faderift | OPEN: this will be a better year

WHO: Everyone
WHAT: First Day
WHEN: Wintermarch 1 (forward-dated)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Scouts from both the Western Approach and Emprise du Lion are welcome (but not required) to have returned to Skyhold in time for this event.

There have been better First Day feasts, and less crowded ones, and cheerier ones. It isn't a good year for many to look back on, and this one isn't starting any better. Reports from both Eastern and Western Orlais are grim. Many in the Inquisition can't afford to take more than a few hours away from their work, if that.

But for those who can, the ambassador does her best. At lunchtime some tables, hot food, and finery are reserved for visiting nobility and wealthy pilgrims--cause for grumbling in some quarters, perhaps, but they're the people filling the Inquisition's coffers, and allowances must be made--but there's plenty of stew, bread, and ale for everyone, even with the soldiers and refugees who stay outside the fortress invited inside for the holiday. The recently repaired garden and its carefully tended plants aren't off limits, but anyone noisy and holding a drink will be stopped at the door; the battlements, with their potential for deadly falls, are blocked by Inquisition guards. But the courtyards brim with people, most of them happy despite the possibility that the world might end before another First Day arrives.

If the courtyards are too full of tipsy visitors for comfort, there's also the valley beyond the fortress, expansive, barren, and covered in snow. By the river the soldiers help the refugees make a bonfire larger than would ever be allowed inside Skyhold's walls, and some lend their shields to use as sleds down the embankments. A group of scouts start the most intense game of hide and seek Thedas has ever seen, with snowballs to the face for whoever is found first. In the camp, a refugee girl with her hand wrapped in a green scarf chases other children around the tents, shouting raaar, I'm from the rifts!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Um, excuse him, but there are people not enjoying a party. Sure, he might be a generally angry sort, but he's not a grinch or a miser. He likes a party as much as anyone else! But this woman, though. What a wallflower.

"Aw, c'mon," he says by greeting, not drunk but definitely lively and leaning against the wall next to her. "Don't tell me your the boring designated driver. Don't you like parties? I'm pretty sure I've never seen some of these guys even smile before."

Oh, Maker, just what she didn't need. A large, obnoxious male human in her way. Maybe if she could just get past him, he'd leave her alone...

"I'm sorry, messere, but there is work I must attend to," she said politely, and tried to duck around him.

He's not a fucking prick. (Okay, that's arguable.) He's not going to just, like, grab some lady who clearly doesn't want anything to do with him. Still, he pouts. "What'd I do? Do I offend or something...?"

Unfortunately, Kallian knows one too many stories, a few too many girls, a hundred different warnings about men who would do exactly that without a second thought. And he's setting off all her internal alarms.

"Messere, please... I-I don't want any trouble..." Is she scared of him? Yes, she is. But she tries to keep her composure.

He puts his hands up, close to his chest, even takes a step back. Does he look like some horrible criminal or something? He pretty much only said hi to this chick. "You're not getting any trouble. I just wanted to make sure you were having a good time. Cuz you looked pretty miserable. Or lonely. Or whatever. I'm not trying to hit on you? Please don't hit me."

Hit him? The sheer absurdity of the idea almost made her laugh. For a while, she didn't say anything, not sure which way this conversation was going. What this man's intentions were.

"...Elves aren't usually invited to participate in celebrations. The humans entertain themselves, and the elves keep things running smoothly," she said.

"Oh. Uh. Didn't know that." It's going to be increasingly obvious that he's not exactly from around here. Church rubs a hand along the back of his head, trying to salvage some dignity out of this misunderstanding. "I mean, you're here, right? Means you're invited to whatever food and dancing and shit you want, far as I know. Even the cooks have to have fun when they're through bringing more out to eat."

"I... didn't think I would be welcome. So I thought I would just... help," she says softly. Her cheeks are pink. "Is... there something you want otherwise, messere?"

"N...no. I mean. I don't want this to be creepy. Cuz I'm not. A creep, I mean. I think you should just go eat something fatty and drink something boozy and then dance like nobody's watching? And have a good time? Maybe go roll around the snow if that's your thing?"

She shakes her head.

"I, ah... I don't have a thing. I don't do things. I just... try to stay out of everyone else's way."

"Well that sounds like a boring way to live. You should totally do something fun. Just one thing you can think of that's fun, and do it."

"Survival is often not very interesting. It doesn't leave much time for leisure. Books make a nice respite, but..." She shrugged. "I think you have a different idea of what fun would entail."

"Oh, sure, I mean, reading can be fun. I guess." For nerds. "Like I'm sure nobody's in the library if you want peace and quiet instead."

She smiled politely.
"After I am done here, perhaps. I think a lot of people will need my help before the night is over."

OPEN: this will be a better year

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