faderift | [open] I don't know how you made it in

WHO: Benedict and MAYBE YOU
WHAT: the gradually developing situation involving a certain Vint's return to Kirkwall
WHEN: mid-September onwards
WHERE: around the Gallows
NOTES: More prompts are likely to be added as things unfold! I'm going to take this step by step and address developments as they arise.

I. Return to the Gallows

His clothes don't fit, he's shaken and feels like he's about to vomit at just about any moment, but Benedict is here and, it would seem, this is more or less of his own volition. He can be spotted crossing the Gallows with some trepidation, taking his time, inspecting stalls and seeming to prolong the inevitable: which is to say, actually going and talking to anyone in whose hands his life is about to rest.

He's quick to avert his eyes should anyone meet them, but isn't about to take off running.

II. Upstairs (one thread only please)

Seated outside the Division Head office, Benedict is simply waiting for one of them to become available so he can... what, turn himself in? Have a conversation. Both Leander and Alexandrie made it abundantly clear that he's not doing any fleeing without dire consequences, so here he is, and here is the last place he has ever wanted to be.

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For what it's worth, it completely drops off his face when she speaks to him, and Benedict immediately looks rather more anxious. "I'm just--" he says quickly, and then, lowering his voice as if embarrassed by the sentiment, "...glad you made it back." Sorry??????

Yeah, right.

"And how'd you make it here?" She crosses her arms, eyes narrowing (somehow) even further.

He seems to wilt a little, though even he can't deny she's right to ask. "I--" he begins, but thinks better of it.
"I'm going to talk to the division heads." They should probably hear it first, considering all that's happened. He looks at the ground, then back up at Kitty.

"...Micaela..?"

"What, d'you think I'd have abandoned her?"

Kitty shoves her hands deep into her pockets. And, unfriendly still but relenting a little - "Not here. Elsewhere. I didn't tell them - " The Division Heads - "where, so I'm not telling you till I know they're not going to torture it out of you or something."

"Thank you."

It's said in a sigh of such great relief that it's a mystery how he's been holding himself together this long. Micaela is safe, their mission was a success, all's well that ends well, but--

"...do you think they'll torture me?" His head raises to meet her eyes, face suddenly fraught with worry. "I-- I came back voluntarily, I'm, giving myself up--" Looking toward the main building, his stomach drops even further than it had.

Then, in a small voice, "what did you tell them?"

She gestures with impatience and frustration, all the more rankled by that look of gratitude and worry. That's how he got her in the first place, isn't it? By looking all sad and weak and pathetic like that. Does he think she's about to fall for it again?

"What d'you think I told them? Everything. That you stayed behind with your beast of a mum for no reason I can figure. That your lips were probably chapped from all the Corypheus arse-kissing you were doing. So, yeah, they'll probably torture you."

She may as well have just slapped him. Flinching back, Benedict blinks rapidly several times, confused and stung all at once.

"..is that," he says faintly, "... is that what you want?" He doesn't want to hear the answer. It will mean he's been a bigger idiot than he thought, and he's already pretty well aware of how big of one he's been.

And still that pathetic look. That pathetic, manipulative look. Anger rises in her, hot and dizzying.

"Oh, now it matters what I want, does it?" Hands on hips, jaw thrust out, she advances a step. "When I said, don't go, then it didn't matter for shit what I wanted. When I said come with me it didn't matter for shit what I wanted. But now you see that oh, maybe I can save you, so now you give me that look and warble about what I want. Everything I said until now didn't matter for anything, but now, oh, maybe Kitty will come in and say let's be sweet to Benedict so now we pretend that we care about what she wants."

When Kitty advances a step, Benedict retreats, holding his hands up as though to steady her. "But I--" he stammers, "I didn't--"
No real effort is made to get a word in edgewise, as it's already quickly becoming a losing battle and he would risk riling her further.

The last thing he needs right now is a scene, not when he's so close to just getting it over with. He can't handle a verbal altercation, not when everything has gone so horribly wrong already. So he just flinches and turns to take his leave, anxiety rising in him like bile.
Had they been on each other's side, once? He'd thought so, but perhaps he was just being an idiot again. There's been a lot of that.

If he was expecting that this submission would quell her anger, though, he clearly doesn't know her. She stomps her foot, and clenches her fists, and bites at him -

"Don't just slink off!"

Slink off is exactly what he does, unable to bear the force of her anger in addition to the fear that already exists.

Coming back was a mistake, that much is clear. It's a mistake for more reasons than he could have imagined, but this one is hurting more than he expected it to.

[open] I don't know how you made it in

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