#the thought of my Tabris going from ‘no I hate all humans Soris

[moghedien]

Soris: why does Leliana call you babygirl?

Tabris: how about we stop talking for a little while

[prince-everhard]

No 6. PLEASE…. “Get it Out” | No More | “Stop, please”

Title: Like Dogs Fandom: Dragon Age Character(s): Female Tabris, Shianni, Soris, Nelaros Rating: M Warning(s): implied/offscreen rape, violence against women, blood Wordcount: 1640 Summary: It was supposed to be a good thing, getting married. It wasn’t. [this is really just a love letter to the origin that fucking shooketh me]

cross-posted to ao3 [eventually] @whumptober2020

Natalia woke on the stone floor of some unfamiliar place. Shianni was immediately beside her, firm hands helping her sit up. “Oh, thank the Maker,” she said softly, embracing her cousin. “When you didn’t come to… I was so worried.”

Natalia glanced around. It seemed like all the women at today’s wedding- her own wedding- were there. Even the Chantry sister was huddled in a corner, muttering prayers under her breath and crying. “Is everyone alright?” 

“We’re scared but unharmed,” Valora answered. She looked down for just a moment. “So far.” When she looked up, her eyes held a surprising amount of fire in them. Maybe Soris’ drowned mouse wasn’t so hopeless after all. “They locked us in here until that bastard is… ‘ready’ for us.”

Natalia swallowed down the trickle of fear that would be a torrent if she allowed it. She thought of her mother instead, and felt along her boot to see if the shems had taken her knife. They hadn’t, and she drew it with a grin that bordered on feral. “We’ll kill anyone who walks through that door.”

“No, we can’t!” One of the other girls- Natalia couldn’t remember her name, but she was Valora’s bridesmaid- looked like she might burst into tears. “We should just let them do what they want, go home, and forget any of this happened. It’ll be worse for us if we fight.”

“It’ll be worse if we don’t.” Shianni met Natalia’s eyes with a grim determination. She hadn’t forgotten her aunt any more than Natalia had. 

Valora jerked her head toward the door. “Someone’s coming!”

All the women watched with trepidation as the sound of armored footsteps drew closer. Natalia hid her knife behind her back. The door swung open, and no fewer than six armored humans walked in, their swords drawn. “Hello, wenches. We’re your escorts to Lord Vaughan’s little party.”

The chantry sister stood, stepping in between the soldiers and the women. “You’ll not touch these girls, Maker damn you!”

The soldier who had spoken snorted and slashed through the sister like it was nothing. Her body hit the floor with a wet thump.

“You killed her!”

His smirk was disgusting. Natalia wanted nothing more than to cut it off his slimy face. “I guess that’s what happens when you try teaching whores some respect.” He glanced back at two of the soldiers behind him. “Now, you grab the little flower cowering in the corner. Horace and I’ll take the homely bride and the drunk. You two, bind the last one.” His eyes met Natalia’s and she scowled. “She’s the scrapper.”

It happened so quickly that there was no time to react. Two of them grabbed Valora’s bridesmaid, Horace grabbed Valora, and the speaker grabbed Shianni. They were nearly dragged from the room while the remaining two marched toward Natalia, pinning her against the back wall. “Don’t worry, we’ll be perfect gentlemen,” said the one with a hideous mustache, waggling his sword.

“Right,” said the other. “Be a good little wench or you’ll end up like the sister, there.”

Natalia bared her teeth at them. “Try it and see what parts you lose first!” 

The mustached man laughed. “Davies was right. She is a scrapper!”

Natalia wasted no time, darting forward and driving her knife into the gap in the other man’s armor, slipping right between his ribs. He let out a gasp and dropped to his knees, ripping the knife away and causing the wound to bleed profusely.

“You bitch!” The mustached man swung wildly at her, his eyes wide. Natalia ducked under it and came up directly in front of him. It was so, so easy to slash the knife across his throat. His sword clattered to the ground and he fell seconds later.

The man she’d stabbed was attempting to get up, his blood trickling freely through his fingers clamped over the wound. She kicked him over and picked up his friend’s sword to drive straight through his neck.

“Natalia!” She swung around, dagger held before her, but it was just her cousin Soris. His eyes went wide at the sight of her and she looked down. Her front was splattered with the mustached man’s slit throat. “Are you alright? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

She shook her head. “The others. They took the others to Vaughan.”

Soris’ face went paler. “We’ll have to hurry, then. Nelaros is guarding the hall for us.”

Nelaros wasn’t guarding the end of the hall for them. His corpse, however, laid just outside the door. Natalia felt an odd numbness steal over her as she knelt by his body. She’d only just met him, sure, but she’d been expecting to have the rest of their lives together getting to know him. Now, she didn’t even have that. His hand was tightly clenched around something. After a few seconds of working his fingers open, a ring- her wedding ring- fell out and into her palm.

“Oh, Nat…” 

She didn’t respond to Soris’ soft words or his hand on her shoulder. She reached down and closed Nelaros’ eyes. As she stood, she slipped the ring onto her finger.

They would pay.

They burst into the kitchen. The cook had no more than taken two steps, already yelling about bandits and dirty knife-ears, when Natalia simply stepped forward and slit his throat. Soris stared at her as she turned toward the other elf in the room- likely just an assistant. “Run,” was all she said.

He did.

The next room had a handful of guards playing cards together. One turned and started barking drink orders at them. She drew his own sword from his scabbard and slammed him down onto its point before anyone could react. The other two jumped up and moved toward them. Natalia threw her knife at the closest one; it sank into his chest and he stumbled backward a step before falling over. She drew the first’s sword and advanced on the last man. He looked cautious, not willing to move closer to the blood-soaked, silent elf. She lunged forward, right over the tabletop, and slashed at his sword-arm. He yelped and dropped his weapon, and when he moved for it she slashed at his throat.

Soria followed in silence as she knelt by the man on the floor. He grasped weakly at her knife, trying to pull it out. Natalia did so for him and his face fell slack in seconds. She wiped her knife on his shirt and turned back toward Soris. 

He said nothing, following her toward the hall.

The next three in the hall were facing the other way and didn’t even stand a chance. Like a ghost, white wedding dress trailing behind her, Natalia sprinted up to them and cut their necks from behind. From behind the door they were watching, she could hear someone sobbing. 

She turned toward Soris and he looked at her like… like she was a stranger. “Wait here,” she said, voice rasping. Maybe it was exertion. Maybe it was unshed tears. Either way, he nodded his assent and turned his back toward her, guarding the hall.

She stepped through into an antechamber. To the left, the sobbing was louder. It was also familiar. Natalia knew without a doubt that it was Shianni. The numbness that had clung to her for so long fell away, eaten away in a flash of white-hot anger. She ran forward and threw the door open.

Vaughan and two of his friends stood in the room. Between them, lying on the floor in a crumpled heap, her body shaking with tears and her clothes in tatters, was Shianni. Vaughan’s grin grew monstrous as he turned toward the door. “My, my… what have w-”

Natalia lunged toward him and shoved the hilt of her knife into his throat. His face spasmed as his words and his airflow were cut off. He dropped to his knees. Natalia stepped around him to cut the throat of one of the other humans before either could react to her presence. The last one drew a knife of his own. She turned toward him. The blood from the last human’s throat had splattered on her cheek, and she wiped it carelessly with the sleeve of her dress.

“Wh- what do you want for my life?” The man’s hand trembled as he dropped the knife. He took a step backward. “Gold? I’ll give you gold. A house? I have houses, plenty, right here in Dene-” He took another step backward and tripped over the edge of the bed. Natalia stalked forward, snatching his knife off the floor. “Please, I’ll give you anything!”

Natalia took his knife and shoved it up under his ribs, right at his heart.

Vaughan looked up at her as she walked over to him. Whatever he wanted to say to her couldn’t come out; he wheezed around what she’d done to his throat. His eyes conveyed it all- how much he hated her, how little he thought of elves, how terrified he was to die. Natalia grinned at him, teeth bared and feral. An elf standing over him was the last thing he saw before she cut his throat.

Natalia knelt next to Shianni, hands gentle as she turned her cousin over. As soon as Shianni saw who it was her tears doubled. “Please, don’t- don’t leave me alone. Please. I… I just want to go home.” Natalia held her hand out for her cousin to help her up. “So much blood… it’s everywhere…” Shianni grabbed her hand like it was a rope in a storm and she were cast out to sea. Her grip was crushing. “You killed them, didn’t you? You killed them all.”

It was nothing to lay a hand over her cousin’s, to bend her head so that their foreheads touched. “Like dogs, Shianni.”

[theconfusedartist]

DRAGON AGE

Alright, so I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while, now that I’ve gotten back into dragon age origins and since I’m about to start doing a shit ton of fanart and fic simply bc I’m getting back in the swing of it, I figure I might as well start actually making a post about them, rather then just making a one-off post and talking about them without out any context lol.

Ok so, in this AU that I’m working on, Duncan realized that, hey, maybe only one recruit for like the end of the world in his order of grey wardens, is not the best idea, and then goes on to recruit all of the characters from the origins.

So, he swings by Orzammar first, getting Brosca and Aeducan. In this au, the name of my Brosca is Tsoyo and the Aeducan is Sariah. I’m gonna post pictures of every one of my warden later, but for now, I’m just gonna say who they are. Tsoyo and Sariah knew each other before, since Seriah hired Tsoyo’s...services in the past. Seriah doesn’t really think much of the casteless, but she does like that they can do some dirty work for her and go basically undetected for it. So, in terms of time, Tsoyo goes to the proving and wins, just like in the original, and Duncan recruits her, but in this, Duncan stuck around a little longer as the Aeducan family still had business with him and he needed to go to the deep roads to make sure that this was a real blight and I mean, hey, what better way to test the new recruit right? 

So, while Duncan is getting Tsoyo ready for what’s to come, Seriah goes to the new provings that takes place as they redid it because they couldn’t fathom that a casteless could ever win and this doubled as them holding it in honor for the Seriah getting her new post as a commander. Seriah didn’t really rise to Bhelen’s bait and didn’t go after him like Bhelen had hoped, even though she realized that there was no way that the mercenaries could’ve gotten the ring unless it was from Trian. It was quite the surprise to see her brother, dead in front of her and her father and Bhelen walking in and being accused of his death. 

She gets sentenced to walk the deep roads and meets up with Duncan and Tsoyo and from there they scout for a bit before going off to the circle. Because I mean, hey, one mage is equivalent to ten soldiers, right? 

So, Duncan gets there, with Tsoyo and Seriah in tow who are really uncomfortable being around each other as they’ve had a less than clean relationship in the past (murder, blackmail, and other stuff). Duncan gets to the tower for recruits and in this au, both ‘Surana’ and Amell are there. I’ll explain why I put the ‘’ around Surana in a minute. 

So, Amell, who’s first name is Daylen, Jowan, and ‘Surana’, who’s first name is Acici, are all there. Jowan is going through with his little plot to escape the circle and Acici has literally just had her harrowing, a few nights ago before Duncan had gotten there. Daylen has his harrowing the night before Duncan arrives to the tower and his goes very...differently. 

I’ll go into this a LOT more in a second reblog, since I want to go into everyone’s backstory in a bit, person by person, with pictures, but since I’m going with the abridged version, I’ll just put it as, Acici had the normal harrowing that we get in the game, give or take, and Daylen thought it was fun to fuck around with things that he shouldn’t. So, Duncan has his eye on the both of them and Acici, being the actual loyal friend goes around bolstering her image and getting the rod of fire, killing spiders and charming the old man to sign the form for her. She had him sign the form, but then figured that if she curried favor with as many senior enchanters as possible, then it would probably be good for her in the long run. 

As for Daylen, well, he’s sitting there like, ‘why do we have to get dragged down with Jowan?’ and goes to Senior Enchanter Irving and tells him about it. Sure, he feels bad about it, but the deal was this: if he goes along with this plan, then he and Acici have to be pardoned and get off scot free for helping with taking down Lily and catching Jowan in the act. Irving agrees and he plays double agent. And well you know how that song and dance goes, Jowan gets away, and the others are left holding the bag. Irving tries to pacify Gregoir, but he hates mages so Duncan conscripts them both into the order. Meanwhile, Tsoyo and Seriah are just really confused with all the magic bullshit going on. And then there were four recruits. 

After that, Duncan and the four recruits go to Highever, to recruit Ser Gilmore because I guess Duncan wanted a basic ass bitch (idk, I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t finished the human noble to this day. I’m still trying to, but I really didn’t see any appeal in Gilmore like that, he seemed like someone good to have as a second, but not someone you’d send to kill an archdemon when there’s only two grey wardens left) and Cousland, or better known as Luna the heartbreaker, isn’t really interested in the wardens or anything. I mean why would she be? Duncan is fine and all, but she gets to rule over a castle by herself, why the hell would she want to leave? But then, it’s not really up to her when mostly everyone gets killed anyways. So, at this point we have five recruits, good job Duncan!

Their next stop is (drumroll please) DENERIM! (wasn’t expecting that were you?)

Duncan was like, shit, lemme go and get Adaia, at least that way I know that I can have someone who knows what the score is and she can help the others and Alistair as someone who’s been around the bend and seen some shit. Only, that’s not what happens, obviously because Adaia was killed by humans a while back, but he is just in time to witness a double wedding and get threatened by a one of the brides (lol). And also see them all get carried off to get raped by the arl’s son and his guards. Luna is cross, but like ‘hey, shouldn’t we do something about this?’. Tsoyo is a bit surprised because she thought that elves were all a bunch of fig eating floofies that just lived in happiness, not squalor and fear of death, so she seconds it. Acici is ready to murder Duncan when he says that they can’t get involved (for that same reason that ‘Surana’ is like that) and hands a sword to Nelaros and Soris. Go get ‘em boys!

And now the estate is running with blood, Nelaros is dead, Shianni is traumatized, one of the bridesmaids is dead, and Tabris, Sauda the bride, has literally learned all the different ways to kill over seventy men with a dagger and how quickly rat posion kills three adult human men. Sauda, not willing to let Soris get hauled off, says that it was all her doing. Which...isn’t really an exaggeration, she tore into those fuckers like she was getting paid to do it, Soris gave back up with his crossbow, but she was very eager to spill blood for the kidnapping of her, the others and Nelaros’ death. Also Vaughn was killed, as was his friends. Horrifically. 

And now we have six recruits!! Way to go Duncan, you always find the lively ones!

This recruit wasn’t planned, as Duncan was planning to cut through the Brecilian forest to save some time, and came across two elves that are just heavily tainted. That’s right, in this au, Tamlen lives. So Mahariel, Yeva, and Tamlen are just sick as fuck, but still alive so Marethari is like, ‘let’s get a fucking move on’ and Duncan conscripts them, when they both try to weasel their way out of it. But what can you do? At least Tamlen isn’t dead (a split second decision, I’m not gonna lie). So, Duncan comes to Ostagar with seven new recruits and most of them just....do not give a damn about the king (lolololol get fuckin’ rekt Calian). They go into the wilds, save a few mabaris (mabari? mabaris?) with some wild flowers, Tsoyo gets a big gay crush on Morrigan, then they come back and do shots with the darkspawn blood in the joining. Daveth and Jory die(wah wah) but everyone else makes it out alive (Tamlen...barely made it. Bitch nearly pulled a Daveth) and then they were sent to the tower. 

The reason for them all being sent to the tower was simple. Cailan realized that a lot of the new recruits just did not give a fuck about the crown or his authority or was in grieving over their lost loved ones, and was like ‘hey, that way there’s no way that the tower ISN’T going to be lit and I don’t have to worry about them on the field’). And then he died. Duncan didn’t die tho, are you fucking kidding me? The leader of the grey wardens? Dying? I don’t fucking think so. He makes it out, but it’s a little after the battle and he makes it far enough into the wilds that Flemeth saves him. The other wardens have already left with Morrigan and they’re on their way to Lothering, but Duncan had to stay with Flemeth for a while due to the severity of his wounds and how long they would take to heal, even with magic. 

Duncan joins up with the other grey wardens around the time that they get captured by Anora’s captors (I have to play to see who would get captured or not, as most of these characters are fucking warriors and some of them in their own personal runs might actually be able to take them down where others can’t) and I haven’t decided what happens at that point. 

That’s all that I have right now, but once I get some character portraits up, I’ll update this a bit more.

[liaragaming]

10 Facts about Liara Tabris

This was so much fun, I had to do one for my Warden. Hers was easier to do because I’m currently playing through Origins and I’ve been writing a diary for her as I go.

Liara always knew she liked women but never told anyone. She believed it was her duty to get married, have children, and pass on what she could of the elven culture. She was never happy about that, but accepted it as her lot in life. She had a crush on Shianni for forever. And only admits her feelings to Leliana after she admits hers first because she never would have thought it possible she felt the same way.

She doesn't remember slaughtering her way through the Arl of Denerim's estate. She remembers the sound of the blade as Soris slid it across the floor to her, holding the cold steel in her hand, heat rushing through her body, red in her vision… and then she was standing in front of Vaughan and running her sword through him. Soris swears they had at least two whole conversations in between there, but she doesn’t remember a thing.

She isn't fond of being a Warden. She's grateful for her life, but the life of a Warden seems a death sentence in and of itself. It's just another path she has to take, something else that wasn't her choice. It upsets her even though she isn’t certain what path she’d choose for herself if she could.

She's really surprised by how well she gets along with the humans in her group. All the ones she encountered in Denerim were rude and looked down on her. But these people talk to her like she's human – even defend her – and it catches her off guard. How did they not learn they were supposed to hate elves?

Zevran scares her in the way that he enjoys killing and calls it art. She remembers her satisfaction in watching the light fade from Vahaghan's eyes. She remembers the heat that consumed her. Zevran reminds her that she's scared of herself.

Leliana renews her faith. She never felt strongly toward the Maker in any sense, but after the deaths of Nola and Nelaros she gives up religion entirely. But she's drawn to the way Leliana speaks about the Maker. She's never heard anyone talk like that. And after finding the Sacred Ashes, she really starts to wonder. Eventually she decides she believes in Leliana, and that's good enough.

Wynne is special to her. She's often wondered what words of wisdom her mother would have for her over the years, and Wynne fills some of that need. Sometimes she likes to think the spirit sustaining Wynne’s life is her mother, though she'd never admit such to anyone.

Alistair reminds her a lot of Soris, especially in how they laugh and look out for each other. He's very special to her in the way being with him makes her feel at home. The break down of their relationship over Loghain's fate is particularly painful for her.

She very nearly abandoned everything to get on the first ship to Tevinter to track down the elves that were taken. The only thing that stopped her was Alistair reminding her the Blight could swallow what was left of the Alienage if she didn't stop it. Afterwards, her friends are able to convince she'd need a whole assassin's guild behind her to track down the elves and bring them home. She does try to gather help, but so few people care.

She loves listening to Leliana's stories about Val Royeux and imaging herself enjoying such luxuries: sweet delicate foods, embroidered dresses, gilded architecture. They are things she can only dream of having and feels guilty for wanting. Leliana understands and is able to find small things for her to make her feel pampered without guilt. Things like silk laces she can tuck into her boots, a golden pin she wears under her armor, preserved flowers for her hair when they are able to relax together.