cozen: (Default)
Bastien ([personal profile] cozen) wrote in [community profile] faderift2022-06-17 10:37 am

open | brain heat meme

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.
notathreat: (41)

[personal profile] notathreat 2022-07-11 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
"You don't need to be. You just need to tell me what's wrong."

Ellie grins at her. Even tired, and shredded to hell by nightmares, they have stories. It's good to be able to make plans for something else. For when morning inevitably comes.

"That would be awesome on one of the circular stairwells."
tender: (04)

[personal profile] tender 2022-07-12 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
"We can pick one tomorrow. Start while everyone is still too tired to object."

Not that Derrica believes anyone would object, sleep or no sleep. What is there to object to? Anything that distances the Gallows from it's former occupants is a positive thing. The incremental improvements they've made have softened it, degree by degree. Ellie could only help with that.

"You should get an assistant. Someone to carry your paint buckets."
notathreat: (114)

[personal profile] notathreat 2022-07-12 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
"That you volunteering?" Ellie says, shifting with a grin, all tired soft eyes and mussed-up hair. She traces the part of Derrica's jaw where it meets her ear, her touch more sure, now.

"Wanna help me vandalize the Gallows?"
tender: (004)

[personal profile] tender 2022-07-12 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes."

When Ellie puts it that way—

"And maybe we could get Matthias to help," might not be what Ellie intended exactly, but Derrica's voice is still warm over the words. "Astarion would join us, if you ask him."

Who doesn't like a little light vandalism? It's not quite a party, but it's close to it. And Ellie's work deserves the attention, as much as Derrica wants to draw people they care about closer, enjoy Ellie's artwork together.
notathreat: (33)

[personal profile] notathreat 2022-07-14 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"All our resident vandals, got it."

She's laughing under her breath, relaxed, settling as she thinks about it. Some rainy day in the future, when they have a moment to breathe, and something horrible isn't happening.

"Will you run distractions?"
tender: (109)

[personal profile] tender 2022-07-17 06:35 am (UTC)(link)
"If you like."

Obliging, even though Derrica doesn't really think it would be necessary. Who would stop them? Compared to the normal day to day in the Gallows, a little mural would be nothing.

But it is nice to think about. It's nice to think on something easy and sweet in their future. Derrica is resolved to make it happen. The paint will be easy enough to gather, and the library must have something she could find, some illustration of a Cetus that would be close enough for Ellie to work with.

"But first, you're going to need to try to sleep."
notathreat: (83)

[personal profile] notathreat 2022-07-17 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
"You ordering me around?" Ellie asks, trying to sound playful, but she does oblige by closing her eyes. The touch feels nice, and it's good think of something other than the bad dreams.

With luck, anyway.

"... fine."

Ellie softly muffles a yawn.

"But you, too."
tender: (004)

bow on this y/y?

[personal profile] tender 2022-07-17 07:51 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe this little interlude is enough to dispel the worst of the night's offerings. Derrica likes to think so.

"I will," she promises. With every intention to do so, once she's certain Ellie's dropped off properly.

"Good night, Ellie."
notathreat: (70)

Y! <3

[personal profile] notathreat 2022-07-17 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
It won't keep the shadows entirely away, but it does help. Ellie murmurs a soft good night and drops off soon after, with the kind of bone-deep exhaustion that says she'd have dropped in her tracks at some point in the near future if Derrica hadn't made her stop.

She keeps her hand on hers.