Dᴏʀɪᴀɴ Pᴀᴠᴜs, ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ᴅɪsᴀsᴛᴇʀ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
serpentis) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
driftfleet2015-01-21 06:38 pm
serpentis) wrote in driftfleet2015-01-21 06:38 pm
001 // too much time
Who: DORIAN THE EXPLORIAN (Dorian Pavus)
Broadcast: Video, fleet-wide
Action: The Marsiva~
When: 1/21
[Dorian spends a fair deal of time poking around the ship before deciding to try out sending a broadcast. He's not entirely certain how he knows how to use the device, only that he does, and that almost unnerves him.
Still, his voice is pleasant, almost chipper.]
Well, if this isn't a curious little jaunt that I didn't exactly expect to take this afternoon. I do hope someone might be able to enlighten me as to where, exactly, I am...and when, for that matter. ...and where one might find passable reading material would also be appreciated.
Broadcast: Video, fleet-wide
Action: The Marsiva~
When: 1/21
[Dorian spends a fair deal of time poking around the ship before deciding to try out sending a broadcast. He's not entirely certain how he knows how to use the device, only that he does, and that almost unnerves him.
Still, his voice is pleasant, almost chipper.]
Well, if this isn't a curious little jaunt that I didn't exactly expect to take this afternoon. I do hope someone might be able to enlighten me as to where, exactly, I am...and when, for that matter. ...and where one might find passable reading material would also be appreciated.
Video
Tevene is both a welcome tongue, and one that he speaks with the warm caution of a magister. He knows how to play the games that speakers of Tevene need, though he finds them loathsome.]
So it would seem. But not so quite alone as I had thought, apparently.
no subject
Do not fool yourself. Tevinter has not been a home for me for many years. I would sooner watch it burn.
no subject
Truly? Curious. It hasn't been my home for some time, as well. They don't seem to appreciate it when you don't play by their rules.
no subject
No, they do not. Even when they do not realise that their rules will be their undoing. That they will undo the entirety of Thedas if things went their way.
no subject
That they would. There needs to be a great change in Tevinter, or it will remain a nest of vipers that will consume itself from the inside.
Dorian, of house Pavus.
no subject
[He rolls through the house names in his head, the names, as a slave, he had to know. You need to know, after all, exactly how to not offend such-a-magister, or risk your master's wrath. Danarius's wrath was something no sane person would attempt to bring upon themselves, so his slaves learned. And fast. After a while, he places it. ]
Lordship over Asariel.
...
Fenris.
no subject
That would be my father, Halward Pavus. I am merely the outcast son.
You're a curious one, Fenris.
[He has a dozen theories, narrowing them down. An elf, who hates Tevinter, more than likely a slave. Dorian could tiptoe around that issue for the moment- he recalled how one such elf reacted when they discussed that exact issue. The Inquisitor, a slim, Dalish man with eyes like the rift itself, didn't seem to share Dorian's sentiments.]
no subject
My former master certainly thought so. He deeply enjoyed showing me off to the rest of the Magisterium during those parties the upper classes love so much.
[He pauses, pulls himself from his own bitter thoughts to give Dorian a careful look. He still not sure if this is some terrible trick or not. He's spent so much of his energy despising Tevinter and every soul within it, and here is someone who seems to have fallen from their graces. It's too good to be true, and he feels like it's a trap.]
Though perhaps not you, if they have ostracised you.
no subject
Ah, yes, the parties. What good would our excesses be if we could not parade around like overstuffed pigeons?
[Dorian catches that look, and it's matched with one of his own. Were they face to face, he would have raised his chin, made damned certain that Fenris knew he wasn't someone to be toyed with- that was simply how things were done in Tevinter, and if they wanted to keep pacing about each other like vipers, showing their fangs, well, he would play along with it.
It was almost comforting, almost unnerving, to know how easily he could take small cues like that and know exactly what to do. Social graces in the Imperium were almost like dancing on knives- one slight misstep could mean your death.]
I will admit that I miss a fine meal. But the parties were never just that. Our situations were different, but not entirely dissimilar, in some ways.
[Livia, other girls, Dorian had been paraded before them like something from his father's stable. That was just the way the Magisters were, and it sickened him more than anything else.]
no subject
Please. You have clearly never been a slave. Our situations are as different as day and night. You may be looked down upon by your family, but your freedom is still YOURS. Unless you are going to tell me you spent night after night being starved of food and sleep. Of being beaten for any tiny slight. Of being reminded every second of every day how absolutely worthless you are.
no subject
Halward Pavus was not a cruel man, and that was one of the things that was impressed to Dorian from a young age. Of course, they had slaves, they were a ruling family, it's simply what was done. But their slaves had been kept from the streets, given a home, a sort of a family. They had quarters, they had clothes that were befitting a Magister's household. They were kept well, and from everything that Dorian could ever tell, they were pleased enough with their end of the situation. It was better than starving in the streets, in inescapable poverty, by far.
He had known, distantly, that some Magisters were not as kind- they were not always kind men. But that was always something different, not a person staring him down, it was a distant, abstract concept.
Not now, though. And for once, he was at a loss for words. It would have been easier if Fenris had physically hit him- he would have easier had words for that.]
I...well...I was only...
...you are right.
I know better than to doubt your words- there are cruel men in Tevinter. Forgive me.
no subject
...Is this a game? I have never seen anyone from the Altus anything like you.
no subject
And that is precisely the problem, I fear. There are less men like me in Tevinter than there are vipers in the Magisterium.
[Dorian knew he was not a Good man, not in the sense of a person full of virtue. But he knew what was right, and what needed to change. It didn't make him a good person, he thought, only one that was sensible, if foolish.
For all that he spoke of Tevinter, he loved his homeland, dearly. It was to him as Halward Pavus was- something he loved, but knew needed to change. Something he could not be a part of now, but some day he would be able to make the changes necessary.
It was ambitious, and foolish, but he didn't think that even Tevinter was beyond redemption.]
no subject
I do not know what to make of you. I have hated your kind for such a long time. I have only known of the cruelties of the upper classes.
[A part of him is annoyed. Denied his usual bloodlust and rage against his countrymen. He feels almost cheated. Cheated by something he never thought could actually exist.]
You are either a master of manipulation or you are something I never thought possible.
...
Or possibly you are insane.
no subject
But I will not rest until I see it changed for the better. Even if it means going the path of my forefathers.
[Gideon Pavus was, to Dorian, a beacon of hope, a shining example that his family had always tried to do good, and could be the best hope that Tevinter has ever had.]
no subject
[This is unsettling. It was so much easier to assume Tevinter was a lost cause forever. Maker's balls, Dorian why do you have to exist? You make his whole vengeance thing a lot less sharp now.]
You have a difficult task set ahead of you.
no subject
I might be the best hope that there is to sorting out the viper's nest and changing things. Foolish, idealistic, but it needs to be done.
[He smiles, if a bit bitterly, knowing that it was possible he would be laughed at, a fool. But he knew somewhere in his heart that Tevinter must change, and that he would see to it.]
no subject
I fear you will likely run yourself into an early grave, than fix that place.
[A part of him, though...]
The slavery would have to go.
no subject
[He brings a hand to his chin, thinking. Perhaps contracted servitude or some other system where the poor could still sell their way into a household.]
no subject
[Varania's words come back to haunt him, though. How she and their mother starved, struggled to survive, thanks to the actions he had taken. The ones he does not remember. Did he truly condemn them to such a life? He never stopped to look at the souls struggling on the bottom rung in Tevinter. He just turned his back and ran and ran until he hit the Waking Sea.]
I would not spend my time tearing the hearts out of slavers if I felt otherwise.
1/2
[He still feels conflicted, but if that must change, so be it. Better that the system be humane than the chance that someone could suffer, as Fenris had. The Magisters had gone too far and needed to be dealt with, if there was to ever be a bright future for Tevinter.
That was enough for today. He knew where to set his feet after Corypheus was dealt with, now he just had to figure out how to get back.]
Fortunate that you were here, Fenris. You've given me much to think about.
no subject
I do hope to see more of you. Perhaps not separated by a screen sometime, we could make a proper introduction, perhaps get a drink.
[Dorian I cannot take you anywhere I s2g]
no subject
[His expression suddenly becomes blank at that proposition. Before he carefully puts the communicator face down on the table and walks away.
Maybe he'll come back?
Probably not, though.]