[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]

That's a weight off his shoulders that he'd not fully known he'd been carrying. No matter the distance between him and his own suffering because of his phylactery, he still views them as shackles, weights, means of torture and control. Julius has broken his, though, and has joined the people free of its influence.

Anders reaches over to rest a hand on Julius' shoulder for a brief moment. The relief he feels is hard to put into words.

"I'm glad," he says eventually. "And you're welcome. I'm not going to leave a friend powerless like that when I can help it. I'd destroy every one if I could, but I'd the opportunity to give you the choice with yours." He will destroy any he gets opportunity to, but that's going to be complicated and take more than a little work. "The next step is finding some way to dissuade them from making more, for mages or Rifters. I know that may not be an easy task."

[overharrowed]

Julius' smile is wry, but not disingenuous. "You don't have to tell me. Despite the rumors, we didn't concede anything regarding them lightly. Or suggest that they make them for rifters, which..." Julius shakes his head. "That particular argument truly does baffle me. Even if they thought us malicious, they have to also think we're stupid to imagine we'd actively suggest they make phylacteries for someone else in the middle of arguing that they don't have the authority to make them for us."

Julius has been a mage in Thedas long enough that someone imagining his motives more malicious than they are isn't unusual; it's being assumed to be an idiot that seems to rankle.

[justice_is_blond]

"It's... not really a surprise." Mages have always been scapegoats. Did the crops fail? Blood magic. Cows die? Blood magic. Well run dry? And so on. He'd also spent a lot of time being blamed for every bit of mischief in Kinloch hold. Some of it he'd earned, but there was plenty he simply was handy to blame for.

"I'd wonder if someone had suggested the mages were to blame to them, except the outrage and reaction blaming you and the other negotiators was instantaneous." He sighs. "They wanted someone to blame and you'd familiar faces, while the Chantry representatives didn't, not to them. I doubt it was a conscious criticism of your intelligence as much as it was fury and fear."

Anyone familiar with Julius would know he wasn't stupid. But sometimes even knowing that wouldn't stop an emotional reaction.

"If it's any consolation, I know you're not stupid." Pawdric rolls over onto his back in front of Julius, showing off his belly. "And he's offering you a chance to prove it. That's a trap. But an adorable trap that I fall for on a regular basis."

[overharrowed]

"It'd serve me right," Julius says with a smile. "He probably knows that I'm more of a dog person and is just waiting for his chance for revenge."

It's not as if either man needs to tell the other than mages are working uphill where trust is concerned, but Julius is inclined to agree: Rifters would have lashed out at a delegation of Wardens, or elves, or simply assorted natives just as fast. It was fear, not logic.

"As Madame de Cedoux so deftly pointed out to me... it's still progress. We were invited to the table at all, and we actually won some things. It's slow, and it's frustrating, but it wouldn't have happened that way even as recently as five years ago."

[justice_is_blond]

"We forced our way to the table, we weren't secretive about our intended strike and our feelings, but yes. Five years ago the lot of us would have been annulled before they negotiated with us." His voice is agreeable. This was a marked change, whether the invitation was at strike-point or not.

"The question is how to build on the progress from here. They listened to us as people, as a group." And then set restrictions on mages who weren't seen as loyal enough, which was equally telling. It was practically designed to cause resentment. "But now those of us who struck need to make sure we're still heard and seen, that unity and a non-violent stand don't cost us."

No one wants to see the alternative. Not again. Peaceful protest has to have a place.

[overharrowed]

"I know," Julius says, almost gently. "Making sure strikers didn't face repercussions was one of our priorities, it's not as if that was a given." In truth, Julius is still quietly surprised to find himself a project leader; he wonders how long that will last.

"In truth, I sympathized with Knight-Enchanter Amsel's position too. We're most of us here because we agree Corypheus is the most pressing threat to the world right now. But if the Inquistion alienates all or most of its mages -- or its rifters -- that hinders the goal in concrete ways. But it's not easy for any of us to set aside centuries of... everything else."