#home stretch!

[blackjackkent]

OK, we left off with Rakha assisting Minsc in picking a fight with Roah Moonglow's Zhentarim on behalf of the Guild.

This is a very big and fairly complex fight, although we're playing on easy so it didn't end up being particularly challenging. Frankly, we probably could have just sat by and watched, because Astele is fucking terrifying with her throwing knives and was regularly one-shotting three people a turn.

Satisfyingly, the end of the fight ended up being a gang-up by all ten or twelve guild folks plus us, all on that one guy who was talking about going out and shivving Harpers. I bet Jaheira was satisfied. We only lost one Guild person too.

Lae'zel retrieved the gold we're supposed to return to Rakath, and it's time to go receive our thanks for helping Nine-Fingers out.

She's... predictably curt about the whole business.

"Kind of you to take the Zhentarim down first," she says coolly as Rakha approaches. "But that doesn't make us friends."

Her eyes are still wide with the adrenaline of the battle, Zhent blood still damp on her cheeks. She flicks her eyes past Rakha to the hulking Rashemaar behind her, and then spreads her arms in a wide, challenging stance.

"Come on, then, Stone Lord," she snaps bitterly. "If you mean to take my chair, you'll get no better chance than this."

Minsc, also still high on the just-finished fight, glares back at her with equal intensity. "Minsc has no interest in your furniture, Nine-Fingers," he snarls gravely. "Only in the wicked rump that fills it!"

Nine-Fingers blinks, her ferocity curtailed abruptly into bewilderment. "What?" she asks, bemused.

"You have been a stone in this city's boot for too long!" Minsc goes on, lifting one hand to emphasize his point, oblivious to his listener's confusion. "And it will be no Stone Lord who reaches 'twixt Balduran's sticky toes to dislodge you! It will be *Minsc*!"

Nine-Fingers gapes at him for a moment, then glances at Rakha with a raised eyebrow. "I haven't got the slightest idea what he's trying to say," she says dryly.

"Proof that he is back to normal, no?" Jaheira murmurs.

Rakha says nothing for a moment. There are multiple different threads of meaning in this conversation and she is doing her best to parse them out and understand.

Minsc and Nine-Fingers are both threatening each other with a fight, but she isn't sure either of them really wants it. Nine-Fingers is angry and defensive, her blood up from the threat to her people. And Minsc...

She knows what Minsc is feeling, because she has felt it herself. Roah's words sank deep into him, the reminder that he was corrupted and his body used for evil deeds that went against everything he stands for. He wants to lash out, wants to kill with purpose to remind himself that that is what he does, that his actions are for the right reasons. And he sees Nine-Fingers, leader of the city's underworld, as an acceptable target.

All else being equal, Rakha would probably not have stood in the way; she feels no particular attachment to Nine-Fingers and trusts Minsc more than herself. But Nine-Fingers is Jaheira's friend, too, or at least... Jaheira has history with her, and out of the corner of her eye, Rakha can see the older woman's tension, the readiness to pounce into the middle of the oncoming fray.

"Minsc, calm down," Rakha says after a short pause. "The battle is over."

Nine-Fingers raises an eyebrow, and her weight settles back a little off the balls of her feet. "So the hound answers to his name again, does he? And you didn't have to put him down," she says thoughtfully.

Rakha stiffens, one fist clenching at her side, hearing this as yet another insult to her friend like those that Roah was tossing about. But Nine-Fingers is still talking, tilting her head to look at Minsc with an appraising sort of expression.

"Good," she goes on after a moment. "I'd rather you die as Minsc the mad Rashemaar." Her lips twitch ruefully. "It's silly, but... d'you know, you were something of a hero of mine, when I was young?"

Minsc narrows his eyes suspiciously. "Even now your tongue twists the truth," he growls. "When you were young and ten-fingered sill, Minsc and Boo were stone - enstatuated on a city square!"

"Aye, I remember the spot," Nine-Fingers says calmly. "By a garden on the Wide. A soft thicket near the market, with ample pockets to pick. Celestia itself, to a street rat looking for shelter."

Her expression is unusually serious, studying Minsc's face, though Rakha can see her hand still hovering by the dagger on her belt, ready for any further threat. "You might not have been wrestling monsters, but... you kept the wind and the rain off. Heroic enough for me."

(A/N: Fun fact, this line was the inspiration for the opening section of the first chapter of Fault Lines. :D )

Minsc shifts uncomfortably. There's a strange play of emotion across his face, the righteous anger wrestling with something softer - pity, regret, dismay. "Bah," he mutters. "You try to dampen Boo's eyes. Do not think you will be spared his teeth!" He squares his shoulders and sets his jaw. "Evil is evil - even if it once was innocent."

Nine-Fingers barks a laugh. "Oh, I'm no innocent," she quips dryly. "But evil?" She shrugs. "You tell me. With the Fist, the watch, and the Council itself all licking the Absolute's boots, who's the only one left standing to protect Baldur's Gate?"

Jaheira stirs, taking a step forward into the range of Minsc's peripheral vision. "She's right, Minsc," she says quietly. "She's been an ally down through the years." Her eyes flick to Nine-Fingers and hold her gaze for a moment. "A friend, even."

Nine-Fingers grimaces, looks away, her hand resting onto the dagger's hilt.

(A/N: This meaningful and angst-filled glance brought to you by the three chapters of Fault Lines I have not yet written.)

"A friend?" Minsc's eyes widen with more bewilderment now than anger. "Jaheira, Boo cannot believe his ears! Has the city fallen so far in our absence? Are there no heroes left?"

"Heroes come and go," Nine-Fingers says flatly. "But the Guild has always been here - protecting the city." Her head cocks and her eyes narrow, and then she adds pointedly, "Until the Stone Lord came to break us."

Minsc flinches away from the words as if they were a slap.

It could come to blows here, Rakha thinks wearily. Minsc wishes to see the world in black and white, good and evil, and then strike a blow against the evil to prove that he is good.

But it is not that simple. Rakha knows that better than anyone. Evil blood flowed in her veins, and yet Minsc greeted her with kindness because of the good she could yet do anyway.

Nine-Fingers... Rakha doesn't know much about her, but she suspects they are more alike than not. As Rakha kills with purpose, so Nine-Fingers does the work of the Guild in service of the city - a city Minsc also wishes to protect.

[PERSUASION] "She's right," she mutters. "The Guild will fight for the city. We just have to let them."

(A/N: Hooray for Rakha's high CHA score because the dialogue if you fail the speech checks here - which leads to combat with the Guild - is devastating.)

For a moment Minsc's jaw works as he thinks, as Rakha's words work on him. Then he scowls, his head dropping, his eyes turning away, as the weight of all the evil he himself was forced to do breaks over him abruptly.

"I am shamed," he whispers. "Nydeshka, unworthy to fight alongside my friends! Boo... what am I to do?"

Nine-Fingers relaxes fractionally, studying him with narrowed eyes. Then she speaks, as if coming to a decision. "I can't speak for your rodent, but I know something of debts. If you reckon you've got one to repay... well, we could always work together."

Minsc stiffens. "With you?" he says indignantly. "Minsc has no lust for gold, that he would shake grandmothers by their ankles, or set Boo nibbling at their purse strings."

"I'm not talking about that," says Nine-Fingers dryly. "We've both got bigger enemies than one another. The City's enemies."

She shifts her weight, cocking her head to one side. "And... Tyr's honest truth, you gave my Guild the wake-up call it needed. We've grown complacent. Lazy. Too sure of our standing. We never would've needed the Zhent if we'd had a fighting force of our own - swords for the city, when the watch and Fist fail us."

Minsc blinks, clearly struggling to follow her meaning, but then his eyes brighten excitedly. "Like a berserker lodge of my homeland!" he says with eager enthusiasm. "No army or militia serving the local lords - but heroes, working for the common good!"

Nine-Fingers, thrown, raises an eyebrow. "Heroes," she says cautiously. "Sure."

"Very well!" Minsc says brightly. "Minsc and Boo accept!"

Whatever answer Nine-Fingers was expecting, it clearly wasn't that. "I'm sorry. You-- what?"

"Boo and I will be your berserker lodge!" Minsc proclaims. His whole attitude has changed, having this new purpose (at least as he interprets it) placed before him. "Taking the ugly ways of your Guild and beating them into a more virtuous shape!"

Nine-Fingers has gone from coolly confident to mildly alarmed, her eyebrows climbing up near her hairline. "That's... not even slightly what I was saying," she says firmly. "I wasn't asking--"

Immediately Minsc's face falls again and he scuffs his boot against the floor. "You are right," he mutters. "I have proven myself unworthy. I cannot serve the city if I was so easily turned against it." He casts a helpless glance at Rakha. "If I do not know my own mind... perhaps I no longer know what is good..."

Rakha has been struggling to follow the rapid turns of this conversation and at this point is not sure of anything except that it seems to be slipping out of everyone's hands. Nine-Fingers (if Rakha understands correctly) wishes to use Minsc as a battering ram against the Guild's enemies, while Minsc wishes to attack corruption within the Guild itself. Both are amenable to working together, but on different terms. And Minsc has sincere doubts as to his own moral compass, having once been corrupted by the Absolute.

Rakha thinks this over. As she sees it, her main concern here is not the matter of the Guild; that is beyond her immediate interests. But she *is* concerned about Minsc and his own confidence, when he has been responsible for bolstering her own.

In the low moments when she discussed the darkness in her own blood with him, he suggested the need of a furry companion to provide insight and guidance. She is not sure she truly believes him - Ash has not provided her any guidance that she has managed to understand, and she is not entirely clear on whether Boo actually speaks or if Minsc merely imagines it. But regardless, Minsc believes the guidance he conjures out of Boo's mouth where he may not believe his own mind at present.

"Simple, then," she says gravely. "Trust that Boo will guide you both."

"Boo?" Minsc says, thoughtfully.

"Boo?" Nine-Fingers says, even more alarmed.

Minsc laughs, delighted - and visibly relieved. "Boo! Kingpin Boo! My friend, your wisdom is vast and unknowable as the Rashemi High Country." He pulls the hamster from his pocket, raises him to eye level. "What say you, Boo? When the Absolute is slain, shall we join Nine-Fingers Keene and show her the ways of goodness?"

Jaheira's tension has been slowly easing over the course of this conversation, and now she laughs softly. "You did say he was your hero, Astele. Maybe you'll learn something."

Nine-Fingers groans. "Can't we just go back to killing one another instead?"

She sighs, rubs a hand down her face. "All right. Fine. Let's leave this particular fight for when the actual war is won, shall we?" She glances at Rakha with a curt nod. "With the Stone Lord off my back, I'll be able to bring my people out of hiding. Cobble together a force so we're ready when you call on us."

She squints, then smiles wryly. "You have my thanks. Though I'm still not actually sure you haven't made my life that little bit harder."

[prince-liest]

Dear diary (dear 4-digits' worth of followers I have on this blog, lol),

AhhhHHHH. I'm gonna find out on Monday if I matched into residency. If "yes," then the actual Match Day when we found out where we're going is on Friday, but if "no" then we go through something called SOAP which is basically a 3 day rapid-fire residency match where you try to get a spot in one of the residencies that didn't fill up their spots, either.

It's like Schrodinger's success. I'm simultaneously like, "I'm reasonably confident that I might get my top choice!" and "WHAT IF I DON'T MATCH AT ALL?!"

I'm applying Family Medicine and my top choice program's interviewers seemed really excited about me even before meeting me based on my CV and personal statement, but I also have a very specific red flag on my application so I'm just like. What Is Real. (Every single one of my friends that is matching this year is in the same exact feelings boat, hahaha.)

Anyway, fingers crossed!!

(Ugh, I really wanna get into my top choice. They have a gender-affirming healthcare clinic and their trans health education is actually built into their curriculum, unlike everywhere else I interviewed, where it ranges from "elective" (sometimes) or "if you can find it somewhere else, you can do an away rotation there" (more commonly). Also they have HRT-related endo opportunities not often available to FM residents. Also it's a nice place to live.)

[morrithal]

Does anyone care about goth girl? Clap if you care about goth girl

[gilligould]

SEMIFINALS TOMORROW! CHAMPIONSHIPS ON THURSDAY! WINNERS OF EACH BRACKET FACE OFF ON FRIDAY!!!

[roguepen]

Future One for Sorrow Hiatus

I may take a hiatus around chapter 78 - but there would be a full month of weekly posting beforehand (through August). I intend to do some travelling in August and that is an excellent place to take a breather and get some future chapter content drafted/ work on the one-shots from the poll.

Might take a trip to London and the Highlands - I would love to see a show, tour the city, see some museums. Also I need to see some of the northern country now that my grass allergies are under control.

Also- final outlines are done and we are officially hitting 100 chapters including an epilogue!

[igaryna]

50 days until i go to the us open 🫡🫡🫡

[hoiist]

[starcurtain]

Teyvat's "Most Down Bad" Award Goes to Alhaitham for a Second Year Running

Seeing everyone making fun of Alhaitham for his "stalkerish" tendencies in this event is funny, because I feel like a lot of people missed that "Be literally everywhere Kaveh is" has been Alhaitham's MO from the day Kaveh appeared in the game.

From only grabbing his house keys after Kaveh returned from the desert (he couldn't have had both sets of keys at the end of the Archon Quest unless he went home and got Kaveh's copy) to ditching conversations to get back to his house only after Kaveh came home, to showing up without any warning or explanation in Kaveh's hangout with some ridiculous excuse about hearing his voice through noise-cancelling headphones... Refusing to offer any help in the Temple of Silence story quest other than staying in the library with Kaveh...

Since when does Alhaitham willingly cover anyone else's duties?

But this trend of "Be everywhere Kaveh is" didn't start when they were adults. It was already in place when they were still Akademiya students--and it's a trend that didn't end even when they had their fight.

Even when they weren't speaking, Alhaitham dogged Kaveh's every step through published responses to Kaveh's research articles in academic journals. He insisted on keeping a line of communication between himself and Kaveh open, even if the only way to do that was through very public ideological clashes. Pulling Kaveh's pigtails to get his attention lolol. It's implied that, for at least the few years between their fight and Kaveh moving in, this was the only communication between them--Alhaitham's refusal to allow their connection to entirely fade away. (And the fact that this is revealed in Kaveh's character stories--through his precious journal that records the moments of his life that had the most impact on him--shows just how deeply he values the fact that Alhaitham didn't give up.)

Another relevant side note: Alhaitham never asked Kaveh to give up his half of their house. Knowing half of it belonged to Kaveh, knowing that Kaveh may one day want to reclaim his part of it, knowing that it was listed as theirs, Alhaitham moved into the house and made zero effort to change its ownership. He was completely fine with living in "his and Kaveh's house." The stories suggest it was only months later (or even longer) that Kaveh even noticed he had the house, and he transferred away ownership of his portion without Alhaitham ever asking him (or even seemingly wanting him) to do so.

Please, let that sink in. Alhaitham actively left his grandmother's (presumably comfortable) house to move into "his and Kaveh's house," with no apparent explanation for why, and after doing so, he made no attempt to change that "his and Kaveh's" label. He moved into the house with no promise that Kaveh wouldn't show up on the doorstep the very next day and move in too. It almost feels like another deliberate provocation--I've moved into our house, are you going to come stop me? LBR, if Alhaitham had had his way, Kaveh would have been living there with him from Day 1...

There's also the fact that Kaveh literally can't write on a single message board anywhere in the entire nation of Sumeru without Alhaitham hunting his messages down and responding to them (which absolutely no one else does, by the way).

"NUH-UH!" "UH-HUH." "NUH-UH!"

Alhaitham's own character stories tell us explicitly that one of Alhaitham's defining character traits is "He is never where you need him to be," yet somehow...

Shot, and chaser:

Any time Kaveh is in the slightest bit of need or danger or just wants Alhaitham near, Alhaitham is "coincidentally" exactly where Kaveh needs him to be, whenever Kaveh needs him to be there.

Alhaitham didn't just "happen" to run into Kaveh in Port Ormos, an entirely different city from where he was supposed to be working. He didn't just "happen" to read the same terrible book as Kaveh when we know he otherwise would not waste a moment of his time on poorly-written literature...

He didn't just "happen" to appear when Kaveh was upset and needed a distraction in the House of Daena during Kaveh's hangout. He didn't just "happen" to be sitting around waiting when Kaveh needed answers after the Archon Quest. He didn't just "happen" to find Kaveh's academic publications and every single message board posting and respond to them at length and in public.

Which is exactly what Kaveh's mother told Kaveh he needed.

What level of down bad is "Abusing your powers as an Akademiya employee to keep tabs on your crush's library loans"? Just asking for a friend.

The only person for whom Alhaitham just "happens" to be available is Kaveh, over and over and over again--because he is very deliberately making himself a constant presence in Kaveh's life.

(Like, out of all things, I think people really underestimate the devs deliberately paralleling the romantic relationship between Kaveh's mother and father with Kaveh and Alhaitham's relationship. If you want to point to one thing that says "These two characters are intentionally queer-coded," it doesn't get any more obvious than this.)

Alhaitham, are you not embarrassed to be this transparent??? 🫣

[mewtwoandme]

Let's hope that Jeo's brotherly reassurance was what she needed to hear to lessen some of her doubts X3

[hinamie]

brighter days ahead

[a-literate-chicken]

Eepy……..

[soapyakships]

heat abnormal kokoronashi

[legendaerie]

a friend sent me this screenshot of Ratio and Aventurine's character models exported to MMD for fan animations and stuff and I've not stopped looking at it for almost 24 hours

but more importantly im just thinking of some kind of scenario or mixer where the IPC and the Guild are mingling and Ratio is trying to get somewhere and Aventurine is pretending not to notice him/block his way and in a fit of 1) irritation and 2) over-familiarity because Aventurine's form of flirting is getting in his personal space about everything, Ratio grabs Aventurine by the waist and just. picks him up. turns. puts him down. keeps moving without acknowledging what he's done.

Everyone in the immediate vicinity is stunned silent, but as soon as Aventurine gets his breath back (oh my god he can just. lift me like that huh? just up and over? oh my god. oh god. did his fingers touch?) he laughs it off. meanwhile it takes Ratio an hour to finish whatever his urgent business was for it to finally hit him as well, and his own thoughts are about thirty percent horny, sixty-five percent mad about being horny, and five percent going "will Human Resources consider this another instance of throwing someone? If I get another black mark they might cut my funding."

[hemi-demi]

Stay with me

The next chapter of I am Here is up!

[rochenn]

Doodles inspired by my own fic again! (Chapter 2 of Rifle this time xoxo)

[chinzhilla]

𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔶-𝔒𝔫𝔢 𝔇𝔞𝔶𝔰 𝔬𝔣 ℌ𝔬𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔯 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟺

You're sad. You don't remember what you want. You don't remember wanting. It passed long ago. And nothing ever changes.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) dir. Ana Lily Amirpour