For my bones have found a place to lie down and sleep

[foxsays]

WHO: Araceli Bonaventura; open
WHAT: Wow was closing those rifts a bad time and double wow guess who is a terrible patient
WHEN: post plot/early Octoberish; we can handwave time a bit
WHERE: Healing tents; her + Korrin's room later
NOTES: Okay there will be discussions of injuries here as well as what went on in that plot, I'll try to put warnings in headers if specifics come up but if there are things you aren't comfortable with discussing, let me know (Araceli's ic/ooc inbox, plurk or discord all work!)
Also let me know when you're catching her since that'll change how injured she is/if she's still lyrium'd to the gills!

There isn't much of a choice in where she goes when she comes back to Skyhold. Araceli is sent to the healing tents, too hurt, too tired, too out of her head to even attempt to argue. Half her arguments aren't even in a language the healers about her understand until one of the Rivaini mages agrees to step in, knowing decent enough Antivan but she drifts. Tries to sort through memories with her right hand curled against Lux who visibly bristles even at friends throughout the first awful days. Her left arm is useless, bandaged tightly to keep her from hurting it more, right leg not much better. Healing potions and spells are turned away. Sleep, she just wants to sleep.

(There are too many nightmares but she presses her face to Lux, and at least she can open the flap of the tent to breathe fresh air when she struggles for air when she fights herself awake.)

Later, when she's able to argue a little better, she attempts to sneak out. Attempts. Being that her right leg is weak and aching and useless. The bandages are off to reveal stitches closing up the wound in her calf, maybe with another poultice slapped on if someone argues her into it. But she's been stuck somewhere against her will already for so long that she can't explain the itch under her skin or that she can't breathe when she's trapped in the tent, that no she never just lies down to sleep all at once, and the longer she's cooped up, the worse her temper gets. Her head feels more like hers; she's Araceli, she's been here nearly a year now, she's Korrin's kadan, she knows all of that. But she looks up at the walls with longing, testing her thumb, attempting to put more weight on her leg--

(I've been shot, I've been stabbed, I've broken bones worse, I can climb again, I can, I can--)

Eventually she gets to go back to her and Korrin's rooms, either for a few hours or because she's well enough that they don't have reasons to keep her. Still, she's always running around doing something. And she's bored. Tremendously bored. Stuck in a chair or more likely the bed because she doesn't like admitting how sore and how tired she is, not really, and there's an open door policy if you know to look for the one with the blue seashell. There are books scattered about, and all of Araceli's cards and dice but playing games with herself is no fun when she wants a distraction.

(You should probably give Korrin a break, having to deal with this pain in the ass all the time.)

[[ooc: any mix is good - like bringing cards etc to the healing tents - or wildcard it up, just check in if it's when she's still full of lyrium for memory flash stuff!]]

Comments

[eolasemah]

If Sina knew who Nerissa is, she'd try a bit harder to help; but as it is, she can only do what she knows. "No, da'len," she softly replies, using the diminutive as she has found it most comforting, when she was sick and in the care of someone familiar. "It's Sina. You are home and Korrin is nearby. And I am here." She strokes a few strands of hair off Araceli's forehead.
"I will protect you."

[foxsays]

Oh. Oh that's-- Open your eyes, the day is a-wasting Araceli girl, a voice in her head murmurs the way her mother would in the morning before she pulled off the sheets and flung open the window.

Blinking, she makes the effort this time and sees ink on a face, pointed ears, a shard situated in a chest and that's Sina. Not Nerissa. (And not home, but she can look past that, she thinks she understands what Sina means.)

"Hola," she manages in a sleep-roughened voice, good hand coming up to touch Sina's wrist. "Have I-- Were you singing? Or did I dream that?"

[eolasemah]

When Araceli reaches for her, Sina gently completes the touch, taking her hand. "I was," she confirms, "you've been asleep for quite a while." Her free hand moves to stroke through Araceli's hair again. "Is there anything I can bring you?"

[foxsays]

"Did I say anything?" Squeezing Sina's hand, she hopes she didn't. Or that if she did it was nonsense or in her native tongue. The last thing she wants is to give her friends nightmares by thrashing about where they can see or repeating some of what she knows she said when they hurt her. "My flask? Someone moved it, black with the gold octopus on the front. My throat is so dry."

Yes the flask is full of rum but it's watered rum, and that's what Araceli was raised on so no one gets to fight her on that. Especially not when the water in Skyhold made so many sick months ago anyway.

[eolasemah]

Sina shakes her head. "Nothing I could understand," she murmurs, and, as requested, rises to her feet to get Araceli's flask. Whatever's in it isn't her business-- she's not about to tell someone from a different plane of existence what she has to drink. Their medical care is complicated enough.
She settles back down again with the flask, holding it by Araceli's mouth so she can either drink from it without moving or take it.
"Do you want to talk about it?"

[foxsays]

Sipping carefully so she doesn't spill anything (if her flask privileges get revoked, she isn't quite sure how to go about getting Lux to bring her rum, that's not so easy, not with her head this muddled) she leans back when she's done. It settles her. Feels like home. Her mother's fingers carding through her hair whenever she sat Araceli at the vanity, her father's belly-deep laugh when the ship rocked beneath them.

"No, it was...it was horrible. I don't want my friends to know that." Tipping her head to the side to better look at Sina, she tries to smile but she can't quite manage it, the same way she can't meet her eyes. What would they have done to Sina? If they'd done so many terrible things to Ruby then would they have even gotten Sina-- She scrunches her eyes shut tight, breathes in, holds, out, uno, dos, tres-- "I think there are enough nightmares, if I gave rise to more, I wouldn't forgive myself."

That isn't just the queensguard in her, but that's always been Araceli. Trying to protect her friends even with a bullet burning through her in the streets after a duel or a heist gone south.

[eolasemah]

Sina's brow knits with worry, but she doesn't argue. "I understand," she murmurs, brushing some hair out of Araceli's face, "but know that you can, if you so choose." She's not going to press her-- apart from her own complications, she's never witnessed anything so traumatic as what Araceli has undoubtedly returned from. "In the meantime, I will do everything in my power to make you more comfortable."

[foxsays]

"I forgot my name." Using her right hand, she pushes herself up properly so she can take a better breath, dodging Sina's eyes as she rubs her left wrist to see if it can stand more pressure today than it could yesterday, if the bones still feel as like to grind beneath her fingertips with a touch. "I forgot everyone."

Sin wasn't something she knew until Thedas, not the way they speak of it at least. People said all sorts about her but there wasn't confessing the way that there is here, but that's how it comes out of her, a whisper tugged up and out, dredged up from some deep dark place, all slurry and muck. Her right hand slips inside her shirt absently, finds the dragon's tooth to pull it out and set it swinging because how did she forget that? How could she?

(My father sails to remind all where we came from and did I forget that, I can't remember what I forgot--)

"Ah, no power needed - no spells for me, just poultices," she offers a smile when she can manage to look up, head pressed into Sina's palm. "Makes you perfect."

[eolasemah]

Sina is absolutely concerned by Araceli's assertions, but she's not in position to judge or press. She tries not to even show too much worry, but smiles at the woman's observation.
"So it does," she intones, and leans down to press a kiss against the top of her friend's head. "If you want to stave off boredom, I can bring you the puzzle box Cyril gave me. Maybe you can make some headway on it."

[foxsays]

"Puzzle box?" Has she heard of a thing like that? Perhaps, she's maybe sold them on to other people, handed them over to a fence. Or maybe someone in the palace has one. "What's a puzzle box for?"

Dice and cards, those she gets. Puzzles...well they're usually a one person affair and Araceli was always working when she was playing at the other two, or learning some sort of lesson.

[eolasemah]

How to describe it?
"Well it's..." Sina begins, chews her lower lip, and shrugs. "It's a box. That you can't open. Until you can." She snorts a small giggle. "I have to keep taking breaks so I don't dash it against a wall. Cyril's very good at what he does, even if what he does is make infuriating toys."

[foxsays]

"Is it...sliding pieces? Taking them apart?" Carefully, she nudges Sina with the last two fingers on her left hand; the thumb is still bound up to hold it at the proper angle, and the wrist hurts if she moves it, everything grinding on itself enough that they've bound that up good and tight too. "Everything I do has to be done with one hand. It's why Pel comes to wash my hair for me, otherwise I would be hiding in the dark until I could do it myself."

[eolasemah]

Oh. Oops.
Sina laughs apologetically, hunching her shoulders. She hadn't thought of that.
"Maybe... I can bring it, and you can direct me," she offers, "you're a lot more clever than I am, I could probably use the help."

[foxsays]

"I would always be glad of someone spending time with me here," Araceli replies gratefully, and just as grateful for something that would be a distraction. "I know the healers would thank you for something that keeps me in here so I don't keep escaping on them. They are fast losing all patience with me when my world is the tents and around the tents, and no further than that."

Well, there's the offer the gardens but a reminder of how far from the sea she is makes her feel more adrift.