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shivunin · 10 months

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WIP Wednesday

Thanks for the tag, @daggerbean! c:

I haven't had much time to write this week (given the circumstances), but luckily I have a handy pile of WIPs in various states of completion. This one covers the wedding scene at the beginning of Origins, the return to the alienage, and the Landsmeet, but it's a bit patchwork at the moment. This scene is set just after finding Shianni later in the game.

Sorry if I tagged you on the other blog already this week haha, my brain is goop. Tagging (no pressure): @demandthedoodles @dungeons-and-dragon-age @greypetrel @ndostairlyrium @vakarians-babe @star--nymph @zenstrike

CW: Panic attack, indirect references to the events of the Tabris origin

“The things that happened after your wedding,” Shianni said, her voice tight, “it was horrible.” Already, being back in the alienage was doing something to her. Wen was not the same girl who’d walked away from here. She could not duck her head and hope for the best as she had for the last ten years. She…also could not hate these people as she had when she’d left. Plenty of them were awful—had been awful to her family for as long as she could remember—but she could see the pained exhaustion in their faces now, too. They were all trapped here together and none of them could do a blighted thing about it. The closest they’d ever come to feeling powerful was kicking at her family when they could. Arianwen didn’t want them all to die. But this was—oh, this hurt her. Shianni’s eyes flicked to the left a second before Zevran spoke. “A wedding?” he sounded like his old, amused self—which, she supposed, meant that he was very hurt. Curse it all. Curse this place and everything that'd happened here. “So there is a secretive side to you after all.”

Little insects crawled around inside of Arianwen’s skin. They carried with them the stench of the alcohol on Vaughan’s breath, the sharp scent of the hair oil Wen had been wearing that day, the heaviness of the dress on her body, the ringing in her ears when she’d woken in the arl of Denerim’s residence. Secretive—yes, she’d been carrying many tiny secrets inside of her. She’d thought she’d gotten rid of them, pawned and forgotten like the golden ring in Ostagar. Zevran was waiting; she did not want him to wait. Wen looked over her shoulder at him and forced herself to meet his eyes. “I was…betrothed,” she said, and his face didn’t change one whit. She’d have to explain herself later, when she wasn’t…when they weren’t… “It didn’t end well.” Shianni looked at her, but Wen couldn’t read her expression. It was too loud in her ears to make anything out, though she’d once known her cousin’s face better than her own. Everything around her seemed blurred, somehow, oil paint smeared by a careless finger. Zevran and his bright eyes and his kidskin voice were her present; this place, crooked and dark and foul-smelling, was her past. She didn’t like them meeting. If she’d been thinking, she would have left him at home and dragged Leliana and her pity along instead. “No?” Zevran’s brows were arched, his mouth crooked with something that might be described as a smile. She wished she didn’t know him so well; she wished she couldn’t see the wound underneath the golden veneer. Wen wanted to crawl out of her own body. No—she wanted Morrigan’s trick of shedding her own skin and taking another instead. She’d be a cat up the vhenadahl by now if she could, or a mouse lost to the roots. “You left him at the altar, didn’t you?” Yes. Yes, she had, in a way. She hadn’t been there for that, though. She’d been neither here nor there, really. She looked at Zevran, her lips parting and pursing again, and his smile faded to a sliver. Beside her, carefully, Shianni’s hand crept into hers. They’d stood like this a hundred times: in the market, when the other people would jostle them as they carried their purchases home; down the street to the gates when Shianni would leave for work; beside the pyre when Mother had been burned. Wen squeezed and Shianni squeezed back, her hands rough and cold but nonetheless comforting in their familiarity. Tabris couldn’t read Zevran’s face, either. He wasn’t smiling. His eyes looked—she didn’t know. Would it be horrible if she was sick right now? Yes. She should say something instead. Wen worked her jaw loose from its rictus and spoke. “He died,” she said.

#wip wednesday #arianwen tabris #shivunin scrivening #god i just!!!! think this scene is so interesting if you bring a LI to the alienage quest #this whole interaction is just buck wild. idk that wen would have explained this to zev otherwise (though she did tell morrigan)#but what a way to find out about it. i mean. damn.#immediately followed by 'oh yeah btw your dad has been taken by slavers'. like???#what a shitty shitty set of things to happen in one day #long post

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tryingtimi · 2 years

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Happy Blorbo Blursday!! Tell me about the relationship between Adran and Dane. What's one of their fondest childhood memories together? Did they get along as children? Etc. I want the deeets.

Thank you, @aschlindartroom! 💙 Deets you want, deets you shall recieve. Buckle up, legend, this is gonna be long and spoilery, as everything I always give you. Side note: I've tried to write about both of them, but I kind of got biased and wrote more about Dane. So maybe, next time, I'll talk more about Adran lmao.

CHILDHOOD: LIFE OF THE DEEP CORPS' BABIES

Adran and Dane had a very good relationship when they were little, even though they have a seven years age gap. Adran always looked after tiny Dane, who mostly tried to prank his big bro all the time. He used his advantage on being more into science-y stuff, so he surprised him with harmless bombs — that their dad helped him build it — or weird, little creatures hidden among his stuff. Adran also returned the favour, but since he never were much of a sneaky person, he just wrestled with Dane, tickled him, challenged him etc. Adran was always very touchy and loudly affectionate, so he gave lots of hugs to Dane, always sat close to him or behind him so he could massage his shoulders (what Dane loved) and brought him gifts from wherever he went, even if it was only the grocery store. And Dane always shared the gifts with Adran. He had his silent care attitude as a kid too though, so he tried to seem cool while he did that. He was never a loud kid, but he was mischievous, because he knew how to use his head well. He also told everyone that how cool brother he has. Plus the "fact" how cooler his gonna be when they both get into the Corps; Adran as a soldier, Dane as a mechanic. Just like their parents — even though their dad was never part of the Corps, but he figured he'll be one in there anyway. PARENTS. Kallista Cohren and Hido Riordan

side note: on Ionera, if your a child of a Corps memeber, you always inherit their family name. In any other cases, your parents can choose. Hido was a talented mechanic, who managed to move from the Aquor Sector to Terrana. He was a strict, mute man, who owned a humble workshop, where he repaired stuff for a very low price to people who couldn't really afford it. He also maintaned and made Kallista's mechanical hand, which is basically how they met. Kallista was a fearless woman in the water, but a more gentle, cool mom at home. Dane and Adran got a lot from both of them. They even got to learn how to swim (which is rather rare, considering the circumstances) with the help of Kallista's suit that could change to the shape of any wearer, thanks to their dad's little hacking in its technology. The boys were also taught to not fear the water. It's dangerous, but it's also part of their life and it's always gonna be. So, it's better to be on good terms with it. This was Kallista's philoshophy that Hido seemed to support, even if he always kept his distance from the water. Adran tried to ask him about his parents, past and get him to learn swimming together, but he never budged, which Dane somehow understood more than his brother. He took the lessons with his mom and Adran and enjoyed it, but then always joined his father sitting far from them alone, watching them contently. They had a kind of understanding, that Adran found more in Kallista.

This is why, their fondest childhood memory is probably a holiday, when they were all home through the whole day. Kallista tried to make a secret plan with Adran to prank Dane and Hido, while the said two also did the same. But, when the time of the pranks came, the two adults found themselves "attacked" by their own ideas, because the two kids secretly ganged up together against them.

They were also half a religious family. None of them forced Dane, nor Adran to believe in the same thing as they did, but the latter automatically joined Kallista in believing the Almighty. Corps members had a tendency to become a believer anyway. However, Kallista used to tell the boys that Hido was never really into God before he met her and he never really joined the church either (but went to preaching with the family anyway). Dane liked his father’s take on the subject, though, which said he did not deny the existance of a higher being, but he didn’t think it had any intrest about them, lessers.

TEENAGE YEARS: LOSS AND SLIENCE

Dane was ten, Adran seventeen, when the famously high Rising and a very messed up transfer occured. They lost both their parents through the process. Hido and Kallista died helping the desprate aquorian people get into Terrana, while Dane also lost one of his leg fully when he tried to dash after his sinking parents. Adran saved him, but from that point, Dane did not speak for months. He also refused to leave their apartment and engage in any kind of social or physical interaction, so young Thaddeus offered to help Adran and they switched each other between training days, so there was always someone who stayed with Dane. They got no professional help because of the chaos that the event followed.

Adran never gave up on Dane, though. He asked for advice from all the older Corps members how to run a household, took care of Dane, talked to him everyday, tutored him of the things he should learn in school and got him a prosthetic, finally. That broke the ice. Dane treated Adran as a stranger through this time, his eyes hollow, not even looked at him once. But, with getting the prosthetic, he was puzzled at first, then furious and then devastated. He shouted, thrown the mechanic leg at Adran and yet again, refused to use it. The next day, Adran found him sitting on the sofa, prosthetic nicely seated beside him (not attached yet), Adran’s favorite food on the table, even though it was burnt a little. When Adran sat beside him with the food, clearly touched by the gesture, Dane did “thank you” in their own sign language, not looking at his brother, before they spent the rest of the morning in a comfortable silence.

Important note: They have this thing that they never say “thank you” or “I love you” with words. They use sign language for that, which they got taught because of their father. They also made up their own signs for it, because there were times when they didn’t want their parents to understand what they were talking about. They made this into a habit and now it’s something that connects them. Dane, however, never uses “I love you” anymore.

From that point, Dane slowly came to terms with wearing the prosthetic outside (never at home), going out etc. Their connection, however, transformed. Dane wasn’t near to being better, because when he got back to school finally, he provoked others to beat him up (as Adran later figured out), he shouted at Adran a lot, trying to provoke him to hit him too (which he never did, nor said a word when Dane got this worked up) and spent a big amount of time in his room, alone. He refused to go to a professional to get help with everything he was going through, so Adran — secretly — tried to use all the mental training methods he got to know through his Corps training. Which Dane could spot very easily and they had a big fight after that.

Dane was ruthless with his words by the way, but Adran never spoke to him like that. When he had the urge to say something hurtful, he stayed quiet instead, even though his face could tell everything.

Nevertheless, they always aplogized and cried together after a fight. Dane eventually got out of his room, while Adran sat beside the door, waiting for him. Those moments were the only ones when Dane let anyone to touch him, because Adran always hugged him tight. They also never talked about their parents or what happened. At least with each other, because Adran needed to, on his training.

As they grown, Dane changed more, and he would have been popular in school if he wasn’t cold and unfriendly with everyone. Adran saw that some were afraid of Dane because he never ran from the bullies, but some got very interested in him, even admired him. Adran saw Dane’s transition when he reached the age of 16. He got quieter, their arguments got more rare and he stayed in school more. Turned out, his teacher showed them some things in the lab about their water and the sealife. Dane became obsessed with examining all these stuff in his free time. Which Adran thought strange at first, considering how Dane bacame completely incapable being even near the Everocean or any kind of water since The Events. But, if this helped Dane, then who was he to stop him. In fact, he got Dane all the stuff he needed for researches to one of his birthday and started to save up for his education. Which Dane did not ask for, and he even secretly started to work to save too. Either way, Adran spoiled Dane, because he didn’t know how could he support him more.

Dane wasn't blind though, so he take up all the chores from him and most of their arguments transitioned into arguing over why Adran wants to do anything at home, when it's Dane's job. Also, Adran tried to lure Dane into their religious community, since the day he got back to him, but he was furiously against it. At the end of his teenage years, he switched to questioning things about it, though, intead of plainly attacking it. He also seemed to completely forget what happened with their parents by this new obsession over studies and sience. (which we know isn't how things work, so)

ADULTHOOD: SAVING AND SERVING

Dane and Adran had no problem with living together still when Dane started university. In fact, all the people who was sound of this and suggested Dane to move out (his partners usually), was generally destroyed in a very thoughtout and seemingly unassailable debate about why he has no intention doing it and that's okay. He also payed the bills before Adran could, from all the scholarship money he got or won on competitions. Which Adran was always a little upset of; he wanted Dane to spend on anything else.

Also, with being more and more educated, Dane stopped to start arguments with Adran, and instead, he tried to debate. He questioned his worldview, morals and his belief, which Adran didn't mind; their parents did that a lot anyway and he had answers and liked that his brother began to talk more. Unlike the people in the university where he successfully got in; Dane was insufferable in most people’s eyes. He was intelligent and quick minded (not a true genuis though) and he wasn’t afraid of being sound of someone’s lack of skill in something if that hurt the community too. He seemed to got a hold of his emotions, but was still not be able to stay in control, when he got frustrated. So, he got into a lot of trouble because of his sharp tongue.

Anyway, Dane moved into a closer place to the lab at last, because of his research projects and the frequent overnight stayes, but he still talks to Adran everyday through holo calls and Adran still uses their sign language everytime, especially the "I love you" at every message he leaves for Dane, or at the end of every meet up they're having. Dane do not uses any of it anymore and calls Adran childish for doing it, but never tells him to stop.

#blorbo blursday #well #i didn't even know i had a this specific image of them in my head #so thank you legend <3 #anyway #i probably left out a lot of things #for example Zev who's gonna be a key character for the brothers #and Eran #but it's already way too long #if something seems disrespecful towards anything #tell me please #it was hard to stop at a reasonable length #Adran Cohren #Dane Cohren #IQRUS #IQRUS character dynamics #oh yeah the parents' name were placeholders #:)#a long time ago

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