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daitranscripts · 1 month

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Sera Romance: What Pride Had Wrought

Elfy Shite

Sera Masterpost Related Quest: What Pride Had Wrought

The PC opens the door to Sera’s room in the Herald’s Rest.

Choice dependent dialogue:

PC drank [1]

Morrigan drank, asked Abelas about ancient elves [2]

Morrigan drank, did not ask Abelas about elves [3]

1 - PC drank Sera: Oh, hi, yeah? Listen, stand there. Right there.

She draws her bow and points an arrow at the PC

Sera: Now, about Mythal.

Dialogue options:

Anxious: Put that away! [4]

Angry: I just wanted to talk! [5]

Confused: What should my reaction be? [6]

4 - Anxious: Put that away! PC: Sera, whatever’s wrong, we can talk about it! Sera: Oh, for… ! Don’t piss yourself, I just wanted to make sure it was you in there! [7]

5 - Angry: I just wanted to talk! PC: Don’t aim that in my face, Sera! What is wrong with you! Sera: What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? If that is you. [7]

6 - Confused: What should my reaction be? PC: Sera, I don’t know what reaction you want, but can this be it so we can be done? a: All right, so maybe it’s still you. Someone needed to do something. [7]

7 - Scene continues.

Sera puts her bow away.

Sera: I mean, you went wading into a “Well of Sorrows.” Who hears that and thinks, “Well, dunk a butt, let’s have a go!”

Sera (asked about ancient elves): Even mad old Abelas said elves destroyed themselves. The only believable bit in a sea of clear demon bait. Sera (did not ask about ancient elves): I mean, that whole place, clearly demon bait. Top to bottom.

Sera: It makes messing with their relics real stupid. So! Test done, you’re still you. We can leave these lies behind. [12]

2 - Morrigan drank, asked Abelas about ancient elves Sera: (Stifled laugh.) I’m sorry. Oh, wait, no, I’m not. It’s just the funniest, innit? That creaky old Abelas in Mythal saying the elves weren’t destroyed by Tevinter?

General: A painful admission for him. [8]

General: You’re gloating? [9]

General: What’s so funny about it? [10]

8 - General: A painful admission for him. PC: An admission that did not come easy. Sera: Course it didn’t, because that’s elfy elves’ thing, being the sore losers of history. I never hear the end of it. [11]

9 - General: You’re gloating? PC: That’s some “long dead” you’re gloating over. Sera: Pfft, about time I got mine back. Elfy elves have shoved “victim” in my face a million times. [11]

10 - General: What’s so funny about it? PC: If that’s a joke, I don’t get it. Sera: Everyone is always, “Oh, poor elves, victims of this and whatever.” But the empire ate itself. Love it. [11]

11 - Scene continues.

Sera (Dalish PC): We’re not “proper” if we aren’t sad about the grand history “stolen” from us. Turns out we’re no better than anyone else. Sera (non-Dalish PC): Like being sad makes them better than me. Turns out, they’re not victims. They’re the same as everyone else: arseholes.

Sera: Plus, a big, old temple full of demon-worshipping lies. Grand, that. [12]

3 - Morrigan drank, did not ask Abelas about elves Sera: Oh, hi, you! Strange days, right? Weird elves and Morrigan going wading. Better her than you. Glad to be back where things make sense after the demon-worshipping lies of Mythal. When do we go after What’s-his-lumps? [12]

12 - Dialogue options:

Investigate (PC drank): This threat was a test? [13]

General: You think Mythal was all lies? [14]

General: This was about demon worship? [15]

General: What do you mean? [16]

13 - Investigate: This threat was a test? PC: How was aiming an arrow at my face a test? Sera: I heard once that if you’re possessed, the demon will defend itself against attack. Sounds stupid to say it out loud. I don’t know. I don’t know demons. At least if it’s true, the arrow’s right there. I’m sorry, yeah? Morrigan’s probably got better ways, but who can trust her?

Dialogue options:

Special: Never again, you hear me? [17] -Sera slightly disapproves

[Back to 12]

17 - Special: Never again, you hear me? PC: You never do that to me again. Sera: Fine, all right. Sorry I don’t know how to deal with rubbish no one was meant to. [back to 12]

14 - General: You think Mythal was all lies? PC: You seem pretty certain. You don’t believe anything from Mythal? Sera: Course not. What, I should believe all that stuff “because elves”?

15 - General: This was about demon worship? PC: So your main takeaway is that elves worshipped demons? Sera: Well, they never call them that, yeah? But that’s what it had to be.

16 - General: What do you mean? PC: Why are you dismissing what happened in Mythal? Sera: Of course. None of it holds up.

18 - Scene continues.

Sera: I mean, it was impressive and all. Makes the Dalish look like tits for living in the woods. But so what? There can’t be a bunch of gods and the Maker. Don’t matter how much or little you believe, those don’t fit. So call me stupid, but I believe the stuff not made up by dead people who failed. Mythal is a ruin full of demons. I mean, it just makes sense, right?

Choice dependent dialogue:

Non-Dalish PC [19] Dalish PC [20]

19 - Non-Dalish PC Dialogue options:

General: But what if even some is true? PC: There’s so much history there. What if some of it is true? -Sera slightly disapproves ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

General: I believe it was all true. PC: The evidence is hard to ignore. I believe it. -Sera slightly disapproves ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

General: I agree it was all lies. [31] +Sera greatly approves

Sera: No, now you’re stupid. You can’t think that, because it’s stupid.

PC: But everything we saw?

Sera: Why believe it? Because Abelas looked weird? If that’s all it takes, Coryphy-shitheel is full of lumpy truth.

Sera: You’re not even an elf. Why are you being so damned elfy? I mean, I’ve dated some right tits, but you’re the Herald of Andraste! You keep saying this, you’ll sound like an idiot.

Dialogue options:

General: Will this affect us? [21] General: So, are you mad or what? [22] General: I don’t like your tone. [23]

21 - General: Will this affect us? PC: You’re upset. Will this come between us? Sera: Pfft! If I gave up on everybody who believed stupid stuff.

22 - General: So, are you mad or what? PC: Is this a fight? Because you’re calling me a lot of names. Sera: It’s not a fight. You can believe whatever stupid stuff you want.

23 - General: I don’t like your tone. PC: I don’t appreciate that. What if this is important to me? Sera: You can think whatever you want.

24 - Scene continues.

Sera: I mean, I can like you as an idiot, but maybe the Inquisition expects more? Maybe keep quiet? Sera: I mean, Qunari probably have weird horn gods, but you’ll keep quiet while leading the Inquisition, right? Sera: I mean, dwarves kiss rocks or something, but you’ll keep quiet while leading the Inquisition, right?

Dialogue options:

Flirt: Let’s both shut up. You first. (Continue the relationship) [25] +Sera greatly approves

Too far, Sera. We’re done. (End the relationship.) [26] -Sera greatly disapproves

25 - Flirt: Let’s both shut up. You first. PC: Right, you want me to be quiet, set an example. Shut it. Sera: Pfft. Charmer. Come on, let’s get ready for Lumpy. And by “Lumpy” I mean Coryphishit, not your bits, because that would be gross. Lumpy bits. So yeah… I’m done. Food? Scene ends.

26 - Too far, Sera. We’re done. PC: That’s what you think of me? Sera: What? You don’t know everything. PC: I expect support. I expect better. I think we’re done. Sera: We’re… ? But I didn’t… ? Right, fine. You know what, you know so much? Go know it yourself. I don’t need this. And I don’t need you either. Fuck. Scene ends.

20 - Dalish PC Dialogue options:

Dalish: You’re insulting our heritage PC: That’s the legacy of our people you’re insulting! -Sera disapproves ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

General: But what if even some is true? PC: There’s so much history there. What if some of it is true? -Sera slightly disapproves ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

General: I believe it was all true. PC: The evidence is hard to ignore. I believe it. -Sera slightly disapproves ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

General: I agree it was all lies. [31] +Sera greatly approves

Sera: Frig. You’re going elfy.

PC: What?

Sera: It’s when fairy stories make your ears droop for “lost glory,” but “glory” squats in the woods and smells like halla arse.

Sera: I knew it was coming, knew I shouldn’t start to like you. I said it, right? This doesn’t fit. It can’t fit. I’m not elfy. So say you’re kidding, and we can go back to our weird-enough normal? Please, [Honey Tongue/Buckles/Tadwinks/Shiny/’Teetness/Inky]?

27 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: Why is this too much for you? [28]

Flirt: For you, anything. (Agree with Sera. Relationship continues.) [29] +Sera greatly approves (after investigate) +Sera approves (did not investigate)

I’m an elf. I can’t look away. (Disagree with Sera. Relationship ends.) [30] -Sera greatly disapproves

28 - Investigate: Why is this too much for you? PC: You’ll really end our relationship over what I think of some ruins? Sera: Maybe I don’t believe much or understand it, but some people think too much and can bend anything to fit anything. Some things just don’t fit. Yes, you can explain it, and no, I won’t get it. But I don’t care. Some things don’t fit. So take it back. Just say you’d rather look ahead. That’s all. [back to 27]

29 - Flirt: For you, anything. PC: You’re right. A temple full of nonsense. You and I, we don’t need it. Sera: Frigging right, we don’t. Confusing bunch of… You know what we need? How about we go someplace alive and live? Can’t find that in a hole in the ground. Scene ends.

30 - I’m an elf. I can’t look away. PC: I’m sorry, Sera, but I believe this is important for our fellow elves. Sera: And say the other bit. PC: What? Sera: “You’d get it if you were smarter. If you understood what it ‘meant to be elven.’” Take your elves. I’m just people. Tell me when we’re kicking Coryphy’s arse. The rest, we don’t do anymore. Fuck. Scene ends.

31 - General: I agree it was all lies. PC: I’m with you, everything in that temple was highly suspect. Sera: Oh, good. I was worried you were going elfy on me. Come on, let’s get ready for Lumpy. And by “Lumpy,” I mean Coryphishit, not your bits, because that would be gross. Lumpy bits. So, yeah… I’m done. Food? Scene ends.

#dragon age inquisition #dai transcripts #dragon age #dragon age transcripts #dragon age dialogue #dai #long post #what pride had wrought #wphw #sera #sera romance #this was a nightmare to figure out #lemme tell ya

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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Re the power struggle between the Grey Wardens and the Chantry. You can also snatch Anders right from the templars grasp and it's possible that a big reason why he's left alone in DA2 is because he's a Grey Warden. Anders hardly makes his actions in DA2 a secret. He is loudly rebelling, yet the templars leave him alone.

That's why the whole Warden arc in DAI makes no sense. The Chantry and kingdoms of Thedas have no authority over the Wardens, but an upstart order who is effectively nothing but a branch of the Chantry does?

YES! i started writing the post abt the wardens in the middle of collating more info about it but i was so gobsmacked at how much there was just pre-ostagar that i wrote the post before getting to the rest of the series and then the post blew up LMAO

i think part of anders not getting snatched up by templars when he's in the party with you is just nonsense mechanics stuff (they should've had a quest like they did in dao -- tho i think that quest was deleted lmao -- where if you try hand morrigan over to the templars, she leaves the party permanently, or even like in lothering where they can ask that templar what he'd do with an apostate and he susses out that you and morrigan are mages and goes "ive got bigger problems than apostates atm") BUT there is dialogue & quest stuff confirming that the templars raid darktown fairly often looking for him outside of whenever he comes on quests with you, so i dont think he was untouched because he was a warden.

if anything, i think him being a circle mage seemed to be more important than him being a warden since the chantry explicitly sends templars after him while he's with the wardens. to repeat: the chantry sends templars to hunt down warden mages, which is fucking illegal. wardens exist outside of the jurisdiction of the chantry! they have no right to drag warden mages into the circle, even if the warden mage was originally an apostate OR if they were a circle mage. AND justinia was canonically looking for the warden to become inquisitor before she sent cassandra looking for hawke -- the implications for a surana/amell are pretty horrifying.

i hated HLTA for so many reasons, but mostly, i hated it because it justified the inquisition taking action against the wardens, as if they had a right to it. "we're going to stop the wardens from summoning demons to fight the darkspawn and kill the archdemons" and that's a bad thing because Summoning Demons Is Bad, as if blood magic isn't the most effective thing against darkspawn (which! considering the implications of red lyrium being magic repelling is so fascinating. does being a grey warden mean some of your connection to the fade is messed up???). as if wanting to end the blights is bad -- we have solas calling the wardens ignorant and stupid as if the wardens killing archdemons and fighting darkspawn isn't the only thing that has saved the world every time a blight has erupted. and it pisses me off that no real reason is ever given for WHY it's a bad idea, we're just supposed to take it at face value that because solas, an elven god who definitely knows more than we do just trust bioware ok, says its a bad idea, it's a bad idea. the warden's plan is a bad thing because Someone Else Will Use The Demons To Take Over The World and Only The Wardens Could Ever Summon This Many Demons as if kirkwall doesn't have shades popping up outside of the hanged man every other day. corypheus was literally in kirkwall???

it would've been something if corypheus was using the wardens to get the location of the archdemons. wouldn't it tie into his crisis of faith and the sense of danger so much more? he's gone looking for his gods but raising them is definitely going to cause a double blight. but why bother raising the stakes or creating any level of danger for corypheus, right? that's not the point of the game :)

and yeah, the inquisition 100% has no authority or leg to stand on to engage with the wardens or even to kick them out of orlais. yet the quest -- and most of the game -- is framed in such a way that these actions seem justified. in general, this quest was a clumsy way to end a conflict that's been building over the course of the entire franchise -- which can be said about any of the longstanding conflicts addressed in dai tbh.

#asks #the grey wardens #anti chantry #bioware critical #vee rewrites da #bc that corypheus plotline IS smth i'm including in my fic anyway looool

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vigilskeep · 1 year

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So since you asked for asks… your posts about walking bomb and spirit vs entropy magic and such was super interesting and it did get me to thinking about how my own headcanon re: the different classifications of spells into schools / trees in Origins vs II could have something to do with how most of the mages you encounter in Origins are from a more antiquated, “classically trained” background (obviously Morrigan seems like she should be the exception to that, except not because she was trained by the OG witch) so they might be more concerned with things like theory and taxonomy (like how closely are chickens ACTUALLY related to crocodiles, that sort of thing). Whereas all the mages and magic you encounter in Kirkwall come from apostates who are basically hacking this shit and they’re much more concerned with just getting results, so the classification you see there is just about what it feels like to use magic (like “i don’t care how closely birds and crocodiles are related genetically, when hunting one is absolutely nothing like hunting the other.”) I suppose this wasn’t really an ask, just a ramble, but yeah. I enjoy reading your headcanons and lore ideas.

YES. so relevant to my interests. okay

so the four school system appears to be very much circle specific, or at least kinloch specific. it’s extremely formalised there (there’s codex entries which actually have them in two pairs of opposities, all the books in the library are organised by school, etc.) obviously the schools can’t apply to all companions’ understanding, but it’s notable that while arcane bolt is the very basic circle-trained mage spell, the only spell a mage warden must have, morrigan does not initially have it. so you get a glimpse from that of how morrigan does not actually quite belong to this system, even if that’s how her skills are presented to you. i always build morrigan with a mix of spells from each school for this reason, rather than my circle mages who tend to be more specialised :D

da2 works along a similar system, but broken down less formally. da2’s six schools of magic are, broadly speaking, primal split into primal and elemental, spirit split into spirit and arcane, and then creation and entropy. so the impression here is that it’s the same system as dao but broken up a bit. and that makes sense for exactly the reasons you said! we’ve got a kinloch hold apostate, an apostate with secondhand gallows training, and a dalish apostate. i imagine much like morrigan, merrill works on a different system that our perspective doesn’t let us see. but bethany and anders’ take probably would look much like what we see! actually the most interesting thing about the da2 system is that each mage companion has a school they can’t take. anders can’t run entropy (the “opposite” of his natural school, creation, according to the circle’s system), merrill can’t run creation (most associated with circle mages and least associated with blood magic) and bethany can’t run primal (i... don’t have an explanation for this. maybe malcolm wasn’t into lightning. maybe bethy doesn’t like the crunch sound it makes when you throw stonefist at someone. idk)

then you have the dai schools which, um, make me want to cry. when did spirit and then three entire elemental “schools” become sexier than literally anything else... this is the absolute extreme of “just throwing whatever you can at the enemy, whatever works” which makes NO sense for any of your mage companions who are all highly educated because bioware doesn’t love me and doesn’t care abt my scrappy mage interests. however i admit that it makes absolute sense for adaar and for any non mage inquisitor who is like “just throw lightning at them!” and dorian or whoever is like “actually inquisitor it’s—” and the inquisitor is like “PLEASE JUST THROW THE LIGHTNING BEFORE IT EATS MY FACE” and then they get zapped unconscious bc they didn’t listen to theory. sad. circle mage and mage lavellan inquisitor though wtf are you doing

#you said the ask was just a ramble so i just rambled back #magic and lore hc fun times

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heniareth · 1 year

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What is the most important platonic relationship (s) your ocs have?

Oho! This is an interesting question.

For Ilanlas, it's Tamlen. Who is gone. Ilanlas was a bit of a bully during his early teenage years, to the point where he ended up with no friends and nobody who wanted to take him on as an apprentice at age 14 (and realized how far he had dug himself into a hole). Tamlen's father took pity on him (a bitter pill for Ilanlas to swallow), but Tamlen was the one who really got through to Ilanlas, who learned what made him angry and who kept him company even when he was angry and insufferable. So yeah. Tamlen.

After Tamlen is dead... I don't know. Velanna is a strong contender. She's his cousin and very similar to him. They get each other. (For purposes of this, I won't be counting Astala, bc of course she's best buds with everybody XD XD XD She's got one of those personalities)

For Khêd, it's Rica. No shade of a doubt, although Leske is as close a second option as it gets. She raised him, quite literally, and he'd do anything to give her an easier life than the one she has now. He hates Beraht for what he puts Rica through, will probably strongly dislike Bhelen for taking advantage of his sister, is wary even of Leske because he keeps making those comments (yeah, yeah, Leske's just joking around. Thay means shit in Dust Town). The only reason he's somewhat got his shit together is Rica.

During the Blight, I think he would get along quite well with Zevran after the whole "killing you" business is done with. Zevran's got a lovely sense of humor and has similar expectations to Khêd regarding friendships and life in general. One day they're both gonna be walking and talking and suddenly realise "oh shit, are we friends???"

For Sulri, it's... complicated (which mostly means I'm still developing her character XD XD XD). Before Origins, Gorim was obviously hugely important for her: he was with her at all times, and he also translated for her when she was dealing with somebody who didn't know sign language. He was also the only person she could trust; dwarven politics are, after all, renowned for their ruthlessness.

During Origins, Khêd occupies Gorim's position as a translator, but it's not the same. He's not willing to bend to her will, and Sulri (rightly) doesn't feel like she can fully trust him. I think the one she trusts the quickest is Alistair, although for the wrong reason: I think she'd think he's naive, and therefore harmless. But the person she ends up agreeing most with when tough choices come around is Morrigan; whether they like each other is another question.

As for Astala... it's really difficult. She has her father, her cousins, her friends, then the companions and each of them are very important to her. If we're talking about narrative importance though, it's her dead mother. Adaia Tabris is at the back of her mind quite often; most things Astala does or thinks or feels lead back to her mother's death at some point. She sees herself as a mirror of both her parents, inseparately linked to her mother through their shared skill in fighting, and expects that skill will kill her sooner or later just like it killed her mother (in her eyes. The truth is much more complex). The reveal about how the archdemon dies just seems to be a confirmation of that fact.

But during the Blight, her most imoortant platonic relationship is Alistair, I think. He's effectively her second in command, and she leans on him for support even though he settled her with the burden of leadership. Without him, she wouldn't have made it through that year

Thank you very much for this ask, this was fun to think about!! Especially for Khêd and Sulri, who I don't know so well yet XD XD XD Am progressively getting to know them better. Hope you're having a lovely day!

#astala tabris #khêd brosca #sulri aeducan #ilanlas mahariel

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emeriethevalkyriegirl · 1 year

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Totally Spies (Valkyries) Chapter 17

@sunshinebingo @aelinchocolatelover

Azriel picked up the jasper shard. It glowed from the sunlight that rose from the window inside the apartment. “Where did you get this?”

Nesta was about to reply when she quickly remembered where she got the shard. She closed her mouth. The boys knew they snuck out, but they didn’t know they snuck out yesterday. She wanted to keep that a secret, but knowing the organization, they were gonna find out anyway. Either way, she and her friends were both screwed. She turned to Emerie and Gwyn. They both gave her a silent nod. They knew the risks of revealing their spying games. They had to tell them. Even though they know they’re gonna pay for it.

“We uh...found it. At the bakery.” All at once, the brothers’ expressions turned cold and hard. Emerie butted in. “We overheard you talking with Boss yesterday and decided to...investigate?” Emerie smiled nervously. This did not falter the boys’ anger. “You mean to tell me that you left the org on your own, walked straight into a crime scene,”

“Did I mention I almost died?” Emerie also butted out earning a nudge from Gwyn.

“And tampered with valuable evidence?! Not to mention you stole my tracking device you think I didn’t notice that?” Azriel growled as Gwyn looked away with a blush. “We were gonna tell. Honest.”

“Yeah. But-”

“But what!?” At this point, the boys were losing their patience. “This guy came out of nowhere from the back of the store. He told us to give us the shard or else he’d kill Emerie.” Gwyn explained as Emerie and Nesta nodded rapidly in agreement. Noticing the panic on their faces, the boys relaxed. They were still angry at them for going off book, but they didn’t want them to start thinking they couldn’t tell them anything anymore. As calmly as possible, Rhysand responded, “Do you know who he was?” he asked. The girls shook their heads. “All we know what that he was tall.”

Azriel flicked the shard up in the air and caught swiftly. “I’ll take this to the forensics team downstairs. See what they can make of it.” Azriel said, walking out of the room without a single glance. Cassian turned to Rhysand. “I’ll call Morrigan, and she and I will go back to the bakery for more clues,” he suggested. His brother nodded in agreement. “You go do that,” Rhysand replied, turning to the girls who were trying to sneak back into their rooms. “Hold up, where do you three think you’re going?”

Freezing in place, the girls gulped and tried to look as innocent as possible. “Um...nowhere?” Emerie said. Rhysand and Cassian glare, neither of them buying any of their pleas. “You three should be lucky that we’re even keeping our mouths shut for you.” Cassian pointed out, making the girls look down in guilt. “The least you could do is take your punishment like an adult.” The girls looked at the boys with interest. Punishment? The girls knew that they’d get in trouble eventually, but they didn’t think it would be now.

Cassian cracked his knuckles. “Get changed into your workout pants. I’ll show you how a real spy trains.”

--------------------

Gwyn and Nesta carried Emerie across the gym. Cassian had ordered them to meet him in the gym for some extra training. Sense they wanted to stay up early at dawn, it made no sense to let them sleep it off until their training was done for the weekend. The girls tried to lie to him, pleading that they still have homework to do for their classes, but knowing Gwyn’s IQ, she helped them all with their homework and her own and was able to get it done yesterday. Nothing was gonna get them out of this.

At first, the girls were doing basic warm-ups as usual. Then, they did the cardio test with the laser ray. Yeah, not fun. After that routine, Cassian made them do separate workout routines, each one hurting more than the last. Nesta would sit straight against the wall while bending her knees. Emerie would stay in a plank position for 10 whole minutes. So much as a twitch and she’d have to start over from scratch. Gwyn had to lift two dumbbells that were twice her weight. Normally, she’d have to do it while standing, but with the fear of having it crush within her toes, Cassian allowed her to sit.

That routine was 2 minutes ago. Now, the three of them had to practice carrying a body. Cassian explained to them that sometimes, their teammates might get harmed and there won’t be enough time for back u to arrive, so they will practice trying to lift their own body weight by lifting one of their own together. All they had to do was get one of their friends across the gym without having any of their body parts touch the ground. The first one up was Emerie. Gwyn and Nesta decided to grab her by her wrists and ankles. However, this task proves to be more difficult than they thought.

“Em, you’re a lot heavier than you look,” Nesta said, holding on tight to her friend’s ankles. Emerie frowned. “Hey, it’s not my fault donuts are delicious.”

“Did you just admit that you’re going off your diet?” Gwyn asked with a smirk as Nesta snickered. Emerie blushed, angered that she couldn’t cover her face. “Shut up.”

“Girls, focus.” The girls turned to Cassian who was watching them with his arms crossed. Nesta stuck her tongue out at him in response. “We’re trying, asshole.”

“Say that again and I’ll put you back against that wall,” Cassian replied, his tone not changing. Normally, the big brute would crack a joke right about now, but in this case, he was through playing games. Deciding to be wise instead of stupid, Nesta closed her mouth and turned back to her friends. “Come on, I think we’re halfway across the-”

“Guys, I’m slipping,” Emerie called out as Gwyn was trying to desperately hold onto her left ankle, but the pegasus that was resting there was making it a little difficult to sense the silver was harming her palms. “Sorry, I’m trying to-WAH!” Gwyn suddenly cried out as she tripped backward and landed on her ass. This caused her to let go of Emerie who fell to the ground as well. Nesta came down with them as well, landing on top of Emerie.

Cassian coughed a bit to cover up a laugh. “I thought girls like you were tougher than this,” he said as he started to flex his fingers a bit. The girls didn’t reply, too fixated on getting off each other. “I’m going to check on Rhysand. Because of you, we must watch you for another hour,” he said, walking over to the exit. “Don’t leave this room until you finish the assignment.” Cassian left the room, slamming the door behind him.

After a couple of moments, the girls decided to relax for a while and play on their phones. Emerie kept watch in case Cassian was coming back. That was 20 minutes ago. No sign of him. “Weird. You’d think that brute would be back by now.” Nesta told her friends, finally deciding to turn off her phone. Emerie shrugged. “Poor guy probably got hungry. I’d go straight to the kitchen if I were him.” Gwyn placed her phone back in her bag. “I’m bored. I wanna get out of here,” she said slumping to the ground like a dead worm.

Nesta and Emerie didn’t argue. “I’ll go open the door,” Emerie said as she got up from the floor and walked straight to the exit. She placed her hand on the door knock and turned it. It didn’t move. She turned it the other way. Nothing. Emerie yanked on the doorknob. The door remained shut. “Uh, guys! I think Cassian locked us in!”

#Nesta #Gwyn #Emerie #Cassian #Azriel #Rhysand

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queenlegacyproductions · 2 years

Text

The Difference Love Can Make (A My Hero Academia Story) Chapter Two

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou X Shoto Todoroki X Morrigan Carter (Black!Plus Size!OC)

Summary: Morrigan is just hoping to catch a break or some peace for a few minutes and apparently, life's got a sense of humor. And it's at her expense.

Warnings: Language, violence

AN: I'll be honest. I tried to switch the dialogue a little bit on this chapter because I wanted it to sound more authentic to real life dialogue that I hear on the regular. So lemme know what you think about it and if you like it or if you didn't. -Riley

Taglist: @gold--gucciempress @ladytea19

Chapters: 01, 02

A few minutes later, Morrigan strolls into the cafeteria for lunch. On the way over, she thought about the conversation with Ms. Jackson.

“Yo, Morrigz!” She shook her head to zone back into the real world at the sound of her name. She turned around to see Rachel running up to her to catch up. “You a’ight?”

Morrigan nods her head with a weak smile. “Yeah, I’m a’ight.” She continues to walk to the cafeteria, getting in the buffet line. “Just a lot on my mind right now.”

“Liiiiikkee…?” Rachel questions as she hands her a tray.

“Rach, don’t be slow, bro.You were there and heard what I said.”

“I heard you bite yo tongue because you were talking to yo teacher. C’mon, Háblame, Cariño.” Morrigan rolls her eyes at her use of spanish. She knows that Rachel only uses it to soften her up or when she wants something from her.

She also hates how it always works, the fucking smooth operator.

Morrigan fills up her tray with spicy cajun pasta and pizza. “Like attending U.A. I mean, you really think we did so well on the midterm that we overqualified for all hero schools in the country including AEA?”

“Yep.” Rachel answers quickly as she puts some spring rolls and chow mein on her plate. “You forget, America’s educational system ain’t shit compared to Japan’s.” She eats a spring roll while they move up the line.

Morrigan sucks her teeth at the statement. “Man, I know that but even still, there’s no fuckin’ way that we should be able to pull that off. I mean, you just said that America’s educational system bogus as hell.”

“Nah, I said it was shit.” Rachel said as she turned away to walk back to her table. “If you gonna quote me, do it right.”

Morrigan rolls her eyes with a smile which makes Riley laugh. “I don’t know, man. There’s just so much to consider if I do decide to go.” She sighs as she walks with Rachel.

“And Riley, ya OG, and I will help you make that decision. You do realize you’re not the only one who has to make that decision, right?” Rachel states with a raised eyebrow. Morrigan nodded as they sat down at the table.

“Until then, I’m gonna carboload.” Morrigan said as she went to stuff her face with food.

“And of course, you would be with your figure.” She heard Stacey behind her. Morrigan sighs. Seriously, It’s like shorty has nothing better to do…

“Don’t you have something better to do?” Joshua asked her as he took his seat at the table. “Like I don’t know, trainin’ or studyin’…or givin’ yo boyfriend head behind the school bleachers?”

“Again.” Riley muttered under her breath as she ate her apple.

Stacey scoffed. “For your information, I just want to congratulate Morrigan and Rachel on their success.”

Morrigan raised an eyebrow, already smelling bullshit coming out of her mouth. “For what?”

“Well, it seems like even with your scores, you won’t be able to go to AEA.” She said with a smug look as her goons snicker behind her. “Meanwhile, I have a clean shot through with my recommendations.” Rachel just looks at Stacey with a confused face as if she couldn’t wrap her head around what she just said while Morrigan coughs around her bite of food, suppressing her laughter. Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh, Morrigan. Don’t laugh.

“Wait, what?” She heard Joshua ask. “Yo Morrigz, is that true? Why?” Morrigan’s laughter broke out in small snickers.

“Yeah, Stacey. Do you know why?” Morrigan snorts. “‘Cause I gotta feeling that you wouldn’t be standin’ here if ya really knew why, with yo goofass.” The smile that was on Stacey’s face was wiped away in confusion of her reaction.

“I’mma take that as a no. See, if you gon’ be in black folk bidness, at least know whatcha talkin’ ‘bout first.” Morrigan said before she turned to face Joshua. “Not that it’s any of ha business but yeah. Rachel and I didn’t get into AEA but that was ‘cause we overqualified for it.” There was momentary silence before Stacey’s shrill shriek cuts through it. “What?!” This caused the rest of the lunchroom stop to see the interaction. “How the hell did that happen?!”

Morrigan cupped her lips under her teeth. “Yo guess is as good as mine. Wait, no, it not.” Morrigan finally let out the laugh she’d been biting back.

“So wait, Morrigan. So if you guys can’t attend AEA, then where can you guys go?” Joshua asked, still trying to wrap his head around what he’s hearing.

“Well, Josh. There’s only one opinion; U.A.” Rachel responded as the silence seemed deafen even further as the information processed in not only his head but everyone around them that heard the news as well.

"So you mean that the only way you attend an academy with a hero track, you would have to attend the most prestigious hero school in the world in Japan?” He asked. Morrigan nods slowly.

“Ah, yep.”

“Merch.”

“On foenem and the man upstairs, Brodie…” Morrigan swore. The lunchroom was silent for a few moments before an uproar of cheers arose. Morrigan can hear the congratulations and praise from her classmates but they don’t see the turmoil within her. It’s not like they understood it either.

“Aye, aye, aye! Pipe the fuck down!” She looks up to see Riley shouting over the commotion. “While it seem cool for three black girls to attend the most prestigious hero school in the world, it’s also important to remind yall that we still got a month to apply to schools. It’s too early to tell where any. one. of. us is goin’. So eat yo food and mind yall motherfuckin’ bidness!” She effectively shuts everyone up. Once it seems like everyone goes back to doing what they were doing, she approached the table where they all sat. “You a’ight, Mo?”

“Yeah.” Morrigan says. “Yeah, I’m a’ight. Just wanna eat in peace without the damn roaches chirpin’ ‘round my head.” She looks at Stacey as she stands up. “So if you done causin’ a damn ruckus, trying to be funny like the lames yall are, you and yo bitter bitch brigade can go kick rocks with open toed sandals the fuck outta my face.” Morrigan said, basically dismissing Stacey and her friends. Stacey puffs her chest a little at the underlying threat.

“Ugh, whatever..” Stacey says as she takes her leave with her group of friends. Morrigan then sits back down to finish eating after they leave. It remains silent at the table for a few minutes with the sounds of eating and distant chatter before..

“You know, me and Riley can still jump her…”

“Man, chill with dat shit, Rach…”

~///~

It’s around 4:15pm when the final bell rings and Morrigan gathers her things before she heads to the school front entrance.

“Morrigz, wait up!” Morrigan looked up from her phone and stopped at the call of her name. She sees that it’s Jordan.

Jordan Carter. Morrigan’s baby sister. Quirk - Instruction Manual. Her quirk allows her to identify the parts and assembly of any machine or device by touching it. She can also build things out of any available resources.

“Why it feel like you wait by the door just so you can walk with me?” Morrigan teased her. Jordan pouted at her.

“If I do, it’s because I ain’t tryin’ to get left behind…again.” She side-eyed her as they continued to walk through the school’s front entrance. Morrigan gives her one in return.

“I love how you act like that was my fault.” Morrigan said as she pockets her phone once they step outside the school. “Last thing I recalled, it was yo redheaded older sista that was in a rush to leave because she was meetin’ this cornball after school. Ah, what was buddy ass name? Uhhhh…” She snaps her fingers as she tries to remember. “Tony! That’s his name!” She shouted in victory.

“You mean, Lightskin Boss lvl 999?”

“Yeah, that brewford! Down cataclysmic for a lightskin.” Morrigan shook her head. “My people will never be free.”

“That’s rich, coming from a girl who simps for a deceased legend.” Morrigan and Riley say from behind them as she approaches them. Morrigan rolls her eyes.

“Bro, all I said was that if I was in my twenties in the late 80’s, I would let Michael Jackson bust my doonies down . I mean, have you seen him during the BAD era? Goddamn…” Morrigan fans herself dramatically. Riley just gives her a dead stare as their mom pulls up in the family SUV.

“Shotgun!” Riley called, reaching for the passenger side door.

“...is gonna be my weapon of choice to put a hole in yo ass if you jump in that front seat.” Morrigan threatened when she pushed her out of the way. “Watch out, goofball.”

“Man, c’mon! Ma!” Riley whined to her mom.

“Now, Morrigan. She did call Shotgun.” Ma Carter stated as she unlocked the car doors.

“Yeah, I heard ha. I also know that whoever sits in the front seat has aux privileges which if memory serves me correctly, Riley’s is revoked .” Morrigan gives her the once-over as she opens the car door.

“Aw, what? Since when?”

“Since you had the audacity to play NBA Youngboy in the car.” Jordan said as she climbed in the back seat.”

“Bro, I was playin’!”

“I wasn’t.” Morrigan said as she hooks her phone up to the aux cord. “Now, get yo ass in the back so we can go home.” Riley smacks her lips as she climbs in the back seat when there was a loud smack. “Ow, what the hell, Ma?!” Morrigan howls in pain.

Ma Carter raised her hand up again as if to pop her again. “You tryna get popped again?” Morrigan shakes her head no. “Then, watch your motherfuckin’ mouth.” Riley snickered in the backseat as Morrigan rubs the back of her head. “Somethin’ funny, Riley?” Riley straightens up and shakes her head really fast.

“No, ma’am.”

“That’s what I thought.” Ma Carter said as she finally pulled off.

~///~

Would you mind

If I touch, if I kiss, if I held you tight

In the morning light, oh!

Would you min

If I said how I felt tenderly tonight

Againnn ‘caaussse I neeeeveee-

“Aye, aye, aye, man!” Morrigan complains as the radio cuts off when Riley opens the door to get out of the car when they finally arrive at the house, parking the car in the garage. “The fuck is you doing?”

“Mama, you just finna let her cuss again?” Riley asked, trying to get Morrigz in trouble. Ma Carter gives her a look.

“We are not in public anymore and yes, I’m gonna let her cuss again when the jam gets cut off.” Ma Carter said as she got out of the car, feeling the same way as Morrigan.

Morrigan then gets out of the car. “Exactly. Over here fucking up the vibes, turning off Earth, Wind & Fire. Who the fuck turns off Earth, Wind & Fire? Didn’t yo mama raise you better than that?”

“We got the same mama, fool.” Riley stated as she followed her into the house.

The Carter Mansion was further proof that her family’s pockets ran deep. Morrigan was born on the south side of Chicago in the West Englewood area. Over time, once Jordan was born, her family moved near north side almost to the Gold Coast to Carter Mansion. The reasons why they had to move is that their house was subject to break-ins and they needed a bigger place to properly train when they’re not in school.

Hence the underground training room where Morrigan and Riley were currently located.

“Now, why is we in the trainin’ room this late? I’m tired, Riles.” Morrigan said over the intercom in the observation room.

“‘Cause I discovered a new move and I need points to see how I can approve, dude.” Riley shouted as she stretched.

“And yet, you didn’t ask OG?” Morrigan felt her eyebrow raise.

“Moms workin’ night shift again, remember? She barely got time to even make dinner nowadays.” Riley said.

That’s true. Over the past few days, The girls’ mom has been busier than usual with a sudden ‘spike’ in crime. She never said anything but Morrigan knew it was a crock of shit. She watched the news and heard talks around the neighborhood. The city has never been safer.

At least, that was what the media was saying. Nah, something was bothering her moms and Morrigan was tempted to find out what it was.

However, she had a feeling she would find out in time.

“Now, start the montage, man!” Riley’s command makes Morrigan snap out of her thoughts. She cues up the montage and almost immediately she sees Riley completely disappear as four enemies appear. Morrigan observes closely as she hears and looks for any sign of her. Almost immediately, she sees villains getting picked off by an invisible force. Morrigan raises her eyebrow and nods her head in approval when she notices her little sister’s strait. At least, to the naked eye. She also takes notice of her weak points as well, like the slight lunge she does before she disappears. Riley finally wraps up the montage in about six minutes, setting the new record time for the course. She walks back into the observation room. “So…whatcha…think?” She asks, out of breath.

Morrigan’s fingers rap on the control panel before answering. “You a lot faster when you concealed from the naked eye…but you got a tell when you disappear; you do a slight lunge before ya cloak yourself. Not to mention, yo tendency to rely on yo arm blades.”

“Yeah, I figured as much.” Riley sighs. “Any tips?”

“Besides my usual stance on upgrading yo armory of weapons? You just figured out how to do this move like 2 days ago, right?” Riley nods. “So don’t beat yo’self up over it. Besides, the move ain’t bad, considering I didn’t even hear you when you strike.”

“But you could still sense me, couldn’t you?”

“‘Cause of my quirk, babes. It’s hard to catch me lackin’, period. However, you need to focus more. The more you focus on cloakin’ yo’self, the harder it will be to detect you.” Morrigan says as she resets the room.

“Like you?”

“Naw, Mine’s based on science. Diamond can reflect light just like eyes. I can merely manipulate diamonds to bend light so I can appear hidden to the eye. However, I can tell yo ability is somethin’ different, lil sis.” Morrigan continues to explain as she steps aside to let Riley select another course.

“Explains why you never failed science. Know what? I’mma try to push myself this time.” Riley said when she finally picks the course. Morrigan looks up to see what it is and sucks her teeth when she does see.

“Bro, is you seriously ‘bout to run the DOOM course? You do know that course was made for me as a joke from Jordan, right?”

“Yea, I know. But surely, it can’t be that hard, right?” Morrigan gives her a deadpanned look at her optimism.

“Babes, the course’s temperature is 9000 degrees in fahrenheit. That’s beyond the meltin’ point of tungsten . I can barely deal with that level of heat for longer than seven minutes at best.” Morrigan explained. “So unless you tryna kill yo’self, don’t even try it.”

Riley throws her hands up in surrender. “A’ight, a’ight. Fine. I’ll stick to my normal run, then.”

“Well, don’t stay yo ass in here too long or moms gon’ be on yo ass in the mornin’ ‘cause you didn’t get enough sleep.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Start the run before you head out.” RIley said as she walked back into the training room. Morrigan hits the start button before she leaves the room to go to her bedroom, dropping her bag at the door. She then yawns and stretches, heading to the bathroom to shower and heads to bed.

~///~

A few hours later, Morrigan woke up to a beeping sound. She groaned as she rolled over onto her side, initially ignoring the sound to go back to sleep. It wasn’t until she heard S.I.L.A.S, the house’s AI system, call her.

“Ms. Morrigan. It appears there’s an intruder on the northwest side of the house. I’m attempting to activate that lockdown sequence but it appears something is preventing me from doing so.”

Shit, it’s probably some random asshole hoping to loot the house but she doubts that some random punk was that smart to override their security system. Still, not being the person to take chances, she then said, “S.I.L.A.S, alert the rest of the family and attempt to stall for as long as you can.” Morrigan commanded as she quickly rose out of her bed, grabbing her sword staff from underneath her bad frame.

Now fully aware, she takes in the information that she was given. Northwest side of the house. That’s a long way from the vault on the east side of the house. So they’re not here to rob the place.

Which worries her to no end, considering that everyone’s living quarters was on the west of the house.

“Yes, ma’a-.” SILAS is then cut off as the lights in the house go dark.

“Shit..” She mutters as she makes her way up to the northwestern entrance when she hears a loud crash and a shout. “Motherfu-!”

Riley. She beat her over here. Morrigan moves closer to the location when she hears a voice.

“Stupid brat! Where’s Nephthys?! I have some business to settle with her.” She hears what sounds to be a man said to her sister. Morrigan hides behind a wall to see where they are before she makes some diamond blades. She sees Riley activate her cloaking ability before she throws the shards at the intruder.

“Moms not home. You like to leave a message?” Morrigan taunts as she stands in the middle of the hallway, unsheathing her swords from her staff. The man pulls out one of her diamond shards from his shoulders before he’s hit from behind by an invisible force.

“His answer is no. I already asked him.” Riley said as she rolls to Morrigan’s side when she recovers from delivering a dropkick to the intruder.

“So you sayin’ there’s no reason to keep this doofus alive since he clearly tresspassin’.” Morrigan twirled one of her swords before she pointed at the guy. “Bet.” But before she could move, she suddenly felt really cold. She looks down at her feet to see frost has developed around her feet before she is attacked from behind, knocking her down and her swords away from her. “Fuck!”

“Petulant child. Your arrogance will cost you.” Morrigan hears another voice speak before Riley gets jumped by the intruder, who knocks her up the hall. Morrigan attempts to get up before she gets knocked up onto her back as a weird force strikes from underneath the ground. “I wouldn’t try to get up if I were you. It might do you more harm than good.” The unidentified man stands over her, still taunting her and putting his cold foot on her throat. Morrigan doesn’t waste time to let her vision clear when she creates a lava whip to smack him in the face with. As the man screams in pain, she did a kip-up to her feet. He goes to attack her again but Morrigan catches him in a judo throw, raising the temperature in her hands to prevent him using his quirk as she takes him to the ground.

“You really wanna take that bet, ya damn dummy? ‘Cause I gua-rant-ee yo ass finna go bankrupt, bettin with me.” She said, tightening up her grip to hold him down but just as she did so, he slipped through her fingers by phasing through the floor with ice forming on the floor in his place. He popped up from the floor a few feet away from her, throwing ice daggers at her. Morrigan managed to deflect them using her diamond quirk to make a shield before she blasts him back with a lava ball, sending him through the wall to outside. She goes to chase after him but she looks outside, he was gone. “Shit..” She said before they was a loud bang behind her. She looks to Riley knock the original intruder up against with her super strength, holding him up by the throat.

“Tell me what you know!” Riley demanded. Morrigan hears police sirens in the distance and then rushes over, grabbing her arm.

“Aye chill, man! 12 on the way. Let them and moms handle this fool.” Morrigan warns her as well as to calm her down. Riley doesn’t let go until he passes on to which she drops him to the floor. She turns to Morrigan, noticing the other guy was gone. “Other guy dipped out on yo ass?”

“Yeah…and I’mma keep it a buck with you. Issa good thing he did, too.” Morrigan said, picking up her staff.

“Explain to me how is lettin’ a criminal get away a good thing ‘cause you sound dumb right now.”

“‘Cause if he haven’t, we’d prolly be dead.”

#shoto todoroki #shoto todoroki x reader #shoto todoroki x black reader #mha shouto todoroki #katsuki bakugo #katsuki bakugou #katsuki bakugou x reader #mha katsuki bakugo #katsuki bakugo x reader #mha #mha todoroki #mha bakugou #bnha oc #bnha bakugou #bnha todoroki

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camellia-thea · 1 year

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For the dnd ask game - 13, 34, 40, 56, 61

you did not specify for who, but i'm pretty certain these are for taralin, but some got navi answers too (i've been neglecting my girl :( ) gfdkjfdg

13. what are some motifs you associate with them? did you intentionally bring in those motifs, or did it happen over time?

Taralin, of course, has motifs related to autumn, crows, blood, and decay. less obvious are smoke, and shadow. They've slowly been moving away from autumn though, especially with the gnolls moving away from the Morrigan, and their marriage with Esther; we be heading towards twilight babyee. the change in their colour scheme -- reds, oranges, creams and touches of purple and brown, to black, dark blue, and purple with touches of silver and red!

navi, obviously, has cats (servals specifically because. y'know) but they also have moths! her cloak and colour scheme is modelled after the deaths head hawk moth, and their name roughly translates to moth too! i had the moth thing before i had much else actually. specifially, death head hawk moths pretend to be bees and slip into beehives to get honey, and i kind of took that vibe for navi? she goes into tenetsia and brings back refugees. not quite the same, but i love it for her.

34. what languages do they speak? how did they learn them?

Taralin spoke common and elven equally throughout their childhood, though Khaj never taught them dwarvish beyond a few words -- a later regret for taralin. celestial came a little later, from amaurea as well. sylvan had a steep learning curve, but they got the hang of it very quickly because she had too. gnoll and mordish are the most recent acquisitions; gnoll from murgg and the clan. it was a requirement for diplomacy, as felt like an obligation with their transformation as much as a necessity. mordish came with esther, tucked away while they traveled (they had to ask her to spend a little bit only speaking to them in mordish, which he enjoyed a lot)

navi's languages are a little different; growing up, her house was also a mess of languages, especially paired with the fact that lycanthropes tend to spend more time as animals when they're children. common wasn't spoken around the house--it was a mixture of elvish and the lâm, and navi learnt common from primarily travelers instead of her parents or siblings. (is this my logic for why her accent is inconsistent? yes.)

40. if you had to remake this character right now, how would you change them?

ohhhhh okay. tbh i'm pretty happy with taralin as a character, but i'd probably change little aspects of their backstory? i love their tragedy but they are so edgy :pensive: when they were made, i wasn't having a great time and it... came through jhfdgkjhd i'd probably dial it back just a little. but i have a lot of fun with how fucked up they are.

navi would be changed a lot more; i love her concept and i love her character but i was not very well when i actually made her sheet and the decisions made were bad. i'd want to properly commit to a class. so yeah, i think mechanical changes mostly, but also her drive for adventuring is... lacking. i made her motivator too small in the grand scheme and so she kind of doesn't work as a long running dnd character? rather, she works for an arc -- getting home -- but beyond that i can't see her wanting to adventure, if that makes sense? again, i love her and her concept, i just wasn't super aware when i made her, and when i started actually playing her i realised i'd fucked up kjhgfdj

56. who would they trust with their life, unequivocally?

taralin would never answer this question aloud. they've been so guarded for so long that uttering words of trust is... too vulnerable to consider. late at night, though, curled up next to their wife (and the word still leaves a breathless joy curling in their throat) they realise just how much they're willing to give her. they would stop fighting, if she asked. they've taken a life for her specifically, and they would follow her to the ends of the earth if she wanted them too.

61. is there an in-game moment of theirs you think about and just laugh?

Giant Nyral.

for clarification for those who were not present; in the first arc of our campaign, we were in some magical sewers because a clan of kobolds had stolen our rogue, gex, (played by the lovely kaziaxd) who is (kind of) a kobold himself. the party -- after a bunch of issues -- made it to a chamber, in which the kobolds were trying to sacrifice gex to a kind of primordial dragon god (this was almost two years ago now so i'm a little hazy on details), and we knew we couldn't take all the kobolds and couldn't get to gex. taralin had a mushroom with the effects of the enlarge spell and so i gave it to nyral, my pseudodragon familiar, and, with a very very lucky nat 20, pretended he was the displeased god they were going to sacrifice gex to. somehow. somehow. it worked. and then we got out of the sewers and our new player's character, torvold, came up to us and threw up on us. we'd been in the sewers for a while and stank, and nyral was still Large size, and this greasy unwell man stumbles over to our really weird party and he just stuck around because we were just as out of place as he was hjkdjfdg

anyway, nyral is absolutely useless and this is pretty much the only time he's been legitimately helpful and i hold it in my heart.

#feather speaks #feather answers #ask game #taralin #navi #malonavi'rha #still taking these!#this was a lot less narrative based than usual but i hope it was interesting!

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boxohobo · 2 years

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Loghain made Dragon Age for me and it super sucks I can’t talk about him or enjoy him at all in this fandom.

When I first played Dragon Age it was like 10 or more years ago so I was a youngling. Loghain is like the big bad for 2/3rds if not 3/4ths of of Origins, right? I have NEVER played a game at that point that gives you the option to not only spare but recruit the main bad guy. At first-I didn’t do it. I let him die.

I saw Anora’s heart break and heard a father’s withering farewell to a daughter he loved and then watched her get sprayed with his blood.

I was like wow, that’s super not gonna fly.

So I reloaded. Then I opted to spare Loghain. What followed was one of my favorite/rage inducing moments as Alistair began popping off, ENTITLED to the blood of this man. I was so taken a back and I got so into it-I was there in the moment you know, being like Alistair wtf? Are you really gonna walk out on the Grey Wardens and all Duncan stood for if you don’t get your pound of flesh? And he did. And high key, what a amazing moment in a video game.

So I spared Loghain’s life, effectively at the cost of a friend. When the loading screen was over and he was just-THERE in my party I felt something. I felt-strange. Like, look at this man. I bought this man’s life. He’s mine now. A great enemy, now in my service. Never felt like that before-like-responsible for someone else?

And you know, it was weird. Slowly but surely however, we started to become friends and that blew my freaking mind. How this man who spend 3/4ths of the game trying to kill me could gradually soften his tone to me-could tell me stories about his daughter, about Marric, how he loves my damn dog-how Bioware actually wrote a CHARACTER for this villain-how he was his own person entirely.

He soon became a treasure to me-and then the big thing happened. We were told that one of us had to die to be rid of the Archdemon for good and Loghain, with a cross to bare, points out it would make the most sense for him to do it. In fact, it would be a way to atone. Then Morrigan comes and offers a different solution.

I tell you no video game since then has put me in a more difficult position. Loghain was right. He could die an honorable death, atone for his sins and save his country-the perfect ending for him and I knew that-but I wanted anything but that. Selfishly, I wanted to keep him. My nemesis made friend. So I had to go to him and tell him “sleep with this woman you don’t know instead of having your redemption” and you know, he really didn’t want to. He really didn’t and I can’t blame him. I was asking so much-too much.

But he did it. For ME. Because I wanted him to. I am still reeling from that. I’ve never had that much influence over someone in real life and to be honest, I never want to. It’s too much power and I think I proved I couldn’t use it responsibly.

I was conflicted about this, not gonna lie, until the Awakening DLC. When I got to see my friend again. And I met him, leaning against a wooden pillar-in a super relaxed position. He looked-WELL. He looked RESTED. He looked like he was happier. He greeted me like an old friend and that was the moment I decided two things.

Dragon Age Origins/Awakening is the best game I have ever played.

Loghian Mac Tir is my favorite character.

I have never felt so validated. Now I am certain he is worth it-every time. Seeing him in Inquisition was even better. His whole story arc was a ROLLER COASTER for me but I can’t tell anyone about it or express my sheer amazement with it and it really sucks. I’ll get essays about how he’s a terrible person and deserves to die and the thing is---

I don’t care.

Yeah, he deserved to die. He WANTED to die.

I didn’t let him.

#dragon age origins #rant #long post #loghain mac tir #dragon age #choices #been sitting on this for a while #big emotion #big text #lotsa words #dragon age awakening

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ncssian · 3 years

Text

A Favor: Part Twenty-Nine

Nessian Modern AU

Masterlist

a/n: not an ending, but a middle.

this chapter was ridiculously difficult to write and edit. it tops out at 7.5k words so… beware

***

Cassian and Nesta make full use of the summer house without his friends there, making love on every other surface just because they’re all alone and they can. Nesta shows a soft spot in particular for having sex in Cassian’s old bed, proving to him that she can be just as sentimental as he is.

Which is how they end up sprawled naked on the living room floor early the next morning, fast asleep in each other’s arms with nothing but a throw blanket to cover them.

Cassian is woken up by the sound of the front door being flung open, followed promptly by a feminine yelp as the intruder catches sight of the tangled couple in the living room. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Cassian whips his head up to find who interrupted his sleep, and his nostrils flare in shock when he sees Mor at the entryway. He carefully but swiftly moves his arm out from under Nesta’s head and replaces it with a nearby pillow before starting to stand up. “What the hell are you doing—”

“Fuck no, I can see your ass—No, now I can see your dick!” Mor squeals in disgust, promptly spinning around and clapping her hands over her eyes like she can burn the image out of her mind.

“Will you shut the fuck up?” Cassian whisper-hisses at her, throwing a worried glance at Nesta’s still sleeping form. She doesn’t shift an inch.

Scooping up his flannel sleep pants from the floor, Cassian pulls them on while Mor makes gagging noises with her back to him.

Spying a pair of underwear flung over the arm of a chair, she bends to pick them up with two pinched fingers and turns to face Cassian, who’s now appropriately covered. Heavy judgment wrinkles her nose as she casts a glance to the owner of the panties, then to Cassian. “Granny panties, Cass? Is this what your sex life has been reduced to?”

“Don’t touch Nesta’s underwear.” He stalks over to Mor and snatches them out of her hand, before grabbing her by the elbow and dragging her off into the kitchen.

She shakes him off once they’re out of earshot from Nesta and takes a seat across from him at the wooden breakfast table. She brushes her golden hair over a shoulder and smirks. “Someone’s been having fun on their own while waiting for the rest of the party to arrive.”

“What are you doing here?” Cassian repeats.

Mor waves a languid hand dismissively. “I ended up taking a commercial flight. I wasn’t a fan of being stuck on the same private plane as Az and Elain.”

Cassian blows out a tight breath, wishing he’d at least gotten some warning before his plans for the day were ruined. Plans that included taking Nesta in the lake before breakfast.

“But seriously,” Mor glances over her shoulder in the direction of the living room, “what’s up with the prude panties? I thought you would’ve thawed that ice pussy by n…” She trails off at the look on Cassian’s face, and a glimpse of fear crosses her own face. She forces a nervous laugh and twists her fingers together. “I suddenly remember making a promise a while ago,” she murmurs while staring down at the table.

“It’s a good thing you remember,” Cassian says stoically, “because I was just about to bring it up.”

“I know, I know, no criticizing your girlfriend.” Mor rolls her eyes.

“It’s about a lot more than that,” he grits. “It’s about how you’re only wary of her because you don’t trust me to choose who I give my love to. It’s about how you don’t respect my decision enough to maintain boundaries when you talk about Nesta.”

For once, Mor looks put off her game. “I never meant it like that,” she tries to say.

“That’s what it looks like,” Cassian retorts. “It looks like you’re judging someone you have no right to judge, like you’re trying to protect me from an imaginary threat.”

Mor coughs aloud. “Do I really need a scolding for a girl I see maybe twice a year? I haven’t even thought about Nesta since the New Year’s party.”

“It’s not a scolding,” Cassian says firmly. “It’s an order to be on your best behavior for the duration of this vacation, because the sisters and I went through a lot to get Nesta to come here. There will be no catfights, or backtalk, or rude looks and snide tones until we’ve returned home. The same applies for everyone else once they get here.”

“Or, how about this? I’ll stop making ice pussy jokes if you stop being this…” Mor waves a hand up and down at Cassian’s shirtless figure with a grimace, “unrecognizable creature with the tension of a forty year old single dad.”

Is Cassian tense? Of course he’s fucking tense. The last time he convinced Nesta to go to a family event with him was Christmas Eve, and he’s never letting that mistake be repeated ever again. His glare confirms it.

“Morrigan,” he says lowly with a hint of warning.

“Okay, okay,” she exclaims, throwing her hands up in surrender. “But for the record, I’ve never said anything rude to your girlfriend’s face, and I never plan to.”

Cassian crosses his brown arms across his chest. “No, you’ve only done it to my face.”

Guilt crosses Mor’s features for the quickest second. “Oh.” She bites her bottom lip. “In that case, I’ll pull back from now on.”

He releases a terse breath. “Good.” Now to hammer the message into anyone else who might threaten the quiet solitude he and Nesta have found here.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she adds somewhat apologetically. “You know I just want the best for you.”

“And you know I already know what’s best for me.”

Mor dips her head in reluctant acknowledgment. “Can we go back to normal, then? I don’t like feeling like your adversary.”

Cassian’s shoulders slump in relief, and his crossed arms fall away. “Of course, Mor.”

Like flipping a switch, Mor claps her hands together. “Good. I left my luggage in the rental car and it’s super heavy; I brought enough clothes for three outfit changes a day. Why don’t you put those big strong muscles to work while I get settled into my room?”

Before Cassian can object, she’s out of her seat and flouncing out of the kitchen. From the entry hall, Cassian can hear Mor say perkily, “Good morning, Nesta! Love the undies.”

Cassian drops his head onto the table with a thud, lifts it, then drops it again. Mor is going to be a work in progress.

“You okay?” A voice makes Cassian look up from the wooden table. Nesta stands in the kitchen entryway wearing nothing but Cassian’s shirt, and her hair is a rumpled mess from sleep. Her hands twisting into the hem of his tee tells him she couldn’t be less excited about Mor’s early arrival, though the rest of her doesn’t show it.

Exhausted apprehensiveness drops in Cassian’s gut. “How much of that did you hear?” he asks warily.

“Not much. I just woke up a minute ago and heard your voices.” She comes over to him and wraps a comforting arm around his shoulder. “Why, were you guys arguing?”

Cassian slings his arm around Nesta’s waist, basking in her warmth. “Not exactly.”

She frowns. “Was it about me?”

“It was about Mor.”

She nudges him. “Will you tell me about it?”

“No,” he quips, yanking her down onto his lap. He pecks a kiss onto her lips. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

Nesta hums to herself. “So our morning plans are out the window?” she asks, raising a brow.

“Yup.”

“Does Mor actually like my undies?”

“Nope.”

***

The rest of Cassian’s friends and Nesta’s family arrive by late afternoon, piling out of a dark SUV in a frenzy of noise and colors. Nesta forgot how… many of them there were.

She lets Cassian and Mor handle the greetings, choosing to observe everyone from her spot near the stairs.

Azriel is the first to catch her eyes. He looks the same as ever, dressed head to toe in black even in the middle of a heat wave. Elain is an overdressed peacock in comparison to him, not that anyone would be comparing them, because they carefully stand at opposite ends of the entry hall.

He sends a simple nod Nesta’s way, which makes her narrow her eyes. Does he think he can act too cool for her just because they haven’t talked in a while? Idiot.

Feyre notices Nesta next and waves her arms wildly. “Get over here!”

Nesta reluctantly pulls away from the banister and nears their group, offering only a half smile to everyone there before hiding behind her sisters. Cassian cuts a glance her way in solidarity, and it feels like a pillar of reinforcement against her wavering self. She scrambles around for a solid ten seconds for something to say, either to her sisters or to the whole group, and finally comes up with, “What are we having for dinner?”

“That’s still hours away,” Rhysand assures. “Everyone scram and put your shit up first.”

“The girl has a point,” Amren grumbles. “I’m starving.”

“Yeah, Rhys, can we have an early dinner?” Mor whines.

And just like that, Nesta has melted into the background again. Which might be for the best, considering how loud it is right now.

Feeling overwhelmed, Nesta checks on Feyre and Elain to make sure they’re not paying attention to her, and then meets Cassian’s gaze through all the luggage and bodies. Tilting her head toward the back door to let him know that she’s leaving, she silently slips down the hall and out of the house.

Outside in the gardens, the light breeze soothes her heightened senses. It’s hot as shit at this hour, but she’ll take it for the peace and quiet.

Only a few minutes into her getaway, however, Nesta hears the porch door open behind her. Her shoulders stiffen when she hears footsteps that don’t belong to Cassian. There goes her peace and quiet.

Nesta is surprised to find Amren slinking up to her side, her small head appearing at Nesta’s shoulder.

Discomfort crawls through Nesta’s bones at the woman’s unexpected presence. It’s a subtle sense of wrongness, like being in the proximity of a predator but not having enough information to guess how they’ll attack.

“Hiding out from Rhysie’s big bad inner circle?” Amren taunts.

Nesta stiffens. Just because it’s true doesn’t mean it needs to be thrown in her face.

“I suppose I can’t blame you,” she goes on. “We can be a scary group.”

“I’m not scared of anybody,” Nesta says, keeping her focus glued to the trees’ cherry blossoms. “I just wanted fresh air.”

“And I’ve wanted to find out what Cassian sees in you ever since he gave me that verbal lashing about being nice to his new girlfriend.” Amren turns to face Nesta fully, closing in. “What kind of pussy grip can a woman have to make Cassian of all men heel?” She hisses in a thoughtful breath through her teeth.

Nesta only shrugs, but her interest is piqued at the idea of Cassian warning Amren away from her. She definitely doesn’t need the protection, and once would have found it offensive, but… she likes the idea of someone standing up for her, being unapologetically on her side even if they have no good reason to do it. The only other times she can remember feeling defended were brief, subtle childhood instances with Feyre and Elain, and that was only because blood instinctively defends blood. It’s different to feel chosen. It makes her chest crack.

When Nesta doesn’t respond, Amren throws out, “Are you on the spectrum or what?”

Nesta again doesn’t reply.

“No one mentioned it, but I assumed as soon as I saw you.”

“It’s rude to make assumptions,” Nesta says, her voice cool as a running river.

Amren barks a laugh that sounds like a whip lashing. “I like you, girl.”

Nesta finally meets Amren’s silver gaze and states, “I don’t like you.” Her tone is blunt, to the point—but if she has to participate in this twisted version of small talk, then she should at least get to be honest.

Amren laughs aloud again, as if that genuinely amuses her. Nesta doesn’t know how amused Amren will be when she realizes that Nesta is serious.

She shrugs to herself, turning back to face the garden. It isn’t her problem, she decides.

***

“Even for you, this is overprotective.” Rhys’s voice comes from behind Cassian, who stands at the sliding glass door at the back of the kitchen that peers out onto the gardens. He’s been watching Amren converse with Nesta for the last seven minutes—or rather, he’s been watching Nesta, inspecting her body language to gauge her discomfort.

It was a struggle not to hold his arm across the back door and block Amren from following after Nesta earlier. Amren had the look of a cat going out to play with a new toy, and Cassian had nearly snarled at her for it until she gave him that expression: the raised brow and sneer that said Really, Cassian? Pathetic.

It made him think of how Nesta would feel if she knew he was trying to physically keep people away from her, and he managed to have enough shame to move aside and let Amren pass with only a warning look.

So far though, it looks like Nesta is handling herself just fine. He should’ve known better than to underestimate her.

When Rhys doesn’t get a response, he comes up to stand at Cassian’s side and get a look through the glass door. “I never thought you’d be applying your passion for security to your damn girlfriend.” Rhys lets out a low whistle.

Without taking his eyes off Nesta and Amren, Cassian tells Rhys, “Protecting her is protecting myself. When she gets hurt, I feel it twofold.” And he really doesn’t want to be hurt on this vacation. Nesta already thinks he’s a crybaby as it is.

Rhys is silent for a long minute, as if he can’t deny that he would feel the same way for his own girlfriend. Eventually he says, “I might finally understand what’s going on in your brain whenever you’re around her.”

Cassian only nods.

Rhysand claps his hand down suddenly on Cassian’s shoulder, breaking the somberness of his confession. “Call them in to help make dinner,” Rhys orders. “I want all hands on deck tonight.”

Cassian looks at his brother with narrowed eyes. “And what will you be doing to help?”

“I’ll be watching the game on the nice TV that I paid for, in the beautiful new living room I also paid for.”

“Bastard.”

***

Nesta and Azriel help prepare dinner in silence. Their quiet acknowledgment of each other is better than any words could be, but it’s all shattered when Mor dumps a serving platter on the counter right next to Azriel.

“Ooh, ricotta-stuffed mushrooms!” She grabs a handful and starts arranging them onto her platter. “Az, how was your mystery weekend away? I haven’t seen you since you got back.”

Azriel shares an unreadable glance with Nesta before sliding his chicken parmesan dish toward her and saying loudly, “Wow, is that football?” He promptly turns around and walks out of the kitchen.

Nesta glares after him in disbelief, but Azriel can’t hear her wordless cries for help because he’s already in the living room.

Left alone at the kitchen counter with Morrigan, Nesta keeps wiping at the wine glasses that have been gathering dust in the cupboards. From the corner of her eye, she can see that Mor’s mouth is tightened into a displeased line.

Not that Nesta isn’t grateful for it, but Mor usually isn’t one to keep her mouth shut. She wonders if something is wrong that she doesn’t know about. “You look constipated,” Nesta tells Mor under her breath. “Anything you want to get out?”

Mor only scoffs in indignation. Then she shakes her head and mutters to herself, “I promised not to say anything.”

Now Nesta is really intrigued. “Promised who?” she prods. “Cassian?”

“Like you don’t know about it.” Mor rolls her dark eyes.

Nesta doesn’t know, though after Amren’s comment earlier she might have a hint. “I would prefer you be honest with me rather than follow Cassian’s orders.”

“That’s funny, so do I.” Mor plucks up a stuffed mushroom and shoves it into her mouth.

Nesta thinks back to how she woke up to Cassian and Mor’s voices lowered in seriousness. After what Nesta overheard on New Year’s Eve, it’s no secret that Morrigan doesn’t care for her, but she suddenly has the urge to have it said to her face. “Well, if you want to stop holding back with me, I won’t tell.”

Morrigan sets down her mushroom platter with a thump, turning to face Nesta like she’s done her a personal wrong. “You know what I know about you, Nesta?” Mor says. “I know that Cassian has changed since he’s gotten with you. I know that he’s more serious whenever he’s around you. I know that you don’t love him as much as he loves you. How can Cassian expect me to trust someone that doesn’t want to be around his own family? How can he expect me to trust you with his heart? Not that I’m allowed to be saying any of this, because I’m supposed to be hiding my feelings about you to stop my best friend from hating me.”

It’s crazy how a year ago those words would have been enough to make Nesta retreat to her room and never come out again. Each statement pricks like a shard of glass against her skin, though none of them are accurate or true.

And yet Nesta finds herself hurting more for Cassian than for herself. She feels her familiar old mask go up around her face and harden there.

“It sounds like your problem is more with Cassian than it is with me,” Nesta says stoically. “Because I won’t be going through any trials to prove myself. I have nothing to prove. I don’t care if you like me or not, if you’re nice to my face or cruel behind my back—but it’s rude to shit over your friend’s life choices like that. He’ll stop trusting you if you keep it up, and it won’t be my fault when it happens,” Nesta finishes. She wordlessly gathers the wine glasses in her hands and abandons a silent Morrigan to go set the table.

Nesta knows the dynamic at dinner is off with her presence there.

For once, Cassian’s priorities lie somewhere other than laughing with his friends. He keeps a protective hand on Nesta’s thigh from the moment they take their seats, and he only removes it when he’s filling her plate with food.

With memories of Christmas dinner hanging over all of them, Cassian looks like a bodyguard prepared for attack— except he’s contributing to a good half of the tension at the table.

“How was the drive here?” Feyre pokes at the two of them in an attempt to break the ice. Nesta glances to Cassian for his response, but his attention is taken by the platter of bread rolls.

Sighing internally, Nesta answers, “Better than yours, that’s for sure.”

Everyone laughs hesitantly. A steaming bread roll then appears on Nesta’s plate, golden and fluffy with a buttery aroma; one glance at the rest of the bread tells her it was the biggest roll in the pile.

Nesta drops her walls enough to give Cassian a small smile and an arm rub of appreciation, and then she reaches straight for the bottle of wine.

She loves Cassian and hates this dinner too much to allow this to go on.

After filling Cassian’s empty glass high with Merlot, Nesta presses it into his free hand with a subtle kiss on his cheek. “Relax a little,” she murmurs into his ear.

It takes ten minutes and two full glasses for her plan to take effect, but relax Cassian does. Like oil slipping through rusted gears, the tension in the room slowly unwinds and natural conversation starts to flow.

“You guys will not believe what I had to walk in on this morning,” Mor announces at one point during the meal.

“Yeah, yeah, Cassian’s ass and dick, we’ve already heard,” Amren says.

Cassian’s glare at Mor is more lighthearted than life-threatening. “This is why I can’t talk to you anymore,” he states, pointing a finger at her. Nesta is so glad for the lack of tension in his shoulders that she doesn’t even care if everyone basically knows about her having sex in the living room.

With Cassian acting more like his normal self, the pressure to make useless small talk is no longer on her. Nesta is content to watch everybody share stories and laughter, but for once she doesn’t feel like an audience member on the outside looking in. Maybe it’s because no matter how much Cassian drinks, his hand stays steady on her leg the whole night, keeping her rooted there with everybody else. He doesn’t let her fade into the background for a second.

“What’s that on your wrist, Az?” Mor’s voice rings from one head of the table. Azriel snatches his hand back in a flash before Mor can reach for it. From his other side, Nesta grabs it smoothly out of the air to take a look at the cause of Mor’s question.

She raises her brow at the sight of three colorful bracelets lining Azriel’s right wrist.

Az tries to pull his hand away, but Nesta’s hold is tight. Even if the signature of the maker wasn’t stamped onto one of the childish bracelets, she would know who had made them with one glance.

“What does it say?” Mor asks her.

“Nothing. Just some beads.” Nesta pulls Azriel’s dark sleeve over the beads that spell out GWYN’S BITCH and gives his arm a little pat. She sincerely hopes Elain is thoroughly over Azriel by now.

“Was that Rainbow Loom I saw? Since when did you wear kiddy bracelets?” Mor snorts at Az.

Nesta’s attention is pulled away from their conversation by a heavy head falling onto her shoulder. “Nestaaa,” Cassian slurs, slumping against her side.

Blushing at the attention he’s drawing to her, Nesta tries to shove a drunk Cassian back upright. “I think we need to get you to bed.”

“Oh really? Promise you’ll tuck me in?” He tries to wink at her, but it comes off as a strained blink.

He looks ridiculous. It isn’t helping the blush on her cheeks, though.

“I promise.” Nesta shoves her finished plate aside and grabs Cassian by the bicep, standing up and attempting to drag him with her. “Come on, I’ll take you right now.”

Mor is quick to get to her feet. “We can take him,” she offers eagerly.

“Who’s we?” Azriel mutters. Nesta hears a hard stomp, and then Az is coughing, jumping out of his seat after Mor. “Yeah, we’ll take him,” he says.

Nesta reluctantly lets Cassian slip out of her grasp as Morrigan and Azriel take one of his arms from either side.

“Wait, but I want Nesta to tuck me in!” Cassian twists around as he’s dragged away, drunkenly finding Nesta’s gaze. He’s pouting.

Affection battles with secondhand embarrassment and wins. “I’ll be right there,” she promises with a wave. As soon as Mor and Azriel accomplish whatever it is they’re trying to accomplish. Her voice flattens into a cold warning when she adds after them, “Be careful with him.”

Daring a quick glance back at the table, Nesta wants to cringe when she meets everyone else’s eyes. Rhysand looks highly amused. Feyre looks disturbed, and Elain looks glum with envy, the love-obsessed bitch. Amren is Amren.

After dinner is over, dishes duty is handed over to Rhysand and Amren goes off to bed complaining about beauty sleep, which leaves Nesta alone with her sisters in the foyer.

She doesn’t quite know how, but she ends up forgetting her promise to Cassian and following the girls out to the front porch for some fresh air instead. The sun has long since set, taking some of the summer heat with it, but the air is still stuffy as the three of them settle down onto hand-painted wooden chairs. Lanterns on the porch are lit up to keep the darkness away, and the lake before them gleams with the reflection of the rising moon.

Feyre is the first to speak, her voice hesitant. “It’s hot out tonight, isn’t it?”

“I’m not doing this,” Elain announces. She stands abruptly from her chair and goes back inside.

Nesta and Feyre stare wide-eyed after the swinging front door, but a minute later Elain returns holding a decanter and three crystal glasses. She sets the glasses down on a side table and starts pouring. “It’s not really Tennessee without a strong whiskey,” she says to no one. “And I’m way too sober right now to handle this vacation.” The third glass gets an extra finger of liquor, and it ends up in Elain’s hand. She passes the other two to Nesta and Feyre before settling back into her seat.

Nesta grimaces at the drink in her hand without even tasting it. She hates most alcohol, but strong alcohol especially. For the sake of her sisters, however, she throws back half the glass without thinking.

Liquid fire scalds her tongue and throat, and she groans aloud. Instant regret.

Elain has no such issues downing her liquor. “Did you know,” she says after swallowing a gulp of whiskey like it’s apple juice, “that our old place is just a mile and a half that way?” She waves with her glass toward the back gardens.

“Is it really that close?” A frown wrinkles Feyre’s brow, like the memory of their old home might taint the perfect life she has now.

“Yes,” Nesta confirms. She doesn’t offer anything else.

Feyre shudders despite the temperature. “I hate even thinking about it. It’s so depressing. Reminds me of Papa.”

Which is also depressing, Nesta thinks to herself.

“It wasn’t depressing for me,” Elain says, chin tilted up in defiance.

That doesn’t surprise Nesta. Even in the depths of their father’s patheticness, he was Elain’s favorite man on earth.

Nesta used to wonder how her papa would have reacted if Elain was the one with crippling endometriosis pain every month instead of her. Would he have ignored her cries like he ignored Nesta’s, or would he have come running to her aid?

It’s not a question that’s worth Nesta’s time and energy, though. Not when the man himself has long been six feet under. Instead she pokes at Elain, “Then why did you hide your background from every guy you met like you were ashamed of it?”

“I was ashamed,” Elain says primly, “but that doesn’t mean I hated all of it. We didn’t all grow up with a ten foot stick up our ass; at least I could appreciate what we had without taking my attitude out on everybody else.”

The whiskey must be working quickly, because Nesta can’t hold back an unseemly snort. “There you go again,” she drawls in a cutting tone, pointing an accusing finger with the hand that holds her glass at Elain. “Dishing out shit when you can’t take it back. At least not without crying.”

Feyre, who was trying to hide her cringe with the rim of her drink, now perks up with eagerness. “She does do that, doesn’t she?” she exclaims. “I thought I was the only one who noticed.”

Elain’s lips twist into an indignant sneer. “What’s this dynamic now, why’s everyone ganging up on me?”

Nesta mutters, “Because you need to hear it every now and then.” Turning to Feyre, she adds, “God, she can be fucking annoying.”

“Oh, like you’re everyone’s favorite person to be around?” Elain scoffs.

“At least I don’t pretend to be something I’m not. That’s called a con artist, Elain. You’re a con artist.”

There’s stunned silence for a tense moment—and it’s broken by full laughter. Elain is chuckling sweetly as she says, “Well, I suppose it’s okay if only you two are the ones who notice it. It can be our little secret.” She presses a finger to her pink lips.

Feyre giggles along at that too, but Nesta remains quiet. Too sober for the current mood, perhaps. “Do you think someone will notice at one point?” she asks Elain. “That the smiles and Southern charm and—the kindness...” She doesn’t know how to feel about that word in relation to Elain. “Do you think someone will notice that that’s not all there is to you?”

Elain’s grinning face freezes quicker than an actress’s. “No one will know,” she answers smoothly, “because I’m not going to be with anyone else for a while.”

At the confused silence filled only by the chirp of cicadas, Elain supplements, “I’m trying out the single life.”

Nesta meets Feyre’s eyes, and it only catalyzes the sound quelling up in her throat. At the same moment, the two sisters burst into cackling laughter. Well, Feyre cackles. Nesta makes a noise that imitates a dying whale.

“I’m serious,” Elain insists, glaring at them. “If Nesta could spend all those years living like a widowed hag, why can’t I? I don’t need men to live.”

Nesta’s laughter sours at the insult, and she turns to Elain with seriousness in her tone. “No one needs anyone else, Elain—but you treat loneliness like a leper from the Middle Ages. Are you even happy for me and Cassian beneath all that jealousy?”

Elain shifts uncomfortably in her chair and mutters, “Of course I’m happy for you two.” And then she adds in a much quieter voice, “Deep, deep down.”

“Is that what was wrong with you on New Year’s?” Feyre asks gently. “You were jealous?”

Nesta raises a brow; she didn’t know this.

“I wasn’t exactly having fun watching you two suck face right after getting dumped by Azriel,” Elain tells Nesta. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not happy for you. I just…I’m not used to being the lonely one.” She huffs out a sigh and reaches for the decanter again. “If anyone should be in a happy and healthy relationship right now, it should be me.”

Feyre turns to Nesta and whispers too loudly, “You’re right, she is fucking annoying.”

“Don’t get too friendly; so are you.”

Feyre leans away from Nesta in affront. “I didn’t even do anything this time!”

“You don’t need to do anything for Nesta to think she’s better than us,” Elain chimes in.

The three of them break out into bickering, which soon devolves into hysterical laughter, which then morphs into a comfortable silence—which doesn’t last long until they’re bickering again. They spend the rest of the night going in small circles like that over their whiskey, occasionally taking breaks to talk of more serious things: Elain’s flower shop is finally starting to pick up business, but expenses are still too high. Nesta is worried about Cassian being all alone in Italy by himself, but she’ll never show it to him. Feyre’s work at the children’s art studio is making her seriously consider having kids (“Don’t you dare, you’re way too young,” Nesta threatens).

Each of them reveals that they miss at least one of their shitty parents these days.

Maybe it’s because they’re under the same night sky that they spent their childhoods under, but if Nesta closes her eyes, it’s like she’s seventeen again, letting her sisters stay up and talk her ear off even though it’s a weeknight.

***

The lack of Nesta in Cassian’s bed must stop him from succumbing to deep sleep, because his nap is hazy and doesn’t last more than a half hour. When he blinks awake, the fog of wine from earlier has mostly cleared away and the lamps in his room are lit. Mor sits on the bay window seat and Azriel lounges on a chair nearby, both of them murmuring quietly to each other.

Noticing Cassian’s movement, Az turns away from Mor and drawls, “That was quick.”

Groaning, Cassian rubs at his eyes and sits up straight. His shirt and jeans are flung on the floor, and he can only assume he took them off himself before collapsing into bed.

Holding the thin blanket to his chest, he demands, “What are you guys doing here?”

“Oh, now he has modesty,” Mor grumbles.

Cassian grabs his wrinkled shirt from the floor and shrugs it on before repeating his question. “What are you doing here, and where’s Nesta?”

“Don’t know,” Az shrugs from his chair. “But Mor wanted us to talk alone, so Nesta probably doesn’t need to be here.”

Growing wary, Cassian straightens up against the headboard. “Talk about what?”

Mor’s words take him by surprise. “I wanted to apologize.” She straightens up in her seat and throws a cautious glance at Azriel. “And I wanted Az with me for moral support.”

Az rolls his eyes to himself, likely considering the task beneath him.

“I didn’t take your words that seriously this morning,” Mor goes on, “but I’m taking them seriously now. Someone made me realize that I’ve been blaming your—girlfriend... for our relationship changing when I’m the one who’s been pushing you away the whole time. While you were falling in love, I wasn’t there for you. I didn’t trust you to find love without my input, and I didn’t respect you when you did.” Tears line her dark eyes, taking Cassian aback. “I’m sorry,” she says weakly. “Please don’t hate me.”

A headache takes root in Cassian’s temples, and he has to shut his eyes against the dull thudding. “I could never hate you, Mor,” he says past the lump in his throat. That was never the problem, though her words have eased some of the pent up frustration in his chest.

Cassian lets out a long-suffering sigh. “It’s not just you. It’s every single one of us. We’ve known each other so long, we’re so fucking entangled in each other, that even when I’m living by myself up in my cabin I feel like I can’t get away from it.” He stares out the window like he might find some relief there. “That’s why I’m going overseas. To get some space from all of this.” He waves between the three of them and laughs bitterly. “We created this incestuous little circle and now we don’t know how to care about anyone outside of it.”

He catches Az frowning, fingers toying with one of the bracelets on his wrist that Cassian spied earlier.

Mor sniffs away a lingering tear. “What about Nesta, then? Where does she factor in?”

Cassian’s mouth turns down in a distasteful frown. He still doesn’t like that he has to leave without her, but the fact that he doesn’t like it is only more proof that he needs to do it. “I can’t let Nesta be a part of me,” he answers. “I need to be all of me.”

Only once he learns how to do that can he be the friend and lover that the people in his life deserve.

***

Nesta wakes up the next dawn not on a hard chair, but in a soft bed. The smell of Cassian lingers on the sheets wrapped around her, and she blinks blearily as she tries to remember the events of last night.

Feyre fell asleep first. Elain and Nesta were just going to close their eyes for a moment and take a brief rest as well, but the next thing Nesta knew Cassian was helping her take out her contacts and laying her head against a pillow. Now the sun is dawning and she has a pounding headache. She needs at least another ten hours of sleep before she’ll be fit to face the world again.

She looks around for her phone to check the time and spots it plugged into the charger on the bedside table. Despite feeling like she’s been rammed with the flu, the tiniest smile lifts Nesta’s lips at the thought of Cassian carrying her to bed and making sure to charge her phone.

She finds her lockscreen blown up with notifications, all from her shared groupchat with Gwyn and Emerie.

Clicking into her texts, Nesta scrolls back through the hundreds of messages to see what she missed.

Emerie: i can’t believe nesta isn’t here for this.

Emerie: what the hell is she doing

Gwyn: probably hanging out with her best friends the inner circle

Gwyn: or getting railed

Emerie: >:(

A tired laugh escapes Nesta as she reads the texts, and she’s grateful for the reminder that these are her chosen friends. This is her found family, and she’ll be back with them soon.

Scrolling a little further back, Nesta finds the cause of all the commotion.

Emerie: A RACCOON JUST FELL THROUGH MY CEILING IM GONMA DUE &%!@

Emerie: DIE

Followed by multiple pictures of a scarily large raccoon chewing up Emerie’s bed.

Nesta shudders at the images. Reminding herself to message the girls back as soon as she has her head on straight, she puts away the phone and drags herself out of bed.

Her knees wobble a little as she stands upright and slips her glasses on, but her body keeps moving automatically toward the door. It’s not until she’s halfway downstairs that she realizes she’s looking for Cassian.

In the main hall that cuts through the house, Nesta glances between the back door and the front door. Instinct tugs her toward the front door, and as she passes the living room she spies Elain knocked out on the couch.

One of her legs dangle off the edge of the cushion and she still has her shoes on, like she dragged herself up onto the loveseat in the middle of the night and fell straight asleep.

Cassian brought Nesta up to their room sometime during the night, and Rhysand would have done the same for Feyre, but Elain… Elain has no one to carry her to her room, Nesta realizes.

Hating the unusual feeling of pity that blooms inside of her, Nesta goes over and grabs a throw blanket from nearby. She flings it haphazardly over Elain’s body. There, that should do it.

She might take a few seconds to tuck the blanket in a little better, but then she’s out the front door and jogging down the porch steps. Early morning dew beads the grass, and the sun isn’t high enough in the sky yet for the heat to be unbearable.

Like perfect timing, Cassian’s form appears from the lightly wooded running trail that circles the lake. He has his hair tied up and is wearing nothing but workout shorts, and even from this distance Nesta can see the sweat gleaming off his hardened chest.

She forgets about her headache and the bitter aftertaste of alcohol coating her tongue. Her feet speed up on the grass, and then Cassian takes sight of her too. He grins wide and breaks into a run toward her.

When they’re mere feet away from each other, Nesta is the one to halt first and hold out a hand, blocking Cassian’s incoming bear hug. “Don’t you dare.” She eyes his body with a warning look. Nesta will do a lot of things for her boyfriend, but sticking her face into his sweaty pits is not one of them.

Cassian looks her up and down with scrutiny, trying to decide if going in for the hug anyway is worth it. “Fine,” he gives in. He spins on his heel and walks down to the head of the pier, where a standing shower is set up for washing off after swims in the lake.

Twisting the faucet, Cassian stands under the cold burst of water and gives Nesta a look that says, Happy now?

Nesta cautiously goes over to where Cassian stands, but she gets too close—

In a blink, she’s being tugged under the shower stream, held tight to Cassian’s chest.

“Cassian!” Nesta splutters, trying to pull away. Droplets hit her glasses and blur her vision, and she has to shove the glasses up into her hair so she can properly glare at Cassian’s face.

He only laughs deeply and tugs her closer. “Like you don’t smell either. You’ve been in that dress since yesterday.”

Nesta catches her breath under the pouring water, glancing down at her soaked sundress. Right; she probably needs this more than he does.

The water isn’t freezing like she expected, she realizes as she relaxes in Cassian’s arms. It’s actually the perfect temperature, almost soothing after the initial shock to her senses.

Broad hands stroke long lines across her arms, like Cassian is making sure that she isn’t uncomfortable. The action triggers an old memory inside Nesta—or rather, an old familiar feeling. The feeling of Cassian in Nesta’s early days of knowing him, always pushing her out of her comfort zone but never tossing her in the deep end to drown.

“I handled my sisters and your friends pretty well the other night, don’t you think?” she murmurs into his chest.

Cassian looks down at her with pure reverence in his eyes. “I can’t be surprised. You’ve always been like that.”

“Like what?”

“Brave as hell. From the minute you stepped outside of the little circle you’d drawn around your life, you became the bravest person I know.”

“Not true,” Nesta states matter-of-factly. “I can name at least three braver people.”

Cassian pokes her in the ribs, but his smile is good natured. “It’s just an expression, Nes. Take the compliment.”

The shower keeps spraying around them, refracting the sunlight to scatter rainbows across Nesta’s vision. “I couldn’t have done it without you,” she tells Cassian earnestly. “I did the bulk of the hard work, but you…you gave me that first push. You taught me I could find safety in others, because you were my first real friend.”

Her words clearly take Cassian by surprise. Maybe it’s because Nesta is so rarely open about her true feelings, so her words have more value when she is. Maybe Cassian just wasn’t expecting to get so much credit, which is why he blinks rapidly now. “And what now?” he tries to tease, emotion tangled in his throat. “You have better friends?”

“Much better,” Nesta plays along, but her gaze carries all her sincerity. She suddenly laughs to herself, remembering: “I was terrible at socializing.”

It’s something she brushes off easily now, but few people will ever know that part of her inability to get close to others stemmed from a debilitating fear of rejection.

“Not to me.” Cassian reaches out to twist the faucet off, leaving the two of them standing soaked in the morning air. “I loved talking to you. I couldn’t stop wanting to talk to you, even if you didn’t feel like talking back.” That was how insistent he’d been on becoming her friend, that he would open up to her even when she was closed off to him.

Nesta watches Cassian tug his hair tie off, a little dazed by how much she feels for him in this moment. She isn’t ready for when he scrubs a hand vigorously through his loose hair, shaking the dripping strands out like a dog.

“Cassian!” Nesta scolds for the second time this morning. She flinches back at the water droplets hitting her eyes, making Cassian laugh when he looks back up at her. “Sorry,” he says, not sounding sorry at all. To make up for the assault, he delicately plucks her glasses off the top of her head and uses the hem of her wet dress to wipe off the lenses as best he can.

He slides the glasses back onto her face and nods, inspecting her. “That’s better.” Then he swoops down to kiss the mole beside her mouth.

Nesta wrinkles her nose in surprise. “What’s that for?”

“It’s a thank you,” he says. “Thank you for your car breaking down in the middle of the woods, and for agreeing to spend the night at my place last September.”

Nesta’s brows raise high in amusement. “Shouldn’t you be thanking Feyre? For calling in that favor with you?”

“One day, I’ll do that too,” he promises.

Nesta bites down on a smile and shakes her head, muttering, “Ridiculous.” Yet she can’t help but wonder: who would she thank?

The universe, probably. Whatever forces made it possible for her to wake up every day in the same bed as Cassian, eating the food he cooks and accepting the unconditional love he offers.

She suddenly shivers under the rising sun, becoming aware of how just uncomfortably her sundress clings to her body. Without Cassian’s words distracting her, everything is damp and cold.

Cassian notices and slips his hand into Nesta’s, already starting to pull her away from the pier and toward the house. “Let’s get you dry,” he says. “I’ll make us pancakes before everyone else wakes up.”

“With chocolate chips?”

“With chocolate chips.”

So hand in hand, the two of them walk back up to Cherrywood House.

***

a/n: IM FREE OF THIS BEAST. that ending was absolutely horrible to write, but i hope it satisfied you anyway. and if didnt, well, that’s what the epilogue is for

tagging: @sjm-things @thewayshedreamed @drielecarla @valkyriewarriors @superspiritfestival @aliveahaahahafuck @cupcakey00 @sayosdreams @rainbowcheetah512 @claralady @thebluemartini @nessiantho @missing-merlin @duskandstarlight @lucy617 @sleeping-and-books @everything-that-i-love @cassianscool @swankii-art-teacher @wannawriteyouabook @arinbelle @awesomelena555 @julemmaes @wickedqueenoffantasy @poisonous-bloom @observationanxioustheorist @gisellefigue08 @courtofjurdan @theoverlyenthusiasticwriter @wolfiixxx @cass-nes @seashade @royaltykxx @illyrianundercover @monstrousloves-explodinggalaxies @humanexile @that-golden-lyre @agentsofsheilds @mercy-is-alive @cassiansbigwingspan @laylaameer01 @verypaleninja @maastrash @bow-dawn @perseusannabeth @dead-on-the-inside666 @jlinez @hungryreadingaddict @anidealiveson @planet-faerie @shallowhighwaters @ghostlyrose2 @chosenfamily-valkyriequeens @rarephloxes

#nesta archeron #nessian #cassian #ncssianwrites #a favor #nessian fic #nessian au

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felassan · 3 years

Text

Jon Renish (Foundation Technical Director @ BioWare, working on DA4) recently did a Twitch stream where he played through some DAO. Although he works on DA, this is his first time playing through DAO. He’s playing through it looking at random details from a dev perspective as he’s currently working on DA4 and therefore wants to know more about the previous games.

On the stream he mentioned some tidbits on the development of DA4. There were also some insights and anecdotes about the development of DAO and similar. It’s a 3 hour stream so I collected them here in case that’s of use to anyone (for example not everyone can watch streams which don’t have subtitles/captions). The stream is a fun/interesting watch though, so if you’re curious or able to watch I recc doing so. 😊 The rest of this post is under a cut for length.

Please note that there’s some paraphrasing on my part, this is not a transcript. There are also some additions from another dev who featured on the stream to give some commentary. The stream also contains more snippets that at times I couldn’t make out (I tried my best!).

(There is a mention of Cullen’s VA in the text below.)

DA4

Jon said he can talk about things about DA4 that aren’t “consumer-facing”, but he can’t say anything about the game that would be consumer-facing but which isn’t already publicly available. There are several reasons for this. One, that’s not his job, there are people whose job this is and they let each other do their respective roles. Two, BW are a publicly-traded company, so if he said something that could affect that that would be insider trading. Three, they’re not done making DA4 yet, so if he said that they have added [x] to the game and people got all excited about that or pre-ordered on that basis, but [x] ended up being cut, people would be like ‘BioWare lied to us’, when it’s just that things changed during the course of development, as is often the case

He’s glad that fans are excited for the game but notes that fan expectations are always double-edged. It can be really tough as some people started ‘playing’ the game in their heads as soon as they heard of it. That’s fine, he loves that, but he hopes that peoples’ expectations don’t turn into requirements. Clearly BW have alluded to certain characters, like Solas, being in the game, but some fans say things like “If [say] Morrigan isn’t in the game, then, rahhh!” Y’know, there’s a lot of talk about how certain characters have to be in the game, and yeah.

On characters which are quantum (i.e. characters which can die or which can have similar end-states as death in previous games): their being quantum makes it really hard for the devs to work with those characters in subsequent games. The devs naturally aren’t going to put as much effort into characters which could have died previously. A character can have had an amazing appearance throughout/role in a previous game, but if there is a risk of something happening to them and of them being removed [effectively] from the plot, it just doesn’t make sense to have them as a major character in a subsequent game. If a character can, say, sacrifice themselves in some glorious ending, the devs have to make sure that if they use them again, in worldstates where the character didn’t do that, the character is kind of ‘muted’, as the devs don’t want to disrespect the players who made a different choice

A comment in chat expressed a wish for Shale in DA4. Jon’s response is that he has no idea on that front

Bugs don’t come out of crunch, they come out of development in general. Crunch does impact on the quality of a game though. In recent years BW are always really trying to reduce crunch, they’re currently working really hard to bring it down. The best way of doing that is by controlling scope. As creatives it’s tough to balance wanting to make great stuff and be industry-leading with the desire to constantly do extra passes over things they’ve created like the audio, art etc. Their biggest enemy is time, other ways of reducing crunch or time spent in general include iterating tools to make often-repeated processes as time-efficient as possible

I think the following was an observation on the industry in general as opposed to a BW-specific/-exclusive comment: he thinks that as a result of this sort of thing [working to reduce crunch], a lot of games are going to have to be smaller and a lot more focused in scope i.e. the devs will have to focus on hitting the key selling points of that particular game/series as hard as they can, and cut down on branching out sideways/wide on a bunch of random other stuff

Jon doesn’t personally engage in character creators in games, but he knows that for some players that expression is worth a lot of time and focus. BW want to be industry-leading in this kind of stuff as it’s something which is interesting/key/integral to their games

In a way BW have made their own nest of problems what with every DA game being so different to the previous one. Still, he notes that each game has a staunch fanbase that says that their particular favorite game is the best one in the series

He doesn’t want people who think that DA4 isn’t what they want to buy it and be upset - there are so many other great games out there! BW are going to make the game they’re going to make - if some people like it, that’s great, and if some people don’t, that’s cool. Sometimes waiting until reviews are out and/or really seeing beforehand if a game is something that you want [has things/features in it that you want] prior to getting it - as opposed to jumping right in or pre-ordering - is a good idea. Fans don’t always know what they want, but they do know what they like - these are 2 different things

He hopes that whatever they ship for DA4, people go “I enjoyed this experience”, and that then, if there’s additional content for it down the road, people can decide, “do I want this further content?”

On hair: BW are using the new hair technology in the latest version of the Frostbite engine, so they’ll see what they can do! This was said in response to a comment about the hair in the latest FIFA games (as EA make FIFA)

A comment in chat asked about a flying mechanic (griffons). Jon’s response is that flying is such a heavy gameplay mechanic that you can’t put it in a game without everything in the game being built about it (see Anthem)

Relating to the above comment, in DA4 mounted combat would be cool but then they’d have to make the game ‘around’ mounted combat and make the mounted combat feature meaningful

On the underwater concept art: it should not be interpreted as a promise of gameplay. BW have amazing artists who sit down for a couple weeks while they’re in early production and just draw loads and loads of all kinds of stuff. Concept art is like a moodboard or Pinterest board. Elsewhere in the stream he advised, take all the concept art together like a mosaic and ask, ‘what is the overall theme[s] here?’, and to zoom out from individual details. [This stuff echoes PW’s word on concept art]

BW don’t generally write things or the choices as bleak as the choices in DAO were anymore. This is a conscious choice on their part, they want their game to be fun [note: this was said when the side quest in Orzammar where the Warden has the option of convincing a dwarven mother to abandon her young baby to die was being played through. It seems to refer to intensively grimdark choices/beats of this kind]

I think this was more of a general comment on games: SSDs (solid state drives) mean that players will see shorter elevator rides (Mass Effect - was this a reference to the remaster?) and fewer switchback corridors (those are actually loading zones). Generally, these are going to change mechanically the time it takes to do stuff in games

The devs have lots of features on their backlog that they’d like to offer players but each will ofc involve implementation and subsequent maintenance, and each one that is chosen to add is being chosen over something else. And sometimes, it’s hard for them to tell if [x] feature or [y] feature would be better to add to the game

They’re about to work on a giant feature (a pure tooling feature, something that isn’t consumer-facing) that is probably going to take ~2 staff years of effort [I think “staff effort” includes multiple staff working concurrently, so 2 years of staff effort doesn’t = 2 years of time chronologically] to get done in the next few months. They’re investing all this effort across the people working on it because they don’t want their artists and designers etc to have to deal with the problem that it’s going to solve anymore. I’m not sure what this feature is but elsewhere in the stream they referred to tooling and automation and gave the example of, the better your tooling is, the fewer times you have to manually set the camera for a human vs elf vs dwarf position, for dynamically-generated [cinematic?] content and for the first pass to be automated (if this is the case, less time is spent/wasted on redoing it and manually touching it up) [see last bullet point in this section]

He doesn’t know how big DA4 is going to be but said “let’s ballpark and say like most games it’ll be somewhere between 70 and 100 GB”

If we kept our Wardens as the PC throughout all 3 games, at the end they would be so powerful that it’d be a bit like “Let’s just do [thing], I’ve killed gods before, whatever”. He thinks it’s good that they have fresh characters each time in DA in order to reset that power level. Some people want more Commander Shepard in the next Mass Effect and he feels like, ‘what else could you possibly want / what else could that character possibly do after 3 games?’

When asked how much freedom he/they have now to focus on next gen, he said that there’s actually almost no difference on that front. The problems never change. They now have better renderers, better ray-tracing, better graphics cards etc, but they have always made DA games for high- and low-spec PCs, so it’s actually about gameplay systems. The freedom isn’t power-based and them getting access to more cores and more RAM generally isn’t going to change how the games are played. The games still have to be made for hard drives on PC. Dev creativity matters more than power here. The challenge of building a BW game is more about/from managing loads of different plotstates, loads of different art pieces, etc

On the title situation (two): names are the last thing they worry about because names have to go through legal before being approved. Every name, including character names, has to be checked in case it’s a famous person, or associated with something bad, or offensive in a different language due to localization etc

They don’t do face scans of people with big beards

There was also a bit about changes/developments to/in the cinematic design process and associated tooling [?] but I found it too hard to follow sorry >< This bit of commentary begins at timestamp ~ 1:52:45 and continues til ~ 2:00:05 [keep listening through the bit where they pause for a cutscene]

General BW

There’s currently ~350 staff in Edmonton, ~200 in Austin and more elsewhere

He notes that DA games sell pretty well, but relative to EA games in general, they’re a drop in the bucket compared to FIFA

DAI

5% of players of DAI never created a character [Q: does this refer to people who just used the default appearances/presets with no editing, or people who only played multiplayer?]

The mounts don’t actually go faster than running, this is an illusion

I think they said it has 55,000 lines of dialogue. [I’m pretty sure I remember devs elsewhere saying it has 80,000 lines of dialogue]

One of the companions had to have their name changed during development because of legal/translation reasons. It sounds like the original name sounded too close to something offensive

DA2

Back when DA2 was internally code-named “Nug Storm”: this was at the beginning when it was pitched to the team on a set of slides. The image on the slide for that pitch had devil horns, a metal hand and no flesh, it was just made out of fire and flames

DAO

The engine DAO is made on is the third engine that they tried for it during development. [David Gaider has gone into the DAO engine stuff some on Summerfall’s series of DAO playthrough streams]

The cracks on the cracked eluvian asset are modelled after the crack on the Tardis in Doctor Who from around that time, as at the time some devs had been talking about Doctor Who a lot. A dev actually added this factoid to DAO’s entry on TV Tropes but someone else (evidently not a DA dev) came by and deleted it saying that it was too much of a stretch x)

Before the game had its name there was an HTML script that randomly generated possible titles for consideration, it adds verbs and nouns together e.g. “Grim Dark”. One of the craziest possibilities that it once generated that the devs always remember is "Bone Wind”

One of the portraits that’s used for decoration around the world in-game (it’s of a bearded human man) is actually of a specific BW staff member

He played through Stone Prisoner, where Wilhelm’s son Matthias gives exposition in the cellar. Matthias is voiced by GE and this had been pointed out to Jon earlier on. Jon: “I don’t think that character’s voice acting was super strong there”

On the in-game area towards the end of Stone Prisoner: Outdoor areas in games are large and one of the things needed for them is streaming, so different chunks can be ‘streamed in’. There’s a tower [?], and technically the top of the tower was made an outdoor level so that sky stuff could be there, though it didn’t really need to be. The person that made it an outdoor level chose the very smallest chunk size for the terrain mesh, which determines how fine of a streaming they do. So when playing, every time you moved like 4 meters, the game would stream out 50-100 chunks behind you and the same in front of you (this is the bubble around the player of what actually exists). Because it was so small, it was constantly thrashing the CPU and disc to do all the loading. The devs were like “this isn’t going to work”, but they barely had any time. The solution: they made a new level that was outdoor and copied all the sunlight and other settings, but with the largest chunk size. They copy-pasted the entire level from one to the other. The problem with that many chunks then is that there was a giant expanse of flat terrain sticking out of the middle of the tower. They didn’t know if the story was going to involve shots of the outside of the tower for this sequence or not, so they took the terrain deformation tool and bundled all the terrain vertices at the bottom of the tower in a giant clump. So to this day there’s a mess of vertices and twisted terrain at the bottom of the final level that probably no-one has ever seen [not sure though if this anecdote is in reference to a place in that DLC or somewhere elsewhere in the game?]

There were also some tidbits on Anthem, however I didn’t note them down (sorry).

If you think I misheard or misunderstood anything from this stream please let me know and I will edit/fix it. :)

(Thankyou to some of my friends who explained a tech detail from this to me.)

[source] <-- current rewatch link

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #dragon age #bioware #video games #greg ellis mention #morrigan #queen of my heart #solas #mass effect #anthem #next mass effect #i love these factoids and insights into game dev it's so interesting and fun #i actually started this post yesterday but 2 hours in I was so sleepy (it was mad late) so I called it a night

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