#isaura amell

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 5.

OK, you know what, let’s head for Haven and start working on getting to the Urn. Bringing Alistair, Zevran, and Morrigan with me, because I apparently hate myself and/or love drama. (And the sooner I can get Zev some experience, the sooner I can polish up his lock-picking skills.)

...besides, I did promise that this Warden would like Morrigan more than the last two, didn’t I.

For now, though, I’m condemning myself to a lot of “Insufficient skill” messages. *sigh*

Ah, Alistair and Morrigan bickering about the merits of the Circle like there isn’t a Circle-trained mage standing two feet away.

Creepy village is creepy, yes.

Why is my spirit healer girl reduced to asking Morrigan if she can do anything for Genitivi’s injuries?

OK, this was a good party for dialogue purposes, but if Zev doesn’t learn to pick these locks sometime soon I’m going to have to come back and do a sweep of the place with Leliana.

You know that thing in DAO where you click on a companion by accident when trying to loot something, and it turns out it was time for a priority conversation so you can’t just go “whoops, not now”? Well, here’s Zev begging Isaura to be friends with him and let him stay after they’re done with the Blight. Proper begging, the poor love, since she likes him OK but doesn’t quite understand that he’s at the point of actually wanting to stay with her. And her past MO of flirting/pretending to take things as innuendo is out of the question with Alistair, who she’s apparently actually dating now (Maker help her, how does she get into these situations), standing right there.

Oh, hi, dragon. With a level 11-13 party, I don’t think it’s quite dragon-slaying time yet.

Isaura will maintain to her dying breath that she did the best she could for Jowan. Even if only about 90% of her is convinced.

She’ll go on a weepy tirade if she wants, Zev, you don’t get to tell her shit.

Alistair, don’t. Nope. None of this “should’ve been me who died” business in front of your girlfriend, she’ll give you what for just as publicly as you said it in the first place. And do you really want Morrigan and Zevran watching that?

Heh, this is the David Gaider Talking To Himself party, isn’t it?

Being deemed ~*~worthy~*~ is very nice, yes, now can Isaura put her clothes back on? This is really not how she wanted to be getting naked with Alistair for the first time. Maybe back when it all started she could’ve broken the tension with some jokes about orgies, but...

Actually, it apparently is dragon-slaying time. Though that got really hairy—Isaura and Zevran both went down, and Morrigan was lucky the dragon stayed occupied with dear old indestructible Alistair and didn’t come after her.

I’m sorry, “Pure Bitch Braid” will never not be funny.

Sten, please, get it through your skull that Qunari gender roles aren’t universal before this becomes an issue.

You know, the kind of awkward thing about this game is that all the VAs seriously brought their A-game and did all this wonderful, nuanced, moving work—and then the character animations are just too limited to keep up. I spend a lot of time averting my eyes from the screen and imagining the acting just the way I want it as I listen to the dialogue.

Right, speaking of averting my eyes, the kid’s been devirginized. And the conversation afterwards got him to +100 approval, first out of all the party, bless. I look forward to the others’ smart-ass comments.

So, back to Redcliffe to drop off those ashes.

“This is a non-combat mission, I don’t need a second melee character. Let me give Wynne and Leliana some attention.” *cue darkspawn ambush*

The great thing about two healers in the party is that if someone is in need of healing, they won’t stay that way for long.

And Wynne just had her little fainting episode. Hey, Wynne, is this a prelude to you actually giving me your quest at some point?

Between Alistair’s paternity going from mildly interesting bit of trivia to overshadowing their entire future and then seeing Jowan all but offer himself up for execution, Isaura is having A Day.

I miss when party banter used to be a thing that happened.

OK, when I paid off Wade to make that drake scale armor faster, I didn’t realize it’d be “just about enough time to go for a jog around the market district” fast.

How about a DLC break before we go after the Dalish? I’m in a Return to Ostagar kind of mood.

...I could probably have planned this better. Alistair/Wynne/Zevran is a party I’ve brought here before, and I don’t know what kind of time Zev will have with any locks we encounter. We’ll see.

And a certain baby boy can now get out of his Templar armor. Kind of awkward to have him wearing that for so long, all considered.

Oh yeah, second specialization time. Arcane Warrior, here I come.

Wynne, I realize needling Alistair is delightful fun, but carrying on like that about taking him to bed is a little much with his girlfriend standing right there.

Oh, hey, there’s Wynne’s quest. Excellent.

Ah, that conversation. Alistair, dearie, you and Isaura aren’t going to get very far if it’s just the two of you, Wynne, and the dog. For one, you need a rogue in the party, so pick which of Leliana and Zevran you distrust slightly less.

Since we’ve already managed to take out a high dragon, let’s try going after Flemeth. Bringing Alistair, Sten and Leliana with me, and hoping I don’t regret my life choices.

That went nicely. Good job taking her down, Sten.

Back to Denerim, then, now that we know where Marjolaine is.

She’s creepy and all but promised she’d come back to hurt Leliana if left alive, so we’re going to not do that. Bye-bye, creepy lady.

And I think this is a good place to pack it in for the night. Probably more DLCs tomorrow, I don’t feel like heading for the Brecilian Forest quite yet.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

*cracks knuckles* Porting over my answers from Discord, with a shout-out to the folks who patiently sat through multiple walls of text while I hashed this out in real time, and assuming that none of these characters' canonical romances are a thing in these AUs because Reasons:

Alix Cousland goes for Nathaniel in DAA (of course), probably Anders in DA2 (by which point he's mostly shed the traits she found so annoying when they knew each other), and...is there a good fit for her in DAI? Blackwall would be great if their differing views of aristocracy weren't likely to cause problems, the otherwise compatible Josephine and Cassandra are off the table due to an orientation mismatch, and I don't think she'd have as much power in a relationship with Cullen as she'd like. She might still go for Cullen, though. Or Blackwall if she could talk him around, but I wonder.

Daiwen Mahariel might eventually go for Velanna in DAA, Merrill (an old friend who he fooled around with at least once pre-Blight) in DA2, and I don't think there are any good options for him in DAI—shems aren't his type, he's not a big BDSM guy, and Solas' comments on the Dalish would put him off even if we posit that the egg would be interested in a man.

Isaura Amell goes for her old buddy Anders in DAA and DA2 and Blackwall in DAI, both people who'll make a priority of keeping her safe. She was told all her life that the outside world was scary and bad, and then she stepped out the tower door into a Blight, so it was even kind of true.

Wenthelen Andras is getting on in years and doesn't have time for nonsense anymore, so she goes for Zevran in DAO, Anders in DA2, and Blackwall in DAI.

Taran Hawke is the charming one so often, he goes for Sigrun in DAA, Leliana in DAO, and Josephine in DAI, who'll be charming back.

Pavey Hawke goes for Zevran in DAO, possibly Velanna in DAA, and Blackwall or Sera in DAI, who would understand the anger she's carrying around.

Gabran Hawke goes for Leliana in DAO, Anders in DAA, and Dorian, Cassandra, or Josephine in DAI, who'll be happy to be flirty and romancey and make it clear they want him too.

Linniva Trevelyan goes for people who are understanding about her trauma-induced grimness: Leliana in DAO (or maybe Alistair if she can be convinced he's not a complete Templar at heart), Nathaniel or Sigrun in DAA, and Fenris or maybe Isabela in DA2.

Avasis Adaar wants people who can match his youthful enthusiasm: Zevran in DAO, Anders in DAA and perhaps DA2.

Anchoret Lavellan feels the most kinship with people who fight, especially but not exclusively fighting for something, which means Alistair or Zevran in DAO, Nathaniel or maybe Velanna if we squint (she's not telling me her orientation yet, so I don't know if I should be considering women) in DAA, and...hm, sure sounds like Anders or Fenris ought to be the DA2 pick.

Which DA2 and Inquisition companions would your Warden romance?

Which Origins and Inquisition companions would your Hawke romance?

Which Origins and DA2 companions would your Inquisitor romance?

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 15.

Goodness, I didn’t realize Velanna would be so enthusiastic about taking the Architect’s deal.

That said, with this party? Yeah, I’m going to take it. I’m not worried about the fights, but Justice is lower-priority than Nathaniel or Velanna, and taking the deal legit gives the better endings, at least in the short to medium term.

And Nathaniel is now back up to +100 approval, where he should be. (He’s still the only one, but Velanna made it to +99 with the bump from taking the Architect’s deal.)

Velanna, what the fuck, that is entirely too many childer for you to be trying to melee. Get back here.

And it’s very sweet of you to hover directly over Isaura when she’s on the business end of a childer’s Overwhelm, but please for the love of the Maker cast those spells from somewhere safer. She’ll be unhappy if you get eaten, seriously.

Anyway, it’s Mother time. Let’s see if I can do this relatively cleanly.

Answer: Nope. Nathaniel and Velanna went down distressingly quickly, and Nathaniel was back down again before Isaura’s Revive could recharge, at which point I took it as a sign to leave them down and let Isaura and Justice try and hack their way through the childer and tentacles on their own.

Oof, Justice just went down after clearing the first wave of mooks and taking a couple of swings at the Mother. Time to use the healing tower, I think.

Nathaniel, sweetie, why are you close enough to the Mother to get physically taken down by her? Get the fuck back.

...and he’s down again. On the other hand, him being all up in the Mother’s business means that the Revive I soon had to toss Justice when he got squished also caught Nate.

You know what, sweetie, no, you’re not doing this, I’m walking you back to the Designated Ranged Fighter Area manually. Please don’t wander off again. You are an archer. Just in case you managed to forget again despite the fact that you’re currently physically shooting things.

...and she’s dead. Whew. Eat flaming death, Mother. (And what was that capital-L Look Nathaniel and Justice exchanged afterwards, anyway? “Told you so, edgelord, you can’t trust darkspawn” answered with “Told you so, dead boy, we would’ve all been dead if we’d had to fight the Architect first and then wade into that”?)

Got most of my usual endings, though I’ve never had this one for Velanna before, where she becomes moderately less mean to humans and takes several years to disappear off after Seranni. Very sweet.

And that’s that for Awakening. Next up, Witch Hunt.

I wouldn’t quite say they were besties, but Isaura and Morrigan were good enough friends that her motive for seeking Morrigan out is fairly clear.

It’s good to see you again, doggie.

Hello, Ariane. You’ll become friends with the dog in time, don’t worry.

Ooh, fourth specialization time. I waffled for a bit, but ultimately, it feels more likely that Isaura would’ve picked up shapeshifting from Morrigan than Keeper magic from Velanna; maybe a Surana would’ve had some claim on the latter, but my shem girl, not so much.

Right, yes, with a non-rogue Warden this DLC becomes Happy Fun Got No Rogue So I Can’t Open Shit Time. *sigh*

...so were the “illustrations of Templars being eaten by a fierce tiger named Ser Pounce-a-lot” added by Anders when he gave that guest lecture a few months ago, or did he recycle the name from a cat he or someone else had when he was an apprentice?

Hello, Finn. *sigh*

So many opportunities in this series to rag on the supposed incompetence of the Dalish at preserving and reclaiming their history. I am discomfort.

You know, the “actually, I, a dominant-culture person, am the real heir to your ancestors’ legacy, and you don’t count because Reasons” thing touches me in real life, in some small way, so when I see it in DA, I start screeching demonically.

*screech*

Heh, some of the things I’m encountering in the repository are a lot more meaningful now that I’ve played through the Magi origin.

Yeah, I’m sure the apprentices’ phylacteries are somewhere more secure now after that business with Jowan.

This DLC sure loves callbacks, doesn’t it? Just in general.

Wall-to-wall witty sniping, fun fun fun.

The lighting in here makes Morrigan look like she’s wearing a giant Fruit Roll-Up around her tits.

And that’s over, whew. A picture of the baby as per SOP, and then on to DA2!

(I swear I didn’t push the eye size slider up. Not deliberately, anyway.)

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 13.

For someone who joined the party about five minutes ago, Sigrun has got Nathaniel’s number and has wasted no time getting on him for being grumpy. I love it.

Speaking of Sigrun, her voice is very nice, isn’t it?

You know that Battlemage passive that restores some mana whenever you take damage? Generally speaking, I tend to be in the market for abilities and gear that reduce the number of fucks I need to give in combat, and this seems like a glorious one.

Wheeee, childer grubs.

When the party got to the front room of the fortress, Nathaniel must’ve been wondering why he even bothers, what with Isaura and Sigrun blithely setting off two pressure plates each before his warning about them was halfway out his mouth.

Hello, golem friend. Go on, go squish the darkspawn!

Velanna. We have been over this. You are a mage. You do not have the Arcane Warrior spec, though I’m starting to slightly regret that. Running out ahead of the party to take on three darkspawn in melee with your robe and staff is not a good idea.

I’ve long thought Nathaniel to be the most Chee-flavored of the Gaider characters, if that makes any sense at all; revisiting him now in his original context, I see that those aspects of his personality, particularly the willingness to look past his own privilege and see things from the point of view of those lower down the societal hierarchy when nudged, mostly come out in his banters with Chee characters like Sigrun and Velanna.

I’m quite liking the Isaura/Nathaniel/Velanna/Sigrun party. Isaura kicks things off with a fireball before wading in sword-first, Velanna worries about crowd control and kicks in the occasional heal in an emergency (and only sometimes needs rescuing because she ran into a crowd of enemies again, I swear, Velanna), Sigrun stuns and stabs things up close, and Nathaniel shoots over the melee girls’ shoulders and stuns anything that gets within melee range of him. When your spirit healer and dual-dagger rogue can both wear heavy armor and stab real good, who needs an actual warrior? :D

Broodmothers squished, Mother’s speech delivered. *sigh*

Isaura hated putting down the peasant revolt less than her predecessors, part of her even enjoyed it a little, but there were still better things she could’ve been doing with her time. I doubt Sigrun particularly enjoyed the process, either.

Two crashes in five minutes, the first of which forced me to play through squishing the broodmothers and putting down the peasant revolt twice. I am going to do a murder.

Yes, Sigrun, needle Velanna too, she deserves (and needs) it.

And Sigrun’s quest is done. Really, the way Mischa goes straight for the slurs when it becomes clear her charity project has gone wrong makes the rot under the surface of her generosity obvious, doesn’t it?

Oh, hey, now the love bug is hitting Sigrun, too. Girls, Isaura is flattered, but she is taken. By a fellow Warden, who you’re going to have to deal with for the rest of your careers with the Order, so maybe give her a chance to talk to him about it before you put the moves on the Commander.

I’ve pretty well run out of non-Blackmarsh things to do, so off we go. I think I’ll keep the Nathaniel/Sigrun/Velanna party going (and spare the girls Oghren’s harassment).

Well, that’s most of the accessible area scoured, and what’s left of Kristoff found, but it’s late, I can do the rest of this tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 11.

Right, we were just headed to the palace to get into the really fun parts of the Battle of Denerim.

*raises their bottle of cider for Riordan*

*Maria Dahvana Headley voice* Bro.

The first wave of enemies in the Palace District got pretty hairy. Isaura and Leliana both went down, leaving Alistair fighting by himself, entirely dependent on support from Wynne. And bless him, he got through it perfectly OK.

I remember how hairy the entrance to Fort Drakon got even with a much, much tankier Warden. I’m going to be smart and call in some allies. Hm, how about some dwarves?

Hey. Hey, emissaries. Eat magic sword.

...Enchantment?

Heehee, Inferno is a fun spell, isn’t it?

Alistair, dearie, are you sure you want to be running into that spell’s AOE to stab things? Sure you don’t want to just let those darkspawn burn to death? *sigh* Fine, here’s a heal.

Archdemon time. Let’s do this. Calling in the mages, which worked well before.

Oh, look, it’s Eamon. And Irving. And Kardol. Hi, guys!

And after a couple of Fireballs, a few Crushing Prisons, and some ballista shots, Thedas is now minus one Urthemiel. Good job, Isaura.

Duncan, is that you narrating from beyond the grave?

I mean, look, it’s either him or a Spirit of Narration from the Fade taking on his likeness.

Dear game writers: Please, please give your poor VAs a pronunciation guide. No one in this game having the foggiest idea how to pronounce “Minrathous” is becoming a running joke.

I must not have talked to Sten often enough in the late game, because the goodbye conversation is the first time he’s called her “kadan”. I don’t know which headcanon I like better, that the idea came up at some point and he explained it off-screen, or that she won’t find out what exactly he called her for years yet.

And I think I got my standard endings, but the game crashed when going out the door. Again. Apparently this is just going to be a thing now.

And with that, it’s now Awakening time. WHOOOOOOOOO.

You know, it took me an embarrassingly long time to make the connection between “Sheryl Chee is my favorite DA writer” and “Awakening, which had a writing team of only Chee and Gaider and is thus presumably 50% Chee material, is my favorite DA game.” You’d think that would’ve been more obvious, but then you’d be overestimating my ability to catch on to obvious things like that.

OK, definitely a new narrator this time out. Sounds like the guy who voiced the Statue of War in the Wending Wood.

I mean, it’s not like I’m going to have Mhairi very long, so I’m not sure it really matters how I build her.

Hello, Anders, old...well, “friend’ isn’t quite it, more like “passing acquaintance”. They knew each other just about well enough for Isaura to make the connection between “blond goober with the earring” and “guy who got locked up by the Templars for running away”.

How he files her in his mind, I haven’t the foggiest. “Irving’s little girl,” presumably. Or “the one who always used to mess with the baby Templars”. Or “the only one willing to put up with Jowan every day”.

You know, I’ve been looking forward to not needing Anders in the party all the time and being able to go in some different directions with my party composition. Thing is, Isaura is also hands down the most likely of my Wardens to genuinely like Anders and end up being besties with him, especially with this early push of “he’s the only familiar face in this place”. Eh, we’ll work it out somehow.

Isaura can cast Inferno, and Anders can cast Blizzard, so you know what that means? Baby’s first spell combo, that’s what. :D

This is the first time I’ve had Anora rather than Alistair show up for the monarch’s cameo at the beginning, Interesting to see the differences between them.

They really ought to put out some pillows for the Joining. It’d probably reduce the death rate if recruits weren’t cracking their heads on stone floors when they faint.

Hello, Nathaniel. Isaura isn’t going to love you quite as much as her predecessors, but you’re going to be friends eventually.

So, recruit him on the spot or tell him to get out of her sight? She needs people—she hasn’t got a fully-staffed party without him—and Oghren’s crack about him “going all Zevran on you” is only going to remind her that coopting a would-be assassin can turn them into a good and useful friend in time. Yeah, I think I just talked myself into conscripting him. Sorry, Nate, you’ll learn to enjoy Wardenhood in time.

All right, we’ve investigated the cave-in, dealt with the nobles, now off to Amaranthine to pick up some quests. And bang out Nathaniel's, since it's right there.

Hi there, Delilah. If I'm not going to be allowed to give out hugs, I'm glad you're here to do it.

Aww, Anders and Oghren really do love each other.

*sigh* Right, it’d been a while since I’d had a properly catastrophic crash. Thanks, game!

Between being conscripted, having to shoot his mother figure dead because she’s turned into a ghoul, and finding out his sister is alive and his father was worse than he realized even before it all went down, Nathaniel is having quite an eventful day.

All right, nice and caught up, and it’s time to pack it in for the night.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 10.

Ooh, new trackball, I wasn’t expecting it here so quickly. Very nice.

Anyway. I packed it in last night just before talking to Eamon and Anora.

Really, Anora, it’s quite something for you to be claiming you were praying for Isaura’s safe return when you were the one who threw her to Cauthrien to begin with.

Ooh, time to have a proper chat with Riordan. :D

I really don’t want to commit to supporting Anora without first talking it over with Alistair, who seemed to be getting used to the idea of being king, and he’s not popping up any such conversation yet.

Ugh, fine, if the other options are flatly refusing or proposing that she marry Alistair (not in this timeline, sister), I’ll say yes.

So if the Warden is rooming with Sten, Morrigan, and the dog, who’s on the bed and who’s taking the couches?

OK, now I get to talk to Alistair. Who’s about to be disappointed, I think. Sorry, dearie.

Whew, he got over it quickly and got right on board. That could’ve gone a lot worse. Trust me, dearie, your girlfriend is highly relieved that you didn’t just up and leave her for this.

Game, please stop crashing. I rebooted the computer for you and everything.

OK, I’ve made it as far as the alienage. But you know the glitchies are getting really bad when people start showing up as just floating heads with staffs levitating behind them.

I didn’t want to alt-tab over to type and risk the crashies getting bad again, but the alienage is done. (Really, Caladrius, does Isaura look like the sort who’d be amenable to your sort of bribery?)

So, Landsmeet time for proper. Traditionally I bring Wynne, but my usual reasons for that don’t hold (she’s grown fond of Alistair, but he isn’t being made king this time, and I don’t necessarily need another healer). You know what, I’ll bring Leliana and Zevran, and Isaura can have them look after the kid while she fights Loghain.

Man, Loghain’s VA had a grand old time with the Landsmeet material, didn’t he?

Welp, it’s done, Loghain’s dead.

Wait, what? No, I clearly fucked up, the whole point of this exercise was to not make Alistair king. Reload time!

I love Crushing Prison. And the Arcane Warrior spec in general, especially with all the abilities and half-decent gear.

Wait, the wiki says that if he isn’t allowed to take his sword to Loghain, he won’t seize the throne even if hardened. What’s going on here?

Oh, OK, looks like I have the option to tell him to stand down. Whew.

I’m sorry, kid, this could probably have all gone better, but here we are. You’ll be happier with your lot in time, I swear it.

Back to Redcliffe, then.

Oh, right, Isaura finally picked up proper crowd control spells. Like Fireball. :D

Thank you for the vital information that should’ve been passed along much sooner, Riordan. And now, Dark Ritual time.

*sigh* Everyone reading this knows I hate this part, right? But “I do not send Alistair to his death or into exile” is an unbreakable rule of mine, and I’m hardly going to have his love interest sacrifice herself on what was conceived as a Nice Things For Alistair run.

Though I certainly thought about it. I even designed an Orlesian Warden-Commander to play in the DLCs. I’ve still got her in my back pocket to use another time.

Everyone keeps talking like Alistair is going to be king. I’m getting twitchy. Yes, I know, I can set the Keep to make absolutely certain DAI knows I meant to keep him a Warden, but that doesn’t help me in DA2.

Coming back to this a bit later, Anora gave the rousing speech, so I should be good. I hope.

nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope

Kid, I’m sorry. You know I hate doing this to you.

Game. Game. Crashing right afterwards, so I have to play through all that again, was really fucking rude.

And now, time to pick out my final party. Alistair/Leliana/Wynne is traditional, though I could theoretically trade Wynne in for an extra combat wombat—or even for Morrigan, who has more crowd control spells. Hm.

Tradition it is, with Sten leading the defense of the gates as per SOP. Let’s do this.

General time. First up, the market district.

Dispatched without too much difficulty, aside from Alistair needing a revive. Not bad.

Now the one in the alienage. This one tends to get hairy, I’ll call the Dalish in from the beginning.

Stop crashing, you bastard thing. Right after I took down the alienage general, too.

There we go.

Anyway, it’s gotten rather late, I can bang out the rest of the endgame tomorrow. If it hadn’t been for the crashies, I probably could’ve finished tonight, but that’s a known hazard when playing DAO, isn’t it.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 8.

All right, where were we? Newly arrived in Orzammar, that’s where. I’ll have to run to the Circle Tower to tell them about Dagna and offload some gifts at camp at some point, but for now, let’s run around a bit.

...looks like I’ll be taking that side trip sooner rather than later, whoops.

All right, Irving has been notified, and all the gifts have been offloaded except for what might be every Oghren-specific gift in the game, still taking up space in my inventory.

Leliana and Sten have some great banter. I never heard most of it before, because I wasn’t using Sten much after the very early game.

Supporting Bhelen is a solid habit of mine because out of the two shitty kings available, one may as well go for the shitty king who’s at least going to do something for the Casteless. So here we go again, I suppose.

Talking to Vartag, Isaura can tell already that she’s in for a truly spectacular headache here. Let’s just get this over with so she can get her soldiers and go.

Let’s see if we can’t get Leliana her nug before heading into the Deep Roads.

Aw, don’t tell me it’s glitched, I have Leliana with me but she hasn’t said anything about wanting a nug.

Oh! There she goes, I just had to actually talk to her. Let’s pick up Schmooples, then, and then head into the Deep Roads.

(to the tune of the Mister Softee jingle) 🎵Why don’t you come along with me, and we’ll explore the Deep Roads🎵

Leliana. You are an archer. The point of you is to hang back and shoot things from range, not to run headlong into the main body of enemies while all three combat wombats are busy engaging the vanguard. And frankly, you’re not high-level enough to be afforded this kind of autonomy the way I generally can with Nathaniel, as evidenced by that heal you just needed before the battle was halfway over. Leliana, what are you doing.

*sigh* Crashing just as Alistair gets in the killing blow on Jarvia is rude, game.

OK, got her this time. Without any crashing. Whew.

And it’s Deep Roads time for proper. Hello, Oghren. You haven’t exactly made a great impression by insulting Isaura first thing. Anyway, here are your gifts, so we can clear out the better part of a dozen inventory slots.

That was so many gifts that Oghren is now at +64 approval, and we haven’t even spoken yet aside from the conversation to recruit him.

Threatening Schmooples isn’t winning you points with anyone else in this party either, beardo.

Ooh, the Dead Trenches. It’s generally one long, continuous “oh shit” moment, I doubt it’ll be any different now.

Shrieks sound like angry cats, which I will never again be able to unhear as long as I live.

Oh, hey, I hear Hespith. Everyone reading this is aware that I cordially loathe this part, right? Right.

I’m having an awful time trying to find who voiced Naxiva in Beast of Winter—is it the same VA as Hespith? Something sounds similar there.

Right, broodmother time. I’ve done all my ranting on previous occasions, let’s just get this over with. *sigh*

Hello, Caridin. I was just thinking “wow, those are some truly sizable metal titties,” and then I realized they even have nipples cut into them, and oh god.

All right, that part’s done. Now let’s hit up Cadash Thaig and then we can put that dismal place behind us.

What a relief to have Alistair back in the party. I...don’t enjoy Oghren very much.

And that’s done. Good place to leave it for now, more tomorrow. Or in the morning, as it’s after midnight.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 2.

The profiteering merchant in Lothering offends Isaura’s moral sensibilities in an abstract sort of way, yes, but he also clearly feels some guilt about what he’s doing or he wouldn’t be so defensive. Which makes him a perfect target for her to draw out the conversation and make him squirm.

Morrigan, shut up, Isaura will solve other people’s problems if she wants. You’re just jealous that you’re not the one who’s just starting to realize you’re finally in control of your own life.

Hello, Leliana. The last pretty girl Isaura saw in one of those sunburst dresses didn’t do her any favors, but you seem helpful, at least. You can stay, for now. (A genuine friendship will come later.)

Sorry, doggie, but I need a rogue and don’t want to drop Morrigan yet. Hopefully having just Alistair to tank for three ranged characters won’t leave me regretting my life choices too much.

I can open things now! :D

Hello, Sten. Fucked up bad enough that you would’ve been in line for execution if a Grey Warden hadn’t happened by and decided you looked good enough to push in front of darkspawn? Isaura may know something of that experience.

I’ll give Sten this, his VA is nice to listen to.

Sorry, Morrigan, you can snark at Alistair and Leliana more later, I need a proper melee squad.

Isaura has taken her first specialization—Spirit Healer, of course. One of these days I’ll have to have a good think about what kind of spirit she’d be inclined to pick up. Maybe name it.

Ah, camp. Time to make the rounds and get to know the babies.

Isaura is having fun trolling Sten and Leliana, but she’s already letting up quicker than she would’ve back at the Circle. She’s getting used to being more in control of things, and that means she doesn’t have the same need to be annoying.

Mutual sniping time with Morrigan is pretty fun as well.

Alistair could stand to assume that Miss Former Circle Mage over here knows the basics of what a templar is; what she really wants to know is, how much of a Templar is he, still? His critical attitude toward the institution and his story of being horrified by his first Harrowing and being happy to nope out afterwards are promising, but she’ll have to keep an eye out over a longer period to see if he really means it.

Right then, back home to the Circle tower. I’m not doing Redcliffe first, for once!

Isaura has been telling herself since Flemeth’s hut that Irving will listen to her. He has to listen. Even if he’s still mad at her, he listens to the Wardens, and he has to know there’s a Blight on.

Who to bring? Well, Alistair and Leliana are non-negotiable, and whoever gets the free spot is going to get dropped for Wynne anyway, so it doesn’t much matter. Hey, let’s take the dog back out for a walk.

Alistair, dearie, rest assured that the tower’s location is not due to the mages having “an aversion to practicality”. Isaura will be happy to tell you what she knows of Anders (less than she might, but they knew each other in passing) to demonstrate.

Hello for proper, Wynne. Fun times here at the Circle tower, huh?

Eurgh, this thing with the desire demon. Though, demon friend, you might be advised that Isaura is...less put off by the prospect of having to kill a Templar than others might be.

Oop, Fade time. And this is where I take a second to pull up the walkthrough, because no way am I taking two steps in the Fade without it.

I sure do love the spirit form. Crushing Prison + Winter’s Grasp + spirit bitchslap = hey, where’d all the enemies go?

Hello again, Cullen. Goodness.

Chantry propaganda aside, frankly, the only shameful thing here is your taste. But you won’t understand that for a lot of years, if you ever do.

Well, and your eventual reaction to everything that’s going on, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Isaura may not respect Cullen, but she’s not completely devoid of pity for the kid, and she feels pretty bad right now.

Don’t be tedious, Uldred.

Oh, apparently you’re constitutionally incapable of not being tedious. Welp, time to make you stop, then.

Isaura finds she kind of missed Irving, despite everything. It was good to see him. Well, onward. In the morning. Because it’s late.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 9.

Where were we? I think Oghren had a quest that needed doing, let’s pick that up.

...have fun, Felsi. Better you than Isaura.

...huh, I’m pretty sure I’ve got enough approval with Zevran to get him to tell me about Rinna, but...apparently not? Or something? The “tell me more about your adventures” option is completely gone, this is weird.

Time to mop up sidequests before starting the endgame, then.

...oh sweet Jesus, I think I missed a site in the Deep Roads for Places of Power. *headdesk*

Worse: I actually didn’t. I’d say I went back to the Deep Roads for nothing, but there are a couple other sidequests I can bang out while I’m here.

Welp, looks like it’s musical number time. I—no.

Game, please stop crashing and load up my save. This is bullshit.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OK, I’ve run out of patience for further sidequests, I’ve pretty much exhausted everyone’s conversation tree, time to head for Redcliffe and start winding this thing down.

Stop being tedious, Loghain. What “foreign hands” are you so worried about putting the country into, anyway? I doubt you know about Isaura being from a Marcher family.

Honestly, he’s being so tedious that Isaura is falling back into old patterns and needling him far more than is probably wise.

Excellent, there’s Taliesen. Good riddance.

Time to go rescue Anora, then. Bringing Alistair, Leliana, and Wynne, let’s see how it works out.

Have they really run out of banter? Dang.

Oh, but you should see the grin that spread itself over my face at the sight of Riordan. No, it’s not just his voice, I’m also weirdly fond of him as a character.

Isaura hasn’t seen a Warden elder since Duncan; meeting Riordan now is comforting. It’d be more comforting if a. he were in any shape to join the party and b. there were more than one of him.

Hm, it’s canon that Riordan was based out of Jader, and he seems rather sweet and not the sort to go along with open bigotry; on the other hand, he’s dead by the end of the Blight. There are some headcanons for another character that I may or may not have to adjust to account for him.

Hello, Howe. You sure are terrible and need to shut up.

That said, Isaura realizes this guy is terrible, but there are a lot of terrible people in Thedas. She doesn’t have anywhere near the seething hatred for him that Alix did. Well, Alistair got in the last blow on him, and we’ll headcanon that Isaura just watched him die of his injuries or maybe shot one last Winter’s Grasp at him, as opposed to her predecessor’s whole “dig her bootheel into his throat” thing.

I have to say, murder-knifing Vaughan through the bars is pretty satisfying. Even with a Warden who doesn’t necessarily have reason to go that far. (Isaura knew and liked her share of elves back in the tower, but you’d think leaving Vaughan to rot in his cell would’ve been enough for her.)

That big fight when you first come back up the stairs to the main floor and all the guards swarm you? Even with both healers in the party, that one came down to Alistair by himself fighting off a swordsman, three mabari, and a crossbowman. Thank heaven for Alistair’s sheer indestructibility and the party’s stash of poultices (no pocket full of figurines here in Dragon Age, no).

Well, shit, here’s Cauthrien. That’s a lot of soldiers she has with her, and the last battle against such a big group in here went...poorly. But apparently Cauthrien’s tolerance for suspects mouthing off to her is low, and so here we are.

So, it’s rescue time. Who to send in? Let’s see, to form a viable party once they arrive, we’ll need one of the rogues, but the other spot is free. I’ve done Leliana/Wynne before, but any other option will be new.

How about Zevran and Leliana? Let’s do this.

You know, it’s a good thing the guards don’t check with each other, because they’d realize something was up when Zevran told one of them the “delivery” was “of a personal nature” and then Leliana said it was soup bones for the dogs.

Anyway, it’s later than I ought to be up, all considered, so more in the morning.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 6.

A short one today, between crashes and other shit to do.

Right, let’s go get Shale. Bringing Alistair (whose undroppability I’m enjoying while I can), Leliana, and Sten, so I can swap Shale in for Sten painlessly when the time comes.

Oh, hey, a deserted village full of darkspawn. Fun times!

Wait, is that—is Matthias voiced by—I thought so. Apparently the “voiced by [REDACTED]” gene is common in Honnleath.

And welcome to the party, Shale. I mean, really, at this point, why not recruit the possibly murderous golem? It’ll squish a lot of darkspawn. Hopefully.

All right, Soldier’s Peak time, while we’re here. Alistair, Leliana, and let’s take Shale out for a spin.

Heh, I love that Isaura has the option to tell Levi that she’s used to the whole haunted tower thing because the Circle tower was the same way. I’m sure it was.

See, the thing about blood magic is that you’ve got practitioners like Jowan, mostly decent if weirdly talented at getting into Situations, and then there’s this Avernus fucker. Really, dude. Really.

Once again, I didn’t mean to click on Leliana, but apparently it’s time for girl talk about Isaura and Alistair’s relationship. With the kid standing two feet away, as per SOP. This should be good.

OK, let’s see how many times the fight to seal up the Veil glitches and doesn’t start properly. One so far.

Excellent, it was just the once, the fight started like it was supposed to on the second try.

And that’s done. Which leaves me with only two things left to do, the Brecilian Forest and Orzammar. The forest it is, then.

*sigh* I want to give Zevran some love and change up the party, but I’m in no mood to be locked out of everywhere, that’s annoying. Although the Arcane Warrior spec ought to make Isaura a viable combat wombat, even if she doesn’t have all the powers yet. Right, let’s take Spellweaver and the Warden-Commander armor out for a spin and see what we can do.

To that end, aside from Alistair, I’m rounding out the party with Leliana and Wynne. David Gaider’s had his turn, let Sheryl Chee talk to herself for a while.

Ooh, this is fun. She’s nowhere near an actual warrior in the tankiness stakes with the abilities she currently has (this will be fixed as she gains her next few levels), but considering that she’s been doing the “run into a group of enemies and hit them with Mind Blast” thing in a lot of fights as it is, it’s nice to have her better-equipped to do that. And even stay there and stab the enemies afterwards.

I do enjoy the added flexibility in party composition afforded by a Warden who can switch between the melee and ranged squads at will.

Hello, Tuvok Zathrian.

Talking to more elves and heading into the forest will have to wait for the morning, it’s late and I’m tired.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 14.

The more time I spend with them, the more I enjoy Nathaniel and Sigrun’s dynamic, and the more I find myself thinking about what might have been if this had been a full-length game. (For starters, perhaps he could’ve had something to say about her quest, and perhaps they could’ve had the “broke ain’t the same as poor” conversation and touched on where the limits of his ability to relate to her experience are.)

Right, Fade time.

Isaura is constitutionally incapable of not responding to the First’s bombastic declarations with snark, yes.

Velanna, I swear to fucking God. Running off to melee two desire demons on your own is not what I keep you around for.

Who are you trying to impress, Velanna? Pretty sure your boyfriend will be happier if you stay by him and toss him the occasional heal, honestly.

OK, I spent about two and a half DAA playthroughs yelling at Nathaniel, then once I stopped worrying about him Anders and Velanna both discovered a newfound love for camping out in melee range. This is my life, apparently. Trying to remind ranged companions that they are not, in fact, invulnerable tanks, because they keep forgetting.

Hello, Justice. Been a while.

That went fairly well. Velanna even behaved. Mostly. (Nathaniel spent most of the fight within melee range of at least one ash wraith, but I’ve given up worrying about him. Velanna, heal your boyfriend, will you?)

Now, who gets dropped? Sigrun and Velanna are both expendable. That said, I’m happiest in melee, so I think Justice/Nathaniel/Velanna is the best choice for now.

Whoo, Sentinel armor! I felt a little bad about not giving the Hirol’s Defense set to Sigrun, but now I can. Once we get done here and head back to the Vigil, anyway. And enjoy the Juggernaut set, Justice. Until and unless I decide to give you the Stormchaser set instead, I’m still waffling about that.

Nothing like standing pensively and having a sedate conversation while everyone’s on fire. :D Well, everyone except Isaura, who was either out of range or just has too high a fire resistance score.

Now that Justice is in the party for proper, he’s wasted no time getting judgmental. Consider maybe toning it down eventually, buddy. No? Oh. Okay.

So, think this level 31 party can handle the Queen of the Blackmarsh? I do. Let’s give it a try.

I’ve stopped worrying overmuch about Nathaniel, but sweetie, you don’t need to be standing under the dragon. Get back behind Isaura and Justice, please.

And yelling “Why aren’t you dead yet?” half a minute into fighting a dragon? Once again, sweetie, I admire your optimism.

...and now you’ve been knocked out. This is why I tell you these things, Nate. Fine, just give Isaura a second to get a lyrium potion in her and she’ll give you a revive.

Good thing Velanna finally decided to behave, or I’d be completely driven to distraction.

Again, Nathaniel? Ugh, just wait, we’ve almost got this dragon.

There we go! One nice dead dragon. Well, re-dead. It was clearly some kind of ghost, from the looks of it.

And Oghren’s quest is finally done. Thank you, Oghren.

Now to bang out Justice’s and drop off some stuff in Amaranthine before we start the endgame.

Justice’s line about envying what Kristoff and Aura had, juxtaposed with a romanced Anders’ line in DA2 about Justice apparently disapproving of his “obsession” with Hawke. Hmm.

Poor Aura.

So Anders puts forth the theory that demons are “simply spirits with unique and sparkling personalities”, gets smacked down by Justice, then passes along the smackdown to Merrill when she espouses a similar view in DA2. Given everything we’ve learned, how reliable a narrator is Justice here?

Justice sure does get defensive when insisting that he has no desires. Hmm.

And here’s the love bug again, this time with Justice. Look, I knew Isaura had some sparkle to her and was good at drawing people in, but three companions in love with her? Literally half the party?

Right, I’ve run out of things to do besides the Blight Orphans questline, which I don’t feel like doing, so let’s stash/sell some excess inventory and then start up the endgame.

...of course, the narrator/Statue of War is the same VA as Varel, how did I miss that? Who, like Duncan, will also be dead by the end of the game. Apparently that’s a requirement for DA narrators.

My “Spirit of Narration from the Fade” theory looks more likely by the day.

Anyway. Time to pick my final party. Justice and Nathaniel are obvious, but who gets the free spot? Velanna? Anders? Sigrun, who specifically requested to come along?

You know what, I’ve never had Velanna along before, let’s try her out.

Nice, I’d been saving Nathaniel’s last gift for if I lost approval with him by insisting on saving Amaranthine, but no, he’s still at +100. (Funny, he’s the only companion who made it all the way to 100 this time, but he’s still (Warm) while three companions who are only in the 90s are (Love).)

...and it’d be very nice if you’d stop crashing every time I try to leave the Chantry, game.

*scrème*

Oh, now I lost three points with Nathaniel for letting the messenger go. I’ll save that gift for now, I’ve still got one last decision to make.

The dragon at Drake’s Fall went down fairly easily, though I’m not sure Isaura’s Inferno/Blizzard combo actually accomplished much.

Hello there, Seranni. Goodness. That’s...yeah.

And that crash means I should probably pack it in for the night and finish up tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins (and DLCs), day 12.

Hopefully I spend less time reloading today, yesterday was ridiculous.

Anders’ quest is done, and his approval is already at +65 in what’s still very much the early game.

Nathaniel is getting up there as well. Isaura always was good at wrapping men around her finger—it was a survival skill back in the Circle tower with its mostly-male Templar contingent and large number of powerful male enchanters, including Irving himself—so taken or not, it’s no surprise she’s got her more...susceptible male companions half in love with her again now.

All right, we’re in pretty dire need of money after paying off Voldrik right away like an idiot, so fine, Ser Rylien, we’ll play cop for you and hunt down those purported blood mages. Isaura is going to hate herself for this one, though.

No shit Anders disapproves. Sorry, buddy, she’ll make it up to you.

Excellent, was able to pay off the Dark Wolf before touching any of the main questlines.

Nathaniel is now loaded up with so much hostility-reduction gear and so many stealth/evasion abilities that he ought to be effectively invisible to enemies, so I can well and truly stop worrying about him. No, it’s Anders I’ve got my eye on this time.

OK, yes, Nathaniel, that comparison was a bit of a reach, but despite the sword and shield, the Commander who you seem rather fond of is in fact a mage, and when you make those comments about mages being “about to turn into an abomination” or “[controlling] your mind”, she can, in fact, hear you.

Right, time to head out to the Wending Wood.

I think this enemy may not be sufficiently on fire after being hit with a Fireball. Better follow it up with a Flame Blast just in case.

Velanna, is siccing sylvans on someone with quite as much fondness for fire magic as Isaura really the best course of action? If your whole shit ends up burned down, it’s on you.

Have these boys run out of banter already? Hrmph. Well, I’ll be swapping Velanna in for Anders soon.

Where is that last ancient sylvan? Where?!

Anyway. Knock-knock, Your Elfiness.

“Great, another twitchy magic sort. Just what we need.” Oghren, the Commander can hear you.

Sorry, Velanna, but if you’re going to be a mage in this party, you’re going to wear a silly-looking hat. That’s how it works.

Yes, the “No one touches Oghren’s junk and lives” bit is pretty silly, yes, but it still reliably gets a smile from me after all this time.

The dragon thralls are a lot less frightening with two combat wombats in the party, I have to say.

Right, let’s knock out some sidequests while we’re traveling.

Ooh, the Dark Wolf has some information for me, time to do a murder!

*sigh* Court time. I’ve now done this enough times that I have the “right” answers memorized.

Isaura could do without having to hold so many pieces of evidence and conflicting interests in her head, but part of her does find exerting control like this heady and faintly erotic. (The poor companions, having to put up with her afterwards. Ah, who am I fooling, Anders and Oghren probably like it.)

The love bug is back! Velanna this time. Down, girl. Alistair will either be unhappy or propose a threesome, and I’m not sure which you’d like less. Go bother Nathaniel some more, the two of you were clearly having fun.

To Kal’Hirol, then.

Hello, Sigrun. It’s really good to see you.

Isaura’s kind of glad Velanna won’t be the only other woman around the place anymore. Nothing against Velanna, but she can be...a bit prickly sometimes.

You’d think Velanna would be the expendable one in the party, being the extra mage, but honestly? Sigrun plays so much like Oghren that it’s almost a like-for-like swap. Let’s do this. I can always retreat and pick him back up if I end up regretting it.

Darkspawn left to their own devices do indeed “get up to all kinds of nonsense”. You’re really not wrong, Sigrun.

So. Dual-dagger rogue who’s pretty useful in a fight but comes to you with no lockpicking skills whatsoever. Remind you of anyone?

There’s a reason I didn’t even consider dropping Nathaniel. Lots of little reasons scattered throughout Kal’Hirol, most of which explode when walked over.

And I’ve got work in the morning, and the game was looking suspiciously ready to crash, so more tomorrow.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 4.

Oh, look, happy family hour with Loghain and Anora.

And hey, it’s the fine dwarven crafts! :D

Ser Landry has gotten the death he deserved. Crushing Prison and a couple casts of Winter’s Grasp were involved. Good job, buddy. Hope you’re happy.

OK, a blessedly well-lit closeup while dropping off the Red Jenny box in Denerim tells me Isaura’s eyes are actually green. Good to know!

It says something amusingly unfortunate about Alistair’s Chantry education that a basic list of continents with quick descriptions of them was new information to him. (Or, hilarious timing picking up that codex entry.)

And here’s Goldanna. I’ve got a decision to make: How in-character would it be for Isaura to harden Alistair? She thinks he’s amusing and sweet as he is, but she also has to live with the guy on a permanent basis for the foreseeable future, and of all my Wardens, she’s the one most likely to genuinely believe the “Everyone is out for themselves” part. You know what, yeah, let’s do it.

In the meantime, headcanon: Leliana may have had to physically hold Isaura back to stop her from taking the heavy end of her staff to Goldanna after the “some tart following after his riches” line.

Yeah, I don’t love the writing here. It’s...it’s a thing.

The game is really crashing an unfortunate amount right now. If I have to visit Genitivi’s house and have the conversation with Waylon a fourth time, I’ll be very upset.

...guess what just happened.

Saving after getting done in there to make absolutely goddamn sure it won’t be five.

...you tried, Zevran. But I don’t think you and Leliana know each other like that for you to be propositioning her already.

Zevran, if Leliana just threw up an “insufficient skill” message when trying to open a chest, you don’t even need to bother offering to help.

I have a vague memory of the deserted building in the middle of Denerim being a high-level location that I probably wouldn’t do too well in with the level 10-11 party I have, but here goes anyway.

Game, if you see fit to provide Isaura with a slightly improved staff at some point, I’ll be much obliged—she’s still wielding the one she came out of the origin with. If not, well, the next time we’re at camp, I think we can now afford one of the ones Bodahn was selling.

Huh, that actually went pretty well. A couple of injuries got picked up, and there was one fight where Isaura went down and I had to get through the rest of it with care and poultices, but I didn’t have to reload.

I hate Denerim. I don’t hate the location itself, or the quests I do there, just how much more this already-unstable game starts crashing the moment I set foot in the Market District.

Well, rebooting the computer helped. Hopefully it stays fixed at least for the rest of tonight.

Thank you for finally giving me your quest, Sten. Leliana, Wynne, would either of you like to follow suit?

Romance is progressing at a pretty decent clip. I should dig through Alistair’s conversation tree and have Isaura needle him for being a blushing virgin before that’s no longer the case.

There we go. (Our girl may front like she was the biggest slut in Kinloch Hold because lording her comparatively greater experience over Alistair makes her feel powerful and special, but she only had a couple of, er, friends before leaving the Circle. No, Jowan wasn’t one of them, good God.)

(...or was he? Crap, now I’m giving myself ideas.)

Thank you, Leliana. Finally. We’ll look Marjolaine up soon.

Tomorrow, maybe. I should go to bed.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Hey. Hey, everyone. I don’t have to be back at work until the 31st, so LET’S AGE SOME MOTHERFUCKING DRAGONS WHOOOOOOOOO.

You know, between my unimpressive eyesight and the godawful lighting in all of DA’s character creation screens, I’m not actually sure what color any of my babies’ eyes are.

No goddamn lie, I would commit actual murder for another dozen bun/updo/tied-back/braided hairstyles. This is probably the main philosophical difference between me and the creators of all the hair mods out there.

I’ve already used the single and double buns for other characters, and I envision this one also having fairly long hair that she binds up, so Baroness hair it is, I guess. *sigh*

If you expect me to create a character in DAO without pushing up the cheekbone sliders at least one or two notches, you don’t know me very well. I did restrain myself and only push them up a little bit this time, though.

Anyway! Everyone, meet Isaura Amell. Most of her personality will have to reveal itself to me as I play, as the plans I have are mostly a) fairly nebulous and b) for later in the game.

For the record, I think her eyes are gray. Who the fuck knows if I’m right, though.

Fine, Valour, Isaura will play your game...Oh, what’s that, you’re just handing her a staff? Very nice of you.

You tried, Mouse. Thanks for the lesson.

Jowan gets less whiny when he’s out of this specific situation, right?

Goodness, that’s what Niall looks like outside the Fade.

Now that I get a good listen to him, yeah, I can hear that he shares a VA with Serafen from Deadfire.

Ah, hello, Duncan. Is it good to see you? I think it is.

Jowan, I swear, you get the worst ideas sometimes.

Hello, Cullen. Apparently you’re 19 here, though I’d be hard-pressed to say you look it. You know what, I was a total shithead when I was 19. I get it.

Isaura is going to call Cullen’s bluff and offer to “continue the discussion” in private as much because it makes her feel in control for once as anything. Maybe she understands deep down that someone wanting to fuck you isn’t the same as having power over them, though I don’t think she’s yet had to learn it the hard way, but when you live in a Circle tower, you take your happiness where you can.

Also, there’s no way she’s older than maybe 23, probably closer to 20 or 21, which is still a good age for shitheadery.

She really just wanted to toy with Cullen, and I doubt she was thinking far enough ahead to have a plan for what she’d do if he took her up on her offer. The running away part was an amusing if unexpected bonus.

Keeping Jowan and Lily’s secret, and helping them out (which of course means they owe her and know it), is a similar “being in control” kind of thing.

So the Storage Caves are like a tiny little mini-Deep Roads, huh?

Huh, this is the first time I’ve seen the tower basement outside the context of Witch Hunt.

Whee, time to murder our way through the basement!

Oh, hello there, Eleni Zinovia.

Oops, got caught, time to play dumb.

Isaura certainly had an idea Jowan was dabbling in blood magic, but she didn’t think he was quite foolish enough to go and do that in front of Irving and Greagoir. Really, Jowan. The worst ideas, Jowan.

Hello, Cailan. You’re very enthusiastic for someone about to have such a very, very bad day.

Isaura has had enough of antagonizing the powerful for one week, so she’s going to be polite and deferential to Cailan and laugh at his jokes. We’ve all been there.

A “secret ritual”, huh, Duncan? Isaura just wants to know if she’s going to have to fight any more demons.

Ooh, my first crash! Luckily for me, I saved a couple of seconds before, knowing it’s always a risk when I cross the bridge into Ostagar for some reason. And it didn’t take the whole computer with it and wipe out all my typing.

Hello, Wynne. Fancy seeing you here.

The glitchies already? The Ostagar quartermaster’s clothing textures aren’t loading.

Hello, Alistair. Meet your future girlfriend.

Oh, look, a baby Templar. Well, some kind of former baby Templar. Quite possibly still a baby Templar at heart. Isaura can play with him like she used to do with Cullen, and then get all surprised when she grows to really, genuinely like the guy. (What? He’s sweet. Stop looking at her like that.)

Alistair, dearie, the woman wearing Circle robes and carrying a staff slung across her back “[doesn’t] look like a mage”? You didn’t think that one through, did you?

Hello, Morrigan. *sigh*

Part of Isaura wants to be friends, part of her wonders if there’s really room in her world for another young mage woman who spent her youth shut away from the bulk of humanity and who has a tendency to talk like a book because of it.

But as long as they’re the only two women around, “let’s be friends” will win out. Anyway, she doesn’t know any of this yet.

It’s so weird seeing Flemeth without her hair and makeup done.

“Your woman’s mind”—at this point, I just wonder what she’d ask of male Cousland, who’d have nothing to distinguish him from the other three in terms of gender, species, or magical ability.

Tower of Ishal time!

What, I don’t get a rogue for this part? Dammit. Well, it was worth asking.

I sure do love Flame Blast.

Flaming Weapons doesn’t look too shabby either.

Well, time to clean the place out like we’re not on a deadline.

Ha, the ogre went down like a chump. I love Winter’s Grasp, too.

Well, that’s done. To Lothering!

Oh, hello, doggie. Now, what do I name you? Hm, how about Rashvine?

And after the first of many, many conversations where Alistair and Morrigan snark at each other a whole lot, I’m being forced to pack it in for the night, so more in the morning.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

...goodness, I’ve acquired a few new readers lately, haven’t I. Well. A couple of the main tourist attractions around here:

Forbears, short for Forbears of what will be, is a behemoth of a fic series about the origins of the Jedi Order that I spent several years helping plan and edit for @bloodilymerry (actually making the words go is deep sorcery beyond my ken, so the actual writing was left to her). It began life as a fix-it of the Dawn of the Jedi comic, then it...got away from us a little. Come read, we’ve got murderbabies.

I know a bunch of you got here via RPG fandoms and may or may not have noticed my habit of documenting my playthroughs in some detail, both to tell the nice people on the Internet what I think of it all and to have something to read back over later and smile at the memories. There’s a second Dragon Age run and probably a sixth Pillars of Eternity run coming sooner or later, but for now, I’ve got:

Dragon Age run #1, December 2019-January 2020: Warden Alix Cousland (rogue/Alistair romance/queen), Taran Hawke (warrior/snarky/Merrill romance), Inquisitor Linniva Trevelyan (mage/Blackwall romance, pardoned and took him back/disbanded)

ETA: DA run #2, March-April 2020: Warden Daiwen Mahariel (warrior/Zevran romance), Pavey Hawke (mage/aggressive/Anders romance), Inquisitor Avasis Adaar (rogue/Dorian romance/kept the Inquisition going)

ETA: DA run #3, August-October 2020: Warden Isaura Amell (mage/Alistair romance/left him a Warden), Gabran Hawke (rogue/diplomatic/Isabela romance), Inquisitor Anchoret Lavellan (warrior/Cullen romance/disbanded)

Pillars of Eternity run #1, September-November 2018: Clelia mes Rèi (Old Vailian moon godlike cipher/Galawain/Huana/Tekēhu)

PoE run #2, December 2018: Oriol Gori (Deadfire ocean folk Darcozzi Paladin/Hylea/Furrante’s Príncipi/Xoti)

PoE run #3, March 2019: Aegen Mar (Living Lander wood elf ranger/Berath/Castol’s VTC/Aloth)

PoE run #4, May 2019: Sikkerneq (Rauataian boreal dwarf chanter/Galawain/RDC/Maia)

PoE run #5, November-December 2019: Eiheune Manoi (Ixamitec coastal aumaua priest of Wael/Wael/Huana/Serafen)

NB: I did something a little different with Eiheune; her playthrough is primarily documented in a Twitter threadzilla rather than the usual daily Tumblr writeups. Turns out I’m even more verbose on the site with a strict character limit, who knew?

Yeah, the other thing about Twitter is all the writers are on there. Had a little brush with celebrity for a moment. :)

ETA: PoE run #6, April-May 2020: Anlaf (Aedyre fire godlike rogue/Hylea/solo/no romance)

I’m really bad about tagging anything else, so you’ll have to let me know if there’s something you want me to tag for consistently.

I’m 100% OK with being unfollowed or blocked at any time, for any reason. You curate your own experience on here, I’m not the boss of you.

I try to be personable, but I’m a weird little ball of anger in real life, and sometimes the seams start to show. Sorry.

ETA: Remember, I’m closer to 40 than 30, and my target audience is people my own age. Exercise discretion.

Anyway. Welcome to the readership. Let’s be friends.

ETA: Pinning this, now that it's an option, rather than keep re-upping it every time I pick up some more followers.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Origins, day 7.

Oh for the...I appear to have spilled tea on my trackball. In the absence of any other mouse-like objects, if I can’t just accomplish most of what I need to accomplish using the keyboard, I’m going to have to play with the laptop leaning on the edge of the desk so I can use the trackpad. *siiiiiiigh*

Ooh, partner has supplied me with a wired USB mouse, which is definitely something. The reason I was using a trackball in the first place was because my keyboard shelf doesn’t have space to move a mouse around, but let’s see if I can’t clear off a corner of the desk...there we go. You’re a lifesaver, old girl. And the right mouse button on this thing isn’t fiddly the way the one on my trackball was.

Right, where were we? Running around the Dalish camp talking to people and picking up supplies, that’s where.

OK, so that quest where you fix up the two young elves together? When talking to the girl, I was expecting the “Why does everything have to depend on him?” option to be about her having a career of her own to support their new family, not about it being her fault he lacks self-confidence. The fuck?

Fine, Grand Oak, we’ll get you your acorn, there’s no need to aim more doggerel at us.

Alistair, dearie, we just got attacked by two ogres, please stop fucking around with the one you just killed—we all saw your badass deathblow animation, it was very nice—and come help your girlfriend with the one that’s still alive.

I like Wynne’s quest. Parting amicably and moving on is a perfectly valid resolution to having been harmed in the past—and Wynne takes “have a nice life” for an answer with only token protests.

Yeah, two healers in the party means I no longer have to give a fuck about basically anything. As long as one of them is upright, they can heal/revive each other, and if they both go down either something has gone very badly wrong or I shouldn’t have gotten into that fight in the first place.

Specifically, I’m now up to three pieces of the Juggernaut armor without any especial difficulty. Come at me, revenants.

Ah, the ISO Standard Assassin Backstory. Smarter and more knowledgeable people than me have written about why it’s silly bullshit, but here we are. You’re welcome for the gloves, Zevran.

Isaura does know something about the “insist on finding some cheer in life even if it’s kind of shit” experience, yes.

Zevran, the fuck did she say to you to get -8 approval? Damn. Going to have to bribe that boy real good.

Wynne, you are squishy, please stay out of melee range. Yes, I know you have the Arcane Warrior spec, but you don’t have any of the powers and you’re still wearing robes and carrying a staff. Get back.

The Arcane Horror in the Lower Ruins? The really annoying one? Was slightly less annoying this time, actually. Very nice.

That fight near the beginning of the Lair of the Werewolves where a crapton of werewolves swarm you? Yeah, that got hairy. Really hairy. Dear, sweet, indestructible Alistair, carrying me through fights like this with his ridiculous HP regeneration rate and a few poultices when the entire rest of the party goes down.

Similarly with the fight against Zathrian. Fun times for all involved.

Time to head for Orzammar, then. With Sten and Leliana in tow, since I know there’s a lead on his sword to be found there.

Arcane Warrior abilities all nice and polished up. Heehee, she’s all transparent and glowy now.

“Beg your pardon, friend, you, uh, startled me a bit.” I’ll bet she did, Faryn.

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the banter where Leliana calls Sten a big softie before. Yes, I smiled real big.

Aw, Dagna. You’re a little weird for wanting into the Circle, and Isaura will definitely be warning you about some of the less glamorous aspects of Circle life, but, uh, sure, you do you.

And it’s late, and the game was looking ready to crash there, so it’s probably time I packed it in for the night.

PS: That DA4 video, huh? :D