Sundermount Shenanigans?

[avisionofhawke]

Things were going just fine right up until the revenant showed up.

Hawke had just been minding her own business, looking for reagents with Anders, Fenris and Sebastian (and wondering what had possessed her to bring that particular trio on this trip). It had been going quite well, she thought. They had found lots of elfroot, at least.

And then the revenant happened, and Hawke had pulled a rookie move. She had leapt without surreptitiously testing the ground she was going to land on first. The last she'd seen of her companions was their horrified expressions as she fell through that thrice-blighted hole.

Needless to say, she wasn't pleased with where she'd ended up.

Ten minutes out of that cavern and she already had no clue where she actually was, other than that she was still on Sundermount. She couldn't even find the cavern entrance again.

Damn it.

Damn it to the Void.

Comments

[cattymage]

oh shit shit SHIT

That familiar head wasted no time in ducking and spinning about to face in her loud, bush-crashing direction -- though with a lot more threatening 'about to lob a fireball' stance than Aisling would have come to expect to have Anders aim at her, well, since that one time they'd first met, actually.

That was awful light armor for a Templar, but the hunter-trackers sometimes were like that; rogue-y types who could move fast and drop a target before they knew what even hit them. He didn't have time to read her expression; otherwise he would have noticed Hawke looked less like she was ready to knock the fear of the Maker into him, more like she was delighted by the very sight of him -- but, oh, what ifs. They do so dog our lives.

"Stop right there! Don't take one step closer."

This is TOTALLY gonna end well

[avisionofhawke]

Aisling drew back in confusion, holding her hands out placatingly. "Take it easy, Anders... It's just me. What were you expecting, another revenant or something? They don't talk in my voice, you know."

He hadn't looked at her like this... since they first met, actually. She pondered the similarities as she carefully freed herself from the branches of the bush. He was Anders, that was for certain, but he seemed different someh-

ANDRASTE'S PET NUG IS THAT AN EARRING

[cattymage]

"Well, that would be lovely and all if I knew just who 'me' was, wouldn't it? Or you, as it were, as you seem to know who I am already."

If he didn't make himself dizzy in between all those pronouns.

[avisionofhawke]

"I'm the Maker's third cousin, twice removed," Aisling sighed. "Who do I look like? By the Void, Anders, surely you can't have actually forgotten your own lover."

This was just grand, wasn't it? Why was he acting this way?

"Wait, is this payback for the way I fell through that hole earlier? I thought you'd at least be relieved to know I'm safe before shifting into 'how dare you do that to me' mode."

[cattymage]

Oh.

A tryst who'd somehow found him in the middle of the bloody Free Marches.

That was somewhat more comforting than 'potential Templar,' for sure, and he knew from experience they never pulled any kind of 'hey, you know me, you remember, right?' gambit; they tended towards Smite first, weird head-games later.

He does drop the 'about to make with the painful zappings' stance, resting his staff against the ground like one would with a walking stick - hey, what the? That wasn't the staff he'd had last time she'd seen him. And not the same clothes, either, though the feathery pauldrons were still there.

She seems rather exasperated with that whole 'can't remember a lick about her' thing, so he figures, a bit of Anders charm until he wings it enough to make it through. Look, he's much less dour, and has a bit of that look when he knows he's going to say something smarmy and is far too pleased with his own material.

"A third cousin! Make sure you say hello to Andraste at that next family reunion for me." See, look, he can snark too. "'Remember that Anders, don't you? He says hi, and maybe to send the Divine a vision to disband the entire Templar order.'"

[avisionofhawke]

Well, this was bloody confusing, so what does Hawke do?

Roll with it, of course.

"Why stop there? I bet I could convince my dear third cousin to have the common idiots that fear mages respect them, instead. But really, love, what in the name of Andraste's knickerweasels is going on, and when did you change clothes? And why have you never worn that earring before?" Yes, she had just quoted something she'd heard Anders say on occasion. He was rubbing off on her... Only natural, she supposed, given the amount of contact (of all sorts) they'd had since she invited him to move in with her.

[cattymage]

"Slow down! Can't keep up with all that interrogating at once. Let's see, ah..."

He pauses, and in a wondering voice,

"One minute! You took my swear. I've never gotten anyone to pick that phrase up." Man, he must have been really good that time. Maybe even busted out the electricity trick, considering how this girl was singing the praises of mages, and of him, in particular; don't think he missed that little love.

He took this moment to give Hawke a real look over. The armor fit well, and she certainly wasn't in shabby shape for herself, other than the charming bits of leaves stuck in her hair from her rush through the foliage towards him. Her hair framed her face in the exact kind of way that always made him want to do silly things, like reach out and tuck it behind an ear or spin a lock around his finger -- if it wasn't for the very likely possibility she was the 'alarmingly over-attached' sort, he'd be tempted. Alright, he was tempted. The woman was a looker, with eyes that burned out at him like a cold fire. ..And was that a tattoo, very faint? Damn, he'd expect to have remembered that.

[avisionofhawke]

Aisling knew Anders well enough by now to know when he was bluffing his way through something (Maker knew he did it often enough when she tried to question him on whether he'd eaten in the past day or two).

"You... really don't remember me, do you?"

Okay, ouch. That actually really hurt to think of. What in the everloving fuck was going on? And where was her Anders? The one that would make her feel better about this whole mess even as he angsted about Justice and how his presence 'endangered her.'

Right.

Like there was anything they couldn't handle together.

This was Anders, but it wasn't. He wasn't acting like the pouty, angsty, sweet, caring lunatic she'd fallen in love with. She didn't understand, and the time had come to 'fess up.

"Please, tell me what's going on. Whatever it is, we can fix it, alright?"

[cattymage]

There was a reason he didn't play Wicked Grace when he wasn't in a mood to lose. "I really don't," he admitted, and in a familiar gesture of general unease, reached his free hand to rub a hand carefully at the roots of his hair, where his ponytail pulled tension on his scalp.

"When was the last time we'd have met? Before the whole popping out of the bushes. "

[avisionofhawke]

"Well, the last I saw of you was a general look of 'Oh, Maker' as I fell through that blasted hole while we were fighting the revenant. That was about... oh, an hour or two ago? But you don't seem to remember that." Aisling began shifting her weight from one foot to the other, feeling awkward.

And yes, hurt that he didn't remember, but there was bound to be an explanation.

[cattymage]

"...Well. I've been doing absolutely nothing but trip over rocks the whole day long, as far as I know. You sure you have the right Anders? If you're looking for one with a curly mustache, I must say, I didn't think I was the good twin."

oh maker they're both just going to keep dragging this out being little shits aren't they

[avisionofhawke]

"Oh, believe me, you're very good. At least your intentions, anyway. But no, I'm quite certain you're the right Anders - though when I last saw you, you weren't wearing that earring and you had different clothes under those feathery pauldrons of yours. I've been trying to convince you to let me get you clothes that aren't falling apart at the seams, but it seems you managed that on your own. Where'd you find them?"

She knew Anders was usually broke, so she held no illusions of him buying the things.

It was a good thing she had gotten rich from all the goodies they'd found while fighting for their lives in the Deep Roads.

[cattymage]

"With which the road to the Void is paved, if I'm not mistaken." Oh, he may haven't the slightest what's going on, but he likes this one. At the very least, they're kindred spirits when it comes to temperament. At the comment on his clothes, he looks himself over, smoothing out a wrinkle here, there -- preening, if he's being honest. "These old things?" Said in a voice that very much knows the clothes don't look 'old' at all; it was a nice robe, if he did say so himself. "You know, same way anyone gets any real goodies in Thedas. Someone stabbed someone at some point, and then a shady dwarf sells it for a marked-down price so that someone's friends don't see him with it."

Better than Circle robes. Always better than Circle robes.

[avisionofhawke]

This Anders was so much more lighthearted than the one she knew. Could it be...? No, that was impossible, surely.

"Sounds about right, especially in this area," Hawke replied with an easy smile. At least she was beginning to get used to the personality shift, so she could relax somewhat. "Say, if you don't recall coming here with me, why in blazes would you come to this forsaken place?"

It was a valid question. And maybe, just maybe, it could answer a few she hadn't asked yet, like why in the bloody Void had everything she thought she knew suddenly turned on its head?

[cattymage]

"You know, I ask myself that exact same question, every morning I wake up and see the City of bloody Chains down in the distance," he grumbles. "I -- personal reasons?" he tries, in a you're-not-going-to-accept-that-out-are-you kind of voice. "I mean, considering there's a Blight on and all, and it's not the potential end of the world in Ferelden every day, Iiiii considered a little vacation to the scenic Marches would do me some good. For my health."

Hawke: 2+2=5...?

[avisionofhawke]

"Wait- Blight? As in, Fifth Blight? Or has there been another bloody life-wrecking outbreak of tainted monsters and I just wasn't informed?"

From what she understood, Anders hadn't met Justice before the Fifth Blight... What if, with Justice gone, he couldn't remember anything that had happened? Oh, Maker... Well, she did have her natural charm and all. Maybe he would fall in love with her again over time...

[cattymage]

"It is the Fifth, isn't it?" he mused. "I wonder which Old God it is mucking things up this time? I can't remember the history of the Blight for beans. Let's see, first was Dumat, then, uh..."

He gets into a minor bit of distraction, trying to count out Archdemons by name, and giving up shortly. "Either way, you have it right. It's the Fifth."

[avisionofhawke]

"Anders... The Fifth Blight ended over three years ago." Now Hawke was being gentle. It was... weird. She stepped closer, continuing, "Do you remember a spirit named Justice, by any chance...?"

[cattymage]

As Hawke stepped closer with the countenance of someone trying to handle a frightened small animal, Anders reacted in kind - he took a step back, with an uneasy little grin.

"I've.. encountered them in the Fade, once or twice? I know of them. Spirit Healer," he notes, idly, because there's little hiding being an apostate after the preemptive light show he'd been giving off before the situation was diffused. "They don't tend to come to me much. Healing's more of a warm fuzzies spirit thing than a 'punishing the wicked' thing, or whatever I assume a justice spirit wants to do all day."

[avisionofhawke]

"I think maybe he- or rather the lack of him- Oh, Maker, I'm not good at explaining these things..." Where was Bethany when Hawke needed her? Oh, right, the Circle. Andraste's ass.

Aisling shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment before looking back up at Anders.

"Justice... He was your friend. He was a spirit trapped in this world, and his vessel just wasn't going to hold up much longer. Your good intentions... well, they got you in trouble again, because you offered to let him possess you instead of a corpse. You were going to work toward the freedom of mages everywhere, but something... Something changed when you joined. He wasn't the Justice you knew anymore. But I think he's gone now, somehow, and maybe he took your memories of it all with him."

She wasn't even convincing herself, but she had to pray to anyone listening that Anders believed her.

Dammit.

Okay, now she needed to sit. This conversation was getting a bit weighty for her, so she plopped down on a nearby rock (which Anders might or might not have run into earlier - she didn't know).

[cattymage]

"Uh."

Right, that all sounded utterly loony.

Maybe you should leave, at a fast pace, was his first thought, because the Veil was thin on Sundermount, and this was seeming like a very impressive amount of Weird Fadey Things.

He could latch on to something out of all that, at least.

"I'm not an abomination." Said very firmly, before he goes right back to snark mode. "You know, life expectancy for abominations? Very short. And I tend to enjoy living."

[avisionofhawke]

"I can tell that. You haven't once done Justice's glowy nonsense... Andraste's pet nug, none of this makes sense," she sighed, resting her head in her hand.

Wait.

"Oh, Maker, this is a dream, isn't it? I'm probably lying unconscious at the bottom of that bloody hole, and the ache in my back is just seeping into the Fade somehow. Which means there's probably a demon nearby laughing at me..."

So guess who was suddenly very unhappy with the whole damned situation? That's right. Aisling.

"Someone needs to hurry up and bloody wake me so I can get back to the real Anders and make sure he's alright."

[cattymage]

"Excuse me for not being possessed," he gripes right back at her, crossing his arms with careful attention to not whacking and or perforating himself with the bladed end of his staff.

"You know, maybe this isn't your dream, maybe it's mine, cooped up on this stupid mountain with nobody but a bunch of rocks to debate with on whether I'm suicidal enough to try to bust someone out of the bloody Gallows. It's the most likely, actually. I'm a mage."

[avisionofhawke]

"So was my father, and so is my sister," Hawke snapped, looking the slightest bit forlorn beneath her irritation. "You've got nothing special going there. And breaking Karl out didn't work, remember? Bloody Void, this nightmare just keeps getting worse... And since I can still feel where I hit the blighted ground, I'm pretty sure this is my dream. Whichever demon thought this was funny should be boiled in oil."

Okay, near-ranting Hawke. Also strange. But then again, she didn't often have nightmares of this very realistic and painful sort, and besides, who did she have to impress besides the demon this part of the Fade belonged to? If it wanted upset, she would give it upset.

[cattymage]

"It's not about being special," he said, voice growing darker. "It's about having a payoff worth the messing with. But as far as tortuous Fade dreams go? I've seen better! Do you hear me, out there?!"

He twists about in a circle, voice raising - is he challenging the potential demonic presences?

He totally is.

"A beautiful, charming woman who calls me love and means it? Oh, a good try! Excellent, really! Next time, though, if you're going for impossible, might as well throw in a sea of cute little mewling kittens! I'd indulge in the fantasy of it for a while, at least!"