#I love this halfling cleric so much I just

[sketchstudios07]

I haven't posted art in some time, but here, have some of my D&D ocs interacting with the dungeon meshi party, because it's fun! I drew them with the ones i feel like they're the most similar to either physically or personality-wise. I doubt many people will see, but i'd love to see more people doing this. Here we go!! :}

Marcille and Anne (she/her). She's an elf cleric and also my first character ever! So there isn't much to say about her. I feel like she's just this calm presence, Marcille could have some of that comfort every now and then. They'd definetly bond over hair care and magic, despite working in different fields. In a way, I feel like Marcille would find Anne similar to Falin, or like an older and wiser version of her. Anne could also give some advice on the whole "being scared of death thing", having a short-lived partner and all.

Chilchuck and Heron (he/him), tiny dads! Heron is (obviously) a halfling, but for his class he's actually a homebrew pirate! I think they have plenty of stuff in common to talk about, both of them are often made fun of by their parties for their size, which is fun. They're also both dads, only Chilchuck has 3 girls (4 if you count Izutsumi) and Heron has 4 boys, maybe they'd argue over what's better, idk. Chilchuck is grumpier, but i feel like both have that "Oh my god what are you doing!? Are you an idiot?" attitude when the party does their shenanigans. These two would be good friends, maybe Chil is a bit envious of Heron's stable family though

Laios and Deliz (he/him). Deliz is the character i've been playing the longest, he's a kalashtar sorcerer (with some druid levels). I think it's not hard to tell that they'd bond over hyperfixations. I doubt Laios would be able to answer Deliz's questions, but there's plenty of cool monster stuff to talk about! I wonder what Laios would think about all the weird creatures that possess and infect people in this other world. These two would be great friends, no judgement about "weird" behaviors, just vibes. I also feel like Laios would be super interested in what a "kalashtar" even is, or how powerful Deliz is compared to most adventurers he knows, despite him being so young (21).

Izutsumi and Spark (she/her). The cat girls! Spark is a tabaxi sorcerer that is also a literal child, so I feel like Izustumi would be done with her shit really fast lmao. Kind of like, when a child wants to impress a teenager, but they keep annoying them? Exactly that. Doesn't help that Spark is pretty energetic too. At one point or another though, they'd grow on each other. Izutsumi would never admit it though

Senshi and Lilium (she/they). Not much in common between these two, Lilium is a tiefling druid and Senshi is like, a fighter(?) dwarf, buut they'd get along really well. I feel like senshi would be the calm and nurturing figure this anxious little lesbian needs. She's been through a lot and needs a place to rest every now and then, and maybe drinking a cup of tea with some warm food is the right choice after some adventuring, right? (Also can you tell i didn't wanna draw Senshi's helmet? ITS SO HARD TO DO SIDEWAYS AND I DIDNT FIND ANY REFERENCES)

And a little bonus:

(Azzazel (they/any) is my friends character, they'd spark a whole other convo w/ Laios tbh)

[cryptids-and-muses]

Post canon homestuck crew play Dungeons and Dragons

Karkat and terezi

Co dms

Unstoppable when actually working together

Terezi will get sidetracked messing with karkat

Karkat trying to write a deep and well fleshed out campaign that’s thematically resonant vs terezi’s desire for chaos and traps and trying to “trick” her players FIGHT

Terezi believes in karma and will make the world bend to this

Karkat is trying to set up romance arcs and argues about how it adds to the theming

Dave draws them fanart of their characters. Terezi loves it while karkat argues about accuracy before admitting yes he also appreciates it

Calliope also does fanart and karkat praises her skill and accuracy unlike some people

John

Arcane trickster rogue

Forest gnome

Just a goofy little guy!

Mostly just playing to have fun, starts off with a fun but simple character who develops over time

Ends up SUPER invested and taking this so so seriously

Karkat worked a dramatic reveal into the, in his words, “bare ass bones two paragraphs that a fucking wiggler could have written backstory” and John did not see it coming and loved it

Goes head to head with terezi a lot on her various traps she designs for them. She is getting more and more absurd with it. Karkat had to talk to her about breaking the world building with things she’s introducing. He is the only rogue. Send help.

Rose

Drow warlock

Tries to justify picking drow as anything other than she just thought it was cool

Nearly went old ones for patron but settled on archfey for story reasons

Has a 10 page lore document detailing her tragic past and her toxic relationship with her patron

It became 15 pages after going back and forth with karkat for a bit and adding even more

Only her and one other person are taking the romance arcs seriously and they become karkat’s favorite players

Tries playing morally ambiguous but terezi can be annoying about that and claims it’s just “the consequences of her actions”

Her and karkat both get very very into the scenes between her and her patron, the drama! The acting! Dave is uncomfortable and karkat brushes it off, it’s not like him role playing as his sister’s abusive girlfriend is weird. It’s in fact very important to the plot Dave

Has written fanfic of the campaign

Jade

Dragonborn barbarian

Path of the beast

Don’t ask me I just know

Her GLEE when she says “I’m gonna rage :D”

ANIMAL COMPANION! She nearly went ranger just for that but knew she wouldn’t have as much fun. Found a way to get one anyway.

It was harder naming her animal companion than her character

Having fun and likes the problem solving side of things, but likes breaking things with her massive strength just as much

Terezi likes to throw stuff at her, both traps and encounters, and finds it funny if she can just wreck her way through

“See John that’s how you deal with a pressure plate trap”

Takes the rp side of things very seriously

Once argued with Karkat over if her favorite npc would do that and cursed him out

Has read roses fanfic of the campaign

Dave

Plays a teifling with grey skin and orange horns

“What are you talking about karkat this is just my dude, don’t you like him?”

Hellus Jeffus

He’s a valor bard, eventually multiclasses paladin

Starts out just trying to mess with people but like John starts getting into it, though he tries to down play it

Have hellus more of himself than he realized and it’s making him face things about himself

Eventually hellus self sacrifices to save the party in this deeply intense moment. There were tears, Dave was wrecked, they went on a whole quest to revive him. It was touching and karkat is smug

Dave might have worked through some things

Jane

Halfling cleric

Her and John are small buddies!!!

Started out life but wasn’t having a lot of fun with it so with terezi’s permission switched to war or tempest with later s few levels in fighter

Her John and Jade are the biggest front liners, John’s character ends up really close with both of them as it’s easier for the rogue to bond with the person giving them sneak attack

Jade and jane’s character have an in game arm wrestling match

Took a bit to get into the rp side of things but eventually got the hang of it

Roxy

Tabaxi, easily, it’s so obvious

After much deliberation settles on glamour bard (though wizard and rogue were tempting for the joke, she wanted to branch out)

So many horny bard jokes but very little actual follow through, karkat gets frustrated by this as she’s all this talk but isn’t pursuing any of the romance options he’s giving her

She has SECRETS! She is HIDING THINGS!! Her cheery persona is a FASADE!!!

Cue complaining to karkat about how hard it is to wait to tell the others about her secrets and him threatening violence if she tells anyone before the in game reveal

She tells jake

Lots of egging on Dave and helping him with his fucking around

The BOND between her and Dave!!! They are the duo to end all duos. Team rocket type shit. There is nothing stronger than the bond between the bards of the party. My theory is it has to do with trading bardic inspiration.

Dirk

Half elf Druid circle of spores

Wildfire seemed fun to him but wasn’t as good

Wasn’t originally planning on being a Druid but after going over all the classes he liked all the customization and decisions that go into Druid like prepared spells and such

Didn’t really think about his backstory much, just improved something. He keeps improving new additions and it’s getting more and more elaborate and complicated. He has multiple hidden and long lost siblings by this point. Still doesn’t write any of this down. If he messes a detail up he justified it with more improv.

Yes his character has spiked up red hair and sunglasses. Don’t question how the Druid got sunglasses karkat.

Really likes the tactics side of things, he’s even pitched a few things to terezi she updated and later worked in

Sometimes works on plans and strategies out of game or making a million back up characters that play off the others in interesting mechanical ways

Is considering becoming a dm some time

Jake

Needed some help making his character, he just didn’t know where to start

Eventually after much discussion settles on a teifling bladesong wizard

Wanting to get away from his usual adventurer style Roxy helped with the backstory and they came up with this evil scientist raised in a cult who’s good hearted but was never taught right and wrong

He gets very into playing him and his moral struggle but can lean a little too good for his backstory, karkat points this out and Jake swears to get better at it

Dave pitched a lot of names for them and it was eventually settled on “Bernard Gunn” even though he has a sword. Jake just likes how it sounds

“Why is he blue jake?” “…..uhhh” “why is he blue?”

Calliope

SHE LOVES THIS SO MUCH

Teifling Druid with a focus on healing

Circle of shepards

Not a troll color pallet like Dave though, honestly it might get a bit trickster

Beautiful backstory that she coordinated with one of the others to make joint. The most obvious choice is Roxy but I think it was actually jade, Jane or John.

She gets so into it you guys, like so into it

Gives at least one dramatic speech completely on the fly

The other character who takes karkat’s romance arcs seriously and his other favorite player

Has also argued with terezi about world building and consistency. This may put her above rose in karkat’s eyes

Was also allowed to read rose’s fanfiction and offered full on reviews

Also considering going into doing but for the opposite reasons to Dirk

Vriska

Fairy artillerist artificer with a dip in war magic wizard

Min maxxed to hell and back

(Technically there was a better race, but fairy has its own advantages and she couldn’t resist)

An elaborate backstory too with some secrets of her own, I’m thinking full on lost princess

Yes she is That Player, you know the one

Has nearly been kicked multiple times and now won’t leave on principle

Not the best at sticking with the party and not just doing whatever she wants, but suprisingly Dirk has been able to talk her into it with his talk of tactics and playing smart

Second most effective is John who just looks at her like “vriska you’re not making this very fun :(“

Kanaya

Fire genasi ranger

Really tried to get into it but this just isn’t her thing so eventually decided to leave the group

Karkat came up with a fun story reason for her to leave and eventually brought her character back as an Npc

Did help rose make a cosplay of her character, after which John, Calliope, and Roxy wanted to make ones too

Vriska eventually tried to “manipulate” into helping her make one for her character

[sevendeadlyheadcanons]

I may get into the ask box or I may disappear for another 4 years.

but for now

The Seven Deadly Dungeons and Dragons

I don’t play DND but my girlfriend does and she’s sitting next to me so let’s go

-In this AU they’re all normal humans who just get together and play DND sometimes.

-Merlin is the DM.

-Merlin sits for hours writing all sorts of lore and intricate backstories only for them to commit their classic chaotic shenanigans and screw with all her plans. Luckily, she’s good at thinking on the fly.

-Meliodas plays as a halfling paladin from a noble background. His character’s goal is to get information and find his brother.

-Diane plays as a half elf barbarian (my gf thinks this is contradictory but in a fun way) (“she’s too pretty to be a half orc 🥺”)

-Her goal is to find her sisters murderer and bring them to justice.

-Ban would play a tiefling rogue. His goal is to revive his dead lover (Elaine is alive but she thinks DND is ‘nerd shit’ so she just stays at their home. sometimes she’ll come and watch them though)

-King would play a gnome cleric. He is from the fae realm however it recently got raided and he is seeking revenge from the perpetrators.

-Gowther would play as an automaton wizard. His goal is to find out what happened to his creator and gain a heart.

-Escanor would play as a half orc barbarian (when he rages it’s like his daytime form when he’s normal it’s his nightform)

-His goal is simply to find friends who don’t think he’s strange and he simply goes along with the gang because he feels accepted.

-Elizabeth would play as a aasimar cleric. Her character writes stories and is going on the adventure simply to find inspiration.

-They all gather together and play in Escanor’s basement. He makes a little food spread. They don’t appreciate him enough honestly.

-Escanor and King are chronic note takers. They have notebooks full of the lore.

-Diane also writes notes but she writes them aesthetically like

Liones is the country we live in

and highlights it in pastel. She never writes down useful information and spells everything wrong. King usually helps her with his notes.

-Ban forgets everything lore wise and all of his abilities. He never knows when he can use sneak attack and keeps getting in trouble for trying to pick pocket his party.

-“I just think it’d be funny if he wasn’t actually a good rogue because he’s so big”

-Gowther would keep getting the party in trouble by using dunamancy on random NPCs. Merlin is sick of his shit and having to rewrite the plot of her campaigns.

-Meliodas always has weirdly good roles. They have investigated whether his dice are rigged and they’re not he’s just crazy lucky.

-Elizabeth would put a lot of thought into her characters backstory and motives. She would have a very thought out lore.

-Hawk is Escanor’s cat that they all loved so much that they put him in the game as a pig that can eat ranged attacks if a 20 is rolled and also is immune to poison

-Gowther tries to romance every npc. He rolls nat 20 for every persuasion check and Merlin has to let him have the most rizz in game.

-The party all met in the Boar Hat and decided to help each other reach their goals.

-In this canon the Boar Hat can also move. Meliodas has a spell that can create the Boar Hat to be constructed infront of him.

-They all met in real life because Merlin works with Escanor and they got talking about it and she was like “Hold up let me bring my friend Gowther” and then Gowther invited Meliodas who then invited his girlfriend Elizabeth and best friend Ban and then Ban was like “Hold up we need this dude too” and invited King and King’s girlfriend was like “Omg i wanna join” yeah

-King would paint a lot of miniatures

-Elizabeth would be a dice fiend. She would have so many dice and a cute bag for them.

-Meliodas and Ban both use the same pair of black dice that have chipped paint. They just pull these crusty dice from their pockets. The numbers are barely legible anymore.

-Merlin makes her own dice out of resin and sells them on etsy.

[forgeofthenine]

Slightly more uncommon question I guess, so if you don't know how to answer it, feel free to just skip over it:

How much do you think is known about tieflings medically? I headcanon that most other races don't care about them, so while humans and elves and so on can all go to the same doctors and medics, tieflings have a much tougher time. Only tieflings will help tieflings, except for maybe some very minor stuff.

Not just because the others don't want to, but perhaps because nobody ever studied them or even thought they were worth studying. So all tieflings just know better than to ask a regular doctor for any help with horn or tail issues. Chances are, they'd just make it worse anyway.

Ooo I love getting to think about the implications of this sort of stuff, while this definitely isn't in the same vein as my usual requests I'm so into this and it deserves a bit of discussion I think

Medically, I feel like tieflings have a lot of traits that absolutely set them apart from all other races in Faerun. Between the horns, tails, eyes with black sceleras, vestigial wings, the bumps and ridges covering their bodies, and the fact I headcanon them to have heats and ruts, they just have a lot going on medically. Humans and elves definitely seem like they'd be the front runners in medicine and study, but I feel like they'd also disregard races like tieflings, dwarfs, and halflings and leave them all to their own devices.

Tieflings would absolutely have to try and find tiefling doctors to help with issues, though between the Elturel tieflings being exiled and there not being any tieflings of major standing I can think of in Baldurs Gate, I feel like finding a tiefling with that sort of education would be very hard with the current state of things. Any tief doctors would need to conduct their own research and experiments too, as any institutions that teach medicine wouldn't have knowledge on the treatment of tieflings.

Due to all this, and where most tieflings seem to stand socio-economically within Faerun, I feel like there's a big emphasis and importance of home remedies and treatments from clerics. Home remedies would often be shared between families and passed onto children so tieflings have a common knowledge for how to treat 'tiefling matters' like mending a cracked horn or dealing with a sprained tail. These remedies get changed and improved over time depending on effectiveness and where the tieflings might relocate to, some herbs and medicinal plants might be harder or impossible to find when tieflings shift across the sword coast.

Clerics, and to a lesser extent paladins and bards, would also hold importance in tiefling culture. Magic users aren't incredibly common but they are more common than a tiefling doctor, and most magic users know a healing spell or two. Being able to bypass some of the issues of their anatomies mystery by casting a healing spell is hugely important and much more accessible as a form of treatment.

I feel like even if a human or elf doctor could treat a tieflings broken ankle, there's such a huge distrust on the part of the tieflings (for very good reason) that they'd still try to treat issues themself instead. And honestly, most humans and elves unfortunately don't particularly care whether tieflings come to them or not. There are oddballs though, and you'll find the occasional human or elven doctor that does work to try and study tiefling anatomy, often you'll find they also end up with a tiefling for a lover.

I'd love to hear if anyone has anything extra they'd like to add, I always get some really great responses to headcanons like this about tiefling culture!

[utilitycaster]

Do you feel like you like FCG more now *because* of how much he originally grated on you? Because I’ve been feeling lately like that. Like I see him now and part of what I enjoy is how very much he’s grown as a person from the (sorry Sam) painfully unpleasantly awkward/nosy guy he was. I like him more because of how much he bothered me to start. If not that, what else do you feel had fueled your shift in feelings, I’d love to hear!

Good question! I don’t know if it’s that he was grating early on so much that the things that were issues for me early on have since been resolved in-game as part of a compelling and well-crafted arc. There are characters who have great character arcs whom I’ve loved start to finish, but it is true that there’s something uniquely satisfying when a character you didn't like turns around, and this is by far the most dramatic turnaround I've experienced in actual play.

I didn’t mind the awkwardness, and the nosiness was a bit irritating, but for me the problems were much more the constant people-pleasing/terrible therapy from someone who didn’t seem to have any awareness combined with the fact that a sourceless cleric is not interesting to me at all, and Sam was having a difficult time with the mechanics which is somewhat unforgivable in a party with two glass cannons.

All of that has since been fixed. I think the subclass is still in need of retooling, but now that the party has more HP and FCG themself has more options, Sam is less reliant on the mechanics I disliked and much more comfortable with more standard cleric options. FCG developing a sense of personhood and approaching his interests out of genuine curiosity and wistfulness about the experiences he cannot have rather than the obsequious “oh, I’m just a machine” has been a joy to watch. And, of course, they’re engaging with a deity! They’re exploring faith in a way we really haven’t seen before; all our past clerics have been clerics since childhood, and the pathway to being a paladin is fundamentally different. Finding out more about Aeor, and his connection with FRIDA are both icing on the cake - really, all I needed was an arc about FCG finding a source of faith (deity-based or conceptual) and coming to terms with being a real person, and, like Ashton, I couldn’t be prouder of them.

If I may: I think of the cast, Sam is not necessarily graceful or subtle at dropping hints and working in a picture of what’s there without explicitly saying it (I've talked about this as negative space), but he is extremely good at understanding the structure of a story and that this is work that needs to be done. Think of Nott spending an hour disguised as a halfling in a cafe, or Scanlan doing drugs, or FCG being weird about birds and talking about their past party. It's necessary groundwork to be laid, and it’s infinitely better to lay it on thickly or imperfectly than to not do it at all. As a result, sometimes Sam's characters do take longer to grow on me, but they consistently have; the turnaround for FCG was just the sharpest.

I think because FCG was built around a particularly complicated reveal, it was rough until we hit Breaking Point. Because he was so focused on putting those dominoes in place, he was holding back too much on everything else. Once we had that reveal it felt like Sam could actually breathe. The confirmation FCG had a soul came not long after and everything since then has been a wonderfully explored arc of someone coming at the problem of “who am I and where do I fit in to the world” from several different directions.

[froggyplanet4269]

the girls playing dnd because I also play it!

disposable: very new to the game, has only played in one or two campaigns so far. she likes using classes with high charisma (warlocks, bards) and plays as elves, tieflings, genasi and the like to feel a bit prettier i guess(?). she likes playing as chaotic good.

irreverent: shes obsessed with meta tbh. her characters are absolutely BROKEN; she often plays wizards, druids or blood hunters (I would like to play one of those someday...it looks fun...)

Her favourite races to play as are warforged and anything from the feywild (elves, fairies, satyrs and the like. She also likes dragonborns and kobolds.)

Co often DMs, and Co loves to put puzzles in her dungeons...much to the party's dismay.

splitter: girlie only makes joke characters only to then give them the most horrifying lore. she enjoys playing as bards and rogues, mainly, but she has also liked warlocks. she picks any race that looks good as an anime girl, but like. chaotic. (she likes tieflings and goblins a lot.) she plays as chaotic neutral or evil mostly. when she's the DM, you know the story will get fucked up.

faineant: certified warforged player!!! she also likes gnomes and orcs. sometimes she'll pull up with the most obscure homebrew race and an even more obscure homebrew class. she spends HOURS looking at the dnd wiki. as a DM, she's pretty good too, most of her stories are in a steampunk-ish setting, or science fiction, and they get very silly. (legends of avantris level silly)

caliber: barely makes it to dnd sessions due to work. her character is probably some sort of cleric or articifier because she likes the versatility of the class and the magic stuff. (and the gun theme has to be somewhere.) in regards of races she usually picks changelings or shifters. she also likes playing as druids. her alignment is chaotic good. she does it mostly for escapism from work; and also, she's an excellent DM.

chocolate box: LOVES silly little guy races; kenku, tieflings, kobolds, halflings, dragonborns or harengorns (rabbit people.) He WILL play barbarians, paladnins or bards, and Only that. she's just starting out, but she'd love to make her own campaign someday.

taxidermy: animal classes enjoyer. she played as bugbears, satyrs, harengorns, tabaxis, owlins, dragonborns, the monkey people race I played as once, you name it. she plays "chaotic neutral" which ends up fading into chaotic good. she likes to try a new class each campaign, and often subclasses. she likes druids, sorcerers and wizards the most.

chemical: just got into playing, as a recommendation by splitter girl (I hc they're friends). she's a bit indecisive on what to play as, but she chose a fighter dragonborn and plays as true neutral. her stats suck a little bit because she's new but she's trying her best.

[ambrosearietes]

We (and by that I mean myself) demand more headcanons cuz they go hard asf😈

i have so many i’m gonna break these up by character. i will only do like the major ones. these are not all my headcanons just my big ones.

ADAM

despite living in slavic countries for most of his life, adam speaks english with a british accent because he learned it from anthony. he can also do a perfect american accent because he played WAAAAAAAYYYYYY too much fallout

adam is autistic (this one actually is canon, i mean come On dude) but also has ADHD and C-PTSD

scrawny because he was malnourished during his time as d-class. very insecure about it.

he and sylvester sloan know each other through anthony. i mentioned that sloan babysat adam occasionally, i was completely serious. he let adam watch star wars and adam literally wanted to BE luke skywalker.

yeah luke was his gender awakening

uses she/her to refer to his younger self from before anthony saved him as a coping mechanism— in reality he’s trying to deny that it even happened to him in the first place.

smokes weed when the team is off. calvin does not approve.

marries harvey in every stardew valley playthrough.

romances halsin in baldur’s gate 3.

cracked at fromsoft games.

CALVIN

bisexual, he just doesn’t realize it.

calvin is a gamer. he had adam build him a setup. they play together. adam beats his fucking ass in everything and makes fun of him for it.

really, really bad habit of bottling his emotions (which is why olivia keeps dumping him)

was ~19 when he got arrested for the stuff hyun-ki mentioned. vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence is considered a felony charge.

grew up in the midwest. talks like a midwestern dad.

his aunt owns a horse ranch. calvin REALLY likes horses as a result.

he once promised adam to take him to meet his horse and teach him to ride after everything. poor guys :(

he and aaron would have had a father-son relationship.

he was a very “difficult” child due to him not being believed about his mother’s death. he had no idea how to cope with it. often got into fights, which is why his aunt ended up sending him to boarding school. she got a lot of calls even when he was there because calvin just. got into a fuckton of fights.

he didn’t go to therapy until the insurgency MADE HIM go to therapy.

legally can’t drive. doesn’t give a fuck.

he would occasionally let adam just lay on top of him like a cat. he thought it was platonic. like just guys being dudes.

would be a good father.

if he saw his dad again he’d shoot the guy without any hesitation.

blames the foundation’s negligence for his mom’s death.

likes planes a lot.

OLIVIA

sees adam as her little brother. they’re extremely close by O5-3’s chapter. she’s rather protective and very quick to defend him.

adam taught her to play dungeons and dragons and gives her book recommendations. she plays a halfling life-domain cleric/college of swords bard (multiclassing)

loves mystery novels.

adam introduced her to stardew valley. she usually marries leah.

bisexual. does not know this.

easily frustrated with calvin because calvin is terrible at communicating his feelings. calvin is trying to work on this. it’s going terribly. despite this, calvin is very affectionate with her and she does how open he is with that.

very relationship-centric person. this is mostly because she didn’t get much characterization in twie.

keeps a sketchbook. mostly doodles flowers.

her and sophia would have gotten along amazingly.

likes to dabble in poetry.

would romance wyll in bg3

huge fan of law and order. adam questions her taste in television shows.

if she had procreate she’d be fucking unstoppable.

i don’t have much on her bc characterization is so lacking :((

would have gladly taken sam (O5-11) with her back to the insurgency. deeply regrets that she didn’t. she thinks about sam a LOT, it genuinely haunts her. like she will try to sleep and she’ll just hear that gunshot and want to throw up.

VINCENT ARIANS / ANTHONY WRIGHT

i don’t remember if i mentioned this in the last post but vincent is a cat person. had a cat named mira. she was a calico.

insomniac.

in his ‘ideal world’ he would have lived with aaron and been able to raise adam.

very, very envious of people with ‘normal lives’.

we don’t know much about what vincent did in the foundation— the dialogue from O5-13 at the end of the children matches up with what he tells aaron in the apartment scene so i assume vincent was felix’s predecessor and felix held another number. as for what he did, we do know he was, like, an ACTUAL engineer who designed bombs at some point (stated in O5-5’s chapter); he could have been in charge of security.

it’s implied he had a second-in-command type position under aaron and likely was on the first delta command before his first ‘disappearance’, unless he wrote the summa modus operandi then just vanished off the face of the fucking earth for a while.

records of vincent are next to impossible to find within the insurgency as he worked so closely with the engineer and they don’t even know who the engineer was.

aaron thought vincent was dead until he received reports of anthony wright working with calvin.

anthony and sloan were good friends and out of all members of delta command during the way it ends, he respected sloan the most. anthony would have considered an actual relationship with him if he wasn’t like “no, i’m probably gonna disappear again or just straight up die soon anyway.” anthony was right, he did in fact die.

sloan knew who vincent arians was, he just had no idea that anthony and vincent were the same person.

genuinely, anthony wanted to die.

adam gave him a reason to live outside of vengeance.

GENUINELY sees adam as his son. he’s a bit harsh on him during TWIE because he never wanted adam in the insurgency at all. he and adam had a conversation at some point where anthony expressed this and told adam he wished the latter just went to a good college and worked in programming or IT.

would not have been able to kill calvin had he made it to the end. would also have not been able to kill aaron.

frederick traumatized this man just as much as he traumatized aaron, vincent just absolutely refuses to acknowledge it.

sophia knew about vincent’s love for aaron and may have even encouraged it.

if his love for aaron was reciprocated, they likely had a relationship while aaron was with the insurgency and tried to be secretive about it but felix carter just “I know what you are.”

he would be very sweet as a lover. very sappy. hopeless romantic. given who he was in love with, are we even surprised?

cigarettes are part of how he started aging again.

the insurgency kind of knows he’s older than he looks, they just say he’s in his fifties because he looks like it, but even TWIE says he’s been around as long as anyone can remember. likely, vincent surfaced as anthony wright around the same time that sylvester sloan joined the insurgency.

his plan in case anyone saw any old photos of vincent and noticed that he looked eerily similar to anthony was to say that he’s vincent arians’ grandson and that his mother was arians’ daughter.

vincent had no children, but he did like being around kids.

during his years with the foundation he’d often lock himself in his lab just to cry. aaron often checked in on him.

frederick repeatedly called him aaron’s dog as a joke that vincent found very not funny. vincent/anthony isn’t really big on dogs because of this.

if anthony saw adam today he’d be immensely proud.

if anthony had made it to the end he would have tried to make aaron tell him why he left. aaron would not have been able to tell him.

anthony was a bit scared of how much like aaron calvin is.

would have liked O5-11 if they met.

AARON SIEGEL / O5-1 “THE MAN WITH THE INFINITY GUN,” “THE FOUNDER”

if you claim to be frederick’s #1 hater and you’re not aaron siegel then you’re fucking lying.

very sappy romantic, similar to vincent, but only with sophia. she thinks it’s adorable. he just really loves his wife a lot.

cannot let go of anything for shit. if he was at the scene of vincent’s death he would have tried to bring him back.

had a very weird father-child relationship with sam.

tolerated most of the other O5s at best, especially rufus (O5-6) and valerie (O5-7).

felix has always been his favorite aside from sophia (and vincent during the insurgency days)

borderline personality disorder

capable of straight up hanging up on frederick. this annoys the absolute fuck out of frederick.

PETTIEST BITCH IN THE WOOOORRRLLLDDD he’s like a fucking crow

sees mortimer (O5-5) as family because he’s the grandfather of alison chao, at least in other realities. mortimer gets along well with aaron.

very easily sent into overstimulation, it’s unknown why. he’s only ever perfectly calm in a sensory deprivation chamber.

extremely pale.

lives at overwatch. often falls asleep at his desk or on the fucking floor.

wreck of a man, but a surprisingly exceptional leader when he actually feels like leading instead of letting valerie handle things.

the other O5s don’t even know much about him.

visits san marco as much as he can.

FREDERICK WILLIAMS / THE ADMINISTRATOR

obsessed with the string theory, literally discovered it before the idea was even conceived.

had a wife and daughter, both died horribly. his daughter was extremely young and he’s a tad bit obsessed with the idea of bringing her back. driven by grief but also the fact he’s just a Bad Person in General

extremely manipulative (canon), but also just likes to fuck with people.

sometimes he doesn’t even call aaron or calvin he just speaks into their heads.

sometimes he’ll just call them and ask shit like this. aaron would hang up on him but calvin can’t.

can manifest however he wants, he usually chooses the phone.

reality bender (canon) and extremely powerful at it. like it’s lowkey concerning.

god complex.

totally the kind of guy to go “no don’t kill me im just a girl”

adam ivanov as the engineer would beat the shit out of him if given the chance.

what aaron described in the apartment scene was literal psychological torture. aaron was not the only person he subjected, just his favorite punching bag.

aaron, near the end of his life, got him a world’s worst boss mug and kept it next to the phone. calvin got a second one just to drive the point home.

a bit obsessed with antediluvian anomalies (project paragon). talks to calvin about them extensively.

hated vincent for no real reason he was just a bitch.

[sweetestlittledarling]

Because I enjoy thinking about these things:

My Analysis of my second Tav: Willow (She/Her) Halfling Nature Cleric or Yondalla.

(all of these templates come from the wonderful Halkuonn on Kofi: Support Halkuonn on Ko-fi! ❤️. ko-fi.com/halkuonn - Ko-fi ❤️ Where creators get support from fans through donations, memberships, shop sales and more! The original 'Buy Me a Coffee' Page.)

So, to start off Wilow's has a lot of connection to the sun (her Halfling name meaning 'Bringer of the dawn') so her colors often reflect that in a lot of golds and sunrise colors. Plus, I love her in the gold armor in game. Her plant again connects to the sun with a sunflower and her animal is the morning dove.

Her scent I decided is an early morning thing (take that as you will) and her song is 'You are My Sunshine' by Christina Perri (which is a little on the nose, but it is a pretty song, and it makes me think of her mother). Her spell is Guiding Bolt which I used...a lot.

Now on to the relationships:

Originally, I had Haslin in mind for Willow but for some reason she felt drawn to Astarion as well pulling the vampire into a loving poly relationship that is both beautiful and probably gives him the most stress of his life.

Alright so starting off, Halsin is the most extroverted out of the bunch followed by Willow who is kind of a ambivert at times. Astarion is very much an introvert, most of the time not even wanting to be touched by many people. He often times needs his own space which his lovers are willing to give him.

Haslin is probably the most agreeable with Willow not far behind. Again, i feel Astarion is at the other end of the spectrum but that is a good thing because I feel him being argumentative is his way of reminding his lovers (who are both bleeding hearts) that they don't have to stick out their necks for everyone and that they need to protect themselves as much as everyone else. It's part of his love language.

I feel the most protective person is Halsin, literal papa bear. Both Willow and Astarion are a little more chill understanding each other's strengths and having faith in each other (which is not to say Haslin doesn't I just think his animal nature sometimes is a little more forceful).

Astarion is the most secretive (trauma related) while Haslin is the most outspoken not really seeing the need to keep secrets. Willow is in the middle being willing to tell her lovers everything though at times being a bit more a secret keeper of omission (like not letting anyone know that her adopted father is a dwarven billionare and having sisters).

Astarion of course is more formal, loving the fancier thing in life. I do think that Haslin is not accustomed to the fancy things but he's not against them (maybe enjoying a bit though needing to get back to nature soon to recharge that half of himself). Willow is kind of weird because she grew up a bit fancy, so she gets a bit ichy being forced back into that life.

Haslin and Willow both are kind of the middle for gifts vs favors while I think Astarion is more a gift kind of guy, maybe something shiny.

Astarion is more a quiet music guy though on occasion has been known to dance to a jig. The same with Haslin. Willow leans into the fun side of music.

Haslin I think is more a brawl person, not to say he doesn't have brains as he had a great one but his more animal nature, I think comes out in a bit more of defensive kind of way. Astarion and Willow on the other hand both are in the brain side, Willow a bit more so as she takes her time where as Astarion can get a bit frustrated when he doesn't think people are listening.

Willow and Haslin both are PDA people and enjoy snuggling while Astarion again sometimes needs his space, though in private he is a bit more loving and affectionate then he is in public.

Astarion is hot, no doubt about it while Haslin and Willow often fall into the cuter. I put Haslin there because while I believe he is built hot his attitude and love are 'cuter'.

Finally, all of them are kinky for the most part, especially with the bear XD.

And that is Willow <3

[ryttu3k]

With the caveat that this only uses BG3 options and not broader D&D ones, here is something I spent far too much thinking about while also watching the movies!

Gandalf: He's not a party member, he's an NPC. Specifically, he's a deity. Quasi-deity, maybe, but a deity nonetheless. Look, 'Wizard' just doesn't go far enough. The most powerful wizard we know of is Elminster, and I suspect Gandalf would definitely win. Maybe he couldn't go against Mystra directly, but he's certainly a far step above most of the other characters. (And if he was one of the player classes, he'd be a Sorcerer, specifically Storm Sorcerer, or possibly Light Cleric, with a particular love of Radiant magic and the Daylight spell, and a lot of proficiency in Animal Handling and a permanent Speak With Animals going on. Actually he's… got most Proficiencies.) Race is… well, deity, but he reads as human to most. Background is obviously Sage.

Aragorn: Literally the entire Ranger class is based on Aragorn. Specifically, he's a Hunter. By the time he's well and truly immersed in his storyline, he's become an Oath of Devotion Paladin as well. For race, I'm going to say High Half-Elf, to explain his Numenorian background, and he does canonically have elven ancestry! His background is Outlander, although he has elements of Noble. Has proficiencies in Nature, Animal Handling, Medicine, Stealth, Survival, and History.

Legolas: Wood Elf, and while Ranger seems like a fairly obvious choice, given his bow skills, I actually suspect he'd take a few levels at least in Bard, and frankly would fit any of the colleges. Not a ton of CHA, but a ridiculous amount of DEX. His background is… complicated (Noble but raised in Outlander settings?), and he has proficiencies in Nature, Survival, Arcana, History, and so much Perception, and, much to Gimli's dismay, Acrobatics :D

Gimli: Gold Dwarf Fighter, specifically Champion. "You approach the complex problems posed by combat with one distinctly effective solution - you hit those problems, really quite hard." Unexpectedly, he has the Noble background! Proficiencies include History and Persuasion; he struggles hard with Perception and Stealth.

Boromir: Human, multiclass as Battle Master Fighter, and also Paladin - originally Oath of Devotion, like Aragorn. But, critically, when he tries to take the ring from Frodo, he becomes - and dies as - an Oathbreaker. Boromir as the tragic side of Paladins. He has the Soldier background, and proficiencies in Athletics, Investigation, and Persuasion. High STR, but lower than usual DEX.

The Hobbits collectively: All of the Halflings have racial bonus proficiencies in Stealth and Sleight-of-Hand, very high DEX, and debuffs to STR and Intimidation. Most are Lightfoot, Sam is Strongheart.

Merry: Multiclass College of Lore Bard, and Rogue Thief. "You've been into Farmer Maggot's crops!" Later picks up Fighter and thus proficiency enough to use heavier armours. Background is Noble with elements of Folk Hero, and high proficiencies in Performance, Persuasion, Deception, Insight, and Perception.

Pippin: Very similar to Merry, including picking up Fighter, although his background is more a combination of Noble and Entertainer. He doesn't have the same Perception that Merry has but does have particularly good Persuasion, and slightly lower INT and WIS in exchange for higher CHA and DEX.

Sam: He's a Paladin. Sam Gamgee is a Paladin. The moment he swears to at-least-quasi-if-not-more-deity Gandalf to protect Frodo, he becomes a Paladin (Oath of Devotion, although very specifically focused on Frodo). His backgrounds don't actually fit any of the in-game ones, but if 'gardener' or just a more generic 'domestic' was one, he'd be it. Higher STR than most halflings (being able to carry a full complement of pots and pans and also Frodo), INT isn't great but his WIS is ridiculously high, CON is maxed out, proficiencies in Insight, Perception, and Investigation, and actually doesn't have the Intimidation debuff!

Frodo: Finally, Frodo. He's a Fiend Warlock and Not Happy About It, due to having a bound object he can't get rid of that grants Invisibility but also causes Necrotic damage when used, and which causes severe debuffs to STR and CON over time. Background is Sage with some elements of Noble, although the Sage side tends to win out, with proficiencies in Insight and Perception, and starting proficiencies in Arcana, History, and Religion. He can cast Big Blue Eyes once per long rest for a Persuasion bonus :) Almost maxed out WIS to resist the Ring, and while he started with the usual halfling debuff to STR (say, -1 or the like) and decent CON, the Ring debuffs hit those hard.

[coff-in]

being a writer is truly suffering, I hope you can enjoy yourself in peace with the books and DnD, and push through with working on ren'py (I'm actually planning on making something with it myself someday).

On that previous note I actually have a confession (🤓) to make- I actually fool around with a 5th ed DnD statblock maker and making up statsheets for characters and monsters sometimes, and made one for Andrew as a rogue/warlock character part of a small party of his own, and thinking abt making one for Ashley as a sorcerer/warlock with a focus on charming and mind-affecting powers (also with her own party). A [reader] would be screwed enough dealing with the siblings with their canon abilities, imagine how awful it'd be for Andrew to be stalking you while totally invisible, or Ashley with the power to just hypnotize you into going along with her demands if manipulation fails...

notes from coff-in: i need them to use mage hand inappropriately on me

[gender neutral] reader-insert, D&D AU (LET'S GO), NSFW

gooddd.... i need them to just... take control of me right now. i need them to make me stop thinking, to just empty out my head and make me go dumb :( it's so much effort being your own person, i just wanna be their pet or toy for a bit, not having to focus on anything else but feeling good and being used

andrew being rogue makes so much sense in my head in a way i cannot describe, same with ashley being a sorcerer. like... andrew is about being sneaky and discreet and ashley... has that innate power in her, you know? something she was born with that makes her special. it was probably hard for renee to raise her-- ashley's magic was very wild when she was younger. andy had to teach his little leyley how to control it so she doesn't burn down a classroom on accident (she does it on purpose now).

hnnnngh imagine!!! long lifespan [reader]!!! like and elf or a halfling-- what would andrew and ashley do then? their precious darling would live long after they would, they could find someone to love!!! they can't have that!!

mmmm.... mmmm this all rubs my brain very nicely... a dark thought: andrew using his rogue abilities to constantly take advantage and rape [reader]. it's the middle of the night and everyone else in the party is asleep. andrew sneaks into [reader]'s tent, at first just to lay in the same bedroll as them, but then can't stop himself from fucking them. putting a hand over their mouth when they wake, "shh shh shh. not a single fucking noise from you before i cum, okay?"

GRRRR!!! I'M CLAWING AT MY ENCLOSURE!!! I NEED TO BREAK FREE FROM SOCIETY'S SHACKLES AND FUCK THESE INSANE BITCHES!!! >:(

(if my graves sibling ocs were in dnd, one of them would definitely be a cleric who's deity/patron would be their siblings, andrew and ashley. so enamored by them that their faith in them is how they draw their power; and ppl think "oh oc just looks up to them how sweet!" but no-- they're wholly devoted.)

----

coff-in

[zorlok-if]

if the zorlok cast were bg3 characters, what would they be and what kind of decisions would they make?

I'm assuming you mean who they would be in BG3 and not what kind of characters they would play. Also, hmm, don't want to give away spoilers here, so if you look below the cut you can see what I think they'd be up to (just beware of spoilers).

Tommy: Human, Level 9 Warlock (Fiend + Chain) / Level 3 Bard (Valour)

Dev: Wood Elf, Level 11 Rogue (Thief) / Level 1 Warlock (Archfey)

EJ: Human, Level 12 Sorcerer (Wild Magic)

Adam/Eve: High Elf, Level 7 Cleric (War) / Level 5 Paladin (Vengeance)

Lucía: Half-Elf (Wood), Level 7 Ranger (Gloomstalker) / Level 5 Rogue (Assassin)

Ciel: Lightfoot Halfling, Level 6 Barbarian (Wildheart) / Level 6 Druid (Moon)

Danny: Drow (Seldarine), Level 9 Paladin (Oathbreaker) / Level 3 Warlock (Fiend + Blade)

The Celestial: Aasimar Forest Gnome, Level 10 Wizard (Transmutation) / Level 2 Cleric (Knowledge)

Rose: Human, Level 12 Bard (Lore)

[Beware of Spoilers Below!]

Tommy

Not romancing anyone (obviously, he's 15)

Best friends with Wyll, Karlach, and Gale. Shadowheart is too cool for him, he's way too intimidated by her. Lets Astarion do whatever the hell he wants. Lae'zel scares the shit out of him. Adopted by Halsin the moment he meets him.

Just wants to hang out with the cool tiefling kids

Very easily persuaded by Raphael. Wyll and Karlach are constantly trying to talk some sense into him.

Aylin is the coolest person he's ever met

Sobbing his way through the horrors of Faerûn—I can see him in a little crumple at Withers feet, blowing his nose on Withers' decaying robes as bone daddy breaks the fourth wall and stares into the camera miserably

Eventually hardens into a truly terrifying force to be reckoned with (Karlach is very proud)

Tommy has two hands, one for Scratch and one for the owlbear

Dev

Romancing non-Ascended Astarion and fucking Halsin occasionally, Lae'zel and Shadowheart are xyr besties (xe forces them to get along), Gale amuses the hell out of xem, Wyll and Dev are constantly trying to one up each other's stories

It's either Ethel or Volo, whoever xe comes across first, but that eye's out of xyr head comically fast

Just wants to talk shit with Withers all day, hates that he never has much to say to xem

Wants to kick the shit out of Rolan but keeps saving his life somehow

Always covered in blood. Like it doesn't make sense half the time. How did that much blood splatter on xem? Why is it still on xem?

EJ

Absolutely head over heels in love with Gale, friends with and trying to fix everyone, Astarion terrifies them but they won't give up on him, they know there's a good person hiding beneath that veneer

Panicked and accidentally yeeted a gnome

Tried a tadpole once, wasn't for them

Holding Gale's hand and squinting through every dark space

Sleeps cuddling the owlbear and is always covered in feathers

Adam/Eve

In a relationship with Lae'zel, didn't get along at first but Laez grew to respect A/E and A/E was charmed by Lae'zel's... strengths. Shadowheart is their sister, hates it when the girls are fighting. Friends with Gale and Karlach. Doesn't trust Wyll fully. Never let Astarion join them. Immediately enamored with Halsin but Lae'zel is... stronger.

Normally out of spell slots cause they're terrified of long resting

Loves potions and alchemy, will stop every 30 meters to pick yet another sprig of balsam

Doesn't make deals with villainous beings. Doesn't trust any voices in their head. Doesn't respect any gods they come across.

Loviatar loves them

Lucía

In a relationship with Karlach, best friends with her and Wyll, had a crush on Shadowheart before meeting Karlach, never liked/trusted Astarion and staked him the minute he tried to put his fangs on her throat, Jaheira is her idol, probably left Lae'zel to die (cause she didn't want to upset Shadowheart)

Speaks to every single animal, picks every single lock, looks in every single barrel, fails almost every charisma check

Scratch is always by her side

Will go to Hell for her besties 😉🥲

Ciel

Dating Shadowheart, really close with Astarion and Minthara... But, seriously, they have a big redemption arc. They grow and change alongside Shadowheart, both goth edgelords are completely changed by the end

Starts the game eating every tadpole (like the Guardian barely has to suggest the idea, it's already in their mouth) but goes one step too far and suddenly becomes terrified of what it means to be monstrous(/illithid)

Diplomacy? Ha. Sorry, that's not for them. They only like talking to animals and corpses.

Loves permanently seeing invisibility...

A loot goblin, their high strength score is great for fighting and jumping and shit, but mostly for the increased carrying capacity

Mol is their idol

Danny

I'm honestly not sure who they'd be in a relationship with, I think they'd be close with everyone but I don't think they'd be in a headspace for anything more than friendship over the course of the game, maybe after the fact they'd grow closer with Shadowheart but that would just be my headcanon, they wouldn't romance anyone (no matter how much Withers mocks them for it)

They are doing everything they think is right in the moment, though they'd regret rash actions later

They empathize greatly with the undead and hate people like Balthazar who twist them to their will

No one threatens a child in their presence. Well, no one who's still alive.

They cannot pretend to be under the Absolute's thumb, they are going in swinging every time, no chance for diplomacy or manipulation

They pick up a teddy bear early on and it never leaves their inventory

The Celestial

In a physical relationship with Halsin, slept with Astarion but now they're just very good friends, sees Karlach, Wyll, and Shadowheart as eir children, loves and is very intrigued by Lae'zel, doesn't like Gale at all (cannot and will not trust a wizard like him)

Always has the Disguise Self spell going, and it's always a different disguise

Eir traveler's chest is filled with the weirdest collection of random shit you've ever seen: noble portraits, rotten eggs, gold chalices, a couple goblin corpses, poutine, 30 mindflayer tadpoles, etc.

Chats with every corpse, even the ones ey killed

Lorroakan can (and does) eat shit

Despises everything about Orin, zero redeemable qualities—even her shapeshifting, eugh, it's so... crude, no grace or skill

The moment the Celestial learns Otto's Irresistible Dance is the last moment Faerûn knows peace

Rose

In a passionate romance with Wyll but he's very good friends with everyone (they are all his children)

Does everything within his power to avoid violence. Will charm, sing, and sneak his way across Faerûn

Adopts every child and animal he comes across

The hardest thing he has to do is tell people to stay in camp. Why can't everyone always be in his party? They all make him feel so bad...

Always taking long rests (doesn't want people being tired or hurt) and spends an hour cooking a delightful meal with Gale every night

[writteninlunarlight-years]

Hello! If you're still doing them, could I please get a Baldur's Gate 3 matchup? I'm bedridden right now from joint pain and need a pick-me-up, but if they're closed feel free to ignore this.

Gender: Genderfluid, but leans towards feminine

Pronouns: Any, but I tend to use she/her because it's honestly just more convenient

Sexuality: Any gender is fine. I might slightly prefer a man but if you think a girl would fit better don't let that stop you ☺️

Appearance: I am a 4’ 10” (147 cm) tall fem-aligned person with long wavy auburn hair, glasses and a fashion sense that varies widely from masc to fem. I'm almost never seen without my compression braces on because I have pretty terrible joint pain, so I've got compression socks, knee braces, shorts for hip pain, gloves for finger joint pain and am generally carrying quite a lot of medical equipment on me at all times lol. That being said, I try to work out when I can so I am getting pretty muscular and enjoy impressing people with my muscles because nobody really expects it.

MBTI: INFJ-T

Personality: I'm a very kind, friendly person but I still have a bit of fiery energy. I'm very passionate and will stand up and verbally smackdown anyone if I feel it's deserved, though generally I'm quite polite. I know tons of random trivia because I research and take notes obsessively. I have autism so the main way I communicate is by infodumping, and I can get easily thrown off in conversation when someone says something I don't expect. I love debating people respectfully, but I really do try to be very nice and as helpful as I possibly can be. I also kind of struggle to ask for help when I need it because I get embarrassed. Plus I am a very stubborn person in general. But most of all I'm very dedicated to self improvement and always strive to be a better version of myself.

Likes: Books and researching, Plants, Witchcraft and occultism, Mythology and religious studies, Linguistics, Exercising and working out and especially Science in general

Dislikes: My chronic illnesses, Heights, Being teased or made fun of (I make a point of not doing this to others either and even when debating I never go for personal jabs), People who are obviously misinformed but refuse to change, Rude and toxic people (If you're going to waste my time being a jerk you're not worth my time at all)

Extra Fun Fact: I currently work at a library and am hoping to become both a researcher and spirit medium

Race: Given my height, probably a halfling or dwarf of some kind

Class: Probably a Paladin or Cleric, maybe with a Wizard multiclass because I'm such a nerd lol

D&D Alignment: Neutral Good. I'm committed to doing good but not too strictly. Basically the “Yeah, but it would be funny” type of morality

Thanks so so much, I hope you have a fantastic day! Take care of yourself!

I hope this helps you feel better! I wish you nothing but a speedy healing process. You seem like a fantastic person. Thank you for letting me write to you!

~~~~~ MATCHUPS ~~~~~

BG3

Wyll Ravengaurd

~~~~~ HEADCANONS ~~~~~

Wyll is a gentleman with you, always seeking to get to know you and respect the newfound leader.

He was a lone wolf for so long that now, having a crew of friends and someone he holds near and dear is a fresh summer's breath for him.

He is afraid of Mizora, though. Not that she would hurt him; she wouldn't get anything out of that. He fears the restrictions, rules, and stipulations she would put on him if he sought you out.

Due to this, Wyll tried so hard to keep you at arm's length, only letting you know small fragments of him.

When Mizor made her debut, he felt better about his chances with you. He knew having someone as kind, understanding, and warm as you by his side was just what he needed.

Wyll courted you properly, asking if you would like to explore romance with him, go on small dates, and even take a dance lesson here and there.

No matter how badly he wanted to kiss you, though, he kept refraining until you asked him.

Once you two were past courting and officially together, he made it a point to get explicit permission from Mizora to tell you about Avernus and the Demons who inhabited the other planes.

He may have had to do a shady thing or two to earn this privilege, but it was worth seeing your eyes light up when sharing this limited knowledge.

When freed of the illithid, he would happily give up galivanting across the sword coast to settle down with you. He would only leave because Mizora asked him for assistance.

Wyll watched you flourish as a shopkeeper for books and magical resources, things only your humble shop could attain because of Wyll's Connections and adventures.

If you ever had a tough day or became bedridden, Wyll would drop everything to assist you. He would be your personal nurse. He'd even call Halsin or Shadowheart to help if he was worried about his lack of skill.

~~~~~ BLURB ~~~~~

It was a cold day in Faerun; snow had just coated the land and would soon fall again. You were seated in the foyer of your new home, watching the outdoors grow colder. You, however, were quite warm. A hand-knitted blanket was wrapped around you, and a warm fur pelt Mizora gifted you adorned your shoulders. Wyll was by the fire, tending to it. Today was tough for your body; everything was sore and hurting. Wyll did everything he could to help, even utilizing the books and notes Shadowheart and Halsin left for him.

As soon as the warmth was at its peak in the home, Wyll kissed you atop your head and made his way to the kitchen. He would prepare a meal for you two and ensure you had some sustenance. While still staring out at the beautiful white blanket of snow, the thought occurred to you that you were the fearless leader of the band that killed the neatherbrain. The illithid gave you an extraordinary gift of no more pain for the price of being turned. To think you almost took that risk but instead knew your humanity was far more a gift. Plus, you would have lost all the amazing friends you made.

Now, by your partner's side, you were even more confident in your choices because you wouldn't have him. Wyll returned some food and assisted you when you needed it. Once satisfied, you two decide some more rest would do you both well. Wyll had just returned a day or two ago from a grueling task from Mizora. Wyll gently picked you up and walked you back to your room. He knew just as well as you that you could take care of yourself, as you have done this time and time before, but his help was always so warm and appreciated. Once in bed, Wyll curled in behind you, holding you close. With one final kiss on your head, you both fell into a simple slumber. You might feel well enough to build a snowman when you wake.

~~~~~ EXTRA ~~~~~

(Just after the freedom of the shadow fell, your group was looking over the security tower at the beginnings of Baldur's Gate. Taking camp before continuing on to your final destination.)

Y/N: Wyll, look at this someone left an enchanted Rapier!

Astarion: ooooh, and quite the liquor selection.

Shadowheart: Please share that with the rest of us.

Wyll: Why don't you all head to the fire and celebrate our accomplishments? Heard Gale cooked quite the feast.

(You walked up to Wyll and leaned your head on his shoulder)

Y/N: What do you think will come of us?

Wyll: Whatever you desire, my love, whatever you desire.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #330: Martha (Santa)

today on Grailfinders we’re actually mealfinders! today we’re building Santa Martha! she’s still a monk, but Skadi’s rune magic has mixed things up a lot. now she’s a Mercy Monk, and since she had the literal bajesus zapped out of her, she’s a Shepherd Druid instead of a cleric. don’t ask why the Tarrasque is still hanging around, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t know either.

check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

next up: tai gong what? *blush emoji*

Ancestry & Background

I know changing these around doesn’t make too much sense, but just blame Skadi for all of that. I’d love to keep Martha a human, but there’s really no way to sneak Create Food and Water in without the Mark of Hospitality, and the only way to get that is to be a Halfling. I mean, she’s a child now, so that tracks? I guess? like all halflings you’re Lucky, letting you re-roll all natural ones one time. you’re also Brave, giving you advantage against being frightened. you saw a guy warping reality and claiming to be the son of god and went, “yeah I want to hang out with him”. you don’t get phased easily. you’re Ever Hospitable, giving you a d4 extra on all checks involving brewer’s supplies and cook’s utensils, which tracks. finally, you learn some extra magic! your Innkeeper’s Magic gives you prestidigitation, purify food and drink, and unseen servant, the latter two once per day, for free. you’re killing your food and picking it up off the ground, so yeah. good call on washing it before cooking with it. on top of all that, Halfling Nimbleness lets you squeeze through spaces taken up by anything bigger than you are- now too many cooks won’t spoil the broth!

you also get Spells of the Mark, adding a bunch of stuff to your spell list. again, we’ve got the whole list on the character sheet, but spoilers- Create Food and Water is a third level spell and also why we’re here at all.

also since this is pre-jeezy Martha, she’s a Folk Hero, not an acolyte. that means she gets proficiency in Animal Handling and Survival checks.

Ability Scores

tbh stat #1 probably should be something else but I made it Dexterity any way, since cooking takes a few levels to get and I’d rather like you to not die before we get there. given that Martha wears, at best, super light armor, you need some good dexterity. you can also use good Constitution, but we can chalk that one up to home-cooked meals. third up is Wisdom, since that tends to be the cooking stat (and we need it for multiclassing). that means your Charisma isn’t super high, but you’ve still got that girl-next-door charm to you. your Strength is middling since you’re not kicking ass for jesus yet, and we’re dumping Intelligence. you got your christianity zapped out of you in order to celebrate a christian holiday, and I cannot believe Skadi did a good job of messing with your brain.

Class Levels

1. Druid 1: starting as a monk probably would be smarter, but druids get more skill proficiencies I like, such as Insight and Medicine, and they also get Intelligence and Wisdom save proficiency to boot. on top of that, your Spells can include all sorts of things like Create Bonfire and Mending as cantrips, so now we have the basic big sister package complete- figuring out when a sibling’s lying, taking care of them (sickness and health editions), and your first way to cook, sort of.

you also get a bunch of first level spell slots, and you can prepare spells each day to rotate whatever one you want/ think will be useful. this means we don’t have to worry about having a 100% in-character spell list at any one time, so we’ll just go over the highlights in this build breakdown. that being said, we might not bring up every one, but healing spells are always a good menu item.

for now, Beast Bond will help you work together with Tarrasque, Create or Destroy Water will help you boil pasta and drain it super easily, and Entangle is an early version of big sister meddling to stop baddies from using their noble phantasms. if you need to flavor it, consider it a very creative use of a scarf or something to that effect.

also, you learn Druidic. it’s a language.

2. Monk 1: we’re going to stick around druid for the early game, at least until we start cooking, but I wanted to grab the monk multiclass real quick for the Unarmored Defense it brings, adding your wisdom modifier to your AC while not wearing armor. it’s not much, but every addition to your santa suit makes Christmas a bit less traumatic for the little ones. you also get Martial Arts, letting you make unarmed attacks using your dexterity and as a bonus action after attacking, and your unarmed attacks are d4s, but I mean. when are you ever going to use that?

3. Druid 2: okay, back in our usual stomping grounds. as a second level druid you can use Wild Shape, but obviously the slightly more in-character option is using those two charges per short rest on a Wild Companion instead, which lets you cast find familiar for free. it’s not as powerful as the usual Tarrasque, but I bet he can still help with cooking. don’t worry, we’ll get the full sized one eventually.

and by eventually I mean now. second level druids get their circle, and as a Shepherd, you can summon a Spirit Totem as a bonus action to spread christmas cheer, creating a holographic Tarrasque who comes packing a 30’ aura of good cooking smell to bolster your allies for a minute per short rest. obviously all options are dragons, but the book gives you three “animals” to pick from. the bear spirit gives chosen creatures temporary HP and advantage on all strength checks and saves. the hawk spirit lets you use your reaction to give an ally advantage on an attack, and you all have advantage on perception checks for free. finally, the unicorn spirit spreads out your healing power- whenever you cast a healing spell, any creature you wish in the aura gets some HP back as well.

you also know the Speech of the Woods! it’s a language! specifically, it’s Sylvan, but it also gives you the ability to talk to beasts. I’m pretty sure Tarrasque can already speak on his own, but in case he can’t, now he can.

4. Druid 3: third level druids get second level spells, Locate Animals or Plants will make your treks through the storage rooms of Chaldea a lot less annoying, and Summon Beast is our first battle-ready Tarrasque, though he’s definitely not as strong as the original yet.

5. Druid 4: fourth level druids can give their friends Guidance, another big sibling classic, but you also get your first Ability Score Improvement, which we’re using to become a Chef. with this feat, your Wisdom gets +1, and you gain proficiency with chef’s tools. more importantly, you can use said tools to cook snacks for the party on a short rest, giving them an extra 1d8 HP. you can also spend an hour on (or get for free over a long rest) a bunch of treats you can hand out to people. if they’re eaten within 8 hours as a bonus action, that creature gets temporary HP. it’s not a lot at later levels, but it is, if you’ll pardon the pun, flavorful.

6. Druid 5: fifth level druids get third level spells, so now you can Create Food or Water out of thin air. you can also Conjure Animals to summon a bigger Tarrasque, but free food is always a good selling point.

7. Monk 2: second level monks can use Ki, letting you spend some points to attack twice, dash, disengage, or dodge as a bonus action. each option costs one point, and you get a pool of points equal to your monk level each short rest. you also get Unarmored Movement, increasing how fast you can book it in a single turn. kitchens get busy during the holidays, you have to keep your eyes on just about everything!

you can also turn a weapon nearby into a Dedicated Weapon as long as you’re proficient with it, making it a monk weapon no matter what it really is. that doesn’t matter much now, but it’s how you’ll be able to use your dexterity to hit people with cookware.

8. Monk 3: third level monks can Deflect Missiles as a reaction, reducing incoming damage from flying fruits or throwing knives. if you reduce the damage to 0 this way, you can even spend ki to throw it back! third level is also when we start showing Mercy to our foes with Hands of Healing. as an action, you can spend a ki point to heal someone with a touch(ing display of kindness by giving them food). you can also replace one of your flurry of blows attacks with this healing for free. if you’d rather give out rotten food, that’s a bad christmas party, but also you can use Hands of Harm to add necrotic damage to an attack once per turn.

9. Monk 4: fourth level monks can be caught by Tarrasque, reducing their falling damage with a Slow Fall. you also get another ASI, which we’re using to become a Tavern Brawler. that feels a little too OG Martha, but it’s the only way to get improvised weapon proficiency so you can turn cookware into battle gear. you can also grapple people using your bonus action if you hit them with a fist or a pan that turn.

10. Monk 5: fifth level monks can make an Extra Attack each turn, and you can make your melee attacks Stunning Strikes by, you guessed it, spending ki points. we’ve all seen Tom & Jerry, we know how getting hit in the face with a frying pan works.

11. Druid 6: now we’re pretty much done with your physicality, so let’s get back to cooking! sixth level shepherds are Mighty Summoners, granting your beast and fey summons extra HP and magical attacks, bringing them a lot closer to our draconic goals.

12. Druid 7: seventh level druids get fourth level spells- Confusion is our greatest meddling yet, throwing enemy strategy into complete disarray- any creature caught in its radius needs to make a wisdom save, and if it fails it starts doing stuff at random. also, if you find the regular Tarrasque out in the world, try using Dominate Beast on it. it won’t work, but at least you tried.

13. Druid 8: use this ASI to round up your Dexterity and Constitution for more AC and more health. my ma always said, “never trust a cook with less than 10 constitution.”

14. Druid 9: ninth level druids get fifth level spells. now we can Summon Draconic Spirit to get a proper Tarrasque on the battlefield! he’s still mostly supposed to be helping you cook though, so maybe consider using the less expensive spells unless you really need to.

15. Druid 10: Tenth level shepherds have a Guardian Spirit, which means whenever a creature you summoned ends its turn in your spirit totem, they regain HP. so now Tarrasque and Hatsune Miku Tarrasque have some synergy, go team. also you get a cantrip so… Frostbite? keep the food cold?

16. Druid 11: we’re all used to the song and dance by now, but the only sixth level spell we really want or care about here is Heroes’ Feast. it’s literally making food, it increases max HP, keeps people from getting frightened, and it’s MAKING FOOD.

17. Druid 12: last ASI, bump up your Wisdom. now you can spell good, but tbh it’s not that big a deal since most of your magic is here for healing, summons, or buffs anyway. still, now your perception is better, which means you can taste better, probably.

18. Druid 13: thirteenth level druids get seventh level spells, but by now there’s really nothing we’d want aside from using the bigger slots for bigger Tarrasques. I mean there’s Regenerate if you really want more healing, but I doubt Martha’s soup is so good it can regrow arms. I’m not confident to that that 100% until the end of the event, but it’s unlikely!

19 Druid 14: a fourteenth level shepherd has Faithful Summons- once a day when you hit 0 HP you automatically cast Conjure Animals at max level for free, creating four CR2 beasts to protect you for an hour. that’s right, if you faint in the kitchen Tarrasque, Tamamo Cat, Beni-Enma, and Jeff all appear to help out. it’s like a christmas miracle!

20. Druid 15: it’s an eighth level spell slot, which means your draconic Tarrasque is as powerful as he’ll ever be!

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

like I mentioned in the Okuni build, having a character gimmick that requires materials from the world around you adds plenty of new excuses to go on adventures. while cooking probably won’t be as in-depth as building a combat robot, it’s still an additional way to interact with the world, and talking about food all the time will make the DM hungry, and thus more susceptible to snack-based bribes.

while you’re not the most powerful healer we’ve made, you’re probably one of the most economical. thanks to your unicorn aura, you can burn a first level spell slot to heal up a bunch of creatures at once, probably around or above 60 HP in total, or even more when you start throwing summons into the mix.

speaking of, while the in-character option is always to summon the one biggest thing you can as a Tarrasque stand-in, that still gives you the option of summoning large groups of small creatures, making your healing even more effective and skewing the action economy in your favor. just make sure you keep on top of everything so the DM doesn’t get too mad.

Cons:

the best way to summon Tarrasque is to make him a Dragon, and our dragon summon has 0 synergy with your shepherd effects. unless your DM is okay with giving you a massive power boost for no reason, don’t expect that to change any time soon.

we also don’t do much in the late game. most players don’t get that far anyway, so it probably won’t be a big deal, but if you do get to the higher levels you might want a build that utilizes the big bad spell levels more effectively.

your Bonus Actions are absolutely packed, making it hard for you to multitasks. will you move your aura around to keep it centered on allies, or dash to keep up yourself, or use flurry of blows, or a spell, or- there’s a lot of plates you have to keep spinning, is what I’m trying to say.

[angryducktimemachine]

Love talking about my OCs but realized other people or people who just followed me don't know shit about them so here's an overview of the current most important ones:

Matthäus: three headed rat folk, a pathfinder rogue, specifically the kind of rogue who commits mischief by just showing enough confidence to get away with anything in broad daylight, mischievous but charming. Loves his friends maybe a little too much for some people.

Friederick Steinbacherl-Nomme: Gnome Storm Cleric (recently turned Warlock in our now on hiatus campaign), trans guy who decided to simply cut off his old life by going to sea, AroAce and divorced, a bit awkward socially and doesn't like to hang out with people

Jeremy Goodgrove: Halfling Paladin of Redemption, works as a detective, was part of a three-shot-campaign but was so much fun I'm promoting him to proper brain Blorbo, tries to be calm but fails

Machuriel: Diathim, star wars oc in theory but me and star wars had a divorce and I kept them, complicated relationship with twin brother, left home planet to see the galaxy, makes people uncomfortable because they tend to see their loved ones in their face when not focusing on them visually, calm and curious, light-hearted presence

There are so, so many more OCs you'll find scrolling through my blog but these are the ones I'm currently working on the most :3

[bg3screenshotdump]

Don't know if you have done it on your blog but can you introduce us to your Tavs? Like a Character Profil Template. :)

This has been in my inbox for ages, and if i wait until I have everything perfectly set up like i wanted before answering i believe i'll never answer :'D

so perfection and fear of being cringe and seen be damned i'm doing it it now !

so far the only things i have for my tavs on this blog is their respectives tags you can find in the sidebar of my blog :')

so i'll just list them here and i'll make them more detailed pages later, when i have time and feel confident enough to share more of the backstories i imagined :')

( warning, piss poor writing in coming i suck at writing in my native language and it's even worse in english )

Delsys - My 1rst Full release Tav, half wood elf orphan, beastmaster ranger who ended up serving as a guardian of the druidic order that found and raised her. she's a big introvert and has piss poor social skills, litteraly her only friends are her owl companion, Verbena and Trilli ( even if she feels disconected from her two very extroverted and playful friends ) she's been following the orders and lead of the druids for most of her life so she's really not confident in her new role as the leader of the bg3 party, ( she's not confident about a lot of things actually, tbh the only thing she's not insecure about is her archery skills ) and unfortunately for everyone she tends to hide those insecurities behind a tough and apathetic mask

Trilli Bumbleroot - archfey warlock/bard forest gnome - lover of music, dancing, nature and village festivals, she's just a little gal who loves traveling, i'm still not entierly sure of who i want her archfey patron to be, but she took a contract when she left her village in order to have enough power to protect herself on the road. During her travels she eventually came across Delsys ( who wasn't born yet ) and Verbena's druidic order and she's been bestie with Verbena ever since and unfortunately for the other druids when the both of them put their mind together tomfoolery ensues

Verbena Ferngrass - Wood elf druid - high bimbo of the same druidic order that raised Delsys ( and she kind of sees her as a little sister ) she's a big extrovert, a big flirt, she values her personal freedom and fun above all else, she thinks with her vag and is always pulling Delsys into all kind of situations™ She considers Trilli to be her best friend ( and they kiss sometimes )

Vetra - Githyanki war cleric of Vlaakith - soft and curious soul who's been battered and hardened by her training as both a warrior and a priestess, now that she's in faerun she starting to feel a bit more free to be explore and connect back to the parts of her personality she had to hide behind her now no-nonsense tough persona

Kastyn Firebeard - warrior/maybe paladin ( haven't decided yet) - mercenary coming from a blacksmith family, don't have much of a backstory for her yet :') just that she was disatisfied about her life in the mercenary group she was a part of, mostly because she had no control over the missions they took, and those missions sometimes went agaisnt her moral code

Healstra Ssiwin - lolth drow Sorceress - Bit on the fence about her story and personality :'x i'm not sure why exactly she chose to go to the surface,i initially made the Astromancer robes mod for her, so i had in mind that she wanted to see and study the stars but idk, i'll think i'll need to document myself on drow a bit more to get better ideas :'D

Cyn Clarilieu - my EA tav, basic noble human turned paladin ( is now tall and buff thanks to the full release Bodytype 3 ❤️) good aligned, annoyingly too self-righteous at times

Shani Cotton - Halfling rogue - Street urchin turned criminal in Baldur's gate lower city, magpie brainded if-it-shiny-i-want-it ,quite loose morals so she doesn't care if she has to kill or maim to obtain what she wants

Oriann Aleviir - my co-op tav, half drow - cringefail 8 dex blew-her-own-face-off-with-fire-spell wild magic sorcerer, terrified for her life 24/7 and will make every bad choices out of fear and gullibleness ( highly manipulable, will probably end up a squid as a result )

[offsidekineticist]

This one is unusually short, but it feels the right length.

CW: estrangement, ableism, chronic pain, lack of access to medication, very negative self-talk.

Without Results

Qweck has always reminded you of your brother. Her eyes–those bright, golden eyes–were so much like your brother's eyes. Her intensity could easily match your brother's at his most obsessed. Neither were the type to stand aside if there was something out in the world that needed fixing. Qweck was barely 13 when you were struck by the sobering realization that she would leave Brastlewark just as your brother did. At first you were so afraid you would lose her the same way you lost him, lashing out in pain when she left you forever, so you resolved that this time would be different. You had decades to come to terms with her place being beyond Brastlewark, to teach her that her path was hers to tread, and you would love her wherever it led her. And it worked–when she left, you accompanied Qweck to Ostenso, supported her as she petitioned to be accepted into the monastery, and then, when she was accepted, you said your goodbyes and returned home. She didn't write as often as you'd hoped, but you understood: she had her own life now, and you were relieved–and proud–to realize you didn't resent her for it as you had resented your brother. Qweck had left, but she wasn't lost. She still visited you. Still wrote to you. Still loved you.

And now you've gone and fucked it up.

“Pathetic. No self control, no discipline.”

He is not like he was when he left Brastlewark. Like you, he has lost much of the expressiveness of your youth, and what was once a frenetic energy demanding expression through fidgeting and pacing now appears as a coiled spring, carefully controlled but ready to explode at a moment's notice. But his voice is the same. His cadence is the same.

“I'm sorry,” you choke out, and it’s such a pathetic fraction of what you should tell him after what you said all those years ago, but it’s all you can manage when just the sight of him makes your hands hurt and your heart pound and your ears ring.

Your brother sneers at you. “‘Sorry’ means nothing without results. You’ve already proven you can’t change. You just hid behind the bleaching and pretended you had.”

He’s right. He knows he’s right, and so do you. It’s why you never bothered apologizing for your outbursts–how can you say you’re sorry for something you know you won’t stop doing? But you can’t accept that. You’re too broken to accept that, so you feel the rage rise up in you and take control and–

“And you hid behind your armor and your ‘duty’ and just abandoned your people to build a world where we can’t live!” you hiss through grit teeth. “When exactly did you decide you hated yourself so much that anyone like you didn’t deserve to live?”

But your brother is not who he was when he left Brastlewark. Your words don’t pierce him as they did then. He doesn’t fear your disapproval anymore. He doesn’t love you anymore.

“We both know,” he says, rolling his eyes, “that you are wildly extrapolating from your scant knowledge of Axis to justify why my leaving upset you. Why don’t you tell the truth for once, Theoven? Admit what it is that really frightens you?”

A coldness grips your heart, but still you barrel forward, hearing yourself repeat your worst mistakes. “Nothing frightens me anymore! I am a bleachling–the worst thing I could imagine has happened to me, and I’m still here. What do you think you could possibly do to me that would be worse?!”

“‘The worst thing you could imagine?’ Really?” He arches a brow sardonically. “The bleaching was never your worst fear. Your worst fear is one you have, by some miracle, avoided all these years: chasing away everyone who might have been willing to tolerate you. But even miracles must end. You’ve lost Brastlewark, and now you’ve lost Cleric Varnaj in the same way you lost me. How long until you’ve chased the halfling away, I wonder?”

You would clench your fists if they weren’t splinted. “Shut up,” you growl.

“You act like he’s beneath you,” your brother continues. “The fact that he hasn’t left you for that alone is a miracle. Given your reaction to his declaration of love, he likely holds even less affection for you than I do. Most likely he is held here by some guilt over his lies, or some obligation to care for you when you have nobody else. But how long do you think he will last now that he has to tolerate you alone?”

“I said shut up!”

“He’s going to realize soon that he can do better for himself. That he doesn’t have to stay and be treated this way. And when that happens, he will leave. You will be all alone, helpless, worthless, useless. Do you know what I think of that, Theoven?” A shark-like grin spreads across your brother’s face. “I think you’ll deserve it.”

The rage is too much. You need to get it out, but your body isn’t strong enough–it never was before the bleaching, either. That doesn’t mean you won’t try. You spring forward from your bed, reaching for your brother's neck to grab and squeeze until that disgusting smile slips from his face and he realizes what a mistake he’s made becoming your enemy.

You are awake. Arms are wrapped around you as you squirm, what was intended to be a howl of rage instead only a whisper.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok! You’re ok, Thay. You’re ok. It’s just me.”

“Regill?” you whisper.

“It’s me, Thay. It's Gilly.” You relax. Another nightmare, that’s all. You should have realized–words always became too heavy to speak when you saw him in Rivad, of course it was only a nightmare. You’ve already begun to forget what it was about, beyond the fact that your brother was there. You’re safe. Gilly is here, so you’re safe.

Gilly holds your head to his chest, one hand carding through your hair with the other on your shoulder, holding you close. “You’re alright. You’re alright,” he whispers softly, over and over, and you melt into his arms. You’re safe. Gilly is here, so you’re safe.

And then you remember why that should make you feel bad.

During the time apart, you had hoped that in time your feelings would fade. You don’t know if it’s because of everything that’s happened or if you are just innately weak, but you’re even more attached now than you were before. Even beyond the fact that he dresses you and feeds you and assists you in everything including basic bodily functions, you can barely bring yourself to sleep without him. When he goes out to buy food or takes a job, you spend the whole time on the edge of panic, curled up in a fetal position on the bed, wondering if he will come back. So far he always has.

You can’t be like this. You need to be stronger. Someday–someday soon–it’s going to be time for him to ‘pay rent,’ and he will damn another innocent to hell. You refuse to be party to that. You need to be strong enough to tell him no. You need to be strong enough to do the right thing. You need to be strong enough to send him away.

There’s a sudden, painful spasm in your right hand. It’s so intense, even compared to the usual ache, that you can’t help the half strangled moan that comes out of your mouth.

Giliys freezes. “Hands?” he asks. You nod into his chest.

“Hurts,” you whimper, disgusted with your weakness. “Medicine.”

He sighs. “I’m sorry, Thay. I can’t give you more.” You growl at that–actually growl, like an animal. You know why he says this–you don’t have access to medicinal flayleaf, so he’s dosing out an illegal recreational drug for you as a substitute. If the dosage ever goes too high, the drug will start working as intended and cause hallucinations. And given what you tend to see when you hallucinate, it’s probably better to endure the pain. But your hands don’t understand that, and neither does whatever takes over when you get like this.

“Then what use are you?” you watch yourself snap. Giliys starts carding his hand through your hair again, but you’re not having it. You push him away and settle on your side with your back to him, wincing at another throb of pain from your hands.

You hear a quiet sigh. “I’m sorry,” Giliys repeats quietly, almost defeatedly.

“‘Sorry’ means nothing without results,” you say, a faint sense of deja vu washing over you. “Now shut up and let me sleep.” There’s a long pause.

“Okay,” Giliys finally says. “Sleep well, Thay.”

You take a deep breath before closing your eyes. You will sleep through this pain. You will sleep through this anger. You will sleep without his comfort. You will learn to live like this. You will learn to live without him. You have to, or you’ll die.