Truth or Dare: Side Party for Servants and Scoundrels

[faderifting]

WHO: Anyone!
WHAT: A party for people who might scare the nobility, are deathly afraid of chandeliers, or fled the soiree with cheeses hidden in their clothes and need to make a clean getaway.
WHEN: During (and after) the soiree.
WHERE: The valley beyond Skyhold.
NOTES: Drinking, revelry. People might make out or something. We're not responsible for your actions.

The soiree might be fun, if you're into that sort of thing, but that isn't what it's for. It's for impressing the powerful and opening their pockets—and, necessarily, some people aren't invited. In some cases that's personal. In others, it's just understood. When they're done helping to set up, most of the servants and workers who aren't needed to serve make themselves scarce. The usual trickle of refugees to and from the fortress slows. Some people used to sleeping in the stables may find their "beds" occupied by nobles' horses or the rooms they had been squatting in cleaned and prepared for someone else to stay in.

There's no resentment. (Or at least very little.) That's how these things go. And in the valley outside the fortress' walls, there are foot soldiers and refugees and a number of miscellaneous exiles who welcome the company with large fires, cheap but freely flowing alcohol, and whatever music can be wrung out of instruments exposed to such low temperatures. The crowd thins and dwindles as the night wears on, but even after the last person has left the Great Hall in Skyhold, there's still a sizable gathering near the river with no intention of going to sleep before sunrise.

No masks allowed.

Comments

[middle_of_calibrating]

"Well you did a while back say, and I quote, 'You'll never catch me dead in such a thing', end quote. So of course I'm curious." Course now he's trying to figure in just what way Jane does mean by that comment. It felt heavily like she was flirting, but on the other hand it might have been a clever way to get him alone and shank him for having seen such a thing. He slowly sips from his drink as he considers it.

"Where you going to find a dress at a time like this?"

[whathumansdo]

"I bet one of those noblewomen couldn't choose hers until the last possible second and brought more than one. That seems like the sort of thing they'd do." She usually wasn't want for thievery but talking about screwing nobles was a favorite pasttime of hers.

[middle_of_calibrating]

Alright, now Garris is looking at her a bit oddly. "You want to steal a dress from one of the nobles." A pause with him leaning in a bit closer. "You want try on a dress that you stole from an Orlesian noble." He was getting this right, correct?

[whathumansdo]

She laughs a bit at his expression and the question. "Well, when you word it like that it sounds like a terrible idea," she responded, still sounding far too amused for her own good. This is why she needed him around, to point out when things sounded insane.

[middle_of_calibrating]

"Oh feel free to try and steal one if you can. Don't think the advisors will be too happy about it, but... more just making sure we're clear on what kind of dress you're planning on putting on. You'd look better with nothing on compared to wearing some of the things they have." Shepard had a way of making things look good, but he's not sure she'd be able to pull that off for even that.

[whathumansdo]

"Nothing, huh?" Shepard asks, she raises her brow a bit. Garris had a way of talking himself into these little corners where he ended up somewhere that could be taken the wrong way. "Are you saying you want to see me naked, Garris?"

[middle_of_calibrating]

Normally he didn't, he was rather good at working himself out of situations like this, but with Jane he always seemed to put himself in a hole and then dig deeper. "I- ah..." It certainly was feeling a bit warm suddenly, and it didn't feel like the alcohol or the fire. Garris mutters lightly before taking a drink. "I guess I wouldn't be opposed."

[whathumansdo]

She raises her brow a bit. "I wouldn't be either," she said, and it's weird how all their years of tension and skirting around the issue seem to be leading to this place of at least admitting they don't mind being naked around each other.

[middle_of_calibrating]

Technically they've only confirmed that neither of them would mind that Jane was naked, there has been no mention of him being in a similar state. Still, just getting to a point and saying that, yes, it has been a long time, more considering the years they've been apart.

"So... does that mean you're going to forgo stealing a dress and going straight to no clothes on?

[whathumansdo]

"I might be open to the idea," she said, grinning a bit. She shifts a little closer to him. "I could use some stress relief while I'm at it."

[middle_of_calibrating]

Clearly taking a drink at that moment was not a good move, because Shepard's offer certainly has Garris choking on his drink some. "Oh-?" he asks, a bit strained from having the liquid going down the wrong way. "My tent or yours?"