#I've considered making a BG3 playlist honestly

[song-writer-melo-wrath]

Hey, Astarion fans

Consider: Sweater Weather for Astarion and Tav. Particularly this cover

All I am is a man, I want the world in my hands

Hmmmm???? At first, this made me think this would only fit Ascended Astarion, but then I realized that such a desire resides in Astarion regardless of route. The world has harmed him so much, that before the choice is made, he thinks, what if the world bent to my will? What if I- and then, what if we used these parasites, used their powers, took over the cult, took over the brain…what if?

The thing with this song is it's also…tender?

And if I may just take your breath away, I don't mind if there's not much to say, sometimes the silence guides our minds, so move to a place so far away

Oh, this line could be taken many ways for him...

In a lot of the encounters in which you seduce him/are seduced by him, the narrator notes that "there's a look about him that reveals he's a million realms away"

Head in the clouds, but my gravity's centered Touch my neck, and I'll touch yours

Aka, dissociating. Understandable, given what he has gone through, and as someone who has gone through something of the same vein, I relate. I digress.

It also speaks to the understanding Astarion and develop. How if him feeding on you becomes a nightly, consensual occurrence, then you don't have to say much of anything about it, just let him know he can. How you can direct his movements in combat. Also, he just generally takes your breath away.

And of course,

Cause it's too cold For you here and now So let me hold Both your hands in, the holes of my sweater

Cold in temperature, or cold in circumstance? Being an undead, the natural assumption for Astarion's body temperature is, well, cold, but I'm more focused in non-temperature cold.

How if you say you want to end things with Astarion, his first response is "oh shit, did I do something wrong?" instead of "why?". How he views himself as lower, especially viewing his past self as lower if ascended. How he has to be cold to survive.

But either route, he still...makes connection. He still is surrounded by people to have and to hold in the spawn route, and is deeply, tightly holding onto Tav in the ascended route.

Crazy thing being, depending on how you play Tav, or Durge, or hell, another Origin character if you prefer, this could easily be them singing back to him.

My Tav (who is named after me lol) in particular I've made very…morally gray. They don't exactly feel the need to take over the world, as they generally approve of the freedom of the people, but who's to say they don't also want the world in their hands?

At one point, Astarion can say to the player character, "I'm not easily impressed by people, but you're stronger than I gave you credit for." The narrator implies it's empty flattery, but over time, "and if I may just take your breath away" applies to them as well.

You know what I think about And what I think about

Thank you for coming to my Tedtalk

[lanaevyssmoved]

NINE PEOPLE YOU WANT TO GET TO KNOW BETTER ❣️

tagged by @moonmothers @flymmcargo @kelemvorr @baldursgate2 !!!!!!! thank u so much.. u are all so sweet and thoughtful...

tagging @cetra @dandeyrain @princeofhags @mercymaker @lord-woolsley @hibernationsuit @alongtidesoflight @shadowcursedballs @tombtaker :D no pressure of course my friends! you may also consider this an invitation to talk to me more :3c

favorite color: wellow... ✨🍯🐝🌻💛⚡ i have loved yellow since i was very small my sister loved purple so everything she owned was purple and everything i owned was yellow.. and my room is still entirely yellow everything is YELLOW..... it just happens i gravitate

last song: uhhh spotify says i was last listening to last chapter in time, first chapter in eternity by VVN it absolutely fucks but bare in mind it might make you sad? tis music to make you feel and that shit always has different effects on people. OOP and spotify shuffle Just put on times change by umziky which is CUTE glitchpoppy stuff OH and spotify just put on higher by ia. which is vocaloid ur welcome.. this says how slow i am huh am i typing too much AND NOW ITS into the woods by phildel im making u a playlist

last movie: last movie i watched was godzilla king of the monsters with aisling teehee... every movie i've watched recently was with aisling... hehe.......

currently watching: WELL i was watching breaking bad but i burnt out around season 3 after i was binging it all day long and before that i binged all of desperate housewives all day long without any break so am i surprised i burnt out? no. also desperate housewives fucks

currently reading: uh i'm like always reading the six of crows by leigh bardugo i will open that book consume the Content and then close it whenever i feel like reading parts of it........ actually reading thru a full book currently no....not really but lets say crooked kingdom yeah

current obsession: mayhaps this question is pointless but i am deep in an autistic hyperfixation on bg3 which is showing no signs of dying down or stopping i will also say i am hyperfixating on gale himself and honestly my oc afhiri. and i think its safe to say illithids too i cannot stop myself from gobbling up information on them and i think about them just as much as the others ...........

sweet, savory, or spicy? i will sayy savoury!!!! i do like sweet but not as much . i am currently really obsessed with gravy..... not american gravy or whatever the bwi'ish kind.......... had to confirm that because i ain't got a fucking clue what american gravy is like . but i know its different!!!!!! due to my very english upbringing i never consumed spice ever in my life until i started to introduce it into my own diet a year ago and now i can eat things that say spicy just fine!! and they are very delicious. i really enjoy spicy noodles especially

currently working on: I HAVE TWO AFHIRI GALE FIC WIPS CURRENTLY ... :3c one of them is a cute domestic scene i'm writing through aislings influence and the other is a fat and large post game 3 years later fic that i cannot describe in any way than a psychological horror fic. :).....

[cafephilewrites]

An (incomplete) BG3 guide to AO3

I'm seeing a lot of folks in the Baldur's Gate 3 community who were inspired to start writing fic for the first time (or after a long hiatus), and this is wonderful! I'm so happy for everyone who has been motivated to create new art (fic, drawings, playlists, edits, crafts, etc.) by this game.

Since many of the folks now writing fic are perhaps unfamiliar with posting their work to AO3, I wanted to provide some basic advice. This isn't a step-by-step guide to making an account or posting your first fic (there are plenty of those already). Rather, it is a quick rundown of some unspoken rules or common practices on AO3, based on what I've noticed so far. I'm not here to tell anyone that they are formatting their fic "wrong", and standards will differ between fandoms anyway, but I have seen enough notes asking for feedback on formatting, tagging, etc. that I just wanted to offer this as a resource.

First, the summary box on your AO3 work is for just what it says: a summary (or sometimes an excerpt). This does not have to be exhaustive, especially for longer fics. It is there to give readers some idea of the content and tone of your work. The summary might contain a few sentences about the premise of the fic and/or an informative excerpt to hook the reader.

What the summary box is (typically) NOT for is author notes, links to the original prompt, disclaimers about how bad your writing is, etc. These can all go in the separate "notes" section when posting a work, before or after the main text (there are checkboxes to specify if you want notes at the beginning and/or end). If you are especially concerned that something about the content of your fic needs to be advertised upfront, you can put that at the end of the summary, but typically the tags and author's notes will take care of such warnings. A thoughtful, concise summary or excerpt will go a long way towards convincing folks to actually click on your work.

AO3 will display title, tags, warnings, author's notes, etc. that you include when posting your work, so you do not need to also put these in the main text of the fic. There's nothing really wrong with it, but it does make fics a bit harder to read if there is a bunch of extra text before the story starts in a place where your reader doesn't expect it. Likewise, there is no real reason to change the font type, font size, etc. on your fic from the AO3 default unless the special formatting is part of your storytelling. If you are (for example), writing an epistolary or chat message fic, you can use a work skin or other formatting to show your reader different font sizes, spacing, images, etc. This usually isn't necessary or expected for your average fic, and it may be hidden anyway if your reader is using their own site skin.

While you are obviously free to say anything you want in your tags or author's note, too many disclaimers about how bad your writing is or how lazy you were when putting together the fic will discourage most people from reading it. I do understand the urge to be self-effacing, especially if you haven't written much before, but a quick author's note saying something like "This is my first fic on AO3!" or "I'm trying to get back into writing" is far less of a turn-off than a tag or note reading "lol i suck at writing this is so lame". Consider before posting such a note that self-criticism often just makes other people uncomfortable or bummed out. If you actually want to share your work with other fans, avoid repeatedly insisting that your fic is no good because they might take you at your word. Conversely, if you are honest about your inexperience or the parts you struggled with but remain positive about sharing your work, other fans will be more excited to read it and leave their feedback, helping you to grow in the fandom!

Next, let's talk about tags. Honestly, I haven't seen too many issues with tagging so far, but I just wanted to point out a couple things that are somewhat specific to bg3 with its large cast and flexible romance options. Character tags should be included for major characters in the fic even if they are already part of a relationship tag. For example, if I tag a fic for Astarion/Wyll as a relationship, I should still include the character tags for Astarion and Wyll. This helps folks to find fics with a specific character, rather than a specific pairing. Maybe I really want to read fics about Wyll, but I actually don't care who he is paired with. If I search for Wyll's character tag, I might miss fics in which he is the main character but he was only tagged as part of the relationship. This is especially important because of all the different ways that Tav and Durge can be tagged. Even if I only want to read about Wyll/Tav, searching the Wyll/Tav tag might exclude fics that were tagged instead with Wyll/Reader or Wyll/Original Male Character, whereas searching the Wyll Ravenguard character tag should bring up all these options as long as the authors remembered to include his character tag in their fics.

To this second point, it is okay to tag your fic with multiple relationship tags, as long as they are all accurate and distinct. For example, Astarion/Tav (Baldur's Gate), Astarion (Baldur's Gate)/Reader, and Astarion (Baldur's Gate)/Original Female Character(s) are all different tags, and all three might apply to your fic.

Unlike on tumblr, tags on AO3 are managed by the Archive's army of volunteers, who combine tags with different spelling or wording but the same meaning. You should check that tags you are including are not actually synonyms of each other. You can do this by clicking on the tag, which will typically take you to a list of works with that tag, then clicking on the name of the tag again where it appears as the header of the page. This will show you information about the tag itself, including whether it is nested under (i.e., a more specific version of) another tag, and which tags might be synonyms.

The relationship tags Astarion (Baldur's Gate)/Reader and Astarion (Baldur's Gate)/Original Character(s) are different tags, but Astarion (Baldur's Gate)/Original Character(s) contains the tags Astarion (Baldur's Gate)/Original Female Character(s), Astarion (Baldur's Gate)/Original Male Character(s), and Astarion (Baldur's Gate)/Original Non-Binary Character(s) nested under it, so anyone searching or filtering on the broader tag would also turn up works tagged with any of those more specific tags. Sometimes you will be surprised by which tags are and are not synonyms or nested versions of each other.

AO3 makes it easy to add/delete tags on an existing fic without otherwise editing it, so if you've left out an important tag (or included multiple synonymous tags that you want gone), this is an easy fix!

When in doubt, take a look at the formatting and standards used by other fics, especially those from established authors. There are a LOT of resources on tumblr and on AO3 itself for navigating the Archive, so I tried to keep this post specific to things I was seeing in the bg3 fandom. I encourage experienced AO3 users (readers and writers!) to add to this post with your own observations and respond to questions in the comments.