[OPEN] Running with my roots pulled up

[amygdalae]

WHO: Bruce Banner and whoever else
WHAT: Rumors abound. Bruce is good at pretending he can't hear anything. A dracolisk makes everyone's life hell.
WHEN: Across Justinian
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Belated open log thing for the remainder of June; prompts and such are under the cut. Starting in brackets but feel free to switch to prose and I will follow. If you want specific prompts/starters, let me know @ knightblazer or PM this journal!

one. trouble on four hooves. (stables)

[It's not exactly the first time the horsemaster is on his case and it probably won't be the last as well, if the current situation is to go by it.

Horsemaster Dennet wasn't exactly thrilled with the dracolisk that had decided to trail all the way back here with him (muttering along the lines of 'as if one of them wasn't enough'), but the one that Bruce... was stuck with had a tendency for more collateral damage. Nothing major, at least, but after breaking three gates and four fences in its apparent nightly ritual of getting out of the stables there were some lines that needed to be drawn. Thus, this current situation.

The hammer in his hand pounds loudly against the nails as Bruce does his best fixing up the damage the dracolisk had caused in the last few nights. The sleeves of his threadbare shirts are rolled up, for even with the chill here pounding away like this still made him sweat quite a bit, especially as he continued to toil away the hours.

Beside him the dracolisk chewed delicately on some hay, clearly much calmer and less prone to violence now that its human was around.]

two. not quite back to business (healing tents, courtyard)

[It was impossible to ignore the rumors, even if they weren't that hotly circulated, for better or for worse. But still the damage had been done and it would be a lie if he said that things were the same as before.

Nothing was the same as it used to be. After the fallout with Adelaide things didn't really quite look up. Patients who once came to him for help now avoided his gaze entirely and went to others, and the new ones who came in now looked at him with wariness, with all the suspicion that frustrated Bruce more than anything else. This was one of the reasons why he hid his magic away, why he stuck to herbs and what he could do with nothing but his head and his own two hands. He was here to help and he didn't need his magic to do it. It wasn't worth any of this.

(But of course, he deserved it. He knows that. He deserves every bit of this.)

Still, regardless of everything, he came here to do a job and despite all that had happened, there were always going to be people who needed help. So Bruce does the best he can, going around the courtyard to treat whoever was willing to accept his help and aiding anybody who came to his tent while he was in there.]

three. midnight mulling (battlements)

[The battlements had, in a way, become something of a sanctuary to him now. When the night gets this dark and most of Skyhold is asleep, the biting chill of the cold and the silence of the night comforts him well.

On most other nights he'd have the excuse of potion brewing to be up here but tonight that desire isn't there. He sits on the floor, back against one of the walls as he glances out to the mountains that surround them, the sky above that twinkle with countless stars. When everything feels so vast and overwhelming its easy enough to lose himself into the sight, to let them take him away from the chaos of his mind and his soul. To find that momentary peace within himself again, when every part of him rages for something else otherwise.]

wildcard.

[Feel free to throw in your own prompt or PM/contact me to plot out stuff!]

Comments

[foxsays]

[Bruce was kind to her, and so long as he doesn't go casting aspersions on her personal life, she finds it very hard to dislike people once she gets to know them. Smiling, she sets one hand one his shoulder for a moment, squeezing just for a second before it's got. She's handsy, it's a habit, but there are plenty of people here who really aren't.]

We have the sea but the sea is around us, it's a constant. And the moon, and that is another constant. They're forces, not things that can hurt us like that. It was why I was glad to meet a real doctor so soon since - and don't laugh, this might sound so silly, I realise - but I don't want to be changed? A doctor is going to fix things the proper way. But spirit healers? That...no. They can go help everyone else. They can help all the people I love here but not me. [If her hand at times is too much for her when she's better about it now that she's finally closed a rift without anything terrible happening in the aftermath, she can't really put into words what else she's afraid of beyond not being the way the sea made her, the way her mother and father made her and raised her. Which probably sounds like a stupid sort of thing but it sits in her throat sometimes and tries to choke her at very odd moments so the point still stands.]

At least none of his forces have beaten us to a rift when anyone has arrived yet. We've been fortunate there, and if he knew about other worlds, he might get ideas.

[amygdalae]

[The touch is unexpected, but Bruce takes it in stride. He only tenses for a brief moment before making himself relax, and he sends a tiny smile towards Araceli, giving a nod of understanding to her words.]

No, it's not silly. I can understand what you mean. [Magic was--is--unnatural. Even the common folk here recoil at the sight of such unnatural forces at work, let alone people who weren't even from around here, where magic either didn't exist or wasn't like this. He can only imagine how that must be like.] At the very least you're nicer about it than most. People will appreciate that.

[He glances down to his hands, staring at the hammer that he's still holding.]

It'd be good if it stays that way. I wouldn't wish anybody to have their first knowledge of Thedas to be about Corypheus.

[foxsays]

I love Korrin's magic, so long as she never sets my hair on fire or I will find a way to chip part of one horn off. And it's useful for so many things - you can freeze food! I spoke to Adelaide about it, about if it was possible to freeze food so things could be brought to Skyhold so they would keep for longer and I don't know why people aren't doing that, and for the work being done in the valley, or in battle but healing is...it's different. [Hopefully her excitement about the ability to freeze food isn't alarming but finding out about the possibility of shrimp and fish being kept fresh to survive the journey to Skyhold was kind of a revelation when a girl craves her favourite dishes and more than the usual boring Fereldan swill she's forced to endure.] Healing is putting magic in where it wasn't before? Isn't it? Sort of? I don't know I will read, pester Dama de Oro about it I believe.

[Moment of silence for Adelaide enduring this girl and her nonsense.]

You do realise that by saying this we have shot everyone in the foot. Even the mysterious spiky horse, in all his mysterious spiky horse feet. [But at least she can still manage a smile since that luck wasn't ever going to hold, they're going to have to deal with Corypheus very personally sooner rather than later.]

[amygdalae]

Healing magic is... [Bruce trails off for a moment, lost in thought. The knowledge of it is right at his fingertips, of course - he may not use his magic, but that doesn't mean he's rusty or out of practice. He's dedicated a good chunk of his life learning about healing magic; that kind of knowledge doesn't just go away.

He brings up the hammer and shifts, eyeing the nail that's halfway into position and starts to hammer it down properly.] The human body naturally heals by itself, with enough given time. Healing magic usually just... encourages the process to quicken, and the magic itself gives the hastened healing the energy it needs to accomplish this.

[Pause as Bruce hammers one more time and pulls away from the fence he's working on.]

At least, that's the best estimate I can come up with. I could be entirely wrong, of course.

[foxsays]

I have a friend at home, Rajai, who rides horses in her own country, and she has a saying about encouragement: the carrot or the stick. I don't suppose you have an estimate on what sort of encouragement healing magic provides to the body? I suppose a little wound wouldn't take much but I can imagine you can heal grievous wounds. The sort of thing a doctor might shake their head at. [There's still a smile on her face since well, it's better to keep it to the lighter side of things when he seems such a sad and serious man, when she wants to do her most daring leaps around him just to see if one day she'll make him laugh the way the patients laugh when she backflips off something and lands on one leg, dropping into a bow just so.]

You don't seem the type to be entirely wrong. Everyone can be wrong, shades here and there, wandering down alleys here and there, looking at it backwards and upside down but I don't think entirely, you're considerate and considering, that makes it very hard to be wrong about the entirety of a thing.

[amygdalae]

[Bruce pauses a little at the question, mulling it over, finding the best words to describe it. All the jargon about magic tends to fly over the heads of anybody who doesn't use magic, after all.]

Whatever it is the body has that allows natural healing to happen in the first place. [A small shrug comes after this, though.] It would be nice if I had a better answer to that, but that's really the best I can think of.

[But with that said, her words are appreciated, and Bruce manages a smile.] In the end, I just do my best in whatever capacity I'm allowed to help. I just hope it helps in some fashion.