#veilkeeper

[shisasan]

jesuisaliyah

[cerias-void]

quick edit of these two <3

[crossdressingdeath]

i have to know. which direction does kyvir lie about his height. does he say he's taller bc he's insecure. does he say he's shorter to make other people insecure. some third option? -@veilkeeper

When he was younger especially he'd claim he was taller out of insecurity, and for any sort of fancy occasion he still tends to wear heeled shoes just to give him a little bit more height. But as he got older and realized how useful it was that no one expected Bhaal's Chosen to be a 5'6 pretty boy bard it became less of a thing for him and he started lying about his height for fun. He gets a real kick out of claiming he's actually shorter and seeing the looks on people's faces. It also turns out that it's really funny to be 5'6 and claim to be like. six feet tall. Occasionally seven. He says it with such unshakable confidence that most people don't even call him on the blatant lie, they're just confused. Some of them visibly question their understanding of height right in front of him and it's delightful.

[crossdressingdeath]

durge questions for kyvir: 3, 6, 14, 17, 20, 27. is this too many. i dont even know i just Love Him. -@veilkeeper

(Durge asks!)

No such thing as too many, I love talking about Kyvir. I answered 20 here, but as for the others:

3. What would your Dark Urge consider to be their greatest skill? Is this accurate? His ability to pass completely beneath the radar. When he was younger (and more foolish) he hated how small and pretty and innocent he looked, but as he got older and grew out of that teenage need to puff himself up and look and act tough he realized that not only was he a lot happier leaning into the soft and pretty thing, it meant that even on the rare occasions when suspicion fell on him he was usually dismissed immediately as a suspect. Similarly, when he's on the hunt for prey or trying to charm someone into giving him something they always underestimate him. And it's not that he doesn't stand out! It's just that he comes off as... y'know, your standard pretty, foppish, somewhat overconfident bard. Not a killer. There are other skills that you could argue are greater than that, but he's not wrong in his assessment.

6. How does your Dark Urge react to waking up with memory loss? He's freaked out. He spends the whole nautiloid with a feeling like when you're going down a staircase and miss the last step, and that feeling never really goes away. He's still determined to get his memories back at the end of the game; the fact that it's supposedly impossible is a minor inconvenience. He's already an impossible existence, a drop of Bhaal's divine gore that broke divine cosmology to free himself from his father's power. Why shouldn't he be able to undo his memory loss?

14. How good of a liar is your Dark Urge? How do they feel about lying? Oh, he's a phenomenal liar. He's a bard and an assassin; lying is like 80% of his job! And he loves it, too. It's an absolute joy, watching people fall for every lie he tells for no other reason than because he's the one who told it. Also, it's funny to tell really obvious lies and watch people trying to decide whether or not to call him on something that he clearly doesn't believe but is still saying with absolute confidence (this is where things like him claiming to be seven feet tall while very obviously being 5'6 come in).

17. What is your Dark Urge’s greatest regret? Pre-amnesia, it was murdering the woman who taught him music (I. haven't figured out a name for her yet but shh). She caught him mid-kill when he was around eleven or twelve, but instead of turning him in to the Fist made a deal with him: she'd teach him the skills of a bard, and in exchange he'd play her little spy and saboteur, stealing from, spying on and humiliating her rivals. She could be a little cold at times and wasn't above holding the fact that he was a murderer and she could have him arrested at any time over his head (when she learned he didn't have a name she straight up called him Atonement) and she never hid the fact that she was using him from him, but he never doubted that she cared for him despite that; she was combination older sister and mother to him, and he loved her with all his heart. So naturally when he was sixteen and he'd learned all she had to teach him Bhaal forced him to kill her. Post-amnesia—and more specifically post-game—it's failing to save Gortash, of course.

27. How does your Dark Urge feel about giving and receiving orders? He's used to giving orders, and he's good at it. He has the sort of charm and confidence that makes people want to listen to him, and the experience to know exactly how to take charge of a situation. While he doesn't remember being High Primate of Bhaal's temple, it turns out that if you can wrangle a gaggle of Bhaalists and draw out their loyalty you can manage a whole lot of leadership situations. However, while he knows he's got the leadership skills to manage he doesn't trust himself; whenever he's in charge he's worrying about whether he'll lose control and lead the people who are relying on him into a terrible situation specifically to get them all killed. So he's good at giving orders and tends to take charge automatically, but he finds it exhausting to do for any length of time. He keeps taking charge automatically and then stopping to think "Oh gods, why have I done this to myself again?" In terms of receiving orders, it depends? With most people he takes it extremely badly. He might not trust himself to lead well, but he definitely doesn't trust other people! And besides, he's a damn demigod. Why should he take orders from some random mortal? But once someone's earned his respect and trust, he'd much rather take orders from them than give orders himself. He'll still play at fighting them for control, of course! It would go against his nature (and more importantly his father's will) to do otherwise! But he'll fold pretty quick once they fight back if he's decided he can trust them. The trouble is that people who win this level of trust for him tend to be... morally flexible at best? Generally not the sort of people you'd want having power over a demigod.

[crossdressingdeath]

fine ill be nice, ship bingo: viago/percy

Thank you.

Anyway surprising no one I'm obsessed. Double bingo as they deserve.

[crossdressingdeath]

ship bingo: NEVECANIS 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

This is cruelty, I hope you realise. Cruelty and bullying.

[crossdressingdeath]

the star and the hermit for percyyyy

Thanks for the ask, Kellan! Questions from here.

The Star: When things get dark, what gives Rook hope? The reminder that he's part of a larger whole and not doing this alone, usually. Growing up in House de Riva (and especially growing up as Viago's favourite) he got used to being part of the Crows' family. If he was afraid he'd fail, he reminded himself that even if he did there were always other people to take over! ...Don't think too hard about how failure actually ends for Crows, I never said it was a healthy outlook. On a less unhealthy note, Viago going out of his way to train him and get him the best teachers available for the things he couldn't help with taught him that he could rely on the people around him for things he couldn't (yet) do himself. Yes, somehow Viago de Riva of all people taught this kid the power of friendship and love. Anyway this goes double for Percy's time with the Veilguard, which is significantly less likely to kill him for fucking up; knowing he has friends and allies to turn to even when things seem hopeless really keeps Percy going when he might otherwise have given up. (This is also why getting exiled from Antiva pre-game and being tossed into Fade jail hit him so hard; turns out that when you look to your loved ones to give you hope finding yourself cut off from them possibly permanently is... not good.)

The Hermit: When Rook is alone with their thoughts, what do they think about? Is solitude a blessing or a curse for them? To start with the easy one, solitude is 100% a curse. Which maybe isn't surprising given the response to the last question, but yeah, Percy... doesn't do well with solitude. As for what he thinks about... well, it depends on how long he's been left alone with his thoughts? If he's been alone for a while there's a lot of "what if my family dies, what happens to the people and things I love when I die, what if I make everyone hate me" sort of thinking (turns out being an assassin gives you some morbid thought patterns, who knew). When he's just chilling on his own he's often thinking about new creative projects or getting five different opera pieces stuck in his head at once. Also, planning out how he's going to accomplish his next goals whether that's his latest contract or the next step for the Veilguard; that's easier for him to do when he's alone.

[crossdressingdeath]

10, 39, and J for sweet baby percy

(Questions from here!)

10. What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them? I don't remember if I've mentioned it on here, but Percy's parents tried out that superstition for getting rid of magic that was mentioned in Chateau d'Onterre back in DAI (where you drown the kid in the hope that the magic will die before they do); after his parents did that a couple of times, Percy pretended that it actually worked and tried to hide his magic from them on the assumption that things would go back to normal if he was "normal". Unfortunately he couldn't keep it contained forever, and keeping it locked away like that just meant that when it started slipping out of his control it was a bit like popping the cork of a champagne bottle. It absolutely haunts him; a part of him is convinced that if he'd sucked it up, accepted he was going to the Circle and been honest about the fact that his magic was not in any way going away he might not have killed anyone when he lost control in a panic.

39. How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?  It depends on the person. He's usually pretty good at noting flaws and moving past them but if he already doesn't like them he tends to find it extremely difficult if not impossible to do that second part and with some people he can be totally blind to their flaws (that's mostly just Viago though).

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character? Actually no. The information we have on the Crows and Antiva is vague enough that there's nothing in there that interferes with his backstory.