#inkquisition

This is in the INKquisition modern tattoo shop AU. Thank you for the prompt!

Mirevas almost walked past the bathroom without hearing it. Almost.

And that would have been a shame.

But the sound of Blackwall’s voice, just loud enough to be heard over the running water, floated out to her. It wasn’t uncommon for him to sing in the shower, something Mirevas loved to tease him about. But this -- this was beyond anything she’d ever heard. Or ever expected to hear.

“I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic!”

Mirevas stopped dead in her tracks.

“You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere…”

Mirevas had to stuff her hand in her mouth to keep from laughing loud enough for him to hear. Quickly, she hurried past the door so that she could safely let out her giggles.

Blackwall emerged from the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel to find Mirevas leaning against the wall opposite the door, arms crossed over her chest and a giant smirk on her face. He blinked in confusion.

“Um… what is it?”

Mirevas uncrossed her arms and took a step forward, putting both hands on his shoulders and tugging him forward. “You make me happy,” she told him. “That’s all.”

INKverse, because I’m not sure how many years Bioware will let the Inquisitor will get in canon. So modern tattoo shop AU.

Major character death warning. I’m so sorry. This hurt to write.

———-

“I never knew what you saw in this old man.”

Mirevas looked up from her broom to frown at Thom. “Stop that now.”

Thom turned his gaze to his hands on the table in front of him, unable to meet her eyes. “You should have had someone better. Shouldn’t have chosen me.”

He heard her exasperated sigh, then the sound of the broom falling. He lifted his eyes to see her lowering herself onto his lap. Her arms encircled his shoulders. “Yup. You’re right. Definitely shouldn’t have chosen you. I think Solas had a crush on me…”

The words startled him, and he stiffened in her arms. “Solas?”

Mirevas threw her head back and laughed, long and hard. “Thirty years, and you’re still giving me the ‘I’m not good enough’ line. As if I would trade our time together for anything.”

He supposed his doubt would never go away, but her words reassured him. “You always were a fool.”

Mirevas nodded solemnly, then kissed the tip of his nose. “But I’m your fool.”

Thom put his arms around her waist and buried his head in the crook of her neck. “Forever.”

———-

Rose always brought a bouquet. Daisies. That was what Thom and Mirevas had always given her on special occasions. Mirevas watched her lay the flowers gently against the headstone before turning back. “Do you want me to put that here for you?”

Mirevas turned the red rose between her fingers. “No. I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure?”

In response, Mirevas knelt carefully to the ground. “I’ll do it,” she repeated.

Rose bit her lip. “I’ll give you a minute.”

Mirevas waited until her daughter was out of earshot before she spoke. “She’s so strong, isn’t she? Devoted. Dedicated. She reminds me of you. Every time I look at her, I see your smile in her. Sometimes it feels like you’re right there in the room with us, ready to launch into a debate with her about the importance of anti-lock brakes or some such.”

A tear slid down her wrinkled cheek, and she brushed it away. “Forty-five years. It’s a long time, isn’t it? Should have been enough, I suppose. But you promised me forever. I guess I believed it. Didn’t seem possible, life without you. You were right. I always was a fool.”

Mirevas looked at the rose, the crimson petals stark against the green leaves. More tears escaped, and this time, she let them fall. A single drop splashed against the field of red. She left it there, raising the rose to her lips and pressing a kiss against the soft petals. Her eyes closed, and just for a moment, she pretended it was Thom she kissed, that he was here with her, by her side, and she’d never lost him at all.

“I love you so much.” The words came out choked, and she took a deep breath. “I’ll always love you. Until the day I die.”

A muffled sob came from behind her, and Mirevas cursed herself for not hearing Rose return. She opened her eyes and slowly placed the flower on the grass.

“Help me up?” she murmured.

Rose’s hand took her arm gently, and Mirevas used it to pull herself to her feet. She faced her daughter and reached for her face, brushing away a tear.

“I miss him so much,” Rose whispered.

( u3u) There’s a few reasons the Inklixir only lasts a month. ( o3o) The first, if it lasted longer it’d start doing some serious damage to the humans or monsters within them. The longer someone has been in that sort of trance, the harder it gets to wake them up. Among other details that aren’t necessary to get into. Obviously, if we started permanently taking over humans and monsters that’d be a problem. We don’t really need more reasons for the rest of the world to want to try to destroy us.( u3u) As with the case of Observer... I don’t really know where those vials are going once I send them out into the world. And I don’t have a whole lot of control over it either. 

( i3i) I can only hope they find a good home and are loved, like Delirium. Or even if things don’t start out so great, things can change and before their time is up those around them learn to love them, like Hysteria. But I won’t pretend I don’t know there are those who would misuse naive inklings and maybe even abuse them. In times like that their death may even save them from a bad situation that they might not otherwise escape. So long as they’ve found a way to survive, and are determined enough to accomplish that.

( -3-) Not all do. It’s sort of a right of passage, or so I’ve heard it called. 

( ^3^) Yeah! The specifics depend on the ink type, to be sure nothing messes with their composition. But for Blue shades, they can drink water for sure, and I think the @besmirched can too. Shades of grey, or inks made of Gravestone ink can’t though- at least it doesn’t work very well, since they’re an oil based ink. Oil and water don’t mix! But shades of grey could drink linseed oil, soybean oil, or petroleum no problem.

( u3u) While shades of grey do fine with rain and even wading through water, they have quite a problem with fire. ( o3o) As far as fancier stuff goes? Well the shades can drink or eat pretty much any monster food, as that stuff turns directly into energy when you swallow it. So there’s no worry about foreign contaminants mixing with our composition.

( u3u) Human food and drinks can be dangerous though, as it’s full of lots of stuff that would just get shoved into our ink and mix with it, and can make us sick or even kill us if it’s bad enough. Human food doesn’t give us energy, it might taste good? But it’d just be a toxin in our ink that we’d eject.

( ^3^) Native- noun. A person born in a specified place or associated with a place by birth, whether subsequently resident there or not.( o3o) I was made in the place now called Risen. That makes me native, right? That’s my home world!

( n3n) Don’t forget, most inks have two creators, not just Gravestone! Part of what we are comes from our host. Which would actually be useful if we went to other worlds and universes- our main form would be adapted to the world already, while inks in other worlds are made up completely differently.

( u3u) As far as where the first inks were made... Heehee, you know what Gravestone did, right? 

( 030) They destroyed worlds. And from what I know, their home world was given the most LOVE since it had the most sentimental attachments.

( u3u) Its the reason they started traveling in the first place. But they didn’t play well with others. I didn’t get many memories of theirs, and I... Um... Too bad anyone who would remember that is dead.

( o3o) ...