Where I live, the winter solstice is today, is now, in fact. And I am gifting a new fic to @skyboneharper as a belated little happy-birthday present:
“To The End of Love”
Cassandra Pentaghast/Female Trevelyan
Rated G
In which Cassandra shares a romantic dance, and comes to a few realizations.
And if you want some more solstice-appropriate Dragon Age ladies, I’d like to point out my Pentilyet pre-slash from a few years back:
“Solstice”
Cassandra Pentaghast/Josephine Montilyet
Rated G
In which Josephine has a bit of a crush on Cassandra, and tries to do something nice for her.
I hope you all are having a wonderful day full of light and love, whether it marks the longest night or the longest day. <3
Cassandra rests against Josephine on a couch, she has a bandage on her arm. Josephine kisses her head. Both have their eyes closed and are lightly smiling. Drawn for lecriteuse for the Black Emporium Dragon Age rare pair exchange.
Every one of lecriteuse’s prompts was great but the idea of Josephine and Cassandra seeking comfort after a battle was one of those OMG ideas I had to do right away. I imagine this set just after the final battle with Corypheus.
This is a Painter paintover of a 3D render, created in Blender using models extracted from DAI by Padme4000 and Blender+ XPS tools by johnzero7.
I’ve always meant to try using Dragon Age models to set up a render, but this inspired me to actually do it. Specifically, I was inspired by the lack of reference photos of people in exactly the pose I wanted. It turns out making natural looking poses in 3D is about as hard as just drawing them from scratch, but now I know how to use XPS models, so it’s still a win :)
and I am SO EXCITED about all the awesome art and fic I’m going to be procrastinating with today, but especially the two (TWO!) gorgeous pieces of art I was gifted:
A Chance to Rest is a beautiful, intimate portrait of Cassandra and Josephine resting, comforting one another, after the battle with Corypheus. I shed actual tears over how lovely this is.
Leaning Up For a Kiss shows Inquisitor Cadash bending over in the saddle of her nuggalope (!!!) to clasp her beloved Josephine, who rises up to meet her kiss. It’s such a charming and poignant scene, sweet and romantic.
Check out the whole collection here. (Remember to use those filters, and keep an eye on tags! This is a wide-ranging collection, and you only want to see stuff you’ll enjoy.) And if you find any gems, please do share, in case I somehow miss them….
and I am SO EXCITED about all the awesome art and fic I’m going to be procrastinating with today, but especially the two (TWO!) gorgeous pieces of art I was gifted:
A Chance to Rest is a beautiful, intimate portrait of Cassandra and Josephine resting, comforting one another, after the battle with Corypheus. I shed actual tears over how lovely this is.
Leaning Up For a Kiss shows Inquisitor Cadash bending over in the saddle of her nuggalope (!!!) to clasp her beloved Josephine, who rises up to meet her kiss. It’s such a charming and poignant scene, sweet and romantic.
Check out the whole collection here. (Remember to use those filters, and keep an eye on tags! This is a wide-ranging collection, and you only want to see stuff you’ll enjoy.) And if you find any gems, please do share, in case I somehow miss them….
and I am SO EXCITED about all the awesome art and fic I’m going to be procrastinating with today, but especially the two (TWO!) gorgeous pieces of art I was gifted:
A Chance to Rest is a beautiful, intimate portrait of Cassandra and Josephine resting, comforting one another, after the battle with Corypheus. I shed actual tears over how lovely this is.
Leaning Up For a Kiss shows Inquisitor Cadash bending over in the saddle of her nuggalope (!!!) to clasp her beloved Josephine, who rises up to meet her kiss. It’s such a charming and poignant scene, sweet and romantic.
Check out the whole collection here. (Remember to use those filters, and keep an eye on tags! This is a wide-ranging collection, and you only want to see stuff you’ll enjoy.) And if you find any gems, please do share, in case I somehow miss them....
I seem to have written a new story. Pentilyet, for a change. You can find The Dance up on AO3.
“I do not dance,” said Cassandra firmly.
“Oh, come now” said Josephine, sighing. “Can you expect us to believe that Nevarran princesses are not taught such elementary skills?”
“I went to the Seekers when I was twelve years old,” said Cassandra, scowling. She did not mention that the seekers also taught dancing, believing it to be a useful diplomatic tool. That was not relevant.
“If Cassandra cannot or will not dance, she doesn’t need to,” said Lavellan impatiently then. “I’m not certain why I need to, either.”
That brought both Josephine and Leliana’s attention right back to her, which suited Cassandra perfectly.
I dare anyone to read this and not fall in love with Josephine, right along with Cassandra.
This is so wonderfully, deliciously romantic. Reading it is like eating expensive, sophisticated chocolates, one by one, out of a beautiful box: each bite different, complex, deeply satisfying, extravagantly enjoyable, masterfully crafted.
@skyboneharper, I adore you so, you marvellous, brilliant, beautiful human being. Thank you for this amazing gift.
So I'm at work with the camera pointed literally right at me lmao but *cracks knuckles* smut prompts! But just ideas, feel free to ignore any of them. Prompt 1) merribela fisting with assertive top!Merrill receiving Isabela's hand.
They’ve drunk their way through the Hanged Man’s brews and all of Isabela’s cheerfully stolen bottles. Fenris grumbles about the theft, but Merrill knows Fenris is never quite as cranky as he pretends; he lets them leave, after all. And he smiles, even when he pretends not to, cracking right back into a scowl if he thinks she’s noticed, so Merrill always pretends not to either. It’s only polite, after all.
Tonight they’re in the Hanged Man, full moon dipping low and peeping through the door in brightwork slices. It’s the kind of cool-dank night where they sag against one another like fallen trees, Isabela’s laughter rippling the air as she sweeps her winnings into her arms.
“Ooh, I’m feeling lucky tonight,” Isabela purrs, stroking Merrill’s hair. She twists and teases, fingers playing along the edge of Merrill’s ear, and Merrill arches into it like a sunflower tracking the solar swing.
Anders rolls his eyes, throwing his cards on the table. He makes a face as his elbow lands in a puddle of beer, sopping up his sleeve. “You’ve gotten better at cheating, you mean.”
Isabela flashes a bright-knife smile. “Ah-ah, you know the rules. If it’s not caught—”
“—it doesn’t count,” he finishes wearily.
Hawke presses herself against Isabela’s bosom, all squished cleavage and pleading eyes. “Now that you’ve taken my coin, buy a lady a beer?”
“For a lady? Of course.” Isabela chuckles, squeezing her arm around Merrill. “Corff! A raspberry wit for the lady! And whatever you scrape off the bung for this one!” she adds, thumping the top of Hawke’s head.
(Continue reading on AO3.)
Or: ‘how did a fisting prompt hit almost 14k words?’
I had a lot of fun writing this and apologize for this taking… uh, 5 months to get back to you. <3
GUYS GUYS GUYS, go read this now, this is SO MUCH MORE than a prompt-fill about fisting. I mean, there is that, yes; and the emotional resonance of every act of lovemaking, every act of kink, is unusually well-done.
But it’s also about how people come together and fit together and help to fix each others’ weak and broken bits. It’s about how love can look like all kinds of different things, how family can look like all kinds of different things. It’s about Merrill, and who she is, and how she is, and how she is becoming.
It’s extraordinary, genuinely nuanced and complex, and the emotions feel very, very authentic and beautiful and difficult and real. Go read it!!!
The Organization for Transformative Works is raising funds again.
This is the group behind AO3 and other fan-participation communities. I know that there are a thousand-thousand organizations with their hats out, and a million-million worthy and vulnerable people and groups who need financial support. So, maybe today, it seems frivolous to give money to an organization that supports getting fanworks on the internet.
But honestly, fanfic is... not that superficial. Just on the level of creative expression, it has value. And for anyone who is underrepresented in mainstream media -- LGTBQ people, POC and racialized minorities, people with disabilities, women, unconventionally-attractive people, etc., etc., etc. -- it can be an absolute godsend.
Representation matters. When mainstream media won’t provide it, we the fans can make it ourselves, and share it, and find it, and OTW helps that happen. I also believe that the popularity and increasing visibility of fandom helps drive mainstream media to actually offer more profound and varied and widespread representation.
So if you can, give the OTW a bit of money, or share the donation link, or even just go and consume some fanworks on AO3. Representation matters, fanwork that is subversive and representative matters, and OTW is a big part of why this good stuff is happening.
the gallows in paradise, 25k words of Calpernia/Leliana. The war against Corypheus approaches its natural end. Leliana finds his general, Calpernia, half-dead in a river and attempts to make her a tool for Inquisition use. But knives cut both ways, and Calpernia discovers a mystery to unravel Leliana’s entire world.
Written for @flore-purpureo as part of Wintersend this year. I had the pleasure of filling an excellent prompt. I… definitely forgot to post this after we did the reveals last week. But if you’d like a bunch of words about Calpernia and Leliana, featuring weird lyrium ghost stuff, heated debates, awkward sex, enemies to lovers, and a pretty treacherous world state–this might be your bag of apples, I guess. (s/o to @sunspeared for looking this over when I was lost in the wilderness.)
read on AO3
“Skyhold is empty.” Calpernia let the silence fall expertly after the statement. The air chilled. Havar rustled a wooden dish at her table. “The ink on your treaties—dust. Your armies stand at attention, but the pilgrims? They no longer come.”
“Light reaches far.” Leliana gave a little shrug. “When it exists at every outpost across Thedas, there’s no need to journey all the way to the sun.”
The corner of her mouth curled with interest. “Fascinating,” she said, “how you do not deny it.”
No words then—but Leliana watched her eyes move as they searched her face, as though caught by distraction. The mood in them changed, curiosity giving way an intrusive, prying look—one she’d recognized in Josephine’s eyes often, once, when they spoke more frequently.
It reminded her of servants trying to open oysters at one of Celene’s more ostentatoire parties. How they ran a tiny, curved knife along the jagged edge, until they found the precise spot to crack the shell open. She had watched a young elven girl do it, once, and find a dirty river pearl inside to pocket.
Her focus snapped, quick as a spark, and she turned her head back to the window.
In Heavier Air - Cassandra/Female Inquisitor - T - 8300 words
This year for @wintersend-exchange I wrote about Cassandra and an avvar mage inquisitor, exploring religion & Avvar worldview & Cassandra’s Feelings About Andraste. Also, sexy wrestling. For @nomorecaffeineforyou.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Morrigan: dreams, hungers, and Leliana.
My Wintersend fic for @lecriteuse! I really love this ship and honestly the prompt was an excuse to write the fic I always dreamed of for them. ;-; Thank you for the lovely prompt, I had a lot of fun writing them!
Also many thanks to @fireferns and @ialpiriel for reading through, betaing, and generally letting me scream in their general direction. <3
This fic is BREATHTAKINGLY good. I am so deeply grateful to have received this gift. It’s so much more than I could have hoped for in every way. The characterization is perfect and nuanced, the relationship is explored with so much shading and depth, the language is beautiful and precise and cutting.
This is a bit of a pre-Wintersend treat, for @sweettasteofbitter, because they are wonderful and I wanted to give them a treat...
BUUUUUUUT then I went and accidentally TOLD the Wintersend pinch-hit group I was writing this treat, because Your Old Auntie here doesn’t understand how these Google Group things work (and/or I can’t follow clear instructions for interacting with the group, sigh). And I thought, you know, I don’t want to taint the pure waters of the Wintersend Exchange with my non-anonymous non-surprise treat.
And so:
Spa Day
Gen, with a big dose of Pentilyet pre-slash
In which Josephine gets treated to a wonderful retreat at a high-end spa, because no one deserves it more than she does.
t, I hope you like this, and that it’s a fun thing for you to have right before the REAL Wintersend gifts go live. You’re a wonderful person, thanks for being awesome, and thanks for putting this excellent prompt out there, because I enjoyed writing this more than is really reasonable.
We’re approaching the home stretch! I can’t tell you how excited we are to see all the incredible work you’ve been creating all month. Just a few reminders for your benefit:
Today is the default deadline. If you won’t be able to complete your fill for Wintersend this year, please let us know at wintersend.exch at gmail. No shame or judgment! Life happens. Tell us ASAP so our pinch-hitters have plenty of time to work. (And if you still want to pinch-hit, sign up here!)
The deadline for submitting work is Friday, March 17 at midnight EDT.
If you have any questions or concerns, please email us sooner rather than later! We don’t bite, and we’re happy to help.
You’re all wonderful–see you in a week! You can do it!
Howdy, friend, and thank you in advance for making something for me. I can’t wait to see/read it!! I really hope there’s something in my prompts that you’re excited about. I’m SO looking forward to seeing what you do with these, how you interpret everything and add onto it in your own unique way.
I’m not going to re-iterate my prompts here, but I wanted to give you some extra information about me and why I chose these particular prompts….
General stuff:
- As you probably gathered from my requests, I like happy endings, romance, and fluff. But that’s certainly not the only kind of fanwork I like, and I do understand that not everyone is into that, so don’t feel you have to go hard in that direction. But I’d definitely prefer something that isn’t bleakly dark.
- I am fine with any rating in pretty much any of the prompts, go with whatever you’re comfortable producing! In my requests, I’ve put down the rating I think would work well with what I have in mind, but you do you. Characters are more important to me than rating.
- Things I am into: Unconventionally attractive bodies and faces, fluff, smut, kissing, hurt/comfort, seemingly-unrequited pining, friends-to-lovers, humour, canon-accurate cultural portrayals of Qunari/dwarves/elves, appearances by characters not explicitly requested (any DA-universe characters are welcome), OCs (if you want to put your own Inquisitor/Hawke/Warden into one of my requests, I would be very honoured!).
- Things I am not into: Darkfic, pain or extreme BDSM/kinks, AUs, dub-con or non-con… I mean, as long as no one is unrelentingly miserable, and any sex stuff stays mostly on the vanilla end of the spectrum, I will be perfectly happy.
As for my requests, here’s a bit of context:
1. Sera/Josephine:
I love this pairing so much, I mean, it absolutely tickles me to consider these two together. If you decide to do this one, I hope you have fun with it. I will admit that I am a bit of a stickler about Sera’s accent and speech patterns, so that’s something to keep in mind if you’re a writer. Mostly, I think this is a fun and potentially really hot pairing, and it would make me very happy to see another piece of art or writing for it — there just isn’t enough! :D
2. Cassandra/Femquisitor, jealousy:
What can I say, I have a weakness for your standard, tropey, ridiculous jealousy story. It lends itself to hurt/comfort and insecurity/reassurance, both of which I am super into, heh. I think that, beyond the tropetastic nature of this request, there’s a lot of possibilities for exploring characters: how would they react to feeling jealous, how would they react to their partner’s jealousy, how does it impact their relationship, how do they resolve it and move on?
3. Morrigan/Leliana:
Another pairing I really can’t get enough of. And… to be honest, this is my porny request, haha. If you’re a writer considering this request, and you’d like to do some really in-depth character explorations of these two, that is fantastic… as long as there is also sex, please. Also for writers: I’m fine with a fade-to-black if this request appeals to you, but you’re not comfortable writing explicit sex scenes. But I just want these two to bone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sometimes I have very simple tastes.
4. Isabela/Josephine, lady pirates!
“Do you ever wonder what lies at the edges of the map, past the seas?” - Josephine
I want to see what happens if Isabela somehow ends up with Josephine aboard her ship. So I would be fine with an AU — still set in Thedas, please! — in which Josephine never became Ambassador to the Inquisition… though I would also be happy to see Josephine somehow end up on Isabela’s ship after the Inquisition, or perhaps before, when she was a straight-laced young lass visiting home after her disastrous stint as a bard…. How does Josie adapt to life on a pirate ship? How does Isabela respond to the worldly and dignified Lady Montilyet? I love the idea of these two falling into unexpected infatuation, and I’d love to see how you bring them together.
5. Leliana character portrait:
My long-shot weirdo non-shipping request. :) I’d love to see this one filled, because I find Leliana fascinating, more and more as time goes by. I always romanced her in DA:O because I thought she was adorable. Encountering her in DA:I is so interesting, trying to reconcile what she was with what she now is. Especially when her personal quest, and her candidacy for Divine, are considered. What I’m hoping for with this one is an exploration (whether visual or written) of her character in DA:I, something that reveals the foundations of her character, why she changed so much, where she might be headed…. (Extra points and all my love forever if you’d consider tackling the Leliana-as-lyrium-ghost possibility, because I find that so odd and difficult to process.)
That’s about it. More than anything, I want you to enjoy this. I want you to have fun creating something out of one of these prompts. I know that if you’re having fun with it and enjoying it, I will absolutely love whatever you make.
Thank you again for making something for me. I hope you enjoy my ridiculous prompts, and I look forward to being able to thank you directly. <3
