[ OPEN ] Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time

[ombranera]

WHO: Zevran and YOU
WHAT: Zevran's Birthday and Ardent Blossom Contest
WHEN: Forward dated to Guardian 5
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Shenanigans connected to this announcement

Someone had been a sneaky little shit, preying on Zevran's lack of familiarity with traditions and dates and the weight people tend to put on something so mundane as a 'birthday'. Someone (Alistair) had spread word and made a thing of it, despite Zevran not seeing the point nor truly wishing to cause a fuss. He had, however, decided to take a day for himself to do nothing. No fuss, no stress, no real work. A day to indulge in a few of his many hobbies. He did not know what one did on their birthday normally but here he was, sitting in the Courtyard with one of his found spoils on his head, awaiting those that paid mind to his earlier announcement. When he wasn't idly sketching whoever he saw in the courtyard he was in the Herald's rest, enjoying a quiet drink and making notes on the better stories or songs he has heard throughout the day.

Comments

[foxsays]

The temptation to braid his hair properly is almost too much to resist, when it shines the same as Rajani’s though soft and straight where hers curls. She hums quietly in agreement, because speaking of home hurts, she knows that because after describing the sea to someone who had never seen it on First Day? It almost broke her heart. “Korrin tried to tempt me with them but I can imagine how crowded they are here, honestly it’s as tempting to sneak off to the Storm Coast as it is to head to Orlais to have a real look at what a big city here is like. Sand between my toes, the wind in my hair, someone having to drag me out of the spray all naked and slippery.”

Probably Korrin because it’s doubtful other people would manage to catch her when she’s got an advantage in the water.

“What do they do in Antiva for birthdays? If that doesn’t make you too homesick to answer, you don’t need to if it does, we can speak of other things.”

[ombranera]

"Well it depends upon the person. Nobles have grand balls and dinners, masquerades not unlike carnivale during Satinalia, the more modest houses have dinners and gifts and smaller dances. The peasants? Scrape coin together to get the lucky man or woman a birthday whore." Or at least that is what he saw most often, living in a Brothel.

"One day, Araceli, I shall take you to Antiva. And you will weep for the warmth and beauty of my country." Or for other reasons, but he does not yet know them.

[foxsays]

"Nobles just want to try to one-up each other with tinier and tinier morsels of food that still would cost more than everything needed to make enough soup for a week. At least in the guards when the rest are so far from home it's just their favourite dinner cooked by the palace and spending time off-duty." There are always attempts to do whatever they'd do themselves but usually the dinner is enough, a night of them all lazing around in the baths then piling into the one room. "I'd rather go to the brothel, whores know how to throw proper parties."

Or every single one she knows does, what luck to have another friend who knows what it was like to be around them, at least for a time.

"Would you show me all of your favourite haunts?" She turns just enough to face him, smile bright. "Where the most beautiful whores are? The tavern with the most generous measures? And to the Rialto Bay?"

[ombranera]

"I would indeed. To the rooftops, the bays, the secret beaches where we might dive in only our skins, where to find the most lovely pearls and all the best food. Why, I'd take you to the tannery to pick out your own Antivan Leather boots, fit just for you. Such exquisite things they can be. You could get them in the usual style, up to the calf- or how Isabela prefers hers, all the way up to your thigh." All the better to hide daggers and other such things. But for now he turned to mirror her smile, reaching out to twirl a curl of her hair around his finger.

"You should see it in the moonlight, my friend. It shimmers like a gem. No city, no country in Thedas can compare."

[foxsays]

"You know that finding pearls has two meanings where I come from, I myself am very adept at it," she says conversationally, waggling her eyebrows enough to make her look ridiculous. "New boots will be an issue soon, the options here are too plain and I need a certain fit for climbing though I don't wish for my own to become worn out. Calf works better than thigh, they'd cut too deep for the long jumps and I have short enough legs as it is, long boots don't look long enough on me."

Normally she has few real complaints about how she looks but sometimes it would be nice to not have to climb to reach the high shelves.

"With music spilling out into the night air? A place that is just as alive at night as it is by day is always the best sort of place, then you know it truly lives because a heart never stops beating."