[Open]

[meds4sale]

WHO: The Medicine Seller and You!
WHAT: Various starters
WHEN: Throughout March/Drakonis
WHERE: Kirkwall proper and surrounding areas
NOTES: Will update as needed

KIRKWALL

a. The Gallows Living Quarters - Spring Cleaning---

His old room seemed to be unexpectedly intact. It was true that most of the potions and poultices and herbs had either been given to the infirmary or tossed out, and the more expensive tools and knickknacks he'd acquired on his previous adventures in Thedas had been sold. No great loss - the Medicine Seller collected things like a magpie - the room would soon be cluttered with all his nonsense again.

Not that he'd asked about having it back. It had been his before, and he doubted any roommate(s) would appreciate the late nights where he was mixing strange and pungent ingredients. It seemed a good enough reason to him and protocol was not his strong suit anyway.

The only problem was that it looked like it hadn't been dusted in nearly the year he'd been gone. Which was a better state it was in than when he first came here. Silver lining and all that.

The shelves and the low table and desk were vigourously dusted, along with every other corner and crevice of the room. He'd taken a broom and mop to the floor while the thick rugs hung out the windows to have the dust shaken out of them. Cobwebs were swept away and any remaining spiders were gently but firmly sent off into the wide world outside to make their fortune. Within the afternoon, it was spotless, though the same could not be said of the Medicine Seller who looked uncharacteristically dirty and disheveled.

b. The Gallows Library - Bookworm---

The Medicine Seller was not ideal to have in the library. Not because he was particularly noisy or disruptive - on that front he was the perfect guest. The problem was literally everything else. The Medicine Seller's method of research was to pick out every book he found interesting, select one, start reading, come upon something he didn't know or understand, and then get up to go dig up any potential books on the matter, open one up, read until he got to something else he didn't know or understand, rinse and repeat.

Needless to say his workspace was cluttered. And there he was, sprawled out in a comfy armchair, smoking contentedly with the book you need in the absolute mountain of materials he hadn't yet touched.

c. Lowtown Markets - Remedies to Mend---

The Medicine Seller sometimes set up shop here. He had no stall or sign - usually he just picked whatever spot on the side of the road that he could squeeze into and laid out his wares on a cloth. He didn't shout across the market square either - he was quite quiet and demure, simply watching the passersby. That being said, the bottles and jars and boxes and little paper packets were all bright and colourful and strange, that there were a good number who stopped to browse, and even occasionally purchase something.

...Much to the chagrin of the neighboring alchemist who redoubled his efforts in yelling people over to his stall and casting nasty looks to his unwanted neighbor who seemed, for all the world, utterly oblivious.

SUNDERMOUNT

a. Sundermount Base - Sprouting---

Early spring at the foot of the mountain was terribly inviting to someone like the Medicine Seller, and he made regular treks along the deer trails to enjoy the clean air and absence of the city noise. More than just needing to get away from the walls of the city, he also needed to replenish his stock, and many young herbs would be in bloom this time of year. Sighting a bit of greenery from the corner of his eye, his choice to trek out this early in spring was validated.

"Ah... fuki."

No he wasn't swearing. Among the dull grays and browns of the dead or drowsing foliage, there were splotches of vibrant green; butterbur shoots. He uprooted a number of the bulbous shoots, examining each one like it was some precious treasure, before wrapping them in a cloth and stowing them away in the recesses of the medicine pack.

b. South of Sundermount - Hanami (Late Drakonis)---

At this time of year, he'd have made his way north from Okinawa to Hanshu, following the blooming of the trees. He didn't have the luxury of chasing such fancies in Thedas - the anchor in his hand saw to that. Regardless, when he got out the city, he made it a point to take a route where trees were blooming. There weren't many but the Free Marches were far enough north that a few snowy white buds and blooms had popped up in the overgrown orchard of an abandoned farmstead.

It was odd that it had been left so long. The land here seemed good, albeit overgrown. He was no farmer, however. Perhaps something he didn't know had soured the place. Though given that it was wedged between a city of horrors, a mountain of dark tales and half a day's trek to the Bone Pit, it was likely something much more in the Medicine Seller's purview that had kept anyone from reclaiming the property.

But he had time enough to satisfy his curiosity. There was the much more pressing matter that this was the first burst of warmth in weeks, and he hadn't had a smoke all day.

The pipe was produced from the folds of his robe, lit, and the smoke inhaled as he watched the decrepit old farmhouse, his eyes unblinking.

Comments

B

[altusimperius]

"Are you, erm."

The voice comes from behind Book Mountain, and moments later a face peers around it, unamused and a little perplexed.

"...using that." Benedict points to a book on the Veil.

[meds4sale]

"Ah..."

He peered over the rim of the most recent literary acquisition at the book Benedict had indicated.

He peered at it for a good long time as though he weren't sure of the question. It was a whole four subjects behind his current dive into the rabbit hole that was Thedosian history so it was very likely he wouldn't be back to it soon, if ever.

"...If you require it, I doubt I will miss it. Are you researching such matters as well...?"

[altusimperius]

"You might say that."
Taking the response as an invitation, Benedict leans over to pluck the book from its stack, opening it up to flip through and make sure it has what he wants from it. Then, he considers something, and angles his haughty but curious gaze toward the Medicine Seller.

"How did it feel? Coming out of one." A rift, he means, most likely.

[meds4sale]

It was a question asked in what seemed to be good faith and so the Medicine Seller responded in kind.

"Like waking. Not from being asleep but more... like being unconscious. And then hitting one's face on a stone floor and harried by maddened spirits."

And because he was a little shit;

"Do cows truly fly in Minrathous?"

[altusimperius]

A small wince at the mental image of hitting one's face on a stone floor; Bene's done that more times than he'd like to admit, and yet.
The question catches him completely off-guard, and he stares at the Medicine Seller in unmasked incredulity. "What?"

[meds4sale]

"There are many rumours one hears," he said by way of explanation.

"This one was more intriguing."

You could only hear so much about ritual human sacrifice and live-baby-eating before things got exhausting. Tevinter was not without its problems but some things were just ludicrous.

a haunted farmhouse

[notched]

She's come out of the city to stare at the mountain and think about lost things. She had left her sister, Grace, behind in the mountains they had grown up in. They had lurked around the grounds of a nunnery where they could be fed, around the stables of farmers at the base, in the sheds of woodcutters, at the edges of streams. She'd left that behind for Yharnam and had long since forgotten what it was like to come out the gates in the Spring.

Some anonymous letterer had told her to mourn such things, but the memories of her childhood are just one set of casualties beneath a great pile of bodies. It was such an unpleasant idea to go digging in to the rot to find Grace. She had left her sister in the mountains to find her a cure, and then had never come back. She had left her sister to die in the mountains.

She bundles herself into her dark leathers and turns her back on it, wandering away to the South until she sees the medicine seller in bright robes. There could not be two more different travelers. She hesitates, not given to bothering herself with strangers for the sake of it, but she does have on inquiry,

"Are you a Rifter?"

He must be, really.

[meds4sale]

He'd not heard her coming until she was a few yards away. He didn't startle, exactly, but there was a brief tensing in his hands. Kirkwall was a dangerous place - not more or less dangerous than wandering the open roads as he'd always done - but it was not without its share of cutthroats and ne'er-do-wells.

He exhaled a plume of smoke and turned his head at the question.

"I am."

He offered her the pipe in the hand with the shard that marked him.

"...And so are you."

[notched]

"Aye," she agrees. She sweeps her large hat off her head, letting her dark tangles of hair loose around her face. She sweeps that back with a gloved hand too. If nothing else, she is getting used to existing as more than just the series of muscles which operated beneath this armor. She can handle showing her face, from time to time. Her large dark eyes and the pouting set of her mouth give her a look that is vulnerable and young, a contrast to clearly well-worn leathers stained dark with blood and char-- stinking of it too.

"May I?" she touches the dip of the pipe with one glove fingertip. There were many luxuries she had forgotten in the dream, sensations she had let slip from her consciousness. She can't even remember the last time she tasted tobacco. Faint memories rise in her of breathing the smoke out into a rain, huddled close to another Hunter against the cold. Who had that been? Someone dead. Someone gone.

[meds4sale]

"Mm. It is why I offered."

He watched with the usual quiet, unblinking scrutiny he had. He wasn't a mind-reader - his life would be much easier were that the case - but he did have a sense for people.

She was young. Probably no older than thirty, but her clothes and expression wore the haggard look of someone who had experienced too much in too short of a time. He'd seen it sometimes in the humans who were closer to that murky gray area between spiritual and physical.

"You should be careful. There may be something wrong with this place."

[notched]

She slides the pipe carefully from his hand. It's a pretty thing, she would hate to damage it. She feels that such pretty things do not suit her, but she remembers Hunters who had loved their intricate tobacco pipes almost as dearly as their sidearms. There was something purposeful and ritualistic to it which many a Hunter found favor with, when resisting the call of the beast.

She gazes out at the farmhouse through the little puffs of smoke she exhales. It was the worst, when the Veil thinned over the Gallows, but she still often sees hints of things she wishes she wouldn't. Blue flickerings of the world beneath the world. She hopes it does not become worse, hopes she never quite attunes to the magic in this world.

She carefully returns the pipe. "You're right, I think so."

lowtown - remedies

[wont_be_me]

She's been looking for him. It wasn't that hard really, he stood out. He'd stood out then, he stands out now. While he could easily have ditched all his finery and blended in with the elves, she hadn't taken him for the type. Unlike herself really. She's changed her clothes and looks like any other Thedosian human woman.

"I have a list," she tells him without a more proper greeting.

[meds4sale]

The woman who'd ruined the bear gall bladder - now this was interesting. He'd almost not recognized her for the change in attire.

"Of course," he said in that aggravatingly slow way of his. Perhaps drawing it out to be a spiteful little shit. But he held out an elegantly manicured hand for the list.

"May I see?"

[wont_be_me]

She puts a scrap of paper into his hand. The majority of the list is taken up by essential oils: lavender, tea tree, cedarwood, clove, orange. A few other odds ends.

"Your type of stock?"

She could easily ask any of these other vendors, but she's keen to reject the clearly inferior local population.

[meds4sale]

He read the list carefully, mentally ticking off each ingredient in his head.

"Many of these, yes. Though some of these do not exist in Thedas or are from so far away, they are prohibitively expensive."

He opened the bottom draw of his medicine box, and, piece by piece, he seemed to come up with several bottles and jars of oils, lye, and even a large corked leather flask of purified water that should, in no way have been able to fit in the drawer on its own, let alone with other items.

"I can, of course, suggest adequate substitutes. You intend to make soap, yes?"

[wont_be_me]

"Your suggestions would be invaluable," her flattery is sickly sweet and aggressive. She's not a nice a woman, which he already knows all too well. "The sustainability of the stock matters to me. I want to market the soap once the recipe is confirmed."

Not nice, but industrious, aware of supply chains. Also concerned with and knowledgeable of hygiene.

lowtown.

[indissection]

If anyone were to seem desperately out of place in Lowtown it would be Sidony Venaras - who approaches the alchemists and herbalists of this area with a sense of noble practicality that ties in quite nicely with the soft silk of her gown and the clear aristocratic air she carries. She seems like the sort of woman that might be easily mugged here, but she does not carry a purse somewhere obvious and has a dagger resting with her fingers flexing over the hilt, just in case.

She is no fool. At least, not fool enough to be entirely unprepared.

The new wares catch her eye and she steps over, darting carefully around the people who hover nearby to peek at his wares, head tilting before she purses her lips and speaks.

"And what do you call this?"

[meds4sale]

It was rare he saw such an obvious aristocrat stop by his little set-up in Lowtown, so few of his wares were any of the superfluous perfumes, essential oils beauty creams or aphrodisiacs he price-gouged the Best and Brightest residents of Hightown for.

Still, he lowered his head in an unmistakable bow.

"Medicine, of course," came his simple reply.

"Though I have incense and other aromatics stowed away, if that is your preference."

[indissection]

Her nose wrinkles immediately at what she takes as a dismissal of her worth. Sidony has a little money to her name, some of the gold that was left with her when she had fled from Nevarra, but she doesn't feel inclined to spend it here if this is how she is going to be treated.

It does not, of course, occur to her that she might look the part of the typical aristocrat and it was a fair assumption to make.

"I do not care about the aromatics," she shakes her head, hair curling around her. An idle hand comes to thread through it, pushing it from her face. "What medicine do you have?"

[meds4sale]

A small smile crept into his thin lips, the purple markings and unchanging stare making it seem more a smirk. His tone was, as ever, cold and level.

Too bad for her - his incense was of excellent quality.

"Many kinds. Though on display are only simple remedies for common ailments. Those that can be administered easily."

He folded his hands in his lap, watching her expression with the frigid, unblinking stare.

"Should you require something more ...complicated, you will have to tell me what specifically you are looking to treat."

[indissection]

Sidony isn't sure if she likes this, if she appreciates the way that he looks at her, the markings on his face almost elven - but that's from the point of view of someone who has had very little interaction with the Dalish and as little desire to do it.

Her arms cross over her chest and she frowns, intent.

"I am not the kind of person people come to for common ailments."

She scoffs, head tilting, eyes narrowed.

"I am a surgeon. I want anything you have that might interest me on that front."

Sprouting

[justice_is_blond]

"Come again? And... welcome back." He's not certain why the guy is swearing at the plants, though at the noise Anders had certainly been quick to grab for his staff in case spiders were springing out of nowhere. It's not an unusual event out here.

Now he can breathe again and resume picking his own plants, the elfroot tucked here and there. "If you like being back, that is, welcome back. Otherwise, my apologies that you're returned to Kirkwall. It's not my favorite city."

[meds4sale]

"It has its charms," he said, with a glance over his shoulder as he dug up a few more shoots.

Kirkwall was, indeed, the kind of place he actually liked. Interesting sights, interesting smells, interesting history, and all manner of mischief he could get into.

"Fuki," and he emphasized the 'oo' sound as he'd just realized how it might have sounded, "Or butterburs - are useful in medicine. The leaves are also quite good battered and fried."

Not quite as good as sweet, fried tofu but one must take the little victories.

"Have you and your husband been well, Anders?"

[justice_is_blond]

"My husband has been reassigned," he says quietly, leaning over to take a closer look at what the Medicine Seller is picking now. Food and medicine is an impressive combination, and that's not a plant he's heard of before. That makes for a good distraction for how he feels about being left behind.

"What's the medicinal use of... Fuki?" He's fairly certain he's said it right. Butterburs would be easier, and he'll stick with that in the future, but knowing all the names of something can save lives. "And how have you been?"

[meds4sale]

That was a terribly unfair thing to have happen, he thought.

"My apologies - you both seemed happy together. I hope he returns to you, hale, whole and soon."

He laid the butterbur shoots in another cloth (light pink with floral patterns) and wrapped them up, offering them to Anders.

"An extract from the root is very efficient at preventing severe headaches," he explained,very carefully dodging any question about how he's been. Abent, somewhere in the Fade, unaware of a year passing. "The leaves are good for stomach and bladder troubles, though they must be treated properly. Not doing so will cause liver trouble with extensive use."