i'll face my fears even if it damn kills me

[armd]

WHO: Abby & OPEN
WHAT: Coming through the rift. Making a real splash
WHEN: Both arrival and within the first week of her quarantine
WHERE: Kirkwall (specifically The Waking Sea); The Gallows
NOTES: Swear words galore, mentions of past injuries

arrival.

Tonight Abby's lucid enough to realise she's in her usual nightmare but not enough to stop it from happening, which is both depressing and boring. The hallway is endless even though she knows that it isn't, and she walks down it with her gun in her hands and her heart in her throat. The alarm is so loud she can barely think over the top of it.

The door at the end doesn't reveal a body on the floor. Abby, familiar with the routine, screams like she's seen one anyway even as she takes a step through and falls forward, out into empty, white space. She's still processing the shift when she hits the churning waves of The Waking Sea with an extra yelp, spun around underneath the tide until she barely knows which way is up.

If you're down at the shore you've got the absolute privilege of seeing her dredge up from the water like a drowned rat, shivering and bewildered.

She hasn't even noticed the rage demon looming up behind her as she staggers up onto shore. Still trying to get her bearings. Still half-convinced she's dreaming.

quarantine; week one.

The Gallows are like something out of a book she's read, Gothic and strange and thrilling. The buildings inside of it draw her eye; the Smithy, in particular, where Abby can be found watching curiously as workers hammer out hot metal and shape it into tools, and weapons. She's feeling the uselessness of her 'gun' but she's kept it anyway, perhaps out of habit, strapped to the side of her leg. It's just to feel something, okay, any measure of normalcy in a world where she's found herself kept in a fortress and wearing some kind of loose, cloth shirt and plain trousers held together by drawstring rather than zipper, so. Don't point it out.

The apothecary reminds her of The Once and Future King, comfortably smoky, sweet-smelling, and filled to the fucking brim with little bottles of... stuff, and things. Abby's most intrigued by the potions, though ultimately belligerent with the shop owner when she finds out she can't just. Y'know, have it.

Yeah yeah she's heard about the 'economy'. She doesn't have enough coin for the bottle she's interested in, but that shouldn't matter because-

"I'm supposed to be going out and fighting for you, but you're not going to give me any first aid? What the fuck do I do if something cuts me down out there? Slap a leaf on it?"

Comments

[armd]

"A kit," Abby answers, watching him right back. Her gaze travels over the basket tucked into the crook of his arm, its contents. She has no idea what the Thedas equivalent of a first aid kit is.

At least the shop owner seems relieved that her attention has redirected.

"I fought... things, when I first arrived." Demons, apparently. How the tables have turned. If Lev were here, he'd be laughing. "I can't go outside without something for emergencies."

[venenifer]

"Wise."

This is all he says for a moment, but then the elf gives a little sigh, glancing about the apothecary, making eye contact with its proprietor, and seeming to making up his mind on the spot.

"You're with Riftwatch? Come with me. I'll put one together for you."

[armd]

"... It's common sense." Aren't these people living in wartimes? He's just agreed to help her though, so Abby has to hold her tongue while she nods, and places the potion back onto the counter top with little fanfare.

At least the owner looks relieved at the prospect of seeing the back of her.

"Are you with the medical team?"

[venenifer]

"Yes."

A single nod punctuates the statement, and he extends one thin hand.

"Brother Gideon. Medic and herbalist, and head of Project Haven." Immediately after he says it, he realizes she likely doesn't know what that means, so:
"...Chantry relations."

[armd]

"Abby," she supplies, and takes his hand. Her grip is quite strong, because not for even one second in her life has she ever relaxed, "Good to know you."

Always handy to be in with the medical team. "I actually grew up around doctors."

[venenifer]

Incidentally, neither has he, though Gideon's eyebrows climb at the intensity of her grip. Well then.

"Then you may be of use to us," he posits, beckoning for her to follow, so he can lead her in the direction of the infirmary.
"With only a few mages versed in healing, we rely quite a lot on practical skills. If you know your way around a sickroom, your presence could be quite necessary in the war effort."

[armd]

"... I can try." Look, she'll have a go, but Abby feels very much out of place here. If these people use bottles of 'potion' in order to heal wounds, do they also slap bundles of herbs onto broken legs and tie them up tight, because she isn't going to be able to help out with that at all. She's good at stitches, and she knows basic medical care... anybody bringing something worse than that to the table is shit out of luck.

"I'm guessing that this is a different division from Forces."

[venenifer]

"You'll find it is one and the same, actually."

A wry smile, and Gideon shakes his head as he walks. "Although we may not be marching into battle and spearing our enemies, our role in Forces is to patch up those who are. Both in the field and in our own infirmary."

[armd]

"Oh," Abby says, dumbly, because somebody might have explained that to her before when they were walking her through all of the different divisions, but– fuck if she hasn't had a lot of her mind, recently. Probably got lost in all the exposition.

"Let me have a look at your set-up." She's curious, after all. Especially now that she's seen these potion bottles. "But I can't promise anything."

[venenifer]

The setup, she will find, is likely somewhat distressing for a person with modern sensibilities: there's a rack of potions and tinctures, another shelving unit of powdered herbs and teas, harvested herbs drying on lines on the wall and the sort of equipment needed for medicinal alchemy.

The surgical tools are at least clean and, blessedly, infrequently used due to the presence of a decent number of healer mages; there are bandages, poultice-making supplies, cots to accommodate the ailing, and more than one tea kettle and tray.

"Most of the equipment you'll see is for minor injuries and illness," Gideon points out, taking her through the room, "anything life-threatening is seen to by the resident mages. Those of us without any... extra-natural talents see largely to overall quality of life and maintenance."

[armd]

Yeah... some how it's what Abby expected, and disappointing all at the same time.

"Is this it?" She doesn't touch the surgical tools, laid out neatly as they are, but she does stop to look at them and then at the wider room. There aren't any machines to speak of. This truly is it, the tools and the potions, the herbs and blends and various things in bottles neatly labelled.

Kinda reminds her of the Scar wards back home... maybe they really do think they can make anything better by slapping a leaf onto it. At least this place has actual magic to turn that into a reality.

"Is that what you do if somebody..." she casts around for a moment, trying to think of something that would be difficult to deal with back home if they didn't have the right tools, "Gets an infection? Or catches pneumonia? You treat it with magic, instead of antibiotics?"

a thousand years later i live again

[venenifer]

Furrowing his brow at the unfamiliar word, Gideon shakes his head uncertainly. "...I've never heard the word antibiotics, but yes, infections and the like would be treated with magic. Or surgery, in a pinch, if a poultice with magical qualities won't do the trick."

round of applause!!

[armd]

Holy shit, okay. Well, that puts everything into perspective.

"... Please tell me you've heard of anesthetic," she replies, and she's only half joking.

Re: round of applause!!

[venenifer]

He opens his mouth and closes it again, as if afraid to say anything at all will be walking into a trap.

"...of what," he asks politely, without inflection. He clearly has no idea what she just said.

[armd]

Oh, no.

"... Remind me to never need surgery from anybody here," she mutters, and then clarifies quickly after, "It's a drug that you administer for loss of feeling."

[venenifer]

"I don't see why a sleeping potion shouldn't suffice," Gideon muses, but then, there's little reason to worry about messy surgical procedures when there are more than enough healing mages present.

"...but. Noted."

He doesn't smile.

[armd]

"Oh," Abby says stupidly, wondering why something like that hadn't occurred to her when she was just looking at potions in the apothecary. Maybe because sleeping potions aren't real, except, of course, now they are.

It's so weird. "Yeah, I– guess that would work just fine.

My dad was a doctor," she admits, after a beat. "I'm not used to this all being so different."

[venenifer]

Brother Gideon pauses, looks like he's about to say something-- her dad being a doctor means something to him, but whatever it is, he moves past it.

"You'll get used to it," he replies instead, with a curt little nod, "you're hardly the first to not know what they're doing in our infirmary."
That might be a dig, but it's not clear at whom.

[armd]

Abby catches it too, and raises a brow expectantly when nothing follows his hesitation... but she's fine with letting the point go when nothing comes.

"I know." Besides, it's not as if she works here. It's no concern of hers how the surgeons do their jobs without any equipment. Abby's only looking for something familiar. It's difficult to realise she doesn't get to have it; the comfort would have been a small one, but a comfort nonetheless.

"Yeah?" She chases that remark, because it's easier than saying anything that's on her mind right now, "What's that supposed to mean?"

[venenifer]

"Only that I wish those with limited knowledge would less readily partake of our stores," Gideon answers easily, without any indication that he means her or anyone else specifically.

"It comes with the territory. But as long as you pay attention to what you're doing, and how much you use, it will be fine."

He goes to a cabinet under a rack of herbs, bending to withdraw a little book: "this is where I've catalogued all of our supplies. If you need to use anything, please mark it as taken. Same for if you replenish something."

[armd]

"Anybody's allowed to help themselves?" That's good to know. It makes her feel better about having absolutely nothing on her at least. She has no idea what to do with any of the herbs but a roll of bandages wouldn't go amiss. Needle and thread, for emergencies. Maybe pain killers– nope, if they don't have anesthetic, they probably don't have paracetamol either.

The little book lives underneath the rack of herbs. Abby's committing that to memory. "Of course.

Thanks for the tour. I appreciate it."

[venenifer]

"Just as long as you sign out what you've taken," Gideon repeats, in a tone that sounds almost like warning. He'll notice, if things go missing.

"Welcome to Riftwatch."

Does he mean it? It's difficult to say.