Are You Still Wake?

In which Count V checks up on Whiskey Sour, to see if sleep deprivation has gotten to her yet.

Count V
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ



Plant Hwyaden HQ, Courtyard

It's been a little while since Att began a project that drew the attention of guild members to the outside. But after spending a few too many days meandering around, observing, and occasionally bringing snacks, Count V disappeared into the guildhouse where he stayed for a few days before re-emerging again. In some cases he's wandered off, to do quests for someone or another. In others he's simply strolled around the grounds, or bugged a particular guild member.

Today is one of the bugged-a-particular guild member days.

The distinctive sound of Count V's footsteps, accompanied by the light *pif* of his staff meeting the grass, can be heard long before he actually finds who he's looking for. He doesn't want to startle anyone, after all.

"How are you holding up?" He asks, nudging Whiskey Sour lightly with that ominous-looking staff.

Whiskey Sour
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ


There's a lot of brush and unmanicured trees on the guild's land, but they're not especially dangerous - just uncleaned. The state of land allowed to grow wild and outside the lines.

In a suspiciously clean area of generic grass, leaves, and tree duff, with a tree branch extended into a sunbeam that lands...

On a very colorful collection of scarves and robes, face down.

When Count V comes across the body, it's probably right to tap it with his stave. It resettles unnaturally, before Whis sits up. The whole action takes too long, involves too much repositioning before the girl looks up at V, blinking her eyes slowly.

"I was resting. Do you need something?"

She wipes some dirt from the tip of her nose, and pulls a bit of grass from her teeth. "I'm fine. I'm changing my medication."

For her sleeping problem. "Lower doses when I don't need to be awake. Less strain, you know?"
Count V
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ



"No, nothing in particular." Count V plants his staff away from the figure he nudged, leaning forward against it and looking down at Whis-- not critically, but certainly searchingly. He's somewhere on the edge of concerned, and convinced. Concerned about her continued habits, but maybe convinced that she's got it under control at this point. The explanation of her situation -- that her BUFFS are being adjusted -- tilts things sideways, a little bit.

"Hmm..."

"When you say 'resting', do you mean you were napping, or were you still conscious?" He asks.

"'Lower doses when I don't need to be awake' seems to suggest as much, but presumably you are still trying to stop from losing awareness..."

"And I do know, after a fashion," He grants, "but I also know that that sort of thing does bad things to your body in reality." V adds.
Whiskey Sour
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ


"In reality, chemical energy only unlocks more of your physical power. You can't increase your own power with drugs. You understand that too, don't you?"

Whis laughs, the expression in her voice a just-short-of-unhinged tired.

"That knowledge can't be relied on in here, though, can it? I can sing a song and grant you power that you'd never have on your own. We can stack buffs up up up!"

Whis scoots back to lean on the tree, arms crossed for comfort, legs sprawled for the same. "I was conscious. Just not thinking about much. Trying to relax. Shin's worry - about me dying - doesn't seem to hold much truth to it, but there's truth in always being at 100. The mind gets tired. The whole thing flies apart. It's fine. I'm fine."

Whis's fingers twist a bit of robe between them as she cracks a weary grin. "You must hear that a lot. You ever roll over, and sleep on your front? Must be easier now than before. It's easier for me, since the ground is pretty soft these days."
Count V
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ



"Yes, I do. Magic... seems to be a transference of power, but all of us have at least a bit of it." Count V rocks his staff back and forth, conjuring a few points of light glittering in the air around him, "I don't know if any coherent laws govern it exactly, though I wouldn't be surprised if 'magic energy' had some internal consistentcy that we could relate to if we looked at it closely enough. The game is of the sort that tries to be..."

He looks up, at nothing in particular, "Simulationist without being exactly realistic? The exhaustion debuffs are really strange, in any other context than that. This wasn't originally a survival game, after all."

He pauses a moment, thinking on Shin's input on this matter. After a few moments of awkward silence he says, "I don't think it will kill you, but it may not be good for you, either. As you say, we don't really know exactly how the rules work here. Have you ever played any of those games where magic is twisted and deleterious even when it's working for you?"

"Addicting, even."

"You /sound/ fine, for now. I'm going to keep checking, though."

His eyebrows lift at 'must be easier now than before'. But Count V chooses to neither confirm or deny this, shrugging lightly, "I sleep like a wild person. I rarely wake up the way I remember going to sleep. Not a good time with hair like this, either. And I don't think the ground here is soft..."

He lifts and drops the staff several times, "Just softer for you."
Whiskey Sour
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ


"Ah. Gotcha magic. The thing is, it doesn't have to be. Anything's addicting. Money's addicting. Power's addicting. Habits are just elective addictions." Whis rolls her eyes. "I played those games every day. They're barely games. Still, you do what you have to do."

Her tone is frank, unjoking. The sort of answer you give to a question far more directed and far less meandering than what Count V actually asked.

"Check all you like, I'm used to it. Just don't get addicted to fretting over me!" She protests lightly, though she ends it with an idol-like wink.

Whis arches her back against the tree, stretching with a few quiet pops. "I shouldn't sleep like a wild person. It's not recommended. But if you'd rather sleep inside, you can. Still, getting pillows right is something we should probably invent. Feather and straw just isn't fluffy enough, is it? It's just not..." She uncrosses her arms to emote 'squishing'. "Fuwa fuwa enough."
Count V
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ



"You didn't like them? Say what you will about the arbitrarily difficult content, I do think the lore is fairly good. How they strip the magic out of people--" Count V pauses, and then clears his throat. He shrugs, "Well, to each their own, I suppose."

"Ahhh... and unlike my fellows, I do not fret. If you are not an adult, then you are still placed in an adult's position." He flips his staff to tap Whiskey lightly on the head, "It will do no good to treat you as if I am your guardian, and that is a great deal of Shin's mistake, in my opinion. All the same, it is a friend's responsibility to offer a little pressure and encouragement, you know."

He returns his staff to a neutral position to lean lazily on it.

"Sleep how you think is comfortable. I prefer indoors, dark as a moonless night, and cold so I can pile on the blankets. Pillows..." His lips curve into an amused smile, "I am afraid I am one of those people who always manages to make their pillow impossibly flat. The current pillows suit me just fine."

Whiskey Sour
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ


Whis bursts out into laughter as she's tapped with Count V's staff, brushing away the point after a moment, before it's put away. "Sure. But I'm used to it. I have a *lot* of brothers. If they weren't all constantly way too worried for my safety, I'd probably think something was wrong with them."

Her eyes narrow. "Shin acting like one was just surprising, that's all."

Whis draws in her legs as she smirks at V. "You're one of those weirdos that sleep on their back, aren't you?"

"Ughhhhhh, I want a bath. A hot bath! I'm *so* itchy, but cold water doesn't quite do it."
Count V
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ



"As I said. I'm a wild sleeper. The way I go to sleep, is never the way I wake up. But yes, I often go to sleep on my back." Count V tilts his head slightly to one side, "If my back is feeling off, though, sometimes I do sleep on my stomach from the start."

He smiles, at the mention of many brothers, and says, "That's natural, between family members-- or so I'm lead to believe. I like my family, but I'm... unusually independent, I suppose you might say. They probably fuss over me more than I offer them credit for, but there you are. Shin has something else going on, though. I suppose we'll see more of it, given time."

At Whiskey's declaration that she wants a hot bath, V finally straightens up and looks like he's prepared to go somewhere. Nodding, he says, "Alright, then. Well, we're going to need a screen, and a barrel. I can handle the water and the heat just fine. Maybe I'll go after, that 'sore back' thing is a lot more real in here with some of the things I do..."

Gesturing for her to follow along, Count V meanders off towards the parts of the grounds he expects a barrel to be.

Whiskey Sour
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ


"A barrel? No, no. Not for me. I need more room to... spread out." Whis complains, though she does slide up--

Dragging her back along the tree-bark with a piney grating, Whis frowns at V. "Mmmmm. Sore back, too? You really are a club girl, aren't you?"

It's an accusation, at this point. A direct one.
Count V
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ



"Beggars can't be choosers." V says simply, pausing mid-step.

There is a moment where he clearly considers answering truthfully, glancing up into the sky as if the response is just on the tip of his tongue. But it comes, and it goes, and he says nothing at all.

Smiling, the Count offers a little wave, and carries on his way. But in the absence of a clear rebuke, it seems that he is certainly open to such questioning-- if not inclined to answer it clearly just now.

Whiskey Sour
Alne - Plant Hwyaden HQ


"Beggars can absolutely be choosers. That saying sucks. Maybe I'm begging because the easy choices are terrible. And if you won't say it, then..."

Whis makes a face. Her brow furrows. A calculation runs behind her eyes. "Nevermind. Let's find one of those big barrels from the cooper at the edge of town."