Market Day by Dwimordene

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge: Economy: Market Day; Aspects of Aragorn: Healer
Format: Drabble
Genre: Character Study
Rating: Teen
Warnings:
Characters: Ioreth
Pairings: n/a
Summary: Prices as marked, amnesia not included.

Market Day

Ioreth loves market days: the colors, smells, the ring of lively voices. After a long, quiet stretch in the Houses, with only men’s moans and whispers — A Eru, a Weeper, help me! Stop – my god, my god, my –  ! — and the occasional else, market day’s excitement brings relief.

And she’ll find flowers from afar there, delightful woodland herbs — Potpourri, the Warden orders tersely; I can smell that battle still! — and bangles.

One can buy anything on market, save good weather: rain sends folk scrambling for cover. Ioreth clutches her Imloth Melui rosehips, looks skyward, and with a shudder hurries home.

Comments

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

This has a delightful hopeful feel to it - and perfectly Ioreth-y, too, I think. It amused me how it was precisely the opposite of my own mood, though the weather was much the same. I do think, though, that these are two important paths to bearing up under nightmare-inducing traumas. Nicely done, in any case. This piece had a very nice, palpable mood to it.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

It's a pretty grey day here, too. I figure Ioreth has her ways of coping with the traumatic aspects of her job. Otherwise, I don't know how she stays sane enough to come in for the rebukes she does.

[aliana1.livejournal.com]

Love this! (Though, really, how could I not?) Ioreth gets a short shrift, so generally I'm going to like anything that explores her character. The contrast between the "moans and whispers" and the smells and sounds of the market is great. Wonderful tension between lightness and heaviness.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

You, be suckered by a Houses of Healing story? Surely not!

Ioreth can always use more fangirls, imo, since yes, she does get short shrift. Glad the light/heavy mixture worked well - she deserves her moments of minor escape, since her job is not for the faint of heart!

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

I really like this, it speaks so much to the trauma around her as well as her character and strength.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I certainly think Ioreth has to be pretty resilient to do what she does.

[grey-wonderer.livejournal.com]

Very enjoyable! I can well imagine that almost any other event would be a restful experience for one who spends so much time seeing to the sick. She would be one who earns her days off!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked this, G_W! I figure that Ioreth needs to get out every so often to keep her sanity and dealing with more ordinary life is helpful.

[starli-ght.livejournal.com]

I'm so excited we get to read all this awesome B2MeM writing again, and I love your first Drabble. Your language is always so delightful to read, and you use it to great advantage here: Ioreth's reality is, in truth, all that suffering (that you showcase in that brief, meaningful line, with all those lovely bold and italicizes typefaces. Love!). One has to find the joy, though, despite the rain (which is so meaningful at the end, too). Well done!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Starlight! Glad you liked the interrupting line - sometimes that sort of intrusion can really make a story.

I look forward to reading your entries tomorrow! There are so many in general - fandom's really hopping right now. It's great!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

This was so very Ioreth!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Linda!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I like it a lot. Perfect description of how one makes it through life. One cannot survive otherwise.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Oshun! Ioreth is definitely a survivor in my world, and damn the sexist stereotypes!

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Potpourri, the Warden orders tersely; I can smell that battle still! This kind of makes one wince and chuckle at the same time somehow. (Or maybe I've a lamentable lack of reverence for the word 'potpourri'..)

One can buy anything on market, save good weather: Too true. I'm almost drawing a symbolic analogy here between the weather and the mood in the Houses of Healing--something like material goods might help to heal the body, but not the mind, of its wounds.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Ha! Yeah, potpourri isn't a favorite word of mine, either, but it does have something going for it: it is only one word. :-D

I'm almost drawing a symbolic analogy here between the weather and the mood in the Houses of Healing--something like material goods might help to heal the body, but not the mind, of its wounds.

Exactly - and since in my mind, this is after Osgiliath but before Pelennor, the possibility of them having to face another major battle is in the air, too. They're not out of the woods yet, they're just taking a break from being terrified and exhausted.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I can see and hear and smell that market. Good to take a moment to think about how traumatic the aftermath of that battle must have been for the folk of the City, especially the Healers, instead of for the principals on the field...

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I'd actually meant for this to be before the Battle of Pelennor fields (rain threatening and all... I know, pathetic fallacy strikes again!) - maybe after Osgiliath. But yes, after the siege, I think this sort of episode would've happened a lot more frequently and with much more intensity than others, and with far more of a sense of personal threat.

[hhimring]

Ioreth--I always find myself agreeing with her about the roses of Imloth Melui, perhaps even more than Tolkien intended me to!

[havamahal.livejournal.com]

This is some drabble! I love those intercuts that take us away from the current events, remind is us of the harsh reality - of battles, pain and suffering. They make such a wonderful contrast with the smells and colors on the market. A moment of peace for Ioreth - pity it was so short.

Very nice!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I love those intercuts that take us away from the current events, remind is us of the harsh reality - of battles, pain and suffering

Thanks! I really wanted those cut-aways, which make the piece what it is instead of a day at the Minas Tirith mall. ;-)

A moment of peace for Ioreth - pity it was so short.

Aren't they always? Glad you liked this - thanks for reviewing!

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I always liked Ioreth, and you do her more than justice even in such a brief drabble. Lovely work on setting the scene as well. :)

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Ioreth fangirls, unite! I've become a big Ioreth fan since about 2003, and love it when an opportunity to write her comes along. For my money, she is a tough old lady, not to be underestimated, even by wizards and would-be kings.