symbols = headcanons☾ ♒ = sleep and fears
habit is a strange thing.malani is not a small man.
on the taller side of men, with broad shoulders and a thick chest, he isn't as lean or trimmed as a lot of those that fight in the inquisition. but still, if alone in bed, he curls and folds into the smallest shape he can possibly fit to. it's creating somewhere safe, somewhere small, somewhere just for him that he can relax in. walls all around, so he doesn't need to put his back to one specifically. no door to eye, expectantly. just himself, and as little else as he can manage.
with another, let it be said this man is tactile. arms, legs, whatever can be tangled will be. race, gender, and size don't play a part in how he curls with someone -- it could be their head on his large chest, or his scruffy cheek pressed to theirs. there's little shame in knowing the comfort of being held. if it is expressed or requested that there be no contact, then he lays on his stomach, and does not move throughout the night.
for a man of his stature, some might consider malani's specific fears strange. the most basic one of all, is trusting the wrong person -- and ending up dead, or worse, for it. he simply cannot give 100% of himself, like the stories always sing about. no matter what he says, or what he does, he's holding at least some part of himself back, keeping it safe, where nobody can damage or change it. at his core, this fear has spawned other, minor ones: being dominated by blood magic into falling irrevocably in love with someone, being framed for a massive or treasonous crime that he did not commit, or being forced to make a decision that he cannot find a winning solution in.
