erii-the-arm-blog

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Erii can barely hear anything above the wind now, and only just makes out that Koussikka is trying to tell her something. Absent-mindedly, she gives a nod in response, too drained from what happened with the troll and now fighting against this weather to start yelling back and forth with Kous. However, a welcomed sight catches her eye as she scans their surroundings.

“Look, there’s the cave!” Erii shouts back down while pointing to the cave’s opening not too far from them. The thought of being able to get out of this storm and just rest is enough to get her moving faster, and to allow her to ignore the fact they have to travel farther up to get to it. “C’mon!”

Even fighting against the wind, it doesn’t take too long to get to the mouth of the thing, and once inside, all Erii can do is flop down with relief. She doesn’t even bother to take her pack off or any of her weapons. The cave is relatively dry and warmer than it is outside (though, that’s not saying much), and all she wants to do is sit and breathe. 

Hunting trolls and punching butts [closed rp]

”Oh.” The faint utterance almost gets lost in the growing storm when the dunmer turns to the way Erii points at. Letting her to lead the way he trudges slowly after the altmer, concentrating on keeping his breath shallow while pushing back nausea climbing up. Keeping his head down against the wind and eyes fixed on Erii’s tracks on the snow he loses sense of time for a while.

A sudden mis-step when something gives away under his foot deep in the snow jars him back to the present. Stopping to pull his boot free Koussikka spots something of an interest in the blizzard. ”Is that-” he starts but has to raise his voice to a shout over the wind to try catch his friend’s attention.

”Erii, I think there’s a cave!”

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Erii’s eyes widen a bit in surprise at Koussikka’s response. She’d been expecting another good-natured comeback (or, to be honest, yelling- a lot of her apologies in the past had been followed by yelling), but the sincere tone in his voice catches her off-guard for a moment. Quickly though, a large grin covers her face.

“Damn right, I’d do the same,” Erii responds, almost leaping off the chair, before thinking better of it and gently standing up while taking the gauze pad and placing it over her wound, “ya gotta have people watchin’ your back, and I wouldn’t leave the one person who has mine out in the cold any day of the week! Kous, ya ever need anything, I’ll be there!”

On the Road Again?

For a moment he’s about to counter, you can bet your ass it’d been better, but seeing her so sincerely grateful and sorry Koussikka can’t give into a childish urge to get snappy. Not when she looks at him like that. ”Eh, it’s nothing. What’s important that you’ll be alright, and besides, you would’ve done the same.”

Where did she even learn to look like a poor little kicked guar pup anyway. By Azura’s mercy her lip isn’t quivering because he’s this close to comfortingly petting her hair and by the three he really should go to sleep now. ”Alright, stand up, please.” He shakes the distracting thoughts off, straightening back up and gesturing her to do the same. To dress her wound he hands Erii a light gauze pad to cover the injury with while he unrolls about a feet of a bandage bundle.

”Put this in place, I’ll do the wrapping.”

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I’m back! I realized I forgot to mention on here that I would be away for a couple of weeks... but I’m back now!

[erii-the-arm-blog]

Send a ✠ and a question and my muse will reply to it after drinking lots of alcohol.

Teasing or sarcastic questions get extra points!

[erii-the-arm-blog]

Erii’s mind is back on her breathing when Kous speaks, and she simply nods at his words. Her thoughts are now not only on the fire, but on what a fool she made of herself just now, on all the times she’s managed to let this stupid fear show her to be weak and useless. Still, the cold air helps, and with a few more deep breaths, she manages to push the thoughts back far enough to deal with what’s happening now, just in time to see her dunmer friend wandering off in the wrong direction.

“No, wait, up the ridge!” The wind is picking up and Erii nearly has to scream to be heard over it as she runs towards Koussikka, pointing in the opposite direction. It’s not just cold anymore. The wind is starting to sting her face, the amount of snow falling is threatening to impede her vision, and the dark clouds from before are covering the sky. These are dangerous conditions, and Erii can tell they don’t want to be out here without shelter for much longer.

Hunting trolls and punching butts [closed rp]

Erii’s resistance to the apology is met with a frustrated huff, like he’s going to argue back but he doesn’t say anything, just stares somewhere in the snow between them with knit brows. The feeling that he’s done something wrong persists but because he has no idea what to do about it Koussikka swallows it, saving it for another time.

Peering around Erii at the gored troll he wrinkles nose in distaste. It would’ve been good if they had a head to bring back as proof but they had to do with what they had. ”Um, since you didn’t really leave it’s head in a recognizable condition, yeah, I think the teeth will do.”

A gust of wind peppers his face with snow flakes, suddenly reminding him of the mittens he stuck into his pockets when the troll appeared. Fingers clumsy of the cold he pulls them back on. ”C’mon, my butt’s freezing.” Shuffling a few steps in the snow he stops, unsure, ”Um, it was this way, right?” before shuffling to the opposite direction.

[erii-the-arm-blog]

If you’re having dash problems I feel bad for you, son

I follow 99 blogs and there ain’t a bad one

[erii-the-arm-blog]

“Joke’s on you, meadsicles are delicious on a hot day,” Erii manages to quip back with a grin that looks far more like a grimace. She can’t help let out a sigh of relief when Kous leaves the towel to soak. No matter the injury, it always seems like the treatment is worse than receiving the wound was. However, that might have something to do with the adrenaline rush and blood loss that accompanied being injured.

“Seriously though, thanks for cleaning me up. I probably wouldn’t have done the job half as well.” Erii can’t help but notice how pink the water is getting around the towel as she says this, and a glance down at her blood-stained shirt reminds her how much blood she lost the other night. She knows she’s healing quickly (even if a light punch to the gut would be enough to incapacitate her right now), but it suddenly hits her what a gory sight she must make. If any friend of her’s showed up like this... A wave of guilt suddenly hits Erii.

“I mean, thanks for everything- findin’ me new gear, gettin’ me a new shirt, even just gettin’ me to sit down for a bit is probably for the best. And, uh, I’m sorry if I worried ya at all. It- um -it may have been better if I had let ‘em clean me up at the temple before I decided to take off...”

On the Road Again?

Sorely tempted to launch off in a rant why getting stabbed in the gut is the furthest thing from a little scratch he draws breath but decides it’s no use to fight her about the topic. The disapproving huff probably gets the point across quite clear anyway. And although Erii claims otherwise, she’s in pain and the dunmer isn’t completely without heart.

”Sure it isn’t.” He grumbles but tries to keep his touch light. ”And are you absolutely sure it’s wise to haul around someone capable of freezing all your mead like a sack of potatoes? Hm? Just so you know, it’s not easy to try and drink a chunk from a bottle.” The water turns pink when the towel is rinsed but to Erii’s luck the cleaning doesn’t take all that long. Satisfied with the result he leaves the towel float in the pot.

”There, much better.”

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Here. [Erii hands him the canteen she has strapped to her pack. Now that she's noticed, she can't ignore that smell.] Uh, not t' be rude, but... well, what I mean is... Are ya...?

[She can't bring herself to just ask if he's a were.]

So...uh...why were you going through the garbage?

[He frets, muttering softly to himself as he touches the wound gingerly, brow furrowed with concern.]  I ought to clean it.  People have lost ears to worse.  Infection is worse than a clean cut.  Do you have water with you?

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"No, no, it's not your fault," Erii replies in a panic as Koussikka begins to apologize, "you d-did what was needed. I-I was just..." Weak. If anyone should be apologizing, Erii felt like it should be her. The flames hadn't even touched her, and here she was shaking like a leaf, stomach turning over a smell. This stupid fear was holding her back, might even hold Koussikka back too if it stopped him from using fire again. Besides his voice, that fire might be his most powerful weapon.

"You're right we should find that cave," Erii agrees, not only glad for the change of subject, but the blizzard around them is getting worse. It wouldn't be smart to stay out here any longer than necessary.

"I think it's just a little farther up the ridge, but first..." Erii walks over to the troll and scoops up a couple of broken fangs she must have knocked out while making a mess of the back of the beast's head and neck, "do ya think this'll be enough t' prove t' the Jarl we killed it? I don't really feel like draggin' that thing's carcass around with us..."

Hunting trolls and punching butts [closed rp]

Patiently waiting her to collect herself though his ass was freezing for sitting in the snow, the dunmer studies her figure for any injuries. The spilled troll blood makes it a bit difficult but he’s satisfied to note Erii seems to be alright aside from her mental scare. When she admits her fear of fire something connects in his mind and suddenly a memory of her telling about it before surfaces.

”Oh… nchow.” He curses quietly, rising back on his feet as well. The pain throbbing on his side makes him move with caution and breath shallowly through nose to keep his ribcage from expanding too much. Guilt worms in his gut, he should’ve remembered. Koussikka wants to some closer to console her, to apologize, but when the stench of burned hair is strong enough to make him vaguely sick he doesn’t want to bring that to her face.

”I’m sorry. I…” Hovering awkwardly at a distance he glances from the troll’s corpse to her. The trembling hand makes his words ring hollow in his own ears, he should say something else, apologize better, do something. The blizzard around them thickens and howls.

”…we probably should look for that cave.”

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"What I meant is, I survived that wound, so I can probably survive this little scratch," Erii explains as Koussikka prepares the towel. Conveniently, she forgets to mention that an expert healer had been waiting for her outside that cave, but it doesn't seem like anything Kous really needs to know.

"Pssh, if I wanted t' get rid of ya, I'd just throw you over my shoulder and-" Erii begins to joke before stiffening in pain and clenching her teeth (though one small, high-pitched squeak still manages to get out) as Koussikka begins to clean the wound. He's being gentle about it, but even the light touches cause sharp pangs of discomfort. Maybe she should've stayed at the temple...

"See, I told you it wasn't that bad," she replies in a strained voice, failing to sound casual.

On the Road Again?

”Good.” He fails miserably at not sounding like a bleating grandmother. The eyeball rolling goes unnoticed as he picks up an old towel he brought along with the bandages and dries his hands to it. Seeing her old scar makes his eyebrows pinch hard enough he could hold a septim between them. A long, suffering sight escapes him. ”Erii, that has to be the least reassuring thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

Kneeling before her on the floor he heaves the pot down with him to be on level with her wound. ”Though seriously I do know you’re a good fighter and capable of holding your own.” Folding the towel into a suitable wad to clean the wound he dips it into the warm water, eyeing the bloodied wound. ”At least mostly. And you’re not getting rid of me that easily. Besides, it’s much easier to put on fresh bandages with another pair of hands.”

Leaning closer to gently wipe the blood off around the wound Koussikka braces his free hand on her thigh. ”Hm, it just looked worse than it actually was.”

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Erii's breathing is fast and shallow. Her heart feels like it might leap out of her chest. The smell of smoke, of burnt hair and clothes fills her nostrils and mind. Still, this isn't the first time this has happened to her. She forces herself to close her eyes and tries to regain control of her breathing. In, out, in, out, in, out... The wind has picked up, blowing the growing snowflakes into her face, but the cold helps ground her, and carefully she stands back up.

"I-I'm fine," she says, clutching her axes tightly in the hope it'll hide the fact her hands are still shaking, "I just... I just... don't do well around fire..." Erii can't look at Koussika as she says this. She hates admitting it, feels embarrassed that she couldn't control herself, but what's the point in lying now? 

"A-at least we got out troll though," Erii adds with a weak smile, gesturing towards the troll's bloodied body before quickly pulling her shaking hand back to her side.

Hunting trolls and punching butts [closed rp]

The key word here is ’try’, because when the troll-tackled dunmer rolls over and is about to hoist himself up on all fours, a terrible pain on his side makes him collapse back into snow. Wheezing in agony he curles around the injury, gently prodding his ribs with a faint glow of restoration magic. Nothing seems to be bleeding inside or feels broken, but he doesn’t rule out the possibility of fractures. A pained groan slips past his grit teeth when he estimates the size of the bruise he got last night will probably at least double.

Though he doesn’t notice it himself, rolling around in snow extinguishes what little fire got through the ancestral flames and burned his clothes. Gingerly sitting up after the healing magic has lessened the hurt a bit the dunmer glances around in daze, looking for a blood thirsty troll and Erii. To his surprise these two have already found each other and by the looks of it the altmer is bent on making minced meat out of the beast.

Arduously craning himself up and on his feet Koussikka wobbles to take a closer look of the butchering when Erii stops, drops down to the ground on her rump and throws up. The sound of retching is disgusting but nonetheless he sits down a few feet from her, figuring his scorched clothes reeking of smoke might make her just sicker. He looks sort of comical with his lashes and almost non-existent brows burned. There’s going to be a lot of wailing later on when he finds out how bad his hair got damaged by the fire.

”Uhh, y-you alright?”

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[Erii leans in closer to take a look. His ear is grazed, but it's nothing serious.] Hm, yeah, you're bleeding a bit there, but... [A familiar, but somehow distinctly different scent hits her nose. Could he be-? No, her nose was probably just playing tricks on her. Still, Erii takes a quick step back before shaking her head and continuing.] ...Uh...but, um, yeah, it's nothin' serious, barely a scratch. 

[Forcing a smile] I think you'll live.

erii-the-arm said: Yeah, the ones who throw rocks are the worst. You alright?

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[What I love about Kous' and Erii's friendship is that they should really be terrified of each other. With his fire and her lycanthropy- not to mention the preferred pets of both -it seems like they should have run screaming the moment they locked eyes. Instead they became best friends.]

☞ :D

Honest opinion meme

”Erii’s like… how do you describe it, when you care so much of a person you just want to keep them safe and happy forever but at the same time you feel like henpecking them, like, you’re their mother or something? Yeah, that about sums how I feel about Erii. I love her, she’s just wonderful, but by Azura that girl does sometimes the stupidest of things, like, sneaks out on her healers with a stab wound.”

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[Hey, take a look koussikka, the ribbons are canon!] 

Interesting Items from ESO: Part I

A 36-piece silverplate tableware set with one spoon, knife, or fork for each of Vivec’s Thirty-Six Sermons.

A beautifully ornate kaleidoscope, trimmed in gold and encrusted with multicolored gems.

A board of heavy, inlaid wood, set in a series of triangular patterns, used to play the Imperial game, "Strife."

A board of heavy, inlaid wood, set in a series of octagonal patterns. Used for various Argonian meditative exercises.

A bottle of chewable strips of poplar bark, designed to relieve headaches. It’s increasingly poplar!

A bottle of spiced perfume from the alchemists of House Indoril, which come in different fragrances specific to each house.

A brass cylinder of rotating disks, engraved with letters and connected by a central axle, used to decipher Colovian messages.

A Breton quilt of "lost hope" is crafted, usually by a mother and daughter, to work through past regrets and sorrows.

A clever Wood Elf invention, designed to keep travelers dry during rainstorms.

A collection of ribbons of various widths and colors, used to decorate a Dark Elf’s hair or clothing.

A colorful cloth made of the finest Summerset silk and worn around the neck, it can be pulled up to protect from sea spray.

A comforter quilted by We Who Lost Battle Maidens in the most-recent wars. Such sewing circles exist throughout Skyrim.

A common net decorated in the Nord style, with sea shells, feathers, beads, and other trinkets, creating a hanging work of art.

A common writing instrument, crafted from the feather of an Eastmarch cardinal.

A cooking tool shaped like a cliff darter, it distributes liquid to moisten and flavor food during the cooking process.

A copy of this whimsical painting depicts how Bretons imagine the frost trolls of Skyrim: smiling and dancing in the snow.

A corrective lens used to enhance the vision in only one eye, enchanted to increase it’s magnification a dozen-fold.

A crystal vial of perfume scented with ghost orchid, one of the rarest and most coveted flowers in all of Tamriel.

A custom set of long-handled wooden mallets in a fine deerskin bag, used to play the noble’s game "Hoops & Holes."

A dark-colored shawl worn to honor the dead, as per the traditions set forth in the "Cycles of Arkay."

A decorative hand fan. Unfolding it reveals a scene of the Lord, the Mother, and the Wizard in all their glory.

A brightly colored stole worn to honor the dead, as per the traditions set forth by the Tribunal.

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recently hit 6k followers, so let’s have a party!!

thanks for being here guys ♡

[erii-the-arm-blog]

"I guess this is what I get for bein' cheap," Erii mutters to herself as she clenches and unclenches her bandaged hands, testing out their mobility. She thought the calluses already built up on her hands would keep them safe, but the stinging sensation from her palms (already soothed by whatever salve the dunmer had used) proved that theory wrong. At least her axes were of good enough quality not to leave splinters.

Erii's eyes lit up as she the job was offered to her. Though her brother had put her up for free for the past couple of weeks, somehow she still managed to find herself low on funds now. 

"Yeah, yeah, of course," she replies, accepting the job with a grin, "70 gold is perfect, and who can say no ta bears and bandits?"

"Oh, and thanks for taking care of the blisters," Erii adds quickly, "this is much better than waitin' for them to heal on their own." 

☤[*waves* Hullo!]

"I know that many purses are getting light, what with how the war’s going and all, but you really ought to invest in a good pair of gloves, sera." Brethyn chides as he works, daubing a thick paste onto the popped blisters on Erii’s hands. He has to use a ripped and boiled shirt for bandages, given his lack of gauze.

"I would be willing to pay you myself, if you’re up for a bit of an escort job. I’m running low on all sorts of mushrooms, which seem to enjoy growing only in those caves which house rather unfriendly occupants. Bears, usually, or an odd bandit or two. Would 70 gold be a sufficient payment for your service? It’s certainly enough to secure you a new pair of gauntlets." Brethyn ties off the bandages with a gentle tug before turning her hands over to ensure they cover all the paste.

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"Alright," Erii responds, trying not to sound too petulant and only rolling her eyes when she thinks Koussikka isn't looking. 

"Y'know, I've been hurt worse before," Erii adds, as if this might comfort her friend, while pulling the collar of her shirt out of the way to point at a scar that starts near her collar bone and snakes over her shoulder and onto her back,"a draugr got me right in the shoulder and then dragged its axe down my back when I was 17. If it had hit any harder or actually got my neck, it would've been bad, but I managed to kill the thing and make it all the way out of the caves before collapsing!" Erii chuckled fondly at the memory.

Removing the last of the bandages, Erii finds herself pleasantly surprised to see the wound has already scabbed over again. All that really needed to be done was to clean the dried blood that had smeared around the wound. Ever since 'officially' joining the companions, Erii's wounds seemed to heal faster than they did before. Usually, she tried not to think too much about that.

"Whatever restoration magic they used, it seems to be working," she states, glad to have at least one bit of good news before finally noticing the dunmer's yawn and generally drowsy state, "Uh, y'know, if you want ta take a nap or somethin', I can probably take it from here."

On the Road Again?

”Mm-h.” He hums in acknowledgment, crouching to retrieve a big metal pot from the nord’s cabinet. While talking he dunks it into the water barrel and brings it to the table next to shirt and bandages. ”You know what sort of restoration? I could use some to close the wound but I don’t want to mess with whatever they’ve done already.”

”You’ve probably heard the saying where too much restoration can actually do more harm than good? Let’s not turn this into an example of that.” Next he rolls up his sleeves far up past his elbows, sinking his hands into the pot. Outwards it doesn’t look like much but soon the pot is radiating warmth as the water slowly starts to boil. Unfazed by the bubbling going on around his hands the dunmer yawns and blinks away sleep calling so alluring to him.

”And while we’re on the subject, you promise me you won’t ever again sneak out on your healers. They know their trade and your duty as a patient is to listen to what they say. Alright?” A little bit of nagging he could always manage, no matter how tired he was.