closed.

[exequy]

WHO: Caspar, Kostos, Lakshmi, Lexie, Marisol, Nell, Nikos, Petrana
WHAT: Coming into a Merchant Prince's house, on the day his daughter is to be married, and asking him and all his friends to quit with their stupid neutrality. Plus Truth or Dare.
WHEN: Mid-Harvestmere
WHERE: Antiva City
NOTES: Will update with CWs if needed.

Comments

[galvanising]

"I'd no idea beards were such serious business," says Nell, once she's done grappling with the heap of slimy, sandy seaweed Kostos dumped on her, which promptly got caught in the embellishment on her dress. When it's free she lobs it up into the air behind her, knowing it has a good chance of landing on someone, no telling who. "They would look strange without them. I can hardly picture it."

"Lakshmi, who do you choose to go next?"

[shri]

Lakshmi goes to liberate that seaweed from Nell, almost the second she's free of it. Gathering it up in both hands to stomp over to Kostos -

- And dump it straight onto his head. There. They were now even.

That done, she dusts off her hands and marches back to her seat, flopping down and reaches for whatever bottle of wine was closest. Putting it to her lips. Tempting as it was to pick Nikos in repayment. Hrmm.

"Madam Petrana. If you will."

[ipseite]

Although she's still laughing, a little, at the sudden application of seaweed to gentleman (by a loose definition of the word), that doesn't mean she doesn't (smilingly, mildly) correct Lakshmi, “de Cedoux,” while she mulls over this prompt. It would probably not be unreasonable to consider oneself on first name terms with people one is playing a drunken game of truth or dare with on the beach, and yet.

She's unbent far enough to participate, that's plenty: “...truth?”

No one's taken that one yet, though there's always time for punking out and asking for a dare instead.

[exequy]

Kostos—who is not shaving, even though Lakshmi's speech, even with the words he didn't know mixed in, was enough to make him touch his own jaw with absentminded consideration before he realized he was falling for it and refused—accepts the deposit of seaweed with dignity. Scowling dignity, but still. He lets it droop and drop off of his head on its own, without starting or shaking it free, and only then raises a hand to straighten his slightly slimy hair.

"Daring," he adds, to Madam de Cedoux's selection. She might be the first.

[coquettish_trees]

There is a brief sound of mourning from Alexandrie when the seaweed finally drops off of Kostos's head.

"Do replace it, it was terribly fetching," she remarks sidelong before turning the fullness of her attention to Petrana, who has chosen the unthinkable.

[shri]

"De Cedoux." She corrects herself with a nod and pressing on - wiping her hands off from the mess of seaweed, fishing for her cup of wine most for out of the sand where she had tossed it.

"Do tell us the most wretched, terribly unforgiving, absolutely scandalous thought you have had this evening about the party."

[exequy]

That's a good one, for Petrana. Based on what he knows about everyone else in attendance it would be a terrible question for everyone else, because they wouldn't need the compulsion of the game to say something wretched, but for her he'll incline his head with interest and wait with nearly undivided attention.

The small sliver that is divided is dedicated to scooping the seaweed up out of the sand and slinging it toward the rest of the group, mostly at random. Maybe a little bit aimed at Nikos, but not with much dedication or talent.

[ipseite]

The tone she takes is almost apologetic, as if suspecting that this may not be as satisfyingly salacious as they might hope for, but her answer comes promptly, needing little thought beforehand:

"I am often in the habit of recalling in great detail those who believe themselves above petty matters such as desiring not to see the world reshaped in a monster's image."

(She keeps lists. All sorts of lists, exclusively written in a language from her own land of origin.)

"One never knows when one might have the opportunity to show such a person the same consideration they offer."

Your cry for help was seen at 8:45PM.

[galvanising]

"That cannot possibly be the worst thing you've thought all night," Nell objects, with conviction. "That's not even bad! That's just fair."

She rolls up onto an elbow and cranes her neck around, trying to find the source of Petrana's voice so she can fix her with a look. "You know I have the utmost respect for you, Madame, but there's no way that answer can count. At least offer some gory detail of how you'd see them dead, or something!"

[ipseite]

"I'm more than happy to accept a dare if my thoughts are insufficiently scandalous," a little wryly, taking a drink. "I do try to be fair."

[exequy]

"Were it my decision," Kostos says—which it isn't. It's Lakshmi's. But he's on Nell's side. Sort of impressed, too, by how above reproach the former ambassador either actually is or does a very convincing job pretending to be, but in no way satisfied.

shows up late w/starbucks

[excipio]

"Were what your decision?"

He asks, like he wasn't eavesdropping on his way over (or listening normally, really, because it isn't like they're being quiet). Caspar steps over to the party, taking a seat in the sand by the more familiar drunk twin and giving a mock half-bow from the waist.

"Ladies." And somewhat pointedly, "Kostos."

Nikos doesn't get a hello. It's just implied, at this point.

shows up late w/SECRETS u mean

[exequy]

If anyone waits for Kostos to answer Caspar's question, they are left waiting for however long it takes them to realize that he isn't going to—a realization that might be helped along by the way he settles back into the sand and resumes staring at the sky as if no one said anything at all.

He'd agreed they wouldn't have a problem professionally. This is hardly professional. And he's had enough to drink that being outright childish feels like a better idea than trying to come up with anything disdainful to say.

idk i feel like this group will need some coffee

[galvanising]

"Madame de Cedoux chose truth and had to tell us the very worst thought she had all evening," Nell explains, from where she's stretched in the sand, within easy seaweed-tossing distance of Kostos, "and it turns out she is Andraste herself, reappeared from a Rift to shame us with her goodness. So we want it to not be counted until she's done a dare instead. Don't you think that's only fair?"

[ipseite]

In laughing protest: “I begin to think we all have very different thresholds for goodness—”

[excipio]

"Not fair, no, as she has clearly fulfilled her obligations. But it does sound less boring, which is, I think, more important than fairness. In this instance."

He gives Petrana a sympathetic look, as if his argument against her is reluctant and the stakes are slightly more weighty than truth or dare.

[exsecutus]

"This is all," Nikos says, loudly, "fucking boring."

He was not hit by seaweed. And he can afford, now, to be demonstrably discontent and above it all, as Caspar is here at last, and he can disengage from the group and focus instead on him. It is a little difficult to do, since he is jelly-legged from wine. He shows it largely by curling on his side, in a Caspar-ward direction, and of course by complaining.

"And it's getting worse. Who cares about fair. She said she'd do a dare. Someone give her holiness a dare, a really good dare, before we all die."