wywardprince

[wywardprince]

The latest commission I ordered from the extraordinarily talented @milton-chamberlain! A wonderful artist who deserves all the good things!

From a verse I have with @wywardprince , of her Sebastian at Soldier’s Peak after the end of DA2, with little Eleanor, the daughter of my Warden Cousland and Anders.

[wywardprince]

The Fairy Glen location: Isle of Skye, Scotland

[wywardprince]

prince with the coolest armour everrr

[wywardprince]

I hope u know ur the reason I decided to give seb a try on my da2 playthru and im in love with him, ur so right abt him🙂‍↕️

YAYYY!! welcome to the club ^_^

[wywardprince]

posting this for all 5 sebastian vael enjoyers

[wywardprince]

[wywardprince]

what kind of tragedy are you?

Self-inflicted you were given the choice to live, a thousand times over, and yet you never choose it. not intentionally, oh no, you didn’t know it was a grave you were digging. but with every turn, you were twisting the knife deeper. every decision doomed you more. had it been anyone else, they would have made it. but you? you are so perfectly you, there was no escaping it. the true tragedy of it all, is how preventable it was.

__ tagged by: @daughterofhighever-blog

tagging: uhhhh @eritvita I think is the only other person I interact with on here

[wywardprince]

One corner of his mouth twitched upward in a cousin of a smile. With a past like his, he could only imagine where such a story might go. Would it be some joke about his rakish past, where he knew no boundaries about himself and partook whenever and wherever of whatever he could? Would it be some sly comment about going from that into the Chantry for years? Or perhaps how he ultimately couldn't keep to his oath there, either (nevermind that Elthina had never actually let him take the oath; he'd wager most people didn't know that part). Had she heard of the escapades with Hawke for those handful of years? Or, seeing as how she was a Cousland, some political teasing about how his soft cousin Goran had sat the throne in his absence while he dithered about even considering getting it back?

He pressed all those thoughts to the side, acknowledging them, but then moving past them. Tried to, anyway. If he told himself enough times, perhaps he really could.

"Hm, I think I know how this joke goes. A rogue, a Chantry brother, and a prince all walk into a pub. The bartender looks up and says, 'Good to see you again, Sebastian!'" he said, the half-smile still perched lightly across his lips.

"Hmmm, well that all depends on which answer you'd prefer," Elissa began, stroking her chin thoughtfully as if in serious consideration. In truth, there was a little upward turn to her mouth that bordered on a smirk, and an impish twinkle in her eye.

"The diplomatic, or the truthful one?"

She wasn't able to hold her expression for long before letting her smile crack with a shake of her head. One hand covered her mouth to muffle the bit of laughter she let escape, the other gestured quickly to indicate she'd spoken in jest.

"The full answer to that is a bit of a story, if you'd like me to regale you with it...?"

[wywardprince]

That made the corners of his eyes crinkle with amusement. If he had a gold coin for every time he heard some iteration of that sentiment, he'd probably have at least a handful of them by now. Of course, much of what was expected of him he never lived up to, or lived too much up to, but he liked to think those days were behind him now. Extremes were a young person's game, and he like to think that he'd been collected a bit of wisdom along with years.

"And, pray tell, what were you expecting?" He lowered his gaze from the sky to look at her again. "Nothing too terrible, I hope."

"Oh, for a voice like thunder... and a tongue to drown the throat of war," she sighed, reciting the words of a long dead poet, lamenting a very similar sentiment.

Elissa let herself study him a bit more obviously when his eyes wandered upward. When she spoke again, there were soft notes of subdued wonder and apology mixed into her voice.

"You surprise me, Prince Vael. You're not what I first expected."

[wywardprince]

Sebastian is such a Character. He's one of the kindest people you'll ever meet, and probably one of the most dangerous. He genuinely finds Hawke funny. Actually laughs at their jokes. When you first meet him, he's put a bounty on the head of every single member of the Flint Mercenary Company. "What happened to my family was murder." Scottish accent. Rogue who hates picking locks. Used to be a massive slut. Chantry Brother. Has fun doing Shenanigans with Hawke. Will outright refuse to go on quests he doesn't want to. Kinda sort of boyfriends with Fenris. You can marry him. 'Failure' of the family. Autistic. Also has ADHD. Archer. Prince. "Starkhaven has much nicer courtyards." Bisexual.

I love him.

[wywardprince]

@daughterofhighever-blog

The smile he offers her is a kind one, if a bit bittersweet. "I think, while it may come with its own hardships, loving fiercely and freely is an admirable thing. It means you have great capacity for compassion in your heart, and now, more than ever, it seems we could use more of that."

He can't help it; his gaze drifts up toward where the sky would be beyond the wooden rafters of the ceiling. "The world is fraying at the seams and too many people are at one another's throats. Would that more loved as you do, my lady."

continued from here

[wywardprince]

God Of War: Ragnarok Starters - "Have you ever been in love?"

The question caught him a little off guard. He hummed a little in response, considering, weighing his words.

"There was a time when I thought I was, or might have been," he says evenly. "But things didn't line up to work out. I have loved many, though, but it was more appreciation than deep commitment."

[wywardprince]

Children. Sebastian felt his throat tighten. For the children at the Gallows whom Hawke hopefully had saved, and for the ones in the Chantry who never had a chance. He wanted to look away from Carver, to close his eyes and spend a moment grieving them and thanking that at least some were spared a horrible death, but he wouldn't allow himself to avert his gaze. He swallowed and hardened his resolve. He was doing this for the children who had been in the Chantry that day, who had been in the homes and buildings near the Chantry and were caught in the explosion. Not all of them died. It might have been kinder to some who hadn't. He couldn't save them or change the pain of the ones who survived—nor of the adults—but he could at least try and bring the one who did it to justice.

The thought of justice and what it had warped into through, or because, or, Sebastian found he had to allow, despite, Anders, helped set his gaze to steel again. It refocused him away from how raw the loss still felt if he dwelled on it overlong. He didn't need the details of what happened at the Gallows. He wasn't sure he could bear it.

"Yet you eventually parted ways," Sebastian said. Did his voice sound hoarse or was that just because he felt it should? "Do you know where she went? Or where she was headed?" Do you know if the mage was with her? was his unspoken question.

"I," he began, before clenching his jaw as if fighting some innate block. Everything in his head was screaming against telling Sebastian the whole of the truth. That he wanted to kill Anders was as certain to Carver as the fact that Marion would die to protect him.

But he had already answered much the same questions when the Warden Commander had asked. That Sebastian would find out eventually was all but guaranteed.

"I got her... got them both out of Kirkwall and into Ferelden. After that, no I really don't know where they went. I wouldn't let her tell me."

Sebastian's mouth pressed into a firm line. It would have been too easy if Carver had known, he supposed. Now he did allow his eyes to close, and exhaled audibly through his nose: a contained sound of frustration.

"I understand," he said, opening his eyes to look at Carver squarely once more, "your loyalty to your sister. But you have to know I intend to find him and bring him to justice for his actions."

"I was there," Carver said after a pause. There was a heaviness to his tone as he spoke, but it wasn't guilt. No, it was the sort of weight that came with any great admission.

"When I got word of what happened to mother... I had to come back to Kirkwall. I had to see my sister... to make sure she was alright. Hadn't even been off the boat more than an hour when everything explo..."

A wince at the poor choice of words and a not so subtle correction...

"When everything went wrong."

The sharp pang of hurt drew Sebastian's mouth taut at the corners, but he didn't comment on Carver's correction. Not that he was wrong; it had been a spectacularly impressive explosion. It destroyed so much, so quickly. So extensively. Not just the Chantry, either.

Sebastian pushed through the welling up of images that flashed through his memory and let out a small, stabilizing breath. "And did you find your sister?"

"Yes."

Carver ran a hand through his hair. He had never been very good at reading people. It frustrated him to try and read subtext and subtlety in the expressions, tones, and body language of others - but even he could feel tension growing the air and pulling things tight.

"Ran into them... all... in Lowtown. The Templars were going to kill everyone in the Gallows - even the little kids. Marion wasn't going to leave them, and I wasn't going to leave her."

[wywardprince]

Sebastian motioned with his hand, wordlessly indicating Carver should lead the way once more. He wasn't quite sure how to read Carver's reaction. Were the Wardens entirely abreast of what happened? He had no doubts that news of what happened to the Chantry, the mages, and the templars had reached the ears here, but to what extent, Sebastian couldn't have guessed. He supposed they also might be aware that Carver's sister was, in fact, the Champion of Kirkwall, quite possibly from Carver himself.

He followed behind the younger man, down a few corridors until they reached a hallway lined with wooden doors. It was quiet here; part of Sebastian felt immediately at ease in the familiarity of the space so near to that of the Chantry's personal cells. Almost immediately following that sense of peace, a larger part of him recoiled. Those cells no longer existed. The smooth stone arches of the doorways were shattered into thousands of pieces, blackened from their cool rose hue from the explosion. He knew; he'd helped dig through that particular rubble in the hopes of finding survivors. Sebastian's jaw tightened at the memory, and a hard ache tightened in his chest.

Carver paused at one of the doors, and then opened it, clearly waiting for Sebastian to go in first. All at once, he was seized with the wild notion that if he did enter before Carver, he might be locked in the room and left with no answers until—maybe—the Warden Commander came to him, unless Carver was so loyal to his sister he told his Commander Sebastian had simply left. From all he knew of Carver, it was a ridiculous thought far out of character, but it still twisted his chest for a moment, all the same.

"After you," he said instead, inclining his head a little.

Carver's mouth started to open a bit, before he rolled his eyes and choked back a disbelieving scoff, and a 'Paranoid much?'...

He strode into the room, towards the far end, turning around to face Sebastian with his arms out as if to say, 'Well?'

"Look, for what it's worth, I am sorry about the Grand Cleric. The whole thing was a proper mess - the Chantry, the Gallows, the Knight-Commander going dogshit insane trying to Annul the whole place..."

Sebastian slowly followed Carver into the room as the other spoke, never taking his eyes off the younger man's face. He didn't want to interrupt the flow of whatever Carver was going to say, and so let the pause hang between them to see if he would continue.

Carver shook his head, giving little more than a soft 'huh' in response to Sebastian's answer. At the comment about his sister, in the past tense no less, there was a subtle twitch in the muscles of his cheek as his jaw ground just a tad.

"No, she really isn't. Bethy was though. Shame you never got to meet her."

The air felt a touch heavy and tense for a moment, before they came to the doors. It was blessedly much warmer inside, and Carver was grateful for it.

"Food first? Or a chance to dry off? We've got warmer clothes if you need."

"I think maybe a question, first," came Sebastian's reply. Carver's tension did not go unnoticed to the Starker, and Sebastian wasn't about to tiptoe around the subject. That would undermine the entire reason he had even come here to begin with.

He followed Carver's lead and stepped inside the blessedly warmer interior, then stamped his boots a few times to shake off any loose snow. "Do you know where your sister is, Carver? Have you heard from her at all since" —his voice caught for a moment— "since the events in Kirkwall?"

Carver stopped and sighed heavily. Closing his eyes, he pinched at the bridge of his nose and grimaced visibly. He'd been expecting this. He wasn't even surprised Sebastian was being this forward and direct about it.

After a moment, he glanced around the entrance hall. There were only a few others milling about, but it was enough to make him uneasy about answering right then and there.

"About that..." He muttered, mostly to himself though it would have been loud enough to hear. Finally looking at Sebastian he gestured forward.

"Not here."

[wywardprince]

Sebastian followed Carver, their boots crunching in the snow as they crossed the courtyard toward the fortress doors leading inside. "It's been some time since I had Ferelden cuisine," Sebastian said, conversationally. He kept his eyes on the snow before him as he walked, appearing to concentrate on where next to place his step.

Carver didn't break his stride, but turned to look at Sebastian with a cocked brow and an expression that was equal parts curious and confused. 

"When have you ever been to Ferelden? Unless you're talking about Marion's sorry attempts at onion and pork porridge?"

If it had been a different time, that would have drawn a soft laugh from him, but as it stood, Sebastian's mouth only twitched a little in a ghost of a smile. "I visited Ferelden a few times as a child and later, as a youth. It's been many years, though." There was a brief pause, then he added, "Your sister was not the best of cooks."

'You promised!' Elissa's throat had tightened, and a sharp stab of guilt lanced through her chest at her daughter's crying. She had indeed promised Eleanor an entire afternoon of time to be together. Time where the little girl could run, play, and laugh - when she could be with her mother, and just be a child. It had been difficult enough to find space for such things when the greatest obstacle to an easy childhood was 'simply' being the daughter of Ferelden's Warden Commander.

Now?

Now, keeping her child hidden away from the world's eyes as much as possible was a matter of safety, rather than a side effect. Elissa didn't know how much longer such stolen moments of normalcy would be possible. Never even mind the fact that all too soon, Eleanor would need to be watched for signs.

For all the pain and death Anders' actions in Kirkwall had wrought, Elissa could not say she would do any less to keep their daughter from the hands of the Circle and the Chantry. She'd burn every one of them to the ground before letting that happen, or die in the attempt.

It was all she could do to keep that pain from flittering too obviously across her face as she turned to kneel down in the snow in front of Eleanor, putting hands on little shoulders with a comforting squeeze. Her brown eyes were doe-like and sad, with her lips pouting and the beginnings of chin quivers as Elissa tucked stray little locks of dark blond hair back beneath her hood and behind her ears. "Oh my sweet darling, I know, I--"

'Our meeting can wait until I've thawed a bit...'

Sebastian's interruption drew Elissa's gaze and attention away from Eleanor suddenly. With a raised brow, she glanced between him and Carver, and then back to Eleanor. It was but a moment more before her face softened, and she dipped her head, relaxing her shoulders with unspoken relief.

"Alright Pup, a while longer," she said, giving Eleanor's arms another squeeze and a kiss on her cheek. The girl's face instantly brightened and she laughed with glee and giddy excitement. Taking her mother's hand, she immediately began pulling on it, trying to drag her away.

Smiling, Elissa got to her feet and cast a look back over her shoulder at Sebastian. There was a gratefulness in her eyes - mixed with something else that even she had a hard time putting a finger on - something conflicted. "We'll speak later then, Prince Vael - the hospitality of Soldier's Peak is at your disposal in the meantime."

Taking a cue from the Commander's waved hand, Carver nudged Sebastian just enough to get his attention. "Come on, I think the kitchen's got meat pies on today," he said, jutting his chin in the direction of the large, heavy doors to their left.

[wywardprince]

“Some people aren’t loyal to you, they are loyal to their need of you. Once their needs change, so does their loyalty.”

— Unknown  (via wordsnquotes)