capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

WHO:

sassyqueermage, OPEN
WHERE: Outside the Tower.
WHEN: Today, early evening.
WARNINGS: Sassiness.
SUMMARY: Anders wants a drink. Badly. However, he has no idea where to look.
FORMAT: Prose.

After several minutes of fussing with his radio/communicator/demon box, he had opened up the text file Grace had sent him. He saw several names of what he presumed were pubs, but just to play it safe, he went with the establishment that actually had 'pub' in its name. Joe's Pub sounded good and straightforward. He liked that.

Slipping the radio/communicator/demon box into his bag, his hand skimmed over Ser Pounce-a-lot's back and he smiled as he picked up the cat from the depths of his bag. He slung his bag over his shoulder with his free arm and stood up to begin his trek through this monstrous city.

"Come on, Pounce. Let's hope we don't get ambushed by an ogre or another broodmother," he shivered, beginning to walk.

Then he realized he actually had no idea where he was going.

There were too many signs pointing in more than one direction and he hasn't even begun being freaked out by the fast vehicles on the road (at first he thought it was something he was going to have to kill, but on closer inspection he noticed people in them steering like one would do on a ship).

He could always ask someone for directions as much as it bruised his ego to do so. And he used to be so good at directions.

"Excuse me--can you spare a second--hello, will you--" Anders felt like he was talking to himself with these people brushing past and ignoring the apostate with a big MAGE sign on his back. With the way he was dressed differently, he thought that would at least give him some notice.

Anders looked down at Ser Pounce, absentmindedly scratching behind his ear. "Looks like this is the end of the road, Ser Pounce-a-lot. No food. No drink. Rude people everywhere--" he shot the next person he saw with a venomous look. "--and a demonic box for company.".

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah. Wizards in my world, we ..tend to keep to ourselves. But there are a few Muggle-born witches and wizards that pop up every now and again. Lily -- my wife's Muggle-born, completely brilliant."

He shrugged a bit. "I dunno. My mates here -- I knew them at home, too, but they're older here, older than me, I mean -- they said I die protecting Harry and Lily from the dark wizard. Which is all well and good, but I don't think there's a way to change it. Harry's destined to save the world and all, apparently."

"Then slap my bottom and call me Muggle-born," he grinned. His parents did not have the gift. He was the only one as far as he knew. "And no one bothers you at all?"

It sounded a bit too good to be true. Still, here's hoping mages in alternate worlds got the better end of the staff except for poor James, dying and yet living and breathing beside him.

"You...you die? And you're okay with that?" Anders could not imagine a single situation in which he would be comfortable dying. He always had a chance to fight when the templars caught up with him, but he came back willingly each time, switching to bothering them needlessly rather than aggressive action. He rather liked not being dead.

"Well, we're fighting a war, sort of." He shrugged a bit and grinned back. "Against that dark wizard, he's all for -- you know, pureblood wizards, no mixing with Muggles, absolute power, blah blah blah. So we do get, er, more than a few of his followers bothering us, but that's a really long story. That witch I mentioned when you got here? Bellatrix? She's one of them."

Well, if they're not fighting in the wizarding war they do, at least?

"I'm --" He paused. "I wasn't, when I first heard about it. That was when I was first here, when I was sixteen. But since going home and coming back --" He trailed off, thoughtful, for a moment, and then continued. "I would do anything to protect Lily and Harry. Absolutely anything, even die. From the little I've heard about Harry when he grows up, he's completely brilliant."

Pureblood spoke for itself as did dark wizards. Too bad Bellatrix was a bad witch (maybe Anders's charms can convert her). James's description vaguely reminded him of the Tevinter Imperium which gave Anders an idea. "Why don't they just shove off and form their own country?"

It was only the logical thing to do.

"That's..." something Anders would never do, having no child or wife of his own or any family he knew of really. He only had his mother's pillow to go on and even then, he valued his own life more. "admirable."

"...Because then they'd probably try and take over the entire world? And that would be bad." James stared at him a little.

"But they won't. Hopefully. Unless the divination's wrong. Always thought that stuff was a bit odd." He shrugged, then, and gave Anders a slight grin. "Thanks? I suppose."

"But they'd get to have their own country! Why would they need the world?" Then again, that did not stop the Tevinter Imperium from trying. Anders shook his head. "On second thought, maybe that would be a bad idea."

What was the proper etiquette on admiring someone who sacrificed their life for their loved ones? He would have asked Justice as he was the closest thing to this type of experience, but the spirit would just ramble on about blah blah blah.

"You're welcome. I guess." Awkward. "Are we almost there?"

"Because they think they can have it? They think they can make it better? I don't know, I don't pretend to understand power-hungry insane purebloods." Never mind the fact that James himself is a pureblood, just one with more sense than Voldemort's followers. At least in his opinion.

"Oh! Er. Yeah, it's just up there." He gestures at a pub a ways down the block. "Not the same as home, of course, but it's close. At least for me."

"As long as it serves cheap beer and has a warm fire, I will be fine." He could give or take the dwarves and late night scuffles.

"Cheap beer, yes, but it's a bit hot for a fire, don't you think?" James grinned and headed down the street.

"Mmm, maybe I should see if the Leaky Cauldron exists here, could take you sometime. There's a proper pub. Maybe next time I've got a chance to pop across to England."

"That's what I always say, but it sets a certain mood to the place, don't you think?" He followed closely behind him and occasionally shot glances at his surroundings, putting it to memory. "Now that's a proper pub name if I ever heard one. How far is England?"

"Oh, er, across the Atlantic." He waved in the general direction of the ocean and frowned a bit. "It was a bloody great pub, but I don't know if it properly exists here, you know? I haven't had a chance to look."

"Then why don't we look?" Since, y'know, Anders doesn't know what an Atlantic is.

"Because it'd be a bit hard to get across the ocean?" James gave him an amused look. "Well, maybe it wouldn't be, but I don't want to chance apparition or anything across that big of a distance."

"Give a mage a break. We do not have Englands or Atlantics or radios." He took that moment to take his out of from inside his robes and wave it around, because emphasis was important. "Luckily we have everything in Fereldon on one piece of land."

"Yes, well, great huge body of water," James explained, waving his arms around in the direction of the ocean. Emphasis was important. "Can't teleport across it, is what I'm trying to say."

"There's no ships?" Anders prodded. "If you have the gold for it, but I possibly might know how to stow away."

The pub came into view and Anders was happy to step forward and open the door into the familiar liquor stench atmosphere.

"There are ships, yes, and airplanes, but brooms are so much better," James said wistfully. "I should show you sometime."

Ooh, the pub! James followed him in and headed straight for the bar, choosing a seat for them both.