A Clearing in the Preserve, Wednesday Afternoon

[not_every_mage]

The different calendars made it hard to track exact dates, but Anders reckoned it was right about a year since the last time he got dragged back to the Circle -- and almost a year since what he hoped was his final escape had taken him to Fandom.

It was a victory. As far as he knew, no runaway his age had ever lasted anything like that long.

The thought of all that kept him cheerful as he set up for a picnic in the preserve with Nathan. He spread out a blanket, laid out the pasta salad, cheese, and fruit -- and then, out of restless energy, started picking violets. He wasn't sure what he'd do with them, but they were pretty.

[OOC: For the boy, please.]

Comments

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Are you picking flowers?" Nathan asked, coming upon Anders and smiling as he did. "Will you put them in your hair?"

[not_every_mage]

"I was thinking of a pretty flower crown," Anders said, grinning. "But if you hand me a skirt to wear with it I'm right out."

[OOC: Oops. I don't even know how I did that.]

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Where would I even get a skirt?" he wondered, snickering. "I'm not that resourceful."

[not_every_mage]

"You could skin bark off a tree," Anders suggested, teasing. "Tie it together with blades of grass. I'm sure I saw that in a book once."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan blinked. "A skirt of bark? That sounds like it would be absolute hell on your legs."

[not_every_mage]

"I thought the inside of the bark was supposed to be smooth?" Anders suggested, blinking back. "I might be wrong about that. Hide's easier but chasing down a deer for something I'm not going to wear seemed silly."

As opposed to the utterly sensible suggestion of bark, yes.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Maybe it is but still, a bark skirt?" He made a face. "Seems like you'd get splinters, wouldn't it?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders flicked the head of his latest flower at Nathan. "Maybe I like splinters."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Weirdo," Nathan said, grabbing the flower and tossing it into the air. "That's weird."

[not_every_mage]

Anders regressed a decade or so at that, and came up with, "Your face is weird."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Is it?" he asked, grabbing at his face like he was stricken. "What do I do about that?"

[not_every_mage]

"Too bad for you, there's no cure," Anders told him, flopping down onto the blanket. "You're just going to have a weird face until you die of the weird face pox."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Maybe I'll get a Gift where I can change my face," he said, sitting down beside Anders. "Some people have that ability."

[not_every_mage]

"Maybe, but your weird face is nice," Anders said, propping himself upon his elbows. "I'd be sad if you turned it into somebody else's."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I could change it back if my Gift worked right," Nathan said, recalling Gabriel. "It's pretty easy but I doubt that's what I'm getting."

Just a hunch.

[not_every_mage]

"It doesn't seem very you," Anders said thoughtfully. "You just don't seem like that much of an actor."

Not that that necessarily had anything to do with it, but it felt right.

"Why, do you have an idea what you are getting?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan shook his head. "No but I would just guess it's something like my father got. And he didn't start out with that sort of thing."

[not_every_mage]

"The animal thing?" Anders asked, looking at Nathan. "Huh."

It wasn't good or bad. It was just a form of magic good little Circle mages knew next to nothing about. Powerful, though,there was no doubt of that.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Maybe." He shrugged again. "I'm not sure but it'd be my guess. But again, not sure. For all I know, I could get a potions Gift."

[not_every_mage]

"But potions are dull," Anders groused. "I hope you get ... I don't know, something you can use in a fight. Turning into an animal or lighting things on fire with your thoughts. Something like that."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan snickered. "Lighting things on fire with my thoughts? I don't know if I've ever heard of anyone with that Gift. It'd be handy. And also dangerous if you don't know how to control it."

[not_every_mage]

"It'd be exciting!" Anders offered. "... and dangerous. I think about half of us in the tower lit something on fire before we got send off."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Ever set yourself on fire accidentally?" Nathan wondered curiously.

[not_every_mage]

"Myself, no," Anders told him, glancing away. "A couple things I didn't mean to set fire to, yes. I managed to burn down my family's barn first thing."

That memory still hurt, and all he could do was try to make it a joke. "I never did like the color they had it painted."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Ah." Nathan didn't try and press for anything more than that. "A barn? Did you guys have animals?"