I came across the Warped Headband of Intellect which gvies the wearer 17 int and cannot stop thinking about 8 int Tav putting it on and shocking poor Raphael out of his socks with their sudden smarts. 😅 And maybe their sudden lack of them once he removes the headband. 😂
A/N: I run screaming into the night because of how schmoopy this is.
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Raphael x 8 INT Tav: Don't Go Changin'
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He pauses to regard the Little Mouse with curiosity and caution.
She's looking at him. Not in the vacant, slightly dreamy-eyed way he's grown to expect, but with genuine understanding. Tav cocks her head to the side, eyes narrowing, lips pressing to a thin line. An uncustomarily severe look, and not one Raphael can say he likes.
"You keep coming back," she says, unprompted, and the tone is different too. Raphael searches her face and aura for anything unusual, but there's nothing. Only a new tiara, one dull stone set in its center; it's a tacky piece, certainly not one he'd have gifted. Tav steps towards him, hesitating, before reaching out to touch his wrist. "Tell me why?"
"You're asking questions? Are you well, my dear?"
Her lips quirk up; the softness, at least, is correct. Tav chuckles, shrugging. "I've been running our encounters over and over in my head, trying to come up with a reason. Protecting your assets, maybe," and some alarm trills in his head because the turn of phrase is wrong. "Curiosity, perhaps. But I've signed your contract. I've made good on my word at every step. Do you distrust me?"
"Fae," the word still chokes him. "Do not trust easily. And I have lived a long and twisted life. You have the right of it. I am nothing if not protective of my interests."
"But that isn't right." Her brow furrows, features twisting prettily. The infernal blood in his veins delights in her frustration; the mortal is…compelled to touch her. Raphael's fingers curl around her forearm. "You only rarely visited before. This," Tav gestures to him, "is a recent development. Since our…" she clears her throat, "Liaison in the Devil's Den. I have a theory, of course, but I prefer to hear your take."
Raphael frowns, "What's happened? Where is this cunning stemming from? You've theories? You're studying me? Has the worm finally squirmed too deeply into your skull?"
"We both know the tadpole has nothing to do with this, Raphael. Now, I'm asking you for honesty. After everything, you cannot claim that is too much."
He can and will! The devil crosses his arms over his chest, searching her face again. His gaze keeps straying to that damnable headpiece, horrific and garishly out of place on her lovely face. "I am magnanimous, but even my graces have their limits. I do not indulge my clientele's idle accusations."
"If we examine your behavior…"
"Hang my behavior! What has come over you?"
One of her companions, the tiresome little spawn, sidles up to her. Astarion taps the garish piece. "Do excuse the interruption. And far be it from me to stick my nose in a devil's dispute, but…" He hooks his finger under the headband, lifting it free from her hair.
And his Mouse's demeanor shifts all at once: all notes of pretension and accusation falling away in the face of better instincts.
"The headband, you see." Astarion taps it. "Quite impressive what it can do from one's intellect. You know, I would have imagined you preferred a…touch of the cerebral in your partners. It seems I was wrong."
"For her sake, I will allow that breach in etiquette, little vampling. Begone now." Raphael holds himself to the full of his height, imperious, kingly. The spawn holds his hands up for peace before slinking back into the night, leaving them alone.
"You've come to visit me again, my prince!" Tav clutches his hand, all instinct, light, and love on her face. There is not an ounce of self-preservation in her marrow as she winds her arms around him, hungry for contact. "You must be so busy, and still, you take the time!"
Raphael frowns, smoothing a hand over her hair. It feels…wrong, somehow. "Your earlier accusations…"
She shakes her head, "Don't matter. I don't care why you visit. It doesn't matter. I like it. I like you."
Submerging him in a pool of holy water would have been less jarring. The cambion blinks, staring down at Tav.
And this once, a touch of honesty. Raphael clears his throat, an air of offended dignity and dismissal hanging around him. "My dear, for tonight, let us say the feeling is mutual."
"Just tonight?"
"Don't get greedy."
She hums, delighted, pressing her face against his chest.
And gods, it's all such a mess.
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Oh my god, wait, what if it actually is Flippa?
qCharlie had a deal with Angel Rubius/Lil J, and also made a shrine for him. The Angel said it will take a while to tall to the others about this, but he practically ows Charlie a life!
Actually, he has been owning that life since the first day of the egg event! They made that farm for Bad, that was in exchange to get their daughter another life!
So what if, after four months, they finally gave her one more life, but they decided that her being brough back once already was kind of unfair looking at the other eggs, so she is not at all like how she is supposed to be.
She just knows that Charlie is her dad, and that she loves him.
Sure, she calls him dad and not papa. She uses oak signs instead of birch. She doesn't do any backflips and she can't talk normally, but she is Juanaflippa!
Remember, that when she came back from hell, she stared into space for hours on end. Now, we don't know how 'heaven' is like for the eggs, but imagine the horrors she could have been experiencing.
Had the code always knew how to speak? I don't think it could have learnt how to write that fast. Sure, it figured out how to place signs but it couldn't type anything. And the sentences Flippa used were techically all grammatically correct, just with a little twist!
...
Who am I kidding, that's definetely the code, I'm just delusional.
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