#arani-writes

since I did Ash already, going with Nathra this time :3 and I do apologize for the super bad delay, I am... just slow.

4. a letter from your OC to their love interest

Vhenan,

It has been some time since I last wrote anything. Varric has been kind enough to pass along reports for the advisors and I didn’t want to bother him, but he still offered to help. It is odd knowing someone is writing what I speak so I will keep it brief. We stopped in Kirkwall on our return from visiting with the leaders of the city-states here in the Free Marches. There were friends we wanted to check on before returning to Skyhold and I shall tell you about it all when we return.

Nathra’s name is scribbled, barely legibly, underneath the unmatched elegant penmanship of the true author of the missive. She’s clearly attempted to add a few additional notes at the end, but they are even more difficult to read than her name. The word Vhenan is in a different style as both her name and the letter itself, plain and simple to read in bold, clear text. It would not be out of the question to assume Solas had one final touch in aiding Nathra with her letter.

I got so many things for you! http://the960writers.tumblr.com/tagged/scrivener

arani-writes hat auf deinen Eintrag geantwortet “got myself Scrivener and I’m plowing through the tutorial now. I could...”

I use Scrivener if you ever need some help with it! 

Thank you! All my pages are drawn REAL big first and foremost.

Most of the time I draw ridiculously huge like that, with the reasoning that you never know when you might want to have something printed! (And I have a terabyte hard drive so it’s fine lmao)

For posting, I reduce the size to 50%, the dpi to 72, and save it as a PNG. That does make the files a little larger than strictly necessary (and I have to save them differently for twitter because it has an even smaller image size limit), but I like the crispness of it vs saving them as jpegs.

Prompt List

3.“Right now, I don’t know if I want to kiss you or shove you off a bridge” “Can I pick?”

***

“Right now, I don’t know if I want to kiss you or shove you off a bridge.”

“Can I pick?” Michelle asked with a nervous laugh.

“I don’t know,” Tann replied, not amused “Is your choice going to result in having to move more funding around because you couldn’t tell a child ‘no’?”

“...I mean if you shoved me off a bridge you would have to play me for sick leave.” The reflection in Tann’s eyes shifted to relay that he was now side eyeing her super hard. “But on the bright side of this, you’re gonna make a little Salarian boy and a bunch of other children very happy.”

“Do you know how much it costs to transport a...what do they call a group of children?”

“A group of children.”

“Don’t be smart this early in the day. As I was saying, do you know how much is costs to transport a group of children, and chaperones for those children from here to another planet? Not to mention compensation to the Angarans and Initiative workers who help house them and the pilot of the transport vessel and the possible pay increase to the chaperones for their travel and lost work time...”

“Well I’ll be one of those chaperones so you won’t have to compensate me more than my base pay. I’ll do it for free if it helps.”

“Not everyone is you, Ms. Mayer. Sadly.” He said the last word through his teeth as if coming to grips with some sad reality. He poked at a few screens, dragging and dropping and increasing and decreasing before he said anything else, “Still, the upside you mentioned is tempting.”

“You mean the one where I go back and tell a bunch of children who will run back and tell their parents and guardians that Director Tann approved their alien planet field trip and not they get to go learn about other cultures and environments...?” Tann side eyed her again, “...and play in the snow? You’ll be a hero.”

“To the children. Adults are more...fickle.” He returned his eyes to a screen again, “Approve a field trip and people ask why that money couldn’t go to anything else, even if there is nothing for it to go to. Make children happy and they accuse you of manipulation. So on and so forth...”

“Has anyone ever told you you think too much?”

“You know the answer to that is yes, I have to, why do you even ask these things?”

“Well, all things considered, we have laid out the pros and cons of this idea. So what is your decision?”

“You’re not even going to let me think about it for a day or two?”

“You’re a fine tuned Salarian, you shouldn’t need that much time. Besides, if I go back without an answer, Audi will follow me around till I tell him to stop and then just...stare at me till I give him an answer. I’d sit on the couch till you mulled it over but I have to get back and help with snack time.”

“Why do I even pay for you to have employees?”

“So I don’t have to be there now helping get ready for snack time.”

“Fair.”

There was a moment of silence as Tann typed up what Michelle could only assume was banal nonsense to buy him time, then answered.

“It can be done next month but not before that.” Michelle started to say something but Tann cut off her celebratory squeak, “I need a report on what the plan is for when you get th-” there was a beep on his console no doubt signalling the transfer of said report from Michelle to him. He shouldn’t have expected any less “You’ll need to issue permission slips for all children you plan on taking and establish contacts with...whoever I can somehow convince to go along with this so they can hear your intention personally. I will inform you on if there is anything else you need to do. Understood?”

Michelle nodded excitedly and Tann pointed at her with half-hearted demand.

“Don’t do this again.”

“I’ll try not to.”

“Good.”

There was another moment of silence before Michelle, unable to help herself spoke up again.

“Sooo do I get that kiss?”

Why do I always write out the answers to these and then immediately forget to post them?? Thanks very much for the ask! :D

Favorite non-sexual activity?o Stargazing, whether it's when they're camping out during a mission or just enjoying the view from the Pathfinder quarters in a moment of peace. It became more interesting when Jaal told them about some Angaran constellations and they decided made a game out of trying to find them. Cora's better at finding their existing constellations but Scott's better at making up some new ones.

Most trivial thing they fight over?o They have a few little trivial things that they'll argue about now and then but Jak-Jak, Scott's pet pyjak, is probably the topic they bicker over the most. Cora loves Jak-Jak but not to the same extent that Scott does, and unlike Scott, she doesn't feed him at the table or let him sleep on her head while she's taking a nap, two things that Scott does daily. Cora thinks he's spoiling him rotten but Scott always defends his love of their 'beautiful space-monkey son'. Cora also does not call Jak-Jak that.Some other less-popular topics include Cora's backseat driving, the water temperature for joint-showers, eating each other's leftovers (tho Drack's usually the one taking their food), and how good the Blasto movies actually are.

Nicknames for each other?o Surprisingly Scott doesn't really have a favored nickname for Cora, beyond occasionally using a pet name though it’s more often than not a playful or goofy one. He does like calling her 'lieutenant' though, especially when they're alone together, since he likes the little reminders of her authority.Cora, of course, favors 'sweetheart' over other pet names, and when they're in a more teasing mood she'll sometimes call him 'Scotty', though not very often. She knows about 'Scooter', his childhood nickname, but also respects that Scott really only likes his mother and sister using that nickname, even if it doesn’t deter Liam and Peebee from using it.

For ever “❤️” I receive, my muse will confess something about their romantic interest

*gives a full-body stretch to flaunt his figure*

“Well there’s lots to say about Chiho but… do you want to keep this safe for work? Yeah? Ok, so, a funny one. She leaves her dirty socks everywhere. I swear, there’s a graveyard of socks behind my couch. Socks are weird. Why do humans need socks anyway? And underwear? Chiho always manages to misplace her panties!“ *gives a mandible twitch*

Oof I wasn’t being very creative today. But anyway, have some very insecure Anya ;)

Vortex was brimming full with people partying. Supplies and food were still on the low side on the Nexus, but securing Meridian and finding most of the arks had finally given people the boost of morale they sorely needed. Things were looking up in the Heleus cluster.Safe in between her crew, finally taking a night off after the last month’s turmoil, Anya Ryder was sipping on one of Anan’s new concoctions, an effervescent, lilac-coloured something that tasted sharp yet sweet at the same time. It made Anya’s head spin, and for some reason, didn‘t manage to lift her mood. She’d anticipated going back to the Nexus, to finally see her, well, boyfriend, if one could call him such, but Tiran Kandros, as always, was busy. He’d politely acknowledged her message, saying he’d be over to the Vortex as soon as he could, but he hadn’t showed up, as if their first night of talking and hesitant kisses had never happened.

He doesn’t like you, Anya’s brain piped up.“I’m gonna head back to the Tempest”, Anya told Vetra after putting down the empty drink carefully. “Not feeling like partying tonight.”“You ok?” Vetra’s subvocals buzzed with faint worry, the way it befitted her status as the Tempest family’s surrogate mom. She always noticed when something was wrong.Anya nodded while running her fingers through her shaggy, lavender-coloured hair. Her cheeks felt warmer than they should have been. “Yeah I’m fine. Just tired.”Vetra didn’t look overly convinced, her mandibles flaring in disapproval, but she knew better than to talk back. „Please get home safely”, was all she said.With a sigh, her heart heavy, Anya left. Tiran’s not coming because he thinks you suck, her brain told her. He’d rather stay in the militia office dealing with Apex missions than spending time with you.

Tears started welling up, and Anya hated herself for it, both for those intrusive thoughts and for crying. It was childish, and someone as important as herself shouldn’t be crying all the time over something as stupid as-

She cut the corner without looking and collided with a very hard, very real turian breastplate.She felt the impact, sending her to the ground in a sprawl.

“Pathfinder? Anya?” Tiran’s voice rang up from somewhere above her. She squeezed her eyelids together in an effort to clear her head, get the pain shooting through her to subside, then felt herself being scooped up by strong arms, all in the fraction of seconds.When she dared open her eyes, she was confronted with well-known turian markings. She’d recognize that stripe over his mouth anywhere. Unable to control the feelings of relief of seeing Tiran here, she buried her head in his cowl, sobs shaking her body.“What- what happened?” Tiran sounded confused as he cradled her.Anya was feeling so overwhelmed, the words kept blubbering out of her. “I waited for you and Anan gave me a drink that made me sad and then I wanted to go back to the Tempest because you weren’t coming-”He cut her off with a soothing purr.“Don’t be silly. I promised you I’d come, and here I am. Wanna go back in? Finally introduce me to your crew?”She shook her head, buried her face in his neck, finding comfort in his scent, armour polish and something more organic she couldn‘t quite apprehend.“No.”Tiran laughed, a buzz deep in his chest. “What do you want then?”Anya inhaled, unsure on what to answer. She wasn’t the most self-assured person, and expressing her own wishes was still difficult, even though he had admitted before that he‘d like to date her. “I want to spend time with you? Alone?”It was more of a question than a statement, but she‘d managed to put her idea across.Tiran lowered her to the ground, carefully, the way he always did, then fleetingly stroked the back of her neck in a reassuring gesture.“My place?” he suggested. “We could watch a movie. And I got beer.” “Beer sounds good.”“I knew you’d say that. Let‘s go?“

She nodded, her hair flying everywhere, before grabbing his arm, letting him escort her down to the tram station. The night might have started in a shitty way, but she felt it could only get better.

1 is here and 29 is here

2. What are they flaws? Do they like talking about them and/or do they acknowledge them and try work on them?

I think his biggest flaw is that he self-reflects on events later than most people. It's not that he ignores things on purpose, he just copes by moving forward, focusing on what he can do at the time and it would be fine if he wasn't hit with the emotional consequences of that later. IDK, he doesn't have healthy ways of dealing with his feelings.

He's too trusting and believes everyone deserves a second chance. I don't think it's ultimately a flaw in itself and I admire that about him, but sometimes that means he doesn't protect himself enough or he lets people get their second chance when they shouldn’t. 

He can be quite reserved sometimes, which makes people feel like he's keeping them at a distance? It's only later they realize the depth of his feelings and how much he cares. 

IDK, he's very much a "I'll delay everything" type of person. And he knows this. He acknowledges it and he's trying to work on this. He's making progress with Miranda and Garrus.

6. From what culture does your Shepard come? Do they have any traditions?

He’s a spacer. Everything he knows is all Alliance-based. I headcanon it explains a lot about the billion questions Shepard asks others (when most people already know the answers). He’s curious about everything.