healing hands and meditation

[ethnobotany]

WHO: Beverly Crusher
WHERE: around House #15, the hospital, wandering around town
WHEN: April 10th
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: TBD, will update as needed
STATUS: Open

---

Beverly has been a resident of this tiny little village for less than a month and she wouldn't be able to say that she has settled in by any stretch of the imagination. By now she has claimed an empty house and is starting to figure out a routine, the latter of which is by far the only real settling she's actually done since she got here. The last thing she wants to do is get complacent here. Not that she really thinks she can, given how much she misses the Enterprise's crew already.

So today starts out as normal. She hunts for herbs that might be around to stockpile or use. Naturally, she can't help muttering about wanting several others that don't grow here. The supply on Caldos had been much better than this one, even on Arvada III during that disaster. Still, it's better than nothing and she knows better than to complain too loudly. If Q really is involved, he might take that as a challenge.

About mid-morning sees her cleaning her new house as best she can. She might be from a very, very distant future than most of the people and equipment here, but that doesn't mean she can't get down and dirty. Every so often she takes a break outside, looking around the property for a good place to think about starting a garden.

After she's had enough cleaning, she takes to wandering the village. She pays a special visit to the hospital, to check up on which of her colleagues is around and catch up with them, as well as the fountain, too see if there's anyone who might need to get pulled out of the water.

Late in the day, closer towards evening, she can be found out by her house again practicing Mok'bara, which looks like some kind of intricate and very slow full-body dance. It's not much of a dance and if anyone tries to interrupt her physically, she may or may not slide into using the techniques she's practicing as they were intended: as martial arts.

Comments

[ethnobotany]

Beverly's expression turns a bit more sympathetic as he continues. She might not have a lot of personal demons, so to speak, but she's had more than her fair share of emotional turmoil. It's hard to fight oneself or past issues. It's hard to fight against grief. That one she knows on an almost intimate level. Some days she still misses Jack like she would miss air if she stopped breathing. Other times, she can go days, weeks, months, almost years without thinking of him. It's arbitrary. But then, grief and trauma of any kind are.

"What kind of monster was it?" she asks, equal parts caution and curiosity. If she's going to be stuck here, she may as well find out what she's in for as much as she possibly can.

[3ofswords]

"It's gone for now," he starts, hardly wishing to pull her from her meditation and set her watching her back, for all it might be a good idea to tread carefully at all times. "I've gone looking for signs, but they're all old. Which isn't to say it won't come back, or there won't be other things like it."

Lightning wasn't like it, except for how it struck quick and couldn't be fended off, even by the best of them physically and tactically. His grief wasn't for the woman lost to the wendigo, but there are plenty of people he would now miss if the thing struck again.

"It was called a Wendigo. It attacked livestock and people, before I arrived. They're--warped things, all claws and teeth. They eat flesh, most think they come about when people turn to cannibalism, and who knows what circumstances were in this village before it was abandoned."

[ethnobotany]

The idea of the wendigo makes her shudder inwardly. That's almost more than her innate idealism can handle, so she files it away and hopes the beast never comes back. More interesting than the wendigo is what her companion continues on to say and Beverly tilts her head, glancing at him for a moment.

"'Before it was abandoned?'" she echoes with curious surprise. "You mean there was something more to it before all of this happened?" She waves her hand to indicate the village as it stands now. Was there another village before this with other people? Did something happen to it?

[3ofswords]

He nods, recalling what he's been told and the notes on the board at the inn, the map constructed and filled in before he even arrived. He's started to add to it himself, simple theories, caves, landmarks he's found on his walks.

"Apparently when the first round of people arrived, the place was just--empty. The buildings looked used, but no one was here. There are some ruins of other buildings north of here." Looking along the path, he points in what he's learned to be the appropriate direction. Aurora perks up and trots ahead, as if commanded, then circles back when she finds nothing in their path. "Maybe they found a way out that we haven't, yet."

[ethnobotany]

"Maybe they did," she agrees thoughtfully. It certainly is the better theory of the ones she can come up with and she'll choose to believe that. Her idealism much prefers not imagining anything worse. "I guess it's mostly a matter of time before we find the same one, if it exists."

Whatever the case is, they apparently still have some time left to live here, for better or worse. And maybe she'll be taking a look at that board when she wanders in today.

"Still, the idea of people being here before us doesn't exactly make me feel better about this whole thing."