#8 INT TAV

[sky-kiss]

I came across the Warped Headband of Intellect which gvies the wearer 17 int and cannot stop thinking about 8 int Tav putting it on and shocking poor Raphael out of his socks with their sudden smarts. 😅 And maybe their sudden lack of them once he removes the headband. 😂

A/N: I run screaming into the night because of how schmoopy this is.

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Raphael x 8 INT Tav: Don't Go Changin'

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He pauses to regard the Little Mouse with curiosity and caution. 

She's looking at him. Not in the vacant, slightly dreamy-eyed way he's grown to expect, but with genuine understanding. Tav cocks her head to the side, eyes narrowing, lips pressing to a thin line. An uncustomarily severe look, and not one Raphael can say he likes. 

"You keep coming back," she says, unprompted, and the tone is different too. Raphael searches her face and aura for anything unusual, but there's nothing. Only a new tiara, one dull stone set in its center; it's a tacky piece, certainly not one he'd have gifted. Tav steps towards him, hesitating, before reaching out to touch his wrist. "Tell me why?" 

"You're asking questions? Are you well, my dear?" 

Her lips quirk up; the softness, at least, is correct. Tav chuckles, shrugging. "I've been running our encounters over and over in my head, trying to come up with a reason. Protecting your assets, maybe," and some alarm trills in his head because the turn of phrase is wrong. "Curiosity, perhaps. But I've signed your contract. I've made good on my word at every step. Do you distrust me?"

"Fae," the word still chokes him. "Do not trust easily. And I have lived a long and twisted life. You have the right of it. I am nothing if not protective of my interests." 

"But that isn't right." Her brow furrows, features twisting prettily. The infernal blood in his veins delights in her frustration; the mortal is…compelled to touch her. Raphael's fingers curl around her forearm. "You only rarely visited before. This," Tav gestures to him, "is a recent development. Since our…" she clears her throat, "Liaison in the Devil's Den. I have a theory, of course, but I prefer to hear your take." 

Raphael frowns, "What's happened? Where is this cunning stemming from? You've theories? You're studying me? Has the worm finally squirmed too deeply into your skull?"

"We both know the tadpole has nothing to do with this, Raphael. Now, I'm asking you for honesty. After everything, you cannot claim that is too much." 

He can and will! The devil crosses his arms over his chest, searching her face again. His gaze keeps straying to that damnable headpiece, horrific and garishly out of place on her lovely face. "I am magnanimous, but even my graces have their limits. I do not indulge my clientele's idle accusations." 

"If we examine your behavior…" 

"Hang my behavior! What has come over you?" 

One of her companions, the tiresome little spawn, sidles up to her. Astarion taps the garish piece. "Do excuse the interruption. And far be it from me to stick my nose in a devil's dispute, but…" He hooks his finger under the headband, lifting it free from her hair. 

And his Mouse's demeanor shifts all at once: all notes of pretension and accusation falling away in the face of better instincts. 

"The headband, you see." Astarion taps it. "Quite impressive what it can do from one's intellect. You know, I would have imagined you preferred a…touch of the cerebral in your partners. It seems I was wrong." 

"For her sake, I will allow that breach in etiquette, little vampling. Begone now." Raphael holds himself to the full of his height, imperious, kingly. The spawn holds his hands up for peace before slinking back into the night, leaving them alone. 

"You've come to visit me again, my prince!" Tav clutches his hand, all instinct, light, and love on her face. There is not an ounce of self-preservation in her marrow as she winds her arms around him, hungry for contact. "You must be so busy, and still, you take the time!" 

Raphael frowns, smoothing a hand over her hair. It feels…wrong, somehow. "Your earlier accusations…" 

She shakes her head, "Don't matter. I don't care why you visit. It doesn't matter. I like it. I like you." 

Submerging him in a pool of holy water would have been less jarring. The cambion blinks, staring down at Tav. 

And this once, a touch of honesty. Raphael clears his throat, an air of offended dignity and dismissal hanging around him. "My dear, for tonight, let us say the feeling is mutual." 

"Just tonight?" 

"Don't get greedy." 

She hums, delighted, pressing her face against his chest. 

And gods, it's all such a mess. 

[everchased]

THAT one's goin on the list too now!

[red-dead-sakharine]

WE FOUND THE POST! Thanks to @djmorn and @dark-and-kawaii for helping me sniff it out! ❤️ I knew the Raphael fandom could find a single post from months ago, if we sleuth together 🤝

Look at his face!

It's so memeable!

Also, to a probably very confused OP @disasteralien: I remembered this screenshot, but could not find the post anymore. Put out a call for help finding it this morning. So I'm very excited this actually bore fruit 😄

[flamemittens]

Thinking about how it would be funny if: all through the events of the game Tav/Durge refuses any sort of deal with Raphael, but still gives him the Crown of Karsus at the end anyway; because, why not?

Raphael is beside himself the whole time, wondering what he could have done differently to get them to agree, was it something he said (or didn't say), could he have been more charming (surely not, that's not possible, it has so very rarely failed him before) - then just resigns himself to the disappointing conclusion that he may have to wait another thousand years for a further opportunity.

Then, a few nights after the Netherbrain's defeat, there's an energy shift in the House of Hope. And the sound of something heavy and sopping wet being dragged along the flagstones.

Raphael, sitting at a desk, frowns.

The infuriating sound gets louder, and Tav appears in the boudoir, dragging a waterlogged hessian sack. They stop beside him, lift out the Crown and settle it down on the desk in front of him. Refuses to elaborate, leaves.

Raphael collects himself enough to intercept them just before they exit the House: "You have...unexpectedly...brought me a mighty gift; will you not stay for dinner or perhaps a drink, little mouse? There are many thi--"

And Tav just finger guns him, and leaves.

Haarlep: "You're telling me all we had to do was ask nicely?!"

Raphael: "Wha--"

Part 2

[cherrylssues]

Redid the cuddling with Tav! Which, by they way, is short for Tavern.

[bara-izu]

「 ✦ Halion Sunblaze ✦ He/Him ✦ Tiefling ✦ Neutral Good ✦ Paladin - Oath of Devotion ✦ Dawnbringer of Lathander✦ 」

Halion is a gentle giant with a heart of gold. A little naive to the world, he's learning to trust his own judgement to keep his friends and those in trouble, safe.

[red-dead-sakharine]

8 INT Tav is such a joy to read. Poor Raphael 🤣

"Hold Monster"

Based on this amazing post and artwork. I couldn't help but write something for our beloved INT 8 Tav from 1st POV since that's what I feel most comfortable writing.

Raphael x reader!Tav | Tav thinks the hold monster spell works in a very different way

You certainly hadn't intended to trip and fall into the portal, landing face-first on the polished marble floor of Raphael's entryway.

Your presence had been noticed immediately by Raphael who, upon recognizing you, wore a rather aggrieved expression. He set down his quill carefully and rose to full towering height, a slight twist of bemusement curling his lips. "Here I assumed you could go an hour without indulging in foolishness." He strode toward you and gripped you by the scruff like a wayward kitten. "You just caused me to lose a bet with Korilla."

"I really don't know how this happened!" You protested against his grasp as he dragged you back towards the portal. "I would've knocked if you had a door!"

Raphael released you with a slight push, his wings flexing as he glowered down at you. "Innocent or not, a trespass will be received as such."

"Ah! Raphael, it was an accident!" You began to panic as his eyes glowed a bright gold and flames began to dance upon the tips of his fingers. "Oh, not again." You groaned, wracking your brains for something to counter his retribution."

You withdrew a small amount of silver from your pocket and shrieked. "I cast hold monster!!" Then charged at the cambion head-on.

So surprised was he by your yell and sudden movement, Raphael couldn't react in time before you leapt upon him. You wrapped your arms and legs around his torso and hips, clinging to him like a rabid spider monkey.

The force with which you jumped him caught both of you off guard and Raphael toppled to the floor, his wings failing to catch his weight in time. You felt his grip pierce your sides as he stared up at you in utter shock for a moment. The spell had worked, it seemed.

You panted. "I don't want my bottom singed again like last time. That wasn't very nice."

Raphael grimaced, his face sharpening again as his surprise subsided. Emotions warred across his features. "You are a most confounding creature. If I believed you at all capable of rational thought, you'd be a pile of ash this very moment. Now...get off."

"Sorry, I can't." You shook your head sorrowfully. "The spell lasts a minute."

Raphael growled low in his throat, his wings stretching as he slowly got to his feet. You still clung to him, holding him tightly as you could.

With great care and powerful restraint, Raphael removed you from his person limb by limb.

"Wow, you're strong." You said with awe, panting a little from the exertion. Seeing the look on his face you backed slowly towards the portal. "Okay, I can see you're busy. I'll be going now."

"I should think so." Sparks of hellfire danced between Raphael's fingertips as he looked at you, his expression much like one who is considering how best to skin a deer.

Once you'd disappeared back to the material plane, Raphael grunted and looked around his immaculate manor. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the infernal air. "For the crown."

[crysdrawsthings]

I think Emperor is actually completely justified in trying to get BG3 protagonist to eat more worms.

If you were stuck dealing with the concentrated dumbassery of either Tav or Durge beamed directly into your brain for months on end, you would too grasp at any straws promising that they would grow a braincell or two.

[foolishsunshine]

:･ﾟ✧ just 8 INT things ✧･ﾟ:

[sky-kiss]

@red-dead-sakharine requested 8 INT Tav who mistakenly calls Raphael a tiefling.

Raphael/Tav (GN): The Devil You TRULY Don't Know

Finally, the last piece of his grand design. The fulcrum, his piece de resistance, upon which so much hung. Scanning them for the hundredth time, Raphael cannot shake the sense of delicious irony: a child of Asmodeus, one of his blasted tieflings, will deliver the Prince of Lies's throne to Raphael's grasp. He cannot imagine a sweeter agony for the Lord of the Ninth. 

 He is fully prepared to bask in his victory when he summons the group to the House. And why should he not? This meeting is the start of his conquest. He lets the human glamor drop, stretching his grand wings as he relaxes into his proper form. Tav shuffles back a step, regarding him with wide eyes, raking across his figure. Raphael preens beneath their observation, raising his left hand to tap his chin. "What's better than a devil you don't know? A devil you do."

So many things happen in such rapid succession. When Raphael reflects on this moment, he will not know precisely how to parse their line of thought. The silly dear's face seems to shift from confusion to pain to breathtaking concern in seconds—Tav lungs for him. Raphael does not fall back but is left to arch a brow as the little creature clutches his hand between theirs. 

"You should not say that about yourself. You cannot." 

He purses his lips, glancing over their shoulder at their companions. The cambion is gratified to see they share his confusion. "I…dear, some clarity is in order. What can't I say?" 

"They call us devils. Every day, I've heard it. But you cannot internalize that feeling, brother. You are no more a devil than I." 

Raphael takes a moment to collect himself, frowning. "I…"

They cut him off, clutching his hand tighter, all agonized sincerity. "Whatever they've made you feel, it needn't be true. You are more than that."

The vampire spawn takes a step forward, holding up a finger. "Is he, darling? He looks…well, I don't know. A touch Infernal. The sweltering hellscape does…lend some credence to his claim." 

Shadowheart shrugs, crossing her arms over her chest. "There's also that fact that he's said it."

"Listen to your friends, little mouse. For this devil might be…" 

"So much more if he recognized his potential. His humanity. My friend, do you know how many mobs have named me such? Devil? Hellspawn?" 

He frowned. "Tragic, pet. If we could just…"

"I won't let the same befall you." A thumb stroking over the curve of his wrist. Raphael suffers a truly visceral image: his plan crashing down around his ears, Asmodeus cackling from his seat in Nessus. "I look at you. And see your pain. I see how much more you could be." 

"Your judgment is truly misplaced." 

"Mr. Devil, sir," Shadowheart begins. 

"Raphael." Gods, he feels a migraine coming on. 

"If you release our friend to us, we'll explain the situation. Could you forward the highlights of this presentation? 

"It loses its dramatic effect." 

"It'll only be worse if they stay. You see them."

Tav continues to stare in hurt and earnest interest. Raphael shrugs. He snaps his fingers and sends the little idiot careening back to the mortal plane. Thus unburdened, he turns to address the spawn and the cultist. "Now, shall we try again?"

[red-dead-sakharine]

hahahaha 🤣

oh my gods, 8 INT Tav never fails to deliver.

Love the wording of the last paragraph 😂 "Haarlep.exe has stopped working" LMAO!

Inquiring minds want to see your take...8 INT Tav meets Haarlep in the Boudoir.

asjdaksjdasd oh my god okay, well obviously taking massive inspiration from your og: 8 INT Tav

this got... impossibly long. don't blame me, blame the two competing peacocks.

Raphael rematerializes within the familiar walls of his bedroom, still pinching the bridge of his nose. He normally prefers to arrive at the front hall, to allow his servants to see and feel his presence in their midst, but today… He’ll grant himself an allowance, just this once. A familiar rustle of wings unfurling has him spinning around, looking for the slightest opening to lash out and satisfy even some portion of his wounded pride. He is not kept waiting long. 

Haarlep’s mockingly dulcet voice lilts out of the shadows across the room, eyes alight with glee. “How was the visit with your dear paramour, Unseelie lord?” 

Raphael raises a clawed fist in their direction, discordant notes like distant screams gathering at the tips. Haarlep leans forward with anticipation, the byplay between them familiar if not yet entirely banal. Just before he releases it, tips them over the edge into simple violence that might ease but not soothe the indignity he has suffered today – and every day since meeting that impertinent, irritating girl – a thought strikes him. He grins, slow and toothy.

Haarlep is far too accomplished a fiend to do anything so obvious as blanch, but they do blink twice in rapid succession, a clear sign of their startlement from one who knows them as well as he. It is not often that he misses a step in their masquerade. 

Letting the accrued magic dissipate entirely, Raphael raises his hands to his mouth in an expression of carefree thought, a fine and cutting edge to it that he knows the other feels. 

“Why, how delightfully cordial of you to ask after her, Haarlep. In fact, she has been doing the same, nigh incessantly!” He watches the other’s face with barely-hidden glee, tracking every visible micro-expression. 

Another blink. Confusion. Haarlep doesn’t see the game yet. And, after all, how could they? That girl is absolutely incalculable. Raphael soothes his vexation with the thought that, at least this time, he can make someone else play the victim to her unique form of nescience. 

A brief mantling of the wings. They have determined their gambit then. With a sultry movement of their arm, Haarlep gestures to themself. “But of course! Who could possibly resist such a delicacy in truth? I am glad to hear the little darling has come to her senses and reconsidered.”

Raphael lets them preen, their eyes still watchful behind their long lashes, a moment longer, then claps his hands sharply. 

“That’s settled then. I’ll be just a moment, and then the two of you can get reacquainted.” He lets some portion of his own power rise around him for just a moment. No need to put too fine a point on it. “And, Haarlep? I do expect you to give a more proper welcome to guests of the House in future.”

Haarlep looks away for that moment, a pretense at nonchalance, but Raphael trusts his message has been received. He discorporates himself with a moment’s thought, feeling a malefic cheer rising as he considers the treat in store for him. 

Haarlep remains where they stand, loath to cede more ground and mistrustful of this turn of their little brat’s whims. They cast back to their first, brief meeting with the subject of his – unwitting and unwilling – current attentions, but nothing materializes that could explain the specific turn of his disposition. She had been too insipid to intrigue, yet somehow survived her visit unscathed where countless others had not. 

Their thoughts are suspended by the familiar metaphysical crackle that heralds the rematerialization of Raphael’s preferred method of conveyance. This time, he does not arrive alone. Held stiff and distrustful within the loose circle of his arms is… her. The moment she sets her eyes on Haarlep, they go limpid and soft.

Raphael speaks, face inscrutable but voice tremulous with his mirth, “See, dear one, I told you I’d had a… crisis of conscience. You’ve worn me down with your keen moral arguments, and I’m prepared to… see sense, and let you speak to Haarlep again.”

Haarlep blinks, genuinely caught off guard for one of the first times in recent memory. What… is going on. 

The girl steps forward, turning back to give Raphael a solemn, approving look, before approaching Haarlep tentatively. It is, however, not with the understandable caution they are accustomed to from mortals, but rather underpinned by something saccharine and soppy. Their well-honed survival instincts prick at them as she opens her mouth, warning them without even a bare moment to flee that whatever comes out of it will be harrowing indeed. 

“I know, Haarlep. I know what you are.” She reached out toward them with  supplicant hands. “You aren’t stuck here. You can be free.”

Haarlep blinks once, then again. “... What.”

She elaborates, but does not in any way elucidate. “I’ve seen this before, you know. It’s not hopeless. Whatever these fey have told you, your nature does not make you one of them. You belong on the Material Plane, with others like you.”

Behind her, Raphael’s face begins to crack into a grin worthy of a true fiend. Haarlep’s distrust is growing exponentially with each passing moment. They paste on a smile and lean forward, “Others… like me. And just what would those others be, little interloper?” 

“Oh, Haarlep…” To his stark disgust, a single tear drips from one eye. Gleeful micro-vibrations emanate from Raphael, propagating a shimmering haze around him. 

She continues on, after a brief pause in which she stares at him mournfully, “A changeling, of course. I’m so sorry you’ve fallen prey to their lies, that you had to find out this way.” 

She clenches her fist, a mawkish determination filling her entire body. “I’ll find a way to free you. I promise.”

[Haarlep.exe has stopped responding.] 

On the resounding heels of the vacuum left by her pronouncement, Raphael vibrates himself into the wall of the next room over. His cackling still reaches them unimpeded.

[zorlok-if]

what does dorian look like? 👀

In response to this ask.

A beautiful, beautiful man.

(if you think he resembles another video game character... you're not wrong)

And so you know exactly what he's up to... [minor spoiler below]

[stainedglass-sketchbook]

This is so funny to me bc this is about my tav who is very much not the dark urge! just a bit of a freak

[myrkulitescourge]

if anyone was curious what mind flayer tav thinks re: each companion's brain when they get munchy, here's a little compilation lol

karlach, wyll, and lae'zel seemed to be safe, but the rest... (edit: they are not safe! i just couldn’t trigger this dialogue on any of them apparently lol)

[red-dead-sakharine]

hahaha love it!

"No" :(

🤣

8IN!Tav strikes again

Someone pls help the devil. He’s trapped. Based on @sky-kiss ‘s fics.

[agentkatie]

halsin is crying, tav