#we love a slowburn but one of them wants to GOGOGOGOGOGO

[cymk8]

shadowlach supremacy!! i love seeing people enjoying the idea of them as a pair more and more they’re just so sweet together and compliment each other so well!

you’re art of them is amazing btw my fave has to be shadowheart and karlach with clive the bear it’s just so 🥺

anyways! i wondered if you had any thoughts on what their relationship would be like in act 2? we know it’s a tough act for shadowheart, do you think angst would ensue? would there be tension because of karlach’s intrinsic goodness clashing with shar’s cruelty? would she be an emotional support for shads? what do you think? would love know!

Thank you so much :""""))) and yeah ! i love seeing more and more people liking it like YES finally i will soon not be alone in being absolutely feral about them (I hope...)

but for act 2..... (this is gonna be a READ)

I think that there definitely would be tension between them in the way you brought up! I also think it doesn't stop there: survival at all costs is something that they both prioritize - but how they achieve it and what survival means for either of them...(cont)

I find act 2 to be really interesting in that it forces all of the characters to sort of 'flip' their worldviews. In a lot of ways, it is the real beginning to the end of their lives as they know it. It's an absolute shitshow: everyone's got some form of emotional distress from earth-shattering revelations, everyone's got anxiety-inducing questions over their morality...now slap all of that on top of the constant danger of the inevitable unknown and the all-encompassing need to survive? Damn. I'd be more surprised if the party had more than one day of peace and quiet. The ground is made of eggshells and they are all as graceful as bowling balls.

For the two of them, it would probably all come to a head over how they each view honesty: Shadowheart sees it as something to be earned and Karlach sees it as something inherent (especially when it comes to being a component of survival).

If we look at it through Karlach's lens...

Karlach views honesty as the one thing that she was able to keep throughout her time in the hells. it was also the one thing that let her live - if she was honest about herself, her needs, and the situation around her, she could more readily adapt and survive. If we make it even simpler: demons and devils lie. So what do you do when you hate them? You tell the truth.

Shadowheart...can't even be honest about things to HERSELF. She is simply hard-coded to lie about everything for survival. (It's too bad she truly fucking sucks at lying besides lying by omission...and it's still not a skill she has - she omits because damn, girly doesn't even remember what she is omitting :') )

There is no way Karlach doesn't pick up on it immediately. After a decade of putting up with that...she would probably be down to the last straw in terms of tolerance. Even less so since she probably trusts Shadowheart by this point in the story. I mean. She probably already died once and got saved by her. You would think some honesty would be warranted.

But no. Shadowheart literally lies to herself *all the way to the end of the fucking act.* Girly...she's not doing well.

Shadowheart spends the majority of act 2 completely confused. The lies by omission finally bite her in the ass - both the lies she was taught and the lies that she tells herself. And the worst part is she resists and insists. These poor bitches are both so fucking stubborn it would only be a matter of time before someone's fuse blows.

(and then they do the nasty and it resolves -)

But they do still offer emotional support to each other, no matter how clipped. They fight because they care after all. And that's what matters.