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

[judgemewhole]

Honestly she looks downright tiny, to Norrington, and looks like she is about to break in half. Or attempt to break him in half and die in the attempt. He put his hand down, frowning, before he cleared his throat again. "Very well. I can still leave though, if I am causing you discomfort."

[eolasemah]

Sina watched him a moment longer, no doubt wondering if this was some kind of trick. "...all right," she agreed. She wasn't about to stop him.

[judgemewhole]

All right. She was going to let him leave without screaming 'Assault' or something even more horrible. So he slowly made his way towards the door once more. He paused, then spoke quietly, "Thank you for letting me see the garden."

[eolasemah]

If Sina had known that was what he thought she would do, she would have been disgusted, but fortunately she didn't.
"You're welcome," she said stiffly, angling her head just enough to look at the man as he made his way toward the doorway again.

[judgemewhole]

Wariness stemmed from both sides. Unfortunate, but true. Norrington would be back - in the company of a mage - to make sure the girl was more comfortable with him the future. If not Pel ... perhaps the Lady LeBlanc.

He bowed, respectfully, before making his way out through the roots. Damnation. Now he had to find another place to hide.