Winter's Crest Evening Celebration - Invitation only

[st_ockandbarrel]

Despite telling Mac that he had no intention of organizing any kind of gathering, that is precisely what Percy found himself doing over the next few weeks. In between working on gifts for each of his friends, Percy secured a room and allowed himself to be hassled by Caroline about a menu and other details. Once she'd put him through a grueling series of questions on his preferences, she'd gone away. A few days later, she'd returned with a book of carefully constructed plans. It was both impressive and terrifying. He'd approved it all and let her handle it. The wine he took a personal hand in, choosing every bottle by hand from the inn's rather delightful wine cellar. He wasn't sure where most of the places of origin were, but a guide (written by a man named Parker) gave detailed descriptions of each bottle and provided a score. France was a popular location for wine, apparently.

The evening of Winter's Crest was cool, but not cold, in spite of the snow still lingering on the ground from the battle royale earlier in the day courtesy of Pike. The sky now was clear, and the stars bright. He rapped on Vex's door to escort her to dinner and adjusted his cuffs beneath his new coat, acquired from the shop. It was not his usual blue suit, but Caroline had assured him in her bossy way that it was extremely modern and fashionable. It was certainly well tailored.

Trinket had taken a lot less time to get ready for dinner, Vex assuring him he was the most dapper and handsome bear in his collar and tie. She was putting the finishing touches on her hair when the knock came, so it was the bear who laid his heavy paw on the door lever and opened it to Percy. Vex turned from the mirror, satisfied with her efforts, as Percy entered. The suit was new, and she took the time it took them to meet in the middle of the room to appreciate the way the cut accentuated his form. "Joyous Winter's Crest, my darling," she told him as she ran her hands over his shoulders and leaned in for a kiss. Vex had made an afternoon of it last week, trying on every suitable outfit remotely close to her size in the boutique. Her second choice was hanging in her closet, but for tonight, she'd chosen a column dress in a deep midnight blue that left most of her back bare. She was hopeful Percy would approve.

"Joyous Winter's Crest, Lady Vex'ahlia." He obliged her the kiss, not that it was anything other than purest pleasure. His hands ran down the bare length of her back and was it not for the duty to show up to the dinner he'd arranged, he'd have suggested staying in. Instead, he wrapped an arm about her waist and appraised Trinket. "Very mannerly, good bear." He'd expressed a desire to let the bear stay home for the evening but a simple "Trinket's family" from Vex had been enough to have him relent. "Shall we go?"

Finding dress to Winter's Crest had been trial. White and pale gold were colors most available in shop, but she did not wish wearing anything so pale as she. Nu. At end, she had Sunny helping and saying her short as knees was normal. But when she stood before mirror changing faces it felt again too much short. She sighed. This was only dress and she liked purple and flowers next to her albino human face. If comfortable later also, when Kash said her yes or Percy, it made room of legs and tail.

She drew herself up as tall as she could and faced her so pale altered self. "I am Baronesa Lillith Anioska Daturai. No party shall best me."

Kash did not stand in front of a mirror. He did not fuss at his clothes. The shop had provided black pants and a black jacket that fit well and required little in the way of tailoring. He wore a crisp white shirt, but refused to wear the pointless strip of cloth that had no use beyond choking a man. If he could have, he would have worn his armor.

If he could have, he would have taken Snow and Curnen on a ride and snow picnic.

He was still thinking about it when a knock sounded at his door. "I'm not going, Lilli. Just go without me."

"You will come, Kash. You will come now."

She was nervous. He could tell. Her accent was strong. "We could have dinner in my room. You and me," he called through the door, but he was already getting to his feet.

"Kashaw Vesh. Come to door. You have guests, you will come and you will not make me late."

"Do I have to?" Kash opened the door--and his eyes. "Holy god. Can you wear that in public? I mean, you look..." Amazing didn't cover it. "But..." Lillith planted her hands on her hips and scowled. Even in a human shape, she had never looked more like Zahra. Shit. "Right. Yes. I'm sure it's fine. Better than fine. You look beautiful. Now can I go back to my room?"

Lillith rolled her eyes and took him by the arm. "For my cousin's sake, I will not raise my voice to you. Collect yourself. We are leaving."

Kash had never thought of Lillith as a particularly fearsome woman. Zahra had warned him otherwise, but she was always sweet, kind and awkward. He liked this side of her. And he hadn't felt so much at peace in months. "Yes, ma'am." To Curnen's room it was.

Curnen's room, where she was trying to fuss with her hair and really rather failing to do so. And eventually she just did what she always did and let the whole dark mass of it tumble freely around her shoulders.

She'd had a hell of a time trying to pick out anything to wear, and had finally only settled on the dress she was wearing when Vex had taken pity and picked something for her. It had needed some tailoring (a concept she didn't much understand, but went along with) since a petite frame didn't just mean short, but in the end her dress was comfortable and pretty and if Vex had picked it she supposed it must be appropriate and that was a weight off her mind.

She still fussed when the knock came, though, smoothing her hair, her skirt... leaving her shoes until the very last second, but cringing her way into them.

She was chewing her lip when she opened the door. "Will I do?"

When he knocked, he'd glanced back at Lillith. His "Remember what I said" earned him a Stop dithering, Kashaw glare. So the opening door caught him in the act of pantomiming I'm not, I knocked already. Only acute awareness of the abuse Curnen had suffered turned the gesture into an offer for her hand in time.

"You look beautiful." That was easily said and more than true. She always did. From behind him, Lillith offered, "What a wonderful color. The dress is lovely."

Noting her nerves, Kash glanced past her into her room. "You're missing something. Did you want to bring the guitar?"

"Thank you." Curnen glanced back at the case and hesitated only a moment before she trotted over to it and strapped the instrument to her back. Immediately she felt better with the weight of it there. Now she was ready. "Okay."

"Perfect," he told her and then stepped aside to let her out. And Lillith didn't even get a chance to clear her throat (about which he felt obscurely proud) before he said, "Curnen, Lillith. Lillith's a wizard. Lilli, Curnen. She's a musician." Not a bard, not until Curnen was ready to claim it.

He let the women get acquainted (because the Zahra in his head told him to) and lead the way to Snow's mother's room, where once again, he knocked.

Snow White was not goddamn doing this in a dress.

When she opened the door her jeans were new at least, dark uniform wash and not a tear or hole to be seen, as well as a silk blouse. It wasn't what was expected, she imagined, but it wasn't her usual attire either. And after she'd let Regina put her hair up, for once she actually looked rather like the young woman she was.

She glanced down at herself, and then defiantly back up at Kash. It was this or she wasn't going.

Having had a similar reaction, Curnen could only empathize. "What tribe?" she asked, skipping right past niceties. It cut through any potential dread.

Snow blinked at the question, at the tiny woman, at her strange hands. Then shrugged and said, "Crow. You?"

Curnen shook her head. "Oh, not a drop in me. But my people lived alongside the Cherokee a while, so some of my cousins are."

Snow nodded, as if that exchange hadn't come entirely out of nowhere. And then her gaze turned toward the pale woman she definitely didn't know.

In the face of Snow's defiance, Kash smiled. He pointed to his open neck and started to say Trinket's wearing fur, you're fine, but Curnen was already talking. He knew the words but it didn't help him with the meaning. It was more than the where-are-you-from-what-is-your-totem-do-I-have-to-kill-you he expected from the word 'tribe', much more. That he could tell. He was going to have to ask. When Lillith lifted an eyebrow at him, he shrugged his cluelessness.

"Snow, this is Lillith. She's family." Of Lillith more than any of Vox Machina, that was simple truth. Zahra was his family. Her cousin was his cousin. "Lillith, this is Snow."

"Hello." Had Kash not warned her, she might have suggested they ought to trade names. But she feared it might go over badly.

Which was actually all Snow needed to hear and her body language relaxed. Kash was not exactly an open and trusting person. If he claimed this woman as family, that was enough. It was really all that was getting her through this, knowing that that was how he saw this group of people. And she liked Vex. And Vax was okay. Snow nodded back. "Hi."

Pike was excited about Winter's Crest, she really really was. But as her excitement grew so did the loneliness that seemed to be her constant companion these last few years. Which meant that she waited until she was safely in the shower before letting herself cry. Her family was a perceptive lot and she needed the heat from the water to make sure no one would notice. Scrubbing her face, her words from so long ago floated back, 'I'm just going to pretend I'm happy so everyone can be okay.'

After letting herself feel, she put her smile back on and got dressed. Thanks to the almost magical skills of Corbie, Pike actually had something to wear to the dinner. The deep-blue dress fit perfectly though she still hadn't gotten used to the sensation of her holy symbol against her skin. If he were here, a certain gnome would have been left speechless. Pushing that thought as far down as it would go, she left her room and made her way to the main banquet hall alone.

Blue was a popular choice for Winter's Crest, always had been - maybe the cool color spoke of ice and snow, the daunting beauty of the deeper shadows and muffled stillness. Maybe the harsh conditions reminded everyone that they needed one another to huddle for warmth. Or maybe, like Vax'ildan, everyone had a sibling working the garment shop downstairs, and they intended them to look smart either alone or as a set, thank you very much. ...No, that one was probably just him.

He'd told her he didn't care what he wore, but Percy had made clear he wanted them all looking as posh as possible. Truth be told, Vax cared a bit, or at least he put aside his moody uncertainty about who he was inviting to this dinner party, if anybody, so that he could enjoy playing dress-up with his twinnie. Eventually, she informed him he'd be wearing a dark blue 'windowpane' suit with fabric noose and silk chest-napkin. He felt somewhat odd in it, rich fabrics and fussy buttons unlike their usual Exandrian garb, but Vex was pleased with her work and he was willing to indulge his family this far. They were marking a holiday of their own in this foreign land, and it was comforting to remind themselves that they few were here together, if not all of them.

Vax finished tying back his hair and straightened his jacket in the mirror, reminding himself that Percy would have a litter of kittens if his dithering about if he should or shouldn't do the thing made them all start late. He watched himself a beat, and then two, and then thought on how indecision ended up being a decision in itself, if you left it long enough.


Percy had thought the place cards were a bit much for a family dinner, even for him, but he'd decided not to argue with Caroline. He did rather wish Cassandra was here. The two would either get along or murder each other. Still, it did make for an easy time arranging everyone at the table, even if Trinket did immediately abandon his assigned location and lumber down to wedge himself between Lilith and Snow.

The food was already on the table, covered by lids. "Family style service", Caroline had called it. Large plates of food that could be easily passed around, each person taking what they wanted. Percy stood at the table and lifted his wine glass. "Joyous Winter's Crest all, new friends and old. It is an honor to be here with all of you and I look forward to many more years to come." Toast delivered, he leaned forward and lifted the lid off the largest tray - venison provided by Vex's own hunting bow. "Let's eat."

Comments

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Having never seen Trinket drink beer before and adoring the bear more than she did most people, Snow gave a rare little laugh.

Kash's questions, though, got something more like a blank, almost wary stare. It sounded innocent enough, but something about it... for lack of a better way to think of it, just smelled off.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash endured the blank-eyed stare a few moments longer than he would from nearly anyone else. Snow had earned the right to be weird about him when she'd been perfect with Juno. He endured it long enough to realize he'd earned that stare in particular, with trying to be 'himself' around someone who knew better.

Strange to think that this slip of a girl knew him better than Vox Machina, but in a lot of ways, she did. He sighed, drank a long swallow of his own beer, and pulled another out of his pocket for her, if she wanted it. "Too many people," he said quietly, in a way that really meant "too much interacting with people and too many emotions in public."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

It was the kind of not really an answer that Snow understood all the better for the lack of words. She nodded, her stare lowering in intensity. People often overwhelmed her. It didn't matter that including Trinket they were only ten total. "He's getting me through," she said, stroking a hand down the bear's back.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"He's good at that," Kash agreed, as he reached down to tilt the bottle up for Trinket.

A moment passed, and then another, Kash drinking his beer, Snow stroking the bear, and then he realized, he didn't want not to talk about Z or think about her tonight. The words came out quickly, an answer for an answer to a question not asked about how he was getting through. "Lillith's my girlfriend's cousin." And there was Curnen, but that was a different thing and not something he needed Snow to know about now.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"That explains a lot," Snow said, as though this bit of information hadn't come out of nowhere. But having conversations in fits and starts and sudden lurches was home to her. It was when people wanted her to stay with something and draw it out that she got stuck.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"Z's got white hair, too. And her eyes are white. But she got all the pigment Lillith didn't. Her horns and skin and tail are--" Z would say blood red, if she wanted to intimidate. Snow wouldn't be intimidated, not by him saying it, and he didn't want her to be. Lillith would say some fancy artist color like carnelian or carmine. Sometimes Z said garnet. Gemstones were too hard and crystalline for Z, but the only other colors he could think of were too damned poetic for dinner. "Garnet."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Garnet was a loaded word for Snow in describing a woman. It was how her father had always described her mother's mouth--and her own mouth--and he had been obsessed with the blood-bright color. But she didn't have the time or space to feel weird about that, since she was registering and then putting away the idea that his girlfriend sounded kind of like a demon. She considered Lillith, looking for a way to respond. "She shy?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"Z?" Kash's mouth turned up at the corners, an unusually fair approximation of a smile. "No." At least not so anyone who didn't know her like he did would notice. "If you mean Lillith, a little. In her true form. Being Tiefling's hard enough without being albino on top of it."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow shrugged. She had never been much good at making conversation. But for him she'd try. Because she could tell this was important. "I guess I mean, is she much like Lillith?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash hadn't meant to start a conversation about her, but Snow was talking and that was good. So he could answer. Tonight might be the only time he could talk about Z without choking on the words.

"White sheep, both of them. Turned out good in spite of their families. Other than that--" Kash considered Lillith for a long minute. "Z's more like your mama."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Oh," she said. Snow wondered how deep that ran, though, just how much of Regina Kash could actually see. Then again, for all that he liked people about as much as she did, they could both also see more than most would give them credit for.

She wondered what color sheep she was.

"Sounds interesting," she said. And while that would sound entirely empty coming from another mouth, Snow generally wasn't interested in other people.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"I think you'd like her," was all Kash said of that. If Snow said Z sounded interesting, that was about the highest praise the girl would give a person. Especially one she hadn't met.

He tipped his head toward Lillith again. "You're not bothered by how she looks?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow considered Lillith, then shrugged. "The worst monster I knew looked like a beautiful, rich white lady. Looks don't mean much."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

It reminded him, strangely, of what she and Curnen had discussed before. "White doesn't mean the same to you as to Lillith, does it?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow's face went through a series of expressions that was something like, 'obviously, what's the matter with you?' and then realization 'oh. Yeah, you wouldn't know,' and then blank 'how do you even explain this?' and then resignation and she shrugged again. "No. White's what most of the people here are. It's what anybody who didn't know better'd think you are."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

For a minute, Kash thought she might explode at him. Then she shrugged and he recognized that look of frustration at not knowing how to explain. "Okay. And that's not good. Because people who look like me did something bad to people who look like you and Curnen?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow hesitated. She was not well equipped to handle this. Bear would know what to say. Dani would know what to say. But for herself...

She swallowed, voice lowering to a whisper. "Do you remember that story I told to Juno?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"What I heard of it." He'd been up to his armpits in Juno's lifeblood at the time, but he'd known at the time that it was Snow's story.

Kash wasn't one for touching, and neither was Snow, but impulse lead him to take her hand and put it in Trinket's fur.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

It was the thing she needed, even if Snow didn't realize it until her fingers were already burying themselves.

"My father was a white man. My mother was a Crow Indian. He..." she tried very hard not to fist her fingers in Trinket's fur, not wanting to yank and hurt him. "He took her by force. He used her up until she died. Then he forgot her."

She had told herself this story so many times, but only in the well-trodden terms of a fairy tale, to the point that it was more story than truth. This hurt like swallowing apples and glass. "Take that and put it on the scale of a whole continent."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"Assholes."

And that was said only after a good solid minute of sitting and trying to figure out how a skin color made people evil enough to do something like that. But he guessed it was just an excuse for the kind of evil people worked on other people for all the normal reasons.

Mostly he was doing his best not to think about what happened to her mother. Because it sounded too much like Vesh.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Yes," she agreed. Because it was pretty accurate.

"This continent used to be full of people who look like me. Hundreds of different tribes with alliances and enemies and all, but still. Most of them, it was disease that killed them off. Sicknesses that came over from Europe that nobody here'd had before. But then there was a lot of war, too, and shoving Indians onto shit land where they couldn't sustain themselves. So now I'm the anomaly."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"Sounds like the old stories about the elves and the dragons," Kash said, no less pissed about it for it being recognizable. Maybe more, since they'd been more evenly matched, it sounded like.

"So. Being white is basically being a dick before you even start talking." He sighed. Anomalies who deserved better reminded him of Z. "Tieflings are anomalies too. Z and Lillith would get that. Half-elves get treated like dirt by full elves. It all sucks."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Sounds about right." Well. Not that she knew what he meant about dragons and elves, but the idea that half-elves got treated like shit she understood completely. She had never white enough for her father and she imagined she wouldn't be Red enough for the Crow. It was a mercy that she'd never found them.

She shrugged. "I dunno what Curnen is. She says she ain't Native at all, but she looks like she's got some in her." And some white and some black, maybe, which was bizarre to say the least.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash knew more about what Curnen was than that. Not much more, but there was magic involved. "Curnen's story's about as much fun in the telling as yours." And his own, but he hadn't worked out yet whether it was a story Snow could handle.

"The truth is, people are dicks. When you meet the ones that aren't, you hang on." Which, he meant to say, was why she and Curnen were here.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Damn straight," Snow agreed. Even though the world had taken her away from so many of them. A year later, the pain of being without Bear was no longer raw, but it was a constant companion.