open | brain heat meme

[cozen]

WHO: Anyone
WHAT: Nightmares, slumber parties, etc.
WHEN: Throughout Justinian
WHERE: Kirkwall and surrounding areas
NOTES: Ignore the first prompt if you're bothered by bugs. Also, while this is primarily to help people RP about their nightmares, feel free to use it for any kind of RP you want. (I.e., you have permission to set up a truth or dare game at the slumber party.) Talk about dreams OOC over here

This month, our heroes' sleep is getting more and more troubled. Here are some excuses to write about it.

I. SLUMBER PARTY: Mid-month, an infestation of hardy, prolific Antivan fleas requires everyone to avoid spending prolonged periods of time in their bedrooms while local alchemist Lloyd Meyers eradicates the bugs with his proprietary smoke bombs (and an equally proprietary flea bath for the Gallows' many pets). While the rooms air out for two or three nights post-treatment, bed rolls are available on the floor of the unstaffed dining hall. Sleeping outside in the courtyards is also an option, but a sudden squall of a thunderstorm will drive people inside on the second night.

Footnote: Characters who live in the city are welcome to join this slumber party anyway. Maybe they miss the ferry ashore, maybe they're afraid of tracking fleas into their own homes, maybe they already did track fleas into their homes and Lloyd is treating them too, etc.

II. ROOM SHARE: Does the thought of sleeping in the dining hall with all of your coworkers make you break out in hives? Have you missed the ferry on any other evening of the month? Lowtown has inns, and Riftwatch has a docks-side warehouse with a few side rooms outfitted as bedrooms. But there are only so many rooms available, so you might wind up sharing a room (or a bed) with a friend or whoever is nearby and desperate.

III. CAT NAP: A lack of sleep—whether it be from the nightmares, the workload, routine insomnia, or staying up too late playing Truth or Dare during the Antivan Flea Incident—might make a cat nap on a desk, in a reading nook, or over breakfast particularly appealing. And bad dreams don't need more than a few minutes to get rolling.

IV. CAMP OUT: Investigating reports of enemy scouts in the mountains, traveling along the roads to a neighboring city-state on a diplomatic errand, looking into reports of weird magic on the Wounded Coast, or heading north to provide some assistance to the war effort? All might require pitching a tent and bunking down for the night with your colleague, whether you like them or loathe them.

V. NORMAL NIGHT: If you’re already sharing a room or bed with someone, you don't need this post. But you can still use it for your nightmare threads.

VI. BETTER IDEA: Do whatever you want. Live your dreams.

Comments

[notathreat]

Ellie watches Mobius shuffle off, settling her cheekbone on her arm, wiping at the remnants of tears on her face. Miraculously, she does feel a little better. Slightly more clearheaded, even if she's still exhausted.

They all are.

She tries to remember the last time she saw Mobius sleep. The shadows smudged under his eyes are darker, deeper. He worries more, seems less sure of himself.

It doesn't seem fair.

She's dozing when he returns, but her eyes blink open at the quiet sound of his footsteps. With the side of her boot, she knocks the chair next to her, scooting it out just a little bit.

"How are you holding up?"

[favoriteanalyst]

He tries very hard not to focus on his failings, on the places he slows down, the uncertainty creeping in because he hasn't had enough sleep to be sure of his every action anymore. Because that leads down the rabbit hole: this is what it will be like, when the lyrium finally takes its toll. He won't be as sure. He'll be slower on the uptake. He'll lose track of time. He will get worse.

There is no reason, a treacherous voice in his mind suggests, that he can't be losing himself due to nightmares and losing himself to lyrium at the very same time.

So he focuses on those around him instead. No big deal to bring Ellie a mug of water and one for himself. He knows she won't frustrate him, that he won't get snappy at her. And even though she's nodding again, she isn't deep enough to sleep yet. He settles into the offered up seat, slides the drink over, takes a sip himself. It's not a waking shock of ice water, alas. And he kind of wishes it was something a lot stronger.

"Think getting blackout drunk would give a good night's sleep?" is what comes out of his mouth, running along with that thread of thought. Which conveniently also serves as an answer to her question in some way. "Let's all go back to Antiva."

[notathreat]

The water's cool, tastes like the well. It gives the both of them something to do with their hands, and eases the ache in her head that always comes with crying.

Ellie snickers under her breath, lifts the mug to clink it lightly against his, takes another ship.

"I think you'd regret it even more in the morning," she says truthfully. Even she's starting to not be able to shake off hangovers like she used to.

"But maybe you're onto something there. Even with all the assassination attempts, I slept better."

If they can crack wise about it, they'll be okay. Or maybe it's the mania that sets in after going without sleep.

[favoriteanalyst]

"Then there's a reason to keep drinking in the morning." Joking is better than wallowing. Better than being on a hair trigger and being at each others throats. He likes a drink as much as the next person, but he's only got room for one crippling addiction in his life at the moment, thanks.

"One of them tried to drown me, and I still slept better."

He says it so casually, in response to the assassination thing, that he almost forgets. That one of the reasons he had hesitated so much to Ellie's confession, what happened to her fingers, with Abby, was because of the fresh memory. He--waves it off. "I had backup. Had help. It wasn't so much that he held me under as he got caught dragging me off and dumped me in a canal after knocking me silly so he could try and get away. The point is, Antiva was a good time, and I think we all forgot what it was like here."

[notathreat]

Ellie sputters laughter into the water, has to put it down before it comes out of her nose, has to wipe her mouth.

"I can't believe somebody tried to snatch you," Ellie manages to force out though gasping laughter. She can just picture it- and she can laugh about an attempted kidnapping attempt because she's been through that shit more than once. After the first handful it just starts being fucking rude.

"Man, I just got poisoned and watched Fenris tear a dude's heart out." Two separate instances but hey.

"Who was your knight in shining armor?"

[favoriteanalyst]

"To be fair," as though one should ever be fair to an assassin, "we were out in a market, and it's easier if it seems like you're helping a friend who's had too much to drink off the street instead of just slitting them out in the open."

He is glad he missed the heart-tearing, though. That...takes some very powerful gauntlets, he imagines? Mobius makes a face even at the brief description. "Messy," with a little awed shake of his head. No thanks. Just stab a guy like everyone else, okay?

"Barrow was with me. Running some errands. Big guy, good guy. Trust him." Trust him with a secret, certainly, because he knows and understands. Might not agree with Mobius' decision to keep it under wraps, but it's...complicated. It's complicated, and if it blows up in his face later, then it blows up.

[notathreat]

Ellie nods- at both assessments, no less. The whole time in Rialto was a time. She sits back, tilting her head to one side to listen, and her face softens the second Mobius says Barrow's name.

"Barrow's always been good to me," she says with conviction. They've had little reason to cross paths, but he's always the one ready for a smile or a joke, and even if some people didn't trust him because of his past, Ellie does.

It's easy to be wrong. To hurt people. It's harder to own it, and decide to do something else.

But that's not hers to get into. And if Mobius doesn't know, she's not going to bring up Barrow's business.

"I'm glad he was with you. He's a good guy to have at your back. Or-"

She gestures at Mobius. At that entire situation.

"Were you wearing your armor when you went in?"

[favoriteanalyst]

"Yeah? Good. He's a good man that doesn't deserve the treatment he gets."

Ellie, as a Rifter, shouldn't have to know or care about Templars. That doesn't...mean he wants to get into it. Astarion only knows out of necessity. Barrow knows because he knows.

"No, no armor; we were just out and about, so I wasn't making a show of armor or any of that. Snuck up from behind, gave me a lump, so I wasn't all there. Thank the Maker, I would've sunk like a rock, and I--uh." He rubs the back of his head more from a bit of embarrassment than from remembering said lump. "I also don't know how to swim. Which...I should fix."

[notathreat]

Ellie stares at him, everything else falling away as she zeroes in on that one point. She's not sure why it's so shocking to her. Maybe because it's Thedas, maybe because she feels that she had an excuse growing up, but if he's going to be thrown of a dock and into the water-

"You don't know how to swim?"

[favoriteanalyst]

...Is that weird, that can't be weird, why is she looking at him like that-- "Never needed to learn. I haven't been on or around water that much. If a river or lake needs crossed, then use a bridge, or there's a boat for it. The ferry's the most often I've ever been on water, and the ship to Antiva's the first I've actually been out on the open ocean."

Which, when he thinks about it: "I do want to learn now that I've been out there. I liked the journey over."

[notathreat]

Ellie's actually laughing now, all of it bubbling up in her chest, feeling good. Ugh, she needed this. How come she needed this?

"City boy," she says, fondly derogatory. A pause, and then: "I didn't learn until I was a teenager. Pick a time. I'll teach you."

[favoriteanalyst]

He can't even argue. City boy he is, from Starkhaven, Ostwick, to--well, before that doesn't matter. At least it's gentle fun she's making. Nothing he'll get upset about. Her laughter even gets a cough of a chuckle out of him as he leans back, rubs at the short growth of stubble he hasn't yet shaved off at his chin.

"Seems like a necessary skill to you, huh? Guess now that I'm spending a lot more time on the water, probably should know at least a little."

[notathreat]

"It wasn't, back in Boston. They never let us near the ocean."

Ellie pulls a smile on, shrugging her shoulders. It seems like such an oversight, looking back.

"But once you start adventuring there's a lot of places you can't get to unless you swim. Joel used to push me around on a fucking pallet if we could find one. No offense, but I don't think I could do that with you."

[favoriteanalyst]

"I think if we ever got to that point, I'd be calling the adventure quits and going home. So...yeah, guess I can swallow some pride and let a kid teach an oldtimer to swim around." He looks, though, really looks at her with his Observing stare. But if he's divining anything off her at this point, he's not saying. Just smiles stupid instead. "Babyface."

[notathreat]

"You bet," she tries to say, but then he comes out with that. Ellie chokes a little on her water, but then he makes eye contact and she chokes again, this time laughing into her poor, damp sleeve. Rude rude rude.

She gives him her most innocent smile back, but even that can't really remove the cheek in her eyes. She lets what was once a mischievous kid peek out, just a little, caught behind the sharp edges and real warmth.

"Nobody ever expects the innocent little girl," she quips, but by her tone, it's been both a long source of frustration and something that has absolutely saved her ass.

[favoriteanalyst]

"Innocent my ass." He playfully ruffles her hair. "That's a look of pure trouble if I've ever seen it. A real hellion, out to give everyone grey hairs."

Don't think about how she probably was an innocent little girl, before her fucked up world turned her into someone who's dealt with far too much far too young. This is a moment of joy in a joyless time, and he'll hold onto that.

[notathreat]

"Hey-!"

Ellie laughs despite herself as Mobius ruffles her hair, the kind of thing that hardly anyone dares to do these days. It's unexpectedly sweet, a little nostalgic, and it forestalls the urge to tell him that she'd shot the kneecap off the last man to underestimate her.

All the better to make sure she doesn't sour the vibe.

"My teachers would agree with you," she admits with a deep sigh.

[favoriteanalyst]

"I think you'll find I'm an excellent judge of character," he says with amusement and pride both. "So clearly your teachers were, too."

[notathreat]

"Maybe an excellent judge of character, but I have a feeling that if I showed up to the mess hall with a water gun, you wouldn't make me scrub floors with a toothbrush for a week."

Which is totally not something that she did, of course.

[favoriteanalyst]

He can maybe discern the general gist of what that means, sure, but he blinks slowly at her for a moment trying to parse the specifics of-- "What's a water gun?"

[notathreat]

"A gun is like a cannon that you carry in your hand. You aim and pull a trigger, and it shoots whatever you're aiming at."

Ellie shifts, pulls her sketchbook out of her bag, flips through a few of the pages to show him a charcoal sketch. It's an older man with a ponytail and a beard, kind eyes, wearing a style of clothes completely unfamiliar to Thedas.

One of his eyes is a little blurred, like she sketched it over and over and couldn't quite decide how she wanted to draw it.

He's holding a hunting rifle casually in one arm.

"Here's one. Water guns are shorter, though. And they just squirt water, not bullets."

[favoriteanalyst]

She doesn't wince or flinch, doesn't blow out any huff of air, doesn't give any kind of 'oh right I forgot' laugh. Just goes right into explaining, flips right to the page she wants to show. So she's done this, understandably.

She's got a whole sketchbook. Drawings and a few little notes. He leans over the pages, fascinated not just by the idea of a gun, but by this tidbit about her.

"I've heard qunari have something like that, but I've never seen." The one in the drawing is long, narrow. He thinks he sees how you'd hold it, the thicker end up against you, put it up to your eye? "It's kind of like a crossbow, right? But with something other than arrows." He's never learned bows or crossbows himself, but he's certainly familiar with the concept. "And one that shoots water would certainly be useful for putting out a candle from a distance."

You know, normal stuff you'd use it for.

His fingers trace around the edges of the pages, never venturing onto the drawing surface. "This is good. You sing, your play music, you draw--anything you can't do?"

[notathreat]

"It's... like a kid's toy. Not that I'd say no if someone found a super soaker here. Some of the people here could really do with an ambush or two."

Her cheeks settle into something a little pink, and she rubs the back of her neck.

"Keep my head down and my mouth shut?"

You have got to stop letting people rile you up.

"What I'm told, in general?"

Ellie shrugs a little, tilting her head to one side. She's got a sense of humor about it, but it's obvious that she's not all that used to open praise, and doesn't know what to do with it.

[favoriteanalyst]

"Take a compliment," he notes with a smirk. Who would he be if he didn't do a little bit of ribbing?

"Do you draw from memory? Or from observation?" Because either this is an old sketch, or she's got a strong mental eye. Or...it's both. No reason it can't be both.

[notathreat]

Ellie wrinkles her nose, scrunching her freckles, but reaches out to shove him lightly with her forearm. Yeah, yeah.

But the warmth comes back to her eyes as Mobius asks about the drawings, and she nods.

"Both. S'better if I've drawn somebody before, then I don't have to fuck up the eyes a thousand times." Ellie touches the edge of the page, turns it.

Mobius might recognize a few people. Members of Riftwatch, caught in casual, everyday poses. Fenris sitting on a fence post, near the stables. His arms are loose and comfortable, his expression curious. Ellis taking a rest in his practice armor near the sparring area, squinting against the sunlight as he watches the others train. Cosima, having a drink, laughing even with a thoughtful pinch in between her eyes.

Others, but they're all like this.

"It was something to do during the wintertime, when we got snowed in back home," she says with a shrug.