This is an 18+ blog. I do not engage in discourse, but I can and will be critical of characters or other related media (this is tagged with “xyz critical”). I do not tolerate transphobia, homophobia, or racism.
Happy DA Friday! How about "The righteous stand before the darkness and the Maker shall guide their hand." from the Chant of Light prompts for Cassandra and/or Cullen!
Thank you!! For @dadrunkwriting
Pairing: Cassandra & Cullen
Rating: T (mention of child death)
Summary: Cullen and Cassandra discuss the aftermath of Meredith's rage and the Chantry's destruction. Cullen swears fealty.
~~~
"Did you plan for this?"
Cassandra scoffs — her wine glass tangles from lazy fingertips, dregs still staining the bowl. She tries to drain it and gets only drops on her tongue. "You give me too much credit. I could not foresee such a disaster."
"That's the point of you Seekers, isn't it?" Cullen grumbles. He's shuffling behind her, then makes a sound like he's kicked something. His soft grunt is evidence that it hurt. "Could have used you years ago."
"I agree," she sighs. "But I am here now."
She refills her glass, emptying the bottle before Cullen gets to it — he glowers at her, then slumps on the bench beside her. They stare together out the window, through its missing panes, over Hightown and the pile of smoking rubble at its heart - the Chantry, now a ruin. Far away, a woman's voice rises from what was a low, guttural cry into a wail.
"Ah," Cassandra sighs. "I wonder whose body she's found."
Cullen sniffs. "We searched the wreckage. We pulled all the bodies for the pyre."
Cassandra feels, rather than sees, her gaze turn glassy and unfocused. She drinks deeply from her glass. "Small bodies are easy to miss."
"Damn it all, Seeker." He scrubs a gloved hand over the back of his neck, smearing soot and sweat that have settled on his skin. "We should be down there, helping them."
"We have, to exhaustion. Allow others to take up the burden and rest, else you make yourself useless."
Cullen slams his fist on his thigh, the dull thud bringing them both back to reality.
"I am already useless," he hisses through clenched teeth. "You didn't see. You didn't see how she turned us against each other. How she manipulated the ranks, how her... fear made her create monsters from the people we should have protected. That damn blade twisted her, and I didn't —"
He jumps when she lays a hand on his shoulder. His bloodshot eyes, sunken with exhaustion, meet hers with surprise that fades into something akin to shame.
"You stood against Meredith at the end," Cassandra hums.
He shakes his head. "Too little, too late. I should have seen sooner."
"But stand you did."
She sets aside her glass, noting how his eyes follow it — all of her movements he has tracked closely, as if waiting for what she deems a fitting punishment for his sins. Cassandra wonders how Meredith dealt consequences to her Templars, and whether Cullen experienced them first hand.
"The Templar Order has failed in its duty," she sighs, "but there are many in the Order within whom Andraste's flame still burns bright. I believe you are one of them."
Cullen Rutherford splutters, protesting wordlessly, a hand out as if to physically stop her next words. She ignores him, and instead unfolds herself from the bench and stands — he tries to stand, but she keeps him down with one hand on his shoulder, then the other as she positions herself before him. He stares up at her, eyes wide with equal parts awe and fear — a gaze she has grown familiar with, and one she wishes never to see again on a Templar's face.
"The righteous stand before the darkness and the Maker shall guide their hand," she tells him. "Your hand was guided against Meredith that night, when it was most crucial. Without your aid, the Champion would have fallen. I come not to reward or punish you, Cullen Rutherford, but to ask for your aid in turn."
His mouth snaps shut, only for him to stammer, "Me? Why —"
"Most Holy has called for an Inquisition reborn," Cassandra says, swiftly so she does not lose her words. "I am her Right Hand, sworn to carry her words to the faithful. She requests your blade, if you will give it."
Cullen stares up at her, his eyes somehow more sunken, more weary. His face draws downwards, the lines deepening around his nose and mouth in a grimace.
"I swear," quoth the Knight Captain, "my blade, should the Divine have need."
Now that everyone is discussing Nolan's Odyssey movie, I feel like it's a good time to let non-Italians know that the production dumped plastic props into the Italian sea. Weirdly enough I could not find any article in English about it but it's a fucking problem nonetheless.
I might translate this article later today. This one was the most complete one, even in Italian news it's not talked about that much.
Non è la prima volta che la produzione solleva un vespaio in Sicilia. A Lipari una squadra di sub sarebbe però già impegnata a bonificare i
They dumped plastic skeletons in environmentally protected areas, against the literal contracts they had to sign to get the permits to film in environmentally protected areas. Like they not only did a bad ecological thing that freaked out some divers, they literally broke environmental protection laws and their contract with the Italian government
Preorders for Victory, Vigilance, Sacrifice: A Dragon Age Zine are open from July 11th to August 11th! You can see all of our bundles and place your order on Big Cartel!
i love you trans people with no dysphoria i love you trans people who don't go on hormones i love you he/him lesbians she/her gay men i love you nbs who aren't androgynous i loveyou
We’re excited and proud to introduce the artists, writers, beta readers, and graphic designers that will make Dragon Age Annual 2027 possible! Our creative team is already hard at work on some incredible designs that will blow you all away 💜🥳
Keep an eye out in the coming weeks to learn more about each of our contributors, and see previews of the art and fic they’re cooking up!
ppl on ao3 should use the "this work was inspired by" option more. so many fics out there that put links to other fics in the a/n but theres a better option.....
important addition i forgot that not everyone might know. similar to how ao3 bookmarks work, you can also link to non-ao3 fanworks using this format. so, for instance, if theres some fanart on tumblr that inspired you to write the fic? you can link that fanart to your fic!
Your artstyle is like your gut microbiome in the way its everything you consume and like and it also has all your bacteria up in it. Thats probably how that works
It really is hilarious because whenever you start your art journey, you watch all the videos and ask artists and they all give tips and help but it all ends up coming down to "you just have to practice".
And it pisses you off because bruh how am I supposed to practice this shit if I can't even do this first couple of fucking lines to make a good cylinder.
And then you start drawing and it sucks and you keep doing it, and you learn new skills and tricks, and you even end up developing an art style naturally (which they told you you would do, and you didn't believe them, but it came free with the constantly drawing in a way that made you comfortable and learning the medium).
And at the end of it all, someone else asks wow how you did all of that, and after all this time of putting in effort you finally have to eat crow and admit that the answer is... Damn... you really have to practice 🤣🤣🤣
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“You write the beginning and then you go back and rewrite the beginning, and you never got off page one. It’s kind of a syndrome, and I have a rash piece of advice which is — Go on, page two, page three, and never look back. Get something finished, no matter how lousy it is. […] Perfectionists cannot get going unless they kind of do violence to their own instincts, and just blast ahead.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Last Interview and Other Conversations
Ship dynamics are always like Sunshine and Sunshine protector~ Cinnamon roll and their grumpy one 🤗 Well what about 2 cunts. They're both cunts and that's the dynamic. cunt4cunt.
