Fourth Wall

Eighteen: Le Chat Noir

Chloe wasn't exactly a sexual expert. She'd had a handful of partners, all fine really. But she was fairly certain that what she and Astarion had shared was not only satisfactory, but downright amazing. Why had he run off the way he had? Chloe couldn't stop thinking about it. About him. His smell, his touch, the taste of his lips. She just didn't understand.

Had he only been pretending to enjoy it? Surely there were differences between sex for a human/tiefling and sex for a vampire/elf...

Chloe was dangerously distracted, considering they were hatching their plan to infiltrate Moonrise Towers today. The group crouched around a crude drawing in the mud made by Halsin with a stick. He and Lae'zel had gone scouting and returned with as much knowledge of the outside of the Towers as possible.

"...this way is heavily guarded, I never saw it empty." Lae'zel was explaining as Chloe approached. Halsin and Shadowheart looked up and gave her a nod of greeting. Astarion's eyes remained fixed on the faux-map in the dirt. Chloe pretended not to notice. She knelt silently between Wyll and Halsin, listening as Lae'zel continued. "This way, however, had a gap in surveillance for nearly a half-hour this morning. Could have been a fluke, but perhaps useful information."

"A half-hour. That's a lot of time," Shadowheart pointed out.

"Yes, but even if we get in through that area, we have no idea what awaits us inside." Astarion countered, his silver-gray brows drawing together.

"About that..." Halsin began, and all eyes turned toward him. He bent down and added another tiny element to the drawing of the facade of the Towers. "This--" he said while drawing, "--is a hole."

"Fascinating." Chloe deadpanned. Halsin chuckled without missing a beat before continuing.

"A hole on the outside of the tower, in an unguarded area, small enough for...say, a feline to fit through?" Halsin finished, fixing Chloe with a pointed gaze. The rest of the group slowly turned to look at her as well.

"What?? He's the one who turns into animals, don't look at me!" Chloe immediately threw her hands up in defense. She still hadn't been brave enough to try out her Wildshape. It had looked so violent in the video games. She was admittedly more than a little afraid it would be excruciating, despite Halsin's assurances that it would not be.

"My repertoire does not include any animals small enough to fit. You, however..."

"No. No, no, no. You want me to go in there by myself? And not just by myself, by myself as an unarmed, unarmoured cat? Are you absolutely insane?" Chloe demanded, the pitch of her voice rising with her panic.

Halsin lifted a hand to place it supportively on Chloe's back as he turned to speak to her. Astarion's gaze followed Halsin's hand and narrowed almost imperceptibly.

"We just need to know what we're up against. We need eyes on the inside." He explained calmly to Chloe. "You don't have to do anything risky. You can be in and out in under an hour."

"What if it's a trap? An unguarded hole into a mystery prison tower seems oddly convenient in a world where shapeshifting Druids exist, do you not think?" Astarion pointed out, as ever making a valid point with a somewhat rude delivery.

"It is a risk, yes." Halsin admitted after a moment.

Chloe's mind whirred as she tried to calculate all possible outcomes with the information that she had. But she knew there were some outcomes one simply couldn't account for. It was Shadowheart who spoke up in defense of Chloe.

"Don't pressure her," She admonished, and the men seemed to take a half-step back. "She knows the risks and the benefits. Let the woman weigh the decision without you badgering her." Wyll seemed to agree, nodding before he added, "This might be the most obviously convenient solution right now, but we can find other ways, Chloe."