Open: Party Preparations

[madame_de_fer]

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.

Comments

post-cw, time-wimey hand gestures

[theproperglove]

It isn't that Josephine has been avoiding Cassandra, per se, but she has done little to go out of her way to seek the other woman out. It had been a mostly subconscious decision that would allow tensions to simmer down somewhat, although whether it was for Cassandra's benefit or for Josephine's own, she was not entirely certain.

However, with the soiree looming on the horizon, Josephine finds she cannot put off speaking to the Seeker any longer, so she hunts Cassandra down one afternoon, all ready for business.

"Cassandra. I trust your preparations for the soiree are well underway?"

waves fingers vaguely

[stabsbooks]

There had been no real need to avoid the Ambassador, exactly; their paths cross little enough as it is, outside the War Room itself. But like Josephine, Cassandra had made certain not to seek the other woman out.

Still, Josephine does not receive the same sneering disdain that Leliana might have, had she dared to approach Cassandra in that moment. Her frustration with Josephine's lack of understanding aside, Cassandra knows well enough that her intentions are good, that she only ever wanted to keep the peace.

Cassandra nods, with a wary look at Josephine - wary, but not outright forbidding.

"Ambassador," she says, her tone neutral, and lifts an arm to frown at the velvet draped across it and pinned snugly down. "Yes. I am afraid I am quite...drawn in, now." Whether she wishes to be or not.

[theproperglove]

Cassandra's reaction is much as Josephine expected, perhaps even politer than she had expected, and she appears to visibly relax, dropping some of the weight she is carrying in her shoulders. She takes a moment to look the other woman up and down, brow furrowing as she tries to imagine what the Seeker will look like once her dress has been completed.

"Try not to move around so much. It will prolong the time it takes to make measurements." Josephine knows Cassandra well enough to know that this is probably one of the last places she currently wants to be. "Are you satisfied with the design of your dress?"

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra does not sulk, but it is a near thing as she returns her arm to a neutral position and allows the tailors to continue their work. She knows that Josephine is right, that fidgeting will only delay this process, but it is so dull to have to stand here for hours, unable even to move.

"Am I satisfied?" She raises a wry eyebrow. "I was not aware my satisfaction was a concern, only Vivienne's." She glares at a young seamstress at her elbow, enough that the girl's eyes widen slightly and she scurries out of view, but then relents as she turns back to Josephine.

"It...is not as terrible as it could have been."

[theproperglove]

Well, thank the Maker for small mercies; Josephine is clearly glad that Cassandra is not as agitated as she could have been. "I'm certain Madame de Fer has a vision for the evening's most important guests," Josephine relents, "but it would not do at all if you were overly uncomfortable."

She's sensing that there is, perhaps, a story underlying Cassandra's concessions, and Maker help her, she can never resist a good story so she leans in slightly, brows raised. "It sounds like you've had to reject several previous suggestions already."

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra shakes her head wordlessly. She does not want to be an important guest; she does not want to be a guest at all, but she knows she has no choice.

Josephine had not betrayed and insulted her as Leliana had - they have never been close enough for Josephine to be able to betray her so, for her words to cut Cassandra so deeply. Still, she had accused, she had assumed, and Cassandra has not forgotten. She will not be rude to Josephine or refuse to speak to her, but she has no intention of - of entertaining her, of sharing her secrets, even ridiculous, inconsequential ones such as this.

She merely looks at Josephine for a moment, and then looks away, shaking her head once more. "It hardly matters. This is what has been chosen." Cordial, but undeniably cool.

[theproperglove]

The corners of Josephine's mouth curve downwards at the coolness of Cassandra's response, and she takes a half-step backwards. Clearly the Seeker is still nursing some hurt feelings. While Josephine will not forget the way that Cassandra threatened Leliana, she is too busy, too tired, to be anything than diplomatic.

"I see. And what is it that has been chosen, precisely?" She cants her head to one side, as though a different perspective will allow her to accurately predict the design of Cassandra's outfit.

[stabsbooks]

This, at least, is not too much to ask. Still unable to move her arms, she nods her head to a sketch of the dress on a nearby chaise. "It will look like that. Or so they tell me." She looks dubiously at the cheap fabric wrapped around her arm, merely rolling her eyes impatiently at the tailor's pleading explanation that this is only a pattern, that the fabric of the real dress will be as fine and elegant as any seen at Halamshiral.