Spite (narrated By Sir David Attenborough)

Even more Manfred and Fred please 🥺 maybe Rook can bring Fred a friend and Emmrich is flustered but can't stay mad at them 😂🐸

Very well, dear Anon :D

Rook and Manfred were giggling in Emmrich’s rooms.

Normally that would bring a smile to the necromancer’s face and a burning sense of love and contentment to his heart.

But today it didn’t. There was a difference between Rook and Manfred having fun, and Rook and Manfred conspiring.

And Emmrich knew them both well enough to know the difference.

“Big!” exclaimed Manfred.

The spirit of curiosity was kneeling in front of the fireplace beside Rook. Their backs were to the door. Neither of them had heard him come in.

“It is a lot bigger,” Rook was saying. “It might not fit. This one’s okay though. What do you think?”

“Pretty spots,” Manfred cooed. “Like Harding.”

Rook laughed and Emmrich nearly lost his nerve as he crept up behind them. There were few things that got to him like that low, contagiously happy sound.

“Yeah, it does look a bit like her freckles. You could call it freckles.”

“No. Harding.”

“Well okay, that makes sense. What about the other one?”

“Yes,” Emmrich whispered in Rook’s ear. “What about the other one?”

Rook made a new, and completely unique sound that Emmrich had never heard in or out of the Veil. He didn’t know the human ear could comprehend sounds of that pitch.

Every hair on Rook’s head was standing on end as they whirled around. “How did you do that!?!?!?! Are you Emmrich’s ghost?! Why did you do that?! Are you trying to kill me!?”

“What other one, Rook?” Emmrich said sternly.

“Uhhh…” Rook tried to hide what the necromancer now realized was Manfred’s terrarium with their body. It did not work.

Manfred turned, holding aloft not one, but two handfuls of frog.

One was rather large, and muddy brown, the other was small and almost charmingly speckled with little golden spots.

“Vorgoth!” Manfred declared as the frog’s little legs dangled from his fists. They seemed very unconcerned about the deadly drop below them.

“Wh–Where did you get those?” Emmrich sputtered.

“Rook!” Manfred pointed the newly minted ‘Vorgoth,’ at the person in question.

Rook chagrined and bounced back and forth on their toes. “Yes…well…”

“Why?” Emmrich begged, gesturing to the already extravagantly large and well decorated terrarium in which Fred the frog basked like a little king in his own slimy kingdom.

The necromancer’s arm shook emphatically, grave gold jingling, as if to say: ‘See?! Look at what I have already done for my precocious skeleton son! Is this not enough?! Do you doubt that I love him?! What more must I do!?’

“Fred looked lonely,” Rook admitted.

Emmrich’s arm fell.

“Alone,” Manfred moaned softly, tucking the additional frogs against his collarbone like one would a pair of kittens.

Emmrich sighed all the way to his chair, leaving behind a mournful trail in the air, pinching the bridge of his nose, and collapsing at last into the seat.

“Well…it was kind of you to name them after Vorgoth and Harding after they helped us with your terrarium, Manfred. We must send Vorgoth a note. And get Harding…a new plant?”

“She likes cheese,” Rook said helpfully, seating themself on the ground against Emmrich’s legs.

Emmrich wasn’t fooled. They were only sitting there to trap him. The selfish wretch.

He let his fingers curl in their hair as together they watched Manfred place Vorgoth and Harding into the tank, giving them a tour in the soft little voice he reserved only for his frog…er, frogs.

:)

He's the King of Antiva to me

Inspired by this post by @vigilskeep because they opened my third eye with it.

mission gone wrong (then right) for the shadow dragons

happy thedas weekend!!!! "i am not a fool entire, no, i know what's coming" is a lyric from bitter water by the oh hellos-- it was giving me some angsty warden vibes ?

I'm right there with you @veilguardiumleviosa. I'm feeling a dramatic sort of monologue so here you go, I hope you like it!

For @thedasweekend

Words: 360

Characters: Dwarf Warden (Garnet Aeducan)

Warnings: Ruminations on death

~~~~~

I am not a fool. First and last, no longer. Blood was the price of of a moment's foolishness, dearly paid. It bought me this future, such that it is, dark and ever-racing, waiting to meet me with eager arms.

To think that I had thought my exile in the Deep Roads to be my final walk to death. Inevitable and present always, waiting only for me to lay down and sleep. The Joining has shown me the truth of it, washed my eyes clear with its tainted blood.

I feel that touch of death always on the wind. In the Stone under my feet, forever lost to me, and in the water I drink that turns to dust in my mouth.

Am I still my father's daughter? I hardly feel myself some days. How completely they took you from me. My stone and bones. Brother and mother. And left me the blood-price or death.

If only I'd known it had hardly been a choice. Death was always part of it. But now it hides in the shadows, no waiting to embrace me and lay me on the Stone's breast. Like a scavenger, it simply waits for me to fall, to take my skin and bones and twist them into everything I have fought against.

Was it worth it, this temporary escape from the Roads, only to know that I will, in time, have to walk them again?

Yes, always yes.

If I was taught anything, it was to fight with all my resources until the bitter end. The Darkspawn do not despair, they do not bargain, do not quail. My blood, my body, my life, have bought me a more distant end. More time to fight. More time to spill the blood that every day becomes more a part of me.

I know what is coming. Whispers and darkness and something that sounds like a wordless promise. Not of glory, nor riches, nor power. Purpose? It calls, always distant, always present. I know what it will make me, in time.

I only hope I will have spilled enough blood to make it all worth it, when the time comes.

Thinking about that concept sketch of the companions around the table again. Emmrich’s fancy posing. 🤭

🗡️🤠🛡️

i will no longer be inviting my enemies to ‘meet me in the pit’ from now on you are all expected to meet me in the hinterlands, a far more terrifying prospect due to the fact you must first FIND me in the hinterlands, which may take years

Emmrich Volkarin ✦ A Study in Motion

lucanis to rook: what did i do to deserve you? (affectionate)

viago to rook: what did i do to deserve you? (derogatory)