#dreadblaidd

Halfway to refilling her waterskin, Nanna stared determinedly off into the distant treeline to keep the pure exasperation from twisting her features. He was at it again.

Now certainly, Nanna was rather proud of her appearance—she put plenty of work into looking nice for each occasion, after all—but the frequency with which she was apparently always 'catching someones eye' implied to her desperate measures on behalf of their dear Fade expert's undeterred mission to find someone to catch her fancy... and so perhaps a swap in tactics were in order.

@dreadblaidd / unprompted. always accepting.

felassan has few regrets about taking a body, however, he would be lying to say that he has none. while he didn't need to be convinced to join his kin, there are times he misses the... simplicity of being a spirit and the weightlessness of the fade. it is more difficult to act as faith with all the complications that come from living as humans do, but he can still act with faith and use that to fulfill his original purpose as a spirit. so having a body — and all the experiences that that has entailed — far outweighs any regrets he has. he has delighted in every new experience and every new emotion and he would not trade any of those things for the chance to undo his decision or return to the fade before his time.

whatever regret he feels, it is not often, but it is more often after the raising of the veil. it is still not strong enough to make him wish for things to have been different, but from time to time he entertains the idea that he is still in the fade with the other spirits on the other side of the veil.

Kisses with varric // six

Granted, the situation that he is in, first and foremost, is entirely Varric's fault. Secondly, he is not willing, or sober enough, to take responsibility outright, as he was double-crossed and backstabbed. Which leads him to his third and final point that he will wipe the shit eating grin off of the offender's face, even if it is his partner in most of these series of games. However, the situation is that most of the gold on the table is his own, which shouldn't be the case. This isn't how it is supposed to work, but it could be payback for the week before or the days before that, or something else.

After all, a cheat is a cheat and a thief is a thief.

"Hey, Chuckles," Varric starts, with a laugh. The cards are already played, and the man is already reshuffling cards, as if there is anything else to take. Well, there might be.

"Yes, Master Tethras?" A taunt. "Do you have something else to lose?"

"No, but," Varric stands, composing himself and earning a look as he rounds the table and settles into the chair next to the man. "Strange how my winnings from last week ended up over here."

"Perhaps if you were drinking less."

True, but once again, there is a point Varric goes back to; he's not willing enough, or sober enough, to admit fault. Instead, it's an elbow on the table. Bar chatter fills the space as well, but Varric is still able to counter, "Well, it would also help if someone didn't deal like shit. Nothing for two hands, that's not bad luck, that's a bad deal."

"There was nothing of the sort." It's said with a smirk, part of that shit eating grin, the same one from before, more smug and silent this time. So it falls back into that bickering, until hands fall to coin, counting them as they are placed into a leather pouch in a neat pile. It's less bickering, more the weather and Varric has long procured what was left of Solas's drink, talking his way around it and slipping pieces here and there when he can, which leaves him with exactly two pieces; the eye of the man is discerning. Bull had only given him a momentary opening, one that wouldn't even allow him to go for the purse in mention as Solas's damned hand was still in it.

Stingey bastard.

Varric waits for an opening, the two coins tucked into a coin purse in his hand, standard issue, just like the one on the table, but the opening has been the tricky part. He can't just swap it out, and he hadn't brought Bianca, something about trouble, something he wasn't willing to fight over. There are a couple of options here, and he's still got a couple of principles he's standing by here, so he wipes the shit eating grin off the man's face first and foremost.

It's a quick series of movements, one arm on the table, dropping the bag with it and pulling Solas's hand against his. It causes enough of a pause that Solas looks down, and Varric stands up against the chair and kisses the man, then he uses the surprise in one motion, pushing the other coin purse forward into Solas's hand and retreating for the one with the winnings. So, he kisses him again before moving the bag aside with his hand, at least to try; instead, he's met not with a shove, but it's a tug at his arm, he's been caught.

So it's hands up with a laugh, laughing off the elf red in the ears, as Varric is sure enough he's red in the face as well, but he's not going to admit that.

Send me a 🤢 and I'll say terrible things about you.

i completely missed this one on the prompt list but it's so good!! alas, i'm afraid my answer is going to be SUPER basic.

pterodactyls because i adore the fact that they originated the neurodivergent screech & also look funny. & then the long necked bois (sauropods, hate that i had to look that up because somehow stegasaurus lodged into my brain & they are not my faves even if they are cute porcupines). that scene in jurassic park where you see them roaming around & feasting stayed with me & i just think they're so cool. that's still my favourite scene of dinosaur anything.

Skyhold was...a work in progress. Decades of neglect had left it exposed and hazardous. While the Inquisition’s army handled the more dangerous cast offs, the servants set about cleaning the rubble and refuse within the fortress proper. Despite the chill of the Frostback peaks, they all worked with sweat on their brow and their sleeves rolled up. Solas included. After setting up in the rotunda, he joined the elves toiling away in the Great Hall. Magic was useful in a task such as this, and he was promptly put to work clearing debris from the many doors that led into the Hall. He propped the garden door open once he’d freed it to air out the musty hall. Carried by the mountain winds was Mother Giselle’s voice from the courtyard, reciting - for the third time that day - some verse or other of the Chant of Light. Solas’ eye roll was tempered only by the other person he found standing near the threshold. “I suppose that is one way to safeguard a castle,” he scoffed to his unexpected companion. “Although prayers will do little if the roof is leaking. There is much to be done within the fortress. I am certain the servants would appreciate any help you could offer. “Or remain here in prayer to fortify our spirits,” Solas added with a wry smile. “They’re like to start singing any minute now.”

Cedric was bloody tired of rebuilding things.

First Kirkwall. Then Haven. Now Skyhold. Cedric wasn't unused to manual labor–far from it–but lifting chunks of stone and building scaffolding and ferrying dirt back and forth and so on was an entirely different kind of backbreaking. He'd spent every day for two weeks working himself to the bone under the bleak wintry sun. But while he was frustrated and tired, he wasn't self-absorbed enough to think he was the only person who was suffering right now, and kept his complaints to himself.

At least nothing's on fire, Cedric thought wryly, mopping sweat from his brow as one of the elves hauled open the door. He breathed in the sweet, crisp mountain air and sighed it back out.

📚 writer craft questions meme ✍️ // accepting // @dreadblaidd

💭 — what’s a line or scene you’re secretly very proud of?

oooh, I remember being proud of a reply I wrote to a mutual on Lark when they were writing Viago and basically it was a scene from meeting all the leaders of the factions before fighting Elgar'nan, and I remember writing that Lark felt like she was going to her death and basically wanted to talk to Viago before she went.

I would need to find the thread, but the gist was Lark reflecting on their relationship being both a bane and salve to her, him being a father and a brother to her, and how much she had loved and hated him in equal measure.

I found it a good insight of lark being made of opposites, and contradictions.

🎧 — do you write to music or silence?

Most of the time, I listen to music and it always reflects on what vibe i want in my reply is the kind of music i listen to. If i am doing something upbeat, i listen to tavern music, if its something more melancholic and reflective, i adore listening to quiet cellos and pianos.

😩 — which trope do you struggle with even though you love it?

smash or pass funsies // accepting !!

elandhris isn't surprised when he asks. nor does it need to speculate why — why now, why like this, why not someone else. it knows. it needs no explanation and no elaboration, and solas offers it none. elandhris threads out a hand, tucks the essence of itself against the essence of him, and thinks: thou hast forbidden thyself to reach for goodness, and so i shall bring it to thee myself. but the only thing it says is: yes, lethallin.

solas wouldn't even need to finish his sentence before elandhris starts chanting 'smash smash smash' are you KIDDING

sexual attraction is a little complicated for spirits, because it isn't as though they're ignorant of physical sexuality, they just don't really experience it. or, maybe more accurately, they experience something adjacent to it. elandhris is attracted to solas — in the general sense — because solas reflects something of itself that resonates with it, for better or worse. in a spirits' mind, intimate communion with a mortal being shouldn't be that different from intimate communion with another spirit. it's something that happens frequently in the fade. elandhris' own nature is what makes it more selective and devoted to its chosen companions, not any cultural notion spirits have in general based on the act itself. all of this is to say elandhris would absolutely smash, and it would simultaneously be very serious about it and also surprisingly laissez-faire. it has probably openly fantasized about being with ameridan and solas at the same time more than once. it doesn't mean this to be lewd; it just wants its favorite people to be happy and in close proximity to itself, as has been the case for it in the past with ameridan and telana.

it has become a small habit. not a routine (solas is too busy for that), but something common enough that ameridan finds himself planning for it as perhaps he'd once planned for (but not expected) telana during busy seasons, when duty kept their schedules at odds. he feels guilty when he realizes this. and lonely. guilty and lonely later that evening, too, when they are drowsy from drink and he offers solas his bed. quickly (too quickly) he clarifies: and i will take the floor, of course. these fereldans now, their beds are not so comfortable anyways. that is not to say — and he pauses, steadying his foolish lonely self, and clarifies once more — this is not to say. i do not wish thee to be uncomfortable, my friend.

ameridan goes through, like... stages of smash-or-pass for solas and none of it is based on his immaculately crafted ass, sorry to the artist! he could find companionship with solas-the-apostate, especially if the inquisition is run by someone less than friendly to elves, and ironically it's the depths of his grief that has him acting a little unwise around someone who lends a compassionate ear. if an unfriendly inquisitor does not share with ameridan the events of trespasser, that fellowship may persist and outlast the worst of his crippling mourning period. if he does find out? i desperately wish he'd immediately say pass, but he's got this whole... thing. fen'harel is one of his gods and i don't think that makes him not get wet yknow? is it a blasphemy thing, a worship thing, a weird mix of all of the above as he finds out more of the truth, who fucking knows. ameridan DOES say pass, because he's not foolish enough to fuck the dread wolf, but. at what cost. dhaviverse solas of any flavor is an immediate pass because he's not about to homewreck the herald of andraste even in his own passing thoughts.

solas is talking. has been talking for quite some time, they think. with great difficulty they pull themselves from under the miles and miles of heaviness they have fallen to, his voice like a wave, one that can send them back to shore if they let it. he is talking, and it is a language that they know, but it takes a long time for them to understand. it isn't worth it when they do. he's complaining. of course he is. for a second they see how they must look as though they aren't in their body at all, like they're watching other people, like they used to watch their friends. it's a sharp feeling. it hurts. unbidden, their dry lips part, and they say: “if you're gunna ride my dick like this, do i at least get to cum?”

khima can't even conceptualize this question in reference to solas until after their time in the regret prison, and by then it's a DEFINITE PASS because they've discovered they like sex actually and they don't trust solas enough to think about having it with him. that isn't to say that whatever connection they do have isn't weirdly intimate anyways, but it is.... unique. we've all seen the gifsets. khima might consider it briefly during their time in the black city, and might even feel bold enough (or just not care enough) to propose it out loud, but i wouldn't say that it's what one might call a healthy coping mechanism.