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He’s getting harder to read with each passing day. Making a trickle of anxiety slowly take root inside, as it is getting easier to worry and overthink, and trying to read his every action. Everything is harder, even the smallest things such as reading his expression. Gale feels as if he’s staring into nothingness, at a blank wall which has been built up. An invisible barrier that had suddenly appeared between him and Durge, almost as if he’s staring back at a stranger, with Durge’s mind now appearing completely foreign to him.
With every day that passes, it feels like they’re growing further apart. The dragonborn that he’s bonded with as they had met after the Nautiloid crashed seemed to have disappeared and been replaced by someone else. He zones out, his expression so harsh and foreign, like he’s lost in thought, a barrier between everyone as he just seems less… emotional. Less present. More distant, like he’s slowly once more becoming a stranger.
It’s terrifying and worrisome, especially as he notices the small signs in his behavior. The way his body seems to be twitching, how he digs his claws into his scales as he seems to always be so tense. Looking at everyone so weirdly.
Durge had always acted off. A bit weird. Anxious, or overwhelmed as if he’s hiding something. Like he’s battling an internal battle, something that Gale hadn’t wanted to pry on, knowing that there might be internal demons and thoughts kept at bay, as he too had many things surrounding him. But somehow… something was off, this wasn’t just regular anxiety or weirdness.
Something
felt off in the air.
Durge had a certain aura around him. Something Gale couldn’t quite pinpoint. The closer he had gotten to him, the easier it was to notice. For a while, he thought he knew Durge well. They were companions, they knew each other, they spoke, they supported each other. Gale even fell in love with him, feeling so safe and close to him. Even with the oddness and the strange sensation, for a while, things hadn’t felt odd. He had gotten used to Durge’s oddness and the strange looks in his eyes, his twitching jaw, how he seems to clench onto his weapons at all times, and those growls that he assumes are part of his heritage. He’s always been strange, a little bit violent in battle, but somehow… something isn’t right. It had just been easy to ignore as so many things had happened at once, such as murders at the camp, the death of many, and along with the massacre of Last Light’s Inn.
Somehow, those accidents seem to make Durge more unstable. Like something changed inside of him. When he kills, he seems to get so energized. Something is strange, something is off. Almost as if there's joy in it. Gale swore that he’s seen Durge in the corner of his eye, covered in blood, only for him to appear completely normal.
The further they get on their journey, the closer they get to Baldur’s Gate, the more concerned he becomes. Durge is secretly. He’s strange. He’s completely different, barely speaking, and just looking at everyone, especially Gale with… a look he can’t quite explain. He wants to be wrong, but he thinks he sees… pleasure? Bloodlust? Anger? All of it? It’s confusing, and it’s terrifying as it feels like he’s now a stranger to the one he loves, and this transition has happened practically overnight.
Gale is… Gale is scared of him. The way he clings onto his weapons, the way he sees the lust in his eyes when he kills someone, the manic laughter as he slits an enemy’s throat during battle. The way he’s started to look at Gale like that. The way he looks so strong, towering over him with power, he could so easily tear him apart with his bare hands. He’s seen that odd, unsettling grin. He’s felt the strange aura.
Durge feels completely different. As if he’s hid who he was the entire time, and the one Gale has fallen in love with… it feels like he didn’t exist. Like he’s never existed, and that he’s fallen in love with someone who wasn’t here. Because the dragonborn scared him as he felt like a stranger. And one who looked like him like prey.
He hopes he’s wrong with his concern. He really does.
Because he doesn’t want to admit that this person in front of him isn’t the person he’s fallen in love with. He’s just a shell, sharing the same body. He feels strange and unpredictable. Like a shadow, and Gale couldn't read him anymore. It's like looking at the darkness, trying to predict its moves. He can't, it's blank. With that look in his eyes, it sometimes looks like he's dreaming of lounging a dagger into his throat, and feeling like a stranger, he couldn't even truly tell himself that Durge wouldn't. Because now... he couldn't believe it. He couldn't be for certain that he's safe. If he would be attacked. If Durge cared for him, or saw him as prey.
His mind is a mystery to Gale. For better or worse.
And he’s scared of him, and the moment that he might snap.