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

[katabasis]

Did you miss the part where I partook in the dancing?

[Point of order: people have, in fact, already witnessed him enjoying himself. What they haven't seen him doing is him sliding like a clown over a sheet of ice and breaking his fool face open.

But here they are anyway, picking their way out onto the crackling ice. It pops under their weight, fissures pinging through the shiny black surface in every direction—not enough crunching to provide traction for his boot soles, of course. Just enough to suggest that the skating rink isn't likely to survive the night.]

Is there a reason you chose to stay shut up tonight? Beyond the the fact that we're collectively terrible company.

[Petty revenge for being drug out onto a sheet of ice, but surely she expected him to get underhanded.]

[elegiaque]

( she did, in fact, miss the part where he partook in the dancing — evinced by the way she laughs, surprised, at the sort of claim that surely wouldn't be made unless it were true. too easy to disprove, and what's the benefit of saying so just to prove a point? no, it's delightful, to think of him partaking in the dancing.

and his question doesn't dim her good humour, any, so it may not be terribly satisfying as revenge (even the petty kind) goes, )

I don't need a reason not to attend things I don't enjoy, ( is frank, and probably the same — true — answer that she'd have given anyone who asked.

though some of them, she might've said it meaner. )

I'd need a good one to turn up, which was not provided, so I spared myself the unpleasantness. Why'd you go?

[katabasis]

I'm between books.

[Is obviously a lie for comedic effect, and punished instantly by one of his boots losing traction on the ice. The hook of his arm flexes briefly tighter and his free hand floats out in the direction of acting as a counter balance.

Andraste's tits.]

Summer's ended. It's a good idea to occasionally remind people who you may send slogging around in cold and muddy winter fields that you're not entirely reprehensible.

[elegiaque]

( oh, well, if that's the case: as a person who flint is probably going to send slogging around wintry fields, making him ice-skate with her is a much more personally entertaining pound of flesh. )

That accounts, ( she allows, considering it. ) As someone who gets sent places, I was under no such obligation.

( and might be completely reprehensible. people keep telling her she's a good person, lately, it's deeply discomfiting. )

Though it is one of, I think, the only compelling reasons to attend any party. Because you have to, ( obligation, threat, some form of necessity, ) or for sex.

( obligation and sex sometimes overlap, albeit not in gwenaëlle's case for quite some time. )

[katabasis]

[He snorts. The sound carries very briefly, larking out over the imperfect mirror of ice.]

I'm not certain that's specific only to parties.

[One could argue those are the factors motivating a whole list of social diversions.]

[elegiaque]

Oh, ouais, I avoid a host of bullshit gatherings for the same reasons,

( is sardonic, which is not the same as being untrue. just like this only wears the clothes of a joke: ) I'd have missed my own wedding if they'd let me, and that was when I wished to be married.

( or to be committed, at least. semantics. marriage and sentiment are poor bedfellows for a girl raised in the orlesian court. )