I'm Crow (amiablecrow), and my favourite video games have eldritch abominations.
I enjoy writing the sensuous and uncanny
Catch me writing and drawing mostly for Dragon Age and Dishonored
I'm on Ao3, Bluesky, and Dreamwidth as amiablecrow
Links: #my writing | #my art | Fic Masterpost
DATV Fanfic Highlights
Tension | Davrin/Lucanis Pre-Relationship | 1,000 words
The tension between them is thick enough that it could be cut by the knife Lucanis is holding.
# Antagonistic Flirting
Spite Isekai: Modern Demon in Thedas | Gen | 7,000 words
Spite takes out an interdimensional Craigslist roommate ad. He does not ask permission first.
# Crack treated seriously
A Working Relationship | Lucanis/Rook Pre-Canon | about 100k words
A mage walks into a trap. Awkwardly, it's up to Lucanis to get them out of it alive.
# Fake Relationships, Undercover Missions
Excerpt from A Working Relationship
"I just want you," I said, my lips grazing his as they formed the words.
His amused huff warmed my lips, tickled against the fine hairs on my face. I waited, trembling against him as he searched for what he needed to say. "Who is it that you think I am?" he asked.
"Another fool who likes to defy the odds," I whispered, wetting my lips, thinking I might devour him if I wasn't careful, "and you have a heart that's hungry and dark and full of a precious desire for softness."
What WIP Do You Want Next/Help Me Choose My Next WIP
Thanks @mythals-whore and @juniper-and-dragonthorn for the tags!! (Psst. Psst! Write more Hockey AU and Neve/Rana respectively, kthx.)
I’ll give some entirely gentle and optional tags to: @ofcrowsanddragons, @bygonesigh, @mageofquandrix, @hyperions-light, @davrinsleftpectoral, @jouskaroo, @bronzieinthedas, @justskipit, @antivan-sprig, @curiouswisp, @woundedsoul12, and @tarasmom.
And anyone who wants to do this, please do! I’m tagging you! And if you tag me I’ll come vote and possibly fight people in your notes. Who can really say?
I narrowed this down to just things that I have some level of confidence I can get done in the next couple of weeks.
What should I work on next?
Finish editing next chapter of The Ventus Job/Post It
Next Chapter of A Troubling Case (the Modern AU tm)
To get myself into my proper Leliana/Josephine headspace, I did some editing on some parts of it!!
Tags to my enablers: @bygonesigh , @juniper-and-dragonthorn, @ofcrowsanddragons, @hyperions-light , @tarasmom, @mageofquandrix, and anyone who voted for one of my favorite DAI pairings. 🥰
Some of what I did this week below the cut!
Though it had been years since Josephine had been a bard, she was still perfectly capable of discerning when someone had entered her residence uninvited. It happened infrequently, to be sure. Her renown and role as a foreign diplomat kept most Orlesian nobles from trying to interfere by use of assassins and spies. Still, this was not a first.
Whoever the intruder was, they were clearly an amateur, or utterly unconcerned with being discovered. A previously closed window was now open enough to allow in a draft. The scent of an unfamiliar (and yet familiar?) flower lingered through the embassy’s hallways. She could hear the creak of a door from the direction of her private chambers. The intrusion was so obvious that Josephine hardly felt any fear. An infant bard she could handle herself, even if out of practice.
Josephine pulled a rarely used dagger from its concealed location in a sideboard that ran the length of the hallway between the common areas and the Ambassador’s Suite. She had no intention of using it, of course; she had long-since learned that there was always a better solution than violence. Still, the well-placed threat of force…that could, on occasion, speed negotiations along. She slid the blade carefully into a shirt sleeve, hiding it from immediate view. It was always better to start with a soft word than a sharp blade. It was easier to escalate than de-escalate.
She made her way down the hall to her door, not bothering to try and mask her footfalls. A surprised, infant assassin was a particularly dangerous one. She should know. Josephine pushed open the door to the suite, hinges creaking as it swung open to reveal…
“Leliana!” The Left Hand of the Divine was lounging, easily as anything, on Josephine’s sofa and paging through some trade contracts the ambassador had left there as she’d gone to bed the night before. Leliana looked up at Josephine’s outburst, smirking cockily at the surprise in her voice.
“Josie,” Leliana greeted, rising. Serving as the Left Hand seemed to be treating the Orlesian woman well. Or, perhaps, Josephine supposed she might be biased by the tug of an old ache at the sight of her former lover. Not that she’d any intention of betraying that weakness to Leliana; the bard would only take advantage of it. “Look at you! I see you wasted none of these passed years dawdling. And still, you look as young as the day we first met.”
Oh, but she did want something, didn’t she? “Transparent flattery already? Whatever you want, you must desire it badly,” Josephine said, crossing her arms over her chest and keeping a wary eye on the redhead.
Leliana huffed, but smiled. “You are no less observant, either. Tell me, Josie, how have you been?”
Josephine did not acknowledge the deflection - now that both had acknowledged the truth, they would circle back to her question in due course - and instead answered the question. “Quite well. I am fortunate to enjoy my work, and do so in one of the most interesting cities in Thedas.” If she was, perhaps, a touch bored after years of doing so, she made no mention.
“I may have been rarely in Val Royeaux, but even I have heard of the accomplishments of the chief ambassador from Antiva,” Leliana said, and Josephine nearly let out an unladylike snort. ‘Even she?’ The Left Hand of the Divine, Nightingale of the Imperial Court, likely knew more about everyone of note in all of Orlais than anyone. Still, it was hard to suppress a slight thrill of pleasure at the thought of Leliana keeping up with her all these years in secret as she moved about in the highest levels of secrecy and power.
“I am certain most tales are not even half true,” Josephine demurred, and Leliana laughed. Oh, but she had missed that sound, nearly musical; when Leliana truly laughed, even the Maker himself could hardly fail to take notice.
“So tell me, then,” Leliana said, eyes no longer crinkled with amusement but instead focused, “do you seek no further accolades? Are you to be content?”
Josephine raised her eyebrows in silent question, an answer in itself that Leliana should be perfectly capable of understanding. “The young woman I knew years ago at the University was never one to settle, or sit idle, she gloried in challenge. Has that changed?”
“Do you mean to insult me, or is my offense simply collateral damage?” Josephine asked primly. “I cannot speak for you, but some of us do not simply change our very nature.”
Hail the eyes of the dead! It's time for all loyal Watchers to join us again as we prepare for Emmrich Week!
Emmrich Week will take place in early September this year, and the hashtag will be #DATVEmmrich2026.
As always, we would love to hear from all of you about what kind of prompts you would like to see during the event. You can use the submission form below to share your ideas.
The form will remain open until July 8, 11:59pm PST.
Check out our Rules and FAQ for more information on the event, and don’t hesitate to send us an ask if you have further questions!
We also encourage you to reblog and share this post around! The more of your wonderful ideas we have, the better Emmrich Week will be!
We know that Lucanis made Emmrich's favorite Hazelnut Torte at some point, but frankly, that looks like a LOT of work, and that recipe is already in the game! I salute the fans who have made it already, though!
For my headcanon, Lucanis would take note of Emmrich's love of a nutty dessert with a subtle sweetness, and introduce him to the perfect companion to a nice cup of Antivan coffee: Biscotti!
This was a new version of the recipe for me, from a church cookbook from the 80s called "Our Favorite Heritage Recipes"
Recipe transcript below the cut:
BISCOTT- ITALIAN TOASTED COOKIES
Katie Micheletto
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. anise seed
1/2 1b. butter or margarine
2 c. sugar
6 eggs, well beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. groudn walnuts or almonds 2 tbsp. Crisco
Mix all together. Add from 4-5 c. flour or more 1f needed to make a thick dough. Divide dough in half and shape each portion to form loaves, approx. 12" long, 2 1/2" wide and 3/4" thick. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake in 400° oven, for about 20 minutes, till half done. Remove from oven, cool slightly, and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange pieces, cut side down, close together and bake again for about 15 minutes or until brown on both sides.
Note from Orange: I halved the recipe and still got over a dozen full-size biscotti. If you make the full recipe you will for sure need more than one cookie sheet!!
watching twilight and I keep making myself laugh imagining if it was just alucard or any other vampire instead of Edward. POV nausferatu goes to ur school
I see Zuko always heralded as the archetypal Perfect Redemption Arc in tumblr media analysis and while I can agree with that sentiment, it's important to realize his trajectory was actually very specific.
Because Zuko started as a good person, before he got the scar.
And Zuko has an extremely stable platform of support for most of the show.
Zuko couldn't have done it without Iroh's unflinching, unwavering belief that he could become a good person again. I've rarely seen any criticism of Iroh aimed at his unconditional support of Zuko- for good reason. It's a selfless act.
Similarly, I've rarely seen any criticism of Zuko saying that he didn't deserve Iroh's support. Maybe a few comments here and there about how ungrateful he is at times, or how he should have "suffered more"(?), but never anything outright saying that Zuko should stay exactly where he is in his misery because he doesn't deserve Iroh's helping hand out of it. And this is for a very specific reason- because A:TLA goes out of it's way to show very early on that Zuko was a good person and can be so again.
So Zuko's arc isn't really even a straight redemption arc. It's a recovery arc wearing a large redemption trenchcoat.
This is an important distinction because a raw, straight redemption arc is often unpalatable to the audience, because it starts with someone who isn't a good person receiving a helping hand out of their misery anyway. A redemption arc starts by looking like someone is forgiving an abuser. It starts by having sympathy for the bad people. It starts by engaging with them and listening to them and empathizing with their struggles.
"But they're a bad person, they don't deserve that kindness!" that's the point.
Certainly not to say that it's the job of the victim to be that understanding, helping hand- of course not. And extending kindness does not mean abandoning moral principles and not holding the person accountable for their actions, a la certain flavors of Harley Quinn-Joker romance nonsense.
But someone has to treat the bad person like they're a person if the bad person is ever going to stand a chance of getting better. Regardless of what the bad person "deserves". The bad person has to accept that help, of course, but there needs to be help (and more importantly, kindness) offered in the first place.
(Oh, and. . . this applies to real people just as much as it does fictional characters.)
Absolutely awesome poster, @jenn2d2!! I love the composition, and how true it and the colors are to the films of the past. And Riley and Neve both look so great!
And a great poster for an awesome pairing, @woundedsoul12 soul! I LOVE THIS!
A Veilguard-obsessed amiablecrow @ofcrowsanddragons - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
