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WHO: Kain and OPEN
WHAT: Getting back up to speed (ish) and sort of overdoing it, sleepwalking, writing home, dealing or not dealing with things, etc
WHEN: Early part of this month
WHERE: Different places around the Gallows
NOTES: Potential references to captivity (or skirting around the issue anyway)

I. Training Area

The moment he's cleared to resume regular duties, Kain gets out to the training area immediately and returns every day after that. He's there for hours at a time, pushing himself as hard as he can manage, not stopping most days until he literally falls over.

This particular session, he's really getting into it, jumping and whirling around as he puts his Dragon Warrior specialization to work, grimacing and growling as he attempts to use his Reaver abilities. He exerts himself harder and harder until he's moving around the field with brutal motions, cutting and slicing into those dummies with a little bit... too much... exertion. Kain doesn't even realize how hard he's pushing it, as he slices and stabs those dummies to smithereens. He isn't thinking about it, just feeling this boiling, burning rage building up the further he goes, pushing him to keep going.

II. Gallows Housing

Late at night, well after most people are probably well settled into bed, Kain is suddenly up and moving around. Not that he even realizes it himself, though... because, of course, at the moment, Kain is still very much asleep. There's been insomnia, nightmares, and many attempts to find the right bunch of herbs to help him snooze off... so it's no wonder that now, he's having some pretty obnoxious side effects.

In this sleepwalking state, he simply wanders, making it out of his room and off along the halls. Eventually, he tries to open a random door to someone else's room so he can step inside. If the door is locked, he simply curls up to resume regular sleeping right up against the door.

III. Library

Brow furrowed as he leans over a stack of papers, Kain is intensely concentrating. He's settled in at a desk beside a window so he can occasionally pause and stare outside. He's... not getting very far with his task, though. The stack of papers are clearly letters that he's received, complete with opened envelopes alongside them. Directly in front of Kain on the desk is a blank piece of paper, one which he's attempting to start writing on. But all he's managed so far are some smears of ink as his mind wanders and he's again staring out the window...

Writing home to his close friends should be easier than this, so why is he having such a difficult time coming up with words right now? He owes them an explanation as to why he'd stopped writing for an entire month.... and longer now, since he still hasn't gotten around to writing them.

He taps the quill onto the paper distractedly, as he moves his gaze around the room.

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Teren is usually awake in the wee hours, and this night is no exception: what is the exception is that there is someone else wandering around, walking into unlocked doors and then back out again, and that pings the senior Warden's radar for Trouble.
Stepping silently after the dark figure, she's got both her knives out and is stalking behind Kain like a cat trailing a bird that's hit a window, looking to see where he'll go, not pouncing yet. Not until she gets close enough and can glimpse his face.

Kain is completely unaware of what he's actually doing, of course, as he continues pacing along the hallway. He's shuffling along in a rather odd way, definitely not the look of someone purposeful walking about. After another moment, he ends up leaning right up against a door, at this point not even trying to open it. He just stands there, leaning heavily against it, eyes closed as he continues sleeping.

It occurs to Teren that the dark form looks familiar, something about the drape of his hair-- and yes, there it is, the face of someone with whom she's quite familiar even if they don't speak often.
She stands and watches Kain for several long moments, waiting for him to stir. When he doesn't, she rummages in one of her belt pouches, withdraws a biscuit, breaks off a small piece, and lobs it at him.
Just, y'know.
For science.

Well, that sure does do the trick. As the biscuit hits him, Kain's head snaps up, a snore cut off as he blinks his eyes open. He slowly looks around. Everything seems almost dreamy to him, as if it wasn't real. After all, he's supposed to be in bed, and at the moment, he's clearly not in any such place.

"What... Where am I? How did I get here?" He sounds extremely groggy as he's still coming to.

Oh shit.

Rather than answer, Teren ducks out of sight and quickly tiptoes away down another hall. She was never here!!

Edited 2018-10-24 06:41 (UTC)

"Huh? What the... Why am I... in the hallway?" Kain continues questioning things, eyes darting around as he thinks he sees someone scrambling away. "Hello!?" He's hoping, of course, for an answer, but not entirely too sure he'll get one. He stands there in confusion for a little bit anyway, troubled at not waking where he'd fallen asleep.

Inessa is in the middle of a relatively deep sleep, when the sound of whining slowly rouses her to consciousness. She grunts, rolling over and cracking open her eyes. Her eyes focusing just enough reveal Garahel pawing the door and whining again, and she heaves a sigh. He usually waits until morning to pester her about going out, not interrupting her sleep like this. Sluggishly scooting to the edge of the bed and throwing her legs over it, she yawns and pads over to the door to open it. Another time, she might have stood firm, but all she wants to do is return to sleep and that's more difficult with whining in the background.

Of course, hers is the door that Kain is resting against, so guess who's about to be woken as abruptly as her?

Kain had settled in to just... continue sleeping, completely oblivious to the change of scenery. Of course, that all changes completely the moment that she actually opens the door. He falls over... not very far, considering he was essentially seated, propped up against the door. But even so, it's probably a surprise to have Kain there, just half-falling in her direction.

He wakes abruptly with a shout and looks around frantically, trying to get his bearings.

"Nessa!? What..."

Taking a step backward in surprise, Inessa snaps out of it and leans down to help him up. Not that she'll be of much assistance, but she'll try anyway. Gesturing to Garahel to give them room before the mabari licks him to death, she sighs.

"I should be the one asking that. What are you doing out here? You could have just entered, you know."

"I... Right, I could..."

After all, he has before, or she might come to him. But that hadn't been the case this night, had it? He blinks, needing a moment to orient himself better. The last he'd remembered, he was in his own bed, sleeping soundly.

Kain finally gets enough strength to stand, trying not to lean too heavily on Inessa, not wanting to crush her. "But... I don't think I meant to do this. I wasn't even... awake. The last I remember, I was in bed..."

Garahel lets out a concerned grunt, moving to Kain's other side to afford him some further aid. Inessa, listening, frowns in concern and shakes her head. "Sleepwalking is not a healthy habit to acquire. Stay here, and I'll lock to the door. If Garahel sleeps before it, you won't have the opportunity to go wandering."

The mabari wags his tail, eager to assist.

"All right, as long as you don't mind..." Not that he could ever be an intrusion on her, he knows that. But still, he's always been all too cautious about not wanting to overstay his welcome somehow, as if he ever could. He wants to respect her space if she ever needs it, is all. "Garahel, you'll be up for the task of standing guard, I'm sure?"

He can tell he's ready to help, just based on that tail wagging alone. Kain looks over at Inessa. "This hasn't been a problem before, but... well... I'm still trying to figure out what will work best, for sleep. I try one thing and it does calm the nightmares for a time, but then it stops working, so I must try something else..." Clearly tonight's experiment is something not to repeat. "Perhaps I ought to just try sleeping as normal without taking anything, and see what happens."

Garahel merely responds with a reassuring grunt, leaning into Kain before plopping himself down in front of the door. Kain won't be able to open it without moving a huge mass of muscle, and by then he'll most definitely have woken up. That might also be due to the mass amount of licking that will happen by that point, as well.

"I never mind, you know that. If I had, I wouldn't have offered." She guides him over to the bed, with gentle persistence. "That might have some merit. You could be trying too hard, which isn't uncommon for you. Just stay here with me, let Garahel's snoring lull you to sleep." Her lips twitch as Garahel whines a little. He doesn't snore that much, Mom.

Kain glances at Garahel's position, then gives an approving nod. If Inessa doesn't manage to stop him first, then Garahel most certainly will. There's no way he can just mindlessly sleepwalk past an obstacle like a large mabari in the way. "That surely ought to stop me, thank you, Garahel."

He takes a seat on the bed, on the side that he usually tends to prefer, then moves into a half laying position. "There's no sense in trying if I'm not giving it my all. Even for a matter like this... but... you're always a better judge of things like this than I am. Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm just... too desperate for everything to return to normal. It... it will return to normal someday, won't it?" He at least looks a bit amused at the notion of Garahel's snoring. "Ah, though I always appreciate the gentle music of mabari snores."

"Don't encourage him." Inessa shakes her head, then her all too brief smile fades as she joins him on the bed. "For our given definition of 'normal', anyway. I hope so, but I just don't know. Maybe it won't be exactly as we knew it, but that doesn't mean we can't adapt. If there's one thing we've learned as Wardens, it's that you can adapt to all sorts of circumstances you never thought you could."

"Right... I guess there is no normal as far as a Warden's life is concerned. Who would have thought we'd end up where we are now?" He'd never have guessed where this path would take him. He'd known it would be difficult and challenging, but that's what he'd wanted from it. He wasn't meant to sit by idly and play the Game, he was made for the action of battle. "I just wish that adaptation would hurry up and come sooner. I've too much to do to let this get in my way."

There's a small quirk of her lips that could almost be a smile. Of course, but we don't always get the luxury of having all go to plan. I used to be worse about it, certain I could force mind and body to behave as I needed, when I needed it. But we're flesh and blood, not dwarven machines. We can only force so much, and if we go too far it will set us back. Some part of you knows this."

"I guess sometimes I've wished I could be more like one of those machines, never having to rest or be set back by certain things... but it's probably no good way to exist." He sighs quietly, shifting position a little bit, trying to make himself as comfortable as he can. "And I know, plans often fall through... it seems that happens a lot, these days." But given what they're up against, maybe that's to be expected.

"So we do what we can, and adapt when they change. Or at least, we try." Inessa leans into him and stifles a yawn. "I won't make you sleep...but at least rest here, with me. If you want to read by the glow stone's light, it's still better than pacing the halls."

Kain nods agreement to that. He can manage that much, after all, it's not as if he particularly wants to go anywhere else, anyway. He tries himself to hold back a yawn, but it doesn't quite work.

"I'm… not too eager to sleep, but maybe if I read a little it'll put something else in mind before I drift off." He'd rather have dreams of epic dragon battles and such than of darkspawn and Tevinter. Or darkspawn in Tevinter, which seems to be the theme of a lot of the nightmares, a melding of his time in captivity alongside the usual Warden-related themes. Basically all the worst things just conspire in his head if he's not taking something to block it out. But he doesn't want to sleep walk, so… he'll try to sleep naturally. If he can.

Six is accustomed to seeing people in the training grounds now; she has spent enough time there herself that she begins to know the people that come and go as well as they know her. She's also well aware that sometimes training is how you deal with problems and pain - she had done her share of that when she had first arrived, broken and sobbing at the loss of her connection with her God, wishing that Sarenrae was there to reach for her and guide her.

It's no different now; they weights are simply different.

Her frown stays in place as she sees Kain, waiting until she can see the rage and the emotion bubbling and boiling. It doesn't take much for her to draw her greatsword, to press herself forward and put her blade between his and the dummy.

"I think you have proven the better man."

That rage is an endless tide that he can't hold back, rushing over him until it's all he can feel, until it's so strong he can almost taste it-

Then it stops, abruptly. Kain pulls back from where he'd been going, panting, sweat heavy on his brow, and his face a deep red. He's paused in place with the woman's blade in the way between him and that very tattered dummy. He needs to take a few breaths to calm down enough to speak.

"I guess..." Breathe... breathe... Breathe. "I must have gotten carried away."

Six holds onto her sword with both hands, not moving an inch as his blade crashes into it. She empathises, she does, the frustration an all too familiar feeling for her, but there's no need to relent now. When she had broken her sister had pushed her pieces back together, but she wonders if Kain has those. If he has anyone.

She doesn't know, but she's here for now.

"Perhaps a little." Slowly, she lowers her blade, careful and sure. "It may be time for a pause. To rest."

It takes a moment for that breathing to slow down, as Kain continues panting. His mind is clearing as well, but that's also happening all too gradually. For now, he also lowers his own sword, eyeing the destruction he'd caused that dummy in front of him.

"You think so? That's... that's a shame. I was... just getting warmed up." He looks again to the ruined dummy, then to his sword. "I don't know if I can afford to rest for long..." It's always this sense of urgency with him, this need to return to full fighting shape. He knows he's probably pushing things a bit harder than he ought to, but he can't help it.

She'll have to see if she can arrange for another dummy to be put into place, to see if she can sort this out before he sees the damage and gets uncomfortable, but that can be done later. For now there's someone she has to look out for and her instinct is to step forward and be there to lean on above anything else.

"Perhaps after a rest you can face me, instead." Someone who can fight back, so he doesn't go around demolishing more of the dummies. "But a rest first. A few moments, just to catch your breathing, and then we will see how far we can go."

Kain's breathing is starting to slow now, leveling off as he gradually calms down. He'd... he'd really lost it there, hadn't he? More than he'd have expected to. He's trying to pull himself together now, because the last thing he wants is to appear weak in front of anyone, even someone he's technically only just met.

"Well... all right. That's an offer that's hard to refuse. I'm always interested in facing new opponents..." That does at least sound more promising than just unleashing rage on a stationary target.

It's not as if Six has never experienced it herself; she's lost herself to her passion. She wonders if Kain had seen that, had borne witness to the fool she had made of herself not so very long ago. Even no she thinks she can hear the pain of her own sobs, the pressure of her amulet pressed into the palm o fher hand.

"Then consider me yours to face," she nods her head, moving away and finally lowering her greatsword. She breathes out gently, resisting the urge to strap it to her back again. "Do you need water?"

"Good, I'll look forward to that." It always makes a difference, if he has something to focus on, some sign that he'll have another challenge ahead. Then he's not completely adrift in some way. "It seems we favor the same sort of weapon, but I'll be interested to see how our fighting style may differ."

He breathes out a long sigh. He'd meant to go replenish his supplies, water among all of that, but he'd gotten carried away. "Yes... I'd like some water, if you have any on hand."

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