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

[foxsays]

"With people watching me." That's going to rankle for a while. Someone who prides herself on not being seen, making everything she does seem so effortless? People will just 'happen to be walking past' and it will drive her mad to force herself to be polite to them, to not snap or lose her temper. "I wish I had a reason to go somewhere else where the water is warm, where I could go swimming every day and every night. There's no weight on the body then, your strength comes back so quickly."

And the sea loves her, the sea would take all of her tears because what is salt to the sea, what is a few drops more? What is pouring out all her grief and anger into it, all the bitterness and the loneliness, holding herself under the surface until her lungs burn, forcing her way back up so it's like being born all over, letting the tide tug at her - what is any of that to the sea? Hasn't it seen everything the world has known and forgotten? She knows it has. Knows it the same way she knows she has her father's hair and his smile, her mother's eyes and the curve of her mouth.

Watching him work in silence for a time, with the smile of the herbs uncomfortably familiar, she blows out an explosive sigh. "It doesn't mean I'm any less grateful. I wouldn't want to take someone for granted. Lots of things are overlooked all the time and doing what you do, seeing what you see? It's not easy. I couldn't do it. I think it takes a certain sort of person to be there when someone doesn't even know if they want to get better at first because they don't really remember what better is. So I am grateful, Bruce, very much so."

[amygdalae]

The best thing Bruce can do in response to that first part is another smile, though this one is a little more strained. He knows that nothing he says will probably help with those feelings right now, so the best he can do is to try and focus on the things that he can help with.

He finishes mixing up the herbs in the container and after taking a moment to settle her leg properly, begins to apply the mixture onto her injury, taking great care to be gentle through the whole thing. He listens to her next words which... is, well, perhaps too kind, really. Really, he is only doing what he can do, and he's just glad to be able to be helpful. To try and make people better even when they feel that they can't because Bruce has been there - and perhaps, is still there. It's not a place for people like her to be in.

"Maybe when you're feeling better you could go down to the springs," he suggests, tone light. "It's not the sea or a very big body of water, but it is warm." And it would help her as well, which is all the better. He knows the hot springs are probably a poor substitute, but right now its the best they have. He just hopes that its enough for her.

[foxsays]

Araceli tries very hard not to squirm. Tries. The cold feels good on the wound but goosebumps prickle everywhere else, and as careful as Bruce is, it still hurts. And honestly the feeling of a poultice is just unpleasant, something that makes her think of slimy things oozing all over her until she can feel bile catch and burn in the back of her throat, nose stinging. She swallows, breathes, tries to pay attention to what Bruce is saying as she forces herself not to tense up.

Hurts more when you do that, she tells herself sharply. Go loose, accept it.

"Will I be allowed? With the heat?" Heat makes her itchy, as if someone rubbed rashvine all over the leg. It sounds nice in theory but she wants to check before she makes the effort to go down there, especially when Pel's been helping to take care of her hair. Which she'll still need help with in the hot springs anyway thanks to her hand. "Some of the oils I use...I can ask Korrin to get things that aren't scented, they sting enough in little cuts. If I get them in that mess I think I would scream Skyhold down. Of course, you might not fish me back out. You have not considered that doctor." Look at that, she's smiling, no, she's smirking. Well done.

[amygdalae]

Well at least it seemed his words somehow managed to improve her mood, and honestly that made him feel better more than anything else. It was good to see that she could be her old self again - however slowly that may be. And of course she wouldn't be exactly the same as she had been with what she had experienced, but still... baby steps, and all that. All she needed was time.

"Well, just don't dunk yourself in head first all the way in at once." There is a wryness to his voice this time, encouraged a little by her response. "Take it slow. Your leg shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't stay in the water for more than an hour - keep it wrapped up, and quickly dry it as soon as you get out." Of course preferably he wouldn't want her to go and get it wet in the first place, but he could also understand her dilemma. As long as she had supervision (which Ataash fulfilled rather well) and would follow his advice for the most part, he would be fine with it.