(no subject)

[tevintage]

Who| Dorian Pavus and YOU
What| Dorian returns after being MIA for a couple weeks
Where| D7, out in the city, i'll write you a prompt if you want something else!
When| Right about now, funk soul brother.
Warnings/Notes| N/A

 

The first thing that Dorian did when he awoke was reflexively touch his chest, only to find the scarred over flesh was instead smooth and unbroken, just as it was when he had first arrived in the capitol. He just breathed, for a moment, staring up at the ceiling with his hand resting against his lungs, feeling the breath fill them and then slip away. After a moment he got up - found the clothes waiting for him, and dressed, before spending a few long minutes carefully looking over himself in the mirror. Every cut, every gash, every scar was gone. The hunger and the illness no longer hollowed his cheeks, the bags were gone from under his eyes. He carefully waxed his moustache and tousled his hair, looking at his reflection and feeling, not for the first time, older than he appeared.

When he stepped out his door, he nearly tripped over the small candle burning at his feet, but somehow managed to keep his dignity. He frowned, leaning down to pick it up.

"Exactly how long have I been gone?" He wondered aloud.

~~~

Later, when he could finally steal a moment of peace from his escort's overbearing gaze, Dorian escaped into the city. He made a beeline for a small, but up-class, bar - the kind that seemed to cater to people of more peculiar tastes than the usual. He needed a drink. Or, you know, ten.

 

Comments

[dreadinquisitor]

"It's about time."

It was a rather anticlimactic way to greet someone you'd been certain you'd never see again, but Maxwell wasn't certain he trusted himself to say anything more.

Stopped at the end of the hall, he shook his head, relief doing funny things to his knees.

(The candle he'd brought disappeared quickly into his pocket.)

"Trust me, Dorian, you make entrance enough without resorting to all that."

[tevintage]

Dorian looked up at the voice, a smile coming to his lips as he blew the candle out. "I may need to be caught up on what 'all that' entailed. Last I checked vigils weren't a common feature for a couple days escapade in Death, so it must have been longer than that."

He set the candle back down next to the door, and turned to smile even wider at Maxwell. "You're looking well. Perhaps I won't have to kill you for dying after all."

[dreadinquisitor]

"Longer than that, yes," he confirmed, but he didn't clarify.

Did it matter now? The man was back, and he had likely been just a little foolish in worry. (The strangeness of it, he'd tell himself later. Two men, one face, tangled up in his thoughts.) Maybe even more than a little.

"You still could," he offered, smile tugging at his lips. "But then I would be truly dead and then you would be angry all over again and what could we do then?"

[tevintage]

"I have to admit, I'm feeling a touch more 'pleased to be alive' than 'murderous rage', so I think you get a pass," Dorian teased. He noticed the lack of detail, but he didn't press it. He assumed he'd hear it from Jason, soon enough.

"Whatever they use to heal us must be quite something - I don't have a scar on me. Well, save for my beauty ones from back home, of course." And he had quite a few of those, to be honest. Hanging out with the Inquisition meant he collected them, even with the healers.

[allyorfoe]

"Long enough to make everyone worried." The elf replied grimly, peeking from the hall that she had been innocently walking past. She'd ducked her head in once or twice, for Maxwell's sake, to see if things had improved. "Nice to see you finally joined us. Nearly gave him a heart attack, you know." She continued on, not bothering to say who 'he' was, because Dorian knew perfectly well. "Have you done this before? The Capitol? You'll have to get used to being waited on by humans, not elves, but other than that, it's not bad." She paused, twisting her lips. Being nice to tevinter mages was not usually on her list of priorities, but.

"...Glad you're back." There. Not too mushy.

[tevintage]

He really didn't know who 'he' was, though he assumed that it had something to do with the candles, so it caused a smile to twitch to his lips.

"Oh? Nice to know I would be missed, I suppose. You've seen the illusive shape behind my candle vigil, then?" The smile turned into a lopsided smirk. "Oh, I'm quite used to human slaves too, you know. But yes, I spent several weeks here already."

He raised an eyebrow to the last, but nodded his head. "Likewise. Everyone else? I assume that we're all accounted for, at least?"

[allyorfoe]

"...You don't know?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. She had assumed that he would be well aware of the person behind the vigil. Weren't they...? Maybe she'd been too quick to assume she'd known the lay of the land in regards to the two of them. Were they interested? Just friends? Doing that awkward courting thing where neither could spit it out? Tabris wasn't one for such dances, having made her feelings on Alistair crystal clear the moment she decided her interest.

Sometimes things needed a little push.

"I do. Is there anyone you suspect? Anyone you're...interested in?" She pressed, rubbing her chin. As blunt as a trainee's sword. "Everyone but Josephine and Lavellan have appeared, you're the last to trickle in. Adella, Cullen...Maxwell." At this, the chin rubbing continued, as she clearly was looking for a reaction. Dorian would surely have no idea what she was implying.

[tevintage]

"You sound like a fresh mage new to the circle, blushing and green," He teased wryly, crossing his arms, even as mention of Josephine and Lavellan... He'd already been told, by Maxwell, that they hadn't returned, but he couldn't quite help the twinge of grief. Josie didn't deserve such a death. Not here. Not anywhere. He hoped that she was in peace, somewhere. Home, if the Maker willed it.

And he prayed the Maker did.

"Where my interests lie, should they even exist, is hardly business of yous," he said, but it was still in a light teasing tone rather than an admonishment.

[currupted]

Cyrus had one seat at the bar; his briefcase had another. The fact that there wasn't a great deal of room at the bar otherwise didn't seem to matter to him. He had one hand wrapped around a drink blended of two brightly-colored liquors that swirled around each other without mixing, and the other propping up his communicator.

He read what was on it with the smallest of smiles tugging at the corner of his mouth; not happiness, nothing so obvious, but with a kind of quiet satisfaction. The look of someone for whom something has just gone right.

If anyone were trying to use the seat next to him, he took no notice.

[tevintage]

The fact that the only seat remaining at the bar was taken up by a briefcase didn't even seem to phase Dorian. He simply strolled up to it, picked up the briefcase, and slid it onto the bar while he took the seat.

"Dreadfully sorry," He told it cheerfully, "But greater needs, I'm afraid." He waved a hand for the bartender.

[currupted]

The smile vanished from Cyrus' face, replaced by something between confusion and affront - an expression that couldn't understand why someone would think it was acceptable to move his things without his permission.

He paused before his reply to look Dorian up and down, trying to place him-- trying to decide what about him made him think that was permissible. Not Capitol was about as far as he got. It was as far as he needed to go.

"I'm afraid you're not in the Districts anymore," he said, and it wasn't unfriendly, at least in tone. "The tendency here is to ask first."

[conifer]

"Far too long." Emily rises from the sofa in the common area as Dorian emerges from his room, relief spreading over her face. She looks overtired, and there are papers and business cards all over the table from where she and Jason have sat late into the night calling up potential sponsors for Nick, the last remaining hope for District Seven. "We began to worry that you weren't coming back."

[tevintage]

He turned to the voice, his expression neutral when he spots her, until he does a quick scan of the room and finds Jason no where to be seen. His lips quirked into a smile.

"We? Somehow I think you mean you, and for that, I am incredibly grateful."

[conifer]

"Not just me." Her cheeks redden a little at being put in the spotlight, even for something as simple as looking out for one of her Tributes. "Your friends have hardly left the District Seven suite alone, they've been by so often to ask after you." Her expression curls into dark amusement. "You might want to tiptoe around Jason for a while - it turns out he can't stand mingling between the Districts."

[medecin]

Joly had happened upon this particular bar a few weeks ago, as a matter of fact, after waking up from his less than stellar time in the arena himself. It had felt...wrong, really, to visit most of the bars he and his friends had frequented before, when they'd been a whole group, and sometimes it was better to have somewhere to go when you wanted to be alone.

Which was what had brought him here, and now, catching the door as someone passed in from behind him, and tossed a nod in his direction, although once he noticed the man's mustache, he looked...fairly appreciative of the whole business.

"Allow me to congratulate you on your face monsieur." He started, then blinked at what had come out. There was just a BIT of a translation error still, obviously.

[tevintage]

His eyebrow raised as he paused, a smirk coming to his lips.

"Well, I can't deny that it deserves congratulations, but those are perhaps better given to my mother, considering how little I had to do with the whole affair," He quipped in reply, letting the door close behind him. He wasn't quite expecting to get hit on, first step into the bar, but he wasn't complaining.

"Not that I'm all that loathe to hear them."

[medecin]

Joly laughed, feeling his face go flush a bit. "I suppose you have a point, when it comes to that. Your parents create beautiful children then. But no, I...the speech translation that they have here DOES make some things come out a little oddly. Your mustache, I must assume is your own making. That is what I meant to admire."

That was followed up with a little bit of a smirk. "I imagine you get them a lot, actually."

[voiceinthephone]

If there was one reason for Phil to leave the Tower and do his best to avoid any gazing eyes from spotting him, it was to the bars as early as possible and hide in plain sight. Getting asked about rather uncomfortable subjects such as "How did it feel to die?" "Are you and Dandy a hatething?" (that one was out there and made him want to retch), Gray was quietly hiding in the bar when he spotted a new patron step in.

He didn't look like a local, and he was handsome with a mustache Freddy Mercury would be proud of. "Evenin' sir," politeness never really left this man, regardless of location or rank. "Come here often?"

oh my god i am so sorry 8| i am the worst. feel free to ignore this if you want... /face in hands

[tevintage]

Dorian was always charmed by politeness, and when it came with a handsome face it was doubly welcome. Dorian offered a smile and walked over. The face was vaguely familiar, but he couldn't put a name to it. Which probably meant he saw it on the infamous 'tee-vee' at some point.

Even though he rather stood out from the Capitolites like a sore thumb.

"I admit my territory to be somewhat wider than this particular establishment," He said, motioning to the bartender for a drink as he took a seat by Phil. "One is as good as any other, I find. I take it you aren't, as they say, from around here?"

shhhhh <3 don't worry!

[voiceinthephone]

Phil never thought himself as handsome, he was too overworked and haggard to take better care of himself. But he always tried, wearing a tie even as a night guard, shining is ever present badge and hair proper. If anything, some clients claimed he had a rather awkward face. Let's just say the Phone Guy didn't think too highly of himsellf.

"Nah, I-Im from another world, yeah," he responded truthfully and offered his hand to Dorian. "I was in the Rust Belt, and you?"

Yeah, no one in the Capitol looked this good, even with surgery.

[meravas]

To anyone who had paid attention to the recent arena, Bull wasn't all that difficult of a man to miss. With the wide set of his shoulders and horns, no one could walk past him without a look of recognition. It was a good thing he kept his back to the entrance of the bar, leaning against the bar top on his forearms, a glass of some weak alcohol in hand.

Some of his stylists had been giving him hell about how he dressed and finally he had agreed to wear something more suited for wandering around the city in - tighter fitting dark pants, a button up shirt that he left the top three buttons undone and rolled up the sleeves over his arms to his elbows. The fabric was stretched over his broad shoulders and from time to time, Bull couldn't help but try to roll a shoulder.

He might have looked like a businessman of sorts, a horned one, from the back. However if anyone looked to his front, the one thing that would throw the look off - the pink gem encrusted eye patch over his left eye with the black thick straps. His stylist had done well and had kept to her word in designing him different eye patches for an eye patch wardrobe.

"One more," Bull requested from the bartender, drinking down what he had in hand, passing forward the empty glass.

He had a good reason to be here and drink his evening away, he was already on his third.

[tevintage]

"I wonder exactly when it was when a giant horned Qunari became a friendly face," Dorian said with a slight grin as he came up behind Bull. It wasn't exactly hard to spot him at the bar, after all. Dorian slid into the seat behind him.

"But, ah, here we are. Miss m--" He stopped dead at the sight of the bright pink eyepatch, and raised his eyebrow. "-- Well that is a fashion accent I admit I didn't quite expect."

[earthborn]

"Well, there he is, finally," Shepard's a little shit, and sees no reason to hide it, least of all to Dorian, who had started off so well with her. And yet. And yet, here they were.

"Starting to think you were gonna embarrass me after all, Mister Pavus."

[tevintage]

"Finally!" He scoffed, turning to the woman who somehow managed to make his blood boil instantly, and yet --

And yet, here they were.

"Me, embarrass you? What exactly was that stunt you pulled the last time I saw you? You think I would be grateful, watching you die to save my skin?"

Yeah, he had a bone to pick.

[earthborn]

She could, almost certainly exercise restraint and self-control, and not shoot back. Shepard could probably even take a breath first, and think about what she's doing-- it wouldn't even, technically, be difficult.

"Well, it'd be nice, yeah. I appreciate a little gratitude," without even missing a beat, what a bastion of forbearance is Jane Shepard, "It's kinda stupid to go taking the hit for a guy who isn't even gonna show up afterwards. It'd break my heart."

Sarcasm is an excellent shield behind which to hide sincerity; never moreso than now.