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[Sarah1281]

Miri1984 wrote...

Combine the two?

Put happy Anders on a boat*?

*I know nothing about that book (is it a book?) but it had the word 'sea' in it.

Modifié par Sarah1281, 14 octobre 2010 - 05:13 .

[LupusYondergirl]

So... the priest would represent the encroaching modern world as well as the mainland and... um... orlais? and Maurya is the Sean-Bhean Bhocht as well as... maggie?
Hm. Needs more vodka.

it's a one act tragedy about a woman who has lost all her sons and her husband to the sea.  the major conflict is a priest who assures her that god would never allow an old widow to be left destitute and without a son.
and then, well, he does.

Ah... Irish theater.  GOOD TIMES!

Modifié par LupusYondergirl, 14 octobre 2010 - 05:16 .

[Miri1984]

Oh, the LULZ! He and Hemmingway and Chekhov should all hang out and drink beer and kill themselves.



Anders left them propped at the bar:

[LupusYondergirl]

You know? Sometimes I think all Synge, Yeats, and Lady Gregory did was sit around trying to see who could make the most depressing play ever.

Could be worse, though. Could be Dierdre of the Sorrows. That one... really lives up to its name.



And I should be able to post a new chapter in both stories tomorrow. But now, I pass out.

[sabreene]

I come bearing a late prompt for last week's "hair", and a new prompt for this week.

For last week (since I'm late, I'll just link) A Wager


And this week's prompt...

Escape.


Any kind of escape. Physical or mental, from friend or foe, and/or anything in between.

Idea sparked from my great desire to escape RL this week, along with broken refrigerators, missed deadlines and cars that make strange whining sounds.
Peacoat and Dress Suit Anders were sorely needed!

[Avilia]

I've gone to that sentimental place again. I'll also warn you - I made myself cry writing this. Although, it could just be hormones ;-)

.............

Watching the shoreline disappear from the deck of a ship. How often had he done that, or dreamed of doing that? Too many times to remember. It had been the driving force of much of his life. To be free of constraints, free of the bonds that the Chantry wanted to collar him with. To just be free.

Sighing, Anders leaned on the wooden rail. Once the sight of Ferelden fading into the mist would have made him happy. Now he felt nothing but a sense of sadness and loss.

He'd thought he'd found a home with the Wardens and for a long time he had. A home and friends. What an odd thing that had been. To run from one kind of captivity into another and find it suited him.

At first he'd stayed to avoid the Chantry. He didn't think there was any shame in admitting that. Then that cursed woman had given him Pounce and he'd felt obligated to stay for a while. And a while longer. Until she'd left and they'd given Nate the Arling.

Then he'd stayed because his friend needed him and quite frankly, there was nowhere else he wanted to go.

Staying had given him Ceri. An unexpected and surprising gift that he'd loved more than he'd thought possible. That was one cage he'd have sworn he'd never get caught in. Women were for fun and pleasure, not for love and certainly not for life. Or as much life as fate allowed you.

Fifteen years. It would have seemed an eternity to his younger self, the one always looking for the next challenge, the next woman. Standing here now, on the deck of this ship, he knew it wasn't long enough.

Not nearly long enough before losing her to something that he couldn't heal. What kind of healer was he that he couldn't save his love?

She'd given him the two greatest things in his life. The first she'd taken with her when she'd died. The second she'd given him on the happiest and most terrifying day of his life.

A hand tucked around his arm reminded him that this time he wasn't escaping alone.

"I can see the rain coming over Amaranthine." He'd tried to hide it from her, but Caeren knew this was making him sad. Not just the journey but everything. "Nate told me its always sunny in Antiva, is that true?"

He managed a smile for her. "If Nate says it, it must be true, no? He'd never lie to you." She giggled and he winced slightly. "We'll find out for ourselves soon enough." Determined not to let his mood infect hers, he smiled again, this time more naturally. "Your first journey away from Ferelden, you must be excited?"

She shouldn't be but she was. "I am, is that bad?"

"No, its natural to be excited. Seeing new places and things." This time when she giggled he was almost able to enjoy the sound of it.

"And with a handsome man!"

"Very handsome, if you please, handsome and dashing." Turning his head to smile at her again, he caught sight of one of the other passengers watching them. Her. One glare was enough to send the man to the other side of the ship. "I may lock you in the cabin."

Caeren twisted around to look. "Oh, he's nice looking isn't he?" She coughed when he tugged her hand. "He is! It's not my fault if I notice things like that."

"Don't notice it if you please. Or at least have the courtesy not to notice it while I'm standing right here." The sun broke out briefly and it glinted off her almost white hair. When she bounced on her toes, obviously trying to think of the best way to respond to that, he was reminded so strongly of her mother it was almost painful.

"Yes, Papa. No flirting with men. While you're here." His eyes narrowed. "If he bothers me I'll turn him into a toad." Finally he smiled properly. "No toads?"

"No toads. We're not running away from Ferelden just to have the captain put us in the Chantry's hands at the next port."

"Yes Papa."

Some things you can only hide for so long. He'd learned that the hard way when the Templars had come for him so long ago. He wouldn't have his daughter locked away because she'd been born with the gift of magic. He'd be cursed if he would.

.............

Blame Sarah, she gave me the idea when she commented on my last prompt ;-)

[Miri1984]

Oh, so lovely. And so sad. I honestly think Anders would make a magnificent father - one of those fathers who are more a kid than their offspring. Beautifully done.

[Nilfalasiel]

Wedger wrote...

cave_fatuam wrote...

SurelyForth wrote...
../../../images/forum/emoticons/heart.png I think I saw this on the street, my own clothes might spontaneously combust. It would be so awkward. 

Pfft. I don't think he would be too offended. ;D

He might combust his own clothes - just to make you feel better

Words cannot express the perfection that this would be.

LupusYondergirl wrote...

You know? Sometimes I think all Synge, Yeats, and Lady Gregory did was sit around trying to see who could make the most depressing play ever.

I had to write a dissertation about Yeats for my BA, and yes, depressing is certainly one word I'd use to describe him. Loony would be another one. However, I hated most of his plays, because they don't seem like the kind that would actually work on a stage. Except The Shadowy Waters. Not sure why I liked it, because the writing is just as wooden as his other plays, but I did like it.

Modifié par Nilfalasiel, 14 octobre 2010 - 09:47 .

[Avilia]

@Miri - thank you I think he would too - great fun but would know where to draw the line.

[tankgirly]

By drathe





Nate fans, don't kill me.



Tank

[Miri1984]

Tank that's hilarious! Poor Nate, he doesn't stand a chance with those two about.

[Sarah1281]

@sabreene: That was hilarious. I thought she didn't want to bathe near Sigrun to cover the hair dye but if that wasn't the reason then is she just being a prude?



@Avilia: Oh, I'm totally willing to be blamed for such a sad and sweet story!

[Miri1984]

Lady Anders is a natural blonde:

[SurelyForth]

*fans self* I wish that my Pervstache Brand avatar would update so this post would be made all the more appropriate.



@Sabreene I love your prompt! I've written one short already that will probably be part of my epilogue and I'm working on another to post. Hopefully it won't be too racy.

[LupusYondergirl]

cave_fatuam did this for peopleofthedas and it is AWESOME.







chapter almost done. brain broken. send beer and hot guys!

[Sarah1281]

The thing about writing when you're upset is that it tends to make things come out darker than you were planning on...


Anders sometimes wondered why the desire to flee was so strong in him, almost like a physical need at times. He could spend hours just staring out the windows of the Circle Tower until the templars grew concerned (although he wasn’t sure if they worried that he’d fall or jump) and over time he’d begun to notice that it wasn’t like that for the other apprentices which was weird because they’d been here even longer than he had.
 
Maybe that was why, though. He had been here for the five longest years of his life and each day brought with it a growing terror that he would never see the outside properly again. Sure, the apprentices were allowed to go outside of the Tower for exercises occasionally and under strict templar supervision but that wasn’t true freedom! They were just toying with them by offering up whatever scraps they thought were harmless enough and expecting them to be pathetically grateful. And the apprentices were oh so disgustingly grateful, all but Anders and Finn. Anders, of course, resented the templar’s presumption and Finn actually didn’t like the outdoors. He had sensitive skin and some pretty severe allergies and so Anders supposed it wasn’t all that surprising even if it was still inconceivable.
 
Anders had a plan as far as those brief glimpses of ‘freedom’ were concerned. He hadn’t dared try anything before he became a fully qualified mage for fear that they would make him tranquil – death he could handle, living death he could not – but his Harrowing was fast approaching and the very first time he went out for exercises as a full mage then he would make a break for it. Sure, Anders had heard that the Harrowing was exceedingly difficult and that many people died in the attempt to pass but, well, he was sure he’d be fine. It might be egotistical of him but he’d always been one of the more talented apprentices.
 
So Anders was going to escape soon and see how far he could get before the templars had his phylactery recalled and hunted him down. This would inevitably make his life harder but…he couldn’t not do it. It was so difficult to explain because he didn’t even fully understand his need to be somewhere else – anywhere else – himself. If he didn’t do this then he didn’t know how much longer he could cling to any sort of sanity. The other mages didn’t seem to mind but then many of them had no memories before coming to this glorified prison for the high crime of possessing magic. That just struck him as fundamentally wrong but no one else seemed to care. A lack of knowledge about the outside world might have made being trapped here forever but it also served to make them even more under the Chantry’s thrall.
 
Everywhere Anders looked, there was something to escape from. The people who lived in the Tower were generally pale and sickly-looking. Anders had largely kept his physique due to sheer determination but whenever he glanced in the mirror he was struck with just how faded his own skin had become. He was starting to look like the others and that was simply not something he was prepared to deal with. The bucket-heads weren’t supposed to fraternize with the evil mages and rumors of their invasions of privacy and abuses of power were inescapable.
 
The knight-commander, Greagoir, at least, didn’t seem interested in watching the mages bathe but he was notoriously strict and always conspiring with First Enchanter Irving. Irving was another one he needed to be careful of. He always tried so hard to pass himself off as one of them, a champion for the mages who heroically and tirelessly butted heads with the Chantry on their behalf. As. If. He and Greagoir had made a game out of their power struggles and it didn’t matter who got hurt as long as they could win. So the people – lifeless, brainwashed, evil, or some combination of the three – was enough to drive him to the lake and that wasn’t nearly his only reason.
 
Anders had been born free and had spent a very pleasant childhood hiding his powers before the templars finally caught on and took him away. Unlike the others, he had had a life and now that was gone and who knew if he’d ever see anyone from before again? He had seen what reality was like and what places were supposed to look like and the Circle Tower was simply not right. It was built in the middle of a lake, for one, which even the templars couldn’t pretend wasn’t used to keep them locked up even tighter. The building was all grey and drab and the windows were few and far between. Every move he made was watched and judged by overeager zealots just waiting for him to slip up and reveal that he was secretly possessed by a demon or something. He couldn’t keep living like this. He didn’t know how anyone could go on living like this.
 
Escape. That was what he had to do, that was the only way. He had to run and to never stop running because the minute he did then they’d catch up to him and realize that he wasn’t like them, would never be like them. Once they realized that, that’d stop at nothing to make him one of them or to outright destroy him if he proved too troublesome.
 
Anders knew that he talked a big game. As far as anyone else was concerned, he was utterly fearless and he wanted so badly for that to be true. He wasn’t afraid of the outside or of trying to live among ordinary people like some of the others were but he had heard the stories of what templars did to mages who ran just as often as anybody and so the prospect of bringing their wrath down upon his head was mildly terrifying. Just the same, he feared what would happen if he allowed that fear to control him more.
 
In one week, he would attempt his first escape. He wondered how many he’d manage before they made his escape from the Tower a little more permanent.

[Avilia]

@Sarah - I loved that. It made me feel he was fighting 'stockholm syndrome' - get out before you become institutionalised. I enjoyed the mentions of Finn, Irving and Greagoir (particularly your digs at Irving).

[tankgirly]

Miri1984 wrote...

Tank that's hilarious! Poor Nate, he doesn't stand a chance with those two about.

Serious Nobles XD

 Wait.....Nate did catergorise as nobles, right?

[sabreene]

Lady Anders is totally a natural blonde!

@Avilia -- Your writing seems like it just gets better and better. I really loved that story. It was poignant but sweet at the same time, seeing Anders with a daughter. Edit: It won't let me log onto ff.net, so I'll thank you here!

@Sarah -- I liked the way you got into Anders head, that's very much how I think he'd feel about being caged in the Tower. I'm glad it came out darker than you anticipated, though not that it was because you were upset And thanks for my review, too! Yes, Velanna just was being a prude

@Surely -- Thanks! And nothing can be too racy... bring on the race! Hmm, that didn't quite sound right, did it? Bring on the Pervastache!

Modifié par sabreene, 14 octobre 2010 - 11:15 .

[KnightofPhoenix]

Question. Anders. Namaya (the elf who starts his quest).
Did he? Or didn't he?

Because if he did, a fugitive mage is more desperate than I thought.

And yep, that's as far as my contribution goes.

[Avilia]

KnightofPhoenix wrote...

Question. Anders. Namaya (the elf who starts his quest).
Did he? Or didn't he?

Because if he did, a fugitive mage is more desperate than I thought.

And yep, that's as far as my contribution goes.

If that look he gives her behind when she walks away is any indication - he did

[Avilia]

@Sabreene /blush. Thank you.

[Miri1984]

KnightofPhoenix wrote...

Question. Anders. Namaya (the elf who starts his quest).
Did he? Or didn't he?

Because if he did, a fugitive mage is more desperate than I thought.

And yep, that's as far as my contribution goes.

I think the implication is that he absolutely did, yes. But considering she's out doing favours for him there's a chance he was doing it for the additional benefits rather than overwhelming attraction. Or maybe he loves women for what's on the inside? 

But we've never pretended that our favourite mage is anything other than a man****. It's part of his charm

[LupusYondergirl]

I don't think it's so much desperate as having very flexible standards. As in "Conscious?" "Willing?" "It's a go!" (We all know guys like that. And usually they're not bad looking, either. Just... really really easy. Strong believers in any sex is better than no sex.  Or maybe that's just my friends...)

That, or he was drunk. Since really, standards just disappear when tequila comes to the party.  it's a horrible houseguest like that.

@Avilia: that was so sweet. Where were they going? Tevinter? Or just away?
@Sarah: I love how you show him not wanting to become like the others in the tower. And explaining how Anders kept the awesome arms.

Modifié par LupusYondergirl, 15 octobre 2010 - 01:08 .

[Avilia]

@Lupus - Thanks . They are going to Tevinter. Ceri came from there and its probably the best place for apostates to hide. That was my feeling when I was writing it. They're taking the long way - just in case anyone tries to find them later. Whether that's even practical in a lore sense I don't know.