A bottle of white, a bottle of red

[fleurdesel]

WHO: Open to anyone that wants wine and warmth and a little company.
WHAT: Wine and no whining.
WHEN: After the mage meeting wraps up.
WHERE: Close to the healing tents, specifically the Orlesian section.
NOTES: There will be wine, drinking, unwinding, and nibbles.

The meeting had been stressful for just about everyone involved. Tempers had flared, opinions made known, a few rounds of confetti and arguing before some manner of accord. Whether it would last or however long it might? No one could truly say. In the interest of being quite done with the stress and headaches such debate brought on the Orlesian healing tents clearing out the potions, bandages, and poultices in favor of what cushions and braziers they had on hand for light and for heat. The space was open, warm, and inviting with an odd assortment of tin mugs or clay glasses set around flat side tables propped up with stones to keep them from wobbling and tipping the whole mass onto the ground. There are some dried fruits and hard cheeses, dried meat and hard crusted bread- whatever scraps they could scavenge or spare and a few bottles of wine or brandy. Across the entrance to the tents there was a sign:

Bring a bottle or food to share for entry.

Tacked below was a list of rules:

• Everyone is welcome, don't make a fuss
• Don't hog the wine
• Don't hog the food
• Don't fight or argue
• If you finish a bottle open a new one, don't recork it for someone else to find
• Clean up after yourselves

Comments

[girlinthebox]

Maybe words couldn't help. Maybe tomorrow wouldn't be any better than today. What mattered in the end was not feeling alone.

She remembered being alone, caged, certain she'd never see the outside world again, that her body would collapse on itself or a demon would take her over, and those were the more merciful options. Her teeth needle her lower lip.

"You don't want to hurt. You want to help. Simon did, too."

[amygdalae]

Help, yes. Bruce always wanted to help - that's what he had been trying to do for so long, even before any of this. Even what happened to him was because he wanted to help, even though that 'help' then was perhaps not the best. But it was still help, even in that sense.

But now helping seemed like an impossible thing to do, even though Bruce knew he was technically doing it everyday now. Now it just felt like whatever he tried to do was never going to be enough.

He gave her a mildly confused look, mostly at the last part of her words since the name had more or less come from nowhere. "Simon? Is he a friend of yours?"

[girlinthebox]

"My brother. He's with the healers."

She glances towards those tents, as though expecting him to appear at his mere mention, but he doesn't. He's busy, she knows, and she's close enough to the tents that he needn't worry just yet.

"He tries to make it stop. He wants to help too. Only so much he can do. Limited resources," she adds, biting the corner of her lip. "We're small people. It's to be expected."

[amygdalae]

Bruce frowns a little at this point - he certainly doesn't remember a Simon in the healers, but then again Bruce doesn't exactly go out of his way to interact with his fellow peers. After all he came to Skyhold to do a job, not to make relationships. In fact relationships should be the last thing for him; its not as if he could actually be here forever. Only for as long as he's able to.

Never mind the fact that this is the only other time he's stayed in one place for so long barring his life in the Circle, and one other incident.

"He simply wants to help." And in a way, Bruce can relate - it was hard to blame this Simon for wanting to help, especially when they were siblings. Was it not natural for that to happen? "And even though there's only so much he can do, I think its the attempt that counts." Being small... it wasn't a bad thing either. It was much, much better than being big, at least. Far better.

[girlinthebox]

"You say that when you're the one being poked at," she replied, one eyebrow lifting. Simon was indeed trying his best. She knew that. She also knew the attempts were sometimes as bad, if not worse, than simply being able to see and hear more than was natural.

And nothing made the thoughts in her head string together like they should. That might be the case forever, so far as they knew. A frustrating prospect for everyone.

[amygdalae]

"I think its important to remember that." Never mind the fact that Bruce himself took things differently, and never mind the fact that Bruce didn't let people help him - not because he didn't want them to, but because there was nothing anybody could do to help. Not somebody like him.

It's hypocritical of him, he knows, but it doesn't matter. Nothing about him has never mattered, not since long ago.

"He does it because he cares. And he listens to you, I'm sure. As long as you talk to him I'm sure he will listen to what you want." And that he would respect her wishes as well. Perhaps he's assuming too much, but Bruce wants to believe that, at the very least.