#gale is a professor who wants to do RESEARCH ONLY

[galedekarios]

Can I ask where the dialogue about gale previously being a professor pre game events is

hello, anon! thank you for the question. the short answer is: there is none!

the longer answer is that as far as we know, he wasn't a professor before the events of the game, but only becomes one in one of his epilogue endings.

we do know gale is a wizard of acclaim and scholar of exceptional accomplishment:

Gale: Let's see. I hail from Waterdeep, the City of Splendours. I'm a wizard of considerable acclaim, and scholar of exceptional accomplishment. I have a cat, a library, and a weakness for a good glass of wine. And if the mood takes me, I'm known to try my hand at poetry. There.

it could mean a number of things of course, we don't exactly know because gale doesn't say what that entails for him, but he likely published works on his research subjects and it's also likely he's worked on spells with tara together since we do know that she invented the 'cat flap of displacement'.

we do also know that gale had pupils prior to the game, but not as a professor:

Player: Do you have much experience being a teacher of magic? I suspect so. Gale: I've had a pupil or two, but never for very long. Their ineptitudes tend to... irk me. Gale: You do seem to be a precocious talent though. I can always tell when I meet with a keen mind receptive to Mystra. Gale: Keep it up and she might just take a personal interest in you one of these days.

again, we know he wasn't a professor or he would've certainly mentioned it in his introduction, as well as it not being such a big part of his epilogue ending, showing his growth and making peace with himself. the way his files frame him becoming a professor also speak against him being so before the game:

This dialogue covers instances where Gale attends the Withers party in a human (non-god) form. His default state is that he returned to Waterdeep and became a professor of Illusory magic at his former school, Blackstaff Academy. General vibe here is that this is a Gale who's found peace with himself - he's a great teacher, one his students are mostly in awe of.

i think it's more likely he either tutored - as that is a very common practise in waterdeep, and even available to the lower classes:

or gale took on a wizard apprentice independently, which... i can sort of see happening. although, it seems he wasn't ready at that point. we can only speculate as to why. perhaps these pupils couldn't keep up with gale, who we do know has a brilliant mind that's always moving, perhaps he wasn't ready yet to take on such a great responsibility while romanticising the idea itself.

what we do know is that he likes sharing knowledge, he wants to impart wisdoms and teachings. not only do we notice that along the journey with gale as a companion, but it's also explicitly a wish revealed by the love test with zethino the dryad:

Zethino: Gale: the learned wizard. The charming gentleman. The walking apocalypse. Zethino: Listen. Think. If the wizard were given the choice, what food would he be? Player: A shiny red apple - wholesome as can be. Gale: Ah, the fruit of scholars. How I long to have a troop of loyal students grace me with apples by the orchard-full in exchange for wisdoms imparted... devnote: Pleased, briefly daydreaming

and that he does grow into his own in the epilogue, through his travels and experiences.

he becomes a great professor, whose students hold him in high regard and whose passion for the position is evident in everything he says during the epilogue.

anyhow, i hope that was helpful! 🖤

[rawrsatthetree]

I think the best way to tackle a Modern AU for BG3 isn’t to make it a slice of life but to some how combine the elements of a collage drama, organized crime, a dooms day cult, and an alien invasion all into one coherent plot.

I do not know how to do this but I do have some ideas. All the characters have no reason to associate with each other until they’re all abducted by aliens, wormed, and released back into the wild like a bird that just got tagged. Everyone kind of writes it off as either a bad trip or a dream until the cross paths and the worm does the connection thing. Eventually bringing them all together with a few people investigating the invasion to get to the bottom of what’s happening.

Wyll is a pre law student mostly against his will to appease his dad. He wants to help people but doesn’t necessarily want to be a cop like his father the chief of police. He half asses his classes because he doesn’t have much passion for them, blowing them off to volunteer in clubs and community outreach programs. I think Mizora should be either a professor, Dean of students, or academic advisor. In exchange for favors she alters his grades pushes him through the system. Little does he know she’s also idk involved with a crime organization and her favors go from small and perverted to slowly becoming more dangerous and criminal. He’s young and she has a lot of power over his future and could even expose him as a fraud and an accomplice to his father so he feel helpless to defy her.

Astarion is a law school drop out but that’s old news. You’ll find him prowling the local bar and club scene looking for potential clients. After a string of bad luck and poor life choices he’s a prostitute and drug dealer for a local gangster in the Black Hand gang only known as The Vampire (I know I’m so creative). Cazador’s deal is still the pretty much the same local rich public figure is secretly a very cruel and evil man who uses fear and addiction to control his underlings.

Karlach worked as muscle for the leader of the Black Hand gang before she was forcibly sold and enlisted as a mercenary over seas. After a ten years fighting in foreign years she’s back and ready to get her revenge on the whole Black Hand cult unfortunately she has to do it quickly because (ok idk I tried doing some research and couldn’t find any condition caused by an injury that can suddenly become fatal idk maybe cancer from a bullet or shrapnel)

Gale isn’t a professor but like a doctorate student on a tenure track, but bordering on the mad science kind of research. He’s in an abusive relationship with his over seeing faculty Mystra. Ultimately a lab accident during his research leads to the orb.

I think Lae’zel should still be an alien. She was abducted on another planet and escaped while the earthlings were being tadpoled. Now she’s stranded and tadpoled on a strange planet.

Halsin is a university professor and a local environmental activist. He’s been investigating strange occurrences and is onto the alien invasion thing.

I’m honestly not sure about Shadowheart. She should definitely be college age. But I’m not sure how to approach the shar thing.

Not sure about Minthara either except maybe military turned death cult member.

Jaheira and Minsc are cops investigating the alien invasion I’m so sorry not like real world cops but like fun fictional cops that only exist in movies. Boo is their police dog. OMG wait no they’re Park Rangers!!

Other stuff

The dead three chosen are instead three gang leaders. Except Bhaal cult also doubles as a murder cult still on top of being a criminal organization.

The alien invasion is still the mind flayer grand design.

I don’t think the dead three are controlling the mind flayers this time. Instead they’re using the strange alien invasion occurrences as grounds to start a dooms day cult or maybe they are idk

[stuffforthestash]

Modern Academic AU pt2

Originally started because Professor Raphael got stuck in my head and I had (foolishly) hoped if I wrote down some thoughts, that would be the end of it 🫠

Part 1 and Part 3 ------------------------------ Minthara - School of Law. Used to be a high profile defense lawyer but was barred from practice under questionable circumstances, so now she teaches courses on criminal procedure and domestic violence litigation. Male students are actively warned against taking any of her classes. Elminster - Liberal Arts Dean. Has been in the position forever and is something of a legend at this point. He's Gale's mentor and long time family friend, and he delights in showing up unannounced to Prof. Dekarios's lectures. The two of them have a longstanding tradition of leaving surprise pranks in each others offices. Rolan - English department. Newly upgraded from adjunct instructor to junior full time staff, he's been assigned the special hell of having to teach the general ed. introductory writing courses that none of the other faculty want to deal with. He hates it and thinks it's a complete waste of his talents, but is determined to stick through it long enough to get that research grant. Alfira - School of Theater & Music. Teaches vocal technique and musicality at every level. She's also the faculty coordinator for multiple on-campus performance groups, directs the university chorale and composes all their arrangements, is herself in a local acapella group, AND does community arts & outreach programs for kids.

Gortash - Newly appointed Dean of Information Studies. He's brilliant, he talks big about new frontiers in infosec and grand designs in the future potential of AI... and is already under investigation by the ethics board for misappropriation of university funds. Ketheric - VP of Alumni and he's been with the university longer than Elminster. Nobody knows why he hasn't just retired yet, despite how much he seems to hate his job. Orin - School of Fine Art. She "teaches" a course on performative art. It's weird and extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved, but for some reason people keep enrolling. Durge - Fine Art Dep't Chair. The deeply disturbing nature of his personal art aside, he's actually good at his job as both the chair and an instructor. Mostly teaches anatomy and live model studio courses. Ulder - VP of Public Affairs. He's a great public face for the university, everybody loves him... except the son he refuses to acknowledge after a falling out years ago. Mizora - Human resources admin. Loves her job because it gives her power over other people. Is more likely to be the source of an HR complaint than the one who actually solves the problem. Thaniel (as requested!) - Also HR. He's the one you hope gets assigned to whatever you need because he's great at it. Is also the only one who can reliably get in touch with Halsin; it's not well known that he can, so he'll usually agree to help those who figure out to ask him.

------------------------------

This started going long, so it looks like I'll be doing a third (and probably final?) installment to cover Dammon, Zevlor, Wulbren, Aylin & Isobel, and any other requests!

[duskrosecreatesstuff]

A Lesson Learned

As a research assistant at the University, you are determined to take a look at a very rare book in the possession of Professor Astarion. You get more than you bargained for.

So yeah, it had to happen sooner or later, that I'd dip my toe into writing some Professor Astarion smut. Heavily influenced by this delightful piece - and seriously, go follow if you're not already, her Astarion renders are gorgeous!

Professor Astarion / Reader. 2.1k words. Read on AO3.

CW: NSFW, Explicit, Slight power dynamic, Inappropriate use of desk space, Semi-public sex, oral sex, PiV sex

Astarion pushed open the door to his office, and paused as he realised it was not empty.  He raised an eyebrow as he looked at the person standing at his desk, struggling to open a very particular book.  Of course it was that one.  Had Gale really stooped so low in his jealousy of it, that he had sent his research assistant to try and borrow it?  He closed the door behind him with a soft click.

“Did Professor Dekarios send you to snoop at my books?”

You jumped.  You’d been so focused on trying to open the book, you hadn’t heard the door open. Astarion noted with appreciation that in your surprise, you gripped the book tighter, and didn’t let it fall.

“No!  I wanted to ask you about it.  But you weren’t here, and it just-“

“Jumped off the shelf and into your hands?”

Astarion crossed the room, and took the book from you.  He placed it behind him on the desk and turned back to you, resting his weight against the edge of the desk.

He caught himself smiling as he looked at you.  Such a pretty thing, he thought as you stood there, glancing around nervously, with your cheeks flushed and heart racing from being caught. He could have some fun with you.  But first, he needed answers.

“Now.  Please explain to me why you were trying to open this book.”

“I thought it might be useful for my own research paper.  Look, I’m sorry. I was curious, that’s all.  I’ve heard of the power in those pages, I only wanted a quick look at it, I swear!”

“Do you understand what that book is?”

“Yes, Professor. It’s ‘The Necromancy of Thay’.”

Astarion sighed. “And in all your research, you hadn’t learned that the book wouldn’t obey you?  You should know it’s tuned to the one who commanded it first.  And that would be me.”

You looked past him at the book on the desk he was leaning against.  The glowing amethyst keystone on the cover pulsed, taunting you.  Damn him.  Damn his forbidden book, and damn his handsome face staring at you. Damn that fitted sweater hugging his broad shoulders, and draping down to his waist and oh gods please stop thinking about how good he looks, you told yourself.  You could feel the heat simultaneously rising in your face, and pooling between your thighs.

Your thoughts were racing, and you chewed your lip nervously.  Best to get yourself out of this situation, before your body betrayed you. “I’m sorry.”  You repeated. “I apologise for rummaging through your books without your permission.  It won’t happen again.”  You turned to leave.

“Wait.” he stopped you.  You glanced back at him, meeting his piercing eyes as he looked at you thoughtfully.  “Don’t run off just yet.”  You turned back to face him, curious.

Astarion gave another deep sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.  “I have no wish to stifle your curiosity.  But there are powers in that book that are beyond most.  Some days it still defies my attempts to read it. But perhaps …”

He trailed off, tilting his head to look thoughtfully out of the window, inhaling deeply through his nose, as if catching a delicate scent in the air.  Your perfume, perhaps.  And … something else.

“Perhaps we could come to an arrangement.  A favour in return for that ‘quick look’ you covet so highly.”  His eyebrow raised as he turned his head back to you.

Your heart leapt as you looked up, hopefully.  “I’ll do anything.”

“Anything.” he repeated, his lips curling upwards, his crimson eyes holding yours. “Well.  You are clearly hungry for knowledge.  I wonder what else you might hunger for.”

He shifted against the desk, widening his stance somewhat, as he dropped his eyes downwards.  Your gaze followed his, and your eyes widened as you noticed the outline of his stiffening cock through the soft fabric of his trousers. You glanced back up at him, lips parted as you realised what he was offering.

“Only if you are willing, my dear.  You can walk away now, and this conversation never happened.”  His voice became soft, sultry. “Or, you can stay, and I can give you a taste of what you want most.”

You ought to have been embarrassed at how quickly you answered.  But he was offering everything you desired.  This was more than temptation.  You wanted this.  You wanted him.

“I am willing.” you whispered, nodding. “Please.”

“Well then,” he purred. “On your knees. Darling.”

You dropped like a stone, as he tugged at his belt buckle.  You reached forward and brushed his hands away.

“Allow me.”

He put his hands up in mock surrender, and gave you a devilish smile.  “So eager.”  He dropped his hands to rest either side of his hips, lightly gripping the edge of the desk, as he leaned back a little, giving your hands all the room you wanted to slide the leather through the buckle.

You leaned in close, breathing in a lungful of that scent that was so specifically him, that you’d been entranced by for weeks now, before pressing your lips against the fabric, a cheeky little kiss.  Your nimble fingers popped the single button, and you tugged the zip, sliding it carefully down all the way, fingertips brushing lightly against his rapidly swelling cock.  You bit your lip as you hooked your fingers into the waistband of his underwear, pulling the fabric down to free him completely.

You gave a small smirk as you looked up, catching his eye as he stared down at you, parting your lips and leaning in close to lick slowly up his entire length.

“Good girl.” he whispered, one hand moving to stroke through your hair.  You licked again, dragging your tongue from balls to tip, pressing your lips to the smooth head in a lingering kiss, as you wrapped the fingers of one hand around his shaft.  You parted your lips and slid your head down, swirling your tongue over him as you opened your mouth wider.  You felt his fingers tighten in your hair and you paused, listening to him panting softly.

You moved your head again, squeezing your fingers around his solid cock, angling him so you could work him deeper into your mouth, sucking on him gently as you slid him deeper and deeper, until you felt him touch the back of your throat.  You pulled back, breathing deeply to calm your gag reflex, moving your tongue over the tip of him again, tasting the salt of his pre-cum.  You shifted on your knees, aware of how wet you were, and how soaked your underwear was becoming, and wondered how it would feel to have him deep inside your dripping cunt.

He gripped your hair, more forcefully this time, and tilted your head back to look up at him again, this time with your mouth wide open.  He moaned at the view of his cock head resting on your tongue.

“Oh, you are an absolute delight, my sweet.  And to think, I underestimated just how hungry you might be.  I think you deserve something more. Stand up.”

You obeyed, and he snaked one hand around your waist, pressing against your back to pull you in close.  The other was back in your hair, pulling you into a crushing kiss, his tongue as deeply between your lips as his cock had been moments before, searching, tasting himself on your tongue.

The hand on your waist drifted lower, lifting your skirt and seeking out your soaked underwear.  You felt him smile against your lips as his fingers brushed against the fabric.

“You know, you’d be much more comfortable with these removed, don’t you agree?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, as he hooked a finger in the waistband and tugged sharply downwards, dragging your underwear down to your thighs.

“Go on. Get those off for me, my dear.”

You dropped your hands to do as he requested, shimmying your hips a little to drop your underwear to your ankles.  You stepped out of them, and kicked them off to the side.

“So obedient.  Such a good girl for me.”  You let loose a small whimper at the praise, and another, slightly louder, as his cool fingers brushed against your inner thigh.  You subconsciously adjusted your stance, parting your legs for him and felt those same fingers press between your slick folds, pausing as they found your entrance.

“Please.” you whispered, your thighs trembling in anticipation.

Astarion smirked at you. “Please?  Please, what, darling?”

Your cheeks burned, and you looked down, unable to meet his piercing eyes. “Please.  Touch me. I need-”

Your voice was cut off by your own loud gasp as he plunged two fingers into you.  You gripped his shoulders to keep your balance as he pumped them slowly out and back in.

“Losing your balance there?  Can't have that, can we.” He pushed himself off the desk and you gasped as he dragged his fingers out of your heated core, grazing them up and over your clit as he stepped smoothly around behind you.  You barely had time to register his hands on your hips, before he gave you a sharp shove towards the desk.  You collapsed forward over the smooth wooden surface, and felt the brush of fabric over your skin as your skirt was lifted out of the way.  You felt his foot nudge against your ankles, a wordless demand to spread them farther apart, and you obeyed.

You felt cool fingers on your ass, spreading you open, and the teasing slide of his cock between your dripping folds, coating himself in your slick, brushing against your clit making you whine.  You felt the head of his cock pressing against your entrance, and you couldn’t stop the whimpering “please” that slipped from between your lips.

“Oh, aren’t you such a needy little treat.  Beg for me again, would you?”

“Please.  I want you.  I want to feel you inside me.”

He rolled his hips, sliding deeper and deeper into you with each thrust, your moans getting louder as he pressed you against the unyielding surface of his desk.

“Like that, my dear?  That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

You opened your mouth to reply, but all that came out was a needy moan, as he pulled back, then thrust deeply into you again, matching your moan with his own.  He picked up his pace, moving his hips faster, the wet sounds coming from behind you filling your ears, the same way he was filling you.  You arched your back to him, and you felt a hand reach around you, searching for your most sensitive spot, drawing a squeal from you as he found it, his fingers rubbing hard, tipping you over the edge.  You put your mouth over your arm, muffling your cries as you clenched hard around him, still moving inside you.  You felt his hips snap against your dripping cunt, as he chased his own release, his fingers gripping your flesh tight enough to leave marks.  With one last drive deep into you, you felt him throbbing against your swollen walls, heard him moan as he released himself deep inside you.

You lay there quivering beneath him, his weight keeping you trapped against the desk as your breathing returned to normal.  You felt him soften and pull away from you, and as you stood up, you could feel your combined fluids dripping down your thighs.  He reached across the desk for a box of tissues, taking a couple for himself and passing the box to you.

“Next time, I want to see your face as you come undone like that for me.”

Your heart skipped at the suggestion that there would be a ‘next time’.  He quickly cleaned himself up, refastening his trousers, looking for all the world like nothing had happened.  He circled around the desk, pausing to scoop up your underwear from where you had kicked it, before settling himself in his office chair, and tucking them away in a drawer.  You opened your mouth to protest, but he interrupted you.

“I’ll be keeping those.  I like you better without them, anyway.”

You closed your mouth again, and grabbed the tissues, doing your best to clean yourself up, as he watched.

“Now.  About the book.”  He leaned forward to pull it to rest in front of him. “You’ve certainly earned that peek between its pages.  Why don’t you have a seat?”

You moved to pull up one of the nearby chairs, but he stopped you with a sound.  

“Ah, ah.”  He curled a finger at you, beckoning you towards him.  “You’re going to sit right here.” He patted his thigh, indicating he wished you to sit in his lap.  You gave a soft moan as you settled yourself, his arms reaching around you to grab the book cover, and his chin resting on your shoulder.

“So, my dear.” he whispered, his lips against your ear, as he opened the book. “Let’s begin.”

[writingforaliens]

I don't really subscribe to the "Mystra groomed Gale" fan theory (we know Larian is playing fast and loose with official Faerun timelines, but she only reappeared in 1487). Their relationship was more along the lines of a PhD candidate and their department chair is one of the top researchers in the field and their advisor, who initiates the relationship. (Or maybe he's among the top researchers, but she's the one who controls funding and grants and publishing and conferences.) He walked into that relationship flattered and thrilled and proud, only to realize after a while that Mystra is holding his metaphorical grades and thesis and future research opportunities hostage. And what is he if not his genius intellect?

Mystra's attention was flattering, but she could just as easily move on to the next hot young genius with the Weave. So he has to do the only thing he knows he is good for: be a genius with it. He wants knowledge (don't we all), she's rightfully gatekeeping it, and he knows that if he pushes, she'll toss him aside, frustrated with him. We get the impression that she only told him to stop wanting, but didn't give any reason why. Maybe Gale, in hubris, didn't listen. But no matter. Gale is convinced he's only good for his Magic, and Mystra is only with him for it, so he tries to do what any of us would do: impress her.

Why does Gale believe that he's only good for his Magic? Because society groomed him. Society viewed him as the genius wizard. Teachers only praised his abilities. He gets attention not for his other skills or personality traits, but because he's an eight year old who can cast Fireball with ease at at time when Mystra has barely started reconstituting herself. Society taught him the only thing people noticed was his skill. Look around at how many former gifted kids hit walls doing undergrad or grad school, don't understand how to take notes or how to study because it's always been innate, and burn out. Being able to read collegiate materials is no longer impressive when everyone is reading collegiate materials. A huge part of the identity of gifted kids, praised since childhood on their academic talents, gets lost when they hit this wall or realize they're no longer special. (Trust me, being teachers' pet and doing top-notch academically gives you an ego. Doubly so if your family are academics, which we have some evidence that Gale's family is at least moderately wealthy and/or connected with other mages.)

Is Mystra's relationship with ANY of her Chosen a good thing? I'd still say no, unless they both can keep it platonic and mentoring. (I had a great professor in college who did just that: mentored me. My high school physics teacher is still a friend. He was a guest at my wedding.) As soon as romance or sex enters that relationship, it's gonna be a bad time, even if the romance is one-sided on the part of the mortal. It's inherently difficult, shaky ground for a relationship, because of the power dynamics. If you piss her off enough, she can take your connection to the Weave away, and the closer you are to the situation, the more likely you are to think someone deserves punishment. And if she does punish you, it feels like not just a fall from grace but also like you are particularly a problem. There are evil mages all over, and Mystra hasn't taken their powers (the Weave is True Neutral, but still...you think every mortal mage is going to understand that if you eliminate the evil users it actually destabilizes the Weave?). She's the only god who can't really punish those that dramatically deviate from her alignment, because of what she is the god of. Think about that. Every other god can say "you are not following my rules, get out". She can only say that to her clerics and paladins (5e can kiss my ass, paladins need a patron to hear their promise), maybe to her Chosen, but certainly not to anyone who uses her power.

I love Gale, but this really puts things in a different light.

[sadinasaphrite]

Friday Nights Ch 5

If anyone missed it, Chapter five of my Bloodweave Professor Gale AU went up two days ago.

Read on AO3!

“For Thursday, please review your study guides and come prepared with any questions! Our final exam is one week from today, Tuesday at 10:30,” Gale shouted over the sound of his students gathering up their things and leaving. “Please make use of the study groups! If you need accommodations, please email me or come talk during my office hours!”

As his students filed out of the lecture hall, Mystra walked in and Gale was struck by a sick sense of deja vu. He ignored her and packed up his notes and laptop. The sharp click of heels approached him.

“Gale.”

Gale looked up and pretended to be surprised.

“What’s this? Mystra! My goodness, I didn’t know you still worked here! I’ve certainly not seen your face since you broke my heart.”

Mystra sighed and folded her arms. “I suppose it was too much to expect you to be mature about this.”

“Who’s being immature?” Gale asked with a huff. “Apart from a few curt emails, you’ve been avoiding me since you tried to ruin my life last semester.”

“Don’t pretend this is my fault, Gale. You did this to yourself,” Mystra said, infuriatingly calm and collected. She held up a hand as Gale started to protest. “And I’m not going to argue the point. I’m not here to talk about that.”

“Then why are you here, Mystra?” Gale snapped.

“The artifact is being transferred to another institution,” she said. “I need to know if you have any remaining research notes.”

Gale stopped as if he’d been slapped.

“Transferred?” He asked. “You didn’t crack it? Where is it going?”

“I’m not at liberty to say,” she said. “Your research notes?”

“I gave everything I had to Khelben. But give me until tomorrow and I can write up everything about how this curse has affected me.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Mystra said. “We aren’t divulging what your little failed experiment did.”

“What!?” Gale hadn’t meant to shout, and by the look on Mystra’s face, she was as surprised as he was.

“Surely you don’t want more institutions to know how badly you failed?” Mystra asked, recovering quickly. “Are you actually asking I spread your folly through the arcane academic community like gossip?”

“Well… no, but—”

“Then we have nothing more to discuss.” Mystra turned away.

“—but I was under the impression you were researching the cause and cure for my condition along with the artifact!” Gale followed after her. “You told me to keep it quiet, I assumed you were doing something about it!”

“There’s nothing to be done, Gale. You’ll just need to accept you won’t have the arcane power you used to have.”

“Power? You think that’s all this is? You think consuming my magic stores is all that’s happened? My blood is black!” Gale roared at her retreating back.

Mystra stopped.

“I’ve been ignoring it because you asked me to. Because I thought you were doing something to help. I foolishly assumed you wouldn’t just hang me out to dry, that everything we had still meant something, even if it was over. That I wasn’t just being cast aside and forgotten.” Gale let out a shaking breath and continued. “Whenever I stop to think about it, whenever I stop pretending everything is fine, I’m terrified. I don’t know what it’s doing to me. What if I’m dying?”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Am I? How do you know? You said this thing is feeding off me. Is it really only feeding on my magic? What else is it doing? Why is my blood black? How long do I have left to live?”

“You’re jumping to conclusions,” Mystra said, turning around. “If you stop to think—”

“Oh, I assure you, I have,” Gale interrupted. “I’m quite positive that I’ve given more thought to this than you.”

“I have thought about it,” Mystra sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes. “However, for the good of the university—”

“Then I hope the university helps my mother pay for the funeral,” Gale snapped. “I’ll let her know to send you the bill.”

“Gale, don’t be like that,” Mystra said. “Despite what you may think of me, I do still worry about you. When I think of you alone in that condo…”

“Oh, I’m not alone.” A swell of warmth filled Gale’s chest, and he couldn’t help but feel a sense of smug vindictiveness.

Mystra rolled her eyes. “When I think of you and your tressym, alone in your condo—”

“We’re not alone,” Gale continued. “I know you think highly of yourself, but I have someone else now. He’s been living with me for months. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have office hours I need to attend.”

He brushed past her.

“Gale, wait!”

He let the door close in her face and retreated to his office, feeling quite pleased with himself. To hell with this. He didn’t need her help. He’d manage on his own.

Keep reading on AO3!

[emmy-dekarios-bg3]

WIP Wednesday!

(Thank you @marlowethebard for the tag 💜✨🫶🏻)

Tagging: @alpydk

Sharing a piece of what I’ve been working on. “Heart of the Weave” is a fanfic of Gale Dekarios and Emmy (Tav) who are happily married in Waterdeep. 6 months after their journey has ended, Emmy ends up violently ill and they travel back to Baldur’s Gate to find answers as to why, with their other companions to tag along as well.

Emmy discovers her and Gale are expecting a baby, and from the moment they find out about her pregnancy, evil follows her everywhere they go.

Here is an excerpt of what I’ve been working on (part of Chapter 1, this isn’t the entire chapter):

Anyway, enough about my chaotic background for now. I think about it constantly: the mind flayers, the people killed, the close encounters with death myself, and saving my friends from a catastrophic end. They saved me, too, and I’m forever grateful for them.

I awaken to the sun beaming through the glass windows, being reminded by the Earth that I’m still alive. I made it another day. I’m still not accustomed to being in an actual bed, for all the adventures I had involved sleeping outside, camping with the unknown around us. I’m thankful for being away from all the lurking dangers that thirsted for my death.

“Good morning, my love,” Gale says with the sleepiest voice, his face nuzzled into my neck as he spoons me in bed. I smile, feeling his comfort and warmth against my body in the earliest of mornings. “I hope you slept well.” His warm skin is pressed against mine, and it could honestly put me back to sleep. My eyes try to adjust to the morning light, focusing from the blur as I try to full awaken.

“I’m…starting to,” I murmur, stretching my body as I turn to face him. I stare deep into his dark brown eyes which are heavily defined by his long lashes. I could stare into them all day. “How about you?”

“Oh, definitely the same. I wake up everyday thinking how happy I am, how lucky we are to be here. More importantly, I’m grateful we’re alive.” His hand is on my naked waist, holding me close to him. “Oh, how I wish we could participate in some romantic coitus right about now, but unfortunately, I have to be at the Academy in just a little over an hour. I slept in just a tad later than I anticipated.” I kiss his lips delicately and close my eyes, wishing he wasn’t leaving so soon. He has been doing some heavy research the past few days and coming up with new strategies to help his students learn magic, so having this time together, no matter how long it is, means the world to me.

“I understand completely. Maybe later, then. We are married after all and have all the time in the world.” He chuckles and proceeds to kiss my forehead. His tressym, Tara, flies in the room and nearly scares the daylights out of me. I’ve been living with Gale for a year and I’m still not used to his flying feline, though I absolutely adore her to no end. I never had cats, so it’s an adjustment for me.

“Oh, Professor Gale Dekarios, it’s time for you to get at it!” she says, landing on our bed. “I’m glad you two weren’t in the middle of…well, you know.” Gale and I look at each other, fighting laughter but blushing from mild embarrassment. Only once has Tara intruded on us and it was a moment I’ll never forget. That moment included her staring at us with eyes full of horror, but she didn’t want to turn away. Gale caught her, and she screamed, flying rapidly out of the room at high speeds.

“Yes, yes, Tara. I’m getting out of bed. Now shoo, I’m indecent and I’d rather you not look at me.” Tara flies out of the room, with Gale getting his naked body out of the bed shortly after. I am so thankful and blessed that this is my life now, and all the worries from before have faded away.

I’ve adjusted to Gale working at the Academy, and I love that he enjoys doing what he does. For ages, he’s always wanted to accomplish being a professor and teaching magic to others, and that it will be more recognized. He gets ready and begins to head out the door, but pauses for a moment to give me a kiss. The softness and perfection of his lips is enough to get me to go back to sleep, but I have to tend our garden.

“I hope your day is wonderful,” I tell him, staring into his eyes. He gently brushes my dark curly hair out of my face with his fingertips, smiling at me with contentment. The way he touches me, even after all this time of marriage, feels absolutely incredible. I can’t get enough of him. Stop it, Emmy. You will have time alone with him soon enough, it’s nearly the end of the week.

“And yours as well, my love. I will be back before you know it.” My heart already misses his body and soul as I watch him walk out the door.

{view my entire fanfic here:}:

[all-pacas]

BG3 EPILOGUE STUFF

since i had a save from just before the final battle and, for one, had been dying for details all afternoon: this is from a game where i was durge and romanced astarion.

It's in the slightly random order of "who I happened to talk to in whatever order."

MINSC: Taking his job of "working with" the Guild seriously, and shows up to the party with a random thief he had been in the middle of dangling from a high tower. Says he visits Astarion a lot, but that Astarion keeps accidentally forgetting to tell him when he moves. You can ask him if there are others from the first Bhaal crisis left alive, because you're studying it.

OWLBEAR CUB: Been having fun fighting! You can suggest he settle down with Halsin or Shadowheart (I picked Halsin) and he's very excited.

SHADOWHEART: Says she's almost surprised you came; you can joke "what, just because I don't have a butler anymore?" and she says she was worried, but is glad to see that old memories haven't kept you away. She's found a little cottage in the country and is having a nice time living peacefully. Her parents are doing well, and her mother is teaching her to cook. She also has EVERY SINGLE pet she can find. Just gone from full goth princess to cottagecore.

You can tell her that you went Candlekeep to research Bhaalspawn history, and you agree you'll keep in more proactive touch.

JAHEIRA: The Bhaal temple is still standing, but she assures you it's empty, thanks to you. Jord has joined the Harpers, and Rion has rejoined the Flaming Fist, and is spending her time bullying them. Jaheira is mildly/proudly worried they'll kick her out. Again. She's wrangling Harpers and working to rebuilt Baldur's Gate. She asks if you plan on starting a family of your own, and you can tell her that you plan on letting Bhaal's line die with you.

VOLO: He's writing a tell-all, and says he's gotten very good at faking your signature for the disclosures. He wants to call it "The Hero and Me," and you can suggest "The Bhaalspawn 2." He doesn't think you should think of yourself as a mere sequel.

KARLACH: "I've missed you, you old Bhaalspawn. Oh - do you not want to me to call you the B-word any more?" You can joke that your "army" is bath salts and scented candles, tell her that everyone slips up from time to time, or brag about not thinking about it AND not killing anyone in six months. The answer I picked: "I see my blood not as a curse, but a duty. I have been studying Bhaal, so I can fight him, if his cult ever strikes again."

Karlach and Wyll have been having a lot of fun fighting and surviving hell. She feels a lot better, and tells you about their plan to heist a new heart for herself. You promise to meet up again.

WYLL: Mizora hasn't been bothering him much, sending him after legitimate demons and evils. She's set him on a new mission he doesn't know the details of, but apparently his target is a devil. He's happy to be traveling with Karlach. He's been able to visit Baldur's Gate and his father a few times, and dad's doing well, leading the city and rebuilding. No Bhaalspawn talk.

HALSIN: He's still hanging out in the former Shadowlands, and Moonrise has been torn down to make new houses. He gives you a wooden duck. No Bhaalspawn talk.

LAE'ZEL: Is just on her full YA Youth Hero phase. Has been fighting and leading and just being super cool, allying with the githzerai. She's currently a dipomat, and you can be like "lol, seriously?" She's amused and says you taught her that diplomacy and words are as sometimes as important as a blade. She's clearly joking around a bit (she calls herself bossy and that it's her charm), but as deadpan as ever.

GALE: HE'S A PROFESSOR, school of illusion. As a sorceror, you can say you're surprised he's only teaching one school, and he agrees and admits he offered to teach them all, before being told he had to pick one. He talks about how much he likes illusion and imagination, and so now I feel like I have to make him illusionist in my runs. He gave the Crown to Mystra, and feels great relief to have the Orb gone. He clearly really, really loves teaching and spends his time trying to make his students love magic as much as he does. He complains they sleep a lot, and Tara butts in to call them cheeky and offers to swipe them.

He asks what you're up to, and you can joke you're napping and thinking of becoming a massage therapist — he jokes that he's glad you found a new career, but maybe leave off your "neck snapping" past when meeting clients. Gale offers you a "guest lecturer" spot, and you can remark that "the healing of my cranial trauma would be a prime case study for the school of Evocation." Gale invites you to stay in his — SORRY, TARA, OUR — tower.

TARA: YOU CAN PSPSPSPSPSP TARA. She does not deign to respond. She asks if you're the one who helped Gale with the Absolute, and if you politely say that Gale helped you, she doubts it very much — obviously he's the hero. She then invites you to visit them, and if you accuse her of having no respect for the "co-savior of Faerun," she retorts that she's here, isn't she? Before dismissing you.

ASTARION: He's happy all your friends are well, but hesitates on joining the socializing himself, because he's just so good at "skulking." He says he doesn't want to hog you because he gets you all the time.

LETTERS: (This was not a 100% completion game.)

Art is rapidly declining, his age catching up to him. He doesn't have long to live, but is happy and content seeing the Shadowlands cured.

Duke Ravengard does not even mention Wyll in his letter.

Arabella is being trained by Elminster! Love that for her.

The Gur write their letter to Astarion specifically, saying they've been keeping an eye on him and admire his restraint and control over his bloodlust.

THERE'S A LETTER FROM ALFIRA ahaha. I did the Durge Savescum to save her, and her letter basically goes: Yeah, I heard you're a Bhaalspawn? I saw murder in your eyes whenever you looked at me, and I'm glad you're doing well, but I'm not going to tell you where I am now. Thank you for sparing me! Bye!

Barcus Wroot has the single most Barcus Wroot letter of all time. "Withers gave me this address and said I could consider writer. Well, I considered it. Return address included. Best, Barcus Wroot." I love him so much.

Dammon 100000% has a crush on Karlach. His letter is basically: "Are you still alive? I think of you all the time. Will you write to me? Yours faithfully." Omg.

Nocturne is in a new Sharran cloister, but she hopes Shadowheart is well and wonders if maybe one day she'll also be brave enough to leave.

ROLAN DID NOT WRITE ME, woowwwww

CONCLUSIONS:

Durge gets two threads: I am living in a spa, and I am spending my time researching Bhaal. Or maybe both!

Wyll and Karlach definitely seem to be hinting towards some kind of DLC, with Wyll's new devil target and the whole heist situation. Withers also has an unreadable note on his desk with Hints Of Important Things.

[thedreamworldlibrary]

Magia Chap.11- The Research Squad

Next chapter! We’re going to be focusing on Damien’s research squad! It’s a short chapter, but it’s fitting since it’s another chill one.

Big thanks to my beta reader @gigilefache Your amazing buddy!!

Enjoy!

Damien drove to the local library as  soon as he finished his phone call with Celio. He made it there early, like always, and now was waiting for their sibling and their friend to arrive so they could research those gems Wiatt had found. While he waited, he looked through his notes about the gems before hearing a horn honk. 

The Ghost Eye detective looked up seeing a dark blue car pull up into the parking lot and smiles recognizing the car. When the person got out, Damien put his notes in his pocket as his sibling walked over to him.

“You're here early as always,” Celio said.

Damien chuckled, “you know me.” 

Celio chuckled in reply.

“So you said you brought a friend?” Damien asked.

“I have.” They replied.

The second they said it, the car door opened on the other side of the car, revealing Eric Gale. Damien’s ghost eye glowed brighter as the other man’s soul overwhelmed him.

“Damien, meet Eric Gale.” Celio introduced, “Sara’s former professor and engineer for Dreamworld.”

“Nice to meet you,” Damien said, holding his hand out.

Eric took his hand and shook it, “nice to meet you too.” He replied.

The two stopped the handshake as Damien looked up at the library, “I heard you used to work here?” He asked.

Eric nodded. “I have,” He replied. “This library has everything about the town like who founded the town and all the happenings in this town throughout history.”

“Well,” Damien chuckled, “glad my sibling knows people.” He gave Celio a playful shove.

Celio playful shoves their brother causing the two to laugh. Eric chuckled too, and the trio started to walk inside the library.

SLAM!

The three adults stopped and flinched from the loud slam as they turned to see not only Ben and Liz but Carly as well.

“Ben!” Liz shouted.

“Sorry,” Ben replied.

“Ben, Liz, Carly!” Eric exclaimed. “What are you three doing here?!”

“We want to join in on the investigation too,” Carly replied.

Eric’s eyes widened as he stuttered trying to find the words to tell his daughter no.

“Yeah! You never told us our big brother got superpowers!” Liz exclaimed. “So…”

“We want to help,” Ben added.

Damien was in shock seeing children had snuck into his sibling’s car. “Uh…w-who are they?” 

“Damien, Celio, this is my daughter Carly Gale and her best friends Ben and Liz Acrimony.” Eric introduced them.

“Are you two related to Oliver?” Damien asked.

“Yep!” Ben and Liz exclaimed at the same time. 

“We overheard everything that happened to our brother.” Ben started.

“So we called Carly, told Oliver we’re going to hang out with her, and while Mr. Gale was talking with Dr. Klein…” Liz explained.

“We snuck into the backseat of the car.” Carly finished explaining.

The adult trio had their mouths dropped in shock seeing these three were sneaky enough to get into Celio’s car without being detected. Eric sighed. Look kiddos, this is grown-up stuff. You shouldn’t be involved in this.” He stated.

“Hey! If something is up with our brother, we need to be involved in this!” Ben exclaimed proudly pointing at himself, his sibling, and his best friend.

Eric was about to speak up till his daughter spoke, “plus I downloaded this from the security cameras.” Carly then opened her photos from her phone and showed her dad and the two adults video footage of the fight Wiatt and the others had with Winnie.

“H-How did you?” Eric asked.

“Oliver taught me things that you don’t know of, Dad,” Carly replied.

Eric frowned and crossed his arms, “I’m sorry you three, but you can’t help, and that’s final.” He said sternly.

The three kids sighed, but something came up causing them to look at each other with a smirk.

“Alright, but…” Ben started.

“How do we get home, Dad?” Carly finished crossing her arms.

Eric’s eyes widened realizing he was picked up and it was too late to drop them off at his place. He looked at the Klein siblings who shrugged giving Eric the choice what to do.

“Fine…you can help.” Eric sighed.

“YES!” The Acrimony siblings and Carly cheered.

“Remember this is a library so don’t be too loud or make a mess.” Eric reminded them.

The kid trio nodded as they followed the adults inside the library. Once inside, they saw how quiet it was and there weren't many people other than a lady at the counter, and two high school students studying for finals.

Eric was saddened as he remembered the library having tons more people than this. “Man, things have changed around here.”

“Yeah, didn’t this place have more people in here?” Carly asked.

“Well, not a lot of people visit libraries anymore,” Ben answered.

Carly let out a low growl, “I still visit libraries.” She responded.

“Egghead.” Ben whispered to his twin sister. However, Liz didn’t like that and punched Ben in the arm. “Gah!”

“Don’t call her that.” Liz chastised her brother. 

“Shh! Quiet!” The three adults whispered at the same time.

The Acrimony twins shrunk down, “sorry.” They apologized at the same time.

The three adults sighed and continued to focus on the situation at hand. “Okay, Eric, where would be the best place to look?” Damien asked.

Eric thought for a bit, but let out a sigh. “I haven’t worked here for so long so I wouldn’t be too sure.”

“Don’t worry Dad, I got you covered,” Carly said, “If anything, we can check the arts and artifacts section or the history section.”

It then clicked in Eric’s head. “Oh yeah. Thanks Carly,” He replied ruffling her hair.

“Dad!” Carly sighed, playfully pushing his hand away.

Ben chuckled, “egg-“ he paused seeing his sister was about to punch him again for calling their friend an egghead. To not get punched by his sister again he gave a sheepish smile and defended himself.

“Good.” Liz hissed.

“Okay, Carly, Ben and Liz you check the arts and artifacts while me, Celio, and Damien check the history section,” Eric stated.

“Got it!” The kids responded.

The three groups separated and went to grab as many books as they could. Once they got enough, they went to the table and read through the books. The kids turned page after page, before finding nothing and going through another book.

The adults on the other hand were reading through the history of the town but found nothing that connected with the box.

After going through about ten different books Ben went to the shelf and pulled out another book, and soon another book that was hidden fell on the floor. The younger twin looked down and went to pick up the book that fell.

From the looks of it, the book looked old and a bit dusty from how long it was hidden. On the cover it showed some weird artifacts, but one caught Ben’s eye. It was the jewelry box Wiatt held.

“Girls, check this out.” Ben said. Liz and Carly looked up from reading and went over to the boy, who showed them the book, and pointed at the jewelry box on the cover.“Is this what you're looking for?”

Carly’s eyes widened, “y-yeah! That’s Wiatt’s box!” She exclaimed. The trio went over to the adults and put the book down at the table, getting their attention.

“Found it!” Ben and Liz beamed.

“Shhh!” The patrons of the library hushed. 

“Sorry.” The twins apologized.

The adults looked at the book as Damien pulled it close to him. He looked at the jewelry box on the cover and back at the notes he took of it and nodded. “Yep, it’s the one.” He confirmed.

“How did you find it?” Celio asked.

“It was hidden. I pulled out a book from the shelf and this one was hidden deep into the shelf.” Ben explained.

“Well, glad we’re getting somewhere,” Eric said.

Carly then sat down and pulled the book closer to her. “Mr. Klein, do you have a spare notebook?” She asked.

Damien nodded and went to his bag and pulled out a purple composition notebook, pen and handed it to the older girl.

“Why do you need a notebook, ladybug?” Eric asked.

“I want to take notes to give to Wiatt and the others,” Carly answered. She opened the notebook, clicked the pen and opened the book, hoping to find the page about Wiatt’s jewelry box. She flipped through the pages till she found the page with the jewelry box.

“There, the…Somni…Somu…” Carly tried to read.

Damien leaned in and pronounced it to the 13-year-old, “Somnium Box.”

Carly smiled, “The Somnium Box was created sometime between the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.” She read. “The jewels in the box were found by a young woman named Clara Brooke, however she kept the secrets of the jewels classified.”

With what she read, Carly wrote down the important parts of the book. As she wrote, the rest of the group theorized about the Somnium Box.

“Hmm…Somnium is Latin for Dream. Maybe it has connections with the location of Dreamworld.” Eric theorized.

“It makes sense. Didn’t the box open and that’s how Lewis and the others got their powers?” Carly asked, looking up from the notebook.

“You're right, ladybug.”

Carly smiled and kept on writing in the notebook. As she wrote, Liz decided to read the rest of the book, “it says when the box was found, the gems were supposed to bring luck and ward off evil.”

“Odd, nothing about the gems having powers.” Ben pointed out.

“Clara did keep the gems classified, maybe she knew what powers they held, but bringing up this stuff during that time period was…risky,” Carly explained.

Liz turned the pages, but saw nothing else about the Somnium Box. “That’s it?” She asked. “There’s got to be more!”

Liz and Ben put the book down and went to the shelves to see if they could find more hidden books, but no luck. They sighed and sat down defeated.

“Hey, don’t feel bad,” Carly said, putting her hand on top of Liz’s. The twins looked up at their friend, “what we have now is enough.” 

Liz and Ben smiled at their friend glad what they discovered was enough.

“Well, we could keep looking, but…” Damien paused looking outside, seeing the sun starting to set. “It’s starting to get late.”

“Think we can meet up again next week?” Carly asked.

Eric sighed. “Maybe next week we should have the adults meet up.” He suggested.

“But Dad, I got notes here.”

The engineer sighed and looked at the two other adults in the room. “I don’t mind them coming along,” Celio said.

“Same, it may make this faster,” Damien added.

“Well…” Eric trailed off. He looked at his daughter and her friends who gave him the biggest puppy eyes in the world. “I guess you three can help us.”

The three were ready to cheer till the Klein siblings gave them a warning glare. They realized this and nodded. “Thank you Mr. Gale.” Liz said, politely.

“Thank you Dad.” Carly added.

Eric smiled. “Well, we should get going.”

Carly nodded as she closed the notebook and held it. She and the twins followed Eric back to Celio’s car with Damien right behind them. As the group left the library a picture dropped on the shelf where Ben found the book.

The photo in question showed the face of Clara, and her appearance strikingly resembled the founder of Dreamworld: Sara Covetman.

[bottombatch]

Companion Characters if they were Engineering Majors

Durge: Mechanical Engineer who worked for Lockheed for a decade before finally growing a conscious and quitting to teach instead. Rumors will circulate about his career when he idly mentions he worked on an interstellar project that could launch missiles within a meter of accuracy.

Shadowheart: Started her degree as a construction engineer but changed to an environmental focus when her internship with Shar started to go sour. Will talk shit about you after your group project.

Lae'zel: Mechanical engineer to the bone. Wholly unconcerned with anything she cannot see and engineer with her own hands and eyes. When you go to her apartment to work on a presentation, it turns out she's a huge weeb and has a pristine glass case of miku figures.

Gale: Structural engineer and professor. Will (illegally) upload the textbook to canvas for the first week of class and has super easy exams and hw. His exams WILL have typos and errors and he will curve to compensate it. Too busy with his research to respond to your email.

Astarion: Civil Engineer with an infrastructure focus because it's the easiest. Will tell you about the sick rave he went to and then ask for the notes of the last week due to said rave.

Wyll: Civil Engineer with a water focus because he wants to do public work. His favorite class was ethics and he would debate with Gale for an hour after class. Is dependable and will send you notes if you need them.

Karlach: Computer Science specializing in web development. Struggling to find an ethical way to use her skills because everywhere she interns turns out to be selling user data or something and she doesn't know what she wants to do anymore. You have to convince her not to drop out and work at McDonalds

Minthara: Structural engineer, now a professor. Will recommend that you change majors or drop out because you forgot a homework assignment once. You will fail her class because she rounds your grade down to a 72%.

Jaheira: Old-school construction engineer, now a professor. Exclusively teaches the freshman courses so she can gently weed out the ones that aren't ready for it.

Minsc: Electrical Engineer that can't explain how anything works. He just intuits everything. Its terrifying. His only studying strategy is reading the textbook to his hamster. This works somehow.

[dutifullylazybread]

BG3 Backstory Bash by Kelandrin

This is a challenge to help people flesh out their Tav’s backstory by exploring their past. It is organized into four sections with seven prompts. You can treat this as a monthly challenge or a general project. You can write headcanons, fics, or share art based on the prompts! You can interpret the prompts however you want. If you want to share use the tag #bg3backstorybash

i was tagged by @faerunsbest, this is just out here making my day! i tag @lemonsrosesandlavender, @queeronaquest, and @jessfromouterspace. No pressure, of course, but this looks like fun. If anyone else would like to do this tag, go for it! :)

Baby:

Parents: Her mother made stained glass for a living, and her father was a barrel maker.

Birth: She was born in her parents' home in the dock ward.

First word: River

When they first walked: Around 15 months

Tantrum: She got upset that her mother wouldn't let her eat the pigment that she used while making stained glass.

First sickness: Her first real sickness was pneumonia at around five. It made a turn for the worse, and were it not for a traveling cleric, she likely wouldn't have survived.

Thunderstorm: She has always loved storms.

Childhood:

Friends: Mostly neighbor children who lived in the ward near her family's home.

Siblings: She has no siblings

Birthday: She was born on Midsummer (Eleasis 1)

Games: Most definitely hide-and-seek and memory games.

Learning something new: She reads to excess, but is more of a hands-on learner. So she'll start by learning the theory, but then she must practice.

Trauma: Her parents' home is washed by a flood away while she is at the academy. Only pieces of the house were recovered, but her parents' bodies were never found.

Teenager:

First love: She had several crushes while at the academy, but her first real love was a student in the year ahead of hers. She was too frightened to act on her emotions.

Rebellion: Most definitely acted out after her parents' deaths. Would go into the library after curfew or raid the dining hall for food.

Running away: Ran away from the academy to the Yawning Portal. She was ready to go down into the Undermountain to explore. She didn't get far before she was retrieved by one of her professors.

Reckless behavior: She wasn't always cautious while practicing magic, and she ended up hurting herself and a classmate when a spell backfired.

Peer pressure: Unsure. Likely pressured to sneak around the dormitories after hours.

Growing pains: Definitely hated how she looked during puberty and would wear lots of layers to hide in.

Taking responsibility: Fairly good at admitting to her mistakes, but will sometimes get defensive if she feels like she is being unfairly treated (as a teenager).

Adulthood:

Their “first time”: With a colleague in her twenties. This colleague was also the one to show her how to use mage hand in various scenarios.

Serious relationships: She has had a few romantic relationships that didn't extend to anything serious because of how focused she was on her research (which was the same for them as well). Gale was likely her first truly serious relationship. After him was Rolan. No one followed after Rolan.

Work: Worked as a guild artisan for several years to fund her arcane research. Specialized in glass blowing and wanted to learn how to enchant the items she created.

Leaving home: Lost her home while at the academy, so there wasn't really a home to leave.

Aging: Relatively well. There are several spells that will extend a wizard's natural lifespan, so Tav might do that if she feels inclined.

Finding their place: After defeating the Absolute, she ends up wandering into Ramazith's tower and settling there.

Staring a family/found family: Has three children who are cared for by several aunts and uncles. Her found family was her new family.

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

For Every Action, A Reaction - Chapter 3 - Action and Reaction

Pairing: Raven Scientist (Victoria Van Gale/The Raven Leader)

Summary: Taking a step back from our poetry nerds, this instalment focuses on academic research projects, less than legal shenanigans, and most importantly, two coworkers who are smart enough to be geniuses in their respective areas but apparently not enough to confess.

Over the span of two decades.

Seriously.

Somebody has to do something. Before all their students lose their minds.

Complete!

Notes: HAPPY HILDA S3 TEASER EVE!!!! Posting this today instead of Thursday as usual because I Do Not want to compete with the fandom's hype tomorrow kjsdkjsdfh

Thank you to everyone that read this! If all works according to plan, this won't be the last you'll see of the Carpe Diem verse :)

Read it on ao3: (Carpe Diem verse) (previous chapter) (this chapter)

She should have studied engineering. Everyone in her family had told her that. If you’re already going to submit yourself to STEMS bullshit, better to do it in a prestigious area, at least. But no, she just had to follow her “passion” for weather sciences. Now she couldn’t even plan a sabotage smoothly. Pathetic.

Of course, she knew her ways around electronics well enough; the lab was scattered with a couple of inventions of her own that aided her in one part of the project or another. But her gadgets were always either very simple, or related to the area of study she was actually an expert on. This, though? This was neither.

The devices would have to be able to induce malfunctioning on every single voice box that the poor, desperate students working for Ahlberg’s project had built, causing enough of a ruckus to at least force them all to stop their practical work and go back to the theory, or at best signal to whoever was responsible for deciding which projects got funding and which didn’t that that was a bad idea. The ‘causing a ruckus’ part was easy enough; what was currently keeping Victoria and her student up and in the lab past hours was the ‘not harm anyone in the process’ part, which either was much more difficult or just seemed like it due to Victoria’s much bigger affinity for bringing shit down.

“You think it’ll work this time?” Raven stepped back from the round device they were working on, made of many strips of metal fused together into the ball shape, eyeing it warily. The design was supposed to help it on the ‘self-destruct’ part, in order to avoid them getting caught, but none of them had made it so far on the test runs yet.

“Only one way to know.” Victoria answered, sounding tired. She was usually excited at the lab; no matter what ridiculous situations that University threw at her, she loved her job. That day had just been so damned long that she was feeling the urge to press a self-destruct button for herself.

And, just as she was going to press on the remote that was controlling their creation in order to test it once again, they heard a knock on the door.

“What the-” Victoria whispered, tensing up as the thought of them having been caught in the act immediately came to mind.

“Here.” She threw the remote to Raven, who only barely didn’t let it drop to the floor. “If it isn’t anyone we should worry about, carry on without me. We don’t have time to waste.”

He looked at the remote as if it might explode in his hand, none too happy about the idea of running the test himself (which was fair, seeing as many of the past attempts had exploded in his vicinity), but the professor had walked away to the door before he could protest.

Knowing her messy bun must look like it was falling apart and there was nothing she could do about it to cause a better impression on whoever was on the other side, Victoria opened the door. And imagine her surprise (and utter relief) when it wasn’t another professor, or someone from the board, or even a student of hers, but rather Kaisa’s girl.

“Johanna?” She glanced at Raven inside, letting him know with a look that it was safe to proceed, and then at the clock. The only reason why students came there was to ask her about her subject or about her assignments. If Johanna decided to quiz her on some artistic bullshit, Victoria was screwed.

The second explanation for her coming here that crossed the scientist’s mind was Kaisa needing help, which immediately shook her off of her exhaustion. But Kaisa would call her herself if she needed, wouldn’t she? Unless her situation was too dire to walk or talk, which was a terrifying thought, but Johanna would hardly be standing there, looking calm albeit embarrassed, if that were the case.

“Hi, goodnight, Victoria.” Johanna shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and why did Victoria get the feeling she was about to be roped into something ridiculous? “Sorry to bother you, it’s silly, but when you have some free time, could you maybe help me with something? It won’t take much of your time.”

“I… yeah, of course.” She only hoped they didn’t need couple’s therapy or anything of the sort, because really they had come to the wrong fucking person if that was the case. “Is this about Kaisa?”

Johanna confirmed her suspicion, luckily still acting coy enough that Kaisa definitely was in no danger, and Victoria offered to give her her number so they could text. There were sheets of paper on her desk, even if most of those were discarded ideas for her ploy that she truly shouldn’t give away to just anyone, but eventually she found an old shopping list she could jot her number down on.

“Professor Van Gale, this isn’t working!” Raven screeched, making Victoria wince when she looked in his direction. There was smoke coming from the device, which was not supposed to be happening, and he was covering his mouth and nose with his lab coat.

“Ugh, just hold it for a minute, I’m coming!” She rushed to give the girl the paper and the most polite ‘good night’ she could manage, before closing the door and rushing to fix whatever nonsense life had in store for her now.

…......

Raven had to hand it to her, the professor put her money where her mouth was at. He only wished her mouth wasn’t at places that left him wondering if she was insane.

Were she any other professor trying to come out on top of a situation, he was sure he would have been left alone to do the dirty work, forced to put himself on the line because he would have been threatened with the loss of his spot on her programme if he didn’t do what she wished. Van Gale wasn’t at all that type of person, though, and maybe that was why Raven put up with everything he did. Instead, she had insisted she could do it all on her own, and he had tagged along because someone responsible had to be present. He told himself it was out of loyalty, but truly it was equally likely that he had lost his mind after so long spending his afternoons in a small lab with her. Anyone would, really.

He had been left with lookout duty, given strict orders to signal her and disappear completely if someone came, lest someone see him and put him in trouble. Raven did his job minutely, keeping his eyes and ears attuned to any odd motions, trying hard not to think about how very easily the professor had picked the lock to the facility that hosted Erik Ahlberg’s project. In the dead of night, the campus eerily quiet and foggy, he felt like he could very well be in a graveyard.

He only hoped his reputation wouldn’t lie there to die that night.

Luckily, the only sounds he heard throughout the whole thing were those of Victoria skillfully attaching their creations to the voice boxes the project worked on, and after less than an hour, she walked back over to where he was and began locking the door again, always wearing a pair of gloves and her hair tied so as not to leave any traces.

“Let’s get the hell out of here, Raven.”

Never had a sentence coming out of his tutor’s mouth left him so relieved.

He tip toed back to his shared student apartment with the hairs at the back of his neck standing on end, still observing his surroundings as if he were on the lookout. Technically, anyone was allowed to walk around campus at two in the morning, but he still might receive questions if he was caught and he didn’t think he could convince anyone about midnight jogging when he was dressed like he was going to work.

Upon arriving home unseen, Raven breathed a sigh of relief, ready to head into his room and pretend none of that had ever happened. Until, that is, he realised that the lights in the common area were on, and whoever was there must have heard him arriving. He did trust the boys he lived with, but just so he didn’t jinx it, he had preferred to keep the whole sabotage thing between him and Van Gale, and he didn’t want to be raising any suspicions when he was now so close to coming out of this story unscathed. So after a beat, Raven dragged himself to the kitchen, figuring a glass of water would do him well, anyway.

“Bit late for you to be up, isn’t it?” Tontu’s voice greeted him from where he was sitting on the couch, knitting. Raven silently thanked the stars that it was him and not Alfred; mysterious as he was, Raven knew that Tontu wouldn’t give him too much grief about whatever lie he told.

“Yeah, I had trouble sleeping and decided to go get some fresh air.”

Just as predicted, Tondu didn’t question him, only muttered something about finding arts and crafts to be very soothing. And then he said something that almost made Raven spit out the water he was sipping on.

“I had been meaning to talk to you alone, anyway. I know something you might want to about the Ahlberg guy. I remember you telling me the project you work on needed some of the grants that go to him.”

Pretending he hadn’t nearly just choked, he attempted to put his most innocent face on as he turned his falsely naive smile to his flat mate.

“Oh, truly?” God, how he hated acting. “What would that be?”

“Well, I was talking to King.”

“King?”

“Yeah, one of the janitors.” Tontu kept knitting like that should have been common knowledge. “You know, Rat King, big guy, smile’s a bit crooked when you tell them ‘good morning’, knows everybody’s business.”

Raven did not, in fact, know. He had no clue why a janitor would be in on, in Tontu’s words, ‘everybody’s business’, much less why the hell he was called ‘Rat King’, but he was almost sure he remembered a tall man who did give him a lopsided smile when he greeted him on his way to work. He wondered exactly what kind of intel the man would have, and if his silence could be bought with anything Raven or Victoria owned if it was something incriminating to them.

“Okay.” He drew on the word longer than he needed to. “What did he tell you?”

Even though Tontu’s voluminous hair covered most of his face, Raven could see the excited smile underneath, which made him shiver, if he were being honest.

“You’re in luck. There is some dirt on him that might just be enough to deal with your problem.”

…......

It was a day. Not a particularly great day, or a wonderful day, or even a good day. But it sure was a fucking day, and Edmund was trying to be more grateful lately.

He was still working on it, okay?

Most of the other students who worked on the project had already been at their testing area on the edge of campus when he arrived, right where the University’s property ended and the forest began. They were doing a general test run today, finally getting all of their voice boxes to work in sync to see if they had the desired effect; small groups of engineers and physicists worked on their devices, each group with at least one Ecology student. This had been one of the only wins Professor Bloom had achieved when the project had been approved, that it would need to have a minimum amount of her students so they could, at least, make sure that the wildlife they were dealing with weren’t being hurt by their pathetic plans.

The Ecology students in the project were, for that reason, usually referred to as “Bloom’s spies” by the other ones who were there working with them. But it was much more of a fond nickname than a jab - even Ahblerg’s students could see that this project was useless at best. They were all only there because there were many openings and it paid well, and they all knew it.

Sure, there had to be one or two engineers there who were actually interested in the inner workings of the voice boxes they had been perfecting for so long, but no one there (other than Erik Ahlberg, who barely made the effort to even show up) actually believed that what they were doing was important. Troll bugs weren’t a threat to anyone, as anyone with more than two brain cells could attest to. Sure, they tend to chomp on leftovers if you leave them out unprotected, and if one ends up biting you it will hurt like a bitch for a couple of hours; but that was it. No poison, no diseases, no imbalance in the food chain caused by them, and they will leave you alone unless you go out of your way to get close to one. Troll bugs were much more afraid of humans than humans had any right to be of them, as was usually the case for beings no bigger then two inches, much to some people’s confusion.

What was worse, they were an endemic species on its way to becoming endangered. Their habitat already occupied a small area, with the campus and new roads being built directly inside it, it had only been getting harder for them to survive. Yet some people had the nerve to complain when they were living directly inside the land where that species had lived since they evolved into existence. And some people even had the nerve to lead a research project to find ways to scare those bugs away.

Edmund, as well as everyone who had worked there long enough, was sure that had Birgitta not managed to put her own students inside the project, Ahlberg would have aimed for killing them, ecosystem be damned.

He nodded grimly to Gerda as he walked by the desk her group was at, and she answered in kind, returning the “it sure is one fucking day” sentiment. So good to be this connected to your friends.

He arrived at his station and noticed that not even the engineer and physicist he worked with seemed happy to be there. Maybe they all knew that if they accidentally harmed the creatures with their invention, Edmund would not be happy with them.

Huh. How nice to be recognized as a bug avenger. That seemed like a reputation he could get behind.

Later than all of them, Professor Ahlberg eventually arrived and gave a speech that was drawn out for way longer than it needed to be. Something about being able to live with privacy and comfort without fearing for themselves. Edmund wasn’t really listening, he had quit paying attention when he realized that the sentence but they’re just fucking bugs would be the only thing he’d manage to think during the entire time he did so. At some point he stopped talking, and led them all to activate their voice boxes at the same time.

When they did so, a loud screeching came from the boxes, which Edmund imagined would be what it would sound like if bells could be out of tune. They all pressed their hands to their ears, having forgotten the possibility of needing ear plugs; the sound frequency was supposed to be unbearable only to the bugs, they were supposed to be just fine. But if this was their ‘just fine’, Edmund thought, than the bugs must be in complete agony.

He was about to shout at them to stop, and as he looked around he saw other fellow ‘spies’ looking like they were about to do the same, when something went very wrong. The screeching began to come into a halt, the pitch becoming lower and lower as smoke began to come from the voice boxes, one at a time. All tests were immediately terminated, though the smoke didn’t cease, and a loud metallic ‘pop’ came from each of the devices. Ahlberg looked at the smoking desks scattered around the campus’ edge with complete horror as engineers unscrewed the soundboxes’ diaphragm searching for the broken component, and finding it without having to look any further.

Inside each of the boxes, there were strips of metal, still smoking and hot, that could only have been part of the machinery but which none of the engineers could remember ever having been part of their system.

Well, Edmund thought as he walked away from their testing area, trying not to look too pleased. Maybe practicing gratefulness does bring good things along.

…......

Later that same day, he walked into his professor’s office with a smug smile that was the universal code for “I have come as bearer of hot gossip”. Bloom wasn’t in as much of a slump as she had those weeks before, but she still didn’t look or sound as cheerful as her former self. Edmund could only guess what had happened, but it was enough to make him feel a little guilty for it, and he’d been trying to make it up to her since then. He had a feeling that the news of Ahlberg’s project having to be backtracked at least several months before returning to full activity would lift her mood up.

It was really getting distressing to have to keep pretending to not see the constant stiffness of her face, or to not hear her sad sighs.

“Ask me how work went today, professor.” He said after they greeted each other, sitting down on his usual chair. Birgitta lifted her gaze from her laptop, where she’d been looking for his most recent copy of his thesis work, and lifted an eyebrow. They didn’t talk a lot about his job at the project, only when it was to complain about it, so seeing him mention it while seemingly in a good mood was understandably confusing. Not to mention, she had known the first official test was coming up soon, and had been seething about it alongside Edmund for a long while.

“Well, how did work go today?”

Edmund leaned forward a bit, compensating for his lower tone of voice.

“It was disastrous.” That alone was enough to visibly capture her interest. “We went to test the machinery all at once to finally see if it would have the desired effect, but something inside every single one of them exploded and the soundboxes stopped working completely! We will all have to go back to the first stage and plan the devices out from scratch. It’ll take forever, maybe by then the board will agree to give that funding to something a bit less useless, at least.”

Birgitta blinked, something about every last soundbox malfunctioning at the exact same time not sitting well with her. It was just too perfect. The main step towards getting those inventions to actually be put to use disrupting the ecosystem getting completely thwarted like that was too good to be true. It made her wonder if she’d hired some sort of hitman to do it during her sleep walking bouts at night. That sounded exactly like the sort of thing she’d do, especially asleep when her subconscious wasn’t being filtered by any annoying morals.

“That sounds… oddly coincidental, doesn’t it?” There was a smile tugging at her lips despite the suspicious situation, strengthened by the grin her own student was giving her. “What part of the machinery exploded?”

Edmund shrugged, which made Birgitta assume that he didn’t know since he wasn’t one of the students responsible for actually building it. The response, however, threw her off.

“That’s the best part. I don't know, but nobody knows either. The physics and engineering guys are probably still there, because no one recognizes the piece that triggered the system malfunctioning. It was in every single soundbox, yet no one remembers ever having installed it, or what it was supposed to do, or can spot it in the blueprints. I’m half convinced there were some, I don’t know, bug fairies or whatever that didn’t want this to work out. We lucked out so hard.”

But Birgitta didn’t really believe in luck. In karma, maybe - heaven knew how much Ahlberg had yet to receive from it - but not luck. Good things, she believed, came from the love we spread, the people we captivate, the messages we share.

And apparently, they also come from pea-brained scientists who wouldn’t be able to distinguish a terrible idea if it kicked their door open and hit them into next week.

Because it didn’t take hours of analysing this new information and deliberating for the truth to come to Birgitta. She knew what had happened as soon as Edmund had stopped talking. There was only one person in the entire campus who had both the reasons, the means, and the absolute fucking hubris to go and sabotage the largest ongoing research project the university had.

And she was going to have to explain herself.

…......

If there was any activity more depressing than correcting exams, Victoria was unaware of it. Every year, students came excited to learn about clouds and wind and humidity and whatnot. Every year, Victoria had to disappoint them by revealing that meteorology had more to do with physics and calculus than with the “wonder of mother nature” or whatever the hell those hippies who somehow always found themselves in her classrooms had been expecting. You try studying fluid on a constantly moving platform and see how fun it is.

Technically, she could have left that task to Raven, but after having submitted him to their… extra hours last night, she had thought he deserved a day off. She supposed she could have taken a day off too, since she had no classes to lecture that day and any student who wanted to talk to her could just send her an email, but what was she supposed to do? Just stay home? She wasn’t even sure she knew how to, or what the protocol for that even was. Hell, her students might even become worried something had happened to her if she didn’t show up at campus for the first time in… well, since she began working there, truth be told. Not like she had much else to occupy her time with, after all.

She was about to start correcting another (clearly begrudgingly answered) exam when an urgent knock sounded from the door behind her. Her heart leapt to her throat as her mind immediately reminded her that she was very much guilty for something that was very much a crime, and someone in that college had to be smart enough to figure it out. It was all a matter of how lucky she would be in regards of who was the said bearer of the brain cell.

Very lucky, it seemed.

“Victoria.” She would have recognized the voice anywhere, even if she could hardly remember ever having heard it sound that angry. “You better be kidding me right now, I swear-”

Victoria’s best option was, evidently, playing dead. Some small, childish part of her wanted to see how much angrier Birgitta would get if she pretended to be a programmed recording and said that there was no one at the lab and then just not speak any further, but she valued her life a bit more than that. Just a tad bit, but she did. But if anyone deserved to hear it from her, it was Birgitta. Had she never found out, Victoria wouldn’t be able to attest to her morality going so far as to make her confess, but she would feel the need to share it with the woman who had been her close friend for so long. Since she already clearly knew, however (Victoria couldn’t think of any other recent fuck-ups from her part. Birgitta had never answered her last messages but barging on her office weeks later was hardly going to be her way to do it), it would simply be stupid to play dumb. If she at least talked it through, she would have a shot at getting her to not denounce her.

So she got up, and opened the lab’s door to a very angry Birgitta Bloom, her arms crossed on her chest and her eyes glaring at her in a way that, if looks could kill, Victoria would be dead and buried by now.

“Uh, hello!” She attempted sounding normal, even though seeing her again made her heart ache and seeing her like this made her feel like the smart choice was to jump from the window and run from the hills. “Maybe we should have this conversation inside.”

“Maybe we should.” Birgitta agreed, voice icy as she walked through the door that Victoria held open for her without as much as a glance in her direction.

“What the hell.” She wasted no time in saying as soon as they were alone in the lab. “Are you for real? Single handedly putting a halt to the only overfunded project in this university? Have you lost your mind?”

“Well, it wasn’t-” Standing by the door at a safe distance from the fuming ecologist, Victoria was going to say it hadn’t been ‘single handed’, but then realised that it would be better to keep poor Raven’s name out of this. “That big of a deal. Just a little messing with their soundboxes, you see.”

Birgitta squinted in a way that let her know she’d seen right through the slip up. “You know what I mean. It was too big of a risk. People could have gotten hurt!”

“No, they wouldn’t!” Victoria protested, hoping it was Birgitta’s anger speaking and that she didn’t actually think so low of her. I mean, it’s not like she would never hurt people, but hey! Rude! “I promise, I tested it countless times. It was projected to cause malfunction on the devices and then self destroy, but nothing more! My gadgets were the size of a fist, there wouldn’t be much harm done even if it hadn’t been inside the boxes.”

Lifting an eyebrow and looking like she was trying to scan the scientist for lies, Birgitta drew out a “Really?” while she looked around for remnants of that project. There were none. She’d made sure to do away with them all first thing in the morning - which meant she’d taken it all home, burned what could be burned, torn what could be torn, and thrown it all in a ditch in the middle of who the fuck knows where. She hoped Birgitta never found that part out. She might get mad about the littering.

“Yes, really.” Victoria lowered her gaze, feeling uncomfortable with the conversation. She supposed she deserved it, but she really liked it better when Birgitta thought she was only ‘kooky’ mad and not ‘dangerous’ mad. In some ways, it was good she had found out, though. At least maybe she’d see Victoria was not the person she thought she liked and her senseless rejection wouldn’t pain her.

And like she’d heard her thoughts, Birgitta touched that exact matter.

“Does this have anything to do with what you told me?” Victoria looked around the lab, anything but stare at Birgitta’s face as she came to all the right conclusions. “With us not keeping in touch, with you needing to do the right thing…?”

What was more disgraceful, she wondered. That she’d really given that piss poor excuse to someone she loved, or that her actions were so insane that the excuse had begun to make sense.

“It does.” She admitted with a sigh, tugging at the hem of her lab coat. “Birgitta… I don’t expect you to listen to me. I certainly don’t expect you to forgive me. But since it’s out, I have to let you know. I hated that I needed to tell you that. I was looking forward so much to getting to know you in a new way, have been for years, but… the morning after we talked, I realised that if I got caught, and we were dating, people would take you for the head of the operation. Everyone knows you rightfully hate that project, the connection would simply be too easy to make, and then I’d drag you down alongside me without you having done anything wrong!”

Victoria hugged her torso. Her voice had grown louder in her agitation, reverberating against the lab’s walls and machinery, and she noticed it and toned it down. She couldn’t see Birgitta’s face, staring at her feet as she was, but at least the woman was silent and letting her speak. She could only hope that didn’t mean she now feared her. Victoria didn’t think she could survive that.

“I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t take a chance on you taking the fall. So I decided that cutting us off before we even started would hurt less. And here we are. At least I get to tell you all of this.”

Taking the scientist completely by surprise, Birgitta scoffed.

“Maybe you should have let me make that choice, don’t you think?” She asked when Victoria snapped her gaze up to meet hers. Rubbing at the bridge of her nose, Birgitta sighed, muttering a ‘God, I can’t believe this’ under her breath. “Have you ever talked to any of the students who work there, Victoria?”

Caught off guard yet again, Victoria squinted, wondering where she was going with this. “No?”

“Well, I have. And let me tell you, they all hate it. You and I can have our ethical concerns about it, but those kids hate it with the kind of burning passion you can only feel when you spend too long around Ahlberg. Right now, they are all realising that all of their devices went down, at the same time, because of a piece no one can remember having put it there. And what do you think they will do?”

Victoria was about to answer ‘look for the culprit’, her stomach dropping, when Birgitta answered herself.

“They won’t do anything. In fact, I think your work is done forever now, because those kids will probably decide that sabotage is a great idea and try it every time a general test is upcoming. They’ll keep vandalising Ahlberg’s project and getting the money that they need, and honestly, good for them. No one will find out, Victoria, because the only people close enough to actually see how clearly set up this was could not care less.”

Relief would have flooded her. It definitely should at this news that, hooray, she was probably not going to jail! But Birgitta was deflating now, looking more exasperated (and just slightly amused), and something she’d said made her feel even more confused than she was relieved.

“‘Good for them’, really? I thought you were mad, shouldn’t you not be endorsing this?”

“What? Oh-“ Birgitta hummed, realising what this must look like from Victoria’s point of view. “Oh, no, I’m not mad about the sabotage. Ahlberg’s had it coming. What I’m mad about is you pushing me away because of it, and not even caring to explain!”

“I didn’t want to involve you in all of this!”

“Didn’t you, or didn’t you trust me to agree with you?”

The question gave Victoria pause, and she tapped her fingers against one another nervously.

“You may have a point.”

And could she be blamed, really? When the entire world agreed that left was the way to go, Birgitta would follow right if she thought that it was the kind, the thoughtful, the correct thing to do. Why should she expect her to agree to something her own student could barely get behind?

“Maybe.” Birgitta sighed. “Maybe that should have been a reason for you to rethink your plan, not to cut me off entirely.”

Not that it would have been a problem, Birgitta thought to herself, at worst I would have gotten you in contact with some students working there so you could plan it better.

Victoria at least had the sense to look properly chastened (it wouldn’t have been too surprising if she hadn’t), and Birgitta was feeling like she had run out of steam. Being angry was truly tiring, specially at someone she held so dear, and the little ‘you’re right’ that the scientist gently uttered pierced through the rest of her discontent.

It was fine. They were fine. Neither of them had done something horrible, nor had Victoria realised that she’d be miserable dating her or anything of the sort. It was just one of Victoria’s usual shenanigans, albeit admittedly bolder than she’d seen her try before. They were going to be alright.

“Were those all the reasons why you went back on our date, or is there anything else?” She asked, testing the waters. When Victoria shook her head, Birgitta lifted an eyebrow as well as the corners of her lips. “Well, then, is there anything you’d like to tell me?”

“Oh!” Victoria looked at her, blushing. “Yes. I’m sorry. Is there any chance you could forgive me?”

“There is, in fact.” She smiled. For the moment being, Birgitta thought it better to not tell her she’d practically already forgiven it. It would do no good to give her the impression she could get away so easily with that sort of thing. “And is there any chance you’d like to rethink your statement about not going out with me?”

Victoria smiled at her like she was the only sun she would ever really care to study.

And unbeknownst to them, Victoria’s cellphone laid on her desk, awaiting for the moment she’d pick it up and read the messages her student had sent her.

………

Surprising a grand total of zero people, it seemed like the way in which Erik Ahblerg had managed to get all of that funding for his project was… less than legal. According to the information Raven had shared with them (and he refused to say where he’d gotten that from, only that it was a bizarrely trustworthy source), the professor had been bribing members of the research directory and the board of directors to push his agenda forward. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise; aside from money spent on materials and employing the students, it wasn’t an awfully expensive project, and yet it received many more grants than it needed, and now they knew where that spare cash went: into Ahlberg’s and his collaborators’ pockets.

They’d had to look into it, of course. Going to the higher authorities and saying she had gossip on a coworker wasn’t exactly going to lead her anywhere useful. But what Victoria did do, alongside Birgitta and other professors who resented that misuse of the university’s money, was request a thorough investigation of the destination given to those grants. What they ended up with was a long and scandalous list of people who Ahlberg was working in concert with, all of whom were then signed up for longer investigations into the source of their money and their actions in regards to their professional life.

Victoria hadn’t been the smallest bit surprised to see the Lyman sisters’ name on that list. She’d taken great pleasure, in fact, in watching the news of their participation in the corruption spread around campus, feeling like she was Karma itself; the very night the list had first been divulged, she’d called Kaisa and as soon as her friend picked up she hit her with a joyful “Guess what, nerd, I got your revenge for you!”

She knew some part of Kaisa had had to be pleased. No one willingly stuck around Victoria for that long unless they were a little bit fucked up as well.

None of that completely solved Victoria’s underlying issue, however. Sure, Ahlberg’s project was discontinued, and the grants were redistributed around other projects on campus, but hers was still vastly underfunded. It bothered her, of course, to know how far she could go and not be able to do it. But it didn’t make her grieve as much as she once would. Because now, for the first time in years, Victoria had something other than her job to live for.

She had strolls through the campus. She had late night phone calls. She had trips to the botanical garden and to the museums in Trolberg. She had movie nights. She had gentle touches and kisses that made her believe that the world was good, after all.

So maybe she didn’t have it all; no one really did, however much they would like to pretend otherwise, did they? But she had enough to overflow the gap that she’d failed to fill during all these years trying to stuff numbers and research and projects into it.

Victoria had enough to be happy. And now that she knew what that was like, she was never going to let that go.

[thetavolution]

Because I'm obsessed, I thought about what would happen if a BG3 and The Bonneville Game crossover ever happened. I know what my Bonneville characters would be doing in BG3, but what would the companions be doing in The Bonneville Game?

The Bonneville Game takes place in the fictional small, isolated town of Bonneville, Pennsylvania. It's a horror comedy about three hapless podcasters who play a demon summoning game they found on the Internet. Afterward, all hell breaks loose.

Bonneville is important because it's where the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest.

Wyllyam "Wyll" Ravengard He's originally from Salisbury, England. He's fresh out of school and ready to see the world. He got his degree in International Relations from Durham University. His father is Mayor Ulder Ravengard of London and Ulder wants his son to follow in his footsteps. Wyll is a lot less confident in what his future should be.

Wyll arrives in Bonneville as part of his traveling the world. He just wants to figure out his life for himself. He ends up getting a job as a 911 dispatcher, which is how he finds out there's something rotten in the state of Pennsylvania. Over time, he'd eventually find himself working as a Nonprofit Program Coordinator for something like Human Rights Watch. Odds are, even if he settles down in Bonneville, he'd continue to travel in hopes of saving the world.

Due to his heroic nature, he decides to stay to help when he discovers demons are running wild. If he were in the Bonneville world, Minty would 100% fall in love with him. Do you know how ridiculously cute this ship would be?

Gale Dekarios He's originally from London, England and he's well educated. He'd end up teaching at the Community College of Bonneville as a favor to an old friend, but he'd fall in love with the town. He'd want the students to have a good education, especially since he'd see a lot of bright kids trapped in poverty. He'd be an Associate Professor in the English department and an accomplished author in his own right.

He'd have a lot of papers and articles published. He'd have a book or two under his name. He studied at Cambridge and, in the past, he taught at Oxford and Glasgow University. After he meets Minty, Laura, and Ingrid, he becomes a valuable researcher to the team. Any time they don't know the history or lore of something, he's there to assist.

He did have an affair with a professor when he was a university student. (This is in lieu of him having a goddess as a lover.) It did mess him up for a while. If he existed in this universe, I'd bring in Tessa as his wife. He'd already be married by the time he's introduced to the story. He married an American which is why he was in the States to begin with.

Karlach Cliffgate She'd be connected to Bex's past, but I can't say how just yet. She'd come to Bonneville when Bex helps get her a job. She's from Chilham, Kent, a small village, which is about 18 minutes from Canterbury. She was an only child to Phillip "Pluck" and Caerlack Cliffgate, who have passed. She'd be down to help out the leads when shit hits the fan.

She'd eventually go back to school to get an Associate Degree in Cyber Security with Gale's help. He's the one that helps her get her paperwork in order and guides her in her coursework.

In this universe, instead of a mechanical heart, she has PoTS (Postural tachycardia syndrome). Karlach becomes a huge fan of both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Flyers. She also loves the England woman's national football team, the Lionesses, and the England women's national rugby union team, the Red Roses.

Lae'zel Klier Lae'zel grew up in Southport, England, but her parents are German immigrants. Lae'zel is an only child and her parents have high expectations for her. It's difficult for her to live up to them and she constantly pushes herself past her limits. She also was never taught how to properly process emotions. I would definitely love a universe where she and Laura fall in love. (It'd be either Lae'zel and Laura or Karlach and Laura.)

Due to pressure from her parents, she joined the Royal Air Force and she would eventually be stationed at the Edwards Air Force Base in Lancaster, California. She was a RAF Regiment Officer and she very much believed in everything she was doing.

She planned on staying for her entire career in the RAF, but things would change after coming to Bonneville. She'd be invited while on leave by a fellow officer and end up in the thick of things. (Meaning, a demon was released in the town by the time she got there.) She'd come back after her service ended to stay and figure out a new life there. She'd also have her beliefs challenged and realize she doesn't want the future her parents picked for her. It may seem out of left field, but she'd eventually open her own plant nursery, Crèche Klier.

I didn't know how to approach a surname for her, so I found a name that was kind of like K'lirr. I'm very proud of that ridiculous plant nursery name.

Shadowheart Sharman (Real Name: Jenevelle Hallowleaf) Shadowheart grew up in London. What she doesn't know is that she was kidnapped from her home and raised by her kidnappers. This girl is Lifetime movie material.

When she was 15, her "parents" moved the family to Bonneville to avoid detection. They were nervous Shadowheart's real parents would find them if they stayed in the UK. They felt safer in Bonneville because it's a small, relatively unknown town.

You'd think kidnappers trying to keep a low profile would name her anything but Shadowheart and yet.... She was teased for it growing up, but she's become fond of it over time. Her "parents" were incredibly abusive to her, but they would do it in the name of religion.

Her world is turned upside down when she discovers her "parents" actually kidnapped her. She deconstructs everything she's ever learned over time and she also comes out as bi. She would eventually become a veterinary technician and settle down with a partner. (If your Tav would be a perfect fit for her in this world, I'd love to know!)

Her kidnappers' surname is a play on Shar's name.

Astarion Ancunín He's originally from a well-to-do family in London. He was sheltered growing up and by 17, he planned to attend law school. He wanted to focus on practicing criminal law. He was in his first year of university when he met an older man named Cazador. Astarion would become entangled in an abusive relationship with him. His parents would try to pull him out of it, but it only seemed to push Astarion closer to Cazador.

Astarion dropped out of school and cut off contact from his family and friends. He was abused for years by Cazador and felt helpless to do anything about it. Cazador has some secrets he holds over Astarion's head to "keep him in line."

Cazador would be the reason they come to Bonneville. He would hope he could take advantage of the fact the veil between the living and dead is at its thinnest in Bonneville. This would lead to Astarion finally finding himself and breaking free of Cazador's control. They would still have to kill Cazador, especially since he'd become a big bad.

Once he was on his own, Astarion would get back into law as a legal receptionist before studying to be a paralegal. He's not totally confident he wants to be a lawyer anymore, but he may get back into it one day. He just wants to focus on getting better first.

Bex would fall for this guy.

Halsin Silverbough He's from Shaftesbury, UK. He's a Pediatrician in this universe and very happy with his job. Bonneville has always had just one pediatrician in town. When the previous one was about to retire, he reached out to Halsin to take his place. Halsin agreed to be a temporary stand-in until they found someone else. I think we all know how the whole "temporary" thing went. Halsin now lives in Bonneville permanently.

Everyone knows and loves him. He still whittles and reads in his off-time. He's known for his love of honey and ducks. He's also the guy everyone approaches if they need an extra set of hands on a project or help on the farm. He's down to earth and well-adjusted.

He refuses to drive. He bikes or takes public transport everywhere. No one knows how he does it. He lives right next door to his office which helps immensely. Naturally, he'd want to help our heroes once he finds out a demon has been released in Bonneville. He might even feel responsible for one of the local legends terrorizing the town later on down the line.

Romance wise, I was torn between Ingrid or having be poly with Bex and Astarion. Or maybe it's a poly situation with all four of them.

Jaheira Harper Jaheira is from Warsaw, Poland. She's a widow and her late husband was Khalid Harper. She's traveled all over the world as a foreign aid worker. She only comes to Bonneville when her adopted daughter, Rion, moves there with her partner. When Jaheira finds out something sinister is happening in Bonneville, she can't bring herself to leave. At least, not until everything is dealt with.

Minsc Kamenev and Boo He's originally from Sviyazhsk, Russia. He once competed in the Olympics for archery and he now is an archery instructor in Bonneville. No one knows how he got to Bonneville or why he even came, but everyone loves him. He also has a little pet hamster named Boo who seems to be unusually smart for a rodent. Boo may even have some kind of tie to the veil.

If my research is correct, his surname alludes to "stone." I picked it as a nod to the fact Minsc is known as "the Stone Lord."

Minthara Baenre Minthara is a Major in the British Armed Forces and hails from Manchester, England. She grew up in a wealthy military family. They were dysfunctional as Hell. Minthara dislikes her parents and her siblings. She visits home every holiday season, but only to terrorize her family. She'd be trying to figure out what is going on in Bonneville and how to use it to her advantage.

Enver Gortash I don't have much for him yet. (I also have to be mindful of spoilers, too.) He'd arrive in Bonneville after hearing about the veil. I do like the idea of him being a low level politician from Liverpool who is slowly climbing up the ranks. He hopes Bonneville will be the key to getting the power he craves.

Tessa Chastain Dekarios I'd bring over my Tav, Tessa as Gale's wife. She might get an original story of her own someday, but right now she only exists as a BG3 Tav. She'd be an author with a troubled past. Her father is a known criminal and Tessa was a troubled teen. She turned things around in her 20s and would go on to publish a book at 25.

Gale would be a fan of her work. They would meet at a book signing and the rest would be history. He wouldn't go in with the intent to "woo" her. In fact, Tessa would make the first move. Things would just fall into place for them. Tessa would be an American who hails from Philadelphia.

[transdaughterofthesun]

To Pokeblr, I had an idea for a large city in a pokemon ttrpg and just decided to flesh it out. Here are some of the citizens.

Alex, NB they/them, founder of the city. Generally likes people but can be a bit grouchy.

David, man he/him, owner of the local clock tower. Oscar the absolute grouch. Will chew people out for the slightest inconvenience but means nothing by it.

Paige, woman she/her, owner of the train system in the city. Can usually find her riding her trains or heading off to go hiking. Loves exploring.

Gale, NB they/them, rich benefactor of aspiring hex girls and owner of the local hex tower. Loves the idea of people communicating with ghost pokemon and wants to help people realize they aren't as scary as they might seem. Nobody knows how they got rich.

Danielle, woman she/her/they/them, operates and runs the day to day of the hex tower. Can be quite scary at first as they are a little intense, but getting to know them is always a treat. Usually puts up decorations in the hex tower that can scare even the most hardened folk.

Celeste, woman she/her, runs the local church and homeless shelter. Just a good person looking to do her best. Only opened a church to let those who have nowhere else to go stay the night. Since it's large and recognizable, let's most people see it from afar and find their way there. Not religious.

Lila, woman she/her, local thief. Good natured and definitely encourages people to break the rules when they are in the way, most of the younger folk don't mind her. Only takes from those with extravagance to spare.

Alli, woman she/her, clock tower operator. Runs the day to day of the clock tower while David goes to be a grouch elsewhere. Usually stressed but never let's others see. Very sarcastic.

Ulysses, man he/him, dean of the local university. Hosts professor conventions every year at the university, would host more to encourage students to learn but was told that might make less people show up due to burnout.

Melly, woman they/them, in charge of mental health services. Always has a smile on their face and encourages people to talk out their feelings, even if it might hurt. Always willing to listen.

Azrael, woman she/her, head coach and trainer at local arena. Always pushes people to train harder then they have before, to aim for their goals and shoot beyond them. Not a lot of people talk to her as sometimes she is a bit much.

Brock, man xe/xem, traveling geologist. Usually pretty stoic and only stops by town every once in a while. Is said to have the largest rock collection in the world, but no one can verify that.

Gary, man he/him, seismotologist. Lazy and usually pretty slow, but nobody else can tell you the lay of the land better than him. Has a side hobby of map making for both the current year, and what the world might look like in the future.

Jack, man he/him, climatologist. Always at the forefront of climate research, reading papers from other scientists, and constantly doing tests with ice pokemon. Always takes good care of them. Wants to ensure that the artic never disappears.

Henry, NB they/them, blacksmith. Always working at the forge ensuring that builders have enough metal materials to go around. Makes too much half the time so they often ship materials too different towns.

Thats all for now, but it's by no means the end. If I had to guess this is maybe ten percent of the towns residents. And please do share if you see the pattern/theme. I assure you there is one here, though I'm not trying to make it too obvious.

[the-videodame]

so for yvette, what does she do after the absolute crisis and what's the situation with gale?

ooOOHH this is a good question cause it can have multiple answers LMAO

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Let's assume this is the branch of her possible endings where she's w/ Gale only, rather than other AUs where Zevlor is included (or where she joins Raphael)

[[spoilers for Gale's possible endings, just for anyone who is reading and doesn't want to be spoiled LMAO]]

Ending 1: Adventurer [the most likely canon ending]

This one is pretty self explanatory, but her and Gale continue to adventure together around Toril. I honestly don't see Yv'ette settling down just yet, as she's still in her prime and is itching to be productive and active. Not to mention she still has that pesky curse on her that she needs to break - and what better person to help her out than the child of magic himself, Gale Dekarios?

The two likely join back up with her pirate crew (perhaps with a few friends from their quests?) and set sail! After a few more years adventuring, partying, and hopefully fixing her curse, then the two likely settle down in Waterdeep and maybe have a kid, and Gale of course becomes a professor at Blackstaff, with the occasional guest visit from Yv'ette and their kid.

I'm debating on if I want them to get married before or after her curse is broken, cause honestly the idea of Hyde - her grandfather and her mothers patron devil, the one who placed the curse on her in the first place - crashing the wedding and stating how he's offended that he, her grandfather, was not invited? Oohohohoggoh I'm such a sucker for "other worldly villain crashes a gathering of sorts to remind the protags of their impending demise" UGH

Ending 2: Straight to Waterdeep

Basically the two decide not to adventure and instead settle down right away in Gale's tower (after Yv'ette informs her crew that shes safe, but won't be returning ofc). While Gale takes on his role as professor, Yv'ette likely has to find a hobby, or attempt to get back into the theatre career.

I haven't thought too much on this one, likely because it's def not in Yv'ette's nature to just sit around the house all day as a housewife LMAO - but also because there's still the issue of her curse, which is a very very pressing matter to her. Maybe she spends that free time researching and planning on how to break it. Maybe she and Gale eventually do retrieve the Crown of Karsus from the river and attempt to use it to free her / kill Hyde? Maybe Yv'ette and her brother Vekyll team up to fight him? Maybe Eilistrae finally hears her pleas and helps her out? Who knows! (not me)

Ending 3: Divinity

So I learned that Ascending with Gale is actually a possibility and not just a "fix it" fanon ending like I thought it was, so OF COURSE I can't resist thinking up an ending where she gets to be divine with Gale.

I think the act of Ascending itself would likely sever the curse she has - either that or the magic both she and Gale will have will be enough to cure it. Thus, I like to think the marks from her curse become either a faded scar-like color, OR they turn silver-ish purple to reflect her storm sorcery heritage (which is why i hope people dont think im copying god Gale's design with his lightning markings being literally on the same side of his face LMAO...)

As for what she'd represent or what her title would be, that's the biggest issue because there's ALWAYS something in lore that already has a deity for it, and theres no like... easy cheat sheet with all the gods and what their titles are and I really don't wanna scour the wiki of EVERY god so heres the big things she'd likely represent:

Storms (specifically lightning)

Sea

Theatre

Burdens

Jealousy/Envy (though this i lean more into if she sides w/ Raphael)

Those who are ostracized (tbh I think it would be pretty sick if tieflings had a "good" deity to worship specifically for themselves)

Acceptance

Persistence / Determination / Victory

I really really wanna associate her with storms cause I can already picture her design having her hair morph or move into something more cloud-like, or becoming iridescent GUH

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theres also the "gale ascends w/o her" or "gale chooses mystra over her" angst type endings but yknow 😇

[meili-sheep]

Hey, Look! Original Characters!

It's the main cast for something I've been working on for a bit. And While I keep working on it I figured I give a small introduction

First is the main Protagonist.

His name is Landon. A young man who can use magic and work under a famous scientist, Dr. Arnold Deldago, who was recently murdered. Landon is the main suspect in the crime as he's a low-classed (also called a green band) magic user who appears to only be able to change the appearance of his stuffed toy Rolland Or Rollo. But that doesn't stop Landon from being generally very cheerful and always doing his best to help people. He's even more willing to help if it helps him pursue his personal goal of finding a curse to a magic-related sickness. Which has to lead him to become employed under the secondary protagonist.

Cyan Clemments. An up-and-coming star researcher at only 19. She's from a rich and famous family and has the brains and resources to get anything she wants. She is looking toward discovering the origin of magic which Dr. Delgado's expedition would have helped. And with Delgado's Death, Cyan has picked up the expedition and has kept everything on track, even taking on Landon, who knows Delgado's (In her opinion incorrect) studies as well as blackmailing the only airship captain who has made it to a mysterious island and back.

Sir Gale Aris, a retired airship captain who worked alongside Deldago in a government office, called the Court. Delgado had tried to pull Gale out of retirement for his expedition, but he refused up until Cyan blackmailed him with Information on Gale's missing son and daughter-in-law. Gale's an old jaded asshole, but in dealing with the open-mind yet stubborn and brash Cyan, he slowly starts to realize the mistake he made that caused his son to cut contact. He's married to Sherrie Aris, a famous airship engineer. Who designed his airship, Lady of the Mists, and under Cyan's pay built Lady of the Mists II, the airship the expedition takes.

Now Abel Brightman is a high-class magician (gold band) With the ability to control and create fire. He is one of the few gold band magicians and is allowed to practice magic freely. He was hired by Delgado and his partner Professor Braxton Griffith to be magical support on the expedition. While still under Griffith's pay, he's more responsive to Cyan's ideas and orders. He's also very sympathetic to Landon, quickly takes him under his wing, quick to Landon's defense, and happy to have him on the trip. No one is quite sure, though, exactly who Abel is or where he came from.

Asher Alinac, a clerk sent by the court to help manage the resource of the expedition. Gale has begrudgingly taken him on as his crew. He's not actually that good of a clerk, and Landon, who is surprisingly good at numbers, helps out a lot. He is a good-spirited and well-meaning young man but a little thick and surprisingly strong. One of the few people who doesn't mind and actually welcomes Landon on board.