#anti wynne

[dalishious]

So I just read Asunder and I have to ask... was Wynne always this terrible or is the characterisation just really bad? I didn't manage to finish Origins but from memory she didn't seem nearly as pro-Circle as she is here? More a middle road sort of person? Am I misremembering?

I personally usually find her quite preachy and very pro-Circle in Origins. That said, she is 100x worse in Asunder IMO.

[squirrelwithatophat]

Wynne defending children from the Templars

It’s interesting to reflect on Wynne’s Establishing Character Moment in Dragon Age: Origins, especially in light of the strange whitewashing of the Templar Order in Inquisition as well as her apparently conservative politics.  When we encounter her in Broken Circle (our first interaction with her since the brief chat at Ostagar), we see her fighting to protect a group of young children not only from demons but from the Templars -- the very military force that claims to protect them.  If she is recruited into the party, in fact, we discover that she had already sacrificed her life for them.  She is technically dead/undead and only kept standing due to possession by a spirit of Faith.

As soon as the party enters the door, she’s fearful that the Warden has come to kill them all on behalf of Knight-Commander Greagoir, and depending on player choices/intentions, she may in fact be correct.  

Wynne: It’s you!  No... come no further.  Grey Warden or no, I will strike you down where you stand!

Warden: Wynne - what are you doing here?

Wynne: I am a mage of the Circle.  More importantly, why are you here?  The templars would not let just anyone by.

Warden: You have children with you.

Wynne: The tower is a place of learning.  Young apprentices are always here.  Why is that surprising?

Wynne: But this is no time to discuss that.  Why are you here?  Why did the templars let you in?

Warden: I am helping Greagoir resolve the Circle’s difficulties.

Wynne: Then you do serve the templars as I feared.  Do they have the Right of Annulment?

Warden: The Right of Annulment?

Wynne: The order from the grand cleric allowing the templars to completely annul a Circle.  Do they have it?

Warden: No, but Greagoir expects it to arrive soon.

Wynne: So Greagoir thinks the Circle is beyond hope.  He probably assumes we are all dead.  

Wynne: They abandoned us to our fate, but even trapped as we are, we have survived.  If they invoke the Right, however, we will not be able to stand against them.

Warden: It’s nothing less than this Circle deserves.

Wynne:  Do these children deserve death too?  Will they die by your hand?

Warden: Mages are a danger.  If I had a say, you would all be culled.

Wynne: Killing us solves nothing, but with training and education, mages learn to control their powers.

Wynne: You’re mad if you think I’ll let you lay a finger on these children.  If will fight you if you won’t listen to reason.

Wynne: I am not afraid of you.

Warden: This Circle must be destroyed, for all our sakes.

Wynne: If you insist on making war on the Circle, we have nothing more to discuss.  It comes to blows, then.  I will stop you or die trying.

BONUS - terrified child fleeing from being murdered:

Commentary

While Wynne can be condescending and sometimes preachy in her support for the Circle, her dialogue both here and elsewhere indicates that she has no illusions about the Templars keeping them locked inside.  

After all, they imprisoned her in Kinloch Hold since she was a young child, took her own child away from her forever, and threatened to slaughter both her and the other children she was mentoring in her son’s stead.  If recruited into the party, she opens up about the despair she felt as a girl when she realized she would be trapped there forever, and it was only by turning to the religious faith that was being forced on all mages in the tower that she began to make peace with her fate.  She knows that if the Libertarian Fraternity successfully leads a vote for independence from the Chantry, the Templars will simply kill them all.  She even uses the term “genocide” to describe what will happen.  She explicitly cites this as the reason why she opposes the independence vote. 

The mages will never be free! The Chantry would never allow it. Our only hope for survival is to show them we can be trusted! Don’t you remember what happened to the Circle in Ferelden? Do you want to give the templars another excuse to call for the culling of all mages?

She doesn’t reject freedom for her fellow mages for any personal advantage, throwing others like her under the bus to reap the rewards of brown-nosing.  If she wanted any semblance of power or status, after all, she would have accepted the post of First Enchanter (or second-in-line to it) a long time ago.  As of Dragon Age Origins, she has consistently rejected the opportunity to become Irving’s successor.  As of the end of Broken Circle, if she joins the party and defeats Uldred’s rebels, she still needs to ask for permission just to temporarily leave the tower, despite having proven her loyalty and competence beyond any reasonable doubt both here and over the past thirty or so years of incarceration.  It takes helping the Hero of Ferelden save the entire country by defeating the Archdemon to convince the Templars to allow her to come and go freely - an opportunity that, as her own son later points out, no one else has had or probably ever would have in their lifetime (and one, as the only the player knows, that is entirely conditional on player choices).

The only context in which she ever even considers fighting the Templars is when she has no other way of preventing the Templars from killing them all anyways - both during Broken Circle and in the climax of Asunder.

Her politics are, in the end, based on fear.

Not the usual fear of the Other or fear of social change that hamper normal politics, but the completely rational fear, as someone at/near the bottom of the social hierarchy, about what the authorities will do to her and everyone like her if they step out of line.  As it turns out, she’s not wrong about what the powers that be are and how they will react - she’s only wrong about the potential for a better future and the rewards of fighting for it.

[ashleydidnothingwrong]

Some people have problems with the way Rick Riordan describes gods. (me too, it's entitled) Some with his representation. I had a problem with his ADHD takes. Because. It. Sucks. You're not a demigod if you have it. Your stupid brain are broken and you have to struggle your whole life. And hey, it's usually a package deal: you're more prone to addiction, depression, anxiety, personality disorders. It's the same thing as writing about someone with diabetes and be like "uwu, it's your secret power".

No.

It sucks.

Like Diana Jones actually did a good job writing kids: loud kids, fat kids, anxious kids, evil kids, angry kids (Charles Morgan was so relatable) and she actually made them sympathetic. And Sophie and Howl were always such a fucking mood. She wrote books with representation before it was a mainstream thing. Seriously. Because she cared. So while her characters may not have the same disorders, skin color, gender, or birth place they had the same struggles and I love her for this. Sometimes I think we all forget about this.

[herbofgraceandpeace]

trying to decide which of any of the other books in the chrestomanci series to reread now that I’ve finished The Lives of Christopher Chant. The trouble is I’ve got mixed feelings about ALL of the others? So…………….

[chelshiart]

elio, play 'merry-go-round of life' from howl's moving castle

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Brutal Honesty Time: Dragon Age Companions Edition

Origins

I never really LIKED Alistair. No hate to those who do but I never vibed with him. He looked like my brother at the time I was playing so romance was OFF the table, but later when my brother grew his hair out ala Thor, I did romance him and while it’s cute I’m still: eh. I do think he’s best friends with some of my Wardens and do headcanon his relationship with Thea Surana is adorable (Muirin is not a good partner though.) but I just… meh.

Also, I cannot see this man as anything but straight and it’s just… I can’t. To me he’s the himbo lovable guy but he’s just not into dudes.

Wynne also never appealed to me in the sense that I felt she was preachy as fuck. She was to much a ‘older wiser mentor’ for the players and yet I felt that she was also the granny who was without a doubt to set in her ways. I have a headcanon that the Spirit of Faith that possessed her actually bound her to rigid rules. As such she cannot change really.

Dragon Age 2

Anders is to me right in his goals but I think killing him is still a reasonable reaction. I it really depends on who you play as but I’ve always felt that while I would be personally horrified the fact the Chantry did NOTHING to help the people they claim to watch over and the hell the Circles became are on their shoulders. Anders was RIGHT. But a Hawke killing him doesn’t make them wrong. Also he’s like my fifth fav romance in DA2. Yes I mean I like Sebastian’s over his. I just never clicked with Anders despite some epic lines.

Aveline as well I never… liked? To the extent others do I mean. She’s interesting but I was always wtf about her comments. She feels like a character they were forced to sort of shuffle into the story without finishing. Her entire Act 2 quest is atrocious (oh you must help her with a man really?) and I would love to explore her slowly coming to the realization that she was wrong in her actions/the system itself is broken. I think there’s a fantastic post going around to break this down firmly but I can’t really remember who made it. She’s a character I have to aggressively headcanon like Cullen to put up with.

Varric comes up to and for me… he is fun. He’s a fav for me. But I’m also sick of this guy. Most of my Hawkes are his friend because I love the ‘storyteller is the lovable rouge’ trope but like I have a few Hawkes he did not like. Yet here we are with him being besties. I really wish if we needed a continuing companion it was Dorian who has REASON to be in Tevinter. Varric can at in Kirkwall.

Inquisition

Actually a brutal honesty moment is me going: this game is rank 3 for me out of the three so far. I don’t HATE it. It’s a fun game. But god the entire open world they tried SUCKED. It’s so tedious I get bored after Haven is destroyed.

Blackwell has the better romance compared to Cullen and no you can’t tell me otherwise. It’s much more dramatic and impactful and I love him. Also people saying he killed kids ignore how the Templars murder children and how Cullen 100% was an accessory to it even if he didn’t do it himself. Also I always find it funny there’s uproar over Blackwall doing this when there is a graduation system where they MURDER INNOCENT PEOPLE but oh no that’s never discussed. Plus with how much other shit goes down- yeah Blackwall is irredeemable totally when it’s HUMAN NOBLE children who die.

I’ve said my piece about Cullen being a disappointment of a character.

I never actually liked Cassandra and even after romancing her she’s still bottom of them in my list. I’m just not able to make anyone hate me.

[roskirambles]

(Archive) Animated movie of the day: Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro, 2004)

Originally posted: January 7th, 2023 When adapting a book to the realm of cinema, the beauty of the work is often lost in translation: Missing characters, trimmed down side plots or simply a compact interpretation of the plot that loses all and any impact. In other cases, however, it's this compromise what lets the film find it's own unique beauty, and with a bit of luck one as powerful as the source material.

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki and loosely based on the eponymous 1986 novel by Diana Wynne Jones(the first in the Wizard's Castle series), it tells the tale of homely hat maker Sophie Hatter, who gets cursed by the Witch of the Waste to become an old woman. In order to break the curse, she sets to find Howl the Wizard who travels across the land in a magic castle with the power to walk like a living creature. Adventure, self discovery and romance ensue.

And the similarities between the two stories kind of end there, as the film is in many ways nothing like the book. While some plots are missing and characters altered, the most notorious change has to be the war: a mere backdrop of the novel that was nothing but a few short sentences takes now a heavy spotlight that dramatically alters the thematic core of the story.

All of this would be a cardinal sin for most adaptations, a sentiment shared by some of the book fans. But I already presented my stance here: the beauty of this film comes from said differences. While the novel's critique of gender roles takes a back seat, a woman's self affirmation isn't a contradiction to this, nor is it the critique of war to the novel's exploration of social class, or the appeal for love and selflessness.

Even with its admittedly odd pacing, the romanticism is still enveloping, not hurt in the slightest by its jaw dropping visuals and Joe Hisaishi's melancholic yet uplifting score. Not for nothing it's Miyazaki's personal favorite: a film about why life is worth living.

I don't think I need to introduce this music piece to anyone, but the main theme of the film Merry-Go-Round is probably Joe Hisaishi's finest work and given his body of work that's a monumentally tall order. Capable of evoking a sense of nostalgia and longing for a place and era that don't even exist, it still manages to capture a wonderous sense of love and hope for the future. A seemingly impossible contradiction in musical form, it's waltz foundation is a delight to the ears.

And in case you're wondering… Diana Wynne Jones loved the movie, so any purism about her intentions being mangled or else seems trite.

[evilhorse]

First appearance of the Anti-Spawn

[banrionceallach]

Every time a british person uses the expression ‘throwing/having a paddy’ to indicate someone throwing a childish or unreasonable tantrum over nothing they owe me €5.

[runawaycarouselhorse]

“Miyazaki was born in 1941, so he’s lived through the war. He’s a man who’s lived with this contradiction. He’s torn by what he loves. He’s drawn to war-planes, yet he’s anti-war. How is someone like him even possible?”

-Toshio Suzuki

[niofo]

thinking about that post abt wynne's age still. i certainly appreciate that we just casually have characters in their 40s in dai, like vivienne or blackwall, and no one's making a big deal of it, but i feel like there's even bigger missed opportunity with the advisors, yk.

like it was already said many times why cullen as the commander makes no sense and he has 0 required skillset, but imagine if we actually got some retired military commander in his place. like imagine a ferelden general who fought alongside loghain and maric, maybe was a bit older than they were then (bcos they were really young), so by the point of the 5th blight she already retired, she's no longer a powerful fighter, maybe even gathered some disabilities during her military career, but she still knows a lot of shit of how to command armies just fine, she doesn't have to swing her sword to do so. imagine how cool it would be, just this retired general and veteran advising on our military movements. maybe she'd have some unique dialogue lines if loghain is the warden in this worldstate. and instead of being bigoted towards the mages her character arc is about messing with orlesians and we can either endorse it or side with josie that come on, we can't be mean to those envoys even tho they're orlesian, it's not their fault.

[mithridas]

Video essay about the bridges between hateful feminists and right-wing women, the trend of elevating 'civil debate' over rejection and protest, the effects of deradicalisation from hate movements,... 

Overall a well-argued look at JK Rowling's transphobia and current transphobia / homophobia conservative rhetoric.

[winternaut]

When I was in high school there were these paintings on the walls of students on different sports teams like mid throw or jump or whatever. They were signed and everything, and everyone assumed they were an art student's final project or something. Weird ik but that's american high school for you. Never really thought anything of it.

Then one day I was in the athletics office dropping off a form and I heard the assistant director tell a random teacher that they were just photos that they put a filter on to look like paintings and printed them out on canvas. And she had the idea to sign them to make them look even more like real paintings as a joke, that these 20 "pieces of art" were really just edited photographs that had her name on them.

Anyway. Whenever someone tries to argue that AI is "real art" created by "real artists" I just think of the athletics assistant director signing her name on fake paintings made from someone else's photographs.

[sjbattleangel]

Please, please watch this.

[eligosvespillo]

There is only one side of the political spectrum that actively calls for violent action. Unfortunately, these statements often provide results: see the Club Q shooting in my home state.

[heniareth]

Find The Word (long)

I have been tagged by multiple people and have decided to dump it all into one huge post in no particular order and from all parts of the story. Enjoy the madness! XD XD XD

CW for canon-typical violence and fantasy racism

@wild-houseplant thank you for the tag!! I can show off two snippets from the next section and one with Sten which makes me. Very happy XD XD XD

Wrap

Astala stared at his foot. It was filthy with mud, and through the Dalish foot-wrappings she saw a bit of blood gathering between his toes.

“Why didn’t you put your boots on?”

“Does that matter?” Ilanlas groaned. “The harm is done.”

He looked left and right, wobbling in place. Finally, he sighed.

“I need help.”

“Sure.” Astala stretched her hand out to steady him. Halfway through the motion, she stopped. “Oh. Wait. Now you want my help, huh?”

Ilanlas gave her a glowering stare and opened his mouth.

“Oh no,” Astala hissed. “You’ve been ignoring me for the last few days and now you suddenly want my help. You don’t get to act offended now.”

Consider

“Sten,” Astala said. “You’ve fought in battles, right? What do you do against a large-ish number of foes armed with swords and maces rushing towards you?”

“Shields and spears,” the qunari answered. “Maintain your foe at a distance and slay him before he can reach you.”

“Hm.” Astala considered the idea. “But spears won’t do much against skeletons, right?”

“No,” Sten said. “You have to shatter them. Clubs or axes will be more effective.”

“What if we pair one guy with a pitchfork with another guy with axe and shield?” Astala said. “The guy with the pitchfork holds the skeleton at bay while the other guy hacks it into pieces.”

“You are relying on these men to hold a line,” Sten answered. “They won’t. These aren’t soldiers. They are excitable and impressionable fishers and artisans.”

Scream

Her heart skipped a beat when they found Ilanlas in the town’s square in what looked like a tense argument with a shem. What prevented her from running over and dragging him away was the fact that Mellan, the elven girl from the tavern, was standing right next to him as if supervising the whole operation. And then the shem nodded, Ilanlas handed him something and received something in return. Then they parted ways. Astala approached, carefully.

When Ilanlas saw her, his expression soured, and he marched up to her as if gearing up for a fight. Astala braced herself. Instead of screaming at her, however, Ilanlas grabbed her wrist, pressed something into her hand and stepped back, crossing his arms.

“Now go buy your blanket,” he spat.

Astala looked down at her hand. There was silver lying in it. She counted eight pieces.

“Where-?” She stared at Ilanlas. “How?”

@fade-and-loathing-in-thedas I am super super late but these words are a treasure!! Thank you so much for the tags, both of them!

Hope

"Thing is," he continued with what wouldn't even have been a lie a year ago, "I like living. And you obviously are the sort to give the Crows pause. So let me serve you, instead."

The Warden raised her eyebrows so high they disappeared under her dark fringe. The other Grey Warden scoffed and the dark-haired witch even laughed. Only the redhead kept quiet and studied him intently. Zevran made a mental note of that while his heart sank at their reaction. Was his situation this hopeless?

Despair

Astala forced her eyes open to find the king looking straight at her.

“I’m Astala, your Majesty,” she managed. She’d forgotten to bow.

“Pleased to meet you!” The king beamed. “The Grey Wardens are desperate to bolster their numbers, and I, for one, am glad to help them.”

Unsure what kind of answer was expected of her, Astala nodded.

The king seemed to find that sufficient and went right on. “I see you’re an elf, friend. From where do you hail?”

Perhaps she could find a helmet that covered her ears. Would people take her for a slight human woman if she did?

Beauty

“She deserved it, believe me,” Leliana said, and Astala wholeheartedly believed her. “So don’t worry. We will find someone for you. It won’t even be hard! You’re very beautiful.”

Laughter, unexpected, burst out of her chest. “Now you’re just trying to cheer me up.”

“What? No!” Leliana looked genuinely taken back. “You are very- I’m not saying this to cheer you up!”

“Please.” Astala let her head fall to the side. “I’ve got short hair and the biggest nose in my whole family.”

“I like your nose!” Leliana protested. “It adds character!”

“That’s a very nice way to say that it’s enormous.”

“Stop that!”

Lost (I apologize to all Amells and Suranas out there)

“And here I thought I was the only one to notice our dear Warden’s savior complex,” Zevran said and affixed an easy smile to his face.

“What is there to notice? Even a blind could see it.” Morrigan’s voice was laced with venom and her face was twisted into a sneer. “First, we take this enormous detour to spare one inconsequential noblewoman’s life. Then, we take a detour during that detour to help the Dalish. During this detour within a detour, we “save” a group of powerful creatures and thus render them useless to us. Next, we spend days clearing an already lost tower for some templars incapable of doing their job, and now they want to hunt for a population that should be more than able to take care of itself. And we keep picking up strays!”

Morrigan jabbed her thumb over her shoulder to where the three Circle mages were walking.

Pain

Astala was only dimly aware of being manhandled as her companions as they unbuckled the various pieces of armor. When Leliana grabbed her right arm, pain flared up from the whole thing and Astala groaned.

"Oh Maker," Leliana gasped. "Wynne, look at this!"

Astala winced as Wynne gingerly inspected.

"Maker's Breath. What have you been fighting?"

"Dwarves," Astala muttered.

"But your whole arm is crushed!" Wynne exclaimed.

Astala blinked and coughed. "Is it?"

"I don't want to alarm you," Alistair said somewhere above and to her... she couldn't really tell with one busted ear. "I really don't want to alarm you, but, uh... she just coughed up blood."

Brushed

She knew.

Just as quickly as it had come, the euphoria washed away and was replaced with a freezing, sinking sensation of dread. She knew. Knew what? How much? How much of his hand had he inadvertently shown? He felt sick. He felt dizzy, even. How had he allowed this kind of feeling to sneak up on him, and to fall for her out of all people, and after what had happened to-

“Morning, Zev!”

The Warden brushed past him, smiling brightly and holding her flower-crowned head high for all to see. Through the panic the second voice nudged him excitedly and blabbered incoherent nonsense at the sight of that smile. Before he could realize what he was doing, his own lips formed a smile in response, and once again he was left standing, dumbfounded, as the Warden approached Morrigan for some tea.

Hurt

“You made the right choice,” Zevran said while trying to untangle himself from the memory of his dead lovers. “It is no good to be bound to people that hurt you. Which is why I am no longer a Crow and, presumably, why you are here.”

Leliana stared into the hearth barely illuminating the room with a few smoldering embers. FInally, she sniffed and nodded. “But even so, I still grieve.”

Zevran swallowed thickly around the knot in his throat.

“I suppose you cannot avoid it,” he said. “Not if you gave them your heart, or part of it.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Leliana wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “What a foolish thing to do, to give our hearts away when they might be shattered so badly.”

Heat

Astala's ears and cheeks had started to heat up, and they were burning even now. No matter what way she turned, eyes open or closed, all she saw before her was the light flickering along Zevran as he smiled, as his hair as it fanned out when he spun. She could still feel the rhythm of the melody, his feet stomping on the ground in those boots that fit far too well, see his lean silhouette dark against the flames as he danced.

@yukichouji I finally get to respond to your second tag! Featuring some Alistair, some Zevran and some Sten, and an innkeeper worried about her money ^^

Troubling

“Anyway,” Alistair said very quickly, “I’ll fill you in on what we learned while we wait for Morrigan.”

In the chantry, he informed Astala, he and Morrigan had learned troubling news. Arl Eamon was sick and had sent his knights out on a desperate search for Andraste’s Ashes to cure him. The mages were apparently also having problems.

“Some say they have all turned into abominations,” Alistair said. “Which would really not be good if we wanted to ask them for help. So, in short, the quest for allies is going to be more difficult than we imagined.”

Astala started twisting a strand of leather around her finger.

“What did you find?” Alistair asked.

“Well,” Astala untwisted the bit of leather. “There are two paid jobs hung out on the board that I have requested and there might be more if we ask around. There’s also soldiers of teryn Loghain looking for us stationed at the tavern.”

“That’s… bad,” Alistair said.

“It is,” Astala nodded.

Trust

"Hm." Zevran reached for a sock as well. "Why do I feel like it was something I said?"

"It wasn't," Astala snapped. "Stop asking."

A light frown creased Zevran's brow. "As you wish. Should I leave entirely?"

"You should-" Astala swallowed her words and grabbed a pile of folded clothes. "Just… do the laundry."

She didn't storm off. She was just walking quickly, and her ears felt like they had been set aflame. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She should have known that Zevran would be worse than any shem. Because, unlike them, he didn't have to win her trust. He already had it.

Sword

An unseen explosion shook the earth beneath them. Astala drew her blades in a flash and spun around. There was nothing with them on the shore. Out of the upper levels of the tower of Kinloch Hold, however, rose smoke.

"Oh, that's not good," Astala muttered.

"They're still fighting in there!" one of the patrons called. "I thought they would be done by now?"

Astala could hear Alistair muttering under his breath.

Sten approached her, sword drawn. "We should never have come here, Warden."

"Well, we are here now," Astala said.

Weight

Astala looked at the coin and swallowed. It was strange: not round like the others and it didn't bear the crown if Ferelden. Instead, a strange symbol stood in its middle, and the coin had eight sides.

"I can't take this," the innkeeper said. "I don't know what it is and it doesn't have the right weight. Where did you get it from?"

"From bandits," Astala said quietly.

"Bandits," the innkeeper repeated flatly. "And they gave you coin?"

@bumblerhizal thank you as well for the tag! Some Zevwarden, some of the Chantry being shitty, some plums and some more Zevwarden. Enjoy!

Drink

They let themselves be carried by wave after wave until the water became too cold to bear. They trekked back to the camp with haste, bundled up in dry clothes and blankets, and even so Zevran’s teeth chattered, and the wind chased shiver after shiver down his spine. Wynne received them with open disapproval and two steaming mugs of rich broth.

“I would be very surprised if the two of you didn’t catch the cold of your life down there,” she chided as she shood them to the fire and threw another blanket over them. “Your lips are blue! What were you thinking?”

“Worth it,” Astala muttered into her drink and scooted closer to Zevran.

Zevran had to agree. He took a sip of the broth and relished the way it warmed his insides as it traveled into his stomach. He leaned against the Warden. Purely for body warmth, of course.

Lie

If they had lied about an elf who was close to Andraste, they would’ve definitely lied about the Exalted March on the Dales.

What was she supposed to do with all of this?

“Nobody’s ever tried to take the Dales back?”

Ilanlas laughed. “How would we?”

“You’ve got weapons,” Astala said. “You’re good shots and you have mages! Did nobody ever try?”

“The Dales lie between Ferelden and Orlais, and belong to the latter,” Ilanlas said. “What you propose would result everybody hunting us down like rabid dogs. There is a reason why we do not settle down.”

Warm

The rest of the night passed by uninterrupted, and the morning greeted them with a slightly cloudy sky. Duncan frowned up at the clouds. Astala welcomed them. The sun was already warming up the air, and every bit of shade would be welcome. Besides, she had discovered that the trees in the orchard they had slept next to carried plums. She immediately climbed the first tree and began filling her pack with plums. Duncan told her that this would anger the farmer, but only once, and he didn’t make her come down. And the farmer deserved it anyways. He’d kicked them out in the middle of the night when Ilanlas was sick. A pack full of plums was the least Astala would’ve taken if she’d had the chance.

Cold

"It will be cold again tonight," Astala mused.

"That it will," Zevran agreed. "But it will be the last night in a long time I think. I have been told that the city of Orzammar is lighted and warmed by flows of hot, molten rock."

"Molten rocks." Astala stared off into the distance as she tried to picture a rock in liquid state. She didn't quite know where to begin with. "The things there are in the world..."

"The things there are in Ferelden alone," Zevran said. "You should see the deserts in Antiva, my Warden. That is something worthy of admiration."

"Oh, I don't know, Zev," Astala said with a teasing smile. "Have you ever seen a rock melt? It sounds pretty impressive."

"So it does, if I didn't suspect that I would melt right alongside with it if I ever came close enough to lay eyes on the process," Zevran replied.

Aaaaaand it’s done!! I do hope you enjoyed these ^^ I would like to tag you all back, as well as @oxygenforthewicked @the-iron-lion @castlecousland and @icy-warden to find the words make, sleep, tree and terrible. Have a lovely day all of you!