bubonickitten:

Anders headcanons, huh? I have So Many I don’t even know
where to start so I’ll just start rambling and see where it takes me. 

– Anders is the epitome of the “healers are the worst
patients” trope. Bed rest isn’t in his vocabulary and he frequently pushes his
limits even when he’s sick or injured. He’s always complaining about what bad
patient Hawke is, but he’s even worse.  

– Hawke really is a bad patient though. Anders starts
keeping a tally of New & Interesting ways Hawke finds to injure themself.
They’re always trudging into the clinic like “so don’t freak out but I did a
thing-” “don’t freak out??? you’re covered in blood!” “yeah but not all of it is mine…”  

– He’s the tallest of the misfits (I headcanon him as over
6’ tall). But he has bad posture and has a tendency to slouch so, like, he’s
tall already but then when he actually stands up straight it’s like “what the
fuck, you feathery giraffe”. Everyone else (except Carver and Aveline) are
generally short and are always complaining about how illegally tall he is.
Varric has to practically jog to keep up with his stride and he will never stop
complaining about it.

– Anders has freckles, like, everywhere. Lots of freckles.

– He glows when he sleeps bc Justice. It startles Hawke the
first time it happens but tbh he makes a pretty good nightlight and it is a very pretty, soothing shade of blue.

– Parts of the manifesto are inspired by conversations
Anders used to have with Karl at Kinloch Hold. There are a few lines that are
actually verbatim bc Anders still remembers it exactly years later, tone of voice and all.

– Anders is canonically bipolar but I also headcanon him as
having PTSD and a slew of anxiety disorders. I also like this dyslexic headcanon
from @mehofkirkwall​

– I hc that he gets a lot of his manifesto-writing done when
he’s manic & that he has hypergraphia as a symptom during manic episodes.
Also, a lot of his escape attempts were during manic episodes – like, he’d be
planning it for awhile but mania would give him the extra push of confidence,
energy, & a bit of recklessness that he needed to just go. (The infamous ‘jump in the lake and swim away’ attempt? Yeah,
totally a manic life choice.)

– tbh I have a lot of specific neurodivergent headcanons for
him but that would probably take up an entire additional post so I’ll stop
there and try to stick to general headcanons

– Anders really loves rain. It was raining the first time he
escaped from the Circle, so he associates it with that moment of rebellion and
freedom. Sometimes he’ll stop whatever he’s doing and just stand outside in the
rain spacing out. (In Amaranthine, Justice used to join him because it was just
one of the many little things about the physical world that he finds wondrous
that most others take for granted. And neither Anders nor Justice take rain for
granted.)

– He’ll always remember the first time he delivered an
apostate’s child in Kirkwall. It was the first time he was able to hand a
newborn to its mother, rather than having it immediately taken away by a
templar or a Chantry sister.

– Anders and Justice have different handwriting and
sometimes when they’re writing, one will take precedence. Justice’s handwriting
is more legible than Anders’ is, albeit he tends to press so hard he rips the paper and he prints
larger than Anders does. Anders’ writing, on the other hand, is absolute chickenscratch – sometimes
it’s print, sometimes it’s cursive, sometimes it’s a weird mix of the two – and
isn’t even consistent. Hawke sometimes re-copies the pages for them while
proofreading, so it’s easier for people who aren’t
Hawke to read what the hell is on the page.

– Everyone can always tell when Anders has been writing
because he’s physically incapable of not getting ink smudged on his face and all over his hands.

– 99% of the reason he’s always wearing that coat is because
it makes him look bigger than he actually is. He’s like a weird, lanky bird
puffing himself up to look more intimidating. (The other 1% of the reason is that
feathers make good cat toys and this way he always has a cat toy on hand.) (Also
also, he just really likes the texture of feathers.)

– But seriously he’s really attached to his coat. He’ll be
complaining about how hot it is in the summertime and people are like “just
take off your coat??” and he’s like “no?? this is part of my Look”

– He also just generally wears a lot of layers?? And no matter what
Hawke does, he just won’t stop patching his clothes with bandages. Force of habit.

– The Mr. Wiggums that visited Anders when he was in
solitary was a compassion spirit.

– Anders has a sort of mental block when it comes to fire
magic and it probably goes back to how burning the family barn down is how he
got sent to the Circle in the first place. When he does use it, it’s usually as
a reflex when he’s threatened or panicked, which just kind of reinforces his
negative associations with it. 

– My main world state has Surana as the HoF and I headcanon
that they taught Anders shapeshifting. He was only able to somewhat-master one
form before Surana left Amaranthine, and it’s probably obvious what form he
chose. (There has been more than one occasion where templars have been in
pursuit, only to round a corner and see nothing but a scruffy orange tabby in
their path.)

– Justice sometimes complains that Anders should’ve chosen
to learn arcane warrior techniques from Surana instead of shapeshifting because
Justice isn’t one for hiding and also swords are more useful than cats. Anders
and Justice don’t disagree on much, but they STRONGLY DISAGREE on the subject
of swords vs cats.

– Speaking of disagreements about cats, the first big
disagreement Hawke and Anders ever had was about whether cats or dogs are
better.  They spent an entire day on the
Wounded Coast bickering about it, even in the middle of battle.

– Anders is obviously a cat person, but over time he learns
to appreciate Hawke’s mabari, too, especially when he realizes what a good
therapy dog it is.

– Hawke totally adopted a kitten for Anders. The *moment* Hawke
heard Merrill talking about kittens in the alienage, they were over there
looking for a tabby kitten to surprise him with.

– Anders named the kitten Grand Enchanter Jellybean Toes. No
one was surprised. (She lived at the estate even before Anders moved in,
because he was nervous about her safety if he let her run around Darktown. The
mabari and the kitten were BFFs from day one.)

– Varric just didn’t mention Hawke getting Anders a cat
because one time the cat scratched Bianca and Varric never got over it.

– Alternatively: Hawke overheard Anders telling Merrill he
liked tabbies but he didn’t specify what COLOR of tabby so Hawke isn’t sure
which to get – the grey one?? the orange one?? the brown one?? Hawke ends up
coming home to the estate with like five kittens and then they remember that
they have never in their life had a cat and they have no idea what one does
with a cat and this may or may not, in some unforeseen way, have been a
mistake.

They end up walking into the clinic with that familiar
sheepish “I fucked up” look on their face and Anders prepares himself for bad
and/or weird news,  but instead Hawke’s
just like “ok, so I may or may not have accidentally adopted an entire litter
of kittens, and they keep climbing my legs and yelling at me and harassing my
mabari?? My war dog is being
terrorized by tiny balls of fluff, Anders. My dog, Anders. Help.”

Anders is just like, “Hawke… this sounds like the opposite of a problem.” And he smiles
and Hawke just lights up.

– Hawke totally brings Anders with them to Skyhold – there’s
no way they’d leave him alone for a prolonged period of time, Corypheus or no.
The moment they’re alone Varric is just like, “Blondie’s holed up in a cave
just outside Skyhold with the mabari, isn’t he?” “How did you know?” “You’re
both predictable and attached at the hip. Also, there are three feathers stuck
in your collar; I’m pretty sure that’s cat hair, not mabari fur; you smell like
elfroot; and you must’ve mixed up your staves on the way out, because I’m
pretty sure that one’s his.” “I thought it
felt lighter than usual. Why do I always do that?”
Alternatively: Hawke shows up with an orange tabby cat with some very familiar honey-brown eyes and
Varric is just like “are you fucking
kidding me”

– Anders is honestly a nerd and he will read anything he can
get his hands on. In the Circle, pretty much everything in the library was
censored and Chantry-approved, so he as a voracious appetite for Things The Circle/Chantry
Wouldn’t Approve Of – especially magical theory & practices that the Circle
doesn’t teach, and theological/religious texts that diverge from the official
Chantry doctrine. He takes copious notes whenever he can (he’s notorious for
writing in the margins of the few books he personally owns) and he definitely
has a tendency for obsessive research (he’s prone to hyperfocus). Books are a luxury for him – he doesn’t
have the money to spare, and his time and energy are often taken up by the
clinic and the Mage Underground – but once Hawke realizes this about him, they
make it their mission to procure reading material that they think Anders will
like.

– Because Anders doesn’t drink anymore after merging with Justice,
he is always the Designated Sober Adult whenever the squad is at The Hanged
Man. He’s had to escort Merrill to the alienage, or Hawke and Fenris to
Hightown (mostly so they don’t get themselves into trouble), more than once (“if
you three don’t behave I swear to the Maker I’m going to make everyone
hold hands and then all the gangs in Lowtown will laugh at you”). Sometimes he
just says “fuck it” and drags them back to the clinic to sleep it off bc
they’ll probably be dragging themselves down to Darktown in the morning anyway
for a hangover cure.

– Whenever Anders’ hair starts getting in his way, he gets
impatient and just pulls it all together into a ponytail and lops it off with a
knife. Later he complains that it’s uneven and won’t stay back in his ponytail
properly and everyone is just like “the fuck did you expect, my guy”

– Speaking of his hair, he tends to run his hands through it
or tugging at it when he’s on edge. Conversely, he loves having his hair played
with.

– Even though its location is static in the game itself,
Anders actually moves the clinic around a lot, at least early on, both to evade
templars and because he just in general doesn’t feel safe staying in one place
for too long (at this point it’s habitual for him to always be on the move).
When Lirene tells Hawke in Act 1 to “look for the lit lantern; if you have need
enough, Anders will be within”, that’s why: the clinic is always on the move,
so she can’t give an exact location. (Also: The lantern is always lit. There’s
always need enough in Darktown.)

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