KJ

Day Twenty-six: Crack OTP

I don't really have any unusual pairings in this fandom. As with any fandom, I'll read almost anything if it's well-written, and I'll write almost anything to a prompt, but I have yet to really look at an oddball pairing and say: "Yes, this. I 'ship this."

Probably the most offbeat pairing I've written is Lord Harrowmont/Aeducan, which as an unrequited longing thing I can actually kind of see. I've seen a couple of really adorable Dagna/Finn stories, but is that really crack? Not to my mind. Finally, I once saw Malcolm Hawke/Bryce Cousland come up in the random pairing generator, and I thought: "Huh." Might go back to that one, someday. But I wouldn't go so far as to say I 'ship it.

Complete list of questions

In other news, a confluence of factors came together and I'm taking tomorrow off. Random three day weekend, for the win! Some writing, some lazing, some food adventures with SE. Sounds good to me.

Because what I need is a new fic project. Yep, yep.

Title: Symphony in C
Fandom: Dragon Age 2
Rating: T so far; will likely go up
Wordcount: 749 (2/27 chapters)
Characters: Marissa Hawke, ensemble. Eventual f!Hawke/Fenris
Spoilers: Yes
Notes: It's kind of a long story.

Basically, for the last couple of weeks, many folks on Tumblr have been writing A-Z fics exploring a Dragon Age character. One fic for each letter of the alphabet, prompts chosen by the author. I had been wanting to participate but not inspired until chorus last night, when it occurred to me that I could combine this project with an idea I've long pondered: writing fic inspired by the language and notation of classical music. Before rehearsal was over, I'd already decided on a dozen words and a half-dozen plot ideas for Marissa Hawke, my aggressive mage PC; as soon as I got home, I sat down and wrote two of them, and thus was a story born.

On Tumblr / On AO3

And if you want to check the fabulous work other people are doing, there's a master post on Tumblr, linked above, and a collection on AO3.

Day Twenty-two: Favorite NPC

I've talked about these questions asking for a favorite being difficult before, but seriously. Seriously. Thedas is populated with so many fascinating, well-realized NPCs that even starting to narrow it down is a problem. Duncan, Teagan Guerrin, Gorim, Dagna, First Enchanter Irving, Shianni, Anora. Flemeth. Cullen. Bodhan Feddic and Sandal. Seneschal Varel. Athenril, Thrask, Keeper Marethari, Seamus, the Arishok, Cassandra. Every time I look back up at this, I think of another name to add. And if I started listing bit players, this list could get even longer. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love these games for the characters. All of the characters. One of the things I enjoy most about the world is how populated it feels, how real, and the breadth and depth of the NPCs is a huge part of that.

That said, I suppose I have to pick someone. And so I'm going to pick Flemeth. Because she is always so much more than she seems. Because she's an old lady who wields power and kicks ass and couldn't care less what you think of her while she's doing it. Because she might in fact be the puppetmaster pulling all the strings in Thedas right now, or maybe she just knows how to toss a bomb in the right place for maximum effect. Because it's clear that she's playing a really long game, and I want to know what her plan is. Because she's Captain Janeway. And because when we come to the end of all things, I suspect she might be the last woman standing, and I think I'm really okay with that.

Complete list of questions

Day Twenty-one: Favorite villain

There's really only one villain in the Dragon Age series, in the traditional sense of an overarching antagonist acting against the protagonist with intent, and that's Loghain Mac Tir. Some of the origin stories have their own villains who affect the main story (Howe, Bhelen, Vaughan, perhaps Bharat), as do some of the sidequests in both games, but overall Dragon Age does a really neat job of not providing us with clear-cut heroes and villains -- even the PC can avert the hero trope, depending on what choices you make, and I would argue that Dragon Age 2 doesn't have a classic antagonist at all.

I find Loghain pretty interesting and very well written, but he's not my answer to this question. Instead, I'll pick someone with an even more ambiguous position on the hero vs. villain scale: Meredith Stannard.

To date, I haven't played a templar-supporing Hawke, only a fence-sitter and a mage supporter, so I've only related to Meredith as an antagonist. One of the reasons I'm keen on doing a pro-templar run is to get more insight into her character. Knight-Commander Meredith fascinates me. ( Read more... )

Complete list of questions

Day Nineteen: Character who’d be your best friend

I thought a lot about this one, and eventually came up with Aveline. She was my Diplomatic Hawke's best friend, after all, and I find so much to admire in her: her emphasis on loyalty and integrity, the seriousness with which she takes her responsibilities, a commitment to working within the rules while still doing as much good as she can. I suspect we'd get along well.

Complete list of questions

In other news, I signed up for Ex Mode! This is a game fandom remix challenge that was a lot of fun last year. And this year I have a whole new fandom's worth of stuff to work with. Should be exciting.

Day Seventeen: Favorite Origins story

So far, I have played complete games for three of the six (or seven, if you consider Amell and Surana to be distinct from one another) origins: Human Noble, Dwarf Noble, and (Elf) Mage. I've also played each origin as far as the arrival at Ostegar (most of them on one day, when I was home sick from work). I'd like to do a complete game for each origin eventually, but at this point, I have a clear favorite, and that's the Dwarf Noble.

Part of the reason I played all the origins through was to decide which one I wanted to select for my second complete game, and the Dwarf Noble was, for me, the obvious choice. I found the story it told to be the most compelling of the six: a tale of family and honor and betrayal, with implications and effects that ripple through the entire Orzammar quest line. I suspect that playing as either dwarf character gives that part of the game more resonance, but I found this to be especially true for my Aeducan.

It's true that my Aeducan is my favorite Warden, hands down, so this may color my reaction somewhat, but I also believe that part of the reason she's my favorite is because I find her backstory so compelling.

The question of which backstory to play next is a very open one in my mind right now. At the moment, I'm stalling by taking Alim Surana through Awakening (and then probably by playing FFXIII-2, which is out at the end of the month!), but eventually I will have to pick. Is it time to play my hell-on-wheels Warden who stomps all over Ferelden without much heed to the carnage s/he is leaving behind? (I suspect either the City Elf or Dalish origin would be the best match for that, although it might also be interesting to try with a Dwarf Commoner or m!Cousland.) Do I play Dalish because it's the most interesting to carry forward into DA2? (Which helps make up for its lack of connection to the Origins storyline -- this is the backstory I find least compelling to play in DA:O, for that reason.) Or do I play my Dwarf Commoner, to see the other side of the story in Orzammar? Decisions, decisions.

Complete list of questions

Yeah, so much for that.

There's a Valentine's Day exchange on Tumblr, the dragonagewomen challenge, already working on a response for ot3_promptfest (wallwalker couldn't have left better KJ-bait if she'd tried), the next round of the Porn Battle coming up at the beginning of next month, halfway through the 30 Days of Dragon Age meme, and though the response to my query about hosting a DA Kiss Battle was fairly small, those who did reply were enthusiastic enough that I'm still seriously considering doing that. Not to mention the Final Fantasy Kiss Battle, if that happens, and I hope it does because I would be all over that, and I imagine that new rounds of ff_exchange and newgameplus are on the horizon, and soon it'll be time to start thinking about megaflare_ff again, and...

And of course I have two major WIPs still in the works, too.

So I have today off work, which means this should be a great time to get some serious time in on some of these projects, right? But instead I spent the morning poking around the Internet, and now I'm half-plotting to start Alim Surana's run through either Awakening or Witch Hunt -- Witch Hunt is more important for his character, I think, but I have this weird compulsion to do these things in order, unless I decide that he washed his hands of the Wardens and decided not to take the offer to serve as Warden-Commander. But he'd probably see that as shirking his responsibility, and there's something appealing about playing Awakening with a Warden who just does. not. want. to be there...

Obsessions are fun. But maybe I can get this one out of my system if I write the ficbit that's clawing at my brain. We'll see.

(Arrrgh I had this all typed out and then it got eaten by a bad "select all" job and then that ended up being the autosaved draft and I just hate the Internet and my life right now. Well, here we go again.)

Day Fifteen: Your favorite "bro"

I'm not entirely certain what this question is going for, but I'm going to take it to mean "who is your favorite party member that you don't think of as a romantic character", in which case the answer can be no one other than Varric Tethras.

I didn't fall in love with Varric right away. Instead, it was a slow build, over the course of the first two acts. But by the time we got to his companion quest, it had fully cemented. ( Spoilers )

Varric is such an excellent friend. And not just to Hawke, but to everyone else in the party. Hawke may be the force that brought the team together, but I've come to believe that Varric is the glue that keeps them together: saving an open chair or bed at the Hanged Man, ready for a drink or a tale or a friendly game of cards, keeping an eye on everyone and an ear out for the intel they need, the one who's there when they need a hand or an ear. Varric is the eye of Hawke's storm, and I love him for that.

I can't resist honorable mention to Carver, not just for being my favorite literal "bro" in the Dragon Age series but for being one of my favorite brother characters of all time. Not that I don't also love Bethany, because I do -- the Hawke twins are two of my favorite characters in the entire series, and I hate that it's not possible to keep them both. But Carver has earned a special place in my heart, because I am the overachieving older sister with a little brother who sometimes felt lost in my shadow, and so everything about the f!Hawke-vs-Carver dynamic rings true to me. They snipe at each other, push each other's buttons like there's no tomorrow, and yet the basic love and respect they share shines through it all. I love it, and I wish we got more of it in the game.

Complete list of questions

Day Thirteen: Mages or Templars?

So far, in both Origins and DA2, whenever forced to make a choice between mages and templars, my three Wardens and two Hawkes have ultimately supported the mages: both in the Circle Tower and in Kirkwall. I've mostly played characters who were either mages themselves or otherwise sympathetic to mages, and/or were opposed to what they saw as unnecessary killing. In general, the portrayal of the mages as an oppressed minority resonates with me more than the idea that they are dangerous and need to be contained, so that's the way my characters tend to lean as well.

My first Hawke, rogue Marian, was a little more moderate in her opinions than the others -- she believed in working with the templars she saw as reasonable, and wasn't always gung-ho about freedom for all mages. ( DA2 spoilers )

I do want to play a templar-supporting Hawke at some point, because I'm curious to see the story play out through that lens. But having successfully saved Ferelden's Circle three times, and knowing how simple it is to do so, it would be hard to bring myself to justify annulling it just for the sake of one quest outcome. Maybe someday, if I roll up a hell-on-wheels Warden, a character whose entire plan is to bulldoze their way through Ferelden, not much caring whom she or he hurts along the way. Part of me thinks that would be fun -- I had a blast playing an aggressive Hawke -- but given some of the choices an anti-hero Warden would have to make, I don't know that I could follow through.

Complete list of questions