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

[middle_of_calibrating]

Apparently they had more in common then he might have thought. Well the new year was certainly starting off in an interesting way. "I'm from the Wildervale area myself."

[gatheringstorm]

"Wildervale...." Her brow furrows, as the name sounds familiar. "I'm sure I've been there, but it must have been years ago, before I joined up with the Valo-Kas. Wherever I haven't gone, my parents probably brought me there at some point."

[middle_of_calibrating]

"It's a decently large area, right between Starkhaven and Kirkwall, so more than likely you have been. Lived closer to the rivers though. So what exactly is the Valo-Kas if I might ask?"

[gatheringstorm]

"It's a mercenary company, going wherever we're needed. Sometimes, we guard merchant caravans or accompany some rich noble who fancies himself a scholar and wants to study ruins. In Haven, some provided security at the Conclave. I was busy in Redcliffe at the time, hired to prevent battling mages and Templars from spilling over into private property."

[middle_of_calibrating]

"So you're a mercenary as well?" He was finding more similarities as the conversation went on. Course it kind of made sense for a Qunari to be a mercenary. Just look at them.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin nods, an amused smile forming. "You don't need to be a warrior to know how to fight. The Valo-Kas has plenty of those, of course, but Shokrakar supports variety. After all, having lightning and barriers and whatever else on your side definitely can't hurt."

[middle_of_calibrating]

"Didn't say you had to be a warrior. Not exactly a front line guy myself. What's... Sho-cracker?" Did he say that right? Though there were similarities he was going to have to get used to these terminologies.

[gatheringstorm]

"Not 'what'--'who'. Shokrakar is the leader of the Valo-Kas. She spent her entire life constantly rebelling against the Qun, despite all their attempts to reeducate her, and finally escaped. She was too aggressive and opinionated to fit in; a woman after my own heart. I couldn't ask for a better leader or friend."

[middle_of_calibrating]

"Oh." Well now he just felt silly. "So... are the rest of your company here?" He knows he's seen several other Qunari in Skyhold, but they were all men.

[gatheringstorm]

"No, they're up north now. Antiva, I think? That's where the last batch of letters were from, anyway. They trust me to represent them here, but if the Inquisition needs them as a force, they'll turn back south. The chaos may mostly be in the south, but there's plenty to keep them busy up north, too." And by 'busy', she means 'paid'.

[middle_of_calibrating]

"So you're the only one of the group that stayed here and joined up with the Inquisition and they went north? Well... least they're having better weather." Technically this wasn't too bad, but still this was cold and up in Antiva he heard it was pretty damn warm.

[gatheringstorm]

"True, but on the other hand, they don't have a castle or a stable with the bog unicorn. They'd be so jealous. Well, some of them." The rest would stay as far away from it as possible, unable to accept that as they did Korrin's magic. She can't blame them, doing likewise.

[middle_of_calibrating]

Excuse you, what did you say? "What's... a bog unicorn?" The Unicorn part seems a bit explanatory, but... the bog part is throwing him off. Especially since she mentioned that only some people would be jealous to have it.

[gatheringstorm]

"Oh, you didn't hear about that? That thing has been the talk of the stable ever since we returned from the Fallow Mire. It's what happens when you take an undead horse and jam a sword through its skull. Creepy. And yet, for some reason, the Inquisition is keeping it."

[middle_of_calibrating]

"An... undead horse. I'm hearing this right, yeah?" This conversation was getting weirder and weirder.

[gatheringstorm]

"I'm not making this up, I swear. Ask anyone. I'd show you at the stables, but it'll have to wait. There aren't many nights were I can enjoy a bonfire like this." That and the damn thing is creepy, so she's really in no rush.

[middle_of_calibrating]

"I'm... all for waiting. Looking for dead... or undead things during the night isn't the best of plans." Even without the bonfire, Garris doesn't sound too trilled to go and find this.

[gatheringstorm]

"It sounds like the sort of thing some of the kids would do on a dare, doesn't it? Hm, I'll have to remember that for a Wicked Grace bet, perhaps. We need more variety in game night." You know, aside from making Cullen lose his clothes.

[middle_of_calibrating]

Oh Maker, using that for a dare? "Oh that just sounds splendid. Let's get drunk and go poke at the dead horse with a... sword in it's head? I'd probably give up my clothes rather then follow through with that. There are indeed certain things that one shouldn't try at least once." If you're going to be making bets like that, Garris is not going to be joining you on any game nights. Unless he cheats. Then again there seemed like a lot that already knew how to cheat at the game.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin throws her head back and laughs at that, unabashed. "Don't say that, or you'll wind up like Commander Cullen. He's...not very good at Wicked Grace, but that doesn't stop him from playing." She doesn't seem to feel sorry for his losses, but the point is to get his mind off work and game night certainly does that, however weird it gets.

[middle_of_calibrating]

"Well I am pretty good at Wicked Grace. Even that being said I wouldn't take that dare. No pants, no shirt is a lot easier and safer then dead things." You've already slowly broken down a barrier with him and Qunari, Korrin. That's as far as he's going to go with this new year. Dead things just need to stay dead.