#I just wish the same happened to Orin

[moramaisis]

I'm saying this with love but the amount of comments about Orin i see, saying she's crazy and irredeemable and horrible, while Gortash has a big fanbase is astounding. (Thorm is generally liked, too, but i can kinda get that. Still a cunt tho!) Orin literally survived a murder attempt by her own mother as a child and had to kill her to survive. She was trained as an assassin since she was a kid. Brainwashed into being Bhaal's child soldier, basically. Her dad/grandpa was a piece of shit. She, a cold-blooded murderer, has a mental breakdown when she learns that her family tree is a circle. And yet she has no sympathy from anyone, while Gortash - a manipulator, tyrant who sold Karlach into slavery, who uses real living human brains in his steel robots, uses slaves in his factory, is beloved! I love villains and villain romances, they have so much more layers, nuance, drama and are overall more interesting than heroes/hero romances; but lets be honest about our biases.

[meanbossart]

so did drow do the unholy assassination ritual or did he just kill sarevok? what was his relationship like with him pre-tadpoling?

He went along into the inner sanctum of the murder tribunal and I BELIEVE he did kill the annoying little flying elephant, but I'm not sure, to be honest, but probably.

However, I then decided that the vibes were off and proceeded to attack Sarevok instead of proceeding with the ritual. This gave way to what was probably the coolest and most cinematic fight of the game for me!

If you trigger that fight in the sanctum (where Valeria and the blood pool is) it is a fair bit more difficult than if you were to attack earlier; Sarevok has like 20 minions who help him out and keep giving him sanctuary, and if you don't know what you're doing (which I most certainly didn't) you can get your ass handed to you very easily.

... And that is very much what happened! DU drow was downed, Shadowheart was buffing like her life depended on it, and Gale was doing something vaguely important, I'm sure. Point is that it was a desperate situation. I then for the first time used Astarion's Danse Macabre spell that he got from the Necromancy of Thay, and summoned six individually controllable ghouls which proceeded to gang up on Sarevok and shred him to pieces, distracting him and giving Astarion the chance to pick DU drow's ass up and finish the fight. This was cool as hell. And frankly it was a scene as formative for the characters as any cutscene or dialogue to me, if not more so.

(The ghouls were severely nerfed at some point shortly after the release of the game, alas. Which I lament, because Astarion coming to that type of power after turning Ascension down - one much less glamorous or impressive but cool nonetheless - felt incredibly poetic to me.)

Prior to suffering from amnesia, DU drow and Sarevok's relationship was... Interesting. They kind of held each other at arms length while also being vaguely buddy-buddy with one another, they disagreed on many things regarding how the church should be ran, but ultimately came together in the pursuit of one goal - making a pair out of DU drow and Orin. DU drow, as we know, was just in love with her, and towards the end of his Bhaalist career he would have accepted reciprocation even if it had to happen under the pressure and influence of the Bhaalist cult. Sarevok, on the other hand, just wanted them to breed and produce more powerful bhaalspawn, and had no investment in either of their feelings.

DU drow went from finding Sarevok's methods reprehensible to completely turning a blind eye to them. He recognized that Sarevok only wanted babies out of the arrangement and very much treated Orin unfavorably for being the difficult party. Believe it or not, there was a point where DU drow put her wishes first and his personal feelings second.

Then, as the years went on and so did the isolation and brain-washing, DU drow grew desperate enough to not only allow, but encourage Sarevok to put the pressure on Orin to give into his wishes, even if it never worked.

I also believe DU drow modeled himself off of Sarevok a lot. He was kind of an uncle-like figure to him that he both mocked for his antiquate beliefs WRT to running the cult, but also aspired to replace and to eventually instill the same fear as he once did.

[ofstarsandvibranium]

Guarded Desires: Part 6

Fandom: Star Wars - The Acolyte

Pairing: Padawan!Qimir x Princess!Reader

Summary: After an assassination attempt on your mother, she’s asked a favor from the Jedi Council to watch over you and your family until the assailant has been caught. As a result, your mother’s old friend, Master Vernestra, has her padawan, Qimir, be your bodyguard. Based off my imagine here.

Series Masterlist

Because you're staying at the Jedi Temple, Vernestra as well as your parents thought it unnecessary for Qimir and the other Jedi to be accompanying you during your stay. You found this to be a blessing since you still can't stop thinking about your almost kiss with Qimir.

Staying at the Temple was your family, Orin, Lieutenant Kael, and a few other men from the King's Guard. Just as extra protection while the rest of the King's Guard as well as a few Jedi stayed at the palace to continue working on investigating the attacks.

At first, you were in awe of staying at the Jedi Temple, however, you've been there for a week now and you're growing restless.

You watch Qimir and other Jedi duel in the training area below. You're always in awe of how swift and quick he moves. Each block, dodge, and strike come so easily to him.

You prop your arm up on the parapet and rest your head in your hand. Your eyes are so focused on Qimir, you don't notice Orin coming up behind you until he pokes your side, causing you to yelp. The sound echoes through the dome, causing Qimir to look up. You scurry out of view as Orin's laugh echoes.

You slap his chest, "What is wrong with you, Or?!"

He smirks at you, his brown eyes twinkling with mischief, "You were so focused on your Jedi that you didn't even hear me call your name."

You look away from him and mumble, "He's not my Jedi."

"But you wish he was," he gives you a teasing poke again and you slap his hand away.

"Quit it."

Orin snorts and goes back to the parapet glancing down as Qimir duels another opponent. You join Orin's side and your eyes immediately go back to Qimir.

"I don't blame you for crushing on the Jedi. He's a good fighter." Orin nods to Qimir right as he disarms his opponent, his staff pointed at his fellow Jedi's face.

You shove at Orin as he laughs again, "Stop saying that!" The noise you make, smacking at Orin's arms, cause Qimir to get distracted. He looks up and sees you with Orin and, for some reason, a pit forms in his stomach.

Noticing his distracted state, Qimir's opponent takes his staff, drops down and swipes at his feet. Qimir falls to the ground with a thud, his opponent pointing his own staff back at him, a smirk on his lips.

You immediately turn back to Qimir and give him a sorry look and a small wave. He gives you a small embarrassed smile and waves back.

"I think that's enough for today," Master Eldric, one of the Jedis that runs the Temple. He looks at Qimir as his gets back to his feet, "Qimir, I'm sure you know better than to get distracted during a duel."

He gulps and nods in shame, "Yes, Master Eldric. Won't happen again."

He looks up at the parapet and watches as Orin leads you away, his hand on your lower back. The sight causing Qimir to clench his fists tight.

___________________________

At dinner, you and your family eat in silence. There isn't much to share with each other. All of your days have been the same. Wake up, eat, wander, eat, wander more, eat, sleep, then repeat.

"You've been spending more time with Orin, I hear," you father says as he shovels food into his mouth, the image of something very un-kingly.

You shrug, "I suppose. He's been checking on me a lot, your doing, I presume."

"Better him than that young Jedi."

You sigh, placing your utensils down, "Papa, as I've said before, Qimir and I are just friends. I-" you take a moment to let out a deep breath, "Even if I did have feelings for him, I know we can never be together. Jedis don't do attachments."

"And yet he'd been attached to your hip since the moment you met," your father retorts in disdain.

You start to feel pressure on your chest. Your heart pounding hard and you start to hyperventilate. You let out a shaky breath and push your plate away from you, "I'm finished. May I be excused?" you ask your mother.

Sensing your need to distance from your father, she nods, "You're excused."

"Thank you," you murmur and quickly exit the dining area.

You're swift to leave the area and head outside to a balcony. It's night time and the air is cool, but not uncomfortable. There's a slight breeze, but it's refreshing. You stare out to the mountains in the distance. The Jedi Temple hidden within them.

You close your eyes, listening to the trees swaying, the calls of the creatures within them. You take in the smell of the fresh air, inhaling through your nose, and exhaling through your mouth.

You continue this pattern until your pounding heart decreases to its usual beat. You're no longer struggling to breathe. You let out one more deep breath before opening your eyes.

You look up and stare at the stars, the moons of Netharos Prime full this night.

You hear someone clear their throat and you look over your shoulder, "Qimir," you say his name in a whisper.

"I didn't mean to disturb you," he slowly approaches you, "I was coming back from dinner and saw you here. Are you okay?"

You shrug, "As okay anyone can be after having their home attacked."

"You know that's what I meant, Princess."

You look away from him and back up at the stars, "Do you sometimes wish you can live a different life? One without the duties and responsibilities you have?"

"I haven't until recently," he rests his elbows on the parapet and stares up at the sky, "We should talk about that night."

"There isn't much to talk about. We almost kissed, not a big deal."

Qimir straightens up and looks at you, "It is a big deal, Y/N! I'm not supposed to form attachments! I've been training my whole life to be a Jedi and then-" he pauses, "-then I met you and, for the first time in my life, I didn't want to be a Jedi."

You look at Qimir, searching his eyes to see if there's a sliver of jesting. There isn't.

Qimir reaches up and cups your face with his hand. You slowly grip his arm ready to yank it away, "We can't, Qimir."

"I know," he murmurs, "But...just one kiss. Just-Just let me have this one kiss. So I can at least know how it feels to be close to you in that way."

You want to pull away. You should pull away. But you don't. Instead, you lean in closer. Your lips hovering over Qimir's, "Just one," you whisper and press your lips to his.

Qimir gently holds your face in his hands as he kisses you and you kiss him. Your mouths move together with passion and desperation. Your fingers dig into Qimir's arm as you try to ground yourself.

You've kissed people before, but none of those kisses could compare to this. There's passion, fire, desire, and yearning weaving around you and Qimir.

He doesn't want to pull away, but he does anyway. It physically pains him to as he gasps for air and creates distance between you two. His chest is heaving and his lips slightly puckered. You're in a similar state, except your eyes are wide.

You immediately push past him and rush down the hall, desperate to get as far away from Qimir as possible, leaving him a state of further confliction and frustration.

[daemon-in-my-head]

PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT BLOODBORNE AU

I knew this would catch one I mean of course I'd gladly talk about the fun AU shenanigans.

I haven't poured as much thought into it yet as I did with the Hellsing AU but I have been pondering where or who would resemble my beloveds closely (and which fits they'd absolutely slay) and so far I've got the following trains of thought (it escalated apologies)

Gortash; kinda split here. On one hand if I talked about an orphan who was recruited into a grand scheme and conducts horrible human experiments under the guise of progress of the human race you couldn't differentiate if I'm talking about a choir member or Gortash, on the other hand he's just giving me massive Laurence vibes. Learning from the previous generation and setting out to do better only to fucking fumble it? Subconsciously (allegedly) fucking over his friend and partner and dooming him to something worse than death? All of that under the misguided belief of progress and stemming from the geniune wish to help out humanity in a very twisted way? Yeah well that's Gortash too. That's very much him. Especially the strong connection to the first Hunters and Gehrman........ On the other hand there's also Micolash but I'm feeling the vibes less with him or the school in general cuz they're rly just scrupulous nerds who fuck around for the fun of it, they don't have that "doing it for the greater good" vibe yk?

Fine; unfortunately (or fortunately?) the same issue that I have with Gortash applies to him too except he'd definitely belong to the non church hunters. Ignoring the fact that Gehrman's lament, for lack of proper title, was a major source of inspiration for that guy, unwillingly getting locked in a horrible situation and lacking all autonomy is just his thing AND the connection with Laurence and Flora? Then again, hunting with purpose and loosing all his reason but still being painfully aware of his familial bonds even in that state aka Father Gascoigne is also very him. Especially the blindfold and recoiling when you play the melody to him.... I mean he sort of shares the same fate as him too so hah. And both have insane fits. How am I meant to make decisions when I have such great choices?

Nil; okay well she's actually easy for once, not only cuz I still have a crush on Lady Maria but a remorseful hunter who actually tries to do good AND presumably the offspring of vilebloods aka very not human creatures who just so happen to have a matriarchy? Seeing the faults in one's way and trying to do better, throwing away bloodstained weaponry as they realise? Yeah that's Nil and I'll take any excuse to stare at Maria's armor for hours on end.

Ketheric; another hard one tbh. He's very Father Gascoigne but also very not him? Like Gascoigne is (presumably) a legitimately nice family guy and Ketheric is decidedly not. On the other hand this "doing what must be done" kinda vibe does apply... Also non of the main factions do apply to him. On second thought though I can see him being associated with the fishing hamlet? Like clinging despreatly to Kos while cursing everyone else for the misfortune they had to experience. Being nothing more than collateral damage on some other maniacs hunt for insight and progress... That does kinda fit I think?

Orin; Fake Iosekfa. Positively delusional but actually getting results done after everyone else fumbled it AND getting fucked over by that random guy who just couldn't stop themselves from barging in and getting involved? The whole impersonation thing? "Artful" human experiments? Yeah I do see her pulling a Josekfa. Also her being vaguely associated with the church but taking their research and running with it is quite similar to her being a Bhaalist but instead of doing it like Durge she returned to the roots of the faith and takes no nonsense from nobody already works well but considering in this case it would be Gort and not Durge associated with the Church this gives the whole thing another level of spice and her dynamic with Gort, who's very similar to her, is notoriously not explored enough so that's an added bonus. Then again unorthodox ways and a lot of resentment is also very vileblood/queen Annalise as is the very "looks human but is absolutely not". And being stuck in a position of presumed power while actually having none whatsoever is also very Orin... Plus I do like her fit.

Yeah so overall still needs a lot of pondering and the only vague sketch I have is Nil my beloved cuz everyone else is just, not there yet.

[archduchessgortash]

Let's talk about the Prayer for Forgiveness:

I personally never care too much about spoilers. Thus, I knew about this document long before I ever found it in-game. Many fans laud it as irrefutable proof of Durgetash being canon. Whether it is or isn't holds no relevance on what I wish to discuss.

Spoilers below the cut.

The only proof of Durgetash that I need is the look on Gortash's face when Durge strolls into the coronation alone. How Durge truly felt is never fully remembered, allowing players to blissfully headcanon the past relationship to our hearts' content.

For my part, I was always more perturbed by how utterly foolish it seemed for Durge to have been carrying evidence of their intended betrayal on their person during Orin's attack than I was concerned about dissecting every word in the Prayer for Forgiveness for the sake of my favorite ship.

When I did find it, I thought it was interesting that certain information about the document was and wasn't on the Baldur's Gate 3 wiki.

On my most recent playthrough, I decided it was time to take some screenshots and make a post about it.

First off, Durge doesn't know yet that Orin is their sibling when they find it, and it is neither signed nor does the in-game item description offer any indication that Durge wrote it. There's also no narrator response or journal update when we read or pick it up.

While it is correct that the Dark Urge wrote this document, it's worth noting that when it is found, an unspoilered player would not yet be privy to that information.

We find it in the Mind Flayer colony beneath Moonrise Towers, on a workbench that is clearly NOT Gortash's, in spite of the ill-informed assertions of some fans.

See evidence below, located on the very same workbench:

Gortash designed the Mind-Archive Interface and certainly used it, but the workspace in which we find the document is, in fact, Balthazar's.

The Prayer For Forgiveness is located here, on Balthazar's workbench:

In close proximity to this item:

More on that in a bit. 😉

Depending on which doors our party chose to explore first in the colony, we either just met or will soon meet this piece of work:

Kressa confirms that Durge could not or at the very least did not communicate verbally while she was doing her experiments on them.

Obviously, that's changed between the time of their departure and waking up on the Nautiloid, as Durge complains aloud about their headache upon waking. They also communicate with Us, Lae'zel, and Shadowheart via both their tadpole and their voice.

Kressa also informs us that Durge was not like other thralls.

Durge fought like the Hells against their captivity.

Kressa's Mistress of Souls' Research Log also informs us that Durge was tadpoled differently than all the others.

We don't learn until much later that the unusual method that Kressa noted was Orin prying open a hole she'd stabbed in Durge's skull to let the tadpole in.

Now... a small tangent that I personally use to explain this scene for a Durge playthrough:

Since this happens before we choose our origin, and in the course of the story, Durge finds out they weren't originally tadpoled on the ship like the rest of the party, this scene starts to feel incongruent with the reality of playing as Durge. When they come across the pod they broke out of near where we find Mizora, I like to think that why both memories exist is that Durge's healing brain might have continued to retain greater control, or at least a rebellious streak, even without the Artefact protecting them.

If they were thrashing and fighting in their pod or resisting in any way, it wouldn't surprise me if the Emperor forced them to take a second tadpole via the proper route of insertion, especially since Empy wants all characters to be teeming with tadpoles anyhow.

When one considers that the more tadpoles consumed, the harder it is both to refuse the Astral Tadpole and resist the forced mind flayer transformation that can happen in one of the evil endings, it makes even more sense that Durge already has more than one tadpole.

It was required just to keep them leashed.

Now, about the Resonance Stone...

'Seized by great joy, affected entity is more energized and also more mentally compliant.'

The Steeped in Bliss condition provided the explanation that I needed for why the Prayer for Forgiveness even exists as a document we can find. Durge wasn't carrying it around with them. Balthazar used the Resonance Stone to make them write it, most likely as a confession about their intended betrayal. I feel pretty confident in this interpretation as making the most logical sense.

In my opinion, Balthazar's post-script doesn't have any Durgetash connotations. It's there in order for Dark Urge players to connect the dots and realize that their character wrote it after they find out Orin is their sibling.

My own post-script:

Does the Prayer for Forgiveness also offer evidence that Durge might have had emotions about Enver Gortash?

I think so, but it can be interpreted in too many different ways for me to use it as some kind of Durgetash Holy Grail.

As I've said before, Gortash's face is the Holy Grail of Durgetash.

The only other character that can get anything close to the kind of visible affection from his expression is Karlach, on an Origin run, when she chooses to ally with him. He's pleased as punch that his old bodyguard isn't holding a grudge, but he's a total dick if she gives up the stones, revealing his true opinions about her in his comments.

He doesn't say spiteful lines to Durge even when they've freed the prisoners at the Iron Throne and blown up the Steel Watch Foundry, destroying everything he's built.

For Durge... Gortash hesitates.

If you made it here, thanks for reading! 🙂

[animentality]

Wishing Gortash hadn’t massacred a room full of people couldn’t be me because the environmental storytelling of it is SO GOOD. You leave the great big coronation hall packed and lively, everyone cheering for their new archduke. You get back out into the city, track down Orin, get your hands on her netherstone. You return to the coronation hall, the room loads in, and wham. The entire hall strewn with blood and corpses. Dead silent. Cultists in full Banite regalia milling around openly, unconcerned. You realise that not a single one of those nobles left the hall after the coronation, after you did, because every single one is lying slaughtered where they were. And it is very very obvious that this is the work of the new archduke who you allied yourself with. For me, it was a moment of oh god, this guy is serious.

And like. You can find TONS and tons and tons of damning evidence for how horrible and corrupt and evil Gortash is all over the city, there is not a single corner of it untouched by him in some way. You have the families of an enslaved labour force imprisoned and tortured. You have that same enslaved labour force dressed up in shock collars! You have a scheme to distribute teddy bears stuffed with explosives, targeting refugee children, just for the sake of instilling more and more fear in the public. And you do get to understand pretty well that these things are all being done not by someone who just delights in violence and chaos the way Orin does, but as the utterly dispassionate, pragmatic ventures of a guy who genuinely does not see people as people (and rather as objects, tools, currency - shapes that might walk and talk but ultimately mean nothing).

But for me personally, even on top of ALL of that, no display of Gortash’s villainy made more of an impact than walking into that room as his ally.

Not because I give a shit about any of the actual nobles themselves, or think it’s technically worse than say giving explosive toys to refugee children, etc. But the slaughter of the patriars has such an impact for me because it’s not talked about. You can’t find a million clues about it or stop it from happening. Talk to any of the Banite guards and they simply tell you point blank what happened. It’s not abstract. It’s not preventable. It happens, and it’s a cold whack in the face for the unwitting player who may have earnestly allied with him. It’s the game saying “this is your ally, by the way, in case you weren’t aware. Even if you foiled his other little plots - found the undetonated teddy bears, freed the Gondians, etc - don’t think that was enough, because this is who he is.”

(And because we don’t SEE it happen, just the aftermath? You get to wonder. Did Gortash step out before this happened? Or did he stand back and watch? Did he find it messy, or did he smile as he watched his steel watchers rip people in half? Did it make him feel powerful? We can probably guess the answers to these questions.)

Anyway Gortash is SUCH a good character and I love him. And if Durge had all their faculties walking into that room and seeing all the murdered people would have brought a tear to their eye, they’d be so proud of him lol

OOOOOooooh absolutely brutally accurate description of Gortash, and YES.

That is the beauty of Gortash's evil. His pragmatism.

The way he tries to pretend he's different than you and Orin, but you can call him out, and say, you're just as bad as us.

And I would LOVE to know if he was there when he killed the patriars too.

He acts like he's so "above it all." Like he's not a Bhaalspawn, killing for pleasure...but sweetie, you are not any different just because you have a Steel Watcher crush a child rather than dissect one.

The people you try to save when you're at the Steel Watch Foundry? Those poor old people and children and families?

All of them are pretty fucking brutal. The Steel Watch are fucking awful. They're not benign robots. They are cruel and cold and emotionless, and they aren't there to protect, only subjugate.

And they're a lot like Gortash himself.

Frigid, with a black and white understanding of right and wrong, only it's flipped, and submitting to authority is the only "right" and any resistance is "wrong" and needs to be destroyed.

And just to go back to him believing he's so "above" the Chosens of Bhaal, or even everyone in general...even with Karlach, when she's enraged, and hurt, over being sold and enslaved, he says, well it was for your own good, my dear girl, let bygones be bygones - stop lying, Gort!

stop pretending you're so above everyone else, that you're this calm, logical man, whose endeavors are heroic, even noble.

They aren't.

You're getting back at a world that abandoned you.

Your entire life revolves around revenge, sadism, and wanton cruelty.

You are not saving anyone. You are dooming those who made you this way.

And that's why I like him.

He is just so...kickable. And evil.

And disgusting.

And I adore him.

He is built wrong, and I like it.

[backonrepeat]

I know most everyone headcannons that the Dark Urge and Gortash fucked nasty pre-game, and while I'm 100% there for their toxic couple shanenigans and kinky dynamics, please consider this alternative: They were not fucking pre-game. Gortash was still completely infatuated with Durge and Durge still admired Gortash greatly (as per the infamous letter). So, no sex but tons of UST during their villainous get togethers (and poor Ketheric wishing for the sweet release of death after having to deal with the two idiots making cow eyes at each other).

Then cannon happens, Orin lobotomises Durge, and Gortash is left alone to mourn. When the time for the coronation comes, he's obviously delighted to be reunited with his crush, amnesia and all, and that's why he's like *that*

After that display (and the whole "favourite assassin" and "nearest and dearest"), Durge reaches the same conclusion we all did: they and Gortash were definitely fucking before Orin happened. And they are confused because he's a bad guy, and he betrayed Karlach, but at the same time he looks and sounds familiar, and maybe in their scrambled up brain Durge still has a faint memory of affection for him, and can't help but find the man attractive. Cue, plan to seduce Gortash to get information and/or ensure his cooperation.

Like, imagine Durge meeting with Gortash privately and just, going full on seduction mode, all "oh, Enver~, let's be allies" and smooching him within like 5minutes of entering the room.

Gortash obviously knows something is up, but at the same time he is getting what he has wanted for so so long and just goes along with it. Maybe the amnesia was not such a bad thing? Like Ketheric is dead, Durge seems keen to dispose of Orin as well, and he now gets the alliance AND sex on top of it?

(Bonus: this is redemption Durge, and they are more affectionate and sweet, and although Gortash really doesn't want to like it he's a poor touch-starved bastard and starts enjoying the softer touches despite himself)

This can then go either the silly route (two emotionally stunted morons playing the seduction game until they both catch feelings real bad) or the tragic route (where Durge betrays and kills Gortash, and it hurts so much more because of it)

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Destinytober24: Day 3 - Wish

So... this prompt happens to also be the name of one of my favourite Nine Inch Nails songs...

Link to Ao3 if you prefer to read it there

The Man with No Name's equally nameless ghost watches silently as more alcohol pours into the glass, ever impressed by its chosen's ability to dance along the edge of alcohol poisoning for longer than seems physically possible.

The ghost has not yet had its ability to speak removed. Yet it is silent just the same.

Other ghosts have deep emotional bonds with their chosen. Other ghosts love their chosen. Other ghosts have chosen who are decent people. Not this one. Not here. Not now.

Orin was a chance at salvation. He blew it. He blew it twice, the bastard. Would it kill him to stop lying for five minutes? Probably. Then he'd have to stop lying to himself.

The glass is empty again. The ghost watches it refill.

"Why did it have to be her?" his chosen asks, slurring the words.

The ghost does not answer.

"Anyone but her. Wouldn't have mattered. I wouldn't care."

The ghost looks around. They are in a storeroom. His chosen crawled in through a window and popped open a shipping crate. There is more than enough alcohol to kill the man a hundred times. The ghost wonders if he will go through it all.

Now the Man with No Name sits, feet splayed out in front of him, his back to a crate, eight bottles in. Why does he bother with the glass at all? Perhaps it is a texture thing, or something to do with having hands. The ghost does not know.

"Wish there was something real. Something true," the man says, the words barely intelligible.

He is staring straight ahead. The ghost moves closer. No reaction. The man is likely blind at this point.

A few minutes later he is dead.

A few minutes after that, the Man with No Name's ghost resurrects him and dodges a flailing hand.

"Fuck you," the nameless man snarls with the first breath of his newest life.

The ghost trails off around a corner and waits to hear the sound of alcohol refilling a glass before returning.

"You should talk to someone," the ghost finally speaks.

"You know me, I hate everyone."

"You didn't hate her."

"I do now."

"You could find someone else."

"Never gonna be anyone else. Not now. Not ever. This wasn't supposed to happen. And it sure as hell ain't happenin' again."

"You could go after her."

The ghost is not fast enough to dodge the bottle but it does manage to spin away from the fist that follows it.

It transmats out at the first crackle of Arc energy.

When the ghost rematerializes, the Man with No Name is once more too drunk to stand. The nameless ghost hovers at eye-level.

"I want out," the man says.

"Out of what?"

"Here. This. Everything."

"Final Death?"

"Nah. There's gotta be something else. Something out there. Somewhere… far away from here."

"If you want to leave the system you'll need a crew."

Link to the entire month's worth of prompts on Ao3, posted daily.

[soulacheron]

✧ For @tobytheeggo for Orin's and Santino's wedding!

✧ I wish you all the best! I hope you'll be happy together and take care of each other until the end. I'll be here whenever you'll need me.

✧ Here is my gift for you, I hope you'll like it! ^ ^

❀ Colorful Flowers ❀

“Do you think the roses would look pretty in the garden?”

Acheron looked over at Santino, watching the garden that was once colorful with different flowers, but after everything that had happened, the colors faded away. The sunset made them look colorful only for some time, but it wasn't real.

“I think so, yes. You used to have roses, if I remember correctly?” Santino told him about how he used to help his mother with the roses, and how beautiful they were. From darker red ones to lighter ones.

“Yes,” Santino sighed, “I think I want to have them again. I fired all gardeners… maybe I should bring them back.” It was an act out of anger that he fired them, once the flowers withered, he lost hope the garden would ever look the same.

“Of course,” Acheron agreed. “Until then, I can help if you want to.” He smiled, knowing he has the power to help him.

“Right, you can do anything. I almost forgot,” Santino said. Sometimes, Acheron would act more like a real person than the demon he was. A friend Santino could trust with his life. “I'd like to see what you can do.”

“Alright, how about we start tomorrow? It'll be a nicer day,” Acheron offered, patting Santino’s shoulder.

“Sure, tomorrow it is.”

Santino wasn't exactly sure what he was expecting, he knew what Acheron was capable of but he kept surprising him with new things. He was looking forward to tomorrow. Perhaps it was time for a change.

The following morning, Santino had a meeting in two hours and he had to get there early, he didn't even check where Acheron was, he was just getting ready and tried to finish his first coffee of the day. He wanted to get some fresh air before going to the meeting, and the garden was the best place for that, but this time, he paused and wondered if he was still dreaming.

“Good morning, Master. I managed to make the garden feel more alive.” Acheron was standing in front of a new bush of red roses and next to them and all over the garden were flowers Santino thought he would never see again.

“What…” Santino murmured, looking around in disbelief, but there was something else he was feeling. Happiness, it felt a bit weird after so long, but it was a warm feeling he wanted to embrace. “This is amazing… this… it looks just like it used to.”

Acheron chuckled, fixing his own tie. Seeing his master happy was the best thing he could wish for. “I'm very glad you like it, I tried my best.”

The roses were the ones that caught Santino's attention the most. He walked closer to the bush, gently touching the petals, admiring them. “Fascinating, they look exactly like the previous ones.”

“I made sure they did.”

Finally, the garden looked colorful and happier, like it used to and it looked. Acheron walked through the garden with Santino, listening as his master talked about the good sides of his childhood and how he used to spend a lot of time here.

“Thank you, Acheron. It would've taken much longer to grow everything again and they probably wouldn't look like this. This is perfect.” Santino couldn't stop looking at every flower he noticed.

“I hope you'll spend more time here. I think it could help you relax from work,” Acheron said, “Also, it's a new beginning. Who knows what the future will bring us.”

“You're right. It's a new start,” Santino smiled, “You always amaze me with your abilities.”

Acheron chuckled softly, “And I'll continue to do so, Master.” He bowed his head in respect, admiring his master as they continued to talk and walk… until Santino remembered he had a meeting.

[moonselune]

is minthara your fav companion? if so, why? i love seeing the reasons people pick their favs its so interesting :D

Ooof okay

TLDR: She is a badass and the type of character I wish was portrayed more in media especially when I was growing up. She is everything I aspire to be, strong confident girlboss and I relate to her heavily. And she's super fucking hot.

This explanation below could be triggering for some people so if you are not comfortable with CSA or CPTSD go look after yourself and watch the animated BG3 shorts xoxo

Sorry nonnie, you probably weren't expecting this 😂

So the reason I love Minthara so much is because she is my first significant encounter of female on female SA being represented, and the first I have related to a character so deeply.

I know the Orin stuff is never clarified and up for interpretation but it is fair to say Orin abused Minthara in some way. It is specifically the way Minthara copes is how I relate to her. She is angry, furious, she wants revenge, she is embarrassed/irritated that anyone could take advantage of her that way.

When I realised what was happening to me, I felt the same and that anger I felt was something that people around me didn't accept. They didn't like that I was reacting to it (which is insane I know but it's quite common) and they didn't like how angry I was. I was even called 'bloodthirsty', and it forever changed my relationships with family members.

I don't want to get into any specifics because it is something I have moved past and put the work in, and specifics won't help anyone lmao - so dw guys I'm good!

Anyways I am a very ambitious person and that part of me (used to) despised myself for letting that happen to me, to let it affect me. I was quickly assessed and they found that I had CPTSD, which is a lifelong mental disability, I had manage it there was no quick fix and there would never be a 'fix'.

(I would really recommend looking up the difference between CPTSD and PTSD as it they are commonly mixed up. Link here xox )

But I had an education to complete, university to get to, I had big plans. And eventually I did all that, I completed my education, and higher education and I have big plans.

If anyone is still reading they are probably like - what does this have to do with our lord and saviour miss sexy drow lady Minthara?

Well Minthara was the first woman I saw have a similar reaction to me, she was a mix of fury and shame, but her anger was so palpable I could really relate to it. And throughout it all she's like "yea so when I rule the underdark" or "when I take over this cult" and I'm just like fuck yeah you go!

Minthara has that awareness that yes this super fucked up thing happened to me and I am going to get my revenge, but I'm also going to take over the world so can we just get to it?

I could list the other million reasons why I love her but this is the main one. I have some artwork of her that I bought of etsy that I have hung up and whenever I'm feeling down I just look at her and go - what would our lord and saviour miss sexy drow lady Minthara do right now? (wwolasmsdlmdrn)

The answer would canonically probably be illegal but hey still fun to think about.

Anyway hope this kind of illuminates why Minthara is my favourite character, definitely not the response nonnie or anyone was expecting.

Of course this is all just based on my interpretation, and if anything you have read in this post has made you feel upset or a sort of way please reach out to appropriate services (not me I am not trained or equipped to help).

Love you all - Seluney xox

[marinas-ashtray]

Two: The creek

Of course as soon as I got home the other day my mom interrogated me about making friends and how I liked the area. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it’s basically identical to Williamsburg. I haven't done much exploring since I got here, I haven't had the energy. 

Chris, my stepdad, has been trying really hard to connect recently but it’s not really working. It’s all too soon. I don’t dislike him at all, he’s nice and makes my mom happy.  He gave us Andy, who’s seven now and objectively the coolest person in the house. But my dad died a few months ago and I moved in here with them for school. What else was I supposed to do? I can't afford to get my own apartment and I wanted to avoid living in the dorms if possible. Thankfully they live near the University. 

This morning mom made breakfast for us before she took Andy to school. 

“How was your first day of classes yesterday honey?” She asked in her normal sweet tone. She was standing in front of the stove making eggs and Chris was right next to her making bacon and toast. I don't eat bacon.

I hesitated to tell her about Orin and the manhole cover but that's the only thing that happened yesterday worth noting. So I told her. 

“I met this guy before class, his name is Orin. He’s weird, he led me into the woods and showed me a manhole cover.” I tried to make it sound less odd than it actually was. Her clearly confused gaze told me I had not succeeded. She placed my portion of eggs, bacon, and toast onto a plate and handed it to me. 

“Why did you follow him?” Chris asked as he sat across from me with his mug in hand. It was a mug I had made him in my 4th grade art class, before him and mom got married. It seemed well worn. A small chip in the rim and slightly faded glaze. “You need to be more careful.”

I didn't have a good answer so I just shrugged as I shoved bacon into my mouth, trying my best not to cringe at the taste. “Dunno, just felt like it. I was bored.”

There was no more talk about it. Andy came down in an outfit he had clearly picked out himself. A spiderman shirt with ill fitting green shorts and mismatched crocs. Mom’s raising him very differently than how I was. She lets him express himself and lets him be a free spirit. It’s cute, I just wish I had been allowed to do the same. 

She wasn’t ever mean to me, she was great. She just never liked how I dressed. She still doesn't. She always comments on my piercings (I don't even have that many) and the oversizedness of my clothes. But I like them, they’re comfy and I think I look cool. 

Andy waddled to his seat and started talking a mile a minute about a friend at school and how today was “gonna be the most epic day ever.”

I cleaned both his plate and mine. 

“What plans do you have today, Rina?” Mom asked, wiping down the table. 

“I’m meeting with Orin to hangout,” He invited me to go hangout with his friend, Ethan. I figured it could be fun. He said he was gonna show me around all the fun and niche hangout spots in town and I figured it could be fun. “I have class before that though, College Algebra and Drawing 1.” 

“Sounds busy, I hope you have fun. Will you be home for dinner?” She smiled, carefully. I can’t tell if it’s genuine.

“I will,” I said, and I meant it. She’s trying, even if everything feels like walking on glass.

I helped her clean up while Chris got Andy ready for school. Then I walked them out and headed off to campus.

Nothing major happened in class. Syllabus day, classic. But I did meet a girl in Drawing 1, Cassie. Pink hair, nice smile. She lent me a pen. That’s probably the highlight of my academic career so far.

-

Orin picked me up at the house once I got back from class. I heard him coming before I saw him. He was blaring and jamming out to David Bowie like it was a heavy metal song. His car is a faded red Corolla from the early 2000s. I noticed a Bigfoot sticker on his rear window and an alien bumper sticker below his license plate as I approached it.

As I opened the passenger door I was greeted with the strong smell of old weed and lemon. Like lemon-scented cleaner. To sit down, I had to move a small stack of DC comics. Red Hood: The Hill, and Absolute Batman. 

He greeted me with a wide smile. “Hey dude, whats up!”

“Nice chariot” I snarked

“Hell yeah, man, it’s my older brother’s old car. A 2001 Corolla. A classic.” He was way too proud and excited of this beat up car. 

“This is a death trap,” I said as I struggled to get the seatbelt to latch. Only adding to the creeping anxiety that had been growing in my chest since he said he was on his way. Fear-type anxiety or excited anxiety, I couldn't yet tell.

“Also, Aux is broken, and I don’t have Bluetooth. We only listen to CDs in here.” He reached into his back seat, moved what seemed to be a Wolverine action figure, still in the box, and grabbed a huge case full of CDs. There was pretty much every genre in here. N.W.A, Slipknot, Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, and of course, every David Bowie CD ever put out. But there was nothing after 2002. I shuffled through them until I found a CD labeled “Orin’s Zombie Apocalypse Playlist!!!!” in bold Sharpie letters. Of course, this is the one I pick.

I pop it in as he pulls away from the curb. I am greeted with some old, generic, dad rock. It could be Nickelback? I don't know, I'm not a fan of them.

We talk about our days for a while but soon into our drive we stop at an old bookstore with a very tall man sitting on the bench outside of it. 

“ETHAN!” Orin yells, rolling down the window as he pulls up in front of the bench.

Ethan stands, and I see how overwhelmingly tall he is. Easily 6 '5 and he is built like Saquon Barkley. His hair was buzzed short, and his smile was the kind of smile you only have when the world has told you “yes” a lot. He strolled on over, shoulders and head back.

“Damn, you actually showed up on time,” he said to Orin, clapping him on the shoulder as he sat in the seat behind me. Then he noticed me. “And you brought someone.” His cologne masked the scent of weed and cleaner in the car. I was grateful for it.

His gaze moved over me, curious, amused, maybe a little too slow, but not in a gross way. The kind of look people give when they’re used to being the most interesting person in the room.

“This her?” he asked.

“Marina,” I said before Orin could introduce me like I wasn’t there.

“Marina,” Ethan repeated, like he was testing how it felt in his mouth. “Pretty name. Orin said you were cool, but he’s prone to exaggeration.”

“And you’re prone to talking too much,” Orin retorted, “where should we take her first? The river or the tracks?” 

“Let's take her to the river.” 

The “river” turned out to be a glorified creek, the kind of place you’d step into by accident while trying to get somewhere actually interesting. It trickled lazily through a shallow dip in the woods, littered with rocks, soda cans, and old shopping cart with a slab of wood on it. Maybe a makeshift table. Still, it was kind of peaceful in a grimy, forgotten way. The sun filtered through the trees in pale stripes, casting flickering reflections on the water like it was trying to pretend it had more depth than it did.

“This is the magical river you both hyped up so much?” I was underwhelmed, again. 

“It’s got character,” Orin insisted, kicking a rock into the water. It made a weak splash.

Ethan laughed behind me, hands in his hoodie pockets as he stepped around a muddy patch. “You gotta understand, Marina. Orin’s been coming out here since we were in middle school. He thinks it’s sacred or something.” He pulls his hand out of his pocket, revealing a bag with a well rolled paper surrounded by flecks of green. 

A smile crept on my face. “Y’all smoke?” I took a few steps closer to Ethan, going around the same muddy patch. 

“Why else would we hang out in the woods by this dinky creek.” Orin laughed, pulling out the same lighter from yesterday. For half a second, my chest tightened, but I'm choosing to ignore it.

We sat on the soft ground, it was a little damp, but Orin laid down a towel, so it worked out well. Ethan pulled out the weed and handed the blunt to Orin. Orin lit it and took one long pull. The smoke curled around us as he exhaled.

Chest tight. Remember, we are ignoring it.

When he handed it to me, I hesitated. It’d been a minute since I smoked anything other than cigs. But I took it and copied what Orin did. The smoke clung to the lemon-weed smell already baked into my hoodie. I closed my eyes for a second, just listening to the soft ripple of water, the creak of trees above, the murmuring of two boys who'd clearly known each other forever.

Ethan was stretched out like he owned the dirt, leaning back on his elbows, still talking. He had one of those voices that carried, always ready for the punchline, even if there wasn’t one.

“So,” he said, eventually turning to me, “what are you studying?”

“Illustration, I want to be a tattoo artist, you?” I asked, passing the blunt to him.

“Criminal justice, I want to be a lawyer, like my mom.” He said, taking a hit. 

“But you smoke?” 

“God forbid a man has hobbies.” He laughed, a wall of smoke hitting me in the face.

We sat by the creek for a while. The conversation drifted the way the water did slow, a little aimless, but never still for too long. The creek had begun to grow on me. Clearly, they were the only ones who came down here. Peaceful, quiet, and a pretty enough area to enjoy your high.

Orin was picking up small rocks and inspecting them like they might be ancient artifacts. “This one looks like a tooth,” he said, holding it up to the sunlight. “Probably cursed.”

Ethan made a noise like a dying bird. “Bro, why is everything with you cursed? One day you’re gonna manifest something actually haunted and I’m not saving you.”

“I don’t need saving,” Orin replied, flipping the rock into the creek. “I’ll simply join the ghosts.”

“You would,” I said, flicking ash off the end of the half gone blunt. “You’d be the type of ghost that turns all the electronics off and then just sits there, staring at people.”

I get up to hand it to Orin and I join him in looking for stuff by the water. I found a tooth and some kind of bone, hollow, likely a bird bone. We continued looking for a while. Eventually, Ethan joined us. We all crouched like frogs for a while until we were sufficiently stoned and had found a decent amount of odd rocks to add to Orin’s collection.

We eventually all made our way back to the towel and laid down on it together. I closed my eyes, crossed my arms behind my head and just enjoyed being stoned in the woods for a minute.

“What made you want to be a tattoo artist?” Ethan asked, propping himself up on his elbows

“Been drawing since I was a kid. Bodies just… feel like a cool canvas, I guess. Everyone’s a little weird and a little messed up, and I like that. Makes art feel alive.”

“That’s dope,” he said. “I’ve got two tattoos. My mom doesn’t know about either.”

“What are they?”

He chuckled. “A really bad skull on my back I got at 16. And a Roman numeral for my little sister’s birthday on my arm.”

“That’s not bad,” Orin said, surprisingly sincere. “Kinda poetic for a guy who still wears socks with dinosaurs on them.”

Ethan shot him a look. “Dinosaurs are eternal, bro. Respect the sock.”

I rolled over onto my stomach and propped my chin on my arms. “What made you want to be a lawyer?”

Ethan went quiet for a beat. “My mom used to take me to court with her when I was little. Not, like, criminal court, just the boring stuff. Contracts, real estate. But watching her up there, holding her own in a room full of old dudes in suits… I don’t know. She made it look like art.”

It was a weird answer. Honest. Vulnerable in the kind of way people don’t usually get in the middle of the woods on a random Tuesday.

“You don’t seem like the courtroom type,” I said gently.

He smirked, not offended. “Because I’m hot and annoying?”

“Basically.” 

That earned a laugh from both guys. 

Orin was sorting through his rocks, tossing ones he didn't like so much back into the creek and putting the ones he did like into his bookbag.“This one looks like a sad frog spirit,” he said, squinting.

Ethan looked over his shoulder. “Bro, that’s literally just a rock.”

“You’re not looking hard enough,” Orin replied, dead serious. “This rock’s seen some shit. Probably has wisdom to share if you’re brave enough to listen.”

Ethan groaned, flopping back onto the towel. “Why are you like this?”

Orin shrugged. “My mom let me read Goosebumps and didn’t make me go to church.”

That made me snort.

“I think it’s cool,” I said. “At least your weird makes sense.”

“Thank you,” he said, placing the sad frog spirit carefully into a side pocket of his backpack like it was a gemstone. “I’m cultivating an army. When the end times come, my rock sons will protect me.”

He stood and brushed his jeans off. “E, let’s go to the tracks. I want food.”

Both Ethan and I stood up with him. I was still hazy and lightheaded. All three of us had worse posture now than when we had first walked out here. Smiles were permanently plastered on our faces involuntarily. The woods looked much nicer, and I didn't really want to leave. But Orin mentioned food, and now I can't imagine anything better than a nice, warm grilled cheese.

I raised an eyebrow. “Is this what you do for fun? Assign tragic backstories to geological debris?”

“It’s a spiritual exercise,” he said, now turning the rock gently in his hands. “Each one has a vibe. Like this one? Bad breakup. You can tell by the jagged edge and this little patch of discoloration here, clearly the emotional damage zone.” He tossed it into the river, making a soft plonk sound.

“I don't like the sad ones.”

He grabbed his bag and led us back out of the woods.

[ranger-jahen]

Your Tav/OC as a party member: Get to know Jahen

I think I’d say this “version” of Jahen is a bit different from his “canon” self but fitting him into the framework of a companion was a fun exercise nonetheless!

Class: Ranger (Canon subclass: Dread Ambusher)

Race: Half-Elf

Background: Outlander

Voice: Tav 7

Where to find him: Between the Nautiloid crash and the Overgrown Ruins, kneeling in the underbrush and picking herbs. When you speak to him he tells you that he's been scavenging for basic supplies. He can be recruited through a dialogue about needing someone on your team who can help navigate and forage in the wilderness.

Approval Conditions: Successful medicine checks, successful mediations during conflict, asking for his opinion in survival scenarios, providing aid to allies or refugees, showing caution when interacting with the Dream Visitor, sarcastic or hyperbolic humor.

Disapproval Conditions: Abject or senseless cruelty, aiding antagonistic characters, agreeing to Raphael's soul-binding deals, betraying allies, tampering with dangerous powers needlessly, using your illithid powers on him without his consent.

Betrayal Conditions (cause him to leave the party): Killing the tiefling refugees, allowing Last Light Inn to be destroyed, bombing the Steel Watch foundry with the gnomes inside, letting Orin kill her victim or becoming Bhaal's Chosen.

Personal Quest: The Lonely Ranger - as time passes, you will learn that Jahen has almost no friends or allies to his name. His childhood was loveless, his escapades as a ranger have kept him at arms-length from most communities, and he has not made efforts to change this out of a deep-rooted fear of not belonging. As your rapport increases you will have quest-related chances to affirm your friendship, his merit as an ally, and your confidence that he will have an important role to play before all is said and done. His quest will culminate in him deciding to confront an old enemy of his in the city, someone who preyed on his good will and tricked him when he was young, and believes themself to have gotten away with it all these years. Now that he has friends he trusts at his back and a newfound self-respect for who he is and what he's about, he will rise above his past grudges and be ready to face his future head-on.

Greetings:

Platonic High Approval: "Look what the cat dragged in." · "There you are." · "What's cookin'? Hope it's something good." · "Good to see a friendly face coming my way."

Romanced High Approval: "You've been thinking about me too?" · "Do we have a little time? You'll have to tell me if not or I'll get sidetracked." · "Hope that smile is for me."

Medium Approval: "Can I help with anything?" · "If you need something, just let me know. Can't promise anything but I'll do my best." · "Wanted to let you know I found something. Thought it might be useful, so I put it by your pack." (places random herb in your alchemy inventory. this greeting can happen at medium approval or higher.)

Neutral Approval: "What is it?" · "Something wrong?" · "Oh, hey. Something on your mind?"

Low Approval: "Ugh, what do you want now?" · "This had better be good." · "Don't know what that look on your face is about. Maybe I shouldn't care though."

Party Dynamics:

Jahen will have lots of positive and adventurous banter with both Wyll and Karlach. If the player reaches high approval with both Jahen and Karlach by Act 3, Jahen will have a banter with her where he will tell her he wishes he’d known her when he was younger, as he could see himself being better off with a friend like Karlach in his life. She will reply that she adores him too and feels the exact same way.

Jahen will be cautious but generally respectful to a pre-act-2 Shadowheart in his party banter. His post-act-2 banter with her will depend on what choice she made and how it affected the Shadow-Cursed Lands. A Dark Justiciar Shadowheart will receive terse but civil dialogue with him if she attempts to engage him in conversation. A Selunite Shadowheart will see a marked change in his disposition towards her as he will become warm, protective, and proud of her.

Jahen and Halsin will have a great deal of party banter that revolves around discussing the natural world and the various things they each enjoy about their respective roles in the party and their lifestyles. The two of them will also tend to flirt with and tease each other if the player is not romancing either of them (or is romancing both of them.)

Jahen will have numerous party banters with both Astarion and Jaheira that entirely revolve around giving each other shit or snarking about some of the less-than-pleasant aspects about the journey so far. In some cases Jahen and Astarion might get so wrapped up in gleefully sassing each other that the player avatar will interject to tell them to pipe down or put a lid on it, in which case they will both reluctantly concede.

Jahen will often ask after Gale’s wellbeing in act 1 party banter, but will tend not to have much to say to him during act 2, other than an occasional quiet comment about how important Gale is as both an ally and a friend. Gale will recognize Jahen’s attempts to dissuade him from using the Orb and will politely deflect each time. By act 3, Jahen will have resigned himself to an occasional, friendly, exasperated “Gale…” each time his wizard friend starts raving about a new powerful artifact the player might have discovered.

Jahen’s banter with Lae’zel will tend to involve him welcoming her to talk about her culture and experiences as he is very curious about her and her life thus far. If she says something particularly horrendous even by the party’s standards he will diplomatically end the conversation with something like “I see” or “Is that so?” and decline to comment further.

Most of Jahen’s party banter with Minsc will revolve around Boo. They may both be rangers but they have little in common beyond their fascination with friendly creatures.

If Minthara is recruited during a campaign that does not involve killing the tieflings (as this choice will cause Jahen to leave the party), he will rarely be inclined to chat with her unless she is specifically talking Karlach up, in which case he will join in. If Minthara addresses Jahen directly she will tend to comment on what a waste his aimless life is, to which he will reply tiredly that he knows she thinks so but he doesn’t really care, and tell her to save her breath. She will then surprise him by overtly approving of his disdain regarding her opinion of him.

Act 1 Companion Scene:

You will find Jahen up late at night, sorting herbs into satchels and preparing small bundles tied with twine that he's laid out atop a flat stone at the edge of camp. You can either approach him directly or roll a check to sneak up on him (DC 18.)

If you successfully sneak, you will startle him and he'll playfully rant at you a little for messing with him, but other than a few lines of funny dialogue there won't be much impact on the rest of the conversation. If you unsuccessfully attempt to sneak, he will chuckle under his breath and tell you he can hear you and to come out and talk to him face to face.

When you ask him what he's doing, he will tell you that in a camp this size, he thinks it will be useful for there to be a sort of communal "medicine cabinet," which you or your other companions can come to collect "remedy bundles" from at any time ("Just crush them up together with some water and heat and you'll have the potion or antidote you'll need," he'll tell you.)

If you ask him why doesn't he just have people come and ask him for remedies, he'll answer in a way that shows a deep understanding of others and those who may want for privacy: that sometimes people don't like to show weakness or may even feel too ashamed to ask for help directly. Having something pre-prepared like this takes the pressure off of having your needs met when you're in pain or unwell.

If you ask him how he'd know to think of that, he will admit to you that he's had a strange condition ever since he was a child; a condition that can cause him to be overcome with intense fevers at night that seem to miraculously evaporate in the morning. He's never been able to find proper medical help because the symptoms sound too unusual to match any known illnesses, and he's been accused of imagining things or even making things up. He himself has been ashamed to ask for help in the past and he wants to make sure that no one he calls a friend ever has to worry they'll find themselves in a similar position.

If you tell him it does sound like he's making things up, he will disapprove (-5), and tell you sadly that he thought you might understand, but he apologizes for taking up your time (this will end the scene.)

If you instead ask if there's anything you can do to help, he will laugh lightly and tell you that if you think of anything, he would be all ears. After a moment of hesitation he'll add that he's a little afraid that if he comes down with a fever any time soon, the others in your camp will jump straight to the conclusion that he's undergoing the transformation and becoming a mindflayer. At this point, he'll ask you if you'll give him the benefit of the doubt and refrain from attacking him or keep your other companions from attacking him until and if you're completely sure it's the transformation and not his condition.

If you agree to protect him if he becomes vulnerable like that, he will approve (+5) and thank you for having his back. If you agree to protect him but also protest that you don't like the thought of having to kill him, he will approve (+3), but tell you that while he truly appreciates the thought, he would not want to live as a mindflayer - especially if it means he might become a threat to you or your other friends, as he is beginning to care for you all. If you tell him he's on his own if this comes up, his approval with you will not change but he will comment sadly that maybe he should have expected as much.

Regardless of your dialogue choices, a "medicine station" will become a permanent fixture at your camp following this scene (until and if Jahen leaves your party.) You can interact with the medicine station once per long rest, and chose a benefit-based potion of any discovered type to add to your inventory. (The station cannot be easily "farmed" however, as it will not reset unless certain conditions are met in-between rests. On explorer difficulty: an update to any active quest. On balanced difficulty or higher: any member of your party having lost one-third of their hit points (or more), expended half their spell slots (or more), or received any negative status condition at some point during the day.)

Act 2 Companion Scene:

You notice that Jahen isn't at camp and find a small trail that leads down a hill into a grassy clearing. As you follow it, you begin to hear notes from a musical instrument, and shortly after, you pick up the sound of Jahen singing.

You will find him sitting with his back to a tree playing a small kalimba, one that's a little rough around the edges as if he might have made it himself. He will stop singing when he spots you and ask you if you came to find him for anything important.

At this point you'll have a few different dialogue options to explore and questions to ask. If you ask him about his kalimba and his singing, he'll tell you it's a way he's learned to pass long nights by the campfire during the years he's been on his own, that it brings him some comfort and gives him a reason to keep reading books and finding new songs to sing. If you ask him how long he's been on his own, he will give you a rough timeline of his life, starting with how he and his older brother lived as latchkey kids in a dubious shack that belonged to his father in Baldur's Gate. If you press him he will admit that there was no real love in his family and the arrangement was more or less what was most convenient at the time. When asking further questions you'll find out that when he prepared to move out at the age of seventeen, neither his father nor his brother cared enough to even properly tell him goodbye, and that he learned basic survival skills from a Hedgedruid who passed through the area before he struck out on his own into the wilderness. The rest of what he knows is mostly self-taught, and he travels around the Sword Coast, doing his best to help whoever he comes across. If Wyll is in your party, Jahen will have an extra dialogue line about how he heard of the Blade of Frontiers years ago since they live similar lifestyles, and that he's really enjoyed the chance to get to know him face to face.

If you tell him his singing is bad he will laugh, approve (+1), and tell you that's why he walked away from the camp to do it. If you tell him you like his singing he will be surprised, approve (+1), and then quickly tell you with some humor that he hopes you won't expect him to take up the bard profession as it's a quiet pastime for him and not something he likes to do for attention. if you tell him to stop with the theatrics, that he's nothing special and that he'd better come back to camp before he pisses you off any more, he will disapprove (-3) and quietly get to his feet to follow you back (this will end the scene.)

After you've asked about the music and he's told you about how it became a hobby of his, you can point out that he's among friends now, and ask why come out here to play and sing if he usually does this when he's lonely? He will answer that the Shadow Curse is weighing heavily on him; he is struggling with the unnatural gloom twisting the lands, and he will express that he hopes your band can do something to help. if you tell him it sounds like he needs someone to talk to about what he's struggling with, and that he should feel okay to come to you with his burdens because you care for him, he will approve (+8), become quiet and emotional, and tell you that he's never had anyone before that he could just talk to if something was on his mind. After the conversation finishes he will tell you warmly that his heart feels lighter and he's ready to go back to camp.

You can also choose to tell him that he shouldn't expect special treatment, that no one is enjoying themselves right now and that's no excuse to wander off and make himself a liability. If you choose this option he will agree with you sadly and say he's ready to come back to camp.

(If your player character also has high approval with Shadowheart and has not yet completed the gauntlet of Shar, you will have the opportunity to ask him what he thinks about her involvement with Shar and how that impacts his view of the curse. Jahen will tell you that he cares for Shadowheart and doesn't want to see harm come to her, but that he believes she's been deceived and led down a dark path that doesn't reflect her truest self. He will say he hopes she can find the courage to turn away from what is hurting her rather than continue to embrace it.)

If, during his Act 1 Companion Scene, you explored the conversation far enough to learn of Jahen's condition, he will stumble a little when he gets up to follow you back to camp. You can choose to ignore this to end the scene and you will get no approval changes, but the next morning your other companions will remark that it seemed like he wasn't well the night before (with some commenting warily about potential mindflayer symptoms), and you'll find he has an "off balance" debuff until your next long rest. If you did not learn of his condition earlier through conversation, you will not get a chance to question him about the stumble but he will still receive the debuff the next day and he will proceed to explain his condition to you that morning.

If you don't ignore Jahen's stumble and instead ask if he's alright, he will admit to you that he might have a "bad night" coming on, and that he'd better get to his tent before he inevitably passes out. Once back at camp, you can choose to either tend to him yourself (by getting water for him or bringing him some herbs - dialogue only, no effect on camp supplies), or if Halsin is in your party, notifying him that Jahen needs help. You can also choose to tell Jahen goodnight without offering him help (he will give you a friendly dialogue reply, but this will result in him receiving the debuff.)

If you choose to tend to him yourself, you will have an opportunity in the morning when he's back on his feet to verbally tell him you're glad he's feeling better (+3 approval), give him a friendly hug (+5 approval), or lean in for a kiss (+5 approval.) (this will start his romance if you have not done so already at the tiefling party in act 1.) regardless of your choice of verbal or physical affection he will receive you with immense warmth and will tell you that you are the first person who has ever cared this much for him, and that he hopes he can be as good a friend to you as you have been to him.

You can also choose to tell him now that it's morning he'd better suck it up and get going, and in response to this he will give you a weary laugh and a wordless salute, with no approval changes. If you tell him he was a waste of time and that this better not keep coming up, he will disapprove (-5) and say he'll make sure it won't be your problem again. As long as either you or Halsin helped him the night before he will not receive a debuff the next day.

After this scene plays, you will have an occasional opportunity to check in on him during a long rest when another companion makes a remark about him not looking well. He will not receive the status debuff again but checking in on him will net you a couple more +1 approvals before late game. If you ignored or chastised him in the larger cutscene, providing him some help during these passing checks will ensure he doesn't die during the endgame.

Act 3 Companion Quest:

When visiting the Guild Hall in the sewers at any point during Act 3, a brief interaction will play if you have Jahen in your party where an unnamed NPC will leer at him or possibly threaten him. The next time you’re back at camp, you can prompt him for answers regarding this strange interaction, and he will tell you about an event in his past that he carries great shame over.

When he first struck out on his own after receiving survival training, he didn’t immediately leave the area and instead kept a tight circuit around Baldur’s Gate, where he helped travelers in need on the roads or brought supplies to and from the trading outposts to earn some gold. In time, citizens in the area came to know him for his helpfulness and resourcefulness, and before long there was a group of street urchins who would seek him out to ask for training of their own to forage and learn to survive.

Jahen was eager to pass his skills on and happily taught the kids everything he knew about medicines, wild foods, and carefully instructed them on dangerous lookalikes to keep them safe. But in little less than a year, his eager pupils stopped coming around and he was certain something was wrong.

Jahen began to investigate their last known locations and learned to his horror that the younger ones had been abducted by a man who was building an underground drug channel of sorts. The man had enlisted the help of the kids with promised coin and then put them to work by force in his budding organization once they knew enough about herbalism to better serve his for-profit interests.

Outraged, Jahen set out to free those abducted, but only managed to retrieve one or two of them before he was overwhelmed by a retaliatory force of hired muscle and beaten to death’s door, barely managing to escape with his life. With no allies of his own to call upon to attempt a second rescue and a seething threat from the growing organization to keep his distance or face their forces again, Jahen left Baldur’s Gate in defeat and regret. He’s kept to other areas of the Sword Coast ever since in order to avoid stirring up the situation anew.

At this point the player can tell him that he has friends and allies now and it’s time he get the chance to face down his past regrets. He will fiercely agree, and mark on your map the location of the shipping dock where this organization stocks their cargo and conceals a hidden entrance to their base.

You can also trigger this conversation if you complete the House of Grief questline first and investigate the supplies cache behind the counter. You will learn that in addition to magics and boons from their goddess, devout Sharrans have been making use of specialized elixirs and poisons to subdue and erase their client’s memories. You will unlock a journal entry to investigate the source of the potent alchemical flasks and Jahen will gain an exclamation mark to tell you he thinks he knows something about this.

This dungeon requires some preparation as the antagonists will make frequent use of a wide array of unusual poisons and negative status effects. It is recommended to give each of your active party members an elixir of poison resistance ahead of time and keep at least a couple bottles of antidote in each of your inventories. Thankfully you don’t have to worry about freeing the hostages mid-combat and can do so afterwards once the commotion has died down.

Post-battle, Jahen’s final personal cutscene will play, the conditions of which will depend on his level of approval towards the player character and their overall decisions in-game during their campaign. In any scenario however he will be able to claim many of the organization’s resources for himself, and back at camp, will indicate that he’s discovered a lead to start researching his condition in some of the medical literature that was stashed in the organization’s base. The player will be able to loot a crossbow from the corpse of Jahen’s old enemy with a unique bowstring that retains applied coatings for 3 turns each instead of the default 1 turn. There will also be an opportunity to acquire an alembic that will enable the player to combine effects of different elixirs.

Unique interactions in game areas:

Underdark - if you have Jahen in your party when exploring the Myconid Colony in the Underdark and open a dialogue with him, he will express enthusiastic fascination with this incredible new and different system of natural organisms that he’s never seen before. He will talk about wanting to collect samples to study them, experiment with making potions, and forage for unusual food sources. You will have the opportunity to approve of his curiosity but caution him not to make himself or anyone else sick, and he will laugh and assure you that he knows his methods very well and there won’t be anything to worry about. You can also choose to tell him this isn’t a field trip and to stop poking around like an idiot schoolboy. He will be crestfallen, but will meekly agree to heed your wishes and fall back in line.

His approval will not change in either case but if you choose to chastise him you will not receive a boon at your next long rest, courtesy of Jahen’s experiments.

If you do support his interest, then at your next long rest when selecting your camp supplies, you will have a choice to select either a “Colourful Potion” or an “Aromatic Mash.” The potion will give each of your active party members an extra +15 hit points until you either lose them in combat or take another long rest. the food mash will impart a unique “fortified” condition that gives each active party member a +2 bonus to strength, dexterity, and wisdom checks until the next long rest.

Wyrm’s Lookout - if you open dialogue with Jahen at this Act 3 interlude campsite before initiating the cutscene with the Astral Prism and his approval with you is medium or higher, a unique cutscene will play where you will happen upon him waist-deep in the berry bushes that cluster around the campsite. His face and hands will be so splattered with red berry juice that you’ll have the opportunity to remark that he looks like he’s covered in blood, and he will laugh, approve (+1), and offer up a basket of berries he’s been picking ever since everyone settled in.

If you accept his offered basket then you will receive 100 raspberries for your camp supplies and another +1 approval from him. If you tell him he should keep the fruits of his labor and the rest of you have plenty, he will receive a unique “satiated” condition for that night only, which may come in handy if you have him in your party when entering the Astral Prism (he cannot be surprised, frightened, or moved against his will.) You can also decide to share the basket between just the two of you (approval +5) (either friendship or romance), in which case you will both receive a one-night-only condition of “contented” (neither of you can be frightened.) If Jahen’s romance is active and you choose to share the berries between the two of you, he will lean in to kiss you just before the end of the scene and comment on your lips tasting like sweet berries.

When he offers his basket you can also choose to ignore the sharing options and instead tell him he looks ridiculous and that you hope those berries are poisonous to teach him a lesson about digging around in the bushes. He will become angry with you, disapprove (-5), and tell you the first rule of foraging is to never put anything in your mouth that you’re not absolutely certain is safe. He will then remark bitterly that you clearly think nothing of him or the few skills he can offer. If this approval change moves him from “medium” down to “neutral” approval, he will make an additional jab at your intelligence given that apparently you don’t recognize an ordinary raspberry when you see one.

If you do harshly reject his berries in this way he will evidently not continue to eat them off-screen as he will not receive the “satiated” condition for the night, but there may be some dialogue from either Halsin, Wyll, or Karlach the next morning about Jahen coming by to share his freshly picked fruit with them.

All of Jahen’s personal cutscenes will play, regardless of whether the player character is in a romantic relationship with him or not, but his dialogue will differ between his platonic and romantic paths and he will have some unique animations regarding his inclination towards physical affection if romanced. In addition, once his romance has been activated, he can be approached during any long-rest and requested to share his bed with the player. If his relationship is kept platonic and he reaches “very high” approval with the player (or higher, to “exceptional”), he can be approached at camp and asked for a hug at any time. His hugs will typically be very warm and he will clearly enjoy giving him, unless he has been “hardened” over the course of the game, in which case his hugs will become more somber.

Endings:

Bad Ending 1: If the player character runs a campaign that does not drive Jahen away from the party completely but still prioritizes broadly antagonistic choices, Jahen's outlook on the world will harden over time and he will adhere more strongly to his distrust of society rather than learning to seek community and trust his friends with his burdens. His personal quest will end with him choosing to take over his past enemy’s business rather than end it, in order to acquire the resources he needs to start researching his condition. He will start to earn a reputation by endgame as an up-and-coming Undercity figurehead, and he will make adjustments to the organization to make it less predatory, but you will also hear occasional rumors that similar nefarious figures think he's too soft to be cut out for the role because of this and have plans to move against him if his guard ever comes down.

Reaching this ending for Jahen will almost always end his romance. He will either break up with the player coldly and tell you he doesn't have time to entertain you anymore with his new goals in his sights, or if his approval is still high, he will break up with you regretfully, and mention that he can no longer afford to have obvious weaknesses. If his approval is still high, you can pass a persuasion check (DC 15) to convince him that you're anything but a liability and will only make him stronger in the long run. He will accept this and will thank you for staying by his side despite it all.

At the epilogue party, depending on certain circumstances met during the game, Jahen will either reveal:

that his rivals have taken their chance to move against him and he is more or less a fugitive, having made powerful enemies in Baldur's Gate and having little recourse to fall back on.

that he has risen to meet these challenges and has been ruthlessly cutting down his enemies for the past six months in order to come out on top. He will be noticeably colder and more cruel during this conversation, regardless of his prior approval or romantic status with the player.

* This ending is extremely difficult to get by accident as it requires careful micro-managing of his approval changes to enable the player to both establish trust with him while also not driving him away through antagonistic approval hits or outright evil choices before the endgame. If you wish to roleplay this ending it is recommended to follow a guide to help navigate strategic points to take Jahen in and out of your party.

Bad Ending 2: If a non-hardened Jahen's condition is repeatedly ignored and uncared for, his illness will interact poorly with his illithid infection and he will die after facing the Netherbrain when the tadpoles are destroyed, as the residual psychic energy overloads his weakened body and tears his mind apart. If the player character has him in their party and has medium or higher approval with him despite neglecting his wellbeing, he will tearfully tell them goodbye before he passes on and will say that he's at least glad he was able to be of some use before the end. If his approval is neutral or lower he will die with a wordless scream of pain as the narrator describes what is happening. If he is not in the party then he will die off-screen and another companion will tell the player what happened.

Neutral Ending 1: If a good-aligned player character made sure Jahen's condition was cared for but his personal quest is not completed, he will return to his familiar ranger lifestyle post-game and put some distance between himself and Baldur’s Gate once more. At the epilogue party both he and a few other companions will remark that he has kept in touch with them and that it’s good to have friends to have each other’s backs when the going gets tough. If the player encountered Jahen’s unique Underdark scene, did not ascend Astarion, and released the vampire spawn into the Underdark, Jahen will instead mention that he has specifically kept in touch with Astarion and the Gur, and has helped with keeping tabs on the spawn. Astarion will also have some unique dialogue about Jahen lending his efforts to the Gur’s cause, but admit that he’s got some concerns about Jahen’s condition seemingly worsening over time.

Neutral Ending 2: If Jahen's personal quest is completed and he has high approval with the player character, he can be convinced to become a mindflayer for the greater good in the endgame. However, once your victory is secure, he will choose to end his own life and cannot be persuaded out of this choice. Before he dies he will thank you for being a friend to him and say that he hopes you and your friends will keep looking out for each other, because he's come to view your bonds as very precious and he wouldn't like to think of this as the end of the family you've made.

Good Ending: A non-hardened Jahen gains trust and assurance in relying on others outside himself so he doesn't have to shoulder his burdens alone. After confronting the mastermind behind the mistakes of his youth, Jahen chooses to dismantle his organization and distribute important resources to all who were price gouged or blackmailed in the name of profit or power. In doing this he begins to acquire many helpful resources and valuable friends himself, and gains prospects to begin researching his own condition - the main lead he finds is that it may be related to something in his heritage with regards to his biological mother, whom he never knew.

Epilogue 1: If Karlach is in the party and agrees to go back to Avernus with Wyll instead of burning out at the end of the campaign, and the player character volunteers to go with them, a romanced Jahen will also accompany them to the Hells.

Epilogue 2: If Jahen was romanced and the player character does not volunteer to accompany Wyll and Karlach back to Avernus, then Jahen will ask the player character to come with him back to the reclaimed lands that Halsin is returning to. Jahen's epilogue will then involve a few sequences of him and the player character contributing to the rebuilding of Reithwin and Last Light as well as following the lead collected on his condition from the end of his personal quest. If Halsin was poly romanced there will be some unique romantic dialogue. If not, there will still be a strong indication of warm friendship between Jahen, the player, and Halsin in the ending scene. Regardless of poly romance status, Halsin will have a couple of unique humorous lines about how he knows Jahen loves the kids but it’s hard to trust him alone with them as he keeps accidentally teaching them to swear.

Epilogue 3: if Jahen was not romanced, he will return with Halsin to the reclaimed lands to help rebuild and will also begin investigating the lead on his condition collected from the end of his personal quest. There will be some bits of dialogue at the epilogue party that imply/hint that he and Halsin have entered an open relationship with each other.

[exemiin]

omg hiiiiii

I just wanted to say I love your bg3 stuff and your art is SO AMAZING I love your durge character so much it’s unreal 🥺

btw, how do you think astarion would feel about Einar’s scars from when he was under moonrise? (After Orin attacks durge and they are found by kressa bonedaughter - where she performed autopsies and vivisections on them)

idk I feel like the whole concept of that angst with a durge character could be dived into more, especially with astarion - what do you think?

okay that’s it byee 👋

omg thank you so much! I'm really glad that someone likes Einar 😭😭

i really like it when characters have a lot in common in terms of traumas/pasts/experiences etc, they are really drawn to each other. and these scars are one of those parallels (not counting the scars on his face, Ein left them himself because he is an idiot)

so the scars that remained on Einar's body after Kressa, for whom he was like a toy and a pet, actually cause Astarion genuine sadness, maybe flashbacks sometimes. he never said it out loud, but it could be noticed by the way he sometimes looks at them, how he often carefully and gently runs his fingers over them. he does not consider them ugly or scary, but he also cannot say that he loves them, rather he simply accepts them as a part of Einar, along with all his other shortcomings. and Einar looks at the scars on Astarion's back in the same way. they completely understand each other's pain, wish that this never happened

[deconstructivesurgery]

maybe it's just the incorrigible writer's sadism within me but as much as I love what we did get from the Orin kidnapping in Act 3, god I wanted more. the scenes you get when the characters have initially vanished from camp, where Orin reveals just how terrifyingly understanding she is of our companions' personalities and lives in order to bring out the worst behaviour possible while still initially SEEMING like them? amazing, showstopping, actually thought halsin was genuinely losing his shit the first time this happened. the scenes you get when you first enter the sewer (but only from a very specific point) are more tenuous to me- I love the content but wish you could still get these scenes if you entered the sewers another way, because in like 2/3 of my playthroughs I didn't go that way and missed good dialogue as a result. it's a bit hard to find if you don't follow a very specific route. the dialogue though? nice. orin's tall tales about how she's tormenting each specific kidnappable are great and sickly fitting (asides from gale's imo which was admittedly funny as fuck but like. man i can't ruminate on the bleakness of it all when I'm just laughing over the fucking castration allegations, okay?

(side note? you wanna know what I think would've been the most fucked up thing to threaten to do to gale instead? a few things. have Orin claim to have cut out his tongue/severed his vocal cords somehow instead, have her lie about breaking hands/fingers for the same reasons (hand gestures and verbal components being integral to a majority of magic). if you wanted to be particularly evil you could have her claim that she did the player/gale a favour by getting rid of that awful mark on his skin, implying she just straight up flayed the skin off his chest with the magical marks on it (hey, the orb is stabilised here, so this could happen without immediate nuclear death). I HAVE IDEAS FOR TORMENT, OKAY. )

[thedupshadove]

Thought that came to me out of a clear blue sky…Little Shop of Horrors roleswap au. 

Same setup at the beginning, but it’s Audrey who impulse-buys the Strange and Interesting Plant (which she probably names Seymour the Second), cares for it, and discovers its…unusual dietary needs (maybe instead of bandaids, she covers the wounds on her hands by wearing gloves more often, apparently as a fashion statement. Or maybe she chalks it up to Orin.) Success comes to the shop, with Audrey being the one to get radio interviews and sudden acclaim (boosting her confidence somewhat, but only convincing Seymour even more firmly that he could never ask her out. She was always too beautiful for him, and now with this influx of cash she’s going to end up a lady, so how could somebody like him have any chance? If only he knew…)

Once the plant begins to talk, it convinces her to kill Mushnik first, by highlighting how mean he is to Seymour after that boy’s done nothing but slave for him all his life in exchange for scraps of scraps. She tells herself that she’s going to confront him first, and only if she can’t make him see reason will she use the derringer in her purse, but inevitably… 

I want to preserve the “I can off this guy by staying in the chair” moment, but obviously Mushnik doesn’t use nitrous oxide recreationally…right now I’ve got it down to a choice between a sudden heart attack where Audrey just…doesn’t call an ambulance, or else he’s eating during their conversation (to show how little mind he pays to requests to treat Seymour better), and she conspicuously fails to Heimlich him when he chokes. 

In the aftermath of Mushnik’s death (which of his two assistants did he leave the shop to? I’m not sure yet), Audrey does her best to help Seymour through his tangled emotions, assuaging his guilt at not being as sad as he should be by pointing out that Mushnik was never as nice to him as he should have been, after all. This culminates in an impulsive kiss that breaks the tension between them into an open declaration of love…which Orin just happens to overhear. 

He corners her later that evening, more angry than she’s ever seen him (and we all know that’s saying something), but unfortunately for him he made the mistake of staging his jealous little rage in the flower shop, so when she bats her eyes and calls him “Doctor” and explains that the plant has some spines on the front, so if they make love with her back against it surely that will show him just how sorry she is…well, Suppertime indeed. 

From there things can run pretty much the same as the original, to whichever version of the ending you prefer. Now, let’s talk songs! 

Most of them can be kept pretty much the same, with at most some shuffling around parts and re-writing lyrics. “Suddenly Seymour” can even keep its title phrase, with the lyrics being shifted to be about Audrey convincing Seymour that he’s someone worth paying attention to. The only real sticking point is “Somewhere That’s Green”. Since Audrey, as our new main character, will be getting the likes of “Grow for Me” and “The Meek Shall Inherit”, it seems only fair that Seymour, having been moved to the position of Love Interest, should get the Love Interest Song. But it can’t be as simple as moving some pronouns around–a guy wishing for the woman he’s interested in to be a parody of a 50s housewife has a different vibe from a woman wishing to be one herself. It’s a little too unsympathetic, especially now that Seymour isn’t even the murderer. But then what do we do with it? With Audrey being the one leading the way to financial success, is the song now about Seymour’s secret, socially-deviant desire to become a malewife?

[animentality]

Your post about dark urge dying twice is interesting and I agree that denying daddy bhaal at the temple and being resurrected right after is a let down. Anyways, playing a good Durge who never says anything mean/weird feels to me a lot like tav+ which is disappointing, not a lot of durge specific lines there to choose from. Best experience I have had with The Dark Urge is antihero, who chooses bhaal at the temple but does the right thing at the end and destroys the brain and kills themself, you get a nice chat with Withers after game and it feels a way better than what a happened at the temple, while still not being as good as it could be. Let's all hope that Larian fixes act3 eventually <3

See, that's the thing that really annoys me.

The Dark Urge to me is just far more interesting than Tav, who is by design, a blank slate so that you can make them who you want them to be.

And I get that's the fun of DND and BG3.

I just wish they had bothered to give this ORIGIN CHARACTER any of the same amount of depth for the other origins.

Which is not to say that they really have as much depth as they should, Astarion aside, but let's not get into that.

It's just odd to me that the Dark Urge really only has three extra scenes, and everything else is just edgy lines and biting off a toe or an arm here and there.

The pre-amnesia dark urge is FASCINATING to me, but we barely see anything from them.

That's why I was so obsessed with the Prayer of Forgiveness. It's an inkling that there was something to the Dark Urge more than just slaughter, and there's only ONE line in it that does so.

I KNOW I know it's an RPG and it's not trying to tell a story, so much as letting you tell yours.

I just personally find the Dark Urge way more interesting than the Tavs i see out there, and YES, I'm SORRY.

not all of yours OCs are going to be intensely interesting to me.

But the Dark Urge as an origin?

I find them interesting.

I like edgy characters who choose to let their edginess go, and begin the journey of becoming more open and human.

And I simply don't CARE for oh here's someone's hero OC who is a hero, and fucks all these hot people.

You can play the game that way, I don't care. I just personally...wish BG3 had given the Dark Urge specifically more depth.

The Tavs can be boring if they want.

Just, the Dark Urge should not be available as an Origin, if they weren't going to actually give them a well developed and open origin.

You can keep it a secret up until the end, but even when you find out you're bhaalspawn...you're just bhaalspawn.

and nothing else. nothing about your past beside a hasty line or two about it.

plus once you kill orin, it ceases to matter. there is no impact on the story if you choose to be a good dark urge. you are essentially just a tav.

the dark urge also was overhyped for what it was. Everyone is out here saying they're scared to try the dark urge because they might kill their companions - that's a joke.

You have to option to do so ONCE and your entire camp kills you, giving you an immediate game over.

Plus, save scumming.

It's really not that hard.

The Dark Urge really should be a harder option. They should have to wisdom roll for more choices, forced to ACTUALLY grapple with the desire to torture, maim, and kill.

Then your sacrifice would mean even more in the end, because you are tired of hurting people you don't want to hurt.

But alas.

I need to just be happy with what I have, so.

I'm done complaining, I'll go back to talking about burying my face in Gortash's tits again...