[Open] No boom today. Boom tomorrow.

[justice_is_blond]

WHO: Anders and anyone! Or, well, almost anyone. Sorry, Fenris and Cullen...
WHAT: Anders arrives at Skyhold, takes a new fake name, and tries to get a measure of the Inquisition while keeping a low profile. Starting in prose, but will switch to brackets to match if that's preferred!
WHEN: Mid-haring
WHERE: All over Skyhold, choose your location?
NOTES: Warning for Anders? I can't think of any real ones atm, I'll update if that changes.

He's tired, but that's nothing new. The road's been long. It shows in the way he leans a little on his staff, a fairly generic-looking thing that's far from his old appreciation of things flashy, just as it shows in the state of his rather ragged-looking robes and the scruff of a beard that he doesn't exactly like. At least he's not dead on his feet - the company of a few refugees more than willing to bear the brunt of conversation on the way up had made the last couple of days more bearable than usual.

Now he's here, and the strain is back on his shoulders. Skyhold holds more than the usual level of danger but there's no getting around the fact that he has to at least visit this place. The Inquisition is likely to be a player in the future of mages, and Anders will not see the little bit of progress made be undone out of fear, or laziness, or naivete, or any other number of things that could cut down freedom for his people.

But that doesn't mean he knows how to go about working toward that, just yet. And that means he's slowly going around the fortress, gathering information by listening and asking simple, short questions. They have to be short. The second-to-last thing he can afford is to slip up and let Justice get too accusatory, which could lead to the last thing he can afford - to be recognized by someone who would turn him over to the 'authorities,' such as they are.

"Have you been with the inquisition long?" is one of the most frequent questions, along with a follow up if the answer is yes: "Do you think they treat mages well here?" It's not like he's hiding the staff, after all. But there are more simple questions mixed in as well, questions about the need for herbalists or healers, about where one might find a warm enough corner to sleep in, or where one can lose what few coppers they have over a game of cards. They're general. Careful. They have to be. He's no longer ready to die.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

It's a story that needs to be ended, people being mistreated for things beyond their control. But he can't take on all aspects of it. He needs to start somewhere, and that somewhere is mages, the situation he knows. Justice would like to address everyone, but they can't. They cant.

Which somehow makes the Fade a safer, easier topic.

"That... Doesn't help me explain magic." There's a faint flicker of a smile on Anders' lips as he looks off in the distance. "Everyone from Thedas, at least, everyone who isn't a Dwarf, touches the Fade in their dreams. It's the source of magic, home to spirits and demons. Mages can... channel it, so to speak. We're connected to it. Everything we cast is derived from our connection to the Fade, and we shape the energy we get. We have to learn how to shape it, though. It doesn't-- Well. It does come naturally, in a way. I... That doesn't matter. The point is, we'll cast whether we mean to or not, and often the first time we cast is the first time we realize we're mages. Does that help at all?"

[wontforgetyou]

"Oh, aye, it does."

Truthfully, it did and it didn't. There were still a fair amount of questions on Jamie's end, like why Dwarves couldn't touch the Fade and how something like that could be channeled in the first place, but the most of the rest of it was very close to what he's been told before. While what was said did help, it was a situation rather akin to the scientific explanations he would get from the Doctor - or from Zoe. Half the time those tended to go right over his head. Most of the time it was easier to simply sound like he knew what he was talking about here, and just accept that something worked even if he couldn't quite grasp the principle behind it.

However, there was one thing that 'Detlef' did mention that was new - and in this case, something that didn't wind up completely confusing him. And so rather than pretend as though he understood everything, he turned his palm upwards, glancing down at the mark there while he chewed on his lower lip in thought. It wasn't too long before he lifted his head again, brow still knit together ever so faintly.

"We'd not known what this mark did until we were sent to go face demons at the rift, but then we figured out if we worked together we could use it to close the rift once we'd gotten rid of the demons. That sounds a lot like what happens when mages first realize they're mages to me. So that'd be the same sort of thing, aye?"

[justice_is_blond]

"It's close enough."

He'd burned down a barn, his first time. He knew others who had accidentally frozen rivers, or sent lightning into people. There had been something many casters had meant to accomplish with their initial cast, certainly, but he'd never heard of it working out. And he'd just been frustrated and angry and stomping around like any teenage boy throwing a temper tantrum at something they deem is unfair.

"For us, without practice, and a great deal of training or self-teaching, it's very rare we do what we mean to do with magic. The first thing I used was fire, and it spread, uncontrollably, faster than I could have imagined. There was nothing I could do to contain it. After, before I'd any access to books or teachers, I couldn't simply summon a single spark or fireball. That you were able to close the rift using your mark that quickly is... It's good. It's also not exactly a parallel, simply close."

He holds a hand out, now, and a very small fireball manifests, hovering there, rolling, warm but still contained and harmless.

"This takes learning and practice. I only wish it was more intuitive." The fireball vanishes as quickly as it had been made.

[wontforgetyou]

"Well, to be fair, it was the others who figured it out first. The people I was with have magic in their worlds, and I think that gave them an idea of what to try. I just did what they told me to do."

Granted, it hasn't been the first time he's wound up following someone else's instructions. That is something he's more than familiar with doing by now. It's just the part of it where he'd been able to direct that sort of green energy or whatever it was at the rift out of his hand that had been strange. He supposes having something suddenly happen had been strange for Detlef as well, although he has the feeling that the mage wasn't thinking so much about it being odd as he was thinking about the fact that things were suddenly on fire. That can't have been a good thing, and he finds himself feeling for the young lad that had found himself in that situation.

He's clearly gotten training since, though, and when the tiny fireball appears on Detlef's hand, Jamie winds up staring at it, his attention caught by the way it hovers and rolls around while being unsupported. Most the magic he's seen here has been in the heat of combat, with one or two exceptions, so seeing it just there is still rare enough that he the sight was one that he couldn't help but view with a bit of wonder. Once it vanishes, he comes back to himself, refocusing with a small shake of his head.

"At least you've got people that can teach you, though. I'm not sure that we'll be as lucky, given everything that's happened. What do you think? Is training better or would it be better if you just had to guess at everything to figure out what works with your magic?"

The question isn't meant to be judgmental. In fact, there's a look of genuine curiosity on his face as he asks it. There's a part of him that really does want to know, even though he has doubts he'll be able to get any sort of training when it comes to the mark. Anything they do with that is likely to be guesswork, with neither training or intuition to help. But on the off chance someone does turn up that knows more, it'd be good to know if he should go seek them out or not.

[justice_is_blond]

He shrugs at Jamie's dismissal of what he'd done. Channeling energy for the first time, or even the first few times, was still a terrifying thing. The man had done it despite being somewhere absolutely new with an entirely new ability. That was impressive.

There's a beat before Anders answers the questions, looking past the man for a few moments. "Training is better. Guidance in the basics, it's crucial to truly understanding what all you can do, and how to build upon it. But it must be training given freely, not forced. For instance, should someone arrive who can instruct on how to use what you have, the Rifters should not be rounded up and kept in close quarters for 'protection.'" His voice is a little bitter and he takes a breath to try to resume a normal, calm tone.

"Do you have any control over it, or any sense of how it works at all? Does anyone?" If there's parallels to magic, he might be able to help. Anders just doesn't know enough to say.

[wontforgetyou]

"Aye, well. There was a mage that'd come with us who seemed to think he had an idea of what's going on, a Hugh..." He trails off for a moment, trying to remember if he'd mentioned any other name to the rest of the group, but after a moment he shakes his head in a very small dismissive sort of motion, something more internally directed than a specific gesture for anyone else. "He'd not said what his last name was. He thought the mark was like what the Herald had had, but it'll do no good trying to ask him now. He, ah, didn't make it."

Jamie's lips press together a little at the memory, his eyes flicking off to one side at the same time. Death by demon wasn't pretty, that was for sure. He shakes it off after a moment, making himself focus on the conversation instead.

"Other than that, there's supposed to be someone around here called Solas who might have some sort of idea, but he's been off on some mission for awhile. Don't know when he'll be back." There's another pause, then, a shorter one as he gives 'Detlefs' a rather thoughtful look. "How'd you know there were some people who wanted to round up us Rifters when we'd first arrived, though? Or...you weren't talking about us at all, I'm thinking. Do they do that to mages too, then?"

[justice_is_blond]

At least this one's first name was known. So many died for nothing, with no one knowing their names, and it's worse than a waste. There had been a reason and a survivor knows the mage's name. It's a start.

Solas is a name Anders makes mental note of. If he's a mage as well, then that's one mage who is free to come and go as he pleases and it's a good sign. But he also likely had to do something to gain that freedom, and Anders would like to find out what. For now, there's a question to answer, and the look on Anders' face goes very wry.

"They do that to mages. Did, for quite some time. And if the Templars get their way, they'll do it again. All I can hope is that they don't get their way, that I can help stand in the way of that. We're people. We deserve freedom, and the same rights as every other person. One day everyone will have to acknowledge this."

He takes a breath and looks past Jamie. "At least it sounds like they decided rounding your people up was a poor decision."

[wontforgetyou]

As the explanation goes on, Jamie's expression grows more and more solemn. It isn't the first time that he's seen that sort of thing happen - or the first time he's wound up getting tangled up in something like that, for that matter. But he can empathize with people that want to fight for their freedom, and given how he's seen how some of the Templars have acted around here, he's not all that surprised to hear that they'd want to take that away from people. By the end of it all, he's nodding.

"Aye, I can believe that. I had a wee bit of a run-in with one myself over that sending crystal thingy."

As much as that could be considered a 'run-in', anyway. He may not know exactly how the crystal works, but he knows enough that he's fairly certain just talking with someone didn't entirely qualify.

"The people in charge here shut that down, though, so maybe that's a good sign when it comes to things around here."