I'm Not The Moon (Open)

[youwonscience]

WHO: Cosima, Avery AND YOU
WHAT: Open log of goodbye to all that Skyhold; in which Avery may or may not try to help get Cosima a quality one-night stand and in which there will definitely be drinking
WHEN: Backdated to before the move (forgive my hiatus)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: No warnings to start, but Cosima is fresh off TTT, so if you want a less shiny happy thread, those are also on the table.

Behind closed doors, Cosima had said very evenly that she needed to hug Avery once, and to please just let it happen. She was, in some ways, less shaken up than she'd been after getting captured by the Venatori; the things that had happened to her, specifically, hadn't been as bad by pretty much any measure. But seeing a future-that-might-be ... it had been enough to shake her up.

But that had been in private, and before they left Skyhold behind, Cosima was determined to enjoy herself a little. ("What would Ruby do?" she'd enthusiastically pointed out to her roommate when attempting to sell the idea of a night out.) Cosima had officially thrown her lot in with the Inquisition, was committed to making sure the future she saw didn't come to pass. But the world wasn't going to go to shit in one night -- probably -- and she wanted to dance and drink and flirt with someone.

(She wanted to look over and see Avery, right there and fine and looking mildly annoyed but not leaving her either.)

So a trip to the tavern seems well in order. Cosima's going to be enthusiastically greeting her friends from the start. She might be enthusiastically greeting glancing acquaintances later too, depending on how the drinking goes.

Comments

[thecookery]

By this point, ignoring incomprehensible foreign cultural references has become so second-nature, Avery only looks confused for a moment or two before she shakes it off. Focusing instead on the elf in question, she comments, "Getting off this massive frozen rock and into a proper city I get. But what's she to be excited about in Kirkwall of all places?"

The judgment is made somewhat in jest, but the way Avery says the word "Kirkwall" makes clear a less than positive opinion on the city they will soon be occupying.

[youwonscience]

Cosima gives her a sidelong look. "Okay, confession time, literally the only things I know about Kirkwall comes from Tethras' The Tale of the Champion." And that one time Herian talked about it a little, but she definitely doesn't want to bring up Herian if she wants to preserve her aggressively good mood. "How screwed am I if that's my only source of context? I mean, relatively."

She'd still fallen into Thedas from another world, so Avery probably shouldn't set the "not being screwed" bar too high.

[thecookery]

It takes Avery a second longer than it should to respond, eyes lingering on the same woman in a way that is suspiciously calculating, but she finally focuses on Cosima again with a raised brow. Reading for fun? Really?? That sounds terrible to her.

"Aye, well," she sighs, "I've never been there either, only heard rumor. But little of it good."

[youwonscience]

"Fair enough, I guess. It doesn't seem like I've heard anyone who's super thrilled about the announcement." A few people who aren't sorry to leave Skyhold behind, maybe, but not a lot of yay Kirkwall going around in her hearing.

"All the more reason to make sure everyone enjoys themselves tonight, then."

Yes, Avery, this means you.

[thecookery]

It does not, and she can't make her, so there!

Avery shakes her head briefly, before giving Cosima a small, sarcastic raise of her mug. "Oh? That a line from your drunken speech later?"

[youwonscience]

"I don't do speeches," Cosima says, immediately and firmly. "Dancing, maybe, singing if I drink a lot, but no speeches." It's not her department.

[thecookery]

"Well, it sounds like you're near halfway there already, but if you say so," is the shrugging answer she receives.

[youwonscience]

She gives Avery's shoulder a small, good-natured shove. "You know I hold my wine better than that. Why, did you have your heart set on drunken speeches?"

[thecookery]

"Not really," she explains, with a sidelong glance at her poor, abused shoulder. "I just figure someone's bound to, sooner or later. Don't you?"

[youwonscience]

"I don't know, maybe. Is that common? Back home, most of the parties I went to didn't end in drunken speeches, it was generally like - ill-advised discussions of people's feelings or badly planned hook-ups."

Maybe that's just the parties Cosima went to.

"Maybe I've been doing Thedas parties wrong this whole time."

[thecookery]

Avery snorts.

"Well, we've those as well, that's sure. Otherwise I'd never get to bed with anyone, would I? I just think, see, since it's like as not all our last nights in this tavern, someone's bound to get loud about it."

[youwonscience]

"It's like a weird graduation party," Cosima agrees, rather than arguing about Avery's chances of bedding someone sober. "You sorry to be leaving, or just sorry that we're heading to Kirkwall?"

[thecookery]

That certainly gives her pause. Sure, like she said, it'll be nice to get off the giant frozen rock in the middle of nowhere, but there are actually some things (and shockingly, even people) Avery will miss about this place. Plus, there's been talk of her getting a promotion during the move, which sounds like it will probably be a nightmare to deal with, so...

"We'll see," she eventually answers, after another hefty gulp of her drink.

[youwonscience]

Cosima doesn't exactly side-eye her, but there is still a distinct sense of I see you there all the same. But instead of pressing, she says, "I do sort of feel like I failed in that I didn't introduce this place to bloomin' onions or beer pong before leaving. Ale pong? It sounds weird that way, but probably more accurate."

She sits back a little. "So. If I was going to do a goodbye party like a native, what's the plan? Obviously more drinking, but besides that."

[thecookery]

"Well, you got the music and dancing bit right." Avery ticks them off on her fingers as she goes. "Games, sure. Maybe not speeches, but leastwise stories about good times this lot had here."

She smirks a little and throws a look toward some particularly rowdy off-duty soldiers, and adds, "Probably a brawl too, knowing some of these tits, yeah?"

[youwonscience]

"Oh man, games. I should totally learn some more games here, it's going to be easier than teaching you guys mine. And I'm way better at games than brawling."

Contain your shock.

"Any of these games we can do with just two of us until we rope other people into the party spirit?"

[thecookery]

She shrugs, "If I had a deck of cards or some dice on, easy enough. Minus those, mostly all's left is drinking games. And storytelling games, I suppose."

[youwonscience]

Cosima does have a deck of cards, in fact, but neglects to mention this fact in favor of a more intriguing option: "Storytelling games sound fun. I know, like, no popular local stories, so I'm the perfect audience member."

[thecookery]

"Well, I could do that too, but I meant more like..."

Avery shifts back in her seat and drums her fingers on the table, thinking about how to explain this. She's never really had to before.

"I heard of this game from an old Rivaini in a pub once, see. I think it's meant for more than two, but it still works. Basically, I tell you a story about a warrior traveling through a strange land ruled by strange gods, and you, and however many others there are, get to be the gods trying to kill the warrior before she can reach journey's end. Like, say, I mention the warrior hears a strange sound in the forest and ask what it is, then the crowd shout out whatever, argue a bit, and I pick one and that's the next part of the story. And again and again until the warrior dies or I reach the end and win."

[youwonscience]

"Oh my god, it's Rivaini Dungeons and Dragons," Cosima says before she can help herself, with a wide grin. "We should totally give it a try. If you like?" But Cosima is obviously keen.

[thecookery]

Again, Cosima is getting just the most confused look in response (Avery said nothing about dungeons or dragons!), before she shrugs it off with a shake of her head. "I guess. If I can remember how it bloody starts..."

[youwonscience]

"Dungeons and Dragons is a game from my world. Similar idea, except you use dice to help decide how things play out. So if you said, say, 'My guy attempts to cross the river,' then the person playing the god would be like 'OK, roll higher than a 3.'" Simplified, sure, but not inaccurate.

[thecookery]

"Yeah," Avery responds slowly, trying to remember the details of her version. "I think there's a coin flip in this one sometimes but not a lot of them. Mostly it's just the talking."

She sits up a little and clears her throat, before beginning, "I think it opens like, uh, I am a traveler in a strange land ruled by strange gods, blah blah blah. I am..." And here she pauses to think of some of the details she's supposed to fill in. "...a soldier, heading home from war. My family waits for me in a city by the sea, but I have many days travel before I'll see them again. There are safer routes, surely, but I mean to stop at an old temple to my own god first."

She flounders there for a moment, awkwardly, before suddenly remembering this bit and going, "Oh, right, and I have three boons to aid me. The first, er... my father's trusty sword. The second a horse, the strongest in my land and a gift from the king for being all hero-like and everything. And the third... Remind me again, strange gods." A look is shot Cosima's way. "What's the third boon I have to get me through your deadly land?"

[youwonscience]

Cosima looks theatrically thoughtful for a moment. "The third is a rare potion, which will grant you reprieve from one injury, no matter how dire." Possibly too much, but she doesn't know how harrowing the quests are going to get; it seems fair to her.

"So. You're heading first to the temple?"

[thecookery]

She snorts quietly and has a smaller sip of her drink this time. "How kind of the gods. Maybe it's a prize I found on an enemy who thought to drink it for himself, but my father's blade was just too quick." Whether it's too much is as debatable as whether 'too much' is even a concept here.

In any case, Avery nods and answers, "That's right. I think... this land used to be ruled by my god, before you lot took it over, and there's rumor of a single remaining temple half-through the wastes. I'm a day or so in when I notice the first sign of trouble. What is it that warns me danger's coming?"