#exia rambles

PLEASE be careful with these temperatures. It's going to be hot. So hot. Not 'feeling uncomfortable and will sweat too much' but legitimately 'potentially life-threatening' hot. And most places won't have a/c to cool buildings. This is actually worse than being outside in that temperature as at least outside you can get under a tree and still have wind. Inside, you'll be stuck with whatever airflow you can manage with windows (unless you have fans. If so, make judicious use of them!)

Here are some tips:

Drink ice water

Yes, I know it's an American thing, but we do it for a reason. Shit is hot here and cold drinks are how you deal. Make iced tea, make iced water, make iced coffee. I don't care what you need to do, but hydrate like you've never hydrated before and make sure that shit is cold. It will help cool you from the inside.

2. Move as little as possible.

Long-haired people, tie it off your necks. Wear hats to keep the sun off your skin/face. Wide-brimmed is good. Stay in one place and don't expend energy. Even walking around your house will heat you up and get your blood pumping. This is bad.

3. Lay on the floor, specifically not carpet.

Your bathroom should have tile. Your kitchen should be a hard surface of some kind. When things get bad, stretch out on those hard surfaces. They'll be cooler than the rest of the area around you, and you very will could need that.

4. Prioritize your own health.

Your jobs probably don't have a/c, and you'll be expected to work anyway. Money makes the world go round and we all need it to live. But you can't work if you're dead/hospitalized and this is a very real possibility. Heat stroke doesn't care how old you are. I've seen 18yr olds used to these kinds of temps, pass out with heatstroke because they got all arrogant. Don't let this be you. Sit when you feel the need, if someone is super flushed with blood in the face, make them sit and rest. If your face feels extra hot, do the same. Do Not Play Around With Heat Stroke

5. Take cold showers

If you can at all manage it, those can be very helpful in cooling you off. Don't dry your skin, air dry. That will help a little as well.

6. Set ice cubes in front of a fan

This is a cheap A/C and it will help. No, it won't be as good as you want, but any airflow - specifically cool air - will give you even a tiny bit of relief.

7. DRINK MORE WATER!

Seriously. You think you're drinking a lot? No you aren't, drink more. Your pee at all yellow? DRINK MORE WATER. The best and most effective way of cooling yourself down is going to be sweat. Don't deprive your body of the water it needs. DRINK.

Be careful my lovelies. Your health is all you have at the end.

Solas is a freedom fighter. He hates slavery, in all forms. The acknowledged form in Teviner. The painted over kind in the alianages. The re-named version of the circles. And, most of all, the mental kind of the Qun.

On the one hand, I feel like I should read the DA books. Get a feel for charactarizarion and story that happened outside the games. Actually meet Felassan.

On the other. I have a firm idea of who my characters are already. What the lore and world state will be.

Is it worth reading the books to possibly muck that up? I don't want the ideas altering my plans.

Thanks for the tag @vhen-harel. This is a chewy one. ❤️

🔷️WHAT'S A SMALL GAME DETAIL THAT YOU ALWAYS NOTICE AND LOVE?

The little animation details that 'humanize' characters. In Witcher 3, it's when NPC's have hiccups (always a delight), in DAI, its the small hand gestures. I have a vivid memory of Cassandra being nervous and having an animation where she twists her fingers together like she's messing with a ring. It's such a human thing to do.

🔷️WHAT'S ONE PIECE OF REFERENCE MATERIAL YOU'RE CURRENTLY OBSESSED WITH?

In DAI, Solas says the creators weren't gods, but perhaps 'something we've never seen before.' Given that we've seen an embodied spirit in the form of Cole literally in this game, I took this one phrase and have absolutely run with it. I have created a whole new world set-up based on this 'something else' and have changed the history of literally every sentient species in Thedas. Absolutely obsessed with this one line.

🔷️SHARE A SNIPPIT OR VISUAL FROM YOUR CURRENT PROJECT THAT YOU'RE QUIETLY PROUD OF.

I'm currently in research mode, so it would be very easy to shrug and say I have nothing to share. But...well. I did write the prologue for my da4 fic. So. Have some of that.

He finds her in an ancient temple, hand upon an eluvian. She is pouring her power into it, knowledge granted by June. The child who is not a child, living in the skin of another. She is...human. Tall and stronger than he, now, armored and glorious. She stands with pride, her back straight, and she has used a mystery of magic and metal to sculpt her hair into spikes that sweep behind her into four majestic dragon horns. She is not hiding who she is.

"I knew you would come," Mythal says, and for all that the voice is not the one he knew, it still slides into his heart with the familiarity of a knife. "You should not have given your orb to Corypheous, Dread Wolf."

Solas keeps coming forward, even as the title lands heavily upon his shoulders. That she would name him thus, despite all she knows of him, is a betrayal that cuts deep. He gave her everything, gave of himself to keep her safe and alive. He sacrificed the People - his and hers - so that she might not be lost to the Void. And she calls him Dread Wolf.

Mythal takes her hand from the eluvian, turns to look a him and - oh. It is her. Truly. There is no mistaking the wisdom in those eyes, the cruelness of that mouth. Mythal is not in the body he knew her in, but that is her spirit staring back at him. Hers...and his.

🔷️WHAT'S SOMETHING YOU'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO CREATING OR FINISHING SOON?

Well, not my da4 fic, that's for sure! So, probably my three witches cross stitch. I have one full page to go, and then several partial pages. I'm very much in the home stretch of this one.

🔷️WHAT'S A FUN OR SILLY TRADITION YOU HAVE WITH YOUR OC'S?

Don't have one, really. You could probably call my first Inquisitor, Ellana, my first OC, but I made her as bland as possible so people could insert their own Inky into the story. And Jonah was from my most recent fic, To Wake in Darkness, but while he was very alive while I was writing, little man has been retired now. (Not dead! He's just not active.) Ny'ari is my only ongoing OC and she's so new...I don't know. *shrug*

🔷️WHAT'S AN NPC YOU'D LIKE TO SEE IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT OUTFIT OR SETTING?

Oh gosh, I don't know! For me, characters are so much a part of the world they live in. For example, I can't see Solas in a modern AU (not that there aren't amazing ones. I've read quite a few!) but he's so intrinsically an ancient elf in a modern Thedas, responsible for the Veil, with magic in his blood etc etc. He becomes someone different without that history. All NPC's that I love and obsess over are all a product of their environment (aren't we all) that I struggle to see them anywhere else. (As far as my own writing and creativity goes.)

🔷️WHAT IS A COLAB PROJECT THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO?

Oh man, this is so selfish of me, and I would never have said this if I wasn't asked directly, but. I would love to have someone work with me on my da4 fic. Like how they do the pairings with the Big Bang where an author writes and an artist illustrates. But I would never expect an artist to indulge me like that for free, and I already know my story is going to be massive and while I would want an illustration for each chapter, I am not made of money. Much less if there was someone even willing to take on that absurd task.

🔷️WHAT'S A TINY HEADCANON OR DETAIL YOU'VE ADDED TO YOUR OC THAT BRINGS YOU JOY?

I have 'color deficiency' as my optometrist puts it. I'm not color blind, but I can't tell the difference between shades when they're too close. (Do not ask me to help pick out color swatches for you.) And I've given Ny'ari this little trait. It might never come up or be relevant, so nobody in her life might ever find out. She might never find out. (I didn't find out until I was...22?) But it is the first time I've intentionally inserted anything about myself into a character, and it makes me smile.

🔷️WHAT'S SOMETHING YOU WANT YOUR FOLLOWERS TO KNOW ABOUT YOU?

I love taking canon and coming up with ideas as to how it might work. What explanations can I come up with that fill in the gaps? How might this one phrase, or that tiny detail, be used to explain some big mystery of the lore? (I came up with the Black City being where Solas imprisoned the evanuris a decade before we ever got Veilguard. Very proud of that.)

I have been head down at work today, and I have no idea who has or hasn't done this. So I'm going to pick a few people at random. Thanks @ashillayn and @fadetouchedlurker the tag!

I'm going to poke @celesenova, @pooyaaaaan, @lana-writes, @crimsonphantasmagoria, and @cryptid-catt-main.

The questions:

What's your blog title from?

My blog title is "The Road Less Traveled By" which is a poem by Robert Frost. I wanted to remind myself to seek out the unusual and the unexplored. To dare to do and find, rather than to follow the established paths.

2. Latest movie? What did you think?

The last thing I watched was Bullet Train back in April. I'm not a big movie person. But I did like Bullet Train. The best way to describe it is a slow-motion Rube-Goldberg type murder game between 5ish? assassins. A lot of fun. Lemon and Tangerine are the absolute best.

3. What are you looking forward to right now?

Finishing my research. I've been doing it for, god. Probably a year now, as I started it before I'd actually finished To Wake in Darkness. I'm very ready to move on to drafting and writing.

4. If you could do anything at all today, what would it be?

Fly to Europe. I have to friends there who I'd love to see in person. But flights are stupid expensive and I just got back from a vacation (and catching up at work has been murder). I don't know when I'll get to see these friends. But if teleportation existed, I would absolutely abuse it to visit those I love.

5. Drink of choice?

The truth? Water. I live in an extremely dry area with low humidity. Usually in the 30%. If I don't drink enough, I get headaches, so I always have a glass. Sometimes I get exciting and make tea (hot or cold) or coffee (usually to start my day) but the vast majority is good old H2O.

6. Hair routine?

Wash it once a day and let it air dry. My hair is straight, straight, straight, straight. Nothing makes it curl, not even 100% humidity (tried and tested). I put very little thought into it. (Yes. I know. Most of you hate me now. Sorry.)

7. Favourite way to travel? Is there another you want to try?

Uhm.

Uhm.

I've never thought of transportation as as thing to like or dislike or have favorites. It's a necessity.

I...think maybe a train? If I have space to stand and stretch? Re question 4, I want to go to Europe, but beyond the price, the travel time does not spark joy. That's a long time to be stuck in a tiny chair on a plane.

8. Favorite month and why?

January. I love snow, absolutely love it, and I moved to a different state to have mountains and snow. And Jan is deep into winter. Or, it was. Until global warming ruined it. Fuck global warming, man.

9. Favorite time of day and why?

Oh gosh. I don't know! Let's go with sunrise. I'm up then anyway (no alarm, this is just apparently me now) and it is beautiful. And quiet. Few other people are insane enough to be awake when I am.

10. Do you play or follow any sports?

I don't, no. But my husband follows what feels like every sport in existence and he tells me about them. So I have a lot of random facts in my head that are disconnected, just from listening to him.

11. What kind of music has been stuck in your head lately?

Strangely, nothing. I've been listening to Rainbow Kitten Surprise and Matt Maeson, but none of them have turned into an earworm. *knocks on wood* yet.

12. Dishes or laundry?

Dishes.

13. Something you learned recently?

Green parrots can breed with the red/blue macaws and they make rainbow babies!

14. What would you talk about if you could give a TED talk on anything?

Cross stitching, probably. And how, like everything else, it is horribly commercialized and you really don't need that new doo-hickey or fancy what's-it-called. Stop signing up for 'fabric of the month' or 'thread of the month'. Do you have a plan for it? A pattern? Anything you will use it for? No? You're buying clutter to simply have things. Stop it.

15. Piece of advice you find yourself giving a lot?

Stop using my brain and use your own. (Said at work. Nicely. With different words.) I'm pretty knowledgeable, and my coworkers come to me for help. And I don't mind, but I'm trying to get them to do basic research before they come to me.

16. Piece of advice you would give yourself five years ago?

Keep counting those calories. You lost all that weight and stopped counting and look what happened. Just accept you need to portion control for the rest of your life. Also, don't stop your running routine. It's so hard to start again.

17. Do you believe in luck and superstition? Do you carry any lucky items or follow any

Despite question 11, no. I've incorporated those little habits into my life as a way to joke, or break tension, or convey an attitude, but I don't feel it. Luck is probability, which is math. So, I suppose it's more accurate to say I do believe in luck, but only because of math and statistics.

18. Are you musical (play any instruments, sing)? Would you ever perform for an audience?

A lifetime ago, I both sang in a choir and played piano. But that's high school years kind of stuff. Nothing since then. I have no shame, so I totally would perform in front of a crowd if I had cause.

19. Write, type or speak?

I'm not sure I understand. My preference for general communication? How I prefer to write stories? Work communication vs social? They all have different answers.

For story creation, I prefer writing by hand. As evidenced by the two and counting journals I've filled in with my notes. I'll type them up and get them in a word processor, but for now. Hand writing. I love it.

For story creation, I prefer typing (hah!). The general plotlining and research and "oh hey that's cool!" goes in a paper book, but the actual prose is straight into a computer. I write, eh. Rather quickly? I don't know what to compare it to. But I will say that when I do prose by hand, my hand hurts well before I'm done actually writing for the day. So I've learned to just do that straight on a comp.

For work, email or chat, please. Don't call me to take advantage of "one more thing" and "while I have you". Use your brain, not mine.

Social interaction is mixed. For people who live close by, I prefer physical proximity and verbal communication. But for long distance friends (of which I am blessed to have a lot) typing is fine. I make an effort to be clear in my communication, and I like to think that helps facilitate long-distance/internet friendships.

20. What do you wish someone would ask you?

??? Nothing?