agogelogs | [Open-ish]

I don't suppose you earned the title because you had the most humor either [Dorian was grinning right back. A joke? How rare! But one thing did stick out to him, they never really did speak of why Chiron was so light on his feet.] I'm not entirely certain what a centaur is.

[In fact he has no idea what a centaur is.]

Hm. I received praise for living up to expectations and going along with grand plans that I didn't want to nor did I agree to. Rebellion had me dragged off by my earlobe. I suppose that makes you a better teacher than my parents were as parents.

[granted he hadn't been dragged off by his earlobe since he was a child, but it's still as fresh a memory as any.]

You've never come to me about any of this, you do realize I'm a mage, yes? I might not be oozing mana at the moment, but it's always there. [And they couldn't risk Chiron fading for Noctis's sake.] What creative ways are open to you at the moment?

I will admit, it isn't in my overall skillset. [He's far too serious most of the time, even if he can appreciate a good joke.] Have you seen the sargent walking around BASE? Half man and half horse? That's a centaur.

[If he hasn't well, Dorian's imagination can have some fun before Chiron gives an actual explanation.]

I feel as if you've just given me a low bar to clear, Dorian. But did other men of your status experience similar things with their parents?

[As far as the matter of mana goes, Chiron pauses. There's no embarrassment in his voice or on his face, but the feeling is there, bubbling under the surface.]

At the time, I believed the problem would be manageable until the assignment's end. It was that mist that complicated matters and forced me to exceed the input/output balance I had managed for myself. [Finally, a touch of red does cross Chiron's cheeks.] You musn't judge when I explain.

Humor is a teachable skill. [Although being good at it was a Maker given talent.] No, not personally, I might have spoken to him through our communication devices...but...

[Dorian was indeed trying to use his imagination, tipping his head to the side to try so as to get a look at the part that was horse, but no...Chiron had nothing equine about him.]

Yes, following the expectations of your family is serious business where I come from. I never fit in.

[Dorian was a social outcast in his homeland, it made living there without a benefactor difficult.]

Judge you? [Well now, he felt like he was getting ready to be told an interesting story and Dorian was always open for an interesting story] I'm not so quick to judge anyone for anything that they do, given the life I've lead.

Ah. So the visual is lost on you. Well, take a man up to his torso or so, and transpose it onto the body of a horse, so that the man has the front legs and backside. [Realizing that he himself is...confusing...he then elaborates:] The Holy Grail War business is why I appear entirely human.

[The business of why that is is hardly important. What is is the fact that there is a striking similarity Dorian has just voiced between his home and the expectation of mages in Chiron's own circumstances.]

The time and place I was summoned to extends considerbly similar expectations on young mages, you know.

[Fiore might bond with him over that fact. Her brother as well.]

The transfer of mana can be accomplished through either being quite ghoulish and taking in the blood or another, or through intimate acts.

[It's sex magic, okay?]

Seems a little bit...odd...but then again I have seen stranger things in my time. I suspect you're quite attractive as a centaur as well. [Flattery is like breathing okay, even when Dorian is still bedridden he is still flirtatious.]

Oh? Such a pity...do they have blood rituals and poison the punch at their soirees as well, then that would be just like home.

[Ah, Tevinter, he's a love hate relationship with his homeland and it cannot be helped.]

I can't see you taking the blood of another...[Dorian lets the second option sink in and a grin turns the corners of his lips up]...my, my I had no idea you had such a side to you. I am shocked and scandalized dearest Chiron, I'm not sure I'll recover from such scandalous personal knowledge.

[He said he wouldn't judge, he made no promise not to tease.]

It's a very different form of being attractive, I believe. You are, after all, looking at about two thirds of a horse. [That isn't a joke. That's just stark realism, and pointing out that you have to be rather special, or just very ancient Greek, to see it that way.]

I believe some might? I can say it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case, it seems in line with everything.

[Regardless, there's...ugh. Dorian, teasing is judging! Probably.]

Believe me, I'd...rather not have to. [Dorian. Dorian let him die and not talk about sex magic.] Nor have I chosen to yet. It seems impersonal.

[Tease him for being sentimental!]

We have dragon-esque people where I come from and they have their own kind of appeal, but there is so much more to being attracted to a person. You are a centaur after all, not a horse, yes? [So there is the part of him that is humanoid, it's not like being attracted to a beast despite the beauty of horses.]

Oh, you must stop, getting homesick will do nothing for my recovery.

[Of coure Dorian is joking, but he's always homesick so...]

You're terribly sentimental for someone who put two in the eyes of a giant serpent. You mean to say sex has to be emotional? I must have been doing it wrong all these years. [It's difficult to have an emotional attachment when your only encounters are in brothels after all.] But I tease you too much, not that my point isn't valid, what will you do if you become desperate?

Of course. And you're right. I suppose I am far too accustomed to needing to explain the more baseline elements of the form. [You know, like how a centaur has kids with a nymph. Practical things.]

Please tell me you say homesick with the deepest sarcasm. That kind of environment is absolute poison.

[Something that many aren't cut out for. Dorian strikes him as a man that can weather it well enough, but the opinion remains.]

For myself, emotional attachment is indeed a component. I am aware that this isn't true for everyone. [There are additional complicating factors, but Chiron doesn't intend to get into them. Mostly because it's weird to keep explaining that hey, the sargent is also a version of myself and his wife is alive so that's super awkward!]

I believe I will answer that only when I reach that point.

Believe me when I say that I trust you implicitly so you needn't have to explain those details. [In fact he doesn't want to know how a centaur would have children with a nymph, he didn't have to want to make his yugh face at Chiron.]

I'm aware that most of what I say about my homeland seems entirely negative, but it has so much history and potential, it's where our world began. If I couldn't see the positives I wouldn't miss it...I want to save it.

[So no, Dorian wasn't being sarcastic really, he knew the dark underbelly of his homeland and he wanted to get in there and change the corruption. It was the only place in his world where his kind weren't rounded up in cages after all.]

Hm, I suppose in the upper echelons it doesn't matter, your parents pick out your partner so it's usually impersonal anyway. Mine was Livia Herathinos, unfortunate girl, pretty enough, wicked tongue, sharp wit, and glad I'm gone I suspect. [And part of the reason Dorian left, he had no intention of settling down and having little magelets on command after all.]

Oh, I wonder if you even know, but that's alright, Chiron. I'm here for you.

[Chiron has no words for that response, only a face of absolute relief. It's perhaps overdramatic, but there all the same if only because of aeons of expectation.

That same face transmutes as Dorian speaks of home. He is quiet, and more than anything else, he is intrigued.]

What potential do you see in it? What is the future you want to make so?

[As Dorian continues though, speaking of arranged marriages, well. That's perhaps one thing he has in mind to fix. The practice isn't unusual, of course, it was done in Chiron's own time and done with magi in the time when Chiron was summoned.]

I don't believe that's an uncommon sentiment in situations such as that. [Although a quick wit suggests they might have been a decent enough match with regards to being friends. It isn't for Chiron to say.] My mother had little interest in taking care of me, given my form, and so I was adopted and then let loose on my own. That granted me more freedom in most when it came to meeting my wife.

[There's sentiment in there, but if it's towards his parents or his wife, Chiron is pointedly vague.]

I do mean this unironically: your support is appreciated.

[Dorian is only too happy to be spared the details as Chiron is happy in sparing them, it's mutual relief.

As for the potential Dorian sees in his country?]

Ah, there's intellectualism, we don't stifle academia. Our magical expertise outstrips most of Thedas because we are allowed to do things with magic, wondrous things with it, that the rest of the world fears and forbids. Some magic is to be lamented, this is true, but transgressors ought to be properly punished and for the proper reasons. Our architectural achievements are also worth preserving and the fact that we have an electoral government is good in theory, in practice it could do with changes to permit a more equal society.

[And yes, Dorian would sort out the arranged marriage business as well, just another aspect of Tevinter society he balked at.]

No, not at all, had we been married it would have looked much the same as my own parent's marriage. Trading coy insults a parties, civil only in the most respectable company, avoiding one another at every opportunity, living in luxurious despair. [Needless to say he knew the woman his parents picked out and they didn't get along in spite of their sharp tongues. The only thing they really had in common was their magical talent and their proclivity for the same parts.] We have that in common, my mother too had little interest in taking care of me. Why should she when there were nannies to do it for her...oh, she was the material sort, winning affections with gifts and things of that nature, but only as motherly as her position permitted her to be.

[Meaning when eyes were on the Pavus family they had to act like a family and she had to act like a doting mother.]

I do what I can, my dear.

I see. And I can see why you would fight dearly to ensure it's survival, with appropriate changes to make it an even more ideal version of itself. [Chiron smiles faintly at the description, and there's nothing but approval in all that he's heard.] What do you believe can be done in your lifetime to put those changes into place? You strike me as a skillful politican.

[That...is not a happy family. At all. Luxurious despair is a fantastic description of it, and something Chiron files away for his own use. Among Dorian's many talents is that he can turn a phrase. This is perhaps one of his favorites.] I fear if I say anything about my own experience, this might become a morbid sort of one upmanship. But I follow you, an am sorry that was a part of your childhood.

A skillful politician? I suppose I could be when I've a mind to actually debate, I'm more interested in books and research than politics...but a strongly worded letter and viciously rearranging a library is no way to bring about change. Change doesn't always fall merrily into your lap, sometimes it involves the will to act...the will to do the things that no one else will do, and sometimes that means fighting. [People getting hurt, people dying.] I suppose I would put an end to corrupt magical practices and slavery, that's something I would like to see an end to in my lifetime. I would like Tevinter to be an example of a mage society that can endure without the use of corrupt magic and mages working together with Templars to police mages that would abuse magic instead of using it to serve. Also abolishing slavery would put us in good standing, perhaps better standing than the rest of the world where alienages exist.

[People look down on Tevinter for slavery, but the irony is that everywhere across the world there is some form of slavery or other.]

Oh, you needn't feel sorry for me, look at how well rounded I am! Such talent and remarkable charm and need I remind you of these incredible looks? [Dorian is tilting his face now, one must show off their finer features when prompted. The last thing he wants is to be pitied, however, his childhood was what it was and he knew it could have been worse.]

And you don't believe your ability to charm wouldn't act as an advantage as well? [Chiron looks genuinely surprised by that.]

Tell me this. All of these hopes and dreams and ambitions you have for Tevinter. Do you believe that there's enough power within your current form of government to make them so? Or is there a need for a larger push and more capable individuals to work at the highest levels to enact them?

[Chiron tilts his head slightly.]

It is as you say. Strong letters and libraries don't make for change. And it is easy to sit far away from the world and judge it. That much I can say wit experience.

[Living on a mountain is great, don't you know.]

You need not. I need only add that while you are well rounded, you have very sharp angles as well.

[He is trying to joke. Trying.]

[Open-ish]

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