video.

[dissent]

[ It's late, and Anders is up on the surface, face lit occasionally by the rolling crackle of the sky. But he's not thinking about this strange place called Earth, his eyes distant. ]

Has anyone else met someone they... knew in their Matrix, but who was extracted from a different Matrix?

[ He's fumbling with the question, not sure how to ask what he wants to ask and not daring to voice what underlies it. ]

There are other versions of us still living their lives. It feels like I'm ...

[ A pause, and he decides not to follow up with whatever point he was planning, sighs instead, switches the feed off and tries to work out if there's some way to delete the recording from the network. ]

Comments

voice;

[dissent]

He's already spent a few weeks unconscious. Probably the time I most wished for my magic back. And now he's gallivanting off again, as Hawke does.

[ Talking about Hawke is making him feel far more at ease with Varric again, and now that awkwardness has eased there's a dryness and a lightness to his tone that was all but eradicated by Justice's anger in later years. ]

How about you, joined up yet?

voice;

[fabulistic]

Not yet. I think I've had my share of gallivanting for the foreseeable future.

[Unless he gets dragged into it again by Hawke, which does seem likely if he's here.]

You aren't off adventuring with Hawke then?

voice;

[dissent]

Joining a crew tends to require venturing back into the Matrix, and I think I've had enough of that. I finally got my own clinic here, so that keeps me occupied when Hawke ships out.