getting ready for bed so obviously I'm thinking about that terrible old man again β€οΈ
What kind of sleeper is he? Or is he the type to avoid sleeping as much as possible? Is he quick to allow someone else into his bed? (I would be kicking him all night sry not sry)
Does he have a really annoying, long and tedious night time routine? (look, if he has such a large wardrobe, who says he doesn't take care of his skin just as much?) giggling when you mentioned that his hair is unruly, imagining him just waking up looking like a complete hedgehog... is he grumpy waking up...
okay sorry for the 10 thousand questions I. need to sleep. but the evil snail... the evil snail is whispering aurastor over and over again... pls send a biomancer my way π₯
but of course~
took a little longer to structure you an almost narrative reply lol. sorry, canβt ever help myself. mostly because this gave me an opp to write about one of my fave of his quirks, the ‘sleep in proximity of me please but no i won’t ask’ quirk.
Even a figure as driven and controlled as Saren von Aurastor must eventually contend with the voidfarer’s necessity for sleep, though for him, it seems less like rest and more like a state fraught with carefully managed contradictions.
Company is sometimes permitted within his opulent, often unnerving private quarters β entertained according to his mercurial whims and dismissed without ceremony once his interest wanes. However, a strict boundary remains: no one is permitted to be present when he finally succumbs to true unconsciousness. Vulnerability, even the simple vulnerability of sleep, is a state von Aurastor refuses to expose.
Yet, therein lies one of his deeper complexities. Those few within his inner circle who have survived his displeasure long enough might observe a strange, unacknowledged comfort he seems to find when a particularly trusted member of his retinue rests nearby β perhaps napping in view of his desk on a chaise, or asleep in an adjoining chamber β while he continues to work late into the ship’s cycle. It’s a proximity he would never solicit, perhaps not even consciously recognize, yet seems to quietly allow, hinting at a buried fear of total isolation or a need for guardianship he cannot admit.
He certainly possesses routines for sleep and waking, rituals that likely impose a semblance of order on the potential chaos within or without. Small comforts β a specific vintage of amasec, the tactile sensation of rearranging collected artifacts, the silent contemplation of a newly acquired star chart β are part of this, though their indulgence waxes and wanes with the volatile currents of his dark moods.
Contrary to what his sharp demeanor might suggest, immediately upon waking (assuming the sleep was deep and relatively untroubled) he can exhibit a rare, almost unsettling calm β perhaps the closest he comes to approachable neutrality. This placid surface, however, is exceptionally thin. Fatigue makes him dangerously irritable, his commands clipped, his patience non-existent.
And when Plagued By The Visions β those fragmented echoes of warp-trauma, fragmented memories, and possible taint β his temper becomes truly explosive, sharp and unpredictable enough to flay nerve and leave even seasoned voidsmen trembling.