therookery | A warning

Entry tags:

A warning

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Anders, Oghren
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: People are being warned
WHEN: Current!
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Oghren. Blue is Oghren, bold is Anders.

[There's a heavy sigh before he speaks; the first speaker, Anders, might be having some serious regrets.]

We've a new Warden, or rather an old Warden returned to the group, and I've a warning to issue: if you're challenged to a drinking contest with a particularly smelly dwarf, do not take it. The Wardens are not responsible for what happens if you decide to ignore this advice. Honestly, your best bet is to steer clear altoge--what are you drinking now?

[There's some bottles clinking together followed by a loud belch before Oghren speaks up.]

You need some better alcohol. This tastes worst than actual piss. Funny color to it too.

That's not... Maker's breath, Oghren, that's not for gulping down! Put the remnants of the potions down and stop messing with them! If you puke or you die, you better do it outside this tent. I'm not responsible for that either.

[There's more clinking as Anders gathers up what remnants he can.]

What are you going on about? That wasn't ale? [There's a pause.] My ancestors fat tits, what was that, sparkle fingers?

Who would keep ale in the healing tents? That was twenty doses of emetic. Now step outside, because you are not going to get sick in here.

[There's now a grumble and some rustling.] Never heard of keeping something good around for pain. Got to have those potions instead. Can't just have a good ale or something stronger. Got to be... [The sound trails off as he heads outside.]

[There's another heavy sigh. Anders sounds like he's already exhausted when he continues.]

Don't challenge him. Just don't. And if anyone listening cares to bring additional ghoul's beard to the healing tents, I'm in need of it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Did Cole hear the sending crystal announcement? Or does he just know what is needed? Either way, he turns up at the healing tents with a carefully wrapped bundle, virtually appearing next to Anders from thin air.]

I brought ghoul's beard.

[He's startled by Cole's appearance, looking shocked for a moment before he realizes who it is and gives him a smile.]

Thank you. That's exactly what I need after him.

[He jerks his head in the direction of outside, where Oghren can be heard chattering away on the crystal.]

He means well, some of the time. He's just a handful. ...Which I imagine you already know. Here, would you like to see me prepare it while you tell me something interesting you've been up to? It's been some time since we talked last.

I know.

[Of course he knew, Anders, why do you think he's brought you ghoul's beard? Speaking of, he carefully sets it down, proving there's a reasonable haul in there.]

[And then he sits down.]

I don't mind if I watch or not.

I met a Rifter who feels a bit like a spirit, but not. I can't see past the shard very well, but I think maybe he's a spirit medium of some kind in his world. And I climbed around the peak of Skyhold to get the ghoul's beard, it grows up there but it's hard for mortals to get to.

Is it lonely, being in there by yourself?

[Cole's question gets a sad smile.]

Lonely, but more peaceful.

[The Rifter who feels like a spirit might be Iskandar, or not. Considering Iskandar had been a spirit in his world, though, it seems a decent guess to make.]

Not wondering where a thought comes from is... nice. Even nicer than that, is knowing I'm not going to lose control and possibly hurt someone. I miss him. I wish, I wish there had been another way, a way to lead him back to the Fade and let him be there again. But I don't regret this.

[Much. There hadn't been another way, and staying possessed had been getting more and more risky. Sooner or later they would have hurt someone, and likely sooner.

Anders starts rinsing the ghouls beard off in a basin and drying it on a towel before slicing it into very thin strips.]

I didn't realize the shard blocked your senses, but I can see how that makes sense. They're tied to the Rifts and thus the Fade, somehow.

[Peaceful is good. Lonely is just something Cole is used to and assumes most mages are used to, locked away as they are.]

Not Iskandar, but I did meet Iskandar. He was very loud and cheerful. He had a big box and lots of herbs.

It's good to not have regrets. I don't think Justice really regretted it either. Vengeance might have but Justice wants what's right.

[He perches up on a table, legs swinging in no discernible rhythm.]

Not block. It's bright, blinding, so bright I'm deaf. It's hard to see past it. But it's not as brilliant as it was in the Herald.

[He smiles at the description of Iskandar. Loud and cheerful, impossibly cheerful, is completely accurate. Anders has no idea how the guy manages that. The other, that Justice might not have regretted leaving, has him looking back at Cole for a moment, thoughtful. It's a comfort. He'd done so much wrong in taking the spirit in, in working with him, but to know maybe he'd done a right thing is nice.]

Thank you, [he says quietly, and then,] The Herald's was stronger, then?

[Interesting, though he has no idea what that might mean.]

It's not a painful sort of bright and blinding, is it?

[Justice and Anders both did the best they could. By each other and everyone else. Cole sees nothing wrong with that.]

Yes. Blinding. The shards are... less. Bright, but not completely deafening. There's still colour and notes.

I'm sorry.

[It's not his fault, but there's also nothing he can do to help.]

Have you found anything that eases that?

Why?

[He doesn't get it. There's nothing to be sorry for.]

Eases it?

It's sympathy. I wish I could help, but I know I can't.

[There's a sparkle of amusement in his eyes for a moment before it's gone.]

Compassion, as well as sympathy, if you'll allow me the jest. And I'm asking if you've found any circumstances that make it less blinding and deafening, beyond not being in the Herald's hand.

Oh. It's okay. It's not painful, just strange. I can't see them like I can most people. It makes it hard. And they notice me, remember me more.

[That's always unsettling for him. Anders does it, but Anders has been an abomination and he's a spirit healer. Connecting to Compassion is natural for Anders.]

Um... no? Sort of. No, but sometimes I can see past it easier.

[He starts separating strips of ghoul's beard into a few different vials before selecting a bottle of blue liquid and carefully dripping it in.]

You're not comfortable with being noticed and remembered by more? Is it because some of them are afraid of you, or something else?

[At least it seems like the shards aren't actually hurting Cole after all.]

And have you seen a common thread between when you can see past it easier and not?

[Cole is quiet at the first couple of questions. He doesn't think about why he feels how he does, that isn't what he's made to do, he thinks and feels for others.

But Anders asks something much easier and Cole responds to that instead.]

Not yet. Iskandar is... simpler. Like a spirit. he says he is a spirit, but Iskandar isn't a spirit name. Maybe it's like Cole? I can see fragments from The Doctor, btu it's really messy and everything gapes, yawns, hollow and loss that I can't-

[He shakes his head.]

Too much. Even for me.

Mm.

[It's a thoughtful noise as he finishes with the blue liquid and starts poking an elfroot leaf in each.]

If Iskandar was a spirit along the lines as the ones in Thedas, I'd think he was a spirit of exuberance. The Doctor... I've only had the one conversation with him thus far. I didn't know he was another spirit type.

He's not. But he's-

[The shard makes it hard to see. The vastness of him makes it easier.]

Too big for one moment.

Anders, you're a spirit healer. So you use spirits of Compassion to heal people, right?

[That's pretty interesting, but it doesn't sound like Cole can explain. He won't press.]

I... A spirit of Compassion was my first helper, yes. For some time, she was my only. Now I'm working with Mercy. Adelaide still works with Compassion, to the best of my knowledge, and Sam with... Fortitude, I believe.

[The name Mercy makes Cole shrink in a little bit, looking to the side guiltily.]

Is that because Compassion is too weak?

No.

[Anders looks down.]

Spirits have to find enough of themselves in the spirit healer they're working with. They have to be drawn to the spirit healer. I... They're not drawn to me. I've not exactly been... compassionate in some of my dealings. Mercy challenges me but believes I can demonstrate their, their virtue.

[A lot of people think of Compassion as weak, the weakest of the spirits, fleeting and fragile. Cole didn't think Anders thought that way, but asking is easier.]

I know. I think I used to do that. Help people with healing.

I didn't as Mercy. But maybe before...

[He nods, giving Cole a small, sad smile.]

You can help out in the tents, if you missed it. I know you can't heal, exactly, but there's other things that can be done for patients.

I have been helping.

[His voice is soft, like he's not sure he should be admitting it, but it's Anders, so he does.]

A skin of water. The poppy juice they were meant to drink. Honey helps it go down, the sugar softens it on the stomach.

The flies like the fruit, so the spiders make lots of webs.

[Sometimes he doesn't fully get what Cole is saying, not with the spider part, but at least the rest is clear.]

Thank you. I didn't realize you were doing that, but I'm glad you're helping them take their medicine. Some can be... recalcitrant.

[To say the least.]

Are you the spider in this illustration?

[Cole stares at Anders with blank incomprehension and then he points at a spider web in the top corner of the healing hut. The spiders are encouraged, because they spin webs and the webs are valuable for the non-magical healing.]

Spiders. Spin webs.

...Oh.

[Sometimes he looks too hard for metaphor in what Cole says and misses the obvious.]

Right. Sorry. I thought you were... Mm.

["Being you."]

The fruit's not being left in the tent, is it?

[Ants aren't really a problem in the cold like this, most bugs aren't, but he still likes keeping things on the cleaner side.]

[Cole shakes his head.]

No. The fruit is outside where the flies can get it easily. The spiders go where they want. Spider are like that.

A warning

At the Healing Tents

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