faderift | OPEN - Rooks, Pawns, Bishops and Knights

WHO: Vivienne and OPEN
WHAT: Catchall post for Madame de Fer to get to know the players great and small in the Inquisition.
WHEN: Wintermarch, all month
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: There's a specific bit for the Council members, but the remainder is open to everyone. Anyone who's been wanting CR with Viv, feel free to assume your character got one of the vaunted invites and tag in!

For the Council
Early in Wintermarch, all members of the Council receive a gilded paper invitation. No impersonal sending crystal for this message. The contents invite all the Councilors to join Madame de Fer at the hot spring for a day of relaxation and massage. To her mind, this is no frivolous social gathering meant to impress or irritate the others. (Though if either of those become true, that is useful as well.) There needs to be a dialogue enough amongst them that they do not dither away precious time and resources having to renegotiate their relationships upon meeting. That and none of them are any use to the Inquisition if they are tired, weary, and not well taken care of.

Some of her most comfortable chairs and lounging couches have been brought to the hot spring, and tables set with with a full tea service, both sweet and savory, and a few bottles of champagne. There's even imported Antivan cheese wheels, for the eyes, not for snacking. She is determined not to be caught out letting any of the others languish behind in attending to the important business of self-care. Anyone who brings up anything of a political or divisive nature, however, will find that they are most unwelcome. Relaxation and learning more is the point, not to posture and jockey. Not today.

For the Advisors and Companions
All the advisors and previous companions of the Herald likewise receive Spa Day invitations, albeit the day after the Council. Thank the Maker Sera is not around to make a mockery of such generosity. Knowing that Cullen is most likely to be the most stubborn about leaving that musty office of his, Vivienne plans to drag him along by the ear like an errant child if he dawdles too long in arriving.

Open to All, All Month
Before everyone can scatter to the four winds on business following the start of the new year, Vivienne sets out to some business of her own. She needs to know as much as she can about anyone within the Inquisition who might be a considerable piece in the Game, whether they are aware of such or not. Invitations to join her at her balcony begin to go out to anyone of interest: mages, templars, second sons of minor nobles, people from out of the rifts. For those whose invitation falls in the mid-afternoon, it is to join her for tea. Others receive invites for drinks, well after the dinner hour, but clearly with the intent of having uninterrupted time for getting to know the other better. As much as anyone is allowed to learn more about the Iron Lady.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The invitation came on the fanciest paper Katniss had ever seen in her entire life. She sniffed it, then lifted both of her eyebrows. It even ... smelled like some sort of flower. Lavendar, maybe? Or tiger lily. She shook her head a little, and let the messenger know, 'Yes, Katniss Everdeen would be, ah, delighted to take tea.'

She appears at the door at the appointed time, dressed in neat forest green leathers and grey linen shirt underneath. The leathers are new, fair trade for the snofleurs she hunted in Emprise du Lion, as is the shirt. Seemed just about right for the lady they called Madame de Fer. Dark hair was pinned and braided in the best style Mia had taught her, framing her face. Grey eyes narrowed as she slipped through the door after rapping lightly.

"Hello? Madame Vivienne?"

There is something about this girl. Something that Vivienne cannot quite put her finger on... yet. Thus far, all Madame de Fer has done is quietly observe Katniss as she goes about Skyhold. She has listened to gossip as it has come to her. Nothing too intense or invasive to the young lady's privacy. If she intend to pry, it will ever be in direct conversation like a civilized person.

Still, there is something. Certainly she's tough, but there is this hint of softness beneath that's come across. Vivienne approves of this, seeing shades of herself in this girl. Thus, she's invited her, more to satisfy personal curiosity than actually playing at the game. At least, partially. That she's come in her nicest clothes, simple though they are, yet thank the Maker, tasteful and practical, is certainly a plus.

"Of course, darling! Do come in! I am so pleased you could come. I do hope I'm not keeping you from anything." Gracious, surprisingly warm, and even smiling. The Iron Lady isn't all ice all the time.

Katniss looked up, and there she was. The Iron Lady, smiling, in her fancy silks. Honestly, she'd been around the other mages here - she was really going to start to wonder if there was some sort of 'you are especially gorgeous now' factor in drinking lyrium. She closed the door behind her, walking up the steps into the alcove that Vivienne had decorated herself. Her eyes swept with interest over the books, then to the woman herself.

Predator. That was what Katniss first thought, but not that the woman was looking to devour her. No, this woman had all the earmarks of someone who was more deadly than she looked. Her stance alone held power.

Katniss respected that. Look like you were in charge, you would be in charge. She smiled in turn, a smaller one but still there, dipped into a faint bow.

"Madame de Fer. A pleasure." Thank you, Mia. "I'm pleased to be invited, and no you aren't keeping me from anything, outside of training." She smirked a little, "Something my fellow scouts say I do too much of anyways."

"I must say I approve of someone devoted to our work here, though there's nothing wrong with taking a little time to care for oneself." There. Vivienne has given Katniss permission to not work and toil all hours of the day. It will be up to her if she chooses to embrace that freedom.

Madame de Fer goes to the trouble of pouring for them both, pausing to inquire after sweetening and cream preferences. It's unusual for her to go to this much trouble for someone but in the moment it feels right. "Other than training too much, how are you finding your time in Skyhold?"

"If I am going to be the best representative of the Inquisition that I can be - I can't afford to slack off." She paused, then added, "However, I'll keep that in mind."

She sits, a little awkwardly, in the chair. She preferred her tea sweet - a like for something she rarely enjoyed growing up. She puts her hands in her lap, then reaches out to take the tea, holding it as best she can. It's delicate, beautiful. She thinks Prim would have loved such things.

Her smile is a little wistful, before she gives her considered answer, "I think it's a place of great ... potential." She sips, and continues, "There's so much we can do here. Beyond taking out Corypheus -- what the Advisers have built here might be the one thing that can bring all Thedas together again." A pause, and a dry, "Or tear it to pieces. Depends on the day."

That draws a genuine chuckle out of Vivienne. "Indeed it does."

She leans back with her cup, relaxing in the fullest and internally approving of Katniss. The young lady's assessment of circumstances as they stand is remarkably accurate and insightful.

"I must say, you've got a healthy perspective on our efforts here. It's so refreshing to find someone who sees more than their own personal prejudices right in front of their nose." Contemptuous as that statement is for a large majority of the others present, it's never prevented the Iron Lady from stating her opinions as she finds them. "It is that practical sensibility which will be the greatest asset to the Inquisition and its purpose."

Katniss sipped from her cup again, smiling just beyond the rim of it, before she looked over at the Iron Lady with one eyebrow raised. She paused, then sighed. "I won't lie, I have my moments with prejudiced idiots. I am who I am -- but even I realize that we're not going to get this closed if we don't work together."

She put her cup down, and leaned forward, locking her grey eyes on Vivienne's dark ones. "More importantly, if we can't come together then it's going to be Haven all over again. Or Kirkwall. Or Fereldan during the Fifth Blight. We need to set our prerogatives to the larger pictures, or innocent people are going to continue to get hurt."

OPEN - Rooks, Pawns, Bishops and Knights

And another Knight for tea...

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