Hi <3 You’ve mentioned before that Phoebe is from Earth… I would love to know more about that if you feel comfortable sharing 👀 No pressure at all of course!
Of course! So Phoebe grew up in a small town but eventually moved to a big city after becoming estranged from family. She had a rough childhood and built up a lot of anxiety over the years so she's become hypervigilant and has mental stuff to deal with. Her canon fic begins one night as she's walking back to her apartment from a shopping trip that ran a little late, bag packed with stuff, knife in her boot and a gun on her hip (because in this city you just never know), when she crosses a threshold in one of the city parks and in that space in between she's picked up by the nautiloid. However, things get complex from here. Her soul actually originates from Toril, which is why she's able to cross between the planes. Of course, she doesn't know this, but in almost all of her past lives, she was an elf of some kind or another, and in her most recent one she was an ambitious adventurer and spelunker, and died by hubris of playing with a magical artifact thinking she had the talent/innate ability to do things with it that even the best sorcerer is not likely to pull off. That artifact exploded in her hand and caused such a stir, her soul was untethered and yeeted to Earth. Even with her soul being originally from Toril, passing back through the planes, through the phlogiston, to Toril, was not without its turbulence. The sheer power of the weave touching her in the transference was almost too much for her body to handle, as being from Earth magical energies were significantly different. The weave blew out one of her eyes, which is why it's changed color now, but Ilmater sensed/traced her agony and stepped in to make sure she survived it, and also gave her his blessing. It's through him that she's able to naturally (if not immediately) pick up the weave and work with it after her arrival. First thing she does when she wakes up on that beach, though, is have a massive panic attack. Because not only did she just survive an immensely painful event, but now she's got a familiar problem.
Familiar, because she's played Baldur's Gate 3, and of course, none of it is supposed to be real. But instead of being exactly like the game, everything feels... broader. And wrong. Because she didn't find Shadowheart or Lae'zel on that ship. She found Astarion. And when she's waking up on the beach she's not sure he survived. Really comes to a head when they team up (after she convinces him to come out of the shaded wreckage) and she has to wrap her mind around the fact that she's living the campaign, except so, so many things have gone wrong. She thinks she knows how the story is supposed to play out, but it's expectations vs reality here, and people are missing, and the grove is littered with corpses. Feel free to lemme know if you wanna know more! :)
