#miiiiiinsc <3

[blackjackkent]

All right, back into Hector's playthrough... left off having just gotten Minsc and Boo! I'm so excited. :D

Next priority is to save Florrick, bc I gather that's on a time limit before she gets hanged, and then go after Wyll's dad.

Lots of exciting stuff to do. :D Quick stop at camp first though to make sure that Minsc is getting settled in smoothly.

"Jaheira... Boo is trying his best to explain, but I still do not understand your anger!"

"Do not hide behind your hamster, ranger! You do not understand because you do not *listen*!"

OK, so maybe not completely smoothly. XD

This reads to me as Jaheira having a bit of adrenaline letdown; she's been worried about Minsc since before she even got to the Shadowlands and now she doesn't have to be anymore, and there have been a lot of other backed-up emotions waiting their turn, such as anger for having put himself/her in that position in the first place.

"We were the first to discover the cult. And if you had only waited, we might have marshaled our numbers and--"

"Good does not wait for evil to button up its britches! When it offers buttocks for the smacking, Minsc and Boo greet cheek with hand!"

Good old Minsc. XD

Hector and Co. are just watching this play out and looking sort of bewildered. Hector doesn't say anything yet though. In arguments among the companions he's traveled with longer, he has been willing to step in and take a hand, but I think he sees Jaheira and Minsc's friendship as something he stands a little outside of, and is even rather intimidated by. He's grown very close to the people he travels with, but the idea of a decades long friendship of such depth and shared challenge is outside his experience.

Say nothing.

"This mess falls on *our* heads, Minsc. The city under siege, its people poisoned by the cult - it all might have been avoided if you had just put your feelings aside and *listened*."

Hector tips his head thoughtfully to one side as he listens, and he feels a flash of sympathy for Jaheira. She is angry, yes - but at herself as much as Minsc. There is guilt under the words. She sees the moment of Minsc's capture as a turning point in the whole conflict.

And yet... had things played out as she describes, there is no guarantee things would have gone any better.

[INSIGHT] "Or the trail would have ended there, instead of leading you to Ketheric," he points out quietly. "The Prism. Me."

Jaheira glances sideways at him and scoffs. "I have seen too much to believe destiny has taken our side," she says bitterly. "Blind luck, perhaps. The point remains."

"You meant well, Minsc," she says - more calmly but no less pointedly. "But you exposed the city to harm. You helped the cult spread. And worse, perhaps, than any of this..." She swallows sharply, and her voice cracks almost imperceptibly. "You forced me to leave you behind!"

The emotional subtlety seems a little lost on Minsc, whose eyebrows and shoulders lift in an attitude of abject puzzlement. "But... this is where Minsc falls short of the understanding, Jaheira!" he says earnestly. "What else is a berserker for, if not to charge into danger ahead of his Wychlaran?"

...Oh. :(

Narrator: [HISTORY] The Wychlaran - wise women of Rashemen, each bonded to a berserker bodyguard for life. There is no higher title, nor deeper bond, in all of Rashemaar custom.

OK this is actually kind of sad. :(

In this particular worldstate, Minsc has already had not one but two witches. In BG1, he and Dynaheir were traveling together when Caden initially recruited them, and Minsc was devastated when she was killed at the beginning of BG2. And then, further on through BG2, Minsc eventually asked Aerie if she would be his new Wychlaran, which she accepted, because she is a tremendous sweetheart.

The big question to rationalize out here - given Aerie's kindness, Minsc's loyalty, and the fact that Minsc was one of Caden's best friends - is how Minsc stopped considering Aerie his witch, because Aerie and Caden are both super alive and happy and safe in Faenya-Dail, half a world away.

The only explanation I can conjure up is that we know Minsc definitely continued adventuring after BG2, and despite the narrator's point that a Wychlaran bond is supposed to be for life, I picture Aerie basically releasing him from the pact because she was no longer traveling/in danger particularly and didn't want to hold him back from his adventures by feeling like he had to be around for her. (And, to be honest, probably freeing herself a little as well from feeling like she had to be responsible for him in turn while she was trying to settle down with Caden, raise Quayle, and not think about that sort of nonsense so much anymore.)

Knowing Minsc, this would be a troubling development, because his role as bodyguard to a witch is critical to his identity. So it is not surprising to me that he would latch onto Jaheira as a replacement - she is one of his only remaining close friends, and she is an older, wiser woman with powerful magic.

That said, it's also not surprising to me that she doesn't respond positively to this discovery - she has seen plenty of his relationship with both Dynaheir and Aerie and doesn't want that level of bond with him (especially not if it is going to trigger him to dive headlong into a nest of mindflayers to "protect" her).

"Wychlaran...? Minsc, I am not your witch! You are not my bodyguard! This is not some high lodge of your homeland!"

"Boo agrees you are a queer kind of witch," Minsc says gravely. He still seems more puzzled than castigated by her irritation. In his mind, which operates in simple, isolated truths untouchable by nuance, his loyalty to her is simply not a matter to be questioned. "But this city is a queer place. And Minsc, you may have noticed, is sometimes strange himself."

Minsc pauses, considers in silence for a moment. "The titles matter not," he finally agrees after a little while. "Only this - when Minsc does as Minsc does and charges in to make a mess, Jaheira does as Jaheira does and finds a way to save us all anyway!"

Hector can't help a slight grin in spite of himself. He doesn't blame Jaheira for her irritation, and he shares her worries for the battle that lies ahead. But Minsc's greatest crime here seems to be loyalty heedless of consequence, and there are far worse failings to have.

"Aw, that's actually kind of sweet," he says; his lips twitch as Jaheira shoots him an exasperated glare.

"Ugh," she mumbles. "I fight alongside fools."

Minsc grins broadly, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "You hear that, Boo? We fight alongside a Wychlaran again!"

"I am your *friend*, ranger. I am not your witch!" Jaheira snaps. "There will be no ointments, or healing balms!"

Minsc's face twists with perplexed regret. "Not even for Boo?"

Hee. This is absolutely meant as a throwback to this banter with Aerie in BG2, and I love it.

I was definitely wondering previously if Minsc was considering Jaheira his new witch, so that confirms it. Poor guy. :( He just wants someone to be loyal to - as we all do, I suppose.

Jaheira is clearly not comfortable with it, though. She is, as we know, a person who keeps her own cards very close to the chest emotionally; a bond that deep and permanent is not something she would give easily, and certainly not without some Serious Discussion in advance. (To be honest this reads more like her being bothered by him just assuming it and using it as his rationale for acting irresponsibly; I could see a scenario where, had Minsc asked her the way he asked Aerie, she might have been more amenable.)

Maybe Shadowheart would be interested in a berserker bodyguard, Minsc. You should ask.