pairing: astarion x tav
rating: nsfw-ish
notes: non-native speaker behind the wheel; a study on the main character, intimacy, and their relation to power.
summary: when you try to manipulate a vampire spawn into believing he can easily manipulate you, but you forget to assess how it all might backfire.
She tensed against him, nails instinctively digging into his shoulder where her hand had caressed his skin before. He knows. Fuck, he knows. As calm and relaxed as Maleane tried to play it, her body betrayed every plan she'd set up for the night. Use it. Be the damsel, the morsel, the fly trapped in his web. Make him think you're innocent, weak, pathetic. Frantic thoughts darted through her mind like crossbow bolts, one faster than the other, panic almost dulling the ache that every move sent through her body. Mal opened her eyes to peer at his, assessing the situation, trying to look past that perfectly polished facade. A glimmer of something she could not recognize danced across his blood-red irises and it made her heart race faster. No, too pathetic. He would never believe it. He would never trust it. He could never use it. As the pieces on the board started falling into place, Astarion opened his mouth. To mock her? To tease her? To bite?
"Harder." A rushed whisper escaped through her lips as she pulled him in, hand grasping the back of his neck, pushing those sharp teeth towards her delicate throat.
One desperation for another. A leverage. A distraction. Yes, that will distract him. The rapid volley of her thoughts came crashing in waves, trying to squeeze in between every sensation that was consuming her body. The dry sticks digging into her back, the suffocating feeling of being pinned down, his lips at her neck, the discomfort of it all. How did she end up like this?
Before being infected, Maleane rarely thought of this moment, preferring to take advantage of whatever opportunity would eventually come her way. She was well aware of how this world worked, however, witnessed plenty to grasp the essence of what urges most living, breathing creatures possessed. But all of them seemed so distant, in her periphery at best, for Mal had different things to worry about, survival being at the forefront of her mind. Yet, even those who think themselves high above such mortal indulgences can’t lie for too long.
The first time it became apparent was at a tavern. From time to time, Maleane would wander into one village or another, bringing game or furs to trade. It wasn’t the easiest interacting with people, as most feared drow like the devils from hells, a sentiment she could, unfortunately, relate to. But goods were goods and coin was coin, so once the sense of threat had subsided, many were at least accepting of her being around. Some went as far as growing to like her, for Mal was good at molding herself to whatever person she needed to be for the occasion.
She sat at the corner of the room, sipping on the mead that the dwarf lady who owned the place had offered, her pale lilac eyes scanning the evening crowd. Travelers resting after a long journey, a bard belting a song about doomed lovers, four ladies dressed in revealing outfits leaning over the tables, sweet-talking their way into the men’s purses, and some urchins scurrying around between the tables. Maleane found herself gazing at one of the wenches, her ample bosom almost spilling out of the top of the laced dress. The woman’s skin glistened in the hazy lantern light, tiny droplets of sweat strewn across her chest like a dozen tiny gems. Something stirred in Mal’s core, as if a hand was slithering inside her, reaching down and down to where her thighs met. She wanted the woman to be at her table instead, leaning close, whispering what she could only assume were profanities into her ear. The whore would only want me for my coin. Maleane’s gaze returned back to the half-empty mug nestled between her hands, the soft tingling in her belly dissipating as quickly as it first emerged. She didn’t want to buy something she could take, that was beneath her.
One day she decided that she would do it. Instead of passively waiting for the opportunity to run into her, Mal would take the matters into her own hands and be done with it. For as much as she tried to deny it, the wench haunted her sleepless nights, pulling up memories that the drow had never paid much attention to before. A peek between the boards of a shed, where a maid was wedged between two men, all three engaging in carnal pleasures. A conversation she overheard between an innkeeper and a miller over how the former had found a patron bound and gagged in a room after a particularly rowdy night. A shepherd she had once observed burying his head down the pants of another boy in a field not far from her camp.
It wasn’t long before Maleane was in the village again, looking to replace the tools that had worn off from years of use. While waiting for the blacksmith to return from the market, the elf found herself wandering between the haystacks, away from the busy street and into the backyard. There, an orange tabby rolled in the dirt, soaking up the sun with its big cream belly. As Mal watched the animal play, she noticed that there was another spectator. Unlike Maleane, he wasn’t interested in the playful feline, his eyes were fixed on her.
Pretty, for a human. The youth froze in his tracks the moment the drow moved towards him, eyes widening in surprise. He tried to step back and retreat, however, it was too late and soon he found himself trapped between the elf and the wall.
Maleane examined him from head to toe, lingering on the lean yet muscled arms, the hints of hair peeking at the neckline of his shirt, the faintest outline of the curve beneath the linen pants. He wants me. Like those wenches at the inn. Like the maids bathing in the pool. And yet, his eyes are streaked with fear. She shoved the boy against the wall and pressed her lips against his, hand sliding up his chest to grip his shoulder, while the other slithered to undo the laces of his breeches. The human didn’t protest, surrendering to her advances, yet he didn’t respond in turn. Nothing. It was exactly what was happening, what she was feeling. Nothing stirred, nothing awakened, nothing ignited. She left the backyard, the man still frozen, his pants awkwardly sliding down to his ankles.
It was all before the tadpole, before the nautiloid, before running into the pale elf. With the notion of impending doom breathing down her neck, Maleane was thrown into a swirling pit of chaos. It was a time to take advantage of every favorable circumstance, to risk everything, at every turn, she’d realized. And he was one hell of a risk. The flirt, with words so honeyed it betrayed him. Mal knew better than to trust him, but she also recognized the importance of keeping him in the fold, for a ticking time bomb waiting to stab them in the back was the last thing the group needed. So, she went along with his flirtations, the overt courting, the flattery. All in hopes to keep him on her side.
Astarion wanted her blood, her body, the vulnerability that he’d been prying out of her with every sweet word. Leverage. How transactional. And yet, despite that knowledge, it wasn’t nothing. He made her feel something, a part that she’d hushed, pushed down, locked behind a gilded door in her mind. Mal wanted him, in some strange way she didn’t recognize. In a way that she could never have. She knew better than that.
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now i stopped playing pentiment in the middle of act 2 and just checked wiki articles to see what takes place in the rest of the game so maybe im missing some crucial gameplay that wouldve fixed all my issues but. at the risk of being excommunicated (lol) i was rly disappointed w the games structure and thats why i didnt keep going. dgmw i really enjoyed the setting and most of the gameplay and throughout act 1 i was really invested in the story and mystery and investigation, and the game was really cool in a lot of ways. but. in the end. a mystery/investigation story that doesnt have an answer and whoever you accuse will be found guilty and there is no right or wrong just does not work for me and i can only see it as a poor decision.
yes ik that in the end you can uncover the "big bad" mastermind who provoked the murders, but to me putting a twist villain who isnt the actual culprit but who motivated the culprits in the end of the game doesnt make up for, like, the rest of the game? an investigation story where your investigating is meaningless does not make sense to me. was that the point of the game, maybe? to make me feel like nothing i did in the game mattered and i had no power over the setting? i certainly felt that way at times - in act 2, i felt like i had kind of spent the entire first act playing a role (in the rpg sense - as in it definitely felt as if i got to make a lot of choices about who andreas is, what he values, what his morals are) only for that to not matter at all as in the next act i had to play as someone who had made choices that seemed meaninglessly selfish and was in the uncomfortable situation of apologizing in-character for stuff that the character i had previously been playing as, who i thought i was making meaningful choices as, who i had been trying to make as considerate and kind as possible, would not have done.
i think if the point is that i dont actually have control in this game, not over the main character, not over the events, not even over figuring out the truth, then yeah, i had that impression. but thats not really the game i thought i was playing? i thought i was playing a game where my choices mattered and where i was solving a mystery and that was not the case.
idk. maybe i had specific expectations i shouldnt have had, or maybe i just failed to get something about the game, but despite being very beautiful in its graphics and having a lot of fun stuff and interesting characters.. when i finished act 1 i still thought "fuck, i didnt play well enough, i didnt uncover all the clues i shouldve and i didnt get to the correct conclusion, im gonna need to replay this to figure out who the actual culprit was!"... only to find that actually what felt like i had failed this part of the game was the intended way it would go down, and i even had accused the person who imo was the best choice of culprit.. i feel like getting to the end of an investigation arc with what should have been the most satisfying ending for me and instead thinking i had fucked it up and played wrong is a very unsatisfying way to write a mystery and it put me off enough that im not really interested in doing it all over again just so i can finish the game.
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