#sunlian

"You know, Lauri, I've been meaning to ask..."

Aymeric softly cut in to the silence of the morning, pulling Lauriene from idle thought. Many a morning she spent overlooking Ishgard, watching the sun rise, but not nearly as many were spent in his company; so she did not mind the interruption.

"Huh, what is it?" She'd shift, leaning against the bench as she faced him, tilting her head.

He'd turn to look at her, smiling a bit. "I know you're from Ishgard, but the family name is only vaguely familiar to me; I was curious to learn more about them."

She would smile a bit, glancing outward over the view briefly before turning to look back at him apologetically. "Sure, though I hope you forgive me for dampening the mood a bit."

He looked at her quizzically, leaning forward a little bit and gesturing for her to continue. "It is alright. I asked."

"Well," A pause and a sigh. "As you're well aware, I am a daughter of Ishgard. A child of the Brume, no less."

A nod, a bit of a smile. "I remember - that history has been instrumental in many of our efforts."

She'd nod in turn. "Mhm. Well, it was me, my mother, and two elder brothers growing up. Never knew my father, I was always told he died before I was born, but the way my mother and brothers talked about it - I think he abandoned us."

Aymeric's expression would darken briefly - but he said nothing, gesturing for her to continue. A request that she would oblige.

"At any rate, that meant it was up to my mother alone to care for us growing up - she worked in the Crozier as a seamstress, though she could never find anything steady. So when each of us became old enough, we had to start working what odd jobs we could as well. My brothers mostly took up hunting, but I usually did odd jobs for the craftsmen in the Crozier." She'd tap her foot. "Hence why picking up a new craft is pretty easy for me."

"I'll spare you the worst of it, but essentially - we had to work, or we would go hungry. And we often had to choose between eating and other necessities. We managed to scrape by, but never really thrived. My mother - bless her heart - still did what she could to allow us space to be normal children, but we never really were."

Aymeric's expression had hardly changed, though there was clearly sympathy there; but again he did not interrupt.

"And when I was about sixteen, my mother  took ill. Working and working with little rest, little time to care for yourself properly, took its toll. The sacrifices she made to ensure our well-being had caught up with her. She died before my seventeenth birthday."

At this point, her hands were in her lap, clenched tightly into fists. He took one of them, squeezing gently and not letting go. Bold, but welcome. "And what of your brothers?"

"They were men grown who could hold a blade, so they'd gone from hunting to mercenary work. It was better coin than we were used to, but it was also rather dangerous. There was a contract they'd taken that had gone badly; and they never returned to me. I was bout eighteen - and that was about the time I decided it was time to leave Ishgard."

"And thus you set on the journey that took you down the Path of the Twelve all those years ago..."

She stared at their hands, nodding. "There was nothing for me here at that point. I would have lived and died the same way my mother did. I- I yearned for more."

Unintentionally, she was pretty sure, his thumb would stroke the back of her hand. Softly, he said. "That path brought you full circle, though. And for my part, I am quite glad it did."

"As am I." Lauriene felt heat rise in her cheeks. She was never certain if he did that on purpose or not. "And building a better life for my own daughter to boot. I think my family would be proud of me."

A squeeze of her hand, and he would let go, locking his gaze onto her and smiling warmly. "I think they would be."

"You might be biased." She laughed softly. "After all, I am your favorite."

"And I still believe what I said." He would laugh in return, and she was reminded once again how much she loved that sound. "But it is true. You are very much my favorite."

Her face would flush bright red yet again.

bro cannot tell you if this is how you should pronounce it because i am notorious for pronouncing shit horrifically straight up "what are you saying" levels

but i just say it like ahf-hir-ee ;w;

I got to work with the fantastic @sunlian and created this piece featuring their OCs for their fanfic, A House of Two, during the Dragon Age Big Bang 2023. Check them—and the fic—out!

YES ahh thank u 😭

there's a lot of complexity to her that's hard to summarize or water down, but at her core, she's the perfect vessel to defeat the blight. i made her the, uh, "picturesque" grey warden you might say? she's incredibly selfless, resourceful and determined. her mother died to the madness taint and she's an orzammar dwarf, so even before origins she was always predisposed to make the darkspawn fight Very personal.

She's panphobic, acephobic, mogaiphobic, and anti-Black, etc (these are words taken from other people which you can see if you look up this Tumblr user). But she's also the kind of troll to hop on your post and call you racist and/or anti-LGBTQ with hardly any basis. Or she'll just tell you to shut the fuck up if she can't come up with anything else. Whatever post she doesn't like, she hops on it, bitches at you for a quick second, and then runs to the block button before you can even finish reading. The Tumblr results are literally flooded with people from various communities (especially gaming, it looks like) complaining about her and her toxic behavior. Look her username up and see how many people are showing their receipts about her 🤷‍♀️ That many people complaining shows there's definitely something problematic about her.

Also, watch out for her girlfriend, @sunlian. After @darthimperius reblogs and runs to the block button, and you respond in some way, her gf sunlian will join in to harass you as well. For example, sunlian told me to commit suicide by drinking bleach after her gf blocked me. I've already reported sunlian for violating the Tumblr Community Guidelines (she promoted self-harm by encouraging me to commit suicide). But it looks like these girlfriends work as some sort of team judging by the posts of other people who have been on the receiving end of their harassment?