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faderift2016-07-08 04:01 pm
lionheartedman) wrote in faderift2016-07-08 04:01 pm
Cullen's July catch-all
WHO: Cullen, Puppy, and you
WHAT: working, bathing, walking, playing, traveling, politicing (ugh), wandering around Orlais feeling out of place
WHEN: spanning the month 1-15 in Skyhold, 16-20 traveling, 21-31 in Orlais
WHERE: various locations - the hot springs, Cullen's office, and walking the battlements and courtyards in Skyhold - the Inquisition foothold and anywhere someone convinces him to show his face in Orlais
NOTES: Since this log covers two very different locations, and because there are travel times associated with getting to and from these places, please make sure you tell me what day you want your thread on as well as where.
If none of the options provided work for you, you are free to come up with something on your own. I'm also willing to make custom starters, if asked. Just let me know.
Threadjacking is fine, negative CR is fine. Basically everything is fine.
HOT SPRINGS (Skyhold)
evening
Cullen tends to go bathing at odd hours. It's half practicality and half availability. In the middle of the night, scouts and messengers have stopped arriving, and he doesn't feel as guilty about taking time for himself. He's also less likely to run into anyone else, which is good for him for two reasons now. First, because it is nice to have a little slice of time with no expectations to rise to. Second, now that puppy is in his life, everywhere he goes he has (as Adelaide predicted) a little blue shadow. It seems a kindness to not expose bathers to the insistent demands of a young mabari wanting stimulation. It's also easier to bathe the dog with no one else around, and if Cullen is in the water, Puppy wants in the water.
Setting all that logical and responsible reasoning aside, he finds it easier to sleep after a hot bath. He's not sure why, but the days he doesn't have time to get down to the hot springs, the days his hygiene routine consists of a basin of hot water and a rag (though Puppy still goes splashing when Cullen is finished), there is no relaxation to accompany the fatigue when it settles in.
So it's the twilight hours that find him soaking his old bones, flicking water at Puppy as he runs eagerly around the edge of the pool, venturing into the shallows to bite at little bubbles and let Cullen rub soap into his short fur. The mabari has learned to be quiet, to keep from drawing attention, or disturbing the peace of anyone trying to sleep. That doesn't in any way lessen his desire for play. He paddles around in the warm water, chasing bars of soap and scrubbing stones and leaping from rock to rock playing a game of tag with the reflections cast and anyone who might break the stillness to join them.
daylight hours
Just because Cullen only bathes at night, that doesn't mean Puppy feels so confined. If his master will not pay attention to him, if he is too busy and Puppy feels unneeded, he's not above visiting the hot springs on his own. During the day, it's far noisier, and he doesn't feel the need to keep quiet. He'll find people, during the day, and people mean a chance to make a friend. He'll still chase the soap, and might eat it if it's natural and unscented.
OFFICE (Skyhold and Orlais both)
There are preparations to be seen to. He doesn't leave Skyhold often, and never for any extended length of time. Of course, just because he doesn't do it, doesn't mean he won't have to. Leliana is still ill, can't travel. He feels that Josephine if more than enough on her own in that city. She knows how to play their games, and Cullen does not. Even if he could learn, he would not want to.
Wherever he goes, there he is, and the paperwork follows. It always follows. He doesn't even get the rare pleasure of a bare desktop on his first day in Orlais. It's waiting for him, already piled high. He expects to be hunched over his work long into the night, and he also expects to be interrupted regularly. Life as usual.
TRAINING (Skyhold and Orlais both)
Just because it's a different sort of fight they're heading into, that doesn't mean his troops can shirk their training. Just because he will be away from a portion of them for a time, doesn't mean they get to slack. He will appoint someone he feels comfortable with to act in his stead while he is gone, keeping his troops in top shape, improving them as quickly and fully as possible. Those who travel to Orlais will not have an easier time of it. They are a representation of the Inquisition in a land that would rather not have them turn up and spoil the party. They will have to be themselves, but better. Through it all, daily training is a part of life now. When numbers are so small, they must be clever and skilled.
TRAVELING TO ORLAIS
The traveling is honestly not that bad. He's used to it. It's far nicer with Puppy, he must say. On horseback, the mabari marches along beside him. At times the little dog is puffed up with importance and the recognition that his person is the head person, and so he must be a hound worthy of such an important position. At other times, small distractions catch his attention and he is every inch the young puppy enamored with the entire world and eager to learn about it. When he gets tired, Cullen brings him up onto his horse, letting him curl in the crook of his arm and the tucked and secured cloth of his cape and chase nugs in his sleep.
When they stop to make camp, Puppy makes that time more tolerable, too. He is friendly with everyone in their group, doling out affection and encouragement around the fire, playing fetch and begging belly rubs, but always coming back to Cullen. It's not easy to sleep under the best of circumstances, and even worse on the road.
GENERAL ORLAIS
This is Cullen. He is in Orlais. He hates Orlais. Come make it better/worse for him. Or just watch him wander around hating his life. Your call.
PUPPY (this one works pretty much anywhere, and does not include Cullen)
A young mabari puppy appears! He has decided that the next slice of his life is going to include you. Deal with it.
Solace timeline
WHAT: working, bathing, walking, playing, traveling, politicing (ugh), wandering around Orlais feeling out of place
WHEN: spanning the month 1-15 in Skyhold, 16-20 traveling, 21-31 in Orlais
WHERE: various locations - the hot springs, Cullen's office, and walking the battlements and courtyards in Skyhold - the Inquisition foothold and anywhere someone convinces him to show his face in Orlais
NOTES: Since this log covers two very different locations, and because there are travel times associated with getting to and from these places, please make sure you tell me what day you want your thread on as well as where.
If none of the options provided work for you, you are free to come up with something on your own. I'm also willing to make custom starters, if asked. Just let me know.
Threadjacking is fine, negative CR is fine. Basically everything is fine.
HOT SPRINGS (Skyhold)
evening
Cullen tends to go bathing at odd hours. It's half practicality and half availability. In the middle of the night, scouts and messengers have stopped arriving, and he doesn't feel as guilty about taking time for himself. He's also less likely to run into anyone else, which is good for him for two reasons now. First, because it is nice to have a little slice of time with no expectations to rise to. Second, now that puppy is in his life, everywhere he goes he has (as Adelaide predicted) a little blue shadow. It seems a kindness to not expose bathers to the insistent demands of a young mabari wanting stimulation. It's also easier to bathe the dog with no one else around, and if Cullen is in the water, Puppy wants in the water.
Setting all that logical and responsible reasoning aside, he finds it easier to sleep after a hot bath. He's not sure why, but the days he doesn't have time to get down to the hot springs, the days his hygiene routine consists of a basin of hot water and a rag (though Puppy still goes splashing when Cullen is finished), there is no relaxation to accompany the fatigue when it settles in.
So it's the twilight hours that find him soaking his old bones, flicking water at Puppy as he runs eagerly around the edge of the pool, venturing into the shallows to bite at little bubbles and let Cullen rub soap into his short fur. The mabari has learned to be quiet, to keep from drawing attention, or disturbing the peace of anyone trying to sleep. That doesn't in any way lessen his desire for play. He paddles around in the warm water, chasing bars of soap and scrubbing stones and leaping from rock to rock playing a game of tag with the reflections cast and anyone who might break the stillness to join them.
daylight hours
Just because Cullen only bathes at night, that doesn't mean Puppy feels so confined. If his master will not pay attention to him, if he is too busy and Puppy feels unneeded, he's not above visiting the hot springs on his own. During the day, it's far noisier, and he doesn't feel the need to keep quiet. He'll find people, during the day, and people mean a chance to make a friend. He'll still chase the soap, and might eat it if it's natural and unscented.
OFFICE (Skyhold and Orlais both)
There are preparations to be seen to. He doesn't leave Skyhold often, and never for any extended length of time. Of course, just because he doesn't do it, doesn't mean he won't have to. Leliana is still ill, can't travel. He feels that Josephine if more than enough on her own in that city. She knows how to play their games, and Cullen does not. Even if he could learn, he would not want to.
Wherever he goes, there he is, and the paperwork follows. It always follows. He doesn't even get the rare pleasure of a bare desktop on his first day in Orlais. It's waiting for him, already piled high. He expects to be hunched over his work long into the night, and he also expects to be interrupted regularly. Life as usual.
TRAINING (Skyhold and Orlais both)
Just because it's a different sort of fight they're heading into, that doesn't mean his troops can shirk their training. Just because he will be away from a portion of them for a time, doesn't mean they get to slack. He will appoint someone he feels comfortable with to act in his stead while he is gone, keeping his troops in top shape, improving them as quickly and fully as possible. Those who travel to Orlais will not have an easier time of it. They are a representation of the Inquisition in a land that would rather not have them turn up and spoil the party. They will have to be themselves, but better. Through it all, daily training is a part of life now. When numbers are so small, they must be clever and skilled.
TRAVELING TO ORLAIS
The traveling is honestly not that bad. He's used to it. It's far nicer with Puppy, he must say. On horseback, the mabari marches along beside him. At times the little dog is puffed up with importance and the recognition that his person is the head person, and so he must be a hound worthy of such an important position. At other times, small distractions catch his attention and he is every inch the young puppy enamored with the entire world and eager to learn about it. When he gets tired, Cullen brings him up onto his horse, letting him curl in the crook of his arm and the tucked and secured cloth of his cape and chase nugs in his sleep.
When they stop to make camp, Puppy makes that time more tolerable, too. He is friendly with everyone in their group, doling out affection and encouragement around the fire, playing fetch and begging belly rubs, but always coming back to Cullen. It's not easy to sleep under the best of circumstances, and even worse on the road.
GENERAL ORLAIS
This is Cullen. He is in Orlais. He hates Orlais. Come make it better/worse for him. Or just watch him wander around hating his life. Your call.
PUPPY (this one works pretty much anywhere, and does not include Cullen)
A young mabari puppy appears! He has decided that the next slice of his life is going to include you. Deal with it.
Solace timeline
no subject
Her form is thin, might on another be called frail even, but there is a vicious vein of determination in her that banishes the word. (Never mind the cane she has been brought, and strictly instructed to use. Poison is not glamorous, has left hollows in her cheeks and grey ropes of scars across her throat that are largely obscured by the high collar of her uniform.
"Cullen." Her voice does not sound as it used to, and may not for some time, if ever. It rasps, the unpleasant scrape of metal against coals. "I am much improved. Thank you."
The pause is-- not quite awkward. "How goes your work? I fear I am less abreast of matters than is proper."
Do let's ignore the near death, and the need to discuss the sentencing, and a good many other things.
no subject
no subject
It is not quite teasing, not quite joking. They've never been close enough for that, and the rift (for lack of a better word) that Galadriel and Anders and other matters had brought between the Advisors had certainly not been conducive to bringing them any closer. She could hardly call it an olive branch, either - it has no such significance when she put the words together. She simply found herself caught only with her thoughts for days. For all that, the words are meant as lightly as she can offer them, in this moment.
Very carefully Leliana accepts the package. Her hands are, unusually, ungloved, and she holds them over the canvas without touching for several moments. It is a strange thing for her to have anything beyond the strictest necessities, and she looks at the parcel with quiet surprise for long moments before looking to Cullen with the slightest knit in her brow. "Thank you. I do not think I am familiar with them."
Admittedly her head is sometimes still a little foggy, but its improving vastly.
no subject
He didn't make them, and they are for her, but he still reaches out and plucks one from the pile, popping it into his mouth. They're safe. "Good for the throat. You sound horrible."
no subject
Perhaps it was fitting that the attempt on her life was such as it was. It was the sort of death she had carved for herself, working as she does. His bluntness, in this case, earns what might have been a laugh from her if her throat were not as it is, and if she were not so very much herself. It is a quiet huff of breath, the slight tilting of her head as she smiles.
"I could still sing far better than most of Skyhold," she replies, far too dryly, and pops one of the little sticky drops into her mouth. After the string of abhorrent potions and tinctures that sustained her for days it is a vast relief. "Thank you, Cullen."
A pause, where Leliana opens her mouth and intends to say-- to say something, but the words do not immediately follow as one might hope. "I... recent events have... " She frowns, and lets her fingers curl towards her palm in a loose fist. "I would have been sorry to have parted ways with matters between the Advisors as they were."
Are? She can hardly say, in truth, but she feels she is terrible cliche, to feel the need to reach out to those she works with after such events. Perhaps being cliche simply means it is not entirely unreasonable, but she is too good a storyteller to think that all cliches make sense.
no subject
And yet.
Leliana, of all people. She could be making fun of him. It's a possibility. Not one he thinks is very likely, but he also doesn't think that Leliana developing a soft spot for him is all that likely.
no subject
(Not really, but she does give him a bit of a look.)
"I just told you," Leliana resumes, crisply, "that it would have been unfortunate for morale had one Advisor died while at odds with at least two of the others."
It was not as though their front did not remain united, ultimately, but some normalcy and confidence was still in need of mending in the wake of Galadriel and the tensions that had lingered after Anders, as well. Skyhold had yet to be convinced they were fully side by side again, she thinks.
And perhaps there had been an element of slight sentimentality in it, but her pride just saw it rather neatly brushed aside.
no subject
"We get our jobs done. If the fate of this war rests on us all seeing eye-to-eye, I think we might be in quite a lot of trouble." He rested his elbows on his knees, steepled his hands together as he leaned forward. "Are you sure you should be talking this much?"
no subject
So seriously said, and yet... there is the slightest hint of a smile at the corners of her mouth that betrays her teasing (self-mockery? Not quite, no) for what it is. Leliana shrugs. "I will not be silenced so easily."
Though her throat does sound hoarse, sore, and Leliana grabs another one of the soothing drops.
no subject