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

[the_effect_she_has]

An hour or so later, there is the flash of veilfire, and there is Katniss dropping down on a log next to him. Katniss let out a sigh of relief as she moved to slip off her dancing shoes, as she stared at the fire, a quiet smile on her face.

"So. What are we singing tonight?" She won't take the pipe, but a song? She's always got a song for Merrick.

[dalishious]

"Up to you," says Merrick, and he passes the instrument to her with an expectant sort of look.

[the_effect_she_has]

Katniss took the guitar, and tightened a few of the strings, as she mused on the music she knew, before she started to strum a few bars. There were quite a few Dalish songs she knew - and this was a party so this one seemed appropriate.

Her fingers began to pluck at the guitar, as fast as they could, and she raised her voice in song to the fast pitched pace.

And if you think she shifted to sit ladylike while she was strumming along? You clearly haven't met Katniss.

[dalishious]

Merrick would expect no less. Katniss is Katniss, and he wouldn't want her any other way.

He claps along with the lively tune, which has people bouncing on their feet and twirling happily around the bonfire. It's one he knows, and he's impressed that she manages to sing it almost perfectly.

His characteristic half-smile is on his face when she finishes, and he applauds her along with everyone else.

omg I did not even realize that's the 25 min version of that song ...

[the_effect_she_has]

She lets out a deep breath when she is done, smiling around the bonfire before she hands the guitar back to Merrick, wiping the sweat off her brow.

"Creators, that was a tough one." She breathed out, leaning on her seat, before she offered a full smile to Merrick. "Good enough?"