Proud And Tired Few

GAME: Dolan rolls will: (2)+10: 12
GAME: Dolan rolls fortitude: (8)+12: 20

It's sometime in the early morning, towards dawn. Sleep hasn't happened yet, at least not for Dolan. The last couple of dozes have resulting in him jerking awake, once with a scream, but now he lies there, staring at the ceiling, blankets pulled up around him, holy symbol around his neck, and the totem resting on the bedside table. The sword rests carefully in a corner of the room.

"Zeke," he looks over suddenly, fixing the sith-makar with a lone-eyed gaze that holds curiosity. "That was a pretty fucked-up nightmare I found you in. Do you have a lot like that?"

The question comes out of the blue to the sith-makar who is diligently sitting at Dolan's side distinctly _not_ sleeping and not even meditating. He has made a fresh pot of tea however and is drinking that studiously while Dolan attempts - and fails - to find rest. The blue-scale meets Dolan's gaze and he hums. It's a comforting noise. "Yessss. Thisss one hasss had many sssuch dreamsss." He looks at Dolan gently. "Though ussssually you do not enter into them. Thisss one thinksss it wasss proximity that drew you to thisss onesss night-mare."

Meanwhile, Dolan's dream girl knocks on the door before entering, wearing a fresh set of clothes (tunic and draw-string pants under a long cloak). This time, Andelena doesn't have any new kitten clawmarks on her face, but she does have a pleasant enough expression. "Good morning," she says, as it is, even if dawn hasn't broken quite yet. "Hey, babe, you're up..."

Her sentence trails off as the steel-grey eyes latch onto the sword in the corner. She stares at it. And then she rubs at her eyes. "Fuck," she says, and... she stares at the sword again. Still there. "Okay, what the fuck is that and how did that get here."

Dolan might look awake, but the chocolate-brown eye looks in the dimness like a burnt hole in his head. "That's horrible. Might have known you'd know a thing or two about nightmares-" He stops short as Andelena bursts into the room. "Brightest of days, baby." He even _sounds_ tired, but the question makes a cheeky grin bloom across his face. "Me and Zeke managed to dream that real, with a little help from the Knight. You gotta come with us some night, I want to see what we can do with three of the Knight." Despite his tone, which is real enough, he makes no attempt to move or sit up, and the blanket is only to his waist.

Zeke sits a little straighter as Andelena enters the room, allowing the previous conversation to fade just as Dolan does. He looks to the sword, seeming slightly troubled by it, and yet perhaps also proud? He nods at Dolan's explanation. "Sssaaa. We did. Thisss one did apologizess for the negligensce of falling asssleep last night." He bows his head very low. "Thisss one will be more careful in the future."

Andelena, at first, just nods. She nods once. Then she nods again. "Okay," she says, and then she closes her eyes. She draws in a breath. And then she pinches herself on the arm, hard. "Oww. Fuck."

Her eyes open again and she looks at the sword, at Dolan, and then at Zeke. "Negligence is the /furthest/ thing from my mind right now, I'm not even gonna lie. Doesn't even register. Okay. Let me get this straight, because I just woke up from an accidental nap on the couch by kittens tap-dancing on my back like I'm the hottest fucking stage in the Theatre District. You both... were in the dream together, and you both made that thing--"

She points to the sword in the corner. "That thing's real, because you dreamed it. And it has to do with the Knight. I'm understanding that, yeah? I know it's been talked about before, but it /sure/ is different seeing it actually happen."

"Yesss." Zeke replies, nodding a few times and drinking his tea before looking back at the weapon. "Though thisss one isss... Sssurprisssed that it worked. The dreaming wasss very intenssse, and very sstrange. It iss difficult when there not to think thingsss that one ssshould not, and harder to make the sssword."

Carefully, Dolan lifts his right arm and covers his eyes with it. "It's His totem, Andie," he answers, sounding weary. "Having two of His faithful working together with it makes it easier. I thought it was possible, but having Zeke there made it way easier." He speaks as one used to the intensity of the dreams. "Yeah. Working with that statue makes them wild, but - it helps control them too. You get used to it. I - fed blood to it, kind of on accident." He tails off. "I think it took that, but it attracted more attention than I like."

Andelena nods again, the look of astonishment in her face finally calming down as Dolan and Zeke talking about it. "Got it, okay," she says. Her eyes linger on the sword for a moment longer before she finally walks in further into the room, like some part of her was so worried about the presence of the dreamed-sword that it might leap up and bite her--as illogical as that sounds, but then again, so are the sword's origins to the average person. "That's... incredible. Honestly is. What /could/ happen with the three of us..."

She walks over to Dolan, recognizing that right arm signal. "Baby, you've got a headache, don't you?" she asks. "I bet that took a lot out of you. You haven't gotten any rest tonight."

"Thisss one would have to agree that resst hassss been an isssue sssince lasst night." Zeke murmurs. "Would you like sssome water and perhapsss sssome-thing light for your head? Thisss one would not recommend a sssleep aid unlesss you can not sssleep tonight."

"I've got to get up and stretch out soon, don't I." Dolan lowers his arm and starts to sit up, groaning as he props himself up on that elbow. "Slept like shit last night. Those damned knives," he shudders, rubbing at his chest with his free hand. "I don't want to think about what else he was planning. Yeah, I probably should have a little water. They'll come for me soon."

"We attracted attention, though, Andie. Something Seraquoix. Showed up and wanted the totem. I bailed us out."

"Seraquoix--that a name? What'd the guy look like?" Andelena asks, frowning. She sits down on the edge of the bed next to Dolan, acting as the comforting presence--as much as a swearing Sunguard can, that is. She has questions--so many questions--but if Zeke's going to get the water, which he might as a healer, she might as well act as the comfort Dolan needs.

Zeke rises to his feet and makes his way to the door, talking to the paladin outside briefly in a low tone. Clearly requesting some water for Dolan. There's tea of course, but he was concerned that the tea might actually make Dolan's headache worse. Which tea sometimes could. Particularly teas which were less herbal in nature and more straight tea. Once he is done he closes the door, eyes the sword and heads back to the seat he had been sitting in. He lets Dolan explain what the man looked like, trusting that Dolan will better be able to describe one of his own species.

"He had that Stormgardian look to him, very square, muscular, solid." With an effort, Dolan sits up the rest of the way and scrubs at his eyes. "Green eyes, but not like his." Instinctively, Dolan dodges that, instead wrapping one arm around Andelena's waist and planting a kiss on her shoulder. "I swear I've heard the name before. Thank you, Zeke." He does look like he is trying to pull himself together and get up.

Andelena knows that dodge. So she does what Dolan's asked her to do: be rude. "Muscular prick with a fancy-ass name, got it," Andelena replies with a grin. "Let me help you up, babe. Not only do you need to sit up to drink, I want a better look at that handsome guy I'm gonna marry." She shifts a little, wrapping her arms around him to help him with the ascent.

The blue-scale shakes his head as Dolan prepares to get up and Andelena encourages him. "Not today Dolan. No exercsissess." Zeke has a bit of difficulty with that word, but does not relent in his effort to be clear. "Thisss one doesss not want you to over-do it, and after lasst night you need resst." He gives the man a look that says that he will not say more, but that Dolan should know and understand what he means.

Dolan's nod is mute, but it's a grateful thing. "Good." The grin he shoots at Andelena is a cheeky thing, but he lets her help him up and leans on her to remain sitting. "Prick is right. Lana mentioned Dace Zinskas, any time she and Telamon did anything. I'll bet they're searching the Dream Realm looking for these things. Any use of them attracts attention. We've got to be careful, but now that we know how they work, we probably ought to figure out how many we've got. That reminds me, Andie, I forgot to tell you." He scrubs at his eyes with a hand. "Those totems are hidden in the Dream Realm. I can't use a totem to go looking for another one. We're probably safe until we actually use one. Can you find out how many we've got between us total?"

"A group of muscular pricks prowling around for totem users," Andelena says with a huff, although she seems happier now that Dolan's using her as a (admittedly fleshy) prop for sitting up. "Sounds about right for servants of the Hound. Anyway, I can find out how many we have."

She looks up at Zeke. "Exercises--you mean Bry's longsword lessons? He mentioned them the other night to me."

Zeke hums low in his throat almost absently nodding along until Andelena asks him a question directly and then he blinks twice at her. "Yessss. He isss doing sstretchess and mussscle training to ssstrengthen hiss body. But it will wait one day." He swishes his tail in what he hopes is a reassuring way.

"Both, Andie. Strengthening and remembering how to use His blade like I used to." With Andelena's help, Dolan is sitting up, but he's leaning his head against the Sunguard's shoulder. "I picked up the heavier blade when I was learning how to fight demons, but just picking up that book still hurts, so there's no way in all the green garden hells I'll be able to swing the greatsword yet."

He tails off for a moment, then picks up on a different topic. "I want to go see His altar again."

Andelena doesn't mind Dolan's head on her shoulder one bit, and there's a small hint of a smile on her face as Dolan talks. "I know you'll be just as good as before again," she says. "But I'm inclined to agree with Zeke. Tired as hell, you're more likely to injure yourself or get exhausted."

She looks up at Zeke. "Any way we can make that altar trip happen? Not today, but sometime soon."

Zeke seems to consider this for a moment, obviously making mental calculations in his mind. "Do you want to try for tomorrow Dolan?" He looks at the man. "You would need to resst the resst of the day, and get good sssleep tonight, but thisss one thinkss that it isss posssible."

"Yeah. Don't mind doing that. Is that water back yet?" He's still leaning on Andelena, quite obviously very tired, his head on her shoulder, but he nods slowly. "The totem stays where it is," he tells both of them. "Maybe I'll spend some time with the rites, but I'm too damn tired to do much. We've got time yet."

"We got time, baby," Andelena replies with a small smile. "Trust me, you're not the only one struggling to remember all the rites. Especially when /you/ got all the brains between the two of us. I'm just spitfire, muscles, and a nice ass."

Then of course she remembers Zeke's right there. She looks at the sith-makar apologetically. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he gets good sleep tonight." ... Then she pauses and facepalms. "Phrasing, Andie, holy shit. Sorry. Where's the water?" Just change the subject.

As if their wondering about the water summons it to the door, the door itself is knocked upon at that moment. Zeke politely nods to the pair and rises slowly to his feet to go to it. "Thisss one doess not think that the Dragonfather mindsss cursssing all that much." He says with some amusement, opening the door and gratefully accepting the pitcher of water that is indeed waiting for him. He immediately sets to pouring Dolan a cup and passing it to him before setting the water down. "Would you like water or tea Andelana?"

While Zeke has his back turned, Dolan's grin turns cheeky again, and he reaches his left hand over to tweak Andelena's rear end, as if testing the theory of a _nice ass_. "You've got a nice rest of you, too, baby," he murmurs in her ear. "And a whole lot more. I'll check to make sure it's all still there later." He tries - and fails - to wipe the grin off of his face, instead reaching with his right hand around Andelena to take the cup of water and drain it, fairly quickly. "I'm dry," he complains.

That does it. That gets Andelena snickering just like they're teenagers again back in Myrddion. "You /gotta/ hurry up and heal so we can get you out of here," she says with a grin to match his.

She turns to Zeke, trying to dampen the dirty-minded teenager grin on her face, but just like Bry, is failing to contain it. "I'll take some tea, please and thank you. And of course you're dry, Bry, Zeke didn't offer you booze." That gets another round of snickers from the Sunguard.

Zeke swishes his tail at the two people who seem at least in a good mood. It's nice to see Dolan smiling and laughing and having a good time. Such things are important for his recovery. The blue-scale pours some tea for Andelena and hands her the cup before taking Dolan's back and wordlessly refilling it. The sith-makar is so unobtrusive at times that it's clear that he's practiced in the art of being so. Even as large as he is, he merely does what needs doing and makes everything easier without even seeming to _be_ there.

"I'd wonder if he did, baby." This time, Dolan consumes the water more slowly, and offers the cup to Andelena before he is completely done with it. "Shit, I hurt," he mutters. "Wish I knew what I did."

Andelena takes a sip of her tea as she takes it from Zeke, giving the sith-makar a grateful nod and a mouthed "thank you" before she puts the cup to her lips. She makes a gesture with her hands that can be interpreted roughly as "you can have it" to Dolan's offer of his water, and then she puts the teacup in her hand as she sighs in relief. "Morning cup of tea never fails," she says.

She looks at Dolan. "I mean--if you brought something out of the dream, and if you got hurt in the dream, you probably feel aches from the pain even though it didn't happen to your body, right? Something like that, there's gotta be a price you pay in the process."

"Thisss one agreesss with your mate Dolan." Zeke rather purposefully does not go into any details such as what kind of injuries that Dolan might have gotten or how bad they were. Certainly there's no sign of them now. "That we brought the sssword from the dream meansss that you are lucky that the hurt wasss not worsse."

GAME: Dolan rolls will: (4)+10: 14

There's no answer from Dolan, but the shoulder against Andelena trembles, as if with the effort to be still. The lone eye stares into nothingness, the cup of water forgotten in his hand.

Andelena recognizes something is wrong immediately with that tremble. She shifts a little so that Dolan's still leaning against her, but so she can reach out and put her hand, which is warm from holding her own teacup, out to reinforce his grip around his own cup. "Brydion, it's okay, baby, we're here in the Temple of Daeus," she says. "Everything's okay."

Zeke like Andelena recognizes that there is something amiss right away. He thrums low in his throat and rumbles out a few words in the wake of Andelena's. "You are in the Dragonfather'sss temple. You are not alone." He thinks about his words last night and continues. "Your sssacrifice brought Hiss holy sssword to life. You are blesssed among His ssservantsss.”

GAME: Dolan rolls will: (17)+10: 27

What it is that clears it, is not immediately obvious. Or, perhaps it is all of those things together. It takes a moment, but Dolan sucks in a huge breath. "Fuck," he swears. "Those damned knives. I couldn't not see 'em. Feel 'em. He healed them in and then hooked them up to the chains." The words are almost gasped out, and suddenly he thrusts the cup of water at Andie. "I don't need any more. Get this thing out of my hands. Please."

"Sure babe, I got it," Andelena replies, taking the cup of water from Dolan's hands. She takes it and realizes quickly that Dolan's still propped up against her, so she can't actually go anywhere with it--so she has her teacup and Dolan's cup now in her hands. "Take the cup of water from me, please, Zeke?" she asks, looking to the senior Sunguard for aid. "And--the teacup too. For the moment."

"Sssaaa." Replies Zeke soothingly, taking both cups from Andelena as he continues to thrum. He sets both the cups to the side on the bedside table, and looks at the cup of water worriedly. After a moment he sits down and looks at Dolan very seriously. "Dolan. You need to talk to sssome-one about what happened. Sssome-one who can help you through thisss. Thisss one will not russsh thisss choice, but promissse you will think about it? You mussst treat the mind asss well ass the body. It hass assss many needsss ass your muscless do."

"I want to. I'm trying." Once the cup has been taken from him, Dolan stops leaning on Andelena and drops back down to the pillows with a huff of frustration. "I'm not allowed to. _Don't talk about the vampire._ I want to know more. I just - I can't afford to panic again. It can't happen."

Andelena looks down at Dolan on the bed, frowning with Dolan's frustrations. "I know, baby," she says after a moment. "It's hard. But you /are/ getting better. You and I have started to find out what's helpful and what isn't for your mind. Finding out that I could hold you was great."

She wracks her brain for a moment, but decides to just reach out and take Dolan's hand. "Do you think it could help to... talk to someone that's not me or Zeke about it?"

"You can talk about the vampire Dolan. We merely do not want a friend to do ssso and caussse you harm." Zeke explains gently. "If you are ready your-sself to sspeak thossse wordsss, then pick sssome-one. Many sssome-oneess and let them know what isss in your mind. Thisss one isss alwaysss here for sssuch. Or your mate if ssshe feelsss sshe can. Any-one you feel you can actually ssspeak to about what happened. A cleric trained in sssuch would be besst."

He hesitates here and then continues. "The totemsss ssseem to help. Perhapsss thiss one and Andelena, or one of usss you choosse can join you in your dreamsss and you can make the progresss that isss sso important to you. We can protect your body in reality if we know in advansce."

"The last time you threatened to chop my arm off if anything happened again, so maybe we'd better do that." Dolan's tone is bitter, but he allows Andie to hold his hand without real response to it. "I'll think about it and let you know. I can't fight like this, that much is for certain sure."

Andelena squeezes his hand gently and nods. "Whatever you want to do, Bry--that's my priority at the moment," she says, gently. "For now--can you try and get some rest?"

Zeke doesn't respond to Dolan's words. They've already spoken on the subject, and he'd explained the miscommunication. There's nothing more he can do. Besides the truth is that he knows that what's really happening here is merely that Dolan is upset. Tired. Injured. "Thisss one ssshould get sssome sssleep." He says gently, rising to his feet onsce more, and making his way to the door. His absence would hopefully ease some of the tension that Dolan was feeling. "Thisss one will return in a few hourssss."

He nods to Andelena and then Dolan before heading out the door.

Dolan does not look after Zeke, his lone eye blinking. He shouldn't have said that, and he knew it, but he is in a state where he is too tired to care, and all he does is loosely squeeze Andelena's hand. "Yeah. I'll try."

In the end, though, it isn't long before he finally does sleep, and for some time.

-End