#mercy is also the one that just. isnt into gortash like

[bhaalsdeepbat]

I think Mercy would try to bargain for Orin back. I just can't see them not being weighed down by that, especially after the convo w Sarevok and finding the note in his desk. That was the moment when Mercy's quest for Vengeance just became a hollow one. They realized how much if a victim Orin is, even if they didn't want to see themself in her. Ultimately, they did, but the journey went from a them vs. us thing to Mercy realizing how close they were to being part of the "them" category, esp since the rest of the squad is only there bc of their evil master plan

[mademoisellegush]

The Emperor's timeline

or: im so normal about this illithid. wait, no come back-

balduran is fucking around and comes back with a shitton of gold. builds a gate for the port. that becomes baldur's gate

balduran leaves for another expedition. shipwrecks on the way back

werewolf island

goes to moonrise towers because the bitch is obsessed with fame and fortune. a true adventurer

gets caught by a fucking illithid colony and infected.

spends 10 years under the control of the elder brain there

ansur shows up and saves him with the power of bronze dragon dick love and friendship

ansur tries to find a cure no matter what. balduran is an anomaly, having kept the memories and personality of who he was prior to the infection, something that just. does not happen. ever.

balduran is like. fine. with being an illithid. ansur isnt.

ansur decides to mercy kill balduran in his sleep. balduran kills ansur in self defence

balduran makes a life in baldur's gate, and basically since he HAS to eat brains in order to survive, he "eats criminals' brains"

i think thats how he got involved with the knights of the shield, a neutral to lawful evil organisation that controls the interests of rich and powerful people

stelmane, a devil worshipper of Gargauth's cult (aka an archdevil turned deity of evil, corruption, trickery, greed and envy) was leading the knights of the shield. that was before he started controlling her

balduran, as an illithid would, developped a weird sort of. pet fondness for his thrall. which makes honestly that whole thing so pathetic. but she was an evil devil worshipping politician so it was a girlboss move of them actually-

balduran gets captured by gortash sometime during gortash's rise to power / setting up of the absolute plan. i think it's around when stelmane started getting worse - a note in an aide's journal marks that she got worse when the "strange visitor stopped coming to see her"

balduran is now under the control of the elder brain again. who is so so so pissed at the Chosen.

the Absolute Nether Brain sends dreams of the Astral Prism to the Chosen, so they get worried about it and want to send someone to find it (hence the cultists on the ship)

the Nether Brain sends him specifically to the strike team on the nautiloid

the Chosen also make a deal with Sharr about helping them retrieve the Astral Prism. sharr double crosses them. that's how shadowheart gets on that thing

that nautiloid is the one the game starts on, escaping from the githyanki after stealing the prism

balduran/the emperor sees an opportunity for freedom and just fucking hides inside the Prism

[dwarfsized]

things that i would like to know about my fellow writers!

tagged by @aevallare thank you my looovveee

i will tag @simon-says-nothing and @raccooncrimes!

Last book I read: 

i am stalled on The Witch King by Martha Wells, not because it isnt good but just because. lmao. If im reading, i cant be writing. or sewing. or or or. The last one I remember finishing was This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, and i loved that.

Greatest literary inspiration: 

I put part of a Mary Oliver poem on my graduation cap. Also genuinely quite inspired by Tamsyn Muir.

Things in my current fandom I want to read but I don't want to write:

I dont know if I'd ever try my hand at a modern au but i adore aevallare's pour one out.

I certainly wont write no-magic or all-human aus (I like tieflings a normal amount, she says, lying) but I'm sure someone could do something cool with those.

Things in my current fandoms I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me: 

:') i already think this about my work but i write it anyway. who wants to read astarion stuck in a druid grove when he's [redacted]?? well, i do, so now we have eldath's mercy.

i am working on a story rn where kira is a ghost haunting the szarr palace. do i think very many people will be interested in that? i dont know! but I want to write it, and at least one other person probably wants to read it, so. eventually, it will go up onto ao3.

id love to do something with a focus on minthara. she's going to matter in true colors but that's not going to happen for a while. for now i rotate her in my brain.

You can recognize my writing by:

7000 word chapters where fully half the words are the characters thinking sooo hard, mid-chapter pov shifts, asides about tiefling/druid culture that i've made up whole-cloth, tail mentions.

My most controversial take (current fandom):

if you mod anyone in the game to look younger/more conventionally attractive i am putting you in the oubliette in my mind-palace. why cant you like these characters as they are. i thought we enjoyed this game

if you mod gortash clean or mod away a character's scars, i am putting you in the oubliette inside of the oubliette in my mind-palace.

Current writing mood (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut):

2 babeyyyy, but if i could instead shelve all the current wips and start wip #15 id be at an 8. alas! i cannot do this.

Top three favourite tropes:

in no particular order:

when a character's specific past experiences lead them to a wrong conclusion that is soooo wrong but like, ohhh sweetie. of course you think that.

magic that has a cost, even divine magic, and cannot fix everything

you were not selected for this. anyone could have been the person in this position. but you are here now, and you have to do the task. get to it.

are these even tropes? do i know what tropes are anymore. help

Share a random frustration:

I USUALLY AVERAGE 700 WRITING WORDS A DAY BUT IVE BEEN EDITING ELDATH'S MERCY CH 2 FOR ALL OF APRIL AND IT HAS BROUGHT MY AVERAGE WORD COUNT DOWN TO 26. 26 WORDS A DAY. BITING. BITING AND YELLING.