faderift | SATINALIA

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SATINALIA

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.

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"Oh, shit—"

But she's still laughing even as she skates over to make sure Abby's okay. What? It was funny.

"Are you good?" Clarisse reaches down to try and help Abby up.

That it was actually pretty funny is the worst part.

She's a bit red in the face because she's trying not to laugh with her; sat up, she looks at her hands critically. They're only a bit scraped from where she hit the wall, but tomorrow she's definitely gonna have a massive bruise on her ass.

"Ow," she says again, as Clarisse gets her back on her feet. She gives her a shove, but quickly grabs her hand again before she can glide away, jerking her back. "Don't let go!"

"Abby—" Clarisse is still catching her breath, still laughing a little bit, but she grips Abby's hand and tugs her closer. "You should have seen your face. Holy shit, that was funny."

She slings an arm around Abby's shoulder, just to be extra annoying. "You'll get me back." Which is as close to an I'm sorry as she's going to get, and also true, if she knows anything about Abby.

"The face I made when I fell on my ass, you mean??" But she's mollified by Clarisse's hooting laughter, and the warm, strong arm that she slings around Abby as they start to go around again. The joke is on you cuz she kinda likes it actually even though she's pretending to grumble.

"I will. You'd better sleep with one eye open tonight, La Rue."

"Maybe I just won't sleep, then." But she sounds agreeable enough to the thought of Abby getting revenge on her.

This whole dumb thing reminds her of the shitty pranks everybody used to pull back at camp, but in the best way. Suddenly she's really glad that she ended up moving in with Abby, even if it means she's going to get beat up later. Worth it.

"Are you gonna dance later?" she asks, nodding in the direction of the bonfire and the music coming from across the courtyard.

"I'm gonna sleep," Abby says, which ruins the whole sleep with one eye open threat but whatever, "Wine makes me sleepy. So you may as well."

She is definitely drinking tonight. Fuck it. She's tired of being so uptight and miserable! She's going to ice skate and sip mulled wine and sit by the fire and have a good goddamn time, just like everybody else.

To the tune of that, "Yeah, probably." She likes dancing, even if she's not very good. "You?"

"No," Clarisse says with a laugh. "I'm not dancing."

She will hang out by the bonfire and drink, though. She's looking forward to it, actually.

"I'll grab some paper and a pen so I can rate your dancing, though."

"You're not gonna come dance with me?"

She gives Clarisse's hand a tug to put emphasis on it. She's sort of joking? But if Clarisse is gonna make her totter around the ice rink on skates then Abby is going to make her do at least one dance. Only fair.

"Never really done it before," Clarisse admits. "So no, I wasn't planning on it."

Skating feels different. Nobody gives a shit if you suck at skating, but dancing is so, like... public. There are steps and shit that you need to know how to do.

"Uh huh," Abby says, uncaring, "You're dancing with me."

They can be shit at it at the same time, it'll be fun. Also she's gripping Clarisse's hand hard now just in case Clarisse gets any funny ideas about whipping her around a corner in retaliation.

She doesn't mind how hard Abby's holding her hand, and she doesn't whip her around any corners, either. It's dorky, the two of them just skating around like this, but she's also having fun just hanging out.

"Fair's fair, I guess." Clarisse pretends to think it over. Then, "If I dance with you, will you forgive me for making you eat shit a few minutes ago?"

Yeah, they've got the rhythm of it now. It's pretty fun, skating along and talking, and Abby has her balance more or less but it feels more sturdy to keep their hands clasped, so.

"Hmmm." She's already forgiven Clarisse for making her smack into a wall. It was funny, and she probably would have done the same thing if the shoe had been on the other foot. The skate. Ha

Abby sighs long sufferingly. "I suppose I could."

"Then you have a deal." She would've done it anyway, but shh.

They skate in silence for a minute. Abby's not so wobbly anymore, and Clarisse has lost some of the frenetic energy that had her challenging people to races and swinging them into walls. She's content to go slow, for a little while at least.

"This place isn't so bad," she offers up, finally, in a voice that's soft and almost embarrassed. She knows she was kind of a dick about it... for a while, with the dirty clothes and shitty attitude.

Fine by her. She's not staring at her feet as much while they move now, just flicking her attention back down as they're turning. She's loosened up her death grip on Clarisse again, so now they're just. Holding hands? Abby is making sure they stay together, obviously.

She nods, looking out across the rink. The vast majority of Riftwatch are dancing and hanging out around the bonfires. Abby cranes her neck and watches, fascinated, as Byerly turns in a circle in front of the band as they play. The motion causes his cat tail to spin outward from his body, and it whips somebody else who passed by too closely. This fucking place.

"Yeah." She's been completely entrenched in her own bullshit of late, but Clarisse is right, and Abby enjoys being here. "I've been here for a year," she adds suddenly, as if she just realised it. "It went by so fast."

Even though she's just said she doesn't think being here's that bad, anymore, Clarisse wrinkles her nose. She's been here, what, a few months? Time doesn't seem to be dragging the way it did when she first arrived and she was under quarantine and, to be honest, freaking out, but... a year?

A year is a long fucking time to be stuck anywhere.

"You want to go back home, though. Right?"

"Um," Abby says, thinking, "Not really.

I sorta came here from an apocalypse situation. Living here has been a lot safer." Even though there's a megalomaniac on a massive fuck-off dragon out there determined to kill all of them. Yeah.

There's stuff that Abby misses from home, obviously. Things, and people. But living in Thedas without the threat of the infected breathing down her neck at all times has been... kind of incredible? She makes a face. "I wish the people I left behind could come here, more than I could go back."

Huh.

Clarisse is realizing that they haven't talked about where Abby's from until now. She'd assumed it was some place similar to her own world, since Abby knows what movies are, and the Greek gods. Maybe even the same one.

"An apocalypse situation?"

"Yeah."

She knows her already, so may as well. "Same one that Ellie is from." She's actually kinda surprised Clarisse doesn't already know that?

"Oh."

Clarisse had no idea, but that explains Abby's cryptic comment about the two of them having "history".

She shrugs almost apologetically as she takes in the look on Abby's face. "It hasn't come up." She's been doing her best not to mention Ellie in front of Abby, and vice versa, whenever possible. So that's why, probably.

That's fair. She assumed Ellie would fill that gap, but here they are.

Abby shrugs, suddenly feeling awkward. She says, "Sorry," but she doesn't know what she's apologising for, it's just a filler word while she thinks of what she actually wants to say.

"She got here first. I think I was a couple months later." She doesn't seem bothered, talking about it. It is what it is. "We knew each other from before we got here."

Clarisse shrugs again, fixing her face so she's not gaping at Abby like a dumbass.

"It's fine. Not my business."

It really isn't. She can't deny she's been curious, and figuring this out is only making it worse, but... it's not like Abby owes her anything.

"You are hanging out with both of us," Abby points out, "It's gonna come up at some point." She's trying to say that it's fine if Clarisse is curious about it, that's all. Back when they saw each other outside of the baths she didn't want to talk about any of it but she's feeling more relaxed about it now.

Enough to have begun wondering if she overreacted, when she told Ellie she wanted her to leave her alone, anyway.

"I hang out with Ellie a lot. For the record," Clarisse admits. "And she knows we live together. But that's the only time I ever brought you up to her."

Clarisse might be a dick, but she's not the type of dick who goes around stirring shit just to marinate in the drama of it. Having this conversation with Abby, finally, is nothing but a relief to her, because maybe now it means she's not going to have to be all evasive whenever she leaves to spend with Ellie, which is what she's been doing up til now.

"So..." She trails off for a bit, looking up at the sky while she skates. "What's the deal with you two?"

A lot, huh. Ooookayyyy. Considering what they were supposedly doing in the baths together that could mean just about anything, but Abby's face scrunches up at the thought cuz it's not something that she wants to think about, like, at all.

And now she has to be the one to explain all the crap between them, huh. Well played Ellie.

Abby puffs out her cheeks and then exhales all the air out. She says, "It's- a lot."

Not kidding. So serious. "I don't want to put you off." Whether she's talking about herself or Ellie is unclear. Clarisse isn't looking at her, she's staring up at the sky so she adds, "I'll tell you, I don't really give a shit. But you should talk to her about it too."

"'Put me off'?" she echoes.

Like, if it's that bad, maybe they shouldn't be talking about it right here and now. Part of her is tempted, in fact, to suggest that they talk about it later instead, when they're alone in their room or something. But they're already in it, so what's the point?

It's Abby's claim that she doesn't give a shit that gets Clarisse to look over at her again. Yeah. Okay, sure she doesn't.

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