I'm Projecting Ignore Me-

I'm projecting ignore me-

Astarion x a Tav or OC who's also an abuse survivor, but they went in two opposite directions with how their abuse affected them.

Astarion became hard and cold, keeping everyone and everything at a distance, hiding his pain behind a carefully constructed layer of snark and sarcasm and wit and vitriol. He has had to suffer, so why shouldn't others?

Meanwhile Tav made it through their abuse, suffered, but survived, looked at all of the horrors and atrocities they had to go through, and said through a mouth full of blood and grit, "No one is ever going to have to suffer through this the same way that I did. No one is ever going to have to feel this way ever again. Not on my watch!" and they actively chose to be kinder. They saw the worst that the world had to offer and refused to let it turn them into a monster too. "It ends with me!"

(*insert the Doctor's speech from The Zygon Inversion because that scene lives rent free in my head and is always like a punch in the gut reminder to remain kind in a cruel and unjust world*)

Astarion x a Tav who has made it through their abuse and has come out unabashedly kind and patient and sympathetic, who refuses to give up hope - not on the world, not on others - who loves openly and bravely because they have had to go without it for so long. They still have their scars - some mental or emotional, maybe some are even physical - and are still recovering and healing, but they're far enough down their own journey of recovery that they can help lend a hand and guide Astarion onto his too, and then they can walk the path of recovering from a lifetime of abuse side by side, actively encouraging and supporting the other while battling their own internal demons and holding each other accountable should they begin to slip back into old, darker habits.