9058 réponses à ce sujet

[Wedger]

Thanks, Jenn!

Modifié par Wedger, 27 août 2010 - 10:28 .

[sabreene]

This story came out rather story-centric for my fic, but I didn't want to stop since I knew the clock was ticking down on an hour! I've been told it's not tooo story specific (and given a title! Thanks Sandi!!!) so I'm going to go ahead and post it. Even though I feel like it's not good enough and I want to do another one! lol.

Anyway, here it is:

A Gift of Gold

Anders rushed into the common room, his hair mussed and his robes wrinkled. He eyed the room wildly, and then saw her. Auria wanted to melt into the floor. He knew, he had to know. And now she'd have to explain. She'd wanted it to be a surprise. He'd think her so foolish.

"Auria!," he said, sitting down next to her and kissing her furtively on the cheek. He kept his mouth there and whispered, "I've lost my earring. Someone stole it! Have you see any of them bragging?" He nodded his head toward the table of immaculate apprentices, and their supercilious stares.

"No, I… is that why you're in such a state? I've never seen you with your hair so wild. Well, I have, but…" she gave a little pause and pressed her knee against his under the table, "Not quite in this context."

He squeezed her knee, and she felt the queer fluttering he always brought about in her. Sometimes she looked at him and couldn't believe he was with her. Her.

"Auria…" his voice was a warning. She schooled herself. Mages weren't supposed to have relationships, but everyone knew they did. As long as you weren't too blatant about it things usually went smoothly. The problem was, she was having a harder and harder time following their "rules". She couldn't set aside the love she felt for him, and knew it reflected in her face. She hoped she hadn't looked like a lovesick puppy. Her ears still burned remembering when Jowan had teased her with that.

"Maybe the earring just fell out, and it's by the bed somewhere."

"You know as well as I do, it can't fall off. It was magicked into a solid circle of gold. Someone had to use magic to take it off." He leaned his head into his hands. "I have to get it back. I have to." His voice almost broke on the last words.

She'd never seen him like this. Was he playing a joke on her, knowing she'd taken it? Or did the loss of the earring hurt him this badly? If it did… a pain pierced her chest, like someone had put that gold band around her heart, and was tightening it.

"You said you'd won the earring in a wager. That it was a symbol of good fortune and freedom. But… it was a woman you'd won it from, wasn't it. You're still in love with her."

Anders lifted his head and looked at her blankly. "I said that?" he laughed suddenly, "Were you listening at my door while I played cards, little cat?"

Auria blushed. She had spied on him for months before working up the courage to find him, one afternoon while he was alone.

"Maybe. Wouldn't you like to know what else I learned?" She gave him a sly look, and he raised his eyebrow.

"Hmmm… what would it take to elicit such information?"

"I think you would need to be quite inventive," she let her voice drop to a husky whisper, and licked her lips, "to elicit such secrets."

He stared at her bemusedly for a moment before his face fell into a rakish grin, a wicked light coming into his eyes. "I look forward to elicting you."

"Anders." It was her turn to scold him, drawing her face into a mock serious expression. "What would Irving say!"

"Irving!" Anders suddenly breathed out. "He has my earring. He knows!"

"Knows what?" Auria asked, grabbing his arm before he could rush away. He looked down at her, searching her face, as if looking for some critical answer there.

"I didn't win the earring in a bet," he said, sitting back down. "I won the right to it in a bet. And with a woman, yes, but an old woman. You know pirates wear earrings, yes?"

Auria nodded her head. She'd never seen a pirate, but she'd read about them in books purloined from the kitchen maid.

"They believe piercing the ear will improve their eyesight. There's also some who believe piercing a mages ear will not only increase the eyesight, but… increase other things as well."

"They have mages on the sea?"

"They have many things on the sea. Mages are one of them. They keep the secret close. Sailors are a superstitious lot, and they don't want anyone interfering. That includes the chantry. But mages are special… not any mage is accepted, and not any one can win his own earring." He paused for a moment, as if remembering. "I had to search out the old mother. And she was old, older than any person I'd seen before. Living in a cave on the coast of the sea. I healed her pains, and she'd cackled, gripping my head faster than I thought possible. I thought then she was mad, and that I'd just given her enough power to snap my neck."

He paused again, fingers automatically starting to straighten his hair, pulling it into a semblance of order. "But she didn't. Instead the world went black, and I woke with a burning pain in my ear. 'Heal yourself' she'd told me, and so I did. She gave me tea. And cookies. And told me she'd seen my future. The earring would give me long sight, but not only in my vision, in my magic, also. And she said one more thing – that my future would always be reflected in the gold. The brighter the gold, the brighter the future. Never let it tarnish, she said. But now it's gone. I've lost it. What does that say for my future?"

His voice was rising again.

"Irving must've found out. He must know. Maybe he thinks if he has my earring, my future will end here." He stood up again. "He's going to give it back." Little flickers of magic danced over Anders clenched fists.

"I didn't know… I'm sorry. Anders, Irving doesn't have your earring. I do."

He turned to her, eyes wide, uncomprehending.

"I took it… I didn't know how you felt. I thought I'd find a match for you, so you could have a pair. I wanted to match the color of the gold… I'm so sorry."

"You have it?" he asked, his voice full of some emotion she couldn't quite read.

"I do, its right here." She pulled a leather thong from around her neck, the round circle of gold hanging from it. "Are you mad? I'm sorry."

She held it out and he took it slowly, their fingers touching. "You wore my future around your neck," he said. She still couldn't quite read the emotion there, but he smiled at her. In a small flash of magic, the earring was back on Anders ear. Auria sighed softly. She'd have to come up with another idea for their six month anniversary present.

[Sarah1281]

@Sabreene: Aw, that was cute.  I also thought that was a very interesting origin of the earring.

[jenncgf]

That was a neat take, Sabreene! I didn't think it was necessarily story-centric either. Well done!

[Wedger]

Sabreene - "You wore my future around your neck" gave me chills it was sooo sweet.

[sabreene]

I'm so happy I waited to read everyone's until after I posted, I don't know if I could've after reading everyone's good stories!!

@Jenn - Loved it!! That was so fun. Naughty Anders. I loved the bit about wearing pants, too. I always picture him being uncomfortable in them when he first puts them on after a long time in robes. So... constricting

@galagraphia - :wub: I love your drawings. I can't believe you did that in an hour. Sigh. Anders.

@Mel - The black and white with that expression goes sooo well. I love it soo much. It'd be blasphemy to love it more than the xbox screenies, so I just won't say anything more.

@Surely - :lol:  lmao!!! Spoikers! that was awesome. I'm still laughing. I loved his mental commentary. And "Nice boots! Wanna screw around?" I'm totally craving more Anders/Zev.

@Sarah - Loved the take on escaping after the Harrowing, since no one was expecting it. And I agree with Jenn, the line "kicking and screaming - yet manly and suave" -- win! Poor guy, the fun was just about to get started when the templars ruined it all!!

@Wedger - yay for fanfic! No one can escape the pull of Anders fanfic. And you did a great job!! I loved that Anders first work on the "lawless" side was with Sketch. We need more Sketch.

[sabreene]

@Sarah, Jenn & Wedger -- Thank you!!! I'm happy you guys liked it.

[Galagraphia]

Miri, it's mutual



Wedger, awesome story! It must be continued!



sabreene, aww, this was so sweet, we need more fics about Anders and female mage wardens in the Tower



These prompts are really fun! I'm so glad we started them!

[SurelyForth]

@Sarah I really liked your take on Anders' inner world. You did a good job with him despite this being your first attempt at writing him.

@Wedger Nice! I love Sketch, I wish he wasn't a disposable DLC companion.

@Sabreene Very sweet and not too story-centric! And I'm glad you liked "Nice boots! Wanna screw around?" If it weren't for the stupid filters on the board (and, of course, my own delicate nature when it comes to such things) it would have been even more direct.

Modifié par SurelyForth, 28 août 2010 - 02:02 .

[Miri1984]

Gala's picture has captured me and now my story is going to have to be about that. I hope you don't mind me taking inspiration from both the prompt and the picture inspired by the prompt .



Saving Anders from the second page with Silieth on Dev Art:

[Galagraphia]

Miri, of course I don't mind! Maybe it even was my goal... XD

[LupusYondergirl]

I really hope the formatting on this isn't a hot mess.  This is set in the same universe as my Anders/Amell stories since... well, why not.  Doesn't require having read them or anything, though one bit was described in an early chapter from someone else's point of view.
Writing time... maybe 50, 55 min.  (Not sure, my roommate interrupted me, I tried to err on the side of cutting myself off early just in case.)  Editing, only 5 min or so.  If that.  
I'm going to say the half freaking hour I spent formatting doesn't count... and edit since holy wall of text, batman.



The Earring Stays

“Come on, Anders, it barely hurts at all.” The cute elven apprentice was holding an earring, an orange, and a shockingly large needle. In the other hand she had a rag. He couldn’t help but notice the bloodstains already on it. “It’ll look fantastic when it’s done, see,” she lifted up her hat with kitty ears, and really, where would she even get something like that in the tower? It wasn’t exactly a standard issue mage cowl, displaying tiny red gems in each ear. “I just did mine and ran right up here after.”

“Why is that one a hoop, though? It’s it a bit… obvious? And my hair will catch on it.”

“Your hair is too short to catch on it,” she pointed out.

“It’s going to grow back!” he said. “I only cut it to help disguise myself last time I got out.”

“It’s the only other earring I could find. Not like I can pop out to market, you know! I have to pick through whatever that fool Godwin has sent to him from his surface friend.” She sighed. “Just start wearing a ponytail when your hair grows back or something. It’ll look, I don’t know, roguish.”

“Roguish?” he said, sounding dubious. “I don’t know if I can really pull off roguish. I go more for dashing, you know.”

“Yes, and it works so well for you. Quit complaining and sit still.”

“It works just fine,” he protested, but she only rolled her eyes. Anders sighed and did as she demanded. He had long since realized saying ‘but it will hurt’ wouldn’t do wonders for his image, and really, the fear of pain was the only concern. If the earring looked horrible, he knew he could just get rid of it.

“Ow!” Anders protested, squirming.

“Maker’s breath, that wasn’t even the needle. That was just a quick ice spell to numb your ear. Would you calm down! I’m not taking your head off here!” She sounded annoyed. He did as ordered and a moment later she did put the needle through his ear. And, as he suspected, it did hurt. Anders tried not to wince as she fiddled around, not really wanting to look and see his blood shooting all over the wall.

“There,” she said finally. “I assume you can heal it yourself?”

Anders did just that before getting up and striding across the room to a mirror. He had to admit, it did look good. If he could figure out a way to enchant it, all the better. “Not bad,” he said.

“Told you!” she replied, hopping off the bunk and laughing. “I’ve got to run, Niall promised to help me with entropy. Don’t take it out for a while, the hole will close up!”

Anders, slightly entranced by the light flickering off the gold, barely heard her. “Huh? Oh, ok. Tell Niall I said hi.”

“What is that?” his roommate said that evening. “You didn’t get that on your last escape, did you?”

“No, just today,” Anders said. “What do you think?”

“You look like a pirate,” he replied. “No… you look like someone pretending to be a pirate. And failing. Did a girl talk you into that?”

“Yes, but not like that,” Anders admitted. “It was the apprentice I tutor. I think she wanted to cheer me up.”

He rolled his eyes before climbing into bed. “It looks absurd. You really ought to get rid of it, you shouldn’t be doing anything to stand out more right now. They just let you out of solitary confinement.”

Anders made a face, ignoring him. He was a grumpy bastard and bitter he hadn’t been moved upstairs to the Enchanter quarters yet.

The next day several people commented on the earring, none favorably. Anders was walking back to his room from the library, sick of pirate jokes and seriously considering just getting rid of it, when he saw an apprentice walking up the hall. The knight-commander was in the middle of giving her one of his lectures. He did recycle the same ones for everybody, apparently. “Behind the storeroom again, and this time with a mage no less? Rules exist for a reason.” Anders stopped, suppressing the urge to laugh, and listened in.

“Yes, ser,” she replied, twirling her black hair around a finger and sounding as though she didn’t care one bit.

“The reason isn’t so you can break them one by one.”

“I know, ser,” she said again in that same bored voice.

“Do you enjoy constantly having to help the tranquil clean?”

“Yes, ser,” she responded, quite obviously ignoring him.

“Are you listening to me?”

“I know, ser” she said again, making a face at the Knight-Commander’s back.

Snickering as they passed, Anders accidentally dropped one of his books trying to get a better look at her.

The girl froze in place, looking over at him while Greagoir, oblivious, continued down the hall. Finally able to see her clearly, Anders suddenly wished he hadn’t gotten the earring. When her green eyes passed over it he resisted the desire to explain “it wasn’t my idea!”

Then she grinned at him, earring obviously meeting her approval. It was… well, Anders wouldn’t say it was a beautiful smile. Predatory would probably be a much more accurate word. He recognized the look, more than a few women had been fixed in his own version of it over the years. Being on the receiving end was strangely flattering.
Bending over, she grabbed his book, stepping far closer than necessary and placing it back on the pile in his hands. “Dropped that,” she said, before winking and scurrying after the Knight-Commander.

That’s it, Anders thought, shaking his head in amusement and continuing on his way. The earring stays.

That was five years ago.

“Hey Biff,” one of the templars said. “Get a load of his earring.” He snickered, turning to Anders. “What, you thought you’d hop some pirate ship?”

Rolling his eyes, Anders turned over to his side in the small cell, facing the wall. Caught again, he wasn’t going to make their lives any better by providing entertainment.

“Fine, ignore us,” Biff laughed. “The less problems you cause the better. I don’t want to hang around here long enough bump into that Grey Warden when she gets here.” The two began talking about the woman in question, more commonly known as the Hero of Ferelden. With amusement Anders realized, as they said things like violent, half-mad, and even maleficar, that the templars were scared witless of meeting her. No wonder, though. Grey Wardens were completely outside Chantry control. Everyone knew that. Lucky, he thought as he dozed off, exhausted after days of running.

“Where did they come from,” someone shouted, waking him. It might have been minutes, or even hours. Anders shifted and looked over. One of the templars was leaning against the door, face waxy with terror.

“What’s going on,” he asked, forgetting that he was giving them the silent treatment.

“Darkspawn! They’re everywhere. I won’t be able to hold the door much longer.”

“Well open the bloody cell!” Anders said. The templar looked at him blankly. They really were slow. Anders sighed and directed a small blast of flame at the cell’s stone wall in demonstration. “Did you think I spent years learning basket weaving at the Circle?”

“Oh, right,” he said. “Hey Biff, let the mage out!”

“You crazy?”

“You want the darkspawn to eat us? Maybe with him we’ve got a chance.”

“Fine,” he muttered, unlocking the cell nervously. “Don’t try anything funny.”

“I assure you, if I do it will be hysterical,” Anders said, unable to help himself.

“Here they come!” came a shout. The men all tensed as the doorframe cracked under pressure, bursting open. The most disgusting beasts Anders had ever seen in his life poured in. He gagged, suppressing the urge to get sick all over the floor. People talk about darkspawn but you really couldn’t understand until you saw them yourself. After a moment’s hesitation he began to cast spells, picking them off one by one.

When the last fell Anders shook his hands, dissipating the last of the flame spell, and realized that he was the only one left standing. Oh, this doesn’t look good, he thought. Before he could run someone kicked the door open behind him.

Skidding to a halt in front of him was a familiar figure. Black hair, grass-green eyes, the same predatory grin, this time filled with the lust for battle.

That’s the Hero of Ferelden? He was tempted to laugh. Instead he reached up and smoothed his hair, noticing that once again her eyes flicked over the earring.  Anders grinned right back at her. “Hey, I remember you from the Circle!”

Modifié par LupusYondergirl, 28 août 2010 - 06:58 .

[Sarah1281]

@LupusYondergirl: For some reason, the idea that everybody but the Warden making fun of his earring and calling him a pirate is endlessly amusing.

[jenncgf]

Yay Lupus! I like it! And I agree with Sarah. The idea of lots of people making fun of the earring is pretty funny. And I like seeing Anders' side of the story at the, ahem, "event" itself.

[LupusYondergirl]

Thanks! I really enjoy the idea that mages are just gaudy as all get out (which would explain the robes), and those two are even worse than most. They've both waxed poetic on how very classy the tevinter robes are at different points in the story. Especially the fur.

[SurelyForth]

Sneaking in to save the thread from page 2...

[Addai]

We saw the Dexter episode with Voice of Anders as one of Dexter's marks.  He didn't get a lot of speaking lines, but you could hear Anders a bit.

[Miri1984]

I find that show incredibly creepy.

[Sarah1281]

Miri1984 wrote...

I find that show incredibly creepy.

I find that show horribly inaccurate. What kind of sociopath is capable of actually caring about people anyway? 

[Miri1984]

Aye, got to admit, being totally and utterly against the death penalty in every form makes the show something that doesn't at all appeal.

[Addai]

I must admit I love the show. Good writing, lots of dark humor. Voice of Anders made for a dapper target.

[Galagraphia]

LupusYondergirl, I love your story! Besides everything else it has my favourite cute elven apprentice with kitty ears in it XD Hm, I guess I'm the only one here who haven't read your Maggie stories, now I think it's a crime, I must do it!

[TJPags]

Doing a replay on Awakening . . . and finding that I like Anders . . . definitely has made it to my fav 3 companions list . . . too bad they're not all available at the same time . . .

[Avilia]

I was doing the basement area in the Keep and clicked on the offering table down there. This is what came up:



Direct link for full sized

It made me laugh - yes please I'll take that offering!

Modifié par Avilia, 29 août 2010 - 07:13 .