be scorched upon my heart

indie karlach from baldur's gate 3. written by maxi.

[avernusdamned]

KARLACH, THE FURY OF AVERNUS.

#AVERNUSDAMNED: the study of learning to trust again and being more than the rage. to mourn who you once saw in the mirror, to wish for your life back, to forgive and love and laugh and be invincible again.

OH, HOW YOU WISH TO BE THAT YOUNG INVINCIBLE WOMAN AGAIN.

independent and selective KARLACH CLIFFGATE of BALDUR'S GATE 3. written by maxi. 25+. they/them | CANON DIVERGENT. NOT SPOILER FREE. 21+ only.

COMPANION OC: @blindshoot (werewolf ranger) FANTASY HORROR MULTI: @storystrung

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[avernusdamned]

hello i am so sorry for the sudden hiatus but i got my ass kicked at work over the holidays (retail............) and i am planning a lil refresh for when my head comes back above water after xmas MWAH!!! i miss u guys and karlach very much i just am busy <3

[avernusdamned]

i want to make a carrd to do a lil refresh but i cannot even begin to tell u how lazy i am... alas I Should Do It

[mcflymemes]

AS SAID BY VARRIC TETHRAS  *  assorted dialogue from dragon age ii

maybe he likes you.

ugh, i think i got blood on my coat.

you must have me confused with someone else.

how do you know that he doesn't know that you know that he knows that you know, you know?

we're in trouble here!

that's a bit far, don't you think?

they're busy people. places to go, throats to cut.

you're making me cry just looking at you.

you made a mistake. it happens.

well, it's not a good story unless the hero dies.

a lot of people are afraid to come here at night.

not the brightest thing you could've done.

it practically screams "nothing fun ever happens here!"

i spend way too much time here.

everyone stay still and try not to make any loud noises.

my favorite spot in the whole city.

better luck in the next life!

and the trend of you scaring the piss out of me continues.

i'm helping you indulge in elaborate revenge fantasies. i think it's good for you.

i'm getting too old for this shit.

i'll let you run your fingers through it if you want.

hey! i'm a perfect gentleman! in public.

oh, that's you smiling? glad you clarified that. i'd never have known.

i need some details. did you go down on one knee?

so what's on your mind?

i've had my oppression for the day, thanks.

want a drink? i'll put it on my tab.

you are no fun anymore.

it is true what they say. the best comedy comes from tragedy.

you could have just stopped me.

grab something sharp and pointy! we've got company!

line them up for me, i'll take them down!

you've been glowering for days. your face is going to get stuck that way.

you're larger than life.

i've been trying to forget about that all week.

what are you hiding? nobody's this bloody clean.

we're discussing knives. well, daggers, technically.

we've got more on the way!

nothing i'm doing seems to work!

i'd buy the guy a drink, but i don't think he needs one.

hope this works!

i'm going to need more aliases.

just curious. does any of this make sense to you?

i like the way you think.

well how about a giant sign that just says "don't." you could hit people with it.

and you want me to set the record straight? i'm honored.

i'm just surprised.

if you wanna punch a few stalagmites on the way there, that's good too.

that is... not a comforting thought.

you can't even pretend to be interesting, can you?

you know, if you need advice on how to lay low i can give you some.

are you for real?

the scary thing is, i don't know if you're joking!

it's possible they're just scared shitless of you.

moping, then. you seem like you're a champion at it.

you know, i might be able to give you a hand with that.

and here i've always looked up to you. what is it now?

more of them? great! i was starting to get lonely!

what is this smell?

i don't mean to sound critical, but have you considered a new line of work?

he eats babies, though. and farts fire.

if you've got something to say, just spit it out.

i get that a lot.

really? you're not at all jealous?

i don't care what people say, the sound of waves is not soothing.

why is it nobody ever seems happy to see us?

that could have gone better.

that's why i don't take sides.

nobody said this was going to be a happy story.

i'm too good looking to die this young.

i'm not going to make it!

first person to help me out here is my new best friend!

[avernusdamned]

hello i am still here the combo of retail worker during the holidays and sudden onset seasonal cold took me OUT but i am here MWAH

[avernusdamned]

sometimes i think of karlach being Rude and the lil snarl she gets on her face before the anger starts to get to her and im just like... wow.... ur so dreamy...

[avernusdamned]

happy spook season i made a karlach pumpkin ❤️

[blighted-elf]

Baldur's Gate 3 - Karlach Romance 6/?

[limpfisted]

“Lies, lies and slander towards the good Ravengard name!” He sloshes the wine around in his cup and takes a sullen sip, smacking his lips together, before shaking his head mot once, not twive, but three whole times, as slow and dramatically as he can. He slams down his goblet.

“Do you genuinely think there is a woman more beautiful than you in all the world, my friend?”

When drunk, everything paradoxically becomes the beating chest of the blade. The thees and thous and heady compliments, serious as a strange child performing middle grade Shakespeare for the benefit of none of their classmates, completely off book to the confusion of their teacher.

“I have been tempted by a thousand devil women. I have been accosted by barmaids, widows, clowns. No muscle was as strong or thick or warm, biceps curving, arms handsome, meant to hold, big, buxom hands to tremble, touch, hold and wrap in mine, red and bronze, the fire and the dragon. Never did a battlefield or bedroom cut a finer figure. I tumble to the bottom of your hourglass, I drown and burn in the sands, and I lose all track of time as I look up, up, into those beautiful, soft eyes, full cherub cheeks, a painting, an angel, a Cupid, your perfect lips the bow that pulls me.”

“You do not know the effect you have on men and women. And I am both. Doubly drawn to you thusly, I fear. Though I am much too polite a coquette, gentleman and high class lady all at once to do anything about it.”

[avernusdamned]

Kalrach looks enthralled by Wyll's words despite them all just being that. Words. Of course the passion behind them is nothing to be denied but Karlach barely tunes in well enough to understand that Wyll is just saying things. They all sound so pretty and earnest, though, and enough of it makes sense to the point where Karlach feels almost swept off her feet in the process.

She downs half her goblet of wine to hide the fact she wants to become a giggling mess of smiles and flustered blush. The wine doesn't help make her feel any less flushed. Thankfully, she runs so hot that a blush is nothing to be worried over. " That's a shame. " Karlach admits, a teasing shake of her head. Despite all her girlish flustering behind the wine, there is no shame to be held in goading Wyll further.

" I like it when polite gentlemen and classy ladies break their little rules now and then. " she smiles at Wyll but a bit more coyly. " But if that's the excuse we're going with, be my guest. " her laugh is much more open at her own joke, loud enough to be heard over the many other conversations happening through the tavern. " You know you could just ask nicely, right? " she looks at him, an eyebrow arching just slightly as she looks at him. " Oh, pretty please Karlach. Kiss me so I know what it's like to be smooched and held by the prettiest person in the bar. " although she teases, she's speaking truth.

[avernusdamned]

@limpfisted / “Oh, be still my heart. Is that an angel I see, appearing on the cusp on the horizon? Come to bring me to my salvation—turn water into wine—Oh, no God could be so loving!” Wyll pretends to swoon—but still sticks his empty goblet out for her to fill it once more with wine.

Karlach laughs him off, eyes rolling playfully and a toothy smile plastered across her face. Wyll is nothing if not a poet, that is something she was quick to learn in the few days they had spent together. Now look at them. She would have never guessed.

Despite all her laughter, though, there's a brighter glow in her chest and her face feels suddenly warmer than usual. Angel he calls her and it makes her feel a sort of way. Her skin tingles from up her arms to the back of her neck where the warmth of a hot blush trails out and meets at her cheeks to the tips of her ears. As cool and calm as she tries to be in the face of flattery, she's quite out of practice.

" An angel, he says. " wine is poured into his cup, another chuckle rolling out of her easily. (She's a bit tipsy, her own cup is refilled after his.) " I'm sure you say that to anyone filling your cup up, O' Blade of Avernus. " she knows he doesn't but she wants him to prove it by complimenting her more. She tells herself that she is allowed to be selfish in that regard; a decade in the Hells without a kind word spoken to her has made the poetry Wyll speaks rather addicting.

[avernusdamned]

something i also refuse to let slide is karlach's tendency to push her hatred for what happened in the hells onto zariel rather than gortash. and yeah that does make a little sense if you think hard enough about it because zariel is the one that put the engine in her chest and put her to work as a loyal attack dog for a decade, but gortash is the one that put her there to begin with

and yet, despite how loudly she will happily tell gortash off, zariel is worse. not the person that sold you to her. she holds resentment for gortash but not enough to make him enemy number one which gets me because that means there is still a part of her clinging to what she had once known him to be

there's a particular scene when looking in the ornate mirror during her origin where you can choose what her perfect world looks like. one option is along the lines of "i see avernus covered in green and flowers and growth and my old boss gortash on his hands and knees tending to the gardens for the rest of eternity" versus "zariel's head on a pike"

like. that's insane. the cruelest punishment she can think of for enver that will make her happy (past killing him, but this ALSO implies that if there were a different punishment she could choose, she would. because zariel's head on a pike is proof she's not worried abt the violence of it all) is to tend the gardens of a healed avernus

there's also the convo w the nymph in the circus. the answer to 'who does karlach loathe more than anyone' is obviously gortash but karlach also doesn't pull any punches or imply that you're wrong when you pick zariel instead, in fact it can almost read as the correct answer if you're half paying attention

don't get me wrong she HATES enver now but there's always that little scarred part of her that remembers the good ol days and there's notes in the game that make you remember that there WERE good times between them and it makes me go feral

[avernusdamned]

going in raw to the karlach romance (my save file is glitched so its taking me so long to trudge thru this fellas) and finally getting to the circus for That Scene only to be punched in the face by this

and she hesitates so fucking bad when you answer w this and throws it off with a very shaken joke "how about a really mean goat instead?" and then goes on to say "well, i don't know. things change. so i've heard." and you can take this as 'oh thats the wrong answer'

but it isnt the wrong answer karlach is just fucking scared and being asked whats going to happen a decade from now and you giving the answer she WANTS to hear even though you BOTH KNOW that the answer you just gave is impossible makes reality hit hard. there is no settling down for her. there is no nice home at the end of this, there is no partner to lay beside each night and say good morning to, there are no kids to tell war stories too just like her father did for her as a kid

its all fun and games until your mortality is thrown in your face and you realize that you can't ever live the life you want with the person you love

[myst1cals]

KISS ME .. an assortment of kissing prompts .

sharing a kiss while sitting by a campfire.

a kiss that leaves behind lipstick marks.

a kiss given between ocean waves.

kissing your lover because you believe you're going to die.

kissing the tears that roll down your lover's cheeks.

a kiss while being held bridal style.

a playful kiss given between laughter.

finally kissing the friend you've been yearning for.

kissing your enemy while holding them at knife point.

a kiss in the aftermath of a fight.

forbidden lovers sharing a kiss in the shadows.

kissing down your lover's body.

kissing at a crowded party.

a kiss shared against a tree.

a kiss to end sexual tension.

kissing to pretend that you are in a relationship together.

a kiss to prove you no longer have feelings for your lover.

a kiss shared to make someone else jealous.

a kiss that leads to undressing each other.

a kiss to say goodbye.

kisses against a wound.

a kiss to the forehead, meant to soothe.

a kiss to the neck from behind.

an 'i love you but i can't be with you' kiss.

an 'i'm in love with someone else, but you're here' kiss.

passionate kisses that end in ripped clothing.

an 'i forgive you' kiss.

a kiss shared at a masquerade ball.

your lover going to walk away, but you grab them and pull them back in for a kiss before they go.

a kiss shared underneath fireworks.

[avernusdamned]

i love being mean to enver <3

[arbalaest-deactivated20240310]

her bite's even meaner now, if he's to trail alongside her and compare one another to animals; it's satisfying, in its own way, but it's mostly just predictable. Of course, he never expected anything else from Karlach if they were ever to reunite; to suspect otherwise would've been folly. Rambunctious and honest as usual, Karlach's distaste tumbles forth, uncaring of anyone who might hear it. It's admirable to bear witness to strength as loud as the infernal heart in her chest, to see her passion to live undiminished ⸻ but then again, Enver expected as much. [ Did he? Now there's a feeling in his own chest he can't put his finger own, but it bears no similarity to remorse. He ignores it, in favor of humor. ]

Gortash laughs, just lightly, even in the face of her own imposing height. They could touch him without care or a second's consideration and kill him, burn him alive (or try again, anyway), but he trusts that they won't. It has been but a day of traveling, and they've already done what's expected of a group: defend one another, even if they'd rather be at each other's necks. Enver's always prided himself in being a pragmatist.

" You say that like I'm meant to take offense, or even consider it a low blow. " Gods, but Karlach still knows how to come at him at times; wild and yet still precise, like swings of the axe they wield in battle, but they're striking at what Enver's turned into armor rather than any major opening in his defenses. [ They've both made their choices. The rules of servitude apply to all, despite what anyone else might preach. ] " I meant it as a warning, which you'll probably disregard out of sheer pride: don't linger in my steps or my shadow. I would have thought you'd want to be remain well away from both. "

[avernusdamned]

" I don't care how you take it. In fact, you can take it and shove it right up your tight arsehole for all I care, eh? " she happily spits at his feet to punctuate the sentence. A hunk of spittle splattering in the dirt beside his feet. The way she looks up at him is not friendly in any sort of way, he is the only person that gets this look out of Karlach.

Her eyes are alight with glowing flame -- her eyes already a natural flame of orange and red now accented by the glow of the engine coursing through her body, her very flow of life -- and mouth snarled to show the bite of sharp teeth. A dog like warning, stay back or you will face the consequences, a look that she used to give the people attacking him. A look she would give to those that dared to speak ill of him. Now he is the receiver of her petty rage.

" That's what you get for thinking. " she tuts, shaking her head in the most sarcastic of manners. " Since when are you in the realm of warnings? Last I checked you just loved to spring shit on people. Or just let them fall to their doom while you watch with pride. " her voice comes from her chest, loud and prideful and booming. The whole camp can easily hear her. " Playing nice won't make me kill you faster at the end of this, shit-for-brains. It'll be slow and bloody. Pinky promise. "

[onewingedangels]

BALDUR'S GATE 3 (2023) dev. Larian Studios

[fatewoven]

i’ll be so lonely. / @avernusdamned

Any light source in this accursed land — its dark misery adding to their own as refugees wandering without home, and perhaps soon without hope — is crystalline and fragile, fractured and faint, trickled through and hoarded by souls on the verge of desperation. Stoking the forge fire proves a grim necessity when they have to divide resources. Each minute he's not working is a minute wasted; later, it's unsure if anything he's accomplished made a difference when half of their group disperses into the dark. Dammon knows, heart weary, that the moment they stepped foot with shaking torches and the fresh, gleaming weapons he's outfitted them with, that they will not meet again. Not by the morrow, and certainly not in Baldur's Gate.

Every day there's less and less Harpers to resupply with weapons and armor. There's less need to arm anyone when so many are resigned to their deaths, the sentiment unspoken and etched clearly in forlorn expressions. His is no different as he stares at the weakening barriers, and yet, on a fateful day with only embers burning within the forge, he feels it: that unmistakable echo of infernal iron, his senses honing toward it like a compass. He thinks maybe, maybe, maybe...

Karlach and her group bring more alive than any hoped, and that's cause enough for renewed hope. Her smile proves infectious as always, though already shadowed at the corners, and sitting by the forge, watered-down ale shared between them, Dammon tilts his head. Furrows his brows as his tail twitches, agitated. "I really wish I had better news to give you. I do." His work-worn hand palms over her wrist, squeezing tight, less reassuring than he'd like. "Hollow as it may sound at the present, I still want to say: don't lost hope. There's a chance we could figure out something in Baldur's Gate. Promised, didn't I? If I weren't a smith of my word, I wouldn't be much of anything at all." It rings true with self-deprecation, quickly hidden by a smile. "And selfishly? I'm glad you're here." Still alive. Still burning bright.

[avernusdamned]

Karlach feels almost selfish for lamenting here about her doomed fate. Truthfully, she hadn't really lingered on the thought all that much unless pressed about it -- and even then she will halt the conversation as she does not want to think too heavily about it -- and it was easier to ignore when there were more pressing matters to tend to. Now? Now it is much harder not to linger on the fear in her chest. Death or Avernus, the choices are not so grand.

The last time they celebrated like this, she couldn't touch anyone still. There was no one to embrace her, drunkenly kiss her, dance the night away hand in hand. Not for lack of trying but just her doomed fate. Now as they all sit in celebration -- everything she had craved before now openly attainable if she so desired -- and she sits quietly here complaining about loneliness to one of many refugees who have gone through too much in recent days. Idiot idiot idiot.

Her gaze is cast aside to the ground and she sighs out her heavy admission, not wanting to look Dammon in the eye. His hands around her wrist breaks her from that shame, allowing her to look the other tiefling in the eye more comfortably. " You sure know how to make a girl feel better, huh? " she teases with a small laugh. It's all she can really manage after hearing the last part. Selfishly. Glad you're here. " Gotta be careful with that. Make me blush too hard and you'll probably get burned. " she glances down at where he holds her wrist before looking back up, a bit softer this time. " You have a good heart, Dammon. A damn good heart. I'm glad I at least got to meet you through it all. "