ataraxion | first quest § video

[ The video comes on to show a... wall. It's a nice wall. One of the passenger room walls, pretty plain. Then Aragorn turns it around.

He's sitting at the edge of the bed and almost literally covered in blood. It's even more obvious because his shirt is gone - the top half of his jumpsuit is torn into pieces, and blood covers the left side of his chest. Half of the shredded rags from his jumpsuit are in his handss, and he's wrapping them slowly around his shoulder. That's where all the blood is coming from. It looks to be slowing down, though.

The other half is bound around the wrists and ankles of the man on the bed. Those who have met him when he first came would recognise Errol Partridge, dressed in his heavy Cleric's uniform. He's unconscious, but it's not an easy sleep - his head shifts from side to side, and half-formed words escape his lips.

Aragorn is entirely calm as he fixes his eyes on the camera. ]

I need athelas. In the Common Tongue of my world, it is named kingsfoil. It is a small shrub with dark green leaves and white flowers. The oxygen garden is too dangerous to enter right now, but if there are any who have a few leaves, I will be grateful.

[ He inclines his head towards the camera. ]

Thank you. [ He grabs hold of one of his makeshift bandages with his teeth and pulls it tight around his shoulder before he reaches out and switches off the video. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Restlessness turned into waking without warning, Errol starting out of his sleep into wide eyed wakefulness, every muscle tense. The effects of the poison were as strong now as they were before, but it took a few seconds for the fear to sink in fully.

Blood. There was blood everywhere. He'd witnessed enough massacres that it wasn't new, and yet all he could see were bodies. Bodies that he'd put there; bodies with vacant eyes, crashed against walls and bent out over furniture, twisted into shapes they would never take in life. ]

No!

[ Aragorn is turning around just as Errol wakes, and he immediately drops whatever he's doing. He reaches out and presses his hands against Errol's shoulders, slamming him onto the bed as Aragorn looms over him, filling his vision with his own visage.

His shoulder screams, but he does not address it. ]

You are safe, son of Libria. [ Quietly. It's a manner of reminder to himself, the address he uses. ] There is nothing to fight against here.

[ Errol is strong, and Aragorn has been weakened by his wound, but for a moment sheer panic overcomes him and there's no order to his resistance, so he's easy to overwhelm. ]

Can't you see them? Don't you see what I've done?

[ The panic fell into order the same way as it always did, and he resisted by driving his head straight up into Aragorn's wounded shoulder, as hard as he could from the low angle, with the hands on his shoulders. ]

[ Aragorn cries out sharply at the bright-blossoming pain, spots of red appearing in front of his eyes. Blood seeps even further through the cloth. But he was used to worse pain, worse bloodloss, and he blames this man not. There is poison in this man poison that he needs athelas to draw out of him, and Aragorn can only try to hold him down.

He raises his voice. ]

Heed my words, Errol! There is naught here but us. Calm yourself.

[ It is a healer's instinct, a healer's trick, but Aragorn starts to sing, trying to draw Errol's attention away from what he sees to Aragorn's own voice, quiet in song. He sings of the song that this man never fails to remind him of. ]

Through Rohan over fen and field where the long grass grows,
The West Wind comes walking, and about the walls it goes.
'What news from the West, O wandering wind, do you bring to me tonight?
Have you seen Boromir the Tall by moon or by starlight?'

first quest § video

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