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

[cozen]

We had a lot of fun. Caused a lot of trouble. But we weren't ripe yet. If we had tried then, we might have wound up—

[ —like Alexandrie and Byerly. The way he cuts himself off is unfortunately obvious. But he can cut himself off, thank the blessed prophet. ]

—bad. It might have gone badly.

[ Which feels like quite enough about them. ]

Do you feel like a callow youth, Astarion? Or like a wise older man?

[bouchonne]

[ Good redirect. ]

Yes, Astarion. Tell us.

[illithidnapped]

[Oh, he does catch that first part— thankfully, though, he keeps that observation to himself. Maybe not forever, but for now.]

Naughty thing.

[Aimed at Bastien, that first little reprimand (he sees you). Shifting the topic to him instead, tsk.]

Around the rest of you? Both.

Constantly.

[cozen]

Mm. Interesting.

How about around Fenris?

1/2

[illithidnapped]

Older than dirt itself most of the time.

[Most of the time being the important caveat there; he knows he's been left stunted from enslavement and a lack of freer memories, but still.]

The man's resourceful and resilient. Knows more about living in freedom overall, and persevered on his own in ways I'm not quite sure I could, if I'd been slotted into his place instead. [Losing Hawke and the others. Losing a fresher stripe of memories only to come back and settle in stronger for it, embracing Riftwatch instead of running away to lick at his own wounds.]

On the other hand though, he's such a young little spark. [Astarion says about a 40 plus year old totally adult man, clearly meaning every word because he can't damn well lie right now.] Cocksure [hah] and confident when his teasing is nothing but the teething fangs of a fumbling pup, gnawing at the tail of something far more ancient. And far more capable of scruffing it.

You ought to see him blush.

It's deliciously easy.

—ah. [The dangers of being an overly chatty creature compelled to tell the truth: shutting up is almost impossible. So much so that if he goes on much longer, he's going to have to bite his own tongue again, which— not ideal. Time to stop. Come on, Astarion. Don't talk about his dick. Don't talk about his dick. Don't— ]

[doggish]

[On the one hand: Astarion so clearly cannot help it, because none of them can. On the other hand: he is a private person, and this is hell.]

Enough. Or I will tell tales of how easy it is to make you stammer whenever I am genuine, and we will both be embarrassed.

[illithidnapped]

Not to be nitpicky, my love, but you just technically did.

[And it is absolutely hell, and they're not going to talk about it because this was supposed to be torture for everyone else— not them. Gods.]

[cozen]

[ Astarion deserves this, because he's been bad. And Bastien deserves it, too, because he's been good. ]

Blushing and stammering—what a sweet pair.

[bouchonne]

Would that we could be so darling.

[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!!]

[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. ]

2/2

[illithidnapped]

[Right. Topic shuffle:]

Which one of you is the figurative elder? Not in age, but overall prowess.

[bouchonne]

[ Well, well.

In answer: ]

Bastien is much wiser than I am when it comes to - Well, everything.

[cozen]

That’s not true. I think we are pretty evenly matched, to be honest.

[ Like he has a choice. ]

I have the financial sensibility, of course, but Byerly has the, uh, [ hesitation born of this being rather embarrassing to admit about himself in public, but his mouth is going on whether he likes it or not, ] ethical sensibility. The moral courage. I try to be like him.

—anyway.

Do not discount your perseverance, Astarion. You have learned freedom and new world at the same time, ouais? That is remarkable.

1/2

[illithidnapped]

Surely there's more to it than that. [He muses, though it's a tepid nudge of a thing; even in observation Astarion's always seen how they function as a sort of symbiotic give-and-take, leveling out the figurative scales each time they might threaten to tip too far.

This? This is only playing, now.] Like: which one's more likely to make an ill-advised investment in a dwarven multi-tiered merchantry scheme? Or....[hm] I don't know, who hogs the covers at night? Assuming you both don't just sleep in his office.

....sprawled across his desk.

[But yes, anyway:] Don't worry, though. I'm not discrediting myself. I realize— perhaps more than most of Riftwatch— just what an achievement it is to have integrated in a little over one year's time. [With more to come, no less.] It's more the outline of that adjustment to freedom, I suppose.

But while the present punchline of our relationship might be 'what do you call two white-haired, formerly enslaved elves whispering romantic nothings into one another's ears— a pep talk', it's all the ways we differ that most appeal.

That is, to put it bluntly: he's possessed of a better heart. A little stronger, a little wiser, a little more selfless for all his thorns. And I prefer it that way.

That the worst in me safeguards the best in him.

2/2

[illithidnapped]

[He is. Screaming. On the inside.]

Right! That's it.

Moving on now, officially. Before I have to murder every last person in Riftwatch for what they've overheard.

Ideal place to retire in Thedas: go.

[bouchonne]

[ The sappiness is almost sadistic now. ]

Wherever my beloved is.

[cozen]

[ The silence Bastien maintained during Astarion's little speech is broken by what could arguably be called a giggle. But, like, a manly one. Kinda deep. ]

So a few feet away from wherever you are when you decide to retire?

[ Graduating from sap to goop. ]

But if we were two strapping elves, I might say... Rivain? I've never been, but I have heard an elf might relax there more easily than Orlais.

[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.

[cozen]

[ Sounds hot and sandy and rural, actually. ]

Maybe we could visit.

[illithidnapped]

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