Room 322, Sunday Night

[not_every_mage]

It had been barely more than 48 hours since Anders was last in this room, this safe space that was bright with Rapunzel's paints and littered with his own clothes and books. It felt like it might as well have been years. When he'd left, he could be flip about killing because he hadn't needed to do much of it, not enough to make it real. Now he'd done more than he had expected outside a war. (He didn't feel all that bad about it. Deep down, he wondered if that were a problem.)

In Rapture, he'd been fueled by potions and adrenaline -- too tightly wound by the situation to sleep, to rest, to eat more than a mouthful or so when they'd had the chance. It had gotten him through the horror of it all, and Nathan's pizza had helped dull the gnawing in his stomach. But now ... now he felt, all at once, as if he'd die on his feet if he didn't lie down immediately.

He took off his boots and sprawled on his bed. Drifting with his eyes closed, he imagined what would happen if he took the same crew back to Thedas.

The templars would never see them coming.

[OOC:Closed door, open post!]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

"I know you have major issues with your world, but I'd love to come and visit sometime," Kathy said, eyes shining. "It's just sounds like everything I grew up reading about in novels. I mean, I know, it's make up of real people and real problems, but..."

Elves and dwarves and magic!

[not_every_mage]

"But they're different real people and real problems," Anders finished. "If it felt like something in a book to me, I'd probably want to go there too."

Quietly, he added, "If I could take you just to see it, I would. I'd even show you the bits that aren't covered in animal shit."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You do know how to treat a lady," Kathy said, resting her head on his shoulder. "Out of curiosity, if we're skipping out on those parts, how much of your world do I get to see?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders' hand moved to comfortably rest around her waist. "Enough," he protested. "We'd just have to stay away from slums, docks, and markets after 10 o'clock or so. And off farms."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You've already decided I don't get to visit docks anyway," she pointed out. "So, if there were any part of your world you'd take me to see, what would it be? What's the most awesome place that you can think of to visit."

[not_every_mage]

"Just one thing?" Anders asked thoughtfully. "I suppose the Chantry of Our Lady Redeemer in Amaranthine. It's the most important temple of our faith, and for as many things as the Chantry does wrong, they're rather good at putting pretty buildings together."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Do you ever doubt your faith?" Kathy asked. "I mean, most people, when they've been as wronged by the church as you have, they end up swearing off of it forever or something. But you still believe, don't you?"

[not_every_mage]

"You can think a building is nice without agreeing with everything done by the people who run it," Anders argued. "I just thought you'd appreciate a chapel more than wandering around in the hills dodging darkspawn and hoping to find some friendly elves."

But that wasn't exactly an answer to what Kathy had asked, and he knew it. He brought up a hand to stroke her hair as he thought. "I think Andraste was on to something," he finally ventured. "The clerics and such have twisted it since, but that's not her fault or the Maker's. Besides, it's the only religion I've ever heard of founded by a mage."

[spin_kick_snap]

"But I'm really good at dodging," Kathy teased. "And who doesn't want to meet friendly elves?"

Then he started stroking her hair and teasing became less important than enjoying the sensations. Kathy gave a happy sigh, shifting a little bit closer in wordless approval. "My Mom is Buddhist and my Dad's Baptist and while neither me or my sister is all that religion, I like Buddhism better. It's less formalized. Like, there are temples and things, and it's kind of political in Korea, but it's also really personal. It more like precepts to follow to be a better person than anything to do with worships or gods or whatever. And since no one is better than anyone else, you don't have priests or anything yelling at you for being bad or evil or sinful. You're just you. You can strive to live a moral life, but there's less...I dunno. Structure and rules and being told that you're going to Hell if you do something bad. When you start putting hierarchies into things, that's when dogma and politics start getting in the way of faith."

She was rambling now, she realized. "What's your faith about, if you don't mine me asking. If it's a touchy subject or whatever, we can talk about something else."

So long as he kept with the pettings.

[not_every_mage]

"I hadn't heard of Buddhism before," Anders noted. (If he had, he hadn't paid attention.) "There's no God or Maker or whatever you want to call it? Just ... people?"

It sounded appealing, but not much like the religions he was familiar with. He kept petting Kathy's hair as he tried to find the right words to describe his own.

"And no, it's not touchy, but it is complicated. Basically there are a bunch of gods in the Fade -- elven gods and old gods people used to worship and demons who think they're gods -- and then there's the main god, the one who made everything. The Maker." Andrastians had been creative with that appellation, yes. "The Maker thinks humans are sinful and has turned away from us. About a thousand years ago, a slave woman named Andraste started getting messages from Him and telling everyone around her that we needed to be better so the Maker would stop ignoring us. And she used that message to raise an army and bring down the old empire. We call her the Bride of the Maker, and most mages believe she was one of us."

He drew a breath, hoping Kathy had been following. "But after the revolution, Andraste's human husband betrayed her and she was executed. And ever since the Chantry has been trying to spread her teachings, the Chant of Light, to all the beings in the world so the Maker will come back. There's more, but that's the idea. And yes, the hierarchies within the Chantry are what fucked it up."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Just people," Kathy confirmed. "Some extraordinary people have transcended themselves to better help us on our path to enlightenment, but they weren't, like, born special or anything. They just worked hard to on their own personal journey. That's kind of the central tenant of Buddhism. You work hard to find enlightenment and leave the world better than you found it. It's where we get the concept of 'karma' from. Basically, whatever you put into the world will come back to you, good or bad."

Okay, that was really the briefest and most basic explanation ever, but it didn't seem the best time to give Anders a thorough grounding in a religion that Kathy didn't even follow and her mun knew even less about omg.

[not_every_mage]

"So people should be good because it will make good things happen to them, not because it'll please the Maker," Anders summarized. "Funny.It seems like so many religions come down to being kind to each other, in the end."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Then you'd think more of them would practice it," Kathy grumbled. "People ruin everything?"

[not_every_mage]

"It seems that way," Anders sighed. "Someone comes up with some amazing way to think about the world -- and then it gets twisted to make whoever's richest happier."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Let's get rich and buck the trend," Kathy suggested with a sigh. "I mean, I'm all for being happy, but I'd like to think I'd still be a decent person."

Either way, she was willing to give it a shot.

[not_every_mage]

"I like to think it too," Anders said. "Though not as much as I'd like to just be rich and find out for sure. Not that it's likely to happen, but a man can dream."