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

[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.

[altusimperius]

He can't help but laugh a bit at this, a lazy giggle that bubbles forth from his chest. "What does it hold ten gallons of?"

[notathreat]

"Fun, obviously."

Obviously is broken up into sputtering giggles of her own. It feels good.

[altusimperius]

Ellie's laughter in combination with the nonsense answer is enough to spur Benedict into further mirth, and for a moment he can't respond, too caught up in the humor of it. Ten gallons of fun.

[notathreat]

The both of them are good for it, feeding into each other, keeping it going. It's hard to want to stop.

Later, Ellie wouldn't be able to recall what was so fucking funny, only that it was nice to laugh.