#m: asks

Even that small amount of begging from him fell hot and thick onto her skin like dripping candle wax. Goneril released him and pressed her back against the side of the window, halfway between Enver and cool, open air. Tilting either way made her feel the same pull of gravity. 

"I'm sorry,” Goneril shook her head. “That woman you loved didn't come back here. She died. And if you don't stop what you're doing then you’ll die too.”

Enver’s eyes hardened as they swept over her. One shoulder shifted in an approximation of a shrug. "At least maybe I'll be with her then."

ahhhhhh I LOVE that part!! I basically wrote the whole thing as a house for this exchange. Like Enver is acting sooooo delusional in this whole thing, as if Goneril is just the same as ever, and the only time he acknowledges she's any different is to say that he'd rather be dead with the real version RAAAHHHH!!! tysm for appreciating this bit and my general insanity

It’s so good!!! There’s like four main queer characters and they all have such great arcs. There’s Max, Eleanor Guthrie, Anne Bonny and James Flint. Ngl Max has a rough time in S1 and her character probably gets treated the worst, (tw for rape) like there are some badly portrayed rape scenes but the first season is the weakest and it’s all uphill for her after that. (the show gets instantly better in s2)

Anne Bonny has her lesbian awakening and her bff Jack Rackham is confused but totally supportive (“I do understand why you wouldn’t want to tell me about this but please know that all I ever wanted was for you to be happy”) And Eleanor is…well she tries and she’s a bisexual mess lmao, but she’s a fantastic character. 

And James Flint oh man, he’s a complete gay disaster and his arc in relation to his sexuality and the homophobia he faces is the most respectful and well done way I’ve ever seen. He’s devoted his entire existence to fucking over England for being homophobic (not an exaggeration). Also UNBURY YOUR GAYS!!! (I won’t go into it bc spoilers but it’s tru) I could go on but the best way to sum up Black Sails is this tweet imo: 

I didn’t think it was bc after I saw I went and looked up the casts for the next few eps and Wilson Cruz is still on the show. It was still…very violent and shocking to see. And not to mention that they went with the most boring predictable ‘plot twist’ with Tyler. 

Like killing off one half of an interracial queer couple, especially the queer moc, and having it be at the hands of the only pakistani character (well the actor at least)is awful no matter how impermanent. Both those things play into such terrible, damaging stereotypes and to have it come from a show that is supposed to be rooted in being progressive and hopeful? It really hurts. 

Acts of Vengeance

Hangman

which is where my actual question comes in! i've been writing fanfic for a while, but have only recently become interested in writing my own OC in the bg universe. as someone who is new to actually creating a character from the ground up (with a backstory, and a sort of developed POV), i was wondering if you had any advice on how you got to a point with evie, either in her character creation or something beyond that, where you had certainty on who she was and how she'd behave in particular moments? i really hope that makes sense!

thank u again for all the work you do, it's such a treat to read your work

This is so lovely ohmygosh 😭😭 Thank you for appreciating Evie, I hope I can offer anything insightful about her creation or at least blab for a while.

I think it's helpful to just begin with one simple idea you find interesting and see what flows from it. D&D (and bg3) has so much room for big, brave heroes and so with Evie, my original thought was, "I want a character who is not going to be naturally heroic or good at adventuring." That's it.

So what kind of person (within the D&D universe) would probably not be naturally heroic? Maybe someone spoiled and pampered. That leads me to make her a wealthy noble. What would a spoiled noblewoman probably look like? Probably like a Barbie, beautiful and blonde. Well, if she's very beautiful, maybe she also uses her looks to skate through life. But also! Maybe she's also unfairly judged for the way she looks. How can she skate through her life even more than your regular noblewoman? Make her the youngest of three, a spare of a spare, lots of privilege and no expectations. Now there are several details about her backstory and her personality that all came from one idea that I wanted to explore.

I also think you don't need to spend too much time on this background part before just throwing your little guy into some Situations. One of Evie's defining character traits is being charismatic but afraid of being truly seen or known, and wondering if the image people project onto her is really all there is to her. And that core part of her personality didn't come to me until the third fic with her that I wrote.

You can think of a character's whole backstory and honestly bog yourself down in this planning phase, but you can't begin to know how they'll react to certain things without throwing them into some scenarios and asking yourself what they might do with it. It's the nature of people to change and evolve, so your characters will also change and evolve as you play around with them. And IMO the best way to play with them is just push them out on stage and see what stands out to you and what interests you. And you can always backfill biographical details as they occur to you.

Short version: pick one simple idea for a person you want to play with and then just start throwing them at characters and situations. Grab the ideas and traits that jump out to you and those will help you form the character's reactions to anything they might face.