faderift | Truth or Dare: The Imperial Court

Truth or Dare: The Imperial Court

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.

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"I-- What?" Christine is now so confused, and she drops her hand to her side. "Let us just take a moment and explain ourselves." She didn't expect that everyone would be completely flawless tonight, but Church is possibly a disaster waiting to happen here.

"The Inquisition needs allies, and it needs funding. Please, please just be polite to the nobles who can give the Inquisition that, and if you cannot be polite, excuse yourself and leave the conversation. And don't do anything you aren't comfortable doing. If you wish to touch those ladies who take an interest in you?" Here she waves a hand towards him. "That is for you to decide." Christine isn't going to hold him to some high standard, as if they're courting. He can do as he pleases. She just doesn't want him ruining things for the Inquisition. Or for rifters, come to think of it.

To be fair, she's seen how he is when he's not in a room full of nobility. She really did bring this on herself.

Being given leave to just...flirt with and touch other ladies when he's at least kind of got a something going on with another? It's like he can feel Tex about to punch him in the back of the head from here. "So everything's made up and the points don't matter. Just be polite. Also, point of fact, totally politely excused myself from her before complaining about her obvious blindness. Except that's an insult to the blind."

Okay. Whatever. There are totally people here who aren't fancy rich people who might maybe be able to fund this whole non-profit organization. Like Christine. "So between all the networking and asskissing, you've totally got some time to dance, right? Especially with someone as terrible as your date? Look at that wonderfully pretty lady mage, teaching the savage apeman to dance like a decent person. Have some gold."

Christine exhales a sigh at his reaction. If she thought he was truly awful, she would have dragged him out of the soiree by his ear already. But she has hope.

"You are not terrible. You were just--" She stops herself and shakes her head. "You know this is important, yes? People have been saying the Inquisition is heretical, that Seeker Pentaghast and Sister Leliana murdered the Divine. This is to show everyone that we are decent people who wish to stop a madman."

Reaching up, she smooths her hands across his shoulders. "They are not used to rifters as we are here. You must choose your words more carefully. But I will dance with you, apeman, all right? I would like it very much."

"To be perfectly honest? I don't know all the details. So...yeah, putting it that way makes it sound...more of a big deal. Normally this sort of thing would mean press conferences and boardroom meetings, but this is a different world with different ways of getting shit done. And getting this shit done today means sucking up to an uncaring aristocracy."

Seriously, in a world that's this into religion as a whole, and being called heretical? He knows enough of it being a deal that he doesn't really want to involve any of his vaguely Jewish beliefs in case someone decides his views are stone-able. He's not certain what the Divine is, who it was, but apparently someone super important.

He may not have the best views about Seeker Pendragon, Pentagon, Paranormal, whatever, but she probably hasn't murdered the lady Pope? He can't exactly rule that out, though.

"Sorry. Sorry, I'll...try. To be an actual gentleman. And not speak my mind at all times." He settles his hands, hesitating for a moment, at her waist. "It won't kill me to do that for a night. I mean, probably. The odds are pretty good that nobody's died because they couldn't expel their sass."

Now that he understands, Christine feels relief. That may be premature on her part, but again, she has hope for him yet.

She puts one hand down atop his to pull it away. "Here; we hold these hands out like this, but your other stays where it is. I will lead." That isn't even a question. She remembers her dances from the Circle, and she will take charge now.

"Perhaps it will do you some good to not say everything you are thinking, hmm?"

If there's one thing he's learned, it's always let the lady take charge. I mean, sure, yeah, bitch about it and try to assert your authority, but in the end, let the lady take charge.

"You usually like to listen to what I'm thinking. But, uh, I get that having a brain-to-mouth filter in place is probably better in a ballroom full of people more politically powerful than either of us. Not always appropriate. Gotcha."

He's not wrong; she does like to listen, because his absurdities so often make her laugh. His view is so different from being from such a different place, and that's interesting to witness.

"You see? Apeman learn things." She can't help calling him that, but in fairness, he did pick out the name himself. For a moment, she simply leads him in the dance -- a very simple one at that -- before she speaks again. "I am glad we have a moment alone to speak. There is something I wished to tell you. Have you ever heard Adelaide say she is a Spirit Healer?"

It's an apt nickname. He brought it on himself. The dancing is nice. Not as nice as by the fire, when things didn't have meanings and they could just turn a snowball fight into a dance. But nice. To ignore the crowds and the people he has no interest in begging for money for a cause he doesn't even really believe in.

"Hm?" He's paying attention, he swears, but also paying attention to where their feet are drifting, and paying attention to not swaying into anyone, and paying attention to how pretty the pretty girl is. "I mean, she's..." A healer with a spirit inside of her so that makes her a spirit healer, right? "Yeah, pretty sure, yeah? Why? You don't need a medic or anything do you? Am I that embarrassing you need a fainting couch? ...Am I that awesome?"

Christine exhales a nervous laugh and shakes her head no. "I am perfectly stable, I assure you." No need to feed his ego. "I ask because I wish to become one too, and there is a test..." She knows it will be hard for him to understand, not being from this world or truly understanding the Fade. Even regular people don't really understand the Fade. Only mages do.

"This test is the final step, and the most dangerous. If I don't pass this test... I won't survive." She looks up at him with a grave expression.

For the sake of appearances, they should keep dancing. His brain doesn't tell his feet that, though. He almost trips for how quickly he's just stopped. "What? Wh--I don't understand." Just as predicted.

"How is it dangerous to learn to be a special magic doctor? Why would you even risk dying over a test to learn to, crap, I don't know what you're learning, shit, what, learn to heal better than before or something?"

When he stops, she has to stop too, and she gives an apologetic smile to a dancing couple beside them who nearly run into them. Then she tugs on Church's hand to hopefully pull him to the edge of the dance floor, out of the way.

"Healing wounds magically is very draining. Using the power a spirit grants you helps a lot, and you can heal much more serious wounds. I can save more lives." She sighs. "In the Circle, before you are called a full mage, you are an apprentice. When they think you are ready, you have a similar test, where you enter the Fade and resist a demon. What I am doing this time should be simple in theory. I go into the Fade and find a spirit who will agree to work with me. The danger lies in the fact it could be a demon tricking me. That is how I could die. But I want to be a Spirit Healer more than anything. This is what I want for the rest of my life."

Oh. So that's just what a spirit healer is. He wouldn't be hurting Adelaide by saying oh yeah she helps people because of a blue spirit magic spirit thing in her. "Okay, hold on. I thought people generally didn't approve of the whole...having a spirit hanging out in you business. I thought that's generally accompanied with, I don't know, some swordy dude lopping off heads. Do you really...I mean. This thing. You want to be it. But it sounds um...it sounds more complicated than just a career choice. You're not just saying like, oh I want to be a doctor, you're saying I want to be a doctor backed by a supernatural entity that might get me killed in a lot of ways, specifically that kind."

"They do not. That is not what a Spirit Healer does. Or shouldn't do." Anders. "The spirit stays on their side of the Fade. It is their energy they pass through the healer. But mages have been tricked before once in the Fade, by demons who wish to escape through them." She frowns. "I must be careful when seeking out a spirit, and resist making any deals that are not worded carefully. But it is complicated, yes. That's why I wished for you to know before I did it."

"And you're sure you want to risk dying for this? I mean, rhetorical question, obviously you're sure. Um." He pinches at the bridge of his nose, thinking for a second. This...doesn't seem fair. To either of them. It's not like they're a thing, but they're almost kind of a thing?

"Okay. I mean. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for that, though, cuz it would suck if something...happened and I didn't know anything about it. Do um...do you know what you're looking for?"

"I risked dying during my Harrowing," she points out. "And my choices then were do it or be made Tranquil. This is my choice, and this is what I want."

Christine watches him carefully, and is honestly a little surprised that he seems so affected. It gives her pause. Perhaps despite all the jokes and goofiness, there is far more to him than what's on the surface. That he's worrying about this is touching.

"Yes and no. I have studied all I can in preparation. I've read accounts of others' journeys in the Fade. But every single experience is different, and mine will be too."

Don't suggest that to him. OBVIOUSLY there is NOTHING ELSE to him than what's on the surface. Just jokes and dumbassery and crudeness. Yep!

"But you're...prepared. So...you've...got a pretty good chance then! You'll be in and out in no time and be able to call on spirit power to heal people up. And you'll be fine. Better than fine."

"That is the plan." And all she can do is stay strong and determined. No matter how much confidence she has, she worries she'll falter, and that something will throw her expectations into chaos.

Which is why she hopes for one night of fun before she does this.

"But I was thinking, since this can be dangerous and there is no way of knowing the result... if perhaps we could spend the night together."

He looks down at their hands and around at the ball and blinks a little lost. "We are spending the night. That's kind of what this is. We're spending the night together. Rrrrright?"

Christine purses her lips and looks away. Perhaps this isn't the best idea after all. If he can't even get what she's insinuating... But no. He is from a different world. She should give him another chance. After all, wasn't his version of flirting asking her to go take a bath?

"No, I mean spend the night together afterwards. Intimately."

"...Oh. ......Oh. You mean--together together." He laughs at himself and gives her a boyish grin, all big and lopsided and there's probably a half-decent reason she wants to sleep with this stupid lug after all huh? "My place or yours, sweetcheeks? Or wherever we can get a little privacy?"

Sweetcheeks? Christine gives him a quizzical look at that, but lets it go to focus on the specifics.

"That would depend where it is you sleep. I have a tent. Not the most private spot, but it could work for our needs."

"A tent's still way more private. And cozy. We'll just have to hang a do not disturb sign over the flaps or something..." Whatever the equivalent of a sock on the door is. Better than hiding behind a rock. "You know, we could always skip the business, go right to the pleasure." Still grinning, he leans in to kiss.

"People know not to disturb me in there." Her tent is her own little space, her inner sanctum. Anyone who comes up to the flaps better be alerting her to a dying patient or else.

Well, she can't fault him for enthusiasm. If she was some high, noble born lady, she probably wouldn't let him kiss her right in the Great Hall, but she's just a mage, so she sets a hand on his chest and says, "Just one," before pressing her lips to his.

He'll take one. Call it a tease for later. Because she totally won't die and then they can laugh about this later about how worried and doofy he was and how she got him all worked up.

It's. nice. It's nice, it is, don't get him wrong. There's just also a part of him that thinks maybe this isn't right. Just a niggling thought that definitely needs to shut up because certain people are either dead or not here or both. So it's just nice and nothing else.

"There'll be more later. If there's anything else serious you need to tell me, now would be a pretty good time."

"Hmm, let me think," she says, gaze lifting in pretend thought. It's a good way to take a moment to consider all of this and what it means. And what he might think it means. Because she doesn't know how he handles things of this nature. Her gut tells her the answer would be in the most awkward way possible.

"I suppose we should discuss things so we are clear on what we want, but that is not a conversation for a party. That is for in my tent." Behind closed doors, except she doesn't have any doors.

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