you don't own the green pines

[chainlightning]

WHO: Merrill and open!
WHAT: An open log.
WHEN: Justinian 20th - mid-Solace
WHERE: Skyhold and the surrounding area
NOTES: Some talk of violence, injuries, death.

late justinian through early solace | healing tents
[ Justice is dead, but he nearly took many others with them -- Merrill included. She's in a bad way for a few days, especially after; her cheekbone is broke, her ribs mostly intact but her internal organs badly bruised, along with various and sundry scrapes, cuts, bite marks, bruises, and burns.

Still, she's a decent patient. She stays put in the tents, at least, though they can't quite get her to stop talking when she's feeling well enough to sit up and do so. Visitors are allowed at the discretion of the healers, but Merrill isn't going to turn anyone (or anything) away. ]

early solace | around skyhold
[ When she's allowed to leave the healing tents, it's not full-time. They don't want her going down to the Warden camp to sleep, but she's allowed to wander Skyhold as long as she's careful. As a result, Merrill mostly relaxes -- visits with friends or with potential new friends, sits in the garden, watches the birds.

She likes to go visit the griffons, when she can, though she has to be careful. They're less good about watching for injuries. ]

early-mid solace | camp shady fucker
[ When she's allowed to move more, when she's more patched up between a combination of time and magic, Merrill gets to work. Sleeping in a tent isn't new, but the events at Weisshaupt have shaken her. If they need to get out, she wants to be able to move quickly.

She starts to gather supplies. Wood, mostly, but any who know much about the Dalish may recognize what begins to take shape or the plans that Merrill checks every once in a while: an aravel. ]

wildcard
[ you know what to do ]

Comments

[stabsbooks]

[ Cassandra shakes her head with a sigh. Worse than I thought he would be sound suspiciously like a massive understatement, but she would hardly expect anything else from Merrill. Always eager to look on the bright side, even when she'd barely escaped with her life. ]

Who else was injured?

[chainlightning]

Er.

[ There's a long pause as Merrill tries to think. ]

... I think everyone who showed up, in some form. Whatever Justice was when Anders was first possessed? He was definitely more on the demonic side when pulled out, and he was able to summon more. He kept trying to convince people to leave, to just let him have Anders and Nathaniel and myself, but no one did.

[stabsbooks]

At least it is over.

[ And no one was killed. She speaks quietly, trying to reassure herself as much as Merrill - who hardly seems to need reassurance at all. Cassandra narrows her eyes, watching her closely. ]

Why was it so interested in you?

[ It. Not he. A demon, or close enough, not a person. ]

[chainlightning]

Justice always hated me. Dalish believe spirits and demons are essentially the same, and Anders at least always disliked that -- Justice picked that to mock me with, at one point during the fight. Or Anders would say I was ignoring 'my kind', meaning mages, and I'd point out that I was Dalish -- that people fighting for the rights of mages were never fighting for me, not really. They influenced each other so much that I'm not really sure what all was Justice and what was Anders.

[ She still has no idea why a spirit would care about blood magic that doesn't hurt anyone but the caster, so she can only assume that was Anders' influence. Anders didn't seem so likely to go to such extremes in the first year she met him, so she thinks it's safe to assume that was because of Justice. ]

[stabsbooks]

[ Cassandra frowns, clearly disapproving. It was obvious long before now that "Justice" - the name itself is a sick mockery - had been influencing Anders, controlling him to some extent or another.

That is what possession is, after all.

But - ]

I had not known it was so concerned with you.

[ If she had -

But none of that matters now. Cassandra shakes her head, briskly dismissing any thoughts of what if. ]

We should be grateful that there were no more serious injuries. And that it is now gone.

[chainlightning]

I hadn't realized it was that bad. I mean, Anders had told me that Justice hated me, but...

[ There's being told and there's seeing it, experiencing it. ]

Whatever it was when we pulled it out, though, it was- horrid. Though next time, if there is a next time, I think more Templars should probably be there. And more healers that aren't also fighting, if we can keep them sort of- out of the way.

[ Because they should be grateful, because it was nearly very bad -- because more than Justice nearly died. ]

[stabsbooks]

I understand.

[ She says gently. There is no use in Merrill beating herself up over such things now.

She raises an eyebrow, cocking her head. ]

Do you have reason to expect that there will be a next time, Merrill?