Chapter Text
Hello everyone! I thought it would be fun to put my original thoughts and ideas as a little tidbit of sorts (think like an after credits of the crew goofing off)
So i thought it would be fun to give you all a peek behind the curtain of the making of spies!
The idea that started it all:
Astarion is a honeypot specialist but hates it, knows how to hack and things like that but not a specialty. Gale the “Q” and makes gadgets and can get through a lot of electronic stuff, actual tech specialist.
He makes things that can help people not do honeypots but doesn't offer it up since it’s “just easier” also thinks there’s no point since Gale convinced Astarion’s a playboy and loves it.
Both get assigned on a mission together and Gale sees how Astarion shuts down just before the deed and realizes oh shit. Puts together a thing to help him do less HP missions.
Paired together on a mission. Pose as a couple. Both are competent with weapons a la mr.& mrs smith (As with guns & knives, Gale with guns & his gadgets). Astarion shocked at how nicely Gale cleans up. Gale impressed at Astarion’s unparalleled lock picking and thinking on his feet. Astarion impressed at Gale’s ability to plan out things and hacking skills
So that was the og XD it's certainly grown from there as you all can see! I love where it ended up and tbh it was supposed to be shorter as well XD it was supposed to end at around 10 chapters and Cazador was supposed to be the one torturing astarion in that initial kidnapping. But then i got more ideas!
And as my brain continued to work heres the stream of consciousness notes I wrote out when I was sick:
Gortash working with durge and cazador. To what?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ evil villain stuff i guess
Orin is Durge’s sister. Doesnt necessarily care about him but hes inside and she can use that to her advantage.
She helped cazador see the team coming so he could escape.
Bhaal Collective hacker group???
Gale kidnapped by orin threatening person for person trade? Or holding into Gale to make him fix the tower?
How to get that info?
Verbal fight with durge before hes killed? Hes convinced it was astarion, maybe cazador was watching ans saw gale in the van on a computer during the rescue?
Hacker peeks at some info on the techies and snag Info on gale.
Orin snags him
Lots of question marks and I never got rid of all of the notes because I just kept coming back to it and then i expanded on the orin idea;
Orin Gortash’s deranged gf?
Orin wants to dismantle polite society Caz wants to continue his own smuggling ring and buy/sell slaves on black market without the need to run from the law?
Orin fights with Durge at one point and lets something slip about cazadors location.
Durge tries to call cazador doesn't get anything from him.
The hacks are to try to get inside the gate to kill durge.
Slowly get picked off one of the last minions sees this and decides to turn against her?
Orin somehow tries to get inside the gate to kill jim because hes a loose thread.
So as you can see I did have more ideas with the Bhaal Collective being a group of hackers for Orin, and i kind of added that but I didn’t dive as deep as I was thinking about doing. But i also wasn’t sure how i was going to add it with the limited pov i had with gale and astarion.
Also Jim Durge was originally going to be Guy Durge but I thought that might have been too much. (i am very happy with jim tho. As im sure most of you were as well ahahah)
Here’s my Gale Gadget notes:
Tadpole-communicator for only 5 miles but for everyone to be on call with each other / see stuff
Can't be kicked out of the head, lodged in and attaches to the ear bone, tool back at home base - feedback glitches. Randomly picks up someone singing out of tune folky music before it goes back. (NOT FULLY TESTED.)
+lense in order to see the other peeps vision.
V.O.L.O pin to remove
Vestibular and Ocular Link for Oscillation
Shocking ring - ‘shocking grasp’
Invisibility
Gravity well - miniscule black hole in one location that draws everyone to it.
I DID NOT PLAN THE ACCIDENT IN THE LAB TO BE GALE’S ORB. All of you were so big brained to think that holy shit! I did almost write it in to be a bigger plot point because it was such a good idea but i ended up reigning myself in.
Im not sure if you all wanted to see my chapter notes but here is the gist of it:
Ch21:
Best lead is orin. But nothing on her anywhere.
Why would she want to kill her brother?
Minthara: have you met the guy?
Fair but still.
Thoughts about how he was sorta glad jim was dead but also dang that was gory. Orin was probably a bit of a psychopath.
Corrupted video of the holding cell until after she leaves.
Able to Find maybe one frame of her face ans shes just smirking st the camera like she knows they can see her. (Waving as shes leaving the building?) Wearing a cleaning crew uniform, takes off hat for reveal.
Cockiness must run in the family.
Asta comes in and asks if theres any way to track her.
All they have is facial recognition Running but not a lot to go on for locations.
Ch22:
Talking about astys fam?
Gale can bring up Morena and Tara
Asty: I'd like to meet her
Maybe talk about their relationship?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Look at what didn’t happen! XD i didnt start doing the little chapter summaries until it started getting longer so there wasn’t too much to show you all here.
Ch23:
Halsin info on orin from what he could find. Shes crazy be careful
Look into the hack pings they had and try to find a couple more of the people behind the scenes.
Talk about her possible motives of wanting durge dead?
Ch24
Asta going into work sees karlach a bit worried
Usually here first not answering phone
Asta bad feeling, tries to call.
Hour goes by. Asta decides to go to gales house with jen
Jen has an extra key for when tara needs looking after.
Looks around home. Asta first time catching a glimpse of gales home what should he have on shelves?
Jen coming out with frown, notices no phone so he should have it
Asta walks outside and looks around the front before walking down to the street. He catches a glimpse of rubble on the street, looks closer.
Broken phone.
Realize its gales
Ch26:
Still searching. Astarion wreaking havoc on training dummies and throwing knives. (targets are shredded? Dummies broken?)
Tav/halsin talks to him.
Asta almost fights them about him going out to find gale. Halsin and Tav exchange looks before tav says to run him through the tests.
Astarion goes through the physical, and more or less psyches himself out in front of halsins office for the psychological test.
Halsins interview is a bit different than the typical ones astarion is put through.
But how???
Ch27
Break into place/confront orin
Rescue Gale
Ch28:
Cazador confrontation (during Gale rescue?)
I thought about not having Cazador in the compound at all. It probably would have extended the fic for at least 5 more chapters but I thought it probably would have messed a bit with the pacing and tbh i wasnt sure if it would have felt good or not so i figured it would be safer to have him there anyways since orin didn’t know they were coming.
Ch29: finish??
yeah lots of help there past spAceArrow, tysm XD
I adore mirroring. And I put so much of it in this story ( chapters 10 & 25 are the biggest and most obvious examples ( they have the same word counts tooooo i am so proud of that fact ) there's also a bit sprinkled about. I ended certain chapters the same way with both Astarion and Gale povs. (Ch. 7 & Ch 26) And then their love realizations were relatively similar in the wordage as well!
How they reacted and helped each other with things they had no experience with. They're reactions with the relationship. Their support of each other throughout!
I love these two so much and showing how they are essentially two sides of the same coin through this fic has been so much fun!
I had the longest time trying to name the fic as well, there were a few contenders:
You only live once
the rogue who loved me - bluebeebalm’s idea!
Spies
Lock picks and handy gadgets
I had all of the james bond titles in a list as well to look through them.
I thought Y.O.L.O. would have been a hilarious name but i was vetoed in a voice chat at the time
The rogue who loved me was also a brilliant name and tbh it was a very close choice behind lock picks and handy gadgets
Spies was just how i referred to the fic for as long as i have been writing it, i think i had like 15 chapters done before i started posting? And i decided on the name basically right when i posted it XD
Writing this fic definitely needed a different style of writing than i typically do. Which is part of the reason why i wanted to share everything, it was an exercise for myself to try and keep it all cognizant and straightforward and try to remember the facts of what id written since i usually go by the seat of my pants XD
Anyways, i hope you all enjoyed the little peek!
I have a few ideas on little tidbits to add to the universe (maybe some domesticity between a certain spy and technician? A little white elephant gift idea for wyll from astarion? Maybe astarion and tara bonding and gale catches them and falls more in love?)
But until then, i hope you all have fun and adventurous days, whatever that may be for you <3