#vesper; head canons

[violetvulpini]

Doodle attack!!

[scope-dogg]

Some generic thoughts I’ve recently had about AC6 lore lately after seeing other people’s commentary:

I think it’s notable that 621 is a 4th gen enhanced human on a meta level - while human augmentation is a constant across AC and very common in mecha fiction as a whole, arguably the most famous and one of the most memorable examples is that of Four Murasume, the cyber newtype from Zeta Gundam. In fact “cyber newtype” is a bit of a translation liberty, in Japanese it’s “kyouka ningen” ie. Enhanced human, the exact same term AC6 uses. I think this is notable because Four lost her memories and identity as part of the process, and thus her number and the facility where it was performed became her identity. In my head canon 621 is the same, and as such when Walter refers to them by number it’s not meant to be a slight - he probably has nothing better to call you.

On a related note, emotional instability is noted as one of the side affects of gen 4 augmentation, which may be another call-out to Four’s character, as drastic changes in personality and emotional outbursts were the result of her piloting the Psyco Gundam. It’s also notable that Iguazu is also gen 4 and I think this accounts for why Iguazu is the way he is and probably also why Michigan puts up with his shit to the extent that he does. If I’m thinking along the right lines it probably recontextualises his obsession with you as less pathetic and more tragic - it might be less that he’s just a salty little bitch and more that he has a serious mental illness due to the augmentation. It would also put him in line with the characters of Ypsilon and Rada Niva from Votoms, two other enhanced characters that were similarly insecure and/or obsessed.

If you manage to lose to Invincible Rummy in the grid 86 mission, he immediately starts begging for Carla to reward him with coral. This makes it seem like she’s exploiting Rummy’s and probably the rest of the Dosers working for her through their addiction, highly predatory and immoral behaviour if I’m reading it right.

Open Faith, V2 Snail’s AC, uses predominantly needle-like weapons, some of which use electrical discharge which is kind of like AC6’s version of poison. The cone snail is a marine snail that poisons prey by shooting a poison barb into its prey before devouring it. The laser lance he uses is even shaped a bit like a cone snail shell.

V1 Freud is the most notable user of the laser drone back weapon, that’s an obvious fallout to funnels and other remote controlled “bit” weaponry, which is one of the signatures of the Gundam series. This is usually used to denote characters or technology that goes above and beyond the norm, such as powerful newtypes, or technology that emulates their capabilities. AC6 subverts this in that Freud, as far as I know, is one of the only AC pilots in the game, and certainly the only one amongst the Vespers to have no augments at all, which means that he’s operating his bits on nothing but raw talent - the game even draws attention to this through Carla’s dialogue. With this combined with the fact that he’s rated as the number 1 AC pilot on Rubicon really draws attention to what a monster the guy must be (even if his actual fight doesn’t quite live up to his reputation.)

[drowningkeyborad]

De Rolo Kids Headcanons

Disclaimer: These headcanons have no set timeline in the CR universe. I just like to keep them safe in my back pocket.

Vesper De Rolo

The oldest child

Part of me thinks that she has some mild case of ‘Only Child Syndrome’. For a while, it was just her, Percy, and Vex. Then the twins came along. I don’t think there is a canonical confirmed age gap, but given that Vesper is about 30 in her last canon appearance; I ballpark the age gap between her and The Twins at about 9-10 years.

 She’s the oldest child AND eldest daughter… so that’s a lot

Her white hair comes from Vex being pregnant with her while she was a Champion of The Dawnfather.

Paladin Class. Worships the Dawnfather and can often be found by the Sun Tree. 

Vesper and Vax’ildan II bond over their respective faith practices. 

Takes after both her parents in the best ways. But this can also backfire. 

Spends most of her free time reading or painting. Her preferred reading material is non-fiction and history. 

She’s just as unhinged as the rest of her siblings, but tends to keep it out of the public eye better than the others. 

Loves painting. Like REALLY loves to paint. Her room looks like the inside of Rapunzel’s tower in Tangled. 

Yeah, turns out those paintings were linked to oracle powers–

Anyway– that means she’s off on an adventure! She likes to take her siblings with her, when they’re old enough. Leona and Vax’ildan II are her favorites to travel with. 

Despite the 9-10 year age gap, Vesper and Wolfe bond over being the ‘Eldest Daughter’ and ‘Eldest Son’ of the De Rolo family. 

Gwendolyn and Vesper have a very close relationship, despite having the biggest age gap of all the kids. They share a love for history and fashion. 

Has no real interest in politics, but given the order of her birth, she pays close attention in the case she might have to replace her Aunt Cassandra’s seat.

Heavy Weapons AND Heavy Armor girlie!! Will smash your skull in and look cute while doing so.

Wears her white hair in a messy side braid. Just like her mama <3

Wolfe Kristoff De Rolo

Contrary to most headcanons I’ve read about him; this boy is his father’s son. The Einstein of the new generation. 

Demisexual 

Definitely found old blueprints of Pepperbox and thought “I could do better”. And he did.

Fighter/Artificer Multi Class

Acts the most ‘Noble-like’ out of all his siblings. 

Will throw money and his family name at all of his problems. (“My father will hear about this.”)

“I’m gonna k*ill myself.” – Wolfe, at any minor inconvenience

The most sought after bachelor in Whitestone. Weekly, Percy and Vex are approached by other nobility with the proposal of a political marriage of Wolfe and their own heir. If it’s not nobility; it’s townspeople trying to catch the inventor out of his Workshop to ‘get to know him’.

Wolfe has threatened to Crash Out if either of his parents even considered one of the offers. 

Very well-versed in both engineering and politics. 

Accidentally invented the Printing Press at the age of twelve… He was trying to make a stamp for his dad and it just got out of hand. 

Took a really nasty fall when he was younger. Probably climbing on something he wasn’t supposed to. Resulted in a broken arm and busting his head open. 

Has a scar on his forehead from the fall. His brown hair turned white where the scar meets his hairline. 

Big into hair & skin care. Always has lotion on his person at all times.

Dresses like Percy in Vox Machina Origins. Thigh high boots people…

Take the demon-murdered family-torture trauma from Percy, keep the brains, add a healthy noble upbringing, and tune up the cockiness by ten; ya get Wolfe. 

Hear of Hearing! Boy is around heavy machines and gunfire all day. Sounds like he’s yelling most of the time, but his family knows it’s because he cannot hear them.

Learned Sign Language because of his hearing loss. 

Has to spray Gwendolyn with water like a cat to keep her out of his Workshop. 

Jealous of how free spirited his twin sister can be. He wished he could naturally let go of his worries the way Leona does. 

Leona De Rolo

Middle child. Literally. Between Wolfe being two minutes older than her, then followed by Vax’ildan and Gwendolyn– Leona is smack in the middle.

A bi queen

She loves hunting, target practice, etc. Anything to get a bow in her hands.

Thick-ass glasses and she HATES them! They’re so annoying when she’s trying to hunt/fight in the rain or snow. Still has a deadly aim though. 

Very competitive. She’s the reason the De Rolo family can’t have a game night. 

Fighter/Ranger Multi Class

Good fucking luck trying to tame her lion’s mane of hair. Vesper, Vex, and Gwendolyn have all tried to help her tame it, but it just gets put into a messy ponytail/bun/braid.

Very much a tomboy. Takes to wearing suits and more masc-leaning clothing. Hasn’t worn a dress or skirt since she was like seven years old. 

Wolfe has even commented on how she pulls off suits better than he does. 

She would never tell him, but that compliment has stuck with her for years. 

Often has to push/tackle her twin out of harm's way because he’s hard of hearing.

She and Vex bond over their shared love for the woodlands. There was a time the two of them were camping together, and Vex opened up about her own twin brother. That was the first time Leona had ever seen her mother cry…

She silently vowed to never let something like that happen to Wolfe.

Doesn’t care much for engineering like her father and twin, but she will willingly listen to them ramble on about whatever rabbit hole they’ve both fallen into. 

A small, dark part of her is jealous of Wolfe and how he seems to be admired by everyone. Everywhere. 

Will kill anyone for looking at any of her siblings in a way she doesn’t like. 

She and Vesper travel together the most out of the siblings. Sometimes they’ll go on separate journeys and end up meeting in the middle anyway.  

Leona and Gwendolyn love to pull pranks together.

Vax’ildan Frederick De Rolo

Trans.

Trans, and I cannot be convinced otherwise. 

He 100% chose the name Vax’ildan. 

He’s very quiet. Usually lost in thought or just observing the people around him. 

Stares at people. 

Really good perception (checks). 

Cleric/Paladin Multi Class 

Cleric of the Raven Queen… Yeah, Vex was real happy about that…

His family calls him “Danny” or “Freddie”. He understands that “Vax” is reserved for their dearest friend. 

Wolfe calls him “Danny Boy”. It’s Vax’ildan’s favorite nickname. 

Mama’s boy to the max. Vex, like all parents do, says she doesn’t have a favorite. But everyone knows it’s Vax’ildan II.

Vex was the first one Vax’ildan II came out to as trans. Then Percy, then his siblings, etc. 

“Yeah, dude, we already knew.” “...What?” 

Just like his uncle; Vax’ildan II had been/is watched by the Raven Queen. 

When he accompanied Vesper to her faith work, he would often wander off and be found by the Raven Queen’s Shrine. 

Ravens follow this poor kid everywhere. To the point that Leona has offered to shoot them on multiple occasions.

Fell through a frozen lake when he was about ten years old. It scared his family to death, and he was grounded to sleeping in his parents’ bed for like a month (Vex physically would not let him go.) 

He tried to explain that he was “-following the guy in the raven cloak who had daggers.” 

The reality of the situation didn’t hit him until a few years later, but he still felt no dreaded fear for when it happened. 

The only one allowed to come-and-go into Wolfe’s workshop as he pleases. Likes to sit in the back and read his books.

I could write a whole book on this kid. 

Gwendolyn De Rolo

Daddy’s girl 100%. It's canon.

The little game that Percy and she play during parties is just training her for trouble. 

Rouge Class through-and-through. 

Learns how to use a rapier from her Auntie Cassandra 

Around the age of fifteen, she starts asking to go by just ‘Gwen’. It’s much less of a mouthful, and something about dropping the lengthy name took a weight off her shoulders.

The age gap between her and the rest of her siblings puts a little bit of a strain on things when it comes to relatability. What would an eleven year old Gwendolyn have in common with a twenty-six year old Vesper? 

They all make it work though. 

Aside from Vesper; Vax’ildan II is the next sibling that Gwen is closest to. No one else in the family has the same level of spying skills and likes to gossip as much as she does– except for Danny. They talk shit about other people all the time.

Danny and Gwen’s relationship is similar to that of Cassandra and Percy. 

I can see her picking up bow skills from both Leona and Vex. Having her as a Rouge/Ranger multi class would be deadly.

Cuts her hair when she’s older and likes to keep in short afterwards

Can rattle off years worth of history of about any city/town/ceremony site she steps into. 

Despite her family not seeing her as anything other than their sister/daughter; Gwen feels, in a deep part of her, that they look down on her for being a Tiefling. More so WHY she’s Tiefling. 

She and Leona love to pull pranks on the rest of their siblings together.

[eldritch-spouse]

How would we look like as full blown succubus lust queens once Vesper has transformed us? Would the form be different to the usual succubi, since of our high status or would Vespers beautiful mark be the one thing differentiating us from the others?

I have completely fallen in love with the pink king and my brain just has all these questions 🫠💕

The way you transform into a demon, of whatever type, is usually randomized. Of course, there are things that influence this process a tad, such as:

Previous demonic lineage, the genes of which will probably be utilized here;

Your soul, as in, who you are as a person may give way to certain traits, the science of this is a tad elusive;

The appearance of the demon who is inducing this in you, if there is one.

In this case, being transformed by a demonlord like Vesper, you're bound to exhibit some of his traits. Maybe you'll be pink like him, maybe you'll have tufts of fluff, a belly mouth, wide and bug-like magenta eyes or even his head tendril... It's up to chance.

You'll be different from other succubi not just because of the remnants of Vesper's mark on you but also because of the power you will receive as his mate. You'll have an aura other succubi will naturally lack, even the most high-ranking of them.

[I kind of leave it up to interpretation what you'll look like. I may one day sketch a transformed Queen for kicks, but it won't necessarily be canon to anything.]

[plazmafields]

Oh boy you better get your asses ready because I just beat the game again on 2.1+ and I think it actually has interesting implications for Kerry’s romance. SPOILERS FOR THE SUN ENDING SPECIFICALLY!

Like many other players, I got the Sun ending the first time I played, and (other than when I’m roleplaying a new type of character) it’s the ending I always go for and consider canon for my main oc Vesper. Over on the subreddit(s), people seem to view this ending as definitely 100% implying that V finds a cure and lives to see old age. While of course I would love my character to live a long and happy life, I don’t think that’s the case. V free floats off into space toward a several trillion dollar heavily guarded spacecraft filled with the most elite of the elite. That job was a suicide mission, and I interpreted this ending as V going out with a bang so they could finally, actually become a real Night City legend.

I believe Kerry knows this. When he calls you during the credits, Kerry asks you in a casual tone to buy some olives on your way back, then his voice gets soft and he goes, “Actually, you know what, forget it. I’ll buy them myself.” He does this backtracking in conversation several times during his romance, and I always read it as him being uncomfortable talking about his feelings. He stops himself from apologizing to V during A Like Supreme: Kerry gives V the gun he tried to shoot Johnny with, V reminding him that he was actually aiming the gun at V’s head. Kerry says “yeah…” in an apologetic tone and then starts saying “And earlier when–” then stops himself and says “nevermind.” Kerry also does this during Boat Drinks. He starts by saying “You shake things up, V. Make me feel…” trails off for a second, then stutters before saying “uh, I mean.” It sounds like he has a habit of stopping himself when he starts to feel he’s being too vulnerable.

Now, during the Sun epilogue, Kerry doesn’t hesitate when he tell’s V “I don’t want to lose you.” This would normally be a very vulnerable thing to say, and Kerry’s shown that he always backtracks in moments such as these. He even goes so far as to repeat it and make direct eye contact as he says it again. This makes it seem like maybe he’s done some emotional growing and is now more comfortable talking about his feelings, specifically with V. So, if that were the case, why does he restart the habit of backtracking in the credits call? He doesn’t backtrack during the emotional part, when he tells V he wants them to spend more time together and try to be less busy for one another. He only corrects himself when he talks about V coming back. Because he knows V isn't coming back. Even before that, right before V gets on the flying Delamain to head to the Afterlife, he says “Take care of yourself.” to Kerry, which feels very final, like he doesn’t think he’ll see Kerry again.

With all the other romances, saying goodbye in the mansion makes perfect sense. Panam is leaving with the Aldecaldos, Judy is leaving Night City for good, and River expresses that he feels their relationship doesn't feel equal. The conversation V has with Kerry feels very much like any of their other conversations throughout the game: Kerry talks about his stuff, then once he’s gotten it out of his system, asks how V is doing. But with some notable, very subtle changes.

Kerry is always excited to talk about himself, and rarely asks much about V unless he’s making sure V isn’t already dead. The text that actually sparked me wanting to put these thoughts to paper is the one where Kerry takes a personality quiz and it labels him as a narcissist. He’s self absorbed, sure, but he doesn't have the psychiatric disorder Narcissism as far as I’m convinced. Whichever reply you send, his responses are pretty funny. However, getting that text reminded me that the first time I played Cyberpunk I really wasn’t all that into Kerry as a character, and definitely not as a romance option.

So, the conversation you have in V’s mansion in the Sun ending is actually much more V focused than previous interactions with Kerry. When Kerry asks if you’re alright, even if you say everything’s fine, he still insists that he’s there for V and willing to talk, cuddle, fuck, whatever V needs. This is in stark contrast to when you call Kerry on the rooftop before picking your ending. During that call, he definitely notices something is off with V and asks if he’s ok, but doesn’t press any further when V says he’s fine. His dialog in the Sun ending is strangely caring for Kerry, who otherwise always seemed like V was more of a convenient side-piece with whom he shared a mutual friend. Obviously, as I’ve played the game more and considered Kerry’s quests and dialog options from different angles, I really like him as a character and see much more of his depth than I did on my first playthrough.

Now here’s why playing the game on version 2.1+ is important: 2.1 added dates with your romance options to the game (the “I really want to stay at your house” repeatable quest). If you were to consider the new texts, dialog, and gift responses from the perspective of any of the other endings, Kerry’s replies sound somewhat out of character. The phrasing, the word choice, the tone is all Kerry, but the sentiment is decidedly not so. “I really like you, V. Thought I should remind you.” after the first time he goes over to V’s. His response to getting the flowers or car, he’s almost too complimentary; I feel like Kerry would mention everything wrong with the gift first, then admit that he actually likes it, but still find a way to show his appreciation without saying the words “thank you, V.”

However, if you put everything added in 2.1 into the context of the Sun ending, it starts to feel like Kerry is growing as a person. That’s what his whole quest string was about, sure, but you don’t see him put any of those personal changes into practice after Boat Drinks (mostly because all the romance options just stop leaving their houses once you reach the end of their questlines). So the sweet, appreciative texts after dates and gifts, leading into the way he’s much more focused on V and their relationship during the Sun ending, It actually feels like a natural growth for his character. It’s like the dates, the gifts, the cute little replies, are all the beginning stages of him becoming a much more attentive partner in the Sun ending. Kerry even says himself, before V gets on the Delamain, that their relationship has changed his outlook on life and helped him reprioritize things. The 2.1 additions actually make it feel like we watched that journey begin for him, instead of it just being told to us after a time skip.

[randomys-art]

I totally never forgot to queue him uhm

During a terrible Novine attack Vesper had his head ripped off- Admatha, knowing what had to be done, rammed Lawrence in spear shape into Vesper, keeping him alive.

This happened 20 years before canon, leaving Team Time to search for the elusive wish Cosmine - to bring Vesper's head back.

( @ocreatus )

[blackseafoam]

VESSEL VESPER

A Star Wars Story

The rise of the empire is a difficult time to find funding for environmental research at the University of Rudrig. The Vesper Science Crew is in a unique standing to be able to conduct their research with “generous” government grants. Professor Munnin and her intern, Fern Vulez, spend their field season collecting important data on the ecological effects of a relentless galaxy-crossing war. While the small team are a good match of skills, their frequent personality conflicts put a heavy strain on morale.

CW: nothing outside of Star Wars canon-standard peril.

WC: 1297

Chapter 1: STUNNED

The relentless canyon wind flew by at a blistering pace. Frantic like a creature pursued by a predator. The gusts battering the ears of two figures standing at the southern rim. Below, the crevasse yawned out, widening to the West. What would have been a mighty river below, was reduced to a fine silver trickle bordered by mud and rock.

“Looks sticky down there.” Fern lowered his binoculars and pulled his hood tight over his ears, burning with cold. His dark eyes shifted nervously at the landscape below, trying to map a safe place to conduct their sampling. His black hair whipped across his cheekbones with ferocity.

His boss still had her eye to the scope of her rifle. The Fosh’s voluminous head of black feathers flashed green iridescence as the wind battered them. A sigh escaped her long beak. “Doesn’t look like there is a single solid place to land the ship down there.”

Fern braced himself for what that meant.

“You’ll have to climb down there, scout out a place where our setup isn’t going to sink.” Professor Munnin lowered the scope and replaced her round glasses on her beak.

Fern opened his mouth to protest.

Motti cut him off “I know I’m lighter than you and would do better on the mud, but I’m also a better shot than you and would be more useful covering you from up here.”

“With all due respect, Professor. The basin looks deserted, what do you need to cover me from?”

Motti hesitated, then raised her scope again, letting it push up her spectacles.

“Glass up degrees 148, -42.”

Fern did so, raising his binoculars once again, and took a second for his eyes to adjust to what he was supposed to be looking at. Huge short toed tracks on the far bank. Sinking FAR into the mud. Something very heavy.

He groaned, “Fine, but you owe me.”

Fern was relieved to find that the canyon walls were sandstone, extremely grippy and easy to climb down. The wind was much more tolerable now that he was between two shoulders of rock. He had always been light footed, enjoying some casual freerunning and climbing in his free time (of which he had very little of since he started working for the Professor). His flexible leather boots made his footsteps nearly silent, though the wind masked his audible presence well enough.

Motti regained visual on her intern. Switching from her scope to her naked eye every now again, studiously surveying the entire basin. She raised her comm “Made it down okay?”

“Aww, you do care!” Fern remarked sarcastically.

“Yeah, well, imagine all the paperwork I’d have to do if I sent you to your death.”

“HA. Well the climb was the easy part, this mud is VERY soft.” Fern was already knee deep in the stuff. Progress suddenly became painfully slow.

Once he had made it farther out into the open, the mud was not quite as bad. He brought out his datapad to more carefully analyze the ground density around him.

“Is it possible to set up in the water? Doesn’t look to be that deep, and there’s no mud there. Just rocks.” Fern cupped his hand around his comm as he spoke and looked up at the little dot of a figure on the rim, shielding his eyes from the sun. L

“We can try it. Do you think we could land the Vesper there?”

“Let me get closer.” Fern continued on, one mud sucking footstep at a time, until he made it to the water’s edge.

“It’s only about, I don’t know, a half meter deep here? It’s a nice flat riffle, gets a little deeper downstream.”

“It might be a tight squeeze… let me get the rangefinder. I’ll be right back.” Motti pocketed her comm and swung her rifle over her thin feathered shoulder. She hopped up on her clawed feet and trotted back toward the ship.

Fern took a moment to take in the nature around him. Mud aside, it was a nice little spot. Tall seeding grasses dotted the shoreline, short stubby trees lined a perimeter parallel to the river, following some perfect vein of suitable soil invisible to him.

Rainbow-winged insects flitted on the surface of the water, and several aquatic creatures he couldn’t make out sipped them out of the sky for a tasty treat. He kicked a bit at the water, letting the current clean his legs now caked with dry mud.

Splash, splash. The water around him changed to brown and his boots instantly looked like new. Splash splash. More splashing noises, but he had stopped moving. He raised his gaze upstream.

SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH. From behind a boulder, a dark furred shape came in to view one mammoth step at a time.

Fern froze with fear, the sheer immensity of the beast turning his whole body into fight or flight mode. Regardless if this creature was friendly or not, its imposing stature was enough to send his heart racing and hands shaking.

It didn’t seem to notice him yet, but that was no consolation. There was absolutely nowhere for Fern to go, besides downriver. Getting stuck in the mud with this thing about seemed like a sure way to get trampled.

“BZZZT…. He– –ern did you…” Fern’s heart dropped at the sound of his comm. He reached for it as quickly as he could to turn it off. “... put t– —---gefinder in the aft s—---ge compartment again?” Motti’s voice came in choppy as she was out of line of sight. Fern got the comm off and looked up. The beast’s head was high, its single horn above its nose pointed straight in the air. Beady eyes surveying, gaping nostrils flaring. No way that thing could get a scent with that backwind, but that didn’t make him any less trapped.

-

No reply on the comm. Nothing is ever put back where it belongs on this ship. Motti muttered to herself. Knowing full well that she was probably the one to misplace the rangefinder. She rounded to the exterior storage door when her comm started pinging red, emergency mode. Of course she can’t leave her intern at the bottom of a canyon for FIVE MINUTES without him getting into trouble.

-

When Motti skidded to a stop at the canyon rim she scanned for movement below. Right away she noticed the hulking furred shape standing in the water, a mudhorn. Not native to this planet, where had it come from? This was going to be a significant data point in her Intraplanetary Watershed Species Composition Matrix. Her thoughts snapped out of analysis mode when she noticed a much smaller figure facing the Mudhorn. Fern.

She raised her rifle scope to her beady golden eye. Don’t move, please don’t move fern… She begged internally.

Taking out this beast was the right thing to do, for ecology’s sake, and for saving Fern’s life of course. She leveled her crosshairs toward the beast’s cranium, internally referencing her studies on mammalian skulls to picture the exact spot where the Mudhorn’s tiny brain rested within it’s enormous head. Her scaly finger began to squeeze the trigger when the beast jolted forward, and was out of her sight.

NO! Fern was running, and the beast gave chase. The foolish human would never outrun the beast. There was only one thing Motti could do from her high perch, and she had to get it perfect. Her fingers worked quickly, setting the rifle to “stun”. She set the crosshairs now on the frantic intern, bounding his way down the shallow river, his data pad bouncing along behind him on its bungee cord. He was covering a surprising amount of ground, but still not enough to outrun a Mudhorn.

She squeezed the trigger.

Taglist: @stars-n-spice

Authors notes:

AAA I started writing this so long ago it feels great to put it out there! This is going to lead in to Ulvi and Flinch’s story soon. I have big arcs planned for each character, so there isn’t really a central main. They’re all going to be more or less equally featured. Sort of like a D&D campaign type of pacing.

Honestly I have @stars-n-spice to thank for having so much enthusiasm for my OCs when we first interacted! It absolutely led me to post this :)

Happy to put anyone on the Taglist just lmk. Cautiously optimistic that I’ll keep working on this for a long time!

Also Motti is voiced by Sigourney Weaver that’s my canon 😆

[waltwhitmansbeard]

trust prompt 17, percy and scanlan? seasoning of post canon if the chef feels so inclined but also beggars cant be choosers 😭

17. showing them something close to their heart this is really more than percy and scanlan but ig they're the focus.

When Scanlan steps into the foyer of Castle Whitestone, he's startled by the activity whirring all around him. Staff appear and disappear as if by magic, each carrying a tray of food or a stack of linens or some other creature comfort, and none of them seem to notice the bewildered gnome in their midst. He stands there, unsure of where to go or what to do, until a voice from above calls his name. He looks up to see Grog's enormous form at the top of the grand staircase, waving enthusiastically at him.

Scanlan scurries up the steps, weaving in and out of the castle staff. "Hey, big man. Sorry I'm late."

Grog shrugs. "You missed all the screamin'." With that terribly ominous statement, he turns and heads down the hall, and Scanlan has to scramble to keep up.

The castle is labyrinthine, and Scanlan quickly gives up hope of remembering where they are. Honestly, he's shocked Grog hasn't gotten lost himself. After a few minutes, they're in front of a set of grand marble doors, which Grog pushes open without knocking. "Found 'im!"

Inside, Scanlan sees gorgeously appointed chambers, with a roaring fireplace in the sitting area across from the massive four-poster bed that Scanlan could nearly walk under without ducking. Without waiting for him to ask, Grog scoops him up to set him on the edge of mattress, which is covered in a luxurious eiderdown.

Under the covers, propped up against a mass of pillows, is Vex, her hair sweaty and matted around her face, and in her arms, a tiny bundle, swaddled in a lavender blanket. Percy stands just beside her, with tired eyes and a dopey grin. Scanlan feels a swell of pride in his chest, as if he were the one to have brought a new life into this world they've saved. "Hey guys! So, anything new with you?"

Vex huffs out a little laugh. "I'm glad you're here, Scanlan. We wanted you to meet your namesake."

Scanlan faces crumples in confusion. "Are you serious?"

"Fuck no," Vex says with a snort, and okay, Scanlan has to admit that that was a good one.

"Here." Percy leans down to carefully scoop the little baby out of Vex's arms, and then he walks around the foot of the bed to come sit beside Scanlan. Finally, he can see his friend's baby, a pale, sleeping thing with a dusting of white hair and the roundest cheeks Scanlan can imagine. "Her name is Vesper Elaina."

Scanlan reaches a hand over to brush his hand over Vesper's, and her little fingers, even in sleep, instinctively curl around his. Scanlan's breath catches in his throat; this is what he missed, the lost moments with Kaylie he can never get back.

"She's perfect," he says quietly, more sincere than he's ever been in his life. "Absolutely perfect."

Scanlan has never seen such easy joy on Percy's face. "She's the best thing I've ever made."

He can't help himself. "I agree. I promise not to throw this one into a pit of acid."

Percy lets out a half-manic laugh. "I...would appreciate that, yes."

"Unless you think you've got more demon problems. In which case you know I'm here for you, bud."

Percy balances Vesper in the crook of one arm so he can wrap Scanlan into a side-hug with the other. "I know you are. If I ever need to throw my daughter into a pit of acid, I absolutely know who to call."

"If you're going to talk about killing our child with acid before she's even two hours old," Vex drawls, "can you do so outside so that I can sleep?"

Scanlan makes the perilous slide down onto the floor. "Of course, Lady de Rolo." He lets Grog lead them out of the room so that Vex can rest, and as Percy walks so very carefully with his new daughter in his arms, Scanlan elbows his shin to get his attention. "For real, though. This is incredible. What a beautiful addition to your family."

"To our family," Percy reminds him. "You're not getting out of uncle duties, Shorthalt. Someone has to teach her how to be a pain in my ass."

Scanlan salutes. "Mission accepted."

[psychangels]

AU Masterpost

This is a post detailing all of my HFR AUs, for ease of access!

Escapism

SPECTRA!Chai AU; canon diverges at the very beginning of the Kale fight. Instead of fighting 808, he has Chai deal with her. Everything goes downhill from there.

Now working for Vandelay Technologies as the ambassador for Project Armstrong, Chai lives a tightly scheduled life. Not only does he do marketing-related things, he's essentially a jack of all trades, doing numerous different tasks all over the island. And thanks to SPECTRA, he never forgets a single one—though that's unbeknownst to him.

Kale hired new department heads; Nori and xer assistant GNGR (production), Sunny Kist (R&D), Star (security), Vesper (marketing), and Allium Piper (finances).

The gang is in for a rough ride in their mission to get Chai back, and put a stop to Kale and SPECTRA once and for all.

This AU is a good bit darker than standard HFR. It has death, gore, abusive relationships, and brainwashing.

You can read the fic series for this AU here! There's also two playlists for it; one features all of the songs that appear in the fics, and the other is just a vibes playlist.

The CNMN Effect

An off-shoot of Escapism; diverges during chapter 4 of The End of the Rockstar. CNMN does his CNManiac special attack from the game, knocking Chai and Sunny out. This enables Macaron and him to take Chai and book it back to the hideout.

Started as more of a joke concept from a comment made by @/deadly-glamourtail, and then became a Proper AU.

Currently, there isn't a fic for this, but I do plan on writing one eventually. Probably won't happen for quite a while, though.

Lightning in a Bottle

Fantasy AU; retains the sci-fi elements from regular HFR, just adding on fantasy world-building and elements. The story is a fair bit different from HFR, but at it's core it's essentially the same and follows a similar structure. Features gore, death, and darker elements, but still retains the whimsy.

Vandelay Technologies is Vandelay City, and Roxanne is the founder. She used to run the city, before her son took over one day seemingly out of the blue. He replaced the entire city council shortly after.

Peppermint, upon finding out about this, attempts to get into the city to figure out what's going on, only to be thwarted by its new gatekeeper, GK-1MIL. Unable to get in and investigate, she sets off to figure out what to do.

After exhausting all other options she can think of, she decides to summon a demon to help her out. Said demon is Chai. He agrees to help her—not that he really has much choice—and the two set off to figure out what happened to Roxanne.

You can read the fic for this AU here!

Red Eternity

Time loop AU; Korsica is stuck in a loop that begins with her waking up in the dark L.I.F.T tunnels, and ends with Kale winning when the gang eventually reaches him. How he wins is different each time, and some other parts of the loop change as well. In order to break free from the loop, Korsica has to figure out how to make the canon ending of HFR happen.

This AU features gore and death. It still has the silliness of HFR, but it is a fair bit darker.

Currently, there isn't a finished fic for this AU that you can read, but I have started working on the first chapter. It probably won't be done for quite a while, but keep an eye out!

[orthodoxadventure]

Forgiveness Sunday

Master, Teacher of wisdom, Bestower of virtue, You teach the thoughtless and protect the poor: Strengthen and enlighten my heart. Word of the Father, Let me not restrain my mouth from crying to you: Have mercy on me, a transgressor, O merciful Lord!

Forgiveness Sunday, also called Cheesefare Sunday, is the final day of pre-Lent. It is the Sunday after Meatfare Sunday and the Sunday before the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

On this last Sunday before Great Lent, the last day that traditionally Orthodox Christians eat dairy products until Easter, the Church remembers the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. God commanded them to fast from the fruit of a tree (Gen. 2:16), but they did not obey. In this way Adam and Eve and their descendants became heirs of death and corruption.

On Forgiveness Sunday many attend Forgiveness Vespers on the eve of Great Lent. They hear on the Lord's teaching about fasting and forgiveness and enter the season of the fast forgiving one another so that God will forgive them. If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses (Matthew 6:14).

The Gospel reading of the day also gives advice on fasting. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. (Matthew 6:16-18).

After the dismissal at Vespers, the priest stands beside the analogion, or before the ambon, and the faithful come up one by one and venerate the icon, after which each makes a prostration before the priest, saying, "Forgive me, a sinner." The priest also makes a prostration before each, saying, "God forgives. Forgive me." The person responds, "God forgives," and receives a blessing from the priest. Meanwhile the choir sings quietly the irmoi of the Paschal Canon, or else the Paschal Stichera. After receiving the priest's blessing, the faithful also ask forgiveness of each other.

[Text from OrthodoxWiki]

[cacklefrendly]

At this point i want to hear all of your gin and vodka hc cause we need more of them also cause youre art is AMAZING

OH ANON I WILL TAKE ANY EXCUSE TO PREACH THE GOOD WORD OF THE VESPER COCKTAIL

but first listen hey just. jsut listen to me.

have you considered the inherent vulnerability of standing next to someone who could happily kill you in a hundred different ways and trusting that they won't. of always being on guard for a knife in your back but knowing that there is exactly One Person who stands behind you who'd never raise that blade.

because my friends. that is Gin and Vodka.

ok these is in no particular order buuut here are some HCs that i work from as a baseline for rotating them both in my head:

Both of them are in their early 40s, and joined the Black Organization at about the same time. Gin joined from the criminal side of things, while Vodka joined as a legit office worker. They started working together a few years in.

They are SO GOOD at non-verbal communication. They've completely changed mission plans on-the-spot multiple times, all with a couple of glances and nods.

Vodka fell for Gin YEARS before the events of canon but there is no world in which he makes the first move. Initially his silence was because "i would rather not risk pissing off my Murder-Boss who would maybe react by Murdering Me" but he's stayed silent because. Well. He's honestly happy with their relationship as-is. He can see how much Gin trusts him, values that immensely, and reciprocates it. They live together, for god's sake. It's not a romantic thing, sure, and sometimes Vodka wishes it was, but he cherishes what they have more than anything. ...meanwhile Gin is demi-romantic and very autistic and straight-up does not realize that he's in love with Vodka. he'll figure it out. eventually.

If you want to compare them to dogs (and i very much DO), then Gin is a Borzoi (sighthound) and Vodka is a Clumber Spaniel (flushing dog). Vodka scares targets into running and Gin chases them down.

Vodka runs hot and Gin runs cold. They achieve thermal equilibrium when they cuddle!! But it usually means the car's temperature is set way too hot for Vodka.

Gin is well aware that he's a vicious person in every aspect of his life, but he's waaaay past the point where he tries to hide it. Vodka likes his viciousness. Gin likes that Vodka likes his viciousness. They're both freaks and should be together to keep them from mauling the public.

I like to think that their canon height difference is an artifact of the show being Detective Conan — it's part of Conan's view of the world. Gin’s the one who attacked him as Shinichi, the one who keeps coming the closest to finding Conan out, the one who's more cruel and ruthless. Vodka ticks all those boxes too, yeah, but Gin is the one who Conan's actually scared of. So, from Conan's perspective, we see Gin as super frigging tall. He looms over everything, he's untouchable — while Vodka’s just Some Guy who looks pathetic and kinda meek when standing next to Gin. In reality — AKA, according to how i draw them — Gin and Vodka are the same height. Taller than Vodka’s canon height, but shorter than Gin’s. (Technically Gin is, like, an inch or two shorter, but it's such an insignificant difference that their hats and shoes make them the same.)

An outside observer would think that Gin takes everything Vodka offers and gives nothing in return, but that's not true. It's just that he shows affection like a large cat: with mauled corpses and by invading Vodka's personal space. He also does stuff like 'lets Vodka drive his very expensive and hard-to-get car' and 'respects Vodka's take on situations' and 'keeps falling asleep on Vodka' and—

They spar. Sometimes, those spars are all-out. During those spars, Gin tends to bite. A lot! There's blood. Vodka is okay with being his chew-toy. A little too okay with it. You could go so far as to say he's eager. In Gin's defense, if you're fighting for your life you have got to take any opening you can. There is no defense for Vodka.

Theoretically, if Kaitou KID were to disguise as Gin, then Vodka "My Main Love Language Is Learning Other's Mannerisms" BlackOrg would clock him in minutes. He wouldn't say anything immediately, but he spends too much time working with Gin to fall for that shit. If Kaitou KID were to disguise as Vodka, then Gin "My Main Love Language Is Letting My Guard Down" BlackOrg wouldn't realize something was up unless KID stood directly next to him — at which point Gin would switch to his second Love Language, Murder.

The first song Vodka ever sang to Gin was Hallelujah. Someday, it will be the last song he ever sings to Gin.

The first time they met was technically way back when Vodka was working for one of the B.Org's fronts and not in on the illegal stuff yet. His immediate superior, Syrah, was killed by Gin — who was going by a different codename at the time, Kina Lillet. Vodka was bringing paperwork to Syrah's office but heard the tail end of some yelling and the sounds of a struggle. When Kina walked out looking Suspiciously Casual wearing all black and generally looking Scary As Shit he decided that he was not getting payed enough to die for that company. Kina asked "how much did you hear" and Vodka replied "i mind my damn business, sir, so frankly i didn't hear shit" and went on his way to figure out an alibi. (They met formally a couple years later, as Gin and Vodka. Gin recognized Vodka but Vodka didn't recognize Gin.)

[littlebosslady7]

Chapters: 3/6 Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series), The Legend of Vox Machina (Cartoon) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia, Scanlan Shorthalt/Pike Trickfoot, Zahra Hydris/Kashaw Vesh Characters: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, Vex'ahlia (Critical Role), Vesper Elaina de Rolo | Percy and Vex'ahlia's Child, Cassandra de Rolo, Wolfe Kristoff de Rolo, Grog Strongjaw, Leona Pike de Rolo, Pike Trickfoot, Scanlan Shorthalt, Vax'ildan Frederick de Rolo, Keyleth (Critical Role), Vax'ildan (Critical Role), Gwendolyn Zahra Melanie Von Musel de Rolo, Zahra Hydris, Kashaw Vesh, Deanna Leimert, Wilhand'ildan Shorthalt, Juniper Shorthalt, Velora Vessar Additional Tags: Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Temporary Character Death, Light Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Humor, Minor Original Character(s), Lifespan Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Humor, Spoilers for Campaign 3 (Critical Role), Minor Spoilers Series: Part 36 of D's Critical Role Stories Chapter Summary: Percy decided to hang up the Plague Doctor Mask in his office at Castle Whitestone. He did so with Vex and Vesper at his side. The de Rolos rediscovered how places and things could take on different meanings over time.

For @percahliaweek Day 3- Mask

Excerpt:

Vex took two long strides over to her husband. Her eyes scanned over him from head to toe. Nothing seemed amiss, though his white beard was a tad scragglier in these later seasonal months. “Percival, darling, how are you?” He shrugged, brow crinkled at her odd immediate concern, “Fine. What has you so worried, Vex’ahlia?” She stood up on her tip toes and asked in a whisper only audible to him, “It’s just the reveal of that horrid mask that gave me quite a fright. Does a demon have possession of you again? Orthax or-or Ipkesh?” Gods, her husband had a wretched penchant for making deals with creepy dwellers in numerous levels of the Hells. Percy vowed, “The sole beings, who are allowed to have possession of my heart and soul are your and our children, Wife. I swear to you.”

[thecagedbard]

Oh Look, another Tav story! This is currently posted over on AO3 in its entirety but I thought I’d post it to tumblr as well. If you’d like to sneak a peak at some of the chapter names, if you don’t want to read the whole thing yet, have a listen to the title playlist: here.  There is also just the ‘Here’s what I was listening to while writing' playlist, and my Faetrala Uncaged playlist which serves as inspiration for Vesper’s siblings.  A lot of the songs tend to overlap but who knows, you might find one you enjoy. 

Rating: Mature

Pairing(s): Astarion/Tav (Vesper), Astarion/Halsin, Astarion/Halsin/Tav(Vesper); Mentions of Karlach/Shadowheart/Wyll; Mentions of Gale/AFAB OC

Warnings:  Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Physical Abuse, Canon Divergence, Child Death

Word count: 12,986/300,000+

Summary: Vesper needed someone to protect her from an abusive husband should he appear after she was abducted by mind flayers. Astarion needed someone to fall for him so he had protection from Cazador. He's got two hundred years of manipulation and she has the soft heart of a lamb being led to slaughter. While subconsciously healing each other they both realize they also need to heal the druid of all damned people.

Chapter Eight

They stayed on the surface a day longer than necessary. After finding a safe area where they could make camp for the night, they snacked on dry rations and tried to keep warm as the moon rose. Astarion had excused himself to go hunting on his own and while the spawn was gone the other companions had a visitor. The cub from the camp came looking for food. Karlach quickly roused Vesper from her sleep and had the bard talk to the little creature. 

Vesper was kneeling before the cub, a hand extended to pet through its feathers when the spawn returned. His appearance alone startled the creature, making it stutter and cry out no before running away. “Aw,” tsked the high elf as he filled the space between the bard and barbarian, “you scared off the little snack.”

“Yeah, it was us…wasn’t it Ves?” Karlach pursed her lips, her arms crossing over her chest. Astarion turned to look at her, a smile ghosting his features, “What?” The tiefling only shook her head before returning to where she’d been trying to sleep.

During her second trial of meditation, a nightmare was projected from the bard to a few of the others, their dreams morphing to view that which haunted the party’s drow. They wouldn’t mention the instance to her directly, though she did catch Shadowheart and Wyll with their heads together as they walked through Ethel’s bog, Gale wouldn’t meet her eyes until after the fight was over, and Karlach kept admonishing Astarion when he would be his normal, bastardly self.

The poison from Ethel’s liar had weakened many of the party, Shadowheart having focused her protection from Poison on Astarion so he could try and disable the vents on the way done–unfortunately, the clouds were so thick in places he just couldn’t find them without kicking the explosive flowers and harming himself, so Vesper asked if they wanted to stay topside one more night before venturing back into the Underdark. No one had declined.

They were a bit braver the second night, Lae’zel joining the bard and Astarion to hunt small animals to cook on the fire. Their makeshift camp wasn’t as quiet or as careful now that they had removed the Hag threat and no one had seen or heard a goblin since demolishing their camp. While the three were gone the other four talked.

“No, no, I saw him as well,” Gale poked at the fire with a stick trying to push the logs closer, “but what did he mean by ‘She’s gone because of you?’ You don’t–” he turned and peered in the direction the others had left in before bending forward, “you don’t suppose she killed someone before all of this?” Karlach’s face blanched, and her eyes rounded, “Vesper? No! No way!”

Shadowheart’s head also shook negatively, “No, you didn’t see her on the nautiloid. There were mindflayer thralls in these chairs in front of my pod. She actually protested when Lae’zel gave them a mercy killing. To even imagine she could kill someone is…” the cleric paused and removed her circlet to trace her fingers along its metal, “no. Her first kills were on that ship. You’d agree, right Wyll, that the first time you take a life it changes you?”  

Wyll had been quiet for the most part but when the cleric called to him, he lifted his head and nodded, “For most. I’ve seen changes in her, for certain. Trying to talk her way out of things rather than follow along…I thought she might actually be able to free that woman for a moment.” He scratched at the base of his horns grimacing as his fingers touched the still-new appendages, “I don’t think she’s killed before this adventure. On the battlefield she is still unsure of where to go, looking to whoever is closest to her and sticking by them even if she gets in more danger. I don’t believe for a second she killed whoever this Mariwen is.”

“Mariwen? You heard the name?” 

“Wait, you’re certain you heard ‘Mariwen?’”

Wyll looked first at Gale before turning his attention to Shadowheart, “Yes and yes…I–it’s possible I experienced an earlier portion of the dream but she said the name. Sobbing over,” the warlock swallowed hard as the memory of the nightmare flashed over his eyes, “a wrapped babe, she kept saying ‘Please Eilistaree, not Mariwen.’”

Karlach turned to Shadowheart expectantly, “Who’s Mariwen?”

The cleric didn’t get the opportunity to answer the question as thudding footsteps pulled them from their hushed conversation around the fire. Lae’zel and Astarion were the first to enter, the githyanki carried the majority of the weight of the boar they had hunted while Vesper brought up the rear and held up three rabbits, “They wanted me to leave them but I’m kind of hoping that the cub shows up again.” 

Gale only gave a nod and pointed to an area for the recent kills to be laid. 

Again, Vesper’s rest was interrupted, this time by Astarion alerting her to the cub’s appearance. With Shadowheart’s assistance, they healed the cub's foot and fed him again. When yet another nightmare plagued the sleeping drow it wasn’t broadcasted to the other companions, it instead roused the meditative high elf nearest her. When his eyes jerked open his hands flexed above him, swiping through the empty air. As the bard’s whimper reached his ears yet again he rolled from his back to his stomach and looked around, expecting to see someone hovering over her or even the owlbear bearing down on her. But the only thing that he saw was how her head jerked to the side while her body was rigid. 

Silently the rogue slid across the ground and moved the bag he’d been using as a pillow to rest next to hers. He chanced a look at the other companions who snored or muttered in their sleep, no one else took notice. Looking over the bard again he wrinkled his nose as he lifted a hand to push the sweat from her brow, freezing when she leaned toward him. Again he looked to see if any of the others were awake, nothing. Laying down next to the bard, Astarion pushed one of his arms under her head and pulled her close to him, tucking her into his side. When she pushed against him, he began to shush her, “Calm darling,” he whispered, his head bending to reach her ear, “you’re fine. I’ve–” his face scrunched as he tried to recall things he had heard one of his spawn siblings say, “I’ve got you.”

His hand ran the length of her spine until she stilled and her breathing eased. If he was tempted to roll her back to her ‘pillow’ she wouldn’t know, because when the sun rose over their little clearing she awoke with her head still resting against the spawn’s chest.

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─

Halsin was relieved to see them once the party returned, a little surprised by the addition of the owlbear cub, but relieved all the same. “Two days without contact and I was beginning to wonder if I needed to bring everything to the mountain pass,” he motioned to the chest they packed most of their stuff into, “I was just about to start reorganizing to make room for everything. You’re all okay?” 

After reassurances from everyone that they were all healthy, Vesper excused herself to set up the alchemy tools and attempt to make a potion that would make them resistant to being poisoned. From where she was she could listen as Karlach told the druid about the dagger they had forged and how Ethel was no longer among the living. “Aha,” Halsin’s uneasy laugh made the bard look up, “Unfortunately you may be surprised to learn that Hags have a failsafe if they ever get injured enough for their forms to die. It’s likely that Ethel has just returned to whatever hell she was born in and after healing she will begin her scheming again.” Karlach’s head fell back as she groaned, “Why can’t evil just stay dead?!”

Vesper turned back from the group to laugh softly. She began picking up the herbs she had, having to keep them from being pulverized since she couldn’t label them. It would be a labor to try to figure this out on her own, a lot of trial and error that they didn’t have the time or resources for. She began muttering the properties of each herb she could remember before hanging her head and sighing in frustration, “Is there something I could, perhaps, help you with?” Halsin’s voice was deep but soft as he crouched next to the drow. She lifted her head and heaved another sigh, “I know there are potions that can make a person pass through poison gases easier, or even keep them from being poisoned at all, but I can’t…I don’t know how to make them.” 

The druid smiled and Vesper tilted her head as she gazed at him, “Then it’s a very good thing I brought those books I told you about. Just a moment and I’ll be glad to help you.” Once he returned he took a seat next to the bard and set the book in front of her, “I might be overstepping, but if you would like I could also teach you how to read this yourself. “ Vesper looked at the book, her eyes scanning the unfamiliar words, “I don’t know. I feel like doing this is taking a lot of your time already…”

“Well,” the druid began, his cheeks flushing just a hair, “I fear if I were to leave the camp I would be rushing you to Moonrise. I have something of a goal-oriented mind, and reaching Moonrise Tower is part of my goal at this current time. But I understand that exploration may be a part of your process, so, with that in mind I had intended to stay here and guard your camp. Keep Scratch and now the little cub company I suppose…though I will admit the newest addition does bring a bit of unease.” Vesper lifted a brow as she began setting her supplies to the side, “The cub? We’ll name him soon, I’m–”

“Not the cub…the skeletal man…”

“Who?”

Her head turned as she regarded Halsin before turning to look in the direction the druid now pointed. Bending down she could just make out a figure near Wyll and Gale’s tents, “What do you—”

“I will meet thee again shortly.”

The voice had been so eerie she thought perhaps it was a dream after being resurrected, but as she got to her feet and rounded the corner to look up the hill to the warlock and wizard’s tents there he stood. A skeletal man stood in dark gray robes, a golden cage over the stretched skin on his skull, his arms and legs were wrapped but she could see how the bandaging was falling in places.

He lifted his head from the scroll he held, “Ah, so we meet again.”

She could feel the presence of the others as they walked to stand at her back. She could hear the whispers, but unlike the rest of them, while they felt panic and unease, Vesper felt…comforted. It was an odd feeling, considering how she felt about necromancy, to begin with, but the creature before her simply looked back down at his scroll and continued to count.

“Vesper? Vesper,” she heard Gale calling to her, felt his hand holding her elbow as he gave it a little shake. She turned. “Who is your new friend and why is he making himself comfortable so near mine and Wyll’s tents?” The wizard was tensely smiling, his lips tightly pressed together, “There’s an undead creature near my things, Vesper…”

“We can take him,” she heard Shadowheart and whipped her head in the cleric’s direction, “No!”

The others all looked from the skeletal man to the bard, she saw the hint of amusement on Astarion’s face. “He was there…when I died,” she said as her eyes shifted back to Gale, “he said it wasn’t my time and I think he sent me back.” Gale coughed as he inhaled sharply and nodded, “Right then…I suppose he may remain…I’m claiming one of the bedrolls by the fire just to be…certain.” He turned his head to look at the others and Wyll was nodding, “As am I. No offense to our new…ally,” his voice lilted in question, “but I’d feel more comfortable near the flames tonight as well.”

The undead took no notice of them after his first sentence to Vesper. He did not look up from his list, he did not speak to them, or even motion in their direction. One by one they all walked away. The bard was the last one, staring at the creature for a moment longer before returning to Halsin’s side so he could teach her something new. 

With the druid’s help, which she thanked him for multiple times as he would read from the book to correct her on ingredients, she was able to start brewing a resistance potion. “Tomorrow, while you all continue to look for the Nightsong, I will see if I can gather more herbs. I’m almost certain some of the ingredients we’re missing can be found here,” he said as he closed the book and set it aside. “Shadowheart mentioned you were taking first watch?” his questioning tone had the bard turning and her head bobbing in the affirmative, “Then I will offer to take over for a second shift. It will give me time to prepare for the gathering and to make a meal that should sustain you all. And if you’d like you can take my tent, I’ve noticed you are something of a light sleeper at times.”

Vesper groaned for a minute and her head cocked away from him, “Sometimes. I didn’t have an easy time before being abducted, sometimes—” she trailed off as a haunted look took over her face before she shook her head trying to shake the memories away. “But I don’t want to impose…speaking of,” she cleared her throat and leaned to the druid, “I know I was extremely drunk during the celebration a while ago, I wanted to talk about it that next day but…” she gestured to the book.

The druid watched her passively waiting for her to continue. “Uhm, what I mean is,” she had a fleeting memory that had come back to her during a meditation; sitting next to the druid and leaning into him asking him borderline inappropriate questions. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable with anything I may have said, or done,” she knew she had laid her head against his shoulder at one point and even commented on how warm he had been. Remembering her actions the drow’s cheeks flushed and she cleared her throat again.

Halsin chuckled, the deep and warm sound chasing the awkward silence that she had left. “In no circumstances would your questions have made me uncomfortable,” he said as he leaned closer, she watched his eyes as they moved down her and she felt a chill sweep through her, “if things had been different or it had been another night I perhaps would have—” he stopped himself as he met her eyes again and realized there was a shift in her. “But that is perhaps a conversation for another time,” he cleared his throat and leaned away, “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable, Vesper.” As her own comfort was called into question her face split into a large smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and she shook her head, “I’m not uncomfortable!” 

His mouth turned downward as he nodded to her and tentatively hovered his hand over her shoulder before gently laying it over the fabric of her armor that she had yet to remove. “All the same,” Halsin bowed his head, “tomorrow, if you are willing, I’d like to start your reading lessons.” 

“Reading Lessons?”

Vesper swore softly as she jumped at the new voice that had crept up behind them. She had set the alchemy tools away from the campfire, worried that the smell from the potions would bother those trying to rest or to eat; she hadn’t expected anyone to actively choose to come over to her, and yet here was Astarion. Again, heat flooded her face and she felt it travel down her neck.

Turning to look at the vampire she slowly nodded as she tilted her face downward and stared at his shoes. “I can’t read,” she admitted out loud, the second time in a month she had said that sentence. Illiteracy wasn’t something to be ashamed of in the Isles, tutors were expensive and hard to come by back home. But it seemed in Faerun everyone could at least read the common thorass alphabet, something that had been drilled into her by Issac and his ‘friends.’

Astarion was quiet for a moment before she heard the rustle of cloth and his knees came to share her view of his feet, “Why not ask me to teach you?” His fingers found her chin and tugged it upward. She inhaled deeply and looked at Halsin before looking back at him, “I didn’t want to seem like a bigger burden than I am already. I’m not good at fighting and apparently am easily killable,” Astarion’s mouth twitched as she continued, “I hardly seem worth keeping around if I can’t even read.”

Halsin’s head shook, “Don’t say that. You saved a grove full of innocents…you tricked a drow into being in a vulnerable place.” Astarion nodded in agreement, adding, “The druid is right…but,” his gaze shifted away from her, a thought taking his attention into the distance, “do you know your letters? How to sign your name?” The bard’s head shifted from side to side, “I know my letters…but reading and writing weren’t high on the list of priorities for my parents. Rarely anything required me to sign something so I’d just make a mark if I was told to.”

The corner of the vampire’s mouth twisted upward, “Did Issac have you sign anything? Ever?” He dropped the hand holding her chin up as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and shook her head. “Did your brother, the one who lost the bet, did he write?” there was another moment of thought and Halsin looked between the two.

“If this is a more private conversation I can–” 

“Halsin, shh!” 

“Octavius learned from a girl in the village. He used to make up poetry and she wanted it written down so she taught him, then he’d sell those same poems…” Vesper said after she thought back to seeing her brother selling sheets of parchment to husbands in the village.

One of Astarion’s knees rested on the ground now and he chuckled, “I may not remember much of my life before Cazador tortured me, but I do recall how the magistrates handled things. Marriages, at least in Baldur’s Gate, had to be registered with a magistrate and both parties had to sign in front of the clerk or a judge. I’m not sure where you and this ‘husband’ of yours lived but—” 

“Rivington, just outside of Baldur’s Gate.”

The rogue’s smile lifted more, “And you never signed anything with him?”

She shook her head, “No.” There was a glint in his eye that Vesper didn’t recognize as he clapped his hands together, “That settles it! If there is no record in the courts of Baldur’s Gate you were no more than a slave. That record will have to be dealt with but I’m sure we can find your paper–”

“Papers?”

“Well, yes, generally when someone is sold as a slave there’s an exchange of the bill of sale, or in your case, it would be the exchange for the loan…”

“What if there wasn’t an exchange?”

Halsin seemed to be getting more and more uncomfortable, his brow furrowing as he listened. When Astarion called the redhead a slave he let out a puff of air and the two turned to look at him, “Forgive me. I’ll leave you two to your conversation. Remember, Vesper, I’ll take the second watch and you can stay in my tent if you’d like some peace.”

Astarion watched the druid stand and walk away before looking back at the bard with a raised brow, “I might have ruined his night…” Vesper shook her head dismissively, preferring to return to the previous conversation, “I don’t think there was an exchange of anything paper. I never saw one and Issac made sure I was too…” She swallowed hard, “he made certain I wouldn’t run away even if I was left alone, let’s just say.” 

The vampire reached out and palmed her cheek, “I can understand exactly what you mean. But if there’s no paperwork anywhere, no bill saying that you belong to him or a writ of your marriage to him…you are a freer woman than you ever thought.” Vesper studied Astarion’s face, he was giving her a smile she didn’t think she’d seen before, the lines around his mouth were deep, and his eyes were even crinkled, it was… infectious. “So…even if I went back he couldn’t make me go with him?” she asked and Astarion shook his head, “I mean I wouldn’t allow it anyway, it’s why we’re like this aren’t we?” Vesper flinched and pulled back from his touch, Astarion’s face fell, “I’m sorry, my sweet, maybe that joke was a touch too soon to tell after all. All the same, no. He cannot force you to go back to him. At the very least one of us will be free when this is all over.”

The bard lifted her eyes again, “We’ll kill Cazador.” 

He chuckled and leaned back from her, “Were it only that easy. He is strong, Vesper. When this is done I will run as far as I can, hopefully, his influence is dependent on distance.” Vesper shifted until she was on her knees and she was leaning into his space, “We’re getting stronger. We’ll kill him. I mean, if we can kill a stupid cult leader trying to play as a god what makes you think we can’t handle Cazador?” His head tilted as he gave her a more familiar smile, “You’re sweet. Naive but…sweet.”

A voice called out to them from the fire and Astarion straightened, “Right. I was supposed to come and get you for dinner. Gale cooked again so take your time with…whatever this is.” She turned back and looked at the simmering potion, “Poison resistance…” Astarion made a noise of approval and stood, “Useful.”

After dinner, the others began preparing for bed. Vesper returned to her potion careful to muffle any noises that could wake the others. In total, she had enough ingredients to make a single potent resistance potion for each member of the party, including Halsin. The rest of the night she sat near the animals, petting and soothing them as they slept. Pieces of her conversation with Astarion slipped back into her mind and she felt something she hadn’t recognized in years bloom within her chest. She wasn’t married to Issac. If there was no slave paper she didn’t have to go anywhere with him. She took a deep breath and felt herself fill with that old emotion that had been dashed by the man she’d been forced to be with for ten years.  

Hope.

Sometime during the night, she had found a book with empty pages past a certain point. Whatever this was, she’d found the book buried deep within the trunk, it looked handwritten. With a piece of charcoal from the fire she began to sketch on the empty page. It wasn’t a portrait of anyone, she was never skilled at drawing people, but she did sketch the camp. 

Vesper didn’t know how long she had been up for when she began to yawn. Rubbing her face she could smell the campfire and sighed as she used her other hand to try and wipe the coal marks off her face, she heard a hushed chuckle and looked up at Halsin who nodded to her, “Well met.” He stepped closer, bending to use his cleaner hand, and wiped the smudge from her cheek, “Get some rest.”

Her cheeks flushed again and she nodded setting the book down beside her, “Goodnight, Halsin.” The druid was looking at the sketch she had made before he nodded to her. Vesper stood and walked to the last empty bedroll by the fire, Karlach had come to sleep with Gale and Wyll since they were ‘absolutely not frightened by the skeletal man they hadn’t spoken to yet.’ She was just about to lay down when she looked up at movement just above her, Astarion had stuck his head out of his tent and was waving to her.

She looked at Halsin who was now reading the front of the journal she had commandeered for her art before getting up to approach Astarion. “Yes?” she asked as she crouched at the opening of his tent. “Stay with me tonight…you’ve had nightmares the past couple of nights. While I think it would be hilarious for another one to frighten Gale, I’d also rather not wake up to all of our belongings being burned in a fireball,” he said as he held the flap open, when she hesitated he lifted a brow. “My behavior has been better than my best since the other night, I won’t attack you just because the others can’t see,” his insinuation that she didn’t trust him had her looking to the ground, he sighed, “Come on, little bard, I’m tired and would like to get at least a meditation in before we’re made to keep moving.”

He reached through to the outside and secured the flaps of the tent open before he laid down on the far side of the bedroll. She hesitated only a moment more, sparing a glance at the empty place by the fire before crawling in with him. Lying down on her back she stared at the ceiling of his tent, her body going rigid as his hand pushed a piece of her hair from her face, “Relax,” he suggested, “I…I wanted to ask a favor.” Silently she turned her head to look at him, “I need you to trust me, I swear I won’t do anything you’re uncomfortable with…or well, you’ll likely be uncomfortable—” he cleared his throat, “I won’t make this sexual.” 

Her bottom lip was again being worried between her teeth before she nodded, “I trust you.” A small grin formed on his face before it slipped away and he scooted down, lifting her arm just enough that he could lay between it and her torso he placed his head against her breast. Her heartbeat began to race and she waited for a remark, a jeer, or even an unwanted touch between her legs, but the only other movement he gave was to place his arm across her midsection. “Is–is this the favor?” she asked and he hummed in acknowledgement. 

“I just wanted to hear it…your heart,” he said softly and adjusted his head until his ear was flush against her armor. “Wait,” she said as she nudged him. They both sat up and she worked on the belt that held the armor closed, when she laid back down she was only in the leather top she’d been wearing for over a tenday, “Okay.” He looked down at her and his eyes followed the exposed skin between her breasts and down her torso, “Are you sure?”

She nodded.

Astarion laid back down, the sound of her beating heart clearer and the warmth of her skin spread over his cheek. He made no attempts to expose more of her skin, his hand was still as it rested over her hip, his fingers curled around it but not gripping. Vesper felt her heart slowing down. It was okay to trust him to do this. She’d woken up on his chest that morning and was safe, now she’d let him rest on hers and be safe. Her left arm which had been awkwardly extended to the side  moved to wrap against his back and she carded her fingers into his hair. 

She knew she wasn’t the only one with nightmares and never had Astarion welcomed her into his tent. The bard had no evidence to back up her suspicion that he may have had another nightmare, but just as she had done for Carwyn when he was little and had nightmares, Vesper began to hum as her blunted nails scraped against Astarion’s scalp. Her other hand reached for the arm on her midsection and she just held it, her thumb mindlessly rubbing circles. She felt his body stop breathing, no movement came from the vampire beside her and she had to remind herself that he made a conscious effort to breathe while he was awake. It wasn’t the most uncomfortable rest she’d gotten during this adventure, but the dead weight on her chest did make it a bit more difficult to breathe once she’d drifted to sleep.

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─

“I’m about this close,” Astarion held his gloved fingers practically closed, “to stopping you from agreeing to nice things.” Vesper giggled as she climbed down the stacked mushrooms, “I mean it,” he continued, “We just killed those duergar to exact revenge for these spore people–”

“Myconids.”

“Shut up you walking encyclopedia!”

“Be nice, Astarion!” Karlach called out.

“I am–regardless! We just got revenge on those underdwarves and now he’s demanding we behead a drow,” Astarion landed beside the bard as he continued to rant. “Don’t you feel a little bad, hunting an elf of your own kind? Or has that mind flayer’s potion scrambled your tadpole too much?”

Vesper looked through the myconid village, looking for the area that Sovereign had supposedly opened up for them. When Wyll jumped off the large fungi and landed beside her, “Well if we go by the history known of the duergar, and by that I mean their sometimes relations with mind flayers, it's possible this has something to do with the Absolute.” The warlock paused and turned to the bard, “How do you feel after that potion?”

The drow still had an amused grin on her face before she too paused and took stock of herself, “I feel fine? But also…odd?” Lae’zel stepped around the others to face the bard, grabbing her chin and lifting her face upward to study it. The githyanki didn’t pause as Vesper’s entire body went rigid, nor did she seem to take notice when the others called out to her, “I warned against trusting that ghaik, now you’ve made it stronger. The sooner we get to the crèche and are purified the better.” Just as roughly as she had grabbed the bard, Lae’zel dropped her hold quickly, “We should do this before dealing with this Nere.”

“You don’t get to make decisions like that, Lae’zel,” Shadowheart approached from behind Karlach who was lifting her hands.  “She’s right, Lae, we’ll get to your people…but this dream visitor we’ve been having says there’s no safe way to remove it,” Karlach waved her hands as she spoke, while trying to keep them from everyone.

“Tsk’va! More lies fed to you by the parasite. Purification is the entire purpose of the zaith’isk, once we find the ghustil and you see the power of the zaith’isk you will understand. Without these tadpoles we will be all the stronger to destroy these cultists,” Lae’zel shifted her attention away from the group, signaling an end to her contribution to the conversation. Wyll looked from the gith to the drow before reaching out to the bard, “I saw movement this way.”

Vesper stood at the opening of the area while the others began to go through what was in the once-sealed cave. Gale stepped away from the body in the center, turning a book he’d found in the drow’s possession over in his hands. Standing beside the bard he held it up to her, “The Mating Rituals of Flumphs. Can you make anything out of it?”  The bard looked at him oddly before taking the book and turning a few pages, “Is this a flumph?” she asked pointing to an illustration.  Gale peered over her shoulder and nodded, “It is. Though I’ve never been certain if it was a fey creature or one from the underdark. I’ve never encountered one myself.” 

Vesper continued thumbing through the pages, she paused long enough, she hoped at least, to give the impression she was skimming through the text before handing it back. “Seems alright to me, why?” Gale frowned and opened the book again, “Call it intuition, but something just feels…off.” The wizard quieted again before his attention was grabbed by the dwarves who were packing up their things near the cave’s entrance, leaning toward the bard Gale whispered, “Why did you lie about the noblestalk?”

The bard lifted her gaze and leaned back when she realized how close Gale actually was. “Well,” she whispered before leaning close, “it can bring back memories.” Gale frowned as he turned to look at her before following her eyes as she turned to look at the cleric. “Oh…oh!” he said as he realized the bard’s plan. “Do you think she would do it? 

“I don’t know, but I think she should be allowed her memories…she called it an act of faith, but I don’t know how she can stand so many secrets from herself,” the bard said. Gale’s brow furrowed, “Hmm?” he looked down at the bard before shaking his head, “How are you? Lae’zel was a tad rough when she grabbed you. I thought Astarion and Shadowheart were about to jump to your defense.”  Vesper lifted a hand and rubbed her chin, “I’m fine. She may have surprised me, and I can understand how it could have seemed rough, but she didn’t hold that tight. I could have pulled away if I wanted.” When Gale’s eyes narrowed and his head tilted Vesper rolled her eyes, “Seriously. She…” the bard sighed, “she’s not like those that we fought before. She waited for me to save Shadowheart. Even put herself in the way of hellish creatures so I could make it to the transponder.”

Gale looked away from the bard and instead focused on the others as they finished clearing the room, “I’ll have to take your word for it, and I do. It doesn’t, however, stop me from worrying how things will end up if she’s the first one purified. Her people may decide that with her pure we’re nothing more than fodder for them.” Vesper nodded, a frown forming on her face as if she hadn’t considered that, “That’s…that’s fair I guess.”

Karlach hefted her axe on her shoulders, “We still haven’t seen those minotaurs you found before. Should…should we go looking?”

The others seemed a little weary but Lae’zel was in agreement with the barbarian and eventually, the others came around. Vesper approached the hobgoblin again to ask for directions to the Selunite outpost from the village and they set out. Of course, the one thing standing in their way was a field of torchstalks and timmask plants. The bard hadn’t descended any further once she saw the orange glows, yet she felt the weight of hands on both her shoulders ready to pull her back if she tried to go any further.

The others took out the exploding stalks while she waited on the fungal steps leading out of the village. Omeluum’s ‘bypass’ had nearly consumed her mind when she tested it, even now she couldn’t remember why she had agreed to the kindly mind flayer’s test. All she knew, as the hands at her shoulder pressed her forward, was that the tadpole in her mind had gotten stronger from the mixture of timmask spores and tongue of madness. 

The bard was about to voice that she thought it was the timmask spores in the potion that were befuddling her when she felt a new hand lay on her and her mind cleared. Inhaling deeply, Vesper looked around and turned to see Shadowheart’s hand still extended with an amused grin on her face, “Better? You looked nearly asleep.” Vesper nodded, “Yes, thank you. I don’t think I’ll be trying something like that again.”

She had thought the hands on her shoulders had belonged to Astarion, but now with her mind cleared she could see him ahead of her with Karlach and Lae’zel. Glancing behind she found Wyll squinting ahead, “Can you not see?” Wyll looked at the bard and let loose an embarrassed chuckle, “I had hoped you would be alright being my eyes. Despite my devilish appearance I still lack the ability to see in such a clouded dark.” Vesper looked at Gale, the human wizard walking alongside her, “If it wasn’t for the fact I had to concentrate on the spell I’d gladly extend the ability that the weave lends me to see. Unfortunately, I am not powerful enough to separately concentrate on two incantations,” he gave a tight-lipped smile to Wyll who shook his head. “That’s alright Gale, if it bothers Vesper I can stop,” he tilted his head, but the bard had no complaints. 

Finding the minotaurs wasn’t the hard part, even killing the first one wasn’t difficult. But when the second one leaped from where Karlach and Lae’zel had it cornered onto the path with Gale and Vesper…well, things got just a little dicey. Hearing Gale swear was jarring enough that the bard paused just a moment too long, missing the opportunity to leap away from the half-bull’s hammer swing. It scraped along her back as it crashed into the ground. Crying out she turned towards it and her magic swelled, “You know Gale, I choose to believe in female minotaurs.”

The wizard, recovering from throwing himself onto the ground, rolled over, “Now isn’t the time for a joke, Vesper.”

“C’mon, I have a lass-half-bull mindset!” her voice boomed with the punch line and the minotaur stopped and stumbled backward before its inhuman laugh began spilling out of its maw. “Okay, now we run!” she spun on her toes and began shooing the wizard. Shadowheart stood just ahead of them her mouth agape, shouting, “That was intentional?” Wyll grabbed hold of the wizard with his free hand, “Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, I’ve heard of the spell but never seen its effects.” 

As the spell caster rushed away from the large creature, Lae’zel and Karlach were running towards it. The minotaur, still laughing heartily, fell to the ground, its weapon teetering on the edge of the Underdark’s broken floors. “Good going, Vesper!” the tiefling yelled out as she leaped forward and brought down her axe on the beast. Lae’zel followed behind her, the githyanki’s greatsword coming down on the bull’s neck and then again before the spell’s effect could end. With a sickening crunch, the gith severed the head’s connection with the spine.

Vesper bent at the waist as she heavily exhaled, “Right…well…they’re dead. Now what?” She directed her question to Karlach whose smile shined through the blood covering her face. “Uh…I didn’t think that far, but I just…” she poked the dead minotaur with her axe, “It gave you problems and I wanted to solve them.” Shadowheart and Wyll released exasperated laughs as she looked back up at them with a wide smile.

“Vesper!”

Turning around the bard started looking around, “Yes?” She answered Astarion’s voice though she couldn’t see him, then he peeked over the edge of a natural bridge, “Up here. You’ve mentioned Eilistaree right?” The drow’s eyes narrowed in confusion but she nudged Gale’s arm, “Come on.” The wizard took her elbow and followed beside her, the others not far behind.

A sword was standing still in a stone.

“Something about this, aren’t these offerings to your little dancing goddess?” Astarion looked up from the rock and seemed to pause his gaze on the hold Gale had on the bard’s arm. Neither spoke of the look he gave them as Vesper approached and looked over things.  Shadowheart walked up behind her, “Are you a devotee of Eilistaree?” 

Vesper looked back and shook her head, “Not really. My grandparents on both sides devoted themselves to her when they came to the surface. My parents' offerings were mostly so we were talented, or that’s my understanding.” She turned to Astarion and reached for one of the daggers on his hip, “What are you doing?” He quickly gripped her wrist.  “Oh,” she said as she looked up at him, “it requires an offering…so I was going to give it one.”

Astarion hesitated before releasing his hold and watching her. The bard turned back around and cut into the palm of her hand before placing her hand against the blade letting her blood run down it until it touched the stone. “Don’t look so sad, Astarion, I’m sure she has enough to spare for you,” teased Wyll from the side. The bard giggled softly before gasping as the blade began to slide through her hand, lifting from its stone sheath.

Handing the dagger back to the rogue the bard took the hilt into her hand and released a puff of air.

Feeling a presence behind her, she rested the sword’s blade against her still-bleeding palm, “It says something here but…” she looked up at Astarion who was looking over her shoulder. “Undercommon,” he said, “Gale don’t you have something that can read anything?” The wizard stepped forward and held his hands out, “It’ll take about ten minutes to complete the ritual but I should know.” 

While Gale set up an area to conduct his ritual to cast ‘Tongues’ Vesper remembered what Wyll had teased about and turned to offer her hand to Astarion, “Hmm?” A playful smile danced across her face and the rogue looked at her palm before cutting his eyes back up to her, “Tempting…but no. Heal it you silly elf.” He pushed her hand away gently and climbed down the bridge to look around.

After ten minutes Gale held the long sword up by the hilt, “Phalar Aluve or in less elven terms, ‘Though I have to leave you,’” he turned and passed the sword back to the bard, “‘I will dance forever in Eilistraee's light.’ All yours, dear Vesper, unless you wanted to pass it on to someone else.” The bard took it into her hands again and looked at each of them, “Anyone for it? I wouldn’t mind using it but it's much larger than this rapier…and well,” she motioned to her shoulders.

“When will you get rid of your weakness?” asked Lae’zel as she stepped forward. The gith took the sword from Vesper’s hands and spun it in her grip. Frowning she offered it back, “Any perceived weakness could prove lethal once you are in the zaith’isk. It would be wise to get rid of it.” Vesper’s eyes grew round, “I thought it was supposed to purify us?” Lae’zel nodded, her face still devoid of emotion, “And it will. However, istik, your diminutive build will already prove to be a problem for the githyanki technology. It may decide that you, yourself, need to be removed and purified.” Shadowheart bristled, “Are you calling her weak? You’re no larger than she is, Lae’zel! How is she considered weak and you aren’t?” Lae’zel lifted a brow and her head tilted, “I am made of Vlaakith’s strength and power. I have honed my body to endure. We have already seen Vesper fall once.”

“Because Gale threw her into a torchstalk!”

Karlach raised her hands, “Alright, alright, ladies…” The tiefling stepped between them, “It’s not up to us when or if she removes the collar. It’s her choice.”

The bard was staring at the gith’s back, the fighter having turned to face Shadowheart. Muttering to herself she healed her hand and turned to follow after Astarion. “Hey,” she called to him as he was bent over a skeleton, picking something from the pile of bones, “Think we’re ready to go kill that drow?”

He lifted his head and shrugged, “Are you ready to kill your own kind? It’ll just be us this time, no tieflings to help like with Minthara.” Vesper rubbed the side of her neck, “I’m not thrilled about the idea of killing at all, but they’ve got those gnomes,” she ignored the look of disgust on the high elf’s face, “and they’re destroying the Sovereign’s people. Besides, if they’re with the Absolute…it might get us closer to a path for Moonrise.”

Astarion shifted and looked behind her before picking up a skull, “Think Shadowheart would like a Selunite skull?” The bard lifted a questioning brow before the rogue shrugged, “Probably not,” and tossed it behind him. He reached over and picked up a rusted dagger before pocketing it and standing, “Well,” he motioned to the others as they approached, “seems like it's time to cross that dark lake. Anyone sitting out?”

Shadowheart looked at the others, “Perhaps we camp one more night before crossing. There’s only one boat and we need to be prepared in case we can’t come back straight away.” Vesper nodded in agreement, “And,” Astarion added, “we need to check the last of these notes on this forge we keep finding. Decide if we’re going to search for it or not.” Gale nodded, “I can agree with that plan. Though I haven’t exhausted my use of the weave today, it would be most useful for us to be as prepared as possible. Ruins surrounded by duergar won’t likely be the safest place for the likes of us. Vesper notwithstanding.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” questioned the bard rather quickly.

“I mean no offense, it's just…well, I suppose they don’t exactly have the best relations with the drow, but if they’re absolute followers it seems like she’s been placing dark elves in positions of leadership. We may need your voice to get past all of this quickly,” Gale explained as quickly as he could. He hadn’t meant to cause harm with his words, but the bard’s face had fallen just a bit. “I know you aren’t Llothsworn, we all do, but they won’t know that…not if you adopt that facade you put on before and perhaps that face you had before?” he offered.

“My sister’s face,” the bard adjusted her hold on the long sword. Gale’s head tilted, “Your sister doesn’t have your complexion?” Vesper shook her head, “No…Octavius and Yasmine look like dark elves like we’ve met. Paler, but still they have ashier skin than I do…well you saw her.” Karlach cleared her throat, “Let’s talk about it at camp.”

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─

It was late when they finally got to the talk. Gale retired to his tent, he’d had a conversation with Withers that morning and was now comfortable being near the new member of the camp, to sort through his spell book to decide what was best for him to prepare in the morning. Not to mention a few scrolls he had purchased from Blurg.

Wyll and Karlach left with Halsin to get any gatherable herbs. Karlach went mostly for the protection aspect, and she liked talking to Halsin.  Shadowheart had joined Vesper in her little alchemy corner, at least she had been there until the third time the bard asked her to reread the directions to the potion, “You have two eyes, Vesper, you can read it yourself.” After that she’d gotten up and left, leaving the bard embarrassed and flushed in front of the small steaming cauldron she’d been kneeling in front of her. 

While the cleric was still muttering about forgetful bards, Astarion stepped from his tent and looked from the Sharran’s tent to where the bard sat with her hands in her lap. He moved closer and sat down, “What happened?”

“Timmask spores…not as strong as being hit with their full force but I inhaled just a little while pulverizing them…I–” she looked down at her lap, “I keep forgetting what she said.” Her voice lowered to a whisper, “And I can’t read it so I don’t know what the next step is and now she’s upset and I–” her eyes closed tightly as she held her breath trying to calm herself. Astarion reached forward and picked up the book, “Get your tools. I’ll read it to you.” She looked up at him and caught his eye, her lip quivering before she bit down on it, “Thank you.” 

They worked quietly, she’d purchased herbs from the dwarven woman in the myconid village. It was purely out of guilt for lying about the noblestalk. Vesper knew the value of the rare fungi and when the woman had lamented how they would be down there even longer she knew she needed to do something to make up for it. When she was finished with the greater healing potion she sat back on her heels and sighed, looking over at the elf beside her, he was flipping through the pages of Halsin’s book. She wasn’t sure if it was the spores still in her system that gave her the courage or if she just didn’t expect him to react harshly; the bard leaned close and quickly pressed her lips to his cheek. Sitting up again she cleared her throat, “Thank you, again, Astarion.”

The rogue had pause, his eyes wide and his fingers holding one of the books pages aloft as he’d been the process of flipping it. “You’re more than welcome, my darling,” he grinned, “was that my payment for helping or were you just feeling generous?” His smile grew as he watched her cheeks flush. “Don’t tease me,” she practically begged as she lifted her stirrer to attend the potion again.  Astarion placed the book down and let his hands rest behind him, holding him up, “And why not? It’s practically the most fun I can have in this camp…you haven’t wanted sex so I have to get my pleasure somewhere.” 

Her head jerked sideways as she stared at him before turning to look away, “How do you even know…” 

“Hmm?”

She swallowed hard and leaned over some of her other ingredients gathering them together for another potion, “How,” she lowered her voice, “how do you know when you want to have sex?”

Astarion frowned. His brow furrowed as he leaned forward, “Are you saying you don’t feel desire for me?” Vesper inhaled deeply and set everything in her hands down, “Not so loud, please.” He chuckled. 

“There are things I want to do…but I don’t know,” she frowned, “I feel ridiculous trying to explain. Never mind. Forget I said anything, please.”

The rogue looked away and took a breath, “I know how you feel…in a sense.” He glanced back at the rest of the camp, Shadowheart was messing with the prism again and Lae’zel was once against sharpening her long sword. “I didn’t always want to bed Cazador’s victims, but they weren’t all terrible,” he admitted and looked back to Vesper who was twisting a rag in her hands. “Did you never enjoy sex? None of that bastard’s friends give you a good time?” he asked cautiously.  She shook her head, “He had one. A man started coming around with him and he was kind to me.” Vesper lifted her head as her eyes unfocused, “He paid me compliments, would help me take laundry off the line if I was outside and he came to see Issac. Even told Carwyn not to speak to me so harshly a few times…”

She looked down at her rag again, “He would come by when Issac wasn’t there…tell me things he thought I deserved and said some of the kindest things. But then he tried to kiss me…” her hand reached up to the corner of her mouth, “he didn’t like that I didn’t want him to touch me. None of them kissed me…none of his friends anyway.” Astarion leaned close, “Except the one you imagined.” Vesper nodded. 

Astarion exhaled heavily and sat back again, “Hmm. That does throw a wrench into things doesn’t it…” The bard turned, and her knees pressed against one of his, “There are times when I do want to kiss you. I may not have had sex when Issac took me but I had kissed someone…I know when I want to do that, but I don’t want to push myself on you.” The rogue chuckled, “My dear, push yourself all you like.” His laugh ran through her as she dropped her head again, “What I mean is I know when I want to do that, but not…anything else. Not yet.”

She knew she was being watched by the vampire’s spawn. When her gaze drifted just behind her lashes she could watch him he leaned forward and rested his hands on his fist, “Can we work on that? Despite some of the horrible bedmates I’ve had…I do enjoy some of the carnal acts of desire. And as I told you before, I want to know what you really sound like instead of those shouts and screeches you were making in the woods.” 

“Uhm,” she felt his fingers under her chin and nearly fought against him before letting him pull her head up. He was so much closer than she’d realized, his nose grazing against hers, “I can only imagine just how sweet your blood is in the throes of passion.” His lips grazed hers and her heart began to pound in her ears, her breath catching and the heat that she normally felt in her face raced through her extremities. “My little bard, I cannot wait to drink you up,” he smirked, and their eyes met as he opened his, “and I don’t just mean your blood.”

She felt his tongue ghost against the seam of her lips and gasped in a silent breath. Noises from the camp's entrance had him backing away for just a second before he turned her chin and pressed a kiss to the scar on her lips, “Soon?” Dumbly she nodded and closed her mouth tightly, when Astarion turned and got up she pressed her hand to her chest and turned back to the table nearly yelping when his voice was a whisper in her ear, “That, love, that is desire.” He tugged a strand of her hair before walking away.

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─

During dinner, Karlach pulled out of her pocket a grouping of vines. “Right, so we need Vesper to go on the boat just because she’s a drow right?” she asked and looked at Gale who nodded as he spooned a mouthful of ‘sad soup,’ Astarion had taken to calling their underdark meals as such, “Right. I should probably also go, I nominate myself only because I don’t believe our resident bard can cast a teleportation circle.” Vesper shook her head as she ate and looked at Karlach, “What are those for?” 

The tiefling glanced at Halsin before clearing her throat and holding them out, “We were talking about it on our little gathering trip. Since we probably all want to go if only to make sure the rest of you are safe, Halsin suggested drawing straws to see who goes. So, there are two short straws for those that will be going.” Lae’zel tutted and rolled her eyes before reaching over and quickly plucking one out of Karlach’s fingers, it was a very short vine. “Right then, one more short one…Lae’zel…” Karlach made a face at the gith before looking at the others, “Unless someone can make a compelling argument as to why they should go.”

Vesper looked around the campfire before the others reached out to grab for the vines. Shadowheart held up her short straw and the others threw theirs into the fire. Astarion stared at them and then turned to Vesper, “Finish eating, we need to work on your lock picking.” He sat his bowl of soup in front of Scratch before getting up and returning to his tent.

The bard frowned for a moment and turned her bowl up to her lips, “He didn’t mean right now, did he? You can take your time to eat at least,” Shadowheart said as she watched the redheaded drow. Halsin chuckled, “He’s in his right to be worried. I’ve not seen them apart since I joined your camp.” Vesper choked on the last bit of broth and brought her bowl down to look at the druid who was smiling. Wonderful, she thought, someone else to tease me.

She felt the tadpole wriggle and Karlach and Wyll began laughing, Wyll tilted his head, “Well it’s only because he’s saying what we’ve all seen. You and Astarion are close…it’s nice to see he cares about someone other than himself.” He turned his attention to Halsin, “You’re right though, this will be the first time he’s been left behind in camp…hell, it’ll be the first time for several of us, actually.” He looked at Lae’zel and Shadowheart, “Will you two be alright without Karlach as a buffer.” “T’chz.”

“I hardly need a babysitter, Wyll. As long as Lae’zel stays on her best behavior I’ll have no reason to knock her into the Ebonlake.”

Vesper shot the cleric a pleading look and Shadowheart sighed, “Fine. Yes, I’ll behave…as long as she does.” Lae’zel made another noise of difference, “We are allies as long as we have these tadpoles, though if your usefulness runs out I may have to dispose of you.”

Karlach looked between them, “I’m rethinking the vines.”

Vesper shook her head, “Don’t. They’ll be fine. Right? Because without either one of you, things could go poorly for Gale and me…” She gave each of them a pleading look and Lae’zel lifted her chin, “I will remain nonhostile to Shadowheart if you agree to remove the collar.”

“I’m leaving,” the bard muttered as she stood quickly and walked away toward Astarion’s tent, the high elf now standing just outside his tent with a pair of gloves, a set of thieves tools, and an ordinary chest lock in his hands.

Halsin looked around the campfire and frowned, “What is the matter with the collar she wears?”  Wyll shook his head when Shadowheart opened her mouth, “She was upset when she found out you told me.” The cleric sighed and shook her head, “Halsin is a member of this team now, isn’t he? He needs to know about her shortcomings…” Turning to the druid she began to explain what she knew about the bard. The druid’s jaw set in a hard line as he listened, and his eyes glanced over to the two elves.

“If it’s simply sealed together, surely it is something that can be removed easily,” he said as he watched the bard, “and I would hardly call an accessory like that a shortcoming.”

“It hides her broken collarbone. Or rather, her poorly healed collarbone.”

Even at this distance, he could see the bard’s shoulders straighten, and her ear turned towards the fire, her chin down as far as it could go.

“A poorly healed injury is also not a shortcoming,” he said to the cleric. Halsin turned to look at Shadowheart, “I have seen you flinch when that mark on your hand flares. Do you consider it a shortcoming?” Shadowheart looked down at her hand and blanched, “No.” The druid bowed his head, “Then why would you consider her injury to be a shortcoming?”

Shadowheart had no answer.

Lae’zel sighed, “It needs to come off, no matter how anyone thinks of it. Her shoulder needs to be healed if it can, lest something happen to her in the zaithisk.”

Karlach smiled, “It’s almost like you like her Lae.” The githyanki tsked and lifted her chin again, “She has impressed me since reuniting after the nautiloid. Though I prefer battle to be won through bloodletting I can respect her magic.”

Gale, who had been quiet up until now, chuckled, “Agreed…though she could use some better jokes.” Wyll hummed from his spot by the fire, “I dunno…lass-half-bull was pretty funny.” The tiefling laughed and nodded, “And her mockery is getting better. Probably saved my ass today with those dwarves.” 

Across the camp Vesper listened, she could feel Astarion’s hand on her knee, her own hand was over his. When she turned back she was chewing on the inside of her cheek, “Don’t listen to them. The druid’s right.” She glanced up at Astarion and spared him a tense smile before she focused on the lock again, “Is he though? I’ve got a perfectly useful sword today…can’t use it because I can’t even lift it properly.” The lock finally clicked and Astarion pulled it back to reengage the lock and held it out once again, “Again. Taking off the collar is your choice. Everything is your choice now,” he told her as she bent over his hand and began working on the tumblers inside the lock. 

“Should I agree to what Lae’zel said?” she asked as she stuck the tip of her tongue out from between her lips.  “It’s your choice…I won’t deny I’d like you to remove the collar only because I worry about your fragile little wrist.” When the lock popped open again he took it away and reached behind him for another one, “Again.”

“How many of these do you have?”

“When it took you longer to just pick a lock than it did for me to disarm a trap and open the lock…I began collecting. Less talking more picking,” he pushed her head down and grinned when he heard her snickering.

“But, if you weren’t so beholden to keeping your promises…” he tilted his head before reaching to adjust one of her hands, “you could agree to it and then just never do it.” She looked up at him for a second before looking back down as one of the tools in her hands became tight, “I can’t do that. All I have is my word…literally, I own nothing.”

Astarion glanced over her head and saw the others were tossing looks in their direction, “Perhaps. Maybe I’m looking to corrupt you just a little bit, after all, in all my years visiting taverns of Baldur’s Gate, you must be the most squeaky clean bard I’ve ever met.” he sighed and shook his head from side to side, “Fine, besides the pickpocketing and the lock picking….it took you too long,” he said as the lock finally popped, “try again.” 

He glanced up again and raised a brow, “Gith coming.” Vesper lifted her head to look at him before turning, Lae’zel had her arms crossed over her chest, “Karlach is threatening to go against her own set rule if I do not agree to ‘behave.’ I still pose that I will act as you expect of me if you remove it.” Vesper took a deep breath and looked at Astarion who cast his eyes away from her, she looked back to Lae’zel and nodded.  “Fine, but after we deal with the drow,” Lae’zel nodded once and left the two to their devices, returning not to the fire but to her tent.

Vesper sighed again and looked at Astarion, “Why do you want it gone anyway?” The rogue lifted his brow and looked towards her neck, “I wasn’t lying, I worry about your wrist.” He lifted her hand and tugged the glove off, she could see healing puncture marks. “I will admit your thigh was much more enjoyable, and perhaps it’s the spawn in me…” he leaned closed and whispered, “I like necks.” The bard pursed her lips as he leaned back before she began to shake with laughter, “Really?” He nodded, “Your neck is a mystery to me…it could end the whole thing if it's not enjoyable.” He looked away from her but allowed the corner of his mouth to quirk upward, “Then who will I enjoy? Halsin has a nice throat I suppose…think he’d let me have a taste?” He turned to the bard who was now covering her mouth to keep from making noise.

Vesper let Astarion drink from her that night, ignoring his teasing about how she tasted. She also ignored his advances about ‘pleasing’ her but did give in when he told her to deny him a kiss. Part of her had expected it to go beyond what she was comfortable with, but the high elf had sweetly pressed his lips against hers before pulling away. “Go prepare for your watch before I don’t allow you to leave,” he goaded her as he pushed her away. The bard laughed softly as she left him for the evening.

After bottling her potion, the drow walked quietly around the campsite careful not to disturb those around the fire. After her round was finished, Vesper did her best to sneak out of the camp proper, shushing Scratch and the owlbear cub as she left. She didn’t go far from the protected entrance, Shadowheart’s warding glyph pulsating as her feet scuffed across the arcane ward.

Perching on the naturally formed bridge that led to their cave Vesper pulled her knees to her chest and let her fingers dance across the bottom of her collar. Words from Issac and his family rang between her ears as she touched it. Memories of the way her neighbors looked at her flashed behind her eyes. She was so lost in thought she nearly leaped forward when a blanket was dropped over her shoulders, “Whoa! Don’t–” Halsin’s sleep-deep voice nearly echoed in the chamber they were in, “I didn’t mean to frighten you. Scratch was worried about you being alone,” he said as he crouched down beside her before fully sitting, his legs hanging over the edge.

“I didn’t mean to worry him…or you, or wake you up at all,” said the bard as she tugged the blanket over her leather-wrapped shoulder. “I wasn’t resting yet, attempting yes, but I had not yet reached reverie,” he told her before he glanced in her direction, “Vesper…may I ask an uncomfortable question?”

She could already hazard a guess as to what he wanted to ask. Glancing at the large druid she inhaled deeply and nodded, “Of course, you’ve helped me a lot recently. How could I say no to a question?” Halsin’s frown deepened but he pressed on, “Your companions seemed to have concerns about the collar around your neck. An injury, no matter how grave, shouldn’t be hidden in shame. It’s a mark of your survival…”

It was exactly as she’d been expecting. Nervously she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and listened. Halsin reiterated himself several times, that she shouldn’t wear the collar just because she’s ashamed of the scar her collarbone left. Finally, she held up a hand, “Halsin… it's not because of the injury…” The druid stopped talking and waited, when she didn’t continue he pressed, “If not the injury…why? Even Astarion told you the other night you are not beholden to this man you called a husband…” The word ‘man’ was hesitantly said, as if Halsin were trying to come up with a word befitting his thoughts on the image he’d created of Issac from the little information he’d been given.

“I may not be ‘beholden’ to him as you say,” she reached through the blanket and touched the collar’s edge, “and yet he does have a hold.  But…” she let one leg fall off the edge of the bridge and the other adjusted as she turned to the druid. It was time the others knew the truth, might as well start with the one who was talking to her now. “When the collar was sewn together the woman who did the work sewed deeply, running the threads through my shoulders. When I complained…well,” she could hear Issac’s mother’s laughter, “she didn’t care. So removing it isn’t exactly a simple task…and I’m a bit of a baby when it comes to pain.”

Vesper watched the druid’s face as it shifted from curious understanding, to rage, and finally softened into a sympathetic smile for the bard. Her eyes followed the movement of his hand as it raised and carefully rested against her shoulder, his weight held so as to not put pressure on the blanket or leather, “I am deeply sorry for your pain. I can only imagine…” he paused and removed his hand as his chin fell, “this was not the first cruelty you experienced?” When she shook her head he sighed, “Nor was it the last,” she said in a hushed whisper. “But, believe me, Halsin…when I say it was far from the worst cruelty I experienced before this tadpole…besides Astarion, I may be the only one thrilled with the turn of events…not that I want to be a mind flayer, of course.”

From where she sat, Vesper could have sworn that Halsin was having an internal crisis. She lifted her head to look at the druid fully and reached out placing her hand against his bicep, “Don’t feel sorry for me, Halsin.” The druid shook his head, “I just…I cannot help but wonder what else he put you through.” Her eyes widened as she thought about it all and she had to shake her head to release herself from her thoughts, “Oh, you know…daily physical harm just because I slept wrong or allowed our son to be a child and make noise when he wanted silence.”  “You had children?”

The bard’s head nodded, “Yes. Three little babies all at once…” She looked away with a melancholic smile, “Of course, I only have the one now.”

“Childhood can be very hard–”

“Childhood didn’t kill them…” she quickly corrected him before biting down on the inside of her cheek. “Mariwen was the weaker of the three—” “Triplets?” asked Halsin as he leaned closer, the bard’s voice was softer as she recalled her children. “Yes…not unheard of in my family,” she glanced at him before looking away, she could feel the burn in her eyes, “Mariwen was the weaker one but she was still so strong, my sisters always told me that the more babies cried the stronger they were…so when she got sick and just kept crying I didn’t mind. The other two got over their illness, but not Mariwen. I thought it was fine, that her crying would come to an end but Issac…” she blinked rapidly and swiped her hand over her eyes, “Issac threw us both into a room and barred the door so we couldn’t get out.”

Vesper refused to look in Halsin’s direction as he scooted closer to her, when his hand warmed her back through the blanket she bowed her back to keep it off of her, “I didn’t hear the buzzing until her cries were screams.” She took in a shuddering breath, “Hornets had somehow built a nest beneath the floorboards…which I still find so interesting considering the room we were in was mine and I had just cleaned it the day before…no buzzing. No hornets. But somehow it was my fault for not keeping his home free of pests.”

Halsin said nothing. When she bowed her back to get away from his touch he pulled his hands back, “What happened to your other daughter?”

The bard gave him a pained smile and laughed humorlessly, “Isn’t that a question I would love to know.” She turned her eyes to the druid and tilted her head, “After burying Mariwen I didn’t want the other two to get very far from me. So I’d have them sleep in my bed rather than their crib. For Issac, I learned how to sleep like a human, he has always hated the idea of meditation and reverie, so I didn’t hear the men when they came in. I didn’t know they were there until the one nearly stabbed through my neck and he ripped Ffion from my arms.” The druid sucked in air and she reached out to pat his arm again, her hand was quickly covered by his, “I wanted to go after them. But they said they’d take Carwyn too or kill me and leave him to die…Issac was going to be gone for weeks. The only person that would come by would have been his brother…Evard didn’t care about the children.”

She licked her dried lips and shame colored her face, “I chose to save my son…to save myself and I let them take Ffion away from me.”

Her hand was slid down Halsin’s arm until he held it in both of his hands, “You were given an impossible choice. To go after your daughter it would have put more lives in danger. There was no right decision to be made.” He heard another scoff from her and she turned to look at him, “If only it had been you instead of Issac…he believed I should have found a way. Should have thrown myself at those men, given myself to them in hopes that they would have been satisfied with the drow whore of Rivington.” A rebellious tear streaked down her face and her hand rushed to catch it.

“After that of course, I never did anything that would put Carwyn in danger. I gave Issac whatever he wanted the moment he mentioned it…no matter how much I hated it…or it made me hate myself,” when Halsin opened his mouth she guessed his question and shook her head, “It didn’t stop the abuse. This collar happened after my girls were gone…after Carwyn turned four he was taught to hate me. They taught him to not listen to my instructions and then he would get angry because I couldn’t control my child.” She looked at the druid and stretched a smile across her face, “But I have to be happy. Because I’m alive…my son is still alive. Now I’m free from him and of them.”

Halsin’s hands warmed the one of hers he still held. His thumb massaged the lower portion of her palm and he had cast his eyes downward. “Yet you still cling to that which was to shame you,” his words weren’t meant to be accusatory but she flinched all the same. The druid released her hand and patted the top, “You’ve made an agreement to remove the collar, but if I may…I don’t think that you are ready for its removal.” 

She didn’t answer.

Silence fell between the elves before Halsin made to stand, “Come. I can keep watch tonight and rest while the rest are in camp tomorrow. We don’t know how long it will take for your boat to cross the Ebonlake. You need all the rest you can get.” Vesper wanted to deny him, but old habits are so hard to kick. Even with Astarion’s help she still had difficulty turning men down. Standing she dusted off her backside, “I’m sorry if I ruined your evening…”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Halsin turned to face her, he’d nearly made it back to their camp’s entrance. “Knowing what someone has gone through can help when that person is struggling. For instance, now when Astarion’s barbs get a little more… ambitious I know that I should probably stop him before he truly hurts you.” He held an arm out to the bard and his fingers curled, “I won’t leave you out here alone, but it’s much safer within the wards.”  

She tucked the blanket around herself tighter and followed the druid, he paused at his tent before he shook his head and guided her to Astarion’s, “The others think you have fewer nightmares when you’re beside him.” Vesper frowned, “How would they know I’m having nightmares?” Halsin lifted a brow and then tapped his finger softly against her head, “Apparently your parasite likes to share that information with the others.”

The already pale drow blanched further, but she nodded, “Thank you. Here,” she passed his blanket back to him before crawling into the rouge’s tent. Even though her staying with him that night hadn’t been discussed, Astarion had kept the second bedroll beside his, the cushion she used to pillow her head lay next to his, and the threadbare blanket was folded exactly where she had left it that morning. She tied the opening closed and sat back on her heels until she felt Astarion’s nails trail up her arm, “Lie down…get some rest.”

“How much of that did you hear?” she asked as she followed his orders, her knees curling upward as she threw the blanket over herself.

“Enough to know these next few days will be awkward until you address the others,” he said sleepily. His head turned and he opened his eyes to glance at her, “Come here. You’re going to worry about it for too long and be exhausted come morning…Lae’zel will blame me.” Astarion allowed her to curl against him, only reaching down to bring one of her knees up to rest on his thigh, “Comfortable?” he asked before laying his head back down. The laid there in silence before he sighed, “Close your eyes or I’ll kill you and have Halsin revive you come morning.” When her head shot up he looked at her, “It would be peaceful…bad timing?” She nodded and he wrinkled his nose, “I won’t harm you. Just close your eyes and count your sheep…”

Getting to sleep wasn’t easy for the bard. Guilt over subjecting the party to her dreams ate at her, but Astarion’s nails scraped against her scalp just as she had done for him previously. He found a rhythm that finally lulled the bard to sleep. Glancing at her once her breathing evened out, Astarion frowned and looked at his hands. Comfort from his hands.

“How odd…”

[eldritch-spouse]

I have a question that has been in my head for a bit, but i'll explain myself.

Does Santi have like a Canon Reader that is his lover? Or "love interest"? Idk if i'll explain myself good:

For exaple, krulu and admin are the pair that i see the most when i read krulu fanfics or idk vesper and Queen of lust; like they seem to be the same protagonist person or character for the various scenarios/oneshot/fanfic.

While with santi i always see things like Virgin reader, smart Reader, or the mistress that bought him, they seem to be like different ppl while with others i see that theyre the same person most of the time and i would like to know if santi has a reader that its the same Reader for all the other ff. I dont want to call it a "default" cz ik he cant be with the same person but i hope i explained myself well

There's no canon in anything, you can be whatever you want to him.

When things are left unspecified, I default to certain dynamics, but those are not strict and ""mandatory"".

I know it's confusing to a lot of people, but I like that level of freedom.

Obviously Adrul and Adelo will never exist if the triangle of Krulu/Belo/Admin isn't established- But it's not like the princes are core characters.

[kathyprior4200]

2P Heaven Hotel Characters: Coerciona Vesper

PRINCESS COERCIONA VESPER (2P Charlie) (Comes from the term “coerce” meaning to threaten people – her last name is Vesper, “evening prayer” in contrast to Charlie’s last name “Morning Star” after her father Lucifer).

Everything you love about the main protagonist Charlie Morningstar, lacks in Coercia. Spoiled, selfish, cruel, and entitled, this dark princess wants nothing more than to see demons and sinners destroyed. She is a rebel, who is served by her creepy hungry cherub babies GRUB and CHUB who eat, protect her and help carry her fiery electric guitars. Ironically, she isn’t always keen to follow Heaven’s strict rules. To stir up trouble and to prove to the denizens of her power, she creates the “Heaven Hotel” a place where denizens can indulge in moderate sin…provided they follow her rules. Unlike lesbian Charlie, Coercia is straight and has a crush on Adam, leader of the Exorcists! (She doesn’t know the sinner-hating angel used to be a human!) Coercia likes musicals but she is more of a rock/punk star than Charlie.

Coercia appearance: Pale white skin like Charlie’s but with dark teal spots on each cheek. Her hair is long and black, in a similar wavy style to Charlie’s but decorated with barbed wire. Her eyes are dark blue like a freezing ocean, in contrast to Charlie’s crimson red eyes. Her long pants and suit are dark teal, black high heels, her undershirt is black with white buttons, and her bowtie is white. She has a spiky black halo over her head and black feathery angel wings. She had the bloodlust of an Exorcist, despite not being one. She frequently carries weapons like holy daggers and spears. Her favorite accessory is onyx bracelets covered with eyes.

0 0 0

Coerciona has a crush on Adam and expresses her desire to be an Exorcist. She shows off her breasts to him and he gets an orgasm. Lute, of course, is mad and tells her to leave. “I’m the Exorcist general, and you haven’t seen life beyond your palace walls!” “I’m a princess who’s studied your army’s moves and trained on her own.” Coerciona says she will gladly be dominated by him on the weekdays but on holy days she would “ride him like an imp.” Adam is not pleased and claims that all women must be subordinate to him 24/7 and that she is too rebellious like Lilith. Coerciona seethes and says that unlike Lilith, she’d gladly listen to the sounds of Adam’s fingers cracking one by one. Adam shakes his head and says “You’re sexy but I’m with Lute and you’re not canon!” He then sends his Exorcists after her “Slap that thot princess!”, which she proceeds to knock all of them out singlehandedly. Coerciona stomps on Lute’s throat and was about to finish her but Adam blasts her away with his magic guitar. Coerciona then warns that she ranks above Adam and that she could still beat him in a rock concert and tells Adam to “Be a good little horned man and make sure that Charlie and her puny hotel gang gets demolished!” before angrily flying back to her 2P world. Adam briefly gulps in fear and remarks that he’s glad he’s with Lute in the canon world most of the time.

[kivaember]

Do you have any head canons or ideas for what O'Keeffe was up to when he was working for ALLMIND or how they met? I was wondering what you thought about their relationship to one another since you're the biggest O'Keeffe fan I'm aware of!

pulls up a plastic garden chair and sits down

OKAY SO

o'keeffe was pretty content with his position within arquebus

he was initially hired as the head of its intelligence department, but when the vespers were spun up, he was placed onto it alongside snail to act as a balancer to freud (who was the first and only vesper for a while... but that's it's whole separate post and fic)

then he met flatwell

flatwell, the rubiconian spy that had infiltrated schneider via a compromised executive vouching for his citizenship

o'keeffe had him pegged immediately, but he'd been bored for a long while and smth about flatwell intrigued him so he decided to do the long game with him

oops he caught feelings

flatwell and o'keeffe had a very unique relationship for several years: consensual exploitation of one another, with a dash of feelings neither of them would ever admit to or voice.

gradually though, o'keeffe started to want more... which surprised him, bc he'd been so apathetic with his current lot in life that he'd forgotten how it felt to ever want anything or look forward to smth, he'd just been going through the motions, surviving bc it's the only thing he knew to want

anyway bc of this he totally blew it with flatwell

pointing out that flatwell's ambition to liberate rubicon was a lost cause, he tried to convince flatwell to abandon rubicon and actually build a proper life for himself in arquebus, with o'keeffe. he'd go far! he could be head of intelligence too! he wouldn't want for anything!

flatwell... did not take this well

anyway tl;dr they had a big blow out argument, and flatwell broke off their arrangement and left. o'keeffe just lost the one thing that had actually penetrated his apathy... but he just kept doing what he was doing, bc he didn't know how to do anything else

ENTER ALLMIND

she actually does have contacts beyond rubicon, and not long after flatwell had left, she saw her chance to snag a vitally important contact and candidate within one of the big corpos

she was pretty upfront with him: she's an AI stationed on rubicon, and it seemed that the coral wasn't completely gone, and she also had a proposition for him...

with o'keeffe already emotionally low, at the time coral release sounded like the only thing open to him: he could be with flatwell again, not conventionally, but it was better than whatever he was stuck in right now. it'd even give flatwell what he wanted (just not in the way he actually wanted)

so he worked closely with allmind, feeding her info on arquebus and other company movements as well as the PCA (he was still intelligence after all), which allowed her to prepare accordingly on rubicon and whatnot

ENTER RUSTY

flatwell actually contacts o'keeffe (in my The Flag fic) to ask him to look after rusty for him, which o'keeffe reluctantly agrees to for old time's sake. he can't help but notice similarities between rusty and flatwell, and it makes him feel all kinds of ways

tl;dr getting to know rusty kind of makes him questioning the coral release plan, but he sticks with it still...

FAST FORWARD TO RUBICON, AFTER RUSTY FIGHT IN THE DEPTHS

at this point, o'keeffe has a realisation that the coral release plan isn't the way to go. he knows rusty escaped alive, and that steel haze ortus was completed, and it looked like flatwell's ambition actually was going to come true. it took a lot of hard work and grit to get there, but flatwell's desire for a free rubicon actually looked like it was going to happen, as he wanted it

so, he decides to do like flatwell does, and takes a chance...

Ofc in canon this is when 621 kills o'keeffe when he betrayed ALLMIND, but obvs in APV this goes very differently... but anyways yes. uh. that is my VERY abridged rundown of o'keeffe and allmind's meeting and stuff.

their dynamic was always very professional. allmind knew o'keeffe wouldn't fall for any flattery or underhanded schemes, with him it was best to be upfront and blunt, which worked at the time mostly bc she knew how emotionally rattled he was, even if o'keeffe was pretty good at hiding it. once she had that hook, she knew she could reel him in without having to mince her words about anything...

anyways, i hope you enjoyed this lengthy response... i enjoy talking about my headcanons and characters and esp about apv ;o; even questions about my 621 uwgh...