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

[notathreat]

"Yeah, it did."

Ellie doesn't mind saying so. It still aches. She still misses her. She can't say that she would be okay if she came face to face with her. Can't say she wouldn't still be stupidly in love, and still wouldn't deserve to be taken back.

"And yeah, it was about two years for us too." Ellie sobers as they skate, glances sideways at her.

"Still carrying that torch?" she asks softly, with the kind of quiet that says she knows what that feels like.

[sprent]

Gela chuckles because she has to, otherwise there's no way around it. There was no closure. There won't be any, so usually she tries not to think about it too hard, otherwise she dwells, imagines the details of her face, and what she might have looked like the day she realised that Gela wasn't going to come back to her.

She nods, looking askance at Ellie. "I think I always might." She owes her that much, really.

This isn't any fun at all, is it. To hear all her woes! She adds, almost innocently, "That's why it's good that everybody here is so handsome. So many distractions about."

[notathreat]

"Yeah," Ellie says with a sigh, and doesn't pry, because yeah, that sucks. That's always going to suck. She knows exactly how much that sucks.

But Ellie chokes back a laugh, and if Gela looks at her at the right moment she might just catch the way Ellie's eyes dart over towards Clarisse, before she firmly fixes them on the rink.

"I know, right."

[sprent]

Ah ha ha they are still on the same page after all! Gela grins, the melancholy sloughing off, and she clasps her hands neatly behind her back as she skates, looking ahead of her. Yes, this is much more fun to talk about! She loves gossip.

"You've been here longer than I have," is Ellie's warning for what's to come: "Had any distractions of your own?"

[notathreat]

Ellie had to have known it was coming, but she still presses her lips together.

"Um... yeah, here and there."

It's maddeningly vague and she does her best not to look over at Clarisse. "Distractions, anyway."

But Ellie is blushing beet red.

"You?"

[sprent]

Gela goes oooh, and giggles the moment she notices Ellie's reddening face. She's so sweet! And lucky that she is far enough away from Gela in this moment that she doesn't get pinched for blushing. "Excitin'! Lucky you."

Maybe that is foreshadowing for her answer, huh? She hums and says, "Yes, a couple. Haven't done anythin' about it though."

It's a big step forward, the doin'. Besides... not like she can up and leave after a night and not see that person again, since she's planned on staying. She puffs out her cheeks. "Want to trade a name each?"

[notathreat]

Ellie wrinkles her nose, but she's smiling.

"You think I'd kiss and tell?" she asks, casting a smile back towards everyone along the sides of the rink, pointedly away from anyone who'd fit the list of "names".

Her cheeks are so hot she can feel it in her ears. Yeah, she's not getting out of this.

"I kinda liked someone, and that didn't end up going anywhere." Desperately casual, and somehow much easier to say than the rest.

"So..."

Fuck, how to phrase it?

[sprent]

"Yes, obviously," or she wouldn't have asked, Ellie! "It's no fun if you won't tell." She isn't going to make Ellie do it obviously, but she's sooo curious... maybe it's her imagination, but she thinks that Ellie's ears have turned pink.

"So..." she coaxes. That's obviously not the end of the story. If it helps, she isn't looking at Ellie, she's watching her skates and where they're going. She's being good.

[notathreat]

"Shut up, I'm trying to figure out how to say it."

It's a good-natured mutter and Ellie's ears are crimson, which is stupid, because she's a grown-ass woman and she can do whatever she wants with her own sex life. It's just weird telling someone about it, even if Gela wants to hear.

"I had a friend who I thought was hot and... I don't know. We both wanted to blow off some steam. We're not overthinking it."

At least, she's trying not to overthink it.

[sprent]

Gela beams but shuts up, waiting. She is being extremely good by not teasing Ellie, just so you know, she is holding back to the best of her ability right now. It's just so refreshing to have a friend to talk to about these things, to link arms with and gossip, heads touching (not literally... but spiritually they're there). To Gela, this is so normal. God, she has missed normal.

Her eyes light up at the news. "Ooh," she says, intrigued, "Sounds like a bit of fun for the both of you! Are there rules?"

[notathreat]

"Uh, we didn't actually discuss it?" Should there be rules? Are there normally rules? Fuck, she doesn't know how this is supposed to go.

"Should there be?"

[sprent]

"If you're going to keep doing it there probably should be," she hedges, "Don't you think? So you know where the both of you stand."

Only smart?

[notathreat]

"I mean... I guess."

Ellie thinks back on the rooftop. The shotgunning that had most definitely turned into a kiss. That hadn't been planned. Could they have done that, if they'd decided to draw lines in the sand?

Ellie's stomach flips uncomfortably.

She hadn't drawn lines with Derrica- or at least, she thought she had. They turned out to be the wrong ones.

She doesn't want to fuck up her friendship with Clarisse.

"What are the rules normally? For this?"

[sprent]

"Well," she says, sensing some disturbance, "it changes dependin' on what you're doin', so there aren't really any set rules. Mostly you just sit down with the other person and talk about what you're both after out of the thing."

She adds, "I didn't mean to make it sound so serious! It doesn't have to be. It can be fun, discussin' what you want."

[notathreat]

It's a weird conversation she's having with Gela right now, so. Hell. Maybe it's worth having with Clarisse. It's something she can manage, if they wanna treat each other right.

But:

"What if I don't know what I want?"

[sprent]

"Well of course you don't know what you want," Gela says breezily, not looking back, "You're just a baby."

She is failing to hide a grin.

[notathreat]

Ellie roughly smacks her shoulder into Gela's, checking her on the ice -- if she hadn't just shown off her skill, she wouldn't have tried it, but really.

"For all you know I'm 200-something."

Which is a very mature and adult response.

[sprent]

Gela shrieks when Ellie shoves into her, and allows the momentum to push her further away so that she can safely call, "Two hundred what, days? Sounds right!!"

[notathreat]

"You're talking a lot of shit for somebody still in range," Ellie calls playfully, lifting both her eyebrows and sticking both hands into her pockets.

[sprent]

"You wouldn't."

Also: you can't! Because she is getting away... there she goes...