[closed AND open??] I'm not sick, but I'm not well

[onlyhymns]

WHO: Cade & you, starters for specific people
WHAT: He's back from Rivain and doing terribly!
WHEN: Harvestmere
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: the usual Cade stuff, there's always a chance it'll come up

I. Gwen's Household

He hadn't had time to begin training before the mission to Rivain, so Cade has only recently become a frequent visitor to Casa Vauquelin. He doesn't quite understand her relationship to Wren, but Cade wasn't raised in a barn and knows how to enter a person's home without making a nuisance of himself, so he always knocks and waits to be let in before he'll proceed to the room where Wren will be waiting.
Whomever opens the door gets to deal with him. This happens several times a week.

II. Wren

Cade is easily upset and even whiny on his worst days, but when he's training, he's all business. There's been a nervous energy underlying his every motion, which might be chalked up to just who he is, but also may be a result of just how incredibly tits-up things went on the mission to Rivain. Each session he does exactly what's expected of him, but something about his demeanor indicates he's about to reach a breaking point. It might be bad.

III. Simon

The worst part about not being a Templar anymore is the continued addiction to lyrium, which Cade has learned pretty quickly he can't ignore. Every week he meets with Simon to procure their allotted dosage, and though he doesn't need an escort, having a friend-- is Simon his friend??-- nearby at least makes the process a little more bearable.
It's still degrading as all get out, but Simon is big and blocks Cade's view of most people who might cast him judging glances, so that's a blessing.
"The Commander started going off lyrium," he murmurs to Simon as the line inches forward, "he didn't die from it." ...wait, where is the Commander again? "...I think."

IV. Beleth

Cade couldn't have left the ship any faster when they got back, and if Beleth hadn't seen him leave someone might have thought he'd fallen overboard in transit. He vanished for several days, but has reappeared with a knock at her office door.

V. Open

Feeling that the Inquisition army barracks would be more secure (and cheaper) than staying in an inn forever, Cade has moved his limited belongings in to stay with the assortment of soldiers and scouts from the area. Surprisingly, it's been a nice way to start over; he never talks, so he might as well be a new intake, which means nobody knows his history. He's just some guy, and that's exactly the way he prefers it: blended into the mass, forgettable, forgotten. Invisible.

He can often be found practicing archery with the soldiers, or helping out down at the docks, or reading in a pub, now that it's gotten too chilly to do so outside.

Comments

[paladingus]

"I know he wasn't the lying sort, or...isn't; it just seems--"

His musing aloud on the subject of Cullen's trustworthiness is cut abruptly short by Ser Whatsisface, and Simon narrows his eyes.

"Hey," he protests, with a none-too-gentle tap on the man's shoulder. "We're all here for the same reason, mate. You don't need it any sooner than the rest of us. The queue ends back there."

[onlyhymns]

Ser Gareth isn't a cruel sort, but he makes his opinions known. Cade has stepped back and out of his line of sight behind Simon when he turns, eyebrow raised, and shrugs a shoulder. "Some need it more than others," Gareth points out, and turns forward again, unbothered.
"Don't," Cade whispers behind Simon, already beginning to wish he had the Commander's fortitude.

[paladingus]

Simon isn't ordinarily a fight-picking sort, not when it can be avoided, not when it would cause more trouble than it could ever solve, when it would be on behalf of someone who doesn't want it and he has Cade at his back urging moderation besides. At any other time, he would let it go, because it doesn't matter.

You might as well be anyone else, he hears, brusque and Orlesian-accented in his head, never mind that Wren hadn't said it in so many words, and his blood seethes with a sudden tidal surge of don't ignore me, you son of a bitch. It isn't Cade's fault. And it isn't about Ser Gareth.

"You may be right," he says, all tense tight faux-concession. "If you can't remember how common decency works, you must be in bad shape indeed. It's a wonder you even know where you are."

[onlyhymns]

With the air of someone batting away a particularly irritating gadfly, Ser Gareth turns around to fix Simon with a stare. "Careful, pup," he growls, "you keep running that mouth and you'll soon find you can't use it."

Heart pounding and head swimming, Cade can see where this is going, and it causes a surge of adrenaline that makes him step out of line. "I don't need it," he announces, to Gareth and anyone else, "I'm-- it's fine, I'm going." Holding up his hands, he first backs away, then turns to go more quickly, mindless of whether or not Simon is following. If a fight breaks out, he can't be near it, for reasons concerning both his reputation and his unpredictable temper.

[paladingus]

Today is not a day for making a dramatic stand, after all. No matter how it galls him to let that be the last word of the argument; no matter how he's convinced himself it'll ruin his reputation in the barracks and make people whisper craven behind his back even more than they already do--given the choice between staying and defending the honor of the ex-templars still subject to the Chantry's poisoned leash, and making sure Cade actually gets the lyrium he needs, Simon knows what he's got to do. Honor is a luxury. Lyrium is not. And they won't very well dispense two rations to him just because he promises to pass one on to its rightful owner.

"For pity's sake," he mutters, and leaves the line as well to catch up to Cade with long strides.

[onlyhymns]

Unfortunately for Simon, being seen so often with Cade has done its share of work on his reputation. Perhaps if he spent less time trotting after nutcases and more time doing his job...

Cade, for his part, is grateful for it. He slows his step when Simon catches up, and turns to look at him with an expression of weary dread. He has to get lyrium, somehow. He's also not getting back in that line.