#obliquely because the timeline by and large covers more nwn events than bg events. i need a generic tag though

[vaultsixtynine]

obvs my full timeline isn't done yet but the orin vibe is like. ana IS an impostor. and the feeling that orin has for her originates from hatred, but the context is entirely different from as-written durge

i'm gonna cut for big ol durge spoilers

orin as written is jealous, feeling she deserves more. she seeks to displace someone more powerful and more favored than her, to prove her worth, etc. it's a little-sister-on-a-power-trip, and while that's fun and puts the player in the position of realizing they really did suck that bad to be Top Bitch over her, i both a) want more for orin and b) need more control over anathema's origins

orin with anathema is still antagonistic but it's like - she is the pure-blooded grand/daughter of sarevok. she is an eminently skilled shapeshifter. she killed her mother and then (in my lil timeline here) the 'canon' bg/2 protag (whatever the hell his name is, though i might eventually play those games For Real rather than half-remembered watching-my-mom-play bits) for bhaal's favor and the right to lead this cult to glorious slaughter and she has been doing that for years - careful planning, for a beautiful outcome.

this orin is more methodical, more patient. she still has her moments of cackling blood-soaked glee, but i want her to be SCARY and not just unstable - she knows good art takes Time and avoiding too heavy of an eye on her group is critical. she feels, in every sense, that she both is entitled to and has also earned everything she has, and threats to her status/position will be disemboweled posthaste. to that end, i think i enjoy her being a full dread three planner way more than a revan-esque "YOU were the EVIL MASTERMIND" reveal.

enter stage left: a shambling puppet, filled with a stolen gift. she Knew something was wrong about anathema as soon as she entered the stage, and even as she saw doubt enter her sect at the arrival of another claimant to the throne, she believed her father would never favor a liar and a thief over Her. she, who has done so much for Him, in His name. when bhaal turns his eye to anathema and doesn't immediately unravel her at the seams - even tells orin that she's Actual Competition - she's seeing red, literally.

ana - even in her fucked-up state - gives her a run for her money. don't really have what the underlying goal was for this whole gambit (i'll get there ok ok - the durgening might also Not Even Happen in a fashion that there IS a 'before'-time. i have yet to decide)

regardless of When the durgening happens, orin's energies with ana upon re-meeting are a) intense b) violently taunting rather than jealous overcompensation c) knowing that ana is an Outsider, not an equal - she is prey, no matter what she's stolen. does she deserve a duel? maybe if you're good, pet. maybe if you're good.

i also think orin toys less with hostages (that's a gortash tactic - see the iron throne, yetcetera) and more with the looming and HIGHLY legitimate threat of violence and sowing distrust to shape ana's behaviors. they're playing a little mind game and ana IS susceptible, because ketheric's dead and gortash can be reasoned with (as a man who wants to maintain dominance and power, he still ultimately needs People and Things to dominate), but orin is sheer unadulterated joy in the rending of living flesh. slaughter is the journey And the destination. you can't really reason with someone like that, and ana Knows it. so when orin starts coyly bringing Other Party Members And Associated Friends into the conversation as viable alternatives for bloodshed since ana won't do what she Fucking Wants, ana IS paying attention.

what does orin want? to kill anathema, most certainly. but more directly: to reclaim what she has 'stolen', of her own volition or not. to drain and consume her.

so orin fucks with her more Directly, but always a little cheekily, flirtatiously. don't you wish you could kill me? you won't kill any of these sad little scenarios i keep giving you, but i know the lying transfusion in your veins wants to rip me limb from limb. i know you wake up almost every night with blood in your mouth because your weak mind roils against MY father's sacred visions. your blood - even stolen as it is - sings for mine because it knows it Belongs to me. it should be one with mine. you should be one with me. wouldn't you like that? you'll walk into my jaws willingly, Soon. when there is nothing left but me. when your blood leaves you no other option than to return Home.

[loud buzzer sounds as ana's 'fucked up psychosexual things to have with antagonist or antagonist-adjacent npcs' counter goes up by one]