[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

[bookish_lioness]

"And then you have people like Cullen," Hermione brings up insistently. "He'd been a Templar, and while he'd done it for what he'd considered to be perfectly good and noble reasons, he saw what really went on. He's a friend of mages now. For all I know, he always has been." After all, what Hermione knows of Cullen's past is fairly bare bones, considering that it's clear he doesn't like talking about it. But from what she's managed to parse together, both from him and from when his sister had been here, he proves that not all of the Templars agreed with the way things had been being run.

She doesn't pay much attention to what Anders is doing in regards to the dragon anymore, and she steps towards him and tilts her head to try and look into his face. "Not everyone is your enemy, Anders. Not yours, and not of all mages. Yes, there are terrible, heartless, ignorant people in the world; there always have been, and there likely always will be. The same can be said of my world. But that doesn't mean that everyone is predisposed to be hateful. Vivienne and people like her have their opinions, and they came about those opinions from their own personal experiences. But that doesn't make yours any less valid."

Shaking her head, she offers him a simple shrug as she concludes, "I don't know enough people outside of the Inquisition to know how the average person really feels, or what would sway their opinion. Things like this won't always feel real to people until they're affected by it themselves - their child turns out to be a mage, or their best friend, or someone else close to them. Some people would be willing to fight for equal treatment if that concept is posited to them, and other people just don't have that sort of imagination."

Cracking a small smile, she adds, "But remember your birthday party. How many people showed up to that? You have friends, Anders, even for as pessimistic as you might feel sometimes. And so do other mages. You're not alone, and you won't just be swept under the rug. Thedas is going to have to learn how to cope with the existence of magic in a safe, humane sort of way sooner or later, if it knows what's good for it. That much I do know."

[justice_is_blond]

"Cullen, always been a friend of mages?" There's shock in his voice as he looks at her. "Saw what really went on? Maker, he called for one anullment himself, one slaughter of a whole Circle full of mages, my Circle, and stood by as Meredith's second in command as she called another. Stood by for years as mages were made Tranquil for no reason except to be abused since then they couldn't fight back. Stood by, fine with it, while she killed them through many years for any little infraction she could find, or none at all if she felt like it. He only stopped supporting her when she was clearly insane to the point he'd lose everything if he kept standing by her. He had as much a hand in what happened in this place as I did, as Meredith did, as the Seekers did, but who is the one person they all point a finger at?"

Anders shakes his head. "He speaks a pretty game now, but has he once said he did wrong? Has he once had to face his past? No. Because he's a Templar, and killing mages was entirely, utterly legal until the Circles broke. Vivienne and Cullen and everyone who wants the Circles back are my enemy, because if they return, the abuse will return."

His voice isn't angry, but pained. "The people in power will do all they can to sweep us back up, Hermione. Cullen, Cassandra, whomever winds up being Divine, and so on. They gain power from telling the public that they're being protected from mages, and by telling the mages that being enslaved is for their own good. I have friends. I'm not alone. It's a massive difference from before, but I don't know if it will be enough. I'm terrified that it won't be."

[bookish_lioness]

Hermione winces, not having expected Anders to have any sort of personal dealings with Cullen, at least not in any sort of negative way. She's quite fond of him, quite fond of them both, but it isn't hard for her to see how their histories might have made for a fairly acrimonious relationship. As such, she resists the urge to jump to Cullen's defense, because she knows very well that she doesn't know the whole story, and that Anders is by no means obligated to like everyone she likes. After all, there are probably plenty of people who judge Hermione for being friends with Anders.

But she can't let his tirade go by completely unnoticed, and so she throws in a quiet, "You don't know what he was thinking, and unless you've talked with him about it, you don't know why he did what he did or didn't do what you feel he should have done. From the outset, people would feel justified in thinking all sorts of monstrous things about you. But I came in as a blank slate and listened to you, and I understand your actions, even if I can't say I fully support them. I feel the same about Cullen and his past."

Shaking her head, she can only shrug tiredly as she offers, "The state of Thedas is abysmal, but mages aren't the only ones who've suffered for it. If people could only learn to sit together and talk, to understand one another's points of views, a lot of the world's problems could be solved, or at least better understood. I'm not naive; I know that's no easy task, nor even a wholly feasible one. But it doesn't have to be completely impossible. It just has to start somewhere."