#c: colum cousland

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@spilledw1ne / morrigan ❝ i don't like most people, but you're an exception. ❞

Morrigan must have known the effect her words would have, the insufferable grin she would receive from Colum. Perhaps that had been her goal, and if so she had succeeded admirably. And if the words had only been spoken without thought to their effect, well, he'd be happy for that too. The more of Morrigan he saw behind her guard, the deeper he fell for her. So much had changed between the two since the Kocari Wilds.

"And glad I am to be such a rare exception," he replied. "I like you as well, Morrigan." His intent was relayed more bluntly, the sentiment behind the words obvious in his tone and gaze, for he enjoyed seeing her reaction such blatant affection.

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@spllledwlne / morrigan Morrigan wants to pull her hands away — wants to, but can’t, not with the way he’s pressing them to his chest, as if asking her to trust him for just a little while. To see him like he sees her. Her fingers shake despite herself, and she wants to say something smart about bewitching him away from his task. But all she can think about is the way the heat of him envelops her through that small touch alone.

The moment hung precariously between them. He can tell that Morrigan isn't fighting him, but herself, and the notion of accepting the feelings between them. He doesn't want her just to see him, though. He wants her to see them. He knows he isn't the only one whose caught in these feelings.

So much of his life had been planned down to the last detail. Now all of those plans and intentions laid shattered, and from it he had found the one person that made this world make sense to him.

His touch brushed her knuckles before running down the length of his arms and to her waist to pull her close. The action left her hands free to wander the expanse of his chest at her own leisure, to savor every second of this moment.

"Do you see me?" Colum leaned closer. A mere breadth away from her touch, his heart beat wildly, not out of nerves but from the depth of his affection for the woman in his arms. "Morrigan..."

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"Ahh, don't tell me you're jealous already. I thought I'd have to work for that." His tone is teasing and his smile light in the face of her question. "In truth, I thought it a small step toward repaying you. Our cages may be different, but I know something of being confined and longing to see the world. Though if you wish it be more you need merely say so."

Highever would always be his home, but in his heart he had always longed for more. To have his wish granted in his manner would not have been his first choice, and in that he and Morrigan were alike, but the situation wasn't something he could change. Better to be a Grey Warden and stop the Blight from laying waste to everything than to have perished in the flames of Howe's treachery.

We are Couslands and we do what must be done. So his father had said and so he knew to be true.

Suddenly, Colum leaned closer from where he sat by her fire. "Will you indulge me a question?"

Colum's presence aroused unusual feelings in her. She was… unsettled, almost, but not unpleasantly so. Was it nerves? She had no reason for something as easily conquerable as nerves, and yet the way he looked at her, as if he were seeing beyond the thorns and bramble that covered her instead of flesh, to the woman inside who'd once been a girl longing after pretty things, made her nervous.

“You are one to talk, Grey Warden,” she raised a brow at him. Hers was a selfish means of living. The Grey Wardens continued on their life's mission with the knowledge that they could easily not see another day, whether darkspawn or the blood they'd consumed got to them first, all for the sake of their sense of honor.

“Nevertheless, I am… intrigued by this offer. Tell me, do you offer to take every woman you meet sailing or am I simply the lucky one?”

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@trustbutvcriify​ / xander trevelyan “i don’t care that it’s 2:00 am, we need pie.” ( colum -- xander )

“Is that what you’re craving at this hour?” Colum looked amused at the idea. “Well, who’s to stop the Inquisitor from getting pie at 2AM. Don’t tell me you have to nick it from the kitchens. I used to do that, but I was ten, and nan had an awful temper about deserts at ‘inappropriate’ times.” Really, who was to say 2AM was an inappropriate time for pie? Every time was appropriate for pie.

Colum set aside his pipe and rose, gesturing for the door. “Shall we?”

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sb: wow how did you get so good at fighting colum: well, my sister flew into a fit of rage whenever I teased her about liking one of the squires. it made for a good workout session

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@bardstale​​ / anora mac tir

Colum had never been on the prisoner side of a dungeon, but he could check that off his list now. He could also add escaping a prison to it, and though he and Alistair had made progress on their own on that front they had been more than glad to run into Oghren and Zevran on the way out. Suffice to say, Colum had seen enough of Fort Drakon to last a lifetime.

Somehow, though, he had never expected to see Anora again, especially once he became a Grey Warden. That was simply a path that drove him further away from both court life and her. Not that it mattered, she had her whole life planned, whether she wanted it to be or not, and those plans did not include the Cousland boy.

He tried now to forget the moment he found her again, the shock that traveled through his system. Then, the eventual wake to reality when she sold them out to Ser Cauthrien. She really hadn’t changed from the girl with the skinned knees who demanded they stop stinging.

There was no time to rest and bathe, there was too much work to be done regarding the Landsmeet and the Blight, and he had to speak to Anora. Properly, this time, not in a fleeting moment when they both stared wide eyed at each other. 

First, they both convened with Arl Eamon and Alistair, and Colum didn’t see reason to let on that they were childhood playmates. It didn’t affect much at the present. Afterwards, once the other two had left and it was simply him, her, and her servant, he smiled more casually.

“And here I thought my princess would come rescue me from oblivion.” 

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Morrigan's touch produced fire in his veins. Wherever her palm traveled, the sensation followed, her presence consuming both his thoughts and desires. This was becoming an all too common occurrence as of late. Battle was the only time he found his focus, but even then his thought of her were never far, and she never far from his shield.

Colum cupped Morrigan's jaw, his thumb stroking the length her chin before settling just below her lips. "I am already yours. Heart and mind, body and soul."

Morrigan had never spoken of such things before, of hope and love and wanting. Yet she had given him all of those things without realizing it. Gifted to him amid their fireside chats and the endless days spent at each other's side, each other's back, and learning more from her than he ever had from a tome or practice. He hoped he had provided the same for her, in whatever way he could.

Feeling that the the time for words had passed, Colum closed the distance between them to press his mouth to hers. First slowly, and then more insistently. A greedy, hungry desire overtaking him as sure as her fire consumed him.

Her breath caught in her throat, producing an audible intake. He was beautiful, and somehow more real with no barrier — no wall — between her palm and his bare skin. There was nowhere for her to hide from him, not any longer, and she found she didn't want to when he was bearing himself like this. Like she was worth the freefall of vulnerability.

Morrigan drew her hand down the plane of his chest, along the slopes of hard muscle. She could easily have teased him for being a rich boy who was no doubt pampered, but he was too kind, too honorable, to not have an upbringing worth something, even if it was one without much choice. And as such, she felt a pang of sorrow at his sudden uprooting. Was it horribly selfish of her to be grateful in a way for it? If it brought him to her?

She pressed closer now, her gaze on his lips. The fear she felt was momentarily cowed by hope and awe and... so much affection she felt it would burst forth from her ribcage. The palm that had previously curled into his tunic pressed against his bearded cheek, "I resigned myself to needing little but the open sky, but I find I need you, however I may have you. I am anxious when we are apart and... elated when together."

Whatever had she done to deserve him?

Morrigan stroked his cheek, "You give me hope for things I told myself I no longer held hope for."

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bio - interest check

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Colum watched Morrigan with interest, dark eyes studying her features, the way her eyes met his, the gentle way the corners of her mouth upturned before falling again, even the cadence of her tone. Something about her captured him the moment they met in the wilds, and while her beauty was an obvious answer he couldn't help but feel it went deeper.

"That's quite the indomitable will." He chuckled, but his tone was one of admiration. Even something as simple as the desire to see the mountains and sea gave someone the will to fight against a horde of darkspawn. There was something to be said about that. "When this is all over, I can take you sailing if you like. We can even pass the Frostback." The corners of his own lips quirked upwards. It was something his mother taught him, but he didn't think to mention it lest his thoughts dwell too deeply on her.

She blinked, taken by surprise. Morrigan was used to a strained cordiality if not outright disdain. He was kind -- too kind, for someone who'd had all the comforts and riches one could ever dream of ripped from him in a single night. Perhaps in another life, were she kinder, she would say a prayer for that goodness, lest it be tainted before his body could succumb to the real thing.

"It's been... pleasurable so far." She brushed the knees of her pants casually, like it was nothing more than a common fact. Which it was. "If I have to end darkspawn as means to view the mountains and seas I've longed to know firsthand, well... so be it." The smile she settled on her painted lips was glib, before it fell, to something more serious again, "I have never understood the intricacies of human nature, but I am no stranger to picking the minds of errant villagers."

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"Is that flattery? I didn't think you the type, though I don't know if I can call myself nobility anymore." Not with his mother and father dead, the Cousland castle ransacked, his brother missing, and him a Grey Warden. Wardens were forbidden from holding political positions. At this point, the Cousland line was all but dead, generations gone in a single night.

Still, Colum gave Morrigan a steady smile. "Someone would have to be blind to think of you as beneath them. Is leaving the Wilds every thing you thought it would be?" Because leaving home was certainly not everything he thought it would be. Always yearning for more, these were not the circumstances he waned to leave home under.

colum. / @soulcluster

She cared for his injuries with a studied hand, after so many years of mending her own and those of the wounded creatures she'd meet deep in the woods beyond the Wilds. Her mother had taken care of the truly worst of the incident, whereas she'd been left to the dirty work -- like usual.

"You said you're nobility," Morrigan mused, checking over his bandages to insure healing was proceeding unimpeded, "Hm, I knew there was something different about you, but that was not what I thought. You don't have the air of the usual noble: as if I and those like me are no more than dirt on the bottom of one's boot."

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"I've been called a fool for lesser reasons." It wouldn't be the first time either, nor the last, but he would suffer being called a fool a thousand times if the word fell from her lips. His feelings left no doubt in his mind — in fact, he had never been more sure of what he wanted to do with his life.

Growing up as a teryn's son left few means of deciding his own course, and while there was little that he wouldn't give to have his family still alive, being forced from his home had one small, silver lining: the chance to live how he wanted and to experience the world. Being a Grey Warden would not have been his first choice. Morrigan was.

And if he was a fool, then she must be one as well. The way she warned him but still drew closer, her palm flat against his chest before closing around the material of his tunic.

Colum breathed deep as if he sought to remember her scent. The hint of the wilds, the earthy undergrowth mixed with something dangerous and magical, an intoxicating blend that was all Morrigan.

"Then let me help." Colum leaned back enough to pull his tunic over his head and discard it to the ground, then took her hand and pressed it to his bare chest once more. No wandering, no stalling, no balling her fist into the safety of his tunic.

continued. / @soulcluster

She could not discern the thoughts of the animals she took the form of, but with enough time spent in their company, it was not difficult to learn their habits and patterns as if she could. But no matter how much time she spent in the company of humans, it seemed she could never get closer to understanding all the intricacies she should have been born knowing, had she been born to anyone other than Flemeth. The Wilds were simple. Humanity felt like throwing herself into deep waters.

Despite knowing all that, Colum continued to believe in her -- that she would know what to do with his heart and not leave it for the wolves to feast upon.

"Only a fool willingly ties himself to the Witch of the Wilds," there was none of her usual bite to her tone, it being more akin to a warning, one that was barely holding on. Because perhaps, despite the nerves that seemed to have taken over the run of her bloodstream whenever she found herself near him, she wanted to give in to the connection he was offering. The one she'd longed for for many years, without knowing what, or who exactly, she was looking for.

She could feel his heart beat beneath her palm, hear it mingle with her own pounding in her ears. Her other hand splayed out like the other, before fisting in the cloth of his tunic. "I have always seen you... though I haven't cared to acknowledge it. Because doing so frightens me. I have no idea what I am doing."