#tav/durge are not free from his petty either

[palespawn]

i think astarion’s the type of petty that if he’s left at camp for too long to the point of boredom, he will start causing problems e.g. putting one of shadowheart’s belongings by lae’zel’s tent or hiding one of gale’s books under wyll’s bedroll etc

[sky-kiss]

Scars

A/n: Soft!mangled Raphael getting some snuggles. gif belongs to @red-dead-sakharine. Because they are INCREDIBLE. Sequel to this.

Raphael x (GN) Tav/Durge

You watch him pace the length of your shared room.

He's always struggled to settle, a testament to his heritage. Like Mephistopheles, he runs hot and cold, thoughts racing, schemes forming; his features twist in response to some voice in his head. You can't read his thoughts traditionally, but you don't need to: Raphael is still trying to parse his fall from grace. That orderly, fanciful mind struggles to justify his image of himself (proud, regal, kingly) and the mangled ghost in the mirror (scarred, maimed, a pauper prince). 

You rest your chin on your pulled-up knees to conserve body heat. You won't pity the cambion. Pity is everything he fears and loathes. You lift your hand, turning it this way and that. Blood cakes under the nails, in the beds, between your fingers…you feel it drying near the corners of your mouth, itching and flaking away. 

You'd made a ruin of the incubus…but it's the nearest thing you can offer to a gift, and Raphael smiled. It made the mess worthwhile. You scrub the back of your hand across your mouth. It only makes things worse. 

Raphael pauses. The cambion tips his head to the side, watching you, eyes narrowed. In the past, he was vocal. Now, he's…different. It's your fault, and some childish part of you wants to argue that you're trying to make amends, but…

…a devil's memory is long. Their grudges are eternal. 

You are, and remain, his damnation first and savior second. 

"What?" You demand too sharply. Your throat burns, either from the cold or Haarlep's blood. 

"Look at you," Raphael purses his lips, growling the words. "A mongrel; a beast. What became of you? You were brighter before." 

"So were you." 

"Mmm. And what, pray tell, could have been the cause of my meteoric rise and fall? At whose feet might I lay the blame?" 

How many times have you had this argument over the past six months? You've lost count, and it's lost its edge. A part of you, petty, too aware of his foibles, wants to scold him for it: he was more creative in the old days. Now they haunt the same battleground, both too cowardly to make a move. You are caught in each other's orbit: the ruined king and the abandoned godling. 

You scrub at your mouth again, and he scoffs. The cambion crosses to you and snaps his finger. Before you can register what he's doing, he's pressed a wet rag to your skin, scrubbing the mess away. His touch is brusque but…a welcome change of pace. If nothing else, he's warm. 

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with your food?" He doesn't ask you to turn your head; he grips your jaw and moves you as he pleases. 

You grumble, reaching out to settle your hands on his shoulders. The scarring on his torso is worse, much worse, and you feel the puckered skin flex under your touch. "Didn't have one." 

Raphael squeezes your chin. "The point remains. Such a mess." 

Despite yourself, you smile. Raphael's eyes darken, fixing on the blood-flecked across your teeth. 

"Open." He orders. 

And you were made to follow orders, weren't you? Bhaal's, the Absolute's, Gortash…the headiness of his tone and the lowness twists something in your belly. Raphael presses his thumb to your lower lip. A sharp nail scrapes across your teeth, careful, ever so careful, clearly away the remnants of your…indulgence. The cambion tilts his head to the side, pressing deeper into your mouth. 

You set your teeth on this skin, eye burning. 

"How curious is my monster…" Raphael sits back. He pulls his hand free, but you don't allow him to get far. You shuffle nearer, press yourself to him to leech his warmth. Claws pluck at your hair. "... you've bitten me once already…" 

And the thought flits through your head, cruel and resigned all at once: what alternative does he have left? What do either of you have left?

You don't say this. It's better to pluck Raphael's free hand from where it rests between you. There are scars and burns here, stretching across the wrists, down towards his palm. 

You hold his gaze, pressing your lips to the worst of his scars. 

[fangsyouverymuch01]

"Astarion" "neutral" lol

I guess this has to do with my reblog about liking chaotic men and classifying Astarion as one??

Astarion is a complicated character and the player has a huge part in him either being chaotic neutral or evil. That being said, verbal persuasion can only do so much. The player can’t persuade him to be good aligned per say, because he isn’t.

What is chaotic neutral?

So according to dnd I found this:

- A chaotic neutral character is an individualist who follows their own heart and generally shirks rules and traditions. Although chaotic neutral characters promote the ideals of freedom, it is their own freedom that comes first; good and evil come second to their need to be free.”

- and “A wandering rogue who lived both by work for hire and petty theft was an example of a chaotic neutral character”

Here is what bdg 3 wiki writes about his character too:

- The player does not have to be "evil" to gain his approval, however — he approves when the player makes choices that support independence and autonomy, and when the player helps certain characters in need.

(Sounds very chaotic neutral to me)

- Here is a link to his entire character that follows his quest, approvals/disapprovals https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Astarion

Tav and Astarion

I’d say that spawn Astarion falls into the neutral alignment pretty clearly after his confession about his feelings for Tav, because he doesn’t have to do it. He gains nothing from Tav or the party when he confesses to being manipulative. But he does, because he cares and feels guilty for doing it. Astarions motives are rooted in fear of being enslaved again and he actively risks his life by confessing his feelings. Which is a very non evil thing to do and he does it because he wants to anyways. Here is the convo he has with Tav:

Astarion - Look, I had a plan. A nice, simple plan - seduce you, sleep with you, manipulate your feelings so you'd never turn on me. It was easy - instinctive. Habits from two hundred years of charming people kicked in. All you had to do was fall for it. And all I had to do was not fall for you...which is where my nice, simple plan fell apart. You - … you’re incredible. You deserve something real. I want us to be something real.

Blood merchant

Throughout the game, Tav and the party challenges Astarions trauma mentality of “if there are good people, why did no one save me? Therefore, I justify to be selfish” by being kind for the sake of being kind. Which he remarks on. Here is one example of Tav allowing him to make his own decision about biting the blood merchant in act 2:

Astarion - I spent two hundred years using my body to lure pretty things back for my Master. What I wanted, how I felt about what I was doing, it never mattered. You could have asked me to do the same - to throw myself at her, what I wanted be damned. But you didn’t. And I’m grateful.

Durge and Astarion

Bonus! If the player plays redemption Durge, Astarion is extremely supportive from day one. Which is also confirmed by Larian :). My favorite scene of this is when durge refuses to kill Isobel and is forced to kill the one they like most. After Astarion ties up durge, they have a conversation that is very sweet and unselfish of him to have considering that durge tries to off him hours ago. Here it is:

Tav – “I’m so worried about you. What if I get possessed again?”

Astarion – “I’m also worried about me, but I seem to somehow be worried about *you* more. You give me something to care for, and that’s worth the peril.”

Conclusion

So, combining all of these examples we see that Astarion is not evil, he acts out fear to be stripped of his autonomy again. The things he approves of are not driven by being good or evil, they are driven by his core charachetistic - to be free to choose what he likes/needs/wants. And the first thing that he chooses is Tav. He wants tav no matter if they are good or bad aligned, because he is not driven by either of those things.

This was a very long post and it could be an entire essay if I had all the time in the world. I hope this gave some insight into how I, and many others, view him. However, if you don’t that is totally fine as well.

/Matti

[morgana-ren]

I don’t know if you’ve answered this already, but how would Ilya’s relationship fare with a durge tav (whether or not they resist or embrace the dark urge) ?

Much the same as it would with another Tav, with his worst impulses stoked as a side effect. Ilya can be highly influenced by the people he's chosen to spend his time with, and if you have an excessively violent Durge, he will likely show that side of himself in turn. If they tend to show more self control, he will likely mirror that as well-- within reason. He's going to do what he wants to do, but it does have some impact on his decision making.

Ilya isn't warded off by violence or vulgar displays of power. He would find it unfortunate that the person he'd taken a liking to was caught in the thrall of a petty, vindictive lesser God, but ultimately, it would be interesting for him to watch. He has ways of keeping himself alive, but if the whole 'trying to kill him' thing happened too frequently before he'd really settled on liking them, he's just going to forgo the entire thing because it seems like a pain.

If he does truly end up enjoying their company and decides he likes them, he's going to go the sort of Gortash-esque route of encouraging them to shuck free of their father's manipulations. There's other ways to find and maneuver power, and it's never worth someone having full control over you.

He'd be tickled by the murder attempts, and would have no problem tying them up when they have 'the urge,' and ultimately wouldn't be very threatened by it. Keep in mind, he's ancient, and he has seen this battle a million times. He finds Bhaal to be petty and barbarous and has little respect for him or his domain.

If the Durge is loyal to Bhaal, that could cause some issues, because Ilya will not be. He will not be threatened into it either. He won't be a consort to Bhaal's dominion. He admires the raw power of the Durge, but he won't let it turn him into a lackey. He has his own loyalties, and technically, Bhaal is closer to an enemy than a deity for him.

A Bhaal loyalist and Ilya likely would not work out. Ilya requires at least a semblance of submission from his lovers. He does very much enjoy a brat, and the struggle for power is great fun to him, but he isn't going have a nightly argument about him converting to Bhaalist. It would be a personality conflict that would likely stem into other issues and ultimately it wouldn't work out between them.

The most ideal for him is a Durge that fights the urge and is feeling terribly vulnerable from the entire affair. That's the easiest for him to take advantage of. He admires the raw power and thinks the instinct can be great fun, but he likes to be the one in control when it comes down to it. He cannot do that if Bhaal is constantly puppeteering their life.