#rhodeia whitebloom

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The Bear and the Barbarian

Fandom: Baldur’s Gate 3

Characters: Karlach/f!Tav

Rating: M

After unleashing nature’s wrath on the goblin camp, Rhodeia struggles to return from the violence she inflicted. Karlach helps.

Notes: Written for Femslash February 2024. Prompt: chose violence.

—

Lost in her wildshape, the killing is easy. Easier than it’s ever been as Rhodeia rides the rush of battle-tides, losing herself in the current. Fire and blood spill across defiled stone until there’s no roar left but echoes off the crumbling walls and she doubles over, panting. A red string of saliva drips from her mouth to the floor.

With every breath, she becomes aware of the flagstones under her paws. The wet stickiness coating her claws. But the shape of them feels wrong, too short and too blunt, and it takes several tortured seconds to realise her paws are no longer paws at all.

“Soldier.”

A creak of leather, and a pair of knees sink into her field of vision, accompanied by a wave of heat. The infernal reek beats against her, crisping the air with an unnatural acrid tang. Some animal instinct as deep as the earth beneath the temple floor needs to attack, but her claws are bloodied nails once more, and she can only gasp as black spots roll across her eyes. 

“Come on. Focus on me. That’s it. Battle’s over, in case you couldn’t tell. But you probably can, since you changed back.”

Her vision is dim, greyed at the edges. Distant noises roll in like a tide, and she twitches at a nearby laugh. Voices. The crackle of flames, and a closer heat against her face. She heaves in breath after breath, the air clawing the back of her throat. The pain brings her back, just a little.

Rhodeia manages, “Karlach?”

“Ey! She speaks! Good news, soldier: we won, and now there are hot baths in our imminent futures. Or a dip in a cold stream, rather, which is almost as good.” Karlach’s voice lowers. “Come on, now. On your feet, soldier. No baths for you if you don’t.”

With one hand planted on her knee, Rhodeia pushes herself upright. The dimensions of her body feel wrong—too narrow, too contained. Cold air on furless skin.

“That’s it, soldier. You can do it.”

A final push, and Rhodeia makes it to her feet. Just. Beside her, Karlach rises to her full height with far less wobbling despite the bruises and streaks of blood marring her skin. Rhodeia scans the temple courtyard, but the bear hasn’t quite left her yet; her gaze snaps towards every nearby sound, searching for threats. Lae’zel brings her blade down on a not-quite-dead goblin while Shadowheart cleans her mace with a sneer at a defiled statue of Selûne. The others similarly move through the tides of the dead, pilfering trinkets and slitting throats. Halsin stands gore-streaked in the moonlight, his hands and chin gloved in red. Rhodeia supposes she looks much the same.

She blinks, and they’re a safe distance from the temple ruins. At some point they must have stopped to make camp, and she watches from somewhere beyond her body as they wash away the blood and seal their wounds. Something squeaks nearby, and she realises her eyes have focused on a bat hovering above Halsin’s hands. With a final murmur from him, the bat takes flight, speeding in the direction of the Emerald Grove. Firelight glimmers off its wings, and then it disappears into the gloom.

Rhodeia is vaguely aware of a chunk of flatbread being shoved into her hand. Maybe she eats it. Maybe she doesn’t. When she rises to her feet, the bread is gone and the warm crackle of the fire has faded behind her. Overhead, the forest canopy shivers and peels apart like unwinding fingers, offering precious silver glimpses of the distant sky where all of Selûne’s grace shines down from her pale, full cheek. Perhaps she’s pleased by the slaughter.

Rhodeia passes through the trees until the foliage drops away, revealing a small creek that winds through the night-silvered forest, gurgling in its gravel bed. The sound makes her teeth itch. 

She finds a place to sit. The trees aren’t particularly tall—certainly nothing like the old growth of the deep forest she calls home—but here they loom like living shadows. They stand over her in a silent guard, shivering above while she shivers below. The unfamiliar shape of them leaves her feeling small. Isolated.

Something moves in the underbrush, and she tenses until she sees dim orange light reflecting off leaves and tree trunks in a phantom blaze. A phantom blaze that’s at real risk of becoming a real blaze, but Karlach navigates towards the creekbed with all the care she can muster, and the forest remains blessedly unburnt. She halts a little ways away, and Rhodeia recognises Karlach’s wolf-wariness, head half-cocked and feet light. The yellow glow of her eyes fix on Rhodeia. 

“Hey, soldier.” She scuffs one boot in the gravel as the rocks heat and sizzle “Thought you might want some company.”

[Read on AO3]

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 fic #karlach #karlach cliffgate #bg3 karlach #karlach x tav #druid tav #rhodeia whitebloom #femslash february #femslashfeb2024 #writing #blood cw #violence cw

[eluvisen]

finally updated to patch 6

#baldur's gate 3 #rhodeia whitebloom #karlach cliffgate #i love them your honour

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Battleaxe

Fandom: Baldur’s Gate 3

Characters: Karlach/fem!Tav

Rating: M

Summary: In the fires of the Grymforge, our adventurers prevail against Nere to avenge the myconids. But bringing back proof of their victory in the form of his head hits a little too close to home for Karlach.

—

Once the reunions are finished and the tears are—mostly—spent, Rhodeia is left peering down at Nere’s cooling corpse. The Grymforge is neither quiet nor peaceful with the final blade-fall, not when black-bruised stone and fire rise on all sides, sending the bubbling sound of magma through the cavern. The surviving gnomes stand in muttering clusters, punctuated by soft weeping from one man on his knees beside the drop-off.

Nere’s body stares unseeing at a point past her shoulder, his expression fixed in a final grimace of contempt.

Sweat drips into Rhodeia’s eyes. The fierce volcanic heat is like breathing soup, boiling her brain in her skull until her thoughts spiral in sluggish eddies. Only as she turns away does she remember a promise made in a darker, cooler place. “Was Sovereign Spaw being literal when it asked for his head?”

“Tsk’va!” Lae’zel snips. “Of course it was. Do not flinch from proof of our victory!”

“You’ll need an oilskin to wrap the head up,” Karlach says. “Preferably two or three. It’s going to bleed and it’s going to stink.”

Her voice is brisk. Efficient. Something about it makes Rhodeia glance twice; Karlach appears neither upset nor uncomfortable, the engine’s hellfire simmering down after the fight. Nothing is wrong.

And yet.

Karlach herds her away from Nere’s body with the flat of her axe. “Stand back.”

[Read on AO3]

#baldur's gate 3 #bg 3 fanfic #karlach #bg3 karlach #karlach cliffgate #karlach x tav #rhodeia whitebloom #writing

[eluvisen]

Carefully, A Flame

Fandom: Baldur’s Gate 3

Characters: Karlach/fem!Tav

Rating: T

Summary: A simple evening offers it all: stars, company, and a shift in the path. Karlach and Rhodeia can’t touch, but they can talk. And there’s a much-needed conversation to be had—about touch.

—

It’s a nice little hike, the night all bright and silvered. Fluffy clouds frame the edges of the sky above, too soft to cage the stars. Karlach can’t quite feel the cool night, not with her engine playing chaperone against the charms of nice breezes as well as pretty half-elves, but it’s enough to tell her she’s not in Avernus. 

Karlach takes in a deep breath as they reach the top of the bluff, finding a grassy spot to sit down in. Her lungs fill with the gloriously dewy night-smell of green things. But there’s no slacking off—she has to keep one eye on Rhodeia as she sinks to the ground, make sure she’s out of burning range.

Once they’re both settled side by side with a safe—if frustrating—distance between them, Karlach leans back on her elbows to take in the view. The mountain lowlands roll on all sides in blue and grey, grass fields rippling like the hide of some great sleeping creature. And who’s to say it isn’t some grand beastie when all that life sings out there in the dark? Beyond the plains, the distant Chionthar is a silvered road leading straight home.

“Gods, what a view. And the stars! Look at them all. Can’t get a vista like this anywhere in Baldur’s Gate, sorry as I am to say.” Looking up, Karlach traces the patterns above with her eyes. “Think that’s the Woman Warrior, ey? And the Tears of Selûne! The rest, however, are a wonderful mystery.”

She glances sideways, only to discover that Rhodeia has rolled onto her side to watch her instead of the stars.

Karlach arches an eyebrow, but she can’t help the way her mouth kicks up at the corners. “Thought we were here to stargaze, not Karlachgaze.”

“The stars are a familiar beauty. But I’m beyond fortunate that I can be here next to you.”

A giddy laugh bubbles up in Karlach’s chest, lighter than she’s felt in—a long time. “Godsdamn. You have an easy way of making me feel breathless, you know?”

[Read on AO3]

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 fic #bg3 fanfic #karlach #karlach cliffgate #bg3 karlach #karlach x tav #rhodeia whitebloom

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All I See Is Fire Reflected In Your Eyes - Chapter 1

Fandom: Baldur’s Gate 3

Characters: Karlach/fem!Tav

Rating: E

Summary: She skims along Karlach’s skin until her lips meet the scarred skin spreading out from her breastbone. One of countless hurts, immortalised on her body. Not a part of her has been left untouched by Avernus.

By the time Rhodeia is finished, there won’t be a part of Karlach left untouched by her.

—

Navigating the complexities of physical intimacy between two people who haven't been touched in a long time.

The door shuts behind them with a soft click. The shadow-weary boards of the Last Light Inn creak around them, the scent of cold mildew burning away in proximity to Karlach. Her eyes are fixed on Rhodeia, hot as stars.

Karlach reaches out, then rocks back on her heels. Her fingers curl into a weak fist. “We’re sure I won’t hurt you, right?”

The tight anxiety in her eyes makes Rhodeia ache. “Quite.”

Reaching out, Rhodeia takes Karlach’s hands. How incredible—the bare tips of Karlach’s fingers glow a hot-pulsing orange, warm but not blisteringly so, and a thrill courses through every inch of Rhodeia’s skin at the touch.

Karlach stills beneath her touch, breath catching, while flames skitter over the tip of her horn. Still, Rhodeia doesn’t burn. She brushes her fingertips over Karlach’s wrists, lightly, lightly, tracing her way up over hard muscle and scar tissue to skirt around the vents in her shoulders. Cupping Karlach’s face in her hands, she pulls her down until their mouths meet.

Karlach shudders, her breath hot on Rhodeia’s lips. Her touch is careful, hesitant, hands settling oh-so-lightly on Rhodeia’s hips. The moment is quiet and fragile and precious, and Rhodeia is content to wait until Karlach shivers again, slanting her mouth to deepen the kiss. Rhodeia laces her fingers together at the back of Karlach’s neck, heart fluttering in her chest like a trapped bird.

When they part, their foreheads rest together. This close, Rhodeia can see the faint constellations of freckles across Karlach’s cheeks. The small scar slashing through one eyebrow and over the bridge of her nose. Rhodeia brushes her fingers over the curve of Karlach’s cheek, then kisses her again, just because she can. Karlach makes a noise low in her throat, hands rising to catch Rhodeia’s face in both hands. When they pull back, the slits of Karlach’s pupils are blown wide, black swallowing the hot amber glow.

Karlach is breathless with wonder. “Oh, gods. I don’t have to worry about hurting you anymore…”

Then she grins. Even with the darkness that curses the land, it’s like the sun is burning at midnight, and Rhodeia finds herself hoisted up, legs wrapping around Karlach’s waist as she spins them around. “Finally. Finally!”

[Read on AO3]

#writing #baldur's gate 3 #karlach cliffgate #karlach #karlach x tav #rhodeia whitebloom

[eluvisen]

Still Bleeding, Still Breathing - Chapter 1

Fandom: Baldur’s Gate 3

Characters: Karlach/fem!Tav

Rating: T

Summary: Returning to the Material Plane isn’t so simple as climbing out of the Hells.

—

It’s her first taste of fire.

Forced to kneel, the deck of the flying fortress is cold and cutting beneath Karlach’s knees. The bridge is full of monsters, shapes she doesn’t yet have names for, and every last one watches in looming silence. She needs to break free—to run—but the then-unfamiliar bite of brimstone makes her heart freeze.

And before her: light. A woman stands haloed in fire, almost masking those ghoulish wings in blinding radiance.

Her fingers curl under Karlach’s jaw, gentle enough that her claws don’t sting. The light sears straight through her, and Karlach’s eyes have squeezed shut, tears streaming down her cheeks, before she comprehends that smiling face.

Those claws trace down her neck and over her collarbones, soft as silk. And Zariel carves her name into Karlach’s chest.

Karlach launches out of her bedroll, fists raised. The engine roars in her chest, throwing wild pulses of red into the night. She sucks in breath after breath, scanning her surroundings, but the only thing looming over her is the shadows huddling in the corners of her tent—

She stops. Breathes again, the skin on her arms prickling. No ash and no dust. Outside, the sounds of the field encampment are all wrong. Peaceful. A few hundred infernals in a camp are never this quiet. She can’t even pick out the sound of an attempted assassination a few tents over.

No sulphur.

Karlach takes another breath, deeper this time. Sweat clings to her skin, beading on her upper lip. Somewhere unseen, an owl hoots.

Not there. Not anymore.

Karlach swipes a hand over her face to wipe the sweat away, teeth bared. “Kwa’ad vos non petri’kar. Hear that, Zariel? I don’t fucking belong to you!”

[Read on AO3]

#i completely forgot to plug this here #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 fic #karlach #karlach cliffgate #bg3 karlach #karlach x tav #rhodeia whitebloom #writing

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Truce

Fandom: Baldur’s Gate 3

Characters: Karlach/Tav

Rating: T

Summary: It may or may not be a mistake falling in with these lunatics, but at least they look like fun. And one of them in particular looks like fun.

(Karlach’s first night in camp, as told by her.)

Notes: Written for Femslash February 2024. Prompt: once upon a time.

—

Wreathed in smoke and infernal fire, Karlach laughs as the tollhouse burns. Gouts of fire tower on all sides, devouring everything in their path and scorching her throat with every breath. But the inferno is fucking nothing compared to the hellfire inside her. The engine shudders behind her ribs, its vibrations ribboning down her torso and all the way through her guts, so hot and furious it feels like someone poured the magma from one of Avernus’s volcanoes directly into her chest.

With several swings of her axe and a swift kick, she bashes through the debris blocking the door. But past the shower of cinders and ash, the sky is blue. The sky is blue, and when she steps outside, the air is clean.

To her surprise, that gang of adventurers are waiting around. Away from the flames, mind, but waiting.

Karlach strides over, greataxe resting on her shoulder. The metal burns, but she burns hotter. “Hope you didn’t take much of a scorching in there. I had to let off some steam after facing those imp-fuckers.”

The engine thunders in her chest, feeling like a burr made of lava that she can’t cough out. Bloody thing isn’t cooling down. Seems it isn’t made to work outside Avernus, which means she needs to find an infernal mechanic. Fast. 

The rogue smiles at her without showing his teeth. “Only mild burns and the immediate threat of immolation, darling.” There’s something about him that makes her want to keep him in sight at all times, and not just for the safety of her coin purse. He isn’t infernal, she can tell that much. Maybe it’s his hair putting her off. “I don’t suppose you’ll reimburse us for spilling their guts on your behalf?”

Karlach snorts. “You didn’t kill them for me, you killed them with me. And I’m afraid I left my soul coins in Avernus. Could give you a hug if you wanted, though.”

His smile twists into something darker. “What a pity. I hear soul coins are especially valuable currency, and this isn’t a charity.”

“Strange,” says the walking fringe. She stays at the edges like a regular cleric, but there’s something… tricky about her. Yeah, that’s the word. Tricky. “I thought we were a charity. Why else would you be here, Astarion?”

Rhodeia, meanwhile, wears the perfectly pleasant expression of someone who’s mentally screaming into the Abyss. Making firm eye contact with Karlach, she says, “Since we all need a cure for these mind flayer parasites, you’re welcome to come with us.”

The rest of the party look just as loony. The githyanki undoubtedly draws eyes, and it’s a tossup whether her bloody huge greatsword or her scowl is the scarier weapon in her arsenal. Then there’s good man Gale. If he couldn’t conjure such a wicked scorching ray, she’d assume he’s a lost librarian. Or maybe libraries are more interesting places than she thought. At least the Blade of Frontiers is pointing his namesake elsewhere, although he sure doesn’t look pleased by current events. She’ll have to keep an eye on him. 

All in all? A group of miserable, argumentative misfits.

Gods, to be one of them.

Karlach opens her mouth. Hesitates. “There’s no contract, is there?”

“No,” Rhodeia answers, so perfectly startled that either she means it or she could give Flo a run for her coins. 

“Then fuck yes I’m in.”

Rhodeia smiles, and her expression is brilliantly, unnervingly genuine-looking. She has to be a half-elf—she’s got the ears, but her features are just a little too blunt to be a timeless beauty. Not to say she isn’t a looker, with freckles dusting her light brown skin and plump lips. In the sunlight, Karlach notices for the first time that Rhodeia’s eyes are a dusty mauve, as pretty as cut gems—definitely inherited those from the elven parent—and matching the hair falling down her back in intricate braids. Pale tattooed vines frame her face and curl invitingly down her neck to the collar of her leathers, raising the question of just how far they go down, exactly.

But that is a question best left uncontemplated for now. Karlach hangs her greataxe on her back and sweeps an arm at the road before them. “Let’s move, eh? Time’s wasting.”

When the party sets off, Karlach falls in with them. Behind her, the tollhouse burns.

[Read on AO3]

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 fic #karlach #karlach cliffgate #bg3 karlach #karlach x tav #druid tav #rhodeia whitebloom #femslash february #femslashfeb2024 #writing

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5 Songs/4 Outfits - Tav Tag!!

I was tagged by @commander-krios, thank you! <3

5 Songs

Between Wind and Water - Hael

Howl - Florence + The Machine

Overgrown - machineheart

Head and My Heart - Ruelle

Know - SAESH

4 Outfits

Her regular armour set is a cuirass + gloves from Extra Gear with shoulder pads and the nymph circlet from Basket Full of Equipment

2. When I rerolled Rhodes as a cleric of Mielikki, I gave her this outfit from Extra Gear

3. Camp outfit from Basket Full of Equipment

4. Nymph outfit from Basket Full of Equipment plus a corset and arm bands from Modular Equipment (unfortunately this look doesn’t look good in game because of the nymph skirt, but we can pretend)

#yes her colour scheme is purple #rhodeia whitebloom #baldur's gate 3 #tagged

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Had fun with Halkuonn's OC sheet for Rhodeia!

#baldur's gate 3 #rhodeia whitebloom

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WIP Wednesday

The Karlach brainrot has completely taken over at this point

The infernal engine ticks in brazen mockery of a heartbeat. Pressed rib-to-rib, the whirring shivers through Karlach and into Rhodeia. Quiet enough, more vibration than sound, but the faintest shrieking echo make her teeth itch. Something so horridly unnatural, at once keeping her alive and killing her. Karlach shifts, one ear pressed to Rhodeia’s chest. “I’d forgotten what a heartbeat sounds like.” Rhodeia opens her mouth, but all words flutter out of reach. At least Karlach doesn’t seem to be expecting an answer, tracing shapeless patterns Rhodeia’s breastbone with the tip of a claw. Even though the fabric of her shirt, the exquisitely light touch sends shivers rippling across her skin like water. Karlach taps Rhodeia’s breastbone with one finger. “This is precious. Protect it.”

#writing #wip wednesday #karlach x tav #rhodeia whitebloom

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Still Bleeding, Still Breathing - Chapter 2

Fandom: Baldur’s Gate 3

Characters: Karlach/fem!Tav

Rating: T

Summary: Returning to the Material Plane isn’t so simple as climbing out of the Hells.

—

It’s going to be one of those days. The jitters start bright and early—before the bright and before the early, in fact. After hours of tossing on her bedroll, Karlach gives up on the whole affair and staggers to the campfire for breakfast. When Shadowheart glances her way, Karlach decides on the spot that she’s not up for talking. Swiping an oatcake, she heads out of camp, all flames and a tight-gut expectation that she’ll be dragged tail-first back to the Hells.

The mountains lie dead ahead, just as they did yesterday, and her skin itches as the landscape stays exactly where it is. The river hasn’t changed course overnight and the hills haven’t flattened. Should be a good sign, but the ground feels as solid as mist beneath her bare feet. More real than her. Or maybe less.

At last, Karlach realises what’s got her instincts all muddied up: it’s overcast. Which means no light and no shadows, just flat shades in between. She glances up, but there’s no telling where the sun is. If there’s a sun.

Grey flashes through the underbrush, and a pair of eyes peer out at her.

Karlach stops, nerves singing. Flames peel off her fingers, but she keeps her fists tight at her sides. “Hey, soldier.”

Rhodeia-as-a-wolf circles her once and heads towards the game trail winding through the brush. She pauses at the edge of the clearing and looks back expectantly.

“I’m coming, I’m coming. Say, how do you find the tail? Most folk haven’t got a clue what it’s like, but you’ve got quite the fluffy specimen attached to your rump.”

Rhodeia wags her tail, looking more like a big grey dog than a wild animal.

“What’s that? Tails are superior to bare arses? Couldn’t have said it better myself, soldier.”

[Read on AO3]

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #karlach #karlach cliffgate #karlach x tav #rhodeia whitebloom #writing