Can we talk about this particular line for a minute? Specifically the second part.
If you sleep with him when he offers pre-tiefling party, he greets you like this when he sees you at the party (I always talk to him first/have stellar approval but idk if it matters). I find it super intriguing and I wanna talk about why and hear what y'all think.
So, obviously, to us and our characters (unless your oc is a little slow, which is fine) We saw through his BS immediately, or at least, saw it for what it was for Tav. A fling with a dude they like who happens to be fine, fairly fun, and despite laying it on thick, they might die anyday, anyway so why the fuck not get some action with the hot vamp.
And the banter between the two before/after the first romp, between, and at the party make it clear, to me at least, that it just isn't that big a thing till later on. Especially since at the party it seems like not a whole lot has gone on romantically since the first hook up, which honestly, I also find funny.
Astarions whole bend is seducing the player and making them loyal, yet the second they bang he seems to just be like "Okay that was the extent of my plan... never dealt with the "after" of seducing somebody who isn't immediately murdered... what tf do I do now?"
He could be all over them. Leveraging his new potition of intimacy to keep them close and "in love". That would be the best option if that plan of his was still as concrete as he was probably telling himself at the time. Plus they are feeding him AND fucking him? Uh yeah, keep them loyal for protection and personal gain, easy peasy.
But he doesnt do that, it's like he freezes up or flounders.
He still flirts. Still banters (in my tavs case he was so infatuated he inserts himself into every and any npc interaction). But he doesn't really "push" the romance narrative.
He opens up. He shares. But he doesn't do anything outwardly possessive or manipulative, which you'd think he would.
And then come the tiefling party, even when you have not flirted with ANYONE else (I didn't in my run so don't know if it applies if you have) He asks if you'll come to his bed. And he says it like he has been rolling over what your answer might be for ages.
"You will come to my bed tonight, won't you?"
He stresses the suggestion, truly unsure, something you can see and hear in his manurisms. He doesn't know that you will come to him, despite the "success" of his plan, and he doesn't really know why. You should be enamored and he should have no doubt.. and yet.... He isn't sure you'd want another trist, even if maybe he does...? It's never happened more then once with any "lover" he's ever had. Never gone past maybe a few moments of afterglow on the first romp, if that.
He's had you, the flirtation continues, maybe advances. It was... different with you. Still that same, awful, tainted experience...but not.
It all feels the same and yet very, very different.
He didn't select you because you'd be the most tolerable offering for his master. He chose you of his own free will. Because you were necessary and capable sure, but there was also part of him that sort of wanted you just for himself, maybe for the first time in his entire memory. You were his first taste of what being "alive" as a Vamp was like, the first feelings of happiness, his first real meal. You were his first kindness. The first to care, to watch his back and be true in what you say. The first that things felt even the smallest bit different with.
The first he really gets a chance to explore his own feelings with.
And I think that's terrifying and triggering but very, VERY, important for Astarion.
Now, I see a lot of people who HC not banging him right off and it leading into healing, which is lovely and I have several HC of my own for how the romance flows outside the game, but as for in-game, I feel acquescing his initial ask pre-party is very important in his development of feelings towards the player character.
He disassociates and it still feels tainted. He is using you.
But then there's a next morning. Where you aren't gone. Where he has to sneak back to camp with his lover and spend the day exchanging knowing looks.
Watching how you move, how you speak. Looking into eyes that stare so openly back even after the "goal" has been met.
Gentle touches exchanged. Intimate humor. Glances that have too much fire in them. Sparks that flare up when you get too close. Warmth when you laugh.
Somewhere in there he starts wondering what the fuck he's doing. Come the tiefling party... he wants you to come to him. Wants another night with you. Maybe to see if you are still within the parameters of his plan he's so neglected in the aftermath of that first time.
Maybe to see if it's still different. Or the same. Or both?
But he isn't sure what you will do.
With his plan unfolding as he intended, there should be NO reason for him to feel unsure.
You're pretty, naive little self is right where he needs you to be.
Everything here is unscripted. It's new. It's unplanned and unhoned. It isn't practiced in dark alleys and smokey taverns.
He doesn't know what he's doing and it ALL feels new.
If you reject him here. I've seen it noted he's disappointed. That it is still possible to continue his romance in act 2, but it takes work, as he is now leery of you wanting more then something physical.
His stupid ass "plan" doesn't even withstand the first form of rejection he suffers at the hands of the "target".
Because at that point, if you two have already slept together, you've already made the shift from "Target" to something else, and he is thrown by it entirely until you asure him you will come to him, at which point the fun flirty banter engages and you can see him relax in the exchange.
This man totes his "plan" as a sheild and the moment he gets what he "wants" it falls apart.
That's why I really think sleeping with him prior to the party is an important step. It triggers the fall out.
By the time the party happens the mans already falling. Already spiraling into a cauldorn of emotions and wants he had shut down a long, long time ago.
He wants this persons time.
He wants them to want HIS time.
He wants to hear them say it and it has nothing to do with securing the plan he hasn't done jack shit to maintain past "fuck them and make them loyal"
He fucked them and made himself loyal is what he did and right here is the first show of it.
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