#jk about the dragons

[england-would-fall]

Hey friendos. It’s your friendly neighborhood Certified Human Adult(tm) here. As this year draws to a close and we set out for another whirl around the Ol’ Sol, I urge you to remember: you deserve joy. Hand in hand with this, I bring you another reminder: just because some says something is correct or a fact or true does not mean it is. Some of the most confident (or confident-sounding) people make some of the most off-base, narrow, and un-nuanced statements. The world is not simple. Life is not simple. Humans are not simple. And that’s WONDERFUL. So dig deeper, sing louder, and block more liberally.

This is our time, besties.

Let’s love what we love and whom we love the way that best suits us. And if someone comes at us with a wrecking ball, we sidestep that motherfucker and love with even more noise and weirdness and abandon. Fuck it, babes.

Let’s dance.

[bbygirl-aemond]

it's so interesting to me that aegon immediately jumps to this idea of rhaenyra laughing at him from dragonstone, so much so that he brings it up twice in a row. it seems to be drawn from a deeper, older insecurity of his, borne out of his insecurity due to rhaenyra in particular. he fears she is looking down on him, and so he is convinced that she is laughing at him the exact same way he used to laugh at aemond when looking down upon him in their childhood.

[burloire]

Imagine Solavellan....but in BLUE. Wow! Such wonder. I just wanna say that that middle one the whole time I was drawing it I was imagining Lavellan having a flare up from the Anchor and Solas is all like "Does it hurt" and she's just like "Yes, but if enduring this means I can help people it is worth it." And Well. I'm sure that doesn't slap Solas in his little guilt ridden face huhuhuhu. Poor Egg. ANyway, hi there's a butt grab just for us. Happy Self-Indulgent Solavellan Sunday!!!

[deathandnonexistentialdread]

i love that this is where the gang draws the line: Blue Eyes White Dome

[corvus-frugilegus]

Man I just like... One of the core questions of Lucanis's character being: How to live fully and what does that really mean? Paired with the experience of the Ossuary and this new found determination to LIVE that comes from it is so great.

Not that I think he didn't want to live pre-ossuary either, he just seemed resigned to this idea that he'd probably die on the job one day and probably pretty young too. Then he goes through literal hell and survives and has made a deal with a demon to LIVE. So now he's grappling with this question: What does it even mean to live?

Because he didn't expect to leave the Ossuary alive and he did and now he has to live.

Because he made a deal, and now the demon inside him is screaming for him to live.

(What is facing your inner demons and finding a new way forward if not beginning to live? What is starting to heal if not committing to living?)

Sure he was living before, but following a path someone else set for him. What does it mean for him to live on his own terms? What does that even look like?

[ghost-bard]

I hope in the next dragon age game theres 3 dwarf companions 3 qunari companions 1 elf and a human that dies early on like that one girl from the dao awakening dlc

[shrimpari]

[lookingforcactus]

Okay but like. Solas used to be a Wisdom spirit. His name back then would have been Wisdom. He went straight from being Wisdom to being an elf and having a body.

Is that when he decided to change his name to Pride? Like, one would assume so? Even thought it sounds like he was never a spirit(/demon, if there was a difference back then?) of Pride specifically? But he changed his name to Pride anyway? As an outward manifestation of the way that he felt like getting a body twisted him against his nature?

Or did he take the name Pride later? During the war with the Titans? During his uprising?

Did he give himself the name Pride, or did someone else? Did the Evanuris? Did the elvhen people? Did Mythal??

Many thoughts, many questions, fascinating character implications

[icezeebee]

Happy ending under cut

Tada~

I really enjoyed @teapartyspilled ‘s Lyney fic, so I just had to draw some things. ✌️I reblogged it right before post this so you can easily find it.

[birb--birb]

Soooooo I did lich emmrich...for science..

AND IM SORRY I DONT LIKE IT HOW IS IT MORE COMON THAN SAVING MANFRED??????????

[haedia]

Ship Tropes Game

RULES: Pick one of your ships and name 5 tropes that apply to them. For each trope, explain why it fits — not just in terms of dynamics, but what it reveals about your blorbos as characters. Think of it as both ship analysis and character dissection.

I was tagged by @khomabrutalist most recently for this. I think I was tagged previously before my last fatigue thing but I'm not finding who did so in my mentions. So, if it was you, I'm sorry! Tumblr ate it and I couldn't find the tag anymore! ;n;

As for tags...uh. I know a bunch of my mutuals have been doing this one...so I don't know who to tag that wouldn't risk the likelihood of double tagging or being annoying DX

Gonna tag a few anyway. Sorry if this doubles-up! No pressure tags: @kaleido-moon, @basedonconjecture, @skullypettibone, @zwitter-iconic, @starlightsupernovae, @hightowerqueen, @trash-nerd, @elvhendis, @introvertedfangrl, @lynnerdo, @dread-red-queen, @tarasmom, @thedissonantverses

So, uh, if this seems fun, absolutely count this as me tagging you. And tag me back so I can see c:

I'm doing this with Nera and Illario in mind. I may do it again with Nera and Elek sometime but their relationship is more chill. Not saying it'd be less interesting or anything, it's just that Elek isn't as much of a mess as Illario can be.

I'm going to be pairing up a couple of tropes with these because of overlap and because the one trope alone doesn't do enough to capture the Vibe. And, some of these are not "official" tropes, so to speak, but if you look in your heart, you'll know them to be true.

Really Gets Around/Ethical Slut: Nera and Illario both are not shy about sexual encounters. The "whys" are different but the end result is the same: they're both well-acquainted with casual sex. Nera's reasons are more borne from practicalities. She spends a lot of time traveling and she's not one to bed her colleagues and she's not generally interested in being tied to one person, long-distance or not, so that rules out a lot of options. As a result, she tends to fall into bed with people in the various places she passes through.

Some of those partners become regulars.

When Illario and Nera first meet, it's in a bar/tavern in Treviso. They hit it off in part because it's clear they want the same thing that night. Or, well, mostly the same thing. Nera was looking for a threesome that night but agrees to bed Illario after he takes up the challenge of leaving her the kind of mess she was wanting from the threesome. She's skeptical of his ability to deliver but he rises to the challenge, so to speak.

During their night together, Nera shows him a level of interest and care for his needs, though, that he's not expecting. Nera brings an earnestness and appreciation to her nocturnal activities that Illario's not used to. He expects people to try to get what they want and be done with it: enjoy it for what it is but ultimately be self-serving. And Nera doesn't vibe with that. If she's in bed with you, she wants to be present and, in a way, joyful. Illario is a bit smitten by the time they're sated, which leads to:

Friends with Benefits/The Many-Night Stand: It starts with a night together. By all accounts, it should have only been that one. But something lingers. Nera asks if she can let him know when she's next in town. Illario tells her how to do that, but expects they'll both go their separate ways and that will be that.

Then, months later, when she passes through town again, she reaches out to him and he shows up. They spend the evening together. This time, with more conversation before falling into bed. And it becomes the beginning of an unusual (for a Crow like Illario) friendship-type thing.

(I have more to say about this part but I'm having trouble putting it into words in a useful way but the distilled part is that Illario finds it easy to talk to Nera and since she doesn't press and that they don't talk about his job in any kind of depth, she gets to know the parts of him that aren't as tied up in Crow things and he's surprised -- and delighted-- that anyone gives a shit about the things he actually likes)

Relationship Labeling Problems/Long-Distance Relationship: This thing between them goes on for years. Their first time together happens at least five years before the start of Veilguard, and they see each other a handful of times a year. It's not a relationship in the traditional sense but it's not not a relationship of some type. Situationship is probably closest but that's not a term they probably would have for it.

If pressed, Illario would deflect. In fact, a few years in, when Lucanis picks up on the fact that Illario is seeing someone in some form with at least some frequency, Illario does exactly that. It's only much later, when the events of Veilguard are in motion, that Lucanis puts the pieces together and realizes that Nera is the person Illario's been Not Seeing the whole time.

Nera, though, is less fussed about labels in general and doesn't have such a fraught history of interpersonal relationships (I mean, she's not a maladapted Crow, so). "Does it have to fit in a well-defined box?" She'd respond, if asked. Illario is one of the men she likes to visit. He's fun. She doesn't really care what their relationship is, so long as she gets to see him when she's in Treviso.

Illario, by contrast, doesn't want to think about what they are and I don't think he'd know what to do with the answer if he did. Especially as time goes on. He gets a bit more mentally hot potato about the topic, the longer they're Definitely Not in a Long-Distance Thing.

Which leads to:

Ladykiller in Love/Unknowingly in Love: So, Nera realizes she cares a lot for Illario at some point. She's the more emotionally stable/mature of the two, so that's not surprising. It's also not surprising that she realizes that even if Illario feels similarly, he's probably going to freak out at least somewhat when he comes to that conclusion. As a result, Nera kind of just keeps on with what they've always done and decides that if he figures it out then great but she's not gonna press for anything.

Illario, though. Oh, honey.

During their many-year-long Not Relationship, they both were free to do whatever with other and so Illario did his usual: going out when he felt like it, taking people to bed when the mood struck, taking people to bed on contract (be it with marks or not), and so on. Nera wasn't going to mind any of that.

Did he look forward to seeing her, when he knew she would be coming through? Did he start planning more elaborate evenings for them, as the years went on? Did he pamper her and tend to her sweetly following their nights together?

If the answer to any of those is yes, that doesn't have to mean anything.

Did he break after she left to help her cousin chase an elven god, when she had no idea when or if she'd be able to see him again?

If the answer to that one is yes...it doesn't have to mean anything, right?

I Want My Beloved to be Fashionable: This one is a bit of a tonal whiplash after the previous one, but it develops later on in their Not Relationship and comes back full-force after they're reconciled during the events of Veilguard.

Illario likes nice things. He likes to look nice and wear nice things and be clean. It's a common headcanon that he has a multi-step routine for his skincare and hair.

This extends to his partner, at least between him and Nera. Nera is, as with a lot of things, pretty chill. She can dress up and look stunning but she doesn't always put in the extra effort. But she knows Illario likes it when she's dressed up. She also knows he likes to dress her up himself. And, since she both appreciates his skills and enjoys being fussed over by him, she lets him dress her up.

So they have a kind of intimate ritual some nights when they're going out where they'll bathe together then Illario will do her hair and makeup and have an outfit picked out for her. So he gets to fuss over her, make her beautiful, have her be appreciative of his skills and taste, then after their evening out, he gets to mess it all up and mark her in different ways, then pamper her and clean her again.

This whole sequence starts a few years after they meet, when Illario has a dress made for her for when she next visits. This is the moment when Nera realizes that Illario cares, but also realizes that Illario hasn't realized that it means Illario cares. Later, though, after things smooth out and they're Actually Together For Real, Illario coming to terms with his affection leads to this Dressing My Lover becoming one of his favorite things.

As such, it's not just "I want my beloved to look nice". It's that but it's also a ritual to express adoration and a ritual to receive and appreciate the love and skill of a loved one.

Anyway. That's them, in a nutshell. There are other tropes that apply at different points in their relationship, but those are the broad ones.

I just love them so much. I could (and have! and will again!!) talk about them for hours.

Eventually, I'll do this for Nera x Elek, Illario x Nera x Elek, and Kiore(my Rook) x Lucanis

[blightbright]

I haven't mentioned on here yet: last weekend I posted chapter 23 of my smutty Solavellan surreal horror (but with a true happy ending) novel-length romance fix-it fic, Sea of Frozen Words!

What I also haven't explicitly mentioned with this fic yet and will now: I've seen some critiques of DATV about the game's inability to grapple directly and deeply with systemic oppression in Thedas. I agree with this in a lot of ways, and some of what I'm writing is in response to that.

My fic is primarily focused on the sometimes beautiful and often fucked up inner worlds and lived experiences of a handful of individual characters. It legit is a romance (despite recurrent forays into cosmic horror...) because it's about the emotional journeys of my Lavellan, Solas, and their evolving relationship with each other. It's HEA.

That said, the personal is political, and what I constantly end up depicting as a writer is that life is hard, people are extremely messy in individual+societal ways, AND ALSO authentic connection, collective liberation, and tenderness are possible and meaningful. This fic is definitely here for demolishing hierarchy, rethinking default DA theology, rejecting purity, grappling with ideas of love as compliance versus love as a refusal to comply, imperfect trauma healing, and clever resistance against systemic oppression. I DIDN'T PLAN FOR THIS ON PURPOSE (it started purely as a creepy-sexy one-shot lmao), but writing it is one of my own personal heartfelt fuck yous against fascism and colonization, and I think this shows up. How well I deliver on these themes, that's a different question lmao but one can hope.

Plus, you know. Creepy nightmares, romantic angst, and very explicit sex scenes.

[neves-trouble]

Funny how when it's a video of Lucanis' romance, all the comments are praising it and swooning over him, but when it's Taash it's "cringe" and "bad writing"

Wonder why that is...

[dragoneveryday]

102 - smth worth celebrating

[villain-menagerie]

You know who has experience stopping Old Gods from "Blighting the world" and Solas had no intel on?

THE Warden

Just saying, Bioware

[snacobie]

Hear the music of love eternal

Wolf is @greenieart s 🌹