this is my first network post in this game oh god i hope i don't ruin it

[twelvelabours]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Hercules Hansen
RECIPIENT: locked to Grey Wardens! Grey Wardens only club!!!
WHAT: Anders & what do with him: a Grey Warden opinions discussion
WHEN: late Guardian /mumbles vaguely - set after Anders turns himself into Herc, before Leliana deduces is identity
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES:
This is regarding the Anders reveal plot, as discussed in this ooc post and as a follow-on from this log thread.
Threadjacking and hopping around encouraged!
If you'd like a thread with Herc to turn to actionspam for characters in Skyhold, go for it.

Wardens. We’ve got something important to discuss. If you’re not someplace private, stop listening now, drop whatever it is you’re doing, and get somewhere suitable. This is strictly Warden business.

( This is not the happy and friendly Herc. This is tense and angry Herc, even with his temper very carefully kept in check.

He leaves a pause to allow them to either stop listening without him accidentally unveiling something, if they need to, takes a breath, and carries on. There might be the sound of wind whipping behind him as he stands on the ramparts - what you can’t hear is the sound of him trying to reduce Anders to ash with his gaze. )

A Grey Warden who left our numbers has handed himself in to answer for crimes committed. Not against the Grey Wardens, but against Kirkwall and the Chantry. Some of you already know this man. Some of you knew him by the adopted name ‘Detlef.’ Others will just know the crimes of the mage Anders.

( Considering how to continue, what to say next, Herc exhales a moment. What a day. )

Anders has turned himself into us of his own free will, ( which unfortunately denied Herc the chance to tackle-slam him face first into a wall, ho hum ) and confessed to blowing up the Kirkwall Chantry, an act he claims was for the sake of mage freedom.

( He pauses, there. )

I don’t have much of a personal stake in that. I’m not a man of the Chantry, and I’m not a mage. Far as I’m concerned, there’s mages and there’s mages. The likes of Bethany and Kaiden have saved my life more times than I can count. Others can be dangerous, and I reckon the same goes for Templars, same as any other person. You’ve got honourable ones, and you’ve got monstrosities.

Now, I don’t even know all about what was happening in Kirkwall, back then, but I can’t say I’m a fan of killing some innocent people for the sake of saving other innocent people, one way or the other.
( Sounds like a pile of crap to him, personally. ) And as Grey Wardens, our roles is to try and protect all of Thedas. From the Blight and darkspawn, usually, but I don’t think innocent lives being lost, no matter who they belong to, sits well with any of us.

( Still. )

But Nathaniel reminded me that we all know how much someone can change, and that we all come to the Wardens for different reasons. Atonement is one, but Anders’ fate isn’t something any one of us can decide. He’s one of our own, and he’s our responsibility. Speak up with your thoughts.

Whatever our decision is, we are telling the Inquisition. The Wardens integrity isn’t going to be compromised any further.

Comments

Voice

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[Bethany sounds a little out of breath - she has in fact run all the way up the steps and to the top of the tower so she can't be overheard.]

Sorry, yes, right. Just to make this clear to everyone? Anders has already been judged by the Champion of Kirkwall, and her punishment to him was to spend the rest of his life making up for all the mistakes he made.

[Her lips press together, before she says quietly.] Beyond that ... as a mage and scholar, someone who has been in close contact with Anders and his spirit hanger-on? I cannot honestly say that all Anders's actions were in fact, his actions and his alone. Justice, or whatever it is now -- has had direct control over Anders for more years in Kirkwall than I can count. Anders maintains direct control, but the subtle, and not so subtle effect on Anders's behavior is something that has to be taken into account.

[Deep breath, Bethany.] Beyond that ... he's one of our own, and he needs our help. In more ways than one.

[twelvelabours]

His friend, though. Your sister.

( Which isn't inherently an objection, more an observation, and an acknowledgement that he is aware Bethany knew about this. All of this. ) People don't always view things the way they normally would, when it comes to passing on judgment on someone that close.

( Whether it makes them more or less harsh, that just depends on the person.
And that's another thing, this spirit business. )

What kinda help would you recommend? I'm not saying we should leave the man high and dry, but he committed a crime that left a lot of people dead, and Maker knows what else. I'm not sure help alone is gonna cut it.

[pinprick]

It can.

[Nathaniel isn't sure if Anders is in on this little channel. He won't give details. He'll have to speak with Herc privately for that.]

Justice was bloodthirsty. Anders used to be apathetic to a fault before him. I wouldn't say the Chantry was Justice's fault--it's not my place to detemine another man's mind--but it was certainly the sort of thing Justice would have suggested. And something I couldn't imagine Anders suggesting as more than a joke, ten years ago.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Yes, my sister. Someone who has more reason than anyone to hate him, to wish him dead for the crimes he committed in a city she dedicated her life to. Marian could have just as easily slit his throat, Hercules. She did not.

[Which is her standing up for her sister, and that done, now standing up for herself.] Beyond that, we are Grey Wardens. Who among us is without grave sin? Certainly not I, nor you, nor Nathaniel.

[She paused herself, as Nathaniel answered, then she added right after him.]

We're looking at a slow progression and not in a direction we want Anders to go. Any of us.

[byblow]

A few of us are without grave sin, thank you.

[ here 2 help. ]

[pinprick]

[Testily:]

That is very much up for debate.

[twelvelabours]

Knock it off, you two, this isn't the time for taking cheap shots at each other.

Alistair, do you have anything to contribute, or are you here for glib remarks?

[unbrokenoath]

[ Kaisa bursts in with something to contribute, whether or not Alistair had anything to say. ]

You know that the Inquisition is going to try to steamroll us as soon as they find out, right? They know we're not in the strongest position right now. We need them, if we're going to help the rest of our Order. They know that.

They're going to decide he's their responsibility. They'll try to override our responsibility.

[ She sounds exactly 0% surprised about any of this, and like she's already thought a bit about it. ]

[byblow]

[ On his end, there is a long, telling silence--the kind where he would normally be looking at someone and trying to discern whether or not that was a rhetorical question. Or a trick one.

But there's Kaisa, saving his ass. Nice. ]

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Only small sins then?

[Is Bethany's tart reply.]

[byblow]

Medium sins for me, I think. None at all for Sabriel.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Well I think she must have one or two sins in there. Maybe she stuck her tongue out at a Chantry sister once. We've all done that one.

... all right Marian and Carver did that one.

[paperwing]

[it's funny you should mention that]

Unwanted sin, if there were any.

[twelvelabours]

( There's a long pause before he replies, but: ) Fair enough.

( Who's going to know Marian Hawke better than her own sister, after all? Bethany might be a little ball of sunshine, but she wasn't naive. )

So what's your proposal, then?

( Quiet, calm, not even a little bit dismissive. He wants her know her thoughts because he trusts her. Good head on her shoulders - and also not having a pissing contest, like some of these others. )

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[Here there is a pause, a very telling pause. To let Hercules know there were things she needed to tell him, but not where certain people, certain 'things' could hear.]

First, we very firmly insure that Anders is put under our protection. I'm not saying we shield him - I am saying that we tell the advisers that he came to us of his own free will and turned himself over. We ask that, as Grey Wardens ... considering he already has a death sentence called the Calling over his head which may, or may not, be coming for us right now, that we keep him alive and utilize him as a resource.

After all, Justice was not affected by Corypheus's mind control. At all. That is an advantage we should take advantage of, and so should the Inquisition.

As for everything else ... we take care of that after we take care of Erimond.

[byblow]

[ Okay, he'll stop being difficult now and chime in: ]

He's been here for months. He's saved lives. [ One in particular. ] I think he's at least earned a chance to die doing something better than appeasing a mob.

[paperwing]

[Anders might have been a mage in Kirkwall, but so was Bethany.]

You were there, Bethany. How bad had Kirkwall become?

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[A deep, shaky breath.]

It was bad. Very bad. My sister and brother insisted that I stay hidden all the time - that I never go anywhere without them for fear the Templars would take me back to the Circle. Becoming a Warden saved my life, in more ways than one. Even when we came back through Kirkwall, I could see the strain - the string thinning before it snapped. I walked through the Circle, and saw how many Tranquils there were - dozens as opposed to perhaps a single dozen.

It was Anders who ended that - who saved hundreds of mages from becoming Tranquil even before he blew up the Chantry, at great risk to his own personal safety. For all his sins, he has always been someone who thought of others first.

[paperwing]

[Kirkwall has always been a story to her, really; it's different hearing an account from someone who was there. She's a mage. She knows how - not positive, but, what a Circle could be, what it should be. She's a mage, so it's easier to imagine Perendale in such a state. The strain that wold put unto someone. The thought of seeing everyone she knew, Tranquil, just because they could. Her mother might have shared that fate, had she not been in Perendale.

Sabriel exhales.]

I understand. Thank you.

I'm sorry for having made you relive that, Bethany.

[She is, truly.]

[justice_is_blond]

...apathetic to a fault?

[pinprick]

[in a voice that says "let's be real:"] ...Anders.

[justice_is_blond]

I can't comment on any of the serious things, Nate. It's not my place, not unless someone wants to hear what I have to say.

[pinprick]

You were pretty apathetic. But you made the effort, when it came to being a Warden.

[doneisdone]

Spit it out, then, unless you'd prefer to keep whinging. We're all ears.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

How are you going to live your original sentence, Anders? How are you going to make up for all the lives you ended, the pain and suffering you have caused, the position that you now put the Wardens in?

[Is Bethany's calm set of questions. They wanted him to answer the hard questions, did they not?]