faderift | ( closed ) Immortal Aphrodite, on your intricately brocaded throne,

WHO: Marisol and the circus of dreams: Janzik, Jester, Julian, Mal, Petra, Resa & Sarah
WHAT: Party in Privantium - a mission to schmooze and entertain some nobility
WHEN: Bloomingtide (prior to the rifter phylactery discussions)
WHERE: Privantium, Tevinter Imperium
NOTES: Party style it up & have fun! If you have any questions, please feel free to grab me. I’ll be NPCing here and there as best I can.

The Mission.
Go dazzle. The Laseca family—matriarch Didia, patriarch Lar, and an assortment of five young adult and teenage children—have transitioned from the Soporati into the Laetan class within the last decade due to three of their children developing magic. They have money and some power, love attention, and have no interest in the current Tevinter social order.

Lar is throwing a lavish—bordering on garish—party for Didia, and seeking the aforementioned attention, has invited the Inquisition to send representatives. Mindful of appearances, the Inquisition isn't openly accepting this invitation on paper, but it will nonetheless send Marisol and a few others to put on a show and try to see what information or favor there is to be won in the bargain.

The Lasecas will look favorably on flashy magic demonstrations, rifters (how novel!), and drama that will leave their guests talking, as long as it isn't at their expense. They'll look less favorably on any outrage over their use of slaves or open attempts to talk politics or secure promises outright.

Be warned; if Marisol’s assignment should be undermined in any way by a member of the travelling party, the Laseca family and the authorities at the Inquisition will be the very last of their concerns. Have fun. 😊🗡️

I. Travel Recovery & Party Preparation ( A Fancy Bathhouse Adventure. )
The trip from Kirkwall to the Laseca estate is a drawn out and possibly exhausting one - a ship to Cumberland and travelling along the Imperial Highway is, at least, less wearing than journeying over the Vimmark Mountains might have been. Crossing Nevarra becomes more oppressive and warm as they meet the desert of the Silent Plains, and eventually cross east to Privantium. Thankfully, the Lasecas make for excellent hosts, and their first welcoming gestures to the Inquisition are to guide them to their rooms, stable their horses and carriages, and escort the entire party to the estate’s bathhouse.

First there is the room for doing away with their clothes, taken by servants to be washed and placed in their rooms, and gaining towels to proceed with. Next there is the cold room, with a pool of cold water to shock and refresh the body, then the warm room, and the hot room, where the mind and skin can be cleared with steam. The hot room is heated with braziers, and has basins of cool water to splash their faces with. Then there is the opportunity to rub down with oil and exfoliate, and then to return to the warm room to cleanse once more in the baths.
Once they emerge there is the chance to enjoy a message, but guests will all be offered luxurious white and slate grey robes to wear as they return to their rooms and prepare for the party.

Don’t worry if you don’t have anything to wear; rifters can attend in their traditional garb of their home worlds (newly cleaned or refreshed, if necessary) or they have the option of being provided with something rather more formal, ornate, and classically Tevene. Servants are available to make sure everyone is attired and coiffed appropriately.

II. Feasting & Festivities ( A Party of Distinction. )

Ah, the party. What a party it is. Live music, dancing, names being announced, and entertainment abounds. The entire estate is wound into the celebration, and there are servants ready to attend with drinks and food whether one is in the gardens, or the balconies, or in the populated dancehall of the main house.

For entertainment there are contact jugglers rolling glowing glass balls over their skin, there are others who are silent and painted gold, with black and white snakes coiling and slithering over their bodies and arms, and then some dressed only in flowers, gifting crowns of blooms to many guests. Through the evening other entertainments are present, although with that said, any mages and rifters visiting from the Inquisition would be welcome and encouraged to offer their own flair and performances throughout the evening.

The food and drink are lavish and in excess, as one mightexpect. Honeyed wines, elaborate fruit concoctions (no ale, though, that's too utterly Fereldan.) Multiple tables and multiple trays being carried around hold more offerings than cab be listed; various small wildlife roasted and dipped in honey and poppyseed, a vessel of melted cheese, more varieties of olives than could possibly be necessary, candied nuts, entire roast pigs (with signature apple), snails cooked with garlic and parsley, small hot peppers stuffed with cheeses, ostrich stuffed with peacock and dove and marinated in wine, oysters (baked or natural), caviar... And then there's dessert, trifles, many tiered cakes and a chocolate fountain with all manner of things to dip in it. If there's something desired then it's probably here, unless it's not fancy and frivolous enough, and then why ever would you want it?

The gardens are as as ornate as everything else. The scent of jasmine fills the air, but there are countless varieties of flowers, beautiful maintained. Marble statues stand amongst elaborately styled greenery and sculpted hedges. There are fountains big enough to stand in - to dance in, if you really wanted. Be careful, though, not to upset any of the golden pheasants that populate the gardens. They are very beautiful, and very precious.

( ooc: I’m going to do some NPCing of the Lasecas and maybe some guests, if you’d rather no GMing please make a note in your subject line and I’ll make sure to avoid! You’re welcome to include interactions with other guests, as well. )

III. Wildcards for Wildcards.
Have random scenarios you want to do? Maybe some shopping in Privantium? Checking the horses in the stables? Travel to and from? Go for it.

… Just don’t make Marisol keep anyone in line.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Ugh, qunari hands - and not even normal qunari hands, but unnatural qunari hands. The sacrifices she makes.
Still, she can't fault the rifter her imagination, and her smile is bright and wonderfully sincere (seeming). )

You idea sounds perfect. I think I like the flowers, but I don't know how you could make bubbles out of flowers. It doesn't work so well in reverse.

( Leaning back, she scoops up some flowers in her palm. ) Maybe bubbles. I like making them into shapes.

Me too!

[Jester beams at Marisol, as pleased as she is surprised by this revelation. Perhaps she shouldn't be. Making bubbles into shapes is not so rare an interest.]

Liiiike... unicorns, and little dogs, dragons... wigs and beards, if the bubbles are really good bubbles. [She scoops up a handful of bubbles and fixes them with a critical frown.] I don't think these are that good.

[Dismissively, she blows on the bubble foam. A puff scatters up and sprinkles against the surface of the water.]

Hey, did you have to ask them to make these great baths for us, or do they do this all the time?

We will have to give them feedback on the quality of bubbles. I am sure they wish only the most luxurious of circumstances for their guests.

( Sinking lower in the water, Marisol smiles indulgently. )

This is their private bathhouse. Certainly the size allows for guests, but not all their guests would be afforded the same treatment as us. We are guests from the Inquisition, and the Laseca's wish for goodwill, as much as we do.

( That might be a bit of a gloss coat, but still. ) Are unicorns real in your world? We have dragons here, but unicorns belong to the imagination alone, so far as I know.

[Jester makes a noise of closed-lipped interest as she looks around, taking in their surroundings with new eyes. It is super pretty and luxurious.]

Well, they better try hard for our goodwill. Because I am really really stingy with my goodwill. I want beautiful bubbles and big cake that says JESTER, written in blue icing. I would also take cupcakes that had Js on them.

[She lets herself sink down a little lower as well, with narrowed eyes. Totally how a lady would handle herself.]

Oh, yahhh, we have unicorns. They are like, all white, and they look like horses, except they have a horn on their heads and hooves that are like goats and beards like old men... and they can talk... but they don't talk to just anybody... and they live in forests... and if they touch you with their horn then you can be healed... blah, blah, blah... It sucks that you don't have unicorns. They are pretty cool, probably. I have never actually seen one.

( Maker help her, she's dealing with some sort of weird qunari child. Fascinating, and yet she's going to try and ensure they aren't in the same carriage on the return to Kirkwall, because she doesn't want to get a headache. )

I'll make sure they know. ( They might even be indulgent enough. )

What kind of old men?

( That is an easy point to focus on. ) Do you think they're nicely kept beards, or nasty, stringy beards?

I thinkkkk... Gosh, what a good question.

[Jester lets herself sink down a little more into the bath. She puts her mouth under the water and blows some thoughtful bubbles as she considers this--and, when she reaches her conclusion, more or less explodes up, with a rush of water.]

Both. They would be like people, right? And some people are very very careful, to make themselves look really good, they take lots of baths and comb their hair and their beard and wear perfume and have nice clothes and things. And some people are stinky and don't take baths, like, any, they just let the rain wash them, and sometimes they even put mud on their faces. On purpose.

[Or, you know, to make a point.]

So unicorns have to be the same way. They can't all be the same or else they would be very boring. Makes sense, right?

( closed ) Immortal Aphrodite, on your intricately brocaded throne,

now with less crime scene

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah (CSI voice)

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i kept writing "bears" instead of "beards," fml

i like unicorns with bear chins too