...it's not for his sense of oh whatever.

"I suppose I won't deny you your eye candy if you want it so much."

She ignores him and continues to make her way onwards.

He's not sure he's personally doing much to keep her safe but she's definitely going to be keeping him safe so he'll follow her. Even as they have to climb fleshy vines to reach an exposed higher level of the ship and walk over things that go squelch when you step on them.

Has he mentioned mind flayer ships are revolting? Because they're revolting. He's used to skulking in the underbelly of Baldur's Gate but at least when he does that there are thick leather boots between his feet and the bodily fluids that inevitably paint those streets and alleyways, and this is substantially more unpleasant than that.

The next room is another one of those rooms with pods with people in them. Unlike the room they came from, however, there's no brine pool in the center; instead, there's a mildly pulsating fleshy organic access terminal (which accesses... what?) and four slanted operating tables. Two of them have humans strapped onto them, still breathing but seemingly insensate.

"Do not touch these machines," the gith hisses. "We do not know what they do."

"When you ask so nicely..."

He walks around the machine to inspect the two humans.

Once he's angled such that he can see the top of their skulls he'll notice that they've been cleanly and smoothly cut off to expose the brains inside. The gith ignores this and goes on to explore the rest of the room, watching for traps.

At which point he'll be able to hear the muffled sounds of cries for help from within one of the pods.

Astarion whirls around to look at the source of the noise, his grip on his knife tightening, but then relaxes when he sees what it was.

Also: this means that the gith could totally hear him in the other room and just chose to ignore him. Ice cold.

He walks over to the pod.

"You! Help me out of here, please!"

"We have no time for stragglers," she says, having walked over to investigate whatever had grabbed Astarion's attention.

On the one hand, yeah. On the other...

...he wishes the gith had helped him.

"I will look for a way to get you out!" he calls before starting to examine the pod.

"Try that contraption next to the pod! They did something to it when they sealed me in."

Contraption next to the pod... aha, there it is. Aaaand he is just as unfamiliar with this as he was with the one from earlier.

However, he can feel a tug in his mind, something almost... calling to him.

Oh, wonderful, something calling to him from weird mind flayer machines, what could possibly go wrong.

...well, if he's about to turn into a mind flayer himself, he might as well make use of his newfound psychic powers in the interim.

"I will not stay and watch you die at the hands of this contraption," the gith declares. She turns around and goes into one of the two anus-doors leading out of this room (other than the one they came in through).

The parasite starts to squirm inside Astarion's head, the pressure growing into pain... and then fading. And then another sensation washes over him: authority.

Psychic powers ahoy.

Open, he thinks intently at the device.

It works. As he does that, the pod opens, releasing its captive.

She falls to her knees, gasping for air, and looks up at her saviour. "I thought I would die. Thank you." Pause. "Why are you nude."

"I was kidnapped while I was in the middle of a very relaxing bath, and my day has only gotten worse from there. Until, that is, I met you and that other beauty. Things are looking up."

And then they connect, and for a moment he can feel her thoughts. Gratitude towards him, wariness towards the gith, unwavering purpose washing through her.

"...the parasites."

"Mmhmm. I fear this will not be the last time, at least until we become mind flayers ourselves."

"—we must not. I have a mission." And speaking of the mission, she climbs to her feet and reaches into her pod for an artefact: a strange regular metal icosahedron with slightly concave faces.

None of his business.

"I'm Astarion. 'Tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance."