follow up from Elenion and Tara: tell me more about Elenion and Morena! :)
okay so first of all i'm sorry this was in my inbox for a month 😔 BUT i have basically all the details of their first meeting planned out in my mind and i've never had a good excuse to talk about it! might be nice to write a little fic about it someday but i'm not sure if i will ever get around to that so instead i'll write you an essay! it got pretty long so i'll put most of it under a cut.
First off, I should say that Elenion accidentally announces his retirement from touring and reveals he's engaged in an interview only three days after the fall of the Netherbrain—but he very carefully avoids giving out the name or even gender of his partner. It could be any one of the people he was traveling with. So his own mother got a very interesting surprise when she read the news, but Morena doesn't suspect a thing until Gale personally tells her.
And when she finds out, of course she wants to meet her son's fiancé. So they go to her house for dinner. Elenion dresses up, tries to look nice and respectable, wears something that actually covers his chest, doesn't even make himself taller than Gale with his heels. He really, really wants Morena to like him. And I would love to say she'd just immediately be happy with anyone Gale brought home!
But Morena is a mother who's fiercely protective of her son. Her son who got his heart broken by a goddess and then disappeared for over a year. So when Gale shows back up ready to marry a man he met 4 months ago, and that man is a famous bard who has a reputation for seduction and who once promised to leave a trail of broken hearts along the Sword Coast? She can't help but wonder if her son is next in line! Even knowing that Elenion quit touring doesn't really help because she doesn't know him and she's naturally skeptical of his motives. To her, quitting just like that looks reckless and impulsive.
She's polite as she can be at the dinner table, but Elenion knows how to read people—it's obvious to him that she does not like him. She questions him, asks him about himself and his relationship with Gale. Makes a comment at some point that feels a little backhanded. Something like... that Gale has always loved deeply—he has a tendency to give more than he keeps for himself, and she hopes Elenion understands what a responsibility that is. Gale gently defends Elenion, but the tension still cuts. Elenion feels the impulse to perform, to try to charm Morena and win her over. But he knows that would only confirm what she already believes about him, so he resists.
Later, when Gale excuses himself briefly, Morena asks Elenion how she knows she can trust him with her son's heart. And he never even tries to defend himself—he admits that she can't, not yet. But, he says, he's not asking for Gale to risk anything that he hasn't already risked himself.
Elenion stays as calm as possible the whole night. He's used to being scrutinized and judged, after all. But at home he cries in Gale's arms, as he tries to apologize for things that Gale doesn't think require an apology at all. He knows Gale loves him, but he's convinced that Morena hates him and that she's right to because he hasn't done enough to deserve Gale's love. He can't take back who he was in the past, he can't erase a reputation he rightfully earned... and he can't be perfect, no matter how hard he's always tried.
After that night, Morena takes time to process the complicated mix of emotions she has over what's happened to her son. And she softens over the next few weeks. A combination of Gale sending long, rambling letters about everything Elenion has done for him and how much they love each other—and them simply spending more time together and getting to know each other across several visits. She sees all the things Elenion would normally hide behind a mask. Not just his anxiety, but his compassion and thoughtfulness. His intelligence and careful attention to detail. His tendency to ramble about the things he loves, that especially endears him to her because it reminds her so much of Gale. She sees the gentle way he cares for Gale when no one else is watching. And eventually she starts to understand why Elenion left his bardic career behind.
So she comes over to the tower one night, asks to speak with him privately, and then completely shocks Elenion by saying she's sorry for misjudging him. He says he understands that she was just trying to protect her son. She says that now she can see they both want the same thing, and she's glad Gale found him. And from then on she dotes on him and treats him like a second son!
I do think that Morena, much like Tara, wants grandkids and is disappointed that Elenion and Gale aren't going to be giving her any. But she does come to terms with it and respect their decision. Also, she loves that Elenion ends up opening a museum. I think she loves it so much that she brags about it to people. Other people are impressed that her son is married to such a legendary bard, and she's completely brushing past that to tell them that her son-in-law runs the finest museum in the Sword Coast.
I really should've given Morena a cameo in my fic "Held in Orbit" when I wrote about Elenion hosting a preview gala for the Starlit Gallery, because she absolutely would've been invited and spent the night chatting with Elenion's mother. I didn't think about it at the time, but I've been considering making some revisions to that fic. So I may just have to add that in when I do!
So, to summarize this giant essay: Elenion comes back from saving the world and getting a mindflayer parasite out of his brain only to Suffer even more because now the poor guy has to deal with Tara being jealous of his existence and Morena being convinced that he's just a pretty bard who's going to break Gale's heart for fun LMAO. It's okay though, they both love him soon enough. 💖
This is the song that started it all. Last June, I unlocked Gale's Act 2 romance scene. It was beautiful, heartfelt, romantic, and the very next morning, I unlocked a level in bard. I wrote my very first song, "Flame in a Gale."
Gale's Act 2 arc really struck a chord with me. As someone who deals with depression, and has thought about stepping off the precipice before, it was interesting to be on the other side of that, to be so so desperate to keep someone by your side that you would beg, that you would plead, that you would do almost anything to keep them by your side. Act 2 took me over 100 torturous hours. Hours of longing to tell Gale how I felt, but not being able to because of the dang game mechanics. But when the scene finally unlocked, it was so worth it. Every line scripted like a masterpiece, every moment, every look. And the morning after, this glorious line:
Gale's writing, his dialogue, his lines in the game: so many of them have touched me deeply. His journey and his character mean so much to me, on a deeply personal level. This is still the song that means the most to me. Please enjoy this excerpt from "Flame in a Gale"
I will be your flame in a gale
Holding onto hope, holding onto hope
I will be your light in the storm
So hold on til morn, hold on til morn
And don't let go when the darkness calls
Ever louder, ever near
Don't step off that precipice
I'm right here, I'm right here
@dr4gonwriter asked me the following question and it was too good to leave hidden in a reply <3
what class is Tavrin? Is she a rogue? also does she know thieve's cant? (doing research for the crackfic that has zero words written rn lol)
Tavrin is specifically a Rogue > Mastermind class.
I have never thought about whether or not she knows the thieves' cant until you brought it up so thank you!
Yes, she does.
She spent the first (checks notes) 65 or so years of her life in Menzoberranzan. While she is the Dark Urge and mostly a loner, you can't spend 65 years in a city without any affiliations ever and still retain your sanity.
I'll make an expanded post on her life pre-Baldur's Gate separately, but for now I'll state that her early life she discovered killing was not only her calling, but she was really good at it. And Menzoberranzan has no shortage of work for hired killers.
As for her job, she was an assassin. At first she was a killer for hire for a while. Eventually she moved up to more of a leadership position in an affiliation. In both cases, there's a strong need for coded language. She definitely knows and used the thieves' cant when it suited her or the job. However, she's also known to use other coded languages as needed. It was absolutely a necessity in her line of work.
Later in Baldur's Gate, she still uses it at times but mostly shifted to the coded messages specifically used by the Cult of Bhaal. The exception being when she started corresponding with Gortash where they wrote in their own coded language that no one else knew.
you raise sheep???? (that sounds so cool!!! and I bet they can be really cute!!!)
I do! I’ve had sheep since March 2024. It’s been a bumpy road and can be quite difficult at times, but I love them more than anything.
This is Princess Buttercup and Percival. Princess is the wool sheep with a black face and Percy is the black hair sheep (she’s also fat and has to have a coat in the winter lol). I don’t have many photos of just the two of them, as most of my photos of my girls include Percy’s twin, Sparkle, who passed in December, and it’s still pretty hard for me to see her in photos.
I raise my sheep as bottle babies. Princess’s mother couldn’t handle three babies and Percy and Sparkle were orphaned. I prefer this because it’s a great bonding experience, even if it’s SO stressful.
They both have great personalities. They love running around on the farm and playing bonk head. They LOVE cookies. They also enjoy yelling at me when they see me.
They’re also very cuddly and will lay down next to you if you sit out in the field.
I plan on getting two more ewes in the spring. I had been wanting to have four sheep total. Bottles babies go fast, so once I start looking I’ll be on it. They’re typically cheaper than weaned lambs because, frankly, the breeders don’t want them. I got Princess for $100 and Percy and Sparkle were $75 each lol.
tagged by @saylofwaterdeep @arcanearcherayz and @stupidsexywizard :) tysm!!
last book: Reading through the Silmarillion with a friend (tried years back but got lost in it. I need to cross reference every name, look up every location on the map, and figure out what all the words mean in elvish. It takes a while to get through a single chapter lol)
last song: "Dirty Little Animals" by BONES UK from the Arcane soundtrack (from one of my running playlists)
last film: Christmas in Connecticut (1945) (family is starting the annual viewing of corny holiday movies. this one's actually a fairly entertaining situational comedy)
last series: The Mighty Nein animated series (amazing but angsty) and Romantic Killer (some good old shojo anime comedy vibes to balance out the angst). Okay but I have to mention thematically similar vibes because I can't help myself: both are found family. Both talk about how you can be broken but still worth saving. Both talk about the power of how being loved by others can change your life for the better. (I'm noticing a theme in the stories I read lately, hmmm....)
sweet or salty: both lol. I like both separately and together. I am a major snacker. I usually like salty snacking for movies. Sweet is usually a post-dinner or post-salty-snacking thing. Much more limited palette for sugar than salt atm.
coffee or tea: I adore coffee, but fully caffeinated coffee does not like me (yay panic attacks). So, decaf mostly, in the mornings. Tea in the afternoon. Love a delicious cup of earl grey with cream and sugar. Love honey ginseng arizona iced tea. Love a cozy cup of fancy herbal tea in the evening.
working on: pulling my life together about 20-30 songs (I really need to put more time into this but we're still on the music production learning curve so it's not actually fun to work on but the result will be so cool!!! encouragement appreciated, i have low motivation for this). fics: main Tavv/Gale fic, a couple different AU's, probably way too much stuff for the isekai fic no one but me wants to read lol...
no pressure tags: @ligmabhaals @kcwriter-blog @unpercievable-entity @enelleloup @tociminna @bladesingerlily @nebulair500 @babydinosaur930 @astarioffsimpmain @riddlerosehearts @stareitdown @lissad27 and anyone else who'd like to join in! :)
