#Gale is not an asshole

[dreamingofthewild]

I just saw someone in the tags of a post imply that Gale isn't romantic, sweet, or ethical.

Hello, are we playing the same game?

I think they meant well because the original post was a Gale positive post. About how Gale is strong, competent, and poweful, not weak or pathetic. But we are not taking positive character traits from another character and projecting them on to Gale.

Gale IS insanely romantic. Gale can be salty, but he is also sweet. Gale might be willing to turn the other cheek on occasion, but he is moral and ethical.

They also implied in their tags that Gale would have no moral qualms with morally and ethically dubious things, such as bombs and dubcon, which is also untrue. Gale is not evil. His alignment has now been confirmed as Neutral Good via the Idle Champions.

Yes, you can manipulate him to stay with you in an evil run, but the keyword is manipulate.

I don't have the time to explore this further at the moment, and I'm not going to call the user out. But bad character takes annoy me.

[almightyramtha]

This literally happened in my game. Like a second between the banter and the orb alert. :|

[oceanatydes]

i hate how mean people are to gale like can y'all stop

[thatratgo]

Yes I got the Rapheal ending and no I have no regrets >:D

[taamlok]

have never had a fandom ruin a character for me as quickly as the dragon age fandom has ruined emmrich

[an-excellent-choice]

WAS NOBODY GOING TO TELL ME THAT THEY GAVE GALE A GUN!??

[crowwolf]

I may have taken a few shots last night during my game..

My durge, Octavia, pissing off Astarion by helping the tieflings.

Can you really blame me?

I mean, really?

Then there's this asshole I made a deal with

and then everyone's favourite skeleton

Yes, Wither, I know the answer to most questions is no.

[roguegrove]

astarion girlies are dean girlies. gale girlies are probably sam girlies.

[archduchessgortash]

I have been utterly spoiled by playing smol Durges.

I jumped back into my default Durge game (requiring an obligatory restart from the beginning due to new mods 😁) because I want to write more Praxtash and playing Praxas gets me into his headspace better, but I hadn't realized how much of his huge dragonborn body blocks my view of Gale in conversations.

I can't see my wizard's hands while he's doing his uncannily adroit with a knitting needle animation! 😭

Or almost ANY of his hand gestures because my ginormous if adorable scaly slab of beef without nipples is in the WAY!

My gnome gets SO much more Gale hands!

Criminal. Positively criminal. Still cute though.

It really doesn't help that this is his Guardian:

Gale's longer wizard bun with Lae'zel's braids is the closest I've gotten to recreating Gortash's concept art hair.

Between Gale's hair, cuteness, brains, and inability to stop yapping, Lae'zel's bossy yet die-hard sincere attitude, Shadowheart's random sad eyes and aversion to pain, Astarion's performative behavior and penchant for neck-biting, and Wyll's words of wisdom and encouragement... Praxas is constantly reminded of his peasant.

Like music from another room, he can only hear a note here and there, not enough to identify the song, but enough to make him feel something.

Karlach is the only companion who doesn't in some way remind Praxas of Gortash, yet something about her feels like... family. She was in the Hells, trapped, yet found ways to enjoy what she could under the circumstances. It wants to stir something in Praxas, but he doesn't know what or why.

I loved this shot of him from the Nautiloid so much that I had to drop Create Water on him to get a clean-faced version.

[megs-98]

Mesmeric Revelation

The Mystery of Gale Dekarios

“We’ll stop wasting your time then, Mr. Dekarios.” Mara said in a rough manner as she turned her body to let Fox and Astarion leave the room first, her fierce gaze still locked on Gale.

A/N: This is chapter 1 of a slow burn, enemies to lovers, modern au between Gale and my tav Mara! I've had so much fun writing it and appreciate the love on the snippets I've shared about it. Also! A huge, huge thank you to all my followers as I've hit 100 followers now ^_^ I appreciate each and every one of yall

Characters: Gale, Mara, Astarion x Fox (@justporo 's tav), Shadowheart, a little bit of Gortash and Orin, and a mention of Thorm I'm hoping to add all the companions eventually

Summary: It's the start of a new school year at Chiontar High and there's been talk amongst the teachers about how the esteemed Professor Dekarios from Blackstaff Academy has joined the schools faculty. After a chance encounter between Gale and Mara, leaving her less than impressed with the professor, will the two be able to start a friendship and maybe something more?

Tags: Really none for this first chapter, just a little bit of pining and Gale being a jackass

Word count: 2.8k

It was a week before the fall semester was set to start at Chionthar High School. Mara and the other teachers sat in the cafeteria as they listened to Principal Gortash and Vice Principal Orin as they attempted to talk over each other about what to expect throughout the week; have all materials printed out, classrooms ready, and a good attitude to greet students with. Fox, Astarion, and Mara were sat in the back, in the middle of their own hushed conversation.

“God, I don’t understand why Thorm keeps them around. It’s not like they get anything useful done.” Fox quipped as she checked her phone in one hand and rubbed Astarion’s back with the other. 

Mara didn’t take her eyes off the athletics schedule as she said “At least we don’t have Thorm actually here. I’d rather have these two than him. We wouldn’t be able to get away with anything with Thorm here.” 

Mara heard Astarion as he let out a sigh as he tightened his grip around Fox’s waist. “This is true, darling. If he were here then our ‘meetings’ would have to be especially clandestine.” He said as he nipped at Fox’s shoulder. Mara rolled her eyes and smiled as her two dearest friends cavorted with each other. 

The trio resumed their conversation as they slowly grabbed their things as the meeting came to a close. Just as everyone was about to stand to leave as Principal Gortash had already left the cafeteria, Vice Principal Orin cleared her throat.

“One more important piece of information, that Mr. Gortash forgot,” she said with a sneer, “we will be having a new AP literature teacher this year. Gale Dekarios, from Black Staff Academy.” She waved her hand as she left, as if she were shooing away the teachers. There were immediate murmurs between the teachers as they left for their classrooms, Mara could hear whispers about a professor now being at their school and how disconcerting it was that he wasn’t present nor had been seen at all during summer prep. 

The trio made their way to their respective classrooms slowly, knowing that they had already completed everything at Mara’s behest. As they came upon the front doors to the school, Mara collided with a man she’d never seen before. She caught the man by his arm as she kept the two of them standing. 

“Fuckin’ hell, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you! Are you okay?” She asked in a frantic tone as Fox helped steady her. Mara noticed that he was shorter than her, but not by much, with ever so slightly graying dark brown medium length hair, a single dangling earring in his left ear, and the prettiest brown eyes. She glanced at Astarion after thanking Fox, he raised his eyebrows and gave her a cheeky smile as he glanced between Mara and the mysterious man. Before she could give Astarion a smack, the man answered. 

“Quite alright. It appears I, also, was not being as observational as I should have been. Gale Dekarios,” he said with an outstretched hand and slightly irritated tone, “pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Mara shook his hand and introduced herself, and the other two. After their pleasantries, Gale awkwardly asked if any of them would be able to help him bring some boxes to his classroom. Mara agreed that they would all help him. 

“Excuse me. Why do I have to haul his stuff around? I’ve already finished my classroom setup, maybe he should have done his summer prep and he wouldn’t be so atrociously behind.” Astarion said with a groan as he looked right at the new teacher. Mara and Fox rolled their eyes and said, “Ignore him”, at the same time, which caused the two women to chuckle as they followed Gale to his car. 

“Seems you three are quite chummy, I take it you all have been teaching together for a while?” Gale asked the group as they made their way back inside. 

“Bit longer than that. We all met during our freshman year of college, were in the same classes for the teaching program, and we did our student teaching here together.” Fox answered with a smile as she looked at her two favorite people. Astarion couldn’t help but smile back at her as he spoke. 

“Yes, yes. We’ve all been such great friends for so long now. But the real question, Gale, is how did such a prestigious professor from Blackstaff Academy end up here?” Astarion asked as he cocked his head at the ex-professor. Gale narrowed his eyes at white haired man, silent as he contemplated his answer.  

“Ease up, Astarion. Let’s not scare him off on his first day here.” Mara said to break the silence. She turned her head to Gale, “It doesn’t matter, anyway, we’re always happy to welcome newcomers.” Gale gave a small nod to her as a thank you. 

Gale cleared his throat as he asked them what subjects they taught. The three each shared that Fox is the Entrepreneurship 101 teacher, Astarion taught Government, and Mara has been the underclassman and middle school PE teacher and was hopeful that she’d still be teaching an elective class. Gale simply nodded and gave a hum of acknowledgement as he followed the friends through the school.  

The group continued in a comfortable silence before they came to Gale’s classroom. There was a note littered with neat and tight cursive as well as crude, barely legible writing taped to the slightly ajar door. 

Mr. Dekarios, please visit my our secretary to receive your keys and to get a badge.  

– Principal Gortash & Vice Principal Orin

Gale rolled his eyes and pushed the door open with his shoulder after he read the note. He looked around the classroom as he furrowed his brow. “This isn’t quite what I was expecting, if I’m being honest. It all seems a bit… small. But then again, this is a small school.” He said as he set his boxes down on his desk. He sounded increasingly more frustrated than when they had first met only minutes ago. 

“It is a little small, yes, but there’s plenty of bookshelves for you. Every literature teacher we’ve had has loved this room.” Mara said as she looked for an empty spot to place the boxes. 

Gale let out a loud sigh that caused the three to stop where they were. 

“I understand you might not understand the difference, but I am teaching advanced. placement. literature, standard literature, as well as a philosophy elective.” He said with a sharp tone in his voice. He locked his gaze with Mara as he finished his sentence. She opened her mouth to say something to remedy the situation but Gale held his hand up. “I do not wish to be rude, but I don’t see how you could understand how my situation here is simultaneously underwhelming and overwhelming. I apologize that I do not have the time to explain the difference between the two to a middle school gym teacher at the moment.” 

Fox’s eyes went wide as she listened to this stranger talk down to Mara. She took a step forward as she roughly placed the boxes down on the desk next to her. Astarion quickly took a step in front of her to keep her from lunging across the room at Gale. Mara kept her gaze on Gale as she took in everything he had just said to her, her eyebrows raised at the audacity. She startled everyone slightly as she stretched out her arms and dropped the boxes on the ground in front of her with a hard thud.  

“We’ll stop wasting your time then, Mr. Dekarios.” Mara said in a rough manner as she turned her body to let Fox and Astarion leave the room first, her fierce gaze still locked on Gale. Fox grabbed Mara’s arm on the way out. She didn’t hesitate as she followed the others after she made sure to slam the door behind her. Mara widened her stride as she stormed down the hallway, her fists clenched at her sides; earning a few worried glances from the teachers that had stepped into the hallway to see what had happened.

Astarion and Fox did their best to keep up with Mara as they tried not to jog after her. They soon realized that Mara had made a beeline for Fox’s classroom as they entered the hallway; Mara opened the door to the classroom for the couple as she huffed her way in behind them, obscenities muttered under her breath. Astarion perched himself on the desk, his legs crossed while he watched Mara pace around the classroom silently and as Fox worriedly watched her beside him. 

“So,” Astarion said, as he made sure to draw out the vowel, “what do we think of our new friend?” A dry chuckle escaped him as he finished his question. His lover was quick to smack him with a glare. Mara didn’t stop pacing as she gave Astarion the middle finger.  

“That pompous, shit eating, jackass is not our friend.” Her pacing finally came to end as she stood in front of her two friends. “He’s just another pretentious savant with an inflated ego. There’s no point in wasting anymore energy on him.” Mara said as she ran a hand through her hair. 

“Oh, boo. I was hoping you two would fight him, like you did in our college days when egotistical men wouldn’t leave the two of you alone.” Astarion said with a smile. Mara tried to keep a straight face but it quickly devolved into laughs as she and her friends reminisced on their years together.

The rest of the week passed with relative ease for Mara. She made a point to avoid the hallway Gale’s classroom was on to prevent seeing him and spent her time between the gymnasium, getting the equipment prepped for the incoming students, and Fox’s classroom as she prepared herself for another year of teaching Introduction to Ethics. She was not able to escape the new teacher all together, though. Wherever she went that weren’t her usual places, she heard talk of the man and rumors that floated around; and even worse yet, she had always listened, wanting to find out more about the mysterious teacher. As much as she hated it, her thoughts traveled back to him quite often. Mara couldn’t help but think that he was quite attractive and from what she had learned from searching his name, he was, in fact, a very accomplished literature scholar and seemed deserving of the awards that he had won throughout his career. She had a hard time convincing herself that the man she met earlier in the week was who Gale actually was and that they had just got off on the wrong foot. Mara, however, was too stubborn to be the first to admit this and had told herself he needed to be the one to apologize before she attempted to make amends. 

“I hear that he was fired because so many of his students had to cheat to pass his classes. Why that doesn’t hardly sound fair though, does it? If it’s true.. the students simply leveled the playing field if he was really that bad.” Astarion said as he organized his desk for the first day of school that was just a day away. Mara sat on the floor as she stretched and Fox kept herself busy as she rearranged Astarion’s desk the moment he finished. 

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he was a dickhead teacher. He had no problem talking to Mara the way that he did, I’m sure he’d have no problem talking down to students.” Fox said as she left a wake of chaos behind her on the desk. 

Mara opened her mouth to say something before she was interrupted by someone stood in the doorway. 

“The two of you are hardly correct. The real reason is much more salacious.” The voice came from the Psychology teacher, Jen Hallowleaf; or as she preferred to be called, Shadowheart. “He left Black Staff because he was ‘involved’ with his department head, the critically acclaimed Mystra. She was going to turn him into the ethics board after he kept asking for tenure, he couldn’t risk losing his license, so he quit and accepted a position here. Took quite a hit to his reputation from what I’ve heard.” She said as she checked over her nails. 

Mara sat up from the stretch she was in, “Shadow, how would you possibly know that?” she asked with a quizzical look. Shadowheart laughed as she told the group that she had her sources. “Really? You have sources all the way in Waterdeep? That give you accurate information?” Mara continued to push, she knew that Shadowheart had a propensity to gossip and mislead. 

Shadow scowled at Mara as she answered, “Of course I do, I can know just about anything about anyone anywhere after a few glasses of good wine.” Astarion looked impressed at her answer and Fox continued to watch her as her gaze flickered to Mara occasionally. 

Mara was off the floor now as she leaned against the wall next to the psych teacher, arms crossed over her chest. “I see, and what else do these ‘reliable sources’ say about Mr. Dekarios?” Her voice was laced in sarcasm but her features betrayed her; her eyes stilled on the woman and a slight blush formed across her cheeks as her body tensed. Fox tapped Astarion with her foot and made a subtle motion for him to look at Mara. A glance was shared between the two as they saw a glint in Mara’s eyes, unsure if it was yearning or repugnance. 

“Well,” Shadow replied, “they say he’s quite close to his mother, has a cat named Tara, I believe it was, and that he has always been quite gifted in literature. Supposedly he was Mystra’s favorite professor at one point but he wouldn’t quit asking for tenure and benefits she thought he didn’t deserve.” Shadowheart seemed quite proud of herself after having relayed such information about the mysterious newcomer in the school. 

Mara shifted on her feet as she mulled over the woman’s words and pretended, not very well, to not care about the information provided to them. Shadowheart announced her departure after she grew bored of the silence between the four of them. Both Astarion and Fox had to say something to get Mara’s attention as to pull her from her thoughts. Mara looked at the two of them and caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall between the two of them.

“Shit, it’s time to leave already. I need to finish organizing the equipment closet in the gym.” Mara grabbed her bag as she gave them a wave, “I’ll call you guys later!” The two returned the sentiment and decided to leave what they saw alone for the moment as they left the school hand in hand. 

Mara made her way through the school as she scolded herself for two different things. The first being that she didn’t finish the work she had started when she started it, which now caused her to leave work late. The second being that she had been genuinely intrigued to hear what Shadowheart had to say about Gale Dekarios. The same man who had talked down to her in such a condescending tone. The same man she had been avoiding all week. The same man that had been plaguing her thoughts when she let her mind wander. She forced her mind to focus as she approached the gym and connected her phone to the bluetooth system so she could blare her music as she finished the last of her work for the day.

As she left the gym and locked it, she heard a voice emanate behind her. It was a warm and sincere voice that she had been wanting to hear; it was Gale’s voice. 

“Hello, Mara. I hope you’ve been well this week?” She saw Gale smiling up at her as she turned around. 

“Oh, hi, Gale.” She kept her voice level and did not return his smile. “I’ve been fine.” 

Gale nodded as he adjusted his bag awkwardly and cleared his throat. “I’m glad, the week of the new semester starting is always stressful so I’m happy to hear you’ve been handling it well.” 

Mara almost broke, in that moment, wanting to ask him if she had done something wrong, but she held her resolve. She didn't answer him, which made him release an anxious laugh to fill the silence. 

“Well, I just wanted to say hello and let you know that I hope you do well with your students this year. Now if you excuse me, I must be leaving now, as you probably should be as well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” And with a small wave, he took his leave as he walked away from Mara.

‘Oh, so he really is an audacious egomaniac.’ She thought to herself as she scoffed. Mara walked to the back doors of the school and pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contact list.

“You’ll never fucking believe what just happened.”, she said into her phone the moment Fox answered her call.

[neontokyoo]

Surprisingly during my evil run I’m making more relationship progress with Gale than I am with Astarion 💀

[commander-yinello]

Help I made a dragonborn so pretty I can't stop making screenshots of them~

(Their name is Vilxirajel, Vix for friends. They don't have any friends 😂)

[smallblueandloud]

i really would love to write gelphie fanfiction but i can't get past the image of elphaba adopting dorothy which frankly is not a premise that makes any sense at all

[fishysos]

if your name is gale dekarios I hate you.

I hate you. I hate you gale I hate you. I hate you gale I hate you. I deserve better FUCK YOU GALE OF WATERDEEP.

showed me love then LEFT ME TO THE BIRDS. I HATE YOU GALE.

[pennamepersona]

the thing that finally let me understand wyll was seeing a couple posts about how he's like. unfazed in the beginning. this is normal to him

very "the day you were taken by the nautiloid was the worst day of your life. for the blade of frontiers, it was tuesday"

[sun-marie]

the restored bg3 romance banter is so fun bc i wasn't expecting it to start triggering so early.

during the tiefling party, viola slept with astarion (just for fun) and nobody is capable of being normal about it. they've been doing this weird flirty/borderline pda and like. gale and zephyr are uncomfy bc their still pining after each other. wyll's really uncomfy bc he's in love with viola. lae'zel is perplexed why she can't get anyone to sleep with her (including ruathym this run). shadowheart acts like she's gonna vom every time astarion says a line to viola. karlach has to deal with all this love in the air meanwhile she can't even shake anyone's hand.

astarion knows it isn't real. viola knows it isn't real. and all together the group really just wishes the two would just. stop.