Balder's Gate 3 PSLs/Overflow

[smartass_captain]

Onward to adventure, whether you like it or not!

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@stoplickingthedamnthing - Of furry friends and familiars

[smartass_captain]

BARK BRAK BARK!!!

MISTER Dekarios DO something about that fleabag!

BARK BARK BARKBARKBARK!

Jim pitches himself out of his bedroll and onto the dirt floor of his tent bleary eyed and confused for all the noise. The sound of wings and ...is that hissing? Impossible to make out for certain over the din of Scratch's excited barking ringing out through the camp. Hadn't he heard a lady crying out too? Or was that whatever had been left of his dream bleeding away when he jerked awake?

He's emerging like the others bed headed and bleary eyed to squint against the early morning sunlight at Scratch dancing around a large tree at one end of the camp. Seeing Jim, Scratch darts over to him and does a happy little butt-wiggle dance, his tail wagging so fast it's a wonder it doesn't fall off before the dog bolts back to the tree and jumps as high up as he can, paws scrabbling at the trunk of the tree in his excitement.

"Is...issat a cat...?" Jim mumbles to himself, palm rubbing at one eye as he pads his way over, tugging his woolen shirt back into proper place as he goes. "Easy Scratch. I see it."

"What in the fresh hells is all that racket?!" Shadowheart grumps while stomping over, though she freezes upon spying the tree and seems to be fighting every instinct in her that wants to coo over the feline form up the tree. "Awww, did Scratch make a new friend?"

"He most certainly has NOT!" Cried the cat, wings flaring. Wings? A winged...?

"Is that a tressym...?" Jim revises, now even more confused.

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

"Now Tara, there's no need for all the fuss!" Gale says, gently scolding and soothing in one. "Come down from there. Scratch is a good boy, I'll vouch for him. He just wants to smell you."

"And suffer the indignity of having a filthy mutt sniffing at my posterior? No thank you!" the cat answers.

"Well, you didn't travel all the way from Waterdeep just to sit up in a tree, now did you?"

The rest of the camp starts waking up and exiting their tents to see what the commotion is, but Gale only has eyes for his oldest friend. He extends his arms upwards to her and eventually, with a heavy sigh, she jumps down into them. Gale hugs her and buries his face in her fur.

[smartass_captain]

Jim settles down onto one knee to keep an arm around Scratch who is wiggling even happier once Gale and his cat--Tressym--are reunited. He barks twice more and then turns to lick all over Jim's hands to express his joy the best way a puppo knows how.

"Shadowheart, would you...?" Jim glances up to their cleric out of the corner of his eye and watches her pretend to look annoyed even as she's smiling and kneeling down herself with open arms.

"Scratch! Here boy~" With his hands free of a wiggling dog, Jim straightens back up and heads over to Gale's side. Before he can open his mouth, Tara squawks first in full indignation.

"Heavens! What is that monstrosity on your FACE! What would Mrs. Dekarios say if she could see you now??"

Jim wishes all eyes in the camp hadn't just suddenly shot over to Jim as if HE knew about this. The poor ranger just gapes a little bit, his eyes wide as saucers. Well, he's certainly awake now.

"Uh." What the fuck???

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

"Tara," Gale scolds, with the intonation of a child trying to get a parent not to embarrass them in front of their friends. The feline must have some sympathy, because she lets the matter drop for the moment and deigns to allow herself to be cuddled like a teddy bear.

"Jim!" Gale says, once he looks up to see him standing there looking bewildered, "I believe I've mentioned my very dear friend Tara?" Tara leaps gracefully onto Gale's shoulder so that she can get a better vantage point on the man she's being introduced to. "Tara, this is Jim, the leader of our odd little band."

[smartass_captain]

Her judgmental tail thrashing doesn't escape Jim's notice but he's too busy trying to cover up the smile he got for the whine in Gale's voice. Doubly so because the wizard seems intent on beginning introductions posthaste and starting with the ranger. The last thing he wants is being the cause of Gale sulking.

"You have indeed." Jim replies. He feels a little bit as though he should brush his hair down or straighten his tunic suddenly. Tara gets to look properly regal perched atop Gale's shoulder. Shouldn't Jim get at least his comb for half a second? Ah well. His fingers swiftly working through the locks will have to do.

"A pleasure." The ranger offers. His bow is far too practiced and perfect in posture for him to be from any backwater village, though the human offers little explanation for his innate decorum. "Gale has told me much about you."

"And what exactly do you do?" Tara inquires, her eyes squinting.

"Something of a tactician, as it happens. I was a cartographer before fate threw our lots in together. Do be kind to Scratch though. Poor fellow has lost his own erstwhile companion before we took him in. I uh. I should let Gale introduce you to the others." A soft reminder to the wizard that there are many more eyes on them at the moment.

"This still doesn't explain just why you've strayed and remained so far from Waterdeep, Gale." Tara intones. And why introduce a mere mapmaker first as though he were anyone of such import? Compared to Gale, wizarding prodigy, how impressive could a human without a single whiff of the Weave to him be?

[stoplickingthedamnthing]

"Ah. Well. That is..." He scratches the edge of his beard beneath his jaw, thoughtful and a little reluctant. "The orb was approaching the end of its rope and I left for Yartar in pursuit of a lead on more magical artifacts. That's where I had an unfortunate run in with a Nautiloid ship and an illithid tadpole passenger."

"Mindflayers!" Tara squawks, fur puffing in distress.

"The lot of us are so infected, which is what brought this disparate group together under common cause," Gale explains with a heavy sigh. 

Once Gale has explained everything he's experienced since parting from Tara, and the Tressym has assured Gale that the mindflayers never came near Waterdeep, he begins introducing their other companions. Shadowheart and Karlach are instantly besotted with Gale's familiar. Astarion and Lae'zel greet the tressym, though they act like they don't care and are only deigning to participate. Wyll is the only one other than Jim who is able to be normal about it.

[smartass_captain]

Jim knows better than to try and ask Shadowheart or Karlach what they make of the whole thing. Karlach's too busy urging Shadowheart to try and pet the tressym (since the half-elf won't burn her to a crisp for trying). He's watching Wyll navigate the interaction as he sidles on over to where Astarion has been lurking and subtly keeping a much closer eye on the interactions than he pretended during his own introduction.

"D'you have any idea how powerful a kid would have to be at magic to summon a tressym...?" Jim asks. He's trying and failing to sound casual about the whole thing. "I can't even begin to imagine how much raw power that orb and the tadpole have taken from him..."

[neckbiter]

"I haven't the faintest idea, darling. In the lower city in Baldur's Gate, you could hardly walk without kicking some flea bitten mongrel, how hard could it be to find one with wings?" Astarion doesn't look up from picking under his fingernails with the tip of his dagger, but there's something bright about his eyes and his pointed ears are pricked up. He has a lot of experience in paying attention without looking at all interested, after all. "But isn't it just our luck we got the bomb without all the archmage power to go along with it? Could have been quite useful, but alas. He just eats our best boots instead."

[smartass_captain]

"I'll ask her to give your end of the camp a berth if you'd rather not deal with cat hair." Jim assures the rogue gently. He doesn't rightly expect Tara to want to venture much past Gale's own tent after all. The wizard has all of his notes and reagents and components there. Maybe she'd venture to the alchemy station Jim's set up, but that's not anywhere near Astarion's tent either.

His expression falls a little for the dig, but he doesn't take the bait entirely.

"Oh has he still been doing that?" Jim asks instead. "He hasn't mentioned it to me. You're clearly a paragon of good deeds to be offering up some of your finds."

[neckbiter]

Astarion heaves a heavy sigh, like it's a great burden to be surrounded by all of them, but replies magnanimously, "No need to bother. She can't be any worse than the rest of you." Also, he rather likes cats, but you won't ever catch him admitting that.

The vampire frowns a little and makes an annoyed sound. Translation: Jim's got him there. "Well, given that the alternative is being blown to smithereens? I suppose we can part with our least valuable items. Reluctantly." Ugh.

[smartass_captain]

Ah, Jim thinks. So the resident cat gets along decently with his own kind.

He tries not to smile too obviously or think too loud. The tadpole's given him away before, traitorous little bastard. He nods instead to accept Astarion's acquiescence with the seriousness it deserves. Keeping his companions eccentricities to himself more or less is how he's come to get along with all of them by now. They'll share what they want with who they want. So long as it's not a Problem (Shadowheart and Lae'Zel....) he doesn't see a need to go speaking of others' business.

"Yeah I'd rather not be blown up either, which is why I haven't blown Him." Tsk.

[neckbiter]

Astarion snorts, a little grin tucked into the corner of his mouth that he can't quite hide. "My! How crude, and from our typically well mannered leader. However will you remain the face of our party?"

He tucks one hand into the opposite elbow and taps his chin thoughtfully. "The trouble is that you're not thinking creatively. There's more to intimacy than sex, and there's more to sex than orgasms. Think outside the box, darling." Look, he's so benevolent, offering advice.

[smartass_captain]

"Better I admit to it than let you make up what you will." His roll of his eyes is affectionate enough, though Astarion well knows it's only in jest. The ranger's affections and attractions are thoroughly wasted on the camp's untouchable wizard.

"Oh I have a very creative imagination, Astarion." The sorts of things he would never admit to aloud and no decent man should fantasize about. "I just don't want to hurt him. Even curling up close to hold one another is fraught if it leaves him waking with chest pains." Among other problems it kills Jim not to be able to assist with.