fandomtownies | Magic Box, Sunday, 04/17

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$magic box,
anders

Magic Box, Sunday, 04/17

Anders had gotten into Fandom on the first portal he could catch after Carys's call, and the rest of the day had been full of strawberry sundaes and craft projects and sticky cuddles and more questions than Anders knew a five-year-old could ask in twelve hours. And, somehow, his fingernails were painted hot pink to match hers by the end of the day.

Taking his daughter to work with him was a matter of self-defense as much as anything: Corralling her in the shop seemed safer and less exhausting than letting her roam the island. He settled her at a back table with a new coloring book and some crayons and found tasks to do that let him keep an eye on her.

[OOC: Open shop, no OCD!]

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Carys was used to one or the other of her parents being gone for awhile. They were friends with the Champion and sometimes that meant going away for a little while to kill things a lot. So when her Daddy had come back to the island without Mommy, Carys hadn't really questioned it.

But now it was a whole day later, and Mommy hadn't been there to brush her hair or sing her to sleep and she hadn't been there to wake her up with a kiss and make her eat breakfast. And while she might miss one or the other, missing both was practically unheard of.

So while she was coloring in her book, Carys finally asked, "When is Mommy coming back? I miss her."

"I don't know, sweetheart," Anders admitted, trying to keep the way she was twisting his heart out of his facial expression. He went to crouch by the girl. "The thing she's doing right now is important. She doesn't feel like she can leave it. I know she'd rather be with you, though."

He was impressed by how calm and not-bitter he sounded.

"Is it more spiders?" Carys asked, tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth while she concentrated very hard on staying in the lines. "Mommy hates fighting spiders. She says the guts get everywhere."

Putting the crayon down, she looked up at her Daddy. "Or is it more 'bominations?" she asked in a small voice.

Carys didn't like 'bominations. They gave her scary dreams.

"Thank the Maker, no," Anders said, with an involuntary shiver at both ideas. (Given the choice between a cave full of spiders and a cave full of zombies, he'd take the spiders, but it'd be close.) "It's like corpses. A lot of corpses who can turn other people into the same thing. She's trying to fight them back."

That was a good way to give the child nightmares, but she seemed too sharp to lie to.

"Have you ever heard of zombies?"

Edited 2016-04-17 18:26 (UTC)

Carys nodded reluctantly. "Sometimes Mommy has scary dreams, too."

"Oh," Anders said, surprised but recovering quickly. "Then you know what happened in Los Angeles, at least a little."

"No?" Carys said, shaking her head hard enough that her hair flew. "I just know that Mommy sometimes wakes up screaming and you hug her and kiss her and promise there are no zombies around. I didn't hear of Lost Angeles till I called you on the phone."

She pushed the coloring book away and tried to crawl into Anders' lap. "What happened?"

Anders let her sit in his lap, stroking her hair.

"I probably shouldn't tell you," he said reluctantly. "Especially because I don't know how it's going to end. The important thing is, your real mom is fine. Even if she has bad dreams sometimes."

"I don't understand," Carys said, snuggling close. Something about the way Daddy was talking made her scared and she wasn't sure why. She was suddenly sure that zombies were somehow worse than spiders and 'bominations both. "I just want Mommy to be done and come back. And she'll give us both a kiss and say she needs a bath and make you wash her back in the tub. And then she'll sit in your lap and I'll sit in her lap and she'll tell us what happened and how grumpy Uncle Fenris was or how Auntie Aveline kept complaining about Auntie 'Bela."

"That sounds lovely," Anders admitted. "And you'll get that. It just probably won't be in Fandom this weekend."

In that moment, he hated Kathy for putting him in a situation where he had to explain that to their child.

"What could we do to make you feel all right about her not being here?"

If it helped any, Kathy was thoroughly hating herself over in LA.

Carys considered her options, keeping her arms wrapped tightly around him while she did, soaking up all the love and comfort he was offering like a tiny flower i the sunlight. "Could you teach me more magic?" she asked. "We gotta be super careful in Kirkwall, but there are no Templars here to snatch me up, right?"

Great, they could join Dante's We Hate Kathy club. Anders could be the treasurer.

"I can try," he offered Carys. She felt nicely snug in his arms. "You're young to have power. How much had I taught you back in Kirkwall?"

Kathy also hated this club, it should be mentioned. Not that anyone cared what she thought about it right now.

"Mostly you showed me how not to do anything, even when I'm scared," Carys said. "But I know how to make some fire, cause Kirkwall is dangerous for little girls."

Kirkwall was dangerous for everybody.

"I still don't understand why we live there," Anders remarked idly. "Anyhow, practicing not doing things doesn't sound like much fun. Let's go into the alley and do the fire part."

"Cause it's where our house is," Carys said, bouncing up out of his lap--and continuing to bounce a bit before regaining her feet. "And yay! We're gonna do magic! I'm gonna be a mage just like you, Daddy!"

And a rogue like Mommy and a Champion like Hawke! She was a little girl with big dreams. Big dreams of dual-classing.

"But there are lots of places that have houses," Anders said, before remembering she was only five and probably had not been consulted on the choice of address. He stood and went to change the sign on the store to Back in Five Minutes.

"Never mind. I'll get you a staff to practice with."

He was looking at her a bit oddly. He'd never known a child happy to be born with magic. Maybe things would change by the time Carys was born, or maybe he and Kathy were doing something right.

All Carys could tell him was that they'd lived there for forever. She didn't know enough about history to explain the Blight, never mind how it had affected her parents.

"When do I get a real staff, Daddy?" she asked. She'd been taught that other people might judge her for what she could do, but never to be afraid of it.

"When the me back in Kirkwall says you're ready for it," Anders replied practically. "But here, you can borrow this one for today."

'This one' was a simple staff that to almost anyone else would look like a walking stick for very short people. Anders had thought it was a walking stick until he picked it up one day and felt the magic coursing through it.

"Ooooh," Carys said, taking the staff and swinging it around. "Yaaaahhhh! Take this, icky spiders! Take that! Bam bam bam!"

All the imaginary giant spiders in the alley were getting murdered some good.

"That's it, sweetheart," Anders grinned. "Kill those pretend spiders. I think there's one on that dumpster over there."

If a dumpster couldn't withstand a 5-year-old's fireball, he was going to owe the fire department a hearty apology.

"You messed with the wrong mage!" Carys announced, pitching her voice a little deeper in what clearly was meant to be an imitation of her father's. She pointed the staff at the dumpster and a fireball the size of Anders's fist went flying towards it.

For her part, Carys immediately dropped her staff to stare. "Look, Daddy! I did it I did it I did it!"

"You did it!" Anders agreed, and rushed to give her a hug. "And there's one less giant spider in the world."

His pride was unfeigned.

"When I grow up, can I go on adventures with you and Mommy and Hawke?" she asked, throwing tiny arms around his neck. "I'll kill the ucky spiders so you don't have to!"

Anders' brain short-circuited at that. "I -- maybe," he said, squeezing the little girl who was so like Kathy tightly. "What would you say if I told you I'm not sure I want any of us to need to go on adventures?"

"But Daddy!" Carys laughed. He was being so silly! "That's what you do! And heal people in Darktown, cause nobody else will."

In fairness, there wasn't a whole lot of work available to Ferelden refugees outside of crime. And being part of Hawke's coterie offered them a measure of protection from Templars and guardsmen both. But that was all politics that went way over Carys' head.

"At least I'm making myself useful," Anders sighed. He had always imagined moving to some friendly village and doing a bit of discreet healing to supplement his farming, but obviously that wasn't the future Carys's world held for him. "But I hope you get to feel safe sometimes. Kids should feel safe."

Carys looked confused. "Of course I'm safe. You and Mommy would never let nothing bad happen. And Hawke and Auntie Aveline and even grumpy Uncle Fenris wouldn't never let me get hurt!"

Sure, there were rules to make sure she didn't accidentally end up in trouble and scary dreams from time to time, but Carys had never known a time when she wasn't protected, petted, and loved.

"Well," Anders said, not sure where to go from that, "good."

He offered Carys a smile meant to distract.

"I think there's another spider," he said pointing to a patch of graffiti. "Up high on that wall, where somebody was drawing. Think you can get it?"

"I can get it!" she said, scrambling to aim at the patch he'd pointed to. Another fist-sized fireball went hurling up to the side of the wall, leaving a scorch mark behind. "Did I get it?"

"You got it!" Anders cheered, though the scorchmark made him realize this probably hadn't been his best idea. "You're going to be an amazing mage one day."

"Yay!" Carys said, letting the staff fall so she could do a cartwheel. And then she abruptly sat down. "Daddy? I'm tired."

"I'm not surprised," Anders said, flopping onto the concrete next to her. "That was a lot of magic for somebody your size. Do you want to go get cookies?"

He supposed he should be encouraging her to eat vegetables, but he had never been that responsible.

"Yeah," she said, nodding tiredly. "Could I have..." she trailed off, clearly trying to find a number that was both absurd, but that she had the possibility to get away with. "...Six cookies? I could eat six cookies."

"Don't be silly," Anders said, gently yanking a lock of her hair. "But you can have three."

Still absurd, but a little less so?

She pouted for a second, because six cookies, debating whether it would be worth trying to convince him that she always got six cookies at home. But he had just let her play with magic, so...

And also three cookies was a pretty good number, too.

She held up her arms. "Carry me? My legs are sleepy."

Anders wouldn't have believed Kathy gave her daughter six cookies under almost any circumstances. Maybe if the cookies had pureed broccoli in them.

"Of course," he said, and lifted the girl up to hold her snugly against his hip. "Oof, you're heavy. Maybe you should carry me."

There might have been one! Or maybe two! ...Not that Kathy would have been able to think of any off the top of her head, no.

"Noooo!" she wailed. "Daddy, you're too big! Your legs would drag on the ground!"

"I could sit on your shoulders," Anders teased, bouncing the girl against his hip. "If I bent my legs right, they wouldn't drag if I did that."

"I couldn't lift you!" Carys said, looking at him with big eyes. "You're too heavy!"

And then a thought occurred to her. "...If I do, then can I have six cookies?"

"Maybe it's better you don't try," Anders said firmly. "I don't want you to hurt yourself trying to lift me. Besides, I like giving you a ride."

Boo! Another lost opportunity for cookies. On the other hand, her legs really were tired. In fact, all of her was tired and she cuddled closer to him, arms going around his neck, head cushioned on his shoulders. "I love you, Daddy. Sarangheyo."

"Sarang-hae, Carys," Anders returned, closing his eyes as an ineffable feeling of rightness washed over him. He loved Carys's little-girl scent and her weight in his arms. "Sarang-hae."

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Magic Box, Sunday, 04/17

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