1 - 20 of 104 Works by TrulyCertain
Navigation
Listing Works
-
Tags
Summary
In which Astarion sort of meets Lora's parents. It doesn't go well. (An examination of the "street urchin" background.)
Series
- Part 9 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
After they screw, Astarion calls her every honeyed lie under the sun, the sort of thing that makes people's cheeks flush and their knickers drop; Lora just laughs, as if every one is a joke. Yes, he calls everyone darling, to annoy and amuse, but she treats these just the same. Gods, it's frustrating. She fell for it enough to fuck him, didn't she? Where are the pining looks, or at least the promises of keeping him safe as long as he continues bedwarming?
"She called him 'muffin' while he was taking his teeth out of a highwayman," he finds Shadowheart saying, one night. "There's something wrong with them both."
A story about enemies to sex partners to reluctant friends who are also careening into mutual pining. In that order. In which Lora assumes they're friends with benefits, and Astarion wonders how she can be so oblivious when he's trying to use her, damn it.
Series
- Part 3 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
Lora wakes to birds singing, Scratch's faint barks, and… someone holding her close. She registers ruffled linen and pale skin, oddly cool but warmed by her own; the faint scent of blood and pomade; an arm around her waist, almost protectively.
Oh.
"Well hello," she says, rather than You stayed.
Series
- Part 6 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
"Is that a human Chantry thing? Why do they care so much if you…?" She makes a tiny little hip-thrust movement.
He blinks and tries not to stare at that, and his ears have gone pink. Hard to see if you're squinting up at him through the sunlight, but definitely there. "Well, they're meant to be pledged to the Maker. Almost a kind of marriage. It stops you getting distracted by… baser matters." He raises a brow, voice turning wry. "So they say. But I've heard bored brothers."
"So they're only meant to screw the Maker?"
On Orzammar's caste system, Rica, and trying to talk to your raised-in-a-monastery fellow Warden about cultural sex norms without him panicking.
Series
- Part 4 of Nat Brosca
-
Tags
Summary
Glimpses into the business of Magister Pavus and an ex-Inquisitor who's doing his best to sneak around. Post-Trespasser, Veilguard-ish.
Series
- Part 12 of Shield Raised
-
Tags
Summary
Merfolk tend to be terribly offended if you call them “sirens” - how dare you. No, they protest, they’ve never drowned an idiot landwalker in their lives. They’re perfectly upswimming, reasonable citizens who only eat fish and perhaps the odd whelk, if it’s been a slow day.
Astarion isn’t one of those good citizens. The difference between a merman and a siren is sharp fangs, the distinct lack of a heartbeat, and a taste for blood. That and the whole singing thing.
A slightly post-canon AU in which Astarion is still flirting desperately, trying to escape his master, and good with a blade. He just happens to have a tail. And a sea-devil sniffing around him for a deal.
Series
- Part 10 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
Any coquettish effect is mostly ruined by the three layers Astarion's wearing - undershirt peeking out from under his collar, another shirt, and some kind of robe he must have stolen along the way - and his miserable little nest of blankets. And the subtle redness to his nose, the tension in his shoulders to stop the shakes. Gods, there’s barely anything in here, for all the hedonistic treasure trove outside his tent. He’s all but slee – trancing on the ground. Elf or not, he’s got to be freezing.
In which the Shadow Curse means it's cold as hell, and Lora tries to help her dead, dainty lover warm up. (Inspired by Astarion's lines about cuddling and missing his partner's body heat.)
Series
- Part 5 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
There, sprawled on the kitchen countertop where she normally chops vegetables she’ll be the only one eating, next to a fallen jar of herbs, is a bat. Big, albeit not as gigantic as some she’s fought who turned out to be vampires in disguise; still, it’s got an impressive wingspan, one of them hanging off the counter like a curtain. Or, she thinks, absurdly, the way Astarion likes to dramatically hang an arm off a fainting couch, while he’s reading a book.
After the events of the game, Astarion discovers a few new vampire tricks. He still hasn't quite got the bat thing down, though.
Series
- Part 8 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
Karlach guesses she shouldn't be surprised when she's popping off to the river for a quick dip, and halfway into the woods, finds Fangs and their mighty leader snogging furiously.
In which Astarion gets his groove back... and is deeply obnoxious in the process. Based on that arse-grab in the Patch 5 kiss, that banter with Lae'zel about he and Tav barely being able to keep their hands off each other, and the fact that even if Halsin's not involved with them, he's noticed Astarion and Tav having sex again. Because they're clearly That Damn Couple.
Series
- Part 7 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
"You're not well,” Lora says, when she finds Astarion at the edge of camp, sitting on a dead log and considering the shadow-rotted corpse of a bird.
"I'm fine," he says, staring fixedly at where old flesh is starting to pull away from the cursed raven's bones. It looks like despair. That’s the word she’s been searching for: despair.
In which the Shadow-Cursed Lands don't leave much to hunt, Astarion is not having a great time, and Lora proposes a solution where that bite wasn't such a one-off. And neither of them have Feelings. No sir.
Series
- Part 4 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
Lora has always found small, petty bastards boring - the kinds who tried to make her and so many others’ lives a misery in the city. They’ve just got so little imagination. Their excuses are all the same, it’s just a matter of scale. Even if they pretend to be misguidedly noble, the self-interest slips through eventually. Evil in stories is grand, elegant, tragic. It has really good tailoring. Evil in real life? It’s banal, grey or mud-soaked, and seems to take place in offices half the time, for some reason. Good, that cheap, trite thing in too many stories? In reality, it’s a sudden sparkling surprise every time it happens; Baldur’s Gate is not a place known for being gentle. People are more beautiful when they do a good thing. The sky is brighter, the grass just a little bit greener.
Astarion's a small, petty bastard. All that’s true, and real. So why does she keep talking to him? Why isn’t she bored?
(Early-game Lora and Astarion, and trying to understand each other.)
Series
- Part 1 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
He ducks out of his tent into the morning light, and… Interesting. There’s a sheet of paper tucked under his jar of - ugh - slightly congealed blood. He unfolds it, and finds… a portrait.
In which Astarion receives a gift.
Series
- Part 2 of to hear such singing
-
Tags
Summary
De Sardet opens the letter, and blinks. Stares at it so hard the words blur. Rereads it.
Quiet, measured footsteps announce Vasco coming down from the bedroom, and he pauses. "Marie?" he asks, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"My uncle's dead."
On grief, politics, and going public.
-
Tags
Summary
…There's something green in the shallows. Green, and thrashing. That kicks him out of his self-pity. He thinks at first a stupidly big fish, but then he sees a pale hand reaching out through the net-
In which a young, lonely lieutenant rescues a mermaid from a fishing net.
Series
- Part 2 of Mer AU
-
Tags
Summary
"I was going to tell you, you know. I was... I didn't mean to say love... Light, I'd gladly have you on a ship and never see you again - I'd take you hating me - if you'd live. Please, just live. If not for me, you'd never have been here."
---
Vasco is horribly injured before he and Marie de Sardet can get it together to confess their feelings for each other. Here are a few scenes & vignettes about it.
Chapter 1 - angst
Chapter 2 - fluff
Chapters 3 & 4 - smut -
Tags
Summary
He sees it all.
Savathun's big reveal to Crow, and the aftermath.
-
Tags
Summary
She spotted the pants first, if she’s honest. Good as Crow was at blending in, lying still, they were… really red against asteroid rock. She wondered what he was doing, and headed a little closer - Traveller, half his face was a bruise.
She saw him tense, the wince like this was something he’d dreaded but half-expected. His hand was on his knife, quick as a shot.
“Crow?” she said.
Crow's careful not to be seen, but sometimes that can only get you so far when you're a New Light. Slightly AU. In which, during Season of the Hunt, the Wolf finds Crow post-Guardian beatdown.
-
Tags
Summary
"If I ever meet one of those undead who can shoot as well as you," Uldren had said, "I’ll probably renounce my title. Or make them a Crow."
In which Jolyon Till finds himself being covered by a mysterious sniper. Sometimes, the past comes back to haunt you, and it has Solar knives.
-
Tags
Summary
Sometimes the sex is mindblowing... but sometimes you're an exhausted legate and ship captain, and it's just Tuesday. Fluffier than it sounds.
Series
- Part 3 of Common Stars
-
Tags
Summary
She says, "Don't tell me you've never done it."
Still that sharp, dark look, but it's a little amused now. "What, because I'm a Naut?"
"No, because you're…" She waves a vague, despairing hand at him. Gorgeous, and charming when you want to be, and so good at everything else. It’s obvious.
Yes, he's definitely amused now, the bastard. His eyes search her face. "I'm...?"
The words fall from her mouth like grain from a broken bag – a small disaster that gathers momentum. "Well, anyone in their right mind would – not that that's some sort of, of proposition – but of course if you ever wanted to I'd be very happy to – oh by the Light, ignore me." She claps her hand to her mouth, then puts her hands over her eyes. "I'm never drinking again."
---
The friends with benefits AU that Marie de Sardet definitely didn't mean to ask for.
Series
- Part 1 of Common Stars