Part of the reason the BOOTH was given back its ability to resemble things other than a phone kiosk during the Sixth Inspector era
was that BTV planned to shut down production over budget expenditures, so the executives gave IS producers the money to make the BOOTH a chimney or a lift carriage for various in-universe reasons.
shapeshifting is something that a basilisk will nearly always seek to do in solitude.
an act which temporarily blinds and numbs the creature from the surrounding world - they will be left completely vulnerable to it. defenseless. frozen inside the shell of their old form as organs and cells rearrange.
to shapeshift in front of someone is, therefore, the ultimate show of trust that a basilisk can perform.
inquisitor rowan lavellan i am so happy for you and your ugly fucking boyfriend and your girlfriend and your other girlfriend and your other boyfriend and your bestie and your other bestie and your weirdly homoerotic chess partnership and your drinking buddy and your weird fucking dad and your albatross im so serious
i played dragon age. scenery plus my inky, shithead extraordinaire.