#iona: that's cool babe! it'd be kinda fucked if it happened to us though lol

[invinciblerodent]

I've been thinking about what Iona might think/say about this line, and I think she would think differently from like... 90% of the people who heard this line, myself included lol.

Like, she disagrees, of course- were it up to her, she would have thought that letting the thief run free would have been the best choice, because, well, who cares, really. It was only a thing, and he was doing a job he was hired to do.

Like I'm not sure if it was in Mordenkainen's or another sourcebook, but I know it's mentioned at one point that elves typically don't care nearly as much for material possessions and theft as they care for sentimental items (it's got to do with being so long-lived and communal in general), they moreso pity one who would steal rather than blame them- and Iona herself already has a semi-questionable relationship with private property that's only tampered by her extensive time among humans. (In the trial, she just let Wyll "take the reins". She's not an idiot, she knows what hero-types expect the answer to be, even if she'd naturally disagree.)

But I feel like this line definitely would cause her to raise an eyebrow, because despite all that they have done to get here, and the talk they had over his grave about how the Magistrate he was is dead and buried, that... really sounds less like Astarion, the liar/thief/roguish scoundrel she loves, and more like Astarion, the Magistrate who ruled so cruelly that it cost him his life. So it kind of... slots into the empty space of the last missing puzzle piece in her head, which is the why of how he even got into his situation in the first place.

Like sure, he's said that he made an "unfavorable ruling" that the Gur didn't like, which is why he was beat and subsequently turned, but she had no idea what that could have been.... and at the same time, she didn't really care, about "Magistrate Ancunín". (It's been two centuries. She might not like this glimpse into who he once was, but as far as she's concerned, he's very clearly not the same person anymore- she saw it when they joined minds, she knows it because she knows the man he is now, and, at the same time, doesn't care much about the past. All that ruling is at this point in time is a line in an ancient record somewhere, and a stain on is his conscience- which, why'd it matter to her? Her own conscience is stained by far more immediate -and potentially more harmful- things, things that happened in a past that isn't even that far behind them, and he doesn't care, why should she?)

.... Though I do wonder what he'd say/think if later at rest, during their little nightly "together-time" when they're done with their trance but everyone is still asleep, she idly mentioned that she's been thinking about his words.

I think he'd get defensive, and insist that no, he does believe he's right, even as the seed that he actually doesn't now that he thinks about it, is planted. And knowing Iona, she wouldn't even try to correct/lecture him about it (not only is that not her style, telling him that he's wrong is also counterproductive as hell in getting Astarion specifically to see a dissenting point), but maybe she'd just coax him to lay back down onto her chest, and as the conversation winds down and he relaxes with his ear against her heartbeat once more, she'd just softly say something like "I hope the gods don't think the same, once our time comes".

And while her intention is not to change him or make him think like her, I think that's probably all he'd need to start questioning where that thought came from, realize what part of him was/is it that believes that on his own, and reach a conclusion that's more in line with the person he is now and the one he wants to be in the future.

(I love how she goes from being openly and intentionally manipulative, to now just... gently reminding her boyfriend once in a while that he can actually think before he speaks now, lol.)

Yeah, I...

I have absolutely zero doubt in my mind that there's a very good reason this man was beaten within an inch of his life based on a ruling he made as magistrate.

Astarion, darling, sweetie pie, love of my life, my sweetest, most darling little pookie bear with sugar and a cherry on top, what the ever-loving, super-sized, finger-lickin', country-fried McFuck is wrong with you (affectionate)

haven't you personally expressed feelings of guilt (their validity being subject for philosophical debate i don't have time to go into now) over dooming people in numbers upwards of a thousand to what you had thought was death, but later on it turned out to be a fate potentially worse than death. have you not personally yelled at the Gur leader because she got upset over us sparing the 7k spawn. have you learned absolutely fucking nothing, my sweet sweet angel boy.

god I love you and the odd turns your poor little brain takes sometimes as it reacquaints itself with the idea of being a person, rather than a survival-machine.

(it's also really fun how sometimes thoughts that could be attributed to the "living" Astarion pop up- because I'm guessing this is one of those, and he's kind of... well. He hasn't been allowed to use his own brain much since he became a vampire, so it's understandable why, now that he's free, his brain would sort of revert to the last thing it knows- which is punitive justice.)

(I definitely know that having Magistrate Ancunín pass judgement on you would have definitely been one of the less desirable outcomes of any legal squabble in Baldur's Gate two centuries ago. I know Iona is sort of letting these drift by her ear for now, putting the thought aside to be dissected later, lol. She'd rather more like to speak to the soft Astarion cuddling into her chest at night about this, please and thank you.)