blind-alchemists

[blind-alchemists]

I was curious and looked up when the last exchange event I participated in ran and, shit, that was in 2018

#personal #the passage of time spares no one etc. etc. #first exchange i participated in was in 2017 btw #anyway! #i got worse whiplash from the fact that the user who organized both events is only ... two years older ... than i am. as i discovered today #i always thought she was. like. a decade older than me.

[blind-alchemists]

there are exactly two reactions to seeing bear in DA:I:

A bear! Dirthamen says, voice bright with an unfiltered joy Din has never heard from him before. “A bear!” Cassandra calls in the same breath, sliding out of her saddle and drawing her weapons. The bear grunts as it drops down on all fours. The ground lurches under its weight.

#series: walk the other way #dragon age fanfiction #wip #friendly bear encounter no. 1 #anyway. where's the post that says the bears are only so tough in Inquisition because they didn't trade away Dirthamen's secret. #i love that post.

[blind-alchemists]

I have a deep appreciation for Varric, but if I have to give another character a Varric-type nickname because they're two seconds too long in a scene with this dwarf, I'm going to scream

#series: walk the other way #dragon age fanfiction #this is fine. #one of the most difficult things is assigning characters nicknames for Varric to use i swear to god #especially because varric has such a habit of either using ironic or appearance-based nicknames #felassan and dirthamen were the worst. like. how do you give someone a nickname who's not authentic in any way? #anyway. i have a little plotline planned for mihris and i'm kinda satisfied with varric's nickname for her ... i guess?

[blind-alchemists]

hey, it only took me three days to finish what was supposed to be just a short piece about why that banter specifically annoys me!

to no one's surprise than my own, it's not very short at all.

evidence #1, my table of contents:

... and evidence #2, my final word count:

so I've started the meta post about why it infuriates me that Varric says his publisher is stealing from him and

... I've only just outlined the history of book printing. I'm not even at the part where I start deducing what it all means for Thedas, or where I go into the publishing business, or the implications of Varric's fame.

#personal #word count horrors #why am i now incapable of writing something under 10k. #this could have been my bachelor's thesis

[blind-alchemists]

so I've started the meta post about why it infuriates me that Varric says his publisher is stealing from him and

... I've only just outlined the history of book printing. I'm not even at the part where I start deducing what it all means for Thedas, or where I go into the publishing business, or the implications of Varric's fame.

#personal #word count horrors #yeah let's just use that tag why not #in case you wonder why i have a 1.5 million words fic lol #i'm a publishing graduate with a bone to pick with the most insignificant piece of DA lore

[blind-alchemists]

I randomly remembered that bit about Varric's publisher apparently stealing from him and while it's a small bone to pick compared to the rest of DA lore, it makes me so mad

#rbing this because i recently remember this and i still haven't written a comprehensive metapost #and it still makes me mad! #publishing doesn't work like this! #and varric is in the merchant's guild for fuck's sake! #how tf would his publisher be able to steal from him?? #anyway. varric being the thedas-equivalent of a nyt-bestselling author is an interesting piece of worldbuilding- #because it implies not only a wide-spread literacy among the people but also the existence of a book printing press with movable type- #which begs the question why thedas doesn't have newspapers or magazines or periodicals #never thought this is what i'd use my degree for lol

[blind-alchemists]

the most annoying thing is that I've used some Elvhen names or phrases or words for this fic that I came up with but whose meaning I didn't write down in the full conviction I'd remember.

Spoiler: I don't remember.

#series: walk the other way #dragon age fanfiction #this is fine #i just need to reverse-engineer this stuff #which would be a lot easier if the damn language wasn't a damn cipher! #or i had actually written down the meaning / translation when I was going through the second draft ...

[blind-alchemists]

the internet has lied to me.

the Fade questline during the Broken Circle is great! i liked it! it's the most fun i've had so far! the shapeshifting part was amazing! running around without a party for a change was great!

#personal #tbf i can see why it'd be annoying at the beginning if you didn't play a mage #because i just drop a fireball on a group and that's all it takes lol #and dropping a fireball on a group of enemies is a lot of fun if you're alone! because this game has friendly fire on all difficulties! #and i keep forgetting about that until after i set half my party on fire. #the burning enemies were a bit of an issue but i managed #and yeah you need to get the shapes in the proper order #and then you need to backtrack a bit if you want to get all stat increases #but i have spend almost 400h in DA:I and way more than 600h in DQ 9 soo .... #da:o

[blind-alchemists]

if i had known about obsidian when i was at university, i would have been so good at studying you can't even imagine

#personal #tbf ... no not really #i'd still not like university and stuff #because it turns out i still really hate learning about things that don't interest me! #next time i'm getting a degree i'm getting one in informatics #publishing is nice and all but informatics just scratches that itch in my brain

[blind-alchemists]

do i really need to re-read one of the gaider novels for research purposes?

#personal #yeah yeah revisit the source material. i've seen the post. #but i find gaider's novels so awful for so many reasons #not to mention that i don't care about any of the cast from the calling save for fiona #the stolen throne at least had loghain :( #but i can't stand marric and i'm neutral about duncan and he kills off all the other characters including the gay couple #so how tf am i supposed to care for any of these on a re-read

[blind-alchemists]

anyway, the kind of days I've enjoyed most on my balcony:

mild temperature + rain

cold mornings with clear skies where you're bundled up and then the sun comes around, blissfully warm

morning fog burned away by the sun

early spring sun

late summer sun

autumn rain

#personal #while i was living in student dorms i thought 'I need a balcony' #and lo and behold: my apartment has a balcony #unfortunately i moved to the part of the country that regularly sees up to 30 degrees celsius from MARCH TO OCTOBER #and i Do Not do well in heat. or the sun.

[blind-alchemists]

i'm still a bit mad da:o is Actually Good because i vividly remember how i reacted to that broodmother scene when i saw it in a let's play years ago and i really don't look forward to playing it myself

anyway, some revelations from by playthrough so far:

actually not mad i broke my rule of "first playthrough is a female dw rogue" for this because it's fun

but: This Game Is Bugged

i love the variety in the entropy tree

mages are as op as they say, to the point where i have essentially solo'd entire enemy groups (incl. that surprise revenant and the desire demon with the charmed templars in the Broken Circle)

... after i got damaging spells. yeah, you need damaging spells. and you need healing spells.

the origins are really cool. i see why people want them back.

i also understand why people want a mabari. the dog's hilarious.

Morrigan. i love her.

she's so mean but she also tells you the first time you're in camp that she doesn't understand a lot of social rules, cues, or traditions, much less is able to keep up with human society and finds it overwhelming. plus she was raised by Flemeth/Mythal, the worst mother figure in all of history.

so why's her romance male-only? and why does it always have to be a rare ship i fall for? :(

tbh i would have loved an option for a mage!Warden to shut down Morrigan at the Broken Circle (along the lines, "I was also a mage of this Circle, and they do not deserve your scorn because they never had a choice - because I never had a choice") without either killing Wynne or being mean to Morrigan :(

Morrigan has an incredibly funny camp-conversation with the dog about how he put a half-eaten hare into her (clean) underwear and when the warden says, "you hurt his feelings," she says something like, "no, i didn't. look, he's just manipulating you. i can tell because i do the same thing!"

Sten's also incredibly funny for the same reason that Morrigan is: Leliana is very well adjusted to society, and Alistair can at least read social cues and has some emotional intelligence, and then you have two people who know fuck all about any of that

i'm kinda neutral about both Leliana and Alistair, and Sten's alright i guess, so i'm really hoping Zevran and Shale are interesting to me. Oghren's ... gotta wait until i have done literally anything but Orzammar.

#personal #playing da:o in 2024 is an experience #and boy do i profit from the guides other people have written #also. this game is hard compared to DA II and DA:I #then again. i had no healing until i got wynne. and i have no shielding. and i only just realized leliana only had archery talents- #and i had put her on dual wield. #for the love of everything that is holy understand that i have a very specific type of character i like. and they need to be a bit weird. #or divisive lol

[blind-alchemists]

i love having some compilations of korean bakeries run on my second monitor when i do a longer writing session on the weekends but the issue with that these videos make me carve some really good, fresh bread on a sunday :(

#personal #unconventional writing habits #but by far not the weirdest thing i do #during the week i have the daunting pressure of 'i have to get to work at a reasonable time' that keep me focused really well #but on the weekends i don't. so i need to set up a distraction preemptively before i trip into rummaging through the internet #yeah my family has a history of adhd. why do you ask?

[blind-alchemists]

“Anyway,” Varric says then, always the easy conversationalist, “I hear you two have been doing good by Adan and the infirmary.” “Din has done more than I have, but, yes,” he replies, resting his staff against his shoulder so he can pull his hands into the layers of warmth his cloak provides. “It’s a bit hard to imagine someone as prickly as him healing people,” the dwarf admits. “You, on the other hand? You’re the tragic hero type, Chuckles. You help and you bleed and then you lament it wasn’t enough.” “I don’t think of myself as either tragic nor a hero, Varric,” Solas says to him. He had, once, but that time has long passed and now the words turn his stomach in knots. The dwarf might know nothing about him, but he is a story-teller, and he sees the parts of him he had thought to have buried long ago. Solas has not been a hero since he burned Mythal off his face, has not been a hero even when he was her champion, has not been a hero even in the war against the Pillars of the Earth. And tragic — no, tragedy is something only heroes are allowed to have. Monsters like him, wolves with six eyes and slavering jaws and maws big enough to devour cities, do not get tragedy. They get a miserable death. “Most don’t, in my experience,” Varric replies and moves past the awkward moments in their conversation with the smooth experience of someone who has done this for decades. “That’s the charm of them: They don’t know they’re the tragic hero. And they do not become bad; they are tragic because they are so infallibly good that it pains you, because you know what makes them such outstanding people will lead to them to commit their biggest mistake and once they realize what they have done, they’re already in the middle of the tragedy.” Solas swallows. “What happens then?” Varric looks at him. “The play ends, Chuckles,” he says wearily. “Maybe the hero dies, or maybe he doesn’t, or maybe he’s left weeping before the curtain falls, or maybe he’s crumbled into a pile of nothing.” He pauses, watching him up close, and an uncomfortable feeling settles in his chest. “Tragic heroes do not live happily ever after.” “Of course,” he muses, more to himself than the dwarf before him. He recognizes himself in the story-tellers words, and they’ve rang a little too true, but he’s long past the point where he might be either tragic or a hero. He raised the Veil, and destroyed the world, and slept, and now that he has awoken after a thousand years of slumber, he will tear down the Veil and do what he could not do last time: He will rid the world of the Evanuris whose sole existence will eventually lead to its ruin. A hero might have found another way, but he is a hero no more: He is Fen’Harel, the dreaded wolf, the mad trickster, the monster, the villain, and if this is what it takes to save the world, then he has no issue paying the price.

#dragon age fanfiction #series: walk the other way #wip #solas #varric tethras #varric has a lot of fun banters about his books + heroes + literature #anyway! #for Purposes solas takes the role of an anti-villain but him being a former tragic hero is just the kind of thing i dig #and. well. him denying himself a happy end is just part of his character. #i like my literary mirrors and reflections

[blind-alchemists]

Remille was First Enchanter of Kinloch Hold until 9:10 Dragon???

#dragon age meta #damn the first two books and the meta conflicts they cause #what do you mean your last first enchanter used blight magic trying to kill the king of ferelden??? #and what do you mean everyone forgot about it??? #duncan doesn't talk about it. loghain doesn't talk about it. no one!! talks!! about it!! #tf do i do with this knowledge #anyway. i was thinking of making my surana thirty and have her taken to the circle in 9:05. #but then i'd have to address the architect 20 years early!! #and the entire remille thing. incl. marric. #i even forgot fiona was a mage of kinloch yikes #tbf i forgot the majority of gaiders books #safe for loghain. and fiona. love these two.

[blind-alchemists]

yeah, i caved and bought origins. and, yeah, it held up well. and, yeah, it's fun.

#personal #dragon age #and again it was fan media that made me change my mind #and now i have a really long looking da:o horror fic sitting in scrivener. #this is fine. #i didn't buy origins for so long because that broodmother scene really triggered me when i saw it in a video years ago #i even refused to watch origin playthroughs after that #but i was also .... 15? 16? way too young for this.

[blind-alchemists]

i'm very normal about this fic, in case you haven't notice

#series: walk the other way #word count horrors #look at the paperback/printed pages lmao #i'm a bit late for the third anniversary #scrivener's only counting my manuscript folder btw #you need to add a couple 100k of lore and character profiles