CLOSED | She said, "Where'd you wanna go? How much you wanna risk?"

[notathreat]

WHO: Ellie & Jude, Various
WHAT: Various closed prompts in one convenient place!
WHEN: (Spanning) Fantasy September
WHERE: Gallows, Kirkwall, Arlathan Forest
NOTES: Gonna have some fallout/followup threads from this log re: Abby's canon update! Mind the warnings. Graphic injuries. Spicy/sexual content. Hookah use. More TBD.

Comments

[notathreat]

"The first time or the last?"

Pissing off doesn't quite cover it, but she hunches her shoulder until it aches, pinches her mouth shut. It's not a super great conversation, but she feels compelled to have it.

[altusimperius]

Bene shrugs, handing back the hose. "Whichever."

[notathreat]

"Three years ago, and three days ago."

Respectively. She puts the hose to her lips, doesn't quite look at him. She hasn't been here three years yet, so that narrows down the list considerably.

[altusimperius]

"Huh." He's silent for several long moments, mulling it over-- it takes a little longer than it normally would, for obvious reasons, but then he props himself up on an elbow to look at Ellie.

"Her?"

[notathreat]

"Her," Ellie confirms, taking a long breath in, letting it all out through her nose and mouth with a sigh, until it circles around her. It's nice, tingly, tastes all right.

Nothing really to be done about it, and it's her own damn fault. Gotta get through it somehow.

[altusimperius]

"She doesn't seem like the type with easily hurt feelings." In fact, he might wish they were hurt a little more easily.

[notathreat]

"Well. Something about me just gets under her skin."

It would come off like a wry joke, if it weren't said with a kind of... sharpness, almost. It comes off like an anger but it's more of an edge of something painful, and she lets it go quickly.

"... she's not a bad person," she adds, somewhat more quietly.

[altusimperius]

"Yeah?" This seems like a topic worth delving into deeper, but Bene is too languid at present to do so properly.

[notathreat]

Ellie, growing similarly languid, doesn't particularly want to delve into the sadder stuff. But she does give a low hum of agreement (with her own statement) and shuts her eyes.

"I wish she were easier to hate."

[altusimperius]

"Why?"

He's gazing at the ceiling, eyes half-lidded.

"I thought you did hate her."

[notathreat]

"I did," Ellie insists, without thought, before the meaning catches up with her.

"I mean, I do."

That sounds... less convincing.

"Just... less, maybe."

[altusimperius]

"Why waste time on it then?" He lolls his head back to look her over. "Just avoid her. It's easy."

[notathreat]

"I don't expect you to understand," Ellie mutters, almost to herself, talking freely because she's feeling looser in every joint.

She rubs her nose with her forefinger, puts her cheek in her hand.

"... she's from home. She's the only one from home."

[altusimperius]

Whether or not it was meant to, the comment stings; Bene opens his mouth as if to retort, but just closes it again, frowning at the ceiling.

"That doesn't have to mean anything," he says quietly, disgruntled. There are more Rifters from Earth in the Gallows at present than there are natives from Tevinter: he understands quite well, but isn't about to say so.

[notathreat]

Ellie bristles, just a little bit. Clamps her lips together, knows that the burn behind the bridge of her nose is just because she's already feeling bruised. Neither of them mean to be cruel, but it hurts anyway.

"It means something," Ellie says stiffly, but doesn't elaborate. She and Abby have talked about it; the anxiety of seeing an abandoned place. Basements. The smell of rot. Too many people in one place, and not enough doors. Things scampering in the dark.

She wonders if Abby sleeps in her shoes.

"When someone's been through the same shit as you."

[altusimperius]

A long pause follows, Benedict finding that his spirits have taken another hit from Ellie's observation. She's not trying to rub it in, he tells himself, but with his thoughts floating idly about the room as they are, it's more difficult than usual to focus on what Ellie is talking about.

"Sure," is all he says, conceding the point without enthusiasm or rancor. There's no advice he can give that wouldn't be bullshit.

[notathreat]

Ellie sits with the feeling, sour and curdling in her stomach, and then passes the hose back. Drapes both arms around her legs. It hurts her sides, compresses her ribs more than is comfortable, but she breathes through it.

"Sorry," she mumbles.

"I swear I'm not trying to be an asshole."

[altusimperius]

"It's not hard to do," Bene remarks, but with a touch of a smirk at the corner of his mouth as he glances over at her-- he appreciates the apology, even if he's not going to say so outright.

"Might want to work on that before you approach her again, if that's the plan."

[notathreat]

Ellie huffs a laugh, managing a smile.

"I mean, you're not wrong."

[altusimperius]

The smirk grows into a lazy smile, the conversation back on track.

"I never am."

Hah.

[notathreat]

"Easy there, cowboy."

Ellie lightly kicks a pillow at him. "You keep letting your head get bigger and you won't fit through the doors."

[altusimperius]

"Cowboy?"

He furrows his brow, oblivious to the pillow that thumps against him.

"Isn't that just a bull?"

[notathreat]

"No, that's a boy cow."

Man, they are loose now.

"A cowboy is a guy that wrangles cows. He wears a funny hat and rides a horse."

[altusimperius]

"What," Bene says to the ceiling, mystified by this notion but deeply intrigued.

"What kind of funny hat?"

[notathreat]

"A ten-gallon hat," Ellie says, and doesn't elaborate. Because it's funnier.