#stal lavellan

[stallavellan]

Questions 9, 16, and 25 for the dragon age ask game please!

Thank you, anon! Since you didn't specify a character (dragon age ask game), I'll just briefly talk about each of my canon worldstate characters.

9. what is their love language? 

Shivanni Surana (HOF): Words of affirmation, hands down. Shiv is incredibly unused to being touched, has never had money for gifts, and, while a caring person, is willing to put "the greater good" over her friends'/lover's wants and needs (*coughAlistairDivorcecough*). But words? Those are free, easily given, and she'd never lie unless under extreme duress (coughsALISTAIRDIVORCEcoughcough).

Marian Hawke: Acts of service. Marian is soooooo bad at articulating anything. She's awkward, she's self-conscious, and would rather keep her mouth shut and do something to make someone happy, because it can't be misconstrued. Her way of showing she cares is by being dangerously overprotective and unquestioningly supportive of... whatever it is they need help with. Which. Doesn't always end well.

Stal Lavellan: Gifts gifts gifts gifts (even though its not a mechanic in the game). Stal is so bad at. Any kind of socialization outside of her clan. She really has a hard time opening up to anyone about anything and, lord, I cannot stress enough how much she *does not want to be in the Inquisition*. But she gets that she's stuck. She understands those around her are trying to help. So when Cassandra mentions an old knee wound is acting up, she might find some salve in her quarters. When Varric is complaining about the cold of Haven, he may find some new warm gloves in his tent after a trip to Redcliffe. She will absolutely deny it if you ask her about it, but the care is there.

16. do they get sentimental about their weapons or armour?

Shivanni Surana: Shiv does feel a certain way when she eventually sells her circle staff and robes. But she did so by learning the ways of ancient elvhen Arcane Warriors. Learning to manage plate armor and a sword not only brings her closer to Alistair but allows her to connect to a lost part of her heritage, which definitely soothes the sting of leaving the old equipment behind.

Marian Hawke: No. After moving so many times to escape the Chantry's gaze and fleeing Lothering with the clothes on their backs, Marian doesn't allow herself any attachment to objects. Whatever does the job best is what's on her body, and the rest can be sold to keep the family eating (or, after Act 1, in the emergency savings).

Stal Lavellan: Stal keeps the original equipment she came to the Inquisition with in a special place in Haven, and it does hurt her quite a bit more than she's willing to admit when Haven is lost. It was her one connection to home that she had. After that, equipment is less important - until she starts being able to request her own specialized armors and weapons. Then each one is thoughtfully crafted with Dagna's input, ensuring her friend's safety (which makes Solas leaving with his custom armor an extra little jab at the end).

25. what did they plan for their life to look like before the events of the game happened?

Shivanni Surana: Oh, Shiv had it all worked out. She was going to move up to senior enchanter, hopefully at a speed that would make her the youngest senior enchanter in circle history. By sufficiently proving herself, not only would she have established herself a family in the circle, but then she would be allowed certain freedoms to travel for research, allowing her to visit home as she'd been promised she could when she was initially ripped from her family. Going home, even for a little bit, had been her entire goal. Building a family was all she wanted, even if it was the found family of the circle. :')

Marian Hawke: Marian's idea of the future was always a bit fluid, but her family was always at the center. Once her dad died, her goal was to get steady work that would allow her to support her mom and Bethany (hence the army enlistment). Beyond that, she didn't make plans, because she knew the precarious situation Bethany's magic kept them in.

Stal Lavellan: Er. Well. Stal didn't see a future for herself at all. After Aya died, she'd taken all the most dangerous patrols and needs her clan had. Dangerous beast in the forest? Stal was the first to raise her hand to take care of it. Bandits too close to camp? Stal was on it before the Keeper could round up the hunters. She had a deathwish and she just wanted to make whatever she had left useful to her clan. It... didn't pan out well. Too bad, girl! You get to enjoy the beauty of life, friendship, and love again! And it's gonna make you stronger for the future!! Live, bitch!!

[stallavellan]

Stal Lavellan

“And people just untie themselves Uncurling lifelines If you could just forgive yourself.”

[stallavellan]

3 + 4 for the general romance asks, if you're still up for some :)

Ahhhhh!! Im always down for talking about my OCs my dude. Im gonna go with Stal (my Solas romancer!)

3. When did your Inquisitor develop feelings for their partner? When did they realize they had feelings for them? Stal didn’t develop feelings for Solas until well into their actual relationship (?). It started out as a mutual kind of friends with benefits thing because neither of them wanted to get attached (Solas for obvious reasons, Stal is way too afraid of emotional intimacy. It was working out well enough). But then she started realizing she was catching feelings sometime after their arrival to Skyhold. She tried to stop the feelings before they started (had another fling with someone else) but ultimately realized that she loved him and tentatively accepted it sometime after Wisdom died.

4. How did your Inquisitor’s relationship begin with their partner? A casual fling? Tentative commitment? As mentioned, started as a casual filng! Basically she was very lonely and uncomfortable with the whole “being surrounded by humans who think she’s Chosen by their God” thing and sought out the closest person to home she could find- an elven apostate who didn’t treat her like some revered being. Sure, they had differences, but for a while he was the only one she would actually talk to because the surrounding company angered and scared her too much. Their flings definitely started out as Stal craving some sort of intimacy and control in a place where she felt isolated and stuck.

[stallavellan]

1,3,5,7,15 :D

Ahhh!! Thank!! I’ll do Stal, as always, because Im super lame and have never developed a character as strong as her ahhhh

1. Her name…. um. Im super lame. I really liked the way it sounded. It kinda sorta came from the word “stalwart” and it sounded strong and grounded. I tried to find similar names when I was making my final decisions but none sounded as good as just “Stal”.

3. Stal thinks her muscles are pretty great. She doesn’t mind showing them off and she likes the intimidation factor they give her. That said, she still prefers armor and such but when she’s just lazin about, those guns definitely come out.

5.  She’s very sexually confident. She’s also sex-positive and totally cool with casual sex or friends w/ benefits deals.

7. Stal is kinda quiet. Doesn’t say a lot unless she has something important she wants to say. As a result, she doesnt say “yes” or “no” when asked questions, she kinda just. Hums? Like. “Mmm”. With different inflections for different answers. I’d liken it to a grunt of affirmation but its not as far back in the throat as a grunt would be.

15. Templars in general make her instantly enraged. But, in general, Stal has a very quick temper- if someone slights her or does something that hurts a friend or someone she cares about, this reaction could literally describe anyone and then in a few weeks time the reaction would be less drastic. She’s very hot/cold.

[stallavellan]

40, 32, 38! :D for any inquisitor u want <3

thank you dear! 

40. do they enjoy being the inquisitor? Absolutely not. Stal hates being Inquisitor. At first it was just everyone telling her she was the herald of a god she doesn’t believe in... Then it was actually having to lead. She wants to help people, of course, that’s why she stayed, but being responsible for all these people scares her.

32. do they get along with vivienne? Stal just tries to avoid her. It’s not even really about the mages and the circles thing- it’s that she backs the templars. Stal doesn’t even try to understand all the politics of the cities but she knows a noble when she sees one. A noble who backs the templars? Stal just keeps her distance as much as possible because if she doesn’t things would get ugly and she doesn’t want another headache from Josephine yelling at her.

38. are there any insults they find to be especially offensive? (i.e. “knife ear”/”rabbit” for elves, “oxmen” for qunari, ect.) Well, she finds anyone who utters them worthy of a knife to the throat, especially if that person is talking about one of her companions. She might not necessarily love Sera but the minute she overhears someone in a tavern call her ‘rabbit’, Stal will already be punching them in the gut before they can finish their sentence (This leads to some fights among Stal and her friends usually containing the words “restraint” and “can take care of myself”).

[stallavellan]

★★★★★★ -Aya ★★★★★★★★★ -Stal o.o

jesus fuck m8 aright

After some consideration (considering there are 15 STARS) Im putting this under a cut.

Aya:

1. A lot of people mischaracterize her as a scaredy-cat because she cries easily. But these same people don’t have the guts to face off death time and time again. As the clan’s top healer she has shoved her friend’s guts back into the stomachs, set broken bones to the tune of screams, bore the weight of the messenger when she could not save a couple’s infant child- Aya is braver than anyone knows. (Well. Stal knows)

2. Strongly pacifist. Most of her magic is healing or defensive- the rare offensive spell she knows, she isn’t that good at and rarely pulls out. She kills when she has to but really doesn’t like it.

3. Because she tries to be nice to anyone, she is easy to manipulate. She wants to believe in the good in everyone and it often leads to her being mistreated. Because she is so nice, though, she often has good friends who look out for her.

4. Horribly indecisive, especially under pressure. Will delay a course of action for as long as possible, trying to get all information she can but even then struggling if the answer isn’t clear (The Winter Palace was hell for her). Thank goodness for Josephine.

5. She absolutely loves anything with lemon. Lemon tarts, lemon cakes, straight lemons- Aya will straight up bite into a lemon while looking you dead in the eyes with a smile on her face as she chews. She likes doing it around little kids because they go nuts asking her questions and shouting in surprise (and the kids who try to imitate her make the funniest sourpuss faces).

6. She’s that person who will drop everything she’s doing when she sees an animal. She’ll grab other people, point at the animal excitedly, start doing the baby-talk-It could be a rabbit or it could be a bear, Aya doesn’t care, all life is precious to her and wildlife makes her so excited. Because of this, hunting upsets her, even though she understands the necessity.

Stal:

1. Personal hygiene is not her strong suit. The only time she really thinks about it is when she’s cleaning/cutting an animal (Cuz people are going to eat that meat, yknow!). But sometimes she’ll have a smudge of dirt on her nose for days and if anyone brings it up she’ll just wipe at it and forget about it.

2. Even though she doesn’t admit it, Stal loves children’s tales- warrior queens, men who shift into wolves, evil witches and brave heroes. For the longest time she didn’t know how to read (it was never a priority and she has undiagnosed dyslexia) but when Solas eventually taught her, every book of children’s tales began to mysteriously disappear off the shelves.

3. Before the events of Inquisition, Stal was a very sarcastic, witty person. Aya’s death changed her but as she opened up to people in the Inquisition, her sarcasm occasionally shone through. Receiving a witty comment or a sarcastic retort is almost a badge of honor among her closest comrades (Cassandra has still never received one).

4. (I think this has been said somewhere else but whatever) She doesn’t like sweets. Like. At all. Meat is good. Bitter veggies are good. Fruit is okay, about the most sugar she can handle. But, like, Orlesian cakes and shit? Nah. It makes her mouth tingle unpleasantly and she feels sick afterwards.

5. She doesn’t mind killing as long as it’s with purpose. If they attacked first, no remorse. If they’re working for the enemy, she tries only to wound until they show intention to kill. If she’s hunting for food, she thanks the Gods and says a prayer but knows she’ll put every piece of the animal to use. Killing is a tool for survival and she does her best to detach herself from any emotion towards it.

6. Stal gets annoyed by convoluted explanations (honestly, she’d probably hate the fact that I just used the word convoluted). She hears more than 3 syllables in a word and assumes the person’s being pretentious. There is a simple way to explain most anything- she doesn’t like when people try to lord over her with language.

7. As mean and as tough as Stal is, she has a huge soft spot for fennecs. Once, a noble presented her with a fur-lined cloak at a dinner party. First of all, Stal has no fucking manners. Second, she hates nobles. Third: she was immediately able to tell it was fennec fur.Josephine was luckily able to control the situation before Stal resorted to violence.

8. Going off that, for the longest time, Josephine had to give Stal lessons in manners. Stal barely retained any of it- but the lessons ended up making them good friends and even though Stal couldn’t remember what forks to use, she always kept at least a neutral expression during social events, just to try and make Josephine’s job easier.

9. Stal finds beds to be so fucking foreign that she actually sleeps better when she’s traveling. Same with her poor feet- the skin tends to soften when she’s only walking on smooth stone for too long. Getting back into nature builds those callouses back up and makes her feel right again.

[stallavellan]

★ :D

Stal, known for being quiet and broody, is most happy when being reckless in the wilderness. Her closest friends often go out of their way to find some high rock or a rushing river just to see a smile on her face as she climbs the rock face or dives into the river.

(companions who encourage this behavior: Blackwall, Cole, Sera, Varric, Bullcompanions who internally scream the whole time this is happening: Solas, Cassandracompanions who are annoyed: Dorian, Vivienne)

[stallavellan]

YELLS LOUDLY 4 8 15 16 23 42

THANKS U LOUDLY

4. Paper or plastic: Stal prefers paper but she’s really bad at remembering to mention it so half the time she ends up with plastic bags that go into the neverending bag of bags oh mythal someone help she uses them for everything imaginable and theres still so many

8. Strengths: Stal is hella determined and very defensive of her friends so she makes for a great protector! no one’s gonna so much as poke you if she’s around. Doesnt mean she’s a growly friend though- she deeply cares about anyone she has an emotional connection with and drops her growls at the door when theyre around :)

15. What makes them angry: Insulting her friends, insulting her intelligence, insulting her way of life/religion/ etc. Just. Don’t insult her and dont be prejudice to anyone and she typically will let stuff slide.

16. Favorite time of year: Summer because game is plentiful, she doesnt have to wear all that impeding heavy stuff to keep her warm, and she loves the sun

23. Biggest Secret: I mean she doesnt tell anyone in the Inquisition about Aya. Like. At all. Until she’s kind of forced to when she realizes she’s in too deep with Solas and she’s like “UMMM NO SRRY NOT TODAY”

42.  Coffee or Tea: Tea and man does Solas make the funniest faces when she drinks it. (Solas: -disgusted noise-)