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blackjackkent · 3 months ago

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Minsc's camp dialogue tree, we learned during Hector's run, is um. Large. I didn't send Rakha down every single path because some of them she just didn't care about, but there were a few moments that were quite resonant for her. Long post - but some very critical conversations for Rakha as it turns out. :O

-----

"You're quite quick to call me friend."

"Of course, my friend! Or - are we not friends?"

Rakha doesn't really know what to say to that. She rarely uses the word even among the people she's known the longest in the party; it's almost always 'companion' if it's anything. So Minsc's comfort with the word is definitely a major difference between them.

I think, perhaps, this is the first moment when Rakha realizes that she wants to take Minsc as a role model. She has already identified the things that are similar about them - their unstable tendencies that could be called madness, their inclination to violence, and (of course) the worm in their heads. But something about Minsc is different, given Jaheira's opinion of him; he is a good man, though Rakha is still picking out the distinctions that make him so.

He is proof that her violence and her madness do not preclude her from being good, the kind of person Wyll and Jaheira would approve of. And one aspect of that seems to be this open-heartedness that comes so naturally to him, and not at all to her.

So she makes an attempt. "Of course we're friends," she says cautiously, "friend."

Minsc beams excitedly at her. "Then you have a sword at your side and a hamster at hand, whenever you need them." He tilts his head thoughtfully. "Unless I die. Or you die. Or you do anything at all to upset Boo."

Rakha thinks that seems reasonable.

-----

"Answer me honestly. What's with the hamster?"

"Well, Boo? Explain yourself," Minsc says promptly, followed by a chorus of chittering squeaks from his pocket. This goes on for several seconds, and then he raises his eyebrows at Rakha calmly. "Clear enough?"

Rakha squints at him for a long time, trying to discern if he is making fun of her. But if he is, his deadpan is even more solid than her own, because he seems to be being completely sincere. "...Perfectly," she finally says slowly.

Again that broad, contented smile. "Boo has a way with words that we lack," he agrees. "All that space in the cheeks, I am thinking."

-----

"Do you remember why you were meeting with the Zhentarim?"

"So dark an alliance sealed with Zhentish contracts, cultish vows, and a dragon's shining hoard? You think Minsc could forget?" Minsc says. A slight pause. "You are correct. I have no idea what any of that was about. But we shall simply- GAH!"

He breaks off with a startled noise, rapidly fumbling Boo out of his trousers. "Boo, why do you gnaw at my soft parts? I am trying to--"

Boo: *urgent squeaking*

Minsc's head tips to the side; again his expression takes on that air of intense concentration. "Once again?" he asks helplessly. "In smaller words?"

Boo: *SQUEAK*

There's a longish pause after Boo finishes his second attempt. "I see." He looks at Rakha intently. "This truth you seek. Boo believes that Minsc is knowing more than Minsc knows. But it is a difficult thing." He frowns, shifts his weight awkwardly from one foot to the other.

Boo: *supportive squeaking*

Minsc draws a slow breath. "There are memories of this time that Minsc does not remember. And Boo suggests that, just as he helps with tricksome itches in awkward places... You must reach what Minsc cannot." He gestures at his temple with a frown. "The parasite. You can use it to tickle free whatever truth you seek."

Rakha considers this for a moment with some surprise. Generally speaking, her companions have been wary at best of allowing her to poke directly into their heads - but Minsc is offering explicitly. It's a trust gesture, and a significant one. And yet...

"You sound reluctant," she says cautiously.

Minsc smiles ruefully. "The worm has already whipped me around the city like a slack-backed pony," he mutters. "I have no wish to saddle myself a second time. But..." He meets her eyes steadily. "If it cannot be Boo who pops inside my skull for a rummage, then I trust you." A miniscule pause, then: "Or Jaheira - but she is currently possessed of an empty head."

"I count my blessings every day," Jaheira puts in dryly from her tent.(*)

Rakha nods slowly. She might think this was merely Minsc's simple friendliness in making the offer - but she has already seen enough to know that his mentioning Jaheira specifically means that this trust offering is a tremendous compliment to Rakha. So she does him the respect of accepting it.

[ILLITHID] Reach out for his mind.

Narrator: At first there is nothing. His mind is empty as a still expanse of open country. But then...

Minsc's head snaps back and he cries out in sudden pain.

Narrator: Your face - the Stone Lord's face - mirrored in bloodied steel. In the heat of burning buildings, you hold your blade high above pale, frightened faces.

Minsc goes still, his eyes widening with alarm and dismay. "No. That is not right," he says hoarsely. "I slew only monsters. The voice said that they were monsters!"

(A/N: Oh, buddy. :( I didn't do this conversation with Hec cos Hec didn't want to use the worm, but this is so upsetting. :( Poor Minsc.)

Narrator: A whisper - the Absolute's voice, twisting the petty Guild Thieves before you into snarling, savage beasts, feeding on the weak of your city.

Rakha comes back to herself abruptly and realizes that she has a hand clenched tightly against her head. The images of blood and death - the death of masked innocents - have woken the beast in her skull and the hunger is roaring inside her with no available target. It throbs in her temple like a drumbeat.

Minsc's lip curls in rage; he is seemingly oblivious to Rakha's distress, far too focused on the images that have just been uncovered. "The Guild," he mutters. "The Stone Lord hunted them, peeled away their rotten ranks one by one to lay bare their corrupt heart - Nine-Fingers Keene. That is what the Absolute bought black Zhentish steel to do - to kill the Guildmaster!"

He looks remarkably angry but his tone is strange; as much of that rage seems directed at Keene as at those who sent him after her. Rakha squints, trying to parse the dynamics at play. "So the Zhentarim overthrow the Guild," she says slowly. "What then? What do the cult get?"

Minsc shrugs. "What does it matter?" he cries. "Cultish thinking has occupied Minsc's mind for long enough. Now it is time for doing!" He paces a few steps restlessly side to side, agitated. "And this talk of evil overthrowing evil - pah! Like a many-headed hydra biting at its own throat." He thumps a fist against his chest. "Bring forth the hydra, says Boo - more faces for the punching! First we pop the Zhentarim plot, then we show Nine-Fingers the five-fingers of Minsc, yes?!"

Rakha hesitates. That sounds pretty good to her - quite a lot of targets to attack with purpose, if Minsc believes it to be so. On the other hand - Jaheira clearly knew Nine-Fingers, and Rakha is not so confident that she would want the Guildmaster dead.

"As simple as that?" she asks uncertainly.

"Yes...?" Minsc says - and for a moment his own voice falters in answer, and he looks down towards Boo in his pocket for confirmation. "Yes," he adds hastily, more firmly, lifting his eyes again and squaring his shoulders.

-----

"We ought to discuss the tadpole." Rakha has had this conversation with every other tadpoled memory of their company thus far; it's Minsc's turn.

"As you wish," Minsc hisses. "But quietly. It. Is. Listening."

"We need its power," Rakha explains soberly. "The Emperor can help us control it, if we're careful."

Minsc blinks, then scowls. "No!" he snaps at once. "There is a very ancient and very wise saying that Minsc lives by. He who would try to control evil must beware lest evil tricks him, steals his clothes, and kicks his backside with his own boots. I read it on the privy wall in the Blushing Mermaid many years ago."

Evil. He is using that word to refer to the Emperor itself. Rakha frowns, for a moment uncertain. "You don't understand," she explains firmly. "The Emperor is the only reason we were able to save you." Though it didn't want to, she thinks bitterly. The tension of that argument still stings in the back of her mind.

To her surprise, Minsc shows neither surprise nor interest. Instead, his scowl only deepens.

"Oh, Minsc knows all about this Emperor. It has tried to introduce itself to me already. Minsc does not trust it."

Rakha blinks. This is a stronger reaction than she expected. "Care to elaborate?" she asks cautiously.

"No," Minsc says curtly. A pause, a low squeak from his pocket. "I do not think our new friend wishes to see me blubbering, Boo," he mutters.

That takes Rakha by mild surprise. "I'm listening,"(**) she says.

Minsc sighs, folding his arms. "Minsc is normally the strong and violent type, but if you insist on hearing a sad tale, he can tell it," he says.

A long pause, while he considers his words before going on, "This Emperor played a very cruel trick - it made me believe that something lost had been found. It came to me in dreams, wearing a face I never thought to see again. Dynaheir. A witch of my homeland."

Rakha does not ask who this Dynaheir is - but she does not need to. Minsc is lost in memory now, a small and sad smile touching his lips. "She was to be the greatest of them, and I her protector. It was not easy. She was a fierce and independent cub - she did not think she needed mother-bear Minsc to protect her!" He chuckles. "And she was right. The elders sent us out into the world, thinking it would teach her to bow a little. But it was the world that bowed to Dynaheir, wherever she went, and Minsc blundered along behind."

The smile fades, and his eyes drop to the ground. "And in the end, it was she who died - protecting me."

Rakha has gone very still, listening to this; she can tell she has trod into ground she is not equipped to speak about. But she is puzzled too. The Emperor never appeared to her as a face she knew - but then again, she didn't know any when it first appeared in her dreams. But to Minsc, it appeared as a friend, and not only a friend but a dead friend.

Why would it do this?

"Did the Emperor make you relive her death?" she asks unsteadily.

Again that sad, weary smile that seems so out of place on Minsc's face. "No, my friend," he says quietly. "It is not the past I saw. But Dynaheir as she would have been. Should have been. Hearing her voice again, for a moment Minsc almost believed it."

He trails off into silence for a moment, then sets his jaw. "But then the Emperor made a mistake - it did the one thing that Dynaheir would never, ever do."

He fixes her eyes with his, suddenly intent. "It told Minsc exactly what he wanted to hear," he growls. "Dynaheir, hers was more the habit of teaching Minsc many new ways to say the word 'fool.'"

Rakha says nothing. She's aware that on some level, if she truly trusts the Emperor and its guidance, she should refute this. The Emperor does not tell her exactly what she wants to hear. It tells her how to survive. It silences the other voices in her head. It guides her in places where she does not know where to step.

And yet this man - so like her in so many ways - saw it for nothing more than manipulation, and rejected it accordingly.

If Minsc realizes the stunning blow he has dealt her with these words, he doesn't stop to capitalize on this advantage. "Bah," he mutters to himself, crossing his arms with an air of frustration. "I think on what she would say to Minsc now, cowering from a creature in his own skull."

He grimaces, then gives Rakha a sharp nod. "Fine! If you say this tadpole is a weapon, then let us wield it. So long as it is still our hearts that guide us, yes? Or better yet, my hamster."

This should be a victory, but Rakha doesn't answer at all.

-----

"You traveled with Bhaalspawn before, didn't you?" Rakha asks - very carefully. She assumes Jaheira has already explained to Minsc the salient details of the situation, but she's also learned that it is a sore subject for others as well as herself. "What do you know of them?"

"Ah." Minsc nods sagely. "Boo has an inkling that this is not the question you *mean* to ask. I saw some hint of things when our minds mushed together - but Jaheira confirmed it for me. You are of the same blood as our old friend - a Bhaalspawn, and as close to Minsc as if they were his own kin."

(A/N: B'aw. Caden would be glad to hear himself described so. :) )

Minsc pauses, and then smiles from ear to ear. "That makes Minsc your uncle!" he says brightly.

Rakha blinks, then blinks again. Is that how it works? She isn't entirely sure if he's joking; Minsc is harder to read than most in this regard. "What manner of relation does that make Boo?" she asks, unsure if she is joking either.

Minsc grunts. "Better not to ask," he answers. "He has many dozen cousins, and not all are so open-minded about we who walk on our hind legs as he." He prods a finger in Rakha's direction, an unusually keen expression in his eyes. "There is a lesson in this. We are born into a bloodline, yes - but we need not be bound by it."

He thumps a fist against his chest again. "Take Minsc," he goes on. "He does not have a clear memory of the face of his father, but he does remember tugging on the thick red whiskers that sprang from his chin. A beard for the ages! Boo could have nested there happily through even the harshest of Rashemen winters."

He leans his head closer to Rakha, turns it one way, then the other. "Now - look closely at Minsc. And what do you see?"

Rakha narrows her eyes. "You don't have a beard," she says, the slightest upturn of a question on the end of the words.

"Correct!" Minsc cries jubilantly, and claps her on the shoulder hard enough to stagger her slightly to one side. "There are more whiskers on Boo's tiny face than on the mighty chin of Minsc!" Again that keen gaze, just for a moment seeming to stare past her blank featureless eyes and into her soul. "If Minsc did not inherit the flaming red hair of his mother, or the bushy red beard of his father, why would the spawn of Bhaal inherit His wickedness?"

Rakha says nothing for a long, long time. Once again, Minsc has caught her utterly by surprise. The sentiment is so unexpected, so matter-of-fact, so completely guileless almost in her own manner, that she doesn't know how to answer it.

No one hears of her bloodline - not even Jaheira, not even Wyll - with such equanimity and trust. No one.

Except Minsc.

"Thank you," she hears herself say, remarkably unsteadily. "It's nice not having to justify myself for once."

Minsc smiles. "Minsc is not here to judge," he says. "That is a thing for hamsters and hathrans alone."

-----

(*) This is a line that actually only plays in game if you're having this conversation while on the road with her also in the party. But I like it so I'm squishing it back in here. XD

(**) In-game line is "I'm a good listener," which I'm not sure Rakha could really say honestly. :P

#bjk plays bg3 durge #rakha the dark urge #WELLP #a few of these definitely blew me (and rakha) the fuck out of the water #i can't recall if any of the standard party-chatter dialogue tree conversations have ever had this much of an effect on hector or rakha #the way that this one just did #this was some fucking TAILOR-MADE shit for rakha's story lmao #sheesh #it is also incredibly long and also took me FOREVER to write #so more tomorrow #but ahhhhhhhhhh i love Minsc so gd much <3

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