#i tHINK that Blackwall is about 50

[xsdjkl]

Songbird's interesting voice lines

Before I dive into the topic I just want to express my gratitude and respect for Minji Chang's work as Songbird in Phantom Liberty. She has done an incredible job and on a personal note - I consider it the best voice performance I've ever experienced in a video game.

I listened to the video linked below and wrote down everything that caught my attention. I haven't heard quite a lot of these in game. I divided everything by topics (?) and also added some lines that I personally find interesting in terms of my upcoming projects. Enjoy and feel free to start discussions! :)

Topics:

Songbird's lore

Songbird about Reed

SongV interactions

AI lines

Just her ✨voice✨

Others

Songbird lore:

"Being in your head's taxing, takes energy and focus." (6:09)

"Don't wanna mess in your head more than I have to. Construct really done a number on you."(11:46)

"Learned my lesson 9 years ago. Blind date with this suit from Asukaga & Finch. Regret that one till the day I croak." (13:40)

"Hanging out inside your head's problematic. For you and me." (14:35)

"V, about the construct… Is it… I mean, you feel you're making your own choices?" (15:04)

"But I believe in random shit and I'm infuriatingly stubborn."(19:35)

"Operating on instinct, intuition, huh? Same here."(20:19)

"Karma, huh? Used to believe in that too. Now, I wouldn't be so sure."(20:29)

"Just been on my mind since I patched in. Maybe cause I've had your biomon feed floating in front of my eyes all the time."(23:54)

"That thing… It almost fried my brain. I had to look for help. Beyond the Blackwall." (30:53)

"I'm gonna puke"(40:39) | she sounds so scared? afraid of doing that? also, internal organs discussion continues. |

"Oath, crednetials, coin? What have you gotten me into?" (1:00:43) | my question is - is the coin mentioned the same coin Myers gives V? |

"I gave myself one last chance and you stripped me of it."(1:10:17)

"I never wanted to join them (FIA)."(1:10:34)

"What you don't know is how sorry I am. How much it all hurts." (1:11:37)

"Pushing forth, never looking back used to piss me off. Now, wish the future was all I could think about." (1:36:50)

"I knew (about the cure) from the start." (1:46:04)

Songbird about Reed:

"But I've shown you my trust. I mean, you're free to sell me out to Reed, or trust me enough to save us both. No guarantee for either of us."(36:52)

"I warned you, Reed stole my life. Once away, I won't let him steal it again."(1:13:17)

"All's better without him."(1:13:29)

"It's more convenient. Yes, con-ven-ient. Reed would say so too."(1:15:55)

"Has a use for me maybe, but one use only. To feel good about himself, what he's doing."(1:34:32)

"I was afraid to trust him. Just couldn't… understand why now was lying to himself. Desperate to believe he wouldn't have to choose between me and Myers, but his and the NUS's national conscience - one and the same."(1:47:24)

SongV interaction lines:

"Sorry, you're ignoring me on purpose or you actually trying and you happen to just suck? I can't tell" (1:25)

"This is the easiest way in, I promise. And stop whining." (4:26)

"To me, you're a rainbow colour figure on a 3D building plan." (4:39) 🏳️‍🌈🧐

"Ooooh, watch your head then." (5:23)

"Not right now, V. I'm… just a little tied up."(8:16)

"Try and get up. I'm on your side, V. We'll get along, I'm certain." (11:38)

"You need this drama? You'll be fine, but if it helps, sure, I promise." (13:29)

"Hurry, V. Please, save her. Save her and I'll save you." (14:59)

"I dunno. Kinda reminds me of my own path I guess." (19:32)

"Mind if I ask why you poked your nose into that?" (20:10)

"Ookay too soon I guess. No pressure, we can come back to it." (20:50)

"Think you'd do anything for another chance?"(23:41)

"Sorry, not, uh, what I… I just want things to work out for you. You're fighting for yourself. Your life. Deserve another shot."(24:02)

"For what we're paying, I expect your complete attention."(50:21)

"Off in la la land?"(50:18)

"See? You don't have to be a douche, just try a little."(1:47:03)

"Plus, made yourself pretty fucking memorable give your antics."(1:50:06)

"Crap, V, really? Can't you just stick to my instructions?" (1:50:11)

"We're lookin' good!" (1:50:43)

(1:51:00) "V, what's going on?" "Hey there." "Hey, V." 😏

"V, you're bleeding!"(1:51:34)

"Looking a little rough, V!"(1:51:36)

"V, give me a hand!" (1:51:43)

"What? Need me to hold your hand?" (1:52:20) yes please

AI lines:

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."(26:41) | Songbird's loosing control over Chimera. I find it interesting how every word is said in a different tone. |

"No, no I have not lost control!" (56:43) | she's in so much pain🥺|

"Who will you betray next? Who have you not yet?"(57:26)

"Hidden harmonies. Hidden meanings. World entirely new. Equation unknown."(1:27:52)

"I see things I've never seen. I hear sounds I've never heard. I feel things never felt. A riddle wrapped in a mystery."(1:28:17)

"It's that how you ultimately lose all those you care about." (1:54:20)

"When you do not exist, there is nothing to fear." (1:54:34)

"Do not fear death." (1:54:37)

"You will not see the home as long as you remain a part of it." (1:54:42)

"Life consists of pieces, scattered, beyond repair." (1:54:48)

"You do not give up even when all have betrayed you." (1:55:33)

When her voice is just ✨:

"All true, Johhny, but don't you fret. You're both safe. (3:17)

"*laugh* I see" 4:34

"Sooo, how's my shortcut treating you?" (5:50)

"And spoil the surprise? No, no, no."(29:01)

"Please, V."(1:17:11) |her voice killed me.|

So Mi crying. (1:17:52)

Others I wanted to include for reasons™:

"Fucking motherfucking fuck!" (7:30)

"Big dreams don't fade. They sack and crumble." (14:10)

"I know what I've done, know the price I've paid. Everything I did, the people I hurt… it's meaningless. It matters not at all." (1:05:10)

"Dying is my only hope." (1:19:42)

"Have to behave like puppy bot set to easy obedience mode."(1:26:11)

"You're so tiny[…]"(1:34:41)

"Orbital's network traffic's looking itchy. Not liking this. They're watching you. Do nothing even remotely sus."(1:39:10)

"Prom-- Mmm…Hm."(1:45:52)

"All I got to say - easy as pie. Should do this more often."(1:51:28)

"Ha! Try again, gonk!"(1:51:58)

#long post #minji chang #song so mi #songbird #phantom liberty #cyberpunk 2077 #solomon reed #songv

[pentuppen]

Writing Patterns Tag Game!

Never done one of these before but I got Tagged by @dustdeepsea so I figured I would give it a go! Also @dustdeepsea i snagged your formatting because I am lazy!

Rules: list the first line(s) of your last 10 posted fics and see if there's a pattern!

~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~

The Devil You Don't (BG3 unfinished series. Rapahel/Tav. explicit)

The library was a place in which a thousand journeys waited.

2. Unleashed (BG3 Unfinished series. Book two of The Game series. Tav / Astarion spawn. Explicit)

Warner Gould half stumbled out of the Blushing Mermaid, weaving on the threshold for a few seconds before he bounced gently off the doorframe and half floated down the wooden stairs.

3. Bitter Suns (BG3 one shot. Gortash / Durge. Explicit)

Her mind was a spiral of revelation, coming undone at the seams she had roughly tied into place over the last few months, the urge once again circling her body like a shark, waiting for the first drop of her weakening will to fall like blood in the water.

4. Loose The Arrow (BG3 finished series, book one in The Game series. Astarion ascended / tav, i think at this point you can assume they are all explicit lol)

It was a perfect twilight by the time she’d finished setting up the camp.

5. Mid Winter In Moonrise (BG3 One shot. Astarion ascended/tav/halsin. Created as a xmas special for all the people who got me through 50 chapters of Loose the Arrow)

Twas the night before Deadwinter and all through the woods, not a creature was stirring…aside from the druid who sailed through the air and hit the trunk of a tree.

6. The Things We Must Do (DA:I Solas/lavellan angst fluff and smut, old fic)

The old wolf roamed across the Exalted plains and a trembling silence followed, broken only by the sound of dry grass beneath weary feet.

7. See Her Run (DA:I Solas / Lavallen angst fluff and basically unfinished because I ran out of steam)

When he had once sat within the painted rotunda of Skyhold and idly imagined her stepping amongst the ancient shelves of the shattered library, it had not been like this.

8. The Lady Doth Protest (DA:I One shot. Pure Blackwall/trevelyan smut)

He watched her mingle with the sycophantic ranks of nobles and dignitaries alike, a glittering array of strutting peacocks and bejewelled swans, all of them speaking from behind masks, whether they wore them on their faces or behind their lying eyes.

9. In Red (DA:I One shot. Pure Iron Bull / Trevelyan smut )

They meet on the battlefield again, and this time they are on the same side.

10. What You Owe (DA:I 3 parter. My very first fic, a Solas / lavellan angst smut sobfest! I made a lot of people cry)

“It was cruel of you to seek me in my dreams”

~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~~o0O0o~

Not sure what any of that says about me other than I am a bit long winded lol

Don't actually know many other authors I can tag because im old and mostly shitpost stupid memes! But I will ask @nusaran and @chewchewman to take a stab at it!!

[vitanithepure]

Hi! I really enjoy your posts, and I would like to ask a question. Please ignore if it's too personal!

How do you look at BG3's companion ages? Do you find them too young/too old?

I'm probably on the younger side of BG3 fans and I am having a hard time identifying with some of them. They are awesome, but I just think myself so out of their league, lol.

Way to call out my old ass 😂

Also - thank you so much! It really means a lot people here are so awesome and friendly, I started out with the intention to just scream into the void as an outlet for my hyperfixations, but met so many wonderful people along the way, in such a short span I'm... humbled, really.

But, onto the ask itself!

I don't think of them as either too young or too old, to be completely fair. I don't think we have canon ages set for all of them, and someone else (I'm so sorry, can't find the post or the user now T_T) did a very good job on the guesswork the other day.

There was a time for me, back when I was a teen, where I couldn't possibly level with someone, pixel or not, that was above 30. I think it's normal to feel that way. The way I gave Jaheira a side-eye back in Baldur's Gate 2 while years later Blackwall from DA: Inquisition was the only sensible choice, lol.

But you know what? If I had to, absolutely had to, give my answer I would still put the BG3 companions on the younger scale of things, just because of the lore aspect - so taking into cosideration things like that a 20 year old elf is a baby.

Lae'zel seems to be fairly young? She just went out of her creche, right? So she is whatever the githyanki consider a young adult.

Shadowheart is pretty young too? Without going into spoilers we get a chance to meet someone from her past, and judging by that person's appearance I would say Shadowheart is in her 50s at maximum, which considering the lifespan of half-elves is still young.

Astarion is over 200, not sure how much over 200, but he was an elf, now is completely ageless, so it's tricky when talking about his age. So let's assume his mental age instead? Middle to late 20s at best would be my guess.

Karlach might be around 30? She tells us she was a street kid and then goes straight to being a bodyguard, making me think she was barely 20 when thrown for 10 years to the Blood Wars front.

Wyll also seems to be about his early 30s considering his father's age. Not sure about that though, might be younger? He does have a young face though, so judging by that alone he would be...25?

Gale is, perhaps, the oldest from the core companions considering a human lifespan. Again, judging only by his looks I place him in his late 30s, early 40s. No idea how much of that is his condition 'worsening' his physical appearance.

Halsin? Well, he's an elf, but his mature presence makes him seem on the older side. Not gonna even guess here, have no idea!

Also no idea about Minthara, didn't get to talk to her yet, sorry ^^ Also

So... that gives us 3 young companions and 4...er..."older" ones? :)

Look, I'm 36, not gonna lie that I enjoy pixel people being around my age and I get that an age gap can make people uncomfortable. They will be as much "in your league" as you want them to be. So, whatever you decide to do - first and foremost make sure you are comfortbale with it. Games are a safe medium to explore our boundaries.

#thank you so much for the ask! #forgive my rabling #bg3 #baldur's gate 3

[jaymber]

Hello I have a question about Vaea and you might’ve explained it before but how did the situation with relic turn out for him? from what I can tell Johnny got his body back or a replacement of some type?

Okay, so the story's a liiiittle long, but it roughly goes like this :

In my timeline, it ends with a Don't Fear the Reaper/Temperance Ending : Vaea powers off the entire tower (and everyone in it) thanks to his most powerful ultimate hack (which would've killed him and technically did, but Johnny was there to take over), and choose to sacrifice himself because he can't bear the thought of Johnny being no more.

He joins Alt beyond the Blackwall, and teaches her everything she doesn't know about the world, and netrunning, in the 50 years she's been stuck deep within Cyberspace so he won't get absorbed.

After almost 10 months in irl time (which means years in Cyberspace), Alt trusts Vaea. He's free to fight off everyone trying to breach their space. Independent hackers, mostly.

Until one day, Netwatch tries to make contact. They know he's not Alt. They know he's V. They make a deal: V's escape back to the real world as an AI against info on Alt and her space. He accepts.

Except he tells them lies, except Netwatch had planned to sell him right back to Arasaka. He's not human anymore. He's got no rights anymore. He's just into a netrunning killing machine, in exchange of Kerry and Johnny's safety.

Learning they're still alive, Vaea tries to make contact with them. He's punished the second he hears Kerry's voice on the holo.

He's tasked with various meaningless gigs… until one day he's asked to take the Afterlife off the map. Forever. A bomb, how poetic. And Vaea does, not to lose his loved ones. But Rogue survives, and that can't do. Vaea is sent down to finish the job.

Except she wasn't alone. Johnny was with her. In a single glance and a few words, they recognize each other. Their minds are still in sync. Johnny quickly understands in crypted words he's forced to do it. He incapacitates Vaea and, with Vik's help, rips everything branded Arasaka off this new body of his.

They need to find a way to free Vaea from Arasaka. They try the usual way at first: through violence. When it doesn't work, and they both almost die, Kerry has enough, and takes it the legal way. He acquires Vaea (since he's an AI now, he's more an object than a human legally) in exchange of putting some money into Arasaka's dwindling stocks. Michiko agrees (both Yorinobu and Hanako died in this timeline), maybe because she's also threatened. The two others won't stop until Vaea's free, and wouldn't mind ending the Arasaka lineage with her death in the process.

And what about Johnny's crimes, huh? Well, they settle on the fact that this Johnny's just an AI as well, not the real one. This Johnny's Arasaka tech, just like Vaea is, and why would Arasaka trial their own tech? Do they want the public to think the Relic program isn't safe?

Next came the body issue: V was in a decaying body, Johnny was in V's body.

For V, he used the knowledge he gathered from Alt and, with the help of other netrunners (8ug, Sandra and Nix), they made their own version of Soulkiller.

For Johnny, they went to Lizzy Wizzy's ripperdoc, who made Johnny a new skinsuit made of RealSkinn and metal.

They were both Soulkilled, so Vaea could regain his body, and Johnny get into his new one. The process wasn't perfect. Vaea lost some abilities to speak French (he still can, but forgot lots of words and grammar), Johnny lost some abilities to play the guitar (he still can, but often has to pause, look at what his fingers are doing, etc.)

Johnny was fine (albeit a little traumatized with a second time Soulkilled). Vaea's mind was severely damaged. He had to get a neural implant to function normally.

And that's about it, I think 😌

#sorry it's so long #(and i had to skip everything about v. johnny. and kerry's relationship in the process 🤣) #cyberpunk 2077 #oc: vaea temarii #ps: yeah he was a marty stu for like... a few hours 🤣

[solavelyan]

3, 5 & 22 for choose violence!

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you’ve seen on tumblr

lkaj;fdsf god. i think the most recent one was someone speculating on why of all the inquisition love interests, blackwall isn't as popular, and one of their guesses was that people don't like him as much because he's available to dwarves and qunari. as if people are so comically "prejudiced" against dwarves and qunari that the love interests that will fuck them are somehow tainted. that was pretty fucking stupid.

but one of the ones that really stuck with me was someone who said that... if you dislike cullen, you actually hate drug addicts in real life and you're a bad person. as if that's the only reason he might not be your favorite. pffff.

5. worst discord server and why

the one i'm not in anymore. :3

okay but realtalk, i'm not quite high or brave enough to give a specific name, but i will say that i think it's easy for writing-focused discords to get into a sort of feedback loop that it turns out i just really don't enjoy. some of that is definitely me, but i think i have similar feelings to some other people who were on the same servers as i was and left (the feeling of some spaces being a popularity contest, being unsure of how genuine feedback was at any given time because it could feel transactional, just not necessarily vibing with the sort of unspoken preferences of the group wrt canon interpretation/fanon/etc.).

i also just don't like servers that get above a certain member count because they're too active and i feel obligated to read everything and know everything and then i get anxiety lmao. my ideal server size is like... somewhere under 100 people, probably realistically somewhere south of 50. so that's just me.

most of my fannish group activities before 2022 were either just out in the wild on tumblr, or RP circles in IJ, so i had a bit of a discord culture shock after keeping to myself for so long. and i will say that while some people who are loud about being "live and let live" and being open to other people's opinions are being genuine, functionally... yeah, any contained group of people that gets to a certain size is going to start emulating the behaviors of wider fandom, but in ways much more specific to the driving personalities of those servers.

so you end up with some really wild, overly dramatic discussions of "fandom problems" that functionally only affect the 5 people having that discussion and the maybe 3 or 4 other people that got under their skin about it, so you end up with takes like... well, like in my last question, proposing that a straight white man love interest in a fandom historically pretty friendly to straight white men must be unpopular because he's marginalized somehow, and not because his competition was Ex-Templar Fandom Has Been Thirsting Over Since DAO, What the Fuck Do You Mean That's Freddie Prinze, Jr.?, Charismatically Voice Acted Gay Magic Man from Cool Fantasy Rome, and Tragic Elf Man Ianto Jones. people were just not as into burly bearded dilfy types in 2015 as they are now. it's not a mystery, but if your fishbowl is curved enough, it sure looks like one.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

oh, this is probably small and silly, but that bit of flavor text at the beginning of Inquisition for the human pc mentions that trevelyan is from a huge family with close ties to the templar order, is the youngest child of multiple siblings, and was expected to go into service to the chantry, either as a templar or in the clergy. i've seen a lot of religious trevelyans, but i rarely see them portrayed as templars or chantry clergy or something. i'm honestly really surprised, given how popular some of the templar npcs are, that we weren't awash in templar ocs during inquisition's heyday.

i don't mind feeling relatively unique (i think i've only seen one or two other templar trevelyans but that's about it), but this is one of those things that always surprises me when i'm the only one rocking up with an ex-templar oc in a given group. they're so interesting! i would totally read someone else's take on the concept.

[ from the choose violence ask meme ]

#asks #ziskandra #bog post #ask meme #fandom bs #obligatory 'i love blackwall i think everyone should fuck blackwall' disclaimer

[sweetmage]

5, 11 & 16 for Edan for the angst questions? 👀👀

Hiiiiii! I am answering this like 50 years late because I got shy about posting about OCs for some reason, but thank you! <3 I will answer it now because he is on my mind again 🥺

5. Would they ever turn on someone they just met in order to save themselves?

In order to save himself? No, I don't think so. He usually takes the diplomatic approach, opting to try and work with someone even if they oppose him and find peaceful solutions or ways they could work together (even at a risk to himself). I think the only time he'd outright turn against someone is if things broke down enough that others were in danger, escape was impossible, or if his own death would do more harm to others than good (ie. there's still work left to do that only he can do) and the only way out is to incapacitate or kill the other person. 11. What are your character’s coping mechanisms?

Most of them revolve around Junior, his mabari. Though he isn't trained as a service dog or support animal, he is well attuned to Edan's emotions (having grown up with him) and reacts accordingly or goes to get help when he needs it. Edan is also generally pretty good at regulating his emotions (at least as he grows older) though during late Origin and early Awakening he developed some anger issues and cracked under the pressure, shoving people away, punching walls on occassion, and isolating himself. After awakening, though, he got a better and healthier handle on his emotions and was finally afforded the time to process his grief and trauma and step up as a leader by choice instead of by force :)

16. What are your character’s vices and bad habits?

His main vice is his lyrium usage, which he developed as a result of templar training with Alistair prior to him realizing what it truly meant to be a templar and becoming disgusted with the whole thing, even though he never intended to actually become one and Alistair had encouraged him not to use lyrium. Though he never ended up using the powers (as they were tools against the oppression of mages and his initial desire to learn had been based on dangerous biases and misconceptions), he remained hooked on it. However, he does eventually overcome it by attending Cullen's rehab (and making amends with him because they had a particular disdain for each other after the events at Kinloch Hold a decade prior. But that's a story for another time! He also has a terrible habit of being too trusting, wishing to see the good in others and validate their potential to change even when they are covered in red flags or he knows they are being deceptive. This affects him the most when Roderick was revealed to have partially him in Origins (not part of the mod, I made it up!) and in his inquisitor AU when he knew Blackwall was lying about being a warden but chose not to call him on it or tell anyone because he assumed he had his reasons and considered him a dear friend, only to discover that he had slaughtered a family (BIG trigger for Edan of course). But again, stories for another time lmao.

#Thank you soooooo much for asking!!! <3 #oc: edan #jun rambles #jun answers #daospoilers #daaspoilers

[potatowitch]

I saw you mention on Anders/Blackwall on that post about ships between characters who have never met in canon and I am fascinated by it and would LOVE to know the deets. Please tell me everything!!

initially i was into it in a modern au sense of "blackwall builds anders a catio for pounce and then when the whole Thing about blackwall actually being rainier comes out anders is like 'listen we all have problems. and he built me a catio for free, how bad of a dude can he be really'"

but honestly in-universe i think they'd vibe too. blackwall's a very ... common people type supporter of mage rights, yknow? he's got this attitude that no matter how intimidating you find mages, they're people too, and they deserve the chance to just. be people. and i think there's something about that attitude that anders would find so, so refreshing

also the "i killed people and i'm trying to make up for it" thing. again, an attitude anders would also find just. nice. but also i don't think he'd care all that much? like, anders' killcount is so much higher than blackwall's. and imho he wouldn't give much of a shit about the whole "lying about being a warden" thing

and blackwall just appreciates people who are inherently good. i'm of the opinion that he'd see anders - who comes back to help the warden at vigil's keep even if you tell him to run before more templars show up, who offers to let justice share his body, who puts his own life and freedom at risk to help mages escape the gallows, who lives in a sewer healing the poor for free for 7 years, who again puts his life and freedom at risk to blow up the chantry and give kirkwall's mages a fighting chance - and go "damn. that's the kindest person i've ever met. +50 friendship", y'know?

plus the warden fascination blackwall has

AND i think anders with people who can pick him up easy is a nice combo in general. he deserves to be picked up. his legs are tired someone pls carry him to bed

[lothrilzul]

2022 brought loads of new interesting stuff and content in my life. I won’t talk about the war special military operation going on next door because I’m not here to be stressed out.

Behold, lots of exclamation marks

2022 started slowly with Fallout on eco burner. My love for Paladin Danse is forever and unrelenting.

Book of Boba Fett! Ming-Na! Loved her in ER, Universe and Stargate, and now as Fennec. Extra cameo at the end!

Obi-wan Kenobi! Ewan McGregor, stellar as ever. My first platonic love, still going strong. Shame he didn’t get enough recognition for his portrayal in the early 2000′s and I’m glad the fans could reach both him and Hayden at last. It was so good so see them in their roles again. The last episode hurt so much it was so good.

Then in August we decided to finally finish Divinity Original Sin 2 with my Hubbo. That meant starting a new character, because we forgot like everything. 

Then I learned there was romance in D:OS2. That lead to a quick spiral with Ifan ben-Mezd. I already liked his character since the first time we played, at first I picked him as follower, second time I mained him, and now I picked him again, but accidentally triggered a romance dialogue and rolled with it. I’m glad I did. So worth it. I was robbed 4 years of Wolf Husband content.

Then I finally caught up with House of the Dragon. I started binging it the week the last episode came out because there was no way I’d wait that many weeks. I loved the structure of the series and how it knew exactly how much to serve. The experience felt like I’m watching fanfic. (Obi-wan, too, btw.) I didn’t really like either side, both the greens and blacks have good and bad people. And I know how it ends. However I understand their problems and see why they do what they do. I’m still not a fan of either Daemon or Rhaenyra, but for some inexplicable reason I imprinted on damned Aemond. I didn’t want to like him. I also adore Halaena. And let’s not forget Harwin Strong, the daddest dad to ever dad. And Rhaenys. True queen.

My new debilitating love for Ifan naturally led to a cursory search on AO3 for Ifan content. It’s scarce. So I read what was up my alley and decided to trying my hand at writing one. I think it’s 50% done now at 20k-ish words.

Also, I found a multifandom fic with some Dragon Age characters along with Ifan. Namely Alistair and Blackwall. Then I got Blackwall recommended if I liked Ifan. (I don’t dare tag you friend but you know it’s you.)

So, I asked Hubbo to get me Dragon Age. I was dreading to start, the whole religious aspect was a bit much for me. But I decided to dredge through the intrigue for the romances and story. TBH I knew some elements of the story, because I watched Hubbo play a few years back, but I never really cared. I remembered Morrigan because he romanced her. I was also very much spoiled throughout the story so it was really time to get a coherent experience.

Naturally, I started with Origins. I was pre-conditioned to go for Alistair and I am glad I did. He’s such a dork. I love him so much. Couldn’t harden him or make him king. My Cousland stayed with him until other orders came from above. At that point, I knew I would do anything to keep Alistair safe. Even break my own heart later.

I decided to go for Zevran next game. Maybe Morrigan, once, but I need the perfect character for that.

Then, Awakening. I was glad I could keep my Warden from Origins, so Cousland rolled into her new arling only for me to be shocked in the first quest. Hubbo never played this. I didn’t knew Anders was there. Nor did I know who Justice was. I had second-hand Corypheus flashbacks from the Architect. Like, vibez.

I loved every Warden recruit! (except Oghren. I didn’t like him in Origins, but he was not much better here) Especially Nathaniel Howe! I grew fond of my arch enemy’s son rather quickly. He was the only one I maxed out I think because I ran out of game. Anders was close second tho. Shame I found Sigrun last.

Naturally, next step was Dragon Age 2. I burned through Kirkwall in a week. It was a blast. Heh. I wanted to romance Fenris, but I decided to go for Anders because then I would have an easier time in Here Lies the Abyss. Or so I thought. My purple Hawke grew on me. Her relationship with Anders grew on me. It was always supposed to be a slightly pro-mage playthrough, but at the end I decided to go all in. Hawke has had enough. And I knew I’d be in a pit of despair soon.

I also made sure to max Fenris out, because I need the best friend.

So, here comes Inquisition. I’m only, what, eight years late. I set out to romance Blackwall, because, recommendation. First experience was underwhelming, but he worked his way up quickly. I’m not finished with the game or the romance yet, I didn’t even travel to the Winter Palace yet. But I kissed the sad bear enough for him to say he could get used to it. Good, do that. (I’m not at his personal revelation part yet.)

I did Here Lies the Abyss. I was like, I need to tear this band-aid off ASAP. I saved Alistair and left Alma behind, as I previously planned, but man... I wouldn’t want to be near Anders when he hears about it. The game really served me with a below-the-belt-punch for that decision by Varric’s tale. I cried like 4 different times after it and it was only 5 days ago. I’m broken. It was supposed to be my expendable Hawke. It was supposed to be least resistance. 

Oh, yeah. Varric. I grew rather fond of my charismatic friend and I’m damn broken I made him hurt like that. 

Cassandra is my bestie. Dorian is close too. And I adore Crem. He’s the best.

Later playthroughs I want to see Cullen’s romance, and possibly either Solas or Cassandra. Or Dorian. But that’s like 5 games. Whole lotta time.

I think that’s it? Quite a list, I always thought there’s nothing new this year can bring, but here I am with like 5 new boyfriends and 2 new heartbreaks. At minimum.

[calicostorms]

Wip Wednesday

Tagged by @merrybandofmurderers! This isn’t a fic wip but it is some OC dialogue I’ve been fine-tuning recently so it technically counts (and I really wanna share it). Some commentary on other companions from my beloved companion AU oc Mellita Trevelyan!

Note: bolded dialogue is on another companion au ocs of my partner, @just-call-me-angel!

Cullen: All those changed trappings, but he’s still a Templar, and still holds his distrust for mages like a shield against his own wrongdoings.

Josephine: She’s nice enough, for a noble. Kind and well meaning, if naive.

Leliana: Scary. I don’t wanna get on her bad side, thanks.

Blackwall: Weirdly righteous, but he’s alright. Nice guy, under all that “oh ho grey wardens” crap.

Cassandra: Ugh. Seeker of Truth my ass- it’s all Chantry puppetry to obscure the abuses templars heap on mages.

Solas: For a self-taught mage, he’s surprisingly knowledgeable on the Fade. Almost too knowledgeable, but I don’t give two shits how he learned it as long as it’s useful.

Lark: [Pre-relationship] I hear he started the rebellion at Hasmal Circle. Good for him, the weirdo.

[Post-relationship start] He cares more than he lets on- scolded me for days the last time he caught me not healing after casting blood magic. Something about it getting infected? Caught him socking Sammael over the head for not being careful enough, too. Guess that’s what we get for dating a healer.

Vivienne: She’s a stone cold bitch, using her mage fellows as stepping stones to keep herself safe. Preaching to me, as if she did anything to keep any of the rest of us safe.

Sera: Sera’s alright, kinda reminds me of an apprentice back in the Circle. The Red Jennies seem like it’d be a good time- maybe I’ll join when all this shit with the hole in the sky and demon armies is finished.

Cole: He’s…weird. Always telling me about my past like I didn’t live through it. Means well, I think, but not exactly the most fun to be around when he’s always dragging up bad memories thinking he can fix them.

Sammael: [Pre-relationship] Worst taste in fashion I’ve ever seen, but he makes it work. No damn clue how, though.

[Post-relationship start] He keeps picking the lock to my room. I gave him a key, I think he just likes doing it.

Varric: Don’t ever bet against him- you’ll lose. Don’t know how he does that. I’m down 50 coppers because of him.

#wip wednesday #oc: mellita #<3 my beloved disaster blood mage <3 #angels ocs: Sammael #angels ocs: Lark Orrick #wouldnt ever make an inquisitor!mellita thing bc shes so blatant abt the blood magic frankly but in companion au shes so fun to explore

[k1ngj0ve]

Comparing ages of characters during Inquisition and im DELIGHTED

Cassandra? 39

Varric? 40

Hawke? 35

Alistair? 31

Cullen? 30

Cassandra had been Right Hand of the Divine for about TEN YEARS when Duncan found Alistair!!

Hero worshipping EXCLUSIVELY people 5 to 10 years younger than her.

There is nothing wrong with that its just very funny and changes my image of her a bit.

#cassandra hero worshipping people 5-10 years younger than her is VERY funny #also Dorian is 30 which is baffling to me #dorian my friend dorian your mustach ages you greatly #i thought you were more like 40 #i know its been a hard couple years for you but still #the wiki says Solas is 'in his mid 40s' which is funny to me #inquisitor doesnt have a canon age but i think most people plant them around 19 #just hanging otu with people twice their age #the only person their age is Cole which you know #Arguable #i tHINK that Blackwall is about 50 #he got recruited when Dorian was 15 is all i can say and his backstory to my just says '30' at that point #could be wrong of course #no age on Bull of course #i suspect vivienne is also 40 but dont hold me to it

[borisbubbles]

My favourite Dorian Quotes

Just as an addendum, since my previous didn’t exactly put across the hilarity of Dorian, here are my favourite quotes/conversations/reactions by Dorian Pavus in Dragon Age 3.  Edit 22/01: added a few more because Dorian just keeps giving.  60.  Dorian: Come on Varric, just answer the question. 😣 Varric: My mother didn’t raise any morons, Sparkler. 🙄 Dorian: But you must have an opinion! And you’re a Dwarf! Completely unbiased. Varric: There is no way I’ll answer “Which Inquisition Mage is the best dressed?”, not for all the gold in Orzammar. Vivienne: Also, the answer is obvious. 🙂 59. Dorian: So what's your estimation, Varric? Think we could win? Varric: 😱 You aren't asking me to give odds on our beloved Inquisitor's success?! 😛 Dorian: What would that look like? Three to one? 🤣 Varric: In his favor?  Dorian: After Corypheus pulled an archdemon out of his arse, are you joking? Inquisitor: You would actually bet against me?  Dorian: Now now, if I weren't here, it would be five to one at least. 😘 Inquisitor: I’ll take those odds, actually. 😏 Dorian: This is why I adore him so.  😍 58.  Cassandra: So Bull, about Dorian... Iron Bull: Yep, it’s true. 😁 Dorian: By all means, let’s discuss this all together. 🙄 Cassandra: If you’re both pleased Dorian: He’s happy, I’m happy, everybody’s happy!  Iron Bull: Awww, you’re happy. 😍 Dorian: 😣 Cassandra: 😄 57. You joke! they’ll be writing books about you, boring ones that will get it all wrong. Just you wait!   56.  Iron Bull: Yesss, we’re going to fight the dragon, boss? Oh THIS is gonna be GOOD.  Dorian: You are way too excited about this. 😑

55.  Blackwall: How do you get your hair to do that, Dorian? With magic? Dorian: With proper hygiene and grooming. Maybe the three of you should get acquainted. 🙄 54.  Cole: You’re happier now, Dorian Dorian: Oh is that what this light tingly feeling is? I suppose you’re right. 😏  Cole: Wishing but wondering, wounded and whistful Cole: What if he doesn’t want me after? Dorian: But he did. 😁 Cole: Now you’re smiling. It’s good.  😃 53. Varric: Does this shit make any sense to you? Dorian: Are you referring to the giant gaping hole in the sky, or the creature from a Chantry cautionary tale pretending to be a god? Varric: Either. I’m feeling generous. Dorian: What’s the matter? Some pretender comes along, tears the place down, declares himself king. That’s half of history. Varric: Corypheus is like that drunk uncle who refuses to leave the party? Dorian: Even after he puts a hole in the ceiling. Terribly common.  52.  Sera: You gonna warn me the next time you’re throwing your magic around? Dorian: As long as you’re careful where you shoot all those arrows Sera: You magic me, I’ll put three in your eye! Dorian: 😅 Now we can live together in peace and harmony!  51. Vivienne: Dorian, what did you think of little Sera’s last Red Jenny mission? Dorian: Hmm... I’d call it ‘medium’. 🤔 Vivienne: ‘Medium’, my dear? Dorian: It wasn’t rare, and it certainly wasn’t well done. 😏 50. Cole: Dorian, what is 'a slave'?  Dorian: FESTISBEIUMOCANAVERUM! 😨 Cole: You said I could ask questions! Dorian: I know I did, just... go ask the Inquisitor that one. 49. An optimist! 🤣  such a rare breed, I have stumbled upon a unicorn. 48. Dorian: What I wouldn't give for some proper wine.😫 Vivienne: Skyhold's steward is a sadistic little man who is trying to kill us. 🤢 Dorian: Perhaps he found a bargain he couldn't pass up, on vats of vinegar? 47. Cassandra: Why are you looking at me like that, Dorian? Dorian: I am trying to imagine what you would look like... in a dress.😈 Cassandra: Keep wondering. If my uncle couldn't put me in one, neither shall you. 46. Dorian: How do you want to be remembered, Cassandra? Valiant yet sexy rebel against the status quo? Cassandra: I don't have any control over how I'll be remembered. 🙄 Dorian: Sword raised high, blue scarf dramatically fluttering in the wind, sun rising behind you? Cassandra: Blue scarf?😒 Why would I be wearing such a thing? Dorian: It's a painting, of course! Work with me( It'll be fantastic! 🤗 45. Dorian: Why is it so cold? How do you southerners stand it? Iron Bull: What's the matter? Not enough slaves around to rub your footsies? Dorian: My ‘footsies’ are freezing, thank you! 😒 44.  Blackwall: Dorian, I’d appreciate it if you stopped refering to me as ‘that hairy lummox”.  😠 Dorian: When did I do that? Blackwall: At the tavern, the blacksmith’s, the stable. You said it to the gateguards when we left Skyhold! Dorian: hmm... 🤔 yes, that does sound like me.   🤗 43. Dorian: Watch out where you point that thing! 😡 Iron Bull: Dirty! 😏 Dorian: Vishante kaffas, I meant your weapon! 😡 42. Dorian: What would you say Blackwall's best feature is, Vivienne? Vivienne: His absence, of course. 🙄 Blackwall: I can hear both of you. 😒 41. Dorian: Did you know we are actually related Inquisitor? Inquisitor: We, what? Dorian: Not first cousins or anything. Can you imagine?  Dorian: I however did a bit of digging in my family tree, and somewhere down the netheregions of my line there was also a Trevelyan. Dorian: Perhaps the one who went to Ostwick to establish the branch? I knew we looked so alike for a reason. 😏 Inquisitor: Um, yay?  Dorian: Indeed! 😁 Yay! 40. I’m always nice. 😏 39. Dorian: I don't know if you've heard, but the rumours are that you and I are... intimate. Inquisitor: That's not such a bad thing, isn't it? Dorian: I don't know, is it? Inquisitor: Do you always answer a question with a question? Dorian: Perhaps you would like me to answer in a different fashion? 🤔 Inquisitor:  If you're capable. 😅 Dorian: 😘🥰😚 Dorian: 'If you're capable.' The nonsense you speak. 🤭 38. Dorian: You caught the eye of a young woman in that last village, Blackwall. Blackwall: I'm sure you're mistaken. 😒 Dorian: You're right. She was undoubtedly looking at me.🤭 37. Dorian: Vivienne, I have only the one question - why the Orlesian fixation with masks? Vivienne: It is The Game, darling. You never show the players your true visage. Dorian: A strange custom in a culture where people assassinate each other for putting too much salt in the soup Vivienne: An extra hurdle to be overcome. Fail at The Game, and you die. Dorian: And you people call Tevinter barbaric. 🙄 36. Dorian: You are smiling a great deal these days, Cassandra. 😉 Cassandra: I am not... smiling. 😒 Dorian: Now you're not, but only because I pointed it out to you. Cassandra: I am not a giddy schoolgirl! 😡 Dorian: That would have been easier to believe if you hadn't just blushed. 🤗 35. You’ll be surprised at the credit my tongue gets me, your Reverence.  34. Dorian: Sera, I see you are having fun with your illustruous paramour- Sera: WHAT? 😨 Is it showin'? Dorian: What? NO, oh heavens NO. 🤢 Dorian: I meant to ask if you're enjoying your new relationship. Sera: Then why not just say that? 🙄 Dorian: I did... in words you apparently don't understand. 😑 Sera: What's the point of words you know and others don't? Who'd you say them to? 🙄 Dorian: Letmejustdobothofusafavorandretractthequestion. 😡 Sera: Pity, because we're doing great. That's why I'm following her around with weirdies 🤗 33. It was fun to goad you, Cassandra. You get that knot between your eyes when you're flustered - Ah, look, there it is! Delightful!  🤗 32. Dorian: I half expect my mother to materialize from the crowd to criticise my manners. Inquisitor: Where would we be if you mother we really here? Dorian: Short one mage, after he's been dragged out by his earlobe. Inquisitor: I have a hard deal imagining that. 😅 Dorian: Picture me a young boy of five years then. She certainly always has. 🙄 31. Dorian: 'Official Mage to the Orlesian Court'. Well that sounds exciting. 🙄 Vivienne: It's an esteemed position, darling. One many mages should envy. Dorian: Yes, I suppose being paraded around like an exotic peacock is better than frantically running from templars. 🙃 Vivienne: Better an exotic peacock than one Tevinter rat amongst many. Dorian: Oh? A dig at my homeland? This should be fun. 😏 30. Sera: Dorian? Those words you say. What do they mean? Dorian: What, you mean like mendicant or ultimatum? 🤨 Sera: No, arse, when you're mad. 'Pish-anty cough-ass'. You're swearing, I know it. Dorian: Ah, 'vishante kaffas'. It's Tevene, relics of the old tongue. We still use the colorful phrases. Sera: And it means what? Dorian: Literally? 😏  'You shit on my tongue.' Sera: 😂 Why not just say that?  Dorian: A mystery for the ages.  29. Sera: Demons! Flappy robes! Dorian: Thieves! Dog Stink! Sera: Culty shits! Dorian: Treacherous teyrns! Sera: Wha- It’s not a proper game of ‘Your people are shit” if you just make up words. 🙄 Dorian: A ‘teyrn’ is a Fereldan title, just below that of a king. I thought you of all people would know that. Sera: Well that’s just... I... smartasses 🤬 Dorian: Too late! I believe that’s my round. 🤗 Sera: Piss! 😠 28.  Vivienne: You’re rather amusing, Dorian. Dorian: Your outfit’s entertaining, I’ll give it that.🙄 Vivienne: Pretending to be a shark from a land of sharks. But you’re not a shark and you’ll never be one, darling. They knew this as much as we do.   Dorian: I could have of course pretended, wore fancy clothes, convinced everyone I’m something I’m not.  Dorian: Then I could take a position at court, whore myself out, and desperately hope no one realizes what a fraud I am.  Vivienne: Such snapping for a fish without teeth! 😂 Inquisitor: I cannot believe the way you two speak to each other. 😨 Vivienne: Inquisitor whatever is the matter? We’re having a perfectly civil conversation. Dorian: It’s true. I’ve heard worse from the gardener back home.  27.   Dorian: Varric, you owe me five royals. I’d like them paid in candied dates. 😉 Varric: I haven’t lost that bet yet, Sparkler. Dorian: You said we would be arse-deep in trouble. This is more like knee-high. Varric: I didn’t specify whose ass, did I? 😏 Dorian: Leave it to a dwarf always lowering the bar. 🙄 26. I hope you tried the ham they were serving, by the way. Tasted of despair. Fascinating. 25. Dorian: Vivienne, we can continue this dance forever if you like. Vivienne: Certainly. Provided both of us are capable. Dorian: I mock Orlesian frippery and nonsense, you slam Tevinter decadence and tyrrany. Dorian: There's however something more important we must remember. Vivienne: And what might that just be? 🤨 Dorian: At least we're not Antivan. Vivienne: 🤢 Quite right. Thank the Maker. 🙏 24. Cassandra: You're not as handsome as you think, Dorian. Dorian: Ah, but I must be! Or you wouldn't have been thinking about it all this time.  😏 Cassandra: Anyone who claims it as often as you must be dreadfully concerned they're not. Dorian: Look at this profile - Isn't it incredible? Dorian: I picture it in marble. 😏 Cassandra: 😒 23. Flying cows over Minrathous? Preposterous! Okay that one is actually true, but the cows didn't have wings. 22. Dorian: I have only one question, Sera: did you cut your own hair?  Sera: Yeah. Why wouldn't I? 🙄 Dorian: You could try using something other than a rusty butter knife. Sera: Oh, excuse me while I dig up my diamond-studded hair-cutting whatevers. 🙄 Dorian: Scissors. 😏 The word you're looking for is "scissors." 😏 21. Iron Bull: Quite the stink-eye you've got going, Dorian. Dorian: You stand there, flexing your muscles, huffing like some beast of burden with no thought save conquest. 😡 Iron Bull: That's right. These big muscled hands could tear those robes off while you struggled, helpless in my grip. Iron Bull: I'd pin you down, and as you gripped my horns. Iron Bull: I. Would. Conquer. You. 😏 Dorian: Uh. What? 😨 Iron Bull: Oh. Is that not where we're going? 🤐 Dorian: No. It was very much not.😳 20. You can't call me pampered, Varric. 🙄 Nobody has peeled a grape for me in weeks. 19. Sera: Dorian are you going to warn me the next time you bust out in demons or sumthin? Dorian: 😂 How exactly do you picture me 'busting out’? Dorian: I am just walking along and *OOPS* - demon? Dorian: I mean it could happen, after years of training. You could also trip and impale your eye on an arrow. 😏 Sera: So are you going to warn me or not? 🙄 Dorian: Certainly. But only because you're so dear to me. 😘 18. Dorian: For being so unnerved by magic, you aren't shy about benefiting from its effects.🤔 Sera: I don't. I use normal things, not magic. 🙄 Dorian: You consider swathing yourself in flame or ice 'normal' and 'not magic'? 🤨 Sera: For one: it comes out a bottle. Sera: For two: I mess up, I get burned. You mess up, your head chucks up a demon. Sera: For three: Bottle, little burned, no demons. So there. 🤗 Dorian: That was only... you know, if it lets you sleep at night, never mind. 😒 17. Festis bei umo canaverum! I swear, if you don't come through this, I will kill you. 😖 16. Dorian: The first time I entered the Fade it looked like a lovely castle full of silks and gold. 😍 Dorian: I met a marvellous desire demon as I recall. We chatted and ate grapes before he tried to possess me. 😇   Vivienne: 🙄😒😠😡🤬 Dorian: Yes? I hear your southern Harrowings are slightly more strenuous. 😏 15. What do they call this place? A "bog"? Lovely word for it.  🙄 14. Dorian: Solas, what is this whole look of yours about? Solas: I am sorry? 🙄 Dorian: No, that outfit is sorry.😷 What are you supposed to be, some sort of woodsman? Dorian: Isn't that a Dalish thing? Don't you dislike the Dalish? Or is it some sort of statement? Solas: No. 😠 Dorian: Well, it says "Apostate hobo" to me. 😏 Vivienne: Unwashed apostate hobo, more specifically. 🙂 13. I AM TOO PRETTY TO DIE 😭 12. Dorian: Amatus, it's been so long. Did you miss me? Inquisitor: A little bit. Dorian:  😂 'a little bit' he says. I'll show you a little bit! Just you wait. 😏 11. Dorian: Sera, where do you get your arrows from? You have so many. 🤔 Sera: From your arse. That's where. 🙄  Dorian: My arse should open up a shop. It's apparently quite prolific. 😁 10. Ah, this reminds me of the time Mother took me boating in summer. Or rather, she had the servants take me on the boat while she sat inside with a cool drink.🙄  09. Inquisitor: Things are going well with the Bull, I take it? Dorian: He's glad I've returned, if that's what you mean. Nearly crushed three of my ribs with that ridiculous hug. 🙄 Inquisitor: You say that as if you don't like it. 🤨 Dorian: For such a great beast, he can be such a terrible sap 🙄 Dorian: [bullvoice] "I want to talk about my feelings, Dorian". Dorian: Ugh. 🙄 Inquisitor: 😂 you do like it Dorian: Quiet you! He'll overhear, and then where I'll be?🤫 08. Dorian: Sera, I cannot believe you, of all people, are scared of magic. Surely you can see nothing wrong with a properly used tool? Sera: What about all the mages waving their proper tools in people's faces? Dorian: There's an image. 😁 Sera: "What about Corfyface? How many proper tools does he have under him? Dorian: That's not... I don't think I can continue. 😬 Sera: I don't care how gifted you are, don't cram it where it's not wanted. 😡 Vivienne: Maker, how does she not know? 🙄 07. Just once we should enter a cave and see normal sized spiders. 🙄 06. Cassandra: After all the places we have been, I hardly expected us to find ourselves in another cave. Cassandra: Still, as mad as our lives had been, I would take any chance to be together.  😘 Dorian: Why seeker, after all these years, I never realized you felt this way!! Cassandra: ... Dorian: ... Cassandra: 😒 Dorian: Oh, you meant him. 😶 05. Mountains! 😠 Cold! 😠 "Let's bring Dorian!". 😒 04. Dorian: I heard a little rumour that somebody has been doing some training. As an assassin no less. Inquisitor: I thought the skills might come in handy. Dorian: Yes, I suppose a little flair is welcome, with all the killing you do. Inquisitor: I don't kill that many people. 🙄  Dorian: Are you joking? I'm only surprised you didn't kill someone walking over here. 🤨 03. Cole: Breath painful, stabbing, and then real stabbing, lungs full, frothing, scent of apples as it all goes black. Dorian: 'Death By Applepie' - A lovely poem by our dear friend Cole.  02. Blackwall: Corypheus, one of yours isn't he? Dorian: One of my mine? 🙄  Like a pet? 🙄 Like a giant darkspawn hamster with aspirations of godhood? 🙄 Dorian: "Dorian, why can't you look after your little friends. Corypheus peed on the carpet again". Dorian: In this analogy, 'the carpet' is Haven. 😏 Blackwall: Is he or isn't he a Tevinter magister? 😒 Dorian: Meaning 'the source of everything bad in the world'? They are the same, yes? 😑 Blackwall: Sigh. Feels that way at times. 🙄 01. Inquisitor: No matter what happens, I wouldn't trade the years I spent with you for anything. Inquisitor: I love you. Dorian: I knew you'd break my heart, you bloody bastard. 😭

#Dragon Age #Dragon Age Inquisition #DAI #DA3 #Dragon Age 3 #Dorian #Dorian Pavus #Pavus

[hobgoblinsandpeachfuzz]

@blogteas remember that older bisexual Avvar dorky sweet & broody potential da4 LI we were talking about?

here ya go ;)

#so far hes just shades of alistair and blackwall #but i think he should have some zevran maybe iron bull too #still workshopping #but about 50% of the time i'm doodling potential da4 lis #so the possibilities are endless #stills art #dragon age 4 #padraig spirit scar

[lavendermilkandhoney]

Maximum Mike - The Voice of Night City (6/6)

Transcripts

Each post will contain 3 stories from Maximum Mike (voiced by Mike Pondsmith)

Is there some hidden truth into them? Some subtle metaphors? It’s your call.

---

What is the real cause of cyberpsychosis?

- All right, listen up, people.

- I’ve got a public service announcement.

- It’s about the scourge of our age, that Chrome Nightmare that you know as cyberpsychosis.

- It seems we can’t go a day without some boosted lunatic tearing through a crowd of bystanders.

- The story we’ve always head is that it’s a psychological condition, a kind of dissociative violence.

- But is there more to it?

- What if cyberpsychosis is intentional?

- I once heard a theory that, I think merits some thoughts.

- An old friend of mine used to say…

- …that he thought the biggest manufacturers had got together a long time ago and agreed on a baseline failure rate for certain devices.

- Bad code, intentionally inserted into the mind-machine interfaces, to slowly drive people up the wall, a kind of human-planned obsolescence.

- They figured, what’s the best defense against a nutjob with a 23 inch telescoping blade in his forearm?

- Heh, a 26 inch telescoping blade in yours.

- I can’t say he’s not onto something.

- Every time some psycho tears his way through a mall, sales of combat cyberware spike.

- Every time Net64 News runs a story on a massacre, some Arasaka exec buys himself a new yacht.

- Can that be all though?

- It’s no secret that incidents of violent cyberpsychosis…

- …have skyrocketed in recent decades, despite improvements in manufacturing and design.

- But there is something new in the lastest generation of cyberware.

- Get ready for this, kids - it’s the Blackwall.

- You aren’t a ‘runner yourself or a code-jokey, you might not know, but the Blackwall isn’t some mystical border floating somewhere in the deep Net.

- It’s actually complex hardware-software infrastructure designed to keep AIs from accessing your gear, among other things.

- Maybe it doesn’t work as well as NetWatch says.

- Maybe the madness of the deep Net leaks over to our side from the Blackwall from time to time…

- …drive some poor choomba right over the edge.

- And it’s possible it doesn’t really exist anyway.

- Maybe it’s just something the media came up with.

- Look, I’m not saying there aren’t attacks.

- I’ve seen a few myself.

- What I am saying is there’s a million reasons why one human might wanna butcher another.

- Hell, we’ve been doing it for millions of years, even without cyberware.

- Well, let me tell you, listeners, with cyberware it’s easier than ever.

- And on the other side, maybe the corporate media types just came up with the word…

- …so they wouldn’t have to think too hard about it.

- And you wouldn’t either.

- Or course, this is all speculation.

- If I knew what caused cyberpsychosis, believe me, I’d tell you.

---

Nuking of Arasaka Towers

- It’s been over 50 years since this city was rocked by the nuking of Arasaka Towers.

- But we still don’t really know what happened there.

- Or do we?

- We’re gonna be separating lies from the truth.

- Or at least giving it a damn good try.

- If you listen to the street, as you should, they say that old Johnny Silverhand finally took his final revenge on Arasaka.

- He got together with some of his edgerunner compatriots and gave Saburo a middle finger so bright, it could be seen all the way back to Japan.

- And where did he get the bomb?

- You can’t exactly buy a pocket nuke at the local gun store, even in Night City.

- But the people who back this story say he picked it up from the nomads.

- Who in turn stole it from Militech.

- Well, we know dear old Johnny lead the attack, and I’m pretty sure he saw it as revenge.

- Lord knows he had enough reason to want revenge on Arasaka, but…

- …the truth is he didn’t come up with the plan and he didn’t bring in the nuke.

- The rest?

- Well, Johnny, if you’re out there, why don’t you tell us?

---

Invisible war between agri-corps

- So, listen up, folks.

- This is Max Mike coming to you with a something to think about.

- It’s no secret that the first bioplagues were released back in the 90s by the old USA…

- …and they were effective. 

- I mean, there’s a reason non-synthetic drugs have become the stuff of legend.

- It’s pretty hard to make heroin if you drive opium poppies to extinction.

- But the plagues that came after?

- The ones that killed off the bananas, most varieties of wheat, or more recently, all the cows?

- Where did those come from?

- Now, if you listen to the experts, they were naturally occuring mutations of existing diseases, brought about by climate change and over-cultivation.

- Yeah, like we’ve been hearing that for the last 70 years.

- But here’s the truth.

- There’s been an invisible war going on between rival agri-corps for decades now.

- And the casualties?

- Your food supply.

- So, this started after Biotechnica developped the formula for mageyeast, that’s the primary source for CHOOH2, that stuff you put in your car.

- They learned that if they could control the organism and prevent competitors from growing their own…

- …they could have a total monopoly even without trying to run the refineries themselves.

- Instead they just outsourced that work to Petrochem.

- So, they decided to apply the same strategy to food market and prevent competitors from growing anything that wasn’t a licensed Biotechnica brand.

- They started making terminator crops, resistant to the naturally occuring plagues that ravaged North America during the collapse.

- But if you don’t pay a yearly licensing fee, your crop just stops growing the next season.

- So, what came next?

- Engineered viruses deisnged to kill anything that wasn’t a licensed crop.

- Now, I’ve got friends at Biotechnica.

- You put enough booze into them, so they can’t lie anymore…

- …they’ll tell you that they didn’t shoot first, their European and South Am competitors…

- …started this war.

- And that may be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that every year there are more crop failures, more extinctions, more plagues.

- Biotechnica today spends more money researching biological countermeasures to beat the competition than they do on growing crops or even on marketing.

- So, you might wanna think about that the next time you head down to your local All Foods to pick up your kibble and scop.

---

Other parts will be linked near the bottom of this post :

https://lavendermilkandhoney.tumblr.com/post/647578833801920512/lavender-cyberpunk-stories

#cyberpunk 2077 #maximum mike #mike pondsmith #conspiracy theories #radio #the voice of night city #transcripts #lavendercyberpunkstories #lavendermilkandhoney

[jaymber]

1,40 and 46 for the 3 bbs? 🥺👉👈

(Going full SilverVdyne cause I know you won’t mind uwu)

1. Who fell for the other one first?

Well, simply put: Kerry fell first, both for Johnny, of course, but also for Vaea. And Johnny only knows when he realized he had fallen for Vaea, but their minds were too merged to tell the exact moment they fell for one another.

Johnny was Kerry’s teenage crush, that never went away. No matter how many outputs or inputs he went through, no one could erase his feelings for Johnny, but his friend was never quite ready for them… And then Johnny was gone, but those feelings weren’t.

If Kerry got closer to Vaea for the engram in his head at first, he quickly saw him as his own person. Around him, he felt heard, seen. He felt alive, for the first time in a long time. Vaea brought spice into his life, just like Johnny had, but with a sweet aftertaste he hadn’t known before.

Johnny realized he cared about Vaea a little too much at the Oil Fields, but didn’t accept his feelings until after Vaea was gone behind the Blackwall, thinking at that point it was too late, that he’d never come back. He was felt alone in the world, Kerry the only other person who could understand his loss. He sought to reconnect with his old friend, and realized his heart still race seeing him now, despite Vaea’s feelings for Kerry gone from his mind.

And Vaea? Well, as a man who thought he couldn’t fall in love for almost 20 years of his life, it was harder for him. When he came back form beyond the Blackwall, it took him some time to accept his feelings, accept the fact he wouldn’t love them the same way every day. It took him some time to understand that they were alright with that fact, and reciprocated those feelings, romantic or platonic. But, since his feelings fluctuate, he falls in love with the both of them over, and over again.

40. Who tries to distract the other when they’re trying to do something else?

Both Vaea and Johnny, but only one of them tends to success in their distractions.

When Johnny’s bored, he has to make it everyone else’s problem. Except Vaea’s pretty immune to his tricks, since he pulled them over and over again in the few months they were one. Nothing Johnny does can distract him anymore when he needs to do something. As for Kerry, well, he grew some spine in their 50 years apart from one another, and more importantly, knows what tone to use to make him stop.

When Vaea wants attention, he’ll do anything to get some. Anything. He’s a lot more open about his needs since coming back, and Johnny isn’t used to his tactics just yet. Also, he can be cute af when he wants to, and who wouldn’t melt to his puppy eyes? If Johnny grumbles and calls him a pain in the ass, he can’t resist his charms. Same goes for Kerry, though he’s better at multitasking and get still give Vaea some attention while working.

46. How do they make each other laugh?

Johnny relies on nostalgia. Though he doesn’t remember everything, he does remember Kerry and himself had their embarrassing moments and other crazy stories. “Remember when-” he’d start, when Kerry’s had a bad day and needs a smile. He does the same with Vaea, expect he likes to remember moments he wasn’t there yet, memories he kept from their time as one.

Kerry relies on stories as well, but some both his inputs don’t know about. He’ll never tell how much of that tale is true, but he will either make them as absurd as he can, as as boring as possible just for Johnny or Vaea to mutter “bullshit!” for the joke.

Since he still has a hint of an accent, Vaea likes to play the “clueless foreigner” around them. He either distorts idioms, one of his favorite being, “Well, yeah, it’s not rocker science”, or pretends he doesn’t know certain words, like he points at an ad and says, with the thickest, fakest French accent he can muster: “Ouat iz ‘Milf’?”

#thank you thank you thank you #cyberpunk 2077 #oc: vaea temarii #silverv #silvervdyne

[felassan]

Gamers For Groceries 2 event

A Twitch stream event from a few days ago. It can currently be re-watched here (it was fun & interesting, so I do recommend to check it out direct). This post contains some notes on things of particular interest & relevant timestamps, in case this is useful to anyone (for example bc of accessibility reasons).

First up is the All About Animating panel, a series of mini-interviews with game devs (animators) asking what they do, how they got there, and advice for anyone interested in getting into the industry. Some or all of the devs that were interviewed are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and a lot about the craft of game dev animation in general. This segment runs from timestamp ~38 mins 40 secs to 1:07:50. Some notes:

[sounded like DA4] Right now the creature team are working on different creatures in a way which involves going through a lot of mocap data

At BioWare they have a pretty big technical animation team, to support their animators, so each tech animator has a different specialty. Tech anim involves animation support, character art support, and rigging the characters so that the animators can pose them

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] One of the featured animators’ area of specialty at the moment is faces and hair (building the control structure for face animations). First they had to decide how the face rig and its control structure would work. This involves a lot of performance capture of live actors for things like cinematics and gameplay animation, therefore the rigs for bodies and faces have to be able to accurately capture the full range of expressions and emotions that the actor is portraying. Right now the stage that this dev is working on most is setting up the heads that they’re getting through the pipeline from character art e.g. making adjustments based on feedback from the cinematics team. “Polish - just trying to get realism”

Hair tech has come quite a long way in the last few years [in the industry]

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] Hair is very complex to get right. “In the past most games have used card-based hair, which is basically like sheets of polygons with a texture on it that looks like hair, through layers of transparency. But real hair is strand-based, digital strands, so we’re starting to look into that kind of tech - try to get more realistic, more beautiful hair, but there’s always a performance cost to hair. Layers of transparent things are always an expense, they need to balance like, it looks good and moves well, but it doesn’t make your computer or console chug. [...] I guess we’re in the prototype stage but we’ve almost got a set pipeline. It’s always fun to experiment”

In Mass Effect 2 or 3, Miranda’s hair was as expensive as a whole character (!)

[on balancing hair costs/performance, general] It depends on things like character importance and how many characters are on-screen at the time. When you’re in gameplay fighting a bunch of monsters you’re not going to be giving full beautiful hair to all the characters and the monsters, as it will cost too much. (Having a helmet on is a convenient way to get rid of hair.) But if it’s a cinematic scene, with 2 characters talking to each other in a dramatic context, there’s a better budget for nice hair allocated

Some of the hair in Anthem was quite expensive in cinematics. They kept getting bugs from QA saying (for example) that a character’s hair was tripling the performance cost in the scene, so it would go back to character art so they could take away some of the hair cards. “Tough balance, quality versus cost”

“I wish all the characters could have beautiful strand hair”

For p-cap, a lot of the time they don’t want to be too prescriptive in terms of the direction that they’re giving the actors, as the actors know what they’re doing and have a lot of experience, so they give them vague instructions that they then riff off of

[sounded like DA4] They recently did a mocap shoot

[sounded like DA4] There’s a bit more productivity happening now in the pandemic situation; now that the animators are not all going to the capture lab in Vancouver in person for shoots, if it’s not their turn to direct a shot they can instead be working on something else on their computers (multi-tasking). ((Lead DA4 Producer Scylla Costa recently gave a talk at a games festival on the challenges of DA production during the pandemic. In part of this talk he talked about various benefits and drawbacks to the remote-working situation. He also talked about and showed some behind-the-scenes stuff for p-cap and mocap. Notes, images and link here))

[sounded like DA4] Special mocap suits were sent out that they can use with a laptop to go anywhere and shoot motion capture. It’s not as high fidelity as what comes out of the capture lab, but it’s really good for prototyping stuff. Before the pandemic they did some of this (going to a park and shooting some running around)

[sounded like DA4] In one of the shoots they had some actors who were really well-trained in dancing. They were trying to get them to do some combat stuff. This was a bit challenging in the pandemic situation as there’s only so much they can demonstrate/portray as an example to the actors from a distance on camera. “It’s hard to describe what a ‘dodge to attack’ is through the camera to somebody who has no idea what combat looks like in video games”

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] The pandemic has really affected performance capture for the face side of things badly, as in order to record, the actor gets dots painted on their face in specific locations by a makeup artist. They can’t do that right now because of social distancing/restrictions, so they haven’t been recording faces at the moment

The more detailed a face, the more joints it has, the more the cost to performance is

---

There was also the Writers’ Block panel, featuring DA writers Mary Kirby, Sheryl Chee and Patrick Weekes, and DA editor Karin Weekes. The timestamps for this segment are ~2:37:50 - 3:26:20. Some notes:

PW has never been weirder than when they were writing Cole on DAI

PW thinks that they accidentally wrote part of “Timber” by Kesha into Solas at one point and they were like “Well, okay, I have to stop listening to Kesha”

For Sheryl, after a while Blackwall’s VA always nailed doing his lines. She loved the quality of his voice and so after a while would always hear his voice while she was writing. This really worked out

^ Mary had this with Merrill. As soon as they cast Eve Myles she listened to several hours of her in Torchwood, and then just wrote to the way that she spoke as much as possible

^ PW had this with GDL as Solas and FPJ as Bull. As soon as they heard FPJ’s delivery, they were like “Oh, okay, I have to write some lines differently, because Bull is smarter than I realized”. With GDL they were like “Okay, he’s going to put poetry into anything I say, in the best way possible”. In early drafts of Solas lines there were parts where they [PW] wondered “Is this too melodramatic? Is this too tragically-angstful?” and then they would hear GDL and be like “Oh! [It’s fine] Game on!”

For localization, German words are often quite long so they often have to make sure that everything fits on the GUI

They think scenes like the romance scenes sound prettier in the Italian versions

Behind the curtain in creating the in-world languages: PW: “There are some awesome websites that have every elven word, like ‘Here are the translations and verb tenses and conjugations’ [etc], [...] and usually Mary and I get very sad slightly looking at those pages going like ‘Does that mean that we have to stick to that?’ [...] The rule is, if I’ve looked at the Wiki and the words, and I go ‘Here’s the correct grammatical way to do it’, and if that turns out to be too long or too many disconnected syllables and it just looks bad or sounds bad, then we shorten it to something simpler, because the key is we want to give the flavor of a foreign language, but we don’t have the world-building budget and capacity to make something that is going to be dictionary-real [in a way that] someone could go through and translate all the background things written on the old temple walls”. Part of the reason for this is the consideration for VAs, who already have to act while bearing lots of things in mind, like the cues in the script for each line

Mary: “For building a language, the first things that I started with for qunlat, elven and dwarven, was what words do we need to use the most? Greetings, farewells, words for friend and enemy, basic things that will come up easily in conversation. After that it’s ‘How difficult is this for other writers to use?’ Can they just pick it off the Wiki? Do they need just one word? Do they need to write whole sentences, and how does that work? Qunlat has almost no grammar to it because asking anyone to learn how to use Qunari grammar and conjugate verbs in a pretend language is impossible, and then once you’ve done that a human being has to be able to read it, while not knowing what any of it means”

PW: “One thing that I was really impressed with with Mary in particular doing, Mary was one of the big lore people across the entire DA series; I can look at a word and go like, ‘That has two A’s in a row, that’s definitely a Qunari word. That word is kind of long and maybe has some apostrophes and has a couple of flowy vowel sounds, that’s probably elven’, I think that’s what’s important. You want players to be able to look at a word, players want to feel smart, [like] ‘Oh I don’t know what that means but I totally know that’s a word from the Qunari people!’”. Mary: “Every language has its own set of phonemes, the sounds that they make, and the sort of word structure and spelling so that it gives a flavor to that language. Hopefully that is always chosen to be pronounceable, because again, very important that the words can be said by human beings :D”

Sheryl: “One of the fun things to do is to make up swear words in the fake languages [...] Recently Brianne wanted a word, I don’t know if she managed to find one”

The origin of bosh’tet in ME: it’s just saying “bastard” and slurring it

PW: “I feel like there are times when past writers kind of leave traps for future writers, where past writers will go ‘Okay, I’m going to write this detailed phrase in a codex entry but don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if it can never be said aloud, because it’ll never have to be voiced!’ and then, next game, guess what guys! Look what you have to make someone [a VA] say! And you’re like [facepalm], c’mon!”

Karin: “Now, four games in, we have pages and pages of all these examples, and I wanna say this, well that’s how we said something before, well that’s ridiculous, I don’t wanna say that, but now we’ve said it and it’s out there, so it’s like, how do we, y’know, how do we evolve, and sometimes we just go ‘Screw it! Languages are living languages! We’ll just say it like this now!’”

PW's favorite is the sarcastic Mythal’enaste, “Because it’s the sarcastic Mythal's blessing that basically means you’re getting screwed over somehow. I love it because Mythal nasty! Whoever wrote that clearly never thought that someone would have to say this out loud”

Sheryl wrote Bull’s joke icicles line. She also wrote Isabela’s big boats line - Jennifer took it out but then DG was like “No it has to come back”

They have a pun test, they get a few of them and have to allot them wisely so as not to oversaturate on the puns. “Is this good/bad enough to be one of the times that we pull the trigger? We did have one of those recently, I obviously can’t talk about it, but it was pronounced Okay to go ahead”

The ‘baby-est’ writer is Brianne, who’s been there 8 years

It makes PW sad that the players never get to see the writers’ temp-text [placeholder text when portions are a WIP]. “People have the best temp-text". Mary: “The number of conversations that I’ve temped in like ‘WELL. I hope nothing BAD happens HERE’”

Q. If you could bring in anybody from outside of gamedev, who would you like to work with and do a writer’s session with? PW: “I will say romance novelist Nora Roberts, she is really smart and also she knows how to write inside a genre, and do wonders within it. Her structure is so good. If you pick up one of her books, you know here’s when this is gonna happen, here’s when they’re gonna meet, here’s when this first moment will happen. We’re all experienced and I feel pretty good about that but I really like all of the things she does that way, and also I am a sucker for romance so I would love to bring a romance novelist in and just have them look at our scenes and go ‘Okay here, no, they should pull the tie so that the article of clothing comes open, we need a sense of how warm the skin is here’ - something like that. I’d wanna see what they could do with that”

“Luke writes the best worst lines”

“I’m always impressed with Mary getting away with lines. There are lines that I look at like, wow, you buried that one. [...] The only players who get that line, I feel like they earned it if they went that far into it. [...] And then Varric or Merrill says a ridiculous line in a one-time throwaway”

Karin: “The group dynamic, you’ll see conversations or snippets of a lunch chat or a thing we’ve been joking about and you’ll see it get pulled in, and how all of you [the writers] are able to take a normal kind of thing - as normal as we get as a group anyway - and then turn it into a moment, and use it to further the plot or use it to further a character. It’s just the cleverest thing and it happens in so many different ways. [...] The little snippet of life, then how you crafted it into this very cool thing”

Quartermaster Threnn was written by PW in half a day. “When I was writing Threnn, ‘Okay, this is a good-hearted [person], I was doing a little bit of Steel Magnolias, southern, no-nonsense, but like, blue collar Steel Magnolias’. This is someone accustomed to the ways of the world so she’s going to call a spade a spade. If you come up to her and you’re an elf she doesn’t recognize you and says ‘Buckets are over there’ because she thinks you’re there to clean, [but] ‘Anyone calls you a knife-ear you come to me I’ll take care of it’. It’s problematic but she’s trying - the good-hearted person rooted for the wrong group on every occasion. She was a proud Loghain supporter, she gets really exited if he comes to Skyhold.  That was a fun character for me to write because I had a viewpoint in my mind. I remember someone was like ‘Threnn is really important to me’. And you have to honor that, cause you’re like ‘Cool, it means so much to me that this connected with some part of you’”

---

Also of interest was the Mass Affection panel, in which BioWare devs looked back in over a decade of history to remaster a classic. It featured devs who worked on MELE. The timestamps for this segment are ~3:36:09 - 4:24:37. Some notes:

When the pandemic hit the MELE team were in a relatively awkward spot. They were really entering into what they consider full production and were on-boarding a bunch of teams, as well as training and on-boarding third-party external partner specialized teams worldwide. When the pandemic hit, BioWare and EA were super on top of it. They were tracking it weeks beforehand, getting everyone their computers ready, and getting everything encrypted. When the middle of March 2020 hit they were home rightaway. EA were nothing but supportive throughout the entire thing. They got money every quarter for stuff. It functionally ‘hit’ at 4-6 different times for them as the pandemic occurred in different places throughout the world at different times depending on each country’s response plan (and their external partners were in different countries). “So it was one of those things where it was just like, every day we’d come in like can we still work with this company anymore? Do we need to find someone else? Do we need to pull people in off the other projects at BioWare to fill gaps here and there?”

There was a bug on Virmire at the part when you’re coming into the STG camp. If the Mako had its new boosters on and you came hurtling in really fast, it cut to the cutscene, but the Mako hit a jump and when Ash was like “What do we do now?” the Mako ended up literally flying around in the background sideways and then crashing into the camp

Another bug: when they were re-tuning the guns, the physics force on some of the guns with Hammerhead rounds was so high that when you were fighting some of the Thorian Creepers, you could ragdoll them so hard that you could basically embed them in the roof. They’d be moving so fast that they’d penetrate all the walls with their legs dangling out. It was so easy to do and you could do it to everybody. You could launch a geth halfway across an Uncharted World

Another bug: with Shepard’s casual appearance in ME3, if you didn’t have it set up perfectly correctly it would default to Grunt for some reason. You’d be walking around as Grunt, going on dates as Grunt, and your face would be all scrunched up because it was all mapped to human bones still, so it was just, like, Nightmare Fuel of Grunt

Another bug: in ME2 on Illium when trying to recruit Samara, the Asari enemies just would not stop screaming - regardless of whether they were hit or not, it was endless screaming. Later one of the devs got an audio file of the scream, endless and looped, and now one of the devs has it on their phone and uses it for their morning alarm tone

“Shepard would come up to characters and they’d just be screaming”

---

There was also the Programming Variables panel, talking about what hurdles game programmers face. Some [or all?] of the devs that were part of this panel are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and about the craft of game dev programming in general. The timestamps for this segment are ~ 4:24:46 - 5:06:02.

[source]

[insights/notes from Gamers For Groceries 1]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #in case this is of interest to anyone #mass effect #anthem #covid mention #cole #spirit boy #solas #lul

[iridescentmemoria]

Every even number for Inky asks please! <3 and tell me their name and looks!!!

Pfhew! that was a lot of them! but i'm super happy i received this ask! i've been aching to talk about my inquisitor to someone <3 My main inquisitor would be Brenna Lavellan, She's a Dalish mage, pale skin with a dark green vallaslin. She has black hair, long, long enough to have to braid it and pull it into a bun behind her head. She wears several dreads too, with jewelry in them, but alas there's no mod for that. ( i use the mod dreads of the wolf on her ) She carries on her left cheek a scar that cuts through her face and onto her ear, she got it in a fight with a shemlen who'd tried to light their aravels on fire in the woods one night when she was only a youngster.

2 - How did they decorate and structure skyhold?

She decorates it with various trophies from their adventures through thedas, but the heraldry is mostly a mix between the inquisition and the dalish + elven designs. Some ferelden dogs, and an Avvar throne. 4. What are their views of the Chantry?

Fuck the chantry. That's basically her attitude. She understands faith is important to the people of thedas, they need hope, but the chantry is an outdated, cruel institution that practices nothing that they preach. 6. Who did they romance and why?

Solas. She fell for him quickly, his wit and charm and endless stories of the fade and the ancient elvhen empire. she loves him, with whole her heart. Where usually she would be wary of strangers, solas was one of the exceptions. She felt an instant connection with him and it didn't take long before he skillfully broke down her walls and made her fall deeply in love with him.

14. Who is their favourite and most trusted adviser?

If we're talking only the advisers she adores leliana, they cultivated a strong friendship. If we're talking the entire inner circle, that would be dorian, solas, cassandra and cole. 16. How do they react to the corruption of the Wardens? Why? She is apalled by their actions. For an institution to fall so low and resort to tying themselves to demons.. it was just too much. She banishes them from orlais. 18. Do they enjoy Wicked Grace, or don’t they? Not only does she enjoy it, she is also good at it and loves to challenge everyone in skyhold for a game or two. 20. Do they trust Morrigan? Trust? No. She's smart enough to realize Morrigan is in it for her own gain. She respects her and her magical abilities and likes to converse with her ( when she's not bragging about all the knowledge she supposedly possesses about elves and their heritage ) But she doesn't trust her. Morrigan is power hungry, and their debate at the well of sorrows shows that clearly enough. 22. What is their biggest regret?

Ironically, Not realizing Solas wasn't who he said he was. If she'd figured it out sooner, she might've been able to change his mind.. 24. How did they react when they found out about Blackwall/Thom Rainier?

Oof. Yeah that was a big reveal there. She had some suspicions about blackwall but would never have thought him to be a murderer. She pardoned him. But remains distant. Despite their friendship. 26. What makes them trust someone?

Seeing them standing up for what they think is right, standing up for people who cannot defend themselves. And those who do good deeds without wanting anything in return. 28. Did they disband the Inquisition or maintain it?

It was a tough decision. The inquisition was her everything, but seeing the state of thedas and knowing the truth now, that the entire organisation was infiltrated with spies and reeking of corruption... She disbanded it. She was angry and upset, but determined to work towards saving solas from himself. It would be easier with a tight knit group that doesn't involve all the politics and discussions in the winter palace. She also gladly went to kirkwall to live there after varric offered it to her. 30. How did they judge the prisoners? Alexius, Servis and so on. Specific a character.

Alexius was made to serve the inquisition, in researching arcana. But he will not be gaining his freedom. Servis was made to smuggle artefacts. Florianne was killed, and her box was used for community service. Livius Erimond was executed. Ser ruth was sent to the deep roads to achieve what she wanted. Samson was remanded to Kirkwall for judgement of his crimes, though if she was given the chance she would have executed him for all he did. 32. Who did they leave in the Fade, and why?

Stroud. To her it seemed the more logical solution at the time. besides, she loves varric dearly and couldn't take his best friend from him. 34. How do they cope with the stress of being Inquisitor?

Powering through. Trying her best to maintain her sanity by taking breaks on her own when she can. Also elfroot. A lot of it. 36. What was the most difficult choice that had to make?

Whether to disband the inquisition or not.

38. Emotionally, what was their reaction at Sahrina Quarry? The realisation made her nauseous to her core, the poor people there didn't deserve all that and she wishes she could have helped them sooner.

40. Do they get Cullen to start taking lyrium again? Why or why not?

Absolutely not. She supports his decision and provides him with counsel and comfort when he needs it. They are devoted friends, And seeing him overcome his addiction makes her proud. She trusts in him, she knows he can continue his work without the lyrium.

42. How do they view Tevinter? Oof. Yeah.. well considering she is an elf, she doesn't much like the place at all. The only good thing to come out of it is Dorian, who she loves dearly.

44. How do they think their race plays into being Inquisitor? It definitely does. A whole big deal. She is a dalish standing for all peoples. No matter their origin. She is the proof that everyone is worthy of respect. And she openly wants to use her power to advance the elves. 46. Which companion/adviser makes them think twice about their choices, if any?

Dorian. His voice is one of reason and she takes his counsel constantly. Also they have fun little outings that involve a lot of vintage wine and gossip. All the advisors are important to her, she listens carefully to josie cullen and leliana. Also cassandra. And cole. I think the only one she doesn't listen to is viv. ;) 48. What do they think about the Hero of Ferelden?

She doesn't know much about the hero of ferelden. Before the inquisition she kept to the clan and their worries, but she reads up on their story later in the library and finds herself feeling some level of connection to them, they both stand for something better after all. 50. Are they proud of what they accomplished? Yes. Despite everything. She feels like being a part of this whole inquisition took a lot from her, almost everything, but she is proud of what she has accomplished and the changes she's made to the world. Bonus! here's some pics of Brenna for the long wait!

#oc lavellan #ask game #ask game response #dai #dragon age inquisition funny #solas dragon age #dragon age: inquisition #da:i #solavellan #solas #fen harel #trespasser #the descent #solas x inquisitor #solas x lavellan #dorian pavus #varric tethras #da4