Valryn pokes Vali's face. "You look tired, go take a nap."

@goresugars

The fae stared off into space, laying his head against the comforting coldness of the wooden table. His mind throbbed with racing thoughts, manifesting as a vague, prodding headache sitting behind his tired eyes. It couldn't be any more plainly obvious that Valeriu felt exhausted, he wore not only his emotions but also his needs, upon his sleeve.

Especially when he thought no one was looking. A hand reached out of his peripheral vision, yet barely reacted as the hand extended an index finger and poked Vali on his scaley cheek. Vali slowly picked himself up (which did little to correct his slumped posture) and turned to Valryn. "Mhm....what gave you that idea?" The dokkalfar replied, snidely, with as much sarcasm he could muster, which wasn't much.

Valeriu would, for the most part, remain youthful forever -- but if three hundred and fifty-one years of exhaustion could be written in someone's eyes, or maybe in someone's eye bags, then Valeriu wore it plainly. To put it simply, he looked horrible, like death warmed over. Maybe Valryn should hold up a mirror to the fae, to scare him into getting his obviously much-needed beauty sleep. The Archmage turned back to the makeshift desk he set up in a sunroom near the top of the tower.

He picked up a cup, containing now lukewarm coffee, and drank fully, not stopping to savor the brown slurry of coffee, sugar, and cream. Even caffeine wouldn't be enough to save him from passing out soon enough, but hopefully, it would carry him long enough to finish ....what was he even working on?

Valeriu turned back to the misshapen pile of paperwork, letters, documents and manuscripts, all the words melding together like a watercolor painting upon the pale vellum they rested upon. Worlds of legal jargon, artifact manifests, expedition logs, letters from numerous Amorium noble houses he still needed to reply to, essays on magical theory and application from his older apprentices he needed to read and grade, spells and ideas for spells that were supposed to be tucked away safely in a grimoire; they were all contained within that Kronenberg-like mass of papers. Pure academic chaos.

How did he even manage to carry all this with him? (The magic of being able to manipulate liminal spaces and an extreme dedication to his work, that's how). He rubbed his eyes, squinted, and everything came back into focus, albeit momentarily.

Vali sighed, ready to admit defeat. "Fine, fine, I'll go sleep," Vali stood, shakily. His head spun, blood rushing upward, making his legs feel like jelly. He grabbed Valryn's shoulder for support, and as if his body already decided to commit to sleep immediately once his mind accepted defeat, he practically collapsed onto the mage. That's what staying up for a few days will do to you. You either sleep properly, or you experience the glory of micro-sleep and faint on someone. It was a right miracle the two of them didn't collapse to the floor -- but they got pretty close.

"Oh, fuck-- I am so sorry. I - I really do need to sleep." He chuckled faintly, pushing himself off Valryn's chest. "I don't think it is a good idea for me to be climbing downstairs at the moment." His eyes settled on one of the love-seats in the sunroom. Yeah, that looked comfortable enough. He was short enough to curl up there. Maybe hang his legs out over the edge. Vali strode over as confidently as his shaky legs would allow him to, and back-flopped onto the couch. "If you need me I'll..." A long yawn. "I'll be here." The fae laid his arm over his eyes, and within moments, he was fast asleep.