#i cannot write and yet my brain is filled with plot bunnies

[dragonagitator]

Gale/OFC fic prompt:

"Morena Dekarios?" Tav approached nervously.

The stern-looking woman turned and looked Tav over with an expression of mild befuddlement.

"Yes? Do I know you?" she asked.

"No, sorry, my name is Tav, and... I'm carrying your grandchild, and I don't have anywhere else to go!" Tav blurted, blinking back tears.

(Gale sacrifice ending, or perhaps he never returns after entering Mystra's portal, leaving behind a heartbroken and -- unbeknownst to Gale at the time -- pregnant Tav.)

OK fanfic authors gogogogogogogogogo

[dragonagitator]

I SECOND THIS REQUEST!!!!!!!!

Could even roll this plot right into the events of the game. Gale is on the road to Baldur's Gate to finally meet the ridiculous enchanter in person when both of them get snatched up by the nautiloid and tadpoled.

Then when Tav pulls Gale from the rock they're like "YOU'RE Gale of Waterdeep? We actually kind of already know each other, I'm Tav the Enchanter..." "YOU'RE Tav the Enchanter? Why you...!"

Frenemies-to-Lovers. I need it.

I have no writing skills so I'm sending this concept out into the void.

I desperately need a slow burn Gale/Tav AU where Gale, still suffering from the orb or a similar affliction has Tara go out to find enchanted items.

Queue Tav: an apprentice enchanter, who as a hobby/practice enchants whatever is around. Personal nick nacks, cutlery, cheap iron rings they buy by the dozen from a local black smith since they're made from cast offs. These are not master works, they're just practice and can't be sold until she's licensed (idk if there's such laws in Faerun but it's my imagination so there are licenses and apprenticeships!)

But! The enchantments are A+ so Tara makes a plea that poor Mr. Dekarios needs these and they're just collecting dust sitting around.

So Tav agrees and starts sending Gale enchanted trinkets through the post/Tara, because of course he's locked in his tower and isolating like he mentions in game and is barely leaving/possibly agora phobic at this point.

Over time getting to know each other through one dinner fork and loose marble enchanted with misty step or some such at a time. Tav starts wanting to impress Gale and or make him laugh while he's locked in his depressing tower.

Since he's only responded through Tara or by letter they start to try to get any reaction out of him by enchanting the most obnoxious items (an entire barrel of fruit, a taxidermy rat, a box within a box within a box, a single shoe with holes, the world's ugliest knit doily, etc, etc) until he's desperately smitten and/or about to loose his mind and stroms out to confront Tav.

Queue meet hate/cute as Gale rails against the injustice of these ridiculous items and Tav is just delighted to know that Gale of Waterdeep blushes a marvelous shade of crimson when flustered.

I how Gale is cured in this prompt (beauty and the beast love cures all? Idk), maybe Mystra amused by the situation frees Gale from the orb after he accepts that not all magic is high and might, some of it is in the small things in life?

I need it so if anyone likes this concept and wants to run with it go for it!

[bellemorte180]

The Taylor Swift/folklore album coming of age story breakdown for Caroline that no one asked for but I’m giving anyway.

Okay, so I’m OBESSESSED with Taylor Swift’s new album. I do not think I’ve listened to anything else since it came out. It feels like a giant coming of age story for Caroline and how it leads her to Klaus; and their forever.

So, my brain developed an entire plot bunny based around the songs. I’m going to share it with you knowing I’ll never write it (meaning its free game for anyone who wants this idea). Now, I’m taking the songs out of order on the album.

Starts after season 4 of TVD- except Klaus never left for NOLA and no magic baby (just would not work for what I have planned). Also, Liz was killed by Silas.

The story starts the summer after their senior year of high school.

So let's get started......

seven

It begins here. This part will show where Caroline is right now. Stefan is gone (Silas really is dead, and Stefan is soul searching). Damon and Elena are shaking up, which is SUPER hard for Caroline to see. Tyler is off with a werewolf pack again, trying to lick his wounds from his other back being slaughtered. Bonnie is dead-which everyone knows about.

Caroline is alone and struggling with mourning Bonnie and her mother, Tyler once again leaving, Matts off with Rebekah and Elena being with Damon.

This part of the story would be looking back to her childhood and wondering if college is what she wants. Caroline is questioning everything and what eternity has in store for her.

mirrorball

Caroline goes out to a club or bar just outside of town. She runs into Klaus and they have a night where they dance. They have a good time and Caroline is reminded about the good side of Klaus. He shows her parts of herself that she buried deep down inside. They laugh and for a moment, the grief, pain and loneliness melts away. He shows her the good parts of vampirism that she denied herself.

It’s the beginning of the end in many ways.

august

Their affair begins here. They have the summer of their lives. No one pays any attention to what Caroline is doing because everyone is gone except Elena; but she is so focused on Damon. Klaus and Caroline find a moment of peace together, but Caroline is counting down to it ending. Summer is coming to an end and Tyler called her. She is to start college soon but still so unsure what to do. In the end, the guilt of her feelings for Klaus catch up to her and she ends it.

Elena and Caroline go to college, rooming together; but Caroline cannot get Klaus out of her mind.

hoax

Klaus is fighting for Caroline to give him a real chance. Caroline keeps holding off, but she knows she wants him; but is terrified of what Elena and Tyler would say. Tyler is back and wants to resume a relationship with her. She knows that Klaus loves her. She has known that for a long time. Its her feelings that she hasn’t figured out. She feels that she is twisting a knife in Elena’s and Tyler’s back: but at the same time, they constantly hurt her by leaving (Tyler) and being with Damon (Elena).

But Caroline cannot make a decision.

So, she goes to him one night and they have sex.

illicit affairs

They are sleeping together regularly but hiding it. His family, who are all are back, and her friends have no idea. She is in a relationship with Tyler but sleeping with Klaus on the side. It’s a mess and she knows that it is wrong, but she is at the point where she can’t give him up. She does little things for him and he makes her feel happy.

This goes on for months.

It doesn’t end until Tyler catches them in bed together.

mad woman

Here is where shit hits the fan. Caroline is being pulled in a thousand directions. Tyler is pissed and hurt, which Caroline knows is a legitimate reaction. Elena is playing the victim, not believing that Caroline would sleep with Klaus. Klaus wants her to full commit to him. Caroline feels that she is at war with everyone.

She goes on the defensive and serves some just truths here. She tells Elena exactly how it feels to watch her with Damon. She tells Tyler how hurt she feels because she was always put second best with him. She points fingers and it makes pretty much everything worse.

She even gets into an argument with Klaus; who cannot fathom what she is feeling right now.

epiphany

It’s Matt who calms her down. He tells her that, yes, he is disappointed that she slept with Klaus but not because he is “Klaus” but because she didn’t end things with Tyler first. He points out why Elena would be hurt by Caroline being with Klaus, because he killed her and Jenna. Klaus is Elena’s monster, but also understands that Damon is Caroline’s. It was a slap in the face but something Caroline needed to hear.

She realizes here that she needs to sort out her life. That she is in the rut that is suffocating her in a way that she cannot handle. She has an epiphany and realizes that she is not meant for that small town anymore; and that she needs out.

That she needs to figure out what she wants out of life and not do everything that is expected of her.

The first thing she does is drop out of university.

The second was to sell her house.

my tears ricochet

This is Tyler’s goodbye. He is demonizing her to high heaven for sleeping with the man who killed 12 of his friends and his mother. He is making her out to be a villain and Caroline cannot blame him. The conversation is bad. The fight and they both say a bunch of hurtful things to each other. Caroline knows she messed up and is sorry for it; but she refuses to wish it never happened. It taught her so much of herself that she cannot apologize for it.

She promised Tyler that she did love him but it just wasn’t enough. They end things on VERY bad terms.

Caroline understands that her relationship with Tyler was never going to be the same.

betty

Next is Elena. This goodbye goes better. It is heartfelt and sad. Matt gave Elena the same talk he did Caroline. Caroline tells Elena that the worse thing she had ever done was betraying her friend with Klaus but like she said with Tyler, she does not regret it.

Elena is not ready to forgive Caroline; but neither is Caroline ready to forgive Elena for Damon.

They part ways with broken hearts but a mutual understanding that maybe one day they could be friends again.

exile

This is Klaus’s goodbye. She loves him and tells him so. She just isn’t ready to be his forever yet. They fight and they cry. They have sex but it is that broken goodbye sex that ends in empty feelings and heart ache.

She grabs the things that she had left behind at his place. She does not know what is going to happen from here but she knows that she has so many things to figure out for herself.

Klaus lets her go with a promise of forever when she is ready; even though he is bitter about it.

Caroline leaves Mystic Falls, exiling herself to the unknown.

this is me trying

The first few months are hard. She roams around the US for a good while, driving from state to state. She learns more about being a vampire on her own and just lives. She starts writing in a journal but its more of a long love letter to Klaus. It’s the stories of where she has been where she is going.  This is the most painful time for Caroline because she feels absolutely alone.

Then she runs into Stefan. They have a heart to heart about Damon, Elena, Klaus and Tyler. It really puts everything into perspective for Caroline. She learns that Klaus left Mystic Falls and moved to NOLA with his family. She continues to write in that journal and slowly is coming to terms with everything she had felt.

She slowly begins to heal.

cardigan

This is where Caroline really comes to terms with Klaus and how he made her feel. He made her feel strong and loved. Everyone called her a fool for falling in love with him, but she knew him. She knew a side to him that no one else did. She felt passion, love and what it meant to be wanted.

She looks at all the things she had taken with her when she fled. She remembers the moments during that summer together that she would cherish. She no longer looks back on Mystic Falls as a time of pain and regret. She no longer feels the stab of pain thinking on Tyler and Elena.

She starts to feel happiness again.

the last great American dynasty

She ends up in Rhode Island and finds a house for sale. It has this rich story behind it about a woman who loved a man so much it killed him. Turns out the woman was Rebekah, as in Klaus’s sister and a tragic tale of one of her many lost loves. Caroline takes this as a sign that she is meant to have this old house. She buys it (having the money from the house she sold in Mystic Falls).

The house is in disrepair and she fixes it up. She thinks back on the time that she had an affair with Klaus and how much she misses him.

When the house is completed, she pulls out that old journal and reads. She begins to plan for a future, knowing that Klaus would be apart of it. 

the 1

Caroline realizes that Klaus is the one. She loves him in an epic love she always dreamed about. She thinks on him fondly and the memories they shared. She learns snippets from Stefan about what Klaus is up to. He ran into him while passing through NOLA. She learns about the bartender Cami and that Klaus had a weird infatuation with her. Its not love, Stefan assures her but the thought that he moved on still stings.

On a whim, wondering if he would respond; Caroline sends him the journal filled with love letters; a specific one at the end saying that she is ready for forever.

Then she waits.

peace

Klaus shows up at the house in Rhode Island. They know that its not going to be perfect. They have a massive heart to heart about what they want and what it means. Klaus vows that Cami was nothing more than a distraction while Caroline promises that she is ready to take that leap.

She does not care what anyone things anymore.

She lets Elena fall in love with Damon; not caring if Elena is betrayed by her falling in love with Klaus.

She lets Tyler run wild with his wolves; not caring if he hates her now for falling in love with Klaus.

Klaus offers her forever and she gladly takes his hand. She never sells that house and they come back to it, making it a home base for them from time to time. 

He takes her across the globe; Paris, Rome and Tokyo...and so much more. 

Caroline hands over her heart to him....and finds peace in that.

invisible string  

Fast forward 100 years. Klaus and Caroline are still together. They have connected in a way that Caroline never felt in previous relationships. They look back on their life together; reciting how it began and how it has come so far.

They love, laugh and enjoy life the best they can; making plans for the next 100 years.

[eliotandquentinsittinginatree]

Getting back up

*Quick notes: This is in no way, shape or form related or compliant to season 5. Because I have not and will not watch season 5. You cannot take away my favorite character and destroy my favorite ship with it, and then expect me to keep watching your show, you meanie showrunners.*

This might be something that I will occasionally work on. It’s all thought out and finished in my head, so the only question is how well I will be able to put it into words. This is pretty much a teaser chapter, which I will expand on at a later date, when I have more time. English is not my first language, and I am not as eloquent or articulate as so many of the other talented writer I have had the pleasure to discover in this fandom. Alas, the plot bunny has gotten lost in my head, and now I have to write this thing out. I sincerely do hope that someone might find some enjoyment out of this fic, when it’s finished, but I caution anyone to not expect too much. It will likely be very slow going, and not as well written as it could be. :-)

It’s also entirely self-indulgent. I don’t want Quentin to stay dead. I want Queliot to happen. I want these people to all be actual friends who love and trust each other. So these are all things that I will be working towards, even though it might not always correspond well with the canon that has been established in the four seasons leading up to Quentin’s death.

Summary/teaser:

“Did I do something really brave to save my friends, or did I finally find a way to kill myself?”

- As Quentin gets the answer to this last important question, he also learns that his friends are still in need of saving.

Funnily enough, even though Quentin had spent literal years worth of time thinking about death (most specifically his own), he had never really pictured his funeral.

And, well, technically this might not qualify as a funeral, Quentin thought as he watched his friends sing and feed simple but significant trinkets into the fire, it was indubitably more beautiful than anything his broken brain could have ever cooked up.

Dean Fogg’s presence had surprised him a little, to be perfectly honest, but he certainly appreciated it.

Penny had taken him to Fillory first, where Josh and Fen had set up a memorial feast in his honor.

In memory of King Quentin Coldwater, savior of Fillory, magic, and the world.

Quentin felt unworthy of the title. After all, he hadn’t ever really handled any kingly duties the way Margo and Eliot had, and he hadn’t been the only one fighting to save all those things they were celebrating him for. But non the less, seeing as a whole kingdom raised their (metaphorical) glasses to him, as well as Josh and Fen’s honest tears, had filled his heart with warmth.

Then getting back to earth, watching the people he had come to love in each of their own specific ways, watching as Eliot and Margo had made their way into the circle, and god ELIOT! The tall man was leaning on Margo heavily, stumbling ever so slightly, face pale, clearly still hurt, still healing.

But in this very moment, he was the most beautiful being Quentin had ever seen. Alive.

Eliot was alive. They had done it. It had all been worth it.

Eliot was alive.

Thank god

Thank god

Thank god

Eliot was alive and on his feet. Quentin was unashamed of the tears that streamed down his face.

Margo, Alice, Julia, Penny23, Kady, Josh, Fen. They were okay. Sad, sure. Grieving, crying, for him, and this was still a concept that was somehow so hard for him to grasp, yet filled his heart with so much affection for each and every one of them.

But they were alive and whole and in time, they would heal.

He felt at peace.

“They are gonna be okay, right?”

The question was more of an after thought, murmured in Penny’s direction. And Quentin fully expected Penny to smile in that soft, knowing way of his (which was still so new and strange to Quentin, but somehow, fit the other man perfectly), and tell him not to worry, that their friends would be just fine.

But when no answer came forth, Quentin forced his eyes away from the group sitting around the fire to look back at his friend, and found an expression he had trouble deciphering.

“I was really hoping you wouldn’t ask me this, Q.”

The shock of those words, as well as the use of that nickname (Penny had changed so much. And the weirdest part of that was how Quentin still thought of him as the same person. As part of the team. Always one of them), made him turn around fully. 

���What do you mean? They.. they will be alright, right?” Anxiety was building up. “We. - We got the monsters out. Julia and El- Eliot, they are .. we saved them. We did it! Everett is gone, and, and you said the library is in better hands now! Magic will return back to the way it was. Why-” He had to pause to get rid of the lump that was forming in his throat, threatening to strangle him. The song behind him was coming to an end and he turned his head to cast another look at his friends. They were fine. They were fine and alive and they were together! (Well, Josh was missing, but they had an easy way back to Fillory, and he knew, he knew they wouldn’t abandon each other)  He watched as Eliot and Margo leaned into each other, both crying silently as they watched the flames consume the peach and blacken the crown. They were fine. They were alive. They were fine!

“- why wouldn’t they be okay?”

He was looking at Penny with what he hoped was conviction, but felt more like desperation. His words had been meant to come out strong, but had likely been a plea. 

And Penny.., Penny looked like he wanted to fold his body into itself, while also trying to scrape together the words needed to talk someone away for the ledge. Quentin knew what that looked like. Because he had been in both positions. Been the one trying to talk someone down, and been the one who was being talked down. Right now, he felt like he was there again, looking down at the ground from high above, but he didn’t know if he was the one who wanted to jump, or the one who wanted to save the jumper.

“Quentin, look, I.. I literally can’t lie to you about this, but I really, really want to. Because this is not on you. This is not your responsibility. But if I answer your question, I know that you will take it as such.”

Penny took a step closer to him, settling his hands steadily on his shoulders, squeezing tightly, and looking directly into the smaller man’s eyes.

“I want you to listen to me closely. You have done and sacrificed enough. For the last three years, you have been running yourself into the ground, putting out fires, while ever more kept getting started. And I know you blame yourself for most of those as well, but I’m telling you right now, it wasn’t your fault. What happened to the others, what happened to me, what happened to the world as a whole. That wasn’t your fault, man. You just died, saving the people you love. There is a ticket in my pocket for you. That will take your soul to be reborn. All the pain, all the drama and tragedy, all that will be gone. It will be a good life, Quentin. A peaceful one. No apocalypses, no self serving gods or monsters. No more broken brain. You will be happy, Q. You deserve this. So please, don’t make me answer that question.”

Penny looked at him so earnestly, beseechingly. And Quentin felt bad about not being able to follow his request.

“Why won’t they be okay, Penny? ... Please.”

The other man closed his eyes, a sigh full of sorrow and regret leaving his lips, and squeezed the deceptively frail looking shoulders again, as if in apology.

“Is the thought that losing you is something they won’t get over, really so far out of your grasp?”

The answer to that was clearly obvious in the wide, uncomprehending eyes of the shorter man before him.

“...What?”

[caseyvalhalla]

Do you have any WIPs or plot bunnies you'd be willing to talk about? ^^

do I have any WIPs omg

so I have the fic I’m working on for the yuri on ice big bang but I don’t think I’m supposed to talk about that in too much detail so I’ll just tell you that it’s gonna be great and I love writing about hopeless nerds in love

and there’s also Spring Haze, which I’m working on the next chapter of, don’t want to give too much away tho

so idk how many people are familiar with the movie Willow but I rewatched it a while back and it gave me leopika feelings, so I started writing a thing in which Melody is in the titular role and Alluka is the baby she’s in charge of, Gon and Killua are brownies, and Leorio is.  Madmartigan.  Because reasons.  The reasons go like this:

“One more move and you’ll be singing soprano back at that tavern.”  Kurapika’s eyes snapped open and clearly he’d been awake for at least the last minute because the tip of a dagger was digging into Leorio’s thigh, dangerously close to his groin.  Threatening but not stabbing, yet.  Surely that meant Kurapika returned his affections.

“Please excuse my boldness, darling.”  The words jumped into Leorio’s mouth fully formed, bypassing his brain entirely, and they felt odd on his tongue.  He tried to exercise some measure of control.  “I uh, couldn’t help myself.”

Kurapika blinked, several times, and then shook his head slightly and the dagger moved swiftly away from the immediate vicinity of Leorio’s more sensitive regions and instead bore hard against his throat.  “Whatever.  What are you doing?  How did you get out?”

“A heart filled with passion cannot be caged,” Leorio said, and frowned a little to himself with a subverbal what.  “Or uh, something like that.  I needed to see you again.  Desperately.”  He backed away from the dagger edge pressed against his neck but Kurapika followed, until he was sitting up and Leorio was on his knees.

“What nonsense are you spouting?”  Kurapika appeared to be sleeping solely in a white linen nightshirt, loose and open around his collarbones, and the soft lines of his skin were suitably distracting.  He looked better like this, among cloth and fur and pillows, than buried underneath hard black armor.

anyway yeah idk if I’ll ever finish it, ideas for the hxh big bang next year maybe? time will tell.

back before all the hospital shit happened I had reread a bunch of old weiss kreuz RP logs and Hot Fuss (still two chapters short of being finished after all these years) and I started writing a distant sequel just sorta for nostalgia’s sake and that’s been languishing along with say your prayers and that fake-engaged yuuram fic I sorta started writing.

aaaaaaaaand I may also be kicking around a d&d-verse sheith AU in which Shiro is a city guard captain trying in good faith to stamp out criminal activity and Keith is a local rogue-for-hire who would really like him to stop prodding the city’s criminal underbelly because he keeps having to save Shiro’s sorry butt from assassin guilds and shit

[dragonagitator]

BG3 fanfic prompt for my witchy friends:

So there's different sources of arcane magic in Faerun, right? Mystra, the Goddess of Magic, controls the Weave and she sends her agents to seek out and destroy other sources of arcane magic like the Shadow Weave, Karsite Weave, etc.

Meanwhile, it is canonically possible to believe a new god into existence. Mostly only Kuo-Toa do this but my understanding is that's because they are inclined towards fanatical levels of religious faith and not because they have an exclusive racial ability to spawn new gods.

So let's say you're writing a Modern Girl in Faerun author self-insert fic. And your MGIF was a practicing witch back on Earth. What happens if she continues practicing in Faerun? Does that introduce a new kind of Weave into the world?

And if she does diety work, does her belief in her gods and goddesses from Earth cause them to begin manifesting in Faerun?

Culminating in a showdown against Mystra, where it's not just Gale going up against her, it's Gale and your MGIF and her gods and goddesses from back home.

"Oh, so you're the local Goddess of Magic? Well, let me introduce you to Hecate and Freyja and the Morrigan and Isis and..."

[dragonagitator]

BG3 fanfic idea:

Modern Character in Faerun fic in which the author self-insert suffers from whatever chronic illnesses and disabilities the author suffers from IRL and Shadowheart inadvertently cures them all the first time she casts Lesser Restoration for something.

It turns out that you weren't that far off all those times you'd joked back on Earth that "God nerfed me by giving me [condition] because he knew I'd be too OP without it."

And all that extra effort you used to have to expend every day just to minimally function? That was like a lifelong intensive weightlifting program for your willpower because you were constantly forcing yourself to do things despite all the pain, fatigue, brain fog, nausea, etc. Once you're freed of the shackles of your chronic illnesses and disabilities, you're able to utilize that power in ways chronically healthy and lifelong abled people could never dream of.

Title idea: "Traded My Spoons For Knives"

Lore caveats: Lesser Restoration canonically cures the conditions diseased, poisoned, paralysis, and blinded. If you're missing body parts and want them back then you'll need to wait for the 7th-level divine magic spell Regenerate, which can't be learned in game because character progression is capped at level 12 but should be achievable fairly quickly in a post-game story because clerics and druids get access to 7th-level spells as soon as they hit level 13. If that causes you to inadvertently regenerate body parts that you didn't want back, the 9th-level spell True Polymorph can permanently (with your consent) change your healthy/whole baseline to something else. You'll need a level 18+ wizard to cast it, which Gale was before the orb since he was an archmage, and it's certainly plausible that removing the orb would allow him to bounce back to his old character level without needing to grind XP to get there.

(Inspired by memories of taking Adderall for the first time. That was a REVELATION, y'all. You mean I wasn't just stupid and lazy this whole time? This is what I can do when my brain actually works right? If my physical disabilities and chronic illnesses could also be cured/treated as instantaneously, I'd be unstoppable.)

(Also, how is it that as soon as I start writing my first attempt at fanfic, I start generating ideas for new fanfics faster than I can even write the ideas down much less ever actually write any of the stories?)

[dragonagitator]

Who wants to write some angst? Fic prompt inspired by @trashcatsnark tags:

The prompt:

Tara gives Tav the Shovel Talk during a visit to her and Gale's room in the Elfsong Tavern the night before the final showdown with the Netherbrain, and Tav enthusiastically agrees that if she ever hurt Gale that she would deserve whatever Tara did to her because hurting Gale is the last thing that Tav would ever want to do.

Then time skip to several months or maybe even years post-game. Tav had chosen the "become illithid" solution and is slowly losing her old identity to the monster that she's become, but Gale is too smitten and too caught up in the excitement of studying her condition to realize that it's just a matter of time before Tav eats his brain.

Tara can see it clearly, though, and thus she makes the difficult decision to end Tav before it's too late, confident that it's what pre-illitid Tav would have wanted.

Tara interrogating our Tavs about our intentions towards Gale and insinuating that we'll meet a terrible end if we ever hurt him and we're just sitting there thinking "I am receiving the Shovel Talk from a flying cat, what even is my life now."

[miradelletarot]

Send help...I **need** to see this written, but I know I will take oodles of emotional damage as a result. My relationship with myself may or may not be a bit toxic. lol

Gale/OFC fic prompt:

"Morena Dekarios?" Tav approached nervously.

The stern-looking woman turned and looked Tav over with an expression of mild befuddlement.

"Yes? Do I know you?" she asked.

"No, sorry, my name is Tav, and... I'm carrying your grandchild, and I don't have anywhere else to go!" Tav blurted, blinking back tears.

(Gale sacrifice ending, or perhaps he never returns after entering Mystra's portal, leaving behind a heartbroken and -- unbeknownst to Gale at the time -- pregnant Tav.)

OK fanfic authors gogogogogogogogogo

[dragonagitator]

oh damn great development

Tara interrogating our Tavs about our intentions towards Gale and insinuating that we'll meet a terrible end if we ever hurt him and we're just sitting there thinking "I am receiving the Shovel Talk from a flying cat, what even is my life now."

[dragonagitator]

That is a whole mood for real.

Also, the most obvious entry point for a MCIF is the opening cinematic of the nautiloid jumping between realms (in Forgotten Realms lore, Earth is canonically just another Realm like Torril or Avernus), so unless we're able to a) steal another nautiloid, b) figure out which steering tentacles to connect to jump back to Earth, and c) land it safely before being shot out of the sky by the Air Force, our MCIFs are presumably stuck in Faerun.

But hey, if you wanna try to hijack a nautiloid during the final battle, be my guest. And if you bring your love interest and/or other NPCs back to Earth with you, you can write a hilarious "BG3 Characters on Earth" sequel to your "Modern Character in Faerun" fic.

Would be deliciously angsty if it turns out that removing Gale from Faerun cuts him off from the Weave so he not only has to deal with the culture shock of life on Earth but also has to adapt to not having ANY magic after being in tune with it for as long as he can remember. It would be even worse for him than when he lost power from the orb because at least then he could still cast cantrips and 1st-level spells and could continue to use scrolls and other magical items. Not something he'd chose voluntarily, but if traveling to a non-magical realm like Earth was the only way to escape a vengeful Mystra and protect his new spouse? Maybe then.

Gale could probably respec into being a software engineer relatively quickly. Although becoming a university professor of Folklore Studies or similar subject might be a better overall fit, humanities faculty positions are extremely competitive and he'd be starting from scratch at age ~40 with zero Earth-recognized academic credentials so that's a bit of a reach.

Or maybe he ends up making a living writing fantasy novels or even new D&D sourcebooks. DMs and players alike love running Harry Potteresque PCs-as-wizarding-students campaigns using the new Blackstaff Academy module because the level of detail provided makes it feel like the module author actually lived it, heh heh heh.

BG3 fanfic idea:

Modern Character in Faerun fic in which the author self-insert suffers from whatever chronic illnesses and disabilities the author suffers from IRL and Shadowheart inadvertently cures them all the first time she casts Lesser Restoration for something.

It turns out that you weren't that far off all those times you'd joked back on Earth that "God nerfed me by giving me [condition] because he knew I'd be too OP without it."

And all that extra effort you used to have to expend every day just to minimally function? That was like a lifelong intensive weightlifting program for your willpower because you were constantly forcing yourself to do things despite all the pain, fatigue, brain fog, nausea, etc. Once you're freed of the shackles of your chronic illnesses and disabilities, you're able to utilize that power in ways chronically healthy and lifelong abled people could never dream of.

Title idea: "Traded My Spoons For Knives"

Lore caveats: Lesser Restoration canonically cures the conditions diseased, poisoned, paralysis, and blinded. If you're missing body parts and want them back then you'll need to wait for the 7th-level divine magic spell Regenerate, which can't be learned in game because character progression is capped at level 12 but should be achievable fairly quickly in a post-game story because clerics and druids get access to 7th-level spells as soon as they hit level 13. If that causes you to inadvertently regenerate body parts that you didn't want back, the 9th-level spell True Polymorph can permanently (with your consent) change your healthy/whole baseline to something else. You'll need a level 18+ wizard to cast it, which Gale was before the orb since he was an archmage, and it's certainly plausible that removing the orb would allow him to bounce back to his old character level without needing to grind XP to get there.

(Inspired by memories of taking Adderall for the first time. That was a REVELATION, y'all. You mean I wasn't just stupid and lazy this whole time? This is what I can do when my brain actually works right? If my physical disabilities and chronic illnesses could also be cured/treated as instantaneously, I'd be unstoppable.)

(Also, how is it that as soon as I start writing my first attempt at fanfic, I start generating ideas for new fanfics faster than I can even write the ideas down much less ever actually write any of the stories?)