fatherlesskind

_{[Anders nods in a yes, do fashion. He's brimming with helpful advice on places to avoid. Half his life has been dedicated to it--it's practically a personal hobby.

Before he can say something that might only make Alistair's stay in Wonderland more difficult, Anders makes the unspoken decision not to bait the future king with too much information. Just like whatever brought Anders and Justice to do what they do in Fenris' future, Alistair becoming who he is in Anders' memory--the king and all that it entails--has to be a choice. It can't be forced. It's unfair to expect otherwise.

He lets out a small laugh.]}

Would that be any stranger than the Grey Wardens and a spirit of Justice making nice?

When you put it like that...

[No, him becoming friendly with Loghain's daughter isn't that strange after all.]

It's better than the alternative. [Where she hates him and makes his life and potential future kingship difficult.] I can make an effort to win her over myself.

[You know, if he gets back to Ferelden and actually remembers this conversation.]

But I still expect a good word from you too. I need all the help I can get.

_{[Careful to frame it lightly like a passing thought, Anders voices a hypothetical.]}

Is she that dead set against you? I'll wager she married the king--the previous king--to put on a good face for the people. A unified front and all that. What if you became king and did the same and brought together your two families? You could be in the company of a beautiful woman all the time. Would that be so bad?

_{[Hypothetically.]}

[The look Anders gets should speak for itself but in case it doesn't-]

One, our 'two families' includes Loghain. I doubt she'll like me after I execute her father as a traitor. [Which is not negotiable. Loghain is going to die for what he's done and it doesn't matter what Anora might have to say.] And two, she was married to Cailan. My half-brother? That's a little weird.

[Marrying his half-brother's widow like she was a shirt handed down after Cailan out-grew it just seems.... Weird.]

_{[Well, that answers that. Whatever acceptance the Alistair he'd known had come to in order to take his place on the throne with Anora as queen, this one hasn't yet. Perhaps he won't.

Anders is smiling before he realizes he's doing it. In a way, this just proves nothing's set in stone, doesn't it? If Alistair isn't persuaded to take the same road his other self had, he and Justice don't have to be, either. Alistair's unenthusiastic reception is, oddly enough, extremely comforting.]}

I doubt Loghain himself thought he was getting out of that one. She seems like a smart cookie; she probably knew what's coming.

_{[He's smiling a little too brightly to be talking about executing someone's father and pseudo-incest. What? This had been a litmus test for the future and the results give him hope.]}

Royalty is a bit weird in general, I think. Were you close to King Cailan?

[Anders seems remarkably cheerful, given the topic of conversation. Even if he never had to deal with either Loghain or Cailan it's a little weird to look so happy when talking about a dead king and his murderer. But from what he does say it's clear that Loghain's execution has already happened from his perspective. Which is... good isn't the word but right, maybe. Reassuring.

The bit about royalty is less so, even if Alistair doesn't generally think of himself as actually being royal. Or weird. He's definitely not that either.]

Cailan? No. We never spoke. [He'd spent more time talking with Goldanna the one and only time they'd met. Cailan was his brother in blood alone but-] It would still be weird to marry his widow. And she lost her husband less than a year ago. Even if they weren't in love that's awfully quick. I know I'll have to marry if I become king but I don't know that I'd want it to be Anora.

[Plus there was the whole heir business and those letters to Cailan suggesting that he should put Anora aside in favour of a wife that could bear him children. Something that would be enough of a struggle for Alistair himself, being a Warden. But that was about enough of that discussion.]

Why don't we talk about your marriage plans instead? Since you're making suggestions for me.

_{[Though the conversation had only just briefly touched on Alistair's relationship to King Cailan until now, it seems a shame that two blood relations hadn't gotten to know each other. Anders' romantic side talking, probably. He can't imagine King Cailan would've been over the moon about having a bastard brother waiting in the wings to threaten his rule.]}

That's too bad. Life's funny that way.

_{[Another shrug. He won't admit he'd brought the queen up from the standpoint of everything already being said and done, that Alistair and Anora had, for whatever reason, decided to become partners. Only they could answer why, and neither of those people are here right now.]}

You could marry a turnip and it would probably still have more sense than Loghain did for picking fights with the Grey Wardens during a time of Blight. But if I'd known we were offering suggestions, I could've brought a checklist to start taking down your preferences. Favorite hair color, shared interests, positions, that sort of thing.

_{[Decidedly not saying anything about about his own plans, or lack thereof. Alistair has an excuse to break protocol and get married, whereas Anders has two strikes against him, being a mage and a Warden.]}

[Alistair had had his share of romantic notions about blood ties and what they should mean in the past but he thinks he's mostly come to terms with the fact that that isn't always the case. He dismisses the subject of his non-existent relationship with Cailan with a shrug.]

That's one way to put it.

[He does have to smile a little at Anders' comment about Loghain, though it's not the most cheerful of expressions. The Teyrn could be called a lot of things for his actions but the most important thing is that he's brought to justice. And not the spirit kind. As for the man's daughter, well, Alistair might try getting on her good side in the future. It couldn't hurt.]

Right. My preferences. Is this the part where we start talking about who we like? You should go first.

[Since they'd been talking about his future romantic prospects so far, Anders wasn't getting out of this.]

We've shared so much already, I don't see why not. Okay, I'll go. There is this mage I'm fond of.

_{[He sits back and claps his hands to his knees in a "get ready for this!" way. Wow, it's almost like he's about to deliver an earnest answer.

Or is he?]}

They're charming and witty. Those are important traits. And handsome! That's important, too. And he has a vivacious and fun-loving spirit-- Hah, oh wait, I'm describing myself! That's me! I think I'm pretty great, I quite like me. Me me, that is, not other me.

[Anders plz.]

Really? Because that sounds a lot like this mage I know and I'd describe him as loud and annoying. And full of himself. Weird too.

[Balling up one of his rags he throws it ineffectually at Anders' head and grins.]

Buuut I guess you-you is alright. Better than some people I've met. Definitely my second favourite mage of all.

[Someone has to keep that ego of yours under control Anders.]

Can't imagine who you mean. You'll have to tell me more about this mage that isn't me during our sleepover.

_{[Rude, Alistair. He's at least no more of a bigmouth than Alistair himself is, and one could easily chalk that up to imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Who wouldn't want to take after Ferelden's king?

(Aside from everyone who hates the new king, that is, though Anders doesn't count among them.)

He leans out of the rag's trajectory and catches it out of the air to toss it back at Alistair's feet.]}

Well, so long as I have your approval I won't worry.

[Oh, so they are having a sleepover? Does that mean they get to braid each other's hair? He might have more luck with that than Anders will.

At least they won't be short of things to talk about since Anders really is as charmingly talkative as Alistair himself. Maybe. But somehow he's willing to bet that Anders was like that long before he met the Alistair he knows so it's not something that can be blamed on him thank you.]

You do. So no changing anything, got it? [By, say, getting possessed.] I can say it's a royal decree if that helps. If you do it means I get to punish you - I'll make you wash Oghren's feet every day for a year.

[That should be enough to dissuade anyone.]

_{[The only sleepovers Anders has been having lately are the kind where he crawls into bed alone and stares at the ceiling, marinating in his anxiety, so anything other than that would be a drastic improvement if he were ever inclined to admit that, which he's not. All this talk of beautiful women might have something to do with the part about going to bed alone, for that matter, but it's not like he'd been seeing a ton of action on the field, or in the Circle before that. He's used to drought conditions.

Then again, maybe the solitude's getting to him more than he thought. Alistair all but insists he's fine the way he is and he smiles without really intending to, small and soft. He's turning into a sap at this rate. It's a strangely touching sentiment, being told not to do something that could take away part of what he is and replace it with something different.

For so long he's been thinking he should change, make an effort to fill in the gaps Justice hadn't been shy about pointing out in that abrasive, bare-faced honest way of his. Be a better person and a better mage, whatever that means. But when was the last time someone had said he was all right the way he is? Nothing comes to mind. The holes have always been there, waiting for others to advise they be shored up. Marks have always been fallen short of. He's the wasted potential guy, the work in progress, not the fine as is guy.

It means something now to hear it, even if Anders still needs time to think about just what change means for his present as well as for the future.]}

When you put it that way... _{[The smile inches toward being genuinely flattered.]} I don't think you need to worry about winning over difficult royals with talk like that. You're a regular charmer. Minus the dwarf feet. That's just mean.

Edited 2016-05-29 07:03 (UTC)

[~~Anders please. Don't talk about drought conditions around the virgin.~~

Alistair gets the feeling he's missing something. Not that he wasn't serious - he likes Anders exactly how he is and would rather that not change. Even if they had proof that the other Anders that did the terrible things certain people remember is someone else entirely, he'd be against anything that might make his friend someone else.

Plus. Possession. No.

Although maybe he has some idea why his fellow Warden is looking at him like that. He doesn't know all of Anders' story but he does know what it like to be inconvenient and unwanted. And what it had meant when Duncan chose to recruit him out of all the other templars. The Wardens have a habit of picking up those who don't fit anywhere else and giving them a home. That sense of kinship is something he still misses at times and he can't be the only one here in Wonderland to feel that way.]

Just making it clear that I'm serious. I'd hate for you to lose this mage you're so in love with. That would be tragic. [And he's a sucker for a good love story.] But just so you know, if we are having a sleepover I'm calling dibs on the bed.

As your friend, I feel it's my duty to say "serious" isn't a good look for you, not at all. _{[And just to make sure the maudlin moment is good and dead, Anders lets his own features slip into something more comfortable, relaxed and casual with just a hint of vanity in his smile.]} You have a point. I don't know what I'd do without him.

_{[The thank you is implied, but never quite rises past his throat. He has a difficult enough time addressing what draws him to Justice or even contemplating the crimes he and Justice are allegedly responsible for--talking about them more than once in a single afternoon is an utterly exhausting prospect.

He doubts Alistair is complaining. It's a lot to lay on a man when that man has only Anders' word to go by in all of this.]}

You mean you weren't offering it to me earlier? _{[A pointed look down at the seat he's occupying.]} But I'm already comfortable.

[Serious doesn't work for either of them. He can get behind them avoiding it because of that. It's an entirely unnecessary thing. As is further discussion of a lot of subjects better put out of mind for now.

Anders moving isn't though, no matter how comfortable he might be.]

Too bad. I'm not sleeping on the floor. It's my bed. [The rag gets retrieved for another doomed attempt to hit Anders in the head with it in reproach.] Don't make me move you.

[Or try. That might get embarrassing for one of them. And not necessarily the one whose name rhymes with slanders.]

_{[Again with the rag! Anders shields his face so that the rag hits his arm and falls ineffectually to the floor. Can't he see Anders recently gave his robes a good clean? He's going to get them dirty all over again at this rate. Better than staining his shirt with tears, but still.]}

You have a strange attraction to throwing things. Too bad you weren't a mage--you could get away with throwing all sorts of things in the name of scholarly enterprise.

_{[He sighs as if the very thought of having to move tires him down to his very soul. All right, all right, if he insists.]}

Fine, have your bed. You need more beauty sleep than I do. _{[He stands.]} I should be off, besides.

[At least it hit him this time. An ineffectual hit but still a hit. It gets the point across.]

You should be glad I'm not throwing anything worse at you.

[Like some of the grenades he's seen his companions toss about. Mostly not at him.]

Also, ow! [That's just hurtful. It's definitely time for Anders to go if he's going to say things like that. Getting to his feet as well, Alistair walks him to the door.] I'll remember that the next time you ask me for anything. After I cry myself to sleep tonight.

[He hopes Anders feels bad about that.]

_{[So sensitive! The outrage earns a fleeting, carefree smile. He doesn't feel bad in the slightest bit--not about that. About other things, maybe, weightier things that hit a little too close to home, but not that.]}

I said you need more than I do, I didn't say how much. You're still pretty.

_{[But he should really go--daylight's burning and he's taken up enough time with this. But he remains grateful in the ways Anders knows how to express such things. That much is clear when he reaches the door and turns with another smile that puts his appreciation on display.]}

Thanks again--really, I mean that. I'm used to things being a mess but this is one that exceeds my wildest dreams. You didn't have to listen me do a rendition of all of my problems, but you did.

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