#inquisition kinda ruined this part of origins for me

[qunaricatnip]

replaying ostagar is so tiring ever since the flemythal reveal, it makes listening to her and morrigan just exhausting

[gremlinmodetweeker]

Kiss the Ocean Kiss Yourself

So, sorry about not posting original content in a while. I'm between homes right now, so I only just got to a place where I can actually write fanfic and so I completely indulged because I'm a whore for König.

Anyways, enjoy some sweet adorable fluff with Summoned!König. Just a lil first kiss kinda fluff, ya know? The adorable sweet stuff.

Anyways, story below the cut.

SFW

No TWs apply

Kiss the Ocean Kiss Yourself

You figured it was useless to try and find patterns in an avatar of chaos’s schedule, but you'd somehow managed to figure out one significant trend.

Every night, without fail, König would rise up out of a shadow in the corner of your eye. Tonight he choose one cast by a curtain by an open window. You’d need to shut that later. 

You greeted him with a wave of your hand before going back to your reading. 

A hand draped over your shoulder, “And what are you reading today, Summoner?”

“Fanfics,” you muttered as you scrolled.

König gave a displeased hum as he strolled to your side.

“I suggest you read something more… “ König thought for a moment, “substantial.”

“I'm going to bed. I don't want to learn,” you reasoned.

“And so you read… What do you call it… Smut?” König leaned over your shoulder with an inquisitive squint.

“Yeah?” you scrolled up desperately to prevent him from reading the raunchiest part, but it was in vain.

“You could always ask for my assistance instead of turning to this,” König turned to whisper in your ear.

You shoved his face away with a spare hand.

König made a strange oceanic gurgling sound before rounding the sofa to sit beside you. He draped himself over you, nearly suffocating you in the folds of his dark robes.

“Dude, I'm reading!” you squawked and thrashed against him.

“They both die in the last chapter,” König caught your swat and batted it away just as easily.

You put away the screen with a sigh. At this point, you should just give up on trying. He'd successfully ruined three fanfics for you so far, all within the past two days. You fell back in his arms with a slump.

“You could just ask me to put it away, you know,” you grumbled as he pulled you into his side.

“This is far more entertaining,” König sniffed.

“I hate you.”

“You should stop lying to me, Summoner. It does not work.”

“I know!” you groaned as you burrowed into his robes.

König adjusted to let you fall  into his lap. He stroked your hair gently, letting you relax under his touch. He wordlessly widened his legs and dragged you into his lap properly to cradle you against his chest. You rest your head against his chest, listening to his three heartbeats drumming a steady beat under his skin.

“Do you get cold a lot?” you asked as you curled your hands in his soft woolen robes.

“A bit,” König replied before pulling you close, “it's warmer with you by my side.”

You couldn't stop the smile that crept onto your lips. 

Your relationship with the avatar was complicated. You were his mate, but you still found the title to be heavy and unnerving. However, the longer you spent in the avatar's company, the more comfortable you felt in his arms. At one point you'd suspected he was manipulating your mind, but you figured that worrying about that would only lead to undesirable truths, and so thus accepted his attention for what it was. Without a second thought, you cuddled into your ‘mate’s’ chest and basked in his unholy radiance.

You felt a few tentacles crawling over you to trace soft and  intricate loving patterns into your skin. In turn, you rubbed his chest with tender affection. It was a new, blossoming thing that had grown from underneath the floorboards, but you nourished it all the same. It was a nice change from the eternal loneliness you'd wallowed in before you'd summoned your new partner.

You looked up at Königs face, or rather, his hood. If you squinted, you could see ancient writings embroidered into the hood, miniscule characters spelling certain doom for eons to come. You timidly reached up to touch the writings, feel them under your fingertips, but your arm was grabbed by a scaly talon. Ice blue eyes stared down at you coldly.

“I wouldn't suggest that,” König whispered, airs of ominous threats lacing his words.

“Why?” you asked as you let your hand fall.

“Your simple mind cannot handle what lies beneath.”

You frowned.

“I am sorry, but you were not made to comprehend my visage,” König reassured you gently, “please understand that I wish to keep my mate alive and well.”

You nodded slowly. It hurt, but you figured something like this would happen. You sighed and slumped down in his lap.

“Summoner, why do you seem so sad?” König raised your chin with a scaled claw.

You whimpered, then asked, “So does that mean I can't kiss you?”

For the first time since you'd summoned him, König looked surprised. Maybe, even though he was able to see all the pathways of time and how they folded in on themselves, he still wasn’t able to prophesize the future like he tried to tell you he could. He seemed so taken aback that you had to call his name to bring him back to you.

“Do you wish to?” he asked with an uncharacteristic fervor.

He took your chin in his hand to guide you to look into his eyes. You tried to look away but he kept you in place firmly, his eyes searching desperately for answers.

You looked up at him. His eyes were wide and the script on his hood was writhing with the beating of his hearts like worms in the earth. You could see a ghostly impression of eyes haloing his head, each one looking at you as though you were a divine gift.

You reached up to tenderly cup what you hoped would be his cheek.

“I want to try.”

König blinked, and then leaned back to stare at the ceiling in thought. He drummed his black claws gently against your shoulder and hummed. After a minute, he nodded and looked down.

“I can take a human form, but it might not be… It might not be perfect,” he looked nervous under his ancient hood.

“What do you mean?” you asked as you drew your hands to your chest.

“As in…” König hissed inhumanly, “I can mimic, but only just.”

“Could you try though?” you asked hopefully.

König thought for a moment, then nodded. He wrapped his palms over his face and sighed, but the sound was drowned out by fleshy pops and brittle snaps. You tried to hide your wince but failed miserably. It seemed to go on forever, but just as soon as it started, it stopped.

He dropped his hands to secure one around your back, the other laying on your stomach.

“I have done what I can,” he said, the sclera of his eyes now an iridescent oily black.

You reached up slowly before pulling back.

“May I?” you asked, to which he conceded a nod.

You reached up again. The edges of his hood were worn in your hands, and you took a moment to enjoy the silk under the light.

“It's beautiful,” you told him.

His chest rumbled like thunder as he chuckled and replied, “It is nearly as old as I am. I've used it to cover myself since I can remember.”

“Even in the other world?” you asked.

“Especially in the other,” König affirmed.

You wanted to ask more questions, but you had bigger tasks. Namely, getting this hood off. With the task set in your mind, you slowly raised the hood.

The first thing you saw was a rounded jaw covered in blond stubble. You were about to comment on how normal he looked when you saw the stubble wave. It dawned on you that the stubble was actually tiny thin tentacles on his face, mimicking hair to the best of its abilities. 

“Does your face normally have tentacles?” you asked.

“Sometimes,” König let you raise the hood higher, “but I'm concerned about the mouth. Are the teeth okay?”

You were about to laugh when you saw his mouth. His lips were thin and chapped. As he spoke, you could see multiple rows of needle-like teeth along the inside of his mouth like an unearthly sea creature. A couple jutted out along the top, looking somewhat like vampire fangs. 

“Your teeth are a bit sharp,” you admitted with a wince.

“Do you want me to change them?”

You considered the notion, only to shake away the thought of having to listen to him change again. You could tolerate some sharp teeth.

“Can I take the rest of the hood off?” you asked.

“Do as you like.”

And so you did. You raised the hood and tucked it into your lap as you admired his new face.

“You look…” you brushed your hand along his jaw, “more handsome than I expected, honestly.”

He smiled with a huge grin full of teeth.

“I hoped so.”

You took a hand and brushed it through his short, messy wheat blonde hair. If it weren't so unkempt, it might have been a nice military cut. At least it was within regulations, you supposed. It was nice and thick, too.

He scrunched his thick eyebrows together as he looked into your eyes.

“Are you sure this is to your standards?” his pointed ears flicked back with concern.

“I think you look incredible,” you pressed a kiss against the tip of his slender crooked nose.

König’s eyes widened before he smiled warmly.

“I am glad, Summoner.”

You tugged on the back of his neck to bring him down to your level. He obliged and leaned in close. From here, you could see the fragile emotions he'd tried to hide from you for so long. All the longing and fear was practically shining before your eyes.

Without wasting any more time, you leaned in and pressed your lips against his.

It was awkward, and frankly his breath smelled worse than you expected. It was hot and acrid like an ocean shore, and his teeth pinched into your lips, but you'd do anything to kiss him again. It was too short, too sweet for your liking. You wanted to do it again.

You leaned in and kissed him with passion, this time focussing on how he struggled to mimic your motions. It seemed all his experiences with immortality had left him unprepared for this event. You remembered how lonely he told you he was. Your heart cracked.

The second kiss was longer, but not long enough.

You pulled away and held his face in your hands, cherishing what you never knew you had. Seeing him like this, it made you wonder if being his mate would be so bad after all. He wasn't extraordinary, but you wouldn't have wanted any more anyways. He was perfect to you, and that's what mattered in your mind.

Of course, you couldn't hold him forever, so you let him lean back and kiss your forehead as you huddled into him.

“I've wanted this for so long,” he murmured into your skin.

“I'm sorry I made you wait.”

He laughed and kissed you again, “It was worth every moment.”

You wanted to stay with him forever, to keep this moment alive for eternity, but time was not so kind to you. A yawn made its way from within, and your eyes were droopy as you laid your face against his chest. You fought valiantly, but you could only fight for so long before he decided to make decisions for you.

“We can be together tomorrow, Summoner,” he assured you as he rose to his feet, keeping you tucked against his chest like a precious gift.

“I don't want this to end,” you admitted sleepily.

“It doesn't have to,” he promised, “I can see you again tomorrow.”

He set you down on your bed and pulled the covers over you. You grabbed his arm before he could pull it away.

“Can you stay with me tonight? you asked with your last burst of energy.

König let himself still as he thought carefully. For a moment, you worried that he'd vanish into the shadows like so many nights before. But instead, he nodded.

He curled into your bed behind you, tucking you tightly against his body as you felt yourself drifting away. Soon, his warmth enshrouded you like the star lit sky, pulling you into a slumbering darkness.

He held you close to his body, embracing all parts of you under the covers.

“Thank you,” you heard yourself say.

“Sleep well, my mate,” you felt another kiss pressed to your cheek before you succumbed to sleep, “I will be with you always.”

AU Masterlist

[ariannadi]

A Kinda Halfway Review of Veilguard:

It's not Origins.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, I can honestly say this game is very good. I had my (warranted) skepticism after it was in development hell forever but you can tell that the team really did work hard to create a new and enjoyable experience that still has some nods to its original source material.

That being said,

The Things I Like:

The game is extremely polished and runs amazingly, even with my last gen computer. I haven't had any glitches or bugs of any kind, which is like, amazing. Not even BG3 was bugless upon release.

On that note, the graphics are beautiful, and the kinda cartoony look everyone was turned off by actually looks decent enough when in constant motion. Even still I know the art design isn't gonna be everyone's cup of tea.

The lore and world building is great, I'm constantly on the edge of my seat as to what I'm going to find out next and while I initially was like "spoilers w/e" now I'm like I DON'T WANT TO KNOW *ANYTHING* PREMATURELY

The gameplay is actually really fun! It took me a bit to get used to but the combat is very engaging and only having two companions at your side kinda works in this instance since you can give them commands in real time. The abilities are flashy and I like the ability tree, there's a lot of different branches to experiment with.

Alongside combat, I like that the companions are actively a part of the battle and give you pointers as to where enemies are located. It's saved my ass more than a couple times lol

The music and sound design is very satisfying. I'm not in love with the ost, I think Hans Zimmer could've gone a bit harder with the scores, but it's enjoyable enough.

Character Creation is very good, I love how my Rook turned out! (ALSO THEM HAIR PHYSICS MMMMMPH)

I only have 6/7 companions currently, but 3/7 are really interesting and have good voice acting. We'll see how I feel about them all by endgame.

I like that they shrunk down maps from Inquisition, they feel just big enough to do some poking around for hidden things but not so big that you're running through an endless desert with nothing in it (Hissing Wastes *cough*)

The Things I Don't Like:

The dialogue could be better, it does feel very exposition-y and elementary at times.

A valid complaint I've seen is that the words the dialogue tree show aren't the ones that come out of your character's mouth. And yeah, none of that stuff matches up.

The beginning parts, though I understand it was tutorial-esque, had a lot of unnecessary hand holding. Eventually I turned off hints cause like, I'm not a child I can figure out stuff after the first time doing it.

I find some of the characters very flat, and I'm not sure if this is just voice direction or what but they could be a little more enthusiastic with their acting.

I HATE that there's so much shit from the books and extra media that a lot of people (including me) don't know as we likely didn't buy that stuff and are just kinda expected to know it all going into this. Thankfully a character will say one or two sentences alluding to something that happened cause otherwise I would have no flipping clue. Like what happened to Leliana? Why is Charter Spymaster for the Inquisition now? Another reason only having three choices from the previous games kinda ruins some things.

On that note, only three choices from the previous games?? Really??

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10 as it stands. Not amazing or anything groundbreaking, but it's enjoyable enough, and personally I'm having fun with it.

[batboyblog]

In reguards to your post about people sneaking pork into jewish people's food, I'm not a religious person, I'm pretty openly agnostic, but I've been vegetarian since 2008 & my body can no longer process meat, people are weird about it & sometimes try to sneak meat in my food to show "how good it is" which causes my body to vomit immediatly reguardless if I knew the meat was in there or not. I have never had a friend stand up for me before quite like my sister's jewish friend did when this happened last time at a bbq, it really made me consider how often she too has to deal with this horrible breach of trust and violating action that I'm only dealing with half of the issue with. (Yes my trust is being ruined but my faith wasn't brought into it) So I try to be as vigilant as possible these days, it's awful seeing how often in happens.

A) I'm sorry that happens to you, people are truly rotten and pretty deeply not okay with other's lifestyles being different.

but B) I just kinda wanted to address like... the way the Kosher thing is worse? just since putting up that post I've heard stories of the Spanish Inquisition using pork as a "test" to see which former Jewish and Muslim "Conversos" were sincere and which were still secret Jews (or Muslims) someone related a harrowing story of a relative who died in a Nazi camp after a "game" of "Bacon or Bullet". So for Jews you have multiple generations of pork, being forced to eat pork, as an act of horrible violence, and even in living memory.

and someone laid out how in the case of the evangelicals in the original story, the conversion or destruction of all the world's Jews is a requirement for the return of their God. So this kind of trying to "trick Jews into sinning" is... an effort to BREAK them, part of an effort to destroy them, destroy who they are and make them into something else.

So like of course for you it is a violation of trust, it shows they do not respect you as a human being, etc but for a Jew on top of all of that, there comes the extra layer that these people want to destroy you, destroy your way of life, make you not you any more, and behind that all the history of what that can mean. So like can you ever feel safe around those people ever again in any context?

[zodiyack]

Curiosity Killed The Cat

Requested by Anon: I know we do happy Elizabeth Shelby but, could you imagine teen Elizabeth figuring out that Bonnie was never her real dad? And it was a dead beat bastard? I’m feeling kinda angsty????

Pairing: Bonnie Gold x Female!Shelby!Reader, Mentioned Male!Character x Female!Shelby!Reader, Bonnie & Reader + Elizabeth Shelby (platonic)

Warnings: Angst, swearing, mention of teen pregnancy

Words: 1,898

Summary: (See Request)

Note: I like- I had an idea, altered it a little halfway through, and then went with it. I hope you like it, anon!

Taglist: @matth1w, @redspaceace-writes, @simonsbluee, @fandom-puff, @marquelapage, @stuckysslag​, @psychkunox​, @darling-i-read-it​, @sebastianstanslefteyebrow​, @i-love-superhero​

Masterlist | Peaky Blinders Masterlist | Elizabeth L. Shelby Masterlist

She had never meant to invade another’s privacy in her life...but one little detail pulled the small bit of string sticking from the yarn ball, unraveling into one big mess. That was how she’d ended up in the situation never meant to happen. But it did.

It was a slow morning, Bonnie out to help with the Peaky Blinders and Y/n helping Ada and Polly with the boys. Elizabeth had a free day from her schooling and her ever growing mind was still as inquisitive as it was when she were just a babe.

The study, in which her parents did most of their work, was not off limits to her, just a place where she hadn’t been as often. Because of that, she decided she’d spend her time taking care of her boredom by snooping around.

All was going pleasantly until she found a letter, hidden in the bottom drawer of her mother’s wooden desk. Elizabeth frowned to herself, knowing better than to stick her nose into things that were not hers to know of, and began to move the items in the drawer to return the letter to its original place. However, the glimpse she caught of her name, or what looked like her name, sprawled in messy handwriting, caught her like a fish on a hook and reeled her in.

The word had been seen slightly between the folded end and the middle. She wasn’t completely sure it had been her name, so she debated leaving it alone and moving on with her day or giving into the pull of the hook of intrigue.

Biting her lip, she looked around. Then she breathed slowly and carefully unfolded the paper.

When Bonnie and Y/n returned to their home, they had expected a few things. Perhaps the house would be spotless and Elizabeth would act as if it were nothing, or the house would be a mess and she would have a boy over- that idea caused Bonnie to almost crash the car. Thinking of many things they’d find, Elizabeth with her arms crossed, a paper in her hand and a conflicted look upon her face was not one of them.

It was like they were the teens caught out and about in the middle of night by returning after curfew and she was the angry parent. Her expression caused her parents to stop in place and give her a questioning look. Ellie unfolded her arms and held up the paper. Right at that moment, Y/n’s heart stopped and dropped into her stomach. She squeezed Bonnie’s hand tightly.

“Who wrote this?” The two exchanged a knowing glance. “Mother. Who wrote this?”

Y/n hesitated getting the answer out of her mouth. The letter was something she hadn’t thought about, something she yearned to forget. “Your father.”

“My father? But I thought he was my father.” Elizabeth gestured to Bonnie, who sighed and moved to take a seat opposite to Elizabeth. “Have a seat, mum, I think we have something to talk about.”

“Indeed we do, Elizabeth.” Bonnie avoided his daughter’s- step-daughter’s eyes as he spoke, staring at his hands.

Y/n did as her daughter requested, more so demanded, and sat beside Bonnie. She too held a sheepish manner.

“Please, tell me, why am I just now learning of my father? Why not when I was a little girl? Why is he not a part of my life?”

The final question led Bonnie to surge upward from his seat, finally making eye contact with a now startled Elizabeth. “That man will have nothing to do with you if I have any say in this whatsoever!” His face was as red as a tomato, but calmed a few shades as Y/n put a soft hand on his arm.

“You don’t have a say in it. This is between my mother and I.” She looked at him apologetically, “You will always be my dad, but I want to know my real father.”

“He’s right...ya know? I never really wanted you around him...but-” Was it worth it? Ruining his image before Elizabeth had the chance to even meet him? He lived right there in Birmingham, she could meet him and see for herself, but, as Y/n thought more about it, he was a cruel man, one who neglected to even care for his child or his lover who was carrying said child.

“But what? Is he dead or something?”

“No, but-”

“But nothing!” Moments prior, Bonnie had scared Elizabeth with an outburst of his own, but it was the adults this time who nearly fell out of their chairs in surprise. “Either let me meet him or leave me to find him on my own.” She whipped around, her shoes clacking against the floors as she paced quickly to her room, leaving her parents to discuss her ultimatum.

Each meal went by with an awkward tension hanging over the three, the room filled with silence if you didn’t count the scraping of spoons against bowls or forks against plates. The simple sound only worsened the strained feeling in the air.

No answer came to Elizabeth, so she took matters into her own hands, following out her second offer and sought to find the man who gave her life. Each day she’d ask the name of which had been signed on the letter, going as far as to put his name in the newsprint. As a Shelby, she didn’t have to pay a single thing to have the people put anything in the news, but the goodness of her heart got the best of her and the people themselves. They offered to call the place she had been staying when they had a lead, but sadly, no calls had been made.

But one day, while she sat with the same hopefulness by the telephone with a cup of coffee in hand, the ringing filled her ears and a smile struck her face instantaneously. She almost dropped the coffee onto the carpeted hotel flooring as she jumped to set it down and grab the phone. “Hello?!” Her voice beaned with joy.

“Miss! There’s a call from the newsprint office,” the woman from the front desk said, voice ringing with a sense of rush, “they’re on hold- they say it’s urgent!”

The smile on Elizabeth’s face widened, “Please, put them on the line!”

“Miss Shelby, we have him!”

He waited for her in the lobby of the hotel, confusion obvious on his features. Elizabeth slowly walked down the stairs and the second her eyes met his, she felt sure that it was him. “Father!” She grinned and raced to him. Ellie threw her arms around him the second she reached him.

A small feeling of uncertainty picked at Elizabeth when he didn’t hug her back right away. She noticed his hesitation almost instantly but brushed it off when he finally wrapped his arms around her small frame. “You must be...”

“Elizabeth. Elizabeth Luludja Shelby.” She paused, furrowing her brows a little when he scoffed at her middle name, but continued nevertheless. “I’m um...your daughter.”

“Did your mother tell you about me?”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, sucking in a breath bitterly. “No.���

“Oh...It’s fine with me. Never liked the whore that much anyways.”

Another pang of guilt struck Elizabeth, but again, she ignored it. “Yeah...” She laughed nervously, the unsure feeling growing deeper, twisting into a big sign that told her in capital letters to RUN. But she didn’t.

The two spent the day together, bonding and discussing what he would’ve done with her had he been given the opportunity to be her father. Of course, he never wasted the chance to call Y/n slurs and ghastly words. All seemed fine, Ellie wondered why on earth her parents thought he was a bad man, until he did yet another thing to make Elizabeth’s fight or flight mode prepare itself despite her not exactly wanting to.

He offered to hold her bag whilst she used the toiletries, then when he handed it back, took her to a shop. There, when paying, she found that a large amount of funds she’d been saving up since childhood had been missing. She bit the inside of her mouth and shook her head. But still, she refused to give up on him just yet.

They walked the streets, making small talk as they went by. “You got a lover yet?”

“Not quite. Mother said I should be sure before giving my heart to someone.”

“Yeah, well, your mother got herself knocked up before she was even of age so. Best think about who you’re getting advice from, Eirene.” He butchered her name off the bat, but she’d ignored that too, only correcting him each time- just not this one. “Date and fuck whoever you want, don’t let that bitch boss you around.”

He leaned closer to her, allowing her to smell the alcohol under his breath, the tobacco and surely, without a doubt, plenty of drugs. She cringed, scrunching her face and looking away from him in hope to get fresh air, but something about that smell stuck with her. What had he used her money on? Did his breath smell like that before? Was he intoxicated at the hotel?

“Listen, I think it’s best I get going...” She tried to pull away from him, but he caught a grip on her arm, tighter than he should’ve.

“No. You’re staying with me and that’s final. Come on Eliza, lets go meet my friends. You ever try snow before?”

That was the final time the red lights flashed. In what felt like a split second slowed dramatically, Elizabeth socked her father in the nose, hearing a cracking sound before he let go of her arm and she stumbled backwards a little.

“You bitch!” His grumble was muffled from behind his hand. He covered his nose and mouth, blood on his hand from either places but Ellie didn’t know which. “Why the fuck would you do that?!”

She was ready to apologize, but for once, it felt good to do something un-ladylike. “I seldom act as barbarous as that, but I know one thing. I feel not guilt for my actions, but justice. You call my mother horrid names that she would never be defined by, you can’t even stay clean for a visit with your own daughter nor keep your thieving hands out of anything that is not your own! Let alone remember my name!”

“And?!”

“And-” She hesitated, but rolled her eyes and let it out. “And fuck you. I believe there is good in everyone, but you have shown me otherwise. I thought mother and...and my father were wrong, that my birth father was a good man, but the day started with joy and ended in disappointment. I’m ashamed to even be from your blood. May you rot in the deepest depths of hell, you dishonorable bastard.”

Gasps came the people around them, making Elizabeth look around and glare at the bystanders, “Fuck off before the Peaky Blinders have you all...”

She turned to the man, still on the ground clutching his face, and thought about how she’d spent just a little less than a month searching for him; news traveled fast in Birmingham. “In fact, you’re lucky all you got was me. Because, if you have any brain whatsoever, you’ll leave Birmingham before you get the Peaky Blinders too.”

[aizawaskittenwhore]

internal affairs

pairing: shota aizawa x poc!reader

words: 5.6k (LMFAOOOO I GOT CARRIED AWAY ENJOY) lowercase vv intentional

warnings/kinks: alcohol, swearing, degradation, praise, spit if you squint, breeding kink???ish sorta kinda yeah, begging, use of the pet name kitten, bondage, caught while masturbating

synopsis: aizawa thinks sex is generally a waste of time and energy. after finding you, (his close friend and coworker) in a...compromising position one night when he’s returning something to your dorm, he learns some information that has him wanting to waste some time with you..and energy. ;)

a/n: it’s been forever since i’ve written smut let alone with a poc reader so go easy on me LMFAOOOO

nsfw below the cut, let’s get it!

shota aizawa could, honestly, live without sex.

he just didn’t see the necessity of it, all the exhaustion and sweat just for a sudden rush of dopamine that lasts all of a minute before the stickiness sets in. before exhaustion settles over every muscle and renders you immobile, confined to the infamous postcoital wet spot while you make plans to wash your sheets—

as soon as you can regain control of the burn in your lungs, that is.

in between teaching during the day, patrolling in the evenings while still managing to grade papers, establishing lesson plans, taking care of his cat yuki and occasionally having to watch over his more “at-risk” students (cough midoriya cough) sex just didn’t take enough priority in his life for him to be interested in it. his right hand did the job just fine most nights, and he didn’t see the need to involve another person when it came to something he was more than proficient at handling by himself. he had no shame in the way he chose to live his life, it was practical and didn’t interfere with any of his responsibilities; a perfect setup.

at least, until he told you this same information over drinks one friday.

“please say you’re joking.” you chuckle, brows aloft in amusement. your fingertips dance along the rim of your shot glass before you raise it to your lips, the bitter and potent sake you ordered beginning to blossom warmly across your cheeks. “i’m serious. the hell would i gain from having some complete stranger try to learn how to please me when i can just do it myself?” aizawa queries, index finger and thumb taking residence along the upper neck of his beer bottle, grimacing harshly as he takes another swig. “i always get this shit every time we come here, and every time it’s always terrible.” he sets the bottle to his left, reaching for a shot glass instead to wash down the acrid taste. the bar is moderately populated today, with other pros scattered among tables and booths while engrossed in their own conversations; the background noise serving as the perfect buffer for the x-rated nature of your conversation.

you normally hate drinking after work, it always made you sluggish for the rest of the night, but aizawa owed you a favor after you took on the grading process of 1-a’s exams while he went out on patrol a few nights ago. he hadn’t wanted to ask so much of you as you were already training class 1-b and doing presentations for general studies that week, but after seeing the state of exhaustion the man was in you’d insisted, suggesting he get the bill next time the two of you hung out to make up for it. “but don’t you get tired of it? you know....masturbating?” you pry, right hand coming up to make a crude jerking motion to emphasize your point. “ i mean...you already know what you like, and the quickest way to get yourself there. there’s no exploration, no variety, you don’t get to really try anything new.” a teasing smile already settled across your lips.

aizawa falters for a moment, mouth pulled into a tight stance that signals his contemplation. head low, shoulders hunched, appearing to deeply ponder your question and how to answer it. you worry, for a moment, that you may have overstepped in your attempt to get a rise out of your quiet friend. however, worry soon liquifies into a fierce heat as a low chuckle rattles through him; shota glancing up at you through rebellious strands of hair that, regardless of his quirk, never seem to stay in place. “and what, y/n , would you happen to know about sexual exploration?” he shoots back, two slender fingers and a calloused thumb sending another shot down his throat with ease.

you flush, all your nerves on high alert as his rich, onyx irises seem to detect the growing arousal settling between your thighs, pleased at the reaction his question emitted. “i-i’m just saying that it’s got to get boring sometimes...just doing the same old routine whenever you’re in the mood!” you stutter, clearing your throat after you choke on the last syllable of your sentence. “that wasn’t my question.” he remarks, eyes slicing through any attempt at keeping your composure, yet you don’t budge.

“well, if you just have to know aizawa -“ you drag out the final consonant to mock his inquisitive nature, before continuing your tangent, “-sex doesn’t always have to be about the orgasm. i mean sure, it’s a pretty fucking fun part of it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s the foreplay, the newness of being with someone you haven’t been with before that really just...ties it all together. figuring out what they like, having them explore what you like, letting them take you in new and different ways...” you trail off, a blush now having settled across your cheeks, albeit impossible to clock thanks to the deep brown reach of your skin complexion.

“it’s worth the effort, is what i’m sayin’. you never know, you might like things that you didn’t think you would...like getting tied up or spit on or something..” you finish, now feeling his gaze settle over you like a blanket fresh out of the dryer. you quickly busy yourself with thanking your bartender as she slides you the tab, trying checking out the damage so you wouldn’t have to make eye contact with aizawa after that very honest admission. he quickly swipes the little book from your reach, depositing the black card inside with minimal resistance and returning the tab to its original position with a “don’t. i owe you, remember?”

damned cat-like reflexes.

fuck pro-hero training.

fuck the growing amount of slick saturating (and ruining) the simple maroon panties you’d chosen when getting ready for work today.

and most of all, fuck shota aizawa for being able to make your blood run hot by paying a fucking tab and giving you a look or two.

“right. thanks, by the way. but if i can’t get up for that meeting nezu’s holding tomorrow, i’m blaming you.” you’re hoping a bit of humor will distract you from the way your body is overheating from being within such close proximity to him, and the way your core is pulsing around nothing as if it were fiending for his presence. “not my fault you’re a lightweight, so blame me all you want sweetheart.” shota dryly rebounds, a mirthful smile on his face in response to the way you roll your eyes and suck your teeth, flipping him off.

“if you wanted to fuck me, you could’ve just asked.”

you’d pale, if you could.

your jaw collapses, eyelashes batting double time while you struggle to process what the fuck just came out of his mouth. six seconds go by before you begin babbling, voicing your opposition to his prior statement with phrases such as “wait wait wait, what did you sayyyy?” and ”bye because that didn’t even come out my mouth i-“

while he just...laughs. he finds your attempts to clarify your alleged non-existent sexual attraction to him hilarious, and even mentions that he finds it adorable as the two of you begin to make your way back to the teachers’ dorms. he holds the door open for you as you head inside, chuckling to himself as you continue to playfully curse him out while you walk to the women’s side of the building.

that was seven hours ago.

it’s currently 12:47am, and you’re struggling to catch even a wink of shuteye. you’re starting to regret having that sake earlier, since alcohol always fucks with your sleep schedule, but that isn’t what’s keeping you up tonight.

no, no, that would happen to be the unprofessional and honestly straight up shameful thoughts you’re having about your friend and coworker, shota. vivid images of those slender fingers sliding into you one by one, each one filling you more than the last, float past your lids every time you close your eyes. daydreams of his tongue on your clit, tracing patterns into the sensitive nerves while he calls you his good girl, his kitten, his slut, hands forcing your thighs apart as they shake from each and every time you cum around those devilish lips of his. fantasies of his capture weapon binding your hands behind you, fingers dangling helplessly while his hand rests on the small of your back to serve as leverage for each and every time he slides in. face pressed into the mattress as he fucks into you slowly, not wanting to give you the satisfaction of having him so deep so quickly. voice hoarse, tone pleading when you beg him to take you deeper, harder, promising to take it like a good girl would if he would just keep hitting that spot that makes your toes curl, yes right there, fuck-

you flip your pillow over in an attempt to cool the sweltering heat below the waistband of your panties, but it’s no luck. you should've been asleep two hours ago. staring hopelessly at the ceiling, lost in your mind as you watch the streetlights’ beams flicker through your window, streams of light disturbed by nearby tree branches. right hand slowly sliding down your body, from your breasts to the curves of your waist before settling right on the top of your panties. your fingers begin to flutter above your dripping core.

‘this is wrong. i shouldn’t do this.’ you chide yourself, but your body has already made up it’s mind.

and soon a cord wound so tightly within your body it could suffocate you...snaps.

the tip of your middle finger dips down to your pussy to collect the slick gathered there, and you groan at the sheer amount of it.

he really got you fucked up.

thinking of how he would tease, you circle your throbbing clit, touch feather light to the point where it feels like borderline torture. middle finger and ring finger conjoined to shallowly dip inside you once, twice, then three times before filling you completely.

but it’s not enough.

it’s not him.

you sigh at the way the tips brush against your g-spot, beckoning them forward until you physically arch into your hand as though it were connected to the subject of your little self love session.

“fuck...”

shota’s pov

he’d taken a short break from his current grading session to stretch, and grab a small snack when he noticed it.

you’d left your id tag with him when you’d turned in for the evening, as the two of you had used his id to get on to school grounds since your hands were full with your work bag, your purse, and takeout from the bar. he must have forgotten to give it back to you after you asked him to hold it, he was too busy admiring how cute you looked while trying to prove you didn’t want to fuck him.

not that he would mind if you did, of course.

he’d developed something of a crush on you over the past few weeks since you’d been working more closely together as hero course teachers, and he got to know you outside of a strictly work environment.

you’re funny, intelligent, clever (which is a turn on for him since he needs someone he can bounce off of), and it doesn’t hurt that you’re easy on the eyes.

really, really easy on the eyes. fuck.

he scratched the back of his neck as he felt the familiar flush begin to creep up his face, hoping the pain would will away the consistent hard-on he got whenever he focused too much on your smile, or the way your shoulders shake when you laugh, or the curve of your hips and how they look like they would be a perfect fit for his vice grip as he eased you onto his dick, looking you right in the eyes before drilling up into you. eyes shimmering with such pretty tears from how sensitive she was, neck littered with marks from his earlier ministrations, voice shaky as she begged him to fill her, pump her full of every last drop cause she’s been so so good-

‘damn it shota. just go give her the fucking tag, she’ll need it tomorrow morning.’ he snapped internally, looking at his tented black sweats with dismay. it took everything within him not to make a sly comment on how getting himself off is never boring when it’s to a different fantasy of you each time, but if there’s nothing else he prided himself upon, it was his self discipline.

forcing himself to remember the time he caught hizashi shaving his left testacle and only the left one to make his erection less obvious, he grabbed her id and his own, and made his way to the women’s wing of the hero course dorms. it was old school, men weren’t allowed on the women’s side and vice versa on campus, however with this being the hero course some were granted special admin privileges should there ever be an emergency.

he happened to be one of them.

making quick work of finding your room, he leaned against the threshold, left arm poised to knock when he heard a soft hiss. a little rustling, and another sound, indiscernible thanks to your door.

“fuck...”

body stiffening at the swear, he paused, wondering if maybe you had been hurt or perhaps injured. it was in his nature to, despite his sarcastic and faux-apathetic disposition, be a hero no matter what. using what little force he could in an attempt to not frighten a possible intruder or make a bad situation worse, shota silently swung your door open and scanned the room for any possible threats.

he didn’t find any.

instead he found you, lacy black panties around your left ankle as you curled your middle and ring finger inside of you, moans bubbling out of your throat with a hand twisting and pinching your pretty brown nipples as you went. still completely unaware of his presence you sigh before letting out the prettiest and neediest little whine that went straight to his dick.

“mm...shota..please baby~“ you keen, fingers quickening their pace inside of your pussy, the streetlights from the nearby sidewalk casting a copper toned glean on the strings of slick connecting your fingers to the soaked paradise that was between your thighs. he freezes, thinking you’ve noticed his presence when it hits him-

you were fucking your fingers as if they were his own.

you’d said his name.

you wanted to fuck him just as badly as he wanted to fuck you.

and despite being a pro and having been in life threatening situations, instances where he’s had to make split second decisions without worrying whether they were right or not....here he has absolutely no idea what to do. he feels dirty, watching you in such a...compromising situation. even though you just said his name with about two-

now three-

-soaked fingers sliding in and out of your cunt, he knows he shouldn’t be here. out of respect for you, he takes about two steps backwards and tries to leave the room as silently as he came in, willing the universe to just let him have this as a pleasant memory for when he gets into bed tonight. but, like most times in his 31 years of existence, he can never get a moment of peace.

so he manages to trip over your shoes from earlier right as he was about to hit the hallway.

oh, and drops the id tags, of course.

y/n’s pov

the noise sends a chill through each and every nerve of your body, eyes firing open only to be greeted with the sight of a very flustered aizawa vehemently cursing out a pair of your boots, two id tags pooled at his feet. “what the fuck?!” digits wrenched from your body and hands clawing for your duvet in a last ditch attempt to preserve what little modesty you had left. “i- i just came to give you your id, and i heard you swear so i thought you might’ve been hurt or something, i didn’t see anything!” aizawa spat apprehensively, while simultaneously cursing his dick for choosing this particular moment to get incredibly aroused, and thanking himself for tucking his erection into his waistband earlier before he’d walked over in case he ended up talking to you. “oh my god. oh..my god i am so fucking sorry i-i know it was wrong and i totally understand if you don’t wanna be friends anymore just please don’t tell nezu i really really love this job-“ you begin to wail, teardrops nestling into your waterline before finally pooling over and breaking you, causing you to cry even more.

“i’m not mad at you y/n.” aizawa coos softly.

“-and i know i crossed so many lines and it’s selfish for me to ask that of you but i don’t know what i would do without UA-“

“y/n.” he calls, sitting beside you on the pillow soft mattress, his capture weapon pooling to the floor and briefly reminding him he’d brought it with him to begin with.

“-and if i’m being honest i’ve had a crush on you for forever and i was just too much of a coward to come and tell you myself so instead of being a woman about it i kept having these fantasies and i’m so fucking sorry aizawa-“

“shota. call me shota.” he tilts your chin up with his right hand so he can see your pretty brown orbs swimming in tears, before taking his left hand and thumbing away the still-wet tear tracks. you blink away your tears, brows furrowing in confusion at why he’s not angry, why you’re not packing up your dorm and turning in your letter of resignation right now. “it sounded so pretty when you’d said it earlier, why stop now?” he murmurs, those powerful ebony eyes taking you in by the gallon, half lidded as he looks you up and down.

so he did see everything.

and he wasn’t mad.

and you swear on everything you love that you just saw his length twitch through those black sweats, so he definitely shared the same sentiment.

“s-so you’re sure you’re not mad?” you sniffle, hands reaching to cover his as you lean into his lithe form, needing to feel his warm and comforting embrace. “positive.” he looks down at the way you’re nuzzled into his chest, arms shifting so that they’re wrapped around your back as you let out a sigh of relief. he softly taps you after a few minutes, needing to shift to a more comfortable position as his dick is pressing into his stomach this way, and it’s only making him firmer.

“can...can i kiss you?” he asks gingerly, heart fluttering at the way your eyes meet his and your head slowly nods, fingers fumbling to find his hand so you can hold it. his lips slot against yours, moving tenderly at first before the kiss begins to increase in intensity, your tongue moving fluidly with his, pulling away only to breathe before diving back into one another.

“those pretty lips taste so sweet...makes me wonder if you’re sweet all over, hm?”

you preen at the compliment, body craving his touch, his energy, his undulations, everything about him.

“tell me you don’t want this, and we’ll stop.” he mutters against your neck, soft kisses quickly turning to him sucking marks into your collarbone. it drove him insane, watching the reddish purple hues blossom across your skin mingling with the mocha of the rest of your body.

you didn’t have any intention on stopping though.

not for a fucking second.

“please...need you so bad.” you sigh close to his ear, taking his earlobe between your teeth and dipping a hand between the two of you to paw at his throbbing length. that seemed to do the trick just fine, his pulse spiking before he flipped the two of you with a quickness you’d only seen him use in battle. hands reaching for the nape of his neck as he tugged his shirt over his head, you watched in awe; you’d known sho was fit as he patrolled nightly, along with the consistent training he’d engaged in with his students. you just didn’t expect a simple long sleeve sweater to give way to toned abdominals, slender yet powerful arms in addition to a thick black happy trail that dipped below his waistband.

it wasn’t until he’d tugged down the lace covering your slit, (so hard it ripped), that you realized just how much he craved you. gazing at your core intently he spread you apart with his middle and forefinger, eyes nearly rolling out of his head with how you were dripping so much for him. you tried to shift your hips in an effort to get him to do something, anything, but that was shut down with a hand forcing your right thigh outwards and spreading you even wider.

“no no. keep them spread. let me watch you try to keep them open while you’re shaking...let me watch you fall apart..” he demands, head diving between your thighs to lap at your aching clit like a man starved. your legs rise only to settle on his shoulders, ankles crossed behind his head while your toes curl in euphoria. there were men before him, but none of them ever took care of you like this, never looked you in the eyes as their fingers started to curl in just the right places, never sighed in content at your taste as their eyes rolled back. never pried themselves away from your cunt just to add a pornographic amount of spit to your southernmost lips, strings of saliva connecting your twitching hole to his deliciously long tongue.

shota was unlike any man you had ever met before.

and that was what made him so intoxicating.

“ah..s-shota, please-” you whine, sensing your climax within reach. “please what, kitty? i won’t know if you don’t tell me.” he remarks, dipping back down to suck harshly at your swollen bud as he adds a third finger, length throbbing at the way you arch into his tongue. “m-make me-ah-make me...feel good...please sho” you stutter, face burning. “mm. i thought i was already making you feel good love? unless...there’s something else you want..” he trails off, smirking. your thighs are quivering now, muscles burning as you strain to keep them from crushing shota’s head, although with the way he’s devouring your pussy whole right now he doesn’t seem to mind one bit.

“i need you..to make me cum..” you whimper, winding a few fingers into his unruly mane of hair while your other hand settles above your mouth, trying to hide the obvious embarrassment on your face from being so exposed.

“well why didn’t you say so baby? after all, you did exactly what i told you to, and good girls get whatever they ask for.” he grins before working double time to bring you to the edge, hero stamina and strength coming out in full force with the way his fingers never cease in their abuse on your g-spot, refusing to quit until your thighs finally tighten around his head and your breath catches. his tongue replaces his fingers and you briefly pout at the slight change in fullness, but it doesn’t matter the second he coils his tongue upwards and rubs into your sensitive bud at a steady pace. you cum all over his face, and you never thought you’d see such a typically serious and stoic man look so...elated, a permanent beam stuck to him with superglue as he swallows as much of your essence as he can. chest heaving, body weightless, you sit up.

you gently coax him back up your body, shota’s arms caging you to your bed as you kiss him deeply, fingers fumbling to palm him through his sweats. “s’ my turn...wanna show you how much i like you..”

he nods, opting to trade places with you whilst helping you slide his sweats and boxers down his thighs, length springing up in anticipation. you’d had a inkling of how big he was from small glances on occasion, but you didn’t account for a solid eight and a half inches down your esophagus. his dick was pretty, a few veins running up and down the length of it, and tip just as pink as his kiss-swollen lips. the only thing that intimidated you was how thick it was. but you’d cross that bridge when it came to it.

saliva floods your mouth and you grasp his dick at the base, eyes wide as you track a bead of precum rolling it’s way down his tip before licking it up in one long hot stripe. “hm. tastes good.” you giggle, eyes locking with his before you relax your jaw and swallow as much of him as you can comfortably fit in your mouth, a shot of electricity running through you when shota lets out a deep throaty groan. “fuck...such a good fucking girl. you look so pretty like this.” shota sighs, left hand working it’s way through your coils and tightening its grip, but never pushing. he lets you work at your own pace, his own cheeks flushing when you interrupt the bobbing motion you had set to coyly circle your slick tongue around his tip. your mouth is hot and slick, encapsulating his dick in a velvety vacuum seal while you work him over and over; you haven’t had an insane amount of experience, but you’re observant of what motions garner positive reactions. it’s a combination so dangerous that it has shota’s right hand grappling your comforter for stability, breath quickening as he wonders how the hell he’s managed to last this long.

“you’re gonna suck me dry kitty...” he moans.

at least until you take not one, but both hands, add an amount of spit so copious it’s obscene, and begin to stroke his length slowly and effortlessly whilst maintaining eye contact.

with that little stunt, you’ve officially opened pandora’s box. and there’s no closing it now.

“come here.” aizawa commands, sitting up straighter to pull your hips into his, and before you know it you’re on your stomach, wrists pinned to your black sheets by agile hands. “if you wanna stop here tell me now baby.” he croons in your ear, feather light kisses pressed into your shoulder. “we can watch a movie, cuddle, whatever you’re comfortable with. but if we keep going like this-”

his length presses into your ass and a shiver shoots down your spine.

“-i can’t promise you i won’t ruin you y/n. fuck you full of my cum, pounding into you until i leave you drooling and sloppy just for me, have you scream my name so loud even the League knows who you belong to. you’d be all mine. my pretty kitty. is that what you want?” shota asks, one of his calloused hands sliding down the curves of your body to grip at the soft, tender skin of your ass.

“shota.....please. it’s all i want, just take me already-“ you sob, voice gathering in your throat. a sensual chuckle, and then you feel it: inch after inch slipping into your tight warm walls, the stretch causing your eyes to brim with tears born from more pleasure than actual pain.

“ah! you’re stretching me out so much...” you keen, eyelashes fluttering in ecstasy. “aw kitty...i haven’t even started yet.” shota teases, stretching to his right to grab his capture weapon, and bringing both your wrists behind you. “now..you’ve been so good for me tonight, i think you deserve a reward. earlier, i believe you mentioned something about being tied up?” he binds your arms, leaving your digits to flail helplessly right above the small of your back, where his hand has now come to rest.

“f-fuck me! please...i’m tired of waiting- i just wanna be yours!” you beg, hips jolting back in impatience and need, your pussy throbbing at the sensation of his tip nudging the deepest parts of you. “so fucking needy. i’ll give you exactly what you’re craving sweetheart.” he smirks, before dragging his hips as far back as he can, length retreating from your warm walls before slamming right back in. one hand on your shoulders to keep your face pressed into your pillows, the other taking reign on your hips as a guide to rut against you. your back arches so deliciously for him, ass jiggling on every thrust as he watches your body impale itself on his length. he’s so deep, his tip consistently ramming into your cervix over and over and over; your body is so overwhelmed and so needy, so full but not full enough. it’s too much, but you want more. “fill me up sho! i want it— i need it so bad” you cry, tears spilling over and staining your pillowcase. “wouldn’t you love that, having me fill this pretty pussy up with all my cum hm?” “no wonder you’re moaning for me like a whore, you want everyone to know who’s doing this to you.” shota pants, quickening his pace. “yes! i’m yours all yours!” you moan, pussy throbbing at his fierce pace, you can feel the sweat gathering between your body and the sheets but you don’t care. you use the leverage from your shoulders to push back onto him, chasing your high.

“that’s it, come on, fuck me back. come on kitty it’s your dick after all~” he breathes, grinning at the way you’re drooling and how your eyes are rolling at the way he’s fucking you.

“fuck, you must really wanna cum again hm? such a greedy, slutty girl” you nod, head spinning as he tightens your restraints and strokes into you as deep as he can. you feel the familiar quivering of your legs, a tell tale sign you’re close to cumming. “sho—ah!-sho please! i wanna cum please i’m so close-“ you plead, voice unsteady. “well since you asked so nicely...of course kitty” he acquiesces, a hand slithering between your folds to softly rub your clit while he drills into you, and your body nearly self destructs. “f-fuck! ah—thank you shota, oh god, mmm you’re so good to me” you babble, body floating through space as he rubs you through your orgasm.

and once again, the ball is in his court. you shudder, head leaning over your shoulder with lidded eyes to try and look at aizawa. his hair is down now, and a deep blush has taken residence across his cheeks, chest heaving as sweat glistens on his chest and slowly drips down his toned stomach. he hasn’t stopped fucking you, but this time his rhythm’s gotten sloppy, and his teeth have sunken into his bottom lip so hard you think he’ll pierce through it.

he’s close, and you want every last drop.

“make me take it shota—show me what you do to good girls~” you purr, eyes widening when he loosens your restraints and turns you over, and practically folds you in half. your ankles are by your ears now as he pounds into you, and everything is so much deeper than before. your pussy tightens at the new angle, and you feel another orgasm beneath the surface, though you don’t know if you can take it. “it’s too much! i can’t take it—“ you whine, tits jiggling as he swoops down and paws at one, making you cry out. “yes you can baby, just one more, come on make me proud just give me one fucking more” he growls, the heat of his order hot against your ear. “god i’m gonna paint these slutty little walls white—gonna fill you up so good” he moans, shota’s dirty confession egging you on as your fingers toy with your achingly sensitive bundle of nerves. “that’s it. play with it, show me how you do it when i’m not there-“ and that slick fucking comment is what sends you tumbling off the edge for your third time tonight. “fuck! i’m gonna cum—i’m gonna make you all mine, all for me” you grin before raking your nails up and down his back to encourage him. “give it to me, i don’t wanna have anyone else kiss me without knowing what you taste like~” and soon hot spurts of cum paint your insides and flood you with a warm, thick feeling. shota immediately crashes his lips onto yours, holding you tightly. you can’t really explain the current state of your emotions, but you feel full, and content. meanwhile the current object of your affection is nuzzled into your neck, peppering kisses over all the love bites he’d inflicted earlier as a means of apology, though you didn’t mind.

it would be a pain in the ass to cover up tomorrow, but you could always just wear a scarf or a turtleneck to compensate due to the colder weather. it wasn’t until the two of you had cleaned up and rehydrated that he spoke: “by the way, i like you too. and have. for a while now. just in case that wasn’t clear.” he stated, arms wrapped around your middle as he began to doze off.

“you know you probably should’ve led with that-“

“shut up.”

so yeah, shota aizawa could live without sex.

question is: why the hell would he want to, when you’re here?

[virlath]

environmental lore ~ Dirthamen and Falon’Din

Part 1 - origins and the four armed statues Part 2 - their alliances Part 3 - the origins of humans

===

Part 2  - their alliances

There is a lot of environmental foreshadowing surrounding Dirthamen and Falon’Din in DAI, which is interesting considering they were extremely mysterious in previous games. Among these are many hints they worked closely with Fen’Harel, Mythal, and Andruil at some point in time.

The most solid evidence for this are the mosaics within the elven ruins in Trespasser, which is only safely accessible using Mythal’s passphrase.

The mosaics are clearly old, but you can definitely see they represent Dirthamen, Mythal, Fen’Harel, and Falon’Din in that order.

A double raven standard is also clearly seen within the weaponry used by the freed slaves, indicating Dirthamen actually helped the rebels either in secret or even as a leader in battle.

Two archer statues surrounding the eluvian leading out of the ruins also suggest Andruil was similarly involved in their alliance. 

Evidence for this alliance is further strengthened through Falon’Din and Andruil’s shared symbolism of the owl, which is also seen as a terrible omen of loss by the Dalish.

Andruil would send her messenger, the owl, to show the People the way, and they would follow him to where the land was blessed.

Always keep an eye out for the noble owl. You never know: Andruil might have a message for you.

Falon'Din sought someone to be his messenger and companion. The wind was swift, but Falon'Din refused to chain it. The People were loyal, but could not live where Falon'Din walked. Then the owl came to him and said, "I am not cowed by darkness. Let me serve you who also has no fear of night." Falon'Din accepted gladly, and took the owl as his servant, who thereafter helped Falon'Din guide the People through the passage of the Veil.

I theorise the symbol of the owl was in fact Falon’Din himself, flying between the Void and the real world to pass Mythal’s verdicts on to Andruil so she could deliver judgements in the form of her hunts.

Falon’Din’s mastery of the dark and shapeless worlds and airless skies also fits in line with Andruil’s hunts in the Void, which is otherwise known as the place of nothing. I believe Andruil and Falon’Din’s journeys both inevitably led to the Void, simply because that was the only place judged culprits could hide from Mythal’s justice. 

This also brings to mind the puzzle we find at the Darvaarad in Trespasser.

“One sees the hunter, one flees from it, one hunts it in turn, one outwits them all.”

Or in other words...

“The owl(Falon’Din) sees the hunter(Andruil), the halla (Ghilan’nain) flees from it, the dragon(Mythal) hunts it in turn, the wolf (Fen’Harel) outwits them all.”

Personally, I think the riddle strongly hints at a fallout between Andruil and Ghilan’nain, either due to conflicts of interest in their duty to Mythal, or on a more personal level as Ghilan’nain was once considered “beloved” by Andruil. 

My current theory is that Ghilan’nain hid in the Void after the event with the Sinner in an attempt to raise a coup against Mythal. Mythal sought Falon’Din and Andruil to bring her to justice, and so they hunted her while Dirthamen tried in vain to stall them/protect her, either out of love for her or because she held a secret he didn’t want getting out (perhaps their relationship was the secret, and Ghilan’nain was cheating on Andruil with Dirthamen).

This results in Dirthamen getting neutralised by Fen’Harel to resolve the situation which was spiralling out of control, but this is all a distraction by Ghilan’nain to lead Mythal’s allies away from her so she can be cornered and “killed”. We don’t yet know the movements of June, Sylaise, and Elgar’nan, so it’s unknown if they also had something to do with orchestrating Mythal’s death.

Whatever the case may be, I think it’s likely Dirthamen was backstabbed by Fen’Harel because Dirthamen’s pose in the fade mimics Solas’ unfinished fresco- both he and Mythal feature a sword sticking out from their back. However I don’t think Solas acted out of malice in both cases, but rather out of regret and perceived necessity.

Consequently, my current theory is that the owl statue in DAI solely represents Falon’Din and Andruil is represented by the archer statues.

The owl statues are also always seen carrying a circular object, of which I believe to be an eluvian/elven artifact to transport or imprison criminals hunted down by Andruil. 

Owl statues can also be found at Skyhold, which is interesting in itself because it is strongly hinted at that Skyhold is where Solas created the veil. 

The owl can be seen in the Great Hall, as well as in your own quarters which I think is kinda creepy considering the underlying symbolism.

What’s even more interesting to me is the painting above these owls. It clearly shows the Inquisition logo, but the art style is similar to many other artworks we find around Ferelden, meaning it is likely older than the Inquisition itself, and possibly even painted by the Avvar. The mountain in the artwork seems to be a reference to Belenas, a mountain that may have been the original location of Arlathan before it became the Black City.

The art is similar in style to the artwork in the stables mysteriously depicting Dirthamen and Ghilan’nain.

Another notable example of this art style can be found on the mayor of Crestwood’s house.

The symbolism of this artwork is peculiar, because it shows lightness and darkness divided, encircled, and guarded by a raven and a wolf- animal symbols representing Dirthamen and Fen’Harel respectively. The circle comprises of twelve equal divisions with a weeping sun in the centre. Solas’ tarot cards also features twelve stars, three of which are disintegrated. A very peculiar coincidence...

The owl statues also feature prominently at Suledin Keep, which I think was once Falon’Din’s stronghold based on the statues and symbolism found there.

The red lyrium mist emanating from the entrance is particularly foreboding, especially since Falon’Din is the master of darkness and shadow- themes also associated with the Void and the blight.

The People swore their lives to Falon'Din Who mastered the dark that lies. Whose shadows hunger Whose faithful sing Whose wings of death surround him Thick as night. Lethanavir, master-scryer, be our guide, Through shapeless worlds and airless skies.

──Song to Falon'Din, found in the Temple of Mythal, author unknown

In fact in most areas where the owl statue is seen, death is also often associated with it. The best example of this can be seen at the Knight’s Tomb, where they flank a beheaded Mythal statue with a skull in place of it’s regular head.

While it’s clear the owl is strongly linked to Falon’Din, Dirthamen is a lot more mysterious. Dirthamen’s most beloved animal is the bear, however he doesn’t seem to have any clear statue depicting himself in the main game. In fact, at the Temple of Mythal his mosaic is flanked by two owl statues. 

If you do the rituals, Falon’Din’s mosaic can also be seen next to Fen’Harel and Mythal next to the owl puzzle, however no depiction of Dirthamen can be found.

Similarly at Dirthamen’s lost temple, no mosaic or depiction of Dirthamen can be seen, however there are green mosaics of Falon’Din and one red mosaic of Ghilan’nain. And most interestingly of all, the locked inner sanctum shows two gilded statues of Fen’Harel, which is not something you would expect at a temple dedicated to Dirthamen.

This is further evidence to me Dirthamen and Fen’Harel were once close allies, and this is compounded by the fact the imprisoned high keeper in the temple awakens from an elven artifact. This is the same artifact Solas uses to measure the veil, and also an item he constantly describes as an “artifact of his people”.

But to sum it all up, I think the Vir Dirthara in Trespasser best displays these web of alliances because it is also one of the few places Dirthamen is represented in the form of a raven.

Mythal was the adjudicator in the center, and Fen’Harel was her wingman ensuring her day to day ran smoothly. Falon’Din was the messenger who travelled between worlds, passing Mythal’s judgements to Andruil who in turn hunted judged culprits. Dirthamen represents the ravens at the edge of the scene, monitoring events in the background and keeping tabs on everyone in the shadows, much like Leliana’s role as spymaster.

It is interesting to me that Dirthamen is portrayed as a raven instead of a bear though, because his ravens are described in current known lore as his bound minions, not as true allies.

Nevertheless, raven statues can be found in the Fade in the main game, as well as seemingly random locations such as Redcliffe.

Raven statues can also be seen in the Crossroads, right before these magical red eggs that trigger the visibility of new pathways to different floating islands.

Considering the fact Dirthamen/Falon’Din are considered twins that walked the shifting paths beyond the veil, I think this is further evidence these raven statues do in fact represent Dirthamen.

===

Part 1 - origins and the four armed statues Part 2 - their alliances Part 3 - the origins of humans

[blarfkey]

director’s cut, director’s choice of ⭐️Dear Fen’Harel⭐️? (Though generally speaking, I’m intensely curious as to how you develop characters because everyone you write is so brilliantly layered)

So um, this exploded. And I apologize. I am very much a character-driven writer versus a plot-driver writer. Also, how I develop characters is not a process I think about, it just happens, so this is also me finding out for myself how my own brain works, haha. If you want the full fucking three page essay this turned into, there’s more under the cut.

If not, and I don’t blame you, TLDR: I break a canon character down to their parts based on what I see in-game, I look at how their personal quest affects them, and I try to find a modern day equivalent to that. Each character has an issue they need to get past and I create situations to challenge those issues. And Ellana was created to be a foil for Solas and I dumped all my negative traits into her because neither she nor I can afford therapy so this is our best bet.

First of all, developing characters in fanfic is different than OC characters because I have a pre-set personality to work with rather than making someone from scratch. So for this, Ellana’s development is different from the rest of the cast.

For fanfic characters, obviously I look at the source material and see how they’ve reacted to certain situations and what they have canonically expressed about themselves in both deed and word. Honestly, I pay more attention to what they have DONE versus what they have SAID because a lot of characters tend to fool themselves into thinking they’re one way when they’re not (here’s looking at you, Solas).

Because DF is a modern AU, I take what I have seen in Canon (which is a lot because Bioware is very good at giving so much material to work with having all those different dialogue trees) and I apply it to the Modern Day. Some characters fit very easily – Dorian was made for Academia. Krem seems a more modern character anyway with how he constantly roasts Iron Bull. Josephine’s prowess in DA:I translates very easily to political science. Varric kind of has a modern writer’s career anyway.

Some are not easy – Solas is actually super hard for me to write in DF than he is in Thick as Thieves because so much of his characterization, his world views, his prejudices, are rooted in the fact that he is an ancient being out of time – which is impossible to have in this AU. I have crafted a sort of back story for him that might explain some things later, but it’s flimsy at best, haha.

So I’ve had to really look at what Solas is like in Inquisition when he’s pretending to be a “normal” hedge mage hermit from nowhere and how he behaves in his romance and extract from that. Solas is a nerd, he’s socially awkward from self-imposed isolation, he constantly struggles with what he wants and what is the morally correct thing to do and the temptation to be loved usually wins out over his convictions until the last second when he gets his common sense back and ruins everything.

It helps that in both DA and DF Solas is keeping a massive, massive secret from the Inquisitor about his identity that will shift the power balance between the two, so I’ve used that to guide me when I’m unsure. He still feels off to me, but it’s whatever at this point, lol. I did my best.

Once I’ve boiled a character down to their usual traits, I figure out how I’m going to have them grow throughout the fic and use their growth to help Ellana’s growth. I try to pull from their personal quests as much as I can, when I can get it to fit.

Some people, like Iron Bull, are static because they’ve already gone through their journey and have reached acceptance. I didn’t really know how to work his Leaving the Qun story line in the modern day, since it is tied so closely with war and potentially killing the Chargers, so by the time Ellana meets him, he has already left the Qun and made his peace with it. I use his static nature to help guide Ellana when she’s conflicted about her identity.

Some people, like Josephine, have personal quests that don’t fit with a modern era but I want to show them grow anyway, so I create something else for them. Right now, Josephine is mired in family drama and trying to figure out how to balance shouldering the weight of her responsibilities to her family with being her own person. That I drew from my own personal experience with being the only sane person in my family with their shit together, haha.

Or Cassandra, who is definitely NOT going to be Divine here, lol. So instead she gets to struggle with her art and how she can express herself in a way that leaves her vulnerable to scrutiny and yet can be so freeing.

Some people, like Krem, get a character arc that I think should have been explored but never was. Krem being trans is something that’s mentioned and talked about a little and never explored. I mean, he’s not a main character, so I get it. And I liked that Being Trans wasn’t his entire character. But there was no way to put him in the modern AU without his trans identity impacting some of his story and growth, even if he had already made his peace with it.

Now, I will say this upfront: I am not trans, and I haven’t had the opportunity to be close friends with a trans person, but I have done a lot of research on what trans people have said about their own experiences, and combined this with other research I’ve done over the years with other minorities and tried to put together what could be lingering insecurities for him and how he could overcome them.

I’m  definitely not saying that I’ve done this perfectly and I’m always open to any trans reader who would give me correction, but being trans was not an aspect of Krem’s character that I wanted to ignore just because I wasn’t familiar with it.

I will say that his romance with Josephine was Not Planned. It just kinda happened and I happily ran with it, haha.

Varric’s arc with Bianca is just wishful thinking because I hate her so so much and Bioware just dropped that bomb in Varric’s lap and then just lets him keep holding on to it and it’s bullshit.

The other character journeys are just ways to explore vulnerability in them that I didn’t think got enough attention in the game or I think they could realistically have even if it wasn’t in canon. Like Dorian dealing with his father. Now, in the game, Halward doesn’t have a disease and he dies unexpectedly. But I wanted Dorian to have a realistic reason why he would reach other to his estranged father in this AU and a ticking countdown to an inevitable death seemed right.

Now we get to see Dorian really struggle with this new-found connection with his father that he always wanted to have and now it’s temporary and heartbreak is inevitable and is it still worth it to him? I think Dorian has similar feelings in Trespasser when he found out his father was murdered because he still invested himself to rebuild a lost connection, only to lose it so soon after.

Zevran’s past with the Crows is also something that I really wanted to explore because in the game he is sad for a hot second and then moves on with the Warden and his newfound goal of destroying the entire Crow organization. So I wanted to see Zevran struggle with his inner worth, the fact that he can’t hide forever and his past puts his loved ones in danger, the fact that he can even HAVE loved ones and how it scares the shit out of him.  I wanted to have a character who puts on such a good front about not giving a shit about anything to hide how very deeply afraid he is. We are going to see more of this also before the story is over, lol.

Now, Ellana. Like all original characters, Ellana has a lot my personal experiences tied in her. But I originally created Ellana to fill a need for a type of character that I wanted to see with Solas and don’t really get to. I mean, I have not scourged the corners of the internet to find it so I’m sure there are other characters like her, but I haven’t found very many.

I see a lot of very beautiful, very delicate and feminine, very kind and gentle Disney Princess kind of Lavellans. I see a LOT of them. And I don’t hate that necessarily. I mean, Josephine is all of those things and more and I adore her and I sort of crack ship her with Solas anyway, in the secret recesses of my heart. And I love seeing a female character who is the epitome of a “weak” female use those “weak” traits to succeed.

But I am also not very beautiful, I am NOT delicate at all, I’m not gentle. I am not anywhere close to a Disney Princess or a Josephine. And it was disheartening to see Solas romance all these Ocs that were nothing like me after a while because it kind of gave me the message that someone like Solas, a character that I admire and def have a fictional crush on, would never want someone who looks like me or acts like me. That even with unlimited freedom in creating a romantic counterpart for him, I saw so much of what society already reinforces as an ideal that I will never match up to. It doesn’t help that Bioware’s body diversity for elves ranges is nonexistent.

So I made Ellana for me. Not because I want to hate on other Ocs or prove that mine is superior, but so that I would have something that I connected to. And I wanted to explore a dynamic with Solas that I didn’t get to see very often.

So when I first imagined Ellana, I wanted her to be strong and tall and muscular and powerful in a way that makes a lot of unenlightened men uncomfortable. I wanted somebody used to manual labor and dirt and the outdoors and solving problems with their fists and just totally unrefined because I wanted her to be the complete opposite of Solas. (So like Cassandra but in elf form, haha).

I did not want her to be soft or conventionally attractive at all. Ellana doesn’t shun femininity, because I don’t think femininity is inherently wrong, but she is uncomfortable with it and she doesn’t indulge in it.

(Just FYI I am NOT built like Ellana at all either, haha. This is the wish fulfillment part of the OC. I greatly resemble the dwarves, which is why I love them so much.)

But I also needed her to have a reason to leave home, and to have some points of commonality with Solas, so I made her a nerd. A jocky nerd who is insatiably curious and stubbornly independent. And then because I wanted Ellana to feel like a real person instead just a wish fulfillment fantasy, I needed her to grow. So I gave her all my complicated anger issues, my bluntness, my struggles with homesickness, the way I compartmentalize negative events in my life so I don’t have to deal with them just so they can bite me in the ass later, my experiences of going from a lifestyle where all my needs were met and I was oblivious to how great I had it to living with serious poverty for the first time.

And then I devised situations with her life and the other characters where Ellana has to confront these issues and learn to accept them and either move past them or learn to control them. Sometime she gains wisdom and imparts it to people like Sera or Dorian when their struggles come up. And her biggest challenge has yet to arrive, so she’s still cooking, so to speak. Ellana still has a long way to go before she really reaches maturity.

As far as her relationship with Solas goes, I wanted her to challenge him and give him a total upheaval everything he thought he knew about his own culture and his own self. And I wanted him to do the same for her. And then when all the pieces are done falling, they have grown into two people who can handle being together.

So that’s basically it. If there is any character in particular you want to know more about or why I made certain decisions, always feel free to ask!

[skekheck]

In that same vein, how about gelfling ranking??? OwO

Warning this post may contain lightly spiced opinions. Also not going to list all of them because there’s a lot...

BUT HERE WE GOOOOOO

1. Seladon: Say what you want with how AOR handled her redemption arc, but she’s by far the most interesting and complexly written gelfling character in the series. She was raised with a lot of pressure, being the eldest daughter of the all Maudra. She had to train hard and taught by a mother who never really showed her love or recognize her accomplishments. Most scenes she’s in with Mayrin her mother criticizes her constantly. Seladon was raised to serve the skeksis and that their word is law and true. And then suddenly her mother and her younger sister who she had a strained relationship are planning to flip it upside down. Lead by the being who represents all of Thra who hasn’t been seen or heard of in forever. And then her mother was murdered for treachery and further being manipulated by the beings she was taught to serve. Does any of this excuse what she did? Of course not, but constantly seeing people berate her over actual genocidal turkeys is very telling how people’s biases get in the way of what’s going on. But at the same time, a character generating this much discussion for her gray morale is proof of how great of a character she is. Also she rocks the goth look. 

2. Kylan: Sweetest boy. Because he’s a minor character in AOR, I’m going to be talking about him from the books. His characterization was inconsistent in Shadows, but they became clearer in Song thanks to the fact his story was told from his perspective. He never really fit into anything: his parents were taken from him at an young age, his step-mother was not very kind to him despite loving him, he never fit in as a Spriton. Now, being part of a resistance of fighters, he once again feels inadequate as a songteller. How can a songteller fight the skeksis? Kylan struggled with self-worth, constantly comparing himself to his peers. But through his travels, he discovers that he has a place in the resistance and there are things that he can do that no one else can. He took on and defeated skekLi the Satirist through playing is firca (and aided by the mystics). Kylan was able to engrave dreametches (a rare and hard to learn skill) into the petals of the Sanctuary Tree to get the word out about the skeksis. He even saved Tavra’s life. He may be the broth boy in AOR, but he’s the smart, shy but very sweet songteller and I think more people should acknowledge that. 

3. Tavra: Absolute MVP in both AOR and the book series. There are things I wish AOR kept about her, like her relationship with Onica (but I feel this can still be remedied if they find the right way to include it). She was the glue in her relationship with her sisters, keeping them together even after she “passed away”. Although it took her a while to get there, Tavra shined even brighter in the books. After losing her original body, she lives the rest of her life as a spider. Like Kylan, she was having her own self-doubts of what she could do with her new body. She does manage to find ways to work around her predicament, but seeing what sacrifices she would have to make (like not being able to see her sisters ever again) is heart breaking. Whatever her situation may be, in both iterations her bravery is commendable and I absolutely adore her character.

4. Periss: So this is my complete bias coming in, but I loved this character. Although he’s not my favorite from the book series anymore, he still remains high on my list. He’s a rebel: he hates his clan and their complacent ways. He knew their Great Tree was alive, but no one listened to him as they thought he wasn’t able to let go. He fought with his brother, sandmaster Erimon, to the point he decided to run away. Periss became a thief who grew a fondness for materialism, as opposed to a clan who lives on minimalism. When the main group finds him after stealing from them, they force him to get them to the Dousan Clan and indirectly confront his problems. It’s there that we find he’s not completely selfish and cares for those around him. I adore smug thief characters with a heart of gold and Periss quickly grew on me. Please be in future seasons.

5. Onica: While a minor character in AOR, she plays a bigger role in the book series. Her characterization is similar, but we get to see more of her: she has a backstory and established relationships with other characters. She lost her wings while stuck in a storm, losing her wings by saving one of her friends. Although she mourns over the loss, she will never regret doing what she did and even concluding that meeting Tavra was worth it. She’s also got a little sass to her and I love how she doesn’t take shit from no one. I hope we get to see this version of Onica in future seasons.

6. Naia: Once again, book series does her more justice. She’s a headstrong badass who cares about her family and goes through great lengths to find her brother. Like a lot of her friends, she has her own problems of fitting in into the grand scheme of things and eventually doubting herself when she believed her one special gift was taken from her. Also she had a super interesting expansion on her dreamfasting ability where not only could she dreamfast with animals but also with the skeksis/mystics (with Gurjin involved). She doesn’t take shit and she gets stuff done no matter how hard it is. 

7. Maudra Argot: Sassy, doesn’t take any shit, should have been the All Maudra. How dare Mayrin rob that from her?

8. Maudra Seethi: My favorite maudra only for the tiniest bit of lore about her and design. I want to know more about you. Gimmie more lore.

9.  Rek’yr: He’s really cool, but there’s not much to him. Hopefully we get a prequel comic starring him soon.

10.  Kira: Should have been the protagonist of the movie. She’s a cute bog princess with a noisy rolly polly dog, can speak to animals, used said animals to kill a skeksis, knows how to use throwing weapons, what’s not to love? Sequel comics ruined her, though.

11.  Brea: I love her inquisitiveness and her need to find the truth. I said this before, but my friend and I joked she was BOTW!Zelda and that still sticks with me. The two are so much alike. Brea is my favorite out of the main trio, but I wished she was as developed as her sisters.

12.  Gurjin: I like him just fine. I don’t really get why people are so thirsty for him but everyone’s got different interests. He is really funny though and kiddos to him for staying strong while being tortured by the skeksis. He’s kind of the odd one out as I like him better in AOR than I did in the book series. I mean we didn’t really get to know him until Flames and by then he just couldn’t leave an impression on me.

13.  Mira: Should have been alive instead of Rian. I kinda really wanted an all girl trio.

14.  Maudra Ethri: I wish they kept her gem eye that was really cool.

15. Maudra Fara: She’s cool. That’s all I can really say.

16.  Maudra Mayrin: Conflicted. One hand I understand why she acts the way she does but on the other hand that doesn’t excuse her from treating Seladon so poorly. Even when she finally steps up to the skeksis I don’t think it really makes up for what she did. A golden star for trying, though.

17.  Elder Cadia: Who?

18.  Deet: Okay I might get some salty fans on me but... I don’t particularly care for Deet? Like she’s cute and should be protected, but that’s really it. She’s just cute. It’s cool to see things from her perspective: the surface world of Thra is so new and newcomers to the series can see its wonders and dangers through her. But there’s not much else. Hopefully this changes but I’m not very impressed.

19.  Rian: Now I don’t mind him, but I think I fell into the camp of I wish Mira was alive instead. He’s the typical hero character who’s needlessly surrounded by tragedy. The show never really gets him to mourn properly. And then he just moves on from Mira to Deet just like that? He’s also not really interesting as a character. He’s my least favorite of the main trio.

20.  Ordon:  I like him, but I don’t think he was very rememberable. I think he resolved his issues with his son too quickly and as soon as they reunite Ordon is killed off. His sacrifice wasn’t even worth it because skekMal survived anyway. Ordon’s death felt cheap, adding needless trauma and sorrow for Rian who was already dealing with the loss of Mira. Ordon deserved better.

21.  Amri: Okay here’s another take people might get salty over: he’s boring. he had promise being a weird experimenter, but we don’t really get to see much of that except for a few instances. Amri had a collection of jars full of weird junk he made. They were brought up in Song and never again. I’m not sure why he became the protagonist of Tides I feel like he should have remained as a side character. He just never made an impression on me.

22.  Jen: As interesting as white bread. I haven’t read the novelization of the movie yet so this opinion may change, but he’s just... not interesting. Also the sequel comics totally ruined him for me.

23. Kensho: I keep forgetting him most of the time. He’s boring.

24. Maudra Mera: Fuck this racist bitch. Worst gelfling 0/10.

[vecna]

Oohh for the fandom meme! Dragon Age?

Send me a fandom!

Oh boy, this is going to be spicy.

It’s also very Anders-negative, so apologies up front.

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

I’m actually not sure which was the FIRST, but it’s a tie between Morrigan and Alistair. I saw fanart of them going around at the time Origins first released, and that’s what got me to try the game! 

Alistair was a breath of fresh air, because at the time, I was used to warrior men in games being all Edgy and Rough, and he was the total opposite and a sweetheart.

And Morrigan was just instantly my goth wife, and had Claudia Black as a VA, so I was sold immediately.

Both still hold a special place for me!

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Loghain is the main one. He does a lot of truly reprehensible shit in the first game. But once I sat down and read the prequel novels about young Loghain, plus saw what he’s like if you recruit him, he grew on me A LOT and now he’s a top fave.

Nathaniel I expected to hate as soon as I saw his name + who his father was, but then the expansion came out and I ended up loving that dude almost immediately. I really wish he was around more after Awakening, and also really wish he’d been a romance option, especially for a Cousland haha.

Merrill is a weird one because she was totally uninteresting to me in DA:O, so when they announced her as a companion in DA2 I was like, “Ehhhh.” Then they punked me by making her adorable and sweet and now I love her.

Plus a bunch of side-characters like The Architect? I liked him a bunch in the novel + Awakening – although I found his Plan in the novel much more appealing. But as the years have gone by, I keep surprising myself at just HOW disappointed I am he’s never appeared again haha.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

There’s a few, and all of them will get me yelled at, but here we go.

First: Isabela. This one’s a bit complicated, but it really just boils down to her attitude towards how you play your character. I actively dislike characters who are super sexual – regardless of gender. But Isabela in particular bothers me because she’s constantly pushing her lewdness and sexual humor on you, and when you try to discourage it, she admonishes you with, “Well, you’re no fun.” Her whole character is just… like that for me. Super pushy, overly lewd, gets uppity when you don’t have the same ~liberated~ opinions she does, and this is all played up in the writing like she’s this Empowered Woman the player absolutely must love, especially if they’re playing a male character lol. I hate her for the same reasons a lot of people hate Liara in Mass Effect, but with the addition of pushy lewd jokey characters always rubbing me the wrong way.

Second: Iron Bull. I’ve written a lot about why he makes me more uncomfortable than any fictional character I’ve ever encountered, and I just outright hate him, he makes my skin crawl. If you want details, feel free to DM me, I don’t really want to rant about it again publicly.

Third: Anders. Again, I’ve written a lot about him before, but. I hated him in Awakening, for a lot of the same reasons I hate Isabela in DA2. But the changes they made to him in DA2 are just kinda :/. While I absolutely agree with him about Mage Rights, the level of preachiness they added to him drove me nuts, and the fact that you’re painted as a Bad Guy if you don’t like him blowing up the chantry. And from a purely OOC standpoint: He’s become a figurehead for all the aggressive Discourse people in the fandom, and if I see someone list Anders in their sidebar bio, I know pre-emptively that their blog is going to be full of 6 page long essays of meta about how everything is Problematic, and no thanks.

To a lesser extent, I’m also not fond of Zevran. But in his case, it’s not anything major like the others, I’m just tired of Bioware’s habit of making the bisexual characters overly lewd sex-focused rogues/deviants.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Loghain, lol.

But also Sebastian Vael? There’s so much about him that I find genuinely fascinating, especially regarding his backstory, and his struggles between his feelings of responsibility to his family vs his dedication to the Chantry and bettering himself. He’s such a dear character to me, and such a pivotal part of any playthrough, I’m always blown away when I remember he’s a DLC character and many people don’t have him.

HOWEVER Anders being the fandom darling means that people tend to unfairly shit on Sebastian for reacting poorly to the Chantry explosion. People also like to label him as a poster child of a White Straight Church Boy, while refusing to acknowledge he’s… not straight, and not exactly a church boy either lol.

Also Vivienne, but I think that one’s really self-explanatory. I love her, and she gives a really needed perspective on the Circle, since most of the mage companions previously were apostates. But of course, she gets written off as a Chantry apologist, and an uppity bitch, when people would def love her for the same traits if she was not black lol.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Justice. And by extension, Anders. A lot of people like to rant about how Justice ruined Anders, but I always saw it the other way around.Justice was my favorite character in Awakening. The whole concept around him, that he was a Fade spirit who took human form and was experiencing life for the first time was SO fascinating. I felt like there was so much to explore there with his character.

Buuuut then they had him merge with Anders. With the narrative being that he WAS a spirit of Justice, but the moment he connected with Anders, it corrupted his entire spirit into something he wasn’t anymore. So essentially, the character I used to love no longer exists, thanks to Anders. And it reminds me of that phrase recently, about how the destination is so terrible you can no longer enjoy the journey? I can’t even appreciate Justice in Awakening anymore, knowing what happens to him.

To a lesser extent, Corypheus. He was SO COOL and the premise of him was AMAZING when he first appeared in the DA2 DLC, but then Inquisition had to go and turn him into a weird shallow mustache twirl villain.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None? Idk I don’t really have the Smooch Fictional Character gene.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

MAEVARIS TILANI. May I one day finally have the confidence in my identity that she does, and also marry a sweet bear man who adores me.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Too many to list, really. Probably Anders.

The pairing(s) that I love:

THERE’S SO MANY. And most of them are with the PC, because I generally don’t ship NPCs together. But my top 3 are:

M!Hawke / Fenris is my ultimate OTP in the Dragon Age series, by a long-shot. Not even sure where to start on how much I love it, but two damaged guys leaning on each other to work through their respective loneliness and trauma is MY JAM. And lmao I love silver-sideburned Hawke chillin in retirement somewhere but being a supportive husband while Fenris goes off hunting the Bad Guys, it’s great.

Solas / Lavellan is a close second, with the caveat that I increasingly prefer it with a male Lavellan. Having the Inquisitor in love with Solas just changes the entire tone of the game for me, for the better, and him actually being the villain trying to end the world while in love with this normie elf is just (chef kiss). Too bad I’m burned out by how overly spammed it is.

Dorian / Inquisitor is in third, I will just always be fond of how it’s a story of the Inquisitor helping Dorian be happy with who he is, escape an abusive family, and realize that he’s allowed to be loved. Good shit good shit.

Some others:

Warden / Morrigan is probably my favorite Origins ship, and that only intensified with the way she talks about the Warden in Inquisition, esp if they’re Kieran’s other parent. What a cute goth family, regardless of the Warden’s gender, cause you can pry Bi Morrigan from my cold dead fingers.

Cassandra / Inquisitor might have a lot of Romance Cliches, but I adore it – although, similar others, I increasingly prefer it with a female Inquisitor. I actively dislike the weird no-homo rejection with her, and come on, a lady Inquisitor being her Knight In Shining Armor is just good storytelling.

Cullen / Inquisitor, for a lot of the same reasons as Cassandra. I love me a cliche romance, but I’m also fond of the narrative w/ him of someone he loves helping him heal through the lyrium withdrawals and take time to rest.

Josephine / F!Inquisitor is just adorable all around, and wholesome, and great.

Varric / Hawke COME ON HOW WAS THIS NOT AN OPTION.

On the rarepair end:

Sebastian / Hawke doesn’t seem like it would be a rarepair – you’d think everyone who loves Cullen/Inquisitor would love this one too. I do! But alas. That said, I’m also pretty aggro about this one with a male Hawke because SEBASTIAN IS CANON BI. WHY WAS HIS ROMANCE STRAIGHT.

Maric / Loghain is a rarepair I will take with me to my grave LOL. Never forget the scene where Maric thought Loghain was leaving, and bolted across the camp with almost no clothes on to beg Loghain to stay. Come on.

Nathaniel / Cousland is dear to me, and I love it so much more than Alistair / Cousland haha.

Greagoir / Wynne, I can’t believe this got validated in canon ahhhh.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

Again: THERE’S SO MANY.

Iron Bull / Dorian is my least fave by a longshot. Again, I have written about why I hate this pairing a great many times, but it’s awful and toxic and makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing anything about it ever again. Please keep poor Dorian away from that man. He deserves someone that doesn’t sexually harass him until he’s finally worn down into dubious consent (while drunk) and then outted to everyone about it.

Isabela / Fenris. Sorry, but it’s just bad writing that Fenris bails on Hawke because the physical intimacy triggered his PTSD and he needs space to process, but then will turn around and have a casual sex relationship with Isabela instead. Yikes.

Anders / Fenris. Aveline / Isabela. Alistair / Morrigan. All of the DA2 Hawke/companion rivalmances. I don’t enjoy “these two people hate and antagonize and want to kill each other… but they fuck” in any form.

Cullen / Amell. Yikes.

And basically ALL of the canon wlw pairings in this series suffer from the fact they have men writing them, and as a result they’re almost always some kind of abusive or racist, and skeeve me out. See: Celene / Briala, Leliana / Marjolaine, Branka / Hespith, etc. Please Bioware, I’m begging you to consult some actual queer women. It’s insane how badly they’re treated compared to how the canon mlm couples are written.

FINALLY, I recognize this will be the most unpopular of all, but. As much as I love M!Hawke/Fenris, I just honestly cannot stand seeing F!Hawke/Fenris. There are some pairings where I’m so attached to the m/m or f/f version, I cannot deal with the m/f version anymore, and that’s one of them. (The others are mainly non-Bioware.)

[arcane-literary-dreams]

Midnight Baking - Illain

She would see him every once in a while, as she wandered about the marketplace. It was always so familiar, catching a glimpse of the head of dusk kissed hair working about as he baked and cleaned. They’ve met each other, of course, Illain and Clover.  

Though, due to her business with the palace, and own tasks at home, she never seemed to find time to hang around longer, whether it be to talk with Selasi, or simply enjoy some time with them.

Clover would find her thoughts wandering, drifting back to each comfort, each warm and nostalgic moment she could, and at times, she would find her wondering about Illain, who he was, and what he liked. She was curious, as she was with many things.

Though, in this particular moment, she found it rather difficult to even think after a long day of running about and researching. It was one of the few times she’s requested to go home, and she planned on resting full heartedly.

It was with a heavy sigh and dreary eyes, Clover trudged quietly through the marketplace, soft, solid thuds of her shoes resounding as she stepped on planks of wood. There was something about the market within the depths of the night. Even with the dull gleams of lanterns strung across the booths, faintly teetering against the brink of blowing out completely, the stars would illuminate a path of their own, wisps of smoke from dying fires would dance, floating up into the sky only to disperse with that of the moonlight.

She blinked at a rather bright light, making it out to be the booth at the corner of the stairs. Clover cocked her head the slightest, an eyebrow raising as she strode closer.

Illain was bumbling about the work area, not noticing the approaching girl as he seemed to fervently work on what looked to be a completely fresh, not even dough, batch of bread.

“Illain...?” She called out softly. Tentative, her hand brushed against the coarse grain of the counter, peering into the booth.

“Huh...? Oh, yes?” He spun around, seemingly startled at her soft voice. “Oh! Hello, Clover...!”

She nodded in response, before peering down at her hands. “Illain, alright. I got it right..” She muttered to herself in reconfirmation, before straightening her shoulders, eyes clear as she stared up at him inquisitively.

“What are you doing awake at this time? It’s almost morning, at this point.”

He fumbled with his hands, carefully rearranging the bowls of ingredients. “Ah, haha,” he chuckled, momentarily rubbing a hand against the nape of his neck in embarrassment, “I’m just preparing tomorrow’s batch, is all. The one we had originally was ruined from a small accident, and I uh, offered to stay back to remake it.”

“Oh! That’s so nice of you, Illain.” She smiled widely, although brought a hand to her chin in thought. “But, how much more do you have left?”

“Maybe... around three more batches?”

Clover’s frown deepened, and she noticed that he had begun preparing the yeast in the time they were speaking. She assumed he couldn’t make it all in one big batch, since although it could work, sometimes kneading so much dough can difficult and hard to measure the consistency of...

“Would you like any help?” She inquired directly, and he blinked up at her.

“Help? Oh! Well, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” he quickly replied, flustered at the sudden question. “It’s really late, like you said.”

“That’s alright. I don’t mind. I would like to, and at this rate you’re not going to get much sleep.” She insisted once more.

“Well, alright,” He murmured, and she found herself smiling softly at him; his mannerisms were really cute, and she couldn’t deny she found him attractive... “...thank you.”

For a moment, neither of them knew what to do, before Clover walked around the wide of the booth, ducking beneath the curtain to slip into the back area. They bumbled about briefly, before Illain had located a spare apron for Clover to borrow in the meantime. She carefully undid the buttons at the hem of her sleeves, rolling it up for better access.

Illain gazed curiously at her as she began to lift a sack of sugar, carefully measuring out what she needed. She had stumbled back from the weight, placing it back down with a solid thump.

“Have you worked here before? I didn’t know you knew Selasi’s recipe.” he commented, noticing she seemed to be doing this with practiced ease.

“I haven’t, but yes! I do know the recipe, so I can help a bit with that.” She responded, pleased that she seemed to be getting her measurements alright. “As long as I’m not imposing, of course.” She added rather politely; a brief, yet painfully obvious shy simper dancing across her lips as she glanced away momentarily.

“Not at all!” Illain stammered, and she chuckled lightly, airy and breathy. She shifted the slightest as to not be in his way, though he didn’t seem to mind.

As they continued about, they switched jobs, Illain offering to measure out the rest of the ingredients while Clover carefully kneaded the dough. It wasn’t a particularly difficult task, measuring, that is, she was just simply so tired, she hadn’t realized how weak she felt.

It warmed her heart, really, for him to be so sweet to offer so. It was a pattern she’s been noticing, just with how he’s interacted with others, his customers, how Selasi has spoken about him. Clover couldn’t help but be intrigued.

“Do you enjoy baking?” Her voice was light, and curious, Clover glancing at Illain, smiling wryly. “It’s alright if you don’t, I understand if you’re simply working.” She reassured, gaze flitting back to the bowl of dough she was working.

“I do!” He answered quickly, finding a warm flush settle on his neck. “Selasi’s really friendly, so it’s really welcoming. It’s nice to see everyone enjoy what we make.” He smiled fondly, light flour dusting at his fingers and clothing. “What about you?” He asked in return, grin becoming rather bashful.

Clover paused, slowing her movements as she kneaded some cool butter into the dough.

“Me...? What about me?” She replied readily, as though asking for confirmation. Her hands faltered, as though she hadn’t been expecting to be asked such a question, as though it  was almost unreal.

“What do, uhm, you think?”

“Oh!” her voice squeaked slightly, and he watched as she blushed the slightest as well. It was, kind of cute, truthfully. “Uhm, I think it’s lovely! Baking, that is. It’s nice to do every so often, although I like cooking more!”

She begun rambling, and he realized she could sometimes get a bit distracted like that, when all caught up within her thoughts. “If I recall correctly... there’s this really old recipe I love, though I don’t quite remember who taught me, that’s really pleasant! A rolled bun, with coarse sugar topping it, and a tart filling of freshly picked currants...”

Her voice was smothered in a soft adoration, tone so very light, so feathery, over the clinking of the dishes and mixing bowls, it was almost difficult to notice. Yet all the same, his gaze remained upon her, listening intently.

Clover chuckled shortly, though, peering down at the dough this whole time. “I haven’t been able to make it, especially since currants can be kinda hard to come across.” She smiled sheepishly, although gazed down at her hands.

She grabbed a kitchen towel, fresh and clean, from the stack kept below, carefully laying it over the bowl and dough, allowing it to rise. She placed it besides Illain’s finished batches as well, giving it plenty of time to rest, so that tomorrow, it would be perfect and ready for baking!

Clover clapped her hands, wiping any excess flour off in the process, “Well!” She begun, though laughed amusedly, short and light, at Illain’s initial surprise. He hadn’t expected her to clap so suddenly, especially in the dead of night!

“Well,” She repeated, straightening herself. “I think it should be alright here. It can get rather cool during the night but it should be alright Just make sure to bake it soon after dawn arrives, I'm sure we can't afford to have the dough ruined!”  Her tone was much lighter than it was previously, singsong and bouncing, with the slightest lilt to her voice, eyes shining in teasing joy.

She went to clean her hands, drying them carefully upon the clean parts of her apron, as she pondered over what should happen next.

“Haha, of course! Thank you, Clover. You... really didn’t have to, but thank you for your help...!”

Illain simpered widely, eyes crinkling warmly into gentle crescents, and she found herself at a loss of words for a moment, starstruck.

She felt so warm, with how openly expressive he was, and how kind and considerate Illain was in general, she had previously had some sort of idea of what he was like, but she found herself enjoying talking to him so much more than she originally though.

He was so easily flustered, it almost spurred a sort of confidence within her.

“Of course, I don’t mind helping at all! Now...” It was a small dip of a bow, reaching to grasp his hand in her own. A gentle graze of her fingers, so very featherlike and gentle, she brought a hand to her lips, brushing a sweet kiss against his knuckle. “Be sure to head home and rest soon, please. There’s not much time before dawn, after all.”

She peered up at him through her eyelashes, eyes hooded the very slightest. With a gentle squeeze, she released his hand, and smiled. Clover straightened herself, the faint darkness of the night hiding her reddening cheeks, although she perked up in surprise, finding that Illain, under the illuminating lanterns of the booth had frozen entirely.

He wasn’t processing this at all, was he.

Goodness, he was so very cute.

He was struggling to formulate words, gaze flitting about as he avoided her own curious one.

Clover composed herself once more, finding another opportunity to perhaps tease him. She had noticed it previously, but there was a smear of fluffy white flour, upon his cheek. Perhaps he hadn’t noticed, but he sure did notice when her attention stilled upon him.

“Wait, Illain, there’s some flour on your cheek.” she murmured, stepping closer.

He had reached to brush at his cheeks, although his hand was already dirtied. “I can get it.” Clover reassured, touching his forearm.

He was a little bit taller than her, she found. Perhaps a few inches or so, but either way, she had to peer up the very slightest, hesitating as she went to touch his cheek.

Illain’s voice died in his throat, and he found himself fumbling with his hands as he was unsure of where to put them. She was close, but not so much he was uncomfortable. It was just enough for her to get a clearer view of his face, as he could for her.

It was a soft graze and a hesitant exhale, he could faintly feel the tips of her fingers brush against his face. Instinctively, his eyes shut, a gentle hand hovering near Clover, though the other reached up to rest against her own, lightly before freezing in realization of his action, peeking an eye open to find she was staring at him just as wide eyed.

This time, he caught the almost sweltering blush that heated her cheeks, the both of them flooding in embarrassment.

And yet, her light fingertips ghosted against him, and her lips tightened in a fine line,  brushing some bangs from his face, before pulling away entirely.

A small silence followed, the two of them shifting slightly in their place, before she nodded to herself. “I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable.” She mustered out quietly, before meeting his gaze with an apologetic smile.

Before he could speak, she reached for her bag, securing it upon her shoulder, and stepping back. “Goodnight, Illain.” She murmured.

He had snapped out of his stunned silence with a quick “G...Goodnight, Clover...!”, and she waved cutely, before turning around and walking away into the darkness.

Neither of them could really believe what had just happened. Perhaps it was because they were both so exhausted, and tired, or perhaps it was simply the atmosphere of the night that was causing them to act this way, they wouldn’t know.

Clover’s pace had quickened, and she found herself wanting to return home as soon as possible. A small noise of embarrassment escaped her, and she cupped her cheek in flustered panic, though, a slow, sweet simper teased at her lips.

She enjoyed tonight. It was so very refreshing, after a long day like this.

Perhaps she should request visits home more often.

Bonus:

“She used to work here, at this very booth before you came along.” Selasi begun wryly, and an almost forlorn smile crossed their lips as they begun flouring the surface of the counter once more.

“She told me she never did, though? That you taught her when she first arrived.”

“Well— yes,” They replied, haltingly. “It was when she first arrived here. But it wasn’t as recent as she thought it was.”

They pursed their lips, continuing nonetheless, diverting their attention as they kneaded at the dough. “When I taught her, not too long ago-” their voice hitched as they gave the dough a solid push, “-that wasn’t the first time.”

Illain glanced over his shoulder, from where he was carefully carving fresh pumpkins. He couldn’t afford to look away for too long, not unless he wanted to cut himself by accident.  “Really? Hm...” A soft hum was elicited, and Selasi merely turned back to their work.

“She was a good egg, really. She still is! I just needed to get this off my chest, I suppose. I think something has changed with her, is all.”

There was a solemn hint to their tone, so very subtle, so very faint, it was as though Illain had been imaging it. He knew he wasn’t, though, and his curiosity was piqued once more, and he was perhaps a tad bit concerned as well; he cared very much for Selasi, and he found the late night encounter with Clover almost whimsical, what with how mysterious it was.

Selasi huffed a hearty laugh, leaned back as they surveyed Illain’s expression. “Ah, don’t you worry, lad. Clover is Clover, though, it can be some food for thought if you wish.” They reassured, patting a flour dusted hand upon his shoulder.

“Now, is the oven all ready for our first batch?”

@lazyvoyager I had s much fun with this! I hope this isn’t too long, I feel like I got really into it haha!! Clover found Illain’s easily flustered nature so very cute, she found herself more confident in initiating any sort of flirtation with him~! 

It was kind of difficult to come up with a lot of Illain’s dialogue, so I hope he isn’t super ooc,, and that this isn’t like,,, super slow or boring at all fjdsklfjlds!! I don’t usually post writing online, so I hope this is alright~!

[impossible-rat-babies]

DA 20 questions!

I was tagged by @acepavus! Thank you darling!

I’m gonna tag: @apostatetabris, @dirthara-mama, @wicked-eyes-and-wicked-hearts, @star--nymph, @red-wardens, @vvakarians, @trans-aloth, and anyone else who wants to do this! Sorry if I’ve double tagged you all!

--

01) Favourite game of the series?

I gotta go with Inquisition. I love all the maps and the characters I’ve gotten to make through the games. It’s a beautiful game.

02) How did you discover Dragon Age?

I saw art of Dorian around and figured out he was from dragon age and that he was gay and I was instantly hooked on wanting to play the game. I hadn’t ever seen a video game before with a gay man in it and I was desperate for LGBT content and validation. Dorian has been immensely important to me in helping me realize my identity.

03) How many times you’ve played the games?

I’ve played origins all the way through four times I think. I’ve played da2 three times, twice with my main Hawke and then another Hawke. I’ve played inquisition at least six times with Darva and I’m playing Dimitri for the fourth time. I’ve played that one the most by far.

04) Favourite race to play as?

Elves! I love the elves of dragon age so much

05) Favourite class?

Dual wielding rogue by far along with archers. Rogues are one my favorite classes ever. I do have a soft spot for mages and warriors thought

06) Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time?

I try to make little sorts of different choices. I’ve both allied/conscripted the templars and mages before on different little games and I’ve both banished and kept the grey wardens. I’ve never put Gaspard on the throne himself, but I’ve done all the other ways Halamshiral can end up. I’ve only ever not drank from the well once and the was because I was playing a human. I try to mix it up a little each play through for variety sake. Plus I love Calperia’s story so much more than Sampson, so I do side with the templars on occasion. But I am a mage loving gay.

07) Go-to adventuring group?

My Origins go to gang for Eth is Shale, Wyne and Alistair and Slivayn is usually Wyne, Shale, and Zevran. DA2 is a whole grab bag of people, but I usually have one mage, one warrior and a rogue + my mage Hawke.  My crew for inquisition depends on who I’m playing. Darva mainly roles with Cassandra, Vivienne and Dorian while Dimitri runs with Iron Bull, Sera and Solas.

08) Which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

Dimitri and Darva are at a big ole tie with Eth coming in second place. Dimitri is my ever evolving kiddo mainly bc I play a TTRPG with him as my PC, but Darva is like that comfort character where I truly see myself in. Eth is my precious little complicated warden child who I revisit on occasion because I forget how much I do enjoy origins.

09) Favourite romance?

Oooo it’s a hard tie between Bull and Dorian. Dorian was really like that gateway--along with dragon age in general--into me making gay characters explicitly and having them represent me. He made me feel okay with who I am and seeing that blatant love between men was something I had never seen. It was kinda the same with Bull, but he was also like that shattering of men having to preform to a certain degree of manliness to be seen as valid. Bull is manly af, but he loves the color pink. Masculinity doesn’t have to be as society defines it.

10) Have you read any of the comics/books?

I have read the Magekiller comic, but that was about it. I wanna read the books, but having the energy to do it. Does reading the TTRPG book count? Or the World of Thedas books? lolol

11) If you read them, which was your favourite book?

I haven’t read any of the main book tbh

12) Favourite DLCs?

I loved the Return to Ostagar DLC. That one was full of a great atmosphere and just generally quite sad. I liked Mark of the Assassin best out of the DA2 DLCs because it was humorous as well as having good drama going on. A very fun time even though it was a bit of a pain. Trespasser is probably my favorite DLC for Inquisition mainly because of the run through the elvhen ruins at the end of the DLC to get to Solas. It’s throwing everything you have because this is the end at the enemy and I love that.

13) Things that annoy you.

Ehhh most of my annoyance come from the lack of mlm romance options in the game and the treatment of characters like Sera and Sandal who are coded as neutroatypical. But, most of my qualms come from fandom and the rampant homophobia, transphobia, racism and white-washing everyone does. Ya shitty fandom.

14) Orlais or Ferelden?

Ferelden, personally.

15) Templars or mages?

Mages as always.

16) If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one?

I have multiple characters across two world states, my canon one being Eth Tabris, my dual wielding rogue warden who romanced Alistair, Bryn Hawke, my force/blood mage, who romanced Fenris and Darva Lavellan, my dual wielding rogue who romanced Dorian. I also have other Lavellan's that go along with Darva like Fisk and Livonah. Then I have an alternative world state with Slivayn Mahariel, an archer rogue who romanced Zevran, then Farlan Hawke, my two handed warrior who romanced Anders, and then Dimitri Enallasani, my mage elf who romanced Bull. Dimitri only has Daniel as his other sort of important character.

17) What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc)

Eth named her Mabari, Witt, after her brother who was sent to the Circle when she was 16. I cannot remember for the life of my what Bryn named his Mabari, rip. Darva ends up with a Mabari in Kirkwall just named Da’len. Slivayn named his Mabari Tamlen after his clanmate and lover. I can’t remember what Farlan named his Mabari, RIP. Dimitri has an Anderfels Hart he raises later on named Ghilan after his Keeper’s old Hart and he has a great horned owl named Falon who he rescued.

18) Have you installed any mods?

Nope! I play all my games on console, so no mods for me. I do want to get a good gaming computer after I graduate from college so I can indulge in some mods for Dimitri and Darva and learn fly cam. I would really like to have Dimitri’s vallaslin in the game and more dalish outfits for my kiddos. Alas, I am stuck with what I have for now.

19) Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?

Wanting to become a Grey Warden wasn’t something Eth thought about wanting or not wanting. She was ready to die for having saved Shianni and that would have been enough. She kept her safe and that was her duty. Duncan thought she was worth the risk and she accepted that if this was going to be her new duty, it was going to be her new duty.

Slivayn didn’t want to be a Warden at all. Duncan had to conscript him and even then he hated Duncan for a long, long time. He didn’t get to see if he could save Tamlen at all so he was intensely grieving and he was torn from the only home he had ever known. Ostagar was his first experience with humans who weren’t out to kill him and his family.

20) Hawke’s personality?

Bryn is firmly in the Purple Hawke camp, but strays into Blue on occasion. Farlan is a firm divide between Red and Purple.

21) Did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition?

Yes, omg yes. My quizzies have their own color palettes I work off of. Darva alternates between Bear Fur + Plush Fustian Velvet + Infused Vyrantium Samite + Blue Vitriol and Great Bear Fur + Darkened Samite + Silk Brocade + Blue Vitriol. Dimitri’s changes from Snoufleur Skin + Drakestone + Darkened Samite + Higher Weave to Great Bear Fur + Darkened Samite + Dragon Scale. aka, Darva wears a lot of deep browns, blues and greens and Dimitri is a lot of reds, blacks and oranges.

22) If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?

Eth wishes she would have done more to keep Shianni safe along with the rest of the Alienage. Her biggest regret is that she allowed what happened to happen.

Bryn wishes he could’ve saved his family. He covers up a lot of his grief with humor and deflection, but he hurts a lot for what he did. Part of him wishes he had done better with his mother, but he wouldn't admit it.

Darva wishes he could’ve saved his father; he knows he was only fourteen and that he would have gotten himself killed, but at times he thought that a better fate than having to deal with his mother and her all encompassing, smothering grief. 

Dimitri wishes he could’ve saved his clan. He goes over what happened as much as he can, trying to piece together what he could've done to save his family. It’s his life’s biggest regret.

23) Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?

Oooo could Darva being trans be one? Idk, that's a headcanon that doesn’t much go again canon. Biggest one for him would be him leaving the clan at 18 and traveling around Thedas. 

Dimitri’s whole origins and magical usage is a big middle finger at the canon for the dalish inquisitor considering he is sort of his own sect of elves who are drastically different than their southern counterparts.

24) Who did you leave in the Fade?

Ooo Darva leaves Alistair in the Fade because I can’t bear to leave Bryn behind, rip. But Dimitri ends up leaving Loghain in the Fade. I can’t give up my Hawkes.....

25) Favourite mount?

Me personally? I love the Pride of Arlathan mount. Darva mainly uses that mount and it’s his favorite. Dimitri loves his horse, the Amaranthine Charger. But, later on he gets his Anderfels Hart--which is a sandy colored breed of Hart that is larger and tougher than others of it’s breed. They bond with only one rider in their lifetime and will stand their ground, full of as much conviction as the elves who originally bred them.

[glowyelfboyfriend]

How did they ruin elven lore? I’m sorry, but I don’t know much about the games as other people

I didn’t call this blog ‘Elf Salt’ for nothing

-cracks knuckles-

I have a number of issues with how bioware handled elves in Dragon Age and they all interject to create this terrible mess of a mishandled race allegory that should never have happened. The frustrating thing for me is that most of the fandom is content to kinda just skip past these discussions but as someone who is first nations it actually hits real close to home for me.

Anyways...

Elves in dragon age are very clearly ‘inspired by’ if not completely based on racial experiences and history of Jewish, Roma and Indigenous peoples. (I can only speak to first nations knowledge so its what I will discuss the most).  Historically in Thedas the Elves lived across most of the land and were more or less the dominant race (I’ll get back to that later...). After a massive war they were nearly completed wiped out and enslaved by the Tevinter nation that defeated them. Elven culture was absolutely wiped from Thedas, language and history was completely lost, their cities and holy lands were either destroyed completely or overtaken by the people who know enslaved them.

Their experience as slaves has them widely stripped of any of their culture, their language, they are not permitted to learn how to read and are considered more akin to animals than to other humanoid races (sound familiar to American history?). In other parts of Thedas slavery had ended but elves were only permitted to live on designated chunks of land such as The Dales (does that sound familiar? Hm?) until the human authority decided they shouldn’t be allowed to have it anymore since they didn’t follow their christian-inspired religion, thus swooping in to wipe them out again and remove land promised to them.

In modern Thedas, Elves are still kept as slaves in Tevinter and are kept under such tight authority and law in other kingdoms that they are not much better off. In Denerim it is illegal for elves to own weapons. Elves are stuck living in alienages (which resemble both ghettos AND reservations) where there is no work, they are routinely abused/harassed/raped/murdered by humans (and have literally no legal standing to defend themselves as its illegal for an elf to assault a human whereas there are no laws protecting them) and the alienage is routinely locked up so the city guards can completely wipe out the elves living there. 

There are Dalish elves who attempt to recobble together their culture and history, traveling nomadically with the constant danger of humans deciding to try and attack them (this includes templars, city guards and country folk btw). They contend with constant fearmongering that they are doing evil and malicious things for their traditional religion as well as stereotypes of them being thieves (sound familiar???)   

So here is the thing, up to this point, this is just world flavor and world building. There are critics who find the inclusion of these stereotypes and the ways in which they are represented to be an issue in and of itself. I don’t disgree but its not my actual issue. I think fantasy settings can be an eye-opening and cathartic practice, it can give people who don’t experience those racial themes or hardships a chance to roleplay and maybe understand it a little bit more. As someone who is first nations I find getting to play a Dalish elf in Origins and taking people to task for their balant racism and save the world to be incredibly satisfying. 

The issue is.... once you created a fantasy world where this sort of racism exists you need to be EXTREMELY careful with how you use it. And while I think the writers of this series are talented and did the best they could with the limitations of ‘video game’ I think there were some GRAVE errors, particularily in Inquisition and Trespasser that completely ruined any goodwill they had. 

In Inquisition it felt as if they wanted to try and retcon the race issues they had established, or else had completely forgotten that those race issues were based on real-life issues. The two elf companions you get are, frankly, extremely anti-elf. You have Sera who has tons of internalized racism, which in itself is a really interesting concept to explore, except there is no character arc or closure for this. If you romance her as a Dalish elf you never have a chance to bring her around to stop hating on her race and culture, instead she insists you give up your racial identiy and heritage. Solas... oh gods where do I even begin? To keep it short, Solas’ entire point in the plot seems to be to completely undermine and ridicule elves and all the world building the game devs made. He refers to Dalish as ‘children’ and even mocks city elves, both of which are just coping with racial injustices/slavery/genocide over a couple hundred year history. 

If you play Inquisition as any race other than an Elf you will be presented a picture of elves as nothing more than stupid, misguided, shameful people that take what they have for granted and want ‘more’. Which... let me tell you... as a person who is first nations... that is insanely close to what racist pricks think of us today. Painting indigenous religion as ‘savage’ or ‘primiative’ and infantilizing those who follow it, shutting down people who are trying to find some justice for generations of abuse and trauma all while lifting up characters who are willing to throw their fellows under the bus....... its a narrative that is present in modern day real life race issues. This is all presented as Fact with no solution, no exploration, just ‘how things are’. And I think that’s extremely misguided of the writers, and I wonder when they forgot that these themes were based on real life.

Finally, we get to the cherry on top - Trespasser. Before this game we had humans being widely dismissive of elven religion, but in a way where it was clear that they were just ignorant of a religion outside of their own. In this game they decided to take the history of the elves, their culture and religion and completely tear it apart.

It’s revealed that the Gods elves worship are actually not gods but were just Really Powerful Mages. It turns out the facial tattoos (which is totally a reference to indigenous tattoo practices my dudes) that were devotional to these gods were in fact just slave markings because elves enslaved their own race, and Tevinter had never actually taken them down in war - the elves just destroyed themselves.

I shouldn’t have to describe why taking the most oppressed race in the world of Thedas and undoing their culture/religion and history is a shitty move. I shouldn’t have to, especially with the context of the CLEAR real-world parallels. But everyone seems to miss out on how disgusting this really is.

From my own experience, I have heard this shit about my own heritage and people. I have heard white people say that the injustices first nations people faced ‘wasn’t so bad’ because they were ‘already’ killing and enslaving each other. I have read books written by white ‘researchers’ from only a hundred years ago trying to imply the wrong meanings on sacred tattoos and culture. I have heard these arguments to defend colonialism and genocide. 

If you don’t have these real-life experiences, or you decided to play as something other than a dalish elf who might give a shit about their entire history/culture/family/beliefs/identity you will not notice this. It’ll just be an interesting ‘twist’ and I hate it. I hate that dismantling the ONE THING this systematically oppressed, enslaved and genocided culture had to cling onto has been used for a cheap ‘twist’.

Will they do something interesting with it in the next game? I don’t know, maybe. But kicking down and making elves be the sacrifice for something so identity-destroying is just... its bad. It was a bad choice. You know they wouldn’t do that with Andrastianism, they wouldn’t come out and be like ‘Oh the Maker was actually just some guy who enslaved humans for his own benefit’, and you know why. 

The issue is taking ‘inspiration’ for your fantasy world racial pain and then tossing it aside for shallow twists. Yes, its a fantasy video game, but as someone who IS affected by these REAL-WORLD ISSUES I felt completely betrayed and gutted by my fave escape telling me that my in-game equivalent was a fucking dumbass for believing in the culture of their heritage.

[aldmerii-blog]

hey it’s a tutorial on how i make gifs

its a long one

carly, what programs do i need? 

what a good question! basically, you need a program to record video (if you’re making gifs of video games), a program to take frames of the video you recorded (or the movie or show you’re giffing because you can do that too, obviously), and a graphic processing program (it’s photoshop, you need photoshop)

also if you’re recording your own game footage you need a computer capable of running that game well. ideally you want medium to high settings at 60fps (this varies; like you want to record, say, skyrim at high settings and probably modded, but newer games like mass effect andromeda, just medium-high settings should be fine!)

for video recording, i strongly recommend: 

nvidia shadowplay

i think you can only use this if you have an nvidia graphics card. it’s very good because it automatically records at 60fps and at up to 4k (so like it’s good for taking regular video for video purposes also) and it starts up very quickly (so when you hit record, it’s only a few seconds before it starts recording). in-game, you hit alt+f9 to start recording. 

xbox game dvr

i used this for a long time and it’s perfectly satisfactory, and great if you don’t have an nvidia graphics card. it comes with windows 10. you need to go into windows settings and set the quality to High and the framerate to 60fps. the only drawback is that it takes a hot minute to start up the first time you use it in a gaming session (like 10-30 seconds) and there are some games it won’t open over (i had issues with both assassin’s creed odyssey and far cry 5). in-game, you hit ctrl+alt+r to start recording. 

for frame-taking:

gomplayer

has a slightly imprecise method of screenshotting, that is you have to time your “burst capture” while the video is playing - you can’t find the spot you want, pause it, start your capturing, and then play the video to have it start at an exact moment. however it really captures every frame and i’ve never had any issues with it. best advice is to record more frames than you need to and delete the ones you don’t need in windows explorer or photoshop. to open the screen-capture window, you hit ctrl+g

potplayer

i used this one for a long time, too! it does what i said gomplayer doesn’t do, which means you can pause it and start screencapturing and it’ll start from where you paused it when you hit play. i’ve had a few issues with it not actually capturing every frame even when i have it set to do so. but that might be just me. to open the screen capture window, you hit ctrl+g

for graphic handing:

photoshop. specifically cs5 -- that’s what i’ve used for about half a decade. i’m sure a lot of the steps are similar in cs6 and cc but i’ve never used either of them and i can’t help you learn those. 

that’s it. no other options.

okay great!!!!!!! you got ur software set up. now what???

if you want to make gifs of video games where you use your own footage, read this bit. if not skip down to the next header. 

at the most basic level, with creative cropping, you don’t really have to do anything more than record the screen of the game you’re playing. for a lot of games, this is what you have to do (dragon age origins and 2, stardew valley, etc). HOWEVER. there are ways to get different shots in some games and i’ll take you through skyrim/fallout 4 and dragon age inquisition (and i think other frostbite engine games?) if you have questions about other games you’re welcome to ask!

bethesda products (skyrim and fallout 4 mainly)

bethesda is very nice and includes console commands that let you get some good cinematic shots in their base games. these are the same for both skyrim and fallout 4 because they’re the same engine. 

tfc

your bread and butter, baby. this is “toggle free camera” or “toggle fly camera” -- it detaches you from your character basically, and you can fly around. if you are in third person when you enter the console command, your character will remain visible and you can take pictures of them. in first person, theyre not. (also, drawn weapons will disappear in first person). note that in fallout 4 third person, your character will continue to rotate/strafe as you move the camera. 

you can add a 1 to the end of the command (tfc 1) and it will also freeze time. this is good for taking screenshots, not gifs

entering tfc again will turn it off

tm

‘toggle menu’ -- this turns off the hud, including the crosshair. this is. very important. you don’t want the menu in ur gifs ok. 

it also hides the console window! so it may be a little confusing. but generally if the grass/water/dust is moving, the console window isn’t open.

typing tm again will reenable the menus

sucsm #

the default free cam is very fast and imprecise. i usually use sucsm 1 to slow down the speed at which the camera moves. 

sgtm #

set global time multiplier. this one isn’t hugely necessary but i still find myself using it sometimes. default is 1. you can set it to, like sgtm .01 to basically freeze the game while you get the camera into position if you’re trying to capture an action. also sometimes if i think things are moving too fast or too slow i’ll change the timescale. MAKE SURE you set it back to 1 when you’re done!

i Heavily suggest, especially for skyrim, that you use an ENB if your computer can handle it. it makes the game look nice, but it also usually includes depth of field which i am an absolute slut for. if not, use the mod dynavision for a DoF effect (available for both skyrim and fo4!)

and then you just have fun with it. getting good shots takes some practice. play with it. i tend to record long sessions (~5-10 minutes) with a LOT of different shots to pick from when i watch it back. 

frostbite engine (dragon age inquisition and mass effect andromeda, notably)

here’s where we use the Cinematic Tools, lads! these are a little more difficult. note that there are ct for a lot of games that i don’t play but i’m assuming they work the same. i’ve also never used CT in andromeda but it’s the same engine so they also probably work the same. so i’m mainly talking about DA:Inquisition.

OKAY SO. start the game. load ‘er up. you want to run origin and DAI as admin, and then once you’re in game, start the CT as admin, too. the controls window will open, and then another command prompt type window will open and hack into the matrix. you don’t have to do anything with it, but note that if you close the command prompt window, it will close the game. 

okay! party time. there are lots of other tutorials on using the CT, btw, so if i don’t explain it sufficiently you can either ask me or look up other tutorials. 

first, i usually take gifs of characters in DAI, which means i wait until cutscenes so we can see them talking or making faces or whatever. you can also do scenery gifs or whatever! 

so we’re in a cutscene. first and foremost check “freeze time” and then “enable”. set up your shots. start recording. THEN uncheck “freeze time”. that’s all in the “free camera” tab of the CT and technically all you need. But wait, there’s more. we’ve got two other tabs!

in this tab, I most often use “depth of field” because we’ve already established that i love a strong DoF. all these things are a little hard to understand and mostly require a lot of messing around.

focus distance

pretty self explanatory -- it’s the distance from the camera that objects will be in focus. for portraits, i usually have it at 1.125.

blur factor

how blurry the stuff that’s out of focus will be. i usually set it somewhere between 4 and 7, though you can go higher or lower. dealer’s choice. 

blur add

makes everything blurry regardless of focus. don’t use it. 

blur filter

i almost always set it to gaussian 9 but it doesn’t make that much of a difference. 

dof type

always set it to sprite

max blur

i absolutely do not know what this does and don’t use it. 

near start/end

with this you can kind of expand “focus distance” to include more varied distances. i usually don’t mess with this and i suggest you don’t. 

far start/end

most useful in outdoor scenes. usually it’ll be set to like 100, meaning that there’s a gradient way out to the most blurred parts. if you bring it lower, the gradient distance gets shorter, so the background gets blurrier closer to your focus. what i set it to depends entirely on the scene. just try messing with it and see what it does for you. 

make sure you hit the green enable button on the left and Also tick “enable” on the DOF screen to use it. 

this tab is a little more useful for screenshotting but i’ll include it since i’m going over the CT anyway. i have never messed with global fov or timescale BUT

shadowmap resolution

i usually set it down to 512 for smooth, soft, realistic shadows. otherwise they look kinda stripey. 

resolution scale

NOT FOR GIFS. do not use this for gifs. but DEFINITELY do use it for screencaps. set it to two (i’ve had my computer freeze from trying to set it to 4, so like, be careful). it basically doubles the resolution of everything on screen and makes it very pretty but it’ll ruin your framerate so don’t try to record with it. 

okay, I’ve got my footage, now what!

now we’re gonna open it in whichever player you picked. 

GOMPLAYER:

for gomplayer, you’re going to press ctrl + g to bring up the screencapture window. i Don’t remember what the original settings are, but you wanna make sure your quality is set to 255 (highest) and that it’s set to original resolution. 

now the slightly hard part. you gotta hit “burst capture” while the video is playing, so it’s slightly imprecise. for that reason i have the number (burst capture images) set much higher than i’ll use, so that i make up for the imprecision. after you capture, go in and delete the frames you don’t need, either in windows explorer or after you’ve loaded them into photoshop.

POTPLAYER:

just pause your video, hit ctrl+g, copy my settings, click start, and then play your video. potplayer will capture every frame. 

i should have mentioned this earlier but you have to have a folder to save your screencaps in. i usually organize by GIFS>game name># what its a gif of>a numbered folder for each gif in the set. but it’s up to you. just probably don’t save to your desktop or wherever the default location is. 

AND NOW THE FUN PART!!

open photoshop!!! if it’s your first time here, go to window>animation so that you’ll. have the animation window open. 

now go file > load files into stack > browse, and find the frames we just took. select em all. click ok. 

you’re probably going to start off in timeline view. we don’t want that yet. click the box in the bottom right corner that looks like multiple little boxes to switch to frame view. 

in frame view, click the menu box thing. and click “make frames from layers” and then “reverse frames”

now select all your frames, and on any one of them, select the arrow next to “0.0 sec” (this is the frame delay). select “other”

what you set the frame delay to depends on what your footage frame delay originally was. if you’re using game footage, it was probably 60fps, in which case you should set the delay to 0.04 sec. if it was 30 fps, I usually go 0.06 to 0.08. play around with it and decide which you like best. there’s a play button so you can see how the delay looks before you continue.

now we switch back over to timeline view. so click the same button as we used to get to frame view. 

now select all your layers, in the layer panel. right click on them and click “convert to smart object” 

here is usually where I do my scaling/cropping. tumblr photoset sizes are 540px for full width, 268 for 2 wide, and 177 for 3 wide. KEEP IN MIND when making especially 540px gifs that the size limit is 3mb. so you can’t make them super tall or super long (time-wise). 

the gif of calcifer i’m making is going to be 540x250. make use of set image size (ctrl + alt + i) and canvas size (ctrl + alt +c). set the width of 540 with image size and then crop the canvas to your desired height with canvas size.

okay! technically we can be done. this is what my gif looks like right now:

however i like to color and edit mine. yknow. here are my sharpening settings. I cannot help you with coloring because i’m bad at it. at best i will suggest you look at and download resource colorings from blogs like itsphotoshop

anyway, to sharpen: filter>sharpen>smart sharpen

and then apply your coloring. and save with ctrl + alt + shift + s, or just file > save for web and devices. set your file type to GIF. two things to look at:

1) MAKE SURE YOU SET THE LOOPING OPTIONS TO “FOREVER”. i put this in caps because I am an idiot who messed this up all the time when i first started. 

2) keep an eye on your file size!! if it’s over 3mb (mine, down in the left corner, says it’s 2.697, so it’s fine) then you can try to reduce the number of colors. but don’t go below 128 colors, because then it starts to look bad. instead you can try reducing the height or going back and cutting down the number of frames (so basically remaking the gif again :( ). 

okay great, click save. save it. you’re done. here’s our calcifer. 

and that’s it! i hope this made sense and like. absolutely ask if you have questions. 

[nanigma]

So I just finished Dragon Age Inquisition

Hoo boy. It took me years to get to this game, and I somewhat regret it since the community has changed so dramatically from when this game first came out. Would have been fun to have been part of all the active discussion and theorizing. 

Oh well, I have to say I really enjoyed it. It probably doesn’t topple 2 as my favourite Dragon Age game, because I have too many feelings for that garbage pile of a city and the walking disaster that is my party in that game. I have to say though, even if this seems insane to some people, it does topple Origins for me. Since I played through that again just a couple months ago, I can safely say that even if I am still fond of that game, it does feel very dated by now.

I loved most of my companions in this game, even if Varric felt distant to the Inquisitor, and I never got very close to Blackwall, Vivienne and Sera, the rest of the bunch was just amazing. Cole, Dorian and Iron Bull were particular standouts. Josephine’s romance was very sweet. Once I got into it, the combat felt very smooth and not nearly as tedious as Origins and parts of 2. The main quests and dlc were just amazing in ther cinematography and really drew you into the story. 

There were a few very noticable flaws though: For one, the game was just too massive. i get that they wanted to make this open world and have giant areas to explore, but it did feel tiresome after the third enourmous map they make you traverse. There were some engaging sidequests while exploring (such as the time-frozen ruin in the Western Approach or the d’Onterre mansion in the Emeral Graves), but for the most part they felt very samey and not worth doing them at all. Compared to some sidequests in the previous games they felt overly simplified (probably because the developers had make a gazillion of them) I’ve replayed Origins and 2 about 10 times each, yet I can’t even think about starting another playthrough, if it means trudging through the whole of the Hinterlands yet again. Is seeing Cullen’s naked ass really worth that? Maybe...

Another thing I didn’t like was the “chosen one” style narrative. The Inquisitor felt like the center of the universe way too often. Did they really have to force that point so much? I know what they were trying to do with this, but it felt like they both deconstructed and reaffirmed the archetype constantly, causing whiplash. It just felt a bit aimless and they could have toned it down at least a little bit.

The final criticism would be the way the elves were treated. I think the game almost reveled in tearing down their beliefs and own version of history. Them being the main architect in their own downfall is one thing (though it ticks me off that this is often brought up in a “take that” kinda manner, and it really should be made clearer that Tevinter isn’t absolved of any of their shit), but the utter unraveling of the entire elven belief system was just way over board imo. It does make for an interesting backstory, but I can’t help but notice how it’s only the catholic church the chantry’s faith that keeps being presented in an ambiguous and thoughtful manner, while basically every other religion in the game gets thouroughly dismanteled and/or discredited.

Wow... okay my criticsm turned out way longer than intended. Longer than my praise even. I really did like this game and just spend a lot of time thinking about how to best articulate my misgivings with it. I will continue on to other games next, but let it be said that I do want to come back to this and look very much forward to DA4. 

[sidtart]

Ya know what

I figured out today that I don’t care about dragon age as a series. As a series it does absolutely nothing for me. That grand big ol’ over arching plot spanning from each game? No clue. Not invested. Whatever happens to Thedas happens. Good luck ol’ girl. Barkspawn be with you. Solas’ big plan? idk guess we’ll get to it. Darkspawn history and whatever really is happening with Andraste and the elven gods? cool lore I guess might be nice if we get some in game.

But as individual games, I adore them. Origins is one of my absolute favs. DA2 will forever hold a place in my heart for how fun it was to play. They aren’t connected though. Not really. Not in any way that matters to me. When each game finishes we move on and we get nothing about our old characters. Or the tiniest, barest of snippets (which are some of my fav parts of Inquisition). We don’t get any meaningful updates about what happened to them and their stories. At best its in books and I have various problems with how over half the of the Big Ol’ Plot is in the side books and stories and how if you want to really understand everything you have get into all that.

In contrast, mass effect is a series that I love. Sure, ME2 is just so damn fun and I do enjoy it on its own but for me its a series and it needs all of them to be whole.  

And this feels important cause it really impacts my relation to it all. Inquisition was kinda dull to me. And that’s fine. Its not a series in my heart. Its almost like Final Fantasy to me- they just kinda share a name. But at the same time, none of them have the impact that ME does because its just one game that doesn’t have the reach and magnitude ME does as a series. But for ME that means that when it had that bump *coughME3cough* it was heartbreaking and it did leave a mark on all the other games. I love them to death but I can’t look at 1 or 2 and not think about 3 and the things about 3 that absolutely ruined so much for me about the series as a whole.

This is probably nothing groundbreaking and even when I had the epiphany it was kinda like “oh... duh” but I wanted to get it out. As somebody who wants to create and crafts stories, this feels like something to consider. At a bare bone, basic level, a good way to consider how you want to craft your story because of how just a tweak changes the whole series into barely being a series in some ways (to me at least).