RIFTER ARRIVAL: Guardian 9:45

[faderifting]

WHO: New rifters, rescuers, and anyone else
WHAT: New arrivals are collected and transported to Kirkwall
WHEN: Mid-Guardian, 9:45
WHERE: The hills north of Starkhaven
NOTES: This log contains prompts for the ARRIVAL and RECOVERY of new rifters, as well as the subsequent QUARANTINE period. All prompts are open to anyone.

Comments

The Medicine Seller - OTA

[meds4sale]

I. Arrival

Oh. This again?

He felt the rush of deja-vu as consciousness flowed back into his mind, like the lazy lap of waves on a summer shore. It was all so very familiar - he'd arrived in a cave last time too, hadn't he?

He cracked open his eyes, and it was, indeed, a cave, though not the one he'd first arrived in. Or at least not the same part - he didn't remember there being any structures inside last time.

He gradually got to his feet - a difficult task when every nerve felt like it was on fire - especially in the palm of his hand. But something felt ...wrong. The dim gloom of the cave, the sickly green glare from the rift...

...Something was missing - he was forgetting something.

It was the crackling of electricity that alerted him to the pride demon behind him before his sense sluggishly caught up. Instinctively his hand reached out as though to stop the attack, though no sort of magic barrier seemed to be erected.

Seemed being the operative word.

The electricity crashed on the unseen barrier like waves on a rocky shore - the force of it so great that the push back caused the skin of the Medicine Seller's palm to split.

He scoured the area around him - there would be others, and indeed there were, in varying states of consciousness. And... yes, he recognized the symbol - the Inquisition was here too.

How fortunate.

"Try to rouse the others. Should they fall off the side, it will be their end," he said calmly to the nearest person, as though he were remarking mildly on the weather. Folded bits of paper appeared between his fingers as he surveyed the area around the rift. Two pride demons, and at least six wraiths - on his own he could buy a few minutes with the barrier, even reinforced with his ofuda.

"...This might be troublesome."

II. Recovery

a. After the Battle

He found his medicine pack mercifully intact by an outcropping of rocks. Many of the contents were scattered about, some even lost to the yawning chasm below, though much to his relief his sword and tiny legion of scales were all accounted for. Perhaps in many years time, some excavators would find the little books of shunga far, far below. Or maybe a darkspawn would happen upon them and would be inspired to invent darkspawn erotic woodcuts, whatever those might wind up looking like. Most likely, however, they'd just be lost to time and no one would know the joys of such masterpieces as 'woman having sex with giant mushroom'.

He'd shed a tear for the loss if his face had the capacity for any expression more strenuous than dull surprise.

The Medicine Seller recovered what hadn't been destroyed, though there may be a stray box of medicinal herbs, a few packets of various powders, or book of elegantly rendered depictions of imaginative intercourse.

b. The Thaig

This was the first time the Medicine Seller actually saw proper Dwarven architecture and it was... interesting to say the very least. He took a few rubbings of the old carvings in the stone - time had worn much away but some were still prominent. He didn't know their significance. There was a brief pang of regret as his hand brushed over some ornamentation along a broken support pillar and he wondered if Kit were here, would he know?

He carefully folded the rubbings and stowed them in his box - it would give him something to investigate in the library in what he suspected was going to be a long stay in the Gallows before the Inquisition gave some slack on his proverbial leash. And there was an interesting patch of mushrooms wedged between the ruins of one of the houses and those required his immediate attention.

c. On the Road Again

During the day, the Medicine Seller kept largely to himself, riding in the back of the cart or helping to tend to any injured where his particular skills were needed.

At night, he had a habit of wandering off briefly. Not much more than half an hour on a 'toilet break', and returning with a cloth full of green shoots and tiny, edible mushrooms. Maybe a fish if they were near a stream.

He had set up a small cooking fire and whatever he had simmering in the little pot over it smelled heavenly. For all his elaborate attire, the Medicine Seller was clearly not a stranger to living rough.

after the battle

[wont_be_me]

Dumped on a new world with not a single item she might've contemplated useful, she is already beginning to... pick up things. She's not entirely unlike himself, she knows the value of trade. Where and what it can get you. Unlike the medicine seller, who made efforts to procure good ingredients and stock... She just tended to steal it, or con it out of people. She's holding one of his boxes, investigating it thoughtfully. What are the chances... she just gives it back...

[meds4sale]

Probably quite low zilch, but that doesn't stop the pale, perfectly manicured hand being extended, palm up and expectant.

"I beg your pardon," came the accompanying slow, flat tone, "but that is mine."

[wont_be_me]

"Is it?" We're only inches away from someone childishly asserting: I don't see your name on it. Somehow she resists, instead lolling the box in one hand, tossing it up lightly, letting it clatter back into her palm.

"Would you like to trade me for it?"

[meds4sale]

He seemed almost amused by the proposition. The box itself wasn't particularly valuable - polished wood with a decent hinge and lock, but the medicine it contained was quite a headache to make.

"Oh?"

The Medicine Seller smiled. He did not have a particularly nice smile - it was small and thin and the markings on his upper lip, coupled with the unchanging cold stare made it look more like a smirk.

"Forgive me for assuming. ...However. You do not seem like the sort of person who would need what is inside."

[wont_be_me]

His unfriendly looks remind her of every alien trader she's ever pissed off on a space station. She has made this play before-- it is one of her favorites-- making herself a problem, and making placating her the path of least resistance.

"My needs aren't the topic," she answers cheerfully.

[meds4sale]

He'd dealt with thieves before, and he'd dealt with people who thought they were much more clever than they actually were, and he'd certainly dealt with a combination of the two. His medicine pack and its myriad of treasures were a source of curiosity and temptation for many. Which is why it was ridiculous that she was holding onto a simple wooden box where he'd stored a bear's gallbladder.

Unless this was a game.

His gaze wandered briefly to the healers and the injured to see if he needed to end this now - there were a few soldiers and mages who'd been injured, bloodied and slumped with harried healers fussing over them.

...They'd be fine.

"Is that so? Then if you do not need it, please return it."

[wont_be_me]

It's always a game with Carla, and only she ever seems to know the rules. One moment you think you've finally wiped that smirk off her face and made it to the end of it, but then she'll be grinning again. It's hard to tell what she actually cares about, and what she does just to stir things up. Or was stirring things up all she cared about.

"Call it a finder's fee," she proposes, tucking the box in against her hip. "It could have just as easily been lost in the dark, entirely."

That could still be arranged.

[meds4sale]

"Medicine sellers are not so rich," said the man decked head to toe in brightly coloured silks and jewelry.

"I can offer you something useful, though you should not hold the box like that, or else..."

And something damp and sticky and stinking of bile oozed out the crack in the lid.

"...It will start to leak."

[wont_be_me]

She holds it up by one end, and watches it drip without any apparent gesture of regret.

"Disgusting," she observes, although there's also no particular disgust in her voice. "What was that about something useful?"

[meds4sale]

"...Something useful."

He offered a square of plain fabric, perhaps pulled from the voluminous sleeves with a bit of sleight of hand.

"You should wipe your hand. The box and its contents are quite useless to the both of us now."

Alas. Fortunately, bears seemed to spawn from all places in Thedas - maybe he could get another fresh gallbladder another day.

1.a

[arlathvhen]

Beleth finds the book first. It's not the first time random objects have been violently expelled from a rift, and as she walks through the area, trying to assess the damage from the fight, she curiously flips through it. The language is unknown to her, but luckily, there are pictures, and--Oh.

Oh.

There are a few seconds where she stares at the book in flustered surprise, tilting her head slowly as she tries to figure out how someone would get their legs in that position--Then she slams the book closed and quickly looks around, checking to make sure there are no witnesses to her salacious discovery.

That is when she sees the Medicine Seller.

"Glaewron!" Her first reaction is cheerful surprise. There have been a few rifters who returned after disappearing, but there is no rhyme nor reason to it, and she learned not to expect it. But here he is, and--Creators, she's still holding the book. Panic and pure embarrassment hit her at once, and she does the first thing she can think of--tossing the book to the ground behind her. Book, what book??

"You're--um. You're back!"

[meds4sale]

The Medicine Seller watched as one of his books arced gracefully through the air, and then bounced unceremoniously off the stone into a puddle. Somewhere, a thousand museum curators collectively went:



Rest in fucking pieces, Isoda Koryusai.

"It does seem to be that way," he said, rising from where he was bent over the box, to greet her with a bow of his head.

"It is good to see you again, Beleth."

[arlathvhen]

Well, he should have thought of the consequences when he wrote such a SCANDALOUS book.

A book which Beleth is grateful that the Medicine Seller doesn’t acknowledge. Did she actually manage to hide it? She decides not to ask questions she doesn’t want to know the answers to, and instead focuses on the more important topic at hand.

"It's good to see you, as well. You were certainly missed, I didn’t think...." Well, I didn’t think I'd ever see you again seems a bit melodramatic, and too intense. After all, he’s right here. She’s seeing him. That's what counts. So she just shrugs, instead. "I'm glad you're back." Which...is probably a bit self-serving, since it means he was dragged back out of his world to come here. Ugh, whatever.

"I hope the demons didn’t give you too much trouble?"

[meds4sale]

It might have sounded self-serving to anyone else, but the Medicine Seller was a man with neither name nor home. As far as he was concerned, Thedas was a good a place as any to do what he always did.

He was, however, a little taken aback when Beleth said he was missed. The Medicine Seller was not accustomed such sentiments. In the rare cases his reputation preceded him, he was viewed as an ill omen. When he left, any survivors were usually glad to see the back of him.

The change in his expression was as quick to vanish as it appeared.

"They are troubling, but less troublesome than I remember. Did you sustain any injuries?"

[arlathvhen]

If Beleth notices the change, she doesn’t mention it. Rather, she focuses on a quick onceover of her person, in case any rogue injuries have gone unnoticed. "No, I'm quite alright. I dare say I've weathered worse of late." It's said in a tone that indicates it’s a joke, but the tense, weary look on her face when she says hints that there’s more to it than humor.

"It's probably a good thing that you've been away, honestly. There's so much that's been going on, and I'd hate for you to have gotten hurt. Especially in the recent battle, that was—" The tense look turns into an outright grimace, rubbing her arm, as if the very thought of it pained the injuries she'd gained that day. "—It was bad. No one escaped unscathed, and we lost a lot of people. And that was after a bunch of people got stuck in Tevinter in the middle of a coup..."

Beleth sighs, shaking her head. "It really doesn’t stop around here. Which is thrilling for you to hear, I imagine. But—" Suddenly remembering that she's a Leader, and Leaders need to be Strong, she straightens up. "—Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on you."

What a relief.

[meds4sale]

"A battle...? My goodness."

He doesn't sound thrilled to hear it. Rather the opposite, but by now it should be clear that the stones around them are probably more adept at emoting, so the dull monotone could mean anything from sympathy to amusement.

"It sounds as if you have the world on your shoulders. I cannot take your burden, though I can mix a tonic that is good for calming the nerves."