Tagged by @laurelsofhighever for a “last sentence you wrote” writing game, and apparently I have to tag as many people as there are words, but I don’t know that many people on tumblr, and trying to figure out who would be receptive to this and who wouldn’t would ultimately be exhausting, so I’ll try to tag a few, but largely focus on the wip bit. xD
This is so far... the only sentence in a DAO prompt piece I’m working on, and it’s basically about Empress Celene attending a secret meeting with Queen Anora to try and work out whether an alliance between Orlais and Ferelden would still be feasible, and if so, what form it would take. Lot of backtracking and nitpicking has been happening so far for this one with me.
The carriage rolled slowly over the uneven cobblestone, bumping and jerking from one crack to the next.
For tagging: @asaara-writes, @stoupax and that’s really all I got currently. If you do see this and want to give it a go, please feel free!! And also, feel free to ignore this if you like, there’s no pressure!
@laurelsofhighever tagged me to take part in this quiz for my OCs, and because i was feeling a little nostalgic this morning for my murder darling, I went with Aeryn Hawke.
because you have made mistakes you cannot swallow
mistakes come back to you like echoes in an empty cave. you have been trying since you started but does trying count? is trying good enough? every night it visits you, the pain that you have caused with your clumsy hands and venom-tongue. life careens onward, onward, with the moon hung in the sky and the sun the day after, but you walk backwards on this path so you can keep sight of what you did. the destruction still feels fresh. it still feels like fire, where you burned them. fire is supposed to be warm. it burned them, and it will swallow you. blow out the candle. let it rest. some things are better left behind in the dark.
it really does fit her. darling girl, her loves have always ended in ashes.
tagging anyone who’d like to play! tag me in, I love to see these!
Thank you so much @laurelsofhighever for my gorgeous xmas present!!! Just look at my lovely girl, Freya, with Blackwall! Her expression is the cutest and the blushing! I LOVE SO MUCH
text overlaid atop the dragon age logo that reads, “@laurelsofhighever writes such beautiful fic, has incredible OCs, and always is so supportive of other writers! I love them and I’m so glad they’re in the fandom.”
Commission for @not-plaidweave / @laurelsofhighever
Alistair Theirin and Rosslyn Cousland (Dragon Age)
They stayed out on the cliff-side like that for what seemed like hours, wrapped up in each other, revelling in the space away from the constraints of duty that had kept them apart. They sat in the long grass and watched the mabari chase after crickets as the sun curved across the sky; Rosslyn showed him how to weave a flower crown, and though his was uneven and already falling to bits by the time it was finished, she blushed and pulled her lip between her teeth when he set it on her head.
“That means something, you know,” she told him as she did the same with hers.
“What?”
A lopsided smirk, and then the gesture pressed delicately against his own mouth while a feathersoft hand had traced the line of his jaw. Alistair's stomach coiled and shot heat down to his toes as he leaned in, steadied them both with a hand on her waist and parted his lips to deepen the kiss.
@not-plaidweave / @laurelsofhighever sent me a “you nearly died” kiss prompt and I lost the message but thanks for the prompt! Trea Adaar x Josephine Montilyet for @dadrunkwriting
Sounds were going in and out, darkness was curving its way around the edges of her vision. She was aware her mount was slowing down, her grip loosening on the reins. A voice called out. She was leaning over, falling. She was waiting for the feeling of crashing to the ground when everything turned to black.
***
Trea awoke slowly and then all at once, no doubt because of the tide of pain and stiffness that crashed onto her like a sack of bricks. With any slight movement, her limbs protested against the pull of taut bandages and with every breath she took, the more her chest ached. She reached her arm across her chest to feel where the bandages stopped, if they even did, but jerked still as her entire upper torso lit up with a stinging pain. A groan escaped her lips and someone stirred next to her.
“...Trea? Trea? Maker’s breath!” Suddenly arms were being thrown around her and she could barely bite back a cry of protest. “Oh! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I—” Josephine had just come into view before she leaned down to capture Trea’s lips in hers. But her head was pounding as she closed her eyes against the pain of it all and she had barely moved to reciprocate before Josephine was pulling away again. The fevered moment was over. Everything was light touches if touches at all and then her forehead pressed against Trea’s. “Never do that again, do you hear me?”
Trea winced at the steel creeping into her tone. “Sorry. But, uh, what am I never supposed to do again? Specifically?” There was a beat. She opened her eyes to meet Josephine’s gaze, and it hurt more than any wound she’d ever received.
“You nearly died, Trea.”
“I—”
Josephine all but flung herself off the bed and began pacing across the room. “If you try and play this off as any other injury, I swear on the Maker, Trea!” The Qunari could feel herself sink down into the mattress but forced her eyes to stay open, listening and running cataloging fingers across the length of her bandages. “This one was serious. The healers have been keeping you asleep for a week, making sure your body could heal properly. And even with that—”
“Everything will still hurt,” Trea offered, voice hoarse and soft. “I get it, magic doesn’t guarantee miracles.”
Josephine faltered and turned to glance at her. “Are you in pain now?”
Trea shrugged but the movement was stiff and she couldn’t hide her wince. “I’ll live. I always—”
“There! That’s exactly it!” Josephine continued her pacing with renewed vigor. “Your insistence on hiding any pain you might be feeling! That’s what caused all this to begin with!”
“I don’t—”
“I will not hear anymore lies on the matter. Between the healers and your companions, we know what happened.” Josephine wouldn’t even look at her. Trea stared at the ceiling instead. “You managed to kill the Stormrider and insisted you had somehow come out unscathed, despite the fact that the rest of your party couldn’t say the same. You returned to camp so drenched in the beast’s blood, you managed to hide your own, not to mention the hole in your chest piece. The hole through which a stray claw had pierced straight through and almost out your shoulder again, throwing your clear across the Crow Fens and yet you got right back up and were ‘fine.’
“You then proceeded to hide and treat this injury on your own without a word to anyone. For five days. You returned to Skyhold almost a week later than schedule— not early like you should have with such a serious wound. But of course, you were lucky to return at all. Barely did so, in fact! You fell unconscious before you could even pass through the gates, scaring your mount so much you were nearly trampled on top of everything else. All because your already serious wound became infected. Because you were careless. Because you were reckless. Because you were selfish and arrogant and blind to your own limitations, to anyone’s limitations were they in your position. And why? Because you couldn’t ask for help?”
She bit her lip but Josephine wasn’t allowing it.
“This is where I expect a response, Trea Adaar.”
“I was just...trying to be strong. For everyone,” she admitted but it didn’t feel like enough. She rushed to continue without interruption. “The trips into the Exalted Plains were hard and breaking them up into individual trips didn’t seem to be helping like I thought it would, but then the dragon fight was supposed to end it all on a high-note, a well-earned high-note, and a well-earned victory, and when I got hurt, well, what’s an injury but an eventual scar to prove that—”
“What if it had been Cassandra? Or Vivienne?” Josephine’s voice was hushed, her words were firm, and her feet stilled their restlessness. “What if Sera had gotten such a wound? What if she insisted on hiding it, to the point of nearly dying in induced sleep? Without seeing those she loved for the very last time? Without having a chance to say goodbye? Would you commend her? Would you call that strength?”
“...no.”
“I need you to hear me when I say that strength isn’t hiding weaknesses. It’s admitting to them and working past them, working through them, oftentimes with the help of those around you, those you ask.” Josephine shook her head and started toward the stairs. “I can’t keep having this conversation with you.”
“W-Wait, I—” Trea swallowed hard and propped herself up on her elbows, gritting her teeth through the pain and dizziness. “Don’t go,”
“I’m getting the healer.” Josephine replied without pausing her descent, absently wiping at her eyes.
Trea collapsed back against the pillows and allowed herself to cry out in pain at the sudden movement.
1 and 10 Warden asks for Lucia? (-laurelsofhighever)
Hi friend! Thanks for the ask, and sorry for being well over a week behind on answering this! I totally forgot… whoops!
1. What is the thing your Warden misses most about home?
Unlike a lot of people who grow up in the Circle, Lucia was old enough when she was brought to live there that she actually remembers her life with her parents. She especially misses her parents and sparring with her father.
