#anyway. i like to imagine his sentencing is the reason why solas decides not to come clean to her at crestwood fdgjkfgdjgfdjk

[rosykims]

try roleplaying they said :) play a mean character they said :) itll be fun they said :)

and now im here :) hitting THIS dialogue :) shaking, sweating, crying my mf eyes out.........

[luzial]

15F! 15. “I’ll do anything. You know that.” + Footprints

Thanks for the prompt! I FINALLY DIDN’T WRITE ANGST, YAY ME! Have some relationship Solavellan fluff in Skyhold.

Read on AO3 || @dadrunkwriting

Lavellan knelt to inspect the path of wet footprints that began just inside the door that led from the Throne Room to her quarters. They were rather large, and the owner of them had apparently not been wearing boots, which made her confident that she had correctly guessed who would be awaiting her at the top of the stairs. What remained unclear, however, was why anyone had been allowed into her quarters without her permission, and also why the guard at her door had failed to warn her that she had a visitor. But, she supposed, all would be revealed soon enough.

She opened the door to her bedroom to find Solas sitting on the rug in front of her fireplace. His footwraps lay discarded beside him, and he stretched his feet toward the fire.

“Decided to make yourself at home, I see.” 

“Perhaps you haven’t noticed,” Solas answered without turning from the fire, “but there is a leak in the roof just outside the door to your quarters. I stood there for quite some time, as I was uncertain when your meeting with the commander would conclude. But, in the end, my feet were unbearably cold and I decided it would be much more comfortable up here. Not to mention the improved view.” 

Solas waved a hand toward the balcony doors, beyond which impressive thunderclouds had blocked out the moonlight. The storm was close enough that the lightning illuminated the whole room when it flashed, and Lavellan could feel the faint vibrations of the thunder even within Skyhold’s sturdy walls.

“And my guard just let you in?” she asked, trying to recall the name of the recruit she’d passed a few moments before.

“It was somewhat more complicated than that.” 

Solas stood and moved to the sofa, catching her hand in his as he crossed the room. Lavellan followed and took a seat beside him, suddenly aware of how rosy his cheeks were. He was lighter and calmer than she usually saw him, and the effect was both disarming and infectious. 

“Recruit Bailey has his heart set on one of the young men who works in the stables, though he hasn’t quite managed to tell him yet. I brought him some wine from the kitchens - which we shared - and then I helped him pen a note with some of his thoughts. I think it turned out quite well.”

Lavellan blinked and felt her jaw drop as she attempted to process everything Solas had just told her in a few quick sentences, delivered as nonchalantly as if he had given a weather report.

“Sorry, are you telling me that my guards are bribable?” 

“I wouldn’t be too concerned,” Solas said. “Recruit Bailey’s price was far too specific to be guessed by any passing Qunari assassins.”

“Oh, funny,” she said, in what was meant to sound like a reprimand, if only she could have kept a straight face. “How do you know all of that about him, anyway?”

Solas tilted his head quizzically. “It is my responsibility to know such things. I imagine any of your advisors would say the same. We need to be certain of the loyalties of those who are tasked with keeping you safe.”

She smiled and moved closer to him on the sofa, leaning against his chest as she tucked her feet beneath her. Solas wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“Well if bribery is on the table, perhaps I should start to charge a toll to enter my quarters.”

“And what would you charge?” Solas asked.

“A good question,” she said. “But one I’ll have to give a little more consideration before I answer.”

“I’ll do anything. You know that.” 

His breath brushed against her ear as he spoke, his tone low and all too inviting. She felt a swift rush of heat rising to her cheeks.

“Anything?” she asked, when she could keep her voice steady again.

“Name your price.”

“What a terrible amount of pressure,” Lavellan said, doing her best to ignore that Solas had loosed her braid and was now gently running his fingers through her hair. “It’s like when Josephine asks me what we should serve at one of these diplomatic dinners. I can’t possibly make a choice without seeing a menu of my options.”

“I suppose that’s reasonable,” Solas agreed, as he pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. “In that case, shall we begin with the hors d’eouvres?”

[harelan]

Can we have the fluff and angst asks with Matilda and Solas 😔...

oh FUCK yeah babey!! thank u griff 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

1. What are things they both find funny?

they’re often dry and snarky with other people, which amuse each other. alone together they usually do stupid deadpan humor. solas seems very serious but really his sense of humor is just niche and very subtle unless you know exactly how to get at it, which matilda does. 

2. If they could each describe each other in one sentence, what would it be?

answered here

3. If they complimented each other, what would they say?

answered here

4. What would be their ship name?

listen there’s just not a good combination of matilda/tannen and solas. solen? tanas? TAN ASS? “ma ghilana vhenan” fits them well as a descriptive/poetic phrase. 

5. What activities do they enjoy together?

i cannot stress enough that they’re basically inseparable from the attack on haven until the temple of mythal, however long that is. they do everything together. solas is an absolutely horrendous cook but he helps as best he can, they eat all their meals together. they spend hours in bed reading separate books together. they go on walks or rides together. when he’s painting, she’ll sit on the sofa and crochet to keep him company. they explore the fade together literally every night. 

6. What is/are their love language(s)?

they have quality time. unique to solas is words of affirmation, unique to matilda is acts of service. 

7. Write a ~300 word love scene for them. 

how great his responsibilities, how short his time, and how he could not help himself.

it was early, early morning, mist curling off distant fields as the rising grey sun burned it away, in a silent, secluded garden off a little stone manor house, all but drowning in ambling wisteria vines, such that the rough bricks beneath them were hardly visible.

a lack of courage in facing the front door had brought him there. the garden, half in shade and all in bloom, was almost enough, so steeped was it in her. he could almost breathe in the smell of every herb she ever cooked with as it grew here, and know that matilda’s tender hands planted them, and he could love her and go without ever troubling her.

almost enough. he fingered one of the petals as if he'd never touched a flower before.

he had been content to receive occasional news of her, content to linger, mostly unnoticed, in her dreams. content to shoulder the burden of longing heartache and imagine that it granted her freedom.

as his hand dropped from the flower, as though he had summoned her with the motion, the white-painted door that led into the house from the garden opened. were this the fade, this was the moment he would have vanished. but it was not. he was stuck, stiff, in this solid, sluggish earth, bare feet sinking into the soil. he could not flee, and so he gaped.

matilda was half-way to putting up her hair, red waves gathered but not secure, and she was every bit as beautiful as he remembered. more beautiful than he remembered: how could simple, fallible memory ever do her jusice?

she froze, too, and gaped, one foot on the neat clay tiles just inside the threshold and one on the rain-wet dirt, and she searched his face with a sequence of silent whats and whys and hows that came in shadows across her face. and then her face crumpled, and he only had time to see her eyes water before she threw her arms around his shoulders, and buried her face in the crook of his neck, and they were pulled by their collective weakness to their knees in the dirt.

8. What were their first impressions of each other?

ok so. matilda is waylayed on her way to the conclave with her retinue, she and a handful of other mages get cornered in a keep in the hinterlands and lysas asks the inquisition to go find her bc fiona might listen to her. that’s the setup. 

anyway solas already knows who she is before they officially meet and he respects her marginally as an influential player in the mage rebellion. he also immediately respects her magical ability because when they fight their way through the templars to reach her, she springs a trap on them and could definitely have killed them if she wanted to. 

matilda doesnt kill them mostly because of solas. he’s the mage in the party and she’s willing to believe him if he says they’re not with the templars. so she immediately trusts him more than she’d trust most people. 

9. Have they made each other cry?

OH BOY HAVE THEY. 

she cries during crestwood like straight up in front of him. he waits to cry until later. uhhh they’re both prone to bouts of Angst about one another between the breakup and trespasser, which sometimes end in crying. matilda cries during trespasser mostly because she’s afraid of him, and that just tears him up inside. listen they cry a Lot that’s what solavellan is FOR

10. Write a ~300 word argument scene for them. 

im so sorry i literally cant write arguments i’m not argumentative enough to relate

11. What causes them to fight?

not a lot? they both have very few things that they care strongly enough about to fight about, especially solas, and the things they DO feel strongly about, they agree on. 

12. Do they have differing political opinions?

a little. obviously matilda is more attached to this world and more eager to identify herself with it. but like lmao in general “stop enslaving/imprisoning people, stop treating people like second class citizens” they agree on. the underlying philosophy of the inherent freedom owed to all sentient beings, they agree on. 

though theres the big difference where he wants to end the world and she doesn’t but, yknow. 

13. Name something they would never do for the other person. 

there’s not a lot, man. i mean, with sufficient reason they’d do literally anything for each other, except i think kill one another, which, in case da4 doesnt happen or is bad, matilda fucking GAMBLES on during the Final Confrontation. 

like i’d say matilda wouldn’t kill for him, but she would, if he persuaded her it needed to happen for some necessary reason. yknow? this is a cop out answer. 

matilda wouldn’t kill an innocent for him. solas... listen i don’t know what he wouldn’t do. 

14. What would be a dealbreaker?

again, no dice. home boy straight up came out and said he’s a godlike being hellbent on ending the world and she’s still like heart eyes at him. i don’t know that there’s anything matilda would do that would make solas stop loving her. like there are things she could do, but nothing realistic. she’s not gonna start torturing and enslaving people.

15. What are traits they dislike in one another?

now this is a good question. 

solas is too secretive. he refuses to take moral stances on things and will turn around and lecture her about seeing things in black and white when she does. he’s too often unsympathetic, unemotional. and he’s hypocritical. 

matilda is modest to an at-times modest degree. he always expected that -- that she would insist on playing second fiddle to everyone in her life. she lets anger cloud her judgement on too many things, damn the consequences. 

16. If they broke up, what would be their opinions of each other?

for the purposes of this question, since they’re still in love and want to be together, i’m not considering them really broken up. mutual “this isn’t working, we should end this” though -- they’d probably still be friends, honestly. they’re in love because they respect and trust one another and just because they decide to break things off doesn’t mean they stop clicking. 

although, given the other real life dudes like solas i know, he’d probably be the kind of guy to cut all contact with exes. matilda definitely tries to be friends with her exes.