Mission accomplished too if the goal was to make me cry. Emma’s trauma is heavy.

Can’t remember what happened next, I think it was about releasing all the magical power she got back from sleeping fully. Looking forward to that, and the bath revolution.

Muscled body stretching plus mental images of partially naked elves equals a distracted Emma and that is always very nice to read.

Vivienne is more scary than Solas. Is the spiel Emma is trying to sell, by gossiping about her. It’s a double win, really : make Solas more approachable by comparison, and play into the persona that Vivienne actually likes to have. She’d be genuinely glad that Emma is reinforcing fearful respect of her among the staff. Does it matter then that Solas is technically way more dangerous than a mage politician ? Psht. That’s a problem for waaay later. Like Sera’s attractiveness is going to be a problem but isn’t just yet. The talk about boundaries is never going to happen. Not successfully anyway.

Wasn’t it Dorian who talked about proper tools originally ? It would also have had more reason to elicit a bad reaction from Emma. The Tevinter Mage talking about proper tools would be a huge reminder of their nonchalance towards slavery. Still, Sera’s unintended inuendos are even more funny than the original banter with the here chosen company.
And, oh no ! Can’t have magic lessons due to not being magical at all ! Nope. How sad that the elf won’t be getting attention from the Very Important Inquisitor’s Friend who is also an Altus.

Krem joins and ‘takes it like a champ’ when hit on the crotch ! I had forgotten she didn’t remember his name at first. It does make it look like Emma is flirting with everyone who’s anyone, knowingly or not. Love how she considers the rumor mill just another tool to be used for her own protection. I wonder if Bull had Krem come specifically to dissipate lingering awkwardness from his lieutenant ? I might be inferring from future knowledge here.

Wallscaling with Sera happened, with Cullen in the role of the gallant savior. I remembered Sera wanted to shoot an arrow at the most racist guy, but I had forgotten they went to see Revas right after. And Sera, of course, is being racist. Internalized racism is the worst. I like that Emma doesn’t put up with it for the sake of pretty elf Sera being interested in her, but at the same time I’m frustrated because I remember how much effort Sera needs to just think about these issues, and the fact that none of her character growth will actually make her more respectful towards ‘elfiness’. It’s a bit sad.

I remember the bath issue ! It was the gauntlet Emma threw in the Inquisitor’s face about race equality. I think. In anyway, the talk with Sera about how humans treat elves should happen sooner.

Revas is a dear and I had quite forgotten how sweet Iron Bull was, again right from the start. Such a good spy. And Solas ordering her a desk. And Varric worried about her provocative ways with the Inquisitor. And Thea teasing her. It’s not just about the walls anymore, she’s genuinely starting to feel welcome.

It took less than two chapter for Emma’s new spirit friend to be dragged out of Skyhold, and I had forgotten how much I liked Emma’s reaction here. Bringing a benevolent spirit to a fight is irresponsible, she’s very much right on this. Cole, however, is choosing to be benevolent. Currently. It wasn’t always the case. And he’s very much able to do harm to the inquisitor’s enemies.

I’m anticipating her future seething when Cassandra, who is aware of all that, figures the cute civilian trying to protect the battle shadow who says they are a spirit of compassion is pitting herself for a harsh reality check.

An all the kitchen drama ! She hasn’t yet found someone to deliver breakfasts for her and Solas is being a flirt. Love it all.

Thanks! It’s embarrassing that these are proofread and still slipping thru lmao, but at least they were both mistakes made in the editing process (does that make it better? maybe worse). The second one though, “And for other things you don’t want think about right now” doesn’t need an it. If it did, it would need to be “And for other things. (separate sentence) You don’t want to think about it right now,” but as it stands, the only thing that could really be added is the unnecessary (but sometimes added for clarification) ‘that’ or ‘which’ (ie, other things THAT/WHICH you don’t want to think about right now).

PS I also can’t italicize in my comments, I think I’d need to add a comment plugin (and I’m not saying I won’t if more people start using comments) to add html or markdown.

PPS Emma is a lil bit of a creep. She starts perving on him pretty much immediately.

PPPS (how many shall I have) The poem in this actually took me a while to remember while editing. “Hölderlin à la tour” is actually the name of the poem; it’s by a somewhat obscure Welsh poet named Heather Dohollau and from a tiny little book of her poetry, Seule enfance (1978). I found it in a literary magazine and just assumed it would be a well-known poem. It SUPER is not. I am very willing to believe it’s not a good poem (I do not have solid taste in poetry in ENGLISH let alone French), but for the curious (since it’s hard as fuck to find while Googling, I learned this month), here it is in full:

Les oiseaux intermittents
Les champs toujours là en face
Les mots voltigent, reviennent
Le touchent, il tend la main
Et les pose doucement
Les uns à côté des autres
Ils disent des choses très simples
Comme la musique
L’eau est calme
L’ombre de l’oiseau surprend
Les jours sont longs
Comme au début de la vie

À partir d’un moment d’une extrême simpilicité
il ne faut plus espérer

Sera plus Varric equals therapy ? Or is it just Cole ? I know it’s not over anyway, I remember the trauma resurfacing for a while, but therapy doesn’t work instantly either.

Five minutes of staring at Solas while he’s asleep. I had forgotten it started so early. Granted, Cole just said they had similar thought patterns, it would make anyone curious. But she’s not thinking about that right now so. Creep.

Report on the first ‘shared’ breakfast in the rotunda : it’s not paranoïa if no less than three people were actually going to ambush you. Also, paranoïa being rewarded with good food is not going to lessen the paranoïa.

Hölderlin feels obnoxious but that might only be because he lived long ago and the flow of language wasn’t the same then. That or he’s a bad poet. Or I was indocrinated with more ‘classical’ writers. Anybody’s pick. My fist thought when I read Leliana getting the reference was to think about the holorime :
Gal, amant de la Reine, alla, tour magnanime
Galamment de l’arène à la tour Magne à Nîmes

There’s a distinct giddiness about reading all the signs of future trouble when you already know what the trouble is and the only one left in the dark is the protagonist herself. I can’t remember if she bribes Thea or someone else to deal with breakfasts in her place though.