#at least this one didn't accidentally wind up with copious amounts of rookanis lol

[thegeminisage]

Da2 15

THANK YOU...............thank you for sending me this when i lamented out loud on voice chat that no one had sent me this. you're the mvp. disclaimer that nobody has to read this i'm writing it for myself

15. Would your Rook agree with what Anders did? What would they have chosen for his fate?

i want to open this answer by stating that i have nothing but love and respect for anders and i think he's never done anything wrong in his life ever. fuck elthina! her do-nothing ass had it coming! 

THAT SAID,

it's complicated!!

rook would have met anders for the first time when she was 8-9 years old, because her dad was sick (i like to imagine it's the bellows cough mentioned in the anime, but it could be anything chronic) and her parents didn't have a lot of money and anders does Free Health Care. as former slaves who escaped to the free marches for a better life only DAYS after rook was born, her parents probably didn't have a lot of good things to say about mages (similar to fenris), but when you're desperate and the guys at the docks say this guy can cure ANYTHING, you go.

and anders is super nice! he's not trying to oppress anyone! he makes them feel welcome and he doesn't do anything hinky and most importantly he FIXES ROOK'S DAD. he warns them that the cure is not permanent and that rook's dad will have to come back periodically for follow-ups to keep the sickness managed, but anders isn't exactly going anywhere; this is where he's needed.

so whenever they're in kirkwall, which is every few months, rook and her folks go down to the clinic and anders fixes what ails them. canonically, anders takes all patients; we see him treat elves and humans, rich and poor. rook and her parents would like that a lot, i think. they're also very aware of how fucked they'd be without him. when rook's dad starts getting the cough again and his lips turn blue from lack of air and he can't even stand without getting winded, there is anders to ease his breathing. when rook's mom crushes her foot lifting shipping crates and can't put any weight on it even after it heals, there is anders to give her back full range of motion. when rook herself hits puberty and realizes she is not quite like other little girls and starts freaking out at things she did not expect or want her body to do, there is anders with the magical fantasy thedosian equivalent of gender affirming care at the ready. gradually, their opinion on mages starts to change.

five years go by and anders doesn't ask them for a single copper. okay, maybe sometimes he goes missing from the clinic for a few days because he's off freeing mages from the circle or exploding templars or whatever. that's fine. he always shows up again if they wait long enough. maybe sometimes he gets a little extra glowy and someone says hey doesn't that mean that guy is an abomination and everyone else shushes them like they're talking in a move theater. probably one time he drags in a couple of dead templars to throw over the side of the cliffs down there and everyone pretends they do not see it and possibly even asks if he wants a hand. nobody gives a shit, including rook and her parents, because sometimes anders stumbles back into that clinic looking all exhausted and beat up and still fixes as many people as he can before he drops right into unconsciousness. because sometimes he gets money out of his own pocket to buy the supplies he needs to do his work. because he gives people his food, his time, his caring. 

then rook's magic manifests in the middle of some busy public place in kirkwall, and she is dragged away from her loving parents and stuck in kirkwall's circle.

i bet at first, she thought anders would save her. because he saves people from the circle all the time, that's what he DOES, and they even kind of know each other! but a week goes by, and then a month, and then two months, and her parents can't get her out and anders isn't getting her out and she can't escape either, because she's a brand new mage and these grown men all drink lyrium and know how to Silence little girls like her. and even though she's young, and gets spared a lot of the common abuses in kirkwall's circle BECAUSE she's young and has the older mages looking out for her, it's still a really really awful year that never seems to end. she probably doesn't even get any letters through. she stops waiting for anyone to save her.

and then anders blows up the chantry. which should be a good thing because that DEFINITELY helps all the mages escape the circle! except they only do that to escape being fucking annulled. rook is 14, running for her life through kirkwall's streets looking for her mom and dad, and basically only find them through dumb luck. her mom dies fighting templars to cover their escape, which they have to do on foot, because the boat they used to live on is on fire like everything else in kirkwall. they don't get to stop and take care of her mom's body. she gets no cremation or funeral. she just gets left behind.

and her dad takes her back to tevinter, the place he and his family swore never to return to, because it's not a safe place for liberati - but it IS the only safe place for mages, and if an exalted march is coming he doesn't want his daughter in the middle of it. unfortunately, on the way there, his cough comes back. he's got no coin and all the mages are dying or hiding because of the war. there's nobody who can fix it. he dies half a day's walk from the tevene border, and 14yo rook has to cremate him alone.

like, what do you do with that? i picture anders sitting on that crate waiting for rook instead of hawke to judge his fate and it's SO. COMPLICATED. you're the reason i'm free and you gave me 5 happy years of life with my parents without asking us for a thing but you didn't save me when i needed you and now you're the reason they're dead and my home is destroyed. like what the fuck do you DO with that?

the wretched tragedy of it all is that rook is also someone who holds freedom in extremely high regard, spits on oppression, and DESPISES people in power who sit back and do nothing with it. not to mention she's a chaotic good. in another life, SHE'D have been the one blowing up the chantry. 

in the end, in my world state, the mages get their freedom and the circles are dissolved or changed to be optional institutions. so anders starting the war ultimately got him what he wanted, and what rook would have also wanted for mages, even before she knew she was one herself. but was it worth it??

i just don't know if she could kill him, but i don't think she'd ask him to stay and help either. she'd let him go, and hope she never saw him again.

[WHAT WOULD ROOK DO ASK MEME]