#idk I think I cooked with this one?

[stormwifewrites]

👑 Ero Quod Spero

Hey have you guys heard of this game Dragon Age: Origins -

anyways here's a little King Alistair, happy Sunday! 👑🐴🌹

Alistair pulls her in for a kiss, and he lingers even after her lips leave his, sifting his fingers gently through her hair and watching it shimmer around his hands like bolts of straw-blonde silk. “I’m… sorry, my love,” Siobhan says, her hands curling into loose fists at his chest. He feels his heart thumping against them, his future weighed in her hands. “It was a long day at court. I’m a bit tired.” “Of course,” he says lightly, pressing a kiss to her brow, and with no further talk of prettiness they snuff the lights and climb into bed. — One month after the conclusion of the Fifth Blight, Alistair struggles with the mantle of kingship and the distance growing between him and his beloved Cousland.

Story on AO3; snippet below the cut

Snippet

“Your Majesty,” says Siobhan with a gracious dip of the head, as if she has not spent months with him swigging ale by the fireside and rinsing blood from their blades and, for the last and sweetest of those desperate months, tangling her body tight with his in the late sleepless hours of night, “if I may offer a suggestion - White River’s claim is stronger, but the tax on the Waking Sea higher. Perhaps they might both maintain the symbol, but add distinctly colored bordures, making it impossible to confuse in battle while maintaining the historical precedent, and allowing the families to keep what they must of their existing artifacts?” She turns to smile at the two claimants, like the sun spearing through insistently gathered clouds. “I would hate to ask anyone to go at their flagstones with pickaxes, nor do I believe there is enough dye in all of Ferelden to manage three thousand tabards.” The banns glare warily at each other, then back to the royals. “It’s a fair solution,” says Alistair. “Here I was about to suggest one of you put my face on your arms, so I think we can all agree it’s preferable to that.” “You have a charming face, my love,” says Siobhan, and he can see a barely suppressed giggle threatening to bubble up through her noble demeanor. “This is… acceptable,” says de Vendt reluctantly, glancing to the side. “If Waking Sea agrees.” “If we may have the white bordure.” Lady Eremon lifts her chin as if in challenge. De Vendt sighs. “I suppose the river runs as green as blue,” he says wearily. “We will consult the armiger, and make plans for refitting the troops.” “Splendid.” Alistair claps his hands. “Thank you for coming.” The banns bow low, and retreat at the herald’s elbow down the long blue stretch of carpet and out towards the open sun. “You don’t need to thank them,” says Siobhan, leaning in to peck his cheek. “You’re the king.” “Riiight.” He expels a breath. “Say, remind me, dearest - what is the coat of arms for House Cousland?” She gestures to the thin golden circlet nestled in her braided blonde hair. They have not yet been wed, and in place of the ten-ton monstrosity Alistair is forced to wear while holding court she wears a delicate braid of woven laurel, wrought in gold and fine as glass. “The crossed laurels,” she says. “The symbol of victory, and virtue.” “Ah. Right.” Alistair touches the slender crown, his hand falling to cup her face and slide his thumb across the smooth curve of her cheek. Her eyes are a blue so pale they appear gray, like clouds drifting over a shy dawn sky. “Well. You have one of those, at least.” She laughs and shakes her head, loosening his grip, but he can see the faint flush in her cheeks, and considers this a far greater victory than any royal adjudication he has dispensed this day. Their bond is unlike anything Alistair has experienced before, deep as the Drakon and strong as tempered steel, but even steel can go brittle, and in the days since that dark night on the eve of battle he has sensed a newfound strain in her easy smiles. “All right.” He drops his hand reluctantly and bends forward to give Odie a pat. The hound barks his contentment, the tiny nub of his tail waggling in a distinctly unwarlike manner. “Who’s next?”

🔖 Additional Tags

Smut, Angst, Fluff, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Angst with a Happy Ending, Masturbation, Penis In Vagina Sex, Bath Sex, Horses and Heraldry, King Alistair, King Alistair and Queen Cousland, Sweet Alistair, Awkward Alistair, Touch-Starved Alistair, Roleplay, Humor, Alistair is a Funny Guy, Dark Ritual post-traumatic processing, because fix-it fics are cheaper than therapy, Alistair does unkingly things in the royal bath, twice

[icewindandboringhorror]

(also feel free in the tags to clarify Why you made the choice you made!! :0c)

[bacchuschucklefuck]

''''''shadow'''''''' ''''''''game'''''''''''''

[slasherflicks999]

thank you pinterest for launching me into yet another multiple day drawing :3

I LOVE HIIIIMAKAMSMSBDIHSSKBSDFHKJABSFD we know this

but oh my god this took almost 7 hours overall LMAO im so tired but like in a good way

you may be looking at his hair and saying “heyyyy gravity doesnt work that way….” in which case you are correct but i thought it would be cool if BEN’s hair kinda floats when he gets all glitchy like how hair does when it’s in water :3 in my head this would also mean it would poof up a little when he gets mad like in a ghibli movie or a cat bc…. cmon that’d be so fun

also idk what his outfit is i just improvised it bc i didn’t wanna design bro a whole outfit LMAO i never know what to draw him wearing!!!!! smh smh.. it’s okay he’s serving

but anyway…….. im so proud of this and how i did the shading hehe :333 i love him i love him i love him im so tired i love him

ref for the pose after the break if anyone wants it :D

[tougotstrangeld]

[xxplastic-cubexx]

cant stop thinkin bout charles and erik readin together on the couch but instead of reading with him charles is listening to eriks thoughts while he reads. Live mind commentary ……..

[lesbikyuu]

ifeel like this is so ooc but it might be okay cuz its lusan

[locria-writes]

can u believe i did all this in a week?

very bad no good terrible thing

actually not that bad looking pretty peachy by my standards

yes they're both nsfw first one is spicier second one is just like yikes you guys do not know how to fuck like at all

[sweatytoothedlesbo]

todd writing a poem that he's really proud of and wanting to read it at a dps meeting but he's scared so neil holds his hand while he does it

[enbydummy]

I can't go without the feeling of your flesh upon my teeth

I can't retreat

No, I can't even breathe without feeling hungry

Why do you still believe in me?

[beheamothscreamoth]

Quick question for the Touchstarved fandom!! As much as we love Ais calling us 'Sparrow,' I have to ask - if you had to decide, what other bird nickname do you think he would call you/your MC? :O

For example, Ais would my Unnamed MC Daniella 'bluebird,' while he'd call my Alchemist MC Edgar 'crow' (and another OC I'm planning, Shinju, 'woodpecker!')

[vellichorsdesire]

definitely do not think about being called tons of masc terms by an f/o. if you’re comfortable with it of course, they make sure before doing so. maybe they start with calling you the petnames/nicknames they’d usually use for you, calling you handsome along with it (‘hey, handsome man’ or a ‘hi, my sweet, handsome boy.’) maybe you like being called pretty boy too, they’d definitely ask first. maybe they focus on the features they adore the most about you.

maybe you ask to be reassured with such words because you feel comforted by it and they don’t mind doing so, but in the end they really do think those sweet things that they mumble in your ear.

[sieglinde-freud]

let it be known that i love prince inigo with my whole soul. however sometimes it is SO much fun to think about owain and his two most loyal-est knights you ever seen: worst guy in the world #1 and worst guy in the world #2. i love retainer inigo and severa so much. retainers who bully you and make fun of you and trash on you but they’d leave behind everyone and everything they ever knew to follow you and protect you in a whole new universe. they love you so much that they’d swear allegiance to total strangers but that loyalty pales in comparison to what they’d do for you. and they were all lovers!!!!!!!

[technovillain]

what if the idea of having to interact with serena again after everything that happened made dean wanna rip his face off so bad that he invented a stupid disguise scenario that accidentally got classic stupid alter-ego complications. but this time in a transgenderly way.

are you on board with this hashtag girlcringe.

[strawberry-halla]

now im probably the many few people who actually agreed with the way bioware handled varric’s death and here’s why:

varric has been one of the most prominent dragon age characters since dragon age 2’s release. he’s basically the mascot (well, i think solas has stolen this role now but i digress), the character everybody loves! varric has been there since almost the beginning, over 10 years of our favorite dwarf.

this is the thing that hangs people up on his death in veilguard. why did they do it? why did it happen? what was bioware thinking? well i’m not expert but i think i have a pretty good idea.

varric has always been the friend who supports you no matter what, the one to pull you away from the heavy decisions the player makes to make you laugh or try to see the bright side. he made the player feel good and your character feel good, no matter who you’re playing as.

we saw this lovable dwarf go through so much tragedy in every media possible. he was dealt a bad hand at every corner but the good parts were the friends he made along the way. even if they did something bad in the end (anders and solas), varric still sees the person they were underneath everything.

so yes i think his choice to talk to solas, only to end up dying, was how it was going to end for him. varric cares so much about his friends and eventually, one of them was going to fuck that up. he got lucky so many times, escaping death at every turn. if varric would have went home to kirkwall as viscount for the rest of his days, i don’t think that would be a good end for him.

it’s a pretty thought to have, but it’s just NOT varric. he wanted to help the inquisition and he wanted to help save/stop solas because he knew him. they were friends. good ones. so of course it makes sense varric is the one to go after him.

now i think it would have been worse if varric was dead from the start of veilguard (well, he is but we don’t know that yet) because it definitely doesn’t ease the player into the reality of it. so making him a figment of solas’s blood magic on rook was a very clever way to ease them and us into accepting his death. i cannot think of a better way if i tried.

varric’s relationship with rook was so important. he was basically a mentor, a father figure for some. his role in veilguard is not a waste. rook as a character needed their mentor to ease them into this leadership. i think it would have been incredibly jarring to just have rook suddenly know how to lead the veilguard without having someone to talk to about their struggles. solas would have worked fine, but his role as the antagonist for most of the game would have made a really unrealistic connection.

and yes. i know varric’s memory is being manipulated by solas’s hand, but solas himself says that varric would never say anything to rook that they already didn’t know from him. varric’s guidance was still at play here, not solas. he just kept up the illusion varric was still alive to make sure rook would succeed. it’s incredibly shitty of him to goad this at rook, but he was never entirely wrong that rook had varric to help them. they did have varric, even when he wasn’t there. varric’s lessons and memory alone were enough.

and when rook and the player finally come to this realization in the regret prison, it just hits you all at once. i cried for about two hours once the scene ended. i had to pause my game, get up, and walk away. it was like losing a best friend. and i know how silly it sounds to mourn the loss of a video game character, but varric was more than that to many. to me. i just needed a bit to recover from the realization.

varric made a choice. one that got him killed. but he knew that it was the right one to make. solas regrets what he did to varric. he even says if he could, he wouldn’t have done it. it was an accident. a horrible accident that doesn’t justify what solas did. there is no glory in needless death. but this isn’t about solas.

varric in all his goodness as a person FORGAVE solas for this. he knew solas was still good. deep, deep down. that solas ‘wants to be the hero’ and would tear himself apart to make things better. i don’t know about you but it’s incredibly insane that someone forgives their murderer. especially varric! who said in inquisition: ‘nobody forgives someone for killing you!’ like it came full circle.

varric’s death was necessary for us and for solas’s story. i know it sounds incredibly silly to us that one character’s redemption is another’s downfall, but isn’t that how things work sometimes? you don’t have to like it or agree with it, but that’s just one thing i find so fascinating about dragon age’s characters and how they interact with one another throughout the series.

there’s an incredible post by @/corseque that explains the parallels between varric and solas that really ties this all together. please go read it if you haven’t!

i’m so so glad we had so many good memories of varric and his legacy will forever live on in-universe and amongst fans. now’s the time to make new ones with our new favorites, shall we? and we can still honor varric’s memory by writing stories, of course.

[sas-afras]

i kinda don’t get people who characterize maccready as like… secretly generous, or having a heart of gold or anything. like don’t get me wrong i don’t think he’s downright malicious or anything, but the dude is absolutely a selfish jerk once you get past the charming facade. that’s the part that’s compelling!

like, he’s nice enough and open enough with the player once you get high enough affinity with him, but his reactions to player actions still point to him being a jerk overall. the sosu just happens to be in His Circle of people he can be vulnerable with. that includes you, his son, and maybe daisy. everyone else can kick rocks, the same way it was in little lamplight

he HAD to grow up with that kind of “us vs the world, every man for himself” mentality in the capitol wasteland. doing so otherwise gets you killed or taken advantage of, which is just protracted death anyways. having grown up in a place where slavers run rampant, people are all pushing each other further down just to boost themselves up and live one more day, and it’s literally impossible to make renewable food sources because the ground is so poisoned i genuinely don’t blame him for ending up a little tight fisted. the fact that he was the mayor of little lamplight just meant that he ended up being able to accept a few people as His To Protect instead of being a total lone wolf.

the way he reacts to the players open generosity isn’t just for show, he Actually Dislikes when you give stuff away without expecting anything in return. you might need that thing and now its just gone!! that person might see you as a sucker! you give an inch and they’ll take a mile! and it makes sense for his character to be like that considering everything. i don’t get why people want to change that into him just being kind of tsundere.

i understand that having your babygirl blorbo comfort character be a canonical asshole in ways that aren’t just kinda charming can be offputting, but like…. the way he treats the sosu is a very notable exception to the rest of his life & it’s a much more interesting dynamic imo. especially if you’re playing a goody two shoes martyr. but that’s just me