Tertia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
incaenstrix) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
faderift2022-11-06 11:29 am
incaenstrix) wrote in faderift2022-11-06 11:29 am
SATINALIA
WHO: Everybody!!
WHAT: SATINALIA!!
WHEN: Backdated to the first day of Firstfall
WHERE: Gallows courtyard
NOTES: Drunkenness and shenanigans. HALLOWEENMAS!!
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.
sometimes it's like that fr
But at the moment, all she really wants is to have fun with her friend. For Glimmer to have fun with her.]
This one's faster. You trust me?
[Ellie's smile is- brighter, lighter somehow than Glimmer's seen it in a while.]
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Of happier, other dances in the kitchen of Glimmer's too-fancy and too-large apartment, when it had been just the two of them and they could lose themselves in the music that they could never get on the radio but they could enjoy, just for themselves.
Or a dance in the too-small kitchen of the apartment in New Amsterdam, the laughter and warmth there over peanut sauce noodles with fried crickets and herbal teas as they swayed to whatever music came over the network.
Being close to Ellie has seemed like such a constant for the last three years of her life that the question Ellie asks seems so absurd that Glimmer has to laugh. ]
Always.
[ And her smile is just as bright. ]
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She wonders if Glimmer remembers that.
It takes only one word for her to be sure that she does.]
I'm gonna feel like a real asshole if you fall on your face now.
[Ellie laughs through it, that self-conscious way that means she didn't expect Glimmer to take her seriously, but loves that she did.]
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[ Glimmer sways closer with the music. This is what she needed, she thinks. A little distraction from all the awful weirdness that seems to weigh on her mind, especially this time of year. A friend. That's the important part. ]
More likely for you to fall anyway.
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[And so sarcastic. Ellie raises her eyebrows. Really! Wounded! Wounded and upset!]
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[ Glimmer laughs. This is just what she needed. ]
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[Who is currently spinning her, because if she's wearing a dress she gets spun, that's kind of the rule. Ellie can only keep a straight face for about two more seconds before she starts laughing, too.]
Where'd you learn to dance? Princess school?
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[ Oop. Being spinned now. Glimmer laughs. The question feels so ludicrous. Sometimes it's easy to forget that she's a princess--a queen. Long exiled. ]
Actually, yeah.
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I was joking. There's such thing as Princess school-?
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[ Duh, Ellie. ]
I had to learn all these manners and how to hold court and proper calligraphy and handwriting. And also magic.
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[Ellie, that's not regular school.]
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[ At least one one lifetime. It feels weird. She isn't sure what else to say or how to say it, but the dancing is fun--a distraction that she welcomes. ]
Can't believe they didn't teach you how to dance.
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[Ellie's voice hushes, softens, a little bittersweet. Glimmer's the only one here who knows that name.]
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[ Some of the air seems to come out of the room at that. Memories of a familiar face that neither of them will likely see again. ]
In New Amsterdam?
[ Or the Aerie, is the unspoken second part of the question. ]
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[It's both really, but she treasures the times in New Amsterdam.]
He had a studio, you know? He taught people. He managed to get me to nail down the basics.
... we'd dance in Jackson, too. I mostly just tried to keep up, but it was fun.
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[ Glimmer smiles as she remembers the other, thinks about the cramped apartments she'd lived in and the cramped sprawl of New Amsterdam. ]
It's nice to dance just for fun again, honestly. It feels like it's been forever.