driftfleet | Video + Action | So a mage and a Spirit wake up in the same body...

Who: Anders + you
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Málum
When: 8/10, the day after this post

//Video//
[When the video clicks on, it's to show Anders in the Three Twins med bay, this time awake and clearly a lot more awkward about adressing the network than he'd been a week back. On top of that, he's ten years older than he was a week back, although for all his gauntness and heavily apparent exhaustion, he might as well look an extra thirty years older.

Time has not been kind to the man who once shined his charisma and humor on the fleet.]

Hello. Sorry, apparently I've been in one of those comas that happen here, although mine was one of those that came new memories. So, if we had an appointment of any kind, I'd appreciate the reminder I'm...still a little scattered on...well, everything. It's been a while, but also hasn't. [It was an attempt at humor, but his tone falls flat and the smile that hesitantly tries to stretch his lips doesn't seem to know if it even belongs there and dies quickly.]

For those on the Three Twins, I apologize for being unavailable. The clinic will be up and running as it should be, erm, well, tomorrow. Tonight, I'll be at the Málum. [Maker how he wished it could be getting drunk instead of simply appeasing Adalwolfe's overprotective concern.]

Sorry to anyone who I might have caused concern.

[He clicks off the transmission with another awkward half-smile and then sets about contacting those he needed to the way Adalwolfe had shown him.]

//Private to Fenris and Marian//
[Can he get away with not talking to them? Probably not. Which is why he contacts them with voice only, not quite willing to look either of them in the eye when his memories, thoughts and emotions were still so jumbled and confusing.]

I remember Kirkwall. [And the hole in the sky, but that was far less important when it came to them.]

//Action-Málum//

He'd told Hawke he'd follow him as soon as he'd sorted some things at the clinic. Well, now those were sorted and he'd come as promised to the bar his boyfriend worked at. He certainly didn't mind being close to his fellow mage while he worked, in fact he took some solace in Adalwolfe's nearness, he just wasn't sure he wanted to be out in public just yet either. How long had it been since he'd even been in a crowded place? Three years? They'd been on the run for so long, if it weren't for their village they'd adopted, he'd almost be afraid he'd completely forgotten how to talk to other people.

Anyone who might happen upon him or come looking for him in the bar would find him sitting at the counter, something strong he wasn't drinking and food he wasn't touching placed in front of him. His eyes occasionally darted up to follow Hawke with clear affection and adoration in them, but they'd inevitably fall back to the bar's surface as though attempting to memorize the patterns in the grain there.

He so wished he could call Justice up just to tell him to sod off for one night. Maker damn him, he just wanted to get drunk one last time. The things you don't appreciate when you're younger and not hosting a spirit who chases all the alcohol from your system before it can even settle in.

There were a lot of things he didn't appreciate ten years ago.

Only a week ago.

He sighed. Even without the booze, his head was swimming.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There's a pang, like the beginning of a headache and Anders reaches up to rub at his temple. But it soothes as Anders takes in the feeling Cole practically radiates.]

I think that last option might be better.

[It's a confusing mixture in his head, Justice resurfacing, drawn by Cole's presence. He wasn't used to it happening slowly, born of the spirit's curiosity more than the rush of anger.]

I haven't felt Justice's presence so strongly in years. You have a strange affect on him. On us both.

[While Justice was stirring, as if finally waking back up, Anders himself felt more at ease despite the turmoil his mixed up memories had been causing him before Cole arrived.]

Being a spirit on this side is... lonely. Confusing. Isolating.

[Cole is speaking to Anders' face, but his gaze seems to reach deeper, looking not at the mortal, but the trapped spirit.]

I'm so sorry, Justice. I don't know how to help you yet, how to let you go home. If Solas was here maybe... But he isn't. But I'll be here, if there's something that might help you. Even just talking about the Fade.

[His gaze refocuses on Anders face.]

And I can listen. Understand. And I can give you.... hope?

[He reaches for Anders hands.]

When I come from? We know how to reverse Tranquility. Karl will be helped, even if neither of us ever remember this. It will be known what was done to him and it will be undone.

[Cole's words seemed to burn much more than they soothed. Part of him, he suspected the not-human part of him, soared at the idea. Finally, those unjustly made tranquil had some hope and might even be able to feel that hope someday. Perhaps they could have a second chance at life and love and see their forgotten dreams and aspirations come true!

His 'spirit' was elated. His heart broke all over again and fell to pieces inside him. He jerked his hands out of Cole's grip and his tone grew cold and biting.]

Undone? It will never be undone, Cole. I might have plenty of blood on my hands, but before the Chantry, Karl's had already stained them! I put my dagger in his chest myself, I can still remember it! Have you felt that with your compassion? What it is to steal away the life of someone you love more than anyone? To feel their blood on your hands and know it will never be okay?

[The Chantry had dug their own grave that day by stealing the light from Karl's eyes and the intelligent man behind them. Knowing Tranquility could be reversed now? His dagger might as well be in his own chest. He'd killed his lover and thought it release, he'd simply stolen what last hope Karl Thekla had.]

I'm glad that may lie in our future, but if you were trying to make me feel better, I'm afraid you missed your mark.

[Too many Anders spiral across his view, different worlds, different outcomes deadaliveambominationkarlhawkehawkehawkeREVENGE.]

Yes.

I killed my sister. And my father.

[He flickers back, away from the anger, smoke curling around him, making him slightly indistinct to the eye.

Mercy understood killing from love. Compassion had learned from Rhys, never kill, there's always hope, always another way that taking someone's life to spare them because it is never your decision to make for them.]

Yes. I did. I'm sorry. I don't usually get it so wrong anymore.

[The urge is there, to whisper 'forget' and take it all away but he knows he isn't that strong anymore, and that Vengeance will resist the power.]

[There's still a storm in Anders head and heart, but his eyes glance to Hawke still manning the bar and can see the look of worry in his face. He takes a breath and pinches the bridge of his nose.

Calm down. The kid was trying to help, not hurt. What he said was good, it's not his fault you screwed up. Are you really all that surprised you screwed something else up in an effort to make things right? That's what you do be-

Anders' eyes opened and he fixed a very small smile on his face as he looked at Cole and tried to tune out that personal demon in his head, there long before there'd ever been Justice.]

I'm sorry. You're right, you do know. It wasn't fair of me to bite your head off when you were only trying to help.

Thank you for telling me, it does help. It gives me hope about how things will go back home now.

[Cole can feel that demon, not Justice, the thing that is Anders in Anders' head and he gets another piece of the puzzle, of what happened to them.

Anders knows he was wrong to kill Karl. And he can't make him understand that blowing up the Chantry didn't help. But he can make him a bit happier, maybe?]

The Inquisitor wants to make things better. The secrets are coming out, the things the Chantry and Seekers hid. Things the mages hid, and the Templars. A crucible of fire, forging friendships and futures brighter.

If there's a way to help Justice and you, it will come to light soon.

The Veil will vanquish or vanish. I don't know which. But it will change everything anyway.

[Anders nodded to what Cole was saying. The Inquisitor had seemed a good enough sort. Varric had certainly never had a bad thing to say about him.

The part about the veil, however, brings confusion to his expression.]

What does that mean, Cole? The Veil?

[Maker, if the Veil vanished...it would either be terrifying or amazing.
Maybe both.]

[Cole pales and actually looks scared.]

I shouldn't have said that.

Forget.

[The word is a spirit power, but it doesn't really work anymore and it certainly won't work on Anders and Justice.

Which doesn't stop Cole from vanishing in a curl of smoke.]

[It happens too fast and there's a buzz in the back of his mind as Cole says 'Forget' and it just strengthens the confusion Anders feels.

He's on his feet in an instant, but Cole has already vanished.]

Cole!

[Don't run, you don't have to be scared, I'm not going to hurt you. They're all things he wants to say, but the kid's already gone and there's a bad taste left in Anders' mouth.

What did he mean and why did it scare him?]

[Sorry Anders.

Cole is gone and he won't be coming back for a while.

If it helps... it's not you he's scared of.]

Video + Action | So a mage and a Spirit wake up in the same body...

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