OPEN: this will be a better year

[faderifting]

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!

Comments

[arlathvhen]

Beleth was a person who liked knowing things. She was good at learning about them, too, if you counted indulging in shameless gossip and eavesdropping. She was particularly interested in learning about people who might become issues--templars included. She hadn't paid Cade too much mind, because he looked like, quite possibly, the least threatening shemlen she'd yet to encounter. Shout 'Boo!' at him, and he may go toppling right over the battlements.

But he was here, and alone, and the Templars were starting to become more of a force. There were more of them, and they were organizing. It would pay to know who was who--and Cade seemed like an easy enough target to attempt to speak to.

So, she headed up to the battlements, two bowls of stew in her hands, and gave Cade a shy smile as she offered one to him. "It's pretty good--Ah, if you like it, I suppose? If you don't, um. That's fine, too. I can get you something else, if you want...?"

[onlyhymns]

Cade hadn't completely left the world where servants tended to be elves, so he thought nothing of one approaching him with food, despite her tattoos. "Oh. ..thank you," he said mildly, glancing around below as though trying to glean who might have sent it to him. "This is fine."

[arlathvhen]

"..." Well. That didn't go as planned. Slowly, she looked left, then right, brows furrowed as she tried to figure out just what he was looking for. Then she looked down. No, he'd thanked her, so she hadn't mysteriously gone invisible. The urge to wave her hand in front of his face didn't subside, though. Only the fact that Cade kind of looked like he might either cry or stab her if she startled him made her manage to resist, and instead, she turned to look at the crowd below.

"It's a good night for a party. The sky is clear, won't snow or sleet, anything nasty like that." Weather. A promising subject, for sure. It was just thrills galore with Beleth and a conversation partner.

[onlyhymns]

Cade had taken a bite of the stew when he looked at Beleth, surprised, as though he hadn't expected her to stay, let alone speak again. "Ah... yes, you're probably right," he said, uncomfortably. Did she need something from him? He couldn't recall if he was meant to be somewhere right now, though he doubted it.

[arlathvhen]

". . ."

Beleth was not an idiot. Sometimes she felt like one, but she knew when she was no longer wanted around--Or, to be more accurate, when she was being dismissed. Well. Despite the fact that she had often used the assumption that elves were more or less all servile creatures to her advantage, it felt...unpleasant to have to turned on her when she didn't want it to.

For a few brief moments, she entertained the idea of telling him that someone wanted to speak to him and watching him scurry off in vain. Maybe Merrick. The idea was tempting, but she was already in enough hot water with the Templars, and the last thing anyone needed was Merrick getting a murder charge.

Instead, she decides to cut her losses, and come at the issue from a different angle, at a different time. She gives Cade a thin smile, bobbing her head.

"I hope you enjoy the rest of the night, Ser. Good First Day to you." And then she turns, heading back where she came from, lips slipping from a smile to being pressed together.

Shemlen.

[onlyhymns]

Thinking himself decent, Cade smiled mildly back at her and offered a "goodnight," in return. What a pleasant servant.