#it’s giving Agents of Shield s7ep9

[phaedrinthefaire]

THIS, Tav getting to know the companions with devastating accuracy. It just doesn’t make sense to them how well Tav knows them. Astarion and Lae’zel are suspicious. Gale is impressed. And in time it’s utterly heartbreaking for Tav, reintroducing themselves and fighting and dying for their friends over and over again, shouldering the burden alone, them not able to understand how important each of them have become to them.

The joy in successfully saving Halsin, because he kept dying in the goblin prison, and later kept getting stuck in the Shadowfel. Him being completely confused at Tav so ecstatically saving a stranger, but grateful. Wyll not understanding how chill they are when his pact with Mizora is revealed. Lae’zel agreeing begrudgingly when they convince her with just the right words to leave Vlaakith. They sound rehearsed. Karlach reflecting about Tav’s insistence that they stop everything to find this guy named Dammon, even though Dammon hadn’t the slightest idea who Tav was.

Gale thinks Tav has some sort of secret ability to detect magical objects, because they know exactly where to find dozens, and hands them over willingly. Shadowheart doesn’t like the sad look Tav gives her (that Tav can’t help after experiencing the House of Grief). Astarion is the most suspicious of them all, but he can’t place how Tav could possibly know everything. In loops where Tav tells him they know he’s a vampire and points him towards the best places to hunt, he comes the closest to figuring it out.

And that doesn’t even cover romancing.

Each loop could have elements of different playthroughs with different decisions, since Tav is trying to figure out what works. In time they see the consequences, they see what matters. What matters. How is their morality affected by seeing the patterns and consequences? Saving Isobel is possible but not crucial. Whether they save the grove or destroy it, it all leads to Moonrise. If they help Yurgir he’s freed, but it’s unclear if Astarion ever will be now. If Gale uses the orb in the colony…the loop keeps going, as if...But that’s not acceptable to Tav. Because Gale matters. So they begin again.

They try to be colder in some loops. Tactical. They hold the companions at arm’s length, and try to be all business and strategy.

But it never works, in the end. They’ve too deeply engrained themselves in Tav’s neverending life. They’re family from the blank, lack of recognition in their eyes straight off the nautiloid to the moment they’re dying, again, in Tav’s arms, gazes raw with pain and love.

Umm anyway…you can see I really like this idea x

I have a new idea for a Baldur's Gate 3 fic.

Apologies if someone has already done this.

Ok, so basically, Tav (or whichever companion you want to center) is stuck in a time loop. Every time they die, they wake back up in the mind flayer pod on the nautiloid. Maybe on the first loop, they don't even make it off the nautiloid. Then, during the next loop, the weakened mind flayer in the crash site gets them. Then, on the third loop, they die during the goblin ambush outside the grove.

Every time they come back, they get farther than they did last time but they still keep failing.

For some extra angst, throw in a few loops where they willingly take their own life to reset after one of their companions dies because of their actions. And if you're really feeling spicy, maybe have the companions start to remember bits and pieces of previous loops.

I also think it would be interesting if Withers had full knowledge of the loops but was forbidden to speak of it to Tav, so instead, he offers advice and acts as a source of comfort for Tav.