#oc: arvid trygg

[invinciblerodent]

side note, it makes me feel kind of unreasonably giddy that my four "main" games of bg3, i'm playing:

a man loving a man

a woman loving a man

a man loving a woman (and a man)

and a woman loving a woman

and literally all of the characters involved are bi/pansexual.

diversity win, i'm queer and so is everything and everyone I do and make

[invinciblerodent]

Arvid:

Iona:

Petyr:

(+Ray:)

Tav Question

What is your Tav’s theme song?

[invinciblerodent]

i can't help but feel like this is a pointed comment, Gale

you were the one who asked the dwarf to marry you, you delightful beanstalk of a man, these are the direct consequences of your actions

[invinciblerodent]

i've not seen anyone post this with a dwarf before now, but jesus. jesus christ. jesus fucking christ.

(love how the others just stand there and watch intently as their friends make out and cuddle for a solid minute.)

(Gale is kneeling there, with his nice robes soaked in gross magical brain-juice and with armor clipping through his forehead, and they're just. watching.)

[invinciblerodent]

so i couldn't find a translation for this particular cheekbone tattoo, so i tried to translate it myself, and... I think it might be misspelled? like literally it says "DeTAtH" in the Infernal alphabet that's on the Forgotten Realms wiki, with the mixed capitals like that.

I can see that being either an infernal or Thayan word with no official translation that I'm aware of (in which case, we can headcanon away!), OR it was meant to say either "detach" or "death", with only very slight tweaks. (the lowercase "c" and "t" look very similar, as do the uppercase "A" and "T".)

I have it on my cleric's face, which works since the wiki does say that clerics often take the time to learn it, and I'm gonna just go ahead and say that in my hc it means "Detach"- being a cleric of Tempus, who is a neutral deity of war, it would be fitting. (The boy is full-on lawful good tho, so it uh. didn't really serve its purpose, lol.)

[invinciblerodent]

I haven't been posting about him as often anymore lately, but I won't pass up an excuse to post my boy Arvid Trygg, half-duergar cleric of Tempus turned house-husband

he's got a splendid mustache, palms the size of dinner plates, and an undiagnosed anxiety disorder, what's good

MLM Galemancer roll call!

I wanna see your Gale husbands and increase visibility for Gale's beautiful romances with other men. Reblog and share a pic of your MLM Galemancer character or reblog to spread more visibility of Gale being with men~ Here's one of mine: this is Shams my Dark Urge sorcerer

[invinciblerodent]

oh no

oh no this is so bloody adorable

[invinciblerodent]

The PC, lying on their back by the campfire and staring up at the stars: Souls existing separately from physical bodies, and people being able to be resurrected or reborn implies that the material body, and other, immaterial substances that make up a person, also exist separately. That would mean that Cartesian dualism is pretty much the accepted truth of our particular plane of existence. But, that sort of leaves me to question whether calling the illithid mind-flayers is correct nomenclature, I mean... they primarily consume brain tissue: that's a part of the material body, rather than strictly the mind, which would be an immaterial substance. Physically ingesting something immaterial, and using it to generate calories that sustain their real, living bodies, that would require for their digestive tracts to generate matter from nothing, which is... a pretty profound violation of the laws of physics. Although that kind of doesn't matter, I guess, since magic also exists on our plane, and that alone already violates the laws of physics. Unless I guess we consider the Weave and the outer planes to be sort of a halfway point between material and immaterial itself, but that's a whole separate thing. Of course, one might argue that illithid also require "psychic energy" to live, but then the question is, just how esoteric is that really? How strictly is it tied to the victims themselves? Because if psychic energy is to be considered another part of the immaterial minds of creatures that exist in the material plane, we run into the problem of the illithid sort of... spontaneously generating material from the immaterial yet again, and that doesn't feel like it should be possible. But, if we approach it as primarily a source of nutrients, it more or less has to be something material, like something relating to the electric conductivity of the brain itself, which then means that it... kind of no longer adds up to being part of the immaterial mind? ... so I guess what I'm getting at is that maybe, it'd be more accurate to call them brain-flayers. Technically. Because it's... it's the brains, that they eat. Mostly.

Gale, visibly vibrating with carnal lust: .... so I was thinking of a spring wedding

[invinciblerodent]

If you had to pick a song for Iona, Arvid, Petyr, and Mara each-what would they be? And why, if there’s a significant reason.

ooh, thank you for asking!

i was gonna say that I have pretty long playlists for each of them, but yeah, condensing it into just one song is harder than I thought...

If I can only pick ONE, right now I'd go with-

Petyr

.... which is to say, "yeah, I may have failed to live up to everyone's expectations of me, but, have you considered that maybe I'm an arrogant prick for a fucking reason."

this is one of the few non-instrumental songs on his playlist, and it just feels like his entire Thing, crystallized lol.

(.... the lyrics fit too. I mean he did also kinda cut off his family. Or at least hasn't spoken to them in a few years.)

Arvid

This one just really fits my little uncertain cleric boy, holding onto his faith with white-knuckled fists. (A lot of songs on his playlist are either in part about Gale as well, or they're kind of more vibes-based and less literally fitting, but this one has been his theme song since like... last September lol.)

I love that first line of the chorus for him, that "I am creation, both haunted and holy, made in glory".

Iona

Even just the line "this fire eats fire, and the fire is in you" hits very much like her.

Over the months I have gone so far into her that I kinda struggle to summarize her now, but this is still a very "Iona-core" song to me, specifically for those early game, reeling parts of her, when she's kind of trying to have her whole crisis of identity without anyone noticing, and while trying to keep her head straight and not get consumed by the sudden freedom she's experiencing.

My sweet little fucked up weasel-woman, oh how I love her pretty little messed up head. <3

Mara

This one was difficult to pick- her whole playlist, I kinda tried to make work by quickly switching back and forth between the "rip and tear, cult leader, blood on my hands, killing and violence" type of songs and the softer, gentler, kind of more mournful/scared songs, which kinda reflect her more as a very adamantly resisting Dark Urge character who is kind of terrified of her own urges, and actively wants to be soft and sweet, but can't fully deny her nature.

this one might still change as I get further into her playthrough, tho

..........

and though you didn't ask, my head has been chock-full of this guy lately, so fuck it,

heeeeeeeere's Raymond

It's just. Very that "noble boy was originally willing to do what was expected of him, but was painfully aware that it isn't what he wants, and that he just let himself be carried by the waves and whims of the world, right until he was forcibly made to take responsibility for his own life and grow himself a fucking spine".

This has been sort of his theme song for the past decade, ngl. I really like Radical Face either way, but I straight-up can't listen to this song without thinking about him, lol.

head in my hands I love him so much

[invinciblerodent]

Prayer of an unknown cleric

"Lord of Battles, Foehammer, protect me in the clash to come. Let my blade ring true, and my faith not falter. Let the tides of war turn in our favor, or let me fall with honor in Your righteous fire. Guide my soul to hold strong, and my arm to strike true, and allow Your sacred, impartial wisdom to sustain me so that I might guide us to Your blessed victory.

But.... in Your honor and glory, please... through Your divine will... please hear my fitful prayer.

Foehammer, at this troubled hour, hear that I beg of You, with the true and utmost devotion of a heart afire: I beg of You to heal and to keep, to protect that who is more dear than my own self- please, Tempus, my Lord of Fire and Steel, if he is to fall, then [multiple words scratched out] if he is to fall, then let my life be claimed in place of his, for he at holy hands has suff-- [large scribble] Just this once, please grant him Your divine presence. Keep his heart and hand strong, his mind sharp and magic mighty, and guide him to safety. Please, Foehammer, my Lord of War, let sword not touch sorcery on this day, and if it is blood that You desire, then I beg of You to take it from my devout heart sung in steel and psalm, from my sword forged in the crucible of combat, my faithful spirit and its complete devotion, and allow, in Your grace, for my beloved to live. And if life-- [large, furious scribble] if life is to be lost, if blood is to be spilled, let me exchange mine for his, have my life for it is already beholden to You, and let the trade be just, let it be fair, and let it be enough.

I request this of You as Your devout follower, as but Your most humble servant and sword- I beg of You to keep him, to save him; and if Your might is to hunger, to let Your appetite be whet on my skin, and Your teeth and blade be sated on my flesh, for I am Your creation.

Just... please, fuck, just... please let him live. Gods, please just let him survive this.

- an ink-stained prayer penned by a Baldurian war-priest on the eve of a great battle, 1492 DR. Divine magic shimmers in the parchment.

(Item received: Scroll of Warding Bond)

[invinciblerodent]

For you oc is problematic game

Arvid (because I'm curious)

And Ray (because I'm a pot-stirrer on occasion 🤭)

Your fave is problematic: OC edition

Thank you, this was a lot of fun! :) Enjoy this pair of problematic men in their fifties <3

Your fave is problematic: Arvid Trygg 🐧

Has intimidation proficiency, but is too much of a softie to ever use it, which is honestly just egregiously wasteful of him. (We failed so many rolls. We got into so many fights because of him.)

Self-medicates his very obvious anxiety disorder with a big ol’ heaping dose of denial, and later his clear PTSD with toxic codependency. His husband reports getting up to 17 magical “are u okay” pings a day, and he may say he doesn’t mind (pings right back, sends like 15 of his own anyway), but, like, Jesus fuck, dude. Not only is he a teacher, it’s also Waterdeep. Whatever even happens in Waterdeep, ever.

Didn’t disclose his nonexistent sexual history, or communicate effectively about expectations before having mind-melding astral sex on what was essentially the first date :( (defining the term “virgin slut” quite inaccurately, but efficiently) (no really, he was, by some certain definitions of the word, kind of a 50-year-old virgin before Gale, and didn't even tell him :/)

tbh also they got married only after like, idk, a few months of dating while in the throes of mortal peril. that's not good rep at all, they shouldn't endorse that.

Also didn't tell anyone, not even his boyfriend, that he's half-duergar. And yeah, maybe they didn't ask, but like, that's still a lie. :/

Litterer!! By which I mean he left the Crown of Karsus on the bottom of the fucking Chionthar, potentially ruining the delicate magical ecosystem down there, and MAYBE even leaving room for the rise of some…. diseased, city-dwelling fish-god. Or crab-god. What the fuck even lives in the Chionthar? Nothing at this point, probably, because the dang water is full of Netherese magic now!!! :CCC

Consumes smutty literature :/// we see your dog-eared copy of A Pleasurable Deal in the bottom of your pack, boy, you ain’t slick, and it’s frankly SICKENING that you’d endorse such smut. (and let’s not even talk about the REST of his collection of stolen!!!!!!!, smutty books. Man, for a Man of the Cloth he sure does consume a LOT of bad erotica.) [I, uh… like to pick something for my characters to collect in rpgs, for him it was the romance novels.]

Speaking of, he endorses organized religion??? Sure, that religion may be the one in which he was raised and is organized around the central tenet of “pick your battles- but fucking pick them”, but still, he’s a priest, and we ALL KNOW that clerics are, without exception, fantasy!catholics, which means that they are insufferable sticks-in-the-mud, and bad.

And even so, he’s double-dipping gods??? Like, for someone who claims to be a Tempuran, he does seem to enjoy the buff from Loviatar, and all that free healing from Silvanus and Selune, yknow? So he’s like, technically cheating on his god, which is also bad. :////

And like, why discriminate against Sharrans, you know. :/ It’s not their fault that their Dark Goddess’ ultimate doctrine is to envelop the world in pure nihilism, so like, convincing his best friend to renounce her goddess was, like, super manipulative. (Yeah, even if it turned out well for her.) (And then he didn't even hug her???? What, because "it was added in a later update"???? Get out of here, that's no excuse. Your programming shouldn't prevent you from doing the right thing. :/)

Gave the gith egg to the Society of Brilliance :/// and sure, he may CLAIM that it was because the rest of the créche turned on them and nobody would have been there to take care of it if it had hatched (and the Shadow-cursed lands really didn’t seem like the best place for a child either), but that’s not an excuse!!!! It still turned out bad, and it was a mistake in retrospect, which he SHOULD HAVE BEEN aware of, and therefore he is problematic.

Oh, also, he like... rejected everyone in camp at least once, which is, like, toxic as hell of him. Way to lead everyone on, man. :/ He should've had the good sense to NOT chop wood in his shirtsleeves. He should've known all his friends are horny bisexuals, he should've kept those thick biceps and that lush carpet of chest hair covered. :/

Your fave is problematic: Raymond Trevelyan 🐴

oh god so many reasons where do i even fucking begin

bourgeois scum. born a wealthy noble. abolish nobility and guillotine his ass. >:(

His romantic life has been a mess since the moment learned what his dick is for, and he consequently also stopped being able to keep it in his pants (slut :///)

Started out dating the son of his father’s blacksmith (the power imbalance! the secrecy! so toxic!!!! the guy was even a MINOR!!!!) (so was he) (they were both 17) (no that doesn’t MATTER right now), then he was engaged to a woman (without disclosing that he’s gay :/), then married a NECROMANCER (unethical, slightly better because it's recycling :///) who was both his technically-subordinate AND like 7 years older than him (sketchy :////), and NOW, after 20+ happy years of marriage and like 3 years widowed, he’s going to be dating a guy who is young enough to be his son??? :///// frankly gross ://// not good gay rep at all ://////

And, like, it's very likely that he's going to become illithid too, so he like, doesn't even give his super-young boyfriend the happy ending he promised. :/ And breaking promises is, like, so problematic.

He freed a dragon that was living in captivity one time, which i’m sure ruined the native ecosystem, introducing a large, invasive predator willy-nilly like that :/

And speaking of, there’s got to have been catastrophic levels of ecological fallout to all his dragon-murdering, now that I think about that. Destroying native megafauna like that definitely caused the overpopulation of all the dragons’ prey animals, and then you can just WATCH the vegetation suffer. (Have there been fewer forest fires? Maybe! But at what price!!!!!!)

His judgment of war criminals seems dependent on whether they were nice to him, because if you dig into it, he’s pardoned one and executed another, and it honestly really just came down to one being his friend :/

Also he's said discriminatory things about mages :/// and yeah, maybe it was him echoing the kind of views everyone in his homeland held unironically and he may have ended up a staunch supporter of mage rights and married to a mage, but, like, he should have known better from the very start. :/

Used a hand he honestly believed to have been marked by the mark of the divine prophetess to jerk off that one time :/

Actually he did also unironically believe himself to have been chosen by a god, and when he realized that wasn’t the case, he still didn’t use his platform to publicly apologize :/

Used influence to change the outcome of an election, is the sole reason the Thedosian pope is all WOKE now :/

accidentally aided the rise to power of a megalomaniacal trickster-god who seeks to destroy the world as we know it :/

and let's not forget that he's not even forklift-certified. doesn't matter that there aren't any in Faerun/Thedas, it still counts.

................ Oh, and technically they're both, like, mass murderers??? In some way??? So. That's gotta add to the pile. But honestly, in the context of everything else, that's like, a minor thing.

Point is, they both suck and nobody should like them. ://///

[invinciblerodent]

1) Will your OC get married and with who? 2) Will they have any children? What are their names?

OC Ask Game!

I think I’m gonna go on for a long (long, long, LONG) time about Iona, and mention the others kind of as a footnote, because I think Iona’s answers to these are just… the ones that are most interesting to me, lol

(fair warning looking back, this got PROFOUNDLY away from me- the TL; DR of it is that for Iona marriage is "yes, eventually" and kids are "no, never", for Arvid marriage is a "yes, of course, sure" and kids are "well if you want it", and for Petyr both are "hah! no. nope. no.")

So, this whole “what now” issue in Iona’s case, it’s… all a bit muddled.

As a little background to it, in 3e, it’s said that courtships between elves often take a very long time, sometimes decades, before a commitment is reached- which is understandable, especially considering that elves are also said to seldom fall out of love with one another, and don’t typically remarry after the death of one spouse. A commitment that’s meant to span a lifetime of centuries (whether the life of one has a natural endpoint or not is irrelevant), it makes sense that they’d take it seriously, and not jump into soul-bonds willy-nilly. (An albatross is definitely going onto her moodboard now, lol.)

I think both Iona and Astarion would still be kind of... feeling themselves out, by the end of the game, and neither of them would be drawn to the thought of “blissful mutual domesticity” just yet.

I mean, on top of being a quite young elf, she’s spent a good 80% of her life among humans: her experience with life is colored by the perceptions of a people who are constantly trying to outrun the rushing of a clock that might as well be standing still for her. So exploring what time even means to her, that’d be a very exciting prospect. While Astarion, he was even younger than she is now when he had the “elven” part of his identity taken away from him, only to be made into someone that’s seen as a tool first, monster second, and person a distant third. He’s eager to re-learn personhood and live again, so they’re both sort of… (re-?)discovering themselves and their “feyness” together, and in each other. 

My little idea is that after the Brain’s defeat, they’re going to spend one or two decades on solo adventuring: primarily looking for a way to allow him to walk in the sun again, but that… proves itself to be something of a wild goose chase. The travel itself is annoyingly cumbersome (either they have to shelter during the day and cover no ground, or he has to be polymorphed and be both unable to communicate and practically defenseless [can’t risk fighting, if his form is dismissed he’s dead]). But also, there are just… too many disappointments. Too many dead ends. Too many times they’ve gotten too close only to find out that they were either late, or misled, or just plain wrong about something.

I think he’d grow frustrated with it first, and grow reckless: strain against his limits, start pushing his luck with the Sun, start making dangerous mistakes, and it’d be her who’d start gently encouraging (cajoling, bargaining, eventually pleading with-) him that maybe they should return to the Gate. To regroup, try to find other avenues, head off in a different direction. And while he'd know she's right, agreeing… it'd still feel like he’s admitting defeat.

Of course, he’d try to put on an unbothered face, but she would still obviously be able to tell that he’s upset: primarily with himself, but also a little bit with… everything. Of feeling both free and trapped, both bursting with the desire to DO something, but also being… powerless.

Which (stay with me, we're a third of the way!) is the context in which the thought of kids and “marital bliss” would rear its ugly head.

Because I headcanon that vampire spawn are naturally sterile. (I know full vampires can sire mortal offspring, but since spawn can’t create new vampires via bite and the bite is almost always a penetration-allegory, I like to think that translates to them being just… unable to reproduce, period.) And elves in general already have far lower fertility rates, so even if he wasn’t sterile because of the vampirism but just maybe less fertile than usual, the chances of conception between the two of them would still be infinitesimally small.

And I mean, the topic really wouldn’t come up naturally, so I think Astarion would likely think that she’d eventually want children. I mean, he knows very well that she had been previously married to a human- humans usually want kids, so it’d be a natural assumption that she’d be on the same page as her ex-husband, and the fact that she doesn’t have kids now wouldn't be for a lack of wanting. (It is. It is for a lack of wanting. But both of them being ~excellent~ [pejorative] at communicating, he definitely wouldn’t ask- if only for fear of the answer he thinks he'd get.)

So it'd kind of… eat at him, for a while, the thought that at some point, she might grow to resent him. There'd be a small, niggling part of his mind that'd worry that at some point, the limitations would all prove too much, and she’d grow frustrated, tired of always having to work with and around his… shall we say, conditions. Beyond his partial reliance on her pain and literal body for sustenance, the physical differences between them, and the messiness of healing (the times he startles awake screaming, the times he can’t bear even the thought of being touched, the times he’s frustrated with himself and takes it out on her), this is just one more thing.

He can’t take her out for a nice day in the city. He can’t warm her body at night, wine and dine her (or just share a meal like a regular person), or love her as brazenly as he did starting out, out on the street for all to see because… well, he can’t go out into the streets. Can’t even travel with her during the day, not without taking the shape of a stupid animal that can’t communicate with her, joke with her, or even delight her with the looks he had thought for so long were the only thing he was good for.

Though secure in her love of him, he’s not stupid, or an idealist who’d think that love alone is enough for a happily ever after. While enjoying the time while it lasts, naturally there’d be sort of a running tally in his head of all the ways their lives chafe against one another.

Watching her face grow paler and paler as she’s deprived of the sun and has her blood drained, he’d never quite stop wondering at what point is the scale going to tip, at what point she’d finally realize that she had bet on the wrong undead horse by choosing to love the vampire who asks her to sacrifice so much, and not only doesn’t want to, but isn’t even able to give her what (he thinks) she wants.

Which, she doesn’t want it, of course. She has not even one maternal bone in her body.

Iona is well aware that she would make a terrible mother, and she absolutely does not want to be one. So it wouldn’t even occur to her that this would be something on his mind on top of all else. When he’d be having his little personal crisis about this, she’d be busy trying to make the impossible happen and circumventing the need to find a way to give him back the Sun by inventing one herself. That’d be why she'd lock herself into her study alone for longer and longer periods of time, why she sometimes wouldn’t come out for days, why she'd sometimes steer the conversation away from certain things- she wouldn’t want to give him false hope in a project that’d quickly prove so far beyond her abilities.

But, she'd still obviously recognize his occasional bouts of melancholy- I mean, it’s very unusual for someone to look at another so fondly and happily one moment, and then get quiet and forlorn the next. That distance she'd see behind his eyes sometimes when she'd tell him she loves him, that’d be rather worrying to anyone.

It’ll take a while for this particular cat to work its way out of the bag, but it would happen eventually, of course.

In reality, none of that would bother her.

She delights in being the sole person deciding what, when, and how she wants to eat. She loves the coolness of his touch- it soothes the heat of the draconic blood running through her veins better than any balm. Sure, going to markets and doing all that domestic pish can be fun, but... well, she’s always been an indoorsy person. Being bitten is no burden (she wouldn’t offer if it was), and there being no risk of a pregnancy, even after the tadpole’s death? At the risk of sounding crass, that’s an incredible perk, with no downsides. Feeling him find his pleasure while buried deep inside her, with no pang of fear or worry? It’s absurd how perfect that is, how happy she is with the fact that with the man she loves, that fear of being impregnated against her will can be put completely to rest.

And the rest, the messiness, the less “pretty” parts of it all, the evenings spent soothing his pain that’s either real or real only to him, that’s… just what happens if you love someone. Sure, she worries of course, but even when it’s inconvenient, when it’s ugly, when the old scars feel like they’re on fire and she can’t even being to think of a way to help… she still loves him just the same.

So no, no children necessary. It’s not in the cards for them, and even if it was, I don’t think either of them would really want it, or be good at it.

... She’d probably like to overwrite the memories of her first marriage (and speak the word “husband” without rancor) though, but only eventually.

And I like to think that that’ll have to happen with an item I’m tentatively calling “Taran Tal’hondnor” (The Gift of True Love), and it’s an enchanted ring that she will finally be able to create after many years of study, and even more miserably failed attempts at creating an enchantment that’ll let a vampire walk in the sun.

I like to imagine her proposing to him, on her own terms this time, with one such gift.

Because she loves him to the point of invention.

Quickly on the others, Arvid… might like fatherhood, if he were so inclined. He’s a very caring, kind, nurturing person, and if he were to be in that position, he would probably be a very good dad. He’s generally in a nurturing role already, and Gale being in a teaching role, they could prove to be excellent parents, if that were what they wanted.

But they… probably wouldn’t want that. Gale being the age that he is (“canon” says 35, I see ~38-40, minor difference) and a human, yet saying that he’s “not ready”, I personally interpret that as a rather telling thing. His past of having spent such a long time in a "monogamous" (I'm fairly sure that part's one-sided, no time to go into that now) relationship with a goddess who had no intention of having kids with him, and his present willingness to be with an illithid who can’t, that to me is implying that it’s not something that’d be that important to him. Like I personally see that as him not actively preferring to have kids if it’s up to him (he likes peace, and quiet, and downtime, and a nice glass of wine with a quietly romantic evening meal- very much the quintessential childless millennial, 100% part of the appeal to me lol), but he’d be happily willing to do it if his partner wanted it themselves.

But in my world, his husband (I like how I skated by the first part of the question, I mean they already ARE married lol)… doesn’t really have such strong feelings about it either. So, since two "maybes" don’t make a "yes" (and for this kind of thing, you need two enthusiastic "yes"-es for it to no longer be a no), it’s a "no".

But I think their marriage is going to be very happy and fulfilling to both of them nevertheless. <3

And since I don't yet have any kissy-shots of them (☹️), have an "are you seeing this shit" silent exchange for these two <3

Honestly? I would sooner give a baby to a pack of feral wolves and hope for the best than have Petyr become a father. He'd absolutely be the kind of dad whose kids become DnD characters. He's someone's tragically emotionally distant boomer dad just waiting to happen. (I mean, come on. My guy felt inadequate once, and coped with it by fucking off to the woods for 20 years? Yeah, sure, father of the year.)

And Shadowheart, she basically didn't have parents growing up, she has a TON of cult indoctrination to process and unlearn as an adult, and -let's be real- likely has no fucking clue how motherhood would even really work. Like the woman whom she used to call "mother" pretty much straight-up tortured her. C'mon now.

I like to think that, though they are the only two in my lineup who are physically able to have kids by accident, they (with their 8 and 10 INT scores respectively) would still be smart enough to smell that particular disaster before they'd barrel into it head first, and either actively decide not to have kids, or put it off so far into the future as for it to be meaningless. Maybe the discussion can be tabled in a few decades' time, but since by then their home will be surrounded by, god, so many animals to take care of (including a barely not feral, adult owlbear) (and their mutual boyfriend who sometimes shows up for like a month to fuck nasty on every available surface of the house and surrounding wilds), I doubt it'll result in a resounding "yes".

In the same vein of things, if a big, beautiful, traditional wedding is something that she wants (which I... kinda doubt would be super important to her), she definitely bet on the wrong horse, because this guy is not one for pomp and circumstance.

I like to imagine that after their departure from the Gate (and their bidding of not exactly "farewell", but "see you later" to Halsin), he'll just... take her "home" to his little shack in his corner of the forest, and then, sitting under the canopy of his favorite woods, enjoying the balmy evening breeze and the undisturbed night sky with his favorite person, he'll look up at the moon, take her hand, and silently, in his head, give his thanks to the Moonmaiden for this peace.

And... that'll be it. From that point forward, it'll be easy to fall into a kind of sweet, quiet domesticity that is essentially a marriage in all but name.

I definitely like- and relate to the idea of them foregoing the "2.5 kids, white picket fence" idea of a happily ever after not out of a conscious rejection, but rather just by... being themselves. Together.

[invinciblerodent]

I've got to say, even beyond the very sweet, romantic things going on in the epilogue, this has got to be the part that made me most emotional so far.

I already love that they don't have the dwarf be the one to awkwardly smush his face into the others' chests and it's all the other characters who drop to their knees without hesitation instead, but also that Shadowheart specifically says that her friend feels "more substantial" now.

Like, for one, it's a sweet thing for her to say that stays true to her teasing ways, but it also confirms my little headcanon that by the time act 3 rolled around they weren't just friends, but The Kind Of Friends Who Hug Regularly.

(the new headcanon I hold is that she didn't only go to Waterdeep for the Selunite cloister, it just... made the most sense for her to go there, and stay with her bestie and his husband-to-be. Temporarily, at least until she figured out what comes next.)

(I refuse to believe they last saw each other half a year ago- no, this girl was whatever the Waterdhavian equivalent of a maid of honor is at their wedding, and they saw her for dinner like two tendays ago.)

[invinciblerodent]

ngl, i'm getting a really big kick out of having a character that's a cleric to a neutral deity, especially one that's as prone to philosophizing as Arvid seems to be these days.

i like to imagine that he'll drop something like "godhood demands indifference. It requires, in their infinite grace and wisdom, a measure of apathy, as well as cruelty. In our worship, we forgive them for their folly- how is it so audacious for us to merely hope for the same?"

or "for the gods to judge one's actions, that may be prudent. But to judge the value of one's life as lesser than the weight of duty, however divinely imposed... that's no domain of any other than the self."

or "I cannot dole out absolution, and I'm not one to offer empty platitudes about divine forgiveness in its stead. I can only say that whatever the gods think of the kind -or indeed, the amount- of bravery you require from yourself, it means less than nothing", and I almost feel like he needs to glance at the ceiling briefly, just to confirm that he's not about to get holy-smitten.

holy-smote.

lightning'd in the face. you get it.

meanwhile Tempus, whose whole Deal on top of warfare is honorable combat, specifically courage, and not backing down in the face of adversity is chilling up there like

[invinciblerodent]

an interesting little contrast i'm experiencing compared to my previous run is that while Arvid at least entertained the idea of becoming a mind flayer himself, Iona just... categorically rejected even its very thought.

(but look at how cool she looked in this scene, OOH I love her backlit in red like this)

i'm kinda taking a break in going through the endgame (it's very cold right now in my apartment, so I'm like shivering as I'm sitting at the computer, doesn't make for very pleasant gaming lol), but I think I've mentioned before that Iona's trust in the Emperor has been far flimsier than Arvid's, or even the Emperor's in her, from the very start.

It was definitely a very far-rippling blunder on the Emperor's part, to take the face of Iona's (then only recently ex-)husband, which kinda tipped her off that something was up far faster than he would have otherwise revealed his cards. (It made sense for him to choose it though, it's easily the most prominent face in her mind, and the one she has the most intense, if mixed emotions about.)

Not to mention that she, being an elf, almost never truly sleeps, but only meditates, during which she's still essentially conscious.

I personally headcanon that that alone was enough to make it so she could keep her wits, and her rational mind about her even in her "dreams", more than Arvid could- making her healthy suspicions far harder to overcome, and, also making it far easier for her to lie, and string the Emperor along.

Like, as it's her little habit not to cut off a potential escape route until it's unavoidable, she made the Emperor believe that he had her in his palm, even though she never had any real intention of embracing her "illithid potential". (something something men are always willing to believe that a woman is weak, even if said man is now a mind flayer)

So when this scene of deciding whether to become illithid came up, not only was she already well primed to not believe a word the Emperor was saying.... she, unlike Arvid, is also just very simply far too selfish for that kind of sacrifice, I think.

(he kind of needed to be talked out of it, but as a result of her immediate and vehement rejection, I believe I missed out on some really cute dialogue from Astarion. it's okay tho, that's why I save every five steps or so, this is what reloads are for lol)

(either way, we're probably gonna go through the sewers this time because MAN i don't wanna do the courtyard fight today holy shit)

[invinciblerodent]

🍓

Arvid, Ray and Iona ❤

Oooh, yay!

I've kind of been thinking a bit about Arvid's relationship with his mother, honestly. That's not a very "fun" fact lol, but it is probably important for his post-game character development, that he essentially meets his birth mother, Gemria, for the first time at his wedding.

I like to think about how their relationship might turn out post-game, because, well, it's not like they're going to be close (I think in general he's going to feel closer to Morena, if anything), but just exchanging the occasional letter and being courteous, friendly with one another will do a lot in helping the both of them feel more at peace with each other.

And for something cute, although I do love Gale just dropping to his knees for every kiss, I like to think that Arvid is a very considerate boy, and kisses the back of his husband's hand more often than he'd request a "real" kiss when they're just out and about. (He gets a forehead smooch back, it's all good. Hoping that Gale's back won't suffer the same fate as his knees.)

...... also I'm currently listening to a semi-new-to-me song I have as an Arvid-theme contender right now, and it's really hitting me just right in the club tonight

There is SO MUCH in my head still about Ray, it's hard to even pick lol

let's see... one of my favorite little things about him is that I kind of made him, in a not super noticeable way, sort of partly fantasy-Hungarian- and I tried reflecting that in his speech as I was writing for him by taking Hungarian sayings and common phrases, and translating them word for word. That gave me things like "only oxen drink in solitude" (as an invitation to share a drink) and "to stare a wolf in the eye" (to stare unblinking at something/someone) and "I've a nail in my head about it" (i've an idea, I've been thinking about sthg), and other kinda folksy-sounding phrases that don't really exist in English as far as I'm aware, but it works for him.

He's my big lummox of a man with the smiling eyes, and the clever tongue, and the absolutely fascinatingly buck wild use of language sometimes, and I continue to love him to bits. god please let him be okay in veilguard please please please

ooh she angy in this one let's fix that

Iona is another one where I have just so many little thoughts that I can't decide what to talk about...

A cute thing I've been microwaving in my head, again mostly for the late- or post-game portions is that Iona would, over time, develop a small habit of indicating honesty by gently placing Astarion’s hand over her heart so he can feel its pace, knowing that that’s not something that one can possibly fake. (With the both of them having a history in lying even to one another, this is a gesture that they don’t really speak about, but one that he would nevertheless appreciate.) (Also, it's a titty in his hand. Of course he appreciates it.)

She’s also a frequent face-toucher (good god i've written her cradling his jaw/cheek so many times by now), and enjoys tracing his features with the very tips of her fingers- which somewhat also lets him “see” himself through her eyes, even after the death of the tadpole.

He might ask her to describe what she’s doing, as a very soft, intimate form of connection that makes use of her strength in using words.

When in a sappy sort of mood, she’ll sometimes settle on his lap, and trace his lips, describing how charming she finds the slight unevenness of his top lip, or trace a finger to the corner of his eye and describe how much she loves the way they crinkle when he looks at her so warmly.

Because I'm a sap and as much as I love them being tragic and weird and dealing with their respective shit, I also love them being soft and gentle with each other's fragile little hearts okay just let me have this