bakerstreet | Slow down

Slow down

little steps

No matter how much they care for the other person and want to be with them, some people simply can't dive head first into relationships. Little things that form intimacy and romance, little acts we take for granted - being close, holding hands, kissing, showing affection in public - they won't or can't do...at least not right off the bat. Something in their past, their experiences, their trauma, or even their personality holds them back. For both them and the person they're "dating," as it were, this can lead to a frustrating experience.

Still, steps can be taken towards letting the walls fall down. Little, tiny steps, but those can mean the world all the same.

The People
One With the help of a partner, one person warms up.
Two Both sides of this couple are learning how to be in a relationship and to be open.

The Actions
Talking → A relationship can't exist if there's not some communication, so either learn to use your words or become so close you can speak without them.
Spending Time → Even such mundane occurrences as watching TV or cooking together is new ground.
Touching → You might just find you enjoy reaching out and touching them.
Kissing → Another kind of touch, when you think about it.
Cuddling → ...at least they're warm and, hopefully, soft.
Sleeping → You're at your absolute weakest when you're asleep. It shows trust to doze off around this person.
Public Display → It's one thing to be in love in private, but showing you care in public is a different story.
Kind Words → Three little words (more or less) are all it takes. Why, then, are they so hard to get out?
Sex The ultimate stumbling block to some. To be laid blissfully bare is to truly let your guard down.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(a.k.a. attacking astarion right where he lives. someone please give this prickly pear of a vampire the positive attention he thoroughly ~~needs~~ deserves (following a quick persuasion check because damn it all to the hells if his sense of trust isn't just in complete tatters).]

Edited 2025-04-19 21:58 (UTC)

[Care for prompt 2 and then talking/spending time as a start? Happy to shove Alivian into Tav's role if that's easier, and I'm decently versed in Acts 1 and 2. Alivian has a pair of abilities related to power/control that he struggles with, but he's not the type to use such powers against Astarion. (He can use his words, or his unmasked gaze to compel/frighten others, so he never takes the mask off since it's an AOE type of thing.)]

(oooooh, i'm decidedly intrigued! especially the duality of astarion always desperately vying for some sort of control and alivian seemingly having too much of it??)

[Yeah. Sadly, a core memory for him is accidentally using his ability in his eyes (a Glare) on his childhood friend/betrothed and several other friends at the same time. His whole deal is feeling terrified from having so much control over others when he doesn't mean to, nor want to.

[At the same time, there's a feeling of helplessness with not being able to control it except through outside means and watching his tone of voice. (The latter of which is something he does easily, at least.) If he ever uses that power, I slap some bold font on that. :) However, it's entirely up to you on a whim how much or little any of his powers affect Astarion goes. Since the main power he willingly uses is his voice, it stands to reason that even if it's targeted at someone specific, it's not foolproof.

[In contrast, assuming they get on well enough, Astarion would have someone on his side who would defend him no matter what it took, and no matter how scared of himself he is.

[I'm happy to start us off if you'd like? A quiet moment at camp, idle banter wandering the wilds/hunting for food?]

(please do! we can take this in any and all possible directions because i honestly think so will be such an interesting dynamic to watch unfold, especially when it comes to building up to some sort of level of trust between them :D i tend to play tadpoled!astarion more for convenience and as an excuse to handwave canon (since there's some many directions for it to go in, holy shit) but also because i love the angst of possibly ever returning to cazador being dangled over his head.

alivian will have fun with that, i'm sure XD)

[If anyone had asked Alivian where he thought he would be last week, the answer would have been "at work, eyes deep in paperwork." Instead, his week was decidedly far from the normal. Confronted with the possibility of losing the whole of his being to some tapeworm of the mind, he decides that this is absolutely the worst way to possibly go.

[He'd expected it to have to be a journey alone, but the flow of events was both kind and cruel. With Astarion for recent company, the lone wolf finds himself entirely unprepared to have to deal with people in such close proximity to himself in nearly a decade.

[It's a pisser, he's entirely out of his element, and he has to sleep sometime.

[And all he has are some meager bow-and-arrow hunting skills from his childhood, which feels like centuries ago thanks to his sub-par health, and he nets them nothing. But a sharp stick works just as well for spearfishing, which he more easily accomplishes.

[Unfortunately, while the fish cooks over the campfire, Alivian internally sulks. They're both doomed unless they can remove these tadpole things. But where to even look for something to do that...?]

Sorry, that I'm not very good at much more than fishing.

[As usual, his voice is a low, somewhat growling thing, careful though his tone is. His ears remain slightly low, his tail tucked tightly to his body to stay out of the way, as well as in an attempt to make his towering frame smaller.]

I haven't hunted with a bow in years. I lived close enough to a market that I never had to.

[Slight AU, reference profile for details. Can do canon.]

[He's so guarded Fort Knox has asked him for security advice? And he's most certainly not supposed to develop feelings.]

"You're staring."

Not at her, necessarily.

And how can she even tell, while her own eyes are squeezed shut? Has she gone so unhinged she can hear him blinking? Yes, and it's driving her even further over the edge.

"We've been stuck in this box for over 48 hours, Callum. Go th'fuck to sleep."

Trapped like fish in a barrel, even with her brute strength. She's still working out how, but what she's surmised so far is that their captors are waiting for hunger to force her hand. And his, considering he's still armed.

"I'm evaluating the situation," he corrected, though nothing had shifted in the past 48 hours, and truthfully, it was a bold-faced lie. He'd already assessed the risks and concluded that the situation was a mess—mostly a disaster. Moreover, he was actually staring.

"Sleep?" he gently teased, a warm affection in his deep voice despite the persistent crease in his brow since they'd been stuck in this situation. "No thanks, I'd prefer to keep staring."

After a beat he added, "Just to make sure you don't take a nip at me." And of course it sounded light and non-plussed but there was an unspoken question there that he wasn't ready to ask.

She made a vague noise in the back of her throat as he, essentially, tried to bullshit a bullshitter.

"Sleep, yes. I assume you 'ave heard of it. Or maybe y'hibernate. Get it all over with in one go..." Sounds like the sort of thing he might try, at least once. In the name of efficiency.

A flash of golden-yellow in the dark, as her eyes slitted open to look at him. "You should be so lucky," she breathed, a smirk implicit in her tone. But buried beneath that tease is the unspoken answer to his unspoken question. Not yet. Not yet.

They still had time. How much time, or what difference it would make in the end was anyone's guess. Time enough for a miracle, perhaps.

The only thing asleep were his legs. But even then, he could still feel the hard metal against his hip. With some luck, all of him would go numb so that he didn't have to feel a thing. That might be an improvement on the current situation.

"The night's still young." He teases with the same daring he might use to repel off a skyscraper. But jumping off the the roof is easy. This? This was..

hard somehow.

It would be easier just to continue to talk around the situation. That way whatever happened, it'd just be a mission gone awry between professionals. No blame. They both knew the risks of working together.

He lightly clears his throat. That's a shit way of thinking about it, no? After all, she deserves more.

After a few moments, he says, "We've been through worse. Remember?" He frowns as he summons one of his favorite memories and then breaks into a grin. "After all, you were married to me for 48 hours. You survived that. We'll get through this too."

"Now y'know if there's one thing I can't stand, it's a challenge," she murmured, pressing her temple against their cold metal enclosure. At least it wasn't a sweat box, or she'd really be whining.

"We have," she agreed too readily, because it was true. Once she realized where exactly he was headed with that, her shoulders shook with silent laughter. "Was it that bad? Jesus,"

"I'll admit th'honeymoon was... Unconventional," she grinned, "But soul-sucking Kuei-jin aside, I thought th'marriage was a good one."

She fell quiet then, having come too close to something honest when she's deliberately and staunchly avoided the question of why it was so easy for her to pretend he was her husband. "Just be grateful it was only 48 hours. I'm an actual nightmare t'stay married to."