#palustris

[elsie-lazlo]

Mugger Crocodile (Crocodylus palustris) by Ron Winkler Via Flickr: Gir NP, Gujarat, India

[saatkontor]

Autumn leaves of the Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) Seed source: www.saatkontor.de

[shepfax]

ohhhgh my god I finally beat Cazador after so many tries, but the cutscene of Astarion killing him was cut short because Shadowheart's fucking daylight sphere was damaging the other vampire spawns, rapidly ending the questline and skipping the option to set them free. so of course I reloaded the save and did the goddamn fight again. cast daylight not realizing it isn't concentration and thus can't be cancelled. same glitched cutscene. reload save. tried to position daylight differently. same thing happened. reload save. struggle about 3 more times to do the fight without casting daylight at all. finally get the full conclusion cutscene. and my recording of it is corrupted. gonna start eating clothes like a moth I think

[shepfax]

ask me about my man I want to flesh out his character a bit! anything goes!

Basics:

Palustris, he/him, chaotic neutral, Circle of Spores Druid

[shepfax]

tagging all the posts about my personal BG3 run as #palustris, my tav's name, just so I can find them all at once.

and to help my brain build him up a bit I will write thoughts about my tav here. it's a long ass post

Name: Palustris Mancinell

Race: Green Dragonborn

Pronouns: he/him/his

Identities: Intersex, bisexual

Background: Sage

Class: Circle of Spores Druid

Romance: Astarion

Key traits:

Firmly established sense of self; confident in his abilities and identity

Reserved, unapproachable, sometimes intimidating

Wary and often cynical towards other thinking beings

Insatiably curious especially about natural history but slow to share his passion with others

When finally close to someone: nurturing, physically affectionate, top leaning but identifies as a switch

more off-the-cuff thoughts below:

he is that kind of nerd that is really, really private about his nerdiness to the extent that you'd assume he's a jock but when he opens up in private you're like goddamn this guy is a massive nerd. he's not particularly outgoing, preferring to avoid conversations outside of his companions, and is kind of scary by virtue of being a dragonborn. so while stat-wise he does have decent charisma, roleplay-wise it's explained because he has lethal resting bitch face and terrible social skills/no interest in selling himself as something he's not. so while he is basically allergic to outright lying, he is widely in favor of lying by omission. it's much easier to hold your tongue than to flick it thoughtlessly.

he has real issues trusting people at first. he's cynical, assumes self-serving/bad intentions from the vast majority of people, but once someone has made an effort towards him (e.g. meeting his needs unprompted, complimenting him, remembering something important about him, sharing something important about themselves) he invests a lot into maintaining the relationship. he believes in reciprocity and that a lasting bond requires effort from both parties. he shows he cares by spending time on people either directly by helping them with his bare hands in the moment or by doing things off to the side that he knows will make them happy when they notice.

Palustris has a tremendously solid sense of self, unwilling to change for anyone or anything, so meeting someone who both trusts him and doesn't have that security and stability (aka the entire fucking companion lineup) kicks him into a new gear: caring about people. he doesn't know what to think of it or do about it other than either firmly guarding them or, if that makes them uncomfortable, wait quietly and anxiously for them to ask for help. he doesn't like to admit it outwardly but he gets a lot of satisfaction from when people come to him for love and support since it's something that very few ever considered him for prior to the gang getting together.

his affection towards Astarion is... complicated. in his stupor and stress and desperation from the tadpole debacle he legitimately fell for Astarion--the honeyed words, the biting, the sex, all of which he assumed were mutually enjoyed. (I haven't reached the point where Astarion shares that he never intended to care about you and ended up falling in love anyway, but I know it's coming 😔.) it will hurt deeply when he finds out that Astarion's attraction to him was exaggerated even for a moment, to know that he was giving more than his partner ever intended to repay. it will be extremely hard for him to hear that he's been manipulated even if Astarion doesn't want to do that anymore. Palustris ultimately finds it easier to be casually and broadly distrusting than to deeply and lovingly trust anyone, but the shit that matters in life isn't easy. it's so much more rewarding to make things right than to give up. he made up his mind pretty early about Astarion (that he was both a formidable ally and a deeply intriguing/attractive personality) and has no logical reason to give up on him especially when trying to deal with the game conflicts. his trust is hard to win, yes, but he's also hard to get rid of once you've won. he develops a ridiculously strong patience over time.

moreso than Palustris being angry at Astarion for manipulating him, Palustris mourns for Astarion's lost agency. he feels an aching yearning love to find the man underneath all those scars clawing his way out through the cracks in that smug facade. he knows what it's like to be cynical and maligned by many, to make use of your abilities for personal gain. most importantly once he knows Astarion's reasons for acting that way are almost entirely out of his control, his heart breaks knowing that this poor man hasn't had a real say in his life in about 200 years. Palustris has a choice in the matter of his own behavior; Astarion does not. Astarion has no reason to believe anyone would want anything better for him. Palustris realizes he is someone who wants something better for Astarion, and he's upset with himself too. upset that it took him this long to realize some people act out because they're deeply mentally wounded, not because they're bad people.

[shepfax]

so approximately two long rests ago Astarion propositioned my tav for sex, saying he felt tav's excited shakes during the bite and wanted to do more, promising to take tav somewhere private that night, and then I got a dream visitor cutscene instead. the next long rest was the tiefling/grove party and we slept together and fucked nasty. the next long rest he returned to the energy from that first proposition and the entire sex scene repeated the exact same way. this game rules

[shepfax]

last night I was doin the quest to rescue Halsin from the goblins and Astarion disapproved when I offered to help Halsin kill their leaders so I was like FUCK. okay whatever I just advanced the plot let's check in with my companions. and he immediately propositioned me for sex. dude must've been like "this fucking dragon man is such a pushover goody two shoes. he got all twitchy when I sucked his blood. I should eat his pussy"

[shepfax]

weird energy in the camp tonight because Astarion cheered me on while I got flogged by a bdsm priest and then he immediately sucked me so dry that I got a status condition. this game is awesome