A week of pens & highlighters doodles, made for @datvcompanionweeks ♥
✦ Day 1 — Hope & Gloom (Davrin & Assan in Arlathan Forest, after defeating the Gloom Howler and freeing Assan's siblings) Proud and happy griffon dad✨
✦ Day 2 — Monster & Halla (Davrin facing Ghilan'nain in Weisshaupt, in front of her Archdemon Razikale) In War, Victory✨
✦ Day 3 — Oath & Corruption (Davrin post-Veilguard, in my first World State where Calico "Rook" Aldwir continued to search for him, and freed him from a Blight cyst) It was not time for his sacrifice yet✨
✦ Day 4 — Vir Tanadhal & Turlum (Davrin post-Veilguard, showing his daughter Cay'dan the way of three trees, and making sure her bond with her brother Assan grows) Family outing in Arlathan Forest✨
✦ Day 5 — Sword & Wood (Davrin & Kataqun "Rook" Ingellvar, sword training in the wilderness) Because Kat is taller in game, I keep forgetting he's canonly shorter than Davrin. With the angle of this piece, he looks extra smol and I love it haha ✨
✦ Day 6 — Heritage & Legacy (Young Davrin & uncle Eldrin, listening to his stories around the campfire) Oh, to catch younger Davrin sing to Hallas♥ Lucky Eldrin. ✨
✦ Day 7 — Free Day (Future & Family) (Davrin, Assan, Cay'dan & Kataqun "Rook" Ingellvar post-Veilguard, exploring a safer Thedas) The unexpected family that wasn't in their plan, but now they wouldn't have it any other way ♥ ✨
ok so they dance but what if Marisol also makes out with the mysterious masked Crow who won't tell her his name and they part ways at the end of the evening and Lucanis thinks he should find her and tell her the truth becuse he's never felt that desire or want to do that before - he has a boat to catch, and a contract to take care of in Vyrantium, but once he gets back…he thinks maybe he can properly introduce himself…..
Rules: Free form a blur or drawing based on the weekly lyrics prompt. It doesn't have to include the prompt just whatever you're inspired to write, write it. Then tag some friends so they can play as well. It doesn't have to be finished on Thursday, just post it whenever you can (you have a whole week between Thursdays!)
This weeks lyrics:
And if you have a minute, why don't we go Talk about it somewhere only we know? — Somewhere Only We Know by Keane
Thank you @woundedsoul12 for the game and the lyrics! Trying to write some shorter stuff recently so here’s 900 words of Zalan with his family
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It was a typical Antivan party- beautiful lanterns hanging in tandem with long drapes of fabric decorating the space making it seem warm and soft. The big bay windows showing a carefully crafted garden outside, paths lit with more of the purple lights as guests walked along the hedges and flowers. Tables of food and drink lined one wall and dancing couples spinning about in the middle.
It was a crow gala, people from all the houses were present and dressed and dancing and having a fine time. The merchant princes were in attendance along with nobles from the area and from several of the surrounding countries. So everyone was on their best, least poisonous, behavior.
Zalan handed over one of the two cups of sparkling punch to Ilene who scowled leaning against the wall. He'd left to fetch her some to see if it would ease her foul mood.
"You look nice tonight." He told her, grinning when she wrinkled her nose at him. Lilya had managed to get her into a dress and Zalan had stolen her away to sit in the rafters while everyone else got ready. To give her a break and to coax her into letting him do her hair. She'd reluctantly let him brush it but that was it and he didn't push. Instead they'd sat in silence in their dress clothes until Hugo found them and told them to hurry.
"It could be worse." He told her, "At least Viago isn't pushing you to dance with anyone yet." And then laughed when she narrowed her eyes and glared out into the crowd.
"If she kills someone I get 10 gold." Carina said, appearing beside the two. Zalan handed off the other glass to his youngest sister and shook his head.
"If she kills someone Viago will have all our heads, better to not- if at all possible." He reminded both of them, knowing full well that if someone died Viago would have to prove it was one of them and as long as they hid the body well enough they could probably get away with it.
Having both Ilene and Carina beside him was like a flame, luring in the moths that were the others and Lilya showed up next.
"Why are you sulking in the corner, it's a party we should be enjoying ourselves." She took Carina's hand and gave the taller girl a twirl both of them laughing when she had to duck a little.
Hugo arrived next with a smile and Ilene shot him a hopeful look which he sadly shook his head to,
"Sorry, Viago caught me on my way out and took the sparklers away."
Zalan rolled his eyes at the pair of them while Lilya tutted disapprovingly the . Carina looked away suspiciously and Zalan wondered if maybe their fireworks weren't as lost as they suspected.
Zalan spotted Viago through the crowd coming their way, likely for nothing good and nudged a few of the siblings gesturing with a nod.
"Seems like a good time to scatter." He commented before taking Carina's hand, "Dance with me, he can't interrogate you there." And led them to the dance floor.
Holding her hands loosely he shuffled them into the throngs of people and smiled when Viago lost sight of them.
"You stole back the sparklers?" He asked and Carina smirked,
"Hugo looked so sad when Viago found them." She explained. He nodded, understanding. Hugo had the best puppy faces when he was sad.
Zalan led them around for the dance, and when it was over Lilya showed up to claim the next one, sweeping Carina back out onto the ballroom floor. Zalan found Hugo again, lingering around the edge and he gave the boy a half bow and asked for a dance. Hugo tried to mumble something about being worried he'd fall but Zalan shook his head and led him out anyway, dancing slowly so they could both keep up.
As the song drew to a close and another one started they managed to catch their sisters and trade off laughing, Lilya taking Zalan's hands and Carina taking Hugo's.
They stayed close, putting wagers down on which of the houses would break first and kill someone in attendance. At the close they found Ilene again and Lilya managed to convince her to take one lap around the dance floor with her.
Carina was telling Hugo that she had the sparklers and Zalan kept an eye out to make sure Viago wasn't sneaking up on them. Ilene and Lilya met back up with them when the song ended and Zalan smiled at them.
His siblings were smiling and laughing and no one had died yet, though the night was still young.
It truly couldn't get better than this and to have them all in one place was rare so he wanted to enjoy every moment. He was headed out soon for another mission so he wanted to soak it all up before he had to go. Viago hadn't told him much, just that he would be going solo and it would be in Orlais.
Carina gestured to the gardens, there was a secluded spot they often hide away in that would be perfect. She had the sparklers and wanted to use them and the others were agreeing. He put the mission out of his mind, they had trouble to get in.
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Gentlest tags (no pressure to read or anything) for @jenn2d2 @serensama @kabsey @jukkaricity @davrinsleftpectoral @notyourmamasdeerbat @chaosherald @hedwigoprah @therivercrow @sorcerousadventurer @serialsforbellara
Thank you to the mods @datvcompanionweeks for organizing this week!
Ossuary Pre-Veilguard (Also on AO3 Word count 1,026)
Wake up
The demon’s voice sounded in his head. Lucanis groaned as he opened his eyes. His entire body ached from his last session under Calivan’s “tender” care. He had lost count of the number of times the Venatori mage had dragged him from his cell and tortured him, both physically and mentally, in an effort to cause the demon within him to emerge.
They had seen Zara’s victims break open like a cocoon containing a moth, a demon emerging, snarling and radiating emotion. Calivan took particular pleasure in disposing of the desiccated corpses of the demons’ former hosts.
Lucanis swore he would never be among them.
The demon his body now hosted had been a spirit of determination once. The spirit had been a bright thing, a creature who would never give up, would always push through no matter what happened. Through months of trying to twist Lucanis’s mind and the spirits, tormenting them, poking and prodding at them like they were little more than dolls, had turned the spirit into something else.
The spirit watched the demons that emerged from Zara’s victims move like they were still her puppets, not free to make their own choices, but still her tools. They might think they could do as they pleased, but Zara still held their leashes.
The spirit formerly known as determination hated that. He would not let this Venatori gain control of him. He would not do her bidding or that of Calivan, no matter how much they poked and prodded at him.
In a strange way it gave Lucanis hope. The demon within him did not wish to become Zara’s puppet. If he were to burst free as the other demons had done, then he would be under the Venatori’s control.
Neither of them wished to suffer Zara and Calivan’s iniquity against them.
The demon and Lucanis had spent the first many weeks of their forced enjoinment fighting for control of Lucanis’s body when they were not being tormented. More than once the demon had tried to escape Lucanis’s body without simply bursting out of him. Something about the Venatori’s wards had prevented him from doing so.
Once the demon realized there was no way to escape this flesh prison other than forcing his way out and that he simply could not walk the body out of the prison, he had stopped trying to kill Lucanis. They still fought for control of the assassin’s body at times. The demon was still a demon, and he took a certain delight in prodding at Lucanis when the assassin was not perfectly agreeable with him.
But at least he had stopped trying to kill the Crow.
“What is it?” Lucanis hissed softly, shifting as each movement caused pain to shoot through his limbs.
Something is happening the demon hissed in his mind. Barriers weaken, guards get distracted.
“What do you mean?” Lucanis asked. They were in a dark cell, deep within the prison. There was no light in this area of the prison, but with as enjoined as they were, he was able to seek in the dark using the demon’s abilities.
The foundations weaken the demon said again.
In all the times that the demon and Lucanis had separately tried to escape, they’d always been stopped. The wards of the prison had warned the Venatori, and no matter how many they killed, they could never break free.
But the demon was right, something was different this time.
Lucanis frowned, thinking.
“What,” he said finally, “If we worked together?”
Together? the demon asked. How?
“If you and I worked together, combined our abilities, to escape this place. Neither of us have been able to escape the Ossuary on our own. But if we worked together, perhaps it would be enough?”
His head went silent for several minutes. He could feel the demon shifting, testing, considering. Finally the demon replied. Together? We move together?
“As you pointed out, something is happening. Something feels different,” Lucanis said aloud. “If the spells warding this place and holding it together are weakening, perhaps we will finally be able to break free of this evil place.”
We will make a deal? the demon asked.
Lucanis knew from speaking to the mages he knew among the Crows that making a deal with a demon was usually a bad idea. What being trapped in this place of horror for so long and being unable to escape by himself, how much choice did he really have?
“We’ll work together. We will escape, and we will live,” Lucanis told him. “That is the demon I offer.”
With as long as they’d been entwined, Lucanis didn’t even know if it was possible to separate him and Spite anymore. It wasn’t something they could really even investigate as long as they were in Calivan’s control.
Yess the demon hissed. We will work together. Together, we shall escape this place.
“Then let’s do so,” Lucanis replied. He rose carefully to his feet, cataloging his pain. He flexed his limbs, finding his body still functional. Good.
He began examining the warding that currently held them. “Can you break this?” he asked.
The demon looked through his eyes, lifting Lucanis’s left hand to poke at the wards. It zapped Lucanis, but he didn’t feel the same pain he had when he’d tried to touch it in the past.
Because I keep you from hurting the demon explained. Yes. This. I can break this.
im Not Looking at the achievements list or any other spoilers, but it has got me making mental lists instead of what the funniest things to get spoiled could be. like
Bothersome: you "Annoyed Solas" 1000 times!
Stop That: you tried to eat the magic rocks and got possessed by a titan
Veilwhoops: selecting the "maybe he has a point" option as Soals tries to open the veil results in game over when everyone dies in the resulting explosion
Dragonrider: your attempt to kiss a dragon resulted in total party death
Shopaholic: you spent all the Veilguard's gold on outfit upgrades
Illiterate: you refused to read any letters, codex entries, etc you found and only vaguely understand what's going on now
Bingo Night: you interacted most with those Old Men (Emmrich and Solas)