#fadetouchedlurker

[griffongrey]

Share Your Plans / WIP Wednesday

Tagged by stolen from: @fadetouchedlurker :D

I'm working on a little felt halla to match my little felt nugs! He's mostly finished; I just need to make the second antler and sew them on, and then he's all done. No clue what his name will be yet :)

[luzial]

Solas and Ellana,

🎂 How do they celebrate each other’s birthdays?

🎤 Who sings in the shower & who secretly records it for blackmail?

💥 What’s the biggest risk one of them took for the other that the partner didn’t find out about until much later?

🎂 How do they celebrate each other’s birthdays?

The first time Ellana celebrated Solas' birthday, she decides she's going to cook at home. And while she can cook (a somewhat limited repertoire), she makes herself so nervous in the process that it comes out as a bit of a disaster. Solas makes what he thinks is a lighthearted joke about it. Ellana takes him out to his favorite restaurant every year after that, wears something scandalous every time, spends the evening winding him up, then inevitably drops a "don't you wish we were home right now?" They're both having a great time.

For Ellana's birthdays, they stay in. Some years Solas cooks, but most of the time he orders something from a place she likes and plates it himself. They eat in the garden. He insists she shouldn't have to lift a finger to do anything from sunrise to sunset, which annoys the hell out of her in the morning but she gets used to it by the end of the day and starts taking advantage. They are still both having a great time.

🎤 Who sings in the shower & who secretly records it for blackmail?

Ellana absolutely would want to do this to Solas but she quickly discovers he's a good singer and that's just annoying. Solas finds that Ellana is a terrible singer (she knows and is self-conscious about it, so it probably happens on a day when she thinks he isn't home/is asleep, etc). He records it because he thinks it's hilarious but doesn't send it to anyone and probably just watches it occasionally himself and gets sentimental about it because he's a giant loser. Ellana would die if she found out.

💥 What’s the biggest risk one of them took for the other that the partner didn’t find out about until much later?

I think Ellana agreeing to publish the story about the Final Inquisitor was a huge risk for her that Solas didn't see as such at the time. He had no idea how her clan would react to it, and there was a real chance that Tevinter would try to discredit her. She went ahead with it in large part because she trusted his judgment, and it has completely changed her life (not always for the better).

Solas dove headfirst into his feelings for Ellana (because he is Solas), despite her obviously skittish nature when it came to relationships. Particularly given his history, it was a risk to be so open with someone who wasn't sure she wanted something serious. It would take some time before Ellana knew enough of Solas' history to fully understand.

Thank you for the ask @fadetouchedlurker!

(more ship headcanon questions)

[in-the-drowning-deep]

Rook Rook Rook!

If you put all your protagonists in a room together, would they get on?

How old were each of your protagonists at the start of their game? Would anything have changed if they were older/younger?

ooooh thank you!! (questions from here)

If you put all your protagonists in a room together, would they get on?

I think things would be awkward for a hot minute, if all four of them were in the same room. Lucien hero worshipped Neria growing up, and he'd be quietly trying to restrain himself from just sort of gushing and asking 100 questions at once. Esha, for her part, would be just holding back from pestering Garrett about his husband (because Fenris was a huge deal for the Shadow Dragons), but not very well. Meanwhile Neria generally tries to avoid social contact outside of small groups of fellow Wardens and her lovers/son, so she'd be Uncomfy, especially since Lucien tends to exude formality when he's anxious.

However! Garrett and Esha are both very, very good at breaking the ice. They'd start a pun war within five minutes, be arm wrestling and bickering about cheating with force magic within ten. And Esha would drag Lucien in, and the three of them would gently ease Neria out of her shell and - yeah. They'd be alright.

How old were each of your protagonists at the start of their game? Would anything have changed if they were older/younger?

Neria was 18, Garrett 20, Lucien 24 and Esha 32, so skewing pretty young on the whole when they started out. (Lucien in particular is kind of jealous of Esha having had that extra time to just be a person before she became a hero.)

Garrett's decisions would have been largely similar, because generally speaking his priorities remain the same: loyalty to the people closest to him, and the desire to help whoever he can.

For Neria, I think her choices might have been more considered if she'd been a bit older? She certainly wouldn't have romanced Alistair - or even if she had, she'd have broken things off well before the Landsmeet. Isolde would have lived, the werewolves might have been spared, and things with Leliana would have got off to a much less rocky start.

On the flip side, I think Lucien might have been harsher as Inquisitor were he significantly older when he started out. Circle life was starting to grate on him by the time they were dissolved, but he was still young enough to have not really had his more idealistic ideas about it be challenged. It's that idealism that carries him through as Inquisitor and makes things feel (relatively) easy for him - without it, he'd have been much less forgiving on the whole, I think.

Esha would have been less inclined to redeem Solas when she was younger (still very angry, feeling lost and powerless, without having had much of a chance to establish herself). As she ages and fucks up and has to sit with that, she's more inclined to be generous. While she does go the redemption route, it takes many more years to get to a point of being able to forgive.

[justjasper]

5. How old is your Inquisitor at the start of the game?

6. Where does your Inquisitor like to hang out at Haven?

5. How old is your Inquisitor at the start of the game?

Late 20s, similar to where most sources estimate Josephine. Enough time to have had a pretty long career in the mob carta, which she started young.

6. Where does your Inquisitor like to hang out at Haven?

Outside, exploring around Haven. She loves the cold, and even though she was mostly an enforcer in the Carta, her skillset is more in the hunter/forager realm. Would often ask Solas to go walking with her.

Aside from that, the pub with Sera and trying very obviously to make people be chill with Dorian (nobody starts shit if the scary green handed dwarf is on his side).

(can we for a second just note how funny it is that dorian's game placement in Haven is outside given [gestures at his entire self])

(inquisitor ask prompt list here!)

[exhausted-archivist]

For your OCs:

💌 : How would they plan a romantic evening for a significant other?

Oh boy, so this really has a lot of range and to not make this too long I'll do Anjou and Isala since they're pretty similar and honestly the ones I have most thought out because I have them outside any canon romance.

Anjou Baskar

Anjou's romantic evening centers around food and care. She goes out of her way to make time with them. A precious commodity after all.

She'd get up early to start the preparations for dinner. Start prepping the bread and desserts. Start things marinating if needed. By the time they come around, she's ready to go to the market with them. A mundane task, but they pick out things for dinner. They sample snacks and street food. They have a little trip just between them. If a trip to the market isn't the vibe, then a very lazy bit of cuddling and snacking at the house till its time to make dinner.

As they cook together, it would be the time to tell stories, flirt when the urge arises. They enjoy their company and between mixing ingredients and stolen kisses, she is probably smacking a wandering hand aiming to steal a bite of dessert early.

Her entire plan revolves around making a memory that they can think of fondly when they're apart.

Isala Lavellan

It would be a very stressful thing for her, but she'd do it with joy. She'd be stressed to make sure that everything was perfect, that something will come up. That her job will interfere.

She'd plan something simple, so to lessen the chance of things getting spoiled. Isala would try to get them away from everyone. Whether that's sneaking into the kitchen at night in Skyhold, going off a little from camp while traveling, or planning a little trip through the market or village while they're in a town.

She'd bring food, wine, and a little token for the night. A romantic evening of stolen moments, smiles, maybe a kiss or two, and just forgetting their responsibilities. For her, even as she tries to make this moment for them, it would be something she tries to make up for all the time apart.

🔥Piping Hot OC Asks🔥

[griffongrey]

WIP Whenever

Tagged by: @fadetouchedlurker asked to see my tiny dread wolf progress, so here he is! His head has been stuffed and attached to his body! He looks a bit wonky and lopsided right now, but that's just because he still needs his legs and ears.

[griffongrey]

OC Template

Mahalla Lavellan

Top row:

Left: a clothing item they would wear: Embroidery. Mahalla's mother is the clan's seamstress, with a specialty in embroidery, so every piece of clothing Mahalla owns has at least a few little embroidered details.

Middle: a texture in their signature color: Golden yellow, because of her golden blonde hair. Bonus: the image is a woven shawl like the kind her mother would make.

Right: an animal that suits their personality: Halla! Specifically here, the golden halla, Hanal'ghilan. It's said that the golden halla comes to the Dalish in their time of great need to guide them, and that's exactly what Mahalla does.

Middle row:

Left: an environment that captures their story: An Inquisition camp in the middle of elven ruins, watched over by Fen'Harel.

Middle: the character: Mahalla! :D

Right: an object in their bag: Solas' wolf jawbone necklace. After he leaves, she keeps it with her wherever she goes. If it isn't around her neck, it's bound to be close by.

Bottom row:

Left: an interest of theirs: The Fade.

Middle: an abstraction that captures their vibe: An old carving half-buried under ivy.

Right: a food or beverage they enjoy: Herbal tea. All the better to tease Solas with!

Tagged by: @fadetouchedlurker Tagging: Anyone! Template under the cut:

[griffongrey]

Mahalla/Solas

8- are they naturally compatible or do they make an effort to try and understand the other

12- would you consider them to be functional or dysfunctional

19- where do their morals and ideals align and where do they diverge? are they attuned or in conflict ethically

8- are they naturally compatible or do they make an effort to try and understand the other

If Mahalla were a spirit, she'd be Curiosity to Solas' Wisdom. They are so compatible, and they have been from the very start. It's like Solas says: he met her and felt the whole world change.

That's not to say they don't have to work to understand each other. After all, they come from two very different worlds, even if Mahalla doesn't realize exactly how different until Trespasser. They spend all of Inquisition trying to figure each other out, and they couldn't be more delighted to do so. It's practically foreplay for them.

12- would you consider them to be functional or dysfunctional

It takes time, of course, but they're surprisingly functional considering the everything about their relationship trajectory. They understand each other so well and respect each other so highly that they can overcome the ten years of cat-and-mouse fighting.

19- where do their morals and ideals align and where do they diverge? are they attuned or in conflict ethically

Veilguard is kind of a significant divergence lol

For the most part, though, they're very aligned. They both value truth, learning, justice, and the importance of preserving history. They're both dedicated to the welfare of the elven people and recognizing the personhood of all kinds of people, especially the ones (like spirits) who usually aren't treated as people. They both feel strongly that they're right in their opinions, but they're both still open to change. They both believe in Wisdom and Curiosity and Compassion and Pride. They both believe in setting an example for the people who follow them.

Where they differ is in their methods and interpretations. Mahalla doesn't believe in the ends justifying the means; she believes in practicing what you preach. When Solas falls too deep into Pride and fully embodies the Dread Wolf, he believes he knows what's good for other people better than they do; Mahalla vehemently rejects that idea. When Mahalla falls too deep into pride and embodies Varric's "Spitfire" nickname for her, she becomes impulsive and jumps to (negative) conclusions about other people; Solas is frustrated by this. (His comment about his younger self being "hot-blooded and cocky, always ready to fight" speaks volumes here.)

With how proud (positive) Mahalla is of her Dalish heritage, you'd think their biggest point of contention in Inquisition would be Solas' dismissal of the Dalish. Sure, it's an early source of friction in their relationship, with both their individual expressions of pride (negative) butting heads, but they actually resolve it fairly quickly. When Mahalla takes a second to calm herself down and ask her favorite question ("Why?"), and they're able to explain their perspectives, it helps them understand each other, and it's hard for Mahalla to hold a grudge against something she understands. Plus, her appeal to Wisdom goes a long way to soothing Solas' hurt Pride and making him more receptive to appreciating what the Dalish did manage to accomplish.

Their two biggest Solas Disapproves moments pre-breakup are actually over forgiving the Wardens and helping Cole become more human. In both cases the problem is that Mahalla doesn't have all the information, and Solas isn't able/willing to share it with her. (There's also Mahalla's decision to drink from the Well, but that one is a foregone conclusion bc there's no way she's letting anyone but a Dalish elf do that, no matter the consequences.)

Mahalla wants to give the Wardens a second chance, ironically because they were operating on incomplete information and took steps to correct themselves when they learned the truth. She knows Solas objects to them binding demons, and so does she, but she also knows there's more to his disdain for the Wardens, and not having the full picture bugs her.

With Cole, Mahalla understands where Solas is coming from... or she thinks she does. She doesn't have the Solas/Mythal (romantic or platonic or secret third thing, it's all the same) context to know how deeply personal a spirit becoming human (or elven) is to Solas, and how terrified he is that Cole/Mahalla (platonic) will repeat all their mistakes. All she knows is that Cole wants the catharsis of revenge, and she wants to give it to him. He wants to take that step, just like he wanted to help og!Cole by becoming him, whereas (Mahalla doesn't know) Solas didn't want to take on a body.

In this case, she proves Solas' fears unfounded without even trying. Mahalla listens to Cole. She loves and accepts him as he is, both before and after he becomes more human, and she would have done the same if he'd become more spirit instead. She takes the time to understand him and help him with any problems he encounters.

(I love both human! and spirit!Cole, so I'm not trying to say human!Cole is the "correct" or "better" choice or anything; I just roleplayed Mahalla's decision based on how she felt in the moment, and in the moment she wanted to throw a fireball in that templar's face. It actually kind of surprised me when I got to that point and realized Mahalla "#2 Spirit Fan" Lavellan (not #1 only bc Solas takes that prize) wasn't going to go the spirit!Cole route.)