faderift | OPEN: this will be a better year

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!

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He almost bumped into her--But Beleth is a rogue, and she may not be the most graceful scout in the Inquisition, but when she is nearly ran into by a qunari, she manages to hop back, arms darting out to grab at the bowl, not taking it from his hands, but stabilizing it, making sure that it's not dumping hot soup on her. Once she's positive that she won't be taking an impromptu bath, her eyes flick up to the actual person.

She's...pretty sure he's a qunari. Grey skin, horns. Pretty standard qunari stuff. But she's never seen such a scrawny qunari before. Well, he was still taller than her, but everyone was taller than her.

"A-Ah--! Sorry....Are you alright?"

He's a second from growling at her, ready to fight for his food when he realizes that she's just making sure he doesn't spill it on her and himself. Whoops. Still, he pulls it away irritatedly and glares at the elf.

She was... well, cute. And a fellow scout, it looked like. It takes some of his abrasive and angry posturing off, even if he still grumbles and looks away. "I'm fine."

Beleth is left utterly baffled by his behavior, by the idea that she might have stolen his food. Not because she'd grown up in an area of plentiful food, but because the Dalish simply didn't steal food from one another. Some of the more aggressive clans might loot foodstuffs from the humans, but that was different than swiping it from someone's mouth.

She immediately shrinks back, hunching slightly, trying to look smaller than she already is. "I'm--um. I'm sorry. I must have been in the way. I know it can be hard to see me..." She vaguely gestured to the ground and herself. She was short, plenty of people overlooked her. "I should've been more careful. Sorry." The go-to for an irritated person, apologize a lot and look sad. Sometimes it worked, at the least, it rarely got her into more trouble.

"Um--did you lose any stew? I can get you more." Look. Look at those big eyes, Kas. They are big, sad eyes.

Shit. Shit, he made the cute elf feel bad. Why was he such a disaster? Kas looks both ashamed and uncomfortable, trying to not look at those big, sad eyes. "It's... okay. I didn't lose anything." The teen replies, trying to not sound as annoyed as before.

He's not even sure who's fault it was any more. All that mattered was that she didn't start crying or something. Kas is not sure if he could handle crying girls.

"I'm Kas," he adds, just in case that in some way would help.

Luckily for everyone involved, Beleth doesn't cry. She looks mollified by his words--or at least, the way that he looked like he definitely wasn't going to be yelling at her or anything. His anger has subsided into...feeling bad, which was a step up. She gives him a thin smile, looking a little more at ease, though still a bit nervous.

"Okay. I'm glad. Um--I'm Beleth Ashara. It's nice to meet you--Or, um. Bump into you. I guess." The nervous little smile grew a little bit. Haha, Creators, she was hilarious.

He breathes a sigh or relief when she doesn't start sobbing into his stew, and then gives her a closer look. Elves were good, he'd run with a lot of elves... but dalish elves were new. The tattoos kind of reminded him of vitaar.

"I'm Kas," he starts, a little awkwardly. "Nice to meet you?"

Nailed it.

He introduced himself again. It amused Beleth enough to make her smile, but she didn't point it out. He seemed pretty nervous, so she just kept the smile, nodding to him.

"It's nice to meet you, Kas. You're a part of the scouts, as well? Did you get out to Emprise du Lion or the Western Approach?" She leans forward, looking interested. "I wanted to go, but I got another assignment. It was kind of weird...I think I would have liked to go to the Western Approach, it sounded warm."

He almost introduced himself a third time, but then realized what he was doing. There was a slight urge to facepalm, and the young qunari feels like an idiot. Why was he like this?

Right, scout stuff.

"I was on my first mission not long ago, but that was just to Redcliffe for information. It was pretty okay, we saw a lotta bears, and some red templars far away... and then we got attacked by bandits." His face lights up a bit at that. "I killed one!"

He will forever be proud of that feat.

"...the Western Approach would have been nice, though. It's always so cold."

It's kind of adorable, the way he was so proud of his accomplishments regarding the scouting mission. But he was young, and she remembered being his age, proud of her own relatively small feats. And he had the right to be, honestly. You had to start out somewhere. Small accomplishments added up.

So, she smiles encourgingly, nodding."Really? That's great. The Hinterlands can be a real pain, with all of those dangers there. I'm glad you were able to handle it."

She looked around, giving a little shrug." At least it'll get warm in a few more monthes? Thats...not much of an accomplishment. But its better than nothing, I suppose. If you're cold, theres a bonfire I can show you!"

Exactly - any hero had to start somewhere, right? Kas was improving fast, and those small feats would only grow... in time. He's quick to smile at her praise, sucking it in like a sponge. Fellow scout, thinking he did good? It was awesome.

Griping about weather was more than welcomed, and he shakes his head a bit. "It could happen a lot quicker, in my opinion... but a bonfire sounds really nice." The scout uniform was warm, but his face was starting to feel a little bitten by the frost.

"Here, it's out in the field." She told him cheerfully, reaching to grab his elbow and start escorting him to where the bonfire was being held. "You can eat your soup there, if you want! I'm sure no one will mind. You can watch the people dancing, some of the dances are very pretty." She wasn't feeling too cold, but she knew that other people didn't handle it as well--especially people from tropical climates, like qunari.

Oh, she was coming with him and touching his arm and this was all really awkward. Still, the bonfire was pretty impressive, and just warm enough for him to feel the tip of his nose again.

It also meant he could eat his stew, and he's quick to shovel some in his mouth. "Dancing's pretty?" Kas asks in confusion, trying to not spit food on her.

Beleth settled down on one of the benches a few people had hauled out to the field, letting Kas eat. He certainly seemed to need it, and she doesn't speak until he says something to her. "Oh--Well, yes. Haven't you ever watched dancing?" She gestured over to some of the people dancing.

"It's not like Dalish dances. Those are the most beautiful, in my opinion. They're not more complicated, necessarily, but they're more...graceful. Fluid. A Dalish dance is more like...water flowing. We move together, not doing the exact same thing, but we all fit together." Kas probably does not care about Dalish dancing, but Beleth's voice is wistful, clearly longing. As she speaks, her hands move, graceful as her words, as she tries to use them to demonstrate some of the dancing she's rambling about. "It's like being a piece in a puzzle."

"I'm watching it right now, aren't I? It just looks like moving around to me. Like having fun, not... for prettiness." That sounded more like what the nobles did when they danced rather than this easy-going stuff.

Still, he keeps quiet as she explains, trying to imagine it in his head what Dalish dancing looked like. Like water, Beleth says, and he can't help seeing wet elves in his head. Not as smooth as she meant, obviously... but it was kind of a fun mental image.

She looks kind of sad when she talks about it, though, and that makes Kas pay more attention. Like a puzzle. Like family, probably. He could understand that a little better as being important. The teen takes another spoonful of his stew, mulling over it. "Do you dance any with the other Dalish here?"

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OPEN: this will be a better year

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