faderift | (no subject)

WHO: Warden!Felix and OPEN. (Starters for Kaiden, Bruce, Dorian, Ellana, and Adele. If you want your own starter just ask!)
WHAT: Felix returns after his Joining and looks much better. Also he's hungry. (The Kaidan thread is during training, set before they return to Skyhold.)
WHEN: About a week or two after Felix's Joining.
WHERE: His training took place at the remains of Haven, the rest is at Skyhold.
NOTES: None yet!

Less than a month ago, Felix had been a dead man. Now, he's at least upright. Things aren't prefect. He still has the taint and he has the ever present fact of the False Calling to contend with, but he's not wasting away anymore.

People who had seen him before will know that he's doing better. His cheeks are fuller and he isn't stumbling. He's able to move without aid. Despite the less than perfect circumstances, he thinks it's wonderful. If it weren't for the fact that he was trying to put on a good face as the newest Warden, he might have tried to dance around like an idiot.

He's still acting a bit like an idiot, but rather than dancing he's trying to get food from the kitchens. The servants might be a little annoyed that he keeps pestering them, but at least he knows how to apologize and thank them. He pesters politely which is likely a nice change.

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"And we couldn't have that, could we? No, too much at stake to just leave it be."

He is aware of Felix's silence, as aware as he might be of a hand placed on his shoulder, but silence can't be shaken off. It opens itself up to be filled with words. Dorian addresses the view, rather than the man at his side.

"He-- my father," he supplies, patiently, a momentarily lapse in pretending he's not soliloquising to the cold, impassive mountain range beyond, "he had me taken back to Qarinus. It was a struggle, and it wasn't pretty, nor particularly dignified. But he had a plan, this time, where words had failed him before. He intended to use blood magic in an effort to alter me."

It still doesn't sound like a real thing to say. It's perverse, and in a sense, shameful -- not just on Halward's behalf, but Dorian's. But he's had practice in turning that edge of anger outward, directed where it's appropriate, but less practice in confessing it to a third party. His voice is steady, but heartbreak puts a raw edge on it.

"If he couldn't make me listen to reason, he could at least change my proclivities and secure the marriage he'd been planning since before my birth. Fulfil at least one of the tasks set out for me."

Felix's reaction in immediate his eyes widen a bit and he feels as if there's some kind of vice gripping his chest. Blood magic? All because he couldn't accept Dorian for who he was? It's horrifying, even more when you know all that could go wrong with such a thing.

Felix is well aware of how Tevinter works. He's been aware ever since his grandfather tried to have him assassinated for the crime of being a weak mage. But somehow he had thought Halward above all of that, maybe because Gereon had been his friend.

But then, Gereon had fallen far too. At least he would never resort to blood magic.

"Dorian..." Felix says and then he does close the gap between them and put a hand on his friend's arm. "That's horrible. I'm so sorry you had to face that alone."

"Ha, well. I'd have hated for anyone to have been party to it, so there is that."

But there's no shrugging away Felix's hand. It would be a hypocritical thing to play at being above such gestures after years of Felix being at the mercy of his own sickness where Dorian could see, and so, his hand rests over the other man's knuckles in acknowledgement, even if he isn't looking.

"It told me well enough where his priorities lay, at any rate. I've only met with him once since then -- somewhat recently, but you were-- I would have told you, but you were ill. I didn't want something like that to be among the last things we spoke about. And I know how you are; you worry."

"I do worry," Felix responds. He squeezes Dorian very lightly, just to make a point of showing that he's there. "You are worth worrying about."

He still can't believe Halward would have done such a thing. It makes him angry and frustrated. Even the best among them fall to the temptations. His father had done it, and now he found that Dorian's had as well. The best they could do was try to be better than their parents.

"It's probably best I wasn't there. I would have tried to hit him. That would have caused me to pass out from the strain and then you would have been the one worrying." A pause. "Please tell me that you didn't go alone. There had to have been someone with you." At least to make sure there was no longer a danger.

It's these little moments where Dorian wonders about whether he ought to have fallen in love with Felix properly, quickly followed by another little moment of berating himself for getting starry eyed over men with nice jaw lines telling him he's worth anything at all. All the same, his posture loses just a touch more tension, and there's a fond glance spilled Felix's way.

"No, no. He took care of that well enough. He contacted an acquaintance of mine here in Skyhold -- a noble girl," she's literally his age, "Lady Thevenet, whom he tried to convince to lie to me about the circumstances of the meeting. She didn't, obviously, but we both went anyway. We expected to meet a retainer, but he came all this way in person."

This is the bit where he relates what happened, but Dorian hesitates over it. Mixed feelings war amongst themselves.

"He said he had only wanted me to be happy," is said, with enough irony and eyeroll to make clear where Dorian's feelings on that lie.

"You can be happy as you are," Felix responds. He relaxes as well as Dorian explains he wasn't alone. If he had had access to his wealth he would have wanted to buy Lady Thevenet a gift of some kind. He was glad that Dorian had friends who would look out for him, though it was hardly surprising. Dorian was charming, as well he knew.

"I know everyone wants you to think otherwise, but you can be. You deserve to be. To the Void with anyone who disagrees." That's probably the strongest language that Felix allows himself, but he feels this so deeply and completely.

"He needs to learn that and leave you to it. Not try to change you."