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karniss-bg3 · 10 months

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Writing prompt! Imagine Kar'niss and Tav actually getting into a disagreement about something relatively serious (something other than Kar'niss just getting grumpy about not feeding the shadows), and it being a moment of realization for one or both of them that Kar'niss is growing as a person to be more than just a yes-man to a perceived "majesty"

Weeks had passed since Tav’s arrival at Moonrise. During their stay they had bore witness to many incidents that made their skin crawl, atrocities which cemented in the idea that this may not be the place for them. They were in the process of packing their things, stuffing articles of clothing and supplies into their bag in a hurried fashion. Their mind often drifted to Kar’niss, one of few individuals in the accursed place they felt even a sliver of sympathy for. Yet he seemed cemented in place, unwilling to budge from his devotion, putting Tav in a conflicted state of mind. Distracted as they were they didn’t hear the soft clicking that moved along the wall, their concentration broken by a voice tucked away in a high corner.

“What is the True Soul doing?”

Tav whirled around, their heart rate kicking into high gear from the sudden intrusion. Their gaze drifted to see several reflective eyes peering at them from a darkened corner, watching Tav with an intensity that was slightly off putting. They often forgot there were many holes the drider could squeeze through if he wished it.

“Kar’niss, you startled me,” Tav said. They placed their hand on their chest in an effort to steady the rapid thumping within their rib cage. “I’m packing. I don’t think this is where I belong.”

Kar’niss’ pedipalps curled tight to his body, inching from his perch near the ceiling to creep closer to the ground. “True Soul is...leaving?”

“Yes,” Tav murmured, “I think that is for the best. I realize you hold loyalty to your Mistress but I at least ask for a head start before you inform the others. I’d like to think I’ve earned your trust enough for that much.” Tav swung their pack over their shoulder while turning to face the perplexed drider.

He frowned and climbed off the wall, his legs carrying him across the floor to bridge the gap between himself and Tav. “A traitor, a heretic…?! How dare one of Her faithful abandon Her!” He arced up while his front legs lifted into an aggressive stance.

Tav didn’t budge, reading Kar’niss’ face, able to see a tinge of uncertainty within his features. “No, how dare She treat one of Her faithful the way She does you.” Tav snapped, their chest pushed out in an effort to stand up to his advance.

“Wh—What? True Soul speaks lies. We are Her chosen, Her devout! We should rip out your blasphemous tongue!” Kar’niss shifted from side to side in an anxious trot, his hand retrieving the sword at his back.

“I am the first that has spoken any truth to you at all, at least in these walls. Don’t you see how they treat you? You’re less than dirt on the bottom of a shoe to these fanatics. They have one goal and they don’t give a shit who dies to obtain it. That includes you.”

“No, NO! Majesty loves us, She did not see an abomination in us. She saw a soldier, strong and loyal. A guide to shepherd Her followers into Her light. We are important!” Kar’niss’ breathing increased in pace, the grip on his sword hilt so tight that his knuckles grew ghostly pale.

“I don’t see you as an abomination either. Does that count for nothing? Who else besides me has spoken to you since I’ve been here? Who played beautiful music for you while you stood alone at the top of the tower?”

“But—“

“Who bandaged your wounds when the rest left you to die? Who called you by your name? Not drider, not web-arse, not eight-legged freak. Kar’niss!”

His hands trembled, his eyes darting around in confusion. “W-Wuh—We...are Her chosen. We are nothing without Majesty’s light…” His voice trailed off, wobbled and in pain.

“Which is the lie they have been feeding you since the beginning. But I don’t believe that, not for a second. I think you’re better than playing puppet to some selfish deity. You should come with me, leave this wretched place. Rise above the expectations of someone else.”

Kar’niss backed away from Tav as if he had been struck with a weapon, visibly panting from a growing panic. “They do not know us! They think they can barge in and try to lead us astray!”

“I am trying to lead you astray because I don’t want you to die here!”

“What does it matter if we die? Our lives are forfeit, we belong no where! We are nothing!” Kar’niss’ voice raised, his body lifting up more so as his inner anger churned deep within.

“Stop it, it’s NOT TRUE!”

“IT IS!”

“Tell me what the fuck you want!” Tav yelled as they stepped forward, invading the drider’s space despite how volatile the situation had grown.

“I—We…”

Tav marched up and poked Kar’niss directly between the pedipalps. “Don’t hold out on me now, speak for yourself for once.”

“Be silent!”

“Tell me, TELL ME!”

“To be more than THIS!” He cried, the grip on his sword lost causing it to hit the ground with a loud clang. His entire body quivered while he backed away from Tav. His form once puffed up and aggressive shrank down considerably, tucking himself away into a corner. He put his face in his hands, the sob he bit back escaped, a torrent of emotion unleashed. “I want to be more...than this.” His words were muffled by his hands, dripping with pent up anguish he kept locked away for far too long.

Tav exhaled a heavy breath while they rubbed the back of their neck, doing their best to calm down after the heated exchange. They wandered over to where Kar’niss sought to hide away, a frown etched over their features. “As do I. Please don’t give up, there is more for you out there than you may think.”

His hands lowered to reveal his face which was smeared with moisture. He stared at Tav a long moment to think over what was said, struggling to process it. Before he could respond the sound of quick footsteps were heard approaching the room. The door thrust open and a half-orc woman known as Z’rell entered.

“What is going on? We heard a commotion from downstairs!” Her eyes darted to Tav with scrutiny then wandered over to Kar’niss who looked upset. “Drider, you are meant to be on patrols. You’ve been asked not to hassle the True Soul. Must we take you to the dungeons for reeducation?”

Tav frowned while Kar’niss sucked in a sharp breath, his fear of such a fate radiating from his very pores.

“No, Disciple Z’rell. He is not hassling me,” Tav said.

The half-orc’s upper lip curled, taking note of the packed satchel over Tav’s shoulder. “And where is it you’re going? You’ve not been given any assignment.”

Tav’s breath hitched in their throat, their gaze wandering over to Kar’niss. They knew he could out them at any moment as he knew of their plan to leave. A silence fell over the room, each party involved looking to one another, the tension thick in the air.

“W-With us,” Kar’niss said. “We are to retrieve new followers, it is Majesty’s will. With a True Soul they will be more willing to follow an a-abomination.”

Tav’s eyebrows lofted with some surprise. They watched Kar’niss’ features, able to sense it pained him to lie and yet at the same time it was an odd sort of relief to him.

Z’rell huffed. “Very well, if it is in service to the Absolute. Do not be gone for long, we march for Baldur’s Gate soon. And for fucks sake keep it down.”

Both Tav and Kar’niss nodded. “Of course Disciple Z’rell, we understand. Thank you,” Tav said.

The warlock rolled her eyes and left the room, closing the door behind her with a firm slam. The pair left behind exhaled in unison, as close of a call as either could’ve expected. Tav turned to the drider who was still a little dazed and pensive.

“You saved my neck. Thank you, Kar’niss.”

He shook his head while rubbing his hands together in a nervous fervor. “She will be angry with us. We will be punished, She will take Her light away.”

Tav stepped in closer and reached out to cup his face in a bold move, guiding his chin to look at them. He was startled by the touch unsure how to react to it, but he wasn’t wholly opposed to the contact. “We will find a new light. Come with me, leave this place. Be more than this.” They paused and made eye contact with him. “Please.”

His lips trembled while his legs shuffled with hesitation, one hand rubbing at his plated arm in uncertainty. He had never defied the Absolute before, never even considered it. When he looked at Tav he felt things he couldn’t yet understand. Everything they said had been true even if some pieces were still difficult to fully accept. They were one of Majesty’s True Souls, maybe it meant more than he was meant to know.

“I...will go with you, True Soul. But we are afraid.”

Tav bowed their head and nodded. “I am too. Take comfort in the fact that we’ll be together. I won’t hurt you, I won’t make demands. Trust in me.”

Kar’niss’ brows knit, the very idea of trust a foreign concept all its own. “I will try.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

Kar’niss followed Tav out of the room, the pair wandering past the guards without incident. Kar’niss’ eyes darted around nervously as if certain all around him knew he was leaving for good, certain someone would call out their betrayal. No one did, not a peep to be heard from the residents within, all too self absorbed in their own goals and desires to care about the drider’s or Tav’s intent. They’d exit Moonrise tower and march away from it’s looming shadow toward Baldur’s Gate. Kar’niss stopped on the road to look over his shoulder at the building he’d called home for sometime now. A lingering sadness hung over him, the push and pull of desperation for the Absolute’s acceptance locked in a bitter battle with his deep rooted desire to carve his own path. He couldn’t be sure this was the right choice or even if he fully believed in it, brainwashed as he was. But there was a tiny voice growing within his mind, a spark of free thought that told him to follow Tav into the den of the unknown. For better or for worse this was the voice he chose to listen to. He ripped his gaze from Moonrise and looked ahead to Baldur’s Gate, dutifully marching behind Tav to seek out new horizons, his fate left hanging in the balance.

A crack had begun to form in the foundation of his faith. It would be up to Kar’niss if he wanted to nurture the sprouts of change—or stamp them out as weeds.

#baldur's gate 3 #kar'niss #bg3 #drider #karniss #baldurs gate 3 #answered #my writing #bg3 fic #bg3 fanfiction #kar'niss fanfic #kar'niss x tav #gender neutral tav #sorry for the wait!#took a while to think this one through #the ask box has reopened as well #sfw

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cruyuu · 14 days

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I'm reading japanese comments and it seems they also suspect Sukuna might be alive. Their interpretation is that the dialogue doesnt mean Sukuna rejected the offer. Actually rereading it the part where Sukuna implies Yuji is a liar (tsundere lol) it's like Sukuna saying

"you are lying, if you took me in, you would only despise me and hurt me anyway"

Hi anon!

They're not wrong for thinking so. Sukuna doesn't say yes or no, and hence the answer isn't clear. He does release Megumi (first part of the deal) but we don't see him return to Yuuji's body (second part of the deal). We just see him evaporate after Yuuji says "Let's try again" so it's likely to say that his death is not certain.

Considering just how underwhelming his "death" is... yeah. We don't hear or see anything about him and I feel like that is the biggest red flag there is. Now, I know some would argue that Sukuna should remain a mystery, never to be cracked open because that's his point as a character- that he cannot be understood- but I beg to differ, considering that everyone in this manga had been understood (and their character arcs reached their conclusion) no matter who or what they are.

If we take that into the account then Yuuji should also remain a mystery and his actions towards Sukuna unexplained. They cannot be, however, because how did Yuuji go from "I'd do anything to kill that creep" to "Let's try again". How did Yuuji go from desperately hung up on saving Megumi to, in the end, hung up on trying again with Sukuna? From trapping him in a domain to spend time with him and ask him to come back to then still asking him to come back afterwards, finishing off everything with "Well... we can always try again."

He says "Even if no one can accept you, I can. I alone can live with you."

So... how did we go from this:

to this:

Does Yuuji need reminding who he's fighting? Does he remember he called himself a murderer over this guy? He is inhabiting the body of the person Yuuji cried over so... exactly what is going on here?

All this needs an explanation, one which Yuuji can give and should give. Like... it's a big mess and it isn't being addressed at all. Both of them are just spinning in circles. From indifference to hate to what might be acceptance (coming from Yuuji, but I can't say the same about Sukuna- again, it needs to be directly stated.). I cannot even call Sukuna a hater because he was busy praising Yuuji the last couple of chapters and now... here's right back to "hating" him.

The only one who truly stopped running around in circles was Yuuji. What about Sukuna?

Is it fitting for a character to stay the same or to evolve? Yuuji had evolved completely- from being reluctant to kill, to embracing killing, only to say that his life has a purpose outside of just that. Outside of roles and things which others or "the world" deems necessary. This talk eerily fits with Sukuna's role as a monster in this story, considering his appearance and unrivaled strength. He's been cursed by birth, as was Yuuji (his words), and hence why Yuuji could understand him.

Well, what about Sukuna? Do we get an explanation from him? What about his contradictory behavior which clashes with his statements? His whole relationship with Yuuji which truly cannot be defined? His ties to Yuuji (coming from reincarnation)? His deal with Kenjaku? His continual survival despite the fact that he had gotten his fill even back in the Heian era?

There is something there and it needs to be addressed.

Now, it was Yuuji who said, "Let's end this cycle" yet the one who still considers himself a curse is Sukuna. So what cycle exactly got ended?

Sukuna evaporates after this, commending Yuuji on keeping up this act all this time (and this is the first time he calls him by his name instead of just "brat"). In one translation, he says "Do not look down on me" but in the other, he says, "Don’t underestimate me." I'd roll with this second one because it fits Yuuji's "you are me" speech way more so than the first translation.

This fight directly draws parallels to the fight against Mahito yet in this fight, everything is reversed.

It isn't the cold-hearted Yuuji who's facing down Sukuna, but one who is kind. It isn't Yuuji who's equating himself to a curse (like he did to Mahito), but equating Sukuna to himself– to a human. In the fight against Mahito, Yuuji embraces the idea of killing and living as a cog meant to eradicate curses but here, he shrugs off all of his roles, says that life matters outside of that, and asks Sukuna what he will do.

"I can kill you."

"Release Fushiguro, come back to me and I'll spare your life."

He gives him a choice.

Yuuji doesn't give Mahito any choices, even if he says that they are the same. He'll kill him again and again, no matter what, no matter when. There is not an ounce of sympathy or understanding there.

The difference between these two fights is... quite notable. Sukuna is being babied while Mahito had to run for his life. Sukuna is given a choice while Mahito had none. Sukuna got "Let's try again.", Mahito got "I'll kill you again and again."

Why? When both of them laughed at him. When both caused him trauma. When both took so much from him.

[Side note: No, Sukuna being reduced to a blob won't make me see this as any sort of humiliation. Yuuji appears far more kinder than he did in the fight against Mahito (even a bit concerned) and besides, he comes and scoops him up in his arms, telling him that they can try again. If the point of the fight was to give Sukuna the same treatment then I do not think it was successful because Sukuna got such a loving treatment that it straight up made me laugh. Keep in mind that Megumi (the person Yuuji was crying over and was fighting hard to save) is lying like a couple of steps from Sukuna unconscious, yet Yuuji came and sat down next to this curse that he supposedly despises (his words in 265, not mine) and told such lovely things :) ]

If Sukuna is supposed to die for the cycle to end, Yuuji giving him a choice to be spared would make no sense. Also Yuuji telling them they can try again also makes no sense. If he's dead, isn't that just repeating the cycle?

The way this fight parallels the Mahito fight (Nobara is there, and the way Yuuji first uses Divergent Fist and then Black flash to rip both Mahito and Sukuna out of their forms) remains of interest to me.

Mahito, once knocked out of his form (what he calls his birth), ran to Kenjaku. Kenjaku asks him if he wished to be saved, but in the end, ended up consuming him.

Worthy of mention, also, is that Mahito sought out Sukuna (touched his soul two times) but wanted to kill Yuuji, kinda like how here Yuuji sought out Megumi (touched his soul two times), but wanted to kill Sukuna. Again, it's the whole vessel situation which is being paralleled and contrasted. If we take Yuuji from that fight as Sukuna's parallel here (considering both have a soul inside of them), then, again... it's interesting because in that fight, it was Mahito who lost. Yuuji won.

By drawing parallels to the fight against Mahito, and placing Sukuna in Yuuji's spot (considering he, too, now has a soul alongside his, perfectly paralleling Yuuji), it's still suspicious that Sukuna would just disappear. Sure, you could argue that the point is for him to "die" but that would be boring now, wouldn't it? Besides, we're not here to discuss his certain death but theorize if he may still be alive.

The first possibility is for Sukuna to reincarnate later on. He dies here finally, and gets reborn with no recollection of anything as a human.

The second possibility is for Sukuna to reincarnate but with his memories intact. It's kinda unlikely considering... well... the breaking of the cycle, but then again we still don't even know what the hell that cycle is supposed to represent... nor how curses truly came to be, mind you!

The third possibility is for Sukuna to still be alive via... well, a plan crafted by his intelligence.

I don't consider someone like Sukuna (who took gambles and devised strategies) to just accept dying or, for that matter, be stupid. One of my friends thinks Yuuji taking Sukuna out in 265 (in his DE) is a strategy to get him off his game and "ruffle his feathers" because Yuuji is severely affecting Sukuna, that is true. It could be a tactic to simply make him angry and therefore not allow him to think and have time to counter-attack or devise a strategy.

But... this entire explanation makes absolutely no sense considering Yuuji's last words to Sukuna are practically what he had been stating to him in 265. There truly is no manipulating or pretending... it was pure honesty both there (in the DE) and in the real world.

Here's a list of ??? moments from the recent chapters which do make Sukuna's survival still probable:

Yuuji spends more time convincing Sukuna to live than actually killing him.

"Let's try again" Okay but... now? In a thousand years? When????

Sukuna calling Yuuji by his full name (yes, even tho that might be character development it's still weird he doesn't call him brat when he always refers to him as such. It's especially weird he'd call him by his full name when he had called him "brat" when talking to Megumi at the beginning of 268)

Blobkuna... Why does Sukuna's bodyless form lowkey resemble how the Merger might look like? Why doesn't he appear like those finger bearers of his do and then evaporates? Is it because of Kenjaku's insurance? So many questions...

Related through reincarnation. Nothing about that. Nothing at all.

Yuuji is able to transfer his soul into fingers (just like Sukuna) and he practically embodies him. Killing him is equal to killing Sukuna. Does nobody in this manga care about this fact??????? We saw him see Nobara through Sukuna's finger (the one he ripped off was taken by Rika). By this logic, Sukuna cannot truly die as long as Yuuji is around because Yuuji still remains as an active vessel housing a piece of Sukuna's soul.

All that planning... just to accept death? Sukuna isn't someone who would accept death. That thing is so obvious that even Megumi points out that he fears dying in 268. He survived countless of years within those fingers and if he did, he must've done so for a purpose. Not a bland purpose such as "killing everyone and crushing Yuuji's spirit" but a more meaningful one. Considering just how hung up he is on Yuuji, how he doesn't want to have an equal and that he ate his twin because of that... there must be something more to it. Especially because of Yuuji's own words to him.

And there might be more but I'm busy and can't really hunt for panels nor re-read jjk now. All in all, it just feels... kinda confusing and empty. His death isn't fulfilling as all others have been. While everyone else gets to talk about everything about themselves, Sukuna doesn't get a word out and he just peaces out. It would be funny to me if I didn't care about him as a character but I do, so I still have hopes.

#melanswers #jjk #sukuna #sorry for the wait!

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