#all sharrans suck

[africabytotodile]

rasaad was right

[hawkinshorror94]

Headcannons for a Tav who exhausted after a day of staying home with the kids

(If you guys like these I'd like to make a second one with Wyll, Karlach, Zevlor, and Rolan.)

AN- Happy Birthday to me! I am highly intoxicated while posting this so sorry if it sucks ASS.

Minthara

-”My dear, why are our children making so much noise? I cannot hear myself think.”

-Finds you in absolute shambles over two unruly toddlers, one is crying because you gave her what he asked for and the other is practically hanging from the curtains.

-”In Menzoberranzan, a mother kills children who are bad, but I have grown quite fond of them and would hate for our children to meet an untimely demise at the end of a silver sword.” 

-Though you want to chide Minthara for threatening to kill the kids as a punishment it works, but you’ll definitely have to talk about it with her later

Gale

-“Why are you crying, are you alright, is she alright?” *Gale panic*

-Finds you in bed crying because of some awful postpartum.

-”My mother has been wanting to see her, I’ll bring her over there for a bit. You rest, you bathe, I’ll bring home food. I’ve got her. I’ve got you.”

-Gale bundles her up and makes sure you have everything that you need before he goes. When he comes back, he brings too many gifts from his mother and food for you. And of course, your favorite sweet treat.

Astarion

-“Are there gremishkas loose in our home?”

-Astarion wakes from trance around sundown to find you crying over a fussy teething dhampir and an equally whiny toddler who didn’t have a nap. 

-”Do you think we should go to the night market, little one? And I think your baby brother would also appreciate the night air as well” *Astarion with a baby bundled to his chest (with a sling) so he can always have a free hand in my guilty pleasure*

-When he comes back with both kids settled, he puts you to bed to rub your feet and tell you how much he appreciates you creating two miracles after he’s had such a miserable life.

Shadowheart

-”Come on boys, you can help mummy on the farm this afternoon.”

-Shadowheart wasn’t blind to your snippy tone with her and she also wasn’t blind to the problem either. 2 over ecstatic boys who were just over the moon that school was out for the summer. 

-”Tomorrow you all can help me tend to the plants and animals all day. Does that sound fun?” 

-Shadowheart will smother you in kisses that night after you’re finally a little less overstimulated, if you ask maybe she’ll do some of those Sharran torture tactics on you after the boys are tucked in of course.

Halsin

-”They are children, my heart. They are untamed beasts.”

-Halsin will laugh and kiss your forehead as if you’re the silliest of geese, but he’ll still take out all of the adopted children, just to give you a much needed break.

-The kids come back with every rock, flower, and stick that made them think of you. Each one of them telling you of the adventures daddy Halsin had taken them on that day.

-”It is my job as your husband to care for the children as well, my heart. Just tell me if you need a break.” 

Lae’zel

-“Xan, your mother is the liberator of our people and you’re treating her like any common istik.”

- Lae’zel takes the overzealous boy out to run him through some drills. When he comes back inside he’s tired and remembers why you’re his favorite parent. 

-”I told him we don’t make women cry. Especially our mothers and then I made him do twenty sword swings.”

-Xan doesn’t like swords so he will definitely not be acting a fool like that again. 

-*I wasn’t really sure what to do with Lae’zel because I didn’t raise the egg with her. We did hot lesbian gith and bard stuff And by stuff, I mean fighting Vlaakith’s warriors. 

[fishysaltine]

Odd internet discourse but I absolutely think every single of the main NPC’s would peel and orange for TAV/Durge, mostly depending on relationship status.

Wyll would peel an orange for you if he didn’t know you, he’s the Blade of the Frontiers!!! Peeling an orange for someone, let alone his friend or lover with probably a breath of relief from killing goblins/giant bats/gnolls. And he’d be a good orange peeler too. He’d even probably break it down perfectly into the little slices too. He kind of gets a hiccup when Mizora transforms him but he quickly figures out how to put his new claws to use and uses them to cut the peel even better like one of those fancy orange peelers.

Gale probably wouldn’t peel an orange for someone if they were some stranger on the street, but most definitely if you’re his friend or beyond. But if you’re his lover he’d probably make you a magic orange tree that gives you perfectly peeled oranges whenever you want them, mostly bc he’s not the best at peeling oranges (the skin is too tight for him, ok???) and everything HAS to be perfect for his Tav/Durge. God Gale would just be like “you’re just not ambitious enough try harder”, give you a thumbs up, and fuck off.

Karach would totally peel and orange for her bestie, and most definitely for her Tav/Durge. The thing is she’d totally suck at it. I imagine she just bites the peel to get it loose, but then her claws would just cut into the orange and get juice all over her hands (and in her eye), and it’d be a totally fucked up orange BUT she would do her best and yk what? She can just squish it and make Tav/Durge orange juice. (Plus Tav/Durge can lick it off her hands so who’s complaining rlly)

Shadowheart would only peel an orange for you if you were her BEST friend/lover and also if she’s a Selunite. Yk Shar has some sacred law about oranges being some weird metaphor for emotions and she won’t stand for that as a Sharran. She would look at Tav/Durge with that incredulous “okay…?” Look she does and that tone she has when she thinks her dearest is being silly/stupid, but she would do it. She would also be a decent peeler I imagine, but she would leave those annoying white strands on it just to kind of piss Tav/durge off.

Lae’zel would peel an orange depending on how you approach her. I think she’d have to see you peeling an orange first, get curious about it, and eventually break down and ask “wtf is that?” And Tav/Durge has to show her how to peel and orange. Then it becomes some like wild competition to her, especially if you romance her and give her a peeled orange once. Then she just starts peeling oranges and is absolutely awful at it and then gets angry that she’s not good at peeling oranges. So in the end she’ll probably take your orange, peel it for you, go like “chck, see? This is how a true warrior peels an orange.” Just to show off how goddamn good she is at peeling oranges, then give it back. And in the end she is crazy good at peeling oranges. (I imagine Tav/Durge and Lae’zel peeling oranges, then exchanging them while waiting for a sunrise. I also imagine Lae’zel likes the citrusy taste, but not how sticky it is.)

Astarion would only peel an orange for you only if you’re his lover. People who don’t think he would have never seen him interact with Durge or Half-illithid Tav (heavy on Durge in their entirety). And I don’t mean this in a “omg he’s my Prince Charming” I mean it in a way of like, a silent act of service. He would peel an orange for a romanced Tav in Act 3. He’d probably look at you weird, but he’d peel it, being anxious and snarky the whole time (bc let’s be real this man has probably never in his 240ish years of life, peeled an orange. Probably makes a note about how “CAZAdor never had USE for ORANGES”). But he would peel it, and complain about his nails and clothes in that whiny tone that he has when he really doesn’t mind, he’d just taking the piss out of you because you’re an adult and can technically do it yourself. But he gets the point. Kind of. Non-ascended epilogue Astarion is the one who gets it, and isn’t as snarky about doing it as Act 3 Astarion.

Ascended Astarion would peel oranges for Tav/Durge only after they beg him too, he wants/needs to see them pathetic before he entertains the thought of being anything for them just for them. He would also be super manipulative and bitchy about it like “oooohhh look at what I do for you, darling. You owe me so such, my pretty little consort. I treat you sooo well, don’t I?” The whole works.

P.S. Halsin would peel an orange for anyone who asks, and I imagine he’s good at it. He’s Archdruid, which means he gets a +10 to fruit checks. And oranges he peels also just always taste the best too. It’s concerning how good they are.

[fangsandfeels]

Who killed Isobel Thorm?

Among all the questions plaguing me, this one is the most persistent. I hoped Isobel would give any information about how she died or what the fuck happened, but we get none. And unless I did something wrong, Dame Aylin doesn't shed any light either. I remember there was some cut content in the EA (but it's not relevant anymore), so we only know that Isobel was killed suddenly in her parent's home, and the family dog died defending her.

So, my best guess is:

Isobel was killed by a Sharran. Being a daughter of the paladin of Selune made her a target already. But a lover of Selune's daughter? Oh, her death would be a blow to the morale.

Ketheric, fearing that something like this would happen, probably begged Dame Aylin to appeal to her mother and bring Isobel back, prayed to Selune herself (if his daughter was chosen by her ambassador, it has to mean something? If Selune cares not for his another tragedy, maybe she cares about her own daughter's grief?).

The only response he got from Selune and Dame Aylin is that nothing can be done, and they should rally against the enemy to avenge Isobel, which made him incredibly enraged and bitter - he gave so much, Isobel gave so much to Selune, only for them both to be cast aside, treated like pawns in the endless squabble between gods?! So he renounced his servitude to Selune and went to Shar out of sheer spite (and secret hope that if he served her well, she would give back what she took or at least help him stop feeling). He captured Dame Aylin as an offering to Shar and a "fuck you, I'm taking your daughter then" to Selune (probably feeling disgusted how Moonmaiden hadn't done absolutely anything to help her own child; fuck maybe he even waited for her to start bargaining - Isobel in exchange for Dame Aylin's freedom).

As the paladin of Shar, Thorm led her forces against Harpers and the druids, and the Shadow Curse was unleashed after he fell.

Centuries later, Myrkul plucks him from the afterlife (I wonder whether Ketheric was on his way to the Wall of Faithless because he cursed Shar with his dying breath too, or if Myrkul simply 'borrowed' him from her domain because he and Shar are supposed to be buddies. If it's the latter, it also explains why Isobel just saw dark instead of being taken to Selune's domain - maybe Shar claimed her soul after her death somehow, which made retrieving Isobel a no-issue?).

...somehow, my thoughts ended up going into the "Faerun gods kinda suck" territory yet again. Why does it keep happening?

[mumms-the-word]

Wandering the Gray

Pairing: Gale x gn!Tav Summary: In the midst of a brutal battle against Viconia DeVir and the Sharrans, Gale finds himself in the Fugue Plane once again. But this time, he recognizes a voice echoing in the distance. ao3 link A/N: You can 100% blame a 1 minute section of The Underworld from Epic the Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans for this fic. That's the entire inspiration for this fic. I don't want to spoil too much but if you've heard the song you know what's coming. also I suck at titles, every other title was too spoilery to me anyways enjoy the angst CW: some mention of suicidal ideation, death, grief, sad feels in general,

The air is thick with magical darkness, thick enough to drown in, and Gale is barely hanging on by a thread. He can feel the darkness choking him as he stumbles back, narrowly dodging a blade as it arcs toward him, appearing and disappearing in the inky black. Spell effects from the others briefly illuminate the darkness like obscured lightning amidst stormclouds, but nothing is effectively dispelling the swirling black. Shadowheart had warned them this would be the Sharrans’ tactics, and they had prepared as best as they were able, but the darkness was relentless. Gale had lost sight of her and the others ages ago. Now, he dares not cast spells with wide damage, lest he harm Shadowheart, his other allies, and Tav as well as the Sharrans.

His back hits granite and he realizes too late that he’s backed himself into a wall or platform of some kind. He grips his staff, jaw clenched, ready to swing outward or thunderwave the next Sharran that emerges from the darkness. His heart thumps loudly in his chest, in his ears, and though the battle rages all around him, it’s all he can hear. Every last desperate beat of a heart that is failing, his wounds too much to bear.

He nearly freezes as Viconia herself steps through the darkness. She sneers at him, but something in her stance assures him that he’s not worth her time. Before he can so much as summon a firebolt, however, she gestures sharply toward him, uttering a curse in Drowic. He feels the curse wrap around his chest, squeezing tightly, and his head begins to swim. A barrage of thoughts crowd his mind, clawing at his every insecurity and tearing them open to be laid bare and bleeding. Inadequacy, shame, guilt, terror, they all threaten to overwhelm him.

He sucks in a breath and flings a chromatic orb of crackling lightning at Viconia, but she blocks it readily with her shield. Smirking faintly, she steps backward into the darkness, leaving Gale with her curse, like a thousand voices screaming in his mind.

Pathetic. Weak. Flew too close to the sun. Defied your goddess. A shadow of your former self. Not worth redemption. Use the orb, Gale. Kill yourself. Kill yourself!

He doesn’t see the mace come arcing down toward his head until it’s too late.

—

When he opens his eyes again, he’s not surrounded by darkness, but by shades of gray. Gray and white fog swirls slowly around him and the sky overhead is shrouded in low-hanging clouds, all dull silver. Flakes of ash drift by, born aloft by winds that he cannot feel or sense.

The Fugue Plane, he realizes distantly, looking slowly around him. There’s nothing to see. Even the flat ground beneath his feet is a colorless gray, not quite stone but not quite earth either. When he shifts, his steps kick up a fine dusting of ash, or perhaps mist, which floats upward to join the shifting fog around him. There’s not even a shadow of the looming city of the dead to look for, to guide his steps. 

Just an endless expanse of cloudy gray.

The sheer emptiness of it all settles over him immediately, threatening to make him fold. He’d hoped since the last time he died, he would never have to return. Or at least that the next time would be decades and decades away. To be back so soon…

He lifts a hand to his chest, as if seeking out the pouch that formerly rested over his heart, but he knows it’s not there. Even in the Material world, he no longer wears the pouch. Tav carries it now, though it bears little more than a scrap piece of parchment and a flute, the scroll of true resurrection used up some time ago. He knows he ought to be at least a little concerned, though logically, it won’t be the first time that Withers had dragged one of them from the Fugue Plane for a meager sum of gold. It’s just a matter of waiting.

But it is the waiting that wearies him. A moment in the Fugue Plane stretches on for aeons, in his mind. Even his movements feel weighted down. But with nothing else to do but sit or walk, he chooses to walk.

As he moves through the fog, the hush of the plane is oppressive. Like a droning whisper, the only sound he can hear is a white noise that feels thick enough to cut through yet distant enough that the source is always out of sight, out of reach. There are no words to pick out from the hush, however. As he walks, he moves through the mist alone. No other souls pass by or even materialize in the gray.

Never has he felt so desperately alone, so isolated.

But then…a voice. 

He stops and turns his head as he hears it echoing through the fog, half thinking it’s his imagination. But then he hears it again, this time clearer and closer.

“…waiting…”

He grows still and would have grown cold, had he any body left. That voice…he knows that voice.

“It can’t be,” he whispers.

“I’m waiting…”

He takes a cautious step forward, following the voice deeper into the fog, straining his ears for more of that familiar voice. It must be a trick, and yet…

“Waiting…I’m waiting…”

“Morena?” he calls through the gray, but his voice is muffled, swallowed up by fog and mist. He turns to move in the direction of her voice, following it through the swirling gray.

“My darling boy…”

“Mother!” He stumbles forward and then to a halt, a figure materializing in the mist. “Mother…”

There she sits, perched on the flat of a rock, her hands resting demurely in her lap, the same way she sits in her favorite chair on her balcony overlooking the Waterdhavian harbor. A slate gray sea laps onto the ashen shore around the rock, the rest of the waters disappearing into the dark fog. The sound of the waves should have been familiar, comforting, but the sound is quiet, as if he stands yards away rather than only a few paces from the shore.

She doesn’t turn to look at him. Instead she sits, her head turned toward the water, just as he remembers her looking the last time he visited her in Waterdeep, over a year ago. Before his fall. Before his folly. She’d been admiring the sunset then, a wistful smile on her lips, a book abandoned in her lap. Now her expression is distant and tired.

She should not be here.

“Mother,” he murmurs, venturing another cautious step closer. But she doesn’t seem to hear him. She never once glances his way as he finally reaches the rock she sits on, kneeling down near her feet. He barely notices the water soaking his robes and trousers as the sea flows up toward the rock and ebbs away. “Mum...”

Again she ignores him, her white, clouded eyes on the horizon. Or what would be the horizon, if the swirling mist were not obscuring every view. She hums absently under her breath, little melodies that are heartbreakingly familiar, but she never once looks away from that hidden horizon.

She shifts, her hands making a stroking motion as if she were petting something in her lap. “I know he’ll be home soon, Tara,” she murmurs, her voice echoing softly in the mist as it did when he was searching for her moments ago. “I don’t mind waiting for him.”

“I’m here, Mum,” he says softly, his throat closing around tears he can’t shed. He doesn’t have a body to produce tears nor a physical heart to break. So why does he feel so desperately sad? Why does it feel like he’s about to unravel completely? Some part of him still desperately hopes this is all an illusion. A trick. “I’m…I’m right here.”

But she never hears him. The souls of the dead rarely see or acknowledge each other. He knows that from his last visit to the Fugue Plane. But she can’t…she can’t be…Tara would have said if she were…

She breathes a small sigh, smiling gently to herself and looking down at her lap. “My darling boy…my little love. I do miss him, Tara. But I know he’ll return soon. And when he does, I’ll be here for him. Waiting right here, where he knows to find me.” She looks again to the distant horizon. “I don’t mind waiting…as long as it takes…”

“No,” Gale whispers. “It can’t be…when...”

The answer unfolds in his mind with dreadful certainty. It doesn't matter when.

He took too long to return to her. His year-long seclusion in his tower. The journey from the nautiloid. Months spent traveling, moving farther and farther from Waterdeep. He kept himself away for too long and left his home and his mother entirely behind, and now…

Now it is too late.

He reaches up for her hand, but his fingers pass through her and her form flickers briefly. He curls his fingers into a fist, battling the swirl of emotions inside him. Rage at himself, fear, a desperate longing to say something, do something, to get her to simply look at him. To acknowledge him.

But mostly grief. A deep, irrepressible grief that yawns within him like a chasm with no end. Black and cruel.

“I’m here,” he says again, his voice breaking. “Mum…I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I…”

He shouldn’t have stayed away. Yet even as he thinks it, what other choice did he have? There were no choices. There are no choices. Everything he’d done since his fall, he’d done to protect her. Every choice he makes now is for that very purpose, to save her and everyone else in Faerûn.

And now it doesn’t matter. They’re both dead. 

“I love you,” he says, looking up at her, even knowing that she can't hear him. “All my heart, Mum, I love you. Forgive me. Forgive me.” He bows his head, bringing his forehead nearly to her knee, struggling to compose himself. “Forgive me…”

The hush of the plane and the faint sound of the sea are all that respond. But then a featherlight touch brushes his hair. He looks up, scarcely daring to hope.

His mother gazes down at him, her white eyes focused on him. When she sees him staring back at her, she smiles softly.

“My darling boy,” she murmurs, brushing the backs of her fingers against his cheek. Her voice still bears that distant, echoing tone, as if she’s a thousand miles away. “It’s time for you to wake up.”

“Wake up?”

“Wake up, my love,” she says again, and this time her voice sounds even more distant. Altered. Not quite her own. She covers his eyes with her hand, shutting his eyes for him, and he drifts into darkness. “Wake up.” 

“Gale! Wake up!”

His eyes fly open and he gasps, his lungs desperate for air. He looks around wildly, expecting more of the Fugue Plane, but instead he finds the familiar wooden walls and ceiling of the Elfsong Tavern. He turns his head to find Tav staring at him, their eyes wide with worry.

“Tav?” he mumbles.

“It was just a dream, love,” Tav says, brushing a hand over his sweat-soaked forehead, pushing his hair from his face. “I’ve been trying to wake you for a while now.”

“A dream…” He struggles to make sense of it, but slowly the pieces fall into place. 

Their fight at the House of Grief, where Gale had very nearly died. Nearly, but not quite. He remembers going with Shadowheart to free her parents, only to realize that their freedom meant their deaths. It had weighed on Gale’s spirit, watching her parents smile at their daughter mere seconds before turning into motes of light. He remembers thinking it was an impossible choice, one he couldn't have made on his own.

Something about it seems to have stayed with him. Even now, he half-fears that his dream is more than a dream. A premonition, perhaps, or a glimpse of the future.

Gods, he hopes not.

He sits up, rubbing his hands over his face. His shirt sticks to his sweat-soaked back and he wants nothing more than to splash his face and neck with cold water. But first—

“Where’s Tara?” he asks, dropping his hands.

Tav’s eyebrows draw together. “Tara?”

“I’m here, Mr. Dekarios.” She hops onto the back of the bed where it shares a backboard with Karlach’s. Tara always had an uncanny knack for being nearby whenever she was needed. She licks at one paw before fluffing her feathers and fixing her gaze on him. “Oh my. You look as though you’ve seen a ghost, Mr. Dekarios.”

He huffs a shaky laugh, but it’s without humor. “I almost fear I have, Tara. Tell me—this must sound like I’m mad but—my mother. Is she well?”

“Mrs. Dekarios? She’s as fit as ever, last I saw.”

“And how long ago was that?”

“Why, only just the other day,” Tara said, flicking her ears. “I check on her regularly, you know. I wouldn’t miss our evening tea time for the world.”

Gale breathes a sigh of relief, dropping his head in his hands again. It was just a dream. Just a horrible dream. Probably left over from Viconia’s fear curse that had struck him during the battle earlier that day.

He feels Tav’s hand rubbing comfortingly against his back. “Gale? Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” he mumbles. He takes a deep breath and drops his hands again, leaning back against the pillows. “Yes. My apologies. It was a bad dream, like you said.”

Tav is quiet for a moment before cuddling close, wrapping their arms around his middle. He shifts so that his arm is around their shoulders, his fingers trailing absently along their arm.

“Was it about your mother?” they ask quietly.

Gale’s throat closes up, but his silence his answer enough. He clears his throat quietly. “I saw her in the Fugue Plane. A dead soul.”

He can say no more. He reaches up to press his thumb and forefinger against his eyes, as if to block the tears that sting behind his lids. Even the thought of her sitting alone on her balcony, waiting for him, while he puts himself in more and more danger, is enough to break him. He takes a shuddering breath and Tav wraps their arms tighter around him.

“It’s okay,” they whisper. “I’m here.”

“I know. I…thank you.” He manages to compose himself enough to lower his hand and turn his head toward Tara. Her feline eyes glint in the darkness, watching him in silence. “Tara, will you—”

“I assure you, Mr. Dekarios, your mother is hale and hearty,” she says. “And we both have the utmost confidence that you’ll wrap up this Absolute business in time for the upcoming holidays, which you will be spending in Waterdeep, of course.”

“Of course,” Gale says, managing a smile. “But I have a request. I want you to go home.”

Tara blinks, and though she controls most of her expression he sees the fur on her neck start to rise. “Home? And leave you behind?”

“Please Tara,” he says. He rubs a hand against Tav’s back, knowing they’re listening quietly. “I will be fine here. You know you can trust Tav to look after me. But I need someone there to look after Morena. There’s no one more suited to the task than you.”

Tara’s tail flicks several times as she regards him in disdainful silence. But then her fur settles and she looks away. “Very well, Mr. Dekarios.”

“And don’t tell her anything. I don’t want her to worry.”

“Very well, Mr. Dekarios. If that is what you wish.”

“It is.” He knows he’s just worrying too much, but his dream has shaken him. Better to have Tara there, just in case, than to spend weeks wondering and worrying. “Thank you, Tara.”

“You’re quite welcome. But I shall expect you home within a few tendays, you know.”

Gale chuckles, settling in with Tav at his side. “We’ll see what we can do. Safe travels, Tara.”

“You as well, Mr. Dekarios. And you,” she directs her next words to Tav, who turns their head to look up at her. “Do see to it that he does not suffer more bad dreams.”

With that slight admonition, she hops down and disappears into the darkness.

Gale breathes a small sigh, shifting to get more comfortable and wrapping Tav more tightly in his embrace. “You should get some rest, my love. It’s still quite early in the morning.”

“What about you?” they whisper, their cheek resting on his chest.

He’s quiet for a moment. “I fear that after a dream like that, I’m wary of falling asleep again.” 

His dreams rarely repeat in the same night, but he can’t shake the irrational fear that if he falls asleep again, he’ll just find himself back in the Fugue Plane. Searching for his mother.

“Hmm…” Tav turns their head to rest their chin on his chest, looking up at him. “Then I’ll stay awake for a bit too.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to.” They shift to bring their lips up to kiss him before settling back where they were, pressed against his side with their cheek on his chest. “Talk to me for a bit. Tell me about your mother.”

“My mother? What would you like to know?”

“Everything. Whatever you feel comfortable with sharing.”

Gale pauses to think. Where does one begin when it comes to the venerable Morena Dekarios? But despite his hesitation, he’s grateful Tav is asking. He knows they’re only trying to distract him, but it helps. 

“Well,” he begins. “My mother is the inimitable, dare I say unavoidable, Morena Dekarios. She resides in Waterdeep, in a home overlooking the harbor…”

As he speaks, telling Tav of his mother’s quirks, her affection for him, the way she seems to know everyone, her favorite dishes, her talents, and more, his anxieties eventually fade away. It’s as though speaking of her like this, in the present tense, is proof that she is well. And would still be well when he finally returns to her. 

After a while Tav yawns, their voice heavy with sleep as they mumble, "She sounds lovely, Gale. I can't wait to meet her."

He smiles softly and presses a little kiss to Tav's hair. "Nor I, my love. I'm certain she will adore you."

Tav hides their sleepy smile in his chest and soon their breathing evens out, a sure sign they've been lulled to sleep. Gale listens to them breathing for a moment, grateful for every breath. Grateful, too, that they were willing to stay up and listen to him mumble quietly about his mother for an hour, of all things to talk about.

It’s enough to soothe his guilty conscience for the night. His dream was just a dream, he's more certain of that now. And one day, hopefully soon, he'll be back in Morena's parlor again, suffering her affectionate chiding and introducing her to the love of his life. The thought brings a smile to his face and he closes his eyes, comforted by daydreams of Tav meeting Morena Dekarios.

The daydreams soon bring with them the wave of exhaustion and at last he gives in, closing his eyes and drifting away for a few scant hours of dreamless sleep.

[therookandthecrow]

Of course, the only female Rook I'm planning to romance Lucanis with is the closest to a self-insert as possible, without actually being like me. I've given her a lot of my darker personality traits, many of which I have been working on, in earnest. My looks, however, not at all.

Actually, she's based off one of my Tavs, Iellana in looks and personality [for reference, Iellana is a Sharran priestess/'confessor' sort - almost a Dark Justiciar]. I hope I can give Nirasha a dagger tattoo in Dragon Age, because she is essentially her.

There is a lot more about her under the cut. Before that, enjoy my screenshots of how her counterpart looks in Baldur's Gate 3.

Nirasha is coldly distrusting, harsh, and pessimistic, likes to do things 'by the book', she has a resting b---- face [more like a resting murderer face, if we're being fair], she's stubborn, fiercely judgmental, she has an innate sense of superiority, sometimes to the point of arrogance!

She's also very traditional in the way 'this is how we have always done things, why do we need to fix it', very rigid and stern-minded, likes to have every thing accounted for, she does not tolerate mistakes, especially her own. That, and she never forgets a transgression.

In fact, it is a comfort for her to go to sleep imagining the ways in which the people whom have wronged her could potentially die, especially at her own hands. Vindictive is her middle-name. She really needs someone to either reel her in or to encourage her murderous ideations. *cough* Lucanis *cough*

Her demeanor is best described as cagey, guarded, curt, no-nonsense, distant, aloof, unnerving almost. In her other iteration, she is literally a Dark Justiciar of one of the most evil fantasy Gods possible. Don't be fooled by her Vallaslin of June in Veilguard, she'd have got one of the Forgotten Ones, if it was an option.

While judgmental of others, she is more judgmental of herself. A perfectionist, I am not, but she is one. Her death-glare doesn't help either. She has a way of looking at people that makes a lot of them think that she hates them. That is only true half of the time. She actually self-flagellates, emotionally - she is a masochist.

She's coolly sardonic, and on the outside, she appears to be dismissive of other people's feelings. However, she is quite sensitive, especially to criticism, deep down. When wronged, she is ruthless to the point where she won't tolerate anything less than the ruination of those whom have done the wronging.

Forgiveness is not a strong point. I've thought of her as the woman with daggers for eyes. It's hard for her to find the glass half-full, in the proverbial sense. One of her worst traits is that she gives a 'fifty reasons why you suck' speech to people under the guise of being helpful.

While she's good at problem-solving, identifying-patterns and putting them into words, she has a lot to work on in her delivery, because the way in which she words things has hurt other people in the past, even though it was not her intention. It doesn't help that she smirks instead of smiles.

Lucanis may end up "fixing" her, because I like flipping tropes and expectations around, and I've seen too many "I can fix him" posts about Lucanis before the game is even out! I like the idea of Lucanis, even with his own issues, being the person she'd needed all along, while she is the person he's also needed.

She's not a vessel for negative traits of my own, and those which I do not have, but she is intended to be a study of a female character with a lot of traits often associated with male characters. She's supposed to be an asshole who eventually accepts her soft side, and lets herself be vulnerable and breathe for once in her life.

Lucanis is the one who prevent her from succumbing to the darkness inside of her and turning into a monster of a person. I'm actually planning to play her BG3 iteration again sooner than later and romance her with Gale to mirror her relationship with Lucanis in Veilguard.

[moghedien]

obsessed with the saga of Selûnite drow mommy vs Shadowheart’s deeply rooted Mother Superior issues & goodest girl complex. her selûnite closet is made of GLASS. what does your character think about everything that’s happening between the two of them?

So usually I think of characters for a while before I play them but this one I was just like “I wanna make a drow Selunite” and made one the same day without much thought so I’m like developing a backstory and how she acts in the moment more so I’ll probably be in a different spot as the pt goes on

I’ve played a very dogmatic lolth cleric before (literally would not let myself kill spiders even though the game wouldn't really punish me for) and so I’m being much more chill this time for playstyle diversity which does help when you have a Sharran yelling at you about how your goddess sucks. I gave her an urchin background and the game still tagged me as being from the underdark, and I imagine being an urchin child in the underdark to be a bad time, so I’m like “there’s no way this girl grew up as a selunite because there’s no moon underground so she to have been converted once she came to the surface.”

All this to say, that in order to go from an underdark urchin from some drow city to a relatively chill cleric of Selune, she’s got to have dealt with most of her baggage and hang ups already. So she meets the most obvious Sharran in the world (who is probably also the first Sharran she’s met) who very very clearly has not dealt with literally anything in her personal life ever, and it’s just like “well let’s explore this.”

Admittedly her interest in Shadowheart was probably just “what the fuck is this Sharran doing” and wanting to see where this went. Like she’d want to keep an eye on a potentially dangerous person while also being somewhat practical about taking help where help is offered.

But then Shadowheart is being cagey as fuck while also begging for them to stick together, and seeing her be very clearly wanting to help people and be nice and struggling against that (and sometimes feeling literal pain when she does) and it’s less a vague interest in what the suspicious Sharran is doing more a specific interest in what the fuck is going on while Shadowheart and getting more and more confused the more she learns until she can finally get the girl to admit that she’s a Sharran.

And then when she does admit that she’s a Sharran, she just starts yellling about how shitty Selune is which is admittedly hilarious. I made the choice in the moment to basically never shit talk Shar or Sharrans to Shadowheart. Partially because that tends to end conversations early but mostly to counter how aggressive and clearly upset Shadowheart is every time she has to think of Selune.

At the point I’m at now, I just got her to admit to being Sharran and then she talked to me about wanting to be a DJ so we’re really just at the beginning of the Selunite vs Sharran tension between them and I don’t think my Selunite girly is gonna realize there’s like actual like attraction/romance until the first romance scene. Right now she’s just constantly going over to Shadowheart like “I wanna study her like a bug” because she wants to know how Sharrans think of Shar and Selune and how their religion actually works and whatnot. She is someone who was drawn to Selune so she wants to see what it takes for someone to be drawn to Shar and what that life looks like compared to hers.

And I mean she also has like an incurable disease where she has to help every shitty little kid she finds because of her upbringing as a shitty little kid with no one to help her, so it’ll probably trigger something in her once she gets the scene where Shadowheart shows her what happened to her as a kid. Also because of some things im thinking about with my Selunite’s own conversion involving that rite

Once the romance kicks off tho I imagine she’ll be thinking a whole lot of complicated things about what’s going on between them and she’s gonna be like clawing at her thigh resisting the urge (lol) to just be like “please leave Shar” but I also never wanna like specifically ask/tell her to deconvert from Shar/convert to Selune. It’s all gonna be a big fucking mess with Shadowheart never wanting to discuss their religious tensions because it’ll ruin the mood while that’s literally all my girl wants to talk about because thats what’s getting her into the mood

[chaoticbardlady99]

OC Deep Dive

Thank you for the tag @aristenfromwarsaw

I have so many I would love to do this for, but then I would feel bad for blowing up everyone’s feed 😵‍💫

My OC:

Desdemona “Lenore” Vhammos- the First and Only Vampire Ascendant

What common/ Uncommon fear do they have:

Pre-acension, she is terrified of being confined (think burrito blanket type stuff) and of monsters like liches because of her time being confined and tied down to the floor of an abandoned asylum.

During the Tadpole, her biggest fear is Dahlia, but more specifically Dahlia hurting Astarion. She quickly becomes attached to him because he understands her situation and makes her feel less robotic- encourages her to be more engaged in life than passive. Dahlia doesn’t want her to realize she’s actually a person.

Post ascension- her biggest fear would be to give Astarion probably more of a reason to hate her than he already does. Sure she’s still afraid of Dahlia and monsters to an extent, but she is more afraid of what Dahlia is willing to do to the people she cares about and the Night Masks learning about Astarion.

Her only consistent fear is that she is afraid of herself. Dahlia has given her such a skewed monster like identity that she is still struggling to break away from it.

Do they have pet peeves?

Absolutely- she hates being micromanaged or feeling micromanaged. She wants to be left alone and doesn’t particularly care for the company of others due to her upbringing. People are too… unpredictable.

What are three things that can be found in her bedroom?

A beaten up, millionth time restored pair of Celestial sandals Astarion bought her when they first got to Baldur’s Gate. She refuses to part with them and it’s the only gift he bought her that he forgot to steal back after he dumped her.

A notebook with charcoal- she loves to Draw. She isn’t able to read or write all that well until after she ascends so drawing is the best way for her to express herself.

Her telepathy rings- she is able to get past her selective mutism much more after she ascended, but she sometimes trips over herself and she doesn’t want to be without them and need them. If they are in her room, then that means Lenore is home.

What do they notice first in a person?

Their posture- posture is the eyes into insecurities as Dahlia has beaten into her.

On a scale of 1-10, how high is her pain tolerance?

8/10 at the very least. Dahlia is not a kind teacher and while stubbing her toe may suck, she wouldn’t be too bothered if she was… taken apart. Dahlia is creative.

Fight or flight mode?

Fight- she was quite literally trained to be a weapon and an extension of Dahlia. She is conditioned to strike first and fast.

Do they come from a big family a big family/ are they a family person?

Lenore grew up in an Ellistraee Monastery before Dahlia destroyed it and kidnapped her in Shar’s name. It was an all woman’s Monastery and so she grew up with everyone being a “spiritual family” (lots of children her age, adults, think Air Temple). She was a very happy, charismatic and social child.

Dahlia became her “mother” following her kidnapping and the Nightmask’s became her “family”. She isn’t family oriented with them.

She used to feel like the tadfools were her family and while they have all forgiven her, it’s still awkward for her to be around them.

What animal represents them best?

Javan Tiger- they are unfortunately extinct now. They are stealthy, opportunistic, territorial, and were very feared. However, she is very playful with the right people and I definitely canonically believe that she teaches Astarion how to fight during the Tadpole Dilemma and they often play fight like cats.

What is a smell she dislikes?

Sweet pea or Vanilla. They are Dahlia’s favorite scents and they make her nauseous.

Have they broken any bones?

All of them at various times- Dahlia believes in torture as a teaching method and being brought up in Sharran’s doctrine really reinforced this belief in Dahlia.

How would a stranger likely describe them?

Pre-tadpole, during tadpole and pre- ascension she would be described as a walking corpse or something in the Uncanny Valley. Something close to human, but not quite. She is rather unsettling and only the group really likes her. Astarion is the only one not unsettled by her entirely and adjusts to her quickly. He finds her to be rather beautiful and tragic. He finds her very alluring and lovely. He does still find her a wee bit terrifying and he finds that pretty attractive. Anyone who could kill Cazador by merely punching him in the face is exceptional in his eyes.

She is more patient and understanding- very quick to be empathetic and doormat like even though she comes across as cold. Weepy and struggles with coping with her feelings, but she isolates when this happens.

Post Ascension she would be described as cold, elusive, and hauntingly gorgeous. Somewhat put together and out of a magazine, book, kind of deal. Short tempered and quick to anger. Struggles with emotions so she is very avoidant. She is good at faking togetherness for the public and Astarion is really the only one who has seen her break and even that has been on accident.

Astarion is of course, enamored with her, but also despises her and thinks she’s a backstabbing bitch.

Are they a night owl or morning bird?

She used to be a night owl, but after her ascension and the tadpole, she loves the mornings. It doesn’t change her love for the nighttime and the moon.

What’s a flavor they hate and a flavor they love?

She likes whiskey enough, but Dahlia mostly injected blood directly into her body so she didn’t really taste anything again until the tadpole.

She hates the way Araj tastes. Fun story.

Do they have any hobbies?

Drawing, meditating, yoga, and mixed martial arts. Oh and bothering Astarion post ascension.

Boom! Surprise birthday party! How do they react to the surprise?

Like a terrified cat. She does not like surprises- notoriously they haven’t been fun- and it would either make her burst into tears or light the entire room on fire. There isn’t an in between.

Do they have neat or messy hand writing?

Pre-ascension, it’s horrific and Astarion takes a lot of time to help her. Post-ascension, her handwriting is much better, but only because she knows how to practice.

What are two emotions she feels the most?

Apathy and melancholy. She’s Grumpy Bear from the Care Bears- loveable, but grumpy.

Does she have a favorite fabric?

Jersey Sheets or Fleece- she is a huge texture freak and is very particular.

What kind of accent do they have?

She has a Sembian accent which is described as BBC English with a mix of a Dragon Coast accent which is described as being a New England accent- she basically sometimes doesn’t pronounce her Rs and pronounces Os as As occasionally. Often replaces -ing with -in (“I won’t be goin anywhere with you.”) I think Maeve from sex education ish and Keira Knightly. But she puts emphasis on certain letters like Saoirse Ronan. Astarion loves it when she talks because it means she is comfortable.

No pressure tag: @preciouslittlebhaalbae @bananasfosterparent @spacebarbarianweird @davenswitcher

[blackjackkent]

4 and 46, please :) Character/pairings of your choice

(Send me a number and I’ll write a micro story using the word or phrase)

4. "one chance" (will do the other in another post :D )

—–

The Emperor watches impassively as the nautiloid cracks apart and the Prism - and its new owners - begin to fall towards the beach below.

Damn.

There were originally two hundred tadpoled victims aboard the ship after it completed its business in Yartar. The Emperor was able to protect twenty in the immediate vicinity of the Sharran half-elf who currently holds the Prism. Of those twenty, thirteen have been killed in the githyanki attack that followed. Seven remain locked under the protection of Orpheus's power: the burning tiefling and the hunter chasing her, the vampire spawn, the Weave-sucking wizard, and the Sharran herself along with the two that rescued her from the pod - the githyanki fighter and the monk with pale, terrified eyes.

A motley collection. But sufficient. Touched by the Absolute but - so long as I maintain the connection - unconsumed by it. A challenge by any measure, human or illithid; the Emperor can already feel the steady thump-thump-thump of the transformation commands, each rebounding off of the Prism's protection like a small explosion.

It is under no illusions that it would be able to find further allies in the time that remains. This is its one chance. These seven souls must not be allowed to die here.

The Emperor closes its eyes, reaches out both hands, feeling the play of the Prism's power around it. With a burst of effort, it hurls the magic outwards, a vast net focused on the seven people it is bound to. Their headlong momentum towards the ground catches within the mesh of energy like a rope drawing suddenly taut. The Emperor feels the impact go through its gut, knocking all the breath from its body.

But the connection holds. Slowly it lowers each of its new allies to the sand of the dark beach and then unwinds the magic from them, back into the Prism's particular corner of the Weave.

Only when all seven are safely deposited is the Emperor able to relax. Good. They will live. Come morning, the work begins.

[varantthedruid]

So,

Yesterday evening I went back to my very first Tav. A high elf Paladin of Vengeance Oathbreaker. And I gave Shadowheart to Viconia (on accident). Anyway, my thoughts on why someone would choose that and a headcanon I made up in bed afterwards under the cut.

We were at the House of Grief and she romanced a Selunite!Shadowheart (I kind of hate that we always talk about Selunite Shadowheart because she states at several points in the game that she isn't ready to just jump on the new goddess bandwagon and she is understandably vary of it but I get where it's coming from and in a kill parents playthrough she does try to figure out her roots and all that anyways).

I accidentally gave her to Viconia. And it fucking broke my heart but I wanted to see how it plays out and when I came back and she stood there and couldn't remember me or anything about the journey she just had, it was horrible. I F8 so hard.

And then some of the companion (or lack thereof) reactions.

I truly think this is one of the most evil endings you can choose for Shadowheart besides maybe freeing the parents and then killing them in front of her.

My imagination went kinda wild here and just...imagine you take your lover, with whom you shared so much of the little you know and have of yourself, with you to finally resolve years of trauma and face the cult that lied to you, wiped your memory and hurt you in many many ways only for them to decide: You can have her. It's the ultimate betrayal.

And Shadowheart gets dragged away, towards the Mirror, PASSING her parents knowing they are her parents and are getting tortured in some capacity and then gets forced to give up her memories and then potentially (I mean I am pretty sure Viconia is not just wiping her memory, I do think she gets severely punished for everything) being abused for something she doesn't remember.

I can't for the life of me figure out why ANYONE would do that since you'd probably lose your healer for just a call upon some Sharrans in the fight against the Elder brain. BUT:

I just had to headcanon that Shadowheart was part of a Sharran raid on my Paladins monastery and my Paladin broke her oath freeing SH from the pod and she basically took some time to remember what SH did. SH of course does not remember but we all know SH was never fully into Shar and had to be disciplined a lot for not being obedient so she probably did not enjoy what she did.

But the Paladin lost family there. And when she realised this was a moment of vengeance for her she swore to restore her oath. And while she did fall in love with SH and understood the immense abuse that happened, she lost everything herself. But she is also pragmatic and needs every help she can get in the fight against the Elder Brain. So she took her vengeance in the worst way possible.

But when she saw SH after in the cloister, she fully realized what she did and decided to live with that pain.

My HC went so far that later on Lae'Zel would start seeking out SH (who is basically nothing more than an errant girl for the cloister at this point) when she comes to visit from the Astral Plane. Because at that start they had a little enemies with benefits going on and Bae'Zel hated that they gave SH away and she never got over that guilt for not stopping what was happening.

Anyway, I have no idea about D'n'D or how Paladins and their Oaths work but yeah....

I would love to put this into an elaborate fan fic but I suck at this.

[deconstructivesurgery]

This idea has been cracking me up all morning and I'm way too lazy to try and make it into a shitty comic or fanfiction post so I'm just getting it out here: The BG3 crew all having a miserable time in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, but make it a sitcom episode.

Lae'zel and Wyll are sitting on a log, staring into the camera. It's their combined interview hour, as the only two people not going fucking insane. Between the two of them, they're trying to transcribe the odd behaviour of everyone else around.

And what exactly are they up to? Well,

Gale: Hasn't been the same since the encounter with Elminster, and it's starting to freak everyone out a little bit, to be honest. Somehow, he's gone from being one of the least intimidating people at camp to vaguely... ominous, at times. It's unsettling when he's quiet. Even moreso when the days start passing, and despite everyone's agreement that it's a horrible idea, he's shown no signs of refusing to detonate himself. And even more so again when he of all people starts stringing dead pixies together to make use of Sharran magic. Even Shadowheart is a wee bit concerned, and Shar is her bread and butter right now.

Shadowheart: Speaking of her: yeah, I'm gonna be real with you. The only person putting up with her fascination with the Sharran magic clouded over Moonrise right now is Gale. Everyone else is sick of hearing about it, and even more sick of experiencing its ill effects. Even Gale is tired of it, to be frank- resents the fact that he's spending what he thinks are his last days in Shar-induced misery fog- but listening to her passes the time. She's basically gone full-on worshipper mode at this point, like an overzealous kid attending a religious day camp.

Astarion: Starts acting like an ill Victorian child a few days in, miserable because he's being forced to waste precious days free to walk in the sun stuck under Shar's cloud of cold, dank fog. And also because there's absolutely jackshit to eat but other crew members- 2/6 of whom are inedible. And also because everyone is at least 70% less pleasant to be around at the moment due to shadow-related misery. It's not even fun bothering anyone anymore when all you're going to get in return is a tired look or a sigh. And also he's stuck fighting an orthon to get important info about whether he's going to die or not. And also- look, everything just really sucks right now, honestly. All of it.

Karlach: Does her damndest to stay positive, but it'll never not be unnerving that she of all people now feels chilled to the bone. Despite her usual willingness to see the best in people, listening to Shadowheart's constant glee about the curse making everyone else miserable has gotta spark up some tension at times. In general, I think she'd be fighting hard to cling to her usual "enjoy everything while you can, Karlach, your time is limited" mentality in the face of so much outright misery and gloom. It's hard to enjoy the days you have left with your friends when your friends have mostly gone fucking bonkers over yonkers, and that makes everything so much harder.

[cactusnymph]

For the prompts: Touching and 35. "kissing their bruises and scars" with Aylin and Isobel (and Shadowheart if you feel like it! all moon wlw welcome) pretty please! This is fun and your writing is beautiful ^^

Isobel still can't believe that she not only got her life back but also her Aylin. Twice blessed by Selûne is what she would normally say, but the gods work their magic in strange ways and when she thinks too much about it—about how Myrkul was the one to give her a second chance at life and how a Chosen of Shar is the one who freed her Aylin—her head starts spinning.

Instead she focuses on the here and now as best as she can, grounding herself in the feeling of Aylin's warm body next to her. Her fingers gently follow the golden cracks along her love's skin—a testament to her strength and resolution.

Aylin sighs as Isobel follows the lines down her chest, over her belly and across her hips and thighs before pressing her lips against a dark bruise on Aylin's shoulder, darting her tongue out to taste it.

Aylin's breath hitches and Isobel smiles.

"Again?", she teases lovingly and Aylin turns her head to look at Isobel.

"I've been imprisoned for centuries without a gentle touch or the sight of my beautiful Isobel. You will forgive me if I have much to catch up on", she says and Isobel hums before continuing her journey down Aylin's body, her fingers traveling ahead of her lips as she finds every scar and every bruise.

"I have a question", Isobsel mumbles into Aylin's skin before licking one of her love's scars, right over her hipbone. She knows that this one was made by a drider. The one on her left thigh, just above the knee, by a dark justiciar. Isobel knows the stories behind all of Aylin's scars.

"If you wish to have a coherent discussion, maybe you should stop touching me for a moment", Aylin whispers, her breath coming quicker already as she squirms under Isobel's gentle administrations. Isobel chuckles.

"No", she says and revels in Aylin's laughter—breathy and happy.

"Well then. Ask and I will do my best to answer despite the dire circumstances", she says with half a smirk and Isobel laughs, gently nudging Aylin's thighs apart to settle between them.

"You've spend some time with our Sharran friend", Isobel says and gently bites the inside of Aylin's thigh. Aylin gasps and arches her back, her fingers digging into the blanket below her.

"That is not a question", Aylin teases.

"How do you feel about her?", Isobel wants to know and dips her head back down to nibble on Aylin's hipbones while her hands draw along the contours of Aylin's ribs.

Aylin seems to be too distracted to answer, chasing the feeling of Isobel's touch, pushing her hips up and spreading her legs a little further. Isobel isn't made of stone and Aylin is beautiful like this, but she also wants to know.

Her mind has been wandering every time she watches Aylin and Shadowheart sitting by the fire or in front of Shadowheart's tent. Ever the insightful one Aylin can see attraction when she sees it and Shadowheart is drawn to Aylin. Isobel understands.

Aylin is beautiful, courageous, fierce and endearingly blunt. Isobel knows what it's like to get caught up in her bright aura. But she also notices Shadowheart looking at her. They didn't meet on the best of terms but Isobel has come to respect Shadowheart. Has maybe even started to like her. And Shadowheart is trying not to enjoy their presence.

Isobel can tell.

"I might be—", a gasp as Isobel's head dips lower. "Intrigued."

"Intrigued?", Isobel asks with a smirk and bites at Aylin's hipbone again.

"There's much to discover", Aylin admits and Isobel has to agree. Thinking about Shadowheart while she has Aylin like this, naked and spread out on a soft blanket, breathing heavily just from Isobel kissing her scars... it makes her skin tingle with excitement.

"Do you want to invite her? Next time?", Isobel asks and Aylin sucks in a breath, looking up at Isobel through heavy-lidded eyes.

"Would you want that, my love?", she wants to know, her gaze piercing.

Isobel smiles.

"Yes. Yes, I think I would."

feel free to send me more of these <3

[atastypeach]

What weird/uncommon fetishes do you headcanon each of the origin characters having 😈(if any)

OH LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOO I admit some of these probably aren't as uncommon as people expect but these are some of my faves :)

MDNI! 18+ content ahead

Lae'zel: Ponyplay all the fucking way. She's all talk and gives such a "I am a dom and you will submit to me" vibe but she's really just a brat who wants to wrestle a lil but if you suggest something like ponyplay to her, or to make it even spicier, dragonplay (same stuff, but she can brat during it), she'd be like butter in your hands. Shadowheart: I wouldn't necessarily say it's uncommon or weird but there's enough content about Sharran's enforcing self-denial, and I think Shadowheart really enjoys orgasm denial and even more intensely, she likes ruined orgasms. No Nut November? Nah more like No Nut Ever. Even after converting to Selûne, she's still into ruined orgasms and it takes a few threeways with Aylin and Isobel for her to develop an overstimming fetish Astarion: Kittenplay I am a big fan of predominantly bottomsub Astarion in general, but I really do enjoy the idea of him both domming and subbing in regards to kittenplay. He loves to pamper and spoil his partners in treat them like royalty when he doms but even more so - he loves receiving it in turn. I mean it when I say this man is his own lil meow meow. Put him in kitty ears and a belled collar and scritch under his chin while you suck him off and he'll redefine what it means to purr. Gale: Public arousal/orgasm training. You know those vibrators you slip in your underwear and hold them in with a lil magnet and let them go all day? Similar concept. Strap a vibrator his cock and let it go - even better if he isn't in classic wizard ropes and he doesn't have the added layers to hide his erection. Also? Sounding. I have no kinky response for this one but I just like the idea of Gale sounding himself while solo

Wyll: THIS BOY LOVES GANGBANGS [bangs pots and pans together] He's already so used to his body belonging to someone else, he might as well have fun with it being used. Toss this young man into a room of horny participants and he will gladly allow himself to be used as the willing holes and hands for anyone who wishes to get their hands on him.

Karlach: Authority play, both domming and subbing. If there's one thing she may miss about serving Zariel - it was the chance to get really bossy with people who pissed her off. Developed something of a military kink, despite how soft she is outside of the bedroom. Lick her boots, worship the leather strips of clothing she wears over her skin - rut against her thigh like the filthy dog you are. But if you approach her with the same intensity in your voice? She's good at following orders, she did for Zariel for a decade, after all. Halsin: Chastity play. He's by nature a very sexual individual, right? Well what if part of that reason actually comes down to him being highly, highly invested in refusal of his own desires. He and Shadowheart probably bond about this shared kink a lot and probably tease one another relentless. But additionally? He enjoys having partners who will commit to chastity play along with him. To see how long they can go before they desperately come to him (heh) for release.

[void-botanist]

again plagued with thoughts about what a class in BG3 actually is. am I overthinking it? maybe. but I'm already tearing the game apart to put it back together in this AU so why not consider what a class actually functions as an abstraction of, or a convenience for. and why the D&D setup for classes feels so much more boring than, say, Forged in the Dark games.

I think the thing I struggle with when it comes to D&D classes is they don't break cleanly along Source Of Power and Role In The Party lines. what, really, is the source of a druid's magic and how is it different from a ranger? how do barbarians and fighters play different roles in a party on a purely mechanical level? you can access magic in multiple different ways but are there really different ways to learn how to use physical weapons? what does it really mean to be a cleric in a world where most people follow a god and may even be fairly devout? I'm still asking myself what the core essence of these different classes is, if you melt away all the associations and stereotypes. I already decided that monk and barbarian suck in every way except mechanically and as a result they are just going to be brawler, where the focus is on unarmed fighting and/or improvised weapons. fighter is so unbelievably broad that I might break it up somehow. druid, now called wilder for the time being, is a fun idea aesthetically but the lore of how wilders derive their powers is soup.

also it's wild how much time the party in Sharran AU will NOT spend picking up one million items worth one gold or pickpocketing the same gemstone from the same vendor to make money

Sharran AU taglist: @multi-lefaiye @theskeletonprior @daisywalletchains @writernopal

[optiwashere]

Handholding, 49 for Shadowheart and Asheera? 🥺 (always soft for them tbh)

Thank you for being soft for them because I am too (shocking I know!) And thanks for the request 💜

I'll have to take a break for the night, but I'll work on more tomorrow and any others that come in! Don't be afraid to send some in :)

You can send in one of these prompts + a ship/platonic pairing and I'll write a li'l ficlet!

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Hand-holding 49 (taking the other's hand to look for injuries)~ CW for blood, some canon-typical violence implications, and references to my fic It is the Wound She Gave Me.

With the necromancer dead on the stones, Shadowheart sighed. One step closer to realizing her purpose. Who she was meant to be. All that remained now was to take the Spear her Dark Lady had bestowed upon, the Mistress of All Nights to Come would finally recognize her as—

A pained gasp stole her attention away. The whisper in her mind told her to ignore it.

Asheera panted out another sharp sound, like blood was caught in her throat. Or a punctured lung. Shadowheart moved without thinking, the whisper fading in her mind even as it raised in volume.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, falling to her knees.

"I have suffered worse," Asheera muttered. She coughed and a black splotch fell onto the floor. "Nothing a touch from my god can't help."

"You think me an idiot, then? Come. Here." Shadowheart took her hand and pulled her up as best she could. "Gods, you're heavy as an ox."

"Stronger too. Healthier. Just give me a moment."

"I will not wait for you to bleed out while you fumble to lay hands on yourself," Shadowheart bit back. Though their relationship was mired in her own faulty memories and the Gauntlet's psychic urging, Shadowheart wasn't about to watch her... the woman she cared for bleed out. Not again.

Just the thought brought her back to the cells under the goblin camp. Shadowheart shook it away and began her casting of a healing spell.

Only then did she realize that she still held Asheera's hand. Their fingers interlocked together, the plated gauntlet slipped between her leather glove. She squeezed and touched the wound on Asheera's hip. A dip into Shar's spring of the Weave brought violet threads to stitch together the slash.

"How does that feel?" Shadowheart asked her, forgetting that Astarion and Gale were just right next to them. "Asheera, breathe for me."

Asheera sucked in one long breath and exhaled. Her muscles flexed and flowed under Shadowheart's healing hand and Asheera's hand in hers tightened the grip they shared.

"Feels good."

"You're better. No more bleeding."

Asheera nodded, the color returning to her dark olive green face. "No more bleeding. Thank you. You didn't have to do that."

Was I supposed to watch you die in my arms, again? But Shadowheart didn't dare voice that. Instead, she asked with an incredulous voice, "What was I going to do, sit here and watch you collapse from blood loss?"

"Your Lady of Loss probably would've preferred it," joked Asheera.

"She will learn to accept you. She must."

As Shadowheart stood she no longer needed to help Asheera. The half-orc stood tall, her armor gleaming with stains of her own blood. She retrieved her two-handed sword and resumed her position at the front of the party, Astarion rolling his eyes and mentioning something about 'melodrama.' Gale simply gave Shadowheart an awkward smile as they both left the room where Balthazar's body would rot once more.

My Lady, you will suffer her.

A cold whisper answered in her mind, "And what do you think you can you do if I do not?"

The question was another of the small knives that cut at her since waking in the nautiloid. The first was Asheera's calm insistence against the Sharran faith, once annoying and now carrying some truth now that Shadowheart saw the untold misery in Reithwin.

Another of the knives to which Shadowheart had no defense. Cutting apart what she thought she was little by little. Edge by edge.

[lunawish]

yeah yeah i know "no sex scene tho!!" but shadowheart becoming shar's chosen, riding that high in the shadowcursed lands and into act 3. then triumphantly convincing sharrans to join her against the mother superior, riding the high of finishing off that battle only to stand in front of two people restrained.

then she gets essentially a life time's worth of trauma back (people say her memories are fully restored, i don't think they are. maybe it's a bug but after you save her parents as dj she still says the 'some are lost forever. some might come back' line), just flooding her. shar's there still twisting, and tormenting her, manipulating her core kindness by telling her essentially how killing her parents is an act of mercy (the parallel to the exile path is ... eerie but chef's kiss). imagine her having to reconcile with the fact that she walked in tall and proud as shar's chosen only to find herself struggling with these two ... strange yet familiar people.

also fun note: if you trigger three specific dialogues in the lower city (the grave, the city smells, the graffiti) she'll actually automatically save them if you let her do her thing REGARDLESS of which path she took in the shadowfell. cuz the question is : how much more of that was stolen? all those memories she gets triggered in the lower city were happy ones but shar only restores the horrible ones to her. like imagine you finally realize that the aasimar WAS right. the only fate she sealed was herself. but she can still take back what's her's before shar erases it all again. because shar can take away sorrow yes, but she can also take away joy. and she'll keep taking and taking until one day she's done with her.

so yeah. i do love you get one last final moment to let shadowheart be true to herself and find the courage, the strength, the willpower that she's suppressed for her goddess. and i think it's beautiful that it's because as much as it hurts and sucks to remember the horrible things ... remembering the good moments is what makes it worth living.