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My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Aftermath

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Aaaaaaand we reach our slightly wonky ending. Hooray for awkward not-quite-brothers-in-law! ROLL END CREDITS (which is actually the music for the interlude that transitions into the sequel >.> )

Stay tuned for the eventual sequel, The Woman with a Dragon’s Heart (Liz, obviously), and the AU detective thriller Dragon Age Noir! Though first I’m going to be working on visual art for a while. I’ll probably do a bunch of outlining (DAN currently makes only about 5% sense – good concept, super-sketchy foundation) but I don’t intend to do any writing until November, when I make my big push to finish Anima’s Seal. We’ll see how well that resolution goes. I certainly have enough art to do, but there’s a lot of writing still on my to-do list… we’ll see what I feel like!

I realized there was at least one Oghren moment I wanted to put in, so I’ll sneak that into one of the previous chapters somewhere. …Tomorrow.

Now I can cross ONE project off my immense to-do list… Now, what to do next………

Previous chapter: The Archdemon

 

Aftermath

 

She became slowly aware that she was warm. She was warm and comfortable, and really, that was all she wanted to know at the moment.

There was a shadow over her from the… left? Someone was breathing near her. The more stimuli she received, the less her brain felt like getting back to sleep. Which was really annoying, because she wanted to sleep some more. Maybe go take Huan in the fields for a romp later… She could hear birds chirping outside her window, so it must be time to get up, but she didn’t want to. “Mm… Mother, just a few more minutes…”

Someone’s breath caught on her right side, but from her left came a low but insistant voice, a voice that made her stomach flip-flop. “Lii~iiz… tell your brother to stop glaring at me. He’s quite intimidating.”

Her eyes flickered open and immediately closed again. It was too bright for that nonsense. “Zev…?” She managed to get one hand free and rubbed at her eyes. There was a lot of sleep crusted there and she took her time with it.

Then she processed what he had said. “…What?” She opened her eyes again, blinking against the light… Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: The Archdemon

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NSFW again in one spot, should be the last time, though.

I decided the penultimate chapter wasn’t going to be long enough for a whole chapter and I was right so HERE YOU GOOOOOO everything except the epilogue! LOTS OF SOUNDTRACKS FOR THIS ONE:
Lizzev morning cuddles/vista/march: Vogel Im Käfig
Anora-Liz speech/gate battle: Counter-Attack Mankind (awww yeahhhhh)
Archdemon battle: Doa (yeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhh all right) (some typos in the subtitles though)

You know, the first battle, with the assault on Redcliffe… I totally missed that happens in the game? Anora was just like “so we’re going to Redcliffe now” and I was like “kay” but then the darkspawn started attacking Denerim? And I was like “HOW DID YOU MISS THAT” but well anyway I guess Bioware does what Bioware wants? Anyway, it does explain a lot and I’m a little disappointed that it wasn’t more clear in the game. OH WAIT IT DOES …Well that… is still disappointing. I just thought that attack was like a raid, not a feint capable of drawing out Ferelden’s entire forces. Ugh.

Not too sure about the Zevran POV bit; I need more practice thinking as him? I knew what things I wanted to happen in that part, I just wasn’t sure how to word it so it sounded like him. And it doesn’t sound like him that much. :/

I’ve been pretty distracted with watching HuskyStarcraft’s Bronze League Heroes series, it’s pretty great. : D (this is probably the unofficial start of the series? Also I haven’t been watching the series in any particular order) I don’t even play Starcraft! XD

Previous chapter: Landsmeet; next chapter: Aftermath

 

The Archdemon

 

Even though she rose early, Arl Eamon was up before her. He greeted her coolly as she ate breakfast; he was consulting maps and reports at the dining table.

“What are the darkspawn doing?” she asked.

Eamon sighed. “They have besieged most of the castles left standing in the Bannorn, but a large portion of the horde appears to be heading westwards in a major offensive. It is good we are leaving for Redcliffe today, or else we might not have been able to make it before our enemies reach it and besiege it. Will your company be ready?” Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Landsmeet

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Moooooaaaaaar dramaaaaaaa

The theme of this chapter is fathers and death. : P

The fun part about this chapter for me (besides the fact that Elizabeth is becoming isolated from half the people she likes) is the (re-)introduction of Elra (and Gemmet), my elf servant OCs. We won’t see much of them in the rest of the story, but I’ve become pretty attached to them and they’ll definitely be showing up in the Awakening sequel. : D

Soundtrack of the day! Army Attack was used for the mad chase scene down to the docks.

I also checked out some swordfighting videos for help with the Loghain duel, but nothing really worth linking: 1) because I was in a hurry and didn’t keep track of the most helpful ones, and 2) because most modern matches pause the match every time someone scores a hit, which isn’t helpful if you’re going for “total submission” or something. : P

I’m running out of writing energy, which is probably fine; it’s time to draw more art anyway. I’ll finish this story for certain, first! This chapter’s a little shorter. Not sure how long the next chapter will be (long, probably) but I hold out hope of finishing in the first week of September if not before. I’ve put the next two chapters into one chapter so it’s a push to the end!

Previous chapter: Denerim; next chapter: The Archdemon

 

Landsmeet

 

The servants who came to wake her the next morning were scandalized to find she was not alone; she waved them away impatiently and set about getting dressed while Zevran lounged indolently in her bed. After a minute he also rose and did her hair again. She would take everyone into the alienage, even though they were mostly humans and likely to arouse great attention and suspicion. She wanted safety in numbers, unlike the day before.

As she approached the locked gate to the alienage, the guard on duty did a double-take and called to her. “Lady Elizabeth!” Huan barked at him in greeting.

She jumped in her turn. “Who- John?”

The guard had been a soldier of Highever, long months ago, before anything bad had happened to her home and family. “Lady Elizabeth, you’re all right!” Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Denerim

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More NSFW-ness in this chapter. Does it seem like these two only talk seriously when sex is involved? Well, I guess they don’t get a lot of alone time so they need to multitask their relationship… Note this is the first time she loosens up enough to call him Zev. : )

Oh man oh man oh man I’ve been looking forward to this chapter ever since I decided Liz would fight Howe with Attack on Titan. It turned out pretty much the way I wanted it to. Liz herself has been eyeing Go Away by symphonic metal band Delain as a personal theme song. >.>

Also this one took so long to write because I wasn’t sure where I should put the chapter break, and also Cauthrien has been a pain as far as her little added scene goes. I may do editing on this later. In fact, I already want to rewrite the story and cut out large, irrelevant sections. : P

 

Previous chapter: Haven; next chapter: Landsmeet

 

Denerim

 

It was five days to Redcliffe – they were closer to the edge of the mountains than Elizabeth had thought – and immediately they went to Arlessa Isolde with the Ashes in their little white silk bag. A doctor and a mage from the Circle Tower took them and argued with Brother Genitivi over what should be done with them; the doctor suggested that Arl Eamon ingest the ashes, while the mage wanted to see if simply applying them to Eamon’s skin would help.

Whatever they tried, in front of all of them, the Arl frowned, his hands flexed slightly, and his eyes slowly opened. “Where am I?” he whispered, very weakly.

“Be calm, dear husband,” Isolde said, although she was on the verge of happy tears. “You have been deathly ill for a very long time. Do you remember anything?”

“I dreamed… terrible things, yet I have the feeling that at least some of it was no dream. Where is Connor? Where is our boy?” Eamon asked anxiously, his voice cracking with disuse. The doctor hastened to sit him up and offered him a glass of water.

“He lives, thank the Maker,” Isolde said. “Many awful things have happened, Eamon. I will tell you later. For now, rest, and regain your strength.” Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Haven

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NSFW CHAPTER AHOY keep your distance if you’re not interested in that sort of thing.

Couple of soundtracks for today: the dance in the market (which I wrote ages ago, like Chapter 2 ages ago) is inspired by (the first half of) Aldnoah’s Ver$. I also used something purported to be Levi’s theme to help with the Sten fight. GitS made an appearance as well. Then, the hurt/comfort/smexy teimuz was brainstormed to Omake Pfadlib from SnK.

Actually, originally the cuddles from the end of the previous chapter were also going to be sex, but the Haven sex was always supposed to come first, and it didn’t make sense to delay Soldier’s Peak at all, so just plain fluffy cuddles there. There’ll be a few more kinky bits in the story, anyway; in fact, I’m not sure whether or not to write the second half of this part. It doesn’t add anything to the story (I’m told sex never does unless it’s literally PWP) but smut is good, right? Anyway. AVERT YER EYES, CHILDREN

I wanted to include more lore, but the story was going at a snail’s pace anyway so if you also want lore I’mma havta say “go play the game again”. And then the part between ‘entering Haven’ and ‘finding Genitivi’ was super hard to write, for some reason. I need to write more horror stories. : )

The part where Elizabeth breaks Sten’s maul was researched a bit, and it’s difficult for a sword to break a weapon (they were designed to take a lot of stress, medieval weapons), but not impossible. Skallagrim did at least one video on how a sword can’t easily cut through a spear haft (watch full video for comments on fighting techniques; also this wasn’t the vid I was thinking of but it will do just as well), which is applicable here as well. My friend Thari suggested that the maul could break at the last rivet between the head and the handle, as that is probably where all the stress goes, especially if the maul’s been heavily used (as Sten’s has) even if not overly damaged in combat. Also, this is a fight between a human with an enchanted sword and a Qunari, soooo… that could shake things up too.

Or maybe it was ~*fate*~.

I made some Dreamselfy dolls of Elizabeth and Zevran. : )

 

Previous chapter: Soldier’s Peak; next chapter: Denerim

 

Haven

It took them another four days to travel to Denerim. Elizabeth hadn’t been in the capital in some time, and she was a little nervous that they would be spotted by one of their many enemies there, but people kept their heads down in the cold, even the guards. They took rooms in an inn near the marketplace, and set about the daunting task of finding anything that could lead them to Brother Genitivi, Ferelden’s expert on Andraste. Few people, it seemed, had ever heard of him, let alone knew him, even at the Chantry.

While the others split up to do odd jobs, earning themselves enough coin to continue staying at the inn as long as they needed to, Elizabeth and Leliana went to find Marjoleine along with Zevran, Huan, and Morrigan, who was not interested in taking a job of any kind and was spending most of her time climbing on things she shouldn’t and getting yelled at by random people. The directions they were given were clear enough, and they found a perfectly unassuming door in a maze of side-streets on the north-west side of the city that matched their description. Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Soldier’s Peak

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Well look who managed to write a chapter in just a couple days!? : D It’s a bit shorter, and filled with more fun stuff like banters and Lizzev fluff. : ) The fight scenes were hard, though. Some parts didn’t come out quite the way I imagined they would, and some bits are forced because I’ve been ignoring Leliana and others for a while now, but I need everything to make some sense even if it’s last minute sense. Besides, everyone plays this game differently.

Aural writing fuel: the jazzy Japanese version of John Williams.

For the Highever/cuddles part, the second SnK soundtrack, Eyewater.

I had to do research on Zevran’s innuendo, because apparently for all my dirty sense of humour I can’t be inappropriately witty on command… and you know what, there are some really weird innuendos out there. :/

(word count: 110,000)

 

Previous chapter: Orzammar; next chapter: Haven

 

Soldier’s Peak

 

Shale joined them the next day, as she had said, now decked out with multicoloured crystals on her shoulders and wrists. She was a littler quieter than usual, and did not seem inclined to talk about whatever she had experienced in Cadash Thaig. Elizabeth decided to give her time; it was a long hike back to the surface, and up-hill now. But at least they would be able to go downhill once they were outside again.

Outside! How she had missed it. The realm of the dwarves and the Deep Roads was very interesting, but she missed the wind, the trees, the grass and the sun and moon – and yes, even Ferelden’s rain and mud. She knew she wasn’t the only one, either. Every single one of them brightened as they exited the great doors in the mountainside – except maybe Oghren, who had never been on the surface before, and looked a little askance at what sky was visible through the moutains. Morrigan practically bounced down the stairs, and she could hear Huan snuffling deeply at her side. It was freezing and snowing, and winter had definitely set in while they were underground, but she didn’t care. Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Orzammar

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Now this chapter has some basis in gameplay… when Zevran said that stuff I got mad at him irl. XD I know this chapter is the longest yet (hey it’s the longest part of the game, I never like how much time it takes), and I’ve been losing momentum on this story… but I will persevere! I really need to get through my project list, omg. It’s just ridiculous. -_- This one’s at 100,000 words and I still have 7 more chapters to write. : P I’m thinking of really skimming through Awakening… I should play through it again first, though. : )

Next chapter should be a bit shorter, an interlude before tackling Haven’s massive dramafeelz. Also a time to slow down a touch and catch up with a few of these people.

This is also the first chapter to officially use an SnK track as inspiration. It’s for when they’re exploring the Deep Roads… and then the second half, when the music is more ominous, is the part with Hespith and the ogres and all that.

AND IN OTHER MUSICAL NEWS, ZEVRAN DID GANK THE KENSHIN MOVIE SONG FOR HIS PERSONAL USE. What a selfish brat.
Zev: deal with it lady : D

I’m also investigating One OK Rock as listening outside of Kenshinland, as I’ve listened to all my current Japanese music dozens of times and I want something new. It’s not like there’s any shortage of it. Oh, and I started watching a bunch of anime… I definitely recommend Classroom Crisis for a techno-highschool drama with cuuuute people. : D

A better synopsis of Classroom Crisis: A power struggle between the president of Mars-based Kirishina Corp, Kiryu Kazuhisa, and his genius younger brother, Kiryu Nagisa. A brilliant but hapless engineering teacher, Sera Kaito, and his ten doctoral-level high-school students are caught in the middle, struggling to keep their division, A-TEC, alive so they can keep building cool rocket space race ships.

EDIT: I FORGOT THE DOG

 

Previous chapter: The Brecilian Forest, next chapter: Soldier’s Peak

 

Orzammar

Elizabeth went to Varathorn the next morning, and the craftsmaster smiled upon seeing her. “Andaran atish’an, Warden Elizabeth. I have completed your armour.”

Elizabeth smiled too, in relief. “I am glad. My own is not fit to wear anymore. It served me well enough in battle against men and darkspawn, but against trees and werewolves… less so.”

“The ironbark mail will protect you from all of the above,” Varathorn said, and drew out a suit of armour from a storage chest beside him. “It will even withstand fire, to a degree, though I don’t recommend standing in a mage’s fireball anyway.” Continue reading →