[open] we sit and grow our roots into the floor

[onlyhymns]

WHO: Cade and his many friends and admirers
WHAT: a dumb sulky baby got hurt at the Winter Palace because he was dumb and now he is sulking about it
WHEN: post-Halamshiral, simultaneous with red lyrium plot hell
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Injury stuff, nothing ridiculous



The Healing Tents

For the umpteenth time in the span of two years, Cade is under supervision. But this time it's not because he was violent-- well... it was, but indirectly-- it's because he got a couple spikes of red lyrium through the thigh after flipping out and battling Red Templars completely unarmored in the Winter Palace.
He ingested red lyrium once before, and from what anyone can tell it caused him to smack an elf. This is a lot more of the stuff, and Cade is notoriously unstable, so he's being watched to make sure it doesn't alter his personality.

He's the first to reassure the healers that lyrium doesn't work like that, you have to take it daily and it slowly builds up in you and so forth, but, you know, caution is caution. He respects it. But he hates being fussed over, so periodically he'll sneak off a small ways just to have a bit of solitude.


Near the Healing Tents, Being a Renegade

Usually this means sitting up on the ramparts and watching people, reading, anything that gets him a little peace and quiet. For someone who seems to thrive on being told what to do, no one can tell Cade what to do and he will be stubborn for as long as it takes for him to be deemed Safe again.

This is pointless.


Choose Your Own Adventure

Whatever else! Hit me up if you want a specific scene, or just start one here and I will accede to your whims.

Comments

[samahl]

Cyril shrugs and then settles a bit. He gives Cade a bit more space. "So, what is it about me being homosexual that bothers you?" he asks. "You don't strike me as the type who is torn up about the dwindling numbers of elves in the world."

[onlyhymns]

This is an awkward question, and Cade knows his answer will be stupid, but he also feels beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is right. It's the same way he knows that he likes sweets and that the Maker is real: it's just a fundamental truth.
Because if it weren't, why would it be so shameful?

"It's... no, it's just..." He fidgets. "...wrong."

If it were right, he wouldn't have been begged to keep it a secret. It wouldn't have felt so threatening.

[samahl]

Cyril had been expecting a few different things but that is so unexpected that for a moment he just seems a little flabbergasted. "I'm sorry? It's... wrong? For me to love men?" he repeats them as if he wasn't sure he was hearing correctly. "I've never heard that before. I've heard that it's wrong for me to choose my desires over continuing my race, but the idea that my desires are just plain wrong is new to me."

He pauses a bit, considers Cade a little more intensely. "Do you care to share how it's wrong?" his voice is extremely sweet. The kind of sweetness that those who knew him better would be able to tell was hiding something angry and dark.

[onlyhymns]

Cade doesn't know him, but being a sensitive sort who generally assumes people are angry with him, he's beginning to pick up on the shift in Cyril's mood.
He doesn't want to talk about this. There's no evidence or real reason he can give, and Cade's fear shows as he glances to and fro, avoiding the elf's eyes. The back of his throat feels raw.

Rather than engage the question, he just shakes his head, though it looks less like a 'no' and more like an 'I have no idea what to do right now'.

[samahl]

"It just seems like such a strange thing to consider 'wrong,'" Cyril continues, still using the same tone of voice. "Actions are wrong. For example, attacking an innocent woman would be considered wrong. But this is something that is innate to me. Calling that wrong is the same as saying that having blonde hair or a stupid expression is wrong."

[onlyhymns]

As Cyril persists, so sweetly and dangerously, Cade takes a nervous step back, still gripping the post but about to let it go with his next step. He's starting to hear that roaring in his ears, the drowning out of all rational thought and present sensation, which tends to precede an episode.

Taking the jab about attacking innocent women exactly as it was intended, he says 'I know' so quietly that he seems to mouth it, his gaze still fixed downward. Merrick is Cyril's brother, he can't stop remembering, and his stomach turns.

He's barely listening to what Cyril says as he continues backing up, carefully so he doesn't hurt his leg, toward the safety of the healing tents.

[samahl]

Cyril actually makes a bit of a disgusted noise once Cade starts to retreat. He usually has better control of his emotions but this subject is so raw to him. He just accepted the fact that he won't be married to a good elven woman and now someone is acting like there's something inherently wrong with his preference - not just the choice to not marry but that there was something actually wrong with him. It brings back emotions he had thought he was over.

He just shakes his head and lets Cade go. If he just wants to imply that Cyril is wired wrong and retreat he can. The two of them don't have to talk or interact. It wasn't as if extending a hand of friendship would even really work with someone who considered him wrong.