#emeraldgraved

who do you ship solas with?

feedback! always accepting.

AHHHH thank you this means so much to me <3 honestly, a lot of her realizing things weren't that great was also ME realizing it wasn't because i started reading into the different dialogue options and codexes and things you miss if you just brush through the origin or don't say certain things -- which makes it feel kind of Real because she doesn't ! know ! also kaja being soooo girly and feminine but also a warrior is VERY important to me and was super important when i started to build her and especially meaningful given her environment and a few very subtle things that are said around her (and to her). but it's also added layers to her dynamic with anora (":

An arrow nocks to her bow, remains undrawn as the Warden presses herself to Kirkwall's brick. Armor rattles further on, in the path the two would need to take while their paths are united. "Not many people are prepared to hear of tragedy."

Sharrah leans, taking a swift glance of what lay ahead, and ducks back just as swiftly — a spear hurtling through the space her head had occupied only a second before. "Fewer still prepared to handle it." She presses off the wall, turning and taking three rapid steps back as her bow rises, and draws, muscled arms pulling it smoothly back. One step to her side, and she releases, sending the arrow flying through the open air to bury itself in the exposed assailant. It would not keep the path clear for long, so, with a gesture of her head, she darted forwards.

Hawke would keep up.

For what was likely the first time in hours, the room fell mostly empty, individual advisors slipping out one after the other to get fresh air or to find an alternate perspective or to— well. Anything. At this point. None of them have been able to agree on a single course of action save for the most simplistic one. That Corypheus and his dragon be stopped.

( and, perhaps, the acknowledgement that without darkspawn, this was not a Blight, and with it not being a Blight, it was not a real Archdemon, either. it did not help much )

It leaves the Inquisitor standing over the map, across the table from Hawke, studying it intently in the hopes of tired eyes seeing something that a half-dozen pairs had not.

@emeraldgraved for Elissa:

Alistair blinks, realizing with a start that he really hasn't been asleep, merely spacing out as he watches the environment around them. The faint sound of insects on the edge of their lanterns can be heard, the breeze breaking through the trees beyond.

Otherwise it's silent.

Just not in Alistair's mind. "How can I?" he asks finally twisting his head to crack his neck so as to avoid the crick he know will be there come morning. It was inevitable the moment he decided sleep wasn't happening and had position himself sitting comfortably to watch the darkness beyond instead. At least out there, there were no demands and no pending future. "There's... so much happening that I feel like the moment I close my eyes it will all be upon us."

He turns to look at Elissa, realization dawning on his face. "You haven't exactly been sleeping either, have you?" he asks, accusatory. "I should be saying the same thing, Ma'am."

Lips purse in a defiant pout, waiting for her to justify her own insomnia, but he knows it's for the same reason.

@emeraldgraved for Anora:

Alistair turns to look at her, confusion and concern equally warring across his face.

"And you would have them do what instead, Anora?" He asks, not unkindly. It isn't an unfamiliar comment for him, as he's often felt very much the same.

But it's not quite as she insists. "They fight in your name, sure. But they don't die for you. Or me, or the throne, or the kingdom. They do it for their families." Alistair licks his lips and scratches his neck briefly, a sign of discomfort for him. "If they weren't fighting - and yeah, some of them dying - instead they would be watching as their wives and children and elders are slaughtered before them instead."

He considers for a moment, pondering an idea that he knows isn't the most reasonable, but -

He's never been a very reasonable man. Or a smart one, really, but he understands her discomfort and he can't help but think that given their positions were swapped, he would appreciate the offer:

"Would you be more comforted if you could join them?"

What he wouldn’t give to be anonymous again – racing through the winds of the forest, with only the eyes of wild beasts set upon him. Twenty-two years of freedom, traipsing the hidden corners of Thedas with those he held closest… all irrelevant compared to whatever he is now. Herald of Andraste, you no longer belong to your clan, but to Thedas. For all intents and purposes, his life started over at the conclave. 

Hawke’s words make sense instantly – they seep into his head like tea in hot water. 

Because the way people talk about Hawke feels all too familiar. ‘If only the Champion were here…’ muttered by scared patrons of Haven’s tavern, even those who had faith in their herald. Cassandra’s repeated desire to find her, or the lingering feeling that he’s been the wrong person for this job the entire time, that Hawke was who they needed–

Something in his blood runs cold, at that. He thinks of her in that way too, doesn’t he? Clan Lavellan had been around the Free Marches during the uprising, bad news flowed from the city as he came properly of age, and it feels as if the two things might be linked, in a strange way. Of course he’d heard of the Champion of Kirkwall, a living legend whose name was on the lips of every apostate they’d passed in the years since. Even for an elf, the story has an allure to it – that of a hero, missing somewhere, perhaps one day to return when her world needs her the most. 

But every hero is a person underneath. 

Sharp eyes of a fade-tinted grey meet hers. And in one scared, knowing look, he tells her that he understands. 

“Maybe I’ll try that when all this is over,” he says, half-convincingly a joke. Though the fear remains across his face. “You got any tips? Any uh… advice? How’s ‘being somebody else’ working out for you?”

Probably not well, considering she’s here, with him, at Skyhold.

　　𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐂𝐘, and she knew why, to some degree, as the story of kirkwall and hawke was well known in the free marches. but it was certainly frustrating when in the position she was in now, in desperate need of information and, to a lesser degree, whatever reassurance she could be given. after all, she'd never asked to be the inquisitor, much like she never meant to become a local legend.