#kauriart

(I think my brain is in a thousand directions with those two right now. Loving the anticipation of their conflict in Constellations and still stuck with my Fae canon vision of Gwyn as this ultimate-warrior-of-unmatched-awesomeness-but-with-FEELINGS.)

I actually don't see Arden as a peak alpha at all, tbh. I see him as a beta who is also a dominant, and I don't really see a ton about him or his lifestyle changing!

I think part of that is that I don't think I could preserve his easygoing, friendly and compassionate personality in quite the same way if he was a peak alpha, or even an alpha, and that to me is such a vital, chosen part of who he is.

But I don't think the dynamics parallel anyway! Like, FFS Gwyn doesn't want to mount his cousin, and FFS Gary doesn't want to fuck Efnisien, so like... I don't really see UtB Gwyn and UtB Arden as having any kind of similar relationship either.

In fact I don't actually think Arden is in this universe at all. Like, I can kind of imagine a version of him existing in it, but I'm not writing the story as though he exists in it! To me Arden is just not in the Underline universe, in the same way that Eran as a viable partner isn't really in the Smoke in Autumn stories and Gwyn isn't present in Strange Sights.

Sometimes to make certain pairings work I have to 'you don't exist' to another character, lmao.

But yeah in Underline the Black I'm really not looking to preserve most of the dynamics that exist re: Efnisien and the people around him! I think part of that is that I'm several years on from thinking about Gwyn as much as I used to? So outside of The Nascent Diplomat and Constellations, Gwyn is not in my thoughts quite in the way he used to be (that's the break that I needed all along, tbh, so I didn't end up developing a strained connection to him as a character).

I think it's really amazing that other people enjoy and love thinking about him! Like, that's both humbling, and also like, I'm just glad on Gwyn's behalf in a weird way that his energy is still being really loved and looked after. But I've been trying hard to make room for new characters and new dynamics for a few years now, which means that I am really not seeking to replicate a lot of dynamics anymore, because I've written like 2.5 million words of those dynamics, and need a bit of a break!

Tagged by @elveny​ and @kittimau​ <3

Am gonna do this a little differently, because I was too upset with my writing in both 2017 & 2018 to talk about where I ended up at the end of the year, and frankly 2019 isn’t that different, but I want to be kinder to myself and let myself celebrate what I HAVE written, instead of always focusing on what I didn’t.

Total A03 word count

188,821 with just a TON of writing that I haven’t published yet.

Any finished stories?

The Captain (Cullen x Isabela) is a very porny fic featuring one of my all-time fave rare-pairs. I managed to post the final 2 chapters after realizing that this wasn’t a stand-alone one-shot like I’d first planned, and am overall pretty floored with how it ended up.

What’s your own favorite story of the year?

Sunshine in the Dark (Alistair x Bethany) which has been a really lovely story to dig into, but also a challenge because A.) teeny tiny fucking ship and B.) I’d never written much from either character C.) the chapters are much longer than I usually write D.) no one is fucking yet so as a smut writer I don’t know what to do with myself.

Do you have any writing goals for the new year?

I want to get focused on how I attack writing. I want to actively write 3 stories simultaneously: Letters from Orlais, another multi chapter fic, and a one-shot; and focus on posting vs writing. I actually did manage to get through a chunk of my story queue in the last couple of years, but here’s what’s left of things that aren’t WIPs on AO3:

Cullen x f!Trevelyan (Dog Park AU) |  Warden x Morrigan x Alistair | Bull x Dorian | m!Lavellan x Bull  | Cullen x Carver | Tabris x Zevran x Isabela | Anders x m!Hawke x Fenris

He stood there entranced at the movement of her mouth. The way her smile seems to light up her whole face, the way she bit her lip when she was focusing on trying to remember a small detail of a picture. He wondered if they were as soft as they looked. He noticed her vibrant smile disappear breaking whatever spell her lips casted.

Ooh thank you Kauri! That’s a tough one! XD

10. Most disliked arc. Why?

This is a really tough one, actually!

Idk if this is my most disliked of all, but I thought of it so here we go:

Orsino’s character arc pisses me off big time. Given the trajectory he had the whole time, his end just doesn’t make sense at all. It is so utterly ooc for him to flip like that, you know? It’s absurd. Totally, utterly absurd.

That man would not do anything to prove Meredith right no matter what. He wouldn’t endanger his charges like that. It goes against everything he’s said in game.

And I get that desperation does intense things, but I just don’t think that he was capable of that.

Like they really went ahead and fucked with a character just so they could have an extra (unnecessary) boss fight. Smh

Anyways, thanks so much! ❤️ xD

Chapters: 5/5 Fandom: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Alistair/Bethany Hawke Characters: Alistair (Dragon Age), Bethany Hawke Additional Tags: Warden Bethany Hawke, Grey Warden Alistair (Dragon Age), Slow Burn, I mean... ish., like slow burn for me, Fluff, aftermath of the joining, mild sex pollen, Hand Kink, Mutual Pining, Nightmares, Skinny Dipping, Public Nudity, Vaginal Fingering, Semi-Public Sex, Grey Warden Joining, warden headcanons galore, Vaginal Sex, Smut, quick someone high-five Bethany, Porn with Feelings, Canon-Typical Violence, Oral Sex, Falling In Love Summary:

“What’s your name?”

“Bethany Hawke,” she says, and sticks out her hand like an idiot, the way her mother always taught her –– palm down like a lady, not a secret apostate, or an up-jumped refugee, or whatever she is now.

He takes her hand, thumb brushing across her knuckles the way a well-brought up man’s lips might. “Alistair. Welcome to the Ferelden Wardens.”

***

What if The Joining made you not only super hungry... but super horny too?

***

Okay, this is my second fic rec in a single weekend - today, even! I was way, way late to reading this but I read it yesterday morning (@kauriart I owe you comments on two chapters still, sorry!) and it just left me warm and grinning and overflowing with affection. First of all, Kauri knows for smut, but best of all, she also knows for incredibly vivid, believable, so-real-you-could-touch-it love and affection. In this story she takes two of the biggest sweethearts in the DA franchise and commits 110% to writing a believable, enjoyable character-exploration-via-sex-pollen story for a super-wholesome rarepair (who are cursed to spend their lives fighting an unstoppable ill and to die half-monstrous in the dark, or whatever). The Warden lore and headcanons in this are great, and the original characters are deeply enjoyable, too. And Bethany! The way her magic, her relationship to her magic, and to desire, and to repression, and to her people (whoever they are) - it's all so SO good. 

Most disliked arc? Why? 

(refers to this post [X])

For Dragon Age, this is so tough for me. A lot of people don’t like Lost In Dreams but, as a mage player, I love that sequence.

I literally thought about this off and on for HOURS before coming up with an answer: Awakening

I don’t dislike the DLC or the new lore. The Architect of Beauty is an interesting character on a number of levels. Having my own castle and sitting in judgment was SO fun there. And it really helped to flesh out headcanons of what the HoF did.

I really like the companions. Like many people, I’m h*rny for Nathaniel Howe. This is where we meet Anders. Speaking as someone who lost a sister shortly before Origins was released, Velanna is an interesting, sympathetic character. Sigrun is precious. Justice was such a cool companion. Oghren ... was also there.

But the actual quests and main story? They freak me the h*ck out. The Wending Wood by itself is a little creepy. There’s a Deep Roads portion and that’s not the worst part, because of THE BLACKMARSH. I do not wish to go there!!! Ever!!!