#or doesn't

[ryttu3k]

Posting a list of Astarion-related plotbunnies I'll probably never get to so I'm setting them loose upon the internet.

If you decide to write any of these please let me know, I'd love to read them <3

1) Cazador gets sick of waiting for Astarion, and also what fun is being the Vampire Ascendant if you don't have anyone to subjugate? As Dufay feared, he gets scarred and used in Astarion's place for the ritual, and Ascended Cazador shows up in the middle of a bright sunny day at the Elfsong to try and reclaim his errant spawn, easily overpowering basically everyone. Gale, who's in the midst of a sweet slowburn romance with Astarion, basically goes, okay, look, we're currently the only ones who have a hope to defeat the Netherbrain, and you won't be Vampire Ascendant for much longer if mind flayers take over Toril. Side with us against it, and we'll give you Astarion after.

He's lying through his teeth and is very quick to tell Astarion that as soon as Cazador leaves, because once he has the Crown of Karsus :) he'll be able to take Cazador out :) no problem :)

The real struggle isn't just fighting a desire for power, it's fighting against something that will permanently change him but also give him the best possible chance to save his lover, versus giving up that power and staying Gale Dekarios, not losing his identity, but also now having to fight the Vampire Ascendant without all that power...

2) Astarion stays in the Underdark to assist with the spawn, and ends up striking up a friendship with Gandrel, who wants Astarion's advice on how to raise his spawn daughters. Fluffy slow-burn romance with his former enemy ensues. Could tie in with this delightful epilogue detail.

3) Short version: Astarion tries to do A Scheme only it backfires due to the fact that he's starting to experience Emotions like 'self-worth'.

Longer version: Astarion sets out to deal with (read: seduce) Gortash - gives him Ketheric's stone, says the others have gone off to fight Orin and get [x] back, and it'll be easy enough to get Orin's stone from them once they've done the hard work, telling Gortash that the others lack ambition or have other plans. Lae'zel wants to give the Crown to Raphael to free Orpheus, Gale wants it for himself, etc. Only Astarion can see Gortash's point - that they can run the Absolute cult, they can use the stones. Gortash, Astarion, and a certain Bhaalspawn who Astarion is fairly certain would be amenable…

His actual plan is to seduce Gortash, kill him when he's not expecting it, and take the stone and return to the others, because he's good at seducing people for a purpose, so why not just do what he's best at? Except he's suddenly realising that, huh, he actually doesn't want to just… be used any more, he likes the person he's becoming with resist!Durge, and it all feels a bit… icky, now…

4) Astarion + trust issues + being touch-starved for non-intimate touch. Astarion gets some kind of back injury (thorns or little shards of glass or splinters or something, not something terribly lethal but just painful to deal with) and has to confide in someone (Halsin would be good here) and let them see and touch his scars to help get himself fixed up. Bit of whump, bit of hurt/comfort.

5) "Oh, I tried them all. None of them answered." Astarion has Issues with the gods. Gale catches him vandalising the Open Hand Temple / Stormshore Tabernacle, and they talk about gods and their fickle attentions.

6) Astarion can't swim. Karlach offers him and Shadowheart swimming lessons (and promptly goes heart-eyes a bit over her white-haired elven boyfriend and girlfriend).

7) AU where Ulder isn't a Complete Garbage Person who disowns his teenage son, and instead accepts and helps Wyll as much as he can. The Blade of Baldur's Gate instead focuses on helping his city, and it's time to do something about that creepy gothic monstrosity known as the Szarr Palace…

[wrenhavenriver]

there are still so many bg3 playthroughs i want to do but knowing i will inevitably play to the start of act 3 and then immediately get burnt out and put the game aside for several months kind of. stops me from starting any of them

[deadbeatbirdmom]

What happened to summer rose?

Now how would I know that? I haven't seen her in years.

[caelenath]

If you reverse the names in " usamamo" you can almost have a mimosa. 🤔

[letswaitforme]

I'm speechless

[frozencapybara]

Ended up not watching Eurovision because the EBU managed to fuck it up so badly it wasn't fun anymore, which is frankly impressive

But I just want to say that no matter what the voting totals are, the real winner today is Finland, for narrowly avoiding having to host this shitshow.

[gardenianoire]

I thought going to the coffee shop to publicly write would help my writer's block but it looks like it's not

[stardustedknuckles]

I wanna flash forward to the part where FCG tells Ashton about FRIDA 🥺

[corelliaxdreaming]

Six episodes and change in, I'm just...I'm giving up on Andor. I hate it. I hate the huge continuity errors, Disney's incessent need to rewrite established canon to insert new characters in rolls that are already filled, the absolute character assassination of Mon Mothma, the plot points that just make no sense. It's causing me legit anxiety trying to force myself through it, and I just can't. I know I'm the only person on Earth who doesn't think it's the greatest Star Wars shit to ever Star Wars. I. Don't. Care.

[earnmysong]

☉ for your meme!

thank youuuu, darling!

when i get stuck writing ... if i'm only trapped in my own dissatisfaction with wording, i'll just write out bulleted events. then i can come back later, read through these, and make them less literal and more free-flowing when i'm not wanting to rip my hair out.

... if i don't have a solid enough idea, it'll usually fizzle out on its own, never to become more than three random, lonely sentences.

[alectoperdita]

You are not Selfish. You are not trash. You are loved. People care about you. Sending you all of the love I can. I hope everything is ok and that you feel better soon.

Thank you. ;;_;; *big hugs*

[absentcaryatid]

Hiii! How are you? I hope you're doing alright!

I saw your posts about these Community Labels Mature and I wanted to know what they are. I only saw Tumblr added a filter for mature content, but I don't know what the Community Labels Mature are. I don't have too many mature content of my own on my blog, but I reblog many. If you can, would you, please, explain this to me so I can apply it to my own blog?

I'm always well to get the chance to talk with you, Saturno!

I think you have answered part of my question why more people are not using the new labels. People just don't know because Tumblr did not explain things much for such a big change and I had to hunt up the Help Center article on Community Labels myself. And here is more about it with an illustrative screenshot when I accidentally triggered a review on a post by the very kind and understanding Smileysuh. I think we should be getting to a place where all Mature content is well marked but during this not-always-working-well transition it should be the choice of the author.

As a reader who Tumblr knows your birth year makes you 18 or older, you want to make sure Mature works are allowed by your settings to keep seeing posts by the authors we love who have marked a work Mature. The setting to see every rating was turned off by default for everyone when the feature went live on September 26, 2022.

As a reblogger of 18+ work like me, Mature works should be able to be designated on the reblog. My account on desktop with the "new" editor in Beta shows that option but everything I have reblogged does not keep that label and defaults to the Everyone status. It is not supposed to be like that. If the author already marked Mature on the original post that is done for us and can not be removed.

As a writer with sometimes adult material, look for the new options in the tag line when composing a post on desktop with the "new" editor. I don't see this as an option on mobile yet. The default says Everyone but can be changed as needed to Mature due to Violence, Drug or Alcohol Abuse, and Sexual Content. If everything was working as it should, you could go back and edit the rating on the older works that qualify for the Mature rating. That does not work for me, though others have been able to.

I have had success flagging the post I wanted marked and Tumblr staff rated it Mature for me. They should not have to do that so I am hoping all the glitches will be fixed letting us revise on our own someday. I would like people who read at work or wish to limit Mature material for any other reason to be able to trust things marked Everybody actually are that instead of the current default where everything is marked Everybody unless successfully marked Mature.

[error404vnotfound]

will the trailer make me read the book?

probably

i just need to watch it a couple more times

[everythingisconfetti]

The urge to write a oneshot for a very detailed and niche au that exists only in my brain and post it without any exposition

[walkingstackofbooks]

Actually, I'm going to go to sleep and watch this tomorrow. I can't let DS9 be over just yet. One more day.

My goodness, how did I become so attached to this silly little show. I just love it so much I cannot

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!