Anders waves a hand. “Less a preference and more of a been there done that. To cut a long story short, seen enough of darkspawn physically to last a very long time.”

"We, thankfully, missed that whole parade. We only kinda know the bare bones of what happened in Fereldan. Did you fight with the Warden-Commander? If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

Hopefully, they can find out what kind of save game they're in!

Anders shakes his head. “I didn’t fight in the Blight. I spent a good portion dodging Templars. I was recruited about six months after the Blight, by Warden-Commander Alistair.”

"...huh. Warden-Commander Alistair. That's sure something."

Anya looks at Tabs with a 'what the fuck' face.

Tabs gives back the tiniest shrug, and big, matching, 'holy fuck i know right' eyes.

Anders, peering back into his cauldrons, does not notice their shared looks.

"Yeah, heard he shunned the throne to lead the Wardens, but he was always pretty closed lipped about all of it."

"Lucky for us." She pauses and hugs her Tabs. "Well, I'm glad you're here. You're doing good work. Helping these people, making Kirkwall a better place."

Anders looks up at Anya, something a little hard in his eyes. "I think Kirkwall's a little too far gone, but that's a nice thought."

"I dunno. You have some pretty awesome friends, you really think you can't figure something out? The world is changing. I think you could really do something here."

"Yeah, like raze it to the ground and start over?"

Oh, fuck. Shut up forever now, Tabs.

"Well. There's one idea," Anders says, smiling like Tabs just told a joke.

"No. Obviously. Work with what we have. There are good people here. They don't really have good direction, but I believe we can change that."

"You like to see the best in people, Anya?"

"I'm trying this new thing. Optimism. I think it's going to be a lot of hard work, but I'm willing to put in the time and effort. Maybe that's why we landed here in the first place."

"Good luck with it." He doesn't seem convinced of the idea, but his wishes seem genuine. 

She does not roll her eyes at the possibly-gonna-blow-up-the-chantry mage and instead smiles at him with no shame.

"Thanks. It's a work in progress."

“All things worth doing are,” Anders agrees, smiling properly.

He then extinguished the flames beneath the cauldrons with a force spell, and grabs a ladle. “One day I’ll invent a spell that does this for me.”

"Or you can have an Anya that does all the dredge work for you! If it's anything like cooking, I'm your gal."

“She’s an amazing cook. Can confirm!”

“I don’t want to keep either of you, it’s monotonous, not difficult.”

Tabs slips off the cot to stand at the other cauldron. “I think-“ she takes the ladle from him. “-you need to learn to accept help.”

Anders raises an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

Tabs points at the cauldrons. “Look at the size of these damn things and then try and tell me it’s work for one.”

"We live for monotonous work. We are automatons, I swear."