driftfleet | 002; action;

Entry tags:

002; action;

Who: Alistair and anyone who wants to get shitfaced.
Broadcast: Nope.
Action: Varric's bar on the Iskaulit.
When: Tonight. All night. PONY UP.
WARNING: Depending on how conversations go, drunk!Alistair may make vague references to child neglect/abuse, or possibly dubiously consensual sex. Other topics might include violence and extreme daddy issues. Let me know if you want me to specifically avoid any of that!

[ For all intents and purposes, Alistair feels utterly alone. Sure, there are several people in the fleet who know him, but he doesn't seem to know any of them, and so it's weird. And if he's being honest with himself, he was feeling pretty lonely well before he got here. All of the friends he made during the Blight, when they were all on the road together, pretty much left after it ended, after his coronation. Even Amell ran off somewhere with Leliana, leaving him to the tender mercies of his uncle, his late brother's widow, and the rest of the Fereldan nobility.

He's been keeping up a cheerful face - he doesn't really know how to do anything else - but what with being here, learning about things he probably shouldn't have learned about, and having a little bit of money from - somewhere, he's finally just. Showed up to the bar. Varric's is the closest thing to familiar he can find, so he's drinking whatever ale his money can buy. And he's not stopping until the money runs out or he is insensible on the floor. ]

Another. Please.

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[ Alistair blinks at her for a moment, rather stupidly. Well, he has had several pints of ale already, and now a gin and tonic. ]

I just said she's not, I mean, why would she? I'm the oaf she had to agree to marry in order to stay queen.

[Marry. Marry Anora.

He married Anora.

She does the same thing as Alistair for a time too: just stare and blink. It doesn't help she hasn't eaten in awhile so the alcohol is hitting her kind of quickly, or that she got knocked around a bit so she's already a bit off-kilter. In order to best maintain her lie, she should just nod and go "oh of course". But she can't because the thought of Alistair marrying Anora just... honestly, it sickens her a bit.

Slowly she turns back to her drink, eyes still wide in shock as she knocks back the rest of it before immediately flagging the bartender down. She orders two shots of the strongest whatever they have in stock.

Right now she's torn between heaving her glass across the room, crying, vomiting into a wastebin, and crossing dimensional boundaries to find Solona Amell and beat her ass. Because if things went down the same way they did at her version of the Landsmeet, Solona Amell made that decision. And sure, politically it makes perfect sense. But emotionally - Riona would argue even morally - it was awful.]

...she made you marry Anora.

[Though she's primarily still in shock, there's a hint of disgust in the undercurrent of her tone.]

What?

[ Made him? Well, her whole reaction to this news is a bit baffling, first of all, but he can't help but bristle just a little at the idea that someone made him do it. ]

No one made me. It was suggested, and we agreed it was the best idea! And we're not married yet. It was still a few weeks away when I... left.

[ Not that that makes any appreciable difference, except for the fact that he hasn't yet had to, well. Do that with Anora quite yet. But he will, when he gets back. Because he gave his word, and Alistair is a man of his word. ]

[Well at least there was an agreement, which curbs a bit of the anger. She half-expected that Solona decided it on the spot after Loghain was dealt with.

You know, kind of like how she made her decision to marry Alistair.]

The best idea, politically. Sure. I can see that.

[Still, she can't quite hide the anger in her voice. But whatever she might have said next is cut off when the bartender comes back with the shots. Riona immediately slides one towards Alistair before picking up her own.]

Right. Politically.

[ He tosses back the shot, and it's only once it's burning down his throat and into his belly that he realizes the discrepancy in what she said - or rather, in how she reacted. ]

Wait - does that mean I didn't agree to marry Anora in your world?

[ He's more than a little drunk, okay, he's even slower on the uptake than usual. ]

[...and this is exactly why she shouldn't have reacted the way she did, but her emotions got the better of her.

She doesn't answer right away. Instead she knocks back her shot, coughing after it goes down her throat. She pushes the shotglass away and motions for another drink.]

No, you didn't.

[It never came on the table.] It's just wrong. Politically, yes, it makes perfect sense. But emotionally it's just... It's not right. Neither to you or Anora.

[ He frowns faintly - in part feeling like he wants to defend Anora - after all, she can't defend herself. And also perhaps because he wants the marriage to work, as best it can. If it doesn't, he really will be miserable. And so will she. ]

Well, I mean, it's not so bad. It might turn out well. We just don't know each other yet.

[And of course he's optimistic and hoping for the best. That's who he is. It's part of what she loves about him, as heartbreaking as it can be at times.

She closes her eyes for a moment, trying to compose herself. She's letting her own feelings get in the way. Where this Alistair and his affairs are concerned, they have no place. And she's already risked exposing too much with the way she's been carrying on. When she opens them again, she summons a smile and carefully pulls on a neutral expression.]

I hope you're right. She never struck me as particularly affectionate, but then I don't think we got to see her at her best. Perhaps you'll warm up to each other in time. [She's not convinced it will happen, but she can hope.]

[ It's really all he can do at this point. Who wants to look at their life and see nothing in their future but a loveless marriage and a duty they never wanted? He has to try and make the best of everything, or go mad. ]

Well, I wasn't particularly affectionate when we met, either. I'm sure... it'll be fine.

[ And yet, the thought spurs him to more drinking. He is dreading his wedding night. ]

I suppose so. At least she's... intelligent. And she's a capable leader so I'm sure there's much she can teach you.

[This is horribly uncomfortable for her to talk about, and it seems the same for Alistair. TIME FOR A SUBJECT CHANGE.]

Anyway, I completely got us off track. You said you're feeling guilty about being here?

[ It's - yeah, okay, it's a little uncomfortable for him, too. Mostly just because he's dreading his wedding night the way a condemned man dreads his execution day. Well, maybe that's a little overdramatic. ]

Guilty. Well, I am the king. There's a lot to do in Ferelden. And I can't do any of it from here.

No, that's true. For what it's worth, I was told by someone when I first came here that time freezes back home while we're here. She said she had been in the fleet once before and got sent back. Nothing had changed; it was like she never left.

Oh.

Here I was hoping they might have the wedding without me.

[ A JOKE. He's trying to joke, but he can't quite muster the correct level of cheerfulness. ]

[Even as half-assed as the joke is, Riona can't help but laugh a little. What can she say, she loves his awful humor.]

But think of the cake you'd be missing out on. [Clearly the best answer to one bad joke is another of her own.

Meanwhile, the bartender finally brings her her drink. Riona automatically asks for another one. It earns her a frown from the 'tender. She glares back, her point conveyed clearly as the bartender rolls their eyes and walks off.]

Yeah, cake. I'm sure that'll be nice, anyway.

[ Alistair leans forward on his arms a little, sighing. ]

I didn't think you were supposed to dread your own wedding.

For what it's worth, that's usually on par for most nobles. We're lucky if we get to marry someone we even like, let alone love.

[She was one of the lucky ones. Then again, she declared her own engagement, so...]

...oh piss that's not comforting at all. [TAKING A HUGE DRINK BEFORE THIS:] May I suggest you get relatively drunk during your wedding? After the ceremony, of course. And if Anora is smart she'll do the same. Both get drunk enough, you'll have enough liquid courage to get through it and maybe you won't have to remember anything.

[Liquid courage which is the only thing helping her give her not husband advice about his wedding night.]

I'm planning on it. I was way too sober the last time -

[ He thinks about Morrigan, and shudders a little. ]

The last time?

[The question stumbles out of her mouth before her brain has a chance to filter it. All the alcohol she's consumed is catching up to her.

But not so much that she doesn't realize what he means after a moment of thought. Her eyes widen when it hits her.]

...oh. You mean-

[Maefareth's balls. Are they really gonna talk about this?]

Did it happen in your world, too?

[ It's not just that it was Morrigan, of course. It's the whole idea of it that makes him feel ashamed. The one thing he'd always told himself he would never do - and he'd agreed to do it, to save himself. ]

[Out of everything that happened during the Blight, that's the one thing that haunts her the most. Even making Alistair king didn't quite compare to it. At least with the Landsmeet decision, she alleviated it by taking on the job with him. It's partly why she became queen, after all; so he wouldn't have to rule Ferelden alone. If she was going to force him to do it, she'd do it with him. They could take on the burden together.

But the ritual? That still kept her up some nights. The guilt made her sick to her stomach. In the end, it had saved her life, but at what cost? She made him - the man she loved - sleep with the person he couldn't stand, and for what? Because she was too afraid to die? Too afraid to risk losing him? Riordan's words had still been fresh in her mind at that point, and she'd been desperate to circumvent the chances. But all the reasoning and logic in the world didn't alleviate the guilt or shame. What she wouldn't have given to be able to do it herself.

It rips at her, enough that she can't even look at him as she just nods in response to his question. Her stare is aimed at the bar, her hands tightly gripping her drink. The fact that someone else in another world made the same choice doesn't make her feel better. At all.]

[ He justified it to himself - it wasn't selfish when it wasn't just yourself you were saving, right? Because Amell would've thrown herself at the archdemon and died if that was what it too, and he didn't want her to do that, either. Not to save his skin.

What a mess. And apparently Riona had asked her Alistair to do it, too. Well, some things must stay the same, regardless. ]

I don't want to talk about it.

[ He finally says that, a little slurred at this point, and puts his head down on the bar. ]

Tell me something happy?

Oh thank fuck, because I don't either.

[She lets out an enormous sigh of relief, her head thumping against the bar in rhythm with the exhale.

Her head rolls over to the side so she can look at him. At his question, her brow puckers as she thinks of an answer. A good one, damn it, because she's been terrible at cheering him up.

They need to get away from Thedas-related things, that she knew for certain.]

...have you heard of cheese fondue?

[ It's not like there's anything to say about it, anyway. Except that it happened, and it was terrible, but it was also necessary. What else is to be said? Even in his current state, he couldn't think of anything else.

But her next words catch his interest. ]

Anything with cheese in it must be good.

[You're gonna love this, man.]

It's basically liquid cheese. I went into a hotel - a big, fancy inn, really - that had food set out for its guests. They had some there. In a fountain. [She kids you not. She gestures with her hand how tall it was.] The fondue just poured down the fountain and pooled into a dish at the bottom. They had bits of bread and fruit on little sticks that you could put into the fondue and eat it.

Maker's breath, that sounds amazing and magical. Where can we get some?

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