#stroghainoff

He randomly shows up in Upside Down Weisshaupt with a shimmery spirit companion to punch the First Warden himself and then fights the Gloom Howler with you before fucking back off into the Deep Roads again (the man has been on his Calling for years...leave him alone with his Fade ghost husband Stroud, jeeeez...)

They also see the super secret credit scene somehow...

Stroud: Look! That's you, Mac Tir...I recognize that handsome face. Seems like they're implying you weren't completely acting on your own when you betrayed your country and the Wardens during the Fifth Blight...?

Loghain: Well, I certainly didn't need any secret influencers whispering in my ear to tell me that Cailan was an idiot and Orlesians are pieces of shit.

Stroud (Orlesian) laughs and leans in for a smooch: There's the bitter old man I fell in love with!

Loghain, playfully pushing him away: Stahhhhp...you're not even real!

Oh goodness...why not both?!

(Fenders is in the Dark Sprawl AU...this might actually make it into Linked somehow/someday, so spoilers, I guess?)

The Link’s clothes never seem to fit particularly well, but the sweater he’s taken to wearing under his threadbare parka since it got colder is especially offensive in its ill-fittedness.

“Where did you get that sweater?” Fenris asks him.

“Found it in the trash pile at Lirene’s!” he grins triumphantly. “Isn’t it great? Can’t believe she was gonna toss it!”

“It’s…actually terrible,” Fenris says. But the dejected look on Anders’ face makes him feel bad enough to say, “I’m sorry…?” at least.

“Well, that’s just your opinion,” Anders huffs. “We can’t all pull off head-to-toe black spandex!”

“Oh, well there goes my suggestion for a new team uniform…” Hawke snorts. “I think the sweater looks nice on you, Anders. Really adds another layer to your whole…look.”

Fenris rolls his eyes as Anders beams at her. Her backhanded flattery always seems to work on him.

…

Fenris finds himself in Anders’ apartment. Alone. The Link is still in quarantine at the hospital, and he’s forbidden Fenris from even trying to sneak in and visit him out of ‘concern for his safety’ until Justice can be rebooted somehow. It’s all bullshit. Fenris has fought Sprawlers and signal poachers all by himself, broken through Danarius’ encryptions, and he would much rather take his chances staying at the Link’s side, protecting him from whatever Meredith’s Counselors intend to do to him now that he seems to have lost the protection Justice provided.

But he’s here instead. The closest he can be to Anders because the idiot refuses to let him anywhere near him. The mansion is too empty. Too haunted. Too far away from everyone and everything Fenris has come to care about. Plus, he can still feel the remnants of Danarius’ broken code coursing through him, and the house, with all of its various security protocols, only seems to remind him of the fact that he will never be completely rid of his technology. But here…even without Anders or Justice…he has always felt…free.

He goes to Anders’ bedroom, searching for more of him to hold onto. In a rumpled pile of laundry next to his mattress, he sees that horrible sweater he had insisted on wearing all winter, initially, Fenris suspects, just to spite him. How many nights had he impatiently yanked it off of him or begrudgingly tossed it to him in the morning instead of hiding it or secretly burning it, which is what he would have liked to have done back then?

He’s so glad he didn’t now. He gathers it up and holds it to his face, breathing in whatever trace of Anders he can find here. Thankfully, he hasn’t washed it since the last time he wore it, and it still smells just like him. Like the generic shampoo he uses and soap from the clinic…like his connection…and Justice…and imitation maple syrup and…fuck. He misses him. Misses them both. And he’s scared. What if they transfer him to the Facility ‘for his protection’? What if he ends up like Karl? What if Justice is really gone forever?

Fenris pulls the big dumb itchy sweater on over his head and curls up on Anders’ bed for the night, hoping that in the morning, Merrill will come find him and tell him how they’re going to fix this.

(Spoiler: she will!)

And here's some straight-up Stroghainoff fluff <3

“It gets colder here than in the West,” Stroud says one night, draping an arm over him and snuggling in close behind him as he gently presses his lips to the back of his shoulder.

“I’ve spent the majority of my life in Ferelden,” Loghain grumbles.

“Well, I haven’t.”

Loghain rolls over to face him. “So what? You want me to knit you a sweater or something?”

“No…” Stroud laughs. “Though now that you mention it…”

“I haven’t tried to knit anything since I was a boy.”

“I’d settle for a scarf.” He grins. “Or how about just a cuddle?”

“You’d look absurd in a scarf…”

Stroud shrugs. “So a cuddle, then?”

“Guess so…” Loghain pulls him in against his chest and wraps his arms around him. How Stroud could ever claim to be cold is beyond him. The man is an absolute furnace.

…

Stroud doesn’t say anything when he’s asked to sign the requisition forms the next day and notices a few skeins of yarn have been added in Loghain’s hand at the bottom of the supply list. He resists the urge to follow him when the old man begins to excuse himself early each night from the dining hall. And he tries to announce his arrival through exaggerated grunts and heavy footsteps and give him enough time to scramble and put away whatever he’s been working on before entering their room.

But after a week of this, he finds it difficult not to pry.

“Mac Tir…” he says, setting aside the stack of reports he’s meant to be reading and responding to before bed.

“Hrm?” Loghain looks up from the book he’s been reading.

“I can’t help but notice you’ve been up to something…”

“Up to something?” Loghain looks decidedly guilty, but at least he’s smiling. “You think I’m planning another coup? Or fooling around with your Mistress Woolsey when she’s not in your office barking orders at you from Weisshaupt?”

“No.” Stroud chuckles. “I think you’re up to something far more devious…”

“Yes. Yes…that is me. The Traitor, as they say.”

“I think you’ve been trying to teach yourself to knit.”

“Trying?” Well, now he looks offended. “I told you I already know how to knit. Sister Ailis saw to it that we could knit and mend our own clothes just as well as we could fight.”

“Why are you being so secretive about it, then?”

“Because, you idiot, I’ve been trying to knit something for you…”

“Can I…see it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because…it’s all wrong.” Loghain sighs. “I’ve had to start over twice already. And will probably have to scrap this one, too!”

“What’s the problem? Maybe I could take a look…”

“The problem is you…you’re all…” He waves his hand up and down and across, motioning toward Stroud’s torso. “I think I have the measurements right, but then it just ends up looking like a big dumb sweater.”

“I wouldn’t mind a big dumb sweater.”

“Well, then…” Loghain huffs. He walks over to his chest of belongings and flings it open, then produces a wonderfully fuzzy-looking sweater in Warden blue, which he tosses across the room to Stroud. “Here.”

Stroud immediately pulls it on over his tunic, beaming at him. “It’s actually perfect.”

“It’s lop-sided…”

“Is not…”

“Yes it is. Right…” Loghain crosses the room and tugs on the right arm of the sweater. “...here. This arm looks longer. But I counted the rows. It shouldn’t be.”

“Well, I think it’s lovely. And I’m going to wear it everyday now that Fereldan winter has arrived.”

“Maker spare me…” Loghain groans. “Just don’t…tell anyone I made it.”

“They all know that we’re together, Mac Tir.”

“I know that! But they don’t know that I’m a terrible knitter. It’s embarrassing!”

@cleverblackcat tagged me into this one a few days ago, and I started filling it out for Delilah Howe (not an OC...an adopted NPC!) and I am still working on it for her. But then @funkypoacher tagged me, and gave me specific permission to do it for *my* versions of Carver or Stroud...lol...

So anyway, here’s Stroud, everyone’s Warden Dad(...dy...? jk jk...unless?)

THE BASICS

Character’s name: Jean-Marc Stroud

Role in story: He’s your dad now...unless you’re Loghain and then he’s your infuriating boyfriend/husband whom you are absolutely smitten with...also, Warden-Commander of the Eastern Wardens after Dragon Age Awakening

Physical description: I feel a bit guilty constantly objectifying this poor man and his mustache, but he is just...*chef’s kiss* (Loghain’s POV, but also mine):

Stroud’s quite fit for a man his age, an unmistakably sturdy V-shaped torso atop well-muscled legs, with broad shoulders and strong, defined arms. He’s never quite realized just how chiseled and square his jaw is, either. And as his eyes rove over his face, he tries not to stare too longingly at his lips, which he’s already been acquainted with, though it feels like it’s been ages since that cave-in, and he certainly wouldn’t mind getting re-acquainted. With any part of him, really.

(LOGHAIN! STOP BEING SO HORNY FOR YOUR BOYFRIEND, YOU GRUMPY OLD BASTARD!)

MBTI/Enneagram Personality Type: IDK

INTERNAL LIFE

What is their greatest fear? Probably disappointing anyone who is depending on him for safety/protection/reassurance

Inner motivation: Is ‘just wants everyone to feel safe’ an inner motivation? No. Shoot. STROUD WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?! Oh, I know...the fact that he lost everyone and everything he cared about to the Game and instead of going on a fucking rampage, he internalized it and joined the Wardens so that their deaths wouldn’t have been a total waste. What’s that called?

Kryptonite: If one of his Warden ‘kids’ is hurting, it hurts him...doubly so if he can’t do anything about it.

What is their misbelief about the world? Ok, so this is a tough one. Dude has been through all of it, and still believes in the power of kindness and duty and compassion, but not in a naive way. He chooses it, right? So I wouldn’t call it a misbelief, but he genuinely believes everyone is capable of choosing good, or trying to do better, or whatever. Shut up. I’m not crying, I swear.

Lesson they need to learn: You can’t save ‘em all (he still has regrets about what happened with Anders and Justice).

What is the best thing in their life? His little Eastern Warden family...Vigil’s Keep comes to feel like home to him.

What is the worst thing in their life? The thought of ever having to deal with Orlesian politics again...which is why he’s so grumpy in Inquisition.

What do they most often look down on people for? He has very little patience for people who manipulate others for their own personal gain.

What makes his/her/their heart feel alive? Seeing his Wardens thrive/come into their own/embrace duty/grow/find love...I SAID I WASN’T CRYING!

What makes them feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way? Stroud doesn’t need a lot of personal reassurance to know that people care about him and that he serves a purpose...but if someone goes out of their way to do something just for him, he absolutely falls apart. Loghain making an Orlesian-inspired dish for his birthday was the last thing I wrote of this variety, but I imagine that Loghain does a lot of stuff like that just to see Stroud’s cheerful stoicism obliterated...and also because he loves him.

Top three things they value most in life? Helping others/compassion, his found family, and his duty as a Warden (but not in, like, a stupid way...)

EXTERNAL LIFE

Is there an object they can’t bear to part with? He keeps a portrait of his family tucked away among his things...the only item he brought with him from his former life when Clarel recruited him to the Wardens.

Describe a typical outfit from top to bottom. Heavy silverite Warden armor while out on missions, over a dark blue quilted tunic with a silver embroidered griffon and leggings (?). All very official. Off-duty, he wears simple undyed cotton or wool tunics (they’re probably fitted well) and woolen breeches (also fitted...um...well...*fans self*). It’s hot. <- Loghain, again?! Yeesh...

What is their method of manipulation? He’s not big on manipulation (see above), but he knows how to get what he wants from Loghain by wiggling his mustache and just...staring at him...all twinkly-eyed. Maybe chuckling good-naturedly if he wants to bring out the big guns.

Describe their daily routine. (Whoops...I missed this one, I guess!) Wake up early. Breakfast and paperwork in his office. Meetings, etc later in the morning. Then lunch with Loghain somewhere outside, weather permitting. Meetings/more paperwork/drills and training in the afternoon. Dinner with everyone in the dining hall at the end of the day. Quiet evenings. Then bed!

Their go-to cure for a bad day? Feet up in front of a fire...some tea? Maybe with a bit of whiskey in it. And something sweet to munch on like cookies. Bonus if Loghain is there with his little shawl, reading or complaining to him, preferably both...

GOALS

How are they dissatisfied with their life? He still harbors a lot of anger and resentment toward the Game (I mean...), but he’s actually pretty satisfied with his life as a Warden.

What would bring them true happiness or contentment? This is the most selfless thing ever, but he would love to see Loghain and Anora reconciled.

What definitive step could they take to turn their dream into a reality? He would never, but he totally could invite Anora to dinner at Vigil’s Keep or something and pretend it was Loghain’s idea...lol. OMG...AU where Stroud is the meddling spouse...!!!

How has their fear kept them from taking this action already? Not so much fear as it is just respect for personal boundaries or whatever...

of @the-wip-project’s 100 Days of Writing

Do you have filler scenes in your WIPs? How do you fill them?

I tend to think of all my stories as filler, if we’re going by the ‘slice of life’ or ‘seemingly unimportant moments’ between the Big Events in people’s lives definition of that term. I like writing within the drudgery of everyday life, I guess? Like, cool...you saved the world. But who does the dishes? 

The things I’m less excited to write, that actually feel like filler to me, are the transitional ‘summary’ paragraphs to try and contextualize these interactions and to get me from one of these little moments or scenes to the next. The big epic events that allow my characters to eventually get to the issue of who will be doing the dishes...I just really struggle to sit down and write those kinds of things.

---

I got tagged by @blarrghe and @noire-pandora today for WIP Wednesday (thank you both!), and I’ve been feverishly trying to draft a quick one-shot after seeing this brilliant post cross my dash again and being suddenly inspired...to cry a little, I guess? 

So here’s some Loghain and Stroud* in the Deep Roads together again, 15 years after Inquisition I guess?, for one final Stroghainoff adventure:

T+ rating, Stroud/Loghain, end of life, Calling/Fade shenanigans I guess...?

Summary: Loghain is tired. He's lived much longer than anyone should, especially someone with the Blight coursing through their veins. After helping to rebuild the Order, he disappears into the Deep Roads, and wanders, waiting for the madness of his Calling, or the Darkspawn, to consume him.

Chapter 1 (of 3): A Familiar Song in the Dark

790 words

On AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33372793/chapters/82887856

Excerpt:

“Leave me be! I did it, didn’t I? I saved your fucking Wardens...and left them better off than I found them, if I do say so myself!”

He hears -- no, he feels -- that infuriating chuckle.

“Isn’t it enough that you still haunt my dreams? Can’t you at least wait until I’m asleep?!”

It’s possible that he is. Possible that he’s dead, even, which would be a welcome surprise. He’s never imagined himself being allowed to slip so peacefully into the beyond. Not when everything else in his life has been such a struggle.

Today’s random DA head canon idea brought to you by me wallowing knee-deep in all my weirdly fluffy Warden WIPs (ok, so they’re mostly all just silly stroghainoff fics):

of 100 Days of Writing from @the-wip-project!

I dunno if this counts, but that Stroudwall art and meta I reblogged yesterday just...did things to me, and reactivated all my love for grumpy men of a certain age with big heavy chips on their shoulders. So here’s some meta/head canon/slapped-together scene-writing for the Old Grumpy Wardens sitcom that is constantly playing in my head:

Blackwall, newly actually a Warden, being sent to report to the ‘Eastern Wardens’ (cuz that’s all that’s left after whatever goes down at Weisshaupt? IDK...Wardens, man...IDK...) and feeling a bit nervous about meeting his new Warden-Commander Stroud on account of having already met him under false pretenses...

Stroud, clapping him on the back because that’s just how he is: Welcome back, Warden Blackwall...or would you rather be called Rainier?

Blackwall: Whichever you prefer, Warden-Commander...

Stroud, in a very thick Orlesian accent trying very hard not to chuckle: We are not very fond of Orlesians here...

Blackwall, suddenly lighting up: Oh?

Loghain, stomping in to Stroud’s office with his huge, poorly-trained mabari, who immediately runs over and jumps up on Blackwall and begins licking his face: Ursa, down! Ah, bloody hell...GET! DOWN!!!

Stroud, beaming weirdly at him: Mac Tir, meet our newest transfer...

The dog, who has knocked Blackwall down and is smothering him: HI HI HI HI HI!!! ARE YOU MY NEW DAD?! HI HI HI!!! (in dog)

Blackwall tries to say something in acknowledgment, but he can’t, cuz dog.

Loghain, scowling: You’re going to have to do a lot worse than murder and deceit to impress anyone here, Rainier...

Yay! Thank you! First, allow me to write an entire book as a response to the first one, which is such a great ask for these two...

6. What things have tested their relationship over the years?

When they got together, they had both been pretty well ‘tested’ by various challenging circumstances throughout their lives, and they bonded over their shared disdain for Orlais and their sense of loss (both have lost or left behind people very near and dear to them and have felt sort of used or betrayed by politics or duty to country or whatever).

The hardest thing for them moving forward has probably been Stroud not understanding why Loghain would put off trying to repair his relationship with his daughter (Stroud also has some ideas about Nate and Loghain’s relationship that he keeps to himself, hoping one of them will eventually notice...hi...me, I’m Stroud!), and Stroud’s sort of self-sacrificing attitude and sense of duty to the Wardens as a larger organization.

When they go against Clarel’s orders during Inquisition and try to figure out what’s going on with the False Calling and all that, this is much harder for Stroud (who feels especially loyal to Clarel for giving him a purpose after his family was murdered). If it weren’t for Loghain’s natural skepticism about Wardens, especially Orlesian ones, I like to head-canon that Stroud would have had a much more difficult time with his decision to ignore the summons to the Western Approach (thus saving the rest of The Eastern Wardens, including Carver and Nate, of course!).