[open] a little bit freaked out

[altusimperius]

WHO: Benedict and you
WHAT: bad dreams + demons + homeschooled mage problems
WHEN: During Nightmare Time
WHERE: The Gallows (mostly)
NOTES: hmu if you want a specific starter

I. Nightmares

Though normally a quiet and inoffensive sleeper, lately Benedict has been talking in his sleep. Anyone listening carefully would notice that it usually begins calmly, perhaps incredulously, and escalates from this to whining protest and the inevitable gasping awake in a cold sweat.

The first few times, he tried to go back to sleep afterward; now, he'll get out of bed and pace the room or leave it entirely, rubbing his hands up and down his upper arms and shivering, compulsively pushing his hair back out of his face.

As time wears on, it becomes less and less likely to see Benedict in his bed at all.

II. No Rest for the Wicked

If everyone weren't having such awful dreams, it might be less clear why Benedict seems to have gone on a sleep strike. He can be found in odd places at night, folded around a book in the library or staring into the middle distance while submerged up to the ears in the baths, usually with a cup of coffee nearby and terrible dark bags under his eyes in defiance of his obsessive skincare routine.
After months of improvement he has also become unusually terrible in his combat training, and the reason for this is clearly the exhaustion he's imposing on himself.

On more than one occasion, he's simply walked facefirst into a wall, a door, or even another person, then stood looking a bit lost, like he isn't sure how he got there.

III. On the Job

Those coming to the Diplomacy office looking for Byerly generally have to get through his secretary first, but lately there's a 50% chance said attaché will be asleep with his head on his desk and a half-drunk cup of coffee next to his face. Perhaps a word on a page becomes a scribble, a long inkstain leading from the last intentional stroke across the desk to where the quill now rests on the floor.
The chances of this being the case grow higher with each passing day.

IV. Wildcard

Comments

[altusimperius]

If he had full mental capacity at his disposal, Benedict might continue to argue. But Edgard keeps going, and then pokes him in the chest, and he takes a little step back as his resolve dies.

"I'm going now," he dully announces, and turns away.

[muckspout]

Edgard heaves a full body sigh and deflates from the top of his head to the tips of his toes.

"Benedict, don't. Not trying to--" He waves his hands frantically not sure what he's not trying to do.

"Why aren't you sleeping? I'm--"

He gets very red faced like he's about to shout or get angry and instead when he speaks it's a whisper.

"Alright, fine!" He hisses. "I'm worried about you, alright?"

[altusimperius]

Too fed up to answer at first, Benedict continues to stalk away, stopping only when Edgard's voice drops in volume. He turns to look back at him, lips pursed in irritation.

"It's just--" he grumbles, "--nightmares, all right? And I don't want to have them." His eyes cut past Edgard toward the door. "...especially not. Around everyone."

In other words, Around The Templar who's sleeping across from them.

[muckspout]

Edgard, as usual, misses the subtext.

"'salright." He says quietly frowning. "wouldn't make fun of you or anything if it upset you. Dreams can--" He shakes his hand toward his head in a rattling motion.

He doesn't say that he wakes up in a cold sweat more often than not. If it's happening more than usual, he doesn't really notice.

"Not sleeping can make everything worse though." This he knows to be a fact. "Eventually, you will have less control of when you will sleep and that would probably be worse."

[altusimperius]

"I know." Here Benedict's head drops forward in defeat, pushing his hair back.

"...I don't know what to do. But I can't sleep in there."

[muckspout]

Edgard turns his head slightly. He thought it was because he was worried of getting made fun of but maybe not?

"Why?" He asks.

[altusimperius]

"Because of..."

He glances to Edgard, and past him, with growing unease. This isn't something one talks about in mixed company.

"...mage things."

[muckspout]

Edgard looks behind him warily. He isn't sure what he's looking at. More mage things??

He may not understand, but he does offer a solution.

"Stables. Slept there first couple months I was here. Nobody told me there were beds."

He sometimes plays this off like someone played a joke on him, but in truth, he wasn't used to being somewhere where there was a bed available to him.

[altusimperius]

Benedict grimaces-- the stables is probably the last place he'd want to sleep, and he also hates that Edgard apparently lived there for a while. It's a twofold recoil.

"I'll just..." he says, gesturing vaguely upwards, where the hookah room sits above them. He doesn't finish the sentence, because his tired mind has already wandered away, and surely Edgard understands what he means.

[muckspout]

Edgard isn't sure what he means, but takes it to mean definitely not stables, but elsewhere.

"But you'll sleep?" He presses. "Want me to join you...just in case?"

Of what Edgard isn't sure. Intruders? Random magic? In any case, Edgard wants to make sure Benedict sleeps.

[altusimperius]

"It's fine," Bene insists, beginning to ascend the stairs while waving Edgard away, "it's fine. I'll sleep."

He'll have to, eventually.