#eckhart and emerleigh

[j-l-kepler]

in the midst of rebooting my tavs, the markolac twins, ive been heavily heavily heavily inspired by aldriin and astarion's relationship when it comes to how i approach emerleigh's relationship to the same lil leech man

since all my saves got corrupted again ive been going through all my fave saves and rebooting them to play them more "canon", so it's given me space to realize that emerleigh's relationship to astarion was, like, REALLY ill-defined, especially in comparison to eckhart and wyll's relationship in my mind. em's been a character i've been far more precious about than eck, so i haven't really figured her shit out as well as i'd have liked. so this is a great opportunity to make a bit of a mess out of her personal life!

there's this common theme i keep seeing in astarion romances that i REALLY like - the idea of mutual manipulation to a degree, with both sides a little ignorant to the other's end even as it blossoms into something real! i really like that idea for em, who has a more complicated relationship to sex and intimacy than eck does (though her feelings aren't QUITE as complicated as astarion's since she hasn't had 200 years of this shit to deal with).

i also realized this is a chance to make an even funnier dynamic between the three.

thje problem starts with eck, as it always does. eck doesn't like astarion - he sees bits of himself in him, and he doesn't like those bits they share: roguish assholes who keep people at a distance using snark and wit as a shield. he thinks he understands astarion's deal so he'd very much like to keep this rude creep away from his sister, tadpole business be damned. he's capable enough to keep everyone alive WITHOUT the help of this pallid prick, right? so he bullies him, steals every opportunity astarion could have to be useful (picking locks, sneaking around, etc), and is generally quite unpleasant to him. eck's got a one-sided dick-measuring contest going.

i think astarion would recognize this and, desperate to keep his spot in the party for protection, would turn to the more receptive twin since the twins are kind of the defacto leaders. eck cares about em, so if em vouches for astarion, then that's protection astarion can use. very simple, very easy.

MEANWHILE em, already ACTUALLY knowing astarion's deal by now, would rather he not get kicked to the curb to risk being recaptured or turning into a mind flayer. that'd be AWFUL, whether he's useful or not. she's 100% projecting her and eck's situation onto him, so it's making her care more than she would expect to care about some jackass she just met. that, and she's convinced he'll switch sides if he gets a better offer from the absolute. so, what better tool than the one she's always used to get people on her side and keep herself safe? the best way forward, she decides, is to seduce that stupid vampire man!

it's a chain of stupid, fueled by everyone's personal insecurities and assumptions. if they talked it out, i'm sure this would've smoothed itself out way before things got out of hand. but eck doesn't do well when em confronts him for this kind of thing, so em doesn't bother trying. so em takes on the burden alone, even if it's kind of damaging for her to enable this sort of behavior in herself. she thinks she's doing everyone else a favor, but she's kind of making it worse.

i think i like this new trait of em's - feeling like she can't actually talk to eck about important problems that involve him, so she gives up before even trying to reach out to him. she avoids the conflict and assumes she knows what will happen, often causing her to act alone in situations where she's actually way out of her own depth.

ooohohoo

anyway i really gotta play these two again but i also have to beat this goddamn game AT LEAST ONCE COME ON JJ

[zhemariart]

Eckhart and Emerleig belong to @j-l-kepler ouo/

I've wanted to draw these two for quite a while. Love their designs, love how expressive they are <:

[unkledeath]

Art of @j-l-kepler ‘s awesome tiefling siblings, Eckhart and Emerleigh Markolac, grabbing a drink with my tav Ezra! These two are such charming characters, I had to do a little something for them.

(They just saw Volo walk into the tavern and Ezra is spilling ALL the juiciest gossip about him, you wouldn’t believe that the wildest stories about him are the ones that are actually true.)

[balgur]

Eyeless Gods

Another little fic inspired by @j-l-kepler after reading an ask that made me SAD and so naturally I have to write about it.

CW: Character death (I'm so sorry)

It felt as though all time had ceased to be, as if the very fabric of the world frayed and disintegrated and Eckhart was left in its threadbare existence upon the precipice of stumbling into the abyss. All air squeezed out of his lungs, his heart thundering in his skull. For once the tadpole rested dormant. All rested dormant.

His hands held onto Emerleigh. Her glassy, lifeless stare looked up at him and remained unblinking, unfeeling, unliving. Her lips slightly parted and her skin mottled by splotches of blood, she looked as though she could heave a dreadful breath and return to the mortal world once more. Eckhart’s mouth fell open as if to speak, to encourage her to wake, trying to summon the words as if recanting some ancient, forbidden magic. Eckhart had not realised he had already begun screaming the moment his eyes laid upon his sister’s. 

“Em-!” Eckhart worked to shake his sibling’s body. People gathered, people watched. Faces that felt somewhat familiar felt alien and warped. Just more eyes upon the two, the world watching them both. Watching Eckhart writhe in agony as if he were a trapped animal gnawing at a festering wound. He looked up at the group and could not recognise them. “D-Don’t just stand there, help her!”

Pity. Defeat. They washed upon the expressions of the people stood around as they struggled to console Eckhart’s ever-growing franticness. His fingers dug into Emerleigh’s cooling skin. He could not let her go, could not dream of it. He felt his head reeling with pain as if crushed by unseen weight, heartbeat heavy like bells in an empty cathedral. A violent anger overtook him and at once he erupted, lashing out at the group.

“Stop fucking standing there!” Eckhart’s voice billowed out of him. “Help her!”

“She’s dead, Eckhart.”

The words shot through him. It broke every bone in his body and then poisoned his blood to the remaining marrow. It pumped through Eckhart’s veins, seeping through every pore and every sinew and every collapsing breath he took. Another scream, something vicious and unyielding, as though peeled back through the veneer of normalcy into something guttural and instinctive.

“Get away from us!” Eckhart all but shrieked, his tail lashed about as he shielded Emerleigh’s body. “Get away! I’ll fucking gut the lot of you!”

“We have to get moving, come-”

Upon being approached, Eckhart slipped free his dagger and slashed it at the outstretched hand offered to him. It recoiled, and decided perhaps it best to wait for Eckhart’s return to camp once he had finished grieving. They gave him the space he needed, the space he asked for.

And yet once alone, felt the screaming silence sink its teeth through his flesh. He pulled Emerleigh up into a tight squeeze, her heavy body unresponsive to the gesture. Eckhart feared letting her go, letting the reality slip between the two of them. Such crushing loneliness tempted him to simply lay down and die with her. 

Eckhart let out a soft hiccup, as finally, the tears started to drip down Emerleigh’s shoulder.

[balgur]

To Be Haunted

Do you ever just get an overwhelming urge to experience writing for a Tav bc you think they're SO cool?? Anyway this is a very short fic using @j-l-kepler 's twins, Em and Eck! I hope this was okay, I actually think about them an unhealthy amount.

A strange, contemplative silence fell over the camp. Though there still lived a few thrums of idle chatter, for the twins the quietude openly gnawed at them both in equal measure. Emerleigh took to wiping at a scuff on the side of her boot, leaving Eckhart to gaze out upon distant waters. 

Neither of them thought they would be here. The world around them felt both too wide and vast and yet claustrophobic. Two drops in an ocean yet a crashing wave threatening to smother the entire coast. Emerleigh gave her sibling a glance, trying to gauge him, only to find him looking back at her with much the same goal in mind. She offered him a little smile, causing the corners of his own mouth to bend downward.

“Stop thinkin’ about her, Em.”

The night brought up strange memories. Emerleigh’s smile grew somewhat distant, fogged by a bittersweet nostalgia. Still she leaned her head against Eckhart’s shoulder. Her tail came to a soothing coil about her lap and she let out a little sigh, so consumed by thought it felt futile to verbalise it all in a single evening. 

“What’re we going to do when we get back to the Gate?” Emerleigh found herself asking, if only to puncture the silence lingering over the two of them. If only just to quiet her own thoughts before they turned too painful to stomach. Eckhart’s scowl only deepened.

“Dunno.”

The little faith he had in the future was echoed in Emerleigh’s waning optimism. What awaited the two back in the city felt a fear unto itself far greater than any slithering little worm in their skulls. They both struggled to comprehend the return, providing they both survived long enough to get to such a point. The daunting wilderness often gave them both a brush with mortality that neither cared to re-experience if it could be helped. 

Emerleigh wondered what Hedryn would have done. If she would have cracked a joke, lit herself something to smoke and assured them of their guaranteed survival. Emerleigh wondered if she would believe it. And though Eckhart would not speak of her, in his heart he had to wonder the same thing. How different it could have been, he could have been, if the strings of fate were only marginally different. He did not dwell on it, could not, for the sake of his aching chest.

“We should get some sleep,” Eckhart offered, a tiredness to his voice that belied more than desire to simply rest. “We’ve got to be up early.”

“I hope Gale makes breakfast,” Emerleigh smiled to herself, rather liking the thought of a breakfast served in a bedroll. “Do you think he will if I ask nicely?”

“You could probably take a shit in his tent and he would thank you,” Eckhart responded with a cheap chuckle, earning him a rather sharp swat to the arm and a silent chiding via Emerleigh’s narrowing gaze. “Ouch. Go on, ask him then.”

“I will,” Emerleigh stood, dusting off her clothes. “And I’m going to tell him what you said and I’m going to eat your breakfast, as well.”

She only teased, her tail flicking behind her as she sought out the camp’s inhabitants. Eckhart was left to ponder, and all at once the silence fell upon him and strung him like a noose about his throat. He loathed to call it a fear, yet the lack of presence beside him set his nerves on edge. He remained sat, and thought, and hoped the feeling a fleeting one. 

[j-l-kepler]

I just wanted to pop in and tell you how much I simply adore your twins!! I literally look at your blog daily just to read about them. I'd love to know if you've thought about it: what (if any) deities do the twins believe in?

thank you i am very normal about your very kind words <3

One of the mods I use makes it so I have to choose a deity for every character regardless of class, so I have considered which deity each of my saves worships! The twins are no exception~

The twins weren't raised religious, but they kept one habit of Hedryn's that she raised them with. That's the worship of one specific Goddess:

The twins have a lot of ambitions and spend a lot of time on the tightrope between fortune and fatalities. They don't pray regularly, but they evoke her name frequently in hopes of her throwing them some fortune every now and again. They pray to her the same way a teenager might try asking their parents for a favor.

I imagine their allegiances may broaden when they find freedom, but they wouldn't entirely abandon their casual worship of Tymora. Eckhart aims to journey the Sea of Fallen Stars (he really wants to kill a kraken), so I can imagine him praying to Umberlee when it's convenient. I wondered if Emerleigh might feel a pull towards Oghma or Deneir, but I don't think she's one to invoke a lot of Gods after a while.

[j-l-kepler]

I would love to see more opinions on other NPCs! What do the twins think of Kar'niss, Abdirak, Araj, He Who Was, Nere?

OHOHO!

A bit of a disclaimer, I've gotten pretty far into Act 3 with other saves. Uh. The Twins are sadly not one of those saves.

Because I once did Grymforge 4 times in a row and because I've been too busy to play lately, I've yet to force my way through to Act 2 (it's the LAST THING I have to do before Act 2, god dammit), I'll be going off what I know of the NPCs they haven't encountered yet!

These may change when they actually meet these NPCs, so heads up. At the time of answering this, the twins have only officially met Abdirak.

[Possible Spoilers for Act 1 and 2 side-quests for Baldur's Gate 3, TW for mentions of sexuality/fetish, abuse, and consent! The game's got a lot of themes about it, so it kinda comes up here]

ALRIGHT LET'S GO DOWN THE LIST

ACT 1 - ABDIRAK

Abdirak's the NPC I've actually considered their feelings on the most because of the twins' written history mixed with what I chose to do in the moment. I hadn't decided who the twins were in any detail at this point, so it was Em who decided to go for Abdirak's, uh, prayer service.

NOW I know the twins have suffered physical abuse at the hands of their debtor, requiring me to rethink and recontextualize their canon decisions.

Eckhart's feelings are pretty clear: FUCK THIS GUY. How dare he lay a hand on his sister! HATE this man. Weird creepy guy with a mace. Hate hate hate him. Eckhart doesn't have strong sadomasochistic tendencies and was actually only in the room during the aftermath (the twins had split up in the camp to take a look around at this point). To Eckhart, Abdirak is some crazy cultist nutjob who likes to hit people to get his rocks off.

Emerleigh's the one with, uh, complicated feelings. Basically, she went in like "Pfft sure whatever, I can handle this, I've undergone worse". She was trying to prove to herself that she's tough enough to keep up with Eck and the party, and prove to herself that Marble won't scare her anymore. Misguided, sure, but her freedom was extremely fresh. She may or may not have been the reason they got into a fight in the Dank Crypt by not being careful, so her pride was a bit shot.

To say this experience awakened something in her would be an understatement. Em's never experienced pain in a sensual context before, and she realized she likes it. She was being praised and hit in a way that hurt like hell, but also felt really good. This clashes with her fear and hatred of Marble and how he's hit her and Eckhart before. So, while she's starting to process her sadomasochism, she's also struggling to accept that alongside what's been done to her. Is she some kind of degenerate? (no) Did she secretly like being hit by Marble? (no) Why is this different? (there's a list about why this is different, girl)

It doesn't help that Abdirak is a white-haired older man she associates with pleasurable pain, EXACTLY like a certain vampire she may or may not be romantically interested in... it really doesn't help that Astarion tried to bite her that night. Poor Emerleigh. Abdirak's really made things complicated for her.

I may or may not be working on a lil comic about these feelings. Idk. Maybe. Might be.

ACT 1 - NERE

It's not very complicated for the twins: Nere's gotta go. While they didn't want the gnomes to die, they'd done a lot of thinking to see if there's a way to get the gnomes out while leaving Nere to die.

These two have no occasion to see Nere as anything other than a whiny, hyper insecure, racist True-Shit. He's not even charming to them! Just some rich brute who keeps slaves. As victims of the slave trade and current sufferers of indentured servitude, the twins are NOT a fan.

Em's willing to save Nere because 1. save the gnomes! and 2. she gets to call him names to his face before she and her friends curb-stomp his face into rothe turds. Eck won't admit it, but he probably wouldn't save Nere if Em and Wyll didn't encourage him to do so. He's kind of a "fuck you, get mine" kind of guy when left to his own devices.

ACT 2 - KAR'NISS

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE WHAT IS THAT

They've seen a looooot of stuff before. Driders are not among that stuff. Em's read about them and felt sorry for them, but seeing is a different circumstance. And this circumstance is "scary cultist spider man is on his way to slaughter innocents in the scary evil Goddess darkness". Nope nope nope nope nope. Em is afraid of spiders, and Eckhart is terrified of being buried or encased. He doesn't know if Driders can wrap people up in webs, but he doesn't wanna find out. Fuck that.

Basically, they find Kar'niss extremely unsettling.

ACT 2 - ARAJ OBLODRA

Sufficie to say, Emerleigh doesn't have the highest opinion of Araj. At first, she was on-board since blood-based alchemy is one of the many academic topics that interests her. The second she talked to and about Astarion like his feelings didn't matter, it was over for this bitch. Consent and personhood, especially at this point in the story, matters to Emerleigh. Astarion's opened up to her in ways neither of them ever dreamed, so she's fiercely protective of his feelings.

Eckhart might not like Astarion, but that doesn't mean he doesn't value the man's autonomy or safety. And, unsurprisingly, consent is important to Eckhart even if he thinks this blood-stuff is really weird. To him, nobody's going to miss someone he considers an annoying, snot-nosed creep like Araj.

ACT 2 - HE WHO WAS

I'm not going to lie, neither of them were listening all that closely when they met He Who Was. Em was busy turning to goo over his voice and re-evaluating her taste in men, and Eckhart was looking disrespectfully at the man's tits and abs.

I'm not entirely sure what'll happen when they take him up on his quest (it's the only side-quest of these NPCs I haven't done yet), but knowing what I know? They may have some choice words for him. For now, though? Random unsettling hot guy in the woods? Aw fuck yeah. What is he asking? Do some vague goodness? Eh, sure, why not. Eck's more likely to accept this job than Emerleigh, since she's kind of not really the bounty hunter type. Do some violence for a hot dude in the woods, though? Suuuure, Eck does that all the time.

Listen, neither of them would ever dare stray from their romantic partners, but they're one to stare a generically attractive man in the boobs. Ah, yes, that's a perfectly reasonable thing to say, I'm going to stay by this.

Man I love these dumbfucks

If you wanna know about how these guys feel about other NPCs, god I'm more than happy to deliver! These are fun to throw together, and they get me to really consider when and how their opinions differ.

[j-l-kepler]

Eckhart and Emerleigh Markolac Companion Fits

Got an ask or two with interest in the Markolac twins' outfits! I always draw them in the Companion fits I designed rather than their in-game fits, so I put their theoretical Companion stats on their sheets.

Also my dumb ass put Eck's hand over his neck so you can't see his lil pink-beaded necklace. Good job, Kepler. Fuckin' nailed it.

BG3 Character Sheets available here: https://www.tumblr.com/eeldritchblast/745120858759118848?source=share Painstakingly created and uploaded by @eeldritchblast! Seriously these are so freaking cool.

[j-l-kepler]

So like...hey marble...👀💦

oh god what have you done

Let's give Marble Sormenein some extremely undeserved love, shall we?

For those who wanted to now what his deal is, the short answer is he's the guy Eckhart and Emerleigh owe a serious debt to! He works for Osgur Hallorn aka the Fetcher, one of the Guild's Kingpins. He's not quite a Guildmaster like Nine-Fingers Keene, but he's got a lot of sway in the Undercellar and practically runs the half of the place.

If you want the long answer...

[CW: physical and emotional abuse, violence, slavery. This guy is NOT a very nice man.]

Marble Sormenein has a lot in common with some of the more powerful antagonists of BG3, taking inspiration from Cazador and Gortash specifically.

To summarize his history, he came to the Gates as a down-on-his-luck young merchant with dreams of running his own establishment. He worked his way up under the Fetcher and is genuinely loyal to him. He isn't good at inspiring people to be loyal to him instead of to the Fetcher, so he hasn't had much upward career mobility for a long time. He was sure he'd always be Fetcher's extension.

And then he met the twins.

Marble saw an opportunity to inspire loyalty in them. But Marble's not really a good guy who does nice things out of the goodness of his heart. He had to make fail-safes to keep them around.

At first, treating these kids well was enough. He spoiled them for the first while as he got them used to the Undercellar, and projected a lot of his own desires during his youth onto them. They very quickly became extensions of himself, and he treated them like his own. Not enough to, y'know, NOT hang a debt to him over their heads, but that power imbalance is a feature, not a bug.

Which sucks because the twins were genuinely grateful for his help. They didn't really want to acknowledge the fact Marble fuckin' bought them from a slaver. After the horrific situation their sister's betrayal put them in, it was like a miracle they'd come across someone like Marble.

Yeah. Things got tricky when they really started working for him. At first, punishments were like any other staff member. But the twins are ambitious little snots. He felt the overwhelming need to "put them in their place" when their ambitions led them outside of his scope or when they messed up.

He began exerting control over their jobs and forcing them into more dangerous or uncomfortable situations. He would control how Emerleigh could present herself to clients, and he would control how Eckhart was to complete his work. The two became far too comfortable with evading law enforcement, and they really didn't like that killing or manipulating people only bothered them a little.

But Marble didn't care. That's how he wanted them. They can't exist outside of him. He gave them everything. They're supposed to be loyal to him. They need him.

In truth, Marble has an emotional dependance on the twins. Their successes and their loyalty are what he's hinging his sense of self-worth on. Deep down, he knows he needs them more than they will ever need him.

His tactics would've actually worked if the twins didn't have each other, I bet.

The reason the twins were able to be picked up by the nautiloid at all was because he caught them trying to sneak a peek at their debt ledger. They ran, blinded by terror of the consequences.

See, as far as the twins know, killing Marble or running away won't erase their debt. Their debt belongs to the Fetcher; Marble just enforces it. Air-tight, right?

Yeaahh of course it's not. The twins don't know this, but Marble's been a bit dishonest about the state of their debt. He has the documents to prove he's been skimming off their debts and adding unnecessary expenses to them, and that they should've actually been free to go years ago.

If the Fetcher were to find out, Marble would be in serious trouble. I'm talking "wishing you were dead" levels of trouble.

I wonder... if the twins' theoretical companion quest... has anything to do with that.... hmmm...

TL;DR Marble's honestly a pretty pathetic guy. He can't be bothered to actually instill true loyalty and admiration in others, so he uses fear, manipulation and other underhanded methods of control. I don't know how much of him genuinely cares for the twins. I know some part of him does, but it's not enough to stop him from hurting them.

I cannot WAIT for the twins to tear him a new asshole when they find out.

ANYWAYS that's Marble! He's a bit of a foil to the twins' sister Hedryn. She genuinely cared about them and loved them through their whole lives, but she made one unforgivable mistake that ruined everything. Marble, meanwhile, did one ARGUABLY good thing and continues to hurt and manipulate the twins into thinking he cares all for the sake of his own inflated ego.

[j-l-kepler]

How would either of them react if the other were to die? :3c

ohhh fuck off, anon, i'm SO happy you asked that

As a fan of twin narratives AND being a twin myself, that's the frickin' million dollar question, ain't it.

The short answer: Poorly! Very poorly.

Now, obviously their responses would differ based on where they are in their arcs. For simplicity's sake, let's go off the assumption it was 1. during Act 1 and 2. during a fight. AKA the worst case scenario.

[CW for below: character death, harmful coping mechanisms, sexuality, and ANGST, BABY. Also potential story spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3]

Obviously both would be crushed. HOW exactly they'd be crushed is where they differ.

Some ground context: let's remember the twins are emotionally dependent on one another since they're, at this point, the only real support system the other has.

Let's start with Eckhart, because my guy would absolutely be WAY more unambiguously fucked in the long run. Eckart's stress response is fight, as we know.

Immediately, his initial response would be to lash out at the nearest person or whoever he can rationalize to be at fault. Internally he'd blame himself, but he would internalize this and express it as self destructive self sabotage.

The long-term is where this gets really bad for Eckhart. He hasn't opened himself up yet, so he wouldn't be able to sustain his flowering emotional bonds. In fact, in his anger, he'd sever them immediately. He's not in touch with his emotions in the slightest, and doesn't self reflect unless he's basically strong-armed into it. Emerleigh was the one who could get him to self-reflect at this time. He'd continue to outwardly blame everyone else until all of his self lathing is drowned out by outward hostility. He can't bring himself to blame himself, he can't handle that sort of pain or acknowledge how he feels responsible.

So he would begin to hate the world. It can't possibly be a good place if it let someone like Em die. He's always been awful, but she wasn't. And look what that got her.

Let's assume from this point on, none of the companions are able to get through to him. Which, if Emerleigh died early on, is entirely possible. He's stubborn. As soon as he reaches the Gates, he'd go right back to the Undercellar and right back to his boss and debtor Marble. To Hells with the Absolute, to Hells with his comrades. To Hells with the Blade of Frontiers. As far as Eck's concerned, the only reason he ran away from Marble to begin with was because Emerleigh believed they deserved better. But he doesn't believe that anymore.

Hell, there's a pretty decent chance he would volunteer to become illithid in the final Act. But there's no doubt he'd be stopped by Karlach. Just another good person he's failed to save.

After dealing with the Absolute, he would devote his worthless life to whatever purpose Marble's set out for him. Our firecracker would fizzle.

Basically, Eckhart would swan-dive right into his worst impulses and lose himself. He wouldn't give himself a chance for hope. He would either die before someone can help him, or sink so deeply into the criminal underworld that he'd forfeit his soul to fill the void.

Emerleigh, on the other hand, would have a terrible time of it. But there's some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, even if it's far away.

Not only is Em a healer, one could argue most of the rough shit they've gone through recently is her fault. It was her idea to steal Marble's debt ledgers, which caused them to flee the Undercellar and get picked up by the Nautiloid. She already feels like Eckhart has to clean up all of her mistakes.

Immediately, She would be incapable of blaming anybody but herself, whether it was actually her fault or not. This is something she'd internalize and pile onto the self-doubt that was already there.

In the short-term, Emerleigh would put on the bravest face she can. This would result in her burying her emotions deeper and deeper than ever before. While she would remain fiendly with her companions and even probably take on a leadership role, she'd quietly begin self-destructing. Everyone would be kept at arm's length as she would refuse to talk to anyone about it for fear of letting her grief ruin her.

That comes later. In the long-term, after the Absolutist situation is dealt with, Emerleigh would begin her spiral of self-destruction and self-determination. She'd use her renown from stopping the Absolutist plot to free herself of her contract to the Guild. She'd then devote her life to the one thing she knows: studying magic. She's spend her time oscillating between self-destructive debauchery to keep her distracted from her grief, and relentlessly studying ways to bring Eckhart back to life. She's a Lore Bard, after all. She actually knows there's a possibility of doing so.

Unlike Eckhart, however, she didn't outright sever her bonds. I imagine this cycle of self-sabotage would prove unsustainable very quickly. If Gale survives the story, I can definitely see a situation where she goes to the strongest wizard she knows for help, only for him and any companions still in contact to have an intervention.

Unlike Eckhart, Emerleigh's self doubt often leads to legitimate self reflection. I don't think she'd ever completely give up on her pursuit, but I can't see this path leading to her permanent self-destruction. But she'd still have a long way to go before she can be seen as "coping well".

This was a really fun thought experiment! Poor Eckhart's a self-sustaining edge machine, so I can't imagine early-game Eck being able to handle losing the only family he has left.

God, the idea of these two versions of themselves meeting is breaking my heart.

Do what you will with my little angst-fest. Hope this answered your question!

[j-l-kepler]

What's Em's type? 👀 asking for a friend. A good friend. It's me, I'm friend.

I'm going to spare you the specifics of her sexual preferences for now. She's had a lot more time to figure those out, but I think Eckhart's listening and I don't wanna gross him out.

To be honest, Em hasn't really had much time to develop a specific romantic type! She'll talk about it like she has, as we see above. But if you pay attention to the specifics of what she's saying, she's actually quite generic in her tastes. The most specific thing she says is "some one I can get into trouble with".

Since parts of her solo work in the Undercellar has been very personality-based, often acting as a performer and sometimes an escort, she's been disincentivized from portraying anything other than her idealized self. The idea of being honest and imperfect with someone who isn't just her brother is a genuinely novel and exciting concept to her. And terrifying! Aaaah!

I think that's why she's so drawn to Astarion in particular despite the fact their morals are so different. Like her, he's fed up with his lot and the control others have exerted over him. He's genuinely kind of stupid and impulsive, and he's a hell of a wordsmith. But unlike her, he's very open with all the ways he sucks as a person and has a very clear goal. That's something she wants for herself and admires in him, even in the ways it unsettles her.

Right now, I don't know how her type will get more specific as she learns more about what she wants from other people. She has visual preferences, sure, but she's the kind of person who's drawn to a wide variety of personalities. To her, almost everybody has something she can fall in love with. Learning is what drives her, so I suppose her type would be someone who isn't like her.

TL;DR if you're driven, fun, and offer AND reward emotional honesty, you've got a really good shot. Godspeed, Anon.

[j-l-kepler]

Oh hey, it's me! Thanks for being so nice about the little writing I did. I'm really curious, how do Em and Eck respond to stressful/frightening situations? Are there any little habits that give their feelings away? I'd like to write more of them in the future if it's alright by you! I am also Very Normal about them.

The fact you want to write about them makes my heart explode with SO MUCH LOVE. Your fic got my creative brain chugging like a steam engine going down a mountain for DAYS. That is to say, HAPPY BRAIN GO BRRRR

As for the twins' stress responses, here's the short version:

As for the LONG version....

The twins have been in a lot of stressful and frightening situations, so their responses vary based on severity. However, they each have a consistent trend between these stress levels!

Most of the time, they don't reach Critical Stress Levels since they have the other to help bail them out. But they have moments where that's not an option.

Eckhart's responses are the easiest to recognize as stress responses.

Because Eckhart is a good planner and a skilled fighter, it's not that easy to make him feel like he's in an unwinnable battle. He's often composed in battle even when things aren't going exactly to plan because he has a lot of faith in his own abilities. But if he's given reason to believe his faith is misplaced or his planning was subpar, he lashes out. Since he's not often in situations where he can't escape or regain control, he actually handles being cornered very VERY poorly.

He's worse in emotional situations. If he's feeling confronted or put into a place of emotional vulnerability he isn't prepared for, he shuts up and, again, lashes out to keep others at a distance. Emerleigh, especially during Act 1, is about the only person who can really get past this prickly response since they've built up trust.

When he's backed into a corner, Eckhart bites.

Emerleigh, meanwhile, is a bit trickier to pin down.

Since Emerleigh is such a jovial and dramatic person, a lot of her stress responses blend in with the personality she puts forward. As a back-liner in combat, she's learned that gaining distance is the best way for her to survive. If she's in danger, she'll run. Simple as that.

But when running isn't an option, or she's in a social situation where she is on the defensive, our girl goes FULL BARD. She'll try talking herself out of any situation, and usually succeeds long enough to make a proper retreat. Emerleigh is always on the defense as a person, wearing a smile and speaking in flowery language. Her shield is big words, double meanings, and false confidence. The blunter her speech, the more vulnerable she is. But if she can't regain control of a situation, she'll pull out every stop from groveling to flattery. All the while, she'll start to shut down and pull a full-on mental retreat.

Since Em is always smiling, joking and pulling soliloquies out of her ass, Eckhart's the only one (especially in Act 1) who knows it's an act.

When she's backed into a corner, Emerleigh surrenders.

I love these kinds of questions SO MUCH. I hope this helps understand them a bit! It's definitely helping me understand them a bit more :D

[j-l-kepler]

can either of the twins sing?

You bet your bottom dollar the twins can sing!

Obviously Emerleigh's the better singer, seeing as that's kind of her whole thing. Eck's slightly above average for sure, but singing's not really a passion of his beyond just singing with his sister.

For Em, music's always been a passion of hers. While her violin is her spellcasting focus, singing and dancing are her true passions. While Eck's a natural tenor, Emerleigh has a broad range between Alto and Soprano! She can really belt it out when she's not playing the violin at the same time. While reading sheet music came naturally to her, she actually struggled with musical execution when she started out. The fact she's one of the best bards in Baldur's Gate is a testament to how hard she's worked (though she'll play it off like she's a natural).

She's the kind of person who will go HARD at karaoke.

[j-l-kepler]

So...who's Hedryn? 👀

WHO, INDEED.

TL;DR - Hedryn's their sister, and they have some COMPLICATED feelings on her.

[Character Angst below the Cut]

To summarize, Hedryn Markolac was the one who raised them, loved them, and let them down.

I'll do my best to summarize.

Basically, Hedryn made some REALLY BAD decisions. When the Xanathar Guild was like "oh hey come work for us, we'll solve your terrible situation", she was DESPERATE. She deluded herself into thinking she could buy back the twins when she got the security she needed. The second gold changed hands, she realized that's a fucking insane thing to do! She kicked up a fuss and was killed in the process. The twins were then carted off to Baldur's Gate, where they escaped and got into a whole NEW bought of trouble with their current boss Marble. This family cannot catch a freaking break.

The twins have varying proximities and feelings on Hedryn, especially years after she failed them and especially since they can't seek closure with her anymore.

Eckhart idolized her and longed to follow in her footsteps, so his emotions run hot and uncomplicated. Hedryn put on a brave face for him, so the switch came out of nowhere for him. He's decided to hate her full-stop and refuses to interrogate his complicated feelings on the situation. Yes, she realized she made a mistake, but that doesn't really change the fact she, at any point, decided to SELL HER SIBLINGS FOR SAFETY. The last thing he saw Hedryn do was take a bag of gold from a member of the Xanathar Guild before being carted off to Baldur's Gate.

Emerleigh, meanwhile, noticed the cracks in Hedryn's armor. She's fucking pissed, but she also wants to interrogate her feelings on it more. Eckhart refuses to talk about Hedryn and there's no one else Em can talk to, so she's had no chances to try reckoning with all the complicated feelinsg she's grappling with. She feels a lot of guilt about even having complicated feelings because she feels like her anger should be straightforward. The last thing she saw Hedryn do was reach out for her siblings while one of the traders drove a knife into her back.

Eck spits venom while Em buries it behind jokes.

So, yeah, they have some tricky feelings on her. On one hand, Hedryn raised them, made sacrifice after sacrifice for them, and was an openly loving and caring parental figure to them. On the other hand, what she did is actually unforgivable no matter the circumstances. Don't sell your family into slavery??? (seriously that's actually how you join the Xanathar Guild)

How is someone supposed to reckon with that??? I don't know. The twins don't know. Anyway, now they owe a debt to the guy who got them out of that situation, so that's a whole other can of worms. Or tadpoles.

Ah, geez. Too soon.

ANYWAY yeah that's the first part of their annngsssssttttt yes there is more, what do you think I was gonna do, NOT give my tiefling twins uber angsty backstories????

[j-l-kepler]

Do the twins have any phobias? Not for any particular reason...

Eck doesn't like anything that could make him sick or makes him think of getting sick. He's not a germophobe, but do NOT cough in his direction.

Em's afraid of lots of stuff but she's also a bit of a thrill-seeker so she's often waffling between excitement and terror! If she had to be specific, though, she's terrified of embarassing herself in a way that's not funny or charming, but genuinely humiliating.

(Real Fears + Angst Below the Cut if I did this Right 👀)

If we had to get serious and go beyond simple phobias, the twins share a lot of fears based in more abstract worries.

Both fear being abandoned or betrayed, or losing their autonomy. They know to fear that because it's happened to them.

But they fear seperation and isolation the most. They've never BEEN seperated before. That's new territory, and they know it's by pure luck.

So I guess what they fear is losing each other! They're each other's lifeline and only real support system. What's one without the other?

Hey Can You Tell I Like Twin Narratives

Anyway I hope you use this infornation to rip my emotional dick off 👍

[j-l-kepler]

Is there anywhere we can read more about Em and Eck? I can smell the angst on them like a bloodhound. I crave it.

RIGHT YOU ARE, PERCEPTIVE STRANGER. C'mon, we've got a classic rogue-bard criminal duo, OF COURSE these two have got some classic Baldurian Angst.

Since there's been a lil bit of interest in these two, I've been considering making a master post (maybe a side-blog, idk) about the twins I can pin to my page! I've made a full companion guide for them for funsies, but I've been reworking it like craaazy so I think I'd just like to release some character sheets, a backstory summary, and personality guides!