#layalu

[curiouslavellan]

Humanly contrived sounds intriguing 👀

this is my single non-Dragon Age wip! it's Mass Effect instead. Andromeda, to be specific (which apparently many people did not like, but I do not care lol)

This is going to be a series of outsider POV scenes based on the relationship between my Pathfinder and SAM, the bonded AI. I really love the set up for them in game so far and I've been taking notes as I play, marking scenes I would want to either add or change. I wanna strike a good balance between Ryder and SAM's connection being genuinely caring/familial and the rest of the team being super creeped out by how close she is with him. Highlights include Ryder giving SAM joke lessons and having a disturbing lack of regard for her own physical autonomy

[andnatiabrosca]

maybee 19 Or 29 for either Nat or Mal?

this is Late but this is from the [artifacts of thedas] prompt list (always open! just struggling sometimes to get things done in anything resembling good time.

[@layalu pinging you in case tumblr doesn't want to tell you I answered the ask]

19. a pendant of a paragon for Malachite (and kind of Nat?)

"Look like you lost this, boss." Bull's even voice falls over Malachite like a warm blanket. 

Her sight isn't quite back yet, so she lifts a hand.  "I'll take it.  Can you sort in my bag?  I need a heal and my compounding kit." 

Bull's heavy as he squats down, brace clicking as he shifts into a sustainable position.

"There you are," he says, pressing a small metal disk into her palm.

She knows it from just that weight.  Flips it over and rubs her thumb against the face.

“You about found the sodding thing?” she barks towards the sound of Bull rummaging in her rucksack.  Sharper than she intended. 

“Just looking for a cleaner rag,” he replies, even and steady.  “You’re gonna need something for those eyes.  Ever heard of blocking?”

Must be worse than she thought.

“Hard to block a fucking blood-crazed bird.  If I were the Maker’s wrath sort…”

“After all the shit coming after you, I wouldn’t blame you,” Bull says and hands her an elixir.  “I thought I’d seen almost everything out here.  Crows that drink your eyes, well.  Didn’t see that.”

The healing elixir helps the floating feeling in Mal’s everything, and removes the overwhelming urge to just lie down and sleep. Forever.

The sluggish numb relieved, the pain makes itself known.  And the ache.

Rough linen – one of her spare shirts – presses hard against her forehead.

“Sit still and I’ll get this stablized,” Bull says.  “I’m no healer, but you’re not going anywhere like this.”

Malachite complies, sagging into the leg Bull has kindly propped behind her.  She needs to top up on her philter soon, especially after that fight, but she can’t hope to compound one if she can’t see – it’s only been a few weeks.

The little iron pendant in her hand – she knows that without sight.  Tries to build an image of it in her head from touch alone to distract from the burning and tugging as The Iron Bull disinfects and stitches her head, quick and dirty.

The pendant is a little bigger than a sovereign, but feels half as heavy.  The iron is pitted from years hanging from her neck.  The reverse was once blank, but she ground her name fighting seasickness on a long sail.  On the face is the cameo bust of a dwarven woman.  She can trace the outlines and feel the proud cheekbones, the wide nose.  Malachite knows the woman – barely a woman, to be fair – depicted on the face looks hard and tired in the sharp geometry of dwarven art.  Her face is too sharp, life fading on her cheeks.  Her eyes glare even in the cast metal.

“Could be you,” the smith had joked selling her the disk.

“I used to want to believe in the Maker,” Malachite admits, like Bull is going to give a shit.  Not like Cassandra would, or even her Josie.

“Yeah?” he entertains her, tugging sharply to set a stitch.  “How come?”

“I’m casteless. My family were thrown out of the Stone before living memory, for a reason we can’t remember.”  She sighs and lets herself slump into his lap, pain cresting nausea in her stomach.  “Figured if I was going to be a second-class person, I might as well do it with a g-d that hadn’t already tried to kill me.”

“No g-d wasn’t an answer?” Bull asks, pressing a dry section of her shirt against a bleed.

“Don’t pretend you don’t undersand, Ser turned-myself-in-for-reeducation.  I’ve never been the biggest thing out there.  I just hoped whatever was there was friendly.”  She’s starting to drift along with the pain.

“Because the Orlesian Chantry is known for being friendly?”

“Point taken.”

There’s a last sharp dousing of alcohol, the greasy paste of an elfroot poultice, and she’s patched up.

Bull huffs, shifting pressure off his hips and her off as she opens her eyes.  “’Always wanted to’ isn’t the same as ‘believed in’.  Nor ‘want to believe in’, present tense.  What’s keeping the Herald of Andraste from believing in the Maker?”

Malachite holds up the pendant, weaving the leather cord around her fingers. 

“This,” she says, holding it out to Bull.  “I was almost seventeen and a smith threw this in with some leathers I bought off him.”

“Some kind of charm?” he asks, respectfully not touching it, although the spark in his eye betrays his interest.

“Paragon charm, yeah,” Malachite says, pulling her arm closer before the tremors start.  “But it’s who the Paragon is.  See the raised bit on her cheek there?  She’s casteless, like me. She’s a reminder.”

“Reminder?” Bull starts adjusting his braces where they loosened during the fight.

“She’s out there, somewhere.  Reminding that even us the Shaperate claims are forgotten by the ancestors – even we have a place in the Stone.”  The smith’s words spill out of Malachite’s mouth – words that kept her breathing through her mother’s death. 

And then the words that have kept her breathing even as the whole damn world calls her Herald and Saviour.

“Nat Brosca was just some duster to the Shaperate, but she was always a Paragon of Duty.  It doesn’t matter if Thedas is calling me Herald of Andraste.  I’m still Malachite, of House Cadash, and I’m still going to fight that rotting magister because someone has to.”

[snowberry-pie]

Hmmm. 🐱? Not as a friend but like. As a person In General (/to sb you don't like) you can be kind of intimidating x'd

that’s so funny because i feel like i can be such a baby about/towards people i don’t like HAHA

[the-penguinspy]

Hands u.. a sushi cat.... <3

hehe, sleepy guy :) thx for sending a pic, loved drawing this lil kitty

[gehayi]

25, 39, 62 from the DA asks? c:

25) Favorite DA:I place?

The Emerald Graves. The Graves are green and beautiful, mostly unspoiled by red lyrium, and not filled with broken or burning houses. The area also has a number of side quests that are long and complex but easy to overlook, such as the Chateau d'Onterre haunted house mystery (which is a great example of environmental storytelling) or the Knights' Tomb (which, regrettably, can only be completed after you attend Empress Celene's anxiety-inducing party) allows you to fight undead, learn about Dalish history, and right an ancient wrong by giving the Dalish access to their peoples' tomb again. (You can also give the Chantry access, but why would you want to? Fuck the Chantry.) And there are hidden quests around every corner. I haven't found all of them, even now.

The Hissing Wastes come in second due to the lost thaig of Kal Repartha ("a place where we may meet in peace") and the Tomb of the Paragon Fairel.

39) Creepiest moment in-game?

That first glimpse of Hawke's mother Leandra, after the necromancer serial killer has...operated on her. Answered in a LOT more detail here.

62) A character you think deserves more fan love?

It's a tossup between Carver Hawke, Sera, and Shale.

They're deadpan snarkers who aren't afraid to complain about the player characters' bad ideas. They're all fiercely protective of the people they care about while being very bad at expressing how they feel. All of them are suffering from multiple traumas while trying to hide that they were traumatized at all.

All three endured the Fifth Blight: Carver fought at Ostagar, fled Lothering with his family, and lost his twin sister to a darkspawn (an ogre); Shale fought by the side of the Hero of Ferelden to end the Fifth Blight; and Sera, as a child, lived through the Battle of Denerim, when the darkspawn invaded the city. Their stories are ones of loss--loss of home, loss of family, loss of safety, loss of self-esteem, loss of memories, loss of identity.

They're good people. Flawed, but good.

[drakonovisny]

Sending you good vibes (and this pic of my floofer) <3

awwww so fluffy!!! 🥺

[cryptidyork]

Blorbo bingo for zagreus hadesgame! :)

Thank you!!

[exotic-inquiry]

pop pop✨

[nanowatzophina]

Sometimes you just gotta scroll through Lay’s art on her @dungeons-and-dragon-age blog and decide to draw one of her wardens.

Gotta say, was pretty easy to fall in love with Renan, they are very pretty and I wanted to draw him looking at least somewhat happy. She deserves it.

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

worst part about a post breaching containment is that ppl wont know it's me/the op saying i read their tags when i like their reblogs 😔

[layalu]

spot the hyperfixation challenge (easy mode)

(for reference, my earliest DA guys are from late 2020, everyone else on here is from 2017 or earlier lmao)

[curiouslavellan]

Hiya! If you`re still taking asks, how bout betrayal and desire for both Hawkes? c:<

I'm always taking asks lol, ty!

betrayal: Has your OC ever been betrayed by someone they thought they could trust? Has your OC ever betrayed someone who trusted them?

Ariel, not so much, because they're slow to trust in general. Exactly how or when someone like Bartrand or Sebastian will eventually turn on them might have been a surprise, but they're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Honestly they're probably more shocked Aveline never did than anything else. If anyone, I'd say Isabela when she ran off with the Tome of Koslun, but that was more like being offended she didn't seem to believe them when they said she could have it. They absolutely did betray Sebastian, because I usually hc that Ariel helped with the Chantry bombing or at the very least knew about it in advance, but they don't feel bad about it. In their opinion, it was foolish of him to trust them in the first place.

Laurel, in contrast, did feel betrayed by the Chantry bombing, she never believed Anders could have taken it that far. I think she also felt betrayed on a more personal level when Fenris left after their first night together, in the sense that she had made herself very vulnerable and then they were just supposed to pretend that never happened. Insert ironic metaphor about Fenris tearing hearts out here. I guess you could consider her becoming a maleficar a betrayal in return, and that would probably count for several other people in the main group, especially Sebastian who is one of her best friends.

desire: What's one thing your OC wants more than anything in the world? Are they open with that desire? Why or why not? What would they do to fulfill it?

Ariel wanted children very badly and never said a single thing about it until they ended up with kids by accident. Partially because their life was super dangerous for like ten different reasons, partially because Anders was a Grey Warden and not likely to have biological kids, partially because they didn't even know if Anders would want kids. In Ariel's mind, everything else in their life was a good enough trade off that they could probably get over it. Then they ended up adopting a bunch of kids after the Circles fell because the little apprentices didn't always have somewhere to go, so that worked out better than expected lol

Laurel wants safety and, especially in her early years in Kirkwall, did some really bad things to get that. Laurel sided with the templars for almost half the game because she wanted to be on their good side and to direct any suspicion away from herself. She's... kind of open about this? Definitely about wanting it, but more circumspect about being willing to kill or condemn other mages to the Circles to avoid the same fates herself. She knows she's a hypocrite. It doesn't stop her.

[andnatiabrosca]

2 or 5 from the codex prompts for Nat?

2. a letter written by your oc's family member

[letter from the Hero of Fereldan's sister, date uncertain. found unopened in a dusty residence chamber of Denerim palace, wax seal cracked with age. the script is a block style, uncommon to Fereldan. portions of the letter appear in an unknown language]

Little Sister - I'm not sure you'll get to read this. Not sure where you're at these days. Not sure if you're alive, to be honest.

If you do get this, I wanted to tell you about back home. I'm taking a break from being Ambassador for a while. Things are getting big enough to take care of at home, and our relations are pretty good with the surfacers. I'll be hosting some of their ambassadors down in Orzammar.

[an unreadable paragraph]

Endrin's getting big. Bhelen's talking about him going [illegible]. You know I don't want him to go. I figured I could take some time with him before that, you know? I've got to go home to take care of Mother's funeral, anyway, since you're not here.

That's right, I'm not sure you got my last letter.

Mother died a couple months ago. Finally drank herself to her grave. I'm not going to say I'm losing sleep over it, but I wish she'd figured out to stop.

I'm sure you're happy she's finally gone. She hated you so much. I'm not sure how I feel.

[an unreadable paragraph]

I'll see you sometime, [illegible]. I hope you get to read this, but after four years - you're probably dead on me. If you aren't, and you get this - let me know you're still alive. And come give your little girl her mama back.

Rica

[snowberry-pie]

sans undertale for the blorbo bingo >:3

LAYA IM SCREAMING but no fr sans undertale is one of the most characters ever I started liking him as a joke but he fucks me up so bad. my fave guy

[the-penguinspy]

2, 5, 37 for the fic asks! :3

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

hmm not really a trope, but i'd really love to give a shot at writing with a bigger cast of characters! dialogue is something i'm still practicing, something that i struggle with even with just two characters (i tend to ramble a lot re: descriptions LMAO), but i'd love to write about multiple characters interacting with each other :)

5. Share one of your strengths.

answered here! but if another, then i'd go with my prose. i think i do a good job of setting the beat and rhythm for my phrases.

37. Talk about your current wips.

man oh man!! a couple of the big ones:

werewoofs au: the OCS is a werewolf-run organization that helps newly-turned wolves transition into life w/ lycanthropy. that's the crux of what they do, and they have a mentorship program going on. beatrice (long-time werewolf) is assigned to ava (newly turned)

space vagabonds au: space au!! they're not vagabonds though so i dunno why i named it that way but it's stuck now 😭 inspired by a long way to a small, angry planet by becky chambers, and the podcast the strange case of starship iris by jessica best. found family traversing through space, may or may not have an overarching plot. the OCS crew pilot a ship and pick up ava from a devastating wreckage far-off in space...

[daggerbeanart]

WIP Wednesday

I was already making my post when I saw the tags from @greypetrel & @melisusthewee (ty <3) because I actually have some progress to share this week lol.

Did a bit on my reading Fenris thing :] (the third one is an alternative I considered, I don’t know if I’ll paint it too bc l’d have to do different lighting, but I like it as is)

Tagging @layalu @brother-genitivi @ndostairlyrium @shivunin 💜