(closed) cozy smokes

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WHO: Clarisse, Viktor & Jayce
WHAT: Elfroot therapy
WHEN: Post-forgetti, pre-dreams (Haring 9:50)
WHERE: Hunterhorn Lodge
NOTES: -

On a quiet, snowy Haring evening, occupying Jayce's room at the Hunterhorn Lodge, where the window is cracked open to permit airflow with minimal sacrifice of interior heat, are Clarisse, Viktor and Jayce -- specifically, sitting on his mattress, which has been relocated to the floor and supplemented with extra blankets and cushions scavenged from unclaimed rooms. Some of them still smell musty, despite giving them a good thwacking earlier.

The brazier serves as their main source of warmth, but the lantern on the floor beside them provides both heat and light. A wooden chair has been repurposed into a little table upon which lies a plate of humble finger foods: pickled vegetables, cheese and sausage on one. Beside it, on the floor, is a plate of cookies and brittle. Open before this likewise humble party is the wooden board game Clarisse had gifted Jayce for Satinalia.

What is a game without stakes? He doesn't remember who said that -- maybe it was him, and maybe the stakes include First Place invoking Truth-or-Dare upon Last Place. He's a bit light-headed in a fuzzy way that isn't wholly unpleasant, different from the way a glass of brandy might dampen the edge of his troubles. This is the first time Jayce has smoked elfroot, which probably comes at no surprise to anyone. The surprise instead might lie in the fact that he's the one who asked Clarisse about it earlier, in the stables, under the guise of decompressing after the week-long bullshit of memory-magic (true) with Viktor and herself (sincere, if not entirely forthcoming).

(Somehow, he wasn't that surprised to learn that Viktor was already familiar with this use of the herb. He was smart enough to keep his mouth shut about the route of administration.)

Now, a few rounds into the night, Jayce interrupts whoever was just speaking, not maliciously but utterly self-centeredly, to blurt, "Did anyone else get a task from Isaac? On Satinalia."