#silentbinder

Still, she knows what she wants her first courtship gift to be. Several resources on capital traditions referenced books as an option for romantic gifts, and a book for the Necrobinder feels correct. Obviously it can't just be a random book either, that would be thoughtless. She probably spends like a solid 2-3 weeks settling on what kind of book to get for Necro, and then another 2-3 weeks finding what she considers the perfect option.

The Silent's first impulse is something on Necromancy, but she ditches that after realizing it's too easy for it to go wrong. If she gets Necro a book she already has or on stuff she already knows, it's a bad gift, if she gets Necro a book on stuff she doesn't know, it could very easily come off as passive aggressive. Not to mention Silent herself doesn't know enough about Necromancy to understand what would count as good or not.

She spirals for a bit after that. A lot of the practical gifts she gravitates towards all feel dangerous, like giving them to Necrobinder would be implying she doesn't know this stuff already. Further, even though Silent has been paying close attention to the other (as best she can without giving anything away) she still doesn't have a good grasp on exactly what the other knows and doesn't know.

A simple fantasy book seems too insignificant. A romance book too revealing. Something non-fictional but mundane seems nonsensical.

In the end, she only realizes what she wants when she's side by side with the Necrobinder in a market in the city floors. The climbers usually stay away from the more populated areas of the spire. While the Silent can often get away with moving unnoticed in a crowd, she can hardly manage it when she's accompanied by a flaming skeleton. Still, the Market is on the outskirts and the people here have seen Necrobinder enough times to not concern themselves with her.

Most of the time, anyways.

"Is that- Iyabode? Here? I thought-"

The elderly women who spoke seemed fearful, on the verge of panic. Silent was too, ready for this situation to go south. Ready for-

"Um- are you... uh, referring to me?"

Necrobinder seemed confused, as if the women could be asking about a different lich. Only-

"I'm not sure who Iyabode is, but I can assure you I'm not her. Has someone that looks like me been attacking you folks?"

What.

The Silent wasn't sure what surprised her more, that somehow the Necrobinder had never stumbled onto accounts of Iyabode in her research into necromancy, or that her confusion was so earnest the panic was defused from the crowd. A younger women stepped in, quickly reassuring the elderly one, and offering an apology to Necrobinder, poor vision in her old age. Necrobinder took it in stride, and the two of them moved on from the Market before long.

Still, the encounter stuck with the Silent. Iyabode was hardly known as the most powerful of liches, she had not ascended to godhood or built kingdoms in her name. She had made enemies in her time certainly, particularly within the spire.

But Iyabode was also one of the few, if not the only lich the Silent knew of who'd kept her own mind. She'd returned for the sake of a dear friend apparently. And while she'd certainly grown powerful, she never lost her mind to that power as liches almost inevitability did. What texts the Silent had read of her regarded her as being of good humor, even to the end of her years, when she chose her death at last.

More importantly, from her own writings she'd seemed... happy. Content. At least most of the time. It was something Silent had found herself envying when she'd read through the woman's writings. A rare fate for a lich.

Maybe it wasn't so surprising Necrobinder had never encountered her before after all. That didn't seem to be the path she wanted to go down. Still, it certainly couldn't hurt for her to be aware.

Her mind made up, it takes weeks for the Silent to track down a copy of Iyabode's journals. They're quite rare things, and she can only really do it when she climbs alone. Not that her companions would know what she was doing, but rather that once she actually finds the book, she has to climb back down with it.

Descending the spire is a difficult task in it's own right. The pathways are far less clear, they seem to vanish before her. Things seem more hostile than before. As if the Spire itself wants to drive her back up. But she manages, once she finally gets the book she wanted so desperately. It's pages are worn and it has a few stains, but it's otherwise in quite good condition. She hides it away not far outside Neow's cave, among where she stashes spare equipment for herself to use on each reclimb.

Regent, Necro and Defect have put together a small base for their own storage, it's where the Necrobinder's main library lives. Books not useful enough to carry but that she didn't desire to loose either. Each of them rest there from time to time, when the climb becomes too much, or if they want to wait for another to accompany them. The Ironclad never stops of his own accord- he cannot- but will rest with one of the others if they pull him along. The Silent is the only one who doesn't use the base at all, she set up her own camp to keep an eye on their base. Though hers is far more well hidden.

It's not until she's tucking the book away that she suddenly comes to a horrible realization.

She has to give this book to Necrobinder herself.

That moment, that exact moment is when she realizes what she got herself into. She was so caught up in the idea of a hunt, she never really processed that the start of this hunt requires letting the other know her intentions. The Silent can't just leave the book for Necrobinder to find, she has to actually give it to her. She has stand there, and offer this gift, and it could be rejected. And if Necrobinder does accept it, she will know the Silent has romantic intentions towards her. Another layer of terrifying prospects to consider.

She barely has a minute before she hears a familiar tired groan echo from out of Neow's cave.

"Come on Osty, I can't- I need to take a minute. I can't believe- of all the terrible luck-"

Necrobinder was here. She was alone.

The Silent knew, without a doubt, if she didn't act now she never would. The terror clawed at her heart, but she steeled herself and grabbed the book she had just put away. Deftly climbing down to the little base the lich had just slammed the door of. She let her footsteps make noise as she approached, it was unnatural for her, but important to not scare the other. The door opened when the Silent pulled at it, letting her in to the hovel. Necrobinder was splayed out on the stained couch, an arm tossed over her eye sockets. She didn't look up at the creak of the door. Only groans.

"Regent, I really need some quiet right now, if you don't-"

Osty startled, having looked (?) over out of half interest just a moment prior. This tipped off his summoner, who jolted upright, one hand going to her scythe before her eyes registered the Silent.

Right. Silent had never entered this place before (at least, not when the others were around). If she desired a climbing companion, she waited by the fork in the path outward. She never came in here. She hadn't been invited in. She shouldn't have assumed- this isn't her space- she isn't welcome-

"Shit, sorry- um. I could hear footsteps and they didn't sound clacky so I just assumed- Nevermind. Is- uh- Is everything okay? I've never seen you in here before."

The Silent fought hard to keep in control of her body and not run. She desperately wanted to. The situation was out of control, it wasn't following a script and she hated that. But it was fine. She could handle this. After considering the question, she nodded. There was no danger present.

Necrobinder still seemed a bit hesitant, but she put down her scythe and shifted her posture so there was room on the couch.

"Do you- uh- need me? For something? I need a break before I go for another round, but if you don't mind waiting I'd be happy to go with you."

Shaking her head, the Silent gathered her nerve and strode across the room. She pulled the book out from her cloak and offered it. She was fine. She was fine. She could taste blood in her mouth. It'd been so long since she was nervous enough to bite her lips. She needed to get out-

Skeletal hands hesitantly reach out, gently taking the book from her grasp. It's all the Silent can do to stay in place as her gift is curiously inspected.

"Iyabode's diary?" The lich mumbles, mostly to herself as she thumbs open the cover, handling the pages as if they might crumble at any moment. "Who- oh!"

There's an inked illustration on the first page, the two really do look similar. Bone fingers trace in the image with a sense of wonder, taking it in before flipping to the next page and reading the forward.

"I leave this collection to my adoptive daughters, so that they might better know both the highs and lows of my choice to become a lich. To them, though I am choosing to leave you now and depart to the world beyond, I hope you will understand why. I have lived a life grand and full, one I never could've imagined in my youth. I thank you both for having been a part of it, and if we one day meet again, I hope both of you will have plenty of stories of your own to tell me."

Her voice is steady as she reads, although the Silent can still hear confusion underlying it. It doesn't seem... insulted? That's something. At least. The lich looks back up at her, her jaw opening only to close a few times. She seems to have questions still. Finally, phrasing seems to come to her.

"Is there- Do you need me to do something with this?"

Ah. Not an unfair assumption. Still, it stings the slightest bit. The Silent shakes her head. She appreciates that the Necrobinder takes care to phrase her questions such that the Silent can answer her. The Regent still refuses to, not that she often cares to respond to him.

"Is it... a gift?"

The Silent nods, a jerk of her head. She feels stiff as a board. Worse even than when she accidentally administered one of her poisons to herself and couldn't move for days.

"Oh. Um. Thank you- I've never- I think I might've heard her name around, but I've never read any of Iyabode's writings. I don't think I've read anything written by a lich that wasn't at least moderately cursed glyphs. It's-"

Necrobinder pauses, her eyes seem far away. They flash and clear, she turns her gaze downward.

"In all honesty I didn't ever think about that part. About living like this- after."

The unsaid implications hang between them. Silent finds herself lost for what to do. She very suddenly wishes the Defect were here. For a robot, it was surprisingly good at comfort. Certainly the best of their group.

Osty saves them both, rising up to bump against it's summoner affectionately, drawing a surprised laugh from her. Releasing the tension. Flaming eyes dart back up to her. The other's face flickered into a smile. The Silent wasn't sure anyone had ever smiled at her before- not like this. Not actually looking at her.

"Sorry- or, well, Thank you. I really do appreciate it. It'll be nice to have something to read that's actually fun."

The Silent takes this as her cue to leave, she gives a quick nod and spins on her heel, sliding out the door and back up to her own camp with her heart pounding against her chest. She feels as if she'd just been in battle with the Heart. Everything is too tense and too loose. She feels off kilter. Exposed, even as she tucks herself out of eyeline of any living creature.

But... it went well. Necrobinder seemed to like the gift. She certainly didn't seem offended by it. So that was a success?

Now, in reflection, she could see she'd underestimated the intensity of this hunt. She'd known she would be out of her usual activities... but this was... a lot.

Still, she'd committed herself to this. Not even the Heart of the Spire had evaded her. This too she could manage.

And somewhere, some quiet part of her kept turning that smile over. Replaying those words of gratitude. It was foreign to her, all of it was. It was terrifying and made her heart clench. But... she wanted it to happen again.

The idea of a deaf/HoH Necrobinder who lost her hearing with her lichification…she can still speak (she obviously does not have a deaf accent and can pronounce her words properly as she was born hearing) but now has to rely on lip reading just to get by. She learns a bit of sign language through Osty, as that is the only way she can understand his current mood/state, but her knowledge is a bit rudimentary as Osty is just a singular hand and can only sign so much as he no longer has an accompanying body. She struggles massively to adapt to her new reality not only as an undead lich, but as someone who has also lost her hearing suddenly and dramatically. Necro feels extremely bitter about her newly acquired disability and feels as if nothing can ever go right in her life, as if losing her parents as a child wasn’t bad enough. She hates being alone and misses being in the company of others, but she also hates how hard communication has become for her. Not only is she a strange-looking, off-putting skeletal creature now, but on the rare occasion she gets to talk to someone, she can’t understand what they’re saying anymore without constantly asking them to repeat themselves. She does eventually find a book to help teach herself sign language, but learning it and practicing it is a bit hard when your only companion most of the time is a singular hand.

That is, until she meets the Silent…

When Necro begins to climb the Spire to kill the Architect and meets the other slayers, she’s both relieved to finally have real company and also a little scared to work with them because of the communication barrier she knows she will face. This group of slayers is strange: there’s a soldier who mumbles incomprehensibly most of the time and seems to be burning in a perpetual rage; a robotic construct who talks solely in beeps and code; and an arrogant, seemingly haughty alien prince with potato-like creatures he calls “minions” that has no mouth to even lipread from.

And then there’s this mysterious, green-cloaked huntress. Outwardly, she seems rather aloof and cold, but the one thing about her that sets her apart from the others is that she never speaks at all. When Necro begins to work with her, this takes some pressure off of her as she can still speak to the huntress and be understood, but she doesn’t have to worry about trying to make out any words.

So I headcanon the Silent as being generally uninterested in romance. In part due to a lack of opportunities (never socially interacting with anyone outside of murder or her sisters) and in part due to being Locked In at all times. She's aware it exists, but doesn't see much appeal.

That IS until she's duoing with Regent, and his majesty will not shut up for even one second the entire trip. Mostly, she's tuning him out, but then something catches her ear as the Regent is bragging about totally real conquests to try to impress her.

"In my short time on this planet, I've even managed a number of romantic conquests! Incredible conquests! You really should have seen them."

Romantic conquests? This is new ground. The Silent has heard of romance before, but never as a hunt. And she certainly isn't about to let herself be shown up by Regent of all people. Investigation is required.

Investigation reveals new information. Romantic conquests do seem to be a real thing, though the exact terms of victory elude her. Sources frustratingly seem to like to cut off before explaining exactly how one knows once they've won. But she can at least get a general idea, it seems the goal is to get the 'best' (scoring system unclear, may vary by culture) romantic partner. They seem to be required to still be alive (an unusual but not unheard of condition for a hunt), and must be willing.

While she's still not 100% clear on the rules, the Silent feels like she has a good enough grasp on it to make an attempt. The Regent managed it, so how hard could it be? After all, she has plenty of time while hunting the Architect, and given that her sisters were unimpressed with the Heart, she starts to wonder if this might be an alternative to partially redeem herself as she works towards her greater trophy. After all, her sisters have never brought back a romantic conquest before.

Obviously, her first step is to pick a target. She starts with the ancients. After all, she wants them alive (mostly), and she seems them all fairly regularly. Any of them would certainly be considered a powerful conquest. She makes a list and works through her options.

Tezcatara - might reveal her blighted status to her sisters.

Pael - poisoned him already, would be in poor form if he died while meeting sisters.

Orobas - insulted sisters, dislikes violence. would be swiftly murdered.

Vakuu - Vakuu.

Tanx - too loud.

Darv - Considered for awhile, but discarded, he seems to have already taken romantic interest in the Defect by her assessment. Stealing another's hunt is considered poor form unless one kills the other hunter first, and the Defect still has use.

Neow - Seems unable to leave the spire.

Nonupeipe - Considered longer than most. While certainly a fitting partner, and interest of some sort having been expressed in the past... Sees too much. Too risky a target for a first attempt.

All ruled out one by one. The Silent considers some of the other occupants of the tower, but largely considers them unworthy prizes. An ancient might be shooting too high for her first hunt, but she hardly wants anything pitiful. So, her consideration turns towards her fellow climbers.

Each of them has been deemed by Neow to be equal to the Silent. She might disagree, but she won't disregard their power. Given she would be the first of her sisters to bring back such a prize, an equal of sorts is likely a worthy first conquest. But which of them?

Again, she makes a list.

Regent - unacceptably loud. No concept of stealth. She'd rather be taken by the blight.

Ironclad - while a worthy opponent in battle, a husk and a puppet of Vakuu. What little remains of his mind is focused only on his fights. There'd be little to work with there.

Defect - Considered for longer than most, generally quiet, powerful, intelligent. But discarded for the lack of challenge. It seems all to eager to please any it deems its "friends". Equally, automation are a dime a dozen, and though the Defect is unique among them, her sisters might not see it that way.

And so, at long last, her list comes to one remaining option. The Necrobinder. Necromancy is a prized art, difficult to tolerate at all, let alone master. Necrobinder is young, but talented. A bit loud at times, but straight forward in her intentions and focused. Not as easily won over as the Defect, but possible to win over. A proper hunt with worthy rewards. Her target is picked.

Now, were Necrobinder a hunter, the Silent would've started with presenting evidence of successful hunts. Proving herself worthy. But! She is fully aware Necrobinder is of Capital blood. Her parents were explorers, but surely she would've learned their courtship methods. The Silent takes care to acquire books, reading up on proper courtship methods of the capital. Some she can't manage (flirting is almost entirely crossed off, nor can she offer gifts to family members as none of Necrobinder's still live), others are difficult ("bring them to a movie theater" seems rather impossible when none exist within the Spire, though she supposes she could make do), but others seem well suited to both of them (gifts of flowers, jewelry, and books are all just different forms of a hunt, spending time together is a regular occurrence, physical contact is... iffier, but entirely possible to find chances for throughout their climb).

She has a plan. The Silent is Locked In and So Incredibly Ready.

Unfortunately for her, the Necrobinder's parents died when she was still a child, and her own understanding of romance comes primarily from readings of the followers of Mazaleth (where a majority of her original research and hunt for power was conducted). The cultists were absolutely about romance, but all romances must start with a blood sacrifice and formal ritual, and are only ended by one partner murdering the other.

HOWEVER I do think she is actively experimenting with weird magic, necromancy nonsense, left behind rituals, etc. Trying to figure out what's real, what's fake, what's actively helpful. There's a lot to puzzle through, and lots of weird requirements to tackle things.

A pretty common requirement is a Human Person to do something, and uh, given that Necrobinder herself is now a lich, if she needs a living human person for a ritual, she either has to kidnap someone or ask one of her teammates for help. And literally only one of them is a Normal Human Person.

In Necrobinder's defense, her first request is probably something fairly normal. Like needing a human to activate a certain thing, or write some runes, or just hold an object to see it's reaction. She'd be a bit nervous asking Silent the first time, she hasn't really got a gauge on how Silent feels about any of them (besides Regent, who it's quite clear she has disdain for). It's when it's just the two of them down near the bottom, and she assures Silent it's all perfectly safe!

Silent is a bit hesitant, she really isn't one for magic, though she's not unfamiliar with it in concept. Still, the task does seem simple enough. It makes sense why Necrobinder would need her to do this. And she's got curiosity of her own. What's the worst that can happen?

It doesn't take that long, Silent conducts the ritual. That's that. Not a big deal. Useful data is gathered and no harm is done.

But that's hardly the only experiment Necrobinder has. She's only finding more things to test as they climb up the spire again and again. There's some Silent can't help her with (anything requiring a human to speak is out of the question), but most of them Silent can, and as Necrobinder finds out, she's pretty willing to assist. So, whenever the two of them get time, they're often off running some experiment or another.

There's a bit of hesitancy the first time Necrobinder has to ask Silent to bleed for an experiment. Not from Silent, she's perfectly familiar with the Cultist's blood rituals and has offered blood in trade for a dagger plenty of times. But for Necrobinder, it does feel a bit like crossing the line of 'no harm done' even if it's minor compared to the shit they get up to. Still, she asks, and Silent doesn't mind going through with it. They actually gain quite a bit from that ritual, and that emboldens both of them.

Still, none of this prepares Silent for the day that while climbing, Necrobinder, while reviewing a sheet of paper, very casually asks "I've got a new ritual to try, would you be able to kiss me?"

It's so casual, and takes Silent so off guard she nods before her brain has actually process the last part of the sentence. Necrobinder, thinking like nothing of this because surely this is less weird then stabbing someone for a ritual, is delighted and starts to set up the ritual while explaining.

"Excellent, the text either says Kiss or Kill, but I can't make out which. We'll know which one after this I suppose."

It's okay I'm also Super normal about sts2 and happy to find other people being super normal about sts2.

Also re: your question in the tags, I'm personally calling silent x necrobinder "silentbinder" because it's metal as fuck.

As an additional headcanon for them: I think that Silent's first response to anything that panics her (which is probably a lot of things regarding any level of emotional intimacy or even just any physical contact she wasn't 100% prepared for) is to stab it with a shiv. This has been fine up until getting a girlfriend, because everything else on this cursed planet has been trying to kill her 99/100 times. It doesn't really help once she has a girlfriend/starts to actually have friends.

Luckily for the Silent, the girlfriend she chose is Literally A Skeleton, and also Really Unphased By Most Things. So the shiv doesn't hurt Necro, and lets Necro know her girlfriend is uncomfortable. This would be pretty quickly become their version of a safeword for like, everything.

This leads to Necrobinder talking to Regent at some point.

Necro, in the most matter of fact voice: "I mean, communication is important to any relationship, my girlfriend and I have very healthy boundaries, if something's upsetting her she stabs me with a knife so I know something's wrong!"

Regent, thoughtfully: "Oh interesting, is that typical for relationships here?"

Necro, so completely confident: "I mean, yeah, good ones anyways."

So I've explained the Silent failing to romance Necrobinder for ages because she didn't realize she needed a blood sacrifice. For added comedic effect, Ironclad finds out relatively early on that Necrobinder's idea of romance is a blood sacrifice, realizes Silent is trying to romance her (and failing) and is stuck silently suffering as he watches his friend's romance attempts fall flat because the girl she's interested in doesn't know how to start a relationship without a formal ritual. He can't say shit to either of them. He's in hell.

He's also the one who finally gets them together. I think he'd try to hint to Silent the correct answer for awhile, and it wouldn't get across, until he finally manages to get enough control to just straight up drag a mangled cultist to her like a cat bringing back a halfdead bird. Silent can't figure out what he wants with the cultist for awhile, before he manages to say Necrobinder's name, and she finally puts together some small things she's picked up on.

Silent is embarrassed, but like, she knows how to do a blood sacrifice. So she finally manages to actually ask Necrobinder out in a way she'll understand, and the moment she does, Necro finally puts the pieces together and also feels like a bit of an idiot for not noticing. She says yes though and Ironclad is so happy he doesn't have to watch them "talk" past each other constantly.

Necrobinder gets hurt less often (primarily due to Osty), but she takes hits a lot harder. A nasty hit often leads to a broken bone, and while it will heal as soon as she has the energy, it can make it hard for her to do stuff. She also does have to ensure everything pieces back together correctly or it has to be rebroken. Due to her nature as a Lich, she generally isn't in pain from injuries unless things get set incorrectly. Silent has gotten really good at reassembling the broken bone shards and wrapping it afterwards. She carries extra bandages just for this.

Silent takes more hits, but actually has flesh so they aren't quite as bad on her, she's also better at getting out of the way so she isn't usually taking anything too nasty. That being said, she lacks the magical healing (or ability to repair with scrap) of just about every other member of the party. While she can recover with rest, she often is still carrying some amount of pain or a limb being a bit off until she dies to reset.

It takes awhile before Necro realizes this is going on and ends up with Necro learning non-necromancy healing magic so her girlfriend isn't in pain constantly. Silent isn't really used to it, and feels embarrassed about going to her girlfriend for injuries for quite awhile (something in her head about how needing another's help is admitting weakness and her sisters would look down on her for it). But Necrobinder gets really good at spotting those injuries and convincing Silent to let her look her over.

While Necrobinder doesn't usually feel pain from injuries, concussions bad enough to crack her skull leave her very disoriented and feeling awful. However, when it happens, Silent will drag her to the closest campsite reassemble her skull, and spend quite awhile fussing over it. Necrobinder really likes resting her head in her girlfriend's lap so she starts to not mind concussions. This is not a good thing for her health tbh.

I feel like Necrobinder is absolutely the top between the two of them, although Silent would think she's a top. That doesn't last long though.

Overall, I think STS2 is a time of a lot of new feelings for the Silent, if we go off the trailer for fun, she tried to go it alone. That's what she did for all of StS1. Necrobinder, Ironclad and Regent were waiting at the bottom for her, and Necrobinder is the one who reaches out to her, and Silent actually takes her hand!!! Necrobinder is the first person whose help she accepts! My personal headcanon is Necro is the one driving a lot the group cooperation. Mostly because it's basically gotta be her or Defect, and Defect feels like it wouldn't be pushy enough.

So, for the very first time in the Silent's life seemingly, the Silent has friends. She wouldn't call them that to start (she'd be willing to go as far as allies for the first few decades probably), but it was they become. Experiencing friendship for the first time is already A Lot. I think she finds it easiest with Defect to start, because the Defect is so friendly, so familiar (they saw each other during other climbs, though they never really worked together during sts1) and... safe? Predictable? Friend shaped? Non-speaking? All of the above.

I also think Ironclad is a friend to her but in a wary sort of way. She pities him to an extent and is wary of Vakuu (though I feel confident she isn't scared of Vakuu, she's pretty sure she could kill him and Vakuu is 100% aware she can and will). I do think in whatever sense he can given his mental state, Ironclad would consider her his first friend. It's probably small stuff like steering them both away from Vakuu when he can be avoided.

More than that, she's aware of his history and probably the only one who knows what's really going on with him. For a lot of others, I think some part of Ironclad would be terrified of them trusting him. That they'd become complacent and that's when Vakuu would force him to strike. But uh, Silent is Fully Aware of the risk, and he's honestly not worried about catching her off guard. They silently chill a lot with no expectations, which is really nice for both of them. Also if that thing with Regent thinking Vakuu was Ironclad's boyfriend ever happened I think she'd trip Regent off a cliff or something to get him to shut up about it and I think Ironclad would appreciate that a lot.

Regent and her aren't really friends. The Regent is the Defect's shitty boyfriend to her (regardless of if they're dating) and she can't stand him but knows the Defect gets stressed when they fight so she tries to just avoid him. She has intentional died (or gotten both of them killed) at least once because she couldn't stand to listen to him anymore. Her tolerance for him grows over time, but I don't know if she would ever start to actually like him.

So all of that is already a lot for her to be processing already, and then we have the Necrobinder. Necrobinder is in her own category even before any romantic interest start because she's the only person actively reaching out to Silent. The Defect is maybe a little, but not in the same way, and not as... aggressively? I think the Defect is caring, but the sort to let others come to it. Necrobinder, on the other hand, is actively curious about the Silent and openly reaching out to her. Also not deterred by things like poison and common sense.

And I think that Silent both appreciates this, and is kinda scared? She absolutely cold shoulders a lot of stuff early on. But equally comes around fairly quickly once she figures out what Necrobinder's motivations are. It's much easier for her to rationalize working together knowing that it's a common goal rather than friendship. She can find excuses for little things, for taking a quick rest around them, for looking out for her teammates, for little kindnesses she doesn't normally allow herself to give.

Once she can hit that rationalization point, the Necrobinder's willingness to reach out becomes a huge benefit. Necro will keep asking and pushing at boundaries (but not crossing them), and Silent kinda needs someone willing to ask her and push at stuff a bit. She doesn't want to be the one to make the first move most of the time, and it's much easier for her to justify just going along with what her teammates want for the sake of cooperation.

Attempted romance is really Silent's first time taking the initiative to bond with someone. As best we can tell, she's never done this before, and that's spooky! Fear of rejection is one of the biggest ongoing things she's experiencing, but in equal measure, I think the rewards and desire she start experiencing overrule that. Thought it takes awhile for her to really start to understand her own feelings.

However, I do think the one thing the Silent understands pretty quickly is she does want more. More of what? Fuck if she knows. But that desire helps push her to make progress. She is still dealing with a lot of fear. That is a real and present thing. But I think she's also good at pushing herself past fear, at least if there's something she can physical do about it.

The biggest change that happens quickly (for her at any rate) is likely physical contact. The two of them already were spending a fair bit of time together what with their job, but the Silent is generally pretty hands off with everyone outside of what's strictly necessary. She actively works to change that with Necrobinder. Starting by just,,, sitting closer to her. Offering her a hand up sometimes. Lingering when Silent helps to set a broken bone in place so it heals properly. I don't think she'd work up to a hug on her own, but maybe fixing Necro's robes or brushing her clean of something.

It's tiny little changes, but I think Necrobinder notices quickly, and even though she hasn't cued in to any romantic intentions, she is still really happy about the contact. Of their group, the Silent is the most closed off. The one Necrobinder can't really get a read on a lot of the time. And she's opening up a bit! Necrobinder takes this as her own cue to initiate physical contact, and learns really quickly that it should Never Be A Surprise, and passive contact (leaning up against her, shoulders touching, etc) is a lot more likely to over well.

The Silent is touch starved as hell and also liable to freak out over contact because of how unused to it she is. But... she really does like it. Passive contact is a lot easier for her, or when she gets to make the first move. She adjusts to letting Necrobinder lean against her, or drop an arm/leg in her lap. The first time Necro tries to hug her absolutely goes over terribly, but eventually I think she'd adjust enough that sometimes she's alright with it.

I think this would also do good things for Necrobinder's mental health, because she is also probably pretty touch starved. What with being a lich, and her current friend group consisting of Regent (up on a throne and not seeming like a physical contact kinda guy) Ironclad (possessed by a demon and literally on first) and Defect (would honestly love physical contact but it's core is literally sparking and if it accidentally hurt it's friends while trying to do a hug, I think it might actually explode in shame). Silent is uh, somehow the her most consistent option.