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

[gatheringstorm]

"They can have their own side-battle? Maybe even with a prize of some kind." Korrin tilts her head, thoughtful, then chuckles. "I know, it's all far ahead...but it's fun to speculate anyway. I bet others will add to it with better ideas, which is fine by me." Detailed planning isn't really her thing.

[el_tybs]

"It is, but it is always good to have a goal in mind for when you're taking something up." He planned on learning Ice magic either way, but having a creative way to use use their skills? It would be a great outlet.

Sam snickers a little as he thinks about mentioning it to Krem, just imagining the mercenary going off on details. "Prizes would be good."

[gatheringstorm]

And not entirely unexpectedly, her mind goes to much the same place. "Think Krem could be persuaded? His creations are adorable and it's not just bias speaking." Mostly. "Did I show you the battle nug he made me? It's the cutest thing. I only wish I could take it with me everywhere."

[el_tybs]

"Persuaded to make the prizes?" That isn't a half bad idea; it would certainly go off well with the children. At the mention of Krem making Korrin a stuffed animal, Sam raises his brows. What was a battle nug? "No, you did not." He cannot help but smile a bit at imagining Korrin carrying around one of those stuffed nugs during a mission. Cute.

[gatheringstorm]

"I'll have to do that, then. It's brilliant. And no, I didn't bring it with me for the scouting mission. I'm not about to spit on all that work by ruining it." But she may have a battle nug figurine to remind her of it. "And yes, prizes. Cute little things to take their minds off being refugees."

[el_tybs]

"Oh, well good, because I didn't bring my nug along on that trip either. The plaidweave would've attracted everything in the area." Krem hadn't made it specially for him, but it had been there when everything started. "We'll have to see. Krem's already in the middle of one project. Best not to start him on another too soon."

[gatheringstorm]

"Plaidweave...maker, don't let Vivienne see." Korrin's lips twitch, remembering well their only bonding point. "And I suppose you're right. It probably won't happen soon, anyway. The kind of skill needed to create those ice fortresses will take time to master. Between that and higher priorities, who knows when it'll happen?"

[el_tybs]

Sam gives a huff at that. "Even if she did it's only a stuffed animal. Not to mention Krem gave it to me." Well Krem hadn't given him that one specifically. The Charger had told him to pick one out, but that had been the one that was shoved into his face and lap. There was history.

"Perhaps next First Day." Not that he really wants this war to last that long, but he was more looking at the idea that they'd all be around in a year.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin smiles at that, having similar thoughts. "War or no war, I'd like that. But I'm more for focusing on this night than that one. Ready to go have a look?" She indicates the direction of the ice fortresses, not about to let this devolve into any gloom about what lies ahead for the future.

[el_tybs]

"If I said 'no' you'd still drag me over there I'd think." He's teasing, but honestly Korrin probably could. Just easily grab him by the back of the leather and make him follow. "Yeah, let's go see what she made."