#tpoab

[ammoniteflesh]

Discovered this orchestral version of The Spine today and like. The OG version was already on the TPoAB playlist as a theme for Ghila's Blight visions but this is just SOOOOOO fitting for that and I am going a little feral about it

[ammoniteflesh]

Having a bit of a weird one re TPoAB. I reread some bits of it recently and, like... it's been so long since I wrote it and there is so much I would do differently and I feel like the flaws are so visible. Which I think is just a mark of me having grown as a writer. But I'm not sure whether to keep the current version as a living document and edit the old chapters or to start completely fresh (which has its appeal, given that when I first started TPoAB I was just making it up as I went and I now know the entire trajectory of the story).

[ammoniteflesh]

for anyone who's interested: I moved the TPoAB playlist over from my old Spotify account, here it is

not in any kind of order, best listened to on shuffle. possibly spoilers but only if you can glean them through lyrics!

[ammoniteflesh]

Beauty Lies? 👀👀 say more

So this was intended to be an expanded version of this Tamlen drabble I wrote back in 2022. (More discussion beneath the cut because it involves a couple of minor-ish TPoAB spoilers.)

Wall of moss; gentle fall of water cool in the throat the throat the throat that is burning because you haven’t drunk in days. Feel of the poison inside you; sluggishness in veins. Your heart works hard these days. Dream of an altar. Dream of a pulsing mass of bone and claw. Dream of a gold-eyed woman bound in golden chains. Hair falling to her shoulders, fine and strawberry blond. “You,” she says. Her face is round; her teeth are sharp. “You know her.” She is a hook inside your chest. Nails in rock, drag the body to its feet. Glance to the sky: clouds white and sickly, dawn leaking down from the trees. Glance again: the green and the fragments and the rotting at the core. Look up, and hear the calling. Look up, and hear the song.

In TPoAB, Ghila makes contact with Urthemiel through the Blight. Urthemiel, thinking this is Pretty Fucking Weird and Worth Investigating, basically grabs hold of Tamlen's spirit through HIS Taint and press-gangs him into trying to put it in contact with Ghila.

The core of this idea is that, for all that I adore DA:O, I think it severely underdelivers on the absolute banger of a concept that is 'corrupted old god of beauty'. And so this was going to be a TPoAB spin-off about Urthemiel and Tamlen. I was going to draw some connections between Tamlen's whole situation and how the Blight began: corruption unleashed as a result of misplaced curiousity, with devastating results. Something something the trap of beauty, something something anglerfish lures, something something the sheer unfairness of it all.

I use the past tense here because I am unsure whether I'm actually going to write this? I'm not sure how much it adds and I think Urthemiel is spookier the less we know about it. BUT I do kinda enjoy the concept so we'll see!

[ammoniteflesh]

WIP Wednesday

Thank you to @theluckywizard for the tag! I am slowly making my way back into writing TPoAB, so I am very grateful for the opportunity to share a bit.

No context for this, because it's spoilery. >:] All I shall say is: very slight CW for suicidality-adjacent stuff.

No-pressure tagging: @breadedsinner @vigilskept @rosella-writes @anneapocalypse @villainanders and @breninarthur!

“Join us, brothers and sisters,” Alistair says. The words feel thick in his throat. “Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant.”

“Don’t.” Anger flashes in Ghila’s eyes. “Whatever you’re doing, don’t you dare.”

He swallows, takes a careful breath. He feels that if he doesn’t maintain control, something terrible could happen. Something terrible already is.

“You’ve never heard these words.”

Ghila stares back at him blankly.

“You never heard these words,” Alistair repeats, “but I think you need to. We said them at your Joining. You weren’t awake to hear them, back then, but now you are. And you can do what you want, afterwards, but. But I’m going to say these words.”

Another breath. Keep going. You have to keep going, even when people leave and all you want to do is cry and scream and rage.

“Join us, sister. Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant. Join us as we carry the duty that cannot be forsworn. And should you perish…”

The words get stuck. He can feel their eyes on him, Morrigan’s and Ghila’s and the stranger’s.

Bastard. Knife-ear. Rabbit-blood. He cannot remember a time without other people’s eyes.

He goes on because there is no other choice.

“A-and should you perish. Know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten. And that one day, we shall join you.”

There is a pause, a breath that seems to come from all of them. There is a shift in the background noise - a single skipped note in the song. Somewhere out in the darkness, Alistair knows he has been heard.

Ghila is looking expectant. Does she think there should be more?

“It’s a sacrifice,” he says, “yes. But it’s, it’s more than that. It’s all of us, together, in the dark. You’re not alone. You’re not alone in this.”

Maker, or Creators, or anyone - don’t leave me, Ghila. Don’t leave me in the dark.