Tales of a Child Eternal [NSFW]

[Tethras Clan]

"Well... for instance, ma'bela does not wish for any sort of... implications that were are, in fact, a couple at all. Hawke forbides sex at her father's- or over sexuality in front of him. Though to be fair, that's more his rule than hers. Merrill has... hmm. Very few rules really. Stay in contact often, I suppose. Oh, she strongly dislikes being tickled during sex."

[Helene Dakesh]

"This one does not mind implications of coupling. This one does not have a father. This one has never been tickled during sex," Helene confirms. 

[Tethras Clan]

"Ah, to clarify, not that we couple, but that we are a couple. She... is very skittish about commitment," Zevran says almost wistfully. "We can try the tickling thing later... among other things. I have a few ideas..."

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene nods. "I.. am eager to find out what you plan." Their voice sounds wistful, and satisfied. 

[Tethras Clan]

"I am curious... what are you thoughts on.... costumes?" Zevran asks with a slight purr in his voice.

[Helene Dakesh]

"They serve many useful functions. Why?" 

[Tethras Clan]

Zeran leans up a little, lips a bare hair's width from their own."You as the prim and proper teacher with a lot to learn about... fun and me as the young student, eager to show his favorite teacher a thing or two himself," he whispers softly, eyes never blinking.

[Helene Dakesh]

"Ah! That sounds like-- a very... this is where the erotic comes from the breaking of rules? The, ah, naughtiness portion?" they ask, flushing blue. 

[Tethras Clan]

Zevran laughs softly. "Naughty indeed," he purrs, running his hands down their back to cup their rear.

[Helene Dakesh]

"Th-this one is unsure if-- breaking rules is-- challenging for this one."

[Tethras Clan]

"But you wouldn't be breaking rules," Zevran explains. "It would be a scene. Like actors in a play. That's what makes sex games moral. Just... just like how Hawke and Isabela weren't actually prisoners or- or slaves when they were, ah, doing that scene we scryed on."

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene nods, slowly. "This would be a... different set of rules?"

[Tethras Clan]

"Correct. Sex scenes are... very different," Zevran agrees. "And we can go over them at least next week, before we do this again, but... I think perhaps we could both use a shower."

[Helene Dakesh]

"Yes," they say rapidly. "This one would like to be clean." 

[Helene Dakesh]

Their first memory was of hunger, and cold. They had been hungry and cold for a long, long time. They had managed to snatch food here and there; they had managed not to freeze to death. But they had never been warm, been full. They knew these things existed -- a half-forgotten surity of a better life out there somewhere. But they had no understanding of how to obtain them for themself. 

(In recollecting later, it is always 'themself'. At the time, it was merely 'I', with no understanding of what pronouns were to be used.)

At three feet tall and some inches, it was hard for the child to climb the stone wall, but the smell of food lured them close. It was getting colder. There was frozen, white powder on the ground now, powder that hurt their bare feet when they walked through it. But the wall would take them away from the powder, so they climbed, grateful for the quirk of biology that gave them fully functional arm muscles at 'birth'. They sat atop it, catching their breath, resting. 

And listening. 

Those sounds in the garden, they were... familiar. Language centers fired up in their brain, hitherto dorment; moldable, fluid cells solidified, picking up the basics of grammar and vocabulary in a way that they would not be able to do again. The child learned Common, instinctively and innately, the way they would have done had they spent the previous, nonexistant years their form lied about having lived immersed in the language, surrounded by it.

These people were saying... something about a child?