faderift | OPEN: this will be a better year

OPEN: this will be a better year

WHO: Everyone
WHAT: First Day
WHEN: Wintermarch 1 (forward-dated)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Scouts from both the Western Approach and Emprise du Lion are welcome (but not required) to have returned to Skyhold in time for this event.

There have been better First Day feasts, and less crowded ones, and cheerier ones. It isn't a good year for many to look back on, and this one isn't starting any better. Reports from both Eastern and Western Orlais are grim. Many in the Inquisition can't afford to take more than a few hours away from their work, if that.

But for those who can, the ambassador does her best. At lunchtime some tables, hot food, and finery are reserved for visiting nobility and wealthy pilgrims--cause for grumbling in some quarters, perhaps, but they're the people filling the Inquisition's coffers, and allowances must be made--but there's plenty of stew, bread, and ale for everyone, even with the soldiers and refugees who stay outside the fortress invited inside for the holiday. The recently repaired garden and its carefully tended plants aren't off limits, but anyone noisy and holding a drink will be stopped at the door; the battlements, with their potential for deadly falls, are blocked by Inquisition guards. But the courtyards brim with people, most of them happy despite the possibility that the world might end before another First Day arrives.

If the courtyards are too full of tipsy visitors for comfort, there's also the valley beyond the fortress, expansive, barren, and covered in snow. By the river the soldiers help the refugees make a bonfire larger than would ever be allowed inside Skyhold's walls, and some lend their shields to use as sleds down the embankments. A group of scouts start the most intense game of hide and seek Thedas has ever seen, with snowballs to the face for whoever is found first. In the camp, a refugee girl with her hand wrapped in a green scarf chases other children around the tents, shouting raaar, I'm from the rifts!

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Cade saw her coming this time, and was half-tempted to flee, but reasoned himself out of it on account of how ridiculous that would look. He didn't smile either, but he at least gave her the benefit of a confused look at her assertion. "...what isn't," he asked tentatively, unsure if he actually wanted to know, or if he was just humoring her.

"We need it more than most." Everything that had happened- all the fears of what was to come? They needed one night to rail against the dark. To look at a sky unbroken by the Breach and know the Herald did her best; and so must they all come the dawn.

Sina narrowed her eyes when someone approached-- someone she didn't recognize, though she could tell by his voice that he was reasonably sober.

"She's not," she said matter-of-factly, then took a sip of her tea. She wasn't sure where Pel was, or she would offer further information.

Recognizing Korrin, Sina smiles cheerfully and shakes her head. "They couldn't if they tried," she assures her. What good is a Keeper if she can't conjure a decent root barrier?
"Do you want to come in?"

She was quiet a moment, considering, the words floating about in her head before being plucked down for her tongue's use. "My Creator, judge me whole. Find me well within Your grace. Touch me with fire that I be cleansed, tell me I have sung to Your approval."

She remembered the Chant as a girl. Remembered a good deal of it, actually, fragmented as those memories might be. But she knew what fire was meant to be. Bury away inequity and weakness, and here Cade stood so far from it, still so very alone. Afraid.

"It doesn't burn everything else away. It pulls people together. They were cold and lost in the dark. Now there's enough light to share."

He is doing his damnedest. It doesn't seem to be working.

He managed to find himself a wall where he couldn't be pinched in inappropriate places by drunken nobles. He has his arms folded across his chest, openly scowling, a scowl he turns on the woman who comes up to next to him.

A scowl, that becomes sheepish. "... My apologies, my Lady. I am ... simply trying to keep my personal boundaries personal."

"A fox rampant? Certainly." Adelaide rubs her palms together, cupping them to create a flared, circular platform for the Fox. This blooms slower than the rose, winding up in fine threads to form the armature. Little by little the Fox fills out clear as glass, minute detailing around it's eyes and ears, the ruffling of fur, the flick of it's tail, even the hair fine strands of it's whiskers lock into place when she is finished. "Is this satisfactory?"

"I told you it was not your friend." Roul winced a little at the gaff, waving at the Knight Commander before murmuring an apology to Adelaide. That her eldest student, a mage in his own right, thought to take aim without consideration would be amusing in the morning. For the moment she nudged him in the direction of the person he'd intended to strike. "We mistook you for another, Ser. No offense nor challenge is meant."

Against a mage skilled in ice? He wouldn't do all that well.

"Oh. Gotten handsy, have they?" she observes with an arched brow. "If you need your honor defended, ser, I could help keep watch for the villains."

Is that humor? Perhaps. She's let herself be burdened for long enough. Parties are occasions to let go of such things, meet new people, let your hair down...

Well. Metaphorically speaking.

When she heard that everyone was coming back, she'd been dying to find Korrin only to get sidetracked along the way thanks to having to listen to songs and stories, or playing with children. It's a trifle difficult to squirm through everyone when she spots Korrin - it's easy enough to spot her, not quite so easy to convince people to move out of her way or to not stand on her feet or almost elbow her in the mouth.

"Korrin!" A captain has to have a voice that can be heard over the roughest seas and wildest storms, and as a captain's daughter she was taught just such a skill. "Korrin-- sir, if you could just move-" Another shove and she's free enough to actually run, a bright smile on her face, weapons and jewellery jingling.

Korrin had better be ready to catch her or they're about to go sprawling rather unceremoniously.

"Shh." She rolls her eyes and pulls him back down to sit near the fire, waving a man with mulled wine over. It is not food but it is warm, and ought to be enough for the moment. "Or a woolen cloak. Or any manner of garment that will keep you from freezing. I am certain you do not wish to experience frostbite."

"You are a Spirit Healer. Of course you are special." Adelaide takes Kallian's hands gently, squeezing them. "If Hope says that your mother lives? She yet lives. And perhaps with the work the Inquisition does we might find her. But this- this is a rare and wondrous gift you have, Kallian. Is it safe to assume that you have had no formal training?"

What with trying to find something to do (because she didn't want desert sand in her underwear or to risk losing a nipple to frostbite) in Skyhold to feel useful, it's been too long since she last caught up with Zevran. But first she wants to watch and listen, perched on an upturned crate until someone drags her into a dance before she swaps partners.

"You've whipped them into a frenzy amico!" She laughs, trying to keep the rhythm as she pulls her curls out of her face so no one gets blinded by them as she moves. "I didn't think they had this much spirit in them."

"It has at that- and a longer year still. I am surprised at the size of this celebration but I think it is one well earned." She drops her grip from his shoulders to squeeze his hands gently before turning her attention to the far corner where Roul and the other apprentices are eating quietly. "We've all missed you and worried for you. Roul will be pleased to know you've returned safely."

Shit or not, wine is wine and Araceli is only picky about her wine and her brandy. Besides she is cold, can't feel her nose or toes cold and if she were less concerned with tripping over things she'd probably be wrapped in a blanket each time she set foot outside.

"And what happens when good and cheerful turns into the pounding hangover of regret for the first day of a new year?"

It kind of feels like the sort of night to get dangerously drunk after all but does the joy cancel out when you spend the next day cringing at anything above a whisper.

So the fun thing about growing up somewhere with zero snow is that it's actually kind of alarming to watch what people do in the snow. Oh she knows you can apparently play in it but that seemed like some weird sort of masochism really, actually touching it more than you had to.

She's trying to go get another drink when a stray snowball smacks her in the face, causing her to splutter and move out of the way as a child forming another one laughs.

Taking cover seems like her best bet and she starts muttering even as she gathers up snow because hey, you can't let something like that go without a rebuttal.

"Everyone here is mad, everyone. Throwing snow at each other, as if it weren't enough, right amico?" Not that she expects this stranger to agree but why do people actually do this for fun?

"Well... I don't know how to dance..." he says with a chuckle, his hand not holding the mug coming up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly.

Once his mug is filled again Sam gives a sigh, chewing lightly on the inside of his cheek as he considers what he should say. While his mind does keep wandering back to Emprise du Lion, that isn't the thing putting him in such a down mood.

"Guess I'm just missing Krem. I know he had said he had something to do, and I hadn't thought of First Day until it happened... but it would've been nice having him here."

"Pardon me-" Adelaide murmurs, stepping around Kieran with a faint smile. Her question is half spoken to him and half to his mother- she hasn't heard much of the woman other than Henri and Sebastien saying that she's magic, or murmuring that she's a dragon. Or a Queen. Or a dragon queen. Foolish as the idea is, she can't find either of them at the moment. "Have either of you seen a Henri? He said he was coming to speak with his friend and has since wandered off."

Likely to find a way to sneak sweets; not that she's overly worried. For the moment, they are safe. Mostly. Relatively.

Exhausted from dancing and perhaps with a little too much mulled wine in her, Araceli is grateful for the warmth of the fire and for the fox at her side, flopping down to the ground with a sigh. Her face is flushed but it's still so cold out that she pulls the fox into her lap to press her face to his fur before she smiles at what she assumes is a dwarf. It's difficult to tell exactly when she's sitting but maybe Scout Harding's height, thereabouts.

"Did you dance the heels off your shoes?" She won't stare but she couldn't imagine going barefoot, it's almost bad enough that she's seriously considering gloves when she's never had a need before. "I think tonight is just what everyone needed."

"Sam!"

She's been in something of a funk for a while now, and the party hasn't lifted her spirits yet the way it has with others, but a friendly face is welcome and well, Sam was off in that miserable place same as Korrin and she'd been worried. Fighting her way through the throngs of people, she stops just short of him, almost hugging him until she remembers she's holding a plate.

"I'm so glad to see all of you returning from your ventures alive and in one piece, I missed you while you were gone."

It's not that she actually means to bump into Kas of all people, it's just that she's busy trying to juggle a few things at once with so many people around and a fox underfoot always complicates matters. She's likely as much to blame when she bumps into someone seeing as she's going backwards but still.

At least she doesn't spill the wine, that'd be a terrible waste but she does swear, more out of surprise than any malice.

"Forgive me, it was not..." It trails off when she finishes turning, the smile on her face twisting before she salvages it. "My apologies, nothing spilled or damaged?"

Not a word- as it isn't as though Taas would hear him, but a hand clasped upon his shoulder is offered as warning before Zevran drapes himself, frigid and flushed from a few turns in the snow and around the fire, into Taas' lap. His hair's a wild mess, his eyes bright, and he takes great care to have Taas' eyes on his face before he speaks. "A fine evening, is it not?"

"Ah, Morrigan- just the woman I was looking for." Zevran spun to a stop before the witch of the wilds, the mother of an adorably precocious child, a beauty in all her own right, before offering his hands. "Come! It is a night for dancing."

Somewhere another guitar player has found their way to Zevran- one that even knew some of the songs of his home, of Isabela's. With a moment's conference they are able to select one they know in commong and Zevran picks his way into an old favorite. Something easy to dance to with a strong beat. It's all the more appropriate for the dark eye'd girl spinning her way around the fire. After the first round he passes off his lute and slips into her path, catching River's hands in his.

She follows and leads and flows and he? Does much the same. Follows as light and as easy as any partner that knew her mind.

It was the crowd that drew him in first, brought him to the corner of the courtyard. It wasn't hard for him to see over the heads of those around him, and a slow grin spreads across his face when he spies what's attracted everyone over here. Merrick has strength to him, sure, but Metaari knows he doesn't have as much as he's apparently exhibiting, and he tries not to bark out a laugh.

There he is. The entire reason Metaari had climbed this mountain in the first place was to find him, as instructed in the letter left behind. And it seemed he was finally back.

When Merrick glances away, distracted or pocketing some of his winnings or whatever it is he's doing that isn't staring across the table, Metaari takes the opportunity to sit down opposite him. He props his elbow on the table and raises his hand in the air, poised and ready with an easy smile on his face, amusement alight in his eyes. "I do hope you aren't tired yet."

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OPEN: this will be a better year

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Re: Courtyard

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Valley

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bonfire;

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courtyard;

bonfire;

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courtyard

bonfire;

courtyard;

courtyard;

Bonfire

Bonfire

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just guess