RP In the Tavern: Open to Everyone

[thecryoftheseagulls]

The Herald's Rest was mostly dark and silent, except for the fire lit in the great hearth casting flickering shadows about the walls, and the blue glow emanating from a certain apostate sitting before the fire next to Marian Hawke.

Anders took a deep breath and the fade cracks receded from his skin. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers, and cradled a mostly-empty mug of some piss-quality ale in his free hand.

"Sorry," he said, yet again. "We've all but given up Justice's return to the Fade being a possibility. Really, I think he expected to die when I did. Seeing as I didn't, that leaves us both in a bit of a lurch." He looked into the flames with a frown.

Comments

[greenhawke_fadewalk]

"Maybe you should consider looking for the Herald of Andraste when this is all over. They may know how to sent a spirit back to the Fade."

She drank more of her ale, frowning.

"Well, considering we can go back to our homes and considering we remember any of it.

[keelah_selai]

A hooded figure in purple and gold poked her head through the front door of The Herald's Rest. The firelight reflected off the purple-tinted glass of her helmet and the golden plates of her armor as she stepped inside and closed the door after herself. She stood, awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot, looking around the dark room.

[greenhawke_fadewalk]

"Looks like we have someone to share a drink."

Marian smiles, hand motioning to invite the figure closer.

"C'mon, have a seat."

[keelah_selai]

(OOC: Should we wait for Anders, and start a posting order?)

[greenhawke_fadewalk]

(ooc: guess we should wait for Anders, since he started this rp ^^)

[thecryoftheseagulls]

(OOC: Ack, my apologies, guys. I had to go out for a bit and a bit turned into several hours unexpectedly. I'm back now, and good with whatever posting order).

[thecryoftheseagulls]

"Right. I'll...just...keep that in mind, then. For the next...what did you say, three years? it takes me to catch up to you," Anders said.

He clenched his hand around his mug at the mention of not making it back home, and looked away.

"There isn't much fucking point if we don't make it back, is there?" He muttered. "I've got two things to live for, and neither of them are in this shithole. Fuck." He drew a hand down his face, and looked bleakly into the flames, only rousing when Marian noticed the newcomer.

That's about when he noticed Varric, as well, catching the look the dwarf sent to his companion. Anders glanced at Marian, and back to Varric, and gave a small frown.

"Right. Excuse me for a moment," he said, getting to his feet and crossing the tavern towards the dwarf.

[keelah_selai]

Tali shuffled her feet, before visibly shaking herself and striding forward towards Marian. She dodged out of the way of the sandy haired human in the feathery dress and then she stopped again, just before the benches, and stuck out a gloved, three-fingered hand. "Hello. My name is Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. And you are?" Her voice reverbs slightly through the helmet.

[thecryoftheseagulls]

Anders nodded to the hooded figure as he passed her, his eyes skimming down her curious clothes - armor? - before returning to Varric.

[legacyofhousepavus]

Walking into the Herald's Rest felt almost like stepping through a doorway into the past. The atmosphere was so familiar it made Dorian nostalgic. Regardless, someone had said "drinks," and he wasn't willing to pass up the opportunity. After a quick glance around to find a lack of familiar faces, he placed himself at the bar. There were very few places better than a friendly bar to meet new people.

[dorianfadewalk]

"Decorating the bar, waiting for the attention that is your due?" Dorian tsked, moving to lean artfully against the bar next to the other man. "Some things remain constant across universes, it would seem."

He eyed the other...him...with frank curiosity. Older, dashing, and yes, the silver really did look rather good. That was good to know.

For his part, Dorian was dressed in a most unusual--and beautifully elaborate--robe that seemed as much metal as cloth in places, its delicate pieces reflecting the light.

[legacyofhousepavus]

(ooc;; to save my sanity and the continuity, I'm going to treat the separate threads as separate RP if that's alright!)

Hearing his own voice from behind him was jarring, to say the least. He turned about, half expecting to be face to face with a Pride demon, but was instead met with his own image, however metalically dressed. And much younger. How unfair. (There was nothing saying this wasn't a Pride demon, but as soon as there was any sign of that, Dorian would make sure said demon was dealt with properly.)

"Well if it isn't me! I say, I'm feeling quite beside myself." He very artfully didn't avoid the chance for a good pun as he gestured to the tavernkeep to bring them another of the same thing he was drinking. "I see my decorative patience has paid off and brought me what may just be the most handsome company in Skyhold--besides myself, of course, but we can argue that later."

[dorianfadewalk]

"And he brings me puns!" Dorian said, covering his heart with one hand as he slid in next to himself. "Much better than anything Bull ever could manage, too. Is there any way I can convince you to come home with us when we finally escape this place?"


(OOC: Yes, please!)

[hallianna]

Well, thought Isabela, at least the open call for drinks worked.

There was nothing like a shared bottle that loosened lips and made people feel right at home.

Even if home was kind of murky and green and a little worrisome. She glanced out the window and saw swirling green shapes cluster near the glass. She shivered, then turned her attention back to the bottles in hand and the tables that were slowly filling with people. Faces she knew, others she didn't (but would love to.)

But instead of joining a table, she placed herself at the bar, the closest she'd get to a full view of the room, and waited for someone to start talking to her. There was no doubt someone would, but she was curious if it would be a familiar face or a stranger.

[legacyofhousepavus]

Dorian at least had the courtesy to let the woman settle in before approaching, waiting until she had a drink and looked at least a little more relaxed. Once he saw such tells, he leaned over and raised an eyebrow.

"Am I right to guess you're the woman behind that open invitation?"

[hallianna]

Isabela turned slowly, glass in hand. The sight before her was glorious - beautiful man with a particularly dashing mustache looking at her quizzically, curiosity making his mouth twist just a little.

Oh, she thought, I could be in trouble. The best kind.

She waved him over with a hand, saying, "That'd be me. Admiral Isabela, of the Siren's Call II." She waited until he took the stool beside her and then asked, "How'd you know?" She brushed a hand across the brim of her gorgeous - and yes, she admitted, ridiculous -hat. "It was the hat, right? I love this hat. So tell me, stranger, who are you?"

Her eyes caught sight of Varric coming like a storm through the tavern's door and jumped to her feet. "Hold that thought, stranger, I'll be back."

[legacyofhousepavus]

If the invitation itself hadn't already confirmed it, Dorian was certain he was going to like this woman from the moment she opened her mouth. She sounded like trouble. Get-drunk-and-sing-crude-songs-a-little-too-loud-in-the-pouring-rain-in-the-city-square kind of trouble. Flirt-until-you-both-simultaneously-agree-to-start-a-bar-fight-for-the-fun-of-it kind of trouble. He settled onto the stool so he might be as close to trouble as possible.

"Admiral!" he exclaimed, paying a respectful nod to the hat. "Now it all makes perfect sense. The hat, the jewelry, your stature, that slight air of command that I would wager makes men quiver in their boots on bad days." His following smile said, Or on good days, but he left that implied. Seizing the chance to introduce himself, he put his hand on his chest and gave what small bow he could from his seated position.

"Dorian of House Pavus, most recently of Minrathous," he recited, getting suddenly struck with the strongest sense of deja vu. "And what brings you to this humble little corner of the Fade?"

Of course, he never did get his answer, as the Admiral Isabela went dashing off to--apparently a mutual friend! He lifted his mug towards Varric in a quiet toast. That dwarf knew just about everyone.

Open

[varricmod]

Varric practically slammed into the room, pausing just long enough to scan the bar before heading straight for Isabela--who was already talking to Dorian. Fine. Varric wasn't exactly in a chatty mood anyway. He jerked his chin in welcome and reached over to root around until he found a bottle of the hard stuff. Bianca was set carefully out of the way before he twisted the bottle open...

...and drank three hard pulls straight from the bottle.

Re: Open

[hallianna]

"Varric!"

Isabela called his name over the growing din in the tavern. She didn't wait for him to turn.

Throwing customary caution to the wind (this was *Varric* after all), she strode across the room and didn't wait for his reply before wrapping her arms around him, snagging the already half-empty bottle from his hand and tossing it aside.

"Fuck this place," she said, lips close to his ear. "And fuck if you aren't a sight for sore eyes."

Re: Open

[varricmod]

In the shaken (rattled, unsettled, unhinged) mood he was in, he might not have responded to well to the embrace. But this was Isabela, no matter the world she came from, and Varric immediately returned the embrace.

"Maker take a giant shit on it," he muttered, then laughed. Even if she was just standing there, the pirate always could make him laugh. "Shit, Rivaini, it's been an age since I saw you--for me, at least."

Re: Open

[hallianna]

Isabela laughed, pulled back, but the smile dropped from her face when she saw the strain on her friend's face.

"Shit, I needed that." She straightened. "Listen, Varric, I don't want to stop your..." and she eyed the bottle she'd practically ripped from him a moment ago. "Drinking binge. This is all too much."

She hitched a thumb over her shoulder toward the bar. "Tell you what. If you want to talk, I'll be over here, talking to man with the mustache. You come over when you're ready." She squeezed him one more time, winked, and walked off.

Open: Second Floor

[serafadewalk]

The noise downstairs was enough to drive a person crazy. Too normal, too right in this big pissing pile of wrong. Sera slipped out of her garret room, feet silent and steady as she moved in the shadows to peer down over the second level railing at the people beneath.

Dorian, maybe. Some blond man in a chicken coat, and she'd eat the biggest hat she could find if he weren't a mage. Looking all shifty and magey. Lucky for her there was a plenty big hat on the lady at the bar, plenty big lots of stuff on her. Woof. She crouched to get a better angle on that, then shook herself, because she still hadn't sewn up if these were people or ghosts or demons or some new stupid shite like Coriphinus.

Varric's face made her heart hurt, all wrecked, and she wanted to punch it. Because that was stupid too, this place, his face, ugh. She bonked her head softly against the banister. Hawke, that was Hawke! Hawke was dead, or lost, or... Sera could see why Varric was making that face now.

(OOC: Or Sera can be coaxed down to join an ongoing thread, possibly. Maybe. You might have to answer her riddles three.)

Re: Open: Second Floor

[hallianna]

Isabela heard a crack in the wood above and looked up to see shaggy blonde hair duck out of sight.

Hmmm, interesting. Not interesting like my Tevinter friend but still interesting.

She skirted around a few tables and headed up the stairs, heavy boots falling as softly as she could manage in such creaky old boards. She could slip into stealth but she didn't want to spook whoever was up there, and she had a suspicion about who that someone was.

"Anybody interesting up here?" She called out, hands out and away from her daggers. "Come on out of your hidey hole and let's talk. I don't bite-well, most of the time - and you shouldn't be up here alone. All the drinks are downstairs."

Re: Open: Second Floor

[serafadewalk]

Sera could see Isabela head for the stairs and dithered like an arse, just sat there, trying to decide if she should scurry back into her room and push that chest in front of the door. The one full of all the stupid armor that the Herald had made for her over the past year. Right heavy, when it was all added together.

There were two Dorians and a Varric trying to eat that bloody bottle he had and a Hawke-who-should-be-dead, and this bloody pirate with no trousers was the only one who looked halfway normal.

"Drinks might be downstairs, but I don't know shite about drinking with the likes of you." She shifted onto the railing, crouching on the balls of her feet. She could drop down, or spring catty corner to the stairs that led further up. She got a shiver about having to get that close to creepy Cole's creepy corner, but she didn't think he was there. If he was he'd be spooking all over. "What if you're a demon? I've seen pictures, what desire demons look like, not far off, ennit?"

Re: Open: Second Floor

[hallianna]

Isabela couldn't help the smile that flourished on her face. She's quite charming, she thought, and nimble. Always a good thing.

"Are you telling me I'm as pretty as a desire demon? Oh, sweet thing, what a door you've opened." Isabela stopped, cocked a hip, smile still plastered on her face. "I must admit, a desire demon's bosom is a tad more impressive...not much, but a bit. But you'd know that if you'd ever actually seen a desire demon, so there go my suspicions about you,"

"They really are quite marvelous, if you can resist the whole temptation thing." She winked. "Which I've always had trouble with."

Quicker than any eye could follow, Isabela's hand flashed, something silver there, then not. Instead, the dagger she'd pulled spun across the floor until its' tip embedded itself in the wood below Sera. "So while I'm flattered by the comparison, I can guarantee you I'm no demon. That blade has killed a hundred men, and a thousand more demons."