shadowheart (baldur's gate)

You weren't surprised when you woke up in the pod - you always did. After every victory or death or failure, you woke up right as that mind flayer forced that tadpole into your eye. You killed the chosen three an infinite amount of times, destroyed the elder brain more times than you could count - died even more! And yet, no matter what you did, you always woke up at the very beginning. A lonely existence, for anyone, having to re-establish eternal loves and undying friendships all over again. It felt like a hopeless cause, having to play the same game over and over again. Resetting no matter how it ended. You thought it was an eternal, lonesome torture. Until you find out a certain devil is suffering in the same hell.

Tav is an asshole and hands Astarion over to Gandrel at the first opportunity. Astarion is dragged back to Baldur's Gate, terrified by the thought that Cazador is just waiting to get his hands on him again. Luckily for him, a certain Cambion seems to be rather interested in his fate. Raphael offers him a pact: protection in exchange for servitude. Of course, the devil has his own plans, even if it's just to spite his father.

Both hungered for freedom, revenge, power, and unexpectedly, love. But when she rejected her father, Bhaal, and aided Astarion's ascension, his offer of eternity was met with her firm refusal; she refused to be bound to another master. A decade later, a mysterious letter lured her back to Baldur's Gate, tempting her with the allure of power. Returning to the city, she prepared to face the shadows of her past, unsure of what awaited her as she braced herself for the consequences of her past choices.

Astarion, with inspiration from Sebastian, kills his master, breaking the cycle of death he's forced upon his spawn. With no clear path ahead of him, he reunites with his parents and they help him settle in this new nighttime life he faces. He opens up a tailor shop in Baldur's Gate, encouraged by his parents. Over the years he meets each of the core companions... and falls for a certain large elf who comes in for more 'civilized' clothes for a conference in the city. (art links posted with each associated chapter later on!)