[Open] the one who survives by making the lives of others worthwhile

[meds4sale]

WHO: The Medicine Seller and Open!
WHAT: The Medicine Seller wants to get his bearings. Or sell medicine. Since he’s a medicine seller.
WHEN: Feb 2017/Guardian, 9:43 Dragon
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Open starters below - message me on this journal or at GreenRivers if you want a private starter.

A. Got A Remedy For That
The thing the Medicine Seller noticed about people was that they generally saw what they wanted to see so long as it fit their personal narrative of the world. Despite his numerous tells, he'd passed easily as human in his own world. He was the right general shape, and what words couldn’t explain away, a pretty face could certainly distract from.

Here, it was even easier to go unnoticed. Most had but a passing familiarity with the Dalish and their lore, so when they saw his pointy ears and facial markings, and assumed he was just some elf who'd nicked an Orlesian noble's bathrobe and was going for A Look, it made things quite convenient. And he wasn't one to deny people their assumptions when they benefited him.

Dalish may have had a stigma, but between that or being considered the very thing he existed to fight, the former misconception was infinitely less trying.

He didn’t have a stall set up, so much as a few planks of wood balanced together to make a crude, make-shift table. Which he had then covered with a cloth. There were bottles, flasks, vials, powder packets, small, colourful silk pouches and ornate lacquered boxes, bright and vibrant against the gray winter backdrop of the fortress. He’d set a few other planks down to sit on, sparing his knees the cold, winter mud.

He was out of the way of the main hubbub of the merchant stalls and there were no signs or boards with a list of prices, but the vibrancy of his attire and stock made him and his wares impossible to miss. If one was in need of a remedy, they could do far worse.


B. The Price of Knowledge
Being a stranger in a strange land was new to the Medicine Seller, but once the novelty of it wore off, it really wasn’t so different from home. People were people wherever you went - however different their appearances, customs, and cultures, they were still driven by the same emotions.

Still, customs were important, and moreover, he hated not knowing things. Especially things that could make him seem ignorant. It didn’t do to be ignorant if you could help it.

The library had proven beneficial. At the very least he had become acquainted with the Chantry’s version of Thedosian history. He doubted it was in any way accurate or removed from bias (which the historian Genitivi had at least admitted to in his writings), but it was still useful. The more he read, the more he understood the attitudes and inclinations of this society.

The books on medicine were also quite informative - elfroot seemed to go in just about every cure for any ailment which certainly made his job easy. Deep mushrooms also seemed to be a fairly common component.

He was not particularly neat with his research - books were scattered about his work space, some half open, others in haphazard stacks. His notes on Thedas’s medicinal herbs were just as erratically spaced, though his calligraphy and brushwork copying the illustrations was meticulous and quite skillful, if completely illegible to almost anyone in Skyhold.

Still, history and medical books could become a bit tiresome after a while, even for someone with the Medicine Seller’s boundless patience. He deemed a break necessary and went in search of some fiction, leaving his mess for now.

Hard in Hightown 3: The Re-Punchening sounded like some particularly delightful literary schlock. He returned to his spot, lit the tobacco in the bowl of his kiseru, and sat back, prepared to be thoroughly entertained.


C. Curiosity Killed The Cat
Skyhold was a curiosity in and of itself, and the Medicine Seller could hardly refrain from exploring the grounds. It wasn’t often one got the opportunity to poke around a fortress, and while there was work ahead of him here, he was rather nosy.

The ramparts offered quite a view of the chilly Frostbacks. The great hall was aptly named, altogether rather grand with its high ceilings and the imposing throne. The stables held a wide variety of peculiar animals. The gardens had all manner of botanical goodies. The place was absolutely huge and, if rumour was to be believed, quite a windfall for the Inquisition in its budding stages.

Such things were very interesting to the Medicine Seller. He’d move on once he was able to play by this world’s rules and pass through society without too much in ways of questions, but this was certainly ideal for the time being.

D. Wildcard!
Is the Medicine Man eavesdropping on your business? Did you spot him petting a good cat or talking to his weird sword? Did he sell you some faulty medicine? Anything goes!

Comments

[kartereo]

[Waver paused then, his eyes moving from the Medicine Seller himself to the books in hand.]

How is catching up on an entire world's culture going?

[meds4sale]

As one might expect, there is much to learn.

[His eyes wandered to his mess of notes and books and then back to Waver.]

There are... peculiar similarities though.

Did you find it easy to adapt?

[kartereo]

[Waver had to give the pile an appreciative nod. He was still doing much the same.]

I'm still doing it. [There was a little pause, before adding:] I only arrived here a few months ago anyway, and situations differ slightly depending on certain things, like use of magic back home.

[meds4sale]

Ohh?

[There was the slightest tilt of his head.]

How so?

[kartereo]

Hm. Well, in the case of magi, they are not well regarded in most parts here, and subject to a lot of scrutiny. My understanding of it is that it stems from a number of fronts, including recent events and the nature of how one taps into the energy for magic here, but you'd be best off asking someone who's grown up in Thedas, rather than someone who's learning as he goes.

[meds4sale]

I would not discount an outside opinion. If you are a sorcerer of sorts, would their prejudice not effect you as well?

[kartereo]

It would, yes. [Waver's voice remained pointedly neutral on the topic, although it was his primary concern being dropped into Thedas.] But a deeper understanding of why something is rooted in a culture is far more useful from someone on the inside when one is starting out, I think.

[meds4sale]

Of course.

[He hadn't raided several bookshelves and listened to a variety of explanations for his health, after all.]

But the truth of things comes from many points of view.

[kartereo]

And discerning the bias in all of them. Honestly, I think picking those out has been the easiest part of learning to exist in this world.

[meds4sale]

[There was a small puff from the Medicine Seller, the slightest hint of a laugh.]

Of that much, we are in agreement.

[kartereo]

If only the rest was simple.

[Waver's eyes went from the Medicine Seller to the rest of the library at that, casting a glance at the shelves around them.]

What parts haven't you gotten to yet? Perhaps I can scribble down a few recommendations to make your reading load lighter.

[meds4sale]

I cannot say, as I have not gotten to them yet.

[He was, and always would be, a cheeky little shit.]

But I would appreciate anything you may have found... enlightening.

[kartereo]

[Damnit. Waver gave a pointed eyeroll.]

What have you covered then, I can be more enlightening once I have that information.

[meds4sale]

[He does have that effect. Sorry Waver.

The last decade has been... interesting.

[He ponders for a moment.]

I would wish to know more about the spirits of this world. I have not run across any cataloging of them yet.

[kartereo]

Ah.

[Waver's face had a flicker of sadness across it. No. Closer to disappointment. Not at the Medicine Seller, but at what he's asking about.]

Unfortunately spirits are called demons here. That was probably why you weren't locating anything - wrong terminology.

[meds4sale]

Only demons?

[His flat tone held a note of bemusement to it.]

My goodness. Whatever happened to imagination?

[kartereo]

It isn't so much imagination as conception.

[Waver is careful to keep is tone neutral, but the way Thedas treats magic is one of his deepest dislikes as far as the place goes.]

Their spirits are directly connected to magic use, and they have little trust of magi here.

[meds4sale]

A mistrust that is not entirely unwarranted.

[Even if half of what he read was true, magic presented its share of dangers that were, while not absent, certainly less prominent in his own world. He couldn't argue on that front.]

...Though certainly ...excessive.

I wonder... do the spirits effect those from other worlds the same way as natives to this place?

[kartereo]

I genuinely have no idea.

[Waver disliked being ignorant about most things, but this went double for when it was something key to his being like magic was.]

And it is something that you'd have to learn via talking to people. I doubt anyone's written a book on it yet.

[meds4sale]

Oh? So we are a relatively new phenomenon?

[Now that was interesting. It seemed odd nothing like this had happened before.]

[kartereo]

[Waver nodded in confirmation.]

Indeed so. And there's a general mistrust of those from otherworlds depending where you are. I've not done a real graph of it yet, but I imagine that this place would be the epicenter of acceptability, and then there are bands outward in all directions to define amount of trust. Or dislike. Or uncertainty. Whichever you'd like to use.

[meds4sale]

[Well that explained a lot.]

I have heard there are many who think us demons.

[Not that he was surprised. That was generally people's go-to response to not understanding something.]

How long can we expect the tolerance here to last?

[kartereo]

Either until there's no use in giving us support, or something very dark happens, I imagine.

[If the answer seems flippant, it isn't. Waver simply has thought about the matter so many times that he had a answer off the top of his head.]

[meds4sale]

So either way, it is when we become too inconvenient.

[Not entirely surprising there.]

[kartereo]

Precisely.

[Waver smiled thinly. He liked people who could boil things down to the real point of it all, and the Medicine Seller was proving to be wonderful at it.]

Now, the metrics for when that'll be, I'd need to start gathering data before I could remotely give a prediction.