driftfleet | [Open]

Who: Anders and Open
Broadcast: Yes (Day after action)
Action: Malum
When: The action takes place a day or so after this happens and the broadcast takes place the next morning

Action
[It hadn't been his first thought to go to the bar. Not even fourth or fifth, but it had popped up eventually. When everything became too much all at once. His clinic was too quiet despite not changing, he was too vulnerable despite not being in any danger. Everything had changed and he hadn't even considered how much until Justice was gone.

Anders went to the only place he could think to go. True, the Space Bar might be a better environment for noise, but Fenris was exactly the last person he wanted to accidentally run into tonight, so Crowley's bar it was. The sound of other people was helpful, at least. And the first drink he basically inhaled helped more. It made it easier to ignore how that persistent hum at the back of his mind was gone, how there wasn't a flux and flow of emotions not quite his own always licking at the edges of his thoughts, how there was only one set of feelings and opinions about everything now left in his head. He'd foolishly tested, half hoping to feel the burst of righteous anger and power as his thoughts drifted to blood magic and the plight of mages and every damn other thing he'd spent the last ten years fighting for.

Suddenly...it was like it had been someone else's problem. Someone else's fight. Like before.

He didn't like it.

He ordered another drink.]

Something strong this time. If it burns my taste-buds into ash, even better.

Voice
[There's a side-effect to drinking. One he hadn't had to deal with in roughly a decade. But, oh, was he dealing with it now. And every time he tried to send a pulse of healing magic into his own head, the hangover he was nursing would just pulse brighter and pang harder and make him think maybe a broodmother would be a blessing right now. It could kill him viciously and in some disgusting way and it would be far kinder than what his head was doing to him.

Perhaps Justice had been doing him a kindness all those years after all. Maker have mercy.

He turned on the broadcast, clumsily hitting video and then voice so a flicker of his disheveled and pathetic appearance can be seen to those who happen to be looking at the time, but then it's gone again and replaced with his voice. Which wasn't really in any better shape.]

Does anyone have any...faster ways with dealing with hangovers? I'd normally take care of it myself but...well, I can't. And thinking isn't too easy right now, so any help would be appreciated. Smartass comments are not, however. Thanks.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She mentions Wynne and there's a moment where conflicting emotions crash together and play a complicated dance in his expression. There were so few Spirit Healers in the world and only one other in Kinloch when he'd been learning, he'd spent a lot of time with Wynne during those years of complacency.

He'd stayed in the tower without a fight while he had Karl and, while her complacency and acceptance of tower life rubbed him the wrong way at times, he'd been able to see a reason to maybe take to heart what she'd said. After they'd sent Karl to Kirkwall, however, every supposedly calming and advising word Wynne had offered him had been no better than sandpaper on skin. He'd come to resent her perceived freedoms and happiness and then he'd run away again before she'd even come back from Ostagar. He hadn't even gone to see her in Amaranthine and now she was long dead and he felt...a twinge of regret. They'd probably had a lot more in common than he'd been willing to see as her apprentice, but he agreed, she'd deserved better.

The few shining examples of what a 'good' Templar was had also deserved better. They were so rare they proved they were not the rule but an exception, but some of them tried so hard to stick to their ideals only to have them broken down and washed out by their fellows. There'd been a Templar in the tower who'd slipped him extra food and allowed Mr. Wiggums in to keep him company, Anders had never discovered who, but he gained no extra sleep knowing that person would eventually lose their mind and die horribly to the lyrium the Chantry fed them. Most Templars Anders blamed for their own addiction, assuming they wouldn't change it even if they could, but he couldn't deny there were some who were different. They deserved better too.

He nods.]

I believe you've mentioned to Hawke that the Inquisitor you knew was female, I know that's not the case for our Thedas, but I have to assume some events move the same. Hopefully, Lavellan will put in a good word for our Leliana as well and Thedas...mages and templars, will see those improvements. [He'd sided with the rebel mages, so maybe there was hope.] I think you would be a good Divine. Or, at least, the one Thedas needs right now.

There are no certainties, but I'd like to think change - while met with opposition as much as any change might be - would be more than needed if we're to all survive after the breach is closed. I want to do what's right.

[If that means maybe a few shady things here and there in the background? Well that's on her conscience and no one else's.]

I wonder if your Hawke felt the same as mine - agreeing with me that mages deserved to be free. It's not a popular choice, by far, for those in power, but then my ideals have always been a bit... off color, I suppose.

[She still remembers meeting Riona and being accused of being a fraud when it came to her visions of Andraste and the rose she had seen that day.]

I'm not afraid of doing what has to be done to see to it that everyone receives rights they deserve, but I'm sure Riona might dislike a few of my more aggressive ideas.

[Subterfuge etc. with the occasional murder should someone try to put a stop to mage freedoms. Things like that she could see herself doing.]

Adalwolfe? When we first met, he hadn't given it much thought. He'd always been an apostate, he doesn't know anything else. I think, at first, he was just humoring me by letting me talk his ear off about the freedom of mages. I guess something stuck eventually, though, he supported the cause openly in time.

[He'd even forgiven Anders for what he did in Kirkwall, even while Anders couldn't forgive himself. It was the lying that had nearly burned all their bridges...even now, he knew something in Hawke got anxious whenever he suspected Anders was hiding something from him. It had ruined a good number of birthday and saturnalia present surprises.]

As for Riona...she's...she's like the Hawkes. She wants the best possible outcome for everyone whenever she can and she holds onto these ideals she wants to see the world have. It's admirable and I love all of them for it, but sometimes things need to be done that are necessary and not pleasant.

Depending on what those ideas are, you might find Wolfe is in the same boat as Riona.

Oh I know Riona would be in that boat. When we first met... when I began to trust her with my secrets... she helped me find my old mentor because the woman wanted me dead. We spared her life in the end, but I wasn't angry at her for it. It's just her way. She does what needs to be done but never goes too far. Her actions are always just enough to be what's needed - what's right.

[Leliana, on the other hand, knew that there were times where a more heavy hand was needed. It wasn't unlike Anders but she took no joy in it. She did her duties for Justinia and for the greater good of all of Thedas.]

[He nodded.] Sounds like her.

She saved me from certain hanging or tranquility when we first met, she barely even knew me and still she recruited me. Then, I told her why I'd gone to Amaranthine at all, to find my phylactery, and she offered to help me with that too, even though it's hardly legal. In the end, she killed the Templar who was so hellbent on seeing me dead, but I know it was to protect me. She tried to send Rylock away with words, but she was the one who pressed Riona's hand.

[Rylock had attacked and Riona had protected Anders. That was when he'd made his decision ro stay with the Wardens forever, no one else had stuck their necks out for him like that.

Too bad nothing good ever seemed to last.]

Did you ever find that woman again?

I did. I sought her out myself, after all was said and done. It was better to tie up the loose ends than to let it continue.

[Though she hadn't brought Riona along. There was too much to be done in Ferelden. Too much to rebuild.]

Riona has always done what was right - regardless of legality. If she thought helping you was right, then it was right. I wouldn't worry so much about that or Rylock. When I met her she freed a Qunari who had been imprisoned for murdering a family of humans. He's actually a good man and everyone seems to make mistakes now and again. The circumstances around the incident were... complicated.

[A stolen sword, fear for his life, etc. Clearly no one in Thedas could catch a break.]

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