~ Spoilers For Eldermourne Below ~

~ spoilers for eldermourne below ~

zirk virvain is just the archetype of the mad Victorian scientist but. morally good. like. he drinks piss. he has mommy issues and a gun. his experiments give him free ombre hair dye. he injects sludge into his friends. he got beat up by 40 year old children. twice. he chews on a stirring rod during autopsies. he had sex through a magic bag one time. he found the cure to death. he didn't even bother testing it he just straight up died and it worked. he technically didn't kill god but his friends killed god's daughter which is close enough.

a quiet life- no! I will live my life loudly! I will hug my friends and press flowers, complement strangers, feel my feet in the dirt! I will savour the smell of rain, decorate a space that's mine, and dance and sing and buy people gifts! I will leave this world with the love I have given it!!

4,5 and 20 for the ask thing!

Yay my first ask!! And thank you for your comment on the original post haha

As requested *^^*

(Just a disclaimer, I wrote a lot of her backstory before finishing the full game, so a couple sections match more with D&D canon than game canon, sorry T_T)

4. What hobbies does your Tav have? How did they acquire these interests?

Nina didn't have much time for hobbies when she was younger, but the most prominent one is whittling. She picked it up when she and her sister Wren moved to Baldur's Gate, to pass time at her job (which I talk abt in the next question) She's not amazing at it, but it does bring her comfort. She also does like animals and the outdoors, but these are more so interests than hobbies haha

5. Did your Tav have any formal or informal employment? If yes, what was their job? If no, how did they make ends meet? How did they feel about it?

Nina and Wren were young when they moved to Baldur's Gate, so it was difficult for Nina to find reputable work. She eventually secured the night shift for a small temple district, guarding the places of worship. However, the work didn't make ends meet, and as time went on she started doing jobs for The Guild….. She was definitely not happy about it, but I'll answer that more in a different question >:)

20. What is your Tav's greatest regret?

(In her eyes) Nina abandoned her sister, Wren, and regrets endangering her by doing jobs for the Guild. During the final job she helped the organisation with, Nina lost her nerve, slipping away to alert the Fist. This resulted in a pretty bad fight and a fire, leaving a few casualties on each side. In return, a Guild member scarred her face and neck, and threatened Wren. Before Nina could get to their home to check on her, the Nautoloid appeared, and took her.

This was very fun!!!!! I hope more people ask about Nina, I love talking about her jfksksjs

"life has no meaning" okay then explain the feeling of the sun on your face or the way light reflects off the ocean or the smell of sourdough or the buzz of an electric guitar or the way your friends squeezes your shoulder or the taste of coffee or the way sand pools around your toes or the way juice drips down your hand as you eat a peach or

all evidence of wlw Beatrice and mlm Benedick (a much ado about nothing interpretation)

I have had a headcanon for a while that Beatrice and Benedick initially think they are gay before falling in love.

I'm rereading the play now, and have decided to compile every piece of evidence that supports this theory so far!

Read away under the cut!

ACT 1, SCENE 1

MESSENGER  And a good soldier too, lady.

BEATRICE  And a good soldier to a lady, but what is he to a lord?

Part of the headcanon is that they both know about each other’s queerness, and this comes up a lot in their dialogues. This is the first example, Beatrice makes a joke about his tendency to be as stiff and formal as a soldier when around ladies, and wonders what his (implied romantic) tendencies are around men.

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BEATRICE  It is so indeed. He is no less than a stuffed man, but for the stuffing—well, we are all mortal.

Quite crass but mortality could refer to the vices of passion that Benedick could be ‘succumbing to’.

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BEATRICE …Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.

One of the more obvious points of evidence. Historically, sexuality has been a lot more fluid in war/with men (eg: high status Roman men frequently engaged in physical queer relationships without condemnation), and Beatrice makes reference to this with her talk of the traditionally romantic ‘companion’ and the queer-coded term of ‘brother’.

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BEATRICE  …He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.

Another reference to Benedick’s tendencies in the army, also effeminising him by making reference to the fashion of hats.

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BEATRICE  …I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer now that will make a voyage with him to the devil?

When mlm relationships did exist in history, they often involved a noticeable age gap, something hinted at by Beatrice with her mention of the ‘young squarer’. The voyage to the devil could also be a reference to the condemnation of homosexuality at the time.

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BENEDICK  …for truly I love none (i.e. no women).

BEATRICE  …I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.

Again, rather obvious.

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BENEDICK  God keep your Ladyship still in that mind, so some gentleman or other shall ’scape a predestinate scratched face.

Up until this point, Beatrice and Benedick’s conversation can be read as slow paced or leisurely. However, after this line, Beatrice’s become consonant-filled and blunt (while still witty). It could be read that, in this line, Benedick reference’s Beatrice’s queerness too bluntly with the ‘or other’, which scares her. It was much less acceptable for women to be gay than men, after all.

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PRINCE  Thou [Benedick] wast ever an obstinate heretic, in the despite of beauty.

I’m still not entirely sure as to the extent of the other character’s knowledge when it comes to Beatrice and Benedick’s queerness, but this line supports the theory that the men know of Benedick’s. It is in reference to Benedick’s refusal to acknowledge Hero’s beauty, a heretic in that day referring heavily to one who refused to follow the tenets of the Church (eg: by being queer).

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ACT 2, SCENE 1

BEATRICE  Just, if He [God] send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at Him upon my knees every morning and evening. 

Literally saying she thanks God on her knees that she does not have a husband.

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BEATRICE  No, but to the gate, and there will the devil meet me like an old cuckold with horns on his head, and say “Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here’s no place for you maids.” So deliver I up my apes and away to Saint Peter; for the heavens, he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.

Before this line, Beatrice sets a list of impossible standards for her future husband to meet, barring men from courtship with her, and then goes to Hell because of the condemnation of her queerness by the Church. However, the Devil sends her back up (because queerness is not actually a sin? I’m reading too far now lol), where she meets the bachelors. Keep in mind bachelors is a traditionally male word, but is gender neutral when defined in the dictionary.

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BEATRICE  (I will not marry) till God make men of some other metal than earth. 

This one is a bit of a stretch, but I also love it. In Genesis, Adam is made from the Earth’s dust and clay by God. Some other metal could actually be bone, the rib that God uses from Adam to craft Eve.

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BEATRICE  For he [Benedick] both pleases men and angers them,

Again, an obvious innuendo on Beatrice’s part.

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BENEDICK  I would not marry her [Beatrice] though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed. 

He is literally saying, ‘I would not marry her, even if she were a man’. Because he assumes he is gay, he is only interested in marrying a man, but his dislike of Beatrice is so strong that even if she were a man, he would not be interested.

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LEONATO  Niece, will you look to those things I told you of? (i.e. getting a husband)

BEATRICE  I cry you mercy, uncle.—By your Grace’s pardon.

Less so evidence but more so funny. As soon as Leonato brings up husband hunting to Beatrice, she freaks and flips, leaving immediately.

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ACT 2, SCENE 3

BENEDICK  I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster, but I’ll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool.

In this case, oyster refers to Plato’s writings, where he contrasted a life of passion (eating oysters) with a life of pursuing knowledge, finding the latter superior. In this, Benedick is most probably referring to Claudio with the ‘he’ pronoun, referencing the way the man has been led away from a loveless and ‘superior’ life by Hero. However, he could also be saying that only another man could make an oyster of him. .

That was a lot, and I’m only up to Act 2 Scene 5! I doubt there will be as much evidence now, because Beatrice and Benedick have realised their love for each other, but I may make a part two.