not_every_mage | Room 322, Tuesday Afternoon

If Anders was being honest, he'd have to admit that the tall box from Kathy that Ringo had given him some months before had fallen completely out of his mind.

It had started with good intentions: He'd dragged the parcel back to his room and stuck it in the closet so he could save it for his actual birthday and feel like Kathy was there, just for a moment. And then there had been the madness of trying to summon a demon, and the dull terror of the Circle, and by the time he was home again his birthday was some weeks past and the tall package entirely forgotten in a back corner of his closet. The fact thinking about Kathy hurt and he avoided it when he could had only added to his amnesia.

It might have stayed there forever, if Lachlan hadn't managed to hit one of his toy mice deep into the closet. Anders went digging through a mess of discarded paper to find it, and ended up bumping into the box. The tall, slender package wobbled worryingly for a moment before he was able to catch it.

And then there was nothing to do but open it. Lachlan's mouse was forgotten as he pried the paper off and found --

A damned fine staff. The kind he'd never expect to afford on his own. He could feel its power singing to him as he held it in his lap. Some part of him couldn't wait to get to a space where he could test it safely.

The rest of him mainly wanted to cry.

"Dammit, Kathy," he muttered. "Just ... damn it."

[OOC: Cracked door, open post.]

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"It was a while ago, but thank you," Anders told her vaguely. "I forgot I had this. You know, with being away and everything."

"Yeah." Ringo was quiet for a second, then looked up at Anders. Her expression mixed trepidation and hope. "It's a good present to remember you have?" Because reminders of Kathy still all seemed to have a warm nostalgic side, and a spiky-sharp stab of loss mixed together.

"It'll come in handy next time something attacks, that's for sure," Anders agreed, tone going a tiny bit warmer. "Although I need to test it before that happens. But ... tomorrow."

He was still too sad to do it tonight.

He gave Ringo a closer look. "She didn't leave you anything, did she?"

"Tomorrow," Ringo agreed with a slow, understanding nod.

Then his question caused her lip to twitch slightly, and she shook her head. It still kind of hurt, too. Not that she didn't have things to remember Kathy by, but no, well, nothing final. Nothing from the end.

But Ringo was trying to be grown up about it, and not let it get to her. Or at least pretend that it didn't. "No. I didn't have a birthday or anything coming up, so there wasn't really any reason."

"Well, that's unfair," Anders groused."Sorry."

Ringo managed a little smile of appreciation for the sentiment, but forced herself to take a deep breath and shake her head. She was going to be mature about this, dang it! Well. "Mature", anyway. What she understood of the concept, at least.

"I'm sure lots of people didn't get anything from her," she pointed out, as if that made her feel better about it.

"But most of them didn't clean out her room," Anders responded. "I'm glad you're taking it well, but..."

But he knew it would hurt.

Ringo managed another wan sort of smile, then nodded firmly. More in an attempt to convince herself than reassure Anders, really.

"As well as I can. I'm trying to be grown-up about it, you know?"

Probably not, Ringo, since you were almost certainly using some weird definition of the term.

Then, more softly. "But, yeah. I miss her."

"We all do," Anders said, equally soft. "Maybe we should ... I don't know. Have some kind of service. It might have been too long."

That idea seemed to surprise Ringo. She blinked, then hummed thoughtfully.

"Um. We never did, did we?" She'd half-convinced herself, for that first month, that Kathy might make it back. "I think. I think maybe we should."

"I don't even know where to start," Anders admitted, hugging himself (and the staff). "Or what it should be like."

He knew what Andrastian funerals were like. But Kathy wasn't Andrastian.

Ringo shook her head, feeling her fingers curl into tight little fists. "Me neither. But, maybe that's okay? It doesn't have to be a big, um, thing, does it?"

"Probably shouldn't be," Anders said, body tensing just as Ringo's did. "I don't want a bunch of people who didn't know her at all to come and pretend to be sad."

"Yeah." Ringo nodded slowly. "Just, you know, her friends. To, um, remember?" She managed a sort-of-pained smile. Because she did a lot of remembering, and a good chunk of it hurt.

"To remember," Anders agreed. "And to say goodbye and send her soul to ... wherever it's supposed to be."

He wasn't even sure whether Kathy believed she had a soul. He knew what he'd seen of her in the Fade, of course, but the fatc he saw something there and wanted to believe in it didn't make it real.

Another slow nod. "Yeah. It doesn't have to be a big thing."

Ringo paused for a moment, then spoke again. "Shouldn't be a big thing, probably." She went for a sort of grin again. "Kathy wouldn't have wanted it to be."

"You think?" Anders asked. "I'm not sure. She was shy about it, but she liked attention when she got it."

He flashed a slight smile. "Not that it matters. We don't need it to be a big thing."

Ringo laughed softly, eyes still full of memories, but mostly good ones for the moment. "That's true. But for something like this?" She shrugged. "I guess I don't know for sure, but something small and private and just friends feels right somehow."

Anders nodded in agreement. "Should we do it a week from Sunday?" he asked. "That'll give us time to let people know."

Her head tilted to one side, considering that. Then she nodded. "Yeah. I think that's a good idea. And it'll give us time to figure out where we want to do it, too."

"Right," Anders said, and blinked awkwardly before offering his arms to Ringo. "Er. Would you like a hug?"

She blinked back, surprised, but then her face relaxed into a grateful smile.

"Very much," she said quietly, her eyes darting away from his face awkwardly as she stepped toward him.

"Good, because I need one too," Anders whispered, and squeezed Ringo tight.

She squeezed back, hard, and leaned her face into her shoulder. "Thank you," she murmured, voice muffled.

"Anytime," Anders said, and meant it.

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soniaroadsqueen - 2016-09-16 15:54 (UTC) - Expand