Room 322, Wednesday Morning

[not_every_mage]

It had been more than a day since the children left, and Anders wasn't sure his head was entirely back to normal yet. It was funny how deeply you could miss someone you'd known for such a short time, and who quite likely wouldn't ever exist at all.

At least it seemed like Leo was headed back someplace where he was safe and loved. Carys, though ... that was another story. He still wasn't entirely certain he and Kathy had done the right thing by making her go home. Her parents had lots of friends, sure, and he liked the idea of palling around with a Champion (whatever that meant exactly) but ... he didn't want to raise a child in a world where her father was an apostate. It seemed likely to lead only to heartbreak for everyone.

He tried to set aside his worry for the girl as he scrounged through his books until he found one on the history of Thedas. Maybe it would at least give him some background on Kirkwall to put a bit of what Carys had said in context.

[OOC: Cracked door, open post.]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

"You are a great lady indeed," Anders told her. "I'm glad I've kept you from wasting it being a hobo."

He passed her his phone, pizza place number already on the screen. "I was just going to get pepperoni, but I like anything but jalapenos."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I might even thank you for it," Kathy said, hitting the dial button. "Assuming I survive until mid-June. June 7th, mark it on your calendar. If I have lived until then and am not a gibbering wreck under a bridge somewhere, we'll go out and I'll have my very first drink to celebrate."

And not just her first drink. Kathy was giving serious thought to making that her very first time getting sloppy drunk, too. It would be grand.

After putting in an order for three large pepperoni-and-tomato pizzas, Kathy handed the phone back over to Anders and slumped over on his bed. This was her bed now, Anders. Find another. She had claimed it in the name of 'It had no SAT prep materials on it.'

[not_every_mage]

"What, your very first?" That was a surprise. "How did I manage not to talk you into it before now?"

He leaned back against his bed, obediently ceding the seat atop it to Kathy. "What exactly is this test, anyhow?" he wondered lazily. "Or would you rather talk about something else?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"You never did," Kathy said, giving him a reproachful look. "And now it's too late, because if I start now, I will never stop."

It would be glorious, other than the complete ruination of her future.

"And, no, I'd be glad to complain about it, if you don't mind a rant. As newly-designated savior, you should probably understand what it is you're saving me from."

Since Kathy really did want to rant about it, she just launched into the explanation. "The SATs, or Scholastic Aptitude Test, is a long exam that's pretty much required to get into any college. At all. I have to show up, pay $50 for the privilege of wracking my brains for four hours. More than half of students have to take this test twice in order to get a score good enough to be sent to the universities of their choice, and that's not even counting the eight SAT II Subject tests I'm taking and my four Advanced Placement exams. Six of the SAT II's and all four AP exams are all taking place in early May." She groaned and thudded her head against the pillow. "Why did I ever think this was a good idea?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders ...was just going to stare in horror for a moment. Was that normal here? 13 tests just to be able to go to more school? It seemed excessive, if not bloody insane.

"Probably because you want to be the best at everything," he suggested. "Or gremlin bite. That's a good excuse."

[spin_kick_snap]

Don't you worry, Anders. It was excessive and possibly insane.

"There is some method to my madness," Kathy said, sounding completely unsure of that. "If I do well on my AP exams, I can get college credit for them. And depending on my SAT II scores, sometimes it's possible to get certain low-level classes waived because I've proven I have enough knowledge to skip them. And I'm just taking the Korean language one because I can." She shrugged. "It seemed stupid not to. I speak it like English."

[not_every_mage]

"So you're taking a bunch of tests now so you don't have to take classes later?" Anders said, hoping he had that part right. "And then one test ... just because you'll pass it?"

It didn't make much sense, still, but he figured Kathy knew what she was doing. He smiled in a way he hoped was reassuring. "Try to keep breathing and I know you'll get through them all alright."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Pretty much," Kathy said, confirming the American school system was all kinds of special. "When you go to college, you have a whole bunch of general education requirements you have to fulfill before you can graduate, so they know you're leaving with some basic knowledge outside of your major. Everyone has to take, like, an art, a history, a math, a science, a composition class, that kinda thing. With these scores, they can say that I've already proven my knowledge of that stuff to their satisfaction and move on to the courses that I want to take. More importantly, this can save me up to a whole year of coursework and tens of thousands of dollars in tuition and fees."

Even with the money she was making being part of Barry's Ethics Committee, paying for college was still an important consideration.

"A year at Stanford costs fifty-eight thousand dollars," she said softly, drawing her knees up. "Just one year. I can't afford that. My family can't afford that. I'm trusting to loans and scholarships. Anything I can do to shorten that just makes sense. And that's assuming I get in, which is the other reason I'm taking so many tests--so they look at me and think I'm worth giving a spot to, instead of any of the other applicants. They get over forty-thousand applications a year--and choose a little over two thousand. The odds are kinda stacked against me, here."

[not_every_mage]

Anders did some quick mental math to figure out how long he'd need to work at the Magic Box to get $58,000, and came up with a figure that required he spend all his waking hours at work for several months.

So he could see the crisis.

"I didn't know it was a money thing," he said. "Not so different from home, I suppose. The rich always get the best opportunities and the rest of us scrabble around. If I had the money so you didn't need to worry I'd give it to you."

[spin_kick_snap]

"A money thing, a desirability thing, a parental thing," Kathy said. "All those things, really. I need the tests to get into the school I want to use the tests to get out of the school I want faster. So that I can continue to get more schooling."

And this was why Kathy was sometimes a bundle of neuroses, honestly.

"How about you? I noticed you were reading before I barged in here and demanded you put me out of my misery." She rested her head on his shoulder briefly. "And I know you would. Thanks."

[not_every_mage]

"Is there a point when you get done going to school?" Anders wondered. "Or is it just a cycle of tests and school until you drop dead?"

In a year or so, that word choice might strike him as painfully ironic. But for now, it was an idle joke, a comment no sooner made than half-forgotten as Anders looked back at his book.

"I was reading Thedan history," he explained. "Trying to figure out if there was any reason anyone would go to Kirkwall, let alone me."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Once I finish med school and become a doctor?" Kathy said. "Then it's just a cycle of internships and trying to pay off loans until I'm dead."

And, like Anders, she paid no real attention to those words, far more intrigued by his book and explanation than the frustrations of her future.

"Was Leo from Kirkwall, too? Or just Carys?" she asked. "Have you discovered any compelling reasons?"

Beyond a clinic for the downtrodden in a mineshaft?

[not_every_mage]

"Sweet Maker, I'd never do anything if I was from your world," Anders grumbled. "I'd end up scrubbing washrooms for a living."

"And no," he added, answering her question. "Leo was from Wales, which at least made some sense -- it's Nathan's favorite place. But Kirkwall sounds like a terrible place all around. Cassandra said she'd been there and didn't like it much either. I can't understand why we'd go there."

Again, the ability to anticipate the fifth blight and resultant flood of refugees would have cleared the confusion right up.

[spin_kick_snap]

"After you got your degree in Janitorial Maintenance, right?" Kathy asked, looking at Anders with serious eyes. "I mean, that's a two-year program, so it'd be completely doable!"

She managed to last long enough to see whether or not her bought it before cracking up. Yes, she was laughing at her own joke. No, she didn't particularly seem to care.

"Maybe it's a hotbed of political activism," she hazarded a moment later. "When you're an oppressed minority looking to work against established power structures, you're not going to go hobnobbing with the elite somewhere. Whether you're forced there by circumstance or choose it deliberately, you're gonna pick a place they tend not to go, to fly under the radar as it were. And that's not necessarily something Carys would realize, either. I can't see either of us saying, 'Be good for Auntie Marian, darling, Mommy and Daddy are off to battle the kyriarchy.'"

Not at five anyway. That was more a conversation for, say, seven or eight.

[not_every_mage]

Anders looked stricken until Kathy started to laugh, then he gave her a grudging laugh of his own. It wasn't nice to tease him that way.

"That could be," he said thoughtfully, at the more serious point. "It sounded like we were doing good work there, and maybe she made the risk sound like more than it is. Not that I plan to take a vacation there to find out."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I dunno, I'd like to see Kirkwall, I think," Kathy mused. "Just to get an idea for some of the places she was talking about. Granted," she added, with a nod in his direction, "it's a lot easier for me to talk about visiting than it might be for you."

She'd be a tourist, with a given return date, and no cause to make anyone look at her funny. Anders, even if he were able to travel home freely, would constantly have to look over his shoulder for someone watching him.

[not_every_mage]

Anders made a face. "The worst part of my world this side of the Imperium and she wants to see it," he said, to no one in particular. "Why don't you save time and trouble and go crawl around some sewers somewhere?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Sewers don't come with restaurants?" Kathy suggested. "Okay. If you could somehow arrange for a visit, where would you take us?"

[not_every_mage]

"I really don't know," Anders admitted, suddenly serious. "It's not as though I've seen a lot of it, you know. I grew up in a village and then I was in the Circle. Even when I ran it was mainly farms and little towns. Anything I named would probably be something I know from books."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Then we'd get to explore it together," Kathy pointed out. "And that could be fun. Is there any place that you've read about you'd like to see? I mean, otherwise, Kirkwall's gonna win by default."

[not_every_mage]

"Now there's a threat," Anders laughed. "Rivain, maybe. The Chantry has next to no power there, and they have seers -- wise women. Besides, it's warm and the bazaars are supposed to be fantastic. And there are pirates."

Pirates made everything better.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Why the heck do we go to Kirkwall when we could run away and become pirates?" Kathy demanded. "That sounds like terrible planning on our part! One of us had better get horribly seasick, or there's a version of me that's going to be very put out when she realizes what other options there were."

Fucking Kirkwall.

[not_every_mage]

Kirkwall was the quicksand of Thedas.

"I've got no bloody clue," Anders admitted, with the glimmer of a grin. "The girl, maybe? But even there -- she'd be just adorable with an eyepatch and a little hat." He sighed. "Our other selves were idiots. Tragic."

[spin_kick_snap]

"She might have a tiny little monkey on her shoulder," Kathy gasped, clutching Anders and willing him to imagine the adorable. "Those other versions of us are the worst at parenting."

If nothing else, Isabela would be completely behind this idea.

[not_every_mage]

Anders smiled even bigger at the mental image. if they ever saw Carys again, she was getting a pirate makeover.

"So, if the choice is bringing down the kyriarchy or being pirates, you pick pirates?" he checked. "Not that I disagree, I just want to make sure we're on the same page here."