( open ) an informal family dinner

[theidlemaiden]

Who: the summoned of cadens
When: beginning of august
Where: the sarstina inn and tavern
What: the welcome committee (sam wilson, hilda, jesper) has come back together again for another cadens welcome event! everyone might remember the last event and this one will be much of the same. Including, but not limited to, another invite by hilda! | sam art credit!
Warnings: will update as needed!

THE DINNER

Just as before, this is kicked off with Hilda's invitation, and if any of the Summoned come by Sarstina's that evening, they will find it set up a little differently than usual, but very similar to last time.

There is a long table set up near the bar that has a whole party-spread, a ye-old-southern-party kind of set-up, if you will. There are dips, charcuterie plates, sandwiches, drinks, a pastry/dessert bar and almost anything else that Sam could get his hands on. It is all, of course, limited by what’s available in Cadens, but thankfully he’s been here long enough to figure his way around the food options. Behind the bar is Mag (because no one else is getting their hands on the alcohol stash, thank you very much) and she will serve whoever it is that comes up to ask for a drink and will refuse any sort of payment - it appears someone is covering the tab tonight.

The rest of the tavern is set up for a party, with tables and chairs scattered around, a stage set up in the corner, and a decently sized space in front of the stage for dancing if the night gets to that point. There may or may not be some live music later in the evening, no promises have been made, but if anyone else wants to get up on the stage they are more than welcome.

Nadine has been kind enough to provide little apothecary bags filled with a mild sleeping tonic and things to help settle the nerves that new (and old) Summoned can take with them. There’s a table near the door and by the bar that have these bags in wicker baskets with a small sign that reads: Visit Salves and Stitches for all your medical needs!

The vibes are definitely low-key and casual – come get an ale, come eat some food, and if you're new there is a very good chance you'll end up (gently and in the most friendly way) cornered by either Sam, Hilda, Jesper, or any of the other Summoned. They are here to help answer questions and give a bit more background on what the hell is going on. And also let you know about the deal that has been going with Mag and the Inn for almost two years now. Aka, if you're looking for a room, there is one here for you in exchange for work. You can leave whenever you have a job, or you can stay as long as you like. It’s all about helping Summoned get more settled, and as long as you’re good at taking instruction and picking up after yourself, Mag hasn’t had any issues. Not a bad gig, right?

And if being social isn't your thing, or you’re just not the party kind of person, the Welcome Committee understands. But also, really, who is going to turn down free drinks and free food? The Cities work on coin and commerce, so turning down a free meal isn’t really the smartest thing. Plus - there’s alcohol. And the food is pretty damn good.

OOC INFO

- this is a totally open post! There will be some TL’s below from the Committee Members, but otherwise, have fun, meet some people, and put up a TL of your own! there are various places to run into people around the tavern, and if you find someone who is willing to help you into the Horizon (Sam is happy to help, but he’s helping Host), Sam's been letting people know they can use his room upstairs.

- the only Rule is there will be no fighting. You want to duke it out? Take it somewhere else. There will not be warnings or second chances, so don't be an ass. Summoned have lived in this Inn since they were all portaled here ages go, this is their home. and if ANYONE is seen giving Mag a hard time, there are a few people here who will not hesitate and who are not afraid of squaring up. Also, you cause problems, and you will not be invited back :)

- The whole purpose of the Welcome Committee is going to be going overboard to be welcoming, especially to new faces. Even if your character didn't see the big invitation, feel free to have them invited by word of mouth, or chased down by any of the members. Some Summoned may have also checked the barracks for any new Summoned to bring them into town.

- Mag is an NPC who you can read a little more about in the NPC section of the Cadens setting page. Feel free to have her come in and out of your tags as needed!

THE INN

Magmara (or Mag) has run the inn for years and has been a familiar face in that neighborhood as a woman who always made ends meet, almost in spite of the way she took care of her friends and neighbors above all else. Most weren't always sure how she managed to run the place on her own, but she made due, though she always seemed a bit overwhelmed and exhausted. When the Summoned arrived in the Cadens through that first portal, Sam managed to stumble in and make quick friends with Mag. In exchange for manual labor, fixing up and cleaning up the inn, as well as whatever other various tasks Mag needed to be done around, Sam would be given free room and board (a deal she now offers to any Summoned that arrives in the city for as long as they need it).

The inn itself is 4 floors tall, with the top three floors making up the 15 or so rooms (around five rooms per floor), and the entire bottom floor reserved for the restaurant area. The tavern makes up the entire first floor and is a large open floorplan, with a small stage in the corner, a walled-off area for the decently sized kitchen, and a large wooden bar where Mag does all her business for both the inn and tavern (where can almost always be found standing behind). It serves drinks of some variety (though not nearly as large a selection as some of the more well-known taverns) and some food (usually a single, large meal that will be served to the tenants and whoever comes in throughout the night for a moderate price). It can be busy some evenings, but in general tends to keep a more 'dive-bar' kind of feel, filled with more locals and regulars than a casual dinner-going crowd.

The rooms themselves vary from fairly simple, single-bed inn-style rooms with a small bathroom and little else, up to a two 'bedroom' suite style with small kitchenettes and spaces for sitting rooms. Each bedroom has its own small bathroom for the tenants, with cleaning, washing, and chores left to those who live there. What used to be more of a working inn now serves as a kind of boarding house for newly arrived Summoned (or simply those who won't leave), and Mag has found herself quite okay with that.

Comments

[gynvael]

When no answer comes, Geralt doesn't make a second attempt. Either she didn't see it or she's chosen not to reply. She seems fine enough with her drink in the corner. Geralt mostly keeps a peripheral eye on her until she approaches him directly.

He sticks his spoon back in his bowl. Her mug clinks against the wood. She pops into existence.

Mm. "Alive."

Dry response aside, he looks well. He's been absent from the city for the past few weeks—a point Abby may have realized if she happened to notice that neither he nor Jaskier visited Julie and Nadine for much of last month. Now he's back, none the worse for wear other than a faint healing scratch on his face.

"Not keen on being spotted?"

[everybodysterrible]

Well, glad to see his absence has improved his conversational skills. Abby rocks in her chair a little. She'd noticed that both were absent, because one of them was suppose to offer her a job and it'd have been a good time to hire someone to run your store when you fuck off to the desert for a month.

She isn't bitter.

"Too many new faces, don't know who is from a world like mine." She pokes at her empty drink, to make the connection more obvious. Julie was entirely okay, and thrived on, the furthered delinquency of a minor. Nadine did not thrive on it but respected that telling Abby know meant Abby would just do it more out of spite. New people? She didn't know? Not worth that fight this early into the night. "I don't think I'll be doing it again unless someone does make a fucking thing about my drinking."

[gynvael]

Unfortunately for her, Jaskier is meticulous to an infinite degree and considers his shop a passion project in which his heart is embedded. He'd never let anyone run it for the entire month without his presence.

Fortunately for her, Jaskier's long trips are infrequent, so. She'll probably get her chance at employment now that he's returned.

Geralt tilts his head when she prods her tankard. No one's explained drinking ages to him. Simply never came up. The youngest of the Summomed was Rinwell, who Geralt promptly gave an ale to the first time she came to their home.

"Do people give a shit what you drink in your world?"

Seems unnecessarily fussy.

CW: Mentions of school shootings.

[everybodysterrible]

"Earth like mine cares if people under the age of 21 do fucking anything." Abby draws her legs up in to the chair with her as continues to think about how much her world just- distrusts young people. "And it isn't just- like, adults tell us not to, it's usually a fucking crime to do it. Drinking, drugs, sex. We're expected to go to school, learn a bunch of bullshit we'll never need, go through hell as we have access to millions of voices all telling us how much we suck, stories about how a gunman fucking kills kids like us in some other school, then go home and not want to get stoned as hell to forget about all the shit we've dealt with."

Abby's voice is pretty level, all things considered, but her hand is wringing the bottom edge of her suit vest as she talks. Her foot is tapping into the chair, but the toes of her boot hang over the edge enough she's not making a lot of noise. And she's generally looking a little- well, uneasy.

"People give a shit, I guess they mean well. But usually it just means they forgot."

[gynvael]

Some of that is foreign to a man who was sent off alone into the frozen woods at the age of six, though time spent with those like Julie and Sam grants him context he'd have not had before. Still. There are notes of familiarity, ones that leave him contemplative for a long moment.

"The world is rarely kind to children," he replies quietly. They're either forgotten or sought after to be used. That never changes. He should know. There's a reason the mages only ever brought young boys to Kaer Morhen—abandoned, unwanted, not missed by anyone.

Sometimes, he isn't even sure the mob that burned down the keep even realized there were children inside. Perhaps they never granted it any thought in the first place. Perhaps they knew and did not care.

He refills her cup. No reason to leave it empty. "At least you've found a friend in the shadows here. That's a unique ability."

[everybodysterrible]

"The world isn't kind to anyone. And honestly I'm not sure if it's worse the world hates kids, or simply doesn't fucking notice them." It goes either way. Abby's political capital was limited, she didn't have the time to care about things adults made impossible for her to change. Adults created rules, and no quarter for her to change them. So all she could do is subvert and ignore them however she could.

And eventually she'd grow old and be the same fucking bullshit adult her parents and their friends were.

Abby picks her drink up and salutes, then drinks. "The Sigularity's little gift to me. To be ignored." It's a very twisted joke, that source of power Thorne covets and the Summoned use as a personal Minecraft server. She got to weaponize her greatest fear. "I don't actually disappear. It fucks with everyone's priorities, just enough. To make it not worthwhile to notice I'm there. Provided I don't make a fucking scene. I behave and don't make a lot of noise, I can get all sorts of places."

Provided nobody is being too diligent, paranoid, or locks their doors. Doorlocks, annoyingly, do not care if they notice her.

[gynvael]

"Mm." Vague acknowledgment, without explicit agreement one way or another. They can philosophize all day, but things are what they are.

His fingers rest on the lip of his mug. She's not the only one granted a too-fitting power. Geralt suspects it isn't even the Singularity that chooses but rather, their abilities are a subconscious manifestation of its raw power. Drawing on desires or aspects they know or find familiar. Conduit moments exhibit similarly back home, and the Chaos here feels much the same.

At least from what he's gathered. Magic isn't his expertise.

"I know. It's why I can still see you." In a manner of speaking. It's difficult to describe, but he can tell it's her when she's hiding—like peering between the gaps in an illusion instead of through it. "Most of us receive a gift more than once. Don't be surprised if it happens again."

[everybodysterrible]

"Because your weird Witchery things mean your senses are closer to that of a bloodhound than a person?" Abby doesn't really hesitate on that one, pointing to the obvious just for confirmation as much as anything. He'd called out a monster attack beyond how far she could see, so it had to be something.

And he did look right at her in spite of most people walking past her.

"I look forward to the universe's next sick joke at my expense. I just hope there isn't a long ass speech before it."

[gynvael]

"Mm-hm." When he's asked outright, he typically likens his senses to that of a wolf's, but. Essentially. "Some monsters take on similar illusions."

Monsters, mages, everything in between. He's learned to look past the obvious on top of his natural senses.

One eyebrow lifts. "Sam? He's given longer."

A touch of amusement colours his remark, the kind that comes when poking fun at long-time friends. Sam's one of the first he trusted in this sphere, and Sam is who he stayed with to recover when he dragged himself back from Thorne through the desert. They've a long history together.

He keeps out of Sam's affairs with the Summoned, though. Not the sort of shit he's keen on.

[everybodysterrible]

"Maybe that's what we're all turning into, monsters." It's a dark thought, not one she wanted but it was here and she'd more than come to terms with saying weird shit to Geralt generally was fine. His life seemed messy and complicated. Julie trusted the singularity in a way Abby felt was weird, and as much as she went back there...

She still didn't love that first visit, and how it felt to come home to her body and it's issues having forgotten them for a glorious time. She played with it, but it also seemed to play with them in equal measure. If it wasn't for the fact that it was the easiest way to keep in touch with the other nations (since she refused to run Twitter in her head without some controls), it might be best to avoid it.

"Why are you at this thing anyway? You're not one for so many people without an equal number of horses." She's kidding, best she can guess he'd prefer a 2:1 ratio horses to people if he could have it. "Like- I live upstairs, this feels like a trip for you."

[gynvael]

"Is that what you believe?"

A neutral question. Something is certainly happening to them. A connection forged with the ancient relic that cannot be undone. Geralt learned long ago that monsters are much more than the things that make them different. But he's also been through it before. He knows how it is to change in ways you didn't ask to be.

His gaze flicks briefly towards the gathering. He does not enjoy varied company, no. Though life brings him to crowded taverns often enough. A drink is a drink. And it's easy to be alone amongst a sea of strangers.

Sometimes. When he isn't recognized at once or picked out for what he is.

"Free dinner," he answers, glancing back at her. "And Sam's a friend."

Food is a simple excuse for why he's here, but ultimately, he'd wanted to look in on Sam. He was preoccupied with his own shit for months. It seems time to finally place his attention elsewhere.

[everybodysterrible]

Did she believe that? It was hard to tell, it was a thought, a nagging idea in the back of her mind. But so many of those thoughts weren't based on anything real. "Don't think I do, but I haven't been here very long."

Would she even notice? How many little gifts from the Singularity before that normal girl who arrived is all but a memory? These were very deep thoughts, very dark thoughts, and there was a simple answer to them. She downed more of her drink than is strictly healthy in a single go.

She'll need food at this rate.

"So that's why you're skulking in the corner and not actually talking to him?" There's no actual judgment, just the playful teasing Abby offers from time to time. Sam had put himself at the center of things. Hardly a space for Geralt. Over here was easier to not talk to people.

Save annoying teenagers, of course. She throws herself out of her seat and to her feet, "I need food if I plan to keep drinking, if I'm back over here someone tried to tell me to act my age."

[gynvael]

His gaze lingers on her, studying. He does not know, exactly, what weighs on her mind. A lot more than she indicates, he suspects. He wonders if she's said any of this to Nadine or Julie—or if she's only made her vague remarks to him, for reasons he cannot say. Maybe because he's neither a friend nor a complete stranger.

It's not a conversation he would shy away from, but it's not his place to pry it out of her. They don't yet know each other well. He leaves it be.

"Mm-hm." Skulking is how he shows Sam support.

He lets the noncommittal noise serve as acknowledgement when she stands. Other than a tip of his head, that's all she receives. Still, he does watch her for a moment while she wanders over to the food. Now and again, she reminds him a little of Ciri.

If she does return shortly, she will find him where she left him—on his third or fourth drink, bowl of food long empty.

If she returns a bit later, she will notice Julie at his table with a pile of noodles; any later than that, he'll have vanished altogether.