Laughing at Last

Temple of Daeus, mid-morning.

The quietude of the room is almost a palpable thing, and with Zeke gone, only a few clerics have come and gone in the hours that have passed. Andelena has been spelled as necessary to give her the breaks that she needs, and Dolan does not appear to have woken from sleep. He was clear on a point when he went to sleep - that he intended to dreamwalk with Daeus' totem tonight, looking for a few answers. All to this point has been quiet -

Until without warning, there's a gasp from the bed. Dolan's lone brown eye snaps open sightlessly, and without a word, he _throws_ himself, restraint and all, rolling sideways right out of the bed and landing, _hard_, on the stone floor, his left shoulder. There's a sharp *pop*!, lost in his scream of pain as the restraint holding his arm to his body slips under the force of the blow, leaving him shuddering, bare skin against stone that thankfully isn't all that cold.

GAME: Andelena rolls Heal: (18)+9: 27

Andelena was in the middle of reading a book when she hears the gasp. Steel-grey eyes lift up from the page, followed by a concerned eyebrow raise--and then /everything/ happens as she rises from her stool, the book left behind a little carelessly on the table as she sees Dolan land on the floor, her arms already raised on instinct as he rolls. But of course, she's nowhere fast enough to catch him, and she winces as she hears the pop.

"Gods damn it, no," Andelena mutters as she kneels down on the floor with him. "Bry! Bry, you're okay, you're in the Temple. It's me, Andie. I gotta--I gotta touch you. I need to lift you back up into bed and treat you from there." The floor is no place to administer healing.

As Andelena hovers over Dolan, there's a call down the hall, mostly unheard through the door. However it is promptly followed by a knock, and one of the paladin's opening the door a crack. "There's an Ahuora-nar here to see you? Everything alright?" This last is slightly more concerned.

"I'm here, Andie." Bry's voice is very, very sane, clear, and focused, although he gasps for breath as he shifts. "Fuck. Those fucking chains. Shouldn't have - shouldn't have tried that." He is quite clearly in considerable discomfort. "Do - do what you need, baby. I'm all right."

Even at a cursory glance, that's nonsensical, and yet the brown eye is clear. "Give us a minute. Knight's balls, that hurt."

There's a small sense of relief in Andie's eyes as Dolan responds as himself, but it's quickly overwritten with concern for the words that Dolan mutters. "Okay, let me get you up," she says, carefully maneuvering Dolan into her arms and onto the bed without causing him more pain.

"Dealing with it! I might need another healer's help if you've got healing magic, but do /not/ come in here and touch him," she orders the paladin that's poking in through the door, before she turns her attention to Bry's shoulder again. "Damn. Hold on, I /think/ I can manage..."

A prayer of restoration passes from her lips, the one that she knows she can do without issue, asking the Knight for his aid.

GAME: Andelena casts Lesser Restoration. Caster Level: 5 DC: 15

Unfortunately the spell has little effect on the injury itself, but the paladin at the door nods uncertainly. "Give the door a knock when you're ready; or if you decide you need a healer. We'll send for one." The door closes.

Doing so without causing him more pain is not in the cards, but wrestling him back into the bed is doable. The spell doesn't seem to help all that much, but when he's settled again, still breathing hard, sweat beading on his brow, he grits his teeth. "Andie, just go ahead and fix it," he grates out. "I can hold out until Zeke gets back. I - I got used to it. I'm okay. Do it."

He waits a moment, then says, "Did he say Auranar was here? Damn it. Cover me up at least, baby she doesn't need to see that."

Andelena grits her teeth together as the spell doesn't work, and at Dolan's request to simply do it manually. "Sorry, babe," she says, helping him out of the restraint. She puts her hand on the shoulder and pops it back into place, wincing as she does. It's painful for her, but surely not as painful as it is for him, and once she gets him back into the restraint, she gets the sheet and covers him back up.

"Yeah, Auranar. Sorry--all of my focus was on you," Andelena admits a little sheepishly. "You sure you're in the mood for receiving guests? If you really are, I'll have them let her in."

The whole process is quite agonizing for Dolan, and he does let out another cry when it snaps back into place. Having the padded immobilizer does seem to help, but his head is swimming all the same by the time she pulls sheets and blankets back up over him, and he tries to tug the blanket up a little more, to cover a little more of himself. It won't work that well.

By the time his breathing has evened back out, the shoulder is starting to discolor and swell again, but he nods. "I - I'm okay. I won't move. Promise, baby. I'm sorry. Go ahead and let her in. I don't want her to worry."

Andelena's lips press together into a thin line as she looks at the swelling shoulder--as well as Dolan's insistence that he's fine. But she nods. "Alright," she says, "but I think I'll need to send word to Zeke or to get a better healer in here shortly. I don't think there's much I can do on my own for that."

She walks back over to the door and opens it. "Ey! Auranar can come in now," she says.

The door opens to allow Auranar entry and she slips inside with a somewhat short look for the paladins outside. She doesn't let the expression linger long on her features, instead putting on a smile as she looks over Dolan and Andelena. The smile slips only a little around the edges when she looks at Dolan, but she continues on. "Hey! I brought some biscuits, but they wouldn't let me bring them in. I guess the baked goods will have to wait until you're well enough to go home."

GAME: Dolan rolls bluff: (3)+3: 6

"It's fine, baby. I'll hold out," Dolan is saying as Andelena answers, then turns his head to look over at her with his one eye. The other is an empty steel-and-bronze socket with tiny latches and levers in it, set against the scarring down the right side of his face. It's easy to see now that the gem distracts from the scarring, because it looks so much worse as it is.

"Baby, you mind putting in my eye for me?" he asks Andelena gently. "It's fine, Auranar. I can't wait to try them."

He's trying to put on a face, with all of his usual skill at hiding anything. It's not working. There's a haunted look in that brown eye, and whatever happened in there when Auranar showed up, it wasn't good, because he appears to be in considerable discomfort.

"Yeah, babe, I can get that for you," Andelena replies, finding the artificial eye in its usual covering and retrieving it, putting it in for him as he taught her how to do by twisting and twirling it into the socket. Once she's done, she gives Dolan a soft smile.

She turns to Auranar and nods. "Sorry about that. We're running a tight ship here. One person in here at a time, not much else." Then her expression becomes more sober and serious. "A couple of rules. Don't touch him, and don't talk about the vampire. And if I ask you to leave--nothing personal, honest. I'm just doing what he needs."

Auranar keeps her eyes on the couple of tea pots on the bedside table as Andelena returns Dolan's prosthetic eye to its place. She knows that he doesn't like her seeing him without it, and she tries to respect that by not staring. When Andelena is done she offers the pair a faint smile and her eyes flicker over his bared chest before she can stop herself. "Sure. I can do that. Um... How are you doing?" She motions to one of the stools. "Can I sit?"

Dolan is very, very still while the eye is put in place, and once her hand is pulled away, his flesh and blood eye blinks quickly, revealing for a moment that his vision has to adjust. "Yeah, go ahead," he answers on the matter of sitting, keeping his face turned towards the women in the room. "Been better," he tries on with a short laugh. At least he's not attempting to hide or lie about it, although the attempt at humor using massive understatement falls almost as flat.

The curious basketweave of scars across his chest rises and falls as he breathes, but he doesn't look at it. "What about you and Verna?"

Andie is trained on Dolan's face and his shoulder as he talks. "Yeah, stools are for sitting," she confirms Dolan's notion, but she still is looking at him, like she's trying to determine something. Then finally, she looks at Auranar. "And how's the wedding prep going? I've been doing research for our own, but that'll wait until after Bry is all better."

Auranar sits down, soothing her skirts into place and making herself as comfortable as she can on the stool. She splits her attention between Dolan and Andelena. "Verna is doing well enough, she mentioned that she came by for her own visit so..." A quick half-smile. "The wedding preparations are... Frustrating. My grandmother is up in arms because I changed the location of the ceremony but... With things as they are I wanted something a little closer to home."

"You set a date?" Dolan blurts out, surprised, his right arm coming out of what he'd managed to tug up of the blanket to rest outside of it, the fingers reaching in Andelena's direction. "When? And why? Where did your grandmother want it?"

Andelena notices Dolan's fingers coming out, and she smiles gently. She brings her arm closer to him, giving him the option of holding onto it or holding her hand--either one seems to be just fine to her.

"Bry and I know a bit about... upset relatives, although I don't know if your grandmother and my mother are anywhere in the same club or if they just attend adjacent embroidery circles," Andelena replies to Auranar with a small smile. "Y'publish it in the Tribune? I haven't looked at that rag in... shit, like a week or two now."

The conversation has Auranar smiling as she comes up with answers for their many questions. "We were going to do the ceremony in Llyronst because that's what grandmother wanted to do, but I want to invite all our friends. I feel like everyone should be there if they can make it. So we changed the location and we're doing it in Alexandria now. Soon." She smiles softly. "Verna put it in the Tribune yes, then updated it when we changed the venue. I don't think I know anything about your mother Andelena. So I'm not sure if they have similar issues or not myself."

The mobile half of Dolan's face falls when Auranar mentions Llyranost, and he reaches for and grasps Andelena's hand, holding it gently. "I'll be there." It's not a question, but suddenly he looks over at Andelena, wide-eyed. "Mama and Papa." Sudden worry is clearly there. "Are they still in Alexandria?"

"You are /not/ worrying about that right now, Bry," Andelena tells Dolan flatly and with a certain steel-grey Look that suggests: /no sir, you are not doing anything about that today nor tonight/. But she gives him a squeeze of the hand. "Promise, it's handled. They're back on the farm now."

She looks at Auranar. "If it's in Alexandria, then yeah, I'll be there with Bry. As for my mother: she's nobility, but the kind of nobility who thinks that means everyone and anything without a silver spoon in their mouth is completely beneath her. I figure that's probably not your grandmother's deal--kind of sounds like it's a tradition thing happening there."

Auranar looks at Dolan a bit worriedly, but seems to relax when Andelena indicates that his parents are fine. She ducks her head a little. "It's a bit like that I guess? My grandmother is the steward of my family Curuchuil... which doesn't have a good translation to any human customs. But imagine a very special tradition of planting trees and other plants for births and unions. I... nothing was added to it when I was born, because my grandmother was too distraught at the time so..." She shrugs absently.

"Like Lana's." Dolan's understanding is immediate, and although he squeezes her hand back, it appears to distract him from the topic of his own family. "Hers wasn't planted, though. Hers was a tattoo. Sounds like a different tradition." He seems to take this in stride, but continues to watch Auranar. "So now I guess she wants to make up for lost time, yeah?"

Andelena looks thoughtful. "I had no idea about that custom," she says. "That sounds pretty interesting. The garden must be pretty darn ancient--and expansive. Wow." There is an actual sense of awe in her voice, presumably trying to picture what an old garden maintained like that through time must look like.

Then she seems to remember herself--the last remark that Auranar has sending her back to reality. "It sounds like... a chance to mend some old family pains," she says. "If possible."

Auranar stares at her hands. "Not really." She murmur's quietly in response to Dolan's question. "She ah... Tried to convince me that we didn't need to add anything at all. I keep trying to reach out to her but..."

She trails off and then forces herself to look up. "I'm sorry. I came here to try and cheer you up Dolan, I've been a terrible guest." She smiles. "My grandmother always says 'smile and the whole world will smile with you'. I should take that more to heart."

Dolan's flesh-and-blood eye narrows, but he keeps both real and artificial eyes firmly on Auranar. "You did. By telling me you'd set a date," he points out. "So your grandmother said you didn't need to add to the curuchuil - and then she gets ornery when you move the wedding out of Llyranost? Can't have it both ways." The farmboy has taken over, and it shows in his accent, but the gaze is that of the sharp and clear Corona. "Either she wants you or she don't, and if she ain't want you, she ain't get a vote in where you hold it, now does she?"

Andelena has a look on her face like she just swallowed a frog. "Damn, nevermind, I take it back. Your grandmother and my mother /do/ attend the same club. Bry's totally right. That's... That's bad. Kind of the same shitty song and dance my mother tried to pull on me and Bry. She ended up disowning me when I told her I'm marrying Bry and that's final."

Auranar rubs her hands over her knees and gives Dolan a grateful smile. "I know what you mean. I just... I don't want to upset her. Verna deserves a Curuchuil, she doesn't have one at all. If it weren't for that I think I'd leave well enough alone and just leave my grandmother in peace you know?" She looks at Andelena. "I'm sorry about your mother. I... I guess I know what it's like after a fashion? Though I think it might be harder when it's someone who raised you."

Dolan's snort is contemptuous, and the movement occasions barely a flicker. He does not let go of Andelena's hand, instead squeezing it again. That can't be a comfortable stretch, for him to be able to reach her hand without moving, but he doesn't complain. "At least your grandmother isn't tied up with demons," he mutters, the farmboy falling away into the Corona more fully. "Maybe you ought to start one of your own. Here. See if you can get a cutting or something. I bet you've got the room. I never was no good with the crops, but I bet there's someone who can help you out. That way she gets one and you can ignore the old bitch." Pain makes people blunt, and Bry if anything is more guilty than most of that.

GAME: Andelena rolls Will: (1)+8: 9 (EPIC FAIL)

Andelena... normally keeps herself put together long enough to /not/ burst out laughing. But in this case, it appears Dolan's sentiment is exactly what's on her mind, and she actually busts up laughing.

Laughing so hard, in fact, that tears quickly roll down her face. It's the hardest she's laughed in days, and it's clear it's a sort of cathartic release for her. "Oh gods, /Bry/, you didn't have to say it like that! That's Auranar's grandmother!" And yet she keeps laughing.

Auranar opens her mouth, but nothing comes out, and she just looks... embarrassed as Andelena starts laughing. Still, she can't help the little bit of a smile that tugs at the edge of her lips. She's glad that there's laughter in the room, even if it is at her grandmother's expense. "It doesn't quite work like that Dolan, but... Thank you. It's nice knowing you both care. Makes the decision to hold the wedding here all the more important to me. I hope you'll both be there."

Almost immediately, Dolan has the marginal grace to look embarrassed, but he can't help it, either. He joins in the cathartic laughter, the first time he's laughed full out in weeks, either. While he doesn't laugh to the point of tears the way Andelena does, it's a good, healthy laugh that is cut only a little short by the excess movement. "Sorry, Auranar. I didn't mean to be rude, but - it's like Andie says. Her mother did the very same thing to us. We decided we didn't care and that we'd rather be married in the glory of the Knight and the Healer, with them as our example, so - we're not much for ancient family tradition, I guess. Yeah, we'll be there. I'll damned well see to it."

"Gods, I'm sorry, fuck," Andelena chokes out with a grin as the last few laughs leave her, rubbing the tears away from her eyes. "I just haven't--hah--I haven't laughed in over a week, it feels like. /Shit/."

Once she finally recollects herself, she nods. "Yeah. Family's something that can be good, but if it's not good for you, then you have to be firm. Family's supposed to be supportive and to love you no matter what. A wedding's a special, special thing--and if your grandmother throws a fit so hard that she's out of it, that's entirely on her shoulders, not yours."

Auranar shakes her head. "I... You're not wrong." She frowns suddenly and looks at the door to the room. "I keep thinking that she's my connection to Mom and Dad. I wish you guys could see it. The Curuchuil. It's beautiful... But maybe making one that's just mine and Verna's wouldn't be a bad idea." She seems to be warming to an idea that never would have occurred to her herself.

"Your parents are not around?" This time, Dolan's question is more gentle, and the laughter seems to have faded away. Andelena's hand has dropped from his as she rubs at her eyes, and so he allows his hand to drop to the bed beside him, tugging once more at the blanket as if to cover more of himself. While he is not indecently exposed, he is quite clearly more exposed than he would like to be. "I think you should, and I think you should plant it here in Alexandria. Papa was good at growing from cuttings."

Andelena looks at Auranar with a more sympathetic gaze now, silver-grey eyes settling onto the wild elf woman. "/You/ are your connection to your parents, Auranar," she says. "I didn't realize this about people until a while back--but when I met Dolan's folks, I realized exactly where he came from. He acts so much like them. Behaves so much like them. Little things like the way he holds his fork and the way he sits--those aren't things you teach kids, not really, and I've heard of family who've never met reuniting and finding out they have all of those things and more in common."

Her hand goes down to find Dolan's again in that affectionate manner, now that she's not exploding into peals of laughter. "And I agree with Bry. Build your own curuchuil. Start your own tradition. What you've got with Verna is special, and there's no damn way that your grandmother can take that from you."

"They died when I was a baby." Auranar answers, her gaze distant in that way of an unhealed pain. She's had so much time to recover from that loss, but somehow it's never quite healed right. She shakes her head. "But you don't want to hear about that... Andelena is right. I'm theirs. I'm proof that they lived and if I make a curuchuil with Verna... They won't be lost." She has tears brimming in her eyes and she scrubs her hands at them, laughing gently. "I'm so sorry. I'm the worst guest."

"That sounds like a wonderful way to think of it." Dolan reaches to grasp Andelena's hand again. It's a touch uncomfortable-looking, but the way that left shoulder is bound up against his bare chest, that arm isn't move anywhere. "You're no bad guest. Talk to me a hundred leagues in a minute like Lana was doing, and you'll be a bad guest. I should speak to her again, I don't remember that much of what she said, but I think it was important."

He blinks. "Andie, I don't know if Zeke told you. You remember the little gold dragon? She showed up. I think she's visiting Tel and Lana."

"No, no, Auranar, you're fine," Andelena says with a small smile. "I mean, Bry and I /laughed/ for the first time in a while. That's worthwhile all on its own. And we're giving you advice on how to handle your stuff."

She looks surprised at the mention of Tanith. "Oh gods--you mean... Tani? That was her name, I think. Really. She's visiting Telamon?" Andelena snorts. "Married man gets all the luck there, I guess. Maybe I'll stop by their house later. Think Telamon's given me directions before."

"Tani?" Asks Auranar curiously. "What's this about a little golden dragon? A baby? In the city?" She is clearly interested in hearing more.

"Telamon was dreamwalking with his statue, and he said that she showed up and helped him." Dolan squeezes Andelena's hand again as he talks. "She popped in while Lana was here and said I ought to sleep. Landed on me. Andie, she's more beautiful than I remembered. I think she's living with Tel and Lana, but I sure wouldn't mind seeing her again."

He shifts a little in the bed, and sucks in a breath as he moves the wrong way.

"Yeah, little golden dragon--crazy, I know, Auranar, but true," Andelena says. "She likes fish. And Dolan, apparently, which means she has excellent taste."

She looks a little at Dolan as she hears that sucked-in breath. "Do you need to rest? I oughta find a better healer for that shoulder-pop soon. I just didn't want to chase off Auranar as soon as she got here."

"If he's hurt... I should go." Auranar is on her feet in a second, vaguely hovering over her seat worriedly. "I just wanted to make sure that someone popped by who had more thoughts of you than of adventuring work on mind." She flashes a smile that says she's not really placing any judgment on their friends. "I'll come by another time if you're not already better by then."

"It's just sore, Auranar." Dolan is still a rotten liar, but at least he is trying. "Andie, could I get some tea?" he asks, releasing her hand again and letting it drop to his side. He's breathing slowly and carefully. "I'm glad you came by, though. It's nice to talk about something else."

"I feel the same as Bry does, Auranar," Andelena replies with a smile. "Thanks for coming by. Really."

Then comes the tea question. "From the big pot or the small pot, Bry?" Andie asks, already making her way over to the teapots as she asks her question in counterpoint to Dolan's.

Auranar gives Dolan a little wave as she leaves since Andelena is busy with the tea, and slips out the door the way that she'd come. She picks up her basket as she goes since it's not allowed inside, but she silently promises Dolan that she will bring him some when he is able to receive them. That smile wipes the worry on her brow away and leaves her smiling and thinking of a wedding as she leaves.

-End