#its been so long. i remember none of the shortcuts

[blueberry-shortbread]

A nightmare bill for some lineart practice, a la book of bill cover colours! hes hungy

[griffongrey]

hi there! for thedasweekend, maybe mahalla/solas fo "What will be left after all this is done?" from the "it's a war" dialogue list?

I know I'm posting this way late for @thedasweekend, so uhhhhh woops! In my defense, I was having fun writing it lol

This turned into Mahalla's response to the Solavellan letter in Veilguard.

“I’m not really sure why I'm writing this. I know you’ll never see it, trapped as you are—at least for now, until you chew through your bonds and escape, like in Dalish legend—in your own Fade prison. But Tuelartha gave me the letter you left behind, and honestly, I think I just want to pretend for a little while that I can talk to you again, even if it’s one-sided.

There’s something to be said for a one-sided conversation. At least this way, I know I’ll always have the last word, right?

Hmm. In writing, that sounds less like teasing, and more… sad. Ha! See? I’m laughing.

No, I’m not. Of course I’m not. I’m sitting in center of your old rotunda as I write this, staring at the chipped plaster walls, because they’re all that’s left of your frescoes after a Regret demon made its home here, and I’m wondering if that’s all that will be left of Thedas, too, when we’re through with it? Just the scarred surface of a world consumed by regret.

No one ever comes in here anymore, did you know? There are refugees cramming themselves into every square inch of space, and still, nobody can stand to come near the rotunda. If they need to get to the ramparts or that tower I’ll always think of as Cullen’s, they take the long way ‘round—no more convenient shortcuts through your workspace to distract you—and even directly upstairs and in the rookery, they avoid looking over the railing.

I feel like a ghost here.

At least when I’m out in the world, fighting the blight, it’s easier, in some twisted way. Most of the people I meet out there don’t even realize who I am until I summon my spirit arm to fight, and even then, they don’t always figure it out. There’s none of the pressure to always be the Almighty Inquisitor, beloved of a “god” who would sooner see me shackled and subjugated. Out there, I’m only Mahalla.

But here, every time I have to come back to Skyhold, everyone wants me to save them. They think I can save them, because even without the Anchor, they still see me as the Inquisitor. Only the Inquisitor. It’s all-consuming.

Was it always this hard to bear, or did I just get used to being only myself again?

Is this what it’s like for you?

I’ve been thinking a lot, ever since that night in Crestwood, about how tyrannical despots like the Evanuris could be mythologized as the beneficent Creators of the very people they enslaved. How someone as monstrous as Ghilan’nain could be remembered only as the Mother of Halla. And I think I understand.

It’s funny… I always hated the idea of being remembered as the Inquisitor, because I knew from the very start that the Chantry would twist my image into something I’m not. Even Varric—

I can’t talk about Varric with you. I won’t. Not when all I’d really be doing is screaming at chipped plaster.

My point is, when it was you, telling the story of the Inquisitor through your frescoes? I didn’t mind it, anymore. Maybe because you put so much of yourself in those paintings, too, and that felt more true to myself than anything the Chantry could put in a myth. Or maybe, when you told my story, it felt less like mythologizing and more like… love.

I don’t know what will be left after all this is done. I don’t know if you’ll manage to trick Tuelartha, and the Dread Wolf will prevail once more. I don’t even know if that wouldn't be better, in the long run. Right now, it’s hard to imagine anything worse than watching two simultaneous Blights wipe out every living thing in their path. I wonder what myths they would tell of me, then.

I do know… I want nothing more than to simply stay with you as Mahalla, Solas.

Ara lath ma, bellanaris.”

— an unsigned note, left in the Skyhold rotunda on top of another well-worn letter:

Elven translation: "I will always love you." / "I will love you for eternity."

Fun fact — I was originally planning to bookend the letter with a scene many many years post-Veilguard where their daughter finds both notes in the Lighthouse, using her narration to show how her parents' fears for the future were unfounded, and what's "left after all this is done" is actually something wonderful. But I ran out of time, and I still like the letter as it is!

[brookebeebe-blog]

July 30th - Monkey Mountain, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Alien Art Center

Cough still present, maybe slightly better. Today, was an early and miserable start. We woke up at 7:15 to get ready for the hike (which was a voluntary choice for some reason). We took the train and then walked about 20 minutes to the start of the trail. I did not know what I was in for. I thought it was going to be an easy hike to see the native monkeys because apparently, they inhabit the trail pretty heavily. We saw some monkeys as soon as we started and I should have turned back. Unfortunately, I decided to stay with the group. We hiked up pretty far and I was feeling good, but we started to realize it was going to take longer than 1 hour. We kept going and decided we would have to take a shortcut because we weren’t going to be able to do the full easy loop. A man speaking Chinese was trying to direct us away from the trail, but none of us completely understood why. So, we headed off to our deaths. This was arguably the hardest trail I have ever climbed in my entire life. Not only was the ground muddy, the humidity and heat were unbearable. Not to mention, the climbing we had to do because it was so steep. Also, most of us had run out of water at this point because we thought we were going for a casual stroll. My heart rate was a solid 179 as we ascended, and I was trying to be very cautious with it and told myself I would stop at 180 because of my health issues. After about 30 minutes of genuine torture, we found a woman who spoke to us in Chinese about getting to the top. She could tell we were struggling and decided to be our tour guide. She had to be about 50 to 60, so it was very humbling. Each of us were drenched in sweat. I had to take my shirt off and it looked like it was dunked into a pool. We finally got to the top and saw a bunch of monkeys, but as far as I was concerned, I was ready to leave. The woman who was our brand new tour guide said we couldn’t go down the way we went up because it was too dangerous, so we had to go the long way. Finally, we made it all the way back down and I realized I was getting sick from dehydration. I didn’t want to drink any more water, I started shaking, and I started to get very nauseous. I took a Zofran that I brought with me to keep my fluids down and tried to drink my last bottle. When we got back to the hotel, it was already time to start the activities for the day, which included two art museums. They were cool and I saw some pretty art, but the problem is that we weren’t allowed fluids in the museum, so my dehydration was not getting any better. I picked up an apple juice and cookies at the gift shop for some quick sugar, but it made me more nauseous. The fun didn’t end there though because we had to go to another museum, which also did not allow fluids. I was so ready to go back at this point and kept getting worse. Honestly, I don’t remember much of the second museum and I ended up sitting in the bus to cool down. We finally got back to the hotel and I am patiently waiting for it to be time to take my next dose of Zofran. I haven’t been able to eat much or drink, so I’m trying to get some fluids down as I write this.

Academic Reflection

It’s only fair that I reflect on Monkey Mountain (aka Shoushan Mountain). Shoushan Mountain is located in the southwest area of Kaohsiung. It lies 365 meters above sea level and is about 5 km long and 2.5 km wide. The mountain was formed from coral reefs pushed up from collision between the Eurasian and Philippine Plates. It gets its name from the hundreds of Formosan Macaques that inhibit the area. The mountain is also home to some of the earliest archaeological remains ever found in Kaohsiung, dating at about 5,000 years old. The area also served as a military installation during the Qing dynasty. The difficulty is supposed to be moderate, but that has to be for the installed path. I would beg to differ about the difficulty rating for this, but I guess it depends on which way you decide to go. Apparently, from a few blogs I was reading about it, the monkeys are quite aggressive and do attack people if they look at them in their eyes. They also like to steal food. I am glad I got to see it once, but I cannot say I will be going back anytime soon.

Citations

https://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0002121&id=20

https://www.foreignersintaiwan.com/blog/monkey-mountain-shoushan

[mavericktknight]

"The Vampire Chronicles: Part One" A short story by Maverick T. Knight

The air smelled of blood as I found my way through an unlocked door of the building. Once I got inside the scene I encountered was gruesome. There were bodies mangled, ripped apart, drained of all its blood, lifeless along the ground. If only I had got there sooner none of this would have happened. Suddenly a shaking sound was coming from somewhere almost banging as if someone was trapped trying to get out. I looked and saw that it was coming from behind a door, I readily unsheathed my sword just in case ready strike, then pleading came from behind the door. I slowly turned the knob believing it was a vampire but it was a woman with fair skin, brown hair, and frightened to death of what had happened. I said " are you OK? She tried to speak but fear gripped her completely, so I reached out to grab her hand and pull her out the closet she had herself in. She wasn't sure she could trust me. If you had just been attacked by blood sucking vampires hell bent on killing you who happen to appear to be human only to be vicious monsters I would be scared shitless too. I asked her what her name was. She said "Kaitlyn". She was the office manager of this business complex. I said "what happened here? Did you see who it was?". She was too much in shock to remember and started to cry. It was then I knew it was going to be a long night.

After a while she finally stopped crying enough to tell me what happened, she said they came a couple hours earlier and started at the bottom floor of the building then they worked their way up killing every employee in sight. She told me the things that attacked them all had a tattoo on their hand with an upside down cross within a circle. As soon as she told me I knew who the vampires were who attacked her, I had been hunting their trail for weeks. The eternal ones, that's what the underworld called them, were a very violent sadistic group who believed in one thing and one thing only enslaving the human race and killing off the face of the earth. I should know because I used to be one of them.

#

It was a couple years ago back when I first turned not knowing how to navigate this new life I didn't know, choose or want but was forced upon me. I got chased down one night walking home by a hospital. I knew all the shortcuts near my home so I decided to take one this night then out of nowhere they appeared almost out of thin air, 7 or maybe 8 of them lead by their leader a psychotic vampire named Lucian or as the vampire world calls him the "dark lord". Immediately he ordered them to attack me but he didn't bet on how much of a fighter I was. I took martial arts at the local YMCA for about 4 years in case something like this happened. It definitely helped at that moment. Surprised by my skills, Lucian decided instead of killing me that he would make me one of them against my own will.

He instantly sunk his teeth into me. The pain that went through me was beyond anything that I could describe like I was dying. The Lucian spoke "you now belong to me I made you I am now your master, you do as I say or the result will be your death.” I was in so much pain I barely heard anything he said. The only thing I thought about was escaping. We were in an alley beside the hospital and I knew one of the doors that was on the side was normally unlocked so I looked up at two of Lucian's men and saw an opening so I used my legs to trip them and darted for the door. I could hear Lucian order his men " you idiots get him he's getting away". I made it safely inside. I knew the hospital and some of the staff here, seeing as I would volunteer here frequently. As soon as people saw me they were horrified at the appearance of my shirt. It was drenched in blood and I had two holes on the side of my neck. I guess it wasn’t much of a fashion statement. A nurse came to help me. I didn't know her but she seemed young, possibly a resident. She started to take a look at me to see where I was injured and she said " what happened, did someone do this to you?" At that moment I didn't know what was happening. All of a sudden I could hear her heart beating clear as day and could see the vein in her neck throbbing, it was like I was in a trance, all I could focus on was her neck. Then she looked dead at me in front of me, staring at me asking if I understood what she was saying. Then it happened fangs grew from my mouth on instinct and I latched onto her neck.

The horror I had on my face once I realized what I had done made me sick to my stomach. I looked at the girl's body that I had just drunk blood from lifeless on the ground drenched in blood. Then panic set in. I had to get out of the hospital before anyone saw me so I looked around to see if anyone was watching. I took one last look at her and felt guilty just leaving her like that. I felt conflicted about what to do. Then someone from the other end of the hallway looked at me and then at the nurse's body, "hey what the hell are you doing?". I sprinted to the nearest exit as quick as I could not looking back, running down the crowded streets of New York City believing I could never come back.

#

After the incident I fled the country and left New York knowing I was wanted for murder possibly so for the next few years I started traveling going as far as Europe to Asia. Along the way I had gotten word of Lucian and some of his dealings in the countries. I traveled so I decided to follow his crew's trail, set on revenge for what he had made me into and the monster I thought I became. However, as the years went by I found out how to use and control my vampire abilities and made a vow to myself that what happened in New York would never happen again. So I got creative and found other sources for blood so I wouldn't feed on humans and promised that I would take down any vampires associated with Lucian as well as those who hurt humans.

#

Now here I was six years later in the city I said I would never come back to yet Lucian's trail led me back here in the most unexpected way. I looked over at Kaitlyn, the office manager whom I had found as the only survivor of Lucian’s crew attack. I told her we had to get out of the building to somewhere safe before anything else happened, so I helped her up and headed to the nearest exit. She turned to look at me as we were walking and said "Who are you?" It took me by surprise. I almost didn't notice so I looked at her knowing I probably shouldn't say too much to someone I hardly knew. I had trust issues for obvious reasons so I said "A friend". She gave me a look of confusion then relief so I guess she made a decision in her mind that as long as I didn't drink her blood I was OK, I guess it was start.

We made it to an alley where I had my motorcycle parked. I didn't have an extra helmet so I gave her mine "here, I’m OK without it" I said. She looked at me still confused as to who I was and why I was helping her. I said "how far do you live?" She said " mid-town, bell tower condos". Midtown in New York city was where some of the wealthy lived so I assumed she was doing pretty well for herself so I said "let's go". The moment we made it to her building I parked my bike at the front entrance. She took off her helmet and gave it back. As she started to leave she then stopped and turned around and said "thank you for helping get home, I still didn't catch your name?” I hesitated to tell her I kept a very private life and didn't get close to people because of what I was and the incident from six years ago but I thought the least I could do was tell her my name so I said " it's Gabriel ". She smiled and said "thank you Gabriel". She just stood there a few seconds more then said "how do I reach you if those guys come back?" I looked at her and saw concern that she believed they would so I said "they probably think you're dead so chances are low they will come back, but they could attack other places so keep an eye open". She nodded and said "will do". I made it back to my loft downtown and parked my bike in the garage. I walked through my front door, and found an envelope sitting on the table in my living room with my name on it in red letters. I opened it and saw it was Lucian. This couldn't be good.

[braveclementine]

Elizabeth's Story

Warnings: None, angst

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs, which consist of Penny Fury, Elizabeth Nelson, Elijah Chan, Katya Venice, Violetta Moscow, Lan Le, Josh, Trang Tien, Ahni Jallow, Mai Ito, and Ghaida Kashual as well as other OCs that will come up throughout the story.

Elijah sneakily taking a picture of Elizabeth at their wedding. 

🪶😮‍💨 ⓢᵗᗝ𝓇𝔂 🐓😤

Elizabeth remembered the exact moment that everything had gone upside down. The story had started in her bedroom at home. Her, Violetta, and Katya had been getting ready for a Halloween party on the University of Cincinnati's campus. They had been dressing up as miraculous superheroes and she had been going as Kagami's superhero because she'd had a crush on a guy whose name was Long and Kagami's kwamis name was Longg.

She had driven down to the campus, parked in the parking lot and they had gone to the party. On the way back, Vi had wanted to take a shortcut through a dark alleyway to be cliché on Halloween night.

They had run into aliens. Elizabeth hadn't even known there was other life outside of Earth. It was something that later when she found out about the forgetting pills, that she wasn't allowed to know about.

Violetta had held one of them off with crazy moves that she seemed to just whip out of her ass. Elizabeth had grabbed a trash can lid, throwing it, and taking its head off. They had run to the car. More were waiting. In her panic, she just held her hands out and they were suddenly encased in ice.

They'd gotten into the car- Violetta driving this time- and tried escaping. The aliens knocked them into the Ohio River. Elizabeth had somehow created a bubble of air around the car so that they were still breathing. They had ended up downriver and had gone back home.

Katya was the one who came up with the idea of becoming superheroes. She took her archery skills and paired them with mechanical skills. She created her own wings and became a mix of Hawkeye and Falcon. She called herself the Scarlett Hawk.

Violetta on the other hand, had a variety of weapons, stuck some cat ears on her head and called herself Black Cat. Apparently there was already another superhero by that name though, so she started going by what the media called her: The copycat.

"The Italian Copycat has a nice ring to it." She laughed.

She had gone to Hong Kong not long after that and met 'real' superheroes. She met Elijah first at the restaurant he worked at when he wasn't being a superhero. He'd recognized her by her eyes under her mask and the two of them had talked privately. He'd touched her shoulder and she had gotten a Summer Tanager tattoo on her shoulder. He'd gotten the Cheetah and Okapi on his chest.

Neither of them knew what the tattoos meant for a long time.

Elijah brought her to the superhero club to introduce her to other superheroes. All of them were of Asian ethnicity because it was the Asian club in Thailand- there were teleporting entrances so everyone could be there. Josh was the only one who wasn't. He traveled between the bases to DJ.

She had met Mai, Lan, and Josh along with Wong and a few others. Mai, Lan, Star Sentinel, and Elijah had helped her take down Kalabhiti and she had returned to America.

One of the girls on the trip had been jealous of Elizabeth's relationship with Elijah. The sister of Kalabhiti had fed off of that energy and had given Sarah powers of lightning. Sarah's new name was Desdemona with purple hair and purple lightning.

She had used her waters powers to carry Elijah, Lan, and Mai over to help her out. That was how Lan found out Katya was his soulmate.

They had defeated Desdemona with no casualties except the villains.

Time passed. Elizabeth wanted to know what her trident was made of, to see if she could get more of the material so that she could make more weapons out of it. Maybe even armor.

Trang had tried to kick them out of the house, leading her out into the backyard to explain that Elizabeth's mother wanted Elizabeth to know nothing of superheroes and Trang wanted nothing to do with any of it, lest Lucinda punish her or her family.

But Violetta had explored Trang's secret lab and Trang had reluctantly let them come down. After explaining all they wanted, Trang agreed to it. After that, they spent most of their time in Trang's lab.

When Trang discovered the material was vibranium, she was shocked and asked Elizabeth where she had gotten it. Elizabeth explained, but when they went back to the shop, it was closed, decrepit, and they were told the owner had been dead for years.

Elizabeth also discovered Trang's Iron woman suit, dusty and in a closet. She had encouraged Trang to clean it up and join them.

They went down to Disney, Ghaida and Ahni joining them. They were attacked on the way there and also attacked several times while actually in Disney. So Ghaida and Ahni were well aware of their identity then.

They were invited to a superhero convention for actual superheroes by Elijah who just happened to be in the state. It would take place in EPCOT and they were all welcome.

That was where Mai met Ahni and the two of them fell head over heels for each other almost instantly.

Elizabeth had been starstruck when she met Frozone and she talked to him endlessly for hours while Elijah stood by, amused.

HYDRA agents invaded the entire thing. There were at least six hundred of them. Elizabeth and Katya had managed to find out where they were coming from and gone into the EPCOT ball. They found out there was a HYDRA base under the entire of Disney, the entrance through the EPCOT ball only one of many.

They had found Elizabeth's mother heading off the raids.

They had returned back to Ohio, trying to come up with plans to get Elizabeth out of her house and somewhere safe. But then she was kidnapped by the sister of Kalabhiti and they had to track her down.

With the help of Frozone and also partly Kalabhitis' more reasonable brother Alexander, they were able to track her down to Australia.

When in the airport, Ghaida had found Viden in a bookstore and had taken him.

They had saved Elizabeth from the brink of starvation and they had gone back to Ohio.

It had taken a bit, but finally Elizabeth managed to run. They had all met up at Trang's house and were trying to figure out where they wanted to go. Working on a lead with the name 'Maria Hill' they decided to head to New York first.

Elizabeth's brothers as it turned out, were both programmed super soldiers. Her mother, upon realizing what had happened and that her daughter was Frozaline, activated the trigger words and sent them after her daughter and friends.

They ran for their lives, not wanting to hurt Elizabeth's brothers. But after they blew up the car and Ghaida nearly lost her life, Elijah turned around and flamed them. It was a quick death, almost painless.

Fury found them the next day and offered them shelter.

Elizabeth went into the Navy a few weeks later.

She could never remember her life before that moment. She got vague impressions. She could remember what the high school looked like, she could vaguely remember teachers. But actual events? Friends? Sports?

There was nothing.

Her only earliest memory was something that seemed almost from a dream. It was a beautiful crystal lake with a gorgeous garden that reminded her of the ones on Asgard. And that was it.

The first person she could remember was a man- or she assumed they were a man as they were bald and there was no face on them- wearing bright yellow robes.

Everything else she remembered came after that evening of dressing up like Kagami with Violetta and Katya.

And now.

She remembered nothing at all.