[ open: all arise! ]

[vorbratta]

WHO: you. yes, you there. you're invited
WHAT: Sonia is throwing a big party, because everyone needs an excuse to get good and drunk together right now. And dancing. There is always dancing.
WHEN: Justinian, shortly after the return of the jungle crew
WHERE: The suite at the top of the mage tower
NOTES: ♫ have some party jams ♫

The month in the jungle was a long one, made longer by the total lack of any alcohol to mitigate the experience. Utterly unthinkable. Sonia is addressing a public need by throwing a grand party -- a public service, even. Besides, it's what she does. When was the last time she got to plan a party, anyway? Granted, this is not a Denerim soiree for the young nobility, but the venue doesn't matter. Only the people and the drinks, and Sonia is assuredly rich in both. It is also a fantastic excuse not to think about any of the bad things that have happened since she was last in Kirkwall.

The decoration in the residential suite at the top of the mage tower would be best classified as improvisational -- one of those drapes tacked along the wall for ambience may be a bedsheet -- but it's the spirit of the thing that counts. One makes do with what one has. In one corner are a few tables laden with spirits, some provided by Sonia, others by generous partygoers. There are a few Barra vineyard vintages in the mix, highlights of her personal collection, a testament to the celebration she considers tonight to be. There's a small selection of food nearby, mostly for snacking to go with the drinks, though guests are free to bring whatever they like to share.

And there is, of course, music. Someone here has brought a fiddle or a flute or a bunch of pots masquerading as a drum set. Maybe you've brought your very own a capella choir. Whatever the accompaniment, there's something to dance to. Sonia makes sure there is dancing.

Tonight is not for licking wounds or swapping grisly stories of terror and survival. Tonight is for feeling alive, getting properly and delightfully drunk, and having a good god damn time.

Comments

[coquettish_trees]

Consternation quickly floods Alexandrie's features, "You shall borrow my staff," she says, holds a hand up to forestall Sonia's anticipated—and socially required, rather than genuine—demurral, "I insist."

She takes up the glass of water Athessa had brought and sips at it gingerly before making her softly sympathetic inquiry. "Is this the first time you have been exposed to an operation such as this was?"

[sulahnan]

Athessa returns with another glass of water, this one for Sonia, as well as some of the breadier snacks that hadn't been decimated by previous party-goers, and a little sachet of leaves. The latter goes unmentioned as she hands the water glass to Sonia, and sets the bowl of snacks on the table that Lexie is leaning on. Leaves? What leaves. Don't worry about it.

"Phoah," the elf plops herself down next to Sonia, heaving a sigh that puffs out her cheeks. She says nothing, though her fingers acknowledge Alexandrie's prior commendation. Thanks.

[vorbratta]

Sonia does not put up a fight, and she is grateful to Alexandrie for forbidding even the notion. She is embarrassed to answer yes to the question. She does not even particularly want to talk about it -- but Alexandrie is a friend, a safe person, and Sonia does not know how to avoid the subject with any grace just now.

She jumps slightly when Athessa seemingly (to her) appears out of nowhere to her, but Athessa is a safe person, too. She lets out a rather undignified mumbling noise that can be taken more or less as an embarrassed and reluctant maybe to Alexandrie's question. She is feeling sorry for herself right now, and horribly unguarded.

"I shouldn't have gone." She doesn't know if she even really believes it, but she cannot help but feel somehow at fault. "It was a mistake. I wasn't at all prepared."

[coquettish_trees]

This is a song Alexandrie knows, and she doesn't bother to hide the empathy that suffuses her expression as she gingerly picks her way across the floor to sit by Sonia's side: two bright-plumed birds that had escaped their gilded cages into a world that held both the freedom of a wide blue sky and rule-less violence, hunger, hardship previously unimaginable.

"You cannot be prepared for the first time, Lady Barra," she says, soft enough to make it intimate, but not so soft that it will go unheard by Athessa. She offers Sonia her hand, palm up, to take if wished.

[sulahnan]

"Even training can't prepare you for the reality of it," Athessa agrees, sitting back on the heels of her hands.

[vorbratta]

Sonia takes Alexandrie's hand gratefully, clutching perhaps a bit too tight, but she doesn't think her friend will judge her. Her shoulders slump a little when Athessa chimes in. It's childish, but it isn't what she wants to hear. It just seems...hopeless.

"I wish there didn't have to be a next time." She can't keep the frown off her face, so she tries to control it instead, keep it from wavering. She draws in a breath, tries to sit up a little straighter. "But that's a waste of energy, isn't it, all that wishing? There will be a next time."

[coquettish_trees]

"There will, so long as you believe that this is the right place to remain," Alexandrie places her other hand over Sonia's to enclose it. "When trouble does not come to Riftwatch, Riftwatch goes out in the world looking for it."

She smiles, a wry acknowledgement twinned with genuine sympathy. "Mostly it is both."

[sulahnan]

Even though she only just leaned back on her hands, Athessa lets them slide out to either side and flops down onto her back. The floor is nice and cool, and the air is still warm from all the people who had been here before.

"I would've thought kidnappings more commonplace in noble families."