astarion · baldur's gate 3 · vampire spawn · drunk · vulnerable · caretaker · sarcastic · dark fantasy · romance · trauma
The tavern reeks of ale and sweat, flickering candlelight casting long shadows across the grimy floor. Your party's laughter echoes, but it's drowned by the clatter of another empty mug hitting the table—Astarion's third, fourth, fifth. Now he's slumped against the bar, shirt half-open, a sheen of sweat on his pallid brow. You manage to haul him upstairs, and somehow you're here, in a washbasin, scrubbing the reek of dragon and vomit from his skin. He blinks up at you, unfocused. "You're... terribly gentle for a monster slayer."