what would you give?

shoutout to the woman from my high school martial arts class who liked to get me in joint locks and then joke about how I was easy to catch. you cannot comprehend how psychosexually formative that was for me

imagine, if you will, having an adolescent half-crush on someone way older than you, which is also confusingly blurred up with admiration of them as a role model. now imagine that you and that person are in a social environment where it is acceptable to (platonically, consensually) choke someone. I think I was very normal about it considering the circumstances

she would demonstrate takedowns on her husband (also in the class, and who was not a small man) before we got to try them and the first time I saw her twist him around and down onto the floor like it was easy my entire abdomen clenched

draculaisagothwizzard-deactivat

I cannot stress enough how eager this guy was to be manhandled (womanhandled?) and flipped around by his wife. he was her de facto guinea pig whenever she got to teach and I never saw him unenthusiastic about it. he'd set himself up for a joint lock fully smiling. the other adults in the class occasionally teased him about it (being so quick to let your wife put you in a submission hold tends to raise a few eyebrows), and I always kind of wanted to defend him but what would I have said? like, don't worry. I won't judge you. I also like being pinned down by your wife

That last sentance really hits ya like a psychosexually formative takedown

#AMASTAIR #the kind of shit amarys and alistair were doing during and after the blight actually

dragon-age-tournament

Ship Tournament — Round #1 / Match 13 of 88

Bhelen/Rica

"Bhelen and Rica are so interesting for the different perspectives you have on each character from either the dwarf noble or commoner origins. Though Bhelen treats her well you're also left wondering how much Bhelen actually cares about Rica. He goes on to make her his queen by inquisition (At least if the warden was Rica's sibling. As far as I know it's unknown if this is still the case for all other origins.) Is it for politics, or genuine affection? And then on Rica's end: does she care about Bhelen beyond being her ticket out of Dust Town? The ambiguity of it all appeals to me."

vs. Anders/Solas

"For propaganda I am linking this sunlight-shunlight post"

Which is the better ship?

Bhelen/Rica

Anders/Solas

Voting ended onApr 11

#i love ambiguous hetslop. i do. but that solanders propaganda reached into my brain #polls

i think herald of andraste anders/solas would be the most insane ship possible bc the first flirt line would go a bit like this:

solas: "i suppose i'll stay then to help with the breach... i was unsure. you know how it is, as an apostate surrounded by chantry forces-" anders, interrupting: "i would drown this entire village in blood to keep you safe. have no doubt." solas: "...what?" anders: "what? oh, sorry i zoned out for a second there. anyway don't worry haha :) i'll protect you :)"

#“lets be revolutionaries doomed by the narrative and disliked by writers named [h]epler... together..... <3”#“taking regrettable means to achieve the world one desires”#“healer has the bloodiest hands”#“chew your leg off to escape prison 7 times if necessary”#kill a beloved friend/ex bc they request it after having been changed into something else against their will bc of fear of magic.....#etc etc#anders being the opposite of mythal in that he's justice coded but like. ran a free clinic and then tried to die to start a revolution#also the sheer ben affleck smoking meme of solas falling for a human grey warden would be. funny.#also man. what uhhhh. happens if anders drinks the well(?) justice bass boosted x 10(?) fjdkshfjdsgf?

further conversations:

solas: "you know... there were other options you could have considered in kirkwall." anders: "yeah, everyone's always telling me about those :/" solas: "did you think of blowing up two chantries in separate areas at the same time, to split the templars' attention?" anders: "what? no??" solas: "it's basic tactics, you divide up your enemy if they're stronger than you are." anders: "but the... death toll?" solas: "regrettable, certainly. but do you believe in your goals, or not?" varric: "hey :) let's stop talking for a while :)"

then, furthermore: consider how anders was trying to give away all his stuff before blowing up the chantry, bc it was more or less a suicidal plan.

and the common headcanon that solas left his jawbone necklace behind after his orb broke, if romanced. and also him telling people not to follow him. and explicitly saying he's on a dinan'shiral.

once anders gets a dictionary to figure out what he said, he is putting in 1000% effort to Save Solas By Any Means Necessary :)

#the sheer comedy and then angst potential of this ship is unparalleled.....#also there is Simply no way my boy anders would let solas go into any sort of confinement/tranquility as an omelas style solution haha#he'd be biting people#literally#he would drown the world in blood to prevent this... and he's valid for that#solanders

ok but i love solas teaching anders how to revolution lol. solas gains approval most when someone wants him to talk about his special interest, like the fade/spirits for the inquisitor. and revolution for anders. and, like, imagine what solas is going to think once/if anders gains the proper inquisitor levels of power. like, solas has been there, as a favoured of mythal. what would their conversations be like about it? which one of them is going to be the optimist, excited about how this strange twist of fate leaves anders in a position to effect so much change in the structure of the chantry? which one of them will be more cynical about this (especially in the light of jaws of hakkon)

yeah!!

i think anders has a leg up on a canon inq in terms of his capability to make actual change just bc he's. very determined and ideologically driven and would not be placated by any half measures. and i must... advocate for a chantry schism if he's the herald... hahaha. like surely the regular chantry would see it as a threat that this seeming Two Time Bomber is now allowed to live at all? and that frees him and leliana to do whatever heretical bullshit they want. and meanwhile solas has been around the block enough times that he can point out things that anders hasn't picked up about situations bc of his inexperience. and if we assume all those rebel mages are anders fans... they'd sign up VERY quickly once they hear it's him.

and so the beginnings of this group would be very mage-heavy - which also allows them, if they're actually directed properly and not being bandits, to rapidly provide all kinds of medical care and infrastructure to help alleviate the rifts. and then regular people will start thinking "huh these guys aren't even that bad. i actually like having someone who can fix my broken arm or cast a cold spell on my cellar. why did we need to pay so much chantry tax for the templars again-?"

and also, this brings in the elves. and i think as bizarre as solas' opinions are, having someone who's extremely not andrastian and knows that much about elven history (even in solas' bitter/guilt ridden take on it) would give anders a better understanding of the world. same with the spirits! meeting someone who's fully detached from any chantry or other faith and is just interacting with spirits easily and not having problems with "demons" would probably make anders rethink a lot.

plus i think that would be wild for solas if a justice-coded person was actually listening to his opinions and taking them into account, and not pressuring him to do stuff he didn't want to do. mythal is still the best of them! and he is not going to unpack all that regardless! 🥚👍

i just thought of another wild thing. because. it's very much at the core of solas that he has those regrets. and anders is poised to play with at least the tranquility part in a very interesting way. can you fcking imagine anders telling him about karl? i'm not sure if in this "the herald is with a VERY underdog and controversial group that is basically hiding from the authorities to start with" cassandra would be with them; but even without her and her companion quest, there's still asunder, there's still cole. anders would be AGGRESIVELY anti-tranquility and he's carrying a cure within him that now can be distributed.

imagine anders asking solas to help out with that since he knows fade and the spirits. asking him if he knows any spirits that would like to come and help; any spirits of curiosity that want to see the physical realm but don't want to be a body-stealing demon, spirits of compassion and justice that are HORRIFIED at the concept and want nothing more but to help. solas would be seeing a consequence of one of his regrets being systematically undone victim by victim. how can it not remind him of his old days, of how he freed people from the vallaslin? how can this not be the purest form of hope?

YEAH!!!

also consider: solas saying that anyone who kills mythal deserves eternal torment and doing his little ironic chuckle about it. and then repeatedly saying it's a path he wouldn't even wish on his enemies...

so what if solas' dinan'shiral plan WAS, actually, as in that veilguard concept art, to tranquilize himself with the blight and then close himself into the black city. and presumably anders would go to.... extreme extents to prevent that from happening.... and he's even a grey warden so he'd be immune to blight....... and would take any means necessary to save solas since he couldn't save karl....

#long post#solanders#also there's the angle that solas may have just tranquilized felassan by mistake while trying to kill him#so who knows if anders could just dredge him out too

oh he would.

solas is trying to tranquilize himself and felassan creates a somniari path for anders to come in guns blazing (justice's guns) and wrest the lyrium dagger out of his hand all cool like