OKAY TIME FOR THE BABILLION-WORD WRITEUP ABOUT THIS
so, in writing down my no-core-companion run, i've had a lot of fun adjusting in-game events to better suit a gameplay-less novel experience (splitting up the party, condensing/combing events to flow more naturally, etc). example, i split the party in the temple of shar in the written version to cover more ground, but also because durge's urges are calling him to do harm to briar, so he's actively putting physical space between them (he would've split off with minthara bc she's expendable but both sides needed a healer and he wanted to see what he could learn from halsin)
anyway one thing i realized is the freedom i have to explore my versions of existing characters (im new to fan fiction okay this is also so novel to me). while i was drafting the skeleton out for act 2, i was like "ahh its gonna suck for halsin when minthara joins up ahaha"
and then i stopped. "wait why the fuck would halsin let her in the party." and then i thought "hmmm why would halsin let her in the party?" but this time with intrigue. got the ball rolling in my brain bc, as briar and durge, as written thus far, WOULDN'T. they don't know or care about this lady. so what if it was halsin's choice to save her? why would he choose this? what does it mean for their relationship?
so ive been having fun looking over the many sides ive seen people point out about halsin - how he's absolutely capable of vengeance (case in point, he hunts you down if you kill the grove), clearly has some understandably complicated feelings about drow (ESPECIALLY those who perpetuate their systems), but also a well of empathy and the tendency to doubt his own judgment. so i kinda fell in love with this version of halsin, wanting to enact justice on minthara, knowing it's also an extremely personal vendetta, hating himself for letting it BE personal/selfish, and still managing to recognize her humanity because she's going through something he, as a survivor & victim of so much trauma and loss, probably understands very well. this, alongside minthara's genuine attempts to sort herself out and pull her weight (even if she's absolutely not shaken her upbringing's influence) muddies things further.
my durge deeply respects and is envies halsin, viewing him as a desirable person to be (in control, kind, gentle and authentic), so this comic was originally supposed to be durge reckoning with the more human sides of halsin he blinded himself to. but i didnt script this out and just let my stupid lil heart carry the dialogue, so it ended up focusing and centering halsin's emotions with a fun dash of "durge is as socially inept as he is eloquent". it was fun to bounce his curtness off of halsin's gentler manner of speaking, even if the two have pretty similar character voices to me.
i realized durge absolutely cannot help halsin in this department, certainly not in a little speech, but that it would also be diminishing of halsin's interiority to have durge dismiss or resolve his unease so easily. instead, he asserts his own mistrust of minthara and makes his feelings known without pushing halsin in either direction, he reasserts his faith in halsin's judgment, but unfortunately his Urge is 100% on board too and decided to make things very awkward. halsin appreciates the gesture.
ive also decided minthara calls dyven "alhoon" (al [dead] + hoon [outsider/abomination]) partly because she cant remember his name and partly because he's a little twat.
finally, since durge is REALLY hard to draw consistently, ive been using a lot of direct references from a really awesome resource i got from a user here like 2 years ago but i cant find the name so once i do imma update this to include a link bc they deserve credit for thaaaaaat
anyway this is what ive been doing between work days so yippeeeee not my worst single draft
i love you durge. all that smart doesnt help you one bit
blakekathryn
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