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hollyand writes

@hollyand-writes / hollyand-writes.tumblr.com

Writer of Dragon Age 2 fanfiction [AO3 link] especially Carver/Merrill and Anders/M!Hawke, plus the odd rare-pair. Loves Dragon Age 2 and Frozen. 30+, she/her, UK.

Hollyand’s Carver/Merrill fics

Hey! I’m hollyand on AO3 and I write Dragon Age 2 fanfiction! I write mostly Carver Hawke/Merrill, Garrett Hawke/Anders [link], and the odd DA2 rare-pair fic. Here are the Carver/Merrill fanfics I’ve posted to Archive of Our Own.

LONG FICS (MULTI-CHAPTERED): 

The Courtship of Daisy and Junior (Rated Mature/Explicit):

Following the trip to Chateau Haine with Carver, Isabela hatches a plot to matchmake the templar with Merrill. Varric bets that it won’t work, while Merrill has no idea what’s going on. Will Carver manage to win Merrill’s heart? Or will Isabela lose her bet? (Set near the beginning of Act 2; inspired by party banter between Carver and Isabela in the Mark of the Assassin DLC.) Completed, 64,516 words and 23 chapters long.

A Chance Engagement (Rated Teen and Up, some F!Hawke/Isabela):

Regency AU. When Miss Merrill attends the Kirkwall public assembly ball, the last man she expects to engage in a dance is Carver Hawke – a single man who has just come into possession of a large fortune. This chance meeting, however, sets them both on a path they never expected. Based on Pride & Prejudice. Ongoing, 116,977 words and 57 chapters long. 

Modern AU. Garrett Hawke has political ambitions – and one of those involves marrying off his ex-Templar brother Carver, to smooth his promotion to Viscount. Merrill is in modern-day Kirkwall spying (badly) on Hawke on behalf of Keeper Marethari. When Carver and Merrill agree to marry for convenience and later annul the marriage for non-consummation, they might find that maybe, just maybe, all might not go as planned. Completed, 20,920 words and 6 chapters long. 

The Templar And The Blood Mage (Rated Explicit; some M!Hawke/Anders):

Carver has finally managed, with Isabela’s help, to get together with Merrill. Being a Templar, however, means he is forced to keep his relationship a secret - a fact that is not helped by the publication of a certain friend-fiction that becomes the Kirkwall version of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. Also known as Hollyand’s excuse to write lots of smut. (Sequel to “The Courtship of Daisy and Junior”, although I wrote this fic first.) On hiatus, 42,142 words and 9 chapters long. 

Merrill discovers she has a templar kink, where she gets off on being Silenced or having her mana drained. Since no-one else seems to want to do “dirty things” with her anyway, she decides Carver will be the man – and the templar – to indulge her. Set mostly during the Mark of the Assassin DLC. Completed, 8,420 words and 3 chapters long. 

Soulmate AU. Templars and blood mages are mortal enemies—but what if one is the other’s soulmate? Polyamorous-friendly and Aro-friendly Soulmate AU with time skips; angst with a happy ending. Written for an exchange. Completed, 9,785 words and 7 chapters long.

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SHORT FICS (ONE-SHOTS):

Written for two prompt requests for the Black Emporium Rare Pair Fanfic Exchange 2016: “Carver crushing on Merrill, Merrill being obliviously adorable, and Hawke (preferably female) being a huge troll. Bonus points for Varric being Hawke’s backup troll. No smut for this one, just Carver and Merrill fumbling adorably around each other. Happy ending please!” and “Carver pines over Merrill, is really awkward about it, and the rest of the gang tease him mercilessly”. Set in Act 1. One-shot, 2,404 words. 

Truth or Dare (Rated Mature):  

The crew play ‘Truth or Dare’ over a few drinks at the Hanged Man. Merrill ends up with a forfeit that makes things a little awkward… for Carver, anyway. Set in Act 1. One-shot, 3,470 words. 

Cupcakes (Rated General/Teen and Up):

Modern AU. Merrill participates in a local baking competition, and everyone is head over heels in love with her special Dalish cupcakes. One of the judges, Carver Hawke, reluctantly attends the event because his mother is the president of the local Baking Society… and might have fallen for more than her baking skills. Written for a Tumblr prompt. One-shot, 2,384 words. 

In Vino Veritas (Rated Teen):  

Warden Carver helps Merrill home from the Hanged Man when she’s drunk. Cuteness ensues. Written for an exchange. One-shot, 1,162 words.

Do You Wanna Build A Snowman? (Rated Teen and Up):

It snows in Kirkwall, and Merrill persuades Warden Carver – and Fenris and Marian Hawke – to play in the snow with her. Set after DA2; written for the Carver Defence Squad Secret Santa Exchange 2016. One-shot, 1,955 words.

Merrill gets lost in Kirkwall… and accidentally ends up at a ball at the De Launcet Mansion in Hightown. Fortunately for her, she runs into Carver Hawke - and together they formulate a plan to pretend that she is there as his date, while he can secretly spy on Emile de Launcet’s parents for the Knight Commander. What could go wrong? Written for a Tumblr prompt. One-shot, 6,614 words. 

Knight Takes Queen (Rated Explicit): 

Merrill is a size queen, and only a certain Knight-Corporal of the Kirkwall Templar Order can satisfy her (and give her the creampie of her dreams). One-shot, 4,348 words.  

Major Arcana: VIII. Strength (Rated Teen and Up):

From a collection of ficlets based on the cards of the tarot, posted on AO3 as a multi-chaptered fic by accident instead of posting as a fanfiction series. Carver and Merrill sit around a campfire and talk in Act 1. One-shot, 776 words.

Major Arcana: XIII. Death (Rated Teen and Up):

From a collection of ficlets based on the cards of the tarot, posted on AO3 as a multi-chaptered fic by accident instead of posting as a fanfiction series. Grey Warden Carver comforts Merrill after the death of her entire clan. One-shot, 2,043 words. 

In the years that follow the Arishok battle, Grey Warden Carver Hawke and Merrill try to write to each other. Epistolary angst fic set in Act 3 written entirely as a series of letters. One-shot, 1,692 words.

Confession: Theres a fic i read about Merrill being knocked up by the Arishok and it got me thinking.

I would never get pregnant and become a dad because of our current economy. I dont have the means to raise a child safely.

BUT BUT BUT if prompted I would very much say yes to become the Arishok's breeding hole. Any excuse to be pumped full of cum at any time of the day.

at the risk of being cringe with everything going on — this week, the last six months, the past five years — i keep thinking about that one quote from the great gatsby

“they were careless people…they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

it’s just every day now, huh.

A belated Happy New Year to you all! I hope you're all doing well, although I've been off Tumblr for so long I feel like I'm rusty and don't know what's going on anymore, haha.

I'm fine, just been so busy with that job I started in March 2025 that I haven't had time for fandom 😭 I hope that changes in 2026 as I have several Dragon Age 2 longfic WIPs I want to finish off, but given how I've been too snowed under for fandom I can't promise anything 😭 This new job has required a lot more international travel than I expected, which has been pretty exhausting (and nowhere near as glamorous or exciting as it sounds – just tiring), and I've also been working much longer hours than I thought I would, which is why I haven't been around.

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic 2026!!! ❤️ I will catch up with all your amazing art and fic and posts when I can 😊

i understand the appeal of publishing “fic with the serial numbers filed off” as original work but i also feel like. what makes something a good fic is at odds with what makes something a good original story.

a good fic is in conversation with a source text, it may give a character an interesting role, it may reinterpret or subvert the rules established in the canon universe, whatever. but like. its transformative by nature. whereas original stories - good ones, anyway - have their own internal, non-referrential sense of logic and rules. it can be in conversation with the genre writ large but it has to have internal substance that can stand alone. which fic inherently cant do.

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katy-l-wood

This! I write my fics because that is the ONLY way those stories can work. They aren’t the same story if I just take the core plot and put my own characters into it.

from your WIP ask game a million years ago, I must know about the Carver/Merrill wife-carrying competition

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lmao it's such a silly idea, but it's based off the Wife Carrying competitions in Finland and other parts of the world, where competitors carry wives (or anyone wife-adjacent, gender neutral). In Kirkwall, they go the North American route where winners win the 'wife's' weight in beer and gold.

Carver hears of such a competition from his templar drinking buddies, but doesn't care for it until he learns that Garrett is training to win by carrying Anders. And Carver gets that ✨ sibling rivalry ✨ feeling and is like "but who could I ask" and ultimately Merrill accepts being his partner in the race.

You may be able to guess who wins :)

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people saying “don’t use your full government name for your ao3”, “create different emails for work and personal use” but personally I think it’s both sad and dystopian how capitalism/companies/even schools think they have the rights to cross your personal boundaries and insert themselves into your personal life. like, I get it, safety wise, why checking digital footprints can be important sometimes. but a gay fanfiction is not a fucking threat that could ever cause anybody harm. it’s funny (not really, it’s still sad and dystopian) how they now think they can control your personal life and prevent you from having hobbies

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