faderift | [Open] You'll think "how did I get here, sitting next to you?"

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[Open] You'll think "how did I get here, sitting next to you?"

WHO: Anders and anyone who wants to come pester him or be pestered by him
WHAT: Anders Does Skyhold
WHEN: Through Harvestmere
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: He's Anders.

1. Healing Tents

His robes are dark blue today with silver trim - Warden colors - swooshing around a little as he works around the tent. He likes these robes, which is one of the reasons for his faint smile. The main reason is far more simple; this is where he feels like he's accomplishing something good. Which is why, as long as you're not dripping blood all over the place when you come in, the small smile stays in place as he asks what brings you in today.

In the slight event someone is dripping blood all over the place, they'll be greeted with bandages and help down into a chair.

--Alternately--

He's got much of their dried herbs set out in front of him so he can take a measure of what they have and what's still good. Even in the cold mold can still set in. Supplies look mostly good, though, and he takes notes as he starts pulling some of the fresher herbs out to begin a drying process on them.

2. Training the Hero of Purrelden/Garden

Ser Pounce-a-lot had been a very special cat. He'd been easily trained, for one thing, and Anders hadn't needed to worry about hauling him down to the Deep Roads to deal with Darkspawn. Purrelden? Isn't as brave. In fact, she has a habit of being timid when first encountering new insects. Which means the best thing to do is to have her in the area where the most bugs are found - the gardens.

"You're fine. It's smaller than your paw, you can take it on." She doesn't look sure, but he has dried meat and by now she at least seems to know that batting at a bug will get her a treat. "You can do it. You're a fierce warrior. You can take on anything."

He probably looks like he's talking to a bush if someone's coming up from behind or the left, but his attention is on her. And really, talking to plants is about the least harmful thing that could be done to his reputation.

3. Teaching

Since the conference, Anders has let it be known that he's open to working with anyone who wants to learn more about the practical spells he has under his belt, as well as learning in return, or even working on trying to make new ones together. There's a few stumps left set up where the conference was, and he can be found here some evenings to teach or learn or work. Until someone drops by he's reading or playing with his cat or both. Most of the time both.

4. Mess hall

He's trying to be better about eating all of his meals. It's a work in progress. Which is why he's eating his lunch 'late,' sometime in the early afternoon, and eating is a relative term. There's food on the plate in front of him, yes, but Purrelden's batted some peas off of it and Anders is more focused on notes than actually shoveling food in his mouth at the moment.

5. Wildcard

[ooc: Want something you don't see here? Toss it up! He gets everywhere so there's no worries about coming up with a reason for Anders to be somewhere. If you have a question or want to run an idea past me first, hit me up on Plurk at Nadat or Discord at Nadat#4647!]

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Cosima laughs a little, despite herself, at his manner. "I don't love going to doctors or healers, but I want you acting with the most accurate possible information. That seems like a pretty rational approach?" Then again, people aren't always rational, as she knows all too well. This is why she likes working at the molecular level.

She breathes, deeply in and out, as he works the magic. She's steadily recovering from the lyrium, and she's long recovered from the physical after-effects of being half-starved and roughed up a bit. (On the physical front... she got off easy, and she knows it.) Her chronic condition seems no worse, controlled but not cured by her regular visits to the healing tent; the ordeal didn't seem to make the disease worse.

Small mercies, she thinks.

"Entirely rational. Which is why it's a rarity in Thedas." Her laugh has his smile growing as he works, checking and eventually nodding.

"You're definitely getting there, but we're still not making any headway on the usual." Anders exhales. "There are some things magic can't cure, and so on and so forth, you've likely heard it all, but sometimes I think that's just because we've not been creative enough. I'm wondering if you're up for some exploring and trying. When you've finished recovering from the lyrium poisoning, that is. And I'll not be bothered if that's something you're not interested in doing."

Trying to figure something new out can lead to a lot of failure and a lot of exhaustion. When someone is ill, they don't always have a lot of energy for that.

Edited 2016-10-23 07:27 (UTC)

"Maybe," she says, thoughtful. "I was trying to find a cure, back home. But it was different there. No magic, for one thing, but there were a lot more tools available to me too."

She hasn't really told anyone other than Ruby that she's a clone, and doesn't really plan to - in part because she'd have to first explain cloning - but she does wonder whether that affects spirit healing, and if so, how. It's not exactly something she can look up in the library.

"I appreciate you guys keeping it under control, at least. It's more than I'd managed since I started."

No magic, but more tools. It doesn't entirely line up in his mind, but considering their previous talks he believes her.

"Of course. And we'll continue to do what we can for you. On the other matter... Do you think you could reproduce the tools? Or we could, I'm not sure. Perhaps work toward figuring out how to replicate the processes so that you can still do your work and perhaps have assistance. I'll not push the help on you, I should note."

People with long-term illnesses can get tired of being prodded and pried at, tired of being treated like projects more than people, and he wants her to feel safe here.

"Um." It's something that hadn't really occurred to her as such. "Maybe? It'd take a long time. Like..." She tries to think of a useful analogy. "Imagine you're dropped in a world where no one had ever heard of a carriage before, right? There's not only nowhere you can buy the parts readymade, but the tools to make the parts don't even really exist. So you could probably get there eventually, but you'd have to reverse engineer all kinds of stuff first."

But Cosima looks thoughtful all the same. "I don't think I could rebuild the sort of lab I'm used to, honestly, but maybe I could get at some of the same ideas a different way, with time."

If nothing else, she'd be interested in figuring out a microscope analogue. She wonders if microbes in Thedas work the way she's used to.

Never heard of a carriage before. He mulls over that, listening, before slowly nodding. The wheels alone had to be complicated. How they turn freely is something he's never bothered to learn, nor how to shape them. They can't possibly be cut out in one whole piece.

"Whatever you need, I'd be willing to try to help. I like, I'm fascinated by the things of other worlds. There's ideas I've not heard of before there." There's a pause as he looks at her, hesitating for a moment.

"Might I ask how the politics of your world are?" He's stopped casting completely now, leaning back against a table. "Sometimes it seems like the places with more inventions, more options, have greater freedom. That they don't have whole groups of people doing all they can to gain equality and rights."

Cosima honestly considers how to answer that question. "It's... complicated. My country, it's a big collection of states that administer more or less local areas under a big, united national government. And we pick our leaders by mostly open elections, so by historical standards, we're pretty free. But we've also got, like, huge problems with institutional inequality that we're having mixed success dismantling. Slavery was legal until less than 150 years ago, and the people who were enslaved still get a shit deal a lot of the time. And until about 100 years ago, women had no say in public life at all except through influencing their husbands or family."

She shrugs. "There are worse places, definitely, but it's not paradise."

"I don't think anywhere is truly paradise. But that's certainly... Slavery is still used in places, especially Tevinter. We're fairly equal on the gender matter, I believe, but we've only just gotten freedom for mages. It sounds like we're behind there."

As inventions make people's lives easier, it only stands to reason that easier lives meant less frustration and hatred. Or he thinks it does. There could be other factors involved. Worlds without magic are... strange.

"Are the worse places as developed as your country?"

"Depends who you ask," she says, a bit wry. "But yeah, I think so. There are definitely places in the world with similar levels of economic development and technology, if not identical, where you can lose your freedom or your life for criticizing the government even mildly. But I think the world as a whole is freer than it was, say, 200 or even 100 years ago, so I think your point stands. Though maybe it's that freer people have more time to invent shit, too?"

Chicken and egg.

Edited (numbers, how do they work) 2016-11-12 14:43 (UTC)

He blinks, considering the reverse of his theory.

"That's... also possible. The Dalish, the ancient Dalish, had an impressive empire built on their magic before it all fell apart. Now they spend their time gathering remnants, harassed nearly everywhere they go. But one example isn't enough to say one way or the other." Anders wants to think that they can improve, that things can only get better, but they haven't, historically speaking.

"I want to believe that exposure to new viewpoints and possibilities due to the rifts will open eyes and hearts, but that's also not working thus far." Fear keeps winning. Anders sighs, looking down. "Change is not easy, especially when there's people invested in keeping things the way they were and are."

Cosima considers this, then says, "If it makes you feel better, progress isn't easy where I come from, either. It's more a two-steps-forward, one-step-back kind of thing. People don't like the unknown, even if it might theoretically be better."

She shrugs. "I think it's still worth trying to improve stuff, but people who are comfortable where they are aren't going to give up their comfort quietly, you know?"

After a few moments of thought, Anders nods.

"And if there's some evidence that letting mages and rifters be free to work on projects, such as these, can increase comforts for those people, perhaps they can be convinced to allow it for their own selfishness." Those that don't have compassion might not be unreachable. "I'd love to work on what I can with you, if you'll have me along for the project."

"Hey, any contribution to the rifters' overall public image is welcome. And yeah, I hadn't really thought of what I could do here, substituting magic. I'd be interested to see."

She pauses, then adds, "I was mainly working at trying to cure myself, right before I got here, but I think if spirit healing can't do more than manage it, I'm not sure how far I'll get." Delphine had said a stem-cell therapy had proven effective... but she has neither access to Kira nor a world where people know what stem cells are to work with.

He's quiet, looking down for a moment before glancing back at her.

"I don't know how far you can get with a cure either. But what I can help with I offer, and I'll do. I've had a few combinations of herbs and magic wind up with surprising results before. You'll have aid when you'd like it, Cosima."

"Thanks, man." Her smile is small but warm. "You guys are already doing a lot, you know. I wasn't sure how long I was going to make it without access to the medicines I'm used to, when I first arrived, but I think you've actually put me a bit ahead of the game. At least in my subjective quality-of-life measures."

Meaning she's coughing up very negligible amounts of blood, these days!

His smile goes a little wry. "We may not have spaceflight or the devices you're used to, but our healing abilities are apparently unmatched by any other world that's represented here." As far as he knows, of course, but he's spoken with as many rifters as he can. Most of them don't have anything like what he and the other healers can do, and it's a source of some pride for him.

"And we're glad to do it," he adds as he folds the towel near the handbasin and sets it to the side. "I believe it's a gift that should be shared. Which is another reason to keep the Circles from forming back again, but that's a rather heavy topic and possibly not for this moment. Was there anything else I could do for you here today?"

Slowly, slowly, Anders is adjusting to the thought that every moment might not be the right moment to speak about freedom.

Cosima's head tilts slightly - what she's heard from Anders and what she's heard about him could still use some reconciliation, in her opinion. But now isn't quite the time.

Instead, she says, "No, if you're satisfied with the state me, I'll let you get back to your other patients. Thanks - I'll probably see you when I'm in for my next check-up."

Anders nods.

"I'm satisfied. Have a good day, and perhaps the next time I see you it'll be for a reason other than health."

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[Open] You'll think "how did I get here, sitting next to you?"

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