Have to thank two friends for help with this chapter: Elwin for some legalese, and Yllamse for letting me know that Zev’s “mi amor” is more casual for Spanish speakers than it seems. (I still don’t know why Zev is Spanish when he’s from fantasy-Italy, but hey, why not, they’re both sexy.)
Originally this would have been the first instance/use of On Every Street in the story, but then it turned out that Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 were stupidly short, so I combined them because the only reason I split them up in the first place was song lyrics. And I had thought I’d have more to say about it by now.
Dang, how is Mark Knopfler so good at music?
Karate is really kicking my butt this week – in a good way. Shredded my abs because sensei decided to do some High Intensity Training yesterday. I’ll be yellow belt on Monday probably! This has nothing to do with noir crime and trench-coated and fedora’d detectives, I’m just excited about it.
All right let’s launch this ridiculous idea! Dragon Age as a 40’s noir murder mystery! Huzzah for NaNoWriMo! I watched the Maltese Falcon as reference for this. Chapters are quite a bit shorter than they usually are but that just means I’ll be done sooner? And if you’re a classic rock fan, you’ve already recognized the title and chapter titles. Those were what gave me the inspiration for this in the first place! Continue reading
Starting working towards finishing up this thing. Got stuck on Sigrun because she was the last recruited for me, so I didn’t get any time to spend with her the first (and only) time that I played. I’ll probably take a while with the next chapter as well, as I’ve scheduled Kal’Hirol for it and it’s not a super catchy quest, although discovering the past through ghosts is really fascinating to play.
I also beat Dark Forces 2 and its horribly annoying final boss, although I appreciated the Star Wars take on the trope where you rush at each other, slash at each other, and wait like 10 seconds to see who actually struck and who dies. XD
Chapter 6
I wandered into the dining hall after the first night watch in late fall to find it not empty; Elizabeth and Oghren and Anders were sitting at the table closest to the wine cellar, mugs of beer in front of them. From the way they behaved, they’d been at it for a while.
“Hey, Nate!” Oghren called. “Come join us!”
“What’s going on?” I asked, taking a seat on the other side of Elizabeth from him and accepting a mug of beer from Anders, who was sitting across from us.
“Reminiscing, mostly,” Anders said. “She was just telling us how she met Zevran.” Continue reading
Wrote a short story tonight about Liz’s search for personal identity. Haven’t forgotten about WWADH, just been busy finishing up work before the December break, choosing, making, and sending presents (and Christmas cards), and playing Bioware games (ME1 and Jade Empire!).
I could have put this story in the main fic at some point, but I figured the chapter outlines were full enough and didn’t need another two pages of filler. So here: a short fic set at an undefined time (anytime after the Noble Conspiracy Assassination Attempt, really).
Heraldry
I wandered into the dining room and paused. Elizabeth was sitting at the table, parchment and quill in hand, and a look of intense concentration on her face. For once, her hair was not pinned up into its usual neat buns, but hanging in twin braids down her back. It was longer than I had thought.
I walked quietly up to her. “More budget problems?”
She jumped. She must have been concentrating very hard indeed if she missed hearing me. Or maybe I was getting better at being stealthy. “No…” She tried to hide whatever she had been working on, but I was too quick for her and swiped it off the table before she could pull it away. Continue reading
Moved some exposition up from THE LAST CHAPTER to this chapter. I was really certain that there was more talking with the Architect in this part of the game? Oh well.
Lizrage! Once again you can thank Attack on Titan from the SnK OST (the same one that I used for the Rendon Howe fight). Yes, I’m reusing it for inspiration. I can’t help it; I associate it almost entirely with Liz these days. I would wish to have the Aldnoah OST as well so I don’t get tired of the SnK OST, but I don’t, so I’m trying to use it sparingly…
With the letters at the end, I wanted to make it clear that they’d been sending more than a few letters back and forth through the summer, but it doesn’t really sound clear to me. Any advice?
Clocked in NaNo at just under 75,000 words; not too shabby for a month when I was so tired and distracted by other things that I almost thought I wouldn’t finish at all. And thank goodness for Liz, eh? I would love to finish this story while my inspiration is fresh and my momentum is good, but maybe I’ll work on other things when it’s not Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday evening. 😛
Chapter 5
A day later, Elizabeth had finally managed things such that she could leave affairs to Varel and Garevel for several days. She found Velanna, sent for the rest of the Wardens, and departed again for the forest.
“Finally!” was Velanna’s only comment. “I thought I was going to go crazy waiting for you slow humans.” After that, she stubbornly said nothing, even when Anders attempted to flirt with her. Continue reading
The Oaths of Fealty scene at the beginning of this chapter was very interesting to write! It came together in bits and pieces as I figured out how many threads I had going and what points would be made where and the PACING of it all. Also you can thank Jiyuu no Tsubasa for Liz’s speech there.
And I’m going back to rewrite bits of the earlier chapters already! Nate’s not conflicted enough! I need to check the subtext of everything! I might be able to remove some extraneous expositions!
I’m so looking forward to Chapter 5. I might write most of it tonight.
My best friend is finished Part 1 of the rewrite of his story… it’s magnificent. It’s got so much tone, and character, and maintains a ‘legend’ quality even when it goes into snarky dialogue and action scenes, and yet it doesn’t feel pretentious like it might be easy to fall into for an inexperienced writer. Cullean and Asrath are vying with Varel for ‘favourite badass old man’, and Dann is adorbs.
Chapter 4
The Wardens from Orlais had brought the white and blue uniforms of their order with them, and one of Elizabeth’s servants, Firiel, brought me one to wear. I went down to the Great Hall a little late to the gathering. I had no particular desire to stand out, either from my smart blue and white uniform, or from anyone recognizing me as Rendon’s son.
Unfortunately my wish was to go unfulfilled, as only a minute after I entered the Great Hall – the room now looking fresh with autumn flowers – Bann Esmerelle, who governed Amaranthine City, spotted me and came to speak to me. “Nathaniel Howe!”
I bowed to her rather stiffly. “Bann Esmerelle, I believe. It’s been a while.” Continue reading
Lots of repetitive exposition in these chapters, especially if you’ve already read My Dark-Haired Fereldan Beauty. I apologize. It’s easy to write about things I already know. On the other hand, I don’t understand all the darkspawn politics, so the exposition you get on that is suuuuper vague. I apologize for that too. Although in my defence I’ve gone back and looked at game videos and it’s super vague in the game, too. Those darkspawn aren’t too bright.
As of this chapter, I officially passed NaNoWriMo for this year. I’m going to try to keep going while I have inspiration on this story, why not? Get lots of it done now and if I run out of steam, at least I made a good start on it. (But the chapters are getting longer, help, I don’t want them to be super long)
Of course, the situation in my apartment is really starting to get dire, and I have three concerts of varying stress levels coming up, and I had Japanese take-out yesterday evening that was highly disappointing. BUT FOR SOME REASON I’M HAPPY. Guild Wars 1 and 2, maybe?
Chapter 3
“Your husband?” I asked Delilah, when Elizabeth was out of earshot.
She nodded. “His name is Albert. He’s a good man, much nicer than that stuck-up noble that Father was trying to set me up with a couple years ago.”
I raised an eyebrow. “This wouldn’t be Albert the Grocer, would it?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a grocer, Nathaniel,” Delilah said. “And… after how Father changed…”
“He changed?” I asked, a sinking feeling in my stomach, although I already suspected.
Delilah looked at me sadly. “You really don’t know, do you? Come in. I’ll put the kettle on and tell you everything.” Continue reading
Ahhh, the first chapter that’s mostly from Nate’s point of view! How nice. I forgot what a sarcastic bastard he was. Love that guy, big Howe nose and all.
Apparently there is a Ghost in the Shell game coming to Steam?????????
Chapter 2
They buried Mhairi early the next morning; Queen Anora was present, and left to return to Denerim soon after, wishing Elizabeth good fortune one more time.
One of the first things she wished to do as soon as Anora was gone was to familiarize herself with the entire castle, from top to bottom, and Elra went with her, and another soldier, Mia – Garevel didn’t seem to want her to be on her own, even though the castle had been made secure. As far as she knew, Varel and Garevel had taken care of blocking up the path from which they believed the darkspawn had emerged, at least until it could be investigated further. It was a little worrying to be sitting upon such a thing, but there wasn’t anything more that could be done instantly. Continue reading