#obviously it happens to all variations of inquisitor

[braddourifscareertrajectory]

varric gifting a mage inquisitor and their qunari boyfriend an estate, title AND key to the city in kirkwall of all places is actually so funny

[crossdressingdeath]

It's so weird to me seeing people insist that all Rooks are going to be the exact same with no real variation between them besides the names based on the fact that they all get involved with the Veilguard after prioritizing saving lives over their faction (if you look at the blurbs even the "they go against orders to save people" angle only applies to Thorne, the others didn't know or didn't have actual orders to go against, and even "prioritizing lives over their faction" doesn't apply to Mercar (going against slavers is kind of their job and the Shadow Dragons want them out of sight to protect them) or de Riva (they didn't actually know about the wider mission at stake and could easily have assumed that their superiors urging caution didn't mean letting civilians die)). For a few reasons, actually. First and most obviously... people are making a lot of assumptions based on the very brief and vague backstory overview you get at the start of the game. The character introductions we get at the start of the game have always been a brief overview with no emotional details; the details come in the game proper (which is also when Rook will I'm sure get the chance to discuss how they feel about their faction and the events that led to them leaving it; it's very strange to me that so many people seem convinced we won't get to make decisions about that based from what I've seen solely on the single paragraph of background information we get before the game even starts). Bioware didn't stop in the CC of DAO, DA2 or DAI to ask us exactly how our character felt about their background, they let us decide that for ourselves during the game, and I really don't understand why people are assuming it'll be different here.

Secondly it's based on a massively oversimplified view of what exactly happens in each backstory blurb. I mean there is of course the general setup of each character's background before the incident that led them to the Veilguard (do not come here and try to tell me that a baby found by the undead and raised by necromancers in Nevarra is the exact same as a kid raised by a military family in Tevinter, using the two whose childhoods we have any information on as an example; they are not the same and would have very different viewpoints on the world), but there's more to it. The actual incidents are quite different if you look at them beyond that basic "prioritized lives over the faction's best interests" angle! Aldwir choosing to give up a valuable artefact to save their teammates isn't the same as Thorne refusing to wait for reinforcements when a nearby village would be destroyed before they arrived, which isn't the same as Laidir pissing off the nobles and risking drawing the authorities' ire down on the Lords by killing a corrupt noble, which isn't the same as de Riva unknowingly compromising a larger mission by rescuing Antivan citizens taken captive by the Antaam. These are different events! Saying they're all the same is a very, very simplified read of them!

But I'm sure people will still argue that they're too similar because of that very simplified read. To that I say: every Warden is the exact same because they all get involved in a dangerous event and then get recruited by Duncan. Every Inquisitor is the exact same because they all go to the Conclave and pick up the Anchor. The details of their backgrounds and their thoughts on those backgrounds and their dialogue that's impacted by their backgrounds don't matter, the inciting incident is the same so clearly they're all the exact same character and the only things that change are names, classes and aesthetics.

...Stupid, right? Obviously if you boil down the protagonist of an RPG to the most basic description possible they're going to appear the same as every other possible protagonist of that RPG. The protagonist needs a plot hook to get them involved in the main story and that plot hook is always going to be similar to every other potential protagonist's plot hook. The Warden needs to be in a situation where they would get recruited by Duncan, and it makes for easier writing if that happens in a situation where there's a good chance they'd be grateful for it. The Inquisitor needs to get the Anchor. And in this game Rook needs to be in a position where their faction wants or needs them out of the way for whatever reason and Varric would want to take them for the Veilguard. With those two factors in mind, them putting innocent lives over their faction (for lack of a better way of putting it, see my comment on Mercar and de Riva in the first paragraph) is a good choice. It's something that ensures their faction will encourage or order them to join up and something that would encourage Varric to pick them! If you agree that it's stupid to claim all Wardens or Inquisitors are the exact same regardless of backstory because of the inciting incident that gets them into the plot (which I assume everyone does), then don't automatically assume that all Rooks are going to be the same because of their inciting incidents having some similarities.

[shivunin]

Ooooh! For the Character Creation ask…

4, 12, 15 and 19, for as many of your ladies you'd wish to answer :3

Thank you, Arja! 💗I think I'll answer for a handful for each!

Wow, I had a lot more to say about that first one than I expected haha. Sorry for the excessive length!

(OC Creation Ask Game)

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts?

Wen: The alienage, absolutely. I think growing up there shaped so much of who she is that she could not have become herself under any other circumstances. I have other OCs who I think would have been the same regardless of where they lived (Maria, Emmaera, Jesse), but Wen is only Wen because of the Denerim Alienage and everything that happened to her there.

Maria: The magic system, especially healing magic. I think a lot about how magic in Thedas works (and obviously canon is very contradictory in some respects) and I think the fact that the healing tree is specifically spirit healing is very interesting. I like thinking about the sort of academicized specializations in the Circles and whatever bootleg version of that Malcolm passed on to his children, too. We see so many variations of magic and how it's used between Morrigan, Merrill, Wynne, Solas, and Vivienne that it's clear there are a lot of applications, variations, and extrapolations on magic even beyond the combat-focused reality of the medium (it is, in the end, a video game largely about fighting). Anyways! For Maria, how magic works (or doesn't) was a lot of her development. Also the class system and politics of Kirkwall in that first scene...Given my own background, the idea of having to bribe someone into finding somewhere safe to live really struck me.

All of my Lavellans are largely shaped by what I knew about the Dalish when I first started writing fic (not having played Origins until well after, for example), but I was struck by different aspects of their role thereof during their development:

Elowen: The pressure of being raised to leadership and knowing that you'll eventually be the Keeper of all the people around you. I think Elowen always wanted to be perfect for her clan because she didn't believe that failure was an option, hence giving up the position of First right before Inquisition starts. The fate of the clan is so dire if you (the player) make the slightest mistake, and since she was my first Lavellan I thought a lot about what that meant beyond the structure of the game. When the position of the Dalish is often so precarious, how do you live knowing your mistakes could cost them all their lives? That's a lot for one person to bear.

Emmaera: The sheer amount of history lost to the Dalish. The game presents so many sites from the elves from before and after the fall of Arlathan and (again, given my background--this time specifically my degree) I imagined someone who embraced those moments of exploration we see in Inquisition. Also, when writing her I thought a lot about what it means to be the sort of figurehead the Inquisitor must be. How do you find meaning in life after being the savior of the world? How do you feel successful in something like...having a home or making dinner? So, I guess, the scale of Inquisition and what it would mean to leave that behind.

Salshira: The insular nature of the clan. I grew up in a very small town and everyone knew everyone else's business all the time, so that's what I was thinking of when I was first defining elements of her character. Also, of course, some of the mysterious role the Fade plays in the games---though of course I pushed the boundaries of canon a bit there since I first wrote her in a soulmate AU.

As for my non-DA characters...

Jesse: When I started writing Jesse as a distinct character, I was thinking a lot about how human culture is depicted as very homogenous in the Mass Effect series, and how I don't like that haha. Her character is also shaped by how I think government actions like Jump Zero would be received by what we'd consider disprivileged communities today/ how I imagine my grandmother and aunts would perceive something like biotics (a shuttle crash near their fields is how Jesse's mother was exposed to Eezo). Anyways, "accidents" creating a group of people with essentially superpowers that can then be kidnapped off to a special "school" and then put in the army Alliance is uh...definitely shady. Which is why her family lives somewhere too remote for her to get identified as a biotic until various backstory events land her in the city. So, short answer: Eezo and Jump Zero and biotics in general.

Tav: The oaths of a paladin being the source of their power. Also, I picked the Guild Artisan background for her because it gave me bonuses I liked and then I was too fascinated by the idea of a guild artisan paladin to not figure out how the hell she ended up in this position. What could she possibly believe in so hard that it gave her access to divine power?

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)?

Lately? Finding the motivation and time haha. But in general...

Elowen: I first wrote Elowen when I was extremely sad, and writing her was a way of figuring out how to find meaning in (what felt like) meaninglessness. I have the hardest time writing her when my mental health is good, somewhat ironically.

Maria: Writing her for myself, actually. I know other people enjoy her, so at some point in every fic for her I become hyper-aware of how it might be perceived and then I stop enjoying writing it. Alas.

Jesse: Canon. I really don't like writing fic contrary to canon and Mass Effect is essentially a dating sim to me lol. So I don't have as solid a grasp on all the background/lore and looking things up takes foreeeeever when I'm already in the middle of writing.

15. What is something about your OC that makes you laugh?

Arianwen: My dog hates being wet. If he dips one little paw into water, he runs back to safety and shakes his whole body until he's absolutely sure he won't be wet again. When I have to bathe him in the sink, he stares at me in betrayal the whole time and makes the saddest, tiniest squeaking noise. Wen is like that about handling other people's emotions and it makes me laugh

Emmaera: Her duality? Idk that I make this very explicit a lot of the time, but she is a cute, absentminded academic with dandelion fluff hair who went on a murderous vigilante rampage through Darktown at great personal cost. Someone sent me the "I can be your angle...or yuor devil" meme about her once and I am still laughing about it

Maria: Her lack of impulse control/sense of humor in general

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

Had a hard time defining "favorite fact" so here are just some fun facts:

Arianwen: Used to save half her dinner for the strays until her dad made her stop. That's when she started to figure out how to be sneaky--so she could steal food to feed her street pets.

Maria: She is the one who taught Carver how to read. Some of the time, he was in a headlock for it.

Elowen: In the "canon" version of her story, she names her spirit blade "singer" in elven because she likes its hum.

Emmaera: Used to go to ruins with her father and mimic his actions before she understood them. She used to very seriously dust bits of rock clean to look at the patterns on them, even when there wasn't really anything to see.

Salshira: Actually, my favorite aspect of her is that once she feels she is safe and welcomed and loved, Salshira turns the full force of her charm to protecting the people she cares about. And I love that someone who never felt that she could genuinely herself never has to be that person around people she distrusts. Instead. she is able to use that same skill (being charming, being a chameleon is a skill) to look out for others instead of herself. And that is actually my favorite fact about her.

[dgcatanisiri]

So let me try to tackle this.

You bring up the developers having a soft spot for Leliana in Dragon Age and not getting the same response? That's because Leliana is not put in the forefront in the same way - Liara is a romanceable companion in two full games, plus the LotSB DLC for ME2, while Leliana is a romanceable companion in one game, a cameo in another, and a non-romanceable NPC in a third. She has a significantly smaller shadow cast over the games, especially considering the Dragon Age's rotating protagonist - her relationship with the Warden ends up being different from the one with the Inquisitor, while Liara's relationship with Shepard is an across the board thing.

And that "across the board" issue is where it comes down on - you can barely interact with Liara in ME1, even potentially leave her on Therum until you're ready to go to Ilos and need her to unlock that last plot barrier, and then she ends up a) greeting Shepard on Illium with a mandatory hug (while Ashley/Kaidan only get a hug if they were romanced), b) striking out between the time gap of the ME2 prologue and game proper to recover their body all on her own, and c) when confronted about that, her response, again, across the board, regardless of romance and relationship status, says that she did it because she could not let Shepard go. And I can add that d) she does this and locks out everyone else from the Normandy, including Ashley/Kaidan, who may be Shepard's ACTUAL love interest, locks them out of the loop by not telling them about it, and then condemns them for their lack of supporting Shepard on Horizon.

Liara's actions are written from a perspective of her as Shepard's love interest first, and then just get the serial numbers filed off to call that the friendship. Which pushes her closer and closer to Shepard than the player may well feel is proper for her.

Like my go to on this is the fact that she gives Shepard's body to Cerberus to allow them to perform their "Frankenstein thinks this is crossing a few ethical lines" science experiment of resurrecting them. This is a bodily autonomy issue - SHE decides that she will give their body to Cerberus, gives them to go ahead, and outright says she did it for her. And Shepard's response to finding this out? They can be a little grumpy about her keeping it quiet, but then wrap back around to the friendly lines and never address it further, and the game presents her as being there for these very emotionally intimate moments - moments that, if you don't take with her, you get no alternative.

And yes, that's obviously an issue of how much resources were available for variation, but the point is that instead of offering variation, the decision was made that these happen with Liara or pretty much no one.

We get to have Miranda express regret and remorse for just wanting to put a control chip in Shepard's brain, remove their autonomy. Liara choosing to put her wants and desires first and ignoring whatever Shepard may have wanted for their body after their death is considered a positive.

But to center on the bodily autonomy issue... She makes this decision about someone else for her sake. It'd be one thing if she'd argued that Shepard alone could handle the Reapers. But she says that she did this because SHE could not let go of Shepard. If someone did that to me? AT BEST I would keep them at arm's length. I would absolutely NOT want them around me every day - like in Shepard's place, in ME3, I'd probably have told her to pack up her Shadow Broker resources and go work on the Crucible, rather than stay on the Normandy. An option that not only is not available, no one seems to think is even CONCEIVABLE. Liara is mandatory in ME3 - in fact, she's the most mandatory companion, required on four missions, two of which she easily could serve as a voice over the comms instead. On top of Eden Prime trying to write her as having this "we're going back to the beginning" reverence... Except she wasn't THERE at the beginning.

And then there's my perspective as a queer man. I have no interest in romantic relationships with women, but there is a lot of a narrative push towards emphasizing the relationship with Liara, with that blatant romantic undercurrent. Meanwhile, I can't have a proper romantic relationship for my male Shepards with another man until ME3. So the game is pushing THIS relationship forward at the expense of anything I'm looking for... Yeah, that seriously bothers me.

And then there's the fact that the decision was made that as the teaser image for the next Mass Effect game, we get a very pointed image of Liara. That the developers keep. coming. back. to her. Now, yes, it's a teaser image, something meant to draw eyes, and probably meant to appeal to fans of the Shepard trilogy who are upset over Andromeda having been something of a soft reboot - but it's a series of narrative and promotional choices that favor Liara at the expense of all other characters. She is in function shown as, player characters aside, the most important element of the franchise.

I could go on - I have a dedicated tag for this on my blog, and, sure, you could chalk it all up as "boo Liara hater" and that jazz, except here's the thing about it. I don't actually hate Liara. I hate how the writing waters her down - there is a fascinating character arc to be had in her doing these things of questionable morality, of how she is putting her wants and desires first, of how she could be wrapped up in the isolating tower of the Broker and disconnect from the world outside her. But the writing DOESN'T. They water her down, trying to make her portrayal as the least objectionable, of sanding down and smoothing her edges and issues so that we are positioned to never get the chance to respond to her flaws AS flaws, that she is to be celebrated for just being Shepard's greatest cheerleader.

CONFESSION:

I don't get the "hate" for Liara. I REALLY don't. So what if the dev had a bit of a soft spot for her? Same could be said for Leliana from DA yet I've haven't seen any hate for her. The whole notions these people that are so edgey with Liara truly make me laugh. 'She's forced to be Shepard's canon lover' 'I don't like her because of such and such'

Firstly: You can JUST be friends with her and have NO ISSUE with her being sad or what not. Secondly: She's not gonna be a canon romance at all, so get over yourselves.

While YES, I will admit and agree that in ME3 she was WAY over used in topic and conversations, though it was more so likely to make up for her abscence in ME2 (similar to Leliana and DA2-DAI, shocking I know), at the same time she played a key role in the game. Was she wrong about things, sure but who else would have filled that role of info broker?

It's almost as if all this hate for her truly comes for the fact that these people didn't get their version of Liara they expected. As if she was supposed to be meek and innocent and not grow up essentially. Or just hate her for no real reason or minor little thing. So when I look at theses confessions about Liara and crying foul about something I just shake my head and laugh at the absurdity of people.

[bhaalble]

been debating some Cole romance options so here's my rough template for how I think it would start. Long rambly post incoming

Conditions for starting this: While you have flirtation options with Cole as soon as he's recruited (like any other romanceable npc), the romance quest can't be triggered until you do his personal quest that either renders him more spirit or more human. Neither path locks off the romance, but the tone of the romance will obviously be very different depending on that choice.

If you HAVE flirted with Cole before that personal quest, there are additional dialogue options the player can have with both Solas and Varric pertaining to how this might impact Cole's feelings for others. Varric believes turning him more human will open the door to greater depth of relationship, while Solas is mostly just offended he was asked the question and eventually tosses out that Cole's feelings will likely be as they ever were, for whatever that's worth. The player is then able to make the choice as normal. In the next conversation after dealing with the aftermath of the quest the player is given a last flirtation option to "lock" them onto Cole's romance

General Route Knowledge: Spirit or human, Cole remains an entity of compassion. He knows he likes you and wants to help you (wants to help you a *lot*, he's confused by the way you tend to become priority on his radar when entering a room), and he knows that before your choice he could feel a lot of romantic yearning and loneliness inside the Inquisitor. However, Cole doesn't always seem to know the thoughts he's reading until after he says them out loud and gets a response, so I basically think that he knows you want a romantic relationship.

He just hasn't grasped that you want it with *him*

Human Cole Route

You speak to Cole and he urges you, *Really* strongly, to go talk to Varric. The next time the player speaks with Varric it triggers a cutscene where he takes them for drinks, theoretically just to chat. Varric seems noticeably uncomfortable and keeps asking you questions about your romantic life, what type of person youre drawn to, and really really leading questions about your companions and advisors. The player can either indulge this or push back on it. Either way, by the end of the conversation Varric mutters something about not being cut out for this, apologizes to the player, and then leaves.

This happens again the next time you approach Cole, this conversation a lot shorter. Varric seems to be inquiring if the player is attracted to *him*[varric]. The player can shut him down completely or ask if that's even something he would be interesting, and Varric gets nervous and tries to bail again. The player follows him this time and finds him talking to Cole, refusing to go back in there while Cole is pleading with him to just keep asking questions. The player emerges to ask what they're doing and Cole seems visibly upset, insisting that he doesn't know how to help without knowing what they're thinking, he can't figure out the kind of person who they want and he *really* can't figure out the kind of person who deserves them. He tries to vanish only to realize he cant and runs off. Varric encourages the player to follow and they have a conversation in private where Cole confesses that he just wants to help them and the idea that they've been lonely has been eating away at him even when they *aren't* in the room. Which is new and confusing and upsetting to him. The player can either tell him to stop interfering with their love life (ending the romance quest) or tell him that he's been mixing their signals up and its him they want to be with. Cole seems startled, but not opposed, deciding that this is another part of the human experience he wants to try with you. You are officially in a relationship with him.

Spirit Route

After you lock in the romance, the next time you fast travel into Skyhold you'll be placed inside a cutscene where the player walks into the Inquisitor's bedroom. Standing there is.

a.the romanceable companion you have the highest approval with

or b. if you flirted with either of them, Cullen or Josephine (if you flirted with both of them the game chooses between them randomly)

They tell you that they've been hearing rumors that you're romantically interested in them and came to speak to you about it. If you don't meet the race/gender criteria for the character's romance questline (e.g, if you're a girl who has Dorian in this cutscene) then there's an additional layer where they're trying to let you down easy. The player is then given the chance to set the record straight and asks where they even got that information. They pause for a moment and all say some variation of "that's funny. i can't remember who told me...." before leaving with some degree of embarassment.

The player can then go to confront Cole about it. He says something cryptic about doing better next time and then whispers *forget* before vanishing, leaving the player to look a little lost before going about their day.

The next time you fast travel into Skyhold you're met by the romanceable companion you have the lowest approval with in your chambers. The dialogue is a little different depending on if they outright hate you or are just neutral, but mostly they're still like. really. like sure it takes all kinds but I never saw this coming from you- and the player's like hang on. this all seems a little fucking familiar

So they leave mid conversation to track down Cole, who they find sitting in the battlements above their room, clearly listening, and confront him. He's about to wipe their memory again when they tell him it didn't work, and they remember what happened. This throws him off because. That shouldn't happen. That shouldn't happen why do they remember? Are his powers failing, how is he getting this *this* wrong its helping thats what he's *for*?!?! The player makes the choice that locks them into a relationship or end it here in that they can either

-say they don't care why its happened, but this needs to stop. Cole reluctantly agrees to leave it alone and you're taken off the romance track for him

-The player suggests that maybe the reason they remember is Cole secretly doesn't *want* them to forget. He wants them to remember it not working out even with the person they're close with. That's also why he set you up with the person you have the least chance with this time. he's sabotaging himself and you because deep down Cole doesn't want you in a relationship with someone else, and in his core he knows you dont want that either. This leads to Cole feeling uncharacteristically frustrated for his spirit state. talking about how he can't get you out of his head. Its interfering with his work and whats worse is that he's more scared of it healing that it hurting like this. He doesn't want it to go away. What follows is essentially

Player: so help me help you. It won't go away, but it might make it easier to deal with. For both of us

Cole: ....It won't be like with a person. Is that a problem.

Player: No. I won't be like a spirit. Is that a problem for you?

Cole, softly:....no.

After this you're locked into a relationship with him.

Soooo thats basically what I have for an inciting incident. More to come, the little shit's given me brainrot.

[squeaksquawks]

tell a lil bit more about your Hawke and your Inquisitor 👀👀

HELL YEAH LET'S GOOOO

I kind of uhhhhhhhh went WILD and wrote POSSIBLY TOO MUCH so!

Athena Hawke entered Kirkwall as a cheeky but kind like 20 year old and left Kirkwall as a shell of a person HAHA. She's a warrior, so she had Bethany by her side and they were INCREDIBLY close, so taking her to the Deep Roads and making her a warden (a choice she made in a panic without thinking of what Bethany wanted) genuinely haunted/still haunts her.

She has the...worst case of RBF and people avoid her on the street when in reality mentally she's like "What should I get for dinner. Chicken? No. I had that for lunch." and Varric absolutely ribs on her for it and calls her some variation of grouch/grouchy which she HATES.

She romanced Fenris and it was very much a love at first sight of seeing a mans heart torn out of his chest while Bethany was in the background like "Athena. No. NO." She tried really hard to be Cool About It but it just lead to her like, glaring at Fenris a lot and him being like "...?" because, again, horrible case of RBF. When he left in Act 2 she was like "of course, take all the time you need." and then burst into The Hanged Man 20 minutes later like "VARRRICCCCCCCCCCC" in like, TEARS LMAOOOO. Eventually she and Fenris settle down and she finds a lot of comfort in how blunt he is, and I like to think he finds comfort in the fact that she tries to stay kind despite her life circumstances.

She loves Varric, adores Merrill, and would (and literally nearly did) die for Isabela. She and Anders are very co-workers esque and she thinks Sebastian's a drag HAHA

Athena's big thing is that she thinks Literally Everything is her fault and she could have, should have, done better. It informs a lot of her choices and obviously does not lead to the healthiest of mindsets. She also resents the fuck out of being The Champion because she resents that all of a sudden she is in charge of things and how did this HAPPEN (a common thread in my protags in different ways LMAOOO)

I think post Kirkwall she and Fenris shack up for a minute before they get back out there. I like to think all my protags take vacations after their games LMAOO THEY DESERVE IT. She also cuts her hair because it makes her think of her mom and is still keeping it short by the time Inquisition happens.

By the time Inquisition happens, because I love spice and sadness, she and Fenris are not necessarily broken up but they are a bit strained because of Hawke's tendency to throw herself into things even when they could be deadly, which Fenris would Prefer She Stop Doing.

Also, lil fun fact - Athena has a lot of patience and tries to stick to "no unnecessary murdering" until she snaps and goes wild. She IS a reaver, so. Circe........I do not have favorites, but, hypothetically, if I did, Circe Lavellan may possibly be my favorite.

She has the strongest personality out of her, Hera and Athena which was REAL FUN. She DOES NOT WANT TO BE INQUISITOR which is a very fun journey because by the time Samson tells her something isn't her business, I got really into playing as her and OUT LOUD, IN DISCORD, AS HER, I said "I am the INQUISITOR. EVERYTHING IS MY BUSINESS." When anyone would ask her if she thought she was the herald/believed in Andraste she HARDCORE AVOIDED THE QUESTION, just like she hardcore avoided questions about her intentions for the inquisiton after corypheus. (she did not know and she very much was like "we should be focusing on SAVING THE WORLD FIRST, HOW IS THAT NOT YOUR FIRST PRIORITY)

Circe was..............very popular. The way Cullen was animated made it seem like he had a GIANT CRUSH ON HER which my entire discord had a field day with, because for Circe humans are Always On Strike Two. (at some point there was a scene happening and Circe left the room and Cullen watched and my friend went "I THINK HE JUST CHECKED OUT HER ASS I AM NOT KIDDING") This became funnier when Cullen's plan was what ultimately saved Clan Lavellan because she very much was like "I owe this human man a life debt. I hate it here." Solas took her on that whole fade date and she was like "ahaha yes, FRIEND, FRIEND WHOSE FRIENDSHIP I VALUE," and she and Blackwall had a whole Flirty Thing going on until Bull showed up, which really tells you about what Circe's tastes are LMAOOO.

Circe and Bull are..............they...........mean so much to me..........They very much have a murder pact ("If I go mad"/"If I become an abomination") that they openly joke about to horrify people but ultimately would not if possible/would be in great pain if they had to go through with it! Which is fun! Circe would find comfort in Bull being like, a Thoughts Free Zone for a bit and then she'd be like Unfortunately I Now Have Feelings For This Man. She'd be very embarrassed about it all until she finally fessed up and then they'd be DISGUSTING TOGETHER LMAOOOOO. Just UNBEARABLY CORNY. Also, Circe would absolutely let Bull throw her in battle, and since she's a Knight Enchanter it's all very fun and chaotic.

Side note: Cole is absolutely a little brother to her, she dotes on him like crazy and adores being with him. She gets very defensive of him and spends a good chunk of her free time with him, especially after he becomes human and she can track him down more easily

Circe also would become more and more anxious of losing her personhood, of everything she's done be for nothing, of being remembered as a concept and not a living breathing thing - i'm talking like full on panic attacks, unable to sleep, having to be calmed down about it. - ESPECIALLY after Ameridan. She tries to (somewhat) prioritize joy after that, finally visits Clan Lavellan after avoiding them for literal years (I played Descent and Hakkon after the main game to give the game a better sense of time passing before Tresspasser), ect.

By Tresspasser she is Fed Up, not sleeping, not eating, and also her arm is doing That Whole Thing concerning the fuck out of Bull LMAOOO. The ongoing joke was that Bull had DEFINITELY suggested cutting her arm off at multiple points in time, and when it actually happened it felt very monkey's paw HAHA. She definitely freaks out on Solas and is like oh I gotta KILL THIS GUY!! Also, because it feels relevant, she DID NOT LIKE MORRIGAN and drank from the well.

Also! Playlists. Everyone has a playlist! I use these while drawing to get me in the mindset so they're not in chronological order but here's Hawkes, Circes, and Heras which is the most work in progress since I just finished Origins and need to.....maybe take out the MULTIPLE songs about dying HAHAHA

EDIT: also because I played the games out of order and used the default world states for 2 and inquisition due to some Choices I made during Origins Circe is uhhhhhhh going to have either Fenris try to kill her or Hera and THAT'S GONNA BE FUN FOR HER

[icanthelpbut-love-you]

we built a dynasty forever couldn’t break up

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Magnus flicks his hand, opening the door to the loft with possibly more force than is warranted, wrangling his magic to catch it before it slams back against the doorstop. The just-completed house call – his last of the evening, thank God – was simple enough, a frankly amusing case of newly-instated warding that upon being modified months ago to permit downworlders was suddenly refusing to admit the owner herself. However, while Magnus had greatly appreciated the irony, the tight-lipped shadowhunter woman who greeted him with a barely-concealed sneer definitely did not. Trust Magnus to get landed with one of the few shadowhunters still bold enough to be blatantly bigoted, stubbornly in denial about the changes of the past couple of years, as a client.

It had almost been a shame to undo such a neat piece of spellwork woven into the warding by whichever warlock last modified them. The woman’s demanding and borderline-scornful attitude hadn’t exactly helped her case, grating on Magnus throughout the entire appointment. In the end, he’d settled for a parting barb that, had she called him in the first place instead of shopping around for lower prices, she wouldn’t have had to contend with this type of unprofessional (albeit well and truly deserved) conduct. And would ultimately be several thousand dollars richer, given she’d had to call Magnus anyway. Even the satisfaction of watching her eyebrows climb into her hairline at his audacity hadn’t been quite enough to make up for how incredibly drained the entire encounter left him.

All in all, it’s been a long day and right now he wants nothing more than to collapse into his husband’s arms and then celebrate their anniversary with a quiet night in. A few drinks, maybe make a nice dinner (or just summon some takeout), he’s not particularly concerned with details as long as he gets to spend the night with the man he adores.

Rounding the corner of the loft’s entrance, the lingering twinges of annoyance fade away as he catches sight of Alec. He’s deep in conversation with Jace, gesturing animatedly in response to whatever doubtless ridiculous goings on his parabatai is relaying from New York.

Alec’s back is to the doorway and he’s not expecting Magnus back for another hour at the very least, so Magnus allows himself a second to just take in the sight – his husband, standing in their home, still half in business-mode yet confidence and relaxed enough that he’s not bothering to tamp down his characteristic hand-waving. Then, the short distance between them is suddenly far too much and Magnus is bridging it in eager strides to sidle up next to him. The effect is instantaneous; Alec cuts himself off midsentence and the arm previously waving wildly is immediately redirected to wrap around Magnus’ waist as Alec leans into his side.

“Good evening, Inquisitor Lightwood-Bane,” Magnus murmurs, pressing a kiss against Alec’s jaw.

Alec chuckles, voice deep despite the breathy quality seeping into it. It’s incredibly endearing, Magnus thinks, how Alec still reacts like this whenever anyone refers to him with his full last name, unfailingly delighted despite how long he’s had to get used to it. He turns his body into Magnus’ and his free hand comes up to cup Magnus’ cheek, tilting his face up so their lips meet in a chaste kiss – a kiss that says I love you, I missed you, welcome home. He pulls away after a moment, but not far, letting their foreheads just rest together as they bask in each other’s presence.

“Good evening to you too, High Warlock Lightwood-Bane,” Alec eventually replies, barely above a whisper as he breathes the words against Magnus’ lips.

“– going to get another word out of Alec, I’ll just come back tomorrow then shall I?” Jace’s voice filters through the Alexander-induced fog, and Magnus has to stifle a laugh, Jace’s exasperation at being suddenly and wholly ignored in the middle of a conversation obvious, “Leave you two to your… weird flirting?”

Magnus feels Alec nod distractedly, flapping his hand in Jace’s general direction, utterly unapologetic. It prompts a resignedly amused sigh from his parabatai, followed by the sound of the door easing closed and a sarcastically shouted goodbye. On any other day Magnus would offer to portal Jace back to New York, but tonight… Well, there’s no shortage of permanent portals in Alicante that Jace can walk to. He’s sure his brother-in-law will forgive him just this once.

“Happy anniversary,” Alec murmurs, and the words send a thrill through Magnus, sparks skittering down his spine and making him shiver as he presses impossibly closer to his husband.

“Hmm, that it is,” he quips and can’t resist landing another peck on the soft grin the curves across Alec’s lips, relishing the ever-predictable that forms as he pulls away and he walks Alec towards the couch before tugging him down, “Happy anniversary darling.”

They land with Alec practically sitting on his lap, familiar weight pressing Magnus into the cushions. With Alec’s face tucked under Magnus’ jaw, Magnus can feel the warm puffs of Alec’s breath against his neck. Relaxing into the gentle grip Alec has on his hip, Magnus can feel the day’s weariness drifting away. Then, abruptly, Alec pulls back and Magnus’ eyes, which he hadn’t noticed falling closed, flutter open and an unhappy groan leaves him as his husband disentangles himself to stand once more.

At Magnus’ quizzical look Alec only shakes his head and raises a finger, a clear instruction to stay put. He’s only too happy to oblige. Lolling his head back against the back of the couch, Magnus watches his husband make his way to where his jacket is flung carelessly over the kitchen bench and fumble through the pockets. It never fails to be ridiculously endearing how Alec’s supposed shadowhunter coordination all but deserts him when his focus is elsewhere. Apparently finding what he’s looking for Alec’s back sitting half next to and half on Magnus in seconds, pressed up against him in that near-desperate way he has of seeking contact. It’s a habit that hasn’t diminished in the slightest since they first started dating and it still fills Magnus with fondness.

“I have something for you,” he says once he’s settled comfortably, “I had a nice dinner planned to go with it but someone’s home before he said he would be.”

He glares at Magnus half-heartedly, until Magnus’ raised eyebrow causes him to concede with a huff.

“Not that I would have made it through dinner anyway. I seem to severely overestimate my self-control when it comes to you,” he mumbles.

Magnus laughs at his husband’s disgruntled tone, looking down curiously to see what it is that Alec is so keen to give him.

It’s a box, understated black and contrasting with Alec’s pale skin where it’s clutched in his hand. If Magnus didn’t know better his first guess as to its contents would definitely be jewellery of some kind, but Alec refuses to buy that for him on principle. Flowers, chocolates, rare magical artefacts (if Magnus happens mention one in passing), every other kind of gift imaginable, yes. Rings or earrings or necklaces, not so much; Alec likes to tease that there’d be no point when Magnus could single-handedly start his own jewellery store if the fancy struck and probably already owns at least three different variations of any piece Alec would think to buy him. As much as Magnus protests, he may have a point. With this in mind, Magnus looks at his husband with no small amount of puzzlement.

“The idea is that you open it,” Alec prompts, fond impatience sparkling in his hazel eyes, “That way you get to find out what’s inside.”

He doesn’t quite manage to pull off the casual tone he’s obviously aiming for, and Magnus can see the eagerness and trepidation stirring under the playfulness of his words. Shooting his husband a calculating look, Magnus reaches forwards. He knows Alec – god, he’s pretty sure he knows Alec better than he knows himself at this point – and the teasing is definitely a distraction. However, there’s no way Alec isn’t aware that Magnus can see right through him, which means that the distraction is meant for himself, in the same way he used to ramble to psych himself up before making big confessions when they first started dating.

It’s a tactic Magnus hasn’t seen from him a long while, probably not since they got engaged and definitely not while they’ve been married. Marriage has done wonders for his shadowhunter’s confidence; Magnus hadn’t quite realised just how much Alec was holding back until he wasn’t anymore, constantly showering Magnus in compliments that slip off his tongue with relaxed ease and not so much as a second thought. But now, he can feel the tension in the lines of Alec’s body where it’s pressed against his, his husband practically vibrating with anticipation.

Which means that this – whatever ‘this’ is – has to be big.

Not in the business of drawing out Alec’s worry any longer than necessary – he’s dramatic, not cruel – Magnus takes the box from his husband’s grasp and flicks the lid open.

Carved unmistakeably and meticulously by hand into a polished piece of wood, nestled in a bed of golden satin, is what looks like the Alliance rune. But it’s not the Alliance rune, he realises as he looks closer, not quite. Very similar, but the proportions are different and there’s additional twists that swirls the two parts of the rune together in an intricate knot.

Magnus’ eyes shoot back up to his husband, questions swirling chaotically in his head. Alec opens and then immediately closes his mouth, throat forming words that evidently get lost before they make it any further.

“I’ve… Catarina and I have been working on it for – ever since Clary…” Alec starts and then trails off, wincing with what is undoubtedly the same wave dull pain Magnus feels whenever he thinks about his poor Biscuit. Dulled because everything finally seems to be working itself out, but still aching with the injustice of everything the angels have put her through.

“When I was bonded to Lorenzo I could use magic, right?” Alec continues after composing himself, and Magnus nods, unsure what that has to do with their anniversary when it happened literal years ago, “So I thought maybe there was – that I could maybe… I wondered what else might transfer through too. Long-term.”

Each hesitation is punctuated with an agitated twist of his hands as his wrings them together, betraying how hard Alec is trying to assemble his thoughts into coherent sentences. But Magnus is completely lost now and it must show on his face because Alec sighs, running a hand through his hair in a self-soothing gesture. “I’m not explaining this right.”

God, he’s so nervous. Magnus hasn’t seen him stutter like this in what feels like forever. It’s utterly adorable, but Magnus decides to take pity on his husband, reaching for him with his free hand to intertwine their fingers. The action always seems to ground Alec, and this time is no different if the way he settles and seems to finally draw proper breath is any indication, his lingering agitation evident only in his thumb running absentmindedly over his wedding ring.

“The original Alliance rune binds downworlders and shadowhunters, allows a bit of a transfer of powers and characteristics, but it’s only temporary. This is a permanent rune.”

Magnus inhales sharply. Almost all angelic runes he knows of fade with use, and in his (admittedly not exhaustive) knowledge he can think of only a few that don’t: the Wedded Union rune, Parabatai rune, and a handful that symbolise intense mourning. It’s dawning on Magnus, the incredible gravity of what Alec is offering, the sheer commitment implicit in a permanent rune obvious even if Magnus still has no idea what it means. Alec notices his reaction and must guess what he’s thinking, because when he continues he’s steadier, evidently emboldened Magnus’ comprehension of the significance of what he’s just said.

“Catarina helped me design it – it took a lot of spells to stabilise the rune after we modified it, and her being able to… read it’s energy signature, in a way, was really helpful considering we can’t actually test it on anyone.”

“So that’s what the two of you have been doing on your little coffee dates,” Magnus blurts out, “I thought for sure you’d be exchanging embarrassing stories, given I’m not there to defend myself.”

The smirk Alec flashes him tells Magnus he’s probably not wrong on that count, but he shelves the thought for later as something more important occurs to him.

“Wait, I thought you couldn’t modify runes…” he hesitates, sifting through memories to see if he can think of any instance where someone has managed such a feat. He’s sure he’d know if they had; the idea of shadowhunters being able to actually edit their angelic tools as the whim strikes is more than a little terrifying.

But Alec is already nodding in confirmation.

“That’d be true it was from the Grey Book. But, to quote Catarina, Clary’s runes are ‘really goddamn weird.’” He shrugs. “We worked out how to cement any changes we made and then just fiddled with it until it should theoretically be a permanent version of the same rune.”

It all sounds absolutely fascinating, and he is going to have to convince Catarina to divulge every marvellous detail of this project of theirs, but there’s clearly more to it that Alec is still dancing around.

“It’s not a rune that should be able to be worn, really, give that it’s kind of… volatile. But Catarina said that it should work for us.”

Only us. The words remain unspoken, but Magnus can read between the lines. He’s intrigued, enough to hear Alec out despite his less than promising description of the rune’s safety.

“The fact that you’ve technically got angel blood running through your veins –”

“Fallen angel blood,” Magnus corrects him automatically, and Alec shrugs again.

“Doesn’t seem to matter,” he responds matter-of-factly, “Angelic characteristics have a tendency to come out dominant. But that’s not really important. What is important is that apparently there’s an… imprint of your magic on me already. My grasp on magical theory is kind of limited, but from my understanding that’s the only reason we could handle a rune like this one: because it would be feeding off an already-present bond.”

Magnus feels his eyes widen at the revelation. It makes sense. Of course Magnus has noticed the unique way his magic responds to Alec – the way he never had to program the wards to let him in, the way half the time he feels it reaching out for Alec before Magnus is even consciously aware of his presence, the way he recharges so much faster when he’s wrapped in his husband’s arms. He’s found a home in Alexander and it’s only logical that his magic, an extension of Magnus’ emotions, his very being, would find a home there too. He just didn’t realise that meant there was a tangible bond to prove it. Thought it was just the overwhelming depth of his feelings for Alec making his magic react the way it does.

“I don’t… I don’t know if I believe in fate,” Alec is saying, “But it’s almost like this rune was made just for us.”

There’s a note of finality in his voice, but Magnus is still adrift. It’s like there’s something tickling at the edge of his awareness, a connection he should be making here based on everything Alec has said, that Alec has clearly assumed he would make given he hasn’t actually spelled everything out. But he can’t quite manage to grasp it. It feels too big, too heavy, and though he’s sure he has all the pieces he can’t force them to fit together in his mind. The way Alec’s fingers play with his definitely isn’t helping, Magnus’ thoughts scattering with each soft circle rubbed against his palm.

When it becomes clear Alec has said all he intends to for now, Magnus reluctantly frees his hand. Moving to pick up the wooden talisman lying in the box, he pauses briefly to look at Alec for permission. His husband nods encouragingly, barely-contained eagerness bubbling back to the surface now he’s not so focused on trying to articulate his thoughts, so Magnus takes out the token.

Energy, ancient and powerful, immediately rushes through him. It thrums at his fingertips and intermingles with his own magic in a way that is utterly unmistakeable.

“Redwood…” he breathes, incredulous, unable to tear his eyes away from the innocuous object cradled in his palm. He should have realised, the stunning streaks of deep red running through the polished, swirling grain distinctive enough to give it away if he hadn’t been so distracted by the rune itself. His fingers tense involuntarily around it as a pulse of yearning radiates through him. Magnus is all too aware of the mythology associated with the redwood tree; it would be hard not to be when the validity of its bark in enhancing healing or longevity charms is, and has been for as long as Magnus has been involved in warlock academic circles, the subject of endless debate. There’s no reason, however, for Alec to share a similar awareness.

God, it’s such a cruel coincidence – of all the hundreds of types of wood that Alec could have used for his gift, he’s picked the one with a long-intertwined association with immortality. He’s not sure what’s going to be worse: looking up into his husband’s eyes and seeing innocent non-comprehension, or seeing the former morph into confusion when Alec notices the longing Magnus is sure must be written clearly across his face, or inevitably having to explain to Alec the implication (however accidental) of the material he’s chosen.

Magnus looks up anyway, braces himself as he meets his husband’s gaze. But what he sees there makes his heart skip painfully for completely unexpected reasons. It’s utter certainty – tentative and hopeful – a knowing smile playing cautiously on Alec’s lips, and Magnus is struck as if by a physical blow with the sudden realisation that his husband knew exactly what he was implying when he carved the rune into this specific piece of wood.

He feels almost foolish, not sure how he could have thought for a moment that this was an accident on his husband’s part. His Alexander, as thorough and purposeful in this as he is in everything else he does. Tears prick behind his eyes at the thought of Alec diligently researching something that’s so intrinsically part of Magnus’ culture to construct the careful message contained in his gift.  

Slow understanding crashes over him, the final pieces of the puzzle that had been stubbornly eluding him falling into place even as Alec speaks again.

“This rune… it would tie my soul to yours,” Alec swallows, and this time Magnus knows what’s coming a second before the words leave his husband’s lips, “It would let me become immortal.”

Magnus’ world screeches to a halt.

Fuck.

Despite having drawn that exact conclusion in the split second before Alec spoke the words, it’s like the verbal confirmation throws everything into focus and utter shock steals Magnus’ breath away. Memories of snippets from old conversations are falling over themselves in his mind, every little allusion Alec has made to spending forever together – which Magnus had refused to dwell on for the way they pierced him with shards of premature grief – suddenly cast into new light. There’s countless instances of his husband tossing the idea casually into conversation, so many that it can’t in hindsight have been anything other than Alec testing the waters.

Beneath the shock is disbelieving joy racing through him at the idea that Alec wants to stay. Not even for his entire life, but forever. And weaving through all that, constant and steady, is unbelievable fondness for his husband, who has unflinchingly fought against every challenge the universe has thrown their way. Who, upon being faced with the undeniable reality that one day he will die and Magnus will have to learn to live without him, decided to fight that too. Who found the idea of only loving Magnus for the limited time allotted to him so unacceptable that he’s literally found a way to do the impossible.

For as long as the idea of death has existed, people have been trying in vain to defeat it. Trust Alec to succeed where others have failed when it’s for the sake of someone he cares about. It never ceases to send Magnus reeling, the knowledge that Alec’s endless capacity for love, that unquantifiable devotion, is directed at him.

And it’s all the more painful with the knowledge that there’s no way he can let Alec do this.

Alec must catch at least some of the mess of emotions battling for dominance inside Magnus, reading the conflict in his eyes. He hurries to speak and his words trip over themselves in his haste.

“You don’t have to answer right away – shit, Magnus you don’t… you don’t have to answer at all, I promise it wouldn’t change things between us if you don’t want –”

“Alexander, wait, just stop for a second. You’re not making any sense.”

Magnus likes to consider himself an expert in understanding Alexander Lightwood, can assemble entire conversations based on a few sentence fragments when he has to (which is more often than one would expect, his husband’s inability to properly string words together when he’s flustered as endearing as it is legendary). But whether it’s because his own mind is in complete disarray, or because Alec is especially distressed right now, the words spilling from his husband’s lips are exactly that: words. Individually, Magnus understands each of them perfectly. But as they combine Magnus can’t decipher even an ounce of meaning.

Then Alec’s speaking again and it rushes out of him like an exhale, tone imploring and heart-wrenchingly earnest.

“There’s a big difference between devoting a few decades to someone and promising them eternity. All I’m saying is it’s ok if you need time to mull it over. I would never – could never – hold that against you.”

Oh.

Alec’s apparently correctly read the distress and regret in Magnus’ eyes but jumped headfirst to the wrong conclusion. They’re having two completely different conversations here, and Magnus is overcome with the need to kiss his husband until the furrows of worry between his brows disappear.

But first he needs to set the record straight, because even if Magnus is absolutely not going to stand for Alec condemning himself to immortality of all things, it’s completely unacceptable for Alec not to know that Magnus would throw away everything he has for a chance at forever with him.

Brushing strands of dark hair back from his husband’s forehead and letting his hand cradle Alec’s cheek soothingly, Magnus scrutinises the man before him and is caught off-guard as he has been countless times before by the incredible sincerity he finds. Alec leans helplessly into the contact.

“Alexander, you have to believe me when I say that there’s nothing I want more than to spend eternity with you,” he says, hearing the desperation bleeding through as he tries to convey this fundamental truth that Alec has somehow gone this long without knowing, “But immortality is – it’s really not something that you want. And you have your family to think about –”

“I am thinking about my family.”

Alec cuts him off, fierce intensity stopping Magnus in his tracks. He closes his eyes for a second and exhales shakily, and when he opens them he’s no less resolute for the way his gaze has softened.

“Besides… I’m a shadowhunter, Magnus. For as long as I can remember, I’ve known that there’s a fair chance I’ll outlive Izzy and Jace and even Max. And with me being Inquisitor and my siblings still in the field the odds have never been worse.”

The casual way Alec talks about this fills Magnus with indescribable sorrow, and a wounded noise escapes him before he can stop it. Alec offers him a sad smile.

“I’m not saying it won’t hurt like hell, but me being immortal, me being mortal, it doesn’t really make a difference to that.”

“You’d still be condemning yourself to watching everyone you love die. I can’t ask that of you.”

“Not everyone I love. By the angel Magnus, I’m not sure what else I can say to convince you that you’re the most important person in my life.” He shakes his head slowly, disbelieving, and of course Magnus knows that but it’s not that simple. It can’t be. Even if Alec apparently doesn’t agree, given the disarmingly straightforward way he’s laying all this out. “And anyway, you’re not asking. I am.”

“If you don’t want that, I meant it when I said it’s ok. Just… don’t decide based on some self-sacrificial attempt to protect me. I know what I’m getting into.”

“Alexander I… are you sure?” Magnus knows he’s being difficult, even as he can feel his resolve slipping, but he has to know, “At the risk of stating the obvious, forever is an incomprehensibly long time, and I don’t think I could take it if a few decades or even a few centuries from now you started to resent me.”

“Magnus,” Alec’s hand comes up to grip Magnus’ where it still rests on Alec’s jaw, “When we got married I promised to love you for my entire life. I can’t stress enough that that’s not going to change, no matter how long that life is. You already have my forever, all that’s changing is that it would be your forever too.”

He frowns.

“That’s what I was trying to say before. You’re worried that I’ll end up regretting it, but what about you?”

Magnus opens his mouth to protest – because honestly, as if he could ever – but Alec forges on with characteristic determination.

“I knew from the outset that you were it for me, but it’s sort of a lot to ask for you to suddenly be ok with the same –”

Magnus stops him with a thumb pressed gently to his lips before he can complete the thought. It’s clear where Alec’s going with this and Magnus finds himself already shaking his head resolutely. Because, when it comes down to it, the choice to be made… it’s no choice at all. If he lets go of the worries that cling stubbornly – deeply-ingrained fear that everyone he cares about will get sick of him eventually, that he’s far too much, not enough, best dealt with in small doses lest he become overwhelming – and lets himself be selfish, giving in to Alec is the easiest thing in the world. And maybe, just this once, he can be selfish. Maybe it can be that simple.

“I have never loved anyone, will never love anyone, like I love you Alexander Gideon Lightwood. It would be a privilege to spend eternity by your side.”

His husband’s eyes widen, like Magnus’ words are somehow a surprise despite everything they’ve been through, like despite his insistence that he wants this he didn’t expect Magnus to actually want it too.

“You mean…?”

Magnus nods.

“Looks like we’re going to need your stele,” he manages to say, voice suddenly choked and cracking slightly despite his efforts to remain composed.

Alec laughs lowly, breathlessly, tears building in the corners of his eyes and glinting in the soft light of the loft. He pats his pocket on reflex before looking at Magnus sheepishly as he seems to realise it’s not there, no reason for him to keep it on his person in the safety of their home. Magnus feels his muscles tense as he prepares to stand, probably to stumble around the loft in a daze until he remembers that his stele is tucked away in the draw that holds his patrol gear, where it always is in the evenings. But Magnus doesn’t let him get that far, dropping a hand to Alec’s thigh to anchor him before he can even try to rise and waving the other with no small amount of flourish. In a shower of blue sparks, the stele appears on Alec’s lap. Alec rolls his eyes, and Magnus only shoots him a smug look as he pointedly tightens his grasp on his leg. Then Magnus is raising his eyebrows as Alec starts to unbutton his own shirt, making the shadowhunter blush.

“Runes are more powerful the closer they are to the heart,” Alec hastens to explain, redness creeping up the back of his neck, “And besides…”

The rest of the sentence doesn’t quite make it out, cut off as Alec bites his lip and fiddles with a button, as though deciding whether he wants to actually give voice with whatever he was about to say. Then, he seems to straighten and looks Magnus right in the eyes.

“It’s where the Wedded Union rune would go.”

This man is going to be the death of him.

Shirt hanging loosely from his shoulders now, Alec makes to reach for the stele where it sits between them. Magnus beats him to it though, shushing his husband when he looks alarmed and seems about to object.

“Wait. Let me try something.”

The mention of the Wedded Union rune – something that Magnus already knew was important to the other man, no matter his insistence otherwise when Magnus has expressed regret at not being able to give it to him – combined with Alec’s comment about the nature of his blood has sparked the glimmer of an idea. It’s distantly familiar. A hunch he remembers toying with decades ago before he’d dismissed it as not worth the effort it would take to follow up on given its complete irrelevance to his life. How times change.  

Feeling Alec’s curious eyes on him, Magnus grips the stele gingerly. It lights up with a soft, pulsing glow from the adamas tip and illuminating them both. Alec chokes on a gasp, fingers stilling where they were toying with the hem of his shirt as he stares transfixed.

Wordlessly, Magnus pushes the shirt down his husband’s shoulders, baring his chest. The wooden talisman still sits between them. He glances quickly at the rune carved into it before pressing the stele reverently to the skin over Alec’s heart, soft and pale and unmarred even by rune-scars, and carefully copies the rune there. His husband’s heart-beat accelerates under his hand.

“How does it feel?” he breathes, unwilling to break the moment by speaking louder than absolutely necessary.

Alec reaches for his hand blindly, finding it and gripping tightly like Magnus is his only tether as the sensation rushing over him threatens to overwhelm him. What that sensation is Magnus has no idea. But the fact that it has his normally-collected husband reacting like this, deeply affected even without Magnus bearing the rune’s pair, without the bond fully formed… it’s both terrifying and awe-inspiring.

It takes Alec a few seconds to ground himself enough to respond to Magnus’ whispered question.

“Like it’s missing something,” he finally rasps, fingertips trailing over Magnus’ palm as he relinquishes his desperate grip to make short work of Magnus’ many layers, practised fingers expertly undoing the complicated buttons and ties even as his hands shake. In no time at all, he’s pressing the stele over Magnus’ heart with a tenderness that makes Magnus ache.

It stings a little. That’s the first impression the Magnus gets, but it’s quickly overtaken by an all-consuming feeling of completeness. It’s like nothing Magnus has ever experienced before, like someone’s taken the exact feeling of falling into his husband’s arms after a long day and amplified it a hundred times over before injecting it directly into his bloodstream. It’s enough to make the (gradually shrinking) rational part of his mind very grateful that they’re already sitting down, certain his knees would have completely given out under even the slightest weight.

Part of him was braced for the clash of demonic and angelic magic, of Alec’s very essence being torn between recoiling from and surging towards his as it had been when they’d shared strength so long ago. But it never comes. Instead, the angelic energy flows through him and intertwines with his magic in a gentle caress (and really, he has to ask Catarina how they managed to construct a rune that allows such fundamental opposites to not just coexist but harmonise), until all he can feel as the initial wave of emotion subsides is a bone-deep warmth.

Something about it is slightly jarring, not exactly foreign but not exactly recognisable either. It’s not until he matches it to the familiar mix of awe and love and adoration shining in Alec’s eyes as they meet his that Magnus realises that what he’s experiencing is his husband’s emotions.

Faced with that realisation he’s powerless to do anything other than haul Alec in and kiss him senseless, like he’s been wanting to since he first walked in the door. It rips a harsh moan from Alec’s throat, and Magnus is wracked by a full-body shudder as his husband’s hands scramble at his shoulders, gripping and releasing and tugging him closer and sweeping across his collar bone then down to the planes of his back with a desperation Magnus can feel rushing restlessly under his own skin.

It’s like something between them shifts that final inch, snapping into place with the meeting of their lips. And god, they’ve always been in sync, but the rush of shared sensation gives the concept new meaning altogether with the way it amplifies each point of contact between their bodies in a near-unbearable feedback loop.

Then, gradually, the raw desperation fades into something steadier. They pull away as one, stealing kisses that turn slow and languid and gentle until their mouths are just barely brushing together.

They can afford to savour this, Magnus marvels as contentment settles soft in his chest. They have nothing but time, decades upon decades upon precious golden centuries unfolding before them. They have forever.

[alistcirs]

hey babies !! im so super late to my own rp’s opening lmao but i was at a convention all day yesterday (which was great tnx for wondering) but i’m finally here a day late to make an intro. rip. so anyway my name is sera, i’m 26, australian, and for now i’m playing our favourite towering, sarcastic geek warden, alistair! i will be adding a second character soon but i’m still working out the details — for now, a bit about alistair under the cut ;

now i know most of yall prob know this boy already but just in case anybody hasn’t played origins which is fine and valid, i’m gonna put some basics to recap; PLUS my variations on him!!

so basically alistair was the bastard child of king maric theirin. he was hidden under the care of eamon guerrin, but was badly mistreated by his wife because of the rumours were that he was eamon’s bastard son. he was later initiated by default into the chantry as a templar-in-training, but was recruited into the grey wardens by duncan before he could finish that training.

he fought at the ill-fated battle of ostagar with The Warden, the two being the only surviving grey wardens. together they built up an army to stop the blight and afterwards, anora was given the throne and alistair gladly returned to his duties as a grey warden.

since then, alistair has loyally served under warden-commander clarel in ferelden, either respected or revered for his joint legend alongside the warden. but recently, something has driven him into hiding. he arrives at skyhold quietly, seeking refuge and bearing answers as to what’s happened to the wardens.

he is very unwilling to share why he’s here alone and what he knows about the wardens with anyone but the inquisitor! so if anyone has heard about the missing wardens (i expect not everyone will know/care since the primary concern is corypheus) and asks him, he’ll lie/avoid that line of questioning. luckily most skyhold populace are content to simply ask for stories about the fifth blight c:

last of all, he’s only just arrived, so it’s not yet common knowledge that he’s in skyhold; in saying that, i’m totally fine with anyone’s characters being aware that he’s here! edit: oH YEA ALSO he won’t be wearing his grey warden armor around skyhold obviously?? so he won’t be very recognisable!

and that’s pretty much it for now??? i’ll do a proper bio and try write up some plots soon!!

[bedlamsbard]

I know you have had a lot of little ideas for random Rebel's AU's that haven't made it past concept writing -- is there a reason that Backbone made too full story vs any of the other concepts? I know time can be a huge limiting factor for which ideas get more fleshed out so I was just curious. How do you pick which stories to write full out when you have so many awesome ones?

This is actually a weirdly complicated story because it depends on a lot of factors, of which the various concepts are the least of them.

Back in late spring/summer 2015, it was either going to be Backbone or Trade All Your Tomorrows, the Kanan and Hera time travel story, which actually preceded Backbone’s earliest concepts.  (You can still read the Tomorrows concept writing, if you like.)  Checking the dates, it looks like I started doing concept work for Tomorrows right after the Rebels S1 finale aired.  (And my earliest Rebels fic was a follow-up to Call to Action.)  There were a couple of stories I started but didn’t go anywhere -- a Kanan and Hera story set after AND, and then the werewolf AU, which was just for fun and which I never intended to potentially fill out into a full story.  There was another story about Kanan having to go undercover as an Imperial officer that never even made it to the concept stages.  (You can find any of the posted concepts in my cut scenes and concept writing tag.)

Now, what was going on at the time is that Queen’s Gambit was actually still in progress, because I didn’t wrap up Gambit until June 2015.  As I recall, I wrote about 30K of Tomorrows in March 2015, then dragged myself out of Rebels hell because I needed to finish Gambit.  This was in about late April.  The earliest Backbone stuff I started doing was in late May, and then Gambit wrapped up at the beginning of June.

I had always intended to take a break between Gambit and Watchtower, and there is actually a completely different story I meant to write then, because as originally planned, Gambit was going to wrap up around the end of summer 2014.  Now, obviously this did not happen, because I moved cross-country and started graduate school.  The story that I had planned to write was a TCW AU where the chip triggered early in a lot of clones and Anakin ended up framed for that and had to go on the run with Rex.  Well, Rebels started airing in fall 2014, and over the course of the following eight or nine months I got really into Rebels, and in the run-up from Call to Action to FatG I decided that I really wanted to write an Inquisitor!Kanan story, somehow, someway.  But I just didn’t really have a route to that that I was really interested in at the time.

In late May 2015, as I was half-crazed from (a) finishing Gambit and (b) taking a summer course in French, I had my “wait, what if it is ISB Agent Hera and Inquisitor Kanan?” breakthrough.  So I was turning that over and turning that over and talking that out at various people, but at that point I still intended Tomorrows to be my next big story.

In the meantime, several different things happened.

Lords of the Sith came out -- well, it actually came out in late April, I just did not read it until the end of May.  “Siege of Lothal” aired at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, and I got a friend who had attended to tell me how much it contradicted the Tomorrows and agents of the Empire concepts.  And, most crucially for Tomorrows, Kanan - The Last Padawan began in April 2015.

Now, if you’ve read the Tomorrows concepts, you know that Depa Billaba’s clone troopers play a major role.  However, because I did up all the Tomorrows concepts before TLP came out, those clones are all OCs.  TLP also very plainly lays out how inexperienced Caleb was at the time of Order 66, so all my background for Caleb and my clone OCs all got very quickly jossed by canon in one fell swoop.  I did keep working on Tomorrows for a while after that, but I really dislike writing at a moving target, which TLP was at the time, and then Tomorrows got set aside so that I could finish Gambit.  I’d also done some plotting and some concepts for something that was called the post time travel story, which dealt with Caleb and Hera and the repercussions of their time travel years after Tomorrows had wrapped up.  (It looks like the latest dates on that are mid-April 2015, so about the same time as Tomorrows.)

When I finished Gambit I was still weighing Tomorrows and the story that didn’t yet have a title, but which I was calling the agents of the Empire AU.  Now, Gambit isn’t a time travel story, but its prequel, Wake the Storm, is, and I was really unwilling to write two time travel stories so close together.  (Wake wrapped in February 2014, but Gambit is essentially a straight continuation of Wake.)  And the other thing is that with Tomorrows while I had the concept, I actually did not have an action plot.  I like action plots.  I like them a lot.  It’s really hard for me to write a story without one, and Tomorrows was essentially a whole mess of emotions but no plot.

However, I did have an action plot for the agents of the Empire story.  (And this plot has actually consistently remained the same for the past two years, though it got filled out a lot.)  And I also had people who were willing to talk about it, which is a really good way to get enthused about a story.  For a while after Gambit wrapped I was alternating working on Tomorrows and agents of the Empire concept writing, but Tomorrows eventually trailed off as I got more into the agents of the Empire story, and eventually it got shelved entirely and I dug into what later became On the Edge of the Devil’s Backbone.

Now: a lot of things that were originally written for Tomorrows ended up in Backbone, like Alecto Syndulla, her sister Clotho, and I believe that Cham’s sisters Seku and Aleema were originally conceived of for Tomorrows as well.  Tomorrows was written with a much darker backstory for canon!Hera that involved her entire family being murdered, and for those that were in the Rebels fandom back in S1 and before the bulk of S2 aired, you may remember that there was a lot of discussion about what Hera’s backstory actually was -- if her father was dead, if she had been enslaved and that’s where her markings came from, what had happened to Ryloth after LotS, and so on.  If you look at the Tomorrows concepts, you can see some of this there in the Hera scenes.  When I was doing the backstory for Backbone, I didn’t want to go with any of that because I am a pretty contrary person and it had just tipped over from “plausible” to “I am very contrary and am going to do the exact opposite.”  Which is why Backbone!Hera’s mother is still alive while Tomorrows!Hera’s mother is dead, along with most of the rest of the family.

Now!  “Homecoming” didn’t air until February 2016, and if I remember correctly, the S2 trailer that aired in summer 2015 didn’t feature Cham Syndulla, though I think the special features from the S1 DVD/Blu-Ray release mentioned that we would see Cham Syndulla in S2, but that wasn’t until September 2015, at which point Backbone was already in progress.  The omnibus Rise of the Empire, which includes Tarkin and A New Dawn, also includes a short story about a fifteen-year-old Hera, but that didn’t release until October 2015.  Backbone started posting in July 2015, and at that point between LotS and AND there was NOTHING that dealt with Ryloth, so I had a relatively free hand to work.  I wanted to do some things that I knew canon would never do -- I mean, beyond the fact it was an Imperial AU -- which is why the Free Ryloth fleet exists and why Hera’s extended family is featured so prominently.

So that’s the backstory for Backbone.

Now, over the past year and change I’ve done a lot of smaller concepts, and none of those were ever intended to make it to a full story stage, because if you look at them closely, you’ll notice that they’re all actually Backbone AUs in one variation or another.  I don’t multitask well, which is why I haven’t done any concept writing for Watchtower yet and why I haven’t done any concepts for non-Backbone-based Rebels stories.  Like, do I have some that I have ideas for?  Sure; there’s a “post-AND Kanan and Hera meet Baze and Chirrut on Jedha and have an adventure” story that would be cool, and there’s a “pre-Wrong Jedi arc Caleb drags Ahsoka and Rex into an adventure on Coruscant” story that would be adorable.  But if I do that, knowing my brain, there’s a really good chance that I won’t go back to Backbone, and come hell or high water I am going to finish this story.

(There is one piece of concept writing for the sequel to Backbone that will not be written, but I try not to do sequel concepts because things change in progress.)