[open] I feel calamity whisper

[altusimperius]

WHO: Benedict & you
WHAT: livin' that wartime life back on the home front
WHEN: Solace, over the course of the modplot
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: feel free to request specific prompts if what's here doesn't suit you!

I. Diplomacy office

Receiving, sorting, answering correspondence; following up on important dates, of which there are seemingly countless these days; making and delivering coffee; taking dictation, recording meetings, making lists; cross-referencing names and locations as requested, labeling markers on a map; there's hardly time to breathe.
It's been some days now since Benedict has had a proper sleep or sit-down, spending his days and nights scrambling after Byerly, seeing to the many minuscule needs of a Diplomacy office when its Forces and Scouting counterparts have fallen off the face of the world.
He doesn't begrudge Byerly-- in fact, for the first time since starting to work for him, Benedict is as quick to snap to his needs as a seasoned valet.
When not hunched over his desk in the office itself, he can frequently be found scurrying to and fro with this or that missive, list, or directive, if not just the latest pot of coffee.

He'll stop for a few moments to chat, but only if it's important.

Ia. for Byerly

With the Diplomacy office's activity having thinned out for the day, the room looks like a hurricane hit it-- this likely includes its denizens, although one of them has stepped out to retrieve more coffee, despite the darkened sky and the guttering candles.
It's an automatic motion, setting the cup on Byerly's desk, but Benedict actually looks at him for the first time in a while, and furrows his brow.

"...how long have you been here, today?"



II. The Off Hours

Going to bed just isn't cutting it anymore. Benedict can lie facedown on his mattress for the hours he's able to take to himself, but amidst the racing thoughts and the day's anxieties, sleep just isn't happening.

It's at these times that he drags himself out of bed and ascends the tower to the room where his hookah lives, long abandoned by either Athessa or Colin, but he can't let himself think about that. He smokes, and lies there staring at the ceiling, and sometimes he sleeps.

After a while, he can be found there nearly every night, either unconscious or trying to be amidst the haze of elfroot smoke.


III. Wildcard

Comments

[altusimperius]

The smoke has long dissipated, Benedict lying prone and snoozing on a pile of pillows with the hose still clutched in his hand, though he jolts awake gently at the sound of the knock. He focuses blearily on the figure in the doorframe, rubbing at his eyes and rather expecting to be called off to some duty or another.

[kantikoy]

"Sorry," Adrasteia whispers, both in consideration of the hour and because her voice is shot, also. She gestures at the hookah with one hand, the other pulling out a pouch from the inner pockets of her robes. "Do you mind?"

Seemed a better idea to ask him from here than to get too close and startle him into maybe breaking something. Like himself, or the hookah.

[altusimperius]

He doesn't seem inclined to break either, still too tired (and possibly too stoned) to do much more than lift his head. Following her gaze, Benedict looks from Adrasteia to the hookah and back, then gives a little nod of assent.

He stifles a yawn with the back of his hand.

[kantikoy]

Adrasteia smiles and approaches, taking the hose from him gently before she settles cross-legged on the other side of the hookah. Warming the now cool coals only takes a touch; fire-based magic has always been easy for her. She adds her elfroot to the hookah and takes a long pull on the hose, coughing slightly at the burn in her already wearied throat.

Then she offers it to Benedict. "There's coffee in my room if you're interested." She could go, bring it here. Her room isn't that far.

[altusimperius]

With a silent shake of his head, Benedict holds up his hand to refuse the hose once Adrasteia takes it. He lets his head fall back and his eyes close again for a few moments, one hand resting over his chest and moving with its gentle rise and fall.

"I have to be up in a few hours," he murmurs without opening his eyes, "I'll have coffee then."

A long pause, and then, as an afterthought, "...but thank you."

[kantikoy]

"You're welcome." Now that Adrasteia knows he has to be up in a while she does her best to be quiet, but that's difficult; coughing happens from time to time, both from the hookah and from smoke she'd inhaled in Tantervale.

She moves to the other side of the room, or into the hall when the coughing gets very bad in the hopes of not rousing him much further than she has already.

Adrasteia doesn't really know Benedict. She's seen him in passing during her time in the Seneschal's office (and now someone else is Seneschal, she's not sure how she feels about that) and thinks of him as "Byerly's assistant" but she knows that he's from Tevinter.

It can't be easy for him, now, she imagines.

She stays in the area, in the hours that pass. Adrasteia has nowhere to be at the moment, and she'd rather make sure he actually wakes when he intends than to just leave him be.

[altusimperius]

Not since he was a boy has Benedict been watched over while he slept, and there's something deeply soothing in knowing there's someone nearby whose purpose isn't to disturb him.

He manages to drift off eventually, sleeping the exhausted, as-he-lies slumber of someone who's taking what he can get when he can.

[kantikoy]

As the sun comes up Adrasteia leaves the room as quietly as she can, only to return a short while later carrying a tray of food (and the aforementioned coffee, heated with just a touch). She sets it down on the floor, a little distance from the hookah and the room's other occupant, and sips her coffee until the sun is clear over the horizon and the birds have gotten loud outside.

If he's still sleeping, she'll shake his shoulder gently.

[altusimperius]

With a start, Benedict's eyes flutter open. He looks bewildered for a moment, gazing up at Adrasteia, and then the events of a few hours ago come floating hazily back.

"How long was I...?" he murmurs, pushing the back of his hand against his mouth to make sure he hasn't been drooling.

[kantikoy]

"A few hours. You said you had to be up, so." Here's your wake-up service. "There's coffee. Food." She gestures towards the tray. "If you're interested." She doubts he gets many opportunities to eat during the day, helping Byerly run two Divisions during an ongoing defensive.

[altusimperius]

Slowly managing to focus on the tray, Benedict looks at it for a moment, then back up at Adrasteia. Service? From an elf, at that. It feels familiar in the worst possible way.

"...thank you," he says, almost timidly. "You didn't have to."

[kantikoy]

Adrasteia's smile is earnest, if not a little tired. "I needed to eat, and figured that you might too." She reaches out and pats his knee before shifting away from his nest and moves back towards the food and coffee. "Better to face the day with a full stomach."

[altusimperius]

Groggily, Benedict rises to begin serving himself, soothed by the scent of the coffee.
"You ought to bring some to Byerly," he rasps, remaining seated as he digs in, still waking up, "I'd be surprised if he's slept at all."

[kantikoy]

She sips her coffee. "Maybe I'll bring some to the Warden's office and you can convince him to go eat?" Seems like a good middle ground, and Adrasteia doesn't know Byerly well enough to feel great about interrupting him to suggest he eat.

[altusimperius]

Benedict's weary stare suggests that would be easier said than done: convince Byerly? To do anything, let alone take care of himself?
Dream on.

"I'll just... bring him something," Bene grunts, glancing over his shoulder at the sound of the bells as he finishes eating.

[kantikoy]

Adrasteia frowns softly. Shouldn't the man listen to his own assistant, especially in regards to self-care? But then she imagines Ellis in Byerly's position and shakes her head a little. Some mothers' children, Andraste preserve them all. "I can help with that, at least. Do you need to go now?"

[altusimperius]

"I should."

Finishing up, Benedict dabs his mouth and then rises to his feet, giving a long, catlike stretch of his back as he does.

"Maybe if you come too, he'll actually listen," he mutters, squeezing his eyes closed as he pops his shoulders.

[kantikoy]

"That I can do." Adrasteia smiles and picks up the tray with a sure grip. "Perhaps we'll both shame him into taking care of himself."

hurls this at Byerly to include him too

[altusimperius]

And so it begins: bringing the food up to the department offices, where Benedict hopes to find Byerly asleep, if not absent entirely. He pokes his head into the diplomacy office and has a quick glance around, in case there's anything (??) they wouldn't want Adrasteia to see.

[bouchonne]

Byerly is present, and conscious, if looking rather the worse for wear. He has the sallow, rumpled look of a man who hasn't seen sunshine in a while, and the sour look of someone who's suffering indigestion from a diet of more stimulants than coffee.

"What is it, Artemaeus?" he says, his voice a little snappish - not because he's displeased to see his assistant, but just because those squirrely movements make him think there's some bad news to come.

[altusimperius]

There hasn't been any kind of meaningful exchange between these two since their last, very fraught conversation, and Benedict is prepared for the worst even before Byerly snaps at him.

"Food," is all he says, wearily, and gestures to Adrasteia.

[kantikoy]

Adrasteia, for her part, fixed Byerly with a smile that she hopes does not show how vaguely annoyed she is with his tone to Benedict. They're both grown men; they can settle that on their own.

"There's also coffee," she announces, "but I think eating something first would be ideal."

[bouchonne]

"Ah." His tone turns immediately more civil in the presence of Adrasteia. That said, he certainly doesn't take her advice; he goes for the coffee first, pouring himself a cup.

His hands shake faintly, and he moves like his back hurts.

"What time is it?"

[altusimperius]

Watching Byerly with muted disapproval, Benedict doesn't interfere, instead moving to slump down in his desk.

"Seven-ish," he replies, pushing his hair back out of his face, "did you sleep at all?"

[kantikoy]

If Benedict isn't going to interfere, Adrasteia will. She purposefully puts a piece of bread with meat and cheese on top of Byerly's coffee cup, in between the moment he's done pouring and when he lifts it to his mouth. She also works in the infirmary, don't make her pull out the 'rather pleasant but will get you to do what's good for you' mode of interaction.

"My guess is no."