TLV: IC Contact

[sixfeetofdirt]

Careful; I bite.

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[sixfeetofdirt]

"Well, that's a matter of perspective. Other people's sympathy can be a currency in itself." He sips his drink. "Though I appreciate that it's frustrating, if that wasn't what you were after."

[harderdaddy]

"Thought it'd feel good? Knowin' people want me's...I dunno. Instead I just felt...cheap?" It's a difficult feeling to explain but he feels confident Astarion will understand, even if he can't voice it properly.

[sixfeetofdirt]

Cheap. Pitied. Unseen.

"...It's difficult to learn to handle people in other ways, when you've previously had precious few tools to work with. And I'm not saying that as if it's something I've moved past myself."

He's just become slightly more self-aware, both in his ventures across Faerun, and here.

[sixfeetofdirt]

Oh. Well, this is a kind of mischief he knows very well. Astarion loosens his grip a little and sinks into him, kissing him deep and slow for a lingering few moments.

"...Want me to warm you up, darling?"

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

He laughs, shaking his head as he leans back. "C'mon. Let me up. I want to show you something else and I can't with my fucking head in the snow."

[sixfeetofdirt]

Oh. Well, that feels oddly unpleasant, but Astarion is better than to let it show. He picks himself up gracefully and sweeps down his clothes.

"Lead the way."

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

Mindful of his earlier rebuke, Jacob stands and puts a hand along Astarion's back instead. He shakes snow from his hair with his other.

He's never really looked like this before. Not around other people, at least. This is the sort of happiness and excitement he gets from being outside, from enjoying the company he's with, and not worrying about danger.

"There's a series of rapids and waterfalls that are beautiful with the ice," he says, guiding him along the shore, back where the river meets the bigger lake.

[harderdaddy]

All of the above.
What's a whore worth when they can't make money?

"I've been actin' for two lifetimes. S'hard ta know what real anymore. But m'tryin'. I don' wanna be this way no more." He sighs and offers an apologetic smile. "Real great topic ta' get ya in the mood, huh?"

[sixfeetofdirt]

Astarion smiles gently, reaches to cup his face and feel the fur of his skin. He really is quite unlike anything else he's ever encountered.

"I prefer this to the alternative."

The glossy smile, the performer's affect.

"Even if you don't feel it's as...palatable."

[harderdaddy]

Leaning into that touch, Angel bends to lessen the height difference and smiles softly. Fingers skim over linen, careful of his claws.

"Wouldn't sell for shit in hell," he laughs.

[sixfeetofdirt]

"Oh, I've got a few things in my wardrobe which make me grateful I don't need to breathe," he chuckles. "It's always been an irony that the things I'd wear to advertise myself were the hardest to take off."

[sixfeetofdirt]

"How scenic."

Astarion mirrors Jacob without even really thinking about it. His shoulders loosen and his gait changes slightly, relaxing out of the slightly affected, theatrical saunter he tends to adopt.

"....The harbour at home would freeze solid, most winters," he recalls. "Trade by river and sea was the city's lifeblood, so it was a test of most merchants' resilience. There would be festivals on the day the ice began to break up."

[harderdaddy]

Oh, Angel can very much relate. He laughs. "Heh- plus side a porn- we can cut out all the fussy parts a gettin' the costumes off. Clients think they just ain't smooth enough or strong enough ta rip the shit off like in the movies."

[sixfeetofdirt]

"People are very stupid," Astarion sighs. "I can only count myself lucky that the closest we had to pornography were erotic etchings and the occasional smutty ballad."

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

He eagerly leads him around the shore, over to a louder part of the lake where the river empties into it. They walk a slight incline, up and over the water, where, down below, the rapids rage, water fighting with clumps of ice from higher in the mountains.

"Sounds like a good time. Did you go? What were they like?"

[sixfeetofdirt]

"Loud. Inebriated, by the time I got to them," Astarion chuckles, darkly. "I would sometimes go after dark. There were sailors, travelling traders having one last hurrah before leaving town. It was good hunting."

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

He curls an arm around him with a laugh, holding him closer. "Like fish in a barrel, I'm sure."

Not that he wanted the fish in the first place.

[sixfeetofdirt]

"Effortless," he agrees, leaning into him. "I got into trouble once for scooping up some minor noble's son by mistake, but it's hardly my fault he was slumming it in the lower city."

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

"Did his daddy pay for him back?" he wonders, kicking an icy rock into the water below their feet.

[sixfeetofdirt]

"Oh, he never got the chance. Cazador wasn't in the business of ransom - he wasn't going to have it getting around that pretty young things were being tempted into his home. He just drained him like all the others and then punished me for my lack of perception."

He rolls his eyes.

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

"Asshole," he mutters, turning to press a kiss to his mouth. "Fuck him. Everytime you talk about him, I'm glad hes fucking off somewhere else,"

He won't mention how his body tenses at the man's name, how he feels so much anger that it threatens to spill out through a clenched jw at just the hint of his name and the memory of those fingers in his neck.

[sixfeetofdirt]

He doesn't have to mention it at all. Astarion is close enough that he can feel it. Close enough that Jacob can see the tension in his own jaw, the way that the muscles there tighten and flex.

"...I really shouldn't talk about him at all. He disposed of me in grand style, and now he's realms away."

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

"Then let's not talk about him." He's more than happy to stand and watch the water as the wind picks up, his arm still around him.

"Used to be I didn't think I'd ever be cold like this again. Then we moved here and it's cold as fuck most of the year, but - I like it better than the heat."

[sixfeetofdirt]

"I think I agree," Astarion says. "At least, when I can throw on another layer or two. I've experienced real heat, and - there's really not very much you can do to get more comfortable."

[weaponwithoutpurpose]

"Yeah. We had our uniforms, so it wasn't like we could do much else. People were out there dropping like flies."

He turns a little, looking up the mountain. "Where'd your heat come from? The uh...the hells?"

He's trying!