#mirabull

Tagged by @lilbittymonster and @theluckywizard, thank you both!

Tagging @ir0n-angel, @autodiscothings, @mogwaei, @pikapeppa, @effelants and anyone who has something to share. No pressure!

I'm remarkably low on WIP's currently. At least, those I'm actively working on. In an effort to get myself back into the headspace, have some Mirabull, from the Inquisition era of the series.

---

He went back to the report and she snuggled up to him and read over the curve of his forearm. “Thinking about sending [the Chargers] off on a job of their own?”

“Yeah. We get paid fine, but the boys are bored. Bored leads to trouble.”

“I am well acquainted with our boys, babe. I know what kind of trouble they get into.”

He nodded absently, appearing to ignore her dry tone although she was sure he heard it. “Then you know why they need to get out of here and do something useful.”

“The snow from the avalanche should be melted by now, if you want to send them to Haven. Let them sift through the rubble, see if anything can be salvaged. It’s not killing things, but it would keep them busy.”

“And there’s always bandits in the Hinterlands,” he said. “They could do a round of clean up work there too.”

“Everyone wins,” she teased. “I’ll have Cullen put together a list of places before we head to the Approach. How’s that sound?”

He put the report down on the side table and lowered himself on the pillows until they were eye to eye. “Sounds good, Chestnut.”

His large hand spanned the breadth of her hip and he was smirking. She leaned in and kissed him and gasped when he rolled her beneath him. He pinned her hands over her head, his smirk wider and saucier now.

Tagged by @theluckywizard and @anneapocalypse. Thank you! 💕

Tagging @lilbittymonster, @ir0n-angel, @mogwaei, @serial-chillr, @fadedsweater and @fiadhaisteach. No pressure!

By now you all probably know I've been absolutely swallowed whole by a Bullmance fic. And now it's a series because I'm trying to be kind to myself in terms of trying to write epics these days. The first fic is completed and will start posting next week (June 5, in fact). So here's a bit from the second fic, which is the Inquisition era.

“This the famed brother?” he asked, laying down a card to discard and drawing a new one.

“Yes. The Iron Bull, meet Mahanon Lathdahlen Lavellan.” The two men eyed each other up for long seconds before Bull stretched his hand across the table. Mahanon took his wrist the Dalish way and they shook once.

“Pleasure,” Bull said, half his attention still seemingly on his cards. Mira wasn't buying it and snorted. His head tilted towards her, accepting the callout and he made a more visible effort to appear friendly. “So, tell me how the clan thing works. Lathdahlen is the one you were born to, right?”

“And Lavellen is my current one, yes.”

Bull turned to her. “How come you never use it?”

“I wasn't formally adopted. No right to call myself a Lathdahlen. Plus, I'm not actually Dalish.” These were all things he knew already, but having her say it aloud made it obvious that he knew her history enough to clarify. It was blatant and would have been rude in other circumstances, but she also knew that the pair of them would be testing each other. She could read the set of Mahanon's shoulders just as well as Bull. He had something to say and it was likely to be defensive. Even Varric was reading the vibe accurately. He'd shifted so he could keep all three of them in his line of sight and he'd moved his glass so it wouldn't be in the way if a fist flew.

“Go ahead and say it, kid. I won't take offense with her sitting here,” Bull said lightly, not looking at Mahanon but his cards. Mira scowled at him, even though he couldn't see it. The 'we're all friends here' act wouldn't necessarily have been her choice, but Bull generally knew what he was doing.

“I know she makes her own decisions, but you hurt her, you'll have me to contend with. She is not without kin now.”

“Noted.”

“Mahi,” Mira scolded, turning her scowl at him. Honestly, the pair of them were going to drive her to distraction, weren't they. “Play nice.”

“He is, Chestnut,” Bull interjected. He was smiling now. “I'd've been disappointed not to get a threat from him at some point. He's your brother and all he knows about me is big, horns and long history.”

“Yes, well...you're not doing much to improve that impression.”

Tagged by @theluckywizard, thank you! 💕

Tagging...anyone who's writing something these days. Yes, I mean you.

I'm supposed to be resting (lol). I've been sick, and I've gotten three major fics all finished in a ridiculously short amount of time. But the Muse has been on fire lately, so of course, I've been heeding her wishes. ItC may be closing out, but the next fic in the series is only halfway done. Have a bit of it.

---

The Ben-Hassrath camp was cleverly hidden in the undergrowth. The canvas tarp blended in with the trees and she nearly didn’t see it. But Bull had sauntered up as if he knew right where every pair of watching eyes was and she forced herself to relax. This was a meeting, not an ambush.

“All right,” he said. “Our Qunari contact should be here to meet us.”

“He is,” a voice said from behind a copse of trees. The small elf walked out, head tilted and hands open. “Good to see you, Hissrad.”

“Gatt!” Bull exclaimed. “Last I heard you were still in Seheron.”

“They finally decided I’d calmed down enough to go back out into the world.”

Bull turned to her, his expression jovial despite the cautious gleam in his eye. “Boss, this is Gatt.”

She blinked at him; he rarely called her that. It was a verbal cover that implied their relationship wasn’t known to the Qun. Not that she actually expected that to be true. She nodded to the elf politely.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Inquisitor. Hissrad’s reports say you’re doing good work.”

“I’m glad he says nice things about me in his secret spy letters,” she said lightly.

“He does...but they’re not really secret, are they?” Gatt’s tone was tinged with something almost like censure. For her or him? She remembered belatedly that she could have questioned ‘Hissrad’ and had a whole thing about them explaining what it meant. It hadn’t occurred to her since she already knew. She wondered if Gatt was suspicious now because of that. He was Ben-Hassrath in his own right, and she shouldn’t underestimate his powers of observation.

“Look, Gatt…” Bull started. Gatt waved him off.

“Relax. Unlike our superiors, I know how it works out here. We’re in this together. The Tevinter Imperium is bad enough without the influence of this Venatori cult.”

“Yes,” Dorian drawled. “Filthy, decadent brutes, the lot of them. I’m certain life would be much better for all of us under the Qun.”

“It was for me, after the Qunari rescued me from slavery in Tevinter. I was eight. The Qun isn’t perfect, but it gave me a better life.”

“Yes, one free from all that pointless free will and independent thought. Such an improvement.”

2 - least favorite fic you wrote this year

The Golden Rule. It needed to be done, and there was some catharsis in it, but it was not a pleasant experience. It's no surprise to me that it's also the least 'popular' fic in the series.

19 - any new fics to start next year

Assuming I finish writing it, yes. Promoted Pawn is the sequel to Sacrificial Pieces. I'm about...7/8 of the way finished with it.

But I'll also continue to post Its Own Solution. That's got enough to keep me going through June, iirc. And with season 2 around the corner, I'll no doubt have new ideas to work with moving forward with that story.

And then there's Helen. Who knows how long it will take me to finish that fic, but I'm sure it will be sometime in 2026.

23 - fics you wanted to write but didn’t

The final fic in the Driftwood series. I have the first chapter of it, and another one that will combine the final prompts from Sugar and Spice. But the rest of it? Languishing on the back burner of a stove in another castle. I never completed this year's Fluffuary fic either. I need a break from Dragon Age, I think. Let that well refill without me still trying to take water from it.

Thanks for the asks. 💕

Tagged by @fadedsweater, thank you! 💕

Tagging @luzial, @gefionne, @theluckywizard and @sandetigerrr. No pressure, as always.

(For those of you familiar with Mirabull's series, you will recognize this OC immediately 😊)

I finished principle wording on T3.

Tagged by @theluckywizard, thank you!

Tagging @lilbittymonster, @fogsblue, @pikapeppa, @mogwaei, @serial-chillr and @fiadhaisteach. No pressure!

I've been taking a bit of a rest for my Muse, but I have been working on the next Mirabull fic. So have a bit of post-Demands of the Qun.

---

“What happened?” she asked softly.

“There was a change in the guard rotation. It seemed...off.” He sighed. “Pair of hired killers. Not even real assassins. Just a formality to drive the point home.”

“That you’re Tal-Vashoth?”

“Yeah. Tal-Va-fucking-shoth.” He was watching her intently and she took care not to fumble the cloth against his skin. This was the closest they’d been since that day and his scrutiny cut like ice. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’ve always warned you that I couldn’t say what the future held, Bull. They would have died if they didn’t retreat, and that’s what I sought to prevent by letting it play out. If you’d known, you would have tried to do things differently, and you might have died too.” She shook her head gently, pulling the cloth away to exchange it for a clean one. “It wasn’t worth the risk.”

“But you’re fine with me becoming the thing I fought against for nearly ten years. I killed hundreds of them in Seheron. Bandits, murderers, bastards who turned their back on the Qun. And now I’m one of them.”

“Are you?” she asked sharply. He blinked and met her eye again. “I spent years at your side while you pretended to be Tal-Vashoth. It didn’t change you at your core. Neither will this.”

“That was just a role. This…”

“Every moment in life is a role, Bull. You taught me that. Did becoming Inquisitor make me a power hungry zealot when I wasn’t looking? I’m still me. And you are still you.” She pressed another cloth to his side, this one covered in soothing elfroot tincture. She had him hold it there while she retrieved sticky bandages to cover it with. “You didn’t turn your back on the Qun, they turned their back on you.”

“Without the Qun to live by…”

“You’ll what, suddenly turn into an uncontrolled monster? Bullshit. You’re a good man. Always have been. I see no reason why you won’t continue to be.” She looked at him squarely now that she was done patching him up. “Think of it this way. Your purpose now is yours. Whatever you want it to be. Which was what you were already doing from the moment you were reassigned in Orlais over ten years ago. You said it yourself, you’d gotten used to them being ‘over there’. Far away. Nothing’s changed. Nothing but the title they call you. And what they call you doesn’t matter. So you aren’t Hissrad anymore, okay fine. You’re still the Iron Bull. You’re still Ashkaari. You’re still the Captain of the Chargers and my lover and friend. You’re still you.”

His expression softened and he almost smiled. He reached out and threaded the gray streak through his fingers. “Thanks, Chestnut. I won’t lie, it’ll take getting used to. But...this is where I want to be. No regrets. Know that.”