#solas/f!trevelyan

[gaqalesqua]

A Solas/Trevelyan request from ArishoksBride

[kissingwookiees]

dragon age fans are so silly sometimes they'll post questions like 'if there was a canon romance for each game what would it be and why?' and then provide stipulations like this

and its like..... well none of these are canon to me at all so ???? like that couldnt not be more clearly the way you, op, played the game.

[anneapocalypse]

Some Summer Recs!

It has been far, far too long since I did a rec post! I can't promise to be back to it every month (though I'd really like to get back toward that), but here's some fics I have read and enjoyed! Mostly Dragon Age, and one FFXIV (though I expect to have some more recs for the latter in the future).

Candles at your feet by @skyeventide. Dragon Age, Cyril de Montfort/M!Trevelyan, 15K, rated E. An absolute gem of a fic which I had the privilege of beta reading. Gorgeous prose, a deeply thoughtful portrayal of Cyril and of Orlesian high social, and of the events of Trespasser from that perspective.

How Deep the Bullet Lies by @crackinglamb. Dragon Age, Cassandra/Solas, 4200 words, rated E. Cassandra receives a surprise visit during the Exalted Council. A beautifully-written exploration of unresolved tension and unanswered questions.

Freedom by @dalishkadan. Dragon Age, F!Lavellan/Iron Bull, 2400 words, rated T. An introspective fic that really captures the exhaustion the Inquisitor feels by Trespasser.

The Vallaslin by @dreadfutures. Dragon Age, F!Lavellan & Solas, 1900 words, rated G. An adopted Lavellan prepares to take vallaslin for the first time; Solas voices his objections. A great interplay of tension, not only between the two characters, but what they represent.

remember me when i die (for you) by @farfromdaylight. FFXIV, Crysalt Exarch/WoL, 7200 words, rated T. A gorgeous character study of the Crystal Exarch and his journey. Spoilers for Shadowbringers.

Happy July, friends, and happy reading.

[josephinemontilyace]

After processing the DA:TV news re: choices from prior games...

I'm still pissed. I kept defending this game against other long-time players, but damn it, they were right. The team said F the long-time fans, F the people who did multiple playthroughs to experience different world states, who have been planning their playthroughs of this next game, who have dug deep into the lore and play these games BECAUSE of the impact we can have on the world as players... F them all?!?!?!

My inquisitors are going to be all the same, won't they?! My Trevelyan who was besties with Solas but wants to stop him will be the same as my Lavellan who loved him and promised to save him. Or, worse, my Trevelyan will be shoehorned into "I HATE SOLAS" mode when really, there's so much more to it than that, and my Lavellan will be all "UWU SOLAS BB I'M HERE TO SAVE YOU" without delving deeper into her complicated emotions on the matter.

(I have other playthroughs, two, those were just my two favorites)

They said nah, F-off, we don't want to think too hard and want to pander to new fans. Worried about it being too complex? Then yes, have a default world state that new players can choose, like before!! That's fine!!!!

Pissed. PISSED.

[rosykims]

please tell us more about your second worldstate!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 i'm so intrigued by your ocs and i saw you mentioning playing amell currently

thank u for asking omg !!!! i have 3 worldstates loosely planned out which is a Lot for me since i have a tendency to get deeply (perhaps pathologically) attached to one worldstate and one pc lol. but im being brave abt it !

worldstate 1 is my canon worldstate, and the overarching theme for it is self-mythology/loss of personhood. i wont go into detail since i yap enough abt them already lol but i have elspeth (warrior f!cousland romancing alistair) cillian (a rogue m!hawke romancing anders) and ashara (a mage f!lavellan romancing/redeeming solas) all going into datv head first. my canon datv pc will likely be an elven archer f!rook romancing either davrin or taash hehe <3

second worldstate is all mages and obv thats the main theme i wanna have fun with

lucander amell (he/him, blood mage and spirit healer, romances morrigan) unassuming, distant, and polite and also kind of unnerving. used to being seen as a bad guy and is willing to act accordingly, but otherwise is a pretty decent, honorable man. does morrigan's ritual, kills the archdemon, leaves alistair a grey warden. doesn't become warden commander in awakening bc he goes into hiding from the wardens before they can ask too many questions abt the ritual and why hes still alive. he tracks down morrigan in the hopes of protecting her, and then stays with her and their son after that.

cecilia hawke (she/her, spirit healer mage, romances fenris) a blue!hawke who's sweet and motherly and soft spoken and has an enormous guilt complex/self hate for being a mage lol. carver joins the templars, and she later sides with them in act 3 and kills anders which </3 anyways. she survives here lies the abyss in dai and hopefully goes on to attend biweekly couples therapy with fenris <3

thomasin trevelyan (SOFTEST of launches on that name) (she/her, knight enchanter mage, romances cullen. maybe.) socially adept, politically cunning, with a love for the game and a desire to regain her place within the trevelyan family nobility. sides with the mages, doesn't drink from the well, negotiates a truce between celene/gaspard/briala, pardons the wardens, redeems solas, disbands the inquisition post trespasser. shes a good girl and she's got her head on straight!

might do a qunari f!rook mage to romance taash or davrin for datv! we'll see !

lastly my third worldstate places value on the eluvians so its very elfy or at least elf-adjacent. and also the lineage of ameridan > garahel > maherial and so on. i just think its neat . still VERY much underdeveloped tho so no names yet

f!mahariel, she/her, an archer who romances leliana (prev tamlen :c) who dies killing the archdemon

half elven f!hawke mage, romancing merrill!! she sides with the mages but probably still kills anders :( shaking my head in disgust so u can tell i do not approve of this choice ..........

an m!trevelyan warrior romancing ?????????????? IDK. cass maybe. this is going to be exclusively a 'piss off solas' speedrun so hes siding with the templars, putting gaspard on the throne, doing war crimes, etc. wont be redeeming him i fear </3

i hate to say it. i HATE to say it. but if there's a way for me to make a solasmancing rook for datv i Will find a way in this worldstate for the comedic effect of antagonizing my m!trev. even if its just thru headcanons exclusively lol

[crackinglamb]

AO3 Year End Roundup, 2023

Normally, I'd do this in a couple days, but we're close enough for government work (and I'm on a deliberate break anyhow, so nothing new is being posted). Normally this would also be a tag game, but I haven't seen it floating around yet, so...

Hey, you wanna do your own roundup? Go for it. Yes, I mean you (looking at you, DAFF crew). Consider this an open invite. Tag me back so I can see what y'all have been up to.

Words posted: 241,283 . This total has had subtracted from it the amount that already existed for the fic that carried over from last year (which was WG, of course). So this is actually what I posted this year.

Additional Words Written: ~166K. I have several WIP's going on in the background. One of which is finished and will begin posting after New Year's. Another of which is about halfway done. The rest are...procrastination projects/getting the wiggles out. They may never see the light of day. But they count as writing, so they are included.

Grand total of words: 407, 283 (goodness gracious)

Fandoms: 2

Works: 12, 11 of which were new.

Highest Kudos: Into the Current, at 271 (just like last year, I'm not counting WG since it wasn't new). The Iron Bull/OFC, rated E, 79K words, complete.

Highest Hit Oneshot: The Mighty Fall, at 706. Sookie Stackhouse/Eric Northman. Rated T, 2900 words.

New Things I Tried: I wrote a trio of fics for True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries this year. The WIP that's finished and waiting for the new year is a continuation of this series.

I also posted a ficlet I'd originally posted here on tumblr for archiving purposes. Some Years Into the Future...

Fic I Spent the Most Time On: Driftwood, my Bullmance series. Writing ItC itself wasn't particularly long, about two months, but T3, the next fic, is still being written. At first it was all going to be one long fic, but then I decided I've had enough of epics (meaning any work significantly over 100K words), and split it into parts.

Fic I Spent the Least Time On: The Mighty Fall. I have finally gotten to use the tag 'I wrote this instead of sleeping'. 🤣

Favorite Thing I Wrote: Usually, I have trouble with this category. I'm poly, you know. But this year, I actually DO have a fave. Okay...I have two.

How Deep the Bullet Lies - a gift for @rosella-writes, for the Solas Lovers Exchange. Solas/Cassandra Pentaghast with a whumpy open ending. Rated M, 4200 words.

More Than Mere Stone - a gift for my beloved @ir0n-angel in the same exchange. Solas/F!Trevelyan, pure fluff. Rated G, 1500 words.

Favorite Thing I Read: In Twain, by CatC. It's everything I wanted in a 'background character gets caught up in events' fic. With a sizzlingly hot Bullmance and So Much Cole. I think I've read it three or four times already. At least. If you need something comforting and wonderful, I cannot recommend it enough. It's simply delightful, and so is the author. Rated E, 172K words, WIP.

Something I Finished: I did it, at long last. I finished What a Wicked Game to Play. It was the focus of NaNo (and took literally three days once I put my mind to it, hence much of the other writing I did that hasn't been published). It feels really good to have my beloved Behemoth marked with a green checkmark. The story itself isn't finished, and I'll eventually write more for Imogen and Co., but for now, it is Done.

Writing Goals for 2024 – Keep on keeping on. I want to finish T3, so I can start posting it. I want to finish a couple other things from the WIP list. There will of course be a new Fluffuary prompt list. Biggest goal, however, is simply not to burn myself out. I've started waiting to publish until a fic is finished, which has done wonders for my stress levels. No more posting gaps on an in-progress fic.

Allow me to Gush about some things I wrote this year.

(Otherwise known as: honorable mentions)

Out of the Dark - Lark Cadash was once going to have an epic fic to her name. But I'm Tired, and frankly, I'm bored with rewriting the events of DA:I over and over again. So I've turned her into a series, where I can just put up oneshots and short chaptered things in no particular order that add up to one big story. This is one of them. Post-canon, Lark goes into the Deep Roads to find the answer to a riddle that's bugged her for her entire life. She gets more than she asked for, with a side serving of sad Solas. I've had many of the headcannons included in it for a long time, with no home. Now, they're out there in the world. Rated G, 4800 words.

What Lies Beneath - my actual giftfic for the Solas Lovers Exchange. I had such fun writing this, and had ideas for it as soon as I received the assignment. I got to set something in the Hissing Waste, which is one of my favorite places in the game, as well as write a polyship for my two favorite romances. F!Cadash/Solas/Iron Bull, rated T, 3400 words.

Maker Damned Fools - back in 2020, I wrote a Varric/Hawke short little thing for the first Fluffuary. I always wanted to go back and expand it into a fuller story. Add it to the pile of Things I Finished This Year. From their meeting to post-canon. Rated E, 32K words.

What a Wicked Game to Play - *deep satisfied sigh* It took two years and ten months to complete, with near constant weekly updates. It's 412K words by itself (not counting the rest of the series). It contains about 350 embedded images of either screenshots or fanart. It is both the highest hit (over 90K) and highest kudo'd (1535) work on my archive. Affectionately known as 'the Behemoth', extensively written with my signature yeeting of canon. Imogen McLean, MGIT, Inquisitor, beloved of Fen'Harel. I am stupendously proud of this work, but I am also incredibly happy it's done. I set out to write an epic, and I damn well succeeded. Rated E.

See y'all on the flipside! 💕

[crabs-with-sticks]

DADWC Prompts

Characters/relationships that are bolded are ones I'm interested in this week.

Dragon Age OCs:

Mara Tabris (f rogue) | | Cor Brosca (f warrior) | | Lyla Hawke (f mage) | | Ghilara Lavellan (f rogue) | | Luca Trevelyan (m mage) | | Kytharia/ Rook (nb mage shadow dragon) | | Shirala Lavelan (f Ghilara/Solas child)

Romantic relationships I write:

Mara Tabris x Zevran | | Cor Brosca x Lelliana | | Lyla Hawke x Merril | | Ghilara Lavellan x Solas | | Luca Trevelyan x Dorian | | Note: unlikely to do romantic ships not listed

Platonic relationships I enjoy:

Origins: Mara Tabris & Lelliana | | Mara Tabris & Morrigan | | Cor Brosca & Alistair | | Cor Brosca & Zevran | | Cor Brosca & Rica Brosca Inquisition: Ghilara Lavellan & Dorian | | QPR! Ghilara Lavellan & Dorian | | Ghilara Lavellan & Varric | | Ghilara Lavellan & Cole | | Ghilara Lavellan & Blackwall | | fwb! Ghilara Lavellan & Isabella | | Luca Trevelyan & Cassandra | | Luca Trevelyan & Solas | | Luca Trevelyan & Josephine Note: I'm open to do platonic relationships not listed so feel free to send in ones not listed if that sparks joy for ya :D

Rival Platonic Relationships:

Mara Tabris & Alistair | | Lyla Hawke & Aveline | | Ghilara Lavellan & Sera | | Ghilara Lavellan & Cassandra | | Luca Trevelyan & Vivienne

AUs

The End and the Beginning- solavellan fix it AU where Solas' ritual fails and Ghilara fakes their deaths to save him Baby Crows AU- an AU where Mara Tabris was recruited by the crows and grew up with Zevran, Rinna and Talisien

Prompt Lists

Send in either just a prompt or a prompt and a pairing/character. Idm if you send in more romance-coded prompts for platonic ships, I'm a big believer in lovepunk

Send in quotes from poetry, songs, literature, essays, the chant of light etc. that you love or find particularly poetic or interesting!

Send in a tarot card- This website goes over the meanings of all the cards :)

Pillow Talk

Platonic Sentence Starters

Romance of Hands and Touch

It's All About the Yearning

For the Damaged

Found Family: Angsty || Trust Building | | Feeling Safe

Hurt/comfort prompts

Vulnerability Prompts

Oblivious Pining

Prompts for Sharing a Bed

Things You Said

Hadestown Lyric Prompts

Hozier Unreal Unearth Prompts

[minionripley]

Burn and Beg

Solas pines for Evelyn Trevelyan but denies himself, even more so now that she has moved on to Iron Bull. Then, during camp, he happens upon the two in a private moment. But is it as private as he thinks?

Rating: Explicit

Tags: F!Trevelyan/Iron Bull, F!Trevelyan/Solas, Iron Bull/Solas, F!Trevelyan/Iron Bull/Solas, voyeurism, exhibitionism, masturbation, smut

Revised and reposted. Sorry for the long wait. Enjoy!

Read: AO3 | FF.net

[inquisitor-julia]

hi 😊 4 & 12 for the DAV hype asks??

4. What does your worldstate look like going into DAV?

My canon worldstate is with an alistair romance cousland queen warden, and anders romance mage and pro-mage f!hawke, and a mage trevelyan inquisitor who romanced cullen

........but tbh probably going to play through with my solavellan worldstate first and in that one my warden is a mahariel who died killing the archdemon, my hawke is viscount of kirkwall and married to Sebastian, and my inquisitor is a lavellan mage who romanced solas and drank from the well which gives me anxiety.

I do however have 8 worldstates for these games so that i could try different combinations so I might post something to break those down at some point if anyone was interested!

12. What's one thing you're hoping we DON'T see in this next game?

BROODMOTHERS. and Ghilan'nain but pretty sure she's one of the two who escaped in the gameplay reveal so...not much hope of that. also hoping to not have to murder lots of elves this time around....and can we not see templars or circles? is that an option? Also very much hoping I don't see a codex entry or something that just writes the warden off as dead (my one true fear)

Thank you for asking!! :D

[gaqalesqua]

Lusia Trevelyan is leader of the Inquisition, and yet at the mercy of her own flesh. Solas gives aid the only way he knows how

[queenaeducan]

I'm really curious about 4 for the DA4 ask game!

What does your worldstate look like going into DAV?

I have what I call my Trash Fire world state, where I make (mostly) the opposite decisions of my main file.

It starts with Kieren Cousland. It's been a decade since I've played him (literally before DA:I come out, b/c I was amused when I learned what Morrigan named her son) so I don't remember all his decisions. I know he was a bit power hungry, mostly affable with his companions.

He does the good option at Redcliffe (saves Isolde and Connor) iirc, and saves the mages. He does kill the Dalish clan, and I can't remember what happens at the Alienage. I find it very difficult to justify evil decisions in DA:O b/c they sometimes go a little over the line. He crowns Harrowmont b/c he doesn't understand dwarf politics. The most important thing about him is that he romances Morrigan and marries Queen Anora. The former doesn't even seem bothered by the fact. He doesn't participate in Awakening. Loghain lives, Alistair is exiled.

Then there's Theresa Hawke. She's a warrior with the Templar specialisation, and fittingly, pro-Templar. Bethany becomes a Circle mage. She aids the Chantry against the qunari. She rivalmances Anders, which I honestly wholeheartedly recommend. It was toxic as hell, but very interesting. She convinces him to work against the mages in the finale and becomes Viscountess. I thought it was implied Anders kills himself if you do that, but in DA:I she still spoke like they were together. Which is why I killed her at Adamant.

My Inquisitor is Ruth Trevelyan. She is young, the fourthborn child of her father and was training to be a Templar when she became Herald. Ruth is ambitious in her own right, but a little... tamer than Kieren. Her choices are mostly informed by the privileged life she grew up in, not that I think that justifies them, it's just how I approached her roleplay. She allies with the Templars, recruits the Wardens, and forces the Game's finest players into a truce. She is sure in the belief that she was chosen, and ignores any evidence to the contrary.

She romances Cullen. She hates Solas so much. She also never gets Blackwall's personal quest, nor Cole's. She's very close to Vivienne, however, and makes her Divine. When the time comes, she doesn't disband the Inquisition, vowing to kill Solas and trusting Vivienne as the Inquisition's overseer.

Honourable Mentions:

Gay Worldstate: Gimli Brosca (Zevran romance, Alistair-Anora joint rule), Leland Hawke (red-toned, pro-mage, but angry about it). Would probably end with a playthrough of Thora's estranged brother, Tetrak, in a Dorian romance. I know he'd conscript the Templars and kill the Chargers (RIP) but that's about it.

Mages Having a Hard Time: Bronagh Surana (Morrigan romance, left Redcliffe for dead b/c she is 18 years old and not prepared for this), Unnamed F!Hawke (Sebastian romance, she's a mage but deeply uncomfortable with it, albeit apparently not uncomfortable enough to surrender to a Circle. I'm doing Bronagh's pt rn so this girl will come after that).

[sidhelives]

The Black Emporium Exchange Works Reveal

Yeah, I'm late. I know. Sue me.

Basically I was picking up a few extra treats after the deadline because I discovered a few people had slipped through the cracks and I can't live with that. I was also busy, I'm an adult with responsibilities, it happens.

BUT I'M HERE NOW

I ended up completing 26 works for the exchange this year totaling 62,968 words. That is twice the fics I wrote last year and very nearly double the words. I'm pretty proud of it.

Before we get into the full list and links, here are some general stats for the group:

Date of first posting: July 18, 2023

Date of final posting: September 26, 2023

Longest work: 8,473 words

Shortest work: 1,147 words

Most Featured Character: Anders (5 works)

Most Featured Pairing: Solas/Trevelyan (3 works)

Rating Breakdown: 15 General; 3 Teen; 1 Mature; 7 Explicit

Category Breakdown: 13 F/M; 6 M/M; 5 F/F; 2 Other; and 2 Multi

Game Breakdown: 5 Origins; 3 Awakening; 6 DA2; and 12 Inquisition

With that out of the way, lets get into the links!

The Ambassador Will See You Now for @thedaselcor

Krem Aclassi/Yvette Montilyet

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,829

The End of a Long Night for Missjlh

Leliana/Female Surana

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,147

Aboard the Siren's Heart for sgtblue

Bethany Hawke/Isabela

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,197

Engaging with the Rabble for @amarmeme

Original Female Inquisition Scout/Original Male Ansberg Noble

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,245

It's About Time for @ripplesofaqua

Original Female Inquisition Scout/Original Male Ansberg Noble

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,254

Between One Breath and the Next for Inquisitor_Inquisitor

Solas/Female Trevelyan

Rating: T

Word Count: 4,927

Coming Home Late for Luffymarra

Zevran Arainai/Male Hawke

Rating: G

Word Count: 2,557

Old Fears Never Fade for taintandloathering

Anders/Desire Demon & Anders/Jowan

Rating: E [Warning for Non-Con]

Word Count: 2,668

A Mutually Beneficial Arrangement for RootboundWoodWitch

Female Hawke/Cullen Rutherford

Rating: E

Word Count: 4,108

Can't Sleep for Wanting You for @settiai

Anders/Bethany Hawke

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,524

Subtlety for @hazelestelle

Female Hawke/Loghain Mac Tir

Rating: E

Word Count: 8,473

Little Hurts for @lordnochybaty

Fenris/Bethany Hawke

Rating: T

Word Count: 2,002

The First Night of the Rest of Our Lives for @antivan-beau

Female Cousland/Anora Mac Tir

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,458

It's Him or Me for CrimsonShield75

Alistair/Female Amell/Zevran Arainai

Rating: E

Word Count: 4,730

Senior Enchanter Seeks Employment for Tafka

Bethany Hawke/Josephine Montilyet

Rating: G

Word Count: 2,716

Thanks for the Conscription (affectionate) for ghostbunny

Nonbinary Amell/Anders

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,287

The Crown Thanks You for Your Service for dawnstone

Zevran Arainai/Anora Mac Tir

Rating: E

Word Count: 3,618

Vigil Kept for @hazelestelle and ghostbunny

Jowan/Male Surana

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,159

Looking for a Bargain for Dragonflies_and_Katydids

Mouse/Male Surana

Rating: E

Word Count: 2,759

Leaving Home for cartographicalspine

Merrill/Tamlen

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,213

Dream a Little Dream of Me for dreamkist

Solas/Male Trevelyan

Rating: M

Word Count: 1,334

Tripping Hazard for emocsibe

Anders/Cullen Rutherford

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,940

A Quiet Morning in the Clinic for Sinister_Queer

Anders/Bethany Hawke

Rating: E

Word Count: 1,328

A Good Night's Rest is Hard to Come By for Sumi

Solas/Female Trevelyan

Rating: T

Word Count: 2,655

Missed You for kaijuburgers

Krem Aclassi/Female Trevelyan

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,201

Dress for the Job You Want for adlerobsessed

Female Adaar/Vivienne

Rating: G

Word Count: 2,639

Apologies if I mistagged anyone or missed anyone, I don't know everyone's Tumblr handles (or if they have them). If one of these is you and you want to be tagged just let me know and I will update the post!

[bumblewarden]

Happy Playing With Numbers Anniversary

Unsurprisingly, most of the Archive of Our Own data is about the same as last year's, but i was honor-bound to gather it anyway. I also looked up some basic metrics for Inquisitors that may aid me for deciding what to collect next year as well as data from the Favorite Player Background poll i ran when i first gained access to Tumblr polls. I will not be posting the pie graphs for most of the Origins as they are almost identical to last year's, but i did add a few new ones from this year's data collection at the end.

Some thoughts on the disparity between AO3 popularity and Tumblr popularity:

While there is considerable overlap, AO3 and Tumblr do not serve the exact same portion of the fandom, and even though it broke containment, the poll still represents only a part of the Tumblr-side fandom. This blog which made the poll (hi) festers about in a very elfy part of the fandom and bills itself as "The Warden Tabris Agenda". It shouldn't be too suprising that elves, especially the City Elf Origin, are more highly represented here.

The poll offers a single vote per Tumblr user, but on AO3, authors have the ability to post as much as they want about their favorite as well as their second-favorite, third-favorite, etc. And we've all seen those fics who have a character tagged who never appears.

The Tumblr poll ran for a week, but the data from the Archive is accumulative over the lifespan of the fandom. The earliest currently available fic on AO3 tagged with any individual Warden is an f!Cousland one-shot dated to November 17, 2009, two weeks after the game's initial launch.

The Orlesian Warden-Commander is the only one who receives the same percentages of fics/votes between the two popularity calculation methods.

And some other miscellaneous thoughts:

There were 15855 Warden fics tagged by Origin vs 28237 Inquisitor fics tagged by Origin. This is going to give the Inquisitor significantly more weight in the combined PC race distribution.

The data from the Inquisitors finally gives us not just an elf in first place but an elf with a majority of the fics. 46% of Lavellan fics are tagged with Lavellan/Solas, which is likely a factor. The Solavellans came in with the steel chair.

With the Inquisition data, dwarves continue their tradition of least popular (my apologies to the dwarf likers), but by the power of being the only one standing, Cadash in finally giving us a dwarf in quadruple digits.

Andras is the only Origin whose total number of fics has gone down between years. This is possibly due to many of the non-DA fics tagged with this character being removed or retagged as it was only their Unspecified/Other category which shrank. I didn't collect this data last year while it still would have been available, but it seemed a considerable percentage of non-gender tagged fic for Andras was an oc from outside Dragon Age.

Of all Origins' percentages of total fics, only Cousland went down between 2022 and 2023

There may be some correlation between the previous bullet and the elf sweep from the Tumblr poll as well as Lavellan surpassing Trevelyan in AO3 fics by volume. Relative popularity of humans is something to keep an eye on.

Now for the charts!! (Unless otherwise stated, assume the below information is reflective of the AO3 survey.)

[melisusthewee]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you @nirikeehan and @theluckywizard for tagging me! I think I did this a couple years ago, so it's worth doing again even though I doubt my answers have likely changed... lol.

(Under a cut because it gets a bit long with formatting.)

How many works do you have on AO3? 27!

What's your total AO3 word count? 66, 314 words

What fandoms do you write for? Currently Dragon Age, beginning to consider branching into The Terror (but the latter is mainly just art for now).

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? The Tang of Liquor On His Tongue (Dragon Age; Dorian/Male Trevelyan smut) The Dreamer Sets the Rules (Dragon Age; Solas/Male Trevelyan & Solas/Fade Spirit) mala suledin nadas (Dragon Age; Solas/Male Trevelyan) Impetus (Dragon Age; Cassandra/Male Trevelyan smut) Smut Challenge 2: War Table Boogaloo (Dragon Age; Cassandra/Male Trevelyan smut)

Do you respond to comments? I try really hard to! I fell behind for a period of time and got really anxious about it and have been slowly trying to catch up starting mainly with more recent comments.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I suppose it might be Lathbora Viran since even though it's more of an implied/hinted at event instead of outright stated, the fic ends with Curiosity (the reborn spirit of Wisdom) becoming the Regret demon from Tevinter Nights.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Um... I suppose in terms of individual fic it would probably be Nothing Else Than What Is Now because the squires confess their feelings, they kiss, and if you stop there then nothing bad ever happened ever again lol.

Do you get hate on fics? No. I am far too insignificant to attract that sort of thing.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? On occasion! I don't really know how to describe the sort of smut I write. I think I tend to bring a sort of dreamy romantic quality to it? I lean very hard into even the smut that's very light on plot as being an important character or relationship study. I guess. I do think I'm a very good smut writer though! So whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it well!

Do you do crossovers? What's the craziest you've ever written? Not really. At least not in recent memory. I wrote a Harry Potter/Beatles oneshot years ago on Livejournal that was inspired by a friend's art. And around that time I also wrote a Dick Grayson/Bucky Barnes fic but that's about the extent of it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not to my knowledge. If there's ever a demand for it, I'm very open to it!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Sort of. I started co-writing a Mirrorverse fic with @rosella-writes about a year ago? It never quite got off the ground though, which is a shame because I think it was a good idea and I think what we did write was very good. Maybe one day the stars will align for work on it to continue. I'm co-author on a special secret project that is wrapping up soon as well, which is very neat and exciting but I can't say much more than that right now!

What's your all-time favourite ship? All-time favourite is a pretty big thing to consider. Out of all fandoms, probably Chrom/F!Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening. I am now and forever Chrobin trash. Have I ever written it? No. Do I have an extensive art collection for it? Yes.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? My Qunari War AU. It's mainly just notes and snippets in bits and pieces and while it was definitely canon compliant when I started working on it, I don't think it is anymore. And that sort of made me mostly give up on it.

What are your writing strengths? I'd say dialogue!

What are your writing weaknesses? TRANSITIONS! I'm so bad at figuring out, "Okay, this scene is over/exhausted. Now how do I get things from here to the next one?"

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic? I think when it comes to real languages, it's probably best to avoid it. If a character is speaking another language then there are two possibilities - either the POV narrator understands the language or they don't. In the event of the former, there's then no reason to have the dialogue written in a different language than what the fic is since if the narrator understands what's being said then the reader should too. In the event of the former, it's much easier and far less prone to error if you just write that Character A was speaking in a language that Character B could not understand. With fictional languages that are usually incomplete, however, sometimes a word or an expression can be used for impact but I still think it's best to use them sparingly.

First fandom you wrote for? Technically it was Digimon Adventure. But I was 13 so we're not going to talk about that.

Favourite fic you've ever written? So far in terms of completed and published fics it is either In the Long Hours of the Night or The Many Faces of Wisdom. I think they are both evocative character pieces and if I had the money to commission art to accompany them I very much would.

That was a lot of fun and it was interesting to see that some of my stats and things had actually changed! For any other fic writers out there, I challenge you to give this a go! And I am gently nudging the following people: @ronqueesha @kiastirling @dreadfutures @bluewren @thraaaaaaaanduuuuuuuuiiiiiiiiil @unnecessaryligatures @rosella-writes @n7viper

[theluckywizard]

please please please tell me about A Splinter of Light*

I love future nightmare au scenarios OBVIOUSLY

Gosh, right now A Splinter of Light is just a soup of ideas but I am so excited about tackling it. For those just tuning in, this is for the WIP Ask Game I posted before and I am talking about my Lost in the Future after In Hushed Whispers AU, A Splinter of Light which features my f!rogue Rose Trevelyan, my m!warrior Garrett Hawke, Dorian, Bethany, Lady Elegant, Felix, Carver, Alistair, Anders, Varric, Fenris, Dagna, Merrill, Flemythal, Samson, Calpernia, Corypheus... it's a big cast with a lot of cameos. At the start of the fic we already understand the following characters to be deceased: Cullen, Solas, Cassandra, Leliana, and Fiona.

First because it's my blorbos and I get to make them fall in love again (like they need encouragement).

But I'm tickled I'm just so jazzed thinking about all the ways the world is messed up, the breach having overtaken much of the sky. There's the canon ways that we know from In Hushed Whispers, and then other details I've just gone ahead with.

Dorian and Rose escape Redcliffe Castle when they fail to replicate Alexius' spell (who is dead) at start of fic and escape from Redcliffe castle by water in the bowels of the keep wearing the red lyrium amulets Alexius' lieutenants wore to safely move past demons. (Yes there will be effects).

They get scooped up off Lake Calenhad by Hawke and Co. who use the lake as a base of operations since demons cannot get to them there.

Thinking of alternating viewpoints between Hawke and Rose because they won't always be together in the fic, though the bits I have written are first person Rose POV. Might switch to third before I get too far.

Since I can't just let them be together, there are a whole lot of forces trying to keep these two apart. Not to mention a longtime occasional lover of Hawke who is really pissy about Rose showing up after all these years. "Your stupid dream was REAL!?"

First, Corypheus wants Rose. He still hasn't found his way into the Fade. So there's a chase element. He's got Samson and Calpernia and their respective crews on the case. When it becomes clear she's been hanging with Hawke they decide to separate into two groups.

Flemythal is my wildcard. The Goddess so to speak.

I might even send them both into the Fade?

I don't know. I am swimming in ideas for this fic. But there will be star-crossed love and smut and adventure and with any luck delicious bad guys we love to hate.

A lil snippet:

Hawke sits on a boulder at the edge of the lake where familiar sounds and sensations meet the alien stretch of sky above us, sallow and weak, sunlight filtered through the threadbare Veil. His knees are pulled up in front of him, one long arm wrapped around them. He tosses pebbles into the water over and over as if he’s trying to prove to himself he can have an impact on this wretched world. I know it’s his first loss in a while, but it was her. A friend and occasional lover. His oldest companion here besides Bethany. It feels presumptuous to approach him in this situation, but nobody else is and even though he puts on a good front like he prefers to suffer in silence, I sense he’d rather not be alone. “Do you mind if I sit with you?” I ask. He glances at me over his shoulder, the corner of his lips turning up slightly. It looks a little bit like relief. Perhaps I sensed correctly. “If you can tolerate me at the moment,” he answers. “I’m a bit of a bore.” I gather up a handful of rocks for him from the pebbly beach beside the rock and climb up to plop down beside him, holding out my offering. His eyes meet mine, a twinkle breaking through the melancholy and he picks up a stone from my palm and tosses it. “I’m sorry about Elegant,” I tell him. “I could see how close you were.” “We’ve been friends a long time. Were friends,” he corrects himself and then shakes his head, his lips turned in a bitter frown. “Maker.” He looks out across Lake Calenhad, stiff breezes whipping up tiny white caps on the small waves. The surface looks as muddled and green as the sky. “It’s my fault she came south.” “You can’t blame yourself for that,” I tell him. “She chose to join you.” “To clean up a mess I helped create.” “If anyone is to blame here besides Corypheus— it’s me. I was supposed to get back to 9:42 to warn everyone. Stop Alexius. Stop the Breach.” He almost smiles and then nudges me with his shoulder. “True. You really turned out to be a terrible Chosen One didn’t you?” he says, a smirk breaking through. “I was always a terrible Chosen One,” I tell him. “The Maker was amusing himself.” A silence opens up between us, and our guilt hangs in the air the way the gut-twisting bittersweet scent of red lyrium does occasionally when the winds die down. I glance over at him, admiring the beautiful cut of his profile against the ugly, altered backdrop.

[crackinglamb]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Tagged by @theluckywizard, thank you! 💕

Tagging @lilbittymonster, @bogunicorn, @bdafic, @shretl, @mordinette, @fogsblue, @effelants, @sociallyacceptablemadness and @natsora. No pressure!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

107!

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

1,776,919, as of this morning.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Currently only Dragon Age and Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood. But in the past I've written for Fallout 4, Mass Effect Trilogy, Dr. Who, Borderlands, and The Wayhaven Chronicles.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

What a Wicked Game to Play - the Behemoth, the Epic, the...story that ate my life for nearly two years straight. It currently sits at a cool 400K words and will be the focus of my NaNo goal this year. I'd like to have it finished. Solas/OFC, rated E.

Twist - the fic that got me really going in DA. An MGIT re-envisioning of the base game and all the what happens next? 197K words, complete. Solas/OFC, rated E. Fun fact, I started writing this fic before I'd ever played the game. 2020 was...uh...quite a year.

Junkyard Dogs - my very first fic. I started writing this before I really even knew what fic was. Before I even had heard of AO3. My sibspring got me an invite and the rest is history. I'm still incredibly proud of this fic, although I don't write quite like this anymore. 107K words, complete. Hancock/F!SoSu, rated E. (Are you noticing a trend? Yes, I write a lot of smut.)

Twist Some More - you guessed it, the sequel to Twist. My love letter to Carly and Solas and the happily ever after the game didn't give us. Baby included. 67K words, complete. Solas/OFC, rated E.

Humans Are Just...Like That - okay, so there's a story that goes with this one. This is a oneshot for Mass Effect, and it was brought to life via a long, hilarious thread in an ME discord server. I made a comment to the effect of 'someone should turn this into a fic' and everyone told me to go for it. So I did. It's a little bit crack, a little bit everybody lives and a whole lot of yup, humans are just like that. ~3K words. Background FemShep/Garrus, rated T.

5. do you respond to comments?

Yes, always! (Caveat: as long as it's polite. If you're rude, I'll call you on it, then freeze the thread.)

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

No More My Heart Beats Without You, one of only 4 of my works with the Major Character Death warning. Solas/F!Trevelyan, 5555 words (I didn't plan that, but it's cool), rated E.

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

TSM, without a doubt. The whole point of it was to write a fluffy, gloriously happy tribute to my first DA OC, Carly Lavellan. It'll make your teeth ache, I promise.

8. do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten some on WG, which is why I now moderate comments on it. It's gotten statistically big enough (in terms of both hits and word length) that some people are just not gonna groove with it. And hey, that's fine. But you don't need to tell me about it, okay? Just hit the back button.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Yes. And...yes. I've written all kinds. My only rule for smut is consenting adults.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nope!

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

I got asked about a fic being translated, but I don't know if it ever happened.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have written two fics with my beloved @ir0n-angel. One for FO4 (a Deacon/F!SoSu oneshot) and one for DA (Solavellan modern AU, incomplete, been on hiatus for a couple years. Someday we'll finish it.)

And I've participated in three years' worth of round robin style collaboration with the DAFF server.

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

*snort Poly here. Don't ask me to pick a favorite, it doesn't work like that. 🤣🤣🤣

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Just Like Fire. It started out as a prompt fic to get me out of a slump. Actual Solavellan, canon compliant even. So you see where my problem is, right? I mean, I am the one whose blog title is Canon Shall Be YEETED. I've thought about maybe just tying up the loose ends and skipping ahead to the ending I've already written for it, but then I lose interest again after about five minutes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

16. what are your writing strengths?

Good dialogue, lots of banter. I am routinely told by readers how well I keep characterization believable.

Good smut, realistic without being clinical.

Headcannon glitter. Being detailed oriented means I overthink and come up with some really deep ideas.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

FINISHING THE DAMN THING. *ahem* I'm okay, I'm good.

Endings are rough for me. Not in that I don't know what I want to do with them, but more by the time I get to them, I've either lost interest or lost motivation. Or both. I know it looks like I'm on top of it when you look at my archive (only three incomplete WIP's out of 107), but some of them caused me Stress(tm) to finish and I've never been really happy with them.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I do it sparingly so it doesn't bog down the story. I translate it at the end, be that by chapter or oneshot. I know better than to fully trust google translate. And I'm careful with using fanon resources if the language is made up.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Fallout 4, with the above mentioned JD. I stayed there for quite a while too. To date it's still my second most written fandom.

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Again, poly. But I have some notables that I've returned to time and again. An incomplete sampling:

Maker Damned Fools - this is actually the first thing I wrote for DA. Varric/F!Hawke. 32K words, rated E. Initially it was a Fluffuary fic, but I always planned to expand on it. This year I did. Highlights for me reading it: chapters 4, 7 and 9.

Soft In Skyhold - another Fluffuary entry. Written as part of WG's overarching 'verse. So, Imogen and Solas, Adoribull, Varric and Elly Hawke, Terisin Mahariel and Morrigan. Cassandra and the Sky-Watcher. ~29K words, rated T. Highlights for me: chapters 5, 11, 13, 22, and 25.

She's My Plus One - my Dr. Who fic. Nine/Rose. Written x +1 style. 12K words, rated M. Highlights for me: chapters 4-6.

Unrepentant - a Solavellan oneshot. It's smutty, it's a little bit kinky, it's all in her head, right? Cuz it's the Fade. Look, sometimes you just need a particular flavor of dark!Solas. Not too dark, just like 62% cacao. 3100 words, obviously rated E.

Unexpected - an FO4 fic with a Kellogg/F!SoSu pairing. Yup, you read that right. Don't judge me. This was an early attempt at writing canon divergence and I'm still super pleased with how it came out. It even has a happy ending. 30K words, rated E. Highlights for me: honestly, all of it. I'll read the whole thing in a sitting when the mood strikes me.