002 🌿

[ancarrow]

WHO: Eirlys and OPEN
WHAT: Bloomingtide catch-all
WHEN: Throughout Bloomingtide
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: No warnings inherent. Prose and brackets are both fine.

a) Healers' tents
It didn't take Eirlys long to settle herself in at the tents, and at the end of her first month back with the Inquisition she looks as though she's been there all her life. She tends patients with equal parts pragmatism and compassion, throwing herself into the care of illnesses and injuries she knows about and hanging back to observe when magic is required rather than simply potions and poultices. When it's quieter, she can be found sat cross-legged outside the tents with her mortar and pestle perched on top of a rock, chopping and crushing herbs, or inside scrubbing the beds and equipment clean.


b) Courtyard
Eirlys thinks back often to the day in the Hinterlands when a simple supply run had turned into a demon attack. It had been the second time a rift had opened right in front of her and both times she'd been powerless to do anything against them. Even though she knows she'll never be a powerful fighter in the front lines, she's very aware that a rift could open up any time, any place, and she needs to be prepared for that. She hovers around training and sparring sessions in the courtyard, watching intently from a distance and hoping she can pick up anything that might save her life.


c) Various quiet spots around Skyhold
She's stolen some paper, ink and a quill from one of the desks, hoping they won't be missed. Seating herself in a nook where she hopes she'll be ignored, she places a vial of elfroot in front of the paper, the name of the herb written on the label in Wellow's spidery handwriting. It's the only word she recognises, so it seems as good a place to start as any. Gripping the quill rather ungracefully in her fingers she tries to copy the word, but only succeeds in scrawling an inky line across the page. On her second attempt she gets to "elfr" before the nib of the quill snaps and her hand drops to the page, smearing ink across the paper and her skin. Her face burns red with her embarrassment and disgust at how she can't even do something that must be so simple and she screws the paper into a ball, hurling it across the room.


d) Wildcard!
Eirlys can most often be found at the healers' tents, the kitchen, and the Andrastian chapel. If you'd like a specific prompt for your character, please hit me up at viridianwings and I'll be happy to set something up!

Comments

[ancarrow]

"I'm glad it's been a priority for so many, especially with everything going on." It made practical sense, not having to rely on bringing in shipments of herbs. "It's funny, I'm not sure I've seen many people who I'd peg as being green fingered."

[amygdalae]

"Well, I wouldn't say they are," he responds with a wry smile. "But they do their best to help wherever they can. Even something as simple as soil tilling and go a long way in making sure these plants grow well." As they both were probably aware.

"I'm just glad there have been a good number willing to contribute. The last month really wilted down our supplies, what with the illness and everything." At least that had passed for the most part.

[ancarrow]

"I suppose it's a good distraction for them. I've always found it a cathartic pursuit, to be able to help something grow, especially now amid such devastation."

She frowns a little as he mentions the recent illness, something she's still watchful for a return of whenever she comes across anyone with symptoms even remotely similar. "I feel like we ought to have been more prepared for something like that happening."

herp derp sorry I fell amazingly sick for the last two weeks x_x

[amygdalae]

To those words Bruce gives a nod, another sign of agreement to what she had said - more of the first than the second, but he could see where she was coming from.

"To be fair, nobody really expected that to happen." But ignoring the origin of said illness, there was a fair point about the rest of it - they all should have been more prepared for the possibility of their water supply being tampered with. But at least things had happened with little damage done, and now everyone was much more aware. It was more or less the best case scenario to occur.

no worries, happy to backtag

[ancarrow]

Eirlys scrapes the elfroot she's finished chopping into a pouch tied onto her belt, looking up at him with pensive, worried eyes. "We've been treating this place as a bastion from all the chaos going on, but we're very isolated up here. If a worse epidemic were to take hold, and we had to quarantine Skyhold off from Orlais and Ferelden, I'm not sure what would happen to either nation."

\o\ ty

[amygdalae]

Its not that hard to see where she was coming from, and Bruce had to agree with those concerns. He nods again, agreeing, giving out a soft hum after that as his mind whirled with an idea on how this issue could be worked around.

"We'll have to be much more careful, then. Perhaps we could also focus some of us on different groups of people in Skyhold - that way we'll be able to see the signs earlier, and hopefully quarantine just a portion of the people here rather than everyone." Perhaps it wasn't the best of ways, but it wasn't going to help anybody by blocking off all of Skyhold entirely.

[ancarrow]

She tries to visualise the keep, to see if there was a straightforward way that sections of it could be partitioned and quarantined off if needed, but only succeeds in confusing herself.

"It's a good idea. Perhaps we could liaise with the other healers and a set of blueprints, and plan in advance of whatever illness is thrown at us next." Not that she expects Skyhold to have an exact set of blueprints, but she's certain that the scouts must have a fairly accurate plan of the place by now.

[amygdalae]

Another nod. That certainly sounded like a decent idea. "I don't see the harm in at least talking about it." Being prepared for another incident like last month's would probably go a long way for whatever could happen in the future, and Bruce did like being prepared. There were only so many surprises he could take and handle. "And maybe somebody will have a better idea to implement as well."

[ancarrow]

"Most probably," she agrees, always having been far better at dealing with the practicalities as they arise than planning for a multitude of what if's. "It would be good just to check in with everyone too, I suppose. Make sure we have all areas of healing covered, were something to befall us."

She tucks a stray strand of hair behind the point of her ear. "How have you been? Did you manage to avoid getting sick?"

[amygdalae]

Bruce on the other hand was always one to think of the 'what ifs'. That's the only reason why he had managed to last for so long out on the run. As jumpy as it could make him, paranoia was what kept him going, and even the fact that he had spend a good amount of time here wasn't going to change that - especially considering the things the Inquisition had to face.

"Yes, that'd be a good idea." Getting a better understanding of where everyone was would help in being able to tackle exactly what they needed to do. Covering the weaknesses was the main priority here, if anything. But that was something to consider later. He focused on her next question, to which a small smile crossed his face, more wry than anything else. "Not exactly, but it didn't stick around for long. I was lucky." Although he probably had his... condition to thank for that. Not many things tended to stick around when large concentrations of lyrium were at play.

[ancarrow]

"That's the best way to go about sickness, from what I've seen. It should protect you from getting the same illness later on." At least that was the way it had worked in the alienage, with mothers even sending their young to get infected when milder forms of disease were spreading, so their bodies would repel it when it hit harder later on. "Although I'm not sure if that holds true here, with magic involved," Eirlys admits. "I'm afraid I wasn't much help with that part of it at all."

[amygdalae]

"I'm just as much in the dark as you are." Which is pretty much the truth there - even Bruce himself couldn't quite understand the nature of the magic that had contaminated the water, with as ancient as it was. Maybe if he had a better chance to study it he might have, but there was no way of doing that without attracting unwanted attention. No, his own curiosity wasn't worth that. "But I usually work under the assumption that if something can be done by magic, there's usually a way to undo it." So far, its worked out - more or less anyway, barring the rifts and all the other weird things that had happened in the last ten years since the Fifth Blight.

[ancarrow]

"That's a good way to view it." Far better than her own tendency to panic when anything magical was involved, as apart from using dragonthorn in her potions to combat magical injuries she doesn't really have much of an idea where to start. "And hopefully we'll be prepared enough that it doesn't come to that again."

[amygdalae]

"We'll do whatever we can. That's the best any of us can do." And perhaps their best might not be enough, but what matters is that they try. It's better than to give up and allow people to suffer. Bruce has had enough of seeing and experiencing that. "Though with so many of us here, I'm sure we'll be able to face almost anything that might come."