there ain't language for the things i've seen

[alankazam]

WHO: Alan + Kain, Medicine Seller, Thingol, Bruce, Jaime + OTA
WHAT: Gotta catch 'em all
WHEN: Post-Winter Palace
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: N/A

Starters in comments. If we agreed to do something and I missed you, just let me know on Plurk or Discord (oeste #8807). :)

If you'd like a specific starter, or if anything needs altering, please feel free to hit me up. If we have a Winter Palace Pt. II thread going, I'd like to finish those off first!

Comments

[meds4sale]

The Medicine Seller had a nice spread of his wares out in the courtyard. They were bright and colourful, offsetting the dull greys of late winter in the mountains. Despite being relatively out of the way, without even a proper stall to call his own (he'd made do with a wooden bench missing its leg), the Medicine Seller's little display of eclectic wares was difficult to miss.

Most who stopped merely browsed, but he'd sold a few packets of powder for headaches and colds, and creams for dry skin that came with the cold winter air. He hadn't expected someone to bring him food. That was something he could appreciate.

"Oh?" His eyes fell to the rolls, curious. "All of a sudden they've become gracious."

He couldn't smell any poison on them either - quite the miracle, after the way that one elderly cook had wielded a broom to shoo him out the kitchen.

"My thanks."

He looked directly at Alan, fully aware of who his benefactor really was. His own food supplies were dwindling, and living off of katsuobushi and plain rice had lost its charm a few centuries ago.

"If you require a medicine for any ailment, I would be glad to provide it. ...No charge, of course."

[alankazam]

"It's no trouble. If you go up near dark, you can pay for food. And if you sign on to help, they'll feed you." This last bit is phrased like a clever secret, one he's letting the Medicine Seller in on. "This is medicine?"

He crouches, peering over the spread as he sets the rolls down. The sooner they're out of hand, the sooner he can prod at a — whatever that one is. Without asking, Alan lifts a packet to sniff. Not any herbs he knows. He sets it aside, scratching at his bandaged fingers.

"What's it all do?"

[meds4sale]

"I see. Silly me."

The trick was buying food at night and not day. Perhaps the nightshift was more easy-going about such things. Either way, it was useful information.

"It is medicine," he affirmed. "And it does what medicine is supposed to do."

It was a broad answer to a broad question.

"...To treat illness."

[alankazam]

A shrug. He doesn't see the point in specifying that he's speaking of the tavern. Apparently such detailed explanations are reserved for other purposes, like harassing the local merchants.

"Not if you gave someone enough of it." Most things are poison in sufficient quantity. Herbs, salt, heat. Even questions. Alan's teeming with them now (Is it from the Fade? If it's medicine, why not take it to the healers? Do you ever feel poorly about charging to help people?), but he knows he has to narrow it down. Start somewhere basic.

So he deliberates: "If you weren't sick, what would they do?"

As though this is going to elicit a terribly different response.

[meds4sale]

The Medicine Seller might feel poorly about a great many things, but it certainly wasn't for charging elderly men exorbitant prices to be able to keep up with their younger brides. Or for lotions that soothed whatever itch they got poking around in brothels.

"Give a man too much water and he will surely drown," said the Medicine Seller, nonchalant as ever. His job was to see that the dosages weren't lethal - though most of what he sold was fairly innocuous, even in large quantities.

"Many have benefits beyond treating illness. Some are taken as supplements, and others enhance certain aspects of day to day life."

[alankazam]

"Or sell the water. They enhance?" Alan scratches at his chin, "I've seen something like that once. Supposed to make you stronger, for a while. More."

What's the word?

"Vigorous."

Yeah, probably not the word.

"It went fine at first. But I suppose it only made him try harder, really, because he threw out his back doing it. Is it like that?"

[meds4sale]

"It is probably similar," he mused, the corners of his lips twitching ever so slightly upward.

"It is unfortunate for his back though."

He gestured to other pots and containers.

"But not all are for that purpose. Some are cosmetic. Some relieve minor inconveniences."

[alankazam]

"It's alright. We managed to get him out before the guards showed up."

"I'm not exactly a healer." Big, shocking reveal. "Maybe I ought to just ask you which are a good idea?"

[meds4sale]

Truly, he was stunned by this revelation. Behold his utterly impassive expression - it must have been that way because he was in shock.

"Any can be a good or bad idea," he explained, "depending on what you are seeking to treat and the nature of its severity."