#bdafic

I didn’t realize how long this post was going to be until I was about halfway through. And it still is not even close to exhaustive. 

Soo, while 2020 has been such a tumultuous year one great thing about this time in my life is that I’ve had more time than ever to read. I am always so blown away by how much talent there is in fanfiction, so big, big thank you to all the writers that share their work and for whisking me away from real life into something far more pleasurable. It definitely makes my whole day when a fic I love has been updated, and I enjoy catching glimpses of rough drafts and the writing process via tumblr (I’m still trying to understand how their galaxy brains even work lolol). 

It’s long, but I am not putting it under a cut! They’re too good!

Long Fics (>= 50k words)

Roses From Where Thorns Grow by @bdafic​ [incomplete]- I started this a while ago, must have lost track of it, and then found it again this summer. Feels weird to type because this is not really me irl lol but accidental pregnancy fics are one of my favorites kinds of fics. Papa Solas is amazing. Somewhere, I once tagged something with ‘solas dad best dad’ and I think that probably sums up my feelings on the matter. The last chapter I read has left me anxious for more, so I’m eagerly awaiting what will likely be the first chapter posted in 2021. 

Ruins by @luzial [incomplete] - A real story of a couple who broke up, fought each other for twenty years, got sent back in time, and are now trying to make things work again ;) Lavellan here is older and wiser in all the ways that matter, and Solas is... well Solas in many ways is everything we wish he would (and could) be now. Had the most wonderful realization that I somehow missed the last chapter that apparently came out on my birthday, so I know what I’ll be doing later.

Fen’Harel’s Teeth by @5lazarus​  [incomplete] - the conversations in this fic are one of my favorite parts. They’re in character, but they’re also just interesting to read. The words just fly across the page -- it’s smooth, seamless, pithy. I love politics and I love a main character who has her wits about her -- both are in this fic. Also features fatherly!Solas, which I just adore.

By the Still Waters by [orphan account]. This is older, but I knew it was popular so I gave it a shot and... yes, I understand now. I loved reading something from Fenris’ perspective. I loved how he’s a foil for Solas. I love seeing Lavellan as this near mythical person because we see everything through Fenris’ eyes. I love Hawke and Fenris together. Merrill also featured more heavily than I anticipated and she had some of the best lines I’ve ever read.

Pressure Point by 17734 [incomplete] - this fic leaves me constantly unsettled (in the best, most addictive, under-your-skin kind of way). I’ve read the first 18 or so chapters twice, and it’s one of those stories that’s slightly different the second time you read it. I really like the author’s take on immortal beings, some of it is very reminiscent of some of the Greek mythology I read in school - characters are at turns both magnificent and terrifying. The language is also very beautiful, and I’m a sucker for anything close to prosaic. 

Out of Time by destinies - so, I don’t know how I found this beyond just “Twitter.” This isn’t Dragon Age related -- it’s from The Greisha Trilogy, which I had never heard of before -- something just told me I would really like this story. Forced/political marriages’, memory loss, enemies to lovers, the dichotomy between light and dark embodied by a single couple... yes, thank you. I had to kind of piece the world together as I read, which was admittedly a lot of fun, and um... wow, I really loved this! Another one of my ‘binged in a single night’ fics.  

Message Sent by @aicosu [incomplete]- this is coincidentally how I got my former partner into Dragon Age lol. I had originally read it the first time as it was coming out. The second time I read it aloud to them over the course of a few days, feeling very much like Cassandra trying to do certain character’s voices. It reminded me of how much I loved it, and so I feel like it deserves a mention here. Definitely an unorthodox but memorable way of cursing someone with being emotionally invested in the Solavellan romance 

Short Fics (< 50k words)

nothing on my tongue by @ellstersmash - the chapters here are short, and I loved seeing the fic updated put of order. This was my first time experiencing that, and I loved guessing where we were in the in-game timeline, and also, as more chapters were posted, which chapter numbers were still missing and therefore what the missing chapters might be about. I associate this fic with feeling kind of melancholy a lot. I think the word constraints really lent itself well to the Solavallen romance -- beautiful and poignant, but always leaving me wanting more.

In and Out of Time Again by @luzial - hoo boy did I have a fun time reading this one. I actually rarely go for AU’s this “AU”, but I trusted this author, and it paid off. In fact, I think I subconsciously had more doubts than I thought because what started a curious perusal ended in one of those “up until 3 am reading” kind of nights. It was such a fast-paced, interesting read, I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Ink is one of my favorite Lavellans; she’s just too cool.

The Fourth Day by sass_bot (@knightava) [incomplete] - this was just such a perfect example of how to build tension and dread for the reader, that I still think about it frequently. Also, who wouldn’t love a Skyhold murder mystery?

Beyond the Veil by Pyreite [incomplete] - A 200 years post-Veil fic. Abelas is in it, which is how I knew it was gonna be good hehe. I really like the world-building, and I like explorations of the romance with a more hardened Lavellan. 

I Come to You With Nothing by CommonEvilMasterMind. I’ll preface this by writing that this made me cry with a mixture of sorrow and happiness. The premise is an undercover mission in an alienage which involves Solas and Ellana masquerading as a married couple. It’s beautifully written, and just honestly kind of bittersweet. The writing is itself very touching but I also think it’s almost difficult to read because the Solavellan romance has an arc that looks like it’s just exponentially deviating from anything remotely happy lolol 

That Girl Is Like A Sunburn by @yourstrulycommandershepard - I just discovered this person’s writing this year and I’m kind of obsessed? I went on a whole binge this past summer and *fans self*. I picked this one for my list because I haven’t read that many Solas/Trevelyan fics, and hers are by far some of my favorites. I also love that the titles of some of her fics are Taylor Swift lyrics. I get Solavellan vibes from so many of Taylor’s songs - glad it’s not just me!

Aravel by @playwithdinos - More Papa Solas. I can’t say anything more than it hit me right in the vhenan. 

I’ve come to the decision that I’ll just use this blog to share when I’ve posted a new fic. I’ve been minimizing the amount of time I spend on tumblr now because of how I feel about their new policies and such.

That said, I’ve posted two more fics in this series in the time that I was away.

Upstream Theory

~6k words. Terry-centric fic, two chapters. In which Terry travels out of Tsubakura City to find his fortune and his name.

Notes:

Trans boy Terry! This is something I’ve thought about for a long time and wanted to handle properly with this fic. Terry has a...particular history with the way his gender has been treated by the western fandom, and having grown up with that and coming to new opinions on it, I wanted to do right by his character.

Alan and Karen are from the GBA game. I love the characters in the game and I wanted to more directly involve them with characters that aren’t just Yamato.

Kit is a Cat person OC who I’ve had for a long time, though they were much older originally.

This is the first time where I let my more original world building slip into the story, as seen in the garden scene. Only one of the characters spoken about is an OC though. I think it’s fairly obvious who the other is.

I don’t think inserting prejudice into a fantasy setting that didn’t explicitly rely on it for a narrative is a good move, so there’s none of that here.

Armada is really fun to write when you remember he’s a huge memer in the anime.

amygdaloidal

~2k words. Bull-centric fic, oneshot. Bull and Gray’s original first meeting several months before Cobalt Blade’s debut, from Bull’s POV (all three of them).

Notes:

This was another WIP just sitting there for ages tbh

POV pronouns swapping is one of my favorite little tricks.

Not unlike most passes at Bull’s backstory, he’s had a hard life in this one, but I’ve tried to keep it fairly vague and it involves a sentient robot.

Thanks for the questions, @bdafic​ !!

5. Do you listen to music when writing?

Pretty much always. Songs with lyrics (usually in big playlists) are mostly for brainstorming or getting me in the right state of mind to begin writing. Very rarely, I may put a song on repeat while I’m writing (which I discussed a bit in this answer). But most of the time when I’m actually drafting, I need instrumental tracks only. I’ve tried video game soundtracks but I usually find those a little distracting because, especially with DA music, I’m thinking too much about the scenes when I heard that music. Most of the time, I just use one of Spotify’s generic classical or jazz playlists during drafting and editing. They’re just enough music to help me zone in without being too distracting.

10. What is the line you’re proudest of from Ruins?

I’m going to cheat and pick two (and one is a little longer than a line but OH WELL):

“To love someone with your entire heart when you have seen the ugliness of the world - that is an act of faith.”

“When one is lucky enough to find a torch burning brightly amid the deepest night, the flame illuminates him as well. He glows in its fire, enlightened simply by proximity. So it was for me when I was near you. I imagined for myself the sort of person I might have been were I better, stronger, and braver.” 

21. Is there an idea you’ve always wanted to write, but haven’t yet?

There are two Solas-related ideas that are absolutely not mine, but that I’ve seen floating around in Tumblr posts over the years that I’m sort of dying to write something for someday. The first is the idea of an impostor joining the Inquisition and claiming to be the Dread Wolf, all while Solas absolutely fumes in the background (from this post). And the second is an AU where Solas is a programmer with some very cool ideas about Veil / Blight / viruses as they translate to programming (from this post). Not sure if I quite have the tech knowledge to do the second idea justice, but I think there’s so much potential in it.

35. Where’s your favorite place to write?

I work from home and I use one room in our house as my office. While I think it’s generally good advice to use your home workspace for only that purpose if you can, I still like to write in there most days. I’m often writing on my work laptop when I have downtime during the workday anyway. That room has lots of plants and great sunlight in it, a good-quality speaker if I want to listen to music without putting on headphones, and it just feels cozy. 

Occasionally I like to write on my personal PC for a very silly reason: it has a mechanical keyboard that is extremely satisfying to type on. (I’m typing on it now and it just sounds GREAT.) 

This is not part of the Elementsverse, but a standalone chaptered fic! I’ll be working on it for a while before tackling my next major fic.

Here we go, folks! Enjyu’s first entry in the series at a whopping 19k+ words. This one’s a big fic with a lot going on, so here’s some notes:

Once again Gray takes a spotlight in someone’s else fic, but there’s a good reason this time, I swear!

Trans man Ababa

The brief scene with Armada at the start was mostly meant to be an introduction to this version of Enjyu in an environment readers should be familiar with—ruining Armada’s day.

Enjyu’s motorbike is from the manga

There are four OCs in this fic, and I hope they were enjoyable.

Similarly, there are several major plotlines going on, and a lot more minor ones interwoven into the “between” sections. 

Since the story takes place over three years, and then a fourth year passes, Enjyu is 17 in the final scene.

This also means puberty was happening throughout the fic, and Enjyu was the first to get a growth spurt that stuck. He’s quite proud of being the tallest kid around.

When I think about it, this fic kind of makes Gray a bad person, because wind at his back showed how little he thought of Wen after all the scenes they share together here happened...teen drama huzzah

Speaking of, because the events of this fic had not been fully planned yet when I wrote wind at his back and frostbite, I had to write around some of the things already there. Hopefully I managed to do this naturally without any glaring plot holes

That said, the structure of the story taking place over three years came about because frostbite said Gray only really left for Cobalt Blade three years after he arrived

Fics from this point on will have a more solid foundation and continuity

Arsen and Jupiter are meant to be opposites in the way their scenes play out and eventually conclude.

If this anime can get away with saying Castillo is from Luchatoon, I can get away with naming a town Heltoon and giving it the nickname Hell

#POV Edgelord

I may have wanted Arsen and Nara to be scary as Shadow Alliance elites, but Ababa will always pull through as top Cat

I know nothing about wine except what I learned from the game Last Word, so the Petro Jade is a reference to it!

Ababa fucks

This fic is where I’ve truly, truly solidified my personal worldbuilding, particularly when it comes to the Legend Stones and the Shadow Alliance.

The Legend Stones from the manga being involved has always been planned for this series, and I seeded some of the ideas for them in Upstream Theory, but this is the first time they’ve actually appeared. 

There are only six Legend Stones in the manga, but the final one was never named, so I can do whatever I want with it and make more Legend Stones!

Gray going full SA might seem out of nowhere, but remember in his final battle he mentioned being exactly that until Yamato changed him

See if you can spot the one (1) callback to amygdaloidal!

I wanted to do Liena justice, and there was no way I was going to have her sit around and do nothing for three whole years

I will be better prepared to write Goldo’s dialogue in the future

Arsen, Nara, and Amy (the girl in Jupiter’s shop) all began life as Battle B-daman OCs before going to their own original world. Now they’ve been imported back in, new and improved.

I actually had no idea Ludo existed when I came up with Jupiter.

Arsen’s B-daman is named Boreas

Jupiter’s B-daman is named Eminent Flare.

There’s a lot of loose ends in this fic actually...I plan to address them all in the future!

LIENA WILL RETURN

Finally...here’s the next fic in this series! It happens immediately after the wind at his back and is from Wen’s POV. Enjyu is awful in this one, so take note of the warnings before reading!

Some notes:

Wen and Li are of a fairly high rank in the Shadow Alliance and Ababa does treat them well and regards them as having potential to move up, but they are ultimately still rank and file grunts at the moment. The brothers are higher rank than characters like Battle Crow, but Enjyu and Gray are higher ranked than them.

Enjyu’s actions toward Wen in this fic are due to not knowing any other way to express his interest in Wen. This does not excuse or justify any of it all. His character is honestly one of the more complex ones and will be explored in a later fic.

Wen is, like Gray toward Liena, protective of Li. This blinds him to the fact that Li can take care of himself, and is very good at it too. Wen is a lot more dependent on Li than the other way around. This is kinda true in canon too (I think), but I wanted to emphasize that it was always there even as early as their Shadow Alliance days.

Gray only really shows up at the start of the fic but he’s also kinda everywhere in the fic.