ʙᴇᴇᴘ ʙᴇᴇᴘ, ʀɪᴄʜɪᴇ (trashing) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-10-19 20:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: richie tozier (2), ₴ inactive: scorpia |
WHO: Scorpia & Richie
WHAT: A tour of Skyhold for the n00b!
WHERE: Aye, verily, it takes place at Skyhold
WHEN: Backdated to before time started going bugshit insane
WARNINGS: No!
STATUS: Complete
A tour of Skyhold, oh boy. Richie was kind of surprised he’d managed to sit still enough to absorb the history and the sheer deluge of information about the castle, in the time he started dating Max up until now but it was important. Max was important and Richie liked learning about the world he came from and all he’d done as the Inquisitor - granted, it didn’t define him, as many in Thedas happened to think. But it was still a large part of the person he’d become today - and Richie really adored that person. This was the home he shared with the absolute love of his existence, so he was all too happy to show it off. They’d started in the main hall, where you could get a feel of the general aesthetics of the fortress, the renovations that had gone on when Max was running the Inquisition. The thick, velvet drapes that were Andrastian and what you’d generally find in Chantry (church) buildings. The glass of the windows shaped and designed to honor the far-off locale of Par Vollen - and the overall, black and red and gold color scheme, eye-catching and noble, was all Tevinter. There was also the garden, the tavern, the war room, the throne room, mage tower, and so forth - he went everywhere inside but saved the tavern for one of the last places. The Herald’s Rest was far away from the idea of modern day bars with neon signs flickering out front. Instead it was gold-on-gold with other rich colors, ceramic and glass, pewter cups, wooden benches and tables. “Do you drink?” Richie asked his castle companion - she was really cute, and he was into the stinger. Must come in handy. “We’ve got all kinds of booze here. Or not-booze, if that’s your thing.” Scorpia appreciated a good castle tour. Not that she'd had a lot, but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate it. Skyhold kind of reminded her, a little, of Crypto Castle, minus all the traps and the robots and things. She made appreciative noises at anything that warranted them, and asked questions whenever she thought of them, and overall, she had a great time and she thought that Richie might have too, though she wasn't always so sure she was a great judge of that kind of thing (look at how wrong she'd been about Catra after all). "I've never drunk. Alcohol, I mean. I've, you know, drunk other things. Obviously." She frowned, asking herself quietly, "Drank?" No, she thought drunk was probably right. Drinking was against regulation in the Horde, which didn't stop a lot of people, but Scorpia had always been a stickler for the rules. And she'd only joined the Rebellion a little bit before Horde Prime had come and so there really hadn't been time there, either, and no one in the Rebellion drank much. "I'm not opposed or anything," she clarified, taking a seat at one of the bar stools, looking around the bar, wide-eyed. "I've just never tried it. Wow, Skyhold really has it all. The Fright Zone really was kind of plain compared to here." Never drank? Well, Richie would fix that - he wouldn’t start with dwarven ale though, because that shit tasted like dirt and despair, and was really only good for when you were in moods where you hated yourself. Max (and Dorian, Richie assumed) had hired some Outlanders and locals to work at Skyhold to keep it running - mostly out in the stables and in the kitchens where the hearths were to ensure the place was magically heated and everything else went smooth as silk. But it was pretty self-sufficient in the tavern (at least for now - maybe they’d hire someone eventually) so Richie rummaged for a bottle of mead - this stuff was good. Honey liquor that also tasted like apple blossoms and the warmth of summer (and heading off to war, never to return - so maybe a little bittersweet too) - he uncorked it and offered it up (ladies first, and they could just drink from the bottle - seemed like it’d be easier to pick up with those pinchers than a glass, anyway). “I think Catra and Adora cleaned up a lot of the Fright Zone too,” he said. “It’s one of the islands nearby? But yeah, Skyhold’s pretty neat. We had castles back where I come from too, it was just - not like this.” He folded long limbs onto one of the stools too, getting comfortable. “What else was it like where you’re from? You and those lovebirds grew up together?” Scorpia took the bottle of mead gingerly between her pincers. A lifetime of having them meant she could generally manage most things, though if she was stressed out or distracts her strength sometimes get away from her. She was neither of those things now, and she took a tentative sip from the bottle. "Oh!" She looked at the bottle, a little surprised. It was sweet, kind of, and warm. Not actually warm. The liquid hadn't been heated, but it seemed to warm her all the way down, like a hug from the inside. "That's pretty good," she added, and took a deeper swig before she put it down. The topic of Adora and Catra was a little uncomfortable, though she tried (and failed entirely) not to show it. "I wouldn't say we grew up together. I mean, we saw each other around growing up, in the mess hall and things. But we were in different units, and I was promoted to Force Captain pretty early, on account of being a princess and all." She hadn't really had a position in command or anything, but she had run a bunch of the Force Captain orientations and had participated in a few battles and the like. Mostly she just spent the time alone. None of the cadets or soldiers her age would hang out with her on account of her rank, and none of the older Force Captains had any desire to spend time with a kid who'd been promoted because of her family. "I didn't really meet Catra until after Adora had left." And when she'd first met Adora, they'd been enemies and Scorpia had been incredibly jealous of her. There weren't a lot of people Scorpia just straight up Did Not Like, but Adora had been at the top of the list for a very long time. That seemed like a lot to get into though, especially her first time meeting someone. Besides, he probably knew it all anyway. He'd said he'd heard of her before after all. "And you're friends with them? What's that like?" Say no mas, Scorpia, Richie wouldn’t press her to talk about all the awks. He’d definitely heard about her though, when Catra was discussing shit like guilt and her turn from villainy - Richie knew she had a lot of regrets about how she’d treated people during the war, Adora included. He thought Scorpia might have been on the list too - but hopefully now that she was here, they could work through a lot of that. It might take time but that was okay - he would stubbornly cling to the notion that cat sis and blondie weren’t going anywhere. At least not for awhile. He’d lost plenty of loved ones to the whims of Vallo’s waypoints - he had no desire to lose more. “Oh, it’s great,” he grinned, eyes crinkling at the corners - now it was his turn for a drink and aaaah, it went down easy. They could share too, Richie didn’t have cooties. “I met Catra like, literally the night she got here. She came stomping into the bar I work at for a free drink since we always offer newbies a freebie. Adora showed up soon after and it just snowballed from there. They were at my wedding and Catra helped me make some of the food and they’re just really cool.” He’d watched their relationship blossom and watched Catra become less prickly, more open to trusting people and forming friendships - she was totally an honorary Loser, both her and Adora. Nope, none of that sounded like the Catra that Scorpia had known. Well, maybe the stomping into a bar and getting drinks - that she could picture. But the helping make food and… Well, it didn’t sound like the Catra she knew, and she was reminded again that she hadn’t really known Catra at all. She took another drink from the bottle - she had no problem sharing, especially not with new friends. Potential new friends. Scorpia wasn’t really that great at making new friends. She tended to come on too strong, which was something she was working on. And she talked too much. She wished Perfuma was here to help things along. But, she reminded herself, she was on her own and she should learn to do this sort of thing by herself. “What about you?” she asked, brightly. “I know all about your castle now, and other things, but tell me about you!” “Let’s seeeeee...” Richie hummed in thought. He was a talker, as he’d told Scorpia before, so he could probably go on and on (and on) about his own shit. It’d be really rude but you know - he’d just try to be succinct about things. “I’m from a place called Derry, it’s in Maine. Uh - Earth? Another planet.” He knew Etheria was where Adora and Catra came from, and that definitely wasn’t in the MVEMJSUNP (My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas) solar system that he knew of. “The town I grew up in was a shithole but that’s because a demon clown from space crash-landed there eons ago and infected it with evil. My friends and I ended up killing the demon space clown eventually - well, we forced it into hibernation when we were kids and then returned when we were older to finish it off.” Super fucked up stuff though he’d accepted that it was a part of his story. The trauma lingered like shadows but he was getting better at dealing with it, thanks to a lot of therapy and support from others. “I’m psychic?” he added. “I can..see the future. Sometimes.” “Oh, wow, that’s a lot,” Scorpia said, because wow, that was a lot. “I guess this wouldn’t be the time to say that I like clowns. Not that I’ve ever actually seen a clown in real life, but I’ve seen them in old picture books and they always seemed friendly. But I’m guessing demon space clowns: probably not friendly.” She paused frowning, because she hadn’t actually meant to say any of that outloud. She took another pull from the bottle of mead, and then put it back on the bar between them. “But you can see the future? We have someone on Etheria who can tell the future too. His name’s Prince Peekablu. I’ve also never met him. What kind of futures do you see?” Prince Peekablu - now that was amazing and Richie really wanted that to be his code name. “It’s okay, I won’t judge you too much for liking clowns,” he teased - personally, he couldn’t fathom it because what wasn’t creepy about their wide grins and their sweat-streaked face paint. And their feet. Their gigantic clown feet and...ugh. Not to mention IT had taken the form of Pennywise because clowns supposedly lured children in - right, happy blood and gore and death and balloons. So much fun. But he’d also admit that not all clowns were like Pennywise, so if there was one out there who didn’t invoke terror in kids - cool. He suppressed a shudder that threatened to ripple through him regardless. “I mostly see stuff that’s gonna happen here,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything ‘off world’ yet. But I mainly use automatic writing - it’s like, I go into a trance and then the message comes across and I write or draw what I saw. If you ever want me to show you sometime, I can.” After joining up with Prigany, he’d gotten a lot better at it - hopefully he would continue to improve. “Oh, maybe,” Scorpia said, the offer unexpected. Scorpia had never thought much about the future, really. As a soldier, her job had always been to just do what she was told and not think very hard beyond that, and when she’d finally left the Horde she hadn’t thought much beyond trying to get to the end of the war. Now there was a whole lot of something spread before her. No more orders, no immediate goal. Someone had asked her, on the Network, what she intended to do here in Vallo, and she was suddenly reminded that she didn’t have the slightest idea what to do with herself. Even in Etheria, the only goal she’d had in mind was to ask Perfuma out on a proper date, and Perfuma wasn’t here. “What sorts of things do you do here?” she asked. “Other than tell the future, I mean. And give tours of your very nice castle.” Richie grinned - surprisingly soft, considering how much of a goddamn troll he could be. He understood arriving here, fresh off trauma or death or war or whatever other terrible shit had gone down - and just not knowing a frickin’ thing about what came next. A lot of freedom and choice could be, ironically, kind of suffocating - especially when you were used to being told what to do. He hadn’t been in that situation exactly - but he had ended up in Vallo not long after he’d washed the blood and sewer muck off of him, and wiped Eddie’s blood off of his glasses (even if there was nothing that could have been done about the dry, caked bits caught in the cracks of the frames). Everything was so open. So much. Yeah, he got it - he totally got it. “I don’t do the future stuff for money,” he clarified, picking up the bottle for another drink. “I’m just in, uh - a coven? Other witches who do it too. But I’m not a witch, exactly. I don’t know. Anyway - for my actual job, I bartend. And do stand-up comedy. I have an act at a nightclub I do a couple nights a week. And, yeah, just hang with my husbando and friends and stuff. Vallo’s calm except when it’s not.” Which wasn’t very often, come to think of it. “Stand-up comedy? That sounds like fun!” Scorpia said, brightening. Could she do stand-up comedy? Oh, probably not. Scorpia didn’t think of herself as particularly funny. But it still sounded fun. “Is that the performing you said you did before? Do you get nervous?” The first - and only - time Scorpia had sung in public, she’d been very nervous, but she’d been equally surprised at how quickly that nervousness had dissipated once she knew that Perfuma was out there cheering her on, and once she’d gotten really into the song. “Sometimes, yeah,” Richie admitted. “Back home, I used to have a cigarette and whiskey and then stuff a bunch of mints in my mouth before the show just to calm my nerves.” It was part of a ritual, more about the routine and the comfort of that than anything else. Here, he didn’t really need it so much - though he’d definitely pace sometimes, backstage. Something to get the nervous energy out. “But I’m usually okay once I get into the routine.” He was encouraging when he added, “If you perform, there’s plenty of opportunity here? I’ve been doing the musicals for Outlanders recently.” And working on his singing voice had been a treat - helped him quit smoking, anyway, since he couldn’t really claim he took good care of his vocal cords if he was puffing on those coffin nails everyday. “Or like, karaoke. Whatever open mic night, to do anything. Sky’s the limit.” “Can I watch your show sometime?” Scorpia asked. She thought it might be interesting, and if Etheria had anything like stand-up comedy, she’d never had a chance to see it (though it wasn’t difficult to imagine that it probably involved standing up and doing comedy). “Oh, I don’t really…” Scorpia said, tapping the tips of her pincers together nervously, her cheeks turning pink. “I’m not very good, and I’ve only really done it the one time in front of other people, and apparently half of them were mind-controlled so…” Perfuma, she knew, would scold her, and so she took a breath. “But I did have fun. Singing, I mean, I guess I haven’t mentioned that. I like to sing, even if I might not be that great at it.” At least, Catra had always said she was bad at singing. Perfuma had told her she’d done great and there’d been a lot of cheering, but Perfuma would say that no matter how she’d done and again, half the crowd had been under Horde Prime’s control. “So maybe I could try singing somewhere? For fun?” Could she watch his show sometime? Oh man. Richie practically lit up like a Christmas tree. “You totally can watch,” he agreed. “The club’s called Bananas, it’s in the city - I’m usually there Wednesdays and Fridays. Sometimes Mondays. Other nights I’m Galahd slinging drinks, and there’s karaoke there a couple times a week too - next time it happens, you could come in and try out the singing?” He believed in you, Scorpia. Show off those pipes. Scorpia took another gulp of the mead. It really was like a warm hug in a bottle, and if she wasn’t careful, she could probably drink the rest of the bottle herself. “Oh yay,” Scorpia said, happily. “I’ll definitely make sure that I stop by soon.” It would probably be more fun to bring someone with her, but if she couldn’t find anyone to go with, she could probably manage okay on her own. Maybe. “I’ll definitely come out and try the singing. I’ve never actually done karaoke,” or, really, knew anything about it except that it apparently involved singing in a bar, “but I could check it out. It sounds like fun.” He gladly let her indulge in that mead - Richie didn’t know how well Scorpia held her liquor but he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. It was all good care and safety here during the Skyhold Tours. “Cool,” he saluted happily with two fingers - the international symbol of brofessorship, or something. “No pressure on either but if you do come out, I’ll make sure you have a fun time.” That’s what friends were for, right? He and Catra and Adora were pretty close, so he was certain the circle would just expand. Or it was probably more like a weird rhombus than a circle or whatever, but that was fine. No judgment here. “Oh, it’s pretty easy to make sure I have a fun time,” Scorpia said. Really, all she needed to have a good time was to be around people she liked, and there weren’t a lot of people out there that she didn’t like. Good to know - and oh, by the way, she was still just so cute. And cool. Totally the coolest part-scorpion person Richie had ever met. “You and me, we’re definitely a lot alike,” he cackled. Two talkers and two entertainers - not to mention two people who liked to have a good time? Yeah, they’d be best friends for life at this rate. Which was perfectly fine with him. |