#iris lavellan

Tagged by @foxeareddevilish, with the original questions by @dirthera15.

🛠️What modern Thedas invention does your Solas begrudgingly admit is useful?

So, it feels a bit like cheating to discuss Solas and Iris’ life in modern Thedas for this question, so I’m not going to ramble at length about Solas’ love of cars and the immense respect he has for the engineering of them. But I’m also happy to yap on that by request! 

I’m going to use the excellent answer written by @foxeareddevilish as a base because it’s just so good and very representative of how Solas feels in my own universe.

Medical Care

While not a dedicated healer, Solas is capable of a lot more than any mortal mage in Thedas, and that includes his healing abilities. It’s a skill I imagine him masking immediately post-breach, having done the internal calculation that it’s better to lose the anchor than risk drawing attention and getting himself executed. He can find another way to bring down the veil, but if he’s dead, then eventually the veil will fall uncontrolled, releasing all the blight that his crumbling prison was containing. 

I don’t think it’s an easy thing for Solas to sit by while humans tended to the unconscious woman bearing his mark, but there’s an ingenuity to at least some of their practices. Some, being the keyword - I can imagine him attempting to dissuade the surgeon on-hand from doing a bloodletting, rightly recognizing it to be nonsense.

Only once does Solas show a hint of his skill in the art - after Iris was impaled by a shard of red lyrium at the base of her spine. He kept the blighted lyrium from infecting her and managed to repair her severed spinal cord, an act that pushed him well beyond his limits and into mana fatigue. He was unconscious for 15ish hours afterwards and sick for days after that, though he had no complaints about his own ailment because it meant his efforts were viewed as slightly less suspicious.

Solas tells himself it’s pragmatic but the truth in the back of his mind frightens him: it’s because he loves Iris and could not stand the thought of losing her. 

After his initial efforts saved her life and mobility, Iris relies on the limits of medical care of that era and Solas is witness once more to what can be done without an unlimited pool of magic at one’s disposal. Much as he hates how slow her recovery is - and how little time she has to rest, he’s pleased with what is available to her.

His interest in how medicine advances continues through the ages and when he and Iris return to Thedas centuries later, he once more admires the advances in medical care and on the (very) rare occasion he finds himself in need of a doctor, is generally impressed with the treatment he receives.

💘What is the most ordinary thing Lavellan does that absolutely wrecks Solas? What about the other way around?

Solas

Iris is optimistic. Solas cannot comprehend ever feeling optimistic, yet Iris trusts that things will work out and, even though she makes no secret of her disdain for the chantry and nobility, manages to build the Inquisition into something powerful because her optimism and hope are contagious in a world that desperately needs a bit of hope. 

He loves this about her, but it also terrifies him. Hope is delicate. Something easily shifted to despair and Solas sees her vacillate between the two - most notably when she learns of the death of her family after clan Lavellan was attacked. 

Knowing he risks damaging that which he loves so much about her by walking away from her on his dinan’shiral is devastating for him. He tells himself he was selfish; that his very presence broke a part of someone he loves beyond anyone else. 

Only, hope can be resilient and Iris spent their years apart hoping to leave for the Fade with him and that hope overcame Solas’ natural grimness in the end.

Iris 

The sound of his voice. 

OK, a more thought out answer: The way Solas expresses himself in words. He’s so well-spoken and she admires how thought out every word he speaks is. It feels like everything that comes out of his mouth is worth listening to and Iris, who does not feel she is especially well spoken, looks to Solas as an example of what she would like to be during meetings.

👄Who talks more while traveling?

At first it’s Solas. Iris does not trust non-elves so remains as quiet as can be, sticking close to Solas who, realizing she’s seeking mutual protection for the two of them, fills the silence with stories of his travels in the Fade. 

As Iris grows more comfortable and her position more stable, she begins talking far more, eventually overtaking Solas in that department. Solas is content to listen much of the time, speaking far more on the occasions when he and Iris get some time alone. 

🍵What habit did they pick up from each other?

Solas

Solas eats regularly! It had been a habit he struggled with because he was not used to eating for sustenance instead of pleasure, so he modelled his own habits after Iris’, figuring if he ate as she did he wouldn’t draw too much attention. It’s a habit he maintains even after leaving - though he does not often allow himself the gift of food he enjoys, sticking to very plain, simple meals. 

Following their reunion, Solas indulges Iris and they sit down for meals together, maintaining a habit that only began after he met her, even though neither of them technically need to eat any longer. 

Iris

Iris wears his wolf jawbone amulet under her clothes every day after he left it for her on her desk at Skyhold prior to the battle with Corypheus. It only comes off for good once the two of them are settled in the Fade and neither of them need its weight around their neck to serve as a reminder of their duty/goals. 

For my first trick, I got to paint a scene from The Wolf’s Flower, by MissJLH. Her absolutely gorgeous Lavellan, Iris, meets with Solas in this field of flowers in the Fade, just a bit too ideal to be real. JLH loves the post-impressionists, so I wanted to emulate that style a bit and channel my inner Odilon Redon, and pull in some (very famous, recognizable) Irises by Van Gogh to play with.

I especially enjoyed painting the detail of Iris’ conjured magical spirit-arm, and I love that she doesn’t rely on this magic all the time and that it has a cost!

And she’s just such a babe. I think we can all agree.

Thank you for the ask! I should really write more with these two.

7. How do the Inquisitor and Hawke get along?Aida

Garrett Hawke reminded Aida so much of her late brother, she found a melancholy sort of comfort in his company. They forged a strong friendship on the shared bond of their similar grief, and the pressure of needing to rise up in the wake of that loss. Garrett having lost Bethany and Aida still mourning Marcus who was a casualty at the Conclave. Long after the events of Inquisition they remained in contact, maintaining that friendship through their lives.

Iris

It was impossible for her to not be wary of him. Iris knew that many people in Thedas would prefer the inquisition lead by someone like Hawke, especially with the alternative being a Dalish elf. It took her a while to trust he wasn’t there with the intention of taking the Inquisition out from under her. Even after coming to trust him, she always kept the champion at a distance. Eventually, with some help from Varric and his stories, she did warm up to him. Even if it was a cautious sort of friendliness.