OPEN: this will be a better year

[faderifting]

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!

Comments

[ombranera]

"The trees will not save you, Sam!" In fact it's hardly the best place to rest- he slips down from his perch and lands, hard, on the boughs below- attempting to shake loose as much snow as possible to rain down upon his foe.

[el_tybs]

Seeing Zevran start to jump down from his original position, Sam had figured the man was aiming to fall to the ground next to him, not land on the branches above. As such he jumps away, stumbling a bit when when his feet sink a bit in the fresher snow, eyes wide when an expanse of snow tumbles down on the spot he once was.

Well now that he was out in the open it definitely was not a good idea to just stand still. Rather than run in a straight line away from the tree though, Sam keeps to a distance from the branches while running around the tree. "

[ombranera]

"You can't escape me forever!" The crows always get their mark, he almost says- but he is no crow and he is also proof that they do not. But he makes the last few branches in a leap, twisting around to hurl a snowball in Sam's general direction.

[el_tybs]

Even at this range and with them both moving Zevran has good aim, clipping his ear fully as it flies by his face, sending bits of the snow into his hair and onto his shoulder. Shit that was cold. Sam swears a bit under his breathe.

"Well I certainly can try!" Yeah smart, egg the assassin on.

[ombranera]

The chase is on- while better suited to such things on rooftops and cobblestones Zevran has by necessity learned to ambush and avoid ambush, to hunt and avoid detection in the woods. Crows coming after him on the road makes an elf a little more paranoid.

He is after Sam like an arrow, scooping and throwing as he runs.

[el_tybs]

Ah, well- "Crap."

Some reason he hadn't expect Zevran to come out of the tree, and slowly draw away from it as he tried to dodge whatever the man threw at him. Seeing him coming straight at him? Sam is quick to change course and immediately run straight away from him, tossing snowballs back with poor aim, but it was better then nothing right?

[ombranera]

It forces Zevran to dip out of the way, altering the path of his second volley- but he does follow. Sam may have a longer stride and a head start- but Zevran has wiles. He wove around to flank him as he sprints forward, hurling a third and fourth volley before he loses him entirely.

[el_tybs]

Well it was a good thing Zevran wasn't using daggers, because while getting hit in the back of the head was cold it hardly was deadly. Course if they had come to blades, a whole lot of spells would be going up around them too. Seeing as he had been hit in a fatal spot, Sam slows down, eventually stopping as he brushed the snow out of his hair. That's how the game was played right?

[ombranera]

It is indeed! Zevran skitters to a stop behind one of the trees, poking his head around to peer at Sam. "Do you yield?"

[el_tybs]

It takes a moment for him to find Zevran, raising a brow when he finds the man's head poking out. His face is red from the cold, his breath visible as he breathes through his mouth for a bit to steady it. "Never yield in a snowball fight," he chuckles out, combing his fingers through his hair. "A normal one at least. Was that not a killing blow?"

[ombranera]

"You ran, I gave chase- old habits are difficult to break." Zevran steps out from behind the tree and jogs up to Sam, helping him dust the worst of the snow off of his shoulders. "Were it a dagger? Certainly."

[el_tybs]

"Well if you were using daggers... I certainly would not have tried provoking you in any way. And made sure to keep a barrier up."

Normally he wouldn't even run in a snowball fight, but the scouts were playing by tougher rules. "You chase everything that runs?" he asks with a bit of a grin, grabbing some of the snow on his shoulder and dropping it on Zevran's head.

[ombranera]

"When it has struck me? Yes." He frowns, ears flicking down at the sudden wash of cold from the snow, turning up wide, wet eyes to Sam. Why? Why would he do such a thing? He is here and he is unarmed and utterly harmless.

[el_tybs]

Sam thinks Zevran is a nice guy, but unarmed and harmless? He's not buying it, not with someone who was a master assassin. Still the look that Zevran is giving him has Sam blinking in mild surprise that the man is so upset by a bit of playfulness. "What's wrong? Does the cold bother you that much?"

[ombranera]

"I am Antivan. I am not meant for the cold." He sniffs, shuffling into Sam's space and butting his head into his shoulder rather than retaliating. At least Sam is warm. "...also I oiled my hair the other day and now I must do so again."

[el_tybs]

The part about oiling his hair and having to do it again has Sam laughing, though he tries his best to keep it under control considering how miserable Zevran was looking. Shaking his head a bit in amused disbelief, he easily wraps an arm over the Elf's shoulders to help warm him up better. "It was only a little snow, I don't think you have to do it all over again. And if you hate the cold so much why are you out here throwing snowballs at everyone?"

[ombranera]

Mmm, now that was better. He relaxes with a sigh into the embrace, warmed by Sam and the distant thoughts of home. "Because I did not expect anyone to be able to hit me back. You were something of a surprise, Sam."

[el_tybs]

"That's a bit concerning that I was able to sneak up on you, Zevran." Sure he had learned a bit from Merrick and Katniss back in Emprise about sneaking and snow, but he was still kind of hard to miss. And he had merely just walked up to the tree. "Well I won't tell anyone you lost your 'no hit' streak. Don't know about the kids though." They didn't seem to be behind the bush anymore, probably took off as soon as they saw Zevran start chasing him.

[ombranera]

"I was otherwise occupied with a lovely elven scout I think may have been making eyes on me the next tree over." There might have been flashing. And wine. A lot of wine.

[el_tybs]

"... I think my statement still stands. Now I just know an effective way to distract you." Not like he'd actually need it - he hoped. "And... the reason why you're still here rather then finding that out?" he says with a bit of grin, raising a brow at Zevran then looking back towards the trees.

[ombranera]

"I have forgotten which tree she was in and honestly? I do not feel like climbing up again to find her." He shrugs. "You are here, you are warm, and I do not feel like moving."

[el_tybs]

"Is that my punishment? To be your personal space heater?" He's half teasing about that; the punishment part at least. It didn't bother him any, especially considering for a month he had been used for that very reason in much colder weather.

[ombranera]

"Yes. For the remainder of the hour you are to keep me warm." Voice grave for all of half a second before he settles into pleased cackling. "Mm. You are terribly warm at that. And comfortable. If I could have had you with us when we were in the deep roads it would've been a far more pleasant journey."

[el_tybs]

Good thing he knew they were joking otherwise that tone might have concerned him. "Could we at least find a place to sit if you're so inclined to stealing me for an hour? Away from the game? Kind of standing targets here." He chuckles at that, not too interested in being ambushed by the kids again.

"When were you in the deep roads?"

[ombranera]

"During the blight." He shudders, less from the cold and more from the memory. "It was required of us to get the aid the Wardens needed to protect Ferelden but being there wasn't fun at all."