inaurare | Former inbox, thread list for duplicitynet [2018

No, that is true.

[lifting his cup with both hands, pausing]

Do you... regret any of what you have done? Or - perhaps that is too broad a question. When you look back on it do you feel more positively or negatively about it?

[Cyril has to think about that. There's a bitter part of him that hates everything that happened to him. He hates that he lost his arm, that Solas and turned out to have been lying the entire time, and that he was forced to undergo so many terrible things.

But, there's an even stronger part of him that knows he would never trade it for another life.]

I feel like... I wouldn't have made any other choices, even knowing now what it costs me.

[there's a little smile with that]

I understand that feeling.

[his own choices cost him a great deal as well. But he's confident enough that he would never choose differently, short of some exceptional circumstance.]

But then I think it is fair to say that nothing you have done is insignificant.

I appreciate that. [He means it. He knows that Linn is being honest, isn't just trying to give him lip service or whatever. It's sweet.]

Every time someone from Thedas shows up, I start thinking about this. I shouldn't let it get to me.

Well, I can't blame you for that. I would too, if someone were to come from home - more so, if they didn't know who I was.

But I hope it is more reassuring, this time - that you have someone who lived it with you?

It is. Even despite all my whining.

It's not whining. I think perhaps your expectations were shaken - you were prepared not to be known, but you were. I would struggle to deal with that, as well.

It doesn't help at all that it's him either.

[But that's a topic they've already covered pretty well. Cyril is curious about what Linn thinks of him.]

So, you met The Iron Bull. What did you think of him?

I like him. He reminds me of some I have met before.

[gentle giants, like Gilder. Though he laughs with the mental comparison he just made]

Though I suppose all of those people are dwarfed by him...!

Qunari are pretty big. Even the women are like that.

There can still be tall men. Just not as tall as he is...!

Though I have not known one with horns, either. I confess I had to try not to stare...

He probably wouldn't mind. He's pretty proud of his rack. It is really impressive, isn't it?

I had that impression.

[he had never known that it was called a rack...]

I think he's beautiful, but I doubt that's a word he would think to use for himself.

[He chuckles gently at that idea.]

Maybe 'strong' or 'muscular.'

Perhaps not. I've known many object to that word, too. That doesn't mean you are wrong to use it, though.

I think you're beautiful too.

[a little dip of his head and a chuckle at that]

Well, objectively, I suppose.

Though I think there are more than several things about me others might find distasteful.

[Cyril raises a brow at that, clearly confused by the idea.] Well, those people are just wrong.

[a gentle chuckle, dipping his head]

Ah - I think that more depends on the outlook of where I am from. But thank you, for thinking that .

Do you want to talk a bit about where you came from? [He's curious, but he doesn't want to press if Lin would rather not.]

Oh, I...

[uncertainly, straightening with his cup]

I'm not sure where to begin - we certainly had no dragons or the like, and our country was at peace, so... I think I did not have such an eventful life as you had. But Ivore was comfortable. Not... modern, as I might understand it here, but... accepting. More so than our neighbours, I think...

Accepting? How do you mean?

[He leans closer, interested to hear more.

Thedas can manage to both be very accepting and not depending on what you're talking about, so he's curious why Linn picked that word.]

Well - for people like me. Veronians are known to be more... prescriptive about who one should have relationships with. Not to say there aren't any... more traditionally-minded Ivorians, but there are no laws against it.

[traditionally-minded, like the older members of the staff who had raised him. Though by the time all ways said and done, being gay was probably to them the least of Linneus' failings.]

Those of such a mindset, I think they are of a generation that remembers when the two countries were perhaps not so different. There has always been peace, in my lifetime, though I imagine it was not always so.

Ah. So 'accepting' in the way that I had assumed, then.

Thedas is... mixed when it comes to that. The noble houses want children so they pressure towards more traditional arrangements.

The Dalish, my people, believe strongly in continuing an elven bloodline, so some Clans put pressure on its young to copulate and marry.

Most common folk, though, they don't have to worry about bloodlines, so they have less pressure to choose who they love with children in mind.

Do you think it's like that? Those who came from war want to keep their side's bloodline strong?

For some, perhaps, yes. In Verone though, it’s more... considered a perversion. There are many who leave Verone for Ivore, for that reason.

And even the idea of bloodlines is... well, important for some. Pedigree and the like. But for others it was just the matter of... having a lineage. It didn’t much matter who with, just to have a child with the father’s blood and name.

Ah-- not to say that is the overwhelming case. But it can be known to happen.

Former inbox, thread list for duplicitynet [2018 - 2022]

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