"That is useless. The only way to truly get to know someone is through battle."

“That seems pretty constrained. I think actions are the best way to learn about someone, but fighting specifically is sort of. It’s just one facet in one set of situations, isn’t it?”

"Battles take many forms. A battle for survival is still a battle. A battle against the environment is still a battle. And..." She makes a face as if she's thoughtfully chewing on a particularly sour lemon. "A battle of wits can, I suppose, also be a battle."

"Well! Fair enough, then. I suppose this definition extends to multiple people cooperating towards an overarching goal, as well? As long as it matters."

"And yet I found the very fact that you think this very character-revealing, darling. Note to self: Lae'zel prefers to wrestle to decide who's going to top."

"...how else would you decide it?"

Ivy is so incredibly not engaging with ANY of that, nope, this looks like an excellent time to be busy eating. Conversation? What conversation, she's eating, there's no conversing here when her mouth is full.

Amen.

"And how about our newest druid friend, then? Does the lovely Ivy want to share something about herself with us?"

Damn it. Now she has to engage.

"I kind of feel like I've shared most of the important stuff already, really. You... were all there for it. I think that speaks louder than anything else?"

Don't mind Lae'zel, looking smug over here.

"Nevertheless, you never know what things one could be hiding just below the surface. Not all kinds of ivy are poisonous, but some are."

"... That's a terrible pun. Did you specifically ask me a question just so you could pun terribly with the nickname you came up with for me?"

"I did not! The pun occurred to me afterwards and felt too irresistible."

Snort.

"I nonetheless feel a bit used," she sniffs. And then it's back to eating. Nom nom.

Honey you have no idea what it feels like to be used.

(Later that night, when Astarion goes out to properly eat, he tries his hardest to not be spotted. Having a druid in your party who can talk to squirrels is not a problem he thought he'd ever need to account for, and yet here they are.)

Sneak past every animal in the immediate vicinity? While also trying to eat one of those animals? Well, she did say they were easily distractible, and maybe she won't wake up and immediately cast her spell to begin talking to them?

Nnnnnope. There she goes. Almost immediately after it's prepared.

And then she starts asking the birds about if they'd seen anything while they were resting.

"... Huh. It sounds like the goblins are having a party," she says, blinking.

"Let us cut their celebration short."

(Fucking hells.)

"What are they celebrating?"

She squints at him like he's asked a very strange question. "No idea. The details of motivations and why actions are being taken is really not the sort of things you can.... get out of birds? They're not stupid, well, most of them aren't, but they're also not really going to try and psychoanalyze the goblins."

"Well, how was I meant to know that," he says, a touch defensively. "Who knows what these adorable woodland creatures get up to."

"Mostly working to have comfortable lives with minimal danger and maximum amount of the things they like. Food, shelter, mates, that sort of thing."

"...huh. We may have more in common than I thought, me and them."