Not So Quick To Fade

First Dragon Age ArtFight Attack of the season let’s go!! This is Dawes who belongs to @ratbagjasper

I’ve been wanting to draw him for so long and I’m happy I got to for ArtFight! In this drawing, Harding put a flower crown on his head and it surprised him a little 💕

You can find me on artfight below the cut!

Attack no 5 is Athima Ingellvar for Elle!

Happy Wednesday, y'all! TYSM for the tags @serensama @jenn2d2 @lemondelighted @woundedsoul12 @zennihilation @tevivinter @redaresss! Always love seeing what y'all are up to!! 💕

Ohohoho please bear with me as I cackle with glee and share my first-ever attempt at an Elek POV!! 🫣 (lol didn't mean to ryhme there)

Yes, (un??)fortunately Ayla meets Elek early on in the Modern AU fic I'm working on with @sunny374940 & @lycheecatee, before Em is even a little twinkle in her eye. 🥲

And while that might be bad news for her (we don't call him Evil Ex Elek for nothing y'all), it's frankly GREAT news for Neve's fellow lawyer and amateur boxer on the side, Elek. Who finds himself getting a bit hung up on the goblin queen after she crashes his law firm's Satinalia party with her roomie Queenie, leading to Ayla x Elek's meet-cute and one night stand.

Canonically, Ayla doesn't do serious relationships at all until she meets Emmrich. As a Warden, she just doesn't feel like they're an option or worth her time. And Modern AU Ayla is very much the same. Which of course just makes Elek want to pin her down even more. And after being nothing more than a casual fling for a few months, he finally wears her down into taking a stab at something more serious with him.

But as Sunny put it, "He had no idea what he was asking for."

Elek made a satisfied sigh as he leaned back against the headboard. He wasn't sure what the hell had gotten into her, but his Shortcake was in rare form tonight. A snicker slipped out of him, and he shook his head.

…Guess you could pretty much say that about any night Ayla slept over.

Which was more and more often now, thank the fucking Maker. He'd had just about all he could take of those run-ins with Tabris during his morning piss.

Elek grabbed the pillows they'd knocked onto the floor and tossed them back into place with a shudder. Honestly, he had no fucking clue what he'd ever done to make Ayla's roommate so pissy with him all the damn time, but he definitely didn't need to be the recipient of those glares she and Gallus loved to give him over breakfast. His lips twitched up into a smirk.

If you could even call that disgusting coffee Gallus makes, 'breakfast'.

Nope—he didn't miss any of that shit one bit. Give him his Shortcake, a nice good fuck in his own bed, and a fresh cup from that new top-of-the-line espresso maker he'd picked up from Nugstone—and he was a happy man.

Elek swiped the remote for the blinds off his nightstand and flipped them over to blackout mode before taking an embarrassing amount of time adjusting the pillows on Ayla's side of the bed. Even though she'd definitely end up wrapped around him with her head hogging half his own damn pillow by the end of the night. He caught himself smiling.

As if he'd have it any other way.

Although Elek was pretty annoyed when he realized just how much he'd started to miss Ayla on the nights she spent back at her place. Way more than he should.

Sure, they were together now—finally—but he'd had girlfriends before.

And being with them never felt like this.

He wasn't used to being some pathetic simp who didn't enjoy a night to himself now and then, and Elek couldn't say he really cared for the feeling all that much. Of course, he liked Ayla (a whole damn lot, actually), and he counted himself lucky as hell she was his. But whatever they had between them was a lot more…

Well, whatever the fuck it was seemed to have lodged itself in a pretty inconvenient place inside of him. 'Cause it felt much harder to let off the gas even though he felt himself hurtling off the deep end, like the pedal was stuck on his fucking Bugatti.

And he was heading straight for the edge of a cliff.

Gently taggin' pals below to show us your WIPs if you got 'em! 💕 In the meantime, please enjoy my fav take from Rose regarding Elek so far:

"I like him but also there’s that lingering feeling of dickheadery afoot" -LycheeCatee🌹

I got my ArtFight profile finished literally at the last possible second but I’m very excited!! I have a lot of Dragon Age characters on there, (including my new Veilguard oc Dove De Riva who I will be playing next since I finished Rook’s playthrough!) as well as some others from various fandoms and original stories of mine. Feel free to check it out if you’re curious! Happy ArtFight!

Find me here!