pc: marcoh

[spiritbalm]

Comments

[spiritbalm]

[ no point in being coy, so: ]

I'm an apostate. An illegal mage. The templars know my face, so it's best not to travel around Hightown without being in Hawke's company.

But apart from that I suppose I don't really know this place. It doesn't feel safe.

[boxcar]

Illegal?

[ He frowns a little bit, unsure what that means. ]

Like you are a cultist? I don't care as long as you aren't hurting me, or others.

[spiritbalm]

No I'm not a cultist.

[ offended for literally no reason. marcoh just said it was fine. ]

All mages are illegal. Or it feels like that-- when you're born a mage, you're born guilty. The Templars come to your ratspit village, and they find you and take you from your family and drag you in irons to one of the Circles, where you're supposed to stay for the rest of your life. Which could end at any moment on a Templar sword for looking at them sideways too long, or for not being good enough at casting a shield, or daring to fall in love with someone.

[ huff. ]

I escaped the tower. So they branded me apostate. A criminal, maleficar. [ scowling at that, stubborn.] I'm a healer.

[boxcar]

[ Marcoh's expression shifts. He opens his mouth as if to say something and then closes it, furrowing his brows so hard he may as well be staring holes through Anders. ]

...

I'm sorry that happened to you. That doesn't sound fair at all.

[spiritbalm]

[ there is a lot of righteous fury in anders' expression as he rants, but it fades after a moment - simmering instead of boiling. ]

Not just me. Every mage. And it's not fair, or right, or just.

[boxcar]

[ Fair. Marcoh shifts a little uncomfortably from foot to foot. ]

Ay. It doesn't sound right at all.

Is it because they are scared?

[spiritbalm]

[ sorry we've literally just met and 10 comments in anders is ranting about the plight of the mages but that's so accurate to the canon so. leaning into it. ]

They are scared because the Chantry teaches them to be scared. Because they don't understand. Andraste's teachings that magic should serve mankind, not rule over it didn't mean we should imprison them and keep them as Templar slaves. A blade can kill anyone as well as a fireball, and yet we don't go around cutting the hands off of children so they can never wield one, do we?

[boxcar]

[ I said Marcoh would listen to his dissertation and you know what, he is. ]

No, we don't.

So you can use magic? A few students of the Ministry of Darkness learn things like that. I wasn't one of them.

[spiritbalm]

Yes. I'm a Spirit Healer. Though I'm certainly adept at shooting lightning at fools too, if you're thinking of underestimating me.

[ but, that's an intriguing thing he's just said. ]

Ministry of Darkness ... ?

[boxcar]

I won't. I don't think having lightning thrown at me sounds good.

Ministry of Darkness. They are the founders of the Church where I am from. I've never heard of a place like yours so I don't think you'll know mine, Vatican City. Nobody else seems to really get it.

[spiritbalm]

Quite the name.

[a bit of a nod, and he crosses his arms. that sounds extremely familiar - if not the exact names. ]

The Chantry runs the Circles. It's probably more similar than we'd like. But-- you can't learn magic. You're born with it or not.

[boxcar]

I think they teach it in the Church. To specific people, their students. I don't know about being born with it but if the god likes you then they'll grant you a bit.

I found out myself.

[ He does say this a little bit carefully like it's his turn to get called insane for it. ]

[spiritbalm]

[ well, there's something a little ominous about a Ministry of Darkness teaching secretive magicks to students through gods, but ... he's curious anyway. ]

Go on.

[ say more. ]

[boxcar]

Do you believe me?

[ Brother just told you he's persecuted for being born with magic. ]

...

I can talk to frogs.

[spiritbalm]

[ okay i am so sorry but he does crack a smile at that. marcoh is taking this so seriously and clearly intends it with gravity but. frogs? ]

You can talk to frogs?

[boxcar]

Yeah. And rats? I think I heard some crows too.

A girl who studied at the churches gave me a book to do some reading on. It works. I don't get it but it does.

[spiritbalm]

You were going perhaps a bit Tevinter Imperium on me with the Darkness Ministry and gods and such, but that seems ... fairly harmless, all things considered?

What do frogs and rats and crows speak of? I can't imagine they're great conversationalists.

[boxcar]

I learned other stuff but I don't think it's as useful. I didn't try them.

They know things. They knew the city better than I did. So that was a little helpful.

[spiritbalm]

I've never heard of anyone speaking to frogs, but it's an interesting idea.

[ so he must have some magic. you don't just start yapping to rats without some inherent magic. ]

I've heard tall tales of Chasind hedge witches who can transform into animals. I used to always dream about that as an apprentice - turning into a cat and slipping out the door. Or a tiger, and mauling the Knight-Commander.

[boxcar]

I used to stop and talk to them all the time but it was never words until now. Or... until the day before yesterday. It's gone now since I died.

I think animals have a lot of advantages.

[spiritbalm]

... That new? And you've never had magic before this?

[boxcar]

No.

I believe in the miracles of Alll-mer of course. I didn't know, or think, that it could just be done though.

[spiritbalm]

[ he will circle back to THAT because he has Questions but. first something else marcoh said. ]

I was twelve. Most mages find out as children. I had accidentally set a barn on fire - and my father called the Templars on me. For years I thought of my magic as a curse, that I was as guilty as the Chantry says I must be, and I only wished for it to be gone so I could live a normal life. Leave the tower without being hunted down and dragged back to be beaten or thrown into a cell. Normally there are only two ways to separate a mage from their magic: death, or Tranquility. They brand your mind with lyrium, and burn out every part of you that makes you. Your emotions, your desires, your ability to do anything but obediently follow simple instruction.

I learned to see my magic as what it truly is: a gift from the Maker. I'm a believer in Andraste as much as the next, but I hear what she has truly said. I have no desire to rule over man, only to live as I was born without shame or fear. To make sure no other mage ever suffers those cruelties. And now that I'm here, and I no longer have any of it--

So I ... understand. The silence must be deafening. I'm sorry.

[boxcar]

[ He does listen, hands stuck in his pockets with a contemplative furrow of his brows. He's not that emotive outwardly but there's the smallest twitch of a brow, sharpening of the corner of his mouth. ]

To live the way you are. It can't be wrong. Even if they say so. The fact that you preservered is a mark of a true warrior spirit. It might not be the best place to feel it, but you're free of them.

And if you're not, I'll punch a Templar in the face.

[spiritbalm]

[ stop it right now. sorry this is such an open and bold statement of support its actively shocking and he laughs like. just a little. ]

And where were you the whole time I was alive?

[ i guess doing stuff with the Ministry of Darkness. still ominous. ]