driftfleet | Don’t care if he’s guilty, don’t care if he’s not

Who: Adalwolfe Hawke and you
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Yes (Three Twins med bay)
When: Now

[Video]

[Some may know and some may not, but even with the little communications crisis going on right now, Adalwolfe is not on the ship he's assigned to. Currently, he's been haunting the medical bay of the Three Twins instead, which is what's vaguely in the background of the video as it winks into broadcast.]

Hey everyone, Hawke here. The male one, obviously.

[He takes an awkward breath, looking a little dark and strained around the eyes, mostly from lack of sleep.]

I know there are other things going on, and these comas are perhaps old hat to some of you especially with how frequently they've been going around right now, but is it... is it normal to age so quickly in one of these mysterious comas?

[He rolls his chair out of the way of the device he has sitting on the counter, giving a side view of Anders laying prone in one of the hospital style cots, eyes closed and Ser Pounce-a-lot the orange tabby curled on his chest with no intention of moving. Anders has grown far more gaunt than when he was up and around last week, and has more than his carefully groomed five-o-clock shadow in stubble about the chin. The beard would be worse if Adalwolfe hadn't taken the time to carefully shave his fellow mage, but he's not about to announce that on the network.]

I hope it is. Otherwise I'm worried he'll waste away like this.

[Adalwolfe rolls back into view, blocking all but the swishing of Ser Pounce's tail.]

Also, to the First Breath crew, I'm sorry I'm not there to take care of the device. I'll be back--

[A glance back at Anders and Hawke shakes his head.]

I'll be back when I'm back. Until then, help yourselves to the bread and things I have stored in the galley from the last planet as an apology. There should be enough to last weeks. Just leave enough of the frozen meat to last Ser Drools until the next planet.

[With an uncharacteristically grim expression, Hawke pauses, then decides he's said his piece until someone answers, and shuts off the feed rather abruptly.]

[Action]

After shutting off the feed, Hawke leans back in his chair, flopping his forearm over his eyes for a moment as if that will somehow block out his worry. He's not sure what he's more anxious over - the thought that Anders won't wake up by himself and he'll have to try and desperately wake him in a panic before he turns to nothing but a husk, or the thought that Anders will wake up with memories of his future, memories of Kirkwall, and Adalwolfe won't be in them. It's a distinct possibility, either way. They both remember Riona, which bodes well, but so does Leliana and yet Leliana doesn't know him at all, which puts him back to square one on what to expect.

Ser Drools whines from under the console at Hawke's feet, responding to his master's turmoil. Or responding to his own turmoil at not being able to get close to Anders' bed for the cat keeping stalwart vigil on Blondie's chest.

Hawke lowers his arm and leans down to pet his dog instead, trying to stop moping and fretting for Ser Drools' sake as much as his own. He's just resolving to do that when the door opens and Adalwolfe's attention spins to that, hand poised over his puppy to see who's come in and for what.

"If you need medical attention, I'm afraid the doctor is out just now."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't know about preordained, but I do know there are apparently different versions of the same universe. Some of the others here from Thedas don't remember me even if I remember them, and there's even a female version of me here in the fleet.

[He shrugs, a roll of his shoulders to try and slough off the weight of that knowledge. It makes one feel incredibly important but also vastly insignificant all at once.]

So I don't know if this is the Anders who I know - who knows me - or if he's from some other version of Thedas.

[If the latter is true, it might just kill him. He's not sure.]

Funny thing to focus on though, preordination. Had trouble with Seers before?

No, I've just had people among the fleet talk about it before. People sometimes believe that as a person is from their future and know of events that haven't happen yet it means there is nothing they can do to change it.

I grew up believing that we make our own futures. Like, everyone is given a blank ticket when we're born, and it's up to each of us to decide where that ticket can take us. Who knows where you might go or what you'll see.

So multiple futures and branching paths. It seems more likely to me. More so with all the different types of the same Earths people around here know of.

That does make sense.

[He tugs at his beard a bit, thinking.]

Even so, I have an Anders in my memory who did certain things. That history is set in stone, there is a version of him who went through the exact things I remember. It's possible this Anders is that one.

[It's also so much more possible, if he thinks about what Vash has said, that this Anders took another path, that he knows another Hawke with another name or even another gender. Or none at all. Maybe he died right after the Blight, maybe he was recaptured and made Tranquil. Maybe he's living in Weisshaupt with the rest of the Wardens, or driven to the Venatori-instilled madness at Adamant. He doesn't know, and that's the problem.

He stays conspicuously silent, trying to wrestle with those less than happy thoughts.]

It is possible. I guess we won't really know until he wakes up.

[Vash reaches out to put a hand on Adalwolfe's shoulder with a soft smile.] Either way, no matter what memories he has when he wakes, I bet he'll be glad a friend like you was looking after him while he was asleep.

[The touch makes him tense on contact but Adalwolfe immediately relaxes just after, glad for the gesture. He even returns Vash's smile, strained as it is around his eyes.

He wants to correct the lanky man, wants to explain that friends is just the beginning. That Anders is everything he has, his world, his life, his heart. He wants to spill all of his insecurities over the possibility that Anders will never remember him, that he was never in this Anders' life in the first place, that almost a decade of support and shared experience and shared space could be rendered moot at the first sign the mage on that bed wakes up and there's no recognition in his face.

But instead Adalwolfe just returns that smile, knowing Vash is trying to be comforting where he can, and accepts the gesture for what it is.]

Thank you. He'll be grateful to know you came to visit, too.

[At first Vash nearly pulls away when he feels Adalwolfe tense under the touch, then stays his hand as the other relaxes a bit. Still, he won't let it linger too long before taking his hand back.]

Heh, it's no big deal. It's not like I had to move ships or anything. Besides, partners in crime look out for each other.

Partners in crime?

[It's said in clear jest so Adalwolfe ignores the possible meanings that could have considering the sort of crimes he's seen Anders get up to. He grins, looking from under his eyebrows at Vash in joking appraisal.]

Should I be worried?

No. Just harmless pranks. Unless of course you have the unfortunate stick up the butt sickness. Then you may be in trouble.

Stick up the--??

[That earns a quick bark of a laugh. Usually Hawke would be easy to make laugh, genial man that he is, but the fact that Vash got him to do that much right now is barely short of a miracle.]

You two got up to it then, did you?

[Vash laughs, happy that Hawke can take a joke and he knows that sometimes even in the worst situations sometimes you just need a laugh.]

Hahaha! Yeah! Anders helped with his magic to rig the food dispensers to cause food to explode in people's faces. It was hilarious!

[The explanation earns an even longer bout of laughter.]

That's brilliant! I didn't know he had it in him, he'd have never done anything like that in Kirkwall.

[Wolfe's smile fades a little, looking back at Anders laying there across the room. He'd still had a sense of humor, telling stories and cracking the occasional joke made all the more funny by his tendency to only jump in with them when its least expected, but never to the detriment of anyone else. While Hawke thinks the food prank is particularly funny, it's odd to him that Anders would go through with that. The Anders he knew was always more reticent to do anything that would even inconvenience people unless it had to do with his manifesto and cause. Always helping. It's one of the reasons Hawke had fallen in love with him but again he wonders just how much of that is Justice.]

I wonder if he'll still play pranks like that when he wakes up. He'll probably be different.

[A warning he feels the need to share with Vash.]

[Vash gives a small nod at the warning.] I take it things aren't that easy for the Anders you know.

No. Kirkwall was very hard on him.

[Hawke's smile fades entirely, leaving him looking pensive and sad.]

Even if he's not the Anders I know, I doubt it was much different.

Well, it will be good that we'll be here for him when he wakes up to help him.

[That earns a rueful smile and Adalwolfe looks down rather than at Vash.]

Yes, it will.

[If he can stomach it. If this Anders isn't his, isn't the Anders he'd loved for ten years since the day they met, he doesn't know how much he can take being around him at first. But... well, he'd thought that about Anders as a young man here in the fleet too, that he couldn't handle being there when Anders didn't know him from anyone else, but he'd spent time with him anyway. Maybe it would be the same as that. Painful, but a pain he'll gladly take.]

[Vash's arm moves as if he's about to touch Adalwolfe again then stops before he does.]

Don't worry, I'm sure it will work out. Either way there's not much we can do until he wakes up so I doubt Anders would want us to be stressed too much.

No, you're right. He doesn't like people to worry about him.

[Or doesn't expect them to, and doesn't know what to do with it when they do it anyway.]

Don’t care if he’s guilty, don’t care if he’s not

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Action; wrap?