Truth or Dare: The Imperial Court

[madame_de_fer]

WHO: Select Orlesian and Fereldan Nobility and the Inquisition
WHAT: Josephine and Vivienne have orchestrated a good-will soiree in response to this dastardly rumor.
WHEN: Drakonis 15, Evening
WHERE: Skyhold Great Hall
NOTES:
- A list of nobles in attendance can be found here. The list was provided by the mods but there will be no npc support for them. Play away.
- A secondary outside party is being held in the valley in the tent town for anyone who couldn't/wouldn't attend and/or behave in the fancy pansty party.
- The goal of the evening is to clear up a spurious rumor about Cassandra and Leliana, with secondary goals of establishing the Inquisition as a respectable presence in Thedas (and fish for more money). Any major disruptions that would Game Over the court approval should probably be brought to the advisors and/or mods.



To say that Josphine has far outdone herself with this little soiree would be the understatement of the year. The Lady Ambassador has pulled out all the stops in providing a festive and yet elegant stage for this political intervention. Because sometimes gossip can be more deadly than a sword.

The Great Hall of Skyhold has been converted into a grand receiving hall, glittering with hundreds of lights around the room, in addition to the repairs accomplished to the original chandeliers. Of course, there has been artful placement arranged so there are a few shadowy corners for rendezvous of the more suggestive nature. Just in case. The majority of the floor has been cleared for dancing, and a fine troupe of musicians have been installed for the bulk of the evening's entertainments. Some members of the Inquisition have plans to entice attendees with their own artistic performances in addition to the group of mages performing illusory tricks to oohs and aahs.

For those who feel their energy flagging, there are chairs set against the walls, with a few tables interspersed between. Servers hired for the evening circulate the crowds with wine, fine Orlesian and Nevarran reds as well as crisp whites from Antiva. Refreshments are set out on buffet tables, tasteful and extravagant nibbles, including imported cheeses, spicy saucisson, dried fruits and nuts, and the highly sought after deep mushroom and anise petits fours that are all the rage in Orlais.

Comments

[heda]

What Lexa is doing here is precisely what everyone else is doing: mingling, gathering information, feeling the place out, trying to avoid the attention of the sleazier attendees. She is not surprised by the hand on her arm; she has more than enough awareness and too little wine not to have sensed his approach even through the crowd. But the voice, that surprises her. She'd been keeping a mental list of likely candidates from among those she'd caught leering or who had not taken kindly when she refused to dance, but she had not accounted for,

"Bellamy."

Not that this much changes her reaction. She turns in his grip, a subtle shift into his space and a kinetic tension in her posture that he can both see and feel beneath his hand, warning--or in this case, reminding--that she is capable of removing that hand if she wishes, either from her arm or from his. No matter how different she looks tonight, her voice is every bit as cool as he remembers.

"What do you want?"

[nonsibi]

He's not unnerved by her. He's wary--he'd be stupid, not to be wary--and he's tense and he's not happy that she can just coolly answer him, just like that, in a tone that implies she's more or less dismissing him.

If she tries anything, he thinks, grimly, and leaves that threat unfinished even in his own head. There's a lot that he would do, if she tried anything. Some part of him hopes that she does, so he has an excuse. They're surrounded, there's people everywhere. Bellamy doesn't care.

"Just surprised to see you." His jaw set, he still manages to force out an answer, his voice pitched low. The crowd is thick enough that their tension is going pretty well unnoticed. "I bet you're surprised to see me, too, considering you left all of us to die. I hope you're not here to get in with the Inquisition."

[heda]

Lexa doesn't look surprised to see him. She doesn't look much of anything, actually, her expression that perfectly neutral mask she has worn during nearly every moment he has seen her.

She says nothing. The warm flickering light of the torches along the walls and chandeliers full of candles make the pale hazel of her eyes glow amber, and there's something catlike in the way she watches him. Patient. Dangerous. She continues to say nothing, and to reveal nothing as he speaks. If he hopes to make her flinch by reminding her of what she has done, to get her to show some sign of guilt, he will be disappointed. Having weathered Clarke's scorn, Bellamy's doesn't leave so much as a scratch.

He guesses correctly at her ultimate purpose here, and still she says nothing. She lets the silence stand and linger, tense and awkward as she continues to fix him with that stare. Eventually, just as the moment is growing truly unbearable, she lets one brow tic minutely upwards. Like his, her voice is low and deceptively soft. Still cool, always cool.

"Let go of my arm."

[nonsibi]

"Why? So you can disappear again?"

Her silence is worse, more insulting, more infuriating. That's what she's after, and maybe he could realize that if it wasn't so damn effective, if he wasn't so angry just looking at her. Her cool impassive face and her cool impassive voice. It had been so easy for her to walk away. And she doesn't care, she still doesn't care.

He smiles at her, right through the tight clench of his jaw. "Too bad I don't take orders from you. Now come on."

He doesn't shove her, but he does push at her arm, away from where they're standing.

[heda]

Lexa's teeth set together behind that impassive facade, and the look she has fixed on Bellamy somehow manages to grow cooler, dryer, flatter. She is so deeply unimpressed by him right now that it makes her want to argue, but she is resisting. He's not worth a scene.

But she is still going to pull her arm away, jerking it out of his grasp with a sudden contained show of strength. If she goes with him it is not going to be under duress.

She holds her ground for another moment, just to make that point abundantly clear, and then turns and stalks toward one of the side doors. It's not quite the direction he shoved her towards, and that's in part another small exercise of power and in part because she knows where this one goes, and it's a small hallway that wasn't highly trafficked earlier. As good a spot as any for a fight, which is what she assumes is about to happen.

[nonsibi]

So, what. Now he's got to follow her? That move comes off like a show of power, probably just as she intended. And, no surprise: that show of power works its way under Bellamy's skin pretty well. He glares after her for a second, but, unwilling to let her get away so easy, he follows her. Through the crowd, deaf and blind to the tension that vibrates in the air between them, like a thread pulled taut between two points, thrumming with angry energy.

The hallway is pretty empty, quiet after the din of the ballroom, and cool after the heat of so many people crowded together. Bellamy takes it in with a glance, scoping out the surroundings. A few couples, tucked into shadows. Murmured conversations and laughter. No ambush. Few witnesses.

"This is far enough," he tells her, exercising some small control over this tête-à-tête. "I mean, I get it. If you're trying to buddy up with the Inquisition, you can't let 'em see your true colors so soon."

[heda]

'True colors' rankles--it's the presumption, mostly, that he would dare to think he knows anything about her--and Lexa rolls her eyes. She does it before she's quite turned back, but Bellamy may catch the tail end of it as she comes round to face him if he's paying close attention. It's a tiny crack in her otherwise perfect armor, face still as ever once again. She stops, but only because he's right; there's no need to go further. He can believe it's because he said so if he likes.

"My presence here is no business of yours," she says, "Now say whatever it is you are determined to say to me so that we can both return to what we were doing."

nice icon alien face

[nonsibi]

"See, that's the thing. It is my business." He did catch that eyeroll, actually; registering that look leaves him as pleased as it does infuriated. At least he knows he can score a hit on her, for whatever it's worth. Out in the hall, narrowed down to just them, Bellamy can regain some footing. She doesn't have any more control here than he does. Good.

"The way I see it, it's kind of my duty to warn the Inquisition about you. Since I'm one of four people here that knows how great you are at breaking your word." He folds his arms, expectantly. "So just what were you doing? You might clean up nice, but you wouldn't waste your time with that unless you were trying to blend in around here. Spying, or you looking for someone in particular?"

And don't say Clarke.

wow your face is so crisp and saturated in comparison

[heda]

Lexa is only looking for Clarke in the way that she's always looking for Clarke when she's near the Inquisition: half hopeful, half ready to hide. With all these Orlesians present the hall is filled with blondes, and she has caught glimpses out the corner of her eye a half-dozen times. Each time, her heart spikes the same way, and each time it's someone else. She still hasn't figured out if the feeling she has after is more relief or disappointment.

But this is a distraction she can manage. Bellamy asks again, and Lexa looks him in the eye. "Duty is not what motivates you, and even if it were you wouldn't do it. Because they will ask where all this happened, and we both know what will happen if you tell them Montemps."

The look she gives him is still flat, still hard, and now with a warning in it. But there's something about it, some edge around her eyes or her mouth, that makes that warning--not friendly, but not aggressive. It's not a warning on her own behalf, it's a reminder. We both know what will happen and to whom and neither of us want that.

aww thanks babe

[nonsibi]

Nothing. Nothing will happen, because Bellamy will do anything to make sure Clarke lives. His jaw tightens again, and behind the firm line of his mouth, his teeth are set together.

Thing is, she has him there. He can't say too much about Lexa's betrayal unless he wants the whole story to unravel. Then it becomes a matter of the greater sin, backstabbing versus blood magic.

So, fine. He digs in again, too dogged to leave this, too angry at what they'd been left to. At what Lexa had done, to them.

"Tell me what you're doing here."

[heda]

His doggedness is irritating, and Lexa seriously considers pushing past on principle and refusing to engage. But he'll just keep coming, because he has nothing to do and nothing to lose except things Lexa wouldn't risk either. But she makes him wait for it through another long, silent moment, just because she can.

"Observing," she says finally, the same thing she said to Kane earlier, though her tone doesn't leave the door open to conversation in the same way. There's more that she could say even without giving much away about her and her people, their surveillance capacity and so on. But eh.

She turns the conversation instead. "Does Clarke know that you're here?"

[nonsibi]

Observing is so vague an answer that it's almost worse than no response. It's definitely more maddening after the long pause she treats him to, and the immediacy of the topic change. Observing, to what end?

She's not going to say. And he's not going to let it go. The twitch of his fingers is impulsive, a fleeting thought that runs close to making her answer more completely. Like he could. The Avvar's great heda wouldn't get where she is today by being prone to spilling her guts under stress and torture, no matter what he wants.

The thought of Clarke doesn't quite put all of that out of his head. Might even make it a little worse. If Clarke was here, would she be on Bellamy's side, or Lexa's?

Bellamy's. Because Lexa betrayed them. Anything else would be tantamount to stupidity, so Bellamy doesn't shy away from answering:

"Yeah. She knows." He jerks his chin at Lexa, in a short sharp nod. "She know about your observing?"