{Words by Charles Bukowski/ Mary Oliver from invitation}

silence

That post about Marcille and Laios' relationship actually got me thinking about Chilchuck and Laios' relationship. Which is harder to see in some ways because it mostly consists of positive absences.

At first, viewers might be inclined to wonder why Chilchuck sticks with the party. He says it's because he took payment up front, but he could give back part of the deposit and leave. Two other party members left; Laios explicitly gave Marcille and Chilchuck a choice as to whether they would stay or go, and they both chose to stay.

We know why Marcille chose to stay; she wants to save Falin and she considers the other party members her friends. Why did Chilchuck stay?

Chilchuck actually respects Laios a lot -- food and monster weirdness aside -- and that mostly comes I think through the positive absences from above. The things that Laios does not do.

All the other party members infringe on these boundaries in some way. Izutsumi tries to egg Chilchuck into combat; Marcille pries into his home life; Senshi deliberately provokes him when he's trying to work. Not Laios. Once Chilchuck sets a boundary, Laios does his best to always respect it. (And I think Laios appreciates having clearly defined Rules For Chilchuck.)

Laios is a good party leader and he takes care of his team. Maybe this is my age showing, but when you find yourself in a good work situation with a good boss, you stay in that job.

A Handy Size Guide for some common RP sizes (1-7 inches) compared to a silhouette of my own hand.

Borrowers Using Things as Other Things

So, I made that drawing where a borrower uses a leaf as an umbrella (here), and now here's a list of other items a borrower might 'misuse!'

----

An acorn top = a hat

A hair elastic = a belt

A dish towel = an extra-large full-body towel XD

A handkerchief = a blanket

A sock = a sleeping bag

A beanie hat = a nest

A big ol' boot = another nest

A bunch of feathers = bedding for nest

A toothpick = a walking stick

A needle = a sword (fencing style??)

A thumbtack = a dagger

A fishing hook = a grapple

A piece of graphite = a pencil

A string = a rope (especially if twined into a thicker braid)

A string of floss = ... a waxy rope??

A toothbrush head = a brush (for pet mice?)

A nail file = a sanding board (for smoothing rough wood)

An old mouthwash lid = water storage container OR a laundry hamper

An empty lip balm tin = a (food) storage container

An ice cube tray = a multi-compartment storage bin

A bottlecap = a bowl/cup

A thimble = a flowerpot

A teacup = a bathtub

A shiny coin/button = a portrait/decoration

A watch = a wall clock

A ring = a crown

A bracelet = a decorative sash

A circlet earing = a necklace

A silver necklace = a long chain (for what?? idk?!? leash for mouse??)

A fork = a clothing hanger (on the prongs)

A match = a torch

A ruler = a height-measuring stick

A popsicle stick = a leg splint (kept tight with scotch tape)

An old Rubik's cube/children's block = a table

A pair of dice = a set of chairs

A paintbrush = a broom

Extra:

Whatever that little white plastic thing is called that comes on the center of a pizza sometimes and looks like a teeny table. Except now actually used as a table XD

I’m no longer making life harder for me. I’m too tired to feel guilty for making life a little easier when my body and mind are dealing with chronic illness. There is no shame because taking things easy is not a moral failure.

silly thing I found and can't remember from when, I doodled this ages ago lol

Saw a tag on my post about low approval Halsin that said he sounded like Gordon Ramsay when angry and, well... 💀

There's a reddit thread on the BG3 sub where the user u/InklingRain posted a spreadsheet they made with all the companion approvals. Super useful in general both for playing the game and for fic, so I thought I'd post it on tumblr and play around a little!

There's a top row with the average approval by companion, but I didn't find that very useful, so I changed it to the count of approvals (i.e. count of approvals & disapproval total, how often a companion had a reaction to something). We all know Astarion gives a lot of disapprovals here and there, but they're only -1 at a time, so no big deal, right?

No. Minsc has the least at only 45 reactions, Halsin at 95, Minthara at 145, and of the main companions, Gale is pretty average at 198, Lae'zel at 224, and Shadowheart, rather opinionated at 258...

but that's nothing compared to Astarion's 406. That's almost 150 more than the next person!!! That's more than Minthara and Shadowheart combined! Babygirl really woke up one day and decided to get in a snit over everything that happens 😂

(Longer post about count of positive and negative opinions, sum of approvals and disapprovals, and some major outliers below. Picture with values at the very end.)

BALDUR'S GATE 3 (2023) dev. Larian Studios

[Astarion disapproves]

Whenever I go through Wither's tomb, I usually have Gale pick up and interact with the Book of Dead Gods cause he usually has an easier time with the roll to unlock the book.

But he rolled a nat 1 and failed his arcana check spectacularly, then immediately rolled a nat 20 on the strength check to pound the lock with his bare fists. Had a little bit of wizard rage there, I think.

Make sure to keep your vampire happy! They are delicate creatures🩸