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Ao3 | Selectively Accepting Prompts | Tip With Tea

[wywardprince]

tag masterpost

general ;; gallery ;; promo post ;; self promo ;; starters and prompts

sebastian ;; beneath bowed head and hands {ooc} ;; fly straight and fly true {meme} ;; let me see even while my eyes are closed {aesthetic} ;; none of us are free {about} ;; not just ink on paper but what sleeps beneath the words {musings} ;; star-eyed and blossom-mouthed {romance} ;; to have but little yet treasure it well {gifts} ;; the halls of my dreams are red {history}

verses v;; and here i have known you all these years v;; i fear i am just slowing you down v;; i will drink and bed and walk away laughing v;; i will fight and pray for forgiveness later v;; the heir of starkhaven will not fall

companions c;; flow'ring heart and bright eyes {roland | eritvita} c;; shouldering the duty {elissa cousland | daughterofhighever}

relationships

[loopofrosewood]

oh you hate sebastian and think he sucks? quick what are your feelings on leliana.

[loopofrosewood]

"sebastian tries to annex kirkwall!" so true. i sure am glad leliana never headed an imperialistic military force with religious motives-

[velnat004]

A big majority of Sebastian Vael haters are Americans and/or westerners who think being religious equals to being pushy about religion because they automatically assume any Christian/Andastrian (aka Thedas-equivalent of Christianity) folk they come thinks the same way as their Puritian Christian relatives 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[velnat004]

EXACTLYY it just feels too performative to hate him to this extent, but also i cant help but notice that the majority of Seb haters are Anders fans or at the very least VERRRRRRY vocal about mage rights. Considering how Seb reacts to the Chantry explosion (and Anders' presence by proxy) i think folks who hate Sebastian want to present themselves as "leftist" or "activist" by throwing dirt at anything that Anders and his in-game "activism" aligns with. I love Anders as a character but i can't help but feel like a big majority of the DA fanbase perceive him as the embodiment of revolution and/or activism that they take it on other characters when he's in odds with the rest of the DA2 crew

[wywardprince]

As an American who is furthest from religion as you can get and who has an initial suspicion response to anyone who says they ARE very Christian because so many (too goddamn many) of them are pushy about their beliefs… I wrote fanfiction and RP for Sebastian for over a dozen years before falling out of main DA fandom spaces. Of course I'm not his creator, but I do my best as a writer to dig into what makes a character and develop them along organic lines. I have a secular bias, yes, but I try and remain true to as much of the core of Sebastian's character as I can. I have also dug deeply into transcripts of character banter on top of playing DA2 multiple times, using every class and all three personality types.

As a person who also has a degree in reading the close fuck out of texts (literature) and who is getting an advanced degree in writing fiction (mfa), there is so little textual evidence that Sebastian proselytizes to anyone in the game that I am constantly stunned by fanon takes on him that center around that.

Honestly, much of Sebastian's talk about his faith in the Maker always struck me as someone trying to convince himself he really was that devout, but always falling short of what he felt he "should" be. Forever trying to prove himself to parental figures who will always show disappointment in him and his decisions, no matter what he does.

[dalishious]

Sebastian Vael never tries to convert anyone!

Not once in the course of Dragon Age II does Sebastian ever try to convert another party member to the Chantry. I don't understand where this misinformation even began.

The only people he invites to the Chantry are people who are already Andrastian, in some form or another. Anders and Fenris are both already Andrastian, as declared in other parts of the game; they just don't actively participate in the Chantry the way Sebastian does. When Sebastian asks Anders if he wants to confess something, or if Fenris wants to come with him to sing or light candles, he is just trying to be open and helpful. Those are things that bring him comfort, so when he sees these other characters are troubled, he wants to help. It's really not any deeper than that, I don't think.

Half the time, Sebastian is not even the one who initiates discussion on the Chantry. He just politely responds with his invited perspective or input. One of the few times he brings it up first is with Merrill, and he is perfectly reasonable with her follow-up questions and critique. Their banter is mostly just discussing the differences between her faith and his, without any antagonism whatsoever.

Sebastian is also respectful of Tallis being Qunari in Mark of the Assassin. When other characters assume he hates her on principle, he's just like "no? why would I?" and expresses that he's happy for her, if the Qun is what makes her happy.

No, Sebastian's writing is not spotless; far from it - he was written by Hepler, after all, so what else do you expect? But it does bother me when people treat him so different from other characters who are very strong in faith, like Leliana. They are extremely similar when it specifically comes to their beliefs and the way they talk about their beliefs. And yet, to this day Sebastian gets fandom discourse that has never even touched Leliana.

[orlesianhennin]

maturing is coming back around and loving Sebastian vael

[breadedsinner]

@lelianasbong I appreciate these tags

[daughterofhighever-blog]

The latest commission I ordered from the extraordinarily talented @milton-chamberlain! A wonderful artist who deserves all the good things!

From a verse I have with @wywardprince , of her Sebastian at Soldier’s Peak after the end of DA2, with little Eleanor, the daughter of my Warden Cousland and Anders.

[xanaxfarts]

The Fairy Glen location: Isle of Skye, Scotland

[heeleryuta]

prince with the coolest armour everrr

[tahopo]

I hope u know ur the reason I decided to give seb a try on my da2 playthru and im in love with him, ur so right abt him🙂‍↕️

YAYYY!! welcome to the club ^_^

[heeleryuta]

posting this for all 5 sebastian vael enjoyers

[damnnateyou-blog]

[wywardprince]

what kind of tragedy are you?

Self-inflicted you were given the choice to live, a thousand times over, and yet you never choose it. not intentionally, oh no, you didn’t know it was a grave you were digging. but with every turn, you were twisting the knife deeper. every decision doomed you more. had it been anyone else, they would have made it. but you? you are so perfectly you, there was no escaping it. the true tragedy of it all, is how preventable it was.

__ tagged by: @daughterofhighever-blog

tagging: uhhhh @eritvita I think is the only other person I interact with on here

[voxspes-deactivated20180228]

Visit Original Link

[daughterofhighever-blog]

"Hmmm, well that all depends on which answer you'd prefer," Elissa began, stroking her chin thoughtfully as if in serious consideration. In truth, there was a little upward turn to her mouth that bordered on a smirk, and an impish twinkle in her eye.

"The diplomatic, or the truthful one?"

She wasn't able to hold her expression for long before letting her smile crack with a shake of her head. One hand covered her mouth to muffle the bit of laughter she let escape, the other gestured quickly to indicate she'd spoken in jest.

"The full answer to that is a bit of a story, if you'd like me to regale you with it...?"

[wywardprince]

One corner of his mouth twitched upward in a cousin of a smile. With a past like his, he could only imagine where such a story might go. Would it be some joke about his rakish past, where he knew no boundaries about himself and partook whenever and wherever of whatever he could? Would it be some sly comment about going from that into the Chantry for years? Or perhaps how he ultimately couldn't keep to his oath there, either (nevermind that Elthina had never actually let him take the oath; he'd wager most people didn't know that part). Had she heard of the escapades with Hawke for those handful of years? Or, seeing as how she was a Cousland, some political teasing about how his soft cousin Goran had sat the throne in his absence while he dithered about even considering getting it back?

He pressed all those thoughts to the side, acknowledging them, but then moving past them. Tried to, anyway. If he told himself enough times, perhaps he really could.

"Hm, I think I know how this joke goes. A rogue, a Chantry brother, and a prince all walk into a pub. The bartender looks up and says, 'Good to see you again, Sebastian!'" he said, the half-smile still perched lightly across his lips.

[daughterofhighever-blog]

"Oh, for a voice like thunder... and a tongue to drown the throat of war," she sighed, reciting the words of a long dead poet, lamenting a very similar sentiment.

Elissa let herself study him a bit more obviously when his eyes wandered upward. When she spoke again, there were soft notes of subdued wonder and apology mixed into her voice.

"You surprise me, Prince Vael. You're not what I first expected."

[wywardprince]

That made the corners of his eyes crinkle with amusement. If he had a gold coin for every time he heard some iteration of that sentiment, he'd probably have at least a handful of them by now. Of course, much of what was expected of him he never lived up to, or lived too much up to, but he liked to think those days were behind him now. Extremes were a young person's game, and he like to think that he'd been collected a bit of wisdom along with years.

"And, pray tell, what were you expecting?" He lowered his gaze from the sky to look at her again. "Nothing too terrible, I hope."

[brother-genitivi]

Sebastian is such a Character. He's one of the kindest people you'll ever meet, and probably one of the most dangerous. He genuinely finds Hawke funny. Actually laughs at their jokes. When you first meet him, he's put a bounty on the head of every single member of the Flint Mercenary Company. "What happened to my family was murder." Scottish accent. Rogue who hates picking locks. Used to be a massive slut. Chantry Brother. Has fun doing Shenanigans with Hawke. Will outright refuse to go on quests he doesn't want to. Kinda sort of boyfriends with Fenris. You can marry him. 'Failure' of the family. Autistic. Also has ADHD. Archer. Prince. "Starkhaven has much nicer courtyards." Bisexual.

I love him.

[wywardprince]

@daughterofhighever-blog

The smile he offers her is a kind one, if a bit bittersweet. "I think, while it may come with its own hardships, loving fiercely and freely is an admirable thing. It means you have great capacity for compassion in your heart, and now, more than ever, it seems we could use more of that."

He can't help it; his gaze drifts up toward where the sky would be beyond the wooden rafters of the ceiling. "The world is fraying at the seams and too many people are at one another's throats. Would that more loved as you do, my lady."

continued from here