faderift | Open: Party Preparations

Open: Party Preparations

WHO: Josephine, Vivienne, OPEN
WHAT: Preparing the Inquisition for the Soiree
WHEN: 15 Guardian to 14 Drakonis (about a month's span before the event)
WHERE: Skyhold, varies
NOTES: * Josephine is the hostess of the shindig. Matters regarding invitations, guest lists, admittance, entertainment, food, or general complaints/suggestions should be directed to her.
* Vivienne has personally invited three tailors from Val Royeaux to assist with clothes making for the attendees. She is available to assist with design selections and/or advice on how to behave.
* YOU are open and invited to grab your nearest and dearest CR to complain about the party, ask for a date to he event, complain you have nothing to wear.
* Belinda Darrow has donated from her own private purse to the cost of clothing which people could otherwise not afford.

The Orlesian tailors arrived in great state, bringing with them a cadre of servants, workers, and snotty attitudes. They hate everything. It is cold in Skyhold. It is damp. Everything smells of wet dog. The working conditions are abysmal. The food is criminal. There's not a damned thing they don't complain about, except for the piles of coin they stand to make from this soiree. Yes, they are more than content to build a fortune with exclusive work that will be seen by some of the aristocracy's finest.

Harritt apparently doesn't much like them either. They've taken over his Undercroft with their fabrics and threads, designs and opinions. Oh they have opinions. He stays to one corner, attending his work, and grumbling under his breath about the poncy cheesesniffers.

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"I will be attending, yes. And I wondered, perhaps, if I would see you there." Because that might be nice. She would like to see his reaction to her dress.

But, oh no he would do an awful Antivan accent. The very idea makes her want to cringe, but she holds it in.

"I think you would only need gloves. No accent." Please, no accent.

This is adorable. This is stupidly cute. He thinks this whole thing is just dripping with sugar but like in the best way. It's really easy, Church. Just suggest that the best way of seeing each other there would be to go together. It's fucking middle school! You can ask a girl out! How hard can it be?

"I mean. Sure, probably."

Nailed it.

"I mean yes. I'll. totally be there! And so will you! And we'll see each other in fancy clothes and dance to fancy music and eat fancy foods! At the same time."

Super. fucking. nailing it.

"Together?"

!!!!!

The way he speaks is like a man with no internal thought process, and isn't that a frightening thought? Christine waits while he states the obvious, preparing herself for a somewhat sarcastic response, but such a notion disappears when he asks if they can go together.

???

No one has ever asked her to accompany them to an event before. There has never been such an opportunity in her life. Is this what it's like for the non-mages? The boys ask the girls to their country dances and picnics? It must be this way. And she rather likes it.

"Yes, I would like that. Us going together."

Super nailed it. ~~If he plays his cards right, he'll be nailing even more.~~

This is now super dumb he feels so dumb for how giddy he feels. He is not a pre-teen girl! Why does he feel like things are gonna get all rose-tinted and anime flower petals in a second?

"Did I just ask you out to the castle dance? Oh my god. I'm a dweeb. Did that come out okay at all? That did not come out okay. Augh, I'm so bad at this! Not that I'm ever bad at this, obviously, because, I'm usually super smooth about this with the ladies. Not that there's usually dances going on in the army."

Or ladies, for that matter, in the middle of the canyon. There's Grif's sister, for a short-ass period of time, aaaaand Tex and TEX DOES NOT COUNT IN THIS CASE.

"So we're going together! As like a...dddddate? ...Wait when is this thing? When is this happening, cuz, uh, outfit. I'll need that thing, the, uh, an outfit, a fancy thing to wear."

His reaction makes a smile spread across her face. He's excited about attending with her! And of course he tries to recover by saying he's smooth. Uh huh. When brontos fly.

"Church," she says with laughter in her voice and a hand reaching out to touch his, "What matters is that you want to go with me. I am looking forward to it. And it will be midway through Drakonis, so yes, please do get something to wear."

But still no Antivan accent.

Oh. Oh pretty girl touching hand like dumb romcom oh. What does he do. (She's warm. Of course she's warm! She's a human with skin and so are you! It's not like armor and layers of alloys. and circuitry.) Do something fuck don't make it weird.

"I'll totally do that thing. ...I uh. I'm starting to realize I should probably learn um...y'know, time. The calendars, how your calendars work, I mean." Well...he didn't make it too weird, anyway. "I was talking to Adelaide and was trying to figure out what Guardian even was. Guess I've been too busy looking at maps to realize maybe I should know what day it is..."

"I would be happy to teach you our months and holidays," she says, slowly drawing her hand back with a smile. She's still eating too, and she needs that hand to eat. Otherwise she'd keep it there on his a bit longer.

"To start: each month is thirty days long."

If he were smooth (and, reminder, he's totally smooth) he might have touched her back. Aaaaand missed that opportunity. Right out the window. Good job, dumbass. "Sure keeps things regular. We have like a little...singsong-y thing to remember which months are how long. Thirty's a good round median number though."

He sounds like a dweeb they're talking about months like a preschooler quick occupy yourself--or stuff your face sure that works to occupy. Sure. Smooooooooth.

"Mmm, it is. And you have already experienced First Day. As the name says, it is the first day of the year, when people are meant to check on their neighbors to make sure they are faring well in the winter's chill. At the start of Guardian was Wintersend. Some people exchange gifts and it is a celebration of how winter is nearly over. There is no holiday at the start of Drakonis. The next will be at the start of the fifth month."

Her birthday month, in fact, but it was never made into a big thing in the Circle. Some apprentices even forgot when their birthday was, and could never remember how old they were.

"So that's January with New Years, and February is Guardian, soooo Drakonis is March...and May has a holiday." The names won't mean anything to her, but hey, Drakonis doesn't mean anything to him. "I guess I never really kept track of the days where I was from. Didn't pay attention to them, anyway. I mean, I did--I had to tell time." Like the whole fourteen fucking months he spent in that base alone.

Look it was a bad time we don't talk about it.

"But it also didn't seem to matter as much. I guess I could start keeping my own calendar. Whip one up in the library, maybe."

"You would really only need to know them here for events or missions," she points out. "Or if for some reason you decide to become a farmer and need to know when to plant your crops." She's guessing that wouldn't really be of interest to him, so she says it with a knowing smile.

"Or I could start bringing in my heathen ways and get, I dunno, stoned or whatever for introducing Yom Kippur or something." What, like he's ever been the most observant Jew ever? Please. "Do the days have names? Y'know, Thursday, Friday...or is it just the blank-th of blankonis?" Calendar wouldn't hurt to keep track of how long he's here anyway. He doesn't have a HUD to give him basic information.

"And what does Yom Kippur celebrate?" she asks, not pronouncing it quite right. It's interesting to learn more of different worlds that she'll never see; not unless these rifts go both ways, and in that case, she wants to be far, far away from them so she doesn't get pulled through.

"You have the days correct already." Her brow furrows in confusion. "You have Thursday and Friday as well? Even Tuesday?"

"Um, it's just a, y'know, a religious holiday. For one of the religions, back home." He shrugs. He's never really gotten way up in the religious business save for a couple conversations and a couple celebrations. (And one December full of various holiday cheer that got way out of hand and almost burnt down the base. It was pretty awesome once the smoke cleared and the power came back on, but the wax was a pain to clean up.) "It's actually really important for those people. Like one of those most important ones? A day of atonement. There's fasting and praying and confessing and a couple of things you definitely aren't allowed to do and it's a whole thing. But like, that's just one holiday of one religion. And I'm not here to like...convert anyone. To anything. Since it's outside the frame of reference."

And he is not the best source of information on literally any of that. So. Moving right along to the days!

"Uh, Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday? Really? Cuz I'm...I'm pretty sure most of those have like...like Nordic roots or something. Huh. I guess...some names just transcend time and space. I mean, in all honesty, it's kind of a miracle I can understand you guys. And that a lot of your names aren't really weird. Or like...they're downright normal. Like you guys probably have Leonards and Michaels and Franks and Laverniuses--I mean, this, what we're speaking right now, to me, it's English. And you Orlesians, to me, what you speak is French. And I know a Rifter from a tooootally different kind of place who totally speaks Spanish despite not having a Spain. Actually, I think I met an elf who's Spanish-but-not, too..."

So many words are spilling from his mouth! Christine chooses to just eat quietly and absorb what she can from what he's telling her. Interrupting might send him on a tangent in a completely opposite direction. But once she's pretty sure he's taking a break, she finds she can cut into the conversation.

"Yes, all those days. It is strange, and it makes me curious as to these ties that bind our worlds together. I don't pretend to know a great deal about the Maker, but this sounds like it is within His realm of power." She looks thoughtful before saying the word French to herself. Huh. Never heard of it.

"I am glad we can speak to one another. Here, it is called the Common Tongue, or the Trade Tongue." Or King's Tongue if you're a Fereldan that thinks the world revolves around you. Her people have an Empress, thank you very much.

He has to drop the whole religion thing just to grin like an idiot at her saying French to herself. Holy shit. She's fucking hot. And cute. Cute-hot. Tucker would be loooosing his miiiiind. "If I knew any French, I'd say some just to show you. But hm, yeah, I mean, I guess if any language was gonna be a common one, it'd be English. ...Or Chinese. But--hey, I wonder if...maybe something happened that made me understand this. All of this. I mean, I can read the books and understand this language but..."

What if I just fell into a body that happened to already understand it and translates it realtime into English for me.

Yeah, that'll go over well. Totally doesn't sound like a demon. Or whatever. Shit.

"Whatever. I'm just glad I don't have to resort to stupid basic universal gestures to tell you you're pretty. Awesome. Pretty awesome for a pretty--yeah."

Christine inhales a breath to join in the conversation; to speculate that perhaps coming through the Fade manipulated his mind in a way that allowed him to understand this world's main language and writing. But then he goes on, and she smiles, knowing what he's trying to say.

In Thedas, the word 'awesome' has not been overused to the point of simply meaning 'good.' It still means a sight that leaves one in awe. And she very much enjoys hearing that applied to her, as well as the word 'pretty.'

"I am glad I can hear you say the words, instead of employing hand gestures." Something tells her those gestures would become sort of sexual in nature to get his point across. "Thank you."

Hey, he can be a perfect gentleman with his hands. ~~Let him show you.~~ "Apeman know words. Apeman use for talk."

She exhales a soft laugh and moves to stand, having finished her food. There's still a bit left on her side if he wants it.

"Apeman is going to look very handsome on my arm at the party, I think."

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Open: Party Preparations

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