@disciplinebreached [cont]:
“Solas–I’m FAR from in the mood for–” He was on EDGE, that much clear in the drop of venom tainting his voice to retort at the inherently CALM words leaving the apostate’s lips. Always, however, the commander knew when to STOP himself–a self-awareness still alive (if not all but CONSUMED by thickening frustration) to remind him when he set foot in territory that needn’t be hostile. A reminder that the world, try as it may, wasn’t ENTIRELY out to get him.
And there were some who extended a hand to HELP.
Far too ragged, the sigh that scraped past his teeth as he turned his attention away, brushed a hand over his HEATED brow. Restless. Anxious. Cullen fidgeted where he stood like one ready to leap to defense even when no threats currently EXISTED. “Truthfully the world KEEPS pushing, if we’re going with THAT. It’s enough effort on its own just to keep it at BAY.”
Perfectly at home in hazel eyes and matched in essence and tonality by cocked head was the caustic sarcasm burning in Solas’ eyes, if one cared to look deeply enough to see the serpent tensing itself for the strike. Yet as the moments passed, it never came, and with several more, so too had the all-too-common attitude about him. For his was never a bite of malice; hard as it was for many to swallow, his was well-meaning even at it’s angriest. ( Do you not see the folly of the path you tread? The needless hurt? Allow me to show you, to guide you to better, if only by way of thought. ) In its stead seeped in natural calm -- albeit alertness all the same, lest causation spring up, and he be caught unawares and unprepared. “Is anyone?” Admittance, some might have called it, but Solas himself merely called it self reflection; there was a time even he had been unwilling to taste of wisdom’s bitter waters, and yet had been in desperate need nonetheless. As Cullen was now, he had been a voice for others: any choice was never to be his alone.
“Perhaps the world keeps pushing,” he continued following a pause. “Perhaps it is the pushing which keeps us here, and not among the clouds. But in my experience, one finds that the weight is less without the added pounds of misguidance.” Which brought him roundabout to the point he had been attempting to get at from the start. “Thus, I must wonder; do you truly believe that it is the Templars who can bring balance to Thedas? Do you not think there was a reason for the mages to rise against them?”
