Ignoring 99.99% of fandom for almost half a year does wonders for motivation.

I feel motivated to finish/post AHOL. Now to find the solid snippets of weekly time that allows it to happen.

Cullen was the kind of templar who just couldn't bring himself to break the law even when doing so would stop criminal activity.

I have wanted to make use of my "10,000 Swords" backstory for the Neria Surana (she lives in AHOLverse) but I since pulling10,000 Swords from the DABigBang during the summer of 2012(?), I ended up with a significant pile of ThedasFic scenes that that cannot be recycled into original fiction. (The rest was marked for fertilizing original fic, although still tbd).

Here's the real issue: I have two Suranas.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/220365.html

The write > edit > post production line has finally begun spitting formatted text off the end of the conveyor belt. Just spammed

trant_book_n_curio with the opening of A History of Lies. From here I'll update one scene at a time hopefully a couple times per week until done (except when traveling or when moved to update other fic).

Title: A History of Lies
Characters: Cullen/f!mage!Hawke, Cullen+Leandra friendship, Cullen+Aveline professional friendship, DA2 cast, and minor OCs.
Length: Serialized novel (in progress)
Genre: Political, espionage, fantasy historiographic metafiction, trainwreck romance subplot, canon-extension, novelization, self-indulgent pastiche.
Themes: Expatriates, government corruption, undercover agents, historical records, government paperwork, political cover-ups, life under totalitarianism, not knowing how to say ‘no.’
Summary: When Cullen Rutherford is promoted to the Gallows’ second highest post of command, this new knight-captain is given the task of ending corruption within templar ranks. After an investigation goes wrong, Cullen makes the uncomfortable decision to hide an apostate’s secret. Using this secret to his advantage, he pressures the apostate into an unconventional partnership, all for the sake of keeping Kirkwall’s people safe. Meanwhile, Cullen searches for the humanity that remains inside himself.

.:. AHOL's Table of Contents .:.

Fiction, History, and Sausage: One
Dragon Age, Cullen & Varric, SFW
Cullen and Varric discuss how to write fiction and history

Fiction, History, and Sausage: Two
Dragon Age, Cullen & various chantry brother OCs, SFW
Cullen recalls a dispute over Kirkwall's history

Fiction, History, and Sausage: Three
Dragon Age, Cullen & various templar OCs, SFW
Cullen recalls his boyhood in Honnleath

Fiction, History, and Sausage: Four
Dragon Age, Cullen & Varric, SFW
Varric drops heavy news on Cullen while in Skyhold's tavern

A Broken Compass: Five & Six
Dragon Age, Cullen & various chantry brother OCs, SFW
Cullen begins his story of Kirkwall

...

If you happen to catch a typo or formatting error, feel free to let me know here. This was more text than I am normally able to find quiet time for and many interruptions occurred. I'll eventually copypasta the html from these posts over to fanfic.net or where ever.

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/216228.html

Badly need to fix my first DA2 WIP, A History of Lies so I can structure it as a novel. You do not want to know how many words and outlines and maker knows what is in on my laptop. Please help me think?!

Comment with one or more numbers from this list, I will blather, and hopefully helpful ideas will spark, brilliant conversation will ensue, and a plan will emerge. (this is also on tumblr for those who prefer that format).

A History of Lies Meme (aka, the Fix the Broken AHOL meme):

Protagonists
Antagonists
Point of view
Backstory: Mari Hawke - (mage)
Backstory: Hawke family & Amells
Backstory: Magic in Kirkwall during prior generations
Backstory: Cullen
Backstory: Merrill
Relationship: Cullen/Hawke (Frienemies -> friends -> lovers)
Relationship: Cullen+Hawke family
Relationship: Hawke+Merrill
Relationship: Cullen+Merrill
Relationship: Cullen+Templars+Chantry+Sebastian
Relationship: Hawke+Kirkwall+Aveline
Relationship: Cullen+Aveline
Theme: How History is Edited & Written / Historiography
Theme: Kyriarchy in Kirkwall
Theme: Geography, Expatriates, Multi-National Identity
Theme: Names, Clothing, Decoration, Identity
Theme: Racism/Orientalism/Colonialism (applied to the Elves)
Theme: Magic, Economics, Regulatory Laws/Procedures, Wealth
Theme: Passing, social privileges
Setting: Gallows
Setting: Hightown
Setting: Lowtown
Setting: Alienage
Setting: Wounded Coast and Sundermount
Setting: Cumberland
Story: Missing scenes
Story: The missing years (9:32, 9:33, 9:35, 9:36, 9:38-40)
Story: Act 1 (& challenges of writing a semi-novelization)
Story: Act 2 (& challenges of writing a semi-novelization)
Story: Act 3 (& challenges of writing a semi-novelization)
Personal: Why does this story interest me?
Personal: How does this relate to my original fiction?

History is Written in Blood and Scars
Merrill, f!Hawke (VL's Mari Hawke, blue/green Mage)
732 words, rated T
Cultures clash, Hawke counts the scars on Merrill's hand.

Read on AO3

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/202965.html

Routines
Elsa, Meredith (Dragon Age 2)
200 words, rated G
Elsa saw the corruption occur.

Read on AO3

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/202528.html

Best Friends
Aveline, Cullen (Dragon Age 2)
1950 words, rated G
Aveline might have thought of Cullen as one of her closest friends if not for the troubling secret they shared.

Read on AO3

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/202420.html

May the Maker have Mercy

Cullen, OCs, Rated: Teen, 1830 words

In 9:35, Cullen leads a team of templars who must apprehend a child in a fishing village outside of Kirkwall. (part of this timeline)

(http://ahistoryoflies.tumblr.com/post/67125248576/may-the-maker-have-mercy)

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/198318.html

Rating: Safe for work (although story contains minor use of foul language).

After Ser Thrask’s death, Mari Hawke is distressed. Frustrated Cullen tries to keep the situation under control.Story assumes that Cullen & Hawke have been in an established relationship since the end of Act 2. (An earlier draftof this was written in Feb 2013 for the DA Kiss Battle.)

Story is part of this larger timeline.

= Nothing I Can Say to You =

Cullen leapt over the side of the boat as it neared the shore. His feet splashed toward the beach. Salt water leaked into his boots and the heavy fabric of his skirt soaked up to his knees. He hardly noticed the cold wetness seeping throughhis tabard and trousers and into his socks. Instead, he ran as fast as he could along the edge of the shore, keeping tothe hard-packed wet sand. The metal plates of his armor clattered. His sheathed sword slapped against his side,threatening to loosen itself from its buckles. Cullen didn’t care.He made a sharp turn and lumbered up the beach. Hisboots sank as the soft sand moved beneath him, every step thrice the effort it should have been. When he reached thedunes, he scrambled up, grabbing fistfuls of fibrous sharp-edged grass as his footing slid out beneath him. Once heheaved himself over the top, he sprinted up a path. By the time he reached the old ruins, he was too late.

[READ ON "A HISTORY OF LIES" - ahistoryoflies.tumblr.com]

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/194553.html

Mari Hawke and Knight Captain Cullen (sometime in 9:35, a bunch of months after they became a couple)

Mari stood naked, not far from the foot of her bed. She leaned back with her shoulders touching the wardrobe door, her arms crossed over her chest, right hand clasping the boney point of her left elbow. Midnight hair hung in thick clumps, still wet from the bath.Her weight centered over her left leg as her right foot tapped an agitated rhythm. Lips pursed, she sucked in her cheeks, accentuating the hard angle of her prominent cheekbones. She shifted her weight to her right leg and her left heel responded with a rapid staccato.

Mari Hawke was what an artist would create if limited to drawing lines. Every place where one would expect curves, she was the purposeful intersection of sharp strokes. Her long straight-waisted body made a picture of unwavering planes that met at hard angles.

Shifting her weight again, her toes tapped her annoyance as she stared at the bed. The blankets and top sheet were half pulled back in a rumpled pile, making a half moon outline around the space where Cullen sat.

Whatever the hell they argued about earlier no longer mattered to him.

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/193581.html

Title: Unthinkable Peace

Fandom: Dragon Age 2

Length: 2150 words

Characters: Cullen/Mari Hawke, Thrask

Summary: Thrask’s insubordinate suggestions anger Cullen. Cullen would prefer to be in the Champion’s bed.

Notes: Part of this timeline. Written for pendency’s prompt: “Thrask’s thoughts on Mari/Cullen”

.

In that lingering moment between dreams and wakefulness, Cullen lay within a hot cocoon of blankets, Mari’s sleep-heavy limbs holding him down. He let another minute pass. Maybe more. He might have slipped into sleep for an unmeasurably long moment.

READ ON TUMBLR

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/192751.html

A History of Lies - Chapter 1: A Kiss to Save the Day

Dragon Age: Cullen/Mari Hawke, cast

Rated R

Summary: As political stability in Kirkwall decays, Knight Captain Cullen must learn to provide leadership in an impossible situation. Meanwhile, he forges an unorthodox relationship with an apostate named Mari Hawke.

Chapter 1, “A Kiss to Save the Day,” opens in the middle, less than a week after Hawke battles the Arishok and is declared Champion of Kirkwall. Cullen has been told to accompany Hawke on an official visit to Cumberland. Unbeknownst to Cullen’s commanding officer, Meredith Stannard, the beginnings of a romantic relationship between Cullen and Hawke have been secretly blossoming. Now, on their trip to Cumberland, everything is about to change…

----

Throughout the day, Cullen rehearsed the barefaced lie he would write in his evening report.

Starting early in the morning, when he and Hawke set sail, heading west out of Kirkwall Harbor, alone on a tiny, single-masted boat, Cullen shuffled words in his head, moving them like pieces in a puzzle. He sought out innocuous patterns. Simple statements that read as unquestionable truths. He sprinkled in details to add touches of realism. Stock phrases to confirm what his readers already thought. By noon, he had composed his evening report more than a dozen times. Each time he felt satisfied with the picture his words would paint, he chided himself for creating a premeditated lie. After all, nothing worth hiding had occurred. At least, not yet. And then Hawke would catch his eye as she brushed back her windblown hair. She’d flash him a smile far warmer than his templar title should invite. In his head, he refined his fiction one more time, building the shield of words that would protect him while he sought out what he knew he wanted. She gave him strength, and everything about him and Hawke was a matter between himself and the Maker. This time, Cullen refused to feel shame.

[Read on AO3 or Read on FF.net]

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/184960.html

Master post for A History of Lies

Dragon Age 2, Aveline and Mari Hawke think about Wesley

A is for Apprehension: Apostate, Keep Your Distance (part 1 of ?)

While we sat near the edge of the dock, waiting for our contact to arrive, I thought about Wesley while Aveline thought about Bethany for me. Not that Aveline and I had agreed to mull over each other’s concerns. In fact, we rarely discussed our losses and neither of us had time to grieve. Yet, during the slowest hours of the day, as we waited for Athenril’s contacts to bring us to the back of a cargo ship, Aveline and I silently swapped our concerns, alleviating both of us of our reluctance for dwelling on what we had lost.
[READ MORE - on tumblr]

Crossposts: http://vieralynn.livejournal.com/180566.html

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Page Summary

(no subject)
A wonderful, terrible, excellent idea
(Fic) A History of Lies - 1 thru 6 (DAI/DA2: Cullen, Varric, OCs, Gen/G Rating)
Help me jumpstart a WIP? DA2: A History of Lies
FIC: History is Written in Blood and Scars [Dragon Age 2: Merrill, fem!Hawke, T]
FIC: Routines [Dragon Age 2: Elsa, Meredith, G]
FIC: Best Friends [Dragon Age 2: Aveline, Cullen, G]
Fic: May the Maker have Mercy (DA2, Cullen, OCs, teen rating)
FIC: Nothing I Can Say to You (Cullen/Mari Hawke, 2500 words)
(FIC) Untitled scene - Mari Hawke/Cullen (in A History of Lies)
(Fic) Unthinkable Peace (Cullen/Mari Hawke, M)
Fic: A History of Lies, Ch. 1 - A Kiss to Save the Day
(FIC) A History of Lies: Apostate, Keep Your Distance (1 of ?)

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Entries tagged with s: a history of lies

(no subject)

A wonderful, terrible, excellent idea

(Fic) A History of Lies - 1 thru 6 (DAI/DA2: Cullen, Varric, OCs, Gen/G Rating)

Help me jumpstart a WIP? DA2: A History of Lies

FIC: History is Written in Blood and Scars [Dragon Age 2: Merrill, fem!Hawke, T]

FIC: Routines [Dragon Age 2: Elsa, Meredith, G]

FIC: Best Friends [Dragon Age 2: Aveline, Cullen, G]

Fic: May the Maker have Mercy (DA2, Cullen, OCs, teen rating)

FIC: Nothing I Can Say to You (Cullen/Mari Hawke, 2500 words)

(FIC) Untitled scene - Mari Hawke/Cullen (in A History of Lies)

(Fic) Unthinkable Peace (Cullen/Mari Hawke, M)