Room 322, Friday Lunchtime

[not_every_mage]

Anders' classes were over for the semester, which left him the very good question of what to do with himself for the next three weeks. He'd woken up restless and tried poking at Tumblr about bisexuality, which mainly left him confused and vaguely angry; he'd then tried to teach Lachlan to walk on a leash, which left him with an angry cat and a deep scratch along the outside of one arm.

He was still pouting at his cat when he retreated to his dorm room to read a halfway-decent grimoire on offensive magic that he'd liberated from the Magic Box. He absently created and suppressed tiny flames with his left hand for practice while turning pages with his right -- which went splendidly until Lachlan jumped up onto the bed and startled Anders into scorching his blanket.

It was possibly not the day to play with fire.

[OOC: Cracked door, open post, bored player.]

Comments

[doesnotkneel]

Edward, bored out of his mind, had gone wandering. Going wandering had left him confused, still bored, and eventually, at Anders' doorstep.

He poked his head through the half-an-opening the door left. "You have any idea what's with the candles, mate?"

[not_every_mage]

The question got a puzzled frown out of Anders. "There are cand -- Oh."

There was, in fact, a rather nice set of three on his desk. "I have no idea, but that explains why it looked like there was a shrine on the lawn this morning. Island's just sending them up?"

[doesnotkneel]

"Half my room's covered, most of the hallway, couple of the common rooms," Edward offered. "Looks nice and romantic, but they'll set something aflame yet."

[not_every_mage]

"And we certainly wouldn't want that," Anders said, with a strange expression on his face. He firmly shut the book he'd had open to a chapter on fire magic. (Even if Edward couldn't read, grimoires were illustrated.)

"No, I don't know. Maybe someone's protesting the electricity stuff."

[doesnotkneel]

"Seems like a bit of a waste of time," Edward mused, prying the door the rest of the way open with his foot. "Then again, why question the island? If it's decided to burn down the dorms, we can always leap out the windows."

[not_every_mage]

"Sorry, come in," Anders said belatedly. "And -- all right, but where would we go after the jumping out the windows bit? I don't fancy moving to the preserve."

He also wasn't as sanguine as Edward about a three-story fall, but this was all theoretical anyhow.

[doesnotkneel]

It helped having a supernatural sixth sense that let you unfailingly pinpoint the nearest stack of soft materials whenever you threw yourself off a building. It really did.

"Town?" Edward suggested, lazily kicking the door so it sort-of closed behind him. "Couple of open buildings there, I think."

[not_every_mage]

Anders seemed to take that halfway seriously. "Better that than the preserve every night, anyhow," he decided, "I'm picky enough to like having a roof."

[doesnotkneel]

"I dare say the homes down in the village are a far sight better than just having a roof," Edward said. "Never could figure out how they keep the draft out that well."

[not_every_mage]

"It's something with the way they're built, isn't it?"Anders guessed. "Better walls. Bigger fireplaces. Something."

[doesnotkneel]

"Whatever it is, I'm hoping some class next term shares the secret," Edward said, claiming a seat for his own. (He didn't need anyone's permission, all right?) "It'd save me some cold nights back home."

[not_every_mage]

"Going to build your own house, then?" Anders asked lazily. "Nice. I hope you let us come visit."

[doesnotkneel]

"If I could gather the resources and the knowledge, of course I would," Edward said lightly. "But those are great big ifs, aren't they?"

[not_every_mage]

"I suppose, but you've thought about it more than I have," Anders said, a self-conscious little laugh in his voice. "A house of my own, built the way I want it -- it's not the kind of thing you imagine in the Circle."

[doesnotkneel]

"It's all I could think about some nights," Edward said. "Try living near the coast in a home that's falling apart around you."

He eyed Anders. "How bad was that Circle you lived in? A tower, aye?"

[not_every_mage]

"A tower," Anders confirmed. "On an island in the middle of a deep lake a good three days' ride from anything worth mentioning, just in case you got bright ideas about trying to swim across. But it's comfortable enough, I suppose."

He made comfortable sound like a horrid kind of poison.

"Dry, warm, enough to eat and plenty of statues to look at. The problem's just that a pretty prison is still a prison."

[doesnotkneel]

"I suppose they still cared about keeping you alive, then," Edward mused. "But aye, you're right, still a prison. Makes a man wish it wasn't a choice between one or the other, though."

He shot Anders an amused look. "Especially when you're a man so ill-suited to sleeping without a roof."

[not_every_mage]

Anders snorted, "I can manage it, you know. Especially when there are compensations."

And by 'compensations' he meant 'Nathan.'

"But yes, they don't want us to die. For one thing, nobles go to the same Circles as anyone else. Can you imagine the scandal if Lord such-and-such's son starved in the Chantry's care?" He gestured, as if to indicate the chaos. "You hear stories about beatings and rape in other Circles, but Ferelden Templars are ... not that bold."

[doesnotkneel]

Edward would prefer not to think about Anders' compensations, so he didn't.

"Ah, so they're the 'not quite so terrible' Templars," Edward said idly.

[not_every_mage]

"Quite. I think they even have it embroidered on their sashes," Anders nodded. "How bad were the ... Whoever was in charge where you grew up?"

[doesnotkneel]

"The nobles?" Edward said. He shrugged. "They don't care until it's time to pay their taxes. Or you offend one of their children. Then they make your life miserable."

[not_every_mage]

Anders tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. "That sounds like the voice of experience. Did you make some poor little lordling cry, Edward?"

Not that he entirely disapproved.

[doesnotkneel]

Edward pulled a face. "He was harassing some poor woman in a tavern," he said. "Bloody lordlings always think they own everything, including the people."

[not_every_mage]

Anders snorted. "Sounds like he deserved whatever you did. Of course you got in trouble over it."

[doesnotkneel]

"I'll have you know, I looked very heroic and the lass got out without trouble," Edward informed him primly.

After a beat: "I also got this to show off."

He tugged on his collar, where you could sort of see the vague outlines of a scar.

[not_every_mage]

Anders squinted at the scar for a moment. "If I tilt my head to the side, that looks a bit like a bunny."

(He was almost jealous he didn't have any heroic scars to show off.)