just when you think you've seen it all - closed

[lionheartedman]

WHO: Cullen, Leliana, Josie, and Cassandra
WHAT: meeting of the advisors
WHEN: now-ish? /waves hands all wibbly about time
WHERE: War Room

Cullen's afternoon has gotten away from him somewhat, but he's sure he'll be forgiven. Each of them knows what being in this position demands, and how incredibly impossible it makes it to have any sort of real plan for your day, or even for your life. Still, he's not expecting the wildly different facial expressions and the troubling amount of concern he can practically feel hit him in the face when he opens the door to the War Room. "All right. What's this little problem?" More importantly… "Why was little underlined twice? If this is about the nug infestation, I anticipate a rather... unpleasant argument."

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[lionheartedman]

At the mention of running with sharp objects, it's a physical strain for Cullen to not physically put himself between Leliana and Baldewin. Which is about the moment he realizes that he's got no chance here. Once the word child is uttered, the boy is smart enough to realize that he is the topic of their conversation, and he looks up with wide and still slightly shocked eyes. "Are you sending me away?" Yeah, Cullen has no chance at all, and all three of them know it. At least Josephine has the good manners not to smile smugly.

"No," he answers, almost automatically. The decision is made. The decision has been made, he's just now accepting it. "We are not sending you away. You're safe here." He bites the inside of his cheek at the lingering traces of fear on that little face. "Do you like dogs?" When the boy nods, so does Cullen. "Why don't we see if we can go find my mabari, then?" When the child stills for a moment, considering, and then lifts his arms in a request to be picked up, the similarities to Puppy choosing him in the kennels are not lost on the Commander. Well, at least now he knows where he stands, and he scoops the boy up with one arm braced against the back of his legs.

He pauses at the door on the way out, completely certain that the discussion is far from over simply because he's leaving. If anything, the next era of his life is about to be discussed in ever greater detail, now that he will not be present to hamper it. "A family," he says to Josephine. Not an employee. Not a single person hired to bring him up in secret, but a place to really belong. "One we can trust. Try to find a family."