Just a bit chilly

[furtive_heroics]

A man grumbles at the cold. He always grumbles at the cold, here. Everyone does. There's no escaping it. You can wear the warmest clothing possible, sit by a roaring fire, and still the cold bites. It doesn't numb, either, you'd think that after a while you'd just go numb - no. It's not that kind of cold. The victim shivers and curses and bundles up with a thousand layers and still it's so cold that it hurts. Almost everyone here travels from tiny insufficient fire to tiny insufficient fire to insufficient and drafty bar run by a terrifying dragon, trying to stave off the cold. It never works, but it makes it slightly less torturous. And cursing and grumbling at it always helps.

He is not staying here any longer than he has to. He is not going to fucking stay here, no way. He's been through too much to languish as a sacrificial lamb in the eighth circle of hell while an archdevil goes on a rampage. Cania's for traitors. And he's not one. He was loyal until the day he - well, not died. Was banished. And he doesn't deserve to be here.

He'll find a way out. Eventually. And then someone's going to have a very bad day.

But he's not thinking about that right now. He's thinking that he's pretty sure some vital parts are going to turn blue and fall off from the cold, so he's picked the warmest of his available frigid options to try and plan his next move. He'll take the bar with the dragon. He opens the door -

...

And this is not the bar with the dragon. It's much, much warmer.

His head screams trap, but he can't bring himself to close the door and walk away. Inside he goes, shivering. Warmth.

Comments

[furtive_heroics]

He's currently going over the lessons he had on this subject in his head, trying to figure out if he'd missed anything important. It's sort of fuzzy, there was a lot going on at the time.

(There is an undercurrent of 'they were about to be under attack against a force that would likely completely crush them and kill everyone involved that was on the losing side.')

[subtly_artistic]

"Gotcha."

[furtive_heroics]

"Ah! How'd you get me?"

Wasn't there a way to detect someone reading his mind? He could have sworn there was a way to detect someone reading his mind, he just can't recall what it was, it was all - practicality. This is what you need to know so an illithid doesn't turn your brain into goo.

[subtly_artistic]

"I... am not used to describing it aloud? I can bounce the memory if you want it?"

[furtive_heroics]

"Sure, go ahead. I can drop the - thing for a bit if you need that."

The Seer had given it a very fancy and official name, but he cannot at all recall what it was. Just how to do it. That's the important part.

[subtly_artistic]

"Sure."

When it's down, she bounces.

[furtive_heroics]

He considers this.

"Oh, I see what's happening," he says after studying it for a little while. "Hm, I wonder if I can account for that. Are you willing to humor me trying stuff?"

[subtly_artistic]

"For a while, anyway."

[furtive_heroics]

That is entirely reasonable. He wouldn't want someone to take up all of his time, either.

He puts his defenses back up, and then tries what he's thinking of.

The first few times don't work, but after a third, the "directions" of the slippery start changing.

[subtly_artistic]

"This is harder," Bella says approvingly.

[furtive_heroics]

"Oh, good. For a bit there I thought I wasn't on to anything at all. ... Would learning defenses help you at all? I imagine you have your own, but mine might help add something unexpected to them, since I'm from far away and have weird techniques because of that."

[subtly_artistic]

"I actually have really good natural shielding, but I wouldn't mind having better."

[furtive_heroics]

"Well, c'mon in, I'll just review the thing I'm doing in my head for you."

Down go the defenses!

[subtly_artistic]

"Thanks!"

Peer peer.

[furtive_heroics]

He is doing this in this sort of way for the slippery in "directions," it involves this hard-to-put-into-words-thing, and then to make it switch "directions" he just does the same thing, but from a different "start" point, like this, see? And he can switch that periodically. It takes a bit of concentration, but it'd be worth it to keep someone out that he wants out.

[subtly_artistic]

"Nice. High-maintenance for everyday, but good in a crisis."

[furtive_heroics]

"Yeah. I don't actually know anything for when you're not in a crisis."

According to the illithids he has a trickier mind than usual, but he doesn't know how to box that quality up and put it into a teaching format.

[subtly_artistic]

"I can't really help you, my shields are self-maintaining and I don't do a thing about it."

[furtive_heroics]

He nods. This is fine by him, he's not really disappointed. It happens.

She did help him get a better shield, anyway! Which is pretty great in itself.

[subtly_artistic]

"So you're some kind of delver?"

[furtive_heroics]

Sort of. Not on purpose. It kind of all spiralled after some kobolds broke into his teacher's school and stole stuff and he at one point in time saved the world from a crazy medusa with a flying city and then he was trapped in the plane of shadow for who knows how long and then -

Right, bit too much, out of his head please, he'll explain this out loud. It'll make more sense that way. Also he can skip over the things he would like to skip over.

(He was briefly a slave, for instance, that was unpleasant.)

[subtly_artistic]

"Hello? I'm not still reading you, if you want to have a telepathic conversation we can do that but I prefer more explicit ongoing agreement."

[furtive_heroics]

Blink.

"Oh, that - makes sense. And is very reasonable. Yes, thanks, I had actually just thought 'please stop reading me.'" (Shield back up, because practice and like. He will not just be coasting on friendly feelings anymore, he will actually be thinking.) "Sorry about that. I sort of am? It didn't exactly happen on purpose. My teacher took me in because I had nowhere to go, and he sort of taught a school for adventurers. And then some kobolds broke into the school and stole some things and since I was the, uh, most competent student there," and most able to steal something back without getting caught, "and my teacher was gravely injured, I got asked to try and fetch them. And it uh. All kind of spiralled from there and the next thing I know I'm talking to a dragon."

[subtly_artistic]

"Yeesh."

[furtive_heroics]

"I mean he was actually quite a cordial dragon, if completely terrifying. But yeah. Turned out one of the stolen things was the key to, uh, turning on a flying magic city and that a medusa wanted it to take over the world, I - think. She wouldn't have managed it, probably, but would have broken lots of things. And adventures happened and I ended up as the only person in the flying city that wasn't, well, terrible. So um. Yeah. I stopped her, and got trapped in the plane of shadow for my trouble for - I'm not sure how long. When I got out and back in Toril I sort of landed in a warzone where I got guilted into helping with a dungeon that was spitting out terrible things at the people above, because everyone else that was supposed to help with that problem stupidly ran in unprepared like idiots and got themselves killed. And then I was put under a geas and had to help with a slightly hopeless if very well motivated war effort and kill a magic queen and I think you see the pattern to my life."