faderift | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It is very nice to meet you Kallian. I take it you joined the Inquisition recently?"

She nods.
"Yes, I've only arrived recently. It was a long walk from Denerim."

"Denerim? That is a far walk. You're from Ferelden then?"

She nods.
"I was born there, yes, in Denerim's alienage. I've never known any other home, but... I suppose Skyhold will be it now."

"And has it been agreeable? Skyhold I mean. Have you been liking it here?"

She shrugged.
"It's a lot different from the alienage. I've definitely seen things you won't find in Denerim. But in some ways, still the same. Lots of work to be done. Lots of people crowded into a small area. Enough going on that most people aren't going to pay any attention to one elf."

"Well... Skyhold isn't that small, but I suppose that at the moment we do have too many people for what room we have now. So I take it you're indifferent and just doing what needs to be done?"

"Something like that." She shrugged. "The day I find a place where I actually feel welcome, I'll have a home."

"That's always a something to look forward to." It's been a while since he's felt like he's had a home, Skyhold becoming the closest to one in a long time, but he still remembered what it had been like.

"Do... you, would you like for me to get you something to eat?"

"When I was younger, I always thought it would one day be Orlais. I'm less sure about that now," she mused.

She startled when he offered her something to eat.
"Oh! Ah, that's very kind of you, but you don't have to-- I mean, I'll just get what's leftover from the kitchens later..."

"Why would you want to live in Orlais?" Not that he's judging, just curious. Course he wouldn't want to live there.

"It wouldn't be any trouble," he presses a bit, eyes narrowing in slight confusion. "The food is for everyone and it's warm now." He's not going to force her, but there was no reason she should be neglecting herself. "Easier to drag people if you have food to give you energy," he tries again.

"My mother is from Orlais. She always used to talk about bringing me back with her there and finding employment in a noble house one day," she explains.

She blushes and looks at her feet.
"Really... You're very kind, but it's fine. I don't need anyone to fuss over me. I mean, the help is supposed to go last, after the guests have had what they want."

"And what about now? Do you still want to go live there?"

At the mention of guests, Sam raises his brows and looks out to the crowd before looking back to Kallian. "The Inquisition's 'guests' have their own tables of fine food and drink. Everyone else has what's over here, which you are more than welcome to. And I'm not taking 'no' for an answer."

There's a small smile on his face as he sets his mug down before standing up. "Now I'll assume you'll be here because you have that guy to watch, and I'm leaving you in charge of no one stealing my drink." That being said, Sam heads out into the crowd before she can get another word in.

"I don't know. Maybe. It... wouldn't feel quite right without her, though. It was her dream, but anything seemed better than the alienage some days."

When he leaves, she makes a little noise of protest, but sighs and protects his drink. When he returns, she smiles faintly.

"No one touched it," she announces, holding his drink back out for him. "And... thank you."

"You are welcome, and thank you for watching my drink." He could also apologize for having forced her to stay with such a thing, but honestly he really isn't, not when it was something for her own good. Food was important.

Grabbing his drink, Sam hands her the plate, a bowl in the middle with the stew and several pieces of bread and fruits.

"Um, sure."

Then her arms are suddenly full of food, and she carefully balances it.
"You... really are too kind..."

Still, she starts eating. Actually, she's eating it very quickly, as if about to run out of time. Or... as if someone else might take it from her.

For someone who said they didn't want to eat she sure was eating it quickly. "Whoooa, hey. What's the rush?" Sam raises a brow at how fast most of the stew had gone, and he has to be glad that it wasn't that hot when he gave it to her.

"Are you even tasting it?"

She looks at him blankly.
"Not really, no. This is how alienage life teaches you to eat: get as much food into your stomach as quickly as you can so you can get back doing what you need to and also so no one else steals it. And more often than not, you really don't want to taste it more than you have to."

He looks just as blankly back at her. Oh. He really doesn't know much about the alienage.
"Oh, well... I don't think you'll have to worry about that here?" Maker he hopes not, that's terrible. "You can certainly take a break to enjoy it. No one's going to take it from you."

She shrugs a little, but slows down a tiny bit.
"Better safe than sorry?"

She looks a little abashed.
"It's... going to take a while to get used to Skyhold, I think."

"Well if anyone decides that they are going to take your food just let me know. That's not alright."

He hums a bit at that, scratching the underside of his chin a bit.
"There's quite a bit of it to get used to that's for sure."

OPEN: this will be a better year

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