lucetilogs | 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

It was a little bit after dinner that Jack finally found the doctor. He bore gifts of saved-my-life-thanks in the form of a glass of spiked cider and brie melted on crusty bread.

"Adellie?"

"Adellie?" That was a new nickname, and not one that she recalled being terribly fond of in the past- though it wasn't Addy by any means it was similar enough to make her wings twitch. "Do I know you Monsieur?"

"Erm. Jack. CaptainJackSparrow."

Uh oh.

"I'm a few years yet behind, Captain. By the end of the week I should be the woman you know once more." At least she hoped so. This had to be far more disconcerting for those that knew her than it was for herself.

Ah. So it WAS some kind of shift.

"You dug a bullet out of my chest." He placed the offerings on a nearby table before gingerly patting the area over his heart, pressing his palm against crushed brown velvet. "Saved my life."

"As is my duty as a surgeon- though the nickname by which you called me leads me to assume we are a bit more familiar than a doctor and patient normally would be?" It was as much a question as it was a statement. Sorting out who she knew and how well took a good deal of her time whenever she caught up.

"Erm......we've snogged once or twice. Slept in a hammock together? Friends."

"..snogge- Kissed. We've kissed." He did not seem the sort- then again not much of her life seemed to go as she thought it ought to just yet.

"Mmmmhmm. With our lips."

"As opposed to our hands."

"My hands were too dirty for your liking."

"That depends entirely on what sort of state your hands were in at the time."

"Filthy."

"...is that an euphemism?"

"Aye. It is. Thought perhaps you could give me a clean bill of health now that I've been mending so well."

"I would have to look over the aforementioned wound and know how long it has been since I treated you to be certain- though it is safe to say it has been at least a month, yes?"

"Aye. Back in October it was that I were shot. And they've been magicking me up and I've been taking all the pills you gave me," he promised.

"I shall still need to actually see the wound, Captain." She nodded to the nearest door. "Just to be certain."

"....You want to look at it now?"

"To give you the clean bill of health you do so desire, yes. I promise I'll be professional. Chestwounds just tend to be...tricky."

"....Alright, but quick-quick! I've got to get to my piratical duties at these festivities!"

"Piratical duties. You don't intend to divest anyone of their hard earned goods in this place, do you?" She looped and arm through his and gave him a tug to the door, pulling it open.

"I do. Maybe -- maybe -- I already HAVE." Gallantly he escorted her to his shirtly undoing.

"At a Christmas ball. For shame, Captain." There was humor to it, just a touch. Through the door and she had to unfasten the clasps at her shoulders to peel off the long velvet gloves. "Shirt off, please."

Off it came, swiftly unbuttoned.

"Shame's something I haven't felt in......possibly ever."

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