#breaded replies

[breadedsinner]

📖

For the longest time I've wanted to write a fic giving my personal spin on the romanced Inquisitor freeing Blackwall. If you have the "Underworld" perk you can get him out that way, which, I play as a Cadash so I just interpret that as Carta connections, but what happens exactly, and how do she and Thom move past it?

I've never been one for clever plots and have been coming up dry for a long time, but I started thinking about it again. I started developing headcanon for Thom's childhood, about the things he didn't lie about.

Also I have grown so tired of stories where the Inquisitor is heartbroken about the lie and says he can rot, and just focuses on their feelings. I just think it does Thom a disservice. Again, since I romanced him as a Cadash, I think she would have a very different perspective on the whole thing.

It only exists as a few pieces in my writing tag, but I would very much like to write a full chapter fic on it. Even if it takes me another decade lmao.

[breadedsinner]

📓 :)

So @persephoneggsy and I have been going back and forth about this AU where her Hawke, Marian, develops an affinity for necromancy and runs away from home, this being a catalyst for several changes in the canon. Bethany becomes "Hawke"/the Champion, Sebastian never goes to the Chantry and is killed with the rest of his family.

Around the beginning of DA2, Hawke as established herself as a powerful player; in my mind it's a mix of Vivienne's situation and the Sorceresses from the Witcher; they are powerful, feared, and people want to try and use them for their own gains.

Hawke hurries to the site of the massacre with her pupil, Dorian, who thinks they are only there to investigate. Unbeknownst to him, though, is that Hawke's drive and power reach beyond the limits of normal necromancy, and is able to pull Sebastian's spirit out of the Fade and back into his body, healed by Hawke sharing her life and her pain with him. It has benefits, but also great costs.

I wrote a little fic on it, and she illustrated it here!

....I may continue to write bits and piece here and there. I guess I liked "came back wrong" more than I thought I did.

[breadedsinner]

Hey, I don’t know if you’ve ever answered this before, but I figured I’d ask: whats Judy’s relationship with her whole family like? Malcolm, Leandra, and the twins? Gamlen? Even Charade, if you’d like.

No, it's ok, I don't think I ever stated it plainly. Thank you for the question!

Judy is very much a dutiful eldest daughter. For most of her life, she defined herself by what she could do for them, protect them. That's why when she lost them all, she was a wreck, didn't know what to do with herself.

Slight change in canon; Malcolm came from Ferelden but left home at an early age, was abandoned by his mercenary group, and lived in the Kirkwall Circle before running off again, this time with a pregnant Leandra. Both parents were very loving, but struggled a bit with the day to day duties of humble village life. Judy became that key, and eventually succeeded her parents in more practical skills.

She liked hearing their stories, of adventures on the road or in noble court, though--and this might have been Judy's own machinations--sensed a tinge of regret. That maybe she ruined everything. She would have to make up for it.

Both parents paid a lot of attention to Bethany. Malcolm for the magic training, and Leandra because the younger Hawke sister took better to more feminine things, and had a much greater fascination with Leandra's old life. Judith was Ferelden, through and through; she would ask Malcolm about his youth, but he never revealed much.

So that said, for a long time, she and Carver were the best of friends. They were the "little soldiers", they received lyrium and martial training together, inseparable. Sadly when Carver was a teenager, he wanted to find his own way, and struggled with the role, whereas Judy took the mantle proudly.

She and Carver argued before the Battle of Ostagar. It was the last real conversation they had.

[breadedsinner]

May seem counterintuitive but the TENDERNESS with which you write is absolutely devastating - there's such a gentleness to the happier/fluffier scenes that it's genuinely DEVASTATING when you pivot to the angst and grief and heartbreak. It's all so *deeply felt*! You don't flinch away from any of it but also don't make it too overwrought, which I super admire!

I hardly know what to say. Thank you, it means a lot. I really have been pouring my heart into Tether, it feels good that it's acknowledged.

[breadedsinner]

Out of the Kirkwall crew, are there any friendships (or rivalries) that lead a lasting impact on Judith's character? Any regrets she carries about the relationships she's formed? (And on a lighter note: what sort of treat would draw her eye, if she passed by a bakery window?)

Actually I think her complicated relationship with Isabela had a long lasting impact, because the two had just different general philosophies and very different responses to trauma. Judy is a perfectionist and Isabela prioritizes herself.

It took a very long time for them to understand each other, but they were better for it. Amongst their differences, there was a crossroads; an inability to be vulnerable. Isabela accepted that she was worth protecting, and Judy accepted that it's not a personal failing to want things for herself.

OH ALSO bonus answer, Leandra once tried to make this fancy cake before realizing she did not have all the ingredients and also did not know how to bake a cake! So it just kind of... became pudding. Judy loved it and was disappointed she could never find it sold anywhere.

[breadedsinner]

OC question for Rota Cadash: what is the fear the demon in here lies the abyss tries to use to unnerve her while she's in the Fade? how did she handle it?

Rota is already afraid of magic and demons (it's why she went to the Templars for help first, she didn't think about should or shouldn't, just there's Magic Happening, and Templars are supposed to suppress that) so the Nightmare didn't have to work very hard.

In a word, exsanguination. The demon imposes a feeling of utter helplessness, weakness. The area seems to fill with blood, until it clouds her vision. Like she's already a corpse, discarded into a river, left for creatures to feast. Her last bit of strength is used to hear every cry of all her companions, everyone she was supposed to raise up. Until she's a used up husk.

[breadedsinner]

oc question for Judith Hawke: what's a subject that she enjoys studying?

By necessity, Judith studies etiquette and history once she buys back the Amell Estate.

But her interests lie more in Feelden folklore and pre-Unification history, sadly all of which are scarce. Her father had taught her and her siblings a language he claims is rooted in the old Clayne, but she's still looking to master that tongue, now that he's gone. It helps her feel connected to him, in some way.

[breadedsinner]

18, 27, 29 for that ao3 list :)

Thank you!

18) The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Already answered! Isabela giving me the most trouble, but I’ll actually give second place to Blackwall. Which, weird, but… I have no actually written him in much detail before! I might be psyching myself out a bit, thinking so much time has passed, can I hope to do it? But I’ll keep trying.

*

27) What do you listen to while writing?

Already answered, but let me give you another personal favorite.

*

29) Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Already answered, but I will give you another one I liked! I do love alliteration.

“With every passing moment, the pain of her Mark spread and splintered, like a series of switchblades snapping under her skin. She squandered all of her chances to leave and now she was paying the price.

And for what? Did she get complacent? Did she really start to think she could actually accomplish what people thought the Herald of Andraste could do? Did she think she could kill a few demons and Red Templars and it’d be over? Or worse, was she actually developing a conscious?

How pitiful, Cadash thought. She’d have started her new life in Rivain by now, if only she hadn’t wanted to sleep with the Warden so bad. Which she did, to her credit. But then he had to start being nice to her and believing in her and all that dumb shit. Now they were both going to die for it.”