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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Beleth is entirely startled by the offer, and the person offering. Her first thought is that few would consider asking a Dalish to dance (or be in their general vicinity) as a prerequisite to being a gentleman. She turns to see who has asked, and discovers that the person in question is, in fact, Dalish. She'd been sure that she had known all of the Dalish in Skyhold.

Or at least, he has the vallaslin. There's something odd about him, but she wouldn't be so rude as to start interrogating one of the People.

"Aneth ara, lethallin." She'll take his hand, even if Twisted Fate might be regretting somehow meeting one of the most Dalishy Dalish to ever Dalish, at least within the confines of Skyhold. "It would be my pleasure." This surely can't go wrong at all, in any way whatsoever.

None of the other Dalish had greeted him in their own words, something he welcomed. He's worked hard over the years to mask his native accent, and unravel those kinds of habits as he could. To hear the sincere greeting almost makes him stumble, an alarming surprise in him.

He slightly disapproves, but gives no verbal inclination of such.

"Not half as much as mine," he says in return, keeping a smile despite his own surprise. "I go by Twisted Fate. Yourself?"

He seems nice enough, if a little odd. He reminds her of the charger Dalish--Obviously of the People as well, but...different. Perhaps it is just because she has been around so few Dalish outside her clan? Meeting every ten years isn't quite enough to get a feel for the habits of other clans, after all.

His name, however, is an oddity quite above the mannerisms. She's pretty sure that Fate isn't the name of a clan, but perhaps he has reasons for wanting to hide his clan? Assuming that a Dalish would actively want to be distanced from their culture is...on the same level of assuming that Twisted Fate is a baby sacrificing blood mage, as far as Beleth is concerned. So instead, she just nods.

"I am Beleth, of Clan Ashara. There are others of my clan here, if you haven't met any yet. There's others from different clans, too. Before long, we'll have enough to start an Arlathvhen, I think."

"Oh, I've met many of your clan here. Surprised, really, that your Keeper would let so many of you join, but then Gavin was so eager to adopt me." Fate smiles wryly; Clan Ashara, to him, is an unusual one of the People. They seem to integrate gladly here, but then, they probably have the proper motivation to do so.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he remarks after her comment on an Arlathvhen. "For now, I invited you to a dance, Beleth. Show me how you would like to dance with me tonight, and I'll follow your lead."

"Gavin is a special case in particular. The Keeper had nothing to do with him leaving." Not that Beleth is bitter that Gavin more or less completely abandoned them with no intention to ever see them again. Why would she be bitter.

"The rest of us, however, were given permission to leave. I'm sure that my mother had a perfectly good reason for allowing it." It's said innocently, because even if Fate is (as she has continued to assume) one of the People, he was a stranger from a different clan. It wouldn't do to have him feel the tension she felt in that train of thought. Slipping her relation to the Keeper in is, she's sure, a fairly painless way to close the topic. Even if some might argue with a Keeper's reasoning, it's a different matter entirely when that particular Keeper is your mother.

"But you're right, my apologies." She gave him a smile, no sign of any tension to be found. After a moment, she goes with the safest choice she can think of--one of the simple country dances done by plenty of the other people here. "This is one of the human dances--if that's alright? It's easy enough, and it matches the music."

"I wasn't aware that he'd left, but I commend him for making his own life choices." Really, he's impressed; that is not news he was anticipating, and he makes a mental note to congratulate Gavin later.

"Ah, so you are related to your Keeper. That must be difficult. Not a position I ever envy a person." The smile he wears is wry, his brow raised just so. He has little else to openly state on the matter, nothing he wishes to give away in any case.

"I welcome it, really. By your lead, madame."

"If there can be anything said of Gavin," And Beleth spoke with a tone that said that there was a great deal that she could say about Gavin outside of polite company. "It is that he has always chosen his own path, regardless of possible consequences." Including abandoning Pel. And Ashara in general. But of course, Beleth wasn't bitter about it, remember?

"Being the Keeper's child is a place of responsibility. It's being a role model to the rest of the clan, even now." She says it smoothly, having heard it enough times, when she failed to live up to those expectations. Then, feeling like she was obligated to say something postive, "But just like any position of responsibility, there are benefits. It's not the easy path, but that makes it that much more rewarding."

She stops when the dance begins, carefully recalling the moves. She isn't as fast as some of the other dancers, though there's some obvious grace, that comes from living the life of a rogue. After that little speech about the expectations set in front of her, she was doubly determined to manage this dance without looking like some naive Dalish.

"You don't seem to approve terribly of his choices," he observes out loud, not that Beleth is bitter at all, of course. Twisted Fate, internally, does find that whatever Gavin's reasoning, he cannot fault him for making personal choices away from his clan's influence.

"I would never know what that feels like, of course," Twisted Fate says airily, calming himself to not roll his eyes. "But as long as you feel it is rewarding, then that is what matters."

Minding his manners is something he can do, but his views very clearly do not align at all with hers.

"You dance well, with someone who spent most of her life in a clan," he compliments. Twisted Fate, himself, has spent most of his life outside of one, and following her lead is all too easy for him.

"Gavin's choices are his own to make, and I'm not going to stop him from doing so, regardless of my opinions on the matter." She paused for a moment, then gave him a sheepish shrug. She didn't like lying, but she didn't like sounding openly disapproving of anyone, particularly other clanmates. "Don't mind me. I guess I'm just getting used to the idea that after all of this Inquisition business is over, I won't see him again. It's kind of...sobering, I suppose. Surely you understand."

Beleth isn't sure if his compliment is all that complimentary. She doesn't feel complimented, certainly. For someone who spent most of her life in a clan, huh. With a human, she'd assume they're calling her a backwater naive idiot, miraculously able to dance like a real people. For a Dalish...usually, she'd think they were implying she had become a little too accustomed to the humans here. But that didn't quite feel right, here.

She doesn't voice her thoughts. Instead, she gives Twisted Fate a shy smile, ducking her head bashfully. "You're too kind. Some people have been kind enough to show me some of the basic dances, but I don't think that I've quite mastered them yet. But practice makes perfect, right?"

"That I do. Even if you don't always approve the actions a loved one may take, if it doesn't hurt them then all we can really do is respect it." The expression he offers is a softer one, less calculating. "So you'll be returning to your clan after all is said and done? And what then, I wonder?"

Twisted Fate cracks a smile at her. "That's all you can really do. The fact that you're exploring things outside of your usual comfort is excellent. If you ever wanted to learn another dance, I'd be happy to show you. One of my favorites."

"Of course I will be." She blinks at him, looking almost confused by the statement. "Where else would I go? As for what happens afterward...? I find a nice Dalish man, bond with him, and have a family. Start teaching hunting and Andruil's path to the apprentices." She says it smoothly, without even having to think about it. It's all laid out before her, and has been since she was born. Her duty to her People had differed when they figured out she wasn't a mage, but the end was always the same.

"But thank you--I've been trying to learn more about the world outside. I've been reading in the library, and everything. I think that when I return home, maybe I'll start teaching it to others. Perhaps at Arlathvhen?" Her lips twist slightly at that. What she's learned about the humans aren't very flattering, and they seem as prone to killing each other off as they do killing the Dalish.

"I think I'd like that, though. Learning more of the dances. They're very pretty."

For a moment, Twisted Fate almost doesn't know how to respond to Beleth. Was she joking? Was that a joke? But no, she sounds completely serious without hesitation, and all he can think is how much she must have been groomed into her role. But he's not here to antagonize her, even if he greatly disapproves of her outlook.

"The world is a big place, madame. I'd suggest exploring it one day, but I wish you luck in whatever you do after all is said and done."

He grins wryly. "Should they choose to listen, but I think they won't be impressed with the dances. Maybe Orlesian pastries? But yes, I'd show you another dance, whenever you'd like."

He's pretty close in his guess, though Beleth doesn't seem to have any problems with her statement. When Twisted Fate suggests exploration, she gives a polite shrug. "That's what I'm doing here. I've been a lot of places I've never been to before, and I'm guessing I'll go to more before all is said and done." And so far, they've all been perfectly miserable. The Hinterlands was crawling with rogue Templars and apostates, bears, bandits, and everything that could try to kill her. The Fallow Mire was, well. The Fallow Mire. Skyhold had its moments, at least.

"I guess that would be the challenge. But I think it's important, especially for the clans that are in frequent contact with humans. Providing more context for their behavior will make sure that we'll be safer from them." She nodded firmly, apparently not minding speaking about the humans like they were an exotic creature. "Dances--Probably not. I do like the pastries though! I keep buying all these little cakes--I'm not going to have any money at the end of this if I don't stop."

She paused, blinking and tilting her head. "Would now work? Or we can meet again later."

"The world is a bit more fun when it's not on the brink of calamity because of an ancient magister covered in red lyrium," Fate muses, chuckling to himself. "But I think that's a wise idea to explore your options before you return to your clan. Bound to learn more that way."

The clans in contact with humans always feels comically low to him, but he knows it's not impossible. Instead, he just smiles, and says nothing on that matter in particular. "I know the feeling. Felt like I discovered a whole new world when I first left my clan and had one. I never knew something could be so sweet."

Gently, he takes her hand and gives the back of it a peck. "For now, I owe a dance to a friend. But I would love to meet again, Beleth. I'll show you then my favorite dance. Let me know when is a good time for you, and I will come."

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OPEN: this will be a better year

[Bonfire]

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