Room 322, Thursday Afternoon

[not_every_mage]

Anders was ... tired, mostly. Just tired. He halfway wanted to rewind time two months and make different choices so he wouldn't have to care so much about what Kathy was doing.

He couldn't rewind time, but he could pretend nothing was wrong. Which was why the afternoon found him at his desk, scrawling away at the latest revisions to what was rapidly becoming a book-length treatise on mage rights. That was more important than anything happening in Los Angeles, anyhow.

[OOC: Cracked door, open post!]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Pretending nothing was wrong - with the occasional upsurge of anger - was pretty much Dante's speed about so many things. Kathy was just another thing to add to the list.

He'd left the room largely to pick up some new booze to hide under the bed. If he'd picked up an extra bottle just for Anders, well, he wasn't going to say so-- but he entered the room with three of them in his arms none the less, elbowing the door as he went.

"Didn't think we got that much homework," he said.

[not_every_mage]

"We don't," Anders said, aiming a tired smile at his roommate. "Or I don't, anyhow. It's my mage rights manifesto. I work on it sometimes when I have spare time."

And with Kathy off the island and Nathan no more than a memory, he felt like he was drowning in spare time.

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah. That's how you built up Dante's kind of long, storied history of extra-curriculars, all right.

Though Anders' choices ran a lot nerdier, by the looks of it.

"Huh," he said, setting a bottle down on Anders' desk, right by the papers. "What's in it?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders looked down at the paper in front of him. "'Magic is a gift from the Maker,'" he read. "'The Chantry laws are based on fear of an empire that crumbled a thousand years ago. If the Maker hates magic, why would he gift it to us?' And then it goes on like that for ... I think I had sixty pages last time I counted. Guaranteed to convince every Andrastean that I'm right and they're wrong."

No, he didn't really expect that to happen. But it was a nice thought.


He reached to touch the bottle. "For me?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged. "I might steal some of it," he said, "But yeah."

Sharing food or drinks: not something he did a lot of, but it felt right right now. "Sixty pages, huh? 's not really what I'd call snappy, but these guys seem like they could be stuffy."

[not_every_mage]

"Thanks," Anders said, genuinely appreciative. "And I don't know, maybe I'll make it shorter before I ... release it or publish it or whatever you do with a manifesto. But I figure it'll be harder to ignore if there's a lot to it."

He would never lose his belief that if he just talked more, people would agree with him.

[rebelseekspizza]

Which was adorable, in a completely wrong kind of way, but Dante wasn't inclined to tell him as much.

He set the second bottle down on the ground, then parked his ass against the desk and twisted the top off of the third.

"Just make sure the good bits are on the first page," he said sagely. "The 'you're being fucking assholes doing this' parts."

[not_every_mage]

"Is calling them fucking assholes really a page one sort of thing?" Anders wondered -- and if Dante was opening a bottle, he'd open his too, just to be social. "I don't want them to just get mad and stop reading."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged. His personal take on convincing people involved breaking out the word 'fuck' early and often, just in case they were somehow convinced they weren't dickheads.

(This belief would carry him all the way to interrupting a villainous monologue by the mountain-sized King of all Demons one day.)

"I dunno, pretty it up," he said, shrugging. He took a swig. "You're the writer."

[not_every_mage]

"I could call them mewling idiots," Anders offered cheerfully, and took a glug from his bottle. "... I'm not sure anyone besides me will ever read this, anyhow. Might as well say what I want to say."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I dunno," Dante said again, thinking about it. "'Mewling' makes it sound kinda dirty."

He lowered his bottle. "And we're talking about old priests and shit, right?"

[not_every_mage]

"Clerics," Anders confirmed. "Ours are women, but that doesn't matter. They're still assholes."

[rebelseekspizza]

"So not the kind of people you want to be using sex words about." More booze was a good thing, right? Dante put the bottle back to his mouth. "Otherwise, though, yeah. Let her rip, why the hell not?"

It'd be cathartic, especially right now.

[not_every_mage]

"And 'fucking' isn't a sex word to you?" Anders asked idly, after he'd taken another swallow and was starting to feel warm and loose. "Not that you're wrong. If I can't swear about the Chantry here, where can I do it?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"'Fucking's more like, uh, what do you call it..." Dante waved a finger at him idly as he thought. "Punctuation?"

For you, sure, Dante.

[not_every_mage]

"To you," Anders informed him, with a snicker. "Did you ever meet Barry? Someday I want to hear you and him talk just to count the 'fucks.'"

Barry would probably win, but not because Dante hadn't put up a fight.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I think you'd officially be giving too many fucks about fucks if you did that," Dante said.

Philosophically. Very much so. He barely managed to sail about a 'give more fucks about fucking' crack in favor of, "Maybe you should just scrap the whole sixty pages and spraypaint something 'Fuck the Chantry' or something."

[not_every_mage]

"Watch me," Anders nodded, with a more vigorous gesture than would have accompanied it before he started drinking. "By the time I get out of this place, I'll have just stopped giving a fuck. I'll be spraypainting shit everywhere. Why not, right?"

Dante's nihilism was catching.

[rebelseekspizza]

If certain people's current situation was anything to go by, it was the sanest philosophy in the house.

"Aw," Dante said, sliding back until he was sitting on the desk, bumping away a few papers. "Anders the rebel revolutionary. That'd be kinda hot."

Oh, for god's sake, don't encourage it.

[not_every_mage]

Anders smiled -- a real, if fleeting, expression of appreciation. The hand that wasn't holding the bottle came to rest on Dante's knee. "I like it," he said. "It's much better than Anders the whiny apostate."

And with that, Dante had personally doomed the Kirkwall Chantry.

[rebelseekspizza]

This was why it was a good thing Dante's parents didn't hail from Thedas. He'd have caused no small amount of trouble, roaming around as a Spirit of Rebellion.

"Whining never did anybody any good," he said sagely. "Now fucking shit up is a great use of time."

He waved his bottle vaguely at Anders, or his hand, or both, took another drink, then set it down behind him on the desk.

[not_every_mage]

"What's the best thing you ever wrecked?" Anders asked out of curiosity. "I feel like you could give lessons on fucking shit up."

He took another swallow before setting his bottle next to Dante's. He didn't want them to get lonely.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante thought about it, back of his feet kicking gently against the desk because sitting still was stupid, that was what. "Broke a whole chunk of the place right off when I broke outta jail before coming here," he said. "Ripped the head off of one of the demons that ran the place, hit the real world, aaaand accidentally hit a load-bearing wall on my way out."

Beat.

"That was fun."

[not_every_mage]

"I'm jealous," Anders decided. "You ripped the head off a demon. If I were a bard I'd write a song about that even if you hadn't wrecked a building too."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snickered. "Eh," he said, shifting some to face Anders. "All in a day's work. Now if you really wanna know a piece of art in fucking someone's day up, you shoulda seen Iz and Ada take the cash off of drunk, rich assholes at a strip club a couple of months ago. We wrecked some of their cars, too."

He'd call himself a terrible influence, but he was pretty sure the girls had come out of the box that way.

[not_every_mage]

"That sounds amazing,but how'd you get their cars?" Anders wanted to know,then thought about the possibilities. "Did the girls take the keys, too?

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante looked at him, amused. "Nah," he said, "Just knocked out some windows and went from there. Ada hotwired a jeep for us to take for a ride, though."

[not_every_mage]

"Go Ada," Anders said approvingly, and took a nice long sip from his bottle before putting it down again.

"I took driving back when I got here," he musedd. "I have no idea if I could still do it."

[rebelseekspizza]

"We should find out some time," Dante mused.

He'd have proposed just about anything right now, no matter how stupid, though. He was familiar with the best ways to distract himself from anything that felt like a hole in his life, but this teenage girl-shaped one was Anders' too. He felt a weird urge to make sure Anders was distracted, too.

(That weird urge was called 'friendship'. And possibly 'shared trauma'.)

He let out a soft snicker as a mental image came to mind. "Steal a car somewhere on the mainland, get some spray paint, drive to your world and just go wild," he said. "Bet your clerics would be too thrown to even realize what the fuck was going on."

[not_every_mage]

That sent Anders into a fit of giggles. "They'd go mad," he predicted. "They wouldn't be able to decide whether the car was a new kind of demon or a dwarvish invention, and they wouldn't know what to do with it. Just watching people argue about it would make it worth it."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Meanwhile you've messed up half their shit," Dante said, grinning, "Tuck a copy of this beast--" He patted whatever part of Anders' manifesto came closest, "In an altar or something." Beat. "Nail it to a door? I think nailing this shit to a door is a thing with the Church."

[not_every_mage]

"First I spraypaint everything, then I nail it to everything I can nail it to," Anders nodded. "And you're coming along to help spraypaint everything and tear heads off demons, if we run into any."

The warmth he felt was about 40% booze, 60% friendship.

[rebelseekspizza]

Speaking of booze, Dante hadn't had some for at least five minutes now, and that was sad. He picked up... one of the bottles, not sure which, and took a quick sip, thumping his foot gently against Anders' ankle to signify approval.

Then he put the bottle back.

"It'll be a good time," he said sagely. "Maybe some people'll learn something. Like how demons are shit and so's this Chantry crap."

[not_every_mage]

Anders believed in a lot of the Chantry crap, but his desire to get into a discussion of the nuances of Andraste's message was quite possibly at an all-time low. He picked up the other bottle instead and waved it gently in Dante's direction, as if toasting.

"It'll be glorious," he said. "Lots of dead demons and scandalized Chantry sisters. What could be better?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"... Me actually making the 'nailing' joke I should have like a minute ago," Dante said, pulling a thoughtfully annoyed face. "I'm getting sloppy."

[not_every_mage]

"I don't know," Anders said doubtfully. "Chantry doors are all fancy and carved. Nailing someone against one would hurt."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, but I bet you can get some grip going if you turn around."

Don't give him an excuse to scandalize Elthina in a few years, Anders.

[not_every_mage]

"... and here I thought I was doing fine not thinking about sex."

Elthina would have been scandalized anyhow.

[rebelseekspizza]

True.

Dante shrugged. "That's only fun for so long," he said. "Especially when you can talk about doing it against a house of worship."

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka was tired.

She'd had her own conversation with Kathy yesterday and, while she was pretty confused about what the important thing that Kathy needed to stay home and do was, Kathy had agreed that Alluka's idea to help was very nice.

Which had necessitated a conference with all her toys, that had lasted all night until they'd come to a consensus.

And then there'd been crying, because Alluka hadn't liked their decision, but it was wrong to make them change their minds when everyone else agreed.

Alluka showed up at Anders' door clinging to not one, but two of her toys. She knocked on partly open door and looked down at her toys.

[not_every_mage]

Anders seemed startled as he looked up for his work, but his expression relaxed into a smile when he saw Alluka. (Allukas and their toys got smiles, even on bad days.)

"Hello," he said. "Did you three want to have a tea party?"

He almost hoped she did. It'd be a distraction.

[that_oldsaying]

She brightened a bit and smiled at him, wandering into his room. If he let her, she'd hug him.

"Yes, please!" she said, though she still seemed... muted. "But, but can you also help me figure out how to do something too?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders accepted the hug easily, with an extra squeeze because she'd known he wanted one.

"I can try," he said, once they'd stepped apart and he'd gone to the fridge to see what he could offer her to drink that wasn't alcoholic. "What is it?"

[that_oldsaying]

To be fair, Alluka assumed everyone wanted hugs as much as she did. But she appreciated the extra squeeze a lot!

She hugged her toys--her bunny and Mr. Bubbles--and, after a look to see if he'd notice or mind, took a seat on the edge of one of the beds. "I talked to Kathy yesterday," she said, watching Anders with big, solemn eyes.

"And, and she was really busy with something important and she can't come back yet," Kathy had not tried to explain zombies to Alluka, so Alluka was a bit confused about what was so important, "so I thought that I could send one of my toys to her. To keep her company. Because I love all my friends but my toys are my oldest ones, so they'd be good company for her and, and she'd have to come back, to give it back to me after."

Alluka looked down at her toys. "I just wanted to help, but all I could think of was to send a friend. But, but I don't know how to do that."

She was pretty sure that made her the worst ever at helping. She wasn't good at very many things. Everyone else always seemed to do better at everything.

But maybe sending a friend Kathy could hug would help, even just a little, with her big, important things.

"So... so I was hoping you could help me?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders had to blink hard at that to make sure he wouldn't cry. Kathy did need a friend, and he wasn't sure he was being a very good one to her since the zombies came.

"Oh, sweetheart," he said, looking right back into those huge blue eyes. "I don't know either. Usually you could drop it in the mail but the mail in her world might not be working very well right now. And I don't want your friend to get lost."

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