004 // the house of sin

[serpentis]

Who: Dorian and assorted guests
Broadcast: Fleet-wide, 3/10
Action: In a villa practically in the forest (THE HOUSE OF SIN)
When: Broadcast- 3/10 // Action- 3/9-3/31? Until we leave.

Broadcast:

[The broadcast goes out on 3/10, and Dorian smirks a bit into the feed.]

I believe I've secured lodging for myself, with room enough for several others. If you need a place to stay, do let me know. It's a quaint little villa a bit outside of town. ...please don't mind the suspicious glances, I assure you, I've done nothing entirely against the guidelines that were set.

---------

Action:

[Dorian has secured a villa, but the residents of Mor don't seem too keen on having an evil mage for a neighbor. As the month goes on, more and more villagers will show up to stand at the gates of the villa and threaten to come in after the "evil wizard".

Maybe he shouldn't have gone so overboard with the whole "contacting the spirits of the dead" thing.]

((OOC: Mingle post for the House of Sin. We'll pretend there are enough rooms in here for everyone! Even if you character only drops by to rest their feet a bit, everyone is welcome to visit and stay the night if they want.))

Comments

[serves]

Really? I never heard much in Skyhold. Aside from what I assume is normal for a mage from Tevinter. [It's not said in cruelty--it's just a fact. Cullen doesn't seem bothered by it, at any rate, and that is what we call progress.]

Though with all of these timelines, anything is possible. [Which does bring up a thought. Cullen momentarily leans back in his seat.] I'm almost afraid to ask about our Inquisitor. They worried about you being a bad influence on her, to my recollection.

[serpentis]

I suppose that is true for any Inquisitor, that others thought the evil Magister from Tevinter was there to corrupt them.

[He crossed one leg over the other, gesturing a bit as he speaks.]

Jove is my dearest friend, but I know that our...situations complicated matters. That she was Dalish, and kept company with a Vint.

[serves]

You were quite close to my recollection, as well. At least that much is the same.

[Oh, he wants to ask. He so desperately wants to ask, but instead he just pours himself some wine.]

[serpentis]

[Dorian will not pry at a man's insecurities. That is something a MAgister would do, and certainly Dorian can sense the hesitation, know that the question hangs in the air between them. He'd be a fool not to.

The serpentine parts of his mind tell him that he can inch under Cullen's armor, sink his fangs into his metaphorical stomach, take a jab and ask about Jove. That's who he was raised to be.

Dorian pushes it aside, and gestures to the other empty wine cup, sighing in an exaggerated, long-suffering way.]

Must I do everything myself?

[serves]

I was getting to it. [Look, he hands Dorian the cup he poured, and then takes the empty one for himself. Totally wasn't planning on knocking it back. If ever he had things weighing on his mind, if he felt like sharing his thoughts, he'd go to Jove. That's not exactly an option now, is it?

Does that leave Cullen with Dorian? How the times change.]

There's been a lot weighing on my mind. [And really, if Dorian knew about the discrepancy between himself and Jove, he wouldn't be surprised because of that closeness the two shared.] Even still.

[Like he should adjust to everything in the matter of days.]

[serpentis]

I will listen, on the condition that if you cry, Commander, I will consider that a forfeit of our match and a victory for me.

[He takes the glass of wine and settles back. It was odd, to have people expect him to be anything but a barb-tongued Magister here. Home, he could keep up the act for longer, but people needed things of him here, and Dorian often found himself thrust into a position that was entirely uncomfortable.

He starts, slowly.]

I can empathize with Jove in this matter.

[Maker, that sounded entirely too formal, like he was making a political statement. Plan B. He took a drink.]

No doubt you've noticed that I have company. He is...elusive, but I'm certain that he stands out if you were to glimpse him. His name is Arhen Lavellan. Vinhedis, I didn't know what to make of him when he arrived.

[serves]

[He hasn't cried in ten years. Leave him alone. Cullen just gives him a look, but settles with his drink resting between his hands.]

The other Inquisitor. He was... [ahem] involved with you, in his time? Or world, that is.

[Is he now? Cullen is sometimes painfully oblivious to this stuff.]

[serpentis]

[Dorian inclines his head slightly, and takes a sip of wine.]

The elves have a term of endearment...ma vhenan. It was what he called me the first time I saw him. I'm certain that you can imagine I was a bit taken aback...in my time, he did not exist. Jove is my Inquisitor.

[And he can't say how that phrase made his heart threatened to strangle him with hope. Dorian spent many days thinking over it. His voice is a little distant.]

It took me some time to come around to the idea that what we had there, we might have here. I suppose this is a roundabout way of saying that perhaps Jove needs the same. I cannot understand how you or Arhen felt, but...it's no simple decision.

[And then he raises his glass before taking another sip.]

Though I suppose you're a step ahead of where Arhen started. At least she knows you.

[serves]

[Maker, what a mess this all is. Cullen gives Dorian a sympathetic look--he's mortified about what happened between Jove and himself. What she must have thought in that moment when he tried to kiss her.

After a few moments of silence, he sighs. When he speaks, it's with a careful quietness.]

I miss her, and she's right here. Things are different between us but then so much of it is the same. [She sounds and looks and speaks and smiles and laughs and is the same. It's just their brief history that's been erased.] Whatever she wants, whatever makes her happy... it's enough for me.

[Even if that's not necessarily him. He won't pressure her either way.]

It's just a strange adjustment.

[Letting her in had been one thing, but to now not have that--it makes him ache.]

[serpentis]

[Dorian gives him a look over, and nearly says something cutting, something to stop the conversation there. He's entirely out of his element, and what he knows best of love is that it can be used as a weapon.

How romantic. The thought comes, venonous, and some part of him sees Cullen's love as something terrrifying, that he could lose himself in it that far. He almost pities him.

He takes a drink of his wine, pushes away those thoughts, and instead rights himself. Think of Rilienus, he says, think of how vast things felt there, when you knew you had to leave him, that you were kept apart by forces you could not control.

Dorian thinks to the last time he saw him- how he longed to take him into him arms again, beg him to run away with him.

That was love, to Dorian, love that was realized far too late, and too bitterly.

He glances over to Cullen, and there's pity on his face, because he knows that no words he has can cure the ache Cullen must feel in his soul when he looks at her. How terrible it is to be so close and yet so far away from the one person that meant the most.]

Give her time.

[His voice is honest, it lacks the cutting warmth it usually holds, and he gives him a half nod.]

Don't expect that it can be the same, but if she loved you once, she may yet again.

[serves]

I expect nothing. [It doesn't mean the heart doesn't want. He'd stupidly began to think about a future--something he'd never allowed himself before. He was learning to let himself to want things, things for himself, and Jove was becoming an increasingly large part of that. At first he used to chide himself, knowing it was very possible that they could all die in this struggle, but the closer they became... it was harder to keep those thoughts at bay, and for once he was glad the nagging thoughts he had were of good things.

The look of pity and honest tone surprises Cullen, but he gives Dorian a nod in return.]

I'll serve her as I always have. Nothing changes that.

[serpentis]

[Dorian scoffs.]

Commander, if I didn't know better, I could almost suspect you'd stepped right out of a children's book. The admirable knight, serving the lady mage he adores. It's all very romantic.

[He takes another drink, but his sarcasm is a bit warmer, less cutting than usual.]

[serves]

[Cullen rubs his neck. Maker's breath.]

That's the first time anyone's called me romantic.

[He could be an asshole, before. Sometimes even still. He's trying, though.]

She's a good woman. I don't know any man that wouldn't do the same for her.

[serpentis]

That she is. Forutnately for you, I'm only interested in her as a [sister] friend of sorts. I'm certain that I could sweep her off her feet.

[And then he chuckles. It's safe to joke like that about Jove, because she knows him and understands him. She loves him, and not in the prying way that women demanded affection from him, back home. No, she loved him in a way that was more true.

She loved him as her own blood kin, she said it herself. Dorian felt much the same.]

Where is she? There's little use to fawning over her if she isn't here to see it. It's just wasted air.

[The joking, the scarasm, this was all more comfortable to Dorian. True honesty was short-lived with him.]

[serves]

[Aaaaand now he's talked about his relationship problems enough. He appreciates that Dorian heard him out--in a way, saying his thoughts aloud helped confirm them. He would always, always be her friend and do whatever she needed from him, in love or not. He owed her that much for all she did for him.]

Perhaps our Inquisitor is with the... other Inquisitor. [That's so odd.] Things between the two of you are well?

[He's genuinely curious.]

[serpentis]

Oh? Curious about matters between two men, are you? Shall I draw you a diagram?

[He chuckles.]

[serves]

[Cullen groans and rubs his face.]

I'm aware of how--[wait what why is he answering that DORIAN Y U DO THIS]

I was merely inquiring as to your well being.

[serpentis]

[Dorian raises his brows, in mock scandal as Cullen speaks, and gives him a derisive scoff.]

I am perfectly fine. Still painfully attractive as always, and it would seem that I stole my own lover from myself. I dare say I'm doing better than ever.

[serves]

[He can't help but roll his eyes.]

Is that so?

[Really why does he even ask!!]

[serpentis]

[Really, Cullen, you should know better by now.]

I could do without some of the fuss here, but I suppose that I am nothing if not adaptable.

[He survives. He always has- be it in Tevinter or on the road, Dorian survives.]

And I'm thankful that I've acclimated to...some of the worse part of this space travel business. My first week I was terribly ill. I suppose it vexes people that I don't care to live on the ship and stay where we land, for the most part, but there is a very good reason for that.

[serves]

It's better than the sea, in my opinion. [He might take space over another trip over the ocean from Kirkwall, actually. Just remembering that voyage makes the wine in his stomach churn/]

I thought I'd have a harder time getting used to all this, but the mind adapts when it must, I suppose. I thought you and Jove were mad with how casually you spoke of everything.

[serpentis]

Ah, that is the trick, is it not? You adapt, or your spend your entire life screaming.

[Dorian gestures to the chessboard.]

Do you ever intend to play me, or did you just wish for idle chatter? I can't imagine why you'd wish to stall, if I were you, I'd rather accept my loss and get it over with.

[serves]

Are you sure we're from the same timeline? Because as far as I'm aware, you're the one who tends to lose. [Why you gotta be so rude. Cullen smirks and finishes setting up the board.]

[serpentis]

Oh, you wound me, Commander.

[He -almost- looks offended, and he settles with a smile. That was much more like it.]

[serves]

I'll be sure to keep that quiet. None need know how delicate Tevinter magistrates are.

[Except Dorian could fry him. His templar abilities are rusty as hell.]