#tagged because things are implied and implied things are implied :thumbsup:

[fellmonarch]

The peaceful passing of days, the smallest joys of life, the monastery offered her education and a somewhat average life—which she welcomed with open arms, of course. But unfortunately, not everything was rose colored and the bliss of a peaceful day turned into an unsettling nightmare she did not want to believe.

On the outsides of the monastery as she went for a walk, she was welcomed by the giant figure of an enemy resting alongside the peaceful beauty of the world.

Alear fought the nightmare with a rub of her eyes, a hard blink and uncertain eyes looked towards a villain that should have remained as such.

Unfortunately the dragon who stood here could not be any of her Fell Dragon friends, the shape of his body so snake-like, the size, the way her heart froze at the sight—it could only be Sombron.

Wide eyes, furrowed brows and her reach for the ghost of a sword expressed anger at a second chance given to a man who only cared for himself and never his children. It was unfair when so many had to suffer from his actions and would never get to live with their loved ones—unfair that he got to live while the portal he opened was the reason the Emblems would never get to enjoy how the peaceful Elyos would look like in their eyes.

That he got this second chance to roam in this world freely without consequences for his actions.

Yet she did not let the anger at life's strange twists to take control of her. Instead she took a deep breath, clenched her first and approached with a distant expression.

"Sombron." The dragon spoke spoke to another, then a moment of silence fell between them. What was she supposed to say to someone who would never care for her words, not even as he drew his last breath? Alear remained unsure, but a heartbeat later she continued. "I don't know how you revived another time, nor why you're here of all places. But i know your selfishness did not end in your death."

Red and blue gemstone shone as he brought her hand to her chest. Expression filled with a Divine Dragon's will to fight for the people.

"I will keep my eye on you, i promise that. If you ever cause any harm to any innocent person or put to risk this land's peace, i won't fear raising my sword on you once again. No matter what happens to me afterwards."

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘, 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐍, 𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐓 𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐋𝐘 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐏𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐒. Beneath the lure of looming branches, where trees nearly arched inwards from a foreign perturbation, Sombron remained soundless and, if upon a far glance, caught in the lifeless twitching of decay. However, to the delight of none, and the scorn of plenty, it breathed as did all ugly, living beings, even if every inhale was delayed by the strain in its lower belly.

The Agarthans had not explained this pain, nor had its assigned agent seemed complacent enough to offer any semblance of a rational answer. Their folk were evasive in the likes ; cowardly, it'd prefer to describe, for any creature hellbent on disguising their identity over decimating the foreign eye of morality was—

Flippant, its tongue jerked past its teeth, teasing a taste of the surrounding air.

—Divine.

A bloodshot eye snapped open at the smell, its vision blurred through the faint haze of fatigue yet no less concentrated. The fragile heart of man would disprove this occurrence under the feeble guise of an apparition, but Sombron was no fool, simply a beast not satisfied by entertaining such delusions. As predicted, its one - eyed gaze was met by the incredulity darkening the Divine Dragon's countenance into a grimace of unpleasant emotion. Mayhaps a messy overlap of horror and confusion. Whatever it was, the expression could not please the Fell Dragon to abide by the unspoken discipline of its agent.

Another exhale left its nostrils, though swiftly followed by the spread of its forelegs, claws sheathed into the earth as it rose from its stagnant rest. Fatherhood would never be absent of pesky children, no matter of death or abandonment, no matter the lacking desire of connection between sovereign and offspring ; a sorry sentiment met with the whisper of a hiss amid its throat, stretching into the beginnings of a growl.

“ Alear, ” Sombron uttered, as unimpressed as it was monotonous. Elyos, and all it stood for, meant little to the beast, for both the land and its people represented the very weakness he sought to rid of. But resilient, this Divine One was. A lousy confidence that would spell her death, once over, until the heart her people loved wholly turned into stone. And at the stark righteousness of her words, Sombron became bored, entirely, and lowered back into a curl of himself ; retracting all acknowledgment henceforth.

After a purposeful silence, he hissed, the gruff of his annoyance muffled by the shudder of his neck, where its hood refused to lower or shrink. “ Your hero's squabble never ceases. I was, and remain, finished with your barren world ; death nor revival will not change this. ” The scholarly wonder of how and when would lead to an inevitably frustrating, endless cycle of untended confusion, thus he dismissed the thought of hers with ignorance. Mocking, he tempts, “ But, of course, your hunger for vengeance is inevitable despite all. As would be, for a spawn of my blood. ”

Because she was, and always would be, even if the thought spurred discontent deep in his belly. Children. . . unfettered by all purposes if not spilling the blackened blood of a continued legacy ; how simple of a task to be met by their dour incompetence. If it came to it, he must reign a tighter grip on any future offspring, allowing the chance of defects in this second life will simply repeat this dreaded cycle.

To that, and Alear's dedication, the Fell Dragon King scoffs. “ Empty threat. A fool's promise, ” His mighty head tilted as if to taunt, scarlet dilated irises narrowed in contempt, “ I cannot be killed wholly, thus your efforts will never bear fruit. Your hope is unnecessary, as always. ”

The Agarthans would not care deeply for the disappearance of a foreigner, surely not. Especially not a foreigner who— hooded gaze flits to the fingers clenched over her chest— was worth little if not for possession rather than purpose. His following words were not so much a threat as they were a declaration of prophecy, “ Leave me be, Alear. I have killed you once and a measly death will not hinder me from doing so again. ”

But optimism twisted sharp within him, jagged in all aspects fortunate ; where a sovereign sought to exist, an Emblem, whether as concept or truth, would accept a space at their side. All was only a matter of time.

[trulycertain]

fic writer interview

Tagged by @skogrr Thank you very much! It's a while since I've done one of these, and I've missed them.

Name: Tru/"Oi you" Fandoms (that I write for): Dragon Age, mostly. Still the fandom of my heart. Mass Effect, Deus Ex... uh, accidentally GreedFall? I don't know how or when that happened. Two-shot: Hmm... The actual last two-shot I wrote was Terms & Conditions, a very silly Dorian/Inquisitor modern AU where Gal is the guy Dorian hires to stop his late father's house falling apart. Recently? I suspect that's going to be Driftwood, which can stand on its own as a sort of weird post-canon first-meeting AU, but is trying to tempt me to continue it. (Vasco ends up going looking for Tír Fradí, which has disappeared - and finds it. He also finds De Sardet as a highly avoidant tree god of the island, post-Bad Ending, who transformed against her will. And he ends up falling in love with her anyway.) Weird tree gods! Pining by literal pine! An eventual happy ending! More grumpy commentary by Vasco!

Most popular multi-chapter: Either An Unquenchable Flame or Distraction, probably - both juggernaut pairings, the former close to the game's release and the latter with some fancy forbidden romance, so not so surprising. But surprisingly, Prague, 10:42 PM has done really well, considering it's for a small fandom (Deus Ex) and a rarepair age/rank-difference pairing that I thought would be a one-off experiment? I get it, guys. I like sad repressed stoics too.

Actual worst part of writing: Editing - which can be fun, but that "over and over" stage when you're about to post, especially in a longfic if you fear you've lost the spirit of the thing and the character voices and you can't see the wood for the trees. And when I have to remove a whole scene which Jenga-unbalances the fic, and then I have to redux from the top. Basically, most things to do with pacing. How you choose your titles: I like double-meanings and one word titles. If that fails: quote from a song. If that fails: quote from poetry, but very rarely. Do you outline: Only a little. A bulletpointed list of events or noted-down major lines of dialogue, that's usually it.

Ideas I probably won’t get around to but wouldn’t it be nice: Uh... oh god. I blame so many people for some of these.

Post-Destroy ending where John is attempting to build a shed on Rannoch because that's the kind of thing retired people do, right? and Tali is far better at it than him, and it's just... disgusting fluff.

Actually, just reduxing the early John/Tali stuff with a bit more nuance and a stronger style.

Eva and Kaidan, and their mutually wary first meeting. ("Wow, that's a lot of pomade." "Wow, that's a lot of death-glare.")

AU where Gal and Dorian never met in DAI, and after everything went down, Gal tried to fade into the shadows and leave. He ended up working in Tevinter as an occasional informant/odd-jobs guy the way he was pre-Inquisition. He ends up being a gardener for a bitter, wry magister who seems to hate the entire Magisterium, has recently lost his father to political scheming and murder, and wants to take down the entirety of the remaining Venatori with one staff and maybe his teeth if he has to (hi, Dorian). But first, Dorian's going to drink his own body weight in whiskey and be a recluse for a while and start thinking about time magic again. Gal is trying to keep his head down and should definitely not be falling in love with said magister. Who's someday going to end up at one of the more southerly ports, come across a statue of the great Inquisitor, and go, Oh.

Stuff on Jensen's PT and rebuilding himself post-augs. More of Proprioception, basically.

Mer-AU where Marie De Sardet is still a diplomat attempting to make new connections, just not a human one, and it's a disaster. An awkward disaster. Highlights include her being framed as the beast trying to drown their best captain; her attempting to wobble about on brand-new legs and Vasco's coat while everyone assumes the dear captain has had a few too many; her asking Vasco if his "fascinating markings" glow; them getting into a duel, and her (fondly) getting punted off the side of the ship going "Woo-hoo." OK, I wrote a bit of that, but only a 1k doodle I'll probably never return to.

Non-Naut court AU where Marie gets promised to Bastien D'Arcy, because he's a bit of a layabout but he's also rich, popular at court, and amenable to bribe - [cough] suggestion, and the D'Arcys have prominent trading links with the Alliance. Instead she falls for his far less of a social butterfly, tired, worried-numbers-guy brother Léandre, who's pretty damn uncomfortable around Nauts because he's well aware he nearly got sold to them and he is not the favourite.

Straight-up role-reversal AU (another thing where I've put down 1k that I'll probably never return to), where Marie's Naut name is Paz, and she's a fed-up second-mate who's tired of noble idiots and feels a little strange and conflicted about her mark (and has context for it, because they make frequent crossings to Tír Fradí). Also a little more jaded, without the love of her mother, and not nearly as much of a tryhard as Vasco in canon; she ended up here because she had nowhere else to go and the Nauts were like "Ooh, free kid," and she's well aware. She gets stuck escorting the D'Arcy brothers to Tír Fradí for their new venture and is not looking forward to it. Except one of them is intensely bright and wry and keeps asking questions about the ship and noticing shit he is definitely not meant to notice, and they keep ending up in strange conversations, even if he seems really, really wary and uncomfortable about Nauts.

Some vague stuff about Vasco's thoughts on Jonas and that whole side quest, considering he's also a sea-given and implies sea-given take some shit in the Nauts, and also how damn difficult it must be watching a sea-given's parents endeavour to get their kid back when he knows full well his didn't do that for him.

Actually, just more Vasco POV in general, even though he's damn hard to nail down. I've written much pining for him from Marie's perspective, and I'd like to try things from the opposite. This guy's idea of wooing someone perfectly normally is to panic and then recite Baroque poetry. You know he's sappy as hell in the privacy of his own head, even if he's trying not to be.

Jean and Síora having the "I'm a sad healer who just lost my mother and I'm trying so hard not to crumble under the weight of assisting the leader" mutual talk way too late at night around the campfire and maybe him crying on her shoulder a little, with mutual kindness and the beginnings of attraction, and her finally getting past his jokey-smug facade to understand him.

More stuff about Jean's past in general, and how he wanted to be a doctor before he was dragged away from it by looking after Constantin and being nobility.

Síora and Eseld and the ways they changed over the years; something like an exploration of grief and growing her own will and the ways they very differently view the renaigse. Also maybe more about the en ol menawi magic, if I can worldbuild well enough?

I'd also love to do a GreedFall soulmark AU - it's generally not my kind of trope, I'm not into biological determinism type tropes - just because names and aliases and assumed identities are such a mess in GreedFall and it's a repeated plot point. That said, I feel like it's been done so beautifully in this fandom before that I wouldn't have much to add.

Callouts @ me: So. Many. Commas. So much over-explaining everything. If they get out of the car, your readers do not need a five-page manual of "and then he undid his seatbelt and leaned over to grasp the door handle, and then pulled it, and then stepped a foot out before he almost thought better of it - but no, he was going to get out of this car. The other foot joined the first, and he nearly banged his head on the doorframe."

Best writing traits: People say I have a head for finding small-but-important moments. I'm also told I write likeable protags. People have more than once said my writing makes them feel safe or makes them smile, and I really couldn't ask for more than that. I'll take those.

Spicy tangential opinion: I don't think I have any, really? Oh god, that makes me sound so very boring. Oh! Um. There should be more tree body horror in fandom. And body horror in general. *thumbsup*

No pressure tagging: @artemis-crimson, @eridanidreams,@rainypixel, @aphreal42.