au week -- Fereldan mage Simon

[simon_doctor]

The front door opens onto a sunlit, dusty street. The robed young man coming in is distracted with an armful of items -- books and scrolls mostly, but also a few miscellaneous wrapped packages -- and only looks up after the door has closed behind him.

And stares.

... This is not the Gnawed Noble tavern.



[Character writeup here! Currently a stub; will be expanding.]

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[childofrebellion]

Cassian enters from behind Simon and stops to try and not run into whoever's in front of him.

Today he's wearing an old army shirt and running through what he needs to question for his possible new job, "You okay there?"

[simon_doctor]

"I," he says slowly, "I'm not sure."

He steps out of the way of the man behind him, and nearly fumbles one of his packages.

[childofrebellion]

He reaches out to catch the package or steady the man who doesn't look comfortable, "Is this your first time here?"

[simon_doctor]

"That ... depends. On where here is. If it's the Fade, I've been here many times, but ... it doesn't seem to be.

"Thank you," he adds, nodding to the package. "I -- let me put all these down."

There's a table nearby (like all the tables nearby, tidily right-side-up and with its feet properly on the ground, which argues against this being the Fade), and he takes the few steps over to it and starts carefully unloading his armful of stuff.

[childofrebellion]

The woman who had seemed drugged had mentioned the Fade,

"No, this is Milliways not the Fade. How can I help?"

[simon_doctor]

Simon takes a longer look at him. Those clothes don't look like anything he's ever seen, and he can't quite place the man's accent -- but this is the City, after all, foreigners come here from everywhere.

"Milliways," he repeats. "I don't think I've heard of such a place."

[childofrebellion]

"It tends to be a surprise the first time. Its at the End of the Universe which only makes sense if you know about magic. I didn't until I came here and tend to think of it as a bar at a major hub and more,"

If he thinks too much about Milliways, it makes it harder to enjoy.

[simon_doctor]

He blinks.

"You ... didn't know about magic."

[childofrebellion]

"No, it only exists in stories on my world,"

Though he has seen some things on the edges of his own belief but nothing like Milliways.

[simon_doctor]

Your world? he almost says, and doesn't.

"But you know about the Fade."

[childofrebellion]

"I met a woman here who spoke of it. She didn't describe it for me except that she was cut off from it,"

He briefly clenches and unclenches his hand, she reminded him of too many people he's seen broken by the world.

[simon_doctor]

His eyes widen a little. "That sounds like one of the Tranquil. Was she dressed a little like this?" -- gesturing at his own mage's robe, not very different from what the Tranquil wear.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian considers the man's robes and the question, Tranquil is one of those names that sounds nice but isn't, "Not terribly different. She was working at a library, taking care of books. What are the Tranquil?"

[simon_doctor]

"They're -- they were mages," he says, "who had to be severed from the Fade, and can't do magic anymore. They serve in the Tower, and they're cared for there."

The words may seem complacent; the tone is rather more troubled.

[childofrebellion]

"They need to be cared for? She seemed drugged or like people I've seen that suffered great trauma and have gone numb from it,"

He never wants to end up that way so he keeps working to stave it off and redress some of the harm he's caused. He'll never be able to but its something.

[simon_doctor]

"Drugs aren't involved. Tranquility is a ... an alteration of the mind. It's permanent."

A beat. That troubled look is still there.

"They don't suffer any pain from it. Or, or from anything else."

[childofrebellion]

Cassian starts to say something and curses in Spanish,

"That's not always better. The first drink here's free. Do you want something?"

[simon_doctor]

"I ... thank you, that's very kind of you to offer," he says carefully, "but I don't think I should drink anything here until I have a better idea where here is. And how I got here. You've told me a name, but ..."

[childofrebellion]

"Not an explanation, of course. I understand your caution. Milliways is a bar that's also part hotel and more. As I said, magic is greatly involved here such as the counter who's alive. There's the Window to the End of the Universe,"

He gestures to the Window without looking at it and then towards Bar.

[bringspeopletogether]

Nonetheless, there's a familiar young man at a table not far away.

...Well. Possibly familiar, depending on how often Simon's paid a visit to Cheddar Believe It!, the little cheese shop tucked into a corner of the market district. (Alistair did not name the shop, but, sharing a similar sense of humor to his father, he thinks it's genius and will forever defend its existence right down to the exclamation point.)

He has a glass of wine, a plate with an astonishing array of cheese -- mostly cheese? it's hard to tell what some of those blobs might be -- and, overall, looks quite content with his state of existence.

[simon_doctor]

It's the clothes that catch Simon's attention before the face: this young man seems to be the only person in the entire room who's dressed in a familiar style. But once he's placed the clothes as either native to Fereldan or coincidentally similar, he gives the face a second look.

... He really does look vaguely familiar. Simon glances back at him two or three times, trying to be surreptitious about it and not quite succeeding.

[bringspeopletogether]

Simon's not surreptitious; Alistair, meanwhile, is often oblivious. He might be one of the few people not surreptitious could work on.

In the end, though, he notices Simon for the same reason Simon noticed him: he's the only other person in Milliways who looks like they're from Thedas. And -- hey, is that...?

It is. It's that mage who's in the city for some research project or another. Alistair's got a good mind for faces -- you need one, if you're working in a shop -- and on top of that, well...mage. They're worth keeping an eye on. Just in general.

Brightening, he waves a cheery hello.

[simon_doctor]

It's the smile and wave that tips the vague sense of familiarity over into actual recognition. Simon breaks into an answering smile and starts toward the other man's table.

"It's -- Alistair, isn't it? From the cheese shop? I don't think we've ever actually been introduced."

[bringspeopletogether]

"Yes, that's me," he says, just as cheerful. "Hello. How did the edam treat you?"

He nudges the plate aside to make room for Simon's packages, if he needs to set them down.

[simon_doctor]

He does, rather gratefully; it's not that they're terribly heavy, but it's hard to keep hold of all of them at once. One of these days he really needs to find himself a better carrysack.

"It was excellent," he says, "and thank you for recommending it. I'm Simon, by the way."