driftfleet | 003 // we waltz on your front porch

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003 // we waltz on your front porch

Who: Dorian
Broadcast: Fleet-wide!
Action: USE A GODDAMN MINGLE LOG I HAVE TOP LEVELS IN ALL OF THEM kids these days
When: 2/14, night

[Drift fleet, are you ready? Here is your resident charming mage, looking extra charming tonight. He smiles, almost victoriously.]

I do hope you all know how to dance. I have managed to secure an open invitation for myself, and however many guests I wish, to a gala in seven days, on Adsum. Hopefully it's not entirely dull, but they would need at least three murders to make for an exciting evening...I wouldn't hold my breath, were I you.

Do let me know if you're interested. And I warn you, you had better make yourself fit for being seen in public.

[To Jove]
I do hope you have a proper gown.

[To Arhen]
How would you care for a party?

((OOC: Gala IC post! The gala log itself will be posted next Saturday. Also, Dorian is currently afflicted with the pheromones malfunction. Do with that as you will.))

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I have no doubt that you will be breathtaking, Krista. Perhaps someone will work up the nerve to ask you to dance- a fortunate man, or woman, of you prefer.

[she was going to say something about how she actually does know how to dance--but the rest of the comment makes her completely lose her train of thought and look a little like a deer in headlights.]

Uh... Um... [oh and maybe blushing a little.] M-Maybe!

[He chuckles softly, curious, and encrypts the feed.]

If it's not entirely too forward, which company do you prefer? Charming men? Charming women? Perhaps both?

[sssshhhe's just going to sink back down to the edge of the frame again.]

I... Uh... [...maybe she can crawl under a rock and never talk to another human ever again. maybe she can do that. is she blushing? she might be blushing.] It's not...

[Dorian likes to joke, but he doesn't like to make people uncomfortable. He bows his head softly.]

Forgive me if I've made you uncomfortable. You needn't answer if you don't wish. I was just curious.

[she... sinks more until she's completely disappeared from the frame.

...but a hand shoots up! pointing! she has a point!]

Boys are gross. Don't set me up with any boys. I will find you and kill you if you do.

[gosh, could it be that she copes with stress by being bossy and mean? possibly.]

[Dorian laughs at the threat. He's heard the same from classmates since he was a child. Threats to kill someone may as well be "good morning" in Tevene.

His chuckle and smile are warm, amused.]

Duly noted. I suppose when I was your age I would have had much the same sentiment about girls.

Well, girls are scary.

[she... climbs back up into view of the camera. the slide was entirely overdramatic, but at least she doesn't look so mortified anymore... the blushing is going down. she'll straighten out her hair.]

And both of them have cooties. True story.

I find boy cooties to be slightly more tolerable. Not to say that women are without virtue, and certainly there are quite a number of fine women, but they never interested me more than friends.

[He smiled softly.]

[she... looks at him, over the video feed. she's obviously thinking about something, but whatever it is... it takes her a while to decide to voice it, playing absently with whatever part of her hair she'd been straightening.]

...Even now?

[He nods softly.]

Even now, knowing it might have meant I would be alone. Being true to your heart is far more important than what society thinks is good and acceptable. It's not worth it to live life screaming on the inside.

[she should probably have a lot more to say to that. thinking about this kind of stuff makes her fingers tense up and it feels like her insides are squirming to avoid the topic entirely. a normal person might have had a whole mess of feelings to throw out, or... words, questions, at the very least. but Krista, despite having a whole tome of things to say on most subjects, just looks down at the edge of the tablet screen.]

Okay.

[It took Dorian many years to accept that about himself. To realize that gnawing wrongness he felt about the thought of a life married to a girl meant that he was different. At first, he thought maybe it was hopeless romanticism- that he wouldn't marry a girl he didn't love. Or, perhaps, he had not found the right woman yet. Even still, in Tevinter, men were able to be with women and not feel the same things Dorian had.

His father had begged him, at first, pleaded with him to think of what was right. Told him that he could take a slave, someone to share his bed when he wanted for company. He only needed to fuck a woman for an heir, he was told. Please, his father said, please, Dorian, think of your family.

As Dorian's refusal became clearer, more forceful rejection of his father's plans, there was less pleading and more yelling. His father, the man who had meant more to him than anyone else as a child, denounced him, told him he was no son of his.

And then, in an act of desperation, Halward Pavus turned to blood magic to try to cure his son- to cure him of something that was not wrong with him.

Dorian remembered very clearly the moment he realized that he was different, that it finally dawned on him, but it had been a slow building and a great deal of guilt in knowing that he was only going to disappoint his father.

If there was anything he could do to prevent someone else from struggling as he had, he would do it, gladly. Somehow, he knew he was not the first man asked to live a lie, and there were always tales of Magisters fallen from grace, of branches of families that died out- old bachelors and spinsters who were quietly written out of history. Tevinter was good at that- eliminating things that didn't fall in line, and constructing history to ignore the realities of the people that had been crushed under the Imperium.

Dorian was just the reality of a bloodline ending, and he would not let them erase him from history, as well.]

Let me know if you ever wish to speak on it, Krista. I won't bring it up unless you want to.

Okay.

[she blinks, suddenly, eyes a little wet--shaking her head in surprise. she smiles purely in defense and laughs awkwardly, dabbing at her eyes with her fingers before it can get bad. before her makeup can run.]

Hah, oh my god... [don't cry. don't cry. not again.] I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make this all weird, I really... just... think I need to think about it for a while. I don't know.

[she bites down on her lower lip a second, nodding. she's not sure what it is that's eating her. she needs time to sit down, analyse the beast. dissect away claws and teeth before she tries to talk to it.]

But... Thanks. That's really good of you. I promise I won't just ditch out, okay?

[Dorian smiles a little, because he knows he would have reacted much the same, if their positions were reversed. For all of his bluster, he could be a terribly emotional man, and never thought to hold himself back.

He was Tevene. The Tevene had no reserve in anything. They were a people of extremes. And that meant that Dorian was no stranger to crying.]

I promise you that I am the last man to judge. If ever you need, I will be here.

[It's odd that he'd find himself being so candid with her, but he suspects he understands what she is going through. If he'd had someone he could have relied on when he was her age, life would have been so much less confusing.

And he scoffs a laugh, to distance himself from the fact that he cared.]

At the very least, let me know when you need a trim. I can't have you looking a fright. I even have a surprise for you, next time you come to see me.

[yes, please, let them both pretend that none of this caring ever happened. she recovers very quickly from this kind of thing. she's getting tired of a bunch of near-strangers seeing her cry about her feelings all the time.

and... the mention of a surprise is distracting enough. she's happy to have something else to latch onto.]

Really? You... Really? What kind of surprise?

[He chuckles softly.]

If I tell, that would all but ruin the surprise! You must come to visit me to find out what it is. Perhaps it's a book. Or...perhaps it's a three-headed viper with wings. I cannot say.

I would love a three-headed viper with wings.

[okay, her laugh sounds a little less awkward and a little more like she's actually tickled by the idea.]

Okay. I'll probably come by sooner rather than later.

I look forward to seeing you. Do take care.

[And with that, he cuts the feed.]

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003 // we waltz on your front porch

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