voicetesting and homeless

[hawketalons]

Look. Mun, or mundane, or whatever it is you're called here. Can't I just call you by your name? No? Fine then.

It isn't that I'm not flattered. On the contrary! But don't you think you have too much on your plate already?

You still persist...very well then. I'm sure I can think of something to do...

Comments

8D

[its_storytime]

Hawke, bored? Never thought I'd see the day.

[hawketalons]

Varric! How's my trusty dwarf? Embellishing new stories, I hope?

As for me being bored, it's not an impossibility! You'd be amazed how many templars have bored me out of my skull. If they would ditch the heavy armor, they might move fast enough to be a challenge.

It's not so difficult to stick a knife or two under their plate.

[its_storytime]

Of course! I have to sate my own boredom somehow.

[He laughs.] I guess you're right. Then again, I doubt much of anything comes as a challenge to you anymore. Combat-wise, anyway.

[Certainly not in his stories, at least >.> ]

[hawketalons]

I don't know about that... I suspect being a fugitive with an apostate mage who made his point quite clear to the Chantry will have its own set of challenges. Exciting ones!

[its_storytime]

[Chuckling.] It's really too bad you can't keep me updated.

[hawketalons]

Updated? On what? Trying to find some out of the way place where we can keep a low profile and try to avoid the mob of people looking to me to solve their problems? Or do you just want the details on the torrid love affair between the apostate mage and the noblewoman with an erotic fixation on knives?

[its_storytime]

Take your pick! You know I'll just fill the rest in anyway.

[hawketalons]

Well, if your tale of the captain and her guardsman are any indication of your embellishments in that regard...

Suffice to say you'll have to be at least twice as creative.

[its_storytime]

For you, Hawke? Infinite creativity.

[hawketalons]

Can't wait to come across a copy in my travels. I'll treasure it forever.

[birdhousesoul]

[Color Anders ruefully amused.]

You never have run short of things to do — and whenever you do, some task or other is sure to find you. Andraste's arse, the state of your writing desk alone ...

[hawketalons]

*Well hello there, ser mage. You'll have to give her a moment to undress you with her eyes. ...Something Anders is probably used to by this point?*

What can I say? People in need of help that they either can't or won't do themselves are drawn to me like flies.

..."Birdhouse"? Clever. I never thought of it that way... I'll have to remember that.

[birdhousesoul]

Oh, the nametag sort of thing? That's the mundane's idea of a joke, sadly enough, or else an allusion. Something about a glowing blue friend that makes her giggle. I'd say Justice is hardly a laughing matter. Mundanes have little empathy.

[He doesn't shrink from Hawke's appraisal — far from it; he grins, and if he doesn't quite strike a pose, he does stand up a little straighter, the better to be ogled. Anders may be many things, but self-conscious isn't one of them. Plus he's rocking the feathery black coat and the randomly-tied-on bandages, which is the fashionable look for terrorist apostates.]

Take one look at you, and people who didn't suppose they needed any help suddenly remember that they do. That's the best explanation I can devise, anyhow, for such a sharp increase in the number of Kirkwall folk prone to lose important objects when you're in the neighborhood. Important things like special hats and the remains of their deceased loved ones.

[hawketalons]

...That song is catchy and annoying. Mostly annoying.

*A fashionable look she wants to tear off him this instant.*

They'd better not make a habit of it with us being on the run from the Chantry. I'm hoping that the pleadings for help die off. Might get us both some well-earned peace and quiet.

[birdhousesoul]

[Given how Anders treats his clothes, they're not unlikely to fall off of their own accord. At the moment, though, he's doing a doubletake so sharp it practically dizzies him:]

We're ... what? On the run? You came with me?

[hawketalons]

...Oh. Right. Different outcomes. The mun explained it to me.

*she doesn't seem bothered by his surprise, though.*

And of course I came with you. I love you, Anders. Those aren't just pretty words.

[birdhousesoul]

[For once, Anders is speechless. He can only gaze at her, searching her face for something perhaps even he can't name.]

But you — this didn't have to be your fight. You're not a mage.

[Or so he recalls, or supposes, or supposes he recalls. Doubt flickers across his mobile features; so, too, does a species of hope almost so tenuous as to seem reluctant.]

[hawketalons]

No. I'm not. I'm more handy with a pair of knives than with spells, and I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with liking to see life leave a man's eyes when I bury my blade in his heart. But my sister was a mage. And so was Father. It's in my blood.

And I did mention the loving you bit, didn't I?

[birdhousesoul]

[softly:]

You did mention it, yes. And you've said it before, on occasion. [That much is said with a wry twist of the lip, suggesting just which context he's recalling.] That was ... before. Before I misled you.

[Oh, Anders, just call it a lie. That dragon-dung potion to separate a human from a spirit ... not even a very good lie, was it?]

[hawketalons]

You know...the way I see it? You were probably afraid I would have talked you out of it. And made you forget all about it overnight.

*Not that it didn't hurt, him not trusting her. She was angry. But she's seen the desperation in him.*

If it weren't you, it would have been someone else. With blood magic and demons. And things would have been far worse.

[birdhousesoul]

[A slight grimace.] You couldn't have talked me out of it, love. You could have convinced me to put it off a while, perhaps — as I'd been doing for quite some time already.

Or you could have stopped me. I just couldn't risk that, even if it meant losing you when you learned what I'd done. What I'd talked you into helping me do.

[A pause.] I was sure I'd lose you. I even thought you might call me a demon. I wouldn't have blamed you. It's not easy to understand Justice, or to live up to what Justice demands.

I should have realized if anyone could understand, it would be you. I should have trusted you. I just couldn't risk it, that's all. [His eyes are suspiciously bright.] Your generosity puts me to shame, Hawke. Your generosity, and your courage, and your faith.

[hawketalons]

What would Mother think if I couldn't forgive the man I love for something so silly as blowing up a chantry, anyway?

You're no demon, Anders. Certainly not an abomination. Whatever you are, we're not so different, you and I. We do what it takes, for what we believe in.

[birdhousesoul]

[The Leandra he knew might not have been so forgiving, but Anders doesn't take the remark literally anyhow. He understands this is Hawke's typical purple-diamond humor, a singular gift for smoothing over the rough spots or jolting conversation out of a melancholic rut.]

That's what drew me to you, love. You've always been willing to do what it takes, no matter the risks.

[sex_angel]

Or perhaps someone to do?

[There was an amused tone and smile added to this but she sounded serious enough.]

[hawketalons]

Oh, I'm quite sure I've already found the someone. He and I have had quite the adventures together.

[sex_angel]

Wonderful dear. I just had to make a joke since Isabela wasn't here yet.

[hawketalons]

Why did I have the sneaking suspicion she was somehow involved...

[sex_angel]

Because she is your only friend that would say that like I did?

keywords

[hawketalons]

Ah, yes! That's it.

[sex_angel]

I have the feeling that your relationship isn't quite as caring as other versions of yourself.

[hawketalons]

Well, there was the whole "I stole a relic from the Qunari and I'm not going to give it back when I find it even though there's an all-out war likely to break out with them" thing.

[sex_angel]

Ah and there is the key. Different decisions were made.

In one particular universe you even managed to be more than sexually involved with her.

[hawketalons]

...even with the whole "different outcomes" thing, that's a bit...strange.

[sex_angel]

It takes a lot of talking and saying the right thing to learn about her.