[Open] But finally one day roses fade away

[meds4sale]

WHO: The Medicine Man and You!
WHAT: A catch-all for March/Drakonis
WHEN: Drakonis
WHERE: Skyhold and beyond!
NOTES: Will add as necessary

Old Aching Bones - The Baths

The hotsprings had been a pleasant surprise - a little reminiscent of home, for whatever measure one could consider the winding road (or the overgrown wooded path when one took a wrong turn) home. It had struck him that Skyhold had, in a way, become the closest thing he ever had to a place to belong - at least with regards to the duration he spent in one general area.

As he set aside his clothes and pinned up his hair, it dawned that he may have to rethink how he was going to adapt to this strange new world and how that meant changing his methods. Sinking into the water, he stretched and flexed his hand where the Rift Shard had lodged itself. It was what tethered him to this Inquisition and all the trappings thereof which limited his options. He couldn't stray too far from other shard-bearers unless he had a nice stash of opium to keep the pain in check.

That made things... tricky.

He leaned back, letting the hot water drain the tension from his muscles and bones. It occurred that one possible solution might be actually working with others.

Which meant giving other people some modicum of trust.

His nose wrinkled at the very thought. How dreadful. Nothing good ever came of that.


Raw Materials - Outside Skyhold

The Medicine Seller was testing just how far he could go before the pain in his hand grew unbearable. The shard, it seemed, kept him on a relatively short leash, but he could at least get out from the stone walls of Skyhold and enjoy the clean mountain air.

There was another purpose to his wandering aside from just it being relatively nice out. The warm winds carried the promise of spring and a few brave, early blooms were making an appearance in the valley below. It was time to see the natural habitat of some of the new herbs he'd be working with in the days to come.

Elfroot seemed capable of growing in just about every condition imaginable. He'd stocked up already on that just by wandering along the perimeter of the market place. He couldn't go a few paces without a few shoots of it peeking up.

On these little outings, he could sometimes be found following a mountain creek to a clear pond, traversing its muddy shore, picking blood lotus and spindelweed. Other times, he could be found sprawled out comfortably in the boughs of a dogwood tree that sported a few early blossoms - perhaps he'd be enjoying a smoke from his pipe or just the simple fragrance from the tree.


A Strange Stranger - Skyhold

The Medicine Seller was like a very large house cat in both habit and demeanor. He was simultaneously curious and aloof, and had a tendency of vanishing for long amounts of time, only to turn up when he wanted to buy a warm meal.

He moved quietly, his wanderings around the fortress seemingly aimless. Sometimes he would stop dead in his tracks and stare unblinkingly at a crack in the wall or at a corner of a ceiling. Occasionally he'd pause to watch the training in the courtyard, or eavesdrop on gossiping servants to entertain himself.

Sometimes he wouldn't stare at or listen to anything in particular, but instead mutter wordlessly to the strange jeweled blade he sometimes kept tucked in that ludicrous sash.

He didn't seem to have any regular sleep cycle, but then that was centuries of traveling that had left him with that particular issue. Rather, he tended to catnap for a few hourse wherever a warm fire and relative absence of hustle and bustle presented itself.

And sometimes he'd be sitting comfortably, legs dangling off the side of the battlements as he gazed out over the Frostbacks. Despite his mask-like expression, there was a sense of melancholy as he took a long breath from his pipe.

Comments

raw materials

[kartereo]

Waver's purposes of being outside of Skyhold was mostly to map when the shard in his hand got worse, and to what degree. A topographic map of incremental agony. The purpose was for Iskandar, who wanted a smaller spot out in the area for himself.

It also forced Waver to continue to be outside, which he wasn't happy about in the still melting snow. Sitting on the ground drawing when everything was cold or wet was no fun.

But it was during a smoke break of his own while mapping that Waver looked up to notice the Medicine Seller.

"Comfortable up there?"

[meds4sale]

He took a hit from his pipe and exhaled a plume of smoke. It was hard to say if it was tobacco or... some of his other stock. He looked unusually relaxed. At least as far as anyone like the Medicine Seller could look anything at all besides bored.

Maybe he just got blissed out just by being outside? Who knows.

"It is..." He sought a description for his perch.

"...Not as damp."

[kartereo]

"No shit," Waver said dryly, pausing to flick the ash off the end of his cigarette. The whole thing felt like talking to the cat from Alice in Wonderland, although Waver knew the reference would be lost on most ears.

"Good view, at least?"

[meds4sale]

"It is much improved for the presence of a mop," the Medicine Seller teased from his lofty perch.

"You are welcome to join me up here if you wish to dry your feet."

It wasn't as though the tree were particularly tall, after all.

[kartereo]

"Little point, as I've got a ways to go," Waver shot back. Besides, this was much, much more entertaining than climbing a tree.

"And I just lit up, so you'd be waiting until I finished my smoke at the very least."

[meds4sale]

"Does your hand not start to ache after a certain distance?"

Out of context it would have seemed a very odd question. One would expect something about aching legs or feet.

But they were, both of them, Rifters.

[kartereo]

"It does," Waver confirmed. "Hence the paper."

He held the map-in-progress above his head, as if the Medicine Seller could actually read what was writing down.

"I'm charting the changes of intensity of that pain."

[meds4sale]

"It would seem we have similar goals," he remarked.

"To see how far this leash goes."

[kartereo]

Waver nodded.

"Where have you covered so far?"

The idea of not having to walk around Skyhold twenty thousand times was an excellent notion, really.

Old Aching Bones

[killedwithlove]

The shard obscures some things, but not the ache and hurt of wanting freedom. Which is the single fastest way to draw Cole's attention, a feeling of being trapped and wanting out.

It doesn't pass his mind that he's being inappropriate when he appears next to the pool of water, crouched and hunkered down, fingers curling over the lip of stone to lean on his hands.

"If you stay with others with shards, you can go further."

He's still got that ridiculous hat.

[meds4sale]

It didn't occur to the Medicine Seller that Cole was being inappropriate either. He was quite used to baths being a social thing even if he weren't the most sociable person around.

He cracked open one eye open. It was, indeed, Cole who had partially confirmed what he was dreading.

Other people tended to get in the way. Worse if those people happened to be the sorts who didn't bother to ask questions and just cut down anything remotely threatening.

So very troublesome.

"That is ... interesting."

Perhaps it worked a bit like adding more rope to a line.

"But what are they anchored to?"

[killedwithlove]

"Not everyone's like that," Cole replies promptly. "Though some people are."

He's becoming more attuned to this individual, which means picking out bits of him through the aura of the shard. Sorry about that.

"... I don't know. I don't understand. It's anchored to you. And itself."

He rocks on his feet, fingers tapping on the stone lip between his feet.

[meds4sale]

That was, indeed, true. The Medicine Seller knew it as a matter of fact, but it was tricky to unravel many centuries of dealing with the dregs of human greed and ambition. Such things left him a little cagey where people were concerned, however warranted his feelings were.

Still, he couldn't sulk about it. It was a nuisance and it meant he couldn't simply go or do as he pleased, but he could play nice if he had to.

"So there is no central force to hold it."

If he understood Cole correctly, it was less like a leash and more like an elastic. It could stretch only so far in one direction or another, and the more directions it was pulled, the more strain it endured.

Snapping it would probably fall somewhere in the vicinity of 'bad'.

"Was it my thoughts that brought you here?"

Cole had mentioned something about liking to help - but then again, maybe spirits here also liked hot springs. At home they had not, by any means, been a pastime solely of humans. Perhaps the same was true of Thedas.

[killedwithlove]

"Not how you're thinking." In Cole's mind, the anchor was the centre and each of them was the anchor. The whole wanted to stay together, even scattered as it was.

He shrugs a little, still watching the soft ripples of the water. "Yes? Mostly. You're more- familiar. Other Rifters are so different, distant. You make more sense. And you were upset about not being able to be free. That matters a lot. I've been trapped. It's-"

He shivers slightly. "No. Not trapped."

[meds4sale]

That was interesting to know. The Medicine Seller could likely guess the number of factors as to why, but he was loathe to give any kind of voice to them beyond what his own work encompassed.

And 'upset' was a terribly strong word. One he was almost as loathe to admit to as any other small, personal details like who and what he was.

Cole's shudder elicited something resembling concern in the Medicine Seller. Something about being trapped seemed to deeply disturb the young man.

"...'Not trapped'?"

[killedwithlove]

Cole manages to smother the keen at the rush of emotion trapped brings, from both the other man and his own feelings on it.

"Trapped is bad. Small space, dark space, pressing in, silence smothering speech and sight and surety." He hunches in more, trembling again. "Cole died in a cell. They trapped him and left him."

[meds4sale]

A slow death in a cell. And judging by this Cole's appearance, the other Cole must have been young. A terrible memory, to be sure.

The Medicine Seller was not generally a man prone to sympathy or compassion. In many cases, people brought suffering on themselves. His job was to clean up the mess. Oftentimes it was very difficult to resist the temptation to say 'Well, maybe if you hadn't murdered a woman in cold blood and threw her off a bridge you wouldn't have a demon ghost hellbent on tearing your face off now would you?'. But it would do little good. There was no helping some people.

This was not the Case for Cole. There was little anyone could do that would justify chucking them in a cage and leaving them to rot. And that seemed to left its effect on the Compassion spirit.

Much like Tamaki's fate had left its mark on the Medicine Seller.

"Was that the Regret that drew you to him?"

baths

[universal_charm]

If there was one thing Kirk could say he liked about Skyhold beyond the people, it was definitely the baths. It was something he didn't even have on the Enterprise - they had water, sure, but it was not quite so free as this, and not nearly so hot. It was just the thing to melt the days aches and pains - a medieval world was not kind to the body he had found.

Kirk's feet slapped across the stone as he made his way to the bath, spying another person ahead of him. After a second he recognized the man who had sold him medicine not that long ago and he made a soft hello as he stepped down into the water.

"Even the medicine man needs some some TLC, huh?"

Re: baths

[meds4sale]

The Medicine Seller, well-used to centuries of feudal society, had found himself quite at home within Thedas - the initial shock of finding himself in another world notwithstanding. But like anyone, he was most at home up to his nose in hot water.

He'd had himself a perfectly good sulk, and was about to doze off for a bit. Kirk's arrival had spared him some mild indignity as he'd been about to sink all the way under when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and quickly righted himself.

Somehow, Kirk's question even got a reaction out of him. It was subtle, just a lift of the brows, but nonetheless, an expression.

"I am not familiar with the acronym, I'm afraid."

[universal_charm]

Drifting off is a hot springs no-no, Medicine Seller! Though it is easy to do, Kirk has been there before, especially after a long day.

His long practice with Vulcans let him catch the slight movement of his brows, though he was unsure how to interpret it as he might have in Spock. At the least the other was not ignoring him, which he took for a good sign.

"Ah, sorry. In my world it means "tender loving care"," he clarified. "There's also R&R which means 'rest and relaxation'. They're basically ways of saying taking care of yourself, or sometimes someone else."

[meds4sale]

He does what he wants Kirk, you're not his mom!

"Ah," the Medicine Seller nodded as Kirk explained.

"Then is it so surprising? I have always considered taking care of oneself conductive to a healthy life. And spring water does wonders for one's skin."

He smiled a little to himself, the desire to doze off now quite gone.

"Even monkeys know the virtue of a good hot spring."

[universal_charm]

It's a captain thing, he can't turn it off!

"That is true - how can you take care of anyone else if you don't take care of yourself?" he agreed and sighed happily as the heat began to sink into his bones, working into his muscles. "Does it? I was in it for my muscles, personally." He slicked his hair back, breathing in the steam and letting it open up his sinuses and clear his head.

"You mean the ones in Japan? Macaques aren't they?"

[meds4sale]

"I've seen some who manage," he said. Though a life of such utter selfless devotion had taken its toll mentally and physically, and by that point he'd had to render his less conventional services.

It was moments like these his thoughts wandered to Ochou.

"I believe I have heard them called that as well. Though in regard to your muscles - did the medicines help?"

[universal_charm]

"Ah - yeah, they did!" he said brightly. "I can't tell you how many knots they helped me work out, and I wasn't stiff at all the next day. Or maybe it was just way less so it didn't feel like anything. I'll definitely be coming to you for a refill when I run out of the current stock."

He ducked beneath the water quickly, coming back up and slicking back his hair.

"I'll be sure to sing your praises to potential customers too."

[meds4sale]

Ah, the advantages of short hair. The Medicine Seller didn't even think of attempting such a thing unless he wanted the precariously pinned up mass to unravel and then spend the next six hours de-tangling it.

"I am glad your health has improved. And that is very kind of you, though you need not put yourself to such trouble."

He wasn't sure if it was a figure of speech or if Kirk intended to literally sing about him. The latter prospect seemed a bit... odd.