By The Way

normal people going through a gender identity crisis: [to a trusted person] .....so i think i might be trans

taash dragon age going through a gender identity crisis: [to a heavily traumatized coworker] nice clothes, loser! are you wearing them to impress your mother????

TAASH: Can Ativan Crows eat meat?

LUCANIS, patiently: We’re not actually birds, Taash.

TAASH: I thought maybe you had to stay light, to do all the flips and shit.

LUCANIS: …

cottage. quiet. [chapter 02]

Cottage. Quiet | Chapter 02 [ Ao3 Link ] [ ch. 01 ] [ ch. 02 ] Word Count: 4500 Rating: 16+ Summary: After a heart to heart with Ma', Taash and Harding visit their local market.

If you enjoy the fic, please consider leaving a kudos or a comment. It does help me stay motivated!

Authors Notes under the cut.

Authors Notes: This chapter went through a few different outlines before I settled in on this one. I thank @grimrevolution for helping guide me in the right direction. The Good: I pushed through and finished it. Usually I drop projects once I start, but I actually feel like this will be a fun project to keep up with. I've met so many great people on here who are insanely talented writers, and they've been nothing but supportive. It's giving me motivation to keep up with my practice. This fic is still just me living out my sapphic farm fantasies through the two. I don't know why I adore the two as much as I does, but I does. The Hard: It's been a challenge to combat imposter syndrome and feelings of inadequacy. Teaching myself how to not compare, but to observe and learn. Always practice. Self-growth or some shit.

a little bit obsessed with them

We’ve lost everything. Our home has been destroyed, and we are left with nothing. Our children are in desperate need of warmth, shelter, and food.

We are reaching out to the kind hearts of this community for help. Every little contribution can make a difference. We need beds for our children to sleep in, and we need food to keep them nourished. The winter cold is unbearable, and we can’t keep them warm without your help.

How you can help:

Donate to provide shelter – We need a safe place for our children to sleep.

Donate food – We are in dire need of nourishment for our family.

Donate blankets and clothing – To keep our children warm in these harsh conditions.

Every donation counts, no matter how small. Your support means the world to us as we try to rebuild our lives from the ground up.

Please share this message and spread the word. Together, we can make a difference.

[donation link]

Thank you for your kindness and support.

Please read the story, donate and share

Hello my friends, I am Fairuz, married and have two children. I will tell you my story. In this war and the suffering we are living, I was sleeping with my family and my two children, Ahmed and Mohammed... The morning of October 7, the fateful day that turned our lives upside down. I had a very beautiful life. My husband worked in a restaurant and we lacked nothing. My children had many toys and many clothes. We hoped and drank the most beautiful thing. I will share with you some of our pictures before and after the war... The day came that changed my life and the lives of my children. We no longer owned anything and our house was completely destroyed on the second day of the war. We escaped from it with difficulty. My child Ahmed was ten months old, Ahmed and Mohammed were 4 years old. We took a few clothes and left our destroyed house and were displaced to many places. Then we went to the south on foot, and I was carrying my child Ahmed, and the bombing and missiles were above our heads. I was very afraid for them. We were crying a lot on the way. We did not know which way to go or where to go. My children and I cried a lot on the way and went to UNRWA schools. I couldn't live there. I didn't have a place for my children and I to sit. We set up a tent and winter came to us. The weather was very cold. We didn't have blankets, bedding or anything... These were the worst days of my life. Then came the insects that filled the place from all directions. 💔 And Muhammad got hepatitis, so I was crying a lot during that period. And Ahmed got pimples that were spreading all over his body. I wished for death during that period, because I couldn't bear this suffering. Now we need blankets, movements, food, drink and cleaning tools.

These are pictures of my children and my husband before the war

I will share with you pictures of us after the war and of our devastation

https://gofund.me/3196f864

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #316 )✅️

Iskra's like, "Babe, I can't take it when you stare at me like that. It's making me moooiiissssT." 🥵

Okay, let's talk about the coming out scene, because people are saying Taash was the one out of line.

Shathann is a sympathetic character. That does not make her a good person. She saved her child from a life of servitude by leaving the country she loved and tried to preserve that culture in her child. I respect that. I also wish there was a way to encourage Taash to embrace both sides of their culture.

BUT.

From the moment we meet her, Shathann criticizes literally everything her child does. Taash runs an errand for her, and Shathann criticizes their posture, pronunciation, gender presentation, AND sexuality, completely unprovoked, yes, in one fucking conversation. Shathann invites Taash over for dinner and then makes Taash cook that fucking dinner. And this has happened before, as stated in the dialogue. Taash is so affected by this behavior and probably worse they have endured their entire life that they say "you don't get to tell me who I am" at a simple question about their heritage, out of pure instinct.

Now to the actual scene.

Taash invites their mother to their new home and prepares a dinner for her, which Shathann immediately criticizes and has Taash make vegetables to go with. Can you imagine inviting someone into your home for dinner you prepare only for them to shit on it and ask you to cook more. And Taash does so, with a grunt. I'd be like bitch you're in my house, I cooked, eat. But they just do it.

Then they say it. "Im nonbinary." Shathann asks what that means, completely fair, and Taash explains that it means they're not a man or a woman.

Shathann asks if this is because she criticizes their gender presentation. Now listen. I have a parent who thinks nearly everything "wrong" with me is a reaction to their actions. It pisses me off. So Taash is getting reasonably frustrated, and insists that's not why. VALID. They were asked a question and they answered.

Let's talk about the Qun and gender identity. Yes they have a word for people who identify as a different gender than they were assigned. But this is implied to apply to trans men and women, not nonbinary people, so Shathann is asking Taash if they "just" identify as a man, because that's something Shathann can better understand, something more convenient for her to process. Sort of like when trans people come out to someone and are asked if they're "just gay."

No. And Taash says no. They have explained who they are. If Shathann was just having a hard time processing it that would be one thing, but she basically talked over Taash and tried to suggest that they were just a man, which they are not. Taash is being vulnerable. Taash doesn't even HAVE to tell Shathann this, but they want to, they think she deserves to know.

And what Taash says next is not purely to do with this one conversation, as explicit in the text. "why am I never enough for you." Never. Not now. We have seen Shathann critique Taash in every scene they share, and that's with a whole other person present who is not in the family. We don't know what happens in private. Shathann signed her child up for a fucking war without even talking to them about it. What Taash says is the build up of years of being talked over and criticized for everything they do, provoked by offering themselves to that person in a vulnerable position only to be talked over and criticized more.

"Why am I never enough for you."

And Shathann does not answer. She doesnt say "of course you are." Even if she disagreed with Taash's identity, which would be shitty, she could still affirm that they are enough for her. She doesn't.

She fucking leaves.

Maybe she thinks that's what Taash wants. Maybe not. But if someone asks you something like that, you affirm them. You say they are enough. Especially if they're your fucking child. But no, this conversation is too inconvenient for Shathann, she's not getting her way like she did when she signed Taash up for a war without their consent, so she just leaves. She could've said "I don't understand, but I love you." She couldve said anything. But she just left.

I'm sad she died. Im glad she accepted her child in the end. But no, Taash was not in any way out of line in this conversation.

Shathann was.

Taash smiles

"why are the lords of fortune ethical treasure hunters wtfffff"

do

do we not remember

what happened

when isabela, admiral of the lords of fortune

stole an important cultural artifact

from the qunari

do we not remember the arishok fight

do we not remember why we had the arishok fight

isabela doesn't run the lords of fortune the way she does because she loves Ethical Piracy

isabela runs the lords the way she does because the last time she stole something important, kirkwall happened

having appraisers from a bunch of different cultures absolutely makes sense, and grabbing a finders fee for getting stuff back to its respective place is pretty reasonable (labour should be compensated)

like...it IS ethical piracy, but the root of it was never "oh maybe we should do better," it was always "hello my name is isabela and i would like to not get bodied by the entire qunari population a second time"