#giantsreach

[abomines]

( 24. agony, 36. conditional, or 41. insanity )

@giantsreach / send a number!

         GREY WARDENS LIKE TO TELL STORIES - this, he remembers. Sitting around a campfire with a belly full of ale with the constitution of piss. Laughing. Camaraderie. A word with Orlesian roots, meaning: tell me something honest about you and I will swear my life to you. Like brothers. Like an oath.

         Carver loathes this about you, he thinks. Or Justice thinks. Or what's the difference. A coward and deserter. But he remembers it in his dreams, before Justice came to be one with him. He remembers an expedition into the Deep Roads, repelling darkspawn back into the deeper recesses. Back to the void, to darkness eternal. A million fireballs could not light the hole these savages emerged from. In his dreams, a boy. Casteless. Banished to the Deep Roads. For what, he doesn't remember. Something like theft gone wrong. Exiled all the same. Tainted all the same. Better men and lesser men have befallen the same fate without distinction. The Wardens voted to save the dwarf -- "save." In the Deep Roads, there is no justice and there is no mercy and just the harsh light of practicality.

         In his dreams, in his memories, the distinctions fall to the wayside. A "before" memory somehow tainted and blurred. A picture overlapped with another one. Deep Roads, winding caverns, healing magic to preserve his comrades. Gaping maws of beasts like chimeras with endless hunger--mashing teeth and limb, digging fingers in to the viscera. Flesh rended, to heal, to protect. The taste of blood in his mouth like mead. But this memory is impossible, he thinks. Fabricated. Justice was not with him then. Any distinctions have long started to fall by the way side, lost their boundaries. Kaleidoscope of memory, he thinks.

         At the end of the day, the boy perished to the Joining. Lacking in constitution. Or dumb luck. Fought for nothing. And all dead men walking--just a question of when.

         “Better things to fight and die over. More tangible plights, as it were.”

#gore / #this was soooo fun to write dude #went with agony.... #giantsreach #answered.

[fen-dwxller]

Sure, it’s cold, but at least it’s a dry cold.

𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 - 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 @giantsreach

❝ don't. your attempts at smalltalk are miserable. ❞ they were on their way to skyhold-- skyhold, of all places-- the second they received word from varric. the icy wind bit at their cheeks. far different from the hot, humid climates he was used to.

❝ we get there, find hawke, then go our separate ways. ❞ after the mage rebellion, any place with mages and templars together made him feel uneasy.

not to mention carver's sorry excuse for conversations.

#giantsreach #in character // * fen dwxller . #answered // * fen dwxller . #// hi hello!!! hope this works <3

[nathxnielhowe]

❝ You have a very bleak view of the world. ❞

▿meme.

❝ I'm not fond of unfounded optimism. ❞ 

While his reply is seemingly terse, no edged antagonism resides in passive features. Instead, he arches a brow, fixing Carver with a curious look. He was no stranger to others' criticisms. After all, even before his family's fall from grace, Nathaniel hadn't been known for a perky personality. Regardless, a dry smile lingers in his tone, though no such smirk ever graces his expression.

❝ Would you rather I don my rosey spectacles and see the world differently? Dance before the Maker and sing praises for the sunshine, perhaps? ❞

╰┈➤ @giantsreach

#(. #rip carver #he's a touch sassy :/ #.) #ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴀ ᴅᴜʟʟ ᴍᴏᴍᴇɴᴛ! | (ɪᴄ) #giantsreach

[ourdawncomes]

( ♡ - merrill! )

Party Banter Meme | Accepting | @giantsreach

Merrill: Was your father a mage as well, Carver?Carver: He was.Merrill: It must have been nice, growing up around so much magic.Carver: Try ‘exhausting,’ instead. Even before the Blight, my sisters’ talents forced us to move twice, just in case.Merrill: Oh. I suppose that would be a lot without aravels to carry your things.

(Standing outside the qunari compound)

Merrill: Do you think you could lift me?Carver: What? Oh, easily, yes.Merrill: And what about Isabela?Carver: Yes...?Merrill: Varric?Carver: Merrill, where are you going with all this?Merrill: Well, I was thinking if one of us sits on your shoulders with a big coat on, we could sneak into the compound... Oh, but they don’t wear coats, do they? Never mind.

(After Act I, during Legacy or Mark of the Assassin)

Merrill: You’re missed in Kirkwall, you know.Carver: Am I?(If prior to All That Remains)Merrill: Of course. I can tell your mother thinks of you often, even if she doesn’t always say it out loud. Not to me, at least.(If after All That Remains)Merrill: Of course. Hawke’s dog still whines when he hears your name.Carver: Is that all?Merrill: Well, no. I miss you, too.Carver: Do you, now?Merrill: You were the only one I could ever beat at cards. (Giggles) Although I suspect you let me.Carver: (Laughs) Only some of the time.

Merrill: Do you like being a Grey Warden?Carver: It’s not always easy, but every darkspawn I kill is one less that’ll ever hurt someone.Merrill: Good... I’m glad. It suits you. You always seemed sort of lost in Kirkwall, and not the sort of lost a ball of twine could fix.Carver: I guess I had to stumble onto something I was good at sooner or later.Merrill: You were good at a lot of things, but you weren’t happy being them. That’s what matters.

#giantsreach #( asks ) #( my writing ) #v; first in exile ( merrill | acts 1 & 2 ) #v; a new path ( merrill | act 3 ) #it’s a keeper’s job to remember ( merrill | ic ) #[ in this house we appreciate hawkes ]

[nothinglorious]

“ i’m fine, i’ve had worse. ”

⚔️ 《 CARVER AND ALISTAIR 》

Unknown Meme. @giantsreach

      “Are you sure about that? That looks pretty nasty if you ask me.” The wound was bleeding quite terribly, enough that he could see the blood and it was staining his clothes. “Take off your armor, we’ll get you patched up.” He dropped his pack, digging in it for the needle and thread that he typically used for patching up his socks, but it’d make do in a time like this. “I think I have something in here....ah here it is.” He pulled out the bottle he had taken to sipping when he could, using it sparingly but now he’d use it to clean out Carver’s wound. 

       “I’ll try to make it fast, as long as you don’t cry.” He quipped. If he was going to have to sitch up the damn fool, the least he could do is give him a little bit of hell as he did it. 

#giantsreach

[oathes]

@giantsreach​.

          “No, yes, that’s what I’m telling you----” And he’s half-raising his arms with illustrative emphasis, trying to push his point home. They’re settling their packs before they’re off in the morning to the trek to report to Weisshaupt, but not before cutting through Orlais and greeting the Orlesian sect of their ilk. So, he’s half-shoving cured meats and poultices in his pack while explaining away these apparent formalities. “So, right, listen to me here.”

          “You see them, and you take a bow, and you say bone jaw. That’s what they say. I don’t know why, but they do. I’m not kidding!”

#giantsreach #ve: vigilance. #wangstluvr -> toesuckr #this is a creative starter. deal w it

[saoildorcha]

giantsreach replied to your post: y’all i have some spicy content on my mind tonight...

good content op

When the Hawke boys got rly nice arms and you catch yourself daydreaming about gettin a good cuddle in them tbh

#giantsreach #out. ♫ sɪɢɴɪɴɢ ᴏꜰꜰ #someone notices fenris staring at them: are u ok?? #fenris: IM FINE SHUT UP DONT LOOK AT ME

[hopewrought]

@giantsreach replied to your photo:      “He didn’t want to pass magic to a child. And...

carver and bethany realizing that they both think malcolm hated/didn’t want them: i.kym-cdn.com/entries…

IM FUCKING SOBBING THIS IS THE MOST ACCURATE THING IVE SEEN IN MY LIFE

#giantsreach #`☆▐▒░ | ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴇᴀsᴜʀᴇᴅ |「saved」 #( them bonding after growing up a lil and both realizing the other had it tough pls? )

[extravagantliar]

( meta: bartrand, or family in general. )

SEND ME A TOPIC TO WRITE A META ABOUT MY MUSE ON  // meme cache

Family, canonically, is a complicated topic. Not only in DA2 does Varric pivot away from any personal information on his family he steers away from it in the comics, while refusing to talk in-depth about his brother’s fate to the Inquisitor. It’s safe to assume, through the tales of DA2 and the DA Bible, that his relations with his blood relatives were terse.

Bartrand had a goal to restore his family back to their former glory, and that tenacious nature leads him to a place of isolation from Varric. Ilsa died of liver failure, something Varric had to watch, and while that vital organ failed and toxins built up in her blood, Ilsa lost herself, and her grasp of Varric and of course his memories of Andvar are all polluted by Bartrand’s and Ilsa’s own misgivings. Mixed feelings came out as ink on paper, spilling over as tragedy and heroes so woebegone that an ending seems bleak and bittersweet. These morose endings that leave the reader almost unfulfilled Varric states is his métier, yet this comes without jactation and is almost dismal and chary, defeated.

These relationships were fractious and very tempestuous. He loved his mother and brother, while of course having fond feelings for his father ( but he died when Varric was so young, and he doesn’t trust his own memories of his father ), he also understands that many of his own anxieties and pitfalls come from the issues that were never resolved within his nuclear family. With good reason, his extended family is just as complicated. 

He loves Thorold and Mae, wrote them often --- after Thorold died, he tried to write Mae once a month.

#Varric why is your personal life FULL OF DEATH #okay i've been awake for nearly 20 hours #im goin 2 bed and gettin up to make ziti and then be here #hey it's me ur gorl off of the floor #giantsreach

[cewyll]

giantsreach replied to your post “so who’s gonna do the corpse bride piano duet with liz? who? ”

if i still had my robert lutece, He Would

ME, TEARING UP A LITTLE BIT: “NICE”

#giantsreach #{ thinkin bout that Dad } #{ ITS OK. ITS THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS... the knowledge that he would play it with her if he were here } #* OUT.

[abomines]

@giantsreach!

          AGAINST THE DIM ORANGE-BROWNS OF THE CLINIC, his face is vaguely illuminated. With soapy water, he tries to scrub away at his robes. The patch of blood refuses to be scrubbed away--at least, in its entirety. Justice won’t tell him where it’s from, not exactly. Anders does not remember where it’s from, either. Or he does not wish to remember. It makes no difference, because he is keeled over a too-small table, scrubbing furiously at the patch to no avail. He is like a small, wooden stick, bent over at full tension, about to snap--like the sticks the Dalish use to hold a maple candy. Taffy, he thinks it was. Once, in another life, he tried to have Velanna show him. He never learned. But, all the same, the stick that is his spine loses its tension when he hears heavy footsteps and straightens up.

          “Your brother isn’t here,” he says quickly. He tucks away the bloodied fabric, away from Carver’s sight. Away from his own sight, too. Out of sight, out of mind, perhaps. That doesn’t explain away the bucket of water, so he moves to dump it, as though he has just finished cleaning in his spare time. It’s hardly convincing, but he banks on Carver’s willful ignorance. There are more reliable things in this world to rely on, but he does it all the same. 

          Next time, he thinks, he will be more smart about it. If someone like Carver can barge in on him like this, then a group of Templars can do it just as easily, only posing more of a danger. Anders thinks of the hidden patch of fabric, darkened and sullied, and he frowns. An echo almost finds its way into the clinic, with how grand the space it occupies is, how tall the ceiling is, how empty it is.

          “No one is here, for that matter.” 

#giantsreach #ve: tba. #sup bastard

[teleidoscopic]

@giantsreach || carver.

“Never did hear a reason for you of all sorts to go picking up the shield.” It is quiet when he speaks; a late night shift, where the only thing to interrupt them so far in the evening are the sharp coastal winds that card their way over the walls. Even so, Raleigh dare not so much as lift his voice higher than a whisper. His position among the Templars may have been restored, and his veins humming once more with the lyrium’s song, but even so -- he still remembers its absence. “You really think doing so will hide your family history?” 

#giantsreach #○ CH: SAMSON. ○ #since you mentioned maybe them as templars i figured this could sorta pave the way to later interactions! #◢ V: DA2. (Samson) ◣

[exemplari]

            ‘   𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏  𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄  𝐅𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐒  𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄   ;   don’t  wear  yourself  out  by  staying  rigid   .   and  don’t  be  afraid  to  move   .   ‘ 

           a  taunt   ;   insult   -   laced   ,   though  constructive   .   fists  bandage   -   bound  beckon  warden  forward   ,   stance  near  boastful  in  its  playful  fluidity   ,   steps  feather   -   light  in  how  he  dances  circles  around  the  brute   .   it  is  still  fairly  new   ,   this   ,   and  what  skills  the  man  lacks  have  already  surfaced   ,   rubbed  raw  in  how  commander  had  aggravated  them   .   perhaps  it  is  wounded  pride  in  need  of  nursing  that  fuels  him   ,   or  perhaps  it  is  an  ever  present  strive  to  be  better   .   regardless   ,   the  warden’s  tenacity  demands  respect   ,   and  despite  tumultuous  beginnings  this  routine  has  become  comfortable   ---   almost  enjoyable   ,   even   . 

            breathless   ,   limbs  threaten  to  quiver  from  the  strain  put  upon  them   ,   though  the  acid  building  is  a  pale  pain  in  comparison  to  recent  abdominal  blow   .   once  immaculate  those  golden  curls  cling  to  his  brow   ,   and  he’s  this  glowing  feeling  of  being   alive   . 

             ‘   come  on   .   try  and  hit  me   .   ‘

                                                                     for  @giantsreach

#giantsreach #& - EYE EMOJIS #FEATHER AND INK / STARTER .

[bornpariah-a]

❛ Only a loony would walk himself into this. ❜

❝ I trust you’re aware that makes us rather LOONY ourselves, ❞ amusement lilts his tone just so, lending a melodious richness to it that further broadens his voice. Such a bold statement, and from such a strapping man !! A Grey Warden, at that ——— you can hardly blame him for his amusement ——— and truly, how loony is it to join onto an absolute death sentence?

Ah, but isn’t life itself something of a death sentence? Morbid, yes, but no less true. He ( which is to say, they, considering that dorian’s placed himself firmly beneath the inquisition’s banner with no intention of leaving it lest he’s dead or under severe duress. what? it’s not as though he dares operate under the guise of denial. ) has simply expedited the process. And decided to acquaint himself incredibly well with Death along the way. The lunacy.

Sanity is relative, after all. And in a world gone mad, what are they to do?

Allow the DREADED TEVINTER MAGISTER to fight alongside the HONORABLE GREY WARDEN, obviously. Yes, yes, the sky split open and the world’s been turned upside down : this is the only feasible next step, everyone knows that. ❝ Chin up, Warden, ❞ he twirls his staff in his hands deftly, the blade of it slicing through the air as he considers their angle of attack. Two of them against, what, a dozen Venatori? Perhaps a few more? ❝ I rather like these odds, myself. Can’t make it too easy for them, after all. ❞

One day someone will have to speak to him about his brevity, or the lack thereof. Oh, wait, SCORES OF PEOPLE have spoken to him about it. Or tried to, at least.

Nonetheless he considers Carver once more ——— he really will have to read Varric’s blasted books one of these days, won’t he? Dramatized and biased, to be certain, but all fiction is based in truth and he rather likes to know. Hopefully he’ll be able to smuggle a copy into Skyhold without alerting the author, himself.

Also : he’s curious about the man. Shocking, who ever would have thought?

But in the meantime : there are these cretins to dispose of. ❝ Shall we? ❞

@giantsreach // THE BURIAL AT THEBES. ( accepting )

#giantsreach #( ∞ ┈┈ inquisition ) WELL THERE'S A GIANT HOLE IN THE SKY AND A DRAGON OR TWO AROUND. #[ i have No idea what's happening here and i'm just gonna hand wave everything ] #[ HERE TAKE THIS MESS... I GUESS??? ]

[asteeledheart]

@giantsreach​

the first thing she thinks is that he’s quite tall and the second that it seems as though she could be snapped in half by him, all without this other hawke breaking a sweat. neither realization is particularly comforting, but any genuine worry is assuaged by the knowledge that the man before her is a hawke, which of course means he’s likely impulsive and loud and brave, but good. 

good is a welcome change, in her opinion. 

“i’ve had the pleasure of meeting your sibling already,” she states politely, looking at him with admittedly a glimmer of curiosity, “quite a family, your’s.” 

#giantsreach #immediate reaction: he big

[amaranthinemade]

The mountain breeze carries the familiar sound of clashing STEEL from the sparring ring to her pointed ears. Her feet take her to the pair of Inquisition soldiers happily hacking at each other, and she quickly realizes she knows them, remembers facing them in the ring a few days ago. Quite green, both of them, but extremely entertaining to watch. Leaned against the wooden fence, Nalaya laughs when poor Anthony fumbles with his shield and falls square on his ass. “Better luck next time!”

Anthony is brought to his feet by his partner, and the two return to their stunts after a brief exchange of taunts. Nalaya giggles to herself and turns, dark eyes surveying the small crowd they’d attracted ———— ah! She’s not surprised to find him here, she’d seen him around these parts a couple times before, but he’d been busy. This is an opportunity to FINALLY talk to the man, and she’s delighted. Grey wardens are difficult to come by in Skyhold ( Blackwall’s always unavailable, somehow )... She’s missed the companionship. 

      “Good morning.” Maker, he’s tall. “You’re Carver Hawke, yes? Nice to finally meet you; it’s good to have more WARDENS around.” Wait, no, you’re getting ahead of yourself. “Oh! I’m Nalaya. Warden Nalaya.” She chuckles, feeling a bit foolish. 

      “Were you looking for a match? I’d be happy to spar with you.”

@giantsreach

#giantsreach #nala is only 5'2'' im gonna to cry #MIND ALTERED // SHE RESISTS (v. inquisition)