#it’s hard for the wyll girlies out here

[baldursgatesimp]

it is SO difficult to find a wyll-centered fic, damn dude

like i just want something where he’s not a secondary character. pleaseeee i love him

[shewhowas39]

pairing: Astarion x f!durge (June)/OC chapter title: That's Okay chapter summary: in which Wyll gets a POV, the girlies pick on the vampire, and we get some bit lore drops on Astarion and June content warnings: mentions of spiders (no descriptions), sad parent stuff, and discussion of some of Cazador's cruelty

A/N: okay so no kissing in this chapter BUT there's some serious fluff and some lore drops on my Astarion headcanon. and the next chapter will start with smooching. please, forgive me. i swear it's still a juicy chapter.

***

PREVIEW

“Stop, stop, stop!” 

June looks over at him. “What’s wrong?”

“You!” He gestures, exasperated, at her hair and the comb in her hand. “You’re going to ruin them!”

“Ruin what?”

“Your curls!” He huffs and grunts and waves his hands, having a hard time expressing his frustration. “I - just - ugh! Come here. Let me do it.”

June blinks her big eyes at him. But after a moment, she walks over to him and offers him her comb.  But Astarion pushes it away.

“Oh, no, darling. I don’t know where you found that wretched thing, but it’s not meant for your type of hair. I’ll use mine.” He reaches behind him, picking up his backpack, and pulls out the hair supplies he’d purchased for himself the first day in the grove. “Sit.” He gestures to the ground in front of him. 

She obeys and sits crossed legged between his feet. Astarion uncorks a bottle of hair oil, pours a little into his hand, rubs it between his palms, and then thoroughly massages it into the mane of curls, softening them so that detangling will be easier. 

“Thanks,” June says. 

“I know I have a casual relationship with violence,” he says as he begins to finger comb through her hair, carefully separating the curl clusters. “But the assault on your hair was a step too far.”

June laughs. “I guess I just don’t see the point in putting too much effort into it.” 

“That’s an easy thing to say when you’re beautiful,” Astarion replies. “You can look in the mirror and see how gorgeous you are, even with your hair a mess.”

“Astarion, I already let you drink my blood and touch my tits. You don’t gotta flatter me.” 

“This isn’t flattery, darling.” He finds a rather large knot and begins gingerly working it out between his fingers, trying not to break any of the strands. “You’re beautiful.” 

She shrugs. “I’m all right.”

Astarion pauses. He puts a hand on the back of her head and turns it to the side so he can lean around and meet her eyes. “You are joking, right?” he says. “You do realize that you’re stunning?”

[terezis]

UPUR MIND HI. ELLA ENCHANTED AND THE REST OF THE GAIL CARSON LEVINE VERSE IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME. KEEP TALJIBG

look i think you could make a serious case for turning this into an astarion/wyll fic, like it would probably make more sense to give him the role of prince char over tav... but unfortunately i do not ship it. i'm a wyll/karlach girly at heart. sorry lads i know.

but anyways there is just something so compelling (pun intended) to me about the parallels bt ella and her curse and astarion and his whole (gestures) everything…

ella being a little snarky and a little charming and doing everything she can do twist the orders she's given to annoy or inconvenience the ppl bossing her around. yeah that's astarion babey.

that said there are so many antagonists in (book) ella enchanted it's hard to say where u put cazador. giving him lucinda's role (fairy who curses him) seems obvious but then later in the book you have hattie starving ella for the lulz and dame olga making ella scrub the floor until her knuckles bleed and the dad who literally tries to sell ella to a rich old man for profit.

and that's all a lot more willfully malicious (and mirrors astarion's backstory woes more) than lucinda's well-meaning but nasty gifts.

so i think maybe it's not a 1:1 au. but the bones are there. do you see my vision. compare the beat where astarion confesses his plan to tav bc he wants something real with them and they're like "we can be together without sleeping together for as long as u want,"

—to book!ella breaking her curse and declaring that she REFUSES to marry the prince who she loves even if ordered bc she can't bear the thought of hurting him. something something LOVE and AGENCY. it's good

also the ogres from the book are played by the ogres you find in the blighted village. i think it is funny to make halsin the guy from the kingdom of elves. areida (ella's friend from finishing school) is... my first impulse is to say karlach but i think i want it to be shadowheart. i think i need them bond over snarking and that's how they become friends. they're the only ones there who speak elvish and they're real catty about it. mandy is played by withers

astarion says PLEASE can you use some big magic to help me out here idc about the consequences or about the tapestry of fate or w/e make it stop raining so i can go to the gd ball

withers says... no

[weaveandwood]

Ship questions!!! 💓

Did either try to resist their feelings?

Height difference/age difference?

Do they have nicknames for each other?

What's the wedding like?

Yessss thank you @elspethdekarios the perfect way to procrastinate running errands <3

Did either try to resist their feelings? Gale, definitely. Eventually, he realizes that they're always in danger and doesn't want to waste time. He just needs to figure out the orb situation - cue Elminster. I think once the orb is stable, he's less reluctant to tell Ora how he feels and physically can't keep it to himself anymore, no matter if he only has days, weeks, or months to live - he decides finally that it'd all be worth it.

Auroria doesn't really try to resist her own feelings, she just can't name them until Wyll calls her out on it in the Shadow Cursed lands - he tells her "I hope I can find someone who loves me as much as you love Gale." Record scratch. Oh shit, yeah I do love him.

Both of them are very flirty with each other from the get go, when Gale lands on her after pulling him out of the portal (because he SHOULD land on Tav, so I made it so! The power of writing!)

Height/Age Difference? Gale is "35" according to Larian (lol ok), and Ora is 37 (half-elf). I am choosing to believe that as a powerful wizard, Gale can extend his life using his power (I think like Clone or something? I haven't done much research). If not, I think Ora would be similar to her mother, who was a full elf in love with a human - that in her long and many years, she was lucky enough to have one great love to surpass all others and that was enough.

Height-wise, Gale looks like he's just a little taller than Ora in my screenshots. Since he's 6'2", I'm going to put Ora as 5'10". We love a tall girly.

Do they have nicknames for each other? Gale mainly calls Ora by either her preferred nickname (Ora, lol), or one of many versions of my love, my darling, dear wife, Mrs. Dekarios occasionally after they get married. Auroria actually would refuse to let anyone shorten her name to Ora (her best friend Zephia gave it to her and she refused to let anyone else call her by it after Zeph died during a hunt that Ora blames herself for), but after she finally grants the party permission, Gale never wants to call her by her full name again. Even in my fanfic his POVs only use Ora instead of Auroria when she's being described.

Auroria calls him Gale, dear husband, handsome wizard when he needs an ego boost, and occasionally brings back Karlach's "Magic Man" for laughs. She was brought up that nicknames were disrespectful to the person who gave you your name, so it's hard for her to use them, but she gets better over time.

What's the wedding like? Oh boy. Well, my wedding between Gale and Ora completely ignores the epilogue! I have a short story called Midwinter in Waterdeep, and to summarize, Auroria leaves Gale. Over a year later she finds herself back in Waterdeep for a job and they reconnect over a period of six Midwinters. I'm really proud of it, and I feel like it's a unique take on post-Netherbrain life - Ora was a nomad almost her whole life. The routine, the tower, the city all suffocated her. The compromise is that when she's between adventures, her and Gale live in a small cabin deep in the woods near Waterdeep that's enchanted to be invisible to everyone but them. It works for them. ANYWAYS. Here's what I wrote about their wedding.

He twirled the silver ring on his own finger, the twin to hers. He had felt the hum of the original sending stone only a few months after their last Midwinter, during Greengrass. He rushed to the cabin after classes were completed for the day, wondering why she hadn’t told him anything through their messaging stones, wondering if the original stones were malfunctioning. He had no sooner opened the door before she pulled him in and kissed him deeply. He led her to the bedroom, both of them shedding layers of clothing along the way as they reunited. Later that evening, she lazily ran her fingers through his hair as the dancing lights he cast hovered over them, lighting the room in a beautiful pale blue glow.  “Marry me, Gale.��� They were married that week in a small ceremony, only Tara and Morena in attendance, though once word got out, many congratulations poured in from all over the Sword Coast. She had left later that week, and now she was finally coming home.

In my head, Gale wear this gold and white outfit mod that's floating around and Ora wears a floaty chiffon tank that's really drapey with a matching gold and white coset around her waist. She wears leather pants and some embroidered flats, since it's a special occasion. Both of them wear flowers in their hair since they're married during Greengrass. I do think that at some point they will throw a party for all their friends to attend that's more traditional for Waterdeep, but for the time being they relish their time together in their little cabin - whether its a day, a week, or a month or more.

Thanks for the questions this was so funnnnnnn, I love blabbing about my blorbos. It's my goal to make everyone else as obsessed with Ora as I am. <3

Questions from this ask game!

[thefallenangelsgang]

Oh gods above this Tiefling Party is going to end up as multiple chapters oh my god

The CHAOS these gremlins are getting up to

(Rough and long winded timeline of the party below the break cause I have no interest in being brief a single minute of my life)

Okay so normal canon start to the party. The gang saves Halsin and bring him back to the grove, he restores order and decides to step down, Zevlor asks to have a night of revelry.

Now I'm still trying to decide two things:

-if I want the gang to have been compiling foodstuffs and alcohol etc to the same extent I did in the game (I had nearly 2000 points of camp supplies from the middle of Act 1 until the end of the game. I stopped picking up foodstuffs in Act 3) which is funny but a little reality breaking or have a segment where the party and the tieflings and the druids go on a little mission to pillage stuff now that the threats have been cleared. The idea of going up to Waukeen's Rest and the Tollhouse to raid their food stores is sitting in my mind beside the image of Halsin with a barrel on each shoulder (I know you Halsin Girlies (gender neutral) will love that)

-And where the camp is. I'm playing with it only being easily accessible via the Grove (perhaps the Risen Road brings you past it if you go down the section that's collapsed in). Reason is no one stays at camp save for Withers and the Owl Bear Cub and the camp is not packed up everyday. They need a secure place to leave things. The refugees trust them and the druids (other than Kagha and her die-hards) are respectful cause it is technically outside of the grove and they aren't being antagonistic. Plus they add a layer of protection at that entrance.

Anyways other than that I definitely plan for some Druids to filter in, particularly ones that like Halsin, and bring some alcohol they brew in the Grove. Mostly because I like the idea of there being a mix of people at the party.

Party begins later in the evening, it's still at the Act 1 Camp, all the characters in game are there plus some. It's a blast. There's food, there's drinks, there's music. Good vibes all around.

At some point Shadowheart asks Wynleth to share a bottle of wine with her once things quiet down. Wynleth misses the meaning of this and agrees thinking she's going to get some girl time with Shadowheart.

Networking Networking Networking (maybe a scene with Halsin and Zevlor. I haven't figured that out. All I know is Rhett is hanging out and flirting with Karlach by this point and Laertes is alternating with Alfira to provide the tunes)

Sometime around sunset is when Lae'zel has her moment and tells Wynleth she wants to taste her, which Wynleth politely declines (thoroughly spiraling in her mind #WhatTheActualFuckLae'zel)

From here is the beginning of Glasses, a bottle, and a lot on my mind (that link is an early draft. Laertes still goes by Cassius in it) where Astarion and Wynleth slip into an easy friendship and Wynleth cements herself as firmly Tipsy. Eventually that scene wanders into the discussion about sex and Wynleth's Asexuality that Karlach interrupts and joins. It ends with Wynleth denying anymore wine cause she's meeting with Shadowheart later. Astarion gets confused cause Wynleth JUST told him she doesn't do casual dalliances. Wynleth gets confused cause she's just meeting for a drink. Karlach and Astarion gently bully her and Wynleth flees the scene to straighten out the situation.

Shadowheart is chill with it. Wynleth overshares about not being into casual stuff. Shadowheart has to put the old dog down cause Astarion and Karlach had her thinking that Shadowheart wanted to get nasty (to be fair they genuinely believed that)

I feel like at this point Wynleth is floating around the party (song break anyone???) and hanging out with people. This is where she notices Gale and Wyll are not really in the party. Wyll is missing one of his favorite dances and well, Gale is just kinda moping on the fringes.

Wyll is up first. She finds him on the beach and they end up having a kind of downer heart to heart. Wyll asks about his father. Is he still mad? does he miss me? that kind of stuff. Wynleth gets the story about what really happened that ended with Wyll a Warlock and Ulder disowning him. I haven't ironed this bit out yet but I know Wyll is like a son to Wynleth and it eats her up inside that she wasn't there to stop Ulder. She stepped up when Francesca died to be a force in Wyll's life. She doesn't fill a "Mother" role for Wyll but more of a very involved Aunt. IDK they are cute. (I might have him promise to save her a dance)

Once Wyll leaves, Gale sidles up. This starts what I've bee writing today. They talk a bit about Wyll, vague stuff cause it isn't her story to tell. Gale has one of his "whether 'tis nobler" moments and it scares Wynleth a bit cause she sees her self sacrificial tendencies in Wyll and now in Gale. Gale drops it in favor of poking light fun at Wynleth's "politicking" and Wynleth asserts this is a night of revelry. That is quickly proven by a comical interruption by a tiefling couple trying to fuck by the boats. This fucking UNDOES both of them. IDK why but the characters started kind of naturally working themselves into hysterics and I chose to play it as cartoonishly as feasibly possible. Hence 4 pages of Gale and Wynleth being literally inconsolable with laughter.

Shadowheart finds the two of them collapsed outside Gale's tent after they manage to stagger away. Wynleth, still in a mischievous mood, sics her and Astarion on the couple but makes them promise not to do anything mean, offering two frankly heinous pranks to do. Folding up all the discarded clothing extremely neatly (there is a moment where it all comes flying from behind the boats in a purposefully silly moment) and stealing the couple's socks.

Gale and Wynleth finally calm down enough to talk without howling with laughter and that's when the couple walks back in, sockless and confused (Astarion and Shadowheart did do the folding bit, Wynleth and Gale just can't tell by visuals). Wynleth and Gale HAVE to leave. They are going to actually have an aneurysm. So they do, not before Shadowheart and Astarion almost make them break again and they pass the couples socks on the food table arranged in the shape of hearts.

That is all that I wrote before I ran here to talk about this, but I know Gale and Wynleth duck into the forest behind camp and end up taking a walk. They get to talking, hoping to calm down enough to be able to look the Tiefling couple in the eye without stroking out. It's pleasant. They learn a lot about each other.

Gale gets a little bold, he points out that this little walk is a lot like the one she thought about during their weave lesson. It was a very tame thought. It truly was a fleeting idea of how nice it would be to pick his brain on all sorts of subjects and it turned a touch romantical if you will. Gale is very attractive to Wynleth. She likes the way he thinks and the way he speaks even if it can be overly flowery and obtuse at times.

So Wynleth gets bold right back and the scene ends with them realizing they are mutually attracted to each other. They might even kiss (I'm honestly still figuring their early relationship out more). I'm not entirely convinced either is ready to fully commit to a relationship at that moment, but it very much might change as I get there. I do have an idea of what them deciding to try out a relationship looks like and it's going to probably be torture for me to write (raaaahhhhhh I'm gonna fistfight god and man) but that's a story for another time.

There is a little more to the "party". They do make their way back and part ways. It's late and most people have run off to bed (or be bed ayoooo) or have passed out drunk or are simply chatting quietly. So Wynleth tracks down Shadowheart and they go off to a little spring area and they end up taking a dip and talking. Wynleth spills the tea about Gale and Shadowheart and her begin to form an actual bond.

Wynleth goes to sleep A) Exhausted and B) Assured in the fact that she actually has friends and maybe even a romantic partner in her future after A Very Long Time.

Godspeed. I'm sensing at least three, maybe more, chapters and I am going to go insane.

[rottenbrainstuff]

BG3 playthrough - Gortash

Mega spoilers below the cut

Finally, finally, I got to the audience with Gortash. I’m happy for the girlies that are in love, I love Jason Isaacs and I’m glad they’ve hired top knotch voice actors for the baddies in this game, but damn my friends, he does nothing for me. He looks like a moldy potato. As I said before, he looks like he smells like a hangover covered up with Axe spray. Sorry!

Despite that, he’s a very interesting character. I really liked the little group of NPCs outside fanboying about him inventing the Steel Watch - someone points out it was the Gondians who actually invented the Steel Watch, and Gortash just financed it, and someone else argues, no, it was Gortash who invented it - which he absolutely didn’t. Reminded me of Elon Musk and how everyone thought he was such a fucking genius, when all he did was purchase companies and pay other researchers. I loved that parallel.

So DAMN. This scene is very different for a dark urge. Man I felt so sorry for Karlach - she thinks she’s going to walk up and have this big face to face with her ex friend, and Gortash doesn’t even have words for her - instead he welcomes back his favourite assassin, and that’s me. I loved Karlach’s WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?? reaction, because same girl, same. Absolutely fucking WILD for a resisting durge to learn, you know, not only do they have these horrible murderous urges, not only do we have this nasty little butler man trying to force us to gruesomely kill people, not only did something horrible happen to us that wiped clean all our memories, NOT ONLY ARE WE A GODDAMNED BHAALSPAWN and leader of the goddamned bhaal cult, NOT ONLY ALL OF THIS, no, that wasn’t enough, oh no: now we learn we were also one of the original architects of the Absolute plot, removed only when Orin saw an opportunity to displace us. Damn, damn, damn. What a wild fucking ride. My poor tav.

The writing here and dialogue choices I found were a bit funky, rather like a bad DM that is trying too hard to nudge the player into the result they want, without really understanding what the player naturally wants to do. It was very odd how the dialogue kept offering me options to see if Gortash was telling the truth. Reassurances and reassurances. But you know what? My durge doesn’t CARE if Gortash is telling the truth. Lies, truth, it doesn’t matter, I am disgusted by what I just learned. I might agree not to pound Gortash into paste right this particular second, because Wyll’s dad as well as an entire audience and compliments of guards are right there, but I am NOT, NOT saying that I agree to any fucking alliance??? Well the Emperor says he’s telling the truth. Well I can read his body language to see if he’s telling the truth. Well I can use detect thoughts to see if he’s telling the truth. I DO NOT CARE IF HE IS TELLING THE TRUTH. In fact if he’s being sincere that almost makes the situation worse. It was so bizarre. I feel like maybe this dialogue was designed mostly with a non-durge in mind, who probably hates Gortash a lot less at this point? Maybe?

Anyways whatever, we got to a point where I agreed not to go straight to combat, but I still feel like I expressed my disgust in a mostly satisfactory way, so whatever. Whatever.

What happens AFTER that is also pretty fun. The three companions you just brought along to the coronation have now all just seen you are not only a Bhaalspawn, but you were one of the three who started all of this horrible shit in the first place!!! They all have very very interesting reactions (and as far as I am able to tell - the reaction is the same whether or not you chose to tell them you are a bhaalspawn ahead of time. My particular tav told no one but Astarion).

Karlach’s reaction hurt the most. She was furious, absolutely furious to find out I used to work with Gortash and that I used to lead the Bhaal cult. She says she isn’t sure she trusts I’m not still a bad guy, and she needs time - a lot of time - to think about it. Her reaction is TOTALLY VALID, it absolutely is, but it still stings, holy shit. I actually reloaded to see if there was anything I could do to make her less mad - but nothing helps. Augh. Karlach I am so sorry, I’m so sorry….

Gale was similarly angry. The reaction is valid but it hurts, it hurts…

Shadowheart’s reaction was bugged, at least for me. After the ceremony she had no reaction at all, just her regular conversation dialogue. That’s too bad, I was curious to see what she said.

Lae’zel has no additional dialogue, she will only say what she says if you tell her yourself that you’re a bhaalspawn: that it makes sense, because you are murderous and also annoying, lol.

Halsin is surprised, but not in a… “I had no idea you were actually a piece of shit this whole time” way, and more of a “shit I guess this just shows that we need to be careful and not take anything for granted” way.

Jaheria (who has no dialogue to tell her you’re a bhaalspawn) is concerned, but tells herself that doubting each other only benefits Gortash. She also asks for some time to think, but it’s less of a rude “I need time to think about how I’m ever going to look at your disgusting face again” and more of a “I need time to decide what is the best strategy to take now” way.

Wyll as always is a rock-solid friend. He’s mostly thinking about his father, understandable, and tells me again the story of the bhaalspawn who went on to become a hero.

And as before, as always, Astarion has the very best reaction, really shocked me actually, because I never thought about it like that. He starts off quite accusatory and I was prepared to have my heart broken - “You! You’re the one behind all this!” Ugh. It was hurting my heart. What will I do if Astarion is angry? Then he flips it into a joke as always, laughs and says he admits he’s impressed. But THEN… he THANKS me, he thanks me for being that evil bastard, because if it wasn’t for the Absolute plot and the nautiloid snatching people, he’d still be locked away in Cazador’s kennel. He THANKS me. I was so… surprised. I never really thought of it like that. Bhaal-cult-leader-tav frees Astarion. Extremely indirectly, but still. Man. My heart was hurting from Karlach’s reaction, everyone is freshly suspicious of me at worst and pitying at best, and why wouldn’t they be, I deserve every bit of it, and here’s Astarion, fucking THANKING me. Just. Wow. His support is so amazing, has been for this whole arc. I know people were grumpy that the dark urge writer wrote (honestly only a small amount of) extra content for Astarion interactions but didn’t have time to give the same attention for the other companions, but it’s not even the extra content that makes Astarion so amazing in a dark urge run. It’s his unique perspective and the place that he’s coming from and his surprising and unwavering support. It’s kind of like how Gale is uniquely supportive of a tav that becomes a mindflayer, it’s a sweet little special character piece. As things just keep get worse and worse for my resisting durge, I’m appreciating Astarion’s support more and more.

Back at camp, there’s the Orin kidnapping blah blah blah. The companion taken can be Lae;zel, Gale, or Halsin, but Lae’zel’s scenario is the only one that really makes any kind of sense at all…. What does Halsin losing control in the city or Gale wanting to blow up his orb have to do with anything? Lae’zel trying to convince you someone else in camp is the imposter and murder them makes much more sense. Afterwards, Gale says we should carefully consider Orin’s terms, no matter how distasteful it may be. Distasteful?..? What an odd comment. I’m 100% going to obliterate Gortash, was already making plans for that, nothing at all to do with Orin. “Distasteful” nothing, killing Gortash and confronting Orin was the plan all along. How odd.

Now I’m in the lower city, and it’s fucking shredding my poor shitty computer. We’ll see how this goes. Astarion went a bit nuts shopping for clothes at Carm’s Garms, and my tav is now wearing a ridiculous embroidered thing in black and blue and silver and looks like a mariachi. NPCs everywhere, as far as the eye can see, and even on the lowest graphics settings my poor mac is chugging along.