Happy Frida Tas!! I LOVE Sera/Dagna ok, so I come asking for ‘my voice is not pleasing to others. I am told it sounds like a gull crying’ from the Circle prompts for them?

they are SO GOOD and i want more of them in the world so here we go. for @dadrunkwriting

"They what?" Dagna pushes back the metal mask drawn over her face. It doesn't come far over her ears, but somehow she always seems to hear a little bit worse whenever it's on her head. Too many other thoughts twirling around her head.

Sera doesn't take it personal (often). From her vantage point on the floor she rolls over, propping herself up on her elbows.

"They say I sound like gull- y'know, flappy things?" She waves one arm up and down for good measure.

A short silence follows as the words settle into Dagna's head. Then her smile, shiny as diamond. "Oh!" The mask falls into place again for another peek at the enchantment set on her worktable. "I like seagulls."

"Of course you do." Said with love. Always love.

"What? Don't most people?"

"They're rats with wings. Steal the food right off your plate if you take your eyes off it." Sometimes not even then. The boldest will rip it from your lips, make off with your dinner and leave nothing but sad, bird-ridden crumbs in your mouth. "Don't sing like birds ought to, either. Just-- laugh."

Her feet dangle this way and that, feeling the rug roll beneath her knees, and the Undercroft's floor beneath that. She's been around enough hob-knobs young to know she sounded... different. To her own ears, her voice is deep, but she's seen enough people wince to know not everyone heard what she did.

And, well, Lady Emmauld didn't take kindly to begging for seconds.

Dagna hums to herself, picking a tiny mallet off the table and knocking it against the rune. It hums back, off-key. "Not quite," she mutters, setting her tool to the side.

"I like seagulls," she says. "They sound like water to me."

"What d'you mean?" Sera thinks she knows, but wants to hear it, all the same.

"I'd never seen much water before I saw Lake Calenhad. If I hadn't spent so much time in Orzammar poring over Surface maps, I might've taken it for the ocean. I heard the boat thunking against the docks, water roaring against the shore, and-- gulls, only I didn't know it at the time." She giggles under her mask, her bell-like laugh sounding tinny held up close to metal. "For a while I thought that was just the waves, too."

Sera returns to her back, extending her arm up to peer through her fingers, imagining the sky over Lake Calenhad unfolding between them.

Dagna hit the rune again, and it hums a new key. "They looked so impossible up there, suspended in flight. Like they were hanging from strings in the ceiling."

"You don't think they sounded a little... shrill?"

"A little loud, maybe, but how else are they gonna hear each other?" A third tap, a third new key. Sera feels it rattle in her teeth. "They just want to be heard, same as us."

"Same as us."

-I love you. -I know.

Image description in alt text

Hey, sorry if I'm bothering u but I am curious: how did you figure out that you are gay? I've been really confused about myself and what I like... I was just wondering if you had a specific way to know that you like girls. A guy just asked me out and he's really nice and into the same stuff as me but I just don't like him?? And I just can't imagine my future with a guy even if he was as amazing as that guy was... so I'm just really confused

Ah hello anon~! I feel like for me, it was kind of a gradual process. Last year I was ‘dating’ a guy (if I would even call it that) but even while that was happening, I always felt like something was missing; I just didnt know what. At the time I was bi/pan to a few friends, him being one of them. But I realized that I didn't feel comfortable with him, so he and I decided to stop. I think for me, lgbt youtubers like Miles McKenna really really helped me understand sexuality as well as gender as a whole better, and over the summer I got a clearer understanding of what my preferences were.  At first I felt comfy with the label of ‘pan’, but I began to realize that even though I can appreciate male attractiveness, I just couldn't see myself with a guy and that label didn't fit me as much anymore. I eventually found out that I'm most comfortable with the label ‘gay’, and so thats what I use now. But I think the biggest thing that helped me was to understand that even though labels can help you feel a sense of belonging, they can also feel exclusive and restricting. Its totally normal to feel confused and I'm still figuring out more about myself as well; in the end we’re all humans who love other humans. But I'm not extremely educated on this subject or experienced so if anybody has advice that they want to share please feel free to add on!!! I’d love to learn some more as well. al;kjdf sorry this got really long haha