[closed] mission: Hot Springs Episode!!

[illusionistic]

who: Aeacinos and whoever signed up here~
what: completing the hotsprings episode.
when: April 17th-19th
where: Beyond the wall!
warnings: Probably violence.



[ After sending out a mission transmission for whoever wants to help clean up the abandoned and overgrown hotsprings, Aeacinos will wait outside the wall for whoever decided to show up. He has a lot of food and supplies in hefty sized bags at his side so that there's enough for a few days worth of traveling. ]

Comments

[tevinteraltus]

[It's in his blood, Commander. It's an intrinsic part of his very being. Would you really want him to change who he is? Tough. He doesn't change for anyone.]

Spectacular. You know, as much as they insist the portal brings us here of its own volition, at times I wonder if we haven't been collected for the occasional housekeeping sojourn.

[happiertimes]

[He can hope. That's all he wants. Just a day or so where Dorian isn't trying to take the piss out of him. It's not a lot.]

I don't know about you, but I would much rather be called for spider-killing duty than Darkspawn.

Or demons.

This is much more preferable.

[tevinteraltus]

[It will never happen. One can dream, though.]

At least when demons are defeated, they have the decency to take their ichor with them.

[Because that's what's important here, Cullen. The spider guts.]

[happiertimes]

[He does dream about that. One day.]

Not all the time, you know that better than anyone else. Besides, spider ichor is useful in creating anti-venom.

[Not everyone likes being poisoned.]

[tevinteraltus]

I know that better "than anyone else?" And how is that precisely?

[He shakes his head.]

Not just any spider ichor, you know.

[happiertimes]

I mean as you've seen mages as I have that summoned demons and not all the time do they come away unscathed at the end of the battle. Nor is the battlefield always corpse free.

[Of course, he saw his nightmares early. Dorian's been to the Fade more than once in full control of his senses.]

Oh, only the most dangerous and poisonous of spiders will do for you, hm?

[tevinteraltus]

Oh, is that what that is? [His flippant tone is the usual, of course, nothing particularly scathing about it.] It's always so hard to tell, what with all the blood.

[He chuckles.]

Naturally. It's hardly a challenge, otherwise.

[happiertimes]

[Cullen pays no mind to the tone. He's used to it.]

And yet, you're spectacularly free of the evidence. How un-Tevinter of you.

[A sage nod at his comment.]

I know that you prefer to live life on the dangerous side. I should have expected that.

[tevinteraltus]

[You really should have come afield with them, Commander. You think you're used to it now...]

I've never fit in. All's the better. Let them deal with the bloodstains. I happen to prefer my silks unscathed.

[He makes a flippant motion and shrugs.]

I didn't study Inferno and Necromancy in order to sift through papers, it's true.

[happiertimes]

[And leave the recruits to their own whims? Perish the thought. Skyhold wouldn't have lasted five minutes, not even with Cassandra strolling around disapprovingly.]

Fitting in is overrated in a great deal of things, I've found. [And isn't always the best thing either.]

Someone must spend their time combing over records and balancing the coffers. And making sure that the roads into untraveled areas actually get cleared.

[And just how many building projects were supported by Cullen and his men, Dorian?]

[tevinteraltus]

Oh, I've spent plenty of my time perusing the annuls left us by those who would "donate to the Inquisition's efforts", Commander. I found much of the library wanting if we're honest.

[And filled with trite propaganda, but that was beside the present point.]

Yes, and you're men have done a fine job of it, Cullen. I wasn't complaining.

[happiertimes]

Yes, well, civil wars and the inability to stop hating one another does tend to limit the books that survive, Dorian. Most of the books you might've found worth reading would've been kept in the Circle towers.

[And Cullen needn't tell him how that turned out.]

Oh, good. Although, I suppose just as many areas were opened up by Josephine's silver tongue and quick wits.

[tevinteraltus]

Ah, yes, where they were cloistered away, of use to no one.

[He chuckles, nodding.]

Josephine is quite apt at opening a great many things, isn't she?

[happiertimes]

Honestly, the books in Kinloch were never kept from the apprentices. Not even the books on blood magic.

[Until it was too late and the damage had been done by Jowan and Uldred.]

Josephine is a devil with a sweet smile and a silver tongue. I'm only glad that she is on our side. And I will never play cards with her ever again. "I hope I remember the rules" indeed.

[tevinteraltus]

The books on blood magic were accessible by apprentices? Tell me they were only allowed to read them with guidance.

[Because Dorian knows full well the implications of a mage having access to power without morality. It's something he feels needs to be changed in his homeland, after all.]

Ah, yes. That, one should take as a lesson in the fallacy of underestimating one's foes, should they not?

[happiertimes]

[There are few things that Cullen doesn't talk about. The Ferelden Circle Tower during the Blight is one of them. However, Jowan's little escapades and what Uldred caused are more than just a little public knowledge. There were too many witnesses.

As such, he doesn't answer Dorian. Just continues walking with his jaw set in a line so tight it might as well be stone.]

I forgot that she has spent too much time around Orlesians. Momentary weakness. It won't happen again.

[tevinteraltus]

[Dorian had heard the vaguest of whispers regarding the fate of the Ferelden Circle Tower during the last Blight, though most people seemed to wish to avoid gossiping with a "scary Tevinter Magister". He couldn't imagine why. That being said, if the entire Tower had fallen to demons and blood magic while Cullen was in attendance, he couldn't blame the man for...thoroughly avoiding the topic altogether.]

Antivans are gamblers and scoundrels without influence from Orlais, Commander.

[happiertimes]

[Between what happened at the Circle and then at Redcliff, Fereldans' views on magic has been strained. Very, very strained. Compiling that with the attack on the Chantry in Kirkwall and the horror stories that came from the Free Marches, the attempts on the Divine's life and then the great rebellion, and.... Well, it's no surprise that no one's told Dorian word one about anything.

Besides, Cullen has nightmares enough with just his memories without drag them out for discussion with others.]

Then she is doubly evil, Dorian. I'm just glad that she puts her evil to use for our side

[tevinteraltus]

She is. [ He smiles, happy to avoid the topic of circles in Ferelden. It seems to be quite the bother to Cullen, after all, and would be rude to pry. Contrary to popular belief, that does actually matter to his sometimes. ] Though it would suffice to simply describe her as Antivan. No need to quantifiers.

[happiertimes]

That's true. I've yet to meet an Antivan that wasn't shady down to their very core.

[And to be honest, Josephine was one of the better ones. He's just a very sore loser when it comes to his dignity.]

Josephine aside, did you have anything else you wished to hold over my head, Dorian?

[tevinteraltus]

[ Dorian raised an eyebrow at that. He could understand being a sore loser, Dorian prided himself on being exceptional in all things after all, but he didn't realize the Commander harbored such opinions of Josephine. She was so delightful. ]

I don't think your utter defeat was solely Josephine's doing, Cullen.

[happiertimes]

[Yes, delightful, because Dorian didn't have to work so closely with her and argue over the fate of the world over a war table.]

No, it would be my own pride allowing me to fall for her act that I ended up in that situation.

[He could also blame Varric for starting the game, but it's definitely his own fault for even going so far as to bet as much when playing anything with Josephine and the rest of the Inquisitor's Inner Circle involved.

Although, to be fair, the camaraderie they'd enjoyed that night was almost worth his own embarrassment.]

[tevinteraltus]

[ He abhors confessions of all kinds, but he's begun to think of Cullen as a friend, and he smiles at the man, genuine, not teasing. ]

Cullen, that night marked the first in which I actually felt welcome in that citadel, beyond my little piece of the library. [ And because it just wouldn't do to actually admit something like that without some sort of jest. ] Your embarrassment was simply a bonus.

[happiertimes]

[He could say that he's surprised at Dorian's slight confession, but it's hardly a surprise at all. It's not as if between Mother Giselle, the struggle with the Venatori and the Imperium's history, the cards weren't stacked against Dorian from the beginning. Especially when one considers what happened with the mages in Redcliffe and Alexius's actions in general.]

I'm glad that some good came from my discomfort. And foolishness.

[tevinteraltus]

[ Dorian chuckles again, this time nodding and not hiding the jest in the least. ]

It most certainly did. We were all talking about it for weeks.