very briefly, baldur's gate 3 is a narrative focused CRPG released by larian studios in 2023! it's based on the lore and gameplay elements from DnD's forgotten realms. you can create your own character or play as one of the origin characters (such as Gale) and embark on an exciting journey full of choices.

gale dekarios, known also as 'gale of waterdeep' is a human wizard from waterdeep! as a child, gale was considered a wizard prodigy. his talents earned the attention of the goddess of magic herself, Mystra, who took gale under her wing and became his teacher, then muse, and eventually lover. the timeline of when they met and how long they were lovers is undefined! in love with mystra and enraptured by her power, gale sought out forbidden magic in an attempt to impress her and prove himself worthy of her attention and power. this backfired horribly, and he was spurned by mystra and abandoned, left only with an orb of destructive magic buried in his chest that requires him to consume magical artifacts to sate his arcane hunger, lest he explode ane endanger everyone around him :p (classic wizard hubris moment).

gale is good-hearted, intelligent and devoted to those he loves (sometimes to unhealthy extremes), but ambitious to the point of arrogance at times. he craves power as a means to prove himself worthy of living, but only needs to be assured that he's enough as he is, as a mortal man. he likes wine and cooking, poetry, and his tressym (a winged cat), tara, who is one of his dearest friends <3

one day i would like to make a shrine for these two characters, but for now, i will explain here! 'krisnix' (sometimes also referred to as kirinaru or narukiri) is the ship name for kristoph gavin and phoenix wright from apollo justice: ace attorney, the fourth mainline game in the ace attorney series (first released on nintendo DS, 2007).

i played apollo justice in september, 2022, and while there is SO MUCH i love about it and the prior mainline games aside from krisnix, this pairing really captured my interest! i don't really have a top/bottom preference for this ship! SPOILERS ahead!

tldr; two guys pretend to be friends for 7 years and destroy each other's careers in the process. some murder happens, some moral lines are crossed, passive aggressive courtroom drama ensues.

the slightly longer (but still very condensed) backstory: seven years prior to the events of apollo justice, kristoph framed phoenix for creating and presenting forged evidence in a trial, ending phoenix's career as a defense attorney. very early on, phoenix discovered kristoph was the true forger and the man who destroyed his career, but didn't have the means to prove it in a court of law. he spent the next 7 years continuing to gather evidence against kristoph and create a new justice system to bring him down, all while having weekly dinners and maintaining a friendship.

when phoenix is accused of murder at the start of apollo justice, he asks kristoph's understudy, apollo justice to defend him (with kristoph as co-counsel). kristoph plans to pin the blame on another witness, but mid trial, phoenix turns on kristoph and apollo is able to prove kristoph was the true killer, (unknowingly) using evidence that phoenix actually forged for real this time (AUGH phoenix becoming the very thing he was falsely accused of all those years ago makes me crazy). six months later, in the final case of the game, everything from the past seven years comes to light and phoenix's new justice system is put into practice. kristoph is found guilty of an additional murder and an attempted murder, and forging evidence 7 years ago. phoenix's name is cleared and their story ends here.

the manipulation and deceit under the guise of friendship for seven (SEVEN!!?!?!) whole years. can you truly keep in regular friendly contact with someone for seven years and only feel resentment? in my mind, it's interesting to imagine that maybe there was some degree of mutual fondness or enjoyment for each other's company, even if that fondness was intermingled with feelings of bitterness, hatred, distrust... and so on. truly two guys who bring out the worst in each other.

i like that they both keep a close watch on each other, without revealing what they know. and it's satisfying that while they are intellectual equals, phoenix ultimately triumphs and is able to preserve his true identity instead of losing himself in those seven dark years. to me, their relationship is a 'keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer' type. naturally, it's fun to think, 'but wouldn't it be so much messier if they had a bunch of horrible sex?' and that's how my obsession began... :p

my goal when drawing this pairing is to capture feelings of discomfort, desire and/or suspicion! it's been a big challenge for me - how do you visually convey a dynamic that is friendly on the surface, but bitter at it's core? i think some pieces are more successful than others but it's been very fun to experiment with! this pairing is thematically a lot darker than my previous interests, so it's been refreshing to try communicate new emotions in my work.