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

[issala]

Kas looks up from his ale when she speaks and he smiles brightly (and a bit drunkenly) when he sees her. "Korrin! You look really fancy and shit." Maybe he'd be a bit better at expressing himself when he wasn't so pleasantly sloshed, but 'fancy' would have to do.

In all honestly, she looked great.

[gatheringstorm]

Grinning, Korrin slips an arm around him for a side-hug, both because she wants one and because Kas seems slightly more amenable to such things in his state. "That's what happens when I get dragged to go deal with some Orlesians. It seems much more fun over here, though."

[issala]

Amazingly, he allows it and even smiles a bit. Booze either made him happy or a lot angrier, and thankfully he was on the happy level of drunk at the moment.

"Oh, it's... it's totally much more fun here. Got no stuck-up princesses giving you the eye or nothin'! Plus the music is better, right?" Kas has no love for fancy ball symphonies, and very much prefers the fiddle and drum here.

"Y'want a drink? I had one... somewhere."

[gatheringstorm]

"The music is far better, has more of a beat to it. Those nobles don't know what they're missing." Elegant waltzes are okay, but they don't have the life and passion that she prefers in her dances. And Kas is right, it's definitely more fun here. The atmosphere is one of genuine enjoyment, not this silent tug-of-war for who is the most fashionable/influential/pompous. "I'd love one, Kas. After spending the night sipping at wine, I need a real drink. Ferelden ale, hard cider, whatever. I don't care, as long as it has a kick."

[issala]

The teen reaches for a mug and pours her some of the ale, managing to not spill anything despite his slightly uncoordinated movements. Great ale was sacred, after all.

It doesn't mean he's not gonna slosh the mug a bit when he thrusts it out to her, but he did his best. While he was probably going to be very hungover tomorrow, Kas was definitely having fun and he seemed a lot more open and excited than he usually was.

For a while, he could forget about those headaches.

"Did they have any... any good food, at least?"

[gatheringstorm]

Kas' best is good enough for her, and his good mood is definitely worth the trip from the main soiree. Hangovers happen, but he needs to enjoy life in the mean time, so this is good to see. She grins and takes the mug, raising it in thanks.

"They had some eclairs and tiny cakes...though I had to use some of them for a side adventure. One of the rifters, Kain, somehow attracted the most foul-mouthed parrot and it followed him into the Great Hall! So we tried to lure it outside before it could be blamed on us. It's still following him around, too. Check it out sometime and see what you can add to its vocabulary. I might have already worked to expand it somewhat."

Much to Kain's annoyance. But hearing the bird shout 'vashedan' or 'Andraste's tits' is so worth it.

[issala]

"A side adventure? Ooh, tell me!" He makes himself more comfortable at the table, grabbing another mug for himself and a piece of bread. He takes a bite of it, but the bread is pretty much dropped again as soon as he hears about the parrot.

Kas grins widely. "A parrot? Yelling shit?" He's laughing a lot harder when he's drunk, it seems, and he even snorts a little at the end. "I bet the nobles loved that!"

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin grins after taking a lengthy swig, setting it back down again. "Oh, yeah. Their scandalized stares were priceless, especially when it started shouting about Andraste's...well, name a body part. It did that just outside the chapel earlier, too. Kain tried asking it if it has a name, and all it kept saying was 'you bastard', so he's sticking with that. Perfect, eh?"

[issala]

The teen falls into a fit of laughter, so hard that he has to cough at the end. Yelling about Andraste's body parts right outside the Chantry? Priceless.

"Bastard is a great name," he says with another somewhat drunken giggle while he picks up his bread piece again. "Where did it come from, anyway?"

[gatheringstorm]

That coughing fit prompts her to slap his back semi-gently, not wanting him to choke especially since it's her fault. Susceptible to laughing fits right now anyway, Korrin has to stop herself before she can really get going.

"Other than 'some dwarf' because of all the instances of 'nug-humper' being said, I don't know. Maybe Bastard got bored of his owner lacking variety and joined the Inquisition to expand his horizons. Though I think he just followed Kain because their coloring is so alike. Seriously, compare his feathers and the armor. It's awesome."

[issala]

He makes an 'oof' sound at the thumping, but it does make him stop coughing and he gives her another of those drunken smiles that were so absent when he was sober.

"That really is the best fucking thing I've heard in a long time."

It definitely brightens his evening to hear nobles being shocked in such an excellent way. Nothing that made the Inquisition really look bad, too. Just their choice of pets.

"M'gonna have to find the guy and meet Bastard tomorrow."

[gatheringstorm]

"If Kain didn't come here to escape the nobles, too. He might have. If he did, I'll send him your way. It couldn't hurt to introduce Bastard to someone who would appreciate his mouth, too."

Kas and a few others are bound to love him, and Korrin hopes the amusement value will keep Kain from being targeted for something he can't exactly help.

[issala]

"I bet you could hear it if he was coming, if the bird's as loud as you say." Kas is definitely keeping eyes and ears open for that. He might be a bit drunk, but even sober a profanity-yelling parrot sounded like the best thing ever.

"Did you and Araceli dance in the big hall?" He then asks, still kind of curious about that relationship.

[gatheringstorm]

"It's even louder, I guarantee it." Taking a swig, Korrin flashes a grin afterward. "Hell yeah, we did. We scandalized a lot of nobles with that, which wasn't the point but added entertainment. A rifter and an 'ox' on the dance floor? Unheard of. But fuck their expectations, I do what I want."

[issala]

"That's why I like you," Kas says with a tipsy grin. "You don't take shit." The teen would probably groan about that tomorrow, but for now he was outright pleasant to talk with even if he was stumbling a bit over what he wanted to say.

"So you really like her, right? She makes you happy and stuff."

[gatheringstorm]

Kas can groan all he likes later, but Korrin will enjoy his relative openness for now. She might not even tease him about it later, since she knows how much the teen needs his dignity. At that question, she grins and nods.

"I do, very much. She's my kadan. I wasn't expecting to find that here and I don't know what the future holds, but that's not enough reason to hold back. That's just not me, and life is too short not to enjoy the good parts when they happen."

[issala]

"That's good. She's real nice. Even if I yelled at her after I first met her she's been great," Kas says with a little shrug. "She's practically Antivan anyway. If she didn't say she's a rifter nobody would probably ever know."

He pauses for a moment, and then quickly adds. "...not that being a rifter is a bad thing!"

[gatheringstorm]

That gets Korrin to laugh softly, and she leans in and gives him a squeeze, careful not to do anything so awful as spill drinks. "I know what you mean, Kas. If it wasn't for the shard, sometimes it'd be pretty damned easy for me to forget that she wasn't always from here." Antivan, with some Rivaini beliefs mixed in...Korrin could definitely see it.

"I'm glad to hear you say all that, because I know she wants to put together a big dinner for those closest to us. If you don't try to set the bar for how much one can eat without exploding, we'll be disappointed."

[issala]

Spilling drinks would be inexcusable, but Korrin is cool. Korrin knows how to not spill shit. "Last time we made snowshoes together and she was really nice, talking a lot about herself and her world and all kinds of things. Plus the fox is cute." Another thing he wouldn't admit so easily when sober.

Her perks up a bit more in his overly indulgent mood when she mentions dinner and food. "Yeah! That would be fun! I bet I could eat more than anyone else!" Because it was a challenge, and damn it he wasn't going to accept it.

Araceli better be prepared to feed a small army... or, you know, one growing teen.

[gatheringstorm]

Kas suddenly reminds her of Kain and his need to see a challenge in everything, though the dragoon would never laugh so freely, even drunk. She chuckles, not about to discourage him. He should enjoy what bounty Skyhold has to offer, especially when its prepared by the best cook from another world.

"I'll see what I can remember of Rivaini dishes and add a dash of home for you...and because we really need a meal with decent spices. Fortunately, she understands that. I don't think I could be with someone who preferred all the blandness of the south." A woman has to have standards, after all.

[issala]

Eating as much as he wanted was this amazing new thing to Kas and he couldn't get enough of it. If he wasn't moving around so much, he would probably be quite chubby by now, but as it was, he was just building lean muscle instead. Especially at his shoulders, thanks to the archery.

Maybe he really would be a big strong qunari one day. It felt a lot more realistic these days.

"Oh, fuck yes! That would be amazing! I miss really hot dishes so much... it's like Fereldans are afraid of spice!" The teen is already imagining the food - spicy sauces, grilled chicken that made your eyes water with the amount of garlic... curry. "She's the perfect woman, yup."

[gatheringstorm]

"...she is, isn't she." Yep, Korrin has that unbearably sappy grin on her lips, the one she tries not show to a sober Kas because she's sure he'd roll his eyes at her. But right now, that's less of an issue and his absolutely right about Araceli.

"It makes me think more and more that I kept that dragon's tooth for a reason."

[issala]

He would definitely roll his eyes so much at her when he was sober, but right now he was just smiling dumbly. Maybe a little jealous, too. He wanted that kind of happiness.

...or just a damn kiss, really.

Korrin's next sentence makes his eyes widen, though, and he gasps. "Mom told me that story! Are you gonna give her one?"

[gatheringstorm]

"Oh, she did? Good, I wasn't sure how well-known that was." Korrin knew about it almost right away, because her parents had done just that. "You don't think it's too soon, then?"

Not that such really matters to Korrin in the end. Love is love, whether it's had months or years or decades to blossom. But the slightly insecure part of her that she usually ignores wonders what Araceli will think.

[issala]

"I dunno," he says, honestly. "I mean, if you love her you love her. That's good enough." There's a small shrug from the teen. Live in the now, Korrin. He's not sure they'll even beat Corypheus, so why not be happy while she could?

"Think she'll understand the signif...signo... meaning?"