likely dead, was he not?

“Mmmmm.” The Bastard grins. “I’m so happy he accepted it. You don’t think he saw it, do you? And that’s why he understands?”

“It’s possible.” She shudders. “I’m so afraid for him, Jon. I hate that we have to do this. But… Gods, what could possibly have been done to him? Things like this… They don’t come without a price.”

Petyr’s eyes narrow. What could they possibly be talking about?

“I know,” replies the Bastard, sighing, “I sometimes wonder if the only reason I’m alive is because the Red Woman burned Shireen. She thought she was doing it for Stannis’s victory, but what if really it was meant to give her the power to bring me back?”

“You mustn’t blame yourself for that, Jon, please don’t. You have no control over it.”

“But if so, what’s Bran’s price? He’s lost his legs, his wolf, his home, his parents, his brothers, what more could possibly be taken from him?”

“Perhaps he’s already paid his price.”

The Bastard shudders. “The gods are cruel, either way. But… The best thing we can do for him is to keep this a secret for as long as we can. At least until he figures out what it all means.”

“Right. Which is why we must wait. Lord Reed arrives in Winterfell with his daughter, tells everyone the truth about you, then Bran can come home with no shocking, inexplicable revelations that would make people think he’s anything but a normal boy who has simply been through horrible things. Bran arrives a fortnight after everyone knows the truth, we can make our announcement in a timely manner, and all the lords of the North can see our decision validated by our little brother’s approval. And then…” She strokes his chest, “We’ll be wed before the eyes of gods and men.”

He takes her hand and kisses it. “Mine. Forever. No one else’s. I’ll be able to take care of you for the rest of your life.”

Her smile falters slightly. “I hope. If you come back to me.”

“Sansa, you know I must…”

“I know. And I won’t let it ruin this right now. We have so little time.” She pauses. “But… I hope you’ve seeded me. I hope I’m with child as soon as possible. If I am, maybe I’ll be able to have it in time before you leave, and so, at the very least, you can go into battle having met your child. You deserve that.”

Petyr wants to die. She truly loves the Bastard. Loves him madly. How?

The Bastard pulls her closer. “You know, before the battle with Ramsay, I told Melisandre not to bring me back. If we lost, there was nothing to come back for. Not if I’d failed you. And I thought it was wrong for me to return. Unnatural. But… I swear to you. I am never making such a request again. I’ll march off to war with a dozen Red Priests, come back a thousand times if it means coming back to you. I swear it.”

“You had better keep that vow, Jon Snow. You can break vows to anyone or anything you like, but not to me.”

The Bastard smiles. “You were who my vows were meant for. Not the Watch, not the bloody winter crown. You. You and the life we’ll create together.”

Petyr still wants to vomit. But he also still wants to know what is happening. What secrets have they been keeping? Bran returning? Magic? Marriage? What was happening? What was this truth they were speaking of?

He has to know. He has to know. He has to—-

He doesn’t even realize he’s moved. Not until he falls. Falls, crashing out of the wardrobe onto the floor.

In seconds, he’s on his back and there is a crushing weight bearing down on his throat. Sansa screams. The Bastard is on top of him, glaring at him, his forearm crushing Petyr’s windpipe.

There’s a long, semi-silent moment, where the two men glare at one another. It is broken by Sansa calling for Jon to let him up. “I must speak to him.”

He gasps for air as the Bastard gets up and pulls him to his feet to face her.

She sits up in the bed, magnificent. Her knees are close to her chest, and from the chest down she is covered by furs and linens. Her red hair is loose and gloriously mussed, her lips swollen, her eyes bright and so very, very blue, her porcelain skin ever so slightly flushed. How many times has he dreamt of seeing her in exactly this state?

But she looks upon him coldly. “This is an issue, isn’t it, Littlefinger? You heard every word. Now, what is to be done with you?”

A chill runs down his spine. He realizes, at this moment, that there is no hope. That there hasn’t been any hope since the day he wrote Roose Bolton. Not only is there no chance in all of the world that Sansa Stark will ever love him, but that she loathes him. She’s likely loathed him ever since Ramsay first laid his hands on her. Perhaps even longer.

He realizes, now, that she has no reason not to kill him. That she would, gladly. Perhaps she’s simply been waiting for the right moment.

Perhaps that moment has arrived.

“Sansa…” He says, “You don’t understand… Can’t you see? How is he any different? He wants you just as I want you. He sees you just as I see you. He’s your brother, and he’s seduced you! He’s reduced you to being your own brother’s whore!”

His nose breaks under the force of the Bastard’s fist. He doubles over and clutches it, trying to stem the flow of blood. And she laughs.

She laughs.

“It seems with each passing year, Lord Baelish, you grow more of a fool and more of a hypocrite. One would think a brothel keeper would know what a whore is. A person whose body is sold to someone for money or services, usually sold by some sort of pimp. You put me in Ramsay Bolton’s bed in exchange for an alliance with the Boltons. You’re the most prolific pimp in Westeros. You did more to make me your whore than Jon ever could. You just were so sloppy in your efforts that you gained nothing from it. I was with Ramsay because of a pimp. I am with Jon because I want to be. Not for any goods or services, not for the profit of someone like you. Because I yearned for his touch. He made me his lover, not his whore. And soon, he’ll make me his wife as well.”

Petyr straightens up and spits some blood. “If you think for a second that’s true, then you truly are a stupid girl who never learns. You both know that if you two tried to wed, the Northern Lords would rip you apart for incest. Unless they’re Targaryens, not even a king can get away with wedding his sister.”

The two lovers exchange glances, then burst into laughter. It hurts as much as the punch. Fury grips him.

“WHAT IS SO FUNNY?!”

Sansa smirks. “That ‘truth’ we were discussing earlier? The one Lord Reed is supposed to reveal? It’s about Jon. He’s not my brother after all.”

Petyr freezes. “What?! Of course he is! He’s Ned Stark come again! Look at him!”

“Aye, I look very much like my uncle. I got my mother’s Stark looks,” says the Bastard, his lip curling.

“What—?!”

“Remember my Aunt Lyanna? Remember what happened to her?”

And it all comes together. Petyr stares at the Bastard, scanning every inch of him. Trying to recall everything he can from that day at Harrenhal all of those years ago.

And when he looks this closely, he sees it. It’s not obvious, but it’s there. The shape of the eyebrows, the cheekbones, the jawline, the lips, the way the hair curls… Even the way he’s seen the Bastard move is Rhaegar Targaryen come alive again, now that he thinks of it.

He steps back, gaping. So that’s it. Sansa grins. “You always prided yourself on knowing secrets. But I’m afraid that’s the last one you can be permitted. We’ve been tolerating you long enough, Baelish. I’ve let you live after what you did to me. But now you may endanger my loved ones as well. I can’t permit that.”

Petyr tries, tries so hard to get to the door. But the Bastard is faster, stronger than he is. He’s yanked by the collar, he’s flying towards a bedpost, and then… He wakes, freezing, lying in the snow. He opens his eyes to find himself lying atop the ramparts of Winterfell, Sansa and the Bastard standing over him. The Bastard yanks him to his feet and pushes him to the rail, holding him over the edge.

“I am about to kill you, Petyr Baelish,” The Bastard informs him, “I’m going to throw you off the wall and you are going to fall to your death. And we’ll say it was an accident. And while it will look suspicious, no one will care. You know why? Because there isn’t a single person in the North that doesn’t distrust or outright detest you. There’s not a person in the world that will care that you’re dead. And they will care even less when Sansa here, finally no longer having to be afraid of you, admits what you did to the world. What you did to Joffrey, to Lysa Arryn, to her. And then everyone will celebrate your death, then forget all about you. And Sansa and I will marry, because there’s nothing in this world either of us want more than each other. We’ll win this war and fill Winterfell with our red-headed children. We will rule the North and be remembered for centuries to come. The only thing sung of more than our heroism in destroying the White Walkers will be of our love. And no one, no one, will ever speak the name ‘Petyr Baelish’ again. All you did to win, all you did to harm others, it brings you to losing everything you ever wanted, and dying on Stark soil. Brandon Stark’s nephew finishing the job he should have all those years ago. Only this time, the Tully girl you’ve lost to him can’t wait to see your corpse.”

Sansa walks over, smiling. “I’m sorry, Littlefinger, but whatever you may have wanted to believe, the truth is, I’ll only ever love one man. My brother, Jon.”

And with that, he flies.

[towncalledkingdom]

The walnut in Merrick’s hand was crushed to dust before he realized what he’d done. He lifted the shattered pieces before his visor for a closer inspection before throwing them angrily to the ground, crunching the remains beneath a heavy boot. He stopped at the edge of a small clearing, squinting at the bright beam of direct sunlight boring down like some enormous laser pointer. His skin boiled beneath his heavy armor. Had it been a cooler day, however, Merrick would be boiling nevertheless.

The man approaching beneath the dazzling light set off alarms in Merrick’s head, moving his arm automatically to a heavy blunt object at his back. “The Weevil’s Head,” he’d named it. Mostly because it was, literally, the head of an enormous weevil. He didn’t wonder much about the science of that. He knew he wanted to hit things, and had been given just the weapon to do that with. Merrick’s fist curled instinctively, the other gripping hard at his weapon’s handle.

“I don’t want to fight you, son,” said the man as he passed from the light back into the forest shade. Cicadas cried out angrily from the trees. “I believe I know why you’re here, and I may be able to help you. But if you swing at me I promise it will not end well for you.”

Merrick did not move. “Berwald.“ He spat the name from his mouth. “Where is my father?”

Berwald eyed him coolly, hands clasped behind his back. “He is alive. Let’s talk somewhere more comfortable.”

“No. We’ll talk here,” Merrick snarled. Movement in the trees behind the defector Captain did little to ease the young man’s nerves. Rope ladders descended from high branches as men and women still wearing their uniforms climbed down to stand at attention behind their leader.

“We may no longer be Eleanor’s soldiers, boy, but that doesn’t make us your friends. You come here alone dressed for a fight and expect to leave with something? You’re at our mercy, not the other way around. You have no faction, you have no power. Come in. Sit down. Let’s talk.” Berwald stood relaxed and unarmed, eyes never leaving the dark space hiding Merrick’s eyes.

The armored boy’s face burned behind his helm. “Fine.”

Berwald motioned him forward, not bothering to step out of the way as Merrick approached and passed him. The defected Privateers parted as the pair passed through them toward a makeshift cabin beneath a towering tree trunk. A squat table had been arranged inside, two plates set with meat, garlic potatoes, and pints of water.

“I had a feeling you’d stop by,” said Berwald as he closed the door behind them. The two sat before the steaming plates. Merrick eyed his food suspiciously. He was starving and his skin crawled beneath pouring sweat. “I’m not going to poison you, son. And for God’s sake at least take your helmet off before you have a heat stroke.” The thought of hot food at this moment nearly made Merrick gag, but he was certainly hungry. He gave in and removed his helm, his hair now a soaking mess.

Berwald seated himself and took a long drink from his water. He considered Merrick for a long while before he spoke again. “Your father is alive,” he repeated. “Several of my people were escorting him to the Dungeon while your friend had me tied to a tree.”

“I don’t want to hear your story. I want to know how to get him back,” Merrick grunted. He shoveled a heap of potatoes into his mouth, holding them there for a moment as if checking for an unfamiliar flavor before swallowing them in a single gulp. “Where, exactly, is he and how, exactly, do I bring him out?”

The Captain clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. He pointed a slow finger at the armored boy. “You don’t get to make demands.”

The cabin door burst open and a middle-aged woman in a crisp grey uniform careened through it. “S-sir there’s trouble!”

Berwald was already on his feet, “Eleanor? The fanatics? Report, private!”

“N-neither, sir!” she stammered. “A mob is approaching through the trees to the East! Scouts said they saw Kestrel and Mako leading them.”

“Phylla?” Berwald puzzled. “I thought Mantis had them under control.”

“It seems you were wrong, sir.”

Berwald’s gaze bored into Merrick’s. “I’m going to trust you not to surprise me out there, son. Truthfully I don’t know what’s going on, but I would assume the boiling pot has finally tipped for Phylla. They never liked Mantis or any of Eleanor’s screwed-up family. I’ll give you a pass until you swing at me. You do that and you’ve made your choice. A stupid choice, but it’s yours to make.”

“Shut up, old man,” Merrick scoffed. “Let’s go hit some people.”

As they emerged from the makeshift cabin, Merrick surveyed the area closely for the first time. Above him, so high into the canopy he had to crane his neck, a network of rope bridges connected dozens of circular tree huts. Long rope ladders were being dropped from them left and right, making way for people in Privateer uniform to join them on the forest floor. Their feet hit the ground in a steady rhythm as the fell into formation behind their Captain. Berwald’s hands were clasped once again behind his back as he pulled his troops to him like a magnet to metal shavings.

In contrast to the synchronized bootfalls of the ex-Privateers came the soft, uneven pounding of running feet. Flashes of light tunics slid between the distant trees. The mob moved like a flood- some charging directly forward while others crept along at the fringes of Merrick’s vision. Two men easily outdistanced the rest of the fighters, one shooting forward so fast and light it seemed his legs weren’t even hitting the ground, the other shoving powerfully toward them in a loose, curving line.

"Darts at the ready!” called Berwald. “Only release on my word!” The two men leading the charge- Merrick assumed they were Mako and Kestrel- stopped abruptly at the edge of the clearing in the same space Merrick had been standing less than an hour before. Berwald’s hands remained firmly at his back as he took three steps toward them.

“I am not thrilled with a mob rushing our base without warning. Speak your business if you want to settle this civilly.” The Phylla fighters began filling the edges of the clearing like oil on water. Berwald’s squad stood in smart formation behind him, arms confidently at their tranquilizers.

One of the men lowered his head and flashed a deep grin, revealing narrow gaps between each tooth. Merrick knew it was Mako before he spoke. “Who wants to be civil?” asked Mako. Beside him his companion sifted through the soldiers, meeting each gaze in turn as if evaluating them for weakness. “You’ll remember it was your people who stabbed Caracal and whisked her body mysteriously away before anyone could actually see it. But please,” he stretched the word out along his tongue, “tell me more about Privateer civility.”

“We are no longer under Eleanor. We defected soon after the events at the King’s Council.” Berwald’s face grew uncharacteristically red.

“I see. So it wasn’t YOU and your people that shot all the Council members during the confusion? And it certainly couldn’t have been you at the front of a Privateer squad shouting 'for the Warden!' that day, could it?"

"Mako," Berwald cut in, "you have to listen to me now. The people you see are not your enemies until you make them so. We have decided to resist the Warden, and that makes us allies."

"You should have thought of that before declaring war on a hornet's nest like Phylla." smiled Mako.

Kestrel spoke for the first time. "And what, exactly, are you, little knight?" he called to Merrick, who had been standing at the head of the defector army just behind the Captain.

Merrick pulled Weevil's Head from its strap and bounced it in a hand. "I'm the man who's going to give you a real headache if you don't let me get back to what I was doing."

Kestrel took a long look at Merrick's weapon and began to laugh. "Is that- are you carrying one of HIS weapons? That disgraceful dropout couldn't do something right if he knew how!"

Merrick raised his eyebrows, remembering all of the items he had broken with Weevil's Head as he trekked through Kingdom. He had to disagree with the mocking Kestrel. It would do the job just fine. He glanced at Berwald and gave him a nod. The man returned a slight, sad smile.

"Captain Berwald," boomed Mako loud enough for both of the gathered crowds to hear, "seeing as there is no acting Council, Phylla stands accusing you of crimes against our leader and our people. We have determined you and all who wear the Privateer colors to be guilty and our enemies. Drop your weapons and come peacefully, or we will use be forced to resort to unpleasant means."

Berwald raised a fist in the air. Tranquilizers raised in unison. "You have no power to judge me and no right to attack my soldiers. Where is your acting Alpha? Where is Mantis?"

Mako and Kestrel exchanged a sly glance. Kestrel spoke. "As of this morning the Six Houses no longer recognize Mantis, defected Privateers, or any of Eleanor's compatriots as our own. They have been found guilty of conspiring against our Alpha and have made themselves our enemies."

"And such is the way of every war," sighed Berwald, "the commoner dies at the whim of the ignorant bastard."

"Lay down your weapons and come peacefully," demanded Kestrel, hands cupped over his mouth like a megaphone. Berwald rolled his eyes, drew his tranquilizer from his back and fired two shots directly into Mako and Kestrel in a single practiced motion.

In the seconds of confusion before the forest exploded Berwald turned to Merrick. "Son?" he called as the men's faces roiled in shock and outrage. "Hit anything without a uniform."

[thederailedtrain]

The Magic Shop: Lost And Found [Four]

The warehouse was a lot larger than Kira remembered it being. Last time she was here, she’d been so focused on getting Gus to safety she hadn’t had time to marvel at the size. But now that she was finally inside, she could see why Gus thought it was an airplane hangar. And here she thought he’d been exaggerating.

Actually, Gus assured her it was even larger. According to him, there was a whole basement floor that was just as large as the main level. Kira wasn’t allowed down there, though. That was where the pack trained younger werewolves. And it wasn’t so much a safety issue as a security one. There were some aspects about werewolf life that Markas wasn’t quite willing to give up. Even her position as second-in-command to the Warden didn’t give her a pass.

That’s where Gus was now. Kira knew the only reason Markas had insisted on the meeting taking place down there was to keep her out of it. Unlike Gus, Kira wasn’t affected by Markas’s alpha status. She could argue back against him in ways Gus literally couldn’t. By meeting alone with Gus, Markas held all the power over the two of them. Sure, she could have used some sort of spell to intervene on the discussion, but what good would that do them? The Ward could easily lose a powerful ally in the pack if they found out. And there was no way a werewolf as strong as Markas wouldn’t smell the magic from a mile off. All Kira could do was wait and hope.

The whole thing put Kira on edge, and she didn’t doubt Deirdre’s ability to sense the tension radiating off her. All werewolves seemed to share an understanding of pheromones that made them near empathic. Markas called her out on her nerves the second she stepped through the door, and Deirdre had spent the entire time since by her side. She didn’t need to say a single word, or even offer a comforting touch. It was like she knew that Kira wasn’t a fan of physical contact from those she wasn’t close with.

From what Kira had heard, she had taught Gus more about what it actually meant to be a werewolf than Markas had. Kept him company after his sudden shifts in his early days, taught him ways to survive public transportation, and gave him things to focus on when his emotions ran too hot. All Markas taught him was power and control through will. That was the thing Kira was finding she liked most about Deirdre; she understood exactly what a person needed, and when they needed it. Cedric shared a similar gift, though his was arguably well-honed over centuries and aided by his actual empathic abilities. It was part of what made him such a good Warden.

“Deirdre,” Kira spoke up suddenly. It had been fifteen minutes since she and Gus had arrived, and about ten since she’d last spoken. Deirdre nearly jumped at the sound of her name, before taking her eyes off the basement entrance to face Kira. She made sure to keep her voice quiet, though chances were every single turned werewolf within the building could hear them anyway. Kira spotted quite a few other pack members glance their way the second Kira had opened her mouth. “Why is Markas the alpha? I mean, you seem like you would’ve done a good job too. So why isn’t it you?”

Instantly, Kira could see Deirdre’s eyes widen. “Kira!” She hissed, gaze nervously flitting across the warehouse. “You can’t just say those kinds of things. You never know who’s listening.”

“Oh, I wasn’t suggesting you pull a coup d’etat. Just wondering how it all works,” Kira held up a hand. Judging by her reaction, it almost looked like Kira had asked her why she hadn’t killed her brother yet, when she was really just curious about lines of succession. Was that really such a terrible thing to ask?

The sound Deirdre made was nearly a sigh of relief. “Hmm, it’s not terribly tricky,” She hummed after a while. “Markas and I share a father, but Markas was a child of his first marriage. After they divorced, our dad married my mum and had me. He was the alpha of our pack, so he was the one to turn both of us. When he died a while ago, he passed on leadership to Markas. Until he has a child, I suppose I’m next in line.” The way she said it made Kira think this was the first she was even considering the possibility.

“Is the alpha always the one to turn younger members of the pack?” Kira asked, and was met with an affirmative nod from Deirdre. “So...where does that leave Gus?”

Deirdre’s expression turned stony. “In a precarious position.”

She didn’t have time to elaborate. Markus burst out of the basement doors, Gus following at his heels. That pit of worry in Kira’s stomach planted by Deirdre’s last words only worsened when she saw the look on her best friend’s face. He was staring down at the floor, shoulders hunched like he was carrying something heavy in his hands. That wasn’t the look of a man who’d convinced the largest non-coven faction in the Ward to join their fight.

“Alright, that’s enough talking for one night,” Markas declared, coming to a stop just ten feet away from Kira. Gus continued on, purposeful strides that were meant to get him out of the warehouse as quickly as possible. The alpha glared her down as Gus walked past him, somehow grinning at the same time.

The second Gus was within arm’s length, Kira made a grab for his arm. He hardly noticed until he got to the end of her reach and was suddenly pulled back. That seemed to snap him out of whatever this was, if only a little. There was still a look in his eyes that made her nervous. “Gus...what-”

But that was as far as she got before Markas was talking over her once more. “Nice ploy you just tried there, sending one of my own in to try and convince me about this fight, but it’s not going to work,” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Consider us left out of this whole thing.”

Kira’s heart dropped, but it didn’t have far to fall when it was already dangling off the edge in anticipation of his answer.

“Come on,” Gus said quietly. He gave a small tug on the sleeve Kira was still holding. She turned to find him staring off at the ground. “Let’s just go.”

“Markas, please,” Deirdre spoke up, approaching her brother. “We need to lend our support to this fight. We can really help them turn the tides. If we don’t-”

“And I said enough!” Markas roared. The sound bounced off the high bay walls of the warehouse, making Kira wince. Every single werewolf flinched at the volume, attention suddenly on their alpha. Even Gus seemed like he was unable to tear his eyes away. And it looked like he really wanted to. “No member of this pack will participate in tomorrow’s battle. My command is final!”

This time, when he said it, Kira could feel some kind of magic settle over the warehouse, pressing down on everyone but her. It felt a lot like the magic that hung over her for weeks after her contract with the Harbingers, even after she had broken the spell with her neutral magic. For a brief instant, Markas’s eyes glowed. They were a cold, piercing blue when he shifted. As the order rippled through the room, Kira could see the faint glow light up every other pack member’s eyes. So this was an alpha’s true power.

“Kira, please,” Gus whispered, still trying to blink away the gold from his hazel eyes. “It’s time to go home.”

It really was. Now that he’d ordered all of his betas and omegas not to attend the fight, the decision was final. There would be no further argument, Markas made sure of that. However, that didn’t mean Kira was alright with him getting the last word.

“I hope you can sleep easy and have a clear conscience tomorrow night,” Kira muttered.

It was quiet, but not too quiet for a werewolf to pick up. She could see Markas’s lip twitch into a sneer as the words left her mouth, and hoped she only imagined the quiet growl that left his mouth.

And she left it at that. The last thing she saw before the warehouse doors closed was the glare Markas aimed her way, and the one Deirdre had fixed on her brother.

As they boarded the crosstown train, Kira couldn’t help but blurt, “You were right about Markas. What an absolute dick.”

Gus, who had been oddly silent up till then, just made a small noise of agreement. Immediately sensing his mistake, he backtracked. “Well, I mean-” Gus made a face, arms waving around. “He’s not all bad. Markas just doesn’t want to lose anyone tomorrow. He’s trying to keep his pack safe. I can get that...kinda.”

“Yeah, sure, it’s the pack he wants to keep safe,” Kira mumbled to herself as she took her seat in the empty train car. Gus made another quiet noise, but didn’t say anything more to disagree with her. Which was good, because Kira would have cut him off with the next thing that came tumbling out of her mouth. “Shit, wait, Markas made sure no one from the pack could join the battle. Does that mean you won’t be able to fight tomorrow?”

Gus shook his head and Kira’s blood nearly froze. “No, I’ll still be there,” He told her. The breath she’d been holding fell from her lips as a relieved sigh. “Technically...I’m not part of Markas’s pack. I’m sort of an omega because Deirdre was the one who turned me instead of the current alpha. Markas accepted me into his pack, so he does have a lot more power than me, but that does mean I can break rank. Probably why he hates me so much, come to think of it.”

“Oh, thank god,” Kira breathed, pulling Gus into a hug. There was a split second where Gus didn’t quite know what to do, but then he was returning the hug. Maybe a little more forcefully than he’d originally meant it, but Kira wouldn’t have it any other way. “Don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t have you at my side.”

“No way I’d miss the chance to punch Jasper in the face again,” Gus told her as they pulled apart. That got a laugh out of Kira. There weren’t many good memories she had of the Harbingers, but that definitely made the list.

“Okay, now that that’s all settled, can we talk about anything other than what’s going to happen tomorrow?” Kira asked. She spared a glance at her hands. They’d been shaking for days now. “It’s been all battle tactics and negotiations for the last two weeks. If this is the night before everything changes, I want to at least pretend it’s all okay for a moment.”

Gus just nodded for a long moment. “Eh, sure, why not?” He said, then gave her a look. “Want to hear about my research project? Made a couple advances in the lab recently that were pretty promising.”

Normally, whenever Gus started talking plants, Kira tuned him out. It was practically a defense mechanism after knowing him for so long. But tonight, she just shrugged and welcomed it.

While Kira only caught about half of it, talking about school was a welcome change. And Gus must’ve been practicing how to present his work to someone without a science degree, because it was a lot easier to understand this time around. Maybe it was just a testament to how long Kira had known him. Eventually, he even allowed her to take the reigns and discuss her own thesis. Typical Gus, always coming through in the clutch.

Before Kira even knew what was happening, they were off the train and breathing in the crisp, late winter air. Despite the harsh wind, Kira found herself not wanting to go back to apartment just yet. That would mean their last day of preparation was over and it was time for the battle. Kira was determined to drag this night out as much as she could. No telling what her dream would look like tonight.

“Want to go to the Paper Moon?” Kira asked suddenly. “We’ve hardly been there since this whole mess really got rolling and I almost miss it. You know, for old times sake.”

Gus seemed to mull the idea over, a smile blooming on his face. Kira thought he was about to agree, but she should’ve known better than to try to predict the next thing to come out of her friend’s mouth. “Nah, I have a better idea,” He told her. Somehow Kira doubted that. “If we really want to go old school and do something we haven’t in a while, how about stargazing?”

And here Kira hadn’t believed him. “Oh, hell yes,” She exclaimed, immediately falling into step with Gus as they made their way to his apartment.

Stargazing really was something they hadn’t done in forever. It had started back when Gus first started renting his apartment. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Gus went exploring and realized it was pretty easy to let himself onto the building’s roof. He immediately called Kira over for beer and “stargazing”. Of course, the light pollution made it absolutely impossible to see the stars over New York City with the naked eye. It was mostly just an excuse to the two of them to get drunk and not worry about other people.

Tonight wasn’t about getting drunk, though. The pair skipped a beer run to Gus’s apartment and headed straight for the top floor. There was a small step-ladder in the garbage room that gave them access to the roof. In the time since they’d been there last, someone had gone and padlocked the exit. Gus seemed disappointed for all of five seconds before Kira muttered an unlocking spell and pushed the latch open. The window gave a loud creak that was immediately swallowed up by the rush of the city below.

“Maybe not all the changes are bad,” Gus commented, following Kira out onto the roof. She was already making her way over to a dry spot on the ground and laying down on it, so Gus joined right in. “I mean, you got that latch open with magic and I don’t have to worry about the cold anymore.”

“It’s the small things,” Kira deadpanned. Lying flat on her back like this, wind and traffic roaring in her ears, Kira could almost forget about the deadline looming over their heads. Instead, she just focused on the sky above her, pretending that the flashing lights were stars and not airplanes.

“Yeah, I guess a lot of it’s been pretty shitty,” Gus agreed. “Your love life, my scholarship, nearly dying twice a week…”

But it really wasn’t all bad. Kira was closer to her aunt than ever, not to mention how rewarding her job was. “We’ve been given this chance to help people, though,” Kira sighed.

She closed her eyes, feeling herself get lost in the city for just a moment. If Kira tried hard enough, she could sense all kinds of Otherworlders nearby - feel the telluric currents connecting them all together. This never would have happened if she hadn’t followed Hien’s recommendation to take a job at that magic shop downtown.

Every so often, Kira found herself coming back to the thing Daphne had said to her in that alleyway all those months ago. Like now.

“Gus, I just- I have this feeling,” Kira told him. Gus hummed, asking her to go on. “It’s like...we haven’t done all we’re meant to. Not yet at least.” She turned to look his way and he mirrored her movement. “I don’t think tomorrow is the end of this. I still haven’t seen the end of the dream, but no matter who wins tomorrow, there’s still so much more that needs doing. Fixing the seal over New York, dismantling the Harbingers…”

“Work, work, work,” Gus sighed. “At least I’m getting paid for it now.” As put off as he sounded by the idea, he couldn’t quite disguise the smile in his voice. “So, what do you still need to do, Kira? Confess your feelings to Cedric?” Kira reached over to smack him in the chest instantly. “Ow, alright, alright! But I was being serious there. You know, a little.”

The groan Kira released was loud enough to be heard over the traffic below. “The only thing I’m feeling for him right now is annoyed,” She grimaced, running her hands down her face. “If he could just let me know what I did wrong - like a normal person! How can I know how to fix it if he doesn’t tell me what the problem is? He won’t even look at me now.”

“Oh, he looks at you plenty,” Gus mumbled, so low Kira swore she was imagining it. “Kinda stares at you when you aren’t looking.” No, Kira knew about that too. “I dunno, why don’t you just ask him?”

“You know Cedric,” Kira said simply. “You think he’d give you a straight answer if I did?”

Gus breathed out a reluctant sigh. “Well, you won’t know unless you do.” The sound of fabric rustling next to her told Kira that he’d shrugged. “At least you can have an open discussion about it. The woman I’m in love with probably thinks I’m running a drug cartel or something.”

Now, that got Kira’s attention, but not for the last part. “You’re...in love with Sophie?” She asked.

For a long moment, Gus was silent. “I dunno,” He said eventually, as if still considering the words that had come out of his mouth just seconds before. “I think I might be.” Then another pause before, “I haven’t told her yet. I should tell her. Just in case worst comes to worst tomorrow, you know?”

The he was sitting up and looking right at Kira as if she had all the answers. How should she know? There was only one person outside of her family that she’d said those three words to, and that was during undergrad.

Kira sat up, hugging her knees to her chest. “If you think you should, then I say go for it,” She raised her eyebrows at him. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

“Och, thanks, Kira,” Gus said, giving her a quick hug before bolting to his feet. “You’re the best.” He was already back in the garbage room before he called up to her, “See you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Good luck!” She shouted back. If Gus replied, she didn’t hear it.

Instead, Kira decided she knew what she had to do next; go to the shop. She did need to talk to Cedric, just not about what Gus had suggested. He would want to know about all the negotiations from today, the sooner, the better.

When she finally made it back onto the street, Kira took a moment to gather her thoughts. It really was for the best that Gus was telling Sophie this now, right? The looming battle wasn’t the only thing weighing heavily on Kira’s mind. She feared for someone’s safety in a way she couldn’t rationalize. It was the same worry she had before leaving to speak with Donnie. There was a sense of unease resting on her shoulders that she couldn’t quite shake. She had a feeling it was fate.