[ Open ] You are a Giant Redwood, Falling on a Family of Deer

[thecookery]

WHO: Avery and OPEN
WHAT: Another post-shardbearer-plot (this one) post! This one a slightly wider spread catch-all
WHEN: Late September/early October
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: Warning for grouchy, injured baker! Also, potential references to violence and torture and gore from said shardbearer plot

Kitchens

Anyone coming in for a visit or just down here passing by over these few weeks is probably going to be hearing a lot more banging and clattering and cursing than usual before they even reach the doors. Sounds which further investigation will reveal to be the sweet music of a very frustrated Avery trying to navigate the narrow spaces between counters in here sporting a sling on one arm and a crutch under the other. What with her junked-up shoulder and still heavily bandaged leg, y'know?

If they're lucky, they might even get the pleasure of seeing her fumble at doing simple tasks one-handed or knock over a tray of breadrolls with her crutch and transcend anger into a quantum state of silent fuming. The kitchen has never betrayed her like this before.


Healing Tents

Hopefully it won't be like that for too much longer though. And it's this hope that has Avery diligently visiting the healing tents at the appropriate intervals to have the progress of her wounds checked on. The shoulder, thankfully, is not so bad, as long as she makes sure to keep from moving it around too much for a while, but the leg... Well, it turns out giant, magical wolf bites don't really give a damn about magical healing. They're stubborn like that and refuse to go away on anyone's schedule but their own!


Stables

During those moments when Avery doesn't have reason to visit the healing tents but has been shooed out of the kitchen to do this thing called... relaxing? (She thinks she might have heard of it once, but she really has no idea what such a strange and foreign concept could truly be. It sounds like a trap.) She usually wanders down to the stables to check in with some of her favorite horses and maybe have a go at brushing out their manes and tails while she's at it. Hopefully without being disturbed by anyone, but everyone knows how likely that is to work out for her.


Training Grounds

Though lately she's been spending a little time watching the soldiers train as well. She's not a terrible fighter herself, but most of what she knows is about how to make your average bully or mugger eat their own teeth. If she'd had real battle training like these people, would things have gone differently on that last mission? She can't help but wonder about it as she silently observes.

Comments

kitchens

[aceso]

Christine has seen Avery in the kitchens before, but hasn't really interacted with her much. Since Christine has permission from some of the other cooks to help make things from time to time as long as she doesn't take it all for herself, she guesses Avery has decided not to chase after her with a wooden spoon. Today Christine enters, hair already pulled back out of her way and sleeves rolled up, but she stops in the doorway when she sees a tray of rolls come flying in her general direction.

"Ah!" she exclaims, raising her hands to protect herself against the airborne bakery assault.

[thecookery]

She thought she was the only one down here. Usually it's hard to be alone in the kitchens, at least for long, but this time she really thought she'd gotten lucky and no one would see her failing so spectacularly at something that usually comes so easy to her. So Avery looks almost as surprised as Christine when she notices her at the door, her first instinct to reach out after the flying objects, but... that doesn't really work so well in her current state? And she just ends up nearly tripping and having to catch herself on the counter.

"Shit," she hisses and hobbles her way over toward Christine, really hoping that tray had cooled somewhat since she pulled it from the oven. "Are you okay?"

[aceso]

"Yes," she says quickly, lowering her hands and looking at the mess on the floor. "But are you? Perhaps you should sit?" Christine bends to start picking up the rolls, but the first one is too hot and she drops it again, waving her fingers in the air.

[thecookery]

"Careful," Avery admonishes, mostly on instinct, then grabs a towel and tries to just... she just tries to bend down and... Dammit! She holds the towel out in Christine's direction. "Use this."

She lets out long, frustrated sigh and finally answers, "I'm fine." Okay, well, that's clearly not true. "I'll be fine. I'm just figuring out how to do this... like this."

Yes, it's only temporary, but it's still driving her mad.

kitchens

[theproperglove]

It as just as Josephine enters the kitchens that she is greeted by the sight of Avery knocking an entire tray of bread down to the ground with her crutch. It makes an obnoxiously loud clatter as it crashes onto the floor.

Before Josephine is quite aware of the futility of what she is doing, she's bending down and scooping some of the uncooked breadrolls into her hands.

"Is everything all right?"

Everything is decidedly not all right, but Josephine is kind enough to give Avery the opportunity to decline her assistance if she does not desire it.

[thecookery]

Oh, good. Wonderful. Delightful, even. Now she's embarrassed herself in front of Josephine and made her clean up the mess. "You don't have to do that," Avery sputters out. "I can--" Except she can't, can she? Not without flopping onto the ground and then struggling to get back up or something.

She looks away, shamefaced and silent, for a long moment before answering the question, "I'm just getting used to... getting on with my day like this."

[theproperglove]

"I--" Josephine looks at the dough in her hands as though she has just noticed it for the first time. "Ah, what should I do with these?"

Another moment passes before she really seems to take stock of the situation, evaluating the state that Avery appears to be in. "You are injured." It is not a question, but more a statement. A statement of concern.

Avery, your behaviour is worrying Josephine.

healing tents

[ancarrow]

Eirlys has to stop herself from wrinkling her nose up as she peels back the bandages covering Avery's leg, trying to stop herself from imagining what sort of creature could have done this damage.

"The good news is, it doesn't look infected."

[thecookery]

Wincing a little, Avery looks away from Eirlys as she works. She'd been bitten more than once by teeth bigger than any natural wolf has a right to be sporting and thrown around by it like a ragdoll, tearing the wounds even further. All in all, she had been pretty lucky compared to some, but she'd really rather not think about any what-ifs right now.

"And the bad news?" she asks. Because there's always bad news, right?

[ancarrow]

She reaches over and gently touches the edge of one of the puncture marks, looking for any sign of scabbing over or healing. "The bad news is that it doesn't look to be healing at all." She withdraws her hand, routing among the potions and poultices in the pouch on her belt to see if there's anything that might help. "How long ago did you say this happened?"

Kitchens

[eternalsquire]

Merciful Maker, what a mess. All Kif had wanted was to get Zapp a snack and stop the man's griping, but there's some sort of injured human in there knocking stuff over. He hesitates, peering in, wondering if he should go.

When she stops and starts glaring, Kif's even more tempted to just leave. Angry humans rarely bode well for elves. But deep down, buried under layers of self-preservation and frustration, he knows he can't just walk away and leave her struggling in the kitchen.

Kif steps in, keeping his head a little down despite how he's already on the very short side for an elf.

"Should I pick up the rolls?"

[thecookery]

Oh, she's angry, do not doubt it. But she is angry at herself more than anything, so even though Avery is glaring daggers when she looks at Kif, she is not glaring daggers at Kif... You know what I mean?

"I've got it," she grinds out between her teeth, then hobbles over to the mess on the floor and... proceeds to stand there, not gotting it. Not gotting it at all. She can't bend over and grab them, and if she sits on the floor to do it, it is going to both be embarrassing and take her seven calendar years to stand back up again.

How the hell is she supposed to do this?

[eternalsquire]

"Of course you do," he says right away, reflexively, backing up a little to be absolutely out of the way. She might not feel like murdering him, but she feels like murdering someone by the looks of it, and he's the only one in reach.

Or not in reach. He watches her stand there, looks down at the rolls, looks back up to her, looks back down at the rolls, and then back up to her. Nothing's happening.

If he picks them up, he could be injuring her pride because she's human. If he keeps standing here, he'll never get anything done today. ...If he injures her pride, he can get away because she's on crutches and he can run.

Kif ever so slowly inches in as if she can't get mad at him if she doesn't see him and she can't see him if he moves slowly. Then he bends down and picks up a couple of the rolls, setting them on the counter one at a time while watching her as if she might swing a crutch.

Healing Tents

[justice_is_blond]

He comes in, dipping his hands in the washbasin quickly and wiping them off before tuning to see who is waiting this time. It's the woman whom he'd upset at the snowfight, he realizes after a moment, and one who has been getting her leg seen to. Maybe this time he can avoid sticking his foot in his mouth. Maybe.

"Your leg, right? I'm here to take a look at it."

[thecookery]

Oh, she vaguely remembers him as well. The mage who'd tried to get her to stop working for a bit and have some fun, right? Well, he's got half his wish come true right now, eh?

There's a beat after he enters where Avery says nothing, just looking him up and down, and then she nods. "If you haven't heard, don't bother with any magic. It won't help."

[justice_is_blond]

He waits through the brief evaluation, wonders if he should have worn the purple robes instead of the blue today, and then nods back.

"I've heard, fortunately. Though not fortunate for your healing; I hope we can find some way around that soon." Anders grabs a stool, some elfroot and clean bandages, and gestures at her leg.

"But that's not likely to happen soon. Right now we've got to make sure your wounds continue to improve. Would you mind getting your leg up on the table, and uncovered?"

kitchens

[harthad_uluithiad]

"Let me, miss!"

That's all the warning Avery gets before a tiny figure shoots past her, deftly slipping between the counters and crouching down to reach the bowl on the lower shelf she'd been trying, unsuccessfully, to retrieve. Sam's head pops up as he offers the bowl, beaming. "Here it is! You ought to be careful, miss. Any more of that and you won't be able to walk at all!"

[thecookery]

"Oh!"

Avery jumps a little, having thought she was alone down here until just this second, but thankfully does not lose her balance. She eyes Sam with confusion for a long moment--tiny even by dwarf standards, this one--before tentatively reaching out and taking the bowl with a nod of thanks. "If it's a bowl that finally does me in, I think I'll have earned it."

[harthad_uluithiad]

Sam scoffs, shaking his head as he comes back around the counter. "Well now, that's as may be, but there's no need for it, not when there's others around who can help just as well. A bowl's hardly worth it anyhow!" He stops in front of her, looking up at her curiously for a second before bowing at the waist. "Samwise Gamgee, miss, at your service."

Kitchens

[youwonscience]

It's been... well. Cosima spent the first while after they got back in the healing tents dealing with the nasty after-effects of being experimented upon. Perhaps ironically, though, she's physically more or less fine now that she's been fed and her broken arm has been seen to. She feels weirdly guilty about that, considering the state of Avery. (And other. And the state of Ruby's still-unoccupied bed.)

She's allowed to be up as long as she doesn't "overexert herself," whatever that means. She doesn't know how lyrium convalescence is supposed to go, really. But she needs something to do.

She winces, as she hears something clatter to floor. When she arrives properly and sees the silent fuming, she observes a minute, then says, "What do you need me to do?" It's not a favor, at least not a favor for Avery; Cosima has two hands and a mind that desperately needs occupying.

(Neither of them ever talk about nightmares. It's probably better that way.)

[thecookery]

She wants to be mad. Wants to rage and shout and throw things. But it won't do her any good, and it'll just make more mess that she can't clean up and will have to ask someone else to take care of for her. Which is basically the exact opposite of what Avery wants right now, since it's feeling useless like this that's getting to her so badly.

It takes her a few seconds to say anything at all after she hears the question and turns in Cosima's direction, as she tries to put a leash on her temper right now. "Can you pick that up for me? I can't really..." She trails off and motions toward the floor.

[youwonscience]

"Sure, no problem." The rolls, living up to their name, have taken off in several directions, so she gets down to salvage what she can and clean up the rest. "I don't know if it'd be more frustrating to try and direct someone else, but I'm happy to peel or chop or... whatever, too," she adds, from the floor where she's stretched out trying to reach a roll that made it all the way under a low shelf.

training grounds

[fightorfright]

It's with her bow in hand and not her staff that Amélie trots across the training grounds, determined to make her way to the archery range and improve her shooting technique. There's a girl hanging by, just watching, and there's something about the expression on her face (half wistful, half not) that compels Amélie to stop and speak to her.

"You won't get better just by watching, you know," she says, biting her lip and hoping that her assumption had been correct.

[thecookery]

Avery stares at the woman who's addressed her briefly, trying to figure out if she recognizes her, but nothing comes to mind immediately. So she just shrugs and looks back toward the soldiers training, muttering, "Well, I can't do much other than watch right now, can I?"

For emphasis, she scuffs the heel of her boot, the one on her bandaged leg across the ground.

[fightorfright]

Amélie's gaze drops to the bandaged leg and while yeah, lady has a point, something about the whole idea of watching makes Amélie's fingers twitch. Eyebrows furrowed, she looks back up at the other woman. "Yeah, actually, I think I've seen you come into the tents here and there."