#howdylavellan

[heylavellan]

Black Emporium Reading Challenge 2025

Week of March 9

Hi there, and welcome to the first week of reading! This week we have 5 works, totaling around 55k words. Most of those words belong to the longest fic in the Black Emporium Exchange this year. Take the time you need with it -- it doesn't need to be finished in this week!

While the challenge is to read/view all these works, be sure to leave a comment so the creator can know what you liked about their work. If you absolutely loved something, you can also post about it on your blog so you can make other people love it too!

Links:

Make me no promises, I'll tell you no lies (52k, Neve x Lucanis)

Apart and Together (~2k, f!Adaar x Blackwall)

(not) looking away (<1k, m!Caron x Varel)

my Grey Warden (art, Leliana x f!Tabris)

[ART] Wicked Grace and Worse Cheaters (art, Cullen & Samson)

[heylavellan]

Looking for a reading challenge? Read some rarepair fics with me! Based on the Black Emporium Exchange 2025 AO3 collection, we have over 200 works to finish by the end of September. Try and read all the works, or just pick a few from each week to suit your schedule. Most weeks have about 20-25k words worth of writing, so be sure to pace yourself!

Each week on Monday, I'll post both here and in the Black Emporium Exchange Discord with the week's reading list. You can view it ahead of time here. If you'd like to be tagged on the Monday post, please comment, reblog, or DM me to let me know !! All my posts related to this reading challenge is #beereadingchal2025. Feel free to use that tag to discuss the reading challenge!

While reading, I encourage everyone to leave a comment. There are a number of user scripts which you can install with Tampermonkey that make the commenting process easier. I highly recommend the Floating Comment Box (Responsive) since you can use it on mobile and desktop!

[heylavellan]

a thousand deaths for me....

not bellara's mom being a furniture maker in orlais and papa is an herbalist. i wish we got some reaction from her about them during the game. because i think she'd be quite anxious about not knowing if her parents were okay. losing cyrian and then finding him again. agonising over telling your parents and then learning that the south is overrun by the blight so maybe they won't ever get to know. or that you won't ever get to see them again and say goodbye. struggling with the idea that you could be the last lutare soon (but mom and dad are brave. they will make it. right?). having another funeral for your brother and your parents aren't there. debating leaving the veilguard to go protect your family but realising staying is the best way to protect them.

idk. sick in the head about bellara

[heylavellan]

released two fics from wip hell, but looking at the stuff i wrote and like... man i need to get back in that headspace. also theres so much smut. so much.

[heylavellan]

need my pc back so i can go rival anders again... i want to write august but i havent played in a while

[heylavellan]

i need a fanfic where king alistair starts becoming more and more like loghain. paranoid about orlesian invasion. chafing against the orlesian chantry. selling out the avvar or chasind to secure his hold in ferelden. leaving people to their fate against the darkspawn to fight another day. being insane about the hero of ferelden (who should be his chancellor to help mirror the maric and logain relationship). murdering people so his spouse or chancellor do not have to dirty their hands.

i think it would be beautiful to watch alistair realise who he became :)

[heylavellan]

toying with the idea that lucanis dies and mx. antonio "i will never deal with demons again after fucking myself up with blood magic" de riva lets spite possess them. this then leads to antonio leaving the crows/retiring to rivain with taash and the murder of crows antonio believe that allowed lucanis to get killed

[heylavellan]

if you're giving lucanis a harem you are legally obligated to give him at least one husband and a spouse. this man is pansexual. his limp rizz can pick up at least one of each. im sorry, these are the rules.