I started running out of time to have at least one entry per prompt before the week began, so I wrote something up since something short can go faster than drawing something. This is how Penn and Nerita met.
(It slightly contradicts the written piece I did last year but shhhh)
(M!handers, Hawke goes missing and it's up to his mabari to find him)
@dadrunkwriting
When coming into darktown, the first thing you notice is the stench. It follows like a sad puppy and cloys like a scared kitten, a reminder of the death and disaster dealt with by people on the fringe of the society.
Kirkwall was a city founded on injustice and its historic walls and statues were only too quick to remind you. Rainwater pooled like tears at the base of the giant twins' eyes, and then spouted off like geysers, spraying cold water into the trapped sea below.
Outside of the clinic the rock was damp and slippery, puddles of muck pooled in through the doors as Anders searched on the floor for anything that needed to stay elevated and dry. He'd awoken that morning to find his manifesto half-soaked, ink running down the pages. He tried not to be too envious of his friends whose homes stayed dry and clean, tried not to think about why their papers were safe and his were not, and instead told himself it needed revising anyhow.
Anders heard scratching on the door, the telltale sound of big paws furiously digging through water-damaged wood. Anders put away some gauze and opened the door. The brown mabari rushed in, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, tail wagging, and running circles around the blonde mage.
"For the last time Hawke, no dogs in my clinic!" Anders said, expecting Hawke to come in and restrain the dog. Hawke did not restrain the dog, in fact, Hawke did not enter the clinic at all. He simply was not there.
"Hawke?" Anders called.
The dog chuffed and whined.
"If Hawke's not here, why are you?"
The dog threw his head back.
"Go away. Go find Hawke."
The dog chased his tail, and then looked up at Anders.
"What are you trying to tell me--hey where are you going?" Anders asked as the dog ran off. The dog stopped to check that the mage was following and then ran off to The Hanged Man. Anders used his staff to help him move more quickly over the slippery ground of the former quarry and met up with the dog at Varric's private suite.
The dwarf was asleep in his small bed and snoring softly when he was pounced on and licked by the slobbery mabari. "Maker get off me, you're gonna crush me to death." He said, trying to push the hound off of his chest. The dog kissed him twice on the cheek and sat down at his bedside, wagging his tail.
"Blondie? I didn't expect to see you here. Where's Hawke?"
"I don't know. His dog brought me here. He seems to be on a mission."
The dog threw his head back. Varric scratched him between his ears. "Maybe the old boy is trying to tell us something about his master."
Anders shifted his weight. "Maybe… We should check if Hawke's home."
As soon as Anders finished his sentence the dog ran out of the bar, running through the legs of someone opening the door. Varric and Anders ran after him into the street.
"Now where's he gone?" Anders asked.
"No idea. Maybe we should check the Hawke estate."
They went to hightown and caught sight of the dog again. "You go catch him, I'll look for Hawke!" Anders said to Varric before running off in the other direction.
"I'm not the one who has immobilization spells, Blondie." Varric muttered under his breath. "Or long legs."
Anders slipped unnoticed into the passageway in front of Hawke's door and knocked. Bodhan answered the door. "Oh hello. You're one of Hawke's friends, I see. He left early last night, but I can tell him you stopped by."
"He left? Did he say why?"
"He said he was going to find a ring. I might have assumed one of you lot would go with him."
"Did he bring his dog?"
"Yes, he almost always does." Anders' face paled. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I need to go." He said, turning on a heel to go find the hound.
The hound, as it turns out, was sitting in Aveline's office, making puppy-dog eyes at the guard captain.
"What's wrong, Fido? You don't want to play with the guards?" Aveline asked.
Varric bolted into the room. "Oh there you are!" He said, clearly out of breath.
"Varric! What are you doing here?"
"The dog went and gathered me and Blondie. I think he wants us all together for something."
The dog barked happily.
"Where's Anders, then?" Waiting outside?"
"He went to see if Hawke was home."
Anders ran in and closed the door behind him. "Hawke's missing."
“Well that’s not good.” Aveline said. “Where was he last seen?”
“Bodhan said he left last night, taking his dog with him.”
“Should we follow him?” Aveline asked.
They all looked over at the dog. “Where’s Hawke?” Varric asked him.
The dog barked and scratched at the door.
Anders and Varric nodded. They let the dog out and followed him into Lirene’s Fereldan Imports.
“Oh not another maba-- Anders! What are you doing here?” Lirene said in lieu of a greeting.
“I’m looking for Hawke. Have you seen him?”
“Oh! Yes, he came in here looking for a ring. He didn’t specify what kind, and after I showed him what we had he just thanked me and left.”
“How long ago was this?” Asked Aveline.
“Last night, just as I was about to close up shop.”
“Did he have his dog with him?” Varric asked.
“Yes. He was on good behaviour, too.”
“Him or the dog?”
Lirene rolled her eyes.
“Thank you.” Anders said, leading them all out of the shop.
“So, where to next?” Varric asked.
“He was looking for a ring… something ferelden. Maybe he went to hightown?”
The dog barked.
“Hold on.” said Varric. “Maybe we should ask if Isabela saw him, first. She’s closer, and I hear they’ve got something going on. Maybe he found the ring and gave it to her.”
“They have something going on?” Anders asked.
“Isabela’s got something ‘going on’ with every handsome man she meets. They’re probably just flirting.” Aveline said.
Varric bowed his head in acknowledgement. “Still, we should check with her.”
The dog whined.
“All right.” Aveline said. She, the dog and Anders followed Varric to the hanged man. They approached Isabela.
“Oh hey Anders. Rough night?” She said, winking.
“What?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Uh, nevermind…”
“Rivaini, Have you seen Hawke?”
“He went to a lot of trouble just for a ring.” Remarked Aveline.
“I saw him last night.” she slurred. “Oh, not like that!” She frowned. “He… came to me for a private mission. Again, not like that.” She motioned over Varric and whispered in his ear.
“Oh.” Varric said, looking up nervously at Anders. “So we know he was looking for a ring, and Isabela told him about some buried treasure on the Wounded Coast.” He said, before muttering, “He should have just gone to hightown.”
“Come on, boy.” Varric said to the mabari. “Let’s go find Hawke.”
The group followed Isabela’s rough napkin-sketch map to a cave on the wounded coast. Outside of the cave lay freshly killed corpses, blood washed away by the rain. Clearly Hawke’s handiwork. As soon as they got inside, the hound started sniffing around everwhere.
“Is he nearby?” Varric asked the dog. He kept his nose to the ground and walked through the tunnel. They walked past skeleton archer corpses until they reached a locked dwarven door.
“I got this” said Varric, kneeling down to pick the lock. It opened and they followed the dog deeper into the tunnels, letting him choose which paths to take.
At the end of a short tunnel the dog lurched forward and pawed furiously at a door without a handle. As he whined, Hawke began to stirr on the other side of the door. Aveline went up and knocked. “Hawke? Are you in there?”
“Mmm? Aveline? Is that you? I must’ve hit my head…”
The dog growled.
“Hang on Hawke, we’ll try to come get you. Is there another way into the room you’re in?”
“I can’t… I can’t see anything.” he rubbed his eyes. “I think there’s three other doors. This place is like a big hallway or something.”
“Blondie, is there some spell you can do to blast the door open?” Varric asked.
Anders shook his head. “It’s dwarven. Even if it could I think it would hurt all of us more than it would the door.”
“We should go further in.” Aveline said.
“Are you leaving?” Hawke croaked.
“We’re going to go around.” Varric said.
The dog pouted at his traveling companions, not wanting to leave Hawke alone.
“Come on pup, we’ll need you. We can’t do this all by ourselves.” Anders said, for Hawke’s sake more than anything. The dog panted once and stood up off the ground.
Aveline led them deeper underground. The tunnels were carved out of the same stone most of kirkwall had been dug from, with red accent stone and fine dwarven carvings, eroded by the corrosive limestone dripping down from the ceiling. The lime must have been hiding the smell of the corpses littered everywhere, some of which were half-mummified, others bloated and drowned. Varric found a chest, picked the lock, and discovered it was empty. “Hawke must have looted this.” he thought.
The tunnel shook and stalactites dislodged themselves from surrounding rock and hit the adventurers on the heads. Shades clawed themselves out of the fade as demons possessed corpses. They were surrounded by eight corpses, four skeletal archers, and two shades. Varric started firing off crossbow bolts indiscriminately, moving in a clockwise circle. Anders cast a protective barrier around himself and Aveline took on the shade closest to Anders. The Mabari leaped on the nearest corpse and shred it’s flesh from bone.
The skeletal archers rained arrows down from above as Anders threw three fireballs down from above, scattering the enemies. They all ran past their fallen bodies so that they would only be encountered from one side. Just as Anders cast Elemental Weapons, Varric’s crossbow jammed.
“Bianca, now’s really not the time!” he said, pin in his mouth.
Aveline put up a shield wall and stabbed at the corpse directly in front of her. Anders continued to fire off spells from Aveline’s cover until Varric fixed Bianca. “I’m ready-- do the thing!”
Aveline taunted the enemies, who rushed into Anders’ cone of cold and were shattered by Varric’s hail of bolts.
Anders healed everyone as Aveline finished the rest of the demons off.
They heard clapping from behind them. “Well, well well. Very well done, all four of you. Don’t you think it’s time for a little break?”
“A sloth demon! Don’t listen to it-- kill it!”
Aveline and Varric looked dizzy, The dog just looked confused.
Anders sighed exhasperatedly. “C’mon boy, sicc him!”
The demon laughed. “That dog doesn’t take orders from you! When have you ever given it a reason to trust you?”
The dog whined and set his head down on his paws.
“I’ll give you treats!”
“Treats?” A feminine voice said from afar. “That’s my job.” A desire demon said, floating out from behind a wall. “Do you want a treat?”
The Mabari growled.
“Oh I know what you want even more than a treat. You want your master to let you back into bed with him. You must be very jealous of the mage who took your place.”
The dog whined.
“That’s not fair.”
“You wan’t him gone, don’t you? You could do it, right now.”
“Be quiet!” Anders shouted, summoning up enough mana to cast a fireball at them.
“You’re not enough.” Sloth said. “That spell must have taken a lot out of you, don’t you want to take a rest?”
“Guys, snap out of it!” Anders said to his friends.
“I’m… Trying…” Varric said.
“Aveline... “ The Desire demon began. “It must be so tiring, every day, protecting so many people, day in and day out, missing Wesley. Draw your sword and cut your throat with it.”
Aveline drew her sword. “N-No! Anders, Help us!”
The dog, sensing the desperation in aveline’s voice, growled at the demons.
“Good dog.” Anders said. “Sicc ‘em.”
The dog Leaped on the Desire demon and finished her off for Anders. The sloth demon tried to escape in terror, but weakened it’s hold on the party long enough for Varric to shoot it in the back.
“Sorry blondie.” Varric said.
“Don’t mention this to anyone else.” Aveline said.
“Let’s just find Hawke.” Anders said. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He said to the dog, who began wagging his tail.
Varric kicked in the door and found Hawke passed out on the floor. They all ran to him.
The dog licked all over his face and tried to drag him by the arm, before being shooed away by Varric. “Hawke, wake up! We’re here!”
Hawke was covered in sweat and clutching something tight to his chest. Aveline pried it from him. “It’s an… Engagement ring.”
Anders felt his face get hot. “Oh, you fool…”
Varric Grimaced. “So blondie, can you heal him?”
“...I’ll need some help. Let’s go talk to Merrill.”
The three of them brought Hawke to his bedroom in the city and went to Merrill.
“Merrill I know we don’t get along--” Anders began.
“What do you mean? We get along great!”
Varric grimaced.
“...Right. Well, I need a favor from you. It’s about Hawke.”
“Is he alright?”
“He’s… bewitched. We found him in a cave with some strange magic. I believe his consciousness is in the fade.”
“What? But he’s not even a mage!”
“I know. I need the help of your keeper.”
Merrill whined. “But I hate talking to the keeper without Hawke’s help. But I do love Hawke--I mean we all do, right?”
“Some of us love him more than others…” Varric muttered under his breath, looking pointedly at Anders.
“What?” Anders squawked. “Don’t believe everything a Demon tells you.”
Merrill smiled confusedly. “What are we talking about?”
“It’s nothing.” Aveline cut in. “Will you help, or not?”
“Of course i’ll help! It’s Hawke we’re talking about. So I assume you’ll all be helping, too.”
“What do you need?” Aveline asked.
“If the keeper comes here, we’ll need someone to keep her safe.”
Aveline nodded. “I’ll help. Of course I will.”
“Anders? Will you help me talk to the keeper?”
“Why me?”
“I don’t even know what Hawke needs. You could convince her better than me, right?”
“It’s worth a shot.”
The five of them departed for sundermount. When they arrived at the camp, two hunters stopped their egress.
“Shem are not welcome here, Merrill. I’d like to say the same about you, too.”
“But I am welcome here, and so are my friends. We need to speak to the keeper.”
The female elf sighed. “I’ll go get her. She’ll want to speak with you.”
The hunter returned with the keeper. “Merrill.” Keeper Marethari said, her eyes crinkling in smile. “It is good to see you. Bring you bad news?”
“No, keeper. I bring Anders, Doctor of Darktown. He needs help with a patient.”
“The patient is Hawke.” Anders added.
“Very well, how do you need my help?”
“Hawke went to find some ring but it was… possessed. I believe he is fighting off demons, similar to a circle mage’s harrowing. It’s not too late to save him, but we need to reach him in the fade.”
“I see. Can he be brought here?”
“That would take too much time. It may already be too late.”
The keeper inclined her head. “Very well. I will go. Take me to see him.”
“But keeper, we need you here!” One of the elves spoke.
“Child, I will go where I am needed most. I will return. Dareth Shiral.”
The hunter looked down. “Dareth Shiral, keeper.”
The group left sundermount and arrived with the cover of night at Hawke’s hightown estate.
Anders unlocked the door and let them inside, earning a quirk of Varric’s eyebrow.
They entered Hawke’s bedroom where he still lay, breathing in shallow slow breaths.
“Who are you taking with you?”
Anders recalled his earlier encounter with demons. “I’d rather not take any of you.”
“I’m sorry, blondie, I’ll try to make it up to you this time.” Varric said.
“I’m not sure I want to mess with demons.” Aveline said.
“I’d be happy to go with you!” Merrill said.
Anders sighed. “I’ll need all of them, since I can’t bring the dog. He can protect our bodies while we sleep.”
The three mages began casting spells and one by one the team opened their eyes in the fade.
“Go quickly.” the keeper’s voice rang out in the back of their minds. “I cannot keep this up forever.”
In the fade it was nearly impossible for Anders to control Justice and the others were startled to see Anders’ skin glowing.
He walked stiffly in long strides into Hawke’s dream. They were in the cellar of the Amell estate, from after Gamlen lost it but before Hawke bought it. The greenish fade air distorted the walls like stained glass might. Merrill gazed about and kept her back guarding Anders’. Varric marched on to keep pace and aveline crossed her shoulders and withdrew inwards.
They went into the next room and saw Hawke hitting a training dummy as his father looked on disapprovingly. He seemed not to notice them come in.
“Push yourself Garrett. Make me proud.”
Hawke’s voice came out strangled and boyish. “I’m trying! Why can’t you see that?”
“It’s okay to ask for help.”
“I don’t need help! I can do this!”
Justice stepped forward. “That’s not your dad.” he said.
Hawke whipped around. “Anders? I don’t understand!” He looked between his dad and his lover.
The pride demon stepped towards him. Hawke dropped his daggers and ran away.
“Nonsense! Make me proud, boy!” The demon said.
“That is a pride demon. Resist him.”
“Great.” Varric said. “You spooked him.”
“You! You spoiled my plan!” The demon said, morphing into it’s true form.
He summoned two electric chains and tugged Merrill and Aveline to the ground. Varric fired off shots at the demon’s massive chest as Justice calmly stepped forward and ripped the demon’s heart out.
The demon begged with his eyes before Merrill froze it and Varric shot it.
“Damn blondie! That was mental!”
Justice shrugged him off and kept moving.
Next they checked the broom closet. When Justice realised what was going on, he slammed the door shut behind him. Hawke was in his finery about to open the robe above a kneeling anders when he saw the real anders.
“Justice?!” Hawke cried, stepping back in surprise.
“That’s not Anders. It’s a desire demon.”
“Oh.” He squinted. “Is it?”
The demon rose from the floor. “Yes you fool. I have so much more to offer you than the real anders. Help me beat him and Justice will never spoil your fun again.”
“No… I… When I fell in love with Anders I accepted Justice with him!”
The Demon spat.
“I wish you could be here.” He sobbed. “I might get engaged soon.”
Hawke pulled his pants up and ran through the walls. Justice opened the door and let his group take care of the Desire demon.
They searched through the remaining rooms and found Hawke in his mother’s bedroom, crying on the bed as a ghostly Leandra fed him sad memories.
“How could you get married without your mother in the audience? You shouldn’t go.”
“That’s not your mother.” Justice spoke.
“How do you know?” Hawke cried. “You didn’t know my mother! Maybe this is her spirit!”
“See you said maybe, Hawke. You have no way of knowing what’s real here. Don’t let her taint your memories.” Varric said.
“You’ll want to remember her as she was.” Aveline said.
Hawke looked up and nodded. “You’re right. I must resist demons.”
“Are you ready to wake up now?” Justice said.
“No! You cannot forget this pain!” The demon drew back and transformed itself into a snake, coiling around hawke. Aveline charged at it and slashed away at it’s regrowing tail.
Merrill and Anders united their mana together and cast a strong ice spell, freezing just the serpent, and Aveline hacked the brittle beast to bits.
“Yeah.” He sniffed. “Thanks, Justice.”
They all awoke from Hawke’s dream in his room.
Hawke sat up fast. “Where’s the ring?”
Anders eased him back on the bed and held his hand. “You don’t need one. The answer is yes.”
“But you’re pretty. You deserve a ring as pretty as you.”
Anders scoffed. “I’m offended you think a bit of twisted metal could ever look as gorgeous as I do.”
Hawke smirked “Did you geta pride demon plus one in there? Are we making this relationship a foursome now?”
Varric cleared his throat. “We’re still here.”
“Oh I know that.” Hawke said, throwing his head back in laughter.
“Thank you Keeper Marethari. I am truly in your debt.”
“It was nothing child. If you must help me, ease my way home.
Hawke grabbed his arm and silently begged him not to leave.
“You guys go on, I’ll make it up to you some other day. And take the dog, I don’t want him to stick around and watch.”
Merrill made a face. “Yuck. I’m going.”
The rest of them left and the couple was all alone for the night.
“Well, maybe I was overblowing the animosity between us. I wouldn’t want you to think of me as untrustworthy just because I’m a cat person.”
“You know, your dog really does not like me.” Anders said, caressing Hawke’s arm.
“Doesn’t he?” Hawke frowned. “Well you’re not exactly the nicest to him. I’ll have you know I have no trust for someone my dog distrusts.”
Hawke smiled. “Did you mean it, when you said yes?”
Anders nodded against his shoulder. “I still think it’s crazy that you’d openly live with another man--an apostate. Aren’t you scared?”
“No. Not at all. Are you?”
“I should be.” he smiled. “Right now I just feel warm all over.”
“Hmm… Maybe we should get you out of that stuffy robe then.”
Also I’ve been having A Lot of thoughts about why I lost steam for Boundary Pass, beyond just roving adhd interests.
For one, I struggled with what my vision for the story was, versus what the greater trends of the if community would like it to be. For an if game, BP was always in my head going to be a much more limited game, with a much more set narrative and mc. Romance was very much going to be a secondary piece, with the opportunity only to reconnect with with one character. The characters were not gender variable, and by pushing them to be, I feel like I lost a lot of what they were in my head. Also, the if community writes just. Mindblowingly long stories. There’s games on here with over forty thousand words for the first chapter. BP again was just never meant in my mind to ever reach that kind of size. It just works better as a shorter story.
All of this is to say, that if (when) I start working on Boundary Pass again, it’ll be a much different kind of story from a lot of ifs, and it will be much closer to my original vision!
4) The most prominent recent event in the world of Merle’s Isle was the flood, caused by Immortals of the ocean. (Recent being relative, the actual event occurred over 100 years prior to the story) Ostensibly, this was in an effort to help humanity, but no one in the current period is sure of the veracity of that claim.
Though only a few people know it, that’s actually the truth. Back in the day a certain sect of Immortals decided they actually were gods (again, they’re not) and had the right to judge humanity. They proceeded to massacre large amounts of humans (and though this was not without reason, there’s no justification for genocide). To save who was left and to deter those Immortals, a plan was made for Merle to shepherd the remaining humans to safe places and for the ocean-based Immortals to raise the ocean.
5) Civilizations vary wildly from island to island. Merle’s Isle, for example, is a little behind what we’d consider modern day due to how few people live there and how little education they have access to. Another island, however, is far more advanced and has access to actual research facilities and electricity. Sure the research previously going on in those facilities was illicit and involved experimentation on humans and Immortals alike, but that’s besides the point.
Other islands vary on a spectrum between these two.
6) Views on gender and sexuality are a lot looser in this world than in ours. They may have had more traditional views at some point, but if they even existed they got washed away with most of the rest of society.
7) For the most part the world functions on bartering. There aren’t enough people on each island for a currency system, and between the islands that are close to each other it’s more useful to trade for supplies.
8) As with the various civilizations, style of governing varies from island to island. The smaller ones trend towards either no government or at the very least a direct democracy with what little people they have. The research facility island is somewhat of a dictatorship, with only one person having most of the power.
Ok, so I’ll be writing a whole series for this story, i’m not sure how long each thing will be but it’ll be a series written in like multiple fics, each one being considered a chapter; even tho they’ll most likely have more than once chapter themselves.
So go follow my account on ao3 if ya wanna see that or look up the town in the woods on ao3 in like a few days and it should come up, I haven’t posted it yet since I’m going to make this a whole series’s so I’ma start from the beginning.
As one might expect from some people viewing Immortals as gods, a lot of belief systems centered around them. Religions involving Immortals tended to be polytheistic, with each Immortal embodying a different concept. Morality and rules varied between different sects.
One major religion that didn’t involve Immortals at all was Aeonism. Aeonism focused around the belief that there was one being named Aeon from which all of existence sprung from. Aeonists generally believed in the existence of multiple universes, the line of thinking there being that Aeon’s power was more than enough to create many upon many different worlds. There wasn’t a strict moral code associated with the faith, aside from a general “be a good person because Aeon is watching and judging”.
A smaller, but infamous and notable belief system (some would call it more of a cult) revolved around a human woman named Cielle. Cielle drew the affection of a certain Immortal, who blessed her with the ability to reincarnate eternally with her memories intact so he could be together with her forever. What the Immortal didn’t forsee, however, was the wear this put on Cielle’s psyche. Dying and returning without rest lead to Cielle resenting the Immortal. Cielle’s story is held up as an example of Immortals interfering with the lives of mortals for the worse, and as a justification for the cult’s beliefs. The cult desires for the withdrawal from mortal affairs or, for some, the extermination of all Immortals. They idolize Cielle, who continues to be reborn into the present day. The general public regards this group with derision, while Immortals find them very discomforting.
