[CLOSED] You hate my bad behavior

[illithidnapped]

WHO: Astarion, Loki, Emet-Selch, Dante, possibly others etc
WHAT: catch all for doing some Good for the Cause
WHEN: somewhere around the week following Satinalia party 2.0
WHERE: various
NOTES: violence, brief gore (noted in the specific subject line)

Comments

[icasm]

"Yes," Loki says, and there could be more conviction there. A firmer stance, a more solid affirmation that it's all behind him. But part of him is worried that it isn't; that something will happen and the TVA will come streaming into Thedas through timedoors and then...

And then what? He doesn't actually know. But his expression is hesitant, pensive, as he considers that.

"At the very least, I definitely hope so." He looks from the path to Astarion again. "I wouldn't wish them on anyone here."

[illithidnapped]

There’s a lightness to Astarion’s tone when he meets that deep, pensive pain with a mild inquiry. Something soft as a nudge to the side— or what stands for it, given the fact that they’re not within reach of one another.

“Not even Corypheus?”

[icasm]

Loki snorts, breaking out into a smile. He appreciates what Astarion is doing, here.

"Okay, I would gladly sell Corypehus and his entire retinue to the TVA for a potato. A small one, even."

He shakes his head. It'd be nice, but terribly unlikely. "What will you do once we're back in Kirkwall?"

[illithidnapped]

"And now we've the perfect plan to deal with them both should the worst come to pass." He asserts brightly for a moment. A flicker of a joke, sparked only to ebb a split-second later, once Loki's question finally settles in.

"I don’t know, exactly. Lick my wounds, perhaps. Continue fighting over scrap coin in Kirkwall as always, waiting for a chance to get my foot in the door— provided it doesn’t get stepped on first by our resident Hightown peeresses."

Which, given the relation of one of them to Loki himself, Astarion adds, quickly:

"No offense, of course."

[icasm]

Loki waves a hand. "None taken. I don't think she dislikes you enough for all of that, besides," he adds after a beat of thinking about it. "She is not a particular fan of The Game, though she is quite skilled at it." Imagining that Alexandrie would interact with her peers just to keep Astarion down socially is... difficult.

Not impossible, but Loki doesn't think it's likely.

"What is it you want from the denizens of Hightown?" Just more power, a better place to live? Loki imagines there are ways to obtain either.

[illithidnapped]

"Both." He breathes, sharp. "Everything. Anything."

From where he sits on horseback, he lifts one gloved hand, curling his fingertips around nothing at all until they constrict— demonstratively— into a fist of sorts.

"The more wealth one has, the more power one has, the more control they have over everything that surrounds them."

And control is what Astarion wants, more than anything else he could possibly conceive.

[icasm]

In light of Astarion's answer and how much sense it makes, Loki feels a little foolish for even having asked. He desires control over his own life above all else, Loki imagines, even if those aren't the words used. All of that feels impossible, to him anyway, when they could disappear at any moment but he understands. It's the one thing that Astarion has been denied, time and again.

Of course, that would be desirable.

"What do you need for that, other than the financial aspect?"