#deceit lore

(Dee freezes, his right eye glowing yellow while his left eye glows a muddy orange, like yellow mixed with red, instantaneously before he realizes what he’s doing and just glares up at you, fists clenched to the point of probable pain.)

You are shot back in time almost 2 decades.

At first, you don’t see anything, everything is pitch black. You can’t tell if you’re in an enclosed space or a cavernous cave.

But then, off in the distance, you see an incredibly faint light illuminate a bend in the apparent tunnel that you’re in. The light slowly grows until you see a number of figure moving rapidly down the tunnel. 

Close behind, a younger looking Logan appears holding a tiny torch, casting barely enough light for you to make out anything other than silhouettes, but despite this, the figure in front of Logan move with an ease through the tunnel that would only some with being able to see. You notice, for the lack of it, that a chip you had barely noticed in Logan’s horn before is no longer there, or... hasn’t occurred yet.

The figures in question are about 5 or 6 tieflings of various colors and heights. They are dressed in rags that suggest servitude, though the faint sight of irritation around some of their wrists and ankles suggests even less freedom than a servant. Some of their horns more resemble antlers than horns, and one of them looks strikingly similar to Logan, save for blindingly white hair instead of Logan’s jet black hair, as well as their skin being noticeably lighter than Logan’s.

Logan appears to speak in a low voice, seeming to urge the tieflings along, though with how rapidly they are moving, you don’t think they would think otherwise. 

After a certain amount of time that might as well have been days, you see a light at the end of tunnel, the sun peeking through like the saving grace it is for the tieflings.

If one were to watch from the outside, it would seem as if the side of the mountain simply burst out a bunch of tieflings as they reached freedom from the tunnel. Half of the tieflings stumbled into each other and fell into a heap on the ground as they became disoriented from the sudden sunlight and weren’t able to prevent themselves from colliding.

Logan seems a balanced mix of fond, exasperated, and worried as he hauls one of the tieflings up by their hand, giving them a stern word or two. They look a little sheepish and get up without complaint.

Logan says a few words to them before he suddenly whips around, a tiefling in front of them looking behind him and just starting to open their mouth say something.

You see a younger version of Dee, cloak on and a posture of one who’s up to no good. It’s clear to everyone how he’s positioned, that he was trying to steal Logan bag of money.

They stand there for a long while, Dee not raising his head to make eye contact and Logan not moving until Logan moves his hand towards his waist.

Dee’s posture then stiffens and he steps back as subtly as he could, trying to get away, clearly thinking Logan was going for his sword.

But instead, Logan grabs the money and holds it out to Dee, saying something to him.

Dee then slowly looks up at Logan, eyes wide, emotions flit across his face too fast to tell between before he realizes himself and his face becomes unreadable. When they make eye contact, though, Dee’s face blushes a very faint red. 

Logan doesn’t seem to notice, though, gesturing with the money for Dee to take it, Logan’s expression is calculating, but also gentle and curious.

Eventually, Dee raises his hand up and lightly grasps the bag before slowly raising his hand and taking the bag. When Logan does not move to take it back, he slowly slips it onto his belt, waits a moment, and then bolts down the mountain, quickly disappearing into the trees.

The lighter blue tiefling bolts after Dee at first, trying to get him, probably to make him give back the bag of money, but stops short when Logan appears to yell out something after him. The tiefling yells something back, but begrudgingly jogs back to the group, letting Dee go.

Logan watches Dee go, eyes searching the trees with that curious expression before his face cools into a neutral expression once more and Logan and the other tieflings start down the mountain at a steady pace.

Dee: Common, Elven, Draconic (language of the dragons), Snaketongue (usually the Yuan-ti ability to talk to snakes), Sylvan (language of the faeries), a touch of Primordial, Undercommon, Spidertongue (drow language to talk to spiders and drow-aligned beasts), Yuan-ti, Druidic (language of the druids), Gnomish, Halfling, Orcish, and Goblin.

Patton: Common, Dwarven, and Halfing.

Logan: Common, Infernal (language of the Demons), Undercommon, a few words of Spidertongue, Orcish, Sylvan, a touch of Goblin.

Virgil: Common, Undercommon, Spidertongue, Sylvan, a few words of orcish, Goblin, and Elven.

Remus:  Common, Elven, Undercommon, Sylvan, Draconic, Dwarven, Orcish, a tiny bit of Deep Speech, and Goblin.

Roman: Common, Elven, Sylvan, Celestial, and Deep Speech (language of the Far Relam.)

You appear in an inn room, Logan is on the bed, while Dee is nearby on the floor in front of a chair. You get the feeling he was in the chair at the start of the night. 

Dee’s eyes are closed, asleep as his breath is level and his face is peaceful and deep.

That is until Logan makes a sound from the bed, a noise between pain and indigence that comes with sleepiness. Almost immediately, Dee is pushing himself up, eyes barely opening at first. He immediately goes to Logan’s side, checking his injuries, arranging the cloth on Logan’s forehead, before going over to a bucket nearby and dipping it in there, wringing it out before going to put the cloth on Logan’s head again.

What stops him, though, is the fact that in that time, Logan had opened his eyes, looking curiously at the ceiling.

Dee goes immediately over to Logan’s side, going to grip one of Logan’s hands. He doesn’t seem to even think about doing it, just acting on instinct to grab Logan’s hand.

The action seems to rouse Logan from whatever in-between state of waking and sleeping he was in staring at the ceiling.

Logan cranes his head up, trying to get a good look at Dee. Dee pushes his head back down. 

“No Logan, I’ll get where you can see me, okay?”

(Patton jumps slightly, as if you caught him off guard. He looks over to where Dee is still standing warily, hand in his sleeve, inches from the dagger hidden there. Dee notices Patton staring at him and drops his hand, Patton frowns at him. Dee looks away, but then comes over to Patton and grips Patton’s hand, squeezing it.)

Patton: He’s…. a little jumpy still after Logan got angry. Logan’s never that angry!  I’ve seen him like that maybe 3 times in 16 years. But getting a break from whispers will do him good.

(Patton looks up to where he think you are sternly, reminiscent of a father chastising a child.)

(Dee barely contains his laugh, glancing back at Logan as he does so.)

Dee: We jokingly made a bet where Logan thought that in a situation where we would be captured, he would be able to logic his way out of the situation, while I proposed that I could get myself out of my bonds by... sweet talking the guards to let me go. Logan did ‘logic’ his way out of his bonds... with a knife, but only after I gave it too him.

(Dee smirks.)

You flutter by a flurry of images, some are sweet scenes where Logan and Dee seem to be alone together. 

Some are with Patton and Logan on the road with Patton and Logan talking to each other.