[open] general hospital: envy edition

[thereneverwas]

WHO: whoever
WHAT: infirmary catch-all for the envy demon shitshow
WHEN: yknow
WHERE: The Gallows infirmary
NOTES: injuries, gore, all that you'd expect

[Throw in your healer toplevels or your injured characters dragging themselves in. Go hog wild. Live your truth.]

Comments

[altusimperius]

Sad and hollow-eyed though he appears, Benedict's face twitches into a pleased little smile at the sight of the bottle, which he immediately retrieves to uncap and smell. By the way his eyes flutter closed a moment, it seems the gift was a success.

"A huge waste of time," he replies, nudging the book toward Abby with his knee as he dabs some of the lotion onto the back of his hand.

The Emperor's Chains is the title of the book, its author some kind of horny pseudonym. It's clearly erotica, or meant to be.

[armd]

While he fiddles with the bottle — she's pleased to see him immediately using it — Abby takes the book and flips it over in her hand. She whistles.

"Geez." But no good, apparently... that sucks. Or doesn't suck at all? as the case may be, har har. "Have you read any of the Hearts in Hiding books? I'll bring you the second one, I got a copy for Satinalia. It's sooo steamy." If he's gonna be lying around in bed for a while yet, may as well be indulgent about it.

"... You good?"

He is... so not good. He's always been fairly slender but now he is too lean and very tired. He smells like infirmary and it doesn't suit him.

[altusimperius]

It doesn't suck enough, obviously, or in the right ways. Benedict is a very discerning reader.

"What's that about?" he asks, apparently satisfied by the feel of the lotion on his hand, because he's beginning to dab it on his face as intended. To her second question, he casts her a quick glance, but offers only a little shrug in response, as if he didn't hear it: pardon you, he's being fussy and vain right now. Talking about indignities and misfortunes can wait for after sexy book club.

[armd]

Sex before trauma? Haha. Mood.

Abby rolls her eyes at him anyway and decides that she's going to kick off her boots, put her legs up on the end of his infirmary bed. May as well get comfortable. "They're about this noble Orlesian woman who is forced to choose a husband and she selects this guy who makes the most sense to the court, he's rich and handsome, whatever, but he's such an asshole — she has to bend him to her will." She looks at Benedict and wiggles her eyebrows. "And then she finds out he's actually pretty chivalrous underneath all of it, so she does actually end up falling in love with him.

"And there's an invasion at some point but it's not that important, it's just setting up the big plot twist." Blah blah blah.

[altusimperius]

"Huh." Bene's eyebrows climb with visible interest as he settles back, listening shrewdly. "And it actually works, you say? And isn't dreck?"
He picks up his own book again, waggling it derisively. "This one's about an emperor taken prisoner by the ruler of an enemy nation, which honestly sounded-- you know, great--"
He flips through it, brows furrowed, "but right off the bat they're in love. He's treated well, they talk a lot."
He sighs dramatically, letting the book flop to the bed beside him as he sinks back onto his pillow, "what's the point?"

[armd]

The word 'dreck' makes her laugh a bit and shake her head. "Nah. It's good. The first one is more about her has too much scene setting and it's pretty flowery but the second one gets right into it."

She reaches for his book, glancing at the back with cursory interest anyway, opening it, skipping through. It's always a bad sign if you open this kind of book and can't land right on a sex scene without having to dig through all the terrible dialogue first... She tosses it back onto the bed. "I dunno. Skip to the end?"

See if anything happens?

[altusimperius]

"But the part where they hate each other is already over," he whines, "what could possibly happen to ruin their relationship enough that it's interesting again?"

He's clearly feeling all right, getting impassioned about the topic of fictional fucking, "I think it's a wash. But if you'll lend me the one you mentioned, I'll owe you a favor. I'm dying of boredom."

[armd]

Weirdly, she thinks of herself and Ellie in that moment.

Shaking out of that, "I'll bring you it and a few other favourites. The favour you can owe me is telling me what you think of them." It'll be like a book club, it'll be fun. And she's glad that it's only boredom he's dying of, but it's hard to say off the back of... this conversation, so.

"How long do they have you here for?"

[altusimperius]

Of course he doesn't think of her and Ellie, because thinking about other people in contexts separate from himself is still a fairly new skill for Benedict, but he does notice the beat of silence from Abby and is about to raise a questioning brow when she moves on.

"Sounds like a good deal," he says with a little smile, "and-- I don't know. Once I can eat properly again, Bastien and Byerly have offered to let me stay with them for a while."

[armd]

"Aw. That's nice of them." And they're not in the Gallows, right? It'll probably be more restful that way. Little does Abby know...

"Guess we're having book club at their place." Yeah she's inviting herself over, what of it.