#hough. anyway. anyway. humans. <- exhausted

[onceawake]

thinking about sharrah's complex relationship with humanity by the end of origins ngl.

daughter of clan sabrae, which was subject to humans stepping in and raiding and destroying dalish lives and property.

life saved by duncan, who is human, but grey warden first, and even her Keeper offered a reverence of sorts. paired off with Alistair as a combat partner and fellow new recruit, and also painfully human, but more strikingly prone to putting his foot in his mouth and apologizing for what might seem like the smallest overstep in comparison to human hostility towards the dalish.

oh so frustratingly nursing a crush on said new recruit to the point where her answers to his advances are as blunt as possible. ( if she doesn't scare him off by calling his bluff, or if it's not a bluff at all— ) which escalates into wanting so fucking badly to climb him even though he's a gods-damned shem, but he's handsome and utterly sweet when you catch him out from under the facade

and it's just them and this ragtag party against the world, and it's Leliana and Morrigan and Alistair all sanding the edges off the wariness towards humankind ( because they're just people at the end of the day and they are not trying to kill her or hers ).

but it can't also be all of humanity that's like this, right? because she's seen too many humans kill and steal and hurt her people. or maybe it is, and the dalish have only seen the worst of it

and then it's Denerim. it's Denerim, and what few elves they even see in the city are barely second class citizens despite their closeness to humanity. despite almost being flat-eared themselves.

it's Denerim, and the nobles are turning a blind eye to the alienage, it's Denerim, and a deal has been struck for tevinter slavers to operate with impunity to steal people who could have been her kin. more fucking humans doing nothing but hurting.

the tevinters see no mercy. not in their lives, not in their suffering. they don't die as cleanly as they could have ( as she was taught to end the life of an animal ).

it's Denerim, and Anora seems to betray you twice. time and again. so maybe it's just the fucking nobility, except you still see people averting their eyes from the suffering.

( so, too, why you don't deny Alistair his own wish. to remain out of the nobility. away from that kind of power/destruction )

it's Denerim and Redcliffe and people see you the way they saw Duncan. warden first. you are a Warden before you are a dalish elf.

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

yeah, you know what, I’m just going to own the fact that I really love Dancing with the Stars and that the only thing I possibly love MORE than Dancing with the Stars is the idea of DWTS existing in the Marvel Universe and the Avengers all being on a season of DWTS because it’s good PR.

You have Tony and Natasha, of course, and Bruce is there (good PR), Rhodey, Wanda, Vision, Thor, Brunnhilde, Peter Parker, Gamora--

Steve joins but only because GOOD PR and he insists that Bucky be on the show FOR GOOD PR, BUCKY IS NOT A VILLAIN which honestly is like. The main narrative of the show, Bucky and Bruce and Wanda ARE GOOD HUMANS NOT VILLAINS

Vision gets kicked off first, mostly because nobody really knows who he is but he’s also not super great at dancing. 

Next is Gamora, because also: not great at dancing.

But like. Natasha and Bucky are KILLING it and Peter is actually really, really good at dancing and Tony, surprisingly, can hold his own and once Steve has a Trained Professional actually dedicating hours at a time to teaching him, he picks it up okay. Len criticizes his feet ALL THE TIME but Carrie Ann and Bruno ADORE him because he’s CAPTAIN AMERICA. During the inevitable Latin dance shirt rip off, Carrie Ann like. Stops breathing. 

and basically the whole point of this AU is that it gets down to the final three or whatever (and Steve. STEVE!!! has just been eliminated!! how!! Carrie Ann and Bruno are DEVASTATED) and it’s Natasha, Peter, and Bucky, and they’re doing their trio dances and Bucky’s partner gets injured OH NO

except Bucky Knows Someone and also he’s insisting the third person in the trio is Steve, he absolutely doesn’t care that Steve was just eliminated, and ANYWAY

the person he brings in is Kate Bishop (”isn’t she like a Paris Hilton type or something?”) and nobody really knows how he knows her or how she’s such a good dancer, or WHY SHE IS SO COMFORTABLE LETTING STEVE ROGERS AND BUCKY BARNES LITERALLY JUST THROW HER INTO THE AIR WHILE SHE’S WEARING HEELS  

(there is just. so much Throwing Kate around in the training/pre-dance package, Bucky’s professional is just staring agog as Steve and Bucky literally just toss Kate back and forth while Kate is like “I think you can get more air, throw me higher,” how has no one ever found out this woman is an adrenaline junkie??)

because this is absolutely what happens, Bucky’s song is something jazzy and a little sexy and he’s got this whole undone tux thing going on and Kate Bishop is really just letting them throw her around like she’s nothing (it took Bucky’s partner weeks to get to that point, Carrie Ann is giving the three of them some Looks) and it’s a really good and really a fun sexy dance and at the end Kate is pretty much dead exhausted and Bucky and Steve are all LET’S GO AGAIN (what a metaphor for Kate’s life) and she just. Clambers on Bucky’s back because her feet are tired. That’s how they get Bucky’s judge’s comments, with Kate piggybacking on him. Carrie Ann says some stuff about every woman in America being jealous of Kate right now and Bruno says some stuff about sandwiches and makes some very interesting hand gestures 

and historically Steve and Bucky are very polite and a bit stoic when talking to the judges but Kate is not AT ALL, she is COMPLETELY in agreement with Carrie Ann re: the collective hotness of the two guys and with Bruno re: the quality of the hip action and the comments just get increasingly suggestive and absolutely none of America knew Bucky Barnes could blush like that

Len makes a comment about Kate’s flexibility that absolutely gets taken the wrong way and Steve gets uhhhh pissed about it, and then Len follows it up by making an indelicate remark about the character Kate was (apparently) playing in the dance, which prompts a heated discussion between Bruno and Len about “who says she’s leading anyone on?” and Carrie Ann chimes in with “they’re all consenting adults” and a “why choose?” from Bruno and Len is just rolling his eyes so hard while Julianne Hough just looks on knowingly and says “get it, gurl!” before giving Bucky a 10.