faderift | Truth or Dare: Side Party for Servants and Scoundrels

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Come on, all these people here, and you want to be stuck with me?" Emma knows better than anybody she's not the most fun lately. She wants Red to get a chance to enjoy herself tonight, and it's just instinct that tells her it'll be easier if she's not a part of it. She doesn't really think about how self-deprecating that is, not even as she says it out loud. A room full of people, and someone choosing to be with her instead? Doesn't make sense.

"My feet are going to be fine." She's not worried, she's literally invincible right now. And she's not worried, even beyond that, for the record. She follows after, a smile hitting her without even thinking about it, even if their steps start sloppy and slow. It might be dumb, but she likes dancing. It's a nice escape.

Ruby laughs quietly, at that. "There's nothing stuck about it, promise. I'm pretty glad I have a friend here, for the record."
Because you can make friends here, but it's not quite the same as having someone from home. Like an anchor, kinda.

"You say that now," which sounds like a warning, and an ominous one, but so far they seem to be doing okay. The song is changing, though, turning to something with a little more energy, and Ruby grins at Emma. "It's not Beyonce but it works, right?"

And maybe it's better for this type of dancing, sure.

"I'm glad too." Emma knows that having Red here with her has made something impossible a little easier. Being the Dark One is something she always expected to face with her family, and not having them makes every step a little heavier. Having Ruby there softened the bluntness of needing to do everything alone.

"This place isn't ready for Beyonce." That's fine, Emma isn't sure she'd be as excited about club dancing. She likes this, even as they need to move a little faster and skirts start spinning. Maybe it is just thrilling to get to do what she never got a chance to, thanks to the curse.

Her smile is soft, pleased, even if she feels a little silly. "Look at us, getting all sentimental," she says, by way of further self-deprecation and teasing. And then she almost knocks into someone with their dance, and offers them an apologetic smile over her shoulder, even if they seem to be having plenty of fun with all the drinking and dancing on their own.

"Sorry," she starts, uselessly, before focusing back on Emma and their dance. "You think so? I think they'd really appreciate American classics. Bootylicious, Single Ladies?"

And she's raising her hand, to get Emma to twirl. "It could be great."

She has to laugh a little at the couple that barely even seem to notice someone dancing a little too close. Just because she can't manage to get a buzz, does not seem to be slowing anybody else down. Still, she doesn't see any reason to look down on anyone else for having a good time. That's what the night is for, isn't it?

Emma does slip a little closer to her own dance partner, though, hoping to make more room for the people spinning around the floor. She does spin at the leading, even if it makes her entirely too full skirt span around her. "Not even most modern people can do the Single Ladies dance," she points out. "I wonder if they're more a pop or classic rock kind of people."

Delighted, Ruby sets her hand at Emma's waist more firmly once she returns from the spin. "Nice, you're getting the hang of this."

But she's laughing. "Fair, very fair. I definitely can't, no matter how many Cosmopolitans try to convince me otherwise." Never trust the Cosmopolitans, they probably offer worse advice than the collective Dark One choir. "But maybe that'd give them extra ability to learn it. They wouldn't be intimidated."

Tilting her side to the side, she murmurs (as if anyone but Emma can hear her over the music, anyway) "maybe they'd like Nickelback."

"Well, it isn't actually my first time." That makes her a little sad, to think about her first proper dance. She wishes Killian were here. She's glad he's not, that he's not in danger involved in being stuck in a different world and hell, just being near her... but that doesn't mean she doesn't miss him, or feel badly about their last moments together.

Oh, god. Nickelback. "That might be the only thing I don't miss. These people deserve better than that." Ruby doesn't have to do all the leading, Emma lifts her arm to let her taller companion spin to the beat of the music, too. They might be breaking convention but let's face it, two women on the dancefloor were probably breaking convention around here as it was.

"No?" Red's surprised, but maybe she shouldn't be. More she hears, the more it seems like she missed more than she thought was possible in so short a time. The whole time issue is a whole different can of worms. "You could've pretended you were just amazingly talented." She tsks softly, and hopes that she hasn't trodden on anything painful.

"Everyone deserves Nickelback," she replies, with false severity, which gets promptly lost with the spin. Instead she's laughing, happily breathless as she stops. "Or maybe I could be merciful."

Technically, Red hasn't been gone that long, and yet things move around so fast in Storybrooke, it's easy to lose track of what she wasn't there for. Things move so fast back at home, Emma feels like the past two years have been a separate lifetime. Or maybe she just wasn't really living in the stretch of time between losing Henry and him finding her again.

"Let's go for mercy," Emma suggests, laughing too. It's easy to get lost in the beat and the swing of the music and the simple feeling of the party around them. She hasn't felt so light in ages, and maybe it shows in her steps. Less of a monster and more of a woman, for once.

Red twists them around, and for a brilliant moment it seems like it's going fine, before she kind of twists and her ankle folds underneath her, and she's torn between holding onto Emma to hold herself up and letting go so she can hop sort of pathetically as she tries to figure out what she just did.

"Oh God," quiet, gasped and laughed, as she winds up with a hand on Emma's shoulder. "Oh, I probably deserved that for threatening a world with Nickelback."

Instant karma via twisted ankle, the worst.

It's kind of hilarious that Emma isn't the one that managed to hurt herself dancing. Despite the last name, Emma is not known for her gracefulness. "Whoa," she says sympathetically, reaching out to try and consolidate the worst of the damage by giving Ruby something to hold onto. Doesn't seem to help too much.

"Okay, dancing queen. Maybe we should sit down." Emma pulls Red's arm over her shoulder, and her expression does not offer any flexibility. She'll be helping you to your chair now, Red!

"It looks like my ballet career is over," she laments as Emma steers her, thowing her friend a look that is most definitely along the lines of "poor me :(."

She hops as Emma leads her to a bench, letting herself be supported a bit and her eyebrows raising with exaggerated woe as she looks at her ankle, which has approximately zero swelling or bruising, and is making her feeling like kind of a wimp. "What do you think? Will I make it?"

Truth or Dare: Side Party for Servants and Scoundrels

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject