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vagabondfandoms · 4 months

Text

Falls on Me

Day Two: Morning

Previous Chapters:

Day One: Night

Rating: Teen (For this Chapter)

Characters: Gale Dekarios, F!Tav: Copper, Lae'zel, Karlach, Wyll Ravengard, Shadowheart, and Astarion in order of appearance.

Warnings: N/A, Gale POV, Mentions of chronic pain

First morning together and Gale is taking over cooking duties for the group.

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Gale planned to be the first one awake to start the morning meal but much to his disappointment, two figures were awake and moving around.

"Good morning, Gale." Copper says warmly, pouring steaming liquid into a wooden cup and handing it to the young Githyanki warrior. "Were you able to sleep alright?"

Lae'zel gives the cup a displeased look, that reminds Gale of Tara when she's offered food not up to her standards. The young Gith gives it a hesitant sip, looks surprised, and then proceeds to drink some more.

"Yes, I did." Gale lies, knowing full well it took him hours of combating pain from both his orb and the hard ground to finally fall asleep. "But to be honest, I was expecting to be the first one awake this morning. I hope you aren't trying to take away my self-appointed but hopefully well-deserved cooking duties?"

"Ohh, no." Copper says while shaking her head behind the cup that was at her lips. I can't compete. The stew you made last night was delicious. I only put a pot of sib* on the fire to tie us over until more of us are awake.”

"Good," Gale says merrily as he rolls up his sleeves and reaches for a knife. I didn't want to find myself replaced on our second day together. It was very hard making dinner last night with only a couple of potatoes and a dubious-looking cut of meat.”

“Do you want any help, Gale?” the monk asks, already rising to assist.

“No, no. You go on. Relax!” Gale emphasizes. “I have this under control. We have a busy day ahead of us and these carrots are probably the least taxing things we will have to slice and dice today.”

Gale waves the knife in the air to emphasize the slicing and dicing part. But he could have gone with the fried and flambéed if he was only considering magical cooking metaphors.

Copper shrugs and sits back down next to Lae'zel. Gale keeps himself busy chopping up the carrots and potatoes to make a hash.

He can overhear parts of the conversation around him. Lae'zel was answering some questions about the Githyanki culture that Copper was asking and Gale leans in to hear more. Of course, he read books about the Githyanki but it was entirely different hearing a first-hand account from a member of that race. Fantastical stuff.

"Yo, good morning." Karlach bursts out, as she skips over to the cookfire. "Hey somebody made sib, awesome!"

The chatter around the cookfire continues but a little more loudly than before. Gale just finishes browning the hash in the slightly dented camp skillet they bought from the druid trader for a deal when Shadowheart and Wyll arrive for breakfast.

The timing makes Gale suspect the duo were hanging out in their tents instead of visiting with the group but he makes no comment as he dishes up the potato mixture into their bowls.

Wyll happily says thanks while Shadowheart gives him a curt nod of acknowledgment for the food before daintily taking a nibble of seasoned potato.

Lae’zel once again looks at the food dubiously but wolfs the meal down with a warrior's grace. Gale is happy to see his cooking being enjoyed so openly.

In the back of his mind, he begins imagining all the ways he could impress his companions if only he they were back at his kitchen in Waterdeep. But if that was the case none of them would be in this situation with tadpoles in their brains now, probably not even him for other reasons.

Gale places a worried hand on his chest and feels the faint pulse of magic. “The orb is dormant now but for how long?”

Getting lost in dark thoughts of face tentacles and magical explosions, Gale is surprised by the sudden appearance of Copper by his side. “Hey, you should go sit down and eat.” She says as she starts gathering the dirty dishes to get washed. “I can clean up after everyone.”

“Well, I have…” Gale starts to argue but the fiery tiefling cuts in.

“Yeah, wizard, enjoy your meal! We got this mess.” Karlach smiles while placing a bowl of hash in Gale’s hands and quickly marching him over to sit down with the others, who were in various degrees of conversation.

“-a spell for that,” Gale says deflated as his butt hits the ground. Words fall on deaf ears as the two taller women start carrying dishes to the washing tub to scrub.

The wizard picks at his food but listens in on the conversation between Wyll and Lae’zel about the strengths of their preferred weapons, the rapier and shortsword.

Gale grumpily thinks a fireball would make quick work of either weapon when Astarion sashays over, whining about not getting breakfast and getting surprised when Copper offers him the last bowl.

The conversations slowly die down as everybody starts to get ready for the day. As Gale slowly gets up, his damn knees disliking being that low to the ground, he looks over at the bowl Astarion left by the fire and notices it's still full.

“The prissy elf didn’t even take a bite of his food even after he made a show of not receiving any.” Gale frowns, making a mental note to not take anything Astarion says too seriously.

Author Note:

Sib is a hot drink made of bark, roots, twigs, and herbs that the mercenaries and common folk consume in the book series The Deeds of Paksenarrion, a DnD-like fantasy world. It's something small to tide one over while waiting for actual food.

#bg3 #bg3 fanfiction #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #gale x tav #lae'zel #karlach #wyll ravengard #shadowheart #astarion #bg3 tav #oc: copper

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animentality · 6 months

Note

You ever think about how the fandom will go nuts trying to explain how Astarion is ~basically~ an elven child and how he’s absolved of all guilt for everything he’s done by the abuse he endured and yet… on the other hand we also have Gortash, who very literally was a child when sold to the hells and put through who knows what manner of abuse, saw who knows what messed up shit, who has had chances to do better, yes, but has also had to fight to survive and be more than just a beggar on the streets once he escaped. And he’s the totally evil and irredeemable one according to most fans. I’m not trying to woobify him btw, it’s just always interesting how every other character gets defended on the basis of “but cult conditioning/abuse/etc” but Gortash is uniquely the worst man alive. Which he is, but also. Cmon. Astarion has a long list of innocent victims and is a razors edge away from becoming the next cazador in any given play through and yet he’s a perfect uwu angel apparently. This isn’t about saying Gortash isn’t evil, this is about saying he’s not drastically more evil than a lot of other nuanced characters in this game who get defended by the fandom masses.

ANON if I could kiss you, I would commit tax evasion with you.

THIS.

Like I know Gortash is awful, but so is fucking everyone.

Shadowheart can become a Dark Justiciar and do awful things for Shar. Lae'zel and the githyanki are a bunch of pricks who kill their own kids for showing weakness and kill innocent people all the goddamn time. Minthara obviously slaughters a bunch of innocent refugees, if you allow her to, and as a drow, probably committed a cavalcade of evil actions.

Gale's blind ambition could've nuked a fucking town. He might not have intended to become a living bomb, but he did, and by running around Faerun, he WAS putting literally everyone within like five miles of him in mortal danger. Wyll would've killed Karlach if you weren't there, and he expresses this horror, because he has definitely killed innocents for Mizora before.

Astarion would've gladly become Cazador 2.0, if you didn't stop him. He might've started out ok, but he would descend into that same evil, using you until there was nothing left of you, and treating others the way he was treated, because he sees himself as a god now.

Even fucking Karlach...who is a sweetie, and god I love her...well fuck, didn't Gortash accuse her of knowing just how shady his shit was? She was a desperate kid, yes, and he definitely took advantage of her, but he explicitly calls her out for working for him, even though she knew he was shady (if not a Banite). Plus she was his bodyguard for years. As if your bodyguard wouldn't know you were being a peace of shit?

The WHOLE POINT of Baldur's Gate 3 is that you and your companions are defined by your choices.

The option EXISTS to SAVE THESE PEOPLE.

THERE IS NO OPTION TO SAVE GORTASH.

The game gives you the option of seeing him die one way or the other way.

I'm just SAYING it's not totally fair to act as if Gortash is truly irredeemable, when out of all the villains, he at least had an idea of a better world, even if it was still self serving and frankly awful.

He was slightly better than the Dark Urge, and they GET the choice of redeeming themselves.

He never does. And maybe he wouldn't have taken it, but that's really not the point.

You hit the nail on the head, bud.

Gortash is evil, no doubt, this is true, he is not just a victim of circumstances, he made every wrong decision he could've made...

But the fandom has no problem woobifying Astarion even though that scene with Sebastian is fucking soul wrenching.

They raise their hackles at Gortash, as though he's been alive for 200 years and lured thousands to their deaths/vampirism, and they forget that Lae'zel is absolutely awful, and approves every time you murder children in front of her.

And Shadowheart spent her childhood learning to torture people.

You can say well their crimes aren't equivalent- and yes, that is true, HOWEVER.

Remember that you have met them when they were powerless.

If given power...if they had never been mindcontrolled by parasites...well shit, they might've fucking killed you.

They might've become tyrants themselves. I know it's purely conjecture on my part, I just kinda...I don't even necessarily want a redeemed Gortash storyline.

I'm fine with him just being a villain!

I just also have a working brain that doesn't understand the reflexive urge to say, he couldn't redeem himself if he tried.

I think, in this fictional world of course, that redemption should be possible. I think if they are honestly trying, and they repay the debts they incurred, then it might be justified.

But we didn't get that choice, and neither did he, and honestly, with what the game presents...I can whole heartedly say no, he wouldn't have redeemed himself. Even if he could, he would not have done it.

But the possibility does exist.

Trying to deny it makes you look like a hypocrite as you insist Ascended Astarion is still an uwu baby.

Like nah, sweetie. Good luck with that.

#enver gortash #long post #discourse children

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