too pretty to die

brooke • 29 • she/they pfp by needlesslycryptic

[maagisterpavus]

welcome!

brooke | 29 | she/they

personal/multi-fandom blog. mostly Dragon Age these days, with plenty of OCposting.

asks/dms are always open, and please feel free to tag me anytime!

My Main Dragon Age OCs:

Rowan Lavellan | Rogue | ❤️ Dorian [Masterpost] ⤷ See also: #Shadow Rowan

Varien Aldwir | Mage | 🧡 Harding [Masterpost]

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[neirr-art]

Davrin and Assan

[femmedefandom]

it’s about how Varl has always been positioned in the shadow of death. how when we meet him he is guarding a gate with his life. how he reassures himself after Vala’s passing with the belief that there is no better death than in saving others. how his mother was a war chief who raised him to fight and die honorably if need be. how he falls in love with a Gravesinger, one surrounded by death who guides and comforts those in their final moments. how his very last act is to try to save the life of an innocent. yet how he’ll never get to know of the life that innocent will lead going forward, nor of the life that all his love would bring forth. in this essay I will—

[spectralsuggestions]

i like the concept of soulmates—not a “you’re destined to meet me, and love me” kind of soulmate, but a “i’d pick you, every time.” kind of soulmate. a “no matter what happens, and what has happened, i want to go through it with you.” kind of soulmate. a “i love you by choice, and you’re a blessing, and i’m going to continue thinking about you this way not because i have to but because i want to.” kind of soulmate. a “you help me rest easy when everything is difficult” kind of soulmate. a “in every possible outcome, i want you there, to share it with me.” kind of soulmate.

[galifreyas-deactivated20190321]

Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you. In my arms lies Eternity.

[artist-rat]

the good old times…….. when the world was ending but at least you could hold your bf every single day

[sakizremade]

@mutuals send me a 🍓 and ill compliment u!

[astrariums-archived]

[standingcowrrdly]

do my dark circles and deteriorating health make me look hot

[maagisterpavus]

Dragon Age Kiss Week Day 7: Sneaky

Pairing: Dorian/m!Lavellan Word Count: 1.4k Rating: T Summary: Dorian and Inquisitor Lavellan share a moment in a (literal) hole in the wall.

Read below or on AO3

Something tugs at Dorian’s arm.

The book he’d been carrying clatters to the ground and falls open against the stone of the battlements, pages quivering in the breeze as he’s dragged stumbling out of the sunlight and into the dark. Well, Dorian thinks, this could very well be it. It had been an unexpectedly pleasant tenure with the Inquisition, at least. A flirt with adventure and righteousness in which he likely would have never partaken back home. It’s a shame it has to end like this, cut short by him being snatched through a crumbling hole in the side of the castle that the Inquisitor, for all of his power and money and influence, had never bothered to fix.

Typical. His Worship always did like his things a little ragged.

Dorian raises his right hand, palm cupped face-up as a small flame crackles to life within. It only flickers bright enough to illuminate a pair of steely eyes and a sly little grin, and he barely has a moment to exhale a sigh of relief before it’s swallowed up into a kiss. Gloved fingers slide into his hair, and as the tip of his tongue grazes the edge of a chapped lower lip, it comes away with the faintest trace of lavender and mint.

Rowan.

Sneaky bastard.

“You nearly scared me,” Dorian says, breathless, as his heart begins to calm, “half to death.”

Rowan only rolls his eyes, a fond little flicker beneath his thick lashes. “Such dramatics.”

“I’m serious! What if you had been one of those evil Magisters, come all the way down from the north to drag me back kicking and screaming by my ear, hm? Would anyone have even noticed?” Dorian leans in closer, bracing a hand on the stone wall beside Rowan’s head.

“Believe me, we all would have noticed,” Rowan deadpans.

“You kid, but you would miss me, admit it.”

Their gazes lock, and it must be the slight upturn at the corner of Dorian’s mouth that gets Rowan’s composure to break. His eyes have adjusted to the dim light enough by now that he can see the smile that unfolds across the elf’s face, the broken beams of sunlight from up above glittering against his teeth.

“I’m sorry,” Rowan says, hardly sounding like he means it. He moves his hand from the back of Dorian’s head down along the side of his face, until a leather-clad thumb brushes over his bottom lip. “I couldn’t help myself. You were just looking… extraordinarily pretty.”

“As opposed to ordinarily pretty?” Dorian arches a brow, and Rowan turns his head to roll his eyes again. “No, please do go on. I’m desperate to know the distinction.”

Rowan looks back at him, narrows those keen eyes of his, and tugs him in close enough that they’re trading breaths.

“Don’t push your luck,” he murmurs.

As heat begins to simmer in Dorian’s belly, he figures it’s probably a good idea to heed that advice. He tilts his head a bit and waits a moment, and then is swiftly rewarded for his obedience as Rowan draws him in for another kiss. This one is hungrier than the last; not desperate, exactly, not even needy, but rather laced with the palpable and near-insatiable want in which Dorian knows Rowan so rarely allows himself to indulge. It rapidly devolves into a messy slide of lips, teeth, and tongue, and as Dorian grips Rowan’s waist and presses him into the wall, he thinks that even if the whole fortress were to crumble around them, he would hardly notice.

Eventually, he abandons Rowan’s mouth and begins a treacherous trail down along his jawline, his heart pounding alongside the labored breaths in his ear. He follows the line of Rowan’s throat until his lips hit fabric, and after lifting a hand to pull it aside, draws the supple skin there between his teeth. Low enough that the mark left behind can be hidden by that ever-present scarf of his, and firm enough that it won’t have faded when Dorian inevitably goes hunting for it later.

His efforts earn him a hitch of breath in Rowan’s throat, and the tightening of a hand in his hair. Lovely.

Dorian gives one last tug at the skin before he drags his swollen lips back up the length of Rowan’s neck. Then, he’s finally about to gratify the growing ache between his legs with a roll of the hips, until—

“Inquisitor?”

Dorian doesn’t let the echo of the Commander’s voice stop him. Rowan, on the other hand, shoves one palm between them to push Dorian back, and claps the other over his mouth. They stay like that for several moments, a tangle of limbs and bated breaths, until the heavy-booted footsteps begin to fade. Rowan remains vigilant as always, only dropping his hand once he’s certain that the silence belongs entirely to them.

“Really?” Dorian chastises, once he can speak again. “What did you muzzle me for?”

“Your voice carries.”

“Well, I wasn’t doing much talking, as I recall.”

“A cautionary measure.”

Rowan shrugs a shoulder, and Dorian shrugs it off. Alright. That’s fair.

He leans closer again to pick up where they’d left off, until he notices that Rowan’s eyes continuously flicker towards the haphazard opening in the wall as if he’s anticipating somebody’s return. As the realization dawns on him, Dorian can’t help the amused smile that crosses his face. “You’re hiding from him in here, aren’t you?”

“No! I—” Rowan sputters for a second, then presses his lips together. Dorian’s cocked eyebrow must have been enough for him to give up on saving face. “He found my tree in the gardens. And the spot in the rookery. And the nook in the wine cellar.”

Dorian chuckles, bending his neck to lean his forehead against Rowan’s. He supposes he can’t really blame the young man. Any number of curious eyes or requests or invitations follow him wherever he goes, whether inside the walls of Skyhold or miles away. Even his own quarters are too predictable a hiding place, and barely private in the daytime hours anyhow. Dorian must admit that his heart aches for him every time he sees the Inquisitor surrounded by a throng of nobles competing for his attention, stiff and wearing that manufactured smile that never comes close to reaching his eyes. Any tiny shred of privacy he gets is a luxury, and Dorian can only feel blessed—chosen, even, and what an incredible feat that is—that Rowan elects to spend any of it in his company.

“Yes, well…” Dorian reaches for Rowan’s left hand, lifting it up from his side and pressing his own against it, palm to palm. “Forgive me for saying as much, but you have become rather difficult to miss, my dear.” His eyes flicker to the sickly green light that leaks through the seams of Rowan’s glove, then spills over Dorian’s knuckles as he laces their fingers.

(It’s been shining brighter lately. Getting worse. Dorian tries not to think about it.)

Rowan folds his fingers over Dorian’s hand and gives it a squeeze, undoubtedly to extinguish the reminder. “Mhm. And yet you still thought I was some evil magister come to snatch you away into the shadows?”

“Well, unlike yourself, I do try to not make a habit of loitering around parts of the castle that look as though they could collapse at any moment. What an unpleasant way to go, not to mention terribly undignified.”

“Worked out for you this time, didn’t it?” Rowan offers him another one of those little smiles, the rare kind that Dorian knows is reserved only for them. He supposes it had worked out, yes. So much had. More than he could have ever let himself dare to imagine. Dorian leans in again to greedily affirm the notion with another press of the lips, unashamed to let it linger.

When they separate, Rowan leaves his eyes shut for a moment before he exhales a sigh. “I should go.”

Dorian feels entirely disinclined to let him. “I suppose,” he concedes with a playfully weary sigh of his own, “Thedas still needs saving yet.”

Rowan leaves him with one last wry quirk of the lips before he slyly slips from Dorian’s arms and slinks out of the ruined archway. Dorian watches him go, watches as he turns his face towards the sun and looks out over the mountains, relishing in those last few moments of peace before he disappears back into his duty once again.

Dorian smiles. Then, as he goes to push a hand through his hair and finds it rather tousled from its usual shape, laughs.

The Inquisitor likes his things a little ragged indeed.

[mooreaux]

The prodigal son of house Pavus…

(This pic is even better when u know the snake is his shapeshifting boyfriend)

[artschoolglasses]

Everyone's favourite Tevinter mage 🖤

Dragon Age: Inquisition

[gallamorte]

Two of my favorite things about Bellara are 1) she is wildly uncomfortable talking to children and 2) one of her pre-battle lines is "Oh, is it time again? Great!". Incredible female character. Huge nerd, excitable optimist, bad with kids, craves violence

[maagisterpavus]

alternate LIs!

rowan/blackwall?

and shadow!rowan/emmrich 👀

Send me an OC + alternate LI!

Oh, we wanna talk about Rowan/Blackwall? The pairing with the worst ship name on the face of the earth? A portmanteau so terrible that it accurately represents what would become of this relationship?

We wanna talk about Blowan? Let’s talk about Blowan.

Okay, first and foremost I do think this one would have some trouble getting off the ground at all. When I played a little bit of Blackwall’s romance it really struck me just how EARLY in the game you have to lock it in, and how intentional and forward Inky has to be about it. And ‘forward with his romantic intentions’ is not Rowan, at all lol. He would never in a million years say the whole “I know you like me” thing in that first scene when you get to Skyhold. Assuming we can set that aside though… I mean, I can see Rowan being into him? At first glance Blackwall very much has that strong and noble warrior vibe that never fails to get Ro a little hot under the collar. He’s competent and funny and loyal, all of which Rowan appreciates. I think some of Blackwall’s attraction to Ro might be driven by that hero-worship thing he has going on with any Inquisitor, which Rowan wouldn’t be entirely comfortable with, but at the end of the day Blackwall would be very protective of him and Rowan would like the feeling of safety with somebody. Buuuuuuut…. things would get dicey when he starts to sniff out that Blackwall is definitely hiding something from him. I think he’d try his damndest to look past it though, if he was falling in love. He’d try to convince himself that he’s just being paranoid. All Grey Wardens have to keep secrets, right?

WELL, shit would hit the fan after Revelations. (Or actually slightly before, when Rowan wakes up naked in a barn to find that Blackwall has LEFT him there??? wtf man, this was rowan’s first time and he trusted u….) Rowan has a big problem with dishonesty. He hates liars. He already has a really hard time with the whole thing in canon, but that level of betrayal when he’s in a relationship with the guy…. Oof. Yeah, there’s no coming back from that. Because he is well known for his terrible kneejerk reactions in times of pain, I’m tempted to say that in the throes of his heartbreak that Rowan might just exile Blackwall Rainier from the Inquisition right then and there, and not even bother keeping him around till Corypheus is dealt with. He wouldn’t be able to have Blackwall around and look him in the face and have that reminder every day.

Honestly, I don’t know what would become of Rowan in this verse after Trespasser. He loses his clan, then he loses Blackwall, then there’s Solas’ betrayal, then he loses his arm…. idk how he’d manage all that pain, tbh, or if he even could. IDK ITS REALLY SAD I’m gonna tell myself that maybe just maybe he’s desperate enough for some kind of comfort that he tracks down Thom and tries to forgive him but I don’t KNOW.

I guess you could say that Blackwall is really…… blowin’ it…….

Anyway. Let’s talk about Shadow!Rowan and Emmrich, who are arguably much healthier. And soooooo cute, honestly. Even if he’s going to deny it in the beginning, Emmrich really is the whole package as far as Rowan is concerned—intelligent, competent, genuine, humble, and handsome. Sure, the necromancy thing freaks him out a bit, but he could probably get past it. (And once he did, he could sit there and listen to Emmrich talk nerdy for hours.) As for Emmrich, I really love how much he admires Rook of any background (romanced or not) and I could see it blossoming into something more with Rowan. Like Ro’s canon LIs, Emmrich would most definitely be intrigued by him. He likes a good puzzle, and Rowan fits that bill. I think he’d really delight in figuring out how to crack that prickly exterior.

But above all, Emmrich is kind and gentle and patient, which is something that Rowan really needs. Emmrich would be so loving and gentle with him that it actually makes me weep. And I like that Emmrich is older too? I can see his maturity and wisdom being really grounding for Ro, and going a long way in Rowan feeling comfortable with opening up to him.

They might have a hard time figuring things out post-game though, because I don’t see Rowan being thrilled about a life in the Necropolis and Emmrich would still struggle with the fact that Rowan is reckless and constantly putting himself in danger.

Also I just really like their imagery as a couple tho. The Dignified Professor and his skrunkly wet cat.

[owlfish-art]

Lace Harding

I was literally fascinated by this little sunflower. She's adorable! 🌻

[ct-offical-sexyman-deactivated2]

Send me an OC + an alternate love interest for them and I’ll tell you what I think of the idea

[onewingedangels]

horizon zero dawn: the frozen wilds