#there are so many npcs here

[writingjourney]

You have to respect that they put as many little freaks as possible into Act 2 of BG3. Like, they really catered to the crazy bitches and added multiple flavors to choose from.

[hyperionwitch-art]

It's just a ring. Misquoting Evelyn Carnahan, what harm ever came from putting on a ring?

YES I know it's been months and months since I had a comic, but my secret is that I just wrote like 4 scripts and I'm RARING to go. Now I just have to balance that with cosplay work. :P In the meantime, enjoy another scene I've had in my head for a while and finally got to put on paper!

(Was this entire comic born out of a desire to reference this scene from Ocean's Eleven? I'll never tell.)

Tev/Dren Masterpost

[echosong971]

“Mr. Handsome Idiot”

[ratislatis]

I'll find you. Wait for me.

hee hee hoo hoo AUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH PAIN PAIN SUFFERING PAIN IN ALL DIRECTIONS!!!! TO HELL WITH IT (LITERALLY)!!!!!!!!!

[moeblob]

What if I straight up didn't explain myself? What if I just said trust me on this? Would you?

[robo-dino-puppy]

stemmur

[prudentfolly]

Day 28: Love

As in first love. As in lost love.

As in it didn't end well.

Ooh, do you wanna know more details? Awfully messy of you!! Here is what I have thus far: Prudence and Hilda grew up together in the Brume. Prudence is one of the first to be won over by The Mongrel, eager to be a hound and prove herself. They are about the same age, making Prudence 21/22 during the events of Heavensward. Here, they are probably 17? 18? I'm not sure. Young'uns. Each other's first real relationship built off a foundation of hormones and anger. Like a lot of Prudence’s relationships, romantic and otherwise, it is a very up, down, up, down kind of thing.

During the assault and rescue attempt at the Vault, Prudence is injured, badly. It is her first brush with death and it scares her. It scares her a lot. The recovery process is a long one and while Hilda visits there is strain on their relationship. Prudence is angry at everyone, at the world, at Hilda. Hilda blames herself, having told Prudence to go with the Vault party.

When she’s finally free of her bed rest Prudence begins the process of leaving the Brume. Prudence doesn’t have friends but she does have favors and she cashes in on a few.  A new apartment in a modest but respectful neighborhood, several letters of recommendation for work, the equipment Stephanivien gifts her and the knowledge he’s shared.

But it’s not just leaving the brume. She is abandoning it and the dreams she built with Hilda. She is abandoning Hilda. This fight, their last, is still spoken of in hushed tones by the Hounds that remember it.

[this-is-not-a-slow-burn]

Jesus christ I would die in seconds if I had to travel the wasteland with Deacon IRL bc his timing and comments throw me off and crack me up.

Just walked into a room in Vault uhhh 95 I think? where they were experimenting with ppl with addictions, and there's a circle of chairs in the middle. Deacon is totally quiet until we get to the chairs and he goes

"Hi....I... I'm Deacon." *higher voice* "Hi Deacon!" like an AA meeting.

had to put the controller down bc laughing.

[luck-of-the-drawings]

when i was in highschool one o my biggest coping mechanisms was drawing all the kids i hated getting killed and eaten and killed. and well. time is a slowly ascending spiral. you will find patterns.(i work as a blackjack dealer. gamblers are FASCINATING

[thelovers-thedreamers-and-me]

the downside to being a sitcom neighbour sort of person is that when rough things happen and emotionally fuck u up a lil bit, it also sounds completely made up

[beraxiv]

Masters of the Hand and Land

[lizardinkart]

So I’m living up to my username now I guess-

Lizardfolk NPC from this new campaign! Woo!

[mabaris]

that stupid comicbook.com article and also fan response in general to the companion romance situation annoys me so bad for the sole reason that everyone acts like the only people in the game are the pc and playable companions

[celestialtrolls]

A Day at the Fair

[precursor]

Infiltration was not your forte, especially through these means. Your usual route was out of reach and left you no choice; no matter what you searched, what keywords you used for the database records of Suits Carnival, the information was minimal. Despite the fact that bigger subjugglator organisations were supposed to be fleet-compliant, all that was written were things that even an idiotic outsider could have found out by looking at a map, and rough estimations with no basis in reality.

So your hand had been forced, and you had gone to visit the grounds themselves. Your fleet uniform had been set aside, donning your usual garb that you took to go sailing instead, topped by an inconspicuous dark hoodie. And the pièce de la résistance: face paint. You knew that walking into a carnival without some kind of face paint was a foolish endeavour, a way to be inevitably noticed faster than you could even search for ‘Creator Ceremiré’. So, a sloppy design was drawn on your face with disgusting oily make-up, forming something resembling a skull… or maybe more of a panda. You had aimed for a skull, but the dark circles painted around your eyes just made you feel stupid instead of potentially intimidating.

But, perhaps it was enough to get you in the gates, and at that point, what did it matter? From your personal research, conducted with your own hacked satellite, Suits Carnival was a sprawling mess of tents, caravans and buildings in construction, somewhere transitioning between an army of travelling clowns and a full-fledged city. There would be plenty of places to sit out of view to instead try and figure out what your ancestor looked like, and then to observe her powers in use.

-

Approaching the carnival itself is a nerve-wracking experience. You drove most of the way, hands clamped to the steering wheel, knuckles white. As you got closer however, your typical crystal growths started to seem from your skin, bonding your hands to your car, and you had to park it somewhere further afield before you started turning it into a useless statue, transformed by anxiety.

The extended journey time did not help your nerves, but one foot goes in front of the other, and the other, and the other, feeling each step inside your ribcage, and eventually, you see the walls of the city in the distance. There’s no feeling of relief that washes over you however, the sheer scale of the task you’ve set yourself dawning on you.

You hadn’t told anyone your plan. Obviously, telling Aelynn would have been foolish; she would have intervened somehow. But you didn’t mention it to your moirail either, and you are well past the point of beginning to regret that. You’re almost certain he could have given you some advice on how to approach a hostile - no, don’t think of it that way, it will only make you feel worse - unfamiliar carnival. You were alone. If you were spotted as an intruder, no one would even know what had happened.

It’s too late to turn back. It’s too late. The gates are in view of your real eyes now, a steady stream of people coming in and out, a van driving past you and flying right through without stopping. Was there no guard, no security? You keep your expression as blank and serious as usual, a task you had perfected from hours of dealing with your superiors in the fleet, and walk straight in, past the real subjugglators, their idle chatter not even making it past your ears as your heartbeat takes the stage.

The hardest part was done, was it not? You’d technically infiltrated the city safely. It makes you want to laugh from the ridiculousness of it. What the hell were you even worried about anway? This was a huge city, of course they weren’t taking IDs at the gate. Where did you think you were again, a fleet base? A weight lifts from your chest as you walk straight down the main road through the centre of the city, figuring that you’ll be able to see almost everything from there. How hard can it be to find someone who calls herself ‘Queen of Hearts, Ceremiré Nostam’? That’s not the name of someone who knows what subtlety is.

In your premature celebration, you don’t see the pair of men that take notice of you, eyebrows furrowing as they exchange a look. It isn’t until one of them, a tall, imposing man with horns that sweep behind his head and a white club symbol on his sleeve approaches you with a stride that way exceeds the speed of someone simply going about their business that you take notice, turning barely in time as he reaches towards your head.

A yelp of alarm escapes as instead he ends up grabbing your arm and yanks you towards him. You barely keep your balance and stumble, your left arm flailing about as a useless counterweight.

“Bold for a new face to wander around.” The sentence is short, but what goes unsaid is enough to send your neurotic brain into overdrive, and while once your mind would go blank at a moment like this, instead, you can feel something, a build up of energy, heat, power, and you almost know that at any second, your arm is about to burst with crystals, and you can barely even hold yourself back and he’s staring at you and waiting and you need to say something or he’s going to kill you and that’s going to be it and his grip is so strong you can feel your hand growing cold as the blood supply goes short an-

“Take it easy Haeren, this one’s my idiot.”

You were so laser-focused on your own impending doom that it completely knocks you out of your terrified state as a sturdy hand wraps around your shoulder, pulling you slightly away from ‘Haeren’ who regards the intrusion with a dark glare. The feeling in your arm, your chest, your heart, the power that was overwhelming you simply dissipates.

“More of a red flag if anything.” But your arm is released, and you pull it close to your chest as you’re guided to the side of someone somewhat familiar.

“Kerros?!” The voice that leaves your mouth barely sounds like yours, squeaky from the fear and cracking from your rushed attempt to collect yourself, and the dog-boy glances at you with an eyebrow raised, before continuing his conversation with the club-wearing man of few words. He’s relaxed, not even batting an eyelid and giving you a slightly reassuring shake as you reel to catch up with reality.

This… wasn’t a person you expected to run into. You didn’t expect to see anyone you knew, and while saying you ‘knew’ Kerros was a stretch, you were aware of him and had seen him in passing a few times, since he was, after all, your twin sister’s moirail. One of them, anyway. But surely, there was no way Aelynn was in a quadrant with someone that was actively a subjugglator? Your mind starts reeling again, but you see Kerros glance your way as some of the more physical symptoms of your distress begin to rear their head, and he wraps up his conversation.

“Anyway Hae, been great to hear your many words of wisdom as always, I’ll sort this one out, you go back to glaring at every poor passerby, yeah?” A raise of the hand in goodbye - a gesture that is not returned - and he turns away, pivoting you towards a sideroad. “Come on you.”

-

It’s not until you’ve turned a few corners that he speaks again, his calm face slowly turning a little tired, worn. “Funny seeing you at the Devil’s sacrament.” His tone is very clearly sardonic, but seeing him drop his act makes you feel a little bit better, no false pretences remaining. “We’re both dead if Aelynn hears about this, y'know?”

You stare at him a few moments longer, before you turn your head to look forward, taking a slight step away to lose his hand on your shoulder. He lets go without resistance, his hand dropping back into his pocket, but he watches you as you try and get your composure back, your expression slowly returning from wide-eyed panic to your usual facade. “Should you be here?” The only sentence you manage to form, and it’s accusatory at best. You would bite your tongue, if that wasn’t an exceptionally foolish idea.

“Should I be here? I live here. Don’t tell her that, or else I’ll drop you right in it with me.” He smiles, but you know well enough that it’s likely a real threat. “I’m taking you back to my place now, you can’t wander around like…”

He regards you with the expression of an artist examining a stain on a canvas, grimacing momentarily before averting his gaze back to the road ahead. “Like whatever the hell you’ve decided to do. You didn’t do your research before coming here, did you? And I mean real research, not begging the fleet to hand you the information on a silver platter.” He finishes his sentence before you can interject, and your face goes warm at the way he just so blatantly calls you out. Aelynn definitely complains to him about you, you can tell. “I thought you were the one with the brain cell, but you’re not so different.”

You don’t know how insulted you should be at that, but before you can come up with a reasonable protest, you’re crossing a driveway towards a small wooden house, something that looks like it might have once been on wheels, but been settled into the ground. Kerros pulls out a clump of keys from his pocket and opens the door, gesturing for you to enter first. Probably because he thinks you might make a run for it, and honestly, it’s not a terribly incorrect assumption to have. You’re not not considering it. But this is truly a hostile city, and you’re not sure you would make it out again.

No choice but to accept your fate, and you walk inside.

-

[guardian-instincts-bad]

okay none of this is new information but as usual i am thinking about gorrik and arenanet just. really never considered the timeline of his life and the implications of that at all, huh

like, okay, for eod you needed him to have a relationship to ankka and you needed ankka to have connections to the aetherblades, so you threw them both in thaumanova, fine

except. thaumanova. which blew up in 1324.

and no, we don't have a canon age for gorrik. but we know taimi's age, that she was friends with blish, and that blish is older than gorrik

now. taimi didn't know that the brothers had joined the inquest. which means either they'd kept it a secret from her, or more likely, it happened after they lost touch

taimi was born in 1313, meaning that the absolute oldest she could have been when she last saw them, is ten

now sure, taimi skipped a couple years, she's a prodigy even among asura - but age really matters when you're in single digits. for blish to be a friend, rather than a mentor, he can't be much older than maybe four years above her? i'd put that as the reasonable upper limit, they could be closer

(i'd also honestly guess that gorrik is a bit younger than taimi, given a) how much he looks up to blish, and b) that taimi prior to s4 only thought of him as blish's weird little brother, they weren't friends. and again, at that young, age matters - if you're 7, your friend is 10, and his little brother is 8 or 9, your first connection to him is probably not "oh, the little brother", because he's not little to you)

but assuming im wrong on all of that, just going back to our facts, that puts gorrik at the most about 2-3 years older than taimi

which means that the age we're looking at, for joining the inquest, thaumanova, all the stuff with ankka... he was somewhere between 9 and 13. could be even younger but im giving him the benefit of the doubt

gorrik says he never thought about ankka romantically and i believe him, but if there was ever anything there from her side, it was definitely a kiddie's first crush kinda thing, like oh we are a boy and a girl who are best friends clearly this is what romance means

because both of them were so fucking young

god knows spending her teenage years in the aetherblades was not great for ankka's everything, and by the time we find gorrik and blish in bug in the system, they've been working for the inquest for at least 8 years

that's almost half his life, at that point. working for an organisation that the thaumanova fractal and rata primus make incredibly clear does not value the lives of its workers in any way at all - they'll feed you to their latest experiment just for standing there, and gorrik wasn't just keeping his head down and going along with it, gorrik was actively sabotaging their research when he morally disagreed with it

(and this isn't even getting into why they joined the inquest in the first place, which i will bet anything i own on being because of blish's illness and needing the technology to save him)

and to their credit, i do think this comes across in bug in the system! because if you go back to early gorrik, first half of s4, having played through the rest of the story? the difference is shocking, like he is so distrusting and snide and defensive as hell of his brother, he talks like he expects you to attack him or blish at any moment

but then they never do anything with that ever again, and like, i love all the new gorrik content, genuinely i do, but arenanet there are layers to this character that you have entirely forgotten about, and god i wish we had a story that actually explored that

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizontober 2023 | 26: authority