#gortash x aun

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I think the High Primistress likes her gift.

(details under cut)

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my monster, come to find me

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Aun (Durge) and Enver on a rooftop somewhere in Lower City, 1477 D.R.

I knew that it was cruel to be so optimistic, but, in my solitude, I couldn't resist the urge and spent entire days basking in idiotic fantasies, sometimes verging on prayer. (from Heaven by Mieko Kawakami)

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this is the most beautiful hand I have ever drawn but of course my dumbass got carried away and completely forgot about gort's gauntlet & jewelry.... curse him and his iconic accessories 😭

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Rules: make your ships in this adorable picrew, then give me their song. Tag some friends to share too!

Thank you for tagging me @dolceaspidenera and @justabiteofspite <3 Now to be completely honest I was quietly playing around with this picrew a few days ago so I already have the images ready to share 😂

I wouldn't be me if I didn't make a tag game way longer than it needs to be, especially by adding lyrics no one asked for 😌 Brace yourself because I'm feeling chatty tonight ~

1st and 2nd. Astarion & tav!Aune / Astarion & durge!Aune

believe it or not I did not mirror them on purpose, so it's fun it came out that way! also, let me tell you that it was a monumental task to pick ONE song each but I did it!!!

I'm guessing The Wisp Sings might be a common ship song? but it's too perfect for them idc!! I don't think I've properly talked about this, but Aune has Living Weapon Trauma™ as a result of 1) being born of a ritual intended to produce a Living Weapon, and 2) being a Sword-Dancer who is lost and shapes her grief into a weapon of rage in order to cope with Too Big Feelings™. Much of Astarion and Aune's relationship revolves around reconciling what other people have forced them to be vs. flailing in the wild with all their freedom (being messy, reconnecting with their respective stolen childhood/time/mortality, being self-sacrificing vs self-serving, etc.). ALSO much of their tender moments revolve around Aune's bardic aspects so [how I sing you like a song] is extra fitting.

Not much to say on Landscape (Demo) besides the fact that it blew my mind when I listened to it with Durge on the brain. IT'S PERFECT

Astarion x tav!Aune: The Wisp Sings by Winter Aid And how they hold you like a gun / And how I sing you like a song / I heard when I was young / Buried for a night like this Astarion x durge!Aune: Landscape (Demo) by Florence + The Machine She wants the silence, but fears the solitude / She wants to be alone and together with you /// Because it's burning through the bloodline / It's cutting down the family tree / Growing in the landscape, darling, in between you and me

3rd and 4th. Imyrr x tav!Aune / Gortash x embrace!Aun

aka the tragic ships! I haven't done a proper introduction of Imyrr (they/them); they are a fellow Eilistraeean cleric who Aune ended up falling in love with, despite being severely put off by everything about them at first. Imyrr is the reason why Aune was able to feel a bit more secure/confident in her place amongst the Church. Conversely, when Imyrr suffers a violent & tragic death, they are also the reason Aune feels immediately adrift and unmoored. Imyrr is essentially the ghost that haunts Aune's narrative.

The Woods is a song that I had chosen for Gortash and Aun a long time ago, even back when I wasn't sure about the specifics of their story. Even now, it isn't a perfect fit. The narrator in the song is a young innocent boy; though Gortash is young when he first meets Aun, he certainly isn't innocent (and neither is she). But the reason it sticks with me is because the song speaks about a pair of children/friends/lovers who engage in some dark, esoteric ritual/play together [You and I were in the mud, paint ourselves with spider's blood], and come out the other side changed [Two went in and one came home, We didn't go in there alone]. There's a bit at the end that says [The nights are lovely, dark and deep, But I'll appear when you're asleep, You'll wake up with a sudden hurt, Mouth and nose all full of dirt] which seems very fitting for Durgetash; your Person is someone you wholeheartedly trust and distrust. The promise of death is ever present in this relationship.

Imyrr x tav!Aune: Absence by Rio Romeo If I just vanished / Do you think you'd manage / Or would you disappear right beside me? / Do you think you're ready / When I go unsteady? / Lover, please prepare for my absence Gortash x embrace!Aun: The Woods by San Fermin Your eyes were lovely, dark and dense / Pulling legs off salamanders / A little creature you unspun / The skin and bones and brains and blood

5th and 6th. Gale x Lethe / Alistair x Eleneva

Is it any surprise First Time is on the Gale x Lethe playlist considering Hozier name dropped Lethe in it [And the first time that you kissed me, I drank dry the River Lethe]? The mythological river plays a role in Lethe's backstory so I was very excited about it, obviously. The fact that the start of the first verse [Remember once I told you about, How before I heard it from your mouth, My name would always hit my ears as such an awful sound?] is a great reflection of Gale's struggle with accepting himself as Gale Dekarios vs. trying to embody the archetype of the legendary Chosen of Mystra and powerful Archmage, Gale of Waterdeep.

BAM surprise Dragon Age ship because they are on my mind. I had to include Be because DUDE WTF Hozier was absolutely definitely FOR SURE writing about Alistair Dragon Age and his rose growing in a Blighted land. Anyway right at the finish line I'm failing my one-song-per-ship rule because I also wanted to mention Daylily by Movements. My Alistair x Eleneva playlist is filled with cute poppy songs because I think it's fitting for such a young couple 😭 Plus, Daylily's pre-chorus goes [Outside for the first time in a long time, You said you can't remember what its like, To feel more than cold on the inside, But the sunrise will come again] which is THE quintessential ex-Kinloch Hold mage experience, isn't it.

Gale x Lethe: First Time by Hozier Some part of me must have died / The first time that you called me "baby" / And some part of me came alive / The first time that you called me "baby" Alistair x Eleneva: Be by Hozier Or be like the rose that you hold in your hand / That will grow bold in a barren and desolate land

YOU MADE IT TO THE END YAAAAY !!! thank you for indulging me <3

tagging @dragon--sage @thehightiefling @birb--birb

@witch-from-a-block-of-flats @bhaalsdeepbat @anderstrevelyan

would love to see y'all do this (if you haven't already/if you want, of course)! 🥰

[spiritsong]

the fear in my heart that i misclicked the 'unfollow' button because i glanced at my second monitor

I WANTYED TO SEND AN ASK NOT UNFOLLOW 😭

ahem anyways i jusst wanted to ask what you were working on i'm hungie 👀

hahahaha THE HORRORRR

thank you so much for asking this! it's always nice to talk about what's in progress because a lot of the time those things end up never seeing the light of day 👁️👄👁️

art: I'm working on an astarion thing that was supposed to be quick and then I got stuck so I moved onto writing oops! hopefully I can figure it out because it's a really juicy concept 👀 I want to say more but I shan't

after that I'm either gonna do a big act 2 thing of the party taking a short rest (aune, astarion, lae'zel, and minthara) and it's gonna be super duper cute because they'll all be sleeping except minthara who is begrudgingly keeping watch

ORRRR (and this is highly likely considering where my brain is at) I'll do a durgetash thing lmao. a ~clandestine meeting~ sort of thing with two panels - the first will be a typical meeting between the three chosen, discussing plans and such, and the second will be aune and gortash pawing each other in some dark corner right after the meeting *evil laugh*

writing: I'm supposed to be finishing a gale x lethe one-off that's 97% done but instead I've been working on. you guessed it. durgetash

jumping between 1) a short fic about pre-tadpole durgetash dynamics, and 2) a multichapter thing of durgetash first meeting each other as teenagers. a very cheesy (but also dark?) story about these two assholes getting up to no good one summer, then basically disappearing as they both go off to do their own things (mostly unaware of who the other person is); then meeting again a few years later during the "time go meet the leader of the rival cult and see if we can broker a tenuous alliance" and they're both like WTF IT'S YOU

misc: recently I've been finalizing a lot of details on various OCs and I figured it would probably be a good idea to make an OC page or something if I'm going be talking about them online. Otherwise it's WAAAY too confusing because they are growing in number 😂 but that is a very daunting task so instead I've just been going in the game to take pretty pictures lmao

(I don't keep tav!aune's saves in my game files so I had to magic mirror her from durge!aune. I was freaking out about being able to see her with freecam lol! because she's my first playthrough I didn't use mods so now my baby is looks more like herself 😭)