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

[failedfirst]

[the sigh she lets out is only kind of disgusted.]

My point was the humans leave it to the Wardens to deal with their own all the time, for crimes just as grievous if not moreso, this should be no different.

We have several skilled mages here who are experienced in subduing demons. If Anders does something foolish it would be within our power to stop him.

[twelvelabours]

( he can work with kind of disgusted )

Sound arguments, all around. That'll help us remind them that Warden business is Warden business, regardless of whether we're dealing with the Inquisition. They're not exactly your standard government system to butt heads with.

[twelvelabours]

There's still Templars and pro-Circle Inquisition members, and plenty beyond who aren't so happy about the state of mages being free.

[unbrokenoath]

...A demon in his head?

[ Guess what NO ONE TOLD HER. ]

[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. )

[unbrokenoath]

Then we should sit down with him and talk about what made him think that blowing up a chantry was the only option available to him, and make sure that if those circumstances start to look similar, we should keep a tighter eye on him.

[unbrokenoath]

What can they do to me? Worst case, they boot me out and write Clarel a rude letter.

[ She pauses, and her voice grows more serious. ]

My dad's a merchant, and I've learned from him that sometimes, things have a high cost because they have a high value.

[twelvelabours]

Sounds like you've got something, there. Solo talk, or group? What's your plan?

[unbrokenoath]

[ Dad approves!! Score. ]

...Maybe not everyone, that sounds like chaos. I'd say you, him, Senior Warden Nathaniel, maybe me because it was my idea. Anyone else that you think would need to be there. You said that he claimed it was for mage freedom. So we ask him what he defines as mage freedom, and what he thinks would be the circumstances that would make things so bad that he'd do it again.

I think that whatever circumstances happen, if we're here in the Inquisition, we'll be getting front row seats to it forming. So we'll know what to look out for.

[justice_is_blond]

I...

[If that's not that bad to her, he doesn't know. Maybe they can't do something to her.]

I don't want to argue and dissuade you. I just don't want you to have regrets.

[paperwing]

Not only them. The Council of Magi will want a say in this. He may be a Warden, but his crimes are against them. [Us, she wants to say.

But she is a Warden first.] They will ask.

[twelvelabours]

You aren't wrong.

( he frowns to himself, pause dragging, as he tries to remember what Benuta said. The Abhorsen was a member of the council, as well, wasn't she? )

But people commit crimes against all sorts and join the Wardens for atonement. What do you reckon the Council of Magi will make of that?

[paperwing]

[Up until five minutes ago, Sabriel knew very little and had little to say in the matters of Kirkwall save that it had, in some way, led to the mage rebellion and the dissolution of the circles and how so many mages (and templars) had died because of it, why so many mages were afraid and so many children were here who had witnessed horrors they never should.

So, for that, she is a low-key infuriated.

But that this Anders, whom she had never had named or knew of, that he was right here in Skyhold, that he was-]

A Grey Warden destroyed the Kirkwall Chantry.

[Now she's ten steps closer to mad, or anger.

That image of the Grey Wardens is being slowly ruined. Thanks, Joining. Thanks, Anders.]

[paperwing]

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

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

[paperwing]

[Very clipped, much anger. But she's trying to be civil.]

What changed? Was- Justice what changed you?

[paperwing]

[Sabriel takes a few long seconds to think about that. Some might see him as a hero, a just-reward for a system that they had rallied against, that was always at the center of what they did. No Circles, some said. Others wanted them, missed them. But there was so much they needed to figure out because of the lack of them, to realise that the foundations had not always been without cause.]

If that were suggested- [it would take a while to get to it, she's quite sure] -they might see it as only an excuse. He was already a Warden when those crimes were committed. At best, they would lose faith in us if we were to shield him. At worst...

[sunshinethroughgrey]

You should have a mage there. Maybe Kaidan, or Sabriel?

[sunshinethroughgrey]

He's not a demon, Kaisa. He's a misguided spirit. And ... there are ways to keep that in check.

[Sneaky Bethany voice is sneaky. Again, she's not sure what is being listened to and what isn't by Anders.]

[sunshinethroughgrey]

[A tad tartly.] Are we going to be spending all of our time going after everyone's relations, Alistair?

[byblow]

Not all of it.

[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?]

[sunshinethroughgrey]

He wasn't a Warden at the time, Sabriel. He was ... well. Missing in Action.

[Let's get that one out of the way, shall we? No need to bring that one up to the advisers.]

[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.

[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.

[unbrokenoath]

You can talk about my parents, if you want. My ma lied to me about the tooth spirit. I still have trust issues.