#WHOOOO YAHOO YAAAAAYYY GIVING YOUR FRIENDS HAPPY ENDINGS AND FEELING HORRIBLY LOST AND ALONE YAYYYY

[majorasnightmare]

Hiiiii! 4, 19, 27 please and thank you!

HI HIIIIIIII WE'RE BACK TO CIRCLING ASK GAMES THRU THE MUTUAL CIRCLE AGAIN YAYAYAYAYAY

you always send me absolute DOOZYS of questions and theyre so fun to think about even tho i take forever to respond to them!!! THANK YOU THOOOO

get love blasted 💜

4: What's it like being known as a hero? Do they enjoy it? Are they getting shy whenever they hear a bard recount their tales? Is it too overwhelming, and they decided to try and escape it?

Oh he HATES it. "Being a Hero" means people come up and TALK to you, want to get to KNOW you, ask your opinion on stupid worthless crap like its at ALL relevant, want you to attend and preside over any number of pointless ceremonies and announcements, want your blessing and your presence and this and that from you. Its god awful and he hates every second. Furthermore now the IDEA of him has spread far beyond his control, and people are writing songs and stories and myths about a fiction they've barely interacted with, which is INFURIATING. Correcting the endless tide of propaganda and misinformation using his heroics as a backdrop is an effort in futility and one that would surely drive a man to madness, but god is he tempted to try. Someone, somewhere, is saying something completely and utterly incorrect about him with their WHOLE chest and getting into a fight with anyone who tries to correct them, and Dirge can't even strangle that person with his own hands.

Dirge's introversion actually starts to ferment into agoraphobia because of it, which Isobel notices and takes upon herself to fight against, dragging him out of the house to indulge in retail therapy and hang out far away from crowds of people. Isobel's more aware than anyone how an immortal's personality can fester and rot without frequent groundings with the material world of mortals, and in addition to taking care of Aylin she's determined to spare Dirge the pain of trying to correct a lifetime of maladaptive habits by cutting them off before they take root.

The bard's songs are still annoying regardless though.

19: How are the others doing actually? What's Durges opinion on it? Do they think their old companions are doing well, are they glad about it or maybe even resentful? Do they ever even find out?

DIRGE IS AN UNCLE BECAUSE OF THEM!! Lae'zel joins Orpheus's war against Vlaakith, and Dirge's brother Haflidi joins her once Dirge wakes up from his post-tadpole loss induced brain injury coma. Haflidi and Lae'zel hatch the Githyanki egg and raise Xan as their son, and Xan bounces between a few different houses because of the general risk of Lae'zels lifestyle. Haflidi is a part time mountain hermit, part time pirate captain, and part time Githyanki unit commander, so Xan's life has a lot of variety lol. But it means that Dirge has direct family that will NEVER have to worry about Bhaal's blood borne curse, and that alone is worth more than the heavens to him, and its thanks to Lae'zel (and his brother lmao).

Karlach takes Dirge's mental breakdown confession to heart and decides to try and wait for a cure for her engine, and goes to Avernus. Wyll, having broken his contract and saved his father, joins her as the Blade of Avernus. Astarion ends up being Dirge's weird not-romantic not-just-platonic third and lives in the manor alongside Minthara (and continues to get free juice from his favorite tap) while he figures out what to do about the vampirism and the immortality and the freedom from Cazador. Gale didn't choose to Ascend, and gave the crown over to Mystra, but he isn't quiiite ready to decide to be a university professor just yet, so he's avoiding going home to Waterdeep so he doesn't have to awkwardly confront the results of his self destructive decisions (and face his mom again LMAO) so he's more or less living out of Dirge's guestroom.

Halsin is working on revitalizing Reithwin from a century under the Shadow Curse and making a point of sheltering the lost and orphaned (though I don't think hes the type to settle in one spot, and is probably living nomadically). Jaheira is pulling a Hayao Miyazaki and "retiring" from High Harper business before sticking her nose back in it, but not nearly at the same breakneck pace she used to. Dirge and Rion are NOT letting her go back to her deadbeat mom routine LMAO. Minsc is glued at her side still.

Isobel and Aylin are working on revitalizing the Selunite sects broken down by Shar, but staying close in the area for Dirge's sake. Shadowheart is the one im LEAST sure about, as I can't decide if its more in character for her parents to die or not based on Dirge's influence, but I know that regardless she stays nearby and visits Dirge frequently.

Most of them are doing well for themselves and Dirge is happy to see it, though he mostly gets brought up to speed at the epilogue party, owing to being out of commission when everyone was deciding how they wanted to live. With the exceptions of Lae'zel, Wyll, and Karlach everyone stays in touch pretty regularly.

Is Dirge resentful of it? Slightly. Its the kind of resentment that only goes away by working on yourself. Everyone else has such... clear paths forward, in their lives. They know what they want or what they have to do, they have such clear ideas about who they are. Meanwhile Dirge is left to walk away from the broken glass shards of everything he ever used to be, having burnt every bridge back and with no way of ever knowing what would've lied there for him. Its hard not to be resentful when your the reason these people have such clarity and hope in the first place, while your left to fumble in the dark, especially when so many of your early attempts at exploring yourself were thwarted by the disinterest of those very same people. Its different now, but its hard to feel it sometimes. But thats a problem that can only be solved by forging something new for yourself, and it can't be done for you.

27: Finally, last but not least. What is Durges biggest wish now? What do they strife to attain? Peace, happiness, the food they've been craving for a solid week now?

He genuinely has no idea. His entire life has been chasing after a big capital s Something, Bhaal's love, freedom, but now that hes free of the Urge and stable with Minthara, loved and supported, he just has no idea. Theres interim goals hes pursuing, for sure, mastering fleshwarping, curing Karlach's heart condition, finding a way for Astarion to walk in the sun again (they all kinda connect dont they.), and then theres bolstering Minthara's influence and aiding her schemes and power plays, but he has all eternity to look forward to and no idea how hes going to spend it. He literally never thought he'd get here and now that he has, he's a little hollow for it.

Still far better than any of his alternatives, but Dirge is a man driven by hunger, and for the first time in his life, he's full. He has to figure out how to want when he isn't starving now.