Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 13: Blue

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin

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Her mother promised her a knighting ceremony and accoutrements befitting her station.

Her aunt, as always, tries to deny her everything.

The roadside ambush is typical Sharran fare. In the midst of fierce combat, Aylin feels her mother's embrace around her, and the poisoned dagger cutting towards her neck instead bounces off a gorget.

Later, as she approaches a woodland pool to wash off her assailants' blood, Aylin catches sight of herself, and stares. 

She has known her purpose all her life. Enveloped in the Moonmaiden's silver, accented with gold and cobalt blue, she looks the part beyond any doubt.

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 12: Brawny

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin

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Many are taken aback upon meeting her. They expect the Moonmaiden's daughter to be a waifish wisp of silverlight made still-ethereal flesh, weaving spells to match her mother's loomwork.

Sometimes, when Aylin imagines a sister for herself, that is how she pictures her. Then she imagines another; tall, brawny, eager to spar and wrestle and rejoice in familiar pastimes.

The daydreams are just that. Aylin remains singular, and takes pride in being a champion well-suited to cutting right through Sharran machinations.

When Isobel bursts into her life, adamantly and unabashedly adoring and cherishing Aylin entire, pride blossoms into profound joy.

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 11: Whistle

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin

This little AU is inspired by @boom-squirrel, who asked me about Tadpoled!Aylin ages ago.

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Crossbow bolts whistle past her ear. Aylin pays them no heed; desperate efforts of foes about to fall before her, before the Absolute.

The Absolute has brought Isobel back. There is no greater god to serve. To love.

For what goddess, what so-called mother would be so capricious, would abandon her child--

A peculiar artefact crashes into Aylin, then over her like a tidal wave pulled inexorably towards the moon, drowning her in truth. The poison coursing through her mind is washed away, her thoughts her own once more.

All Aylin knows is rage. Doubt she pushes to the depths.

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 10: Zesty

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm, Ketheric Thorm

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The tension is so thick, Isobel imagines slicing into it with the dull knife she is failing to conquer her supper with. 

"The pie filling is delightfully zesty," she blurts out, inanely. "The new spices from Cormyr, perhaps?"

Ketheric is quiet, busy scowling at Aylin, seated in a place of honour opposite him. She, oblivious, struggles to look away from Isobel; that yearning, moonlit gaze drawn to her again and again like a moth to a lantern.

Isobel sighs, takes another bite, and tries to push aside the memory of the distinctly divine flavours she got to taste last night.

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♫ send a fic and i’ll make a 3-5 song playlist for you

Oh, this is a fun one! Thank you! 

You get eight, because I want that 8tracks experience back.

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How Not To Drown by CHVRCHES and Robert Smith

Speak With the Dead by Foxing

Pompeii MMXXIII by Bastille and Hans Zimmer

Runs in the Family by Amanda Palmer

Free by Mother Mother

Meet Me on the Equinox by Death Cab for Cutie

Never Look Away by Vienna Teng

The One Moment by OK Go

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While writing the fic, I also listened to the entirety of Beneath the Skin by Of Monsters and Men many, many times - a course of action I recommend in general, fanfiction notwithstanding, but I do feel it's worth mentioning and I couldn't pick just one track from it. The other thing I had on repeat a ton is this 30-minute loop of the Last Light Inn theme from the OST, because it is gorgeous. 

Another musical tidbit: I find it hilarious that ever since I made this silly edit, my brain has associated Werewolf Gimmick by the Mountain Goats with Aylin going hog wild smite-happy. So if I need a scene with some of that the villain! is! dead! energy, I play it, I hear those drums start up and I'm off. It's like a cheat code. And this is in addition to my 8 (or 16) Metal Tracks To Smite Your Father-In-Law To here.

You know, on second thought, maybe I just like thinking of Aylin smiting people.

Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 9: Birthday

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm

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Isobel is not asking to honour the Rise of the Moonmaiden's Daughter or the Forging of the Sword. She wants to know her beloved's birthday.

So Aylin thinks, digs deep, and shares something she never has before. "Each year, on the anniversary of the autumnal day I was delivered to the cloister that first sheltered me, the cook would sneak a sweet pastry onto my dinner plate."

"That's it?" Isobel sounds distraught, making Aylin's small, nostalgic smile melt away. 

Her darling's ensuing scathing opinions of Aylin's erstwhile caretakers are puzzling, but of her promises of pampering, Aylin has no complaints.

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Thanks for sending this in! I understand why people wouldn't really feel like fanfic ask games at the moment.

✦ what was your easiest fic to write & your hardest?

Hm, for easiest, I'd pick some of the things I wrote for Steven Universe right after an episode came out, as basically a way of processing a development or figuring out how I feel about it. So, for instance, Love On A Wire and Vessel - both good examples of a bunch of quick writing just flowing out really smoothly and very struggle-free. Probably overthinking-free, most importantly. Conversely, Moon-chosen, Moon-guided took me months to finish because I kept overthinking everything and let myself get caught up in really lofty expectations I was imposing on myself, attempts at tying a million things together thematically and making the payoff "worth it" (whatever that actually means). It was also quite long, for my standards! But yeah, that was a tough one.

✎ how do you think readers would guess a fic was yours if you posted anonymously?

It's a 3rd person limited hurt/comfort one-shot, there's a lady knight in it, and her lady love is patching her up and pampering her while trying to convince her to take better care of herself and take her own well-being seriously. It has no actual plot, but it is quite wordy and comes with an immense amount of run-on sentences - and dashes, so many dashes in so many places. The sea and/or the moon likely feature in some capacity. Rapiers are praised as the superior sword choice.

♡ pick a fic and I’ll pick a comment that made me really happy

I know everyone and their mother has probably said this already but comments are THE best thing. Absolute fanfic author catnip, be it you leaving a keymash, some enthusiastic all caps or a HOW DARE or similar, writing up big novel-length rambles, picking out particular lines that left an impression. Then, getting to know a gang of regular commenters and familiar user names... it's good. Interaction is good. There's nothing worse than radio silence after sharing something and putting a bit of yourself out there, you know?

Anyway, I'm really fortunate to have received all of the above, so big shoutout to all of those folks - I know a lot of you hang out here as well. As a most recent highlight I'd like to share @ontoilogical spontaneously LARPing Dame Aylin at me today:

Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 8: Nickname

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm

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"My angel."

The first time Isobel says it, both of them warm, sated, and ensconced in the softest blankets the lady of Moonrise has at her disposal, Aylin is struck speechless. 

"Aren't you?" Isobel's smile is both sweet and teasing as she tugs a silver-white feather back into place.

What a beautiful thought, conjured by a simple nickname: Aylin, sent here to perform her holy duties, finding herself in the holiest role of all.

"For as long as you wish me to be," Aylin vows, overwhelmed by a joy she, immortal, did not think she would ever live to feel.

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 7: Marshmallow

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Isobel Thorm, Jaheira

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The coughing fit is interrupted by Jaheira barging in without knocking, beelining for Isobel and thrusting a steaming cup into her hands.

Isobel drinks, breathes raspily, and sorely wishes she could play it off with a joke. Dreadful, what one can catch lying in a sarcophagus. 

She sips at the cloying brew again. "What is this?"

"An old Mulhorandi remedy: marshmallow root and honey. You sounded particularly terrible last night."

Isobel winces under Jaheira's piercing gaze. Just a stubborn bit of grave dirt, never you mind - a particularly lively worm caught in there. Ha ha.

"Thank you," she murmurs instead.

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 6: Act

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Isobel Thorm

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It is an excruciating act of devotion. 

Isobel murmurs prayers as the ink is painstakingly applied, the full moon so bright she can sense it through closed, swelling eyelids. 

Did it sting like this, my Lady, when You brought us the sun?

The needle traces towards her cheekbone.

A month later, before a mirror, under a moon just as full, Isobel dabs at her face with a damp cloth, applies the last of her sharp-smelling ointment, and marvels. Fine details rendered in black blend beautifully with her ever-present dark circles. 

She looks less like her mother, and more like herself.

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 5: Ring

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm

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A pair of enchanted trinkets, found in the ruins of Reithwin. A source of unexpected hope - and consternation.

"No," Isobel is adamant.

"This would be nothing like--"

"Forcing you to bear my pain? How exactly would it be any different?"

"It would be done willingly," Aylin's eyes are pleading, wide and ardent. "To keep my beloved safe."

The world makes her a relic, she makes herself a sword. And now this.

"No," Isobel presses the ring into the palm of Aylin's hand, sealing her fist around it with both hands. "I will not make you another thing to be used."

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 4: Stack

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm

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Absence, abandonment, denial, loss - the domain of one whose clutches Aylin has finally been torn out of. Anathema to her very existence.

But there is so much within her, now; roiling, ceaseless, merciless. Feeling stacked on top of unnameable feeling, impossible to grasp and understand. All of it precarious enough that it feels like it might just topple and bury her entire in its wreckage and ruin.

Whenever Isobel asks, eyes soft and wide with concern, Aylin has no answer. For how to put words to any of it, when the mercy she most yearns to ask for is forgetting?

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 3: Unhealthy

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm

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Agonising recognition floods Isobel the instant she lays eyes on the macabre, unhealthy things. That the traitor managed any flight with the wings in this state is a wonder. That someone her father could have done this to her angel, alive or after an impossible death, is--

Fear of the ghoulish claws flashing around her, the bone-deep weariness clinging to her ever since she drew her first breath in a century - it all vanishes, seared away in a blaze of vicious, incandescent fury, wildly aimed at any foe within reach.

For a fleeting, precious moment, Aylin feels so very close.

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 2: Pepper

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm

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Aylin does not know when she slipped into sleep. The accumulated exhaustion of a century crept up on her, allied with the immense effort of a capstone battle and the unfamiliar strain of unimaginable joy. They triumphed over her so neatly tonight, these somniferous assassins, obliterating any noble intention of watching over Isobel as she rested in her arms.

The slow awakening this inadvertent slumber turned into, being peppered with the gentlest, most delightfully fleeting of kisses, is a blessing beyond compare. Aylin drinks it in, parched as she is, and vows to prove herself a champion deserving of it.

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Drabble Challenge 2024 - Day 1: Drink

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm

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There is a crowd around her, Isobel is dizzily aware. There is a drink in her hand - raised for all requisite toasts, it has barely touched her lips. There is her father at her elbow, tugging it to guide her to where she is supposed to be seen, through all the motions of a welcoming celebration she herself spent so long arranging. 

The air filling the grand hall of Moonrise refuses to cooperate and fill her lungs instead, and her head spins mercilessly.

Tonight, Isobel laid eyes upon Selûne's own radiant emissary, and traded her very heart for the honour.

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Today (or yesterday, depending on your time zone) marks the one-year anniversary of me posting my first foray into BG3 fanfic, which you can find both here on Tumblr and on AO3.

It was my first fic in a long time, written during and after some pretty tumultuous and occasionally miserable times, as well as the start of me trying to get back to enjoying and being active in online fandom. It was also a weird and scary almost-experimental first attempt at writing a second-person piece. And, above all, an important part of my (ongoing!) efforts to do something with all my feelings and thoughts about this very fascinating and resplendent goldmine of a character, whom I am avidly rotating in my mind to this day and who has honestly just been a gift.

I love writing fic to get to truly know and understand a character and to slowly figure out and build up my take on them. And then see where to go from what my habitual endless rummaging around every bit of existing material sets me up with.

If you have any questions about the fic or comments to send my way, I'm all ears. I was just amused when I noticed the date, and then I had a feeling or two.

Not near as tide- and cycle-bound, says the Scribe in this one. No endless rise and fall, no waxing and waning. No rote repetition of tragic history... but I do so love a good bit of retrospective.

Adularescence

Fandom: Baldur’s Gate 3 Characters: Dame Aylin/Isobel Thorm Length: ~2700 words Rating: T, for canon-typical violence and implied sexual content

Summary: Dame Aylin is returned to the fold of time, and so also to the sensations of the world.

A quick little something that grew out of a bunch of warmups and noodling from the past week or so, and me challenging myself to do a ficlet with zero dialogue. Also I just love Aylin.

Also on AO3.

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Adularescence

It starts with loss. 

The mounting tension of her fate balancing on a knife's edge culminates in her would-be murderer's hand on her shoulder. Barely-felt and fleeting, it takes away with it the weight of a century. A lessening so sudden Aylin falls to hands and knees, catching herself before hitting the cold, rough ground of her prison fully - a drearily familiar concept, by now.

The claws that have dug deep into her for so long she has forgotten to feel them loosen and fall away, becoming almost disquieting in their absence. The sickly glow of the runes of her cage fades into dull, washed-out grey. The hideous leeching pull on her very soul melts and trickles away, until there is nothing there at all.

Into the void left behind comes the rush of her Mother's moonlight, bathing her, reaching her, the long-denied answer to so many snatched-away prayers. With it, her armour, encasing and enveloping and hiding. Gone the chill and chafe of rags, their place taken by steel so cool and solid it makes itself felt even through a thick layer of wool and gambeson. Perfectly moulded to her, mobile and uncannily light and weighty with the heft of duty all at once. But hers and hers alone.

Then, the grip of her sword in her hand. Cast away into the shadows, once; torn from her hold and kicked away by Ketheric's boot. Its touch is the touch of purpose and meaning, belonging nowhere else but at her side. Missing for a century like a limb.