#theluckywizard

❀ aster (symbol of love, daintiness) — “i’m not fragile, y’know.” Happy Writing! 🩷

The cut across Isabela's collarbone from a ventori blade will scar. Really, she's lucky it was a blade and not an axe - she has not quite forgotten the vivid description the Iron Bull painted of how to use it as a marker for cleaving someone in two.

And it could well have been an axe; Josephine has read the report from the operations in the Emerald Graves, dictated but not read by Isabela. Whoever was listening to the dictation had a quick hand and neat penmanship, able to copy down all her flourishes as she recounts how 'everyone was making a fuss' and it 'was only a flesh wound'.

Isabela leans forward onto Josephine's desk, deliberately pushing her breasts together, practically forcing Josephine's eyes from the jagged cut to there.

"I'm not fragile, y'know," Isabela says, knowingly. "This is entirely the problem with lovers, they always think I need saving. Usually from myself."

"If you've granted me the title of lover, then perhaps you can grant me a little room to worry about you returning to me in one piece?"

"Lovers is what we are, I'm not yours."

What Isabela means to do is make Josephine flustered, to have her defend her position, to extoll on their arrangement and restate her understanding of the nature of the thing; no promises, no ties, no obligation. It is easy bait, and Josephine is more clever than Isabela is currently giving her credit for.

"Then that presents something of a problem, as I have already stated my claim to you in conversation."

"Really?" Isabela says, immediately shifting from combative to curious. "Who have you told?"

"I took coffee with lord Dorian a few days ago."

"Pavus? Definitely hadn't pegged him for a viable rival for my affections, and I'm usually right about these things."

"You are not wrong, but I do imagine he would find you dashing under much different circumstances."

"I'm sure he still finds me dashing, even without the desire to bed me. I should ask him. Maybe I can ask him what you said about me."

They are certainly lovers, but not sweethearts. It only pains Josephine a little, in the darkest hours of candlelight.

"If it upsets you that I speak about my care for you with a friend, then I will refrain from such, in future."

Isabela sighs, and then perches herself on a clear spot of Josephine's desk.

"No, it's sweet of you to worry about me. Don't stop singing my praises, I thrive on infamy. I can think of much more fun ways to remind you how strong I am that isn't a little tiff. When you've got time, Ambassador."

"I have no meetings until the afternoon," Josephine says lightly, "if you'd care to lock the door."

[my fic on ao3] [my fic on tumblr] [bluesky] [prompt me]

Thank you for the tags @briannasroger and @lyricallyriumao3! 💖

Do you prefer writing...

on your computer or on your phone | one-shots or multichapter | <5k or 10k or >10k words per chapter | chronologically or jump back and forth | planning things out or winging it | drabbles or plot or character study | dialogue or action | romance or comedy | mystery or horror | alternate universe or close to canon | writing new content or editing your work | finishing a WIP or starting a new one

Extra questions

How long on average do you spend writing 1 chapter?

It really depends! These days it's about a month on my main long fic😩but I was able to smash out a 16 chapter fic in 7 weeks this spring. When I first started working on the long fic I did about 1 chapter a week for a year straight, but as the story grew more complex it dropped to two weeks and now it's a month.

How long do you spend editing?

It's hard to say because I kind of edit as I go, barring a final readthrough. But a lot of what I do is editing!

Favourite thing to write?

Like prev, it's banter and romantic comedy. Figuring out the specific chemistry between two LIs is my favorite and comes very naturally to me!

Hardest thing to write?

Big military set pieces, politics, heavy angst. I can do it! I just need to research a lot. Sera. Cole. Solas. sldfkjsldfkj

Fic/story you are most proud of and why?

I can't choose between my darlings so I'm posting all three!

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my big fat fic that's consumed my brain for two years running, In the Shattering of Things (WIP, E, Cullen x Trevelyan, Hawke x Trevelyan, multiship). The story has consumed my brain and I'm extremely proud of all 478k words. It's somehow both a slow burn, a fast burn, an epic, a tale of grief, one of second chances and about making mistakes. It contains both my earliest fic writing and my best writing and two original characters (Rose Trevelyan and Garrett Hawke) that I promise will feel real.

My fic Instead Came Your Arms (Complete, Exiled Alistair x f!Hawke, E, DA2) is the most recent 'favorite child', written for an exchange. I've said this before, but I wanted to smash these two broken people together like cupcakes. There's banter, political intrigue, grief, action, romance, smut and a happy ending. It's the first big chaptered thing I've ever actually finished and I couldn't be prouder! My matchmaking moms AU fic, Kiss Me Moonstruck (WIP, Garrett Hawke x Rose Trevelyan, E, DA2) is my attempt at a satirical fish out of water romantic comedy. This one is pure fun, a story of aggressive compliance, and a bit of a challenge to see how many shenanigans I can subject them to without breaking them 😎. Garrett and Rose have immaculate chemistry, the entire DA2 gang is there too and the moms might just be my favorite part.

Tagging @crackinglamb, @nirikeehan, @shivunin, @aetherflowers, @queenaeducan

Ugly OC Asks

HELL YEAH, Solona is a GREAT character for these kinds of questions!

What's an unsavory detail about your OC or opinion they have (to their peer group)?

The funny thing about this is, prior to becoming a Warden, most people who knew her in the Circle — even close friends — would have had to think for a moment to come up with any opinion she held. And a lot of them, when they did come up with something, would get it wrong.

Solona learned to survive in the Circle by making her thoughts invisible, but not her presence. She became a chameleon: friendly and personable and... subtly passive, in a way that's easy to interpret her as agreeing with whatever you might be saying. When she does question a claim or even express outright disagreement, it's with the tongue-in-cheek attitude of someone playing devil's advocate, debating simply for the sake of intellectual discussion. The fact that she only really makes other people's arguments for them, never firmly stating anything as her own opinion, slips through the cracks. She can play all sides, with none being any the wiser. Sometimes, she even fools herself.

Irving was the only one who saw through the act and recognized her amiability for what it was: a carefully calculated neutrality, so habitual as to become a subconscious process. Because Irving was the exact same brand of slippery in his youth, and he's learned how to wield that aspect of himself not only as a shield, but as a weapon.

(There's a song — Cast the Bronze | Raynes — on her playlist that goes, "When I’m gone, cast the bronze for the bust of my head / To be displayed in the library / Engrave that I gave my consent / To be anything that anyone prefer I be" and exemplifies both this willingness of hers to disappear into others' expectations and the private, unacknowledged resentment she feels for it.)

I said she's able to fool even herself with her neutrality, to such a degree that she can — with some hesitance — get on board with helping her friend(s) escape the Circle, even lying to her mentor about it (only in a bid to convince Irving to change his mind about making Jowan Tranquil, to negate the need for escape in the first place, of course (<- lying to herself)), without really questioning the dissonance it highlights in her values:

The Circle is imperfect but necessary, and it is far better to find safety within its walls than danger in any alternative.*

(*The Circle is so dangerous for some mages that escape, however imperfect, is necessary, and any alternative is far safer than remaining within its walls.)

However, once she herself is out of the Circle, and that ever-present undercurrent of danger that spawned her passivity is lifted... It takes some time to realize, but she can't lie about her political views anymore, not to herself. (Lying to other people about other things still comes easily.) Mages deserve to live their lives as free of fear and captivity as any other resident of Thedas. Period. She may focus most of her energy on Warden issues now, but when they intersect with the Circles, she is uncompromising in her support of mages' rights, and she will not hesitate to back up her support with ice and steel if need be.

Ex: when it looked like the templars had taken Anders again, she rode — (Rode! On a horse! She hates horses!) — all the way down to Kinloch Hold, where she demanded to know if the Circle had any involvement in Anders' disappearance, and publicly threatened Greagoir with everything short of full-blown war if that were the case. If she found out his templars had laid so much as a finger on her warden, she would rain holy terror down upon their heads the likes of which the Chantry hadn't seen since the Schism... and by this stage of her life, she was a formidable enough woman that this threat held weight. It was one of the few times she ever allowed herself to really see red and fly into a rage. To call it "unsavory" in the eyes of many people would be an understatement.

In what way(s) is your OC bad at life?

Oh boy, where do I even begin with this one. Thing is, Solona is stupidly competent. Like, just a truly insane level of skill and intelligence when it comes to magic, or academics, or the blight, or being in command.

And she is an absolute dumpster fire of a human being in every other way.

She's inflexible. She's pathologically unwilling to relinquish control. She treats life like a chess match and people as pieces on the board. She's paternalistic. She thinks she's right about everything, always, and anyone who would do things differently is wrong. She's harsh. She preemptively pushes people away.

She's terrible at self-reflection. Just completely godawful at it. (Ex: That dissonance in values I described above.) (Ex: It took her twenty years after the Blight to figure out she was bisexual, when Leliana and Morrigan were both Right There.) (Ex: So much of her self-worth and opinion of herself is subconsciously informed by Circle/Chantry teachings about magic, even when she thinks she left all that behind her.) (Ex: etc...)

And she is such a hypocrite. The things she most harshly criticizes other people for are all things she herself is guilty of... But at least she knows that. It's the one area where her self-reflection skills aren't totally lacking. That still doesn't stop her from continuing to do those things.

It's easy to miss, if you don't know her well — her ambition, her perceived arrogance well-earned confidence in her own abilities, and her carefully guarded dignity all contribute to the armor she's built between herself and the rest of the world — but Solona has a very low opinion of herself.

send me a fic title

My first thought would be something with the Joining, but is that more of a chalice? Maybe the first time Eireann actually witnesses a Joining (the first cup was hers, the second is this new one). Or Alistair's perspective of Eireann's Joining.

Sketch page commission for @theluckywizard featuring her beautiful characters Rose and Garrett ❤️🍷

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Rules: If you're tagged, MAKE A NEW POST and showcase one fanartist or fanfic you recommend (with links), and tag someone to give their recs next! Don't forget to reblog the rec you were tagged in!

Late to this, but thanks for the tag @dreadfutures and thanks for getting this started! No forward tags since I'm late this week but feel free to reblog!

Starting this off with an artist:

Lucky Wizard is such a delight to work with! She is very communicative and I'm always astounded at how fast she is able to crank out such stunning pieces like the above. She did all of the art in Swept Away and was able to perfectly portray the style I had in mind. All of her art shows a love and care for the characters she is portraying, especially in the facial expressions.

Thank you @samseabxrn

Tagging @crackinglamb, @monocytogenes, @delicatefade and @zenstrike if you would like to share!

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

Cullen catches Blackwall’s charge in his back leg, his boot sliding in the slushy muck of the sparring ring. (Thirst, Cullen POV, Mature, wc 6450)

Ahead of me a creature wrestles then rests, then wrestles and rests again. But it hasn’t given up hope yet. (In the Shattering of Things, Rose Trevelyan POV, Explicit, WC 375,749)

“Ser, an update on construction of the outer checkpoint.” (An Inexplicable Pull, Cullen POV, Teen, WC 1504)

Hawke extends both hands delicately to his sides and digs the toe of his boot into the dirt of the street. (The Roasting of Bethany Hawke, Garrett Hawke POV, Teen, wc 703)

Cullen hunches over his map of Ferelden muttering softly in the candle light that winks on the draft from above (The Firmness of his Resolve, Cullen POV, Explicit, WC 2166)

The ache rolls behind his eyes, stabbing and pinching all the way down into his neck and through his shoulders. (A Sense of Duty, Cullen POV, Teen, WC 2220)

(LMAO) The Inquisitor and the Champion are fucking. (Rumors, Garrett Hawke POV, Mature, WC 2189)

Hawke has always considered himself to be a bit of a brute, but this ogre of a man is head and shoulders above him, wielding a comically large hammer against the Inquisition’s comparative shrimps. (Point, Garrett Hawke POV, Mature, WC 1224)

When Cullen hits the final landing with a huffed sigh, he sees Rose sitting at her desk, waggling a quill against her cheek between two inkstained fingers, her wicked little smile accosting him across a stack of paperwork. (Proper Provocation, Cullen POV, Explicit, WC 2262)

Quite adrift from the conversation he’s meant to be having with Bull and Dorian about the excesses of Tevinter booze, Hawke sneaks helpless looks in the Inquisitor’s direction across the mess tent. (Into her Hands, Garrett Hawke POV, Teen, WC 1334)

Thank you for the tag @leggywillow 🥰 Gosh I think I did this last year? Things have changed a bit!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

43

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 463,350

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In the Shattering of Things (Cullen x f!Trevelyan, Hawke x f!Trevelyan) 141

The Boy Who Talked Too Much (Alistair x f!Cousland) 67

Some Kind of Witchcraft (Cullen x f!Trevelyan) 59

Unvarnished (Blackwall x f!Trevelyan) 57

The Protestations of the Commander's Bed (Cullen x f!Trevelyan) 46

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always! Oh man alwayyyys. I am so grateful for anyone who takes that extra moment to share something they liked or a thought that popped into their head. Truly. It's a special kind of reader that leaves comments. They really are the fuel that keep me going! Especially on my long fic I feel like I'm getting to know some of my readers and I love the discussions I've gotten into about my blorbo and her interactions with canon characters. OR just canon characters!

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Probably Fractures. I wrote it especially for Whumptober and in it Cullen's obsession with Samson led to a throwdown in Emprise that nearly left him dead and Rose is understandably at her wits end with him. They have 'make up sex' that does nothing to resolve any of the feelings of betrayal and abandonment and anger that Rose feels.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Probably The Commander, the Tevinter, and a Bottle of Lightning a Cullen & Dorian, Cullen POV fic where Cullen's romance with Rose Trevelyan seems to finally be coming to a head at long last.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not yet! Probably won't though.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

The closest is maybe vocal dislike of an original character. He's a competing love interest though, so I get it. People have their preferences and want to nudge me a certain way.

9. Do you write smut?

LOLLLL yes. 4 of my top 5 above are explicitly smuts and my long fic has 4 at this point. My friend @nirikeehan says "be the smut you wish to see in the world" so I try to write joyful, consensual, authentic feeling smuts that also capture the awkwardness/silliness/normality of sex. My hope is that someone reading it who isn't quite experienced with this stuff gets to see a really positive, realistic portrayal.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet!

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I can't show my whole ass in the midst of a multiship long fic, so I will keep quiet on this one 🤐

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

A Splinter of Light (my Rose and Dorian get stranded in the future during In Hushed Whispers Nightmare!AU fic)

15. What are your writing strengths?

Believable dialogue and banter, authentically drawn characters readers can root for, lively descriptions

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

PLOT. It's just always been a struggle for me. World building too. LISTEN. There's a reason I'm writing fan fic LOL. Though I recently got Scapple (from the Scrivener makers) and it has been a game changer! I'm using it for my long fic and my other major WIP Kiss Me Moonstruck right now.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I've done it for a few select lines during Wicked Eyes Wicked Hearts, mostly to underscore how bad Hawke is at speaking Orlesian. But generally I will just note when a character is speaking in a new language.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Dragon Age! I stumbled into it a smidge over a year ago (after playing for 9ish years) and love it so much!

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Cullen/Bethany Hawke

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Oh man, barring my long fic which is my baby and still in progress it would probably have to be my new Cullen POV fic Thirst that digs into the lead up to his crisis during the Perseverance quest. But Kiss Me Moonstruck is my Hawke x f!Trevelyan MatchmakingMoms!AU WIP set during DA2, Act 2 and mannnn nothing makes me smile and laugh like this fic. I can't wait to publish it!