#ourinquisitorialness

[focsle]

I saw that I could buy someone dashboard crabs and thought of you. You're welcome <3

Oh thank you for these little guys haha!

#asks #ourinquisitorialness

[sunshinemage]

ding dong i'm on VACATION FOR TWO WEEKS and i'm gonna have MY NERD WITH ME IN MY HOME and also MEET THE SWEETEST FLUFFYNUG FOR THE FIRST TIME (and also have them in my home)

@ourinquisitorialness @thefluffynug i'm so HYPED

#rory talk show

[moodybidoof]

Ten People, Ten Songs

Oh man I haven't don't a tag game in ages! Ty for tagging me @grkuvus!!

Share ten songs shuffled at random from a playlist.

I picked from my "unfuck your life" playlist for doing chores and getting shit done.

Young Volcanoes - Fall Out Boy

Fantastic Baby - BIGBANG

Love Today - Mika

Kill of the Night - Gin Wigmore

Dog Days are Over - Florence + the Machine

I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! at the Disco

Q.U.E.E.N - Janelle Monáe

Teenagers - My Chemical Romance

Despacito - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee

Ex's & Oh's - Elle King

Tagging @ourinquisitorialness @tamathotchi-art @tiniestmagneto @speremint @htfnoelle @the-four-humors @kaladandalux @greenvelvetcake @misakikaito @heywizards

#it's a weird mix lol

[kurogoesinthedas]

Tagged by @leothelionsaysgrrrr​! Thank you! It’s been a while since I did one of these, and I’m gonna do it for Fley so you all can know them better :3

GENERAL

Name: Mirel Ashani’Ro

Alias(es): Fley'Rani

Gender: Agender

Age: 35 at the start of the game

Place of birth:  Rathad, small village in the Trygghastian Crown Republic

Spoken languages: Common, Infernal, Elvhen, Dwarvish

Sexual orientation: Demisexual Panromantic

Occupation: Archivist in the Legacy Saga of History, assistant archeologist to Sanarei Rani’ka. Currently adventurer.

APPEARANCE

Eye color: fully gold, no irises visible

Hair color: Black

Height: ~6′

Scars: some newly acquired battle scars, from an axe cut to the chest.

Burns: No

Overweight: No

Underweight: Incredibly no, they’re putting up some lean muscle now that they’re out and about in the world (14 dex ayy)

FAVOURITE

Color: pastels, white, pinks.

Hair color: No preference

Eye color: No preference

Music genre: folk ballads, opera. In a modern au, symphonic metal.

Entertainment: singing and dancing, reading.

Pastime:  Studying, reading, playing their lute.

Food: peaches, light soft cakes.

Drink: Tea c:

Books: Will read anything, both for knowledge and for fun. Historical fiction is a favorite for leisure.

HAVE THEY

Passed university: Yes.

Had sex: Yes

Had sex in public: No

Kissed a man: Yes

Kissed a woman: Yes

Gotten tattoos: No

Gotten piercings: Yes but they don’t wear them anymore.

Had a broken heart: Yes

Been in love: No

Stayed up for more than 24 hours: Probably happened during university.

ARE THEY

A virgin: No

A cuddler: Once they are comfortable with someone, touch is a comfort they will gladly offer and receive. But it takes a while.

A kisser: No

A smoker: No

Scared easily: Somewhat

Jealous easily: Not quite, as it’s the fear of abandonment that rears its ugly head

Trustworthy: Mostly, as in they’ll try to keep their word. But they will lie by omission if needed to protect someone or achieve a goal.

Dominant: more like assertive

Submissive: Depends with whom

Single: It’s complicated Yes

RANDOM QUESTIONS

Have they harmed themselves: Not physically

Thought of suicide: Yes

Attempted suicide: No, although bad times were had.

Wanted to kill someone: Yes

Actually killed someone: Yes, but not the same as above, and by accident

Ridden a horse: No

Have/had a job: Yes, see above.

Have any fears: Yes, many indeed.

FAMILY

Sibling(s): four. Mirai, Hana are older, Kali and Kairon are younger.

Parents:  Calliana Ashani’Ro (mother) and Ambros Ashani’Ro (father, presumed dead)

Children: None, though I think Fley would be a good mother eventually.

Pets: None. They never had reason or resources to adopt one and now it would be too dangerous. They do love animals though, especially cute fluffy ones and take full advantage of the Ranger’s tiger to pet.

tagging @ourinquisitorialness​ @numin-lavellan​ @shadowedcipher​ @japanne​!

#Fley'Rani #:DD #tagged

[rhonuscorner]

Tropes Tier Maker

Tagged by @ell-vellan Thank yoooouuu T-T

Not much to say, it's pretty self explanatory methinks. I think if I gotta pick an all time favorite trope it's Enemies To Lovers, without a doubt 👀 That one never fails to tickle my fancies. I'll never grow bored of writing that one T-T

I'm actually picky about AUs but I do really enjoy the challenge of adapting a canon character to a completely different setting and still keep them in character as much as possible, and coming up with a backstory for them that still hints back to their canon story. Little easter eggs if you will. Not every AU works or is enjoyable to write with every character though.

I'm currently in the process of writing the same canon character in three different AUS - Medieval AU, Wild West AU and College AU and it's 👌! Haven't had this much fun writing in a long time. These three characters share a lot of similarities (obviously) but they're also completely different from each other, I love it.

Also, angst and slow burn fics, hell yeah.

Most of what's on D I don't actually hate, I'm just extremely picky and/or peculiar about how those are written (either by myself or when I read fic).

Tagging @eternallygraceful @thereluctantinquisitor @chaitea09 @ourinquisitorialness and whoever else wants to, no pressure

#this was a nice surprise I haven't been tagged in ages lol #still waiting for my PC to come back so that I can finally play DAI and start posting stuff @_@ #and y'know do proper art again #I hate not having access to most of my stuff ugh #ANYWAY #yeeeeeeeeee tropes

[felassan]

Wow, that was a fun (and tantalizing) new teaser. Honestly I'm glad it wasn't something more substantial because my biggest worry is about Bioware rushing production. But it was just enough to give us some more juicy tidbits to speculate about! My question for you: Do you think Varric being the narrator should be taken as confirmation that he'll be either a companion or advisor in DA4?

Hello, I also found it really exciting/interesting, and it’s fun to have some new things to speculate about. I hope they don’t rush production or crunch or anything as an important priority should always be to look after the wellbeing of workers and ensure a good, safe work environment. The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

As to Varric, I’d lean to it not being confirmation that he’s a companion or an advisor, despite loving him a lot. Not saying he won’t be in it, that people shouldn’t hope for him to be a companion or advisor, or that that is an incorrect takeaway, just that I’m unsure. Varric’s voice is familiar and easily identifiable, and while there are some who aren’t keen on him, he tends to go down well with fans (so there could be a marketing reason factoring into the choice to use him). Parts of the dialogue seemed to break the fourth wall a bit, as a message from BW to the viewer (like “Hi guys here’s where we’re at, and also, it’s a new hero, not the Inquisitor”), so I wonder how much of it is literal in-world beats if that makes sense. He’s also a storyteller who has narrated DA2 and the Keep, witnessed the story of DAI, and retroactively narrated/recapped some of the story of DAO when he was ‘opening' DA2. His voice in the trailer could be a narrative-framing device, possibly for the purposes of promotional material. It also seems like they’re not yet at a stage where they want to properly-show any of the new companions or other new prominent characters, so an old hat (alongside the obvious, Solas) makes sense. Will we even have advisors in DA4? That was a DAI thing, they could bring it back or they may not.

Morrigan narrated The Fires Above, also talking about the things she’d seen (“I have seen more of this war than you can imagine”) and while she had a prominent role, she was neither companion nor advisor. Claudia Black and Brian Bloom’s voice work is very DA. 🐉 (We never ended up being able to “lead this world to its bitter end” as Inquisitor either, which was also said with emphasis in that video, so there’s an element of maybe not everything said in early-days trailers can be taken completely literally too. The DA4 trailer in particular had a conceptual feel to it, like moving concept art almost, as opposed to being more story-substantial like TFA, so it also makes me think of the concept art caveat).

That said! This tweet from the DA Twitter account references the return of Solas “and an old friend”, a comment made while posting the trailer which features known quantities Solas and Varric. Varric is most probably the old friend, from the context. It’s interesting, there’s a lot of ways he could have our backs, there’s a lot of ways to have someone’s back - directly, indirectly, combat, support, from near, from afar, etc. He’s Maevaris’ cousin through marriage, and they have a good relationship. He basically runs his own spy network and has contacts all over. He’s a Viscount, giving him access to funds and resources. He’s been connected to and involved in the ongoing comic plot (which involves red lyrium and Tevinter). And by the time of TN he is still clearly involved in some manner with the Shadow Inquisition and their plans: Gatt and the Ben-Hassrath are allies with a “dwarf in Kirkwall” who will want to hear what Irian and Vadis have to say about the enemy, and he’ll have work for them that would allow them to strike back at Fen’Harel followers. Meanwhile, the underground expedition send their report to him and it was him iirc who maneuvered to get the Carta dwarf to attend the meeting in Dread Wolf Take You. I’d guess at his involvement being a Morrigan-type role, not a companion or advisor but still prominent. Maybe he could be the new PC’s contact/interface with the Shadow Inquisition (Dorian’s potential role feels more Tevinter-plot-focused?), maybe he’s the one that seeks them out and recruits them (some mentoring?) as he’s clearly doing some recruiting, maybe he crops up part-way through for a key plotline (Morrigan or the Warden contact in DAI etc), maybe he has the new PC’s back from a mostly supporting role like resources, connections, advice, and what would functionally be like quest-giving? (Does “we” refer to the Shadow Inquisition or the new cast of companions and supporting characters? Both?) Pure speculation ofc.

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #dragon age #bioware #mj replies #video games #ourinquisitorialness #solas #morrigan #queen of my heart #tevinter nights spoilers #tevinter nights spoiler #tevinter nights #spoilers #spoiler

[leothelionsaysgrrrr]

Relativity (f. Oliver Pentaghast)

Emma Sparrow pays a visit to a friend during a difficult time, and he is not the only one surprised to learn the extent to which another can know and understand what troubles him.  Oliver Pentaghast and Thalon Lavellan belong to @ourinquisitorialness.  ~3300 words.  TW for past trauma and emotional difficulty/breakdown.

-----

Once, Emma handed Cassandra Pentaghast a sack of skulls, and received a promise in return.  Now, the Inquisitor saw to it the Seeker kept her word.  

The letter sat heavy in Emma’s pocket, threatening to burn right through it as she stepped out of the carriage.  Just as those skulls, the skulls of murdered Tranquil mages collected from dismantled Venatori constructs across southern Thedas, sat heavy in that sack as she thrust that burden, that responsibility on a woman whose order could’ve prevented it - and, for centuries, had chosen not to.  A request from the Inquisitor himself, asking for her help in bearing that responsibility, as though she had anything to offer in that regard.  Or any obligation beyond what she’d done already.  Nevertheless, she’d answered that request, and she’d come.  Following several practiced breaths braced against the closed carriage door - two short inhales through her nose, one long exhale through her mouth - to quell the sick in her stomach, she finally turned to face the looming Seeker fortress.  

Thalon Lavellan stood in front of the large wooden doors, wearing a kind, welcoming smile and ready to offer kind, welcoming words as she approached.  A momentary twitch at the corners of her mouth was all the reciprocation she offered, and she followed him inside without a word.

“You should be speaking to Sala.”

She did not look at the Inquisitor directly when she finally spoke, walking the fortress’s dark stone halls, but she felt the furrow of his brow and the stare out of the corner of his eye long before she bothered to return it.  

“And when, exactly, was the last time you saw him?” 

She didn’t answer.  Thalon cracked a tiny smile, the smugness of which told her unequivocally that he already knew what she would say.  “I seem to remember being told that ‘there is no finding that man if he does not wish to be found’.”  His face turned slightly towards her, gentleness returning to the way he looked at her alongside a strong sense of confidence that he did, indeed, know what he was doing.  “In any case, our purpose here today requires skills and knowledge you possess, not him.  That’s why I asked you to come.”

Thalon’s next step brought his feet to rest beside each other.  He turned to face the window beside him, gesturing pointedly with a nod for her to look out into the open courtyard.  Flowers and herbs grew in abundance on either side of a winding stone path, along with some small trees.  A dark-haired man in simple robes tended to them.  Or, rather, stood on the path in front of them, and every so often crouched down and held out his hand to cradle the petals and leaves with the kind of appreciation - no, the reverence one has for something precious and new.

She recognized him the moment he stood, with a wayward glance in their direction.  

“Oliver…”

Thalon glanced over at her, a half smile spreading across his face.

“Ah, good.  You do remember him.”

“Of course, he...we spoke often, in the library where he studied.”  

As often as she could spare the time, at least.  Where others found the Tranquil strange and unnerving, Emma found their calm and objective focus intensely soothing.  Oliver spoke to her of things that made sense, and asked questions with definitive answers.  Truthfully, since the fall of Corypheus sent most of the Inquisition on new paths, she’d missed their conversations a great deal.  That was where she’d expected him to be now: a library, studying, finding purpose and fulfilling it, not...watching over plants as though he’d never seen them before.  

Puzzled, she turned squarely to face the Inquisitor.  “You asked me here to assist Seeker Pentaghast.  Oliver was meant to return to the university once his service with the Inquisition was complete.  He should not be here unless…”

Emma drew in a shallow gasp, and her eyes widened with the realization.  Thankfully, Thalon confirmed her suspicions before she needed to say it.

“Yes,” he replied, noticeably more somber now.  “Oliver volunteered to be the first to undergo the reversal process, which...has been more difficult for him than we expected.”

Sala coalesced in her mind, his gentle, clouded eyes and old hands offering soft reassurance that he’d be right there with her, the whole time, he’d be there to help, and everything would be better when it was done...she would know the reasons behind other people’s smiles, she herself could be happy...and then her heart had raced, forcing her to draw more, faster breaths that never seemed enough to rid herself of the sensation that something was wrong...terribly, utterly wrong, feeling for the first time in her life that intense fear of things she neither knew nor understood.  That first, petrifying loss of control she’d been struggling to remedy ever since.

Like learning to walk, but on legs that have never worked before.

It wasn’t the same.  Not exactly, not for him.  Once, Oliver had been able to use his.  He knew what he’d been missing.

Staring blankly into the courtyard, the memory manifested in little more than a simple analogy, and a steady, rhythmic tapping of her fingers against the outside of her thigh.  

“Would you not find it difficult to walk after a decade with broken legs?”

Thalon offered a sympathetic nod.

“True enough.  I don’t imagine there is much about Tranquility or its reversal that could be considered otherwise.”  He gestured to the far side of the window, where an open door led outside, to a path that would take her to Oliver’s side.  “Given his familiarity with you and your own...experience with such things, I thought you might be our best chance of helping him.”

Shit.  It seemed she could tell Lavellan nothing about herself without coming to regret it later.  

Noting her hesitation, Thalon took a step backwards, nodding towards the door with a stern curtness that contrasted with the warm smile on his face.  Both encouraging and demanding.

Go on.

Slowly, she moved the few steps in front of him to the door, but stopped in front of it for a moment.  Her eyes dropped to her feet.  He was right, after all, loathe as she was to admit it.  Though certain she was anything but the right person for this, who would do for him what he truly needed if not her?  Who else would bring the same comfort now that he could actually feel such a thing, without also understanding the way it felt to have not had the luxury? With a gentle nudge from Lavellan at her back, Emma drew in a long breath, and lifted her eyes as she stepped forward.

Thankfully, Oliver heard it latch behind her, and was already watching from across the courtyard.  At Skyhold, Emma would approach Oliver with the knowledge that she would not easily sway his focus from his task, and simply wait patiently beside him until he was ready to acknowledge her presence with a polite nod and a trained smile she knew very well.  The sort built into routine because it is expected.  

The sort she gave him as he drew close enough to resolve details on her face.

To think, this time the smile that spread widely across his was the genuine one between them.

“Oh, Agent Harper!  It’s you!” he called out, and offered her his hand.

She hesitated to return his greeting, as earnest in its cheerful tone as it was, unable to tell him he looked well with a straight face.  The sunburst emblazoned on his forehead struck her differently now.  He wore a genuine smile now, yes, but where his old smile lay flat over placid contentment, this one masked nerves like old ropes left slack for too long, frayed and straining now that something - anything - pulled on the other ends again.  

“Oliver,” she finally said, quietly, nodding as she took his hand, “I am glad to see you.”

His smile brightened for a moment, and he broke the handshake to usher her towards a carved stone bench nearby.  “Yes, it’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?”

She nodded again, a fond smile hiding the debate raging in her mind.  For all her previous conversations with him, this one presented an entirely new factor she’d not considered before: subjectivity.  The simplest of pleasantries were no longer so simple.  No definitive answers.  Additionally, in all likelihood no one had performed this ritual to purposely cure a Tranquil in ages, if anyone ever had.  She’d not been there when it happened, nor had she seen it done to know what to expect from it.  Whether or not it would be appropriate to ask.  You are certain of this, Sala?

Not at all.  Never tried before.  Can’t be certain if I never do, though, can I?

In memory, her father’s smile was not as reassuring as he’d wanted it to be.

“Will you be here long?” Oliver asked, breaking the silence before she could. From the look on his face, it wasn’t the first question he’d asked her, either.  “This place can seem somewhat dreary at times, but...this courtyard is nice, and there is a library here, if you’d like me to show you.  Not so extensive as the one at Skyhold, but it’s quiet, and they care for the books well.”

Emma smiled, and Oliver quickly returned it.  “I would, but there is no hurry.  As you say, it is nice here, too.”  

He nodded in agreement, over and over, and turned his head to look out over the courtyard, as if to reinforce his own belief of that statement.  His smile had faltered by the time he looked back.

“I...do not read as often as I did at Skyhold, I’m afraid,” he muttered.  “I try to, of course, but...anymore, the words are so...I lose track so easily…”

Oliver’s hands wrung in his lap, as if with a mind of their own, and it sent gooseflesh cascading up her arms.  Words seeming to lift and float across pages, glancing away for a moment only to find herself completely lost when she turned her attention back to her books again, and the unfamiliar tightness in her chest and flush in her cheeks at the fact that this shouldn’t be happening, it never happened to her before...

“It seems...every little thing is a distraction, anymore.  Which is...frankly, ridiculous…”  He glanced up at her with a look she supposed was meant to be reassuring, though whether to her or to him was anyone’s guess.  It was anything but.  “I was never, even before…”  

Knowing full well where that statement would lead, Emma attempted a reassuring look of her own.

“Oliver, it...”

He stood abruptly, without warning and notably without anything resembling any kind of smile.  

“No, no, it is not!  I am so tired of people telling me that when it is not ‘all right’.”  Frantic, he paced back and forth along the path, one hand clenched into a fist at his chin and the other arm pressed tightly across his body, breath seething out of him in rushed hisses.  “I thought I wanted this.  I thought this would fix everything, that if I could just be whole again it would all be...but there’s just so much...it’s too much, too much everywhere all at once and I can’t...I can’t…”

Oliver trailed off, silent for a haunting split second before he collapsed to his knees, sobbing into his hands.  Petrified, Emma could only watch.  The familiarity of it stung in a way she hadn’t expected.  His words may as well have been hers, and she may as well have been watching herself, all those years ago.  Her fingers tapped again at the outside of her thigh, harder and faster now in cadence with her heartbeat, and she silently cursed the Inquisitor for this.  For asking her here to watch as her dear friend fell to pieces while the world crumbled around him, and herself for coming to him with nothing - no empty assurances he would be all right, no insistence he was making more of a simple frustration than he needed to be.  Just...nothing.  Nothing to say, nothing to do but tap out her own heartbeat on her leg while she, too, cried out inside her mind, it’s too much, too much everywhere all at once.  I can’t…  

You can.  Let me show you.  

Another moment, and a long exhale.  

She could.  She knew how to help him.

Emma rose to her feet, knelt on the ground in front of him and reached out, waiting to see if he recoiled before laying her hand softly on his shoulder.  The other cradled his jaw a moment later, as she quietly coaxed him to look at her, then let her hand settle over his wrist.

“Here.  Focus here,” she cooed, gently guiding his clenched fist down over his chest, and stopped when she felt the pulsing artery there.  “Can you feel it?”  

Oliver blinked hard a few times.  Ragged breath still spewed out of him at a steady, brisk pace, but his eyes began aimlessly trailing around the courtyard, following some invisible thing, the outward manifestation of him searching for what she wanted him to find.  After a few moments, they fell shut, and he whispered a shaky but quite certain “yes”.  

Good.  

Emma gave a quick smile and a nod he wouldn’t see, and gently pried his hand open; not forcing his fingers apart, but gently nudging, waiting patiently for him to allow her to move them.  Trembling, he acquiesced enough for her to press his hand flat against his shirt, and laid her own over it.  Two fingers tapped along with the rhythm of his blood pumping beneath it - t-tap, t-tap, t-tap - in quick, strong strikes of the pads of her fingers against his knuckles.  

Listen, ma’eha.  Listen.

Listen.

“Listen, Oliver,” Emma continued, Sala’s words returning in her voice over the dull, muted sound of t-tap, t-tap, t-tap.  “It feels louder on the outside.  Like despair feels louder on the outside.  That is how it will help.  This means something very simple.  This…” 

She paused, pressing her palm against the back of his hand, drawing his focus.  Making it louder.  

“...means you are alive.”

After a few moments, she began to slow the pace and soften her strikes, only just, and Oliver, although he barely recalled deciding to do so, relayed them onto his chest.  “And this,” she explained, as their fingers fell over and over in time with each other, “is something you have always been able to feel.” 

With each minute decrease in pace and intensity, so too did the heaving in his chest slow, and his breath began to steady once more.  She found hers steadying with it, both in that moment and in memory.  

“You will always be able to feel this.  It is there through any pain, any sorrow, any joy, any despair, any anger...and it will be there still when all of that has passed.  Nothing else you will ever feel can be anything at all without this.  That means any time you feel something you don’t want to feel, you can feel this instead.  All you have to do…”

She lifted her hand from his, letting his hand tap out his heartbeat on its own now, and leaned forward to rest her forehead on his. 

“Is make it louder.”

Oliver breathed a heavy, but quite a bit closer to contented sigh, and his eyes flitted open.  Emma sat back on her heels, and offered him a small smile as she helped him to his feet.

“Better?”

“I...apologize, that...was terribly embarrassing,” he said, and breathed deeply once more while scanning the courtyard for anyone else who might’ve seen before returning to his seat on the bench.  When he circled back to Emma, he forced himself to smile.  “Though, I suppose I ought to be pleased that I can be embarrassed at all.”

“I know.  I know how you must feel.”

It only just occurred to her, seeing the confused and almost insulted way he watched her as she sat next to him, that he didn’t know.  That of all the times she’d spoken to him before, she’d never told him she’d once been like him.  Why would she?  The Tranquil did not speak of their conditions beyond confirming their status as Tranquil, so it had never come up, and it never would have were he not here, now, like this.  The idea that this would have been easier for him if she had dug hard into her skin.

“How?” he spat.  “How could someone like you possibly...”  His eyes widened, and he shrunk away.  He pulled his arms tightly around himself, and shook his head, quietly tutting at himself.  “Ah, that was rude of me, wasn’t it?  Forgive me, Harper.  Regardless, I should not discount your capacity for empathy; I am terribly glad to see you and you have always been...so kind.”

 Emma turned her head, moving her hair away from behind her ear.  A small, old and long scarred-over oval, like a thumbprint, rather than a prominent sunburst, but a lyrium burn was a lyrium burn, and it meant the same thing regardless of the shape of scar it left.  

From the look on Oliver’s face when she turned her head back, he knew.  He understood.

“How long?”

“A long time,” she said.  “Years ago, now.”

Hope lit up his face.  “Then you were cured, as well?  Was it...was it like this for you?”

“Not exactly.  My condition was...somewhat different, but...it did hurt.  A great deal.”  She stopped herself there, both unwilling and unsure how to say more, and well aware her purpose here was not her own comfort.  Realizing that may help less than she wanted to, however, she continued.  “I know it hurts you, now.  But...that hurt is part of what it means to be whole.  The headaches that came with my reversal still remain, but...so do a great many things I have gained since then.  Things I know now I would not give up to be rid of the pain.”  

Oliver scoffed.  Dismissively, she thought at first, but a bit of a smile found its way through shortly after.  

“Is that your way of telling me it will get easier?”

“No.  Not without effort.  Like...standing on once broken legs.”  She shifted on the bench to sit squarely towards him, one leg folded across the bench between them.  “I do not know exactly what pains you, but...I do know I would not walk so well now if I had not had help.”  Her head tilted, and she shifted again, slightly closer this time.  “I am here, Oliver, and I am willing to listen.  If you are willing to speak.”  She reached towards his hands in his lap, and curled her fingers around the one nearest to her.   “When you are ready to speak.  I will be here.”

Perhaps, the longer she had to consider it, she would soon be ready to speak, too.

After a long pause, staring at their clasped hands in his lap longer than anyone but the two of them would have been able to remain comfortable, longer than Thalon Lavellan had to spend watching through the window across the courtyard with that pleased little smile on his face before duty called him elsewhere, Oliver’s lips parted. He drew in a long breath, and held her hand tighter as he lifted his eyes.

#i am SORRY it took me literal years to do this #BUT #IT IS FINALLY DONE #anyway these two and their friendship and understanding is so important to me #emma has lots of support but no one who really GETS what she's felt and thought the way ollie does #and they both need that so much #and i am glad they are there for each other to help each other heal :) #and that thalon is there to give her the extra kick in the pants she needs to actually do it lol #thanks for letting me borrow your boys i love them so very much :') #oc: emma sparrow #oliver pentaghast #thalon lavellan #ourinquisitorialness #leo the lion writes words

[domirine]

Hello! I LOVE your Pride month arts and especially the ones of Bioware characters. I was wondering if there was a rationale behind giving Zevran a pan flag but giving Josephine a bi flag, when in both cases as far as I know their sexuality comes from being romanceable by characters regardless of gender? (Please note I love both characters and both identities are valid and awesome! Just curious if it was based on some specific evidence or a headcanon. More pan rep is always great!)

hi! thank you for sweet words and the question, this is gonna be a lil long and personal on account of me not wanting to say something carelessly, and because a lot in this case comes down to how i perceive bisexuality and pansexuality. since it's my pride project i can’t escape bringing subjectivity into it, as much as i try to stick to what's canon and such. (because some things are also not up for debate, of course.)

as far as my bi self subscribes to it: the "bi" in bisexuality means "two" not in "just men and women" sense, but "mine and other genders". this is a sentiment shared by a large amount of bi people i've spoken to personally as well (not all, obv, we’re not a hive mind). to me personally it also goes against the wack stereotype that bisexual people are interested only in the binary genders, not dating trans and non-binary people, etc.; 

so! unless a fictional character states themselves which label they subscribe to, and the choice is either bisexual or pansexual, i’m letting either my experience with the medium or perception of the character dictate it. 

both isabela and josie are sporting bi colours, because i identified with them as a bisexual woman on a personal level, words “pansexual” were never used, so i was not given a reason to think otherwise. meanwhile bull and zevran were sporting pan colours because - as far as i remember correctly? - “pansexual” is used for bull (by devs iirc, not certain about canon, but it latched onto my brain regardless), and with zev, it was more subjective and headcanon-y, as i think he would subscribe to the /pan/ part of identity.

before someone misconstrues: i’m not saying it’s open season unless someone states if they’re pan or bi. but i am saying it’s sometimes a personal call if i wanna include which flag. i'm sure someone out there disagrees with me, and that's fine. 

additionally, there’s enough of a “debate” on bisexuality and pansexuality as it is, and this is not an invitation to have it with me here. but that’s the train of thought i followed when giving those characters their flags. i hope it makes sense!

woof thanks for reading that whole ass wall of text!

#ourinquisitorialness #i hope i dont have to put all the 'personally' and 'imo' and 'subjectively' in bold font...

[thereluctantinquisitor]

@ourinquisitorialness​ do i stiLL REMEMBER HOW TO PLAY HOT CROSS----

#i am a recorder GOD #how dare you even INSINUATE #*scoffs in the key of D* #reluctant rambles #tw: recorder #ourinquisitorialness #tickets start at $500

[lorspolairepeluche]

It's definitely a toss up for me between Saraan and Aiyan for my favorite OC of yours, which is kind of funny since they're so different. Ihsaraan will always have a fond place in my heart, but also just on her own, Saraan is just a goddamn badass and her aesthetic is to die for. And then there's Aiyan who is young and emotional and makes me think of someone who's just trying his best even though he's faced with an impossible challenge. Plus, as you mentioned, his relationship with Thalon still gives me Feels. UuU

awwwwww thank you galen!! yes i love ihsaraan no matter how messy it is and how badly it ends up, and i’m glad you think that about saraan! and YES aiyan is Doing His Best. usually ends up happily for him too.

and it’s funny you should say those two are your favorites, since they have a special kinship in that they’re the two who navigate diplomacy, even as near-total outsiders to human culture and court. aiyan learns from saraan in that respect, and there’s many a night before the winter palace when they’re up late together discussing the game and how to win it.

#thank you galen!! #this was so nice to get #ourinquisitorialness

[focsle]

Poison, parachute, and shooting star for Neris please!!!

poison: vices/bad habits? what are they? how do they affect your OC? For all he tries to divorce himself from his upbringing of Knowledge at Whatever Cost and You Are Entitled To Everything, it’s still very much a part of him. He can be a bit of a brat, and can get uppity if he feels like someone is denying his access to something or is being demeaning to him. While it’s rarely triggered, he can have a vindictive streak and is a master of malicious noncompliance (which can be highly effective when used For Good, but he sometimes also uses it for petty sabotage). He also sometimes glosses over or downplays the harm someone else has done if the result is…something he finds incredibly impressive. He’s very conflicted about the Clockwork City for instance, being all like ‘Listen I know there’s a lot of horrible inequity and its citizens can’t ever leave and it’s all kind of fucked up—and it’s not something /I/ would ever make—but it’s also soooooooooooo……..cool and amazing….’ He can tap into (or fall into) a person he doesn’t actually want to be, if the circumstances prime him for it.

parachute: who does your OC(s) trust the most? who makes them feel safe? who would they do absolutely anything for?

Neris’s fatal flaw is he puts an incredible amount of trust in people in general, as a combination of his belief that most people are inherently decent and that if they aren’t, he’s Powerful and Untouchable anyway. It means he gets screwed over a lot. And it’s never a fool-me-once situation either. He’ll get screwed over multiple times because he always has this little thought of ‘well maybe they won’t do it again!’. It’s a wonder he’s survived himself. But he’s deeply loyal to his close friends and he would truly do anything for them. He’d compromise his morals, his security, even his life for them, if push came to shove. He’d do a lot for your Oorthak and Shadow!

shooting star: if your OC(s) could have one wish what would it be? God I feel like Neris would impulsively waste his wishes and waffle over having just one. Oh oh I wish I was a famous travelogue writer. OR I wish someone would write a song about me. Oh, no, I’d like to see an actual dwemer somehow. Wait, I wish for world peace where no one ever suffers anything ever again. Wait, I know, I wish my father would actually love me. Actually, I want to try a weird food from some plane of Oblivion and not have anything bad happen to my guts. I wish I could touch a dragon…like, an alive one. Nevermind, I want Divayth Fyr to see how smart and cool and talented I am and tell me so. I wish I had a pet chaurus that liked me and lived forever. I wish the Mages Guild would apologize for kicking me out and grovel at my feet for forgiveness just a little. I wish my brother was less of a prick. Oh oh oh I wish I’d never have to sleep again.

I think ultimately he’d just wish that the people he cared about were content. But it’d take a lot of scattered rambling desires to get to that point.

#neris ilyiil #ourinquisitorialness #asks

[sunshinemage]

Dalish husbands, side by side!

@ourinquisitorialness' son Thalon with Nin's color, mirorring Nin with Thalon's color 🧡💚

#they're old and happy and as in love as ever #i will forever cherish them u_u #thalon lavellan #nin lavellan #dirvhenan #things i drew

[omegastation]

ourinquisitorialness replied to your post “camalyng replied to your post “Re: more romances in the remaster....”

Sorry, what does closed canon mean? I've never heard this term.

it’s a canon where the source no longer has new additions - so it won’t be tempered with

you could consider the franchise as open canon but the trilogy so far, as it was, was a closed canon. if there is a remaster/remake, it’s no longer closed

#ourinquisitorialness

[moodybidoof]

From the character solidifying asks, how about 22, 23, 37, and 48?

Ty!! Gonna answer for Del, my halfling warlock.

22. Who are their friends? Lovers? ‘Type’ or ‘ideal’ partner?

I think before the campaign started Del was friendly with most people in town but she didn’t have very many friends despite having lived there all her life. And one of her teammates is basically a sister to her, so friend isn’t a strong enough word. But now she does finally consider her other teammates to be friends too! And there’s a certain vampire that’s growing on her despite her insistence that they’re just coworkers (they’re both tied to the same patron and god, in different ways). 

As for lovers, she dated the town doctor - a kenku named Heartbeat - for four years and they awkwardly circled each other for a while before that. Del still loves Heartbeat, but they broke up basically bc Del c/wouldn’t take things to the next level and commit to moving in together lmfao. We’re...working on that. 

I think what first drew her to Heartbeat is how sharp and decisive she is - the opposite of Del - while at the same time being deeply caring and passionate about the people she was helping. Passion like that is really something that sparks Del’s interest. She could probably watch Heartbeat work all day. 

She imagines that an ideal life for herself would be settling down with Heartbeat specifically someone like that and just living a quiet life together, but she worries so much about the “what ifs” (both real and imagined) that get in the way of that perfect dream that she never even tries to reach it. 

23. What do they want from a partner? What do they think and feel of sex?

Del is an ace lesbian; she doesn’t have a problem with sex as, like, a concept, but it’s not something she personally has any interest in. 

I don’t think she really knows what she wants from a partner, honestly, which is part of why Heartbeat ended up getting fed up with her waffling. Like I said before, there’s an imaginary life that she thinks about, but I don’t think she wants it as much as she tells herself she does, or else she could have easily had it by now (at least before the campaign started). It’s the life she’s “supposed” to want, and she’s never considered any other options before. 

37. How is your character’s imagination? Daydreaming a lot? Worried most of the time? Living in memories? 

She is worrying literally all day, every day, 24/7, 7 days a week. Everything makes her worry. Her imagination is active and vivid, thinking up all the ways everything around her could go wrong. 

And this was even before she made a pact with a terrible spider woman who openly hates her and could kill her with a thought the moment she’s outlived her usefulness.  

48. How are your character’s gestures? Vigorous? Weak? Controlled? Compulsive? Energetic? Sluggish?

Like everything else about her, very careful and controlled, but not unnaturally so. Despite being an anxious mess, she does have high charisma; outwardly she seems very warm, friendly, and super put together. I think her hands are usually folded neatly in her lap, and when she does gesture it’s to emphasize a point and done with the poise of a game show hostess showing off a new car lmao. 

The only exception is on the rare occasions when she’s feeling exposed and vulnerable. She starts to fiddle with anything she can get her hands on, so she usually keeps her hands hidden in her skirt pockets.

#becky answers things #adelaide underhill #ourinquisitorialness

[kurosmind]

1 and 18 for the music asks? :D

1. A song you like with a color in the title   Easy peasy. I’ve been obsessed with this song lately (and specifically with the mental image of Fley singing it) 

Black by Kari Kimmel

18: A song from the year that you were born I’m a ‘94 gal Can you feel the love tonight by Elton John

#music ask #ourinquisitorialness #kuro answers

[cestpasfaux24601]

@ourinquisitorialness replied to your text post 

I'm sorry....MR. COLLINS???

i mean, i’ve only watched the 95 version and he’s basically the only character i was actually interested in  though tbh i’m not sure if i like him as a character or if i just love the way david bamber is portraying him ( it’s probably the latter haha )

#ourinquisitorialness