I like to think that the nicknames Orin calls Gortash (namely "lordling"), she directly got from Durge.
Like, I imagine before Gortash and Durge truly started getting along, Durge would grumble about working with him to Orin, calling him names like "Lordling", "Banite", "Bane dog", and stuff like that. Things that belittled him in their eyes.
Then they started getting to know one another, one thing led to another, and those names became something endearing, pet names if you will.
Orin saw the shift from belitting to adoring and hated it.
"My perfect sibling? Admiring the Banite? Blasphemy!"
And so, after she took out Durge, she intended to ruin those adorations for Gortash. She would pointedly call him Durge's names, dripping with venom, and Gortash would react.
In small ways, clenching his teeth, spearing a glare, the slightest flinch, but he would still always react because those were his dearest words in the fraud's mouth.
It drove Gortash mad, and that filled Orin with glee.
Give me Astarion who slowly gets more comfortable babbling away about his thoughts and feelings as he falls in love with you.
He goes from the constant "I'm fine" when you ask him how he is to "actually you know darling, I don't think the blood from that awful hook horror I bit in battle yesterday agreed with me, it was quite sour, eugh. I can't decide what was worse, that or Gale."
So we all know that not being able to see himself for over 200yrs is a big thing for Astarion, right?
So uhm, why doesn’t he comment or react when we get that statue of him? U’know the one that costs 5k gold?¿ the one that stays at camp?¿ the HUGE statue?
So when you help Oscar in act 3 he can draw a portrait of you and of your companions as thanks. ‘Reaction not found’ again.
We can see through each others eyes thanks to the tadpoles, right? The same way Astarion needed our ‘eyes’ for the ascension ritual? So he can see his own scars and draw them on Cazzador back? You’re telling me he wasn’t even phased when he was looking at himself the entire time?????
The shar gauntlet where you fight your exact copy.
AU where Rolan becomes a companion and at first seeks training under Gale.
Within two long rests, it becomes abundantly clear Rolan is a goddamn sorcerer (c’mon, exactly how many wizards with zero formal training are able to create their own spells?). Now the question is whether to tell him because it was hard enough to convince him to give up Lorroakan and the camp is very concerned about giving Rolan two life-changing epiphanies in one week.
(That sorcerer-Rolan post lives rent free in my brain, and is my favorite, actually serious headcanon)
So like, how I imagine things would be once you and your partner(s) settle down, ofc depending. If folks like this I'll certainly make this a series!
I imagine you two spend a long while adventuring before settling. I like to imagine (whether you declared it to him or not), the goal was always to find a means to get him safely in the sun again. I imagine it took YEARS of travelling to try and find it, but eventually you do come across it. Not a cure by any means, but a ring lost in an abandoned vampire crypt that took you ages to learn about, and ages more to find. And he slips it on his finger and it gives him the means to not only step in the sun, but it also hides his vampiric features, if he so wishes. (I like to think it will make him look as he did before he was changed).
When you make your way back towards Baldur's Gate, you make a point to visit old friends along the way. Visit the now thriving town and nearby Selunite temple, restored to it's glory over the years, thanks to Isobel and Aylin. Shadowheart lives in the small town, I'd like to imagine, having settled there upon her finishing adventuring. She's of course, pleased to see you both and host you, sharing glasses of wine and some good stories and gossip. You two stay for a week or so, taking care to take in the sights, visiting the grove, the old crash site, hell, even Auntie Ethel's former house that had been taken over by some of the druids. You're surprised to discover that even the forge in the underdark has some new occupants, some of the spawn that were freed by Astarion; they have started up a mining operation, and are making quite a good living, the ore they find making good weapons to be made in the forge. From them you learn more settled in the underground near Halsin's community, and would certainly be worth a visit.
Next comes the former shadowlands and Halsin's community; by now so many of the kids he brought along and raised in the orphanage are much older now, either teens or young adults. Halsin, as you can imagine, probably beams at the sight of you two, especially Astarion in the sun, and most certainly drops whatever he's doing and runs over, picking up and hugging you both. He's happy to host you at his home, ThanieI's former place of residence. The building is a lot larger now, but still a homely stone cottage look to it, moss growing up the side and a sizeable willow growing to the side. I imagine you two stay there a few weeks, as there is a lot to see if what has changed, and Halsin is more than eager to show you both around. Everything has been restored and repurposed; Surprisingly, Moonrise has become a school, last light restored to a fully working inn, the inn near moonrise repurposed as the orphanage, the hospital back in working order- hell, even the former Sharan temple in the underdark has been inhabited by a large portion of the spawn and the community there is thriving. Hell they've even constructed a proper entry and exit point that doesn't require them walking through the graveyard, and instead leaves out of that old Shar shrine under the statue in town. (Of course, all Shar symbology has been removed). The area is lively and it's nice to relax, take in the clean air and admire how the land has healed, and the community has thrived.
When you have to leave, Halsin asks you to write once you're back in Baldur's Gate, and promises you a place there, if you ever tire of the city.
Astarion almost seems sad when you two leave.
It doesn't take long for you two to return to the city. When you do, you stay in a room at the elf song while you try and sort out an apartment or home, but within the first day back you're off to see Wyll and Karlach; both back in the gate after a few years in the hells. Her engine repaired to the highest degree, they've settled down together in a home of their very own, and it's of no surprise when there's three kids scrambling about. The two of you had been gone for nearly a decade exploring, I'd like to imagine; so it's of no surprise that they've got three kids, all half tiefling half human, the oldest being five, and the other two being 3 year old twins. Wyll and Karlach both have jobs, Karlach having taken to working at the forge with Dammon, and Wyll working as a private investigator, occasionally writing for the Baldur's Mouth Gazette too.
Seeing them settled like that, Astarion, when you two are relaxing in your room at the elf song, drinking some wine, tries to laugh about it. "Could you imagine settling down like that? Hah!" He says it in a mocking tone, but after nearly eleven years together, give or take, it's easy to see the way he frowns into his wine glass when he looks the other way.
A few weeks after returning to the gate, you receive a letter: Gale is going to be coming through town, and he'd love to visit the two of you. Coincidentally enough, he's moving to Halsin's community, to teach at the school, and will be in town for a day or two and would want to visit.
Upon his visit, the whole group in town get together for dinner and drinks together, Grandpa Ulder having taken the kids for the night. Gale has become quite the accomplished teacher, and has even written more than a handful of academic papers. His move was inspired by wanting to learn more about he other fields of magic, and also to help teach the youth of tomorrow about it too.
There's laughter and jokes and fun stories all around, and eventually Gale asks how the house hunt goes for you and Astarion. The city is ever expanding of course, but there isn't quite anything that the two of you feel confident about quite yet; and there's well wishes on that, and eventually everyone departs for the night.
That night Astarion suggests it, moving there as well. Having a house built on the edge of town, maybe by the water, or up on a hill. It's then that he admits that even though Baldur's Gate had always been home, there's far too many bad memories; and that he'd like making new memories somewhere else.
It takes maybe 3 months before the house is completed. The two of you had travelled back, and stayed in last light until construction was completed. Plans had to be drawn up with what the two of you wanted, a location scouted out, and then of course the process of building it. Stone and wood, two floors, and just up a hill from the water.
Within a year of living there, the house is truly a home. Astarion was enjoying a lot of his free time reading, to the point that a second bookcase had to be commissioned. He took up a job working as a bartender at the last light inn, and a few times a week the two of you meet up with Halsin and Gale to chat, have drinks, discuss things; and whenever it calls for, the two of you pick up your weapons to travel again, albeit a lot more short term.
Tell me Rolan (when three sheets to the wind) wouldn’t steal a big bundle of mint from the bar in lieu of flowers and do his finest Morrissey impression. Angst central.
Cal and Lia absolutely howling at his loss of inhibition knowing full well they’d get to remind sober Rolan of his “showmanship”.
He’s either belting out “This Charming Man” (post Lorroakan) or “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” (mid-Lorroakan).
“I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour but heaven knows, I’m miserable now.
I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven know I’m miserable now.
In my life, why do I give valuable time, to people who don’t care if I live or die?”
