Rakshasa in a Top Hat

Chapter 6 of 8

And I do think I'll be sticking to 8 chapters for this one. I've got the DLC's endgame already mapped out.

What I didn't plan was the full writeup of the Chant of Light that is being crafted over on dreamwidth. Once it's ready and posted I'll toss up a link here but per my previous anti-AI rant I shall NOT be posting any essays of substance here on tumblr ever again.

The Shrine of Dumat calls out to those who would remember. And Anders... is forced to remember.

Chapter 5 of 8, assuming it doesn't get away with me again

Because Varric drank all the booze and they fled Kirkwall without supplies. The image of icicle dicks and trying not to giggle while Sebastian calls everyone degenerates has been a mental image I've had for the better part of a year.

And something is going wrong with Anders. Slowly. Terribly. Corypheus is Calling to him...

Farts of a Whore

No that isn't a vague cussing, that's the title of the chapter.

Wait come back! Where are you going? I did research! A lot of research. Even for me I'd call this a lot of research. I did everything except bake and I'm not adverse to baking in this case, except I don't actually own a mixer and whipping egg whites into meringue is a CHORE when done by hand.

A recipe, by the way.

Sebastian is invited to the Harimann's table, to maintain the fragile alliance between their Houses. He brings Hawke as protection and backup and just as a friend. A friend who it turns out does not know Orlesian.

Flora and Sebastian have a history of shenanigans, the occasional hijink. Neither of them have grown or changed so much that they can't set it all aside to indulge in such antics again.

Chapter 4: Bound

The tower beneath the Vimmark Mountains is just getting worse and worse. They're trapped and now there's the ghost of Malcolm Hawke and now there's this Warden Larius rotting in his own armor...

The descent to the base of the tower. Altered very slightly to fit my needs, only slightly. And because Dragon Age magic is meant to be unnerving. The Grey Wardens are meant to be eldritch horrors. At least I mean them to be and with nearly 500k words under my worldstate it's mine now bitch.

Chapter 2 of hell if I know

Tests of Endurance

Because Hawke's story in Act 2 is defined by Antics(TM). There has to be a reason why Varric is so mad at Anders for destroying the carefully balanced antics machine and that reason includes antics. This is that story that explores that slide from Antics(TM) into Act 3. Slowly. Told through those Antics(TM).

That and the idea hit me so hard I wrote it in one sitting. I apologize for nothing. Instead I present men crushing melons with their thighs in public as endurance training.

And a heavy hint of how I really see Elthina: the emotionally manipulative mother whom Sebastian is only trying to please, who doles out her love as reward for proper behavior, who gives only disdain and abuse when she's slighted.

The question is, will Sebastian come to realize exactly what he's been made Left Hand of?

Chapter 3: Temptation

Now... Before you get mad at me for what I've done, go read the rest of my stuff. There is a REASON for all of it. None of this is out of character for what I've done to these characters.

Then you'll realize why I wonder if I should start adding the ridiculously rare rarepair of one-sided Justice/Sebastian tag to this AU. Spirits have no concept of monogamy and a strange idea as to how things should be. Because if you're not doing it strange then you're not doing spirits and the Fade right.

The optional dragon boss in Legacy DLC is designed to kick your ass and drain your resources before you tackle the dungeon. No other reason why it's harder than the Corypheus battle. I lean into that. Which begs the question, why is Anders conserving his strength?

Chapter 1: Good Dust, or the Sin of Frivolity

This is to be a loose collection of confessions, songs that Grand Cleric Elthina's Nightingale sings for her. These confessions are meant to show daily life in Kirkwall between Acts 2 and 3, showing the city's decline into tyranny and anarchy and the circumstances that turn Justice's feathers black.

This is a nice fuzzy piece from the beginning. And yes they will be posted in chronological order. I wouldn't be able to keep track of this one if I didn't. We start soon after Legacy, in the middle of 9:35 Dragon.

The Prince

I'm pounding out and posting as many fics as I can before the rebuild, here's one that hit me a few weeks ago but I didn't write down until last night.

So Dragon Age Lore has abominations as highly resistant to poisons. Wynne uses this to drink her friends/opponents under the table in the canonical books. Justice declares alcohol tastes like poison, tho I declare it a weak poison because I'm the chemist here so there nyah. Anders, the anatomist, needs to start experimenting with Things before he comes up with his favorite drink Deathroot and Gin by the end of Act 2.

So why not have the Harimanns try to finish the job? A poisoning in the Hanged Man seems appropriate. Cyanide is both bitter and tasty from what I hear. And oh so easy to acquire. Just brew some bitter almond tea.

Also, I did not realize until now that spirits consider taverns, public houses, and meeting houses to be Accorded Neutral Ground but I'll totally take it.

The Interloper

So while I finish off the stories of Origins and Awakening, I figured I'd play DA2. Replay Kath Hawke. Pin down some of the stories I'm missing from DA2, such as the whole romance with Anders and Justice.

Then I found Emeric in Darktown and he sounded so terribly... nervous. I wondered why. Then I knew. I knew so much...

I always wondered how Bethany gets found. The game claims she'd been corresponding with Orsino because she got curious about Circle life. I call bullshit, there's none of that apparent in her banter and demeanor. But if one Templar gets away...

I'll need to write Emeric's entire investigation now. After I finish a couple of IRL things. Am building a new machine over the next few days. Wish me luck, for the old one will be cannibalized for parts.

The Enclave

Beware Cullen's POV as he's nowhere near as far from his "mages aren't even people" as he likes to think. The best he's graduated to is "no mage is sane" even as he follows the Inquisitor he's Enthralled himself to without knowing what he's done.

It's Cullen who finds what Vengeance has done with the Enclave. Cullen who seeks out missing soldiers, deserters with blank empty Enthralled stares. They didn't make it far.

With a tiny appearance by Cole because of course Cole knows what's going on, even if he doesn't understand why the human fears it.

Finally got this one out of my system. This story in particular has been bouncing about in my head ever since I started writing fics for this world state. This means I'm close to finishing up Act 2 of Inquisition, thank fuck, it's 17 fics long, Act 2 of DAI is about as long as all of DA2 as it comes to number of fics.

Lone Wardens

Okay. Hear me out. Frantic blighted Warden comfort sex. Yes, I'm sorry but you know by now I dwell in rarepair hell.

Before the siege on Adamant, before the descent into the Fade, Warden Stroud is slowly being driven mad by the Calling he's forced to Hear. It's stripping him of his ability to see or hear anyone who isn't blighted. But he's not the only Warden at Skyhold. No, not, Blackwall, he doesn't Feel like anything. There's something Else here, something feathered and Vengeful.

Hawke would be the type of man to bring Warden Anders with him.

The Calling

or, well, The False Calling anyway :3

Midway through Here Lies the Abyss Hawke rides from Crestwood to the Western Approach to stand there and wait next to that tower for five years while my completionist ass does all the side quests first. Leaves plenty of time to detour back to the valley below Skyhold for a solid round of "what the FUCK you couldn't even tell me yourself?!"

Hawke was surprised to hear about the Calling from Stroud. Why. Why didn't Anders tell him.

Also contains Vengeance making themself at home. Same as Justice did in Kirkwall.

Perseverance

I apologize for nothing.

This was one of the first fics I wrote for this AU and I have held it back for 4 solid months debating what I'll do with it. Because I wants it, precious. I wants it in my worldstate. I wants its implications. I wants its lore. I wants its legacy. I wants everything it implies for every infant born because Justice was there to breathe Virtue into the dying body. I wants every blue-eyed child born in the Darktown Healer's clinic to become more than the Templars fear.

So I gave in and posted it. This is not the only fic of this arc. But by posting this one I've guaranteed the arc. This is how I roll.

The Templar

Hawke is a Reaver. But he's suffered at the hands of enough enemy mages that he needs more than just rage and blood.

He needs Lyrium.

Pray Justice forgives him for this.

Next up in stories I did not plan, they just happened...

Orsino’s Fall

I left the ending to this one open-ended because I am unsure what ending I want. I know which one I want for my sanity, but I know that’s not the one the story will demand. That’s not the one Orsino will demand.

The Last Straw. Hawke’s already sided with the mages. The desperate last stand in the Gallows has gone as well as it usually does, mages and templars lying dead around them as Orsino goes mad with grief.

But this time it’s not Quentin’s research that he turns to. Instead he has another way out.

An abomination did all this and still has the strength to stand. He wants that strength.

Monsters

The end of Act 2. The Arishok and Hawke have their duel and Hawke had no idea it would be like that. It’s the hardest thing he’s ever done.

But that’s not the focus of this story. He’s not one of the monsters here, no matter what the observers might think.

No, the monsters here are the two who meet face to face for the first time over Hawke’s broken bleeding body. The one who granted the title of Champion to a dying man and the one who would save his life. Knight Commander Meredith and the abomination she’s heard so much about, the Darktown Healer. And yes, the Templars refer to the Darktown Healer in much the same way one might refer to a serial killer.

Content warning: much of this story is from her POV. It’s not a pretty thing to read. Never doubt that Anders was right about her.

Which leads to its own uncomfortable line of questioning. How much do the Templars know? And for how long have they known?