[Open] The Boys Are Back In Town

[thorndergod]

WHO: Thor, Anders, Open to any!
WHAT: An open log, gonna put up prompts for people as they come up, or people can pop a prompt in for me if they want either dude.
WHEN: Early-to-mid whatever December is
WHERE: All over the place
NOTES: None at the moment.

[Hit me up on Discord at Nadat#4647 or Plurk at Nadat if you'd like something!]

Comments

For Hanzo

[thorndergod]

Secrets always have a way of coming out. The last month has been... particularly rife with information being revealed that Thor is of mixed feelings on, but that doesn't mean he's too distracted to read the reports going through, especially where the word 'magister' is involved.

Though that doesn't mean he knows how to respond to this particular reveal. Thor mulls over it for a few hours before he finally heads to Hanzo's room in the Gallows and knocks.

"It is Thor," he announces at the wood. Maybe he should have called by crystal, but he is never entirely certain how secret conversations on those are.

[eruit]

Hanzo had known the secret would emerge eventually. There was no way to hide something from an organisation of this size for this length of time, not when they were travelling to and from Tevinter with some kind of regularity. The Shimada name is one that is not as loud as others, but it is not one that can be ignored, not when the Venatori have returned and carry his blood with them.

It's a kind of agony he had not expected. He had spoken to Kostos about reclaiming his title, of bringing the Shimadas under heel, but this does nothing more than hurt him. To see his family brought into such disrepute, to see the dishonour they bring to the name and legacy of his blood...

He groans at the knock to his door - expected and unwelcome. Barely able to move to sit, Hanzo sits up and breathes out gently.

"Enter."

[thorndergod]

The noises from within are quiet, but say a great deal. For a rare moment Thor hesitates. He has no desire to impose. He also does not want to abandon someone he's coming to consider a friend to whatever the South chooses to pile on him for his bloodline and heritage. They will not be kind; they are never kind.

So decided, Thor comes into the room and closes the door quietly behind him. After a short mental debate, he finds a convenient stretch of wall near Hanzo and leans against it before focusing on the magister.

"I read that you are revealed." Hanzo knows why he's here, doubtlessly. There's no point in pretending there's some other cause. "I read it in your hand."

For Julius

[justice_is_blond]

He raps on the door, feeling... if not quite happy, at least content. Not everything is death and disaster, and this particular patient isn't likely to be able to escape the way some have a habit of doing. Unless someone intervened, Anders isn't going to have to chase Julius around Kirkwall. And Julius survived, as did all the people Anders most needed to make it through this war, so for once Anders isn't rolling in his usual pessimism.

"Cat Charity Collections," he calls. "Do you have a few coppers to spare for starving cats?"

It's been 84 years...

[overharrowed]

"Sorry, only donate to dog-related charities. I think that's in the national charter, somewhere."

Julius, while well enough to make jokes, clearly sounds a bit worse for wear, and looks it too, though better than he was on the trip back. He has been strictly ordered to stay in bed, and the broken foot makes compliance more a matter of practicality than obedience. His left shoulder is bandaged tightly, and he's making good progress, but healing takes time.

On the other hand, his confinement makes him especially glad for visitors. He's propped up with a book or two at hand, but is already setting them aside when Anders comes in.

It has!

[justice_is_blond]

"That's the problem with Fereldan people. You can take them out of the dog piles and mud pits, but you can never take either out of them."

His smile is warm but also watchful as he comes in and looks Julius over. You can also take the healer out of the infirmary, you know how that goes. Anders takes a chair and settles back into it.

"Would you prefer we talk about your health or ignore that for now for other topics? Your call."

For Cosima

[justice_is_blond]

Having the start of a cure is big. But it's not enough. There are three more deaths on his hands, deaths he'd directly caused after they'd put themselves in his care, and he knows the Blight is terrifying enough to bring so many more seeking the cure despite the risks. There's work to do.

Which is what brings him to Cosima's lab. He ducks in, carrying a basket with a few rolls from the kitchen.

"I bring bribery in hopes of a free microscope. And your always-enjoyable company."

[youwonscience]

"Hey, come in."

Cosima can't hover over Herian all the time, and having something to do is vastly preferable to thinking about the potential ramifications of how badly the Inquisition had just lost a major battle. (How many people had been lost, and how many others badly injured.)

"Rolls are always appreciated. What's on the microscope docket today, though?"

[justice_is_blond]

"Great dragon blood, high dragon blood, and regular dragon blood. As best as I've been able to preserve them." He pulls out three stoppered vials from his beltpouch once he's set the basket down in a clear place. All of the vials are cold to the touch as he's kept ice around them constantly.

"My hope, if this works, is to see what makes them different. One can fight the Blight, but the other two can't. And then from there... I've really no idea." He looks at her, a slightly wry twist to his smile. "I'd rather hoped you'd have some ideas. Your world looks at tiny things, they must be able to do things with the tiny things?"

For Sidony

[justice_is_blond]

It's impossible not to notice the other healers when working; even now there are a lot of injuries and a lot of people bustling around with more than the usual haste. The war in truth has set in. He's nodded to Sidony a few times in passing, as he grabbed another potion for burns, as he'd refilled his tea, as he'd retrieved some bandages, but this time he stops. She's stopped.

When she doesn't snap back out of it, or even seem to realize he's watching her, Anders comes over.

"Are you all right?"

[indissection]

The days since the battle have been difficult. Sidony had been trying to rationalise her thoughts by writing, listing her feelings in unsent letters, but she feels out of sorts completely. Finding herself, finding how to be herself in the midst of all this, is something she cannot wrap her mind around. It's something she can't quite imagine, and it's what has her staring into the distance, fingers playing over her bandaged arm, breathing a little awkward with still healing bones.

She doesn't notice Anders coming over, barely hears him until something snaps inside of her, head turning as she stares. It seems a little like she might be a startled doe, gazing at him as if she's afraid he might come at her with a knife.

"I'm very well, thank you, ser." Not entirely a lie. "I apologise. My thoughts were elsewhere."

[justice_is_blond]

It's easy to accept that her thoughts were elsewhere. There's a lot to think about if one stops to do so, though he's trying very hard not to.

"That can happen," he says gently. The apparent nervousness and use of 'ser' have him wondering if he should see if someone else can help with whatever is bothering her, but she's not entirely brushed him off. "...Anders, rather than ser, if you don't mind. Can I offer you tea?"

She's fumbling with a bandaged arm. It might be bothering her. At the very least he can offer her help there, even if he can't exactly be innocent of his own role in starting war.

For Bene

[justice_is_blond]

He comes to the library with a book under his arm - not for Bene, but for himself. There's an entirely likely chance that the Tevinter mage will leave him waiting and Anders doesn't have a whole lot of free time.

Anders settles into a nook that's at least got a tiny bit of sunlight coming in, lets Pawdric drape himself over his shoulder, and gets comfortable for the wait.

for Loki

[thorndergod]

Avoidance is not working. It never works, in truth, but Thor feels like there's something constantly eating at him now and he doesn't know how to continue going on pretending the issue isn't there. The dinner table is echoingly empty without his... What even is Loki? Thor slams a fist down onto the table, frustrated, confused, alone. He has no brother. He has never had a brother. Only a scheming, malevolent creature waiting for him to slip so it could take House Asgard down.

So why does he hurt?

Thor gets up to stomp through the house, looking for the interloper. He should crush the creature and kick it to the curb, show what happened to those who would do whatever it is Loki had done. Wormed his way into Thor's heart. Treacherously. Snakily. (He loves snakes.) Loved. Hates, maybe.

And yet the sight of Loki draws Thor up short. It's illusion. Not real. A fake shape created so long ago, a trick, and yet Thor can't attack. His purpose, which had been so clear when he got up from the table, is lost. He cannot remove this qunari. He cannot fulfill his duty to his people and his house. He has failed.

[hwaaaitsme]

Loki, unlike Thor, has done his utmost to avoid pondering their discovery. He has thrown himself into his work, for the Inquisition, for his own purposes, and has spent hours upon hours in his study. He has eschewed company but, as always, his brother feels little need to honor his implicit wishes. He stomps up the stairs, through the house, and eventually throws open the door to his study and then pauses.

Loki glances up from his reading but says nothing. At least, for a moment.

"If you required something you could have sent a servant," Loki reminds him. "If something of yours is aflame, for once, it is not me who is at fault."

[thorndergod]

How can he just sit there? How can he calmly be going about everything as if it is all right, disguised yet again as a human? Everything has changed and Loki is still being... Loki.

Thor's fists clench. It doesn't help that he doesn't know what he wants, and that it feels like everything is aflame. He has fought the qunari for what feels is his whole life, and the man that has tried to kill him most often is qunari, shouldn't that be lining up to form some tidy answer?

"How long?" he finally growls out. Realizing the question may not fully make sense, he tries again. "Did you know? Have you been..." Been hiding it, pretending, shapeshifting always just to continue the ploy?

for Lexie

[thorndergod]

One thing he absolutely must do is unravel the depths of the deception. Some questions can only be answered by his father, someone Thor isn't quite ready to contact, but some are easier.

Sort of.

He approaches Lexie at meal time, another meal that Loki is skipping, and takes his seat with a calm he doesn't feel.

"You are recovered from the party?"

[coquettish_trees]

Considering what they had all just come home from, that was a strange enough question to cause Alexandrie to pause her seemingly ceaseless reorganization of the food on her plate that has otherwise been hardly touched and look up at Thor with guarded curiosity.

"It was frightful, certainly, but I find myself with little worry that lingers from it."

[thorndergod]

Little worry. That tells him nothing, and he wishes he had Loki's gift for dancing about the truth and getting at lies. Or even telling lies and making them seem entirely believable. Maybe it's the qunari in Loki that's let him do that, Thor thinks uncharitably.

"So it is the war that has you not eating?" At least he can dodge around a little. "That is what lingers?"

For Petrana

[justice_is_blond]

"Books!" Of course she's looking at books. He's found her in the library, it's not like one would find druffalo in here. Probably. Teren's not here, so it's very unlikely. But there's something nice about finding someone buried in interesting books rather than needing healing or petting a dozen dogs.

"And on enchantment, no less. Do you have a specific enchantment in mind, or is it more of a general study?"

[ipseite]

The smile she offers up is somewhat wan—Julius had been returned to her in far from ideal shape, and furthermore has proved a difficult enough patient she's found herself grateful for his inability to walk unaided, and thus inability to free himself of the healers' recommendations. It is like her, of course, to find respite from one stressful situation by burying herself in another, as she looks down at the book and her notes before her—

“Neither, precisely,” she admits, frowning slightly at the page. “The methods of enchantment that I mastered once before will not serve as they did. If I wish permanence, I will have to adapt my methods. And this will only do me so much good—I shall soon have to speak with the tranquil.”

A little shake of her head: “I should have done it weeks ago.”

Then she might have sent more aid to the front, and less sentiment.

[justice_is_blond]

Weeks ago, which suggests she'd some idea that she thought might have helped in the war. Anders shakes his head, settling in near her and sobering.

"Don't borrow that stress. What happened, happened. We lost. This can serve for the next fight." It's not as simple as that. He knows it. But dwelling on what ifs, especially in light of how poorly things had gone, can only be stressful and discouraging. "Can I ask what it is you plan on doing?"

He probably can't help. But there's a chance, and talking through ideas might be nice considering what so many conversations around here are turning into right now.

For Nate

[justice_is_blond]

He has fought before. He has healed on conflict-laden fields before. He's even seen heavy loss before. This hadn't been like any of that. By the time the Inquisition reaches the city, Anders is quiet and withdrawn, only really responding to people in need of healing. There's too much weight to all of this and he's in a little pain himself having refused to take more than a short break for his own injuries. What people don't know about they can't use against him, or something like that. It isn't like he's really thought in depth about the matter - a vast majority of his mind is focused on putting one foot in front of the other and Not Thinking about what this loss means.

[pinprick]

The walking wounded parade into the city, and Nathaniel stands to watch. It's the first time he has prayed in years. He bargains with the Maker--if Anders has returned, he will be a pious man, he will never doubt the Maker again, all sorts of rubbish he knows he won't keep. His hands shake, and it's not the withdrawals this time. Every time his eyes catch a head of golden hair, he hopes, then is crushed. All times except for one.

Then he's moving, shoving through the crowd, heedless of anyone but the man he's clearing a path toward, calling Anders' name.

anders; back in kirkwall

[nadasharillen]

She had heard about the horror that had befallen the healer's tent, but in the immediacy of it all—the retreat, organizing the raising of their less than half-supplied camp near Montfort, her general refusal to leave Cade once she had found him for anything but orders or aid that kept her within eyesight—and in the difficulty that would come in finding a single man among trudging hundreds in a snow storm, once she had learned that Anders was alive and from what little she could learn likely to stay that way, she'd let her mind run other paths.

Back in Kirkwall, however, she looks for him, eventually leading to a quiet but firm tapping on the door of his room in the other tower.

"Anders? It's Nari. Are you in?"