Birthday Shenanigans

[gatheringstorm]

WHO: Korrin, Open to any positive CR (even if it's 'we met that one time and didn't hate each other')
WHAT: Birthday pub crawl/a quieter gathering for close friends?
WHEN: Drakonis 25 for the dinner. The pub crawl is the next evening.
WHERE: Kirkwall (the docks and Lowtown)/Korrin and Araceli's dockside apartment (inside or on the roof)
NOTES: Consider this your chance to add new and stupid names for various taverns in the city. Threadjacking is a-ok and there's no posting order. Adding CW as needed.

Pub Crawl

The message, given over the sending crystals, is pretty simple. Korrin's birthday has arrived and she wants to celebrate it with good friends and good drinks. Since Kirkwall has a variety of places, why not sample them all, or at least the places that will allow a qunari? It's made clear that presents aren't necessary, so no pressure there. She's more interested in the company and making some good memories than anything else. Meet her at the docks by sunset, and prepare for a wild night.

Dinner with friends

You know who you are. If you're at all close with Korrin or Korrin and Araceli (especially both of them), then you're invited to a calm, relaxing night of good quality cuisine, wine, and maybe some music and card games. The menu? It's Korrin, so there's a distinct prevalence of northern fare; spiced wine, Llomerryn Red with roasted potatoes or fresh oysters, paella, and alfajors, among other things. Every dish -of which there is an abundance- is set up buffet-style, with comfortable seating in a semi-circle not far away.

Make yourself comfortable, and watch your plate or a certain fox might try to sneak off with your dinner.

Comments

[aceso]

Christine chuckles just imagining it, though no doubt the seneschal probably has a pretty bad reaction to seeing "qunari" in his general vicinity.

"My mother can be quite loud herself, but I do believe she is quite aware of how loud she is being." And Christine has had her own temptation to bring her mother to Kirkwall and set her up in a decently priced place, now that she makes enough working for the Inquisition. But it's the trip itself that worries her. She isn't sure her mother could take such a journey with her constant poor health. If only she could rally and there could come a period where she feels well enough, then perhaps it could be an option.

Their drinks are brought over and Christine gives her thanks before starting in on the mug.

"Have you heard from your parents for your birthday?"

[gatheringstorm]

Savoring a long sip, Korrin nods afterward with a grin. "Oh, yeah. They sent a care package crammed with my favorite treats, and plenty for Araceli and Lux, too. It's like they can't decide what I should have, so they just throw in everything...but hey, I'm not complaining as long as they remember how to budget. Tama sent oils, spices and candies from Rivain, so I'm all set for northern-flavored cuisine for a while."

[aceso]

Christine, with her Orlesian and somewhat Fereldan palette, dislikes the spices from anywhere north of the Marches, but she doesn't say so out loud. It's what Korrin enjoys, and that's the important thing.

"Ah, if only we were all blessed with family that spoils us so." Not that she expects care packages from her mother. It would be unreasonable in her current living situation. "I do hope you can see each other again soon, though family ties such as yours cannot be broken by distance."

[gatheringstorm]

"It's true, I'm pretty spoiled...though to be fair, I like to think of this as compensation for partly raising them while growing up. The Qun doesn't teach you shit about how to live outside it, so it was a learning experience, to say the least." She can't bring herself to resent them for that, it's not as though they had any reason to know better until taught otherwise. "I saw them a few months ago, back in Wycome, and I'll see them again at some point. Probably on the way from an assignment up north."

[aceso]

"Indeed? And with you learning to control your magic at the same time? It sounds as though you grew up very fast." Christine can't put herself in those shoes because her childhood was completely different to Korrin's, but it does sound like it would be a struggle at times. However, perhaps her innate stubbornness would have carried her through.

[gatheringstorm]

"Eh, more or less. Though that's honestly the way it is when you're raised on the road among a mercenary group. At least I was able to get better handle on that before magic became a thing; both at once might have been too much." Korrin's tone is casual; life had its challenges back then, but it wasn't anything that left her with mental scars.

[aceso]

"It is admirable, even though you brush it off," Christine praises. Her life was the opposite: there was no control over anything in her life, while in Korrin's she was the one making decisions and teaching herself. Christine can't imagine the person she'd be today if she was a daughter of mercenaries and an apostate.

What is it about birthdays that has people examining their lives; about where they've been and where they're going? Christine can't say, but she enjoys getting to hear about the Origins of Korrin; the experiences that turned her into the woman sitting here now.

Raising her mug, she says, "A toast. To my good friend Korrin. To her health and happiness, and to every day being a new adventure."

[gatheringstorm]

Christine's compliment earns her a warm smile, not being able to imagine any other life but not often told any of it is admirable. She's used to steeling herself for scorn on condescending curiosity, but her time in the Inquisition has been a gift for the fact that it's brought her in touch with better-mannered people.

Chuckling, Korrin raises her own in turn. "To friends, present and absent. They make the adventures worthwhile."

[aceso]

"Very much so." And Christine drinks to that. She really should get going soon, and so she does a good job of working on the rest of her mug in one go. She doesn't quite make it, having to stop for breath, but a second go finishes it off and she delicately wipes the corners of her mouth.

"A good place to end my evening with you, though your evening is only beginning. Do take care. I would hate to see you in the infirmary tomorrow."