#raid nights

[dayntee]

WIP Whenever

We're chugging along on Raid Nights because only a monster would leave you with that cliffhanger for more than a week right? RIGHT?

...listen, I'm trying. But life is really crummy right now and I'm really just doing my best here. 😩

So of course it's the perfect time to write SAD THINGS:

"You’re going to tell me everything and we are going to cry about it and then we’re going to eat every last thing in this bag, alright?” A choked sob escaped Ellana before she could stop it, and Josie only hugged her harder, before pushing back just enough to offer a supportive smile. “Varric said you needed some cheering up and gave me your address. I hope I haven’t overstepped—” “N-no. It’s fine. I could use a friend. Just…” Ellana glanced behind her at the messy apartment before sighing and inviting her friend in anyway. “Don’t judge my place too harshly.” “I won’t.” Three steps after Josephine crossed the threshold, she stopped dead in her tracks, shocked. Calling Ellana's apartment a mess was a bit of an understatement. Stray dishes were scattered about on the counter while dust bunnies comprised of equal parts cat and Ellana hair were forming under every nook and cranny. The trash can was stuffed full, at least a day past when it should have last been taken out, and the stray litter around Inky's cat box was slowly spreading across the whole of the living room without daily tending. While she had yet to reach hoarder levels of filth and debris, the state of the apartment was declining rapidly in lockstep with Ellana's mood. The distance between her previous state of bliss and the new low to which she had sank was so great that finding the motivation to do even the most basic house maintenance felt like an impossible, monumental ask. Quite dramatically, she wondered if this sulking malaise would ever end. “You can amend your statement,” Ellana offered, closing the door with a sigh. “I will not judge your place harshly out loud.”

This is fine. Everything's fine. Everything will be fine.

[christeeenith]

Kinktober Day 8: Webcam for @dayntee

{ & her mini fic for the same prompt: here }

[dayntee]

[Fic] Raid Nights: Ch. 10 - Level Up*

Happy February, have some smut!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

This fic was always going to get to this point to earn its Explicit tag. In part because I am a heathen, but also because this scene has lived in my head for at least half a year.

Teaser under the break, read the rest on AO3.

*****

What was wrong with her?

Here she was, dating an attractive, intelligent, and entirely all too considerate man and she just couldn’t move things forward. There was little more she wanted; the way he kissed her melted her from the inside out, the way he looked caused her heart to stutter erratically, and she was all too certain those long, dexterous fingers of his could do a lot more than simply pull her close or hold her hand.

Creators, how badly she wanted him.

Surely if that was what he wanted, he would have made it clear by now, right? What was he waiting for?

What was she waiting for?

Read more on AO3.

[dayntee]

[Fic] Raid Nights, Ch. 8 - Side Quest 💋

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

I was correct - I'd have it ready in time for maintenance to end. 😅

Summary:

The two nerds go out on a date and they are, to the surprise of no one, incredibly nerdy about it.

Read it on AO3.

Thank you @opal-apparition for beta-ing this one for me, I feel like I was able to add so much more cool sensory stuff with the help of your keen eyes and I just love you so much. 🥰

Looks like we're getting to the good stuff, ya'll. Snippet under the break.

*****

Solas pulled a weathered-looking card out of his wallet that bore the venue’s logo. The text on it was scratched all to hell, making it difficult to read, with only the magnetic stripe showing any kind of care in its preservation. The edges were peeling and frayed from constant removal and replacement into one of his wallet's pockets. It had clearly seen its share of use and he held it out to her between two fingers.

“You may have first pick. What would you like to play?”

As Ellana plucked the card from his grasp, she offered him a playful smirk.

“That depends. Co-op or competitive?”

He quirked an eyebrow, and the smug look he gave made the choice for her before he could answer. She saw exactly the cabinet she wanted to use to wipe that smirk from his face.

Read more on AO3.

[dayntee]

[Fic] Raid Nights: Ch. 13 - Duel

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

It's been a tough time getting writing done lately for a variety of reasons, but I really wanted this chapter out today for entirely selfish purposes: today is my wedding anniversary (16 years!!) and I wanted to dedicated this chapter to my very own Dread.

Enjoy the most blurry, unflattering picture I have of the two of us from 13 years ago because anything older has been lost to the seas of time:

We're also officially coming to a close. Chapter 14 will technically be the last chapter with Chapter 15 serving as an epilogue. This is a story I could drag out, but really have no reason to do so. Halla and Dread are two I could see occasionally writing a vignette or one-shot for if the mood takes me, but otherwise their story is both complete... and yet, given their nature, will never quite be over.

Preview under the cut, but please read the full thing over at AO3.

*****

Without thinking about it, she shifted into her bear form, nodded to herself, and sent her first message.

HallaAtMe: Hi

“Yes. Brilliant, Ellana. You are a master of eloquence.”

Her hands hovered over the keyboard nervously, debating sending another message that was at least slightly less cringe, when he answered.

Dread: Hello.

“Oh, great, we’re both idiots.”

Inky mewed and stretched, almost as if agreeing with the assessment, and Ellana cast her cat a look of pure betrayal.

“That’s wholly unnecessary, Miss.”

Inky yawned, curled up into herself, and pressed her paw into her forehead as she closed her eyes, removing herself from the conversation with the finality only a cat can truly express.

Read the rest on AO3.

[dayntee]

[Fic] Raid Nights: Chapter 11 - Misdirect*

Thank you for your patience, life stuff has been a bitch and a half and I needed some time with this one. Your reward is approximately 51% smut. I did the math. Enjoy!

Special thanks to @christeeenith and @opal-apparition for keeping me honest with this one, as always. 💞

Summary:

Ellana gets her mind blown (in more than one way) and there is a failure to communicate.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Snippet under the cut, full chapter up on AO3.

“What do you want to do tonight?” She leaned over the back of the couch, hair drifting over her shoulder and hanging above him, providing an ample view of her chest from below mostly on purpose. His eyes flitted to the end of whatever paragraph he was reading before he glanced up with a brief double take, his attention clearly redirected.

“I am… flexible. Whatever sounds like fun,” he reached a hand up to run his fingers through her trailing, wavy hair and she gave him a lopsided smirk.

“I’m very aware of your flexibility, sweetie. But I want to know what you’d like to do.”

“I have one thought.” His long arms afforded him the reach to brush a thumb over her cheek, and she released a breathy half chuckle, half sigh. This had become a more common conversation as weeks stretched on. She’d ask any number of questions from what to do to what to eat and received little more than a string of non-answers or redirections. Whether it was borne from true indifference or a deference to her desires was unclear. It had been charming at first, but now…

Read the rest on AO3.

[dayntee]

WIP Wednesday - Raid Nights

Okay, so I’ve been tagged SO MANY times (THANK YOU @fadetouchedlurker @ingellvarphd @elfyroot @theriothag I love all of you, please never stop) but I wanted to make sure I had something halfway decent to share and work has been wanting me to actually do work.

I know, how dare they.

Ch. 6 of Raid Nights is actually pretty close to publish state, but needs to be beta’d and formatted (and the latter half takes a while). I can always tide ya’ll over with a little angsty snippet though.

*****

‘Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.’

She refused to cry about it. He was just some dumb internet nerd. Clearly it had all just been a game to him, and when it got real, it was too much.

That’s fine. Leave it a game. Just a game.

All Ellana had done was expose herself intimately to a total stranger who didn’t even know her name. No big deal. It’s not like her tits could be out on the internet for anyone to see at this moment and she’d have no idea.

The logic side of her brain told her Solas wasn’t that kind of person, but logic was hardly in control at this point.

In the morning, after the storm had passed and power was back to normal, she couldn’t bring herself to open the chat app on her phone. It wasn’t going to help to talk about it. What exactly was she going to say? ‘Sorry about my boobs, I didn’t think they’d offend you so much.’ It was better to just forget it had ever happened.

Right?

[dayntee]

[Fic] Raid Nights - Ch. 7: Join the Party

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66858547/chapters/203216171

Summary:

Solas and Ellana make their way to the guild meet-up.

Nothing like meeting up for the first time but is actually kind of the second time with someone who's maybe sorta seen you half naked for a second.

Totally normal events going on here.

Read the full chapter on AO3.

This chapter was running extremely long, so I made the executive decision to slice it in half and break it into two chapters. On the bright side, next chapter will get to stand on its own and gives me more room to let certain events breathe. I'm excited to take advantage of that!

We are nearing the halfway point of this story, more or less!

Also a slight bonus update: Chapters 1 + 2 were updated with party frames! This means characters that didn't previously have images now do, including Leliana, Iron Bull, and Varric's alt Rogue "Jevlan." Be sure to go back and check those out!

I'm especially proud of Iron Bull's. ☺️

Preview for Ch. 7 under the cut.

*****

It had somehow been the longest and shortest week of Solas’ life. From the time the event invitation went out to the moment he was on the road to Vivienne’s, he couldn’t think about anything other than what he would say to Halla—Ellana, he reminded himself—once they finally met. Well, for the second time. Admittedly, part of the reason it was so hard to imagine is because he had only ever seen Ellana in two incredibly different states of dress. In one instance, he’d had no idea it was her and hadn’t really taken in any details. She’d simply been the woman behind the counter, a necessary interaction in part of his daily work that was a small passing moment in an otherwise unremarkable day. Thinking back on it, he wasn’t even certain he’d made proper eye contact a single time during the exchange. The second had been an eternity of torment that was cut too short, the image burned into his mind because it was the only way he had to recall the moment. On the fringes of his memory, he knew it haunted him in dreams, even when he didn’t remember them upon waking. He felt an animal, his base desires not a question of will, but the inevitability of natural instinct. To say he was taken with her was an understatement. However, he could neither call it love nor simple infatuation. It was somewhere in between; a mix of lust and genuine affection that was stirred ever more evenly with each new interaction and detail of her that he learned. It made his jaw tighten, his pulse race, and his temperature rise. Knowing (with certainty by this point) that she shared some of that sentiment made it all the more unbearable.

Read more on AO3.