[ His fine costume? Were it anyone else, Astarion would assume he was being mocked. However, he already knows better with Rosella; she really is that much of a dolt. ]
It's quite alright, [ he says, waving off her concern. ] In fact, I'd be very happy to never see this wretched thing again after tonight. Believe me: it's not my style.
[ He wonders if, in her obliviousness, she'd missed that a good number of the people at this "party" had not come here by choice. She seems the type to have taken the city's invitations at face value. Maybe she'd even had the good fortune of choosing her own costume rather than having one forced upon her like so many of the rest of them.
And yet, it seems her good fortune doesn't end there. Astarion watches as she produces a small obsidian charm from her pockets, explaining with wide-eyed, guileless certainty how it had kept her from harm—how it offers her magical protection from anything undead—
Explains it to the very real, very undead vampire staring her in the face.
Astarion can't help it. He laughs—a short, incredulous sound at first, and then true, heaving laughter, bubbling up from some unspeakable place inside him. He wants to snatch the charm from her hands and fling it into the night. He wants to sink his fangs into her pristine little neck, to prove to her beyond the shadow of a doubt just how useless that little trinket of hers is, how it doesn't protect against a damned thing, least of all creatures like him. He wants to make her feel just as hopeless, just as angry as he feels in this moment—
But he doesn't do any those things. Instead, he fights to rein in his laughter, already just a shade shy of hysterical, grinning at her with fierce, shining eyes. ]
You really were born under a fair star, weren't you, darling? [ There's still a faint giggle in his voice, a charming mockery of mirth. He reaches out to fold her fingers over the talisman in her hands. ] You had best keep that close from now on. [ He manages to find some reserve of composure, to say the next words without so much as a smirk. ] May it grant you the same protection that it offered you tonight.
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It's quite alright, [ he says, waving off her concern. ] In fact, I'd be very happy to never see this wretched thing again after tonight. Believe me: it's not my style.
[ He wonders if, in her obliviousness, she'd missed that a good number of the people at this "party" had not come here by choice. She seems the type to have taken the city's invitations at face value. Maybe she'd even had the good fortune of choosing her own costume rather than having one forced upon her like so many of the rest of them.
And yet, it seems her good fortune doesn't end there. Astarion watches as she produces a small obsidian charm from her pockets, explaining with wide-eyed, guileless certainty how it had kept her from harm—how it offers her magical protection from anything undead—
Explains it to the very real, very undead vampire staring her in the face.
Astarion can't help it. He laughs—a short, incredulous sound at first, and then true, heaving laughter, bubbling up from some unspeakable place inside him. He wants to snatch the charm from her hands and fling it into the night. He wants to sink his fangs into her pristine little neck, to prove to her beyond the shadow of a doubt just how useless that little trinket of hers is, how it doesn't protect against a damned thing, least of all creatures like him. He wants to make her feel just as hopeless, just as angry as he feels in this moment—
But he doesn't do any those things. Instead, he fights to rein in his laughter, already just a shade shy of hysterical, grinning at her with fierce, shining eyes. ]
You really were born under a fair star, weren't you, darling? [ There's still a faint giggle in his voice, a charming mockery of mirth. He reaches out to fold her fingers over the talisman in her hands. ] You had best keep that close from now on. [ He manages to find some reserve of composure, to say the next words without so much as a smirk. ] May it grant you the same protection that it offered you tonight.