[Open] Irregular Mages Ahoy

[justice_is_blond]

WHO: Anders and Thor and You!
WHAT: Various adventures and misadventures
WHEN: Early to mid Bloomingtide
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Gonna put up some basic openings here first for either, then specific headers. Hit me up on plurk (Nadat) or Discord (Nadat#4647) if you'd like something for your dude!

Anders 1. The Clinic

There's a pause in the regular flow of traffic, enough that Anders is free to clean some of the slates leftover from an earlier class and straighten chairs and tables, moving steadily through the Clinic and greeting people by name or nod.

Anders 2. The Gallows Herb Garden

He's not alone as he tends to the plants and gathers a few sprigs of what the Infirmary's short on. Sprawled out in the sun, belly-up, is a tuxedo cat that's half-watching everything. A bit more active is a large orange fluff of a cat that's sneaking gathered herbs out of Anders' basket and piling them off to the side whenever Anders isn't looking.

Anders 3. Infirmary

He's here as usual, healing, providing potions and medical advice. Anyone dropping by gets seen to quickly, regardless of how he might feel about them. Any Rifters, though, get an additional question.

"Does your world have equality? Or some semblance of it?"

--

Thor 1. Tavern

Half the taverns in Kirkwall are closed to him, Tevinter, past conflicts, all that, but that just means that he's all the more happy this one is welcoming. Thor is loud and large and in a very good mood as he drinks his ale and chats with anyone who looks like they might tolerate a conversation.

In fact, if someone, some human or dwarf, is sitting alone, Thor will come over to their table, plop down, and order them a drink on him.

Thor 2. Lowtown

"It can't cost that much," Thor says to the shopkeeper, eyes a little narrow. He has a feeling the guy is trying to rob him... but Thor hasn't spent a lot of time handling day-to-day funds and expenses before. It's all been estate stuff that he signs off on. Haggling for a rather nice-looking cloak is a new challenge, and he finds himself glancing around to see if anyone will help weigh in on the topic.

Thor 3. Gallows

Evening is falling as Thor takes a guard post by the Gallows docks, leaning against a handy bit of wall and actively watching the people coming and going.

"Nearly curfew," he calls out to what looks like a Rifter considering getting on the boat. There's no heat to his voice. In fact, it sounds a little curious. He's wondering how the Rifters are taking the recent news and if it's chafing just yet.

--
[Feel free to make your own prompt for Anders or Thor too if you'd like.]

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

"No notice would have been taken of the Annulment," he confirms quietly. "One happened recently, 9:40, and there was no outcry. Our lives are seen as worthless to them, much as yours are. We have a small amount of value for being useful, but if we're not easy to use..."

He trails off. The conclusion to his sentence seems clear. If the tools don't behave as required, they're disposable. And if they don't like to be used, they're even more disposable.

"I took the lives of people who mattered," he says with a little bitterness. "A handful of them. It was still murder. I will carry that weight. But they're only outraged because of the couple they see as having value and they'd not have cared if it were mages. Or like you said, if they were Dalish or elves. It, it was one of the events that helped break the Circles, I can be thankful for that, but I don't know how to turn this change into something that lasts, because they want us all caged again. I don't know how to make it worth it. Especially not when they point to me as the example of what mages can do."

There has to be some way to turn matters around, to help their peoples be seen as people. But Anders doesn't know what the magic solution is there.

[nadasharillen]

She thins her lips, at an equal loss. Stares into her tea.

"If anyone knew how to make such things worth it, it would have happened. Or, perhaps it already has. We want now, we all want now, but real lasting change is like a river cutting rock. Wind wearing a mountain," she lifts her shoulders with a small sad smile. "We didn't lose our language over night. Not over a year. Not over ten. You may never see what truly comes of Kirkwall. Whether history will make of you a hero, a villain, or lose you entirely.

But you've not lost a friend for it today."

[justice_is_blond]

He sighs sadly, before offering out his hand. He'll be a villain, he's fairly certain. The shape's already set. But the Circles are broken, in part because of him, and that's something he'll need to hold on to.

"Thank you, Nahariel." It means a lot when someone finds out about him and chooses to still be his friend. Or finds out about him and then gives him a chance. "Maybe your language can be recovered, and maybe our freedom can last. I'm not an optimist, but not everything goes poorly."

[nadasharillen]

Nari takes the offered hand and squeezes it reassuringly before withdrawing back to the mug. "Maybe," she says. She doesn't sound in the least convinced, but Anders hadn't meant to be convincing. It's more of a shared 'here we are, choosing again to allow for hope'.

She's not sure what else needs saying on the subject, but she finds as she looks into the lees of her tea, the leaves swaying in the remaining water gently, that something is tapping insistently from inside her chest. She thinks instead about Herian Amsel, about the humans who'd strayed too close, so that when she speaks it can be about herself.

"My People have done things too. Things that perhaps can one day be accepted, but never forgiven. Things that perhaps shouldn't be forgiven." She swirls the mug, watches the leaves dance. "There are children with no fathers in this world because I was hurt and angry."

Nari looks at him, her gaze level and serious and somewhere in between empathy and entreaty. "We must try to be kind. To the ones that can't forgive us. To the ones who can't forgive even those who are like us. Even when it's hard. That's part of the price."