Balder's Gate 3 PSLs/Overflow

[smartass_captain]

Onward to adventure, whether you like it or not!

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[stoplickingthedamnthing]

"Indeed. I've tried my hand at fishing from time to time, but was never good at it. I can be immensely patient and focused so long as the task at hand is one I find interesting, but fishing was never able to hold my attention. My mind would wander to some magical experiment or some tome I needed to consult, I'd fidget and lose focus... But perhaps you'll have better luck. Do you want me to go and leave you to it?" That's been the theme of things as of late - Gale offers to leave, to give Jim space, and the ranger declines. It's like the wizard expects him to eventually admit that he's tired of him, that he's too much trouble, that he doesn't want him around, but he never does, and now is no different. Jim beckons Gale to sit, and so he does, knees popping on the way down. "Is anything bothering you? Something you'd like to talk about? I know I do more talking than anyone, but I can be as good a listener as an orator." 

[smartass_captain]

"Why? Have you somewhere important to be?" Jim tips his head to the side in a silent beckoning invitation for Gale to join him sitting out on the bank. It feels like Gale wants to linger around him less than usual now. Every time he offers it wrenches something in Jim's chest open anew.

He watches Gale make himself comfortable. Lets slip a soft sigh of relief. One of these days, Gale might not given him the chance to insist the wizard stay.

"Feeling a bit introspective, I suppose you could say. I can't take the others talking about my 'brooding' as though it's a crime to want to Think now and again. We'd get in a lot less hassle if there was More thinking done in this camp, I'll tell you that."

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

"The only important place I have to be is right where I am," Gale replies, then immediately begins to worry that this was an overly sentimental statement, given the state of things between them. Like Jim, he doesn't want to cause undue harm.

But Jim's complaints ease his worries, and he laughs softly. "I think you're quite right, too. We've a fair number of brash characters in his camp, so they could use the mediating influence of someone who thinks before acting." That... is not always Jim, in honesty, though he's more likely to put himself in harm's way, whereas a couple of the others care most about their own survival. Gale supposes he has to be grateful that every one of them is a little reckless, because it meant they agreed (however reluctantly) to be reckless enough to allow him to stay.

[smartass_captain]

Jim smiles, his chin tipped down toward his chest as if he could hide the expression for himself. Soft, affectionate. Stupid. He knows better. He knows they can't. And he'd promised Gale not to make things difficult for the other. So Jim's done his best to hide his affections. It hasn't worked very well.

"I've been thinking of Duke Ravenguard's capture. What any of this all means. How some tinkerer from the Lower City turned around and snatched up power in the city overnight. ...What kind of allies he must have made to facilitate it." Jim huffs a breath out and tests his line but of course there's no bites. If he didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.

"I know I shouldn't worry about it so much. We've got our own problems to solve. But everything feels like it's coming apart at the seams, suddenly."

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

"We certainly have our own problems to solve, but it may be that these are all pieces of the same puzzle. Anyway, you know my opinion on helping people. Even if it's unrelated, we ought to help as many people as we're able along the way. We may even inadvertently discover the key to our own salvation." Maybe someone they help will just so happen to have a cache of magical items to pay them with. Barring that, Gale would like to do good if he can, because his time on this plane may be short.

Gale tilts himself sideways, just until their shoulders barely bump, the type of thing that might have been an accident, except that it wasn't. "It's all... chaotic and frightening and disheartening, that's true enough. I don't know where any of us would be without you. I don't know where I would be without you. If I had to go through this with anyone, there is no one else I would rather have by my side."

[smartass_captain]

"You really think this could all be related somehow? It seems pretty far-fetched to me. In the immediate I suppose it's enough to know that whoever these True Souls are, they're looking for Us if that dead dwarf and his weird companions we had to send sniffing somewhere else is anything to go by."

Jim shifts on the bank he's seated at and glances aside up toward Gale. His smile is faint but feather-soft when he nods. Gale and he agree whole heartedly on doing as much good as they can. That brush of their shoulders shouldn't jolts through Jim's body like a spark. He shouldn't be so...longing. For even such a simple touch...

"You're such a shameless flatterer." Jim says, because he's terrible at just accepting a compliment in these types of situations. "If. If we can find that head druid...I mean...maybe he can help heal us. Those in the grove sure seemed adamant that he could heal just about anything."

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

"I can't even begin to grasp at the bigger picture yet, but isn't that how all the best puzzles begin?" Sometimes, Gale gets too focused on intellectual stimulation at the cost of everything else. After all, they are all facing down the excruciating process of ceremorphosis.

"Quite right! Why would I be ashamed of sharing well earned praise?" He beams at Jim, forgetting for the moment that he's trying not to be so overtly smitten. "Loathe as I am to march into a goblin camp, it's the best lead we've gotten yet."

[smartass_captain]

"Well it's that or track down Lae'zel's kin and I haven't seen hide nor hair of them yet. I feel bad, you know? She's breaking so many of her people's rules...bending them, at least, to try and save us as well as her own skin but I haven't seen any sign of them. I hope we can help her out too."

Jim is halfway to dragging his hand through his hair. It's a tic he he's got for when he's stressing about a particular problem, but not quite yet stressed enough to have given himself a tension headache. He pauses when he catches sight of Gale's smile and just kind of lets the motion drop off while he gapes a little like a lovesick schoolboy.

"Then tonight, I suppose, my good sir," Jim lifts a finger to point with. He gestures to Gale. "You'd best scour that spellbook of yours for crowd control and dungeoneering aids hm? I've got some nasty business cooling at the decanter now for my arrows. Plus a few bits and bobs we've collected on the way I'm making sure the others are aware of. We'll have two teams on this. I'll have one on patrol to stave off any returning scouts or groups from showing up while we're busy to get the drop on us from behind. Then the main group where the rest of us will be inside the camp."

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

Gale nods. He holds no ill will towards Lae'zel for her response to finding out about the orb. How could he, given the danger he puts them in? But she hadn't run him out of camp, despite her clear desire to, conceding to Jim's tie breaking decision. "Lae'zel comes off as so harsh and violent, which isn't wrong, but there's more to her. Despite everything her people have taught her about outsiders, she's still here. I'm sure the strategic advantage of greater numbers doesn't hurt, but I suspect she's starting to care about the lot of us. Just don't tell her I said so. She would probably injure me over it, and she's probably well aware that a wizard only really needs one hand." He joking. Mostly. "But I agree. Whether by fate or chance, the lot of us are bound together now. I'd rather see everyone come to a happy ending, and I'll do what I can to assure it."

Gale nods, a little more serious when he's discussing strategy. "You have my word. I've been studying up, trying to reclaim some of the spells I once lost to the orb. I'll be ready. Will you have me as part of the vanguard?"

[smartass_captain]

"Can't help the way she was raised. But it speaks a Lot that she hasn't left us to twist in the wind, despite the way she talks. Every time I try to get to know her better she acts like her kin would as soon kill me than speak to me but then she tells me whatever she can in the same breath."

James finds it...familiar, in a bizarre way. Being raised to see the world as one way, and then finding out it's something entirely different when out on one's own for the very first time. He's not much different than she is. Sure, he'd gone on a cartographer's guild mission before all of this but he hadn't even finished it out before he was scooped up into the mid flayer ship. And now he's amid people who have no knowledge of who he is or what politics his family championed...and all Jim wants is to be his own man. Even if there's a growing seed of dread planted already in the pit of his stomach as sure as that bastard of a tadpole is burrowed in his skull.

"Everyone includes You, Gale." Jim reminds the wizard softly. He plants the pole deeper into the sandy soil so he can take his hands off it to cup one of Gale's hands in his own. "I've set aside some gold to get the scrolls and components you need for the task." He quirks his lips into a confident smile.

"Of course. We've proven quite a formidable duo in combat. I'd have you at my side."

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

Gale isn't too proud to admit that a lot of his assumptions -- most of them, even -- had been wrong when it came to their companions. Lae'zel had seemed violent and angry, but he has been impressed with how much clever curiosity hid beneath that surface. "She may have been raised a warrior, but she's got the keen mind of an intellectual. We might have to include her in our little book club." He flashes Jim a smile, letting him know he's joking. Lae'zel would be fully capable of in depth book discussions, if she were interested, but Gale rather likes spending that time with Jim and Jim alone. He hopes that once they've overcome the awkwardness following his recent revelations, they can go back to regularly spending hours debating texts and playing lanceboard.

Everyone includes You, Gale. Gale's eyes widen as he fixes Jim with a puppy-eyed stare. He's not surprised to hear it, not exactly, because Jim has shown himself to be a good man over and over again. Mostly, he's still getting used to the fact that people would be willing to do more than tolerate him, might want him around despite the inconvenience and danger, might care about him for more than his expertise and power. He's touched, more than anything else, and the smile he follows up with is soft and almost bashful. 

"Thank you, Jim. Truly, there's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Jim's urge to self sabotage....

[smartass_captain]

A little stab of guilt pierces Jim's heart when Gale jokes about their 'exclusive' book club. He's fairly certain most of the camp would enjoy being included in such activities, depending on the kind of book they selected. If. If Gale's serious about not letting Jim close to him--not being Able to--then maybe Jim should invite more of them to their evening activity.

Make it a little easier to. Hells. Jim doesn't know. Get over himself and his infatuation with the wizard? Even though it's the last thing in the world he wants? He craves those nights spent comparing notes in earnest appreciation. Playing Lanceboard until well into the late night hours. Getting tipsy off a bit too much ale or wine and slipping into shameless flirtations. Everything he wants he cannot have.

You'd think James Tavaris Kirk would be Well acquainted with that lesson by now.

Hasn't he had it beaten into him enough in his life?

"Don't thank me yet. We're going to be doing a lot of sneaking." The corner of his mouth turns up in a sly smile. He'd told himself it would be easier to just focus on the mission ahead but Jim can't help but get lost in Gale's vulnerable, earnest expression. The twitch of his fingers in Jim's. They shouldn't. He should pull away. So of course he finds himself leaning forward instead. Blue eyes dropping to Gale's smile obviously.

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

Gale groans, but it's with a good natured pretense of annoyance. "Alright, but don't say you weren't warned when my knees pop and alert everyone in the vicinity. My opinions on stealth are that if an invisibility spell won't do the trick, then skip it and cast fireball instead." He... can't cast fireball anymore, actually. That was one of the casualties as the orb gobbled up his power. But he's determined to learn it again. "I am sure you will find some means of compensating me for the trouble. I accept payment in the form of books and wine." 

Suddenly, he notices the way Jim's gaze lands on his lips. Gale's hand, which had been content to be held, squeezes Jim's in acknowledgement. They probably shouldn't. They definitely shouldn't. But Gale finds himself leaning forward anyway...

[smartass_captain]

"Don't rule it out as a possibility. I'm glad you've managed to figure the Invisibility thing out again the other day, even if I found out because you scared the hells out of me and nearly got in my line of fire."

Jim's whole face crinkles up with his amusement. Barely contained laughter that's so soft it's more breath than sound. He believes that Gale will get it ALL back and then some. The man's considerable talents aren't in question where the ranger is concerned. Even struggling with the orb's debilitating weakening of him he commands the magics he knows with so much ease Jim almost wishes it could be so simple. He's studied primary texts for Years and never even managed a simple Prestidigitation. But watching Gale cast? It's beautiful.

And dangerous, more often than not.

His breath catches as Gale moves in. Jim's heart leaps into his throat. He tips his head and--

A splash out in the water drags his head back. His pole bends and it's only because Jim lunges for it that he manages not to lose the whole thing entirely.

"I've got a bite--!" He chokes out triumphantly and just about gets himself back up onto his knees holding the pole when another yank! from the fish whips the pole out of Jim's hands but not before he overbalances and topples into the water bodily with a SPLASH!

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

Damn fish, isn't a thought that Gale expected to have, but he's heartened to see his excitement as he finally gets a bite on his line. "Good, good! You're doing it! Now just-" Gale encourages, but it turns into peels of laughter when the fish manages to get the upper hand. Jim slips and goes completely into the water. Gale laughs, waiting for the ranger to pop back up so that he can tease him for it.

Except that he doesn't pop back up. Gale can't remember whether they've ever spoken about if Jim knows how to swim.

He dives in, suddenly panicking. Gale is a very strong swimmer. He swam nearly every morning back in Waterdeep, at least before the orb, No coffee or tea is ever as good at waking one up as a bracing swim in the ocean. He didn't get such broad shoulders from reading. Still, it's hard to see through the water. He pops up, crying, "JIM!" He sees something thrashing further down than he expects and his heart nearly stops in fear. Panic and desperation flood his veins. He casts a quick mage hand, sending it to try to grab Jim by the collar, hoping to hold his head above the water. That done, he dives back in, pursuing him through the water.

[smartass_captain]

"--Stuck!" He manages to croak out when the mage hand gets his head up above water briefly. He'd been tumbled arse over teakettle in the water. Out of sorts already and with silt kicked up it had been impossible to tell up from down. He'd found the bottom and had such relief only to get his boot wedged in between two rocks as he'd tried to kick himself free of the muck.

It won't take long for a strong swimmer like Gale to catch up with him, but freeing his foot is another matter entirely. The ranger is panicking while he tries to wrench himself free. He'd rather lose his boot than his foot but both are pinned at the moment.

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

Thankfully, this is no raging river, or else Jim would be doomed. It still isn't easy, not even once Gale makes it to his side. Jim is moving, the water is moving, and it's difficult to see anything below the surface. If this was before the orb, Gale could cast air bubble or water breathing to keep Jim from drowning, but the wizard doesn't have access to those spells anymore. He can curse himself over that later, for now he has to worry about the ranger. He grips his body, moving his hands down and down so as not to lose track, following the line of his torso and legs. He takes a knee to the chest, breath bubbling out of him with surprise more than pain, but stays below the surface until he can find Jim's stuck foot. There has to be some clever magical solution to this, but if there is, he can't think of it as his lungs burn. Instead he just yanks, and yanks, and yanks.

[smartass_captain]

It's a vicious twist on the moment they met, in some ways.

A helping hand pulling the other free from a prison of stone. The currents of warping magic are different than those of a river but no less deadly to one caught within its clutches. The mage hand holds Jim's head aloft once more and he gasps for air again. Gale's hands are on him, he's pulling--and Jim squirms with all his might to slip free.

It's only a few seconds but feels like an eternity. The rock finally shifts with Gale's added force just enough for Jim's boot to slide free and then they're both crashing past the surface in a mad gasp for air. Coughing a little and dragging themselves to shore. It leaves Jim on hand and knee at the bank of the river, coughing up a lung before he sinks down a little into the grass on trembling limbs.

"Balderan's b..balls..."

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

Half drowned himself by now, Gale coughs as well. That doesn't stop him from making his way over to Jim on hands and knees. He sits up on his knees, hands on Jim's back, his shoulders, his face, checking for damage, trying to soothe. "Are you alright?" He's still almost as desperate as he was in the river, wanting to do more to help, though all he can do is wait for Jim to cough up the last of the water he inhaled. "That's it, take it easy, there you go," he murmurs while he rubs his back.

When it finally seems like Jim can breathe easy, Gale helps him up and hugs him so tightly it almost hurts. "Gods, you scared me," he says all in a rush of breath.

[smartass_captain]

"I--hgck!!"

Jim tries to answer him too quick but doubles up almost immediately and keeps coughing. Wracked, wet hacks that do end in him bringing up river water once or twice before his body seems to be convinced he's once more on dry land and all the unauthorized Wet has been evacuated. Throughout it all, Gale's hand is there at his back. Rubbing, soothing. Keeping Jim from panicking when he can't seem to get himself under control.

At the last he's wobbling to try and find somewhere clean to move to, Gale scoops him up into a clinging hug that Jim can only fall into. He's dead weight in Gale's arms for a second or two before he even tries to support himself.

"...A...all that..." Another softer cough just for the scratch in his throat. "All that damned drama and I didn't even..ngh. Get the fish...!" Jim slumps again into Gales grasp. He feels well and truly foolish in the moment. A noble arse who's made a prat out of himself as though what happened was easily avoidable and not a legitimate accident.

"S...sorry about that.." He murmurs quietly.

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

The fish. The fish! Gale can't help but laugh, guffaws that wrack his already exhausted body. Illithid tadpoles in their heads, cultists after them, and yet they almost die to mundane drowning. And Jim is still worried about the gods damned fish. It's all so ridiculous. Gale pulls back from the hug just though to plant a kiss on Jim's still cold, wet lips, firm but quick, glad he's alive. "Next time, just let go, alright?"

[smartass_captain]

Jim is worried about looking like a fool in front of his Very cool and impressive romantic interest is what he is. The fish got away long before Jim's boot got caught between the rocks. But the wizard has a bit of a point. He might not have fallen in at all if he hadn't dove for the pole in the first place.

He scowls a little for the laughter, but is left reeling by the kiss, brief though it is.

"You're right...I just wanted to impress you. Is all."

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

Gale is still exhausted and laughing a little bit when Jim says that next part. "Ridiculous. You've impressed me every day since we met."

He gets to his feet with some effort, weighted down by wet clothing, and holds a hand out. "Come on, let's dry off before we catch a cold."