Fanfic Writing Culture Isn’t “oh Dang! I Wanted To Write About This Prompt With This Character But

Finally made my version of Batstarion! Because I love both bats and Astarion.

He is a scary and powerful vampire, as you can see. (I think I made him way too innocent-looking. Imagine him with little angry eyebrows, maybe)

Made mostly of felt/wool. I modeled him after a northern ghost bat rather than a vampire bat, sorry. Someday I'll make a more realistic, fully articulated version (perhaps a vampire bat), but bats are harder to make than I thought. Hope you like him!

Just a few of the many Disco Elysium quotes that have become a regular part of my vocabulary

“wyll deserves a prince(ss) to dance with him” “wyll deserves a villain so they can have an enemies to lovers story”

WRONG. wyll deserves another hero that is trying to out-knight in shining armor him. he deserves someone that will bow to him and kiss his knuckles. he deserves someone that sweeps him off his feet, brings him flowers, whispers sweet nothings to his ear. I need this man to SIT DOWN and let himself be the one being pampered for once

I don't need drugs, I've got: character whose arc is about reclaiming their identity and autonomy and healing and ending the cycle of violence and learning to be loved

E is for Equal

And I get to share it with you, as a partner. An equal.

Here's another ramble about a single spawn Astarion line that hits so close home for me. 

When I first heard Astarion say it, I was puzzled. What, he didn't previously consider my Tav an equal? Why?

And then it clicked. 

He's talking about himself, right? He used to think he's worthless. A slave. A weakling. A body to please others. And now he's finally relishing the fact that he's so much more; he finally believes he can be someone's equal; and not just someone's, but the person's he values the most.

Hence the happy, almost dreamy expression on his face, hence the little pause before he actually says the word. Because it is like a dream come true, and because the word is worth savouring for a moment longer.

I think there are two reasons why my brain needed that extra second to process what Astarion said. The first is because I have a complicated relationship with hierarchies in general. I struggle with them a lot, and often get into trouble because of that. I view them as artificial social constructs that make no sense to me, unless the person telling me what to do is actually knowledgeable in their field and listens to arguments presented by others. I need rationales, not just a “do it, because I'm telling you to”. (That's one of the “perks” of being autistic, I guess. Happy April!)

The second (might be connected to the first) is that it has never, not even for a brief while, occurred to me to view Astarion as inferior. From the first meeting, when he put that darn knife against my Tav’s throat, to whatever happened afterwards – in my head, he was an equally important character, regardless if I liked what he was up to at any given moment. I knew he struggled with his sense of self-worth (and that's another thing I understand all too well), but not even once did I consider he might not be my Tav’s equal.

It warms my heart to watch him realise that and revel in the knowledge. I wish all relationships I form – personal and professional – would be that: equals who try to understand and accommodate each other. Which brings to mind another very important quote, from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”:

I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

When the player first meets Wyll you can ask him about his stone eye and he'll reply: "It's made from pure Bloodstone, carved from the Galena Mountains just north of the Moonsea. A reminder that sometimes, blood must be shed and sacrifices must be made."

And I, knowing nothing about Wyll at the time, took one look at his eye and went: "No, the fuck it ain't!"

See, if you know anything about bloodstone, you know that it's called that because it looks like it has drops of blood trapped in it:

[Heliotrope (aka Bloodstone) from Wikipedia]

The plain light grey stone of Wyll's eye is clearly not bloodstone, even at a glance. So, why would Wyll call it bloodstone?

While I don't think Wyll is above lying, and he tells a good story, it's an odd lie to tell in the first place. Any lie that can be dismantled by somewhat common knowledge is a poor lie. (Or maybe I'm the weird one for immediately clocking that it wasn't bloodstone.)

What if it wasn't a lie?

We know that Wyll's eye is a sending stone and Mizora uses it to track Wyll and to give him orders. In EA Mizora could even use the stone to spy on Wyll, though there's no evidence of that in the full release.

As per DnD 5e, there aren't any rules about what type of stone has to be used to create sending stones, only that they are created in pairs and are carved identically in order to help identify the other half of the pairing. We know that Wyll lost his eye during the battle with the cult of Tiamat and we know Wyll's scarring was designed with the intent to be a "physical, intimate sign of the contract between him and his patron" and to look "like his face had been grabbed very painfully by claws or sharp nails". Coincidence? I think not. 

Wyll would have been exhausted, having just survived his encounter with the cultists. Unable to fight back, Mizora could have simply plucked his eye out of his head and before he could even ask why she would have replaced it with a stone eye. This, she might have mentioned, was an eye made of blood stone and a sending stone that they would use to communicate. She might then explain that 'blood stone' (with a space in the middle) is a type of stone found in Avernus, imbued with special properties due to its hellish provenance. Or, she might not explain it at all. This type of stone might be why Mizora is able to track Wyll (there is a magical item in DnD called a 'Blod Stone' which has this ability). There could even be further abilities from this type of stone.

And Wyll, hearing that it is bloodstone, simply comes up with a different story to explain where it came from, thinking like all good liars that it is better not to stray too far from the truth and damning himself to being discovered in the process.

(Information pulled from Wyll_InParty2_Nested_FreedMizora and Wyll_InParty2_Nested_BladeStory dialogue trees)

The fun thing about being autistic and very emotional/hyperempathetic is that you can get overstimulated by your own emotions. Especially when hyperfixating on something. Currently I cannot even look at my favorite character without being overwhelmed because they bring up too many emotions. In other news I'm very normal and fine.

okay wait I saw a comment on the patch 8 animation pointing out the knockoff Sleep Token poster in Astarion's room WHAT

people say it's a nod to all the Sleep Token edits he gets

it's so wild to me that you absolutely cannot force a hyperfixation to happen. like you'll watch the most perfectly tailor-made-for-you content that everyone says you'll love and feel absolutely nothing, and then the thing you watch on a whim to fill time will reach through the screen and put its damn fingers in your brain and start rearranging the neurons right in front of you and every single time you're like THIS??? THIS??????? and this happens like every 6-12 months forever

I think that romancing Astarion should break your oath if you play as OotA paladin, purely because it would be really funny if the Oathbreaker Knight jumpscared you in the middle of the act 1 intimacy scene