fantachetic | ic inbox;; drift fleet

Do you think you might be able to help me with a problem?

Are you awake?

I have interesting news and I need to tell someone before I die

Dorian, if it's not too much trouble could I ask you to look over something for me?

It's not working the way I want it too and I could use another pair of eyes. Preferably a pair of beautiful eyes that belong to a well educated man. You fit the bill perfectly.

[ When Dorian returns to his room next his door is painted. Across the entire height is a swirling snake, mostly white - but the edges of its scales are coloured with a brighter, warm purple, almost lilac. The most notable feature of the snake is it's eye, that's decorated in an incredibly familiar shape. At the bottom of the door begins a swirling pattern of delicately painted flames; they're a bit off, some a little misshapen, but the attempt is there. ]

[ There are some perks to being Dorian Pavus' shipmate, and one of those perks is knowing when he's around and when he isn't. The moment he's gone, Leilani takes the opportunity to slip into his room to leave some presents - she doubts anyone will question her about invading his space when, it seems, so many of them think they're romantically entangled.

At the top of the box is a wrapped up scarf, folded neatly. Below it is an equally well folded shirt and waistcoat, with flimsy purple paper around them to protect them from the rest of the gifts. Below that is a pair of gloves, which seems to be the end of the fashion selection, if only because Leilani isn't entirely sure Dorian would approve of all the things she decided that he would look good in.

Wrapped in two small boxes are a ring and an earring. Beside them, in it's own little box, is a journal, and the first page has something written on it in Leilani's careful handwriting:

Aneth ara, ma vhenas.

I have been told that this time of year is for celebrating family, the people you love, the friends you have kept at your side. It is a time for reminding those that you know that you care about them, that they are important to you, that they are special. I feel as though, perhaps, this should be done throughout the year, but I'm not here to speak ill of shemlem customs. Not today, at least.

I know that you do not know me as the Inqusitior that you fought beside for many years, but that has not stopped you from showing your kindness and your friendship over the last few months. It has been difficult, for the both of us, I think, to relearn what it means to be friends with one another, but I don't think that I would have been able to survive this place on my own. Having you at my side, even as we learn how to be friends once more, has been a gift I could never have expected. I have been blessed by your company, by your wisdom and your humour, and I could never ask for anything else.

I am lucky, I think, to have you at my side, to have you as my friend, to have you willing to listen to me even when I am certain it is too much.

What I want, if this is the time of year to admit it, is to tell you how very important you are. You are a strong, brave man, Dorian, and I am glad to have you as a friend. I am glad to know you, and better for it, in the end, because you are what is good in the world. You are proof that there is hope for the future, not just for your homeland but for the people of the world, too. I hope you recognise what a wonderful man you are and how highly I value your friendship and your confidence.

Ma serannas, lethallin.

Leilani. ]

( ATTACHED: Picture of shirtless Justice on the beach. )

[ Leilani has been asleep for a few days - not that she's aware of course, but it's true all the same - and when she wakes up her head hurts. There's an awkwardness that settles over her, and she wiggles her arms a little before... Ah. She can feel the loss of the one with the Anchor, weightless and phantom limbed, and even the sudden rush of memories of the Fleet aren't enough to dampen the thick weight of knowledge. She had gone back, and Solas had been there, and she had lost so much.

Slowly, she pushes herself up, using her one hand to rub at her eyes absently, trying to make sense of suddenly being thrust back into the strange world of space travel. ]

... Dorian?

[Yeah, he doesn't waste time leaving the lab to find Dorian in the bridge. He knows that he hasn't heard the full story of what happens in the future from Riona, but he thought he knew enough.

Mages and Templars fight. Innocents suffer. But here's Dorian saying that something happens in Redcliffe. After what occurred during the Fifth Blight, Alistair is more than just a little sensitive about the place where he grew up.]

Dorian, I'm here. And I have more than a few questions.

[ It's a few days after her evening with Justice that Leilani finds her way back to Dorian. It's a familiar routine now, changing into some clothes that are far too big for her - a mixture of his and a shirt she may well have stolen from Justice himself. She slips into his room and makes her way over to his bed, immediately sticking her hands up under his shirt just in case her entrance hadn't woken him up. ]

Dorian...

_{[ Hearing Ander's announcement had been like taking several punches to the gut. Wolfe had been a friend, and Fenris... well, if he was perfectly honest with himself, he had come as close to loving Fenris as he had anybody. They had been lovers, friends, and he had cared for the other in a way he so rarely let himself. For this reason.

For this aching, throbbing pain in his chest, the boiling anger that had no real target, no real outlet. Screaming did no good, and he was to much a captain to let such emotion show. Besides, what was the point? He couldn't do anything about it, and it wasn't his fault. It was no one's fault. It was just life in the Fleet...

At some point he had found himself at the bar, calling for a drink, nursing it because drinking away his sorrows was probably not productive, but damn if it didn't sound like a good plan. Even if the bar was pretty empty... ]}

[Sometime after he made the announcement that Lumiere is gone, Cyril reaches out to Dorian over the crystal.]

Dorian, do you have a moment?

[ Leilani has missed Dorian horrendously, but there's some hesitation as she creeps her way onto his ship and makes her way to his room. She's got a bottle of wine in her hand and she makes her way through to his room, knocking on the door with a quiet tap tap tap of her knuckles. ]

I brought a present!

[Sometime after the fight Dorian had with Leilani there's a gentle knock on the door. Cyril could have reached out via network, but Leilani had asked him to make sure Dorian was all right.

It's much too easy to fake being all right on the network, as he well knows.]

Hey, Dorian. You've been working on reading stuff in the library, right? Are you just reading the dry stuff?

[Asks the guy who knows nothing about what's transpired between anyone.]

Just Prior to the lockdown on the Waystation

You're a comms officer right? Things are ass over teakettle down here. I'm helping sort it out. Tell the others-

A little over 24 hours later...

That was shit. I'm sorry for worrying you. Are you up?

Would you do something for me, Dorian?

You got dinner plans tomorrow night?

[It's like the middle of the night, but he woke up, and there might have been a scream. He was alone, that's good. Maybe? Look, he's going to try to not sound freaked out. Maybe he should have just texted.]

...Dorian? Hey. Uh...I don't know what's going on, but...if you could wake up, that could pretty awesome.

[ Living with Dorian again is marvellous and Leilani doesn't waste time; as soon as Justice's broadcast is live and she's visited she makes her way back to the ship. It's later than she'd like, but it doesn't stop her from slipping into his room (not before checking the handle) and making her way inside. ]

Dorian?

Dorian can we...

[He starts and feels entirely too sober for this]

Can we talk?

[Sometimes the only way to get Dorian to do anything is to drag him, kicking and screaming, to do the thing you want him to do, and eventually he realizes he likes it. After he heard about the hot springs, Bull was dead set on Dorian liking that particular thing.

Now the trick was going to be convincing him to travel through a lot of ice and snow to get there. First stop? The Blue Fish, to retrieve his tiny, cold-hating boyfriend. At this point, his feet follow the trek from the docking bay to Dorian's quarters as if by instinct, and he raps his knuckles on the door frame to get the mage's attention.]

Hey there, big guy. Field trip time.

Dorian, my friend, I need to talk to someone about something frivolous and apparently you are the man I've chosen to suffer through it.

Are you available?

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