Figured it was about time I create a masterpost to pin on my blog.
Name: Kogarashi, Amanda, "hey you"
Editor, (fandom) writer, freelance artist
Multifandom geek and generally crafty jack-of-all-trades (master of none)
~ I Draw ~ I Write ~ I Craft ~
Outside links here, but the most relevant is probably my Archive of our Own page.
You can buy me a cocoa (Ko-fi) if you want to throw a tip my way, and you can buy things with my art on Redbubble (slowly adding to inventory).
I also have a side blog for reblogging art I like, and now a side blog for reblogging other people's fiction.
I have a tag list for things like tag games. Want on (or off) the list? Just leave a comment on the linked post.
Fandoms, collected posts, commission info, etc. below the cut to keep this shorter on my page.
Quick links to my OCs:
Castelin Cousland | Aelinn Hawke | Tyria Lavellan | Saadrah Mercar
There are a lot of fandoms I'm in (or at least consider myself a part of, even if mostly on the sidelines). The biggest three would probably be:
Sonic the Hedgehog
Dragon Age
Mass Effect
But you'll find me posting things from other fandoms from time to time. If you followed me for one specific fandom but it seems like my hyperfixation has shifted, if you stick around long enough I'm sure it'll shift back.
I've got some sets of posts where I've put together a masterpost to link them all in one place, or have a collective tag for useful things. You can find them here:
Writing Tips (mine specifically; you can find more under the tag "writing advice")
Art Resources (I may not have every resource post properly tagged for this one, but I did my best)
My fandom headcanons
Yes, I do take commissions for both art and writing. If you don't see a type of commission listed below that you're interested in, you can always send me a message to ask.
OCs or canon characters (or both)
No NSFW
I find mechs difficult but I'm willing to give it a fair go
Digital delivery
Payment will be handled through Ko-fi (if you don't see an option on Ko-fi, message me), or you can send me a DM to discuss alternate payment methods.
What you Get:
High-res digital copy of your commission
Limited personal-use print rights (no re-selling, but you can get it printed on media/merchandise of your choice for your own use)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
That one banter on the war table…Leliana doesn’t comment on it but I know in my heart she was putting that nonchalant spymaster facade on hard to pretend she didn’t want to even take a peek
For my final screenshot this week, a post-Treviso-saved Wall of Light, where you can hold a memorial for the fallen Shadow Dragons (similar to the memorial you can hold in the Cantori Diamond if you save Minrathous).
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Let's round this whole thing out with our Free Day, which let me pull from the alternate prompts list and use "Bring the Light" (which, incidentally, is what the Tevinter text in the dividers I've been using says).
Can you spot this chapter's cameos? There are three (but one is probably too difficult to guess).
Dum Lux Est, Spes Est
(where there's light, there's hope)
Chapter 7: Bring the Light
Rating: T
Words: 1,199
Snippet:
Saadrah stared down at the note in her hand, lips twisting into a scowl, and considered whether she shouldn’t just burn it right then and there.
She’d gone another three weeks with no sign of her shadows, not even whichever one had been assigned to spy on her home. Another three weeks adrift, feeling like the city itself was yanking her around by the neck out of spite, taunting her with promises of purpose or adventure, of meaning, only to dangle them out of reach again just as she was willing to play along. And yet, something compelled her to stay, and it wasn’t just regular meals with Valens and Marina—who she didn’t tell about her nightly activities—or the rare moments of watching the sunrise from the top of the Arcanaeum when she was out late enough, or the kebab vendor she’d found in the Hanging District whose spiced pear slaw she liked. There was something else under it all, a hole she felt like she might fit into. A missing piece she connected with.
Or maybe that was just the longing for a place to belong talking.
Like a fungus indeed.
These questions are for both Baldur's Gate 3 and Dragon Age, but I haven't played BG3, so DA-only it is. Leaving the questions as I copied them for anyone else who plays, though.
What's a small BG3/Dragon Age Detail that you always notice and love?
When the Inquisition music plays during parts of Veilguard. And finding any other callbacks to previous games, especially in Veilguard (especially given how people on the subreddit are so fond of saying "it's not a Dragon Age game" and I just look at the callbacks and references to previous games and go "huh?")
Also when my character's love interest says something sweet to them.
More below the cut.
What's one piece of reference material you're currently obsessed with?
The songs and poems regularly included in the Codex, or in The World of Thedas. Especially "The Soldier and the Seawolf" (the shanty Bryce Cousland sang to propose to Eleanor Mac Eanraig, as seen in The World of Thedas, vol. 2), and which I expanded on over here, but also the folk songs "Bones Beneath the Creek" (Verse 1 Verse 2 Verse 3 Chorus) and "The Echo" (Lavendel's version) in Veilguard.
(I've seen someone post about how "The Echo" is Lavendel's version of "Bones Beneath the Creek," but I think that's just a misunderstanding of Evka's note on "The Echo." I think it's a different song with basically the same rhythm, and the "Lavendel's version" Evka is referencing is that the third verse of the one we see in-game is specific to Lavendel (it's got a noticeably different pattern from the other three stanzas).
Sorry, I like shanties and folk music. It's actually Dragon Age's fault.
Share a snippet or visual from your current project that you're quietly proud of.
Well, I've got the stuff on my recent "Last Line" post. Most of my projects are either done or still in planning/outline stages.
I'll do like Red and post a screenshot I like.
Saadrah was nice enough to stand in a good pose while overlooking the Butcher talking to the rest of the Antaam in Treviso.
What's something you're looking forward to creating or finishing soon?
Cosplay projects. Progress is slow, but I'm hoping to get some good sewing time in next week, when I'm not spending my mornings also managing a fandom event. 😅
And some more art and writing. This has been a very productive year.
What's a fun or silly tradition you have with your OCs?
As far as character creation traditions go, I like to make my ladies tall (relatively speaking). Tyria is the exception, at only 5'5" (though that may be starting to approach tall for a DA elf, I don't know). I do like to make them competent and heroic, too, which is why my canon worldstate is all female heroes (I'll play men on bonus runs instead).
As for in-game traditions with the girls, Castelin and Hawke don't get much, other than the dog being their first stop whenever they're back at camp/the Hawke estate, including skipping their love interest (if present) until the dog has been properly greeted.
Tyria, on the other hand, started my tradition of jumping in the puddle in the courtyard of Skyhold every time I returned from an excursion. Either the puddle wasn't there on my first playthrough on PS3, or it wasn't very satisfying, but with Tyria on the PS4, I had to. Every. Single. Time. Get home, jump in the puddle. Also, a second one is jumping off of high places in Skyhold because there's no fall damage. And then, when out in the field, using Barrier to do the same thing without taking damage.
Saadrah then gets to live up to that by jumping off of anything that won't respawn her due to fall distance. Whenever I leave one of the bedrooms in the Lighthouse's main building, I have her vault over the railings because going the long way 'round is for slowpokes. Same when going up the stairs: vault over the side onto the stairs instead of going around the statue at the end (decor option). Leaving Davrin's room? Running leap instead of going down the stairs. Heading to the Caretaker's boat in the Crossroads to get to another island? Do a little serpentine while sprinting so I don't have to break stride before making a reckless leap into the boat. It's all 100% in character for Saadrah.
What's a BG3/Dragon Age NPC you'd love to see in a completely different outfit or setting?
It would've been nice to see several of the companions, but especially Zevran, Fenris, and Cullen, in Veilguard. New looks, new shenanigans (or new headaches in Cullen's case). Oh well. That's what fanart is for.
What's a tiny headcanon or detail you've added to your OC that brings you joy?
Castelin: her temper. I like her being flawed like that, because it makes her a little more like me (only dialed up).
Hawke: that she's a pioneer in force magic (that the people who can teach it to your Inquisitor in DAI learned it by watching her in action and trying to replicate it), and that it's purely unintentional and mostly born from her channeling her anger and grief at her mother's death into raw power output.
Tyria: giving her Velanna's Keeper specialization from Awakening, because she really should have some more Dalish-specific spells. Also the idea that the game's Codex is her collection of lore and folklore as she travels with the Inquisition, because she would've happily been hahren of her clan if she hadn't had magic.
Saadrah: that her father was the "Adaar" potential Inquisitor from DAI, but perished in the explosion because he wasn't the one who touched the orb and gained the Anchor. That all stemmed from the fact that Saadrah was my first Inquisitor, but not my canon one, and I wanted to use her again for DAtV and repurpose her backstory.
What is something you want your followers to know about you?
That I've been in the DA fandom since mid-2019, and it's all the fault of Mass Effect 2 (free on PlaystationPlus sometime that year) and Miracle of Sound's song "All as One" (which is awesome and you should go listen). I just wasn't really in a large fandom circle until I finished DAtV last year and then started following some people who posted positive things about it and then did a few tag games without being tagged.
Thanks for the tag, @westernlarch! 💙 I love the line you shared!
I've got a last line written and a last line drawn to share. First, written:
"Honestly, my dear Tyria, I must insist that you either share that man or get a room."
Don't mind me, just prepping a little for DA Kiss Week (@dragonagekissweek). I haven't gotten any prose down yet beyond a few notes, but this line hit me while driving to pick up one of my kids from something and I had to jot it down so I wouldn't forget. Points for the first person to correctly guess who says it. (@serialsforbellara sorry, not you, I already told you.)
And then last line drawn, because I spent roleplaying tonight sketching up the base for one of my FenHawke Week (@fenhawke-week). I need to adjust some more lines on it (like the length of Fenris's forearm), but I'm liking the overall look so far.
Yes, these hands are traced (work smarter, not harder), from reference photos I took of my husband's and my hands (he's playing the part of Fenris). I resized and cobbled together three reference photos that turned out how I liked, traced the basic structures (you can see the foundational circles where joints are), and then deleted the reference layers before starting on refining things.
Could I freehand these hands? Sure, with or without references. Did tracing my own photos make things easier? You bet.
Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox.
Tags to participate or just to see what I'm working on. 😊
Omega was a blight on the galaxy— something Garrus knew all too well. But when Shepard gets strung into Aria T'Loak's coup, he insists to return to the place he swore off for good. Except the ghosts of his past are loud, his mistakes louder. And after a year, he comes to realize that maybe Aria shouldn't be in charge after all.
Not a novelization of the Omega DLC, but an introspective look at Garrus's perspective if he were to join Shepard during the events of the mission.
Posted to the Shakarian Mini-Bang 2026 collection on the AO3.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
A section of a song that has been banned many times in the Imperium. In spite of this - or because of it - the song has still managed to survive through generations of the lower classes.
We will do what we must do
(We will do what we must do)
There are more of us than you
(There are more of us than you)
Bleed our bodies
And shackle our bones
But this is our land
(This is our home)
And we will never be yours to own
(We will never be yours to own)
It was a joy to tap into something different for @shadow-dragon-week! It's been many years since I tried songwriting, but I enjoyed this very much, as well as all the research into protest songs and work songs throughout history. A very rich and inspiring topic to look into.
So, I lurk in some writer subreddits, and a frequent topic of discussion is prose: what constitutes good prose, how do you write it, how do you improve it, etc. And yesterday I stumbled across one topic about the difference between good descriptive prose, and purple prose. OP asks people to share some of their favourite authors who they think write beautiful prose without tipping into purple. No problem; people are happy to oblige.
One person says that Steinbeck is one of their favourite authors for prose, and then they share an example of what they would consider purple prose. It is so violetly awful that I think the poster must have written it themselves as a kind of parody of purple prose. Other people assumed the same.
But as it turns out, they are quoting from a book written by a YouTuber whose channel ia dedicated to talking about writing (namely, their own writing, which is genius, but often not comprehensible to the drooling plebs).
Naturally, I read the free sample of their book in awe and horror, and I'd like to share some screenshots with you. If you also have trouble defining or understanding what purple prose is, it's this.
Yes, every single fucking page is written like this.
Reading some more of the preview for this book, and I realise this is by far not the biggest problem, but I'm begging this guy to just use 'shadow' instead of 'umbra'. I promise I will not accuse you of being a philistine.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
thinking about lucanis memorising the sound of each member of the team’s footsteps, mostly out of habit but also for his own protection, so he knows who is approaching the pantry/entering a room and to make sure that he can react quickly enough if there’s ever any footsteps that he doesn’t recognise… i imagine his time in the ossuary keeps him on high alert for every tiny sound, especially since we know his hearing is scarily good in the wigmaker job.
but as he gets closer to rook, maybe his heart starts to race or skips a beat when he hears them approaching. and not only does he listen more intently for rook’s individual steps over the sound of the others, but he also finds himself waiting for them more eagerly with each passing day… maybe he deliberately keeps still and focuses more so he can hear them from a further distance and once he hears that familiar sound of rook’s walk, he smiles and starts making their favourite drink to surprise them by the time they enter the kitchen!
#but then when rook is in the fade prison… he starts to freeze up at every footstep he hears #hoping that it will be rooks but each time he just more heartbroken when he remembers it couldn’t possibly be rook.. they are gone #and maybe he starts to panic and wonders if he can ever remember how their steps sounded in the first place….
Can't just leave that in the tags you know. You made me cry! (in a good way)
Anyway, my biggest tip for getting into fandom is to engage. Send asks. Share your creations. Do the tag game even if you haven’t been tagged. Talk to people on their posts. Ask for people to follow who like x things. All difficult things for the socially anxious, I know, but it gets better with practice, I swear 🫶
