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

[byblow]

"Oh, you were very clear." His hands briefly rise in front of his chest in mock surrender. "Straight to the point. Not a wasted word. But I wanted to ask you to consider," Alistair says slowly, sounding a little strained now on account of his raging internal battle not to pick an outright fight with her, "letting me see him when you're around to supervise, if I don't talk to him about anything except ogres and dogs."

And griffons. He'd been prepared to leave this whole mess alone entirely, whether or not that made him as bad as his father, but now he has a blasted lopsided griffon figurine staring at him every night while he tries to sleep.

"You don't have to say no. You can just keep doing that thing with your face," he hastens to add. He hasn't looked at her face in several sentences and isn't sure what she's doing with it anymore, but he assumes it's clearly conveying no, if not something more murderous. "But should you ever change your mind, you can let me know, and I promise I won't be obn—" He pauses, and changes course to a promise he can actually keep. "I promise I'll be minimally obnoxious about it."

[arcaneadvisor]

With the sort of smile that has often had even wild animals thinking better, she reaches for his arm to tuck hers into it, not a grab because the only thing worse than the truth of an argument slipping out are the disturbing rumours that might begin if her and Alistair draw too much attention to themselves and she doesn't want to contemplate that. So she does her best to lead them to somewhere a touch more secluded. He is lucky that Kieran's in bed, that Morrigan did have a dance or two with him because this was a party he was allowed to attend if he promised to be good (and he was, because he's always been a good lad, she has no clue where he actually gets it from.)

Shamed by a wobbly griffon. A true hero.

"All that time when you just watched and now you will go to the effort now that all of you have relocated yourselves with the exception of the councillor? Tell me, what happens if your friends from Weisshaupt ask questions, hmm? What happens then when there is an abomination within your midst already, with Corypheus being what he claims and appears to be, when you told me yourself they still ask questions about the three of you." At least she isn't shouting, though her voice is a furious whisper, but it's not just anger, it's something more, something she doesn't want to him to see and she regrets not wearing a mask for the first time at all tonight as something with long sharp teeth gnaws a hole in her. Fear is easier when it's fear for yourself, but when it's fear for something you know you can't keep safe forever? It's a hungry wolf, rabid and ravenous.

This time, Alistair is one of the very few who'll know what she isn't saying, what she can't even now: what happens if the pieces come together and they come for her son and she can do nothing? Kieran has a soul not his own within him, he carries something very different to a demon, something the Taint has drawn to him.

[byblow]

Alistair's instinct while being led away is to look around for help—for Leliana, who probably won't help him with anything for the foreseeable future, or for Zevran, who would probably find it funny. In either case he wouldn't actually be rescued, so it's just as well he keeps his eyes ahead and follows after Morrigan like he knows where they're going and wants to go there.

When she starts talking, his expression is at first defiant, like a child being lectured. But the longer she goes on, the more he softens. Not into anything affectionate, but at least something genuinely thoughtful. Troubled instead of sullen.

"Morrigan," he says. "I wouldn't let them take him from you."

That isn't the most comforting promise, probably, coming from a man who others will likely still be calling a boy when (if) he's fifty, who has little but a sword and a shield and a habit of falling into traps, but it's what he has. There are things he would defy the Wardens over. This is one of them.

But, still: not very comforting. He tries to shore it up.

"Neither would Zevran or Leliana or Shale. Loghain knows, too, and he never—" Six words is apparently the limit of is ability to say anything positive about Loghain, because he ends it there. A spread of promises. He isn't enough of a psychologist, especially where Morrigan is concerned, to try to tie it all together for her and say you don't have to do this alone, but that's the vague intent. He isn't good at whispering, either; he has one of those voices. He keeps the volume down, though. "And it wouldn't come to that. We're not all wandering around Skyhold now. They won't come across him in the corridors when you aren't watching. If you like, I can send you a message when one of them leaves camp."

Insert spy music. He isn't sorry. He loves the Wardens the way a child loves an alcoholic parent: he wants them to be proud of him, but he'll take away their keys and pour their bottles out in the meantime.

"You can say no." To his earlier request. "I just—he made me something, before. If you could tell him I like it."

[arcaneadvisor]

At least he's grown, this alone is proof enough of that since she's sure that had she tried this ten years ago they both would have drawn the eyes of the entire ball as surely as allowing a giant to storm through the doors might have. She takes a very slow careful breath, the kind she would when drawing her focus to cast a spell that asks much of her, allowing her eyes to close so she doesn't have to look at him, and so he can't see them. It takes a moment, because it's easier to be angry than afraid, and anger feels useful, feels powerful when she's hissing and snapping, trying to tear a strip from anyone but being afraid is too much like mud between her toes, a chill that settles. It often laughs like her mother. But she doesn't want a crowd, she doesn't even want to be angry because it's not him. It wasn't even Zevran until he tried to talk about things he didn't understand, about Wynne, as if she were ever anything to Morrigan.

It isn't that she doesn't appreciate the sentiment. That Zevran generally cared for Kieran was a bonus, because it meant he was even more likely to be a blade between her son and harm, and Alistair is a strong fighter, she can't imagine that time has done anything to diminish that, not when he's still here. But words only go so far and she moves so that no one else will see her face.

"How exactly would you stop that? You are but one man, Alistair." If it sounds like regret, she can live with that. Loghain she rolls her eyes at, yes he would stand there but well, he was getting on in years before, with this afflicting the Wardens? She can hardly imagine him being as useful as someone still relatively young like Alistair. "It has only been Kieran and I since I left after the battle, I am...unaccustomed to this."

There's more but it's not as if she can voice it here, not when there are far too many who might overhear and make it worse, let the whispers grow arms and legs. Later, her eyes say because he should know. If there is one who hears exactly what she fears when it comes to Kieran then by rights it should be Alistair.

"There is a good chance I will be called away," she says slowly. "Kieran is aware, and he asked if he might stay with some of the mage children he's friendly with. Should you wish to 'borrow' him for a helper for some excuse I am sure you can find, I...I would accept that." Yes, she's aware of how stilted that sounds, how awkward, her face pinched as she says it though not with him for once but she and Zevran-- well right now, no. She's too angry at him getting under her skin, and Leliana is far too busy (there is every possibility Kieran is a little in love, but equally a little frightened) and so few others that she would allow around him but Alistair knows he has nightmares, so that's at least something of a start.

"What did he make for you? He gets very secretive about his little projects and if he knew he was not meant to see you…" Well, she did say he was only seldom troublesome.

[byblow]

"I could cover your retreat," he offers, a little wry. There was a time he might have thought he had weight to throw around—that his reputation was too valuable to them even if the rest of him is nothing special—but since then they have, in fact, tried to kill him. Are still trying to kill him. Will kill him if they turn up. What would be the harm in giving them an additional reason, really?

In any case, Morrigan assents to letting him see Kieran, and he looks—not really that surprised, but a little surprised. Surprised she isn't making him work harder for it, and unsure of how to proceed in a world where they're sort of, kind of, getting along.

After a moment he says, "Is this where we hug?" and it's only partly to simply be annoying. The other part is to give her a reason to look disgusted or horrified so they can both get back on more familiar ground.

And if that isn't familiar enough, the look on his face afterwards should be: surprise and immediate frustration at himself, fairly identical to the one he wore whenever he accidentally stepped into an unseen trap.

"Oh, he didn't—er." Blast. "I don't think he saw me. I didn't see him. He only left it—it's Chasind, so I assumed. Maybe it wasn't him at all." He pauses, caught, but at least clever enough not to do anything so foolish as to say don't punish him or otherwise try to tell Morrigan how to parent. "It was a griffon."