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Closed to @divinestrike
[In the past few days, Astarion's focus had been entirely on their journey. Theatrics as a whole went down, he took some distance from the others and while he was basically forced to take part of the Shar's Gauntlet by Raphael he didn't... talk that much. Hell, he spoke more to Halsin as a whole than anyone else, mostly because Nepione invited the druid with them and the idiot decided to follow.
The vampire had been... more selfless than he thought he could be. In the fake morning of the Shadow Cursed lands, when everyone got out of their tents, he made sure to pass right by Halsin, stomp his foot and hiss in his direction to go compliment Nepione instead of standing there like an idiot. And, in order to protect both himself and the tiefling, actually pushed them to do things together whenever he had an excuse to follow Shadowheart. The trial where they had to stay hidden in the shadows? He accepted the cleric's desire to try face those herself and fully focused in guiding her through the shadows, the traps and everything- it would have taken him so little to just cast invisibility and go through it on his own but that allowed the druid and the other cleric to explore just a bit more on their own.
He even kicked Halsin, once, telling him to follow Nepione as she took the right path to check a room and Shadowheart went the opposite direction. Something on the notes of 'we shouldn't completely go alone, it's stupid. And you're double stupid for not moving your stupider ass'. A true peak of pettiness, something he wasn't too proud of, but he was... angry. And scared. If anyone questioned his mood he just muttered a 'Raphael' and moved on, after all it was half of the truth. He needed to keep Nepione away, he was possibly the most dangerous person for her in the entire camp. Yet she did come to his help when he was frozen in the trial of combat, staring at the mirror image of himself: he had not seen his reflection in almost two hundred years and much to his shock he didn't recognize the face looking at him. The little self awareness he still had told him the eyes were the wrong color, even if he couldn't recall the original one, told him the person he built in his head was not what he had in front. And it hurt. His other self was about to stab him with a dagger when a bright blast pushed it to the side and snapped Astarion out of his shock. She was also there when he got hurt while fighting Balthazar, patching another large gash in his forearm to allow him to continue.
He still barely spoke in her direction, merely offer his tanks and moving forward, pretending only to be focused on his task to kill Yurgir and, after his death, only moving toward the trials of shar. With a stomach full of mushroom soup- Halsin warned them the rats had something 'wrong' and it was better not to eat them (he could have just warned the vampire directly, but...), he pushed forward.
It was under Shadowheart's request that they decided to camp for a moment, right after the last trial. They had everything they needed to recover the Nightsong, including a weird new lance, and they all knew that once they got the artifact there was no going back.
Astarion... had to admit a few hours of meditation were probably for the better, considering both him and the Selunite cleric apparently decided to push themselves far too much. One probably because she wanted out of that place as soon as possible, the other because- the sooner it was done, the sooner he could go back to ignore everyone in the camp.
He turned around to look at both Halsin and Shadowheart, who were both already on an improvised bedroll in a cold corner of the place. The druid was probably going to take the next guard turn, but the vampire had to admit to himself he was worried about the tiefling. She was sitting by the smallest fireplace, trying to keep warm without killing everyone with smoke, and... still running. He glanced down at his blanket, then back to her, and instead of taking his so needed rest, the vampire walked in her direction.]
You... should probably rest. You need sleep more than I do and I don't think I will be able to sleep until Raphael shows up.
[It was a lie, but he made sure to sound as sincere as possible while stepping by the fire and placing the tattered, dirty mess of his blanket on her shoulders. He couldn't be sweeter, he couldn't let her get even closer, but he could at least keep his eyes open until the useless druid decided to wake up. His logical side was focused on keeping distance and making sure no one got too involved, his heart was desperately thinking of ways to keep her safe in the house of her enemy. Overall, he managed to keep a neutral expression as he sat down by the fire and stared at the flames.]
It was under Shadowheart's request that they decided to camp for a moment, right after the last trial. They had everything they needed to recover the Nightsong, including a weird new lance, and they all knew that once they got the artifact there was no going back.
Astarion... had to admit a few hours of meditation were probably for the better, considering both him and the Selunite cleric apparently decided to push themselves far too much. One probably because she wanted out of that place as soon as possible, the other because- the sooner it was done, the sooner he could go back to ignore everyone in the camp.
He turned around to look at both Halsin and Shadowheart, who were both already on an improvised bedroll in a cold corner of the place. The druid was probably going to take the next guard turn, but the vampire had to admit to himself he was worried about the tiefling. She was sitting by the smallest fireplace, trying to keep warm without killing everyone with smoke, and... still running. He glanced down at his blanket, then back to her, and instead of taking his so needed rest, the vampire walked in her direction.]
You... should probably rest. You need sleep more than I do and I don't think I will be able to sleep until Raphael shows up.
[It was a lie, but he made sure to sound as sincere as possible while stepping by the fire and placing the tattered, dirty mess of his blanket on her shoulders. He couldn't be sweeter, he couldn't let her get even closer, but he could at least keep his eyes open until the useless druid decided to wake up. His logical side was focused on keeping distance and making sure no one got too involved, his heart was desperately thinking of ways to keep her safe in the house of her enemy. Overall, he managed to keep a neutral expression as he sat down by the fire and stared at the flames.]