[OPEN] I have never known peace

[ragweed]

WHO: Kit + you??
WHAT: Kit does what he can to help out the Inquisition during blue flu season, and reconnects with some friends (and lovers) along the way.
WHEN: Throughout February.
WHERE: Gallows + Kirkwall
NOTES:This will be Kit's last log before he goes out in a blaze of glory at the end of the month, so if you'd like one last thread with him, ping me @ ragweed on plurk or on discord and we can make it happen. Starters will be in the comments as I write them up. CW for death and violence in Kit's thread w/ the Medicine Seller.

I have never known hunger
Like these insects that feast on me

Comments

CADE + BENE

[ragweed]

i have never known sleep, like the slumber that creeps to me


i. Cade (+Simon if you want to jump in)

Whatever is ailing the rifters and Templars of the Inquisition means that it's affecting his friends, and this means that in between his duties, Kit tries to make time to check on them. (One he already has to wrangle more than the others, but he counts Cade and Simon among his friends.

He arrives outside their door with a covered pot of something that is probably nug stew--he's a one-trick bronto in the kitchen, okay?--and knocks. "Hey, anyone home?" Just kidding, he knows you're home, now open up.


ii. Benedict

Kit gave the boy some time to settle back in at the Gallows after his harrowing experience with the ship--and a second attempt on his life--before coming back to call on him. Whoever is guarding his door this time (not a Templar, for obvious reasons) must be used to the dwarf's comings and goings, because they exchange a little small-talk before Kit knocks and announces himself, and only enters once Benedict welcomes him in.

"How're you holding up?" No need to pretend that the Gallows around them aren't going a bit to shit at present.

i

[onlyhymns]

Cade has been too nervous and timid to even leave the room he shares with Simon, even though the latter comes and goes with varying degrees of lucidity. Kit receives the usual response to someone knocking on the door with a loud greeting: loaded silence, the holding of fearful breath.

[ragweed]

A pause. ...huh.

"It's, uh. It's Kit," he adds helpfully.

[onlyhymns]

Another pause, and then, slowly, the door opens. Cade is on the other side of it, frowning anxiously. The name Kit is familiar, and he knows the man when he sees him, but too much else is jumbled for Cade to do anything but watch him warily.

[ragweed]

Kit doesn't lose the smile he offers his friend, but it grows a touch wistful, pained. Yeah, he'd been worried about... something... like this.

"Hey, salroka," he says gently, and holds up a topped bowl of stew. "I thought you might be hungry."

[onlyhymns]

Like a stray dog being offered scraps, Cade looks down at the bowl and then steps cautiously back, allowing Kit to enter but still without any overt signs of recognition. There's kindness happening, and something deep within himself tells him this person is trustworthy, but he just feels so awful that it's difficult to muster anything beyond a tired, shaking stare.
"Thank you," he says, trying for politeness, but despair has crept into his voice. "...what day is it?"

[ragweed]

Ancestors--this is harder than he ever expected it to be.

When Cade asks him the date, Kit tells him--whatever it happens to be--and then walks over to a table where ostensibly he's been taking his meals to set the stew down. He pops the lid off of it, and some fragrant steam wafts from it; it's the kind of homey cooking you'd expect from someone's kitchen, nothing fancy.

"Looks like you've been having a rough go of things," he says, then tilts his head some, studying his friend's face. "...it's all right, if things don't make much sense right now. It's all right."

[onlyhymns]

Cade meets Kit's eyes, but there's a distance there, an inability to focus or really recognize what he's looking at. He sits down at the table, anxious but docile, as easily as though he were a child being ushered to mealtime. He appreciates having instructions to follow, unspoken though they are.
"Did I do something wrong?" he asks, in a near-whisper. He knows this room from somewhere, and associates with it a memory of waiting, panicking... where's Simon?
Kit's face and words are reassuring, and Cade meets his eyes and nods, wanting to believe him.

[ragweed]

Kit blinks at him. "Did you--" he starts to repeat, then grimaces, pained. "No. No, salroka, you haven't done anything wrong. You're all right, I promise."

He pauses, then motions to the food, and to the spoon. "Go on, eat something." He sure looks like he needs it.

[onlyhymns]

He doesn't need to be told twice. Cade nods sheepishly and starts to eat, his spirit for it healthy enough even if he doesn't look like he can derive enjoyment from this or anything else right now. He's following orders, and when all else fails, that's always something he'll find comforting.

[paladingus]

Simon had not, upon leaving the room, been quite all there, and he is less so now after having blood drawn for study, but he is at least just lucid enough to recognize Kit as he walks back in--though it does take a few long moments of unfocused staring.

"Oh," he says, his voice hoarse from lack of water. "Oh, it's...you're here to visit." The obvious shouldn't need stating, but it does; he needs to remind himself of reality, make it concrete and present. "It's good to see you."

[ragweed]

Ancestors, it's like trying to communicate with nugs. Depressed nugs.

"You, too," Kit greets Simon anyway and smiles, because he's glad to see him, even if it's deeply unsettling to see his two friends acting this way. Awkwardly, he brings up a hand to rub the back of his neck. "I dunno if you're hungry, but I brought something by anyway. Seems like the least I could do, all things considered."

ii

[altusimperius]

Each time there's a crisis, Benedict feels a little more comfortable back in the safety of his own quarters, no matter how bland and dour they are. He's at his writing desk by the window, head resting on his hand, when he hears the door open and looks over his shoulder to see Kit.
By this point, the dwarf has become a welcome sight, and Benedict smiles, almost sheepishly. "Fine," he answers, "not dead."

[ragweed]

"I'd say that's better than the alternative, sure." Kit cracks a grin and comes all the way in, shuts the door behind him, and makes his way over to the writing desk. He tugs over a chair and, as is his custom, tosses down a deck of cards for Benedict to shuffle and deal.

"I hope that prick--" Loki, Kit reminds himself, that prick has a name, "--hasn't given you any more trouble."

[altusimperius]

Mirroring Kit's grin, Bene shifts to face him a little more, and gladly begins to shuffle the cards once they drop to the table.
"I haven't seen him since that night," he replies, and feels nearly compelled to say more-- he hopes he's all right, that sort of thing-- but concludes that that line of conversation is treacherous.

"What's going on in the Gallows?" he asks, starting to deal, "everyone's whispering and running around like frightened chickens."

[ragweed]

"What's going on in the Gallows? Everyone's whispering and running around like frightened chickens."

"You haven't noticed?" Kit asks, and lights two cigarettes, one for himself and one for Benedict, which he passes over to him once he's done dealing the cards. He juts out his chin towards the door once. "Next time you're out there, take a look at the rifters." They're blue, after all.

[altusimperius]

"Oh, I've noticed," Bene reassures him, taking the cigarette to inhale on it, "but I don't know why. What's wrong with them?" At least... aside from their being from a different universe.

[ragweed]

A shrug is Kit's only real response to that. "Couldn't tell you, salroka," he says heavily. "That's a question a level or two above my paygrade. And skillset." This added with a little smirk, and he picks up his hand of cards to consider what's in front of him. "Got darkspawn that need killing? I'm your man. Anything else?" A dismissive shrug, and he plays his first hand--not bad, but probably beatable.

[altusimperius]

Benedict exhales while Kit talks, the smoke curling around his face in a well-cultivated stream, something he no doubt learned to do trying to impress other partygoers around a hookah back in Minrathous. There's a consciousness to it, a visible enjoyment.

"Well what good are you," he teases, slapping a card down that beats Kit's, the corner of his mouth twitching into a proper smirk. "If I run into any darkspawn in the library, you'll be the first person I call."

[ragweed]

His hand beaten, Kit scoffs mildly, gathers the cards up, and shuffles them again for the next hand. "Well what good are you," Benedict teases him, and in response, Kit can only smile wistfully, eyes on his cards rather than on Benedict's face.

The boy looks better. He's settling in. Maybe he's going to be all right.

"No idea, salroka," he answers, meets Benedict's eyes very briefly, then plays his hand again--it's a more solid one this time. Then he reaches for his cigarette again and brings it up to his lips for a quick drag, exhaling the smoke; there's no artful display to it, just the rush of the nicotine, and clear distraction in his eyes. "All that shit aside, I'm glad you've found your feet here."

[altusimperius]

"If that's what you want to call it," Bene says with a roll of his eyes, never about to willingly concede that he's doing better or might have learned something. Idly scowling at Kit's new hand, he picks through his own for a moment, biding his time. "I've found something, anyway. It might not be mine." Puff. "...but I guess it's something."

[ragweed]

"That's life for all of us, salroka, one way or another." Kit tucks his cigarette into the corner of his lips and reviews his own hand while waiting for Benedict to play his. "Just going along dealing with the shit it throws at you. Most folks don't get a choice in how they muddle on through."

He thumbs one of the cards in his hand and smirks. "Maybe that's why I like cards so much."

[altusimperius]

In most cases, Benedict might continue to whine. But he likes the easy comfort he has with Kit, the inanity of what they do together that helps him forget his real circumstances.

"You don't have that much of a choice in cards either," he points out, laying down another triumph.

[ragweed]

It's a winning hand, and Kit scoffs, but he's still smiling lopsidedly. He drops down his own hand, content to be bested by his own student. Maybe there's a bit of pride in the look he sends Benedict's way.

"You don't have that much of a choice in cards either."

"I know," he replies, takes another drag of his cigarette, and blows the smoke off to the side. Then he juts his chin at his young friend's face, chuckling. "That's the point. Gives you time to work on your poker face, so you're ready when it really counts."

[altusimperius]

Benedict grins, waggling his eyebrows triumphantly as he leans back and folds his arms. He's not the most gracious winner, but at least he's not being a total piece of shit.
"Ready to lie, you mean," he replies with a smirk.