#oc: adina saar

[herearedragons]

Three-Song Playlists

So making long playlists takes time, and I don't even have that many songs for some characters, but three sounds like a reasonable number. So I'm going to compile three-song playlists for as many ocs as I can manage, and while I'm at it, let's make it a tag game!

Tagging @solas-backpack-mug @dungeons-and-dragon-age @ndostairlyrium @curiouslavellan @greypetrel @transprincecaspian @zundely and whoever else has ocs and songs that fit hem! (and if, unlike me, you have extensive playlists for every character, I guess the challenge is to choose the three songs that fit them best)

Kyana Amell (Dragon Age: Origins)

a force to be reckoned with

Muse - Survival

Muse - Blockades

Florence + The Machine - Various Storms And Saints

Adina Saar (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

loud and bright, secretly longing for a world she can't have (the Fade as spirits experience it)

Fall Out Boy - Immortals

EVE - Yuseiboushi (Living idly and dying as if in a dream) (flashing lights/images warning)

Fall Out Boy - Hold Me Like A Grudge

Selene (Pillars Of Eternity)

psychic demigod born to be the final boss, forced to be the protagonist

Tarja - Lost Northern Star (also the remixes I lovingly dubbed boss battle phase 1 and boss battle phase 2)

Lyriel - Voices In My Head

Evanescence - Bring Me To Life (linking the gregorian monk cover because it fits her setting really well)

Firi of the Read Scarves (D&D)

elf boy escapes abusive home, becomes a criminal prodigy

Ado - Motherland (flashing lights/images warning)

EVE - Tokyo Ghetto (flashing lights/images warning)

Saint Motel - A Good Song Never Dies

Evelyn Trevelyan (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

suffers under the weight of secrets and impostor syndrome, but finds love and understanding eventually

EVE - Dramaturgy (flashing lights warning)

Florence + The Machine - No Light, No Light (flashing lights/images warning)

EVE - Yoku (flashing lights warning)

Aqun Adaar (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

local mercenary tries to be a good leader, grows more stressed with each day

Imagine Dragons - Ready, Aim, Fire

Encanto - Surface Pressure (linking the Caleb Hyles cover for matching pronouns)

Twenty One Pilots - Pet Cheetah (eye strain warning)

Neilar Lavellan (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

LAVELLAN ANGST + a Dorian POV in the last song

R.E.M - Losing My Religion

Florence + The Machine - What The Water Gave Me

Florence + The Machine - What Kind Of Man

[lavellanlove]

💭 for Adina Saar? c: (@my-da-phase)

Katsuro: in short, Adina makes me nervous. Her motivations seem to be in the right place most of the time, but I have no idea what is going on in her mind. From what I’ve seen, she seems stubborn. Brash. Impulsive. Either she looks like she is liable to pick a fight with the world or seems lost in her own world at the bottom of a flask. For better or worse, she is someone I will most likely keep at a distance as I work to better understand her.

(re:💭 OC thoughts meme)

[herearedragons]

@ndostairlyrium requested: 🌸 Flower - Draw your OC in a flower crown for Aqun. Adina keeps sneaking into prompts that aren't about her, but she's fun to draw, so it's fine (and besides, someone had to make the flower crown).

Thanks for sending a prompt!

Challenge me to draw my OCs

[herearedragons]

@ndostairlyrium requested:👕 Outfit Swap - Draw your OC in the clothes of another OC for Neilar. I gave him Adina's clothes, so it's only fair that she should get his.

Thanks for sending prompts! I think I'm going to post each prompt fill separately, so that's why I'm not posting this as a response to your ask.

challenge me to draw my OCs

[herearedragons]

Hey hey! :] From the design asks, face, motion, and roots for Adina and Aqun (and/or anyone else you'd like)?

face: Describe your OC's face. What's their smile like? Are their orbs cerulean? What would someone notice first when looking at them?

Adina: …honestly, all of her features are pretty intense, but the first thing someone would notice is the side swept bright red hair and the golden earrings, because those are hard to miss on purpose. She has a pretty angular face with a strong jaw and defined cheekbones, a wide nose and wide eyes, and doesn’t really have a resting expression; her face is always doing something. I also randomly decided that she has fangs, even though it’s not a thing for Qunari even in my headcanon. I guess if you spend your formative years with one foot in the Fade, your physique gets a little weird?

Aqun: in-universe, the first thing an observer’s eye would be drawn to is probably his “horns”, since they’re equally weird to a Qunari and a non-Qunari, and the other standout feature would probably be his nose. He also has a pretty angular face, a hooked nose with a prominent nose bridge, and narrower eyes. His resting expression is this vaguely contemplative/serious/concerned look that does Not change unless there’s something significant to react to.

motion: How does your OC move? How does their clothing help or hinder their range of motion? Are they flexible, coordinated, clumsy?

Both of them are very in control of their bodies, but they’re trained for different purposes, and it shows in the way they move.

Adina’s movements are very bouncy and fluid, kind of like a dancer’s or acrobat’s. She’s really good at controlling her center of mass, so either when doing something purposefully or just in a casual situation, you’ll see her shift her weight a lot. She’s a middle-to-close range fighter, as well as a mage, so she’s used to her surroundings changing quickly and chaotically, and the way she moves allows her to respond to whatever’s happening around her. She dresses to accomodate that, too; her clothes are pretty simple and loose, and she only wears jewelry that doesn’t get in the way of what she’s doing (so bracelets and earrings, no necklaces or rings). In a more casual setting, she gestures a lot (and I mean A Lot) and just generally takes up a lot of space.

Aqun, on the other hand, is a ranged fighter; usually, he’s not engaging with an enemy directly, and his usefulness in combat depends on how quickly and precisely he operates his equipment/weapons. Unlike Adina, whose whole MO is “I’ll throw myself in a direction in the wildest way possible and still make it work for me perfectly”, Aqun’s movements are very… optimized. Everything is purposeful and quick and the best way to get from A to B, and that, again, applies both to combat and daily life. If Adina is constantly shifting, Aqun is noticeably still; you wouldn’t be able to describe it unless you were looking for it, but it really just boils down to him not making any unnecessary movements ever. Even when he’s fidgeting, it’s still a conscious, purposeful action. Clothes-wise, he also dresses comfortably and simply, but not as loosely as Adina.

roots: Is your OC's look inspired by any specific style of clothing or fashion trend? What are the roots and/or inspiration for their look?

…okay, so here’s the thing, I didn’t really… think that much about their outfits? Adina’s turned out to be iconic (to me, at least), but it was 100% a happy accident. I knew that she would wear something loose and comfortable, and I came up with a very warm-climate outfit (shirt, vest, baggy pants that end at the knee), and then I just decided that she wears it everywhere because her body heat auto-adjusts to her surroundings because uhhh magic. (sorry, Dorian, I guess if you lived in the woods and learned from the spirits as a child and also used your entire body as an arcane focus, you wouldn’t have to suffer from the cold)

Aqun’s outfit is just Shirt And Pants. I. That’s it. I also gave him a vest in the newest iteration of it. It’s a gift from Adina. If you cosplayed him, the body paint and horns would probably take a while, but you would Not have to worry about the outfit.

Thanks for the ask!

Character design asks

[herearedragons]

Starting things off with a mass attack on day one! (technically it's already day two, but the website wouldn't let me upload it last night)

I had Adina design some vitaar patterns for other people's OCs. Featuring @weewidget's Oraan Adaar and @shaykai's Soraan Adaar.

Working on Maaras is always a challenge; she’s a skilled vitaar artist as well, and Adina can’t help but feel that she has to measure up. And then there’s her history, told in scars across her face; a history that Freedom, and therefore Adina herself, has a lot of feelings about. She picks a flower for the central element, big, bold petals around Maaras’ left eye, and adds vines sprouting in all directions from underneath it. An image of freedom and growth, which, when painted on the face of a former Saarebas, is a louder battle cry than any image of violence could be.

For Oraan, it’s got to be a dragon; there’s no doubt about it in Adina’s mind. The only question is, which one? She decides on the Gamordan Stormrider, using the shape of its horns and distinct purple-and-orange coloration as a base. It goes really well with Oraan’s red hair and even complements her golden earring; from there, it’s just a matter of adding a few highlights. Adina grins, examining her work. Hopefully, the design will remind their enemies that Oraan has already faced down several high dragons - what could they possibly do against her?

Soraan likes nice things. Adina understands; she’s the exact same. That’s why she spares no expense, even pulling out her special gold paint for his design. Blue contrasts nicely with the gold and just suits Soraan in general, so she makes it the second dominant color. It takes her some time to decide on the theme; eventually her eyes wander to the blade of his battleaxe, and she decides to take inspiration from that. She uses the scar on his nose as a guideline, and from there the pattern slowly comes together; by the time she’s done, Adina kind of regrets not saving this design for herself, but, oh well.

[herearedragons]

💥COLLISON and 👖JEANS for all/any (i'd def love to hear abt Kyana though)? :]

OC emoji asks

Thanks for the ask!

💥 COLLISION - what emotions do they have trouble dealing with?

Kyana: ...all of them? Feeling strongly about things is, in general, pretty new to her, and so far she's been dealing with it mostly by blowing things up. I guess she weirdly has trouble dealing with gentler emotions like affection or gratitude, because she doesn't really know what to do with them. Things like anger she can use to propel herself forward, but this? What the Void does she do with this?

Neilar: negative emotions aimed at people or things he cares about. His entire identity is built around who and what he loves, so when that is challenged, it's not great for him. So, unsurprisingly, it's pretty difficult for him to deal with the revelation about the elven gods or with the way his relationship with Dorian is going by the end of Trespasser.

Aqun: anger and helplessness. He has an internalized fear of "going savage" despite only being half-Qunari, so he tries to avoid anything that feels even remotely like it. With anger in particular, he doesn't really know how to make it go away in a way that's still rational.

Adina: loneliness. It's been years since she's been completely alone, with Freedom or Aqun or the other Valo-Kas always somewhere nearby, and she likes it that way; I think she wouldn't know what to do with herself without any company at all.

👖 JEANS - what is their go-to outfit?

Kyana: during the Blight it's whatever offers the most protection. Left to her own devices, I think it's either straight-up wizard robes or, like, skirts/long coats, long-sleeved buttoned-up tops. She mostly wears dark, desaturated blues, purples and greys, and no jewelry except for her Warden's Oath and Zevran's earring (she does get her ear pierced so that she can wear it properly).

Neilar: he has like two shirts, one pair of pants and a jacket that he packed at home before going to the Conclave, and, left to his own devices, he'll just be wearing that, so it's simple clothes of Dalish make in earthy green/brown tones. There's also the red scarf/bandana thing I always draw him with, which is a good luck charm his younger sister gave him, and that always stays on in some capacity; if he's not wearing it around his neck, he'll tie it to his belt or around his hand.

Aqun: just, like, a shirt and trousers. Similar to Neilar, he doesn't keep a wide selection of clothes, but his are kind of more plain and less personal and also (unlike Neil, who's surprisingly good at making his clothes last) he keeps having to replace them because they get burned or torn or irreversibly stained with stinky chemicals.

Adina: the one I always draw her with: some kind of sleeveless shirt, her favorite vest(which is kind of a dark magenta I think), loose pants with a sash and a whole bunch of jewelry. She doesn't really wear makeup, but sometimes she'll wear a little bit of vitaar paint without the actual vitaar ingredients as decoration.

[herearedragons]

Drawing a character after a long break is usually a challenge, but apparently if it’s Adina she just…… shows up

(ft. me realizing that I can cover coloring mistakes with blood)

[herearedragons]

ALSO LOOK AT THIS ADINA BY dowwy_

[herearedragons]

How about 5 or 18 for the dialogue prompts?

Dragon Age-inspired dialogue prompts

I ended up combining them! You didn't specify a category, so I went with the comedy one.

5. “There’s no problem magic can’t fix.” “Or create.” + 18. “Don’t worry. Everybody’s afraid of something.” “Even you?” “No.”

It’s a terrible day for this operation. Everyone knew this, Shok knew this, but it was way too late to call things off, so here they are.

The fog that rolled in just before dawn still shows no sign of dissipating; from their hiding place between the rocks, Aqun can just barely make out the other side of the canyon, and even that without any detail.

“I don’t like this,” he says. “At this rate, we might miss the signal. Not to mention what this moisture is probably doing to the gaatlok.”

Adina makes a farting noise with her mouth.

“Relax; you can’t change anything anyway,” she says. “It’s fine. The signal’s really bright, and if the gaatlok’s wet, I’ll just help it a little. There’s no problem that some magic can’t fix.”

“Can you fix this fog?” he asks sarcastically.

“Well…” Adina thinks for a moment. “…I don’t know. There’s a lot of it, but, maybe? I should try sometime.”

For a moment, she seems taken by the idea, but sets it aside quickly to focus on something more interesting - which, unfortunately, turns out to be him.

“You really don’t like this, do you,” she says.

“I don’t. Like I said, there’s too many variables. Also, the damn fog creeps me out.”

And of course, Adina’s face lights up.

“You’re scared of the weather!”

“I’m not scared, I said it creeps me out.”

“It’s all the same, Adaar.” She reaches over to pat him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. But it’s fine, you know? Everyone’s afraid of something.”

“Oh, everyone. So even you?”

“Nah. But I’m not everyone; that doesn’t count.”

“Sure.”

He goes back to staring into the milky expanse. 

It’s another ten minutes, at least, before the Black Glass show up. At first, they’re nothing but a creeping dark shape in the distance; then comes the sound of footsteps and hooves, and, finally, they’re close enough for Aqun to make out separate groups of people.

Shouldn’t be long until the signal now. He keeps his bow half-drawn, the explosive arrow ready.

The signal goes up. He shoots.

The arrow disappears into the fog. A moment later, there’s a crack where they stashed the gaatlok… and nothing else.

“Vashedan!” he curses. “It got into the barrels! Of course it got into the barrels - “

Adina pushes past him (he moves out of the way instinctually), downs one of her lyrium bottles and reaches a hand in the same direction the arrow went. An orange glow starts in her eyes, travels down her throat and into the outstretched hand, growing in intensity, until a sphere of fire forms between her fingers and flies howling into the fog.

A moment later, the ground shakes.

The artificial landslide they’d set up tumbles down.

Adina turns to him and grins, her teeth still glowing blue from the lyrium. 

“See? No problem that magic can’t fix - “

Aqun notices something and pulls her down behind the rock just as something white and heavy crashes against the cliff with a sound resembling breaking glass. Ice blast, courtesy of some Black Glass mage.

“ - Or create,” he says. “I think they know we’re here now.”

“Uh-huh. Hold tight!”

Adina grabs his arm; he grabs her shoulder with one hand and his bow with the other, and, just as another chunk of ice comes flying in their direction, she pulls them both into the Fade.

[herearedragons]

Hello! :3

For the emoji ask, what about, for all (or as many) of your blorbos…

👪 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is your ocs relationship to them? does your oc have any siblings?

🥞 PANCAKE - what is their comfort breakfast?

📦 PACKAGE - what are some "most likely to…" that can apply to them?

OC emoji asks

Thanks for the ask! Whew, lots of biographical facts in this one.

👪 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is your ocs relationship to them? does your oc have any siblings?

Kyana: was taken from her family at a very young age (~5 y.o.) and under traumatizing circumstances, so she has either suppressed or forgotten most of the information about her family. She does canonically have a lot of siblings, though.

Neilar: his mother is a former city elf who joined the clan after the death of her first husband(Neil's biological father); her second husband, the clan's ironbark smith, is the one who helped raise Neilar and the one Neil considers his actual father. Neil also has a younger sister; her name is Liel, she's 8 years younger than him and she's a menace, but they get along just fine. In general, the entire family is on good terms with each other, and as the Inquisitor, Neil misses them a lot.

Aqun: his mother is a scholar from an Antivan family; she wound up living in (and later near) Ostwick because she insisted on studying under a certain Marcher academic she's been a lifelong fan of. His father became Tal-Vashoth after miraculously surviving the explosion of his dreadnought, washing ashore and being rescued by a scholar who happened to be taking a walk on the beach. They eventually got married and live in a cabin just outside of Ostwick. Aqun is on good terms with both of his parents; his father was the first person to teach him how to fight, and his mother (who is also responsible for his entire education because he was homeschooled) taught him most of his artificer skills.

Adina: she grew up in a mostly human/elven orphanage; she doesn't really know the details of how she ended up there and she doesn't want to know. When her magic manifested, she ran away before the templars got there and spent some time living in the woods with a Freedom spirit as a guardian. Eventually someone spotted a horned girl practicing magic in the woods, and mistook her for a demon; the Valo-Kas, who got hired to "exterminate the demon threat", ended up adopting her instead. Adina considers the entirety of the Valo-Kas her family; the closest thing she has to parents are Shokrakar, Hissera (a mage from her kith who was responsible for her when she was a child) and her Freedom spirit, who is still watching over her.

🥞 PANCAKE - what is their comfort breakfast?

Kyana: Fereldan stew is probably a weird thing to have for breakfast, but for some reason sitting by the campfire at an ungodly early hour and eating the leftovers of Alistair's cooking is a comforting memory for her, so that's what it is.

Neilar: tea and some kind of pastry, or the Dalish equivalent of granola bars, so these extremely dense and sweet bricks of grain and dried fruit that you're going to be eating a lot as a scout. Listen, he just needs to get something with a lot of sugar to get his brain going.

Aqun: his mom has an Antivan recipe for spiced coffee that he hasn't been able to replicate himself or get anywhere else, and it's that. There should also be food, but the coffee is the important part.

Adina: honestly she doesn't pay that much attention to what she's eating; it's all about who you're eating with. And, in that sense, nothing beats early mornings on the road with the rest of the kith, when everyone's kind of cranky, but too sleepy to really argue with each other. She's usually one of the more awake people, so it's fun for her.

📦 PACKAGE - what are some "most likely to…" that can apply to them?

Answered here

[herearedragons]

Hello!

Sorry if I'm late, I was dining and I don't remember if I already sent this to you… But if not.

For the Emoji ask, and for as many of your blorbos as you'd like to answer:

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people? 🎁 PRESENT - what types of presents would they be most happy to receive? are they good at gift giving? 💚 GREEN HEART - what things make your oc feel comforted? hugs, kisses, food?

OC emoji asks

Thanks for the ask!

This ended up long, but I had a lot of fun coming up with the answers, especially the gift ones (as you can tell by how long they are).

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

Kyana: answered here

Neilar: the version of him that was created while he was training as an assasin under Heir. He learned to turn off his emotions in the name of doing what needs to be done, and he strongly prefers that no one sees him in these moments. He just wants to keep being the nice, friendly person everyone knows.

Aqun: the side of him that comes out when he's angry of frustrated. He doesn't really know how to deal with these kinds of emotions and can end up snapping at people or breaking something if he's not careful, so he usually isolates himself until the worst has passed.

Adina: I guess her child self kind of counts. Before meeting Freedom (a spirit that more or less raised her), she was a pretty clumsy and shy child, the only Qunari in the orphanage where she grew up. If someone found out what she used to be like, she'd be embarrassed.

🎁 PRESENT - what types of presents would they be most happy to receive? are they good at gift giving?

Kyana: the nature of DAO requires her to be very good at gifts, but that actually tracks with her personality. She's very observant, so after a while she just notices who's eyeing what when the party is splitting loot between them, and makes sure to give people the things they like. As for her, she can never have enough books, especially ones about arcane techniques or other knowledge that can be useful to her. Knowledge itself is actually a great gift, in her opinion; it doesn't even have to be written down, just teach her something new. In a DAO gift system, I think her special gift would be an old parchment with illustrations of staff forms for battlemages. (staff forms in the sense of 'moves you can do with a staff')

Neilar: also good with gifts. He makes an active effort to learn his loved ones' preferences and always tries to get them something special; now that he has a bunch of spending money from the Inquisition, he always buys something if he feels like one of his friends would like it. When it comes to his preferences, he'll cherish pretty much everything that a friend has given him, but he especially appreciates things that he can use to his day-to-day (knives, clothes, pouches to put things in, etc). Also, quality time is just as good of a gift for him, so if you don't know what to get him, literally just invite him to go on a hike and he'll be overjoyed. deep down Neil is just one of those dogs who need enormous amounts of space to run in for enrichment

Aqun: decent with gifts. If he knows for sure that a friend wants This Specific Thing he'll get them that, but generally he prefers to make the gifts himself: music boxes, small mechanical puzzles and wind-up toys are all pretty much on brand. He'll also make specialized weapons for his party members, like a grenade that whistles the first few notes of "Sera Was Never" before the bee compartment opens. As for him, he always appreciates gifts he can use to make stuff, so pencils, notebooks for sketching, chemicals, or a particularly interesting pile of scrap metal. You can also get him some fun-looking broken mechanical stuff and he'll have a blast fixing that. But in general, like Neil, he appreciates everything that has thought put into it.

Adina: honestly her love language is just shiny jewelry/keepsakes and vitaar. Doesn't matter who you are, if she likes you, you're getting shiny stuff and a custom vitaar design (for non-Qunari, it's just some cool war paint, no poison inside). In her mind, it's only a good gift if she lowkey wants to keep it for herself, so... yeah, that answers the question of what gifts she likes. I guess I could also see her buying people clothes as gifts, but like "saw this at a market and haggled down the price" type of clothes, not custom-made tailored ones. She probably bought nice scarves for some of the Valo-Kas in the past.

💚 GREEN HEART - what things make your oc feel comforted? hugs, kisses, food?

Kyana: honestly, just a conversation with a complete lack of judgement. Part of the reason she and Zevran hit it off so well is because he seemed to just accept even the more messed up parts of what she's done, so for the first time she felt like she could just talk to someone without confrontations or questioning each other or anything like that.

Neilar: physical comfort, so a warm blanket, a good meal, a hug if there's someone around. Also being able to get away from the source of his discomfort for a while, like escaping to one of his secret spots in Skyhold or near the camp if he's on a mission.

Aqun: work. Company is nice, talking is nice, but the best thing for him is just to sit down and assemble or disassemble something and just do something he's good at. The absolute nicest thing you can do for him if he's troubled is tell him that you need help fixing something.

Adina: she needs someone to hear her out, sometimes a shoulder to cry on if she's distressed. In general, she just has a lot of Big Emotions, and these need to go somewhere; usually a conversation, but sometimes inviting her to spar or dance or climb the rocks just outside the camp is just as good.

[herearedragons]

🪤

For each!

OC emoji asks

Thanks for the ask!

📦 PACKAGE - what are some "most likely to…" that can apply to them?

Neilar Lavellan:

most likely to show up to any occasion covered in dirt and sweat because he just came back from the woods

most likely to start singing around the campfire

most likely to be the first victim in a horror movie

most likely to give in to peer pressure

Aqun Adaar:

most likely to have a screwdriver on him at any given moment

most likely to overprepare for a field trip

most likely to have weird allergies (poison-resistant Qunari genes and human genes interact in a weird way sometimes)

most likely to survive in a zombie apocalypse

Kyana Amell:

most likely to make a child cry on accident

most likely to understand an obscure literature reference

most likely to resist a demon of any kind

most likely to attract cats/dogs despite giving them absolutely zero attention

Adina Saar:

most likely to have paint stains on her at any given time

most likely to start a fistfight

most likely to impulse-buy something

most likely to punch a god (if DA4 won't give her a chance to punch Solas or at least an archdemon, I will)

[herearedragons]

...just realized I gave both Aqun and Adina vests as a part of their default outfits.

Definitely an accident (and also vests just look good on broad-shouldered characters), but the new headcanon is that Aqun's vest was a gift from Adina so they can match.

[herearedragons]

a way to show them (fic reupload)

Adina closes one eye and sticks the tip of her tongue out, trying to paint the line above her left eye in perfect symmetry to the right one. For a moment, she’s almost made it - but then her finger twitches and the pattern is ruined with a bright cobalt smear all the way to her temple.

Adina curses. Behind her back, a laugh sounds:

“Come on, kid! It’s not supposed to be a masterpiece.”

“Shut up, Ashar,” she mutters. She spits on her finger and tries to erase the smear.

“Just saying, you spend way too much time on it,” Ashar says.

“Well, you just dump a jar of paint on your face and call it vitaar,” Hissera says. “Doesn’t mean we should all do the same.”

Adina turns to look at them and snickers; Ashar’s face is one solid red stain, his features buried almost completely beneath the thick layer of paint.

“You look like your face got cut off,” she tells him.

“Keeps me sharp in a fight, though,” he grins.

“Should've mixed some rashvine in there,” Hissera murmurs. "Maybe then you'd stop burning your eyebrows off with those flasks."

She’s midway through her own vitaar, painting a jagged black line across the stitch scars on her lips, turning a former Saarebas’ mark into a toothy grin stretching from ear to ear.

Ashar rolls his eyes. “Fine, you big artists. Wake me up in two hours when you’re done working on your war face.”

Once he strolls off, Hissera comes up to her and kneels down by her side. She looks at the tiny pocket mirror in Adina’s hand and offers her own mirror instead, much larger and embedded in the lid of her vitaar kit.

“That should make it easier,” she says.

Adina nods and mutters a “thank you”. Now that she can see her entire face, fixing the smear becomes less of a problem; she paints a new line over it, curving up to the base of her horn, and mirrors it on the other side.

“Good job,” Hissera praises her. Adina grins, happy for the compliment.

“Ashar means well,” Hissera adds.

Adina shrugs. “I know.”

“For some, vitaar is just protection, or a boost to their abilities. For others, like me,” Hissera taps a blackened finger on her painted lips, “It’s a way to show the enemy exactly who’s going to kill them. They put stitches on my mouth, and I tore them open. Compared to that, anything others can do to me is just a joke.”

 This, Adina thinks, is why Hissera’s so cool. Her stone-cold stare, her voice that never rises to a shout, but sends chills down your spine. She’s scared of nothing, and everyone knows it, and if they have some sense, that makes them scared of her.

“I wonder,” Hissera says suddenly, “What is it to you, Adina.”

“I…” She opens her mouth and closes it; Adina knows the answer to that question, but it’s kind of embarrassing.

Hissera watches her reflection in the mirror with dark red, almost black, eyes.

Finally, Adina gathers the courage to reply.

“I want to be beautiful,” she says, “But... in a terrifying way."

She gives her reflection a bitter glance; four blue lines on her face aren’t exactly going to do the trick, and she knows that.

”…I need to get way better at this, though.“

Hissera is silent for a moment - and then, the black painted grin is broken with the white of her smile. She laughs quietly and ruffles Adina’s hair.

"You will,” she says. “You will, imekari-saar.”

The next time they’re in town, Hissera buys her a larger mirror - and a paintbrush. Adina doesn’t know a lot about art, but she can feel that the brush is expensive; soft to the touch, but doesn’t bend too easily, and trimmed to have a wide edge for broad strokes and a fine point for detail.

She locks it in her jewelry box, along with the rest of her treasures, and swears in her heart to make Hissera proud.

* * *

Ashar begrudgingly agrees to let her practice on him; Adina sees how much he struggles to remain still, tapping his fingers and fidgeting with the buckles of his armor as she covers his face with broad strokes of the same bright blue paint she uses; a basic rashvine mix, to make you sturdier against the elements.

“No offense, Saar,” Ashar mutters, “But I could’ve done that myself.”

“Oh, I’m just getting started,” she says.

He groans:

“I’m going to be dead by the time it’s done, aren’t I?”

“Sitting still for a moment won’t kill you,” Hissera says, and only then Adina realizes she’s right behind her back, watching.

She swallows and cleans her paintbrush before dipping it into the next paint.

She scatters short, bold strokes all over Ashar’s forehead, bursting from between his brows and curving back down under his eyes, dripping down like tears; a whirlwind mosaic of red, yellow and green - bright and flashy just like the potions he uses. Some of the colors blend and bleed into each other; Hissera passes her a small box over her shoulder, and Adina opens it to find a thick golden paste inside.

“For highlights,” Hissera says.

Adina uses the tip of her brush to paint guide lines over the swirls, giving them direction and bringing out the features underneath the paint. When she leans back to examine her work, it’s not perfect, but it’s good.

She holds up a mirror and taps Ashar on the shoulder:

“You can open your eyes now.”

He blinks a few times, adjusting to the light; then, his eyes focus on the reflection. For a moment, his expression is hard to read underneath the paint - and then, the tall, loud rogue squeals.

“Holy shit!” he whispers.

The first moment of fascination turns into sheer delight, as he laughs and leans closer to examine the shiny gold lines and the vibrant colors.

“Blue is my favorite color,” he says. “How’d you know?”

“I didn’t,” she says, “But I’m glad you like it.”

“Holy shit , Saar,” he repeats and shakes his his head, still smiling. “I’ve never looked so pretty killing people.”

She sticks her tongue out. Ashar pats her on the shoulder, then pulls her into a hug. Adina laughs.

“Now, excuse me,” he says, “But I’m gonna show that off to the entire kith.”

* * *

She has to mix Aqun’s paint from scratch every time; the propotions are different from what she and the others use, and the paint he keeps for daily use is always a boring dark red, maybe a little box of black or white for highlights.

Like it’ll kill you to wear bright vitaar more often, Adina thinks as she rummages through packets of herbs and bottles of pigments and tiny vials with all kinds of extracts; she’s assembled quite the collection over the years, nearly taking over Hissera’s position as the main herbalist when it comes to mixing vitaar.

She keeps the red in her palette, but makes it bright, closer to the color of his eyes; fresh blood, not dry. Black and white are nice too, Adina decides, and she adds a deep blue to them as well; not a common color for war paint, more soothing than intimidating, but it fits him.

Deathroot solution, a sharpshooter’s paint; the toxin numbs the muscles, makes your eyes water, lets you go longer without blinking - giving you those precious few more seconds of sight in battle.

She keeps the pattern he uses, too; red around the eyes, one corner curves up to the forehead, the other goes down along the nose, then curves out around the mouth like frown lines. Kind of like a bow’s curve - so she adds an arrow in the middle, from the forehead down to the nose, and, after a moment of thought, a couple more on his forehead. A hall of arrows falling down against a dark blue sky.

She paints the upper half of his face in blue, and the lower half in black; the red streaks are bright against either background. She accents them with gold, but the pattern is still missing something. After a moment of thought, she dips her paintbrush in white and paints a pair of eyes on the line between black and blue, spiky, like the symbol of the Inquisition.

“There,” she says, satisfied. “Now you’re scary enough.”

He is; if she leans back and squints, the pattern becomes a dark mask of a creature with four eyes and no mouth, made of night and arrows.

“I’ll trust an expert’s word on that,” Aqun says; his speech already begins to slur under the toxin’s numbing influence, but Adina is used to deciphering it. She grins in response.

* * *

Bull looks reluctant as he heavily settles on the crate next to her - and, to be honest, so is she.

Adina knows it’s different now, he’s not a crazy Qun-person anymore, he’s one of them now; she thought it had sunk in by now, but by the frantic pounding of her heart she can tell that it hadn’t.

This thing she’s about to do - it’s a display of trust on both sides. She never considered this, until something made her think it was a good idea to suggest this to Bull.

They stare at each other for a moment - and then, with a sigh, Bull pulls up his eyepatch.

“Well, Saar,” he says, “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

She picks up her paintbrush, her box of paints; she doesn’t have anything special prepared for this one, no color arrangement, no plan. She tried to think about it, but nothing came to mind - and now there she is, staring at Bull’s face, no idea or theme to hold on to.

She doesn’t know him. How can she show his enemies who he is if she doesn’t know him?

Then, Adina looks at the eyepatch, and a thought passes through her mind; he pulled it up, but he’s going to have it on when fighting. There’s going to be a diagonal line across his face; the pattern would have to work with that.

She dips her paintbrush in red and draws a thick line right where the leather cord usually is. Her hand trembles a little; she doesn’t know if he noticed or not. She leans back, tries to think of shapes, of colors, not of people.

Looks a little unbalanced. She adds another stripe right across the first one, making it a symmetrical “X” shape across the upper half of Bull’s face - or three triangles with the tips meeting between his brows, almost like a half-mask.

Right. Now she’s getting somewhere.

She picks up the gold paint; usually she saves it for highlights, but not this time. Her mind works at twice the pace; we need something bright, a voice in her head says, bright and big and scary - but beautiful, like sun on a dragon’s scales.

Adina blinks, turns around. For a moment, she expects to see a figure behind her back, but there's no one there. Suddenly, she’s quite certain she didn’t pick up the gold paint, someone handed it to her, but... who?

A hazy memory of a thin frame, wide-brimmed hat - and then it’s gone.

Adina shrugs and returns to her work.

She paints the spaces between the red lines with solid gold; she forgot to wash the red from her brush and the result is more of a bronze, but somehow that’s even better. She stretches the color all the way up to Bull’s horns, then cleans the brush and goes back to the red, painting long lines over the lower half of his face, dripping down like blood. Struck by sudden inspiration, she switches colors again and carefully paints a scale pattern over the bronze - like a dragon.

After that, just a few highlights in white and she’s done; she holds up a mirror and waits for the verdict.

Bull pulls the eyepatch back on, careful not to smear the paint - shouldn’t bother; it’s already dried, - and inspects his reflection. Adina sees his eyebrows rise; after a moment, Bull hums and nods, and looks at her over the mirror.

“Not bad,” he says. She smirks like it’s no big deal, but she’s not sure how much that really does to hide the huge wave of relief that washes over her at the moment; whatever this was, she got through it, and she even did well.

* * *

After all of her friends are set and ready to go, and she’s done admiring her work on their faces, Adina walks away and sits down in the grass with her box of paints and her brush and her mirror.

There’s a bundle that takes up almost half of the box, vials and bottles and small boxes wrapped in cloth; paints she doesn’t use a lot anymore. They’re all perfectly good, and some of them were her favorite colors - but ever since the explosion at the temple, those paints have names attached to them, so she can’t just use them for anything she wants.

Adina unwraps the cloth; some of the containers slide out, clinking together. She runs her fingers over them, picks two; Ashar’s blue, Zahra’s orange. They always go well together, especially if you put a little gold in the middle. Or Katari’s yellow - but Katari’s yellow is deathroot, and it won’t mix well with Adina’s special recipe, so she settles on just the two bottles.

She picks them up, turns them in her hands.

“We’re going to another temple,” she tells them. “Elven one, this time - and I might see Corypheus again. If I do, he’s getting what he deserves, I promise.”

She can’t put a lot of paint on right now, so she settles on a simple streak over each eye, blue with an orange edge, and a little bit of gold between them applied with the tip of her paintbrush.

A way to show the enemy who’s going to kill them.

She’d take them all with her, if she could; usually she tries her best to fit as many colors as possible in the patterns she wears, all from the same bundle, each with a name to it. Today, though, Adina has something different.

She cleans the brush and puts it away along with all the different paints, and pulls out a small wooden box; her special recipe. She opens it and breathes the thick, moss-like scent of crushed felandaris and the prickling undertone of lyrium that makes her nose tingle with the threat of a sneeze.

Adina sets the mirror on her knees, dips her fingertips into the paste and draws a four-finger arc on her forehead, then another one on the lower half of her face, curving all the way down to her jaw. She paints an arc on the shaved side of her head as well, draws a ring around her throat and covers every inch of her exposed arms with spirals. The paint is thick and greenish-brown; right now it looks like dry mud than anything else, but the moment she casts her first spell, those lines will light up.

In her mind, she can already feel the stinging on her skin as the lyrium powder burns off, bursting into blue flames, making her figure wraithlike, making her that much closer to being one with the Fade, one with the spirit fighting at her side, what she should be. Saar.

She can almost feel the pain, tugging, sharp, not enough to paralyze her but enough to make her see blue instead of red, to feel the path of every single spark of energy passing through her body. The burns will take a few days to heal; that’s why she saves it for special occasions, like this one.

Adina looks in the mirror; her friends’ colors are vibrant and odd against the dark swirls, but they will stay with her when the rest of the vitaar burns away.

She smiles.

[herearedragons]

putting up characters for art fight and... I really have A Type, huh