Past Astarion Meets His Future
This is a weird ass idea, but I'm doing it anyway. Some time travel fuckery. But the gist is: What if Astarion, decades before the Mind-flayers captured him, was on his last leg? Just on the verge of doing, what was at the time, his only way out. But what if something a little unworldly stopped him?
TW: Suicidal thoughts. M/F, me phoning it in with the dnd lore, Cazador is evil. Like, torture, physically and mentally, manipulation, literal horror shit. He's here so bad things happen to randos and our poor guy. I'm also using this as the backstory again for why Astarion can be in the sun in the future because it's so god damned convenient for drabbles.
~
Astarion watched the crowded bar with focused eyes, a feigned, relaxed smirk on his lips. But even with the acting, he could feel the smile on his face start to tremble, a tell-tale sign that he was truly on his last leg. It had been a long, horrible night, one that had no end in sight. Cazador was in rare form, demanding multiple warm bodies in the span of less than five hours. Astarion wasn't sure what had angered him this time, but he was taking it on the victims in a particularly savage way.
Twice already he had forced Astarion to stay in the room with the poor souls he'd brought back. And then Cazador... made him watch what he did to them. The monster truly had a knack for keeping them alive until the last possible moment. Beating them, assaulting them, laughing at their cries for help. He drank from them last, feasting on their blood until they were just on the edge of death before tossing to them ground. Then Astarion was dismissed with the order to find another.
He hated it. It was the worst part of his nights by far, not including when he was the one being tortured in their place. It didn't help that he always looked at their faces, full of terror and betrayal.
Why did he always have to look? It was a question he knew the answer to. It was because he did that to them. Perhaps not literally, but what was the difference? Astarion had led them straight into his hands.
That was all he did. His entire existence had been reduced to this. A slave, a rat, scuttling through the streets, only capable of inflicting the same torment on strangers. It was a hell that no one should experience, and one that Astarion had been in for nearly 130 years.
How could he continue like this? What was the point? He'd spent so long living on pure survival instinct, waiting for the impossible day where luck would be on his side. Where Cazador would kill the wrong stranger, where the possibility of his murder could become a reality. It was delusional, a poor excuse to continue clinging to this farce of a life.
But there was another option. There always had been. All he needs to do is wander off and wait for the sun to rise, and everything could finally be over. It's far from the first time he's thought about it. But Astarion is nothing but a coward. He'd seen the pure pain and misery of a death of that nature, your insides boiling from within as your skin turned to dust. It was horrifying, one of the worst ways someone could go. And yet... it was starting to seem like the only reasonable option he had left.
Maybe... maybe today would be the day, the first time he'd seen the sun in decades. And the last time he'd ever take a breath.
"Are you alone?" A voice asked, followed by a gentle touch to his arm.
Astarion turned, that same shallow smile instantly reappearing on his face. It was a man, one that was handsome enough for Astarion to probably not feel completely sick during the deed. Then again... he could always ignore them and go back to his final plan.
Or he could wait it out one more day, and pray for a miracle. Astarion nodded towards him, still slightly torn but willing to at least try. It's not like he could go home empty handed if things turned out that way.
"Come to my room?"
Well this was certainly easy. Astarion didn't even have to take the energy to bite out a subpar pick up line. He just followed the man to his room, a plan forming in his head on how he could convince him back to the manor. Not to mention his own escape if he turned out to have less than savory intentions.
The stranger shut the door behind him, sitting on the side of his bed with his hands folded in his lap, his eyes staring straight ahead. Astarion barely stopped himself from rolling his own. Great. A weirdo. What a lovely way to end the night, spending it seducing a complete freak. But Astarion had dealt with worse. He perched next to him, crossing his legs as he waited to see where this would go.
"I can see it," He finally said, his voice gravelly as he turned to stare at Astarion.
Astarion raised his brow, wondering for the first time if this particular prey had been partaking in some mind altering substances, "And what exactly are you seeing?"
"You."
Suddenly, the man was wrapping a tight hand around Astarion's wrist, his eyes shining with an unnatural green light, "You're close to the edge. Too close. My lord needs you breathing."
Astarion froze, equally parts horrified and confused at what he was alluding to. How on earth did he know his thoughts? What lord? Or the more likely reality; How wasted could one person be?
Astarion tried to pull back, frowning when he realized the grip on his wrist was iron-clad. He could feel a bit of panic start to swell inside him as he struggled, his voice rising, "I have no idea what you're talking about. Let go of me-"
"You must live," He said, the color of his eyes only getting brighter and brighter, near twin flames in the darkness of the room, "There is no other way. Kelemvor has work for you yet."
His confusion was quickly evaporating into rage. He didn't know what this thing wanted from him, nor why the god of death would have any interest in his life. But how dare he insist on Astarion's pathetic existence having meaning. He knew nothing.
His mask was slipping, his righteous anger spilling forth, "Let go. Before I rip your fucking arm off."
But he made no moves to back down. Instead he started to chant, an incantation that had Astarion officially panicking. Whatever magic he was using, it was powerful. Reality was shifting right beneath Astarion's feet, morphing into something different. The next thing he knew they were somewhere else entirely, his reality melting into something new right before his eyes.
The entire thing was so shocking that Astarion didn't even realize he was seeing sunlight. Without a single pain. He frantically looked around, the insane stranger's grip finally loosening as he twisted away. They were on a couch, in the middle of what looked like a brightly lit townhouse, voices spilling out of the other room.
Astarion stood quickly, a hiss escaping him, "Where in the hells are we?"
"Nowhere," The man said cryptically, his eyes still aflame, "Neither the present of the future. We are in nothing but a glimpse, taken and made for you."
That did nothing to answer his question. But it did make his mind go into more reasonable directions. This had to be an illusion, there was no other explanation for why he wasn't being burned alive. But an illusion of what? And for what purpose?
Astarion pinched the bridge of his nose, at a complete loss at what to do. He could try and kill him and pray that that would break the spell. But there was also the chance that he wouldn't live through an altercation with someone who could warp his senses so easily. Or perhaps this whole thing was a nightmare, a horrifying dream he'd cooked up after a night in the torture chamber.
Still at a loss, he settled on asking another question, "Then what is this a glimpse of?"
"Home," The man said simply before slipping off the couch. The cryptic bastard.
He started walking towards the next room towards the unknown voices; Astarion feeling helpless but to follow.
He lingered at the entryway, his eyes widening at the sight of a woman standing there, cooing at a teary-eyed child she had on her hip. They were right in her line of sight, but she had no reaction to their presence, instead calling out into the other room, "Did you find it yet?"
Another voice called back, oddly familiar as it groaned, "If I had, would I still be on my hands and knees here?"
Astarion stepped forward, more than ready to see if he could enlist the help of strangers for his predicament.
"They can not perceive us," The stranger said, interrupting the call for help that was on the tip of Astarion's tongue, "They are not real. Merely copies of what is, what will be."
"Lovely," Astarion growled out, his fingers itching to fight back against this demon of a man, "Now what in the gods' names does this have to do with me?"
"Watch and you will see," He said, his eyes blazing straight ahead, "The Lord of Death works in mysterious ways."
Astarion's theory of this being a torture-induced dream was becoming more and more believable. He didn't even bother questioning it, not when one more inane answer would send him into a tailspin. Instead he stared ahead, waiting for the moment he would wake up.
The baby was still squirming. Annoying whining sounds spilling from its lips, nearly on the edge of crying. But the woman still had a bright smile on her face, calling back "I told you we should have looked for it last night!"
"Well when she threw it across the room I assumed that meant it had fallen out of favor!" That same familiar voice yelled back, followed by an excited ah-ha! sound.
"Isabella's gonna have a fit, isn't she?" The woman sing-songed, bouncing the child on her hip, "I guess Mommy's going to have to let you start sucking on Daddy's hair again, huh?"
"I heard that!" The muffled voice called back, getting clearer and clearer by the moment. And then another man was walking into the room, grinning ear to ear as he held up a pacifier, "And I will not be forgetting it darling. Don't come crying to me the next time she's gnawing on your nose."
He leaned over to kiss the woman on the cheek before popping the pacifier in the girl's mouth, laughing when it instantly made her calm down. He was tall and pale, an elf with piercing red eyes and pure white hair.
No. It couldn't be-
"There. All better," The man sighed, his voice crystal clear in the calmness of the room, "She has quite the arm for a toddler."
It was a voice that Astarion knew, better than anyone else. It was his own.
Astarion watched, wide-eyed as his other self lifted the baby up in his arms, laughing as the child squealed around the pacifier, "She sure is cute for someone who can be such a brat. She takes after her mother doesn't she?"
The woman rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. Almost like she couldn't help but do anything else as she watched the duo, "Brave words for someone of your nature. Not to mention how she's your twin."
"Nonsense. She looks just like you, we should have named her Tav Jr," Other Astarion playfully argued, taking his other arm to wrap around the woman's shoulders, "I'm only responsible for the corpse-like complexion."
Astarion stared at them, in complete shock. He didn't-why would anyone or anything want to show him this? It didn't make sense. How would it be possible for him to be in the sunlight? Let alone to have a family. Astarion knew that this had to be a lie, there was no other explanation.
But that didn't stop his heart from aching from being forced to witness it. He was too shell-shocked to speak as he followed the duo to the other room, listening as his other self set the child in a crib, still cooing at her, "Auntie Karlach is coming over and you'll need your rest. How else will you be annoying together?"
"Astarion!"
He watched himself laugh as he pulled back, kissing her little forehead before murmuring, "Mommy only says my name like that when she has no comeback, isn't that right princess?"
"You're going to regret telling her everything when she can start talking," The woman, Tav, piped up from next to him, "I hope you realize she'll tell me all of your secrets."
Astarion rolled his eyes before pulling her against him, pressing a sweet and lingering kiss to her lips, "What secrets do I have that you don't know? Please, enlighten me."
What kind of cruel joke was this? Astarion, the real Astarion, had seen enough. He turned to the bastard that had sent him here, growling through gritted teeth, "Why are you doing this to me? Have I not suffered through enough?"
The man offered nothing of value, "We offer you what could be, if you can survive. No more, no less."
No. No, no, no. He wouldn't believe him. He refused to. There was no future for him. There couldn't be. I-It wasn't possible. Not with Cazador looming, not when he couldn't walk in the sun without being burned alive. And especially not when he couldn't even fathom letting himself care form someone enough to have a family with.
But that's what was in front of him. He turned back, his morbid curiosity getting the better of him. Just in time to see the couple standing there, holding each other while they made out like teenagers.
"I love you," His other self sighed happily, the words free and unbidden from his own lips between kisses, "More than anything my sweet."
"With one exception?" Tav asked, her arms wrapped around his neck.
Astarion laughed, nodding towards the crib with a knowing grin, "With one exception."
Astarion stared at them, a horrifying feeling starting to grow in his chest.
Hope.
It's the greatest betrayal he could give himself, an eternity's sentence to his own personal hell on the delusional belief that something better would come. He couldn't give in to it. He wouldn't.
But the question still escapes his lips, "How long?"
"Seventy years until you meet," The stranger said, "You must live to see it. Five more until you're here."
Astarion watched, wide-eyed as the alternate reality started to fade, the stranger's eyes becoming more dull and human-like by the moment. He stared until the last possible moment, trying to commit it all to memory.
But it was difficult. Like thoughts he couldn't quite grasp, slipping through his fingers. Something wasn't right.
"Will I remember this?" He asked, even though he was already on the edge of forgetting.
"No," The man said simply. They were back in the room, sitting on the bed as though nothing had happened, "But you'll remember the hope."
It was the equivalent of a curse, one that Astarion could barely fathom as magic twisted his memories. But he could feel it there, festering in his heart. The yearning for a new life, stronger than ever.
Astarion left Shar's Caress that night feeling dazed and confused. He barely managed to drag a wasted loner back to the manor with him, preying on him in the back aisles. It was startling to think that he'd almost forgotten his original mission considering the consequences. But whatever happened had... done something to him. Something that he couldn't quite name.
But he didn't see the sun that day. Or the next. Or the day after that. Instead he continued to struggle, to suffer at the hands of his sadistic sire with no end in sight. Not until years and years later, when the worst and best thing to ever happen to him occurred. He was kidnapped by mind flayers, but gifted with a disgusting parasite that allowed him to live in the sun.
It wasn't ideal but it was better than being under Cazador's thumb. Not to mention how he found companions relatively quickly. It had been pure luck that you stumbled upon him, even luckier still that you were the type to forgive a man for having a knife to your throat.
He was happy to accompany you. He was happy to do whatever it took to increase his chances of survival, frankly. It helped that he felt... strangely drawn to you. You looked oddly familiar. He didn't know how else to describe it, but it was almost as though he'd met someone from a past life.
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Death Warrant!Au
When the rejuvenating, life-extending effects of ectoplasm to the dead and dying was discovered by planets across the stars, it triggered mass conflicts that left several systems obliterated beyond repair. Hundreds of Billions had migrated to the Realms in numbers that were never seen before by the residence of the dead. They had various forms of damage and disfigurement on their new forms as a result of the ectoplasm being weaponized and used on them. Their very beings were corrupted beyond repair with their minds significantly altered with highly specified obsessions.
• Peoples from the destroyed worlds being so afraid that they lashed out, ripping anything that saw them to pieces out of fear of being attacked.
A serpentine creature of the Realms eagerly stalking them and fed upon their cores to grow stronger.
• Soldiers of these races were hell-bent on continuing to fight and proceeded to attempt subjugate this dimension that was new to them. Their rage guiding them blindly as they left paths of destruction throughout the realm.
A beast, wrongly slaughtered in the early madness of an delicate fledgling world that happened to be rich with ectoplasm followed the warpath and basked in the rage.
Eventually, more creatures like them came to prominence as a result of these strange new victims. Being aspects of emotion that were born from the masses in the war.
The Ghost King during this time period could not sit idly by and watch these newly born ghosts run rampant and terrorize his kingdom. With a heavy heart and a weapon in hand, a call to arms was called and the purge of these beings began. It tooks thousands of years, but when the last corrupted ghost was destroyed, the King took to the realm of living and wiped away all traces of the Realms from the minds of the survivors with all recollections of this terrible war for ectoplasm erased from history.
As his rested his eyes one final time, before the Tyrant would cowardly claim his life, made a major, sacred declaration that all citizens was made:
• If any hostile, mutant ghosts were to be found, they were to captured and examined by the king's council to await judgement. If they are too dangerous to restrain and seek bloody violence, they are to be destroyed.
• Any scientists trying to use ectoplasm for endangering life were to be have their memories erased and put to the sword for their crimes.
• Anyone foolish enough to Defy Death using ectoplasm, the greatest violation of the laws in the infinite Realms, they were to be put to death as and immediately given their Second End.
~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~
When Pariah Dark, the Cowardly Tyrant King, is defeated and Danny fianlly takes the throne after a few centuries of training, the Observers hand him a compiled a list of names who violated these sacred laws.
They have him start with Earth and Danny's jaw hits the floor with what the charges he was seeing. He can already hear the chaos in the meeting room.
• Amanda Waller, Vandal Savage, Darkseid, Granny Goodness, a court of owls(?)...the list is long, and that's just Earth alone!
• Jack "The Goddamn Joker" Napier and a few of the more violent Rouges of Gotham are charged with Veil Destabilization.
Even Jason Peter Todd Wayne...the Red Hood!? Danny can probably work something with Jason, force him into therapy sessions (along with the whole damn family) with Jazz and a couple cleansing sessions and supplements from Frostbite...the others had to go...
The continued slaughter of the innocent, combined with the suffering they endured and the misery felt by Shades who couldn't move on was making the veil deteriorate at dangerous speeds. New pits would form across the city eventually as a result.
Lady Gotham has done everything she can to keep the madness from happening but she can't hold it back any longer. Her core is ready to shatter under the stress and is constantly in agony, but she won't abandon her knights, despite Danny's pleas to save herself.
There's a certain brigade of furry's who may or may not like this news but said brigade had no choice but to take it on the chin. They have children who Defied Death in their ranks and the Realms are not afraid to destroy anyone foolish enough to stop them.
• Lex Luther is charged with crimes against humanity. And several other violations in regards to unethical experimentation.
One sticks out to Danny.
Lex used Danny's stolen DNA from a stray core shard from the Guys in White, who he was was funding in secret, even after they were disbanded, to create a clone comprised of the Earth's resident Kryptonian, the bald bastard, and himself to kill and replace said Kryptonian...the guy who literally helps save the earth time and time again from doom.
...Yeah, Lex is undoubtedly, fucked beyond total comprehension. Anyone defending him was risking all-out war with the Infinite Realms.
But hey, at least Danny was finally having child of his own! The little tyke is only a few years old in the tube, Ellie's visits are far and in-between and Danny's status as a Halfa made him sterile and develop an embarrassingly strong case of baby fever.
He's sure the ghosts from Krypton would love to help out in raising Conner in case Kal-El wasn't really planning on being around the boy. After all, being cloned himself, Danny knows the emotional baggage that comes with being violated to this degree by your enemy.
He just hopes the guy can come around and accept the little guy...
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resisted writing my time travel peter maximoff fic for one singular day
WIP
A/N: For the purposes of this fic i am ignoring Dark Phoenix because this is based off a really detailed dream i had
When Magneto had joined the X-Men (as coined by Raven) after the events of Apocalypse, Peter had thought “this might be my chance to tell him”. But as the weeks passed, and Erik stayed, Peter’s confidence plummeted. He stopped thinking, “is this the right moment to tell him?” and started thinking “what if he asks why I waited so long to tell him?”. Ororo and Raven both tried to nudge him into action, but their pushes only made him curl up tighter into his metaphorical shell. It didn’t help that Erik signed up to be a teacher, and help out with the children, and Raven must have told Charles something because Peter found his schedule included Erik’s class. He hadn’t even agreed to go to school there. As far as Peter was concerned, his days of school were over. He’s just a grown man living in his mom’s basement, occasionally saving the world. Except now he had a class schedule where his father was his teacher, he had a room of his own at Charles’s mansion, and someone must’ve told his mom because she actually called him to let him know that she was so proud that he was “pursuing further education”.
Great. Just great.
Having Erik as a teacher was surprisingly…. normal. Erik was teaching history, of all things, but Peter held back from cracking any joke relating age to knowledge of history. He was trying to make his dad like him, first. And Erik was a good teacher; he was encouraging, he didn’t lash out, though he rarely gave much more than a tight-lipped smile when anyone answered a question right.
Peter soaked up any time with Erik like a sponge. He didn’t attend the X-Men training, so all Peter had was class and the times after class, during mealtimes that Peter normally would’ve rushed off after cleaning his plate. Instead, Peter found himself even loitering outside Erik’s class during study hours, scuffing the ground with his shoe. If the wooden floor was worn down outside Erik’s door, no one would know it was because of Peter. Except, you know, Charles. And probably Raven. And maybe Hank because Raven told Hank everything. And Ororo. And Jean. And Scott because Jean tells Scott everything. And Kurt because Scott can’t keep his mouth shut. And-
The point was, if Erik had any suspicions about Peter spending a lot of time outside his door, he didn’t let on. He treated Peter almost like any other student, save for more tight-lipped smiles. It was probably because he remembered Peter broke him out of the Pentagon, or something, but the almost unnoticeable special treatment gave Peter hope. Not enough hope to do anything about it, though.
Peter kept loitering around Erik. Raven kept pushing him. Nothing came out of Peter’s mouth.
They were fighting a villain when it all came to a head. It was a dangerous mutant, more powerful than the average mutant, one who had been attacking other mutants in some sort of lashing-out moment, furious at their own differences and taking it out on their people instead of the humans. It wouldn’t have mattered who the mutant was lashing out about, as the X-Men would’ve come to save the day either way. But the mutant was strong, strong enough to take out Scott in a single hit, so Magneto and Raven were even on their side to help take down the villain. Or “A misunderstood, hurting individual,” as the Charles in Peter’s head chides. Not the real Charles, mind you, just Peter’s interpretation of what Charles might say in this moment. God, he must drive Charles up the walls every time the telepath takes a peek inside the speedster’s head.
They were fighting the villain, Scott was down and thus Jean was preoccupied. Ororo was cooking up a storm and Raven was planning something with Hank, but whatever their plan was, it wasn’t happening fast enough. It was essentially Erik and Peter alone against the villain.
“What a duo we make, huh?” Peter tried to say as he dodged the mutant’s blows with ease. He wasn’t really sure what the mutant’s powers were. Super strength, for sure, but there was something else there that made the telepaths useless.
“Less talking, more taking down the threat,” Erik snapped back, summoning metal to throw at the man with a curl of his fingers. Right. Right right right.
Peter threw a hit at the mutant and then bounced away as the mutant released some sort of force field that would’ve blown him backward if Peter hadn’t been out of range already.
“We’ve got something, just buy us some time!” Raven shouts into the earpiece over comms. What were they even doing before then, if not buying time? Peter wonders sarcastically, but keeps the snark to himself. He lands another two hits on the mutant, but it’s hard to get up close to the villain as Erik is shooting metal from all directions at the mutant.
“Got it!” Raven barks, and the mutant jerks his head in the direction of the blue duo. Peter takes advantage of the distraction to leap forward and land another hit.
“Peter look out!” Erik barks suddenly, and Peter turns to see Raven pointing some sort of mechanical contraption, no doubt built by Hank, at the mutant. Which means, by extension, it was pointed at Peter. He steps backward, alarmed, but he trips over some debris and goes down.
“Are you fucking kidding me-” Peter starts to say, just as the machine blasts a beam that surrounds him. It’s bright, too bright, and he closes ihs eyes against the blinding light as pain consumes him. He lets out a shout, and Erik lunges forward, but Peter is already gone.
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