#i wanna do another with gale and another with wyll

[jackalhadrurusluvr]

i need to speedrun finishing bg3 so i can be over it but i just had the Big Romance Scene with astarion and i have to log off to combat the nausea (/pos)

[pastrydragon]

The BG3 Beef I wanna see shitpost

While I do love the idea of Tav/Astarion/Karlach/whoever getting more unique mean dialogue with Ulder Ravengard, especially when he has the audacity to take up space in your camp like that instead of someone cooler like Barcus or that one bullied hyena, I want very specific flavor text that you'd only get in the epilogue party if you pick a specific ending even more.

I think if you romance Wyll as Gale or Gale as Wyll and then you don't go to Avernus, I think it would be totally galaxy brain to have dialogue in the epilogue that reveals Ulder Ravengard and Morena Dekarios fucking DESPISE one another. Because they absolutely would.

We never get to meet Morena in game but you can tell from what Gale and Tara say about her and Gale's... Galeness that she is at least a part time passenger on the "Fuck you my child is fine" train. Her sweet little boy? Commit evil deeds? Never! There has obviously been a mistake. I mean she indulged that "Gale Of Waterdeep" nonsense and when Gale summoned a full on Tressym after being explicitly denied a kitten as a child, she just let him keep her. No repercussions.

And then her sweet boy brings home another sweet boy who is probably EXACTLY what she pictured Gale's partner should be like.(Because Wyll is the damn blueprint for "Guy you could bring home to mom") Wyll is ridiculously sweet to Gale, he's the perfect gentleman, he's very open to the idea of giving Morena the grandchildren she's been nagging Gale about in the very near future. Pinch her, she must be dreaming!

I cannot imagine her reacting to Wyll's backstory with any amount of empathy towards Ulder, obviously that man is a cruel psychopath to throw poor Wyll out like that after "a tiny misunderstanding" and Wyll is just too good of a son not to see it. Which is partially true, Wyll is definitely still in some kind of denial stage over what his father did but that's not the point of the post.

Then there's Ulder who probably thinks Gale is... Fine. He's not someone he ever would have pictured for Wyll. Gale is a babbling oddball, he has chronic foot-in-mouth disease and has only ever met the pointy end of a sword. But he can't say anything because Gale saved him, his son, and Bulder's gate, and a small army of tieflings, and apparently a bunch of mushroom people and blah blah more reasons he can never have the moral high ground blah. He's undeniably stuck with this fucking wizard, and his nightmare of a mother.

Morena firmly believes that since the Ravengard manor is technically Wyll's now, then it's also Gale's and thus is now hers as well. When I say she would walk through the doors like she owned the place I mean it very literally. Where did Ulder's old helmet display go? "They were rusty and it was ruining the wooden shelves, besides these enchanted swords go better with the new drapes we had to get, I don't know how you didn't notice how moth eaten they were getting." Everyday he wakes up and something about his own damn home has been changed to make it look more like a wizard tower. She doesn't even live here most of the time!

And it doesn't stop there, not at all. No this women has to make sure his son doesn't live there full time either. Every holiday and birthday she has to send Gale a letter about how much she misses him and you should visit so you can take a break from all that(Very important!) work and how she already has the venison just for Wyll.

And every time he's forced to interact with this harpy she looks at him with a sweet smile on her face, honey in her voice and the burning hatred of a thousand suns in her eyes then somehow managed to insult him five times in one sentence without ever explicitly insulting him. This women is a devil from Avernus sent to punish him for his sins and she's even won over the grandkids. Obviously that women is a manipulative psychopath for using her control over Gale to manipulate his son. Which, yeah Gale not being able to say no to his mom has contributed greatly to this and if Wyll knew what healthy boundaries looked like he probably wouldn't have put up with it but he doesn't so here we are.

Let these two be the Tom and Jerry style B plot to BG4 is what I'm saying.

[alpaca-clouds]

Another Halsin Thing

Something I thought about a lot during the last few days (partly because of this blog I posted yesterday) is, how almost unusual for fiction it is to have Halsin be an SA survivor.

While these days we get male abuse and SA survivors more in fiction, those have two things in common:

They are usually more effeminate characters.

Their abuser is almost always male.

I mean, the most obvious example in BG3 - Astarion - fits that trope quite well.

But then you also have Halsin, who very much has the trauma of sexual abuse - additionally also a situation that lasted for several years. And not only is he very, very masculine, and built like a brickhouse, but also his main abuser was female. Sure, her being female is still in the context of the Menzoberranzan society, where the women are the ones in power, but it does not change the fact that it is unusual.

In a way I really value the fact that BG3 in general has turned the usual stuff around. Normally so many stories have female characters whose story gets defined by SA and such, while male characters rarely have to worry about that. But in BG3 I would argue that all the male characters have some experience with sexualized abuse. (Wyll through Mizora, who is so god damn touchy with him, and Gale obviously because he was groomed by Mystra.) Meanwhile from the female characters, Shadowheart is the only one where it even comes up.

But yeah. I find it super interesting that this is part of Halsin's backstory. And it also just makes me wanna hug him, because he needs it. It is so clear in the dialogue trees about the topic, that he has not yet really dealt with the trauma - even though it was a bit ago.

And I really just wanna write more stories with him, my Tav and Astarion trauma bonding. (My Tav grew up as a slave in a brothel. The way he deals with the trauma is about the same as Halsin: "Ah, can't do anything about it. In the end I will just call it experience!")

[seahagart]

What are Drifa's first opinions of the companions before she gets to know them?

Lae'zel: First companion she would meet, immediately understands she's very brave and 'knows what she's doing', respects. As time goes on, I think Drífa's indifference towards her comments/insults would wane, she would ignore it/not understand what she's saying, or would just think she's making a comment like 'you have an ugly large nose' and drifa is like 'you have no nose, see drífa have eyes', then would probably get tired of it, poking the bear, but remain stoic which i think would bother lae'zel more than getting a reaction lolol. Lae'zel hates Drífa... or does she.... :)

Shadowheart: Second companion, small elf girl, anytime shadowheart is like 'i don't wanna talk about it' drífa's like 'aight' and leaves, which is why shadowheart likes her now. Drífa is concerned, a small elf all alone. Feels shes quite small and fragile to be into the things shes talking about, but whatever. literally has no idea who shar is so is like 'cool goddess, i respect your faith' because drifa also follows a rather fierce goddess. Drifa prefers to listen over talking, so they get along well. shadowheart is desperately trying to smash rn

Gale: Pulled this weirdo out of a rock, a malnourished human, appears sickly. Drífa is confused by most of what he says, but he is rather poetic so she enjoys the 'nonsense' he talks about. Now she has 3 main landers to take care of. Gale talks way too much, but it is entertaining to her. She does not like that he believes he could compete with a goddess.... the gods are gods for a reason, to think you could understand their meaning, or be equal to one is conceited to her. She understands it's because of 'love', but she is weary. Gale is trying to smash now in my play through.

Astarion: weird little malnourished elf man. He also talks to much. Drífa has two talkative dramatic tiny boys and two ladies that hate each other so she's kinda remembering why she lived in isolation for 35 years. Astarion she probably views like a cat, like seeks attention when he wants it, eats what he wants, believes he's the best one here. She is not afraid of him being a vampire because she simply would never let an elf fell her, that would be a true dishonor. he's mildly offended. She doesn't tolerate his dislike of children, but typically doesn't really care what he does.

Wyll: Another little guy with sad eyes. Another human. Drifa likes him, he's polite, seems to know what he's doing, seems 'the most normal' plus has seen his share of battle (like lae'zel) so she's glad to have him along. Obviously when things go down she's like 'wow... yet another guy with baggage with a blue lady...' side eying gale. She likes his stories, listens intently to his deeds of good and protecting the sword coast, overall likes him but is still like 'here is another small human- oops small devil for my collection'

Karlach: Finally someone who looks like they're a warrior. Likes her, feels like she doesn't need to protect/take care of, which is good so she can focus her energies on the softies of the party. Drífa would like Karlach, she's a bit blunt and a bit more energetic than Drífa is used to, but probably likes that. Karlach's dancing, lust for life, and fire would be highly approved. I think Drífa wouldn't really get why she's sad about not being touched

Halsin: another gd ELF, but this ones big and can turn into a bear so thats ok. I think they'd have a lot in common but Drífa views him more as a tree hugger. She appreciates nature, so i think they could get along well.... though she finds him confusing... she doesn't feel like she needs to worry about him, and he's pretty forward and upfront so it works out well.

There are all first impressions. Drífa was raised to take care of herself and herself only, keep to her own, and that strength = power, because her lifestyle is very physically demanding. Being big and strong is important, being fat and strong is more important to survive frozen winters etc. She is a loner suddenly surrounded by people for the first time in her life, and is doing her best to keep them alive because obviously they need her help and this is a mission given to her by her goddess, why else would she have sent the ship to take her, to bring her to these people...

[atsadi-shenanigans]

Valentine's Day Special

I did it! I got it finished! As a thank you to everyone who has given kudos and comments, and because Valentine's Day is coming up, here's a smuterific one-shot featuring: pegging, butt stuff, Astarion having feelings, Eleanor has dom tendencies she didn't know about, and Astarion getting nice things!

Rated a very, very E for smut.

Roses are red, violets are blue, blah blah I’d like to fuck you.

Or: Astarion bought a toy. Eleanor wants to give him a night he won’t forget.

“Legs up,” he says. “Pull your knees up. Better leverage.” You do. He leans back, bracing his hands on your knees. Moving himself so you hit his sweet spot ruthlessly. Another peek at you, pleasure painted over every line of his body. “Fuck me, Eleanor.”

The inn is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. Two stories, shutters closed against the torrent, lantern light turning puddles and muddy streets golden.

You’re going to cry. Not that anyone will be able to tell in this storm. Poor Karlach has been hidden in a cloud of steam since the downpour began.

“Gods, I’m not taking another step unless it’s towards the front door of that inn,” Astarion says, voice pitched firmly into bitchy. “I am not slogging through one more minute of this filth.”

Filth being the inches-deep trough of mud the road has turned into. Y’all are coated up to the knees.

“A warm bed and a warmer bath would be nice,” Wyll says. And if Mr. Of-the-Frontiers “I’m used to sleeping on rocks” is saying that, you know everyone is thinking it.

“Fuck,” you say. Eloquent as ever. “We got gold, right?”

“Plenty,” Gale says. His hair keeps sliding over his face in rivulets of water. He looks like a sad, wet cat.

“Hope they got rooms.”

They have, in fact, got a packed-ass seating area, a handful of alcove bunks in a common area upstairs, and a single, small room with a modest bed (other travelers had the same idea when the storm hit).

Y’all’ve had a helluva day. Chasing down leads to some sort of bullshit or another. Half of y’all ain’t even here (Shadowheart, Lae’zel, Halsin, and y’all’s new friends had split off to go hunt down something else).

Which meant when y’all triggered a bunch of undead critters in the shitpile of some tomb, y’all had to do a lot more work to clean up. Astarion took the brunt of it after the two of you (again) got separated from the others.

He stands there, hair plastered to his skull, not an ounce of pink in his complexion (and looking grayer than usual). That’s when the idea comes to you.

“Y’all mind if me and Astarion take the room?” you say.

Ain’t no way to be subtle about it. They all know what you two are about. Especially since that goddamn newspaper came out (it wasn’t neither of y’all’s fault the fucking graveyard grounds keeper was a nosy sunuvabitch who both took his job way too seriously, and took off sprinting to the Faerun equivalent of a tabloid newspaper after catching a glimpse of you.) (You’d finished by then, which was probably the only reason Astarion hadn’t run him down and shut him up.)

They’ve known you two were a couple for a long while. They’d assumed you two had been physical for longer than you actually had been.

“Really?” Karlach says, still steaming. “After all this?”

Astarion says nothing, though his eyebrows quirk in mild interest. The bags under his eyes are more prominent, the color almost bruise purple. His eyes are duller. He looks more corpserific than he has in a while.

You started it, he seems to say. So you finish it.

“I just wanna take a bath and lay in bed, and all my clothes gotta dry,” you say. “We both’ve seen each other naked.”

Clever mischief glints in Wyll’s eye. He’s the most solid out of all of you’uns. The one with the most rigorous sense of morality. Usually plays the straight-laced folk hero.

But the man’s damned charming, and his genial good will hides a wicked sense of humor.

“All the bunks have privacy screens,” he says. “We’ll all be drying out our belongings.”

Gale says nothing. Just stares into the middle distance as he hikes up a section of robe to wring about a liter of water out.

Wyll makes a show out of checking out the common room and y’all’s fellow travelers. “In fact, I see other couples doing just that.”

“I’m not saying we’re gonna fuck, but if we do, you really wanna sleep right next to that?”

Wyll snorts and waves a hand, smiling. “On second thought, I think I’ll pass.”

Karlach pulls a face. “In public?”

“Y’all said they got privacy screens. And you didn’t have no problem walking around tits out during that heatwave.”

“Which beds did we get?” Gale cuts in. He used up even his much-improved magic capacity trying to get you and Astarion out of that fucking trap sinkhole. He can’t even do his presto-tation cleaning spell to dry himself off.

So you end up taking the key and heading upstairs, Astarion trailing after you.

Bath water is something you gotta pay for, in Faerun. The tub’s in the room, and you’re free to haul up however many buckets from the well outside yourself. But that’s a lot of buckets to drag up a flight of stairs, and the inn keep don’t let customers heat it up over the fire themselves.

So a good hour after you and Astarion settle in, you finally got a bath drawn and steaming.

“You go first,” you say.

Astarion sits on the bed in nothing but his drawers, wrapped in a blanket. He don’t get hypothermia—undead and all—but he does get real achy in the cold.

He gives you a small, tired smile, and lets the blanket (and his drawers) slide down.

You still ain’t super used to seeing a cock all bare. Not more than what your occasional forays into porn showed—so mostly just the part not currently buried in somebody. It hangs more forward than you thought it would. Also smaller than you thought it’d be (again, porn and both unrealistic standards, and flaccid ones are smaller).

You make yourself look away. But not before Astarion—ever alert and enough of a bastard to make that your problem—notices.

“See something you like, sweetheart?” Where once that line would have been pure, silken debauchery, his voice is calmer when he’s alone with you, now. Still carries a flirty lilt (he always does with everyone), but with less performance woven through it.

“Just curious,” you say. “And I like watching you—not creepily, I mean. Anyway, if you want a bath and then the bed—for sleeping only—I’m down for that.”

“Mmm,” he says. Steps into the water and hisses. He eases himself down slow. Finally sits and all but melts against the wedge of the wooden tub, eyes closed and head tilted back. “Yet you requested this little love nest for us. And that cunning mind of yours always has at least three ideas fluttering around.

Said with a wiggle of his fingers around his temple.

He’s got a long neck. Stretched out like that, his adam’s apple stands out. As do his bite scars.

“We really can just sleep,” you say.

Now he cracks one, red eye open. Tilts his head to better peer over at you. Swirls his hand in the water as he waits for an answer.

He’s being patient with you. Says you’re patient with him, but you can count on three fingers all the people you ever actually wanted to bed, and none of them ever got that far. It’s not an ordeal for you to wait. You don’t have any expectations for him in that department (which you suspect had been a huge relief for him, and one of the reasons y’all’ve worked out).

He does so much for you. He’s helped you work through hangups you didn’t even know you had. He’s saved your ass more times than you can count, directly and not.

“If you wanted,” you start slow. “And you can say no at any point. But, if you wanted, I thought we could take a night and I could learn, um. We could learn what you like better. Just you. Or, well, me focusing on you.”

His idle finger twirling stops. He stills, both eyes open now and fixed on you. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment. Doesn’t even breathe.

Then his lips part. His words stutter and he frowns. Then, “You want to give me pleasure.”

Every word slow and enunciated. Not…trepidation, exactly. And not quite disbelieving. He trusts you, he’d said. He’s just verifying for the sake of both’ve you.

“I’m curious,” you repeat, so deliberate and nonchalant it’s borderline teasing.

“Pleasure me how?” Astarion says. Once again, flicking at the bathwater.

Aaand the rest on AO3 so tumblr doesn't slap me.

[camthecleric]

I’m not adding Wyll, because he won the last pull!!! Click here to see the last result

I may redraw the old drawing

[grandmother-goblin]

My big wishes for new Wyll content!

Ones that I believe would be easy to implement:

Romance greetings! At least 2-3 like the other companions seem to have!

Let Wyll decide what he wants to do with Mizora’s deal in Act 3! I think there is a hidden mechanic for Shadowheart that determines whether or not she chooses to save her parents on her own (player has to persuade otherwise). I would love something similar for Wyll where he can make his own choice, but the player can still potentially sway him one direction or another.

Ones that would be more difficult/time consuming to implement, but I still want.

Act 1

An approval based camp interaction! Kind of like how when you get a high approval with Gale, regardless of flirtation, you can get the Weave Scene. I would love something for when you reach 40+ approval with him, and I would love the scene to have nothing to do with Karlach or Mizora (probably would be easier to implement because there would be fewer permutations). Maybe Wyll can talk about what it means to be a hero over a pint of beer or something.

A romance scene prior to the tiefling party! All the other companions have options for an early romance trigger, I would love something like that for Wyll!

A Post-Karlach scene where Wyll thinks back on his choices and maybe opens up to the player how he’s feeling. Kind of similar to Astarion’s Mirror Scene. (Maybe this could be a potential romance scene? Option to hold his hand or lean against him or something?)

Act 2

I actually think Wyll is okay in terms of Act 2 content when compared to the other companions, but I would love for the player to have a non-romantic non-standard dialogue with Wyll as well! Maybe Wyll can talk a bit about his relationship with his father and the player can get a better idea of how important Ulder is to him.

A cutscene similar to Shadowheart’s wolf flashback when Wyll finally gets to share the circumstances of his pact.

Act 3

I would love a non-standard scene after the player rescues/fails to rescue Ulder. Maybe the player finds Wyll hanging out by his old fishing spot. If Ulder dies, Wyll can reminisce on his father’s fate. If Ulder lives, maybe after the player talks with Wyll for a bit, Ulder comes to sit next to Wyll. As the player walks away to give them family time, they hear them laughing.

More reactivity to the Wyrmway quest. I would also love it if you have Wyll in the party, maybe you have the chance to get Ansur on your side.

A way to ACTUALLY deal with Mizora. Really. I think part of the reason Wyll’s quest feels a bit unsatisfying to me is because we never get to deal with the main problem: Mizora. I WANT TO FIGHT MIZORA SO BAD.

Completely Selfish Desire

I wanna get Wyll naked if he’s romanced 👀 I am a simple woman, I see a hot man and I wanna see a hot man.

Anyways, these are just a couple of things that I think could be added without completely altering Wyll’s current quest. I might flesh out some of these ideas more later, but these are just my thoughts.

[smt4flynn]

"i love you" but you scream, and no one hears

Warning: NONCON/DUBCON, EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION, GASLIGHTING, R18/Explicit. MINORS DNI. Ascended Astarion is the focus of the target here! DEAD DOVE, DON'T EAT.

Note: If you find the above topics uncomfortable, please consider turning away from this ('-')b This was a request! If you ever wanna request me, you can send me an ask on tumblr or just @ me on twitter. It may take me years to do it though!

--------------------------------------

It takes you a painfully long time to wake up. The world around you is dark and hazy, worsened when you realise your arms are stuck for some strange reason. You can’t really move them, your body shifting about and realising your legs seem to be stuck too. Everything around you is heady, too much, your tongue like iron in your mouth and you have to focus particularly on it to keep it from rolling out and drooling all over. Your mind is racing everywhere yet your thoughts are sluggish and painstakingly slow.

What is the last thing you remember...?

You remember defeating the Nether Brain, before your feet come to a stark realisation that the floor is tipping sideways and you are plummeting fast. Gale panic screams out a feather fall to keep the crash into the water from murdering your lot, and then you are all violently flailing to the shore. You aren’t a great swimmer and neither is Shadowheart, given her deathly fear of the water, but the onslaught of potentially dying gets the two of you to flail to safety.

Karlach’s scream pierces through your memory – and you recall, well, how Wyll convinces her to escape into Avernus with him, and the two of them are just gone, leaving your life as quickly as they joined it. Astarion stands aside you, staring up at the sky, and for a moment your heart clenches. You look over to Shadowheart and see her being guided along by an equally soaked and greatly amused Jaheira, while Minsc screams something incomprehensible behind her.

Baldur’s Gate is ruined. But still it stands. Even though Wyll and Karlach are gone, having to leave in a sudden emergency, with Lae’zel oscillating between righteous anger at Orpheus having to sacrifice himself or leading the charge against Vlaakith herself, it is Gale who suggests you celebrate. Elfsong still stands, he notes, something tired curling at the corner of his eyes, and Astarion surprisingly agrees.

Perhaps you should have been more scared. He let go of you so quickly.

A door in the distance opens. It creaks slowly, causing your heavy, cotton-filled head to slowly lift to where you think the noise is coming from. It shuts almost inaudibly, though the gentle taps of shoes do not escape your ears. The bed dips slightly from the added weight and a hand cups your cheek so gently it sends knots curling in your stomach and spiders digging into your meat. You can’t even move away, not fast enough, as another hand grabs your wrist and squeezes it hard.

Your arms are stuck. Your arms are stuck together. He tugs you and you feel it scrape against the roughness of rope; sturdy and thick, painfully tight when you move too much, and a familiar little giggle hits your pointed ears.

“To think,” says the devil, tongue curled around the apex of his finely-carved fangs, “to think you would just... expect me to let you go.” his words hover near you, away from you. You are floating somewhere you know nothing about. You can’t move your legs, stuck apart – your mouth moves and all you do is dribble spit and gurgle. Your throat feels so tight and clogged. He hushes you, the little monster who watches you, who watches you reject Bhaal with distant eyes which grow sharp when you deny him.

The hand on your face is still so gentle. It retreats only to bring a handkerchief to wipe your spittle away. Your body is so utterly heavy and your throat is only slowly, slowly, getting everything together. The bed evens out only for it to dip again, even further, when golden-embroidered vampire wraps something around you, forcing it open and yet keeping you mute. Your body is completely at his mercy; his hands cup your cheeks again and he presses his plush, gentle lips to the corner of yours. His fangs scrape against you, almost playful. You can’t even try to shake him off.

“It hurt me.” he says lowly. “To think you only helped me because your little urges took over – but you were still in there, deep down, weren’t you?” he runs his fingers through your hair; you remember he tells you how much he loves it, feeling the strands, twirling them around his index. Pressing kisses to a lock of hair he holds before kissing you. “I never judged you, dearest,” and you know he is right. Even at your worst, he loved you. He takes your hands in his, kisses your fingers, “then you left me behind. Oh, did the rejection of Bhaal embolden you so? I saw in your eyes how much it hurt you to leave me behind, so why don’t I fix your little blunder?”

You try to thrash. The ropes are too well-done; he must have learned, intimately, from when he has to tie you up in the Shadow-Cursed lands. Even if they aren’t, even if they are sloppy, whatever he slips you has you as heavy as lead. You wish you can see him, you are glad you can’t. His hands finally move away from your face to instead trace down your sides – to feel your curves, the way your muscles tense as you try, even a little, to writhe away. Lips press against your neck – to the scarred bites, standing stark and pretty against all your other torture reminders (and the two of you bonded over it, over your tortures, over your hurts), and his teeth tease the healed wound. He can just as easily open those holes up again and drink you up.

This time, you know, if he drains you, that it will not be a revivify scroll that he uses to bring you back to him.

A kiss presses against it – chaste, like it is a treasure to be savoured. You want to scream. Your tongue presses against the fabric he uses to quiet you and you gag. Astarion hushes you. His lips against your skin is so soft, as soft as you remember it to be. His nails are claws as long as a tiefling’s, a byproduct of his ascension. You wear easy-fabric; a dress with no sleeves that makes it to your knees, with a skirt that flares out and makes you feel so pretty.

Now, as he peels the dress up to have access to your legs, to squeeze at your thighs and coo over the cute panties you wore today, you wish you decided against celebrations. “This would have been easier if you didn’t guilt yourself over what you can’t change.” Astarion says, his voice almost... pitying. “You know I love you, so, so terribly, that I would have loved you, adored you; you gave me a gift. I wish I could make you see that.”

You wish you can respond.

“These tadpoles being gone are such a nuisance, I almost miss the little bugger.” his voice is so soft. You don’t know who he is. “I would have flooded you with the sincerity of my love, but even when it was in your head, you rejected all of us when you learned how to control it. How could I make you understand that I love you?” his fingers are on your inner thighs, so close to your crotch.

An index slips between your clothed vulva and he lets out a disappointed sigh at the dryness he feels. “But you were so desperate to try to distance yourself from your Bhaal-influenced decisions, that you didn’t realise you were running away from us.” and even if you want to scream at him, shame does sting you.

You did reject him. But you don’t think it calls for him drugging you for doing something like that. His thumb presses against where your clit is hidden away, rubbing slow circles around it like he used to whenever he initiated touch; he loves, loved, worshipping you, feeling you lose yourself beneath him. Touching him isn’t something he normally wants, but you? Touching you? Feeling you? He loves it. Your body remembers it so well – he loves teasing you, making you lose yourself. For all of your experience in violence, and pain, and agony, and hurt, and hurt, pleasure for the sake of pleasure, not derived from severe instilled sadism, is still so new to you.

A muffled whimper slips from you, eyes wide behind the blindfold, and Astarion coos encouragingly at you. His thumb rubs against your clit, pressing down on it, and you shudder then try to jolt your hips away. You are so groggy – he slips down even further, hand moving aside to try and give his head better space when he presses his mouth against your vaginal lips. He wets the fabric of your panties when he begins dragging his tongue in, pressing in, before his mouth moves up to where your clit – swollen and hard – presses against your wet panties.

You writhe, try to kick your bound legs, your arms tugging painfully against your ropes. You wish – you wish, you wish almost deliriously you just killed Isobel that day, just so that Astarion doesn’t know how to tie you up so well, to keep you pinned down. Let me know when you need to be tied up again, he says lowly, fear hidden behind practised seduction. His fingers hook into the band of your panties, dragging them slowly down to expose your wet vulva – swollen and engorged with arousal, dripping pre all over, and you thrash about as much as you can.

A hand wraps around your throat – it moves too fast for you to even realise it. His fingers barely have to apply pressure before you feel like your neck is about to cave in. His nails scrape against you, scratching against the vampire bites, lining up with where your veins are, thumb stroking across your hidden artery. His grip tightens, only a little, and it feels like your muscle are about to give away, like he is about to crush your throat like a shot glass.

“I’ve been very patient with you, darling,” and still his voice is so deceptively sweet, when did he learn to speak like this? You remember him, Astarion, so nervous still, unable to hide his spite, his bitterness, beneath all of his practised flattery. The intense mockery, the humming promise of violence. This Astarion, who has your life in his deceptively gentle grip, speaks to you with the fluttering sweetness of a lover returned, “but I will not tolerate anymore impertinence from you. I was not going to turn you tonight, but if you do not calm down, I may have to consider it just to get you to stop.”

He squeezes harder and you gurgle behind the gag. Your body trembles as you force yourself to not struggle. He kisses the corner of your lips, as gentle as the first time, pressing another to your chin, and as his fingers peel slowly from your throat you almost sob from relief. He lets you sink into the bed, the bed that you do not realise how plush and comfortable it is, as if trying to drag you in. Comforts surround you, his kisses on you so chaste and loving, even as his claws scrape against your hips, dragging thin lines down your thighs.

Whip marks cover you, faded reminders from your Bhaalist past. You are not what made you. Astarion is what you made him.

“Good little Bhaal-babe,” he coos out at you. You try not to flinch away at his words. Shuffling fabrics greet your ears, before hands grab at your legs to spread them open. You feel so bared open beneath him, your folds still engorged, taken up by the little seductive timbre of his voice; even the display of his power has your body almost instinctively reacting with heat. You’ve been trained for too long to just forget – Astarion loved it. He loved that pain and pleasure are one and the same for you, that you are so desperate to submit to something greater than yourself, that you let him do whatever he wants to you.

Now, you regret having him train you. You love him. You loved him. You love and loved him and will love him for as long as you are alive.

“Oh, your cunt’s so wet,” he coos, and he spreads your folds open for him to show off your desperately wet hole, your body still responding to him, reacting so viscerally, even when tears are pricking behind your blindfold and wetting the fabric, “I know you still wanted me, I don’t even know why I doubted it.” and you aren’t allowed to even parse that statement before you hear him spit on your vulva, his saliva dragging down your hole in a pointed mark of humiliation, and you shake with the indignation of it all.

His thumb presses against your hole, slipping his saliva inside of you, and you hate how your hips jump toward him, how you drip even more openly for him. “So cute.” he hisses through his teeth. He holds you open after, just to watch your hole flutter. This is not the man who loved you. He drags you closer to him, cock head pressing against your unprepared hole, and your muscles grow extremely tense to not thrash away -

Even when the two of you bed regularly, he needs to stretch you open, spending an almost embarrassing amount of time trying to ready him up for you. Here, however, he simply presses against you, laughs at whatever expression you seem to make, and then slams into you without much preamble. You scream, or try to – your voice sounds distant, foreign, even to you, muffled and pathetic. He stretches you wide open, did something inside of you tear? No – no, you are too used to him, even if it hurts that he just slams inside of you.

“Remember this.” he hisses out. “Remember how this feels, remember how I feel!” his grip on you is unrelenting, slamming into you, forcing your tired body to accept him. Your hole stretches, your body wildly writhing, but he doesn’t punish you for trying so desperately to kick him away. He seems to relish in it, given the way he moans from your panic, from your writhing. One hand grabs your thigh harshly, fingers pressing down hard enough to form bruises, and the other -

His thumb rubs circles around your clit – tears sting the corner of your eyes. Your hole flutters, tightening up, and to your horror you’re actually getting close; and it is when he finally unties the gag, briefly stopping his touch on your clit, to give you an actual kiss, full of love and sweetness, that you cum around him. You moan pathetically, mouth feeling painfully dry, and still Astarion keeps his kiss with you.

You don’t even realise when he finally groans and fills you up. Shame and horror have finally made themselves at home in your head.

“I love you.” he whispers. You scream, but nothing really comes out – your throat is dry, clinging to itself like sandpaper. He hushes you, once more. “I love you.” he says. “I love you, dearest, and even if you don’t love me – I’ll make you remember how it felt.”

And you scream again.

But nothing comes out.

[salemcantupdate]

Ok

Baldurs Gate shipping and who I am actively in love with

SO, currently romancing Gale because Astarion rejected me, full one said “I don’t wanna have sex with you, UGH, EW, imagine.” But Gale is so cute??? I don’t get whenever I see hate for him, especially cause we had astral projection sex which was absolutely fantastic. Wyll kissed me but I said “haha nah Gale” and I think I accidentally romanced Karlach??? I don’t know. Oh I also hugged the Guardian love him.

Now for shipping

SHADOWHEART AND LAE’ZEL IS SO FUCKING REAL TO ME OH MY GOD THEY GOTTA GET DOWN RIGHT NOW

They ARE rivals to lovers

Wyll and Karlach… they’re best friends. I’m sorry but all the women look like absolutely lesbians to me and I love that for them

But Wyll is so sweet and so cute and I do adore him, he’s so fun, but I built him so badly haha. Anyways, he is a WHORE, he flirts with EVERYONE, SLUT BOY, and he needs a happy ending. Don’t know with who though. And Karlach needs a short woman to peg.

Astarion is 100% asexual and I love him cause he’s just like me frfr which means he needs to be with me and only me. But also genuinely I think Astarion can only be happy with a redeemed Durge??? Like I think that’s the best path for him. Two monsters learning to be good together… GAH ITS SO CUTE. Either way, he’d need to be with someone who isn’t overly horny

Also once again I absolutely adore Gale. Gale is so good and so loving and he also absolutely loves body worship like he is hozier he was on his knees and worshipping his Goddess Mystra, loving her and now HE CHOOSES YOU IN HIS ROMANCE. HE BDKDCJKWHCISJDKWJD. I love him, so who should he be with? He’s more on the basic side overall, easy to get approval from, but also extremely romantic and loving, and autistic just like me frfr. So… actually maybe Wyll??? Wyll has some self worth issues especially after going all devil and Wyll is also a romantic? But ehhh… I dunno, it just doesn’t feel right.

Anyways, Halsin. I love the daddy bear man like YES he is absolutely fantastic and I love him so so so so much I want him carnally. But also I can’t really see him with most people haha. Maybe Gale though, imagine the astral projection scene but then Halsin is a bear, that’d be hilarious. But nah, I honestly like Halsin/Astarion/Reformed Durge Throuple. Essentially, finishing Astarion’s personal quest before initiation with Halsin will ensure that Astarion doesn’t get any self doubt. They are all on different parts of their journey for improvement, both Halsin and Astarion have severe issues with self doubt along with sexual trauma, and all of them have a “beast” inside. Durge with the Urge, Astarion being a vampire, and Halsin with his difficult-to-control wild shape. Plus Halsin to me is one of the most respectful and consent-focused characters, which I think would work well with what Astarion needs.

Ok so I wanna ship Karlach with some cute bard girl or something, someone just as fun and nice as she is. And you know what? Wyll and Gale is starting to grow on me. They’re both characters who try to “woo” Tav before doing anything, Gale with the Weave and Wyll with his dance.

Imagine, Gale teaching Wyll the secrets of the weave, likely Wyll has never interacted with it properly as his magic comes from a devil. This could help unlock Wyll and on some level separate him from Mizora. Oh wow, both these men have been manipulated and abused by extremely powerful non-humanoid women. They’re both self sacrificing gits who want to be the hero, both sacrificed much for power. I think it would start when Mizora first appears in camp, maybe. Gale would go to comfort Wyll over the transformation, maybe even compliment his horns. During the night of celebration Gale would see Wyll by the beach and offer to show him something magical, aka the Weave scene. They make some jokes and Wyll mentions the dancing, Gale prods, and Wyll says maybe another time.

GAH

I FEEL LIKE A FUCKING GENIUS

Alright, so, summary

Lae’zel and Shadowheart

Karlach and cute girl (if Alfira survived Durge I’d choose her but oh well)

Durge, Astarion, and Halsin

Gale and Wyll

EDIT: This post is no longer accurate to my views or feelings on the matter! I will write another one eventually since I actually know the characters a lot better. This was legit written before I even got to act 2 and I barely did anything in act 1

[southernreaches]

tagged by @arisatominakos to do this lil poll...!!

pick your favourite ship featuring at least one oc of mine :3 i am literally only including my two primary afhiri ships because i think this is a fucking war because i have friends who rlly don't like one and adore the other and theres some clear bias shit going on so I WILL MAKE THEM FIGHT. under the read more is some info about both ships and the characters :) candor is ofc another oc of mine and gale is. mr dekarios

i will not be tagging anyone because this kind of embarrasses me.... LDKSJFSDF wait i lie i tag @aeducanthaig @roseeway i know who null will vote for actually... IF YOU WANNA DO THIS CONSIDER URSELF TAGGED PLEASE!!!!! this is such a good idea i'm just a twit

afhiri is my sweet lil bardic clown tiefling that i feel like everyone who follows me knows intimately by now SL;DFKSDF ... if you don't know much about afhiri.... afhiri is very silly and very sweet, uneducated and purposefully pretends to be much more immature and childish than they actually are because they are quite literally trying to relive their childhood that was stolen from them! they don't like responsibility or emotional conflict! they do like to sing and dance and have fun :3

candor is a solar angel who acts as a steward and avatar for lathander and is very calm and collected .. stern, sotic, quite dry and humourless.... is undergoing a self imposed exile because it feels like it failed lathander (it literally didnt). believes wholly in honour and duty and justice, is absolutely full to the brime with affection and love and shows it wholly through loyal devotion and service .

candor finds afhiri during the exile and decides to protect her from herself (and her wild magic) . candor fully believes they are soulmates and when candor was created at the beginning of the universe it was created with a missing piece, and that afhiri is that piece ..... also candor is 10ft tall and afhiri is 5ft tall so like. :) they are extremely gentle and sweet together. afhiri is not a calm person at all and is quite against anything that tries to get her to be srs at any amounts cuz it frightens them. but candor is different. candor threatens everything afhiri is trying to build (running away from themselves and what they were forced to become for their family) but afhiri doesn't run from candor.... it is security, it is safety. it is ok to be their entire self around candor. candor leaves at the end of the game feeling worthy of returning to lathanders side, and promises afhiri that when she dies, it will guide her through the upper planes and they will spend eternity together

afhiri x gale is super funny to me i rewrote canon a bit with it so picture this . wyll and karlach are partners in my canon, and afhiri is acting as a sort of replacement for karlach in intimacy between the couple . gale sees this as afhiri being a third partner in the relationship and grows jealous because he likes afhiri and believes he could be better for her so the act 2 scene is him confessing his feelings and asking for her to give him a chance because he knows they'll create beautiful magic together.. and afhiri laughs in his face cuz she's just fwb with them man. god gale ur so silly. i like silly. mwah mwah anyway that's how that relationship starts. i like afhiri x gale because to me its about keeping gale young... she is fun and full of energy and life and gale has kept himself locked away for a year to wither and wilt and afhiri is a burning sun who makes him feel alive ... this relationship ends up quite toxic however, a certain event happens that causes gale to kill afhiri (and candor gets involved its a whole drama) and gale feels so much guilt and fear at the realisation of death separating them that they have limited time hes back on his god bullshit ^_^ though it's not all bad. in my canon afhiri and gale ascend together and candor and afhiri are reunited in the upper planes but its a bit different :) (candor isnt happy, but devoted itself to afhiri instead of lathander all the same) .

as u can see afhiri x candor and afhiri x gale has quite a lot of overlapping and theres some poly stuff going on here i could talk about it forever.....

[alicelufenia]

Another week, another update on the Chosen of Eilistraee playthrough

We sneak through Grymforge picking off the wandering guards and the scrying eye (which is stupidly resistant to damage in tactiction, but vulnerable to thunder so Gale blows it up with a chromatic orb)

After all the stragglers are dealt with, we try to take some of the duergar in the main room with Nere, but aggroing them, even by drawing them away, aggros the rest of them. We manage to take out one, and then run away, with plans to long rest to reset their aggro and be fresh for the big battle (no negotiating with slavers this run)

Also backed off on my rule of using no gameplay mods and added UA6 Invoke Duplicity, 5E Mirror Image, and UA8 Healing Buffs, to make Shadowheart slightly more viable as a Trickery cleric. I gotta tell you, UA6 Invoke Duplicity ROCKS! It's basically a misty step that leaves a duplicate that you can opt to cast spells from, including melee ones if they're next to enemies. Moving it is a bit clunky, as it uses Tabletop rules for moving it on your turn with a bonus action, but the fact that Shadowheart can just rush into the midst of it, Fear everyone, then bonus action fuck off to a hidden corner, where she can cast spells with impunity from the duplicate (and enemies will occasionally try to attack it, but favors easier targets usually). The fact it now only grants advantage to the caster if she's next to it and the enemy isn't that big a deal, it's now so much more fun to use! Zero regrets with this one.

Dream Visitor is back, explaining how the True Souls are controlled. Finally the seed is planted that they may yet be saved, though visitor wants her to try to work with them by using the tadpole powers, which Tav doesn't wanna do.

Tavierra now has dual wield. The start of her main playstyle is coming together (just two more pieces needed to bring it online) For now she wields a rapier in the off hand, Phalar Aluve in the main. Which gives her pseudo extra attack at Character Level 5, not bad for an early multiclass.

Time to prepare everyone for the fight.

Karlach you're not yourself before you've had your medicine.

MUCH better! (we also throw in our 2nd to last soul coin, it's gonna be a long day)

Sadly I have no screenshots of the battle but, let's just say do you know what's better than a Hunger of Hadar cast on all the enemies grouped up by a Minor Illusion, from hiding, making everyone trapped in the HoH surprised for a round? Not much. We easily dispatched the duergar from a high point, Karlach happily chucking spears, javelins, chairs, at everyone while Wyll knocked them back into HoH with Eldritch Blasts. Did you know Warlock is a really good class?

The gnomes are understandably happy with this result (I very nearly got Laridda here caught in the Hunger of Hadar, but luckily she was just out of it, and all the duergar were too busy focusing on us and getting out of the pain zone to care about the gnomes.

Time to break Nere out with the Runepowder Vial. Now, here I tried two paths, and while one is arguably more interesting, I went with the one with the best in-game reward. However:

With the Duergar defeated, we have a way to negotiate with Nere, even influencing him to let the slaves free, and he's none the wiser.

He tells us about his mission to find an alternate route to Moonrise, but the cavein lead to failure. We tell him he can inform the General himself, but he's stuck here too with his moonlantern broken. So he gives us a spider lyre which we can use via the mountainpass route. So this is an alternative to working with Minthara that still lets you take the super shortcut to Moonrise at the start of Act 2.

More importantly, now that we've had him talking for some time, he's noticed something:

Damn wish it worked this fast with Minthara. We explain how the Absolute is a front for mind flayers, and that we're protected. Just spill the beans right away.

So here's where we diverge in how we can deal with Nere. We can either goad him to fight, or convince him that he should leave the Absolute. That latter option is the interesting part. This is basically doing what we do with Minthara but way earlier and easier. Which is probably due to Nere being not as motivated to stay with a religion—unlike Minthara who has an EXTREMELY devout personality.

Convincing him to leave nets us his gratitude, and a reward of... a +1 Dagger. An insult, really. This makes you miss out on his rapier which is decent at this level, and the BEST GENERAL BOOTS IN THE GAME. And this is before we've even MET the Myconids, so we've no motivation to take his head right now. It wouldn't be so bad if he did show up later like Minthara did, but nope, this is the last we see of "Twat Soul" Nere. Had he showed up later and gave his boots as a reward, this would probably be the best outcome.

All that being said, he DID kinda murder one of the gnomes in cold blood after being rescued. So I think, after getting threatened by him for our blasphemy, it's fair to say Tav is through trying to save this guy, and is ready to kill him instead, if only to give the one gnome whose sister is killed some closure and justice. She's been Chaotic Neutral for the most part, but she's trending more towards Chaotic Good as this crisis she's in starts to feel more like a pilgrimage on behalf of her goddess.

Tavierra equips the shoes she'll likely use for the rest of the game.

Also, Astarion is interested in the tadpole powers even if Tav isn't. I make sure he gets Luck of the Far Realms and make a mental note to find enough tadpoles to ensure Minthara can get the same later. Guaranteed crits on both of them are godsends.

After dealing with Nere and talking to the gnomes, I head back to the Emerald Grove cause I completely forgot to talk to Zevlor after killing Kagha! He gives me his gloves, which are going on Shadowheart at least until she starts getting the pieces for her future radiating orb build put together.

I also decide to just Item Spawn the ring of protection into my game. My justification is: it's my game and you have no power over me, also I did successfully steal the idol, I just didn't know that NOT accepting the quest from Mol locks you out of the reward, and giving her the idol later doesn't do anything. So lesson learned, but I still want it cause Tactician Mode.

Also got Wyll this absolutely stylish mid-tier armor! The dye is modded, but I think red and gold suits him well.

Next step: deal with the Goblins once and for all. Tav is fresh off failing to get anywhere with Nere, and is considering what other options she has with these True Souls now. She knows that they're not necessarily willingly serving, by virtue of being tadpoled, but that doesn't change the fact they're zealots right now. She'd ask for more guidance, but aside from a few days ago when she first met Minthara, and she was guided to a singing blade, there's been nothing else from Eilistraee, no obvious signs at least. What to do?? (also she really should go find Halsin, he's still locked up lol)

[august-anon]

No one is sending me bg3 tk headcanons so i will speak a few of my own. please send me bg3 asks lol. these little gremlin people in my computer are all i can think about

Wyll is definitely more of a ler than a lee in my mind, BUT i see that man in a crop top every single night, you cannot tell me he is not also crazy ticklish. And he definitely doesn't mind it -- he just doesn't want it too much. He much prefers making his romantic interest smile and blush and laugh, and waxing poetic in that wonderfully romantic way of his to make them blush even more. I ask what we are and he compares me to the sun at different times of day in a way that makes me swoon?? Imagine how he'd describe your tav's smile and laughter and flushed cheeks. My god I am so in love with this fictional man.

I have not gotten to a point in the game yet where my bestie Karlach is all fixed up (i only just started Act 2 about 10 hours of gameplay ago -- i expect to be here for another 30-40 hours at least before we finally reach Act 3 lol), I can only assume it happens for her, and i think that when she is fixed up she would go WILD with the tickle fights. She would find it so, so much fun. She probably loves tickling, on all sides, and given how bold she is when she comes onto you the first time (I am so sorry i had to turn you down girlie ✌️😔 i already had my eyes on Wyll), I think she would definitely have 0 problems asking to be tickled or to tickle someone else

i think if i tried to tickle Lae'zel she would kill me. But also we have like, medium approval because I am too nice for her and so i don't know a lot about her lol. Y'all who have had better relationships with Lae'zel or who have romanced her should tell me your thoughts, y'all probably have much better understandings of her character than I do, I would love to know what you think about Lae'zel and tickles

Gale insists he is not ticklish. He tries to distract you with fancy words and long sentences until you forget what you were talking about in the first place, because all of a sudden you're like. Talking about the history of Waterdeep or smth. Anyways, he does this because he is wicked ticklish. And I don't think he necessarily minds being tickled, but I definitely think he's the kind of guy to wanna keep up appearances for as long as he can lol. Gale lovers please correct me if I am wrong, but I always get distracted by his long-winded explanations and fanciful way of speaking (is this how people feel when they talk to me??? i am also extremely long-winded -- as you can see from this post -- and people think i speak funny and in an abnormal manner also lol). That long-windedness comes in handy with teasing though, I'm sure.

Shadowheart is another one I can't get a read on. I have had really good approval with her from the beginning, we are somehow besties, and yet i know so little about her. She is very hard to read. I have no idea what her thoughts and opinions are here lol. I think she would regard me with great disdain if I tried to tickle her

Astarion,,,,, i don't think he'd vibe with most people tickling him, OR tickling most people. Purely from existing in fandom, despite not romancing him (yet -- he is next on my list. I can fix him), i know a lot of spoilers for his general arc in a romance. I don't think he would let anyone but his lover touch him like that (or touch anyone but his lover like that), and only after a lot of healing. It's a very vulnerable situation to put oneself in!!! I feel like for the first long while he'd be far more interesting in ler-ing, he would have to be pretty comfortable and secure to feel comfortable in a lee situation.

[captainlilyuniverseworld]

Let's Play Pretend

A/N: Karlach really wanted to make her thoughts known and this was the result. Full length on AO3 and as always happy reading

A/N2: If you ever wanna see specific scenarios feel free to poke my inbox :) im enjoying seeing where this goes

Let's Play Pretend

Gale tugged at the sleeve of his robe once more. He used to enjoy going to parties, granted it was often because he was performing feats of magic most people could only dream of doing. But the conversation was also stimulating. 

He wasn't meant to rub elbows with Lords and Ladies. Or rather, he didn't want to. And he was really only there because-

“Gale!” 

Gale let out a soft oof and chuckled as he was enveloped in Karlach’s arms. He hugged her back. She smelled less of sulfur and the hells this time around. More like oranges and sandalwood. It’s warm, but not a burning type that might sear his skin if he’s not careful. It’s comfortable. 

Familial. 

She was happy as they let go of each other. And he admired her choice of attire. Simple, elegant and entirely her. Her dress, Gale notes, is in the Ravengard house colors. Form fitting, sleeveless but with thin straps over her shoulders and a slit up the left side to show off her toned legs. 

“Do you like it?” She does a small twist this way and that. “It was the least god-awful thing I could get them to make me. No movement in anything else ya know? What happens if we have to go into battle?”

“And what would we be fighting?” Gale asked. 

“These stuffed up tarts,” she answered. “Minus Wyll and his father.” 

“If I’d known we’d be doing that, I would have brought my quarterstaff,” Gale joked. She smiled and leaned against the wall next to him with her arms crossed over her chest.

“How ya been Gale? Feels like ages since we’ve seen each other,” she nudged his shoulder. 

“Just about a year I think,” he nodded and sipped his wine. “How have you been?” 

“Oh you know, fighting imps, killing demons…found a forge master fixed my engine right up,” she grinned and tapped her chest. “Part of the reason we're here. Wyll’s been a real friend, keeping up with me in Avernus and first thing I told him once my engine got fixed and could survive out here, we'll take a break so he can spend time with his dad.”

They both looked over and saw Wyll talking with his father. Both Ravengard’s enjoying each other's company. 

“I ain't complaining about the break either. Even got my own little private villa,” Karlach grinned. “And his dad really knows his cigars.” 

Gale smiled. “I'm glad. You deserve it Karlach. You both do.”

“So where's Fangs?” She asked. “Figured he'd be all up for a chance to rub elbows with all these stiffs.”

“He had some business to take care of. We agreed to meet here,” Gale answered. He drank more wine and scanned the room for one of the servers with another tray of glasses. 

“And things are good with you two?” She asked. 

He doesn’t miss the inquiring tone of her voice, borderline skeptical. 

“Of course, why wouldn't they be?” He asked. 

“Just, two of you, kinda sudden ya know? We all go our separate ways then Withers gets us all together and you and Astarion are living together, engaged. I mean fucking hell, am I gonna come back after another year to find out you two adopted or something?” 

Gale snorts into his wine and coughs. He quickly sets the glass on the table to keep from spilling the remainder all over himself and a few people are looking their way. Karlach usher’s him outside to one of the emptier balconies patting his back. 

She’s joking. He knows she’s joking but god’s does that still make him squirm. Marriage, even one of willing convenience is one thing. But a child? He wouldn’t even subject Tara to this kind of life let alone a child. 

She winced and checked over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t being watched by prying eyes. 

“Sorry, sorry,” she apologized. “Bad joke?” 

He coughed and took the napkin she offered to wipe his mouth, and let out a potentially strangled laugh. “Just a bit Karlach.” He patted her shoulder. “And...it just sort of happened.” He wanted his wine. 

“Alright well, how?” She asked. 

“What do you mean?” He frowned. 

“You say it just sort of happened, but you've never actually answered the question. Even then, ‘oh ya know, just one of those whirlwind things’,” she tried to imitate his voice. “‘You know Astarion, he’s never one to do things half-assed.’ ‘Just swept me off my feet…’”

“My voice is not that high,” he crossed his arms over his chest and caught the engagement ring in question on his finger. 

Gold band with ruby center. Diamond’s set on either side. It’d been enchanted, so the only way it was coming off was if Astarion wanted it off or Gale cut off his own finger. He just didn’t have the nerve. 

“It kinda is,” she replied. 

He ran a hand through his hair. “There isn’t much to tell Karlach. It really sort of just…happened. I was surprised as you were but, when he looked at, when he asked me, when he…when he told me, I suppose I got caught up in it all. Isn’t that what they say love is supposed to feel like? Like your hearts caught in a vice?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?” Karlach put her hand on his shoulder. 

“There you are!” 

They parted as if burned. Astarion stood in the open doorway with his hands on his hips. Red eyes flitting between Karlach and Gale. Her hand still hovered in the air from where it’d been on Gale’s shoulder.

Continue

[lagncx]

Ch:2 (poetic title🫵🏽)

Please work tumblr please please please!!!

————

Karlach tied you up against a tree not too far from camp, Astarion stood by her and watched “Karlach, darling not too tight.” he said it came out more as a plea than a suggestion “Listen Astarion, they're fine and secured. Why do you even care?” Astarion opened his mouth but was interrupted “No wrong question, how do you know them?” He stayed silent. “You got some talking to do star.” Karlach walked towards the camp to where Gale was being tended to by Shadowheart. The others were all around the fire and eyes went on Astarion as he sat in between Wyll and Tav. It was only a few minutes till Karlach and the others joined.

  It was a long silence till Halsin leaned forward “Before we ask anything we must know what our next course of action will be if they attack again. The day we’re safe but at night we’re sitting ducks.” Halsin looked around Gale sighed “Well…” he rubbed his face in exhaustion “we could use daylight to enchant our torches and put them around and maybe some mines in the more dense shadow area” Tav nodded “Now that we have well what seemed like their leader maybe they won’t be so brave.” Tav pushed their shoe into the dirt watching the dirt push forward with the force. Wyll cut the planning short “Astarion.” He said sternly “I pulled this off our new guest” he put a ring in astarions hand which made him scoff “What a nice gift Wyll I adore shiny things.” Astarion went to put it on but the pad of his pinky felt cuts in the metal like it was engraved with something “You feel it don’t you?” Wyll said everyone watched Astarion blinked and looked at the ring reading it Wyll spoke as he read “That ring is made from the purest materials and dedicated to the phoenix family, an unstoppable family of monk soldiers in Baldurs gate.” Gale raised his hand “Didn't they die out a century ago? My mother used to tell us tales about the family, saying that if we were to meet one and pray to them we would get special guardians.” Wyll nodded “Exactly so if they were all confirmed to be wiped out. Why would one of them still be here and be a spawn to Cazador?” Though Wyll knew the answer Karlach looked at everyone “Astarion knows them. So, Astarion?” Astarion just glared at the campfire. Tav rubbed his shoulder “We just wanna know how you know them…I won’t force you but we need to be together on this. Remember…friends?” Astarion looked at Tav nodding 

  “I just thought Cazador was being cocky…why would he make me hunt down some big-time Royal…”

    Another body grab for Cazador was simple; of course, he sent his most trusted spawn, Astarion. Cazador decided to give him a challenge. Lure and seduce the owner of this home which in his favor was accessible since there was a huge party.

  The manor was huge and filled with a crowd. People were dancing and colors of clothes mixed in an ocean into a current and he smiled enjoying this moment. He hummed sitting himself in between a gossiping pair and a couple who were kissing loudly to his left he relaxed listening to the gossip 

  “I heard the person who earns this place is very handsome!” His ears twitched and he smiled in his cup, handsome? 

    He’d have to see This charmer. Astarion with his honey-sweet voice looked at the woman who was giggling with her friend “Sorry for my eavesdropping pretty one but, will the owner be making an appearance tonight?” He hummed in curiosity and the girl blushed “Well, we were told he would be but it’s impossible to know!” she smiled kindly at him and he returned and sat back in his seat keeping an eye out for someone who looked important. It didn't take long before people started to part ways for a certain someone to come through, you.  Your smile was wide all teeth shining, perfect. You must've been the one Cazador sent Astarion into the dead of night to snatch up. Astarion saw how you shook everyone's hand and showed genuine concern when people would vent or complain practically biting your ear off. Astarion started to sail through the crowd, almost losing sight of you several times until he clumsily bumped into your side. “Are you alright?” he looked up and saw you feeling your hand holding him stable against the bustling of people around the both of you. Feeling the uncomfiness radiating off you he placed his hand over yours that held his shoulder “Just dizzy oh my… can we go get some fresh air if you’d like?” He smiled and you just nodded your face soft, trusting. Perfect.

  You lead the way knowing this home, of course, you open doors leading you both to the balcony stars in the sky and music in the distance are very very faded leaving a calming balance of nature and music when you both lean against the balcony “God, sometimes people can suck the life out of you huh?” you chuckled and Astarion looked at you smiling. However, his thoughts were plagued with how you'd be in for a surprise and how he would proceed before your voice probed his thoughts. “I almost forgot how to just enjoy this.” You smiled at him

    “Enjoy what?” he tilted his head looking at how you turned your head to the grass and the overview of the city and the stars, the outside, the world. 

     “That” Astarion looked out the same way he saw a prison a place that he once loved turned against his will to a hunting ground returning his find to the king that would punish him if he didn't or even just for fun. “It's the sounds I guess, the way the lights of homes flicker and reflect the stars in the sky the sound of leaves rustling just to be away from the loudness.” He watched as you turned to him and the way you laughed shyly “Sorry I sound like an idiot.” you apologized and Astarion snaked a hand into your open one “No it's okay, I like the poetic ones.” he purred “Excuse me?” He saw the way your throat moved as you swallowed the spit in your mouth taken aback. “Well all I'm saying is I bumped into you and, You look alone and maybe I can fix that” Astarion truly hated being alone but he's got no choice how could he trust anyone, not even his judgment, his brain fighting itself to pursue this sabotage of you cause he was getting butterflies like a small boy no he has to do this or it’ll be his head. The sooner he got you vulnerable and fast asleep the sooner Astarion could get back to his so-called home and not suffer any of Cazadors sadistic punishment maybe. Maybe he'll be too busy with you. “Well-…I'm not so sure'' your tongue fought with your teeth that held it down “Please, I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to.” Astarion slipped his hand past your arm resting on your waist as his ruby eyes cursed you—hook line sinker. 

  You opened the door to your room the bed stood a dark mahogany wood color and the bed had soft and silk-like sheets As Star ran his hand over the fabric before falling onto the bed “Gods…this is amazing. Oh you must have fun, all of this” he waved around the room with its extravagant decor and design he felt like this was a blessing, a comfy room that in a way matched him but it didn’t match you. You just smiled while taking off your shoes before sitting on the bed. “Yes, it has its perks but don’t get ahead of yourself, I'm not fortunate enough to sleep in my comfort zone all day.” Astarion hummed wanting you to continue “Always on the move, learning how to run this city..not this city but my father's community, being the Phoenix royalty it's all up to me to defend everyone. I'm a weapon and a protector.” you laid your head back staring at the ceiling, the candles illuminating the room mildly. Astarion rubbed his fingers through your hair, feeling how your body tensed from his nails scraping your scalp as his chest pressed against you. “It must be so hard. All that stress” he pushed his fingers into your shoulder working the knots and hearing your sigh of relaxation he smiled. Astarion rubbed his mouth on your shoulder before pecking it softly..one then two then waited. One then two pecks then wait..

  You got up when his hand traveled to your pants' waistband. “Did…did I do something wrong?” He sat there looking up at you. “No it’s just…I. I’m not a stranger to sex but I’ve never really…you know” You mumbled, Astarion smiled “That’s just fine darling…I can teach you.” Astarion lifted his shirt revealing his toned stomach and soft skin “Come here.” He smiled laying back as he pulled you in by hand. Astarion felt sick thinking of all the other people he let use him all for Cazador..his body wasn’t his anymore just a vessel. When you climbed on top of him your hips were between his legs. Astarion held whatever could support him and he closed his eyes…waiting for it, anything revealing your true colors like others before you, a kiss of rough desire, an order, the ripping of his clothes, memories flooded of all the cruelty his body has faced mind flashing to Cazadors long and torturous carving on his back.

   But you just kissed his forehead. Astarions eyes snapped open and he looked at you. Your face was covered with your hair and the light worked against your face since it was dressed in shadow. “Let’s just not… Please? let's Enjoy each other’s company” You lifted yourself off of him walking away.      

   Astarion laid there a sense of relief, a sense of fear. Cazador wanted you tonight. As vulnerable as possible he said it was urgent. Astarion got up pulling on his shirt. “I would love to stay with you but I'm going to be missed by my people at home darling. Maybe I’ll return.” You turned to him sitting at a writing desk book in hand with a somewhat sad look on your face “Oh alright…are you walking?” You asked, “Hm, yes I am.” Astarion started and heard you get up “But! I can handle myself.” He smiled, but what was he thinking he needed you to follow him “I know you can but it’s still courteous to walk you, it’s just a Royal thing to do” you joked. Astarion looked at you as you grabbed a dagger. “Just in case someone tries to hurt you, Pearl.” You smiled, attaching it to your side.

    Astarion and you walked the night streets, people stopping to admire you. They knew who you were and your power; it was a rising myth that if people saw you it meant protection for generations. So people started to pray to you and your family. Astarion looked at you as you greeted everyone who crossed your path. “You seem social for someone so cut off.” Astarion observed “Of course, I love the people. They all believe in me.” You smiled “They believe in some myth all they want is something from you.” Astarion sighed, so naive he thought. “Oh yeah and how do you know it’s a myth?” You laughed. Astarions face twisted “I refuse to believe you can watch over generations of people. It’s ridiculous. A children’s tale.” Astarion stopped a bit of way from cazadors home. “This is as far as you go.”

    Astarion swallowed a bit of spit. He knew what was coming. “Well…maybe a goodbye kiss?” Your fingers slipped into his hand and you looked at it “Are you cold or something?” You raised a brow “Oh sweetheart he’s always freezing” a voice that made Astarion’s ears twitch and his hair stand on his neck, Cazador. You turned around facing the man. “My my… you're a sight to see in person. Taller than expected” Cazadors hands touched your face, your brows lowered, you turned to Astarion your face turned to a look of disgust. You smelled it out as soon as Cazador touched you..betrayal. “Astarion, my loyal servant, brought you to me just as ordered…a duck stranded from her mother.” You sighed “Sorry but you don’t know who the fuck you're messing with. I don’t need my father to hover over me. Darkness follows me everywhere and so does light.” With that, your hand flashed bright the power of the heat of the sun as you grabbed Cazador with his screams of pain filling the quiet night. Astarion stepped back hesitant, almost enjoying seeing his tormentor being roasted, but between running away or pushing you off if he ran, what If Cazador found him…took him. Who would he have if he ran? What did he owe you? Nothing, not a dime. So he took his dagger from his hip and stabbed you in the shoulder. You screamed letting go of Cazador who was ten seconds away from bursting into flames. You looked at the dagger fingers wrapping around the handle pulling it out of your flesh, the rigged beat-up edge pulling at the muscle as you pulled it out, you were something though. Your hands glowed a soft green and you sustained yourself ignoring the pain. The dagger was out and your eyes snapped to Astarion, your nose twitched and you felt your body go numb the dagger fell out of your hands, something was wrong with the dagger..laced with poison your eyes felt heavy and you fell on the hard stone street as you fell asleep and the sick laughter was all that filled your ears your eyes only focused on one thing. Astarion, the pretty ones are always trouble huh?…

—-

   Your body jolted awake your mouth was dry air hitting it with your panicked breaths, a metal bar holding it open, and your teeth ached, you felt woozy the need to scratch your back was all that could fill your mind but your hands…where were they? Well, you weren't missing them but they felt frozen solid from the lack of blood that flowed to them. Your arms were chained, you could feel your skin peeling from the rusty chains and your stomach growled. How long were you out for? Days? Weeks? It didn't matter what did matter was getting out of these damn chains. You closed your eyes channeling every ounce of power and strength and pulled pushing yourself forward you heard the whines from the old metal that pulled against you; you just growled at their wails pulling more and more. “Please little one, do not struggle. It will be for nothing” you snapped to the figure whose eyes bore into you like rays from the sun, oh what you'd give to see the sun and pray to it. “You know little one, you're very fortunate” He took a brush to your hair “My other spawn even that little beauty that caught you for me” You lunged at him the memories flooding back, this cocky son of a bitch had the nerve to touch you, That cunning tongue, fucking snake had the nerve, to stab you! Speak to you and warm you up. Just what you get, protector of the people! You’ll kill him, Crush that pretty throat in your own hands and this hideous man in front of you. “Now now, I understand your anger darling I do. But he was doing exactly what I asked of him, But back to what I was saying. I know what you're thinking ‘Oh you think you're big? Kidnapping me, part of a Royal family. Known to be protectors of Baldurs gate and half of faerun.’ Well, I did my homework.” Your eyes focused behind the figure of the ranting man. A cell…with other people in it both men and women, they watched you from afar. They had sad empty eyes; they didn’t glow as red as the one in front of you. It didn’t take long for him to notice your gaze. He took your chin forcing your eyes to look up at him “Pay attention!” He let go before brushing your hair again “So much dirt and blood…I’ll have you cleaned soon…” he sighed, nails combing through your hair “You see, I need you. You’ve been trained to track and kill almost everything. You’re the youngest out of your two siblings and you were the best choice cause you were lonely and naive.” You yanked your chains in disagreement “Struggle against it all you want but it’s the truth little one. You were so alone, in that big house training day after day while your father came to my masked parties during the night to look at all the grotesquely dressed women and indulge in his alcoholic tendencies.” He chuckled, “Such a fun man to be around.” Your father? Now you know this guy, he used to invite your father to these get-togethers all the time leaving you alone at home while your brothers ran off with only the guards and maidens to keep you company. The letters you would pick from the main hall's table would always be written in red ink ending in a splotch.

 Cazador 

“I know what good your family has done for this city…but I know all the atrocities you could commit.” You struggled to talk the bar tight in your mouth. “Right now…you’re not broken yet. But like all the most fierce of beasts, you will break.” You felt a hand on your chest, your heart beating faster “Your family was blessed, blessed by the sun where no heat could melt your spirits, that the dark would bow to you and witness all your light. The power to watch over every living thing just as the sun does. It took me a long time to figure out why you called yourselves the Phoenix royals but now I know, because you live forever the sun has molded your heart with its soul. You'll forever burn bright.” You felt his hand claw into your chest, your eyes poured out tears and your nose ran with snot. The pain was unbearable. You screamed in pain, spit, and tears dripped down your chin. The hand removed itself and it left you more empty than before. Your breaths were shallow your eyes landed on the bloody hands of Cazador his smile was wide tears of his dropping “It's beautiful'' you sobbed in defeat your heart beating in front of your face it glowed a bright orange it was young and healthy but all it took was one crush and you'd be ash, onto another life. Cazador held it close to his own heart, mumbling sweet things under his breath. He opened a velvet chest with gold locks putting your heart on a cushion, closing it he locked it he looked up at you his eyes red.

   “Now, you belong to me.” 

—————— yea I made up a Royal monk family sorry if you no like it. But erm yah!

-SZA pretty little bird-

‘You are but a phoenix among feathers You're broken by the waves among the sea, They'll let you die, they'll let you wash away, But you swim as well as you fly, Pretty little bird, pretty little bird’

@beepersteeper @chaoticgoodstuff

[thunderwavesolveseverything]

Romance anyone but Astarion challenge....

So I've done 3 playthroughs, and each time I fallen into the trap of making the same character and romancing Astarion 😶🙃

It's just so difficult not to. I love Phayelynn (my Tav) so much. She's the character I play in my actual DND campaign. And in my defense, the first playthrough I was so excited the game had finally come out that I missed a crap ton of stuff in Act One & Two, so it made sense to do another playthrough with her to make up for it. Then I did her again because I had decided to get mods and I needed to see her in all her new pretty outfits also, I wanted to use the mod that allows you to recruit both Halsin and Minthara sooooooo like.....

I love Phay with all my heart and as close to me as she is.... I really wanna try a new playthrough with new choices and a new class.

BUT

I know me, and I know even if I made a new character, I'm just going to be Astarion's juice box again.

Soooooooooo I made up a challenge for myself and I guess anyone else who faces the same struggle as I do 😂🤣

Keeping specific companions in mind, I made 5 new Tav's STRICTLY not to romance Astarion and the challenge is to see if I actually pull through and finish the playthrough with which companion I had intended them to end up with.

WISH ME LUCK!!!!

(pictures below because omg I'm actually already in love with them all. they're all so pretty. I'm slowly coming up with their backstories- also Karlach's feature girlfriend literally leaves me CACKLING)

Gale's Tav

Elowyn, Ranger, Wood-Elf (favorite enemy: Mage Breaker, because we live for the drama- a wizard killed her family and destroyed her village??? backstory, is a wip)

Wyll's Tav

Renona, Druid, and Wood-Elf (uses her wild shape to change into cute animals, sneak into people's homes, and rob them. Not the kind of girl Ulder would want Wyll bringing home. She's a hot mess and gremlin besties with Astarion and Karlach. She's also like Viking vibes)

Shadowheart's Tav

Rhea, Cleric of Selune, Human (I really haven't fleshed her out, she's a noble- kinda want to give her Starfire vibes. I just really want to do enemies to lovers lol)

Lae'zel's Tav

Talice, Pladdin- Oath of the Ancients, Zariel Tiefling (I want her to have been besties with Karlach as a kid and when she got sold to Zariel she goes craaazzzy- but then years later she realizes she rather be a beacon for hope and save little girls from ending up like her long lost friend Karlach. Also, like huge Gamora/Angela from Guardians of the Galaxy vibes for her and Lae'zel)

AND LASTLY----- WHO I THINK IS MY FAVORITE JUST FROM HOW UNSERIOUS THIS CHARACTER WAS WHILE MAKING HER......

Karlach's Tav

Xaci Digglefiggle, Monk, Forest Gnome (First off- Digglefiggle---I'm crying 😂😂😂I used fantasy name genrator cause I've never made a gnome before and I fell in love. Xaci's family was caught in a forest fire and she was the only survivor- found by a group of Lathander monks, she was raised in their ways. Wanting to explore, she starts traveling around Faerun. Due to her secluded upbringings, she's unaware of how most treat gnomes, but she's still a little ray of sunshine and wants to prove that gnomes are just as tough as anyone else.)

[merchantarthurn]

I love the Big Choices in baldur's gate because of how many of them have parallels and yet are different in such specific ways (both the choice itself, the character making it, and the context) that you can make the entirely opposite choice from one angle, but the simultaneously be making the same choice from another (spoilers for Act 3 companion quests - Wyll and Shadowheart in particular)

Like, I just got to the end of Shadowheart's personal quest and have progressed Wyll's past his decision re: Saving His Dad with Mizora's help (I've not gone into the Wyrmway yet, so no spoilers for that please!) And the ways the choices for both of them overlap and differ, and the way I chose to act during those decisions, they're both so interesting to me so I wanna pick it apart!!

For reference here's how both played out:

I convinced Shadowheart to free Dame Aylin in Act 2, thus betraying Shar, then in Act 3 at the House of Grief I essentially let her do all the talking/decision making whenever applicable, outside of backing her up or being supportive. I let her chose between curing her curse and saving her parents (and she saves her parents).

For Wyll, we'd got Mizora out of her pod in Act 2 and his contract was on that "over in sixth months" wait (which Symon - my Tav - was openly pissed about but not much he could do about the T&Cs). When it came it Mizora's offer about re-instating his contract to save his father, it was clear that he would pick to do so without intervention. So I convinced him not to do it. (I ended up saving his father despite this choice which was a relief).

Now when letting Shadowheart choose for herself I did have this moment of "wait... even if the choice with Wyll worked out, I had no way of knowing it would so why did I assert my own opinion on him and not Shadowheart" which I think was a good question to ask myself. I was looking at it from the angle of "saving their parents" - I let one choose to save her parents (despite their protests) and live with the physical and mental torment of Shar for the rest of her days, but the other I'd pressed into not saving his father (& gaining the positive outcomes from that) at the cost of his immortal soul.

But then I was thinking further and I realised that's entirely the wrong way to frame it. It's not just who they're saving and what they're giving up, it's what their choice ultimately is. The choice I made with Wyll wasn't to not save his father, but to not accept the conditions and desires of the demon that groomed him - which is the same choice Shadowheart was making on her own re: the goddess that groomed her (Shar wanted her to end her parents lives - uh, fuck that! Fuck you, Shar!!).

Wyll is so deeply, heart-achingly tragic to me because ultimately he's aware of the pain and manipulation that Mizora brings to the table but on his own he would choose to suffer her for the good of others. He's a hero in the truest sense of the word. But he was caught in this contract when he was a boy, he's been cast out by his father for seven years because as a child he took on the responsibility of an impossibly restrictive and complicated contract to save a city. And the choice he's faced with is to do the same again, with the added personal stakes of losing his father too. Or that's what Mizora tells him! And Wyll is, and I say this with love and respect for him maintaining this world view after all he's seen and been through, far too brave and kind for his own good!! In that moment he needed an external voice to say "no, Wyll, this is asking too much of you. There are other ways to solve this problem that don't involve you sacrificing something this enormous". He needs external reassurance that setting a boundary, a single boundary that his immortal soul is his and no one else's, doesn't contradict his morals, doesn't make him a bad person. (Side note: this is also why I was furious at Gale for the post-decision commentary he gives if you choose this and I wish there was a way to respond to what he says-- but I digress). And beyond that the terms of her "help" are so sneaky and I truly felt like a third-party without the emotional investment in the choice was the only way to pick up on it. Idk how it plays out mechanically the other way but... keeping Wyll's dad safe from everyone but "our allies"? Oh like how I just allied with Gortash, the man holding him prisoner and about to kill him? Which essentially boils down to Mizora's help being info on how to find him. Which is not worth Wyll's immortal soul even if you see it as morally right to pick the "dad & city" option because that guarantees absolutely nothing!! (Plus the "city" thing is... tenuous at best. Baldur's Gate will surely persist if his dad dies of natural causes, after all. In terms of the city's future the Duke is just a man).

Shadowheart conversely is openly set on a choice that rejects her abusive goddess' desires, no matter the long-term consequence for her, so letting that decision play out felt correct. Especially since it's not an "eternal contract" sort of deal - it's a pain she's been managing for a while, will have support in coping with ("you're not a burden. you're my strength" made me weep in addition to everything else she said about her family). It's a rejection of Shar's doctrine of Loss and thus it feels like the truest path for her healing.

And... basically it is super interesting how these choices have that similarity re: parents but are so different in terms of how the choice relates to escaping abuse. And also how much it shows where the characters heads are at! And the sorts of support they both need in their journeys. It doesn't surprise me that Astarion and Karlach are most unambiguously supportive of Wyll's choice if he breaks his contract - Karlach knows that you never ever trust a devil and will not see Wyll fall for Mizora's trap again, not end up eternally tethered in the Hell's like she feared, rejecting that fate no matter the personal cost; and Astarion on the surface is approving because he sees the potential for Wyll to seize power and relates that to his own situation with Cazador & Ascending (implicitly anyway) but there's no way he actually thinks that's Wyll's angle. Ultimately, he's just witnessed something similar to what Tav presumably did for him in Act 2 - assert that Wyll has a right to boundaries, that he doesn't have to use his body/soul for other's no matter the benefits it could bring others, and stand up to someone pressuring him into the opposite.

(Although it does pain me to put Shadowheart and Wyll's reactions to each other's choices next to each other because like. Shadowheart hasn't saved her parents yet so is understandably a little taken aback, but ultimately isn't judgemental in the way a certain wizard is. But Wyll basically just... oh it hurt me when he says that Shadowheart showed herself to be a "true hero" for saving her parents despite the cost to herself. I dunno if I was reading into the delivery but he sounded... pained. Yes his dad was standing right behind me when he said it but I know in my heart he wouldn't just move on from his choice and not feel guilt even after rescuing his father because what if-- hhhehhrhghgrh Wyll Ravenguard you need to be Worse for your own good, sweetheart--)

Anyway fun ending thought - do you think Wyll developed his almost neurotic selflessness to cope with the fact that as a 17 yr old he was basically tricked into losing everything because like... "it was worth it, because of who it saved" feels like something you'd need to repeat a LOT after the shit he went through right.