i'm surprised i haven't seen any text posts yet about the Unsubtle Differences between astarion’s tiefling party/high approval forest scene and the one you get after the goblin party.
there’s something so terribly interesting about how the conversation afterward plays out depending on which variation you pursue.
like, most people have seen the tiefling party version by now. astarion basking in the sunlight the morning after, playing off most of what tav says with relative ease, even when they ask about his scars and he tells them about cazador. his cadence is smooth and composed, his smile almost friendly, even though you know, as the viewer, he’s playing a game of manipulation at this point. the only real crack in his demeanor is if tav notices that cazador’s “poem” was written in infernal, which, understandably, startles him.
but recently i watched the goblin party version of this same scene, and everything reads so differently. unlike at the tiefling party, it’s still the middle of the night when astarion tries to leave, thinking tav is asleep—almost immediately after the act, in fact. when tav does speak to him, he’s visibly nervous, halting and stammering in the middle of lines delivered unflinchingly in the other version of the scene. he gestures broadly and fidgets more while talking, his smile comes and goes. there’s even some of his distinctive high pitched, fake laughter sprinkled throughout the exchange, almost identical to later scenes where he's very, very obviously uncomfortable (like if raphael mocks him and magics off astarion's shirt to show the party his scars in act 2, or when confronting the gur children in their cell in act 3, etc etc).
siding with the goblins represents something deeply familiar to astarion, a level of cruelty he's more than familiar with and embraces likely because cruelty and duplicity, to him, go hand-in-hand with the power and freedom he craves so badly—but he won't stay the night with this tav, even if he approves of their actions. no, in this case, he'll keep to what's familiar and attempt to leave them in the forest under the cover of the very same darkness he resents having been cast into by cazador. when he gets caught, it sets him on edge, and everything he says becomes such a blatant lie to save face that tav would have to be completely oblivious not to see through him, or maybe just not care enough to.
but if tav saves the refugees? challenges his worldview and comes out victorious? oh, he'll complain of the poor rewards for his trouble at the party and whine about it being boring, but he decides to stay with tav through the night while they're asleep and on past dawn. he takes a moment to enjoy the morning sunlight, returned to his life after two centuries without. the same is true if you have high enough approval that he asks before the party, in which case, you've almost certainly hit his biggest approval gains: trusting him and supporting his safety. maybe he doesn't trip over his words when he speaks because, well, maybe this is someone he doesn't have to worry about. someone who's already more than proven themselves a foolish, heroic sort with a bleeding heart or otherwise demonstrated that they're already in his corner. in other words, not a threat—at least not to him.
does any of this make sense. i wanna study this guy under a microscope.
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vampire nii-chan being a lil too excited about his new…….human step-sister😈
now that is a thought, anon!! the first thing that popped into my mind was him sneaking into ur bedroom with the intention of having a little midnight snack—just a couple of swallows, a shallow bite, nothing that’ll scar, he swears—only to be overtaken by a completely different hunger the moment he sees you sleeping so peacefully in a cute little tank top and a pair of lace-trimmed panties, nipples jutting through thin cotton, contours of your cunt starkly outlined by the worn silk clinging to your folds.
it’s a ravenous sort of desperation, desire, that roils in the pit of his stomach, dark and sticky and burning hot. it seeps into his useless veins and fills them with fire, a blaze that can only be satisfied by your body, hotter and more intense than any bloodlust he’s ever felt. it’s primality in the purest form, his feet moving on instinct, soundlessly crossing hardwood until his thighs hit the edge of your mattress.
sliding into your bed with all the sly gracefulness of a snake, he stays undetected as his thigh wedges itself between your own, undetected as a taloned finger slices through lace and silk to expose your hole, undetected until he’s shoving his cock into your unprepared cunt, tearing delicate flesh with the violent intrusion, the stingingly sweet stench of blood nipping at his nose, and oh, that’s just fucking delicious, thick saliva pooling beneath his tongue. four sharp fangs sink into your skin, mouth latching over your shoulder, and you wake with a sharp gasp, murdered by the palm suddenly sealed over your lips.
be quiet, he murmurs into the wound, the words slippery and muffled against your flesh, soaked in blood. we don’t want to wake mommy and daddy, now, do we?
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if the 1k game is still open, I’d like to throw in my two cents!
Ghost (or Ghoap) with Forest and Only (allotted amount of time) to escape before (bad thing happens)
I’m sure there’s plenty of ways to go with that!~ please take your time and remember to drink water today!!!!!
~🦋
1k game here - no more please!
i will drink water just for you babe. also i did ghoap x reader & forest & trying to escape, but ended up not including an allotted amount of time, hope that's alright!
1.5k of ghost watching soap and reader run from him during a zombie apolocypse. except the apolocypse is really more of a background thing and i just throw in mentions of zombies. no smut! (cw for a very brief mention of cannibalism, a sprained then broken ankle, kidnapping, and very light puppyplay at the end)
"You fucking idiot, Johnny," you hiss. "You're gonna get us killed!"
"Me?" He snarls, whirling around to glare at you, hackles raised. "You're fuckin' shoutin' like you want the bastard to find us!"
"Shhh! Could you be any louder?!"
"You goddamned feartie, I hope he kills you first!"
"What the fuck did you just call me?!"
Ghost just barely manages to bite back a laugh at your offended tone, the way you're nearly spitting at Johnny, even at nearly a foot shorter than him. It's like watching a kitten try and fight a dog - cute, but you know the dog could crush the kitten if things went a little too far.
But Simon doesn't mind watching you hiss and spit at Johnny, certainly doesn't see a need to step in any time soon.
He hadn't expected to find much more than a few corpses when the motion sensor around his property triggered an alarm in his base. He figured it was probably a few zombies, easy enough to deal with.
But then he spotted the two of you - a big Scotsman and his far smaller girl, bickering playfully and totally unaware of him in the shadows.
Originally he'd planned to kill the two of you. He's got enough food stored to make it through the winter, so he wouldn't have to bother with freezing your bodies for later. It would be almost comically easy to kill you, take a couple shots from far enough away that you'd never see them coming, drag your bodies off his property, and forget all about you.
But then Johnny - who's name he only knows because you use it frequently - had spotted him. And wasn't that interesting? It's been a long time since someone managed to spot Ghost while he was trailing them.
He'd noticed Johnny's injury soon after that. The two of you had taken off running - he's not sure why, but apparently you haven't had the best experience with strangers - and Johnny had limped beside you, his right ankle clearly giving him trouble.
That was near sunrise. Now, there's an hour or two before the sunsets.
Simon would like to have the two of you in his base before night falls. No point in risking losing one of you to a zombie, not when you're already vulnerable.
He's been herding the two of you in the right direction since about noon. The two of you had picked the right direction to run, almost making it fully out of Ghost's territory before he started redirecting you. It was easy to land a few shots in the dirt in front of you, send the pair of you scrambling in another direction.
You're closer to his base than either of you realize. Ghost's muscles twitch at the realization, the thought of having the two of you locked up fueling his adrenaline.
He already knows you'll both put up a good fight. He can't wait to see which one of you gives in first. He thinks it might be Johnny, can already picture the man being good after seeing how Ghost might treat you.
He tunes back into your argument as the land becomes more familiar, unable to resist smirking as he sees the path that Johnny's about to walk.
"I told you we should've been more on the lookout for other people."
"Don't even start! Ye know as well as me that the bastard came out of nowhere, don't act like we woulda seen him anyway."
"Well, now we'll never know."
"Exactly! So why're you still naggin' me about it?"
"Oh, really, I'm nagging? Really, Johnny?"
"Yes! What, you think saying it twice makes it less true?"
"Oh, fuck you, honestly, I don't even know why I bother helping you."
Johnny laughs, loud and very obviously fake. "You're helpin' me? Oh, now you've really lost it, lass. I've been dragging dead weight since this whole thing started! You know, I'm getting awful tired of-"
Johnny's just a few steps away, make that final little stretch as he talks, and Ghost holds his breath, waits....
Bam. Before he can finish his complaint, he's yanked into the air. His bad ankle is wrapped up tight in rope, a trap tugging that leg into the air and leaving his torso resting on the ground.
He grunts loudly, though not as loudly as Ghost had expected with his injury.
"Holy shit!" You nearly shout, rushing to Johnny's side and abandoning your argument. "Fuck, are you alright?"
The Scot makes a half-wheezed sound of affirmation, eyes squeezed shut.
"Fuck, alright, don't move. I'll get you out, alright?"
Before you can figure out how to make that happen, Simon steps out of the treeline. You catch sight of him immediately, eyes going wide as you clearly fight the urge to run and abandon your partner. You just barely manage to stop yourself, shifting into what looks like it's meant to be a defensive possession.
Ghost tilts his head, smirks behind the mask. "Where do you think you're goin'?"
Johnny's face is twisted in pain, leaving you to respond. "We don't mean any harm, alright? Just... just let me get him down, and we'll go."
Simon slings his rifle off his back, holds it casually in his arms. The way your hands twitch, the panic streaking across Johnny's expression... fuck, it gets him hard.
"Why would I let you do that?"
There's a little furrow between your brows, and Johnny starts to really squirm in is bindings.
"We won't tell anyone about you," you try, inching around Johnny's prone form. "Promise. You let us go, you'll never have to see us again."
That, Simon thinks, is the problem.
He hauls his gun up, takes quick aim, and shoots the rope tying Johnny up before either of you can properly panic. You both still scream when the branch falls, clattering to the ground on top of Johnny.
You're quick to help him up, your argument apparently entirely forgotten as you let him lean most of his body weight on your shoulders.
Ghost slings the gun back over his shoulder, pulling a length of rope out of his pocket. "Both of you, on your knees. Hands behind your heads, eyes closed."
"Oy." Johnny tries to move in front of you, but his now mangled ankle has to be kept completely off the ground for him to even stay standing. "You can't... we'll go, like she said. Promise, mate."
"Knees."
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed neither of you put up even a bit of fight. But he doesn't complain as he watches you fall to the ground first, letting Johnny use you to help himself.
"Good," Simon hums when you both settle, forms stiff but in the correct position. "Either one of you even twitches, I'll break your legs and leave you for the zombies."
You both shudder at that, and Ghost feels his cock throb in his jeans. He adjusts himself, then steps forward with the rope.
He's quick, not giving either of you time to properly react. You both get a matching loop of rough rope tied around your necks, just tight enough that the skin is already rubbed a bit raw, just from the initial tie.
"Don't move," Simon growls when Johnny jerks away, gripping the man's wrists and tugging them in front of him. "You want to die out here? Watch your little girlfriend get eaten alive?"
He flushes, teeth gritted in what's probably a mix of rage and pain. Sweat drips down his face, streaking through the filth. "She's not my girl."
"Johnny," you hiss, shifting restlessly on your knees. "Seriously?"
"What? Yer not."
"Is that really what you want to be focusing on right now?"
"Oh, would ye rather talk about the goddamn collar and leashes the bastard's given us?"
Ghost gives said leash a rough tug for that, finishing off the loops around Johnny's wrist and moving in front of you. "The bastard's right here."
You sit still, eyes still closed and limbs loose as you let him move your arms around. Johnny's the one who starts squirming, scowl deepening. "Really? Couldnae tell."
"Lotta sass from a man wearing a leash." Ghost yanks it again, nearly sending Johnny sprawling to the ground. He just manages to catch himself on his bound hands, and Simon finishes off yours.
He steps back, holding the length of rope stretching from your necks in one hand. He tugs solidly, smirks when you both stand as quickly as you can. "Up, now. Time to go home."
He doesn't spare either of you a glance, turning around and starting the rest of the journey home. He shows a bit of kindness, keep his pace slow since he can hear the way Johnny's breathing grows more ragged, hear his limp against the dead leaves.
Neither of you tug or try to run away, and Ghost can't help but smile at the obedience. He mentally crosses leash training off his to-do list. He had been looking forward to that one, but he's sure there'll be plenty of other interesting experiences with the two of you.
He's never trained two pets at once. He can't wait to see how it goes.
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