Re: (ugh, she's such a brat <3 u Mouse))
Perhaps to someone that was use to mainstream honor-bound duty would find the words Falina spoke offensive. Being called a deserter was nowhere near offensive to Dolain. He considered the term to be used by uptight soldiers and mercs. In the world of gangs, the use of the term deserter was separated into two entirely different meanings; coward or survivalist. Dolain wasn’t sure which Falina meant and he didn’t think about it. His thoughts skipped over the words to instead think about what was next said. Lalin has your bow. A relief appeared on his casual smile. While he went through bows quickly and arrows quicker, he was glad he would be getting his weapon back… and he was more happy that Lalin had cared enough to pick them up. His smile morphed into a bemused expression as Falina continued to speak, her words seeming to get harsher the more she spoke.
At the flick on his hood, his eyebrows knit together in confusion, “What’s a vigilante?” He asked in a light tone. Did she just call him something nasty? He doubted it. If it had been a guy, Dolain would have had no hesitation in smacking Falina’s hand away as soon as she had flicked his hood. If it had been a shem guy, he might have even added in a punch or an angry threat. But it wasn’t. It was a dwarf. While Dolain had only seen dwarves in trade markets and thought the race to be sneaky, loud mofos… He knew they didn’t run Denerim, they didn’t come into the alienage, they didn’t always make things worse. It wasn’t the dwarves that the city elves feared and hid from. There were no dwarves on the city guard and he only recalled few being involved with Denerim gangs… most being involved with trading or mercenary work. Dwarves were not elves, but they were not shems either.
Then there were the facts that Falina was also a girl, not even a women yet, and a cute one as well. The girl’s appearance softened Dolain’s usual reactions as any attractive woman would. He glanced at her hand, before surveying the outfit that clung to her, a sweeping gaze that went from her head to her toes and then slowly back up. During the trip to Denerim, before the whole disaster in the woods, Dolain had been much too distracted between Maeve and Lalin to really notice the dwarven girl. Her body was still forming and some parts still had yet to form womanly curves like Maeve or the eloquent angles of Lalin, but now that he was closer… and she was speaking directly to him, in such an impassioned way, Dolain couldn’t help but appreciate her youthful appearance.
Dolain chuckled, making it clear that her words hardly bothered him. He grew up in gangs, he was use to harsh words and blunt manners. Instead, he responded in a teasing tone, “Maybe I wasn’t trying to hide from you, maybe I wanted just you to see me.” He winked at her.
As Falina’s attention was shifted, he followed it to look over his shoulder at Darrian. The second he looked, Darrian glanced at him. Dolain blinked before glancing at Falina in an unconscious weren’t you talking to her, not me? gesture. It seemed to work as Darrian greeted Falina in a rather formal fashion. Dolain frowned, his arms crossing over his torso. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was how Darrian greeted females in The Pearl. He rolled his eyes visibly at Darrian’s bow.
As Darrian began to straighten and hand the conversation back over to Dolain, “Yeah, don’t interrupt, we ha---“ Dolain’s words were cut short when an elf suddenly appeared, stepping past Falina and him to greet Darrian. Dolain blinked in disbelief at the apology for the interruption. His jaw tensed. He slowly recognized the elf as the one that had been on the camp, only much cleaner. Dolain looked back to Falina as he tried to continue the conversation despite the two very distracting elves beside him, “What is the group’s business in the alienage?” His tone was more serious than his previous questions, and sounded clearly more than simple curiosity. He decided to add on to the question to make it seem more casual, “Making a quick stop to return the knife-ears to where they belong?”