lucetilogs | Comfort and Joy

Comfort and Joy

Who: Come one, come all! ...So long as you're appropriately dressed.
What: Luceti's second annual Christmas ball, old-world style.
When: December 1st, beginning around five in the afternoon and ending when the last person leaves.
Where: The Battle Dome.
Summary: Earth's eighteenth-century peeps are throwing one hell of a party. Again.
Rating: Well, considering no one is serving water? Probably PG-13 for alcohol consumption and the results thereof (there's coffee and hot chocolate!).

Upon stepping into the program at the Battle Dome, snow crunches beneath your feet. Great flakes of it drift silently from the dark sky above. And ahead...

The chill in the air is penetrated by the promise of warmth and light within the castle. As you approach, the music and festivities from inside reach your ears--tambourines and laughter and the clink of china dishes.

The doors open to a host of candles and a warm, old-world smell and feel. The scent of food and spices hangs in the air—mulled wine, wassail, evergreen boughs, fresh bread and roast meat--and you're only in the entryway.

Inside the dining room, cream brocades, simple but elegant, are draped over the walls. Traditional red rugs have been thrown over the floor. The single long feast table is impeccably dressed with light linen cloths and set with fine china and crystal.

The tables are lit with candles and chandeliers, giving the room a golden glow. On the tables, boughs of evergreen and holly surround the candles, and mistletoe has been hung discreetly here and there. In one corner, by a large and beautifully decorated fir tree (Buffy’s insistence), musicians are set up to play.

Things will begin with a grand dinner late in the afternoon, with a light supper (mostly consisting of cold meats, bread, and other lighter fare) at around nine o’clock. The selection of food on the tables is enormous. Most of it is meat-based and some of it is simply meat. Roast beef with mushrooms, goose in giblet gravy, herbed chicken, baked salmon, and a whole pig are among the choices. There is some hope for vegetarians, though, with spinach mixed with bread crumbs and cheese on small toasts, turnips (or rutabagas if you speak American), onions, carrots, parsnips, mashed potatoes, asparagus in breadcrumbs, and savory onion and wild mushroom pies. There is hot fresh bread and rolls with butter and heaps upon heaps of small mince pies filled with fruit, molasses, and yes, a little minced lamb. Moreover, there are fresh winter fruits like oranges and mikans and many different desserts, such as Christmas pudding, a rum chocolate dessert, and spotted dog with custard. Sit and help yourself.

Among the drinks throughout the evening are wassail, tea, hot chocolate (less sweet and much more intense than most modern characters would be used to, made with cinnamon, vanilla, and a hint of cayenne pepper), coffee, brandy, wine both mulled and plain, port, sherry, and gallons of rum punch. Even though the food is fantastic, the conversation is the point of the game, and who knows who they will wind up sitting beside. At the center of each table is placed a pineapple as a sign of welcome and wishes of prosperity.

In the ballroom, there is dancing light as the music itself, with Archie Kennedy and Elizabeth Swann teaching the steps of each dance before striking up the music and letting everyone go to town with it. They are poised and elegant but relaxed and seeming to glide as they demonstrate the motions with an effortlessness that comes with years of practice. They were both raised on these dances and this sort of social function and seem completely at home here. The dancing begins after dinner with the minuets and continues after a light supper with some informal English country dances. Anyone unused to dancing like this may find that it’s harder than it looks, but when one gets used to it, it feels very graceful, beautiful, and…fun! In fact, it's perfectly acceptable to goof off during these dances, as long as you're charming enough that people aren't irritated with you when you mess everyone up. The activity will only end when there are too few dancers left to continue, and will continue all night if possible. As dancers pass each other or move hand-in-hand, eye contact can be made, quiet words exchanged, subtle (or not) messages passed as they spin through the room, or perhaps the room spins while they remain still.

It might depend on how much they’ve had to drink.

Those who do not wish to dance have other activities to participate in. In one quiet room, card tables are set up with multiple decks of cards stacked up, and there is even a box or two of dominoes and a handful of dice. The tables themselves are round and made of polished rosewood or mahogany. This area is quietly away from the ballroom, probably as a mercy to the tone-deaf Horatio Hornblower who loves cards but can’t abide music. Here, discreet (or indiscreet) gambling is inevitable. There may be no money here, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to wager.

This being a castle, there are other rooms to explore. Up in the towers are bedrooms, nooks and crannies, and a large private library. Sneaking back to the kitchen between meals for a preview or stolen taste of supper to come is not out of the question, either.

Are you lingering in the dining room, drinking and talking loud and laughing with friends, or will you shyly sit and watch the dancing and games and hope to be invited in? Are you sitting quietly alone and listening to the music as your foot taps on its own, or are you unable to sit still and ready to dance all night if they’ll let you? Are you playing cards with a few new acquaintances, or are you hanging on someone’s arm and helping them cheat? Are you content to enjoy the presence of people, or are you exploring the castle with a special someone?

Whatever you do, have fun.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kirk managed to put himself together quite well - even fit some yellow in!. What could he say? He knew he cut a nice figure in that coat, even if he REFUSED to wear heels and those ridiculous pants, but he made it work and keep in dress code. It was how he rolled. Rules are bent and broken with him.

He catches Loki turning a dancing break and smiles at him, having liked their last encounter. And yeah, the hair was adorable in it's own way.

"Still sticking to green, I see."

"I'm told it brings out my eyes." Loki grinned. He'd found this human rather amusing during their last encounter. A bit like a puppy, really. "Ah, and I see you've found a bit of gold to wear at last."

He tilted his wine glass a little in toast. "Enjoying the party thus far, Captain?"

He raised his own glass of amber liquid as well and toko a sip, the warmth of it hitting his belly like a punch.

"It's not my usual sort of thing, but it's not bad. Good company and all that," he smiled at Loki and took another sip. "At least this is more comfortable than military formal."

"I would agree on both counts." Asgard doesn't do military formals, but he's been to some odd places and poked his nose into many things. "I don't suspect formal is something you favor," he added with a wink. "But the company has indeed been good. I've been longing for a dance, and now it has been provided."

He grinned roguishly at the other. "No, it's not my favorite thing, even if I do look great in it." He glanced around the decorated ball room and had to nod. "It's a proper dance to be sure. Personally, though, I'd take your regular old dive bar any day." He shrugged and then chuckled. "Or was that your way of asking me to dance?"

Cheeky indeed, this mortal. He rather likes it. "You do, at that," he murmured. Then snorted. "I've never really cared for such places. Sticky tables." He made a face.

...oh, really.

Well, Billy had told him that people seemed more accepting here, at least in certain ways. And one might think a person from humanity's future would be past certain prejudices, considering the mortals were fighting to slay those same prejudices already in his time. Loki hesitated for a split second, then smiled. "And if I am?"

"In the bad ones, sure, if you watch your elbows you can be relatively sticky free," he nodded sagely, the wise one of bars, which may or may not be a good thing.

His grin widened and he laughed. He was a lady's man at heart, but it was always an ego boost when he got hit on by a guy for any reason. Heck, most of them were better than some of the women he'd met in his life.

"I'd say I don't know this particular tune, but I think I can manage a round or two."

"I'll keep that in mind, should I ever want to grace such a place with my presence," he said dryly.

Then grinned. "Oh, it doesn't matter if you don't know the steps, I do." Rather than play a courtly game of it - this mortal wasn't the type to tweak that way - he grabbed James' hand and pulled him along.

He blinked when his hand was grabbed, and then laughed and went out with him. Some men might balk and turn away from this, but Kirk was secure in his own masculinity, so what was the harm?

They found their way to a place on the floor and he shook his head as he laughed again, his blue eyes bright with amusement.

"All right, so, how does this work then?"

Loki laughed, grinning. "This piece has quite the simple beat. One-two-dip, repeat. Like so..." He demonstrated. "I shall lead, and all you need do is follow."

"Oh we're dipping me are we? Someone's confident in me," he laughed and took up position according to Loki's directions. "If we fall in a heap it is not my fault, and if you drop me, you owe me a drink."

Loki grinned. "I'll only drop you if you squirm." He tilted his head, nodding to the beat of the music for a moment for James' benefit far more than his own, and got them started.

"It takes more than you think to make me do that," Kirk retorted, taking up position like had been told and following Loki into the first movements, finding it easier than he thought it would be. It was, at least, less embarrassing than the sexual grinding of most of the clubs he used to visit.

Not that that wasn't fun. Come on - up on a pretty lady, a few drinks? It was a fun time, but when you were standing in a corner or the girl ran out on you in the middle? Not so much. At least with this everyone was doing the same thing.

Loki laughed. "Hm, shall I take that as an invitation? It's not nice to tease the alien, Captain." He followed the steps of the dance in all their apparent innocence, leading blithely along.

"Who's teasing who now, Mr. God ~" he teased right back, keeping up, glad that for all his faults, he had at least gotten quick reflexes as a plus.

"Well. Hm. How might one make a Captain squirm," Loki mused. Another dip, and he ran his fingers lightly over the underside of the man's wrist, to see if he was ticklish there.

Kirk could not suppress a shiver, but the skin was still sensitive from is time with their keepers, even if the bruises had faded and only the faint illusion of needle pricks haunted him now and then.

"Try again," he grinned at the other as he came back up, determined to dip Loki next time assuming that this dance ran on a basic pattern.

"Demanding," he commented, smirking, even as he considered the reaction almost clinically. But it certainly was fun. He dropped his hand far lower than was polite on Kirk's back, using the excuse to lean forward and not quite touch the man's neck with anything but his breath. "I'd no idea I was going to dance with such a harsh taskmaster," he murmured.

He wasn't interested in doing anything blatant on the dance floor, since he was having fun in a way that didn't involve trying to humiliate anyone, so that put some limits on teasing unless he wanted to resort to magic. Which would certainly be the next step, since he had no compunctions against any form of cheating.

Oh dear, someone was being bold weren't they? He refused to let the other win so easily, and he was a man of resolve! He didn't crack under pressure, no sir, he was a Captain of Starfleet, a lady killer, a man's man! Okay, maybe not quite that last part, but he was a man at least.

"Well, you know, military Captain and all. I kind of expect the most admirable performance at all times - as Spock might put it," he chuckled, proud of himself for not shivering this time or missing a step, though it was a bit harder with Loki so close.

Oh, but this was fun. Loki smirked. "Pretending that I'm one of your men now, are you?" He tilted up one eyebrow, delivering the next line in dry deadpan. "If you expect me to stand at attention, you'll have to try a bit harder."

He used a delicate bit of magic to run invisible fingers up Kirk's spine, his hand at the man's back still firmly in its less than proper place.

Oh, well, he had never felt something like that before, and he was sure that the other did not suddenly sprout a third hand. He could quite clearly feel where the two hands were. He would need to look into that, curious as it was, and this time, at least, he could not suppress a shiver.

"Two hands only, mister," he laughed. "Captain's orders."

Loki laughed. "Not one of your men, Captain," he said, tone teasing. "You don't get to give me orders. I do as I like."

That little shiver had certainly been a victory.

"Well, don't let Starfleet know, but I kind of do too," he chuckled, even though Spock would be at his elbow in a second warning him away, he knew.

Still, sometimes the end justified the means, and if Starfleet's rules didn't work with that, he would toss them aside. Rules be damned. What was right was right, and if Starfleet was wrong he had no problem letting them know it. Besides, who ever had a grand adventure following the rules?

"Is that so," Loki drawled, then grinned. "What a wicked creature you are." His hand at Kirk's back slipped a tiny bit lower, just to see what reaction that might get as he leaned in a bit closer. "Hopefully we're not at cross purposes then. That could get a bit messy."

"I thought you liked messy," Kirk retorted with a charmingly wicked grin of his own, feeling the hand slip lower. His response was to arch his brow. If it was a game of gay chicken he wanted to play, a game he would have. Kirk was secure in his manhood, and besides - it just meant he was attractive to men and women. Ego boost.

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