[Open] But when we are apart I feel it too

[justice_is_blond]

WHO: Anders and open
WHAT: General stuff around Kirkwall
WHEN: Through Bloomingtide
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Nothing as of yet!.

1. Making the Band

The crowd is the new mix of normals, people Anders is starting to learn by face though he's avoiding names. Most here do, which he's thankful for. What's not normal is that Juke Bachs has dropped by, and has been singing a new song about two or three times an hour. On top of that, he's been getting some of the more drunk patrons involved in some... Anders can only call it a dance because they're trying to move in time to the music. It involved weird patterns and flailing limbs, and he's deliberately sticking around to keep watching this.

He leans over when someone sits next to him, not quite looking at the person. "A copper on the blond one falling over in the next minute." It seems a safe bet. That guy's more coordinated than the really beardy guy, but he's already tripped over his feet enough that his palms are scraped and nose is bleeding.

Juke starts in on another round of what's apparently called Tearin' Up My Heart, and Anders takes a sip of his drink, very well pleased.

2. CSI: Thedas

He's taken a larger, unclaimed room for this, coating it in ice, using runes to make sure the ice doesn't melt, and he's also gathered as many tables as he can, lining them up together and creating a rather large, cold surface. On that surface is most of a corpse of a high dragon, many parts already cut open so he can get at the heart of the matter. So to speak.

There's a sign on the door warning about what he's working on, doing more research into the taint and the Blight, but that's all - the last thing he's going to do is barricade a door. He doesn't need to invite suspicion or fear any more than his breathing already does.

Those who might be scientifically inclined and he trusts to not take too many risks of exposure have been invited to join him in trying to see what they can learn from how High Dragons deal with the Blight.

3. Call the Anders

Most days, his hours in the medical rooms in the Gallows are regular. There's always more work that needs doing, after all, herbs to be chopped, processed, and mixed into potions, bandages to prepare, healing to do, and even housecalls to make from time to time. Purrelden knows not to be on the table while he works, which is exactly why she's on the table the moment he's turning to greet whatever patient or person has walked in the door.

[ooc: if you take this option and your character is injured/ill, please drop me an ooc note about what he'll find when going to heal them.]

4. Dr. Anders, Medicine Man

There are whispers in Darktown, spreading slowly, that their healer is back. Follow the lit lanterns, they say. Not every day are they lit, and there's no particular order to the days that they are, which is as deliberate as the moving of the clinic down there every time. ...Until today. Today, he's found a small building that two of the Darktown gangs have been fighting over for months. For equal healing for both of them, they're letting him use it. It's win-win for both. Neither is losing territory, and both gain a healer. It's a double win for him too, because it means that he has protection.

Today a new whisper joins the others - there are some tables and chairs, and between healing, he's offering reading and writing lessons. For free, no questions asked. He's also looking for assistants, if there's anyone out there willing to instruct down here or help heal or do prep work around the Clinic. There's a lot to do when setting up something that's going to stand for a while.

5. Anders Howe, Pet Detective.

Dogs and leashes are natural combinations. They take to it well and quickly. Cats and leashes... not so much. Purrelden's legs have apparently stopped working in the middle of the market and she's limp, giving him the saddest expression.

"You're fine," he tells her. "You can walk. This is to keep you safer, and to protect Merrill's twine. Please get up."

Pleading with a cat doesn't seem to ever work, and more than a few are staring at him, but at least they're staring at him for this and not other reasons. He looks up, meeting gazes and giving a slightly sheepish smile and shrug to anyone familiar.

"Cats," Anders says as explanation.

6. Wildcard me!

[ooc: Got something you want with Anders but it's not here? Toss up a header. If you're not sure about it, go ahead and poke me on Plurk at Nadat or on Discord at Nadat#4647 and we can chat!]

Comments

[failedfirst]

She turns her gaze towards the indicated Blight sac, tilting her head as she examines it from a far.

"That is interesting. Is it only the Blight or do other infections get sealed away rather than fought off the way our bodies fight infections?" It would be even more interesting if it was only the Blight that caused them to react in such a way.

[justice_is_blond]

"Only the Blight." Anders leads her back to the dragon corpse and nods at it. "You can see there's one other sac in there, and that's Blight-filled as well. There aren't any others. Which implies... so many possibilities and plenty of them are unlikely," he concludes with a half-laugh and a shake of his head.

"Maybe dragon nature and the Blight are opposed. Maybe it can sense this particular intruder and fence it off. Maybe this is the first infection this high dragon ever had. Maybe it actually has a part of its body that works to fight the Blight. Maybe it ate something that was Blighted and this is the work of its digestive system and not its immune system. Being on the forefront of figuring things out can be exhausting."

[failedfirst]

She shakes her head, leaning back on her heels as she looks over the dragon.

"More specimens are needed, obviously." They can't really deduce everything from one dragon, and while it's a start, they probably won't learn anything wholly conclusive from it. "This is a beginning, but with just these two sacs it's hardly enough to tell us everything about the dragon and how it's creating this resistance."

[justice_is_blond]

"Agreed. It's not enough. But right now it's what we've got." He doesn't know how often he'll be able to get his hands on dragon corpses, after all. Or how many he can cut into before people start wondering if he's becoming a blood mage.

"While I'm not hoping more dragons wind up menacing villages, if they do, then I can get bodies. As it is, the Inquisition will likely not support people simply going out and hunting a dragon. It has to have more purpose than that, and I doubt 'cure the Blight' counts coming from me."

People, even Nate, have seemed to think he wants to cure it to be free of the Wardens. While he would like the freedom, he'd never actually wanted to leave the Wardens. He'd been chased away. Now he just wants to keep the people he cares about alive a bit longer.

[failedfirst]

"They might if the Wardens are united about it," she replies, somewhat slowly. She doesn't love the team meetings and the concept of having to run everything they do past people "in charge" but that's more or less the reality of things. Even when she'd been First, she'd had trouble with reporting in on things, or not doing something when she was told no.

Really that was why she'd ended up exiled.

"It isn't as if this would be only beneficial to us, it would help others too. We could potentially reduce casualties to Blight sickness, make it so that even those who haven't undergone the ritual would be able to fight alongside Wardens."

[justice_is_blond]

"You and I and anyone who has been impacted by the Blight know how important this is. Sometimes it's difficult to get others to look past the fact that it's me doing it. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop."

He can't. He has to do the best he can, and he even not-so-secretly hopes that a little bit of his legacy will be changed. Yes, he'll still go down in history for murder, but maybe he can go down in history for saving lives too. That's something he can accept.

"Honestly, the more they try to make me stop working on important things the more important they become to me. That might be a small part of why I kept running away from the Circle, beyond the whole desire for freedom and the mistreatment that happened there."

[failedfirst]

"Mm. That stubborn streak is why I like you," Velanna replies without thinking about it, before making a face when it processes. "But that won't stop me from killing you if you tell anyone I said that."

Moving on, she continues to study the dragon with partially fabricated interest.

"I definitely think a dragonling or two would help with research. Plus no one will be upset about the idea of hunting more dragons. They're unpredictable and dangerous and there's always one making life difficult for some foolish shemlen farmer."

[justice_is_blond]

His expression lightens a bit at her comment. It's nice to have affirmation of being liked, especially from people he likes in return.

"I don't think we can take Inquisition resources for it, but hunting dragonlings will take little effort." As long as the parent wasn't around, the little dragons were easy prey. Fast, wiggly, bitey, sure, but that's easily enough contained, especially if they have vines wrapping around their targets.

"Would you go along after a few with me?"