faderift | you don't own the green pines

Entry tags:

you don't own the green pines

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 ]

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[He heard the news, of course - or well, it was impossible to not notice from the collection of injuries those involved had received. The only solace is that nobody else really did die.

Except for Justice. But Bruce had no love for the spirit anyway.

With a collection of items in hand Bruce steps into the tent where Merrill has been settled in, poking his head in first and calling for her.] Merrill? It's time to check on your injuries.

[ Merrill hadn't either -- it had been a kindness for the others, perhaps, that she had been the one to land the final blow. Of course, Vengeance had been attempting to possess her at the time.

She shifts a little as Bruce sticks his head in, pushing herself to sit up in bed. She's wearing a robe, lighter than her mage robes -- enough to cover but not push down on her injuries. ]

Right. Well- they're all here.

[Bruce quirks a wry smile at the response, but doesn't say anything else as he enters the tent properly and heads towards her. He sets the items he had been carrying down, taking a moment to arrange them neatly before retrieving the towel that had been bundled with them.]

I'll check your ribs first, if that's alright with you. [He says as he moves to sit down next to her on the cot for easier access.]

They hurt a bit less today, [ Merrill offers, carefully working to open the robe. Bruce is likely going to get an eyeful, but it's a medical setting, and Merrill isn't shy about nudity unless she's comparing herself to someone else or really wants them to like the sight of her naked.

No offense, Bruce. ]

At least, I think they do.

[Pel has nursed the sick long enough that she knows Merrill will be fed. People are good at food. But sometimes other things fall to the wayside. Pel has brought with her a basin, a towel, soap, and a pair of nail clippers.]

Aneth ara, lethallan. I thought I might wash your hair.

[Bruce barely bats an eyelash as Merrill undoes the robe for him to look at her injuries. He's seen pretty much every species naked at this point, and he does pride himself on his professionalism. Besides, it takes a lot more than nudity to faze him - especially in a medical setting.

He waits until she's done then shifts closer, one hand gently pressing at the injuries, needing to check but not wanting to aggregate.] Move your arm as much as you can, slowly.

[ Ellana is a fixture at the Warden camp because of Felix and her other Warden acquaintances down there. When she spots Merrill, she comes over, looking relieved. ]

I heard about what happened, but I didn't want to hover. It seems like all of Skyhold was coming by your tent at the healer's. I hope it wasn't too overwhelming?

[ Her eyes dart to the wood and then the plans in Merrill's hands. ]

You-- You're not leaving, are you?

[ They've only been back a few hours when Alistair leaves the camp--he's quiet when he's sad, it's the only reprieve anyone ever gets from him honestly, if you ever need him to shut up tell him someone he likes is dead--and winds up standing outside the griffons' housing, shoulder in the door frame. He doesn't think at least this is something good, not consciously, but he feels it. It isn't all disaster on disaster. There are griffons.

And Merrills.

He manages to make his mouth look like a smile for approximately half a second before it collapses again. ]

Griffon Savior, [ he says, like that's her name now. ]

[Kieran is the one to tell her of griffons because well, he's a boy and what boy does not love griffons? (She is to blame, she is the one who found the the sigils to stitch to his garments but he loves them too much for her to stop, and perhaps she wanted him to have a thing of Alistair's, not knowing their paths would ever meet.) So off she goes, hoping to take her mind off everything that's happened with Leliana of late as well.

Spotting Merrill, she's about to call a greeting when she spots the injuries, frowning instead as she approaches with an eye on the griffons just to be safe.]

I trust none of them inflicted the wounds you're recovering from?

[Eirlys approaches in the evening, when things are quiet and all of her own patients have been tended to, a bowl of soup in her hands.]

I think you may be well enough to eat something. Here, this is fresh from the kitchens.

[ Cassandra had left the trials with Justice to those more qualified (and more patient) than herself. In truth, she had been leery of the entire idea of even making the attempt to remove Justice. Reversing possession is possible, yes, but risky, and in her private opinion Anders' life was hardly worth the risk. Not when it meant putting others in danger.

And apparently her fears had been proven correct. She appears without warning in Merrill's tent, having marched right past anyone who might have made an attempt to stop her, and for a moment she just stands there at the foot of the bed, concern mixed with relief mixed with a lingering resentment that this had happened at all. ]

[ When she was a child, Merrill likely first responded to such an instruction by wiggling her arm around (slowly). But this is hardly the first time she's been injured or the first time she's been checked on, and so she complies. ]

Have I mentioned- [ because clearly Bruce needs to be chattered at while working ] -that you're very good at this?

[ Merrill would be delighted to see Pel either way, but when it's to have her hair washed? She lights up even more, even as the smile pulls at her injured face. ]

Oh, that would be lovely. I mean, I think they got any blood out of it, but... well.

It was nice! Distracting, for starters.

[ It turns out there isn't a whole lot to do in the healing tents. Who knew? ]

Leaving? [ Sadly, this isn't even the first time she's been asked that, and it's still taking her a moment to realize why. For Merrill, the idea of leaving is so far out of the question that even connecting that an aravel means movement with the question itself takes a bit. ]

Oh! Oh, no, I just- well, I thought that if maybe we had to leave Skyhold for some reason, it would be nice to have something like this. I wasn't there, but I heard about Haven.

[ The hatchlings are- well. They are hatchlings, part child and part predator and all spunk. The three she handled out of Weisshaupt know and trust her more than the others, but Merrill has been by often enough in the aftermath (save for when she wasn't allowed to leave the healing tents, and Ghostface butted her right in the ankle when she came back for daring to be gone for so long) that the others are getting to know her, too.

They still nip at her, are still sometimes too generous with their claws, but- they're learning. It's not like they're attacking her, trying to truly maim her; they're just babies, and Merrill loves them.

The not-name makes her laugh a little as she looks up from scratching Ghostface (she doesn't dare stop, or he'll demand more scratches, potentially with his beak) to Alistair. A silver locket is around her neck, an intricate griffon on the front; a gift from Hercules, before he left. ]

If you say that too loudly, Maja will probably snort something out her nostrils.

[ Some of the hatchlings are more bold than others -- that's always been true. There are plenty of new and different sights and smells that they've been introduced to in the past month, but Merrill hasn't always been present for them. She looks up to smile at Morrigan before the words fully register, but even then, half her attention is on the tiny predators rustling their feathers and clacking their beaks. ]

Oh, no. I mean, Slobbaface got some spit right in my eye the other day, and they nip, but that's about it.

[ And no, she did not name the griffons. ]

This was all- well, we pulled Justice out of Anders and he never liked me that much.

[ She knows her, vaguely, in the way she sort of knows everyone who teaches at the school she's started. There's also the news that she is the liaison for city elves and the fact that Eirlys is a healer. Merrill- well, she's been in need of healers, certainly. Whether she should be bringing her concerns to Cyril or to Eirlys or to someone else is beyond her, and she doesn't really feel like thinking of it now.

Not when the soup smells that good and she has company, at least. ]

Oh- thank you! You didn't have to do that.

[ Well.

Cassandra marching in wasn't quite what Merrill had expected when she woke up today, but it's not unwelcome. The healers are probably mostly too afraid to get in between her and Merrill, and that at least means she should have a nice long distraction in the form of the Seeker.

Judging by her face, she's not entirely sure it'll all be a pleasant one, but- at least Cassandra looks concerned? ]

Good- afternoon, I think? It's a bit hard to tell.

[It's not blood Pel is thinking about so much as dirt and grease. She quickly casts to fill the basin with ice, then casts fire to melt and heat it before setting it at the head of Merrill's cot. Small hands gently untuck black hair from beneath Merrill's head to arrange it above.]

I also brought clippers for your toenails, if they're bothering you.

Oh, okay! And now that Fate's brought us halla, you have someone who can properly pull it too.

[ She's still giddy over these halla. ]

What size are you planning on? The little, one person ones, or bigger?

[Bethany herself had been avoiding ... well, everyone that she could. Something about what happened with Anders and Nathaniel, what happened with Hercules, struck her a little closer to home than she realized. Going out to the woods to cry had been - well - it had changed a lot of things.

Mostly though, it made her realize that she couldn't do this like Marian did it, or Carver. She wasn't them. She wore her heart on her sleeve and she wasn't ashamed of it.

So there she was, careful of her own wounds to the griffons roost, where she knew she'd find Merrill. She dropped next to the elven woman, and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, resting her chin on her friend's shoulder.]

So ... I wanted to say a few things. First though, I love you, Merrill.

[Had it been Alistair, this whole conversation would be headed in a very different direction already. Something about how it's a shame their saliva isn't corrosive or harbouring something that devours the flesh, or that they don't all shriek at the sight of him, something like that. Because well, Alistair would probably be shielding their eyes lest she turn them all to stone should they look upon her.

Funny that the thought makes her smile rather than scowl.]

And I had thought Leliana the worst offender when it came to naming animals.

[Spend the better part of a year with a Schmooples traipsing around after you and see how it feels. Mention of Anders freezes that smile in place, sours it and she shakes her head.]

He is very fortunate but I did not seek you out to speak of the abomination. [Because that's what he is and always will be, because he's a Warden and that posed far too much of a risk to Kieran.] I wondered if you wished to speak of the eluvians? There are none to overhear us and I would prefer to do so in person; a letter can be intercepted.

[Eirlys drags over a stool to seat herself next to Merrill, stirring the soup and watching the wisps of steam rise from the bowl and curl around in the air.]

Nonsense, I'm glad to. Are you well enough to feed yourself?

[She hopes so, just because she doesn't like to feel she's taking away her patients' dignity in these sort of tasks unless it's the only option.]

Oh- that might be nice, yes. Maybe for my fingernails too? I keep trying to pull at them because I'm bored.

[ Pel has barely gotten started and it's already nice -- it's more intimate than the medical exams, and it's relaxing. She's always loved having her hair played with. ]

Yes! And Mal said he'd teach me how to ride a horse, so if I can't get a halla for some reason, that's an option. [ Or. Something. ]

I haven't been to see them yet, [ because injuries ] have you? And- I think about a medium size. I'd like to be able to fit more than just me and my things in it, I suppose.

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you don't own the green pines

healing tents!!

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healing tents

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camp

around skyhold!

around skyhold;

Healing tents

healing tents

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Because, Griffons. And sad-happiness. And best friends.

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