Bioware's Jessica Merizan (Community Manager) has clarified that as the deadline of January 10th for the Bioware Dragon Age: Asunder Creative Writing Challenge has now passed, we're free to post our entries wherever we like, so I'm now posting my own entry.

Title: For Dead Is Dead
Author: Arkady Rose
Summary: Anders is oblivious to the changes he has wrought in a young refugee woman who discovers she too is an apostate mage, as she is caught up in the events leading up to the destruction of the Chantry and the beginning of the Mage/Templar War.


( For Dead Is Dead. )

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1281892.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Sketch in progress - Marius 1 by *ArkadyRose on deviantART

Marius, the elder Asmodey brother, getting into trouble. Again.

An illustration I'm working on which will go with the new Arkadian Dreams story I'm writing.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1281368.html"; you may comment either there or here.

( Food Meme ) Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1280788.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Anders, either alone or with Fenris.

( Forcing My Hand )

( Kiss Me? )

( That...didn't go according to plan. )

( Comforting Embrace )

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1280554.html"; you may comment either there or here.

( Grey Wolf )

( Sumatran Tiger )

( Bastian )

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1280386.html"; you may comment either there or here.

The Bard by *ArkadyRose on deviantART

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1280003.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Portrait of the Artist's Daughter by *ArkadyRose on deviantART

3 hours with Wacom Graphire tablet in MyPaint.

OK, I'll admit it - I'm having a great deal of fun here. :-)

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1279795.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Spirit Mage II by ~ArkadyRose on deviantART


Spirit Mage II - detail by ~ArkadyRose on deviantART

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1279583.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Title: Yuletide Eve
Fandom: Dragon Age 2
Pairing(s): Anders/Fenris, Anders/M!Hawke
Rating: PG
Warnings: suggestive language (thank you, Isabela!)
Summary: Anders' plans for Yuletide Eve are badly upset by a disaster in Darktown. Set between "Consequences" and "Revelations" in the Apostate Chronicles series.


( Anders looked around his small ramshackle clinic. )

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1279452.html"; you may comment either there or here.

“What are you doing?” He leaned over my shoulder and squinted at the small screen.
“Reading,” I answered briefly. “And hello to you too.”
He ignored my greeting as he studied the screen, his breath ghosting slightly across the side of my face as he pressed himself against my back, chin resting on my shoulder. A loose strand of his dark gold hair was tickling my cheek, and bemused I turned a little to blow it away.

“Well?” I asked as his eyes trailed to the end of the page.

“I thought you'd forgotten about me,” he said quietly. “About us.”

I pushed the netbook back and turned to look up at him as he straightened. Damn, but he was tall. I gestured to a nearby chair. “Sit down, you make the place look untidy,” I teased. He glanced behind himself then dragged the chair over, spinning it round to sit astride it, leaning on the back with his arms folded and his chin resting on his forearms. He regarded me with soft brown eyes that still held a trace of hurt and disappointment, and I felt a pang of guilt. It had been too long.

“So what happened?” he asked quietly. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

“Hard to say,” I answered. “I guess the accident had more of an effect on me than I'd realised. The arm kept me away from writing for a week; it completely interrupted the flow of things – and then my leg... well.”

He glanced over at the walking stick. “You've been hermitting yourself, haven't you?” he chided gently.

“No!” I exclaimed, then, as he merely stared at me with one eyebrow raised, I relented. “Well – yes. Maybe. A bit.”

He nodded. “We drifted apart,” he said quietly, his gaze dropping to the floor. “I could feel it happening. I didn't know what I could do to fix it; you just... didn't feel the same.”

I tilted my head to one side and regarded him gently. “I didn't mean for this to happen. It bothered me too,” I confessed.

Abruptly he stood and pushed the chair away. He began to pace restlessly as I watched.

“I thought we were doing well together,” he said tersely. “We seemed to be getting on great; on the same wavelength, in tune with each other.” He slapped the palm of his hand with the backs of his fingers for emphasis. “We seemed to mesh, you know? You seemed to understand me; you seemed to know my very thoughts. And then... nothing.” He stopped suddenly, spinning on his heel to stare at me. “Have you any idea what that feels like? To practically live and breathe with someone else and then have that stop dead?”

I stared at him wordlessly, then slowly nodded. “Yes. I do,” I answered quietly. “It's not the first time this has happened to me.”

“But will it be the last?” he asked as his shoulders slumped. I wanted to go to him; it hurt to see him looking so uncertain and vulnerable – and to know it was I who had pushed him to this.

“I don't know,” I admitted quietly. “All I can promise is to try my hardest not to let it happen again. But I'm only human. Can you work with that?”

His head drooped, then he nodded slowly. “I guess I have to,” he agreed. He stumbled back to his chair and slumped into it. He glanced up at me sadly. “It wasn't just you who was hermitting,” he admitted. “I guess I was, a bit, too.”

“I guess we were both a bit to blame,” I replied quietly. He nodded, then looked up at me with a wry smile.

“Truce?” he suggested.

“Truce,” I agreed with a smile. His smile widened and he shuffled his chair closer to sit beside me again, then reached over to pull the netbook closer.

“Now, where were we?” he asked, then pulled a face. “Oh, we're back to Chantry Boy are we? Damn, you do like making your muses work hard, don't you?”

“Welcome back Anders,” I smiled.

His answer was a cheeky grin.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1279074.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Rose Corset - custom commission

This weekend I finished a special custom commission; a ten-panel corset for a Luts Type 2 boy - a LuWen. From drafting the pattern to fixing the last eyelet, it took about 7 hours' work in total, including hand-embroidering every singe rose.

 

 

 

The corset is sewn from pale pink satin overlaid with pink crystal organza and lined in taffeta. It is embroidered in silk thread with a design of roses, embellished with diamante trim and French knots worked in silver thread, adorned with  pink satin ribbon rose. Pink satin pleating forms the bust, and it laces up the back with a white satin ribbon through five pairs of metallic pink eyelets.

 

 

This was a custom one-off commission, but a similar custom embroidered corset - for either male or female doll - would be about £45 depending on fabrics used & the complexity of the design. I can also make matching shoes and other garments and am happy to discuss commissions.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1278652.html"; you may comment either there or here.

It was with great sadness I read a couple of hours ago of the death of Anne McCaffrey from a heart attack at the age of 85. McCaffrey was one of the scifi/fantasy greats; I first read the Dragonriders of Pern series when I was 12. My mother introduced me to them as an example of good fantasy; my maths teacher lent me several of the books. It was the dragons of Pern that first inspired me to paint and draw dragons and discover I could draw at the age of 14.

Anne McCaffrey was always kind to her fans, answering all her correspondence herself. I can remember the day I received a letter from her myself - handwritten with a fountain pen using green ink, in which she goodnaturedly groused about her son Todd claiming the kitchen table at inopportune moments for games of Dungeons & Dragons with his friends and mentioning her beloved horses. Unlike most authors, McCaffrey didn't merely tolerate fanfic but actively encouraged it.

She was a regular at many scifi conventions, often as Guest of Honour, and always had a word for her fans.

Rest well, Anne McCaffrey. The dragons will keen your passing.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1278121.html"; you may comment either there or here.

I'm a bloody lucky bastard. I got hit by a car this afternoon, and walked away with a few scrapes and bruises and a bruised nerve in my left arm.

A red car basically turned into the road I was crossing without indicating first. Something made me glance to my right as I was halfway across and I was aware of a red blur out of the corner of my eye. I reacted instinctively by leaping up instead of freezing, and next thing I knew I was skidding across the bonnet of the car then falling down onto the tarmac on the other side. I landed heavily on my left side with my left arm and elbow taking the brunt.

David insisted on me going straight to A&E instead of waiting till he got back; thankfully nothing's broken, but it looks like I bruised the left ulna nerve. I would have been home faster from hospital except the delayed reaction caught up with me and my blood pressure dropped to 85/59 and I had a dizzy spell, so they insisted I lie down for half an hour until it was up to 100/70, at which point they let me go after putting a dressing on my arm where I skinned it. The Irish charge nurse told me I ought to buy a lottery ticket.

Someone was definitely watching out for me today, I think. If I'd looked left instead of right, I don't think I'd be here to tell the tale. Thank God it was me and not some small kid. :-/

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1277814.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Last Wednesday I was part of something very special; something I've never done before, in more ways than one.

Doubtless by now many readers will have seen the news reports on the news, in papers or heard on the radio that on Wednesday evening, a group of more than 30 singers congregated outside St Paul's Cathedral to perform an open-air Evensong service. It was all the brainchild of a good friend of mine, Kathryn Rose. After the cathedral announced it was to close due to purported concerns over health and safety issues, she decided to go to the cathedral last Sunday to sing Evensong outside - by herself if need be. She mentioned this on Twitter, and ended up with a quite respectably-sized group who sang Evensong with her.

So on Wednesday she decided to do it again. It was to be a simple Common Worship service from the Book of Common Prayer with sung psalm and canticles from the Parish Psalter and using the same hymns as on Sunday, as she and those who had sung with her on Sunday still had hymn sheets. There was also to be a sung anthem, and @FlashEvensong was busy organising that via Twitter.

Whilst I am primarily a musician, I also enjoy singing and have a fairly reasonable alto voice that can cover a tenor range, so I signed up to sing tenor (at the point I signed up, there were 6 altos already but tenors were decidedly under-represented!).

I arrived outside Marks & Spencers with my 4½-year-old daughter Freda at about 4:45pm and located Kathryn straight away, in the midst of quite the whirlwind of activity and attention. A journalist was asking for a quick 5 minutes' interview, and she already had another one lined up for a short while later with a BBC journalist - whilst simultaneously discussing who would read what, where we were going to stand, and so forth.

We had not one, but two actual vicars to do the readings and service, and I believe there were more in the choir! 30 people had signed up online to sing, but I believe we ended up with over 40 singers. Despite never having sung together before, we had a brief warm-up - and you would have thought we'd been rehearsing for ages. There are links to recordings and video of us warming up and singing during the service on this blogpost by Dr Bex Lewis, who was one of the choristers. The service was led by the Reverend James Ogley, vicar of St Francis Church in Luton, with another vicar stepping in to do one of the readings. We sang the Aylesford responses, with Kathryn as Cantor.

The readings and hymns were as follows:

Introit hymn: Christ is made the sure foundation
Responses: Ayleward
Psalm: 119:145-160
Gradual hymn: Guide me, O thou great Redeemer
First Lesson: 2 Kings 9:1-16
Canticles: Parish Psalter set A
Second Lesson: Acts 27:1-16
Hymn: O God, our help in ages past
Anthem: If ye love me (Tallis)
Hymn: Be thou my vision

You can read a transcription of Rev. Ogley's sermon on his blog here. There is also a video on the Telegraph website here. One of the basses present blogged about it here.

About ten minutes before we started warming up, a beautiful rainbow formed in the sky over St Paul's Cathedral (see photo at the top of this post). It seemed like a very positive sign; and indeed, the whole experience was like the promise of that sign fulfilled. I had a very definite sense of being caught up in something wonderful, momentous, spiritually uplifting and fulfilling and right. St Paul's was shut, the people barred from worship there - so we brought worship to those who wanted and needed it outside instead. Regardless of the politics involved with the #occupylsx protest and the closure of St Paul's (which, to be honest, I feel is very much a case of "six of one, half dozen of the other"), we were there to come together in worship, and that was what we did. And I am very glad yet also humbled to feel I was a small part of that; one voice lifted up with so many others in one accord.

And that is what church is all about. It's not about the building. The building is superfluous. It's the people and their intent that matter.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1277511.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Earlier today, about noon GMT, Turkey was struck by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. The epicentre was about 10 miles north of the city of Van, near the lake of the same name; the region has been rocked repeatedly since then with a succession of more than 30 aftershocks, some reaching as high as 5.9 and all higher than 4.5, which are still continuing. Currently there are 45 confirmed deaths (some news agencies reporting 85) but it is estimated the toll could reach 1000 or more.

CNN has reported on the earthquake, as has the BBC. The Turkish Red Crescent is rendering aid to those affected, setting up disaster management centres and helping to co-ordinate relief efforts with the Turkish miliatary; the British Red Cross hasn't yet started an appeal as needs are still to be assessed and no request for international aid has been requested yet, but donations can be made to the British Red Cross general fund via the front page.

ShelterBox are assessing the situation and standing by for a request from the Turkish government. The DEC have not yet announced an appeal. The IHH is accepting donations now - scroll down and choose "Van Acil Yardim".

It is being reported on Twitter that Israel has offered aid to Turkey and been refused, but thus far Turkey has not requested aid from any other countries, though the international community is standing by to render assistance, and several countries have teams of their own earthquake specialists standing by in case of need. A plane with medical aid and supplies from Azerbaijan has just touched down at the quake-damaged Van airport.

The latest up-to-date information is being disseminated via Twitter using the hashtags #earthquake, #Van and #Turkey; the British Red Cross will post updates regarding any appeal on their Twitter account, @BritishRedCross.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1277283.html"; you may comment either there or here.

My cover of the Jeff Buckley version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".

One take each for lead vocals and backing vocals, mixed in Audacity.

Arkady - Hallelujah by Arkady Rose

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1276623.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Before you start blaming the Tories, or your political scapegoat of choice, for the riots of the past three days, I strongly advise you to read this LiveJournal post by Rosamicula. 13-20% of school-leavers are near-illiterate, with no hope and no future but the dole and a life on the edge of society. That figure has stayed the same over the past 30 years, through successive governments. No one government has failed them; society as a whole has.

If you want to help your community recover from the damage done, start with the schools. Reach out to those kids. Give them a hand up, not a hand out; use that privilege you were born with, that privilege they were denied from birth, and help give them a future.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1274094.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Meet Satin, the newest member of the family. He's only a little kitten; he's a red-point siamese cross - he has a ginger and white striped tail which you can't see in this picture. He's very shy, though he's gradually settling in. He was rescued from a cat hoarder (who had 3 cats give birth to their litters simultaneously) by lucybond, who took in his sister Rosie.

Technically Satin is supposed to be Freda's kitten (she misses Mikhail), but he seems to have decided he's actually mine. He has a surprisingly loud purr. He's not too keen on people going after him to pick him up, but if you leave him to his own devices he's quite happy to approach us, often jumping up on the sofa to curl up for a cuddle on our laps of on the back of the sofa next to my shoulder.

He's trying to make friends with Tabs, my grumpy old man tabby (who is now 18), but Tabs has had his nose firmly put out of joint by Satin's arrival. We've caught them touching noses and being cautiously when Tabs thinks no-one is looking though. We've all been giving Tabs lots of fuss and attention though, and a short while ago he hopped up next to me on the sofa and curled up against my side, purring, so I think he's gradually adjusting. :-)

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1273428.html"; you may comment either there or here.

The following is a brief vignette inspired by "Sign of the Maker", a 12-part fanfic by Emma Vieceli from the game Dragon Age 2. Although I've never played the game myself, Emma's fic plus the various YouTube videos of the various cut scenes from the game inspired me to write my own alternative ending to Emma's fic, from the point of view of Anders, the apostate mage. It probably won't make much sense unless you're familiar with the game or have read Emma's fic (which I'd recommend anyway - it's a damned good fic which doesn't require you to play the game to be able to follow).

If you're planning to play the game, I wouldn't recommend reading this as it does contain pretty big spoilers!

Characters: Anders, Cortland Hawke, Justice
Pairing: M/M - M!Hawke/Anders(no slash)
Rating: Mature (non-sexual, disturbing concepts)
Warnings: Game spoilers for DA2, near-death, suicidal ideation
Genre: Angst, Hurt

( No End. )

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1272915.html"; you may comment either there or here.

R.I.P. Michael Burston, a.k.a. Würzel from Motörhead - died yesterday from a heart attack due to cardiomyopathy at the age of 61. Good age to reach for someone who lived life as fully as he did.

There'll be one hell of a piss-up going on at the Pearly Gates tonight....

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1272777.html"; you may comment either there or here.