#i'm just wrapped in a big fuzzy blanket here and watching videos on medieval goldsmithing

[invinciblerodent]

now that I've seen both, I gotta say, I definitely prefer Astarion's spontaneous confession over the Araj-induced one. That was... kind of disappointing in comparison.

I reloaded the pre-confession save today just for funsies, and while I'm seeing that there is a lot to be learned about the character in this other scene, he's just.... so much more flippant about it? He just sounds so... oddly dismissive, and it's really not escaping my notice that there's only like one thing you can say that has him even just admitting that he has feelings for you before you'd tell him that you care. Despite him starting the conversation! And even then, the tone is so different that there genuinely can be a version to that scene that makes going into the romance greetings afterwards legit jarring.

Comparing "seducing you was easy" and "imagine how stupid I felt when I started to genuinely feel something for you" to that "all I had to do was not fall for you" line... it's just night and day. In tone, delivery, word choice, everything. So, so very different.

it'd be nice to talk about the blood merchant situation regardless of whether the other confession had already occurred, but if this was the only way for it to go down, I'd be a little :/ about it.