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jewish-gay-elves · 3 years

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keeping it together, if only to save face

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Words: 1013, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 5 of the a tale of too many wardens because i want everyone to be happy and heres how

Fandoms: Dragon Age: Origins Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: None Characters: Fergus Cousland, Levin Surana, Male Surana, Ser Gilmore, Ser Jory (Dragon Age), Daveth (Dragon Age), Morrigan (Dragon Age), Tristan Amell, Male Amell (Dragon Age) Additional Tags: The warden recruits all meet morrigan, fergus tries to not yell at them, Prince Alistair AU

“Well, well, what have we here? Are you a wake of vultures, I wonder? Scavengers poking amidst a corpse whose bones were long since cleaned? Or merely intruders, come into these darkspawn-filled Wilds of mine in search of easy prey? What say you, hmm? Scavenger or intruder?” A woman’s voice called out to the group of recruits, startling more than a few of them.

“I would first know who you are and where you come from,” Fergus called back, already having assumed the leadership role amongst the group. The woman looked Chasind, her clothes patched together in a somewhat unusual style. However the way she spoke in combination with the large staff on her back indicated something else entirely.

“Intruder? And just how are these your Wilds?” Surana asked, more to himself, but still echoing what Fergus said. The woman just began to chuckle before answering.

“Because I know them as only one who owns them could. Can you claim the same?” She asked, clearly not expecting an answer as she continued speaking and walked through the group confidently, going to stand on a large rock. “I have watched your progress for some time. Where do they go, I wondered, why are they here? And now you disturb ashes none have touched for so long. Why is that?” she mused.

“Don’t answer her, my lord. She looks Chasind, and that means others may be nearby,” Ser Jory cut in, as if Fergus hadn’t already assumed as much. The woman just raised an eyebrow and looked at him incredulously.

“You fear barbarians will swoop down upon you?” she joked, raising her arms over her head for emphasis. Ser Jory at least had the decency to look ashamed, and turned his head away.

“She’s a Witch of the Wilds, she is! She’ll turn us into toads!” Daveth suddenly cut in, interrupting whatever response Fergus might have had. Out of the corner of his eye, Fergus could see Amell and Surana look at each other, clearly trying to hide their amusement. Fergus wasn’t entirely sure about the Witch of the Wilds statement, being unfamiliar himself with the stories of this region of Ferelden. But it was clear that she was definitely a hedge mage, and not to be trifled with.

“Witch of the Wilds? Such idle fancies, those legends. Have you no minds of your own?” She drawled, clearly losing any amusement and almost starting to sound bored with the claims Daveth and Ser Jory had made. Fergus had to rein in his frustration and hope that this conversation was still salvageable and not just going to end up in some kind of fight. The group had run into quite a lot of darkspawn on their way here, and while that meant they definitely had the darkspawn blood that Duncan requested, they still needed those treaties.

“You there, handsome lad. Tell me your name and I shall tell you mine. Let us be civilized,” The woman called, looking past Fergus, and towards Surana. Fergus had no idea at what point the woman had decided that Surana had caught her attention, but Fergus prayed to the Maker that the socially inept mage didn’t screw this up for them. Even Amell had started to look nervous at her claim for the two of them to be “civilized”.

“I am Levin, pleasure to meet you,” he said, even bowing his head a little. Fergus could feel his shoulders start to lose their tension, this was a good start. As mother always said, niceties could get you anywhere.

“Now that is a proper civil greeting, even here in the Wilds. You may call me Morrigan,” She said, with specific emphasis on the “you”, leading Fergus to think that the rest of them were still on thin ice with her. “Shall I guess your purpose? You sought something in that chest, something that is here no longer?” Morrigan continued, crossing her arms as she looked down at all of them.

“Here no longer? You stole them, didn’t you? You’re some kind of...sneaky..witch-thief!” Daveth exclaimed, interrupting them. Fergus wanted to tear his hair out at the other recruit’s idiotic words, but just clenched his fists and kept his mouth shut. Morrigan had tolerated his antics for this long, Fergus could only hope she’d tolerate them for a bit longer.

“How very eloquent. How does one steal from dead men?” She asked dryly. Fergus had to step in.

“Those documents are Grey Warden property, and in order to face the darkspawn, we need them to call our allies. If you happen to have them, you would be doing us, and Ferelden, a great service,” he soothed, hoping that with an explanation, she might be swayed.

“I will not, for ‘twas not I who removed them. Invoke a name that means nothing here any longer if you wish; I am not threatened,” She stated, leveling a heavy stare at Fergus.

“Then who removed them?” He asked, bewildered.

“‘Twas my mother, in fact,” She replied.

“Could you take us to her?” Fergus asked, hoping that none of the other recruits would screw this up.

“There is a sensible request. But I shall only bring a few of you, I have no desire to be in the presence of too many idiots,” Morrigan hummed, leaving them a bit stunned. Before Daveth could say anything too stupid, Fergus hauled Surana and himself forward, hoping that whoever the other two who decided to follow would have the good sense to keep their mouths shut.

“The rest of you, head back to camp, stick together and if Duncan asks, tell him we’ll be back soon,” Fergus ordered, moving to follow Morrigan, who had already turned and started to walk away from the group. Surana almost tripped over himself after Fergus let go of his arm, and quickly tried to right himself so as not to look like a fool. Fergus could see Ser Gilmore and Amell move to follow them and sent up thanks to the Maker that at least these two were men he could trust.

#writing #fergus cousland #dragon age #levin surana #dragon age origins #morrigan #da #ser gilmore #dao #daveth #ser jory #tristan amell #m!amell #m!surana

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dragonstoravens · 4 years

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Babylon Vol. 1: Ask Nothing, The Power of a Smile, Angel On Your Shoulder

[ID: a blue patterned banner with text reading “BABYLON.” End ID.]

(3 short and sweet chapters for you today before we get back into a little bit heavier stuff! I hope you enjoy seeing these two dweebs get to know each other and watching their friendship grow.)

Taglist (ask to be added or removed!): @charlottedotexe @glitterandstarshine @rainbowcoloreddays @the-starlight-chills @erased-in-stone

General: @elywritesbydarkness @residentofthedisc @humour-and-hyperfocus @skyfirewrites @viawrites-andacts

11. Ask nothing

Azzy’s finger hovered over the send button, something in the depths of her core churning. Was she terrible for this? For not wanting to think about it? She had already thought about it so much before she did it, she didn’t really want to think about it any more, it felt terrible. She hit send. It couldn’t make anything worse, at least.

[Azure] Hey, I’m really sorry to bother you, please let me know if you’re busy or something.

Trinity blinked as the message popped up on his screen, a frown creasing his forehead. That was a weird way to start, at least for Azure. She never apologized for anything. He couldn’t help but wonder if something was wrong.

[Hotshot] I’m not busy

[Hotshot] What is it?

There was a long pause.

[Azure] I was just hoping for a distraction, if you had the time. I just broke it off with someone and I don’t really want to talk about it.

She hoped it wasn’t too much. She’d seen him have a panic attack, and it seemed fair to her that he saw her be vulnerable too. On the other hand, she’d said she’d ignore the fact that had happened. This might just be a little too much for whatever weird dynamic they’d built for themselves. It occurred to her that maybe she should soften how serious it sounded.

[Azure] It’s really no big deal either way.

Trinity frowned at her attempt to downplay the issue. It certainly seemed like a big deal to him, if the chronically blunt Azure could be driven to such lengths. An unpleasant thought occurred to him. He didn’t think Azure would’ve been… well, essentially cheating, even if it was fake dating. He would hope that whoever this new ex was had known about the situation, but he couldn’t completely ignore the possibility that they hadn’t.

[Hotshot] Ok. But before we don’t talk about it, I have to ask. It wasn’t because of us, was it?

She couldn’t blame him for checking, though she doubted he’d feel any sympathy for her if she hadn’t told Turq. At least she hadn’t caused that deep an ache.

[Azure] What? No, he knew, he was fine with that. It’s helping a friend, he understood. It’s unrelated.

[Azure] Can we get to the not talking about it?

She shoved away the couple of things Trinity had done that had stuck with her in the back of her head that had been the precursor to her thinking a little too hard about her real relationship. The pulling out chairs and the protective arm over her shoulder when someone got a little too close and she got uncomfortable. Her hands shook a little and she tried not to cry as she heard Turq’s workshop doors slide open.

[Azure] Like right now?

Trinity gave a tiny sigh of relief. He was always somewhat glad when Azure showed herself to be a genuinely decent person. She did it often enough, but part of him did worry that someday she’d turn out to be like almost everyone else he knew. The longer he knew her, though, the less worried he was about that being the case.

[Hotshot] Of course. Here, let me show you some of the prototypes I’ve been working on, they’re due to send to production soon but I was just doing a run through for improvements. What do you think?

Azzy sighed in relief herself as the files came through. Say what you wanted about Jericho, he really knew how to make a person forget things were horrible. Between this and somehow managing to get her to be something akin to comfortable in a crowd, it was nice to have him around. He somehow knew exactly what she needed to get her mind off things.

[Azure] Over on the third one, the dimensions aren’t going to fit in a standard issue cartridge.

It wasn’t the conversation itself that mattered of course, but it was something. And true to his word, he didn’t ask her for anything more than that.

12. The Power of a Smile

Trinity gave a perfectly timed laugh-- not his real laugh, but damned close-- and once again Azure wondered how exactly he knew when to do that as a chorus of reflexive laughter rose around him. She’d been to a few of these high society gatherings by now, primarily to feed Trinity information and be placeholder arm candy to keep the vultures away. When she wasn’t letting her brain wander to cybernetic innovations or small robots with no function she’d like to create, she was watching Trinity talk his way through the night with ease. He seemed to know and be known by everyone, and what’s more is that the vast majority seemed to respect him to boot.

She listened to the questions asked and tried to guess at his answers like a game. Questions that were too direct or too personal he’d deflect with a wave of the hand and a question of his own in response. It was a tennis match he never seemed to lose and as she watched him, talking circles around their fellow partygoers, the look of admiration she fixed him with became more and more genuine. He would smile, and others would smile back even if they were upset. He would say something ought to be done, and most people would comply. He would thank them, and make it believable.

All while making some very good jokes in the back of his head for Azzy to enjoy.

He was quick witted and sure, and she marveled at how on earth anyone got to be even close to this comfortable looking with this many people around. She knew now that the crowds bothered him, giving him the same choked feeling she got. Honestly, his was probably worse. She still wasn’t used to it, still couldn’t quite get the hang of the way he wove his way in and out of conversations, water running through the fingers of people who tried desperately to vy for his attentions. She followed at his heels, trying to smile when he did, laugh on his cue. She felt so mechanical next to him, her mind all cogs and mathematics. He led her, night after night, through a social dance she might never really understand. Always laughed with, never laughed at. Always steering conversation, never caught off guard.

Another glass of wine and a small exchange of glances. She smiled and gestured to him to lead the way, ready to be impressed again. He never disappointed.

13. Angel On Your Shoulder

It was sort of incredible, Trinity reflected, how much easier it was to get through a night when you weren’t alone.

It probably helped even more that his particular companion had a mental link with him, absolutely no sense of society, and a propensity for memes. In front of him was a middle aged woman talking loudly about her children-- ostensibly to Trinity, but really to about half the room with the volume she was using to extoll their many virtues. Normally in this situation, Trinity’s eyes would be aching from forcing himself not to roll them. However, with Azzy here he now had two very good strategies to keep from wanting to drown himself in the punch bowl. The first was to pull her in a little closer to his side just as Mrs. Probably-Catholic (with the amount of children she had, it only made sense) began yet another anecdote, this one about her third-oldest son and the great assets he was forming in the accounting industry and also how handsome he was and how he’d just had his 23rd birthday and was still single, could you believe it? Apparently she’d given up on daughters, since Trinity had no reaction to those so far. Trinity just smiled, shifting his hand just a hint further down on Azzy’s hip.

“Well, that really is a shame. I really did think I might be in the same boat, spending my 23rd alone, before I met Camilla. Isn’t that right, dear?”

“Camilla,” who was currently deep in thought about cybernetics and dogs and dogs with cybernetics, nodded absently, but that was all Trinity needed. She did the rest without even thinking about it. Her hand draped over his shoulder shot off tiny sparks at random intervals, and while he recognized her expression as her resting state of thoughtfulness, he knew what it said to most other people that saw it-- “don’t even think about it.” All he had to do was call the overeager woman’s attention to it, look back up, and smile.

His conversation partner’s smile faltered slightly under the weight of his own as she registered the very stubborn, very dangerous, and very pretty barnacle on his arm, and Trinity took it as an opportunity to politely excuse himself.

The second strategy Trinity could use now that Azzy was here was more for his own sake than anything else. Alone in a crowd, he was constantly stressed at worst and unfathomably bored at best. Now, a conversation with a business partner that would have been, frankly, mind numbing left him struggling not to laugh aloud. He’d always thought this particular man looked a bit like he was constantly holding a frog in his mouth, and every time he spoke he barely opened his lips, like he had to keep it from escaping. The man would not find this fact at all amusing, nor would most other people in this room, and even if they did social graces would absolutely demand they never show it. Luckily, the little voice in the back of Trinity’s head belonged to the person currently draped across his shoulders like she belonged there, and she couldn’t care less about social graces. She was much more interested in shooting back images of the man running across the ballroom, chasing down the frog as it leapt from his mouth into a stack of champagne glasses.

Yes, everything was just a little better when you had someone to share it with.

#wip: babylon #writeblr #writers on tumblr #spilled ink #chapter update

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