She says his name twice, the latter drawn out as she tests the syllables and he is mesmerized by it. Amazing how he could listen to her say it over and over. It would be so easy to do, to fill the quiet that slips in between them, welcomed or not, but not overlooked or frowned upon. He floats in that quiet until she mentions that she likes his name and he’s never really given it much thought. It was but a moniker to call him by but deep down, he knew it was so much more than that - more than just a name to answer to, it was the key to himself, that fit neatly into the keyhole of darkness that swam around inside him and sometimes, snaked through his bloodstream and painted all his moods dark and intense.
The way she says though is like a bit of lightning to brighten up the storm’s dark.
He tilts his head in the aftermath of her speaking; considers the how and the why of it. How can she like a name that implies darkness and nothingness? It is hard for him to imagine the quiet and the peace she thinks is caught up inside those syllables that roll so flawlessly off her tongue. He doesn’t see what she does in his name. To him, it is but a name and a reminder of the place that he came from - that his mother pulled him from. More like ripped, because it was a little painful to take a shadow-boy from the edge of the abyss and plant him in her belly where sperm and egg had merged. That’s probably not something that Abysm should be allowed to remember but nature and time both have their reasons for it.
Maybe because they don’t want him to forget that he did not come from such humble nice origins as most do. But he cannot maintain such thoughts for long, not when she is looking at him from beneath the tangled red of her forelock and he’s looking into the beautiful hazel of her eyes. Just as he’s looking at her and she’s looking at him, some decorous form of courtesy that one of his parents must have instilled in him comes creeping over him and in a rather shy manner, he thanks her. “Thank you, I like your name also.” and he does, there is no lie in that - no attempt to charm her further because Abysm is unaware that he can even be charming at times. Brutal, brash, brooding - all that, yes but never really charming.
However, she makes it easy for him to think he could be.
Her voice disrupts the quiet that he has come to appreciate because it allows him to look her over. Not in a lewd manner that is typical of his sex - he knows, he’s seen them stare and covet all at once. He cannot say if it sickened or excited him, those looks, perhaps a bit of both and they might have just tipped him over the edge of manhood just that much further. But back to her and how she is talking about being glad to have met him and he immediately wants to question her about that. Is she? Is she really glad to have met him? Could he have really been that much of a pleasant distraction? The smile that breaks on her and reaches up into her eyes to make them bright and blossoming with genuine emotion is enough to convince him that her words are no farce or polite necessity.
“Have you always felt so alone?” he cannot help it. The question just slips out of his mouth. Abysm had caught the undercurrent of pain that she’d tried to hide. Pain was something he took note of, whether he wanted to or not. Children of the abyss tend to pick up on those things. Pain. Destruction. Sorrow. They are the siren-songs that call to his heart as much as the dreamlands do. He is struck suddenly by the beginnings of an idea - “What is the one thing you dream about the most?” He might just be able to give her a taste of it, albeit cruel or kind, he’s unsure because dreams are dreams. Like desires, they are secret and hidden and not always what one wishes them to be.
@[leliana] so he's offering to take her into one of her dreams <33
i would do anything for love,
but i won’t do that