[open] but I'll soon find out, that's for sure

[altusimperius]

WHO: Benedict, Kit, Anders, anyone else who wants to visit
WHAT: He's still in baby jail! Everything is terrible!
WHEN: Harvestmere
WHERE: the Kirkwall dungeon
NOTES: even though his beard is gross he wears it well

It's been months now, and Benedict has lost track of time. He's aware via the draft coming in from the dungeon door, when it opens, that the weather has grown colder, and he's picked up via context in the guards' chatter that Satinalia's coming up fairly soon. That means they're well into autumn, and he's still here, and that's all he knows. If his family ever received his letter, if it was ever sent at all, he hasn't heard back and has begun to doubt he will.

Occasional card games with Kit and the books granted by generous souls only stave off boredom for so long, and Benedict has taken to long stretches of time wherein he just stares at the wall, not quite sleeping, not forcing himself to operate at full capacity. The boredom is torture in itself. That and the limited access to basic hygiene, but by now Benedict has accepted that he will smell and itch and have an awful scrubby beard and there's nothing he can do to change that.

Perhaps all this would be manageable on some level if it weren't for the magebane, which keeps him constantly drained and sluggish, and which he has no choice but to consume now that the hunger strike has long since become untenable. He's fallen into a state of dull acceptance, still sullen but with little left of the fire.

Of course it wouldn't take long to break him, before this he'd never known a day's hardship in his life. This isn't even hardship, it's just nothing. It's hard not to wonder if maybe the Tranquil have a point.

Comments

[altusimperius]

Bene wrinkles his nose in lazy affront at the retort, but can barely argue when he knows how true it really is. He starts to deal, much more fluently than he had when they started, to the point where he's almost beginning to appear like he knows what he's doing.
"Diamondback," he decides, starting to toss Kit's hand lightly his way, though he pauses when the dwarf lights a cigarette. "...can I have one?"

[ragweed]

"...can I have one?"

He glances up from lighting his cigarette to look at Benedict in some confusion, then figures out what he's asking. Cocking an eyebrow, he starts to fish out the sachet of tobacco and rolling paper out of his pocket. "You ever smoked before?" he asks.

[altusimperius]

Bene shrugs. "Hookah," he replies, extending his hand for the cigarette, "I can't imagine it's that much different." It's for lying around and feeling better, isn't it?

[ragweed]

Kit gives him a dubious look. "Dunno what hookah is, but sure."

He rolls the tobacco into the paper and then hands it over to Benedict. "You've got to lick the paper to seal it. Otherwise it'll spill all over the place." Once that is done, he lights a match and holds it out to light the smoke for him.

[altusimperius]

Benedict looks incredulous, and almost, in the span of a split-second, like a person with dignity. "It's a sort of elaborate pipe," he explains, smirking slightly that he knows something Kit doesn't, "with several tubes for smoking, and you burn the herbs in the center. It's lovely."
On this last word he sighs, remembering it with sick acuity. Maker, how nice it felt, floating in a haze of smoke, thinking and caring nothing.
It's with concentration that he does as Kit instructs, licking the paper and pressing it together. He's never smoked anything in this fashion before, but if it's anything like what he knows, it'll make his time here at least a tiny bit more bearable.

[ragweed]

It definitely sounds like something the rich sods in the Diamond Quarter probably would enjoy. Kit just nods at the cigarette now held in Benedict's hands. "Well, I don't know about 'lovely,' but that scratches the itch on a bad day."

He reclaims his own cigarette, takes a drag from it, and looks at the hand of cards Benedict had dealt him, all the while sneaking curious glances at the boy to see how a bit of cigarette smoke matches up to hookah.

[altusimperius]

Bene's eyebrows raise, then he inhales on the cigarette. At first everything seems okay, but then the burn hits him proper, and he's overcome by a coughing fit as a result.
Holding it to one side, he coughs violently into his arm, waiting until he's finished before inspecting it again. Still burning, waiting for him to come back. "Gah," he croaks, massaging his throat and, after a moment, smiling sheepishly. "A little stronger."

[ragweed]

Slowly, Kit grins and chuckles, and tucks his cigarette into the corner of his mouth so he can handle the cards properly. "Yeah, I'll bet," he says wryly, shifts his eyes to the boy, and juts out his chin. "Go on, you start the game."

The rest of what he has to say can wait a few more minutes.

[altusimperius]

For once, Benedict's first inclination isn't to take offense when someone laughs in his vicinity. Rather, he understands that Kit is laughing with him, and, strangely, not at another person's expense.
Clearing his throat more thoroughly, Benedict sorts himself out and then begins the game, taking more measured puffs of the cigarette and eventually growing more accustomed to it.