Please keep in mind that this list is brought to you by someone who can tolerate neither gluten nor lactose (though milk products I can risk with sufficient prep time, and in small doses) and whose migraine triggers include chocolate. That said:
Rice cakes - I know, I know, but some of them are pretty good if you top them with the right things. Currently my favourite is these things M&S do that are coated with yoghurt and freeze-dried strawberries. I take a Lactaid before I eat those and I’m good
Dried fruit - mango for preference, but also apple, apricots and raisins. Not much on dates or prunes, mind.
Potato chips / crisps (depending on regional dialect) - I have to be kind of careful about these - like, I can’t eat Pringles anymore because apparently they have wheat flour in them - but I do enjoy a good crisp. Plain sometimes, but smoky bacon’s a favourite. Besides, I can’t help but love a snack food that was invented out of pure spite. (Story is that some dude complained to a cook at a diner that his fries were too thick and so this guy just went, “He wants ‘em thin? They’ll be thin” and cut paper-thin slices of potato and dumped ‘em in the deep fryer. Thus, the humble potato chip was born. Also note: the guy who first made them was Black.)
Raw veggies - mostly tomato and cucumber, I admit. I am a very big fan of tomatoes and used to eat them like one would an apple when I was a kid - tomato in one hand, salt shaker in the other. But carrots and celery too sometimes.
Gummy sweets - I don’t know what it is about gummy sweets - texture, flavour, whatever, I dunno - but I love me some gummy sweets. Absolute favourite are Sour Patch Kids - the American versions, thank you very much (the ones they do here are okay but the texture’s wrong for both the gummy itself and the sour sugar) - Randoms (those are just fun), Swedish Fish (sometimes I will go to the speciality stores that stock American sweets and pay well above the odds for those little red buggers, and miss me with the “multicoloured Swedish Fish” bullshit) and the sour cherry ones in the Haribo Tangfastics bag (which they now do separately because apparently they’re everybody’s favourite).
Siempre guardaré un beso para ti aunque no estés; te besaré cada mañana aunque te vayas , cuando una brisa roce tu cara, una gota de lluvia caiga en tu rostro, o cuando los rayos del sol iluminen tus ojos.
6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?
😁 Yes and no!
I have a rough idea of directions I'd like to go in, but thanks to new information based off the last Q&A, I may have to be a little more fluid with them. Someone asked if Dalish/city elves would be background options and it sounds like yes, depending on your faction. Since I've got both as well as Orzammar/surface dwarves, I may have to shift some factions around.
So, with that in mind, let's focus on the main two, the ones I know are getting played.
My trash run Rook will be a bit of a stand-in for my fic!Rook. As of right now, that makes her a Dalish mage Veil Jumper, but again, we'll see if that still fits. (Probably.) I'll need to look at the skill trees, but I think she'll be primarily an evoker. Yes, yes, this is all mechanics and not personality. That's because it's a surprise. 😇
Joining my main canon is an enby (former) Orzammar dwarf veil ranger. Their first name's staying under wraps for now; need to know the last names before committing. They're also going to be a Veil Jumper. Things just kind of worked out that way, since I ended up swapping them in from a different world state.
Anyway, they're very hands on in an exploration sense, not in a crafting sense. Their family was Artisan Guild, but they would have done better as a miner, getting to search the Deep Roads. Far too many things about Orzammar annoyed them, which is why they left.
It's going to be nice having someone in this world state who already knows what they want. Lenna's terribly impulsive, everything happens so much to Allison, and Tahni, though she had been planning on running away from her clan at the Conclave, did not have a plan in mind other than "get out." This Rook was very much running away to the surface in order to experience far more exciting things than the detail work on some obnoxious noble's armor. (They weren't very good at that kind of work either, which made it worse.)
9. Which romance, if any, do you plan to pursue first?
I have no idea.
I'm completely letting my chars pick, because I am not having another Tahni situation. (Longtime followers might vaguely recall that she was supposed to go for Cullen. TERRIBLE idea; there was less than zero chemistry. At the time, I thought it had been my own biases, but no - it was both of us noping out.)
Even beyond that, I have zero clue who my personal favorite might end up being. I know who's made a positive first impression, but there's not nearly enough information for me to seriously hazard a guess. Demi problems. >_>; Can't just go off the design, since personality overrides all of that.
Although for Manfred, I will make an exception. I want to hug him. Seriously, a skeleton in goggles? C'mon, that's so cool! I have a soft spot for skeleton friends, okay?
....okay, I will fess up on the initial pulls, but this is all incredibly subject to change.
Strongest design pull: Bellara
The problem is not knowing basically anything about her personality yet. I have a good feeling because I adored Dax in Anthem and this is the same VA, but I just....don't know.
Strongest personality pull: Emmrich, Davrin
Emmrich's got Manfred, which already speaks quite well of him. Davrin's got Assan, which speaks well of him too. They have their buddies and that's already a huge appeal. Unless they're mean to their companions (HIGHLY unlikely), then they've already got a leg up.
Initial pull: Harding
I mean. Our first dwarven romance option. There's a non-zero chance she ends up the strongest pull. She's professional, but fun - and somehow manages not to swear? How do you DO that, Lace?
Trial by trash fire: Lucanis
He's a certified bi disaster rogue. Do I need to do further math, or is that obvious enough? I would say I could blame this on Astarion, but I can't; this is a longstanding problem.
Long shots: Neve and Taash
I straight up do not understand why Neve hasn't pinged for me at all. She's a detective - why not??? Although in The Missing, it kinda seemed like she was more of an information broker than an actual detective...but I was already not getting pings. I think it might be the hat. I get put off by unattractive hats. (I have a tag for that fucking hat for a reason.)
I appreciate Taash having the cool lyrium horn and all...the qunari in general just don't do it for me. It's just not my type of vibe. EXCEPT Qwydion. But she's the exception; there wasn't a lot of competition for her (from my POV) in the Absolution cast (Miri was second).
For the ask meme: 2, 5, 7, 11 and 12 for I'm shouting out a litany (an echo calls back)?
For this fic
2. What scene did you first put down?
It was short enough that I just wrote it in chronological order.
5. What part was hardest to write?
The last part where they are sitting in the bath. For two reasons:
I really wanted to strike a good balance between being candid about the emotional toll the events of the battle, and not wanting it to just turn into self-indulgent angst.
I am very ace, I am so bad for not realising what can be read as a euphemism. So I was going over everything several times over to avoid any unintentional, hidden double-meanings.
7. Where did the title come from?
It is named after the song A Litany/Heart Swell by Los Campesinos!
It’s about a dysfunctional relationship, in which the two people involved are starting to grow apart, so it seemed fitting to me.
11. What do you like best about this fic?
I really enjoyed exploring the messy side of Sylvanas and Nathanos’ relationship. I think about it often, but hadn’t really felt like publishing fic about it, as I didn’t think anyone would be interested in reading it.
It also turned out very close to how I envisioned it, so I’m happy about that.
12. What do you like least about this fic?
In general, I am very self-critical so I could mention a dozen different things.
But I think the one I was most concerned about is a line in which Nathanos is contemplating how he and Sylvanas might feel differently about the destruction of the Undercity.
My intention was to show how he was rationalising her behaviour when she blighted the Undercity, making up an excuse for behaviour because he either couldn’t or didn’t want to believe that she would be willing to do that if she understand what the Undercity meant to the rest of the Forsaken (and especially the former human Forsaken, for whom it is likely a symbol that they are still the rightful people of Lordaeron). However, I was (and still am to some extent) very concerned that people would read it and think I was dumbing down Sylvanas.
