Holiday Inn, Limbo City, Friday Evening

[not_every_mage]

Anders had booked and paid for the room, ignoring the clerk's dirty look at the blood and muck on their clothes. They wouldn't be the only people caught in the day's devastation looking for someplace to sleep tonight

He'd silently followed Dante through the hotel halls to their room, and placed a quick order for pizza before he took off his boots and crashed out on the bed. The thousand bruises and scrapes of the battle stung his skin.

He should shower. He didn't want to move.

He turned to Dante, still registering faint surprise at the newly white hair. (He supposed they were lucky if that was the worst permanent change Dante saw.) Words failed him when it came to addressing the true horror of the day, but he should at least say something

"They said the pizza should be here in about half an hour," he said. "I'm actually impressed it's not longer, considering."


[OOC: For one, NFB.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante polished off another slice in the mean time, eyeing his expression thoughtfully.

"What's on your mind?" he asked as he picked up the next slice.

[not_every_mage]

Anders sighed and leaned to the side, propping himself on his elbow.

"That thing where you went all red," he said. "What did that feel like from the inside?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Like... power," Dante said. "And anger. Like being an unstoppable force."

He took a bite from his slice. "And like I like being in my human body a lot more than that one."

[not_every_mage]

"I believe you, and I like you being in it better too," Anders said, some dark envy in his voice. "But there've been times in my life where I wouldn't have been able to turn down being some powerful angry force."

If he'd gotten Dante's power back in Thedas, every Circle would have been flat on the ground in an eyeblink. He knew that like he knew his own name.

Some part of him also knew it was probably better for everyone that his magic operated on a much more human scale.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante's mouth twisted a little, into a wry smile. "It's useful," he said softly. "And I get why you'd want it, people used to treat you like shit."

He swallowed another bite of pizza.

"But I don't know..." He put the crust down. "It's not that important to me, I guess. Having all that power."

[not_every_mage]

Anders picked pepperoni off a slice to eat first.

"Maybe that's why it's good you have it and I don't," he offered. "So if you had a choice, could you walk away from it all and just be human?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Might've been happier that way," Dante said. "But at the same time, I can't picture it, you know?"

[not_every_mage]

"You'd be a whole different person," Anders had to agree. "Even more than I would. I had more time thinking I was normal."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, never had that," Dante said, a wan smile on his face. "But at least now I know why. That's worth something."

He glanced towards Anders. "Can't make real choices until you know."

[not_every_mage]

"And you just found everything out," Anders said thoughtfully, in between bites of crush. "So between that and not thinking you'll die any day, it's like this is the first time you can make choices."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah," Dante said. "And that's... it feels kinda strange."

[not_every_mage]

"I'd bet," Anders said, tapping his toes lightly against Dante's leg. "Any idea what you want to do with it?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"I got to 'get Anders to a bedroom and buy a load of pizza' and stranded there," Dante admitted, smiling without realizing it at the touch against his skin. "I could probably do that a few months more and not get bored."

[not_every_mage]

It was still a surprise, how warm Dante could make Anders feel with something like that little flicker of a smile.

"Well, I know that was my plan," he teased. "So it's not a bad place to start from."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I'll figure out the details later," Dante said, eyeing the box. "Right now, we got a second pizza box to snag."

It was his turn to slide out of bed and pad over to grab the other box. "I still think we should do a roadtrip after grad," he said.

[not_every_mage]

"I'd love that," Anders said sincerely. "If I'm sticking around for a while, I need to see this world beyond the island. And you need to see something that isn't that, Baltimore or Limbo City."

He opened the fresh box of pizza and selected a slice. "Where would we go?" he asked, tone an invitation to daydream together.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Go down south, see if Florida's as tacky as they say it is," Dante mused. "Hit the mountains on the way there... then do a theme park."

He grinned at Anders as he sat back down on the bed. "Hey, we can go to Disneyworld."

He was half-joking. A third?

[not_every_mage]

"With the castle?" Anders checked, turning back towards Dante. "I'd like that. Do they really have mouse ears with names on them?"

Anders already knew what he'd get Dante for a souvenir, yes.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I think so? I've never been," Dante said. "Supposed to be one of those things all good folks take their kids to do at some point."

He reached for another slice. "We missed out. We need to fix that."

[not_every_mage]

"Make up for our terrible deprived childhoods," Anders agreed solemnly. "Only it'll be more fun than it would've been then, because we can drink now."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I wonder if they have booze in Disneyworld," Dante mused. "I'll bet if they do it's the good booze. Imagine having like four kids running around hopped up on sugar in that place."

[not_every_mage]

Anders shuddered. "To go by the kids of mine I've seen, the place might not be standing by the end of the day. Especially if somehow I got four of them."

All right, Leo had been more-or-less well behaved, but Carys? Carys was a force of nature.

[rebelseekspizza]

"So we go to Disneyland and get drunk on frazzled parent booze," Dante said. "Then... New Orleans? I hear that place is fucked up."

One way of putting it, yeah.

[not_every_mage]

"Fucked up how?" Anders asked, suspicious. "Fucked up like we'd get in trouble?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Fucked up like they have weird booze and great food and half of them are French or something," Dante supplied. (There were some things he hadn't gotten around to learning by age seven at home.) "And they got hit bad by a hurricane a while back."