[Open]

[freedomscall]

What| Anders trying to adjust to a new environment.
Where| Around the capitol.
When| Now?
Warnings/Notes| None at the moment


Everything was too big. He should have felt relief: this city was larger than anything he had seen before. There was so much grandeur, all glittering and beautiful and so easy to focus on. A man like him could have been swept away, swept under the rug, swept up in everything and easily forgotten. He could hide in the crowd. With so many people, no one would notice just another man.

Anders, however, felt nothing but suffocated. Every glance caused him to flinch and bury himself deeper within himself. The knot in his stomach pulled tighter, and tighter with every turn he made and every person he passed.

He had no idea how long he had been walking, or even where he was anymore. A heavy sigh escaped him as he rubbed his forehead.

"Andraste's tits...What is going on?" . For a moment he let his situation consume him, let the whole Capitol consume him.

It was the sound of footsteps coming up behind him that snapped the mage out of his stupor.

Comments

[allyorfoe]

She watches with an expression that tries very hard to be neutral. For Ander's sake. She didn't feel particularly neutral, she wanted to get up and shout, why wasn't she good enough? Why did so many people have so many different Wardens, why did they exist in a world where it seemed that her life had no impact? That her shoes could be filled by someone entirely different, with little to no consequence?

She folds her hands together, and stares off, patiently waiting for him to put it all together. There's a pit in her stomach, and she wants to shake him, shove him back where he came from, and demand her own, demand people who knew her. Who didn't see her as a cheap replacement.

She had to remind herself--It was the Gamemakers. They wanted this chaos.

She doesn't respond immediately. I wish I didn't believe you. Yeah, well. Join the club.

"He is a secret. I am sure you kept it for your Warden-Commander. Please keep it here. I really don't need a room full of people who have no idea what they're talking about to judge me." They didn't know. They didn't understand. The darkspawn weren't going away. The only way to solve the Blight was make them go back to the Deep Roads. There had to be a long term solution. "Especially with Corypheus showing up. Have you heard about him? Andraste's flaming tits, Anders, it's all a mess." She ran a hand through her hair, looking up at the sky.

"Anyway. There's the long and short of it. You're stuck here with a bunch of people from different versions of the same world, a bunch of other worlds, and forced to kill each other. The fun never ends." She added a little jazz hands for emphasis. "And I know I'm not whoever your Warden-Commander was, but...I'm the only one that's here, so I'm going to have to do."

[freedomscall]

Anders looked down at his hands, at a loss. There were other Wardens. There were other worlds. Did that mean that there were other Hawkes too? In some wold, did he stay with the Wardens? Did the Tranquil Solution never exist? In some world did he make a different choice in Kirkwall?

It didn't matter. In how world, in his memories, Kirkwall had happened. All of it had happened.

He wanted to ask about Corypheus but he wasn't sure he could handle more chaos right now. The last thing he would want to hear would be the consequences of that fight. Hell, for all he knew the damned thing had survived some how. That it would join up with the Architect that his Warden Commander had let live. It gave him chills, and Anders was not ready to face any possibilities just yet.

After a long silence the man left out a soft chuckle, looking up at the elven woman before him. "I'm sorry," he said, a sideways smile coming onto his face in spite of himself, in spite of the whole damned situation unfolding, "some of your story seems familiar, and it's madness that it is". His mind jumped from moment to moment. Did Revas' Anders swim Lake Calenhad to escape the Circle? Did he ever mock Ogrehn on their travels, or meet Isabella in the Pearl? Maybe he had never met Carver- maybe Bethany had lived in a different world.

It was maddening. The possibilities, the people who could have became. He shook his head to clear it.

"...Did you keep my cat?"

[allyorfoe]

She can't help but laugh. How could she not? The tension had been building up, and suddenly they were talking about cats. It was good to know that some things never changed. That Anders could be counted on for dumb jokes at possibly inappropriate times.

"The cat. Andraste's tits, yes, I went and got the cat. Pissed me off, them taking that cat. I gave you the cat, clearly I thought you were capable of managing it. Maker. Fucking Orlesians. I should have known Clarel would pull some weird ass blood magic and end up killing everyone, because the Maker is clearly trying to send me a sign that I need to stop trusting these damn Orlesians with my damn Wardens." She gestured around angrily as she spoke, puffing up like an angry bird.

"But yes. Ser Pounce has been reinstated. He's in Vigil's Keep, with my old Mabari, who is enjoying a nice, long retirement." She leaned back, crossing her legs. "His kid was with me...I hope he's okay. I wish they'd taken him with me. Not into the arena, obviously. Just...let him stay here." She gave a long, drawn out sigh.

"Anyway. That's the situation. I can answer any other questions, or if you want, you can take some time to let it sink in. Anyway, until the arena, it's actually pretty great. There's all this food, all the food you could ever want--And you look like you could use it. What do they feed you in Kirkwall?" She reached over to poke him right in the ribs. He looked like she could snap him right over her knee, geez.

"There's pretty much unlimited alcohol, too. Trust me on that, because I've tried. This place is crazy, but it's also the center of every overindulgence that you could imagine. So...it's not so bad. Just don't...get overly argumentative, okay?"