Wintersend party! + closed

[bryces_pup]

Who: The DA cast and whoever they dragged along to this shingding
Broadcast: Nooooope
Action: Yuuuuuup
When: Tonight!

It's Wintersend! (Or roughly around the equivalent of when it would be back in Thedas. [Actually it's a bit late but whatever CLOSE ENOUGH]) Time to party! Riona found a small party hall to rent on Duotera, in an area that's a bit more reminiscent of early spring.

There are decorations everywhere. Don't worry guys, this isn't meant to be formal. This is just what happens when Riona gets to decorate unsupervised.

There are, of course, plenty of food and drinks. The food is mostly finger snacks, but there are also sandwiches and the like. As for the drinks: yes, they are mostly alcoholic, she knows how you folks roll.

As Wintersend is theater season, Riona compromises for the lack of actual theater with a rigged projector playing movies on the far wall. With a variety of genres running, there'll hopefully be something for everyone, and serves as a place for the more introverted to get away from the party for a bit.

And because it's Wintersend, that means presents. There's a separate table off to the side away from the food where people can place their presents for each other.

The goal is to have something for everyone, and to encourage everyone to have fun. Eat, drink, be merry and all that jazz!

((OOC: Separate starters for food table, present table, etc will be below!))

Comments

Food and Drink Tables!

[bryces_pup]

[As listed above, mostly finger foods but also sandwiches and the like. And plenty of booze. P l e n t y]

[wolfuncaged]

[Fenris is not a party-goer and he's not especially thrilled to be here. Still, he came, it felt...appropriate. He hasn't brought any gifts, and he actively avoids mingling, but he's here and he's sure that's enough.

He can be found in a corner, drinking a bottle of wine. Did he get it here? Did he bring it in with him? Who knows, but he has it and he's not sharing it. ]

[bryces_pup]

Fenris!

[For what it's worth, Riona's happy to see him, so being here is definitely enough. She's grinning as she walks up to him.]

I didn't see you come in. I'm glad you came.

[universal_charm]

_{[ Kirk came along as Fenris' plus one, though he hoped it wouldn't cause tensions to rise. He mingled a bit, but tended to keep to a bit closer to Fenris, not sure of his boundaries in this group. He brought over his own glass of wine, not daring to touch Fenris' comfort bottle. ]}

You know we can go any time. You don't need to try and stay on my account, if you are, or for anyone else's.

[wolfehawke]

[Surprisingly, Adalwolfe is even later to this party than Fenris. Maybe it's the holiday, maybe it's because he was getting last minute gifts, or maybe it's simply because he forgot all about it in the wake of everything else going on. Whatever the reason, Hawke finds himself skirting the edge of the party with a drink in hand as well. Not a whole bottle, but certainly something a great deal stronger than wine in his cup.]

Did I miss anything?

Re: Food and Drink Tables!

[tallasaking]

Where Tyrion could be found, would be first at the drink table. He watered a wine down completely, and then turned to talk to whatever friends come up to him. He smiled broadly at anyone who came up.

[bryces_pup]

"How do you find the wine?" Riona sidles him up next to him, a glass of her own wine in hand. She tried her best to select a variety and decent vintage, but on a foreign world sometimes it's hard to tell.

[universal_charm]

"You should wield that smile more carefully, otherwise you'll pierce my heart with it," Kirk said, flashing a matching smile in greeting.

[ofkirkwall]

[ Marian Hawke has never been good at parties, something about the amount of people and the stuffy air always turned her off, or perhaps it was the years of traumatic experiences at the hands of Kirkwall's nobility - it's probably the latter. But the fact still stands and today is no different. The champion of Kirkwall, by no means dressed for the occasion, arrived at some point to promptly made her way to the drink table taking a the largest bottle she could find before absconding.

It might be a little anti-social of her to be holed up in a corner with her bottle of whatever she managed to swipe for herself, but that is where she is and where she plans on staying for the unforeseeable future. Parties are not her thing and she isn't drank enough yet to commit herself to mingling. But hey, at least she showed up. ]

[bryces_pup]

[Given Marian's radio silence, Riona's almost as surprised to see her being here as she was to see Fenris. She seems to want to keep to herself, but Riona decides she should at least thank her for coming and see how she's doing. Be a good hostess and all, and then play it by ear from there.]

Ah ha, I was wondering where that particular bottle got off to." Judging by her smile, she's not upset about it. "The seller pitched to me that it was of a rare vintage that came out of a famous winery. The final year before the place mysteriously burned down. There were rumors of the site being haunted when people came by to salvage what was left, and this bottle was one of the few they could rescue. So, basically, a haunted, rare vintage." She doesn't buy it, but the story was so impressive she decided to purchase the bottle anyway from the guy. "So. Does it taste particularly haunted?"

[wolfehawke]

[Adalwolfe by contrast is excellent at parties, but that doesn't mean he likes the stuffy noble affairs by any stretch of the imagination. He's dressed up maybe a bit more than she is, but not much. This is a friendly party after all and not one where they're going to be trotted out to eligible noble sons and daughters like a bargaining chip or dowry of influence.

Still, after everything that's been going on, Wolfe isn't feeling terribly social either just yet and he plunks himself down next to his sister with a sigh and a cup, holding it out to her and clearly expecting her to oblige him with drink. She did grab the strongest bottle at the table after all.]

Do you want me to ask how you are so you can come up with an awful joke or are we just drinking tonight?

[apurrstate]

[Anders has zero desire to mingle or interact with people in general. If it weren't for Wolfe and for this being Riona's hosted party, he'd likely not have come at all. Wintersend is a nice holiday, but it was hard to celebrate when you felt like the single worst thing in existence.

He had zero desire to mingle, but every desire to drink. He looked over the choices on the table and found the strongest thing there before pouring himself a mostly full cup of it. He took a single large gulp to start but, luckily, didn't appear to intend to down the whole thing so quickly. Hopefully, he could just abscond with this this and not come back for a while.]

Presents!

[bryces_pup]

[Present table~ Put your presents here. Later on in the night, there'll be a dedicated time for exchanging gifts and the like. Unless, of course, you want to sneak a present to someone beforehand...]

[samahl]

Cyril isn't sure he's very good at presents, but he is an Artificer. He can make things. What he's done is make a puzzle box for everyone. They're little boxes that have interlocking pieces that you change around to try to match up the image on them - a rudimentary Rubik's Cube.

He painted some custom pictures for the people he knows well. Riona, for example, gets one of a mabari.

[bryces_pup]

If Riona knows you, then likely she got you a gift. Or two. Or three. Look, she likes doting on her friends and loved ones. After everything they've all gone through back home - and here on occasion - they deserve nice things.

"There you are! Here." She picks up her gift(s) to you and holds them out. "For you. Happy Wintersend!"

[reluctantbastard]

Alistair has a lot of Name Days, Wintersends and anniversaries to make up for with the time that they've been separated. Even if they take into account the time his wife has been in the Fleet, that's still quite a few gifts. For one person. And they do make up a nice pile, all in the same paper.

There are smaller gifts for the other Thedosians, because he is a good king and he doesn't want anyone else to feel left out. And for the mabari, there are plenty of packets of dried meats so that no one has to share.

Adalwolfe's Presents for EVERYONE

[wolfehawke]

[One corner of the table is piled exceptionally high with boxes for everyone wrapped in brightly colored paper, albeit a bit haphazardly.

Riona receives a lovely puppy hat with a smaller matching one for Kiter.

Marian gets a handcrafted stein with a hound on it, and Dog gets a big rubber steak, mostly because it made Adalwolfe laugh.

Fenris gets a large book on wine and its history that comes with an assortment of samplers labeled "fine wines of the galaxy."

Alistair gets a plush crown because frankly he's not really sure what to get Alistair and this seems funny.

Justice receives a book on cat facts. This is probably the only gift he didn't hem and haw over before getting it.

Cyril and Leilani he wasn't quite sure what to get, but he settled on commissioning two little halla carvings, one for each of them, made of white stone. The notes on those gifts say "A little bit of home for the holiday."

Rowen's little box has a note that suggests he might want to open it when he gets home.

Kirk Adalwolfe guessed would be at the party, so he has a gift too. It's a small star projector that lights up the walls and ceiling with accurate local star maps.

Tyrion he had no idea would be present and he feels poorly for that but there's no gift, and Anders' will have to wait for later to spare all your ears. Take that as you will.]

[whatisright]

[On the table are a few unsigned but shockingly thoughtful gifts. Those who aren't too close to the giver but still are kind to him might get a smaller gift, but one with no less thought put into it.

It's almost like whoever's giving the presents can read minds.]

Movies!

[bryces_pup]

[Not quite theater but close enough. She'll have a queue of them lined up and running on a far wall throughout the entire party. There'll be a few chairs set up so people can get away from the party and watch for a bit if they'd like.]

[whatisright]

Justice can't seem to decide whether he wants to be visible or not. He teeters between dual instincts to disappear and to interact with others, so he seems to have compromised by remaining visible but separate from the party.

He's clearly not well, exactly. His skin is washed out and ashen, like maybe he's sick, but he's doing better than he was. He sits and watches a movie, though he's only halfway paying attention to it. He's mainly just listening very carefully to the mortals milling around, taking them in while still keeping to himself.

Loyalty has no such reticence. And since Justice has put zero effort into training her (as though he could train a cat in the first place), she is scratching, pawing, and climbing on everything.

In fact, it looks like she's decided your shoe needs some chewing, or perhaps your food looks ripe for stealing. And if you take issue with this, she's just going to run under Justice's seat, possibly taking your food or shoe with her.

[apurrstate]

[Anders had gotten his drink and downed enough of it to ease his overabundance of nerves, so now he was hiding in the only place he knew to hide: the darker movie corner. He had no idea what was playing, but he did his best impression of a human pretzel to fold himself into some chair against some wall in the darkest corner he could find.

Justice was around here somewhere, Anders had seen him and he'd seen how terrible Justice looked. The last thing the spirit needed was the mage nearby, so maybe if he stayed hidden away here, they could just avoid each other.

What a strange turn of events that Anders would truly rather hang around in Fenris' company than Justice's right now. If he didn't think the elf's patience already thin from the dislike of social situations he knew they shared, that might be where Anders would hide right about now. Maker knew Justice and Fenris mixed a hundred times worse than Anders and Fenris ever did.]

Mingling!

[bryces_pup]

[For pretty much anything else. Talking to friends, etc. There's more than enough seating for everyone!]

[veilstrike]

[ Leilani arrives to the party looking as though someone had more than just a little bit of a hand in dressing her; she's actually wearing some make up - a little kohl around her eyes, some red on her lips - but she's wearing a long, delicate dress, with a set of anklets in lieu of shoes. Clearly, she hasn't prepared herself for this evening, and considering that she arrived on the arm of one Dorian Pavus it's clear who was in charge of their outfits for the evening.

Not that she's complaining, of course.

She spends most of her time wandering around and talking to people, nudging her way into conversations with soft smiles and bright eyes. If anyone notices that she's a little sadder than usual she makes great pains to talk to them with all the laughter she can manage, hands on their arm and smiles on her face. She's personable, but sometimes she retreats, tucking herself nearer the people she's closest to in order to give herself a little time to unwind. ]

[trudge]

[ It's a damn shame really, that Rowan doesn't have any of his good clothes on the Fleet. He's also hella broke after going all in for Zevran's present a few months back, along with buying stupid things for his precious Mabari like bones and toys and pillows that he won't try to rip apart (the pillow fort has survived, but for how long?). He still looks nice though, dressed as best as he can be with his limited funds and fashion choices. Sick tunic bro.

Here's the thing about Rowan, too: He loves parties. He arrives and practically glows with how excited he is, how at home he feels surrounded by people. Especially people he likes and actually knows, which makes mingling so much easier.

Regardless of who you are - a spirit that doesn't drink, or a crotchety elf that almost punched him in the face the first time they met. or anyone else. - Rowan shoves a glass of something (it's booze) into your hand and grins. ]

A toast! [ to what? don't ask questions. ] To - good friends. Good wine. And to endlessly traversing the horrors of space. Together!

[fantachetic]

[ Dorian attends the party arm in arm with Leilani, dressed to the nines, kohl done to perfection and a hint of gold dusted along his cheekbones. They're very lovely cheekbones, after all. He's no stranger to soirees, and every bit of clothing and every accessory are chosen with purpose. The green of his suit matches his date's dress. Of course he picked them out and gave her a bit of help, too. It's his duty, after all.

His time is spent mingling, talking to people and having rather long-winded discussions people probably weren't prepared to have. He can be seen all night with a glass of wine in hand- he is from Thedas, after all. Dorian is also going to be doing an excessive amount of flirting, because that's who he is. His gaze will occasionally flick to Leilani, just to check on her, of course. He has to look out for his bestie. ]