The Bull takes a moment longer than he wants to taking that in. It's not that there's anything wrong with what he heard, there's just a lot of extra, useless crap in his head to shove through before he can clear a space for it, and this isn't the kind of thing he wants his frustration to get in the way of so he has to beat that back, too. So he's slow right now, can't handle this the way he should be; that's just something that he has to deal with. Getting all frustrated about it doesn't have a place here.
Maybe this is the only way Dorian could tell him this though, here and now, when they're here in the dark together with darkspawn somewhere on the other side of one of those walls. The Bull's seen that before. People will tell you all sorts of intimate, sensitive, or just plain terrible info when they're hip deep in shit, in the dark, part of them thinking this is it, they're really going to die here. Something about that tends to make the guy standing shoulder to shoulder with you feel a lot more trustworthy than he did when things were calm and quiet, back when the two of you felt safe.
But then again, Dorian's already shown the Bull some trust, hasn't he? A little. By Dorian's standards. Maybe this isn't something Dorian's going to feel weird about having told the Bull, later. The Bull's going to have to think over that when thinking starts coming easier again.
"You said Alexius wouldn't have liked finding out his son was serving you breakfast," the Bull murmurs, because thinking out loud is going to help his thoughts flow a little easier. "I thought that was just because he was... I don't know, a high-class 'vint, had ideas about servants or something. Assumed that was what you meant."
Which isn't to say there wasn't a little bit of that going on. But if Dorian's friend was that sick that puts a different spin onto it. Easy to assume when you don't know, not see some hint of truth that's there.
The Bull's quiet again, for a much shorter moment. "You flounced out, though. 'Flounce' really the right word?"
Maybe that tension that won't leave the Bull's voice is a good thing. He might as well make it work for him, anyway. In this case it might help make it harder to read any hint of gentleness or judgement into the question, make it sound less like he's pushing Dorian to reframe his part in what went down and more like he's just asking for clarification. This is how he'd normally handle it, he thinks. Just asking questions.
no subject
Maybe this is the only way Dorian could tell him this though, here and now, when they're here in the dark together with darkspawn somewhere on the other side of one of those walls. The Bull's seen that before. People will tell you all sorts of intimate, sensitive, or just plain terrible info when they're hip deep in shit, in the dark, part of them thinking this is it, they're really going to die here. Something about that tends to make the guy standing shoulder to shoulder with you feel a lot more trustworthy than he did when things were calm and quiet, back when the two of you felt safe.
But then again, Dorian's already shown the Bull some trust, hasn't he? A little. By Dorian's standards. Maybe this isn't something Dorian's going to feel weird about having told the Bull, later. The Bull's going to have to think over that when thinking starts coming easier again.
"You said Alexius wouldn't have liked finding out his son was serving you breakfast," the Bull murmurs, because thinking out loud is going to help his thoughts flow a little easier. "I thought that was just because he was... I don't know, a high-class 'vint, had ideas about servants or something. Assumed that was what you meant."
Which isn't to say there wasn't a little bit of that going on. But if Dorian's friend was that sick that puts a different spin onto it. Easy to assume when you don't know, not see some hint of truth that's there.
The Bull's quiet again, for a much shorter moment. "You flounced out, though. 'Flounce' really the right word?"
Maybe that tension that won't leave the Bull's voice is a good thing. He might as well make it work for him, anyway. In this case it might help make it harder to read any hint of gentleness or judgement into the question, make it sound less like he's pushing Dorian to reframe his part in what went down and more like he's just asking for clarification. This is how he'd normally handle it, he thinks. Just asking questions.