I am currently held hostage by Ascended Astarion and my own inability to write anything "normal." Raging (but medicated) ADHD gremlin who can only focus on one thing at a time. I am the owner of the rooster Tumblr has dubbed Cockstarion and am always down for a chocolate chip cookie!
Pfp and Banner by @alstromeri-a 🥰🤭
MOOTS + TAG LIST
I made a forever moots post!!
-> CLICK HERE FOR THE VIRTUAL GROUP HUG
Go and interact with the post linked above 👆 if you want to be tagged in all of the tag games and WIPs!
This blog contains:
BG3 Screaming
Astarion thirst reblogs
Occasional Gortash gooning
WIP updates / writing chaos
Me, feral in the tags
An ongoing obsession with my OCs
Rhiannon Info Dump
Things you will NOT find here:
self-control 🚫
sanity 🤪
logical advice 🤫
Askbox:
✅ Open for
✨ Screaming, frothing and unhinged theories
🌙 “What if [OC] did this” questions,
✨ Fic reactions
🌙 Character analysis & hot takes
✨ Writing prompts (please I beg you)
🌙 Bullying me (affectionately) about updates
✨ General chaos at any hour
🌙 Songs I should add to my fic playlists
❌ Closed for
😒 moral judgment
😤sanity
😡or telling me to “touch grass.” I simply refuse!
I will not be taking constructive criticism on any perceived unhinged behavior at this time. Thank you 🤭
Fic-list
🩸 Stealing Moonlight OC/Tav x Ascended Astarion : dark romance, religious guilt, mild dubious consent, slow burn, uneven power dynamics, tension, corruption (Chapter 18/?)
(later chapters under rewrite)
⛓️ A Dowry of Smoke OC/Tav x Enver Gortash : arranged marriage, grief/mourning, major character death (Gale), forced proximity, emotional manipulation, political marriage, uneven power dynamics (Chapter 3/?)
(I have 2 one-shots but I'm not proud of them enough to link them)
Thank you @optimisticgrey and @kt-catt for the tags! I thought that since I'm leaving for vacation after work today, I would just combine these two things into one cuz I'm gonna be busy having FUN!!
Please enjoy some of my absolutely OBSESSED Ascended Astarion >:3
Serving Up: 496 words from the draft of Chapter 19 of my fanfiction Stealing Moonlight
Astarion swept from the sunroom with far less grace than before, the heels of his boots striking sharply against the marble floors as he tore through the adjoining corridor. The servants lingering there scattered almost immediately upon his approach, pressing themselves hurriedly against the walls while he stormed past them without so much as an acknowledging glance in their direction.
Every damned hallway was drenched with her scent.
Rosehip oils that clung stubbornly to the carved banisters beneath his fingertips. Lemongrass drifting through the stale palace air in maddening little waves that made it feel as though she lingered just beyond the next doorway. Just beyond the next staircase. Just beyond his reach.
Always almost.
Never there.
Only her scent lingering like a taunt.
His palace had become infested with her.
She coated every surface. Every corridor. Every stretch of marble beneath his feet. He could practically feel the phantom warmth of her skin still lingering against velvet curtains and silk sheets alike. Could almost hear the soft padding of her bare feet as it disappeared down distant hallways whenever he slowed long enough to listen for it.
And it was beginning to drive him mad.
Astarion descended another staircase with quick, vicious strides, shoving one of his spawn aside when the man failed to move from his path quickly enough. The poor thing stumbled sharply against the wall, clearly startled by his violence, but it was as if the Vampire Ascendant scarcely even noticed.
Where was she?
His senses stretched desperately through the palace around him, searching for the quick rhythm of her heartbeat amongst his still living staff. Every time he’d thought he caught it, it would vanish again beneath the weight of his servants and mortal guests drifting throughout the manor below.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Godsdamnit.
The frustration clawed steadily sharper through him with every passing second that she wasn’t in his grasp.
And then, all at once, a far uglier thought began to unfurl in his mind.
What if she was gone?
The thought struck him so suddenly that his steps faltered outright.
Gone?!
No.
Surely not. Not his Rhia. Not his darling little love.
But the more rooms he tore through without finding her, the more poisonous that possibility became.
What if she had finally come to her senses?
What if she had finally remembered exactly what kind of monster he was and slipped away when his attention had been occupied elsewhere? Vanished from his palace like water through open fingers while he sat wasting precious hours entertaining godsdamned nobles and shit-stinking merchants below?
He laughed, and the sound of it echoing off of the walls of the empty corridor was not a pleasant thing. It was short. Humorless. The kind of sarcastic laugh one released when they realized their plan had failed.
Of course she had left him. Of course she did.
The thought turned bitter almost instantly, his jaw locked so hard the ache of it radiated up through his skull.
I recognize that this WIP is unprompted, but I say "fuck it."
I also realize that there is no actual TAV in this WIP, but it is Tav adjacent, so in my head it still counts.
As usual with any A Dowry of Smoke snippets, they are dedicated to @carnivaley <3 Had she not spent a month bullying me into keeping Rowan and continuing this story, I wouldn't have remembered that I actually enjoy myself when I'm writing Gortash xD
Without further ado, please enjoy some 517 words I pantsed this morning.
He’d known from the moment Meyer Ravenshade had accepted his proposal for his nieces hand in marriage that the Lady Rowan Ravenshade would not arrive with the eager compliance Parliament expected of its future Archduchess. This was a woman who’d spent the better part of the last two years mourning the wizard who’d practically blown up his Netherbrain, clearly the announcement of their quick engagement couldn’t have been met with tears of joy. Had their positions been reversed, he suspected his own enthusiasm might have been equally as lacking.
Still…
The city waited for their union.
His guests waited for dinner to start.
He waited for her to show herself.
And he absolutely hated waiting.
The thought scarcely had the chance to settle before the soft clink of crystal against crystal announced someone lingering at his shoulder.
“I must admit, my dear, you’ve managed to truly surprise me.”
The voice was warm with a practiced civility, carrying the sort of effortless confidence that only the truly well-established ever seemed capable of possessing. There was no hesitation in approaching him, no nervous glance towards his Steel Watchers, no unnecessary flourish of etiquette intended to remind him of his station. She simply stepped into the space beside him as though it belonged to her just as much as it belonged to him.
Lady Wisteria Jannath.
Sapphire silk draped elegantly from her shoulders, embroidered with delicate gold and silver vines that shimmered each time she shifted beneath the candlelight. Time had silvered strands of the firey auburn hair he once remembered spilling loose over those same shoulders, yet it had done remarkably little to diminish both her beauty or the intelligence resting quietly behind her pale green eyes.
There had once been a time when those eyes had watched him from across candlelit dining tables rather than crowded banquets. Long before Wyrm’s Rock. Long before Parliament had begun addressing him at Your Grace. Before the invention of his Steel Watchers, before his coronation as Archduke, before the city had decided that Enver Gortash was a man worth bowing to. Wisteria Jannath had known him when he had been little more than an ambitious nuisance with expensive tastes and very little coin to indulge them.
Her gaze wandered to the untouched place setting beside his own.
Gortash rolled the stem of his goblet lazily between his fingers.
“Only now?”
A quiet laugh escaped her.
“Oh Enver, you’ve spent years surprising this city.” Her smile lingered. “It was your choice of fiancee that became the first surprise I haven’t managed to predict beforehand.”
“How disappointing that must be for you, my Lady.”
“No, not disappointing.” She replied, lifting one shoulder in a half-shrug. “Just curious, is all.”
It was her curiosity that finally drew his attention.
For a brief moment their eyes met, and Gortash was reminded why their conversations had always been considerably more stimulating than those of half the Parliament assembled around them. Wisteria never asked questions because she was lacking the answer to them. No, she asked because she wanted to see whether your answer differed from her own.
Let's see, I need to tag my Gortash moots for this one I think... Obviously @carnivaley, @gortashsrighthand, and @dynamicducks, @archduchessgortash, @defira85, @sakesword, @afilmnoirdetective, @ixiagrey, and @akelan!! If I missed you and you want in, TAKE IT. STEAL IT. but pretty please tag me for niceness and all :3
Family: Her parents, Alaric and Livia Ravenshade, who were tragically burned to death in a housefire that Rowan accidentally set as a four year old child, before she had any grasp on how volatile her Wild Magic really was. She lives as a ward in her father's older brother, Meyer Ravenshade's, estate in Baldur's Gate. She has no siblings or recognized cousins as her uncle never married.
Birthplace: Baldur's Gate in the Ravenshade family home.
Job: None/Noble Lady
Phobias/Fears: Abandonment, her own magic, and miceHobbies: Rowan enjoys playing a game of Wizard's chess in her down time, it provides an escape. Most days she can be found curled up with a book, preferring to read rather than have the potential to cause any disasters with her unpredictable magic.
Thank you for all of the tags you guys: @carnivaley, @ele-millennial-weirdo, @kt-catt, @deianestormborn. I know that I've done this in the past, but who doesn't love an updated version <3
Also did one for Rowan under active threat :3
THE BASICS
Name: Rhiannon
Alias: Rhia (by the companions), Little Cleric (by Astarion)
Background: Acolyte
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Aro/Ace
Pronouns: She/Her
OTHER
Family: She has no known parents or siblings, no family name to call her own. She was raised by the temple elders- the other acolytes becoming something kind of like to siblings, though she never really bonded with them as such. It was Sister Ingrid who became the closest thing she'd ever have to a mother. She put the first training sword in her hands, teaching her that devotion (to some) is akin to strength. That faith held iron within it.
Birthplace: Unknown. Rhiannon was left on the steps of a Selûnite temple as an infant, wrapped in a plain linen cloth and wearing only a bracelet of braided silver thread around her wrist.
Job: Rhiannon is a Priestess of Selûne, originally bound to serve at the House of The Moon in Waterdeep before being abducted by the Absolute. After the events of BG3, she isolates herself due to the shame she feels after helping Astarion ascend. She rebuilt what she could, choosing to serve a small, remote chapel tucked deep into the woods, providing her services to a nearby hamlet with no one but Selûne to answer to.
Phobias/Fears: Becoming helpless and being excommunicated by her sect.
Hobbies: Rhiannon is an avid enjoyer of herbalism and gardening, making her own potions and tinctures from the things she grows in her garden. She can be caught gazing at the stars and charting the constellations after nightly devotionals. Would much rather write her thoughts down in a journal than speak them aloud.
Morals
Alignment: During the events of BG3 she is Lawful Good. During the events of my fic "Stealing Moonlight" she is Neutral Good.
Flaws: Dependent, Guarded, Brash
Virtues: Devoted, Loyal, Brave, Empathetic
Tags: If you've already done this, just tag me in the comments of your post so I can check it out! @gortashsrighthand, @thesanguinesonnet, @miauzuli, @dynamicducks, @toomanyfamiliars, @missfortunetherogue, @unovafarm, @cep-stories, @et-augury, and @fireflyeyes!
tag game: Recreate a VP of your Tav as the main character or your fave character from your favourite movie — within the limits of photo mode, of course. Make a whole entourage if you like.
thank you @bhaal-battle-beer-bard [post here], i love that tag so so much!!
at some point i will do separate post for vinessis and moulin rogue but today is clemetime and clementine has a great day every day, but gale only has a great day if Clem looks at him...
tbf once test said Clementine is actually Ken and Gale is Barbie (no way) and i agree only if we are talking about this scene
Thank you @deianestormborn and @thesanguinesonnet for the tags on this one! <3
NSFW is in the title. You have been warned. If you do not want to read anything of that nature, skip this post. With the CW out of the way, let's get started, shall we?
Questions Created By @thesanguinesonnet 🧛🏻♂️
1 - What is an idea, dynamic, or trope in your current work that feels naughty or self-indulgent? (spicy answers 100% encouraged!)
Oh my goodness, okay so I have an utterly disgusting love for pitch black dark romance stories/books. Like I am scared to show ANYBODY my kindle library at this point in my e-book collection. I will not sit here and lie to y'all and say that I do not agree with non-con/dub-con writing, because I love it. It might not be everybody's cup of tea but it is mine. Chapter 8 of my longfic Stealing Moonlight is where I started dipping my toes into that kind of writing. Astarion had just professed to Rhiannon that he's been madly in love with her for YEARS and she didn't have the reaction that HE wanted HER to have. So what does this crazy ascended vampire that I have obsessed over in my head do?
This:
And this moment from the nightmare in Chapter 13.
Don't even get me STARTED on the original Chapter 16. Oh my god that was TRULY my entire leg in the pool of non-con/dub-con/force-con.
But I deleted this chapter for a reason and rewrote it. And I like the rewrite for Chapter 16 much, MUCH better.
2 - Is your OC a virgin, blushing maiden, or a sexual fiend? Or are they aro/ace? Or are they something in between?
Okay, BEFORE the fic, Rhiannon 100% believes that she is aro/ace. She thinks that there is no way that she could ever have such devious feelings such as lust or desire. In Stealing Moonlight, Astarion is basically SHOWING her that she DOES have these feelings and that there isn't anything to be ashamed about, but doing it in the most OBSCENE way. She is a virgin. And I am scared to write the actual P in V sex scene I have planned after the chapter 19 rewrite is done...
3 - What's your OC's "I shouldn't be this turned on by this" trigger?
Forced proximity, rough handling, bite/blood play, predator/prey or hunting play. I never once claimed that this fanfiction was pure or holy, only that my OC was at ONE POINT both pure AND holy.
4 - What is your OC's hard NO?
I think multiple partners would be a hard NO for Rhia, she can barely handle Astarion touching her without freaking out. I don't think she'd be down for anal either, lol. This whole fic is about corrupting the "incorruptible" but even she (and my brain) has her limits.
5 - What is the most debauched VP/Art you have ever created?
HE IS TOUCHING HER COOCHIE MEOW MEOW!!!
Thank you again @akelan <3
6 - What is the wildest NSFW smut you have ever thought up? Did you write it?
Funnily enough this answer has nothing to do with Stealing Moonlight, haha! It was a one-shot where Astarion made my DUrge his consort, doing a whole "vampire bride" ritual I found on the internet, and then they both fucked all over the palace and played with each others blood O-O. Oh my god it was 30 pages long and I never ended up FINISHING IT!
7 - Do you have any crazy projects planned for the future?
Heh, yes. I have already planned out chapter 20 for Stealing Moonlight, aka their "consummation" chapter as a few of my commenters have been asking for xD
Then for A Dowry of Smoke, I have a non-con/dub-con/hate fuck planned for their wedding night. So another "consummation" chapter I guess.
I don't really write one shots, I've tried but they never get finished. It's just not in my destiny I guess. I have 2 published one-shots that I'm not proud of in the slightest, they are FINE I guess. I will never tag/link them on anything though. Probably the only two one-shots I will ever give to AO3.
If you made it this far and you didn't enjoy anything I said above, I get it. I hear you. We don't have to enjoy the same things and that is 100% fine! This is a deviation from my other types of posts, but I promise that I'm still the same Cinder I was before you clicked the "Read More" button <3
I hope this was an insightful look into my twisted and debauched brain. Also if you want me to do any pitch black dark romance book recs I have SO MANY TO SHARE!
I have been tagged by @thesanguinesonnet, @deianestormborn, and @kt-catt in these over the past week and I honestly haven't had anything to share until now! Thank you so much for including me, I love, love, LOVE reading all your snippets and seeing what VP/Render creations y'all have to share <3
A little something I've been working on for A Dowry of Smoke, which BTW is now officially dedicated to the biggest Wizard Kisser I know @carnivaley! Without their love and support I do not know if this fic would even still be here. I love you so much and it is such a blessing to call you my friend!
Okay, enough of the sappy shit, please enjoy the Gortash POV I have to share with y'all today!
Thank you for reading :3 If you want to be a part of the tag list please go interact <<HERE>> and I'll make sure to include you on all of the WIP, VP, and other OC shenaniganz going around the Tumblr!
Family: Amalantar Baen’ana — father, cleric of Eilistraee; Umraeala Baen’ana — mother, keeper of relics; Alyfryn Baen’ana — older sister, paladin and family pride; Sinqualyn Baen’ana — younger brother, cleric-in-training; in the far future, Morena Dekarios-Alberral — daughter with Gale (yes, i am serious)
Friends: the Fishes — Mia and Jess — her band, they know maybe 30% of the truth about her; Withers (unclear if he agreed to this); Astarion (mutually beneficial aesthetic alliance); Wyll (it's complicated by her imagination); Karlach (bestie in every possible reality)
Rivals: any bard currently receiving applause, Mystra, Dorian Veil
Birthplace: a surface temple-sanctuary of Eilistraee near Waterdeep, exact location never disclosed - consistent with the fact that nobody in Baldur's Gate knows what street she lives on either
Job: Bard, frontwoman. Occasionally bound by one (1) unfinished contract she refuses to discuss
Phobias/Fears: Being forgotten, becoming replaceable, being abandoned
Hobbies: Curating her own myth, collecting names for the kill-count in her notebook, renaming other people without consent, falling in love before learning surnames, violin, songwriting, lying
Morals
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (with unsupervised lapses into Good she will deny under oath)
Flaws: Vain, compulsive liar, attention-starved, allergic to sincerity, , abandons things the moment they start seeing her clearly, jealous, self-sabotaging, uses charm as armor, runs when things become too real
Virtues: Genuinely talented (not a divine gift, thank you), brave, brilliant, charismatic, creative, emotionally perceptive, fiercely loving when she finally lets herself be
This or That
Introvert / Ambivert / Extrovert
Organized / Disorganized
Closed-minded / Open-minded
Calm / Anxious / Restless
Disagreeable / In-Between / Agreeable
Patient / In-Between / Impatient
Outspoken / In-Between / Reserved
Leader / Follower / Flexible
Empathetic / In-Between / Apathetic
Optimist / Realist / Pessimist
Traditional / In-between / Modern
Hard-working / In-Between / Lazy
Backstory (yapping)
She was born as Vessyliss Baen’ana into a wealthy surface drow house sworn to Eilistraee - the goddess whose liturgy is song and dance - which is the cruelest joke of her life, because she grew up where music was sacred and never once got to keep her own applause. Every note was "the goddess's gift," every ovation redirected upward like tithe. Her parents ran a temple-sanctuary, her sister glowed with a paladin's purpose, and Ves - the loud one, the middle one - learned that in her house you were either holy or invisible, and she was not holy.
Nobody hurt her. That's the part she can't monologue about: they were decent, loving in their distracted way, and they simply did not see her unless she was performing. So she performed, confused being watched with being loved, and has been running that error ever since.
When she left, she burned the whole signature. The house name was generations of penance, her first name a hand-me-down from a grandmother-priestess - so "Clementine Alberral" became the first thing she ever built for herself: a warm, sunlit name that sounds like a girl who has never apologized to a goddess, and a surname engineered for posters, belonging to no house and no one but her. She walked out after one more festival of singing for Eilistraee's glory and never went back. Whether House Baen’ana ever searched for her, she has carefully not found out.
Between the temple and the nautiloid: Dorian Vell, an older impresario who taught her stagecraft and beautiful lying and loved her talent exactly the way her family loved the goddess's gift - which is to say, not her - the contract she signed young and stupid to fund the new name, and a string of doomed infatuations with people whose stories she loved more than their persons.
i was tagged by @saylofwaterdeep, @fireflyeyes and @deianestormborn
i decided it is a great time to do a proper oc info post about Clemetine (and finally wrote down her backstory cause i never did it lol), plus i know - my canva skills are scary
anyway i am not sure who i should tag (i am so lost in tumblr latelyXD) so if you did this - plz tag me: @cinder-rellish181, @toomanyfamiliars, @arlynx, @faeriiefire, @litsenn, @dr4gonwriter
Thank you @deianestormborn for the tag on this one!
On Pinterest, search "[your OCs name]" and show us the first six results!
Now searching "Rhiannon Core" on Pinterest just gave me a bunch of Fleetwood Mac pictures, and while I love Stevie Nix to death (I have a freaking chicken named after her) I went with "Rhia Core" instead <3
Pinterest really showed out with this one, giving my little half wood-elf baby girl a real whimsical theme :3
I am trying so hard not to crash out about the "Neutral" expression on Rhiannon's sheet being taken at a different FOV, I've resorted to using golf rules and playing it where it lies.
Kudo's to Hanna for making the Canva template, linked <<HERE>>
Click File -> Make a Copy -> Start Editing :3
My Tags: @gortashsrighthand, @carnivaley, @dynamicducks, @saylofwaterdeep, @missfortunetherogue, @thesanguinesonnet, @deianestormborn, @ele-millennial-weirdo, @kt-catt, @unovafarm, and @fireflyeyes <3
Thank you for the tag, lovely @bhaal-battle-beer-bard 💛
Durgetash are meant to parallel another otp: Deckerstar from the show Lucifer. With a slight adjustment: Ophelia is Lucifer - child of Bhaal, extraverted and outgoing, impossible to shut up, looking to have a good time (while there is still time) - and Enver is Chloe Decker - serious, focused, determined, too busy to actually live a life. They challenge each other, disarm each other, in ways no one else can. Of course, Durgetash aren't morally good, but that's a small detail, lol
Adding my own low key no pressure tags/invitations to participate back to @bhaal-battle-beer-bard and also @the-shadowfell-darkroom @purpleasters-inseptember @saylofwaterdeep @deianestormborn @perpetualmaladaptivedaydream @faeriiefire @carnivaley @gortashsrighthand @wasteful-sam @optimisticgrey @doomedlamb @missfortunetherogue @cursed-nyxan and @cinder-rellish181 💛
