FOR THE MEME: Meraad/Spite, Ambrian/Warden!Carver, Varash/Gale, aaaaand Asphodel/Barcus.
(Qunari Shadow Dragon Warrior, DA:Veilguard; canon romance Davrin)
Firstly, I don’t think this could ever get physical. Leaving aside the whole ‘currently in Lucanis’s body’ aspect, I don’t see Spite having the Curiosity to go mucking around with that sort of thing, even in the Fade. Also, while Meraad is clearly either Minrathous or Vashoth enough to be relatively chill with magic and spirits, I don’t think she’s down to get freaky with Spite either.
HOWEVER I do think Spite is very drawn to her hatred for Solas! There are good and sufficient things to hate about his actions and their consequences, and Meraad duly does, but she also loathes him personally, and she enjoys loathing him to a degree some of the companions find a little disquieting. Lucanis points out that the way Spite likes her means that it isn’t purely righteous fury, or personal injury, or the judgement that Solas has to be stopped – it’s spiteful. Meraad shrugs and says ‘yes…? Sorry, did you think that’s news?’ So Spite likes Meraad, Meraad is not threatened by what he is in himself and finds him amusing company, but fundamentally I don’t think she sees him as real enough to love, exactly. If she were a little more impulsive there might be an outcome where she invited him to come hang out in her body instead of Lucanis’s, but she’s aware that’s a stupid idea that would not end well.
(Elf Grey Warden Mage, DA:Veilguard; canon romance Emmrich unti he liched out, then a distant future with Davrin)
This could work really well. I have no troubles at all imagining them hooking up after a battle, in the Grey Warden ‘we have survived and want to reassure ourselves about it’ way. My main misgiving is that without an external focus, something that isn’t Blight and death, Carver’s remaining background bitterness and Ambrian’s focus on duty probably fester until they become very silent and grim. I don’t think either of them, in themselves, could see a brighter future or lift each other up to a place that they have something good to fight for. Not even each other, really. They’re both in the trenches and they will stay there until they die, and if they are company along the way, it’s as much as can be hoped for.
(Githzerai druid, Circle of the Moon, BG3; canon romance Halsin)
This is hard! He had very high approval early in her playthrough, but she was more ambivalent about him, and the romance flag never tripped at all. He is certainly not one of the companions who utterly baffles her or whom she despises; while he lacks the self-certainty she takes for granted, he’s in a position where she understands why. He was an archmage and Mystra’s Chosen until quite recently, and he’s continually grappling with what that makes him now. She respects his learning, and they are both people who process things intellectually before emotionally. It could work, but Gale would need to do a lot of self-searching very quickly, which means deciding for himself not to pursue the Crown instead of Varash continually smacking his hand away like a toddler reaching for the lolly jar. I can definitely see Gale immersing himself in githzerai culture and spending a lot of time with Varash in Limbo – in fact, if I ever write the post-game fic I have notes for, he’s right there with Halsin and Varash (like he’s going to Plane Shift them to Limbo and not come too). In either scenario, he gets on famously with Varash’s mother, who is a librarian/archivist.
(Half-drow cleric of Sharess, war domain, BG3; canon romance Astarion)
Jade. I have no idea why you picked him.
This could be so stinking cute.
So as a very obvious bastard, who was expected to be invisible and not embarrass the parents who deigned to keep her, Asphodel has a lot of understanding of the ‘this person whom I love doesn’t want me around’ situation. She’s fundamentally good-hearted, and not quite as frivolous as she tends to appear, but she is a cleric of Sharess. She flirts like she breathes, and Barcus is definitely the type to blush even though he hates that about himself. It’s a running theme at every rescue, and she’s good at judging when to back right off. She’s not even serious about it until she sees Wulbren brush Barcus off at Last Light. She buys him a drink, then later suggests they go upstairs together – she’s not the one he wants, but she wants him, and it might be nice to be close to someone. This wouldn’t work, but I think he’d remember it as a hideously embarrassing kindness. I can see it, eventually, as a brief sweet affair that helps Barcus regain some self-respect after Wulbren crushed him, or as something a bit more lasting – his steadiness and seriousness could be good for her, and her frank enjoyment of life for him.
Either way, when he says that “I'd kiss you, but neither of us deserves that” line, Asphodel definitely takes that as an opening sally, and he’s kicking himself for bringing up the topic in the first place. There is a fair chance he is smooched.
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