III. SEMI-CLOSED.

[liberalum]

WHO: Dorian Pavus and the continued adventures of less dashing people.
WHAT: After briefly reuniting with his father, Dorian returns to Skyhold to navigate the current local turmoil and not have feelings where anyone can see.
WHEN: The latter half of Haring.
WHERE: Skyhold.
NOTES: This is a catch-all for pre-planned threads, rather than open prompts. PM or plurk me if you'd like to do something!

Comments

[liberalum]

It's strange -- had Adelaide not understood, or attempted to defend Halward, well, Dorian would likely be angry and say the things she's saying now. As it stands, there is a curious urge to defend him. To parrot the unlikely claims that he had acted in Dorian's interest only. He manages to stop himself with a strange, abortive sound in his chest that might have been a laugh if he'd been in the mood for laughing.

"Better dead," he agrees, as to the risks, the knowledge thereof. "Or a drooling vegetable. Most men like me are content to do their duty, keep everything else behind closed doors. It's one thing to bed another man, but not done to love one."

He is silent, for a moment, then; "I didn't think I'd ever see him again. And I was prepared to fight whatever retainer he'd sent for me if necessary -- I'd been unprepared, the last time."

[fleurdesel]

"...last time." There is a story there- the fact that he was prepared to fight it? She-



No. Wine. More wine. For both of them. She tops off their glasses and takes a deep swig of hers, somber and silent in her protective outrage. When Dorian became someone she would feel this for- she's not quite sure. Somewhere between the garden and Felix and sniping in the library, most likely.

[liberalum]

It's not a story he desires to recount in avid detail, just another humiliation to add to his impressive list. So, Dorian's explanation is short; "I refused to go home, and so he arranged to remove the element of choice from the equation. This, and then his attempt with blood magic. I'll tell you, it made for delicious scandal -- although, as far as I can tell, no one caught on to the bit about the ritual. I imagine my father bought that silence with an impressive sum.

"Still. Stories abounded. What will the wayward Pavus scion do next? What new disgrace can he possibly bring about this time?"

A slight gesture of his wine adds to the affect of lower house gossip.

And his hand lowers, that feeling of emptiness settling once more after joke is done. "I don't have to ask you don't repeat it. It's not anything I'm proud to have experienced."

[fleurdesel]

"Why do I get the feeling he made some manner of commentary on the work you are doing with the Inquisition?" Because Dorian's father is, apparently, an ass. And it is the sort of bullshit she expects from such men and their temperaments; their disapproval as much a blessing as a wound. This is an ache she and Compassion cannot mend with magic- to be certain some mages can ease the hearts of those around them.

Adelaide is not in their number. But she does have wine, quite a bit of it, and a free afternoon.

"You have my word." And if there are a few things she's kept of her noble upbringing- it is that LeBlancs keep their word. "None shall hear it from me."

[liberalum]

"You'd think I'd joined the circus," Dorian confirms, a little wry, in a way that for today has become increasingly sad. He had warned her. Maudlin.

He drinks.

And takes her seriously at her word in that he scarcely nods confirmation. "He thinks I'm only continuing to avoid responsibility, or him personally, but then, the Imperium at large thinks we're all a bunch of fearmongering fanatics. I came to do what I believed was right. If I wanted to run away from my father, I could do it in a manner that doesn't involve mountaineering."

[fleurdesel]

"...To be fair, we have our moments." The fighting, the mischief, the songs in the tavern. She does not envy those that must mind the entirety of the Inquisition one bit. "And you do have the dramatic flair for it."

Watching him cast is one part show and two parts exasperation- she personally prefers quick, efficient gestures- not all this twisting and flourishing. But that, all of that is beside the point. "Somewhere a good deal warmer as well, I should think, if all you wished was to be away. There is all of Thedas to vanish to if you wished to be away."

[liberalum]

This first part gets a sketch of a smile, but no comment. How seriously he takes the Inquisition is practically embarrassing and doesn't warrant closer analysis, but there's no denying simple truths. The things he does, and the friends he's made.

"I was staying with someone when he sent people for me," he confesses, a little further. "There was a scuffle, people died. What friends I had left in Tevinter, well, they don't want to get on the sharper end of the Pavus dynasty now that there's blood on the ground. But I still managed a level of comfort before Felix contacted me with what his father was doing in Redcliffe, with the southern mages, the Venatori, all that rot. I gave up everything I had to follow."

He tips his glass, dismissive of his own words. "I don't expect to be played even the smallest violin. People show up penniless at the gates of Skyhold every day. But it can, occasionally, begin to chafe when only a scattered handful of people seem to remember that about me, and to hear it from him, like I'm going through yet another phase. And he thinks he knows me."

[fleurdesel]

His glass that needs refilling, Adelaide does so without comment- they would be down here for some time and if nothing else? This is something worth drinking over. Family and the many ways in which they could disappoint you; there is no greater cause to drink than perhaps heartbreak. There may be shades of it in this for Dorian but it is not hers to pry.

He tries. He tries harder for all that he is flippant; whether or not most notice that or not she can't say. But Adelaide does. It is the one reason she was comfortable enough to sit with him, speak with him. To take his word and his regard seriously in matters with the Council. "People are selfish with their empathy, this age. They save it for those they approve of rather than those that might be strange to them but equally deserving."

Like a Tevinter Altus, estranged from his homeland and his family, fighting to see a better world.

"Is that not common?" She wouldn't know- mages are taken from their families here. Other than letters she has not seen her family, heard of them, or disappointed them since she was a child. "Assuming they know you, and that they know best."

[liberalum]

"Probably."

This comes out a little flat and grudging, gently tipping wine glass subtle to watch the fluid within paint the sides and fade away again. "I appreciate your listening. I know if Felix were feeling better than he is, he'd be the one pouring wine and reminding me that this fresh stupidity is only more of the same. We've seen one another at our personal worsts, after all. Even if his worst is the sort that nets easy sympathy."

That's the sort of joke that only works if you've been around Felix any length of time. He isn't one to milk for sympathy, or attention of any kind. Dorian drains his glass a mouthful of wine.

[fleurdesel]

"You've heard my unfortunate and troubled past. It is only fair." Though hers had been less lasting in stabs that build up over time to twist a man into knots with his own family and more singularly traumatic event- the two weren't equivalent. Different shades of pain that can't be soothed with magic. Seeing his father, then, must have been like wrenching the stitches from a slow mending wound.

"...He's well enough for you to visit and drink with him, if you prefer. Though not to the usual excess." With the relatively recent collapse yet lingering she cannot recommend much by the way of wine.