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imdoingaokay · 5 months

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Romanced!DAI Companions and Advisors (+ Platonic!Vivienne) when The Inquisitor returns to Skyhold late

(A/N: Heyyyy guys... I've missed you :) This past few months have been awful for me... but I'm back... teeheehee

I think this is gonna be really niche so I feel a need to explain what I was thinking??? Basically, The Inquisitor has been on a mission for a while now and they're returning extremely late at night.

Apologies for the inaccurate lore stuff, I don't think hours exist in Dragon Age because they don't have clocks? Or they do??? I dunno man I got a final tomorrow and I don't know if I'm gonna pass

Just know that the whole reason I got inspired for this was because it was late and I was imagining Vivienne watching The Inquisitor come back and her wrapping her robe around her waist like a mom watching their grown child come home from a rave or something

Once again, no beta we die like men

And happy late dragon age day, love y'all)

TW: Mentions of death

Blackwall/Thom Rainer: Unable to sleep. He’s waiting, whittling at the griffon he keeps. He doesn’t want to sleep anways, who will greet his lover? The wind? No. He’ll stay up, just for a few minutes longer, he tells himself… But soon he finds himself whittling into the early hours of the morning. That’s when there’s a stir of the guards, the whispers, and alerts are quiet, as to not wake up the many souls sleeping, but the message is clear.

His love has returned. And he will wait by the gate, a grin on his face and sleepiness in his eyes. He greedily hopes his lover may wish to sleep a few hours before the rest of Skyhold truly awakens.

Cassandra: She’s in bed, but not sleeping, reading a book. She’s trying to sleep, but her anxieties are getting to her. Somehow, ever since she got the letter saying that her love was returning, she fears even more. Her mind is plagued with images of an assassinated Inquisitor on the way back to her. Maker! Why didn’t that fool just bring her?

Just as she scoffs, she hears something of a commotion outside. She prays for a moment, the news is good, and she throws on her armor, knowing better than to leave her room without it, and rushes to the gate. This is where her fears are put to rest as she greets her lover, a relieved smile on her face. And it is with this her sleepiness finally settles in. after a quick word, she urges her lover to rest, with or without her. All that matters that they returned.

Cullen Rutherford: He hasn’t slept since his lover left. A few moments where he stares off into space, drifting off before yanking himself back into consciousness. So it feels normal for him as he scribbles away the missives on his desk, being sure to double check each one so he didn’t accidentally write something foolish in his sleep deprived state. Somehow, in this half-dead state of his, he can hear the murmuring of guards outside of his door, and one enters.

The guard has been ordered to inform Cullen of when they see The Inquisitor, so when they enter, Cullen knows what it’s for. And somehow, the sleepiness Cullen once had disappears, replaced with a drive he always feels when his lover returns. He rushes down the battlement steps, sure to not seem too desperate to his men. And in his excitement, he quickly meets his lover halfway on the bridge. They may be on their horse, but Cullen will happily walk back with them, looking up at them like they hold his whole world in their hands. When his lover gets off their horse, however, that is when he embraces them, a chaste kiss pressed to their cheek. This is when he finally asks them to rest with him, as his exhaustion is coming to bite him in the ass.

Dorian Pavus: Dorian has lied to himself multiple times throughout the night. He lied to himself claiming he didn’t care if he was asleep when his amatus returned from their very dangerous mission. So he lays in his bed for hours, trying to sleep. And when he can’t? He lies to himself, coming up with some excuse as to why his mind will not rest. So he waits in the library, sipping a glass of wine while attempting to read nonchalantly. Of course, he seemingly can’t. So he decides to wait on the battlements, claiming he must need some fresh air. Even though he despises how cold it is that night.

But, somehow, without meaning to, he notices the small group of people making their way across the bridge. And, without a reason at all, a huge weight is lifted off of Dorian’s shoulders.

He lets out a sigh and returns to the warmth of the library, happy to wait for his lover to come to him. And when he does, only then does Dorian finally agree to go to sleep.

Iron Bull: Doesn’t sleep, but this is because he knew his lover was coming back tonight. So he waits patiently in the tavern, a ear out and ready, waiting for murmurs of The Inquisitor’s return. And when he does hear, he happily shoots up from his chair and makes his way to the gate, happy to greet his lover.

Bull was only slightly worried to be away from his lover, he knew they could handle their mission without him, but still, who knows what could happen? But the news that The Inquisitor was coming back? That was enough to settle his nerves. But seeing… and feeling his lover in his arms? That is what truly relaxes him.

Josephine Montilyet: Josephine is the only one who is asleep, she was corralled to his bedroom by Leliana, who told Josephine that she would wake her up when The Inquisitor returned. True to her word, Leliana gently shook awake a sleepy Josephine who, wrapped in a robe, quickly made her way to the empty Great Hall. She situated herself onto Vivienne’s balcony. She happily watched her lover pass the gates a promptly made their way to her, greeting her with a gentle kiss, which Leliana thankfully turned away from. Afterwards she’s happy to lead her lover to bed, as the second the pair’s heads hit the pillow, the pass effortlessly into a dreamless sleep.

Sera: Sera’s mindlessly making arrows, her door is locked, as she grew tired of Cole trying to make his way into the room to encourage Sera to talk about her anxieties surrounding her Inky leaving without her. She doesn’t even know her lover has returned until she hears the door jiggle a bit before her lover’s voice calls, “Sera, I saw the light was on, are you awake?”

This is when Sera happily throws the door open and grabs her Inky and drags them inside her room, into her arms. The two were eventually found the next morning by a messenger, who reported The Inquisitor and Sera were fast asleep in a pile of various blankets and pillows.

Solas: Solas isn’t sleeping much either, somehow he can’t take his mind off of his vhenan. He completely understand why his lover would take another person on their adventure, potentially a different mage than him. But he worries when they’re away! And there’s not much to do in Skyhold when The Inquisitor is gone. Most servants and nobles steer clear from him. He busies himself painting the various frescos in the atrium. He’s just taken a break and decided to walk along the battlements, and that’s of course, when he sees his beloved. He’s happy to walk down the stairs of the battlements and meet his lover at the gate, awaiting them with open arms. He happily leads them away, whether to their bed in their room, where Solas will leave them to rest. Or if they prefer, they can spend a bit of time in the atrium alone, Solas would be happy to hear the stories of his vhenan’s journey.

Varric Tethras: Varric is rotating between the tavern and The Great Hall. Ever since he first got the letter from his lover, happily informing him of their return, he’s only been more nervous. Like Cassandra, he fears the image of a truly tragic hero, beaten down on the way back to the arms of their lover.

He thinks he’s been writing too much tragedy when he firsts gets that mental image

Nevertheless, he pushes through the night.

Eventually, he’s sitting at his usual spot near the fire, unhappily grumbling to himself, sounding like a real dwarf. His mind is racing, and he can’t seem to get the thoughts to stop. So, for one last time that evening, he walks out of the hall, preparing to return to the tavern for a drink and a song from Maryden. That’s when he sees his beloved standing by the gate, quietly talking with a solider who leads their horse away. They’ve returned and they’re safe, that’s all he needed to know.

When The Inquisitor finally catches a glimpse of their lover, all they see is a bright grin spread across his face.

Varric is happy to go along with whatever The Inquisitor wants, bed, a drink, a tale by the fire, he’s just relieved they’ve returned.

Vivienne: Vivienne lies to herself. The day that she hears The Inquisitor will be returning that evening, she nods and nonchalantly walks away. Yet she finds herself constantly checking the gate everytime there is movement in that direction. She has no idea why, however. Her friend, whom she doesn’t really call friend, is taking an awful long amount of time to just get back to Skyhold.

She justifies her musings on The Inquisitor’s safety as rationally as she can. If The Inquisitor dies, Thedas will be lost. If The Inquisitor dies, her position in court may affected. If The Inquisitor dies, she will be sad-

That is what gives her pause. She straightens her back, hands quickly going to her face as if to smooth out her frown that was previously there, and then she turns on her heel and returns to her sofa. She attempts to swallow down her fear the entire day, but as the night swiftly covers Skyhold, she finds herself unable to sleep. The moons is high in the sky when she emerges from her room, robe tightly wrapped around her. She is sure not a single soul will see her in such a… vulnerable state. She quickly makes her way to the balcony again, and stays there for what feels like an entire age. But just as she gets ready to sigh and return to a sleepless night in her bed, she hears a disturbance coming from the gate. That is where she sees The Inquisitor, alive and perhaps wrapped in the arms of lover. And with a sigh of… relief? She quietly returns to her chambers. Never speaking of this again.

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bisexualalistairtheirin · 8 months

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For this worldstate I've changed the names of my canon pwotagonists, for various reasons:

Raleigh has become Warden Lachlan Cousland.

He's still a S-n-S Warrior and I'm still on the bi modding life to make him Alistair's Prince-Consort. I decided that DA2 and DA:I using she/her pronouns for him and calling him Queen is based on an incident of homophobia that him and Ali decided to Own as their running gag.

*I mainly changed this one because I completely forgot about canon!Raleigh and never stopped feeling guilty about the bad associations the name must have brought up for Leliana. I also remade his face because I originally... accidentally gave him face tattoos that look uncannily like vallaslin, no thanks to the character creator.

Ashe has become Shannon Hawke.

*Not much has changed about her otherwise, she's still a Double Daggers Rogue and still romances Isabela, but the polyamory life with Isabela and Merrill is way too good to pass up, let's be honest here.

*I picked the first name because it sounded like it could be somewhat androgynous, and it is, and 'Ashe Hawke' just sounds cool to say, but unfortunately it just didn't sound Fereldan enough to me by the end of the game. Her new name basically means 'wise' if memory serves and that does fit her Class Clown-but-secretly-pretty-intelligent act (65% Purple, 23% Blue, 12% Red).

Lester has become Inquisitor Wolfram Trevelyan.

*He changed the most out of the three. His love interest also changed from a modded Blackwall to The Iron Bull. This is not a mark against Thom in any way, I'm still in love with him, but I do think Bull fits my character better (I would totally poly him/Thom/Bull/Dorian if I could, but alas) I'm even redesigning his looks when I get to Inquisition, which I didn't really do for the other two, sans the aforementioned lore correction.

*His name changed not only to sound more like it would come out of Ostwick, as well as bringing up his wolf-motif to contrast with Solas' own, which I'm gonna try to color code in-game too. He's still a Knight-Enchanter to further parallel his antagonist and to round out my Warrior-Rogue-Mage trio.

#Warden Cousland #Hawke #Inquisitor Trevelyan #Games #DA:O #DA2 #DA:I

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lothrilzul · 1 year

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2022 brought loads of new interesting stuff and content in my life. I won’t talk about the war special military operation going on next door because I’m not here to be stressed out.

Behold, lots of exclamation marks

2022 started slowly with Fallout on eco burner. My love for Paladin Danse is forever and unrelenting.

Book of Boba Fett! Ming-Na! Loved her in ER, Universe and Stargate, and now as Fennec. Extra cameo at the end!

Obi-wan Kenobi! Ewan McGregor, stellar as ever. My first platonic love, still going strong. Shame he didn’t get enough recognition for his portrayal in the early 2000′s and I’m glad the fans could reach both him and Hayden at last. It was so good so see them in their roles again. The last episode hurt so much it was so good.

Then in August we decided to finally finish Divinity Original Sin 2 with my Hubbo. That meant starting a new character, because we forgot like everything.

Then I learned there was romance in D:OS2. That lead to a quick spiral with Ifan ben-Mezd. I already liked his character since the first time we played, at first I picked him as follower, second time I mained him, and now I picked him again, but accidentally triggered a romance dialogue and rolled with it. I’m glad I did. So worth it. I was robbed 4 years of Wolf Husband content.

Then I finally caught up with House of the Dragon. I started binging it the week the last episode came out because there was no way I’d wait that many weeks. I loved the structure of the series and how it knew exactly how much to serve. The experience felt like I’m watching fanfic. (Obi-wan, too, btw.) I didn’t really like either side, both the greens and blacks have good and bad people. And I know how it ends. However I understand their problems and see why they do what they do. I’m still not a fan of either Daemon or Rhaenyra, but for some inexplicable reason I imprinted on damned Aemond. I didn’t want to like him. I also adore Halaena. And let’s not forget Harwin Strong, the daddest dad to ever dad. And Rhaenys. True queen.

My new debilitating love for Ifan naturally led to a cursory search on AO3 for Ifan content. It’s scarce. So I read what was up my alley and decided to trying my hand at writing one. I think it’s 50% done now at 20k-ish words.

Also, I found a multifandom fic with some Dragon Age characters along with Ifan. Namely Alistair and Blackwall. Then I got Blackwall recommended if I liked Ifan. (I don’t dare tag you friend but you know it’s you.)

So, I asked Hubbo to get me Dragon Age. I was dreading to start, the whole religious aspect was a bit much for me. But I decided to dredge through the intrigue for the romances and story. TBH I knew some elements of the story, because I watched Hubbo play a few years back, but I never really cared. I remembered Morrigan because he romanced her. I was also very much spoiled throughout the story so it was really time to get a coherent experience.

Naturally, I started with Origins. I was pre-conditioned to go for Alistair and I am glad I did. He’s such a dork. I love him so much. Couldn’t harden him or make him king. My Cousland stayed with him until other orders came from above. At that point, I knew I would do anything to keep Alistair safe. Even break my own heart later.

I decided to go for Zevran next game. Maybe Morrigan, once, but I need the perfect character for that.

Then, Awakening. I was glad I could keep my Warden from Origins, so Cousland rolled into her new arling only for me to be shocked in the first quest. Hubbo never played this. I didn’t knew Anders was there. Nor did I know who Justice was. I had second-hand Corypheus flashbacks from the Architect. Like, vibez.

I loved every Warden recruit! (except Oghren. I didn’t like him in Origins, but he was not much better here) Especially Nathaniel Howe! I grew fond of my arch enemy’s son rather quickly. He was the only one I maxed out I think because I ran out of game. Anders was close second tho. Shame I found Sigrun last.

Naturally, next step was Dragon Age 2. I burned through Kirkwall in a week. It was a blast. Heh. I wanted to romance Fenris, but I decided to go for Anders because then I would have an easier time in Here Lies the Abyss. Or so I thought. My purple Hawke grew on me. Her relationship with Anders grew on me. It was always supposed to be a slightly pro-mage playthrough, but at the end I decided to go all in. Hawke has had enough. And I knew I’d be in a pit of despair soon.

I also made sure to max Fenris out, because I need the best friend.

So, here comes Inquisition. I’m only, what, eight years late. I set out to romance Blackwall, because, recommendation. First experience was underwhelming, but he worked his way up quickly. I’m not finished with the game or the romance yet, I didn’t even travel to the Winter Palace yet. But I kissed the sad bear enough for him to say he could get used to it. Good, do that. (I’m not at his personal revelation part yet.)

I did Here Lies the Abyss. I was like, I need to tear this band-aid off ASAP. I saved Alistair and left Alma behind, as I previously planned, but man... I wouldn’t want to be near Anders when he hears about it. The game really served me with a below-the-belt-punch for that decision by Varric’s tale. I cried like 4 different times after it and it was only 5 days ago. I’m broken. It was supposed to be my expendable Hawke. It was supposed to be least resistance.

Oh, yeah. Varric. I grew rather fond of my charismatic friend and I’m damn broken I made him hurt like that.

Cassandra is my bestie. Dorian is close too. And I adore Crem. He’s the best.

Later playthroughs I want to see Cullen’s romance, and possibly either Solas or Cassandra. Or Dorian. But that’s like 5 games. Whole lotta time.

I think that’s it? Quite a list, I always thought there’s nothing new this year can bring, but here I am with like 5 new boyfriends and 2 new heartbreaks. At minimum.

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kuningannasansa · 2 months

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so i started playing inquisition in 2024 since that is about as on time as i am to anything and i need to rant about how much i DETEST blackwall

and like, the killing kids thing? i don't even care about that.

my first playthrough, i didn't know about his past and thought he was just dull so i mostly ignored him until i wanted to make a party build based around his tankiness and then the very moment i had upgraded and outfitted him with new gear he decided to walk off to prison so i couldn't even use him. i was so pissed lol. but okay that's a personal bias born of happenstance.

but the shit he gives vivienne? "the most poisonous snakes are often most beautiful" BARF! And the flat out homophobia against Dorian. he's such an old white dude with old white dude opinions. judgemental and hypocritical.

and then i ACCIDENTALLY got in a relationship with him on my second playthrough. i was planning to romance Cullen eventually but i was flirting around with everyone to start with just to experience as much dialogue as possible and then when I go to lock Cullen down he's like "uh aren't you already with someone? there are rumours" and i honestly COULD NOT THINK WHO i checked with Sera and Bull and even freaking DORIAN despite knowing he's not into women I thought maybe my game had a glitch since I'd flirted a lot with him... it didn't even occur to me to check Blackwall for the longest time cause I'd literally flirted with him like... once? like for real he's boring and ugly why would I. But then I remembered that one time I told him "i'm glad you're not dead" or something and he responded with "no you're the inquisitor we can't get married" and I was like??? yeah sure, let's not. and somehow THAT got me into a relationship with him, can you believe. there are people possessed by delusion demons less delusional than this guy.

also, he calls my inquisitor "m'lady" in a tone of voice that borders on sexual assault, it's so gross and makes me picture him in a fedora. like yeah, other people also call you "my lady" and "lady inquisitor" but it's always in a professional context, for him it's his idea of being sexy or something, it's all in the tone of voice and the dropped letters and the context

also, this time I decided to make him a slave to the inquisition and force him to keep pretending to be Blackwall and he DARES to be all snarky and passive aggressive about it after i spent considerable resources to get his ass out of prison. so I asked "you got a problem with me?" and he's like "I'll do what you say but we are not friends and never will be, can't believe I was once so enamoured with you" umm I ain't trying to be your friend you total loser but you will fucking address me with respect, i'm your fucking boss. also "can't believe i was once so enamoured with you" lmaooo yeah NEITHER CAN I in fact I literally couldn't believe it when it was happening. also, enamoured? take your fedora off you old fart and talk like a person.

and like really, he fucked up in his past? okay cool, who hasn't, i really dont give a shit about that. i mean cullen is my baby and he's done way worse lol, i'm not really in the habit of disliking fictional characters for being villains or doing dodgy shit.ˇbeing annoying is a worse crime in fiction than being an entertaining mass murderer. but it's his overall attitude with this guy, the endless self pity, passive aggression, rudeness to actually worthwhile characters that I actually like and in general being a judgmental dick

#havent hated a fictional character this much since woods rogers lol #anti blackwall #dragon age #please note the anti tag #im here to reach out to other haters provided this fandom is still alive?#dont want to hear a defence of the man really lol

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deimcs · 3 years

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katla of the free marches, née trevelyan › disgraced noble, circle mage, devoted grey warden, veteran of the fifth blight, accidental inquisitor.

#daedit #dragonageedit #daiedit #inquisitoredit #trevelyanedit #edits #charas #wardens #inquisitors #katla trevelyan #da:o fucking crashed on me one time too many and i had to uninstall #so i started replaying da:i to cope #and of course i couldn't use one of my 32 already existing characters but had to create a new one #please imagine her older. i wanted a m*lf but the cc didn't comply #she served in amarantine with alistair and the warden commander #then accidentally became inquisitor as she attended the conclave representing the grey wardens #she literally just wants to get it over with cause she wants to come back to her duties and her recruits #i - of course- love her very much #she's a bi legend but i let her romance blackwall just to fck with him #she knows immediately that he's no grey warden but likes to play along and see him stumbling

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drakonovisny · 3 years

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Okay so listen, your blog is quite literally my favorite ever since I came back to Tumblr.

Also, I'm curious to know how/why you got into Solavellan because I feel like there's such a range on why people like him? Like some people like that he's a super nerd and other people are obsessed with the whole Fen'Harel aspect of him and I just want to know what your thoughts are?

AHHHHHHH I'M SO TOUCHED!!! IT TRULY MEANS A LOT TO ME THAT YOU ENJOY MY BLOG AND I REALLY HOPE THAT IT MAKES YOUR DAYS EVEN A LITTLE BETTER 🥺💗💖

As for the question... *starts vibrating at a frequency that could shatter glass* yes I love Solas the normal amount haha. It's kind of a long story so I'll hide it under the cut.

You see after playing da2 I was obsessed with Fenris and his relationship with Hawke. So when I started playing dai I wasn't planning to getting attached to any other character. In the prologue Solas just kinda gave me weird vibes but the first time he started speaking made me 😳

I continued playing but I didn't really like the gameplay itself and almost dropped the game, the only thing that stopped me was my resolve to get to the portion of the game where Hawke appears and makes a comment about his relationship with Fenris (I looked it up on some forum beforehand I think?)

I didn't know who you can or can't romance so I looked up a no-spoiler guide on dai romances and Solas' entry really intrigued me. It said something about drama and only being available to fem Lavellans which immediately made me curious because it was exactly the character I made 👀 But I was also still considering Josephine, Sera, Blackwall and Cullen, because honestly his appearance was slightly off-putting to me at first. My doubts were gone the moment I went to talk to him at Haven.

You see I have this adhd habit of quickly reading the subtitles and skipping the dialogue immediately, which isn't the best for immersing yourself in charactes. I had no urge to do this when I was going through his dialogues! His voice, his accent, the rythm of his speech completely entranced me. I was listening closely to everything he was saying. I loved that you could ask him so many questions about the Fade and how passionate he was answering them (and all the approval points!). What really sealed the deal for me was the "indomitable focus" flirt line...

I continued playing the game taking him with me everywhere, falling more and more in love with him for his little remarks and approval points for doing small acts of kindness. The Fade kiss scene completely swooped me off my feet cause it was so intense???? and passionate??????? but also him being like "no, we shouldn't" made me more intrigued. Some stories he tells about his journeys made me really emotional, so did his personal quest. Seeing Wisdom die was honestly heartbreaking, his reaction was even more painful ;-;

The balcony scene at first ngl was cringe until they kissed and he called her something pretty in elven and suddenly left??? I was confused until I looked up what he said and he SAID THAT HE LOVED HER AND CALLED HER HIS HEART??????? AND HE KEEPS CALLING HER VHENAN EVERY TIME???????????? ༼;´༎ຶ ۝ ༎ຶ༽

The dance in Halamshiral was pretty dreamy (I didn't really noticed what he said about the ball in the beginning because I was so anxious about everything there lol). His banter with other followers also showed me his sassy smartass side which I also loved. I kept returning to him after every mission hoping to hear more dialogue and stories, but even just "hello" and "vhenan" melted my heart 🥺

So anyways THE BREAK UP FUCKING DESTROYED ME!!!!!! I DIDN'T SEE IT COMING AND IT HIT ME LIKE THAT BUS HIT REGINA GEORGE 😭 Of course I went looking if it was somehow preventable and I accidentally spoiled myself about who he is... THIS WAS SUCH AN EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER I HAD TO TAKE A PAUSE FROM PLAYING THIS GAME FOR A FEW DAYS ಥ‿ಥ

In retrospect a lot of the things that he said before made a lot more sense. And the detail that really stood out to me was that he barely lied for some called a "god of deception", which made me think that there's more to this than it seems.

I was really sad finishing the main game, him leaving and the after credit scene broke my heart... I immediately started playing Trespasser and of course the last dialogue completely obliterated my heart.

The more I thought about it, the more it struck me how much of a well-rounded, dynamic and tragic character he is. Joining the fandom and reading lots of meta made me adore him even more. I can ramble for hours which specific characteristics I love the most in him, but to cut it short and get closer to initial question: I love both the cunning tragic "fallen hero" Fen'Harel aspect and the passionate curious nerd aspect. But to be fully honest I'm a little more into the later, I love soft Solas (づ｡♡‿‿♡｡)づ

#i promised myself not to write too much...#didn't go as planned #warning a lot of unnecessary info here #sorry it took me so much time #anon #thank you for the ask!#solas

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bcdaily · 2 years

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You played dragonage games right? Do you have a favorite romance from them? Or a character you wish you could have?

Yes! Though I can’t say I have particularly strong feelings about who I romanced, maybe because I only played each game once?? Actually, exception—I loooooovvvveed Alistair in the first one. He was such a laugh. I stole his v card with pride. The second one I picked the terrorist lol oooops don’t trust men who write manifestos. The plot of that game wasn’t really interesting enough to play a second time, but I don’t think there was anyone I regret not romancing anyway? Varric is the best character there, and I just wanted to be his bff, not his bedfellow. The third one (which I actually played first, and almost set me off the whole series because it was suchhhh a bloated game), I accidentally fell into the most Basic Bitch Option aka Cullen. But that’s because I tried to romance Blackwall first and betch led me on a goddaaammmmnn drama chase and would just take me on walks to break up with me and make self-loathing declarations in my bedroom and WOOF, so I started flirting with Cullen out of spite and he was just so lovely and EASY in comparison that he stole me away with his uncomplicated basic wiles. But if I was ever going to play again, I’d probably romance Josephine, because gurl was alllllllll class and competence and I would like to be her bff AND her bedfellow.

#bee plays video games

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felassan · 3 years

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Gamers For Groceries 2 event

A Twitch stream event from a few days ago. It can currently be re-watched here (it was fun & interesting, so I do recommend to check it out direct). This post contains some notes on things of particular interest & relevant timestamps, in case this is useful to anyone (for example bc of accessibility reasons).

First up is the All About Animating panel, a series of mini-interviews with game devs (animators) asking what they do, how they got there, and advice for anyone interested in getting into the industry. Some or all of the devs that were interviewed are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and a lot about the craft of game dev animation in general. This segment runs from timestamp ~38 mins 40 secs to 1:07:50. Some notes:

[sounded like DA4] Right now the creature team are working on different creatures in a way which involves going through a lot of mocap data

At BioWare they have a pretty big technical animation team, to support their animators, so each tech animator has a different specialty. Tech anim involves animation support, character art support, and rigging the characters so that the animators can pose them

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] One of the featured animators’ area of specialty at the moment is faces and hair (building the control structure for face animations). First they had to decide how the face rig and its control structure would work. This involves a lot of performance capture of live actors for things like cinematics and gameplay animation, therefore the rigs for bodies and faces have to be able to accurately capture the full range of expressions and emotions that the actor is portraying. Right now the stage that this dev is working on most is setting up the heads that they’re getting through the pipeline from character art e.g. making adjustments based on feedback from the cinematics team. “Polish - just trying to get realism”

Hair tech has come quite a long way in the last few years [in the industry]

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] Hair is very complex to get right. “In the past most games have used card-based hair, which is basically like sheets of polygons with a texture on it that looks like hair, through layers of transparency. But real hair is strand-based, digital strands, so we’re starting to look into that kind of tech - try to get more realistic, more beautiful hair, but there’s always a performance cost to hair. Layers of transparent things are always an expense, they need to balance like, it looks good and moves well, but it doesn’t make your computer or console chug. [...] I guess we’re in the prototype stage but we’ve almost got a set pipeline. It’s always fun to experiment”

In Mass Effect 2 or 3, Miranda’s hair was as expensive as a whole character (!)

[on balancing hair costs/performance, general] It depends on things like character importance and how many characters are on-screen at the time. When you’re in gameplay fighting a bunch of monsters you’re not going to be giving full beautiful hair to all the characters and the monsters, as it will cost too much. (Having a helmet on is a convenient way to get rid of hair.) But if it’s a cinematic scene, with 2 characters talking to each other in a dramatic context, there’s a better budget for nice hair allocated

Some of the hair in Anthem was quite expensive in cinematics. They kept getting bugs from QA saying (for example) that a character’s hair was tripling the performance cost in the scene, so it would go back to character art so they could take away some of the hair cards. “Tough balance, quality versus cost”

“I wish all the characters could have beautiful strand hair”

For p-cap, a lot of the time they don’t want to be too prescriptive in terms of the direction that they’re giving the actors, as the actors know what they’re doing and have a lot of experience, so they give them vague instructions that they then riff off of

[sounded like DA4] They recently did a mocap shoot

[sounded like DA4] There’s a bit more productivity happening now in the pandemic situation; now that the animators are not all going to the capture lab in Vancouver in person for shoots, if it’s not their turn to direct a shot they can instead be working on something else on their computers (multi-tasking). ((Lead DA4 Producer Scylla Costa recently gave a talk at a games festival on the challenges of DA production during the pandemic. In part of this talk he talked about various benefits and drawbacks to the remote-working situation. He also talked about and showed some behind-the-scenes stuff for p-cap and mocap. Notes, images and link here))

[sounded like DA4] Special mocap suits were sent out that they can use with a laptop to go anywhere and shoot motion capture. It’s not as high fidelity as what comes out of the capture lab, but it’s really good for prototyping stuff. Before the pandemic they did some of this (going to a park and shooting some running around)

[sounded like DA4] In one of the shoots they had some actors who were really well-trained in dancing. They were trying to get them to do some combat stuff. This was a bit challenging in the pandemic situation as there’s only so much they can demonstrate/portray as an example to the actors from a distance on camera. “It’s hard to describe what a ‘dodge to attack’ is through the camera to somebody who has no idea what combat looks like in video games”

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] The pandemic has really affected performance capture for the face side of things badly, as in order to record, the actor gets dots painted on their face in specific locations by a makeup artist. They can’t do that right now because of social distancing/restrictions, so they haven’t been recording faces at the moment

The more detailed a face, the more joints it has, the more the cost to performance is

---

There was also the Writers’ Block panel, featuring DA writers Mary Kirby, Sheryl Chee and Patrick Weekes, and DA editor Karin Weekes. The timestamps for this segment are ~2:37:50 - 3:26:20. Some notes:

PW has never been weirder than when they were writing Cole on DAI

PW thinks that they accidentally wrote part of “Timber” by Kesha into Solas at one point and they were like “Well, okay, I have to stop listening to Kesha”

For Sheryl, after a while Blackwall’s VA always nailed doing his lines. She loved the quality of his voice and so after a while would always hear his voice while she was writing. This really worked out

^ Mary had this with Merrill. As soon as they cast Eve Myles she listened to several hours of her in Torchwood, and then just wrote to the way that she spoke as much as possible

^ PW had this with GDL as Solas and FPJ as Bull. As soon as they heard FPJ’s delivery, they were like “Oh, okay, I have to write some lines differently, because Bull is smarter than I realized”. With GDL they were like “Okay, he’s going to put poetry into anything I say, in the best way possible”. In early drafts of Solas lines there were parts where they [PW] wondered “Is this too melodramatic? Is this too tragically-angstful?” and then they would hear GDL and be like “Oh! [It’s fine] Game on!”

For localization, German words are often quite long so they often have to make sure that everything fits on the GUI

They think scenes like the romance scenes sound prettier in the Italian versions

Behind the curtain in creating the in-world languages: PW: “There are some awesome websites that have every elven word, like ‘Here are the translations and verb tenses and conjugations’ [etc], [...] and usually Mary and I get very sad slightly looking at those pages going like ‘Does that mean that we have to stick to that?’ [...] The rule is, if I’ve looked at the Wiki and the words, and I go ‘Here’s the correct grammatical way to do it’, and if that turns out to be too long or too many disconnected syllables and it just looks bad or sounds bad, then we shorten it to something simpler, because the key is we want to give the flavor of a foreign language, but we don’t have the world-building budget and capacity to make something that is going to be dictionary-real [in a way that] someone could go through and translate all the background things written on the old temple walls”. Part of the reason for this is the consideration for VAs, who already have to act while bearing lots of things in mind, like the cues in the script for each line

Mary: “For building a language, the first things that I started with for qunlat, elven and dwarven, was what words do we need to use the most? Greetings, farewells, words for friend and enemy, basic things that will come up easily in conversation. After that it’s ‘How difficult is this for other writers to use?’ Can they just pick it off the Wiki? Do they need just one word? Do they need to write whole sentences, and how does that work? Qunlat has almost no grammar to it because asking anyone to learn how to use Qunari grammar and conjugate verbs in a pretend language is impossible, and then once you’ve done that a human being has to be able to read it, while not knowing what any of it means”

PW: “One thing that I was really impressed with with Mary in particular doing, Mary was one of the big lore people across the entire DA series; I can look at a word and go like, ‘That has two A’s in a row, that’s definitely a Qunari word. That word is kind of long and maybe has some apostrophes and has a couple of flowy vowel sounds, that’s probably elven’, I think that’s what’s important. You want players to be able to look at a word, players want to feel smart, [like] ‘Oh I don’t know what that means but I totally know that’s a word from the Qunari people!’”. Mary: “Every language has its own set of phonemes, the sounds that they make, and the sort of word structure and spelling so that it gives a flavor to that language. Hopefully that is always chosen to be pronounceable, because again, very important that the words can be said by human beings :D”

Sheryl: “One of the fun things to do is to make up swear words in the fake languages [...] Recently Brianne wanted a word, I don’t know if she managed to find one”

The origin of bosh’tet in ME: it’s just saying “bastard” and slurring it

PW: “I feel like there are times when past writers kind of leave traps for future writers, where past writers will go ‘Okay, I’m going to write this detailed phrase in a codex entry but don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if it can never be said aloud, because it’ll never have to be voiced!’ and then, next game, guess what guys! Look what you have to make someone [a VA] say! And you’re like [facepalm], c’mon!”

Karin: “Now, four games in, we have pages and pages of all these examples, and I wanna say this, well that’s how we said something before, well that’s ridiculous, I don’t wanna say that, but now we’ve said it and it’s out there, so it’s like, how do we, y’know, how do we evolve, and sometimes we just go ‘Screw it! Languages are living languages! We’ll just say it like this now!’”

PW's favorite is the sarcastic Mythal’enaste, “Because it’s the sarcastic Mythal's blessing that basically means you’re getting screwed over somehow. I love it because Mythal nasty! Whoever wrote that clearly never thought that someone would have to say this out loud”

Sheryl wrote Bull’s joke icicles line. She also wrote Isabela’s big boats line - Jennifer took it out but then DG was like “No it has to come back”

They have a pun test, they get a few of them and have to allot them wisely so as not to oversaturate on the puns. “Is this good/bad enough to be one of the times that we pull the trigger? We did have one of those recently, I obviously can’t talk about it, but it was pronounced Okay to go ahead”

The ‘baby-est’ writer is Brianne, who’s been there 8 years

It makes PW sad that the players never get to see the writers’ temp-text [placeholder text when portions are a WIP]. “People have the best temp-text". Mary: “The number of conversations that I’ve temped in like ‘WELL. I hope nothing BAD happens HERE’”

Q. If you could bring in anybody from outside of gamedev, who would you like to work with and do a writer’s session with? PW: “I will say romance novelist Nora Roberts, she is really smart and also she knows how to write inside a genre, and do wonders within it. Her structure is so good. If you pick up one of her books, you know here’s when this is gonna happen, here’s when they’re gonna meet, here’s when this first moment will happen. We’re all experienced and I feel pretty good about that but I really like all of the things she does that way, and also I am a sucker for romance so I would love to bring a romance novelist in and just have them look at our scenes and go ‘Okay here, no, they should pull the tie so that the article of clothing comes open, we need a sense of how warm the skin is here’ - something like that. I’d wanna see what they could do with that”

“Luke writes the best worst lines”

“I’m always impressed with Mary getting away with lines. There are lines that I look at like, wow, you buried that one. [...] The only players who get that line, I feel like they earned it if they went that far into it. [...] And then Varric or Merrill says a ridiculous line in a one-time throwaway”

Karin: “The group dynamic, you’ll see conversations or snippets of a lunch chat or a thing we’ve been joking about and you’ll see it get pulled in, and how all of you [the writers] are able to take a normal kind of thing - as normal as we get as a group anyway - and then turn it into a moment, and use it to further the plot or use it to further a character. It’s just the cleverest thing and it happens in so many different ways. [...] The little snippet of life, then how you crafted it into this very cool thing”

Quartermaster Threnn was written by PW in half a day. “When I was writing Threnn, ‘Okay, this is a good-hearted [person], I was doing a little bit of Steel Magnolias, southern, no-nonsense, but like, blue collar Steel Magnolias’. This is someone accustomed to the ways of the world so she’s going to call a spade a spade. If you come up to her and you’re an elf she doesn’t recognize you and says ‘Buckets are over there’ because she thinks you’re there to clean, [but] ‘Anyone calls you a knife-ear you come to me I’ll take care of it’. It’s problematic but she’s trying - the good-hearted person rooted for the wrong group on every occasion. She was a proud Loghain supporter, she gets really exited if he comes to Skyhold. That was a fun character for me to write because I had a viewpoint in my mind. I remember someone was like ‘Threnn is really important to me’. And you have to honor that, cause you’re like ‘Cool, it means so much to me that this connected with some part of you’”

---

Also of interest was the Mass Affection panel, in which BioWare devs looked back in over a decade of history to remaster a classic. It featured devs who worked on MELE. The timestamps for this segment are ~3:36:09 - 4:24:37. Some notes:

When the pandemic hit the MELE team were in a relatively awkward spot. They were really entering into what they consider full production and were on-boarding a bunch of teams, as well as training and on-boarding third-party external partner specialized teams worldwide. When the pandemic hit, BioWare and EA were super on top of it. They were tracking it weeks beforehand, getting everyone their computers ready, and getting everything encrypted. When the middle of March 2020 hit they were home rightaway. EA were nothing but supportive throughout the entire thing. They got money every quarter for stuff. It functionally ‘hit’ at 4-6 different times for them as the pandemic occurred in different places throughout the world at different times depending on each country’s response plan (and their external partners were in different countries). “So it was one of those things where it was just like, every day we’d come in like can we still work with this company anymore? Do we need to find someone else? Do we need to pull people in off the other projects at BioWare to fill gaps here and there?”

There was a bug on Virmire at the part when you’re coming into the STG camp. If the Mako had its new boosters on and you came hurtling in really fast, it cut to the cutscene, but the Mako hit a jump and when Ash was like “What do we do now?” the Mako ended up literally flying around in the background sideways and then crashing into the camp

Another bug: when they were re-tuning the guns, the physics force on some of the guns with Hammerhead rounds was so high that when you were fighting some of the Thorian Creepers, you could ragdoll them so hard that you could basically embed them in the roof. They’d be moving so fast that they’d penetrate all the walls with their legs dangling out. It was so easy to do and you could do it to everybody. You could launch a geth halfway across an Uncharted World

Another bug: with Shepard’s casual appearance in ME3, if you didn’t have it set up perfectly correctly it would default to Grunt for some reason. You’d be walking around as Grunt, going on dates as Grunt, and your face would be all scrunched up because it was all mapped to human bones still, so it was just, like, Nightmare Fuel of Grunt

Another bug: in ME2 on Illium when trying to recruit Samara, the Asari enemies just would not stop screaming - regardless of whether they were hit or not, it was endless screaming. Later one of the devs got an audio file of the scream, endless and looped, and now one of the devs has it on their phone and uses it for their morning alarm tone

“Shepard would come up to characters and they’d just be screaming”

---

There was also the Programming Variables panel, talking about what hurdles game programmers face. Some [or all?] of the devs that were part of this panel are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and about the craft of game dev programming in general. The timestamps for this segment are ~ 4:24:46 - 5:06:02.

[source]

[insights/notes from Gamers For Groceries 1]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #in case this is of interest to anyone #mass effect #anthem #covid mention #cole #spirit boy #solas #lul

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tabriscadash · 3 years

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I was asked this on my old blog right as I set about transitioning to this one, so...

The first character I ever fell in love with: for DA:O, dare I say Daveth? What can I say -- I irrationally got incredibly attached to him. otherwise, DEFINITELY Morrigan, and I have crystal clear memories of my first run through Lothering and looking at Morrigan like 😍 the whole time. For DA:2/E, Carver -- unless you count Anders & Justice since I knew of them from Awakening beforehand, in which case probably Justice. For DA:I, it’s a toss-up between Vivienne or Cole -- I technically liked Cole first but SPECIFICALLY in the supporting material (Asunder), and didn’t vibe with him anywhere near as much in the game, AND I got him as a companion after I got Vivienne, so probably Vivienne.

A character that I used to love/like, but now do not: for DA:O, I guess Oghren? I never loved him, but I liked the idea of him because I really liked the dwarves/Orzammar side of DA’s worldbuilding -- but he’s such an unlikeable character that I just.. don’t vibe with him at all. I debate recruiting him every single time now, and I don’t think I ever do his personal quest (in the base game OR Awakening). for DA:2/E, I don’t really have anyone that fits -- but I REALLY wanted to like Merrill and Aveline more than I did, and especially in Aveline’s case, I can’t stand her and genuinely think she’s the unintended, secret Big Bad of the whole game. for DA:I, probably Cole, bc I was really into the idea of a little walking-corpse serial killer animated by a spirit as per the book, but that’s not really the vibe in DA:I, and combined with the somewhat patronising/ableist language and how significantly he is infantilised (including by the fandom) I just got put off him. I do still like him, but not as much.

A ship that I used to love/like, but now do not: for DA:O, I don’t really have one? I guess see my DA:I answer, lol... for DA:2/E, has to be Anders - I don’t think he’s OOC in 2, but I think his writing does so little with him and he feels v. reductive. Where his relationship could be SO interesting and angsty, it instead is written in a really dull and/or cringey way. It would have been nice to see Anders more like the Anders of Awakening near the beginning of the game (rather than random, infrequent and questionably rare snippets), and then see the progression of his relationship with Justice as the game went on -- I want more interesting abominations, PLEASE. for DA:I, listen I cannot express to you HOW EXCITED I was for my planned Lavellan to romance Sera… also I used to be way more tolerant of Cullen x Amell/Surana ships because, like, hey dark ships are fun, right? But since Cullen’s ~wholesome whitewash~ in DA:I, and his fandom clamouring to absolve him of any wrongdoing ever.. it’s boring to me.

My ultimate favourite character™: for DA:O, probably Sten? or Morrigan. They’re both fantastic, and also are significant comfort chars for me. for DA:2/3, honestly, probably my own Hawke -- I feel so hugely proud of her, and can’t imagine I’d enjoy the game anywhere near as much had I not played it as my Hawke. If not her, maybe Sebastian or Carver? for DA:I, I really love Vivienne, as well as Blackwall, and Solas is a great character even if I probably would not say I liked him.

Prettiest character: for DA:O, we all know it’s Zevran. for DA:2/E, I think Aveline -- although her aggressively bland colour-scheme lets her down in a major way (although I respect her dedication to all orange all day every day). There’s just something about her arms -- very Abby from TLOU:2. for DA:I, maybe Josephine? Ser Barris is very pretty, too...

My most hated character: for DA:O, I really didn’t like Alistair, Wynne and Oghren, and of my companions - Oghren is probably my least favourite. He’s vulgar and also profoundly uninteresting. for DA:2/E, it has to be Aveline. There’s just something about ineptitude and a complete, wilful refusal to take accountability for your actions that I can’t stand. It would be okay if it was an intentional character flaw, but the game/narrative treats her like she’s lawful good and it really annoys me. for DA:I, maybe Iron Bull? He was a huge disappointment for me. I also really dislike Sera, Cassandra, and Varric. I’m so sick of Varric - I never want to see him again.

My OTP: for DA:O, I really loved Zevran’s romance -- but I am also very amused by the fact that Leliana got to ‘love’ status with Kallian accidentally, AND I got the ‘love’ glitch for Justice (👀) and Velanna. I do sometimes wonder about an AU where Kallian is forced to make a politically expedient marriage with Nathaniel Howe for diplomatic reasons in order to consolidate her position as Arlessa, and it being an entirely platonic arrangement (it’s not like anyone expects an heir from an infertile Grey Warden) -- and maybe Zev and Nate kiss sometimes, who knows? I also LOVE my Darkspawn Chronicles AU where Kallian and Nelaros are a happy, married couple each hiding their skills with weapons from each other like dumb, cute sweethearts. They shelter Zevran when he fails to kill Alistair and a poly couple evolves. for DA:2/E, I love the IDEA of a Seb romance that isn’t so strictly conditional around the structures that abused him -- he should be allowed to love, chastely or otherwise, but free from the Chantry OR his position as prince/heir. I’d LOVE to actually have a romance with him where you can actually challenge the abuse he’s experienced. for DA:I, Malika doesn’t have a canon romance (although I think when I replay, I’m going to romance Josephine!) but I think Blackwall has an amazing romance. Solas’ is also iconic, it must be said.

My NOTP: for DA:O, I really dislike Alistair in a shipping capacity; he’s immature and says a lot of misogynistic shit and I don’t think he’s the worst for it, but I don’t really vibe with shipping him, having played the game as a female city elf. for DA:2/E, I wouldn’t say I have one, particularly? although I really dislike Aveline’s relationship with her husband simply because it seems incredibly inappropriate, given that they work together and she has power over him -- and because I dislike her, generally, I don’t feel inclined to do something nice for her. for DA:I, I suppose Sera/Lavellan -- although I’m not AGAINST it, it just really isn’t for me, having attempted it. I also don’t really vibe with Dorian x Iron Bull. Something abt the way the game handled BDSM and their relationship banter specifically I don’t really like.

Favourite episode quest: for DA:O, probs Orzammar/the Deep Roads. I really love the dwarven lore! and, of course, Fort Drakon is really funny, even though it’s not canon in my game iirc. for DA:2/E, maybe the murder mystery with the serial killer, where ultimately Leandra dies? I also really enjoyed all the companion quests. for DA:I, The Descent (just, all of it, lmao) and everything to do with the Avvar. Crestwood also BANGED.

Saddest death: for DA:O, it’s frankly a fucking INJUSTICE that Shianni gets murdered if you make her Bann of the Alienage -- the idea of that happening whilst Kallian is in Amaranthine and unable to protect her :( genuinely very upsetting. I go back and forth on who is made Bann, tbf, so idk how canonical it is: I think maybe Cyrion would get it, but I’m also endeared to Soris holding the position, with Shianni as Hahren. for DA:2/E, Bethany. I wish both twins had had the chance to reach Kirkwall :(. Let Leandra die instead. for DA:I, maybe not the saddest death, but the most memorable for me was that one sleeping dragon in the Hissing Wastes.. leave her alone. Stay out of a womans’ business.

Favourite season game: DA:O!

Least favourite season game: DA:I.

Character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but I hate: for DA:O, Alistair. I cannot deal with his complacency and hypocrisy. for DA:2, I really disliked Merrill but I honestly cannot remember why. DEFINITELY Varric -- I hated how the game forces you to be his best friend, and if you’re low approval, you have to endure these pointless pissy little comments with this little anti-dwarf centrist pissant. After the expedition, I literally have no reason to put up with him, and I NEVER take him out. I hate that he plays the same role in DA:I, too. for DA:I, the Iron Bull was hugely disappointing, and I also really don’t vibe with Cassandra. She just seems very wishy-washy and complacent and hypocritical, and many of her comments about other cultures seem snide for literally no reason other than bigotry.

My ‘you’re a piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: for DA:O, lbr probably Sten. Mans is gonna launch a HORRIFYING invasion in the next game iirc and frankly, I’m ok with it. Just wanna see that big bastard again ❤🥵. for DA:2/E, I LOVE Gamlen, ok? for DA:I, I am not sure if I have one.

My ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: for DA:O, if any of you so much as LOOK at Velanna wrong, it’s hands. That includes Bioware. I also feel incredibly protective of and sad for Morrigan. for DA:2/E, probably Sebastian -- I feel so sad for him, and so frustrated by the limitations with the game. for DA:I, I’m honestly not sure.. maybe Josephine? I don’t really feel this way about Sera, but I do think she deserves better from the game and its writing, and also from fandom: there are valid criticisms of her, but the hate she gets is not proportional to any valid issues with her -- and gee, I wonder why that is.

My ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: for DA:O, I did use to find Cullen x Surana/Amell intriguing as a dark ship -- I actually hc that Neria Surana is actually Nelaros’ sister, and have dabbled with it as a dark ship. I also am interested in Loghain/Alistair - which each pretends the other is someone else. Alistair is wooby, hate ships are, in general, fun -- so long as we acknowledge that they are, indeed, unhealthy ships. for DA:2/E, I kind of feel like Sebastian romances are, invariably, kind of dark... and, similarly, Anders romances -- especially with certain red Hawkes, The way it ends is, invariably, bordering on fucked up. ALSO Hawkecest is weird and wonderful: GET WITH IT.

My ‘they’re kind of cute, and I lowkey ship them, but I’m not too invested’ ship: for DA:O, I joked about Velanna x Leliana once and I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it ever since… Velanna x Sigrun is also something that can be so personal. Ariane x Finn is adorable and are paid DUST by Bioware AND fandom. I actually am really into Anora x Nathaniel & NO I will NOT explain myself; it’s a crackship but it’s MY crackship. for DA:2/E, Isabela x Fenris is super cute, but I don’t pay enough attention to them to really have super committed thoughts & feelings on them. for DA:I, Blackwall x Josephine is cute as a background ship; I also think Maryden x Cole is sweet.

#meta #mun

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ms-katonic-of-tamriel · 3 years

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DAI Playthrough idea

Inquisitor Lucien Flavius Trevelyan. Ex-Circle mage, mostly content with life in the Ostwick Circle, likes the learning and academic side, does miss his parents, but no inclination to rebel until it was actually happening, at which point he ran off with the rebels because all his friends were doing it. Not religious, no real belief in Andraste whatsoever but kept quiet about it in the Circle. Since leaving, he’s become a lot more open about his views, and found to his surprise more people than he thought shared them, and there’s enough anger at the Chantry for him to acquire a coterie of fans and fellow freethinkers. He’s at the Conclave hoping to try and talk some sense into the Templars but it doesn’t go well.

Decisions!

Broadly pro-mage, not very pro-Chantry. Not anti exactly, but very much not pro either and really doesn’t like the Herald of Andraste title. Not up to speed on elven issues but the more he learns the angrier he gets at the Chantry, and he does find the culture fascinating.

Goes to Redcliffe to talk to the mages, finds out about the bargain with Tevinter, goes ‘what the actual hell have you done’ and ends up sorting that mess out. Templars can very much sort themselves out in his mind. He wasn’t harmed at the Circle but he saw things happen to others. Gives the mages an alliance. They were his friends after all.

As Inquisitor he wants to stand for order and justice rather than the faith or revenge and does his best to pick merciful, rational choices where possible. After Adamant, he keeps the Wardens as Inquisition allies, and at Val Royeaux, there’s a good chance of him getting all three parties to work together. Failing that, he’ll keep Celene as Empress, with or without Briala at her side. At the Well of Sorrows, Morrigan is getting the power - Lucien hears the words binding geas and goes nope, not for me kthnx.

Romances:

Awkward demisexual who preferred books and studying to anything else, Lucien’s got no romance experience but might consider it for the right person.

Cassandra: too intimidating by far! Also twice his age. Even if he was into intimidating older women, Cassandra has expectations of a romantic hero who will sweep her off her feet. Lucien has no idea where to even start so... doesn’t. Also she will not shut up about the Maker, and Lucien has spent the past two years becoming a fervent atheist and loving not having priests around any more. He can’t pretend to be Andrastian for her sake.

Iron Bull: Bull’s stories about his sexploits make Lucien’s eyes pop out and his hair stand on end. As far as romance goes, Lucien is fleeing in the opposite direction from this one. They get on well enough, and Lucien’s curious about the Qun... but not curious about anything else, thank you very much. Still, he cares enough to save Bull from the Qun.

Dorian: a possibility, and Dorian would definitely be interested, but it’s more likely these two will end up as besties rather than boyfriends. Never say never though. Lucien's really not OK with the way Dorian's family treated him and completely sides with him over it. If Lucien was accidentally flirting with him previously, Dorian might well choose that moment to confess his feelings. Not known how Lucien would respond.

Josephine: most likely out of all of them. Pretty, cultured, goes out of her way to make Lucien feel at ease, Lucien would likely adore her. Also the duel scene would be way more poignant with Lucien the inexperienced mage going rapier to rapier with a master duellist for her affections. Plus they’re both probably demi.

The rest of them:

Cullen: hasn’t got a clue what to make of this somewhat unimpressive young man but he’s who the faithful are rallying around and the only one who can close rifts so he’ll keep him alive. Becomes steadily more impressed with Lucien over the course of things. Lucien talks him out of going back on lyrium, having no wish to see anyone shackled by the Circle if they don’t want to be there, even Templars.

Leliana: scares the hell out of him. “No, don’t murder people!” becomes a common refrain. However, over time, she softens, he starts to see her less scary side, and he’s able to talk her down from murdering Sister Natalie. On seeing the change in her after, he’s got no hesitation supporting her for Divine.

Blackwall: they get on rather well! Lucien respects Blackwall’s experience, always appreciates a big strong fighter to hide behind, and Blackwall’s avuncular nature appeals. Finding out the truth about him is heartbreaking but Lucien can’t help but rescue him and give him another chance to do better.

Solas: Lucien respects his skills, does rely on his advice, but there’s something a bit off there. He doesn’t know what though. He wants to like Solas, but something just rubs him up the wrong way. Still, he’s a useful companion, they do get on, Solas seems to approve of Lucien’s decision-making on the whole, and Lucien loves asking him about ancient elven culture. He's less keen on the whole 'what if the Veil wasn’t here’ angle though. Solas disappearing will feel like a betrayal and really hurt.

Vivienne: nothing in common at all. Excellent chance he never recruits her in the first place. If he does, he spends the entire adventure regretting it.

Varric: takes Lucien under his wing from the outset and looks after him. Lucien’s appalled by some of Varric’s wilder exploits but does laugh anyway, and the two become fast friends. Even if Lucien does keep wanting to know how Bianca works.

Sera: they drive each other up the wall but Lucien is somehow still fond of her. That Tempest stuff is terrifying though.

Cole: weirds Lucien out completely, but he senses the spirit’s heart is in the right place and a spirit who turned human?? Come on, that’s a paper in its own right! Cole’s fate could go either way, but I suspect Lucien will go for the human option.

Lucien's parents: never had any other kids. They still miss and mourn him. They've been worried sick since the rebellion started and Lucien disappeared. He never wrote because there'd been no contact allowed for over a decade and it never occurred to him. But word of their son surviving the Conclave and joining the Inquisition reaches them and they put all family business in their steward's hands and go to Haven. They get there in time to find the ashes, but returning scouts, maybe even the Chargers, can tell them Lucien is not only alive but Inquisitor and take them to Skyhold. Cue tearful reunion, Lyra as quartermaster, Davidicus joining the researchers, either available as a party member if Lucien needs them.

Training specialty: none of the mage ones appeal. Knight-Enchanter? “No I don’t want to be up close and personal with the enemy, I want to be far away from the stabby things!” Rift Mage: “so... the initial innovators of this field are all dead due to the magic destroying them, and the second wave of experts are all off their trolley due to magical weirdness and seeing their friends disintegrated. Er... think I’ll give this one a miss, thank you very much.” Necromancer: “NO!”

In the end, he ends up studying Artificer after persuading his advisors that just because he's a mage doesn’t mean he should only study magic. “There’s so much else to study and learn! It can’t just be learning about magical energies and the Fade! There’s a rest of the world to see and study! Why should being able to do one thing make me incapable of doing anything else?” Cue magically enhanced traps, grenades and possibly some sort of Dwemer laser-enhanced crossbow thing replacing his staff.

Trespasser Lucien is a bit more cynical and battle-hardened and the constant pain from the Mark is no joke either. He’s honestly not surprised at Solas’s identity by the time it comes out, not as much as he should be. Does his best to save the dragon, would like to try and save Solas from himself if possible, but isn’t that committed to the idea. Disbands the Inquisition entirely, thinking it has served its purpose, and then returns to his parental home. He’s reinstated as their son and heir and is soon using Trevelyan money to build himself a whole series of prosthetic arms with a variety of attachments. Just in time for the big society wedding involving the Trevelyan heir and the Montilyet heir whose families saw a couple in love and made the wedding decision for them. Mostly they end up living in Antiva but Lucien’s parents are regular visitors... as are the rest of their former Inquisition colleagues.

#dragon age #lucien flavius #dai #dragon age:inquisition

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dacompanionreactions · 4 years

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How would cast of Da:I react to sweet Cinnamon roll Inky to be a Writer of most dark popular psychological-thrills and horror books (they read them and was also surprised to find a official permission of Chantry Divine to publish there books with controversial religious motives)? Like, he/they/she is Thedos version of Ito Junji, Stevan King and Tarantino.

Cassandra is utterly shocked. First at The Divine for allowing such controversial, dark and thrilling books to be published, and second at the Inquisitor. "You... wrote these?" She can't fathom how someone with such a tender and gentle personality can write such gory books. One time, she asks them to write a short romance story for her. They did not disappoint.

Varric loses it. He loves it! His friend, the softest person he knows (apart from Daisy of course), the author of the most gripping and graphic novel he's ever read. "Andraste's ass, this is the best news I've had all week." He'll ask them to collaborate, and the two of them write a book that could rival Hard In Hightown. It's gory. The illustrations are nightmare inducing. It's perfect.

Solas is surprised that the Chantry allowed the books to be published. Some of the Inquisitor's books contain very controversial religious views. Essentially, it's blasphemy. But they're brilliant. He finds himself hooked on their books as much as he'd hate to admit it. Solas accidentally reveals this when he asks when the next book is coming out.

Dorian almost spills his wine on himself. "Vishante kaffas! I did not see that coming." He's an avid reader of their books, partly for the fact that they're really good, but mostly for the fact that they're banned in Tevinter. Dorian is surprised that they're not banned in Ferelden too. Southerners always continue to surprise him.

Sera laughs so hard she's doubled over and her stomach hurts. "You wrote...? You? OH MY-" She explains that she got into them when she stole a noble's collection as a prank. Sera looks the Inquisitor up and down. "You really don't seem the sort to be writing this kinda stuff."

Blackwall starts wheezing until he's almost on the floor. The irony of it is hilarious. The Inquisitor is probably the nicest person he knows... he's finding it hard to see them writing such controversial and graphic books. Not to mention that The Divine approved of them. He's getting a headache from laughing about it.

Cole doesn't really get all of the fuss. He's read the books. Some of them confuse him. In other books, he can see clearly what the Inquisitor was thinking while they were writing them. "Your books bring joy to people, sometimes fear and disgust, but mostly joy. It makes you happy."

The Iron Bull is elated. He's had this sneaky feeling for a long while that the Inquisitor was hiding something. "I just knew, Boss. Ben-Hassrath training." He regrets getting Krem into the books because Krem shared them with Dalish, Dalish shared them with Rocky, Rocky with Stitches and the list goes on. The Chargers want signed copies, so Bull is the one that has to ask. "Not my idea, Boss."

Vivienne finds this absolutely priceless. Her favourite is definitely the book where mages resided in the Chantry. Naturally, there's a rampaging monster that kills half the characters by the end, but Vivienne appreciates the concept. Still, the Inquisitor? "I had no idea, darling."

Cullen found out after the Inquisitor accidentally left a signed copy on the war table after a meeting. He picked the book up and couldn't put it down, which is saying something for a Commander who gets no free time. "You wrote this?" Cullen's impressed. There isn't much able to distract him from work. The ability to write such gory literature is slightly concerning, however.

Leliana knew. Don't ask how, she just knew. She's read every single book. At some point Leliana got her hands on scrapped drafts and unfinished illustrations. She loves the books, the twists, the religious controversy, the bloody illustrations, all of it.

Josephine is a bit wary at first. She hasn't read the books by the time the Inquisitor tells her, but she has definitely heard of them. Josie decides to finally read one and she was hooked. The books are so well loved that she managed to form at least ten alliances based on them.

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jo-the-schmo · 3 years

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SO IM STILL PLAYING THE DRAGON AGE GAMES

I’m finally playing inquisition and I...have had some troubles. In Origins I ended up romancing Alistair because he felt like truly the ONLY option for my character. They were both snarky and horribly kind people. It just made sense. She ended up being queen with him as king in my run.

In II I accidentally romanced Anders. I would’ve chosen Varric had it given me the option but it didn’t. But yeah I romanced Anders on accident because somehow his romance was super easy. Made my ending wild but fun.

Now...I’m not sure if you’re noticing my accidental pattern here but it’s infuriating. After the mess with Anders I decided I was going to try my HARDEST to not romance a Grey Warden. I WANTED to romance either Cassandra or Vivenne...but no.

My inquisitor, in all her glory, somehow managed to fully romance Blackwall. The only Grey Warden in my party. Why does this keep happening? Why do I do this? Don’t get me wrong, I think Blackwall is AMAZING. Hella DILF energy. But it’s frustrating that I keep end up romancing the Grey Warden men.

BioWare, my dearest, I know you’re working on Dragon Age IV. I know you are. Do my a favor, pretty please? Either don’t let me have a Grey Warden in my party, or give me a Lady Warden to romance please. Preferably the last one.

Thank you.

#dragon age origins #dragon age 2 #dragon age inquisition #hero of ferelden #champion of kirkwall #herald of andraste

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dragonagecompanions · 4 years

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Dragonagecompanions Masterlist- Inquisition Part 1

First thoughts on Inquisitor

Crossdressing Inquisitor

Inquisitor gets poisoned (Nonromanced version)

Inquisitor in lingerie (Cullen & Josephine here)

First thoughts on Corypheus

Inquisitor fainting

Inquisitor being deaf in one ear

Inquisitor possessed by a spirit

Inquisitor protecting them from a hit

Inquisitor giving them flowers

Josephine, Lelianna + Cassandra reacting to noble courting Inquisitor

Inquisitor can’t swim

After Trespasser (And Advisors here)

Inquisitor dyeing their hair

Inquisitor can do Skyrim shout

Child taking a shine to companions

Companions realizing they have deeper feelings for Inquisitor

Inquisitor having astraphobia

Inquisitor having self harm scars (And Advisors Here)

Inquisitor fussing over them

Inquisitor performing CPR

Cassandra if Lelianna hadn’t stopped her in the beginning

Solas with young inquisitor who considers him a father figure

Meeting the Hero of Ferelden

Inquisitor that grew up on the streets

Car or Motorcycle

Inquisitor with beautiful singing voice

Inquisitor getting a mabari

Nobles talking shit at Winter Palace

Inquisitor’s death post-trespasser

Inquisitor working for Corypheus

What kind of tumblr blogs the companions would run

Cullen reacting to Dexter - Dark Passenger Scene at Restaurant

Inquisitor gets surrounded

Inquisitor bring home an orphaned child

Inquisitor having a blood disease

Inquisitor being skilled in unarmed

Inquisitor with a scar across stomach

Inquisitor has a child from a previous relationship

Teen! Inquisitor getting drunk after finding out the truth about elven religion post trespasser

Child! Inquisitor asking about Blackwall after he disappears

Inquisitor has a panic attack during a war meeting

Solas reacting to falling for someone who is not an elf (GIF)

Finding the Inquisitor nearly passed out from an Anchor flare

Cassandra reacting to Inquisitor asking to her to read to them

Inquisitor speaking Qunlat

Reactions to the massacre of Lavellan clan

Learning about what the Joining entails (GIF)

Teen! Inquisitor falls deathly ill

Game franchise companions would be most interested in

Teen! Inquisitor gets hit on by a creep

Taking the Inquisitor’s virginity

Someone purposefully misgendering the Inquisitor

Books are getting burned and Inquisitor stops it

Inquisitor calling Cassandra Mom (GIF)

Companions reacting to Cole describe the Inquisitor’s feelings about them

Child! Inquisitor accidentally blowing crater in Skyhold

Inquisitor with luscious locks

Going to Wrestlemania

What it takes to get Vivienne, Dorian and Josephine to a spit take

Types of cars each companion would drive

Inquisitor lost a bet and runs through Skyhold naked

Companions realizing they are in love with the Inquisitor

Inquisitor has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Inquisitor wants to raise a dragon pup

Weddings with companions

Harding, Krem and Dagna finding out the Inquisitor has a crush on them

Companions’ greatest desires

Inquisitor asks them to take care of their child if they die

Qunari! Inquisitor with Golden Halla Horns (GIF)

Dorian reacting to Teen! Inquisitor calling him Dad

Which would they like better: Lord of the RIngs, Harry Potter, or Star Wars

Inquisitor bottle flips from Leliana’s foor onto Solas’s desk (GIF)

Iron Bull’s reaction to the Warden telling him stories about Sten

Companions find an amulet that makes you speak in limericks and haikus

Fenris as the Inquisitor (GIF)

Inquisitor that wants to try at least one of every meat they kill

Inquisitor has a creepy stalker

Josephine reacting to Child! Inquisitor saying gold isn’t her color

Parent! Inquisitor’s child telling romances that Inquisitor likes them (Krem, Dagna and Harding here)

Inquisitor being the author of the Song of Ice and Fire series

Inquisitor with epilepsy

Inquisitor singing to demons to try and heal them like Moana (GIF)

Inquisitor was an assassin on a job at the conclave (GIF)

Inquisitor’s reaction to their child telling the companions their feelings

Romances react to the Inquisitor giving them an affectionate kiss

Inquisitor that can turn anything into a weapon (GIF)

Cassandra falling for a woman Inquisitor

Inquisitor that rock any clothing they wear (GIF)

Cullen falling for a dude Inquisitor

Blackwall falling for a dude Inquisitor

Sera reacting to an ace inquisitor

Inquisitor is 101 mabari

Reaction to Solas pulling the Inquisitor into a kiss in front of everyone (GIF)

Josephine first realizing that she is bi

Qunari! Inquisitor taking out enemies with their horns (GIF)

Companions singing lullabies to a Child! inquisitor

Solas reacting to a Teen! Inquisitor looking grown up in Trespasser

Sera reacting to realizing she is a noble after marrying a Trevelyan Inquisitor

Reactions to an asexual inquisitor

Solas’s reaction to Inquisitor calling Cullen vhenan (GIF)

Blackwall’s reaction to the Inquisitor joking that his armor looks like a quilt (GIF)

Inquisitor’s main weapon is Excalibur from Soul Eater (GIF)

Blackwall’s reaction to the Inquisitor asking him for a strip tease (GIF)

Child! Inquisitor making them flower crowns

Inquisitor dancing with the ambassador at the Winter Palace (GIF)

What kind of presents they would give to a Child! Inquisitor on their birthday

What leaves Varric absolutely stunned

Dalish! Inquisitor wearing Dalish attire to the Winter Palace (GIF)

Post Trespasser Inquisitor saying they aren’t good enough for them

Sera reacting to Dalish! Inquisitor making dalish cookies (GIF)

Inquisitor saying I love you in the romances native tongue

Solas reacting to Inquisitor sneaking up and grabbing his junk (GIF)

Child! Inquisitor getting called knife ear

Varric calling a Dwarf dude! Inquisitor Bartrand

Inquisitor wearing formal attire (GIF)

Ace Inquisitor that doesn’t like sex with Iron Bull

Sera realizing the Hero gave her the painted box

Dorian’s reaction to being accepted by his partner’s family

Hogwarts Houses for the Companions

Inquisitor pinching their ass under the table during a war table mission (GIF)

Leliana’s reaction to the Hero telling the Inquisitor to look out for her

Inquisitor slapping an enemy so hard it knocks them off their feet (GIF)

Sera reacting to an Inquisitor who binds their chest

Cullen reacting to the Inquisitor giving him a dream catcher to get rid of his nightmares

Inquisitor giving them a bouquet that they picked on a quest (GIF)

Josephine’s reaction to a Mage! Inquisitor being told no one would love them

Inquisitor asking them to take them on a shopping trip to help them transition

Iron Bull’s reaction to learning the Inquisitor knows blood magic

Romancing Krem

Dorian reacting to an asexual Inquisitor that doesn’t like sex

Teen! Inquisitor getting into a fight with another teen (And Advisors Here)

Calm Inquisitor loses their temper (GIF)

Dorian meeting his and the Inquisitor’s child from the future

What makes the companions panic

Inquisitor falls in the fade with only the Warden and Hawke

Centaur Inquisitor (GIF)

Teen! Inquisitor getting angsty over a crush

Modern day Languages the companions want to learn

Iron Bull’s reaction to his horns hurting his lover while sleeping

Pocket Ask

If the Inquisitor had a crush on Corypheus (GIF)

Teen! Inquisitor having a panic attack

Inquisitor Zevran (And Advisors Here)

Josephine’s reaction to the Inquisitor forcing themself to stay awake due to nightmares

Solas finding out the Lavellan has Qunari blood (GIF)

Companions’ ideal gifts

Someone misgendering a trans inquisitor (GIF)

Inquisitor that has Ehlers-Danlos Sydrome

ASOIAF! Universe: Reading the Red Wedding

Finding the Inquisitor covered in blood and with a shovel

Finding the Inquisitor in their room, giggling like a child on the floor (GIF)

Cullen, Dorian and Solas reacting to the Inquisitor nearly made tranquil

Inquisitor who randomly coughs up blood (GIF)

Teen! Inquisitor going off to college

Iron Bull reacts to a Mage Qunari Inquisitor! who is a bit scared of him

Comforting an agender Teen! Inquisitor

Child! Inquisitor climbing onto one of the rooftops (GIF)

Dorian and Dude Elven! Inquisitor holding hands at a party

Sera thinks the Ace! Inquisitor is also aro but Inquisitor likes Sera

Ace! Inquisitor nearly forcing themself to have sex because they think that’s what “normal” couples do- have sex

Cassandra and Woman! Inquisitor come out publicly

Random gifs for companions (GIF)

Inquisitor reveals that they are a vampire

Iron Bull reacting to the Inquisitor having a panic attack

Inquisitor is a Khajiit from the Elder Scrolls series

Dorian receiving news of the Inquisitor’s death (romance)

Child! Inquisitor whose parents think they could always do better

Which companions would be most likely to adopt

Someone tries to tease about Josephine and the Inquisitor’s relationship

Inquisitor being the child of the Hero of Fereldon

Inquisitor calling Solas “egghead” (GIF)

Vivienne’s reaction to the Inquisitor chewing loudly at dinner

Child! Inquisitor refuses to eat healthy

Teen! Inquisitor doesn’t feel like they are fit to lead because they are young

ASOIAF! Universe: reacting to the Purple Wedding

Inquisitor that shouts attack names in battle (GIF)

First time seeing the Inquisitor in Antaam-saar (GIF)

Finding out the Inquisitor is ticklish and doesn’t mind being tickled (GIF)

Usually serious Inquisitor makes a pun (GIF)

Leliana’s reaction to an Inquisitor using a cell at the winter palace (GIF)

Iron Bull’s reaction to his lover being conscious about how they look

Free day at the beach

Inquisitor who cuddles whoever is closest in their sleep

Jack of all trades Inquisitor who doesn’t know how to fight

Inquisitor stays in the fade in place of Hawke or the Warden

Leliana, Dorian and Vivenne’s advice on proposing to Josephine

Dalish! Inquisitor who can’t read well

Noble sneering at a Child! Inquisitor because of their age

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #masterlist

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lavellander · 3 years

Text

more bc i am unstoppable now

I Am Thinking About My DA Protagonists’ Taste In Romantic Partners both their “usual” type and why they’re drawn to their canon love interest (and the hypothetical ones from other games). i expect no one to give a shit abt this except me lsdfjd but im on a roll and its a good exercise or whatever. i’m sure i’ll use it eventually?????

once again. i know no one gives a fuck but if anyone DOES happen to want to torture themselves and read this pls know all my ocs are bi except zaniyah, who is a lesbian<3

sarenan:

general disclaimer that “in the circle love is just a game” etc etc etc so while she definitely is more inclined to romantic relationships, she only really had friends w benefits at most

she likes smart people! she likes fun people, she likes people who can get on board with her fucked up sense of humor. she’s witty and charming and loves to flirt just to flirt, and in the circle that wasn’t much of an issue lol. leliana is the first person she ever feels like...foot-in-mouth around, bc suddenly she likes and is attracted to someone and...that’s allowed? it’s all very foreign to her but she falls Real Hard, Real Fast

in a hypothetical da2 romance obviously isabela is extremely hot but also sarenan canonically has a foursome w her, leli, and zev so dLFKKDS it makes sense that bela’s the love interest of choice<3 (but also i think it would be like...friends-to-friends with benefits-to-lovers lol)

in a hypothetical dai romance once again josie is very hot and also so sweet and cute and delightful !!!!! idk if its just me but i see similarities bw origins leli and josie so again it just makes sense to me that josie is the LI for an inq romance :’)

(BUT for the most part. it is pretty hard for me to imagine sarenan w anyone but leli, bc they are the only couple i have that like. makes sense. lmfao)

maeve:

actually doesnt often have romantic relationships? she has ~flings~ and rarely catches feelings. she describes her type as “anyone sexy”

(her and isabela do in fact have a brief Thing but strictly no strings attached; this is bc i was very very adamant about romancing isabela when i played da2 and then anders fucking SNIPED me. so i incorporated it into canon i guess. lmao)

her attraction to anders is originally just “sexy tortured man” and then “sexy tortured man that gives free healthcare to poor people!!!!” and then - after it’s clear it won’t be a fwb situation - she realizes she has Actual feelings for him and is like well. its been a good run. guess i’ll die! until he reciprocates dflksdjf then they are kirkwall’s weirdest couple to everyone except themselves :’)

in a hypothetical dao romance her and zev would be classic fuckbuddies who accidentally start having a crush on each other, absolutely refuse to acknowledge it, then someone else in the friend group is like “oh my god PLEASE just kiss we are all going insane watching yall do this” <3

in a hypothetical dai romance im still torn bw sera and bull. maeve would just keep hitting on sera until sera did something about it; bull would be similar to zevran in the fuckbuddies-accidentally-caught-feelings dynamic

alani:

i feel like (depending on the size of the clan etc) alani was prob mostly involved w people she’d known almost all her life. she’s obviously attracted to other ppl who like to learn and stuff, but other than that it’s equal opportunity crushes ykwim. she doesn’t even Know she has a thing about people who are like. puzzles to be solved until solas lol

in a hypothetical dao romance she’d be drawn to alistair bc...who wouldnt be. hes adorable. they’re both warm friendly charming sunshines and i think it’d be natural for them to be drawn to one another. once she realizes he has Baggage she’s like oh. OH. i have to defend you against the world now

in a hypothetical da2 romance i thiiink it would be kinda similar to solas. like oh this bitch has a lot of emotional walls up, he’s got some real shit going on. I Like That. also mage rights, hes a sad sexy doctor, we love a revolutionary, etc. it makes sense imo

zaniyah:

similar to maeve i think she’s more of a fling person than a relationship person, but she has had a couple gfs. she’s not very comfy being super serious but she’s a good gf and is very devoted. generally speaking i think she just likes Hot Ladies but is esp drawn to quirky / weird ppl lol

in a hypothetical dao romance she’d like morrigan bc 1) she’s hot and 2) she’s standoffish lol. she’d take it upon herself to get morrigan to like her as like, a personal triumph, but then along the way realize she has a real crush on her and be like shit? fuck? (the same goes for morg. it would be an oh shit oh fuck moment on both ends)

in a hypothetical da2 romance i think her and merrill would be more like friends to lovers :’) zaniyahs immediately like “youre weird. i like you” also they bond bc dalish etc, and over time she starts liking her more and more. eventually zaniyah just cant take it anymore and kisses merrill, apologizes profusely, etc, and merrill’s like “oh. i thought we were dating?” sldkfjsLDKFJds i care them

(josie is kind of an outlier bc she’s so graceful, collected, knows what to do/say always, etc. i dont believe in love at first sight but if i did thats what zaniyah and josie would be<333)

ranae:

she doesnt like. have a type really. because she’s just been in love w her childhood best friend since forever and doesnt think of what she might like in other ppl bc well. he’s right there? she assumes they’ll be together forever, even if only platonically :(

when she meets morrigan she’s like oh i like women too apparently. cool?? when she meets alistair shes a little put off by the fact that hes a golden retriever, then clings to him bc Trauma, then VERY begrudgingly realizes she has a crush on him but feels like shes betraying tamlen

eventually she comes to terms w the fact that like. theres nothing she can do about tamlen unfortunately, and alistair is here and Loves Her and he’s been the only person to make her truly happy in a very long time. it takes a lot for her to think she deserves that, but she does, and the rest is history :’)

in a hypothetical da2 romance it makes perfect sense to me that she’d latch onto the other Elf Who Is Full Of Rage immediately. they are both very intense and it can put other people off sometimes but they dont really care! die mad about it, shem! etc

in a hypothetical dai romance she’d be drawn (platonically) to blackwall bc grey warden stuff, but subconsciously they both kind of feel like frauds, like they dont deserve happiness, etc; theyre both kinda brusque, at least at first, too. she just kinda sees him as a buddy til she watches him bonding w sera or with some kids or something and then shes like 😳 😳 😳 and then angry that shes like that lmao

#oc prompt #AGAIIINNNNNN going to reiterate i know no one cares im posting this for Me #to Reference #also i have had wine. so #what can you do when the OC brain goblin latches on ykwim #sarenan surana #maeve hawke #alani lavellan #zaniyah lavellan #ranae mahariel

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