CRYSTAL | MISS ME, DARLINGS?

[illithidnapped]

FORM: sending crystals, during the truth event, you know what to do
SENDER: your favorite rogue, Astarion xoxo
RECIPIENT: as always, everyone
NOTES: if you drank Truth Soup, cough up your feelings; if you didn't drink the soup, make it worse for everyone, I dare you

[Someone's bored tonight. And it's been over a year since the last time he felt restlessness stirring him into needling action— particularly when he's noticed a couple of blurted-out confessions running high and harsh in the air. He could sleuth around. Sniff about for any signs of volatile tampering (or ask if this is just the next phase of whatever sleepless affliction's still nipping at everyone's collective heels)....

But this is so much more fun.

Anyway— ahem, and all that:]

Name one thing you like about someone else in Riftwatch. Anything. Anything at all.

Bonus points if you feel like getting weird with it.

[And don't think he's generous enough to actually start this game himself: that, you're all going to have to do on your own.

Or maybe just ask nicely.]

Comments

[elegiaque]

Of course I do. That's not what you asked me.

[illithidnapped]

I'm— [His tongue hits the roof of his mouth. Right. Can't say he's going to poison them if he doesn't actually mean it in any measure.]

Oh for— [Yes, he's stammering now, and you know what??] Shoo, off with you both before I empty your liquor cabinet and donate its contents to every stray refugee I spot in the harbor.

[off the conversational counter! get!!]

[illithidnapped]

Well I'm asking now.

[cozen]

[ Bastien laughs and is otherwise quiet, obediently.

But the next time he sees By he's giving him a high five. And a low five. They won. ]

[elegiaque]

They have to be tall. Broad, physically fit, very strong. Preferably someone who can get his hands all the way around my waist and lift me without straining. Extremely intelligent. Intelligent enough to make it everyone else's problem. Someone driven, someone purposeful; a natural leader, or the confidence and self-assurance not to require one. Ruthlessness. Someone who'll take a firm hand with me in life and bed. Someone who doesn't care much what other people think of them, and doesn't need my constant reassurance or guidance, either.

I want the most frighteningly intense person in the room to find me fascinating. And that's part of it, too, I'm not interested in someone who isn't— mutually obsessed. Who isn't interested in me, too, I want to be necessary, important. If I've got no reason to think they're attracted to me, if I could be anyone to them and it wouldn't matter, it's not attractive to me, not in any sort of...lingering way. They aren't going to stay on my mind.

( which probably explains how the initial question failed to produce results.

and, probably, why they never slept together. )

They don't have to be absolutely all of those things, but some of them are not negotiable.

[illithidnapped]

[Bad babies, both of you says resident old bad baby.]

Menace. [Don't you start.]

You could also stow away on a passing ship. Hop out to the scattered isles around Par Vollen and open up a scanty little seaside bar. Tropical flowers in your hair, colorfully wrapped breechcloths. Tiny sandals.

[bouchonne]

Sounds appealing.

[ But impossible. ]

Maybe you could head out there.

[illithidnapped]

[.....a h.

Now that is informative. And you know, not so terribly shocking in hindsight, now that he's looking back.]

The bit about wanting the most terrifying person in the room to crave you. [He's joking; he can already tell it's the intoxicating allure of obsession— because he is, despite everything, very much the same in that respect.]

[elegiaque]

Don't worry, I'm not remotely afraid of you. The worst thing you'd do is kill me.

( and like, who cares.

they can pretend that this is a joke, if he wants. )

[illithidnapped]

[Ah. There it is.

Words sharp as a knife and equally as capable of drawing blood]

I know.

[Both in the sense of Hades' moth-to-a-flame desire, aching and unrequited, and also in the sense that Astarion understands— for all Fenris endures— that he is a difficult creature to love. Brittle and bitter and mean and terrible at knowing how to temper his impulses.

This is uncomfortable. And awkward. And if he didn't care enough about their friendship, he'd have cut the line by now. Instead there's just a sort of huff, and the weary scrubbing of a palm across his face.]

Pick someone else. [To talk about, he means, but— yes. That too.]

Tell me what you think of Ellie.

[cozen]

[ Sounds hot and sandy and rural, actually. ]

Maybe we could visit.

[illithidnapped]

No. Just— [It's a huff. A sort of catching snag, trapped between vanity and practicality....and a touch of his own paranoia, too.

Speaking of which, though:] If you're implying you're somehow anything of the sort in regards to all their enmity, then you and I would be sitting in the theoretical eye of the storm together.

You don't need to be squeamish.

[illithidnapped]

I will.

[Ah, but:]

We will.

[illithidnapped]

Fenris is a private soul. [This is true. However:] He might enjoy something gentle and tame.

So safe and serene it'll be downright boring.

[ —Astarion is absolutely using one entirely unrelated truth as a means to tease without actually lying.]

[illithidnapped]

Damn. I was really hoping for the second, if I'm honest. [His tenor changes when he says it, tongue hitting the back of his fangs.] The fun of being pale as a sheet and perfectly silent comes from the ability to scare anyone on their way to take a piss just by standing utterly still right in their periphery....

I'll have to try harder.

[Kidding....maybe.]

Who's your favorite Division Head?

[illithidnapped]

That....actually depends. [He almost sounds shocked to hear himself say it, in part because let's be honest, he did expect to blurt out something entirely uncontrolled and— all right, maybe a little too revealing besides. Hooray for small favors.]

For entertainment? Engaging conversation? Information?

....romance?

[illithidnapped]

Charmer. [He means for it to be serpentine— a little barbed; he isn't quite sure how it comes off, thanks to whatever's affecting most of them, but even if it's sincere, it's warranted.

Astarion likes to think he's possessed of a silver tongue. Loki shows him up with ease. How unfair.]

I like—

[Oh, this is terrible.] I appreciate that you've always looked out for me, particularly when I was....more trouble than I was worth, shall we say.

When I was without him.

[And that's all he'll say about that.] I do also find your hair to be quite dashing. Tempts me to try it out for myself, someday.

[Anyway:] Are you also suffering from this curse of honesty? Or are you just playing along for fun?

[illithidnapped]

Suppose we'll all just have to wait and see how this war shakes out, then.

[illithidnapped]

It's certainly welcome, I can tell you that. [Chased by a laugh that sits in his throat, he changes his own tone when he adds:] But I imagine there's more you want to say about a few others, too.

A favorite who's earned your appreciation, perhaps? Or....

Would you prefer I return the favor, and tell you that you make for wonderful companionship when I need to sneak into only the best of Hightown's current affairs.

[doggish]

As if we are not hassled enough as-is. I do not need another person hissing knife-ear at either us while we get drinks.

The Creeping Ivy is . . . tolerable. Still:]

What do you seek in a tavern, anyway?

[doggish]

[Icon keywords aren't not relevant, but also, this face shot at him from across their bedrooms. Sir. Please.]

[illithidnapped]

[illithidnapped]

No, my darling. I could do a lot worse than that if I wanted to. [Ugh.] Blast this accursed magic— whatever it is.

The point I was aiming to make is that you're right, assuming you meant we're largely incompatible creatures. Well, and also assuming you meant nothing presently available to you distinctly appeals.

[elegiaque]

We are incompatible, but it hadn't occurred to me it needed pointing out. I wasn't thinking of you at all.

( or, indeed, anyone here. it's not out of the question that she could become drawn to someone here, that something might spring up,

but it hasn't. )

And I don't think I matter to you in any meaningful way that would motivate you to do anything to me other than the way you usually do, which is completely incidentally to whatever it is you actually care about. What you're capable of and what you're going to do aren't the same thing.

[favoriteanalyst]

I suppose if being a vampire doesn't chase me from you, me being spoken to by Andraste won't chase you off. I hope.

...Not metaphorically, or allegorically, or figuratively, or in prayer. I mean--

I was just a boy. I don't remember anything that came before her presence graced me. She spoke to me, and when I woke up, it was like being born anew.