attempt 001

[unconfines]

Who: Anders
Broadcast: FLEETWIDE VIDEO HIT IT
Action: SS Golden
When: 2/14, not long after shuffling WE ARE BACKDATING THIS MY FRIENDS

[He surprises himself when the feed clicks on easily enough. It's unsettling, but at least it's simple. He can bury the unsettling parts.

Those of you who are familiar—or who have had enough introductions to become familiar—might recognize the striped grey and blue of a Grey Warden uniform, with its high, studded collar, and the curled griffon on the shoulder.

Anders is, for his part, smiling broadly.]

So! Now that I've gotten through the "manhandled into a tin can" bit, closely followed by the "manhandled into a slightly smaller tin can" bit, I thought I'd take some time to say hello. Is everyone comfortable? Because I am not, thanks for asking. [beat] Does it ever bother you how terribly one-sided this is?

[Let him talk and he'll talk. Congratulations on being the captive audience.

Right, back on track.]

Now, I don't usually mind a bit of manhandling, of course, but even I have some standards. It was all terribly anticlimactic. Hardly a kidnapping at all, really.

Anyhow. [with a bit more grandeur:] I believe introductions are in order, don't you? I'm going to eat this [he lifts the little dessert cream in a toast] so you go first.

[Ready: go.]

Comments

[serpentis]

Ah, yes, they don't care for revolutionary upstarts in Tevinter. One moment, you're talking about curtailing the excesses of the Magisterium, and speaking out against the Venatori threat, and the next thing you know, you're fleeing for the south with naught but what can be stuffed into a sack in the middle of the night.

Terribly romantic, being a pariah, and all of that.

[And he narrows his eyes a bit. For all he knows, this man could be a Venatori.]

What are your interests in Tevinter?

[unconfines]

It's somewhere I won't be clapped in irons the second I cross the border.

[Said conversationally, like he's commenting on the weather.]

You'd think the Grey Warden bit would help with that, but as it turns out the templars are so testy when their prisoners actually manage to get out from under them. Who knew?

[serpentis]

Ah, I see, you expect a utopia where mages are free and able to practice as they wish, I take it? Can you trace your lineage back to the Dreamers?

[He chuckles softly.]

[unconfines]

[Well......

Yes.

Still, there's a pause, a short moment where his jaw clenches, a brief flicker of annoyance at being dismissed. Tevinter mages have no idea what the Circles in the south are like. How could they? They've been free their whole lives.]

You're suggesting I embrace the alternative, then? Hold my hands up the next time the templars drop by: "Oh, go ahead, lock me up, whatever you like. I'm happy to do the Maker's work"?

No thanks.

[serpentis]

Your idealism is nearly charming. For all I speak about it, I do love Tevinter, but I also see it for where its flaws are. There's much work to be done there, but when it's all done and I'm finished with it, it will be an empire that one can be proud of, again, and not the crumbling husk of something once-great.

[He could see the plan starting to form in his mind, but it still needed a bit of work. But, one day.]

So long as you aren't taken with blood magic, I suspect you and I will get along just fine.

[unconfines]

[Dorian calls him idealistic, and then proceeds to wax poetic about reforming an entire nation.

Anders can't find it in himself to want to bother. He falls back on what's natural, and sighs extravagantly.]

It was just an idle fancy, anyhow. Now blood magic, no. Much too morbid, and much too messy. It's hard enough getting taint out of the uniform, I don't need the extra work.

[serpentis]

[Dorian considers him a curious man. Charming, certainly, and he can't tell exactly if he is much like Dorian- a flippant outside to keep the rest of the world from seeing what was underneath his surface- or if he truly was what he appeared to be, at face value.

He chuckles softly.]

Then I would assume you are taken with cleaner types of magic?

[unconfines]

Ha, if only. Healing sounds like it would be cleaner, doesn't it. But as it turns out you just get everyone else's blood and snot all over you instead of your own.

[It's the kind of stain that blood magic leaves behind that's the problem, in this particular case.]

They always left those parts out in the Circle.

[serpentis]

I always considered healing an admirable art, but one I never had much chance to study. I was encouraged to pursue other studies. Aside from my research, I've been trained in the arts of the Mortalitasi of Nevarra.

[unconfines]

Ooh, one of the death mages. That's very mysterious, isn't it?

[There's an edge of wariness in him now, though. Understanding of Nevarran practices is extremely limited where he was taught, and the Circle is nothing if not chock full of propaganda.]

Tell me, what is that like? The smell must be terrible, if anything.

[serpentis]

[He chuckles softly.]

I don't make a habit of keeping corpses in my chambers, if that's what you're curious about. Clean bones, however, have nearly no smell and work just as well for a focus.

[unconfines]

[He's quiet for a long, extended moment while he processes that.]

I'm not sure that's better, to be perfectly honest. No offense. I don't think there's anyone who can say "clean bones smell better" and have it come off well.

[serpentis]

[Dorian shrugs a little. He doesn't expect many to understand the reasons for his pursuit of necromancy- less because he enjoyed being surrounded by death, and more because of the political aspirations of his father.

After all, the Mortalitasi of Nevarra were the trusted advisors. In Tevinter, it made perfect sense to study it- it was just another political advantage. If Dorian stepped into Nevarra, an Archon who could ally himself closely with the Mortalitasi, he would be poised to wrap even that country in his grasp.

His entire life had been a carefully constructed ply for power.]

I forget that they have such delicate sensibilities in The South.

[unconfines]

That's because they don't like magic in the south—any kind, not just the messy ones. In case you hadn't gotten that particular message yet. [A beat.] Don't worry, though. You will.

[Also bones are gross, man, come on.]

[serpentis]

I just didn't exect a fellow mage to be like that. You must be a delicate, wilting flower, Anders.

[Anders he's got a bone for you eyooooooo]

Let me know, should you need anything.

[unconfines]

Oh, yes, terribly. Just a picture of passivity, me.

[Wouldn't that be the day.]

And yet, somehow I think I'll manage.

[serpentis]

Good. It would be terribly inconvenient if you never got to see Tevinter.

[Okay, that was a little bit of a threat disguised as a well-meaning quip.]

Farewell for now, Anders.

[And he cuts the feed.]