faderift | [closed] so bite your tongue and

"We heard the sound of you beating him up," she points out, stubborn, "Were we supposed to walk away and mind our own business?"

Abruptly she's reminded of her very real, very violent fight with Ellie, and how she wanted to keep that secret and private from everybody else. So is she being hypocritical right now? Maybe so.

As for their cover story, she finally looks down at Benedict, one eyebrow raised. "You're not doing a very good job." If the whimpering was anything to go by.

Who does this stranger think she is? What does she know about Benedict?

"He's doing great!" He says defensively.

"Kicked him once, barely, and he ran away and cried for like a week. This is real progress!"

He doesn't think about the fact that he might be embarrassing Benedict. He nods sternly at Allumin.

"Let him go. He can get up himself."

In all his wrongheadedness, Edgard believes in Benedict.

It really touches the heart.

Not wanting Allumin to move his arm, Bene stays put in favor of burying his face in his hands.

"Abby!" he says in a sharp whisper, as if to say 'that wasn't very nice.' Benedict is making an effort, which counts for something.

"Alright." Allumin's arm finally releases him, giving him a little pat on the shoulder.

"As cozy as this is, I think it's time to get up now."

Abby raises both hands, palms out. "S'just the truth."

Look at him. Still on the floor, curled up against Allumin with his face in his hands. If this is real progress, it's going to take him for fucking ever to get anywhere useful.

"That's how you're doing this? Punching him until he cries and then you stop until next time? That's never going to work."

Edgard frowns and looks Abby dead in the eye. He raises one finger and hisses air through his mouth.

"Who are you? A pain tolerance developing expert?"

He motions down to Allumin,

"And who are you? Some kind of..a..." He's got nothing. Edgard quickly thinks, the man's is on the floor, what's something on the floor? "Some kind of a rug?"

Edgard holds his arms out and huffs.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, and so forth. With a little sigh, Benedict rises.

"This is Allumin," he mutters to Edgard, "one of the newer Rifters. And..." He turns to Abby, glances her up and down, and realizes he's got nothing.

"...I don't know who this is."

"Abby."

Edgard's little hiss doesn't appear to bother her at all; in fact, her brow furrows to match his own. He doesn't scare her.

To Benedict- "You should start with something gentler. Meditation, or yoga. If you learn how to control your breathing, you'll be able to handle more pain."

Maybe he is a rug - he does enjoy a good beating from time to time. While it would be funny maybe to the right person to say, it is also perhaps an inappropriate thing when you are meeting someone for the first time even with the wackiness of this particular situation. Instead, he just chuckles a bit at the rug comment and his own little joke he doesn't share.

Rug time over, time to stand up now; and so he does, giving a little bow in Edgard's direction. Then, he looks over to Benedict.

"I can also help, if you want to discuss it later," he says, trying to be, you know, vague. For reasons.

Edgard, irritated from first the interruption and then the criticism, throws his hands in the air.

"Fine!" He says, pouting.

"Not like I wanted to do this in the first place. Just helping. But, fine. Go breathe and pray with this lot."

He rolls his eyes tremendously which reveals his feelings of that particular suggestion.

"I'm-- really?"

This to Abby, and though he's never heard the word yoga before, meditation is familiar enough. That's food for thought.
Allumin's suggestion has him glancing over, his eyebrows raising with intrigue, but he can't get too invested in the possibility because there's still the matter of Edgard's feelings.

Old Benedict would have waved him off and walked away, but he can't find it in himself to be so callous now-- he believes Edgard, that he didn't want to do it. He was trying to help.
"I'm sorry," he says quietly, remaining where he stands. "I know."

"Yeah. It's a mental thing just as much as a physical thing."

She's ignoring the temper tantrum happening in the closet. It's not that she's mad at either of them, just that she thinks they're both idiots.

The man in the closet - Edgard, he reminds himself before the name escapes his memory - seems to be getting rather upset by the interruption, Benedict is probably also overwhelmed, Abby is being Abby, and everything sure does happen so much doesn't it?

"No, no! We were just concerned," he tries to say in Edgard's direction to assuage him, "you can carry on with - this, um, exercise? In fact, uhh, let me help--"

He kicks Benedict. Not very hard, but he does, right in the shin nearest to him. And then immediately has an apologetic expression in his direction.

Edgard widens his eyes in alarm.

"Don't kick him!" He says, his voice deepening in warning. "He didn't ask you!" He immediately steps in between Allumin and Benedict.

This is getting out of hand and Edgard will not let this turn into an everyone beats up Benedict party. He immediately changes tactics and turns to Abby.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe we should breathe and pray."

Edgard would rather drop dead than pray, but he's not about to let this escalate.

"Ow!" Benedict gasps, in alarm more than pain, and recoils from Allumin with a look of dramatic betrayal. But before he can say anything, Edgard swoops in, and actually... sort of says the right thing for once, which has Bene watching him in silent wonder.

But then it's over.

"I hate praying," he mumbles, and glances about, "...and I don't think any of us would even pray to the same person anyway."

Damn. Okay, Allumin.

Abby's face scrunches for a moment, an attempt to ward off bursting into laughter. Hopefully that goes unnoticed, because she doesn't want to set Benedict's guard dog off any further–

"It isn't praying." They don't know what yoga is. Thedas probably doesn't know what it is that's so sad, "It's breathing. And– being mindful, and stretching."

He already felt bad for doing it, and now between either of Benedict or Edgard's reactions (and definitely the sum of them) he feels terrible. One complete idiot who has betrayed Benedict's trust over an entire silly misunderstanding. This is so embarrassing. He attempts to hide behind his hands, his face and ears completely red from shame.

He would prefer to go hide in a hole than anything right now, and simply be a coward about this. But then that might make things more awkward in the future if things don't become smoothed over now...

"M-maybe..." his voice sounds very strained as he forces himself to speak, "you could give us all a lesson... i-if you feel inclined?"

Edgard frowns at Allumin who he sees turning red with anger. Edgard shifts his weight from one foot to another. He turns his frown on Abby again.

"Sounds like praying." He mumbles. He eyes Allumin again, trying not to miss a movement.

He looks at Benedict and shrugs.

"Let's try it."

"It isn't praying."

Why is nobody listening to her! To Edgard, the worst of all three of them, "Are you going to actually ask me if I want to teach you? Or are we starting some kind of lesson right now?"

Benedict looks between Allumin and Edgard, opens his mouth, glances to Abby, and closes it again. He shrugs. He has completely lost control of this situation, and isn't even going to try and get it back.

But, to be frank, he sort of prefers it that way.

Not as planned! Not as planned at all! He'd hoped maybe this would be a form of appeasement that would put Edgard at ease, give some value and consideration to Abby's suggestion, and things would be resolved in a way that would allow him some way to apologize properly to Benedict.

Instead! Things appear to be spiraling down into a different not-very-much-less chaotic path.

He misses Ezra, he would have talked their way out of this situation by now and everything would be fine. But he's not here, and it does no good wishing.

You know what, he's just going to keep his mouth shut for now, at most miming out a silent "I'm sorryyyyy" to Benedict.

Edgard does see the silent 'I'm sorry'. He lets out a breath and slouches slightly. While keeping his eyes on Allumin, he addresses Abby.

"If it isn't praying, show us what it is."

Then he says again,

"But I'm not praying."

"I can't show you in a hallway."

Perhaps she sounds petulant? There genuinely isn't that much room. Sorry Allumin and Benedict, are you still here... please stand-by while she turns on Edgard, "If you say 'praying' one more time, I'm going to make you wish you had."

"Edgard," Bene chimes in, attempting to circumvent any dramatics before they can get any more. Well. Dramatic, "let's hear her out. She's..."

He's meeting Abby just now, for the first time. He has no idea what she knows or what she does. He glances over her.

"...well she's got big arms." Which has to guarantee a certain level of expertise, right? At least when one is a noodle.

"Oh, Abby has more than just big arms!"

Surely, talking up his friend in this situation might help. Maybe. Hopefully.

"She's extraordinarily tough! Many of Abby's scars are wounds she stitched up herself, and when we trained together she was exceptionally courageous when faced with the various spells I threw her way," he explains. The latter might not mean much to Edgard himself, but considering the sort of magic that he and Benedict have discussed together there is an underlying hope that the statement will have weight.

"I don't know if I have met anyone of stronger mind or body than Abby. An absolute powerhouse, this one." Hopefully this doesn't sound too sensationalized, he truly does feel impressed by her and wants to make her sound as cool as she is.

Between Benedict's request and Allumin's babbling, Edgard shrugs. He supposes he can try whatever this is.

He walks right over to this supposed powerhouse, gives her a grin and says in a calm near-whisper.

"Praying."

He waits to see what will happen.

Oh, great– now Allumin is making fun of her too for some reason, what the hell. Abby shoots him a bewildered look as he starts rambling, clearly embarrassed; Edgard marching right up to her to annoy her one final time is the last straw.

"... Nice to meet you."

On her way outta there, she punches Edgard's shoulder on the way past, much, much harder than could be described as friendly.

Opening his mouth as though to protest before Abby punches Edgard, Benedict simply closes it again, deciding it's best to let this one run its course. He turns to watch her go, then furtively glances to Allumin, eyebrows raised.

They can talk about this later.

Wh?? What? What happened? When he gets the bewildered look from Abby, he's confused. When she punches Edgard and then leaves, he's even more confused.

"uhhh, have... fun? With your training?" he says to Edgard and Benedict, before going to follow after Abby in a light jog.

"Abbyyy - Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?"

[closed] so bite your tongue and

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are you there, Maker? it's me, Benedict

hello, you've reached the voicemail box of Tʜᴇ Mᴀᴋᴇʀ, please leave a message at the tone

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