#marigoldbaker

[blackjackkent]

Ask prompt fill for @astreamofstars and @marigoldbaker from this ask meme: Will They/Won't They Prompts Jaheira/Khalid - [NURSE] after a battle gone wrong, the receiver begins to tend to the sender's wounds, fading adrenaline and rising fear causing them to realize their feelings. Another prequel ficlet to a larger fic I'm working on. Also progresses me to the new stage of brainrot where I'm POVing from the random side characters in Jaheira's story that I made the fuck up. 😂 Hope you enjoy!

-----

Commander Vartan of the Harpers sits in the moonlight at the back of the rattling cart, carefully cleaning the blood off his sword. “It'll be all right, lad,” he tells Khalid gently. “Try and get some rest.”

Easier said than done, of course. Traveling in a wagon full of wounded comrades is not an easy matter, even when the battle they're leaving behind was technically a victory. 

It shouldn't have been a battle at all, Vartan thinks irritably, sheathing the sword with a sudden snap. What was supposed to be a simple investigation into local bandit raids turned out to be an ambush attempt by trained mercenaries - ones who clearly knew far too much about recent Harper activities. Bad intel - and my people nearly paid the ultimate price for it.

“Khalid,” he says again, more firmly. “Do you hear me?”

Khalid stirs at the sound of the commander’s voice, blinking as if coming out of a trance. For nearly an hour now, he’s been sitting on the wagon’s floor among the semi-conscious bodies of their injured comrades, watching intently as if his fervent attention alone was enough to keep them breathing. “I- I’m sorry, sir,” he says unsteadily. “What d-did you say?”

Vartain smiles slightly, although without much humor. “I said you should get some rest. We’ve done all we can for them. When we reach Highburn Pass, the healers can take over properly with the supplies there.”

“Oh. Y-yes, sir.” Khalid nods vaguely. The young Harper’s face and neck are stained with blood from the cut over his eye and his expression is drawn and weary. “I mean - n-no, sir,” he adds after a moment. “I want to- to keep an eye on them.”

Vartan glances over at the younger man - and again, the flicker of a smile touches his lips. Khalid is, of course, worried about all of their injured friends, but it does not surprise Vartan at all to see that he is keeping close to Jaheira’s side. The druid is unconscious and very pale with blood loss; the deep wound in her gut rises and falls with her shallow breathing, barely stabilized by the potions they’ve been able to give her.

And the dark of the moonlit night very nearly hides it but not quite - Khalid is clutching one of her hands very tightly in both of his.

“As you wish, then,” Vartan says mildly. There’s a long silence, broken only by the rumble of the road rolling away beneath the cart's wheels. Then he adds, “I know you care a lot about her, lad. But she'll be all right.”

Khalid's head snaps up, and even in the dimness, Vartan can see that the grey exhaustion in his face has been replaced abruptly by a flood of color. “S-sir?” he squeaks. 

Vartan raises an eyebrow at him. “Oh, was I not meant to know?” 

“N-no, I-- that is, I d-dont know what you…” Khalid trails off, looks down at Jaheira's hand in his. “Her hands were c-cold,” he says awkwardly. 

“Khalid, son… I know all of you think I'm older than the gods, but I'm not blind.” Vartan's smile settles into a rueful grin. 

Khalid's affection for Jaheira has been an open secret in the squad for weeks - as, for that matter, have been Jaheira's feelings for the young Calishite. The only remaining question is how long it will take the two of them to get a clue; Vartan hasn't participated in the betting pool on the subject, out of some lingering sense of hierarchical propriety, but it doesn't mean he's not invested in the outcome. The Harpers don't prohibit relationships among their ranks, and frankly all of the longing looks have been driving everyone crazy. 

“Why not just tell her how you feel?” he asks. 

Khalid frowns sheepishly. “S-sir, I--” He stops, swallows. “I would like t-to… b-but she is so far b-beyond me…” he mutters, half-aloud, half to himself. “And yet…”

Vartan raises an eyebrow and waits, and after a moment Khalid looks up at him with a plaintive, uncertain expression. “For a m-moment today, I thought I had l-l-lost her. It t-tore my heart,” he says shakily. 

Vartan feels an abrupt wave of sympathy for the younger man. There's a question in those words, a plea for help. Khalid has, to Vartan’s knowledge, no family in the city, and no worthwhile family anywhere. He isn't exactly drowning in people to ask for advice. All he has is the Harpers, who took him in and gave him a place, a home. 

“I think you should tell her that,” Vartan says, quietly matter-of-fact.

Khalid swallows, looking down at Jaheira's hand in his again. Then he manages a slight smile. “Is that an order, C-C-Commander?”

“A suggestion,” Vartan says mildly. “Just give it some thought, lad. Life is too short to sit on these things forever. Besides…” He grins crookedly. “You might be surprised at the answer.”

[harpershigh]

I leave you guys unchecked for FIVE MINUTES to behave like a cat at @dev1lsadvocate and when I come back-

@thenextchapterbegins hits me with a steel chair you can be a mayoral candidate in Brasil now

@soulswearied changed URL for the fiftieth time I love you but I almost unfollowed by mistake SORRY

@demonwebs is climbing walls esse menino andou ouvindo Luísa Sonza

@baldurianrogue is pranking people into seeing his clown

@mvstra is trying to get Vhaal killed by his true goddess

People are throwing the grandma in a mosh pit honestly I agree she deserves to accidentally maim someone as a treat

@marigoldbaker is bullying people into romancing Jaheira I knew I could always count on you

Did I miss something else?

[thecubspeaks]

@marigoldbaker is bullying me into making a hypothetical Tav to romance Jaheira and I also blame (affectionate) whoever that last anon for the kiss meme was

[bigdingus1234]

Drawing mutuals blorbos because I'm bored and procrastinating uni work

@xanfeursel @githyankidanky @marigoldbaker

[lisavetbathory]

tagged by @shavirlight

1. one dark thing after another (IWTV) Claudia & Louis, Louis/Lestat, Claudia/Madeleine, rated M

I feel like this is cheating because I've only posted one chapter of this so far but it's going to be good it's going to be epic. Claudia is a vampire slayer, moves to a small town on a hellmouth with her watcher/father Louis. Kind of starts on the same vein as the start of iwtv season 2 where Lestat is um...compromised...and Claudia & Louis are off on their own running into the horrors. But it's also inspired by Buffy so it has a fun tone (i hope).

2. love you anyway (IWTV) Louis/Lestat, rated E

A sequel I wasn't going to write but felt compelled to with all the support the first part of this series got. And I like it more! Filled with Louis claiming he's staying away from Lestat while doing anything but...turned into the sappy I love you that I don't think will be anything close to canon. I wanted to see it though!!!! Also set in Canada because I can.

3. knew from the get go (IWTV) Louis/Lestat, rated E

Biting!!! Loving biting!!! This is an early Louis/Lestat encounter with lots of drinking each others blood romantically. Though this is an E rated fic and there's other stuff to focus on for sure - my favourite part is the dialogue.

4. knock me down with a feather (BTVS) Jenny/Giles, rated T

This story took over the first half of my summer and it was very very fun to write. Super niche, it's a swan lake au with a couple that's a blip in the show as a whole but I adore them and this.

5. scorch marks (BTVS) Jenny/Giles, rated E

When I started writing Jenny and Giles fic I was horrified by the small (but lovely) number of E rated fics and had to rectify that immediately. Jenny cast a spell around valentine's day in s2 to get rid of her feelings for Giles and...well...the opposite happens. You can guess where it goes from there. I leave the overall conflict unresolved and the resentment from Jenny is at all time high - so it remains one of my faves.

tagging: @twosomeofcuteness, @marigoldbaker, @hal-1500, @ethanrayne, @nessiesgf (no pressure! talk about as many or as little fics as you'd like ❤️)

[roselynnthornwood]

Show Me Your Top "No White Flag" Ships- 2025

Thanks for the tag, @thescholarlystrumpet! Here are my top Ride or Die, I Will Go Down With This Ship- ships as of January 2025 <3

No pressure tags: @jaqegaytona, @sunshineduckies, @marigoldbaker, @calenlily, @finnicks

Calendiles

My OG OTP! They had me at "That's not where I dangle it."

Hellcheer

An unexpected hyperfixation from which I fear I may never recover.

Helaemond

I have a lot of Targaryen ships, but this one was born of the barest of crumbs that continue to feed me and the tiny corner of the internet that is ravenous for it, so they get the mention here.

Zelink

I have loved them since the gold cartridge NES days, and BotW/TotK had solidified them into my psyche forever.

Kanej

It's about the yearning.

[ethanrayne]

tagged by @marigoldbaker, gonna do this for.... uh, how about three OCs cause i wanna do one BTVS OC, one Baldur's Gate OC, and then my new guy from a Gravity Falls thing I'm kinda working on.

Use the generator to generate headcanons for your muse and post 5 to 10 results that you agree with!

Julie Delle (BTVS)

Julie can't sit in a chair properly. [i mean. there's a stereotype about bisexual sitting for a reason.]

Julie hates being alone. [she is SUCH a people person]

Julie sleeps in until noon. [not always, but when she's got someone else to open the White Fox, absolutely. usually she sleeps til 10, and the shop opens at 11. hiring Christian has been great for her.]

Julie knocks people over by hugging them. [this has happened to Ethan. Repeatedly. she thinks it's funny.]

Julie gets road rage.

Julie has an incredible long-term memory but an awful short-term memory. [adhd will do that to you. no she's not diagnosed, she was born in 1970. but i made her, so i know.]

Julie steals other peoples clothes. [she has a collection of random shirts and jackets that she just never gave back to various exes, at least two things of her older sister's despite living on different continents now, and a jacket that Ethan has just accepted he's never getting back. It's fine, he stole it from Ripper to begin with.]

Julie got hit by a bus once. [if you ask her, it just grazed her. if you ask Ethan, his life flashed before his eyes. if you ask the doctor that treated her, it was just some bruising and a twisted ankle because Ethan yanked her back onto the sidewalk. they were leaving the white fox to go to lunch. lunch did NOT happen because ethan is overprotective of his family.]

Julie can drive.

Julie has fallen asleep at their desk while working in the middle of the night. [doing inventory as the owner and- at the time- sole employee of a small business is just like that sometimes.]

Mayhem (BG3 Tav)

Mayhem has an incredible spice tolorance.

Mayhem will go feral. Watch out. [do not hurt his people. you will find six knives in your back and wonder where they all came from before you die horribly. he utterly demolished orin to rescue a guy that he still claims he only kind of likes.]

Mayhem sings in the shower. [his childhood best friend is a bard and he knows all the words to many many things. he's not good but that's not really the point of it. it's just fun.]

Mayhem sleeps in until noon. [he's a former thief and even as an adventurer still conducts most of his life by moonlight. noon is early for him.]

Mayhem nearly drowned in a river as a child. [orphan child attempts to teach himself to swim in the Chionthar, is rescued by his best friend in a wildly traumatic incident. may expand on that when i finally write the big Mayhem and Bon fic.]

Mayhem could easily survive The Hunger Games.

Mayhem is a simp. [i hate this word but like. idk man the guy took one look at lae'zel and decided he was gonna do whatever she wants. as far as i can tell that's pretty much textbook.]

Mayhem is in your house. [he's taking anything not nailed down. i hope you kept your gold on you, buddy. everything else is Mayhem's now.]

Mayhem has chronic nightmares. [after the events of BG3? absolutely.]

Mayhem has been to prison. [i would elaborate but this one's gonna be in the fic. he was pretty young, and they let him go after a night or two with a warning, but there's a reason he's so determined to be the stealthiest thief in the city.]

Wolfram Barker (Gravity Falls OC- context is that Wolf is a werewolf scientist that shows up looking for Ford in the 80s only to find Stan instead, shenanigans ensue. Trans/nonbinary, bisexual, bit of a chaos gremlin.)

Wolfram is a switch.

Wolfram can beat you up if deserved. [and will!! luckily for Filbrick Pines he's on the opposite side of the country when Wolf finally ends up hearing about his behavior...]

Wolfram is the gay cousin. [to be fair, so is their little brother Harry, but Wolf is one of five siblings in a larger extended clan of werewolves and easily the most blatantly queer of all of them.]

Wolfram is a dog person. [*snickers* realistically Wolf loves all kinds of animals but dogs are the most likely to get along with them for werewolf reasons.]

Wolfram cries while watching disney movies.

Wolfram sings in the shower. [mostly disco and metal songs. Wolf has interesting music tastes.]

Wolfram can't sit in a chair properly.

Wolfram has an intense fear of spiders.

Wolfram sucks at saying tongue twisters.

Wolfram is smart but also very stupid. [genius scientist with the impulse control of a golden retriever. realistically it's the adhd again because all of my characters are neurodivergent.]

not tagging anyone else bc my brain is soup this week bc of how cold it is so i cannot figure out who to tag. if you wanna do this, grab the generator and the OCs of your choice and have at it!

[twosomeofcuteness]

Tagged by @marigoldbaker <£

Use the generator to generate headcanons for your muse and post 5 to 10 results that you agree with!

Tierney is great with kids.

Tierney's favourite subject in school was Science.

Tierney is a top.

Tierney can't make the voices go away.

Tierney is oblivous to any and all romantic interest someone may show them. (Just ask her girlfriend, Angelica)

Tierney stole a lollipop at the checkout when they were 5 and they still feel guilty about it.

Tierney has an intense fear of spiders. (As seen in Breaking Broken Hearts, chapter 12)

Tierney is the gay cousin.

Tierney gets road rage.

Tierney is a cry baby. (I love my girl but she will be crying over anything and everything)

Tagging @hal-1500 @lisavetbathory and @rachaeljurassic if y'all wanna play, ocs of your choice!

[ethanrayne]

@marigoldbaker

this is what i spend 90% of my playtime doing

[blackjackkent]

Prompt fill for @marigoldbaker from this ask meme: Light and Dark Metaphors Hector/Karlach - "radiant smile" Some Act 3 Heclach fluff/angst for your reading pleasure. <3 Hope you enjoy! Ty for the prompt. :3

-----

Hector feels the mattress creak under him, the gentle shift of the covers along his skin. He cracks one eye open and squints around the inn bedroom. It's still dark, the outline of the bedposts a barely-visible grey on grey. 

“Where're you going?” he mumbles. 

"Shhh. Don't worry, Soldier." Karlach is sitting up on the edge of the bed, leaned forward a little with her elbows on her knees. "I'm right here."

He rolls over drowsily, resting a hand on her bare back. She twitches slightly at the unexpected touch, then relaxes at once and leans subtly back against his palm. 

"It's early yet," he says softly. "We don't have to go. Not for a little while..." He's still comfortably warm, half-asleep, floating on the memories of the previous night. It's the first time they've had a place to themselves, not even in the same inn as the others, and if he lies still enough, perhaps he can avoid jarring the illusion that it could last forever. 

"I know," she answers. "Not going anywhere. I just... wanted to watch the sun come up."

"Oh." He opens his other eye, and then pushes up on one elbow to look past her shoulder. Sure enough, the window next to the bed faces east, and he can see the slim line of red slipping over the horizon.

With a soft grunt, he sits up and scoots sideways on the bed to sit behind her. She leans back against him at once, pillowing her head into his shoulder and neck with the peculiar little twist of motion - now habit after a number of months - necessary to avoid sticking her broken horn into his cheek. He lets out a soft sigh of contentment and wraps his arms around her waist. "Comfortable?" he asks.

"Mm. Perfect," she agrees. There's still a touch of drowsy thickness in her voice, and she snuggles back tight into his arms without taking her eyes off the window. "Used to get up early, mornings before the Hells," she goes on after a little while. "Just to see the lightshow over the roofs. Drove Fytz crazy when we roomed together a while. She hated being up before noon."

Hector idly presses slow a kiss under her jaw. "You would have made a good monk," he says teasingly. "Vigils at strange hours..."

"Hah." He feels her shake gently with the laugh. "Gods, can you imagine? I think I'd've gotten thrown out in a week. Never could sit still."

Another kiss against her neck just over her collarbone. "Mmm. What if we'd met in the monastery and had a torrid love affair?" he asks, mock-dramatically.

She pretends to think it over. "Guess maybe that could have kept me around. Although I think, more likely, I'd’ve seduced you right out of that library and into my bed. Massive monk scandal.”

“I like the sound of this,” he murmurs in her ear, and she shivers pleasantly against him. “You could make me do anything, you know…”

“Remind me to test that theory later…” She reaches back to run her hand slowly along his thigh. “Get you to clean my tent of all the mud it picked up in Rivington…” She trails off and tilts her head, looking back towards the window again. “Gods, look at that…”

He follows her gaze. The sun is breaking properly over the horizon now, throwing the silhouettes of the buildings down the hill into sharp relief against a rising wave of brilliant red and gold. The city sleeps, bathed in the flame-colored light; for a moment it feels as if they are the only two people awake in the whole world, watching Lathander’s touch sweep between rooftops and over cobblestones.

Hector turns his head, watching Karlach watching the dawn. There is a small smile on her face, brilliant as the rising sun itself but… cautious, as if she fears that too much joy might shatter the moment apart and send it careening back out of her reach.

It makes his heart ache in his chest to see it. Karlach was made to be loud and joyful and wild, but the world has taught her that such things do not last. If he were able, he would give her everything it has tried to take away from her and more so, and see to it that she never had to fear again. But he cannot, because he too is acutely aware that time is ticking implacably away from them, and all they have are these brief moments, these brief touches, this brief love.

“It’s beautiful,” he says quietly.

“Yeah,” she murmurs, unable to tear her eyes from the view. “No city like it. Not anywhere.”

“I believe you,” he says.

A long pause. She breathes out heavily and leans back against his chest. He presses his face into her hair and holds her close, feeling the slow rhythm of her breathing, the familiar whump-whump pulses of heat under her skin. And together they sit, unmoving, skin against skin, until the sun climbs fully into view and the brilliant colors begin to fade into more subtle daylight.

Then Karlach shifts, turns her face into his neck and presses a kiss under his ear. “All right. Back to bed with you, Soldier,” she says softly. “We’ve got a little time left, thank the gods.”

[blackjackkent]

🎀 🍋 🎃 for hector :)

(♡~OC Asks~♡)

🎀Do they have something they collect? {Stamps, rocks, stickers, etc}

I think I have headcanoned in the past that Hector collects and holds onto many of the books that he and the others find on their journey, forming his own little library in his tent by the end of the game.

I've not really thought about it beyond that, but considering it now, I kind of like the idea that he had some unusual thing that he collected at the monastery as well - perhaps ostensibly as part of his work at the monastery library, but also just because he is a nerd. :P

I'm going to say it was... maps. Every time visitors would come to the monastery, he would beg copies of their maps off them - ostensibly to increase the expanse of knowledge held in the library, but truly just because he found it fascinating to see all the different descriptions of lands so far off, and marvel that people traveled such distances when he himself had barely even left the building where he was raised.

(Little did he know... XD )

🍋Do you have a song that you associate with them?

One day I need to find more songs for Hector besides "Man of Stone" by Tall Heights, but it still works so well for him that I just say it any time anyone asks. XD

🎃What would their Halloween outfit be?

Hm this is a fun one. Let's see.

Halloween is one of those things that I think Hector wouldn't be instantly drawn to, but Karlach would be so excited about it that he'd go along kind of bemusedly and end up having a good time.

So I feel like he'd probably be doing some sort of couples costume that Karlach came up with.

I'll be honest, I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what that couple's costume would ACTUALLY be, so I'm totally skiving on actually answering this question, but the first thing that popped into my head was for the two of them to go as each other.

Which is actually something I can render in BG3 by having them put on each other's starting armor. XD

And, well.

I've been laughing at this for five minutes straight. Incredible. 10/10 no notes. XD

[blackjackkent]

tagged by @marigoldbaker

Use the generator to generate headcanons for your muse and post 5 to 10 results that you agree with!

Doing both Hector and Rakha because of course I am. XD

Hector desperately needs a hug but doesn't know it and refuses to ask for one.(*)

Hector cannot drive.

Hector is an introvert.

Hector is a bottom.

Hector is a horrible liar.

Hector has fallen asleep at their desk while working in the middle of the night.

Hector is smart but also very stupid.

Hector instinctively cleans messes in their own house as well as other peoples.

Hector is queer.

Hector has punched a hole in their wall.(**)

(*) Pre-Karlach, at least. :P (**) Too enthusiastically practicing martial arts between trainings. XD

-----

Rakha is not allowed to drink energy drinks.

Rakha can't make the voices go away.

If someone they knew commited a crime, Rakha would cover for them.

Rakha has a knife under their bed.

Rakha is a sleepwalker.

Rakha has chronic nightmares.

Rakha could easily survive The Hunger Games.

Rakha is not good with social cues.

Rakha has a very low alcohol tolerance.

Rakha can't spell "restaurant."

Tagging @acecasinova @writer86 @rhysintherain @the-night-wizard @eluvisen and anyone else who wants to do this. :)

[blackjackkent]

this is not anonymous idc — i love how soft, sturdy, and earnest hector and caden both are!! hard to craft someone who matches karlach exactly in terms of Sweetness Quotient but you do a really good job there :) also rakha being so often divorced from & unsettled by her emotions and impulses but choosing wyll (softest man ever) as a partner says something in the same way that jaheira being married to khalid says something so obviously i love that too

Anonymously tell me something you like about my OCs

<3 thank you friend. :3

I definitely have a set of types for my OCs which maybe I should break out of but I do love creating my golden retriever boys who love their gfs/wives so much. :D And poor Rakha has been such a ride to write but I'm very proud of how she's turned out. So I am glad you enjoy them as well. <3 TYSM.

[blackjackkent]

Favorite Movies Gif Tag

Rules: Without naming them, post a gif from ten of your favourite films, then tag 10 people to do the same!

tagged by @mclaughlane - thank you! :D

tagging @astreamofstars @the-night-wizard @writer86 @rhysintherain @marigoldbaker and anyone else who sees this and would like to do it! :D

(these are def in no particular order and not necessarily my absolute faves; there are a lot of movies i like so i'm sure there are ones i'm forgetting XD )

[thecubspeaks]

Hal and @marigoldbaker’s Thea are your friends who laugh way too much at each other’s not-funny jokes

[bigdingus1234]

Use the generator to generate headcanons for your muse and post 5 to 10 results that you agree with!

Rina almost drank the lethal dosage of caffine once.

Rina bullies kids on roblox.

Rina cringes at their middle school yearbook photos.

Rina can hug you, but wont.

Rina will go feral. Watch out.

Rina is oblivous to any and all romantic interest someone may show them.

Rina instinctively cleans messes in their own house as well as other peoples.

Rina is very good at walking in platform heels.

Rina is a simp.

Rina steals other peoples clothes. (only Geraldus' lol)

Tagged by @marigoldbaker