#. wyll lovers unite!!!! <3 <3 <3

[timothylawrence]

In light of the recent anon, I wanted to say I appreciate you. You helped me realize the gross treatment of wyll. I didn't know about bg3 until it released on consoles, and I had no idea aboutbwylls whole rewrite. His mistreatment though, and the glaringly obvious content differences, was obvious to me. No romantic greetings. No special scene that isn't glitched. Lack of reaction and autonomy throughout his whole quest. The love I have for Wyll is huge and following you has only made that deeper.

I'm extremely disappointed with Larian. The game is so good and fun. But it loses its flavor once you realize all the issues with wyll.

I hope that one anon will realize that wylk fans wanting him to be loved by the company doesn't mean they want it wiped from existence. There's a massive difference between being disappointed with the racism around wyll and hurt by it vs hating something blindly bc your fav character is ignored. That's kind of what I got from their ask. It wasn't so much to understand, more it was just picking at you for being critical at all?

Anyway, tl;dr: you're amazing, wyll is precious, larian needs to shape up, and sunblade 5ever!!!

thank you !!! this is really sweet and you said everything perfectly imo. i dont blindly hate bg3.... but i do hate wylls treatment by both fandom and the game- it's abysmal and blatantly racist

[bifflesnitch]

Baldur's Gate 3 Ship Dynamics

ASTARION

+ Shadowheart = sassy, edgelords who don't have time for your shit. Not super evil, just survivors who dont have time for sentimentality. 

+ Gale = bickering old married couple united by a power kink (Spawn Astarion + Ascendant Gale)

+ Karlach = 2 sides of the same traumatised/enslaved coin, opposites attract and heal each other and its beautiful and tender. 

+ Good Durge = beautiful trauma healing parallel, bond over lack of control/autonomy and fighting to gain it. 

GALE

+ Karlach = ADHD/Autistic couple relate over terminal chronic illness (which were both inflicted on them by the person they trusted and admired most who abused and abandoned them). Both stick it to their abusers. 

+ Lae'zel = a blunt fish out of water and a nerd who trips over his own tongue and is fascinated by her. Theyre also turned on by each others musk. Also both middle-fingering their abusive Godesses. Both familiar with the Astral Plane. 

+ Evil Durge = absolute enablers (surprisingly)

SHADOWHEART

+ Minthara = evil boss bitch and her budding sassy apprentice. 

+ Halsin = 2 poly horndogs

+ Good Durge = 2 amnesiacs both sticking it to their respective abusive deities 

+ Evil Durge = 2 zealouts enthralled by each other's malice

LAE'ZEL

+ Shadowheart = enemies to lovers, strong sapphic badasses who deconstruct their religous indoctrination together and take no shit

+ Karlach = lethal power couple

+ Minthara = ruthless evil carnal bitches

WYLL

+ Karlach = Baldurians who love stories of heroes and justice. 

+ Good Durge = relate over being owned by an evil higher power and fighting to retain their values despite their circumstances

KARLACH

+ Wyll = Hunter spares his prey and fall in love with her, she falls in love with his selfless heart of gold. Golden retriever couple.

+ Halsin = Just 2 protective cinnamon rolls

[wheretheharekissesthefox]

Open up your loving arms - Chapter 3: A new flow

Astarion asks Gale about cleaning out the unused spaces of their tower house to give Tav and Shadowheart some personal space. The wizard agrees and the vampire spawn sets to work. Shenanigans occur and plans are made.

Notes:

This is self-indulgent domestic fluff. I want this little bunch of weirdos to be happy. They deserve it. This fic mostly drives my post-canon headcanon forwards regarding character study/development.

Astarion's origin fic is mentioned.

Also, long story short; Tav’s married to Astarion, Gale and Shadowheart. Astarion and Gale are married. Halsin’s Tav’s and Shadowheart’s additional lover. They’re in a closed polyamorous relationship, except for Halsin who apparently sleeps his way through all of Faerûn.

One week later, Gale finally found the time to go through the huge pile of random stuff that Astarion had put aside for him when decluttering and cleaning the two upper floors. As promised, the vampire spawn hadn't thrown out anything, but had piled them up for Gale to look through it before parting ways with all the useless knickknacks. Originally, Gale had been convinced that he only owned important, useful things that couldn't been thrown away, but reality proved him wrong. The wizard was rather miffed at the sheer amount of clutter and rubbish that he'd collected over the years. Astarion was very happy to assist him in throwing almost three quarters of it away.

"What use has a pair of nice boots if you don't wear them?" grumbled Gale and threw the mentioned footwear into the donation bin.

"Well, if you'd still host the Orb, you could feed it with it," grinned Astarion.

Gale groaned, replying: "You're aware these are normal boots with no magic applied? They wouldn't do a mite."

"I know, darling. I'm just teasing," snickered Astarion and kissed his husband's cheek.

They made fast progress and soon, the first upper floor looked much more like liveable space instead of an antique store or a storage unit. Only the books were still to be looked through. Together, Astarion and Gale carried them upstairs to the library where Gale spent the rest of the weekend weeded out all the books he never needed and the ones he had multiple copies of (naturally, he always kept the first editions).

Shadowheart made good use of her new room. She invited some of the other priestesses over to discuss the upcoming holidays, workshops they planned to install for the children, and prepared for other ceremonies. Astarion served the ladies tea and cake with his usual flattery and left them brood over their projects. He found Tav in his basement room, composing her newest piece.

"What are you doing down here, darling?" the vampire spawn asked confused.

"Oh... I just don't want to harass Shadowheart and her friends with my unfinished song. I know it's annoying when I play the same part over and over again for hours," the bard explained bashfully. "Would you like to be alone? I could go to the park instead."

"No, no. It's alright," Astarion answered hastily. "I was just wondering why you're down here. By all means, continue."

He gestured with a hand movement for her to keep going and she chuckled. While Astarion made himself comfortable and slowly drifted into reverie because he had nothing else to do, Tav worked her magic. Smiling softly, the vampire spawn listened to the bard's gentle humming while she strummed the lute and scribbled down notes on a piece of paper. Tav always created such hauntingly beautiful music that touched one's soul. Astarion's heart may have been cold and dead in his chest, but his soul danced and wept to his wife's songs.

They decided to turn the second room in the first upper floor into a guest room for either Halsin, Lae'zel, or Karlach, Wyll, and the twins. The nook next to the stairs was remodelled into Gale's alchemy laboratory and he had finally the space to brew potions again. Tav made herself cosy in the second upper floor where the library and observatory were located. There, between shelves upon shelves filled with books and hanging models of planets, stars, suns, and moons, the bard set up her instruments and started to compose. Gale got all sappy and babbled something about the mingling of two different kinds of magic and how books are able to feel the vibrations around them. Astarion called bullshit on it all, but let his husband be.

The vampire spawn used the extra room that was basically the spacious hallway of the first upper floor as a creative space. He finally tried his hands at some sewing projects. Astarion had been rather nervous about it because he hadn't really sewn anything since he'd been turned into a spawn. He'd spent the last two hundred years simply fixing his clothes, but hadn't been allowed to create anything. Now, he made his own patterns and used the beautiful fabrics he'd found between Gale's junk to makes some clothes.

After two weeks, Astarion nervously gifted his creations to his family. He'd sewn a robe for each of them because it was one of the easiest patterns and he'd wanted to start lightly. Awestruck, Shadowheart put her light blue robe on and it flowed around her silhouette like water.

"Astarion... it's beautiful," she breathed. "Thank you!"

She hugged and kissed him.

"I'll wear this at the next holiday ceremony at the temple. I'll be the most beautiful and stylish person there!"

"You're always the most beautiful person," replied Tav without thinking.

"Ahem!" Astarion gave a little cough, accusingly.

Smirking, the bard announced: "You're always the most beautiful person, Shadowheart, but you share first place with Astarion and Gale."

The cleric snickered while the vampire spawn was pleased. The wizard, on the other hand, seemed honestly confused.

"Share the first place with me? Are you sure? I mean I understand why with Astarion, but me?"

"Of course you too, silly," smiled Tav and kissed him. "You're beautiful."

"Hm," muttered Gale, blushing slightly.

He slipped into the dark blue, star-littered robe that fit him like a glove and ran his hand across the material.

"If I remember correctly, I bought this fabric in Cormyr when I attended a seminar about local poetry twelve years ago. Fascinating topic really. I always intended to give it my mother so that she can turn it into something, but I never got around to it. You outdid yourself, Astarion. It's wonderful. I knew you have an eye and a talent for sewing."

"Thank you," said the addressed, feeling bashful for the first time in a long while.

"It's damn pretty, I feel so fabulous!" cheered Tav and whirled around to show off the dramatic swoosh of her dark green robe.

The vampire spawn preened, not really used to receiving compliments about anything else but his looks. It felt incredibly nice though.

"What about you?" asked the bard now. "Where's your robe?"

Astarion blinked dumbly.

"I didn't even think about that," he answered then. "I was so focused on giving you all a gift that it didn't even cross my mind to make something for myself."

"Awww," cooed Shadowheart and smooched his cheek.

"I'm honoured, but you mustn't forget about your own comfort," Gale told him sincerely, stroking the vampire spawn's cheek.

"Here, try it on," urged Tav and held out her robe to Astarion who pulled it over his shoulders without complaint.

"Lovely," she remarked. "It compliments your pale complexion and is a nice contrast to your eyes."

Once more, the vampire spawn was frustrated to not be able to see his reflection. He still walked over to the mirror to take a look at how the robe fell around his body. He nodded, satisfied with what he saw.

"But it needs to be a tad longer for me," he noticed. "Or otherwise, I show off my scandalous calves."

Tav laughed and kissed him, hyped-up.

"You know, I thought about what you said, Gale, and you're right." Astarion turned around to face his husband. "I'd like to become a tailor. It's one of the things I enjoy most."

"That's good to hear," smiled the wizard. "When you're happy, I'm happy. And when you find your life's purpose on the way, well, then that's all the better."

"You have such a way with words, darling," chuckled the vampire spawn and sauntered over to kiss him. "The little greenhouse on the rooftop looks rather sad, our druid would be mortified. Is it alright if I’ll polish it up and bring it back to life? Some herbs for your cooking and flowers to look pretty in a vase. What do you think, eh?"

"Sounds lovely," replied Gale and kissed him again.

Astarion fussed about his husband's hair before adding: "You know, a very long time ago, when I lived as a magistrate in Baldur's Gate, I shared a house with my better half, Solaria. We had a little balcony where we loved to eat breakfast, brunch, and dinner, and it was covered in flowers. Morning glories, forget-me-nots, ivy, violets, rosemary, and even a little bush of roses. I remember how we spent our late afternoons there, when I was back from work, and we had tea. When it was the season, Solaria always bought peaches for me and we ate them while judging the poor clothing choices of the people who walked by on the street below. – Ha! It's been more than two centuries since then."

Astarion averted his gaze staring out of the window. Gale's heart was leaping in his throat and his hands were shaking when he touched his husband's face. The latter had never revealed this much about his past before.

"Astarion," the wizard murmured. "I'm so sorry, my dear."

The addressed finally turned to look at him again, smiling pained.

"There's no need to apologise. You weren't there. At that point, you weren't even born yet. But I'm glad that the one good thing that came out of the shitshow that calls itself my life is that I met you."

Gale pulled Astarion closer, squeezed his eyes shut, and leaned their foreheads together.

"I love you," whispered the wizard thickly.

"I love you too," replied the vampire spawn, at the verge of crying.

They kissed softly and the tears spilled over after all. When they finally parted, they were both weeping and Gale brushed Astarion's tears away with his thumbs.

"I'm here now," he told his husband. "We all are."

The vampire spawn swallowed and nodded. The wizard kissed him again before embracing him. Astarion went willingly and wept on his shoulder. When Gale finally looked up from his sobbing husband, he realised that Tav was crying too. Shadowheart, who was also teary-eyed, held the bard in her arms and made soothing little shushing noises.

"Gods, look at us! We're absolute messes!" sniffed Astarion.

Chuckling slightly, Gale rubbed the vampire spawn's shoulders before letting him go with another kiss. The vampire spawn moved over and embraced Tav who was still sobbing.

"Don't cry for me, darling. I'm not dead yet. – Well, you know what I mean."

The addressed snickered despite the tears still running down her cheeks. Astarion kissed her tenderly before wrapping his arms around her again. He beckoned Shadowheart closer again and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Alright, that's enough tears and misery for today," Astarion decided. "Let's go downstairs and brew some lavender tea to soothe the nerves and eat some vanilla cake to soothe the soul, hm?"

"Splendid idea," nodded Gale.

"I can use a tea," admitted Shadowheart with a sigh.

Smiling, the wizard wrapped an arm around the cleric's waist and made his way downstairs with her while Astarion and Tav followed them, arm in arm. They made themselves comfortable in the living room and talked about more pleasant topics while enjoying their tea and cake. Astarion snuggled in-between Tav and Gale, daydreaming about how to organise the greenhouse. Later, he got more kisses and was allowed to drink from his spouses, moaning at their blood's unmistakable bouquets, and if that led to spend some passionate time in the bedroom afterwards... well, Astarion wasn't about to complain.