#aetherianxarchive

[dreadwxlf]

@aetherianxarchive sent: “Where’s the tomb?” — from hypothetical-Veilguard Norrim!

~ " It is not a tomb, da'len, " Solas sighed, clearly tired by Norrim's protests. With a wave of his hand and a flash of magic, the doors before them opened to reveal a cozy study. Crumbling walls were decorated with sprawling frescos, and the plush rugs scattered throughout the room helped it to feel a little less like a ruin. ~

~ " I used this place as my study -- it is yours now, for the time being. " The air before them shimmers as Solas raises his arms, seemingly checking the strength of the barriers. " There are safeguards protecting this place; the Evanuris cannot find you here. " He turned back to the young elf, the stern look on his face hinting that he was in no mood to argue. " Your mother and I have determined that you will remain here for the time being. I know you wish to help; but it is far too dangerous for one as young as yourself. " ~

[noamuth]

“You gonna eat that?”

-from Tavrayn on @fxrest-bcrn :3

Dalamus glances at his bowl of alleged food with some suspicion and disgust, the chunks of unknown vegetables bobbing in the broth. He then regards the half-drow with the same expression. It crosses his mind to pour the bowl out, to add insult to injury, but it might splash back on himself.

"You can have it. This slop better befits you, anyway." He sets the bowl aside and puts more space between himself and Tavrayn.

[dalamusrex]

What is Dal's most unusual habit?

This one took a while for me to think of an answer for! For all of Dal's eccentricities, his general habits are surprisingly mundane.

He paces when he is upset. He self-soothes by pushing a hand through his hair. He touches his face, especially his scars, when thinking absentmindedly. He cleans his teeth every day and chews mint to make his breath smell nice. He makes the bed when he wakes up. He goes for a walk or run when he has pent up energy. Etc, etc.

But one thing stuck out to me: the way he speaks, and the way he addresses others.

Dalamus has a very particular way of speaking, and it is entirely deliberate! He does not use contractions in his speech. In general, he projects his voice clearly, and speaks at a measured pace. This is his way of making sure he always sounds as comprehensible as possible (there's no mistaking "can't" for "can" if he says "cannot" instead).

He also does not tend to shorten names, unless the name is given to him shortened and he is unaware of one's full name. One example is that he knows Tortulja's full name and addresses her as such, rather than her nickname Tort, even though he is aware of the nickname. But when meeting Oriinthel, she introduced herself as Ori, so that is what Dalamus calls her as he is not privy to her full name. It's just his way of making sure his speech is clearly understood and consistent.

In lieu of nicknames, he will use terms of endearment. His favorites are "darling" and "sweetheart", or occasionally "love" or "my love". "Darling" is sometimes used sarcastically, while "sweetheart" is most often genuine affection. "Love/my love" is typically used for a romantic partner but is not necessarily exclusive to them. Sometimes he will create his own nickname for loved ones, such as Tommy's nickname "Hla Shud" which means "little tooth" in Dunmeris on account of Tommy being a young werewolf.

If Dalamus does use shortened names or contractions, it is often an indication of severe stress or at the very least, surprise. Loved ones are acutely aware of this, but those who don't know Dal that well probably wouldn't connect the dots.

[ofthescrolls]

@aetherianxarchive asked: ❝ and that happened how many times? ❞ -- For Darien, from Norrim :>

Should the truth be told? Possibly. It was a fair point to state it, but would it actually help matters? That too was debatable. A reason to why Darien had to be, for the most part careful. He may have wanted to be open, but even he knew not everything needed to be said. Nor were somethings necessary. Not to mention that Meridia would be entirely displeased if he said anything about that specific series of events.

So, he opted for something that was entirely in-between the truth and otherwise.

"Far more than I would like to admit. There isn't much of a choice in certain things. You either learn to grasp at the threads or you end up going in blindly. I, for one, like to have at least some information, much to the dismay of many." Then again, being close to an Auroran did put at him at a disadvantage. No matter what Darien claimed to be at moment.

"Simply put, it's difficult to trust someone with my connections."

[dragxnsfire]

Drew some oldies during work today 😌 Norrim belongs to @aetherianxarchive

[tangledfate]

@aetherianxarchive​ asked: “Hey, I’m here for you.”-- For Thea from Ansal on @luna-mxth ;v;

She wasn't going to cry. So what if they'd taken the first chance they’d gotten to kick her out of the tower that had been allotted to her kind after they'd arrived. She didn't need them; she was fine on her own...

If that was true, why did it feel like this?

Lips pressing into a thin line, she crossed the rampart to nearly the other side of the hold and made her way down the stairs and into the garden. There was a small tower there that had yet to be claimed, perhaps the Inquisition allow her to use it.

Or maybe one of their templars would be stationed to watch her like in the circle? Or would they just tell her to leave?

It took some effort to push the door from it's frame, and a good deal more to force it open against the junk that had been left inside to be forgotten. Broken brooms and dishes. Pots and pottery. Shelves and chairs and tables and all manner of odds and ends that looked like they needed to be burned long ago.

She was staring helplessly at the mess before her when someone stepped around her. Ansal said nothing as he started to tidy the space, offering a smile as she watched him with what was likely confusion on her features. Here to help whenever she needed it.

It was the smile that undid her. A sign that their friendship hadn't been severed by her ejection from the tower--the only one that had proven so, it seemed. So, with tears escaping down her cheeks, she stepped into a waiting hug and sobbed as he murmured a gentle reassurance that he somehow knew she needed to hear.

[orcristwielder]

❝ it’s best if you didn’t mention to anyone that you saw me here. ❞

-- from Hal on @fxrest-bcrn!

•UNPROMPTED/PROMPTED ASKS• @fxrest-bcrn / @aetherianxarchive — accepting!

THE DWARF'S EYES WERE WIDE FOR A BRIEF MOMENT, and then they narrowed. He wanted to ask why it was best that the other not be mentioned, but the thought had been pushed aside for the sake of the situation. A simple nod had been given, his word had been a solid promise not to repeat what had been seen, whom the royal had seen. Who was he to tell anyways, hm? Not like he trusted very many people other than those of his kin, his company. Not very many of the Men couke be trusted and Thorin was absolutely certain that none of the elves could be trusted. "Fair enough." The brunette said, voice rumbling deep from his chest. It was probably the only thing he had said within the whole few hours that the two had been in one another's company.

[dryadalismagicae]

@aetherianxarchive / @luna-mxth || LIKED for a STARTER with Vexx

"I ain' slept in nearly three days, I don' have the patience to listen to this bullshit." He yawns, rolling aching shoulders and rubbing at his eyes. The youth scarce knows what to do with himself - so far from his clan as he is - uncertain and yet willing to continue as he is. "If y' want me t' do something- then jus' say so."

[deadlynightshcde]

PEOPLE I WANT TO GET TO KNOW BETTER.

last song i listened to: geyser by mitski. favorite color: yellow, mint green, lavender. currently watching: the last eat it or yeet it of smosh. :( last movie / tv show i watched: saltburn for the third time. spicy / savory / sweet: sweet and savory. relationship status: very, very complicated. last song i googled: why are torties so mean? lmao. current obsession: saltburn and poor things. and the hunger games.

tagged by: raisedcold, thank you! tagging: daughterofhighever-blog, aetherianxarchive, sleeplesswork, dcmur3, florietiae, isdeathlystill & you!!

[faiirbanks]

@aetherianxarchive

 “I bring a certain energy that tevinters do not appreciate, care to speculate?”

[deadlynightshcde-a]

what emotion are you? LONGING.

your longing is like a ghost, a haunting presence that follows you wherever you go. it is a feeling that slips in and out of your mind, a reminder of what you have lost, what you will never have. don’t you wish to feel their touch again? it’s too late, so let me guide you. you can resist, it’s expected. the passion of your heart is like a wound that never heals, a scar that won't fade. not even you can stop it.

tagged by: @sleeplesswork (thank you!) tagged: @isdeathlystill (peeta), @florietiae, @mvndrvke (johanna), @daughterofhighever-blog, @aetherianxarchive, @luminescenc1e (edward)

[dreadwxlf]

@aetherianxarchive sent: “You look like a…. Toast!”

GIVE  MY  MUSE  A  NICKNAME  /  PET  NAME.

~ The elf laughs, shaking his head a bit. " ...I am glad to see you remember Toast, da'len. " Toast -- the name she had coined for his wolf form when he visited her the Fade long ago. ~

~ " Perhaps Toast will visit you again sometime soon. " ~

[daughterofhighever-blog]

Weirdly Specific Character Building Questions...

[ compiling my responses for @quiisquiliae, @chasindtrevelyan, @aetherianxarchive, and an anon! (edit: I feel like I might have accidentally missed a submission. all the asks are gone from my box now though. If you submitted one and you don't see it answered here, please resubmit. I sowwy! ]

1.) What's the lie your character says most often?

'Don't worry about me, I'm fine.' Elissa is a protective, care taking person by her default nature - but in every iteration of her story, the survivor's guilt ramps this up several orders of magnitude. People don't take care of her, she takes care of people. That's her entire purpose and reason for being. She will lie to others and to herself rather stubbornly to avoid the thought that she can't do it all.

2.) How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’? She uses the word friend quite frequently, and in many contexts, so in that sense she uses it loosely. Aside from being a chronic care taker, sometimes pathologically so, Elissa is also a mediator and peacekeeper in a lot of ways. It comes part and parcel with her position and upbringing. However it is generally easy to tell whenever she calls someone "friend", whether she means it in a disarming, feather smoothing way during tense negotiations, or in a "I will jump the shit of a literal goddess like a rabid weasel on coke to protect you" way. There isn't much in between for her.

3.) How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing? Its a very narrow range of circumstances when Elissa is going to misrepresent the tenor of her thoughts or emotions deliberately to someone she's interacting with. Most of those situations are going to be in an antagonistic context. With people she cares about and loves? The only time she's really going to try acting in direct contradiction to what she's genuinely feeling is if she's in pain and doesn't want to burden them with it because they're already going through shit themselves. Other times if there's reason to think it'd be poorly received, she'll downplay or avoid acknowledging negative emotions/opinions - but if pressed or confronted, isn't going to lie.

tldr; it's usually the intensity of her emotions she conceals from others, rather than the nature of the emotion itself.

4.) What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss? Playing instruments - her favorite was the flute. She was moderately talented with stringed instruments like a lyre or lute, but pipes, flutes, tin whistles, etc were the ones she was best at. She was trying to get some of the servants in the castle to teach her how to play the mouth-harp just before the attack on Castle Cousland at the start of the Blight. 7.) What would you (mun) yell in the middle of a crowd to find them? What would their best friend and/or romantic partner yell? I'd yell, "HEY COUS-COUS!" She gets an irritated scowl on her face that makes me giggle when I think of it. Half the time she snaps back, (with a thin undercurrent of 'You're lucky I love you') "Fuck you!"... Fergus would call her 'Lissy or 'Lissa. You know it's someone she's with romantically or in love with if they can call her 'Liss and not be punched in the arm. She loathes being called that, with the sole exception of a romantic partner.

(bonus: it may be cliche, but in my head I imagine her Varric!nickname would be something like, "Short Stack".)

8.) How loose is their use of the phrase ‘I love you’? Unlike with the word 'friend', her saying "I love you" is much more strict. That is not a phrase that leaves her mouth lightly - at all, ever. If she tells your muse that she loves them? You bet your ass she'd start wars and set the world on fire for them - she has, in some verses. (This is not restricted to romantic partners. This applies as well to friends and family, blood or chosen.) 12.) What's something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific! Situations or interactions that fluster a typically stoic or grumpy person. Leliana teasing Sten about being a big softie, or the times Alistair is able to aggravate Morrigan during the banter about her nose resembling Flemeth's, Nathaniel teasing Velanna during Awakening ("Your ears aren't clownishly large at all!"), etc. 34.) How do they greet someone they like / love? Taking both their hands between hers, or double clasped forearms, or grasping/squeezing both their upper arms with a bright smile. Basically any greeting that uses both hands or arms. 37.) What’s a secret they haven’t told serious romantic partners and don’t plan to tell? I'm struggling to come up with an answer to this one. As a general rule? There just isn't one she'd keep from a serious romantic partner. If Elissa brings someone into her heart that deeply, there isn't anything in terms of life events or personal history she'd keep from them. THE ONLY CAVEAT TO THIS - If said serious romantic partner is NOT ALSO a Grey Warden... Then Order secrets, like the ones Jory was killed to protect, she would not intend to ever tell them or allow them to discover. Of course, shit sometimes happens... but those are the only beans she would refuse to willingly spill to a lover or spouse. 58.) How many hobbies have they attempted to have over their lifetime? Is there a common theme?

It's kind of hard to say, as there are a number of things Elissa enjoys doing that she's good at - but they usually fall under the umbrella of "skills necessary or useful to her position/background". She can garden (her favorite 'practical' hobby), cook, sew, do basic embroidery, etc... But looking at the ones that don't fall in that center of the venn diagram between practically useful and enjoyable? It tends to be artistically creative ones. She loves to make music, sing, and dance. Would (and still could, or would in the right circumstance) stand out in the pouring rain, twirling around dancing and laughing with her arms outstretched.

[dalamusrex]

hey there! used to write with a bunch of yall ages ago, back when tes tumblr was popping. lionofmara, booksandbrimstone, and more. where is everyone writing these days? (posted anon bc im not using my writing blog to send this)

Ahh, I see!!!

Some of the closest people I used to write with are still on tumblr! A good chunk of them have just fallen out of TES and are on their personal blogs most of the time, or fallen into another fandom, or both (hello I'm both haha). My personal is at @dragonbleps where you can catch me blabbing about Dal or his many AUs, among other typical tumblerian reblogs. Any Dal art is typically posted to the corresponding blog and then reblogged there.

A small handful of me and my friends made BG3 blogs that we write on now! Dal's is at @noamuth, which is a sideblog to this blog. I've written with @roquenxnar (@dragxnsfire's writer) @fxrest-bcrn (@aetherianxarchive's writer) @theoakandthemistletoe (@boarchasers writer) and @yaivai so far! Some may be multimuse, multifandom or both.

There's also @tadfooled and @lockpicksandjuggling (both @whatoddities writer) but most of the writing I do with her is on discord! We like throwing ideas back and forth and talking about them and fleshing them out a little :)

Some people RP on discord but I've tried that before and it feels weird to me, but that's just a me thing. Maybe I'd get used to it. There miiight be a few people who've moved to Pillowfort? But I haven't seen anyone I write with really move to any other site. I have a Pillowfort but it's empty, made during one of those annual Tumblr Is Dying--Quick, Backup Your Blog And Jump Ship panics lmao.

TES Dal isn't going anywhere, and like I said, all his AUs are a sideblog of this blog, so any ask to this blog doesn't go unnoticed if someone still wants to RP with Dal! I think about him all the time and am more than willing to talk about him, I've just kind of run dry on story ideas for TES, so having AUs lets me keep those Creative Juices flowing while I continue to think about Dal haha.

I think at this point I'm just gonna drop all RPs I currently have in TES drafts aside from the one with Seldo which is fairly recent, and have a (mostly) blank slate :) Or maybe not, because I'm indecisive lmao

Check the replies and notes of this post to see any additions!! Like me, some are more than willing to still RP TES, it's just been slow going bc of lack of content and also irl stuff <3

[ofthescrolls]

"That is not who Meridia is." While it was true that any daedra, no matter their present intentions were, had their own motives, there was an understanding when it came to Meridia. If only because of his situation, though there was doubt it would ever be believed. "She may be many things, but the last thing she'd do is allow Mundus to be rife with chaos." Though, not even Darien could hope to assume what was going on in her mind.

"The most she'd do, if her mind was in the right spot would be to purify Mundus and eradicate the Undead. Surely, that can't be a bad thing." He was deliberately avoiding the question. For good reason. "This isn't the time of the Ayleids and I doubt she'd send an army of Auroran's to Mundus just for sport."

@aetherianxarchive xxx

[dragxnsfire]

@aetherianxarchive || Starter for Risha-dar

Anovis sat before the fire in his Tel, trying to focus on the latest spell scroll before him; if he was to impress the House— such as it was, these days— he would have to keep working on it. Even if it meant working through the night and into the morning, and neglecting his duties as a father, a grandson, a great-grandson. And, if the khajiit's presence was a sign, an associate of the Thieves' Guild.

The Spellwright hadn't noticed the other thief at first— after all, he'd been engrossed in his work, hunched over the paper, writing furiously, as if his life depended upon it. But the soft footfalls finally caught his attention, and he stood, brushing the ink from his hands— onto his robes. "Risha-dar!" he breathed, offering a quick bow. "Y-you must be here about the gold. The gold..." He turned back to his desk, casting a quick spell to release the lock on his safe. "... for Sapphire. I told you all I'd be good for the loan, and here it is." He rubbed his hands. "Probably helps that a Tel costs nothing but time and energy. All I really needed was the foundation, and the seeds."

He frowned, ears flicking. "Unless you're here for something else? Forgive me for assuming, but I didn't believe the Guild wanted anything to do with me, now that I'm back on the 'straight and narrow'." He rolled his eyes. "Have to be, now that my grandfather lives here." He cleared his throat, shifting where he stood. "So... can I get you anything? Tea? Or..." He looked back to his cupboard. Nothing but food for his grandfather's pet daedroth. "Tea?"