Gang of Weirdos

twenty eight - rivington pt2

(a/n: I had a look back through my discord server to find his clown comment, good lord these characters have funny dialogue. I've got Astarion telling Wyll off for asking about his rat diet, and Gale telling Astarion to basically stop talking to him... lmfao. Anyway since this story is following the game very closely, should I write a sequel- a post game kind of thing, with ascended Astarion and Onasha (our Tav)?)

Astarion dodged out of the way as Buddy lunged to tackle him. The clown then shifted into something else entirely. A few people within the crowd shifted into creatures identical in appearance, and a fight ensued.

Luckily none of us ended up too badly injured, and at the end of the fight as our enemies lay defeated, Astarion made a comment that sent me into a fit of laugher, "He wasn't even a real clown. I thought we were killing a real clown."

"We just got attacked by a bunch of doppelgangers, and that's your concern?" I said, trying to calm my laughter. "That we weren't killing the real Dribbles?"

"Well, yes," Astarion said with a shrug. "Just such a pity."

"Shadowheart is never going to believe this," I said with another small laugh. Halsin was wiping blood off his arms.

"I, for one, will be glad to never experience something like that again," Halsin grumbled as he straightened himself. I smiled apologetically up at him.

A tall, beautiful woman dressed in the most intricate gown I'd ever laid eyes on approached us then. I admired the blue and gold stars and moons that adorned and dangled off the dark purple gown, black feathers framing the collar. She introduced herself as Lucretious, the ringmistress of the circus- and requested that we find the real Dribbles for her.

I informed her that if there was a creature pretending to be him, he was probably dead. She asked us to then bring us his corpse; he'd be more useful to her reanimated, anyway. I shuddered at the thought, though intrigue also tugged at me. Halsin seemed disturbed at the quest offer, and Astarion merely shrugged.

So I told her we'd find her the clown, and then we made our way back over to Shadowheart. She looked us over, noting the speckles of blood, and raised her brows.

"What did I miss out on?" she asked, a tiny smile tugging at one corner of her mouth.

"Killer clowns," Astarion said with a grin, placing a hand over his chest and leaning forward as if her were gossiping. Shadowheart fully smiled then, and rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Be serious a moment," she said with a tiny laugh.

"I am being perfectly serious," Astarion said with a waggle of his brows. Halsin sighed and scratched the back of his neck.

"Alas, he is," Halsin said. "There was this ugly, brightly colored clown man on stage. And he suddenly shifted into... something else. And attacked us." The smile left Shadowheart's face as Halsin explained.

"Oh," she said. She looked at me, and then to the ground with wide eyes. "Well, I'm glad that you're all alright."