#anyways the point of this one is that they both want to fuck shadowheart. and so they shall

[araneapeixes]

Not gonna be able to get back to this for the next week or so but I wanted to share so wips :))

#I CANT STOP DRAWING THEM IN BARS AND CLUBS?? lmao #anyways the point of this one is that they both want to fuck shadowheart. and so they shall #im on such a roll with this modern au stuff and its the first time in a while that im genuinely kinda drawign the same thing #over and over again and it feels so good? lmao #this is gonna be my niche i think #bg3 #baldurs gate #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 modern au #shadowheart #karlach #karlach cliffgate #lae'zel #shadowzel #shadowlach #wip #sketch

[avocado-writing]

I am BEGGING for more essentially modern au stuff like the road trip one please!!!! I’ve had the worst anxiety all week and it’s the first genuine giggle I’ve had in forever 💞 thank you! (Also no pressure tho omg I’m sorry)

awww I’m so glad I made you laugh!! Ok how about… modern au, picnic in the park:

Tav

you organise everything. You always organise everything. These guys are not capable of getting together without your direct involvement.

you bring a couple of dishes and drive those who can’t be bothered to walk or take public transport (astarion, shadowheart)

try to be the first there to get a good spot so you tell your passengers you’re meant to be there an hour earlier than planned. they both complain but help you set up anyway.

Gale

brings the majority of home made dishes.

he is the best cook in the group, and he always has a great mix of stuff to bring - salads and sandwiches, pastas and fruit kebabs. it’s all pretty healthy and the plates are cleared by the end!

walked from his house with massive IKEA bags full of food. had to stop three times on the way to the park because he was exhausted.

meticulously counts his Tupperware as he packs everything up afterwards and goes hunting if any of it is missing.

Astarion

tries to steal Gale’s Tupperware.

spends most of the picnic in the shade of a tree pretending to read a book, but really he’s just spying on everyone. It’s fun to eavesdrop.

brought wine. it’s mostly for him. he will share if he’s asked to but he will complain the whole time.

lightens up as the day goes on, doesn’t even complain about the cooking!

Shadowheart

also tries to steal Gale’s Tupperware, but worse at it than Astarion.

immediately picks a fight with Lae’zel when she gets there but the two of them spend the whole day next to each other, anyway.

by the end of the day she’s just lying back on a picnic blanket, vibing, picking the leftovers off of her plate.

everyone has had a heart-to-heart with her at some point.

Lae’zel

mostly comes to eat the proteins. doesn’t indulge in the carb-based foods, she won’t even have a cheat day when she’s meant to be having fun.

ends up with Shadowheart’s head in her lap and plays with her hair. Glares at anyone who mentions it.

will not organise any team sport games, but will become captain if one is suggested. She is fucking brutal. You do not want to be on her team or it gets intense.

Karlach

brings a portable grill so she can get some BBQ going!

Gale is the best cook but Karlach is grill master. She has an apron which says it. Keeps topping up everyone’s plates even when they ask her to stop.

can still play frisbee with no issues after eating 3 plates of food? How? Is this woman magic??

Wyll

is the one who organises the team sports, and you do want to be on his team.

makes the whole day better. If he gets there earliest he also set up a scavenger hunt for everyone!

constantly checking in on everyone to make sure they’re having a good time. Eventually you have to sit him down and remind him to eat, he’s meant to have fun too!

in charge of the sound system. Picks the best music.

Halsin

knows the best spot in the park to set up the picnic!

goes on long tangents about local flora and fauna, but it’s good. Like listening to an ASMR video.

takes off his shirt to lie in the sun. Everyone stares. At one point a fucking butterfly lands on him and it’s like he’s a Disney princess.

#Minsc brought a keg #Jaheira brought the sunblock #Minthara brought black liquorice only she will eat #Bg3 #tav #wyll #wyll ravengard #halsin #astarion #karlach #laezel #Lae’zel #shadowheart #gale of waterdeep #gale #gale dekarios #baldur's gate 3 #Bg3 headcanons #Implied Lae’zel x shadowheart lol #Bg3 fic #Long post #Gale x tav #gale x reader #Halsin x reader #halsin x tav #astarion x reader #astarion x tav #lae’zel x reader #lae’zel x tav #shadowheart x reader

[antivanbrandy]

i wanted to take a crack at the relationship chart meme for bg3, but made life harder for myself in the process by doodling everyone asdfghjkl

a bit of info about the relationships under the readmore!

so to start from the top and work around clockwise:

Astarion: her best friend, her partner, and love of her life. his flippant hot-n-cold attitude at the start of their relationship (she failed that first big insight check so she didn't know it was all an act at the start) leaves her feeling bad about herself at times, but once they have their Act 2 heart-to-heart, their relationship only goes from strength to strength. we all know what a supportive and loving tav does for spawn!Astarion, but over the course of their adventure he supports her, too. they make each other stronger.

Rhapsody's self sacrificing need to help everyone, no matter how thin it spreads her, comes dangerously close to breaking her by late Act 2. Astarion talks her back from the ledge, so to speak, and helps her realise why she's doing it (Family Trauma Hour 2, Shitty Father Boogaloo) and the harm it's doing her in turn. it's purely self-interest that motivates him at first, because if she burns out then his protection and best chance at taking on Cazador goes with her, but once he comes to care for her his motives are much kinder.

i have so many post-game thoughts for these two, which includes an eventual cast of good old Reincarnation (which i honest to god rolled for and nearly squawked at the outcome) and the very specific complicated feelings that digs up for them, but if i keep typing i'll be here all day.

-

Gale: truly one of her best friends. she could sit with him in silence, just reading together, or her playing an instrument while he studies the weave, and be perfectly content. Rhaps is a lore bard, so she really enjoys swapping stories, information, and theories with him. she's also a big fan of his cooking, and enjoys the simple companionship of doing vegetable prep while he cooks and they chat together. she'd go to bat for him against anyone.

-

Wyll: a dear friend, and inspiration for more than one epic ballad (which makes him proud-blush every time). they swap tales, often together with Karlach, and he's been known to join her in a song and dance when she plays at camp if he's feeling in the spirits. they bond over complicated relationships with their fathers, love of good red wine, and most importantly, their unflinching dedication to helping people in need.

-

Lae'zel: their relationship is complicated. they both operate on a level the other just does not understand, and chafe against the others attitude to life. they grow to respect each other, but never truly become friends, which is sad because Lae'zel does get to a point where she'd like to extend that offer but has no idea how to voice her growing fondness, and then the adventure is over and she leaves with Voss.

-

Minsc: definitely a friend, even if they're not especially close. for his part, Minsc is delighted when Rhaps comes up with a little ditty about him ('from top to tail, evildoers do fear - Boo gnaws their eyes, Minsc kicks their rear!').

-

Jaheira: Rhaps' liked Jaheira immediately, as soon as she clocked the wine was spiked and Jaheira gave her that knowing smile and asked her to drink anyway. Rhaps grew up starved for parental approval and attention, and there's an undeniable current of Momther™ that carries with Jaheira's approval, stories, pick me ups, and pep talks that she latches onto very quickly. Jaheria herself is reluctant to be seen as a mother figure, she has her own kids after all, riiiiiight up until the point the gang come face to face with Rhaps and Aisling's father and she sees first hand how she's treated and how much she wilts in his company. After that it's just kind of defiant instinct, if a parental-flavoured pep talk is what the cub needs to get through the end of days, that's what she'll get, and her old man can go get fucked.

-

Shadowheart: Shadowheart and Rhapsody have a rocky start - Shart's combative attitude puts Rhaps on the backfoot, and they have a two steps forward one step back slow-crawl to understanding each other. There's a bit of a blow-up between them in the shadowlands that sets them back even more; Shadowheart's constant sneering and too-edgy-for-you remarks regarding Selune and Selunite magic grate on Rhapsody, who is already spread desperately thin by this point and is absolutely baffled Shart can't keep it buttoned for ONE minute when Selune is all that's standing between the people at Last Light -the tieflings she fought tooth n nail to save- and a gruesome death. and the more evidence they see of Shar's cruelty in the shadowlands, the more Rhaps begins to truly understand what Shar is capable of and the thinner she's spread from trying to help people in this bleak situation, the closer she gets to lashing out, until eventually Shadowheart goes one snippy comment too far and Rhaps blows up at her. they have it out, and it's bad, but when they eventually make up afterwards theyre stronger for it, and by the end of Act 3 theyre a lot closer than they ever thought possible.

-

Halsin: Halsin is a calming presence in Rhapsody's life. she thought turning down his offer was going to make things awkward for them, but it never did. there's a lot to learn from him, and a call to a calmer life and a sense of peace that Rhaps feels most keenly when she's out in nature with him. the druidic life isn't for her, but those moments of peace do wonders for her when she needs it.

-

Karlach: darling dearest bestest friend, platonic love of her life, sister from another mister, 'would absolutely ride the rollercoaster in the front car with you' bestest best friend forever. Rhapsody adores Karlach, admires and is inspired by her. Rhapsody has had very little interaction with other tieflings, and in comes Karlach full of friendly cheer and good humour and a massive heart, emotional vulnerability and honesty and cheeky smiles, all things Rhaps is drawn to and wants to be. she'd do anything for her, go to any lengths, and I can't even begin to describe how heartbroken this makes her on that dock at the end.

#tav bg3 #bg3 tav #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #astarion #wyll ravengard #gale dekarios #karlach #tav: rhapsody #bg3 relationship chart #summoning my courage to just post this monstrosity finally sdfghjkl this thing has been in my drafts for weeks #brandy blobs #jaheira #minsc and boo #halsin #shadowheart #lae'zel

[alicelufenia]

So yeah had the chance to sleep on it and gonna give my full thoughts on the (unannounced) new dialogue for Minthara when Durge makes the decision to reject [SPOILER]. Gonna keep it under the cut but also read @shoddynomenclature's flashfic about it, it echos a lot of my feelings on the subject.

I think this had the potential to be something that makes her character even more nuanced and interesting by showing an uglier side of herself. Yes she has been abandoned by gods before, and the pain of that can't be understated. So seeing Durge reject Bhaal, to walk away from an inheritance when she was taken from Lolth against her will? Must feel frustrating. Seeing a character work through those emotions and fucking it up could be really good. COULD be.

This one conversation, where she throws everything about her relationship with Durge aside and turns her back on them with just a single non-critical response and no follow up? This ain't it.

I hate to say it, but this addition has all but killed my interest in playing Durge, if this is what it does to her character.

I'd LIKE it if there will be future additions, conversations you can have back at camp after the stress of the day has passed, to ask her what's really going on here. Yeah it WOULD be nice if there were some follow up where we can talk to her about our reasons for rejecting Bhaal, with the option to reconcile. Which could even lead neatly into her post-Orin speech, y'know some of her best writing in the game where she realize that Bhaal is no different than Lolth, or the Absolute.

Or, the chance to refuse to get back together with her after that. The only other way to break up with Minthara currently is cheating, which sucks, whereas having a big ugly argument and deciding "We've both said our peace, and understand each other better now, but we can't be together. Not after all this." THAT'S Really Good.

But unlike others, I have no confidence that any such addition is coming.

Because (if I understand it right) this dialogue was datamined from release, but was always inaccessible until the recent hotfix. So it was easy to ignore, treat it as cut content like the pregnancy plot (which I still don't get and frankly at this point I don't wanna know).

By deciding to make it accessible, Larian has made it clear that they want this to be a part of her character. But unlike this dialogue, there isn't any follow up sitting in datamine waiting to be turned on.

As far as we know, this is it. It's useless to speculate on what they could add (why add to her writing so piecemeal like this anyway?) because they didn't wait until they HAD more, to make this a part of her writing. Hell, it wasn't even worth mentioning in the hotfix notes!

Loving her partner to the degree she's willing to put aside her thirst for power is such a key part of Minthara's character that this dialogue completely abandons. What Larian is saying here is that her love for Durge was just a ruse to entice someone she could control into acquiring power, even at their expense. And if that's Larian's vision for Minthara's character, then why stop with Durge?

Why does she break up with Durge for rejecting Bhaal, but not with Shadowheart for rejecting Shar?

Or Astarion if he remains a spawn?

Why shed all those real tears for Karlach if she'd rather die than return to Avernus?

Why continue to share Tav's bed if they refuse the Astral Tadpole? Why offer no real objection if they destroy the brain, though she's rooting for them to take control of it right up until the moment? Why can she find power enough in the two of them with the Absolute gone to continue their plans for conquest, but Durge refusing to become just like Orin, her tormentor she swore to kill, is a dealbreaker?

If she tells my Tav the bond they share is called alurlssrin, can I even believe her, when she said the same to Durge only to call them stupid for believing in love right after?

Do you see the problem here?

Do you see why people would rather this dialogue not exist, if this is what it does to her character?

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate iii #bg3 minthara #minthara #minthara baenre #minthara bg3 #nightwarden minthara #dark urge #durge #bg3 dark urge #bg3 durge #durge bg3 #durge x minthara #minthara x durge #tav x minthara #minthara x tav #like I said I'll be ignoring this dialogue and its implications #but it sucks that my interest in durge got shot out of the sky over this

[all-pacas]

Don't leave us in suspense! Drop the baldirs gate takes!

the one literally on my mind right now:

there is not a single good astarion/halsin story out there. like prove me wrong i guess, i haven't looked at all of them, but every single one i dip my toes into goes:

uwu poor baby astarion so sad

uwu halsin takes care of him and teaches him consent

uwu halsin is very paternalistic and teaches astarion how to sex

uwu he Big

and it drives me bonkers. like fandom has the habit of infantilizing astarion anyway, making him out to be a poor sad victim. like other people have pointed out the hilarious "man whose personal journey is gaining agency -> let's take away his agency" fanfic pipeline already, but for real!

rambling about how emotionally stunted astarion is under the cut:

he doesn't like to talk about his trauma, but he's also clear that it is trauma. he isn't in denial. he knows he's fucked up. and yes, when it comes to sex it's a bit more of a gray area, but he's a willing participant. he has a bunch of horny comments. he very much wants to hook up with someone at the goblin party, and WILL fuck lae'zel if tav doesn't romance either first. he tends to not enjoy sex as much as he THINKS he will and disassociates and knows his feelings are all fucked up around it, but he is NOT naive or in denial. he actually seems pretty self aware about it! he knows he forces himself through seductions, he knows he uses sex as a tool, he doesn't like either thing but he's been doing it for a long time. he's not naive.

he's also just. not. vulnerable? in general? like the man whines and complains, but he's one of the least emotional people in camp, in that he HATES expressing his real feelings. he doesn't talk about feelings. shadowheart, by way of contrast, is standoffish and doesn't open up easily, but IS able to pretty plainly state when she likes and trusts you. astarion? he has no idea. he will say this. he doesn't admit to liking anyone or anything, and yes, trauma, etc., etc., but he's also just kind of emotionally closed off. in general. anything that isn't superficial is shut down.

astarion actually goes pretty far out of his way to NOT be uwu vulnerable. he HATES being pitied and looked down on, or being perceived as such. CONSISTENTLY. he hates it when you tell him you'll protect him. he doesn't like being seen as weak. my favorite example: he doesn't actually approve of you offering to be his personal juice box after the first bite: he does approve of you agreeing with HIS plan to eat bandits. he doesn't like charity; he likes agency. he'll still take advantage, because he'll take what he can get, but it's REALLY telling he consistently prefers the answer that gives him agency (eating bandits) over the easier solution that doesn't (being fed at tav's discretion). with durge it's even more obvious. he says repeatedly: he wants to be in this TOGETHER. he wants them to rely on HIM. he very, very, very much does not want to be a kept toy.

i think there's also some ambiguity about him calling off sex in his romance. he's VERY clear that he enjoyed sex with tav and sees them as very attractive; it's just that (as he also says) he doesn't know how to have a relationship that isn't framed around sex as a tool and payment. that's re-enforced by his stated vulnerabilities once tav stops sleeping with him: he sees sex as his primary purpose/his looks as his only selling point, and he worries about tav hooking up with the drow twins (slightly) or halsin (more so) as a result. and yes, he has lots of other trauma and issues to unpack on top of it: but from the outset, he's pretty clear that he wants to figure out how to have feelings and a relationship in a non-sexual context. the other stuff exists TOO. many things can be true. it's just that he states, his stated reason for withdrawing, is wanting to sort out his feelings for TAV, not sort out his sexual trauma. again, both are true. but also: BOTH are true. he's not just a sad traumatized boy, he's also and equally trying to learn how to Relationship in a different way than he's used to.

so going back to halsin, who i'm not trying to demonize. all these FANFICS, man. halsin teaching astarion about uwu consent and taking care of him in a strong and paternal way. that's like. the last thing in the universe astarion would want. he'd go full cat exposed to water. and i'm not saying the ship can't happen or whatever, but it's such a common thread in the fanfics it drives me bonkers.

#bg3 astarion #bg3 hot takes #i guess #honestly loved this chance to ramble thank you feel free to ask more

[cutesalamander]

Shouting into the void (that is my following) cause my friends don't play bg3 and i need to rant >:|

Here is the situation: i create Tav thinking of playing how i will like it and choosing dialogue options like i would irl (not really but you get the point), i also want to romance Astarion cause i love him -> i play for a while and decide that actually Shadowheart has better chemistry with my Tav and i kind of want to romance her more -> now i have a problem cause i want to date her but i also want to deepen my relationship with Astarion -> maybe we can be besties- but what if that won't be possible and i accidentally hurt him?? -> i can't decide, i'm gonna install a mod to be able to romance them both -> but they deserve someone who will have eyes only for them :C and even if the mod makes dating both possible i still would feel too guilty to do it -> okay, plan B i'm just gonna create a Tav on my 2nd playthrough who will have better romantic chemistry with Astarion (the one with my current Tav sucks) and then romance him -> but it will take soooo long to finish my 1st playthrough -> okay fuck it i will wait, it would be boring to just play the game once and be done with it anyway, now i at least have a plan for the future run -> ok let's pray that the game will let me be besties with him while i romance my best girl Shadowheart

Yeah so that's that, now excuse me while i go and try to kill that goddamn Auntie Ethel Hag at level 4 with all my spell slots exhausted

#baldur’s gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #baldur's gate astarion #baldur's gate shadowheart #baldur's gate tav #shadowheart #astarion #baldurs gate astarion #baldurs gate shadowheart #astarion bg3 #my ramblings #baldur's gate 3 companions #bg3 romance #bg3 spoilers

[lunar-wandering]

Shadowheart AU

If not obvious this is a Shadowpeach centric AU. It’s mainly a comedy but the way I’m gonna lay this out is gonna make it feel like an angst AU at first purely because it makes the punchline funnier that way.

Anyways, so;

Macaque just straight up doesn’t speak for the first half of this AU, aka, all of the canon show thus far. He covers his mouth with his scarf, and does mumble sometimes, but it’s too quiet for anyone to hear.

Wukong, knowing that the Macaque that he knew would absolutely never shut up, is under the impression that this one is an imposter, aka someone pretending to be his dead friend. Macaque can’t tell him that this is not the case, as he refuses to speak.

Macaque does have a method of communication though. He uses note cards.

Wukong, in episode 9: there's no way that's the real Macaque, the Macaque I know would've NOT shut up while doing all this awful stuff Macaque: (pauses in the middle of being about to throw an attack, digs through his pockets, pulls out a piece of paper and yeets it at Wukong's face) Wukong: gAH- Wukong, peeling off the paper and looking at it: .... -(The paper says "You're a dumbass")- Wukong: ....did you fucking have this prewritten??? -(another piece of paper smacks Wukong in the face- this one having ‘YES’ written on it)-

Macaque has a heart shaped clip on his scarf, Wukong has a heart shaped clip in his hair. (Pictures of the designs will be at the bottom of this post)

Macaque’s clip turns blue when Lady Bone Demon partially possesses him, and when he’s freed by the Samadhi fire it turns grey and breaks in half, causing his scarf to come loose from around his shoulders, so he has to cling to it to prevent it from falling.

Wukong's clip shatters when he's possessed. His hair, normally kept in a braid in this AU, also ends up loose. (He continues to wear it mostly loose afterwards). When he's freed, Macaque rebraids that tiny bit and takes out one half of his heart clip thingy, and uses it in replacement of the one Wukong lost. The half a heart in Wukong's hair turns purple and the one Macaque puts back on his scarf turns golden pink.

Wukong was too tired to protest the action in the moment/was lost in thought over the idea of his old friend being alive and decided to indulge in the illusion for a bit, and then later he just... can't seem to want to get rid of the heart clip. He stares at it like "this isn't from the real Macaque, it's from an imposter" but still just, has this part of him that so desperately wants to believe in the illusion so he just... leaves it.

Post Lady Bone Demon's defeat, Wukong begrudgingly lets Macaque hang around even though he's still under the impression that he's, yknow, not the real Macaque. Even so though, he did help out, and MK is weirdly deciding to let him hang around, so Wukong lets him stay.

Wukong finds out Macaque is the real Macaque after seeing him sitting on Flower Fruit Mountain with his glamours down, playing with the monkeys like he used to. He promptly leaves for like, 4 days to process this revelation.

He also kicks a tree half way across the mountain during this time.

Okay. Time to reveal the main plot point. The reason Macaque doesn’t talk. Drumroll please.

Macaque is cursed to end every sentence with “I love you”.

Obviously since this is Macaque and he wouldn’t want to be caught dead saying “I love you” in ANY context, he decided to just shut up entirely.

This of course leads to scenes earlier in the AU such as;

Wukong: how dare you. how dare you impersonate him. do you know how much he meant to me? He was my world. Macaque, under his breath: tch, says the one that killed me- I love you Wukong, genuinely didn’t hear: w h a t?? Macaque, too flustered to do anything else: (punches Wukong in the face)

What’s REALLY fun about this AU is that in this AU specifically. Wukong’s love language is words. So after Macaque’s curse get’s revealed they’re both just dying 24/7.

It’s hysterical really. Like;

Wukong: i swapped your coffee with decaf mint flavoured tea Macaque: i fucking hate you, i love you Wukong: getting mixed messages but i love you too-

And then there's twenty seconds of silence and then Macaque has his head on the kitchen counter and is clinging trying to use it to keep himself from fully melting into the shadows and Wukong is putting his hands over his face and quickly walking away because he said "i love you too" on IMPULSE.

Wukong is the LAST PERSON to find out about the curse by the way. Everyone else found out about it because Macaque slipped up and said “Thank you, I love you.” when someone handed him something, and although the others thought nothing of it at first, Macaque immediately tried to backpedal and stumble his way out of what he just said, and since he has to end every sentence with “I love you” he basically ends up outing himself.

The way Wukong does find out about the curse is something in and of itself though.

Y’see, Macaque wanted to apologize to Wukong. For obvious reasons. He'd already done so for the others through doing requested favours and stuff and writing apologies to them but he had NO IDEA how he should start trying to apologize to Wukong.

So he goes to Sandy for advice, and, well, as it happens, Wukong happened to be secretly chilling on top of one of the crates on Sandy’s boat when this occurred.

Macaque: ........how do i tell Wukong I'm sorry -I love you? Sandy: well telling him you're sorry will probably take a while, you've had a long history with him and theres a lot to make up for, starting with smaller actions and favours first might work. Now though, telling him you love him would take quite a bit longer- Macaque: thATS NOT WHAT I MEANT THAT WAS THE CURSE AND YOU KNOW IT- I LOVE YOU Sandy, patting Macaque on the head: mhm yep i love you too lil monkey

Wukong falls off the crate he was sitting on and down into the water, but neither Sandy nor Macaque notices.

Wukong tries to just ignore it at first. Macaque starts doing small chores and favours around Flower Fruit Mountain and Wukong tries his absolute best to pretend that this is normal.

Eventually this accumulates to Wukong forcing Macaque to verbally apologize to him on his doorstep, except this backfires horribly because hearing the first “I love you” being technically directed at him absolutely murders him on the spot. Macaque doesn’t even notice Wukong break over it because he himself gets so flustered after two sentences that he instinctively teleports away.

Them actually talking through their issues actually takes at least a week because they both keep getting distracted by Macaque’s curse and have to take hour long breaks after only a couple minutes of conversation.

There’s a couple more things other than that but I think I’ll stop this post here by saying that when they kiss each other they leave behind little heart shaped marks on each others faces.

Oh. One last thing actually.

Once they get back together, Wukong calls Macaque “his Shadowheart” in this AU.

Anyways here’s the low quality design notes I have for this AU.

#Monkie Kid #Shadowheart AU #shadowpeach

[atsadi-shenanigans]

Feeding Alligators 47 - Soul Jar

Decisions, decisions…and none of them good.

Trigger warning: suicidal ideation.

On AO3.

You don’t look at nobody as y’all set up camp that afternoon. Wyll is moving and speaking, but still weak. Shadowheart monitors him between starting a campfire. Karlach hovers around, unable to settle in any one spot too long, either looking at him all anxious, or you with big, sad eyes.

Astarion fucks right off without saying a word to nobody. Hopefully he’s out hunting something.

And Lae’zel…

Gale is brewing what turns out to be the very last batch of blood potion. After everybody got settled in, and the mummy man just fucking emerged from the shadows to loiter at the edge of camp—Gale went over and had a long discussion with him. Must be nice to be able to look into the hollow sinus cavity of the guy you’re speaking to without screaming and flinching away. In the end, Withers does confirm the evil bottle will in fact hold your soul, so he starts prepping for whatever the fuck that entails. He wants you to guzzle down another blood potion right before, but supplies are running low, and Astarion ain’t here, and Lae’zel flat out refuses to help.

“The useless istik will live or die on her own strength,” she says, loud enough y’all catch it. “I will waste my time no more.”

Gale looks to you, but there ain’t shit you can do about it, so you just shrug. She’s right to cut you loose. You fucked that up and ran like a bitch. So much for being some kinda leader.

“I believe between Withers, Shadowheart, and myself,” Gale says, “we can successfully summon your soul to this plane and bind it here. We, ah, don’t have many other options.”

Because you got maybe three more blood potions left and then off your soul goes.

“Okay,” you say.

Gale looks at you. Squints slightly. There’s something to him, the stiff way he’s holding himself, that sets alarm bells clanging.

“What?” you say.

“I…I thought we would have more time to prepare,” he says. “Both to gather supplies, and to, well, to let you ready yourself.”

He’s waffling. You already feel like shit scraped off the heel of somebody’s boot. You don’t mean to snap, but your control and your manners are frayed. “Yeah, and? It there a point here?”

And the man looks at you with such grim pity, you’re sure he’s gonna say it ain’t gonna work.

“I’ve been researching on my own,” he says. “My sources are rather limited, but I did study soulwork and astral travel with, ah, anyway. I have full confidence we can do this, as long as you’re up to it. But you do understand that it requires magic to perform?”

He waits for an answer. Seems important, though you cannot fathom why.

“Uh huh?”

“If what you say is correct about your plane, Ay-yarth doesn’t have much, if any, access to the Weave, strange as that sounds to my ear.”

He stares. You stare back.

And it clicks. Oh how it clicks.

“I can’t just pop the cork on that jar if I get home, can I?” you say.

“There isn’t much theory in that field. It could very well settle into you again, as it’s meant to. It may be an instinctive thing, once you’re back in your own realm.”

But.

“But it might fly off into space again,” you say. “Because, what, it’s all destabilized now?”

He nods.

You’re sitting criss-cross on the ground. The sun shines down warm and the breeze smells of leaves and green, growing things. The sky is blue, with happy clouds puffing along as Shadowheart helps Wyll sit up so he can take a drink of water, while Karlach sits about ten feet away, shredding grass with her talons.

“You’re telling me we gotta do this today,” you say.

“It…seems most prudent, yes.”

“And if we don’t, and I run outta potion, I die or whatever.”

He nods again.

“But if we do do this, and I, by some motherfucking miracle, find a way back home, I still gotta carry my soul around because it still might fly off into space.”

“I’m…not sure it would even be wise to travel across the planes once it’s been transferred.”

The forbidden carry-on. Well.

“I am sorry, Eleanor. Truly. I wish I bore you better news.”

You wave, all distracted. “Ain’t your fault. Y’all been going outta your way to help me this whole time, and I appreciate it. How long does this take to set up?”

He takes a breath, hands folded behind his back. “Not long. We would give you a sleep draught—of which I have a few—so for you, it can happen as soon as you lie down.”

Magical surgery. Neat-o.

You nod. Push yourself up and both your knees creak. You feel heavy and slow. No energy, everything in your body vaguely hurting.

“I’m gonna take a walk,” you say.

Gale’s head dips in a bow. “Of course. Take all the time you need. And whatever you decide, we’ll be here for you.”

He’s a good dude, even if he did eat your very first ring. You put a little effort into your smile as you brush past him to head down towards the river y’all set up next to.

***

You made yourself stop caring about some “afterlife” years ago. If God is a bitch who don’t deserve nothing, then heaven and hell and all that shit can go get fucked right alongside him. You don’t do woo-woo shit anymore.

But you always liked the idea of seeing Grandpa again. Of meeting your dad, maybe. Of seeing your ancestors and finding wherever they went once they left.

Somehow, you don’t think your soul is gonna make it across the space-time continuum between here and Earth to ever see that, if it’s even real.

You can die. Or you can stay here. Forever. Away from your friends, away from Uncle Randy and your aunties (they’re technically cousins, but eh) and all your little third and fourth cousins. You ain’t never gonna catch fireflies or sit on Uncle Randy’s porch, giving him shit for smoking. You ain’t never gonna see your apartment or listen to the rain with Christmas lights twinkling and a mug of cocoa in your hand.

Never catch up on any of your shows or movies. Never listen to a podcast ever again. Never hum along with a favorite song because you ain’t never gonna hear your people’s music again.

Never hear English.

Never learn more Cherokee.

You start sobbing at some point. You’re seated in a hollow among tree roots next to a stream. You can’t stay upright anymore.

You’ll never go to a cafe or a library. No more pizza. No blackberry mochas. Stir fry. Fry bread. Biscuits and chocolate gravy. Fucking ice cream. You will never find a funny meme or have to explain an internet video to your relatives.

Never text Sasha again. Never hear her voice. You’ll forget what she and all the others look like, what they sound like. You’ll forget all the people you love except for their names—

You can die. Or you can lose everything except your fading memories and your own skin. Stuck in a place where you can’t speak the language. Where you don’t understand the clothing. Can’t cook the food. Can’t even read a book or tell a joke because the strangers around you won’t understand why a boat stuck in a canal is so goddamn funny.

The hyperventilating kicks in. You’re far enough from camp you can’t hear the others. You can risk making noise, even if it’s shameful bawling.

Ain’t no one to see or hear you, no one to stop yourself from clawing at your own hair or hitting your head against the dirt. Nobody to point out the wet mess of your face.

Just you and the golden sunshine.

It’d be easy to die. Wouldn’t have none of these worries, no more, and wouldn’t be around to care if Astarion friendship-dumped you and Lae’zel was down with letting you die. No more nasty potions. No more sleeping on hard ground with a rock wedged into your hip. No goblins or brainworms or murder or devils. No more goddamn decisions. No more horrible fucking waiting for the decision to be wrong and for that other shoe to finally, inevitably just fucking drop already.

And if your soul is still on Earth, or closer or whatever woo woo bullshit this all is, maybe if you kick it here and now, it can find its way back.

You don’t want to die. You’re just kinda tired of being alive.

Gale said this was risky. It might not even be up to you in the end, huh?

And that gives you some fucked up comfort. Small, weak, but there. All you have to do is walk back, drink one last, goddamn potion, and lie down. Let what happens happen.

You look over the silver glimmering of the water dancing in the light. Your ancestors went to water to cleanse themselves. Probably not a bad idea. Live or die, at least you can do it clean of spectator guts.

***

The sun skims the treetops by the time you come back. Gale is deep in conversation with Shadowheart. Karlach notices you first. Comes bounding over and opens her arms to kind of hover her hands near your sides.

God, you want to hug her for real.

“How’re you feeling, soldier?” she says. “Up for this wizard shit?”

You’re quite numb, actually. But you throw her a thumbs up and a, “Let’s do this.”

“Fuck yeah, that’s the spirit! Gale told us what he told you. You’re a mean, clever little thing. You got this.”

Shit, she’s kinda worth staying for.

Gale has optimistically laid out a bedroll for you near the fire. Karlach has apparently punched her tent poles around that bedroll and set up a canopy over the whole thing (minus the fire).

“Thank you,” you say.

She does that head-duck shrug thing again.

Gale and Shadowheart meet you at the edge of the magical operating theater.

“Ready?” he says.

No.

“Sure,” you say.

It ain’t really your choice no more.

You lay down. Wiggle around until you’re at least kind of comfortable.

Wyll has propped himself up on his pack so he can give you a smile. He says, “For moral support.”

And then Karlach looms over you again, and she’s got that raggedy teddy bear, Clive.

“I thought,” she says. Shuffles. “Thought this might do you more good than me right now.”

That plucks something in you. Baby soft, thinner than spider silk, but it’s there, and it’s touched. She has to drop it on you so she don’t get too close and burn off your eyebrows. Clive’s a bit charred, a bit tacky from whatever she puts on him to keep him from lighting up, and he smells of sulfur and grease.

You tuck him into the crook of your arm.

“Right,” Gale says. And you been so busy watching all the others you didn’t notice Withers lurking in. You only jump a little, this time. “Eleanor, we’re going to give you a sleeping potion. Should knock you right out. I don’t know what this will be like for you, but we will do all we can. Try not to lose yourself, and hopefully, the potion and our spells will draw you back here, yes?”

You nod.

Shadowheart kneels and holds up a bottle. You feel cold all over, super detached. Death or exile. One of them’s gonna happen.

“Bottom’s up,” you say and slam it down.

For some godforsaken reason, this one tastes like motherfucking cotton candy.

“What the shit,” you sputter. Try to grimace. But a cool hand slips over yours to hold it and you…

#feeding alligators fic #these two shitheads #tavstarion #astarion x tav #isekai #slow burn #it's getting dark #angst with a happy ending #tav is really going through the shit right now

[blackjackkent]

What the Kentucky fried FUCK is going on over in this corner of the circus?

"Lucille! It's pose, grapevine, *then* pivot step. Jacob - you have the grace of my great-grandmother's missing leg. And Boris. BORIS. Put some *sensuality* into those lovely hip bones! I know you have it in you. Step. It. Up!"

Boris is trying his best, bless him.

I kind of love this. I checked the wiki and this is apparently the ringmaster of the circus; her name is Lucretious. She is both coded as a drag queen and voiced by one - a queen named Vinegar Strokes who was apparently on the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race. (I double-checked pronouns because I know people who do drag tend to have varied opinions on how they want to be referred to; both BG3 wiki and the VA's wikipedia page use "she".)

Anyway, Lucretious has tons of energy and I love her. Hector, meanwhile, continues to be INCREDIBLY overstimulated and bewildered by the entire circus experience.

"Is this a circus act?" he asks politely.

"We are *decades* from that," Lucretious says in exasperation. "I hoped they could open for Dribbles - not that my star needs the support - but at this rate, who knows?"

She looks him up and down and then gives him a slow smile. "Call me Lucretious - ringmaster, necromancer, Bringer of the Night - oh, and wine-lover extraordinaire." She raises her eyebrows playfully at him. "Normally I'd invite you into my tent for a... lovely vintage, but these graceless skellies need my full attention. Enjoy my circus, darling!"

-----

OK, we're back to business as usual on people flirting with Hector. XD And, as usual, Hector completely misses the point.

"Isn't that nice," he says to no one in particular. "She wanted to share a wine with me. Perhaps we should come back later."

Shadowheart just facepalms and Karlach laughs. "She wanted something with you, that's for certain."

He blinks, then blinks again, and then the penny drops. "Oh. Oh!" A pause. "Oh. Shit." He flushes bright red.

Jaheira snorts behind him. "I do not think you have anything to worry about with this one, Karlach," she says dryly.

#bjk plays baldur's gate 3 #hector carlisle

[moghedien]

so when I was finishing the game last night, I did both possible endings with Lae'zel and saved right when I could make the choice so that I could reload if I wanted, and I was like "you pick" the first time and so got the dragon rider ending with her and part of me was immediately unsure because the immediate vibes were kinda weird and whatnot but the thing that actually made me reload was that KARLACH FUCKING DIED AFTER WE LEFT AND I TOLD HER I WOULD STAY WITH HER

anyway just from a vibes standpoint I rather the "stay in Faerun" ending with Lae'zel because it does feel less like she's going from one extreme to another and just taking a fucking break for the first time ever. like she could theoretically get back to kicking Vlaakith's ass at some point in the future but like let my girl have a little snooze and hatch an egg first. and also her tone when she was staying felt more like her choosing her freedom than her "this is my glorious duty" tone she had before. like her act 3 romance scene tone vs her like talking about githyanki propaganda tone. but also Karlach isn't fucking dead now

basically I just know now not to let my companions ever make their own choices because I'm still regretting letting Shadowheart choose what she wanted to do and she KILLED HER PARENTS

#but also like damn why is it that I can let Shadowheart and Lae'zel choose their crazy decisions #but I get absolutely no option to let Wyll make his own decisions when it comes to what to do about Mizora? #like what the fuck was that why was I the one deciding for him? #like there wasn't even an option to let him make his own decision #lae'zel #bg3 #baldur's gate 3

[gryffintheparrotcat]

Hot take but bg3 doesn't have the awesome replayability it claims to have.

To get the most obvious point out the way first: 17,000 endings? Pure marketing there is like 5 unique endings and the rest is tiny details that don't change ending scenes. Realistically after you've seen one tav and one durge ending and made one of em good and one evil, you won't be replaying just for the other 3 endings.

And you won't replay for the sidequests and their outcomes either. How many sidequests are there in Act 1? How many in Act2? Barely any if any at all, almost of them link back to the mainquest and change with it so you've probably already seen it in your first good & evil playthroughs. And if they don't (namely Auntie Ethel, Baelen & Derryth , Omeluum and Zhentarim) they are short and only become relevant again in Act 3. Act 3 the place of endless amounts of sidequests that all boil down to 'defeat this boss' and then never affect anything else. You can do these quests in literally any fucking order and they will not change anything. The only order needed is murder tribunal -> Orin and Iron Throne -> Steel watch -> Gortash. And both of these can be fully or partially skipped depending on if you want to save the Gondians and if you're Durge.

And let's entirely be honest here, as fun as it is to make a new tav or durge concept, once you know the endings and some few major choices, you know how their story will play out. Do I start those playthroughs anyways? Yes. Did I finish any of them yet? No, I struggle to find a reason why I should if I can already predict how the major story beats will play out, I spend most of my time making a new character with trying to find a way to combine an interesting tav idea with a companion I haven't romanced before or with a specific major choice for a companion that I haven't played before.

Which brings me to actually reasons to replay the game:

1) Romancing a different companion, because that's literally the only way to get to know them. Except romancing a different companion doesn't change anything major except some parts of the ending epilogue dialogue, so you'll be replaying the exact same playthrough again but this time you romance Gale instead of Wyll and get 3 new scenes you haven't seen before in a total of what? 100 playhours?. But for each companion there are story changing choices too, only changes like 2 scenes with said companion and nothing else, but wouldn't you want to see those too?. Alright another 100 hours except this time the choices only change 1 scene and happen 50hrs into the exact same playthrough as your previouse Astarion romance.

And nr 2) trying out builds. Because you can't actually try out combos in Act 3, both because there is a very finite amount of enemies with very specific weaknesses and resistances and because some build changing items are in previous acts and you can't go back. If you want to try out a build you best hope you have the perfect coincidental save to reload to (and lose all progress or not save the changes... fun) or you better prepare to replay the entire damn game just to try out if 6 levels paladin and 6 levels sorcerer work well together or not. And the companions don't help here either. We have two humans, five elves (with 2 wood 2 high 2 half elves, yay!) a githyanki and a tiefling. How many of these actually have unique racial features? Your build would work better with halfling luck or duegar invisibility? Tough luck. Make a new tav. Most of the time first 5 levels aren't even worth multiclassing at unless you want to make the game unnecessarily difficult, dragging your new playthrough out even longer.

I have 600 playhours and I still don't know anything about Lae'zel, Shadowheart or Karlach because my romance runs for them are all not past Act 1 yet. And it doesn't matter how fun it feels to have a powerful build in act 3 or how fun it is to find a new story possibility. If I have to go spend like 50hrs to reach the part that's interesting. Even worse when I can't be bothered to loot things anymore, leading to me missing out on vital loot all because I didn't want to turn the stone at the grove for the 12th time. My choice here is get burned out from turning every rock every time or burn out because skipping through everything, making it unnecessarily hard, blocking potential builds and missing quests/dialogue/etc ruins the whole roleplay part that would motivate me to make a new playthrough in the first place.

Not to mention the fact that I'm struggling to make the character creator fun, it's always been lacking options but with 20 playthroughs open to go, I've already used all of them. I'm trying to choose a different face and hairstyle (gave up on makeup and body art being unique a hot while ago) for each character to make them unique but with all elves sharing faces and all half elves sharing faces and already having used at least 2 face from each race it's starting to look pretty samey here. And I'd love to use a ton of mods but the game by itself already breaks when it's update time.

The point is that no matter how much the game likes to pretend, choices don't matter that much, not in the character creator, not in the story, at best a little in who you romance but even then the difference is a few scenes. This is only made worse by larian confirming that the evil run is purposfully so short and lacking because "it's supposed to feel bad. You killed these people, now you miss out on their questlines." I'm here to explore different story outcomes, not to be punished for picking options the game gave me! An evil playthrough can be made to feel bad without punishing the player for picking an option you gave them. Not to mention the fact that there is barely any way if any way at all to be more nuanced? All options are either heroically good or comically evil, if you're lucky you get the third option to do good but ask for payment... yay... I'm sure that will totally not play exactly like the good playthrough.

The game is fun, hell I have 600 playhours. Not all of them where spent in burn out limbo. But I could've easily stopped at 150hrs after finishing my good tav and evil durge and I wouldn't have missed much.

#bg3 critical #larian critical

[ex-textura]

well a little later than i expected but NO MATTER hello friend tav info dump you say I'm so sorry for the novel this is about to become

I mean you do already know of Vic, half orc eldritch knight with a martyr complex the size of the city. Grew up in Baldur's Gate, genuinely a really nice childhood he's got two younger siblings and lovely parents and I'm not positive in what way he got his soldier background but the boy is always a soldier of some kind (maybe a Fist? it's hand wavy). He was a whopping 21 when he got scooped up by the nautaloid and decidedly does not want to be a main character but shit keeps happening and Vic is gonna die protecting his friends or Vic is never gonna die

He's always been real into magic but didn't think of himself of the Wizardy Type growing up, and then the local wizard took the time to teach him magic and there was a very good reason he had a very big crush on Gale. It was Gale who pushed him onto the eldritch knight track specifically and Vic might not get the finer points of all the theory and technical jargon but that's fine he has a genuinely very good teacher

and then y'know. Wyll happened. and godsdamnit Wyll you were supposed to be the Unattainable Paragon of Justice and way too good for me but then he was just a guy with a determination to protect people as strong as Vic's own and this way of talking that sounded like he was constantly half a step away from writing an epic and maybe there was a bit too much wine at the grove party that led to a lot more self-confidence than Vic ever has but that kinda. happened. (the psuedo-breakup with Gale after the fact was not fun for anyone involved but ??? was that actually anything Gale there had been absolutely no conversation about it, they do eventually get back to actual good friend and there's the moment of Gale telling him "For the sake of absolute transparency, I may have slept with Astarion" and Vic choking on his dinner but they're friends again)

Karlach is the bestie from the very start. In their first little heart-to-heart by the fire there did have to be the "hey, so you know I'm like. really gay, right?" conversation, but from that point on she is constantly giving him enthusiastic thumbs up over Wyll's shoulder and the teasing is relentless. She clocked his formal training the first time they fought together and the soldier nickname is Incredibly fitting, they fight very well together and are both very physical people which is unfortunate before Dammon manages to cool the engine down. (Wyll has a "secret" scoreboard in the back of one of his books of the number of times Vic has forgotten, punched Karlach's shoulder, and burned himself. An additional category was started for "bad enough that Shadowheart had to heal it") She fully died in Grymforge, like got knocked down and then pushed into lava, and he had to pay Withers to bring her back and that was. not a good day at all, when she was back and mostly focused again Vic just preemptively called Shadowheart over so he could give Karlach a (very very quick) actual hug

he just wanted the tadpole out So Bad, bad enough he ended up with a magical eye for the troubles. Vic never touched the tadpole powers, figuring if he couldn't manage with his own sword and magic it wasn't worth doing anyway. The boy is decidedly in favor of relying on your own abilities, having seen far too many cases of the gods or others granting powers get petty, use them as leverage, strip them away on a whim, etc. fuck the gods, tbh, very glad we stopped Gale from becoming one or making one even more powerful

had to break his little sister out of the Iron Throne along with his future father-in-law and the only mind flayer he respects, because his little brother is unfortunately a very talented artificer and the job at the foundry seemed so good at the time. another No Good Very Bad Day, they got out of that place by the skin of their teeth and Vic is decidedly afraid of deep water now

Freed Orpheus because fuck the emperor that's an entire race enslaved by this litch, and then it is only by the stubbornness of his friends chipping away at that martyr complex this whole time that he realized turning into a mind flayer himself might. not be the immediate best answer (but also no fucking way is Karlach going to do it either)

It was So Much he's just a baby boy, he never wanted to be the protagonist, but now he's gotta go maybe kill the archdevil of Avernus with his two favorite people in what is the weirdest fucking honeymoon ever (it doesn't count wyll insists constantly we are not married yet, he knows it doesn't count)

i'll stop now (with This One......) because god that was in fact a novel but [holds him up like simba] baby boy. baby.

VIC!!!! IT'S VIC!!! MY HALF-ORC LOVE ITS HIM!!! Ugh I'm not even gonna pretend to be normal about him I'm sorry.

He's so goddamn cute with Wyll they're so beautiful together. I want. To see more. Of them. And him. Bleese.

Oh my god I love his dynamic with Karlach. I can just picture them rolling around like siblings and being the absolute best bros. Just. The wholesome-est trio with them and Wyll honestly.

IN THE LAVA OF ALL THINGS?! God that's like. Painfully poetic in a way. I hate it but of all the things to kill Karlach. God. I'm so glad he had Withers. And that he could give her all the hugs and shoulder punches in the world once she got fixed.

HIS LITTLER SISTER WAS ON THE IRON THRONE?! Man, fuck you Gortash. Where is she now? Is she safe? Did they have a big heartfelt reunion? does she love Wyll?

How's he doing in Avernus?? Did he get to come up for the reunion?

WHEN ARE THEY GETTING MARRIED?!

#bg3 #asks #other people's ocs

[theurgic-necromancer]

Jack of Hearts - How does your muse view their friends, both old and new?

Card Suits

((He cares them all very much :)

His old friends are people he spent a lot of time traveling with, getting to know them and coming to like them. ...For the most part. There are a couple of companions he never really liked. Often because they often antagonized other people he liked for no good reason, or in one particular case, were actively manipulating someone who was fairly naive to the ways of the world. And also happened to be someone he liked lmao

Still, he cares deeply for his old friends, and hates to think about how many of them are likely dead of old age. (Because he's optimistic enough to hope they all lived very long and fruitful lives, no matter what they chose to do.) It would be nice to reconnect with the ones who are still alive, but that's likely going to be an undertaking and a half on its own.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about individual companions because, well. There's like... I want to say 31 potential companions between the first two games? So I'm not going to bother going over his relationships with Every Single One in this post. Feel free to send asks about them, though.

His new friends he's still getting to know, but he likes them! They've all got their charms, even despite their flaws.

He likes Gale a lot! Fellow wizard who knows his stuff and was willing to set him up with a new spellbook and help him re-learn how to do magic in this day and age. You mean he doesn't need to individually memorize each spell he wants to cast in a day? Fuck yeah, that's so much easier. They've hung out and chatted about everything from magical theory to cooking, and Sayran has been a very avid listener which Gale appreciates. Sayran has no idea that Gale has developed a bit of a crush on him.

He clicked with Astarion remarkably quickly lmao. What can I say, he's always had a thing for rogues. He does recognize that Astarion is kind of duplicitous and was maybe a little bit suspicious of him at first... but after finding out he's a vampire he's actually not all that suspicious of him anymore. Like, sure, the guy's clearly trying to manipulate him, but Sayran is reasonably confident that he's not angling to betray them all. And anyway, he's traveled with a vampire before. He knows the drill.

He likes and respects Lae'zel. Her bluntness and tendency to get straight to the point is honestly a little refreshing. And her commitment to getting them all cured of this whole mind flayer infection is actually a little touching? She's the most compassionate githyanki he's ever met—which is admittedly not a very high bar to clear, but the point still stands. He trusts her with his life, which is good because she knows about the Slayer form.

He and Shadowheart get along surprisingly well. Even moreso since both of them revealed they know the others' secrets: that Shadowheart is a priestess of Shar, and that Sayran is a Bhaalspawn. Shadowheart is the only one so far who's managed to figure that out on her own. There's a certain mutual understanding between them. While Shadowheart is open with the group about her worship (kinda got dragged out into the open regardless of her attempts to hide it), she also understands Sayran's desire to keep his heritage secret and is willing to help keep it under wraps.

He had Karlach for less than a day and he instantly liked her. She's just so... fun and excitable and full of life! It's hard not to like her. Also he is reasonably certain that the only thing keeping her from hauling him around like a sack of potatoes is the fact that she would literally set him on fire.

Wyll... he likes him, for the most part. However, he has one rather big, glaring flaw: his tendency to view the world in shades of black and white, Good™️ vs Evil™️. He's a little wary of Wyll possibly turning on him (or Zia) out of a misguided desire to purge the world of evil—and what could possibly be more Evil™️ than the half-mortal child of the Lord of Murder? On the other hand, he knows Zia and is very clearly fond of her, so he can't exactly bring himself to hate the guy outright.

And speaking of Zia! She is firmly in the category of Beloved Niece, and he lowkey wants nothing more than to dote on and spoil her like he should have been doing to her whole family line damn it. There is a bit of wistfulness there, a desire to hang onto her as the only living remnant of his now-dead sister. But also he's just... curious about her! He wants to get to know her as a person, on her own merits. Because it wouldn't be fair to her or Imoen to treat her like a replacement. And hey, if he can lend her a hand in dealing with some of the awful instincts she's inherited as a Bhaalspawn, all the better.))

#Anonymous #whispers from the beyond (asks) #!meme responses #!headcanons #((there's something ironic about a good guy who trusts the evil characters more than his fellow good guy lmao))

[acespaceacepilot]

Genuinely the academia fic makes me want to read every poem you cited!! Oh my god. Obviously I looked up Staying Quiet and I had a moment of stunned silence and wonder that you specifically knew the poem and exactly where it would be at home. Insane. Also reminded me of other great academia AUs in that now I almost want to write my english lit end of semester essays, thank you for the motivation. Anyway I'm here and not in the AO3 comment section because in the author's note at the start you mentioned having planned out what the characters would be doing and since you were on point with what you showed I am so so curious what else you've got for this setting 👀 in any case thank you so much <3

up top, thank you so much!! amongst my friends, i am a known poetry heaux. i go to poetry readings and feel my feelings; my partner got me a necklace that's engraved with a buddy wakefield quote. i have one of his collections signed to me. i fucking Love poetry.

hieu minh nguyen is one of my personal favorites and something was pinging around in my skull being like "hey! listen! there's a poem from them that perfectly fits astarion!" it fell Perfectly into place, shout out to my adhd background thoughts that were So Sure that hieu minh nguyen's poem should be there.

i'm going to put the rest below the cut, because. i have A Lot of thoughts and feelings

let's start with what i directly used in all my visions converted to blurs:

wyll is a low-rung english professor at a state school when he Could be at an ivy league bc of his dad’s nepotism. but wyll doesn't want a position his dad gets him, obvi. i want wyll to want to be out of his father's shadow, damn it.

(ulder is dean of a business school at an ivy league in my mind. it just fits. as a person with an english/linguistics degree: ulder ravengard has hella business major energy.)

astarion has taken a year or four off from school at this point. i hinted at substance abuse being the main reason that it's taken him so long to graduate from the law program? when he was the same age as his classmates, i think he partied A Lot and ended up having to retake some classes during his undergrad. i think i landed on coke being his chosen vice? idk it's vague for a reason. he's trying to get his life back on track

wyll and gale share an office space.

now here's what i left on the cutting room floor:

astarion is Still older than wyll, but not by more than six years

mizora is head of the english department. wyll has to play nice bc he's waiting to defend his dissertation and she'll be on the panel. she uses this to push her work or responsibilities onto wyll

lae'zel is doing her doctorate in anthropology/paleoanthropology. she's researching ancient war strategies and how social norms impacted them.

minthara is lae'zel's advisor because they'd have a Great dynamic. she specializes in biological anthropology. she can ball park which century any given human skull comes from.

shadowheart is working on her doctorate of psychology and specifically writing her dissertation profiling the susceptibility of cult victims mixed with religious studies to compile information about modern worship

1000000000% there are rumors about shadowheart's personal experience with cults. people say she goes by shadowheart so the cult she escaped from can't find her. she's heard every joke in the book about midsommar. there's some frat boy in the greek row that swears up and down that she bit his buddy hard enough to draw blood when they hooked up.

halsin and jaheira do ecology and agriculture, respectively. environmental sciences people. they both have tenure. halsin runs an internship for wetland management in the summer. jaheira is like a leading expert in soil science.

jaheira told mizora she was a bitch during a whole university department head meeting once and that's why halsin's the department head now.

minsc is literally just a coach. he does not teach Any classes and hangs out with the university's mascot Constantly. he coaches rugby and crew in the summer, basketball in the winter.

gale is a double discipline professor for history and cultural anthropology. So Close to getting tenure. his rate my professor score is mid as hell bc students either love or hate him because boy does this man drone onnnnnnnnnn

he's been on like four different digs in egypt and will talk about them at length but does that thing of "my second time in cairo. wait.... no. it was my Third time in cairo."

i posted this on twitter, but here's the couch lore: the couch in their office is a hand me down from gale's apartment because tara scratched it to hell on the corner of the armrests + the reason why the couch doesn't have any throw pillows is because gale didn't want to be tempted to nap and he already has a terrible time maintaining a work life balance

karlach is in sports medicine. she coaches the track team and works with weightlifters that have olympic aspirations. she was good enough to go to the last summer games for weightlifting, but an accident with a treadmill that she doesn't like to talk about prevented her from going.

she still has beef with gortash because he was on the shortlist for open spot availability.

she's Convinced that he's on steroids

#lana talks #'behind the music' for all my visions converted to blurs #look i built this whole sandbox in my mind but only used a shovel and one of those molds you press sand into? #if that metaphor makes sense

[thessalian]

Astrid vs the Nautiloid Vessel

First, meet Astrid:

Bard extraordinaire, and the closest I've ever been able to come to the original Astrid when I was playing WoD lo these many years ago. Astrid was my way of exploring the WoD's dark grittiness on very different terms than the usual; most people lean into the dark broodingness of it all, so I made the most cheerful and optimistic person alive, partly to see how much she could take. I did not expect the response I got to her - nearly everybody absolutely adored her, and got a little bit surprised by how subtly nasty she could get to actual threats. She's the one who had the time-delayed rote that would have any vampire who tasted her blood feel like their blood was on fire ... and would feel like their blood was on fire when they tasted any blood for three months. Her take on it: "I warned them..."

Anyway. On with the liveblog.

Scene: a burning Nautiloid ship:

Lae'zel: RAAA KILL YOU, THRALL!

Astrid: Um ... no thank you?

Mind-Sharing Thing: *happens*

Lae'zel: It is ... abominably cheerful, in your head. And what is that?!?

Astrid: You ... know what they are. I mean, technically an intellect devourer, but I helped them, so they're nice to me. Then again, that might have something to do with having treated the haematoma that had them too swollen for the skull they were in, and since I couldn't fix the whole ... being an intellect devourer now thing, I settled for a little bit of medical treatment. I think I might have made them a little more docile during the procedure but I didn't mean to...

Lae'zel: Please. Stop.

Astrid: Oh. Sorry. Anyway, this is Us. Us, meet ... Lae'zel? Am I pronouncing that right?

Lae'zel: *glares*

Astrid: Manners are a thing!

Lae'zel: Ugh. No matter how ... insufferably nice you are, you might at least be of some use to get to the helm. I don't need to run faster than the abominations; I just need to run faster than you. Now help me deal with the imps.

Astrid: ...Okay. *turns to imps; voice goes Vicious Mockery resonance* A PLAGUE RAT FUCKED YOUR MOM!

Imp: *straight up dies*

Lae'zel: ......................

Astrid: This is why I'm nice to people. If I'm not ... that can sometimes happen.

Lae'zel: ...noted.

Later:

Lae'zel: Why are you rooting around this place like some kind of deranged pack rat?

Astrid: I don't know how it works where you're from, but most of the places we're probably going to escape to tend to want money for important things like ... you know, food. Anyway, there's that one lady banging on the pod over there and I want to find a rune that fits that machine...

Lae'zel: What did I tell you about touching things?!?

Astrid: She's trapped! You saw what happened to the last one! This one's at least responding! ...Plus she has an awful lot of really great curse words I'm looking forward to fitting into my repertoire...

Lae'zel: We have no time for this, you--

Astrid: ...and if you let me finish, look at her armour! Her circlet! She is a cleric! Tell me that a cleric wouldn't come in handy right now!

Lae'zel: ...Ugh, fine.

Astrid: *finds rune; frees Shadowheart*

Shadowheart: You keep dangerous company.

Astrid: *raises eyebrows, gestures at the absolute carnage all over the place*

Shadowheart: Fair point. We stand a better chance together.

Lae'zel: You will follow my orders!

Astrid; Shadowheart: How about no?

Lae'zel: ...Hate you both.

Later still, at the helm

Lae'zel: Get to the helm! I'll hold these creatures!

Shadowheart: How about we listen to the suicidal warrior-gith, hmm?

Astrid: Ummmmm ... nope. *Vicious Mockery Voice* HEY! YOU! I'M TALKING TO YOU, YOU STRAWBERRY-COLOURED MOCKERY OF A HELLSPAWN!

Imp: *straight-up dies like the last one*

Shadowheart: ........Or you can keep yelling insults until everything around us is dead. That works too.

Several dead imps later

Lae'zel: I won't reach that in time; it's too far!

Astrid: Nyoom! *dashes over and connects a thing*

Lae'zel: ...what the--?

Astrid: That one imp's father was a plague-rat; mine was a wood elf. Now let's-- Oop.

Dragon: *breathes fire at basically everything*

Astrid: Oh nuts... Okay, maybe it works like lute strings... *twangs single connected bit of tentacle weird*

Nautiloid Vessel: *blinks into existence over some beachy area or other, dropping parasite infectees like confetti*

Astrid: Oh nuts-- *is hit on head with rock and knocked out of ship* shouldvelearnedfeatherfallshouldvelearnedfeatherfall yeeeeek!

#Thess liveblogs Baldur's Gate 3 #Astrid the Bard #Baldur's Gate 3 spoilers

[utterdrip]

hello im back (that anon who cant play bg3 herself but needs to Explode dekarios-style over her tav and astarion)

i wrote a full ask for axelias backstory to provide context but then i realized how long the ask would get . so here i am with half of what i need to rant over AJSJSJA

ANYWAYS axelia (my rogue tiefling who was a street urchin) and astarion are absolutely enemies to lovers in the same way shadowheart and lae'zel would be enemies to lovers !! they initially hate each other w a Passion but thats before they realize how eerily similar they are w their experiences and outlooks, and how the other can only really begin to understand why they behave the way they do

initially axelia hates astarion bc she has Issues with political figures (the start of her Trauma is bc of one bribed politician that fucked her already poor family over .) and while she wouldnt admit it easily she had a bias AJSJAJAJJ the only thing she really cared about when she got out of the nautiloid was to get back to her younger sister (hope). astarion would pick up on the friction pretty quickly and sass her right back the most to the point where its honestly a routine for them to fight and the only thing missing is either of them copying shadowheart and laezel w the blade at the throat

however. axelia got to know more about astarion beyond his facade . what really was the first thing that made her empathize w This One Of All People is how they both really dont trust/like ppl who display themselves as a lawful hero AJSJAJJAJ she grew up as a street urchin who was forced into that position bc of a guy who pretended to be good, and nobody would help her, a starving dirty tiefling child whos providing for both her and her sister, without smth in return ? so yeah no she Fucking Gets It .

time passes on and she develops an old married couple dynamic w astarion AJJSJSJA like still bickering but more lighthearted as they learn to empathize more w each other. fast forward to him trying to seduce her for the first time and it was a "might as well happen" thing for her KWNRKSJAJA she felt comfy enough that she didnt see any reason to refuse, and she didnt want to admit it at the time but she was def growing more unironically fond of him and his company

the more she hears about astarions story the more she gets furious for him and determined to show him that there are people who will fight for him . its the protective kind of love that axelia doesnt even realize is whats happening. she just knows that above all else, cazador needs to Die and she'd be willing to risk her own safety just to help astarion see it through

by this time theyre in a relationship w no labels AJJSAAA basically act 2 relationship. theyre both not exactly sure what they are to each other but they both know they can rely on the other to actually Give A Shit about them. while they both still love to argue and Disrespect each other its the fun kind where they definitely know its just banter at this point that they can easily use to team up on the others <33

act 3 comes and while axelia also gets the fear behind astarion wanting to ascend so badly she also knows that thats not a decision hed be too proud of if he could see the consequences now AJSJAJAJ so ofc spawn route <33

this is already a super long ask and i apologize for that but thats roughly how i see them progressing if i could acrually play the game </3 i have more Thoughts but ill shut up for now AJSJSJAJA but thank you for reading all that if ever <33

-✨️ (new anon !)

SPARKLY NONNIE U HAVE MADE MT ENTIRE DAT KNOW THIS

axelia sounds like a fucking Deligjt and i empathize SO HARD. with distrusting political figures. astarion says magistrate and i tense up like a scared cat

it mustve been like whiplash for axelia tho!! him first acting all posh and haughty and “im a magistrate i put away trouble makers i do it sooooo often its boooooring to talk about” and then. hes like okay so if u had to die. how would u want to die. are u cool if i just like drain the baddies we kill. can i please please pleeeease open this door to creatures fucking i wanna see what they look like and make fun of them. like this little fop being the most bastard gremlin of a man is everything to me

honestly playful bickering is So Important to me like if u cant chat the shit with your partner, if you cant make fun of yourself with and for them its just boring imo.

i wonder—how does she begin to start opening up to him as well? like is there a specific catalyst do u think? like i feel like her having a protective anger over astarion would make him be like ????we are barely more than strangers why do—oooooooooohhhhh you have siblings. dont you (disdainfully)

idk im just throwing shit at the wall bht im adoring this i reallt hope ur able to make it a reality sooner!!!!!!

#frankie answers #long post #✨