#i feel like it only makes sense that it's my Tav or Astarion tho

[what-is-it-to-be-pk-esque]

LMFAO I cannot believe my Tav just bought a statue of herself naked and it's just, right there in camp next to Astarion. can't even move it lol

Pleeeeease have one of these party members comment on it 💀 I'm so disappointed that they don't

[sfehvn]

Hi! Let me start by saying that the intruder has me completely hooked, it's such a clever idea and can't wait to see what comes next. Okokok, I'll stop gushing. If your requests are still open (if not, simply disregard the ask or save it for a later day) but I can't get my head out of the idea of Astarion and a selkie reader (Idk why tho). Either ascended or not, I think it would be a interesting concept to explore the folklore around selkies with our dear vampire. Maybe Tav is afraid of her secret being discovered or fearing for her pelt being stolen? How do the dinamics work with Astarion either as an ascended or spawn? Any fic is more than fine for me :D

selkie

A/N: Thank you much for your support! This is just a little drabble but I can always build upon it later if you'd like! xx Word count: 581 Characters: Astarion x selkie!Tav

━─━────༺༻────━─━

  Warm water lapped at your toes and you welcomed the feeling of home washing over you. Astarion laid with you, skin to skin, in the sand and while the sensation of a million grains against his bare body was an unwelcome one, it had, at some point, become a forgotten worry as he held you. You smelt of seafoam and sunshine with his nose buried in your hair. Your pelt laid haphazardly across his leg, thick velvet forever reminding him of you. A selkie lover; a notion Astarion would have met with teasing mockery before he met you. Not known for being an accepting character, when he had found your coat, your animalistic instincts had kicked in. You were prepared to stake the vampire through his un-beating heart if that’s what it took to safeguard your lifeline to the sea.

  Astarion hadn’t met your apprehension with his typical antagonistic demeanor, much to your surprise. No, instead, he was curious. Intrigued without the scrutinizing conviction you’d predicted. As your relationship bloomed, safety was fostered in his very existence. One that made your body buzz in the midst of him. Finding comfort in a land-dwelling being was the very last thing you’d anticipated when you’d met the silver-haired man.

  Unbeknownst to you, Astarion had concocted a scheme to steal that pelt from right under your nose. The power he’d have over you with the simple theft was an intoxicating thought—a power he’d never had over anyone, not even himself. How easy it would be to force you to kill Cazador on his behalf with the promise of restoring your pelt to your possession. Yes, it was a simple and fool-proof plan. One day when he was left to his own devices in camp, he could have done it. His hands held the coat firmly, staring at it with wide eyes. If it was so easy, why couldn’t he bring himself to do it? He could only picture your face telling him excitedly about how everything seemed to make sense when you were in the deep of the sea, how at-one and peaceful it all was.

  Astarion couldn’t steal that from you, the only person who had ever shown him kindness. The only person who had ever treated him like he mattered. Someone who had entrusted him with their biggest secret. The very desire to betray you made his stomach turn viscerally. Just as quickly as he found the coat tucked away amongst your belongings, he hastily returned it as he’d found it. A searing pain gnawed at his chest while he lay with you that night under the moonlight atop the sand. He was angry at himself for considering it; he was angry at himself for being unable to go through with it. Such complex feelings had never touched him so deeply. Why did it matter? You were a pawn. That was it. But then, why did shame light such a fire in his chest?

  “What’s got you so quiet tonight?” You murmured between gentle kisses to pale flesh.

  He considered letting loose lips fly, but the serenity he felt in the moment paralyzed him. He was sure once you knew about his plan, he’d more than likely never see your face again and would be gone with the anger of unforgiving waves. Perhaps you’d understand his fear-driven thoughts; perhaps not. It was a risk Astarion ultimately decided was not worth the risk. 

  “Just thinking about how enthralling you are, my little selkie.” 

[yuniex07]

but Welch made Tav dialogues choices based on pro ascension is all about seeing Astarion as sex object. That’s the problem. Welch already decided all Tavs who chose ascension see Astarion as sex object. Welch only talked about sex object regarding Ascended Astarion.

The way this writer tried to " teach " a lesson was pointless from the begining tbh. From the begining Astarion makes a lot of induendo to the Player character, offers, and pushes for the player to agree to have sex with him. His double meaning banter/aiding lines. EVERYTHING about the character is sexualised. It makes sense this person was only in charge late in the development of the game because the way your character react at that point of the story makes no sense!

Personally, my experience was this one:

Got interested in baldur's gate from tiktok videos, and some mentions of the game from my FC companions in FFXIV. OFC i got moslty non context thristy Astarion videos on tiktok and you know what? i was not interested in him at all . I was like, "why are people simping for him? he looks old, ugly, the guy with a beard looks better, but isnt my type either, might go for one of the girls first" (oh that poor past version of me would probably laught at my present version)

So i played the game without context, and not even liking Astarion's looks. I consider myself a pretty impartial person leaning towards what i consider fair and just, having no experience in DND, my character would be more like a neutral good character of sort? (tbh, i don't see the point of having aligments when the choices of a person will depend on soo many variables. The trolley dilema anyone? )

Anyway, i fell, HARD for this pixelated man, because of his charisma, his sassy comments and his attitude. As he was undercovering more about him, i was more and more facinated, I was struggling with his approval, because even tho i wanted to romance him, i was still making the choices that i considered right! (which people usually relate to being a good character) Long story short, he did proposed at the party and i was able to romance him. My character wanted to help everyone and she did. The game portraits the ritual as somehing that will realy improve his life with no downside for him(not talking about the cost here).

So when getting into the ritual, analizing all the information the game game me up to that point, not knowing what will happen after, and thinking on all the posibiliies of this decision. I could only conclude that 7000 spawns were too dangerous to be liberated, Astarion would be free from his master and from all the vampirism downsides, and he had wanted from the begining the power to take his own decisions and mistakes, own his life and his body. (the persuation check being only for Astarion and non of the other companions was interesting... i would not try to persuade him to do something he was asking for from the begining) He had the full support of my character. And i was happy after the ritual, he sounded confident and finally able to act without fear.

So when the long rest scene played i was put off by the dialog choices and TAV's expressions(they fixed them now but not during that time) my character seemed like trying to lecture him and put the blame of a decisison they BOTH agreed only on him(same from the companions like what?? i did it too you know?? why are they angry at him but not me?) then the "spicy" scene happened (it was a pleasant surprise for me i had no idea it was from this route so it proves once again that not everyone Ascends him just because you want to sexualize him) If you think about it, is not even THAT sexual when compared to other companions is pretty tamed.

In conclusion, that writer has some several issues that needs to be addresses and tried to use the game to try to feel better with themself or scape remorse from all the social opportunities they missed for not been able to socialize properly and idealize fiction over reality durning their younger years.

[trevisos]

6 + 7 for Xarrai and Ieriyn from the ask meme you reblogged?

hiii anon thank you 💖

6. How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

xarrai:

idk man astarion works pretty fucking hard to do this and it does not work LOL the thing about xarrai is that they barely have a moral compass at all and so what little they DO have they are incredibly dedicated to. like the only real moral they have to speak of is Tyranny Is Bad - though like, there's wiggle room there (in their opinion). at what point does something become tyranny? how much power is too much? i feel like they're constantly living in that grey area honestly so it may not be as hard to get them to do something against their morals if you kind of treated it like the frog in the boiling water analogy. like what astarion did (offered to share the power of the vampire ascendant with them) would not work because they can go "hm no that sounds like tyranny. hard pass." (tho he was also lying and they knew that) but if someone were to, say, encourage them to take power slowly and carefully by winning people over one by one and systematically ruining their lives to keep them in line, you may be able to get them a few ruined politicians deep before they were like "hey wait a minute...."

i rly need to expand on the weird mind games they've been playing with the elites of the upper city for the last 15 years to make this answer make any amount of sense tbh but that is its own can of worms. essentially for them the line between tyranny and simple control/influence is very thin and always moving and they are always always always right up against it out of some sort of baked in compulsion to seek safety in power whether they use that power or not.

ieriyn:

ieriyn has already crossed that line. killing people at all period was against his moral compass. BUT that wasn't him being convinced so much as him seeing the reality of the situation this whole tadpole business has put him in which i think is kinda different. and see the thing about ieriyn is he's not stupid but he is trusting and the right person probably could convince him of a lot. i'm cooking up some sort of plot wrt to his lifelong mentor manipulating him into. something (undecided what yet) that's going to play into the personal quest i'm giving him (bc i'm unwell and need all my tavs to have their own special personal quests) but that's like the exact thing i'm talking about - ieriyn trusts easy and he trusts deeply and while he does have a strong moral compass he also has a deep need to please the people he cares for that makes critical thinking harder for him sometimes.

7. What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

xarrai:

well when i made xarrai they were just some dude. they were just a stoner bard who moonlighted as an expensive fssw and that was... it. lol. they didn't give a shit about much of anything (still kind of true, though they have Some Things They Give A Shit About now) and absolutely didn't want to be any sort of leader. and now they're. well. an ex-banite cultist with a shitload of childhood trauma and an abstract sense of self trying to navigate cycles of abuse and trauma AND a stoner bard who moonlights as an expensive fssw.

ieriyn:

i initially planned to multiclass him into a warlock with the idea that he made this pact Very Recently to try to wrest power/inheritance money away from his older siblings but that seemed 1. too power hungry and i already have xarrai and their weird relationship to power and 2. too cool. ieriyn needed to be a little cringe. he needed to be a boyfailure. he was also originally meant to be part of a co-op campaign with my partner for their spawn astarion romance run (they r doing an ascended run rn) but i just didn't think his arc would work as well if he had to share responsibility like that because, again, i wanted him to be kind of a failure esp early game and the tav ramza has planned for their astarion romance is actually competent and i didn't want to bog him down with my sweet sweet fail son.