1st Judgment ⚖ Action ⚖ Open

[whatisright]

Who: Justice and You
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Evac Station, SS Caprine
When: After the destruction of the planet, and then after everything can be done for the refugees.

Evac Station - Action

[Justice is tireless about getting the refugees settled after the planet is destroyed. Literally tireless--he never stops to eat, drink, or sleep. When there is a pause in the work, he only stops to hover by his two unconscious friends, watching them with naked concern on his face but never speaking nor attempting to wake them up.

He's just putting away more supplies when he pauses, head turning to watch a refugee man sitting on the floor, rifling through a bag. When he speaks, his voice is a touch more stern than usual.] What are you doing?

[The man looks up at him, fingering the bag.] "Just, uh, looking at my stuff."

You're lying. That's not yours.

[The color drains from the man's face even as he tries to smile and instinctively clutches the bag tighter.] "What are you talking about? Of course it's mine."

[This just sours Justice's mood further, and he turns the full weight of his glare on the man.] You stole it from a family while they slept. Your misfortune is no excuse to steal from those suffering just as much as yourself. You will return it with all its original contents immediately.

SS Caprine - Action

[Justice never actually properly explored the ship he was assigned, so enchanted he was by the planet they were on.

So now he's just getting to know what's supposed to be his home now. He unfortunately doesn't have a lot of social awareness, as may be evidenced by the fact that he chooses to look like a walking corpse, and he just wanders into random rooms, bedrooms included, to stand at the center or pick up particularly well-used objects and run his fingers across them.

Congratulations on your new weirdo, Caprine.]

[Edited to add: Justice has psychic and object-reading abilities. For more info and to let me know what's cool for him to pick up, here's a permissions post.]

Comments

[whatisright]

[Justice doesn't know why, but he feels that this is a very loaded question. Some of that odd tension is still in the air, putting him on edge. He is not comfortable with the idea of bearing all to this man who doesn't seem to like him very much, not when he feels like he's blindly wandering into a test where he hasn't been told any of the rules.]

I am not a spirit of joy. I cannot divine how happy he is.

[This is, as basically everything Justice says, completely honest. He hasn't known this version of Anders as long as he's known the earlier version. Without time nor a particular sense for joy, he can't know for sure if this Anders is unhappy or simply has developed different ways of expressing happiness.

But he does feel the haunting shift in Anders' presence, like a chill has passed through as the sun is covered by clouds. He has seen the difference in behavior, and the dimmed light in his eyes. Perhaps he's happy in comparison to Kirkwall, but Justice isn't comparing him to Kirkwall: he's comparing him to how he once was in Vigil's Keep, surrounded by the most dysfunctional Gray Wardens ever seen in Ferelden and free from the Circle for real.]

If he is happy, he expresses it differently now.

[Which, in a way, is Justice saying that yes, he thinks Anders is unhappy. Justice can't know for sure yet, and he would be very pleased to be proven wrong, but this is what it seems to him.]

[wolfehawke]

It is different. Not as open.

[He folds his arms, looking down at Anders. So many things about Anders are still furtive, something which Wolfe had always thought to be a lasting affect of Circle life and having to hide everything lest the Templars find some way to take it from him, but considering what Justice has said then perhaps that's not entirely the truth. Perhaps it comes from the single-minded focus that Justice had instilled in Anders from the moment they'd converged, the focus that had strayed after several years then been wrenched back onto the "just" path. Or the vengeful one, who really knew at that point?

But even before the explosion, even before Anders and Justice together had been focused on that, Anders had been careful with his joy. Or maybe not careful, that's not the best way to put it. It was more that he didn't want to allow himself to feel it, even when he did. That he always found some excuse when things got too pleasant, saying he should be working on his manifesto or helping Mistress Selby plan another raid or even just simply minding the clinic. Never once did he put his own needs before anyone else's as far as Wolfe was concerned, at least not without a lot of work on Wolfe's part. Yet Anders still told him that Justice 'didn't approve of Anders' obsession with him'. Even when from Wolfe's perspective it took so much coaxing he wondered if the healer even really wanted what they had started to build.

He did, of course, but it took Adalwolfe a long time to pick at the real joy and affection underneath all of the guilt and self-loathing. To think that Anders had been so much more easy and free with following his personal joy before is a strange thing, and one Wolfe isn't sure he feels good about knowing Anders had lost.

The fact of it, to Wolfe's mind, is that the damage had been done. Justice changed Anders irrevocably, intentionally or not, and Anders had done the same to Justice. Bad influences on each other at the deepest level, even if born from a desire to do good.]

It makes sense, considering.

[whatisright]

Considering what?

[Justice's voice sharpens. Wolfe has his full attention now. He can be difficult to read for those who don't know him, but he makes no attempt to hide his emotions, so he can be ridiculously obvious at other times. Justice latches onto this hint that something went wrong with Anders like a vice. He knows that something is up, but he hasn't been able to figure out what and Anders won't say.

What is it? Was there a tragedy? Did something go wrong with the Wardens? Did the Templars catch Anders? Justice does not know very much about the ten years that stretch between them, partially because Justice doesn't see the point in interrogating others about the future, but he thinks he's missed something and he's worried about what it may be. It's like a thorn stuck under his nail--every time he tries to pull it out, it digs deeper, and there is nothing he can do to ignore that it's there.]

[wolfehawke]

[Shit.]

Considering what he's been through.

[That much is true enough. The rest of it... not his place to tell. It's for Anders to explain if and when he deems fit, if ever.]

Don't think I'm going to tell you every little thing about the next ten years. That would be cheating.

[whatisright]

[Well, if he's going to be that way, Justice is just going to look into his head. It's not like he has any regard for privacy.

Justice looks like he's glaring at the best of times, but his eyes harden. Someone who knows him would know that it's just the look he gets when he's concentrating on something, but to someone who doesn't know him, it may look borderline threatening.

He turns his attention to the man's presence, all the psychic noise that spills out of him like it spills from any other mortal, momentarily blocking out the whispers of past wrongdoing in the station in order to eavesdrop on the man's thoughts...

And there's nothing.

If Justice were the type to curse, he'd do it right now. Kristoff's body would interfere with his power, and now the blasted piece of metal in his head is interfering too. He'd already known that, since his power to hear all that mortal noise has been wildly inconsistent since he got here, but why does it have to happen now with this?

Anders won't tell him anything. Anders' boyfriend definitely won't tell him anything. Justice won't give the man the satisfaction of asking, of admitting that he's getting more and more worried about this and he can't stand it. It's not like that will change his mind.

So after staring at Wolfe in silence, Justice simply looks back down at Anders and Riona, the corners of his eyes softening.

But when he speaks, his voice is like flint.]

Have it your way, then.

[This isn't over. Eventually, the metal in his head will stop messing with his power long enough for him to find out what they are hiding. He will just have to wait until then.]

[wolfehawke]

No.

[Wolfe barks the word and it has an edge, like ice cracking in the dead of winter. Even his breath comes out in a small cloud for a moment, his magic rising up within him to throw off the invasion of his mind, but Justice is too quick and too practiced and the spirit is gone from his thoughts before any magic even touches him.

He whirls on Justice, seeming larger in his anger, shaking his finger at Justice if only to prevent himself from punching instead. Maker knows both Anders and Riona would have his hide for starting a fight now.]

No, you don't get to go digging in people's heads! That isn't how the mortal world works. You can be left in the dark about the future just like everybody else.

[He pauses there for just a moment, just barely restraining himself despite his hands balled to fists and his posture speaking of a want to not just punch but to wound. But he doesn't. He holds himself back for his friends and for himself because he knows, he knows that Justice likely doesn't know much better. He's in a world so different from his own and should be given the benefit of the doubt.

With an icy look, Adalwolfe turns heel and leaves the makeshift medbay, deciding he'd best find something else to do before he gives into his darker impulse.]

[whatisright]

[Justice flinches back in surprise like a child who's been slapped for reasons it doesn't understand. Frankly, that's not far from the truth. No mortal has reacted so strongly to his power before, and he doesn't know why this one is so different. He doesn't understand what he did that is so upsetting, and the only thing he can think of is that the man is angry that Justice tried to find out about something he doesn't want Justice to know, which is all the more suspicious.

He almost asks what's wrong, almost asks him what he's hiding, but the man radiates a desire to hurt him. Justice doesn't need to tamp down on psychic background noise to feel that. For a moment, he thinks that Anders' boyfriend will actually attack.

But he doesn't. He stomps off, leaving Justice with more questions. But left to assess the situation on his own, Justice simply goes back to his earlier impression: the man doesn't like spirits. The man may even think he's a demon, and any reminder that he has power that a mortal doesn't is something to snap or yell about. It does not occur to him that some of that power, even the neutral power universal to all spirits, is inherently offensive to any human for reasons he does not understand yet.

But he also knows something else: something happened in the last ten years. He doesn't know what, and he doesn't know why people are so resistant to telling him, but something happened.

He scowls, settling in to stand vigil over Anders and Riona.

Well, at least the silence isn't so awkward now.]