SATINALIA

[incaenstrix]

WHO: Everybody!!
WHAT: SATINALIA!!
WHEN: Backdated to the first day of Firstfall
WHERE: Gallows courtyard
NOTES: Drunkenness and shenanigans. HALLOWEENMAS!!

This Satinalia is, perhaps, less grand than in years past. Blockades are still limiting access to luxury goods, after all, so the fine liquors and dainty foods that have been featured before are nowhere to be found. And Tertia, the temporary Morale Officer, doesn't have the connections or deft touch of organizers past, so things are rougher than they've been before - the musicians are less polished, the ale a little more watered-down, the decorations somewhat haphazard.

But you know what? It's still Satinalia. Nothing can really screw up Satinalia. Especially because there are some rather lovely touches, the best of which might well be the ice skating rink. A section of the Gallows Courtyard has been roped off and frozen over with magic, leaving a (largely) smooth sheet of ice covering it. Skates are available to borrow if you don't have a pair. Of course, some injuries are definitely going to result (if you skate off the edge, you're smacking into stone instead of a soft snowbank, which can be disastrous), but hey, it's fun.

Other perks are the bonfires, with mulled wine and cider being served out of cauldrons around them, where people might sit and reflect while watching the flame. There's also dancing, of course, with the musicians basically being any band that's been recommended by members of Riftwatch - so there are lots of half-competent cousins-of-friends playing here. What they lack in skill they make up for in enthusiasm; this is the first gig for a lot of them, and they're thrilled to be here.

One thing that's missing is the Satinalia fool being named ruler. Tertia wasn't familiar with this tradition and didn't arrange it - so there's a last-minute campaign being held, in which people can either nominate others or self-nominate to be named Riftwatch's greatest fool to be celebrated.

Enjoy yourself. Exchange presents. Get drunk. Have a blast. Don't lose any teeth.

Comments

ii.

[notathreat]

Similarly spiced cider and no wine for Ellie, thanks. She's got a blanket around her shoulders, and comes to settle down next to him.

Immediately, she grins.

"Invisibility. But does it count if I can do that now?"

[cozen]

"It does not," Bastien says primly, and of course he'll have questions, but first: "But if it did, I would be very disappointed in you for not choosing the wings so you could have both."

[notathreat]

"I would also choose also wings," Ellie reassures him as she clinks their mugs together, brings it back to her lips.

"Invisibility was always at the top of my list though. What about you? If you could have any superpower, what would it be?"

[cozen]

"Superpower," Bastien echoes—no mockery, just a habit of repeating unfamiliar words and phrases to lock them into memory. "I think..."

He does have to think. Any superpower. He swirls his drink while he does it.

"Reading thoughts would make my life much easier, but maybe too easy? And occasionally heartbreaking—we are not built to know every petty thought every person has about us in passing. Reading emotions, though. That would be a nice compromise. Never being wrong about what someone is feeling, but still having work to do to figure out why."

On which note:

"Why did you always want to be invisible? And how did you achieve it?"

[notathreat]

"Yeah, being able to read everyone's thoughts just sounds like a fucking nightmare." She thinks enough stupid shit as it is, she'd rather not have other people know about all of it, and she figures others are the same way.

"Reading emotions can be nice," she says. "But like... if you have a choice of when you do it and who you're reading. Otherwise it's only slightly less of a nightmare."

And explaining why she knows this thankfully fits into Bastien's question. Because it's kind of a doozy of an answer.

"Thedas isn't the first "other world" I've been to." It's not widely known, but it's in her intake paperwork with Wysteria, where any questions left after that one are left blank. Knowing both Wysteria and Ellie this resulted in a discussion. What Ellie's about to say is not on her paperwork, though her powers might be noted in some of Yseult's personnel files.

"I didn't come through a rift to get there, but whatever passage I went through was made with- well. A god's power. Or something that was worshipped as one, once. So a little bit of that power hitched a ride with me, and I guess it's mine now."

Ellie taps lightly over her heart- she isn't making eye contact, is benignly smiling, speaking casually. The attitude of someone who doesn't expect to be believed.

"So I can go invisible, as long as I'm holding my breath. And some other stuff."

[cozen]

Bastien shifts partly onto his side while he listens, where he's lying on the ground, to have a better look at her. (And to play a little game with himself: how far can he angle his cup before it spills. At least this far. He moves slowly enough that it stays balanced precariously on his chest, tilted by degrees.)

It sounds fantastical. But so does every other thing most rifters say about anything. He takes it in with the same curious skepticism as any other story they tell: it might just be something someone somewhere dreamt, but what a fascinating dream.

"Can I see?"

[notathreat]

"I'll do you one better," she says, and holds out her hand. "I'll take you with me."

Ellie lifts her eyebrows at him in mute offer, and whether he decides to take her hand or not, she takes a deep breath in and holds it.

Along her chest, through the layers of fabric, there's a soft blue glow. A moment later it curls around her irises, and suddenly there's nothing more to see.

She stays like that, in silence, the party still going on around them, and then she exhales. Another glow, soft and blue, but it fades within a blink.

[cozen]

He takes her hand with an instantaneity that makes it look thoughtless. And it is, maybe, in the moment, but only because he's done so much pre-thought, habitually characterizing everyone he knows according to their likelihood to intentionally or accidentally do him harm, so there's no need for additional thought in the moment.

She vanishes. So does he. First he looks at the empty spot where she's meant to be, and he thinks cool. Then he looks at the empty spot where his own arm is meant to be, extended out to hold the hand he can still feel, and he thinks—

Well, nothing in words. But his guts pitch with unexpected terror, which does not even begin to approach being apparent on his face. When the effect fades, he's smiling. It's fine.

"Cool," he says aloud, and more importantly: "Handy. Does the Scoutmaster know that you can do that?"

[notathreat]

He's fine, they're fine.

Ellie squeezes Bastien's hand, and there's a look in her eyes like she's checking on him, but she doesn't register more than he's allowed her to see. She lets her hand drops, shifting both shoulders up.

"'Course. We've worked together on a few missions. Got poisoned once together even."

Which is a bonding experience if nothing else.