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[stubble]

[ It's late at night when Cullen makes the post, the time of night when people would probably text something like this. But typing on the phone is still too much of an unnatural struggle for him to default to it.

He sounds relatively normal. Maybe just a tiny bit tired. ]

What is it you do when you cannot sleep and there is no work to be done to better utilize the hours you spend awake?

[ There's a tiny pause. ]

I am no stranger to sleepless nights, yet in coming here, I've now naught to do with mine.

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audio

[barbarus]

I train.

[ Damen speaks with no hesitation. He's familiar enough with the feeling, though it hasn't been so much of a problem lately. ]

Alone, usually, until my mind is clear.

Perhaps it would help to make you tired.

[stubble]

I fear I would do nothing but.

[ Because his mind is never clear these days. ]

Though perhaps more exercise is an answer. I am not as active here as I was at home, even though I try to be.

[barbarus]

Is your mind troubled?

[ Because when his had been, he had done nothing but. He understands the impulse. ]

This is a sleepier place than I thought. They say that this is a time of war, but it is not war as I know it to be. It's important to stay sharp in quieter times.

[stubble]

More often than I would like it to be.

[ There's no shame in admitting that is there? ]

But yes, I agree. I am accustomed to war that gives no quarter and allows little peace. I have yet to hear of an attack on a city or town by the enemy here. How a war exists without happening, I do not understand.

[barbarus]

Nor do I.

[ He would not call that a war at all. Just because relations are frosty does not mean they are actively antagonistic. And if they are actively antagonistic, why has no move been made against the enemy in all the time he's been here? ]

This world is little like mine, even in their wars.

Is that what troubles you, my friend? It is difficult to be here, and be idle.

[stubble]

[ As far as Cullen's concerned, it's terrible warfare. He would send an army into the other country and wipe them out. Problem solved. All this pissing around is too Orlesian for him. ]

One of many things, I'm afraid. I am not given to idleness. Before, I had duties and responsibilities. Lives depended on me. Here, I can do absolutely nothing without consequence. It is confounding.

[barbarus]

[ Damen would quite agree. It's what he would expect from any nation at war. Even the Veretians would take better action than none. ]

It is. Things were easier when I could see the field for myself, judge what needed to be done, and do it.

Here we cannot even see what play the enemy makes. If they make any at all.

[stubble]

So too was it for me.

[ He sighs heavily. This place makes no sense for so many reasons. It's with dry sarcasm that he adds; ]

Perhaps their computers wage the war in their stead.

[barbarus]

Perhaps.

[ Damen brightens a little. What he knows of computers is limited to maybe one conversation and some vague experimentation on a device he's not even sure he likes, but it's a start. ]

I've been told things about those. That they are capable of connecting people, even at great distance. That they let anyone access information, that they are instant, that anyone can use them.

It sounds like magic to me, even though it is not.

[stubble]

[ After the microwave caught fire, if it's a box and it plugs into the wall, Cullen isn't going near it. ]

I find them to be the same. Magic in my world cannot create machines like these, but it can create the same kind of effects. My friend assures me it is not magic the way I know it—he is a mage of my world and one of the greatest so I must take his word for it—but I cannot quite believe it.

[barbarus]

[ Never say that to Damen; he won't use the microwave ever again. ]

There is no magic in my world. Perhaps unfortunately. This world has shown me things I could not have believed.

Still it makes me feel out of place here. I cannot see much use for a soldier like me. I understand your frustrations.

[stubble]

[ Technology is evil. ]

I too feel that way. Especially when navigating this world and its mysteries comes so naturally to so many. It makes me wonder if those people would struggle in the worlds we hail from.

[barbarus]

I need only listen to how they speak of politics to know that they would. But that does not help either one of us here.

[ If anything it just makes them both more out of place. But at least Damen is not alone in that. ]

Perhaps we could spar together? It may be better than training alone.

[stubble]

[ Ah, politics. The thing Cullen immediately tunes out. He has yet to hear the people of this world discuss such nonsense, but he knows he wouldn't be impressed. ]

I would like that. I've tried to maintain my usual level of activity, but it is easier to remain fit in the martial arts with an opponent than by oneself.

[barbarus]

I agree. I often train alone because of my strength, but I have seen your armour.

[ More accurately he has seen the scars in Cullen's armour. He's not a man unused to large opponents. Damen would be less of a challenge than demons and monsters, he's sure. ]

I'd value the bout. Perhaps it would tire you enough to sleep.

[stubble]

Or leave me eager for a second bout.

[ Because if there's one thing Cullen enjoys and looks forward to, it's a good challenge. ]

But I am willing to spar for as long as you are able.

[barbarus]

[ Damen grins. That's a good answer; he feels he's chosen well. ]

Then I should not disappoint you.

I prefer the open spaces, outside, if that suits you.

[stubble]

Oh yes. That suits me well. In Thedas, such training areas were the norm. There was more untamed land than tamed. Here... [ He sighs. ] Here there are buildings everywhere.

[barbarus]

[ Oh, but he knows that feeling too well. ]

Yes, I understand. The parks are better places, and big enough to think they have not completely forgotten what nature is.

Though sometimes I wonder.

[stubble]

I too should wonder the same. They pave everything here. Even the sides of the streets. Parks are peaceful, it's true, but they are hardly an example of nature. It is not the same as the open countryside. I question whether some of these people have ever seen that.

[barbarus]

Perhaps they have not.

[ Damen smiles suddenly. ]

When I was a boy, I remember the sounds of the sea not far from home. And we would run through forestland and countryside to play.

I wonder how children play here. Not as I did, that is certain.

[stubble]

I lived near the shore of a vast lake instead of the sea, but as it sounds, my childhood was not dissimilar to yours. I cannot imagine what the children must settle for here. Pavement and dodging cars? I've seen a number of them riding some sort of two-wheeled machine. We have nothing like that in Thedas either.

[barbarus]

No. We rode horses, or had them pull our wagons and carriages.

It is a very different world. I wonder what the children here would think were they brought to lands like ours. I do not think they would be ready for it.

[ This world is gentle. It makes them softer than Damen has ever been, and he wonders if that is a good thing. ]

Perhaps they will never have to know.